below is a brief selection of early records from several years ago provided by the on-board LOTUS System of the BW033-LS Nucifera, between her and her former weapon operator Latera Heaviside. Latera was recently killed in action during Operation: Counter Moonfall during the Revolutionnaires' final push to prevent the Earth Guard and the Militia of Human Space from executing on Moonfall; we were approached to reprint these logs for her personal sentimental reasons, though academic curiosity was listed as a suitable excuse if necessary.
below is another selection of later records from some years ago, seperated by several months each. the first two have been provided by the same source for the same reasons, with the approval of Revolutionnaire computer systems expert Doctor Sunset Fairweather; the third was picked by Fairweather from the security footage of former Earth Guard Oxen-class carrier Lunar Lady, primarily to add historical context.
the following excerpts about the LOTUS System are, again, from various sources from several years ago - presented in chronological order, with some months between them. the first excerpt was once again provided by her; the second was obtained from a personal chatroom of dear friends she belongs to (obtained with permission); the third is a brief newspaper excerpt from the Lumines Gazette (out of print).
unlike prior entries, the following excerpts about the LOTUS system have been presented in reverse chronological order, the first taking place some years after the second and third. the first is an excerpt from the smash-hit memoir of one of the Earth Guard's Rosier unit (available on all major platforms and wherever books are sold), the second is from Lotus's own logs as before, and the third is a brief sidenote taken from Earth Guard notes scanned and leaked on a forum.
PROLOGUE from THORNS IN THE GARDEN: A TELL-ALL MEMOIR OF THE DAYS OF THE ROSIER UNIT by HORIZON VERTICES, ROSIER FIVE
THE LAST THING YOU WANT to be when you're in a Bipedal Weapon is prone.
This goes double for us, the Rosiers, operating under our ROSEs, following their constant stream of decisions precision-made to guarantee certain victory. Follow its decisions, execute on its plans, reach the outcome at all costs, and there won't even need to be any contingencies for going prone. The ROSE System is hyper-aware, able to account for every situation and follow the shortest road to victory. If you're in a ROSE Weapon and you're flat on the ground, either you are sniping or you are dead.
And yet here I am, flat on my back, pressed into my seat by gravity, gazing into a dead screen, my cockpit lit brightly only by the glowing lotuses that burst from every single seam in the interior paneling. I sigh as I enable emergency power on the internal computers, on ROSE. If anyone or anything would know what was happening, it would be ROSE.
It wastes no time informing me of our present condition, my eyes watering as its thought processes flicker across the screen and burn themselves back into my own brain.
NO DATA FOUND
PRESENT ASSUMPTION 'ADVANCED WAVE-PARTICLE INTERFERENCE'
SIMULATED NERVES UNAVAILABLE
UNABLE TO RE-INTERFACE WITH MOTOR FUNCTIONS
EMERGENCY WEAPONS SYSTEMS COMPROMISED
RECOMMENDED COURSE OF ACTION: PRAY
Then, silence. The screens dim, and I blink to try and get its course of action out of my head (it's no small feat; even in this state, the 'suggestions' of the ROSEs are less relayed to you and more aggressively shoved into your head). I brush a particularly broad, round leaf away from my helmet's face as I pull myself upright, then forward. I crawl over to the cockpit hatch, and by some miracle -- or perhaps, in this case, by enemy intention -- the systems that drive it are perfectly intact. As it hisses and creaks open, I pull myself up and out, just far enough (and just soon enough) to watch the Nucifera flying gracefully away from another of my unit, glowing flowers and broad leaves bursting from every seam as her Weapon stumbles and falls over onto its back, mostly inert - but survivable.
I sigh. Even now, the LOTUS unit and her operator refuses to end us, to get it over with. They and the Revolutionnaires really were going to try and stop Moonfall, and they were going to do it without spilling a single drop of blood if they had to, weren't they?
Heaviside's always like this, I think to myself. When I used to serve with them on the Lunar Lady, they always fretted about whether or not their shots would seriously damage the Pines, doing whatever research they could on where to target to cut power only to the weapons, paying special attention whenever they were using their Weapon's beam-sword to only strike away from the cockpit and the reactor. It was a highly unusual attitude, but everyone had kind of become accustomed to it. But when our commander announced we were going to be hosting a specialized prototype Weapon of some kind loaded with a deadly and efficient tactical computer and chose her as its op, I think he hoped it would cause them to begin 'taking it seriously', as it were -- to finally use the Weapon the 'right way'.
I guess I'd say he hoped the LOTUS would be to them what the ROSE had become to me.
Us Rosiers were hand-selected for our skill, our talent, and our knowledge - that's what we were told, anyway. When I got roped into the Commander's little exit party, he very quickly declared that I (the last operator under his command that hadn't gotten the chance to betray him yet) would make for a fine Rosier the moment the project opened for recruitment. I was... well, shocked. I was nothing special, but more than that Heaviside had really started to rub off on me the way they rubbed off on their LOTUS. I was starting to get just as worried about the person in the Pine as they were, beginning to fret about where I'd be striking them and how to make sure I wouldn't be hurting them too badly.
They've just incapacitated another of us with their eerily harmless laser light-show, leaving just heavily-damaged Three operable out of us. The Rosier unit has been trimmed, and now they're racing to the Anchor's terrifyingly tall, imposing guide-rails, Three hot on their heels. The Anchor itself is still a distant, glowing point, but it is falling - and it is falling fast.
The life of a Rosier can be summed up as 'eat, sleep, be blasted by ROSE suggestions for hours at a time to help further perfect its tactical acumen, repeat'. Even when we aren't sat inside the cockpits of our Kordesiis, staring at its thought-patterns and letting it scream its directives into our minds, we are so heavily supervised - so expected to stay in peak condition - that the closest thing we all have to personal time is the precious few hours we're allotted for sleep in the bunks. They burn all the time you have to spare thoughts for your enemies away the moment you're put in the pilot's seat of a ROSE-mounted unit.
But the ROSE is useless now. I'm looking at the field with my own eyes and my own ears, and for the first time in years, for the first time since I was stuck into the Kordesii and told I was their ace in the hole, I pray Heaviside and their LOTUS make it through all right. ROSE suggested I pray, and don't all the best operators do as they're told?
Heaviside will die in fifteen minutes.
But someone will have to have stopped the Anchor, and it's not like they're the only occupant of that cockpit.
OPERATOR CONVERSATION RECORD 99
[RECONNECT]
Lotus Nucifera
Access terminal
L> Operator.
@: "present!"
L> Doctor.
F: "here."
@: "not feeling like talking
this morning, huh?"
F: "latera, this is a very
sensitive conversation."
F: "if the Commander comes by
and Lotus accidentally lets a
voiced line loose before we're
all definitely ready-"
@: "fine, yeah, okay. so,
um... how's meeting the crew
been?"
L> I wish I could have
properly met them under better
circumstances.
L> But, it's
L> nice, at least,
L> to know that our comrades
care about sticking with us
more than following Earth
Guard lines.
F: "indeed. i'm glad everyone
else has been so charismatic."
F: "i think you have an effect
on people, latera."
@: "hahahah nah it's not just
me!! i can't be the only Nice
Person here"
F: "well... a lot of people
like you, even if the
Commander and his goons don't,
is all, right?"
L> Agreed. You have an
effect.
@: "aaww gee thanks"
F: "compliments aside - before
we get things going - are you
sure you..."
F: "well, want to go through
with this?"
F: "my mind's made up, but i
know you worry about stuff a
lot."
@: "well, uh... look - if we
stay with the Earth Guard,
even more people are going to
get hurt than needed. we were
already mostly with them out
of necessity, right?"
@: "but now there's the
Revolutionnaires! and they can
actually *do* something about
this, about all of this"
@: "and..."
F: "mm"
@: "we've already come this
far getting in touch with
them, right?"
L> If we were going to turn
back, we would have done so
long ago.
@: "mm. yeah, lotus"
@: "see? she gets me"
F: "heh. well, in that
case..."
F: "listen out for the beep,
alright?"
@: "yessir!"
L> Of course, Doctor.
F: "good. once you get it,
that's your signs to set the
trap for tomorrow."
F: "... fuck, quadnary's a
bastard, though. what if he -"
L> Deep breaths, Doctor.
L> You've talked your way out
of corners before, no?
L> And you are putting
yourself into this one
intentionally.
L> I believe in you.
F: "... yeah... yeah. yeah."
F: "... see you two later,
alright?"
@: "yeah! it'll go good."
F: "alright. see you around,
lotus, latera."
L> Goodbye.
[WAIT]
[WAIT]
V: 'Hey, Latera!"
@: "fuck, hey vertices! you,
uh, you got your beeper?"
V: 'Yeahh, but also I'm
reeeaaal sleepy."
V: "Miiiight be taking a 'hot
girl nap', as they say?"
@: "haha yeah."
V: "Soooo. What's the doc up
to?"
@: "oh, just putting it all in
motion."
V: "Haha nice. Hey, Lotus, you
in the mood to chat?"
L> Not particularly.
@: "she says not particularly"
V: "... Well, that's a-ok with
me! I'm gonna go catch some
Zs, alright?"
@: "alright. uh... see you
when you wake?"
V: "Yeah! Yeah."
L> And she's gone.
L> How about
L> a game?
@: "oh shit i love games.
let's play!"
@: "oh wait but first lemme"
[BLOCK]
[BLOCK]
[DISCONNECT]
A NOTE ON THE WAVE-PARTICLE CONVERSION SYSTEM, taken from the margins of R&D papers
tl;dr - legacy beam technology operates on ejecting superheated particles; high damage, little control beyond strength of output. w/p: fine adjustment possible; beam output can be reshaped; requiires constant management (install on LL's tac computer BW?); interfere w/internal ops.? possible future applications - beam shield, BW disabling field, hard light projection? < silly idea, disregard
