Record #3: The Accident

Year 4667 of the Unified Imperial Calendar:

Fourth Month, Day 9. (11:56 AM)

◇ Third Person POV ◇

Whenever the sound of sonic booms reached the town, everyone below would raise their heads. And when they do so, they would see a streaking light crossing the skies without fail. They would raised their arms and wave from below as they cheered.

Reyshia, who saw that through her visual scanners, loved it. She could feel their support despite being so far, was their warmth. She felt so.

And that was the reason why she flew with Valkyria everyday in the guise of 'training'. There was no way for her to avoid her inevitable fate as a daughter of a noble house, so she felt like she needed those encouragements. She listened to the children's voices, watched the people waving, and saw the smile on their faces.

She would protect them no matter what. As their lord. And as the one they cheered onward. She vowed to.

And today too, Reyshia received their support just like the other days. Until a certain accident occurred...

◇ Astra's POV ◇

As I snapped out of my daze, I suddenly realized:

Now that she flew away, how am I suppose observe more? I thought. I mean, is there even a point in me staying here? Actually, no.

I suddenly felt lost as I was now alone in the hangar while I think about how fun Lady Reyshia must be having. It can't be helped. I mean, she's inside a Gund—...an Ark, flying to her heart's content, while I do nothing?

No. I don't think that's be me at all. Doing nothing.

And that's why, as a fully functional intelligent human being, let's think and ponder and contemplate. Yeah. Now what to do... hmm... hmm...

Ah!

Now that I think about it, wasn't there some control panel in here that the repairman used two days ago? If I remember, he also used it to project the Ark's visual scanner or something as he called it...

As I thought hard, I suddenly remembered something. I looked towards my left, and saw some sort of computer that was embedded into the wall. Yes. It was the device that the repairman used when he fixed Lady Reyshia's Ark. Probably.

In any case, I approached the...what was it again? Data terminal?...I approached it, and tapped at the blank screen. The same as the repairman did. And as I did, the screen lit up and a series of whatever commands those were. I can't read it at all.

'Come to think of it...weren't everyone speaking in English?' I thought. It was indeed a mystery. But let's ignore it for now. I have my priorities.

I put a hand on my chin as my mind raced. Time was ticking, and Lady Reyshia wouldn't fly forever. As I thought I remembered something, I tapped towards a certain command, and some sort of notice appeared. It then disappeared a while after, and the initial menu appeared.

Okay. Looks like that wasn't it. I guess there's a limit to being lucky. Looks like I have to try again. It's not like it's different from playing a Japanese RPG game that wasn't localized in English.

'Yeah. I remember God Eater when it wasn't released in the west yet. I had to work hard finding where to craft weapons.'

Ahem...we're getting of topic.

Once again, I tapped on a command again, and a model of Valkyria appeared on the screen. Looks like I'm close. Some dots appeared on various parts of the Ark, and I tapped on the one that pointed to the eyes. Some sort of prompt appeared again, and the initial menu returned again.

Another failure. Yeah. But I'm not giving up yet. Youtube inspirational videos encourage failure, and two of them ain't gonna stop me!

Behold! My determination!!

◇ Third Person POV ◇

As Reyshia flew while practicing various manoeuvres in the sky, she suddenly received a certain notice:

-

<Notice: Weapon Systems Disabled.>

-

"Huh?" she uttered as she paused her movements in the air.

It was strange. She didn't remember making a command to disable the Weapon Systems nor do anything that the AI would recognize as a command. She frowned. She only had the Ark repaired 2 days ago, so maybe it was malfunctioning?

'Impossible' she thought. They was no way Professor Ashier would make a mistake. He was the one who did the repairs for Valkyria ever since its creation, so there was no one who would be more knowledgeable about Valkyria other than him. Then why would such notice appear?

As she pondered, another noticed arrived.

-

<Notice: Visual Scanners Disabled.>

-

Another one. And a rather severe one at that. Her piloting style relies quite heavily on the visual scanners so this malfunction was fatal. She was currently on a nearby mountain range—one that separated their territory from the nearby kingdom—so it was still plausible to return.

'I guess I should get her checked once more.' She decided.

However, the moment she tried to return back, she suddenly noticed that her thrusters weren't working.

"H-Huh?!" she cried in surprise, and a bit of tension.

Not long after, as series of notifications appeared on her panels.

-

<Notice: Auxiliary Thrusters Disabled.>

-

<Notice: Audio Scanners Disabled.>

-

<Notice: Artificial Intelligence Program Disabled.>

...

...

..

.

-

<Notice: Emergency Shutdown Activated.>

-

Reyshia blanked out at the many notices that appeared, and the next moment, she started falling down.

She had no control of the situation anymore.

◇ Astra's POV ◇

And after pressing many commands, I was at loss at what to do. Maybe I should just look for a maid in order to help me read this. After all, even though I'm a slave, I still have higher rank in the house than the servants.

Well, let's just try one last time, shall we? It's not like another one would hurt. It probably wouldn't.

Deciding so, I pressed a series of commands, one that I've never tried before, and miraculously, I finally nailed it.

My heart thumped in excitement as I observed a series of what it seems to be recorded videos. It was familiar. The memories of the repairman pressing a certain button appeared in my head, and I pressed the same button.

Something similar to a video appeared as I saw Lady Reyshia's face on the screen. She seems to have gone pale, but that's not what I wanted to see.

I pressed the icon that symbolizes swap, and the camera changed. And what I saw was...

The quickly approaching ground...It seems the Ark is falling.

The next instant, the display became black as a prompt appeared while the sound of an explosion resounded from far away.

What shit have I done now?...