Part 18: Mission 6 (Rand) - Prologue

This game is such a goddamn tease…we finally get to hang out with the Gekkostate crew and then it just warps us all the way across the world.


Not a whole lot to be done here but, seeing how Rand is no longer an event deployment, some changes have to be made to keep us with 4 squads; Bello has been ditched and we’ll now be going with this posse:

• Rand/Gain/Sara
  
• Garrod
  
• Gainer
  
• Jiron/Rag/Gauli

As much as I’d like to keep Gain on the front, we don’t have enough room for that now; with this arrangement, we’ve split our accelerate users across the units that are land-bound (with our equipable parts, all squads have, at least, a movement range of 6).


And that’s that – let’s see how things are going after being warped to North Ameria:



Location: Country of Inglessa – City of Nocis



We find Loran who’s driven Kihel(that’s the blonde) and Sochie Heim into the city.
It seems Kihel and Sochie’s father had asked Loran to escort them over and, if anything, he’s always eager to improve his driving skills. Sochie figures he SHOULD be thankful, seeing how it’s all thanks to her father hiring Loran to work on their home after finding him drowning by a nearby river.
That was two years ago but, indeed, Loran is forever grateful to them.
Regardless, Kihel asks if Loran will be accompanying Sochie in tonight’s coming-of-age ceremony and he confirms, though he’ll be doing it two years later than usual due to his unique circumstances.
Kihel is glad, though, because this means Loran is finally being acknowledged as an Inglessan.



Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Gwen, mayor of Inglessa, who greets the Heim sisters and “Laura”.
He came to town to help oversee tonight’s festivities and was taking a stroll to stretch his legs a bit, though he’s pleasantly surprised to run into everyone. Kihel, as Gwen’s secretary, has some work to do with him, and will be sitting with him at tonight's event, so she instructs Loran not to worry about her and just enjoy the occasion.
Kihel leaves with Gwen to supervise the rest of the preparations and Gwen adds wishes to see “Laura” again. Inwardly, Loran muses that Kihel is starting to resemble Queen Diana more and more every day.



Sochie doesn't approve of him staring at her sister so much, but Loran claims he's merely reflecting on how wonderful it is that Kihel has become an upstanding member of society.
Sochie sighs that their mother has it that no daughter of the Heim family should deign to work, but it's hard to argue with the advantages of being secretary to the most powerful man of Inglessa.
Sochie might well go the same route, but she's not thought that far ahead yet - for now, all she really wants to do is ride in an airplane with Miashey.
Loran hopes she's not planning to join the Militia, but Sochie tells him that the whole "women should mind the home" bit is way out of date.



Either way, Sochie has to run off to her lessons, and tells him to come back for her when the time comes.
Until then, he's free to do whatever he wants, like travel to the mountains like he did the other night. Loran is surprised that she knew about it but Sochie doesn't mind.
Worried, he asks if she saw anything else, but all she saw was him sneaking out of the mansion (Loran sighs in relief that it was just that).
Sochie finds Loran to be quite strange and, speaking of strange, she’s very curious as to why Gwen keeps calling him “Laura”...she won’t pry, though, and reminds him that they’ll be going to that ceremony together.
Inwardly, Loran is really looking forward to the ceremony: it’s been two years since he came to Earth as part of an experiment and, tonight, he’ll officially become one of its people.



At the town square, he passes this information along to Keith, adding that, from what he's heard, he'll be free to do as he wishes once his two-year mission is over.
The two of them, along with Fran, have been integrated into Earth society all this time: Keith as a baker, and Fran as an apprentice reporter for the local newspaper; to Loran, their success indicates that all of the Moon Race will be just as capable of making a living on Earth.

Keith doesn't share Loran's enthusiasm, though: one or two can be easily integrated into society, but Earthlings aren't going to accept tens of thousands of people showing up at the door all at once; war is the worst-case scenario, though even Keith has to admit that Lady Diana might find a way to avert that.
Regardless, Keith needs to get back to work and Loran thanks him for giving him so much of the left-over bread, saying he's got sort of a pet to try to feed. As he leaves, Keith adds they should include Fran the next time they discuss future plans.



As Loran is about to take the goodies to his new friends, a man, Shagia Frost, ask if this is the way to Bostonia Castle.



Loran confirms and another man, Olba Frost, thanks him while also asking if he’s an Inglessan.
Loran hesitates and wonders why he’s asking; “Hmhm…it just feels like you’re a bit out of place,” Shagia sneers.
Olba says it’s pretty clear that Loran’s not from here: someone who came from afar and settled down in this town maybe? It doesn’t matter, though, as they don’t feel like they’ll see Loran again anyway.
As both leave, Loran wonders who those two were – could they also have been warped over?


Expect the rest of mission 6 by Saturday but, before we end, I'll add a small self-plug: my SRW W let’s play has been added to the LP Archives over here.

If you don’t know the original SEED storyline and would like to catch up to have a better understanding for the events of SEED Destiny or if you’d just like to read another great SRW story, do check it out.

See you all soon!