0 - Arrival x Expectations

[… -ey, Ratio? He-eeyy?]

Ratio woke up from the voice she heard in her ear, and then she slowly opened her eyes.

She could only see a small blue light.

“Nnh…” she groaned.

Ratio shook her head to rid the mental haze, but it didn’t work, her body refused to work properly.

And when her vision finally cleared, she found herself fixed in her seat, a monitor with an image displayed before her.

“Ah… I fell asleep before I knew it,” Ratio muttered.

[Morning, Ratio. Did you sleep well?] the familiar voice in her ears said again.

Ratio sets her skewed headphones right, then says, “Rivera? How long was I asleep?”

[Why do you ask? Wasn’t this just for a nap? More importantly than that, take a look at the video outside the ship,] Rivera said.

“Mm,” Ratio hummed.

Obediently following her friend’s words, Ratio operates the monitor before her.

The screen responds well to a light touch, and the feed switches to an outboard camera.

And it showed jet black with silver dots like dust scattered about.

Outer space, where the stars shine beautifully.

“There’s nothing on it…?” Ratio asked.

[Camera 5!] Rivera yelled.

“O-kay,” Ratio whined loudly.

As she switches to Camera 5, she sees a gigantic flower floating in pitch-black space.

However, if you look closely, it is not a real flower, but a colony made up of many structures connected like a flower’s petals.

“Oh… is that Mixture?” Ratio asked.

[Right, the rather chaotic personnel training facility built by the Federation Space Force and a mish-mash of various companies, Mixture,] Rivera said.

It’s huge, extremely huge.

There are many small spots of light around Mixture, and if you zoom the screen as far as the telephoto lens can go, you can see that they are super-sized cargo ships.

Each one carries different supplies that are consumed by the space colony.

“So big…” Ratio muttered.

[Isn’t it?] Rivera said. [It’s the largest human colony, after all. They’re adding to it all the time.]

“How many resources do you need in a day…?” Ratio asked.

[Don’t worry about it… it’s better if you don’t. You’ll go crazy otherwise.]

“… Mm, I’ll stop,” Ratio said.

On a planet, you wouldn’t have to worry about water and air, but on a colony, you have to use science and technology to produce it, and you must constantly produce, and then you have to keep producing food after that… there’s no end to the resource requirements.

[Since all related companies will help replenish, it is useless to think about it,] Rivera said. [You should only think about enjoying your student life from now on.]

Mixture.

It’s also called the multi-purpose experimental space colony, and there are various facilities inside.

Among them, the largest proportion is a school that is the Federation Space Force’s personnel training facility.

And Ratio—Ratio and company came from far away to transfer to this school.

“I wonder if I can make friends?” Ratio asked.

[It’ll be fine–] Rivera started.

[Because Big Sis has me, right!] a high-pitched voice interrupted.

[Shut up. Can’t you talk even a little more quietly?] Rivera said. [And why are you already up?]

[Heheh, sor-ry,] the high-pitched voice apologies, but clearly shows little remorse.

“Morning, Wis,” Ratio said.

[Good mor-ning, Big Sis! Hey, hey, is this where we’re going to live? All of us!?] Wis asked.

“That’s right,” Ratio said.

[What it’s like there?!] Wis asked excitedly in her high-pitched voice.

Rivera sighed, Ratio smiled.

“It’s going to be fun,” Ratio said.

[Mmm!] Wis said.

And during their conversation, their ship rapidly approaches Mixture.

“Hmm?” Ratio hummed.

She happened to be looking at the outboard image, and there was a spot of light that was moving very quickly, so she quickly touched the screen to enlarge it.

Five spots of light.

They move in an arrow-like formation.

“Rivera, a five-ship formation. Did you catch them?” Ratio asked.

[Oh, sure have. Maybe they’re──] Rivera said.

And while Ratio was investigating, the spots of light flew through space with perfect movement, before they approached their ship at high speed.

[Hey!?] Rivera screamed. [What are they thinking! Too close!]

And with that, the ships pass by like they were trying to snatch it away.

[Stella Corpuses… did the school deploy them for training?] Rivera asked.

The giant humanoid machines, the Stella Corpuses, flew in.

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For mankind who have advanced into space, they used their science and technology to construct new bodies for themselves.

Not only is it used for construction and labor, but it is also widely used as the main weapon of the Federation Space Force for combat.

“They’re kind of ugly, aren’t they?” Ratio asked.

[Geeze! Are they mocking us just because they’re students!?] Rivera yelled. [Chief! Can’t we launch the new weapon system?! We can take down all those machines just now!]

As Ratio hears Rivera’s irritation, she instinctively takes off her headphones and holds them away from her.

As she heard Rivera and the rest of the crew begin to argue on the other side, Ratio sighed, thought they’d be useless for a while and switched channels to speak with Wis.

“Hey, Wis, how does it look now?” Ratio asked.

[Hu-uuh, Big Sis, did you switch to only my channel? Aww, you really want to talk to me that much,] Wis said.

“Fufu, don’t be silly,” Ratio said. “From your perspective, Wis, how did you find the previous 5 machines?”

[Not cute at all-llll! Too stocky and stubby,] Wis replied.

Ratio smiled wryly at that.

According to the information she obtained in advance, the machines flying just now were training mobile suits used by Mixture’s Piloting Department.

As Wis said, they were stocky and stubby, and their appearance was certainly far from cute.

However, it was written in the pamphlet that the maintainability and reliability were impressive.

“Well, I’ve been told not only to look at the data but to actually see and touch them,” Ratio said.

[Wait, Big Sis, you’re going to pilot one of those things!? No way-yyy!] Wis yelled.

“I think it’ll depend on the curriculum,” Ratio said.

[Buu-buu,] Wis said, making a sound like a negative buzzer.

While they were happily chatting, the previous five machines had gone somewhere else, and the ship was approaching Mixture to dock.

“Now then, what’s going to happen in the future?” Ratio asked.

She smiled happily as she gazed at Mixture, in even more detail than before.