<div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/f/fc/Hiroyuki_Ouma_Pilot_Small.jpg)</div><div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/e/ed/Mech_Mechanic_01.jpg)<br/>(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/f/f3/Mech_Sexy_Scientist_01.jpg)</div><div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/3/3c/001-Saber_Idle.jpg)</div><table class="bbc_table"><tbody><tr><td>Name</td><td> || </td><td>Hiroyuki Ouma</td></tr><tr><td>Location</td><td> || </td><td>Lazarus HQ <del>   </del> The Work Hall</td></tr><tr><td>Tagging</td><td> || </td><td>Shin Azuki (NPC), Ryoko Tachibana (NPC)</td></tr></tbody></table><br/><hr/><br/>It had been a week since the brain behind the new prototypes, professor Aarav Nair, had vanished into thin air. With the projected leader gone and the invading American forces pushing further and further into the country, the project's funding had been suspended indefinitely, causing the majority of the facility's staff to abandon the project and leave. Still, some remained... such as the trio hunched over a workstation next to one of the giant Machina in the work hall of the building.<br/><br/><strong>"Hm~"</strong>The sole female of the trio hummed almost melodically as her slender fingers remained a constant, unstopping flurry of movement, blindly hitting the keys of the keyboard with expert accuracy. A pair of younger men peered over either of her shoulders, their eyes glued to the same computer screen as her own deep jade's. Her eyes, framed by a pair of oval-shaped glassed, darted left and right, following the lines of text and code that she put in. Once she was finally done, she hit the Enter key with a rather strong, final blow, letting the data process and transfer.<br/><br/><strong>"That should do the trick,"</strong>Ryoko Tachibana proclaimed as she spun her office chair around a full one-hundred and eighty degrees, coming face to face with her two younger coworkers. Grabbing an old-fashioned notepad from the desk beside her, she crossed her long, smooth legs<del>   </del>which were hard<em>not</em>to notice, since only a short, tight-fitting skirt was what she wore from the waist down, along with a pair of high heels<del>   </del>and began flipping through its pages. Taking a moment to press her glasses back up the bridge of her nose, she further elaborated.<strong>"With the feedback of that testflight I've been able to some slight tweaks to the power distribution of the axis core, decreasing the loss of energy by a minimum of 0.02 percent. The upper value has yet to be precisely determinded, but by my calculations it should be around 0.23 percent."</strong><br/><br/>While this was certainly progress, more then you would think, none of them seemed to pleased about it. It was not the small amount of progress that bothered them; no, it was the fact that this was pretty much all they could do at the moment without more help and supplies. The 001-Saber prototype was Tachibana-sensei's baby, so it stressed her in particular that so little could be done to push the model towards its finished state. While Aarav Nair had been the head developer for all the prototypes, Ryoko Tachibana was the lead scientist behind the first of the models, code-named Saber. Each model had its own team of engineers and scientists, making progression on each of the models somewhat independent of each other. Now that most of the staff had abandoned the project Tachibana had also taken up the duty to help look after the other models, especially since what she could do for Saber was now severely limited. It had made her a bit...<em>prickly</em>at times over the course of the last week.<br/><br/><strong>"Well... It's something, at least..."</strong>The sole member of the Saber's engineering crew, a young blond man in a blue utility work suit offered meekly, scratching the back of his head with the large he held in one hand. While the professor had remained primairily because the Saber was her one and all, Shin Azuki's motive was that his family was part of a fisherman's village on a tiny island much further south, and thus almost impossible to reach considering the current state of affairs in Japan.<br/><br/>The dark haired man beside Shin nodded swiftly.<strong>"<em>Wrench-kun</em> is right, sensei; progress is progress. Thank you for your continued efforts,"</strong>the test-pilot of 001-Saber said calmly to offer some support to the engineer in his attempt to keep the scientist from stressing out. His name was Hiroyuki Ouma and he was notoriously bad at remembering the names of the people around him, so he always ended up giving and calling them by nicknames he would make up. Shin, for example, he called Wrench-kun, seeing as he seemed to drag a large wrench with him wherever he went; even the cafeteria! Ryoko, on the other hand, was usually just called sensei. Though, if people were confused about whom he meant, he would call her "Legs-sensei" instead, as she nearly always wore short skirt that showed off a lot of leg.<br/><br/>Then, suddenly, the intercom speakers that hung high on the walls, spread around the work hall, sprung to life and the urgent sounding voice of a young woman could be heard.<strong>"Everyone, announcement! Stop whatever the fuck you're doing and listen for a minute. There's a black sedan approaching the building, I can't say for sure if it's coming over here or not, but just keep your heads low and don't leave the building until we know. Besides that, military units advancing to the North of us, so anyone who decides it's a smart idea to open the gate to the work hall will definitely regret it. Hopefully the squadron will pass by without caring, but we don't know. If anyone wants to chicken out, better do it quick."</strong><br/><br/>For a moment the two standing males stared at each other, with the seated scientist watching them in equal silence.<strong>"I'll... go disconnect the extra cables."</strong>Shin said, slightly startled by the sudden change of events, before dashing over to the backside of giant humanoid machine that stood before them, towering out high above them. The extra cables were attached for the calibration software to be updated and thus had to be attached and removed manually.<br/><br/><strong>"Could you relay our status, sensei?"</strong>Hiroyuki requested calmly as he, too, began to move around the large oval desk and towards the Machina prototype. Luckily he'd just taken it for a testflight about an hour ago, so he was still dressed in his pilot suit and only needed to place the helmet he'd been carrying under one arm on his head. From the opened cockpit located in the chest of the machine hung a long steel cable. Placing his right foot in the small, metal triangle that hung from the end, hovering a few inches above the floor, the AI the blue machine was equipped with recognized its pilot and began to reel in the cable, lifting Hiroyuki up to the cockpit. Slipping into the seat, the cockpit's entrance closed, bathing him in darkness for but a moment as the screens that lined the walls in front of him and on either side came to life. The direct feed of the Machina's cameras created the illusion that the thick layer of steel and wires in front of him did not even exist. The illusion was soon broken though as the pilot began to turn on various systems, various overlays appearing on the screens, providing information and targetmarkers. Peering down, he saw that one target marker had appeared around Ryoko's head, blinking blue to indicate a friendly target, as well as display her name and affiliation hovering next to the marker.<br/><br/>Aforementioned scientist, in the meantime, had placed a wireless earpiece with microphone onto one ear and patched herself into the broadcast network of the facility.<strong>"Attention, everyone~! Ouma-kun will be standing by in the Saber in case the facility does come under Machina attack and will engage to provide cover. I would like to request all pilots to board their respective Machina if it becomes a full scale engagement. All engineers and scientists not pitching in on security please report to the work hall to help prepare the remaining Machina. Thank you~"</strong>She spoke with a calm, almost cheerful tone. Perhaps it was due to the prospect that her beloved Saber might actually get to test its current combat capabilities, providing her with completely new data that could help further improve the machine. She had faith that the 001-Saber, even in its current, unfinished state, would effortlessly strike down a few older models. Hiroyuki had also proven himself a pilot capable of handling the Saber and its main armament, the Masamune<del>   </del>named after a famous Japanese swordsmith, by many regarded as the best ever. The sword was designed to vibrate at an incredible speed, making it capable to slice through an opponent's armor like a hot knife through butter. More heavily armoured opponents still present an obstacle at this point of the development cycle, however, but Ryoko was confident that problem could be amended and was already in the early stages of designing improvements for the Masamune.