The passing weeks in Solaire rendered Lora very quiet; almost especially so. It was as if some silent disease had overtaken her, the focused nature she tried to adopt during battles infecting her lifestyle beyond the simulations. Rarely did the junior officer utter words beyond "Yes, sir," or "No, sir." She seemed to almost actively avoid others, staying solitary by preference given the free time to do so. Considering Lora's actions in the mock operation, and her subsequent increase in performance and official rank, the transition was seen as strange, to say the least. Ultimately, as befitting her only-slightly-ascended title, Lora expressed enough power and initiative that most of the executives weren't concerned with her performance.
Among the people in her company, however, the thoughts were wholly more varied. Some accepted it or were otherwise indifferent; Squad Officer Buell, whom Lora found herself butting heads with a bit more often than not during training, was among them. A certain few others saw the gesture as unbecoming at best and unacceptable at worst, Lieutenant Ritsu being the former. Just because she was of a technically lower rank than Harold was no reason to feel jealous or seclusive, she would explain to the pilot, as Lora was still of an officer rank regardless, and thus a face of the team's command.
A valiant yet misguided effort, as Lora felt none of that regardless. Maybe she did wish she had to face Harold a little less often, but that note was besides the point. Truthfully, Lora herself couldn't say for certain what currently made her feel distant from the other cadets. Sometimes, she tried to stay alone to exercise her inner machinations; other times, she felt troubled or homesick and simply wished for solitude.
At the end of the day, Lora got by fine in her training and retained what she learned well enough, and yet she couldn't shake some concern off of her. Even in her best days, the junior officer found herself reflexively gravitating toward her habit of being away from others. She simply had no way of saying why with any certainty.
Perhaps Lora bore a certain anxiety over her Framewerk? Following the mock operation, she seemed to have her own revelation over her experiences with the Blade of Hope, just as Lorenzo expressed his curiosity over such a circumstance. Lora frequently found herself pondering the ideas and implications behind what happened, trying to recall as much as she could from those fleeting rumors about those expert pilots:
With all the talk about Synchro Rates and their importance in being able to effectively pilot a Framewerk, more than once someone had to ask what happened when one reached a 100% rate. The obvious answer was that a Framewerk became perfectly responsive to a pilot's movements, which a well-trained pilot could take advantage of to make the absolute most of their machines. The lesser-heard supposition, meanwhile, claimed the pilot and machine literally became a single conjoined entity, processing and unleashing actions in a deadly synergy. In this state, a pilot with full synchronization was granted absolute control over the frame, and thus became capable of actions and abilities that were not possible otherwise.
The series of complex simulations that the executive officer conducted offered no real insight over the phenomenon Lora went through, however- the compiled results suggested that attempting to integrate the Blade of Hope into Dynasty's main suite would generate a net loss in synchronization, considering her lack of general experience with the weapon. Furthermore, the sword wasn't designed to accommodate the certain weight-balance issue present in Dynasty's loadout, and generally led to unfortunate results in a virtual environment.
That disappointed them, yes, but it also painted that event in the battle as just a random miracle. Lora just couldn't bring herself to accept that thought, and if Lorenzo shared the same feeling, he didn't let it on immediately.
So, many other times, Lora would find herself using her privacy to think and to study these things, trying to find information and conduct theories, or simply to draft up something else for Dynasty to work with in the future. Unfortunately, the junior officer just didn't bear close to enough expertise in these fields, and she couldn't quite devote herself to learning more while also juggling Solaire's basic training. Ultimately it seemed to place her in a certain limbo, where she wanted to know more and advance further but could not do so in any one field.
Maybe that was the thing which kept her so quiet and conflicted.
Today was another day, with another lecture from the professor. One of the subjects this time regarded the Cruxi as a whole- the details, individuals, and vehicles that together composed humanity's unified enemy.
The topic was rendered a bit shorter than the others, however, due to the severe lack of technical information for these aliens and their weaponry. This only revealed the fact that Cruxi were deathly secure about their technology and their high-ranking personnel, using all sorts of strategies and fail-safes in their soldiers and equipment to prevent capture. The certain devotion over it almost bordered on the obsessive, but in the end it could not be helped much while the human forces remained on the defensive against the Cruxi.
"All in all, while these are the types of Cruxi and their weapons we know about, there may be more unidentified and dangerous weapons currently built by them to counter our use of Framewerks. Be extremely cautious when engaging them. Now then, class is dismissed."
As was typical after the lectures, Lora saw herself being one of the first to start packing. Writing and keeping her different notes in a binder let her be more organized and quick to transition, and the junior officer couldn't help but be a bit surprised that someone like Lorenzo himself didn't invest in one. Then again, Lorenzo proved to not be the typical kind of scientist restrained by things like "sense".
The broadcast alarm suddenly going off snapped everyone out of their thoughts, and Lora could swear she heard someone yelp in shock. Was it her? She hoped it wasn't her.
"Well, what are you waiting for? To the briefing hall, you damn fools!"
By the time the professor had finished his sentence, Lora had haphazardly dropped her binder back onto her desk and was at the door. While Zim already dashed ahead, the junior officer called to everyone, "You heard the man, let's go!" before pursuing them to the briefing.