[center][h2]Elise Kim[/h2][h3]Saitama Prefecture — Outpost[/h3][/center]
Despite her readiness to actually do some extra work (that she, admittedly enough, hadn't planned to do that night), Elise soon found herself summarily booted out of the kitchen by Xuan-Yu. Though she had initially intended to argue about his choice of action at [i]that[/i] point, the other Pilot seemed less-than-inclined to hear her out, much less let her back in to work.

It was irritating, yes, but ultimately there was nothing really to be done about that stubbornness at this point. The best she could do—at least, in this situation—was to speak with the other soldiers who had been drawn by the allure of food and drink to be had.

The praise from them towards her and her colleagues by those who came to eat was some small solace as she realized that there would likely be some sort of reprimand in her future, but to show such worry at this time would drag down the mood of the area.

The least she could do, then, was attempt to socialize—speak to those present and convey their thoughts to the others still on [i]The Horizon[/i] after the night was done.

[hr][hr][center][h3]Australia[/h3][/center]
[i]The Horizon[/i] had lingered another day or so in the skies above Tokyo, as per the details of their contract for the reclamation of Saitama, before promptly setting forth towards southern seas. The mission, after all, seemed to have resolved without a hitch, and without any immediate intent to reclaim more land and instead to stabilize what they had taken back, there was no further reason to stay around.

That, in other words, left those on board free to pursue other missions elsewhere in the world—or, at the very least, as free as the captain would dictate. With the success of their first 'proper' mission at their backs, other nations seemed inclined to follow in Japan's stead in enlisting their aid.

Which, in other words, left them where they were now. Efficiency was the name of the game now, and splitting up the Pilots and sending them out from there seemed like the best way to accomplish that.

[hr][center][h3]Perth — Provisionary Office[/h3][/center]
The first stop after arriving in Australian airspace was the city of Perth—or what they could keep hold of, at least. With its (comparatively) closer proximity to the mainland, the city had been able to muster up enough resources to stave off the Warped, but that put it at equal threat to be invaded by threats that bled over therein. Though isolated from the larger cities on the eastern coast, the people of Perth had managed to hold on in spite of everything. The results were by no means pretty and they had by no means been able to thrive, but here they remained.

Of course, without any Frame Pilots, the city found itself at a loss with regards to how to deal with it's newest problem—a string of disappearances and murders that did not seem to be done by human hands. With law enforecement focused towards the external threats, the people in charge had decided it more prudent to cover the issue up and request aid in handling whatever it was that was threatening the city from the inside.

Whether or not that was a good plan, however, remained to be seen.

The only information that the three Pilots had been given to start with, though, were a series of locations at which the incidents had taken place and alleged times of death for those presumed deceased. The trends leaned towards the later hours of the day, which at least narrowed the timeframe down, but the locations, spread throughout the city as they were, seemed less than helpful.

[@VitaVitaAR][@Laduguer][@Mole]
[hr][center][h3]Northern Territory[/h3][/center]
With the threat of Warped higher the further away from the bastions of civilization, it would seem almost foolhardy to have been flown down into the midst of the sun-beaten brush. But a mission was a mission, and so the two Pilots had arrived thus; whether they wished to be here or not was another story.

An abandoned facility, not too far from where the aircraft the two had arrived in had landed, stood in front of them. Nature had begun to reclaim what was left of it, at least—as had the Warped which had undoubtedly taken root within. Their mission [i]objective[/i] was simple—retrieve the core of an AI module located within the lower levels of the facility, along with any other things of interest they could find, before leaving. The first took priority above all, of course; given how it seemed to still be active in spite of the death of the people within (enough to send out a request for retrieval of its own volition), doing so could prove to be valuable.

[i]Could[/i], of course, was the key word here.

[@ERode][@JDubs]
[hr][center][h2]Elise Kim[/h2][h3]Sydney Harbor[/h3][/center]
As far as punishments went, a verbal dressing-down and some supplemental work aiding the technicians on board for a day were far from the worst that Elise had expected to do, and in that regard it hadn't been [i]too[/i] much of a loss to handle what they had been given to do. But with another mission on the table (and this one no less daunting than the last in her eyes), the young woman had no leeway to linger upon what had happened.

Not with the problem in front of them, at least.

It had been less than a day since [i]The Horizon[/i] had landed in Sydney with the intent to recover, which had left her and her partners for the mission—Pyralis and Teodora—time to get a lay of the land. Ultimately, though, that meant that most of their time was spent near the coast.

After all, their target lurked within the waters nearby, not inland. A 'giant aquatic Warped', or so they had been told. Reliant on trade as the city was, losing access to a port was not something that they could afford—and with the Pilots here still in training, something of this magnitude had required external help.

In other words, theirs.

With a sigh, the half-Korean girl leaned on the railing in front of her as she stared out towards the ocean. Despite being marred by underwater barriers and blockades to impede the smaller Warped from catching them unaware, the harbor at least looked [i]somewhat[/i] reminiscent of days gone by.

A moment of nostalgia, then, to take in the moment before they were to head out for the day for some more reconaissance. Ordinarily, sonar or radar would have picked up some trace of the creature terrorizing the bay, but the lack of any proper response on that front meant that they would have to do things the old-fashioned way.

Or, at the very least, by air. A boat in this situation seemed borderline suicidal.

[@Izurich][@Medili]