Chapter Text
The year is Universal Century 24XX. Man and Monsterkind have both long since braved the final frontier of space. Many planets have been terraformed, many asteroids have been mined, and most people live in space colonies. There is no war at present, yet many colonies and space stations choose to retain their military, for better or for worse. Asriel Dreemur is a Monster living on one such militarized colony: H0M3-T0WN.
Asriel woke up planning to make this day a repeat of every day before now, for the last few years. Wake up, eat breakfast, go on a run, shirk any of his responsibilities to the mobile suit corps that weren’t urgent, study, help Kris with updating/outfitting/repairing their mobile suit, help his mom with Christmas prep, and work on his project until he couldn’t stay awake anymore. He had managed to mostly keep to that strict schedule that day. Breakfast was good, the colony was a few days away from starting use of the artificial snow, so his run wasn’t bad. No stray space cruisers or asteroids called for his attention as a pilot, and Kris didn’t ask for his attention for his attention as a mechanic.
Christmas set up was melancholy for reasons no one would say out loud, but enjoyable otherwise. He had even managed to convince his mom that inviting Asgore over for Christmas Eve wouldn’t ruin the holidays, no matter how skeptical she was.
If he was feeling generous, this was even one of the rare few days he legitimately enjoyed without much compromise. Of course though, as the day almost seemed to go too well, he assumed something would ruin his mood, and unfortunately he was right. He had no chance at all in guessing what would cause the sudden change.
He was in the middle of explaining to Kris why he can’t install apple sauce-based weaponry to Kris while decorating the colony’s hangar with Christmas lights, when the familiar crackle of the intercom interrupting his train of thought. But where he was expecting it being his Dad-captain of the mobile suit corps-checking in on them, or Undyne -second in command to Asgore- rushing them to finish the job faster, he is surprised by the cold voice of the commander of the entire colony: Carol Holiday. Her words fell out of the intercom speaker like icicles, sharp and cool.
“I need Asriel Dreemur to come to my office as soon as possible”
The Dreemur siblings looked at each other, Asriel probed Kris’ face for answers, but they just shrugged. Asriel didn’t have a good feeling about this, Carol never spoke to anyone in her office for anything that wasn’t dire. Nothing had happened today, so it was a wonder to him what she could want.
The intercom hissed to life again as Asriel swore he could feel a cold air coming from it.
“I meant now, young man”
The goosebumps radiating up his arm, and making him look much fluffier, told him to get moving, so he waved goodbye to Kris and jogged off. The thoughts in Asriel’s head moved faster than he did. Why was Carol looking for him? Why now of all times? Did she just want him to give her R.S.V.P. to Toriel for the planned Christmas party? He only wished that it would be something that simple. After an uncomfortably long elevator ride, he was standing in front of the door to the office of the most powerful person in the entire colony, and a longtime family friend. Asriel steeled his nerves, how bad could it be? She was only the most serious person to ever live! He raised his hand and knocked.
The brief moment of following silence made him wonder whether had misheard her over the intercom.
“Come in lieutenant Dreemur”
Nope, she was definitely looking for him. As the door opened before him and he walked in, Asriel could almost see his breath in the air. The room was practically empty besides some necessities and a bizarre antique statue depicting an old human man in red. One of many such confusing aspects to General Carol was her propensity to antiques no one could ever place the origin of. People guessed that it let her feel above people to know what they were, and where they were from. Asriel saluted the general just as she turned in her chair. She had a grievous on her face, if Asriel weren’t already cold, he would be frozen by now
“You must be wondering why I called for you, lieutenant. ”
“Y-yes Ma’am”
It still felt weird to Asriel to call her that.
“I plan to send you on a less-than public mission beyond the energy field. Far beyond it, in fact”
“I can’t go by myself in only a mobile suit I’d only last a minute, so I assume there will be a ship assigned to the mission, as well as other people in on it?”
“I was getting there, lieutenant. Yes, there will be a ship, but due to the previously mentioned secrecy, there is a mercantile carrier you will be boarding. As for other people on this assignment, you will be taking ensigns Kris and Susie to be your mobile suit squadron, as well as mechanic Berdly for maintenance. As well, the ship has its own captain who will be flying you to your destination. He was the one who saw it after all.”
“Yes ma’am, but s-sorry to ask, but what is “it”? And what’s the goal of this mission? I think that’s important for me to know.”
General Carol stopped for a second, seemingly passing Asriel’s words around in her head for a moment. She found what she wanted to say fairly quickly.
“Did I not tell you? I’m also surprised you haven’t guessed by now. You’re going to look for December. That ship captain saw a mobile suit that resembled hers.”
Asriel barely registered the last part of that sentence, as suddenly it was as if his mind had shot itself out into space, never to look back. Dess went missing 2 years ago, they stopped the search for her 4 months after she disappeared. Why start it back up now? He never doubted that she was alive somewhere, but he was slowly getting used to the pain of thinking he would never see her again. But now he was in charge of looking for her? His heart and thoughts were both racing a mile a minute, his earlier sturdy stance was faltering slightly, and it took a second for him to be able to hear what General Carol was saying again.
“You’ll be leaving on December 15th, the captain will fill you in on more specifics when you board that day. Unfortunately, due to uncertainty on whether you’ll find her-”
Asriel’s teeth chattered, or his brain rattled, he couldn’t tell which.
“Kris, Susie and Berdly won’t know the true directive to the mission until you find her. They are each talkative in their own ways, and I want this to be discreet. No one besides me, you, and the captain of the ship are going to know. And take extra care that Noelle doesn’t find out, she doesn’t need this distracting her, and I don’t want her to get any ideas of coming with. Do I make myself clear, lieutenant?”
“A-a-absolutely General.”
“Good, now get out of my office, I have work to do. And go fix up your mobile suit, I know you’ve been avoiding having to do anything with it.”
Asriel practically sprinted out of Carol’s office, he had so much to think about. He still couldn’t believe they were looking for Dess again, but he swore that he would find her this time, no matter what. And Carol was right, he needed to make sure his mobile suit was up to snuff. That, and he would make sure his “projects” would be ready, he never thought he would be given an official excuse to use them. …And he would need to make sure his mom knew he was going to leave for an extended period, along with Kris, or else she might have a heart attack.
Night of December 14th, U.C 24XX
The Mercantile ship slowed down as it got closer to the colony, you need proper slow speed to park, after all. Its hydraulics hissed and electronics beeped into the nothingness, as the ship crawled to a stop in the gray hangar, the name on the side of its inky dark blue and purple hull came into view on the hangar security monitors. It was the CA5T1E-T0WN carrier cruiser.