Some Time Ago…

Seven years prior to her venture back into Iceberg with Akio, Veronica arrived to Pergrande from the Iceberg border. The harrowing journey had left Veronica quite thin and tired. No papers, no warning, she was immediately apprehended, and had been placed into custody for questioning. After they were able to confirm a lack of magical power coming from the girl, the officer in charge of the investigation began to speak.

”Miss… Il Deccus was it? You tell us that you come from Bosco, yes? Pardon me if I come off as rude, but I find it patently ridiculous that a fourteen year old girl crossed the entire nation of Iceberg with little more than rags and a dream. Go over your story for me one more time, just so I can decide if any of it sounds remotely plausible.”

Veronica sat quietly, her hands cuffed and her legs firmly planted on the ground, already taller than most girls her age. Despite her height, it was true that she was just a teen, and that a journey through from the technologically advanced Bosco to Pergrande by land necessitated trekking through one of Fiore’s most treacherous and unforgiving landscapes. With a sigh, the emaciated girl spoke, ”Please forgive the absurdity of my story, then. However, I regret to inform you it’s the truth in its entirety. I am one of the youngest students to ever graduate from a Bosconian academy with an engineering degree. I decided to emigrate illegally when I heard about the Pergrandi view of mages. I have long wondered why we put magic users on such a pedestal in my home country, when I genuinely believe our species’ reliance on magic has held us back from scientific achievement for all of recorded history.”

The female officer scoffed hearing her repeat her story for the nth time, ”Girl, certainly you hear yourself speaking. It’s as though you’re reciting a script on how to butter up a Pergranti nationalist. If that’s all you have to say I’m afraid we’ll have to turn you away back into the wilds of Iceberg.”

After a few moments of silence, Veronica stared into the soldier’s eyes. In the young girl she saw something. It was hard for her to navigate exactly what that something was. There was something threatening, but also something which aimed to break down the officer’s defenses. She was, after all, just a young girl, and the officer felt bad about treating her with such callousness.

As she began to allow in thoughts of sympathy, she was caught off guard by Veronica’s next words.

Veronica, tired of speaking to someone who it seemed was doomed to never understand the genius of what she was trying to get at, opened her mouth and made a simple request, ”I’d like to speak to one of your engineers.”

For reasons the interrogating soldier couldn’t quite place, she felt as though it was right to at least honor this request. At the very least, an engineer could better judge whether she had the technical knowledge to back up her claim of being a graduate of a Bosconian engineering academy, which would bring the girl one step closer to saving herself from being at the mercy of the wilds of Iceberg.

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Several years later.

A 2-foot tall, cube-headed robot waddled around Veronica’s room. The officer who had once interrogated her at the border kept a careful eye on the 17 year old inventor as she attempted to train it to converse.

“Hello, P-02, how are you today?”

The toddling robot stalled in place, eyes flickering with lights indicating the computing that was being done. It straightened up, slowly turned its head towards Vi, and opened its mouth before responding, ”Good.”

P-02 resumed wandering around the room, having nothing more to say. As underwhelming a response as it was, the officer, part of a team of soldiers keeping watch on their suspiciously enigmatic immigrant from Bosco. All those years ago, a conversation with an engineer and military scientist had earned the girl an advocate for her integration into Pergrandi society, but, not hasty to trust her, all parties had agreed to round the clock surveillance until a successful verification of her background been performed. Strangely, despite their best efforts, no records about a Veronica Il Deccus existed anywhere they searched.

Still, the scientist who believed in her story continued to vouch for her, ensuring military officials in other departments that she was a brilliant mind who had a lot to genuinely offer the country. These claims had finally bore fruit in the last year, when, having been given more trust with equipment and resources, she had proven her ability to create high quality artificial life. Its speech capacity was extremely limited, as was its motor function, but it was leagues beyond what one would expect from a 17 year old girl.

Vi had sworn that she wanted to use her inventions to further Pergrande’s military cause and might, a fact which, when combined with her aptitude for invention, forced the government to consider the cost of deporting her when her background checks repeatedly failed. The cautious nation might have gone through with it were it not for two things. Firstly, the scientist who was sponsoring her was willing to go so far as a legal adoption to give her citizenship. Secondly, all tests to determine a capacity for magic turned up negative, which at the very least made her a more decent candidate for legal immigration than anyone with the heretical ability to control ethernano.

Vi smiled at the officer, catching her off guard as she was deep in thought. Again disarmed, she felt another strange pull to Vi’s will. As time had gone on, Vi had only grown in charisma, something which she had proven herself not shy to use to her advantage.

“Say, miss officer,” Vi said, smirking coquettishly, “I have a theory about how to better power my little baby inventions. All the right pieces are there for something really amazing, but I haven’t found a consistent power source that can push my creations to the next level, at least not for extended periods of time. However, if I could receive permission to… run some tests on a little bit of Oblivium…”

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*Shortly before Veronica’s adventure with Akio in Iceberg.*


Small, ball-shaped robots flew around Veronica’s head, propellers whirring, carrying the parts and tools she directed them to retrieve for her using commands native to the neuropathic link she had developed. These flying bots, A-03 units as she had named them, were one of the most important contributions she had made to military science during her work with the Pergrande military. In their current form, they were only capable of lifting 5-10 pounds, but with enough power and materials, the design could easily be enlarged for large airdrops and heavier deliveries.

She carefully worked through some calibration settings within the neuro-link while she tinkered with the wiring of the android she was working on. The wrapped wires were an alloy of copper and oblivium, less conductive than the former, less magically resistant than the latter, but with unique properties that were necessary for what Veronica aimed to do. Wasting the precious resource was out of the question, so she kept herself reigned in, only multitasking once over.

When the connections she was looking for were complete, she smiled down at her creation. Quite a pleasing looking bot, in her opinion. There was something about it that reminded her of someone from her past.

“Perkele Unit Z-01, can you hear me?” she asked. Though the android was not set up to utilize it’s built in voicebox or mechanical eyes yet, it responded via the neuro-link, body completely still on the table.

Personnel: Vi, registered as priority level 1. Yes Vi, I can hear you. Is there something I may assist you with at this time?

Veronica had recently received approval to accompany a combat platoon on a trip to Iceberg. It had been a while since she had been out that way, and her last memories of the country weren’t exactly pleasant. Still, it was a good opportunity to test the new Perkele unit’s combat capabilities, as well as see how it held up against the enchanted weather in the frozen country.

“Perkele Unit Z-01. Please change name designation of unit to ‘Chamomile.’ Then enter sleep mode until further notice.”

Designation updated, unit will now respond to name ‘Chamomile.’ Entering sleep mode. See you soon Vi, the android said, the sound of it’s buzzing machinery slowing down to silence as yet more A-units, these ones designed for heavy and slow manual labor, loaded Chamomile into a heavy, metal box.

“See you soon, my lovely creation.”

Inside of her transportation box, Chamomile was far too heavy for any of Veronica’s androids to transport. Thus, under her careful supervision, she allowed the box to be loaded onto a military vehicle, which then carried her out to the edges of Pergrande, bringing her across the border to intercept and join a brigade of soldiers. Veronica felt an itch of excitement as she thought about putting all of her years of theory and refinement to the test at long last. For now, it was time to rest. Soon enough she would take the battlefield, eager to command her android and take notes as it, ideally, tears her foes to shreds.

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