AND NOW, FINALLY IT IS TIME FOR THE ANNUAL UPDATE OF THE EXETER PROJECT

Here's hoping that becomes a bad joke from here on out, but as it stands it has well and truly been more (or at least near) twelve months since this fic was updated. I just have no idea where all the time went. Making money month to month for bills? Moving states yet again? Who even knows? I'm thinking that I should really crack down and stick to a schedule so I can just finish at least one fic. If I could just do that, it wouldn't be so hard to juggle them all.

But back to the topic at hand. The Exeter Project has undergone yet another critical revision: a revision so critical that you will be utterly lost with some parts of this chapter until you've actually checked it out. The reason this is true is due to the fact that I finally established a concrete endgame for this story; not to mention a much stronger plot overall. Unfortunately some major changes had to be made. That said, you don't need to go back and reread the whole story, as I'm sure some of you have done that already during this past year of waiting. Only one chapter needs to be reread to get a new understanding of the plot, and that's the very first chapter: I rewrote the whole thing from scratch, and you'll swiftly see how much different the story is thanks to its new starting point.

All the other chapters have received only minor changes; usually to dialogue or thoughts so they match the new plotline appropriately. The only chapters I can think of that might be mildly important to read again are chapters 9-10 and 25, which possess some specific details relevant to the mysterious endgame of the new plot.

All in all, I think the upgraded plotline has improved the story significantly, as you will see in this very chapter. That said, it is a bit of a short chapter, but it has some very important and enthralling elements that I think will entertain you. More importantly, I'm fairly certain you won't have to wait another year for the following one, so that's good too, right?

"Damn it, they're making us do something, but what?!"

Church paced to and fro in one of the engineering rooms of the IS Academy, filling the void with theories and questions as he waited for the arrival of some people Chifuyu wanted him to meet. It was only two days after the discussion they had regarding their approach on Phantom Task and whether or not Church could be trusted, but the tension of that meeting was largely in the past at the moment. Church had approached her this morning in regards to the development of new weapons and countermeasures to use against Phantom Task, and she had said that she'd introduce him to someone helpful in that regard at noon.

It was about eleven fifty right now, and while some part of him in the back of his mind reminded Church that he was talking aloud about things he was supposed to be keeping secret, it didn't stop him from venting his frustrations. Now that he was taking his opposition against both Phantom Task and Umbra Stratum more seriously, his lack of understanding regarding their plans was troubling.

"Defensive preparation isn't what they're after... if all they wanted was a safety net against new IS technologies, the original mission would actually be legitimate. Get data on Gen 4 so countermeasures can be ready if they have to. Besides, they already made one Exeter suit, why not just start producing those in higher quantities? It'd be expensive, but without the limitations of IS cores, America could easily restore the balance of military power."

You are of the mind that they are preparing for offensive action?

"They have to be! Like I said, if it was just about restoring the military power balance it could be done easily enough. All it would take is time and money. This alliance with Phantom Task, this Lightning Shiver business... none of it would even be needed. And if they're not using the data on Akatsubaki for 'just in case' countermeasures, what are they using it for? It's not like they could build their own IS from that data. They can't even do anything with knowledge about its armaments, because they don't have any cores to arm other than the few in black ops."

Perhaps the data is for their IS wielding allies.

Church scowled at the steel wall in front of him, contemplating the thought Cerberus had put forth. While he could at least make a fairly educated guess on what Umbra Stratum was doing, that being some sort of American supremacy gambit, the motivations of Phantom Task were completely unknown. He couldn't even hazard an accurate guess.

Hell, he hardly knew anything about the organization. Was Squall even their leader? Were there only three of them? What the hell was with the Chifuyu clone? And if they really were such a small group, what could their goal possibly be? World domination was totally asinine, not to mention cliche. Even if the three of them could take on the whole world, which they obviously couldn't, there'd be no way for them to maintain control over anything with such small numbers. Was it global government destabilization? Were they just stealing IS and relevant data so they could be some unmatched mercenary force and make loads of money?

Frankly none of these thoughts sounded accurate. Moreover, none of them factored in that word that kept bothering him; Valravn. Mythical ravens from ancient folklore, that had gained human intelligence by feasting on corpses. What did that have to do with Lightning Shiver? Surely it hadn't been named just because it sounded cool.

Not to mention the blatant intention to betray Phantom Task at the nearest opportunity, which had been mentioned in the brief excerpt Church had seen at the African base. If Phantom Task was just a stepping stone to a larger plan, what was it? No matter how he sliced it, Church just couldn't figure out their angle in all of this. Hell, he couldn't figure out what Phantom Task was striving towards either. Frankly his inability to make any headway on this front bothered the hell out of him. Surely he was smart enough to come up with a good theory based on the little evidence that he had?

Whether or not that was true, he had no time to dwell on it, as the door to the engineering room slid open without warning. Glancing over his shoulder, Church laid eyes on Chifuyu, accompanied by two girls with teal hair. Tatenashi was easily identified for obvious reasons. The girl next to her with the glasses and the demure expression was less familiar, though it was obvious they were related somehow. They had the exact same shade of teal hair and the same crimson eyes, so Church would have guessed they were sisters.

As for Chifuyu, she wasted no time in starting the conversation.

"Church; glad to see you know the meaning of punctuality. My brother could learn a thing or two from you. This is Student Council President Tatenashi Sarashiki and her sister, Kanzashi Sarashiki."

Tatenashi gave Church a coy wave, a clear indicator of her amusement. That may have had something to do with the fact that the usually omniscient Chifuyu actually had no idea that they had met before, or in what circumstances. As for Kanzanshi, she just looked uncomfortable. She struck Church as the shy type.

"Nice to meet the two of you, but... why exactly am I meeting you?"

This question was clearly directed towards Chifuyu, since she was the one that had told him to meet her here to be introduced. She clearly had a reason she was bringing the Sarashiki sisters to him.

"They'll both be useful in the fight against Phantom Task. Kanzanshi here is a Representative Candidate for Japan; but more importantly, she has quite the knack for IS arsenal development. Her own IS is a customized Uchigane, and I daresay it could reasonably go toe to toe with some Gen 3 platforms. I'm sure you've determined by now that our machines could use some upgrades, or new weapons at the very least."

Kanzashi was quick to counter Chifuyu's praise for her. "T-the only reason I was able to finish the Uchigane Nishiki was because of the data from the Mysterious Lady, so..."

On the other side, Tatenashi was just as quick to counter her counter. "Just because you needed a little outside help doesn't mean your own effort wasn't the biggest part of the endeavor, Kanzashi. Right, Sensei?"

Chifuyu leveled her gaze at the younger sister. "Right indeed. The need for assistance in a matter isn't a mark against one's skill or talent. Case in point; I am bringing you two in on this whole situation, despite my own skill or talent. Are you implying that I'm somehow lesser because I've requested your help?"

Certainly not eager to possibly offend Chifuyu, Kanzashi waved her arms in panicked dismissal. "N-no, of course not!"

As for Church, he cocked an eyebrow at the oldest of their number. "I don't mean to offend, but... as far as R&D is concerned, why not just get Tabane? Nobody could outdo her, right?"

Mention of this truth put a scowl on Chifuyu's face. "Suffice to say, she's being difficult."

"I'm sorry; difficult? Does that scatterbrained woman even realize the stakes here? She's refusing to help?"

"For now. I'm working on it."

Not for the first time, Church truly questioned the nature of Chifuyu's old friend. To take a back seat at a time like this.. didn't she realize that the few people she did care about were going to be in danger as well?

With a sigh, the American focused his attention on Tatenashi. "And you? Not that adding another combat pilot to the mix isn't good enough, but is there anything else?"

With a cheeky grin, Tatenashi gave her reply. "Well, Phantom Task and the Sarashiki family have a long history with one another. Suffice to say my experience will probably be helpful."

"Wait, a long history? What's that supposed to mean?"

Seemingly unperturbed by his blatant confusion, Tatenashi dived into her explanation. "Oh yeah, the Sarashiki family has been secretly fighting with Phantom Task for well over fifty years. It started all the way back in World War II."

"Are you about to tell me this has something to do with Nazis?"

"Not quite; think about it, for a Japanese family to be opposing them since World War II..."

"Wait, so Phantom Task was some sort of Allied task force?"

Tatenashi unfurled a fan with some sort of kanji on it. "Bingo! Phantom Task was originally a top secret black ops unit deployed by the Allies for special missions against the Axis powers. Both records and details are scarce now, but it's believed they were going to play a major role in the downfall of Imperial Japan... before nuclear weapons got involved, of course. Our family; or rather, our grandfather, was also a top level operative for the Japanese military at the time. He ran lots of counter operations against Phantom Task during the war, and that's pretty much how we got here."

The girl looked as though her explanation had summed up everything one could possibly want to know, but Church begged to differ.

"That is not at all how we got here! How did a special forces unit for the Allies in World War II become the Phantom Task we're fighting today? Why did your family keep fighting them if the war was over?"

The look on Tatenashi's face said this all should have been obvious. "Well obviously they went rogue after the war ended. As for why, who knows? We've never managed to interrogate one of their agents, 'cuz they always take the coward's way out if they get captured. The reason our family kept fighting them was because they started taking action against our country again; not to mention a bunch of other nations. It was usually operations that could potentially destabilize political power or some such... but ever since IS came around, their operations have mostly shifted to stealing IS. For what purpose is unclear, but it's unlikely their primary objective has really changed overly much in just a few decades..."

By the time Tatenashi had finished, Church had come to one conclusion; none of her information was really helpful. The origins of Phantom Task was interesting, but it didn't actually help discern their current plans, or change anything about the current situation.

Still, he wasn't going to say something like that to Tatenashi's face, since she had so graciously spouted all of that exposition at him.

"Well... honestly that's still a bit confusing, but I'm glad to have more help."

"You should be. My sister and I will turn the tables in your favor, without a doubt."

Kanzanshi piped up softly from the side. "I have some doubts..."

Eager to move things along, Chifuyu ushered the conversation forward. "Bury those doubts and stay focused. We have no idea when the next confrontation with Phantom Task will be. I suggest you three start strategizing right away. I'll direct all of the other Representative Candidates here after their current class finishes."

With that, Chifuyu made her exit, leaving the trio of newly acquainted teenagers by their lonesome. However, Tatenashi ensured no awkward silence ensued, thanks to her chipper attitude.

"So, here we are: just two pretty girls and a handsome guy alone in a room~"

Naturally Kanzashi panicked at the implication of this. "H-hold on, what are you saying!? I w-would never-!"

"I know, I know, Ichika's more your type for that kind of thing..."

"T-tatenashi!"

With a cocked eyebrow, Church intruded on the moment. "Hope this doesn't sound rude, but I haven't really seen too much of either of you around Ichika. What got you invested in him?"

Since her little sister was still blushing, Tatenashi spoke up instead. "We do have a history with him. Kanzashi here fell in love~ with Ichika when he saved her all shining armor style during a tournament. It was quite a while before you showed up."

"H-hey Tatenashi, you're in love with him too! Stop teasing me!"

With a slight blush of her own, the elder sister placed her hands on her cheeks. "I can't help it, you're both just so cute when I tease you!"

A little put off by this, Church sought to question this duo's whereabouts since his arrival here, all things considered. "Wait, if you two are already this familiar with Ichika, why didn't you get invited to England during the Academy's break with all the other girls? Are you two not part of the, y'know, clique?"

"Suffice to say there's a bit of a divide between us and them. Not like it's hate or anything, but I don't think Cecilia would consider us worthy of being invited to her mansion. We don't have that whole 'friendly rival' thing going on like the rest of them do with each other."

"In that case, is it really a good idea to bring everyone into the same room...?"

"Aw, come on, it'll be fun! Just think of all the shenanigans we'll get up to!"

With an internal sigh, Church resigned himself to his fate.

That's exactly what I'm worried about...

Deep within the bowels of the Umbra Stratum Nevada base, Marcus Dougley had his eyes glued to a computer screen. He was secluded away in a room with no surveillance cameras, no windows, and no chance of being discovered. He was not alone in this room; there was one other person, standing behind him as he sat at the lone desk available and took in all of the information he was being presented with.

This room was where he had been taken following the incident, the memory of which was still fresh in his mind.

Sitting in the engineering lab all by his lonesome, Marcus had been confronted by one of the base's armed guards, weapon poised to terminate him. He was sure the situation would be his demise, especially when he heard a spurt of suppressed gunfire echo in his ears. In hindsight there's no way he would have registered the sound of the shots that would have killed him, but he had only realized that when the body of his would-be assassin crashed to the ground after the fact.

Standing in the doorway behind the soldier had been Strelka. An explanation for her actions or the attempt on Marcus' life had not been forthcoming at the time, as the redhead had simply dragged him away from the engineering bay as two more Umbra Stratum guards in league with her disposed of their comrade's body. At the time, his academic rival had assured him that the necessary steps had been taken to convince everyone who cared that Marcus was dead. Fake surveillance recordings, a doppelganger for the assassin, a fake report on the entire incident; Strelka had everything taken care of while Marcus had still been floundering in the dark.

Following that incident, he had been moved to this safe room by his rescuers, but nothing had been explained. He'd been confined here ever since, but only today had Strelka returned to see him personally. Coincidentally, today was also the day she deemed it necessary to explain things to him. Why she had waited so long was a bit of a mystery to Marcus himself, but he didn't really care about that; he was too busy taking in everything he was reading, a plethora of information from a classified document Strelka had somehow gained access to.

"Unreal... this was the plan all along? Even since Fairchild? How could I have been so blind...?"

With her arms folded behind him, Strelka gave an answer typical of her demeanor. "How indeed? I told you from the beginning that this was the ultimate danger of Smart AI; not to mention the guaranteed final evolution of it. It truly is a mystery that you couldn't foresee this kind of outcome."

"Well excuse me for not predicting this all from the start! There's no way I could have deduced that this was the true nature of Church's mission... to think that damned Gen 4 data wasn't even for IS units."

"I'd be more concerned with the fact that A2 is completely ignorant to Valravn's true nature. At this rate-"

Marcus cut her off with a surprising amount of venom. "Don't call him that; that's not his name."

Unperturbed by her bespectacled companion, Strelka walked around to the front of the desk, making eye contact with him. "Don't let your personal feelings get in the way of what's important here. It's high time we make a second attempt to rectify this situation."

" A second attempt...?"

"Come now Dougley, surely you've managed to connect the dots by now: an Umbra Stratum aircraft mysteriously gets stolen from a top secret base in Russia while armed with a deadly weapon, and the thief has some inexplicable vendetta against the IS Academy? Does that sound likely to you?"

Furrowing his brow in consternation, Marcus couldn't help but get Strelka's point. "No, it doesn't... nothing about that incident ever added up, and even now internal investigations revealed nothing useful. A more logical explanation would be...automation. The craft was either remote controlled or operated on a drone program... that was you...? Strelka, you... are you crazy? Are you telling me that you sent a drone to obliterate the IS Academy, thousands of innocents, and one of our own people?!"

Putting her palms on the desk, Strelka's angular features remained stony, her blue eyes showing not a single speck of remorse or guilt behind her glasses.

"Dougley, if this Lightning Shiver operation is completed, the world will have a much bigger problem on its hands than a wasted school and some dead kids. The Academy was not the intended target; just collateral damage. Sending drones to attack him directly would be fruitless, seeing as how he regularly bested the ADU-1's in mock combat already. An attack of that magnitude was the best chance at eliminating the problem at its source. Case in point; it almost worked."

"It almost killed Church."

"As intended, Dougley."

Clenching his fists, Marcus glared straight into the woman's eyes. "Just killing him isn't the right call. There are other ways to go about this; ways that don't include wiping out public installations, while we're at it!"

"You really don't understand the gravity of this situation, do you? Imagine, an armada of cutting edge craft, tens of thousands of them, hundreds of thousands; each of them superior to the world's top pilots. Each of them armed with technology that will allow just a handful of them to easily defeat an Infinite Stratos unit. Marcus, we're talking a complete and total shift of military power. If Lightning Shiver reaches its conclusion one single organization will become the most powerful military force on Earth. They will be unstoppable, with the deadliest fighting force man has ever known at their disposal. Can you really imagine any positive outcome emerging from such a situation?"

While Marcus knew Strelka was right, he still tried to deny her point. "You're over-exaggerating. With the combined air power of the world, there's no way this operation could succeed. It's ludicrous."

Strelka rose up from the desk and folded her arms again. "What's ludicrous is you believing that. We both know that at least half of the statistics are comprised of old junkers from the Cold War or even earlier. Even with the United States, only a small fraction of our Air Force is comprised of cutting edge planes; the rest are outdated. As for IS, there's a measly 467 of them in the whole word, and the vast majority of them are worthless in regards to real combat application. Do you really think Umbra Stratum would commit to this gambit if it were truly impossible?"

With no real counter, Marcus admitted defeat. "Fucking madmen... what's even the purpose of this? A world domination gambit? Some one world order nonsense?"

"We can only guess: though personally I don't think either of those is right."

"And Phantom Task? Why are they involved in all of this?"

Strelka glanced at the ceiling, perhaps contemplating answers she didn't truly know. "I think it is safe to assume that they are unaware of the penultimate goal of this operation. Doubtless they think themselves in control; a misconception that will greatly inconvenience them when Valravn comes into play."

"And how long do we have until that happens?"

"Not long. Your replacement has nearly finished the third X Platform. Once that's complete... Lightning Shiver will undoubtedly be ready for its next phase. Thankfully production of the Huginn and Muninn drones hasn't even begun yet, so we have some time before Valravn becomes unstoppable."

Staring at the screen before him but not really seeing it, Marcus scowled. "Huginn and Muninn... I thought you were in charge of that. In fact... why are you even opposed to this Strelka? If Lightning Shiver succeeds, your drones will make up the strongest military force the world has ever known."

The expression on Strelka's usually condescending face was clouded. "They will achieve that reality only through a means I never condoned. Besides, while I'm sure you won't believe this statement, it's nevertheless true: my interest in drone development was to reduce lives lost, not take over the world. The Muninn and Huginn platforms are my pride and joy, but... I didn't design them to smite the armies of the world. They are supposed to replace fighter pilots, not kill them."

While Marcus was a little wary of Strelka's explanation, he could vaguely recall that Strelka's father had been a fighter pilot. Maybe her motivations weren't entirely bogus.

"OK then, if that's the case, can't you just sabotage the new models? That puts an end to the most dangerous aspect of the operation, right?"

Unfortunately, the sigh Strelka released made it obvious that this straightforward plan wasn't going to work. "The design schematics for the new models was completed before I caught wind of any of this. It's too late to do anything about that now."

With a defeated sigh of his own, Marcus leaned back in his chair. "Speaking of which... how exactly did you learn of all this anyway? I doubt it was just sitting around in an unclassified folder."

"Suffice to say an anonymous tip from an outside source enlightened me. Unfortunately, I don't know their identity and can't even begin to guess where they got the information from themselves."

"Great... alright, this is the final question, I promise. Why'd the Commander try to kill me? I wasn't aware of any of this until today."

With a look that could have possibly been a smidgen of pity, Strelka simply said it like it was, even though she knew Marcus wouldn't be happy of the reminder. Then again, she was in the same boat as he was; they had both been duped, with their respective contributions to science now being slotted for an insane plot against both the world and Infinite Stratos.

"As much as I hate to give you any credit, do you honestly believe you wouldn't have discovered the truth eventually? It was simply preemptive action on the Commander's part. You created Valravn, after all."

Placing his forehead in his palms, Marcus berated himself for that truth. "Yeah, I did. And stop calling him that; his name is Cerberus."

After several hours of discussion and theory between the many people involved in the new crusade against Phantom Task, Church finally exited the engineering room, the girls on his heels. As promised, Chifuyu had directed her brother and all of the other Representative Candidates to that location after their class, at which point everyone had squabbled for a bit (it was mostly Rin and a carefree Tatenashi). But once the usual banter was finished, it hadn't been hard to focus everyone on more serious matters.

The talk of the day had been upgrades. Serious, in depth discussion about the abilities of their enemies, and what tools they could use to combat them. While initially shy due to Ichika's presence, Kanzashi had really come into her own during the discussion, proving her knowledge on all things related to IS arsenals. She certainly wasn't a match for Tabane being a student and all, but Church didn't doubt her ability to help them design new weapons.

Naturally she wasn't of any help to him, but Church had nevertheless offered some insight on the kinds of upgrades would best serve everyone. Even so, everything at this point was theoretical, and it would take some time before any of it could be used in practical application. That was why Church had put it from his mind, and was simply listening to Rin complain as she walked beside him.

"That damn Tatenashi, always such a pain! Where does she get off...?"

Still a bit lost in regards to that particular feud, Church figured there would be no harm in asking. After all, Tatenashi and her sister had gone a different direction than the rest of them, so it wasn't like he had to be careful. Houki and Ichika had disappeared on their own as well, though not as a pair. Church hadn't paid attention to where they both had to be.

"Seriously Rin, what do you have against her? It's almost like she personally offended you somehow."

With an irritable glare at nothing in particular, Rin summed up her grievances. "She ruined my part back when we were all celebrating Ichika's birthday. Stole my outfit and even had the gall to mock me after the fact! Damn that buxom broad!"

With a slightly bothered smile, Church asked for some clarification. "Is that all? Is that really a relevant reason to dislike her even now?"

While she was sure Church hadn't meant it as such, Rin couldn't help but feel like he was implying that there was nothing to be mad about anymore since her affection was no longer for Ichika. But thinking about the current state of their bogged down relationship actually irritated her, so she tried to change the subject straight away.

"It was rude, OK? And speaking of birthdays... when's yours anyway? I don't think you've ever told us."

Taking an extra step to get beside him, Laura expressed her interest in this question as well. "That's true. You truly are a secretive person, aren't you?"

A little bothered by the assessment for reasons the girls wouldn't understand, Church simply shrugged as he gave his answer. "My birthday was during the last week at Cecilia's place."

Receiving no immediate response, Church kept walking for a few feet before he realized that he had lost the girls at his flanks. In fact, he couldn't hear any other footsteps at all, so he glanced back to see what had happened to everyone.

What he was met with was a diverse array of expressions that made it pretty clear how everyone felt about his answer. Rin looked furious. Laura, dismayed. Charlotte appeared sad or maybe even hurt, while Cecilia was simply flabbergasted. Frankly he had no idea why any of this was the case, but Rin was quick to rectify that by clarifying the problem. Coincidentally, she also got up in his face.

"Your birthday came around that recently and you didn't tell us!? What the hell is your problem!?"

Caught off guard by the sheer volume of her indignation, Church reeled back a little bit. "How does that equate to me having a problem...?"

Unfortunately, Rin's countenance was quickly replaced by Charlotte's, though she wasn't as aggressive about it. "It is a problem! Were we really such a nuisance that you didn't want to celebrate your birthday with us!?"

From further back, Laura folded her arms as she looked at him with obvious dismay. "Or did you just not think it was important enough to even bring up?"

Not sure how he had gotten here at all, Church had no reply for either of them, and the same was true of Cecilia's theory on his silence. "Surely you weren't worried about expenses right? You must know I would have happily paid for whatever was necessary!"

Having been backed into a metaphorical corner (and a literal one when he realized his back had hit a wall), Church raised his hands in defense. "C-calm down you guys, it's not because any of you did anything wrong... it just didn't seem worth mentioning is all."

While he had hoped this would placate everyone, somehow it did the opposite for Rin. "Oh really? Well then, I'm sure you'll be happy to know that we are going to celebrate the hell out of your birthday this week! In fact, I say we celebrate it four times harder just because you kept it a secret! How about that!?"

Frankly, Church had no idea how somehow could sound angry while talking about birthday celebrations, but Rin managed, and quite handily at that.

"B-but..."

Before he could finish any riposte, Charlotte cut him off, passionately agreeing with Rin's plan. It wasn't hard for Church to notice that both Laura and Cecilia were nodding their agreement along with her.

"That's right! We have to make up for missing it, so you'd better prepare yourself! Er... what kind of cake do you like?"

Almost immediately returning to her more mellow self, Charlotte received no answer, since Rin had returned to her side, but to drag her away, along with Cecilia.

"Nope, no questions! If we're going to celebrate it really hardcore it also has to be a surprise party! Let's leave this jerk and head back to the dorm so we can plan his pleasant demise!"

"B-but Rin, what if we pick something he doesn't like...?"

Charlotte's protest went unanswered as Rin forced them around a corner, Laura following behind at a more leisurely pace. The silver-haired German glanced back at Church one last time, amused by his stunned silence and the pose he was still locked in, before disappearing around that same corner.

As for Church, he simply stared down the hall, questioning how any of this had come to pass. This was certainly not the conclusion he had predicted for this day dedicated to preparing for the next life or death struggle with Phantom Task. And yet, in some weird way, it didn't shock him all that much; he'd gotten kind of used to this dynamic by now, and honestly it wasn't all that bad.

He just hoped they didn't pick red velvet.

Well, here we are. This is the brief but meaningful return of the Exeter Project, with new life breathed into it by a new plot line that I think elevates it to a much higher place. It's also a springboard for a lot more development in a lot more areas. As soon as next chapter (hopefully soon actually means soon this time), we'll get more background on Church's life before Umbra Stratum, some major advances on a certain popular ship, and dive even further into the new plot presented to you in this one. I like to think the details revealed in this chapter have sparked some new interest in the readers, while still leaving some mystery for them to unravel as we proceed. If anyone has theories they want to start throwing around, I'm all ears. I might even tell you if you're close to the real deal.

In other news, I also decided to reinvigorate my blog for those who are interested. It's just me, posting fiction writing lessons some days, and talking about underrated video games no one has ever heard of some other times. I was also thinking I might do something along the lines of 'teasers' for my original manuscript, which is coming along nicely (it's one of the major reasons I've been away from Fanfiction for so long). I figured I could give interested individuals glimpses into the world I've made; characters, places, lore, etc. I'm just really excited about how well it's coming together and I'd like to share some of that excitement with those that care.

If you are one of the few people interested in that kind of thing, you can find the link to the blog on my profile page. It'd be fun to discuss the finer aspects of writing with other aspiring writers, or to just introduce people to some old gaming gems from a bygone age, but I understand that not everyone is that invested. Still, that won't stop me from hoping for some company!