While Gray was a little upset that Caleb lost all of the data in exchange for Celes, he really couldn't be mad at him as he might've made the same choice. Still, trying to explain it to Yurika was another story.
"Ok Gray, I'm trying REALLY hard to understand this... Caleb lost the data to save one of his AI, which he could probably just recreate in a few years?"
"Well, when you put it that way it sounds a lot worse than it is, just remember that Celes is almost as important to him as you are to me!"
Yurika said flatly, "Right... so only remove his manhood since he won't need that with an AI anyways..."
Gray tried to calm her down still, he learned that when she was truly angry when she wasn't yelling. "Listen, we still have the copies, and since Caleb hasn't been tracked down here, we can assume the military isn't helping Alterra Corporation cover this up. Let's see what happens Sunday when we meet your parents. A lot can happen in 3 weeks!"
"Fine... I guess you're right... I know I don't see AI as people the way he does, but that may only be because I've never had one until Alterra gave me one."
"Oh, what did you name yours?"
"...tle Gr..." Yurika whispered.
"What?"
"...ttle Gra..." Yurika whispered slightly louder.
"Little Gray?"
Yurika blushed and nodded.
Gray burst out laughing. "Why on earth would you name it that?!?"
"Because it used to give crap advice, I yelled at it a lot, called it every swear word I could think of and even some I just made up, and then it started to like me and became much better at helping me after it watched me for awhile."
"I feel like I should take offense to that, but I'm going to choose not to..."
"Screw off! You know I hate it when people or things tell me what they think I should do!"
"Ha, I get it I get it... Still, let's get to sleep early tonight, got training with Kelly's team tomorrow at noon."
Yurika nodded then kicked Gray out of her room and said "I still hate you."
Gray smiled and said "I hate you too."
__________
The next morning, Gray and the rest of the Steel Wolves met out by the simulators a little before noon.
Gray did his best to try and give a morning speech, "Good morning guys, so, I'm not really sure what to say here but we're going to be working with an old classmate's team from the military for the 16 versus 16 part of the tournament."
"..." Silence.
After 10 seconds of awkward silence, "That's all you got?" Geoff asked Gray.
Gray shrugged and said, "Sorry, I'm very laid back as a leader."
Xyra raised her hand suddenly, "Gray, if you want to be a leader, you will need to take it more seriously once we create a mercenary force. Casual is fine for the 8 man team, but if you let it continue your men won't respect you and that in turn will cause them to not follow orders through to the end."
"..." Silence again.
Xyra fidgeted slightly, blushed, and didn't say another word as she looked down at the ground.
"What... where did that come from Xyra?" Gray finally managed to get out.
"Major Valen said to tell you this when I got my prize for the Battle Royale."
"Wow... and you agreed?"
Xyra nodded.
"Anything else to say?"
Xyra shook her head.
"Don't want to speak for the rest of the day?"
Xyra nodded.
"Well, Major Valen does have a point Gray!" Stacia said.
"Yeah, we trust you, but imagine being in charge of a massive mercenary force, would they all follow you willingly or just be in it for the fun of it?" Paul added.
"Heh, I get it, I get it, I mean... you are correct. I'll try to treat this tournament seriously then, I have a feeling it is more important than what we think." Gray admitted.
"What makes you say that?" Geoff asked.
Despite being directed at Gray, Caleb chimed in suddenly, "If the military wins in a landslide, it would show that players are ineffective on their own and they need to be guided by military instruction, even if unwilling. If the players win in a landslide, it shows the inadequacies of the military training causing the government to lose faith in the military then try to increase the private sector's presence in the war forcing more players to be drafted. Ideally we want it to be an even match so we can maintain the status quo."
Jono looked at everyone with a confused expression. Jono's mind started racing and he started thinking to himself, "Why would the government or military interfere in a game? Why can Gray start a mercenary group, why would he want to? Why are their players in the military? Drafted? What is going on?"
Everyone noticed Jono looking extremely lost, realizing he was left out of a lot of details since he wasn't Diamond-tier. "Ah, sorry Jono, we just really go into the lore of the game and developed our own stories sometimes just for the fun of it. Don't think about it and we'll catch you up on it later." Gray said and patted Jono on the shoulder.
"... nerds, all of ya!" Jono finally said
"Thank you for the compliment!" Gray said
"Nerds are hot" Yurika said teasingly.
Gray received a message from Kelly that her team just logged in and created a room. "Let's get down to business then! Kelly's team is already in a room!"
Everyone entered the simulator pods and joined the same virtual room as Kelly and her team, the "Strike Maidens".
Gray thought that that name was a bit demeaning to any male members on her team, but once Gray saw Kelly and the other members of her team, he knew it wasn't a problem.
The 8 women of the "Strike Maidens" walked over to Gray's team, they had matching form fitting orange and black jumpsuits, and due to the military lifestyle, all 8 of them had toned attractive bodies. Kelly was easily one of the prettier ones and smiled at Gray warmly.
Gray could visibly hear Jono get excited and he whispered to Gray, "Dude! It's an all girl team! You know how to pick teams to work with!"
Yurika must've heard him as she clapped Gray hard on the back, which thanks to this being a virtual lobby he didn't feel a thing, and say, "Yes, he did an excellent job picking a team to work with."
Gray shook his head and did his best to ignore both of them as nothing he could say to either of them would change their minds at the moment. Surprisingly Geoff wasn't getting excited, but Gray remembered he had Beth and was proud of him for behaving...
"How long can you hold out?" Gray whispered to Geoff.
"Not long, get us in the mechs as soon as you can!" Geoff said nervously.
"Stay strong Geoff, stay strong..." Gray thought to himself.
"Gray Wilhelm! Good to see you again!" Kelly came forward and shook Gray's hand then pulled him in for a hug, which Gray made sure to keep very quick from the feeling of death staring at the back of his head.
"Kelly Lagerty! Likewise!" Gray noticed the gold bar on her shoulder and added, "I see the military has been good to you, Lieutenant Lagerty!"
"Thanks! I managed to become an officer after graduation, I hope we can catch up later, but for now I know we have more pressing concerns."
"Agreed, let's start with your team first then."
"Of course, nice to meet you all, I am Lieutenant Lagerty, but please call me Kelly, I will be trusting my team to Gray for this tournament." Kelly smiled warmly at Gray's team.
"From my right, Sergeant Rita Jones and her sister Sergeant Heather Jones, Sergeant Bridget Jacobs, Sergeant Tia Ford, Sergeant Felisa Franklin, Sergeant Caitlyn Dove, Sergeant Christine Graves, and Sergeant Alice Focaccina"
"That's a lot of sergeants!" Gray commented.
Kelly shrugged and said, "All military pilots were started at that rank, but we can only improve our rank through time and merit, not merits like you guys"
"Wait... I recognize one of those names" Gray looked at the last woman and saw a petite girl with a familiar bowl haircut and serious expression on her face. When their eyes met, they both looked at each and said aloud "Ahhh! You!" at the same time.
Caleb, Stacia, and Xyra looked at Sergeant Alice Focaccina and they remembered her as well from when they were sniping together with her from the first 50 versus 50 battle they had.
"Hey! What happened to Giacobbe?" Gray said as he looked at Alice.
"He died..." Alice said angrily.
"What?!?"