Sola vi Ryuvia



Sola vi Ryuvia is a companion character in Sunrider.

Silent and cold, yet skilled and exceedingly deadly, Sola vi Ryuvia is a Sharr - a legendary Warrior-Princess of the old Ryuvian Empire - from ages past. Even when the Sunrider is trapped in moments of peril, the soft-spoken warrior calmly works to turn the tide of battle with a few well placed sniper shots - probably from behind an asteroid over 100,000 kilometers away from the action. Her accomplishments as a marksman, supposedly, include once sniping the wings off a Ryuvian sparrow from Ryuvia’s second moon. A girl of few words, Sola keeps her distance from almost everyone but the Sunrider's captain and the new queen of Ryuvia. She pilots the Seraphim, a sniper-scout Ryder built by the Ancient Ryuvians (Lost Technology) that is still top of the line by current standards and able to match any current Ryder. In battle, her aim is unparalleled by anyone on the team.

Her English Voice Actress is Tina Kim and her Japanese Voice Actress is Nakase Hina.

Spirit: She is quiet and tends to speak with actions rather then words.

Appearance


Slim and lithe with a dainty build, she is easily comparable to legends of what a young elf would look like - fragile yet breathtaking in a way that belies a considerable strength, like a shaped glass or crystal figurine. Her figure is modest yet does nothing to detract from her appearance, her facial features being delicate in a way that supplements her roots as ancient royalty - a being that literally does not exist in the modern times. Her skin is fair and arguably flawless, with amber-gold eyes and silken short-cut snow-white hair. Her expression tends to shift between appearing either board or indifferent, being very stone-faced and reserved in both words and expressiveness. In the Novelization, Kayto mentally described her as being breathtakingly beautiful the moment he'd seen her, which is something he hadn't really thought for any other female member of the crew, standing as a testament to her looks. When tapping her Ryuvian Bloodline's innate abilities, Sola's right eye begins glowing unnaturally, the iris turning a vibrant light blue/blue-green and the pupil turning silver-white.

When aboard the Sunrider, Sola wears the standard "Sailor girl" uniform of the Cera Space Force's female crew-members - a black miniskirt with two gold stripes around the edge, a black long-sleeved blouse with white cuffs and gold cufflinks & buttons, both with gold accents, and a white sailor-collar/neckerchief with two gold stripes fastened with a gold bow in the front, black stockings with gold embroidery at the tops and black slipper-shoes with a gold buckle on each. When on combat duty, she wears the standard Ryder-pilot armor-mesh suit, colored pristine white - though it is questionable how her Ryder suit has the same exact designs as modern ones two-thousand years past her time, unless the Ryder pilot standard pressure-suit was directly based off the original Ryuvian design in a perfect replication that had nothing that needed to be improved visually. It could also be speculated that whoever placed Sola inside the stasis chamber made sure there was a suit left for her to use, intending her to fight at some point for unknown purposes.

Bio
Note: (WARNING - Spoilers ahead for the plot of Sunrider: First Arrival, Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius, Sunrider: Liberation Day, Sunrider Academy & Sunrider: The Novelization. Read at your own risk!!)

Early Life

Sola was born as Sola vi Ryuvia on the world of Far Port two-thousand years prior to the Neutral Rim War and the Alliance-Pact War, during the near-hight, and peak, of the Holy Ryuvian Empire as it stretched across the galaxy with the Infinite Emperor reigning from the Star Palace as a man made God. Sola was the illegitimate daughter of the then-Second Crown Prince of Ryuvia, born from an affair with a peasant girl and then promptly left behind and abandoned by the Prince as he had seemingly only seen Sola's mother as entertainment. Since she was little, she received little affection or attention from anyone, and was forced to watch her mother waste away waiting for the return of someone who never truly loved her, unable to let go of the Prince when he had clearly forgotten all about her, stuck in her perpetual fantasy of living in the palace one day. This became something that characterized Sola's life as one of empty loneliness, lacking in desires for cause of never having the means to achieve any. However, at the very least, things were simple and she lived a comparably wholesome life, tending to livestock in a cottage home and living off what was tended in the gardens and by what animals Sola caught. Because of this, she was taught or even possibly learned for herself how to hunt at a very young age - which is presumably where her considerable future skill at marksmanship first began to develop.

However, even this quiet seclusion was not the worst that could befall her. Her father, the Second Crown Prince, made a claim to the throne after the sudden death of his own father (the Infinite Emperor) and his elder brother (the First Crown Prince) - Sola's grandfather and uncle respectively - who were both mysteriously assassinated. Their deaths were blamed as being the work of Crow Harbor, who was himself an illegitimate child of the throne like Sola and was and half-brother to the prince. The assassination sparked a civil war which lasted for roughly fourteen years and threatened to destroy the Empire, unless drastic measures were taken. Sola would later come to speculate that it had been her father himself who assassinated the Infinite Emperor, then placed the blame upon Crow Harbor - only to have the plan backfire when, instead of becoming Emperor of all, the entirety of the Empire fell into internal strife as it was divided between the two step-brothers, threatening to destroy the Empire before either one ever got their rule over it. As such, it became obvious that the Sharr' Lac, ultimate weapon of the Ryuvian Empire, would need to be utilized to end the conflict.

But the true princess of Ryuvia - presumed to be the former Second Crown Prince's legitimate daughter - was unwilling to risk or sacrifice her own life for her people, and certainly not for the sake of her father's ambitions, too selfish to care what happened to the rest of the empire if she wasn't around for it. Instead, she used her connections to desperately try and find someone else that could take her place so that she herself need not be sacrificed - connections that eventually led her to Sola, three years after the latter's mother had finally passed away, abducting her from her home and impressing her into service of the crown, apparently with her father's approval.

Ascension Into Legend

Sola, a simple farmer and huntress, was unfamiliar with the world of political intrigue and royal upbringing, being overwhelmed by the chaos she had been thrown into under her father's bloody power-grab. At first, Sola was embittered and furious at how her father, after years of having left her abandoned and her mother to die alone waiting for him, only came back for her when he needed a scapegoat to save himself, from a mess she suspected he himself had created no less. But over time, Sola came to realize that nobody else would be willing or able to save their now-dying race, and decided to place the people over herself by ultimately agreeing to wield the Holy Empire’s ultimate weapon against her uncle Crow. Wholly dedicating herself to the completion of this duty and without interest in any kind of human interaction after cosigning herself to be a tool and figurehead, Sola effectively sacrificed her own humanity for the sake of trying to save her crumbling civilization from self-destruction.

However, in spite of casting aside her sense of self, Sola couldn't help but find herself to actually be truly happy and proud of herself for the first time in her life, as she had finally gained a tangible purpose for her existence as her people looked up to her and acknowledged her as both their Crown Princess and messiah, destined to save them even if it meant her demise - the legendary "Sharr of Ryuvia", their protector and savior. Gifted the Talbur as a mark of her heritage, illegitimate or otherwise, Sola devoted what she had accepted to be a short existence toward being the hero and sacrifice her people needed in order to survive. Even as her emotions were claimed and she became almost perpetually incapable of emotional interaction or in expressing herself outwardly, Sola was satisfied having a purpose to dedicate herself to.

But, in spite of her efforts, Crow's forces - publicly labeled as The Fallen - slowly gained the upper-hand in the war, forcing the self-proclaimed "Loyalists" to take desperate measures. Near the end of the civil war, Sola was present in the decisive battle against Crow Harbor’s fleet at the Nomodorn Corridor, in what would eventually be known as the Mnemosyne Abyss. As the impending fleets of the Fallen made a final clash against the Loyalist fleets and pushed past them, Sola decided that this was the moment she was meant to consign herself to history. The final battle ended explosively as the the Sharr’Lac’s ultimate weapon was activated at the supposed cost of Sola’s life, using her nanite-infused royal blood as the catalyst for it's activation as it destroyed everything within a half light year radius - a process that should have left Sola a dead husk that would have quickly crumbled to ash, as it was meant to have burnt every cell in her body.

However, fate took an ironic and cruel twist, as not only was the victor forgotten by history, but the empire ultimately collapsed regardless of Sola's efforts, with it being speculated that the Empire had exhausted so much of it's resources in civil war that it no longer had the martial power to keep the many systems beneath it under it's control, causing it to fragment and never regain the splendor of ages past. In turn, the Ryuvian Empire would ultimately collapse over the course of the following millennium - a thousand years later, strife once again settled into the Empire, and six-hundred years after that was when another civil war of succession like the one in Sola's time succeeded in what hers did not; tearing the Empire apart for good. By the time of the Neutral Rim War, two-thousand years after Sola's sacrifice, Ryuvia had become a third-rate galactic power, and by the time of the Alliance-Pact War, it's government was finally dissolved entirely by PACT.

First Arrival
Reawakening

However, unaware to her people and to history, Sola was, through means unknown, flung through time and space, with "reflections" of herself being scattered throughout several different realities, including one timeline where the Diode Catastrophe never happened. The original Sola ended up in the modern world, at which point an unknown group or individual returned Sola to the defunct husk of the Sharr'Lac in the Nomodorn Corridor, placing her inert body into a stasis chamber on the ancient dreadnought's C.I.C. where Sola would slumber in suspended animation for nearly three months.



Finally, Sola was brought out of her sleep by a red-clad female Ryder pilot who she did not recognize. As the pilot examined the Sharr'Lac's bridge, the automated systems of the behemoth vessel reactivated at the intruder's presence, and Sola was swiftly ejected from stasis, awakening in a confused daze to find people and a strange ship exploring the largely-defunct clusters of aged warships - the mass graveyard of her own fleet, which did nothing to assuage Sola's uncertainty with her situation. With her last memories being of the battle against Crow Harbor's armada, Sola panicked and assumed that the newcomers were part of his forces and that they had somehow prevented her from utilizing the Sharr'Lac or interrupted it's activation, as it was the only logical reason she could think of as to how she could have still been alive after seemingly using it. Surprising and knocking out the Ryder pilot, Sola fled and soon discovered one remaining Ryder in working order - a sniper-scout unit - which she promptly took, finding an intact, and curiously modern, flight-suit to wear along the way. The only other item Sola took with her was the Talbur - even though she, an illegitimate heir it would never glow for, had no need of it personally, she likely resolved to not let it fall into Crow's hands due to what the item represented for the royal family as a marker of their recognized heritage.

After restarting the aged Ryder, Sola proceeded to track the pilot from before, who had regained consciousness and returned to her own machine, the other narrowly avoiding Sola's shots as the Sharr chased her target down. Opting to lead the battle against the entire group, Sola set herself at a vantage point and had the Sharr'Lac project semisolid-energy holograms that could mirror her Ryder's capabilities, using them as decoys and disposable units while Sola herself took command of any automated warships that were still capable of activating, entering her "Awakened" state to coordinate the influx of data between units. However, the vessel and it's complement of Ryders managed to slowly but surely push the automated Ryuvian forces back and defeat them, before closing the gap and destroying the three holographic Ryders. At this point, Sola decided to involve herself in the battle properly - in the Novelization, this is illustrated by her having used the fight as a distraction to maneuver behind the opposing vessel and taking aim at her enemy's support Ryder to pick off their sensor and repair capabilities. However, much to Sola's shock and surprise, the Ryder she had chased before - the one belonging to the red-clad pilot - managed to not only intercept her shot before it could impact but used the flat-edge of it's anti-ryder melee blade to deflect the round away, despite it's trajectory speed being 150% the speed of light.

Stunned, Sola denoted that there was only one person with the potential to push themselves and their Ryders that far, but that it was impossible for two of such people to exist as Sola herself was both still alive and the only one she knew of to have such abilities. As she ponders what she has just seen, Sola takes the first opportunity to actually think back on her last moments and realize she did in fact succeed in using the Sharr'Lac - meaning that there should be no possible way for her to still be alive. Confused and realizing that she may have made a mistake about the nature of the ship she was attacking, as well as wishing to know the identity of the person she saw, Sola stands down and offers her surrender to the red-clad pilot's Ryder, shutting the Seraphim down as a gesture of her submission and her lack of desire to continue the fight. However, Sola finds that the Sharr'Lac's systems, malfunctioning from age, do not power down when she disconnects from them and instead more and more of the Ryuvian ships continue to come online as the Sharr'Lac's V.I. attempts to restart it's main weapon. This causes a cascade failure in the vessel as it's power systems overload and short-circuit, the reactor core suffering a meltdown. Towed back to the Ryder's vessel by the red-clad pilot, Sola watches as the Sharr'Lac - one of the foremost symbols of her people's power - self-detonates as a result of it's core-breach, destroying the entirety of the graveyard and wiping away an untold amount of her people's remaining past.

Out of the Past

Upon being escorted to the hangar bay, Sola is met the crew of the ship - the Sunrider - and was formally confronted by it's Captain, Kayto Shields, and it's Ryder pilots - including the one she met before; Asaga Oakrun. Upon being prompted for her name, Sola introduces herself as the Princess of Ryuvia, to which Kayto becomes excited and asks if she is the missing princess. Confused by the allegation due to not knowing much, if any, time passed between now and her use of the Sharr'Lac, Sola is shocked to be told by another dumbstruck Ryder pilot - Chigara Lynn Ashada - that it's impossible for her to be Sola vi Ryuvia, due to the fact that history recorded her dying over two-thousand years ago. Kayto, seeing her confusion, informs Sola that she was found in stasis, telling her that she had been asleep for millennia - a revelation that leaves Sola all but despondent, though none of it shows on her face, as she contemplates the fact that everyone and everything she fought for is in fact long gone.

Questioned by the crew, Sola explains the details of the civil war in the Empire and of the Fallen, stating that, due to the fact that not even a second had passed from her perspective between using the Sharr'Lac's "Final Tear" and waking from stasis, she'd mistakenly assumed the Sunrider was part of the Fallen's forces. She also explains the reason she was aboard the ship - to sacrifice herself to use the "Final Tear" of the Sharr'Lac to wipe the Fallen out if need be - and then begins to wonder if she had even succeeded in her task to end the insurrection. Asking about what the final outcome of the war had been, Kayto further disheartens Sola in not only revealing that so much time had passed that nobody even remembered how the battle ended, but that the Empire she gave her life to try and save collapsed anyway a thousand years after her supposed death. Kayto eventually asks about the "Crown Jewel," and Sola promptly retrieves the Talbur from the Seraphim now that she knows they are not enemies nor the Fallen - however, to her mild surprise, the Talbur activates and begins glowing, which, combined with the knowledge that she is in a new time period, confirms her prior suspicions about the nature of the pilot Asaga, though it still amazes her in the Novelization to see it happen firsthand.

Before she can elaborate to the amazed crew what has happened, the ship's commander, Ava Crescentia, informs them over the internal communications that multiple PACT warships have dropped out of warp on top of them. Sola, in spite of being unfamiliar with the faction and not knowing their intents, stays put as Kayto speaks with the fleet's leader, Veniczar B. Cullen. In the Novelization, it is shown that after Cullen orders the attack, the strikes from PACT warships cause severe damage to the Sunrider that topples most of the resupplying Ryders over, rendering the already damaged and ammo-exhausted machines incapable of launching even if there was time for it. Asaga, realizing that she can't run from her past any longer, asks Sola for the Talbur back, which Sola complies to, recognizing Asaga as a true Ryuvian heiress and respecting her for making the same choice Sola made so long ago - giving up one life, her own, for the sake of many.

Reason to Exist

Invited into the ranks of the ship without question and falling into a semi-permanent state of depression upon discovering her new situation, Sola allowed Chigara to examine the Seraphim, analyzing the ancient Ryder's targeting systems and navigational computer to substantially upgrade the accuracy of the Sunrider's warp-jump capabilities - likely because, after all that had happened to her, she effectively had lost a reason to live or fight, ergo leaving her no reason to care about her Ryder's secrets being compromised. Heading to the Sunrider's observation deck to reflect on herself and all she had learned, Kayto runs into her after having had a short discussion with another new member of the crew - Claude Triello. Taking notice of Kayto and his assertion that she is rightly confused by her new circumstances, Sola comments that she is not entirely sure whether she is really awake or not, given how surreal her situation is.

Asking if Kayto wishes something of her, the Captain strikes up a conversation regarding her past and that of Ryuvia, in which she exposits a bit on the nature of the ancient empire's abilities and the purpose of the Sharr'Lac. Sola notes the fact that her people could have destroyed the entire galaxy if they wanted to as being the reason the technology was restricted to be used only by sacrificing a member of the Royal Family - a countermeasure that was meant to force them into being careful about the cost of using the power selfishly or frivolously. Kayto however notes that Sola's own father sacrificed her to use the power for his own political ascension, to which Sola counters that if she hadn't made the sacrifice - by her own accord no less - that the Fallen would have destroyed the Loyalists and caused the collapse of the Empire by forcibly deposing of most of the government and leaving it in a shambles that would fragment it into ruin.

Kayto, moving on from the subject for the sake of keeping things amicable, asks about how Sola's right eye glowed in their battle against each-other, with Sola dryly asking if Kayto believes her to be an alien or android in human form, though her tone of voice disguises whether or not she is being sarcastic. Sola then explains that eye glowing in combat is the physical representation of her drawing off the Ryuvian royal bloodline's innate abilities, created through a combination of genetic modifications and self-replicating nanites that have somewhat become a part of the royal blood, which in turn allows her to both increase her physical abilities, perceptions, and even link her nervous system and body and mind to her Ryder through the nanites directly interfacing with it's controls via electrical/nerve impulses. Kayto balks at the last part of her claim, with Sola explaining that it was commonplace to her people but that only the Royal Family was given those enhancements so as to restrict the flow of power.

When Kayto ultimately asks what Sola intends to do now, Sola hesitates in replying before admitting she doesn't know if she even wishes to be alive anymore now that she knows her sacrifice was effectively meaningless and her existence now purposeless - her whole life and everything she fought for is now dust and ashes, with even the outcome of her final sacrifice having been forgotten. Nihilism and self-contained despair welling up, Sola wishes she could have simply returned to death as she was meant to, though Kayto rebukes that she does have options available to her, be it something new and personal like friendship or something old like her vows to defend Ryuvia regardless of the times. Sola, after a moment of self-reflection, realizes the change in times doesn't mean her oath to defend Ryuvia and the royal family has been ended, and that, with what remains of Ryuvia in danger, she is no less duty-bound then before. Somewhat motivated that at least one part of her existence has remained stable, Sola denotes that with everything else that mattered to her gone, she will fight for the present Ryuvia and it's royal family, obligated to do so and left with no other place in the current galaxy and nothing else to live for aside from that single duty.

Kayto asks if this declaration means she will help them rescue Asaga - the current Crown Princess - from PACT, and while Sola reminds him not to depend on her so heavily as the affairs of his time are not her own, she does acknowledge the fact that, as Ryuvian royalty, she is obligated to save Asaga and that, having already sacrificed her life for Ryuvia once, she is unafraid to do so again if need be. However, she tells Kayto that she cannot help with designing new technology or repairing their existing equipment to do so aside from letting them examine the Seraphim further, for her great skill was in marksmanship and not science or machinery - a term that Kayto accepts, leaving Sola to continue brooding on her new fate as she thinks about the coming battles.

Family Affair

After the Sunrider's navicomputer and warp-core have been adjusted to make pinpoint-jumps based off what Chigara learned of the Seraphim's targeting systems, Sola is then briefed by Kayto and Ava about the Captain's daring and potentially suicidal plan to jump right on top of the orbiting Star Palace where the wedding is taking place, launching drop-pods to rescue Asaga with a strike team to complete the primary objective - rescuing Asaga - while Sola uses the chaos to complete a secondary objective; assassinate Veniczar S. Arcadius, the PACT leader and the man who has enslaved Ryuvia. Seeing her life as a tool to be used in the defense of Ryuva, Sola has no objections to the seemingly insane plan of risk-taking to save the Princess, her only want being for a sniper rifle that is both powerful and pinpoint-accurate enough to keep up with her skill and let her make the shot.



In the Novelization, it shows that, as the Sunrider breaks into the upper atmosphere during it's enactment of the aptly-named Operation Wedding Crash, Sola assumes a position on the ship's outer hull from one of the manual access ports, taking aim at Arcadius as he stands within the Star Palace's halls barking orders at his men while standing out of cover in a seemingly-fearless gesture. Sadly, the rescue is not in time to prevent Arcadius from having the current King of Ryuvia, Jaylor vi Ryuvia XII, from being murdered on the orders of the PACT leader, reducing the royal bloodline even further and leaving Sola and Asaga the last members of the Royal Family - an act that is likely seen as unforgivable to the former Sharr of Ryuvia. As Kayto and Ava's raid party rescues Asaga from Cullen, Sola promptly shoots Arcadius three times from her sniper point - once in the chest and twice in the head - only for Arcadius' body to dissolve and reform around a mobile holographic emitter, revealing that the real Arcadius was never present.

With the second objective of their mission - and Sola's chance to avenge the fall of Ryuvia - thus impossible to complete, the Sunrider breaks from the atmosphere and Sola returns to the hangar, deploying in the Seraphim alongside the now-rescued Princess Asaga and her Ryder, the Black Jack. The Sunrider's crew is left impressed by the firing capabilities and destructive power of Sola's Ryder, able to easily core missile frigates, bombardment Ryders and nearly destroy cruisers with a single shot apiece, though her loner tendencies and deadpan reactions unsettle her shipmates at first.

In the Novel however, this solo mindset ends up leaving her exposed against the PACT fleet as the Bombers and Missile Frigates target her to try and remove her long-range bombardment capabilities. In spite of evading many of them, the sheer number of missiles ultimately overwhelm the Sunrider and Phoenix's flak cannons and burn deep holes in the Seraphim's armor, forcing Chigara to divert repair drones to minimize and mitigate the damage. All throughout, Sola shows no outward signs of distress for the situation even when her machine is damaged, though she does express mild surprise that Chigara is capable of interfacing with and repairing her Ryder's subsystems and thanks her, though she still wards the engineer off and maintains that she fights her battles alone. Eventually, the Sunrider manages to bypass the PACT fleet and slingshots around the nearest of Ryuvia's moons to escape the planet's gravity well, narrowly avoiding an attack from the Legion as they finally warp to safety.

Lost Legacy

In the wake of her distant relative's rescue, Sola once again takes to brooding in silence within the observation deck - or a hallway with digital viewports in the Novelization - while the rest of the crew celebrates their mission, disheartened and dismayed internally by the bitter fact that Ryuvia, once the center of an indomitable Empire that she gave up everything to preserve, has fallen to a petty tyrant who didn't even bother to show his face in person when murdering what may have been it's very last King. Kayto, leaving the impromptu celebration in the mess hall, denotes he expected to find Sola stargazing again and tells her that so long as Asaga - now the effective Queen of Ryuvia - still lives, there is a chance to free Ryuvia from Arcadius's rule.

Sola, still incapable of outwardly expressing her sadness at Ryuvia's fall, rebukes that her sacrifice thousands of years ago was made in vain as the Ryuvia she saw during their mission was nothing more then an aged backwater world that was nothing like the center of science and culture it was in her day, having been easily conquered by what she sees as "barbarians." Kayto tries to reassure her by explaining that Sola's sacrifice allowed the Empire to, from what little they've learned, re-solidify and prosper for another thousand years or so - even if reduced from what they'd been before - and that the Empire's irrecoverable collapse only happened roughly four-hundred years ago from internal strife. Sola however cites that it was effectively the same thing that happened in her own time that was the death of Ryuvia, meaning that her people ultimately forgot or simply didn't learn from the mistake of the past civil war and that her death was ultimately still meaningless - instead of saving it, she only delayed it's collapse and didn't even teach them not to make the same misjudgments twice. Even worse, she still had no way of knowing if the Empire had been restored by the Loyalists or the Fallen - if it was the former, then her saving them was meaningless as they collapsed anyway, and if it was the latter, then it would mean that she'd failed her original duty to keep Crow Harbor from bringing the Empire to ruin - robbing Sola of the satisfaction of even knowing how her own time turned out or how her actions impacted history.

Further depressed by these conclusions, Sola asks Kayto to leave her in peace as she attempts to sort through her feelings on Ryuvia's past and present, which Kayto respectfully, if not hesitantly, obliges her, though not without advising her that she doesn't need to sort through her feelings alone alone. Acknowledging this but bidding him farewell all the same, Sola returns to stargazing as Kayto leaves the former Sharr of Ryuvia to ponder on whether her people's fate can be changed when all her own efforts ultimately failed.

Not long after, the Sunrider, on orders from the Alliance's chief military official, Admiral Harold Grey, arrives at it's next destination, which, ironically, is yet another place that holds a significant piece of Sola's past; her homeworld of Far Port. As Sola looks out over her birth-planet from one of the hallway observation windows, Asaga enters and is promptly surprised as she fails to notice the quiet form of Sola, the former having been in the middle of an impromptu pep-talk to herself until Sola made her presence known. Sola formally introduces herself to Asaga for the first time since their brief meeting prior to Asaga's capture, explaining she stargazes because it soothes her and calling Asaga "Queen" as she is now effectively the rightful ruler of Ryuvia - and because Sola, sworn to defend the royal family, now sees herself as an unofficial retainer to Asaga. Asaga however requests that Sola address her by her name, feeling awkward at being addressed by a title she is in no position to enforce at the moment and wanting to simply make friends with the former Ryuvian Princess.

When Asaga asks about why Sola is stargazing now, Sola reveals that she is reflecting on the now-dismal state of Far Port compared to the planet in her memories, revealing to Asaga that it was her birthplace and the gateway to Ryuvia's territories as a trade and culture juggernaut in her time, yet is now overgrown by jungles with the cities she remembered now nothing more but decayed ruins. Asaga remarks that one day they will make Far Port a center of commerce for the Ryuvian people again after PACT is evicted from Ryuvia and their people restored. Sola nihilistically replies that Asaga's goal is impossible as their civilization is effectively dead with the majority of it's technology, culture, worlds and splendor being destroyed, forgotten or lost and what little remains having been stolen. However, Asaga replies that these things are precisely why Ryuvia must be reformed and rebuilt from the ground up, as the old system of of the Empire was too easy to abuse, falling victim to arrogance that lead to the Royals and nobles killing each-other off for power until nobody and nothing of value remained, causing the Empire's collapse as it's infrastructure was pulled apart by the greed of the splintering factions. Asaha then explains that in order to avoid that kind of thing, Ryuvia has to become a more democratic nation where the people have a say in the power and a choice in who leads them, and the leaders in turn act for the good of their populace.

Sola, feeling touched by seeing a benevolent member of the royal family that actually cared about the old values the Empire was meant to uphold - something she had never seen in her own time - reflects on Asaga's words before finally coming to the conclusion that the Talbur was right in recognizing Asaga as the heiress of Ryuvia, admitting that, after having spoken to her, she now feels relieved that someone like Asaga will be the one to inherit Ryuvia. Asaga is caught off-guard by the compliment, and then knocked even more off-balance when Sola rather bluntly denotes that Asaga would like to see the Captain stand with her as a consort - or rather, as a lover. Asaga becomes flustered and attempts to, rather poorly, deny it, citing that Kayto's mission to liberate his own homeworld of Cera would never allow such a thing to work out and nervously asking how Sola even came to such a conclusion, to which Sola points out that Asaga had started blushing rather heavily at the very mention of Kayto. Asaga, even more anxious and embarrassed then before, excuses herself with the reasoning of needing to run new calibrations on her Ryder, with Sola silently and somewhat bemusedly remarking to herself that Asaga, lacking in emotional self-control and flustered by her infatuation with Kayto, is still a long way off from becoming a proper queen.

The First Act of Retribution

After it's resupply and the acquisition of a new Ryder pilot - one of Admiral Grey's advisors, Alliance 1st Lieutenant Kryska Stares - the Sunrider rendezvous with the Alliance Second Fleet over Far Port, with Kayto delivering a motivational speech to the fleet and to the Ryder pilots before setting up for a defense-by-attacking strategy that would, under most circumstances, be considered lunacy to follow. Sola, once again seeing herself as a tool in service to Ryuvia's safety and now toward it's liberation and restoration, follows the plan without issue or objection in spite of it's risky nature as Kayto leads them head-on against the six-hundred ships that make up an invading force of five PACT fleets, headed by the man who had abducted the Princess earlier; Veniczar B. Cullen. Sola's abilities, combined with her Ryder's sniper capabilities, allow her to down almost any target with a single shot in spite of the distances between her enemies, backed by the support units of Chigara and Claude - the Liberty and the Bianca respectively - while the front line is headed up by Asaga's Black Jack, Kryska's Paladin and the mercenary-pilot Icari Isidolde's Phoenix.

During the battle, the Alliance's charge is broken by Arcadius' ordering the PACT flagship Legion to fire at the attacking ships so as to fragment their forces, destroying several of PACT's own vessels in the process though opening a gap for Cullen's flagship to try and pin the Sunrider down. Sola witnesses Asaga's Ryuvian bloodline awaken for the first time, the iris of the latter's right eye changing to bright blue with a glowing white pupil as Asaga's nanite-imbuned body interfaces with the Black Jack and allows her to control the machine's energy-output after releasing the safety limiters on her Ryder's laser cannons. The resulting discharge from Asaga's Ryder then completely incineratesthe PACT flagship, killing Cullen in revenge for the Veniczar's taking of Ryuvia - a sight that potentially reaffirms Sola's belief that Asaga may indeed be the one who can save their people after all and become not only the new queen, but the new Sharr as well. The PACT fleet, disorganized and leaderless, is then ambushed as Alliance reinforcements arrive under Admiral Grey, bringing in two-hundred fresh ships to flank and devastate the floundering invasion forces and end the battle in a decisive win for the Alliance.

In the Novel, it shows that after she slew Cullen' Asaga's Ryder falls inert from the imperfect connection of a first "Awakening" between machine and pilot and is quickly escorted back to the Sunrider by the Liberty - right after the latter slices off the Black Jack's laser cannons as they overload and detonate. Sola, returning to the Sunrider heavily fatigued from the battle, finds Asaga pulled from her Ryder by Chigara in a state of exhaustion and passed out, explaining to a concerned Chigara that the first "Awakening" of a Ryuvian royal's innate abilities is always the hardest and that Asaga simply needs rest in order to recover, before falling into a light sleep herself in order to regain some of her strength. After Kayto and Ava enter the hangar, a tired Sola reports, somewhat redundantly, that their mission to win the first battle of the war was successful, watching demurely - yet potentially satisfied - as the others celebrate.

Mask of Arcadius
Sola returns as a companion character in Sunrider: Mask of Arcadius, with her cold and stoic demeanor gradually starting to soften over time as she begins to develop admiration for Kayto, and potentially starting to share in the feelings of infatuation Asaga has for him.

Shore Leave - A New Environment



Following the victory at Far Port, Kayto grants the Sunrder crew an extended shore leave at the Lydia Resort Station to rest and recuperate from the long struggle most of them have had to get this far. However, even this is not without some complications as Ava, unable to cope with a work-free environment, suffers a nervous breakdown at the sight of the frivolous antics of most of the Ryder pilots, eventually running away screaming. Sola, clad in a sleek navy one-piece swimsuit, watches Ava's breakdown under the chaos caused by the other five Ryder pilots nonchalantly, before casually and almost boardly remarking to herself that the crew has delivered a "fatality" strike to Ava's sanity.

After Kayto joins the beachside festivities, dragging a reluctant Ava in a black bathing suit along with him, Sola takes to the - compared to the rest of her comrades - rather normal task of building a sandcastle, though the normalcy is offset by the almost artisan level of craftsmanship she creates it with, earning Kayto's praise even as Sola refuses the credit and replies that it is simply because her hands are steadier then the average person's are. When questioned by Kayto what it's modeled after, Sola states that her sandcastle is a miniature sculpt of the Imperial Castle that was once Far Port's capital back in her own age, during the hight of it's days as a trade-center of the Empire - as well as surprising Kayto with the knowledge that Far Port is her homeworld instead of Ryuvia Prime. Sola then admits that she had rarely actually visited the castles, much less lived in them, though still vividly remembers her time there, with Kayto commenting that her memory must be very good to remember so many details when not even the ruins themselves seem to be as extensive as her sandcastle. This in turn prompts a slightly embarrassed Sola - at least on the inside presumably - to admit that her nostalgia of the long-lost buildings may have caused her to embellish some of the details in her recreation, having been awestruck by the palace during her first visit and having it engraved in her mind with perhaps more splendor then it actually had, even though what it already possessed would have been quite substantial.

After a moment of reminiscing about Sola's past, Kayto takes a more surprising turn to his questions and states his belief that Sola wasn't a legitimate princess, which actually does manage to finally crack Sola's mask of stoicism as she expresses mild surprise at the abrupt, and accurate, insinuation. Kayto then explains how he remembered the Talbur glowing for Asaga - a pureblood princess of Ryuvia - while Sola had made a rather firm point of stating it would never glow for her even though Sola possessed the same enhancements that only could be passed through the Royal bloodline. This in turn has led Kayto to believe that Sola was actually an illegitimate heir and thus would not be recognized by the Talbur as Princess, or at the very least least not while in the presence of a pureblood like Asaga. Sola, somewhat impressed by Kayto's deductive capabilities, admits that the Captain is right and that she is indeed not a true princess like Asaga, but when Kayto asks who she really is if not the actual Crown Princess, Sola surprises him - and possibly herself - by letting her emotionless mask slip away by smiling and giving a soft but genuine laugh. However, she quickly becomes visibly dejected, more so then she usually allowed herself to appear, as she thinks back on her past and remarks to Kayto that her time was one of profound sadness.

Kayto, opting to try and lift Sola's spirits, offers her a sesame-ball - a candied treat from Kayto and Ava's homeworld of Cera - which takes Sola's mind off her reminiscing as she notes that, even in her time when the stalls of Far Port carried exotic foods from all corners of the galaxy, she had never heard or seen anything like this particular snack. Tentatively biting into it, Sola is surprised to find it very tasty and starts taking more earnest bites out of it as Kayto tells her that she doesn't need to eat alone if she doesn't want to, stating that the mess hall can provide other sweets and much more if she likes it. Sola, somewhat flustered by the concern, notes that Kayto is very kind in spite of his duty as Captain, before returning to her sandcastle as Kayto bids her goodbye for the moment.

Past & Present

Later on, Asaga brings in Sola to help exposit to Kayto the history of piloting in Ryuvia, including their legends of the Sharr, after Asaga is approached by Kayto on the topic of her piloting skills and it spins off into a talk on the history of Ryuvian pilots in general. As Asaga has already explained the existence of the Sharr's legend was what inspired many Ryuvian females to become Ryder pilots, Sola in turn explains - in the Novel - that the Sharr was not so much a person or title but rather an ideal or frame of mind, representing a woman who was gentle and generous yet steadfast and resolute, capable of showing mercy and humility but never showing fear in the face of death. A Sharr was loyal and submissive to the Emperor's will but was the indisputable supreme commander of the military, striving for peace while being indomitable in battle, more skilled then any other pilot and yet always ready to die for the sake of the Empire if need be - if the Emperor was the head of the Empire, the Sharr was it's heart. Sola also denotes that not all princesses were Sharrs, or were even purely of noble birth - both of which Sola herself was proof of as she was born of an affair, though she doesn't volunteer this bit.

Sola then continues by stating that princes would often be married to the Sharr who proved herself worthy of the title over all others, their marriage ensuring the continuation of the Ryuvian bloodline with suitable heirs that would inherit the genetic enhancements and self-replicating nanites of the royalty, which would only increase in strength and potency as their sciences continued to advance. Sola denotes that even after the Empire's final collapse four-hundred years ago, surviving members of the family - such as Asaga - likely still possess the gene-enhanced and nanite-infused blood, and in the Novel points out that she informed Chigara that Asaga possesses it herself. Kayto remarks that this might be why Asaga is arguably their best pilot, while Asaga, strangely contemplative for a moment, denotes that she never would have gathered any of that from the text-books her teachers would try to force her into reading, having figured the history didn't matter anymore given Ryuvia's decayed state. However, she promptly switches gears and excitedly proclaims that she's heard enough history and wishes to continue playing on the beach - although it was also possible that this was actually an attempt to drop the topic, potentially uncomfortable at Kayto's innocently-made and unwitting insinuation that Asaga owed her piloting skills to her bloodline rather then actual hard-earned skill.

Before she leaves though, Asaga asks if Kayto has anybody he likes - specifically a girlfriend - to which a flustered Kayto responds he does not, with Sola noting that his heart has been hardened by war and that he is likely unwilling to let most, if any, get that close to him while they battle PACT. However, Sola does agree that men in Kayto's position tend to seek companionship for comfort when in times of distress or peril, agreeing with Asaga's remark that at the very least he could let himself rely on someone a bit more the same way he asks the crew to rely on him. Kayto however replies that he has too much to worry about regarding trying to keep the crew safe and win the war against PACT to think about something so comparatively selfish, to which Asaga remarks she'd expected the Captain to say something along those lines given how selfless he is, ultimately pulling Sola away to try and convince into having some fun closer to what Asaga herself likes - something that Sola ultimately does not stay long for.



Afterword, Sola takes to sitting by the waterside at a small cove off the main beach, where Kayto finds her beside a small rocky outcrop staring out at the water. Sola informs Kayto that she prefers the sound of the waves as opposed to the loud clamor the crew's gathering, with Kayto interjecting that she is likely hungry as a result of that same isolation before offering her a plate of food. Catching sight of a shooting star on the holographically-simulated sky of the station's dome as she eats, Sola remarks that, imitation that it is, the false skyline does indeed remind her of the skies of Far Port, unable to keep from smiling at the memory. Kayto takes the chance to ask her about her home, to which Sola, having gotten comfortable to the captain's presence in her newfound existence at last, finally obliges him with the story of her past life as a peasant farmer and self-taught amateur huntress before becoming the Princess. She tells him of her mother's decline into illness before passing away, regarding her lovestruck dreams of joining Sola's father in the palace as a consort as having been foolish, to which Kayto comments that the Prince and her dream must have meant a lot to her.

Sola then reveals that she suspected her own father started the civil war by murdering the Emperor and the First Crown Prince, and that instead of getting the Empire to himself how her father's greed triggered the conflict with Crow Harbor. She then tells of how she was kidnapped to become a stand-in Princess when the true heiress would not sacrifice herself to use the Sharr'Lac. While initially angry, Sola cites that she came to be happy for having been given a purpose and admired as the Ryuvian Empire's savior, even growing to love her people for it and more then willing to give her one life for their many, as a Sharr was meant to - something that Kayto admits was beyond brave and selfless of her. In the Novel, she shows flecks of emotion during this, flushing slightly at times with her eyes moistening minutely with unshed tears as she regains the ability to express her emotions slowly but surely. Kayto then places his arm around Sola in a gesture of reassurance - one that, in the Novel, causes Sola to visibly blush as Kayto states that Sola was most definitely worthy of being her people's Sharr, leaving Sola almost speechless as nobody else had ever reassured or comforted her so earnestly in her life before.

Suddenly hearing Asaga call them, Kayto offers his hand to Sola to lead her back up, with Sola accepting the gesture and gratefully telling Kayto that, while she doesn't know what the future holds for her in this new time period or what twist of fate even brought her in the first place, she considers herself fortunate to have experienced it in spite of everything else. She then tells Kayto that, while she is not yet certain if she has or will ever fully put her past or the history she has lost behind her, he nonetheless has her gratitude - not as the Crown Princess or Sharr of Ryuvia, but as a regular girl. The Novelization later explains Sola's point of view after the crew turns in for the night as Sola takes to climbing to the roof of the crew's cabin to stargaze while the rest of the Ryder pilots either become drunk - like Ava - embroiled in a game of strip-poker - like Kryska, Asaga, Icari and Claude - or while others try and get Kayto's affections - like Chigara, at Claude and Icari's urgings. Sola observes Chigara's attempt to confess to Kayto, but, as she had denoted before, war has driven Kayto to forgo trying to form romantic attachments to members of the crew and seeing the Ryder pilots only in a platonic sense, with Chigara somewhat disappointedly noting that nothing she could say would convince him to change his mind and ultimately not confessing her feelings. Sola then privately labels the antics of the other women - including Chigara's infatuation with Kayto - as nothing more then them "playing games" with each-other and with Kayto, whereas she herself needs time to sort her feelings on the matter out as she tries to decide how she is supposed to process her rediscovered emotions, as well as whether or not she is beginning to become attracted to Kayto herself and to what extent.

Guiding the Future

In the following morning, the Sunrider crew's shore-leave ends and they return to the war-front, partaking in several skirmishes and raids - including the destruction of a PACT supply depot at Versta and taking out a band of resurgent pirates at Tydaria, where Sola proceeds to monitor and chart the progression of Asaga as the next Sharr of Ryuvia. The most notable trial though comes from, ironically, a Ryuvian-made obstacle - an abandoned but automated Ryuvian outpost on the moon of Far Port that has destroyed several Alliance scout groups. Upon heading there to investigate, the Sunrider is promptly assaulted by several Ryuvian cruisers, and then set upon by a trio of Ryuvian automated Ryders that far outstrip any Ryder-based weapon in the modern era and even rival the armaments of battleships.

With the rest of the crew shocked by the destructive power of the Ryuvian Ryders, Sola succeeds in stunning them even further with the revelation that the machines are actually standard for Ryuvian forces. When questioned by Icari on why Sola's own Ryder can't compare to the automated ones, Sola replies that the attacking Ryders are dedicated assault units while the Seraphim is a scout, and even then the opposing units had the benefit of an active repair station whereas Sola's own Ryder had lost a large portion of it's original capabilities from degradation. This results in a dumbstruck Icari asking if Sola's machine is even a real Ryuvian Ryder anymore if it's so badly decayed, causing Sola to become somewhat dejected and embarrassed and resulting in Asaga scolding Icari for the comment.

In the Novel, Sola and Asaga confront one of the Ryders together while Icari and Kryska take on the second and Chigara and Claude help the Sunrider deal with the third. Sola however takes issue with Asaga's reckless act of charging up to the Ryder by using her missiles as a smokescreen to get close enough for melee combat, with Asaga realizing too late that her actions have left the Black Jack's flank exposed for a fatal counterattack. Sola promptly saves Asaga's life by shooting over the Black Jack's shoulder into the Ryuvian Ryder's arm and damaging it before it can fire and blow away the cockpit and Asaga, somewhat disappointed with Asaga's performance and critiquing her actions by saying that a Sharr does not run screaming headlong into the enemy's lines, especially against an opponent they didn't have the means to match head on. Ignoring Asaga's half-panicked protests against Sola shooting past her Ryder close enough to boil a layer of paint away, Sola tells Asaga that the rear-armor on the Ryuvian war-machine is weaker then on the front and asks that Asaga maneuver the unit so that she can get a clear shot at it's back, informing her that the thick chest-armor of the Ryder will trap the slug so that the Seraphim's shot doesn't pass straight through and core the Black Jack on the other side. Complying with the plan, Asaga locks blades with the Ryder and maneuvers it into position, with Sola promptly shooting the ancient machine through the back and severing it's computer core, downing it instantly.

In the aftermath of the battle, the Sunrider sends down an away-team of marines to examine the abandoned outpost that housed the automated Ryders, making a singular discovery - a Small glowing blue-white cube. On Ava's request, Sola and Chigara examine the device in tandem, with Sola identifying it as a "Wishwall" - a device used in the hight of the Ryuvian Empire to shift the user's reality and alter the course of events, which likely resulted in Sola being promptly sat down and interrogated at length about the device by an excited Chigara, even though Sola herself would know little to nothing about it's functions as opposed to it's place in Ryuvian culture.

Modern Inadequacy

After weeks of minor to moderate missions, the Sunrider is summoned by Admiral Grey to the world of Ongess - a crime-infested and overpopulated colony world that was originally a penal colony in Sola's time - and promptly given a new mission; locate and eliminate Cosette Cosmos, the pirate leader operating out of Ongess who has been bombing the Alliance's facilities and inciting chaos, whom Kayto has already encountered several time in the past prior to meeting Sola. In the wake of Cosette's latest bombing, Sola is still hard at work trying to effect repairs and standard maintenance on her Ryder, but her lack of detailed engineering expertise does not cope well with the fact that little to none of the Sunrider's spare Ryder parts are adaptable for the older yet far more advanced systems and sub-systems of the Seraphim.

When Kayto stops by the hangar - revealed in the Novel to be the result of him wanting to avoid the rambunctious din of the rest of the crew in the mess hall - he finds Sola hard at work and promises he will have Chigara help Sola in repairing it, stating that Chigara should at the very least be able to fabricate new parts regardless of whether she knows or even understands their function. Sola, feeling somewhat ashamed, replies that she doesn't wish to be a burden on the crew simply because she cannot make what was given to her work, but Kayto instead replies that, if anything, it's the Sunrider and the Alliance causing the problem by being so far behind Ryuvian standards.

Smiling as she allows her mask of stoicism to slip away for Kayto once again, Sola thanks him for having welcomed her to the crew, citing that while she was a stranger to them who initially had no interest or desire to become inducted into Kayto's crew and believed it impossible for her to do so, Kayto had trusted and reached out to her nonetheless and that Sola herself is better for it. Even though she does not know how or why she survived the use of the Final Tear on the Sharr'Lac, how she was placed into stasis or how she survived in suspended animation so long as to get to this point, Sola admits that she has actually become happy to have made it to the modern age and no longer wishes to return to the void. She then confesses to having rediscovered a will to live - one fueled by the desire to be with her newfound friends and surrogate family aboard the Sunrider and to continue adding to it, which she has Kayto to thank for gifting unto her. Kayto in turn replies that he himself didn't give her anything as opposed to simply helping her discover what was within herself all along, and Sola tells him that she will remember Kayto's words.

However, in the Novel, Sola becomes serious once more as Kayto turns to leave and states her private concerns that Kayto is becoming progressively more weighed down by the course of the war, both by the choices he has or hasn't made and the thoughts of the ones he has yet to make. Kayto acknowledges this as true, and Sola recommends that he visit the the observation deck and watch the stars to see if he can get the same peace of mind from them that she does. After that, she bids Kayto farewell as she returns to work on the Seraphim.

Mixed Feelings

Later on, Kryska Stares invites Kayto to go to one of Ongess's colonies with her in order to try and reassure him of any doubts he has in the Alliance's intentions - an act that ultimately results in the pair being ambushed and captured by Cosette while at the colony. Upon word of this reaching the Sunrider, most of the ship's crew descend into panic, with Icari being one of the worst as she goes as far as breaking into the armory, strapping as many weapons as she can carry onto herself and demanding they rescue Kryska and Kayto until she is restrained by half a dozen security guards. In the Novel, Sola also re-experiences one of the detriments of having her emotions return to her as she too fights back panic at the idea of Kayto captured and either being executed or tortured, and even helps Icari in her raid on the armory to try and rescue Kayto and Kryska. However, Sola - likely after being talked down by Ava - realizes how irrational her behavior was and how little a success-rate Icari's plan would have with just the two of them, instead resolving to place faith in the Captain surviving long enough for the Alliance to rescue him.

In another scene exclusive to the Novel, Sola checks up on Kayto as he returns to the ship from the hangar bay, admitting she is happy he is alright and becoming flustered when Kayto notes that Sola and Icari got in trouble trying to stage a rescue. Blushing, Sola admits she was reckless and emotionally impaired in her decisions and apologizes, but Kayto replies that he is happy that she cared about him enough to feel so strongly that it overrode her sense of logic, glad to see her regain her ability to express herself emotionally. Sola, bemused, gives a small smile and claims Kayto has strange and bothersome priorities before letting him leave to rest and recuperate from his ordeal on Ongess.

After Kayto has properly recovered, he stumbles upon Sola in what has become her favorite hallway to stargaze from, asking her if the stars have answered any questions of hers. Sola however sees through Kayto's intents and asks him straightforwardly what he wishes to talk about. Kayto, obliging her request to get directly to the point, asks whether Sola would have given the Ongessians independence if she were the current Sharr of Ryuvia, based on what she knew of them in her own time. Sola is somewhat surprised that Kayto would ask her such a question as she has given little thought to such things - the Sharr's duty was to fight for the Empire loyaly and without question, not to decide any of it's policies or even become involved in such politically-centered matters. Kayto exposits on the history of Ongess being one of suffering under the heals of foreign powers and that they are perpetually trapped there because they lack the infrastructure or means to recover without that same foreign intervention. He also notes the value of Ongess in the war due to it's location on the vital trade routes in the Neutral Rim and it's irreplaceable resources, as it's one-of-a-kind Ongessite ore can be processed into Ryder and starship fuel or refined and forged into armor plating and weapon slugs for Ryders, and that thousands of lives would be lost without the Ongessite to provide weapons and defenses for people and for keeping those forces fueled.

Seeing that Kayto is stymied by his divided sympathy for Ongess' people and his rationality for why the Alliance needs to continue it's operation, Sola remarks that such decisions always come with positions of power and also notes that most men lust for and and kill each-other to possess such power - a standard that is as universal to the Alliance and PACT as it was for the old Ryuvian Empire. But at the same time, Sola claims that she believes Kayto is different due to the fact that he didn't pursue or even ask for a position of power but was instead thrust into one by chance and circumstance, and that perhaps this gives Kayto a more grounded perspective that makes him a better fit to decide then those in power. Sola goes on to state how the Infinite Emperor of the Ryuvians had decided who lived and died with the authority and impunity of a god incarnate, as was the power that came with inheriting the throne, and admits that while she was denied the right to see or choose it herself, she had always hoped that the one who took the throne would be benevolent and just and place the Empire and it's people first and foremost, citing greed and unchecked ambition of prior Emperors at the cost of their people as the likely reason why the Empire collapsed.

Kayto is skeptical on whether he in particular would know better then anyone else what was or is best or worst for the galaxy as such terms are notoriously hard to define, but Sola reassures him that she firmly believes that if presented with such a choice, that he will pick the right option - though she also denotes that, as a "simple peasant girl", she would not know for sure. Kayto bemusedly thanks Sola for the advice, promising to come back if he requires any more - and in the Novel, he goes as far as to remark that perhaps her being a "simple peasant girl" makes her just as fit to judge as him, which promptly flusters her but does not break her silence. Kayto then bids Sola farewell after thanking her, leaving her alone to ponder as she resumes staring at the stars.

Surprises and Truths

A week after Kayto's rescue from Ongess, the fleets of Veniczar B. Fontana, after multiple scouting runs beforehand, launch a full attack in coordination with the largest pirate fleet ever assembled against the forces stationed at Ongess, the Sunrider included. After a brief attempt to try and convince Kayto to surrender, Fontana disappointedly remarks that he will have to recover Asaga and retake Ongess through force instead. In the Novel, Sola is forced to coordinate with Claude and Chigara in order to take down the newly-minted PACT Support Ryders as they use their immensely-powerful relay systems to blight the Sunrider and the Alliance ships with network intrusions, with Sola displaying subtle hints of pride at downing such comparatively small targets from a distance whereas months ago she would not have betrayed any emotion in her voice at such a thing. She then deals fatal shots to a PACT Carrier before the Sunrider finishes it off - however, even Sola's emotionless calm is assumedly shaken by the sight of the new PACT Assault Carrier, and even more so as it is revealed that Kayto was played by Fontana the entire time while Cosette's pirate forces attack and bombard the Alliance's docks from behind. It is only by Admiral Grey's intervention that the Sunrider and the Combined Fleet are spared from destruction, holding the entire planet of Ongess and it's billions of inhabitants hostage with nuclear warheads in order to force Fontana into retreat and pull Cosette's forces out with him. An action that Sola was likely very familiar with in the days of brutal war she hailed from.

Later on, after the Sunrider embarks from Ongess to continue hunting Cosette and return to the theater of war, Sola begins pondering once more on how she ended up in the modern world in suspended animation, unable to figure out how she ended up placed inside the tube. However, as she backtracks through that to try and find a clue, Sola comes to the rather disturbing revelation that it was next to impossible for her to have been inside the stasis chamber for two-thousand years in the first place, as not even the sciences of the Ryuvians could have preserved a body that long without at least some form of degradation happening to the person inside. Suspicious and having finally found something in her past that she can reliably find an answer to, Sola visits Claude in the Sunrider's med-bay and has the acting doctor run a medical check-up on her to determine the exact time she had been in the stasis chamber.

As Sola suspected, there was indeed a discrepancy, but far beyond what she had expected as Claude informs her of the shocking news - based on the tests, Sola had only been in stasis for roughly three months, meaning that Sola had not been preserved for thousands of years as opposed to somehow being tossed straight from one time-zone into another. However, she doesn't have much time to mull this over as Kayto enters the med-bay - which is in the Novel is due to him wishing for medication for his persisting insomnia in the wake of his time on Ongess. Upon seeing Sola, Kayto concertedly asks if she has been harassed, sexually or otherwise, by Claude in any way, only to realize too late how invasive a question it is as not even Sola is capable of remaining stone-faced at such a query, blushing rather sharply.

Claude protests the act and, to try and cover for herself, accuses Kayto of having forced her into lewd antics in order to stay on the ship, but Sola sees through it and trusts the Captain's character far more. As Claude sulks at being ousted, Sola informs Kayto of the details of their findings, the Captain sharing her bafflement at the strangely minute amount of time Sola was apparently asleep for and Sola herself being sure of having existed in the Empire's hight 2,000 years ago due to how unfamiliar the current galaxy is to her. But they have ultimately been left with more questions then answers as now they have no idea how Sola entered their timeline at all if not from having slept through the millennia, as well as the mystery of who put her in stasis in the first place. Promising to keep Kayto informed of her findings, Sola returns to pondering the results with Claude.

A Sharr's Duty

Returning to the war front, the Sunrider crew carries out one final escort mission - against an entire PACT fleet after a single shuttlecraft - before receiving an interesting report of the Legion, flagship of the PACT armada, being seen at the remote Helion system. Upon heading there to investigate, they discover an immense superstructure in orbit of the star that Chigara identifies as an upscaled Paradox Core; a black-hole generator invented at Diode that caused a now-infamous cataclysm that destroyed the planet. Guarded by a joint PACT and pirate fleet, including Cosette Cosmos and the Legion, the Sunrider is unable to approach it before it is quickly and mysteriously discovered by the PACT forces, which leads to a desperate running retreat from the system, sustaining severe damage from the Legion in the process of it's retreat.

In the Novelization, the Sunrider's Ryder compliment enacts a bold and borderline-suicidal tactic proposed by Asaga to anchor to the Sunrider's hull while the ship nears Helion's corona, using the radiation output of the star itself to help scramble the targeting computers of the enemy ships and prevent any missiles the crew don't shoot down from landing hits. The Ryders soon undergo the emergency launch from the rear hangar landing bay, anchoring to the Sunrider's dorsal-platings to add to the ship's flak capabilities as the vessel flees the oncoming PACT forces. Sola's Ryder, unsurprisingly, is able to smoothly transition to the ship's exterior along with Icari, both of which show more fluid a transfer then even Asaga is able to pull off, although the self-proclaimed Queen's Ryder is ultimately more bulky then Sola's or Icari's units. However, while they are able to successfully shoot down the majority of the oncoming fleet's missiles, a squadron of PACT Elites manages to close the gap by using the wake of the Sunrider itself to enter a small pocket free of the lethal levels of solar bleed-off emitted by Helion. The units proceed to tear holes in portions of the Sunrider's armor, attempting to disable it's engines and cause the ship to plummet into Helion's surface, assumedly intent on capturing the ship's escape pods - and Asaga with them - when the crew is forced to abandon the sinking ship.

Sola, seeing that the Sunrider is likely to be either doomed or ensnared unless action is taken, steels herself for the duty she'd newly sworn herself to uphold - the defense of her family. With a prompt yet outwardly-emotionless acknowledgement of her intents, Sola disengages the anchors on her Ryder, taking the Seraphim into a borderline-insane ranged dogfight against the six PACT Elites, pointedly yet perhaps remorsefully ignoring Kayto's panicked demands for Sola to break off. Firing her sniper rifle, Sola forces two of the units to bank out of the way, which in turn causes them to be caught in the uneven edges of the wake and torn apart by the coronal plasma of Helion. Strained even beyond her own tolerable limits, Sola grits her teeth in concertion as she works to keep the Seraphim from being consumed by the frayed streams of superheated solar energy and ionized gasses, reminding herself that she is still a Sharr of Ryuvia and thus it is her duty to protect others - in this case, her shipmates. Entering her Awakened state and pushing her body and machine past their already-strained limits, Sola fires one last shot that cripples the third Elite and sends it spiraling into it's wing-mate, dispatching them both - however, the strain finally overwhelms her and she passes out, her Ryder falling inert. On Kayto's orders, Chigara remotely hacks the Seraphim's systems to force it to deploy it's anchors and reattach to the Sunrider's hull, with Asaga and Icari working together to get the Ryuvian Princesses' machine back into the Sunrider's hangar, while the Sunrider begins the risky move of stuttering it's engines to send the last two PACT Elites into a storm of solar radiation that quickly results in the destruction of both.

However, before the Sunrider can escape, the Legion intercepts them part-way, firing a shot that impacts against the Sunrider and half-cripples the ship - a graze by technical terms but practically direct hit equivalent to a full-on assault in regards to the damage it's caused. Kayto himself is seriously injured by an explosion on the C.I.C. - revealed in the Novel to have been a mix of a severe concussion to his head and a metal rod piercing the femoral artery in his right thigh - and is only narrowly saved in surgery by Claude, marking the second instance of life-threatening danger he has been in that only one person on the crew could help him with, the previous one having been on Ongess with Kryska. Sola herself in the Novel is largely unconscious during the Legion's actual attack and the Sunrider's subsequent emergency warp out of Helion, assumedly becoming one of the thirty or so crewmembers aboard the ship that required medical treatment, which in her case was likely severe exhaustion, physical overtaxation and possibly even light radiation sickness from taking her machine so close to Helion's corona.

Overshadowed

After the Sunrider is restored to operational status, Kayto orders the ship to return to Helion with the Alliance's fleets, intent on both sinking the Legion and destroying the Paradox Core. Giving a speech to the crew in order to motivate and assure them they will come out of it alive and victorious and confirming their status as having become a family, Sola smiles hearing the words as she stands surrounded by what has become her own adopted family over the months, proud and happy to be with them as much as she was to be the Sharr of her people.



Going into battle against PACT's fleets as the Sunrider squares off against the Legion, Sola and the crew slice through the vanguard forces - and possibly even the Legion as well - until they reach the superweapon itself, only to find it guarded by an opponent a long time in the coming; Veniczar S. Arcadius, now revealed to be a collective consciousness of multiple individuals flying a wing of customized Ryders based on Ryuvian designs. Sola personally snipes out the first unit, exacting a measure of revenge for Arcadius' murder of the last King of Ryuvia and the conquest of Ryuvia Prime, dryly remarking that even in this new timeline that arrogant tyrants never know when to stop talking.

But the Sunrider's forces are soon beset by the rest of Arcadius' copies in retaliation - however, even Arcadius's confidence is shattered when Asaga finally awakens the full power of her Ryuvian bloodline, both her eyes glowing blue as she proclaims herself the new Sharr of Ryuvia and, with Sola and the others at her side, cut down all but one of Arcadius' Ryders, exacting revenge for Ryuvia's fall with each one. In the Novelization, Sola regards Asaga's awakened powers with what is illustrated as near-reverential awe, remarking that her own powers, due to being only a half-blood, pale in comparison to what Asaga is demonstrating against Arcadius. Eventually, the stream of Arcadius' clones is halted as the mad dictator's forces are reduced to a single surviving unit.

However, Arcadius, beaten back by the Sunrider's crew, attempts to detonate the Paradox Core to try and kill everyone out of spite - at the cost of his own fleets no less - but he is betrayed by Fontana as the latter is left appalled by how callous his supposed leader is. Unmasking the supposed leader as a fake that took the original's name and position in PACT, Fontana lynches Arcadius with a gunshot to the head and pulls the remnants of the PACT fleet out of the system, leaving chaos in his wake at the revelation that "Arcadius" was part of a race of superhumans called Prototypes, who have not only embedded themselves in the galaxy but intend to take it and humanity over for themselves. Sola however, while likely surprised by the revelations behind Arcadius' identity, is assumedly unfazed at the acts of betrayal as power is handed off from one person to another - a cycle that remains unchanged from her own time and well before - as the crew regroups in the wake of the surprising turn of events.

Liberation Day
Sola is confirmed to return as a companion character in Sunrider: Liberation Day, where it is hinted that some of the mysteries regarding her arrival in the modern timeline will be revealed.

Information revealed about Sola in Liberation Day thus far exposits that at some point, Sola learned she had indeed been flung through time and space, likely through the same Ryuvian device that created several duplicates of her in multiple alternate timelines. She also came into contact with the Kayto Shields of another timeline who had fallen in love with his reality's mirror-image of Sola. This version of Kayto subsequently worked with his timeline's Chigara to both learn how the duplicates had come to be, how their temporal scattering had happened and to destroy the machine that caused it, isolating the Sola copies into their new respective timelines and making them permanent parts of the universes they had been flung into.

It can also be speculated that seeing a timeline in which versions of herself and Kayto fell in love might further impact Sola's feelings toward her own timeline's Kayto, as she now knows for a fact that a relationship between them is at the very least a possibility. Then again, she may also brush it off as not being conclusive since the Kayto she knows has seen things the alternate Kayto and alternate Sola both did not - war, death, tragedy and sacrifice being just a few to name off - and thus there is no guarantee it would work out the same for herself and her timeline's Kayto.



(WARNING: The events listed here are taken from the Liberation Day BETA, and are thus subject to change during production until the final product is released. Canonicity is not guaranteed as this may be only one of several paths the game may take - as of now, this is the only one known.)

In the Beta of the game, it is revealed that Sola and Asaga's bond as a mentor and student respectively is further expanded upon, with Sola advising Asaga about her new powers and how to control them. She takes to warning Asaga of the dangers of her emotions as Sola sees the new Sharr of Ryuvia begin to fall into the same spiral as her father and uncle when desire, credo and power intermix into a deadly tempest of uncertainty that slowly turns Asaga more and more bitter. One of these points is Asaga's unrequited affection for Kayto, which Sola is seemingly the only one aware of, denoting that Asaga's jealousy for how close Chigara is becoming to Kayto is starting to become hate for what had once been a close friend - the same fate that led to the downfall of her own people. It only becomes more pronounced after Chigara's skills against the Prototypes and seeming conformation that she is not on their side cause Chigara to be celebrated as a hero, especially after she proves instrumental in Kayto's strategy to save the Sunrider. This in turn is something that causes Asaga's earlier jealousy to start inflaming into outright resentment for her once-best friend, which only Sola takes the time to notice as the rest of the crew is too busy congratulating Chigara's efforts or trying to push her and Kayto closer together.

This causes Sola to coldly and perhaps even disappointedly comment to herself that, for all her righteous ideals and promises made at Far Port, Asaga is turning out no different then the rulers of her past, corrupted by unfulfilled desires and the belief that she deserves what she does not have more then others while letting her negative feelings fester into something worse. Concerned that Asaga will meet the same fate as the Ryuvians of old if she does not learn how to cope with her emotions, Sola begins advising that Asaga must follow the same advice the latter had given Chigara during their shore leave - come out with her feelings and be honest about what she thinks, for better or worse.

Personality & Traits
Sola is most often quiet, reserved and generally stoic to a fault, rarely showing visible emotion outside of private moments with those she trusts - chief among them being Kayto Shields and, to a lesser extent, possibly Asaga Oakrun. Normally very self-reserved and borderline anti-social, Sola's behavior likely can be attributed to the immense isolation she experienced as the Sharr of Ryuvia, which effectively left her alone with none to rely on or be unguarded with. This, coupled with having had to fight with the weight of her entire civilization on her shoulders, has made Sola a very closed-off and somewhat standoffish person to those she does not know beforehand. She often works alone, eats alone, spends her time alone and generally prefers it this way. However, in spite of her reserved behavior, she has a very dry, subdued sense of humor that often comes across as fatalism, often resulting in most talking with her being unable to determine whether she is serious or not.

Sola's life amid a world where nearly nothing in her life was trivial or had any time for frivolity has left her feeling suitably awkward and out of place against more energetic, outgoing individuals such as Claude Triello, or more sarcastic types like Icari Isidolde, resulting in her tending to seek solace from such overbearing personalities. Having become used to and, to a certain extent, found of solitude in order to relax, Sola prefers passive or gentle sights or sounds such as the crashing of waves on rocks, or the sight of stars against the black of space, and she likely has a subtle but more profound appreciation for nature then most of her shipmates do. Her life fending for herself while her mother largely required Sola's care may also be the reason she is instilled with loner tendencies - namely because it is now more comfortable for her then associating with groups is. However, it is also possible that this life, coupled with her life of isolation as a tool of the empire, has made Sola slightly agoraphobic in the fact that she does not know how to deal with personal interaction, and thus prefers to avoid it if possible in most cases, especially with strangers. However, as Kayto once suggests in the Novelization, Sola's isolation may be her way of trying to have people talk to her on an individual basis, letting them seek out and come to her and then building companionship bit by bit as she slowly acclimatizes to them.

One of Sola's initial defining traits was an acute sense of nihilism, especially after first reawakening. In her early life as a peasant farmer, Sola likely did not see much purpose to live as her mother slowly wasted away awaiting a man who would never come for her. After becoming the stand-in Crown Princess and the Sharr of Ryuvia, she saw her life's only value as being something to sacrifice for her people, which can speak to being as much out of a lack of self-worth as it was an act of selflessness. Sola's nihilistic traits are most prominent after her recruitment into the Sunrider's crew, having lost the entirety of her old life and everything she fought for, not even able to have the satisfaction of knowing how her final battle turned out and never knowing if her actions or failures actually changed anything - to the point that Sola actively states that she wishes nothing more then to return to the void, suggesting she was contemplating either suicide or throwing herself into a death in battle. She initially remarks that her only reason for joining the Sunrider is because she has nothing else left for her and nowhere else to go, with the milestones of Ryuvia, her home included, now little more than decayed ruins. This nihilistic view of herself likely also plays a large role in her willingness to take part in the arguably suicidal battle-strategies of Kayto and her ability to keep calm even when under heavy fire.

Sola's quiet and calm nature also leads her to moments of contemplation in which she could easily ponder problems logically and with clear reasoning, helping her sort through most internal affairs easily instead of acting rashly. This is illustrated in the Novelization during the Sunrider's shore-leave when Sola spends her time atop the cabin stargazing, letting the other Ryder pilots "play their games" with their own feelings and Kayto's in favor of sorting out what her own were before deciding on a course of action, wishing to be certain her feelings were genuine and in what capacity they were in before she tried to do something as drastic as tell Kayto she liked him or any such thing. This contemplative nature allows Sola to be easily perceptive of people's intents, as she could typically tell when someone was in distress, thinking deeply or simply wished to speak with her. The best example of this is in how Sola is the only member of the Sunrider's crew, with the possible exception of Claude, who has noticed Asaga has feelings for Kayto - something that even Asaga's best friend Chigara didn't know. In the Novel, Sola is also apparently aware of Chigara's feelings for Kayto, but seems to brush it off as infatuation - the way Sola regards Chigara's efforts as a "game" seems to indicate Sola is not entirely convinced Chigara even knows for sure what her feelings are, and is thus being reckless in acting on them without being sure she really loves Kayto to begin with. On the other hand, Sola's perceptiveness and contemplative nature can be a double-edged sword as she is therefore prone to thinking some things too deeply, occasionally resulting in periods of immense brooding and bitterness as she looks back on her life and the circumstances that brought her to the world, oftentimes lamenting the fact that she is effectively a relic lost in time, forever unable to reclaim what she once had with her home and everything else now turned to dust.

However, as time progresses, Sola's bonds with the crew convince her to start trying to live for herself and for those around her - foremost among these being Kayto as the one that took her in and gave her a purpose, and Asaga as a semi-student, distant family and, to some extent, surrogate sister to protect as well as a queen in her charge to defend. Even though she rarely associates openly with the Sunrider's crew, she is capable of calling them friends by the time of the Second Battle of Helion and able to show more periodic flashes of emotion such as happiness or pride. She also develops a taste for sweets that she normally would not have been able to have due to her prior lifestyle being one of strict necessity, with one of the foremost she prefers being "sesame-balls". She also progressively starts to develop feelings for Kayto, though does not seem to initially know whether it is that of a platonic sibling relationship or a more romantic bond. Sola likewise starts to show signs of forming an almost mentor-student bond to Asaga in the Novelization, lecturing her of the duties and responsibilities of a Sharr and encouraging her to try and think before acting. However, Sola herself shows signs of acting on sudden emotions herself in the Novel as she rashly tries to help Icari raid the Sunrider's armory to try and rescue Kayto, though whether Icari had to convince her or Sola volunteered for it is unknown. Sola ultimately states that she has changed her mind about wishing to die again and now desires to live alongside Kayto and the others, as they have become something she never had before - real friends and an actual family that cares about her not as Princess Sola vi Ryuvia, but just as a regular girl named Sola.

Sola, due to her position in the past, has a very good working knowledge of what must be done in war and the prices one must pay, and, perhaps more then anyone else, Sola is well aware of the toll it can exact on those who are thrust into those positions against their will. She sees the duty of the Sharr of Ryuvia as a serious matter not to be trifled with, and likely sees the protection of both Asaga and her inheritance as a continuation of her sworn duty to defend Ryuvia, as well as something she is obligated to do for a member of the Royal Family that actually is willing to fight on the front lines. Sola comments that choices of morality are always an issue for those in power, believing that all factions in history are liable to fall victim to the pull of power and to the desire to dominate the other in believing what they do is more right, as this was true even in her own time, referring to the Ryuvian royal courts as a "snake pit".

Prior to her palace life, Sola's humble upbringings as a self-admitted peasant are likely an integral part of her work ethic and value system, having learned to be independent and self-sufficient from a young age by tending crops, raising livestock and hunting in the woods for food. Based on this independence, it is probable that Sola is at least competent in cooking, housework and most of the necessities needed to live alone, as it can be assumed that she is used to having lived alone and doing things for herself - thus she would likely be less influenced by things such as luxury or decadence from her grounded life in earning a living among a farm, never having to live among political agendas until after she had already hit or neared the end of her adolescence. In addition, due to her position as the Sharr, she did not actually decide policy and did not wish to. It also ingrains her with the desire to, even though she cannot do so with her own power, see someone benevolent and good-natured take the throne and put the people first and foremost - something that serves as a key reason as to why she finds herself relieved to serve beside and beneath Kayto and Asaga. Therefore, Sola was not in a position to be influenced by most politics and likely did not care about them either way as her sole goal was saving the people of the Empire, leaving her purely as a warrior without ambition or desire for personal gain.

Regarding herself as a warrior first and foremost as opposed to a proper Ryuvian Princess, Sola is a very formidable combatant both in and out of her Ryder, her skill great enough to let her become the legendary Sharr of Ryuvia for her time period - a position that only the best Ryder pilot and warrior in the Ryuvian Empire was meant to have - illustrated by her pinpoint skills in shooting down nearly any unit in her sights, from Ryders to cruisers. The Novelization goes as far as to depict her making shots over the shoulders of her comrade's Ryders, passing by them so accurately that they can scorch off the paint without causing any actual harm to the Ryder itself. Her skills outside of a Ryder were proven during Operation Wedding Crash, when she shot Arcadius' image at the Star Palace in spite of the chaos taking place - in the Novelization, this shot is made even more impressive as Sola makes it while taking aim from atop the Sunrider's hull amid the high-atmosphere, compensating for the atmospheric winds and drift to shoot Arcaidus' hologram three times, two of the shots going through his placeholder's head. She is likely very adept with most forms of firearms and exceptionally accurate with them - something that was also alluded to in the Novelization when she assisted Icari in taking weapons to try and stage a rescue of Kayto.



Sola's "Awakening" - based off Ryuvian genetic modifications and self-replicating nanites in the blood of the Royal Family - allows her to push her physical abilities even further, increasing her strength, speed, agility, hand-eye coordination and visual acuity & depth perception, with nanites linking her nervous systems to her Ryder by transmitting electrical impulses from the brain to and from the Ryder's control interface, allowing Sola's brain to act as a secondary computer for the Ryder and literally become it to an extent. If used outside a Ryder, it likely grants Sola above-average, if not superhuman abilities in terms of strength, agility, speed and reaction-time - something that could be proven in how an "Awakened" Sola, stark-naked and weaponless upon first awakening from stasis, was still able to outmaneuver, surprise and knock out Asaga in seconds in spite of the latter being armed and wearing a pressurized flight-suit with mesh-armor overlays, though this admittedly could be due to Sola having better CQC skills in general compared to Asaga. The change is represented by one of Sola's eyes becoming a bright cyan-blue/green color with the pupil turning white and glowing intensely. However, it seems that this power has a drawback in that it causes cumulative stress on Sola's body the longer it is used, while her Ryder is unable to handle the immense output and begins to degrade, likely tearing itself apart bit by bit in the same way that extreme G-forces can gradually cause internal damage to a human body.

In short, Sola is girl with a complicated past but uncomplicated desires, slow to trust but loyal to a fault and a kind-natured person at heart.

Relationships
Kayto Shields - Sola's initial relationship with Kayto is cordial at best, having felt no reason to become attached to anyone in the modern age as she had originally intended to return to oblivion after learning what had happened to her, only halted from going through with this due to an obligation to save the current Princess of Ryuvia from PACT - a reason that Kayto encourages her to follow. She places faith in Kayto's strategies immediately, even when they are borderline insanity from a practical perspective, though it is initially because she simply sees herself as a tool to be used in the pursuit of victory, but over time it becomes more a matter of having immense faith in Kayto's abilities to keep them safe. She originally saw Kayto's attempts to connect with most of his crew as wasteful due to the possibility that they could die at any time, and especially in Sola's case as she did not intend to continue with her life after the war ended, but she came to appreciate his gestures to bond with her and the care and respect he would show them all. She takes to offering Kayto advice at times on the duties and hardships of being a commander and leader that people inevitably look up to in times of war, and in turn she learns from him about things that she can gather or bonds she can build to try and fill the void left by losing everything in her prior lifetime, often meeting with the Captain in one of the observation hallways beside the Sunrider's mess hall.

Eventually, as Kayto becomes closer to Sola, she starts realizing that she has feelings for him, though in what capacity is unknown to her initially, seeming confused as to whether it is platonic or romantic. However, she also remarks that Kayto has been hardened by war and thus unlikely to commit to someone while the battles against PACT rage on. Sola gradually feels more and more comfortable around Kayto and tends to let her guard down around him the most, sharing snacks such as sesame-balls and stargazing at times when in periods of more serious discussion. Eventually, Sola admits to him that his efforts to connect with her have motivated her to live for herself and for her new friends, and she is inspired by his ability to connect and command his crews such as when he addresses the ship prior to the Second Battle of Helion, willing to fight and die for Kayto not as the duty-bound Princess of Legend but as a simple girl following and protecting someone she cares about.

Asaga Oakrun - Asaga, for all intents and purposes, is Sola's last known living blood-related family - even with two-thousand years of genealogy between them and Sola herself being an illegitimate heir, they are still both born of Ryuvian Royalty and thus distantly related to each-other. Asaga's Royal standing, as both the heiress of Ryuvia and the last known living member of the current Royalty, served as the reasoning for why Sola would stay in the present time when she had nothing else left to go back to, resolving to be Asaga's vessel until either one or both of them died. Afterwords, Sola admitted to being impressed by Asaga's desire to change Ryuvia into an institution devoted to democracy and to the needs of the people instead of the needs of the nobility, believing that Asaga may be the first royal she had seen in her life that could become the benevolent ruler Sola had hoped her own efforts would bring unto the throne. Slightly motivated by this idea that her efforts may yet give Ryuvia a leader it deserves, Sola made it her new mission to watch over Asaga and help her liberate Ryuvia and become the Queen.

While respecting Asaga's lofty and hopeful goals of rebuilding Ryuvia into something better, Sola initially seemed unimpressed by Asaga's hyperactive and rambunctious attitude, seeming to look down on her as naive, hotheaded and immature. In the Novel, she lectures Asaga about how a real Sharr would not rush blindly into battle screaming and would instead try to analyze the enemy before making a potentially-unnecessary move. At the same time though, Sola undoubtedly respects Asaga's strong sense of virtue and moral compass, as well as her kind-hearted nature and willingness to either fight to the end for her friends and give her life in their defense. In a way, Sola can be inferred to treat Asaga as a student under her, or an older sister teaching a younger one, as Sola imparts experiences from having been Princess and Sharr onto Asaga. Sola was the only one to notice Asaga's attraction to Kayto, and remarked that Asaga's reaction to this showed she was not quite mature enough to be a queen, respectable as her good intentions made her.

Later on though, it seems that Sola and Asaga's mentor-student relationship takes a more tumultuous turn as, much as Sola had initially feared would be the case with all who come into power, Asaga's once-noble goals are starting to become overshadowed by personal desires and pent-up jealousy, mostly towards her friend Chigara. She tries to help teach Asaga how to master and control the power and ingrained instincts that come from their Ryuvian Bloodline as the Sharr of Ryuvia, but Asaga's emotional nature begins to descend into instability, born from a resentment toward Chigara and to the crew for their seeming preferential treatment of the engineer mixed with Asaga's own insecurities regarding her future and goals as time goes on. This starts to see Asaga become increasingly embittered, frustrated and even hateful at times, with Sola likely developing concerns that Asaga may not be the self-proclaimed benevolent leader she'd hoped for and may in fact burn herself out before that point, highlighting Sola's belief that Asaga, more then ever before, needs guidance lest she become like Sola's own father.

Crow Harbor - Sola's uncle and the step-brother to Sola's father - the Second Crown Prince. Crow and his faction, The Fallen, were the enemies that Sola was impressed into service against by her father when Sola's half-sister, the true Crown Princess, refused to give her life to use the Sharr' Lac to end the war before the Empire could be torn apart. When first meeting Kayto, Sola had coldly and mechanically regarded Crow as a traitor to the crown, but in later conversations she seems to have had little preference for either one, and if anything might have actually despised her own father more then Crow as Sola believed it was her father that assassinated the Emperor and the First Crown Prince, with Crow having been her father's scapegoat.

However, Sola's belief that the war may have been the result of her father's backfired assassination plan does not seem to mean she has forgiven Crow for his own part in the war, though it is perhaps more a matter feeling nothing for him personally as she likely never met him face-to-face. At the same time though, one could insinuate there might be a form of sympathy for Crow on Sola's part due to the fact that both were considered bastard children of the Ryuvian royalty who were cast aside as scapegoats for the sakes of their siblings - Sola by her half-sister who refused to die to save her people, and Crow by his half-brother as the one who would be executed for the murder of their father. Although, unlike Sola, Crow tried to claim power over the empire afterwords and had just as much a hand in causing the civil war, though it was arguable that he did so only as an effort to retaliate against having been accused of being the Emperor's murderer.

Ava Crescentia - Ava and Sola have had very little interaction with each-other due to Sola's general avoidance of intermingling with the crew and Ava's strict policies on socialization, though this in turn means that Sola does not impede Ava's duties like most of the other Ryder pilots do. Sola's soft-spoken, differential nature likely allow her to get along amicably with Ava and both share many personality traits - they are often frank, to the point, focused on their tasks at hand and understand the necessities of war better then most. In essence, their low-interaction relationship ensures there is little to no complaints between the two and little disagreement, but it is likely that Sola respects Ava as the ship's commander and Kayto's second.

Claude Triello - Sola did not often interact with Claude, their most notable instance being when Sola requested Claude run a medical examination on her. It is unlikely that Sola has overwhelming respect for Claude's more perverse tendencies or slacker approach to tasks, seeming to look down on Claude when the latter had tried to bluff her way out of Kayto's insinuations that Claude would try to molest Sola in some way if she wasn't careful. But at the same time, Sola seems to trust Claude enough to fight alongside her in battle, as, whatever the reason may be, Claude is willing to put her life on the line in order to defend the Sunrider, and she went as far as to allow Claude to run tests on her in spite of the latter's reputation as a sexual offender. Claude saving Kayto in surgery after the Battle of Helion has likely given Sola faith in Claude being able to at least occasionally tell when to seperate frivolity from serious situations.

Chigara Lynn Ashada - Chigara's intelligence and ability to comprehend Ryuvian technology likely has earned Sola's respect, as well as her gratitude due to Sola not being as well-versed in engineering by her people's standards. Both of them are shy and largely anti-social people who keep to themselves and their work, though Sola seems to consider Chigara a friend nonetheless, if not in the capacity of being a comrade in arms. It could be inferred that Sola may see Chigara as something of a kindred spirit in that they both are not used to interacting with people outside of a select few individuals, preferring to find solace in quiet or less rambunctious ventures. However, in the Sunrdier Novelization, it can also be suggested that Sola doesn't quite know if Chigara's competence matches her intelligence, due to how Sola seemed doubtful of Chigara's affections for Kayto, seeming to think that Chigara was acting on feelings she didn't even know were real or not, although it could also potentially be concern for Kayto getting into a relationship built on infatuation rather then love, or even simple jealousy at Chigara trying to win Kayto's affections with the help of the crew as if it were a game. Regardless though, it seems that Sola still trusts Chigara as an ally and friend, having allowed Chigara to examine the Seraphim and having likely answered many of the latter's questions on Ryuvian culture.

Icari Isidolde - The sarcastic and off-handed mercenary seems to have little to no overt connection to Sola outside of being shipmates, though it is likely that they respect each-other as combatants. Sola may hold subtle appreciation for Icari's skill in close-quarters combat and apparent mastery of blades, which serves as an equal and opposite foil for Sola's skills in marksmanship and especially sniping. While Icari's lack of respect for regulations, slight braggart streak and sardonic joke-cracking might not be the most impressive to Sola, her dedication to stopping PACT and proactive desire to protect and guarantee the safety of the Sunrider and it's crew have more then likely made up for it.

Kryska Stares - Sola's anti-social mentality has not given her many, if any, chances to properly interact with Kryska, especially since the latter largely eschews on-duty fraternization in favor of completing her personal duties, and when off-duty tends to be more open with others and more used to groups then Sola is. Sola likely respects Kryska's devotion to her cause and loyalty to the Alliance as both are traits Sola herself shared as the Sharr of Ryuvia, though her loner tendencies are likely a sharp contrast to the normal group work-ethic of the Alliance's forces. All in all, Sola can be assumed to have a high opinion of Kryska's combat abilities, her no-nonsense approach to her duties and her willingness to put the good of all above herself, as proven in how Kryska was willing to place her life in the hands of people who had no reason to trust her simply because it was what needed to be done in order to help win the Battle of Far Port.

Veniczar B. Fontana - While having not spoken to him like Asaga or Kayto did, it is likely that Sola was suitably impressed by Fontana's tactics at the Second Battle of Ongess, as well as his moral core when he turned on the tyrannical "Arcadius" and lynched him for his crimes, respecting him as a dangerous yet fair enemy.

Cosette Cosmos - Unlike most of the crew, Sola had no prior experience with Cosette prior to the Second Battle of Ongess when fighting her pirate forces. While it is unlikely that the latter's bloodthirsty and borderline-insane personality has left a positive impression, it is also likely that Sola may feel pity for Cosette and see the woman as someone who was driven insane by the hopelessness of her life before resigning herself to it.

Veniczar S. Arcadius - Due to his conquering of Ryuvia Prime and his cold-blooded murder of one of the last members of the Ryuvian Royal Family, it is undoubtable that Sola has no sympathy or pity for Arcadius, with one of her primary missions - the liberation of Ryuvia - explicitly requiring his death or dethronement. It is safe to say she shed no tears for Arcadius when the latter was betrayed and executed as a war criminal by his own second-in-command, Fontana.

King Jaylor XII - Even far removed from her original timeline, the blood of the Ryuvian royalty still linked Sola to Jaylor, if not distantly, making him as much family as Asaga was. It can be assumed that his death, which in turn made Sola and Asaga the last living Ryuvian Royalty, was another blow to Sola's memories of her people as yet more of their legacy was lost.