Cillo89

I had to turn this off, but it's something that allows Windows and anyone using your device to generate text/images.

Like, something you see again and again over the story missions and side missions is that it's very unusual for any given BLADE to just wander off on their own, even if it's to do missions. With Lao it is pointed out time and time again that he does it, and it does turn out to be a Sign™ of something. And sure, the player can do it in terms of gameplay, but I never go the implication that that's how we're meant to imagine them going about it.

And you'd imagine that Elma, being like one of the biggest big shots in NLA (even if it's not official) would also follow that. But no, she's all alone when she finds Cross. And while there's a BLADE camp just outside of Starfall Basin, it's not really narratively acknowledged in any way, so she didn't come here with anyone there either. Plus, once Elma and Cross do get back to NLA she doesn't know yet that Chausson was made Director General two days ago. Meaning she apparently reported that she found Cross, but hasn't really been following anything that happened in the city while she was out in the Miran wilderness. And while there's some ambiguity about how long the walk from Starfall Basin back to NLA is meant to take on a narrative level (since in gameplay time of course runs faster and the continents are far smaller than they realistically are), nothing about how it is framed really implies to me that this took several days.

So, Elma apparently spent several days wandering around Primordia all on her own, presumably searching for survivors.

And then when the player first meets Lao, he's surprised to see Cross and Lin with her while asking about her former team mates Danny and Boris. Who Elma explains were killed by an indigen, which must have all been pretty recent since Lao doesn't know about it yet.