HUGE SPOILER OBVIOUSLY
Your character is sent down from the sky in a pod, meets the leader of the coastal Aelio town, Garoa. He, and the town are almost immediately wiped out by a giant space ship looking enemy that they call Dark Falz. This is NOT anything to do with any DF, it is a complete misnomer, and is actually just a huge machine-monster created by an amoral 500+ year old CAST man. This CAST man, Zephetto sends out a huge monster to battle against people he believes are “the true next generation of ARKS”. He believed Garoa was this, but because he wasn’t, he died in the “DF” attack.
Manon, a secret agent from Zephetto’s Sky Construct land of Leciel, joins your group as a friend, and observer. The Trio now consists of Aina, Manon & your character. They go through various battles helping out the leaders of the 4 areas of Halpha: Aelio with genius planner Crawford at its helm, Retem with its enemy-weakening leader Nadereh,  Kvaris which has no leader, and Stia the volcano land led by Glen. These land-names purposefully spell out the word ARKS, and each ‘island’ is a different climate deliberately separated by force-field barriers set up by Zephetto when he created all of the (tiny) planetoid Halpha. The geology is very deliberately ‘constructed’ out of beams, pillars, and other artificial materials, even the trees that bear fruit are clearly fake & unnatural.
It is revealed that the enemies and native animals/plants are all made (Both biologically & mechancially) and set up by Zephetto, which includes mutant single-eyed (animal like) monsters, things he saw in the past from PSO2 such as Signo-Guns & Rockbears (etc) as well as the DOLLS which he manufactures in plants both on Halpha & Leciel and then teleports into position. The Dolls Mfg. Plants are deliberately connected to all the ‘life supporting’ systems of Planetoid Halpha on purpose so that the experimental subjects (everyone alive on the planet) can’t shut them down.
Only at the very end of the first part of the game does he reveal his plans which are to create life & death scenarios to push his experimental people (like your character, and Manon) as well as their descendants (Such as Garoa and his daughter Aina) into developing greater photon sensitivity. When this happens, he throws extremely strong enemies at them, until finally his “Fake Dark Falz”. Then, he would challenge the person in his giant mech-suit, gather all of their data during the ensuing fight, and use it to create more people like that one in his people-pods on Leciel Floating Building.
Your character (backed up by everyone else…of course) IS the one to form a team and meet Zephetto on his own turf, (After beating his fake Falz Machine backed up by a literal city's worth of help and guns from Crawford) force him to reveal that he is a 500 year old amoral experimenter, and that it is all in the service of creating people (of some kind) strong enough to face the previously unheard of “Starless” foe.
The Starless are an evil force that snuff out suns as well as planets, emptying every solar system they encounter of all things. They wiped out everyone from ARKS (So, the Xiao mothership & all its people) about 500 years ago. Zephetto has been experimenting with his capsule people on his Halpha Planetoid ever since.
He does explain that "only life OR DEATH situations" can produce a photonic response in people, and that he DID TRY other methods on Halpha in the past. Every time he would fail, he would kill everybody on the planet through unknown means & wipe the history (somehow) so that nobody knew what he did & start over. He has done this 2 times before. This mysterious Photonic Response/Power whatever of a "super wielder" of some kind is what he is going for because nobody of the ARKS of PSO2 had it (at least enough) by the time the Starless Foe showed up.
The Starless inexpleicably vanished mid-WIN (they were going to win) but for some reason he figures they'll come back at a certain date to finish the job off.

UNKNOWNS:
1. How long after the events of PSO2's final chapter Sodam/Gomorath & etc. did it take for the Starless to show up? If Matoi & Clarissa / Huey everybody were still alive, they'd have likely had problems...same with taking on Xiao--an entire planet unless they got the drop on everybody from a billion miles away with their "sun snuffing" technology.

2. All we know is Zephetto is about 500 years old--how long was he alive living with the PSO2 people before he somehow escaped to start his experiment?

3. WHY did the Starless stop and go away for x amount of time? Why are the Starless doing this?

The first step here is to go meet Crawford in the Command room. This starts a cutscene where he’s conferencing with the other leaders of the areas. They realize Halpha an experiment with them as the subjects. Glen wants to know what they were trying to do, and you can answer him

Prepare for An Unknown Enemy
Prepare for the Starless

Well, the first one is a lie, the enemy is known: it is the Starless. So, if you say Prepare for the Starless, Glen wants to know what the hell is it. Crawford tells him they killed 700 billion people 500 years ago, but Glen doesn’t believe it. Ilma corrects him on 100s of years of experiments for the fun of it. Crawford takes it seriously, and Dozer wants to assess their threat. Nadereh asks you if you actually fought any of them?

Only Seen Them on a Monitor
We Never Actually Fought Them

These are both true, because everyone basically ran away when the pink light blobs they were raining down on Leciel started going. Then, apparently Zephetto’s big blasting thing he did has caused them to shut up for (however long this is between when the trio got back to the surface, and this meeting) If you say Only On a Monitor, Aina agrees, and Zephetto took off running but she doesn’t know what happened after it.

Ilma postulates that if the Dolls were a training system, then Starless are even greater threat than DF was. Crawford wonders when they’d show up again, it could be 1 day or 100 years. (He’s right) and Nadereh wants to fight a threat we can do something about. Dozer guesses she means the dolls and

They’re Still Active in Every Region
Are They Still Being Produced?

If you ask Are They Still Being Produced? Ilma says yes. Aina wants to stop them from Leciel. All their ops people escaped at the same time as the trio, but Leciels’ ops people say they saw a dolls production facility in the core. Glen demands as to why we’re waiting to attack it, but Ilma doesn’t know why the TP to the core doesn’t work any more. Was it Zephetto or the Starless that stopped it? Ilma doesn’t know. (Bet: It was Zephetto, the Starless don't know the Dolls exist) Glen then rages that we sacrificed so much for nothing because now the Dolls threat won’t stop. He flails around in his room back at Stia. Your character stops him and you can say

That Isn’t True.
That’s Not The Glen I Know.

If you tell him That’s Not The Glen I know, he demands to know what we’ve gained in all this. The camera pans, and the characters all think about it. Aina says we gained tomorrow and days after it, we have time. Glen snorts and dots at her. Crawford says we can accomplish more 1 day at a time. Start with Ilma getting on the TP to get it working again so we can get up there. There’s got to be other ways up there to stop the dolls too, says Dozer. After all…it’s just an experiment. Trinitas has Ryuker Devices, and the Resurgent ARKS of Leciel could help us with their knowledge.

Nadereh wonders about the plants in Stia from her screen, but Ilma says it’s risky but we can do it we have to. Aina frets about plunging the planet into darkness if we stop the plants or damage them…Glen grudgingly acknowledges this. (Remember, his teams did more work there, and even though he was first in line to explosion them, he knew not to because his teams reported that they're connected to the 'energy systems' of the planet.) Dozer says worst case scenario would be all of Halpha losing its power, yet dolls are still getting produced somehow.

Did Zephetto Plan it This Way?
Zephetto’s Experiment Isn’t Over?

If you ask Did Zephetto Plan It This Way? Glen says he’s absolutely vile, and Crawford agrees, but we have to move on, by focusing on each regions’ battle-readiness. Staying on alert for Starless, and make sure no stone on all of Halpha goes unturned. They sign out, and he says it was a long meeting, sorry. Aina wants to talk about something. She wants to know if Mannon should have been here for it. Dozer tells her that she went with the Resurgent Arks, and couldn’t be here. They are all in custody for now. You can ask

What? Why?
Will they Be Prosecuted?

If you ask What? Why? Crawford says she’s done nothing wrong, but she has to lay low for a while. The Resurgents are worthy of sympathy, micromanaging Halpha from the day they were born, (Born as adults/teens remember--they're all pod-people) and not being taught between right and wrong. Zephetto is an amoral character: He will do anything to accomplish his goal: the greater good of the humanoid (includes newman, human, duman, cast) species survival. They were forced to act like robots on Leciel by Zephetto. Many people don’t trust them at all, and Crawford can’t blame them. Dozer is learning more from Pharia and Mannon, which will bring more people around if they can explain more of what they were doing and how it all worked. He says it’ll take ‘some time’.

Aina wants to know how long is ‘some time’, and Crawford will let everyone know, and Aina agrees to trust his judgment, though she’s clearly sad and seems somewhat unsure of this. Crawford asks if his explanation is good for you too?

Manon Is Hurting, Take Good Care of Her
You Promise You Won’t Hurt Her?

The second one is a bit odd…Crawford has never been malicious once, and he has never raged or gotten in anyone’s face (unlike Glen) so it’s a bit out of place. If you tell him Take Good Care of Her, he gives his word and Aina says Um…if you don’t stop her, she’ll just eat the same thing every day, so be sure to give her something healthy to eat. Crawford will let her custodian know, is that it? He wants to talk about the next steps for the Duo, and wants to make sure all is in order before we begin. But, he’s tired, so he wants to continue it later.

This makes sense:
If Crawford or any of the other leaders told their people what was (literally) up with Leciel, they’d hate the people up there who were running this unethical experiment on everyone and would want them locked up for fear of future ‘experiments’. The people of Halpha wouldn't understand how will-less and 'automaton-robot' like the Leciel people really are: they would ascribe malicious intent to all of them. Manon, in a show of solidarity or probably also guilt, would very in-character, throw herself into the ‘lockup’ with the other people. This makes a lot of sense. However, whatever their version of ‘jail’ or whatever this is, is probably not terrible at all, and if each person has a ‘custodian’ then it’s just probably some guard person who looks out that they don’t kill themselves or escape and it’s probably just like house-arrest or so, where you can do what you want just don’t leave. (So, a likely cushy place)
The dysfunctional crew of Leciel probably doesn’t even care that they are there. From one ‘do as your told area’ to the next, they wouldn’t even mind or know they were being ‘dumped on’.

“It keeps making dolls”
Well, for the actually game play of the game, it HAS to. There has to be some plot excuse as to why the foes of the game keep showing up because without monsters there’s not much of a game. However, the excuse is going to get increasingly flimsy as time goes on, so how is the game and plot going to handle that?
(It’d be a real odd ball if the Starless replaced every doll in the game! It’d be unheard of in online games to literally ‘extinct’ an enemy type due to the plot—no one would expect it to actually happen, it would be an extremely bold move, and is thus very unlikely)

When You Return Later…
He is pondering the orb, and asks ‘are we ready’ when you approach. You can now ask him about general things, and he helpfully provides a list with

Tell About Halpha
Tell About Ark
Tell About Zephetto
Tell About The Starless
Resume The Meeting

It’s a good idea to have him go over them all, in case he has learned something new while you weren’t around.
Tell About Halpha:
He has realized Halpha is a training ground for the resurgent arks trying to produce a defender capable of combatting the starless.
Tell About Arks
That ARKS were created to battle the Starless, and everyone needs time to come to terms with that, including himself.
Tell About Zephetto:
He is the General of Resurgent ARKS and in charge of the experiment, but we don’t know anything else. After you fought him, he left to go battle the starless but we never saw a trace of him since.
Tell About The Starless
A mysterious foe, but there’s no other way to describe it. Are they organisms or machines? Where will they strike next? There’s no answers yet, but they’re a greater threat than DF.

When you say Resume, it starts a genuine cutscene with Dozer and Aina too.
He wants to tell what he needs from you 2 going forward, which is to train new recruits and bolster the readiness. He wants Aina to help train new troops…but she’s not sure and gets worried about this.

You’d Be Perfect For It
I’m Just As Surprised as You

If you encourage her with You’d Be Perfect For It, she says really? Dozer volunteers to help out with the training (as remember, he is already a trainer) and says it wouldn’t hurt to try. She wants to think about it and Crawford agrees. Crawford then wants to ask something of you, but Ran interrupts with a distress signal from the scout team, and their vitals aren’t doing well. Crawford asks Dozer to go to Resol Forest to help them out after Ran has said this. He heads out right away but you can say

I’m Going Too
Aina, Let’s Go!

Well, she said she needed time to think, so if you say Aina, Let’s go! She wants to, and Crawford nods, counting on the two of you. She says let’s hurry to the Resol Forest. This lets you out of the quest and back into doing anything until you head to...

A Mysterious Hostile Force
Where you meet Aina at the entrance to Resol Forest. Dozer appears, and says there’s no intel yet, so we’ve got to be cautious. As you run through the forest, Aina says something’s off, and Dozer doesn’t hear any sounds either. It is eerily empty of enemies. Dozer’s mag comes out tell everyone Ran’s message about what was going on. You can ask

What Happened?
The DOLLS?

If you generally just ask What Happened? She’s not sure, she lost vitals on all squads from both sides. Number of enemies is unknown too. This frusterates Dozer (naturally)

We Need To Hurry
What Should We Do?

Maybe you can get more info if you What Should We Do? Hurry to the location is Dozer’s advice, but Crawford stops him by saying hurry to base, he’ll start to argue with Crawford, but will head back…Aina is upset too, but a sudden attack happens. It’s a giant evil…thing that jumps around and another that flies. This knocks Dozer down as he is sent across the landscape and into a rock by a thing that is similar to the Nogleth.

Now, you have to fight ??? enemies.
Aina thinks they’re the starless showing up somehow, and she’s right. There is a flapping/flying thing with a cape-like structure that flips up and shoots. It has blade type wings. There are two things very like a Pettas Gunblade and Pettas Sword, but they’re more purple, with triangular larger heads. The boss in this case, has a large head with toothless mouth and many yellow spot ‘eyes’ in the bulbous head. It’s kind of twisted looking, and has Nogleth-like actions. Let Aina bother the boss because it will punch her first. Because NPC’s are actually competent this time around, she will easily keep it busy while you attack and kill all the other ??? enemies in the area. They have a lot of HP on purpose, so it’s good to take them out before riling up the boss. As they are new, none of them have a name plackard to appear.

It acts similarly to the Nogleth of Mt. Magnus, with punching and etc, but is likely somewhat faster and certainly does hit harder. When lower on HP, it also becomes more crystalline (spiky on the back) and turns purple, gaining new attacks like AOE jump and punch, rapid-fire punches, and punches that summon pillars of bad energy down onto areas of the ground. Once it’s defeated, the scene is over, and you can check Dozer, who is all right enough to get back to Command.

Are these suspiciously similar to the DOLLS?
Yes, of course, and they’re plot-wise-supposed to be 100%. Zephetto SAW these guys way back in the day when they were wrecking things in person, so he deliberately made his DOLLS look similar and act similar too because DOLLS are his “practice figures” for everyone to beat on to prepare them for the Starless Attack. It is good and right that they have similar structures and similar (but not identical) attacks and looks. *Remember, according to Zephetto, these guys have something that takes away suns and whole planets somehow, so these whatevers are just some kind of wimpy ground troop type things.

In the command room, a cutscene starts right away with Crawford who tells you and Aina about Dozer right away. He’s being treated in the hospital, and he’ll recover. However, the 2 squads he was in there to help, everybody died to the Starless that got into the forest. Crawford says that the Starless won’t give anyone any time to prepare (at this point) But, the other thing he wants to talk to you about is that he wants you and Aina to be a Symbol of Arks Defenders going forward. This prompts the question

A Symbol?
What Do You Mean?

If you ask What Do You Mean? He says every pivotal moment so far has involved you, and you played a big role in defeating the starless so you’re like Halphas guardian already. Aina is shocked, but he says that the role won’t change much, keep trouncing the enemies like you’re already doing. (Doesn’t he mean The Trio? He doesn’t seem to...so far)

I’m Not Seeing Any Differences.
So Pretty Much a New Title?

If you ask A New Title? He says that a title goes a long way, and Aina nods to agree. He knows it’s a big deal and would really appreciate it if you’d accept it.

I Won’t Let You Down.
I’ll See What I Can Do.

If you try to reassure him with I Won’t Let You Down, he’ll say it means a lot but he’s got a lot of work to do and will prepare the next mission, because there’s lots of work to be done to prepare for the ‘tomorrow’ that Aina warned everyone of. You leave the office, and Ran calls right away. She says that Crawford will soon make an announcement on the Central City Screen.

Once you get there, it begins another scene, where people are walking through the area and stop to look. He asks citizens to lend their ears. And he announces the shock about all the stuff on Leciel, but the Dolls are still at it. But a new enemy the Starless will appear. We fought them, but the warriors on our side were victorious. So, if we fight together...Manon hears this too in her little room with the other people from there. He understands people’s hesitancy because of what they had to do at the hand and command of Zephetto, but now that he’s gone we can trust them, basically. Only with everyone working together can we bring peace to Halpha with one heart, and one mind.

It’s a good speech, and the people seem to believe it well enough. Something WAS needed to galvanize that the Leciel residents WERE under the control of Zephetto and doing bad things only because of Zephetto alone. Usually such a line is a scapegoat and they’d be mistrust-worthy still…however…these robotic weird acting depressed-like people…really did seem to be in his mind controlling (or totally uneducated like) weird command. It's their strange-acting ways that will likely actually go in society's favor here.

What’s odd here is that nobody talks about how the Starless are like the Dolls (clearly on Zephetto’s purpose) nor to explain the Hindras Lilly which is a flower associated with the Starless appearance. It shoots out tiny purple harmful specks that try to land on people/have a small AOE. But, when they are destroyed, they bloom and shoot out a huge AOE that really hurts DOLLS badly/tons of HP off them. The other thing is that the base they grow from is a spiky hovering object, but it is indestructible/you can’t target it nor stand on it, and the flower will always regrow after a certain amount of time.

You’d think it would be mention-worthy to tie the gameplay into the plot but they just totally whiffed it here.

Aina Near the Café
Ilma is visiting the Central outdoor café that is under that ring like structure. They say hi, and you can say

I Don’t Often See You Two Together
I Didn’t Know You Were Here Ilma

If you say I Didn’t Know You Were Here (because why would Aina be near Ilma ever? All he does is go off alone to think, to research, or to sit in the study and put things together but only in Kvaris where Aina never goes anyway) He’ll tell you he was called because of Manon’s inquest, Aina wanted to know everything. He re-explains that Manon and Pharia are fine, they’re a bit cramped quarters but no one is mistreating them and the same for everyone else (From Leciel)
But, the problem is

Is The Inquest Not Going Well?
Trouble Getting Data Together?

If you ask The Inquest? He admits it’s rough going they all played a role, everyone with different responsibilities. So it’s inconsistent and tough to present a comprehensive case. But what’s harder than that, is trying to get on the same page with them. If we say “Tell us about Leciel” for example, they go into detail about construction specs. They act like trying to talk to a data mainframe. Aina tells him Manon was like that too. Replies with the bare minimum, and her dad had a hard time with it. Ilma says for them it was probably normal to act that way. Aina says Manon has changed and you nod to back her up, Ilma agrees…so he’s figured out to let Manon be the interperator. (Very smart) He’s hoping if we put in effort maybe they will too. 
The ‘we’ have decided to start calling them Lecielans, because they’re not our foes, and Resurgent ARKS is too loaded (thanks to Zephetto) so we had to change it. Aina thinks about this and she likes it. The scene ends.

This is an actual interesting bit because it shows the "anti culture" that was cultivated up on Leciel. Zephetto creating societally dysfunctional people that only function as cogs in Zephettos' wheels as he bosses them 24/7. Without a childhood (they're pod people hatched in the teens-looking time) and without being 'raised' by anyone they just go straight to their forever-jobs on Leciel never knowing any different or how to interact beyond work and necesity.
This is ALSO another layer of interesting because it is VERY CAST OF HIM to do. It raises the question (again) of how long he was among people in a functioning society. This is well characterized and interesting. Good job plot.

Dozer’s Self Reflection
He is looking across the river toward the Resol Forest. You can ask
How’s Your Injury?
Are You All Healed?
Well, do CASTs heal? If so, how? If you say How’s Your Injury? He says thanks, he’s fine but he’s doing patrolling…glumly looking for the Starless (but from the opposite shore--fortunately for him, they don't seem to leave the Resol Forest: But Why THERE first?? Is there a plot reason?). He’s upset we lost so many the other day, but thanks for your help, you did bail him out. You kind of ‘no problem’ him, he admits its not his best look

But You Saved Aina
On The Contrary, You Looked Like a Hero

If you say But You Saved Aina, he just moved without thinking and it’s great that she’s fine, but he never should have had the enemy get the drop on us in the first place, he was focused on following orders of Crawford and returning to the base. The only reason they got through it was because you and Aina helped, but that’s not how a squad leader should act …but the skirmish got intel about Starless. We know how they appear, how they fight so we’ll never be caught off guard like that again. He shared all the info with other veteran ARKS, we can refine our tactics the more we know. You should lead them (who?) into this battle (what one?) But he’s got to get back to patrolling because they’re such a threat. You nod, and the scene ends.

This is natural for Dozer: He feels horrible that the trio couldn't save the randoms who were caught by the first incidence of the Starless in the Resol. He may be also agitated because this is the 2nd time you've bailed him out in that forest. (Remember the Nex Aelio incident was in there too) The characterization here is fine and appropriate.

Ilma In: Halpha the Experimental Planet
Ilma is in Aelo, but looking across the barrier toward Rwh Maquead in Retem. (He's at the cliffs) He’s got his little robot thingy with him, and is still in his winter wear when you approach. You can ask

What Are You Doing Here?
What Are You Researching?

Well, to start him on research right away if you ask What Are You Researching? He’ll say it’s not exactly research, he checks the environmental control unit that is here.

What?
Environmental Control unit?

To try to get him to explain more Environmental Control Unit? He tells you that the regional border objects (remember those, the 6 pointed ‘star ish’ shaped big things that hover and project the ‘walls’ that separate the continents—you were asked to get near one on a previous mission to gather data about it for Central.) They both make walls and control Halpha’s environment. Leciel has given more info recently, they can even be found out in the ocean.

I’ve Never Seen Anything Like It
Can We Go Overseas?

Well, of course you haven’t seen it in the ocean, because these stupid things trap everyone on these 4 fake tiny continents AND they are out in the ocean preventing you from simply swimming out to sea/away from the area. Can We Go Overseas? He says no…the whole island environment is controlled from Leciel, and the atmosphere outside our 4 islands isn’t suitable for us. So we can’t leave. They call where we are as Halpha Main Island Central Island. They made lots others besides this one, but they left most of them empty. But some are experimental, Creative Spaces. You can go to those with ryuker devices with the right address. Have you ever tried it?

I Already Did
Not Yet

If you say I Already Did he’s not shocked and if you make something on one, he’d love to see it so do let him know. You can nod at this and the scene ends.

Wow he sets up for a speck o’ disappointment there. The dialogue looked like it would lead into being able to go to a new environment in the future/like hinting a new place to go but then whoopsie it’s just Barbie house. (No mistake, of course, creative spaces were much demanded by every region the game released in, but especially Japan. They’re the obvious next step up from being able to design rooms and team rooms from PSO2. It’s perfectly logical from a money and success standpoint to make this—so of course the plot had to accommodate it because it is more complex than “Well on the giant city ships, you get your own fun room! There’s room for all & change the scene outside your windows too, here’s a terrace”) This scene is clearly there to plot-justify and introduce the Creative Spaces. It does a decent job.

But do remember “Most are unpopulated”. He didn’t say all.
Also: The wall things trap the atmosphere inside letting everyone breathe…so Halpha is so fake that it doesn’t have its own atmosphere and it had to be pumped in and then contained by the force field walls. An interesting revelation, but not super shocking and it is something that makes sense so far.

Ilma in: The Truth of Halpha
Ilma is now at the river looking across it with Dozer towrd Resol. He tells Dozer that something ‘very interesting’ is true because the Lecielens said so. Ilma will tell you the thing also do you have time?

Sure
Not right now

You’ve got to know! Of course Sure. We were talking about the DOLLS, and they have a lot in common with Starless (of course) It looked like Pettas and Nogleths. Zephetto designed them to emulate Starless. They were the simulation to prepare for the real thing. Dozer says ‘who’d have thought’. But it’s also true of all Halpha. It shows you Halphan scenes. Everything’s artificial, and molded after different planets. The goal was to show different ecosystems to prep for starless in all environments. The buildings too, like the Trainia are training facilities (gee whiz yathink) people used them for the DOLLS but really it was for the Starless. Dozer hmf at this then is angry that Zephetto was toying with us the whole time.

Ilma says that’s why we have to go back and review all we thought we knew, and Dozer agrees. Because if everything was so carefully planned out….there has to be some secret to defeating them somewhere. (There isn't!) Everyone nods to agree and the scene ends.

All of this of course was deduced instantly by anybody with eyes that saw even 1 starless guy.
Did nobody explain to Dozer what Zephetto said? Aina was SUPPOSEDLY the one who “told Crawford Everything” along with (probably) Manon, so all of this should have been just basically broadcasted to everyone ever.

The only new news here was that the 4 parts were supposed to be “4 different planets” because planets aren’t generally homogenous (Ex. Naberius having snow and forests and mountains and oceans and plains as seen from space--even though you only interact with its forests and mountains/snow areas) Lilipa was homogenous but only because of whatever disaster made those permanent swirl/tornados that reach all the way THROUGH the upper atmosphere there and then we had the “Delight” of NEVER HAVING THAT EXPLAINED because everyone had to go to high school and talk about their drama instead. (Nor the mining, who built the robots there, nor the Lilipans. Oh you wanted plot? Episode EARF says NO!)

Why is Dozer surprised and said “who would have thought?”
Anybody, upon hearing what Aina said would come to that conclusion in 1 second. Zephetto said that everything on Halpha was to prepare people for the Starless and try to conjure out a superior sort of Photon User (your guy) so everyone would have a chance at stopping the Starless. It’s literally conclusion #1. Dozer isn’t dumb, so who ISNT spilling the beans from Leciel on Zephetto’s entire motivation?

Why is everyone missing the point:
ZEPHETTO DOESNT KNOW how to beat the Starless! There is no SECRET on Halpha that he had! Zephetto is helpless! He's chasing after the "Grail Guy" by playing the genetic lotto, rolling the dice on HIS pod people and throwing them into "trial by life/death fire" down on Halpha hoping that one of his dice rolls produces a photon-super user that can finally stop the Starless IN A WAY HE HAS NO ACCESS TO. He's doing it because he knows HE can't/nor can his wacky dolls-machines=the only things he knows how to build other than obviously cloning pods and I guess a mini planet.

Why Are The Starless (so far) such Goons?
Ok so now goopy sword man is purple and not red. A teenager, an injured roboman and 1 unusually strong person put down a squad of 5 of it & 1 semi truck sized 'badder dude'. There's no way these clowns are putting out suns and killing 700 million people on Xiao's magic planet ships. NO WAY. What are they hiding? What are we missing? Xiao could knock out millions of them with a nod of his head.