Synchro Frame: Conception [IC]

[Dad]

Melissa

 

She had to stop herself.  She could either rise or dive, but Melissa instead took the path with less opposition.  She charged straight ahead.  With a handful of Myrmidons in front of her, Saviour straightened up.  Melissa then poured all of her thruster's forward, and increased her speed.  She raised her shield to about mid way, and leaned her short sword forward, just beside the shield's left halve.  Instead of taking a dive into the blasts from the Catapults, she made a brave maneuver, and sliced  cleanly through a single Myrmidon, as the rest scattered around her on the pass.  She had to quickly cut her thrusters however, to prevent from overheating Saviour too much.  She turned her attention back to the remaining Myrmidons, and began to shoot pot shots at them from the cover of Saviour's shield.  "Let's see how they react," she thought to herself.  Slowly, she pressed into the Myrmidons, her shield raised and her weapon mid height, mid range.  She was already prepared for the return fire, and Saviour's shield was not hard to maneuver.  If Melissa could continue to hold the attention of the Myrmidons, she and Leo could easily shut down the Catapults last.  But first, the opponent stood before her.

 

She attempted to get into melee range, where, with a large shield, Melissa had a much better chance of winning a skirmish than her opponents.  She had managed to close the gap halfway, hoping Leo would understand that Melissa was purposely drawing attention to herself.  If the Catapults, Myrmidons, and Argonauts were all focusing their fire on her, he had a clear as day opening to wipe some of the enemy from the field.

 

As she got closer, Melissa began to increase her speed.  It would take her exactly six seconds to reach maximum speed again, after toning down Saviour just moments ago.  But once again, Melissa had engaged in a suicide mission.  Her wish granted, the Myrmidon opened fire on her once more, and their rounds glanced off of Saviour's shield.  As Melissa neared the Myrmidons, she reached top speed, and surprisingly, placed her weapon away entirely.  Saviour's arms were now both barricaded behind it's shield.  And her target was no longer one of the Myrmidons.  It was a Catapult.  She knew she couldn't keep the Myrmidon's attention for long.  But with that size of a feint, there was no way they had predicted she would attempt to literally run a Catapult over.  Is there?

[Asriel Dreemurr]

"And twins, you two can still hold on down there right?  The Solstices should be able to enter position to bombard the ships soon, but to save time, sink them all before that if you can.  Don't disappoint me."

 

"We might have a little trouble with that, Aeo..."  The twins responded, and the reason why was evident over the transmission.  They were currently being pelted with anti-aircraft fire.  It was a blessing that they had their sensor disruption system in place, as the fact that the enemy's automated defenses were less able to target them spared them from some of the worse sources of fire.  However, their close range meant that visual target acquisition was possible and thus they were taking lots of manual fire.  For now, they were forced into taking evasive maneuvers and were unable to engage the enemy with their most effective weapon.  Making matters worse was the fact that sinking that destroyer had attracted the attention of the enemy's combat frames, and they were thus in the unfortunate position of being easily surrounded.

 

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"  The Other asked, as the pair of pilots turned their GGCs on the ships, strafing their decks in the hopes of reducing the amount of fire coming in on them.  Unfortunately, the ammunition they had for those weapons soon ran out and they were left without.

 

"You know what I'm thinking, so yes."  The One responded, and they set about bringing that frame along between the Cruiser and the remaining Destroyers.  This of course resulted in their taking fire from all sides, and even now they were subjected to the screech of warning Klaxons in their ears, and alerts telling them that systems on the Drachenrand were being damaged.  Their visual feed had started to flicker with the impact of every round, but there were some advantages as well.  The enemy frames that had moved to engage them found themselves caught in the same crossfire as the twins, and they had to retreat beyond the accurate range of their weapons for safety.  The ships themselves suffered as well, as the AA fire that did not connect with the twins instead struck their hulls and decks.  The damage done was felt quickly, as soon after the fire coming at the Drach from the ships had been significantly reduced.  Turning about for another pass, the twins turned their missile launchers on the Destroyers, and spent the last of their missiles eliminating any AA weaponry they could see.

 

With their safety relatively secure, the twins turned their attention on the cruiser.  Rushing in towards its hull, with enemy frames coming in on them, they sought to do the same as they had with the other destroyer.  The ECB was driven into the hull, this time just below the water line, and used to carve a long gouge in the vessel.  The two did not stay behind to see if they had managed to sink it, and instead turned their attention on the frames that were coming after them.  The more they kept busy down here near the water, the fewer of them could go to take the fight to the SAF's flying fortresses.

 

"Any carriers got room for one more?"  The twins called out over the open comm bands for the SAF task force just as they engaged that group of frames which had been attacking them.  "Because we're out of missiles and 53 x 136mm Gauss rounds.  Could also use some quick repairs, if anyone's got the time."  Not that that stopped them from getting into it with the enemy frames, and they put the Drach's superior speed to work in getting them into the enemy's face.  They needed to cut down the numbers of these frames before they could move on to dealing with those destroyers.

[Makο]

"...Christ. That guy's insane."

 

It must have been a difference in style and weaponry. Or maybe it's the difference in how their frames were built. Either way, Owen watched as Gavin chewed through the enemy's ranks without so much of a sweat off his brow . He felt that Nākahi had quite the arsenal of weapons at its disposal, but it's nothing compared to all the guns and missiles jam-packed into Gavin's grey beast. And despite all his best efforts, Owen could never reach the same level of destruction as Gavin had been able to quite easily. It could've been a difference in skill, but...

 

"Maybe I should up the speed my shells travel. Maybe elongate them.. or-"

 

No time to think. Enemies were closing in fast, and they were aiming directly at him. He didn't panic, per se, but he yanked back on the control sticks, working with his AMS to send his frame screaming backwards. He had to keep the range between them somewhat consistent, lest his Reverb cannons lose their ability to combat frames like that. Though, his options were limited regardless. Taking aim at the Argonauts, who were attempting to riddle him full of bullets, his cannons fired off Superheated rounds in their general direction, taking little time to properly aim while backpedaling. The shots were rarely on their mark, though one of the Argonauts ended up losing an assault rifle as a round tore his arm off, forcing him to switch to Head Vulcan. Before long, the Nākahi's feet had impacted the surface of the carrier due to careless backpedaling, now under threat from the Myrmidons as they doused the carrier in fire and shells in an attempt to sink it. Owen's mind raced at a mile a minute.

 

"Think, think! There's gotta be something I can do. At least enough to keep that Catapult of knocking Nākahi out of service. Something..."

 

Nothing to say for the Catapult and his friends, but the occupied Myrmidons didn't seem to keen to his arrival. In their careless firing upon the carrier, they were indiscriminate. Owen scrambled with his AMS to get himself on the far side of the carrier, away from the assault of the Myrmidons. However, he had a very different problem. His ears were ringing. Constantly. In the heat of battle, he had been unaware of just how loud is cannons were, not to mention to blasts and impacts that occurred near him. Rather than losing his hearing, Owen flipped a few switches and dialed a couple nods on a console in his cockpit. His machine shifted slightly, before the world around him seemed to mute to the point where almost nothing could be heard.

 

"15 minutes, about...that should work. I should probably count myself lucky the Mute Field generator was stuck on this thing. I was going absolutely deaf."

Of course, he's referring to the hole in his cockpit from his earlier encounter.

 

Before he could turn his attention to the nearby Myrmidons, his attempts were ruined by the remaining four-approaching machines, each armed to the teeth, hosing him with bullets, and gnashing their teeth at him.

 

There wasn't much time to think under such stressful conditions. Owen had resorted to short-hopping Nākahi to and fro on the surface of the carrier with little bursts of propulsion, if only to keep himself from getting riddled by incoming weapon fire. Regardless, it wasn't enough to keep him safe, as a line of Vulcan fire strafed across his machine. His armor managed to keep the shots from doing any major damage to the mecha itself, but a couple rounds landed dangerously close to his hand and control stick, having hit within the gap in his cockpit. In a snap judgement, he found slight relief from the onslaught via taking dashing behind the cover of a wrecked piece of the carrier's infrastructure, giving him a few vital moments to think.

 

"What... what is there for me to do? I don't want to do THAT, but... do I have much choice? Ergh..."

 

He gripped his control sticks tightly. His style of fighting always kept him far away from combat, taking potshots or laying down suppressive fire. He had the capability for close combat, but such ranges always made him unreasonably nervous. Though, the enemy didn't lend him any mercy, having been the ones to pin him down. With a moment of hesitation, he made up his mind. Flipping a few switches on his remaining consoles, the Mute Field deactivated itself without getting any actual use. His AMS reacted to his wishes, and activated the arm pistons his unit had. Or at least, attempted.

 

A horrible crunching sound emerged from the right side of his machine. The momentary confusion passed in an instant as he remembered the first Catapult shot that hit him: it slammed Nākahi into the side of the carrier, disabling the arm piston on that side, rendering it completely useless.

 

"G-! dammit! I don't have time!"

 

The left piston activated normally. His arm shot out to twice the size it had normally been. At the same time, on an apparent rail system, the plasma blade on the left arm rolled out across the now-extended arm, locking in on top of his machine's left hand. Most power systems rerouted the majority of power to his propulsion systems, and his cannons had been folded back into a resting position. In what seemed to be an instant, Nākahi jetted out from cover, rushing out to the closest of the nearing opponents. An Argonaut, not expecting such an immediate rush-down, was caught off guard, helpless as it was cleaved in two by the extended plasma blade, far beyond the reach of what a machine like that should have had. The newly-defeated frame exploded to pieces, with Owen not wasting any time to rush through the cloud of smoke and fire to the next closest foe, regardless of the stinging heat on his arms and horrific smell of burning metal.

 

The other frames weren't as surprised by the assaulting Synchro Frame, as they spread out took up defensive positions. However, another of the Argonauts had not anticipated the speed in which Nākahi had managed to travel, soon finding the pitch-black mecha up in his face. The hapless pilot looked down, seeing that the lower half of his body had been completely obliterated by the stabbing of a plasma blade, before almost instantly losing consciousness and being enveloped by the intense heat of plasma. Unfazed by the GAR fire riddling into the back of his machine, Owen and his AMS cooperated to use the disabled Argonaut as a launchpad, manipulating Nākahi's legs into the position to do so. He pushed off, leaving the old Argonaut in a free-fall, targeting the closest Argonaut. Only a few more meters, and-

 

"W-what?"

 

He found his systems now being overloaded by a charge of electricity, disrupting his electronics and deactivating vital functions. In only a moment, he realized the Catapult had launched a harpoon from its Arc cannons, hitting Nākahi barely in the foot as he rushed towards the third Argonaut. It was all it took. With what little control he had left, his plasma blade cut the wire that disabled him. The effects were still tremendous, as his plasma blade shut itself down moments later, and his propulsion systems lost enough power to leave him in a descent. Not rapid by any means, but still quickly losing distance between him and his targets. Sensing an opportunity, the third Argonaut took aim and fired at the hapless Nākahi whilst closing the distance. Owen grit his teeth.

 

"Don't get cocky, you son of the b****!"

 

He flipped open the protectors over his ALM system, pressing the hidden button and unleashing a wave of Micro-Missiles from all over his machine. Surprised by Nākahi's remaining functionality, the Argonaut pilot could not avoid in time, being ripped to shreds by the onslaught and exploding in the smoke-filled sky. Owen didn't even need to look up and see the other Catapult to know what he was planning. He had only fired one Harpoon before, and was prepping his next one to finish the job and avenge his comrades. A noble cause, but Owen couldn't let it happen. While the ALM was active, he diverted power from his other "unnecessary" systems to his right Reverb-Cannon. He could only muster enough hydraulic power to aim and fire one shot, so he only had one chance. He peered up from his console, only to see the Catapult had already locked on, obviously mere moments from firing. Hands practically shaking, he switched to manual cannon control, aiming the heavy cannon up toward his foe.

 

"Eat this!"

 

They both fired practically simultaneously. Owen watched with bated breath as the Harpoon slipped between a small cap between Nākahi's shoulder and arm, missing. Looking back up, he saw that he had won. His Scrambler-round had hit its mark, impacting directly into the left side of the enemy Combat Frame, rendering it disabled, if only temporarily. His only window was now open. He diverted almost all remaining systems to his propulsion, disabling all but the piston on his left arm. The power left just enough juice to rapidly fly Nākahi up towards the Catapult. The two machines slammed into each other, with their combined weights leaving not enough juice in their combined propulsion systems to keep them flying. In a pure free-fall, Owen manually aimed his left arm towards the center mass of the Catapult, placing his hand over the emergency piston release in his cockpit.

 

"..."

 

Wordlessly, he slammed his hand down. A violent "cachunk" was heard, as the sharp hand of Nākahi punctured the Catapult's cockpit. Owen refused to look and see the inside of his victim, instead bracing himself for the inevitable impact on the carrier from their free-fall. He violently shook around within his cockpit, hitting his head more than a few times, thankful he managed to use one last burst of propulsion to keep himself from simply being killed from the fall. The Catapult lay on top of him, still and unmoving. With a sigh, he turned on the manual reboot of his then disabled machine and began to run a full-system check and functionality restore. He practically went limp in his seat, feeling the warmth of the blood trickling down his forehead, watching the nearly forgotten Myrmidons suddenly turn their attention to him.

 

"I hate this job."

[BANZAI!!!!]

“Dammit. Shouldn’t have left him on his own.” Gavin growled as he watched, helpless while he was reloading his weapons, as the damaged Nakahi fought off the six enemy frames attempting to destroy it and the carrier it was on. Despite the damage to its cockpit (and probably functionality as a result) the Nakahi’s pilot managed to shoot down all three of the attacking Argonauts and bring down the accompanying catapult as well, though its arc cannons had managed to disable the Nakahi before it went down. It was now at the mercy of the two Myrmidons who had managed to damage the carrier’s hull to the point that the blasted hulk of a ship was now slowly sinking, listing to the right as she smoldered. Now they were taking aim at the Nakahi, helpless on what was left of the deck.

Luckily for the two synchro frames, however, it was at that moment the Nimbus squad entered their airspace, the squad leader’s voice chiming in on Gavin’s comms. Gavin immediately recognized the familiar tone, and the speaker’s identity was all but confirmed by the green shoulders on the lead Nimbus.

BGM: Urgent Evasion

“Hey Spray n’ Pray, need a hand?”

Gavin grinned. It was an old squadmate from his early days. Specifically, it was one Lucas Butler, an adept dogfighter who used to tally his kills on his frame’s left shoulder, and his women on the right. The left shoulder had always been an order of magnitude more populous than the right one.

“About time you showed up Luke. We could use the assist.”

“Just leave those two up there to us. You go wake up sleeping beauty and get him out of there before that carrier takes him down with it.”

“Roger that.”

With the exchange over, Gavin proceeded to land Hailstorm on the listing carrier, making sure the other 4 enemy frames haddn’t tuned back toward them. Above him, the two Myrmidons were flanked and quickly dispatched with taser strikes and javelin stabs from the Nimbus squad. With the area momentarily safe, Gavi used the Hailstorm’s foot to lift the Catapult’s limp form off of the Nakahi, rolling the machine off to one side after a second or two of effort. Next, Gavin reconnected the contact link he had used earlier.

 

“The carrier’s going down and we shouldn’t stay in this airspace any longer. If you can’t get your frame to move, then leave it and I’ll carry you in mine. Otherwise we should retreat and see if we can’t find somewhere for you to get that damage patched up. My unit’s a little short on manpower today, and since the rest of your team is MIA, you might as well stick with us for the time being.”

With that, Gavin disconnected the contact link and jettisoned the force rifle from its hard point, replacing the weapon with the burst rifle from his left hand so that his SF had a free hand. After that a combination of AMS and his control stick did the rest, extending the machine’s free hand so that he could either lift the pilot up to his cockpit or help the machine itself stand and right itself before the two took off.

[Maeriberii Haan]

[hr]

 

“Well, Atelier, we’ve arrived. Kind of faster than what I thought, to be honest. And here I thought I’ll have enough time to hear you sing, Atelier.” Adelheid, who had resorted to just holding on Gungnir and its trusty VOB using Avalon, communicated with Atelier, signifying that they were closing in on the area of battle. The smokes and fire from the sea combat had become clearly visible when the two entered the fray, which really started to make Adel’s blood boil with excitement, though she was definitely trying her best to keep her composure, as getting too excited on the battlefield would only screw her over.

 

“Alright, I’ll drop down here. Assuming the information we get from Renner was correct, our team’s currently split into two. You go report to Vice-commander Gavin before doing anything else, while I’m going to check on that certain unpleasant person right there.” While the trip did make Adel less unnerved by Atelier’s robotic-like behavior, she was still really glad that she finally could split away from her. She released Avalon’s grips from the white frame, and immediately transformed it into its fighter jet configuration. Right now, however, the rush that she felt regarding this battle became the main thing she was focusing on. The thrill was definitely something refreshing to feel once more, but getting it too much over her head would be dangerous.

 

“Alright, time for us to move. Don’t act too recklessly, Atelier.” And with that, Adelheid fired off her frame’s extra boosters and blazed throughout the sky, coming to a certain direction on the horizon. By then she had just realized that she was being really hypocritical.

 

[divider1]

 

“Drachenrand, there’s a Bigbox-class nearby. It’s better for you to rearm and go for a quick fix for now.”

 

Aeolia did not really like what she was seeing at the moment regarding the battle. While the group managed to handle the incoming frames well enough so far, and the support ships below had been successfully bombarded by the fortresses, Aeolia felt that they’re still really short on manpower, compared to the seemingly-endless reinforcement from the Terra Firma forces. And to make matter worse, the fortresses were not even reaching the main fleet of the Terra Firmans yet, as it kept being slowed down by the threat of the anti-fortress Catapults. At the very least, it seemed that the current reinforcement could be taken down easily enough by the combined effort of the remaining SAF Combat Frames, Drachenrand, and Skyblaze. Aeolia herself had ran out of ammunition for a while, so she was just standing there with the hope that she could get close enough to another frame to get their weapon, or go for a close-range kill. With things seemingly calming down, Aeolia decided to check on Mira-

 

-only to then realize that two Argonauts were coming after Skyblaze just as it prepared another shot. It was a clearly dangerous situation for her, and while it would be able to defend itself just fine, it would be then locked in an unfavorable position, especially with her so far being vital in taking out a chunk of the opposing forces from that distance. Aeolia was really unsure on what she should do at the time, but before it was too long, two explosions happened not far from Skyblaze’s position, and with it, a flash of red passed through that point at an extreme speed. The scientist knew about what actually happened that time, but she was not really thrilled about it. Grumpily, she fired up her comm unit, connecting Messiah to the red frame.

 

“You’re really just finding a good time to dramatically appear out of nowhere, huh?”

 

“You actually can pilot a frame? That’s honestly a surprise.”

 

“Shut up.”

 

“Anyway, as much as I would like to take over command here from you, I think you can keep it for now. Don’t screw this up, Aeolia.”  Adelheid replied, seemingly specifically using that certain tone to irk Aeolia more.

 

“This is not the time to mess around, Adelheid.” Aeolia sternly replied, not amused by Adelheid’s lines.

 

“Here, catch.” Without warnings, Adel threw one of her Caliburn rifles to the Messiah, which it sloppily caught. “You seem to be running out of ammunition, so I’ll let you borrow that for now.

 

Don’t lose it.” With that said, Adel cut her line with Aeolia, and she then connected her frame’s comm unit with the Skyblaze’s.

 

“Mira, you’re still okay, right? Go check your cannon’s condition right away, then move to a better position.” It was really not something important enough to say, since Mira would definitely do that as soon as she could as she was really experienced enough in this regard, but Adel was simply using that as a way to greet the sniper and properly inform her of her presence.

 

“Alright, alright, everyone, return your focus back on the battlefield! We’re near enough to the position of the main battle, so let’s finish this! Don’t let any of our fortresses to go down before that! Drachenrand, once you’ve finished resupplying, return to the battlefield ASAP.”

 

“Whatever you said, commander.” Adel snidely remarked. Just then, her frame’s radar had picked up the signatures of around 15 frames coming at the group’s direction. Without wasting any time, she changed her frame back into its fighter jet configuration before blazing towards the enemy’s position. It was pretty reckless, and not really something that she would do normally, but judging from the current battlefield’s condition, she would probably be in a good enough position so that she could be safe enough from the threat of being overwhelmed. And after all, there’s literally no way that the opposing frames would be able to match her speed.

 

Passing through the group at almost full speed, the Terra Firma frames started to open fire at her as she was pushed back on her seat due to the intense G-force she felt. She’s pretty used to this, however, and her mind had been accustomed in thinking and making decisions during situations like this. With only her frame’s sensors guiding her, Adel dodged the attacks of the enemy group skillfully, and then suddenly made a sharp turn to face the group directly, before speeding at their direction like a raging bull.

 

The group had scattered by the time she did that, and just as she passed through them, a direct shot disabled the extra pack on Avalon’s left wing. Grumbling a bit, Adelheid then purged that pack from the wing, but just as the pack was detached, its built-in micro missile pod opened, and the missiles started to rain on the nearby two Myrmidons while Avalon immediately transformed into its frame mode and assaulted the nearby frame using its plasma saber. The pilot was seemingly caught by surprise by that, and Avalon cleaved the frame in two without much resistance. Though immediately after that, Avalon’s right arm suffered a direct hit from what seemingly an assault cannon, and were rendered unusable. Not amused, Adelheid picked up the Caliburn she had left from her frame’s back, and fired it immediately towards the direction of the Catapult that fired at her, shooting it down after a direct hit to the cockpit.

 

[divider1]

 

“Tch, what a showoff.

 

Alright everyone, it seems we’re getting another group of enemy reinforcement coming. Around 4 Myrmidons, 4 Argonauts, and 3 Catapults this time. The armaments of the opposing frames are unclear for now, but just assume that the Catapults carry either the Anti-Ship plasma blades or their signature railcannons. Once again, don’t act recklessly, and don’t let any of them get to our fortresses!”

 

[hr]

[Makο]

“:/ root# fsck -fy

** /dev/rdisck0s3

** Root file system

    Executing fsck_hfs (version diskdev_cmds-491.6~1).

** Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.

** Checking Extents Overflow file.

** Checking Catalog file.

** Checking multi-linked files.

** Checking Catalog hierarchy.

** Checking Extended Attributes file.

** Checking volume bitmap.

** Checking Volume information

** The volume Holo appears to be OK

*****The volume was modified *****

exw 'Warning. Your volume does not have sudo permissions activated. Would you like to override?' “

 

Owen sat, expressionless, in his cockpit, wiping blood off his face. With a few disgruntled strokes of his hand, he typed “accept” into his console, finishing up the reboot process of his machine. The monitors (or at least, the ones that remained) flickered, as the entire machine shuddered to life.

 

“I really shouldn't have used UNIX-9 for Nākahi.”

 

With his one functioning hand and the help of his propulsion units, he accepted Gavin's offer to lift him up, having Gavin grab his wrist to keep his serrated vibra-claws from damaging Hailstorm's hand. Now firmly on its feet, Nākahi stumbled for a moment, before steadying itself.

 

“Holo, perform Hardware Diagnostic.”

 

One of the monitors flashed, before a list of various applications and devices appeared on-screen. An outline appeared up in the top right corner, which appeared to be the small head of a female, with strange triangular shapes coming up out of the top of her head. Her slightly haughty female voice spoke up.

 

“Reverb-Cannon R-Type Malfunction – Diagnostic Reveals Damage to Pivot

Reverb-Cannon L-Type OK

MMPods B-Type OK

BLADE R-Type Malfunction – Diagnostic Reveals Damaged Igniter

BLADE L-Type OK

ARM R-Type Malfunction – Diagnostic Reveals Damage to Structural Integrity

ARM L-Type OK

LEG R-Type OK

LEG L-Type OK

BODY Malfunction – Diagnostic Reveals Electrical Interference and Damage to Structural Integrity

ALLBOOSTERS Ok

 

MMPods Contain two Missile Layers

Reverb-Cannons Contain 58 SH-Rounds, 29 S-Rounds, 44 P-Rounds

 

Primary Power Levels Stabilized. Maintaining 57% of Maximum. Combat Not Recommended.”

 

“Well, too bad. We're going in again.”

 

Owen could've sworn his dumb-AI flickered in contempt, but he's probably just injured in the head. He gave a thumbs up to Gavin, in an attempt to let him know he'd go with him. While he might lack his primary rounds, any larger and slower vessel would get torn to bits by his Plasma Rounds, and his Superheated Rounds were still effective at picking off enemy frames.

 

He primed his thrusters in preparation to follow Gavin. Though, even this small action was enough to cause Nākahi to lose its footing, stumbling around for a moment before regaining balance. Owen let out a deep breath, both in sadness at the poor shape of his machine, and in slight anticipation of all the work he'd be able to do to it.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

"Drachenrand, there's a Bigbox-class nearby.  It's better for you to rearm and go for a quick fix for now."  The twins received Aeolia's message just as they were breaking through the formation of Myrmidons that had swarmed them, the Drach looking a little worse for wear as they blasted their way across the skies.  The remaining ships had since come under bombardment by the few Solstices that were still operable in the area, giving them enough time and space to get their way out of there and towards the aforementioned carrier.

 

"This is the SFS-XA1 Drachenrand requesting permission to land."  The call went out to the control tower on the Bigbox, while they transmitted their IFF code to make certain that they were not mistaken for an enemy.  Before long, they'd received a response.

 

"Roger, Drachenrand, we've got an open runway.  You are clear to land."  The twins gave an affirmative, and promptly set about bringing their frame in for a landing.  The Drach came screaming in from the port side of the vessel, cutting off the thrusters and letting its feet catch against the ground.  It skidded a short ways across the flight deck, before firing its thrusters up again to bring it to a stop.  Servos whined as the frame made its way over to one of the elevators which was set to take it down into the hangar within.  The frame was quickly attended to by a trio of technicians, who set about locking it down so that it would be easier to work on.  The twins set it to standby, so as to avoid causing any unintentional damage to the carrier's superstructure.

 

"Had a bit of a rough time out there didja?"  One of the technicians said as he climbed up to check the missile launchers, only to be surprised as the cockpit popped open and it was shown that there were two pilots in that frame.  The twins pulled their helmets off for just a moment, shaking their heads as they took a moment to cool themselves.

 

"Yes, yes we did."  Heinrich was the one to speak, smiling as he looked up.  The technician, as it turned out, was a fairly attractive young woman.  Unfortunately, that half of the Drach's pilots was punched in the side before he could try anything.

 

"Just get us outfitted with missiles and 53 x 136mm Gauss rounds quickly.  We need to get out there quickly."  The technician simply nodded, and set about her work while the twins waited.  There was not much to be done, and they could not go far from their frame as they needed to get back in the air as soon as they were rearmed.  Regrettably, there wasn't time to properly repair the armor.

[Astolfo]

Thankfully, Adelheid managed to destroy the two Argonauts coming after Mira, letting the girl return her focus back to her sniping target. Having already made all the adjustments prior, Mira was about to make only a few slight ones when she noticed something that made her smile. The Skyblaze had been continuously gathering plasma for the shot that would be fired, but due to the little scuffle that had taken up time from before, it had grown to a much larger than normal size. While this was bad for heating problems, this was a blessing in this case. In addition, the other two Catapults had managed to catch up to the first, and while this normally would be a threat, given how close they were to the Fortress, this was a perfect chance. Adjusting her aim once more, this time, Mira aimed for the Catapults - all of them. And then she pulled the trigger.

What happened next seemed almost surreal. A terrifyingly large beam of pure plasma blasted out, incinerating the very air around it as it tore through the air. Enveloping all three of the Catapults instantly, the pilots wouldn't have even had time to register the attack, let alone scream, before they were erased from this world altogether. The three Catapults were vaporized within a fraction of a second soundlessly, the charged attack having been forced far beyond its normal speed, trying to relieve the stress from containing all that heavily unstable plasma. The brilliant blue-white bolt pierced through the skies behind where the Catapults once were for almost another few hundred feet, before it finally dissipated into the air. With the enemies having been completely annihilated, not even explosions could result, with nothing to explode left remaining.

It was as if Zeus himself had called down a divine bolt of lightning to obliterate all those who stood before him.

[hr]
"Wowza! THAT WAS SO COOL! Did'ya see that guys?!"

Back to her usual self after having been able to unwind with a bit of massive destruction to brighten up her day, Mira briefly let out a little bit of her childish excitement over the intercom. Buzzing with joy, it took all she could to stop herself from quite literally bouncing around within her Frame. Calming down after a few deep breaths though, Mira fully understood that the battle was far from over though.

There were still the other reinforcements that were coming, and more that would be bound to come with every passing moment. Luckily, they haven't met anyone with an extremely powerful weapon or one of their dominating castle-like ships that could raze practically anything. There wasn't any use in betting on that though, as situations could always turn for the worse, and quickly at that. With that in mind, Mira once more turned to face the carnage unfolding in front of her, assessing the location of the enemy mechas in relation to her own side's members.

This was going to be a long day, but Mira had taken out three important targets herself. Smiling slightly to herself, she looked forward to taking on whatever the rest of this day would throw at her.

[Dad]

Takeo

 

He approached the main deck, his crew saluting him as he arrived.  Walking up the stairs, Takeo called out, "Status report," to Captain Robert Archer.  

 

"Sir," Archer replied.  "Terra Firma forces are currently engaged in combat with SAF forces.  Several catapults have been downed, as SAF Synchro Frames have arrived."  Takeo frowned at this.  He knew that they were coming.  It was to be expected.  But they had arrived much more quickly than he had anticipated.  "We've lost at least a dozen Argonauts and Myrmidons each, but we've managed to keep the enemy forces scattered.  We've also maintained our distance from the battle, and the Dark Tide has yet to be noticed."  Good.  The longer they maintained their distance from the brawl, the better.  There were some instances of war that were best played from afar.

 

"How far out are we, Captain?"  Takeo said peering out of the main deck.

 

"Approximately forty miles from the battle, Admiral."  Takeo nodded in reply.  They were in a prime position at the time.  The Dark Tide could fire on SAF if need be, but they continued to remain just another ship in the sea.

 

"Captain Archer."

 

"Sir."

 

"Radio Vice Admiral Adachi.  Have him--" 

 

"That won't be necessary, Captain," came a voice from the staircase behind Takeo.  Zalwara appeared out of the blue, flicking dust away from his uniform.  He stood silently now, beside Takeo.  They both stared blankly into the ocean in front of them.  The battlefield was enticing.  Takeo could feel the bloodlust seeping from Zalwara's pores as his itch for battle got the better of him.  Zalwara let a quiet sigh escape him, clenching his fists in secrecy behind his own back.  "How long, Admiral?" Zalwara asked plainly.

 

"How long what, Vice Admiral?" Takeo replied quickly.  "Since the dawn of time?  Since your last bowl movement?  You should be more specific," Takeo said undermining Zalwara once again before his own men.  Zalwara however, did not react this time, as Takeo used his own words against him.  "If you are not prepared to make a move, Admiral," Zalwara said taking a step back and turning on his heel.  "I will.  I will not standby and watch my men--"

 

"Your men?" Takeo asked with a tinge of irritation in his voice.

 

"My men.  I will not watch my men be slaughtered while you quietly ponder a strategy."  Zalwara began to storm off from the main deck, quickly walking towards the hangar.

 

"Zalwara!" Takeo barked as Zalwara began to walk away.  Zalwara froze in his place, not turning to face the Admiral.  "You will not leave the ship until I give the order.  Anytime before that and I'll have you thrown away for mutiny."  Takeo had not turned to face Zalwara either.  They had their backs to each other, but still they could feel the other's eyes piercing their own heads.  The tension in the room sweltered, as both Takeo and Zalwara now remained silent.  However, after two silent minutes, and what seemed like an eternity, Zalwara nodded, and offered a solemn "Sir."  He vanished from the main deck, and made his way to the hangar, disregarding the Admiral's warning.  

 

Takeo sighed, rubbing his forehead.  "That's the trouble with you youngsters.  You think you know everything," he said with a low growl.  Takeo began to pace, back and forth on the main deck.  "You storm into battles recklessly, no wits about you.  You tote your guns and brag of your piloting skill, when you can barely stand up straight," he continued.  "It is this arrogant mentality that will find you dead in those cold, bottomless waters.  And I will show you no pity.  I will toss you to the dogs," he said sternly.  "After all.  A dog is only as loyal as he is hungry."  Takeo began to walk back down the staircase now, also making for the hangar.

 

"All hands on deck.  Take your battle positions," Takeo ordered.  "You want blood?  I'll give it to you.  Prepare for battle," he said now stomping towards the hangar of frames and technicians.

[BANZAI!!!!]

“Get away from me dammit!” Leo yelled as he bobbed and weaved in between bursts of gauss fire, trying desperately to shake the two Argonauts and avoid taking any more damage. Though Canis was still the faster and more maneuverable machine by a wide margin, the inexperience of its pilot combined with the accuracy of of enemy fire meant that Leo could just barely stay ahead of the Argonauts. The more experienced enemy pilots were easily able to predict his movements, and the only thing keeping Leo from getting hit was his AMS, which altered the Canis’s flight path instantaneously as it read Leo’s impulses to dodge, barely keeping the machine unscathed each time the Argonauts shot at it.

Meanwhile, the rest of the enemy frames had their hands full dealing with the Savior. Its unexpected melee attack had not only destroyed one of the Myrmidons, but had also completely broken up their formation, with the Myrmidons scattering to avoid being literally bull rushed by the oncoming synchro frame. The Argonauts, for their part, managed to keep their formation more coherent, falling away from their allies and regrouping some distance away. The two catapults, being farthest away from their target and no longer having to worry about the Canis, trained their weapons on the Savior again, hoping to use her rather direct flight path to score a hit. After a second or so to account for her trajectory, their four cannons opened fire.

She raised her head after a successful charge, only to be barraged by cannon fire.  Quickly, Mel reacted by raising the Saviour’s shield, absorbing some of the larger shots.  She still took damage, mostly around her chest and exposed legs.  But Mel was pinned.  If she moved, there was a good chance her legs would be blown apart in the process.  She had to find an opening in the relentless fire to escape without being down a limb.  And out of desperation, she would do just that.  Some quick, impulsive, and reckless decision making, Mel threw her arm backwards with the shield still attached, and put a large amount of power into her thrust.

The shield projected forward, flat and open, buying her just enough time to dive in and out of the direct line of fire.  She would lose it for the time being, but she could also use this as a diversion.  With the Catapults distracted, Melissa went for Leo, blade at the ready.

The approaching friendly blip on his HUD gave Leo some small modicum of reassurance amidst the wild panic of his dogfight. Despite the advantage in performance that both SFs had over their enemies, Leo’s inexperience combined with the radical difference in their numbers and the lack of support from any friendly forces meant that the odds were, at present, against them both, and so the knowledge that Melissa was there to render direct assistance proved to be much more of a boon than it otherwise would have been. Of course, the several red enemy blips that began to follow behind it were a speedy reminder that death was still a very real possibility, and as the two Argonauts moved ever closer; their fire coming just short of impacting Leo’s frame again and again, he knew he was going to have to do something, and quickly.

[Dad]

“So, how is the battle going anyway?”

 

Miles Gründer made his way into the control room of Manhattan Base’s ops center, a disinterested look on his face as he flipped through various invoices and reports on his tablet. The officer on deck stood up from his seat, turning to acknowledge the CEO of Anaheim Avionics before speaking to him in a rather considered tone.

 

“Mr. Gründer, I know you just arrived here, but it would be wise of you to remember that this is a Terra Firma facility and not one of your company’s factories. You’re not authorized to-” the man stopped mid-sentence as Miles flashed an ID badge emblazoned with the color of his security clearance. “My apologies.”

 

“Relax, I’m not here to make your job more difficult commander. As one of Terra Firma’s principal financial backers I’m simply here to observe my investment. Im sure you can spare me a small, insignificant situation report, can’t you?” The officer wasn’t fooled by Miles’ facetious, slightly playful tone. Anaheim’s CEO was not one to be trifled with, despite his rather youthful appearance. Even putting aside his position, the man commanded considerable power and influence within Terra Firma. When Miles Gründer said “jump”, you asked “how high?”, and you certainly did not question him.

 

“I’ll have one sent to your mail in a second, though I must insist that you not distract any of the operators here any more than necessary.”

 

“I did say I wouldn’t jeopardize your operation, didn’t I?” Mile paused for a moment as he checked his mail for the situation report, which promptly appeared in his inbox after a few seconds. Things seemed to be going well. Nearly half of SAF’s attack force had been suppressed, and at present the atlantic fleet had a clear numerical advantage. However, unconfirmed reports of SAF Synchro Frames entering the combat zone had him miffed. “It seems Trilobite hasn’t been re-deployed yet has it.”

 

“No Mr. Gründer, it should still be docked underneath the Dark Tide. At this rate it doesn’t look like we’ll need it.”

 

“Get me in contact with Admiral Yoshino, would you? He’s still in command of that ship if I’m not mistaken.”

 

“He’s likely busy directing the battlegroup. I doubt you’ll be able t-”

 

“Now, commander, if you would be so kind.” Miles’ insistence quashed the thought of any further deliberation, and after the order was given one of the ops center’s monitors began to display video feed from the Dark Tide’s bridge, while at the same time a small camera drone descended from the ceiling to capture feed of Miles to display on the dark Tide’s own monitor. This rather quaint video communication system was normally only put to use outside of battle, but Miles’ demands necessitated that it be used to quickly establish a line of communication to the Dark Tide’s commanding officer.

 

A soft, quiet chime grabbed Takeo’s attention before be could step away from the bridge.   Turning around, the monitor buzzed to life as a transmission came into view.  To his absolute displeasure, Takeo was greeted by the frightening mug of Miles Gründer.  This man, CEO of Anaheim, the equivalent of a puppy on the lap of a princess, disgusted Takeo.  It was the silent, ‘holier than thou’ attitude that really set Takeo off.  Trying to shake the anger from himself without causing a scene, Takeo sighed silently.  With a silent grunt, Takeo acknowledged Miles.  “And to what do I owe the pleasure, Mr. Gründer?” he asked with a very flat tone.

 

“Good afternoon, Admiral. I trust the battle is going well?” Miles wore a rather insincere smile; the kind of expression one made when feigning interest in a subject.

 

Takeo remained silent for just a moment.  His hair stood on edge in disgust.  “Well is not a term I would use to describe the battle, Mr. Gründer.”  Takeo folded his arms behind his back, and spread his legs.  “Well is a term I would use when describing the physical condition of my ill grandmother, or the state of mind I feel when playing a game of chess.  Well, is a term I would use when I felt the need to undermine an inferior enemy.  So no, I would not say the battle is going well, Mr. Gründer.”  Takeo stood up straight, relaxing at last.  “If you are inquiring about the status of my men and if the battle is proceeding accordingly, then it would be best if my answer was, no.”  

 

“So SAF is giving you trouble then, is that it? Come now Admiral Yoshino, a brilliant tactician such as yourself shouldn’t be having much difficulty against their forces, right? Especially not when my company has been gracious enough to provide you with our latest prototype weapon. Oh, how is the Trilobite by the way? I trust that it’s been performing admirably?”

 

“Difficulty?” Takeo said with a raised eyebrow.  “Don’t be mistaken, Mr. Gründer.  My men are being organized in the most efficient formation possible. With that in mind, some unforeseen circumstances have arisen.  No thanks to your most gracious company.  The Trilobite remains docked, gathering dust as it should.  I see no reason to use your prototype when my men are performing as well as they are.”

 

“That’s good news indeed. However Admiral it would be most unfortunate if my research staff were denied this opportunity to gather valuable combat data, don’t you agree? Surely Trilobite is ready to be deployed is it not?”

 

“Tch.”  His hand was being forced.  “Whether it is ready to be deployed depends on the amount of work your team actually put in.  If they half-assed their jobs, then it is not my say to determine whether or not the Trilobite is functional.”  But if he didn’t comply, he would put the funding of Terra Firma at risk.  Not to mention, he would have to stare Miles in the face for longer than he wanted.  “You will get your combat data,” Takeo said with a wave of his hand.  “And I will entrust it to very capable pilots.”

 

“Excellent. I’m glad we see eye to eye Admiral. I’ll be expecting a full report on its performance.” Miles’ smile changed to more of a smirk. “Best of of luck.” With that, Miles gestured to the commander to terminate the transmission, and a second later the screen went black as the feed was cut.

 

“Pompous little brat,” Takeo said to himself.  Turning to face his crew, Takeo began issuing orders.  “Dispatch the Trilobite,” he said reluctantly.  “And send Zalwara and Saria with it.  I don’t want a scratch on it.  It will be one less thing to hear Miles cry about.”  Takeo made his way off of the bridge, and disappeared behind the large metallic doors.

[Mugendramon]

The alarm blared wildly, sounding through the Dark Tide.  This was a declaration of battle.  Three crewmen approached Zalwara, just as he turned into the hangar.  

 

“Sir!”

 

He stopped, already agitated from his exchange with Takeo.  “What is it?”

 

“We have orders to launch the Trilobite.  And--”

 

“The Trilobite?”

 

“The weapons secured below deck, sir.”

 

Zalwara’s expression didn’t change.  “And why are you telling me?”

 

“Well, sir,” one of them said a bit unsure of how to approach.  “You’ve been selected as an escort, along with one of the new arrivals.  Nisaria Black.”

 

Zalwara scoffed.  He brushed past the crewmen, and approached the Shizu.  Dismissing the mechanics who were still tidying it for whatever reason, Zalwara began his ascent into the cockpit of the frame.  “Get Nisaria immediately,” he called down.  “We launch now.”

 

The crewmen saluted their Vice Admiral and scurried away, making a mad dash to locate Nisaria.  Having returned to his room but a few moments ago, there were three loud, urgent knocks at Nisaria’s door, causing him to turn around and open it right away.

 

“Sorry to disturb you sir.  But you’ve been asked to escort the Trilobite weapon off of the Dark Tide and into battle.  Please report to the hangar immediately and prepare to launch right away.”

 

And with that simple message, the crewmen left Nisaria to his own.  And below deck, the Trilobite was being prepared for launch.  

 

All around the weapon men and women were scrambling.  “Online!”

 

“Propulsion?”

 

“Check!”

 

“Weapons and defense systems?”

 

“Fully functional!”

 

“Ammunition?”

 

“Stocked and ready to go!”

 

“Trilobite is go!  I repeat, the Trilobite has the green light!  Launch, launch, launch!”

 

An enormous hatch opened wide-mouthed below the Trilobite, as an enormous, heavy-duty claw lowered it a few feet below the hatch doors.  With a loud thunk, the Trilobite was released into the water below.

 

 

Initializing TF-012RDW Operating System.....................DONE

Acquiring geospatial coordinates............................DONE

Receiving target coordinates................................DONE

Confirming engagement orders................................DONE

Initializing Rear Thrusters.................................DONE

 

[TF-012RDW TRILOBITE MOBILIZE]

 

The craft had not traversed thirty seconds in the water when its propulsion brought it to mach speed, shaking the escort fleet and erasing any doubt that no human crew could have survived inside during acceleration.

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

“Sorry to disturb you sir.  But you’ve been asked to escort the Trilobite weapon off of the Dark Tide and into battle.  Please report to the hangar immediately and prepare to launch right away.”

 

"Ah, so it's already time, eh? Sure then, I'll get myself ready in a minute."

 

After answering that, Nisaria was left on his own inside of his room. Trilobite...what exactly that name meant missed him completely. An experimental weapon of sort? It's probably the reason his captain sent him here temporarily. Well, in that case then he'd just have to do his best as usual. Protecting Trilobite, whatever it was, wouldn't be much different than how he fought so far in protecting Ceres. Taking a deep breath, after stretching his muscles a little bit, the young pilot immediately ran off towards the hangar.

 

"Has my frame been maintained and restocked?" Nisaria asked a technician as he hurriedly wore his pilot suit over his current outfit. His tone and expression was still pretty lighthearted without any sign of him being pressured with the mission ahead of him, and it visibly disturbed the technician.

 

"The white one? Yeah, it's ready to be deployed now."

"Sweet, thanks for that, sir!" Taking his helmet from its storage, Nisaria then left the technician behind to go towards his frame, not seemingly be bothered with the fact that the technician muttering something to himself about why would a young kid like him be around piloting an SF of all things. He ran straight through the stairs leading towards his frame, and immediately entered its cockpit. He made sure that all of the frame's equipment was online before he closed the cockpit hatch, and turned on the AMS system inside.

 

"Well...let's see...Allegorical Manipulation System, active. Hyperion Cannon, online.

 

That's it then. Nisaria Black - Stellarion is ready to launch!"

 

After affirming that his frame was in condition to launch now, Nisaria then moved his frame towards the launch catapult, where the launch pad hooked his frame's legs to it. As he waited to get the green light from the crew to launch, his mind drifted away momentarily. Thinking about his earlier meeting and training session with Zalwara, thinking about what the Vice-Admiral had taught him. No...more accurately, he was thinking about why Zalwara bothered to teach him in the first place.

 

"Leaving a mark...huh? So...why does something like that matters in the first place once you've died? Yeah...strange guy, he is."

 

Even then, what he had learned was quite important, and Nisaria knew it. It was...different than his own training when he's under Mr. White, but that difference was where it mattered. Well, hopefully he still could train under the Vice-Admiral once again after this one mission is over. That would be pretty fun.

 

Though, he did start to miss his captain and Rio on Ceres, even if he hadn't been here for too long. Despite of the Dark Tide being as nice as it was, Saria felt that it lacked the warmth he felt when he's on-board of the Ceres. He'd still be there for several days at least. Maybe...he should try calling them to see how they're doing without him there?

 

"Stellarion, you're clear to go off now."

That voice snapped Saria back to earth. Thinking about those kind of stuffs should be reserved for later on. This time, his mission is clear. Escort the Trilobite along with Zalwara. As a soldier, what mattered was to fulfill that mission as best as he could. If he's dead here, he wouldn't be able to train with Zalwara again or return to Ceres anyway. So...for that, he had to survive and complete this mission.

 

And thus, with a smile, Nisaria readied himself.

 

"Bring it on then! XCF-005KY Stellarion, launching!"

 

---

[BANZAI!!!!]

A quick look at the feed of one of his auxiliary cameras showed Leo that the Savior had lost its shield, and though it had managed to break away from the frames that had been shooting at it, the majority of them save one missing Myrmidon had not lost sight of it, and were now pursuing it toward the airspace in which Leo was currently flying. A few more precious seconds and they would all be upon him, which would drastically limit his maneuvering options and surely result in him taking a hit much worse than the few glancing blows canis had taken so far. As one of the Argonauts pursuing him began to reload its GAR, Leo saw his chance.

With the assistance of his AMS and the Canis’s natural flexibility, Leo, acting almost entirely on instinct rather than any concrete thought of his own, sheathed his frame’s plasma saber faster than the enemy frame was able to reload its clip, narrowly avoiding another burst of fire from the other Argonaut as he took the second rifle from his shield and opened fire with both guns, letting loose a stream of plasma bolts from both guns in alternating succession, which thanks to their rate of fire roughly mimicked the effect of an automatic weapon. Due to the speed of Leo’s maneuver, neither Argonaut had time to properly react, and their careless pursuit flight path made them easy targets, with both machines being consumed by plasma blooms in rapid succession, their remnants falling to the ocean below trailing black smoke. Leo winced again, suppressing the dread and physical pain that were sure to accompany the realization that he had killed a second time, and turned his frame to face his ally and the enemies that were pursuing her, flying toward them in order to support his teammate.

Melissa was blazing towards Leo, carefully monitoring her radar.  As she closed just inches from the Canis, the Saviour came to an almost silent stop, and fell backwards into the enemy, faking a fall.  Throwing her shoulder thrusters into full, the Saviour rotated backwards instantly, catching one of the Myrmidon’s off guard.  This quick succession caused the mech to be cleaved in two at the waist, before exploding into a violent pile of scrap metal and smoke.  The final Myrmidon stared down Melissa, but her sudden aggressive nature and experience overtook the enemy pilot quickly.  Weaving through gunfire, Melissa took as little damage as possible, before staring down the Myrmidon face to face.  The pilot froze before her, unable to pull the trigger on his enemy.  Melissa sheathed her short sword, and simply grasped the Myrmidon’s head, and pulled it off with the Saviour’s heavy hands.  She tossed the pilot’s cockpit away, allowing him to escape before his Myrmidon shattered to pieces.

As Melissa tangled with the Myrmidons, Leo flew over her toward the remaining enemy frames. With help from his AMS, Leo weaved in and out of GAR fire from the Argonauts as he closed distance. “If she can do that, then maybe i can avoid killing those pilots too.” Leo thought as he watched Mel effortlessly disable the final pursuing Myrmidon. Following Mel’s example, Leo aimed his rifle at one of the ‘nauts’ arms taking it off with a well placed plasma bolt as the three frames broke formation to engage the Canis. Ignoring the other two, Leo turned his machine to follow the Argonaut he’d just damaged, keeping his rifles locked on it and opening fire when he had a clear shot, taking off a leg and its other arm and, like he’d intended, forcing the pilot to bail out as the frame fell, unable to keep itself airborne with half of its thrusters missing.

“Yes!”

Leo’s feeling of accomplishment was short lived, however, as more GAR fire came dangerously close to his frame’s head, missing by mere feet. An AMS-assisted rapid turn toward the remaining two Argonauts saved Leo from being hit by railcannon fire from one of the catapults, which were just now catching up to their escorts. Shock induced shivers ran down Leo’s body as enemy lockon warnings blared in the Canis’s cockpit. Ignoring them, Leo ascended up toward the argonauts, exchanging fire with the enemy machines as he destroyed one of his targets’ heads with a plasma bolt as he passed between the two machines, gaining altitude and getting out of the catapults’ line of fire.

Melissa dashed just East of Leo, as he blazed past two remaining Argonauts.  Flanking around, Melissa looked for an opening.  However, without her shield, she was extremely vulnerable.  Taking this into consideration, Melissa’s only option was to hopefully avoid heavy fire, and to get in close to her target.  Thanks to excellent targeting by Leo, he managed to shatter the head of one Argonaut and leave the pilot exposed.  Melissa threatened the Saviour towards the headless Argonaut, scaring the now lone pilot off.  He ejected from his seat, and vanished into the distance while his Argonaut plummeted into the sea.  With one Argonaut remaining, Melissa went on the offensive.  

Regrettably, the final Argonaut focused all of its fire onto Leo.  Fortunately, he had a keen sense in battle, weaving in and out while avoiding fire. With the Argonaut distracted, Melissa sped towards the final enemy in her way.  As she closed the distance, Melissa drew her blade, and took aim at the Argonaut’s legs.  One at a time, she sliced them off, starting with the left.  The Argonaut immediately lost propulsion, and began to fall backwards towards the Saviour, until they were looking each other straight in the face.  And at this point, Melissa had already prepared her next strike.  With extreme precision, she jammed the Saviour’s short sword into the Argonaut’s cockpit, just below the pilot’s seat.  Melissa flattened the blade, and forced the pilot’s seat out of the Argonaut.  She threw the pilot’s seat into the distance, waiting for him to hit his parachute.  “Find a new occupation!” Melissa taunted as the pilot sailed into the distance.

All that remained now were the two catapults, which were just now approaching the firing range of the two synchro frames. Leo, piloting the faster of the two, came upon them first, severing one of the machines’ weapon arms with a re-drawn plasma saber before turning the Canis on a dime behind the two and taking out the same catapult’s leg with a plasma bolt.

Melissa stayed closely behind the Canis, using the draft to pick up speed.  Breaking from the formation, the Saviour drew back and sneaked behind a catapult, clipping it with a single swing of its short sword.  Capitalizing on the falling Catapult, Melissa stabbed the Saviour’s short sword into the Catapult, and ripped it wide left, cleaving the Catapult in two.

A satisfied silence overcame communications between Leo and Melissa, as they watched the last of their enemies fall into the waters below.  Having been down a shield and now a weapon, Melissa knew she would have to retreat for now.  Not wanting to leave Leo alone, she spoke up.

“We should fall back for now.  No sense in staying out in the open without munitions.”  Pushing the Saviour in Gavin’s direction, Melissa urged Leo to follow her.  “Let’s try to catch up with Gavin and the others.”

“Roger that.” Leo’s voice was shaky, but he was relieved to be out of danger. He quickly turned his machine around to follow the Savior, giving Canis’s head one last swivel to look back at the contrails and smoke from their dogfight before catching up.

 

---

 

The smoke from SAF’s decimated fleet grew smaller as Gavin ascended, making sure that the Nakahi was close behind him and periodically checking the feed from Hailstorm’s radome for enemies. Thankfully, their exfiltration was rather uneventful, save for a few minor scares regarding the damaged Nakahi’s engines. As they neared a flight of SAF support vessels, Gavin turned the Hailstorm’s head around 180 degrees, facing the Nakahi with its optics and flashing them on and off in morse code.

“Heading for the Bigbox at 3 o’clock high. Sending crew message regarding damages & ammo. Will do a quick perimeter sweep while you land, then I’ll join you.”

With that, Gavin turned his optics back toward his destination, slowing Hailstorm to allow the Nakahi to approach first before turning to check the surrounding airspace. After a few seconds, he radioed in to the Bigbox’s bridge.

“Lieutenant Commander Gavin Decker of the Tactical Response Advance Platoon here. I’ve got a Lieutenant JG Bell with me, his SF is damaged and incapable of radio communications. He’s in need of emergency repairs and resupply and I’d like to request a reload for my weapons if you can spare the munitions. Requesting permission to come aboard.”

“Permission granted, Lieutenant Commander. We’ve already got one of yours aboard… readout says it's “Drachenrand”.”

“Well isn’t that convenient. Bell’s on approach now, I’ll be joining him after I sweep your airspace for you.”

“Much obliged. See you when you land, sir. Over and out.”

 

[BANZAI!!!!]

“What do you mean the frame is in no shape to fly?!”  Inside the aforementioned Bigbox, the Drackenmoore twins were standing in front of their frame, which was currently undergoing significant repairs to its armor plating, with a crew chief preventing them from getting back into the cockpit.  Both were looking notably distressed, and Heinreich was sporting a fresh red handprint across his left cheek.

“I mean there’s no way in hell I’m letting you two get in that thing until its armor’s repaired!”  The crew chief in question was an older man, in his mid 50s by the look of it, of short muscular stature and sporting a thick mustache of salt-and-pepper gray.  It was the only hair on his face or head.  “I get that you two wanna get back in the fight, but with the armor in the shape it’s in it’d be suicide!  Yer just gonna have to sit tight until we can get it replaced.”

“And how long will that take?”  Johan, while still visibly upset, managed to keep his voice a bit more under control than his brother had.  The chief raised a hand to stroke his mustache while he thought, occasionally looking back up at the frame standing above them.

“I’d say another hour and a half under ideal circumstances.  As is, it’ll prolly take longer.  That’s all I can say for sure.”  From the look on the pilots’ faces they looked like they were about to punch him, and so to ward them off he gestured over to the marines standing guard over the hangar.  “Look, only way I’m lettin’ you two out is if your CO comes down here and orders me.  So go grab a hot meal from the mess and wait.”  The two exchanged a look with each other, then the marines, the chief, and then themselves again.  Finally, they turned about in unison and stormed off intent on finding a radio they could hijack for a few minutes.

---

Owen’s body jerked suddenly, sending him out of the daze he had currently been sitting in. He blinked rapidly, both to regain his senses and to clear the blood from his eyes. At some point during his approach of the large friendly airship, he must’ve lost consciousness and gone into a daydreaming autopilot, supported by his AMS unit.

He looked out his viewfinder, as well as through the big hole in his cockpit. He had touched down in a hanger of sorts, judging from the cranes suspended from the ceiling and the safety-gear-clad men running to and fro, carrying all sorts of mechanical nonsense. For a moment, he had seen his new friend Gavin in front of his frame, before dazily watching him fly off back out into the open skies. Owen shook his head once more.

“Ok, ok, focus. Gotta… get repaired. Maybe a bandaid. Or something.”

Owen motioned Nakahi forward, hoping to head in the direction of the repair staff, though he didn’t actually know where he was going. However, the structural compromises that Nakahi had maintained throughout the battle had finally caught up with the ill-fated machine, with its first step giving out under its feet. The staff aboard the vessel fled as the frame toppled into one of the catcher’s nets that were strewn about the landing bay, as on-site Loader Frames rushed to lift the now-collapsed frame and start the repair process.

He had found himself on the floor of the hangar, apparently having been tossed from his own machine. He found the strength to get himself up to his feet, hobbling over to his damaged frame. A technician noticed him, as well as the blood dripping from his head, and ran over.

“Sir, we need to get you to the medical bay, immediately!” He said, grabbing Owen’s sleeve and pulling. Owen pulled back releasing the grip of the man.

“I’m...I’m fine. I gotta oversee repairs. Just...gimme a moment.”

The technician hesitated for a moment, before pulling out a small PDA from his pocket.

“I’ll make a list for those doing the repairs. But you need to head to the medbay, now!”

The man grabbed the same sleeve again, this time with Owen not resisting.

“Ok...ok, alright, that’s fine. You see...you see that right arm? Take the whole thing off. It’s too far gone. Useless weight.”

They turned a corner leading out of the landing bay, traveling down a brightly lit grey hallway.

“And-and recalibrate the Reverb-Cannon on the right… it’s misaligned. So long as–christ, my head hurts–so long as it’s in the right place, I can handle the rest when I do my cockpit calibrations.”

The two had reached medbay entrance, with the technician motioning him inside. Owen hesitated, but ultimately found his way in. Just as the door shut behind him, he quickly leaned back out.

“Oh, and when you patch that hole, use whatever the lightest material you can! Just enough to keep in quiet in the cockpit!”

The technician was already halfway down the hallway, as the medic inside the medbay tried to pull a resisting Owen back inside.

“Oh, and ADD AN EXTERNAL COMM UNIT! I NEED TO BE ABLE TO TALK!”

The medic finally won out against the wounded man, as the door shut him inside.

---

“Decker here. Everything’s all clear. I’m coming in.”

“Roger that. Hailstorm you are cleared for land-.”  The communication was interrupted as a second link was established, filled with static for a few moments, before a pair of voices could be clearly made out over it.

“Vizekommondant,” one of them said, before the other spoke up.

“Are you even sure this is the right frequency?  For all we know you just contacted the enemy.”  There was a brief sound of blows being exchanged, and a few words in German that were said too far from the mic to be picked up clearly.

“You’re joking, right? Please for the love of god tell me that isn’t you two chuckleheads on the other end of this transmission.”  The sounds of confrontation stopped, there was a pause, and then one of the voices spoke up again.

“No such luck today, Vizekommonda- ow!  I mean Korvettenkapit-”

“Get the hell back to wherever you belong! This isn’t the base you morons!” Gavin pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.  There was a shuffling sound on the other end, and the calmer of the twins spoke over the link.

“That is why we needed to contact you, Korvettenkapitän Decker.”  There was a brief pause as Johan had to chide his brother about disrespecting their commanding officer.  “Der Drachenrand is, as Chief Hammonds put it, ‘in no shape to fly, and will not be for some time.’  He’s being overly dramatic about the state of its armor, and won’t let us take off without your order.”

“And you thought the best way to handle this was contacting me on an unencrypted channel?” Gavin let out an audible groan. “God its like they never even trained you two…”  What came over the link next was two voices trying to speak rapidly in German at the same time, before the twins remembered that their CO didn’t speak the language and decided that it was Heinreich’s turn to speak.

“Give us some credit,” he began with an audible edge of annoyance in his voice, “The signal is encrypted.  We would have been speaking three minutes ago otherwise.  Honestly, it’s like you thi-” he was cut off before he could finish whatever he was about to say.  From the muffled shouting, it might well have been Johan clapping a hand over his brother’s mouth.

“So you’ll come right to the hangar when you land, ja?”

“As opposed to the hundreds of other places I’d park Skunk. Just… ugh don’t let the crew catch you and get the hell back to wherever you’re supposed to be, ok? I don’t have time to deal with reprimanding you two right now.”

“Ja, Korvettenkapitän.”  They said in unison, before shutting off the transmission.

“Jesus Christ those two are going to be the death of me one day.” Gavin sighed as he brought his frame in for a landing, walking it to the hangar shortly after receiving the all-clear.

---

A few minutes later, Gavin found himself on the floor of the Bigbox’s hangar, giving Hailstorm a good once-over before turning his attention to the Drachenrand a few stalls down. The twins were busy having an argument with the man who he assumed was Crew Chief Hammonds, apparently having decided to try and convince him to let them launch once again. Before the situation was able to get out of hand, Gavin made his way over.

“My men aren’t giving you any trouble are they?”  The rather short man seemed startled by Gavin’s voice, and he quickly brought a hand up to salute the officer.  To their credit, the twins turned about to do the same.

“No sir,” Hammonds began, with a quick glance between the two pilots.  “I was just explaining to them that flying back out into that lead storm with their frame’s armor in the shape it is would be suicidal.  I’m sure you agree.”  He gestured up at the large black frame behind them, its external armor plating marred and pocked with bullet holes of varying sizes.

“How long is it going to take you to replace those armor plates, chief? That synchro frame is still fully functional from the looks of it. This shouldn’t take long, yes?”  Hammonds seemed to grow a bit nervous at the question, clearing his throat before he answered.

“Under… under ideal conditions, which to be frank these ain’t, it’d take an hour and a half to get the armor replaced.  Forty-five minutes if we were gonna patch it so things’d hold up under flight, but given the specs on this I’m pretty sure there’re some systems the patches might funk up.  As is, I’d say two hours minimum to strip the armor down and get fresh plates on and hooked up so everything works properly.”  He didn’t say much else, but the brief look he shot the twins suggested they’d told him about the Drachenrand’s SDS.

“Look, chief, I appreciate the gesture, and normally I’d give you the ok to fix up my boys’ frame here, but we don’t exactly have two hours to wait for my squad to get back in the field. If you can get our frames reloaded and get us back out there as quickly as possible I’d appreciate it. Trust me these two here can handle that frame in its current condition. They’ll be alright.”  The chief looked at the twins, then at the frame, and then at Gavin.  It was obvious by the look on his face that he felt the Lieutenant Commander was wrong, but he was uncertain how to approach the situation.  Finally, tentatively, he spoke up.

“Is… is that an order, sir?”  The look on his face was begging Gavin to reconsider, and was the sort of look that only came from firsthand experience with similar situations. Gavin gave him an understanding nod. “Do what you can, alright? You’ve got 20 minutes before we need to be back out there.”  The chief nodded, gave a salute, and turned around to get his crew working faster on the frame. Gavin then turned his attention to the twins, waiting to speak until the chief was out of earshot. “You two owe me one, got it?”  The two nodded their heads, and went back along after the chief to make sure things went along properly.

---

“Please, just sit still. I need to apply this bandage properly!”

Owen couldn’t stop fidgeting in his seat as the Medic tended to the wound on his forehead. It was a light wound, without major consequence, though it bled enough to give Owen occasional lapses in consciousness. However, blood loss was the last thing on Owen’s worried mind. In him being pressured into the medbay, he forgot just how uncomfortable he was with others tinkering with his frame. At least, without him being right there to supervise.

“...And...there.” With a snip, the Medic cut the extra bandages off. “All don- eep!”

The stool Owen was sitting on practically flew against the wall as Owen rushed out of the room, eliciting a small yelp from the Medic. Remembering the path he had taken to get to the medbay, Owen practically started sprinting down the hallway, a pace he couldn’t keep up as the pain in his head throbbed to new heights.

Owen turned the corner leading into landing bay at his new ‘briskly-slow’ pace, he could see the techies just beginning to work on Nakahi, having begun the process of tearing off the dead arm. He was already panicked, but practically froze in horror when he saw where the techs had elected to start the cutting process. He practically tripped over himself to get within yelling range fast enough.

“No, no-no-no-no-no!” He gasped between his breaths and pain winces. “Not there! If you cut there, I can’t regulate where the extra arm power is being sent! Cut seven centimeters lower! The power regulator doesn’t have any sensors there, and when you close the loop with itself, I’ll be able to reassign that power accordingly!”

The techies weidling the saw almost tripped off their lift when they heard him yelling. They gave each other a quick look, before the one on the left called out to the approaching pilot.

“With all due respect, sir, we’ve been working with Frames for years stacked on years. I’ve personally done this type of operation countless times, my partner dozens more,” he stated, gesturing to his nodding friend. “I think we know what we’re doing. If I made that cut you’re suggested, I’d bore right into the circuits that regulate elbow joint control.”

Owen reached the base of the lift, now completely out of breath. After a few moments of gasping, he looked back up at the workers.

“That...may be true. But you’ve...you’ve never worked on my frame before. Christ, my head hurts.” He grasped his head as if to keep it from falling off, slightly rocking in place. His wincing face slightly decompressed, as he seemed to calm down.

“I’ve modified almost every part of Nakahi, from its shoulder joint angles to the way the grips on the feet are designed. In order to compensate for the extra equipment and wiring needed to operate the two Reverb-Cannons, I had to move the power regulator circuits lower down on the arm, and the joint control circuits even lower than that. If you cut right there, I’ll be leaking a lot of valuable power.”

The two techies gave each other another, if more skeptical, look, before the one on the right called out.

“You sure about that boss?”

“Trust me.”

The right techie shrugged, before starting the cutting process as before, save for being seven centimeters lower. After the cutting tool had gone all the way through, they both peered inside the cut.

“...Huh. No circuits.”

Giving a sort of sage nod, Owen placed a hand on the leg of his frame.

“I know this machine inside-out, upside-down. Before you guys start making any risky cuts or bolts, you’d better let me know!” Owen yelled, somehow non-aggressively, before hobbling off to a nearby crate for a seat.

---

“What were you two thinking, running off and commandeering a radio like that?  This isn’t your ship you know.” Gavin had managed to get the twins alone and out of earshot of the mechanics who were busy patching what parts of the Drachenrand they could.  The twins, for their part, looked rather pleased with themselves.

“Well, Vi- ow! Korvettenkapitän,” Heinreich began, having received an elbow to the side from his brother before he could insult the man, “we were thinking that you needed to know about the situation as soon as possible.  Otherwise, you might not have found out at all and we would have been stuck here until the battle ended.”

“Even if that were the case, do you honestly think that that was your best course of action? When you two act this way it reflects poorly on me and Commander Schwarzschild, you know. Its not just you chuckleheads I’m worried about.”  The twins seemed like they were about to answer, before stopping to think about what Gavin had said.  They were quiet for some time, before Johan spoke up.

“Be that as it may, Korvettenkapitän, you know damned well that every single frame we have is needed out there.  Chief Hammonds was very clear about only letting us take off if he got a direct order from you to let us, so the plan had been to grab the radio, get in touch with you, take it over to Hammonds, and let you talk to him that way.  Also, we didn’t commandeer it.  We had permission.”

“From who, exactly?”

“Lieutenant Richards, up on the comms deck.  She told us where we could find a portable radio, and said we could make use of it for a few minutes if no one else needed it.”

Gavin sighed. There was little point in trying to lecture them for the umpteenth time. “Alright, fine. In any case, I’ve got to go check up on another pilot i came in here with. You two stick with me, can’t have you getting into any trouble before we launch.”

“Come on, when was the last time we got into trouble before a mission?”  The twins smirked, and followed along after Gavin as he made his way towards the Nakahi. Upon inspection, the black SF was indeed in pretty bad shape, with most of its frame having taken projectile damage and some sections quite clearly no longer functioning. Still, like its brethren in TRAP, the Nakahi was a tough nut to crack, having made it onboard the Bigbox mostly intact and capable of flight, a testament to both its design team and the skills of its pilot. It didn’t take long for Gavin to spot who he assumed was Ensign Bell perched atop an ammunition crate nearby, blood staining some of his bandages as he kept a close eye on the mechanics working on his machine.

“Owen Bell I take it?”

The bloodied pilot blinked a few times, as if to break his concentration to address the newly approached man. He turned to him, giving him a blank stare as he did.

“Er...yes. Yes, that’s me. What can I do for-...I-uh, will this take long? I need to concentrate on these mechaheads who are tinkering on my machine.”

“Gavin Decker.” Gavin extended his hand to offer Owen a handshake. “You doing alright Ensign?”

Upon hearing the name, Owen seemed to perk up quite a bit. Hopping to his feet, wobbly as they may be, he accepted the handshake gleefully.

“Pleasure to meet you, Sir. I’m… well, I suppose the medical records would call it ‘passable.’ Just working to get my machine in workable order, is all.” He peered back at his machine with skeptical eyes, though he found the techs to be doing nothing objectionable. Yet. He turned back towards Gavin.

“Thanks for giving me a hand back there. Needless to say, I was in trouble. Can’t even rightfully say I made it out in one piece, I can’t.”

“You held your own out there, don’t get too down on yourself.” Gavin glanced at the Nakahi for a moment. “Its still operational, right?”

Owen held his hand up to his chin, in a thinker sort of way. He looked back at his frame.

“Well… that depends on your definition of operational. It still turns on, I think. Boosters are all operational. Though it lost about half of its maximum power due to structural damage, with the modifications these techs should be doing, I might be able to squeeze out around…”

He pulled out a small PDA from his pocket, punching in a few numbers whilst whispering to himself.

“...72 percent? I think I can manage that, calculating weight loss and rerouted power.” Putting away his PDA, he sighed. “She’s seen better days.”

“It took him only a couple of seconds to run a diagnostic on something that complex… This guy’s pretty interesting.” Gavin scratched his chin.   In the mean time, the twins had since separated from the lieutenant commander and had approached the Nakahi to examine it themselves.  They said a few words to each other in their native tongue, but little else.

“Looks like you and your SF are both ‘passable’ then. Look, I’m not your CO so I can’t in good faith order you to sortie again, but my squad’s shorthanded and you’re the only other pilot with a machine that can keep up with ours. We could use your help out there.”

“If I may, Korvettenkapitän,” it was Johan speaking, not having turned away from the Nakahi, “this frame would be best suited to a role akin to that of the Skyblaze or Gungnir.  Perhaps it would be best if it and its pilot were to launch after us, and link up with Mira.”

“And you two aren’t going to link up with Mira and Aeolia yourselves? I’m sure they could use the help and if memory serves you’re their squadmates.”  This time it was Heinreich who spoke up.

“We suspect that the way things are going, we will not be able to return to them.  In all likelihood, the Drachenrand would be better served hunting down the enemy’s ships wherever they are.”

“Isn’t the Drachenrand as damaged as it is precisely because you two tried doing that on your own? Or am I wrongfully assuming that the first thing you did after we broke formation was charge straight at their fleet. The way this battle’s going, it’d be best if the six of us formed back up after we launch.”

“Der Drachenrand is hardly damaged at all!  The only one who thought so was Chief Hammonds.  Though yes, we did attack the enemy’s ships directly, and because of that the formation of Solstices was bought enough time to regroup and fire upon them.”  It was Johan who answered Gavin’s accusation, though still without turning away from the Nakahi.

During this conversation between the twins and Gavin, Owen had run off to talk to one of the techs, apparently quite flustered.

“You rotate it right, then left. This gives her Reverb’s the maximum amount of accuracy at the cost of having to oil them just a bit more often than usual.”

“But sir, other cannons similar to the Reverb’s use a right-right. How could we have known?”

“I-...well, that’s true. Just do it right-left this time, alright?” Just as he was turning away, he stopped himself in his tracks. “The radio unit is installed, yes?”

The tech stood still for a moment, sort of awkwardly.

“Well, it’s… installed. Just not plugged in. We… can’t find the outlet.”

“Directly behind the headrest. There’s a small auxiliary plugin in a small flip-up case.” Having directed the tech, he moved on back to the Gavin and his compatriots.

“Gavin, sir, I can’t stand owing you one, especially considering it was my hide on the line. I’ll deploy as soon as I’m able.” He turned to the nearest twin. “You said–oh, I’m Owen, by the way. Nice to meet you–you said I should link up with a… Mira, right? Does she have a callsign, or... “

“Callsign ‘Skyblaze’ is how you would find her.”  It was Johan who spoke up, finally turning away from the Nakahi, along with his brother to address Owen.  The twins stuck out their right hands simultaneously towards the new pilot, and managed to perfectly mimic each other’s smiles.

“I’m Heinreich,” the one on the left said, and cocked his head to the right, “and he’s Johan.”  There was a pause, and then they spoke in unison.  “Your frame looks to have a few design flaws.  For example, its superstructure does not look to have been built with the intention of carrying such heavy kanones upon its shoulders.”

Owen looked back at the aforementioned Reverb-Cannons, a couple of 150mm monsters practically strapped to the shoulder of the ex-CQC frame.

“Ah, those. Funny story about that. When I was involved in the design and development of Nakahi, it was originally gonna be a brawler sort of Frame. But the frame had a nasty habit of cracking under its own speed, nearly leading to the project being scrapped.”

He walked over to the frame, now mostly recovered of his light-headedness from before, and gave the feet a swift kick.

“Someone in R&D noticed that, during one of the trials, it could handle shoulder-mounted weight deceptively well, particularly on the upper half of the shoulders. So, I had the bright idea of sticking some cannons on the machine.”

He walked over to a nearby ammo crate, and pried it open, pulling out a rather large ballistic shell.

“However, since the machine is also a testbed of sorts, we couldn’t find enough room to squeeze in a more advanced cannon system along with the Mute Field, so we had to go with ballistic. Luckily, even disadvantages can work in our favor, as I designed a select group of specialty shells to fit different purposes. Good luck pulling THAT off with a plasma cannon.”  The twins smirked, exchanged a few words in German with each other, and turned about to face the Nakahi’s pilot.

“Ja, ja, it certainly has an advantage over a plasma cannon,” the one on the left said, both perfectly matching each other’s expression and posture.

“Though it would hardly be of help if an enemy should close with you.”  The right twin finished, the smirks on their faces almost seeming mocking as they pointed across the hangar to where the Drachenrand was undergoing repairs.  “Not that you’ll have to worry about that with us.  Der Drachenrand will be keeping anyone who wants to cut you open away.”

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

“Adelheid, stop messing around!”

 

“I am not messing around, commander.” It was clear that Adelheid was just trying to aggravate Aeolia further, and she decided that she should stop bothering with that and focus more on the battle at hand. She didn’t seem to notice any action from Skyblaze just yet, and it had seemed that Drachenrand’s damage was worse than expected since it hadn’t returned to the battle just yet from the Bigbox-class. Aeolia had attempted to contact Mira to make sure that she’s still doing what’s tasked to her, and it seemed that she did get the message, even if Aeolia didn’t notice her support just yet.

But maybe that’s just due to her attention being really focused to the antics of the woman that was supposed to be the CO of TRAP. Not having to actually direct and command her team, Adelheid was clearly having quite a time flying around with her frame, shooting down Terra Firma Combat Frames one by one, showing off. Of course, her reckless action did give her some trouble, which was precisely why Aeolia was yelling again and again at her. Some shots from the opposing Frames had grazed Avalon’s relatively frail structure several times, and the damages on its “wings” were pretty visible. Adelheid was even forced to eject one of Avalon’s “packs” from the wings since it was hit directly by a blast of a Catapult’s railcannons.

 

“You are not a child anymore, Adelheid! If you keep doing this you will die! Just focus on clearing the path for the Solstices, and then formally report to Gavin about your appearance here!”

 

“I’ve sent Atelier to handle that for me. And I’m not messing around, I’m just...how should I say it...flexing my muscles a bit. And I won’t be killed by these small fries, silly.” Adel’s half-uncaring voice could be heard coming from the comm device. Reaching the limit of her irritation towards the alleged CO, Aeolia turned off her radio link with Avalon before screaming around in frustration alone inside of her cockpit for a while. She was lucky that she was not hit by any attacks during that time, and not long after, Aeolia had cooled off enough to start thinking about the battle again.

 

“...Ugh, I shouldn’t think about her. Focus, focus, and just finish this last batch...and the objective would be complete.” Managing to recompose herself, Aeolia then turned on her radio once more, and attempted to contact Mira once more. “Mira, you’re still there right? Prioritize taking out the Catapult as always, and don’t bother with anything else. Your cocky CO and the Solstices should be able to handle the rest.”

 

With that said, Aeolia returned her attention towards the remaining enemies with her frame’s cameras. She could notice Avalon was now currently locked in combat against several enemy frames at once, although she had the assistance from the Solstice and the remaining SAF-aligned CF backing her up probably. She should handle it just fine, Aeolia thought just before the loud noise and bump from something hitting her frame became apparent to her.

 

Frantically looking at her frame’s sensors, she realized that it was caused by the direct hit from an Argonaut’s plasma rifle towards her frame’s left arm, blasting it and the shield mounted on it off. She then realized from the frame camera that the opposing Frame was going for another shot at her, which she responded by using her thrusters to get away from the blast from the weapon, but she was not fast enough and ended up having her frame’s left leg blasted apart. By then Aeolia decided that she had to fight back, and then with the Caliburn rifle Adel lent her earlier, she attempted to shoot the opposing Argonaut, hoping to destroy it in one shot before the same fate befell her. However, since her frame was already unstable due to the damage it had sustained, she failed to lock into the target, and missed her shot by a small margin, all the while the opposing frame was ready to shoot at Aeolia, who was not in a position to avoid it.

 

As she could feel a hard impact on her frame moments afterward, Aeolia fainted on her cockpit, the last thing on her mind was her believing that it was the end for her.

 

 

“Uh….”

 

Aeolia woke up not long afterwards, still inside of Messiah. Her head hurts, probably she hit something really hard when she was unconscious. Her cameras were all inactive it seemed, and her sensors looked like they’re being wonky and messed up. Waking up to find herself still alive was something, but Aeolia then realized that her frame was moving.

 

“Already awake, sleeping beauty?”

 

“...Do not call me that, Adelheid.”

 

“Try chilling out a bit and show me some gratitude, dammit. I’m currently dragging your mess of a frame back so you can actually get it patched up and be something more useful than a target practice for the opponent.”

 

“W-wait a second! What about the-”

 

“Sector’s fine. The Solstices has entered the goal point as far as I’m aware, and there seemed to be a lack of enemy frames around, so it can be said that our objective there has been cleared.

I can be wrong though, but Mira’s still there to keep things in order if it's necessary. And my frame admittedly took a lot more beating than I intended it to so I’ll need to get it fixed up too.”

 

“...”

 

Decided to not answer with anything else for now, Aeolia decided to see the extent of the damage suffered by her frame while she waited for Adel to deliver them so it could be patched up. After all, she had not much else to do with her frame being a sitting duck without any functional cameras or sensors.

 

“So, what do we have here...ah, that’s some bad damage near the...oh.” Looking at the visual, it seemed that the damage her beloved frame had suffered was quite extensive, and what was made even clearer by it was the fact that Aeolia was quite literally several feet away from getting blown up earlier - the plasma blast hit her frame slightly way to the left from what she could see on the screen before her. Thinking about that was quite uncomfortable for the woman, so she immediately turned off the display before closing off her eyes, trying to get a little bit of rest while waiting for them to arrive at the Bigbox.

 

“One two three, one two three, can you hear me over there? Do you have some room for two frames there still? One sustained heavy damage and the other is just in a slightly rough shape, and both definitely need to be resupplied. Requesting permission to come aboard.

 

Huh? Oh right, I almost forget about my identification. This is Commander Adelheid Schwarzschild of the Tactical Response Advance Platoon speaking, and the other person here is Aeolia Audevie from the Frame Research Center.

 

Once again I repeat, requesting permission to come aboard.”

 

“Copy that Commander. We have plenty of hangar space. Permission granted. There’s two of yours onboard already as well.”

 

“Two…? May I ask about who the two of them are?”

 

“Data has them listed as SFS-XA1 and SFS-004. Codenames ‘Drachenrand’ and ‘Hailstorm’, ma'am.”

 

“...I see. In that case, will it be possible for you to ask the pilot of the Hailstorm to go to the hangar?”

 

Without waiting for the operator to answer, Adelheid turned off her comm unit and sighed. She’s not that worried about Gavin leaving the battle temporarily even without her handling things as he probably had ordered Melissa to act as temporary replacement for him on the field or so, but even then she still got that urge inside of her to just yell at him for it, even if the reasoning was not really that solid in the first place. Maybe that would be a nice way to ease her stress. With that in her mind, she continued on her way to the Bigbox-class.

 

 

“Good, they get along well enough.”  Gavin thought to himself as he eavesdropped on the Twins’ and Owen’s conversation, every so often looking back at their machines to make sure the techs weren’t having any trouble. The sound of one of the catapult deck elevators lowering drew his attention for a moment, then stole it completely once he got a look at the machine it was carrying down.

 

“What the hell is Adelheid doing here?”

 

Checking his watch to make sure there was enough time before his launch window, Gavin made his way over toward the Avalon as it stepped off the platform, moving himself into the line of sight of its optics and waving in order to get Adelheid’s attention.

 

After making sure that the messy leftover of Aeo’s frame had been taken care of, Adelheid noticed Gavin’s presence, and once she properly docked in, she hastily left her frame and went ahead towards her second-in-command. She stood in front of him with an expression that made it seem that she was about to yell at him as she intended to do earlier, but what followed was simply awkward silence as she didn’t manage to bring herself to do it. Gavin, maintaining what little veneer of professionalism he could, quickly saluted as she approached before returning to a more relaxed posture.

 

“Fancy meeting you here.”

 

“You seem to have not expected my arrival here. Hasn’t Atelier contacted you about my arrival before?" Adelheid tried to sound indifferent when she said that, but she half-wished she could properly greet her second-in-command instead, even if that'd mean she'd yell at him.

 

“Haven’t heard much from her since we launched. Too much chatter to maintain constant radio communication after we split the squad. How the hell did you get here so fast anyway?”

 

“Gungnir’s external booster helped a lot regarding this, and Renner informing about this operation to me immediately is also a factor in it. But nevermind that, I need to hear a good summary of the current situation and what objectives had been achieved in this mission. I don’t think I’m in a position to lead the team with you already in charge of this, but I need to get the hang on of the current situation.”

 

“As far as i’ve been able to tell, Command’s abandoning the western sector and they’re attempting to push back from the east. Melissa and Leo are still out there covering the last flights of Solstices, and the rest of us save Mira are here now from the looks of it. Oh, and Atelier’s out there too I imagine. I guess our next move is to have everyone form up and go in as a unit since the pincer attack hasn’t worked out.”

 

“Alright then, in that case I reckon you’ll be able to coordinate everyone for it, so there shouldn’t be much problem. I might need to sit out on this one for a bit however - my frame suffered from some damage earlier when trying to keep Aeolia’s sorry ass alive.”

 

‘She’s alright I hope? And if the crews here can get Avalon fixed up in about 15 minutes, then you should be able to launch with us. They’re reloading Drachenrand and Skunk right now. Oh, I almost forgot, we picked up another SF pilot on our way out of the battle zone. His machine’s pretty beat up, but he’s agreed to join up with us when we launch.” Gavin turned and pointed toward the crates where Owen and the Twins were taking. “He’s right over there.”

 

“Hm…?” Adelheid tried to look interested at the presence of the SF pilot Gavin was talking about. The thought of having to handle one more potential menace on the team was definitely not something Adel expected to entertain during this conversation, and this was just not long after Feng and Akira got transferred, easing her burden a bit.

 

“Will you plan on recruiting him to the team, Gavin?”

 

“I was considering it. His unit’s been wiped out and that frame of his has some excellent firepower. He’s got some engineering expertise too from the looks of it. When we’re done here I’ll write to Renner and see if we can’t pull a few strings.” Gavin turned to look at Adelheid again. “You doing ok, Chief?”

 

“Eh...it’s nothing. I’m fine. Just...thinking about some irrelevant things, I guess. There’s no problems happening on the team and in this mission when I’m in the Shells, right?” Her focus was getting slightly disoriented. Adelheid thought of getting a quick rest rather than taking a risk to deploy as soon as possible, but she didn’t say anything towards Gavin.

 

“No, we’re doing alright.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “If you need to get some rest then go grab some food in the galley. Don’t overexert yourself for my sake, alright?”

 

“...’Your sake’? What do you actually mean with that? But eh...well then, I’ll take my leave now.

 

...Thanks for keeping everything in order without me.”

 

“My pleasure. It was nice to not have to hear you screaming at the kids for a few days.” Gavin grinned. “Go do what you need to do, I’ll see you out there in a little bit.”

 

”Just don’t screw things up, okay?”

 

“When do we ever?” With that, Gavin made his way toward the exit, intending to go up to the Bigbox’s bridge in order to get any additional information on the battle situation that he could before launching with the twins and Owen. Meanwhile Adelheid, after letting out a sigh due to the conversation that ended up more awkward for her than necessary, decided to go find a quarters where she could rest for a bit.

 

---

[Dad]

Melissa

 

Melissa reached for her radio, in an effort to contact and located the rest of her team.  With Leo in tow, she felt good that the two of them combined had managed to make their mission a success--and this was Leo's first, official sortie.  She was very proud of him.  With excitement in her voice, Melissa was sure this mission would be coming to a close relatively soon.  Turning a dial, Melissa radioed over with her call-sign, trying to located Gavin and the rest of her team.  

 

"Control, this is LH77-Saviour, reporting in.  Can you patch me through to Hailstorm?  I've got some good news," she said excitedly.  

 

"Roger that Saviour.  Patching you through."

 

She would wait for Gavin to respond, to pass some good news to the commander and hopefully shed some light on the situation.

 

 

Zalwara

 

They were everywhere.  His radar lit up like a Christmas tree, but Zalwara didn't pay attention to any of it.  Everything around him went quiet, even as the Trilobite unloaded missile upon missile on its enemies.  In complete silence, Zalwara closed his eyes, and vanished from beside the Trilobite and Saria, leaving them to their own vices. 

 

When he opened them again, a razor sharp focus overcame Zalwara, as he turned his attention to the crowded skies.  "Saria," he called to his temporary ally.  "How do you feel about a duet?" Zalwara said with a smile.  He rocketed upwards, spinning in a frightening spiral, spreading out the arms of the Shizu wide as he proudly displayed it's blades.  "There are fifty frames within our grasp," he said slicing through one of the SAF pilots mercilessly.  "Forty-nine.  I'll leave you as many as I can.  Use your speed to your advantage.  I'd like to see how many you can kill," Zalwara said, almost ordering Saria to be an efficient slaughterhouse.  

 

"Will you entertain me?"  In the short span of time that Zalwara presented this challenge to Nisaria, six more frames were destroyed on the enemy side.  Metal burned, and shrapnel pierced quickly through the skies.  Zalwara dashed through his enemies like a hawk to his prey.

 

And they fell like flies.  The anguished screams of the enemy filled the air around Zalwara, bringing a smile to his face.  He was at peace here, among the battlefield.  It was where he belonged.  Three frames.  Five more.  Ten more.  The enemies numbers dwindled single-handedly to the sheer skill of the pilot of the Shizu, proving too much for the lackies of SAF forces.  But s they quickly realized they were being outmaneuvered, five frames grouped to surround the Shizu, in an attempt to bring down the solid white frame, post haste.

 

"W-w-w-we have you surrounded!    You-you-you can go quietly, or we'll take you down, right here!" one of them said boldly. Zalwara, playing along, slowly raised the arms of the Shizu in a sign of 'surrender'.  The Shizu's arm's reached their maximum height, and the enemy frames closed in tightly around him.  "Watch him!  Watch him, he has a small firearm!" they relayed to one another.  But they were slow in reacting to the now clearly displayed spare weapon.  As quickly as they had seen it, a frame lost it's head in a flash and an explosion.  Their heads turned simultaneously in slow motion, as the Shizu's arms came down much more quickly than they had risen.  The right arm of the Shizu sliced cleanly through the head of one frame and completely down its center, as a second shot rang out from the left arm.

 

The chest of a third frame collapsed, as the Shizu ducked to dodge an incoming spray of bullets.  The remaining two frames looked to one another now, one of the, suddenly abandoning his position and flying away from the white frame.  The remaining frame took a dueling stance, put his weapon away, and drew a short blade to match the Shizu.  But as honorable as this was, the pilot was outmatched in a duel of blades.  In a single swift motion, the Shizu stood up straight, and sliced the sword wielding arm off of the frame, causing its pilot to sit in shock.

 

"Son of a bit--"

 

The back of the Shizu's left blade was shoved directly into the cockpit of the last frame standing before Zalwara, killing its pilot silently, and sending it into a dive.  As the final frame fell, Zalwara snatched a rifle from the back of the frame, and targeted the remaining fleeing frame.

 

"Thirty," Zalwara said softly, as a powerful shot rang out from his location, and the subsequent target erupted into flames as its fuel line was struck.  An explosion followed soon after, as Zalwara's thirtieth kill sank into the quiet of the ocean below.

[Makο]

Owen stood, triumphantly, a good distance away from his newly-fixed machine. Down one arm, riddled full of holes, giant metal plate covering the gaping hole in the cockpit, and with a giant protruding external communication unit hanging off the side missing an arm.

 

"..."

 

The triumph quickly turned to disappointment, as the machine he had spent so much time arguing with R&D over had been reduced to nothing more than a heaping pile of rubbage. Calling it "combat capable" was a stretch at best.

 

Owen had thought the modifications he suggested would be for the best, based off of calculations he had made, but he clearly hadn't considered certain factors into his formulas. Perhaps it was mistakenly calculated in one on one scenarios? Or perhaps it failed to include the human factor in high-tension situations. Whatever it was, it was a foolish mistake.

 

He sighed. Considering what he's been through, and some of the changes he was adamantly refused by the R&D team, he had it in mind to send them a hand-written apology and thanks for keeping his life safe. However, there was no time to break out the ye olde pen and paper. Owen still had a few calibrations for the power conversion to make, in order to maximize power usage. Perhaps, when all was said and done, he could stretch 80% out of his machine, if he was lucky. And only if he was lucky.

 

Another sigh, and a stretch. His part in the battle would begin soon, whatever it was. His specially commissioned ammo would only last him for so long, considering he was already out of his primary variant. He wondered if R&D would even allow him to request another batch, instead going for a more modernized weapon. The mute field would probably be removed, with its field applications proven useless and allowing energy to be transferred...to...

 

He hobbled over to the nearest techie he could find, pointing to a large black object on the back of Nakahi.

 

"You see that big black thing? It's called a mute field. Coulda remove it for me? It serves no function now anyway."

 

Getting 85...no, 95% would be easy now.

[BANZAI!!!!]

OST: Lay Down the Law

 

“Frisbee 1 here, now commencing attack run.” The Solstice’s communications officer’s voice was a dull, distracted monotone as he relayed the messages of his captain to command. With the message sent, the flight of six dove, much like a formation of fighter jets, and began to open fire on the Terra firma ships below. Their cannons and high yield munitions sank a few vessels outright, while some of the larger ships and more mobile Vulcan class managed to stay afloat or avoid attacks altogether. Still, Leo and Melissa’s diversionary action had been successful, and the six fortresses slowly made their way deeper into enemy lines.

At first, from the waters below the Fortresses, the first thing to be seen was a dot in the distance. Growing larger steadily, splitting the sea on its wake.

[TARGET POSITION CONFIRMED]

“Captain, there’s a large object advancing toward us from 7 o'clock low.” One of the operators on board the rear Solstice called out to his captain as the bogey appeared on his radar.

“‘Object?!’ Is it a ship, son?”

[ARMING PLASMA BLADE]

“Its about the size of a cruiser, sir, but it’s moving faster than a combat frame!”

[DEPLOYING]

The Trilobite, now having closed the gap with the battle raging away from the Dark Tide and splitting the ocean with little effort, activated its prow blade. Plasma sprayed into an invisible mold, quickly taking the shape of a massive arrow pointing at things that would soon be dead. It is hard to say whether the first ship even understood what was happening. The Trilobite crossed the gathering of ships, indiscriminately erasing each and every remaining SAF ship in its path. Within minutes, the remainder of SAF’s naval presence in the western sector had been wiped clean. Above, the Solstice crews could only look on in horror as the allies they had been sent in to cover were killed effortlessly.

[ASSESSING AIRBORNE TARGETS]…………………………...DONE

[6 SIGNATURES DETECTED]

[ARMING MISSILE ARRAYS]....................................................DONE
[DEPLOYING…]

“The unidentified bandit has opened fire!”

“Evade! All units break formation!” Before the Solstices had had much time to react, two of the six were bombarded by the Trilobite’s high yield missiles, succumbing to the same firepower that they had just seconds before been assaulting the TF fleet with and descending to the ocean in flames. The remaining four managed to disperse, changing their course to flee from Terra Firma’s airspace.

 

“Frisbee 1?  Frisbee 1!?”  They had begun to panic.  

“What the hell was that!?!”

 

"Some kind of new enemy weapon?!"

 

"Try and lock on! Return fire and don't stop moving! We have to make it back to the fleet!"

 

The rearmost fortress pivoted its GG canon toward the rear, spraying rounds into the water below in an effort to shake off their pursuer. Below, the Trilobite moved in a wide, zigzagging arc, evading the Solstice's fire as it closed in.

 

[RELOADING OF MISSILE ARRAYS COMPLETE]

[ASSESSING REMAINING TARGETS]............................................DONE

[DETERMINING OPTIMAL APPROACH VECTOR]......................................DONE

[TARGETING COMPLETE]

[FULL SALVO ARMED]

[DEPLOYING...]

 

In an instant, the rear of the Trilobite's hull exploded with one hundred individual missile launches: a veritable storm of fire aimed at the four remaining SAF flyers. Despite their best attempts to evade, each warhead found its mark, the first few missiles decimating the armor in the fortresses' rear and the remaining warheads finding their way into now exposed on board munitions. All four exploded violently from within, creating a shock wave so massive that the eastern pincer of SAF's fleet, which was miles away, felt the tremors and could see the light from the fires on the horizon.

 

Much closer to the explosion, Leo Vega and Mellisa Juniper's frames were rocked by the blast, the force of the shock wave knocking out their thrusters temporarily and nearly sending both machines falling toward the ocean below. Canis was the first of the two to recover, spinning out of its dive and righting itself as its pilot looked back just in time to see the massive, kilometer-wide fireball begin to dissipate.

 

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Leo screamed, shocked and terrified. Just minutes ago he and Mel had been flying in formation with those very same fortresses. Now they and every combat frame escorting them had been destroyed, it seemed, in the blink of an eye. Were they next?

 

---

 

"Woah. What in the world?" Gavin increased his pace to a run as he made for the Bixbox's bridge. The whole hull of the vessel had just shook, and it gave him a  sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. A few minutes later, as he opened the door to the command tower, the look of the bridge crew confirmed his gut feeling.

 

"Captain" he addressed the ship's commanding officer, a man who appeared to be in his mid 50's. "What's the situation, sir?" Gavin stopped, having forgotten himself for a moment, and immediately stood at attention, saluting the superior officer before him.

 

"At ease soldier. Name, rank, and position. I haven't seen you on my ship before, son."

 

Gavin returned to a normal posture. "Lieutenant Commander Gavin Decker of the Tactical Response Advance Platoon, sir."

 

"Ah, those SFs that just landed. We've lost contact with the remainder of the western force. Something's wiped them all out."

 

"All out?" Gavin was stunned. 100% casualties were a near impossibility. Even with the way the pincer attack had been going, the lack of survivors meant that something extremely dangerous had entered the battlefield.

 

"Captain, orders from the flagship to all vessels. Our frames are to cover the remaining ships of the surface fleet as they make another attack. The objective is to deal as much damage to the enemy as possible before TF reinforcements from the west form up with the main fleet. All carriers are requested to recover any damaged units and re-launch all surviving combat frames."

 

"So the old bastard wants to try one more push, is that it?" The captain growled, obviously quite displeased with the new battle orders. "Samuel, put Scarface team's recon report up on the screen."  He turned back to Gavin. "Son, I want you to take a look at this." Gavin instantly recognized the recon photo he's show TRAP at the briefing earlier.

 

"You don't think..."

 

"You've seen it too, then."

 

"TRAP was briefed on it en-route, yeah. If that thing is out there-"

 

"-Then we're sending our boys right into its sights, and I don't like the thought of that one bit." The captain sighed sighed. "Son, I don't have the authority to give direct orders to you and your team, but your SFs are probably the only weapons we have that can destroy that thing. I know you just landed, but frankly I don't think our pilots have much chance between Terra's superior numbers and whatever the hell kind of boat that is."

 

Gavin nodded. "Sir, that's what we're here for. Permission to sortie?"

 

"Granted. I'll have them move up your launch window... Thank you Lieutenant."

 

Gavin was already running down the halls before he had a chance to respond. Time was of the essence now. TRAP had to make it to the battle lines before the enemy's new weapon did, or else the entire assault would fall apart.

 

---

 

"Johan, Heinrich, Owen! Change of plans boys, we're first off this boat! Get to your frames and lets get moving!" Gavin came sprinting into the hangar, issuing his orders as he made his way over to the Hailstorm. The next thing the three heard from him came from Skunk's microphone. "Looks like that new weapon I showed you during the briefing showed up. We've gotta get to it before it hits our front line. No time to waste you three lets go!"

[Dad]

Melissa

 

A massive explosion rocked the Saviour, sending it and the Canis reeling off course.  Leo was the first to recover, and uttered Melissa's very thoughts.

 

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"

 

"Jesus!" she cried out, almost immediately afterwards.  Melissa shook the Saviour free of its violent spiral, to look up, horrified, at one of the fortresses she had just been escorting was engulfed in flames.  "No.  No, no, no," she muttered to herself.  "What the hell is going on!?" she asked to no one in particular.  But her question was about to be answered.  In the distance, a powerful ship blasted through the ocean, leaving destruction in its wake.  It was large, semi-bulky, and had a mean looking hull.  Melissa eyed the ship carefully, trying to get a read on a pilot.  But there were no signs of life aboard the vessel.  Melissa was without weapons, and had lost her shield in the previous bout.  There was no sign of escorts, but this thing was clearly dangerous.  They had no choice but to retreat and make a mad dash towards Gavin and the others.

 

"Leo!" Mel turned around.  "We have to go.  Now!"

 

Mel turned the Saviour on its heels, and made for the Big Box as fast as she could.  But something felt off.  It didn't make sense for Terra Firma to send such a powerful machine to attempt to wipe out SF forces, without an escort.  But then, where--

 

"I'm afraid I can't let you leave here.  Alive."

 

"What on Earth--"

 

When Mel turned around, a solid white Synchro Frame had caught up to herself and Leo, appearing seemingly from thin air.  It's pilot's voice carried a hardened tone of apathy and ruthlessness.  But this frame, Mel recognized it.  She didn't know who the pilot was, but she knew he was skilled.  It had been seen across several battles, and was in a portion of footage in SF's database of enemies.  This was the Shizu.  And if it was escorting the battle ship that was heading the way of herself, Gavin, and the others, they were in trouble.  

 

She almost froze in her cockpit upon seeing the frame, having not done battle with it before.  But Melissa regained her composure quickly, as the Shizu made its move.  Leo was behind Melissa, and the Canis was now the first target of the enemy.  The Shizu continued its tunneled dive towards the Canis, fanning out the blades on its arms.  Upon closing distance, the frame brought its arms together, in an attempt to completely split the Canis in half.  "Leo, move!!" Melissa pleaded.  But by the time these thoughts registered in her head, and the voice reached her lips, and the sound reached Leo, things had already gone awry.  

 

The Saviour was without a shield, and without a blade.  She was unable to reach her short ranged weapon in time, and Melissa found herself face to face with the Shizu now.  In the time that Melissa had attempted to simply warn Leo, she had involuntarily moved her frame.  The Saviour, tough as it may have been, was without a doubt now in shambles.  Melissa had dived in front of Leo, spreading the Saviour wide in an attempt to catch the entirety of its bladed front and protect their new pilot.  The Shizu had attempted to pull back, only stabbing its new target with one of its arms, right down the middle.  As time caught up with her, Melissa's head rocked, nearly colliding with the now protruding spikes directly through her cockpit.  The Saviour's lights blinked red, as its systems went haywire.  

 

"Leo?  Leo!? Are you alright!?"  Even now she was more concerned with Leo's safety than her own.  She couldn't quite get a response, but she was hoping to herself aloud that Leo had made it.  The Shizu withdrew its single bladed arm, leaving an enormous gaping hole down the front of the Saviour.  With what little power it had left, Melissa turned around, dismissing Leo.  "Get to Gavin.  Warn them.  Tell them the Shizu is coming.  And its bringing something big.  Tell them, Leo," she said as the wiring around her cockpit sparked.  She couldn't raise the head of the Saviour, let alone fight with it any further.  She attempted to eject, but her configurations had been damaged, and prevented Melissa from escaping her fate.  She punched the right side of the cockpit, as her life began to flash before her eyes.  From her mother and father, to graduation, to making friends with this rag tag group of pilots, and falling in love with Johan.  "Johan," she thought to herself.  "For you, I'll keep fighting.  I won't let them advance any further.  I won't let you suffer again," she vowed to herself silently.  The bells and whistles inside the Saviour were tell tale signs that she could do very little in this situation.

 

Melissa managed to turn the Saviour back around to face the Shizu, her arms still spread wide, blocking its path.  "Tch," he scoffed.  He sliced off the right arm first, with complete ease.  The Saviour lurched forward, almost stumbling.  The Shizu caught it in mid air, holding up the frame with its remaining arm.  It raised the frame higher, so that Melissa would be face to face with the Shizu's cockpit.  And as she raised her head, she removed the Visual Feedback Module from her head.  She wouldn't give the enemy the satisfaction of him knowing she could see his face.  Now blinded again, Melissa could feel the heat of the enormous frame in front of her weighing down over the Saviour.   It's limp, lifeless mechanical body had given in.  But Melissa hadn't.  She raised her head to show her empty white eyes to the pilot, a blank expression on her face.

 

"A female pilot?" he said aloud.  

 

"You're damn right," she taunted, from the vulnerable position she had been put in.  "And I'm gonna keep you here as long as I--"

 

Silence.  Melissa's voice stopped mid sentence.  She was falling, but she hadn't realized it yet.  

 

"As long as you what?"

[Asriel Dreemurr]

"Well, it ain't pretty but it'll hold ya up." Chief Hammonds said to the two young pilots eagerly waiting for his word.  The twins were, for their part, ecstatic.  Heinrich leaped into the air, and when he landed he bolted to the Drachenrand's boarding ladder.  Johan had simply bolted for it as soon as they'd been given the go-ahead.  The repair job was indeed anything but pretty.  The armor plating had been welded into place without time to coat it to match the rest of the dark frame's plating, and the crew hadn't had time to grind down the welded seams to smooth them out.  Still, Hammonds had to admit it; when the twins jumped into the cockpit and the frame stood under its own power it was awfully impressive.

 

"Danke, Chief."  The twins spoke in unison over the external communicators, and spared the time to salute the man with the Drachenrand's left hand.  It was a gesture the man returned, with an order shouted at them.

 

"Just come back alive ya little shites!"  The frame nodded its head in response, and began making its way towards the nearest of the Bigbox's launch catapults under its own power.  It was slow goings, thanks to the number of other frames in its hangar, but they eventually reached the catapult and locked down in preparation for a launch.  The Drachenrand's thrusters were humming as they warmed up in preparation to take over when it came time to launch.  Just as they were about to blast off, a series of explosions rocked the vessel.

 

That can't be good, one pilot said to the other, the pair sharing a look before they spoke over their comm link with the bridge.

 

"What the hell was that?"  They asked, quickly being answered by a frightened communication tech.

 

"S-some new enemy weapon!  It took out a flight of Solstices before anyone could respond!  I don't-"

 

"Understood.  SFS-XA1 launching."  The twins stated as they manually engaged the launch cycle from inside the Drachenrand.  All they had to do was throttle up the engines, and the catapult sent them on their way: a safety feature to prevent damage to the machinery of the vessel.  As they blasted away from the transport vessel, their ECB secured on the Drachenrand's back, they turned Northwest and shot towards the source of the explosion with all speed.  It was a sobering thing, seeing the solstices reduced to burning slag raining on the ocean.  An involuntary memory was pushed from their minds, an image of a similar situation when they had been two instead of one.  They forced it out of their mind, and replaced it with a single thought: just as they had then they would avenge the dead this day.  One's rage was tempered by the other's logic, and became resolve.  The roar of their engines was joined by the hum of rotating barrels, even as they pushed ahead of their own sound.  They opened up a comm channel with the Lieutenant Commander just in time to catch some news that had them laughing.

 

"Johan, Heinrich, Owen!  Change of plan boys, we're first off this boat!  Get to your frames and let's get moving!"  The laughter ended as soon as their commander told them the next part.  "Looks like that new weapon I showed you during the briefing showed up.  We've gotta get to it before it reaches our front line!"  They weren't listening to the rest, they were too busy scanning for a signature that could have been the weapon.  They found it just in time to receive another communication, and thankfully act as a bridge for the transmission back to their commander.

 

"Th-this is Leo Vega!  I and Melissa Juniper are near the destroyed flight of Solstices!  There's an enemy Synchro Frame acting as escort for... something big!"  Oh that was bad.  That was bad that was bad that was bad!  If the Drachenrand could have gone any faster, the twins would have throttled it up.

 

"Gott Verdammt!  Listen, Leo, this is Heinrich and Johan!  We are closing on your position, just hold out for a few more minutes.  Schnecke!  We're coming!"  They couldn't lose her too!  As they closed, they spotted the Saviour being engaged by a white Synchro Frame and they altered their course to intercept it.  They second they were in range, they intended to fill the sky with a hail of rounds from their GG Cannons.  That thing was threatening Melissa, and they would be damned if some dirt-eating Terran was allowed to lay so much as a finger on her!

[Makο]

The floor was surprisingly cool and refreshing, as Owen had become reacquainted with the metal floor of the hangar. Still unbalanced due to his head injury, a shockwave from some ways away shook the vessel Owen had ended up on, rocking it just enough to have him loose his balance and crumple to the floor.

 

"...Certainly, that does not bear good tidings."

 

There was a lot for him to ponder over when it came to Nakahi. Like how he'd describe its failures to the R&D team, and how badly he'd be chewed out over it. The only comforting thought he has was that the newly-removed Mute Field Generator was practically untouched, being an ungodly expensive piece of machinery. Perhaps they'd be a bit more forgiving of him over that. However, there was little time for such thoughts. The deployment order was given. My Little Führer's had left before even giving Gavin a chance to create some form on order or formation, as apparently, there were some other members of this crack-team of pilots that were in trouble, not to mention the giant approaching threat of angry, missile-fueled death.

 

With a little bit of a struggle, Owen lifted himself off the floor and wobbled over to his pride-and-joy-turned-junkpile and climbed in the cockpit. The hole had been sealed nicely, despite being a crack job. The new comm unit was serviceable, and would at least let him communicate with his newfound allies. The computer systems were operating at full capacity, thankfully, giving him absolute control over his machine. He punched in the opening keys on his remaining command console, as the machine rumbled to life and began to move.

 

...Before stopping completely. Owen gave his machine a blank stare, then repeated the process. Again, his frame rumbled and began to move, but stopped dead in its tracks. With a... deeper than anticipated sigh, he opened the diagnostic window.

 

"Holo, troubleshoot."

 

The familiar silhouette with pointed triangles on the top of its head appeared on the command console.

 

"LEG SERVOS experienced desync upon landing. ARM SERVOS experienced desync during repair processes. TORSO GEARS experienced desycn upon landing. Resync required."

 

Owen almost slapped his own face, before realizing it'd probably hurt him more than express frustration. He had forgotten completely about the fact that he removed auto-sync at the disgust of the R&D team, feeling like he could do a better job himself. Of course, when it actually mattered, they had been right. Again.

 

"I don't think buying them a cake would be sufficed."

 

It took an extra minute to manually resync the servos on his frame, which was only that fast because he had practically memorized the sync variables by heart during his time tinkering with it. His machine now rumbled to life, this time capable of moving as normal, thankfully.

 

"Power output... 91%. That's good. I might be able to avoid attacks without losing altitude now. Yes, good..." With the final touches completed, cannons loaded, systems calibrated, and as ready as it'd ever be, he approached the exit of the hangar, boosters powering to flight speed. He quickly hopped on the comms, looking back to Gavin.

 

"I'm, uh... I'm gonna head out now. Need to find a good barrage position. I'll see you on the battlefield!"

 

With that, he jet out of the hangar at around 75% his maximum speed, making adjustments. Hopefully, within minutes, he'd be within the battle range, and capable of contributing to the fight.

 

"Let's just... finish this, and go home. There's lots to catch up on."

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

Of course.

 

That was something that he would expect to see.

 

The opposing side would definitely deploy their own Synchro Frames on this battle. Saria gritted his teeth as he located the two Synchro Frames that were on standby not far away from the location of Trilobite’s launch. Watching the battlefield silently, he noted that it seemed that the Vice Admiral had taken an interest to fight the one Frame with the shield. With nothing else to deal with for now on his radar, the boy decided to focus his mind on dealing with the other Synchro Frame instead.

 

The thought of him going to face-off against a potentially powerful opponent gave the boy some sort of rush inside. As much as he was still slightly bitter about him almost being bested by a modified Combat Frame back during the confrontation in Ireland, the prospect of facing new, interesting opponent was something that he would never pass. It’s still a part of the mission anyway.

 

Fully relishing on the rush he felt, Saria had Stellarianunload one of its Hyperion Cannon, and start aiming it at the seemingly-dazed slender Synchro Frame, all while the energy panels all around the frame started to be opened, gathering more and more energy from the harsh sunlight to power up the cannon.

 

“3…”

 

His urge to battle made him wonder about why he didn’t just charge ahead and attack the frame head-on. Would he actually be afraid to do just that? That was a possibility, but Saria was not going to accept it as the fact. Convincing himself that it’s simply due to his own training that he opened the battle with a cannon shot instead of a full frontal assault, Saria continued to count down.

 

“2…”

 

Another enemy frame entered Stellarion’s visual range. A bizarre oddity – the radar did not actually register its presence for some reasons. It seemed that the two would not be everything he and the Vice-admiral would face here after all. Of course victory would not be that easy to achieve.

 

“1…”

 

Saria gritted his teeth. He should’ve taken his medication earlier. His mind was getting more and more disoriented right now, and if it was in any other condition, he could’ve been shot down. Thinking about irrelevant things, jumping around thoughts…that was not something a soldier should be. He shouldn’t be thinking about anything else for this much. As a soldier he’s supposed to take the right decisions at the speed of thought. Otherwise he’d die.

 

Otherwise he would never see them again.

 

“0…FIRE!”

 

The burst of energy from his cannon was fired straight at where he was aiming it. Not giving himself a proper ground before firing, Saria’s frame was thrown back slightly due to the recoil of the weapon. Not something to worry about, it was one of those things that he had learned to adapt to. Regaining his own momentum, he immediately had his frame change into its jet fighter configuration before rushing towards the frame that was going towards where the Vice Admiral and the shield-using frame were. Saria decided to not check whether his shot actually hit the mark or not for now, as it was more important for him to address the black frame first. If the slender frame was still functional, then it could be handled later, or maybe the Trilobite could handle it too.

 

Flying straight at it, Saria opened two pods of missiles and unloaded them at the frame in black.

 

“Let’s start the hunting game, shall we?”

 

---

[Astolfo]

Mira was checking the battlefield when two foreign SFs had flown into the field. Before she could even make a move, they had started brutally and effortlessly slaughtering the SAF pilots that had been spread out across the playing arena. It wasn’t over yet though, and not even more than a few minutes later, a titanic armored ship pierced through the waters, incinerating everything in its path by covering itself in a plasma sheath, before decimating the SF troops with an almost ridiculous number of missiles. That wasn’t the worst part though, and within seconds of the salvo, it unleashed a massive explosion that must’ve combined at least a few hundred missiles together. Seeing the gigantic explosion from where she was without even her scope, she braced the Skyblaze as the shockwave-force winds swept out far enough to even rock her own Frame, which had been at least several kilometers out. This was absolutely bonkers. The newest enemy machine looked damn near impenetrable, with almost full-cover plating, and had enough destructive power to decimate a country by itself.

 

She was stunned. Nothing she had seen so far could’ve prepared for a weapon that was so incredibly destructive. Mira tried to think back to if she was briefed on it, but couldn’t recall. Was this some new weapon that the Terrans had created? How much had their opponent invested into it? Was there another? This was even worse than before, when she herself had almost died from her own bad move. Was it even possible to take out something like this? Gripping her controllers hard enough to turn her knuckles white, Mira forced herself to take several long, deep breaths. Panicking about this was going to get nowhere, and actually assessing it for a start, would help.

 

Just in case the machine had some way of detecting an incredibly far range, at which Mira wouldn’t be surprised either, given what she had seen so far, Mira backed away to the very maximum comfortable range, sitting almost 10 kilometres away from the monstrous new ship. Locking onto the new target with her scope, Mira searched for the massive engines that had to be somewhere, in order to support such an insanely high speed. Within a few seconds, she could see two gigantic boosters on either side of the ship, whirring furiously as it propelled the machine through the waters fast enough to hydroplane. Mira let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. With targets that big, the concept of taking it out suddenly became a lot more plausible. Even if it didn’t set off all the fuel support and instantly vaporize it altogether, destroying one of the side engines would make it impossible to do fast maneuvers because the balance from both sides thrusting would disappear, and cause it to veer off to one side instead in a mad spin. Breathing in deeply to settle her nerves, Mira prayed to whatever divine force or being or deity of luck there was somewhere probably in the universe. Setting her sights directly on the left booster, Mira began to charge up. At the earlier speed she saw it, the G-force would’ve been way too high for any pilot to survive, meaning this thing was somehow automated. Thus, remote control would be near guaranteed to utterly fail if one of these two critical engines went completely out.

 

"This is for everything, funker. Don’t think you’re just going to go and wipe out an entire section of our forces and think you’re going to get away with it, because we will hunt you down to the ends of this goddamned planet if we have to."

 

The air itself began to cry out as the Skyblaze’s engines sucked it in, vaporizing and containing it as it transformed into blue-white plasma, almost too bright to look at. Creating a small vortex of air funneling around as the heat created convection currents, a sphere of deadly radiance began to form at the tip as well as lighting up the interior of Mira’s trademark sniper cannon as well. This was taking longer than Mira would normally expend for any one single shot, but after witnessing the calamity that this one sole enemy was responsible for causing, she wasn’t going to take any chances with a weak, half-assed shot. Mira was going to raze it to the damned ground if it was the last thing she was going to do. As the plasma continued to amass, the air started to distort, causing strange appearances, as the immense heat incinerated everything around it. Taking one final check of all her systems, Mira targeted the booster, using her machine’s AI to lock onto it so that it would hit the booster, even if the ship decided to move again.

 

Mira pulled the trigger, shouting with a blazing fury. "You’ve had your fun, now it’s my turn! Eat. sheet!"

[Dad]

"As long as you what?"

 

"Schnecke!  We're coming!"

 

Those were the last words she could make out, before a sudden gasp escaped her.  She couldn't quite understand what was happening, but Melissa suddenly fell weightless.  She could confirm that she was still in the cockpit, the signals and whistles around her growing feint.  But then suddenly, she couldn't hear anything, as the shock of the destruction of the Saviour temporarily cut off her senses.  She reached for her eject lever, and pulled as hard as she could.  Melissa was sent bursting out of the remains of the Saviour's cockpit, and immediately Melissa could feel shrapnel whizzing past her head, falling much faster than she was.  Her seat was damaged, and Mel had to get out of it soon. As her parachute deployed, Melissa realized the predicament she was in.  Even if she lived, the frame could still potentially fall down on her.  She could feel a tear escaping her, as her she landed in the ocean.  "I guess I just. . . fell behind," she thought silently to herself.  "Sorry.  I guess you'll have to cross that line without me."  The Saviour's death was as tragic as it was traumatizing.  As she hit the water, she sank under, the remains of the Saviour crashing down around her.  She immediately snapped out of her seat, and dove deeper.

 

Melissa's mind began swimming with thought, as she felt herself sinking deeper, deeper into the abyss of the ocean.  She struggled valiantly to avoid the incoming parts of the Saviour, with nothing to trust but her ears.  This was made more difficult, as the sounds above her were muffled by the weight of the ocean.  She began swimming downwards at an angle, trying to escape the barrage of metal, only praying that she was moving in a safe direction.  She felt something brush past her, barely missing her legs.  Melissa kept kicking, desperately moving past her former frame.  She was alive, but barely.  Hoping she was out of range of the battle, Melissa made for the water's surface, to try and get some air.

 

 

Zalwara frowned.  From this perspective, the pilot could survive.  If she avoided the falling scraps of her machine, she might stand a chance.  SAF pilots were at least competent, so he didn't have any doubt this girl would survive.  Patrol could pick her up later, if she survived.  Having severed the remaining arm of the enemy frame, the Shizu tossed it below with the remaining scraps, to be retrieved later.  And right on cue as well.  A single enemy frame remained in front of the Shizu, as Nisaria recklessly fired upon it.  Sinking with urgency, the Shizu barely ducked in time to avoid the fire coming from its ally.

 

"Nisaria!" Zalwara barked over their communication line.  "You hit me, and I'll bury you," he said coldly.  "We're in vulnerable positions.  Break and reform around the Trilobite.  Now!"  The Shizu broke quickly away from its previous position, circling around and making a bee line for the Trilobite.  Between combined firepower, they could easily break apart SAF formations.  Couldn't they?

 

But he had spoken too soon.  As Zalwara changed his patterns, he found himself pulling behind the Trilobite, just in time to see a white hot blast of plasma centered directly on the unmanned war machine.  "sheet."  Zalwra immediately gave halt to the Shizu, slamming backwards as to avoid potential backfire.