Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam.
Notes: Military ranks for character in the RDF have been changed to reflect Navy ranks and previous chapters have been updated. Also, I will be writing Episode 4 after all! More on that at the end of this episode (next chapter)
Gundam Gemini
Episode Five
Fenrir Howling
Part A
.
When Ursula found Vega, she was in the Blue Crow's simulator room watching footage of the Fenrir's last battle with the Orthrus on the main monitor. The gold relic was holding the Fenrir at bay with its violet beamsabre, while the major blasted at its beam-resistant coating at point-blank, before it suddenly shined with blinding light. The asteroid-destroying purple beam that followed just missed the camera, which rolled back to show the cavern ceiling shattering into open black space – only for the beam to be sucked back into the Orthrus' chest cannon as the Scarlet Wolf hit the reverse button and watched the footage again.
The second-in-command of the Space Wolves sighed. Ever since their defeat over a week ago, she would often find her commander alone in the dark like this, watching that same footage over and over. In front of the crew she was all smiles and swagger, distracting them while they waited for the LIRA repair ship to finish with the Blue Crow, but Ursula liked to believe she had at least known Vega Aurelia long enough to know when something was bothering her.
"You're not in love with it are you?" she floated into the room and enquired, trying a different tact by giving her commander a small taste of her own medicine.
"With the White Hellhound?" Vega kept the gaze of her white mask glued to the large screen as she spoke. "Love is the wrong word. It's more of a professional fascination… why? Are you jealous, my dear Ursula?"
"I'm worried. Morale is going to take another dive if the crew finds you like this," Ursula explained, floating beside Vega, and their faces were bathed in the vivid lights of the recorded battle.
"There's nothing wrong with studying the enemy, especially since I expect command to give us another chance soon. Speaking of which, any news on the relic front?"
"We just got word," Ursula began, raising a stunned eyebrow at the major's powers of premonition. "Team Ambion failed to secure the relic. Not only that, while their ship was being destroyed by the Orthrus Gundam, Major Ambion ran away from the battle! The coward!"
The Scarlet Wolf laughed and though her second disapproved with the loss of their comrades, she was glad to see her commander in high spirits.
"Narick Ambion never fails to… disappoint," she stated, with a final chuckle. "What did I tell you, Ursula? Our chance will come."
"According to the star map, there is only one more relic left in the Lemurian system."
"Yes… the final relic..."
Vega whispered and something caught her attention on-screen. As the Fenrir fired its rifle into the Orthrus repeatedly, the Gundam used its golden forearm as a shield, absorbing the beams. The footage paused and past the frozen sparks one could make out a glowing purple cube grasped in the enemy's hand.
"What is it?" Ursula asked, looking between the still and the major.
"Something has been troubling me since the battle," Vega rested her elbow in her hand and tapped her red lips. "Why did the Orthrus not change into its golden form earlier? The fact it encountered a relic at the same time seems to be the key."
"You think the relic did something to the Gundam?" the LIRA captain raised an eyebrow and considered the possibility. "It sounds like a coincidence."
"There's no harm in being cautious, as you always tell me, Ursula," the Scarlet Wolf said with a straight face and the shorter woman balked at the hypocrisy but bit her tongue. "We shouldn't underestimate the power of Lemurian relics."
The large wall monitor switched off and the lights turned back on, so Ursula could see her commander clearly. As always, Vega's tall physique fit so well into LIRA's black uniform and with a run of her fingers through her lustrous silver hair, the noblewoman finally locked eyes with her companion and smiled. Ursula turned away with a tinge of blush; although she could feel her idol's gaze, it felt unfair she couldn't see past that mask.
"Tell me, Ursula, how much do you know about the Fenrir?" Vega suddenly asked, catching her subordinate off guard.
"The Fenrir? It's a prototype, developed by LIRA's own R&D department," she began listing off, perplexed. "They gave it to you after you were the only test pilot to master it… two years ago? But it never went into mass production."
"Correct," Vega clapped, pleased. "I'll add they went through a dozen test pilots before they finally asked me. Ah, my first flight with my Fenrir… it was destiny."
Ursula rolled her brown eyes at the dramatics.
"Is there a point to this story?"
"The story is what you don't know about the Fenrir," her superior revealed, wagging an elegant finger. "Officially, R&D designed it. That's not quite true… it was designed using a relic."
"A relic?" Ursula stared in disbelief and Vega nodded.
"Inside the relic was a blueprint of a Lemurian mobile suit, which used the relic as its core. However, R&D did not yet have the technology to build it as instructed, so the design was adapted to Lux's technology. Thus, the Fenrir came to be."
"Why am I only hearing this now?"
"The ones who found the relic were the Intelligence Division," Vega spoke the name of LIRA's most secretive and reviled organisation. "They tried to keep it under wraps for their own ends, but when no one could pilot it, they reluctantly turned to me. Oh, that first flight – it was a beast, but I tamed him."
The major put a hand to her cheek and basked at the memory, leaving a glass-eyed Ursula to fill in the blanks.
"Let me guess, they didn't want House Aurelia involved?"
"Of course not. The Intelligence Division is filled with nobility loyal to House Ambion. If I mastered the Fenrir where all others had failed, they knew I'd ask my father to use his influence with the emperor to take it from them and make it mine," Vega explained, ending with a shameless flourish of her hair. "And I did."
"The petty squabbles of the upper-class never cease to amaze me," the captain threw her hands up and sighed.
"Well, it turned out to be a wise acquisition," the silver lady placed a hand on her flushing subordinate's shoulder and leaned in, whispering into her rosy ear. "Don't you see, Ursula? If the Fenrir is a Lemurian mobile suit like the Orthrus Gundam, what's to say it does not have the same abilities?"
"The same as the Gundam…?" Ursula echoed the idea with incredulity. "Is the Fenrir going to change the colour of its coat too?"
"A different shade of red, I hope," her commander quipped back. "By the way, perhaps it's worth noting that the Fenrir is made of composite Gundanium – far from the purity of the Orthrus' build, but it may turn out to be an important factor."
"Gundanium?" the captain parroted, almost choking when she recalled the damage the Fenrir had sustained. "That stuff is expensive – not to mention rare!"
"So the maintenance unit keeps reminding me – although, to be fair, the Fenrir never had need of major repairs or its replacement parts until recently," Vega put her hands on her hips and pouted. "The original design called for it be made entirely out of Gundanium, but Intelligence balked at having to draw so much from the imperial stockpile and settled for a composite. It's lighter than titanium, but, as I hypothesised, perhaps there is more to it than that."
"You just need a relic to prove it…" Ursula pointed out.
"…And we are three and O in the relic race," the Scarlet Wolf finished for her, floating back. "I think it's about time we change that."
The large monitor switched back on and Commodore Sparrhorn's moustached visage was on-screen, causing Ursula to salute immediately.
"Major, command just gave us the rights to the last relic on the star map," he dropped the news without warning. "Prep your squad. We leave as soon as repairs are finished."
The screen switched off again and Vega's red lips curved into a smile.
"It seems I'm not the only one who wants to get their own back," she remarked, floating towards the door and leaving a speechless brunette behind. "Come Ursula – the final relic awaits."
.
.
"Cheers!"
The cry was followed not with the clink of glasses, but the dull smack of vacuum-sealed pouches as the orphans celebrated their latest victory over LIRA in their shared quarters. RDF regulations, not to mention Rem's legal drinking age of twenty-one, prohibited them from consuming alcohol while on duty, but that didn't stop the girls from sucking up sweet juice through their straws like precious oxygen.
"That's the third time in a row we got the relic!" Junko grinned, pumping her fist into the air.
"And we clobbered LIRA again!" Freya added, hand on hip and humming from her smug lips.
"At this rate, we might just win the war by ourselves," Alice surprised them with a rare smile.
"I wouldn't go that far," Laura laughed. "We should just be happy with the success we already have."
"Easy for you to say, you glory-hog," Freya's blue eyes glowered at the blond. "While you were off in dreamland, I was handling LIRA just fine in that battle!"
"Yeah, and who tuned your Gundam so you could pull off all those awesome moves?" Junko shouted next. "Nobody remembers the mechanic behind the scenes!"
"You have been stealing all the glory lately, Laura," Alice agreed, and the Gundam pilot winced at the coordinated attack.
"W-What are you all saying? You know I couldn't have done it without you!" she tried waving her hands in appeasement. "And I didn't mean to show up late and make an entrance – that VR relic was just more… real… than I expected."
After bringing the relic back aboard the Lionheart, more tests showed no reactions between it and the Orthrus Gundam. Although the solar relic had prompted the Gundanium, which they theorised to be some kind of intelligent metal, to alter its properties and instigate a mode change, it now appeared only specific relics could achieve a similar effect. Instead the VR relic was placed in the simulator room for the crew to enjoy, leading to its ban almost immediately when complaints of its disruption and the nature of some VR fantasies reached Commander Gabriel.
"I know what you mean. Oh, my paradise of men…" Alice put her hands together and looked to the heavens as if in prayer, but the others were unmoved.
"And that's why it got banned," Freya reminded the taller girl. "I didn't even get a turn!"
"Count yourself lucky. Commander Gabriel has been giving everyone who used it the evil eye," Junko's revelation caused the pink diva to visibly flinch. "It's no secret what some of the male crew were using it for…"
"Oh, Junko, gross! TMI!" Laura and the others groaned, and they pelted the girl with pillows before continuing. "It's too bad the Orthrus couldn't learn anything from the new relic, but there's always the next one."
"Speaking of the Orthrus, I had an interesting chat with one of the operators earlier," Junko mumbled through the mountain of pillows and pushed them away to reveal a cheeky grin. "They overheard some interesting enemy transmissions. Apparently, our own Laura has become so feared amongst LIRA, they've given her a cute little name…"
"What? Tell us?" The orphans leaned forward in anticipation.
"…The White Hellhound."
Laura couldn't help but puff out her chest and a wide smile spread across her cheeks.
"They may be LIRA scum, but at least they have good naming sense," she tooted her own horn.
"I don't know… I feel like there's room for improvement…" Freya and the others held their chins in their hands, before sharing an impish look of agreement. "The Blonde Hellhound!"
"What?!" Laura almost spat out her juice and her purple eyes twitched. "What does my hair have to do with it?!"
"Well, it just sounds catchier this way," Junko sneered.
"And if you think about it, those LIRA jerks don't even know you," Freya joked.
"Therefore, we're much better suited to giving you the moniker you deserve," Alice finished with a nod, and Laura growled before crushing the empty juice-pouch inside her fist.
"What the hell kind of reasoning is that?! But the jokes on you, this works both ways!" the Blonde Hellhound barked with fury and pointed an indignant finger at Freya. "The Pink Diva!"
"Oh…!" Both Junko and Alice clapped and nodded with approval.
"Humph! That's not so bad… fairly accurate, actually," Freya flipped her pink-twin-tails back and simpered.
"I forgot you were an attention-whore…"
"What was that, Hellbit–"
"Wonderland," Alice suddenly interrupted them, her amber eyes sparkling. "Alice 'Wonderland' Carol would be perfect for me."
"Oh, because you're always in your 'wonderland'," Junko struck her palm in realisation, before shaking her head along with the others.
"The Disappointing Angel," they said in unison.
"…What?" Alice snapped, her saintly features contorting in a rare display of anger. "And just what do you mean by that?"
"Do you really need to ask? All the male crew think you're making eyes at them!"
"I was playing fantasy matchmaker, if you must know."
"Ok, now it's Junko's turn," Laura rounded on the unscathed mechanic.
"No, thanks," Junko waved her hand, and snacked out of a bag of chips. "I never understood all this nickname business – what are you, in eighth grade? It's embarrassing…'
Amidst the argument and flying pillows that followed, the girls never noticed the door to their quarters hiss wide open. Commander Sofia Gabriel entered and paused to observe the carnage unfolding before her until a cushioned missile hit the XO in the face. The room went quieter than a funeral parlour and the white-faced orphans wished they were in the coffins.
"What you do on break is your business, but a certain level of conduct at all times wouldn't kill you," lectured the demon commander, after having the terrified girls line up and stand to attention. "This is a military ship, not a slumber party."
"Yes, ma'am! Sorry, ma'am!" they cried, begging for their lives.
Sofia sighed. Although they had been working together for a while now, to the point that the orphans even opened up to her on occasion, whenever she used that demon commander tone it felt like all of Sofia's gains went out the window. It was rare for the serious career officer to attract friends let alone trust in her past postings, and she had been hoping to change that aboard the Lionheart, but the naked fear in the girls' eyes made Sofia wonder if it was even possible at this point.
"Enough, I didn't come here to hassle you," she sat on one of the beds and started over. "I just had a meeting with Captain Hartmann. The fact LIRA appeared at the site of the third relic as well was too much of a coincidence and we should seriously consider the possibility they have their own star map."
"The Fenrir…" Laura whispered, recalling that it had tried to touch the Orthrus on Lenos while the relic was still giving out a signal. She hadn't given it a second thought since, but maybe it had made contact after all, giving Vega Aurelia the star map.
"It was agreed appropriate precautions must be taken for the final relic and the captain is making a request for an escort of battleships," Sofia continued, before her red eyes took on a hawkish quality. "But I'm not interested in a simple rematch. The Scarlet Wolf and the Lunar Fox have been thorns in our sides once too often and I don't like leaving our enemies alive. If we meet them in battle for the final relic, I want it to be their last – so they can never threaten us again. Am I right in thinking you girls are of the same mind?"
The commander didn't have to wait for an answer, because the reply was immediate and resolute.
"We'd like nothing better, commander," Junko told her bluntly.
"Ever since Operation Arrowhead, eliminating them has been all we can think about," Alice whispered, her words tinged with faint emotion.
"Personal doesn't even begin to describe our vendetta against them… against her," Freya growled and slammed her fist into her palm, simmering with restrained anger.
"Everyone here feels the same way, commander," Laura felt at one with her friends and squeezed her fist, before staring Sofia straight in the eyes. "We want revenge on the Scarlet Wolf."
Laura purple gaze glanced past Sofia and the XO turned to find a photo stuck to the wall, next to a stack of magnetised cards. Of the five academy graduates in the picture, she recognised only four – the last was a mousey-haired girl with green eyes, smiling gently for the camera. Now everything made sense – the lack of hesitation in their eyes, their indomitable spirit, and the reason why Sofia had been drawn to the orphans.
Revenge was a great motivator.
"Understood," she replied, getting up and floating towards the door. "Let's convene again in the simulator room tomorrow morning at 0500 hours, so we can formulate a strategy to present to Captain Hartmann."
"Thank you, ma'am," Laura and the others saluted. "But we'll be there at 0400."
Sofia paused in the middle of the doorway, looked over her shoulder and smiled.
"Suit yourselves," she whispered and let the door hiss shut behind her.
.
.
The Blue Crow was LIRA's premier stealth cruiser. It was not only invisible to enemy radar, but extremely fast, capable of sneaking up on unsuspecting foes and inflicting maximum damage with its array of weapons before disappearing back into the void of space. And that was before including the squadron of Wargs it could carry and deploy for tactical advantages, using them for either surprise attacks or distractions.
It was a silent killer meant to work alone or with other stealth cruisers, which was why when command assigned two standard LIRA war cruisers, the Yorick and the Othello, to escort the Blue Crow to the last relic, the general feeling amongst the crew was that they were only going to get in the way.
"They're going to get us killed," Ursula complained, appearing on Vega's monitor and speaking on the Space Wolves' private channel. "What was command thinking? If an RDF radar finds them and sends out interception, they'll lead back to us."
The pilots were currently on standby inside their mobile suits, waiting for the order to deploy as the Blue Crow neared its destination on the star map. While its escorts trailed behind, the stealth cruiser scouted ahead and led the way.
"Command is just hedging their bets," Luke replied, yawning loudly to Ursula's disdain. "They don't want another failure – if one ship couldn't do the job, then they'll send three."
"In other words, they're here to make sure we acquire the last relic – even if it kills us," Vega added her own dire interpretation, but sounded perfectly unfazed. "Nevertheless, I find their presence welcome. The enemy ship surely knows by now we have our own star map and has reacted accordingly."
"You think they'll bring reinforcements?"
"I believe it is all but certain."
"Major," Commodore Sparrhorn got their attention on the comm. "You better look at this."
An image was transferred from the Blue Crow's main monitor to their mobile suits which seemingly showed empty space. But as the picture gradually zoomed in and refocused, it became clear something was out there – something immense. It appeared to be a circular and hollow construct like a thin halo, leaving only one conclusion.
"A Lemurian space colony?" Ursula whispered with disbelief. "All the way out here?"
"Surely it must be abandoned… right?" Luke ventured, leaving the very idea of inhabitants, living or dead, unsaid.
"It appears to be broken in several places," Vega observed.
As the Blue Crow drew closer, the major's observation proved correct. The halo colony, once a perfect ring containing a settlement on its inner band, had fragmented into a series of floating islands. While it had more or less retained its doughnut shape, particularly the largest island which still formed a crescent section on the halo's bottom, a thick field of debris from whatever disaster had befallen the outpost had gathered in its centre. It was clearly a husk of a colony, long left to decay this far out in space, and showed no signs of life – nor that of their enemies.
"No enemy ships detected, but the debris field is giving our sensors many false readings," the operator on radar reported.
"Did we arrive before them?" Ursula asked, squinting at the image.
"I don't like this, major," Luke whispered, serious for once.
"Major Aurelia, take your squad out and find that relic," Commodore Sparrhorn ordered, appearing on-screen. "If we really are a step ahead of the RDF, we cannot allow this opportunity to go to waste."
"And if it's a trap?"
"Then stir the hornet's nest, as you so like to say."
The commodore disappeared from the screen, leaving Vega to chuckle. It had been left unstated, but they both knew they had no choice – failure was not an option this time. It was the relic or nothing.
"Space Wolves, prepare to launch – we hunt for relics!" the Scarlet Wolf bellowed, and the Fenrir was loaded onto the catapult first. "This is Vega Aurelia. Fenrir, taking off!"
The red mobile suit was flung forward and glided out of the Blue Crow and into space, where it engaged its blue thrusters. The Space Wolves followed, exiting the ship in black pairs, and the nine of them flew towards the halo colony in a V-formation with Lemuria's distant sun to their backs. Up close on their monitors, the true scale of the colony's size and former majesty struck home, leaving more than one pilot feeling both dwarfed and in awe.
Contrary to its design name, the halo colony was a gigantic mass of curved titanium, enough to build fifty fleets and still have leftovers, and a small moon could have been threaded through its colossal frame. Its wide inner ring had space for swarths of land for inhabitants to settle, on the surface or below ground in the frame itself, and could easily have housed the populace of a bustling metropolis or two. On the outer band, random patches of solar panels flickered with the light of the Lemurian sun, much like what they had seen on the asteroid facility, and in the past the entire exterior of the colony must have shimmered with them.
In its heyday, the Lemurian outpost must have glowed in the darkness of space like the angelic halo of its namesake – but no longer. Not only had it broken off into several islands, the surface of the inner ring had almost been stripped bare by the passage of time and everything it once housed had floated off to form the debris field now at the centre of the doughnut.
As the Space Wolves passed the edge of the sphere of debris, they could not help but notice its contents. Whole buildings and houses of Lemurian architecture drifted past, either intact or in pieces, followed by all manner of ancient vehicles in their thousands. Acres of soil were everywhere, like hovering isles, still embedded with dead trees, nature and asphalt. There were also the vestiges of the colony's water supply, now crystallised lakes floating about like frozen clouds.
The scene was enough to send chills down the spines of those present – and still, they had yet to find a single Lemurian corpse.
"I don't understand…" Luke finally spoke, perhaps to break the eerie silence. "How did the colony maintain an atmosphere? The halo shape for centrifugal force I can understand, but there's no roof…"
"The whole colony is in shambles, so we don't actually know how it was designed," Ursula pointed out in reply. "It may be that a key segment that would have answered your question has floated off or been destroyed."
"While I would love to discuss theories with you two, there is a relic out here somewhere," Vega cut in. "Let's start with the main island below – spread out!"
The mobile suit squadron fanned out and dived for the crescent island, the largest section of the halo colony still intact. They were not even a kilometre out when the Space Wolves felt an invisible force pulling on their Wargs – wrestling control from the pilots and sending them hurtling towards the surface.
"Major! I can't change direction!" Ursula yelled out, wriggling her flight stick to no avail.
"We keep gaining speed – it's like we're in freefall!" Luke warned, gritting his teeth.
"Reverse thrusters! Point your mobile suits back up!" Vega ordered, and blue fire erupted from the Fenrir's shoulders. The Wargs followed suit, somersaulting backwards, before an azure inferno ignited from their foot thrusters. The result was their descent was slowed, but they continued to plummet straight for the colony.
Nevertheless, the Space Wolves held on, burning through their liquid propellant until they reached the surface. One after the other, the Wargs crashed landed, rattling the occupants inside their cockpits like jelly and sending tremors throughout the steel island. Meanwhile, the Fenrir landed perfectly thanks to its more powerful thrusters.
"What was that? Magnetism?" Ursula wondered aloud, catching her breath.
"No… it can't be…" Luke muttered, suddenly staring at his arms like he had grown another pair. "Major!"
Vega sensed it too and lifted a stray strand of hair that had found its way outside her helmet. She turned her palm and instead of floating away, the silver lock fell straight down.
"Gravity…" she whispered, feeling the familiar weight of her body being pushed downwards.
"That's impossible!" Ursula objected, despite the truth staring her in the face. "Even if the colony was spinning, there's no way the simulated gravity would be this strong!"
"Do you want to tell her, major? Or should I?" asked Luke, somehow find a humorous side to the situation, even as he leaned back with disbelief.
"It's artificial gravity…" Vega informed her second, her voice building with excitement. "A gravity relic…"
The Scarlet Wolf suddenly stopped and perked her head up, checking their surroundings. The inner band of the halo colony was like an endless trench, a wide recess that stretched from one end of the island to another. Also, but for a few remaining buildings and junk that had been pulled down from the debris field above, the terrain was open and exposed.
Behind her mask, the whites of Vega's eyes grew as the true direness of their situation sunk in like a Warg at sea.
"We're trapped…" she whispered, and slammed open her comm. "Come in, Blue Crow! A gravity relic has pinned us down! It was a trap!"
On the bridge of the Blue Crow, Commodore Sparrhorn heard Vega loud and clear, and leapt into action.
"Contact the Yorick and the Othello! Deploy Warg Teams and be on the lookout for enemy ships! The Blue Crow will extract the Space Wo–"
The Lunar Fox never finished. The bridge was bathed in red light as one of the monitors transmitted a supernova of an explosion. Where the Yorick had once been was now a beacon of carnage and a charred wreckage was all that remained of the ship after a beam of hot plasma had ripped down its hull. The Othello was next, flashing with blinding light before a hole appeared in its side and the cruiser detonated into a thousand pieces.
The tremors of both explosions hit the Blue Crow from both sides, sending shockwaves throughout its screeching hull and its unsuspecting crew. But Jonas braced himself up right and screamed his orders – he knew they had to act now before they met the same fate.
"Full speed ahead! Take us into the cover of the debris field!"
"But captain, the shots came from the debris field! They're using it to hide from our radar!" one of the operators cried.
"And so will we!" the commodore bellowed. "While they're recharging their cannons, this is our only chance! We cannot risk exposing our position against superior numbers – no, we may have already been exposed!"
The Lunar Fox's prediction proved correct when another beam shot across the bow, just missing the stealth cruiser as it escaped into the debris field. Below, the Space Wolves had watched on in horror as both the Yorick and Othello burst into flames, becoming brief balls of fire against the backdrop of space. Like the commodore, Vega wasted no time marshalling her subordinates.
"Take cover!"
Not a second later, blue light rained down from above and suddenly the sky was swarming with a full squadron of Garms. Like white-robed angels, they hovered just outside the colony's gravity well, unleashing an azure barrage at the grounded Fenrir and Wargs with their beam rifles. The Space Wolves scattered, scrambling for cover and returning fire.
"Rem cowards!" one of the more brash Wolves roared and engaged his thrusters to lift off.
"Boris, you idiot, no!"
Ursula cried in vain and Boris got no more than a hundred feet up when he realised he was still at the mercy of the artificial gravity. For a moment, his Warg hung in the air like a floundering black whale, before the machine was harpooned by a volley of plasma beams and fell back to the colony in flaming bits. The others could only watch from their hiding places, helpless, and the disadvantages of their situation soon came to bear – without atmospheric flight packs to fight the pull of gravity, they were sitting ducks.
From the debris field, an RDF battleship poked its nose out and began firing its beam turrets into the island, peppering it with hot craters. Through the bombardment, Vega managed to spot a familiar white mobile suit.
"The Orthrus…!"
.
.
When the LIRA cruisers lit up like twin Christmas trees before snuffing themselves out in the cold vacuum of space, Milos could not help but give a subtle pump of his fist.
The man loved it when a plan came together.
"Direct hit! Destruction of both LIRA ships confirmed!" an operator announced to the ecstatic bridge.
"Good shot, Tachi!" Milo complimented the Lionheart's partner-in-crime, which had taken the second shot from the other side of the debris field. With just their escort of two RDF battleships, Sofia had already come up with a bold strategy to neutralise LIRA's relic hunters – but with the early discovery of the halo colony, the debris field and the still-functioning artificial gravity, the original strategy had given way to a cunning trap.
"Commander, how's the next stage of our plan coming?" Milos enquired while the cannon recharged, and Sofia was bent over the sensor operator's monitor.
"Captain, we have visual confirmation!" the commander reared her head in triumph, and the main screen showed a still image of the two LIRA cruisers exploding – and between them, caught between the light of the blasts, the shadow of a third ship. "The Lunar Fox is exposed!"
"Maintain visual contact and inform the Tachi and Gladius! Don't let that stealth ship out of your sights!" Milos bellowed, and as Sofia returned to her station at the weapons console, he whispered to her. "Excellent work, Commander Gabriel. Remind me to never bet against you in ship-to-ship warfare."
"A wise choice, captain," the XO replied, strapping herself back into her seat. "After all, I only pick battles I can win."
"The remaining LIRA vessel is escaping into the debris field!" an operator updated them. "The Tachi is firing… they missed!"
From the Tachi's position, a neon blue streak stretched across black space without resistance and, zooming in, the tiny black ship moving on-screen remained intact. As expected of the Lunar Fox, LIRA's new stealth technology had not made him overconfident and the captain chose to retreat into the safety of the debris field – but that was all within their calculations.
"Contact the Tachi to deploy their Garms, we'll proceed as planned with a pincer movement. Time to smoke the fox from its den," Milos ordered, his dark eyes shining under his cap. "And once the Gladius and Team Orthrus are done mopping up the Fenrir and her pack, it will be a three-pronged attack – with luck, this will be the end of the Scarlet Wolf and the Lunar Fox!"
At the thought of his daughter, the captain took a moment to glance at the fragmented halo colony's crescent island in the corner of the monitor, where a one-sided lightshow was well underway.
.
.
"Take this!"
Freya pulled her Garm up to the frontlines and took aim with her rifle, adding to the beam barrage with her own burst of hot plasma, which fell on the colony like icy hellfire. The Wargs scurried about like ants in the rain, taking cover anywhere they could from abandoned buildings to large pieces of scrap metal, but the bombardment was continuous and relentless. Now the Garms were the superior mobile suits and along with the Gladius they took sweet revenge on their long-time adversaries, freely dodging and moving vantage points from the safety of the sky, while the Wargs were forced to fight for their lives.
"Careful, Freya! We wouldn't want you to be grounded again," Alice flew beside her and snickered, recalling the pink diva's shock when she had been caught by the colony's gravity well and forced to make an unceremonious landing.
"Those stupid Lemurians and their crazy relics," Freya growled, releasing her anger into a few more shots before thrusting back. "What is even powering this artificial gravity?"
"Junko thinks the solar panels left on the outer ring are still collecting power for the halo," Laura pulled up next and explained.
The thought of a gravity relic and what it could do for the Orthrus' Mode Change ability had excited the technopaths, but finding its location given the colony's titanic size had proven too much of a nightmare. In the end, Sofia had ordered their ambush preparations to come first as disturbing the relic could disable the artificial gravity and one of their key advantages. While Laura had been disappointed, the Orthrus' new mode could wait – the Scarlet Wolf was stranded somewhere on the crescent island and the trio were going to be the first to find her.
"Still, it's a good thing you got caught," the Gundam pilot smirked. "Otherwise Commander Gabriel would never have come up with this new plan."
"Thank you, Freya," Alice quipped, to which Freya charged forward again with a roar.
"Shut up! If you have to time to flap those lips, pull those triggers!"
The trio fired along with the Gladius' Garm Team, shredding the colony surface with a hail of indigo light and dispatching a few Wargs in the process. However, though their mobility may be hindered, the enemy were still the personal squadron of the Scarlet Wolf and they returned fire with co-ordinated accuracy. Laura rushed to the front, transforming the Orthrus into its gold form in time to absorb the red beams meant for two allied Garms.
"Thanks, White Hellhound!"
"You're pretty good, Hellhound!"
Hearing them thank her, Laura groaned. They had only just met the Garm pilots of the Gladius earlier, but they had been fairly interested in Laura and the Orthrus Gundam before LIRA appeared. Interestingly, they already knew her nickname and used it frequently.
"What's the matter? I thought you liked that name," Freya asked.
"I thought I did, but when people call me that in real life, it's… embarrassing."
The Gundam pilot ignored the laughter pouring through her comm and focused instead on the halo colony, zooming in with her camera to find the Wargs who were constantly changing hiding places. A flash of red armour caught her eye and Laura froze. There, firing through a hole in the roof of a derelict building, was the Scarlet Wolf.
The sight of her hated enemy caused White Hellhound to snarl.
"Gladius, this is Orthrus! Target acquired!"
.
.
Vega sniped through the hole in the roof, sending blazing arrows into the enemies above, but even the marksmanship of the Scarlet Wolf was not enough. At this distance, the Garms simply hid behind their blast shields and returned fire. Without their speed, the Fenrir and Wargs had no means to outmanoeuvre the defensive tactics of the lumbering RDF mobile suits – tactics they had once scorned with laughter.
The sky lit up with another deluge of azure embers and Vega took cover. The volley of beams tore through the building she was in, peppering it with holes until it looked like Swiss cheese. When the shooting finally stopped, it was a miracle the structure didn't collapse under its new ventilation system and the Scarlet Wolf found herself pausing in the midst of battle.
Somewhere, she could hear Ursula shouting into her comm, requesting the Blue Crow for assistance. The operator yelled back, informing the captain that her request was impossible, as the Blue Crow already had to deal with two stalker RDF ships, avoiding a squadron of Garms, and navigating the debris field on top of it all. She overheard Luke trying to rally their comrades to safety, only to receive screams and the LIRA ace felt the quake of their exploding Wargs soon after.
Vega heard her own ragged breathing, which only seemed to grow louder and louder until it reached a deafening peak, dwarfing all other noises into the background. And suddenly there was complete silence and the technopath's eyes darted back to the hole in the roof. She caught sight of the RDF battleship as a series of rockets erupted from its bow and arced towards the colony.
"Missiles!"
She warned the Space Wolves over the comm, but she needn't have worried as all the projectiles gathered in her direction. Punching the Fenrir's thrusters to fire up, Vega hovered along the ground and dashed for the rear of the building, just avoiding the first missile. Her hiding spot went up in a plume of smoke and ash, the pilot just getting out as the roof was blown off, only for a second missile to strike behind her.
The force of the explosion threw the Fenrir through a wall and into the next building, half of which collapsed on top of the red mobile suit. While bombs and lasers rained down around her, rocking the cockpit with heat and tremors, Vega stirred from a near-concussion and found herself hanging from her harness. Judging from the hard ground on the monitor, the Fenrir was face down in front of a giant smoking crater, all that remained of the ancient building she had used for cover.
Noticing cracks in her vision, Vega removed her shattered helmet and her silver hair spilled out, both of which fell earthwards with the influence of gravity. The helmet clattered on the console and she heard Ursula's fearful voice calling for her with desperation.
However, the Scarlet Wolf was somewhere else. Perhaps it was the slight-concussion, but Vega Aurelia's mind had drifted from the battlefield and into the deepest recesses of her psyche, tactically analysing the situation in an endless loop. Every time, she came to the same conclusion.
The trap is too perfect…
Not only had their wings had been clipped, they were outnumbered, outgunned and outmanoeuvred. The enemy warship wasn't even using its beam cannon for fear of disabling the artificial gravity – all they had to do was eliminate them one at a time. Slow, but methodical, guaranteeing the Space Wolves' complete annihilation.
For once the ace of countless victories could think of nothing that would get her out of this – no bold plans, no technopathic tricks, and no inhuman feats of piloting against the odds. Nothing at all. The inability to attain an answer led her mind to settle in a dark place…
…Is this how I die?
At the very thought, Vega's hands clenched into fists, and with gritted fangs the Scarlet Wolf clawed her away out of despair.
No… not yet!
She had come too far to die now – not when she still had so much to achieve. Until her ultimate goals were realised, the masked woman had promised herself she would survive no matter what.
Grasping the cockpit's flight stick and throttle with renewed vigour, the technopath gradually ramped her thrusters to full power and blue light shined from underneath the rubble. Moments later the remains of the building burying the Fenrir were blown away and the crimson mobile suit stood upright with blazing azure fire roaring from its exhausts. The defiant howl of its engine reminded Vega that so long as she and the Fenrir still lived, anything was possible.
"I made you wait, Fenrir," she whispered, her red lips smiling in apology. "But now I'm here – let us fight together until the end!"
As if responding to its master's fighting spirit, something flickered and materialised on the mobile suit's monitor – the image of a familiar halo.
"Schematics?" Vega blinked with astonishment. "Do you know this place, Fenrir?"
Perhaps it was the explosion or when the mobile suit had fallen over, making contact with the colony surface, but something had triggered the relic inside the Fenrir to show her this – this secret hidden in its memory. It was no mere map either – it appeared to show a live feed of the halo colony's status, even while separated into islands. The section representing the crescent island they were trapped on particularly caught Vega's eyes, because it was divided into two colours.
The half they were on was underlined blue. The other half was underlined red. And on another island, a flashing purple dot caused the Scarlet Wolf to grin.
"Come in, Blue Crow!" she put her comm on speaker and made a break for cover, narrowly avoiding another barrage. "Get me the commodore, now!"
"Major Aurelia!" Ursula's face appeared on-screen, the picture of relief, and was soon followed by the aged features of Commodore Sparrhorn.
"What is it, major?" he grumbled, as the lights of battle flashed over his moustache from off-screen. "If you haven't noticed, we have our own problems up here."
As well as being stalked by two RDF ships in the debris field, the Blue Crow was being harried by a squadron of Garms. Currently, the stealth ship took cover by weaving through a maze of floating Lemurian skyscrapers, but it was only a matter of time before it was cornered.
"Commodore, I need the Blue Crow to fire its cannon."
"And give away our position in the debris field?" Jonas looked at Vega like she was mad. "What madcap plan of yours requires that?"
"The plan that will save us all," the Scarlet Wolf replied, punching a hole in a wall and comparing the view outside to her schematic. "Commodore… I want the Blue Crow to fire on our position."
.
END OF PART A
Continued in Part B!
