Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam.
Gundam Gemini
Episode Five
Fenrir Howling
Part B
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After the missile salvo, the Fenrir had disappeared in the series of explosions that followed, leaving a smouldering ring of craters at its last sighted position, but that wasn't enough to satisfy Laura or the others. Experience told them Vega Aurelia was only dead when they saw her croak with their own eyes – preferably through the scope of a beam rifle. In the meantime, they had whittled the Wargs down to half their number with the Gladius' Garm Team, easily beating back the Space Wolves' futile attempts at resistance.
By all accounts, the RDF was on course for a crushing victory and there was nothing LIRA could do to stop them. But when a giant crimson beam from the heart of the debris field plummeted into the colony's crescent island, spearing it down the middle, future records agreed – this was the true turning point of the battle.
"What the hell was that?!" Freya cried, her blue eyes bulging as she watched the island split in two on her monitor.
"Come in, Lionheart!" Laura yelled into her comm, whilst keeping her gaze on the rupturing colony. "What just happened?"
"T-The enemy ship just fired its cannon!" the operator replied, as shocked as the rest of them.
"Why did they shoot their own troops?" Sofia interjected, puzzled. "It wasn't an act of desperation; they were definitely aiming for the colony… but I don't see how this will change the battle's outcome."
"Whatever the case, the Lunar Fox just gave away their position," Milos appeared next, bringing order to the situation. "The Lionheart and the Tachi will converge on the stealth ship and eliminate it as planned. Team Orthrus, stay with the Gladius and monitor the enemies still on the colony. Don't let your guard down – this isn't over yet."
"Laura, look! Something's not right!"
Alice alerted her comrades and they studied the crescent island breaking apart before their eyes. The knife-like beam had severed it into two clean halves, which were now pulling apart and bending towards them like a pair of forceps. As the Gladius and Garms retreated to avoid the still-functioning artificial gravity, the orphans finally saw what Alice meant.
The right half where the Space Wolves were, black and ruined from their attacks, was pulling in junk from the debris field. But the left half was repelling the debris and its surface was vacant.
"It's defective…" Laura whispered, before her purple eyes swelled with alarm. "The artificial gravity is defective! It's going to push them out!"
The technopath's worst fears were realised when she zoomed in and saw the shapes of five mobile suits rocketing towards the edge of the island. At their head, like the beast of her namesake at full sprint, was the Scarlet Wolf.
"Follow me, Space Wolves!"
Helmetless, Vega led her pack with a war cry, leaping off the beam-melted chasm and out of the artificial gravity's influence. With a satisfying gust from their thrusters, the survivors soared on blue streaks back into the vacuum of space – and headed straight for the other island. As soon as they reached it, the defective gravity threw them up like a whirlwind and into the path of the RDF.
"It's like we're falling!" Ursula cried, with a mixture of fright and awe.
"This is insane!" Unlike the captain, Luke laughed and embraced the rush of speed. "We're using both gravity and our thrusters to accelerate!"
In no time at all, they had closed the distance with the RDF and the wounds the Space Wolves had endured were still raw. One utterance was all Vega needed to ignite the fire of bloodlust inside her bitter comrades.
"Our turn!" she barked, spurring the wolves back into battle. "Tear them limb from limb, Space Wolves!"
When the dozen-strong squadron of Garms realised the enemy was already upon them, they charged forward to meet the Fenrir and Wargs, buoyed by their superior numbers. But it was a false sense of security, for the Space Wolves were each worth far more than any regular RDF pilot, as the orphans well knew. Despite their warnings, the squad left them behind and marched to their doom.
Using their accumulated velocity, the Space Wolves outmanoeuvred the Garms before they could even react, flanking and surrounding the flummoxed mobile suits from all sides. Four multi-directional bursts of plasma later and the Wargs had dispatched an equal number of exploding enemies, allowing the Fenrir to charge straight down the middle. With her trademark style of dual wielding a beamsabre and rifle at the same time, the Scarlet Wolf shot down another Garm before weaving through the explosions and gutting another two with her blade.
But instead of continuing towards the RDF battleship, Vega veered off towards one of the nearby islands of the broken colony.
"I leave the rest to you, Ursula!"
"You owe me, major!" the captain responded with ire and proceeded to crash land on top of an enemy Garm, firing down its throat before thrusting away as it detonated.
"Payback!" Luke hollered with glee, kicking the shield of another Garm into their head unit, before slipping his rifle in and remodelling the cockpit with hot plasma.
"Vega Aurelia!"
En route to help the Garm team, Laura stopped in her tracks and cried out when she saw the Fenrir run from the battle.
"After her, Laura!" Freya urged her, surging ahead with Alice.
"We'll handle this!" Alice declared, and Laura bit her lip.
"Thanks, Freya! Alice!"
While the Orthrus blasted off in pursuit of the Scarlet Wolf, the remaining orphans propelled themselves into the fray.
"Don't get cocky, mutts!"
Freya swung behind one of the Garms, saving it from a beam to the back with her shield, before pouncing on the shooter. After bashing the Warg's face in with her shield, the pink diva finished it off with a beamsabre down its torso and reversed from the imminent explosion – only for another Warg to dive into her from above. The pilots crossed blades and exchanged glares, sparking a startling realisation.
"You!" Freya hissed, recognising one of the more skilled and annoying Space Wolves from Lenos.
"You again!" Ursula grumbled inside her Warg, identifying the more aggressive pilot of the Orthrus' comrades. "Leave this one to me! Take Tanaka and mop up the rest, Lieutenant Valorie!"
"Easier said than done, captain!" Luke grimaced, dodging another beam. Just as he'd remembered, one of the Hellhound's sidekicks was a crack shot with a beam rifle and was supporting its allies by sniping at the Wargs from a far.
Ignoring the aiming reticules on her monitor, Alice fired on intuition, throwing the surviving Garms a lifeline by keeping the enemy at bay while they regrouped. But the Space Wolves were slippery and more than capable of biding their time until reinforcements arrived or she ran out of plasma. Unfortunately for them, the Disappointing Angel was having none of that – they had to hurry and help Laura take down the Scarlet Wolf.
"Come in, Gladius!" she yelled into her comm, whilst pulling the trigger. "Requesting covering fire!"
Leaving the battle to rage on behind her, Laura chased after the Fenrir with the single-mindedness of a bloodhound. The Scarlet Wolf may have escaped her last time at the asteroid facility, where the Orthrus had to fight with an arm tied behind its back, but now the tables had turned and there was nothing to get in the way of the Gundam pilot's revenge. Soon enough the red mobile suit was in range, burning its propellant into a fiery blue contrail with abandon, and Laura lined up her shot mid-flight.
Bursts of azure plasma discharged from the rifle's barrel and converged on their target, until the Fenrir twisted and turned at the last second. As expected of the Scarlet Wolf, this wasn't going to be easy – as if it ever was, Laura told herself. But as the technopath fired off more beams, it struck her that Vega wasn't even fighting back – in fact, the LIRA ace was usually the one chasing her.
"What is she doing…?" Laura muttered, and watched bug-eyed as the Fenrir dived towards another floating section of the halo colony – back into the influence of gravity. "Is she crazy?!"
So the Gundam pilot exclaimed, until she made a split-second decision and dived after the falling red mobile suit. There was no way she was letting Vega Aurelia get away again. Whatever she was planning, Laura would just have to shoot her down before she could do it.
The acceleration that came with the artificial gravity allowed Vega to pull ahead, but she wasn't surprised when the White Hellhound showed up on the Fenrir's rear camera, firing away even in freefall.
"Tenacious, aren't you?" Vega grinned, her silver hair billowing behind her seat. "But I have no time to play with you!"
Bringing up the flashing purple dot on the schematic and comparing it to the ruins below on her monitor, Vega scanned both until she found a match. There – at the top of the tower still standing. As she adjusted the Fenrir's trajectory, its relic detection instrument went off. Buoyed by the high-pitched tone, the Scarlet Wolf rammed the throttle forward and surpassed terminal velocity.
Inside the Orthrus, Laura also heard the whine of her own detection instrument but pulled up instead, kicking in her reverse thrusters and jolting the suit back up right. While the Gundam's feet blasted out blue fire and hovered towards the ground, she watched open-mouthed as the Fenrir continued its mad descent. Even if Vega got the relic, what good was it if she died a fiery death in the process?
"There's no way she's going to survive…!"
But Vega Aurelia had a habit of exceeding expectations. With one shot she blew the top of the lone tower away, exposing the purple cube beneath. Discarding her empty rifle, she let the Fenrir plummet upside down towards the relic and reached out its hand.
The cube grew closer on her monitor. Vega held her breath. But when she made contact, the relic did not just glow.
It shined like a burning star and everything was bathed in blinding amethyst.
.
.
When the light finally subsided, only a few seconds has passed, but for Vega it had felt like an eternity. At the moment of technopathic contact, she had become a lightning rod for the relic as it disseminated its data into the Fenrir in an instant – and it wasn't just a deluge of information shocking her senses. The Scarlet Wolf could feel overwhelming power surging through her, like nothing she had ever felt before.
Finally, the electricity coursing through Vega ceased with the dimming of the light, only for the view on the cockpit monitor to startle her. According to the monitor, the Fenrir was still in freefall after having grasped the relic in its hand from the tower, but the image was completely frozen. At first the masked pilot thought time had stopped, until a strand of silver hair floated by her face and she realised the truth.
"…The artificial gravity is gone."
Laura noticed too. When the purple light had faded, the Orthrus was no longer falling towards the colony, but floating in zero-g again. Remembering the Scarlet Wolf, the technopath darted her eyes back to its last sighting and physically recoiled when she saw it hanging upside down and completely motionless.
"That's impossible…" she whispered, recalling the Fenrir's momentum before the flash. "It should be a flaming pile of scrap!"
Grinding her jaw with both disbelief and anger, Laura rammed the throttle to full power and dived in to finish the job herself. The Orthrus flew in, firing its beam rifle rapidly, yet with precision. The familiar mental jolt warning Vega of the White Hellhound's presence shook her back into combat and she reached for her controls.
Only for the Fenrir to move by itself.
With the deftest of movements, the red mobile suit shifted out of the path of the incoming beams, sliding side to side. When the Orthrus closed in and tried to ram the Fenrir with its shield instead, Vega gasped as the cockpit rolled and somersaulted seemingly of its own volition. Buzzing by her target, Laura slammed on her reverse thrusters and spun around, so she could gawk at the Scarlet Wolf – it had evaded all of her attacks, yet the Gundam pilot could have sworn not a single thruster had been fired.
"How did it do that…?"
The same question raced through Vega's mind and sweeping the hair from her eyes she saw the relic was still in the Fenrir's hand and a sudden hypothesis formed. She took a breath and focused her technopathic abilities, searching for the same power she had experienced before. Seconds later, the noblewoman's lips curved into a slow and glorious red smile.
"It worked…" she whispered, before laughing like a madwoman. "Oh, my Fenrir, you beautiful beast! I knew you could do it!"
The Fenrir flipped back over to face the Orthrus, floating down to its level and landing on the broken tower, all without the use of its thrusters in zero-G. Laura watched with bated breath and inhaled sharply when she finally saw the mobile suit from the front. It was no longer the colour of scarlet, but a deep burgundy, almost dark obsidian until the faint light of the distant Lemurian sun shined upon it.
"Mode change…?" Laura whispered, scarcely believing it until she saw the relic in the Fenrir's hand and drawing the only possible conclusion. "The Fenrir… is a relic?"
Inside her cockpit, Vega had ceased her chuckling and instead basked in the Fenrir's new Gravity Mode. As she suspected, with just a technopathic thought she could 'will' the mobile suit to 'fall' in any direction, giving her a limitless degree of movement without delay. The implications of an artificial gravity relic for Lux were revolutionary, not to mention for the Lemurian Conflict – but all the Scarlet Wolf could see was the raw power flowing through her being.
"Incredible… this feeling…!"
And it was all hers. With this, she had taken another step – no, a leap – towards her real ambition. At the knowledge of what was so close at hand, Vega could not contain herself and covered her widening mouth – for she could not stop grinning with glee. What would Ursula say if she could see her leader now?
But the sight of the Orthrus on her monitor tempered Vega's merriment and her lips creased into a grim line. By the manner of the White Hellhound's paralysed state, the pilot must surely have realised by now the meaning of the Fenrir's coat change and was sufficiently wary. That, or she was staring at the gravity relic within the Fenrir's grasp and Vega could not have that.
"I know what you must be thinking, Hellhound…" the Scarlet Wolf began, before baring her fangs in a ferocious show of possessiveness. "…But this power belongs to me and me alone!"
Holding the glowing relic out for her foe to see, Vega began to squeeze. By the time Laura even fathomed what she was doing, it was too late – the technopath, frozen with shock, could only watch. With the aid of the Fenrir's new gravity powers, the Scarlet Wolf crushed the relic within its fist and the artifact shattered, exploding into a myriad of purple shards.
While Laura was rendered speechless, Vega admired her handiwork with a satisfied smirk. Now it truly belonged to only the Fenrir and her.
"Major Aurelia! Come in, major!" the urgent call of the Blue Crow's operator graced Vega's ears, before Commodore Sparrhorn himself barked down the comm.
"Vega! If you're quite done, some assistance would be appreciated!"
At the commodore's request, the Scarlet Wolf's lips widened again into an eager smile. A perfect opportunity to put the Fenrir's new Gravity Mode through its paces had just arrived. Without warning, the maroon suit launched into space and left the ruined colony behind.
Laura swore and lighted up her thrusters, but the Fenrir was far ahead and leaving the Orthrus in its dust. The combination of artificial gravity and the Fenrir's own engine had it accelerating towards the debris field with impossible speed, pushing Vega back into her seat from the g-forces. She could feel the Gundanium in the suit's composite armour while they fell and was able to guide the Fenrir through the debris field by applying technopathic nudges to its sides, driving it with gravity – Gravity Fall, Vega named it with euphoria.
Just as she was getting the hang of it, the Fenrir arrived at the Blue Crow's coordinates – right into the middle of a firefight between the stealth vessel and an RDF battleship with its attached squadron of Garms. A flustered Vega reversed the pull of gravity to behind the Fenrir and threw its leg thrusters out in front, desperately trying to decelerate in time before she crashed into her own ship. The result was she stopped right in front of the Garms as they were flanking the Blue Crow, who were polite enough to pause and marvel at the Scarlet Wolf's new paintjob before blasting her with plasma.
"Right into the hornet's nest!" Vega cursed, dodging left and right.
"Glad you could make it, major," Commodore Sparrhorn's sarcasm greeted her through the comm, and he was soon joined by the operator on radar.
"The other two enemy ships are approaching us from our sides, captain! They'll be in cannon range soon!"
Jonas grunted. Either the remaining Space Wolves had fallen or they had failed to be enough of a threat to keep the other vessel occupied and now the Blue Crow faced a triage encirclement. The eyes of the Lunar Fox hardened and he relayed his orders – they still had time before the noose was pulled taut.
"Deal with the Garms, Vega! Leave the enemy ship to the Blue Crow!"
"Yes, captain!" Vega replied, for once in no mood for jests, and commanded the Fenrir to Gravity Fall through the rain of beams.
The Scarlet Wolf weaved through the barrage, shocking the Garms with her esoteric flying which seemed to rely on little or no propulsion at all, and it arced into their blind spots like a boomerang. Igniting a red beamsabre for each hand, curved and elongated by Gravity Mode, Vega tore into their formation and sliced open the bellies of two Garms at once before they exploded behind her. Immediately Gravity Falling into a tight U-turn, the obsidian suit seemed to skate back the way it came and ripped through the squadron again, but upside down.
However, as the Fenrir ate through the Garms one by one using its new and uncanny agility, its masked pilot could only grumble with dissatisfaction.
"This is nothing new to us, Fenrir," she said, as if goading the machine. "Surely, this is not all you can do?"
As if retorting, a technopathic current pricked Vega's mind, leading her to an undiscovered node within Gravity Mode's overflowing power. Licking her lips, the noblewoman pulled the Fenrir to a halt and let the remaining six Garms line up their rifles. When the beams discharged, Vega concentrated on the front of the Fenrir and her monitor flashed with bright light.
The burgundy mobile suit should have been skewered a dozen times over – instead, the beams bent around the machine. Stunned, the Garms kept firing only to witness the same result and the Fenrir was covered by a blue sphere of flickering light. Inside her cockpit, Vega chuckled, admiring the gravity field given off by the Gundanium she could only feel before as it curved hot plasma around her – like a Gravity Shield.
"That's better!" she cried, finally pushing the throttle.
Hatching a brilliant plan, the Scarlet Wolf fell backwards and through the debris of the Garms' departed comrades, expanding her gravity field and catching them within it. As they orbited around the Fenrir like its own satellites, Vega accelerated back forward into enemy fire, gathering speed until she got close - before suddenly releasing the robotic appendages from her field and launching them at the stunned Garms. Like her own projectiles, the rain of mobile suit parts shattered their cockpits with accuracy, creating more ammunition for Gravity Mode to pick up as the Fenrir passed by.
"Gravity Pull… Gravity Throw…" Vega named her newest powers with delight, noting the force of the field dictated what she could pull in as she impaled the last Garm with a decapitated head unit.
Having singlehandedly annihilated the Garm team, Vega turned her attention to the enemy ship accosting the Blue Crow. It appeared to be stalling, retreating through the debris field and taking advantage of the longer range of its beam cannon, waiting until its allies arrived so they could finish off the LIRA ship together. Another idea took hold of the masked pilot's lips, which curved with relish, and she fell into the path of the white battleship using Gravity Fall.
In a thrilling freefall, Vega plummeted between the two ships as they exchanged fire, dodging and coiling around thick streams of plasma and charred debris with heart-pounding nimbleness, until the Fenrir went under the enemy vessel. Once there, the technopath focused her abilities, expanding the gravity field as far as she could and pulling at the ship's hull as she fell past. Nothing happened at first, but slowly the battleship lost its mobility and by the time the Fenrir had come to stop at its rear, the ship was being held in place by an invisible force.
"Blue Crow!" Vega screamed into comm, and Sparrhorn almost leapt out of his chair as he gave the order.
"Fire!"
From the darkness of the black cruiser's cannon, the opening began to build with red light until it erupted with potent energy. Like a wave of concentrated lava, it flew straight for the immobilised Tachi, vaporising a giant hole down the length of its hull and out the other end. At the same time, Vega released it from the grip of Gravity Pull and moved clear of the explosion that followed, watching as the burnt wreckage seemed to sink before it broke up into countless pieces.
"Not bad, Fenrir," she whispered, panting, surprised by how much expanding the gravity field had taken out of her. It appeared that the larger she made it, the more difficult it was to control, particularly when trying to catch something big. Still, Vega had just been trying to immobilise the battleship and she could not help but think the Fenrir's new gravity powers could have gone even further.
However, her thoughts were cut short when two azure beams lit up the debris field – forming a burning cross with the Blue Crow at its centre. The stealth ship managed to thrust forward, avoiding the first shot from below, only to be grazed by the second down its flank and the raging plasma sheared off a good chunk of its armour. The vessel was left with a scorching red trench, exposing its frame, and when small explosions followed the Blue Crow began to tilt.
"What a shot…!" Commodore Sparrhorn whispered under his breath, amidst the clamour of alarms and damage reports on the bridge.
From the direction of the second beam, the Lionheart thrusted away from the floating Lemurian building it had been hiding behind, which now had a sizable hole in its side courtesy of the ship's smoking cannon. On the bridge, the maimed state of the Blue Crow was shown on-screen and Milos pumped his fist.
"The Tachi's sacrifice won't be for naught!" he cried, before speaking into his comm. "We have the fox by the tail, Gladius! Take his belly – this one's yours!"
The RDF ships closed in on their wounded prey like sharks to blood – one from behind and the other from below. The Blue Crow fired up what thrusters it could and limped away, but from her vantage point Vega could see the situation was dire.
"Vega! The Blue Crow can't outrun both ships!" Sparrhorn shouted into her ears, and for once the Lunar Fox sounded ill-at-ease. "Stop one, stall it, anything!"
"Understood, commodore!"
The Scarlet Wolf was already falling towards the Gladius, the ship that had pinned the Space Wolves down on the crescent colony. Vega spared a thought for Ursula and the others at the sight of the vessel, but her prayers for their safety were cast aside when the Gladius launched its entire silo of missiles in the direction the Blue Crow. The masked pilot acted at once, showing no hesitation in her gritted features as she fell into their path.
"I won't let you!"
Expanding her field, Vega Gravity Pulled as much debris as she could on her way down before flinging them at the missile cluster like scattershot. Several rockets exploded, taking more than half the salvo with them in a sea of fire, but a few made it through – right into the waiting arms of the Scarlet Wolf. Catching the zooming projectiles in her gravity field as they passed each other, Vega gently guided them behind the Fenrir – and back in the direction of the Gladius.
Giving them an extra, Gravity Throw-induced push, she released the rockets and they hurtled towards their new target. The Gladius responded with point-defence, blazing down one missile with its Vulcan gatling guns, only for the remaining warhead to slip through and slam into its bow. But the resulting explosion wasn't enough to down the giant ship and seeing its cannon charge with blue light, Vega fell under the vessel and gripped it using Gravity Pull.
The Gladius wrestled with the growing weight on its hull, twisting in place as its thrusters blared with blue fire, but the Scarlet Wolf held firm. Eventually the cannon went off, sending a massive blast of indigo plasma into space and it flew by the Blue Crow, missing it by a hair. However, any relief was short-lived, and Vega watched as the hobbled black vessel dodged another beam from behind as the relic hunter ship gave chase.
Instinct howled at the Scarlet Wolf to go help them, but the RDF battleship struggling above her would simply attack again if she released it. The only thing Vega could do was watch as the Blue Crow made its last stand. As powerful as the Fenrir's new Gravity Mode was, it could not change the conclusion playing out before her eyes, leaving its pilot with her last resort.
Run away.
Flee, as far as she could, without looking back. Though Vega may put up a gallant and reckless front before her comrades, it would surprise them to know that the Scarlet Wolf placed her survival above all else. Because if she did not live, all she had fought and struggled for would be for naught.
But the faces of Ursula, Luke and the other Space Wolves, current and departed, flashed through her mind, looking upon her with admiration. Commodore Sparrhorn and the crew of the Blue Crow appeared next, and a pang of guilt thumped her heart. Vega thought she had been prepared for this eventuality, when she left everyone behind, but she was wrong – she hadn't been prepared at all.
"For me to feel this way again… such sentimental drivel. But still…" the masked woman whispered under her breath, before gritting her fangs and howling against fate. "Come, Fenrir! If we die, we die knocking on the gates of hell!"
As if answering the technopath's passionate resolve, something awakened in the maroon machine and its eyes glowed like a pair of rubies. The gravity field it generated began to grow in size and power, until it encompassed the entire battleship and a small section of space. Debris drifted into its influence as if blown by a breeze, only to accelerate with alarming velocity, and suddenly the Fenrir was in the centre of a tornado.
"Captain, I'm picking up a distress signal – it's from the Gladius!"
"What?!" Milos accidently barked at the operator, irritated to have his fox hunt interrupted. "On-screen!"
When the bridge of the Lionheart saw the state of the Gladius, there was a collective gasp. The hulking battleship was not only in the middle of a storm in space, being battered from all sides by flying debris, it was actually bending – and, unless their eyes were deceiving them, at the centre of the storm, underneath the Gladius, was a mobile suit. It was floating in a black sphere, a perfect bubble devoid of light like the colour of the suit itself, as it sucked everything towards it.
"The Fenrir…" Milos whispered, recognising its shape and glowing crimson eyes, which shined like twin stars through the darkness.
On the Blue Crow, the bridge was watching the exact same events in silence and even Commodore Sparrhorn was speechless. Never in all his years serving LIRA had he ever seen something like this.
"Vega…" Jonas whispered, staring at the Scarlet Wolf's devilish transformation.
Inside her cockpit, Vega could feel the power swirling all around outside through her technopathic abilities, power far beyond that of Gravity Pull. Like a black hole, the gravity field was attracting everything it could and accelerating it towards the singularity that was the Fenrir – and the force was still growing stronger. On the monitor, she could see the Gladius' keel bending over the Fenrir's head like a twig threatening to snap and the masked pilot's lips curved dangerously.
With one command, the Gladius's fate was sealed.
"Gravity… Howl!"
A crack appeared underneath the Gladius' hull, before it swelled into a jagged fissure. Moments later, the battleship collapsed under its own weight and shattered into two flaking halves, sending white debris and lifeless crew bursting into space. Both the Lionheart and the Blue Crow watched in horror as the vessel was transformed into wreckage, all in an instant.
But the Scarlet Wolf wasn't done there.
Reappearing in the middle of the chaos like a fallen angel with shrapnel orbiting around it, the Fenrir raised its arm before bringing it down, and the remains of the Gladius began to accelerate forward – right into the path of the Lionheart. When its stunned crew realised the white meteor shower on the main monitor was headed their way, it took all their training not to panic.
"Captain, change course!" Sofia cried, and Milos nodded in agreement.
"Helmsman, take us down! As fast as you can!"
The Lionheart pitched forward, trying to avoid the falling debris, but the Scarlet Wolf was one step ahead of them. Following along so her giant projectiles would continue to gather speed inside her enormous gravity field, the masked pilot guided the debris so it was in line with the Lionheart's new heading before releasing them. When the battlecruiser realised the hail of destruction had followed them, they were already were caught inside the storm.
The smaller pieces of metal slammed into Lionheart and the crew braced, but the quaking hull held against the constant impacts. It was the larger pieces of scrap plummeting from above that posed the real threat – just one would rip the battlecruiser apart and the helmsman was sweating bullets weaving through them all. It wasn't only debris either; occasionally the limp form of one of the Gladius' crew would fly past. As the bombardment continued, Milos grit his teeth.
"Captain Hartmann!" Unlike him, Sofia's red eyes showed no hesitation to give the order the captain knew he must.
"I know!" Milos shouted, biting his lip. "Fire the main cannon!"
At his order the ship's main cannon fired from beneath it, destroying multiple parts of the Gladius before they reached the Lionheart with a beam of purifying blue light. Any survivors still inside would have been extinguished, but in exchange a way to safety was cleared and the battlecruiser darted ahead – only for another falling piece of the Gladius to explode far above the escaping ship. From it, a pillar of red plasma plunged from the heavens, having pierced through the debris and the beam penetrated the Lionheart's stern with remarkable accuracy.
"Are you kidding me?!" Milos bellowed, keeping a hand on his cap as the Lionheart floundered to regain control, knowing exactly who shot them. "How do you make that shot?!"
"That bastard used the debris as cover! To mask the energy signature of their beam cannon!" Sofia cried from her station, as furious as any of the crew had ever seen her. "I'm going make a fur coat out of that fox!"
On the bridge of the Blue Crow, the sight of the hobbled relic hunters on the monitor caused Jonas to smile. While it appeared they would have enough inertia left to escape the debris shower, it was obvious the beam had damaged their foe's engines and left them immobilised. But as he was about to order the decisive blow, the Crow suffered another ripple of explosions.
"Captain, the cannon has suffered structural damage!" an operator reported. "It's offline!"
"Blast!" the commodore swore, showing rare frustration by hitting his chair. "Vega, the Blue Crow's cannon is offline! Take care of them!"
"I would, commodore," Vega replied from her cockpit, keeping the Fenrir still as debris floated around them. "But it appears I'm not alone…"
From behind one of the fragments of the Gladius, the Orthrus burst from its hiding place with thrusters blazing.
"Vega Aurelia!" Laura cried with fury and blasted at the Fenrir with her rifle.
"White Hellhound!" Vega returned the sentiment, smiling as she deflected the beams around her Gravity Shield, before taking off.
The pair played a game of cat and mouse in the debris field and while they were familiar with one another's piloting styles by now, the Fenrir's new Gravity Mode was an unknown element the Orthrus could not afford to underestimate.
No longer succumbing to her own impulsiveness in the face of the Scarlet Wolf, Laura kept her distance and used the debris as cover, darting from one to the next as she analysed the maroon suit's unique flight patterns and abilities. Although the Fenrir appeared to defy the laws of physics as it changed directions at will, the Gundam pilot could tell Vega was still testing its limits and managed to slip behind her adversary, where she unleashed a spray of azure plasma. The Fenrir's invisible gravity field refracted the beams around it again, but Laura kept her cool and thrusted back into hiding – she knew from experience that Mode Change had at least one weakness.
"You never fail to disappoint me, White Hellhound!" Vega grinned, Gravity Throwing stray debris behind her before falling backwards and chasing her rival.
Compared to Laura, the Scarlet Wolf was so exhilarated by her new abilities, she had fallen back into old habits and played with her food. Licking her red lips, the ace plummeted after the Orthrus, feeling the thrill of the wind inside her cockpit as they zigzagged through the debris field. On her way down, Vega pulled a range of Lemurian vehicles into the Fenrir's orbit, hurling them at her prey and marvelled as the White Hellhound evaded or shot them down with ease.
The masked pilot was so drunk on the power of Gravity Mode, she only noticed the state of her energy reserves when the flashing red bar was perilously low.
Having bided her time long enough, Laura dashed out of cover – but this time, the Orthrus was the colour of gold. Soaring on momentum, she discarded her empty rifle and spread her arms wide open.
"Solar Flare!"
At the sight of the Orthrus' chest cannon, Vega took a sharp intake of breath and dodged the heavy violet beam by thrusting sideways. The blast streamed past her with blinding light, tamer than she remembered, but the frozen lake in its path was still boiled into a cloud of steam before crystallising again. Gravity Shield may be effective against beam rifles, but she didn't dare take her chances with a heavy-class beam cannon.
"Got you!"
Vega felt another presence and a Garm ambushed the Fenrir from the shadow of a Lemurian house, brandishing a blue beamsabre. She caught it just in time using her own curved blade, only to repel a slashing purple beamsabre from the other side as the gold Orthrus charged in. With crimson scimitars in both hands, the Scarlet Wolf grit her fangs and wrestled with her attackers only to be sandwiched in place.
"What's wrong? What happened to your fancy new powers?" Freya sneered at the burgundy mobile suit on the monitor and pumped more power into her thrusters.
"I knew it! She's out of juice!" Laura exclaimed and her eyes matched with her beamsabre as they both glinted with satisfaction. "Mode Change is powerful, but without proper calibration the first time always has a drawback!"
Inside her cockpit, Vega cursed when she realised the Orthrus had incited her to use her gravity powers before luring the battery-drained Fenrir into an ambush. The ace had misjudged the rate of energy usage in Gravity Mode, not to mention the stimulation of Gravity Howl sucking the reserves dry and distracting her. What was worse, she remembered the relic hunter pilots came in a trio – so where was the third one?
Directly above the masked pilot, aiming her rifle from behind the cover of a large sheet of scrap metal, Alice had the Fenrir's head unit in her sights.
"Burn in hell, Scarlet Wolf…" the pilot whispered, and squeezed her trigger as the reticule went red.
The beam should have impaled the Fenrir down its spine and liquified its cockpit like a flaming azure arrow – but a shadow pulled into its path and swatted the beam down with a defiant crimson beamsabre.
"I won't let you!" Ursula shouted, and deflected another bolt of blue lightning as an irate Alice let loose.
"Ursula!" Vega cried, her red lips spreading with surprise and relief, and another familiar voice graced her ears.
"Don't forget me, major!" said Luke, and his Warg assailed Freya's Garm from below with a gleaming sabre.
The pink diva spotted him, cursed, and broke off from the Fenrir so Luke slashed only void. But he made the mistake of chasing the Garm up and into the angelic sniper's line of fire. With extraordinary timing only practice and familiarity could achieve, Freya veered out of the way just as Alice fired her rifle, catching the Warg's head unit and blinding its pilot.
"Nice try!" Freya jeered at her would-be-assassin, coiling back and ramming her beamsabre through the Warg's chest.
"Luke!" Ursula screamed, and watched in horror as his mobile suit was transformed into a fire ball. "Damn you!"
With a furious war cry, the captain switched targets and charged into Luke's killer, using the smoke from his own explosion to hide from the sniper above. Alice clicked her tongue and the next time she saw the Warg it was grappling with Freya's Garm, denying her a clean shot. Keeping the Garm between her and the sniper, Ursula kneed Freya's cockpit, dazing its pilot, before pulling her beamsabre back for the killing blow.
But Freya had kept one eye open.
"Shoot, Alice!"
The Disappointing Angel spied the expulsion of an ejection seat and its pilot from the Garm and pulled the trigger. Hot blue plasma pierced through the Garm's back, bursting through its chest and shearing off the Warg's arm, before the machine exploded in front of Ursula at point-blank.
"Ursula!"
Vega called out for her subordinate and gasped when she saw her Warg was still intact. Relief transformed into anger and the Scarlet Wolf unsheathed her deadly red foot sabres, kicking and freeing herself from the White Hellhound. It was only for a fraction of a second, but the masked pilot's technopathic abilities heighted in that moment, so when she Gravity Threw her beamsabre it boomeranged around the debris field like a spinning razorblade.
Laura's jaw dropped when she saw the flaming torch arc into Alice's nest with perfect aim, from her blind spot no less, and the explosion of light in the distance had the orphan in hysterics.
"Freya! Alice!"
With an ear-piercing scream she cancelled Solar Mode and charged into the Scarlet Wolf, and their neon blades crossed with flying sparks.
"Laura, we're okay!" Alice dropped in on her com and the technopath almost blubbered at the sound of her voice, which was soon followed by another.
"It's up to you now, Laura!" Freya barked into her ears. "Take her down!"
With a guttural roar, Laura hacked at the Fenrir with a series of rending strikes of its beamsabre and shield, scorching the Wolf's claret armour with dark plasma burns. It was all Vega could do to fend off the assault, daring not to use even her thrusters lest her battery cells flatlined, and the White Hellhound pushed her around the debris field like a hockey puck. But the Scarlet Wolf knew she had enough power left for one final Gravity Fall and bided her time, waiting for her chance.
Her patience paid off when the Orthrus kicked the Fenrir into a piece of the Tachi's charred hull and engaged its thrusters to close the gap, propelling itself on fiery azure wings. Vega waited until the Hellhound was in range, just before it swung its beamsabre – and technopathically commanded them both to fall. Both mobiles suits accelerated, with the Orthrus falling into the Fenrir – but Laura fell faster due to her raging thrusters, and now it was Vega who closed the gap.
"You're mine, Hellhound!" the Scarlet Wolf howled and kicked off the debris to her back, pointing her blazing sword skyward and letting inertia do the rest.
Laura moved to jerk her flight stick and raise her shield, but knew it was a skirmish that would be decided in milliseconds – and Vega Aurelia had calculated flawlessly. The Orthrus should have been impaled by its own momentum and the pale technopath with it. But just when the Gundam pilot thought it was over, a rapid burst of plasma shot across her monitor.
The first beam curved around the Fenrir's gravity field, but it was enough to break it in its weakened state, and with its power sapped the maroon suit reverted to its original scarlet shade. The rest of the azure volley hit not only the Fenrir, but the veering Orthrus too, and Laura thankfully had her shield up already. Startled to find her beamsabre shot out of her hand before she could land the killing blow, Vega thrusted away before she collided with the Orthrus, using the White Hellhound as cover.
But to the surprise of both pilots, the interloper kept firing and was revealed to be a navy blue Garm armed with duel rifles, which it was currently unloading into Laura's blast shield in an attempt to hit the Fenrir.
"You idiot, I'm on your side!" Laura shouted into her comm, weathering the barrage while the Scarlet Wolf got away.
Somewhat amused, Vega watched from her vantage point as the newcomer gave her rival a dose of friendly fire. The masked pilot contemplated taking advantage of the situation to attack again but erred on the side of caution, seeing her depleted power, and a final burst of the Fenrir's thrusters carried her away into the debris field. The spectacle was distraction enough, however, that the Scarlet Wolf never saw the indigo light bearing down on her.
.
.
When the moron in the blue Garm finally stopped firing, Laura spun the Orthrus around to give chase to the Fenrir – only for a wave of blue plasma to surge overheard. Blinded by the light, she shielded her eyes and when the heavy beam finally passed the Scarlet Wolf was nowhere to be seen in the debris field. Swearing into her helmet, the technopath took a breath and opened her comm.
"Freya, Alice! Are you alright?"
"Still in one piece," Freya responded, thrusting out of her hiding place with Alice on their ejector seats and meeting up with the Orthrus.
"Sorry… it looks like she got away again," Laura sighed, bottling up her irritation with a frown.
"Don't blame yourself, Laura. No one could have predicted the Fenrir was a relic like the Orthrus," Alice assured her friend.
"That power was insane… she took out a whole ship by herself," Freya shivered at the memory. "But this doesn't change what we need to do – we'll get her next time, Laura."
The Pink Diva was right, but Laura still mentally kicked herself and grit her teeth in furious silence. It was galling enough to have fought Vega Aurelia to a draw on three occasions, but this time she had gotten away with a powerful relic – a relic the Orthrus could have used – and it stung. Three missed chances to avenge Tully and now the Scarlet Wolf was more dangerous than ever – frustration couldn't even begin to describe her turmoil of emotions.
The girl needed an outlet.
"…Well, I might have got her if not for this idiot," Fuming, Laura turned her livid purple gaze on the interloper and opened the RDF comm channel to vent her wrath. "Hey, you in the blue Garm! What the hell was that? You almost killed me!"
Her greeting was met with strange noises on the other side, like the pilot was making fun of her and blowing a raspberry, before the channel went dead.
"I think he's ignoring me!"
"That bastard flyboy! He's lucky I don't have my Garm right now!" Freya shook her fist.
"But where did he come from?" asked Alice, curious.
"From the same ship that beam fired from, I guess," said Laura, following the navy blue Garm with narrowed eyes as it headed back the way it came. "Wait, I know that ship…"
The familiar RDF battleship on her monitor glided into view and the orphans all shouted at the same time.
"The Baselard!"
On the bridge of the Lionheart, Milos quietly wiped the sweat from his brow before replacing his cap with a twist, and addressed his comm.
"Glad you could make it, Captain – no, Admiral Turner."
The older man with a familiar white beard appeared on-screen, sporting a new insignia on his RDF uniform indicating the rank of rear-admiral, and Milos and Sofia saluted.
"I regret we couldn't arrive earlier," said the admiral, surveying the destruction on his monitor. "But at least the Lionheart is safe – and I just received a report that Team Orthrus and its pilots are unharmed as well."
"Thank you, admiral," Milos sighed with relief at the news, before spying the blue Garm returning to the Baselard's hangar bay. "Is that the pilot you spoke of?"
"Yes, he has his share of… issues, but with some discipline he should make a fine addition to the Lionheart's crew. There's a lot he can teach those ensigns of yours," Admiral Turner nodded, smiling at the memory of the Baselard's former pilots, before pausing and when he spoke again his expression was grim. "My Garms have just reported in… they found no survivors. The Baselard will proceed with towing operations and assist the Lionheart back to base. There's nothing left for us here, captain."
Milos nodded and when the admiral signed off, he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. The memory of the Gladius and the Tachi's demise replayed in his mind with perfect detail and when he opened his eyes again, he was no less disturbed. The captain had a feeling that the war had just gotten a whole lot worse.
.
.
When Vega came to, she found the Fenrir was being carried away by a burnt, one-armed, but still-functioning Warg and its disapproving pilot.
"I seem to be carrying you back to the Blue Crow quite often lately, major," Ursula protested, though she could not hide the tinge of relief in her voice. "I hope you're not planning of making a habit of this."
"Oh, Ursula, my knight in shining armour," Vega chuckled, and combed back her mess of floating silver hair. "Right now, I wouldn't mind if you carried me to the altar."
While her cute subordinate blushed and stammered furiously, disturbing their otherwise calm flight with inadvertent tugs of her flight stick, the masked pilot recalled her most recent escape. After miraculously dodging the beam cannon aimed at the Fenrir with the very last of its power, she had drifted out into space until Ursula had picked her up. Now, they were racing back to the Blue Crow, the Commodore having ordered a retreat at the detection of RDF reinforcements.
"What about me, major? Don't I count as a knight too?"
"Luke?" Vega exclaimed, hearing his voice on the comm. "You're alive?"
"Barely! I ejected in time, only to be thrown by the explosion," the lucky lieutenant explained. "Captain Roland caught my distress signal, but she wouldn't let me in her cockpit! I'm out here in the cold, riding on the Warg's head!"
"I told you, there's no room for two people! What if we have to sortie again?" Ursula argued with exasperation. "Just hang on, we're almost there."
"I'm truly glad you're both alright," Vega whispered, before pausing. "What of Tanaka and Jose?"
"They didn't make it," Luke informed her, and the lieutenant went quiet.
"Two war cruisers and more than half the Space Wolves lost… it was a massacre," Ursula growled, the captain consumed by a mixture of anger and grief.
"Indeed, today's battle was a fierce one. We lost as many as we avenged…" Vega began, her voice solemn, until the corners of her red lips lifted into a subtle smile. "But, in the end, we have gained so much more. Know that their sacrifice will not be in vain – not so long as we survive."
"Yes… you were right, major. The Fenrir is the same as the Orthrus Gundam," Ursula wanted to share in her commander's excitement, but her emotions were tempered by the loss of their comrades. "That counts as two relic discoveries – I'm sure command will be pleased, despite the cost to us."
"Where is the relic, major?" Luke queried, to which his superior grinned.
"I'm afraid the gravity relic suffered an… unfortunate accident. But rest assured, the Fenrir downloaded all its data beforehand."
"Good enough," Commodore Sparrhorn interrupted and ignored the aghast faces of Luke and Ursula. "Just make sure you stick to that story on your report. Command already has it out for you; don't make it worse, major."
"I wouldn't dream of it, commodore," Vega complied, but just by the sound of her voice Jonas knew her expression was far from compliant.
"The Blue Crow's engines are primed and ready," he notified them. "Hurry back so we can escape this accursed colony."
The relic hunt may have been a disaster in their eyes, but to Vega it had been a boon – when command saw the power of the relics the Scarlet Wolf had brought them, she had no doubt they would capitulate to House Aurelia and her every demand, elevating her standing within LIRA and the empire to even greater heights. First, she would require a supply of Gundanium for the Fenrir, repairs and upgrades for the Blue Crow, and then there was the matter of rebuilding the ranks and equipment of the Space Wolves. There was so much to do, and the masked pilot hadn't even gotten to exploring the Fenrir's new powers – just imagining what other abilities more relics would unlock had the noblewoman quivering with excitement.
"You did well today, Fenrir…" she crooned, rubbing the arm of her chair.
When they next met with the White Hellhound, they would be more than ready. As the Blue Crow came into view, Vega smiled in anticipation and whispered under her breath.
"I cannot wait, Hellhound."
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END OF EPISODE FIVE
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MILOS: While the Lionheart is docked at Colony Zero, crew will be permitted shore leave for some well-deserved relaxation. However, leave can be rescinded on grounds of misconduct… and if I catch you with my daughter or her friends, I will personally put you into the ground. So don't even think about it.
Next time, on Gundam Gemini:
Colony Blues.
I can stop being a captain, but I can't stop being a father.
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This was a tough episode, orchestrating the battles and figuring out the gravity powers and such (for those wondering, yes, Gravity Rush is one of my favourite games!), but thanks to LW for doing a great job prereading and helping me achieve this level of quality!
So my pseudo-beta LW heard the outline to Episode Four and demanded I write it... and I caved in. So we'll be going back one episode before continuing with Episode Six and, hopefully, if things stay to plan both will be short episodes. Hope you enjoyed this episode and see you next time!
UPDATE: Episode Four is up, on to Episode Six!
