Tale Sixteen: Lieutenant Sofia Saxe-Coburg-Gotha - GAT-02L2 Dagger L - Sometime after Operation Spear of Twilight
The two Eurasian Federation Drake class escort ships slowly rose up from the Lunar surface. Behind them the grey body of the Nelson class cruiser Allenby followed closely. In it's small hanger Lieutenant Sofia Saxe-Coburg-Gotha finished the final checks on her Dagger L. The last few weeks had raced past so quickly she could scarcely believe that the world was at war once again. None of the other members of her mobile suit squad had served in the last war. They were all teenagers fresh from the academy with no experience at all. Sofia was only three years older than her subordinates but in terms of military experience she was ancient. She had started the last war as a fighter pilot and ended up as a ace mobile suit pilot. Her Dagger L even had a red and green custom colour scheme to prove it.
"Captain, what is all the hubbub about?" she asked after keying in the communication link to the Allenby's bridge.
"We've picked up a Laurasia class frigate probing our defence lines," reported Captain Hohenzollern. "Our masters at Arzachel have ordered us to destroy them."
Sofia swore in the safety of her own head. She detested the Atlantic Federation. Her fiancé had been part of the Eurasian Federation contingent defending JOSH-A during the last war. He did not make it out alive. It sickened her that the Atlantic Federation was able to so easily push the Eurasian Federation around. Unfortunately her nation had suffered greatly from the 'Break the World' incident and its position in the Earth Alliance was weakened; so they were forced to accept the Atlantic Federation's diktats. It did not help that they were deliberately holding back Eurasia's military development by refusing to share their latest mobile suit, the Windam. Yet still they insisted that the Eurasian military take front-line duties despite the increasingly level of new mobile suits in the ranks of ZAFT.
"Affirmative, sir, we shall engage the enemy closely," Sofia replied rather woodenly. She didn't have any issues with the coordinators, she had met a few of them and they seemed an alright bunch of people. However it was still her duty to defend her nation against all aggressors. ZAFT's cover story explaining the 'Break the World' incident was paper thin it was so obvious that they were responsible. Furthermore their rapid deployment of advanced new mobile suits suggested that they had been planning this for a while.
Before long the Eurasian Federation mobile suits had launched and were speeding through space toward the ZAFT ship. Soon the green frigate was disgorging its horde of mobile suits. Sofia checked her read outs on the enemy mobile suits and breathed a sigh of relief upon discovering that none of them were new models. ZAFT's GuAIZ R was still an impressive machine but at least her Dagger L had a chance against it.
Off to Sofia's right one of her wingmen tried an experimental shot with the recoilless cannons on his Doppelhorn striker pack. She knew that he would never hit anything. They were still too far away from the GuAIZ Rs and he was hopeless shot anyway. She had tried her best to train her young subordinates but it seemed like they lacked the nous to become truly excellent pilots. Sofia didn't like the striker packs available for the Dagger L anyway; she thought they were far too bulky and didn't improve performance at all.
It was the GuAIZ Rs that opened fire next. Their big beam rifles had a much greater effective range than the small M703K carbines the Dagger Ls used. Sofia slightly adjusted her course to avoid being hit. Her subordinates meanwhile were engaging in far more elaborate avoidance manoeuvres and just as she expected one of them was caught by a stray beam. The unlucky Dagger L was torn to pieces as it exploded. Sofia made a mental note to chastise them for their sloppy manoeuvring once the mission was over, assuming any of her subordinates survived. She kicked her Dagger L into full thrust and zoomed off ahead of the rest of the Eurasian mobile suits. She dropped her crosshairs onto one of the green GuAIZ Rs. As she pressed the trigger her beam carbine spat green fire at the ZAFT suit. The first beam sheered off the GuAIZ R's right arm while the second pierced the armour plating around the cockpit.
The principle military advantage that ZAFT had had over the forces of Earth during the last war was the mobile suit. Now that Earth had developed mobile suit operating systems that allowed natural pilots to compete evenly with the coordinators the balance was shifted. While ZAFT still had the technological advantage the forces of Earth could make up for that with numbers. Sofia smiled to herself as she positioned her shield to deflect an incoming beam. The shield had a light anti-beam coating applied to it. Coating was only good for a few glancing hits but it was a nice reassurance to have. Off to her right one of the GuAIZ Rs fired its Pollux IX railguns. One of the slugs struck the left shoulder of her machine but mercifully failed to significantly damage the workings. However the rail slug from the other barrel tore through the bulky Doppelhorn striker pack of one of the Dagger Ls. Naturally the striker pack exploded in massive fireball that consumed the Dagger L as well. In reply Sofia took a "Stiletto" rocket-propelled anti-armour penetrator from its hip mounted rack. With a deft flick of the Dagger L's wrist she sent the arrow head-like projectile flying towards the offending GuAIZ R. The Stilletto caught the ZAFT mobile suit in the head which was promptly blown off. One of Sofia's subordinates did the honours in finishing off the GuAIZ R with two rounds from the recoilless cannons on their Doppelhorn striker pack.
Sofia noted with only mild interest that far behind the mobile suits one of the iDrake/i escorts ships was burning fiercely and slowly dropping towards the Lunar surface. The small grey ship had seemingly fallen victim to the Laurasia class frigate's 450mm railguns. The remaining Drake fired off a volley of missiles at the ZAFT vessel while the Allenby bore down upon it with all guns blazing. Sofia smiled to herself; it was obvious that Captain Hohenzollern was enjoying himself far too much. Too late she realised that she had allowed herself to loose track of the battle. A beam narrowly missed her cockpit and caught her M703K beam carbine. The carbine exploded with enough force to shred the right forearm of her Dagger L. Jettisoning her shield Sofia toggled the the controls to bring her beam sabre to bare. Jamming her foot down on the thruster pedal she sent her machine charging off after the originator of the beam that nearly killed her. Almost immediately she could tell that the pilot of the GuAIZ R was rather inexperienced. They were trying to back away while firing their CWIS and railguns. Sofia was able to easily avoid the inaccurate projectile fire and close in for the kill. In one swift swipe she sliced the green ZAFT mobile suit in half at about cockpit height. The two pieces drifted apart slightly before exploding.
In the distance Sofia could see that the enemy frigate had fired off retreat flares. The remaining GuAIZ Rs tried to disengage from combat. However the Eurasian pilots were far too caught up in the thrill of battle to stop. They hounded the fleeing coordinators all the way back to their ship. Coordinated gun fire from the Allenby and the Dagger Ls sent the light green ZAFT frigate crashing down to the Lunar surface in flames. In the grand scheme of things it was just a small victory but to those involved it was the greatest ever.
End of the Tale