Tale Twenty: Lieutenant Sofia Saxe-Coburg-Gotha - CAT1-S01H Hyperion Sabre - Shortly before the Battle of Crete
The last few days had rushed past far too quickly for Sofia's liking. First a mysterious transport arrived at Herschel base and then she was unexpectedly transferred out of the 2nd Balkan Battalion. Now she was under the direct command of General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett and his elite "Obstinate Arrows" special combat unit. Made up of six hand picked pilots the Obstinate Arrows were the finest combat unit in the whole Eurasian Federation. The Obstinate Arrows had a long and distinguished history that dated back to before the Reconstruction Wars. Sofia would have been honoured to have merely been considered for membership. Actually being part of them was unbelievable. They had a rather snazzy all black version of the standard Eurasian uniform and piloted the newest mobile suits. The CAT1-S01H Hyperion Sabre had been under development on and off since the end of the last war. Based on the original Hyperion it had suffered various setbacks thanks to Rear Admiral Garcia's lacklustre handling of the project.
Sofia rather liked the name Hyperion Sabre. The Atlantic Federation chose Dagger for their mobile suits but to Sofia that conjured up images of back ally brawls between drunks. A sabre was a far more elegant weapon for more sophisticated people. The Hyperion Sabre shared pretty similar design to the original Hyperion although the newer model did have enlarged shoulders. The shoulders mounted the additional batteries required to power the two RFW-99K "Zastava Stigmate Type K" beam sub-machineguns. Sofia was annoyed that she hadn't had more time to experiment with the mono-phase lightwave shield emitters. Unfortunately almost as soon as she'd been assigned to the Obstinate Arrows they had all boarded the Franz Josef and set sail without even an escort. It took more than a day for Melchett to reveal what the mission was.
Now they were just moments away from launching their mission. The objective was to probe the defences of ZAFT's Armoury One station. Apparently the Atlantic Federation had given orders for a recon mission. General Melechett had volunteered the Obstinate Arrows because he knew that no other unit in the Eurasian Federation would be able to achieve the objective.
"Okay. Andrzej, Francisca, Miko, and the newbie Sofia will join me in a frontal attack," said Louis Gautier the Obstinate Arrows' mobile suit team leader. "Zachepa you will use the commotion to do a fly by of their external facilities get as much data as you can then high tail it out of there."
There was five confirmation replies although Sofia's was rather sullen. She did not like being called a newbie. She'd fought in more battles than anyone in this unit. Perhaps not of the same intensity recently but she'd been through some of the toughest battles of the previous war. She tried to put such thoughts to the back of her mind as the hanger doors began to open. Louis' Hyperion Sabre was the first onto the linear catapult and before the long the whole team had been shot out into space. The Franz Josef was hiding behind an asteroid; Sofia noted that they were probably not going to be getting any support from the Agamemnon class battleship's main guns. Sporting a quite simple grey and white colour scheme the Hyperion Sabres lacked any sort of identification marking other than a black A followed by a Roman numeral on the left shoulder.
The six Hyperion Sabres flew in close formation before machine V, piloted by Zachepa, broke off to perform his mission. As the five remaining machines crossed the outer periphery of ZAFT's defence sphere Louis activated his "Forfanterie" beam cannons. The two lengthy cannons locked down over the shoulders of his Hyperion Sabre. He carefully targeted a Nazca destroyer so far away Sofia thought it impossible to hit. However she was proved wrong when the powerful beams burst forth from the cannons and struck the Nazca's engine block. It still took several minutes for the Eurasian mobile suits to reach the principle ZAFT defence lines. There were reams and reams of mobile suits zooming around Sofia hadn't seen that many since the Second Battle of Jachin Due. She did not, however, allow that to phase herself.
The ZAFT mobile suits tried to heard the Hyperion Sabres into a kill zone but the plan quickly fell to pieces. For starters the Eurasians refused to play ball. Louis bagged himself a pair of GuAIZ Rs with a quick burst from his Zastava Stigmate Type K beam sub-machinegun. Sofia, not wanting to be left out, dropped her crosshairs upon one of the newer ZAKU-type mobile suits. She pressed the trigger and a stream of little beams burst forth from the Zastava Stigmate in her mobile suit's right hand. It was quite unlike any beam weapon she'd used before. The old Strike Dagger's M703 beam rifle had a very definite kick to it that you could still feel through all the bracing. With the Zastava Stigmate however she couldn't feel anything. While each individual beam bolt was weaker than even the M703K beam carbine's shots there were enough to them to easily chew through the ZAKU's armour. It quickly exploded in quite spectacular fashion which made Sofia appreciate the Hyperion Sabre even more.
Feeling rather adventurous the Obstinate Arrows broke out of formation and each raced off through the ZAFT lines. The Hyperion Sabres were fairly quick machines and the large numbers of ZAFT mobile suits made the job rather easier. The ZAFT pilots had to be careful of where they were aiming. The Eurasians had no such limitation. Sofia was enjoying herself considerably. Both her Zastava Stigmate's spat fire at the myriad of ZAFT mobile suits. One burst decapitated a rather unfortunate GINN while another blew off the left leg of a passing ZAKU. It didn't bother her if not all of her shots were kills. That wasn't the mission profile. They were there to cause a ruckus and they were certainly doing that. As if to prove the point Andrzej's used his "Forfanterie" beam cannons to blast a swath through the ZAFT ranks and to fell a Laurasia frigate at the same time.
Unfortunately for Sofia it appeared that ZAFT did not want her to have everything her own way. Through the broiling melee a multi-coloured high energy beam came racing towards her. The beam was quite clearly well aimed and it was only Sofia's lighting reflexes coupled with her Hyperion Sabre's superb response time that save her. Of course the "Armure Lumiere" mono-phase lightwave shield mounted on the Hyperion Sabre's forearms did help a little. The Hyperion Saber just kept impressing Sofia more and more. She knew that the "Armure Lumiere" technology had been around for some time but this application was simple astounding. No mobile suit of the previous or current generations could have survived a direct hit from a high energy beam cannon. Recovering from her amazement Sofia decided to track down the perpetrator. She knew it was one of the ZAKU mobile suits and there were not that many sporting the long-range cannon backpack. She spotted a likely candidate through the crowd though she had noway of telling if it was the same ZAKU. Holstering one of her Zastava Stigmates she drew a beam sabre and went in for the kill. The ZAKU spotted her approach far to late. It tried to get off a shot but missed by miles. In a rather swift movement Sofia sliced the cannon in half and then thrust her sabre into the ZAKU's cockpit.
As she deactivated the blade and shoved the lifeless ZAKU away the multi-colour flares signalling a withdrawal were splashed across space. The Obstinate Arrows disengaged themselves with little trouble from the confused and disorganised ZAFT battle lines. Between then the Arrows had destroyed eleven enemy mobile suits and damaged a further two dozen. In return the only damage they had suffered was Francisca having her suit's left arm severed at the elbow. The "Armure Lumiere" mono-phase lightwave shield really was a life saver. Without it the mission would have been a total failure. Sofia had fallen in love with the Hyperion Sabre. As far as she was concerned it was finest mobile suit she'd ever piloted. She had a feeling she'd do great times with her new sabre.
End of the Tale