Tale Twenty One: Lieutenant Sofia Saxe-Coburg-Gotha - CAT1-S01H Hyperion Sabre - The Battle of Herschel Crater
The armoured blast doors to the Herschel Crater base's command centre opened with the ease of well oiled machinery. Lieutenant Sofia Saxe-Coburg-Gotha brazenly marched through flanked by two guards. She looked resplendent in her black Obstinate Arrows uniform. Sofia had raced back to the base from the Franz Josef with some very important news.
"Can I have everyone's attention please!" she bellowed at the assembled officer in the command centre. "A little over two hours ago General Melchett received word that an Atlantic Federation forces has been dispatched to seize control of this base and detain all the personnel here."
"Is this some kind of joke? What is the meaning of this!" demanded Lieutenant Colonel Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman, the 2nd Balkan Battalion's commanding officer.
"I assure you Lieutenant Colonel this is no joke. The General's intelligence sources inform him that the Atlantic Federation's 27th Unified Attack Battalion has been ordered in for the attack along with the 3rd Special Operations Gressorial Force. The enemy fleet is expected to consist of more than twenty ships," reported Sofia calmly.
"That is insane. There is no way our allies would attack us," protested Major Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov. "This must be misinformation, what the hell is Melchett up to?"
"This is no lie Major. What happened in Berlin was no accident. The Atlantic Federation has turned on us and they will attack this base in a matter of hours," snapped Sofia. "By the authority of the Obstinate Arrows and of General Melchett I am seizing command of this base and it's defences."
---
At exactly 09:46AM the Atlantic Federation fleet crossed the lip of Herschel Crater. Consisting of ten Drake class escort ships, eight Nelson class cruisers and three Agamemnon class battleships it was a pretty impressive sight. They were not expecting any resistance from the Eurasian forces in Herschel crater after all there was no way for the Eurasians to know what was going to happen.
"No reported movement within the base, sir," observed the sensor operator aboard the flagship Alexander.
"It looks like we won't be needing your services, Lieutenant Commander," commented Captain Harold Pinter. "Launch the 27th have them secure the facility for my arrival."
"Don't be too confident Captain Pinter," said Lieutenant Commander Stephan O'Riley from where he lurked at the rear of the Alexander's bridge. "I saw the 2nd Balkan Battalion fight at Jachin Due they are a tough bunch of fighters, you shouldn't under estimate them."
"That bunch of ingrate Eurasians? I think you give them too much credit Lieutenant Commander," sneered Pinter. "To prevail in the conflict against the coordinators we must prune the recalcitrant elements from our alliance."
"Whatever you say Captain," said Stephan dismissively as he moved to leave the bridge. "I'll be waiting in the hanger for when you need us."
In the corridor Stephan was pleased to see Joanne Davies waiting for him. He rather appreciated her company as all his other subordinates were near-mindless zealots with little vocal dexterity.
"Is something wrong, sir? You look troubled," Joanne asked as she fell into step with him.
"Pinter is an idiot. He isn't taking this mission seriously just because we are dealing with the Eurasian Federation," replied Stephan. The two pilots approached the elevator at the end of the corridor and with timing usually only found in celluloid the doors opened so that they did not even have to slow down.
"Well they shouldn't be much of a challenge after all the coordinators we've fought," said Jo.
"The 2nd Balkan Battalion has been fighting the coordinators just a long as we have. Hell they've fought this entire war using just Dagger-Ls," said Stephan. "There isn't a single Windam in Herschel base's arsenal yet they've been going up against Zakus and winning. They are way better than the 27th, probably better than us as well."
"Even so if they haven't reacted so far we've probably caught them by surprise," she said reassuringly. "You worry too much, sir,"
---
Shadows hid Sofia's Hyperion Sabre from the approaching Atlantic Federation mobile suits. She noted that it appeared to be a mixed formation of Windams and Dagger-Ls. That would be advantageous to the 2nd Balkan. If it had been all Windams she didn't think her old unit would last very long.
When General Melchett had first raised the issue of Herschel being attacked he hadn't been keen at all to intervene. It occurred to Sofia that the general did not want to reveal the fact that he had someone inside the Atlantic Federation passing him information. However Sofia had insisted that they do something. So eventually he allowed her to return to Herschel alone. That didn't bother her that much. She liked being part of the Obstinate Arrows but she still felt a loyalty to the 2nd Balkans. She couldn't stand by and watch them fall to the Atlantic Federation.
She checked her radar readings one last time before ordering, "Okay people lets go! Time to show these Atlantic dogs how to fight!"
Hammering her foot down on the Hyperion Sabre's thruster peddles the grey and white mobile suit emerged from the shadows. With a Zastava Stigmate beam sub-machinegun in each hand Sofia began spraying beam fire at the incoming mobile suits. Before they even knew what was happening a Windam was riddled with beams and exploded. A Dagger-L just behind the Windam was rocked by the explosion and Sofia took the opportunity to destroy it's head and left arm with a stream of beam bullets.
All across the crater the 2nd Balkan's Dagger-Ls were opening fire. This was Sofia's defensive plan. She knew they couldn't win in a normal set piece engagement. However if they could draw the enemy mobile suits away from their capital ships they might have a chance. Therefore she had ordered the 2nd Balkan's mobile suits to conceal themselves in the cracks and crevices of the crater's floor.
As Sofia's Hyperion Sabre raced through the enemy formation she witness countless mobile suits getting hit. To her left a Windam was caught by coordinated M703K beam carbine fire. First it's left arm was blown off then a beam pierced the torso armour killing the pilot. It's wingman was able to counterattack and it's chunky dual recoilless cannon on it's Doppelhorn striker pack were able to easily burn down one of the 2nd Balkan's measly Dagger-Ls. However while the Windam's attention was focused on the surface of the crater Sofia was able to dash up behind it. A quick burst from her Zastava Stigmate into the Doppelhorn pack was enough to send the Windam crashing to the ground.
Her immediate progress was stopped by a pair of Dagger-Ls firing their carbines at her from directly above. Much to her annoyance she was forced to deploy her lightwave shields to block their attacks. In the moment of pause Sofia activated her "Forfanterie" beam cannons. The cannons folded over the Hyperion Sabre's shoulders. As she fired the two beams twisted together into a single powerful shot. The two Dagger-Ls, flying in close formation, were both caught and torn to pieces.
"Report!" Sofia barked down the communications channel to Herschel Base's command centre.
"The Atlantic mobile suits have suffered heavy casualties and are in retreat," reported Major Vlasov. "However their fleet remains in orbit and we are unable to escape."
"Casualties?" she asked.
"We have confirmed six destroyed and four more damaged from our forces," replied Major Vlasov. "The enemy have lost twelve machines with a further five damaged."
"They will regroup and attack again soon," Sofia said as she opened the visor on her helmet. "Pull back our damaged mobile suits to the warships. They can act like additional turrets if needs be. We have to wait for the right moment to try and breakout."
"Yes, Ma'am,"
It was strange Sofia really did despise the Atlantic Federation. Countless times she had had dreams about finally getting to fight them and get her revenge for the death of her fiance at JOSH-A. However now that it was really happening it did not feel right. It felt strangely abhorrent to be fighting and killing fellow Naturals.
---
In his Wing Dagger Zero's cockpit the console lights bathed Stephan O'Riley's navy and grey pilot suited form in an eerie glow. I knew something like this would happen, he thought. He wondered briefly if that Eurasian pilot Sofia was still with the 2nd Balkan Battalion. Ever since the battle of Berlin she had been weighing on his mind for some reason.
"'Guns of The Patriots', O'Riley, Wing Dagger launching!" he exclaimed.
---
Joanne Davies' Windam-SC launched shortly after O'Riley's Wing Zero. Her machine had probably the best performance of the normal 'Guns of The Patriots' mobile suits. The Wing Dagger was in a class of its own. Due to its long range weapons loadout if shared some of a sense systems employed by the old Buster mobile suit. The Windam-SC lacked some of the close range weapons of the standard model but that didn't bother her much. She did not intend to allow any enemies to get that close.
As if to prove the point she lined up a shot with her GAU-XS34 115mm sniper railgun. Gently squeezing the trigger she sent a metal projectile across the battlefield at incredible speed. The projectile hit it's target with pinpoint accuracy. The slug smashed through a Dagger-L just left of it's cockpit and with enough force to send it crashing into one of the outlying base buildings.
The 27th Unified Attack Battalion had regrouped but they only have seven mobile suits left capable of continuing. Joanne cursed under her breath. It wasn't in the 'Guns of the Patriots' remit to bring unruly allies to heel. They should have been dealing with ZAFT. It was a waste of time and resources to be fighting fellow Naturals.
Suddenly something caught her eye in the middle of the battlefield. It was a mobile suit that neither her combat computer or her own eyes recognised. It was bigger and bulkier than a Dagger-L with a completely different head and torso design. Not wanting to take any chances she aimed the sniper railgun and fired. To her great surprise the unknown mobile suit dodged the attack with a simple side slip.
---
Sofia did not take kindly to being shot at. Her combat computer informed her that the enemy mobile suit was a Windam-SC, designed as a sniper mobile suit. Sometimes she wonder just how General Melchett was able to get all his information. The Windam was certainly unnervingly accurate. Sofia had only just been able to avoid the first attack. With the Hyperion Sabre's thrusters burning at full throttle she ate up the distance between them. With scarcely 20 meters left between them the Windam-SC fired again. Sofia was forced to use her lightwave barrier shields to block the attack.
It was obvious to Sofia that the enemy pilot had been rather surprised by this because they left themselves open. Leaving one of her beam sub-machineguns on a hard point Sofia drew out a RBW Type 7004 "Romteknica 3" beam sabre and activated it. In one slice she hacked the Windam-SC's railgun in half and as it began to pull back decapitated the Atlantic Federation machine. Continuing her attack Sofia brought the sabre down into the Windam's torso.
---
In his Wing Dagger Stephan felt pretty much invincible. As good as the 2nd Balkan pilots were their machines were no match for his. A trio of Dagger-Ls rose up to attack him. Entirely on a whim he detached the "Mjolnir" spherical breaker from inside his shield and began to swing it up to speed. At just the right moment he released it and the ultra-dense ball smashed one of the Dagger-Ls to pieces. However he was surprised to see one of the Eurasian mobile suits slice the chain, that tethered the "Mjolnir" to the Wing Dagger, in half.
"Why you little bugger" exclaimed Stephan.
The same Dagger-L then sped in to attack the Wing Dagger itself but Stephan was able to block it's beam sabre with his shield. A slight tweaking of his controls meant that his MX9409S 57mm heavy beam rifle fired at point blank range into the little mobile suit's torso.
Suddenly a bleeping to his right informed Stephan that Joanne's Windam-SC was under attack. Ignoring the remaining Dagger-L he fired the Wing Dagger's thrusters and raced to her aid.
As they came into view he could see the two machines locked together. The enemy mobile suit had it's beam sabre buried in the Windam-SC's chest. Miraculously it had missed both the cockpit and reactor. However the enemy mobile suit looked oddly familiar.
"No way, the Hyperion? I thought it was destroyed!" Stephan said aloud to himself and then followed up with. "Joanne! Look out!"
At the flick of a switch the pair of 125mm high-energy beam cannons locked into position over the Wing Dagger's shoulders. Stephan couldn't aim directly at the enemy mobile suit for fear of hitting Joanne but hopefully he could scare off the Hyperion-wannabe.
---
Sofia swore loudly and at length when the new enemy showed up. It's over the shoulder cannons were even more powerful than her own. When they fired she was forced to leave the crippled Windam-SC. She was pretty sure that even a glancing blow from them would be fatal. She cursed again when it became apparent that her combat computer lacked any knowledge on this new mobile suit. It had the vague appearance of a Daggerified version of the infamous Freedom mobile suit from the last war.
She had a feeling this was going to be quite the challenge. She took both her Zastava Stigmate beam sub-machineguns from their hardpoints and readied them. Pressing down forcefully on her thruster pedals she encouraged the engines to 105 output. The two Zastava Stigmate's spat fire at the Freedom-wannabe but it proved an elusive opponent as it dodged them easily. It returned fire with it's bulky beam rifle but Sofia was able to avoid the shots.
At the same time both pilots decided to use their over the shoulder cannons. When they fired all four of the beams converged on a single point of space roughly halfway between the two suits. As the beams hit each other they exploded with enough ferocity to knock back both the Hyperion Sabre and the Freedom-wannabe.
Unfortunately for Sofia the Freedom-wannabe recovered first and emerged through the explosion firing off a barrage of missiles from it's shoulder mounted launchers. Struggling with her controls Sofia just barely activated the Hyperion Sabre's lightwave barrier shields in time. However the enemy used it's superior speed to flank the Hyperion Sabre and fire off a volley from it's heavy beam rifle. Sofia couldn't avoid the green beam shots in time and first one struck the Eurasian mobile suits on the right shoulder completely destroying the entire assembly and causing the whole arm to fall away.
Sofia screamed as the console on her right exploded showering the cockpit with shards of glass and plastic. She could feel a sharp stabbing pain in her right arm and could only assume that something had pierced her pilot's suit.
---
The vast majority of space junk gathered in the Debris Belt around the Earth. However the recently battles in Lunar orbit had caused a new, if considerably, small belt to gather around the moon. It was within this belt that the five remaining Hyperion Sabres of the Obstinate Arrows were waiting. General Melchett had allowed Sofia to go off on her own to help the Herschel crater garrison but at first he had prevent the rest of the squad from assisting. However Louis Gautier had convinced the General to allow the squad to intervene if Sofia got into danger of being killed or captured. The Obstinate Arrows valued their secrecy very highly and did not want the Atlantic Federation to get its hands on the "Armure Lumiere" mono-phase lightwave shield emitter technology. The Atlantic Federation was having great success with their positron reflectors but hadn't succeeded in effectively scaling it down to mobile suit size.
"Okay ladies and gentlemen. It looks like our little Sofia has gotten herself into a little bother," said Loius in his thick French accent. "The rest of you can play with the Atlantic Fleet. I will rescue Sofia."
He received a quartet of confirmations before all five of them broke cover and raced down upon the inspecting Atlantic Fleet.
---
Captain Harold Pinter was rather annoyed that Herschel base hadn't folded. He was also rather angry at those incompetent fools in the 27th Unified Attack Battalion they had allowed themselves to walk into a trap and had been mauled for it. Even the much vaunted "Guns of The Patriots" were only making minor headway.
He was so engrossed in the mobile suit battle that he was taken quite by surprise when Drake class escort ship Arthur exploded in quite spectacular fashion. It was followed in quick succession by the Nelson class cruiser Wellsely. Within a matter of minutes another four Drakes were sent crashing to the lunar surface and two more Nelsons were burning from stem to stern.
Completely incapable of speaking Pinter was desperately running through his head possible excuses he could make up for this disaster. However he would never get a chance to test out any of them as a stream of beam sub-machinegun fire ripped through the Alexander's bridge.
---
Stephan allowed himself a little exclamation of joy as his beam struck the Hyperion-wannabe just above the left knee. The beam tore through the armoured plating and ripped the leg off. Despite the damage it was taking the Eurasian mobile suit was proving a tough nut to crack. He couldn't help but admire the way the pilot was able to twist and turn their suit to minimalize the damage they were taking.
However it was at that moment that two things happened. First a series of explosions raced through the Atlantic fleet high above them. This immediately caused Stephan some concern as he hadn't seen the Eurasian fleet launch. Second his computer informed him that a second Hyperion-wannabe was charge directly at him from above. It was firing both it's beam sub-machineguns with wanton abandon. Stephan positioned his shield to block these attacks only to unexpectedly leave himself open to the enemy he had been fighting before.
The damaged Eurasian mobile suit had ignited it's remaining beam sabre and was charging at the Wing Dagger's exposed torso. Stephan fired his thrusters at just the right moment to avoid the sabre blade but not without leaving a blackened scar where the tip had just made contact.
Far behind this little combat the surviving Atlantic ships were firing off flares summoning their mobile suits back to deal with who was attacking them. Stephan swore to himself and reluctantly broke off.
---
As the Atlantic fleet fled from Herschel crater the Eurasian forces regrouped and prepared for their own escape. Under the protection of the Obstinate Arrows the ten warships and attendant transport ships of the Herschel base garrison launched into orbit to join the Franz Josef which was waiting in high orbit.
End of the Tale