CE 74
Sarik lifted his hands from the keyboard and popped his knuckles. For the past two hours, he had been typing nonstop, modifying the Astray's operating system even more than the initial updates called for. He had discovered several new methods to fine-tune the mobile suit's hardware for Natural use; more so than the technicians back home had, at least.
During his time pruning the OS, it was revealed to him that this was not merely a modified Astray, but a prototype of a completely new variant. It was loosely based off of the MBF-M1+EF-24 "Astray Shrike", but the only thing remotely similar was the original frame. The SSI technicians had given it a complete overhaul, implementing the latest technologies into its design.
First, it had one of SSI's new ultra-compact battery supplies installed, providing it with nearly three times more power capacity than any government military's current power supplies. Because of this, more powerful systems could be installed on the mobile suit and still be used during normal combat. The beam rifle's power had nearly been doubled, and because of some efficiency modifications made by SSI, so was its fire rate and overall accuracy.
The close combat weapons currently equipped were were MA-M01 "Lacerta" beam sabers, derived from ZAFT's old specs on weaponry used by several mobile suit prototypes, including the Freedom and Justice Gundams. However, because of SSI modifications to the original design, its power usage was halved while simultaneously increasing the beam intensity by nearly forty percent. The weapon could slice through Phase Shift armor like a knife through butter, if the Astray ever got close enough to the target to use the weapon. However, this scenario was highly unlikely, as most mass-produced mobile suits did not come equipped with anything but standard plate armor, which could not stand up to the firepower that most Phase Shift equipped units could dish out.
The largest improvement Sarik noticed in the machine, however, was a major change to the flight pack. Dubbed the "Shrike Avenger" pack, it had high-power hover jets in place of rotors, and a pair of large propulsion thrusters used for designed for high-speed flight were located in center of the pack. Dozens of small, stationary maneuvering fans rimmed the device, giving the Astray atmospheric maneuvering capabilities nearly equivalent to that of an M1A in space, assuming that the pilot could stand up to the gravitational forces. These additions also gave it an increased weight allowance.
Sarik was so intent on his work that he nearly jumped out of his seat when an alarm went off in the cockpit. He saved his changes to the OS, then contacted the bridge.
"This is Ostheim," he reported. "What's going on?"
"Sir?" the commander asked, his face appearing on the Astray's left communications screen. "I didn't realize you were aboard the Shrike. How long have you been in there?"
"That's irrelevant," Sarik told him. "What's with the alarm?"
"I'll patch you through to the ship's comm. It'll explain things faster."
There was urgency in the commander's voice, so, sensing trouble, Sarik strapped himself into the pilot's chair and brought the mobile suit's computer back up.
"...I repeat, this is ZAFT combat air patrol C-1901 to unidentified aircraft," said a young man's voice. "You are intruding on ZAFT airspace. You will reduce your speed to one hundred knots and descend to two thousand meters, then set course for the ZAFT military base in the Gulf of Carpenteria. You now have sixty seconds to comply before you are fired upon."
"What a load of crap," Sarik remarked. "We're barely skirting ZAFT airspace. No one patrols this far out from the mainland."
"You can't blame them, really," the commander stated. "An aircraft emitting no transponder code would definitely catch my attention."
"Can't we just hit the afterburners and hightail it back to Orb?" Sarik asked.
"Well, you see, there's this little issue on fuel," the commander informed Sarik.
"We're burning time here, what's the problem?" Sarik inquired impatiently.
"How do you think we got to Eurasia so fast?" the bridge commander questioned rhetorically. "We were hitting the afterburners the entire time on our way there. We barely have enough energy to get back to Orb and land."
Sarik sighed.
"Prepare the ship for combat," Sarik ordered. "I'll have the Shrike Avenger ready to go within the minute."
"Sir!" the commander complied before signing off.
Sarik went back to modifying the mobile suit's OS. This time, however, he was inputting his personal settings, adapting them from his M1A back home. He hoped that these settings would maximize the mech's combat potential while he was piloting it, rather than causing the complete opposite.
Sarik almost cursed when an explosion rocked the ship, causing him to mistype a command thread. Sarik corrected his mistakes, glanced over the OS one more time, then saved his modifications.
"I'm ready to launch," Sarik transmitted to the bridge as he gripped the machine's controls.
The CIC officer's face appeared on the right communication screen.
"The other pilots are almost ready to go," he informed Sarik. "We'll have to wait until they're in the Skygraspers before you can launch."
Sarik slumped back into the pilot's chair and let out a sigh. He noticed a bead of sweat rolling down his face and wiped it off.
"You all right?" the CIC officer asked Sarik.
"This is my first time in mobile suit combat," Sarik confessed, keeping a calm voice and a straight face.
"We can just have Skygraspers launch," he told Sarik.
"Two Skygraspers versus at least three ZAFT mobile suits?" Sarik asked retorically. "They don't stand a chance alone."
"Actually, it's five mobile suits," the CIC officer informed Sarik. "Four AMF-101 DINNs and an AMRF-101C AWACS DINN."
"DINNs?" Sarik asked. "There's definitely something up. ZAFT replaced those with BABIs as their interceptors right after the war started."
Sarik watched through his cockpit's side screens as the pilots sealed themselves inside of their Skygraspers.
"The pilots are secure," Sarik told the CIC officer. "I'm moving onto the catapult. I'll be leaving the shield."
Sarik set the mobile suit's bulky shield near the docking station, then moved it towards the catapult, taking note of the vibrations as the eighteen meter tall mech stomped forward. He wasn't sure if it was normal for him to be able to feel those.
"I'm ready for launch," Sarik informed the bridge once he was locked in place.
"All right," the CIC officer said. "I believe you know protocol. State your name and your vehicle's designation for the ship's logs prior to launch."
Sarik remained silent as he watched the bay doors open. A moment later, the launch indicator gave him the go ahead.
"Sarik Ostheim, Astray Shrike Avenger, ENGAGING!" Sarik reported with enthusiasm just before launching.
He kept a strong grip on his controls as the Astray was slung forward, flying in excess of the speed of sound. As soon as he was clear of the airship, Sarik slowed the mobile suit and activated his Shrike pack, hovering just a short distance behind the Ares.
As he slowed, however, Sarik came under fire from two of the DINNs that he was sent out to engage. He barely had time to avoid their attacks before another DINN joined in.
"Damn!" Sarik yelled in his frustration, snapping off a single shot before he had start dodging again.
"I'm sending covering fire," the CIC officer told Sarik.
A moment later, Sarik had yet another problem, as he was now dodging fire from several 75mm "Igelstellung" CIWS gatling cannons in addition to the DINNs machine guns and anti-aircraft shotguns. Obviously, there were still quite a few quirks left in the SSI targeting software.
However, the DINNs were in the same jam, and their fire slackened to mere pot shots. Sarik used this distraction to maneuver next to the Ares and snap off several more shots with his rifle at his distracted opponents. While Sarik and the Ares distracted the DINNs, the two Skygraspers were able to launch safely. Hopefully, they would be able to turn the tide of the battle.
"Ares, slack off on the supporting fire," Sarik ordered as he dove into the fray.
Sarik flew forward, firing his beam rifle as fast as the weapon would cycle. He managed to clip one of the DINNs wings, causing it to fall behind the fight, and soon after, shot another's arm off, destroying the anti-aircraft shotgun that it was wielding.
Sarik dove backwards as he avoided several more shots from the DINNs' 76mm machine guns, then retaliated with twice as many from his beam rifle. He was trying to hold the DINN pilots' attention for as long a he could, in order to provide the Skygraspers with an opportunity to strike.
It turned out, his distraction worked. After distancing themselves from the battle, the two Skygraspers completely inverted direction in mid-air and came screeching in at top speed, allowing their weapons to blaze away. Both were armed with Launcher strike packs, which provided them with enough firepower to destroy warships, much less aging mobile suits.
The DINN Sarik had damaged in his last offensive was obliterated by the combined firepower of one fighter's "Agni" hyper impulse cannon, its machine guns and cannons, and its dorsal mounted beam cannon. Another DINN was destroyed as it attempted to break formation, mercilessly mowed down by the other Skygrasper. Sarik cringed from the combined light of the impulse cannons' red beams, the beam cannons' bright green bolts, and the two DINNs exploding.
Sarik continued to dodge as the DINNs launched a wave of missiles at his forces and the Ares. He avoided two missiles and shot down three more headed for the Ares with the Igelstellungs mounted in the sides of the Astray's head.
One of the Skygrasper pilots was not as fortunate. While dodging missiles launched from the remaining DINNs, the AWACS DINN had moved in and taken a shot at him with its machine gun. Half of the fighter's equipment was blown off, and one of the engines was spewing smoke. The DINN was about to finish it off when Sarik dove in and took the hit for it. Having no shield, Sarik threw out the only thing his mobile suit had in hand, which happened to be his beam rifle.
Sarik cringed as his mobile suit was knocked back by the combined forces of the weapon's explosion and the DINN's shots. Sarik forced the Astray to climb vertically in an attempt to avoid taking anymore damage, but he still received several more glancing hits along his torso and legs. He starting stressing when he realized that one of the 76mm rounds had penetrated his machine in the side of the chest, damaging one of the inertial dampers that allowed him to maneuver in the fashion that he did.
Having no other choice, Sarik drew both of the Astray's beam sabers from their mounts on the Astray's shoulders. It was considered unorthodox by many pilots to use two weapons at once, but Sarik was experienced in this fighting style, and more than a bit desperate. He hoped he could transfer both his skills and desperation to the battle before it was too late.
Sarik dove downward towards his target, the AWACS DINN, which had just pulled its anti-aircraft shotgun from the racks on its hips. Sarik opened fire with the Igelstellung machine cannons, hoping it would buy him enough to to reach his target.
Sarik dodged to the left as the DINN forced itself into a free fall and fired, keeping Sarik at a safe distance. Sarik continued firing and dodging, pushing the Astray's speed to his physical limits.
The DINN slowed its descent as it neared the ocean, then skimmed along its surface. Sarik redirected his mobile suit, barely avoiding collision with the deep waters. He pursued the DINN meters from the choppy surface, all the while dodging clouds of shrapnel as the ZAF mobile suit continued to fire at him.
Sarik was growing frustrated at the time it was taking him to take down the aging machine. He was amazed at the pilot's skill, who was heavily encumbered by the large radar dome on top of the mobile suit. This pilot was obviously an ace, and knew his machine well.
The DINN flew upward, back in the direction of the Ares. It no longer had its sights set on Sarik, but on the ship, which had no protection from an attack at the moment.
Sarik forced the Astray to climb as fast as he could muster, but he could feel the strain on his body from the previous maneuvers. Normally pain didn't set in for him until after a fight, so gravity had to be stressing his body big time. Sarik accelerated after the DINN, slowly gaining on it, almost too slowly in Sarik's opinion. As he flew into range, Sarik opened fire with his Igelstellungs, filling the air with 75mm slugs, but he was still unable to down the DINN. He stopped firing, as he was merely wasting rounds.
However, as Sarik grew frustrated and even more desperate, something clicked within him. Time slowed, his perception increased, and his worries almost disappeared. For some reason, he believed, no, KNEW everything was going to be all right.
Sarik opened fire with his Igelstellungs again, this time much more accurately despite the fact that the calibration was off. He was able calculate the DINN's pattern of movement and managed to trick its pilot into maneuvering directly into his stream of fire, damaging one of its wings. Sarik took advantage of the other pilot's new handicap, launching the Astray upward at dangerously high speeds. The DINN slowly turned on Sarik, its shotgun poised to destroy him once and for all. But by the time the pilot was ready to pull the trigger, Sarik was already on top of it. He tossed the saber in his right hand at the mobile suit, cutting through its left arm and destroying its shotgun. The dismembered limb fell from the DINN just as Sarik used his suit's right arm to force the DINN's remaining arm out of the way and poise his other saber to stab straight through the DINN's chest.
But for some reason, something forced him to stop just before obliterating his enemy. His new-found power suddenly left him, and he was left exhausted and in pain. The mobile suit Sarik was holding remained hovering in place. For nearly twenty seconds, they both simply flew there, silent and unmoving.
Then, the partially masked face of a ZAFT pilot appeared on one of Sarik's comm screens.
"This is Commander Anika Raider," informed the pilot. "I give you my unconditional surrender. I am powering down all unnecessary systems."
Sarik snapped back to reality as the AWACS DINN began to drop. He quickly deactivated his weapons and grabbed the damaged mobile suit before it fell too far. With the DINN's thrusters assisting him, he flew back the Ares as fast as he was able. He kept eying his power gauge the entire time, which was in the red zone. Apparently, he had wasted a lot of shots with his beam rifle. He made a mental note to himself to either reduce the beam rifle's power or reduce the fire rate the next time he was in a mobile suit.
The Ares's commander gave Sarik a difficult time as he arrived, but once Sarik explained his deteriorating situation, followed with threats of a large variety, all of the man's arguments went out the window. As soon as Sarik was inside the Ares's hangar, he held the DINN at the edge of the bay as he ripped off its weapon racks and tossed them into the ocean located several kilometers below.
* * *
Sarik stumbled out of the Astray's cockpit and fell onto his knees, panting. At this exact moment, every possible pain he could imagine was wracking his body.
He sat there for a minute, trying to fight it, but the more he concentrated on pain, the more powerful it became. Sarik held his head as a powerful ache overtook him, stronger than any migraine that he had ever experienced before. Soon after, he began yelling, incapable of caring about his composure in his suffering.
He heard someone running towards him and jumped up, balancing himself on the catwalk's railing. He looked in the direction of the sounds, and could barely make out Sarah and a few others running towards him.
"He..help," Sarik managed to growl out.
Sarah pulled an autodermical from one of the men following her and and popped the cap off, then walked up to Sarik, pulled down the collar of his shirt, and stabbed it directly into his heart. Sarik's first reaction was to kill her right then and there, but he fought against his programming for a moment longer. Several seconds later, his pain was gone, and he was able to calm himself.
"Thank you," Sarik breathed to Sarah after having regained some of his composure.
"You have got to learn to be more careful," she told him.
"Never going to happen," Sarik panted as he walked off towards the captured DINN, now locked down into the Ares's hangar wall.
Sarik limped over to the restrained mobile suit, which was being guarded by the other two pilots, both whom were physically fine. He walked up to the cockpit and hit the button on the side of the mech's cockpit, causing the panels to separate. Inside, the pilot, who was dressed in a red flight suit, was holding her hands up to show that she was unarmed.
"Get out of there," Sarik ordered her.
She slowly crawled out of the cockpit, wary of the four men who had guns of various kinds trained on her.
"Stand still," Sarik told her once she was out.
After she froze, Sarik personally walked over to her and removed all of the equipment attached to her suit, her side-arm and combat knife especially.
"Dispose of these," Sarik ordered as he handed the equipment off to one of his bodyguards. "Any one of them might have a tracker implanted in it."
Once he was sure she posed no threat, Sarik stepped back. For the first time since she had stepped onto the ship, Sarik noticed how much smaller the ZAFT pilot was than him. True, he was one point eight meters tall, but she was at least two or three heads shorter than him.
"Helmet off," Sarik ordered her.
She slowly but gracefully disconnected the helmet from her suit and held it professionally under her arm.
Sarik was shocked at what he saw. He saw a black haired, emerald eyed child staring back at him. She couldn't have been any older than fifteen.
"Sarah, have her confined in the officer's quarters," Sarik ordered coldly, keeping his gaze on the girl.
Sarik turned around and began limping in the direction to the main ship, but stopped as he neared Sarah.
"And make sure she doesn't see Stella," he said quietly, looking straight forward. "For any reason."
"Understood," the woman replied emotionlessly.