Let's get it out of the way now; towards the end here, Noin's behavior is not intended to be sympathetic. She's angry and she has legitimate reason to be, but she's behaving badly and she will be called out on it.
Also, you'll notice the official count of unaccounted for mobile suits has dropped since the opening chapter. Well, we have killed some Aries in the story, and the Preventers are not going to stop tracking them down just because of the story's events. Very much the opposite. The new ones...are a direct lift of a UC Gundam design. Have fun figuring out which one.
Jink Low
Noin sat and watched the news. There wasn't much else to do; the MCM had asked them not to fly, and they were getting company soon anyways. Ropke and her ground crew were making sure the hanger was ready to receive the Preventer squadron that had been aboard the Bonde.
MS Nineteen, The Dragon; built on a combined Alliance/Treize Faction unit that had essentially run Beijing during late 195, despite the best efforts of Romefeller to dislodge them. The Virgo I had been notably poor in urban combat, mainly because it was presented with too many threat vectors for its shield to cover. Notable pilots of The Dragon: Wufei Chang, of course. That was the bad news. The good news was that Noin had been assured of reinforcement within five days; the Preventers were sending out another three squadrons to link up with Intrepid, among them Trowa Barton's MS One-Thirty-Eight. Lady Une was taking the reports Noin filed seriously it seemed.
"We've received reports that MCM mobile suits have entered Hellas. The President is scheduled to make an announcement in ten minutes, but with news of a possible military coup-wait, we're being told that the rioters are moving out of the MCM's way in the prestigious North Slope district where peaceful protest gave way to rioting shortly after the last Assembly vote, and where many Assembly members live."
"Zakeria, we're being informed the President is going to speak early, and-"
The news cut off. Ronson was looking sober, as the Martian government exercised its position that it owned the airwaves by cutting everyone else off. "Citizens of Mars, I come to you with grave tidings. I received the ill-considered vote to separate from the Earth Sphere ten minutes ago. I have not vetoed it because I have been supplied with incontrovertible proof that more than half the votes for it were bought by the Outer Colonies. This bill was never legitimate in the first place."
"Many of you have sought redress against those who have threatened your livelihoods and the fabric of Martian culture, taking to the streets to battle a government you perceive as unjust and corrupt, drunk on its own power. To you, I offer this assurance: your voices have been heard. In light of its large-scale subversion by foreign powers and its blatant defiance of both good sense and the Martian people, I hereby dissolve the Martian Assembly until such time as elections may be held again. Units of the Mars Colonial Militia are currently arresting those members whose votes are known to be bought. Please allow them to carry out their duties without interference. And to those who sought to divide and confuse us: you have failed, and the sons and daughters of Mars will not suffer your behavior to continue."
"Can he actually do that?" Hilde asked softly.
"Technically, no." Noin shook her head. "But this situation was never envisioned when the laws were written. If Ronson can prove what he said to Ami Nagano, then his powers are whatever Ami will agree to. As long as he does not order the MCM to fire on civilians or something equally raw, there is an awful lot he can do. The Outer Colonies?"
"I can't think that the Europa and Titan crowd have that much cash." Duo said. "Not compared to Mars."
"We can stack overthrown governments from One-Nine-Five ten deep. Throw in the nationalists, the people who thought for a bit they'd get to do ethnic or religious cleansing again without being squashed by the planetary military and are bummed it didn't last, everybody who lost family or business or both, and a generation of young men and women that was taught glory and honor. The human race is full of very angry people right now." Dyer's face was blank again. He'd been doing better about showing emotion recently as he started to see the others as real people, not replacements who were going to die in the next few missions. But not now. "Treize forgot to kill enough of us to make his vision stick."
"Why destabilize a foreign government this badly without a purpose?" Noin asked rhetorically. And to distract from the other comment Dyer had made. It wasn't the first time she'd heard someone express the sentiment that if Trieze and Zechs had meant to traumatize humanity they had aimed for something far too small when they settled for a few hundred thousand dead rather than millions. "This kind of thing has great risks to it. It is not easy to keep secret and if you get caught the results are disastrous. So you do it for a purpose. If they meant to invade, they should have been here already so they could do so right now at the moment of maximum confusion. Treaty negotiations, trade issues, there are no situations to gain advantage from disordering Mars right now."
"Assumption: the plan is working as intended. If they meant to remove or subvert Ronson as well and something went wrong, or counted on the loyalty of the MCM to the legislature rather than the President..." Duo shrugged eloquently. "I was a teenaged covert operative, I know how easy it is to blow a big plan with lots of parts."
"Requests to the Outer Colonies for explanation have not been answered." Une crossed her arms. "Noin, regarding your interference with the activation of Eypon, we've tracked it to a group of former Romefeller people; probably the same ones behind the Gundam incident. We have a strong suspicion the reactivation of Epyon was meant to assault New Edwards and attack you specifically; several of the people captured have mentioned Epyon's designated pilot repeatedly simmed an attack on New Edwards and against a white-painted Taurus. Interrogation of the pilots from the Gundam incident has revealed that they were ordered to prioritize certain targets, particularly Trowa Barton, and knew his unit would respond."
The message was recorded; light lag between Mars and Earth made direct conversation impractical. "There was also a recent attempted assassination of Quatre Winner. This all suggests a number of things, none of which I like. So do events on Mars. At least some of the Romefeller people involved are in the Asteroid Belt or beyond it, and so beyond our reach. I can't give you any more information on the why, but all these incidents at once are improbable save as part of a coordinated campaign. At this moment I'm placing the agency on a war footing. Take whatever measures you think are necessary to protect your command. And do not get yourself or Maxwell killed. If someone is attacking symbols or believes in Great People, I have no interest in making their life easier."
Noin turned to Focht. "So that's it."
Focht shook his head. "Phobos is tracking inbound drive trails from the direction of Ceres. Burn spectral characteristics, blueshift delta-v, and brightness suggest long-range mobile suit carriers, seventeen or so, at full load. That's it. We're probably going to war and we don't know why."
"I don't think," Noin said softly, "that most of the Alliance pilots I killed during Daybreak knew what it was about. What does the MCM say?"
"Standard response by MCM doctrine; the domed cities are too vulnerable to fight inside or around." Focht recited it by route. "Intercept any attack spaceside, prevent a landing. They've asked us, the Black Aces and the Furies to take on being last line of defense in the atmosphere. We've also been offered anything we want out of their armory. They specifically mentioned they have a new missile line that could use a test. Seemed pretty eager about it, called it Starbolt."
Noin's eyebrows went up. "Starbolt is the name of the old OZ project for the Multi-Spectral Active-Passive missile. If they actually made the wish-me-dead work, I'll be very impressed." The MSAP had been intended to combine several homing modes into a single seeker, making the missile far more difficult to decoy, combined with a high-maneuverability design to frustrate evasion. OZ had pronounced the design technologically impossible and advised revisiting it in twenty-five years.
"Decent of them," Focht noted. "I've already told Ropke to load infrared on the suits. If we're going to be fighting in atmosphere against people who just went through reentry, they'll be easy targets for IR." He paused. "We are fighting, right Skipper?"
Noin glanced at her personal comm. "That depends on Intrepid's captain. But he'll say yes. A Preventer unit can't refuse a formal request for help in defense. Not without a better reason than anyone is going to be able to offer."
Her personal comm beeped at her and Noin looked down. Ami Nagano. She brought it up to her ear. "Ami?"
"Noin. I need to see you and the other Preventer squadron commanders in Hellas, as soon as possible. The commander or XO of Intrepid would also be appreciated."
"I'll be direct: we're fucked." Ami looked around at an auditorium full of squadron and fire team leaders. In the back row, distingushable by their different uniforms, were the XOs of Minerva, Athena, and Intrepid. "Deimos spacewatch is tracking a second wave of MS carriers just leaving Europa. The count is upwards of one hundred. Spectral analysis of their burns and blueshift confirms they're accelerating like they're at full load. There are some heavy craft mixed in, about the size of the Minerva as well, and civilian ships. The good news is they don't have the fuel to straight burn, so we expect them to take a bit better than a month."
"That's over a thousand suits," someone objected.
"Six thousand six hundred eighty-one unaccounted for." Noin put in. "That was the official count last I checked."
"With the Mars Colonial Milita we have twenty-five active fire teams and considering the emergency we can scrape together maybe another five by using suits Martian Dynamics is completing or has awaiting shipment and veterans from the population we can recall to service. The Preventers have four squadrons, with another three that will arrive before the first assault gets here. That gives us three hundred and sixty-six suits." Ami looked around the room, somehow giving the impression she'd made eye contact with each individual person though that couldn't be true. "We'll be outnumbered better than three to one. Even their first wave will have over two hundred suits. No further reinforcement from the Earth Sphere makes sense, frankly, because it just invites an attack on them instead."
Ami's tone had gone grim some time before. But now her expression matched it. "Given the situation, I do not think we will be able to hold. I have therefore advised the President that the best course of action would be to evacuate as many MCM people and as much war material as we can, so that it can be used to retake Mars at a later date. The big arms companies have already started to disassemble their production lines so they can send them to their Lunar holdings. We will attempt to evacuate all MCM dependents and all non-citizens of Mars. A small MCM force of volunteers will stay behind to cover the retreat when the main enemy force arrives, and to conduct guerrilla operations against the invaders."
The silence was deafening. One of the MCM fire team leaders, a young man with dark hair, stood first. The click of his heels as he stood to attention sounded like a gunshot in the theater. Noin wasn't sure anyone was breathing. "I volunteer."
Ami raised her hand to stop him. "Amada, I will be asking pilots on an individual basis, and only accept volunteers without children. Your first child is due in three weeks, is she not?" She spread her arms. "Mars does not need martyrs. It needs living soldiers who can take it back in the future. I hope to have evacuation completed by the time the second wave from the Outer Colonies arrives. For the first wave we will repulse and destroy it. All of you know what is required of you. Almost all of you have fought before. I will meet you here again when Mars is free. Your orders will be in your hands when you return to your units."
Noin made her way to the front of the room to speak to her friend. "Ami, tell me you're not staying."
"I have to. Together with Ronson I overthrew the duly elected government of Mars. Only our personal reputations are giving the government any credibility at all." Ami Nagano smiled sadly. "We can't run, Noin. The Martian government would never be able to govern after the war if we did. The only way that our successors will have any credibility at all is if Ronson and I stay. I have already discussed this matter with Caitlin, and she agrees it is necessary."
"She can't." Those two hadn't been married more than four months by Noin's estimate. Now it would end in the cruelest way possible. "You put a brave face on it there, but you know they would be fools to let you or Ronson survive. You both have too much experience running resistance movements."
"Should I quote Lovelace? She didn't marry me because I was a good cook, Lucrezia." Ami smiled sadly. "She married me because I was one of those terrible romantics who really means it when I say things like 'I will defend the Republic of Mars and its ideals at cost of my own life'." Ami hugged Noin, abruptly. "You've been a good friend to me, Noin. May I ask you three favors?"
Noin returned the hug a moment slower from surprise, and released it when Ami did. "Name them."
"Look after Caitlin for me." Ami said. She then gestured to Zechs, getting up to leave in one of the back rows. Noin hadn't even noticed him. "In the last few days, even as Zechs has made it hard on you, you have seemed more alive and sometimes even happier than you ever did while a civilian. For some of us, life without a mobile suit is just a cage, no matter how nicely it's gilded. Remember that, and remember to ensure your significant other understands it too."
Noin waited a moment. "Of course. What's the third?"
"When I'm dead, the MCM will fall to you." Ami replied, very softly. "I know I'm asking a great deal there."
Noin's mouth fell open. "You can't be serious!"
"I can't count on anyone on the front line to survive the first wave." Ami offered her a small smile. "Think about it. You were the second person to set foot on Mars in the modern era. You were not one of Trieze's confidants, but he knew your name and praised you even after you left OZ service. You have a prominence in the Earth Sphere from the last few months that most of us don't. My people respect you. The average Martian citizen respects you. Lady Une respects you. Your voice will be heard when it comes to retaking Mars in a way none of my people's will. You can be as figurehead as you're comfortable with."
"You're putting me in a very awkward position, Ami." Noin said softly. "I have responsibilities, now, a chain of command. I can't argue as fully with the Lady as you seem to think."
"Your conscience is stronger than you admit, Noin. Stronger than you want to admit." Ami shrugged. "You know that twice you should have shot Merquise and didn't. You'll eat a gun before you fail a third time. I know you. I trust you. And it's in your blood, Duchess of Apulia. Your family has never shirked their duty. Your ancestors didn't have to take the titles in AC Sixty-Six after the main line was killed, but Italy needed someone to look to. Mars was your adopted home. You won't fail. It's not in you."
The curse was on her lips but not spoken. Twice, not just the Libra drop but intercepting Zechs before he should have reached Libra and Peacemillion. Oh yes, there were two of them... "I'll need help." Tacitly admitting she would try.
"If we live long enough, we'll work out the details." Ami said. "I'll be in touch."
"What is that?" Duo asked. "Scratch that, those?"
"Prototypes from the test range." Noin restrained her reaction to the voice of Wufei Chang. "The Striker Serpent and a couple of next-generation Taurus suits."
Noin didn't turn to look at him. "Not a Taurus. The design is very derivative but it's not a Taurus. Extra meter in height, additional thrusters. The mains aren't even de Laval bells. Those are linear aerospikes. The shape has been reworked for better hypersonic flight characteristics, which suggests it's actually capable of hypersonic flight. The regular Taurus, even if you play fast and loose with your powerplant and engines, can't do that." Wufei may have had a lot of talent and skills developed by a rigorous training regime, but he didn't have the formal aeronautics training that came with a military pilot's education. Noin did not attempt to seem friendly, either; her tone was corrective and cold.
Duo cut in before Wufei could respond. "Come on 'Fei, places to be." The two retreated.
"You trying to start a fistfight, Skipper?" Dyer asked softly. "Because I'll have your back, but if anything I've heard about Chang is true, he'll mop the floor with any six of the squadron."
"He knows what he did, and if he believes anything he says, he knows why he should feel bad about it." Noin replied. "Do these have pilots?"
"They were on one of the escape craft that got shot down." Dyer checked some notes on a tablet he was carrying. "They're called TOST, for Trans-Orbital Strike Taurus, and it does exactly what it sounds like; launch from space, conduct a mission against a target on Earth or almost anywhere else, return to orbit under its own power. While they apparently never tested that, it does have the acceleration to make Earth orbit under its own power if the gas holds out. The two units are combat-ready in all respects, according to their maintenance records and staff from Dragon who were trained on them, but all their spare parts went down with the Bonde. MCM's poking through the wreckage to see if anything survived, and apparently it's mostly Gundanium so they might find something." He paused, and continued in a more neutral tone from the previous note-reading mild interest. "It was suggested to me that you would be a natural fit to fly them."
"Not a lot of transition time." Noin's observation was also neutral. Neither of them was actually using a normal neutral, but rather a guarded sort that suggested strained politeness or credulity.
"And the lack of spares," her wing agreed. "We do have a simulator module for them that our existing sims can use, but I peeked in and some of the real cockpit layout is different. More elbow room, and a single-screen wraparound; they faked a bubble canopy."
"That's a nice change." Noin grudgingly acknowledged. She had done her primary flight training in regular aircraft, a stage OZ had eliminated from the curriculum by the time she was an instructor. A part of her suspected this was because they didn't want young Aries pilots to know how badly an honest-to-god jet aircraft could outmaneuver them even if it would have had trouble hurting them. "Get Ropke to set up the sim module if she has the time. Everybody will do some work on it. Unless somebody gets their own suit crippled by combat damage and needs to resuit, though, nobody's taking up a bird we don't have spare parts for."
Dyer grinned at her a moment, and Noin didn't realize why until she replayed her last sentence. Calling the suit a bird was a naval aviation mannerism; one he would use. He didn't actually say they'd make a naval officer of her yet, but Dyer was clearly thinking it. She gave him a minor frown to indicate her displeasure.
Dyer straightened up. "By your leave, Commander?" Not calling her "Skipper" was an act of contrition, minor for a minor offense.
"Get to it, Lieutenant." Noin watched him leave, mildly amused. They both played a game, almost, with two sets of rules; one formal, and one less so. Because he was her wing, and she was his, they were expected to watch each other for signs of physical or psychological malady that could impact their flying, and to be the first stage of support against such things. Familiarity was all but required of them. But their difference in rank meant their interactions could be formal as well; and it had been a surprise to Noin to discover that she was not the sole arbiter of which set of rules applied. She could be, of course, but a wise officer understood that their troops would respect the uniform and the orders from the uniform, but much of how well those orders were carried out depended on their opinion of the person inside it. And Dyer had the gift of reasonableness in choosing his tone; it made him hard to justify overruling. Arbitrary officers were officers nobody liked.
"Commander." An MCM officer, angular face, odd shock of grey hair. "I'm Packard." Noin had never actually met the man, who'd predated her in Specials service, but knew the name. "Pleasure to meet you in person." Rumor had it that Packard had been a personal retainer to Duke Dermail and resigned his post rather than fight in the OZ Civil War and confuse his obligations.
Noin shook off that thought. "What do you need?"
"Not much. We're switching the suits to wartime loads, and you have an overhaul facility. If you have spare time on it," he began.
"Of course." Noin agreed. She was rather curious what that meant. And did not have long to wait. An hour later there were a half-dozen Super Leos in refit, mounting external pods for extra electronic warfare or weapons. Packard was surveying the work, mainly, Noin suspected, to make the techs feel a little more urgent. She joined him.
"It's almost funny," Packard said, without looking away. "The wartime gear was designed by LTV, the big environmental adaption and electronics company. Until three days ago, it was the most important secret on Mars." He turned his head to face Noin. "We built it to give us an edge, if we had to fight the Preventers. Knew we'd never come close enough to matching your numbers. Irony."
Dyer came back then, and paused, peering at Packard "I know you."
"I doubt it. We've never formally met, Captain Dyer." Packard held out a hand. "Space Battalion, Company C, Third Platoon."
"I haven't been a captain in a long time-" Dyer's hand froze halfway to the handshake. "You were the one that got away." The reference was lost on Noin.
The left side of Packard's lips curled up, but only the left, in a half-smile. "I was."
Dyer completed the handshake. "Happy to have you on my side this time. You're a damn fine pilot."
"As you said recently, the respect of one's enemies is the most gratifying kind." Packard replied, before turning back to arrange his own work.
Noin glanced at Dyer, who was watching Packard walk off. "Another enemy forgiven?"
"He did nothing I needed to forgive. Sixteen hours after Daybreak, on my first operational sortie as a flight leader, we stomped his platoon. He was the only survivor." Dyer replied softly. "That was him forgiving me."
They were at dinner, most of them, now. Notably absent were Wufei and Duo, who were presumably up to some kind of Gundam pilot thing, and notably present were a half-dozen MCM pilots who were waiting on their refitting suits, the third batch so far. Noin had asked Chief Ropke to extend the MCM whatever courtesies were possible, including spare hands if she had any. The squadron was back to flying regular ops as they worked hard to get familiar with the areas around the Martian cities and the Syria Planum area.
It was amusing, abstractly, to Noin that they ate by flight naturally, with the commissioned support staff like Ropke and Larishminova drifting between flights rather than forming their own group. Noin was listening to one of the MCM pilots explain some classic sci-fi series to Yin, who was apparently very amused and possibly even approving of the description of a lot of body jewelry but no actual clothes as "Martian daywear" in the series. Dyer, across from Noin, was still eating his bread side dish between glances at his personal comm. He'd made some contact in the MCM he was corresponding with regarding...some kind of supply issues. She knew the MCM had found themselves with four Taurus suits unexpectedly when they had asked for veterans from the population. She also knew they were having trouble sourcing parts, and a Preventer Taurus was about 55% parts-compatible with a standard model, covering most of the suit's internal structure and minor systems. It was obvious they'd turn to a Taurus unit, and given how supercilious she'd found the commander of the Black Aces probably her Taurus unit, for help.
Sometimes it paid not to ask too many questions though, and let subordinates handle the opening issues informally. If something came of it, she'd find out in due course. In the meantime she had her own worries...like Ami's plan to give the MCM to her and what that would mean. Noin glanced at her own personal comm; they'd worked out some stuff, run it by the MCM's three battalion commanders. It had met much less resistance than she expected...perhaps because all three of them were intending to stay behind. That meant the most senior MCM officer who would leave Mars was Lieutenant Colonel Bright, who commanded the Athena. Noin knew nothing about the man before meeting him and had not had time to look up his service record.
"Boss." Duo said from the door. "Need a moment if you've got one?"
Noin resisted the urge to yawn. Dealing with Duo, or rather dealing indirectly Wufei Chang, had kept her up past her self-appointed bedtime. She had to get adequate sleep too, like anyone else. If she was honest she ought to be stockpiling sleep, storing it up against the arrival of the Outer Colonies. But she had to consult with other leaders, manage her squadron, learn the terrain around the Martian cities. Endless PT; Mars' low gravity meant that you had to spend a lot of time to stay in Earth-suitable shape. The alternative was extremely expensive and somewhat experimental genetic therapy; while it had been around since some of the earliest long-term Mars missions in the AC 100s, it had never been given widespread trials since so few people went to Mars. Some of the results, if she remembered her space exploration history, had not been encouraging. Noin wondered if the Preventers would start working on that now.
Three more days. The Preventer squadrons that would be spaceside, Serpent units, were exercising with the MCM. There were only six Mars Colonial Militia mobile suits actually still on the surface of Mars; four recently reactivated Taurus that would fly point defense over Hellas and two Super Leos that were downchecked with serious maintenance issues. Noin wondered how she'd sleep tonight.
Dreamlessly, it turned out. Being tired was good for some things.
"We have them entering orbit now." Phobos Control's tone was tight. "Downlinking to all suits. They've got something new mixed in."
Noin glanced at one of the Taurus' two MFDs and looked at the image hard. That...was a Gundam. The profile was impossible to mistake.
"That's Wing Zero! Oh god, we're-"
"Belay that, Aces Five." Noin rebuked. "It just looks like Wing Zero." And...not that much. The suits were too small in comparison to the Taurus and Vayates around them, at least a meter shorter. Their overall design seemed different as well, only the wings appearing the same. Lots of white paint, some blue. None of the yellow on Wing Zero and only a little bit of red. No "jewel" sensor eye in the chest, more projection there than Wing Zero or Wing. Something like air intakes above the shoulders and large fins at the back of the elbow. The head was pure Gundam, though. And the rifle disturbingly familiar.
"Relativity has a firing solution." Relativity was Intrepid. "Spinal railgun cluster is reporting ready to fire. Targets approaching optimal range. All mobile suits, clear the transmitted vectors."
"Fifteen seconds. Spinal railgun cluster set to Rapid Continuous. Ten seconds. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Firing. Ten seconds to targets. Targets attempting evasive maneuvers." It felt much longer than ten seconds to Noin. There was a sound like a train passing in the background of Intrepid's transmissions. That must be why the crew called firing the spinal cluster what they did... "Impact! Multiple kills! Enemy suits are scattering, more kills, targets attempting to shield themselves with wide-beam fire." The Wing Zero clones and their supporting Taurus found themselves running a lethal gauntlet of shrapnel. Intrepid kept the gun train rolling. "Kill county fifty-six, sixty-two, eighty, one-ten! They're under our guns. Handing off to Catalonia." The Preventer ship's tens of thousands of tons didn't reorient very well, resulting in a large minimum range against mobile suit targets.
Catalonia was Athena's callsign. "Directors are tracking targets. They're burning retro and trying to hit the atmosphere before they reach us. Mobile suits, Catalonia Junior, move in." Catalonia Junior was Minerva.
Even from her position, where the orbital battle was near the horizon, Noin saw the explosion. "What the hell was that?" Duo asked.
"Catalonia Junior is hit bad-Tallgeese Three is hostile! GET CLEAR!"
Noin's helmeted chin rested momentarily on her collarbone. Of course, Zechs. You too.
"Lightning, come left to two-six-one." Phobos Control ordered.
"Lightning complying." Noin's response was devoid of emotion. Flights and then wing pairs split off to cover inbound vectors.
"Tracking sixteen loud and down-bound from orbit." Dyer reported. A craft in reentry couldn't see or talk to anything below it; only back up to orbit. The big fixed jamming installations on Phobos and Deimos were aimed at them from up there, making that impossible. The Mars Colonial Militia had spent a long time planning a trap like this.
A Taurus on Mars reentry wouldn't regain positive flight control until it was two kilometers below its maximum flight ceiling on Mars. In that lay the trap; by the time the Outer Colonies suits were able to defend themselves, their opponents would have the altitude advantage. Assuming they even got that far; Noin's suit had twelve IR missiles whose seekers would probably be doing little dances of joy about such bright targets if they had the ability. Noin flipped to missiles and got lock and tone almost instantly. "Spear with twelve."
Every missile flew straight and true. Twelve kills. Of the other four, only one tried to react; they damaged their Taurus' thin "spike" tailplanes and tumbled out of control. The others knew there was nothing they could do and held their courses. Dyer got one with beam fire as it flashed past.
They dove on the remaining two. Noin's target managed only a feeble jink before beam fire killed it. Dyer's turned into the attack, managing to get off a couple shots of its own between violent jinking up and down.
"We got a live one, Lead." Dyer observed.
"Lightning One, you have more hostiles headed your way." Phobos Control warned. "Two of the newcomers are in them."
Noin had instinctively tried to box the other Taurus in, trusting that against a single opponent of similar equipment her wing did not need her close protection and neither did she need his. She was right, but despite having two good shots in thirty seconds the other Taurus was still alive.
"Who is this clown?" Dyer was audibly annoyed as he jinked out of the way of a shot, spoiling his own burst. "The second coming of Saburo Sakai?"
"Three here. If they have any sense they'll back off." Buthelezi's voice as he and Yin joined the fight. But the Io Militia suit did not have any sense. A couple of Yin' s shots grazed it but did no damage that significantly reduced its speed or maneuverability, causing Yin to growl over the commline. Four suits swooped and slashed at one, and were coming away mostly empty. At least they'd stopped it shooting back for now.
Then abruptly the largely white with minor blue trim newcomer suits joined in. "Oh shit." Yin dodged a beam cannon shot. They sure looked like they had twin buster rifles, though given that the weapons were in proportion to the smaller suits they couldn't. It was also firing from alternating barrels, not both.
Buthelezi's Taurus whiplashed into a sharp turn, changing modes and using its arms to impart itself a roll it couldn't otherwise, and killed one of the newcomers with a snapshot pair of missiles. Noin's mouth fell open for a few seconds; he'd had no time to lock, that shot had to have been dumbfired. The Io Militia pilot decided to go fast and get small while their tormentors were distracted.
Four on one. And not doing any better; in fact, the other suit was taking nearly as many shots at them as they were at it. "He's definitely rocking a Zero System, Lead." Yin observed.
"One Flight, Drill Beta on my mark." Noin replied. A classic, one of the basic anti-Zero System drills, which presented a particular situation and manipulated it to do what the system would reject as a possibility. "Mark."
The other three suits turned and started firing, trying to box the unknown in more than hit it. Noin's own suit charged, going to mobile suit mode and pulling a beamsaber; reverse grip, like Duo had taught. The Gundam brought its own gun around, but to devote enough attention to an accurate shot was to die with three enemies attacking it already. There was a moment's hesitation as it started to go for its own beamsabers and in that moment one of the other Taurus shot it in the face. The Gundam's pilot did not manage to reorient themselves and recover from losing most of their sensor systems before Noin gutted the suit with a beamsaber. "Splash. Phobos Control, vector on the Taurus that got away?"
"Lightning One, negative, they went to ground. We'll vector someone on them if they come back. Debris reentry over Valles Noctis and other sites, stand by for vectors to intercept." The problem with fighting in orbit was that things fell. And they had to be prevented from falling on anything important. Mars' relatively thin atmosphere wasn't as helpful as Earth's for that. "Vectors as follows..."
"Two, fuel state?" Noin asked. They'd been in the air for two hours, but combat maneuvers ate fuel like nothing else. Dyer's Taurus was also still carrying its missile racks, which meant he was burning more fuel than she was.
"One-quarter. Good to go." Lower than Noin wanted to hear, but not so low he had to break off.
"Lightning One to Phobos Control, requesting a new vector." The orbital battle was over, save for a few diehards who were going to run out of gas pretty soon with how hard they had to work to keep the victorious MCM from mobbing them to death. No one seemed to know where Tallgeese III was, though, and that was making everyone nervous.
"Lightning One, vector three-one-seven. Debris pattern from destroyed MS carrier. Do not engage, it's not coming down on anything. Just do a flyby to confirm." Phobos Control ordered.
"Lightning One complying." Noin swung her Taurus around and watched her radar. A few minutes later she spotted the small cloud of blips and advanced her throttles to full power from cruising speed.
"One, Two. One of these things is moving a little. Might be tumbling, but." Dyer's voice was still the calm one.
"Two, go for a lock and see if it reacts." Something that reacted to a radar lock was something capable of recognizing it was being locked, and that meant it wasn't debris.
The jerk and sudden motion of the object on her radar was obvious. It was fast; incredibly fast, not up to Tallgeese speeds, but even as Noin set an intercept she realized she'd just barely make it. Dyer didn't make a comment, mirroring her maneuver. Until- "One, Two, he wasn't alone. Second one just broke free of the cloud."
"Phobos Control, we've got a pair of live ones here, type..." Noin squinted at the magnified image. The suit was about forty-five klicks out, hard to make out even with magnification. "At least one is a Gundam."
"Copy. Vectoring other assets to you. Be advised, hostile is on a best-time course to Hellas."
"Two, did you get a look at the trailer?" If it was a second Gundam...she couldn't send him against it alone. Even if he might be able to win that fight, and Noin recalled well that Focht, Duo, and Dyer had managed to solo Romefeller's Zero-equipped knockoff Gundams. She would never have knowingly sent someone to fight a Zero System suit alone. Except herself.
"Only a little, One. Too big to be one of these mini-Gundams. Might be a Vayate or a Taurus." Dyer replied. It was hard to get a good view of anything directly following you, not so much because the Taurus didn't show that; its view of the world through screens meant you could look forward to look backward. Rather, their drive flares obscured things at this speed.
"Break and intercept in ten seconds, Two. Phobos Control, vector a flight to assist Lightning Two." Noin heard them both acknowledge.
The Gundam sped up again. Her intercept time was opening up. They'd be almost over Hellas City before she was in firing range. She could see Hellas City's six stock Taurus defenders on her radar as they broke their orbit and turned to engage, watched the symbols change as they activated their weapons radars and then their ECM gear.
Three of them disappeared from the screen in a five-second span. Noin winced. This was not going to be good. Somewhere behind her Dyer should be engaging his own opponent right now. "Striker Flight, say status." There was nothing more to be coaxed out of the suit in speed, and Noin wasn't happy about that.
"Striker Four here. I'm RTB with half my control surfaces shot, and can't change modes. Striker Six, Five, and One are dead. Striker Two and Striker Three are still in combat."
They were over Hellas now, and she could see them. Striker Two took a hit in the chest and spun out of control, only managing to recover enough to avoid crashing into the city dome and instead striking the ground less than a hundred meters from it. Striker One managed to disable his opponent's gun with a lucky shot, but took a beamsaber into the main fuel tanks and blew apart in tiny pieces. The Gundam turned, and raised its beamsaber to strike the city dome. They can't be serious!
The motion never completed as Noin's Taurus catapulted into the Gundam in mobile suit mode. She was surprised to discover it came off worse from the impact, much worse. Her Taurus currently weighed about fourteen tons, having burned off most of its fuel load and carrying only its standard weapons. The way the Gundam went flying from the impact suggested it was substantially lighter than even her suit. Noin fired a long burst at the other suit, then charged it again; she had to get it away from the city before she could shoot it down.
It retreated, the sloppy movements of the suit suggesting the pilot was shaken from the first impact. Whoever was flying it didn't realize he was running out of Hellas City until he actually had, further suggesting disorientation, and immediately tried to counterthrust. It cost them their momentum, and they realized a second too late why that was bad and tried to ascend as well. Instead, a series of beam shots stitched down the middle of its chest. Each of them, Noin noted in some surprise, went through. A Gundam not armored in Gundanium?
"Focht, talk to me!" Dyer was not calm. Dyer is always calm! What could go wrong now?
"I'm all right, I'm all right! Suit's a goddamn mess though." Focht was not happy.
"Two, sitrep." Noin struggled to keep her voice calm.
"One, we are engaged with Tallgeese Three."
Of course, Zechs. You too.
It was the longest two minutes of her life to get back to them and up to the altitude the fight had reached. No one else was in range, she'd discovered. The three Preventer squadrons had been spread far and wide checking debris falling from orbit and hence too far away to get there in the next five minutes. Yin and Buthelezi were actually closer than that and had turned towards, but Noin had to order them off; they were down to ten minutes fuel.
Focht's Taurus looked like someone had tried to melt the right side, probably a near-miss from Tallgeese III's mega cannon. One of the two other wingmen he had in his ad-hoc section was missing, having been damaged intercepting a piece of debris; the other suit had a sharp scar on the arm. Dyer's suit was in mobile suit mode, pocked by craters where it had taken vulcan fire and gamely returning Tallgeese III's fire. He has to be almost out of fuel by now. Noin resisted the urge to swear. "Focht, get out of here before he looks at you funny and take your wing. Dyer, you go with him. You're bingo fuel."
"Foxtrot Tango, Skipper. That's the Tallgeese." The tone conveyed that Dyer had absolutely no intention of allowing her to fight one of the best living pilots without backup. Zechs made an effort to gut Dyer's all-grey Taurus with Tallgeese's heat rod. Dyer barely managed to avoid it, rolling out of the path of the strike and going to fighter mode to get away.
Noin's reaction to this was not the result of a grand psychological struggle. It was simple, instinctual, the result of her training. Her wingman was being attacked. She was supposed to protect him. Zechs had placed himself in a bad position relative to her, so Noin turned inside on Tallgeese as it tried to herd Dyer's Taurus with vulcan fire. The shot was excellent. She gently depressed the trigger, very gently, it wouldn't do to jerk the stick and ruin it...
She had meant to hit the right vernier, which was one of the weakest parts of the suit, but at the last moment Zechs started to roll, apparently to set up a better shot at Dyer. Beam fire stitched the right arm, starting at the bottom and heading up. The mega cannon didn't last beyond two hits, being reduced to a smouldering wreck. One of the elbow joints was damaged, but still worked. She corrected her aim and hit the vernier, but to her disappointment it didn't explode and instead just shut down. Tallgeese tried to enter a flat spin from the uneven thrust, dropping away out of sight towards Mars as it did so, but the last sight she had of it Zechs seemed to have regained control.
"Zechs." Noin said it over an open channel. "The last time you tried to kill my family and gave me a free backshot, I didn't take it. That has spent three years torturing me. Did you really think I wouldn't take the shot again?"
"Noin..." Zechs' tone was far softer than the angry, gritted-teeth tone she was using. "Dyer is not your family."
"You've managed to forget Otto, haven't you? I shouldn't be surprised." Had he gone to ground? The problem with radar was it only gave position, motion, and rough size data. There was a lot of unmoving rocks down there that were about the right size on radar to be Tallgeese III. She couldn't tell where he was...unless...
"Noin." There was both a sense he'd been betrayed and deep pain in his voice now. Zechs Merquise evidently did remember Otto.
That...amused her, in a deeply vicious way. "Zechs, don't you understand? You were never one of us. Trieze had his demons too, but he wanted to make the world a better place. I loved to fly and I loved space, so I found the best place to do those and also maybe make the world a better place. And you? You were along for the bloody vengeance." Noin laughed, sharp and a little shrill. "You were never more than the sum of your demons, Milliardo Peacecraft. The fact you've managed to self-inflict them now doesn't make you less broken, just differently broken. And I haven't been a teen girl lusting after bad boys I can fix for years now."
"I did it so I wouldn't have to fight you, Noin. I didn't want it to come to this." Impossibly, Zechs' voice broke. "I knew you'd never agree to betray the ESUN. I loved you. I couldn't kill you. Fighting you once was almost more than I could bear. I had to keep you away...to keep you from fighting, when the time came."
"Didn't work, did it? You could have done anything else and it probably would have worked better." Talking was stupid of him. It gave away his position once her suit's electronics had enough data, and he was right there. Noin's Taurus dove after him and Dyer mirrored it as her wing.
"Vayate flight moving in, One. They're not friendly." Dyer sounded grim. "We don't have much time."
"We can get him." Noin replied confidently. The Vayate flight was an annoyance; perhaps they'd come in with the carrier debris. Ten seconds to range. "Can you really not do it, Zechs? Can you really not fight me? Let's find out."
"Lucrezi-" Then Tallgeese took a brief burst from her guns before it evaded. No penetrations, though. "Please, Noin."
"There's no bright future for a soldier who can't fight, Merquise." Noin taunted, even doing a fairly good impression of his voice. Zechs must have slacked his grip on the stick at the wrong moment, because Tallgeese III rolled into its damaged vernier and for a few brief seconds was clearly not under control as it tumbled through the thin Martian atmosphere. Her gun, and Dyer's, hammered at it, but whatever damage they did wasn't enough before the big suit was under control again. Zechs seemed to have finally realized the threat against his life was real, because he was taking the fight seriously. The Lightning Count had lost none of his touch for between-blinks fast maneuvering, and even damaged Tallgeese III was not anyone's definition of an easy kill.
Dyer's Taurus broke from its wing position and towards the incoming Vayates, missiles boiling out from under the spaceframe, then the missile launch packs fell free as it turned. "One, we're out of time!"
Noin fired another burst at Tallgeese and watched only one shot connect, glancing off the thick shoulder plates. "Not long."
"Not a suggestion-break left!" The worst thing was his tone of command, when he used it, could still make her jump to obey without thought. It was unseemly for a subordinate to be able to do that. She was glad a moment later, as heavy beam fire passed through the space her Taurus would have occupied. Dyer also jinked hard. "One, we're either leaving now or we're dying, and I'm not dying for this."
"Turn to two one seven. We'll outrun them." Noin grit her teeth after saying it. "Two, say fuel state."
"Five minutes and then I'm walking home." Dyer replied. His calm was back, oddly.
