Giant Robot Reincarnation?!

I wasn’t sure how serious Sabina was being when she raised the specter of peace negotiations with the Sarcophage. Her words didn’t seem sincere, and I reckoned she was simply parroting Captain Savitskaya’s talking points… but that, in and of itself, was dangerous.

I’m far from an impartial observer on this point, seeing as how I’ve personally lost so much to those alien horrors. But can we really count a single impartial observer among all of humanity?

I realized, of course, that the Captain was simply following the Extreme Protocols. However, someone of Sabina’s rank wouldn’t know that. Without access to that set of highly classified documents, she wouldn’t realize how sensitive the entire topic was, and was liable to run her mouth and reveal too much information to the other soldiers. And if word got out to the public about the Extreme Protocols, and what the Captain had done under their direction… there would be riots. The Politburo would be humiliated, and the Captain would be hung out to dry to satiate the people’s thirst for blood.

That’s what I meant by ‘dangerous,’ and why I shut Sabina down as quickly as I could.

I realized I needed to have a serious talk with the Captain after this battle. And, depending on how that went, a serious talk with the soldiers in Maid Squadron as well.

A shiver ran down my spine at the thought.

Kometka, bless her heart, saw my trepidation. “Lydia.” she said softly.

“I know, I know.”

“After the battle.” she continued. “We’ll talk about it with her after the battle. For now, we need to focus.”

Komeka always got straight to the point, and always kept me on track; compared to her wild sister, she was a firm and steady presence. Taking a deep breath, I motioned to slap my cheeks to pep myself up. Of course, the palms of my Inertia Suit’s armored gloves simply banged against the visor of my helmet, but the gesture felt reassuring nonetheless.

Complicated questions of politics and strategy could wait until later. For now, it was time to fight.

And there’s nothing I’m better at that fighting.

*****

The Belphegor, contrary to its fearsome reputation, was not a frontline combat unit. It lacked spines to fire at the enemy, nor did it have the agility and deadly cutting claws of a Beelzebub. It was entirely lacking at force projection, which is why the Sarcophage used them as command craft and breeding pools on the backlines.

However, Belphegors had a mass more than quadruple any carrier humanity fielded, and even dwarfed the kilometer-long Almaz stations. They were covered in the same nigh-impregnable chitin as the Beelzebubs, and mounted countless arms and cilia that would rip apart anything that got too close. Combined with their twin scorpion-tails which projected powerful gravity fields, Belphegors were impregnable fortresses. Thus far, humanity had never successfully defeated one; indeed, it was rare for one to be present on the frontline to begin with.

Moby had trashed that prevailing common sense and adapted her personal Belphegor to provide impenetrable defense to her fleet of six modified Defiled cruisers. With the enemy shielded by a powerful gravity field, our artillery was useless; we had to get up close and personal if we wanted to even the odds.

Urgh, if only I could slice off one of those scorpion tails. I groaned internally. I knew from experience I’d be quickly eviscerated if I got too close, though.

As we passed through the enemy’s gravity field, our Frames shuddered and jerked; the fact that we weren’t torn to shreds instantly spoke volumes about Sveta and Kometka’s expert modulation of the squadron's drive fins. As we approached our first target, the Defiled located to the front and left of the Belphegor, we were met by a barrage of spinefire from the three closest cruisers.

Our squadron was arrayed in a reverse-diamond formation; all the Frames had their backs to each other, covering all angles. With the combined suppressive fire of our positron rifles and the twenty-something Strike Fins Sveta was fielding, we easily blasted all the incoming spinefire away before it got close.

C’mon, Moby, don’t make this too easy. I expected better from you. I thought wryly.

She must have been listening. The swarm of Frame-class creatures surrounding the cruisers surged towards us; the usual mix of Spineballs, Clawteeth and Bladebugs. They, too, were shot down by a wave of positron fire that blasted them to dust. Not a single one got through. I had trained my pilots well.

Sabina was taking the head of our formation, with me on her left flank. Her combat style wasn’t as flashy or reckless as Miette’s, instead grounded firmly in the basics, but I did notice something slightly off. She wasn’t covering her right flank very well; a couple of times, Sveta used the Strike Fins to intercept a creature or two that slipped a bit too close to her. It was a mistake uncharacteristic of a seasoned pilot.

I understood exactly what the problem was. Sabina was used to flying in formation with her sister Genevi, who was usually on her right flank. The two came as a package deal, and played off each others strengths flawlessly; with Genevi missing, Sabina was being sloppy without realizing it.

Well, now wasn’t the time for a lecture. Habits couldn’t be unlearned in the middle of battle; I’d just have to adapt.

“Sabina.” I said to her over comms. “Switch positions with me.”

“Huh?” Sabina’s eyes widened as she realized what I was getting at. “Sorry, I didn’t realize…”

“Talk later. I gave an order.”

“Ma’am.” she responded with a curt nod. The two of us rolled around each other, and I took over covering her right flank. That freed her up to concentrate, and the four quad-linked positron cannons on her X-23 tore into the swarm ahead of us. I had to push Kometka to the redline to keep up with the X-23, but my piloting skill outstripped Sabina’s by a large margin, so I managed it. I sniped every enemy in my sights with pinpoint precision, leaving Sabina free to focus on thinning the herd before us.

Whew, that’s more like it. Those X-23s are something else, huh?

I couldn’t wait to get my hands on one of my own.

I relaxed my shoulders, letting my muscle memory take control of my firing as I studied the swarm. The composition seemed around 4:2:1 Clawteeth to Spineballs to Bladebugs; Moby’s standard force mix. The problem was, the combined spinefire of the Defiled and Spineballs was getting thicker the closer we got to the cruiser, thus lowering our chances of a successful kinetic strike.

Well, I had a trick for that. I opened comms to the whole squadron. “Forward sector, odd elements, focus ONLY on targeting spineballs. Sveta, same for the Strike Fins. Even elements, continue suppressive fire and engage in melee if they get too close.” As I spoke, Kometka forwarded the relevant CIC data to each Frame’s cockpit, outlining each pilot’s assigned targets in red.

I was, in essence, sacrificing some of our suppressive fire capability to whittle down the Spineballs and thus decrease the enemy spinefire. Some Clawteeth and Bladebugs might get through, but I was willing to risk a bit of melee combat if it gave Sveta a clean shot.

The pilots responded instantly, and before long the number of Spineballs decreased. As I eviscerated a Bladebug with a satisfying crunch, driving my plasma blades into the joint between its head and thorax, I spotted an opening in the hail of spinefire. I twisted Kometka around and fired both her shoulder cannons without really bothering to aim them too precisely, relying on my instincts.

A lucky shot! One of the Defiled’s tentacles was seared away. Its spinefire dropped by a third.

“Sveta, NOW!” I yelled.

Six seconds later, four Strike Fins slammed into the cruiser. When the light from the kinetic impacts faded, I saw it had been split into a half-dozen fragments.

“Beautiful. Excellent work, you two.” I praised Sveta and her pilot; the two of them were smiling, glowing with pride. “On to the second target. Keep an eye out for a change in tactics.”

I licked my lips and looked at the Belphegor. Our first kill had been easy, but Moby would adapt quickly. We had to be ready for whatever she threw at us next.

*****

As we surged towards the second cruiser, I noticed the Frame-class creatures break away from us.

“What the…” I began.

“Lydia! The Belphegor! It’s doing something with its tails!” Sveta cried out.

I turned my head towards the Belphegor. One of its tails had coiled up, and was glowing a sickly bright-red. Almost as if it were charging some sort of attack…

“EVERYONE! SCATTER!” I shrieked. Our pilots abandoned formation, flying off in all directions.

Just then, the tail whipped towards us. It wasn’t nearly long enough to hit us directly, but a powerful slash-shaped wave of gravity displacement surged towards our squadron. The gravity wave passed above the Defiled cruiser and slammed into us. As it roared past, I felt Kometka shudder and creak as if hit by a tidal wave.

What the FUCK?!

“Damage report!” I barked.

Kometka spoke rapidly. “Microfractures in the outer hull. One RCS fin is offline. Eight Frames sustained minor damage of a similar nature. Four Frames destroyed.”

“Four…” I looked at the tactical plot. Two of our Frames had been twisted into unrecognizable wreckage, and another two were half-intact; however, the vitals of their pilots were completely flatlined.

“Fuck…” I muttered. Our squadron fell back into formation, but with a third of our force destroyed, there were now gaps in our coverage.

“What kind of attack was THAT?!” Sabina asked in a half-panic.

“I don’t know.” I responded. “Stay in tight formation and prepare to scatter again. We may need to retreat.” I narrowed my eyes and studied the tactical plot. “Kometka, can we neutralize that kind of attack if she does it again?”

“Our drive fins are too weak.” Kometka responded. “Both Sveta and I tried to counter the attack as it happened, but the Belphegor’s gravity displacement is too powerful.” That made sense; there was no way a Gravity Frame’s measly nuclear generators could counter the power of a Belphegor.

“Argh. Using gravity itself as a weapon. Moby, you’re too damn smart.” I grit my teeth. Once again, my nemesis had caught us off guard with a completely novel tactic.

I felt my stomach sink as the Belphegor’s tail coiled up again and began to glow. Just as I was about to order everyone to scatter again, Sveta spoke up.

“Lydia, have everyone group together in tight formation! I’m going to cover us with the Strike Fins!”

“Huh? I thought Kometka said they were too weak?” Strike Fins had even less juice than a Frame’s drive fins, since they were powered by batteries.

“Individually, yes! But if I use a bunch at once, in concert with the combined drive fins of all the Frames, I might be able to shield us!” Sveta’s eyes were pleading.

Urgh. I don’t know about this.

I had to decide quickly, and Sveta’s plan sounded far-fetched...

Kometka, you really trust your sister, huh? I guess I’ll trust her too. “Soldiers, form up! Tight diamond formation!” We all grouped our Frames together nearly shoulder-to-shoulder.

Sveta arrayed twenty Strike Fins between us and the Belphegor, fanned out in a sunburst formation. They all surged to maximum power along with the drive fins of our Frames, displacing gravity so powerfully I actually saw the ripples in spacetime as they bent the light around us.

C’mon, please work… I pleaded silently. If Sveta’s impromptu shield didn’t hold, we’d be torn apart. At least it would be a quick death.

The Belphegor’s tail whipped, and another gravity slash arced towards us. When it slammed into Sveta’s shield, the gravity waves from the impact rattled my teeth. The Strike Fins began to shudder and explode… one, two, four, six. The defensive shield weakened, and the rattling grew worse and worse…

Then, it was over. The gravity slash passed, and we all survived. Half of Sveta’s impromptu shield had been destroyed, and the remaining ten Strike Fins were all heavily damaged.

“Whew…” I had the overwhelming urge to wipe my brow, although I couldn’t do so through my helmet. “That was close…”

“I lost ten Fins to that attack.” Sveta reported. “With my remaining backup supply, we can withstand another two or three of those attacks at most.”

I frowned. Even if we could tank another few attacks, we couldn’t effectively fight back while hunkering down. Moby had us pinned.

“Looks like the mission parameters have changed, to an extreme degree. All units, retreat to waypoint gamma.”

“We’re running?” Sabina asked, frowning.

“Everyone else is. We can’t repel firepower of that magnitude, so we need to dodge it. You’re with me, Sabina. We’re going to do something about the Belphegor’s tails while everyone else retreats, or Moby will just pick us apart as we run.”

“Huh…?” She looked startled at my orders. “Take on a Belphegor with only two Frames? Are you CRAZY?”

“A single element can dodge that gravity slash attack more effectively than a whole squadron. All we have to do is damage one of those tails enough that she can’t use the attack anymore, and we can get this mission back on track.” Sabina had the most powerful Frame and I had the most combat experience, so we were the logical choices to go after Moby while everyone else got to safety.

“She IS crazy. I like it!” Sveta said, with a big smile. I smiled right back. Komeka looked like she had something to say, but kept quiet.

Sabina rolled her eyes. “Oh, well. Time to see what this X-23 can really do, I suppose. Sveta, I apologize if I wind up denting your finish a bit.”

“Don’t worry about it! Let’s go!” Sveta proclaimed.

I had Kometka compose a quick mission report, along with a specific request for Captain Savitskaya, and sent the file to one of the retreating Frames; once they cleared the Belphegor’s shield, they could beam it back along Sveta’s relay to Eros. Sabina and I covered everyone’s retreat and accelerated towards the Belphegor. Around us, the five remaining Defiled continued to fire on Eros.

The clock was ticking, and we had one chance to end things decisively.

“Time to earn our paychecks.” I muttered. Kometka simply sighed and shook her head.