Super Robot Wars æ: Martian Mecha Mega-Crossover

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[X] Lilia
[X] Woman
[X] DEVIL

March 21, NCE 0122

Pretzel Farms, Chryse Autonomous Zone, Mars

Your name is Lilia, and you are a farmer.

Well, that's not true. You're a proud soldier of BAHRAM, the organization dedicated to achieving the independence of Mars by any means necessary. But you are visiting a farm.

Let's back up a bit.

Ever since joining BAHRAM last year, you've thrown yourself into the cause of Martian independence on the basis that even if you wound up in a shooting war with aristocratic bastards from Earth who could kill you from orbit, you couldn't reasonably find yourself worse-off than you were as a street rat in the Martian gutter. At least BAHRAM eats pretty well.

It also turned out you were a natural at piloting LEVs, being one of the few pilots to get out of mock combat untouched no matter what harebrained suicide charge your lieutenant tried. Between that and your lack of a family to serve as information leaks, when said lieutenant was tapped as a test pilot, you joined him and his other buddies as part of BAHRAM's most top secret operation.

The project, such as it was, was not going entirely according to plan. The prototype Orbital Frame, the machine that would change warfare and free Mars, IDOLO? Functioning perfectly, as far as you could tell. It's almost like an old anime, but with better opsec - the heroic knight of the sky, Radium, with a super machine that will bend to his will...and only his will. Radium's buddy, Sergeant Viola Gyune, nearly died when the machine stopped responding to her controls mid-flight, and you yourself couldn't even get IDOLO off the ground. The eggheads in charge of the project (who, you have to admit, are disproportionately attractive women rather than anyone accurately describable as an egghead) were extremely perturbed by this, but it didn't seem like much of a problem to you. Radium lacking a backup pilot was bad strategically, but you and Viola had your Phantomas, and it's not like IDOLO was the only Orbital Frame planned anyway.

It does, however, mean that you and Viola are more available for missions outside of Idolo's secret testing site near Chryse than Radium himself, who's sequestered under tight security while the officers discuss the future of Project IDOLO. Hence: the farm.

"You know, I've heard that farms smell awful, but I always thought that was because of the animals," you say to Viola. "And this is all corn."

"Nitrates smell like shit whether they come from a cow or a lab, Lilia," the sergeant explains helpfully. "You're standing on about 10% nanite-infused soil and 90% fertilizer."

"How do these guys make a profit if they're buying so many chemicals and selling in bulk for biofuel?"

"Barely," says a new voice from behind you in the corn rows.

You and Viola both jump and reach for sidearms in unison before turning and realizing that the person who snuck up on you is a little old lady.

"Ah, you must be Miss Pretzel," Viola says, recovering her composure first. You heard she met Radium and became his best friend when she tried to knife him in an alley. You believe it.

"Please, Sakura is fine," the old lady replies. "Anyway, it smells like shit over here because you're walking through the fields instead of following the harvester. You girls trying to avoid the press or something?"

"We're here to meet with your grandson, ma'am. It's about a business deal," Viola explains.

"I know why you're here, I just don't know why you're here," she says, gesturing at the ground. "Anyway come on, the kids are helping with the harvest."

A quick walk to a less squishy part of the corn field brings you to an idyllic sight of scattered teenagers gleaning corn, something straight out of a painting from pre-Calamity Earth...but for a few irregularities. That kid over there - well, you say kid, he's maybe two or three years younger than you and built like a truck - has the telltale pockmarks on his spine of the Alaya-Vijnana system, a positively ancient cybernetic control interface that statistically had about a 4 in 10 chance of permanently crippling him when it was injected during puberty. He's wearing a matching bracelet with one of the townie girls who's also helping out - probably means they're married according to some South Pacific tribal culture or something. And the other girl, the one he just saved from falling on her ass...


She doesn't look like much in muddy boots and clothes she probably bummed off one of the taller boys, but she's perhaps the only human person as important to Mars's future as BAHRAM's Orbital Frame is, and the reason for your visit today. You don't approach her directly - someone who is obviously her maid is hovering near her, and if the Alaya-Vijnana kid didn't kick your ass for approaching, she probably would - instead spying out your business contact, a rotund young man who's joyfully pitching in his own sweat to the corn harvest. It's nice to have a family business, you suppose.

"Biscuit Griffon?" you ask, extending a gloved hand for a shake. He smiles and returns it, all good nature and boyish innocence. Hard to believe he's in the management of a private military company.

"That's me. You must be Sergeant Gyune and, uh..."

"Lilia. Just Lilia. I didn't come up through the militia, so they never bothered giving me a rank," you reply. "I'm what you call a professional volunteer."

"Ah, I see. Well, obviously, BAHRAM doesn't mind doing business with mercenaries, or you all wouldn't be here," Biscuit replies.

Viola grunts in agreement. "BAHRAM sent us out here to let you know that your terms are agreeable. You'll get the funding you need to get Bernstein's kid to Earth. Although..."

"You're wondering why your bosses agreed, aren't you?" Biscuit says, nodding sagely. "Miss Kudelia's politics don't exactly align with General Tyusha's or Colonel Nohman's."

"Like I talk to either of those guys," Viola says, rolling her eyes. "I want to know how anyone who lives on this planet can believe we can just...negotiate our way out of servitude."

"I'm a soldier myself, ma'am," Biscuit says, despite the fact that he's like sixteen tops. "I don't know any solutions that aren't fighting. But I'm also a quartermaster, and I know that negotiation's just as important a job. Maybe Tyusha thinks she'll cut a good deal. Maybe she'll toughen up. I've known her like three days and she's already seen...a lot she didn't back in daddy's mansion."

You nod. "Oh yeah. You're already on Gjallarhorn's hitlist, aren't you?"

Biscuit grimaces and makes a shushing motion. "Things have gotten real complicated, okay? The only reason Gjallarhorn hasn't wiped us out yet is because Mika killed two of their officers and I think they're too embarrassed to deal with that."

"Mika's the kid with the AVS plugin? How the hell did he kill Gjallarhorn officers in a mobile worker?" you ask.

"Aheh...company secret. For now. I'm sure if we get a closer working relationship you'll see," Biscuit says.

"Well, you're our comrades in revolution now, I guess," Viola says. "Best of luck to Chryse Guard Security's new management."

"Oh, we're not CGS anymore. Orga's in charge now, and he's reincorporated us as Tekkadan."

"Tekkadan?" you ask. "Like 'Iron Fire'?"

He shakes his head. "'Iron Flower'. Orga's a romantic type."

You roll your eyes. "Every man on Mars is these days. Between the Lieutenant and Dolores shacking up so loud it shakes the base--"

"Lilia. That's need-to-know, and literally no one needs to know that," Viola snaps.

"Hey, didn't Radium want us to pick him up some moonshine while we were here?"

"We're not getting him alcohol, either."

"Some best friend you are."

Biscuit politely pretends to laugh at your antics while looking around. "Hey, grandma, where are the tw--"

While he's in the middle of asking this, the sound of a wheeled car screeching to a stop comes from the nearby road.

---

You spot what seems to be a tragic scene as you rush toward the apparent car accident - two little girls lying in the road, several feet away from a pale blue sedan. You instinctively rush there, but the kid with the AVS - Mika - beats you to it by several yards, and, true to your own instincts, immediately starts choking out the purple-haired man who got out of the driver's side. One-handed, too. Man that kid's strong.

Viola grabs you to stop you running into the road at the same time that Kudelia's attendant grabs her, both you and the peacenik getting pulled back into the corn rows by a firm hand. "Look at the car," Viola hisses.

Sure enough, it's a marked staff car of Gjallarhorn, the interplanetary peacekeeping force that was dedicated to stomping Martians into the dirt for fun and profit, and the number one enemy when BAHRAM eventually declares war. If they caught you and Viola here - especially with "Mika" over there about to mark off a third dead officer on his tally - it'd be a disaster. If they caught Kudelia...well, it suddenly clicks why "Tekkadan" was fighting them in the first place. They wouldn't want Kudelia Aina Bernstein making noise on humanity's precious homeworld, after all.

Still, keeping your heads down, it seems like the situation is somehow getting defused. The girls - twins, and probably Biscuit's sisters now that you look at them - get up unharmed, apparently having dived out of the way, and the other Gjallarhorn goon in the car and Miss Pretzel seem to be teaming up to get Mika to dial back the murder attempt. The purple-haired guy, for his part, has resorted to fake-retching at the sight of Mika's AVS ports. Fucking rich people. He probably has those modern nanomachines that just make the neat little mark on the back of your palm.

One bribe of chocolates to the girls, presumably to avert a report to his superior officer, and then the two Gjallarhorn operatives ask Biscuit and Mika a few questions and drive off.

"Well, it doesn't seem like all of Gjallarhorn knows about the battle we had," Biscuit observes once they're well out of earshot.

"Those guys were from the Regulatory Bureau," Viola says. "High-ranking, too. The damn peacocks were wearing Seven Stars livery on their civvies."

Biscuit nods. A bit behind him, Mika has obtained some of the girls' chocolates and is chowing down. "They're probably trying to figure out what happened to the garrison company, and the garrison commander isn't talking," the quartermaster notes. "We need to get on our way quick, while they're busy infighting."

"If the Regulatory Bureau's here..."

"...we need to get back to base," you finish Viola's observation. "Either they're here for us, or the garrison is going to try something stupid to impress them. Biscuit, it was nice to meet you. Take care of the celebrity for us. Mika, nice form on that chokehold."

Biscuit nods. Mika swallows a chocolate and nods. "Bye Lily, bye Violet."

"...did he just give us nicknames?" you ask.

"Yeah he does that don't worry about it."

---

Secret BAHRAM Testing Facility, Chryse Autonomous Zone, Mars

Things start to go wrong almost as soon as you're back from that wholesome little interaction. Or perhaps they started earlier, and you're just now noticing.

You come back to Radium with his hands bandaged and leaving a debriefing at the same time you leave yours. He explains that he caught a spy from Gjallarhorn while he was out having a smoke...and then beat him mostly to death.

"So, we were right about them nosing around," you observe. "We're going to have to move soon."

Radium shakes his head. "You'll have to talk to the brass about that. I'm putting in my resignation after the next round of tests with IDOLO."

"What?" You're surprised, but Viola looks like he just slapped her.

"I had a long talk with Dolly." He looks at his hands. They're heavily bandaged. "I'm quitting BAHRAM, and we're going to get married. I was never cut out for this."

"The hell do you mean?" you ask him. "You're the only one who can even pilot that monster."

Radium just sighs. "I'm not fit to fight for Mars's independence. I just...piloting IDOLO made me realize that all I want to do is hurt people. I need to be away from it...BAHRAM, I mean. I'm becoming...no, I already was a devil. IDOLO just gave me the power to do something about it."

You turn to Viola to ask what the hell he's talking about, but she's already left. She's nearly as stealthy as that old lady.

"Listen, Radium, think about it, would you? It's not like they're just going to let you go with all these secrets in your head. You or Dolores quitting would be like if Dr. Links wanted to quit."

"Actually, I heard she's already trying to do that. Apparently my synchrograph's worrying her, too," Radium says, too cheerfully. "If you want to talk to her about it, she's with the brass."

This stinks. This stinks worse than your boots after walking through Sakura Pretzel's cornfield. Gjallarhorn showing up here, after poking around your "allies"? Radium suddenly wanting to quit? Every instinct in your body is telling you to prepare for a fight as you go to find Dolores Hayes and ask her what the hell is wrong with her boyfriend.

---

That fight instinct saves your life when you catch a glimpse of a raised handgun around the corner and duck back an instant before some bitch in a labcoat shoots at you.

You hear boots tromping around the corner after you and draw your own sidearm, raising it and gunning down two large, burly men who are definitely not the Project IDOLO scientists they're dressed as they charge around the corner.

This is your first time killing people, actually, despite being a soldier.

You feel like you should feel worse about it.

Or have any thoughts other than 'what kind of idiot doesn't wait to see if I'm armed before just charging like that'.

It doesn't matter right now, though.

"This way, we have to get the doctor out of here!" you hear, obviously not addressed to you. That's a voice you do recognize, although you can't remember her name. Doesn't matter now, though, she must have been a mole. You grab your radio with your offhand to try and raise an alert, but there's no response from it.

Damn. They must have brought mobile suits. Even this far underground, even using geothermal power in the base, one Minovsky-Ahab reactor running on the surface was enough to jam weak radio waves.

You hear more gunshots from around the corner and realize that the spy and her friends are moving on and, thankfully, alerting more of BAHRAM. Carefully judging the closeness of shots, you hurry after them, gun still drawn, only to run into Viola again, who'd apparently run into the fugitives from the other direction from wherever she'd been sulking over Radium.

"Sergeant, what the hell is going on?" you ask.

"They've got Dr. Links and Dolores," she replies, face grim.

"Are they defecting?"

"No, they were both in cuffs, and Dolores was wounded. This is a kidnapping, not a defection."

"Well then that's a hell of a pair of hostages," you observe. "Listen, if they're after the scientists, they must be after IDOLO, too. You go warn Radium, I'm going to get my LEV. There's Ahab jamming up, they must have brought mobile suits to cover them."

"I..." Viola hesitates, but seems to clear her head and nods. "You stop them taking off, I'll protect Radium and IDOLO."

Impulsively, you hold out a hand, and Viola grips it after a moment of confusion. "Here's to the war, Sergeant. Go get your friend, I'll save his girlfriend."

She nods. "He's gonna kick your ass if you don't."

---

Radium is gonna kick your ass.

You reach the hangar for the base's complement of normal Phantoma LEVs to find it full of a lot of hulks recently caved in via massive battle-axe to the face and a trio of Gjallarhorn Graze standard-types. A handful of other LEV pilots are taking cover around the periphery of the hangar and taking ineffectual potshots at the 18 meter-tall mobile suits with sub machine guns. You're pretty sure you can hear the Gjallarhorn pilots laughing.

You grit your teeth and try to strategize. Links and Dolores's kidnappers would be heading for the transorbital shuttles, if Gjallarhorn hadn't landed their own. There was no way for you to catch up with them without getting a vehicle. A LEV, or a shuttle, or a mobile suit with verniers, something. You'd take IDOLO at this point if it would--

One of the Gjallarhorn pilots spots you hunkering down. They apparently didn't bring antipersonnel equipment on this job because he just sends a single 120mm rifle shell at the shipping container you're trying to hide behind. The container explodes from the force of the impact, but whatever was in there absorbs enough force that you're not immediately decapitated by shrapnel, instead just thrown across the hangar in a pile of...what the hell is this stuff? Uncharged Metatron? Great, if you make it out of this you'll get to die of radiation poisoning in a few weeks.

No, it's not Metatron. It's a weird bluish-purple crystal. You hadn't realized that BAHRAM was going into jewelry - no, focus, that Gjallarhorn pilot is about to notice you're still moving. You have to move you have to leave you have to get in a fucking robot, ANY robot--

---

????????????

You blink and, suddenly, you're in a cockpit. Monitors are off, power is off, but you are, most assuredly, sitting behind the controls of a robot.

"Did I just...die?"

"...did I just wish myself a robot?"

"...am I God?"

All interesting philosophical questions, but you quickly remember the reason you wanted to be here. Time enough to figure out what happened later. You look around the cockpit for a power switch and find it immediately. Good. It looks basically the same as a Phantoma's, at least in layout. Oh, it's a full panoramic monitor, it's just showing pitch blackness. That's neat. As the main power comes up, a readout in front of you displays the name of your new ride. It says...

[] XAW-3 THELETOS
[] XAW-3 NYMPH
[] XAW-3 (Write-In)

---

Boy, a lot sure happened there. Please vote for the name of your main robot! Statistics will be determined later. Vote will be open for **48 hours** once again.

This chapter was primarily adapted from Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans and Zone of the Enders: 2167 IDOLO.

EDIT: Accidental 15 minute moratorium because I'm good at the internet.