Chapter 52: Cry of the Phoenix-Part 6
TheBleachDoctor
Secretly a Cat
- Location
- The Plane of Infinite Kittens
- Pronouns
- She/Her
A/N: So, uh, almost two months since I hoped to have it out, about half a year since the last update. I apologize. This was a very ambitious update and I probably should have tackled it in smaller chunks. Still, it's finished. Enjoy!
[X] Fuck this guy and the spindly-looking MS he rode in on! You'll get to Rita in due time, but first you're going to obliterate this "Scarecrow".
You've absolutely never heard of this guy, even though he seems to be infamous to the Zeon Republic. Whatever, he'll go down like all the rest of these Federation assholes!
You keep your distance as you look over what little information you have on this MS. It looks like someone took a Nu and stripped it down till it was barely a frame, put a bare minimum of plating on it, then welded Psychoframe to it like it was going out of style. He has a non-standard Beam Rifle and a variant of the Nu shield. If you weren't so close, you would have mistaken him for a non-MP Nu.
So that's why he's called the "Scarecrow". You think you're fighting a proper Nu, when in reality it's some kind of barebones variant. Still, Lutetia seems to think he is a threat, and that Psychoframe looks improvised.
"I take it he's not usually lit up like that?" You ask her as you continue keeping your distance, dodging the few shots he's throwing your way.
"No, I've never seen that loadout before." Lutetia confirms as the Scarecrow almost seems to back off, while still tracking you, "It usually has two Incoms and two shields, this is new. It looks almost like the Unicorn!"
The Unicorn, huh? Well, you don't know too much about the RX-0 model, but you know enough to realize that just welding on Psychoframe plates won't let a normal MS reach that performance level. So, a desperation move? The Feds really wanted to give this guy every edge he could get against the Phenex.
Meanwhile, what do you have? You're down one Mobile Armor, so what's left are the two Shield Boosters strapped to your back pod, a Kehaar II shield, and the Long Blade Rifle. So, not too lopsided a battle… unless he starts doing some kind of superpower bullshit with all that Psychoframe.
But something is off… he's not pressing as hard. In fact, he's been less aggressive ever since you switched strategy to keep-away while taking his measure.
Does he… not want to fight?
Well, maybe he should have thought about that before he smashed up your Mobile Armor!
"Alright, let's get this done quick," you grin as you attune yourself to the Psycommu, feeling the Gundam move like your own body, "I've got a main event to get back to!"
It had been manageable, at first. When Cybele and Sicilia were bombarding the Neo Zeong, it could only attack Alex and Argama Team from one direction. It had to keep the control lines for the hijacked MS intact, and as a result those hijacking Incoms could only approach from that direction too.
Coordinated fire from Christina and the others had kept the Incoms at bay while Elle and Mondo did an admirable job of fending off the enslaved MS from getting too close. The Nemo Cannons probed Rita for gaps in her I-Field.
It had been going so well.
Then Cybele's MA exploded in a flash that could be seen from their location.
Almost immediately Rita deployed an entire hand into the previously suppressed flank, and swept beams through their formation, breaking it. One of the Nemo Cannons lost its head and shoulders, making the pilot eject before the whole machine went up in flames. Christina lost her beam rifle as the tip melted when one of the beams roared by her.
Sicilia hit Rita again, which destroyed the deployed hand, but it was too late. Their lines were broken, and things had devolved into a brawl.
"Elle, they're all over me!" Mondo shouted in a panic as two of the hijacked Jagd Dogas grabbed his machine's arms.
Fire from Elle's Beam Smartgun lanced through the control cable for one of the Dogas, making it convulse and go limp. With one arm freed, Mondo proceeded to punch the other off of him. The control Incom that had been going for him diverted and slammed into the inactive Zeon MS, clamped around its leg, and drilled into it. The machine thrashed almost like a living thing in agony as the cables wormed through it, ending its short-lived freedom.
Christina blocked an Incom with her shield, and it began to dig in. She jettisoned the compromised hunk of metal just as the cables burst from the backside. She drew her Beam Naginata and spun it, shredding the cables as they lunged for her again.
Rita may be a powerful Newtype, but even she couldn't coordinate so many weapons systems at once! She was letting the FCS do most of the heavy lifting, and evading such simplistic attacks wasn't hard.
That being said, nobody in the first wave was doing well.
Christina rapidly looked around the battlefield, trying to pick out her team amongst the fracas.
Hector was evading in reverse, having ditched his Beam Sniper for the increased maneuverability while he sprayed his shield's Gatling Cannon at the pursuing Incoms.
Ishido was firing wildly in all directions, her frantic screams stuttering over comms due to the Minovsky density. Nearby Koike was trying to help, but the limited weaponry of her EWACS Jegan was working against her. What was one Beam Pistol going to do against the ludicrous amount of firepower getting thrown around?
As Ishido was trying to disable the captured Qubeley, which was approaching rapidly from the front, there was a flash of something behind her.
Koike noticed just in time.
"Ishido!" She rammed Ishido's machine aside with her own, the impact smashing her Jegan's sensor suite and mangling her teammate's radiator fins.
Ishido barely had time to process what just happened when one of the Neo Zeong's control Incoms slammed into Koike. Numerous cables plunged into her Jegan, making it thrash as systems were forcibly overridden.
"Koike, no!" Ishido tried to shoot through the Incom cables to free Koike, but her own machine was hit in the back and shuddered as it too was taken over.
One by one, they were falling to Rita's Incoms, adding to the ranks of her thralls.
Christina couldn't dodge forever. She was getting penned in.
Then it finally happened. One Incom latched onto her left arm and began to burrow into it.
No way. She wasn't going to be a burden! She had to make sure she wasn't a threat to anyone!
Without hesitation she swung the Beam Naginata and cut off her machine's left arm.
Then two more grabbed her legs.
She cut off one leg, and was about to go for the other when her controls began to seize up. No, no! She wouldn't let this happen!
Christina's hands were inches from triggering the eject charges when beam fire cut across the void, severing the Incom gripping her remaining leg.
Huh? Where did that come from?
She saw flashes of light all over the battlefield as little craft slipped into the fray. In unison they fired, freeing every machine linked to the Neo Zeong II.
Funnels! But Sicilia didn't have that kind of control, did she?
A scream of rage echoed through her head. Was that Rita? The rogue Newtype fired beams at the disabled MS, both friendly and formerly enslaved, when those Funnels from earlier snapped into formation between the disabled groups of MS and the incoming fire. Iridescent barriers shimmered into existence between the Funnels, two of them, and blocked the beams. But there was no protection for Christina. She hit the eject button, only for an error message to flash.
The Rick Dijeh was still resetting after the attempted takeover. No way out.
The light grew brighter and brighter, and she closed her eyes. Out of fear? Acceptance? She didn't know. Christina waited… and the end didn't come.
Hesitantly, she opened her eyes.
The back of another Mobile Suit filled her vision as it stood between her and the beam, using its shield to ward off the destructive energy. Wait, that machine was-!
"Captain Amuro!" She felt like laughing. Of course the Captain wouldn't abandon them!
The beams from Rita petered out, and the Nu Gundam tossed its shield, now slagged into uselessness.
"Sorry I didn't come sooner." Amuro's voice was clear and resolute, and perhaps a bit resigned, "I was waiting for Kamille, but it's clear we don't have the luxury of time anymore."
He drew his Beam Saber with the off-hand, the hilt sparkling pink as it ignited.
"Regroup with the others, Lieutenant. I'll hold her off and give us some breathing room."
His Fin Funnels darted into the machine's new backpack, giving it the impression of a butterfly with outstretched wings.
"Rita Bernal!" Amuro called out over open comms and optical as he positioned himself between the disabled Mobile Suits and the Neo Zeong.
She seemed to hesitate, her machine suddenly pausing.
There was a spark of connection, and the cockpit around him seemed to melt away, leaving himself and Rita hanging in the void. A connection between two Newtypes. Like this, Amuro could see her clearly. A young woman, once kind, mutilated into a weapon, and now gripped by hate.
"You… Amuro Ray…" Her voice echoed hauntingly, "You won't stop me. I… I will fly free! These wings will free me forever!"
"Wanting to be free isn't wrong," he spoke gently, "We all want that. But what you're doing, Rita, this won't grant you the freedom you're looking for! All this death and destruction will only make them come after you more! I can feel who you are, you don't truly want this slaughter! What is it that you want, Rita?"
"What I… want?" Her voice rang clear through Amuro's mind and was full of static over the radio with haunting dissonance. She sounded terrified. "I want… I want to fly. I want to be free, I-!"
Rage. Fear. The Neo Zeong was engulfed in it as the Psychoframe went wild, all but poisoning the aura of the Phenex. Rita's screams made his blood run cold. The sea of stars vanished as he found himself in the cockpit once more.
"Rita!" He moved to go to her, but the Psycho-Energy buffeted his machine, preventing him from getting close. Her wails seemed to go on forever, until all at once they ceased.
The storm of energy pulled back into a writhing cage around the Neo Zeong, latching onto the Phenex.
"Ha… Haha…" Rita giggled with almost manic glee. All Amuro could hear was bitter amusement, spite and anger mixed together in a venomous sneer, "You want to know what I want, Amuro Ray? I want this world to hurt as much as it's hurt me. As much as it's hurt us."
There was someone else in there.
"…Whoever you are, let Rita go." Amuro demanded firmly, "That girl is amongst the living. She can still be saved. You shouldn't use her as a tool for revenge!"
"My Wings have shown me the truth!" Rita shrieked, deaf to his pleas, "I'll never let anyone drag me down ever again!"
"Tch!" He tightened his grip on the controls, "Again… It's happening all over again!"
Lalah, when would it ever stop?
Who has a name like "Scarecrow"? Is that supposed to evoke fear or something?
Aren't scarecrows supposed to become less scary once you know what they are?
So why is he proving so damn competent?!
"Lutetia, I need more pressure on him!" You snap at your copilot as you try to capitalize on the evasive maneuvers he's being forced to pull whenever she fires on him with the Shield Booster Incoms. Despite that, he somehow keeps dodging!
"I'm doing my best! Your Incoms are too slow!" She retorts, "Why haven't you upgraded to Funnels yet?"
"I'm sorry," you growl, "Londo Bell isn't exactly swimming in resources! We can't all afford custom Qubeleys!"
"I've had that machine since I was born!" Some grief slips into her voice, "It was mine! It wasn't a handout from Anaheim!"
Ouch. You feel a bit bad now. But that takes a backseat to the fight as you're forced to lock blades with the Scarecrow, your machines practically nose to nose. He hits his head against yours, and you hear the chime of an audio connection establishing.
"Cybele Naese," the Scarecrow speaks, strain evident in his voice, "The Black Death. You live up to your reputation."
"Well thanks. Didn't even know that I had a reputation!" You smirk, "You a fan? Want a signature?"
"Hardly." He scoffs, doing little other than maintaining contact with your MS, "I know who you are. I'm not letting you anywhere near Rita!"
Sounds like Luke has been running a smear campaign on you. Figures. Well, you aren't going to cry over spilled milk!
"Not up to you, buddy! But enough talk!" You switch to Vulcans and unload at point blank. The rounds tear through the Scarecrow's head, annihilating his camera and sensors. The entire head unit vanishes, really.
Full reverse, you blast him back with your leg thrusters to give yourself some room, then capitalize on the momentum and rush him! You level your blade and go to pierce him through the cockpit.
The Psychoframe lights up all over him at the last second, holding off your Heat Blade. You bite back a curse and back away, barely avoiding the Beam Saber he swipes through the space you just occupied.
"Bullshit Psychoframe!" You snarl. You had him! You had him dead to rights!
"Why are you having so much trouble with one man?" Haman's amused voice echoed through your head, "Is your ambition so weak that you'd let something as small as this stop you?"
"Small? You're calling Psychoframe small?!" You hiss at Haman, earning you a startled look from Lutetia.
"You have Psycommu, don't you? Use it." Haman continues, "In a battle between Newtypes, a machine's performance doesn't decide the victor."
"I'm not exactly a freaking Newtype prodigy here! I can't toggle that shit on-demand!"
Lutetia stares at you in alarm, "Cybele, who are you talking to?!"
"Hmph. Very well." Haman sighs as you feel her energy fill the Woundwort, "I will help you for now. But you must learn eventually."
"This presence-!" Lutetia looks around in shock and no small amount of terror, "Haman Karn?!"
You ignore her. The battle is what's important, and with Haman guiding you, you're sure to win. As each second passes, the Woundwort feels more and more like your own body, with Haman leading you in a dance.
"Pay attention, Cybele," you feel her smirk, "This will be your first lesson."
Cybele Naese.
The Black Death.
She's everything Luke Walker told Jona she was, and maybe more.
As a pilot, she was a menace. As expected of someone who sank two ships and cut down almost an entire team of Newtype Hunters on her battlefield debut. The pressure of her attacks was something he'd felt only from aces. If Jona didn't have his enhancements, he wouldn't be able to keep up.
As a Newtype, she was probably on the lower end of things. Her presence paled against someone like Rita, and she'd been stubbornly unresponsive to his attempts to reach her through thoughts. However, she was like an open book in terms of her emotions, and they were exactly like how Luke described them.
A veritable storm of anger and grief, overflowing from the bottle she tried to cram it all into. It showed in her fighting style, with furious blows and unrelenting fire. She fought him like he was the cause of her despair.
Jona was sad to say that she wasn't unique in that regard. He'd fought dozens of Newtypes, usually unfortunate youths being exploited by various terrorist factions, that had suffered loss and were eager to exact vengeance on the world.
Couple that drive with skill, however, and you had something else entirely.
That combination made Cybele dangerous.
He gave her a chance after disabling her Mobile Armor. Her machine was clearly in a stripped-down configuration for controlling the MA. It didn't have nearly the equipment that the latest Intel showed her having, although he did remember that she supposedly had even less during the massacre at Cascadia. However, without her MA she was at a clear disadvantage. Whatever strategy Londo Bell had been executing was in ruins after the loss of it. Any reasonable pilot would have accepted the mercy and withdrawn.
"There's no point in trying to reason with someone like her." Luke had said to him during the mission briefing, "She's a murderer. She killed Lorelei without even a hint of remorse! She used an entire colony as a meat shield! Cybele Naese is a monster!"
Jona didn't believe that. Luke was a passionate kid with an idealistic and simple view of the conflict. The Federation's propaganda machine had worked wonders on him. Plus, Acothley had let him know that Luke had taken part in the operation at Cascadia, and with Cybele striking down Luke's teammate, there was no small amount of bad blood between the two.
Plus, he'd heard those recordings that circulated after the battle at Hong Kong. The Federation had tried to censor it, but there were enough disgruntled personnel that eventually Jona found himself watching the combat footage on his personal terminal, the data passed to him by one of the enlisted men that shared similar sentiments.
Jona had watched as Cybele put herself in harm's way to protect civilians, as she all but begged for a temporary ceasefire so that they could relocate the fight away from bystanders.
Cybele Naese was a decent person, he had decided.
So, he gave her a chance.
Jona destroyed her Mobile Armor and didn't press the attack beyond that. He had hoped that she'd understand and pull back. Cybele had no personal investment in Rita Bernal. With no way to continue their plan, she should have withdrawn. Continuing the fight was madness.
But continue to fight she did.
"-enough talk!" She shouted right before his main camera went offline, fire from her vulcans tearing through his machine's head.
She didn't need to keep fighting. But she did. Maybe he was wrong about her. Cybele Naese was dangerous. He couldn't let her near Rita.
Jona tapped into the Psycho Energy that had grown so instinctive to him. Jona's passion to save Rita fueled his power. Reportedly, Cybele was not experienced enough to do the same.
"I'm sorry." He muttered as he raised his Beam Sword and imbued it with Psycho Energy, making the blade grow ten times in size and length before he swung it downwards, a pink torrent of plasma to cleave her in two.
He thought that maybe she might try to dodge, and he was ready to nail her with his rifle when she did. If she tried to block, he was ready to overpower her. If she tried to flee, he was ready to let her go.
What Jona wasn't prepared for, was for Cybele to catch the empowered Beam Saber. Not with her Heat Blade or a boosted i-Field, but with her Mobile Suit's hand.
The TR-6 held back the roaring plasma with a single raised hand wreathed in Psycho Energy, almost lazily.
More alarming, was that Cybele's presence was rapidly smothered by another. A stifling Pressure that he'd never felt before.
"Curious. Almost like that child back then… but you're a pale imitation." A woman's voice echoed in Jona's head, cold and arrogant.
Wait, he'd heard that voice before! When he was still in the Titans facility, on the newscast! What was that woman doing here, wasn't she dead?! And yet her presence was all but bursting from Cybele's MS! No, it had to be her ghost, an imprint left on the machine's Psycommu… but why was Haman Karn tied to an old Titans machine?!
"You have my pity, boy," Haman said as she… or Cybele, he wasn't sure who, flicked the Woundwort's hand and blew away his Beam Saber in a blast of Psycho Energy, "You are about to become a stepping stone for my heiress."
Luke's scream of rage cut through the comms as he fired a barrage of missiles, fully emptying what little he had left in the racks. Lorelei effortlessly spun and twirled between the missiles, firing back at Luke with her Beam Cannons. He tanked the hits on his shield, but the anti-beam coating on it had long since worn away. The HWS cannon unit mounted to it blew apart, leaving a mangled shield underneath.
He ditched the ruined equipment, and instantly purged the spent HWS modules, all except for the additional thruster units on the legs.
"Muwahahaha!" Lorelei did her best impression of a cartoon villain, "None can stand against the might of Katarina Eirkuchen! Face it, boy, you cannot best me and my Gundam!"
"Your Gundam?!" He growled incredulously as the cockpit hatch on his MP Nu started to glow.
Lorelei could feel his anger and rage, amplified by the Psychoframe. She didn't enjoy hurting him like this. Despite his naivety and misplaced faith, she really did consider him a friend for a time.
Even so, there was only one way forward for her. To achieve the future she dreamed of, she had to leave Luke behind.
"That Mobile Suit belonged to my friend!" Luke howled as his Fin Funnels suddenly sped up, rapidly outmaneuvering Lorelei's and blasting them, "How dare you defile it!"
Lorelei was suddenly on the backfoot, evading madly as she was swarmed by the Funnels, pushing her machine to the limit. How was he doing this? What was happening?! Luke wasn't that good!
The space around them began to shimmer as the Psychoframes of both machines resonated. Lorelei immediately hid her presence the best she could, but as she did Luke's energies latched onto her Mobile Suit.
All at once, her controls stopped responding. No Psycommu, no manual controls, nothing. Her Nu hung there while Luke tossed his rifle and drew his Beam Saber.
"You-!" He snarled, a nova of light blooming behind him as he fired all his thrusters and charged her, "You don't deserve that machine!"
Had Lorelei misjudged him? Was he really this powerful?
Her glorious future was rapidly fading from view.
There was only one path forward.
She swiftly tapped several of the switches on her controls, praying that Luke hadn't seized up all of her machine's systems.
At the last second, her Nu's right arm was purged, the push enough to move her MS slightly to the left.
Luke plowed into her, burying his Beam Saber into her mobile suit's chest, barely missing the cockpit.
Lorelei's fist slammed down on the ejection button just as all the screens on the right side of her panoramic monitor went dead and began to glow crimson.
On one side of the cockpit, explosive charges went off, trying to launch it out through the chest.
On the other, a high intensity beam of plasma was turning the charges, launch rails, and hull of the cockpit itself to slag.
The cockpit tore itself to shreds, the world tumbling around her as she was hurled forwards from the explosive decompression. Her vision dazzled with incomprehensible flashes of pink and red.
Lorelei slammed into something. Something hard. Blood filled her mouth. Something broke inside. Cracks spiderwebbed across her visor.
It all went dark.
Mort cursed as he saw Lorelei's fight out of the corner of his eye, that Luke kid impaling her machine before the two of them were engulfed in the flames of her unit's destruction.
That was one member of the team down, either dead or disabled, and he couldn't tell which.
Still, it felt like an ill omen.
"Where are you looking?!" The Federation commander rammed him from behind for the umpteenth time with her Funnels, both remote weapons scorched and disabled but not immobilized. He'd hoped that she would have abandoned or docked them after he hit them with his Beam Guns, but she just started using them as battering rams! Unfortunately for him, they were sturdy enough for the job too.
"If you can't pay attention to what's right in front of you," she sneered as her Funnels looped around and dove at him, "then you should just be blind!"
The Methuss's already battered head was crushed as the two Funnels plowed into it and finally exploded. The monitors around Mort flickered as the computer tried to patch in auxiliary cameras.
"Come on, come on!" He scanned the area, watching as the enemy Delta Kai appeared and vanished like a lagging video. She was supposed to be an Oldtype too, right? How was she flying so well with so much damage to her machine?
The screen flickered once more, and suddenly his monitor was filled with the Delta Kai's face.
"Shit." Mort muttered.
Alarms blared all around Eris.
Lost verniers, overloaded joints, warped inner frame, and hardly any operable weapons.
"The Federation will bring peace to the Earth Sphere!" The Fed Newtype shouted as he rammed her, his Psychoframe shining so bright it was blinding, "The only thing people like you do is destroy and harm! You're an obstacle to peace!"
He really, really didn't like Char. Her paint job was like a matador's cloak, and him the bull. It didn't help that his fury activated the Psychoframe of his ReZEL.
But seriously, who puts Psychoframe on a ReZEL?!
"What I wouldn't give for a Biosensor-!" Eris hissed through grit teeth as she used her remaining leg to kick herself away from him. Seriously, her whole team was made up of Newtypes! What was she thinking, choosing a Mobile Suit without even that?! This wasn't like the One Year War where pilots like Amuro and Char could get away with a mere high-spec machine! Shit like that was why Char got his ass handed to him by Haman during the Gryps War!
Oh, right, Eris corrected herself, Quattro Bajeena, the legally-distinct individual from Char Aznable. Who was also legally distinct from Casval Deikun.
Heh.
Anyways, weapons. Weapons. What did she have left?
Beam Saber. Singular.
Oh joy.
"Alright asshole," Eris drew the hilt and ignited the blade, "I'm clearly not gonna win this, but like hell am I going down alone!"
Her fingers flew across the controls as she disabled all the limiters. Her Gundam shot towards the enemy, thrusters throttled so high that the nozzles began to melt into the plume. The beam saber shone so brightly and extended so far that it began to burn out. That was fine, Eris only needed it for a second.
Her opponent lit his own blade and raised it to meet her strike, just a second too slow.
He stopped the beam from going through his chest, but it cleaved straight through the head and backpack.
Of course, Eris's Mk.III hadn't stopped.
The collision was catastrophic, with both machines experiencing unscheduled rapid disassembly to differing degrees.
The G-forces had Eris pressed into her seat, and she could hear the frustrated screams of her opponent over comms. Seems she did a number on him, but from what limited data her displays were showing, her machine was done for. Irrevocable damage. It probably was going to blow any second now, if those flashing alarms were any indication.
It was a shame, Eris thought as she yanked on the ejection handle, the Mk.III really was a nice suit…
But she was definitely going to get Psycommu on her next one.
"That machine is wasted on you, Londo Bell!" Acothley taunted Theo as she locked both of his axes with her sabers, and raked the front of his machine with Vulcan fire, "Full Frontal was able to take out most of the General Revil's MS forces with it! And just look at you, struggling with one measly MP Nu!"
The jab hurt, almost as much as the physical whiplash she gave him as she kicked him directly in the cockpit.
It was true, he was nowhere near Full Frontal's level. Theo was no Char. He was no Amuro. A high-performance machine like the Sinanju Stein was utterly wasted on an amateur like himself.
Still, he was a member of Cascadia Team! He had to meet Cybele's expectations! Why else would she keep a hanger-on like him around?! Eris barely tolerated him, Cybele only slightly acknowledged him, he had to prove his worth!
"Shut the hell up!" Theo snapped as he readied his axes and rushed back in, locking blades, "I'll show you who's the better pilot!"
They throttled up, fighting each other's thrust. Their MS began to rotate around each other, locked face to face. The world spun around them, the distant sun circling the cockpit monitors.
"Big words," Acothley snarked as her backpack snapped open again, "Back them up."
Her remaining Incom shot out, zipping around. Theo broke off from her and tried intercepting it with his head Vulcans. No luck. It fired and half of his backpack blew apart.
"Whoops! There goes your mobility~" She cackled as she began to run rings around him, "Where am I? Over here! Nope, over here!"
Theo tried to track her, but the loss of half of his backpack verniers had slowed his turn rate, even with working AMBAC. Too slow to track her. Too slow to dodge when she cleaved through his legs from behind.
"Hey hey, better learn how to use that Psychoframe fast!" Acothley taunted as she made two passes on him, carving deep furrows into his armor, "Is that all you got? Boo! All bark and no bite!"
Theo tried, he really did. Light started to gather around the Stein, but it was weak. His emotions were in turmoil, and there was fear. So much fear.
"Hmph. So that's as far as you can go." She sighed, machine wreathed in Psycho-Energy, "What a pity. Bye-Bye Londo Bell~"
Her Beam Sabers grew, amplified by the Psychoframe, and she swung them down to swallow him whole.
She was met by an equally powerful blast which dispelled the blade, emitted by a black machine that rushed into the gap.
"Alright, that's enough picking on the kids." Riddhe snarled, his Banshee emitting a menacing golden light, "Fall back, Cascadia Team. I've got it from here."
Acothley laughed, sounding equally exhilarated and uncertain, "Oh, is this the famous Banshee I see? What an honor, sir! I'd ask for your signature, but I don't have anything to sign!"
Theo used his limited mobility to put some distance between their fight. He held back tears, eyes stinging.
Useless. He was utterly useless.
Flocks and swarms, circling and darting about!
Pecking, swiping, clawing at her!
Amuro's flock, Sicilia's flock, they tore at her even as she lashed out!
Her I-Field blocked most of it, but even so, they were annoying! So, so annoying!
"Leave me alone!" Rita screamed through her tears, wildly swinging beams through space in a useless attempt to swat them out of the sky.
They wanted to take her back, carve her up, clip her Wings!
No! No! She wouldn't go back! She'd hurt all the bad men that hurt her!
Her Wings whispered in the back of her mind. She could use that. The big wings that could whip up a storm. A storm strong enough to blow all her enemies away!
On command, Rita began to deploy the Psycho-Shard.
"I'll blow you all away!" She shrieked, the Pressure growing as pain crept into her bones, "Just die!"
Even as light began to spill from the shining ring around her Wings, Amuro's Wings began to shine too. In fact, everyone's Wings were starting to glow!
This was-!
"Psychoframe Resonance." Bright stood up, mesmerized by the myriad of colors flowing in the distance, "It's happening…"
He'd only seen that light once before. Light like that had enveloped Axis and pushed it away from the Earth.
But that had been generated by the small amount of Psychoframe in the Nu Gundam and Sazabi, and Axis had been within visual range.
The fuel depot was far out of visual range, and yet he could see it. The reaction was big enough to glimpse with the naked eye.
Was it because of all the Psychoframe and Psycommu-equipped Mobile Suits on the battlefield? This was possibly the largest engagement ever with so many Newtype-use MS all in close proximity with each other…
What could someone like him do? Just sit and worry? As Bright tried to weigh his options, a flash of light much nearer made him flinch. Everyone on the bridge did.
"What was-?" He looked towards where the light had come from. The Ra Chutter was directly ahead and to the left of the Ra Cailum. The small flashes of thruster fire from their CAP circled the ship like fireflies. Nothing from the Ra Chutter should have been that bright, so what was-?
Another flash, but this time he was. A salvo of beams lancing in from above, missing the Clop-class by hundreds of meters. Where was that coming from? Wait…
"Tell the Ra Chutter to go evasive!" Bright barked out at the Comms officer, "The enemy is getting their range! Hurr-!"
Another salvo, this time it buried itself into and through the flight deck.
Flames began to billow from the breach, and secondary explosions pushed the Ra Chutter out of formation as the engine pods began to sputter.
"Enemy spotted!" Sensors reported, "It's the Federation task force! They're charging us! One Gaunland-class battleship, six Salamis-class cruisers! They're being led by Mobile Suit formations!"
Damn it, the Feds were going for a ship-to-ship action? While he had more ships, and two battleships as opposed to the Federation's one (he did not consider that scrap reconstruction of the Argama to qualify) his vessels were less capable in direct combat!
Plus, it looked like the Feds had a sizable MS force leading the charge. Bright had sent most, if not all, of their Newtypes to fight Rita.
"What do we have in the air?" He shouted at Ops.
"Teams Sierra, Oscar, Yankee, and Romeo are deployed!" The officer in question answered promptly, "They're moving to engage!"
That was slightly reassuring, but they were all variations of the Jegan! Not a single high-performance model amongst them, excepting a couple of Stark Jegans. If the Federation had any Newtypes in the air…
"Sir, there are two suits in the hangar requesting permission to launch!" Ops added, "It's Captain Montagne and the other pilot from Zeon."
Those two? Two Funnel-equipped Psycommu suits… they had a chance.
"Permission granted, all hands prepare for anti-ship combat! All ships form up on the Ra Cailum, The Bellerophon and Argama are to fall back to the rear of the formation! The Ra Chutter is to exit the combat area at best speed!"
Bright needed to make sure everyone had a place to land when this was all over. Giving the distant dancing lights a glance, he made a silent prayer.
A prayer that this light was also a miracle.
Michele Luio never thought that this was how she'd die.
It was how she deserved to die, however.
Alone in the dark, with the cold closing in.
Was this how Rita felt? Alone and abandoned by her friends?
Oh Rita… Michele fought back tears as she thought of how she'd forsaken her childhood friend. At the time she had been so afraid… she justified her actions by saying that she'd come back to save them, but really all she was trying to do was save herself.
Michele landed a cushy position as the adopted child of Woomin Luio, while Jona ended up erasing his records and joining the Federation. As for Rita…
Rita was carved up and stitched back together in the name of science, in the name of progress.
No wonder Jona hated her.
No wonder he'd deceived her, lured her out from under the protection of Luio and Co. by saying that he had a lead on Rita.
He did… but it came at the cost of handing her over to the Federation.
She was a "Newtype" after all, wasn't she?
What a farce. They both knew it wasn't true.
She was a fake. Rita was the real deal.
"You wanted to be a Newtype so badly," Jona had said as he held her at gunpoint with Federation soldiers pouring into the room, "Congratulations, Michele."
The betrayal had stung, but she knew that she was the one who betrayed her friends first.
So, she deserved this.
Michele had thought that she'd be carved up like Rita too, made into an abominable Cyber Newtype, but the Federation apparently had other plans for her. Plans involving the Phenex. So she was brought aboard the General Revil, waiting for her ultimate fate. Then Rita attacked the General Revil and slaughtered everyone.
The only reason Michele hadn't died when the General Revil sunk was that her cell was still pressurized. Perhaps the hallway outside was too, but the power was dead. The emergency lights failed about an hour ago, and she'd heard the constant hum of the ventilation fade away too.
Suffocating in the dark… perhaps this was karma for what she'd done.
If so, she'd accept it.
Screech
Her eyes shot open, not that she could see anything in the pitch-black. What was that? It sounded like… someone forcing a door open. Was someone out there? Was she about to be rescued?
Hope flickered to life in her chest, and Michele felt around for the door. Where was it?
She frantically ran her hands along the wall, and recognized the seams indicating where the cell door began. More sounds could be heard beyond and she began to bang on the cold metal.
"Here! I'm in here!" She screamed, voice still hoarse from when she'd tried shouting for other survivors earlier, "Please!"
There was a dull mechanical grinding as the person on the other side struggled with the emergency release, and light flooded in through a crack, then more as they slowly slid it open.
Michele shielded her eyes, trying to make out her savior as they opened the visor of their helmet.
"I'm with Londo Bell. My name is Kamille Bidan." He spoke.
"What is even going on…" Judau muttered as he looked out at the monitors. Dead ahead was a Psycommu Resonance so powerful that he could feel the ZZ's Biosensor all but itching to join in. A bit further beyond that, the telltale signs of a fleet battle could be seen, with firepower being thrown around far outclassing that of MS weaponry. Plus, those explosions…
"I don't know, I can't make it out either." Roux replied uncertainly, "Too much Minovsky interference. I only have visuals."
They could feel that whatever was causing that Resonance, however, was absolutely roiling with intense emotion.
"That must be the Phenex," their Londo Bell tagalong reported, referring to the iridescent lights, "I need to get back to the others. It looks like the Federation might have engaged the Ra Cailum… I'm going to engage the Phenex. You three can join up with Bright. He might need the help. Please."
Their Puru in her Qubeley took the hint, letting go of the Dendrobium Night Fighter.
It immediately throttled up and sped off towards the light.
"Well, Judau?" Roux prompted him again, "Should we go help Bright?"
That was what they were asked to do, and it's not like they had propellant to spare, so landing was paramount, but still…
He got a bad feeling from that Psycho Energy.
[] The three of them proceed to link up with the Ra Cailum, as per the request of the Londo Bell pilot.
[] Following their gut, the three of them join the battle against the Phenex.
[X] Fuck this guy and the spindly-looking MS he rode in on! You'll get to Rita in due time, but first you're going to obliterate this "Scarecrow".
You've absolutely never heard of this guy, even though he seems to be infamous to the Zeon Republic. Whatever, he'll go down like all the rest of these Federation assholes!
You keep your distance as you look over what little information you have on this MS. It looks like someone took a Nu and stripped it down till it was barely a frame, put a bare minimum of plating on it, then welded Psychoframe to it like it was going out of style. He has a non-standard Beam Rifle and a variant of the Nu shield. If you weren't so close, you would have mistaken him for a non-MP Nu.
So that's why he's called the "Scarecrow". You think you're fighting a proper Nu, when in reality it's some kind of barebones variant. Still, Lutetia seems to think he is a threat, and that Psychoframe looks improvised.
"I take it he's not usually lit up like that?" You ask her as you continue keeping your distance, dodging the few shots he's throwing your way.
"No, I've never seen that loadout before." Lutetia confirms as the Scarecrow almost seems to back off, while still tracking you, "It usually has two Incoms and two shields, this is new. It looks almost like the Unicorn!"
The Unicorn, huh? Well, you don't know too much about the RX-0 model, but you know enough to realize that just welding on Psychoframe plates won't let a normal MS reach that performance level. So, a desperation move? The Feds really wanted to give this guy every edge he could get against the Phenex.
Meanwhile, what do you have? You're down one Mobile Armor, so what's left are the two Shield Boosters strapped to your back pod, a Kehaar II shield, and the Long Blade Rifle. So, not too lopsided a battle… unless he starts doing some kind of superpower bullshit with all that Psychoframe.
But something is off… he's not pressing as hard. In fact, he's been less aggressive ever since you switched strategy to keep-away while taking his measure.
Does he… not want to fight?
Well, maybe he should have thought about that before he smashed up your Mobile Armor!
"Alright, let's get this done quick," you grin as you attune yourself to the Psycommu, feeling the Gundam move like your own body, "I've got a main event to get back to!"
It had been manageable, at first. When Cybele and Sicilia were bombarding the Neo Zeong, it could only attack Alex and Argama Team from one direction. It had to keep the control lines for the hijacked MS intact, and as a result those hijacking Incoms could only approach from that direction too.
Coordinated fire from Christina and the others had kept the Incoms at bay while Elle and Mondo did an admirable job of fending off the enslaved MS from getting too close. The Nemo Cannons probed Rita for gaps in her I-Field.
It had been going so well.
Then Cybele's MA exploded in a flash that could be seen from their location.
Almost immediately Rita deployed an entire hand into the previously suppressed flank, and swept beams through their formation, breaking it. One of the Nemo Cannons lost its head and shoulders, making the pilot eject before the whole machine went up in flames. Christina lost her beam rifle as the tip melted when one of the beams roared by her.
Sicilia hit Rita again, which destroyed the deployed hand, but it was too late. Their lines were broken, and things had devolved into a brawl.
"Elle, they're all over me!" Mondo shouted in a panic as two of the hijacked Jagd Dogas grabbed his machine's arms.
Fire from Elle's Beam Smartgun lanced through the control cable for one of the Dogas, making it convulse and go limp. With one arm freed, Mondo proceeded to punch the other off of him. The control Incom that had been going for him diverted and slammed into the inactive Zeon MS, clamped around its leg, and drilled into it. The machine thrashed almost like a living thing in agony as the cables wormed through it, ending its short-lived freedom.
Christina blocked an Incom with her shield, and it began to dig in. She jettisoned the compromised hunk of metal just as the cables burst from the backside. She drew her Beam Naginata and spun it, shredding the cables as they lunged for her again.
Rita may be a powerful Newtype, but even she couldn't coordinate so many weapons systems at once! She was letting the FCS do most of the heavy lifting, and evading such simplistic attacks wasn't hard.
That being said, nobody in the first wave was doing well.
Christina rapidly looked around the battlefield, trying to pick out her team amongst the fracas.
Hector was evading in reverse, having ditched his Beam Sniper for the increased maneuverability while he sprayed his shield's Gatling Cannon at the pursuing Incoms.
Ishido was firing wildly in all directions, her frantic screams stuttering over comms due to the Minovsky density. Nearby Koike was trying to help, but the limited weaponry of her EWACS Jegan was working against her. What was one Beam Pistol going to do against the ludicrous amount of firepower getting thrown around?
As Ishido was trying to disable the captured Qubeley, which was approaching rapidly from the front, there was a flash of something behind her.
Koike noticed just in time.
"Ishido!" She rammed Ishido's machine aside with her own, the impact smashing her Jegan's sensor suite and mangling her teammate's radiator fins.
Ishido barely had time to process what just happened when one of the Neo Zeong's control Incoms slammed into Koike. Numerous cables plunged into her Jegan, making it thrash as systems were forcibly overridden.
"Koike, no!" Ishido tried to shoot through the Incom cables to free Koike, but her own machine was hit in the back and shuddered as it too was taken over.
One by one, they were falling to Rita's Incoms, adding to the ranks of her thralls.
Christina couldn't dodge forever. She was getting penned in.
Then it finally happened. One Incom latched onto her left arm and began to burrow into it.
No way. She wasn't going to be a burden! She had to make sure she wasn't a threat to anyone!
Without hesitation she swung the Beam Naginata and cut off her machine's left arm.
Then two more grabbed her legs.
She cut off one leg, and was about to go for the other when her controls began to seize up. No, no! She wouldn't let this happen!
Christina's hands were inches from triggering the eject charges when beam fire cut across the void, severing the Incom gripping her remaining leg.
Huh? Where did that come from?
She saw flashes of light all over the battlefield as little craft slipped into the fray. In unison they fired, freeing every machine linked to the Neo Zeong II.
Funnels! But Sicilia didn't have that kind of control, did she?
A scream of rage echoed through her head. Was that Rita? The rogue Newtype fired beams at the disabled MS, both friendly and formerly enslaved, when those Funnels from earlier snapped into formation between the disabled groups of MS and the incoming fire. Iridescent barriers shimmered into existence between the Funnels, two of them, and blocked the beams. But there was no protection for Christina. She hit the eject button, only for an error message to flash.
The Rick Dijeh was still resetting after the attempted takeover. No way out.
The light grew brighter and brighter, and she closed her eyes. Out of fear? Acceptance? She didn't know. Christina waited… and the end didn't come.
Hesitantly, she opened her eyes.
The back of another Mobile Suit filled her vision as it stood between her and the beam, using its shield to ward off the destructive energy. Wait, that machine was-!
"Captain Amuro!" She felt like laughing. Of course the Captain wouldn't abandon them!
The beams from Rita petered out, and the Nu Gundam tossed its shield, now slagged into uselessness.
"Sorry I didn't come sooner." Amuro's voice was clear and resolute, and perhaps a bit resigned, "I was waiting for Kamille, but it's clear we don't have the luxury of time anymore."
He drew his Beam Saber with the off-hand, the hilt sparkling pink as it ignited.
"Regroup with the others, Lieutenant. I'll hold her off and give us some breathing room."
His Fin Funnels darted into the machine's new backpack, giving it the impression of a butterfly with outstretched wings.
"Rita Bernal!" Amuro called out over open comms and optical as he positioned himself between the disabled Mobile Suits and the Neo Zeong.
She seemed to hesitate, her machine suddenly pausing.
There was a spark of connection, and the cockpit around him seemed to melt away, leaving himself and Rita hanging in the void. A connection between two Newtypes. Like this, Amuro could see her clearly. A young woman, once kind, mutilated into a weapon, and now gripped by hate.
"You… Amuro Ray…" Her voice echoed hauntingly, "You won't stop me. I… I will fly free! These wings will free me forever!"
"Wanting to be free isn't wrong," he spoke gently, "We all want that. But what you're doing, Rita, this won't grant you the freedom you're looking for! All this death and destruction will only make them come after you more! I can feel who you are, you don't truly want this slaughter! What is it that you want, Rita?"
"What I… want?" Her voice rang clear through Amuro's mind and was full of static over the radio with haunting dissonance. She sounded terrified. "I want… I want to fly. I want to be free, I-!"
Rage. Fear. The Neo Zeong was engulfed in it as the Psychoframe went wild, all but poisoning the aura of the Phenex. Rita's screams made his blood run cold. The sea of stars vanished as he found himself in the cockpit once more.
"Rita!" He moved to go to her, but the Psycho-Energy buffeted his machine, preventing him from getting close. Her wails seemed to go on forever, until all at once they ceased.
The storm of energy pulled back into a writhing cage around the Neo Zeong, latching onto the Phenex.
"Ha… Haha…" Rita giggled with almost manic glee. All Amuro could hear was bitter amusement, spite and anger mixed together in a venomous sneer, "You want to know what I want, Amuro Ray? I want this world to hurt as much as it's hurt me. As much as it's hurt us."
There was someone else in there.
"…Whoever you are, let Rita go." Amuro demanded firmly, "That girl is amongst the living. She can still be saved. You shouldn't use her as a tool for revenge!"
"My Wings have shown me the truth!" Rita shrieked, deaf to his pleas, "I'll never let anyone drag me down ever again!"
"Tch!" He tightened his grip on the controls, "Again… It's happening all over again!"
Lalah, when would it ever stop?
Who has a name like "Scarecrow"? Is that supposed to evoke fear or something?
Aren't scarecrows supposed to become less scary once you know what they are?
So why is he proving so damn competent?!
"Lutetia, I need more pressure on him!" You snap at your copilot as you try to capitalize on the evasive maneuvers he's being forced to pull whenever she fires on him with the Shield Booster Incoms. Despite that, he somehow keeps dodging!
"I'm doing my best! Your Incoms are too slow!" She retorts, "Why haven't you upgraded to Funnels yet?"
"I'm sorry," you growl, "Londo Bell isn't exactly swimming in resources! We can't all afford custom Qubeleys!"
"I've had that machine since I was born!" Some grief slips into her voice, "It was mine! It wasn't a handout from Anaheim!"
Ouch. You feel a bit bad now. But that takes a backseat to the fight as you're forced to lock blades with the Scarecrow, your machines practically nose to nose. He hits his head against yours, and you hear the chime of an audio connection establishing.
"Cybele Naese," the Scarecrow speaks, strain evident in his voice, "The Black Death. You live up to your reputation."
"Well thanks. Didn't even know that I had a reputation!" You smirk, "You a fan? Want a signature?"
"Hardly." He scoffs, doing little other than maintaining contact with your MS, "I know who you are. I'm not letting you anywhere near Rita!"
Sounds like Luke has been running a smear campaign on you. Figures. Well, you aren't going to cry over spilled milk!
"Not up to you, buddy! But enough talk!" You switch to Vulcans and unload at point blank. The rounds tear through the Scarecrow's head, annihilating his camera and sensors. The entire head unit vanishes, really.
Full reverse, you blast him back with your leg thrusters to give yourself some room, then capitalize on the momentum and rush him! You level your blade and go to pierce him through the cockpit.
The Psychoframe lights up all over him at the last second, holding off your Heat Blade. You bite back a curse and back away, barely avoiding the Beam Saber he swipes through the space you just occupied.
"Bullshit Psychoframe!" You snarl. You had him! You had him dead to rights!
"Why are you having so much trouble with one man?" Haman's amused voice echoed through your head, "Is your ambition so weak that you'd let something as small as this stop you?"
"Small? You're calling Psychoframe small?!" You hiss at Haman, earning you a startled look from Lutetia.
"You have Psycommu, don't you? Use it." Haman continues, "In a battle between Newtypes, a machine's performance doesn't decide the victor."
"I'm not exactly a freaking Newtype prodigy here! I can't toggle that shit on-demand!"
Lutetia stares at you in alarm, "Cybele, who are you talking to?!"
"Hmph. Very well." Haman sighs as you feel her energy fill the Woundwort, "I will help you for now. But you must learn eventually."
"This presence-!" Lutetia looks around in shock and no small amount of terror, "Haman Karn?!"
You ignore her. The battle is what's important, and with Haman guiding you, you're sure to win. As each second passes, the Woundwort feels more and more like your own body, with Haman leading you in a dance.
"Pay attention, Cybele," you feel her smirk, "This will be your first lesson."
Cybele Naese.
The Black Death.
She's everything Luke Walker told Jona she was, and maybe more.
As a pilot, she was a menace. As expected of someone who sank two ships and cut down almost an entire team of Newtype Hunters on her battlefield debut. The pressure of her attacks was something he'd felt only from aces. If Jona didn't have his enhancements, he wouldn't be able to keep up.
As a Newtype, she was probably on the lower end of things. Her presence paled against someone like Rita, and she'd been stubbornly unresponsive to his attempts to reach her through thoughts. However, she was like an open book in terms of her emotions, and they were exactly like how Luke described them.
A veritable storm of anger and grief, overflowing from the bottle she tried to cram it all into. It showed in her fighting style, with furious blows and unrelenting fire. She fought him like he was the cause of her despair.
Jona was sad to say that she wasn't unique in that regard. He'd fought dozens of Newtypes, usually unfortunate youths being exploited by various terrorist factions, that had suffered loss and were eager to exact vengeance on the world.
Couple that drive with skill, however, and you had something else entirely.
That combination made Cybele dangerous.
He gave her a chance after disabling her Mobile Armor. Her machine was clearly in a stripped-down configuration for controlling the MA. It didn't have nearly the equipment that the latest Intel showed her having, although he did remember that she supposedly had even less during the massacre at Cascadia. However, without her MA she was at a clear disadvantage. Whatever strategy Londo Bell had been executing was in ruins after the loss of it. Any reasonable pilot would have accepted the mercy and withdrawn.
"There's no point in trying to reason with someone like her." Luke had said to him during the mission briefing, "She's a murderer. She killed Lorelei without even a hint of remorse! She used an entire colony as a meat shield! Cybele Naese is a monster!"
Jona didn't believe that. Luke was a passionate kid with an idealistic and simple view of the conflict. The Federation's propaganda machine had worked wonders on him. Plus, Acothley had let him know that Luke had taken part in the operation at Cascadia, and with Cybele striking down Luke's teammate, there was no small amount of bad blood between the two.
Plus, he'd heard those recordings that circulated after the battle at Hong Kong. The Federation had tried to censor it, but there were enough disgruntled personnel that eventually Jona found himself watching the combat footage on his personal terminal, the data passed to him by one of the enlisted men that shared similar sentiments.
Jona had watched as Cybele put herself in harm's way to protect civilians, as she all but begged for a temporary ceasefire so that they could relocate the fight away from bystanders.
Cybele Naese was a decent person, he had decided.
So, he gave her a chance.
Jona destroyed her Mobile Armor and didn't press the attack beyond that. He had hoped that she'd understand and pull back. Cybele had no personal investment in Rita Bernal. With no way to continue their plan, she should have withdrawn. Continuing the fight was madness.
But continue to fight she did.
"-enough talk!" She shouted right before his main camera went offline, fire from her vulcans tearing through his machine's head.
She didn't need to keep fighting. But she did. Maybe he was wrong about her. Cybele Naese was dangerous. He couldn't let her near Rita.
Jona tapped into the Psycho Energy that had grown so instinctive to him. Jona's passion to save Rita fueled his power. Reportedly, Cybele was not experienced enough to do the same.
"I'm sorry." He muttered as he raised his Beam Sword and imbued it with Psycho Energy, making the blade grow ten times in size and length before he swung it downwards, a pink torrent of plasma to cleave her in two.
He thought that maybe she might try to dodge, and he was ready to nail her with his rifle when she did. If she tried to block, he was ready to overpower her. If she tried to flee, he was ready to let her go.
What Jona wasn't prepared for, was for Cybele to catch the empowered Beam Saber. Not with her Heat Blade or a boosted i-Field, but with her Mobile Suit's hand.
The TR-6 held back the roaring plasma with a single raised hand wreathed in Psycho Energy, almost lazily.
More alarming, was that Cybele's presence was rapidly smothered by another. A stifling Pressure that he'd never felt before.
"Curious. Almost like that child back then… but you're a pale imitation." A woman's voice echoed in Jona's head, cold and arrogant.
Wait, he'd heard that voice before! When he was still in the Titans facility, on the newscast! What was that woman doing here, wasn't she dead?! And yet her presence was all but bursting from Cybele's MS! No, it had to be her ghost, an imprint left on the machine's Psycommu… but why was Haman Karn tied to an old Titans machine?!
"You have my pity, boy," Haman said as she… or Cybele, he wasn't sure who, flicked the Woundwort's hand and blew away his Beam Saber in a blast of Psycho Energy, "You are about to become a stepping stone for my heiress."
Luke's scream of rage cut through the comms as he fired a barrage of missiles, fully emptying what little he had left in the racks. Lorelei effortlessly spun and twirled between the missiles, firing back at Luke with her Beam Cannons. He tanked the hits on his shield, but the anti-beam coating on it had long since worn away. The HWS cannon unit mounted to it blew apart, leaving a mangled shield underneath.
He ditched the ruined equipment, and instantly purged the spent HWS modules, all except for the additional thruster units on the legs.
"Muwahahaha!" Lorelei did her best impression of a cartoon villain, "None can stand against the might of Katarina Eirkuchen! Face it, boy, you cannot best me and my Gundam!"
"Your Gundam?!" He growled incredulously as the cockpit hatch on his MP Nu started to glow.
Lorelei could feel his anger and rage, amplified by the Psychoframe. She didn't enjoy hurting him like this. Despite his naivety and misplaced faith, she really did consider him a friend for a time.
Even so, there was only one way forward for her. To achieve the future she dreamed of, she had to leave Luke behind.
"That Mobile Suit belonged to my friend!" Luke howled as his Fin Funnels suddenly sped up, rapidly outmaneuvering Lorelei's and blasting them, "How dare you defile it!"
Lorelei was suddenly on the backfoot, evading madly as she was swarmed by the Funnels, pushing her machine to the limit. How was he doing this? What was happening?! Luke wasn't that good!
The space around them began to shimmer as the Psychoframes of both machines resonated. Lorelei immediately hid her presence the best she could, but as she did Luke's energies latched onto her Mobile Suit.
All at once, her controls stopped responding. No Psycommu, no manual controls, nothing. Her Nu hung there while Luke tossed his rifle and drew his Beam Saber.
"You-!" He snarled, a nova of light blooming behind him as he fired all his thrusters and charged her, "You don't deserve that machine!"
Had Lorelei misjudged him? Was he really this powerful?
Her glorious future was rapidly fading from view.
There was only one path forward.
She swiftly tapped several of the switches on her controls, praying that Luke hadn't seized up all of her machine's systems.
At the last second, her Nu's right arm was purged, the push enough to move her MS slightly to the left.
Luke plowed into her, burying his Beam Saber into her mobile suit's chest, barely missing the cockpit.
Lorelei's fist slammed down on the ejection button just as all the screens on the right side of her panoramic monitor went dead and began to glow crimson.
On one side of the cockpit, explosive charges went off, trying to launch it out through the chest.
On the other, a high intensity beam of plasma was turning the charges, launch rails, and hull of the cockpit itself to slag.
The cockpit tore itself to shreds, the world tumbling around her as she was hurled forwards from the explosive decompression. Her vision dazzled with incomprehensible flashes of pink and red.
Lorelei slammed into something. Something hard. Blood filled her mouth. Something broke inside. Cracks spiderwebbed across her visor.
It all went dark.
Mort cursed as he saw Lorelei's fight out of the corner of his eye, that Luke kid impaling her machine before the two of them were engulfed in the flames of her unit's destruction.
That was one member of the team down, either dead or disabled, and he couldn't tell which.
Still, it felt like an ill omen.
"Where are you looking?!" The Federation commander rammed him from behind for the umpteenth time with her Funnels, both remote weapons scorched and disabled but not immobilized. He'd hoped that she would have abandoned or docked them after he hit them with his Beam Guns, but she just started using them as battering rams! Unfortunately for him, they were sturdy enough for the job too.
"If you can't pay attention to what's right in front of you," she sneered as her Funnels looped around and dove at him, "then you should just be blind!"
The Methuss's already battered head was crushed as the two Funnels plowed into it and finally exploded. The monitors around Mort flickered as the computer tried to patch in auxiliary cameras.
"Come on, come on!" He scanned the area, watching as the enemy Delta Kai appeared and vanished like a lagging video. She was supposed to be an Oldtype too, right? How was she flying so well with so much damage to her machine?
The screen flickered once more, and suddenly his monitor was filled with the Delta Kai's face.
"Shit." Mort muttered.
Alarms blared all around Eris.
Lost verniers, overloaded joints, warped inner frame, and hardly any operable weapons.
"The Federation will bring peace to the Earth Sphere!" The Fed Newtype shouted as he rammed her, his Psychoframe shining so bright it was blinding, "The only thing people like you do is destroy and harm! You're an obstacle to peace!"
He really, really didn't like Char. Her paint job was like a matador's cloak, and him the bull. It didn't help that his fury activated the Psychoframe of his ReZEL.
But seriously, who puts Psychoframe on a ReZEL?!
"What I wouldn't give for a Biosensor-!" Eris hissed through grit teeth as she used her remaining leg to kick herself away from him. Seriously, her whole team was made up of Newtypes! What was she thinking, choosing a Mobile Suit without even that?! This wasn't like the One Year War where pilots like Amuro and Char could get away with a mere high-spec machine! Shit like that was why Char got his ass handed to him by Haman during the Gryps War!
Oh, right, Eris corrected herself, Quattro Bajeena, the legally-distinct individual from Char Aznable. Who was also legally distinct from Casval Deikun.
Heh.
Anyways, weapons. Weapons. What did she have left?
Beam Saber. Singular.
Oh joy.
"Alright asshole," Eris drew the hilt and ignited the blade, "I'm clearly not gonna win this, but like hell am I going down alone!"
Her fingers flew across the controls as she disabled all the limiters. Her Gundam shot towards the enemy, thrusters throttled so high that the nozzles began to melt into the plume. The beam saber shone so brightly and extended so far that it began to burn out. That was fine, Eris only needed it for a second.
Her opponent lit his own blade and raised it to meet her strike, just a second too slow.
He stopped the beam from going through his chest, but it cleaved straight through the head and backpack.
Of course, Eris's Mk.III hadn't stopped.
The collision was catastrophic, with both machines experiencing unscheduled rapid disassembly to differing degrees.
The G-forces had Eris pressed into her seat, and she could hear the frustrated screams of her opponent over comms. Seems she did a number on him, but from what limited data her displays were showing, her machine was done for. Irrevocable damage. It probably was going to blow any second now, if those flashing alarms were any indication.
It was a shame, Eris thought as she yanked on the ejection handle, the Mk.III really was a nice suit…
But she was definitely going to get Psycommu on her next one.
"That machine is wasted on you, Londo Bell!" Acothley taunted Theo as she locked both of his axes with her sabers, and raked the front of his machine with Vulcan fire, "Full Frontal was able to take out most of the General Revil's MS forces with it! And just look at you, struggling with one measly MP Nu!"
The jab hurt, almost as much as the physical whiplash she gave him as she kicked him directly in the cockpit.
It was true, he was nowhere near Full Frontal's level. Theo was no Char. He was no Amuro. A high-performance machine like the Sinanju Stein was utterly wasted on an amateur like himself.
Still, he was a member of Cascadia Team! He had to meet Cybele's expectations! Why else would she keep a hanger-on like him around?! Eris barely tolerated him, Cybele only slightly acknowledged him, he had to prove his worth!
"Shut the hell up!" Theo snapped as he readied his axes and rushed back in, locking blades, "I'll show you who's the better pilot!"
They throttled up, fighting each other's thrust. Their MS began to rotate around each other, locked face to face. The world spun around them, the distant sun circling the cockpit monitors.
"Big words," Acothley snarked as her backpack snapped open again, "Back them up."
Her remaining Incom shot out, zipping around. Theo broke off from her and tried intercepting it with his head Vulcans. No luck. It fired and half of his backpack blew apart.
"Whoops! There goes your mobility~" She cackled as she began to run rings around him, "Where am I? Over here! Nope, over here!"
Theo tried to track her, but the loss of half of his backpack verniers had slowed his turn rate, even with working AMBAC. Too slow to track her. Too slow to dodge when she cleaved through his legs from behind.
"Hey hey, better learn how to use that Psychoframe fast!" Acothley taunted as she made two passes on him, carving deep furrows into his armor, "Is that all you got? Boo! All bark and no bite!"
Theo tried, he really did. Light started to gather around the Stein, but it was weak. His emotions were in turmoil, and there was fear. So much fear.
"Hmph. So that's as far as you can go." She sighed, machine wreathed in Psycho-Energy, "What a pity. Bye-Bye Londo Bell~"
Her Beam Sabers grew, amplified by the Psychoframe, and she swung them down to swallow him whole.
She was met by an equally powerful blast which dispelled the blade, emitted by a black machine that rushed into the gap.
"Alright, that's enough picking on the kids." Riddhe snarled, his Banshee emitting a menacing golden light, "Fall back, Cascadia Team. I've got it from here."
Acothley laughed, sounding equally exhilarated and uncertain, "Oh, is this the famous Banshee I see? What an honor, sir! I'd ask for your signature, but I don't have anything to sign!"
Theo used his limited mobility to put some distance between their fight. He held back tears, eyes stinging.
Useless. He was utterly useless.
Flocks and swarms, circling and darting about!
Pecking, swiping, clawing at her!
Amuro's flock, Sicilia's flock, they tore at her even as she lashed out!
Her I-Field blocked most of it, but even so, they were annoying! So, so annoying!
"Leave me alone!" Rita screamed through her tears, wildly swinging beams through space in a useless attempt to swat them out of the sky.
They wanted to take her back, carve her up, clip her Wings!
No! No! She wouldn't go back! She'd hurt all the bad men that hurt her!
Her Wings whispered in the back of her mind. She could use that. The big wings that could whip up a storm. A storm strong enough to blow all her enemies away!
On command, Rita began to deploy the Psycho-Shard.
"I'll blow you all away!" She shrieked, the Pressure growing as pain crept into her bones, "Just die!"
Even as light began to spill from the shining ring around her Wings, Amuro's Wings began to shine too. In fact, everyone's Wings were starting to glow!
This was-!
"Psychoframe Resonance." Bright stood up, mesmerized by the myriad of colors flowing in the distance, "It's happening…"
He'd only seen that light once before. Light like that had enveloped Axis and pushed it away from the Earth.
But that had been generated by the small amount of Psychoframe in the Nu Gundam and Sazabi, and Axis had been within visual range.
The fuel depot was far out of visual range, and yet he could see it. The reaction was big enough to glimpse with the naked eye.
Was it because of all the Psychoframe and Psycommu-equipped Mobile Suits on the battlefield? This was possibly the largest engagement ever with so many Newtype-use MS all in close proximity with each other…
What could someone like him do? Just sit and worry? As Bright tried to weigh his options, a flash of light much nearer made him flinch. Everyone on the bridge did.
"What was-?" He looked towards where the light had come from. The Ra Chutter was directly ahead and to the left of the Ra Cailum. The small flashes of thruster fire from their CAP circled the ship like fireflies. Nothing from the Ra Chutter should have been that bright, so what was-?
Another flash, but this time he was. A salvo of beams lancing in from above, missing the Clop-class by hundreds of meters. Where was that coming from? Wait…
"Tell the Ra Chutter to go evasive!" Bright barked out at the Comms officer, "The enemy is getting their range! Hurr-!"
Another salvo, this time it buried itself into and through the flight deck.
Flames began to billow from the breach, and secondary explosions pushed the Ra Chutter out of formation as the engine pods began to sputter.
"Enemy spotted!" Sensors reported, "It's the Federation task force! They're charging us! One Gaunland-class battleship, six Salamis-class cruisers! They're being led by Mobile Suit formations!"
Damn it, the Feds were going for a ship-to-ship action? While he had more ships, and two battleships as opposed to the Federation's one (he did not consider that scrap reconstruction of the Argama to qualify) his vessels were less capable in direct combat!
Plus, it looked like the Feds had a sizable MS force leading the charge. Bright had sent most, if not all, of their Newtypes to fight Rita.
"What do we have in the air?" He shouted at Ops.
"Teams Sierra, Oscar, Yankee, and Romeo are deployed!" The officer in question answered promptly, "They're moving to engage!"
That was slightly reassuring, but they were all variations of the Jegan! Not a single high-performance model amongst them, excepting a couple of Stark Jegans. If the Federation had any Newtypes in the air…
"Sir, there are two suits in the hangar requesting permission to launch!" Ops added, "It's Captain Montagne and the other pilot from Zeon."
Those two? Two Funnel-equipped Psycommu suits… they had a chance.
"Permission granted, all hands prepare for anti-ship combat! All ships form up on the Ra Cailum, The Bellerophon and Argama are to fall back to the rear of the formation! The Ra Chutter is to exit the combat area at best speed!"
Bright needed to make sure everyone had a place to land when this was all over. Giving the distant dancing lights a glance, he made a silent prayer.
A prayer that this light was also a miracle.
Michele Luio never thought that this was how she'd die.
It was how she deserved to die, however.
Alone in the dark, with the cold closing in.
Was this how Rita felt? Alone and abandoned by her friends?
Oh Rita… Michele fought back tears as she thought of how she'd forsaken her childhood friend. At the time she had been so afraid… she justified her actions by saying that she'd come back to save them, but really all she was trying to do was save herself.
Michele landed a cushy position as the adopted child of Woomin Luio, while Jona ended up erasing his records and joining the Federation. As for Rita…
Rita was carved up and stitched back together in the name of science, in the name of progress.
No wonder Jona hated her.
No wonder he'd deceived her, lured her out from under the protection of Luio and Co. by saying that he had a lead on Rita.
He did… but it came at the cost of handing her over to the Federation.
She was a "Newtype" after all, wasn't she?
What a farce. They both knew it wasn't true.
She was a fake. Rita was the real deal.
"You wanted to be a Newtype so badly," Jona had said as he held her at gunpoint with Federation soldiers pouring into the room, "Congratulations, Michele."
The betrayal had stung, but she knew that she was the one who betrayed her friends first.
So, she deserved this.
Michele had thought that she'd be carved up like Rita too, made into an abominable Cyber Newtype, but the Federation apparently had other plans for her. Plans involving the Phenex. So she was brought aboard the General Revil, waiting for her ultimate fate. Then Rita attacked the General Revil and slaughtered everyone.
The only reason Michele hadn't died when the General Revil sunk was that her cell was still pressurized. Perhaps the hallway outside was too, but the power was dead. The emergency lights failed about an hour ago, and she'd heard the constant hum of the ventilation fade away too.
Suffocating in the dark… perhaps this was karma for what she'd done.
If so, she'd accept it.
Screech
Her eyes shot open, not that she could see anything in the pitch-black. What was that? It sounded like… someone forcing a door open. Was someone out there? Was she about to be rescued?
Hope flickered to life in her chest, and Michele felt around for the door. Where was it?
She frantically ran her hands along the wall, and recognized the seams indicating where the cell door began. More sounds could be heard beyond and she began to bang on the cold metal.
"Here! I'm in here!" She screamed, voice still hoarse from when she'd tried shouting for other survivors earlier, "Please!"
There was a dull mechanical grinding as the person on the other side struggled with the emergency release, and light flooded in through a crack, then more as they slowly slid it open.
Michele shielded her eyes, trying to make out her savior as they opened the visor of their helmet.
"I'm with Londo Bell. My name is Kamille Bidan." He spoke.
"What is even going on…" Judau muttered as he looked out at the monitors. Dead ahead was a Psycommu Resonance so powerful that he could feel the ZZ's Biosensor all but itching to join in. A bit further beyond that, the telltale signs of a fleet battle could be seen, with firepower being thrown around far outclassing that of MS weaponry. Plus, those explosions…
"I don't know, I can't make it out either." Roux replied uncertainly, "Too much Minovsky interference. I only have visuals."
They could feel that whatever was causing that Resonance, however, was absolutely roiling with intense emotion.
"That must be the Phenex," their Londo Bell tagalong reported, referring to the iridescent lights, "I need to get back to the others. It looks like the Federation might have engaged the Ra Cailum… I'm going to engage the Phenex. You three can join up with Bright. He might need the help. Please."
Their Puru in her Qubeley took the hint, letting go of the Dendrobium Night Fighter.
It immediately throttled up and sped off towards the light.
"Well, Judau?" Roux prompted him again, "Should we go help Bright?"
That was what they were asked to do, and it's not like they had propellant to spare, so landing was paramount, but still…
He got a bad feeling from that Psycho Energy.
[] The three of them proceed to link up with the Ra Cailum, as per the request of the Londo Bell pilot.
[] Following their gut, the three of them join the battle against the Phenex.