The Settlement Front Alliance’s attack had taken the Federation off guard. The suddenness of their attack had sown chaos, as despite their relatively smaller numbers, they had slipped into the Federation’s haphazard formation, engaging in point-blank combat.

  The Starblight itself seemed to be completely ignoring the Settlement Front Alliance’s mobile frame. Between the Starblight and the enemy force of mobile frames, the balance had tipped against the Federation once again. The tentative stabilization that had been happening collapsed as the frontlines lost whatever coherence that had been forming. Pincered between the Starblight and the enemy mobile frames, Federation mobile suits fell one after the other.

  The comm chatter grew desperate and panicked.

  “Fall back to the Rakaila!”

  “Retreat! Consolidate around the Rakaila!”

  “Why the hell is the Starblight ignoring them?”

  “Forget about it! We’re about to be overrun!”

  “Are we abandoning Alsium Two!?”

  “It’s lost! We need to get out of here!”

  “And go where, dumbass! We’re stuck here! The way out of Alsium Two was blown up and caved in!”

  Aster continued firing his particle rifle, directing his fire upward into the sky, covering her mobile frame with the shield in his opposing hand. Garrod and Arnis were likewise in their own mobile frames. Unlike the Starblight, the Settlement Front Alliance’s mobile frames were far harder to hit. Their pilots were skilled, with actual intelligence and thought in their actions, unlike the Starblight’s lesser horrors.

  The mobile frames attacking them were SMF-07 Vetras, the latest generation of mobile frames being fielded by the Selenar Union of the Settlement Front Alliance.

  The mobile frames of the Settlement Front Alliance, of the Selenar Union, stood in stark contrast to the mobile frames of the Gaia Sphere Federation. Though they shared similar design heritages based on the GMF-03 Exan, of the first mobile frame generation, divergences had sprung up due to doctrine and need. Where the DMF-09 Arvans were built to be all-purpose machines, capable enough for all-around general-purpose work in space and on Gaia itself, the SMF-07 Vetras were titled for more specialized operation in space. Though entirely capable of fighting within the atmosphere and gravity of Gaia, their more lanky legs deprioritized ground combat in favor of a design more suited for space combat. They were easily distinguished by their dark purple and black color scheme in contrast to the dark red and black of the Gaia Sphere Federation.

  Yet, there were two machines of the Settlement Front Alliance force that were standouts. One was a highly customized variant of the SMF-07 Vetras with extra equipment on it. Accompanying it was a taller mobile frame, silver with purple accents. It was thin, tall, and lanky; its eye sensors were pink. Its whole body was angular, and its head was shaped like a bird of prey. It had numerous angular wings, and unlike other mobile frames, some kind of reactionless drive emanated dark purple motes of light.

  Both of them were fast.

  Far faster even than the DMF-09 Arvans that stood in their way.

  The enemy silver mobile frame ejected its sharp, angular wings in numerous sharp, elongated shards that left behind skeletal wings behind. In an instant, the dozens of sharp wedges thrusted around erratically as they surrounded Federation mobile frames, firing off beams of dark purple proto particles that shot through and sliced apart mobile frames.

  Aster’s eyes widened.

  Those were Shards.

  Remote weapons operated by the mind.

  The next moment, squadrons of mobile frames had been destroyed.

  Return fire from the Federation mobile frames bounced harmlessly off a proto particle shield as the sliver mobile frame stood hovering arrogantly, ineffectual fire of no concern. Its companion, the highly customized SMF-07 Vetra, hovered close by it, striking down other Federation mobile frames with pinpoint fire from its own particle rifle, the dark purple beams striking dead on.

  A flash went through his mind.

  Trois, you're moving too far ahead! Don’t forget you're still piloting a prototype mobile frame.

  That was Bridge’s voice! The one he had just met with Selenia.

  None of those Federation mobile frames can match this Fancenra I’m piloting. It’s no Vetra!

  And that was Trois too!

  Aster held a hand to his head as the voices continued in his mind.

  “Don’t you remember what Captain Zhar said?” Bridges said.

  “Captain Zhar always worries too much!” Trois replied.

  “General Besker won’t be happy if you damage that prototype.”

  “General Besker can go die!” Trois snarled. “He’s the only reason why we’re doing this stupid operation in the first place. Captain Zhar should just kill him already!”

  “Trois! Be careful of what you say!” Bridges chided, a hint of worry in his voice. “If the wrong person hears—”

  Trois clicked her tongue. “So what? I’m just an artificial Protogen from the Vallis Research Laboratory. As if it would make anything worse.”

  Aster shook his head. What was going on? Why could he hear Bridges and Trois in those machines? Weren’t they mobile frame pilots with the Rakaila? It had been mere hours since he’d last seen them.

  The pair of mobile frames, the Fancenra and the customized Vetra, turned their direction towards them, firing in their direction as the Fancenra’s shards came their way.

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  Aster thrusted his machine backward as the dark purple proto particle beams came their way, keeping his shield oriented forward, blocking the particle beams. Arnis and Garrod thrusted upward, scattering into the air, returning fire with dark red proto particle beams.

  It was all he could do to block and avoid being hit by adjusting his machine’s position and angling his shield. The GMF-03 Exan was outdated. As a first-generation mobile frame, it had long been retired from service. A particularly bad hit on his machine made his machine stumble hard into a ruined building by his side, rocking his machine.

  “Selenia! Are you alright?” Aster called to his side. He turned his head.

  Selenia clutched her head as if she were in pain herself. Though it wasn’t due to any injury that he could see.

  “Aster,” Selenia said. “Trois and Bridges are in those mobile frames.”

  “You can hear them too?” Aster replied.

  “In my head,” Selenia said. “It’s as if I can hear their voices in my mind.”

  “Then it’s not just me,” Aster said.

  Aster gritted his teeth. If only he were in a modern mobile frame like a DMF-09 Arvan!

  As the silver machine went straight for him, moving with blistering speed, Arnis came in from the side with a dark red particle saber, intending on getting into close combat and bypassing its proto particle shield.

  The machine with its reactionless drive instantly pivoted, moving weightlessly as if gravity didn’t affect it. Dark pink particle sabers erupted from each clawed finger of one of its hands as it struck back, quickly slicing through the arm of Arnis’s machine along with its dark red particle saber, and knocking it back into the ruined remains of Tigata city with a swift kick.

  Arnis’s machine went motionless, seemingly knocked out.

  Garrod disengaged from his own fight with Bridge’s mobile frame and went after Trois’s silver machine, but had to quickly bank hard as Trois’s remote weapons went after him.

  Trios machine was upon him in the blink of an eye as a swift kick knocked his own mobile frame down on its back. A foot planted itself on his mobile frame’s stomach as Trois raised the clawed hand of her machine, with the energy from the dark pink particle sabers from each finger shining ominously down into the cockpit of his own machine through its camera sensors.

  Aster prepared to thrust his machine at full force while drawing his machine’s own particle saber in a desperate strike right at the moment Trois’s own machine struck downward.

  Bridges’s voice came through his mind once more.

  “Trois! Stop!” Bridges said. “Princess Selenia is in that mobile frame!”

  “Huh!?” Trois responded. “In a dinky ass mobile frame like that!?”

  Aster quickly tapped his console, opening an unsecured comm line between them.

  “Bridges! That you isn’t it? And Trois too?” Aster said.

  The silver machine hesitated, lowering its claw ever so slightly.

  Aster thrusted his machine upward from its position on its back, using his mobile frame’s hands and arms to unbalance the silver machine, causing it to back off. Aster owned his own machine backward to gain a bit more distance between them.

  “Why are you in those mobile frames!?” Selenia added. “Are you here to kill me too!?”

  The highly customized Vetra touched down with a loud thud by the Fancenra.

  Bridges and Trois’s voices continued to go through his mind. And probably Selenia’s too.

  “Princess Selenia really is in that mobile frame!” Trois said.

  “We need to contact the Captain,” Bridges said.

  “And do what? We can’t exactly take any prisoners right now. Nor do we have the time. Not when we’re fighting the rest of the Federation.” Trois said.

  The next moment, the open comm line sprang to life.

  “Princess Selenia,” Bridges said. “We’re not here to kill you.”

  “Then what is this then!?” Selenia said to Aster’s side. “The Starblight. All this death and bloodshed.”

  The battle raged around them while darkness surrounded everything and everyone all around, while fires burned uncontrollably. The Starblight and mobile frames from both the SFA and Federation were struggling in countless life and death struggles across Alsium Two.

  “So what princess?” Trois said, her young voice was hard and firm. “This is war! What did you expect!?”

  “Were you with the SFA this entire time?” Aster asked as he gripped the controls of his mobile frame tightly. “Were both of you being the Rakaila’s mobile frame pilots all a lie?”

  “Of course,” Bridges said. “It was a simple enough cover story for operatives such as us.”

  “Didn’t we share a meal together!? With everyone!? Was this necessary!?” Selenia said. Her grip turned white on her seat’s own armrest. “How could you easily just kill people you were just eating with just yesterday!?”

  Aster gave Selenia a look of sympathy.

  Bridges didn’t respond as Trois laughed, mocking and angry. “Spoken like a princess fed with a silver spoon,” Trois said. “You know nothing! You spoiled little—”

  Garrod charged in with his mobile frame, a dark red particle saber in hand, causing both Bridges and Trois back off.

  “Trois! Withdraw!” Bridges said.

  “What!? Why? We can easily take them down,” Trois said. “And we barely even attacked!”

  “The Starblight! It’s getting out of control!” Bridges responded. “We need to withdraw back to Alsium One!”

  “Damn Besker!” Trois said. “No surprise his stupid experiments to control the Starblight failed!”

  “Captain Zhar really should just kill him already!” Trois said.

  “Trois! What did I say earlier?”

  “Whatever. Beaker can go die.”

  Bridges and Trois thrusted off into the distance, zooming off quickly into the darkness. The other Settlement Front Alliance mobile frames seemed to have the same idea, as they also withdrew.

  The Starblight was getting out of control? Wasn’t it already out of control to begin with?

  Aster turned his attention to the Starblight. He amplified his mobile frame’s cameras in its direction.

  In the distance, some of the Starblight began to shift and mutate, changing form, changing appearance.

  Many of the horrors seemed to be… liquidifying into what seemed to be a black oily substance that seemed to ripple with energy. After several moments, these masses began to take on a new shape and appearance.

  Aster blinked in shock as they took on the forms of mobile frames, much like the ones of the Federation, except all in an oily black appearance, as if they were dark shadows of real mobile frames.

  Just what was going on?

  More of the Starblight began to shift in form to mobile frames.

  And it wasn’t just the mobile frames themselves, but also their weaponry!

  The dark reflections of mobile frames formed particle rifles, shooting pitch-black proto particle beams against the mobile frames of the Federation, wreaking additional havoc.

  Another roar shook Alsium Two as the giant towering monster that had been felled by the Rakaila’s main gun rose again.

  Aster gripped the controls of his mobile frame tightly. Things were going from bad to worse with every moment.