Mother Crab
track: mobile suit
Asteroid field K-5571 is what is left of a collision between two large asteroids, each measuring kilometres in diameter. Seventy years ago, astronomers detected that one of the asteroids was on a collision path with the Earth. The UNS put rockets on another asteroid and played billiards with it, successfully shattering both asteroids and redirecting their paths into a stable orbit close to Sun L4. One of the millions of rocky fragments left behind is where I am currently backed up against.
The mission was simple; capture or destroy the prototype mech in testing. Though the Anhur is itself a valuable prototype, Captain Grimrock felt that it was better off operating alone thanks to its mobility; even Vizala II frames find it hard to keep up. Staying in formation would be reducing the Anhur's speed advantage. Naim and Jean – great odds of finding another pilot with the exact same name, it seems – have launched and are standing by waiting to provide fire support. My role is to flush out the enemy prototype and lure it into the open, where we can work together to disable it.
That is, if it
is here.
“See anything, Yua?”
“Nothing yet... wait, there's a heat signature about three kilometres away.” she responds, giving me the coordinates. Best to check it out. The enemy carrier that was supposed to be transporting the frame is still nowhere to be seen. I direct Anhur cautiously towards the signature, slipping from rock to rock. I rely on just my verniers to propel my movement in order to minimize my profile.
“The signature is getting stronger!”
It's approaching me. I keep my distance, carefully moving out of its path. I'll let it pass me by. It does. A large brown object roars past me at high speed, broken shards of rock left in its wake. What was that?
“Yua, did you get a good look?”
The only thing we knew about the enemy prototype was that it would be piloted by two people, and boasted a variety of advanced weaponry. I wasn't expecting... this. The body is a large brown pyramid, at least three times as long as Anhur is tall. Two multi-segmented arms stick out from the sides, each ending in a gigantic claw. Four pairs of pincer-like legs are folded under it. There's also several suspicious looking bubble-like protrusions on its back, six in total.
That's...
“Master, it's a crab! A giant robot crab!” shouts Yua excitedly. She's always liked cooking them, for some reason. Although I have no idea what possessed the UNS scientists to create something that looks like this, that doesn't matter right now. Time to get to work.
I roll Anhur out from behind the rock and fire a shot at the enemy frame. My aim is spot on. The bright yellow beam streaks towards it, but a bright flash appears before it hits the main body. The particles disperse, as if stopped by something.
“That's a particle barrier, Master.”
Just like the one they're currently reworking to put on my frame, then. If this is powered by that thing's reactor, though, it should be more powerful, considering its size. Beams aren't going to work that easily. I dash to the right, avoiding the enemy's reply to my attack. A couple of rockets fly past harmlessly and blow up some rocks behind me. It looks like when unfolded, those pincer legs also double as rocket launchers. The pointy ends are rockets. That really stumps me. Why?
“Yua, why would anyone make something like that?”
“It's a crab, Master.” she replies, as if that explains everything.
“I don't think that has anything to do with it!” I should continue with the operation now that I have its attention. I kick the thrusters up and begin speeding away from the enemy, heading towards where Naim and Jean are waiting. As I check the rear camera, it seems that I don't have to worry about it losing me – that thing might not look too agile, but in a straight line it is fast. The claws open up and begin firing at me – the six particle barrels within are arranged in a spread formation, causing me to veer off course in order to dodge all of the beams. I patch a call through to Naim.
“Lieutenant! I'm bringing it to you!”
“It? You mean the prototype?”
“The crab!”
“What are you babbling about?” shouts Naim exasperatedly. “Put a leash on your computer, Ensign!”
“We need a codename for this thing, don't we? Can't keep calling it the prototype.” says the new guy, Jean. I hope he fares better than the old Jean.
“What should we call it, Yua?” I say.
“Obviously, it's the Crab Frame!” she says happily. Alright, let's go with that.
“The Crab Frame has a particle barrier, Lieutenant!” I inform him of the fact; he'd be pissed if he had to waste a few shots from the Vizala II's beam rifle to figure out that beams don't work.
“I hope you know what you're doing... all units, lead with solid weaponry.” mutters Naim through the comm.
“This is Jean, roger that.”
I dodge another set of beams and reach the edge of the asteroid field. We're in position. I hear Jean gasp. “Holy fuck, that
is a crab.”
“On my mark...” says Naim.
The two Vizala IIs belonging to Naim and Jean pop up above and below the Crab Frame as it passes by, firing their rocket launchers. Their timing is good – the barrier doesn't stop the rockets, which hit the enemy frame and explode. Unfortunately, as the smoke clears, it seems that not much damage was done.
I hear Naim complaining over the comm. “Looks like the crab has a tough shell.”
It points its claws upwards and begins firing at him. Naim dodges behind a large rock. Several of the beams melt into it, but he's already dashing out from behind it, firing his machine-gun at the frame. At the same time, Jean and I boost towards the crab. If we can't take it with our guns, then perhaps melee weaponry will work better. We scatter, dodging the rockets from its legs, before crossing paths and approaching from both sides. Pattern Delta, I believe Naim called it, while we were training in the simulators.
Jean's mono-molecular sword doesn't work too well, getting stuck in the armor. My beam saber, on the other hand, cleaves through one of the legs easily enough. Looks like that's the only thing that'll work effectively for now. Before I can bring my saber back for another swing, the crab's pilots sense the danger. They push their throttle to the maximum and charge off, away from us; Jean still clinging on to the sword embedded in the enemy. There is a loud puff as the armor block his sword is stuck in falls away. Jean's Vizala tumbles away in the vacuum. The Crab Frame makes a wide turn and comes around, going straight for him. This is bad – he won't recover in time to dodge.
“Fuuuuuuuu--------” screams Jean. I ram into him at full speed, sending both of us away from the Crab Frame's charge. “Whew,” comes his grateful voice. “Thanks for the save.”
“If you have time to thank people, get back into the fight, Ensign Jean!” snaps Naim. As Jean apologizes profusely, I notice the bubbles on the crab's back detaching and floating off. With a shudder, the thrusters on their backs come to life as small pincer legs unfold from their round bodies. “Baby crabs?” asks Yua. “Perhaps we should name this frame the Mother Crab.” They begin moving around the battlefield, darting towards us. The next thing they do is to fire beams at us. I push Jean away as two beams cut through where we were. He brings up his machine-gun and fires at the little spheres, but they zip about nimbly, evading his bullets. It's like attempting to hit a fly... if flies had guns that could blow big holes in you.
“Use the frame's auto-targeting!” Naim yells frantically as he evades another two of the drones' shots by just a hair's width. He locks on to one of them, his rifle trying to track their seemingly erratic movement. He can't manage to keep his aim steady on them for long enough, and he abandons that idea, opting to just concentrate on evasion. Thankfully, whoever or whatever's controlling these little things doesn't seem to be very good at aiming – they shear off pieces of his frame's limbs, but no major damage is done.
“These things are moving according to a pattern, Master.” Yua speaks up. “I think I can link it to the auto-targeting system.”
“Do it quickly, and send the data over to the others.” Two bubbles attacking Naim, two following Jean, and another two are coming after me. I've observed the presence of several movement patterns myself, but it's hard to actually predict which pattern they're going to pick in the thick of battle. I try to take down the drones after me, but the Crab Frame is on my tail, forcing me to cancel any attacks as I weave in between the beams of the babies and mother crab. There's no opening to attack; if I try anything I'll probably get cut into pieces. Luckily there's only two bubbles attacking me – trying to avoid all six
and Crab Frame would be a nightmare. As soon as Yua completes the uplink, Naim manages to take down one of the baby crabs. Three seconds later Jean destroys another. That seems to trigger a response in the mother crab – a wave of diffuse particles bursts forth from emitters on the frame. It begins messing with the radar – the lock on the bubbles vanish.
“The auto-targeting system can't get a lock anymore... fuuuuu---” Jean starts shouting again as his shots miss the other bubble. “It's impossible to do this with just a visual lock!”
If that's the case... Well, this is why I've been saving my trump card. I activate my ability.
Instantly, the trajectories of the bubbles become clear to me, along with the patterns they are using. They also stop right before firing. If I move to the right, one of them should fire right about... now. My own beam hits it before it can shoot, right as it comes to a halt. The baby crab explodes. At the same time, I move towards the mother crab, its other baby following right behind me. I change the angle of my direction at the last minute, just as the drone fires. The beam misses me and goes through the enemy frame.
“Aha.” It looks the the barrier is gone; that jamming wave must have had something to do with this. I dispatch the drone with a quick shot and head straight for the Crab Frame. It brings back the other two bubbles harassing Naim and Jean to converge on me. That's not going to stop me. Closing in on the Crab Frame, I weave my way through the intricate net of beams from the claw-guns and the baby crabs. I just need to mess up once to get cut into ribbons by those particle beams. Before that happens, I'll have to take the crab down.
I can feel the heat of life inside the Crab Frame; there are two of them. It's not agile enough to dodge my aim – bringing the barrier down was a mistake. In a lucky coincidence, the armor protecting the cockpit had been purged earlier when they dropped Jean. As it tries desperately to escape, I fire two shots going through the cockpit, snuffing out their flames. The drones seem to lose their way immediately, tumbling off into space.
“Aw fuck yeah Senya!” screams Jean in joy. “That was beautiful!”
“Good job, Ensign.” replies Naim grudgingly.
That's it, I suppose. Another successful mission. Before I can rejoice, the captain begins hailing all of us.
“The mission is successful. It is time to withdraw.”
“Wait,” I ask, “what about salvaging the Crab Frame?”
“Negative, Ensign. Destroy the enemy prototype. We're going to have to fight our way out of here; we can't afford any time to bring that thing with us. We've been spotted.”
“You mean...”
“An Indus carrier is approaching us from behind.”
Right on cue, a transmission from the enemy appears on all channels.
“This is the Mehrgarh of the Indus Confederation. We have been attempting to track your ship since you left Neo Heliopolis. We request that all combatants from the Neo Shinar Empire and Higashi lay down their arms. You will be taken into custody by Major Rei Wakayama.”
“Major... Rei Wakayama?” whispers Jean. “Oh boy, are we fucked or what?
“Who's that? It's a Higashi name, so why is this Major on the Indus's side?” I ask.
“No idea,” comes the reply, “but that's the
Scarlet Lightning.”
“That sounds familiar...” I've heard the nickname somewhere, while reading some reports about the war. It strikes me all of a sudden. “You mean,
that Scarlet Lightning?” That's the nickname of the top ace of the Indus Confederation, having a confirmed kill of over fifty fighters and six warships in just a few months. Rumours say that the Scarlet Lightning is untouchable in battle, piloting a blood-red combat frame that moves three times faster than any other frame. Some pilots on both sides have attempted to paint their machines red in imitation, but apparently red ones don't always go faster...
The captain cuts in to our conversation. “Get back now. I don't plan to surrender, so Senya will cover our retreat. Once the Kaguya-hime, Kalai and Sarmatia begin moving, Naim and Jean are to provide fire support while Senya intercepts the enemy frames. We'll slow down the carrier by laying down covering fire – the Vizala II frames will not be able to stray far from it. Senya, fight defensively and keep within range of our fire support. No matter what you do, do not engage the red one.”
The Crab Frame is still floating there in dead stillness. Is the captain going to let go of something as valuable as this just to flee a single carrier?
***
A. We have three warships to their single carrier. Even if they have ten frames to our three, we have the advantage in firepower. I'll take the offense to them regardless of what the captain says – I'm confident that we can wipe them out, reducing the number of our pursuers and successfully salvaging the Crab Frame. Even if the Scarlet Lightning is fast, I'm sure Anhur is faster.
B. I listen to the orders and fight as the plan demands. If the captain thinks it's wiser to abandon the salvage, I'll defer to his decision. After all, I'm not eager to be a hero, am I? The priority is, as always, the Kaguya-hime's safety. By destroying the prototype we will also have prevented the enemy from deploying it, so it is not a total waste.
I should still have 7 minutes of active time for my ability.
1. Use the drug now, to prolong my active time. I should be able to get ten more minutes out of it.
2. Don't use the drug. Whatever I choose to do, it shouldn't take long.
