Stargazers: "The Battle for Athens"

The Battle of Athens

            Even with the support of Daedalus, Agamemnon has suffers severe damage.  Its shields hold, recharging slowly between volleys, but they are not solid enough to stop every incoming attack.  What Gigas Armors it has launched focused their attention on ground support early in the fight, while the Terran ships launched armors specifically for space combat to support Siegfried and to control the atmosphere.

            Daedalus, after sinking one Terran ship, turns to the second Terran support.  Drifting into range, it opens fire on the enemy while also launching its own armors.  Three Lancer armors—lightly armored Gigas designed for long-range assault and hit-and-run space combat—launch, led by the prototype Mercury armor.

            “Be careful out there, Guinevere.  This isn’t like last time.  This enemy is far more dangerous, and numerous.”

            Guinevere descends into the enemy ranks.  “Don’t worry, Captain LeGuin.  They won’t even know what hit them.”  Activating Mercury’s arm-mounted hardened-light blades, she slices cleanly through two armors before making a narrow circle back toward the Terran ship.

            On the surface, in the Mars armor, the audio cuts.  Arthur is left alone in the cockpit, twisting switches and trying hard to bring it back to life, but the armor remains inert.  Through the armor he can hear the explosions, and the knows that the battle is raging around him.

            He ducks under the console and pulls a switch which sets off a series of small, controlled explosions around the back hatch.  The armor rattles and fills with dark, acrid smoke.  Swiveling around in his seat, he kicks the hatch repeatedly until it groans and falls off into the Athens’ dirt.

            Arthur climbs from the armor and stands with his body partially hidden inside.  The two armies meet around him with titanic force.  The Federation armors have the Republic retreating back toward the facility, but the Republic is making them earn the ground they have. Deadalus’ arrival has slowed enemy progress.

            Releasing the rope ladder, Arthur climbs from the armor and sprints away from it, toward the facility and toward Chastity.

 

-Stargazers part 1-

 

            Chastity follows the long corridors deeper into the facility.  People do not notice her in the white coat.  They rush around her without a care, securing research or burning it.  There is fear in the air, fear of falling, fear of being caught red-handed.  Chastity knows it well, remembering it from the attack on Canaan, but she pushes past the memories, driven by her new purpose.

            She reaches the bowels of the facility and grows lost.  Even with her expertise, she can find no way forward.  She stops at a door at the back that reads “Sector 8.”  8, she assumes, is the highest clearance level, far beyond that which she had stolen.  Every hallway leads to this single point.  It is the end and not just something a person can stumble upon.  Everything funnels to this point.

            The facility lurches around her.  Outside, she can hear gunfire and explosions.  She remembers Arthur, too, out there fighting, but she trusts him to take care of himself.  The Lady, on the other hand, is passed this door.  She knows it on instinct, like they are tied together.  It is Chastity’s job to take care of her.

            She is considering her next step when the door slides open.  The Lady is there, waiting.  They exchange a quick glance, and then Chastity joins her at the threshold, even embraces her before remembering herself.  She peeks in around the Lady into the empty room.  “Where is everyone?”

            “They left me here,” the Lady says,” and went to look in on their other projects. I do not think that they were expecting me.”

            “Probably not.  No one was expecting you, at least not a you that walks, thinks, and talks.”  She looks to the open doorway.  “Did you do that?”

            The Lady nods and then looks at one of the security cameras on the wall. “I’ve been watching your progress through the facility and wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

            Chastity smiles self-consciously and tucks her hair back.  “Thanks,” she says, and she takes the Lady’s hand.  “We should go and find somewhere safe.”

            “We are safest here.”

            “But the facility is under attack.”

            The Lady turns away from Chastity.  “We need to go deeper.”

            “But what if the facility collapses? Wouldn’t we be better near the escape shuttles?”  Chastity tries to hold the Lady in place but finds that holding her is like trying to hold a truck.  “You know where those are, right?”

            “I do.”  The Lady takes one step, and then another, and soon Chastity is being pulled along after her.

            Chastity stumbles and loses her grip.  She steadies against the wall and finds the Lady leaving the room through a small, oval door in the far wall.  Chastity follows and enters a white room with an open floor plan and desks against the walls.  Chastity looks around and appraises the room.  “Where are you going?”

            “Deeper. There is something here.”

            “What?”

            “I do not know, but it is something important.”

            Chastity follows the Lady through a series of rooms and feels increasingly out of place.  At first, she simply assumes that the situation has her nervous, but the longer she is there, she comes to realize that it is the quiet that puts her at unease.  The deeper they go, the farther away the warfare becomes.  When she cannot even hear a gunshot, she also realizes that there are no other people around.

            They reach a final door at the back of the facility that has a large 9 painted across it.  There, the Lady stops.  Eyes closed beside a terminal, the Lady stands quietly until the door slides open.  Beyond the door is impenetrable darkness.  The Lady stepped into the darkness, but Chastity waits at the door.

            She peeks into the interior, spying shapes in the shadows.  The room beyond the door is smooth, with dark walls and floors composed of a rare, slightly glossy material.  There are terminals inside, similar to something she has seen before.  It takes her a while to recognize where she has seen it, but searching her memories she finds it, hidden behind the trauma and fear, and she recognizes the design aesthetic.  The Guides.

            Chastity enters the room and follows the Lady deeper inside.  Her footsteps make the same clicks as they did on Canaan, and it takes her back to better times, but only briefly.  She stays close to the Lady because the darkness brings demons with it.  “Where are we?”

            Lady pauses and surveys the long room.  It is empty inside and gently domed at the top.  The dark steel used in its construction seems to swallow the light that spills inside.  Chastity follows the Lady’s gaze around the room.  “And how did you know it was here?”

            “I remembered it.”

            Chastity makes eye contact by finding the Lady’s glowing eyes.  “Do you remember anything else?”

            The Lady shifts in the darkness, as if searching for something.  There is a flicker in the light cast by the Lady’s eyes, as if she is blinking.  “Naphtali.”

            “What is Naphtali?”

            “The ship’s name,” the Lady says before moving on without another word.  Chastity trails after.

 

-Stargazers part 1-

 

            “Looks like the enemy’s commander is on the field.”  There is a buzz in LeGuin’s voice as Guinevere dives under an enemy armor and slices it in half with one of Mercury’s hardened-light blades.  The severed armor explodes after her like the birth of a small star, but she has already rocketed away, the inertia of her movements pinning her to her seat.  Her toes are beginning to feel numb as the blood goes rushing to her head.

            “Do you know which one it is?”

            “Reports are saying that it’s not a traditional armor.  He is piloting a prototype armor, a red thing.”

            Guinvere levels her armor and slows inside Athens’ atmosphere.  The G-forces her armor produces are sharp, even with her time spent in the cockpit acclimating her to the strain.  She checks her sensors, scanning around the surface for a hint of red.  She finds an armor in her periphery and moves to hover above it, and though the armor is red, it is also broken, with a large cannon smoldering on its shoulder.

            “I don’t think that’s him, unless he’s already been accounted for.”

            “He hasn’t.  Reports say he is leading a charge toward the base.”

            “Roger.  Will engage.”

            Guinevere turns toward the base and puts Mercury at forty percent max speed.  She is thrown into her seat as the thrust forces the air from her lungs.  In short time, she is approaching Tyr from above and behind, and she drops to engage.  On the way, she parts two enemy armors, leaving them as smoking plates and bars of steel sizzling in her wake.

            She lines up with Tyr and loses distance. Her blade is just about to land when Tyr turns on her.  It flashes hardened-light shields, which the blade slides off of in a spray of light.  The armors face each other as they sail through the air toward the military base, the war-blackened earth rushing by beneath them.  Mercury separates first, lifting off into the air, and Tyr takes off after it. Guinevere grits her teeth as she retreats.

            “Found the enemy armor and have engaged.”  She checks her radar and smiles.  “It’s giving chase to me right now.  I’ve led it away from the base.”

            “Then we’ll try to press our advantage.”

            “Aye, aye, sir.”

            Guinevere takes Tyr away from the battle and toward mountains in the east.  Just before reaching them, she slows.  The straps of her seat are dug tight into her shoulders.  She has to flex her hands to keep the blood in her fingers.  She flips her armor around and, increasing back to forty, makes an attack on Tyr.

            The two armors meet in a flash of light.  Tyr’s shields flicker as it lurches forward, lunging at Mercury with a large claw.  Waves of heat distort the air around the claw as it drifts by her.  Guinevere, breathless and sweating, feels her vision blur as she separates from him again, making a wide circle before closing distance for another strike.

            The Tyr armor tries to follow Mercury’s retreat but lacks the speed.  Instead, it picks a spot in the air and waits.  When Mercury returns, Tyr lunges but cannot land a hit.  Instead, it has its left shield generator punctured, giving Guinevere a new opening to exploit.  Spiraling in the air, she drops with her blade aimed for Tyr’s left shoulder.

 

-Stargazers part 1-

 

            The battle is far above Chastity and the Lady, who feel it only in vague rumbling in the walls.  Chastity follows the Lady through rooms that, increasingly, all look the same to her.  The walls are sleek and dark, save for small green lights suspended from them to light the way.  Each explosion that rocks the facility causes the lights to flicker.

            They take a ramp down a few floors.  Lady moves purposefully, staring straight ahead, her footsteps echoing as they go.  Chastity trails after her, eyes fixed on the Lady’s glowing eyes, heart hammering in her chest.  The empty darkness of the facility is accompanied by an alien eeriness that prickles the back of her neck.  These rooms were not designed for humans, and even after months of researching Guide ships, Chastity knows so little about them.

            After an eternity of walking they reach a large room at the bottom, so deep that even the combat can no longer be heard.  The walls of this room are gently curved, and they stand atop a bridge with a long, silver ramp leading from it.  Pylons tower over them, evenly spaced, six in total.  The farthest one has what looks like a Gigas Armor next to it, though upon closer inspection Chastity realizes it to be nearly twice the normal size.

            The lady goes down the ramp and crosses the empty, leaving the flat green light behind them.  Chastity follows, eyes fixed on the glow of the Lady’s eyes.  They stop beside the massive armor, which towers over them, mechanical shoulders slouched, inert.  The armor’s plating gleams when it catches the glow of the Lady’s eyes.  Its design is both familiar and foreign.

            Chastity puts a hand upon one of the semi-translucent plates and finds it cool to her touch and smoother than steel.  “A Gigas?”

            “No, that is not the word.”  The Lady stands before the armor and stares into what might be its face.

            “It looks like one.”  Chastity stops by the Lady’s side.  “Which makes sense.  Much of our technology, especially the Gigas Armors, are based off of Guide technology.”  Chastity examines the armor as well as she can in the darkness.  She can make out the rounded shape of the plating, as well as the finely detailed joints where its arms are.  “We made design changes, though, to make ours smaller, more compact.”

            “For one pilot,” the Lady says, approaching the nearby pylon.  She touches it, and it glows to light.  Chastity rubs her eyes as the light fades and watches the armor open at the top.  A hatch slides back, revealing two seats inside, one resting just above the other.  The Lady mounts it and stares down at Chastity.  “Get in.”

            Chastity stares back at the Lady from the floor.  “What? No, no, no, I’m no pilot.  I’m a scientist.” She waves her hands in front of her as if to accentuate her point.

            “I will pilot,” the Lady says.  “Get in.”

            “But I’m not a soldier, either.”

            “You will be safest with me.”  The lady climbs into the back seat of the large armor and then glances at the pylon, which glows afterward.  The ship rumbles around them.  Above them, the ceiling comes open, releasing sand and stone to fall in on them.  The Lady then meets Chastity’s gaze.  “We do not have much time.  Please, hurry.”

            “What are you doing?”

            “Serving my function.”

            Chastity scrambles in after the Lady and settles into the front seat.  She rests her hands on the controls and feels entirely out of place.  Not only is she not a pilot or a soldier, but she is also not a Guide, and the armor is not designed for her.  The Lady sits back with closed eyes, and Chastity only notices the absence of the Lady’s glow when she turns back to speak.  The armor hums to life around her, distracting her enough to keep her silent.  The consoles before her begin to shine.

            Naphtali’s canopy slides open and the armor stands against the entering soil falling over it like a waterfall.  On its back a shield generator rises, forming a spherical shell of hardened light around it as the debris continues to rain down.

 

-Stargazers part 1-

 

            There is no warning, only a low, heavy growl followed by the parting of stone.  Soldiers and armors alike scramble as the earth sunders, and then they all become flailing bodies as they tumble into the darkness.  Arthur is partway to the base when he sees the dust rising in the distance.  The earth shudders beneath him, shifting under his feet, and Arthur chooses to move with it.

            Retreating, he watches the rending earth over his shoulder as he sprints.  Armors stomp after him, away from the growing maw and swelling dust storm, and they are swallowed.  Arthur leaps as the ground comes to a stop and lands inches from the open jaws of Athens and slides to a stop in the dirt.  The cloud swirls and disperses.  Arthur coughs and stares into its center.  There is a soft hum inside, growing and rising overhead.  Watching for it, he spies streaks of silver and white cut through the haze.

            An armor crests, breaking the miasma of dirt and dust and hovering just above, giving off a light of its own.  It glows with a halo and wings and then surges forward, gliding on the air like a boat might on the sea.  It moves more smoothly than any armor Arthur has ever seen, more gracefully in the air than even a bird, and disappears into the sky.

            Climbing higher and higher, the armor, twice the size of a conventional gigas armor, breaks the cloud line and sails out of the atmosphere.  It passes between two ships, one Federation and one Republic, firing on each other and pauses briefly.  Wings expanding, its body warps space and time around itself, and then it disappears, leaving only a blur of a blur in its wake.