A Noble Cause

[Roromi 415]

The tremors slowly faded away, the entire cabin soon became serene as weightlessness permeated around. Edwin unconsciousness tensed his left hand, curling and uncurling the artificial fingers. It was strange how occasionally he genuinely felt as if the digits were his own. It was equally unnerving when he found himself scratching the skin of the prothstetic. They called it phantom pain and it was a sensation he doubted he would ever fully accept. Lifting his gaze from his lame hand he looked around the cabin to study how everyone else was reacting inside the shuttle.

If one was studious, they could quickly determine who was new to space and who wasn’t. By this point Edwin was fairly numb to awe inspiring sensation. A young woman was giggling as she let some jewelry twirl in front of her. Another man was grinning like a fool playing with a water bottle. Edwin merely sighed and returned his gaze out the window. He would soon be onboard the Halfbeak class Fortis. The Fortis was a Bauduin family warship and had served as Edwin’s flagship during his patrol duties. As the shuttle escaped earth, Edwin could begin to make out the purplish form of the ship. Onboard was his Graze, and his crew; and he was eager to see both.

Perhaps just as importantly was an old friend he was eager to reacquaint with; Erland Falk. Though the two men differed in age by almost a decade, Edwin thought of the younger man like a little brother and often treated him as such. He had been happy for the fellow noble when they had been assigned other duties on Mars. Now it appeared that fate would bring them back together. Gjallarhorn had given Edwin an important mission and was willing to give the Bauduin official any resources he needed, whether it be material or personnel; Edwin chose the latter.

The rattle and clanking of the hull snapped Edwin from his contemplation and he tensed himself against his seat as the shuttle connected with the warship to drop him off. After the connection was secure a crewman gave the Captain a thumbs up. Edwin grabbed his briefcase and unbuckled himself to “leap” towards the engineer and the exit. The man gave him a salute and Edwin responded in kind, before moving down the narrow corridor towards his ship. Once he was on board a small collection of his staff saluted a greeting towards him and he returned the gesture yet again. He knew that by the time he found his way to the bridge he’d repeat the process with half his crew.

By the time he made it to the bridge a grin did form along the edge of his face as he spotted his old friend. Erland stood staring out the windows, his red back turned toward him. Edwin let out a cheery greeting, “I had no idea that I’d be entertaining a member of the Falk family on my ship!” His tone showed his mock surprise. As he hovered up to the other man he stopped to regard him and offer his hand warmly, “it’s good to see you Erland!”

[FrostyFoster 450]

Erland had recently arrived on the Fortis, along with his Graze. He gazed out into the depths of space, noticing many star craft speeding through the cold, dark universe. It had been a while since he'd been out of Mars' atmosphere, so the scenery change was nice for him. "I hope Worths will be able to control those men while I'm gone." He thought to himself. Erland would be practically leaving everyone behind for a mission he knew very little about. However, it had to be important if he was requested by his old friend, Edwin. Their families respected each other, but the two noble's were practically brothers. 

“I had no idea that I’d be entertaining a member of the Falk family on my ship!” Erland looked back to see the man in question. He held out his hand, the non-robotic one, to the branch commander. “It’s good to see you, Erland!” He chuckled and grasped the hand, shaking it. "It's good to see you too, Edwin." Erland said. "It's definitely been awhile." He let go of the hand, noticing the robotic arm, but not paying attention to it. He had no idea what happened, but he understood that was a story for another time. Right now there were more pressing questions.

"I apologize if this is too blunt, but I was told you tell me why I'm even here." He asked. While he loved being pulled out of the boring position he was in, he wished to know more about the assignment. "Could you fill me in?

[Roromi 415]

Edwin noticed the sidelong glances at his arm. Erland was of course one of the few people who knew about his injury, he felt surprisingly subconscious about his arm now, as if Erland was seeing through the long sleeve and glove he wore. Edwin shrugged the idea from his head and motioned to the window on the bridge as he moved to stand next to his friend. They both looked out at Space and he cleared his throat.

“There’s an Elion Family Mining operation on the moon, which for years have been very lucrative.” Naturally both of their gazes shifted towards the natural satellite. “The entire operation went dark. At first we thought it was technical difficulties, but it’s becoming more and more obvious that it’s more than that. For years the workers have disgruntled by conditions… no small secret.” He flashed his friend a knowing glance.

“In any case we have since intercepted transmission heading out towards the colonies suggesting that they found a relic from the calamity war…” he let the last phrase hang in the air as reference to the Great War was weight enough to drag Erland from Mars. “There are terrible weapons from the Calamity war… if dissidents have a weapon… well I don’t think I need to spell it out to you.” He paused as he glared at the moon. “We’re going to storm the facility… hard and fast. That’s why I need you here. I need people I can trust for this one.”

In truth Edwin wasn’t entirely sure where Erland or the falk family fell in the recent discussions of worker rights. Gjallarhorn has become increasingly divided on how to treat their colonies and other assets. If this operation went down the way Edwin was imagining it then a lot of dissident workers would die.

[FrostyFoster 450]

"Another Calamity War remnant..." He thought to himself. Erland understood the power of those machines. They weren't something to scoff at. Gjallarhorn was powerful, but the strength of even one of those mobile suits would be an issue. "We gotta get a hold of that weapon." Erland looked out to the moon, thinking about the Elion Family, along with Edwin's wife and their son. "I'd imagine this operation is a little more personal for you, considering your family ties." 

The Falk family had some relations with the Elion's, but nothing major. Erland had no interest in the mining facility, just the fact that this mission would give him something to do. Months of paperwork bored him, so being active in mobile suit combat again enticed him.

"But I now understand why I'm here. I won't let you down." He said to the Bauduin Noble. "If you don't mind, could you take me to the mobile suit hangar? I'd like to see what our firepower is."

[Roromi 415]

Edwin gave a discreet nod at Erland’s observation regarding the facility and a weak smile of acknowledgement. True he has more riding on the facility and he couldn’t stand the idea of dissidents controlling property that wasn’t rightfully theirs. Erland broke his train of thought, "If you don't mind, could you take me to the mobile suit hangar? I'd like to see what our firepower is."

Edwin swept his hand behind them towards the exit of the bridge. “Of course right this way.” He calmly led the man through the bridge to the hangar. As they entered the bay Edwin gave a grin at his friend as they first saw their Grazes side by side. Red and white the two machines looked poised for action, Edwin knew it would only be too soon. “We have our machines of course. We also have four more Grazes at our disposal…” he swept his hand to hint at the other suits hiding in the hangar. “We don’t know the full strength of the enemy so it will be me you and my adjutant Yohan who deploy first. I want to keep the rest behind as a rear guard in case they decide to attack the Fortis.”

He turned to look at this friend reassuringly, “Yohans a good pilot we can count on him.”

[FrostyFoster 450]

Erland smiled as he saw Edwin's machine. It looked sleek and fast, like it could take out a whole squad on its own. "Still not as good as mine though." He thought. The Mars Commander wasn't used to the gray space variants of the Graze. In fact, Erland didn't have much experience battling outside of the atmosphere. He hoped that his skills would be adequate, but that wouldn't matter much since he had such a strong mobile suit. The red Schwalbe Graze almost seemed to glimmer as it held its custom lance. Erland was excited to be apart of the mission. 

Edwin explained the battle plan to him. The two and another pilot, Yohan, would be the main squad while the other Grazes would be a rear guard. "He's right." Erland thought to himself. "Who knows what we're getting ourselves into." He turned back to his colleague. "That's good." He said in response to discussing Yohan. 

"Whatever it may be, the Grazes of Gjallarhorn will be able to stop it." Erland said. "When shall we be launching?"

[Roromi 415]

Edwin nodded at Erland’s remark about deploying. “Soon enough. Go get some rest and in a few of hours we’ll deploy.” With that he saluted his friend before retreating to his own quarters, he was quite tired from all the traveling.

A few hours later an alarm awoke him in his bed and he groggily got up to put in his space suit. The room was sparsely decorated due to the lack of gravity and he struggled to get in his suit. His fake arm floated around him as he put on the combat gear, waiting for the last minute to attach the abomination to the remains of his limb. At last he got the suit and arm on and zipped up the uniform before grabbing his helmet. It didn’t go unnoticed that his left hand shook visibly and he nervously squeezed the device to “loosen” it up before heading into the hallway.

He wore a grim look on his face as he saluted the crew and soon found the entrance to his alabaster Graze. He paused as he perched on the lip of the cockpit to study the behemoth and the sword locked on its hip. Flashbacks of the fateful combat that stole his left arm flooded his vision and he could clearly recalled how crumpled up the left side of the machine had been when he was pried out. He equally recalled the eyes of the demon that maimed him, the elegant designs of the Gundam he fought. He shook the thought from his head before going into the cockpit determinedly. As he sat down he locked his helmet on and pulled the straps across his body. He began his religious system checks to awaken his own monster and prepare for combat. As he neared the end of the routine he did a radio check, “are you there Erland? Yohan?”

To his delight his Adjutant responded eagerly, “Affirmative Captain! Ready to deploy when you are!”

A grin did form on his face, “you ready Erland? Let’s head out.”

[FrostyFoster 450]

Erland climbed into the cockpit of his mobile suit, pressing a multitude of buttons to get the machine started. It was finally time for battle, and the preparations here would be extremely important, considering their enemy. The communicators turned on, with Edwin on the other side. “You ready Erland? Let’s head out.” he said. Erland felt like everything was ready. "I am. Let's take care of this mess."

He maneuvered the mobile suit into position, waiting for clearance. "You're good to go." said one of the crew members. The Branch Commander smiled. "Erland Falk, Schwalbe Graze. LAUNCHING!" The mobile suit jetted into the depths of space...

[Roromi 415]

The violent turbulence shook the mobile and pilot alike. Stone faced, Edwin maneuvered the colossus towards the lunar surface. The weak gravity felt annoying, not quite tugging him down and not quite releasing him from the gray horizon. They landed on a ridge east of the facility. It was eerily quiet with no movement beyond the three machines. Edwin sniffed, “feels like a trap. Don’t let these rebels get an edge on us. Stick together and we’ll be fine.”

He hardly waited for a reply before gliding his suit to the edge of the ridge and look down. Still no movement. Grunting he hopped the ridge and slid down towards the facility. The buildings conveniently made mobile suit the sized  passages where two suits could pass abreast. The maze of passages was impressive even by mobile suit size.

His rifle led the way as he took the lead. Soon They found themselves at an intersection. Edwin scowled ar the screen as he scanned the buildings. “Yohan why don’t you-“

His transmission was interrupted by a mobile worker bursting out of a garage strafing and firing at them all. A few shells rattled on their armor and before anyone could return fire it disappeared behind a building. Edwin hissed, “they’re using the facility as cover.” Silent alarms in his head went off and he resisted following the obvious bait. Something was definitely not right. “Things are about to go kinetic my friends.” The grizzled veteran growled. 

[FrostyFoster 450]

Edwin was right. Whatever they were doing, it was an obvious trap. Erland gripped onto the controls harder, thinking about their next plan of attack. No matter what, they needed to stick together, but they had to know where the enemy even was. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. "I'll fly onto the roof of one of these buildings." The Branch Commander said. "It'll give us a better view of what we're dealing with. The Red Graze began to raise as Erland found a sturdy rooftop to land on. It's feet carefully pressed down on the building, as he looked out into the maze of passages.

"Strange..." He thought to himself. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but something was askew. The mobile worker had vanished, but he had no clue where. At that moment, Erland heard machine gun fire. "Commander!" yelled Yohan. "He's going for your back." Erland maneuvered the mobile suit to the right as the Spinner Rodi slammed into the side of the lance. Both machines fell down onto one of the nearby buildings, demolishing it completely...  

[Roromi 415]

“Erland!” Edwin cried out as he saw the two mechs dump onto a building. The explosion of debris was actually quite impressive with the pressurization of the small building rupturing and gushing out air and dust in a brief but violent whirlwind. He reflexively winced at the sight and fought his instincts, scanning around. Sure enough another spinner Rodi busted out of shed and blind sided Edwin knocking the rifle from his Graze’s hand.

No matter, Edwin brooded, I want these cowards to see their death coming. With the elegance of a veteran Edwin moved his Graze with the momentum of the Mobile worker and twirled his mobile suit around. As he completed his rotation he drew out his blade and fired his thrusters after the retreating Rodi. As he closed the gap the Rodi also twisted around. Dancing in their dangerous game it began firing rounds at Edwin’s Graze. Panic must have stricken the civilian pilot because their shots trailed lazily towards Edwin, and despite their closing proximity, the fool couldn’t land a hit in the Graze. Edwin thrust the tip of his blade directly into the belly of the mobile suit, a clean strike that instantly killed the pilot and made the mech go limp. He pulled the blade out and twirled his Graze around to look at his two comrades.

Edwin noticed Yohan similarly dispatching another Spinner with his rifle. The problem seemed almost resolved when a glimmer of crimson stole his attention, and Edwin had to sort through his confusion at not seeing Erland’s Graze. The vision of a demon made the commander freeze in genuine fear, he could feel the stump on his arm ache at the presence of the machine. Marching solemnly towards the Gjallarhorn soldiers was a titan of equal if not greater measure. Walking down the makeshift road towards the trio was a red Gundam.

Their radios crackled as a strange voice hailed the trio. “Surrender your weapons and your ship and no one will have to die.” Edwin bit his lip and switched his radio to Erland, “Erland are you alive?” At that moment Edwin didn’t want to take his eyes off the demon to check on his friend. “Erland if you’re there I need you back on your feet soldier! We got a demon to kill!” He switched his comm to include Yohan, “I’ll lure it close to me, Yohan you take shots with your rifle, aim for its joints but be careful to avoid friendly fire.”

At that moment Edwin had a million questions he wanted answered, perhaps the most demanding being how these rebels found a Gundam on the moon. His concerns hardly mattered with the pressing business. He was mildly tempted to banter with the rebel to learn what he could but decided that silence would gain him more favors. He had fought with a demon once before and lost his forearm because of it. He may be the only one that truly appreciated the gravity of the moment they were in.

[Edwin Bauduin]

(I have performed the dark ritual of necromancy once and I shall do so again! I was going through my notes and saw that I had written this conclusion a while ago. Figured I’d throw it up here!)

For many moments no one reacted. Smoke and debris still rose out from the building that Erland had crashed into. The swirling dust gave a mock sensation of wind rolling across the lunar complex. A particularly large cloud obstructed the view between the two standing grazes and the crimson Gundam. The curtain was a que and seemingly all the active suits bursted into action. Edwin and the Gundam fired their thrusters to push into the cloud from opposite ends. The impact is the suits crashing into each other made the dust explode away. The clear view giving Yohan reason to open fire at the enemy. Edwin growled out as the Gundam kicked into his graze knocking himself back while simultaneously dodging the fire from Yohan. 

The damned demon was fast. The terrifying motions making Edwin breath heavier with weariness and fear. He brought his graze back on its feet while poising the sword to his right. He locked onto the agile enemy and fired his thrusters to close the distance. To his dismay the Gundam was winding its way closer to Yohan. His adjutant cried out in increasing terror as the agile demon danced between shots getting within striking distance with its wicked looking weapon. Yohan’s screams reached a crescendo which abruptly ended at the edge of the Gundam’s blade. Too late, Edwin barreled into the machine knocking them sideways from the adjutant. “No you don’t!” The noble growled defiantly, “I’m your opponent!” 

The Gundam recovered gracefully if not somewhat unsteadily. Edwin noticed the slight flutter, the uneasiness of the controls despite their fluidity. Whiskers, thought Edwin. The pilot might have an advantage but Edwin was determined to deny any type of victory to the beast. “Listen here son…” Edwin opened his com and sounded almost sympathetic. “You’ve clearly been through a lot…” even as he spoke Edwin brought his sword up and poised it over the graze’s head, cocked for a downward slash. “However… you have stepped into something you can’t comprehen-“

The voice from before shot back passionately, “don’t act like you know what I’ve been through you noble pig!” The youthful voice went into a rant about living conditions and equality. Idealistic banter that hardly mattered to Edwin as he inched his suit closer. Yohan was swapping magazines as he slowly brought the rifle to aim. The pair let the youth angrily preach to them both. 

Truth or not, the idealistic banter from the enemy Gundam was pointless. They were all transgressed into the spoil of mortal combat and no amount of talking would de-escalate the situation. The only remedy was action, decisiveness being Edwin’s strong suit. As the human debris went on, the noble brought his Graze in closer and closer with cautious scoots foreword. Either the worker turned warrior was a fool or he was some sort of genius lulling the Gjallarhorn forces in close. The alabaster Graze struck first, and struck hard. The blade of the mobile suit suddenly swung down on the crimson demon. The sword would have struck straight down on the head had the damn Gundam not suddenly jerked rearward. The attack was not without merit however as the pointed tip still dug down deep from the top of the metallic breast straight down to the pelvis. It was a marvelous slice, the weapon brutally ripping the metal, and nanofilament armor; erupting in a crescendo of blood as the blade hit the pilot. Just like a switch the demon went limp, in a moment it fell to its knees before locking up, frozen in place. 

For many heartbeats Edwin did not move, he didn’t even know he was breathing. Had it not been for the trembling of his body he would have assumed time had suddenly stood still. And as reality slowly returned to normal he found that he had indeed slain the demon. He let out an uneasy breath and gulped in more air and slowly he looked around to regard his allies. 

—— aboard the Fortis ——-

Edwin stood on the bridge of his ship, his fingers tapping nervously along the crease of his fake arm through his uniform. He stoically looked out as a pair of Grazes brought in the crippled Gundam aboard the docking bay. 

Even just looking at the machine was disheartening, it drudged up bitter memories. The noble scoffed at the machine. “All hands prepare to return home. The council will want to hear about this development.”

With those words Edwin left the bridge and retreated back into his chambers. The presence of the Gundam was surely a bad omen. Perhaps there was much worse than worker disputes on the way?