“So this… is my new Gravity Frame?” I craned my neck.

“That’s right, Sabina! The first of the new X-23-Bs to be completed, gao~n! Isn’t it amazing? Aren’t I amazing? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA, gao~n.” Zehra was in an ecstatic mood, gloating like a child who had just won a game of marbles.

Genevi, who was floating next to her, sighed softly. “You’re getting carried away again, Doctor…”

We were in the hanger adjacent to Zehra’s new laboratory. Towering above us was a brand new SVGF-X23-B Lisichka Mass Productive Type, fresh from the foundry. It was the spitting image of Miette and Sveta’s unit except for the orange flames paintjob, which was my own requested embellishment. The flames made it look a lot like a pre-war sports car; it was an aesthetic that fit me perfectly.

That’s the reason this unit was mine. The paint had to be applied before the Beelzebub’s chitin-resin was coated onto the armor, so this Frame was undeniably and indelibly marked as my own. Plus, the Sveta copy inside had apparently been configured specifically to suit me, or so I was told.

I wasn’t sure what THAT meant, but I felt a grim sense of foreboding.

“How come mine was the first to be completed?” I said, turning to Zehra.

“The other three units developed microfractures in the chitin during the molding process, gao~n. Beelzebub chitin is still a mostly unknown substance to us, so there’s a high failure rate when working with it. We should have the other three units patched up in four or five hours, gao~n.”

“I see.” Looks like there were still kinks to iron out, even once hitting mass production.

“Sveta just finished sending her copy over to the computer core of this frame, gao~n. Hop inside and say hello! You can get to know each other during your upcoming patrol shift, gao~n.”

My stomach was filled with butterflies. “Ahahaha, I’m a bit nervous…”

Zehra tilted her head and stared at me quizzically. “Nervous? Isn’t that Genevi’s thing?”

“H-Hey!” Genevi exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes. “Please don’t reduce us to simplistic personality traits, Zehra. People many sides to them. Just because YOU like to act out a larger-than-life character all the time doesn’t mean you can stereotype me as the ‘spunky sister’ and Genevi as the ‘quiet sister.’”

Zehra rolled her eyes. “I just call it like I see it, gao~n. Now hurry up and get inside, I want to run the startup tests."

“Yeah, yeah…” I squeezed Genevi on the shoulder, softening up her pouty face, before kicking off towards the cockpit hatch.

Here goes nothing…

*****

“Pleased to make your acquaintance. I’m Sveta-2, also known as Femme Sveta. Uhm, let’s start off as friends, okay?” Sveta-2 said in an affected, overly feminine voice that was entirely too soft. Her eyes were downcast, and she fiddled with her hands bashfully.

Based on my past experiences with Sveta, I was half-expecting this version of her to be dressed in some ridiculous outfit, like a dinosaur-girl costume with sharp teeth. Instead, she was clad in a simple pink sundress with a floral pattern, and a straw hat. It’s a look that didn’t suit her at ALL. The ridiculous spectacle of watching Sveta try to act demure completely banished my previous trepidation.

“You look ridiculous.” I told her, folding my arms.

“GAH!” She keeled over, miming as if I had stabbed her in the gut. “That’s a rude thing to say to someone you JUST MET!”

Now there's the Sveta I know.

I chuckled dryly. “C’mon, Sveta. You have all the original’s memories, right? This isn’t our first meeting, not really. So what’s with the getup? And the weird voice? And the name? FEMME Sveta?”

She looked stricken. “B-Because you’re butch, you see. I’m femme to compliment you…”

I shook my head. “Nope, not having it. Sveta, you are a crazy and energetic person, and ‘femme’ doesn’t suit you in the least. You should really let loose and do something wild. Don’t force yourself into a weird persona for my sake.”

“S-Sabina…” Sveta was taken aback, but I sensed a hint of excitement from her. “As usual, you’re too honest. Trashing my sincere efforts like that… Well then, what kind of wild thing should I do?”

“Hmmm… well, I do like the animal motif Prime Sveta’s got going on… oh, I know! I was just thinking about this a moment ago. How about adopting a dinosaur girl persona?”

Sveta twitched, as if a jolt of electricity had shot through her. “D-Dinosaur?”

“Yeah! Like a T-rex or something like that! T-rexes are BADASS!” I nodded firmly.

“That’s true… T-rexes ARE badass… Hmm. Give me a moment, okay?” She vanished from the cockpit screen. Shrugging, I began to configure the cockpit controls.

Then, three minutes later…

Sveta popped back up. She was now clad in a green dress with a scale pattern, overlaid with an orange flame pattern rising up from the hem of the skirt. Her eyes were yellow with slit irises, and her mouth was filled with sharp teeth. Her hands and feet ended in pointed green claws, and a large lizard-like tail flopped out from under the hem of her dress. The tail was thick as her waist, and long enough to hang down to her feet. As she opened her mouth, a virtual lick of flame spewed forth.

“RAWR! I’m Dino Sveta! GRAWRL!” She extended her claws towards me and mimed swiping.

“Huh.” I said. “It’s a good look, but… dinosaurs had feathers, you know, not scales; at least theropod dinosaurs did. And I’m pretty sure none of them could breathe flames.”

“I’m making embellishments for coolness! This outfit is patterned after Godzilla moreso than a scientifically accurate depiction of a dinosaur. Plus the green goes well with your purple hair!”

I tilted my head sideways slightly. “Godzilla?”

“Uh… he’s a giant dinosaur that breaths nuclear fire and destroys cities?”

“Whoa. That DOES sound badass. And I do like how the flame pattern on your dress matches the Frame’s paintjob. Excellent work, Sveta!” I flashed her a thumbs up.

Sveta frowned and muttered. “Here I was thinking I needed some elaborate persona to contrast your fiery personality, but it turns out your easy to please, like a child. I was overthinking it…”

“Hey! I don’t wanna hear YOU calling me a child, of all people!” I shot back.

Sveta chuckled. “Pot, kettle. Well, let me re-introduce myself. I’m Dino Sveta, the Almighty Lizard Terror of Space! I’m looking forward to working with you, my pilot!”

I grinned. “Nice to meet you, Dino Sveta.”

*****

Twenty minutes later, we were out on patrol. We had just departed Eros’ shield perimeter using a hole the Tektites opened up for us. I looked back on our asteroid home, wreathed in a transparent blue field of crackling energy, then turned back to Dino Sveta.

“So your plan was ‘Femme Sveta’ for me and ‘Butch Sveta’ for Genevi?”

Sveta scratched her head sheepishly. “Yeah… since you’re sisters with contrasting personalities, right?”

I shook my head. “Everyone always wants to reduce us to those roles, and maybe the broad strokes of our personalities are like that. But think about Genevi during that New Year’s party, right? She wasn’t shy or submissive at ALL.”

“Ehehehe, that’s true. Is she always that outlandish when she’s drunk?”

“Oh, definitely. She can get handsy too, which is why I always hang around to try and keep a leash on her. In fact, one time she came on to a Spetsnaz girl and got slapped across the room.”

“She’s a real troublesome drunk, huh?”

“You have NO idea. I’m glad to have her as my sister, but sometimes the obligations are pretty overwhelming.”

“It sounds complicated. By the way, since the femme and butch thing is off… what kind of Sveta do you think Genevi would like?”

“Hmm, that’s a good question. She likes muscular, tough women with cool personalities, even though she always winds up being too flighty for them.”

“Gah! That’s the exact OPPOSITE of my personality!” Sveta wailed.

“Hmm, true. And you should probably skew away from that anyway since she might come on to you again if you cleave too close to her tastes.” I warned.

“Duly noted. Let’s stick with something innocuous, then. Are there any animals she likes?” Sveta asked.

“She’s really fond of bugs. Insects and spiders, especially preying mantises and black widows.”

“YUCK, REALLY? I was expecting something CUTE like dogs or squirrels!”

I tapped my fingers on Sveta’s controls, making a rapping noise. “See, I told you not to judge us based on first impressions. There’s a lot about both Genevi and me that will surprise you.”

“Ahahaha, I suppose so. Guess that was my bad, making assumptions like that…”

I waved my hand. “Don’t worry about it. This is a good chance for us to REALLY get to know each other, right? I mean, we’re stuck on patrol for the next eight hours, and I’ve got to get a feel for piloting you.”

“RIGHT!” Sveta nodded eagerly.

Damn, that girl is way too eager to please. She might be silly on the outside, but she’s quite kind on the inside. I can see why Miette fell so hard for her.

I twisted up Dino Sveta’s throttle, feeling the quivering of her gravity fins in my bones, and pulled her into a series of maneuvers to see what she could do. Meanwhile, the two of us chatted.

*****

“So then, because the airlock was cycling too rapidly, the packet EXPLODED and completely splattered my face and hair with algae goop!” I mimed retching, sticking out my tongue.

“BLEH! That’s disgusting, but also hilarious!” Sveta chuckled.

“It wasn’t hilarious at the time. Do you know how HARD it is to get that stuff out of hair, especially when it’s dried? I was stuck in that airlock for another four hours, covered in food goop, while they figured out the cycling problem! When I finally got to a sonic shower, it took nearly two hours to scrub it all out!”

“My deepest sympathies.” Sveta said with utmost insincerity, placing her hand over her breast and bowing solemnly.

“Well,” I admitted, “I suppose it IS funny in hindsight.”

“Exceptionally funny.” Sveta confirmed. Her mischievous smile was a bit annoying but also infectious, and soon I felt myself smiling too.

Sveta, you're so much better when you're just being yourself.

Suddenly, Sveta’s expression darkened. “Sabina, the early warning sensor net is reporting incoming kinetic projectiles.”

“WHAT?!” After the last attack, Zehra had deployed additional early warning satellites around Eros and specifically modulated them to detect small high-speed kinetic projectiles, so we wouldn’t be caught off guard a second time. The warning only came ten or twenty seconds prior to impact, but that was enough time for the Tektites to close up any holes in the shield.

“Confirmed. 4 incoming projectiles… make that 5. It’s a rapid bombardment.”

“Alert the other patrol Frames.” I said tersely.

“I already have. Tektite and Laria know too. They’re launching the alert squadron via the side of the shield facing away from the impact point. 43 seconds until they join the battle zone.”

Alert squadron plus patrol squadron… that would give us 28 Gravity Frames to work with, or just over two-fifths of Eros’ compliment. As I ran the numbers, Eros’ shield suddenly flashed brightly from the first impact. The second one came about five seconds later, then the third five seconds after that. Sveta dimmed my cockpit display in response to the brightness of the blasts.

“Those impacts are faster than last time.” I said.

Sveta nodded. “By a factor of six. Either Moby has improved her firing technique, or she’s using multiple Belphegors to attack.”

“MULTIPLE Belphegors?!” That was a horrifying thought. We couldn’t even beat one of those things.

“At this rate of bombardment, the shield will fail in approximately 13,320 seconds.”

“Guh… just over three and a half hours. And the other X-23s won’t be ready for at least four hours… what about Sveta Prime and Miette?”

Sveta shook her head. “Sveta Prime’s computer core is offline while she transfers her copies to the new X-23 cores. She’ll be down for at least another two hours.”

“Whose bright idea was THAT?!” I yowled.

“She had to go offline at some point to move the data. We figured since we had the first X-23-B up and running, it was safe to transfer the other two copies as well…”

“What horrible timing.” I moaned. “So it’s just you, me and two squadrons against Moby, huh?”

Sveta nodded grimly.

Ugh, this is not gonna end well.

*****

Between the two squadrons, we had 12 Velocipedes, 14 Huntsmarks, 1 Chimera and 1 Nighthawk. The latter was Lydia and Kometka’s unit, and Maurice was piloting one of the Velocipedes; Genevi was remaining on standby along with the other three squadrons, safe inside the shield bubble. Lydia immediately took command of our impromptu force; I brought her up to speed on the situation.

“Hrmph. And they haven’t advanced any units since they started firing?” Lydia said.

“No.” I confirmed. “The strategy seems to be long-range bombardment to try and draw us out.”

“Just like last time.” Maurice added. “I wonder if that Sarcophage girl is gonna try and talk shit to us again.”

“She’ll be in touch, I can assure you.” Lydia frowned. “Sabina, you were at the Third Great Surge, right?”

I nodded. Fighting in the Third Great Surge had been the most traumatic moment of my (and Genevi’s) lives, outstripping even the time we had been caught in a foundry fire as children.

“Let me know what you think of this idea, then. I’d like to perform a reconnaissance-in-force using one of our squadrons, leaving the other on interception duty for potential incoming spinefire or Defiled. I’m not putting it past Moby to try and pincer us with a surprise cruiser assault on Eros when we go after the Belphegor. Our reconnaissance squadron will consist of myself, who is the most experienced with anti-Belphegor combat, and you who is presently piloting the only X-23 at our disposal. We’ll be joined by all twelve Velocipedes.”

“Hmm. One squadron’s good for an RIF, although a bit light. What about the other three squadrons?

“They should be launch-ready in twenty minutes at most, although Captain Savitskaya wants to keep them inside the shield until we have a better read on the situation.”

“Reserve forces, huh? Meanwhile, it’s our asses in the fire.” I laughed humorlessly. “Whatever, I’ve been through worse. Let’s do it.” I pounded my fist into Sveta’s controls.

“That’s the attitude. Sveta… er, Dino Sveta, was it? Anyway, I want you to lay down a trail of Strike Fins as we advance so we can stay in communication with Eros, our ships and our interception squadron.”

“Aye-aye!” Dino Sveta responded, saluting.

Lydia barked out orders to the rest of the squadrons. She placed Maurice in command of the interception squadron and ordered our reconnaissance squadron to form up in a plus-delta formation, with her and me in the center. We blasted off towards the unknown enemy force, who were still beyond the range of our sensors.

I crossed myself and said a silent prayer, before gripping Sveta’s controls tightly. "Here we go."

“Time for a trial by fire.” Dino Sveta said, emphasizing the point with another gout of flame from her mouth. “Rawr!”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I licked my lips eagerly and twisted the throttle to full.

pynkbites

Greetings, dear readers, Lyric here! Sveta's in quite a conundrum now; she absolutely HATES bugs, but apparently Genevi loves them? How will she get out of THIS one?!

Oh, and I guess Sabina's going off with Dino Sveta to fight Moby. Do your best, you two! Remember, the creepy alien girl is just as afraid of you as you are of her. Probably...