I know I have a reputation as something of a battle-hungry blood knight, but discretion is just as important as bravado. And charging into battle against a Belphegor, an enemy humanity has never been able to defeat, with only TWO Gravity Frames… that’s demonstrating a remarkable lack of discretion.

Nothing for it, I suppose. I just needed to pull off a feat unmatched in human history and somehow make back alive. No big deal!

Though I did wish Sveta wasn't so enthusiastic about the whole damn thing.

“BWAHAHAHAHA! Moby, HERE WE COME!” She was spewing flames from her sharp-toothed mouth to emphasize her excitement.

“Settle down, Sveta.” Lydia said gruffly. Kometka was silent, but I also saw disapproval in her eyes.

“H-Hey! I just enjoy my job!” Sveta protested, her flames extinguished by the cold glares she was getting from all three of us.

“Doing your job competently takes precedent over enjoying it.” Lydia’s icy tone seemed to freeze the air; I wondered if she was channeling Laria, just a bit. I swore I saw Sveta shiver as Lydia continued. “Now, give me a damage report on the X-23 and your remaining Strike Fins.”

Sveta pouted a bit, but complied. “Two minor microfractures, one in the left leg’s armor and the other on the right arm’s RCS fin. Neither are serious. I have twenty-six Strike Fins remaining, and since we’re inside the Belphegor’s gravity field I can’t contact the ones in the relay for backup.”

Lydia nodded. “Alright so… DODGE!”

Another gravity wave came hurling towards us, courtesy of Moby. I careened Sveta towards the left, and Lydia arced towards the right. We were maneuverable enough that the wave blasted past without damaging either of us. Lydia was right when she said two Frames would have a much easier time dodging such a massive, telegraphed attack.

“…As I was saying.” Lydia continued calmly. “Most of the Belphegor is coated in the same super-hard chitin as the Beelzebubs. Weak parts are the joints on the legs and tails. We’ll be aiming for the latter. However, the joints between the tail segments are composed of connective tissue that’s about 75% as durable as the chitin. Normally, you’d need battleship-class firepower to damage those weak spots.”

Another gravity attack arced towards us. We dodged again, then continued our conversation.

“Swing and a miss, Moby!” Sveta said smugly. “Your rip-off Backlash Wave can’t touch us!”

“…I digress. Even with the upgraded quad-cannons on the X-23, we can’t hope to scratch that connective tissue. That means kinetic impacts are the order of the day. I’m going to work on pinning down the upper tail, and you aim for the joints with the Strike Fins. If we do enough damage, the tail will be damaged enough to be rendered nonfunctional.”

“Meaning Moby will have to choose between shielding her fleet or attacking us with her sole remaining tail.” Kometka added.

Moby, apparently frustrated by her failure to hit us, directed her five remaining cruisers to open up with spinefire, and sent a surge of Frame-class creatures towards us to boot. Sveta easily intercepted the incoming attack with suppressive positron fire from her Strike Fins, which were darting around like hummingbirds.

“Watch the limbs and cilia when you get close. If they catch hold of you, you’re not breaking free easily. Trust me on that one.” Lydia warned grimly.

“Yes ma’am.” I responded.

And with that rather dubious plan drawn up, we dove towards the colossal, repulsive body of the Belphegor.

*****

In order to keep clear of the Belphegor’s writhing appendages which coated the main part of its body, we elected to perform divebombing runs from above. As usual, Moby seemed unduly focused on Lydia, so she baited the attacks from the tail away from me while Sveta took aim with her Strike Fins. Meanwhile, the Defiled cruisers continued to bombard us with spines from afar, all intercepted by the Strike Fins positron blasts. A few spines that missed us by a wide margin slammed into the exoskeleton of the Belphegor, not even leaving a scratch.

“I guess you don’t have to worry about friendly fire when you’re invulnerable…” I muttered.

“Sabina, once I start smashing Strike Fins into that thing, my suppressive fire will be negatively affected.” Sveta cautioned. “You’ll need to pick up the slack so the spinefire and enemy creatures don’t break through.”

“Leave it to me.” I said, flashing a thumbs up.

The Belphegor’s tail stood straight up as it strained to trap Lydia’s zig-zagging Nighthawk in its massive pincer. Lydia baited it until the last moment, then expertly dodged the snap of the pincer by only a few meters while unleashing a barrage of positron fire. It was a gutsy move, dodging death my such a slim margin, and I made a mental note to be properly impressed by her piloting skills after the battle was over.

With the tail stretched out, Sveta aimed four Strike Fins at the segments closest to the base, where its range of motion was most limited. Meanwhile, I twisted Sveta around in a spin and took aim at the incoming spines, blasting them with all five of her positron cannons.

There were four staccato bright flashes at the base of the tail; Sveta temporarily darkened her cockpit display until the flashes faded. I let out a semi-involuntary whoop. “NICE!”

Sveta grimaced. “Not really. The connective tissue is only slightly damaged. Even that thing’s weak spots are tough as nails.”

“Again.” Lydia said. “We’ll hit it as many times as it takes.” She dove the Nighthawk back towards the tail to bait it once more.

This time, Moby didn’t chase after Lydia, keeping the tail coiled up in anticipation of another kinetic strike. Frowning, Lydia smashed into the tail with a rapid diving kick before blasting back up again.

“Hey, bitch! I’m right here! Come get me!” Lydia screamed at Moby. We didn’t have open gravity comms with the Belphegor, so the gesture was more symbolic than anything; regardless, Moby kept the tail coiled, hunkering down.

Adapting to the situation, Sveta weaved a couple of Strike Fins around to the Belphegor’s rear and took aim at the base of the tail from the outside of its coil. There were two more impacts.

“We’re making progress!” Sveta said gleefully. “The connective tissue is starting to fray!”

Just then, the Belphegor’s tail began to glow red once more, indicating Moby was preparing another gravity attack. The spinefire dropped off, and the Frame-class enemies pulled away. I prepared to dodge.

“Something’s different about this attack!” Sveta yelled. “The gravitational field she’s generating is more diffuse than last time!”

“I concur.” Kometka added. “I cannot predict what form this attack will take. I suggest we put some distance between us and her.”

Lydia and I began to pull away from the Belphegor. Just then, the scorpion tail started to whip around like a tornado, sending shockwaves of gravity outwards in every direction. It was like an earthquake in the fabric of space-time.

“SHIELD!” Sveta screamed. She directed her drive fins to form a protective gravity bubble around the X-23, and I felt my entire skeleton shake painfully as the gravity shockwaves slammed into us. I squeezed my eyes shut and grit my teeth, trying to ride it out.

About thirty second later, just as I was feeling like I was about to pass out, the shaking subsided. I opened my eyes and stared at the surrounding battlefield in utter shock.

The gravity earthquake had completely pulverized all the Frame-class creatures and incoming spines, leaving big clouds of fleshy debris floating everywhere. The Defiled hadn’t been affected, and were slowly launching new creatures to replace their slaughtered swarms.

“Wh…” I began, trying to express my shock without being able to form complete sentences just yet.

“It was an area-of-effect attack.” Sveta reported. “It was dispersed enough that I was able to mostly shield us using just my drive fins, but anything weaker than a Gravity Frame was completely smashed.”

I composed myself. “Why would Moby sacrifice so many of her own units? Wait, you said everything was smashed? Does that mean…?”

Sveta nodded. “All of my Strike Fins have been destroyed.”

“Shit.”

Just then, Kometka let out an entirely uncharacteristic screech. “SVETA! SVETA! LYDIA IS INJURED!”

A screen with her vitals popped up. I could see on the video comm that Lydia was leaning over to one side, likely unconscious. Her Inertia Suit was cracked in several places; clearly Kometka had less luck neutralizing the gravity earthquake than Sveta, probably due to her lower power output.

Sveta analyzed the data. “Hrm. Internal bleeding. It’s not severe yet, but left untreated it could be life-threatening.”

Kometka’s usually calm demeanor was gone entirely. “We should retreat, NOW! We need to get her to a doctor!”

Just then, the cruisers opened up with another barrage of spinefire. Lacking the Strike Fins to run interception, Kometka and I fired our positron cannons while dodging at the same time.

Sveta frowned as we fired. “Kometka, are you undamaged enough to escape the battlefield?”

Komekta nodded, still frazzled but rapidly reasserting control of herself. “My left leg and right arm are completely shorted out, but I still have all my primary drive fins and half my RCS fins.”

“And could you take an ejected cockpit with you, without hampering your mobility?”

Kometka tilted her head. “I… suppose? Why?”

I picked up on what she was suggesting immediately. “Oh no. No you fucking don’t, Sveta.”

“It’s the most logical course of action!” Sveta argued. “Without Strike Fins, the only kinetic projectiles we have left are Gravity Frames! Kometka can get you to safety while I finish the mission!”

“Wait… you aren’t thinking of ramming YOURSELF into the Belphegor?!” Kometka said, shocked.

“Why not?” Sveta said. “An X-23 is much more massive and powerful than a Strike Fin. I should be able to heavily damage it.”

I shook my head firmly. “Firstly, I’m not letting you sacrifice yourself like that.”

“It’s alright!” Sveta argued. “I’m only one-fourth of Sveta, a copy! Sveta Prime can just split off another one of me! The only thing I’m sacrificing are a few hours of my memory!”

I drove my fist into the cockpit wall, causing Sveta’s projected hologram to waver for a moment. The X-23 spun out of control, reacting not to my punch but a lack of pilot input. “Shut the fuck up, Sveta.”

“Wh-Wh-Wh…” She blubbered, unsure of how to react to my outburst.

I grabbed her controls and pulled her out of the spin, narrowly dodging a cluster of spines; I guided Sveta away from the Belphegor and Kometka followed. “Even if you’re only a few hours old, that doesn’t make you less valuable than any other life. You say you'll only lose a few hours of your memory, but those are memories we made TOGETHER! Are you the same Sveta that cut my sister out of her cockpit when she faced certain death? Are you the same Sveta who rescued Teles from a bisected ship, and told her ‘nobody gets left behind?’”

“I… I…”

“If you ARE the same Sveta, then stop making such stupid-ass suggestions. Even if you are a copy, even if you are only a few hours old, you’re MY Sveta. I’m not allowing you to die.” I delivered that proclamation with such ferocity, I was a bit surprised at myself.

Sveta’s mouth opened and closed, but no sounds came out. Tears welled up in her eyes.

“That’s that.” I said with an air of finality. “Kometka, do you mind if I slice off your damaged arm and leg?”

Komekta, whose was focusing on the two of us with rapt attention, started as I addressed her. “What?”

“Sveta, do you remember that maneuver I pulled when we were first fighting the Bladebugs?” I asked.

Sveta slapped her cheeks and wiped her eyes, taking a moment to gather herself before responding. “I-I-I think so? Your Huntsmark’s arm got sliced off, and you grabbed it and threw it in a Bladebug’s face! The exploding positron rifle blasted it to pieces.”

I nodded. “It’s a bit late, but I’m calling it the Sabina Maneuver; no plagiarism intended. So, I’m going to chop off Kometka’s two damaged limbs. Then the two of you are going to generate a gravity field like a linear accelerator using your drive fins, and we’ll blast the severed robot limbs straight at the base of the tail. With two Frames providing power, the impact velocity should be higher than a battery-powered Strike Fin.”

“You want us to form an impromptu railgun?” Kometka asked.

I nodded. “The two of you have gotten fairly good at manipulating your gravity fields. Are you up for it?”

Kometka nodded. Sveta burst into a huge grin, her earlier tears forgotten.

“The Sabina Maneuver Mark II, huh? Let’s go for it!”

*****

Kometka wound up slicing her damaged limbs off herself, using the plasma blade on her undamaged arm. I provided suppressive fire against the incoming spines so she could work in peace.

Once she finished dismembering herself, she placed the severed limbs between our two Frames and joined me in providing suppressive fire. The AI sisters began to modulate their gravity fields to form a long gravity railgun, getting ready to blast them at the Belphegor.

“Hmm… the spinefire’s not letting up.” I observed. “And the freshly launched Frame-class creatures are starting to join the fray as well.” We were lacking an opening to fire; at this rate, our kinetic projectiles would hit the swarm instead of the Belphegor.

Hmm, what to do, what to do… I snapped my fingers as an idea popped into my head. “Kometka, Sveta, let’s launch our rifles at them first.”

““Huh?”” they said in unison.

“We’ll set them to overload, and then blast them at the swarm using the railgun a half-second before they go critical. The explosion should cause enough of a break in the swarm to launch the limbs.”

Sveta and Kometka complied, setting both rifles to overload and tossing them into the center of their jury-rigged railgun array. A second before they overloaded, the drive fins on both Frames flared and the rifles rocketed towards the enemy.

There were two large, simultaneous explosions. Before the light faded, the sisters flared the drive fins again and launched the severed limbs through the area cleared by the rifles’ detonation. The limbs arced towards the Belphegor at about triple the velocity of a Strike Fin, making up for lesser mass with greater speed.

There were two larger flashes. I squinted as Sveta darkened the cockpit display again. When the flashes faded, I saw the Belphegor’s tail was damaged, hanging on by only a couple of strands of muscle at the base. It was completely immobile.

“YES!” I screamed joyfully. “We got her!”

“WOO-HOO! That idea was brilliant, Sabina!” Sveta was beaming a bright smile.

The Belphegor rolled around, exposing its undamaged tail to us. That second tail began to coil up and glow bright red; Moby was preparing to attack us again.

“Sveta!” I barked. “Is the shield down?”

“Yup!” Sveta replied. Moby was trying to strike at us with the Belphegor’s remaining good tail, which meant she was no longer maintaining the gravity shield.

“Do you have contact with your Strike Fin relay?”

“Yup!”

Perfect. Lydia had sent a message for Captain Savitskaya with one of the retreating Frames from our squadron, requesting a specific deployment. “Is everything in place?”

Sveta nodded happily. “I already sent the signal.”

Just then, a twin barrage of artillery fire slammed into the enemy fleet, coming from the direction of Eros. Lydia had requested the Captain deploy two carriers, and have them stand by to launch an artillery strike once we created an opening. Now that plan had come to fruition. I glanced over to Lydia’s unconscious form.

You did it, Lydia. Your plan worked perfectly, with a little help from me. I silently crossed myself and prayed for her health.

As two of the Defiled cruisers exploded, I throttled Sveta up. “We’re retreating to Eros. Sveta, let them know we’re declaring a medical emergency. Kometka, send them the information on Lydia’s condition.”

As we accelerated back towards our base, joining up with the rest of our squadron at waypoint gamma, I saw the Belphegor and the remains of Moby’s fleet begin to retreat. Sveta sent the remaining Strike Fins from her relay towards the fleet at impact velocity, and a fourth cruiser exploded before they got out of range.

We had won, but the victory felt bittersweet. I just hoped Lydia would be alright.