Chapter 3 - Falling Stars

Sitting atop her MF, Freya Abby didn’t have a care in the world. A fiery sunset had just sunk below the horizon, the billions of colors it had created on the sky slowly fading to black as Mars continued to turn on its axis. Even the red tones of the soil turned to grey as the world turned from day to night. The lady’s visage grew dimmer as well, deepening the green of her hair until it almost looked black in the night and bringing out the blue-violet fire in her eyes.

“Is that how it is? Does red always fade to gray?” She was older now, a woman in her own right and a better pilot to boot. Freya had become despondent as well since she witness the horrors produced by the TA and EPA. It saddened Freya that her own nation could produce such horrible weapons, specifically the cannon Rebel had used on the Earth in his final hours of madness.

“…No. The red is still there Freya; you just can’t see it for the moment.” Clive Chapman, a slim bodied MF pilot who had befriended her during the Azure Cup, was sitting across from her on the shoulder of him own MF. His rugged brown hair was a mess, hanging over his sea blue eyes like a muddy sheet. Clive never combed the untamed mass unless there was a special occasion, and this obviously wasn’t one. “That’s what I’ve been telling you all along. If we let ourselves get blinded by what we’ve done or failed to do, then we’ll never be able to do anything to fix it. This is why we joined Red Fury, remember?”

“Yeah… but what about everyone else that we left behind? I can’t help but feel that everyone else has slipped away somehow. It’s like they don’t even see what’s happening around them.” She lifted one of her lithe hands before her face shaking her head. “Even when it’s this close Clive, they can’t see it. It scares me.”

Clive nodded, remaining silent as a breath of wind swept over them. They both shuddered as the nighttime chill attacked them. Checking his watch, the messy haired man gave a short laugh. “How long is our patrol supposed to be?”

“I don’t know, six hours? Why, what time is it?”

“It’s Eight-Thirty P.M., and we’ve still got an hour to burn until we go back.” Clive lay back on the shoulder of Aurora, the lightweight MF he had acquired during his years in the TA military. It was thin, but had extremely powerful boosters and several different blade weapons for close combat. The direct opposite of Freya’s MF, which focused completely on ranged combat. Patting its metal frame, Clive released a heavy sigh that became a cloud of vapors in the night sky. “Jeez, even talking is getting boring. I really need to bring a book or something next time we do this.”

“Hey, I heard that!” In a fury, Freya threw her helmet at him, watching it sail into his exposed stomach and hearing the pained cry that Clive emitted as it stuck. “That’s what you get for calling a lady boring!”

Rubbing his stomach in agony, Clive sat up and tossed it back to her. “I never said you were boring, just talking in and of itself. I mean, it’s not like the TA or EPA would willingly attack us right now. They know that doing so would leave them open to attacks from the other.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure, Clive. You of all people should know how hot headed the generals can be.” She wasn’t looking at him anymore, instead focusing on the horizon. “Besides, I can see six Shades moving in our direction.”

“What?!” He shot up like a rocket, searching the horizon for anything. His eyes tried to locate any movement, but it was futile. He knew from experience that Freya’s eyesight was the best of anyone he had ever met, and at times it seemed almost inhuman. He trusted that her eyes were still working correctly and got to his feet. “Get on the line to HQ. I’ll move into position in the mean time.”

“Yeah. Good luck!” Freya donned her helmet and jumped into her cockpit, sealing it and starting the pink and gold war machine. Its amber visor came to life as energy began flowing through its systems. Buckling into her chair, the green haired woman waited for her MF, Far Reacher, to complete its startup sequence while opening a communication line to their base of operations. “HQ, this is Freya. We’ve got bogies moving in from the west; six TA Shades.”

A voice reached back over the airwaves in response. “Freya, this is HQ. Confirm, six Shades?”

She nodded, taking on a serious face as she relayed the information. “Yes, six Shades due west. Clive and I are going to take them out.”

“Okay. Be careful though, we’ve also detected some EPA units in the area as well. They probably didn’t come here looking to fight us, but we’ll have to deal with them now. Good luck!”

“Right.” Freya nodded to herself as the line cut out. Far Reacher was up and running now, ready to play its role in the fight. The MF had been refitted since the days of the Chimera Incident, and now sported an improved rifle and a less bulky counter-recoil system. While it still moved slowly, the weight loss from the CR system alone made Far Reacher a much more agile machine. “Clive, are you ready?”

“Ten more seconds. Go ahead and open fire already; I know you’ve got a lock!”

“You bet I do!” Nudging the machine into a kneeling position, Freya lined up a shot in under a second and pulled the trigger, effectively sentencing a man to death. Her aim was true, and the MF she had targeted went up like a box of fire crackers as the solid shell plunged into its generator. The remaining Shades scattered, four finding cover as quickly as they could while the last fired blindly into the distance. Freya felt a pang of pity for the frightened pilot as she pulled the trigger a second time, a kill shot putting the pilot out of his misery. The green haired woman spotted two more explosions as her companion began his attack, cutting one enemy apart with a saber while impaling another one upon a spear. Yet another Shade dashed out of cover to try and rescue its dying brothers, but Freya brought it down with another pot shot. A sixth and final explosion ended the encounter as Clive bisected the last Shade with a saber attack, the black clouds that polluted Mar’s atmosphere mixing with the night sky. “…Poor kid never stood a chance…”

“They never stand a chance Freya,” Clive mused over the radio, “which makes this even harder of a job. I hate killing kids.”

“Yeah, and they don’t really give us much choice in the matter either…” Far Reacher slowly got to its feet, its sluggish movements almost a reflection of Freya’s mood. “Let’s head home. I’ve had enough, and I don’t think they got a SOS out so the EAP and TA probably won’t think it was us. They’ll blame it on eachother, and the cycle will continue.”

Aurora rode its thrusters back to Far Reacher, the blue-white glow they gave off lighting up the sky. “To the bitter end it seems, or at least until something big shakes everything up.”

After the two MFs reunited, they began the long walk back to the Red Fury base they had been stationed at. The stars were soon shining brightly in the sky.

“Hey, Clive?”

“Yeah Freya?”

She paused for a few seconds, biting her lip in contemplation. “… Do you think it’s possible for a single person to change the universe?”

“Woah, what brought this on? You’re really philosophical tonight, aren’t you?” Clive chuckled to himself for a few moments before becoming serious. “To tell you the truth Freya, that’s a question everyone should ponder at least once in their life. If you can find an answer on your own, then I’ll share mine with you, okay?”

She was comforted by the fact that Clive had an answer of his own, but having him leave her hanging like that still miffed her a bit. “Alright. I’ll think about it a little more, but you’d better tell me after I tell you!”

“Sure.”