Gaiadan.

  Aster stared at the machine before him. The word had popped into his mind as soon as he had seen it.

  Gaiadan…

  The word felt familiar in a way that he couldn’t understand. But he didn’t know how he knew what it was called. Something within him just seemed to know. But why?

  The mobile frame…

  The Gaiadan strode resolutely like a hero as it exited the holding bay of the starship in front of him, from a top-side hatch of the starship in front of him, as it took its place on the long and thin linear catapult of the starship that had extended to either side of it.

  It was a humanoid mechanical machine painted in the colors of Gaia. A color scheme of green and blue that reminded him of the planet itself, trimmed and outlined with gold, on a white backdrop. Its eyes were mechanical and sharp, yet had such warmth to them. The lenses of its eye sensors were a vivid green like the green of Gaia’s surface. On its head was a golden crown of laurels that spiked in a V on its forehead.

  Despite its entirely mechanical nature, angular and blocky wth few curves, it seemed alive to him in a way that seemed impossible for a machine. It was like life itself radiated from it, which seemed so paradoxical as a machine of war, one meant to destroy and kill.

  The machine itself carried an assortment of equipment. In one arm was a long, black particle rifle. In the other arm, a long triangular shield. On its back were sharp fins that seemed like the ones on Lelesia’s machine, the Azul Azuvelzeia, though these were larger than the ones that machine had carried as they extended from the machine's head to toe.

  Something about the Gaiadan pulled Aster to it. But what?

  As the Gaia Sphere Federation fleet in front of him pushed through the still-fighting but broken Settlement Front Alliance fleet before them, the remnants of it either retreated or fought to the bitter end, a massive barrage of weapons fire came from beyond to its flank from a perpendicular angle, from an oblique angle, from the top down to the federation fleet. Purple particle beams cut into the fleet, followed by kinetic projectiles and missile fire.

  The new enemy fleet didn’t waste any time as it pushed at full acceleration, both its starships and its escorting mobile frames, closing the distance and moving in to engage in point-blank combat.

  Amidst a torrent of enemy fire, the machine launched, blue streaks of electric lightning following along its feet as the catapult propelled it forward at high speed, giving it acceleration. It took off from the catapult, like a hero soaring into battle, moving to meet the new enemy forces head-on, followed by the rest of the federation's mobile frames behind it.

  It had a presence about it as it soared amongst the stars like it was meant to be there. On the battlefield, those around it, friend and foe, seemed to give it a wide berth as it streaked like a shooting star, a fiery trail of blue blazing behind it as it zig-zagged faster than the other machines around it. It was an instantly recognizable sight to all.

  Its pure speed and acceleration made it dance around the enemy machines that hopelessly tried to keep up with it. A machine whose performance was supreme on the battlefield, just like the Azul Azuvelzeia, which had made short work of the previous enemy fleet.

  The Gaiadan didn’t charge straight into the enemy fleet but between it and the federation fleet, unlike the Azul Azuvelzeia, which had charged out ahead to destroy the enemy. And not only that, unlike the Azul Azuvelzeia, which overpowered its enemies through sheer might, this machine was different.

  It moved with a grace and maneuverability that put even the Azul Azuvelzeia and all the other machines around it to shame. It effortlessly dodged and predicted every machine’s movements, every attack aimed against it. It found gaps between particle beams, missiles, and kinetic projectiles that he didn’t think were possible.

  When it had to fire in response to the enemy, it had none of the brute force of the Azul Azuvelzeia. A single shot. A single kill. As it danced against its opponents, effortlessly moving in circles around them, every shot found its mark, and save for those few skilled enough to block or dodge, every foe fell in short order.

  The skill of the pilot was something to behold.

  Then, the large, sharp fins on its back detached and accelerated at blistering speed, taking off in all directions, firing at the enemy from multiple directions as they seemed to move in a way that seemed like they were directly controlled by the mind, cutting a swath through its enemies.

  But the fins didn’t merely attack; they also protected. They began to form various shapes of blue light— triangles, squares, and more—that protected friendly starships and mobile frames alike from death.

  Then, as a federation mobile frame shot at a disabled and drifting enemy mobile frame, a dark red particle beam about to destroy it, a blue shield formed of those fins appeared in front of it, blocking the shot. The Gaiadan repeated it again and again as it protected those helpless disabled enemies who could no longer fight from its friendly forces, which were out for blood, taking no prisoners this day, even as it still killed its enemies.

  It was a strange paradoxical duality. A machine that not only dispensed death but also life, not just its friends but also its enemies.

  A machine of death that had become a star of hope as it moved among the battlefield.

  “Even at the end, she never stopped hoping,” Lelesia said by his side. Her voice was quiet and morose.

  “She? You mean the pilot of that machine?” Aster asked. “That… Gaiadan?”

  Lelesia turned to him. Both of them drifted weightlessly in their ghostly emerald forms as the backdrop of the war happened all around them.

  “Did anyone tell you of that word?”

  “No. I just… felt it was right.”

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  “That machine… it is indeed called a Gaiadan. And I suppose it’s fitting that someone like you would be able to know what it is without even being told what it is.”

  “What do you mean?”

  What was a Gaiadan, and who was the pilot of this machine?

  Lelesia never responded as she looked again at the ensuing battle.

  Aster’s attention was drawn to new machines that entered the battle, and he could see they were special machines of their own. One of them was a humanoid machine, dark blue and purple trimmed in silver to contrast against the Gaiadan’s own. The other was an equally large machine as the Azul Azuvelzeia, long and spiky. Both of these machines moved against the Federation fleet, effortlessly running circles and cutting down Federation forces with similar weapons to the Azul Azuvelzeia and the Gaiadan, as easily as they had against the Settlement Front Alliance.

  Both the Azul Azuvelzeia and the Gaiadan moved quickly and intercepted both of them. And all the machines danced a deadly duel, a skilled dance against one another, intertwined and at incredible speed, trying to maneuver and get around one another, practically blurring as they exchanged weapon fire, rifle against rifle, remote weapon against remote weapon. They were moving with speed and intensity that they were mere streaks of light amidst the flashing explosions.

  Then, right before them, the Gaiadan collided with the enemy humanoid dark blue and purple machine, in a clash of particle sabers. The Gaiadan’s golden yellow saber against the enemy’s silver saber. Then they pressed off one another as they accelerated off into the distance.

  Even as the fighting continued all around them, the gravity of the battle continued to move towards the giant asteroid off in the distance that was rapidly closing in on Gaia’s orbit. All fighting seemed to converge steadily around it.

  The asteroid itself was one massive enemy mobile fortress, even as it made its way to Gaia as one massive kinetic weapon, machines and starships still launched from it to enter the battle. Even from a distance, Aster could see how vast it was.

  Then, massive flashes of light, as large and wide as the cylindrical colonies themselves, shot off from a distance. It was so bright that Aster had to turn away from it. Massive streaks of consuming light that vaporized all in its path, destroying colonies on a collision course with Gaia.

  One of these massive flashes of light impacted the asteroid itself. Yet, had done little damage. There was a light where the asteroid had been hit. Some kind of shielding had protected it.

  No matter how many losses either the Settlement Front Alliance or the Gaia Sphere Federation took, neither side would back down. Both sides threw everything they had into the grinder.

  Then, as the asteroid began to descend to Gaia’s surface through the atmosphere, with a bright orange-red light on its tip, Aster could feel the soul-crushing despair of those involved, the feelings of regret and failure.

  Then he heard it. A sound in the void of space where there should be none. It was a steady, gentle tune as if it were a mother’s lullaby.

  La… La… La… La…

  It was ghostly and ethereal, ringing out across space.

  Yet, it wasn’t just he who could hear it. It seemed as if everyone else on the battlefield could as well in the vision, regardless of where they were. The gentle tune seemed to befuddle those around the battle, mystifying friend and foe alike, even as they continued to fight.

  La… La… La… La…

  Aster’s head began to hurt again.

  La La La… La La La…

  What was this? Who was singing his tune? And why?

  La… La… La… La…

  Aster turned and saw that Lelesia was morose beside her at the tune.

  La… La… La… La…

  Then, a strange flash washed over him, and he looked off in the distance. From an infinitesimal point came a prismatic light that grew and grew. From around where the asteroid was and the intense fighting, it expanded, growing larger in exponential fashion, before it overtook everything in a cocophony of light, a kaleidoscope of color and shape, as reality and time seemed to fall away, enveloping everything and everyone within it.

  Was that the Astral Nova?!

  Then the world around him reappeared, and he was back at Alsium Two as if no time had passed at all.

  Aster blinked, then realized that Lelesia, who had her claw around his throat, had thrown him to the ground beside Fia.

  “Do you understand now boy?” Lelesia asked.

  “I…” Aster said, the pain of his injuries momentarily forgotten. What did he understand? He understood even less now. Yet, he felt like he could better understand Lelesia, the reasons why she and others had so much hate and anger from that war.

  “For we who were part of that war, how can you possibly know how we feel? Our hopes? Our dreams? Look at all those who trampled over them,” Lelesia said.

  Aster thought back to the Gaiadan and its pilot, who had tried to be a kind of hope on the battlefield, even amidst the realities of war. That pilot who had killed their enemies and saved them when they were defeated, rather than murdering them when they were helpless, in anger and hatred.

  “Even so…” Aster began. “I still want to hope. Can’t people just have hope? Even if it becomes meaningless in the end, why do you have to take away that choice? Isn’t it enough to be able to just hope in the first place?”

  Lelesia looked at him for a moment. Then laughed. “This stupid world can’t change. Even when it saw the brilliance of the future before it. Rather, the world refused to change.” Lelesia’s eyes softened. “Still, you remind me of someone. She probably would have said the same thing.”

  Did she mean the pilot of that Gaiadan?

  “Who—”

  Then, Lelesia hopped back as jets of liquid, moving at high speed and pressure, drilled through where Lelesia had once been. She casually dodged and knocked them aside as she easily evaded them as they whipped around her.

  “Mechu,” Lelesia said. “Always with the impeccable timing.”

  To Aster and Fia’s side, Lieutenant Commander Mechu appeared, the slime mimic materializing quickly in her humanoid form, wearing her dark black and red uniform, peaked cap, and all.

  Mechu looked at Lelesia in annoyance. “You need to stop making more work for me.”

  “You know, I never did like you much Mechu,” Lelesia said. “You’re sense of timing always did annoy me. Especially during the End War.”

  “So what? I’ve never liked you much either,” Mechu replied. “You’re lack of sense for timing is something I just could never understand.”

  Tendrils of liquid helped Aster and Fia up, and Mechu turned towards Aster and Fia. “Aster. Fia. Captain August is being held up. I’ll take care of this. Go to Selenia and make sure she’s safe.”

  Fia nodded wordlessly as Aster looked between Mechu and Lelesia, then nodded as well. He wrapped his arms around Fia, then, together with her, pushed off the ground with their good legs, taking off into the air. Fia grunted in pain as she flapped her arm-wings, despite one of them being broken, accelerating both of them to high speed.

  Massive drills of string came for them only to be stopped by similar drills of high-speed and pressure fluid. Yet, Aster got the sense that Lelesia’s attempts to stop them from leaving were more half-hearted than anything.

  Aster glanced back to see Mechu engage in fierce combat with Lelesia as they blurred in high speed against one another. Mechu was also a veteran of the End War. Someone who, like Lelesia, had seen heavy frontline combat. Someone who could match Lelesia.

  Aster turned forward as he and Fia made rapid progress, moving at high speed. As his mind raced with thoughts about everything that had happened, amidst it all, he wondered what Selenia had to do with any of this. Not just the Despar Dominion but also the Selenar Union, why would so many attempt to kill her?