Selenia remembered the first time she had seen a mobile frame when she had been young. Her brother Cesevial had sneaked her out to see a mobile frame in the hangar bays of the orbital colonies they had visited. Which they definitely should not have done. And she had been fascinated the first moment she had laid eyes on them as she floated and drifted weightless in zero gravity while holding her brother’s hand.

  She remembered muffling her chuckles along with her brother’s as they went from mobile frame to mobile frame, in the quiet darkness, in the dead of night, evading the occasional person. Even powered down, they seemed to be lifelike. So many makes and models. Each one was larger than even a fairly big building. Some for civilian purposes. Some for military ones. She still remembered her brother’s laughing smile, his silver hair, and eyes so bright like the stars of the universe.

  They both had an endless fascination with the machines.

  Well, that was how it was for everyone, really. There was an innate curiosity within a person whenever they saw one. The mobile frame had been born of the collective intellect and wisdom of the entire world of Gaia. A clear example of the progress that Gaia had made from its primitive origins. Of the heights that civilization had reached. People from all origins and places had come together to create it.

  Mobile frames had turned the world upside down.

  From her history lessons, the Gaia Sphere Federation, in its efforts to unify the planet, had stalled in both its diplomatic and military efforts. There had been no shortage of people opposed to it. And numerous coalitions had formed to stand against it. In its efforts to break the military deadlock, the Gaia Sphere Federation had embarked on different weapons projects. Until a series of breakthroughs had allowed for the idea of repurposing mobile frames, originally used for economic purposes in large-scale industrial and construction, for military use to be viable.

  With the mobile frame, the Gaia Sphere Federation had decisively defeated those who had risen to oppose it. And in the span of a single century, the Federation had overturned millennia of history. With overwhelming military force, those machines of supreme power on the battlefield had sometimes literally crushed all that had stood against the Federation.

  And it was one of those mobile frames that the Gaia Sphere Federation had used in its wars to unify the planet that now stood against them.

  Mobile frame GMF-03 Exan.

  The first mass-produced mobile frame by the Gaia Sphere Federation, which had been repurposed from machines intended for civilian use to military purposes in its war to unify the planet. A machine from the first generation of mobile frames. A machine with little of the refined expertise and know-how of later models. It was blocky with few curves. And its movements were more mechanical than fluid. It lacked grace as it lumbered around heavily. And though it was a machine, it had a kind of mechanical beauty from its grey industrial color scheme.

  Even so, even a first-generation mobile frame was something to be feared. Its armor was enough to protect it from even heavy weapons and attacks intended to level entire blocks of cities. It carried weapons strong enough to level entire blocks of cities. Within each one was a mind-boggling amount of technology to be considered a marvel. From the material science. To the smallest parts. To the miniature power plant that powered each one.

  Selenia blanched white as she stared down the kinetic rifle that was pointed right at their small group. It was an automatic rifle that first fired shells large enough and fast enough to core through a building and collapse it.

  Another shot came from the rifle, a flash of blue light from the barrel that appeared so fast and so quickly that they barely moved away in time before several nearby trees had exploded in chunks and pieces where they had once been, the debris acting as shrapnel as it hit her though her protective circlet flared to life, the silverish barrier coating her flashing with a sliverish energy sa it protected her.

  Garrod stood in front of her as she looked among her small group of protectors nervously. No matter how strong someone was, there was a limit to one’s raw individual strength compared to a technological and arcanogical marvel that was a mobile frame.

  Garrod held an arm in front of her as he looked deep in thought.

  “Hand over the princess,” a voice came from the machine. “Last warning.”

  “That voice,” Garrod said. Then he shouted. “Etoile?”

  “That’s right,” Etoile replied. “Did you think we’d bother trying to get past whoever SETI put to protecting that moon princess in infantry combat?” A laugh came out of the machine. “Hand over that princess.”

  Garrod looked around them. “Bastard. Do you not even care about your own allies?”

  The shell impacts had impacted close enough to nearly blow apart the unconscious AXIS soldiers.

  “They understand the risks to life and limb in combat,” Etoile replied. “And the possible cost of our cause.”

  Garrod went quiet, and Selenia could see he was thinking about their options. To run. To fight. To do anything. She didn’t like their chances in an actual fight.

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  “Well, there goes that idea of using them as shields,” Fafapan said from close by, the pixie making herself scarce, hidden amidst the bodies of the unconscious AXIS soldiers.

  Selenia gave Fafanpan a look as Garrod sighed.

  Saphie looked at them all with a blank, thinking expression for several moments before turning her attention towards the mobile frame before them. Saphie looked at the machine for several moments.

  Before anyone could think to do anything, Saphie suddenly ran towards it.

  “Alright, let’s do this!” Saphie yelled. “I’m going to be a hero!”

  “Saphie, you idiot!” Fafapan yelled after her, poking herself up and out of her hiding spot amidst the bodies of the AXIS soldiers. “Don’t run towards the giant machine that could squish you with its foot!”

  “Don’t worry. I got this!” Saphie shouted back as she charged it, accelerating and leaping up towards the machine’s cockpit before the machine thrusted itself up in the air with its backpack thrusters, then came down on Saphie with a foot.

  They both crashed into the ground, and as the backpack thrusters of the machine cleared the dust around it, they all could see Saphie barely holding the foot up, her body split apart to reveal the flesh mimic that she was underneath. She looked like a real monster with multiple tendrils and limbs of crimson flesh and claw from her barely recognizable human form. Saphie growled as she barely held up the mobile frame’s foot from the heavy impact.

  The mobile frame threatened them with its rifle again, pointing the massive barrel at them.

  “I-I’m fine! I still got this!” Saphie said as she noticed the machine pointing its weapon at them.. Then she unbalanced the machine, causing its aim to swing off as its shot went wide. “See!” Saphie said.

  Then the mobile frame steadied itself. Its powerful backpack thrusters came to life in a blue flame as it thrusted its foot downward. Saphie’s monstrous form struggled. “A-Ah. Actually, I don’t,” Saphie said, barely getting the words out before the foot impacted the ground with a heavy thud.

  “S-Saphie!” Fafapan said as Garrod picked Selenia up in bridal style to her sudden surprise, while Fafapan followed after them, flying next to them.

  Selenia saw Fafapan try to keep a calm demeanor, but it was obvious that she was a bit worried.

  “Saphie’s a strong monster, right? She’ll be fine, right?” Selenia said.

  “Y-ya,” Fafapan said blankly, mulling over what she had just seen. “S-She’s just a little squished. She’ll be fine.”

  “A little…” Selenia said.

  “It’s ok. She’s a flesh mimic. It takes a lot to kill a flesh mimic like her,” Fafapan said. “I think… I hope…”

  “It’ll be fine,” Garrod said, though Selenia could see even he was a bit worried despite trying to appear cool under the pressure. “

  A flash of blue light appeared above them. They looked up to see the mobile frame flying high above them. It began shooting around them, seemingly randomly.

  “What is it doing?” Selenia asked.

  “Etoile’s shooting at various cave entrances to go underground,” Garrod replied. “That was what I was thinking of taking all of us before it showed up.”

  Then, after it had reloaded its kinetic rifle, they saw the barrel pointed at them as it shot out several shots at them, firing in bursts, the massive shells landing all around them as they tried to dodge and weave against it.

  It hung in the sky, daring others to go against it, unassailable. The machine was able to hover casually in the air. It easily tracked them as they moved with its sensors, even under the forest cover.

  Then, the mobile frame stopped shooting at them as it looked up and behind it to see something approaching it from behind. Something collided with it in the air, and an explosion came from its humanoid head, causing it to recoil and veer off in the air. It fell back, unbalanced, as the surprise attack succeeded in throwing off its attempts to attack them.

  They saw something appear from the cloud of smoke from the explosion.

  It was Fia flying in the air with Aster on her back.

  They moved around the mobile frame, taking advantage of their smaller size. But even despite its large size, the mobile frame had a maneuverability and speed that something that size had no right to. Its internal power plant allowed it to thrust in the air with powerful speed, causing gusts of wind around it as it did so.

  They had managed to damage half of its face, breaking the transparent metal of one of its eyes, which hid the sensors below it, and below, Selenia could see the monstrous mechanical face underneath its metal skin, much like how Saphie’s monstrous self had been hidden beneath her own flesh skin.

  Though Fia and Aster had managed to ambush the mobile frame, it had quickly reoriented itself, and instead of trying to shoot down the small pair flying around it, it simply charged them, flaring its thrusters at max power, knocking into them and sending them crashing downward.

  Fia and Aster crashed into the ground next to them. They were severely injured.

  Garrod threw her away from his bridal carry as several kinetic shells landed around them. He and Fafapan had been blown away from her, thrown off away in the midst of explosions around them.

  As she barely picked herself up, one of the shells from the machine’s kinetic rifle impacted her, collapsing her circlet’s protective barrier. She tumbled backwards and she picked herself up again, dazed from the force of the impact. The world around her moved in a dizzying fashion.

  The mobile frame landed a ways a bit from her, the barrel of the kinetic rifle pointed straight at her as she backed herself up against a tree behind her. If another one of the kinetic shells hit here, she wouldn’t even be able to blink before she died. She’d just be pulverized into a red paste and mist.

  Time seemed to slow.

  She could feel it slow down. It was like she could see the kinetic rifle cycle its next shot and the rifle activate. She could see the blue flash of light, and the projectile began to leave the barrel in slow motion.

  She was going to die. She was never going to find out what happened to her dead brother Cesevial.

  She was never going to go back and save her sister, who was in the clutches of all those who wanted to use her back in the orbital and lunar colonies.

  How could she face her mother and father…

  Everything was going to end.

  She could hear… a faint voice…

  La La La…

  Selenia felt something within her snap.

  It was like something switched on in her mind.

  Her mind went blank. And all she could see was silver.

  So much silver.

  As if the light of the moon flooded into her mind.