Aster clicked his tongue as he struggled to keep himself and his mobile frame from being knocked out by Captain August, the Gallant Gale. He certainly lived up to his reputation as an End War, ace of aces. Even though they were both piloting the same DMF-09 Arvans, the captain somehow made his machine seem a leap beyond his own, even if the Captain’s own unit had been better customized to suit his own needs.

  Though their machines’ specs were similar, Captain August was quite literally running circles around him as he struggled to keep up.

  Aster followed the Captain as he pursued him in the artificial skies of Alsium Two, the clouds of the underground arcology providing concealment to them both. He burned the thrusters of his mobile frame as hot as he could, trying to keep up. He ran his machine hard, pushing the backpack thrusters of his machine as hard as he could. The sudden bursts of acceleration jerked him left and right as he tried to keep on the tail of the Captain. of acceleration, jerking

  Even with the DMF-09 Arvan detecting his body’s electrical impulses through the cockpit, the Captain seemed to be moving with a quickness that seemed impossible. Just like with Captain Lelesia, the smiling scythe, it was as if he had a sixth sense about things. By the time he pulled the trigger of his machine’s kinetic rifle, he was already gone in the direction before the paint shell could leave his rifle’s barrel.

  Not only that, the Captain had a supreme sense of energy stored in his machine’s momentum, taking advantage of the stored and released potential energy that made him seem as if gravity was nothing more than his plaything. Graceful and as if he wasn’t weighed down by the gravity at all, compared to his lumbering movements as he was tossed in his cockpit’s seat.

  Aster quickly twisted his machine as the Captain twisted his machine in a circular loop that sent him upward and threatening to loop right behind him. His paint shells trailed behind the blur of the captain’s machine as the captain sent shots back of his own.

  Captain August’s return fire was almost playful. It was as if he was just toying with him while on the battlefield. The shots impacted directly on his shield as if the captain were purposefully aiming for it instead of him. There wasn’t anyone else on the field left aside from him and the captain.

  Aster let gravity do the heavy lifting as he let gravity pull his heavy mobile frame downward, holding his shield in front as the captain took careful, single, rapid-fire shots at his own machine, keeping his distance. He flared his machine’s thrusters as his machine threatened to impact the lake below, splashing water around him.

  “Is that all you got, brat?” Captain August snorted over the comms as he zoomed by his own machine.

  Aster gritted his teeth as he sent more paint shell fire after the captain, who easily dodged them all with a mocking flourish. The reflection of his own machine in the mirror of the lake’s surface caught his eye. In particular, his shield. He adjusted his machine’s arm to see it. On his shield, there was a happy smiley face that had been painted with a paint shell for each eye and a semi-circular smile with carefully lined shots. The Captain stopped in the air, hovering nearby as his gruff laughter bounced around in Aster’s cockpit.

  The Captain was definitely toying with him as if he were some child. His face flushed as he gripped the controls of his cockpit’s seat tightly.

  Aster sent his mobile frame hurtling towards the captain, grabbing a dummy particle saber in his free mobile’s frame’s hand, opposite of the one carrying his kinetic rifle with a shield on its forearm. The captain easily dodged his attack, thrusting his machine to the side as his Aster’s own machine flew by him.

  The captain responded by taking out his own dummy particle saber, thrusting forward, and locking sabers with Aster’s own dummy particle saber. The captain struck with a flourish, with more style than substance, giving Aster more than enough opportunity to block the strikes with short and precise movements. The captain seemed to want to put on a show and was happily doing so with ease, to his own chagrin, as he tried hard to make the captain work for his seemingly easy victory.

  The captain’s chuckles came mocking over his mobile frame’s comm as the light of their clashing sabers illuminated his cockpit in flashes of light.

  “Weren’t you one of the top rankers in the academy's mobile frame simulations?” Captain August said. “I expected better than some infant in a mobile frame!”

  Aster’s eye twitched, gritting his teeth, as he leaned forward in his cockpit’s seat, trying to find an opening in Captain August’s guard. He remained silent, refusing to give validation to the captain’s insult by a verbal reply. The captain was easily shrugging off every saber strike he sent his way, whatever he did, like a grown adult yawning at a stomping child. But he wasn’t about to be a foil for the captain to show off his skills. After all, this whole match was being broadcast to everyone in Alsium Two. If the captain was going to do him dirty like that, he’d have to get dirty himself. And maybe a little reckless…

  Aster thrusted his mobile frame backwards away from the captain as he sent a few more shots of his kinetic rifle at them, then thrusted away towards the obsidian wedge floating serenely off in the distance, miles away and out of the designated practice area, the Rakaila. Captain August followed him quickly in pursuit.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  There were no disqualifications for moving out of bounds. So why not?

  Aster grinned. He was going to take the captain down one way or another.

  In the blink of an eye, he and the captain danced above the Rakaila, exchanging carefully aimed paint shells to avoid striking unwanted targets and close-in saber strikes in melee range, even as warning messages flashed on his cockpit’s 360-degree display, indicating urgent messages being sent to him. He ignored them. He was sure the captain was likewise getting the same. If the Captain wanted to stop, he would have done so already.

  People scrambled in panic and hurried in and around the Rakaila. Emergency hatches of the warship closed quickly from open hangar and cargo bays to prevent any accidents as people loaded into the Rakaila and whatever safe spot they could get to. The traffic of shuttles and transport craft either boarded the Rakaila or went further beyond to the bays of Alsium Two, far into the distance of Alsium Two’s cliffside subterranean rock face that made up the underground arcology’s vast volume. In mere moments, the heavy traffic had died down to nothing as the warship had buttoned up, still maintaining its position hundreds of meters off the underground surface.

  Aster and Captain August moved from point to point, using the Rakaila as both cover and concealment, bounding from one angle to another on opposite sides of the warship, using the curative to expose the barest slivers of their machine to take pot shots at one another.

  Aster chuckled in his cockpit seat as he continued to maneuver around the Rakaila. Things were going according to plan. The captain wanted to play a game of cat and mouse. It was obvious he was enjoying the fun he was having when he should have been finishing things. He was totally convinced he could end things anytime he wanted.

  Now he just needed to be more annoying. The notifications his mobile frame’s machine was getting were only growing in intensity. Perfect!

  Aster sent his mobile frame up and into the air, purposefully getting the Captain’s attention as the Captain’s mobile frame followed him. He positioned himself directly in front of the Rakaila, up and at a 45 angle to it, positioning his machine in the perfect forward firing arcs of the Rakaila’s various weaponry.

  He fired at the Captain with the Rakaila behind it, letting loose as fast as his mobile frame’s kinetic rifle could fire. He backed his mobile frame away as the captain charged in with his dummy particle saber, easily dodging his every shot. He tossed his mobile frame’s kinetic rifle at the captain’s mobile frame, knocked it aside with ease.

  They locked sabers again in close range.

  “Should I end things here? It looks like you’re getting desperate,” Captain August said over the comms.

  “Desperate? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Aster said. “After all, I’m not the only one who can paint a target.”

  “Oh? You mean like the smiley face I drew on your shield?” Captain August replied.

  “Something like that,” Aster chuckled.

  Moments later, the air around them was filled with airbursting paint-loaded shells so thick and voluminous that neither of the two could dodge. So perfectly was the barrage put in the air that a nearly perfect square grid was hit nearly all at once, with every 3-dimensional inch of space covered. Both of their mobile frames were covered in a rainbow of colors from the paint.

  Both of their mobile frames went slack, indicating that both of them had been eliminated from the practice match. But they hovered in place together.

  “What’s the big idea, Rakaila?” Captain August said over the open comms. “I was going to win!”

  “Then you shouldn’t have played around too much and just ended things!” Captain Rakaila responded, her voice peeved. “You didn’t have to make a show of it!”

  “I was trying to teach the brat!” August retorted. “He needs more training! They all do!”

  “Then what about everyone else you knocked out!?” Rakaila snorted. “Didn’t they need more training too!? You knocked each of them out of the match with a single shot.”

  “That was different. I’m just giving Aster some one-on-one training so—”

  “Save it!” Captain Rakaila said. “I was already on the fence about you joining the match when it was supposed to be a proper training match. It wasn’t supposed to be a way for you to show off!” She clicked her tongue. “And you shouldn’t have gone off the designated area set for the practice, Aster! You endangered people! What if you had accidentally crashed into the shuttle and transport craft? Crushed someone with your mobile frame? That applies to both of you, by the way! Aster may have run off the designated practice field but you followed him too, August! Aren’t you supposed to be a superior officer!?”

  Rakaila sighed heavily. So much so that Aster could do nothing to respond except cough in embarrassment. He probably shouldn’t have tried to drag the August down with him. She had a point. He had gotten a bit reckless in the moment.

  August mimicked him and coughed as well.

  Neither of them had any good response to Captain Rakaila.

  Well, at the very least, he had accomplished his mission. He chuckled inwardly. If he couldn’t win, he wasn’t about to let the captain win either. And that was victory enough. Regardless of the potential punishment that he was only now realizing was coming his way.

  Captain Rakaila coughed herself. “In any case, neither of you is getting any of my handmade ice cream, which I’m giving to everyone except you and Aster!”

  “Rakaila!” August said. “That’s one of the reasons I joined the match to begin with! To win that ice cream!”

  “Then you should have just asked for some to begin with!” Rakaila said, exasperated. “Consider it as punishment for the stunt you both pulled!”

  Aster sighed. That was right. The ice cream. He had completely forgotten about it. It was the reward for whichever of the two mobile frame teams won in the practice simulation before Captain August had barged into the match to take them all on. It was rather unfortunate. He had been looking forward to trying Captain Rakaila’s hand-made ice cream. It was known as some of the best ice cream ever amongst those within the Gaia Sphere Federation’s military.

  Well, he could ask Selenia to slip him some under the table when Captain Rakaila passed it out later.