Editing KSGU:Volume 2 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 19===

The flash occurs, a heavy sound of impact strikes from above, and the gust that nearly blows the bodies away strike the pipes that are intertwined. Audrey grabs onto a supporting pipe and prevents her body from being blown away in this zero gravity environment.

It’s been 30 minutes since she passed through the forest in the residential area and took the lift out to the Industrial block. During this time, the sounds of battle get more and more intense, and she can even hear explosions inside the colony. However, the explosions just now aren’t just as simple as being straw shots. Audrey opens her tightly closed eyes as she arrives opposite the refinery plants, and looks up. 200m away, the gate’s shooting out fireballs, and as the black smoke scatters, she sees the profile of a mobile suit.

The heavy humanoid-shaped machine has 4 wings. It leaps out of the gate, accelerates and enters the Industrial block. It’s the <<Kshatriya>>. The center axis of the rotating residential area, the Industrial block that passes through the center of the ‘Snail’s shell is very wide, and it has at least 300m of space, but it's still too many obstacles for a flying mobile suit. The <<Kshatriya>> immediately gets tangled by the conveyer belts that block its eye, and in the midst of the dim light, sparks are flying due to contact friction. However, the several-ton machine’s inertia isn’t eliminated so easily. Its moss green body crush the conveyor belts in the air that look like a spider web altogether as it slowly flies through the air of the Industrial block. The monoeye on the head is looking around, and looks over at the inner wall that’s buried by a plant.

“Marida…is she looking for me?”

If not, there’s no reason for her to enter the colony builder that is hard to move around. Audrey thinks of the side of Marida’s face while Marida’s concentrating on piloting, and looks around, using her thoughts to tell Marida her location. The Minovsky particles are still effective, but the distance of 200m is still within the range of the sensor. However, it’s hard to look within the plant from the air. In this situation, she can’t depend on Marida to ‘sense’ her. Audrey’s intending to float to the building that looks like an office, but a sudden shot and boom that appears causes her to stop.

A strong gust of wind blows by, and a Federation mobile suit flies by low at a height of less than 20m. The <<Kshatriya>> shoots out the movement thrusters, and quickly dodges the Vulcan cannons that grazes by the mobile suit’s head before pulling out the beam saber. Both sides’ beam sabers clash, and just as the two giants are entering a sword battle, another incoming Federation unit rushes at the back of the <<Kshatriya>>. The humanoid-shaped Federation unit that’s closer swings its beam saber at the <<Kshatriya>>, and Audrey shouts out, “MARIDA…!”

The Federation unit uses its beam saber to slash at the <<Kshatriya>>, and at that moment, the 2 binders, or wings, at the back of the <<Kshatriya>> open and draw out the beam sabers hidden inside. The Federation unit that attacks from behind has its beam saber blocked by the particle sabers that are intertwined. Audrey’s eyes see the <<Kshatriya>> block the enemies from both front and back. The flashes light up the Industrial block, and the hidden arms behind slice the enemy behind with a blur. The Federation unit with its shoulders sliced off fall, and the medium blue body collapses into the plants on the inner wall.

BOOM. A deep sound rocks the colony. The flames of the explosion continue to expand down the pipes. The gust again strikes, and Audrey’s blown away by more than 10m before she can even grab onto something. Audrey sees that she’s about to crash into the liquid tank in her line of sight frantically uses her hands to hook herself onto a metal triangular structure. Suddenly, a ball the size of a football flies by her, and the sound of something knocking into the tank can be heard.

The ball bounces back. It flaps its two discs that look like ears, and the optical sensors inside the ball-shaped object flash. “You’re…!” The reason why she’s calling it as a person is because she remembers the tone of the owner who treated it as a friend. This robot used to be a mascot that trended before. ''This thing is called Haro, right?'' Audrey steps off the frame and grabs the Haro floating in the air with both hands.

Audrey watches it flashes its eyes and say in a monotonous tone, (Hello, Audrey.), and this cause her heart to race. ''Is that boy here?'' She wants to look around to understand the situation, but she, who’s choking from the smoke floating over, hears someone talking to her, “Don’t stay in such a place!” causing her to panic and look up.

''Banagher.'' She nearly calls out, but immediately swallows her words. The profile closing in through the smoke isn’t the owner of this Haro. The age and attire is the same, but the slightly curled tea-colored hair and the Eastern-looking face is different from Banagher’s. Just as she’s wondering, another person floats over, and Audrey, who’s completely defenseless, has a sense of danger.

The black-haired girl who looks to be of the same age is hiding behind the office building together with the boy, “HURRY UP!” Haro, who’s in Audrey’s hands, flaps its ears as its eyes flash, shouting, (Takuya, Micott) Audrey looks over at them as she holds onto the metal frame. The two people who are waving over from 10m away don’t look like employees of the Vist Foundation or soldiers. But since she’s basically in enemy territory, Audrey thinks that she can’t just follow people and tries to look for a chance to escape. Suddenly, an explosive flash and sound that’s a lot stronger than before happens.

The other Federation unit got taken down. The incoming hot wind blows between the gap between the plants, and Audrey carries Haro at her chest before grabbing onto the frame. The flying shrapnel stab into the liquid tank, and an explosion can be heard. The flames expand out, and Audrey sees that the cinders of the fire are flying at her.

There’s no place to hide, and she can’t hide. Audrey holds onto Haro tightly as her eyes move away from the cinders flying at her. ''I’ll die.''—the unrealistic feeling words cause her entire body to go numb for a moment, and she feels that a giant object flies over her.

The large amount of cinder shrapnel bounce off the metal, letting out a deafening rumble. Audrey, who feels that the heat’s a lot weaker than before, turns her cringing neck behind. She sees a large hand, which has five fingers like a human’s actuator, and also the handheld armaments connector. The hand and the medium-blue metallic arm are attached as they form a dam that successfully block the shrapnel and the heat in front of Audrey’s eyes.

The head has a visor that’s used to cover the eyes of the mobile suit’s inorganic face. Audrey sees the serial number on the machine being NAR-008 and sees that this is a Federation’s unit. She isn’t able to even gasp as her body freezes. She wants to immediately get away, but the cockpit at the abdomen opens, and the pilot asks “Are you hurt?” causing her to lose the chance to escape.

The pilot who probes his body out from the cockpit shows a shocked expression as he pulls his chin back. The helmet visor is opened, and a young man’s face appears, “Kids too for that matter…! What are you doing here!?” The teenager angrily chides Audrey, and she doesn’t answer as she looks back. At this moment, the boy and girl hiding at the office building floats over. “We escaped here because there’s a hole in the colony!” The girl shouts back. “Is…is that so? Wait!” The pilot answers, and enters the cockpit. From his actions and expression, it looks like he’s still not used to actual combat. Audrey concludes as she moves to the mobile suit’s arm that has a shield equipped and checks the situation. The explosions are still going on, and the flames are slowly spreading throughout the colony. There’s no sign of the <<Kshatriya>> in the air, so it seem that it moved to another block. The smoke continues to get thicker, and the eyes and throat are feeling irritated.

“Ordinary civilians. There’re kids at the port…understood.”  The boy and girl look at the cockpit with their ash-riddled faces as they hear the interrupted voice of the pilot. The boy has a dark blue jacket with the logo of Anaheim Electronics. Audrey remembers that this is the same jacket as the kind Banagher wore, and says, “Well…” The boy and girl hear her and turn around. Just when Audrey thinks that this is bad, the black-haired girl is staring at her, 

“Don’t tell me you’re…” The girl’s interrupted by the sudden activation sound of the actuator, and the mobile suit arm that was acting as a dam shield moves and flips its palm up. Audrey hears the pilot say “Hurry up and get on”, and her grip onto Haro is stronger now.

“It’s dangerous here. Let me bring you to our ship.”

The boy and the girl seem to heave a sigh of relief once they hear this. The boy steps off the floor first and floats to the palm of the mobile suit. He touches the armor covering the fingers and says, “It’s a little hot, but there’s no problems. Hurry up.” The girl hears the boy’s words and nods her head as she pushes Audrey’s back. “Well, I…” “Talk later. You’ll die if you stay here.” Audrey’s words are interrupted by the girl’s words quickly, and just like that, she’s taken to the hand of the mobile suit.

The ignition continues to echo, and the hot air blows at the ash-riddled hair. In zero gravity, the air won’t weigh differently because of the heat, so there’s no convection. The flames will extinguish once they use up the surrounding oxygen, so the burning shouldn’t remain for long. However, the collapse of the neighboring wall cause the air to flow, and the ‘wind’ will promote the burning and continue to make things worse. The automatic fire extinguishing facility is activated as sprinklers are spurting out water, but this will continue to cause the water to become steam. The flames will only continue to spread throughout the plant, and they won’t be extinguished until they burn off all the oxygen. ''You’ll die if you stay here…''Audrey regurgitates the words the girl said, and suppresses that feeling that she’s going to take a fatal step as she moves towards the finger of the mobile suit that’s as thick as a tree branch.

The armor that has some of the machine’s heat is hotter than expected. The left hand of the mobile suit is carrying 3 teenagers, and the machine gets up from a kneeling position. It slowly activates its thrusters, and the unit with the thruster pack behind slowly leaves the ground. ''I just accepted protection from a Federation mobile suit''—Audrey’s unable to consider the significance and weight of this action as she looks at the flames in front of her, moving further and further away.