Rivalry

Cato fired a beam blast at the Zaku II. The Zaku II quickly turned and lowered its shoulder to absorb the impact on its shield. At the moment the Zeon pilot lowered his shield, he cursed out loud. The bolt of energy penetrated right through the shield of the Zaku and melted off part of the shoulder. Sparks flew from the Zaku as its arm held on by a thread.

"Damn those beam weapons!" The lead Zaku II pilot cursed as his Zaku II raised its machinegun and returned fire. The GM Command broke to the right using a sloppy barrel roll to evade the bullets. The Zaku pilot smiled as he took cover behind a large chunk of metal from an old Musai Class.

"Nazee bastards always have to do things the hard way." Cato silently cursed as his GM Command used its engines at full thrust to stop its forward progress. It carefully approached the area where it had seen the wounded Zaku II entered. It scanned the area as it drifted in a slight wobbling motion. Cato was still getting use to his new mobile suit. The controls were similar to a standard GM, but the performance and the placement of additional controls only made the learning curve for operation the commando variant more steeper and harder to overcome.

Across the battlefield away from the battle between Cato and the lead Zaku II, A Zaku II maneuvered passed a column of dead GM mobile suits from the the previous fleet engagement. Machinegun fire continued to chase the Zaku as it ran for better cover. The GM team that accompanied Cato were on the winning side of the fight. With each passing minute the technological superiority of the GM became more evident. Where the Federation mobile suit lacked in armor protection it made up with speed. The Zaku II finally turned and fired two shots off from its bazooka. The first round passed by a GM and impacted up against a wrecked fighter Shrapnel Shrapenal sliced the armor of the GM damaging its legs. The second passed by without impacting. The GM pilot cursed as she sent her mobile suit in to full thrust while firing her machinegun at the enemy Zaku.

"You Feddie cannon fodder." The Zaku pilot smirked as his Zaku strafed with the GM. The AMBAC on the GM was now damaged as it struggled to stay in a strait line. The Federation mobile suit raised its shield to absorb the impact of a series of space junk in its way. The Zaku pilot, sensing a opening aimed its bazooka once more and fired another shot at the GM. The whistling sound of the bazooka round barreling down at the GM alerted its female pilot. She had never thought she would be caught in a position like this. She always figured she would die of more natural causes. Unfortunately for her she was going to die of natural causes to war. The bazooka round smacked the GM dead center in the chest. The explosion blasted the GM to bits.

"They aren't going to give up that easily boys! Keep fighting!" A GM pilot shouted as his mobile suit looked back at where the explosion came from. The fireball blossomed outward like a flower. "Such a shame, she was a good pilot." He thought to himself as his GM turned and hid behind his shield and fired a machinegun burst at a Zaku. Three bullets smashed in to the nose of the Zeon mobile suit sending the hoses connecting at the front flying wildly as cold compressed air circulated out into space. The Zaku II quickly recovered as it went behind cover again.

"Prick." The Zeon pilot mumbled as the monoeye on the Zaku flickered back and forth in to high resolution. The sensor was still working just it was now operating at a lower capacity.

"Where are you space nazee?" Cato thought to himself as his GM Command moved its way through all the debris. The pupil in his eye quickly expanded as a spark ignited in front of his GM Command. He quickly raised his beam gun and took aim as he approached the mangled hull of a Musai. "A prisoner could be useful to us at this point." His GM Command's engines quickly roared to life once more as his GM propelled itself from above the wrecked Musai hull. The high end mobile suit lowered its beam gun and took aim at the target.

"What the fuck is this shit!?" Cato said in confusion as he stared at a severed Zaku arm with a machinegun in its hand. He was expecting to find the lead Zaku II. Clearly this Zeon pilot had been in more then enough battles to use his imagination to keep his opponents on his heels. That thought alone was distressing to Cato as his GM approached the Zaku arm. Out of the corner of his eye something green hovered up to the side of his GM Command. Cato let out a loud shout when he relised it was a cracker grenade. He quickly raised his shield and turtled behind it the best he could. The grenade set off a small series of explosion like a cluster bomb. Each explosion slung shrapnel in all directions. Each battered and mangled the shield of the GM Command as Cato prayed to a higher power to intervene.

One final set of small explosions split the GM Command's shield in two and a piece of shrapenel sliced into the forearm of the GM badly damaging it. Cato cursed as warning lights and messages illuminated his cockpit. Sparks could be seen flowing up and down the body of the Federation mobile suit. The explosion had put serious strain on the joints and many of them were about to give out from the stress. The lower leg had been sliced off from the jarring explosions. Cato shook his head in order to stop the ringing in his head. He was now reminded of why he hates wearing a helmet in space.

"Bastard!" Cato yelled in anger as his GM Command turned only to see the wounded lead Zaku II charging at him with a heat hawk raised high above its head. The blade was a bright orange as it came closer. The GM Command quickly ignited its engines one final time this time depleting all of its fuel as it jetted upwards away from the Zaku in a attempt to avoid getting killed. The Zaku swinged its super heated blade only to find its mark on the leg of Cato's GM. The legless GM now drifted helplessly with no fuel. "I'm not dying like this!" Cato screamed as he took aim with his beam gun and aimed at the Zaku II's cockpit. Both pilots had enough of one another and wanted to end this duel. The Zaku II charged ahead with its heat hawk held high above its head. Before both pilots could unleash their final attack on one another the scream from a pilot caught both men's attention over the comm link.

"Commander Reece!" A Zaku II pilot shouted as he entered the battle.

"Another one!" Cato quickly turned and took aim at the machinegun toting Zaku.

"No get out of here!" The Commander shouted over the comm link to his comrade. As the lead Zaku II stared at his comrade, a beam blast striked it in the chest. The Commander screamed as another follow up beam blast smashed the Zaku II this time in the torso vaporizing the pilot inside. A tear formed in the corner of the Zeon pilot's eye. It was heart wrenching knowing that his comrade had now parished. This was someone he traded jokes with and had bled and sweated alongside one another in combat, but now he was dead. The lead Zaku II quickly turned and threw its heat hawk like a tomahawk through space. The GM Command quickly turned to change the point of impact. The super heated blade sliced down on the arm of the GM that was holding the beam gun.

Power quickly was cut off from the arm as the blade buried itself deep in to the upper arm. Cato shouted as his GM Command grabbed the heat hawk and tried to rip it out as the Zaku II now charged forward wanting to finish him off. Before the Zaku could get close enough a series of tracers cut across space in front of it. The Zaku II quickly stopped and backed off as a group of GMs quickly descended on to the lead Zaku II. Just before the GMs could attack the Zaku, they were now taking fire from the remaining Zakus in the rescue team.

"Die!" Cato growled as if he had been possessed by a demon. His GM Command ripped the heat hawk out of its arm and slung it at the lead Zaku II. The axe decapitated the head of the Zaku. The remaining Zakus flew in and snatched up their commanding officer. The GMs from Cato seek and destroy team quickly formed a phalanx with their shields to protect his battered mobile suit. Both sides quickly did a phased withdraw from the battlefield. Both traded machinegun fire with one another but no casualties occurred in this final stage of the battle.

"Damn the feddies!" The Commander slammed his fist down on the controls of his Zaku as he remembered the friend he had just lost. Cato breathed heavily while inside of his GM Command. Sweat slid down his face. He had faced an opponent that was of equal strength. Such an opponent was never expected from the Zeon. In a sick way he hoped would meet this Zeon pilot again in combat.

"Fucking Space nazee."