Post by pinksoyuz on Jun 25, 2010 9:15:00 GMT -5
Nobody really expects to wake up on the battlefield and actually enjoy it, but it wouldn't be exactly right to say that such was always the case. Near death experiences almost always makes one appreciate the most basic of things, and for Haifa, the smooth open plains of central North America reorganized her interests. As far as the eye could see, a near featureless land greeted the Kintzem native which, at first, seemed like a blank canvas with a single shade of color layered on the ground. Yet as sterile as the land seemed, it felt infinitely more real than her home, and despite the mountains and rivers and forests that seemed to make the colony look natural, it was just that: all man-made. Artificial. Looking up, she saw clouds that didn't hide the opposite end of a colony, but instead complimented a real sky and the real Sun.
Still, the sheer magnitude of the operation-turned-disaster easily overshadowed the inspirational soul searching that would have otherwise filled the spacenoid. After checking to see that her distress radiobeacon was indeed transmitting, Haifa began to reel in her parachute in case she needed to use it for survival. Not too long after, the pilot began walking toward her distant mobile suit; a large mechanized robot in a flat area such as the midwest wasn't terribly difficult to locate. Unfortunately, the same features that allowed for her to find the GM made it look deceptively close, and Haifa realized this only after trekking a couple of kilometers.
~
"Five minutes 'till drop point bravo."
The words resonated inside Haifa's mind as it became more and more clear that the drop operation was really happening. Fredricks and Lord remained silent for much of the approach, but Haifa didn't believe they were too gung ho about the entire thing either. Covert operations just wasn't something she particularly enjoyed, and she knew that both of them weren't too enthusiastic about the operation either.
Just as the voice promised, the three pilots felt the Pazock slow down as it began preparations to enter a vector to release the HLV. A final checklist began to be thrown around as Fredericks, the team leader, took the liberty to check the vital systems of the drop vessel.
"10...9....8...."
Haifa began muttering a nigh-silent prayer to herself to see the entire thing through alive. She could feel her heart pound against her chest in anticipation for the drop, and she couldn't remember the last time she even came close to hyperventilating.
"7...6...5..."
The butterflies in her stomach definitely made their presence known to her by now. She could even feel her extremely light breakfast want to escape, and only out of sheer willpower she managed to keep her helmet clear of a partially digested turkey sandwich. Her mind, well, that was an entirely different matter.
"4...3...2....1.... drop commencing."
A single sharp jolt and the three Zeon pilots finally found themselves on a one way course to Earth and already the outboard cameras showed the Pazock perform a full burn as it exited the area.
The drop saw a single dilapidated HLV breaking through the Earth's upper atmosphere. Its ablative heat coating gave off a brilliant light as it arced toward the intended drop point somewhere in North America where the three pilots would meet their handlers. That was the plan, anyways.
"Uh, guys, problem here," came a worried voice not even two minutes into the descent. Those were the words that Haifa just recently prayed wouldn't be uttered, but lo and behold here she was listening to those very exact words.
"What is it Lord?" she snapped, still jittery from her pre-drop mindset.
"I can't get the two of the fuel pumps to respond. It's weird, because they were fine just a few minutes ago," answered her teammate.
"Is it going to be a problem?" Fredericks asked even though he knew pretty darn well that it was.
"Eh. Sorta," replied Lord, trying to downplay the magnitude of the problem. "We're going to crater the earth if we stick to the original plan."
"Well then, I suppose we can jump ship and soften our landings with the thrusters," theorized the team leader despite knowing that it seemed too easy to be true.
"Well, we wont be able to maintain enough thrust long enough to do that in our suits, to be honest, Fred-man," Lord responded.
"Then we can eject," interrupted Haifa, a tinge of restlessness evident in her voice.
"Yeah, that sounds doable," agreed Lord while chuckling. "Though I'd feel like one of those Russian stacking doll things. Give me a few seconds and I'll forward you guys the data."
~
By now the spacenoid overcame her fear of contracting an infection and took off her helmet to sample some of the native air while remaining ever mindful to her radiobeacon for signs of traffic. About the fifth time she habitually looked down on the device, a squawk came over its tiny speaker followed by a somewhat garbled voice asking if she was alright. It wasn't long after she said she was fine that flight of Dopps came into view trying to triangulate her position for rescuing, and Haifa was all too ready to discharge one of her pen flares to make the job even easier for the pilots.
A couple hours later, a debriefing at a regimental camp indicated that their drop was actually fairly, relatively successful despite a faulty drop vessel; the three pilots ended up within fifty kilometers of each other and within a hundred kilometers of the intended drop zone. All three made it out alive, and their mobile suits suffered repairable damage, though flight data confirmed Lord's assessment that the deceleration from impacting the Earth would have been fatal.
All in all, Haifa thought, the day went well.
Still, the sheer magnitude of the operation-turned-disaster easily overshadowed the inspirational soul searching that would have otherwise filled the spacenoid. After checking to see that her distress radiobeacon was indeed transmitting, Haifa began to reel in her parachute in case she needed to use it for survival. Not too long after, the pilot began walking toward her distant mobile suit; a large mechanized robot in a flat area such as the midwest wasn't terribly difficult to locate. Unfortunately, the same features that allowed for her to find the GM made it look deceptively close, and Haifa realized this only after trekking a couple of kilometers.
~
"Five minutes 'till drop point bravo."
The words resonated inside Haifa's mind as it became more and more clear that the drop operation was really happening. Fredricks and Lord remained silent for much of the approach, but Haifa didn't believe they were too gung ho about the entire thing either. Covert operations just wasn't something she particularly enjoyed, and she knew that both of them weren't too enthusiastic about the operation either.
Just as the voice promised, the three pilots felt the Pazock slow down as it began preparations to enter a vector to release the HLV. A final checklist began to be thrown around as Fredericks, the team leader, took the liberty to check the vital systems of the drop vessel.
"10...9....8...."
Haifa began muttering a nigh-silent prayer to herself to see the entire thing through alive. She could feel her heart pound against her chest in anticipation for the drop, and she couldn't remember the last time she even came close to hyperventilating.
"7...6...5..."
The butterflies in her stomach definitely made their presence known to her by now. She could even feel her extremely light breakfast want to escape, and only out of sheer willpower she managed to keep her helmet clear of a partially digested turkey sandwich. Her mind, well, that was an entirely different matter.
"4...3...2....1.... drop commencing."
A single sharp jolt and the three Zeon pilots finally found themselves on a one way course to Earth and already the outboard cameras showed the Pazock perform a full burn as it exited the area.
The drop saw a single dilapidated HLV breaking through the Earth's upper atmosphere. Its ablative heat coating gave off a brilliant light as it arced toward the intended drop point somewhere in North America where the three pilots would meet their handlers. That was the plan, anyways.
"Uh, guys, problem here," came a worried voice not even two minutes into the descent. Those were the words that Haifa just recently prayed wouldn't be uttered, but lo and behold here she was listening to those very exact words.
"What is it Lord?" she snapped, still jittery from her pre-drop mindset.
"I can't get the two of the fuel pumps to respond. It's weird, because they were fine just a few minutes ago," answered her teammate.
"Is it going to be a problem?" Fredericks asked even though he knew pretty darn well that it was.
"Eh. Sorta," replied Lord, trying to downplay the magnitude of the problem. "We're going to crater the earth if we stick to the original plan."
"Well then, I suppose we can jump ship and soften our landings with the thrusters," theorized the team leader despite knowing that it seemed too easy to be true.
"Well, we wont be able to maintain enough thrust long enough to do that in our suits, to be honest, Fred-man," Lord responded.
"Then we can eject," interrupted Haifa, a tinge of restlessness evident in her voice.
"Yeah, that sounds doable," agreed Lord while chuckling. "Though I'd feel like one of those Russian stacking doll things. Give me a few seconds and I'll forward you guys the data."
~
By now the spacenoid overcame her fear of contracting an infection and took off her helmet to sample some of the native air while remaining ever mindful to her radiobeacon for signs of traffic. About the fifth time she habitually looked down on the device, a squawk came over its tiny speaker followed by a somewhat garbled voice asking if she was alright. It wasn't long after she said she was fine that flight of Dopps came into view trying to triangulate her position for rescuing, and Haifa was all too ready to discharge one of her pen flares to make the job even easier for the pilots.
A couple hours later, a debriefing at a regimental camp indicated that their drop was actually fairly, relatively successful despite a faulty drop vessel; the three pilots ended up within fifty kilometers of each other and within a hundred kilometers of the intended drop zone. All three made it out alive, and their mobile suits suffered repairable damage, though flight data confirmed Lord's assessment that the deceleration from impacting the Earth would have been fatal.
All in all, Haifa thought, the day went well.