“Hey chief,” Oldrich said, turning the GINN’s head to the CGUE a hundred meters to his left.

“Yes?” Maxwell answered, taking his eyes off the static desert landscape.

“You know what we’re escorting?”

“It appears to be a series of transport vehicles, mostly tracked vehicles with an assortment of wheeled vehicles,”
Sarka responded from half a mile up.

Oldrich rolled his eyes.

“Contacts,” Yu said flatly, “Positions.”

“Multiple ground units incoming, they’re coming from the mountain east of us. Tanks and trucks.”

“Are they insane? They don’t stand a chance against us,” Evgenia declared as she turned her DINN around.

“Two more contacts, from the north, moving fast. Shit, fighters,” Sarka whipped the DINN around to intercept
the planes.

In space, a Mobile Suit’s agility is second to none. On the ground, however, they are as vulnerable to fighter craft just as infantry and armor are vulnerable to them. All of the pilots knew this as they focused their attentions to the incoming fighters. Two sonic booms accompanied them as the fighters approached.

A pair of explosions rocked the area as the point and rear escort vehicles, APCs, were destroyed by explosives, trapping the dozen transport vehicles between them.

“Grison, take care of the ground forces. Vultures, handle those planes. We’re in a world of hurt if they make a pass.”

“Affirmative,” his subordinates echoed.

Oldrich switched the smoke dispensers on, which would hinder the ground forces’ ability to see and target the convoy, but would do little to hamper his own ability to fight, it would only force him to rely on his sensors. Aiming in the direction of the ground force, he opened fire with the assault rifle, sending rounds as big around as a man’s torso into the armor and infantry.

The two fighters streaked past the DINN’s, banking and juking through the pair of Mobile Suits. Cursing, Sarka turned her DINN to get another shot at the fighters, but they dove low, less than a hundred meters above the ground and directly in line with the convoy.

“Commander!” Sarka warned as the fighters loosed a missile each at Oldrich’s GINN.

Yu raised the shield mounted Vulcan gun and fired at the missiles, destroying the second one, but the first one was too fast. It streaked through the air and smashed into the knee of the GINN Ocher, shredding the joint and felling the Mobile Suit, which collided with the ground with an audible thud.
The planes would swoop around and come for another pass, but the question was really what angle they would try it.

“Take out that armor and infantry, Vultures,” Yu ordered as the CGUE moved toward the downed Mobile Suit, “Leave the planes to me.”

“Sir, they’ll shred you to bits,” Sarka objected.

“Do as your told!” Yu said as the CGUE placed itself between the convoy and Oldrich’s downed (and worryingly silent) Mobile Suit.

The planes came back around in, using a high angle of attack and high speed. Yu raised the Vulcan shield high and squeezed the trigger in several short burst, forcing the fighters to abort their attack, splitting off in two different directions.

“Son of a bitch,” Yu growled as the infantry and armor were being obliterated by the aerial Mobile Suits.

An alarm klaxon demanded attention from Yu and he turned the CGUE in time to bring its shield up to block a barrage from the fighter’s machine cannons, which tore holes in the shield and destroyed the Vulcan mechanism. Dropping the shield, he draws the CGUE’s assault rifle and prepares to take on the fighers yet again.
The two DINNs in his squad surged ahead of him, breaking off the intercept the fighters. Yu watched as Sarka’s DINN closed in on the righter that broke to the east. A heated exchange between the two with the fighters machine cannons and both the DINN’s assault rifle and shotgun took their tolls on both units. The fighter careened into the desert a mile and a half away, its pilot killed when a bullet from Sarka’s rifle tore through the canopy, tearing him in twain and sheering the nose of the fighter off. The DINN fared better, in that it was still largely functional. Several tears and holes increased its drag as she lowered the DINN to the ground, one of its wing riddled with holes.

“He got passed me!” Evgenia.

The DINN and the CGUE turned to face the incoming fighter and opened fire. The fighter deftly dodged the fire before a round from Yu’s rifle tore through the engines, immediately cutting all thrust. Carried by momentum, the fighter continued forward as the pilot ejected. The fighter met its end in the mountain in which the ground forces had emerged from.

Hours later, with a replacement squad having escorted the convoy to its location, military police having collected the pilot and the handful of survivors from the ground assault, Yu surveyed the damage done to his squad. No casualties, though, which was what mattered to him. The American privateers, using surprisingly new military surplus equipment, had only managed to destroy the two escort vehicles. Most of the crew from those vehicles were killed the blasts, but the convoy itself was safe at its destination.

Outcome: Yu Maxwell defends the convoy
Yu Maxwell: 5 XP, Repairing 2