Sacrifice
Watanabe Fuuka, Yoshida Haruka vs Nelson Robinson

“We have them JOSH-A,” Haruka responded, “Sound general quarters.”

She punched a few buttons the arm of her command chair, keying the intercom. Throughout the ship, the crew and its pilots ceased their actions.

“Today, we have the honor of destroying a group of the American cowards. These cowards fled the battle of JOSH-A and have thought they have escaped the deaths they deserve and the righteous grasp of the Empire. For that, they will be taught a lesson in humility…in the afterlife.”

The shutters slid over the windows of the White Base’s bridge and its neck lowered into the torso of the ship. The ship’s crew scrambled to their stations; gun crews slid into their chairs, the hangar doors slid open and Mobile Suits rose up from their racks and were placed on their launch catapults.


“Uhm, so yeah. There I was, thinking to myself, ‘Hey, its been awhile since we were in a life and death situation’ when suddenly, we get enemy contacts. Except its not just, you know, the regular types of enemy contacts, you know, like a group of Mobile Suits or something. No, it’s a giant frickin’ ship bristling with stuff that all but screams “Crow, its dying time.”

“That’s a very…colorful…representation of our current situation,” Nelson said as the hangar door of the Running Riot slid open, “And I want you to make sure all of that is in your report for command.”

“If we survive.”

“Crow!”

“What? I’m just saying I’ve calculated the odds of us doing the smart thing and running away versus us actually fighting…and we’re launching anyway.”

“Make sure the Riot stays safe,” Nelson ordered, “Have them climb as high as possible. We have to be faster than that thing.”

“If there is a God, we are.”

“Crow!”

Crow loosed an exasperated sigh as his Aries dropped out of the hangar and into the air, followed by Gypsy’s and Nelson’s Tallgeese.

“Spread out! Protect the Riot!”


“They’re deploying Mobile Suits, Commander.”

“Good. Have the Recon type feed firing orders to the cannon type. Prepare anti-aircraft fire. What is the status of the reinforcements from JOSH-A?”

“One hundred twenty seconds.”

“They may not have anything to shoot. Tell the Gundam to launch with the Goufs. We’ll focus fire on the white Mobile Suit. If we clip its wings, it’ll be easy prey for those Mobile Suits.”


“Was that an artillery shell?” Crow wondered as a large shell streaked passed his Aries and across the bow of the Running Riot, “Are they seriously using some sort of artillery suit against an air target?”

“I’d rather you found said Suit and relieve it of its pilot than wonder about the nature of its attacks, Crow.”

“Excuse me for pondering the nature of—“ an hail of mega particles nearly disintegrated Crow’s Aries, “Ceasing pondering,” he growled and fired his chaingun at the ship.

The Tallgeese’s verniers erupted fire and propelled the Tallgeese toward the White Base, a steady barrage of of beams from its beam cannon heralding its arrival. The White Base returned the gesture as beams, shells and rounds sliced through the air between them. An anti-air shell exploded just behind the Tallgeese, sending a rapidly expanding cloud of shrapnel into the back of the ivory suit. Alarm klaxons and flashing red lights became all Nelson knew for a moment before one of the vernier suits of the Tallgeese sputtered and finally died. Rather than overtaxing the other one to keep the suit aloft, Nelson only slowed his descent to the Earth, dodging the bulk of the ordinance being thrown his way.


“Its wounded, Heicho. Prepare to engage,” came through the speakers in the Gundam’s cockpit.

“Affirmative,” Fuuka acknowledged, “Spread out. Flank it while I distract it, use the Gouf’s heat rods to disable the unit.


The Tallgeese landed in a grove of trees as the battle raged above him. Despite no longer being an asset for the air battle, he could still harass the ship above him by (hopefully) finding its blindspot, which he hoped was directly underneath it.

A bolt of crimson energy streaked through the grove, igniting a tree a few meters away from the Tallgeese. Instantly, Nelson aimed the beam cannon in the direction the beam had come from while damning his team’s moniker to various levels of hell.

The Gundam emerged from the forest ahead of him, its thrusters propelling it forward and setting the foliage behind it aflame. It fired its beam rifle again, but Nelson deftly dodged it by using the Tallgeese’s damaged thrusters to push it to the right. The Gundam dropped its beam rifle and put its shield between it and the Tallgeese as it reached up and drew its beam saber. The Tallgeese jumped back, aided by its protesting thrusters as he fired a beam directly into the center of the Gundam’s shield, creating a smoldering crater in the center of it. The Gundam lunged and slashed horizontally, hoping to kill the pilot in the first exchange.

Nelson ejected the beam cannon and drew Tallgeese’s beam saber. Gripping the controls of the Tallgeese, he rushed forward to meet whatever fate was in store for him.


“Multiple Dopps coming in from the north,” Gypsy reported as she turned to face her Aries toward the coming threat.

“Awesome. Can you, maybe, tell the other guys to stop shooting at us?” Crow asked uselessly as he broke off a strafing run aimed toward the white ship.

“I’ll try.”

An artillery shell narrowly missed the Running Riot.

“Hey Robinson, if you’re not terrible busy, could you kill the guy with the cannon?”

“BUSY FIGHTING A GUNDAM!”

“Tch, no need to get testy,” Crow frowned and fired into the oncoming swarm of Dopps.


“The air support has entered the field, Commander. JOSH-A has sent a squad of Zaku Cannons and a Luggun to assist us.”

“Good. Order the Recon type and the Cannon type to cease their harassment of the ship and order them to create a cage for the white Mobile Suit. It cannot fly, I suspect and thus can only walk. If we cut off that method of escape, it will make Heicho Watanabe’s task all the easier. Begin bombarding the ship; its Mobile Suit cover will be too busy with the Dopps to interfere.”

“Commander!” the CIC officer interrupted, “Heicho Watanabe has engaged the white Mobile Suit in battle on the ground.”

“Good. It will be only a few moments before it is overcome and then we can focus all of our efforts on destroying its carrier.”

Nelson smashed the Tallgeese’s shield into the chest of the Gundam as its beam saber scored a molten gash along its shoulder. The force of the impact sent the Gundam stumbling back a few steps, but that was all it required for the Goufs to enter the fray, their tentacle heat rods shooting out and wrapping around the Tallgeese’s arms and one of its legs. Moments later, massive amounts of electricity surged through them and into the Tallgeese.

Alarms blared as Nelson cried out in agony as electricity coursed through his body. Fighting desperately to stay conscious despite the pain that had seemed to replace all his entire existence. Forcing his spasming muscles to do as he commands, he pushes the thrusters forward, ignoring the damage done to them by the anti-air, ignoring the protests of the machine, ignoring the obvious safety risks of such a maneuver and only wanting an end to the pain that was steadily chipping away at his mind and body.

The thruster suite of the Tallgeese snapped open, gouts of blue flame erupted out of them as long as the Tallgeese was tall. The ground below it was incinerated as the Goufs struggled to keep the Mobile Suit on the ground, but it seemed as though the Mobile Suit itself wanted to escape the electric hell it had been confined in. All around the Mobile Suits, shells crashed into the ground, shredding centuries old trees like so much detritus.

“Heicho!” one of the Gouf pilots exclaimed, “We cannot hold it. Its got too much thrust!”

“Let me remove the surplus, then!” Fuuka declared as the Gundam moved closer, its beam saber raised to excise the thrusters from Tallgeese’s back.

“Hey, you. With the beam saber. Piss off!” Crow said as his Aries dropped down from the sky, directly behind the Gundam and loosed a volley of chaingun rounds into its back.

Fuuka snarled and whipped the Gundam around to decapitate the Aries, but Crow’s Mobile Suit was already in the air

One of the heat rods of snapped, sending its owning Gouf reeling into the ground. The second and third followed suit and the Tallgeese shot into the air like a rocket, washing the Gundam in flame and scorching its armor.

Panting and with sweat dripping down his brow, Nelson Robinson had had enough. Enough of this fight, enough of the Japanese and enough of that goddamned ship. Turning the Tallgeese toward the ship, beam saber firmly in hand, Nelson was going to end this.


“The white one has escaped!”

“Impossible!” Haruka defied as she stood up from her command chair.

“Its charging us, Commander!”

“All weapons FIRE!” Haruka ordered, “Watanabe! KILL HIM.”

The Tallgeese either deftly dodged or plowed through anti air fire, its once pristine, white armor now a gnarled mess of black and grey, scorch marks and melted armor, holes pocked its armor, its visor was cracked, its crest was broken off in an uneven pattern, giving it a menacing, perchance demonic visage.


“Yep, Robinson’s lost it,” Crow said as a bullet from his gun tore a Dopp in two.

“Idiot, he’s buying us time,” Gypsy corrected as a pair of Dopps strafed her Aries, amputating one of its arms in the process.

“The Riot can’t outrun those fighters,” Crow deduced as he slammed a new magazine into his chaingun.

“They’ll protect that ship, though.”

“Gyps?”

“Stay here and provide cover for the Riot, they’ll dodge my missiles. That ship won’t.”

Crow’s heart sank.

“Clear the bridge!” Haruka ordered as she straightened her uniform, “Now!”

The White Base shuddered as the Tallgeese landed directly in front of the bridge, beam saber drawn back, preparing to thrust the energy blade directly into it.

“For the Glory of the Empire and Empress!”

“What?” Nelson growled as the Zaku Recon type jumped onto the White Base and grabbed onto the Tallgeese’s sword arm.

The Zaku attempted to push the Tallgeese off, but the Tallgeese, aside from being larger, was also the physically stronger Mobile Suit. The Tallgeese reached over and smashed its fist into the Zaku’s head, then grabbed onto its forearm and squeezed, while drawing the Tallgeese’s arm back, away from the Zaku. Its joints and hydraulics squealed in protest, but they were in vain, its forearm buckled under the force of Tallgeese’s grip. Using its one good arm, the Zaku angled the beam saber away from the bridge and toward its own body.

“Fine. Be a martyr,” Nelson muttered through clenched teeth as the Tallgeese pushed the Zaku away and then cut the Zaku in two, bisecting it and its cockpit.

Nelson then let the Zaku fall, its legs falling to the hull of the White Base while the torso tumbled unceremoniously over the side and onto the ground. Turning his attention back to the bridge, he swug!
Haruka prepared herself for death, hoping that her sacrifice would serve the Empire and swell the hearts of those who served under her to avenge her death by slaying her murderer and his compatriots. There was no greater duty than to die in the service of the Empire. She hoped her sacrifice would make her parents proud and waited anxiously to see her sister again.

But death did not come. She opened her eyes to see a cross of crimson energy before her. Fuuka had saved her and the crew of the White Base. The Gundam stood next to the Tallgeese, its armor burnt ebony as it pushed the damaged white suit away. Fate had other things in store for her.

The Gundam slashed and the Tallgeese jumped back, landing on the edge of the hull above the starboard hangarbay. Nelson readied himself for another exchange when a volley of missiles smashed into the hull of the White Base around the Gundam. Fuuka roared in frustration and threw the damaged shield of the Gundam at the Tallgeese.

“Robinson, the Riot is free and clear!” Gypsy reported as her Aries leveled its missile pod at the Gundam, “We need to go!”

The Tallgeese’s thrusters flared to life and it accelerated into the atmosphere, followed by Gypsy’s Aries. Inside the cockpit of the Tallgeese, though, Nelson felt a crushing weight in his chest and his breath was coming in short, ragged breaths.

“Gyps…I overdid…it,” Nelson managed before blacking out.

“Crow!” Gypsy yelled as her Aries rushed to catch the Tallgeese. Crow’s Suit descended to help lift the burden.

“Riot! We’re going to need medical attention! Robinson is hurt!”

“Roger that. We don’t have much, but we’ll go with all due haste to the nearest base.”

Fuuka fumed as the Gundam watched the white Mobile Suit and savior flee. When the white suit faltered and fell a dozen or so feet and was caught by its comrade, her spirit’s rose.

“I was beaten,” she seethed, “I was bested…I was shamed.”

The Gundam grabbed its beam saber and Fuuka pulled the targeting computer’s interface over her eyes. She zoomed into the maximum distance and set the crosshairs on the Mobile Suit. It had murdered one of her compatriots, nearly destroyed the Gundam, bested the Goufs and its most damning sin had been to dare to usurp her superiority. There were repercussions for such an act. Her honor demanded redress. She would claim it in blood.


“Get the Tallgeese board first,” Gypsy said as the Aries pushed the Tallgeese aboard.

“Gotcha,” Crow answered, “You next, Gyps.”

“Suddenly you’re all chivalrous? Are you sick too?”

“Nah, just felt like being a decent person.”

“This once?”

“Maybe, who knows, ri—“

A beam streaked through the air, piercing the torso of Gypsy’s Aries. Without any controls, the Mobile Suit quickly fell away from the Running Riot and Crow, who reached out and cried in anguish as the Mobile Suit tumbled end over end before blossoming into a fiery orb

“NO!” Fuuka roared.

Again, she had failed to destroy the White Mobile Suit for the third time! In a single day!

“DAMNIT” she smashed her hands agains the controls of the Gundam, hateful tears streaking down her flushed cheeks.

Outcome:
Watanabe Fuuka: (10+2) XP, Rp (4)
Yoshida Haruka: (10+2) XP, Rp (4), 1 x L1 Zaku Reconnaissance Type destroyed, pilot KIA
Nelson Robinson : (15+3) XP, Rp (3), Injured (3) (Cardiac Infarction), 1 x L2 Aries destroyed, pilot KIA