The Big Stick <!– @page { size: 8.27in 11.69in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } –>

The Big Stick

“I’m not sure how much I like this plan, Kale,” Deacon Gerard said, overlooking the hangar of the Sammael at the mobile suits he and his colleagues were about to deploy in.

“What’s wrong with it?” Kale Armistad said with an abbreviated grin. “Those Vanguard guys are piling in on the action too. I guess when they ‘called out’ the world’s governments they were really just chafing up against the Alliance. Good luck for us, I think.”

“This is… different,” Deacon stated flatly. “A radar platform, a fort on an empty tropical island, and a supply base near our old stomping grounds don’t really tally up to the pride of the Alliance Navy, now do they?”

“All the better when we send it to the bottom,” Kale said in an upbeat tone. “Maybe we’ll get even luckier and the whole group will just roll over for us, eh? Our record is 3-0 now, as I recall.”

“We can only hope, Kale,” Deacon remarked, smoothing his hair back and giving an absentminded scratch at the back of his head. “Still… I can’t help but feeling you’re going to get the both of us killed.”

“Well, that’s just part of the game. Relax, Deacon, have I ever gotten us into trouble before?” Kale smiled pleasantly, eliciting shoulder-drooping sigh from Deacon.

—

Ariel Paz rubbed his eyelids and the bridge of his nose pensively. This would be the Vanguard Horizon’s first major combat operation, and he was effectively staking his claim of legitimacy as a counterweight to the world’s governments on its result.

“Problem, boss?” Lachesis Schneider inquired, leaning in a bit at Ariel’s desk.

“Just a bit anxious,” the group’s leader remarked, not opening his eyes. “We’re just plunging headlong into a major scarp with the Earth Sphere Alliance. No big deal.”

“And throwing our lot in with alleged terrorists,” Lachesis added. “The two most wanted men on Earth at the moment, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Not at all, Lace,” Ariel mused. “Funny, that. We’ve been mostly ignored in calling out all the ruling factions, and now we’re retaliating by signing up for that man’s personal war against the Alliance. Anything could happen after that.”

“Perhaps the other governments will attempt to court our assistance,” Lachesis posited, stroking her chin thoughtfully. “It’s not every day an aircraft carrier gets sunk by a group of politically irrelevant misfits.”

“Or we’ll be parsed as little more that cutthroat renegades masquerading as what we claim to truly be,” the intercom on Ariel’s desk buzzed; it was Lyric Sate, the operator of their “big gun”. “Brigands out for cash like the rest of those guys.”

“That too, Lyric,” Ariel said, leaning back and staring at the ceiling; he didn’t say anything more for a few moments. “Have we established contact with the Sammael yet?”

“We’ve got a coded burst transmission that our intercept vectors are spot on,” Lyric replied from his cockpit in the carrier’s hangar. “It’s your call now, boss.”

“Great,” Ariel sighed. “To play the hand or not…”

“For what it’s worth, I think the hand’s already been played,” Lachesis said thoughtfully. “You’ve resigned your position, I’ve done the same for mine. Lyric too.”

“Not like there was much to hand in,” a somewhat bitter voice came from the intercom.

“True enough, gentlemen,” Ariel smirked at Lachesis’ direction. “True enough.”

—

“Your beverage, Admiral,” the liaison said, offering a fine china cup on an appropriately sized plate to the man in the tall chair.

“Thank you, sweetie,” Admiral Irving Kristol smiled pleasantly, taking the serving and inhaling deeply of its vapors. “Hmm… nutmeg… a bit of vanilla too… interesting choices, yes… well, let’s see then…” he took a sip of the piping hot coffee, enduring the temperature to sample its flavor more fully before swallowing.

“How is it?” the liaison asked, tilting her head a bit in anticipation.

“I do believe your culinary adventurism has prevailed again,” Kristol smiled, his perfectly white teeth framed by a somewhat weather-beaten face and bushy sideburns. “You’ll think up a good name for this blend too, of course? The PX at Galveston had quite a good run in brewing up your last invention, if I recall.”

“Of course, sir,” the liaison saluted sharply, disappearing out of the cavernous bridge of the AMS Theodore Roosevelt as quickly as she’d arrived. Ahead of the command center’s windows, twin flight decks jutted forth like a mammoth tuning fork; a pair of Aries launched from each to begin their combat air patrol around the carrier battle group’s position.

“Mister Price, has there been a confirmation of that blip we picked up earlier?” Kristol inquired, taking a heartier swig of his coffee now that the temperature was a bit more tolerable.

“I think it was just a glitch, Admiral,” the Roosevelt’s radar navigation officer replied. “Nothing else but that one blip, and the CAP’s haven’t reported anything interesting either.”

“Well, keep your eyes open all the same,” Kristol remarked. “We’re not out here for a pleasure cruise.”

“Aye-aye, Admiral,” Price said sharply, returning to the duty pit to keep track of his enlisted systems operators.

“Sir, I’m… getting a transmission,” the communications officer said from his respective station. “It’s faint, but definitely coming in on one of our channels.”

“Is that so?” Kristol said, quirking an eyebrow. “Well, let’s hear it, Mister Desmond.”

—

“Think they got it?” Sebastiaan Arts mentioned to his co-conspirator.

“I don’t doubt it,” Ci Lain replied. “This is supposed to be a secure channel.”

“And it would be,” Sebastiaan returned. “If we weren’t selling out our own people…”

“Better work is better work, don’t think about it too much,” Ci noted rather callously.

“Of course, what’s there to think about,” Sebastiaan said with a degree of sarcasm. He was still uncertain as to whether or not this was the right decision to make – the Alliance had been providing him good work and benefits for his time. Further, he was more than a little shocked when uncovered by a fellow Alliance pilot, rather than hand him in to internal security, had decided to jump in on his betrayal. It seemed almost… spontaneous.

Sebastiaan’s Blitz Gundam had piggybacked on the much larger flight-capable Penelope as well. There was certainly that going for it – Sebastiaan would have had to have waited for the carrier battle group to get fairly close to shore otherwise.

“We confirm your position,” Sebastiaan’s radio crackled to life. “Landing clearance is granted from starboard. Maintain situational awareness, there’s a storm coming in and visibility will be hindered.”

“Roger that,” he said, switching the radio off. “Storm coming in, eh…”

—

“So,” Darius Carver began, breaking the silence. “We’re following that man’s lead again, eh?”

“Correct,” the pale-haired Cielo Avari replied.

“Huh,” Darius mumbled, thinking of where to proceed. “Are you sure this is wise? They’ll probably label us terrorists too, now…”

“Maybe,” Cielo mentioned, laconic as ever. “Assuming any of them survive.”

“Right, right,” Darius said, working his jaw around a bit. Cielo always seemed to be a bit more confident than he was – it didn’t help that his machine was significantly improved over Darius’ – at least in terms of statistics, anyway. “And those renegades in Vanguard Horizon too, right?”

“Right,” Cielo replied swiftly.

“Huh,” Darius said again. “Going to be a big party out there…”

“Yes,” Cielo said. The Virtue and Throne Zwei skimmed along the surface of the ocean, kicking up rooster tails of water vapor as they headed for the darkening skies in open water.

—

Ariel took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and then relaxed again. The Freedom Gundam’s cockpit was a familiar sight, and he hoped the high output machine would be enough to guide him and his cause against vast numerical superiority.

“Alright, boys and girls,” he began, flexing his fingers. “Sound off.”

“Lyric Sate, Double X, ready to fry some boats,” Lyric said, pulling the cuffs of his piloting gloves to ensure a snug fit.

“Lachesis Schneider, GN Flag,” Lachesis followed, eyes closed in a bit of internal harmony. “Ready when you are.”

“Phil McCormick, Rising Gundam, fully prepared to honorably put that flotilla on the ocean floor,” Phil said, doing a few warm-up stretches in the roomy Trace System cockpit of his mobile fighter.

“Ethan Cross, Nu Gundam,” Ethan added. “Fin Funnels fully charged.” Not that they’ll be all that useful here… he thought with a bit of a grimace.

“Able Shaw, Destiny Gundam, checking in,” Able remarked, shaking his hands to stimulate good blood flow. “Beam boomerangs and anti-ship sword are at your service, boss.”

“Henry Morris, Red Frame,” Henry stated with a completely lackadaisical tone, staring up in disinterest at the cockpit of his mobile suit. “Let’s get this show started already.”

“Last chance for anyone to object to our first combat operation,” Ariel said, furrowing his brow a bit and waiting with anticipation. A minute passed, then two – silence.

“Alright, that’s it then. Vanguard Horizon, prepare for launch!” Ariel ordered.

“Let there be light!” the group resonated back to him.

—

Many hundreds of miles away, a metallic dome jutted out of the frigid waters somewhere between Greenland and North America. Snow whipped at its exterior and icicles hung off the steely surface. Virgos stood vigilantly against the frozen wind whipping away at them, remaining completely motionless for the most part.

Deep within the installation, a powerful supercomputer’s activity indicators began flashing quickly, indicating a large amount of data was being processed. The gentle hum of countless cooling fans increased a few decibels to match the sudden surge in processor load. The datacenter continued chugging away, the outside world oblivious to its existence, much less the terabytes of data flying to and fro.

—

A flight crew member waved his lit batons in the air and guided the Penelope and its black-colored passenger down to the deck of the Roosevelt, offering a salute as their feet connected with the deck. High above, Admiral Kristol had finished his coffee and set the china set down in a small depression in the armrest of his chair.

“Fine landing, those two,” Kristol remarked to nobody in particular as the mobile suits began walking toward the carrier’s monstrous central island. The Blitz stopped and saluted the bridge.

“Admiral, some important information has come into my possession, sir,” Sebastiaan said over the radio.

“Oh?” Kristol said, the topic piquing his interest some. “Well, go ahead, Mister…?” he trailed off, waiting for a response.

“Oh,” Sebastiaan began. “Um…” he was abruptly cut off by the ship’s communications officer.

“Admiral, I think you’d best take a look at this,” the officer said quickly, recoiling back a bit from his duty station.

“Hm,” Kristol muttered. “Hold that thought, pilot, I’ll get right back to you.” The Admiral disembarked from his position and strode down to the duty pit to examine the station in question. “Well, what is it?”

“It’s… not good,” the officer said, gesturing to a text readout on the screen:

— AX-1 OCEANIC SURVEILLANCE STATION REPORT —

WARNING
WARNING

…
MULTIPLE ELECTRONIC CONTACTS MATCHING GN PARTICLE EMISSIONS ARE CLOSING ON YOUR CARRIER BATTLE GROUP’S CURRENT POSITION

…
PROBABILITY OF HOSTILE INTENT IS NEAR 100%
…
OTHER CONTACTS ON RADAR HAVE BEEN DETECTED AS WELL, ALL ARE ON INTERCEPT VECTORS

…

NO ENEMY VESSELS TO REPORT

…

LIKELIHOOD OF TERRORIST MOBILE SUIT ACTIVITY IS NEAR 100%

…
RECOMMENDATION: BEGIN FULL COMBAT OPERATIONS AGAINST ENEMY INCURSION

…

THIS STATION WILL CONTINUE TO PROVIDE REAL-TIME UPDATES TO YOUR VESSEL’S MAIN COMPUTER IN PLACE OF YOUR OWN ONBOARD SCANNING FACILITIES

— END REPORT —

“…sweet Jesus,” Kristol said after considering the words on the screen. “We’d never have seen them coming, either…”

“Orders, sir?” the communications officer said gravely, looking over his shoulder. Kristol pondered for a moment, then returned to his chair, and pondered a moment longer.

“Microphone,” he said, pulling the brim of his hat down some. A junior officer quickly provided him with a handset for the fleet’s intercom system.

“Attention, all members of the Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Battle Group. This is your commanding officer, Irving Kristol speaking. All men report to your battle stations immediately, this fleet is now on full combat alert,” he said authoritatively. After a moment of shock, the bridge crew hurriedly went into action and the lights inside dimmed to a dull red for greater visibility.

“Our position is currently threatened by terrorist mobile suits, very likely the same ones responsible for the theft of Barbados and the many casualties at Chicago. They now come after us,” Kristol continued. “However, the enemy shall not catch us with our trousers at half-mast again. Thanks to the diligence of our future weapons – state of the art computers and machines that think for themselves – it is now the enemy’s turn to be surprised.”

Shit, shit, shit…Sebastiaan’s mind was racing at the speed of light, though going nowhere fast. This isn’t supposed to be happening yet!

The sailors and officers had sprung to action throughout the fleet. Missile guidance systems were primed, antiaircraft guns had their radars calibrated, cannons tested their motion actuators and the elevators of the Roosevelt were coming to life as mobile suits reached the deck.

“Our fleet shall engage these bloodthirsty brigands head-on. No quarter will be asked, and none given. We are the pride of the Alliance Navy, and we shall not kowtow to thugs who think they can rule the world through random acts of violence,” Kristol remarked smartly. “This battle will showcase Earth’s strength and resolve in the battle for order and honor in the world. We shall destroy all those who slander peace.” Kristol paused, peering up in the narrow gap between the high collar of his uniform and pulled-down brim of his hat. The crew’s eyes were all on him.

“For a blue and pure world,” he said sternly. “All ships, advance!”

“All ships, advance!” the first officer echoed.

“All ships, advance!” the order was relayed throughout the fleet as massive nuclear-driven turbines screamed up to flank speed and the vessels began turning sharply to face the oncoming enemy. Their blade-like bows sliced through the waves as the weather turned from bad to worse – by the time the sun set, a pouring rainstorm had begun.

—

“Hey, what do you make of this, Aromaru?” Lutador Desifiante posited, holding the arm of his Force Impulse Gundam outwards to stop his colleague.

“Make of what, Luta?” Aromaru Aster asked in return, bringing his Justice Gundam to a halt and scanning the dark clouds around them.

“There, mobile suits are dropping,” Lutador remarked, pointing. “I’d say there’s going to be a battle around here, Aromaru…”

“I’d say you’d be right, Luta,” Aromaru said, putting a hand through his long hair with a bit of glee in his voice. “Shall we pay them a visit?”

“I do believe we shall, Aromaru,” Lutador grinned. “Good thing we decided to cross the ocean together, eh?”

“I couldn’t agree more, Luta,” Aromaru grinned too. Both Gundams sudden dove out of the air towards the distant ocean below, their flight packs carrying them along with great speed at the impending battle.

—

Lyric checked the power indicator on the Double X’s heads-up display, and was rewarded with seeing the microwave power transmission beam had achieved a stable lock on his Gundam. Its golden heat dissipation fins unfolded and the devastating twin satellite cannon snapped in place over the Gundam’s shoulders.

“One tidal wave, coming right up…” Lyric grinned, the meter continuing to rise as more energy was transferred from DOME.

“Everyone, get ready to follow up once Lyric makes us cover to advance under,” Ariel remarked, regarding the rest of his team with the utmost respect. Phil’s Rising clung to the back of Able’s Destiny, careful to avoid the dangerous propulsive emitters on the Destiny’s back. The rest of his men hung about like stringed puppets, just waiting for the cue to attack. “A little longer…”

—

“Admiral! It’s a microwave relay beam…!” the first officer exclaimed, lowering his binoculars as the crew looked on at the white line at the distant horizon.

“That Atlantic Federation relic…” Kristol scoffed. “They’ve played their hand too early,” he said, outstretching his hand. “Sanitize that area! All ships, open fire!”

The destroyers surrounding the Roosevelt began belching forth streams of missiles from their vertical launch tubes at the rear of the boats. More rockets followed those that went ahead of them, and swiftly all that was visible were points of light shooting up the smoke trails of the ones that had gone before. The barrage swiftly leveled off in flight at altitude and screamed towards the Vanguard Horizon’s position.

—

“Guess that’s our signal…” Kale remarked with a smirk, tossing one of the Dynames’ pistols into the air before catching it again.

“Don’t get too close! Don’t get too close!” Penny said angrily, flapping her pseudo wings in distrust.

“Have some faith in me for once, hm?” Kale said, leaning in and shooting the machine a dirty look.

“Can’t trust you! Can’t trust you!” the machine retorted sharply, Kale’s expression souring precipitously.

“You ready, Kale?” Deacon asked from his own cockpit. He’d be holding back for a while, something he was a bit iffy about, but he wasn’t going to argue with Kale’s plan just on that alone.

“Yeah,” Kale replied, activating the power conduits that began sending energy from the Gundam Dynames’ GN Drive into his mobile suit. “You’re not worried about things, are you, Deacon?”

“No. Not really,” Deacon quickly added. “Who’s going to keep you out of trouble until I get there, though?”

“You worry too much,” Kale said with a chuckle. “Anyway, Junius is coming too, so I’m sure I’ll be fine. Just make sure you’re ready to slice and dice when the time comes!”

“If you say so…” Deacon said, bringing the 00 Gundam into standby.

“Right. We’ve got a rendezvous to make,” Kale said, gesturing to the golden mobile suit that lay behind him.

“Good,” Junius Lethe said, arms crossed. “I am ready to fight.”

“That’s what I want to hear,” Kale said in an upbeat tone. “Time to fly…”

—

A massive column of water roiled into the air as the Double X’s twin satellite cannon blasted into the ocean, countless gallons of ocean evaporated in a moment. A wake spread out in all directions, but it was rather uninspiring compared to the tidal wave Lyric had been expecting.

“…hum,” he began. “I guess that worked better in the simulation…”

“Well, so much for scrambling their fleet before we got there,” Ariel commented. “But it’s nothing we can’t overcome with a bit more-”

“Uh, boss…” Lachesis began, the GN Flag stretching out into a combat posture.

“What?” Ariel asked, turning to face the lithe black mobile suit. “Oh.” The sky seemed to fall upon the group as a hailstorm of missiles plummeted out of the sky, turning the entire area into a massive confluence of blasts. “Scatter! They must’ve seen the microwave beam!!”

The Vanguard Horizon immediately began splitting up like insects whose cover had been removed, doing the best they could to evade the fusillade.

“Come on, move…!” Lyric exclaimed, yanking back on the Double X’s control sticks. His mobile suit was responding slowly due to the remaining heat that hadn’t yet dissipated from firing the satellite cannon. As he darted backwards, a half-dozen missiles slammed into the water just in front of him, throwing great splashes up as their warheads cooked off. “That’s my machine!” he said with pride – a moment later, a lone missile streaked through the cloud of water vapor and apparently exploded just in front of him. Lyric recoiled in horror as a cloud of metallic darts spewed forth from the blast and slammed into his mobile suit’s torso, briefly plunging him into darkness.

“Shit… Lyric!” Ariel exclaimed, watching the Double X tumbling backwards, chest looking somewhat akin to a pincushion.

“Kinetic energy submunitions…” Ethan said between gritted teeth, using his vulcan guns to bring down several warheads closing in on him. “They came prepared!”

“Lyric! Respond!” Ariel’s voice crackled through the pulverized cockpit of Lyric’s machine.

“Yeah… I’m not dead yet…!” Lyric said in a pained tone, some of his monitors coming back online and flooding with error messages. One of the darts had penetrated directly through the microwave receiver and into his cockpit, missing his head by inches. The spalling from the cockpit walls had done him good, though – he tasted blood in his mouth and felt it on his face, probably from flying glass and metal shards. “I’m hurt, but… I think I’ll live. Fucking satellite cannon’s shot, though…!”

“Can you still fight?” Ariel asked, watching as Able’s beam shield absorbed several more missiles coming his way.

“For now, yeah,” Lyric grunted, recovering control over the Double X. Thankfully, its control systems hadn’t been too badly compromised, even if he couldn’t see out the Gundam’s left side anymore.

“Alright,” Ariel nodded. “Vanguard Horizon, we’re still in this battle! Stay on your toes and keep moving!”

“Another barrage coming in…” Lachesis growled, the Flag’s fingers running up and down her lone beam saber.

—

“Results?” Kristol demanded, wringing his gloved hands together.

“We’re confirming hits from AX-1, but it looks like no enemy contacts have been neutralized yet,” the fleet’s combat observation officer reported.

“They’re quick…” Kristol frowned, the edges of his mouth turning up in an ugly expression. “Don’t stop firing for any reason – we’ve got lots of missiles and we’re going to use them, damn it!”

“What about our mobile suit teams?” the first officer inquired.

“Right,” Kristol nodded. “All mobile suits are to be armed for anti-Gundam warfare, but do not launch until we have confirmed contact with the enemy. No reason to split our forces up now when we don’t know exactly what we’re up against.”

“Roger that, skipper,” the officer nodded, collecting his handset. “Attention, attention, all mobile suit squadrons are to prepare for launch. Taurus and Serpent, be ready with your beam cannons for attacking bulletproof targets. Aries, your task is to restrict the enemy’s movement – do not engage all out with something your missiles can’t affect. Pisces, remain at depth until further orders. Let’s move, people!”

It’s too soon… how did they know?! Sebastiaan wracked his mind trying to figure out the conundrum. Did they somehow find out about me?

“What’s your call, Sebastiaan?” Ci asked in a closed channel. “I’m still good for wrecking up the place.”

“That’s great,” Sebastiaan said harshly. “I have friends coming and they’re relying on me to cause a distraction. I was supposed to feed them false information, but now they know they’re coming…”

“Eh, big deal,” Ci shrugged. “Let’s just start shooting now, that’ll be a good surprise.”

“Don’t even think about it, you jackass!” Sebastiaan snapped. “That’s the last thing we want! Just… wait a little longer, alright?!”

“Hm,” Ci thought. “Let’s let the great arbiter decide, eh?” He reached into his pocket and rummaged around for a moment, retrieving an Alliance-minted coin. “Call it,” he said, flipping it into the air.

“What? Call what?!” Sebastiaan demanded.

“Heads,” Ci grinned as he observed the result. The Penelope turned on one leg and let fire with its beam rifle and the quartet of vulcan guns mounted in the mobile suit’s “nose” area. The windows of the Roosevelt’s bridge blew out in a blast that sent shards of glass and flying pieces of metal flying in every direction.

God DAMN it!! Sebastiaan mentally exclaimed. Things were NOT going as planned at all.

—

“Hey, did you see that?” Darius asked, the brief flash of light in the distance catching his attention.

“The explosion, or the mobile armor that’s appeared on our flanks?” Cielo asked matter-of-factly.

“The explosion! What else would- what?!” Darius suddenly did a double-take as he observed the monstrous Psyco Gundam that had crept up on their position from behind.

“Hiya,” Braddigan Heart stated with no real flourish. “Ariel sent me.”

“Oh,” Darius said, catching his breath for a moment. “Well, great, I guess.”

“Yep. By the way, I’d drop altitude if I were you,” Braddigan said flatly, powering up the Psyco Gundam’s gigantic scattering beam cannons.

“Shit…!” Darius exclaimed, diving the Throne Zwei down to surface level; Cielo had already done so. A shotgun-like blast of beam fire erupted from the Psyco’s torso region, and a moment later a fusillade of missiles that burst through the low clouds disappeared in an explosive display.

“You’re welcome,” Braddigan remarked, throttling up his Minovsky-craft system in hopes of catching up to his rendezvous point with Junius and the Alvaaron on time.

“…interesting characters we’re working with today, Cielo,” Darius remarked coolly, almost reflexively testing to see if his hair had gotten burnt.

“We should probably be going in low anyway,” Cielo said. “Avoid more missiles and wasting more time.”

“Yeah, I guess…” Darius affirmed. “So much stuff going on… it’s getting kind of complicated.”

—

High above, Deacon and Kale’s “home away from home”, the stolen Space Revolutionary Army stealth carrier Sammael continued to orbit the combat zone. Deacon was getting tired of all the waiting around. He understood the tactical advantage behind a close combat powerhouse like his own 00 Gundam waiting to fall on the enemy until they were already engaged in melee, but it nevertheless left him concerned. Kale had a bad habit of having bad things happen to him whenever Deacon wasn’t around – how many times had he looked over his friend in a hospital before for some kind of injury he hadn’t witnessed?

“Mr. Gerard, we’ve recovered the Vanguard members who are participating in the high-altitude drop with us,” one of the Flag pilots chimed in over his radio.

“Good. And it’s just Deacon, please,” he remarked, growing more pensive in his cockpit as the minutes passed.

“At least we don’t have to worry about showing up on radar,” Deacon said to himself – the GN particle emissions from Kale’s Dynames and Junius’ Alvaaron, plus the other two rogues who should have gotten into combat by now, would handily scramble the fleet’s radar and prevent them from spotting the Sammael, even when its hangar doors were open to recover the Vanguard members or re-arm his own Flag contingent.

That understanding was swiftly shattered when Deacon felt the deck heave under the 00’s feet.

“Wh… what?!” he exclaimed. A Flag had just recovered Henry’s Astray when something had gone horrifically wrong. “Bridge, what the hell’s going on here?!” Deacon demanded.

“My thoughts exactly…” Henry grumbled, the impact having knocked his head against the side of the cockpit panel – being out of combat, he assumed he could remove his safety harness.

“We’ve been hit!” the Sammael’s aircraft commander exclaimed. “There’s… missiles! They’re rising up from the sea!”

“That’s impossible… how did they see through the GN particle screens?!” Deacon demanded of nobody in particular. “What’s the damage!?”

“We’re losing a lot of fuel rapidly,” the commander radioed back. “It’s not catching on fire, thank God, but we won’t be able to remain at this altitude for much longer. …oh, fuck me, there’s more missiles coming up!”

“Goddammit…” Deacon seethed. “Flag Fighters, Vanguard soldiers, we’re moving up the timetable! Get ready to launch immediately!”

“I don’t even know why we came here in the first place…” Ethan muttered, ducking the Nu Gundam towards the Sammael’s rear hatch.

—

The Roosevelt’s bridge was flatly annihilated. Great expanses of the interior were burned out, with corpses lying at their stations exactly where they’d been alive not moments earlier. Gaping holes entered through one side and out the other, and charred gore was sprinkled lightly about the entire area.

“Christ almighty…” Kristol groaned, attempting to pull himself up from where the force of the blast had thrown him. “Who’s still alive?” A handful of voices called out, including the first officer’s. “Great… issue the order… all mobile suits launch at once…!”

—

AX-1 took in the new data it constantly received via satellite uplink, and ran a process to determine the best possible course of action. Very efficient. Very mechanical.

CVN-12 HELM CONTROL LOST

…

CVN-12 COMBAT COMMAND CAPABILITY LOST

…

CVN-12 MAIN COMPUTER REMAINS INTACT

…

ASSUMING OPERATIONAL CONTROL OVER CVN-12

…

DIRECTING ATTACK VS PROBABLE ENEMY LOW-RCS MOTHERSHIP

…

FLEET MAINTAIN AT FLANK SPEED

…

MS FORCES TO ROUT ENEMY APPROACHING FROM EAST

…

PROBABILITY OF ENEMY REINFORCEMENT FROM PROBABLE ENEMY LOW-RCS MOTHERSHIP… HIGH

…

GAT-X207, RX-104FF NOW IFF HOSTILE

—

Sebastiaan took several shots with his shield-mounted beam rifle at the Serpent that darted back and forth in front of him. His attacks went wide, one penetrating the badly smoking island of the carrier, and the Serpent responded with a hail of shells from its double Gatling gun. The volume and power of the projectiles hitting him would exhaust Blitz’s power supply in no time, so he was doing the best he could to mirror the Serpent’s movement and avoid getting hit. To his disdain, a virtual cloud of Aries had taken to the air shortly after Ci made the executive decision that the rebellion was still on. More importantly, in spite of crippling its command deck, the Roosevelt was still lobbing missiles, launching mobile suits, and presumably issuing orders to the rest of the fleet.

“Guess your friends are a little slow,” Ci scoffed, having taken to the air to evade the withering fire from the Serpents on the Roosevelt’s deck. Missiles continued to score hits on the Penelope, but its gundarium armor shrugged off most of the damage. Further, the Minovsky barrier reflected even a direct hit from one of the powerful Taurus beam cannons, sending a wash of particle energy spewing off the back of his mobile suit.

“You started this, you idiot…!” Sebastiaan exclaimed, perforating an Aries with one of the lancer darts on his shield. The flying mobile suit crashed to the deck in a heap and exploded, forcing Sebastiaan’s Blitz to “skip” back several suit lengths to avoid being taken out with it. Just as he did so, a fusillade of missiles from another Aries caught him unawares and nearly cast him off the ship.

“At least I brought the right tools for the job,” Ci cackled as his funnel missiles found their mark; great blasts erupted from the destroyer Steadman, and it began peeling off from the rest of the fleet, losing speed and beginning to list. A moment later, a pinpoint white-hot beam lanced fully through his mobile suit. “…what?!” he demanded as the mobile suit’s cockpit was flooded with emergency indications. He was able to bring the shaky Penelope around just in time to see a Taurus unload a second shot against him with a laser rifle, something neither his Minovsky barrier nor gundarium armor plating protected against. The Minovsky-craft system shorted out and his enormous mobile suit assumed the flight path of a lawn dart, smashing into the edge of the Roosevelt’s deck and bouncing off before landing in the water and sinking like a rock.

—

Ariel’s men had barely avoided taking a serious battering from yet another missile fusillade when a stream of much more angry-looking threats emerged out of the smoke trails of the rockets: a virtual storm of Aries with a handful of Taurus mixed in for effect. Before any of them could really even act a hail of machine gun fire, flocks of missiles and a few deadly beam weapons shot forward from the mass of Alliance mobile suits.

“Not holding anything back at all, are they…” Ariel gritted his teeth, beam cannons and railguns snapping into place.

“Doesn’t look like it,” Able muttered, his Destiny Gundam already eating up almost as much energy as his reactor could afford with constantly protecting against missile strikes with the machine’s beam shields. Lachesis simply scoffed and readied her beam saber for the close distance battle that was about to occur. All at once, however, the swarm of Alliance mobile suits seemed to scatter – a moment later, an enormous, wide-angle beam blast erupted from the South, not catching any of the machines but quickly forcing them to break formation.

“Braddigan…!” Ariel exclaimed. The boxy mobile fortress Psyco Gundam had arrived on scene, with Kale’s Dynames directly behind.

“Fashionably late, I hope,” Kale grinned, readying both his pistols and starting to take shots at the regrouping Aries. “Braddigan, Junius, get over to the fleet and cause a ruckus – there should be friends there already.”

“On it,” Junius nodded, wishing he could have gotten a crack at those Aries first but nevertheless following up on Kale’s orders.

“Oh boy,” Braddigan grinned. “Big, almost immobile targets…” The Psyco braked hard, killing its inertia, and came about to head for the fleet, the golden Alvaaron close behind.

“Kale,” Ariel began, unloading three shots from his beam rifle at an Aries as it loosed a swarm of missiles towards him. “Something’s wrong. They saw us coming. We were supposed to have total surprise over them.”

“Probably just a coincidence,” Kale dismissed, lining up an Aries and bringing it down with a well-placed shot from his pistol. Dynames’ shields quickly slammed shut to protect it against another missile barrage, the Gundam emerging with minimal damage to take a few potshots at the offending Aries as if shooing away a bug.

“Coincidence?!” Able exclaimed. “The only thing they didn’t do is murder us in our sleep last night! We’ve been sold ou- GAH!” he was cut off as the Destiny’s arm was severed from its body by a Taurus’ beam cannon. With his lightwing emitter sheared off as well, flying suddenly became difficult, and the dark water below was very unappealing. “Bastard…!” he growled, using the Destiny’s hand-mounted beam gun to retaliate.

“This was supposed to be a surprise attack!” Ariel demanded, catching another Aries but missing the Taurus that flew alongside it. The black mobile suit abruptly dove below him, emerging out from behind and checking the Freedom in the back with the spike mounted on its arm. Ariel spun about to shoot it down, but found only open air where it had been a moment earlier. The Taurus had boosted directly up and proceeded to disarm him of both of his shoulder-mounted cannons with well-placed shots from its beam rifle. It was about to deliver the coup-de-grace to Freedom when Lachesis’ beam saber intercepted the rifle’s receiver, causing it to explode in the Taurus’ hand. The Alliance mobile suit swiftly backpedaled and prepared to unload its beam cannon into the lanky Flag, but was swiftly met with a beam saber to the face.

As the KO’d Taurus plummeted into the water, the slightly diminished Alliance squadron seemed to jam on their brakes, then quickly flew back from the direction they came.

“Where do you think you’re going?!” the bloodied Lyric demanded, clipping an Aries with his beam rifle as it retreated but unable to bring it down entirely.

“There, see? Everything went just great,” Kale said with a distinctly positive angle.

“…that mob of mobile suits was going to bulldoze us. Why did they just turn tail like that?” Ariel asked, bewildered.

“Have some more faith in me, Ariel Paz,” Kale said. “I do make the impossible possible, after all.”

“Deacon’s in trouble! Deacon’s in trouble!” Penny exclaimed suddenly. “You screwed up!”

“…well, shit,” Kale said, paling a bit. “Change of plans! Everybody follow up and move like the wind!”

—

“You again?!” Deacon exclaimed, flinging one of his GN blades into the face of a Serpent; its double Gatling gun sent tracer fire into the sky as it toppled over backwards.

“Yes!” Sebastiaan exclaimed. “I wanted to see you again. Everything you said was true. The Alliance, Old Chicago, everything – this whole organization is a lot of crooks and fascists!”

“Well, glad you saw the light,” Deacon said, bringing up a GN field in time to avoid being annihilated by another Serpent’s powerful beam cannon. “Wish you’d picked a better time, but now better than never!”

“Couldn’t agree more,” Sebastiaan said with a grin. With a loud crack, the gun of the Curtis opened fire and blasted Blitz in the back, taking out the last of his energy reserves and knocking over the Gundam like a ragdoll as its phase shift armor was depleted.

“Oh, damn it…!” Deacon cursed, jetting across the Roosevelt’s spacious deck and activating his GN field once again to prevent more incoming attacks. “Hey, wannabe assassin! You’re not allowed to die yet!”

“Urgh…” Sebastiaan groaned. “Got it… I don’t suppose you happen to have an energy condenser by any chance…”

“Afraid not,” Deacon began. The destroyer in question seemed to disappear as the Psyco Gundam’s beam cannons perforated it all the way through, Braddigan’s maniacal laughter crackling across the channel shared by the rogues. “I do have something almost as good, though. Braddigan!”

“What?” he asked, turning his eyes towards the sudden appearance of more Alliance flying mobile suits above.

“Get this guy back to your ship. I’ll vouch for him,” Deacon ordered, gesturing to the incapacitated Blitz Gundam.

“But… the battle…” Braddigan began in a disappointed intonation.

“This is more important! We’ve got everything taken care of here, but this man here needs your help, now move it!” Deacon barked.

“Bah,” Braddigan growled, the Psyco’s boxy form approaching. “Rob me of all the fun…” A giant gray hand from its mobile suit configuration reached out and collected the incapacitated Blitz, then the mobile fortress abruptly jetted into the sky, a few missiles and machine gun fire following it up but none managing any kind of significant damage. Deacon looked on in approval until a massive impact sent the 00 reeling. At point-blank range, even the GN field hadn’t stopped the massive armor-piercing penetrator of the Serpent’s bazooka.

“Oh, so that’s how it’s going to be,” Deacon said angrily, removing the giant buster sword from his Gundam’s shoulder. The field dropped immediately and 00 shot forward, planting its blade into the deck of the carrier as the Serpent expertly evaded. “Why, you…!” Deacon seethed, yanking the blade upwards – or tried to, at least. It seemed to have embedded in something or other within the ship’s deck and resisted his effort to dislodge it. That opening was all the Serpent needed and its beam cannon thundered twice, first annihilating the 00’s left arm as Deacon reached for another sword, and the second taking off the bottom of its left leg as well. Quickly using his GN drives to stabilize himself, Deacon avoided toppling over as a lesser mobile suit would. The Serpent lined up its final shot and was about to punch a hole straight through the 00’s chest when Phil’s Rising made its debut, landing behind the Alliance mobile suit, swiftly kicking its legs out from under it, and jamming his beam glaive into the Serpent’s body.

“That was a little close, there,” Phil mused, withdrawing his weapon from its chest.

“A bit, yeah,” Deacon muttered, overlooking the damage. “When did these bucketheads get beam weapons…”

“Well, I imagine-” Phil was interrupted as the seemingly inert Serpent came to life, its missile launchers splitting open and firing into the Rising’s face, sending a small cloud of Gundam parts skyward. “Oh, come on! Just die already!” Phil blindly swung at the Serpent as the badly damaged mobile suit tackled his Gundam’s midsection, sending both of them over the deck’s edge and into the water.

—

The Alliance squadron had been badly damaged by the sudden renegade attack. Over half of its escort destroyers were now floundering in the water, on fire, or below the surface, and the Roosevelt itself had abruptly come to a halt as its mobile suits returned, bridge still aflame. Nevertheless, its antiaircraft guns and missile launchers continued to unload on the pirates and Vanguard Horizon fighters as their respective forces clashed in the air above.

In the water, countless Alliance sailors and officers had dove into the water as their vessels took on water, and a small sea of orange inflatable life rafts had sprung up between the dying vessels.

One such raft was nearly upturned as Cielo’s Gundam Virtue crested the water, GN bazooka already charging and ready to go. As Darius’ Throne Zwei followed just behind, the portly Gundam fired, sending a massive lance of energy outward. One of the remaining destroyers seemed to partially melt as the beam passed by it before it struck the side of the Roosevelt, creating a massive hole all the way through the carrier just above the waterline.

“That should stop its movement,” Cielo remarked.

“Nice shot…” Darius said, eyes wandering to the orange rafts that lay in the water below him. “I thought there was supposed to be a submarine here?”

“There was,” Cielo said brusquely. “It’s below our safe diving range. Seems like they ran.”

“Smart for them, I guess,” Darius remarked. “Still… I was kinda hoping to see more action.”

“Look up, then,” Cielo indicated. The Roosevelt’s mobile suits had returned to find their mothership in its deplorable shape, and swiftly fell on Kale’s battered away team. He could clearly make out Deacon’s 00 Gundam, missing a few limbs, rising to the occasion, along with Henry’s Astray Red Frame and Ethan’s heavily armored Nu Gundam putting up a significant barrage.

“Oh, good,” Darius grinned, drawing his giant blade and flying into the air.

—

The battle had shifted in the renegades’ favor, but it certainly wasn’t over yet. Junius’ Alvaaron folded its golden wings ahead of itself and fired a tremendous blast of GN particles across the bow of one of the last destroyers, halting the ship’s advance as it began taking on water. A final barrage of missiles streaked into the air, coming back down almost immediately to fall upon the assembled Vanguard Horizon members.

Ariel’s beam rifle was long expended, and he finished off an Aries he’d skewered on his beam saber by kicking it into the sea. Able was fighting as best he could with only one arm functional, intercepting the missiles with his remaining beam shield and shooting back with the beam cannon in his Gundam’s palm. Lyric was faring a little better, and he’d chalked up four Aries to his name and was about to get a fifth when the aerial mobile suit made a kamikaze run against him on his blind side, crippling the Double X.

“Gahh… dammit…” Lyric cursed, heaving as his barely functional Gundam’s shoulders drooped. “I’m sorry, boss…”

“Get out of here, Lyric, you’re no good to us dead,” Ariel said between clenched teeth. “Ethan and I will cover you, get going!”

“Good luck…!” Lyric exclaimed, covering his mouth as he coughed. Blood appeared on his glove. “Great…” he muttered to himself. The Double X shuddered but held together as Lyric fled from combat as quickly as he could manage.

“Only twelve of them left…” Ethan muttered, not counting the two he’d just sent to the bottom with the heavy armor Nu Gundam’s mega beam cannon.

“And the ship…!” Lachesis growled, splitting an Aries in half. Kale’s Dynames fired right over the GN Flag’s shoulder, bringing down another black mobile suit that was about to unload a point-blank machine gun attack against the nimble mobile suit, simply offering her a thumbs-up gesture before diving down towards the crippled Roosevelt.

“Deacon!” Kale exclaimed, searching about for his colleague’s machine. “Where’d you get off too?”

“Didn’t recognize me without a few limbs, eh,” Deacon muttered, waving with the 00’s remaining arm from behind the Roosevelt’s ruined bridge structure. “I see how it is.”

“Ouch, you look terrible,” Kale remarked, his own machine scarred and burned in a few spots but mechanically intact for the most part. “Got sloppy? You dropped too early.”

“I didn’t drop too early, the Sammael got hit. The Flag Fighters have been tied up making sure those damn Aries didn’t tear it to pieces,” Deacon muttered. “How did they detect us?!”

“That’s… huh,” Kale grimaced. “They shouldn’t have… aren’t the GN drives supposed to jam radar?”

“Supposed to…” Deacon muttered. “Wait, hang on. That radar platform we sunk, what if they-”

“DEACON GET DOWN!” Kale suddenly exclaimed, bringing his beam pistols up.

“Deacon’s dead! Deacon’s dead!” Penny chirped pessimistically. A Taurus had emerged from the ruined Roosevelt’s central elevator, beam cannon already charged. Deacon’s countenance blanched as he realized he’d have no room to evade.

TRANS-AM SYSTEM ACTIVE suddenly blared to life in Kale’s cockpit.

Deacon wasn’t exactly sure what happened, but the Taurus disappeared, as did Kale, leaving only a red blur where they’d been a moment earlier.

—

“Aromaru, look at that red one…!” Lutador remarked, jetting away as the Brimley slipped beneath the waves. They were late to the party, no doubt, but not too late to catch some action, it seemed. Aromaru retrieved his beam boomerang as it flew back towards him.

“It’s moving so fast, Luta,” Aromaru grinned. “I think we should fix that one up too, don’t you?”

“I agree, Aromaru,” Lutador returned his expression, drawing a beam saber and boosting towards the red blur. Aromaru followed quickly, pulling one of his own as well. The two Gundams zipped across the oil-slick surface of the ocean, their beam sabers leaving a path of steam behind them as the falling rain evaporated off it. The red blur seemed to stop moving for a moment, having delivered a point-blank shot to an Alliance Aries, and its single green eye glared at the two approaching Gundams.

“Wait, Luta… is that a Gundam?” Aromaru asked, suddenly thinking they might be attacking the wrong unit.

“I… hold on, I believe it is, Aromaru,” Lutador remarked. “Is it even an Alliance model at all?” Aromaru didn’t get to reply as the red machine’s lower body seemed to explode as a barrage of tiny missiles streaked outwards towards the Impulse and Justice.

“Heads up!” Aromaru exclaimed, quickly moving back to dodge most of the barrage. A handful of the warheads collided with him, and… didn’t explode, strangely enough. “What the…”

“Duds?” Lutador asked quizzically, observing the warheads embedded in his machine as well. A moment later, the GN warheads went off, and both of their Gundams seemed to begin puffing up like rotten fruit around the point the warheads had struck them. A blast obscured both machines, badly mangling the Impulse – Justice seemed to survive a bit more intact. “What… what the hell was in those things?!”

“The Phase-Shift Armor should have stopped it…!” Aromaru exclaimed.

“Feh, enough of this, we got one ship, that’s plenty for now,” Lutador muttered, looking upset at how many damage indicators were going off. The red blur sailed back towards the main body of combat, and more explosions followed in its wake.

“Oh, I think not!” Aromaru growled. “I didn’t come here to get hit-and-run by some smart guy…” Justice gave pursuit, its flight pack’s engines screaming to keep up.

“Suit yourself, buddy…” Lutador muttered, making for an escape vector from the battle.

—

“Particle emissions up 300%!! Particle emissions up 300%!!” Penny exclaimed, eyes spinning from the sudden energy overload. “You’re going to break it, Kale!”

“So fast…! Dynames moves just as fast as I think it to!” Kale said with an ecstatic expression. “Let’s see you slugs catch me now!” Kale sailed over the deck of the Roosevelt, taking out its remaining antiaircraft guns and missile launchers with repeated, spot-on accurate shots with his beam pistols. An Aries that turned to face him was shot multiple times before it even finished coming around, parts of its wrecked frame flying off from the momentum of the turn.

“What on…” Junius said, jaw dropping a bit at how incredibly fast the thing he presumed was Kale’s Dynames was moving. In moments, he’d eliminated half of the Alliance’s remaining mobile suits, as well as essentially neutralized the threat of the carrier’s weapons. Ariel didn’t say anything and simply looked on in a bewildered expression.

“Well… that about wraps that up, I guess,” Ethan said, leaning back a bit.

“I guess,” Henry remarked, watching the Taurus he’d been dogfighting with tumble into the sea. “But… what about the rest?”

“The rest?” Ethan asked. Henry’s Astray pointed towards the water and the virtual sea of orange life rafts. “Oh…” he trailed off a bit.

“I’ll leave that to you people,” Lachesis remarked. “You’re better equipped for it.”

“…yeah,” Ethan said. “Like that man said. ‘No survivors.’”

“No survivors…” Henry confirmed.

—

“Hey! Hey!! Buddy! You still with us? Wake up!”

Ci came too groggily. He was wet and cold, and felt like he had some water in his lungs.

“Ugh… what…” he said, rubbing his head. A handful of Alliance sailors, clad in life vests, were looking down at him. “What happened?”

“You went in the drink,” one of them said. “Lucky we found you, not having a vest and all.”

“Yeah… thanks,” Ci replied. More like I should be thanking myself for still having an Alliance uniform on…guess these guys don’t know I was in the Penelope. “What happened to the battle?”

“Have a look,” the Alliance sailor gestured. The Roosevelt burned, an oil slick stretched as far as he could see, and dozens, if not a hundred or more, orange life rafts floated about in the water. Above him, a pair of Gundams hovered in the air, as if regarding each other.

“I see,” Ci commented. “Too bad for us, I guess.” I hope that guy Sebastiaan made it, he’s my ticket out of here.

“Yeah,” the sailor muttered.

Both of the machines’ vulcan guns opened fire a moment later, the deafening roar of electrically-driven rotary cannons covering the sounds of bullets hitting the water and shreds of raft and raft occupant flying into the air.

—

CVN-12 HAS LOST ALL COMBAT CAPABILITY

…

90% OF SUPPORT ASSETS NEUTRALIZED

…

ENEMY HAS SUSTAINED LESS THAN 12% LOSSES

…

KILL-TO-LOSS RATIO… UNACCEPTABLE

…

…

…

DRAINING COOLANT FROM CVN-12 REACTOR

…

INCREASING REACTOR CRITICALITY THRESHOLD TO MAXIMUM

…

INJECTING DEUTERIUM TO INCREASE REACTION SPEED

—

“So, he has access to… that… now,” Cielo remarked. His eyes glowed a golden color for a few moments before fading back to their usual tone.

“What?” Darius asked, kicking the skewered Aries off his buster sword.

“Nothing you should be worried about,” Cielo commented. “That was the last one, right? We’re leaving.”

“But, the carrier’s still there,” Darius muttered. “Shouldn’t you at least… y’know… shoot it again?”

“The only thing left for us to do here is the cleanup,” Cielo said flatly, pointing towards the Vanguard Horizon members executing Kale’s order to the fullest extent. “You want to have some fun there too?” Darius looked down at the scene below with some apprehension.

“No… I don’t think so,” he said after a while, reattaching his buster sword to the Throne Zwei’s body. “Let’s go.”

—

“Hey, Deacon! How about that!” Kale whooped. “Whatever this ‘Trans-Am’ thing is, it’s amazing!”

“…Trans-Am… isn’t that a type of car?” Deacon asked, hovering out from behind the Roosevelt’s drooping island.

“I dunno, that’s just what it says on the screen here. It’s wonderful!” Kale grinned. “The GN drive is even more powerful than we thought! Hell I bet yours is twice as good, since it has two of them! All we need to do now is-”

“Particle output dropping! Particle output dropping!” Penny screeched. “No power left! No power left!”

“Wait, what?!” Kale said, eyes widening. “That… it broke the GN drive!”

“What do you mean?” Deacon said, suddenly concerned. Dynames shivered and shuddered for a moment, then abruptly fell out of the air and plummeted towards the water. “Shit! Kale!!”

“You broke it! You broke it!” Penny flapped.

“This REALLY isn’t the time!!” Kale yelled, frustratingly attempting to stabilize the Dynames’ fall. Its feet hit the water and it began to sink, then finally stopped its descent with just its head and shoulders popping up from the inky sea. “Oh… woo, that was close.”

“A little longer and you might have gone totally under,” Junius remarked, floating along above the deck of the Roosevelt.

“Yeah. Lucky me, right?” Kale said. As if on cue, two Pisces burst forth from the water and yanked the depleted Dynames down with them as they dove.

“…fuck!!” Deacon and Junius both exclaimed simultaneously.

—

“God damn…” Lyric groaned. His whole body hurt, and he was fairly certain his lungs were starting to fill with blood. He needed to get back to the Fallen Leaves and fast, or else he and the Double X would be collecting urchins on the bottom of the Atlantic. Suddenly, a huge splash issued from the water ahead of him as a flock of missiles burst from the surface. “Oh, come on!!” he exclaimed, immediately doubling over in pain. The missiles exploded almost as abruptly as they appeared, but instead of another shower of darts, Lyric saw the fading blast of a beam weapon. A pair of Pisces burst forth from the surface, and both swiftly were torn to shreds as more shots from a high-powered beam weapon tore down from above.

“Huh…” a voice came. “Seems I’m late.”

“What… who’s that?” Lyric asked.

“Alex Eldridge, at your service,” the pilot of the literally cannon-armed Phoenix Gundam said smartly. “Is the show over?”

“Not quite,” Lyric said, coughing again. “You can help me get back to my ship before I die. How’s that sound?”

—

“I’m going in after him!” Deacon growled, preparing to dive the badly mutilated 00 into the water.

“Oh no you don’t,” Junius said. “GN drives or not, shot full of holes like that those amphibious suits will tear you apart. I’ll bring him back.”

“Bullshit,” Deacon growled. “I’ve known Kale forever, I’m not going to trust him to someone who’s almost a complete stranger.”

“Will your cockpit even keep the water out?” Junius said with a glare.

“Um…” Deacon began.

“Oh… hell,” Henry muttered. “Boss, we’ve got a major problem!”

“What now?” Ariel remarked, having touched down on the now badly listing carrier’s deck.

“There’s a huge spike in gamma radiation from the ship!” Henry exclaimed, eyes flooding over the data in the Astray’s cockpit. “The fucking reactors are going to explode!”

“Oh, God…” Ariel said in a deep voice. “How big?”

“BIG,” Henry stated loudly. “We need to go, NOW.”

“There, you hear that?” Junius growled. “The Alliance just made your decision for you. Get out of here!” With that the Alvaaron dove into the sea.

“Damn…” Deacon muttered, conceding his position and boosting towards the sky. Ariel wordlessly watched him go, then shakily took to the air.

“Vanguard Horizon, we’re moving out! Back home – full speed!”

—

“Depth is too great! Depth is too great!” Penny proclaimed.

“Get off me, damn it!” Kale yelled, attempting to flail the particle-depleted Dynames against the two amphibious mobile suits that were diving at great speed. Each Pisces had locked around the Gundam’s arms and held fast – having unloaded his missiles against the two mysterious machines earlier, he had no method of defending himself without access to his beam sabers. The deep creaking noises that were issuing from his mobile suit were less than pleasing as well.

“Do something! Do something!” Penny demanded. Kale sighed and arched his head back.

“No weapons… no particles,” he muttered. “I think this is it for us, Penny.”

“You’re useless! You’re useless!” the robot accused, resulting in Kale smacking it like a toy and causing it to spin in its socket like a ball bearing.

“Have some sympathy, will you?” Kale muttered. Well, saved Chicago, at least… he thought, reflecting back on the recent events as he stared up towards the rapidly darkening surface of the ocean. That’s definitely something, right, Deacon?

The Dynames’ descent stopped abruptly, prompting a surprised reaction from Kale.

“What, is the ride over already?” he asked aloud. A moment later two thunks on the outside of his machine answered that question, and Kale looked on with considerable horror as a second pair of Pisces appeared and jammed their prop-hands into the Dynames’ armpits. With a cacophonous racket, the Pisces’ props spun to life and began grinding in to the relatively unprotected joint inside the mobile suit’s shoulder armor, and in no time at all had liberated the Gundam’s arms from its torso. “Are you truncating me first, or what?!” Kale demanded, uncharacteristically losing his cool. His answer came as he saw a leviathan fade into existence from the darkness below – the missing submarine carrier. One of its cavernous hangar bays was already open.

“…so, that’s it, is it,” Kale said, gritting his teeth a bit. Two of the mobile suits grappled on to the Dynames’ legs and hauled it towards the yawning mouth of the sub. Suddenly, he was honestly preferring the idea of being crushed by oceanic pressure.

—

“Damn…” Aromaru muttered, Justice putting down a bit wobbly on the deck of the wrecked carrier. “Where’d that red one go?!” his Gundam’s head whipping about angrily. The entire area had become deserted in the time it took him to close the distance to the remnants of the floundering fleet. “Hm… well, at least I can still claim this thing here,” Aromaru said with a smirk, snapping his twin beam cannons over the Gundam’s shoulders and moving up to the ruined Roosevelt’s bridge to finish the job.

—

Muscling himself as best he could, Kristol heaved his badly injured body back into his command chair on the bridge. He’d seen the renegades’ mobile suits gunning down his men in the water, which was enough for him to consider scuttling his boat and going down with it.

“Jim…” Kristol groaned into his handheld radio. “The reactors… they ready?”

“Ahh… Admiral,” the voice of his first officer returned. “Somebody… beat us here. They’re already about to melt down…” Kristol blinked, a bit surprised by that.

“Heh, guess I’ve been second-guessed…” the Admiral sighed, “correctly, thank God. Why don’t you boys come on back… may as well watch the show from up here…”

“Uh,” the man’s voice came back. “That’s… no, that’s fine… I’m kind of tired, I… I think I’ll just take a break here.”

“…understood,” Kristol said, dropping the radio. “Radiation poisoning already, eh… I wonder… who issued that order.” Kristol chuckled a bit, straightening his singed hat as he saw the Justice Gundam stalking towards his position. “Hah… I hope it was worth it, buddy.” The mobile suit’s beam cannons leveled at the carrier’s island and particles began gathering about their muzzles. Kristol drew his own artillery – a stainless steel M1911A1, and racked the slide to chamber a round.

“For a blue and pure world…” he said in a tone that almost sounded like relief, and put the gun against his neck with the muzzle pressing up into the bottom of his jaw.

—

Inside the Fallen Leaves, Phil watched with some relief as the Psyco Gundam unloaded a mobile suit he didn’t immediately recognize.

“Braddigan! How’s the battle going?” Phil demanded over his headset. His Rising Gundam was nowhere to be seen – only the Core Lander sat in the rear of the stealth carrier’s hangar.

“Things looked okay when I left,” Braddigan muttered. “One of ‘those men’ ordered me to take this guy back here,” he said as the Psyco dropped off the battered Blitz Gundam. “I don’t know why the boss agreed to work with them.”

“Well, hopefully everything went alright,” Phil said with a bit of relief. A moment later, there was a distant flash of pure white light he could see beyond the Psyco Gundam outside the carrier’s hangar. “…what’s that?” he asked.

—

“Fuck! That was faster than I expected!” Henry groaned, throttling up the Astray for all it was worth. “I don’t think we’ll make it!”

“Stop thinking and keep flying, then!!” Ariel exclaimed, checking over his shoulder. Sure as sure, a hideous white glare had appeared at the center of the former combat zone and was rapidly rolling out in all directions.

“I don’t think that’ll make much difference,” Lachesis said in a rather emotionless tone. The Flag was slowly pulling ahead of her comrades due to its light weight and thin frame.

“Come on, come on…” Ethan said, knuckles white over the Nu Gundam’s tensiometric control rods. “How close are we to the safe zone?!”

“Just a little more…” Henry said, focusing in an almost tunnel vision-like stare on his distance indicator. At that moment the shockwave struck the group with less than pleasing results: Lachesis gasped as she felt her Flag literally coming apart at the seams, and Ariel looked on with grim realization as his flight module fell to pieces. Henry, Able and Ethan seemed to survive without much more damage than they started.

“Damn it all, why now?!” Lachesis demanded. The Flag had literally been blown apart, limbs raining down in every direction as its cockpit module plummeted towards the water, skipping across its surface like a stone. Thinking quickly and exclaiming a curse, Ethan jettisoned all of the Nu Gundam’s additional armor protection as well as its weapons, keeping only the giant booster-equipped shield and diving towards the water to rescue the cockpit module before it sunk. He retrieved it with the expert care one might expect of a basketball player, jamming the Gundam’s fingers through the thinly armored module to ensure it wouldn’t come loose.

“Fly, damn you…!” Ariel demanded of his machine, rewarded only with more of its monitors and indicators blinking out and powering down. The rest of his forces tore past him as his Gundam began losing speed and altitude rapidly. The blast was rapidly catching up and would be upon him in a matter of moments.

“Boss!” Ethan exclaimed.

“Move your ass!” Henry did as well, looking over his shoulder. Ariel was about to reply when he felt the thud of another mobile suit grappling on to his.

“A… Able, what’re you doing?!” Ariel demanded, noting the one-armed Destiny grabbing on to his crippled mobile suit. “I’m just dead weight like this!”

“Correct,” Able said with a determined frown. “You’re the leader, you have to escape! Carry on the revolution and see our mission through.” Destiny’s light wing emitters went to full burn.

“Able?!” Ariel said, bewildered. A moment later he was smashed up against the left monitor of his cockpit as the Destiny began spinning on its vertical axis, the centrifugal force preventing him from moving much. Four, five, six revolutions, and then Able released the crumbling Freedom Gundam, sending it sailing through the air towards the safe zone. His work done, Able turned to face the imminent oblivion heading his way.

“Let there be light, eh,” Able smirked. “Ironic.” The nuclear blast rent him to atoms an instant later.

—

“Goddammit, Kale…” Junius said, using the Alvaaron’s GN field to illuminate as much of the water as he could. “You two idiots are all I have…” He knew there was supposed to be a behemoth Alliance submarine with the fleet, and it must still be somewhere about these parts. Presumably, that’s where the Pisces would have taken Kale’s inoperative Dynames to. A huge pressure wave struck him a few moments later, coming from the surface.

“Guess the party’s over…” Junius remarked sardonically. “Now, just need to recover the guests…” A moment of prescience and he brought up his GN field in time to intercept a swarm of torpedoes that burst forth from the dark water. “Ah hah, I knew you fucks were still around!” he said, bringing about and firing his beam rifle. The beam penetrated the darkness but fizzled shortly thereafter, leaving a cloud of bubbles in its wake. “Oh, great…” he muttered.

It didn’t take Junius long to figure he’d been surrounded. Torpedoes were emerging from beyond the range of his vision and converging on him from all directions. Each time a torpedo burst forth, Junius throttled up his GN drive and tried to chase after its source, but each time he found himself looking at empty water.

“Christ,” Junius grumbled, gritting his teeth. “Just come out, already!” Torpedoes bombarded him on all sides, rocking the Alvaaron as its GN field absorbed most of the impact. “Is that all you’ve-” he dropped as a Pisces charged forth from behind the wakes of its torpedoes. “That’s more like it!” Ditching a beam rifle, Junius produced one of his beam sabers and thrust forward, catching the Pisces straight in its chest. A few pops and bursts of bubbles issued as the mobile suit crumpled from the oceanic pressure. Junius booted the amphibious mobile suit off his blade, but didn’t get any further as two more Pisces slammed into him from behind. Each latched on to the Alvaaron’s sides, immobilizing its arms and the wings that emitted its GN field.

“Oh, like that’ll stop this Alvaaron,” Junius scowled, boosting his GN drive to maximum output and heading for the surface, dragging the Pisces along with him. They put up considerable resistance, but the GN drive outpowered them handily and the surface drew ever closer. A proximity buzzer indicated a third Pisces closing in behind him from below. “What’s one more of you going to do?! Soon as I get clear of the water, you’re scrap,” Junius grinned, pushing on ever closer to the surface. Suddenly, the Alvaaron shook and vibrated violently, and a cornucopia of error messages sprung up on his screens. “What on…” he began, craning his head behind him. The third Pisces’ hand, claw-like propulsor spinning like a saw, had smashed down on his GN drive, and a moment later separated the conical power structure from his mobile suit, plunging Junius into darkness.

“Ahh… shit,” Junius said bluntly.

—

“Deacon, we need to land and make repairs,” one of his Flag Fighters reported. “We’re using two of the Flags just to keep this vessel flying. We can’t maintain this forever.”

Deacon ignored him, furiously scanning communications channels for any kind of response. He’d confirmed the Vanguard Horizon ship escaped, but there was no word from either Kale or Junius.

“We can’t just leave them here,” Deacon insisted, not making eye contact.

“There’s no other choice! If we don’t go soon…” the Flag’s pilot insisted. Deacon merely glared and returned to the communications panel. The pilot sighed and addressed one of his two compatriots that weren’t busy filling in for an engine for the Sammael.

“Where’s the nearest land we can put down?”

“Azores, probably…”

“Will the locals report our location?”

“Doubtful…”

Deacon continued to stare wordlessly at the scanner.

—

Fallen Leaves’ hangar was dead silent. Ariel rested one of his hands against the bulkhead, the other covering his eyes. Save for Lyric, who had been sent to the ship’s medical area for immediate work, and Lachesis, who hadn’t regained consciousness from the G-forces of her cockpit module’s skipping across the water, the remaining Vanguard Horizon members, along with Sebastiaan and Alex, regarded the wrecked Freedom’s pilot. They regarded for a while.

“Phil,” he said after a while, not breaking his posture.

“Yeah, boss?” the Rising’s pilot inquired.

“Mission accomplished,” Ariel said flatly. “We’re leaving this combat area.”

“Understood,” Phil said, turning slowly to head to the cockpit. Ariel continued to stand where he was.

—

Kale looked up from the cramped cell as he heard the heavy door swing open and a pair of brawny Alliance sailors step in, dragging a barely conscious Junius with them. Kale had a cellmate a moment later.

“Decided to come after me, did you?” Kale said with a characteristic grin. “That wasn’t very smart.”

“I wanted to help,” Junius muttered a bit groggily. “Deacon’s machine was too smashed up.”

“Is he alright?” Kale said in a concerned tone.

“Probably,” Junius remarked. The cell was silent for a minute or two.

“How’d the battle go?” Kale broke.

“We won,” Junius said.

“Oh, good,” Kale said pleasantly. “Well, bad for us, but good overall. At least today wasn’t a total loss.”

OUTCOME: Theodore Roosevelt CBG destroyed, E.F. Suliga and three Pisces survive

Damage Report:

00: Repairing 4 days, 13 VP

Astray Red Frame: Repairing 2 days, 13 VP

Alvaaron: Pilot captured; upgrading to Alvatore, 8 days; 14 VP

Blitz: Repairing 4 days, 14 VP

Destiny: Pilot dead, 6 days; 13 VP

Double X: Repairing 4 days, pilot injured 5 days; 12 VP

Dynames: Pilot captured, 14 VP

Fallen Leaves: no damage, promoted to L2

Freedom: Repairing 4 days, 13 VP

GN Flag: Upgrading to Masurao, 8 days; 13 VP

Impulse: Repairing 3 days, 12 VP

Justice: Pilot dead, 6 days, 12 VP

Nu: Repairing 2 days, 12 VP

Penelope: Pilot dead, 6 days, 13 VP

Phoenix: Repairing 1 day, 10 VP

Psyco: Repairing 1 day, 13 VP

Rising: Repairing 4 days, 12 VP

Sammael: Repairing 4 days, all Flags survive, ship promoted to L2

Throne Zwei: Repairing 2 days, 13 VP

Virtue: Repairing 1 day, 12 VP