Battle for Harare, part 1:

Somewhere in the ground between city and base…

“By Lenin’s unholy loins, my head!”

It was the hangover to end all hangovers, Scarth’s blood-shot eyes burning as he dug his way underneath Harare in the Geo-GOOhN. There were over a billion workers in the HRL, and as far as he was concerned every last one of them was inside of his head, punishing him with their hammers for his government funded bender. Progress was slower than he had anticipated, sewage pipes, basements, and innumerable wires forcing him to a near crawl as he searched for the elevators that ran between base below him and the city above. Far above him, he knew that Petr Tsugaro, another comrade in arms from the Human Reform League, was waiting for the coordinates of the tunnels so that he could close them with his long-range beam cannons. He was worried that if he didn’t respond somebody might take it upon themselves to act, but a blurred memory of Petr taking him aside the night previous and explaining how he would keep everyone in place reassured Scarth. As long as nobody jumped the gun it didn’t really matter how long he took the find the elevators, but only as long.

—

Elsewhere in the jungle surrounding Harare…

The first victim of the assault on Harare was that damnable pink shirt, the gaudy tee inserted into the Destroy’s cannon the previous evening. It was with certain glee that Bagoly pulled the trigger, the off-red apparel literally evaporating into the stream of exotic particles that made up the beam that streaked toward the three Daughtresses that had discovered the Destroy Gundam. Chaos broke out across the whole of the tropical landscape as the hills suddenly became alive with the sound of beams, missiles, and bullets.

“F#^& me sir! There’s an army down here!”

“Warn Harare now! Tell them to start getting the civilians into the shelters!”

The Daughtress Flyers had been on patrol as normal, but when they spotted something odd poking out of the jungle from almost a mile out they flew in to investigate. Their surprise at seeing the Destroy, or the other four mobile suits was quickly driven out of their minds as the Denrobium Stamen, Strike E, Virtue, and Throne Zwei all opened fire on the trio of aerial mobile suits in tandem with the Destroy. All three of the Daughtresses peeled out from the formation, narrowly avoiding the storm of enemy ordinance that would have obliterated them easily had they not split. The pilots were far from grunts, each of them a respectable soldier in terms of experience, but all the skill in the world couldn’t save them as a new assault came at them, this one from behind.

—

Still in the jungle…

“It is all good to use naught but one beam saber when dueling. Men like we need only a blade to cut through the injustices that face the working man. HOWEVER! A beam rifle is also an acceptable weapon of the proletariat!”

Comrade Grigoriy Krylov, better known as just Comrade Grisha, had sequestered himself and the Plutone away from the main battle group, the mobile suit entirely covered with small trees that he had pulled down on himself to function as a crude ghillie suit as he waited. He used the fact that he had gone unnoticed by the three Daughtress-type mobile suits as they flew over him to his advantage, his carefully aimed beam rifle claiming one of the Daughtresses with a single shot.

“Yes! The working man will rise up, soon all will know the strength of those who labor in the fields and shops so that the aristocracy can continue to live off of the sweat of their brows!”

—

Far above Harare…

In the stratosphere above the Atlantic Federation base, Petr watched as the telltale flicker of beams and explosives dotted the woods around Harare. He waited, hoping for some sort of indication of where his targets were, but it was obvious to him that the plan was quickly finding itself stranded on a proverbial shit-creek. Without any word from Scarth, “Curse that drunk!” Petr thought, he had no way of knowing where the elevator exits were unless he managed to catch one in action. Still Petr was not indoctrinated to be a quitter, Tsugaro turning the Kyrios Gust’s impressive sensors on the city itself; waiting with his long range beam cannons for any sign of where the ants would start pouring from their hill first.

—

Meanwhile, in the ground between city and base…

Scarth cursed as the Geo-GOOhN lurched through the walls of one of the many elevators that connected Harare the Atlantic Federation military base to Harare the city. The gray mobile suit fell almost twenty meters, landing on its “face” as it hit one the elevator’s platform as it ascended to the city with a Daughtress in tow. The hard landing only made Scarth’s already throbbing head worse, the pilot muttering something about Stalin’s panty hose as he realized that the mobile suit in front of him was pulling out its rifle.

Literally flopping the GOOhN forward, Scarth rammed the Daughtress with his armor’s blunt head stopping it from squeezing off any rounds from its mobile suit scaled assault rifle. The ramming attack disoriented the enemy pilot long enough for Scarth to push the Geo-GOOhN entirely off the ground and back onto its own two feet. Pushing his advantage while the enemy mobile suit was still stunned, Scarth punched the Daughtress, the mobile suit dropping its 90mm gun as it tottered backward. Limited room on the lift gave the Daughtress very little room to maneuver, but as the GOOhN went in to deliver the coupe de grace to the mobile suit’s cockpit, its pilot somehow managed to sidestep the blow. Scarth almost immediately recovered from the missed punch, using the inertia to spin his mobile armor around to face the Daughtress, the unit now boasting a beam saber in its hand.

“Damnit, my head hurts too much for this @#$!.

—

At the city’s edge…

Cielo’s eyes were almost glazed over he focused his full attention on the exploding Flyer. It was his cannons that had shot down the second of the three mobile suits, the last one fighting a hopeless battle as it somehow had managed to avoid the onslaught dealt out by the six mobile suits as they advanced toward their target. He walked the Virtue forward, the mobile suit strong enough to walk through any obstructions in his path as he kept tracking the last mobile suit.

BOOM!

The explosion rocked Cielo, the Virtue stumbling as it stepped on a mine, and then again as he tumbled into a second. Chunks armor blown clean off of his mobile suit’s feet, even the reinforced alloys that made up the Virtue unable to take a landmine with impudence. Realizing that he had been so focused on shooting down the remaining mobile suit, Cielo hadn’t noticed that the Destroy, Zwei, Plutone, Strike, and Denrobium Stamen had all stopped advancing well before reaching the minefield that surrounded Harare.

“Alright guys, you know the plan. Clear a path!”

Cielo recognized the voice coming over the radio as belonging to the pilot of the orange mobile suit in the sky far beyond his ability to see. Without any further prompting he connected the Virtue’s GN Bazooka to his chest, the barrel extending as the GN Drive began charging the massive cannon directly. Beside him the Destroy, in its mobile armor mode, also charged up its main weapons, its huge back mounted cannons glowing in preparation of firing. In unison the two fired their guns, three parallel lines bisecting the city as they destroyed everything in their wake. The blast was intense enough to push the Virtue back as it sustained firing the beam, praying that the citizens of Harare were smart enough to heed the sirens that had been running since the Daughtresses had discovered them.

—

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more.
-Shakespeare, Henry V

To be continued…

Attack on Harare Pt.2

In the cratered streets of Harare…

The battle spilled into Harare itself, the three canyons created by the Destroy and Virtue Gudams offering safe passage through the minefields into the streets of the city.

Jack Verse grunted as he threw the Strike Noir around the corner of a large building, avoiding the gunfire from the Daughtress that had appeared directly in front of him. The shots tore into the black asphalt, but stopped after only a moment. Carefully peaking the Strike E around the corner Jack saw nothing, the Daughtress having obviously disappeared back into the elevator from whence it came. Frustration was apparent on the young pilot’s face as he continued running through the city streets, looking for a target that wouldn’t move long enough for him to manage a clear shot with his beam rifle.

”How can I make a name for myself if nothing will stop mov—“

Explosions all around the Strike cut off the pilot mid-complaint as the last of the three Daughtress Flyers that had ruined the plan to take the city by surprise swooped down on him. The mobile suit, having fired the last of its ammunition at the Strike had only its beam saber left, the mass production unit slamming into the mostly black gundam, dragging both of them down the street from the impact. Even though the Strike Noir’s Variable Phase Shift armor preserved the mobile suit from taking any serious damage while sliding over asphalt at high speeds, Jack realized that as the Daughtress pulled out its beam saber that the his armor wouldn’t protect him from that.

“You monsters! You killed them! You killed my wife and my little angel!”

Even with all the interference from the weapons and various particles in the air the enraged pilot’s voice was audible over the COM at such close range. Jack tried to think of what to do as his beam rifle was lost somewhere down the street, dropped during the impact, and his beam cannons weren’t in a position to fire on the Daughtress as it ignited its beam saber. Out of desperation he raised the Noir’s hands up at his opponent, like he was pleading for mercy, the Atlantic Federation pilot holding back with the killing blow for just long enough for Jack to send both of the rocket anchors in his mobile suit’s hands into the Daughtress’ head. Without any sort of camera the Federation pilot wasn’t able to stab the Strike’s cockpit, instead spearing the mobile suit through its shoulder, the particle blade going clean through the joint and into the concrete beneath the Noir.

Withdrawing the anchors still lodged in the Daughtress’ head, Jack worked frantically at the Strike’s controls, trying to pull out his own Fragarach beam blade before the Daughtress pilot had the chance to take a second stab. The Noir flailed around under the weight of the Daughtress atop it, the mobile suit on top pulling the beam saber up and out of the Noir’s shoulder, ready to deliver a second blow with the beam saber. At that moment the Strike’s hand wrapped around the hilt of the Fragarach blade, Jack yelling as he swung the blade through the Daughtress. The upper half of the Flyer seemed to hover in the air for a moment after being separated from its lower half, exploding before it ever hit the ground. The point-blank blast was fierce enough to wreak havoc on even the Strike’s VPS armor, sending Jack and his mobile suit flying sideways into a building.

”Well that wasn’t too b–”

With a tremendous crash rubble quickly buried the Strike Noir as the tall, but not a skyscraper sized, building collapsed on top of the rogue and his mobile suit.

—

A few feet above Harare…

It was like the worst game of whack-a-mole ever, Petr thought to himself as he flew through the largest of the three trenches created by the Virtue and Destroy Gundams. The Kyrios Gust was only a few feet above the ground itself, scorched from innumerable close calls and glancing blows delivered by the constant screen of lasers and missiles from Harare’s disappearing and reappearing turrets. The GN Long Barreled Cannon wasn’t as accurate when used against ground targets from high altitudes, forcing him to fly closer to the battle itself in order to have the accuracy needed to take out the elevators with a single shot. Despite the plan having gone to hell in a hand basket, everyone was following through with the plan to the best of their ability, pressing the attack into the streets of Harare. Seeing the collateral damage was enough to make the Kyrios’ pilot grin as he watched the Destroy in the distance, the mobile armor spraying its cannons in every direction. It was obviously that Harare was well on its way to being forcibly returned to the Stone Age.

“Well, hello there!”

A flash in the corner of his eye had caught his attention, the Kyrios stopping and hovering in place as Tsugaru watched a Daughtress rising from the ground near a large building. Paydirt.

“Say hello to your comrades for me.”

Without batting an eye Petr squeezed the trigger, the powerful beam flying clear over the Daughtress as it missed the mobile suit entirely, instead hitting a high rise apartment building behind it. The Daughtress span around to look for the source of the beam, never having a chance to retaliate as a massive “h” shaped i-beam crushed the mobile suit, the debris from the rest of the building covering the offending elevator shaft with yards of torn steel, cement, and glass.

“One down, a thousand more to go.”

And with a brief green flash of particles the Kyrios Gust continued flying down the trench, once again on its search for more of the elusive shafts to destroy.

—

Back in the elevator…

Scarth and the Daughtress circled each other in the lift, feinting and waiting for any opening. It was far from an ideal situation, Scarth not wanting to use his phonon masers for fear of collapsing the shaft around the both of them. He was sure he could dig himself out, but surviving the fall? That was something he didn’t want to risk on a hunch alone. In the moment of introspection, the Daughtress had lunged at Scarth, stabbing with the beam saber like a fencer would with a foil. However it was Scarth’s turn to dodge, sidestepping slightly enough that the blade only grazed his mobile armor. Using the window of opportunity as the Daughtress’ guard was down, Scarth fluidly leapt his GOOhN forward, grabbing the GM-like mobile suit’s head in his massive claws. Using mobile suit as a pivot, he slammed the body of the Daughtress into the shaft wall, using the Geo-GOOhN’s weight to keep it in place friction and the uneven stone surface tore the mobile suit apart.

“I told you I wasn’t going to die with a hangover.”

—

Somewhere else in Harare…

The Denrobium Stamen exploded through a building, Moshiro not caring who or what he hurt as he went through with his mission. It was his first true mission, and he wasn’t going to let decency get between him and a good impression with his superiors. As he continued flying at street level, his heart skipped a beat, an opening appearing in the middle of the street. Without waiting to see what kind of mobile suit would appear, Moshiro pulled out the Stamen’s BOWA beam rifle, and immediately opened fire on the elevator.

“Oh damnit!”

He stopped firing as soon as he recognized the gray, wedge shaped, mobile suit that appeared as that of one of his allies. The mobile suit dropped the corpse of what was apparently a Daughtress, Scarth’s less than thrilled voice coming over the COM.

“Next time check your damn IFF identicator!”

“Sorry sir, yes sir I will!”

It didn’t matter as Scarth had already gone back to ground, the Geo-GOOhN sliding through the ground with its claws and scale system. Tsonaki sighed, relieved that nothing further had come from the friendly-fire episode. His guard down, he didn’t notice the Daughtress weapon appearing directly behind until the 500mm shell slammed into the Denrobium Stamen’s back, the mobile suit falling flat on its belly and face from the impact. By the time he had recovered, the mobile suit was nowhere to be seen, the HRL pilot cursing lightly as he couldn’t even identify where the camouflagued exit was.

—

In the heart of Harare…

A small stream of sweat ran down Darius’ cheek, the green-haired super soldier not noticing it as he kept his guard up. Fighting in Harare was a nightmare, mobile suits and turrets appearing only long enough to take a few potshots at him and his allies before disappearing again into the ground. He kept close to Cielo, trying to protect the ally and friend that had given him a chance to escape the government he was now attacking.

“Eight o’clock, turret!”

Cielo’s voice came over the COM as the Virtue jumped in front of the Throne Zwei to absorb whatever came at them with its GN Field. Carver instinctively sent one of the Zwei’s ambulatory daggers flying at the missile launcher, only a single rocket hitting the Virtue’s GN Field before the blade slammed into the meat of the turret, the resulting explosion taking out both GN Fang and missile launcher.

“Thanks Cielo, nice cover.”

Inside of the bulky Virtue, Cielo didn’t respond, momentarily worrying about Azure’s safety. He pushed the errant concern out of his head though as he focused himself on the mission, realizing that he would have known immediately if anything had happened to his twin. His and Darius’ job was to cover Maximillian Bagoly’s Destroy Gundam, the massive mobile armor tearing the city apart as it fired its cannons in every direction while trying to hit any turret of mobile suit that appeared.

It was painful to watch as the city seemed to collapse in on itself, what had once been a beautiful city was now a very large pile of rubble and fire. Still, that was the decision of the Atlantic Federation when they built their base beneath an urban center. The pair of GN cannons over each of the Virtue’s shoulders fired at another one of the seemingly infinite number of Daughtresses that appeared from the underground elevators, destroying both the mobile suit and the glorified dumbwaiter.  He tried to ignore the fact that he was certain he saw someone looking at him through a window in one of the buildings claimed by the explosion from the destruction of the elevator.

—

In the La Rochelle…

Nobody called Armand and Rene Roncevaux the Wonder Twins to their faces, the two SOF officers feared by the normal rank and file of the ESA. Even though their COMs were silent, the pilots of the Virsago and Ashtaron were speaking with each other, their minds linked inexplicably since birth.

Intelligence indicates that the new SRA mobile armor will be fielded here during a joint operation against the Atlantic Federation.

Yes, Rene. The brass is in an uproar, apparently the mobile armor is something of a monster, enough that we’re being sent here to ‘evaluate’ it.

The pair of mobile suits jumped out of the command carrier, surveying the carnage as they flew over Harare. Even their unique talent, neither pilot go through Harare’s anti-air defenses untouched, the same anti-air lasers and missile launchers that were challenging the joint strike force able to hit the pair as they evaded.

It must really be something, Armand, to get through all this.

—

At the edges of the city…

The Plutone was the only one of the HRL mobile suits not in the city itself. Grisha was brave, knowing that he had the strength of the people behind him, but he also had their intelligence. He knew the attack would be best served by his using a more discreet method to apply the hammer and sickle. Carefully moving from block-to-block, he watched and waited for anything that appeared to be an elevator.

As he came to yet another intersection he noticed that the ground was slightly ajar, some debris not allowing the elevator to fully close. With a grin he situated the Plutone between two buildings, waiting for some unlucky mobile suit to appear. After less than five minutes, the jammed panel opened up, revealing an anti-air laser turret. However instead of facing away from the Plutone as Comrade Grisha intended, the multi-barreled cannon was facing directly at him, a red glow growing brighter inside each of the barrels.

“The will of the people will protect me! Die, tool of the capitalists!”

Grigoriy knew he wouldn’t be able to dodge the blast, so he pulled out the Plutone’s beam saber, charging the turret head on. The red beams tore into the armor at point blank, but it wasn’t enough to stop the communist Gundam as it cleaved all of the barrels off with a single cut, a second slash completing the destruction of the ill fated laser turret.

“Once again the Human Reform League succeeds over the bourgeoisie pawns of the Atlantic Federation!”

—

Scarth had given up trying to contact the Kyrios Gust, too much interference preventing him of alerting the orange mobile suit of another elevator he had located. The phonon masers were fairly powerful, but lacked the punch needed to destroy the elevator completely. Still Scarth did what he could as he fired on the lifting mechanism that hoisted the elevator platforms up and down. After he felt the device was damaged beyond ability to function he sent the Geo-GOOhN back to the surface, accessing the success of the attack.

He could tell immediately from the sheer volume of explosions registering on his acoustic sensors that the battle was still in full swing. It was because it was his plan that he knew it was time to call off the attack, the pilot of the gray mobile suit looking for some sort of metal toward that could function as an antennae.

—

The center of the city…

The Bull Croc didn’t give up, but the Australian spacenoid did get frustrated. Even though he was using the Destroy’s attack mode, he couldn’t seem to do more than destroy buildings as he vainly fired every weapon in his arsenal in his attempts at hitting the fast appearing and disappearing mobile suits and turrets. Despite the best efforts of the Throne Zwei and Virtue Gundam, beams, bullets, and missiles pestered Max from every direction. Even though he barely felt the impacts thanks to the Destroy’s massive armor and size, he could see his armor beginning to show the effects of the nearly constant attacks.

“Any luck up there?”

Though he had just met Darius Carver, the man seemed okay, the Zwei having taken out at least one of the many turrets that had taken shots at Max and his mobile armor.

“Not a lick, mate. This base is a real rippa.”

Even as he spoke he fired the massive “Aufprall Dreizehn” at a regular Daughtress as it fired its 90mm battle rifle futilely at the massive mobile armor. The twin beams lanced into the ground, obliterating both the Daughtress and the elevator shaft in a single shot.

“Got one!”

As he celebrated the successful shot, a series of powerful beams showered the disc-like top half of the Destroy, alarms going off all throughout the cockpit. The damage was much more severe than anything that had been dealt before, Bagoly’s camera picking up a mobile suit standing on a mobile armor to his seven o’clock. The beam cannons studded all over the circumference of the Destroy’s attack mode fired wildly as Max responded to the attack, the beams missing as the pair evaded faster than he could hit them.

“We got them, Maximillian!”

Both Cielo and Darius flew up after the two mobile suits, the Throne Zwei flying behind the Virtue as it erected a GN Field. The red mobile suit on top seemed to glow for a moment, a storm of powerful beams red beans spraying over the Virtue’s GN Field, also hitting the Destroy behind them. From behind the GN Field two blades appeared, the GN Fangs streaking at the Ashtaron.

Don’t worry brother, I have them!

The Ashtaron’s nose mounted beam cannons opened fire on the two GN Fangs streaking at it, both of the remote weapons exploding under the hail of beams. Rene jumped though as he saw the two huge beams of pink energy flying at him and his brother. Armond, in the Virsago, flew into the air, transforming back into its normal mobile suit mode, while Rene simply cut his thrusters and let the Ashtaron fall. The beam crackled as it passed through the air between the two mobile suits. Though the Virtue’s shot had missed, the large blast was enough to distract them long enough for Darius in the Throne Zwei to shower the Virsago with beams from its GN Rifle.

In a split second, another massive blast cut through the air, catching Rene in the Ashtaron along its side as it tried to evade, this one from the Destroy as Bagoly also joined in on the attack against the two ESA pilots.

I think we have what we need.

Agreed, brother.

Though both mobile suits still had plenty of fight in them, their goal wasn’t to destroy, only to evaluate. Disengaging, they flew toward the rendezvous point already arranged with the La Rochelle. However they weren’t scot-free, a second blast from the Virtue’s GN Cannons tagging the Virsago’s back, showing that the two mobile suits were still in pursuit.

“There’s no retreating unless we order it! You should know that!”

Out of nowhere the Kyrios Gust flew up behind the pair of mobile suits, Petr following the plan that he had suggested the night before. He never trusted any of the mercenaries and the plan was simply that if they deviated in anyway from the battle strategy, he would shoot them dead. The GN Long Barreled Cannon glowed for a fraction of a second before the powerful beam lanced through the Throne Zwei, melting it from the waist down.

“Bastard!”

Cielo, enraged that the HRL pilot had attacked his friend, slammed the GN Bazooka into the chest of the Virtue. Even as he charged the GN Cannon’s burst mode, he worried about his friend as the orange Zwei spiraled to the ground, a trail of red particles showing its descent.

“Not a bastard, just a loyal soldier, you are a two-faced jackal, but soon you will be dead.”

Even though the burst mode only read 46% charged, Cielo pulled the trigger, Petr firing in unison. The two beams passed each other in the air, before each hit the opposing mobile suit, sending both plummeting. Visions of Azure flashed across Cielo’s mind as tried to regain control of the falling Virtue.

“I’ve got you, buddy!”

More than a little blood was pouring from the massive cut in his forehead, but Darius still grinned as he used most of his remaining red GN particles to help stabilize his ally. Fighting with Virtue’s controls, Cielo finally stabilized the heavily armored gundam, taking a moment to look down on Harare. Ash from thousands of fires filled the air, blotting out the sun and giving Harare the illusion that it was burning at night. As he watched a badly distorted signal came over his mobile suit’s radio.

“This is Scarth, we’re retreating. The base is still strong and there are too many elevators still working for us to take it. I repeat, withdraw back to the forest, we are bloodied but we will live to fight another day.”

Almost miraculously all of the pilots involved in the attack picked up the signal. Some silently muttered “Thank you” others scowled at the prospect of leaving when they still felt they had fight left in them. However all of them did retreat, leaving incalculable amounts of damage behind them as they exited the city.

Outcome: Harare stands, everyone escapes.
Geo-GOOhN: 14 VP, 2 days damage.
Virtue: 12 VP, 3 days damage.
Throne Zwei: 13 VP, 3 days damage, 1 days healing.
Destroy: 13 VP, 3 days damage.
Strike E: 13 VP, 3 days damage.
Denrobium Stamen: 12 VP, 2 days damage.
Plutone: 13 VP, 3 days damage.
Kyrios Gust: 13 VP, 3 days damage.
Virsago: 7 VP, 2 days damage.
Ashtaron: 7 VP, 2 days damage.
Harare: 3x Daughtress Flyer, 4x Daughtress, 4x Missile Turret, 3x Laser Turret, Minefield, the city itself, were all destroyed. Remaining two Daughtresses promoted to L4, assigned to Gundam X and Airmaster, all remaining mobile suits promoted to L4