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War and Peace.
Or
I'd like to be, in the Soloman Sea, in a little private colony, in the shade.
Part One:
"Of herbs and stewed rabbit"
Deep inside the remains of Side 5, a single space colony floated along, intact amongst the remains of the others. Only a score or so Space Colonies in the Side had remained intact and active since the bombardment and wars of the Zeon and Federation, although these were very self-sufficient, and only got a few visitors from Side 6, every now and again. The people put up militias and watches, some colonies sent people off to war to either side for protection, and they could always get their own light and food, so it wasn't so bad.
Murdered Dove was a different story however. The colony had been forcefully abandoned by the Zeon, and a nuclear pulse engine had been attached. However, before it could be brought to Earth, a large counterattack was made by the Federation (0079.1.15) and for once, the Federation was actually successful. The Zeon pulled back, the commanding officer was busted down about 4 ranks, and the colony was left to its own devices. However, it was not uninhabited for long. A band of Zeon deserters in a captured Pazock class troop transport had gone to the colony, where they figured they could be safe. Unfortunately, they had an engine malfunction upon reaching the colony, and had crashed into one of the little-mirror-wing-thingies, cutting off half of the power source of the Colony, and ruining their Pazock. Going to the colony in normal suits, they had stayed there for 10 months, and had reworked the power to suit them. They kept one side of the colony functioning normally, and had no power routed to the other side, except for a few lights in the junkyard, where they at times needed parts and scrap metal.
It was this colony that Deckard Sandoval, under the authority of Lieutenant Brendin Tokkur, was now investigating, for the possibility of using for the means of the Federation. If a base could be established in Side 5, it may well turn the tide of the space war. However, the Proto Zero and Enterprise were, as yet, a day off, and this first part of the story does not concern them.
The Gundam G-Dash and Zeong, from Sides 6 and 1 respectively, were both heading towards the colony. The Zeong was going to get there about two hours before the G-Dash, and upon arrival, it found that part of the lights were still on. What was more, Hatsuhiko felt a strange pressure from the colony, as if there were many inhabitants still on it, or maybe one with a strong mind and will. He decided to investigate, and, finding a completely destroyed Chivvay wreck with an open hanger, he hid his mobile suit, and went out as just an antlered head. (GO ZEONG! ~Vlad).
"This is strange... I never feel like this except when we're doing our tests at Granada. I guess there's plenty of time, might as well have a look."
Parking his mobile suits head inside the spaceport of the colony, Hatsuhiko got out in his normal suit and had a look around. Although the spaceport seemed lifeless, with very little arranged or organized, and tools and other things floating around, he could tell that people had definately been here recently. Here were two Civilian worker pods and a Zaku Worker, completely devoid of dust, as if they had just gone out for a repair mission. Going inside the airlock, Hatsuhiko took out his pistol and went down one of the colonies many passageways.
"The feeling is getting softer down here, but it's definately still around. Where am I."
Finding a door, and being unable to push it open, Hatsuhiko figured 'Now's as good a time to go inside as any' and hazarded a mighty kick. The door sprung open, and the Granada-trained Newtype fell out of the roof of the colony, heading straight for the junkyard. Far as he could see, the whole of the colony was black, with a few lights on here and there inside the junkyard, and the junkyard building well-lit. Had he turned around, he might have noticed a warm glow coming from the other half of the colony. Using his little normal-suit-thruster-thing to break his fall, he landed in a pile of rubble, and took his bearings. Talking was definately going on, but he couldn't see or feel who or where.
"Why should we set up a beacon? You know the penalty for desertion as good as we do Marlow, it's death."
"If we gave them the colony, they would look different. Besides, I'm sick of living in this junkyard and fixing this giant tin can. I want to see people again."
"You just want to see Christy. She's dead Marlow. Nothing's going to change that."
"Can it! I know that, there's just, nothing here for me anymore. Maybe we could go to Side 6."
"We'd be given up by their government in order to stay neutral. That is, if they still are neutral. We can't go to the Federation or the Zeon, and Riah is too big of a risk. We have to wait the war out, we've voted, and that's that. It's final Marlow, get over it."
Just as Hatsuhiko was getting out of the mess he had landed in, he got himself in quite the bigger problem. 6 men were walking away from a man, apparently Marlow, in the middle of the junkyard, and saw him. With cries of "Zeon!" and "They've found us" pistols were drawn, shots rang out, and outnumbered 6 to 1, Hatsuhiko turned tail and fled. Coming quickly to one of the Colonies mirror bridge thingies, he went into the lit half of the colony. Luckily, the young newtype used to be on the track team, and outraced his persuers, who also luckily, seemed to be bad shots. He ran smack dab into what appeared to be a park, and walked into the trees.
After about 10 minutes of getting himself lost, Hatsuhiko found a small cottage. A young girl was sitting there, apparently having a cook-out or something. An aroma was coming from a pot by her feet, which was on a small fire, and she was certainly cooking. She was about 5 feet tall, and had long, green hair (It's an anime dammit! She can too!). Hatsuhiko noticed something else about her instantly - This was the person he had come here looking for.
Looking up as if she knew he was there the whole time, the young girl smiled. "Want to come and eat some rabbit with me?" she said. "It's fresh."
Hatsuhiko hadn't had breakfast yet, or lunch, and accepted, wanting some news about where he was, in any case. He found out everything you have all learned in the first two paragraphs, as well as the girls name. Her name was Aria, and she was apparently a candidate for the EXAM navigator position (lucky she didn't make the second cut, huh =P.).
The two were finishing their meal, when Aria looked away suddenly. Hatsuhiko felt something, and his eyes followed, to see a man in a Federation uniform wandering across the park. Aria was about to call to him to, she apparently had just as much friendship to the Federation as to the Zeon, and Hatsuhiko didn't know what to do. His orders told him to fire, and if she called, a battle would probably start anyway. But, he felt a pressure from this man too, and didn't know what it meant...
Part Two: "Flotsam and Jetsam"
Ryu Hazuki had found Arias cottage in much the same way Hatsuhiko had, but before we go ahead with what happened there, we must go into Ryus story in detail. Hatsuhiko had figured he'd be alone for several hours, but nobody can really tell how fast the Gundam G-Dash is till they see it firsthand, and Ryu had made it to the colony only 15 minutes after Hatsuhiko. In much the same way as the Zeon pilot, he got there, felt a strange "pressure" emanating from the colony, and decided to investigate. Hiding his Gundam behind a large piece of debris, he sent a coded message to the Proto Zero and then went in.
Ryu found most of his problem inside the docking bay. When Hatsuhiko had gone through the airlock, he had let out a gust of air, which stirred all the unkempt tools and debris laying around the spaceport. Unable to see where he was going in the flotsam, Ryu didn't even notice the head of the Zeong, or if he did, he couldn't tell that it was anything other than possibly a construction pod. However, when he opened a door (to a different airlock), he suddenly felt the pressure or will, or whatever it was, beckon to him, like it was getting stronger. Walking down the hall, he opened the door at the end straight into the woods.
By this time, Hatsuhiko had sat down with the young newtype girl and they were eating fresh rabbit together. How there were rabbits in an abandoned space colony was beyond his thoughts though, because for some reason, he felt completely serene and peaceful around this girl. Aria was a newtype, definately, and the strongest he had ever met. Not as strong maybe as Char Aznable, the famed Red Comet he had heard so much about, but powerful in a different way. She seemed to understand people just by looking at them, and know what they wanted and needed, what would make them happy and sad. She was obviously not the type that would kill anything more intelligent than a rabbit.
Ryu had been wandering around, but by abstract luck had not seen the small cottage at the corner of the colony. If he had looked, he would have seen a man in a Zeon made normal suit talking to a small, green haired girl in a white dress, both of them eating in the small clearing by the cottage. There was a small pond nearby, and the building was probably only single-roomed, it was very small.
In any case, Ryu was bumping around when Aria just sort of "noticed" him, and she was about to call out. Hatsuhiko had little time to decide what to do, or why, and this girl seemed to be puzzling all his thoughts.
---
Meanwhile, the Proto Zero and Enterprize were getting within long-range sensor range of the colony, and had gotten Ryus message. The message said that the colony looked still active, the booster was intact, and he was going to investigate. Would be back in one hour.
Deckard Sandoval had rigged the main guns of his Magella to fire a single, full power burst at double the normal range (he hoped), and was puzzled himself. The power to the weaponry would go out for the rest of the day afterwords, but he had hoped to hit the colonies booster before the Zeong got there. A quick long-range scan showed the Zeongs reactor on heat sensors, but minovski particle interference made it impossible to obtain the exact location. So, just as Hatsuhiko was raising his gun and deciding whether or not to shoot, Deckard was given a similar choice - Ryu was probably inside the colony, but the Zeong may have already destroyed the Gundam G-Dash, and more Zeon mobile suits were on the way. The booster was the only part he'd need to destroy, and he'd still have himself an operational colony. What to do... What to do...
---
Part three: "The Paths of the Dead"
"... Don't fire." said Deckard, having finished his analysis of the situation. "I can't risk us shooting down one of our own pilots. Dammit, now I have to go rewire the guns though, AGAIN." The young newtype/mad scientist/mechanic walked off to the nearest crawlspace, when suddenly the Proto Zero was hit with a 360mm bazooka round. The whole bridge crew reeled to one side, and Deckard chose his new destination: The Enterprise. He had to get to his mobile suit. Luckily, Frank was already in the Alex, doing some last minute fine tuning, and launched off the Proto Zero's fore-deck.
Diego was flying his beloved Kampfer straight towards the green ship, bazooka in one hand, chain mine in the other. One little clasp, and enough of a hole would be in the Magellan to make it sink in the nothingness of space. However, he first had to get past the Gundam Alex, which was speeding hastily towards him, beam rifle in hand.
"What, a Gundam? Those damned white devils, always in our way. If it wasn't for you I could still be sitting back in a chair at Soloman." muttered Diego, firing off a Bazooka round. The highly maneuverable and extremely advanced NT-1 Alex dodged to one side, firing a beam rifle shot at the same time. Luckily, the Kampfer is just so damned fast, it was already well away from the firing zone.
The two mobile suits swirled around each other. One fired a shot, the other fired a shot, neither could hit each other. Then, after a short prolongued battle, the Kampfers bazooka ran out of rounds, and with a cliche "Welcome to my nightmare" line, the Alex flew right up, and blew off the arm containing the chain mine. Sparks hit the mine a little bit later, sending a huge fireworks display rocketing into space. It would be this that alluded the Zine to the position of its "command".
For right now however, The Kampfer threw away its bazooka, grabbed an MMP-90, and fired away. The 90mm shells did literally no damage to the Alex, and another beam rifle shot blew out a leg. Now unable to turn around effectively, the Kampfer shot off its grenade, and flew away, heading straight for the Proto Zero.
Back inside the Enterprise, Deckard was dismayed to learn that the GM Juggler, as of yet, was not repaired. The crew hadn't loaded any weaponry either, and it was in the middle of repairs. No way to take it out. Jumping in the cockpit anyway, he ordered the hatch open.
"Maybe I can't go out in body, but I'll go out in spirit, if anything." said Deckard, detaching a ball from his shoulder. The small, orange orb slowly moved out of the ship, and started covering it from any kind of assault.
The Kampfer shot towards the Proto Zero, second bazooka in hand. Firing a second round at the ship, Diego managed to damage the communications array before a Ball, the Alex from behind, and a good dozen anti-aircraft armaments started firing randomly at him.
"Madre Maria... Ehh, hora de voy, I guess." (I guess being more of the fact that Eld knows little spanish). Blasting his thrusters away from the area, the still faster-than-anything-that-exists-except-maybe-the-Val-Valo Kampfer quickly got out of the combat zone, and tried to decide where to go. He could retreat to his shuttle at this point, two limbs gone, or go to Murdered Dove, and perhaps help there... Brendin Tokurr was now close to the Proto Zero, and although damaged, it could return to its original destination.
---
Back inside the colony, Hatsuhiko had quickly grabbed Aria (not that way), clasped a hand around her mouth, and waited to see what Ryu would do next. The lost Federation pilot wandered around a bit more, and then went off in the direction of the Junkyard and the bridge.
"Whew... That was a close one." sighed Hatsuhiko, taking his hand off of the girls mouth. She seemed a little shy, for some reason, but was quickly questioning Hatsuhiko now, being quite the talkative person. Amidst "Do you know him"s and "Why didn't you let me call to him"s and "What do you have against the Federation"s, you would think they were a young couple, almost having an argument. In any case, the colonies artificial day grew to dark, and Hatsuhiko, at a loss for a better thing to do, decided to sleep on the floor of the little one room cottage. In the morning he could either go to his suit, or go after that pilot without risking the girl, he figured.
Ryu found his way to the bridge, and also to the armed team of men looking for Hatsuhiko. After an "Oh shit, BOTH sides are here" look, the men (there were 4 of them now) raised their guns, but this time did not fire.
"Wait, lets see who he is first. We just chased the last one off, now we don't know where the hell he is." said the apparent leader, a tall man with blonde hair, in typical Zeon fashion, deserter or no.
More questions and introductions were handed out, and the mans name was Gill. He was in fact the leader of this outfit, there were 15 of them, and they were deserters, although they wouldn't say from what side (it was rather easy to figure out though.) They said they had chased off another pilot (again, no mention of side, though Ryu figured it was the Zeong pilot), and that they were stuck on the colony. They didn't want to leave, just to stay there till the end of the war. All Ryu said was that "The war will probably come here eventually" and amongst mumbles of "It seems it already has" they reluctantly agreed. They led him off to the north end of the colony, away from both the Junkyard and the Park, where they had their housing area. Ryu stayed the night there, and he was in the same straights as Hatsuhiko - Find the pilot, or go off the colony...
~Part Four - Flight to the Fords (Err... Spacedock)
The morning came, or whatever you cann 7 AM on a space colony. By now, the Proto Zero was right up next to the colony, and a debate was going on as to what should be done. Ryu had snuck out during the night, and gotten a message off to Brendin, Deckard and Frank about the population of the Colony, and what to do about it. Unfortunately, orders were orders, the colony was to be captured for the Federation. So the end result of the discussion was going to eventually be "Send an armed assault team to kill them all, and then repair the colony." Ryu went to the Spacedock, and boarded the Enterprise. It was there that they found the Zeong head. They wouldn't let it escape.
Hatsuhiko however, needed to get back to Granada. He thanked Aria for her hospitality, and then left, feeling that the colonists should be left alone. He wandered back to the junkyard, trying to find a door to the spacedock without meeting those men again, when he saw quite the site. Quite the site indeed. The man at the junkyard, Marlow was it? Anyway, he was working on what looked EXACTLY like a Zaku II C. No armaments were around, but Hatsuhiko was worried, or impressed, he couldn't figure out which. Maybe this guy would get back to the Duchy after all. He turned a corner looking for the spacedok, when he ran into 8 fully armed Federal soldiers.
"Oh shi--" said Hatsuhiko, while Deckard yelled off a "There's the Zeong pilot! Fire!", cascading the area with 9mm assault rifle rounds. Turning tail and fleeing, the young newtype had just enough time to notice that he felt a different kind of pressure from the Federal soldier. A quick thought of "Why do we have to fight each other? Our souls are the same" flashed across his mind, but the thought was definately not his. The guards made their way for Hatsuhiko, who ran through the dark section of Murdered Dove.
Shots landed everywhere, Hatsuhiko even managed to get one or two pistol rounds back, and the fire woke the colonists. They ran to the scene, and fired on the Federation. A fierce yet quick battle enraged in the darkness, by what looked like a large apartment building, where soldiers hid behind cars, guns firing this way and that. The total outcome were 1 Federal soldier dead and two wounded, to 9 colonists killed. Deckard felt sick as he saw them die, but it couldn't be helped, he figured. Hatsuhiko managed to get away, and make it to the spacedock. Getting inside his suits head, he shot out of the hanger, straight into the loving arms of the Proto Zero. Fortunately, the Proto Zero was currently occupied with the Kampfer.
Diego wanted Revenge, but didn't seem all that able to get it. Brendin had gone out first, and been systematically taken out by the two-limbed Kampfer. It was still faster, still had better weaponry, and Brendin seemed incapable of dodging the 90mm rounds Diego sent after him. Eventually the Zine backed itself against some rubble and charged up its shield, designed to create a small beam barrier at its tip while being armored at the base, and blocked most of the rest of the fire. The Kampfer decided "Why waste ammo", took out its second bazooka, and flew to the Proto Zero.
The Magellan was having more luck however, and the anti-aircraft gun pilots were on a "Good day" or something. The Kampfer hit the Magellans hull twice more before losing its other arm, and was forced to fly off. The Gundam G-Dash set off after it, and would actually have caught up if its thrusters weren't hit by the MPC from the Zeong head.
"Diego, get to the outskirts of the Side, I'll hold them off." said Hatsuhiko into his comm unit. Going to the ruined Chivvay he had hid in, he waited for his chance to strike. Luckily they hadn't seen him leave, being so preoccupied.
Back inside the colony, things couldn't go worse. Ryu went back to the colonists, because he had wanted them to join the Federation. Now that more than half of them were killed, the situation had escalated into outright hatred between the two sides. Ryu was surprisingly on the side of the Zeon, and backing the colonists, whereas Deckard and Frank were on the side of the Federation and orders. Nobody noticed that Marlow, the man fixing the Zaku, had snuck off in the middle of the argument.
I won't say what went on in said argument, because I'm a sucky writer. But you can imagine it easily enough. The Federation was trying to say they didn't fire first, it wasn't their fault, and they were sorry they killed the people, but they had to, and they were Zeon anyway. The colonists were too busy crying over their dead friends to hear it, and were ready to open fire upon the Federation again. The basic choices at this point were to kill the colonists, or capture them, and it looked like Deckards decision.
This was not the most important point however, because at the time, Marlow flew out of the spacedock in an ARMED Zaku II C type, with a nuclear bazooka. He had found the parts drifting around the colony and fixed them over the months, and was now hell-bent on revenge. He would either destroy the Proto-Zero, or if that couldn't be done, the colony itself. Yelling obscenities and crying to himself, Marlow aimed at the Proto Zero, only to be shot through the legs by the Zine. This gave the gun crews time to fire on the Zaku II, and it had to withdraw. He couldn't destroy the Magellan without support, so he'd make damned sure that they didn't get his colony. Besides, he'd kill Deckard and his soldiers at the same time.
The only person at this point who could stop him was Hatsuhiko. He could save the colony, the colonists, and Aria, and surrender Side 5 to the Federation, or he could get away. What would he do?
Part 5 - The Choices of Master Samwise (So I like Tolkein! Sue me!)
Hatsuhiko had just enough time to make up his story and burst out of the side of the damaged Chivvay before Marlow could fire. The Proto Zero had allerted the Feds to their plight, and they were currently rounding up the remaining colonists, and running to the spacedock. The Zeong shot up in front of the Zaku, which had placed itself so that the Colony was between it and the Magellan.
"Wait! The Federation already has a foothold here, you won't be able to do anything by sacrificing yourself."
"You're in league with them you fucking bastard! Get out of my way."
"Stop it! There are other ships in the area, the Feds will get you and kill you. If you come away with me now, I can get you reinstated. Everything's going to be ok Marlow, come on."
"Good, but I need to do this first. They killed all of them, and I'll get them back!"
Marlow flew out in front of the Zeong and fired its nuke, just as the Enterprise left the spacedock, colonists and soldiers aboard. The small shuttle flew out into space, heavily damaged, but there were no casualties. The Murdered Dove however, was completely destroyed. In the confusion, Hatsuhiko sighed, shed a single tear for the death of Aria, and led Marlow back to Granada.
Meanwhile, every colonist aboard was safe and sound. They were handed over to the Proto Zero, and the Feds decided how to best regroup.
Outcome:
Kampfer: Shot to pieces
Zine: Damaged quite a bit
Gundam G-Dash: Too fast for its own good
GM-Juggler: It's repaired now!
Gundam Alex: Shot down by the Kampfer, sorta
Proto Zero: Damaged, will gain a newtype crewmember (Aria) upon debriefing at Side 7
Enterprise: Damaged
Zeong: Totally ok yo! Emerald Faust gets Marlow as a pilot upon debriefing at Granada
Major Events
Eld's Farewell
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---
Eldoreth
-Battle Writers-
Vladimir
Terry
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Vladimir
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Vladimir
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Vladimir
Dan
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Terry
Ming
James
Sichel
The Shaking Mountain
Or
Elds version of the 12th and 13th episodes of 08th MST, in which he disavows all knowledge that he just gave it the same title and is immune to being sued by the nice people who own the show, as such.
Part one:
An unexpected Party (I'm bad with names. Shut up.)
A single, glaring mountain jutted out of the Chinese landscape. Close to the lush jungles of southern China, this nameless mountain housed the Sahalin HQ, one of the few remaining holds of the Duchy of Zeon in this stage of the One Year War. Odessa had neutralized them, but not removed them, and they still clung to a few parts of the landscape. Ghinius hoped to change all that...
However, The Sahalins weren't the only one with a hold on Southeast Asia. The EF was recovering from its loss in the battle of Hong Kong, and was now finally ready to make its own strike on the mountain, without assistance from Jaburo. 5 ships had been gathered together, and even though 3 were mere mobile suit/cargo carriers, that was an awesome prospect. They totalled more mobile suits than the Sahalin base, better mobile suits, better pilots, more defencive weaponry, and enough sniper power combined with scout units to keep anybody from leaving the mountain. Their only fault in comparing themselves with the underground base was that a fleet of that size is impossible to hide. Everybody knew they were coming, just not when. Or how.
Unfortunately, some cosmic slip in the strong command structure the Zeon had shown, the structure that enabled them to cripple the 1st EFGF Supply Fleet as well as recapture one of their own pilots, the structure that had them winning the war for Asia, seemed to be breaking down. No plans, as of yet, were curtailed for the mountains defence, and when Ghinius looked at his available resources, he was shocked. Where were Destiny and Winter, and their squads? Where was Gunther and Amana, and their respective groups? Where was Kano's squadron? None of them were close enough to protect the base from attack. Looking at the near-finished Apsaras II, the only thing anybody saw come out of Ghinius's mouth at the time was a very silent "fuck."
Acting quickly, the noble born commander called for 1st Lieutenant Kleist, his personal defence coordinater and hotshot Gouf pilot. The Lieutenant came at his commanders call, and Ghinius quickly laid out his plan to him.
"That fleet of theirs, the Illiad. It's going to try to destroy the Apsaras before we get it in working order. They'll most likely come today. Can we stop them?"
"No sir. We'll have to move for a tactical withdrawl."
Kleist was always honest, even when Ghinius didn't like the answer. That was probably the only reason Ghinius hadn't killed him yet. He needed one man on his staff like that. Looking at a mechanic, Ghinius barked out his question in a very threatening tone.
"Is it possible to load the Apsaras onto the Kergeren Ensign?"
"Umm... Well, yes, we probably could, but there's no storage space that large, we'd have to break it down into--"
"WHAT?! Break down my Apsaras?!!"
"Sir, we could put it back together and finish our work in just a few days, it wouldn't be much of a delay..."
"How much of a delay?"
"Well sir, it would probably take us about 20 hours to break it down sufficiently, and then, given that we'd have to adjust the factory at California Base sir, I'd assume we'd take it there sir, I'd say 72 to put it back together. Sir."
"It will take you 4 hours to break it down, and 24 to put it back together when we reach the Americas, or your entire team will be taught a lesson. Do you comprehend me ensign?"
"Sir... Yes sir."
"Good. Kleist, we will leave for California Base on the Kergeren as soon as the Apsaras is ready. Ayna and our Gouf Flight Types will accompany us. See that a path is left open, and then start destroying the base components. They won't capture any of our plans. Have command change our system password too, just in case... You are in charge here now."
Kleist brimmed with his new promotion, then his shoulders sank a fraction of a centimeter as he realized what it meant.
"Yes sir! They won't get in without a fight. For the greater glory of Zeon!"
Kleist saluted Ghinius, and went off to prepare his defence. It would be a bloody day. A day the Federation would never forget.
---
Off in the jungle, the Alexandrian fleet Illiad was preparing for the attack. Lieutenant James Neil was technically in charge, but he had delegated all of his authority to Corporal Garrith Jones. Garrith didn't outrank almost every crewmember of the Samothrace Island, but James was a man of common sense, and didn't care about any "administrative nonsense." Garrith had a plan for the attack. The plan was good, better than anything he could have come up with. Who better to lead a coordinated assault than the person who coordinated it? That was all that went through James's head. Well that, a few shots of Tequila, and the backside of one of his more voluptuous anti-aircraft gunners he just passed by.
The Illiad broke off into three teams, designated by colors. "Quaint," James thought, "But it always works." The first group to head out to the Base was colorfully named Blue Squadron, under the command of the rather goofily named Big Tray. But names were supposed to be goofy, that's almost the only fun part about war. That and getting to be in command of all of these tight-uniformed girls.
James sighed, knowing he'd have no time to get himself into trouble today. He had to be serious and responsible, so he went to his mobile suits hanger. Donning his flight suit and taking his Tequila bottle with him, he dropped into the GT-4's cockpit, and flew out into the open sky, ready to fly escort for his ship.
The OYW-Style Immitation Freeden with Chocolate Chip Cookie Paintjob, painted exactly like its name said, rolled out into the edge of the Jungle along the Sahalin Mountain. Garriths orders were to stop just outside sensor range of both sides, until the other two groups got into position, and they did just that. Mobile suits started setting up on all sides. The two Type 74s went off to the left and right of the Big Tray, ready to coordinate attacks and relay information while the Big Tray itself started spreading Minovski particles. Within two minutes only the Type 74 Hovertrucks would be able to detect a thing on any kind of sensor frequency. Adrian, pilot of the GM Sniper, was absolutely psyched for this battle, because he had the most important job. "If anything, ANYTHING, comes out of one of those spaceports, blow it up." Garrith had said, and resting his Long Range Beam Rifle on one knee, Adrian (always the sniper fanatic) was going to have a field day.
A Guntank was set up right in front of the Big Tray, it and the Big Tray ready to pound the mountain with shells, all they had to do was get a little bit closer. Garriths Gundam, a GMPGT, GM Ground Type, and the Gundam Mudrock, were all in position guarding the "Freeden". They didn't know what was going to happen, and they wanted to be ready.
"Gold Team" was the next to set up, slightly farther back and to the north of the base. The two Medeas and Gunperry were loaded with troops, and ready to drop them onto the base, causing significant confusion in their ranks. Hopefully. Unfortunately, all three of the ships were damaged, probably the only thing that had been overlooked in Garriths plans, and couldn't fly out of range of the mountains defences. The pilots were used to danger though, their jobs being to ferry top-secret suit designs into combat, and today was no exception. Both the Heavy Gundam, barely able to make it to the mission on time, and the GM S Type, were in this team.
"I am the egg man!"
"We are the egg men!"
"I am the walrus! Coo-co--"
"SHUT UP MARCEL!!" Yelled the collective crew of the Hawk in flight. Yancy had somewhat bonded with her commander since their last mission, but still hated his music. Marcel turned off his headset for a moment, and finished adjusting his suit controls for the jungle climate he was about to fight in. When the battle started though, the Beatles would play, whether they liked it or not.
"So Yancy, before we get on with this, still think the Zeon are correct? We're stopping them from making another weapon of mass destruction. They could kill thousands. Hundreds of thousands!"
"You heard the rumors about the Solar System didn't you? What the Federation was going to do with its money from this months Jupiter Transport? INSTEAD of giving it to the civilians? The Zeon report says they're going to build more colonies."
Marcel grinned at the argument
"Our report says about the same thing you know."
"Exactly! We're lying to our own people! The people we say we're protecting, even though we started the whole problem with our economic sanctions and alian landholding laws, trying to suppress the colonists into being subservie--"
"--THEY fired first. The one week war? 5 billion dead?"
"I don't think the number was that high."
"I do."
"Even if it was, half of them were killed by our own nukes! We're just as bad as they are!"
"But it's our fault?"
"Yes! We started the war. We forced them to be just as bad as us."
"It was the other way around!!"
"It was not!!"
"You're impossible!"
"Shut up! Marcel!!!"
"Oh calm down you two. I tell you, you're going to end up married, and where would that leave us?"
Marcels arguing MS team shut up right about then, since Red team was in position now, and it was almost time to attack. Marcel grinned as he turned his headset back on."
"I am the egg man..."
Part Two: A long expected party
The Federal code "Alpha" had been relayed across the Type 74 communications line, followed by the code "Beta" about 20 minutes later, just around sunset. In other time, the sun fading out behind the mountain in the west would have been a beautiful site, but now it was just a glare in the eyes of the Samothrace Islands crew. With Beta initiated, Blue team started their attack.
Lurching forward into firing position, shells pounded onto the mountain, taking out a SAM turret immediately. Unfortunately, only a single mobile suit was stationed out there. Michael Sapphire had disobeyed orders, and taken his Gasshia out to the front. Garrith was waiting for him. The shells however, weren't high enough to get at the Dopp squadron, and 12 fighters, supporting two bombers, made their way towards the Freeden.
The initial conflict was bloody for the Zeeks. Just as Tin Cods were only barely effective against Zaku's, Dopps were equally weak against Gundams. Shells and missiles pinged off of that White Devil armor, while head vulcan fire and AA turrets from the Tray took out 4 of the Dopps almost immediately. A few missiles managed to get past the armor of the Tray, but did little damage. Garrith engaged Michael, whose own missiles were quickly dodged by the incredibly maneuverable Gundam. Was this pilot one of those newtype demons? Thought Michael, throwing a cracker grenade. His other arm was melted off by beam rifle fire, and the Gundam drew its beam saber, ready to advance, when a bazooka round knocked it to the floor. Help had arrived for the Zeon.
Ghinius's sensor readings hadn't been quite accurate, and much more of his troops were in range of the base than he thought. Amana, Gunther and Winter, with all of their supporting suits, ran up to the Big Tray, weapons blazing. Garrith quickly got up, destroying the Dom that had hit him, while the Guntank support crew engaged Gunther and his Gouf companion. Amana engaged in a duel with Garrith, her Gouf flew around the Big Tray, hitting it time and time again with its bazooka, and Winter, her Acquy supporting her, boosted on top of the ship. Blue team was going to need help.
The Dopps retreated, but Big Tray fire had already managed to finish off most of them. The remaining 3 flew cover for the Kergeren, which was just flying out of a hidden hanger. Adrian was ready though, and so was his Sniper Rifle. He took aim, readied himself, and fired at the fuselage, just as Winter slammed into his mobile suit. The shot went wide, and although it severely damaged the ship, it didn't destroy it.
Ghinius was furious. His ship was damaged, he couldn't retreat to orbit with it like this, and the Samothrace Island was in his path to California Base. Luckily though, he seemed out of danger for the present, and ordered his ship to Odessa. Maybe they could rebuild the Apsaras there...
"Fuck! The Mobile Armor is on that for sure!" Screamed Garrith, as he put Amana in her place with a good beam saber hack. "Fire again Adrian!" Adrian couldn't respond, Winter and he were 'wrestling'. "Shit... James! We need support. Get the Island over here."
James merely grinned. "Roger that commander. Save some of them for us."
The Samothrace Island was going to take a few seconds to get there though, and while it did, the Zeon had the definite upper hand. Both the GMPGT and GM-G were already destroyed, and Gunther, his Gouf (one arm missing), and Amanas remaining Dom moved on to the Gundam Mudrock. Winters team had already crippled both the GM Ground Sniper and the Big Tray, and were sitting atop it, waiting for the Samothrace Island.
"You'll die Federation worms!" grinned Amana, glee clearly in her face. She fired an MPC blast at Garrith, who jumped out of the way in the nick of time, giving Amana a breather. She was definately not doing good in that fight, despite Michael's desperate attempts to assist her.
"She's as bad as that Mobile Armor pilot! Concentration camps in the next year, I'm telling you."
"Don't worry about it Amana" said Gunther. "Not on my watch. Just beat that damnable pilot!"
With a cry of Seig Zeon, the two Goufs flew at the Gundam Mudrock. The Mudrocks response was to blow two 200mm holes in the chest of Gunthers escort suit. Rick Rasa was pissed at the apparent loss of his ship, and fired his entire arsenal at the Goufs. Beams, grenades and fire support shells decorated the landscape, knocking Gunther unconscious as his suit slammed into a tree. The Dom was more lucky, reaching Rasa with its heat saber, but the Mudrock merely discarded its artillary cannons and jumped out of the way, gliding just as fast. The Gundam engaged in a saber duel with the Dom, and Rick slowly led his combatant away into the Jungle.
Garrith was holding his own, but not for long. Winter had gotten tired of waiting, and her Acquy support jumped off the tray with her, surrounding the Gundam. Garrith was the best pilot in the Federation at this point, but couldn't contend with four mobile suits at the same time, armed only with a beam saber. His rifle was out of rounds already. He drew his other saber, hoping to stall for time a few seconds, when a stream of Mega Particles the size of an Acquy destroyed one of the... Acquys... Samothrace Island had arrived.
"Dammit! Support! We've lost. All troops retreat." yelled Gunther, already back on his feet
"But all the people inside! What about Cal? He may be a Nazi but we can't sacrifice him!" said Amana.
"It can't be helped. Let's regroup and meet up with Winter. We'll have enough firepower to keep them on their toes even without the base.
The Gasshia, Acquy, Gelgoog and Gouf, along with their remaining Dom, retreated, Red team firing as they went. The Federation had won this part of the battle, but at a big cost. The Big Tray was crippled, the Apsaras was in the clear, and several good pilots were dead.
The two teams marched towards the mountain, Magella attack tanks ready to take them on. Unfortunately for the Magellas though, the Hawk in Flight, Whiskey, and Jack Daniels were ready to cut off their escape.
The GM S Type left the Hawk first. Firing at an AA battery, Marcel landed and started circling the base, taking out the remaining fixed defences and cutting off the openings. The Mobile Suits were inside, and were going to give them hell when they tried to get in. No time to worry about it though.
"I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly.
I'm crying."
Yancy was next to drop, and cut off more openings. As she did though, an explosion rocked the sky. SAM fire had hit the Jack Daniels, and it had gone up in a ball of fire. Garrith cursed, that's what he got for having a slip-up in his plan.
"Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come.
Corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday.
Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long.
I am the eggman,
they are the eggmen.
I am the walrus, coo coo catchoo."
The Heavy Gundam dropped out of the Whiskey, and fired on the Magella attack tanks. One went up in smoke, followed by another, as the GT-4 came round for a pass, beam rifle in hand.
"Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog's eye.
Crabalocker fishwife, pornographic priestess,
Boy, you been a naughty girl you let your knickers down.
I am the eggman,
they are the eggmen.
I am the walrus, coo coo catchoo."
"Damnable Zeons! We come here and you run away like panzies! I don't like cleaning up other peoples messes." said James, chugging down part of his Tequila bottle. He had been moderate so as not to accidentaly shoot his own troops, but where's the fun in being sober?
"Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun.
If the sun don't come, you get a tan
From standing in the English rain.
I am the eggman,
they are the eggmen.
I am the walrus, coo coo catchoo, coo coo catchoo catchoo."
Fire from Red team tore up most of the Magella tanks, though one top managed to pop off and hit Adrians sniper, taking out both legs. He wouldn't be able to move now, but that's not much of a problem for a sniper anyway.
"Expert textpert choking smokers,
Don't you thing the joker laughs at you?
See how they smile like pigs in a sty,
See how they snied.
I'm crying."
A single mobile suit tried to get past Yancy, but a quick beam rifle shot almost killed the pilot. The Zaku jumped back into the mountain, awaiting the seige.
"You were going to kill that guy! You're the biggest hypocrite I know." said Anthony
"No, my superiors are hypocrites. I'm just following orders. And besides, I was aiming for the legs." retorted Nancy.
Marcel merely continued his song.
"Semolina pilchard, climbing up the Eiffel Tower.
Elementary penguin singing Hari Krishna.
Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe.
I am the eggman,
they are the eggmen.
I am the walrus,
Coo coo catchoo cakoo coo catchoo catchoo."
With the base almost captured now, the defences subdued, the three teams started to look for openings. A suit was positioned at each one they found, and mop up crews took out the remaining fighters and tanks. Marcels song ended, and the battle died down for a minute. Little did they know how hard it was going to be to finish off the mobile suits inside, or what Kleist had planned for them...
Part Three - Riddles in the Dark (SHUT. UP!)
So, the remainder of the Illiad was sitting atop Sahalin mountain. They were going to need all the strength they had to clean it out, so they took a half hour break. Shifts had quick snacks while the entrances to the mountain were kept on watch, the Hawk in Flight and Whiskey landed by the mountain and re-armed the troops. There were three entrances to the mountain. Rick Rasa and his Mudrock, along with Marcel, Anthony and Yancy, were to attack one entrance, Garrith and a GM from the Samothrace another, and the three Samothrace GMPGTs, Alin and James's personal Hypaspist bodyguard, the third entrance. James and the Type 74's continued circling the area with sensors and binoculars, waiting for some sort of ambush. The Guntank had been destroyed by the Acquy as that group retreated, but the pilot was ok.
"I'm SO going to get them for what they did to the cookie carrier! They blew a hole in the auditorium, all my video games! ALL OF THEM!" muttered Rick, saddened by the destruction done to his ship.
"Hey, it's ok. I'll hook you up with some old stuff when we get back to base" said Marcel, with a grin. He thought he had a new half-life companion in the works.
"Well then. Onword!" yelled Rick, his suits arm charismatically in the air. Firing artillary shells into the doorway of the underground entrance, the steel frame buckled, and with a final shot to the corridoor inside, a Zaku lurched out of the doorway, fell over, and exploded.
"That was easy." said Yancy.
Peering inside a darkened corridoor, the first team walked in, clearing out every thing they saw.
---
The problems were going on in the other end, Alins group. As soon as they even came up to the door, it shot open, and a Gouf, piloted by the hastily promoted commander Kleist, shot out. One quick swing and an arm was off of a Hypaspist. A knock of a heat rod, and the suit was incapacitated.
"SEIG ZEON!" the Zeonic ace yelled, swinging his heat sword at Alin. A shield parried, but was deftly knocked away. Alin fired vulcan rounds into the Gouf, but the well-armored suit did little damage. Grabbing his beam saber, he waded into the inevitable duel. The other GMPGT came to help, but the pilot was quickly killed by a Zaku, coming in from the rear. James caught the Zaku before it could get to Alin though, and landing, the GT-4 picked up one of its bodyguards beam sabers, and joined the fight.
It was too late though. The Goufs heat rod had already shorted out Alins Gundam, and a quick blast of finger-machinegun rounds kept James at a safe distance. With a sweep of the heat sword, the Gundam Massed Production Ground Type was cut in half.
Alin screamed, but his scream was cut short as his torso was almost melted by the heat of the blade. Enraged by the loss of his closest companion and co-conspirator, James fired his two shoulder mounted beam guns wildly, placing hole after hole into the Gouf, till its smoking ruins fell to the floor. James's other Hypaspist pilot had, by now, got his suit working, and the two of them went into the entrance to the mountain. There was no time to mourn for lost pilots, they would have to have a funeral service after the battle. There were what, 8 dead friends now?
---
Garriths team had about as much trouble as Rasa's. Three Zaku's guarded that entrance, but the Gundam quickly dispatched them. Garrith was getting to be quite an expert pilot, even in a heavily damaged mobile suit. With that, the base defenders were nearly destroyed, and in an hour the entire base was mapped out. It was useless to them by now though, all of the infrastructure of the base had been destroyed by Kleist before his final attack.
---
In the deep Jungle, the Zeon forces were regrouping, taking a break, and readying themselves for new, guerrila warfare duties.
"My god Winter. How many battles have you gone now without damage?" said Amana, when the two were alone.
"Oh... Four now, I think."
"You're untouchable! How do you do it?"
"Simple. I'm a ghost, nobody sees me till its too late."
"More like the Grim Reaper. Or a Wraith."
"Hmm... The Wraith... I like that name." Grinned Amana. "I'll have to teach it to the Federation.
"You shouldn't be so bloodthirsty. Some day, people might think we were the bad guys, because of soldiers like you."
---
The battle was won, and Asia was in the hands of the Federation. The cost, however, was enourmous, and the Zeon still had enough troops in the area to engage in Guerrila warfare tactics for quite some time. In addition, the whole point of Operation Rabbit hunt was to destroy the Apsaras, and it was merely relocated to Odessa. The Illiad was too damaged to follow it without returning to base for repairs first, and to Cal and Ghinius, this was only a delay. Only a delay.
Result: Op[eration Rabbit Hunt successful
GM S Type: 2 days damage, 12 VP
GM Sniper: 2 days damage, 12 VP
GMPGT: Dead, yo. The Whiskey is given to Gundam
Gundam: Promoted to Master Sergeant, 4 days damage, 10 VP
Gundam Mudrock: 2 days damage, 12 VP
Heavy Gundam: 2 days damage, 12 VP
Gundam GT-4: 1 days damage, 12 VP
Gelgoog: 3 days damage, 15 VP
Gouf: 3 days damage, 15 VP
Acquy: No damage, 10 VP, I gave her a nickname
Apsaras: Sent to Odessa, upgrading 2 days upon arrival
Gasshia: 4 days damage, 20 VP
Some thousand-odd feet above the burning Sudanese sands, a lone Medea rocketed along at cruising speed, still too low to leave contrails. Inside the cockpit, the Medea’s three-man crew casually kept the plane flying; a third person, Warrant Officer Aleksander Dolvich, unquestionably the leader of the bunch, leaned on the cockpit entryway, worrying and impatient, but outwardly calm.
“Aren’t we at the drop point yet?” Dolvich demanded of the pilot.
“We’re almost there,” the pilot returned. “And I’m not showing anything on radar. Meanwhile, get your men ready for drop.”
“Right, right…” Dolvich stated, turning around and heading down into the Medea’s main fuselage. Further down, his two cronies, Corporals Eli Staedtler and “Jet” Kurosame, as well as Sergeant Ron Bently, killed time in the little “lounge” part of the Medea’s central deck. Located in the open space behind the entry way to the cargo hold, it was usually reserved for small cargo and other supplies, but such special occasions had to happen now and then.
“Sir! Good news, I hope?” Staedtler and his pristine uniform inquired, looking up from a card game he and the others were playing.
“We’re mobilizing.” Dolvich gave them a lopsided grin.
“About time! This flight takes far too long,” Kurosame exclaimed, standing up and stretching. Staedtler and Bently did likewise, and the four began heading towards the cargo hold’s entry way.
---
Even higher, a Luggon reconnaissance aircraft, brandishing Zeon insignias, swayed back in forth, giving its dual AWACS dishes a good coverage of the area below.
“Well, hello! I’m picking up a bandit at two o’clock low,” the radar operator reported.
“What kind?” the pilot asked.
“Pretty big; probably a transport plane.”
“Well, it’s not going anywhere now. Where’s the nearest squadron?”
“We’ve got a patrol from Alexandria about four kilos off.”
“Good enough. Radio them in and make it happen.”
---
Half a dozen Dopp jet fighters began a long-banking turn on a routine patrol, not really expecting any sort of break from the norm. They would indeed get one, though. The team leader looked down and noted that his communications screen was beeping. A message began running across it:
URGENT. URGENT.
CODE BM-177-A
ABORT CURRENT MISSION. IMMEDIATELY COMMENCE WITH OPERATION <<JERICHO>>
REPORT TO DTC-S5 UPON COMPLETION OF DIRECTIVE.
<< END TRANSMISSION >>
The Dopp leader made a hand signal to his wing members, and the squad peeled off in a high-G turn.
---
Dolvich, Staedtler, and Kurosame began strapping themselves into their cockpits while Bently and the rest of his crew went over final checks of their Type 61 Main Battle Tank, especially the parachute harnesses which would secure them on the way down.
“Crew, we ready to go?” Dolvich requested of the Medea operators through the intercom.
“Just about… we’ll be hitting the drop zone in about a minute…” he replied.
“Shit! Sir, bandits at seven o’clock high! Six of them!” the co-pilot pointed out.
“Damn! They must have picked us up! Get M-particle density raised!”
“Too late! We’ve been locked on!” the logistical officer pointed at the alarm panel. The Medea began jettisoning chaff canisters, but it was too little too late by that point. Four missiles slammed into the Medea’s upper fuselage, setting its central engine cluster on fire. “Engines two, three, and four are losing power!”
“We’re not going to be able to maintain altitude at this rate.” The six Dopps split up and began peeling off to each side, strafing the Medea with their vulcan guns. Staedtler quickly closed his cockpit hatch when a bullet zinged by, narrowly missing his head.
“Sir, we’re losing altitude quickly; we’re gonna try and get you guys out before then. Brace for drop!” the pilot reported.
“Allright, hurry up!” Dolvich exclaimed. The Medea’s cargo hatch opened, and a few moments later the drag chute on Dolvich’s GM Sniper Custom inflated, violently ripping his mobile suit out the back. The Medea bucked as its weight load suddenly decreased dramatically. As Dolvich fell, he could very easily see the Medea taking some serious fire. Its antiaircraft guns shot back, but their limited coverage arc wasn’t helping any.
“Aw shit! This thing might not stay in the air much longer!” Staedtler yelled.
“We’re trying! We can’t deploy you right now or else will tear the damn thing’s airframe apart!” The outermost engine exploded, causing the Medea to begin listing to one side. One Dopp fired off another missile towards the Medea’s tail, but was caught in a burst of antiaircraft fire and began tumbling away.
“Allright, Guncannon, you’re next!”
“Allright! Let me at those assholes!” Kurosame stated, bracing herself. The Guncannon MPT deployed its own drag chute and sailed out, narrowly missing another Dopp in the process. He could see Dolvich’s parachute some distance below. Suddenly, two missiles streaked into the Medea’s cargo hold, exploding inside. The hold itself began tearing free of the Medea’s fuselage with the screech of bending and warping steel. The huge drag the now-gaping hole in the hull created began rapidly dragging the Medea out of the air very rapidly.
“Bently, go!” The parachute opened, pulling the Type 61 out on its landing runners. The ground began rapidly closing with the Medea’s tattered hull.
“Come on, go faster!” Staedtler demanded.
“We can’t deploy it in time.”
“The hell with this!” the pilot yelled. Moments later the Medea’s cockpit shattered as all three ejected, sailing upwards.
“You gotta be kidding me…” Staedler muttered in disbelief. A few moments later the Medea struck the sand, belly-first, throwing huge clouds of the stuff well into the air. Its remaining engines toasted off as well, and the whole thing went up in a gigantic explosion. Kurosame, Bently, and Dolvich continued in their descent, looking quite mortified as they drifting apart from each other.
---
A few miles away, a Zeon lookout atop a small observation tower took note of the Medea’s crash. Behind him lay an expansive oil field, along with processing and shipping facilities, some fixed turrets, and a squad of Desert Zakus. The lookout grabbed his radio.
“Bren One, that explosion looked suspicious; could be Federal incursion,” the lookout stated. “Go check it out.”
"Roger that" replied the Zaku pilots, moving out in their mobile suits.
---
Fire or no fire, the Ground Type GM was still a very sturdy mobile suit; Staedtler survived the crash relatively intact, and minus some scorching on the GM, so had his mobile suit. As he broke free of the wreckage, he caught sight of Dolvich’s GM Sniper, its freshly waxed paintjob ruined, being pummeled by the Dopps as it descended. Kurosame’s Guncannon was nowhere to be seen; Bently’s Type 61 had already landed, though somewhat roughly, as one of its parachutes had gotten tangled in descent. The tank’s top-side machinegun sent what support it could up into the air.
Dolvich gritted his teeth, quite aggrevated at the fly-like Dopps. He opened fire with his dual head-mounted 60mm vulcan guns, clipping the wing on one but only serving to further aggregate them. A stray round clipped one of his parachute cables, and Dolvich found himself rapidly descending to the ground.
---
Some distance away, Kurosame’s heavier Guncannon hand landed quite ingloriously in the bottom of a sand dune, and was now stuck on its back, sand clogging its backpack-mounted jumpjets. Kurosame uttered an oath at the Zeon for leaving him in such a predicament. Finally, he managed to upright himself, thanks to the kinetic qualities of his dual artillery cannons and a little quick handwork. He jetted up to the top of the sand dune to see the ensuing firefight; he had drifted a considerable distance on his way down.
“Gah, isn’t this just wonderful…” he muttered. Seconds later a missile slammed into the Guncannon’s shoulder, knocking it to the opposite side. The Guncannon’s heavy armor shrugged off the hit, but Kurosame was no less exasperated at the sight of the three Desert Zakus approaching him at high speed. “Asses!” he announced, drawing both of his 90mm machineguns and unloading them into the rapidly approaching Zeon mobile suits.
---
Dolvich’s GM Sniper Custom hit the sand with a loud thump, promptly falling flat on its face on account of the desperately over-taxed gyroscope. Oddly enough, the Dopps had broken off and headed elsewhere.
“…that didn’t quite go as well as I had hoped…” Dolvich groaned.
“Tell me about it. You nearly landed on me!” Bently shook a fist at the upended mobile suit. Staedtler joined them a few minutes later.
“So, I’m assuming that’s where we’d best be heading to,” he mentioned, gesturing at the distant smoke clouds from the oil refineries.
“Eh, essentially,” Dolvich stated, standing up through a considerable expenditure of fuel.
“Sir! We gotta fall back!” Kurosame came over the radio.
"I thought you crash-landed, Jet.” Dolvich began.
“I did! I’m being tailed by Zeon mobile suits!” Kurosame added. Another curse, this time from Staedtler. Sure enough, the Guncannon bounded over the sand dune, followed closely by a pair of Desert Zakus, who were happily unloading their machineguns into his back. She had successfully dropped one of them with a direct shot from her dual 200mm artillery cannons, but the others quickly surrounded him and forced him back.
“Well, this is just one dandy surprise after another!” Bently muttered. “Allright, I’ll take care of this.” Seconds later all eight of his smoke dischargers fired, exploding in mid-air into a cloud of gray smoke. Kurosame dove for the incline, clearing it and sliding down the other side before he was overtaken by the smoke screen. Dolvich and Staedtler did likewise, taking positions on the beginning of the depression. The two Zakus, disoriented, charged out of the smoke screen at full speed, jet skis kicking up a great deal of sand. Dolvich and Staedtler opened up with their own weapons, blasting both Zakus in the feet and sending them to the ground. Another three shots destroyed the mobile suits, Aleksander missing once.
“Allright. Intel says there's only a few tanks to deal with. Those Dopps won't be coming back any time soon, and there are more spare parts at the mine than in the desert. Continue the operation, guys." said Dolvich, his mobile suit having a bit of trouble with the sand.
---
“Aw, shit…” the lookout officer groaned. The Federal mobile suits, battered but still functional, had trumped the three Desert Zakus and were now rapidly charging his position. He grabbed the radio and slammed his hand against the “General Alarm” button. “Federal mobile suits are breaking through! Evacuate immediately!”
Below, dozens of Zeon soldiers and workers began dropping whatever they were doing and bolted for a vehicle. Most of them ended up piling into half-tracks and other trucks of various calibers; a small convoy, headed by a few Humvees, bolted for the opposite end of the oil field.
---
Dolvich briefly stopped to plop Bently’s tank on the ground as they approached the base, then continued charging forward.
“Kurosame, give us some support fire. Staedtler, we’re taking that oil field,” he announced. His subordinates roger’d him. Bently fired up the tank’s engines as well, closing with them in short time. A loud double “whump” sounded as Kurosame’s twin cannons fired, exploding the unbeknown-to-them-unoccupied observation tower. Dolvich and Staedtler cleared the ridge and slid down into the oil field, narrowly missing a derrick. Three Magella Attack Tanks lay in wait for them, all three opened fire with their 175mm main guns. One whizzed over the top of Bently’s tank; the second was aimed at Staedtler’s unit and missed wholeheartedly, and the third slammed into Dolvich’s shoulder, blowing his left arm clear off. Another salvo from Kurosame’s cannons landed nearby, blasting one Magella into oblivion; the turret blasted off from the bottom but lost control and keeled over to one side, crashing into the ground. Dolvich gritted his teeth and slid towards the right-most Magella like a baseball batter racing for home plate. His foot slammed into the Magella’s hull, flipping it over like toy. The third and final Magella wisely ejected the top as well, this one regaining control and flying like the wind towards the rapidly retreating convoy. Dolvich attempted to get up and swat the thing out of the air, but without an arm this took a little longer than usual.
“That’s the last of them, then!” Staedtler stated, quite pleased with himself. Although his GM’s fresh paintjob had been ruined, he had scored his first mobile suit kill in combat.
“Yeah. The oil field’s ours,” Dolvich proclaimed. “…however, without the Medea, we’re in something of a problem... we’ve got no escape route.”
“Ah, who cares?” Kurosame proclaimed, sliding down the ridge as well. “We can take ‘em.”
“Eh, maybe,” Dolvich muttered.
Outcome: RF-2 taken.
Condor: Destroyed
GM Sniper: 1 days damage, 12 VP gained.
GM Sniper Custom: 3 days damage, 15 VP gained
Guncannon MPT: 2 days damage, 12 VP gained
Type 61: no damage: 8 VP gained
Operation Desert Oil, Part 2: The Spice Must Flow
Looking down at his watch, Ron Bentley spat a completely dry piece of jerkey out of his mouth, as he watched the horizon.
Probably'd lose moisture if I swallowed the damn thing...
Ron and his team had been waiting for 11 hours, now. Aleksander had laid out the plan and the EFGF 2-SSL was going to be around any time now. But they were still under siege. Every once in awhile a Dopp flew over their heads, every once in awhile an AFPSDS round buzzed through the oil well. Never hitting anything, though, just enough to keep them on their toes.
The only reinforcements they had managed to scrap up in the day prior was one Land Battle GM, and a spotter hovertruck. The rest of the GM team had to move on, the mine didn't have enough guns for them to stay there, would have been a waste.
Didn't have enough food, either. Ron threw an empty bag of jerkey into the sand as he watched and waited his shift out next to the Type 74, just a little ways ahead of the hastily dug trench formation surrounding the oil field.
---
Ron had been up for about 18 hours. Jet'd been up for about 60. She was surprisingly taking it much, much better than the old tank ace. Well, not quite surprisingly, as she tied off another one of her veins and stuck a needle in it. There were six such needles on the bottom of her cockpit now, and probably more stimulants in that puddle by her chair than sweat.
"Kkkk... Nnnnnnnnn... Allright... Gimme some Panther ass. C'mon. One more kill. One more kill. One more-"
Kurasawa shook her head, snapping herself out of her moment of deliriousness, and she was again, ready. Her Guncannon was placed in the trench, a ways behind Ron.
---
Eli was busy straightening his rank insignia. He was in the trench as well, his Beam Sniper Rifle buried slightly in the sand, and hooked up to the mines tiny, tiny generator. They'd used this generator to reload all of their beam weaponry last night, so at least they had all the rounds they were gonna need. Next to him was Jim Danagan in the GM. Jim hadn't really liked much of Eli. Although their suits were just as beat up, Jim had been in the desert for about 2 months now, and his uniform was more torn up than Aleksanders suits left arm. Eli, however, had kept his uniform rather perfect.
---
Aleksander was sitting on top of his mobile suits shoulder, looking at the sky. Fighter support hadn't arrived yet. Matilda hadn't arrived yet. Joseph and Ryan hadn't arrived yet. The entire operation had gone to shit, and even if he made it out alive, he'd probably take a cut in salary. At worst he could be demoted. He looked for a half a minute or so at the ruined Zaku Cannon, a ways out in front of the trench, where the Zeon should be coming from.
Alek smiled and then frowned, wrapping his arab-style cloak around him, given to him by the headman of the small civilian mine workers when he had given them some extra food for their children. After having visited one of the worker barracks, he had renewed his hatred of the Zeon.
Never bring children into a war...
---
Matilda and the EFGF 2nd Strategic Supply Line were actually already there, though too far away for Aleksander, and especially the Panthers, to notice. Their flatmouse had taken arial photos of the entire area, and they'd decided to touch down outside the combat zone. They couldn't risk losing an entire fleet to save a Warrant Officer, but they were refuelling and rearming their Tin Cods, just in case fighting broke out. Luckily, they had met up with the Deep Creek just about an hour ago, Led Washingtons GM Sniper was already in position to fire his own LRBR at one of the Panthers. The Deep Creek had moved a ways from the 2-SSL, since after the shot was fired their position would be known to every Zeek and their grandma within a 50 mile radius.
---
Wil had just been put through the Pink Panthers 'initiation' rite: They took a 120mm machinegun with pink paintball rounds, and plastered his mobile suit with it. Ordinarily, you'd be pretty pissed to have your suit a rather messy bright pink, but Wil had been in Alexandria for a long, long time. The Panthers were pretty famous, and he'd be the talk of the base when he got back.
If he got back. Hell, if he was even going back, apparently he'd been reassigned.
For now though, the Zeon attack force, numbering 7 Desert Types, 6 Dopps and 6 Magellas, revved up their engines and finally prepared the assault. The plan was simple. Go in fast, retake the mine, kick the Feds out.
"Allright Panthers. Lets do this. Remember, priority is to retake the mine, not damage it. No bazookas, no Panzers, just machineguns for cover fire. We go in fast, we take them hand-to-hand, we capture RF-2. Everybody got it?"
"Got it." "Roger." "Ok."
One of the pink MS-06D mono-eyes looked over to Wils three Zaku squad, almost mockingly.
"Think you can keep up, kid?"
Wils suits eye returned the stare.
"Watch me."
With shouts of Seig Zeon, the MS team fired up their Jetski's and began their assault.
---
Ron had just found a second bag of Jerkey when huge clouds of dust started coming up on the horizon.
"Shit! Shit shit shit. WAKE UP YOU CLODS! They're coming!!!"
The tank commander grabbed his top-mounted machinegun and aimed towards the rapidly advancing cloud of smoke. The Type 74 started buzzing with life, and Jeff gave a hurried report to his commander.
"Sir! Looks like the cyclops are out in front! All 7 confirmed, they're only coming from one direction. Orders?"
"Send that exact message out to Alek, NOW. Don't fire till we can actually see 'em. Those are the Pink Panthers out there, we're an easy target. Get us behind the trench line!"
Jeff relayed the command.
"OK! Prime the smoke grenades! Lets give those pussy's hell, boys!"
As one Pink mobile suit bounded over a dune, the tank opened fire. Unfortunately the Panther swerved out of the way, taking aim with its own 120mm. With a shout of 'Hard Left' however, Rons tank avoided the shot, sand spraying 30 feet into the cloudless sky as the two tanks rushed behind the line.
The Hovertruck had just radio'd its message to Alek when a shot from Wil's Zaku tore it apart.
"Good Job, kid!" said one of the Panthers over the intercom.
Wil didn't respond verbally, though his skiing Zaku did take a second to give the Panther the bird.
Aleksander Dolvich jumped inside his armless GM and yelled into the intercom. He was a little bit more nervous than his outward appearance showed.
"ELI! You are clear to fire! I repeat! You are clear to fire!!!"
Inside the GM Sniper, Eli cut himself on his pin as it flew out of his hand.
"Huh? What?! They're here?!? Oh shit... Oh snap... Why does he give me the important jobs? It's my second day in the field, dammit!"
Moving to his controls and hastily sucking on his index finger, the GM Sniper picked up its LRBR, and aimed for the seemingly destroyed Zaku Tank, some ways in front of Ron. A ways down the hill, Leds sniper was aiming for one of the nearly airborne Panthers.
Ron was now dodging shots from 7 120mm machineguns. The smokescreen hadn't really done much help, what with no M-particle density the Zakus were getting his readout on both radar and heat displays. Ron however was one lucky fuck, his zigzag maneuvering had done the trick so far. The Magellas had come over the dune now too, and the tank was mostly shooting at them and ignoring the mobile suits. In Rons words, the pink fuckers were too hard to hit.
The radar-lock worked both wasy however, as the Anti-Tank missiles on the twin-barrels of the 61's turret locked on to an enemy Magella and fired, destroying it completely. Ron yelled encouragement to his team, when a machinegun salvo from one of Wils Zakus, having just passed the ruined Tank, clipped the side of his tank, sending it spinning around, eventually turning it over, and laying it on its side. Ron and his team thought they were as good as dead.
But just as the majority of the rest of the Zakus passed the Tank, all spread out in a line, a huge, loud, bright pink beam shot out from the trench a small ways in the distance. Not even aiming for the enemy mobile suits, it went right through the construction suits reactor, causing a gigantic explosion that completely vaporized the Zaku that had shot Ron, knocking the rest of Wils squad and half the Panthers off their skis and into the soft Saharan desert, and taking out 3 of the lighter armored tanks off in the distance. Sand was kicked up everywhere, and for a few seconds the battleground looked quite literally like an atomic bomb had gone off. The Type 61 was picked up into the air and thrown all the way back into the mine proper.
"FUCK! What the heck was that?!"
"Someones reactor got hit! Goddammit, I'm off my skis!"
"There's so much sand everywhere I can't see! M-particle density is through the roof!"
Alek, watching closely through his suits sniper-use zoom lens, smiled, and powered up his own suit.
---
Back behind the battle line, Matilda was laighing her head off.
"How Alek managed to pull that one off I don't know, but hell, lets go save the guy. Minovski particles to battle density if we even need it, send the fighter wing out in front. Lets go people!"
The Bach roared to life and started to take off, elsewhere the Deep Creek was doing likewise. Led had decided to paradrop on to the base, there was no way he was going to be able to hit those Zakus now.
A bit farther away, Dymas Amyntor and his MS team were limping and flying their way to Gibralter, very, very slowly. However, upon sighting the suit reactor explosion, they promptly changed course.
"No clue what that is, but why don't you guys go check it out?" said the tired GM Desert Type pilot, as his strange fighter squad went in to investigate.
---
Back at the combat scene, Jet, Eli and Jim had all grabbed their respective guns and started blasting away with all hell at the two Panthers that were still coming. If they got past the Trenches the base was good as theirs. They were firing back, however, and the slow-firing beam weapons of Jet and Eli weren't quite the best thing for hitting a fast suit with an expert pilot inside.
"C'mon! DIE you transvestite cyclops bastards! I just need to get one of you!" growled Jet, firing at the Zakus that almost danced out of the way. Her Guncannon had to bring its head back down as the two suits literally jumped over it, ignoring her and the two GMs completely. Throwing away their machineguns and grabbing Heat Hawks and grenades, the two Zeon aces charged Aleksander, who started firing with his own rifle.
Jims GM rushed out to assist his commander, and was instantly destroyed by so much machinegun fire, the Luna Titanium armor on its back just didn't cut it. Eli and Jets suits spun around to find 4 Zaku II Desert Types hot on their heels, and more or less intact.
"Oh geez... Here we go again." muttered Eli, firing more rounds at the slower moving, but apparently just as hard to hit Panthers.
"Allright! It should be easy to take out one of these guys!" grinned Jet, firing her own rifle and her cannons. A stray cannon blast shook the sand out from Wils other Zaku, creating a smoke cloud of sorts.
"Did I get him?" wondered Jet, peeking up from the trench. Suddenly a machinegun round came from the cloud, cutting up her Guncannon and sending her back in it.
"Goddammit! One more..."
---
The four Medeas had no sooner than gotten into the combat zone when the Wurzburg squad came onto their tails, damaging the Tchaikovsky, but luckily not taking it out. Their own fighters were having trouble, outnumbered and outclassed by the nimble Dopps.
"Get us over to the mine proper! They've got a couple AA guns there, maybe we'll get better coverage." ordered Matilda, looking at her crew. "Where's that support from the Litvak..."
A volley of Fly Manta missiles flew past her bridge, taking out one of the Dopps in flight.
"You called, maam?" answered one of the pilots. The Lila Litvak, on orders from Alek, had sent one of its fighter wings in for support, hopefully to help take out the Zakus. As they entered the mine propers airspace however, it looked like they weren't even going to be able to land. The six Dopps were too fierce, the slow Fly Mantas unable to do much assisting. However, Dymas's MS team arrived shortly to assist as well, making the Federal fighters more than double the Zeon fighters. To make Matildas plight a little bit more convenient, her fleet managed to get over the mine, and RF-2's AA battery joined in, as well as Ron with his Type 61's 12.7mm. That was about all he was good for now.
Down below, Aleksander had ditched his beam rifle, the Panthers were simply too hard to hit. Lighting his affixed beam saber on its good arm, the GM Ground Sniper watched as the two mono-eyed suits spun around him in a rather evil looking circle, heat hawks ready. The two ski-clad Pink Panthers were in no hurry to take this upstart Federal out after he'd made such a fool of their team.
---
Eli scored a hit with his beam rifle, taking out Wils other comrade, back at the other battlezone.
"He-ey! I got one!" Eli happily exclaimed, aiming at the next Zaku.
Wil fired up his suits thrusters, dropping his machinegun and grabbing his heat hawk. His life had been peaceful for the last month. Not much action, not much to worry about unless one of the SS got on his back. And now two of his friends were dead, he was in the middle of nowhere looking to die himself, and it was all the Federations fault. Ruining his peace, ruining the peace of all of space, what the hell ever, he wanted back to his books. Charging the trench at full pace, Wil didn't even see Jet shoot one of the Panthers legs out from under it.
"Hah! ALLRIGHT! Easy kill!" Jet exclaimed, aiming her gun at the Zaku's head. Upon pulling the trigger however, Jet was rather dismayed. Her clip was dead.
"Jesus... You out too, Jet? We better pull back..." said Eli, climing out of the trench. Jet threw a flashbang, but Wils Zaku flew past it before it went off, dashing towards Eli and cutting off his left arm with the hawk, unceremoniously breaking it on the GMs Luna Titanium armor in the process.
"SHIT! Eli! Get out of there!" yelled Jet. Firing her vulcans off, the two nearly defenceless mobile suits boosted back to the mine proper, taking damage from the lone Panthers machinegun, as well as fire from the Magellas, which had finally caught up.
As they sailed through the air in their brief moment of flight, they were lucky enough to not get hit by Led Washington, as his mobile suit came down nearly on top of the Pink Panther it was going for. The Panther had just charged Aleks GM Sniper Custom, however, and Leds Sniper hit the ground a little shaken. He was just in time to watch the two panthers fly almost through Aleks GM, one cutting off its left leg and the other its head, Alek shoving his own saber through one Zaku shoulder. Turning and stopping their ski's, the Zakus got off and looked evilly at Led, who had finally arrived.
"Hah! That was fun! Allright, bring it you Nazi sons of bitches!" grinned Led, his usual upbeat self. Upbeat for a man who was staring down two Zeon aces.
---
Matilda and the flight support had won the air battle by now, but the ground battle looked grim. 4 Zakus still remained, and the only things that were left of the RF-2 defence force was Leds GM Sniper and the nearly ammoless Guncannon and GM Ground Sniper.
"Ugh... We're not gonna make it. Open the hatches, lets get our pilots out of there. Washington, hold them off a little bit while Staedtler and Kurasawa get inside the Bach." ordered the fleet commander, dismayed that the operation wasn't a success. The few fighters that were left went on a bombing run of the Zakus that hadn't quite caught up to the mine proper yet, keeping them away.
"What?! I just got here. Goddammit, I was gonna have some fun." grinned Led, firing off his vulcans. The Panthers started to advance on him when Jets final 200mm cannon salvo made them decide to fall back a bit.
"We're not leaving without the commander! Get over here Alek!" said Jet through the intercom, hoping Aleksander could still hear her. He apparently could, as the Warrant Officer promptly got out of his cockpit and started running towards the Guncannon. One of the Panthers fired off its flechette launcher underneath it, but it was shot out of the sky by Ron Bentley, his tank being picked up by Eli's GM Sniper.
"Get your ass over here! I won't be able to outrank you if you die, man!"
"Yeah! I don't want to be known as somebody who lets their commanding officer die his first mission!"
One of the Panthers started in pursuit, but Jet started running straight at it, scooping up Aleksander like a football and bodyslamming the Zaku, sending it and its surprised pilot unceremoniously to the ground. Bringing Alek up to the cockpit, Jet opened it up and he jumped in, breaking two syringes with his boots.
"You gotta get off that stuff. Lets get the hell out of here." said Alek, closing the hatch to the Guncannon as it and and the Sniper started to jump into the back of the Bach. Led followed suit, his right foot being clipped by the Zaku as he went. "There's always next time."
The EFGF 2nd supply fleet circled the area once, thoroughly pissing off the 5 remaining Zakus, and then left, heading back to Belfast.
Outcome: RF-2 retaken
Wil: 2 days damage, 13 VP gained, now an honorary Pink Panther
Ron Bently: 4 days damage, 14 VP gained
Eli Staedtler: 3 days damage, 12 VP gained
Jet Kurasawa: 3 days damage, 10 VP gained
Aleksander Dolvich: 6 days damage (mobile suit lost), 15 VP gained
Led Washington: 1 days damage, 10 VP gained