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Looking at the main screen of the Eastwood, Altecha Chan viewed the bleak wasteland that held the destroyed corpses of ships and mobile suits alike. He chuckled to himself at the fact that the damaged Zeon fleet had neglected to move away from the location of their previous encounter, but he couldn't shake away the feeling of uneasiness from his mind; an attack on the Olympic Fleet right after their own defeat yesterday had its own risks. But Altecha knew of the Principality fleet's diminished capabilities and if he could just preoccupy them for a little while more, reinforcements would arrive. "Still no sign of Renault?" he asked, to which a curt affirmation came in response. H-hour was fast approaching, yet one of the more skilled Federation pilots had failed to show up in time for the operation. Still, the time table had to be adhered to, and in a few minutes the entire Task Force 35 would be on its way to engage the Zeus and its compatriots. His body began to feel the acceleration of the Eastwood as it began its full thruster burn towards the Olympic Fleet; its sister ships traveling alongside it, albeit at a predetermined distance. The Minovsky particle density was steadily rising as per his orders, and by the time the ships were traveling at their top speed, additional ships seemed to have appeared out of nowhere thanks to the Swordfish and its compliment of dummy balloons. Establishing a laser communications link with the Tiger's Claw, Altecha asked, "Captain Marionne, is everything fine on your end?" He saw her quickly turn her head to acknowledge him and respond with a nod. "Yes, everything is quite fine here," she replied, using her left hand to push her spectacles back up to their original position. "I'm getting the feeling that this will work out quite nicely." She displayed a genuine smile that Altecha could only half heartedly return, as he was more of a realist than Ryley, but he successfully convinced her of his own faith in their victory before the visual feed was terminated. Each pilot was briefed as to their mission and tasks, and despite the absence of David Renault, the Valley Forge's commander could still see a bright light at the end of the tunnel. He anxiously waited to see how the enemy was situated and how they would react. The Thoroughbred's launch catapults began launching the various GMs into space, with the AI controlled Zephyr Gundam being one of the first to assume a formation as it waited for the rest of the GMs to be launched from their respective ships. (._. ) WHERE IS DAVID? HE HAS BROKEN MY HEART "Sir, I'm getting a rise in M-particle density. Looks like it's the Federal task force, and they're back for seconds." Fuhst merely nodded, templing his fingers after giving the orders to launch the Zeus' mobile suit contingent. The Gwazine would be unable to maneuver for a few minutes, as it was currently attached to the Saudi Arabia for repairs, and it would take time for the equipment and personnel to evacuate the immediate space around the two ships. Berthold Stulinger exploded into the bridge before asking about the reason for the general call, but his inquiry was quickly satisfied by the Zeus' captain. "Ah, so they're back," he thought, "and conveniently that Church is off chasing something by himself. Peculiar, but no matter; we'll just have to deal with these pests without him." He turned to face the Zeus' commander, who already began issuing orders for the other ships in the fleet. The Jicco had hidden itself behind a particularly large piece of wreckage while the Saudi Arabia had begun launching its own mobile suit compliment all while soldiers frantically worked to disengage the many rigid links that held it firmly attached to the heavily damaged battleship. Oddly enough, the Blackguard did not respond and began distancing itself from the rest of the fleet. The incoming visual feed from the recon Zaku unit showed a particularly large number of vessels given the after action reports that the Zeon received on the retreating Federation fleet. Fuhst was quick to realize the trick, but Ross Howe would be even quicker to publicly point it out to the Zeus' bridge crew as his recently commandeered Rick Dom came to an abrupt stop in front of the Gwazine's control center.. "They're using balloons again, sir," he interrupted, finding support in the ship captain's nod. A short pause later, he continued, "they're the ones to our right." Immediately the Gwazine's behemoth turrets began to traverse to meet its oncoming assailants while its anti aircraft batteries began to level themselves against the suspected missile barrage that would be incoming. After receiving targeting data from the Zaku II E, the Zeus fired its main cannons, illuminating the dark space with six great green lances even though two of the lances went awry due to the hasty recalibration of its damaged turret. Four giant mega particle beams shot into the rapid approaching Task Force 35 battle group, immolating a single unlucky GM Before passing entirely through unimpeded. The shots were far too accurate for Altecha's tastes and it looked as if they had seen right through their balloons, but the slight range advantage that the Gwazine had was now gone and the Federation warships began to respond in kind with their own armaments. The beam and projectile weaponry shots were unfortunately inadequately guided due to the lack of a dedicated forward observer, but the numerous missiles they had launched would soon atone for their weakness. Wincing from another near miss from the Gwazine, Altecha thought, "Damn that thing is accurate. There must be one of those recon suits in the area." And just like that, he saw a single mobile suit blast away from a piece of debris not too far from the advancing Federation fleet; it was clearly the culprit that Asiatic ship captain sought. However, his main worry lay in what still remained unseen: the Niddog. The experimental anti-ship cannon proved to be a potent force that required immediate neutralization, but its presence was to no avail. He had sent a group of GMs to locate the Jormungand, but with each second came the worry that a plasma round would find him before he could find it. Missile after missile crisscrossed the starry background, each self propelled object seeking its rightful target. Immediately the AA batteries on Zeus and the Zeon mobile suits began firing on the missiles in defense of the two hopelessly locked ships, but they would soon find out that more than half of the missiles each begot numerous smaller missiles in an attempt to overwhelm the Olympic fleet. Sheer numbers proved fatal to a Rick Dom and two other Zaku's as they exploded in a brilliant display of fireworks, and a handful of the smaller missiles had impacted the Zeus, but the small payloads did little but leave marks in its paint. Before the Gwazine could connect yet another potent barrage at the Federation task force, the Swordfish launched a series of missiles that exploded into a glittery cloud just in front of the fleet, dissipating the raw energy right before Altecha's eyes. The sight proved chilling for a second, but the Federation captain shook himself out of the trance and ordered the Swordfish to continue firing the rest of its anti-beam missiles at a regularly advancing interval to protect the ships and the GMs that were now advancing to the Zeon lines. The mobile suits began their deadly waltz while Task Force 35 began to curve away from the Zeon fleet. The Swordfish continued to launch a steady stream of anti beam missiles, but its supply was quickly diminishing with each passing launch. The Eastwood took the time to line up a shot with its 580mm turret and fired, barely missing the bridge of the Zeus; no doubt its occupants had done some embarrassing things to themselves at that moment. Wasting no time at correcting their fire, the large turret's motors strained to turn the weapon to compensate for the changing range and location. Its firing sequence went off kilter, however, when numerous klaxons warned the ships that an imminent missile swarm was coming from the location of a large space wreck. Immediately, the Eastwood launched the majority of its light missile launchers as countermeasures with the AA compliment following suit. In less than a couple of seconds, the two other ships began to stitch the stars with bullets in an attempt to bring down the missiles, but even still a few had broken through the intense barrage and were on their way towards the Tiger's Claw. Out of the resulting explosion flew a squadron of Saberfish fighters that had tagged the missiles before they could damage the Salamis Kai, and the sight of the blue and black space fighters allowed Altecha's heart rate to settle down to a more manageable level. Breathing a sigh of relief, he gave an impromptu salute to the squadron leader as the lead fighter rocked its wings past the Thoroughbred's superstructure and resumed a holding pattern around the fleet. "Alright, I want to know where those missiles came from and I want that thing shot now!" ordered Altecha, looking to exact retaliatory fire against the newcomer. The Eastwood easily pinpointed the source of the attacks and began to direct fire against the abnormally large piece of debris, breaking it away until the Blackguard was clearly in view. Little hesitation got in the way of the blue haired officer as he called on the support of a group of patrolling Salamis cruisers to suppliment the fleet's combined firepower against the seemingly lone and escaping Musai in the distance. But then out from a smaller outcropping of debris, five missiles shot out towards the space in between the Federation task force and the Blackguard, showering the area with anti beam particles just as the pink lances emerged from the barrels of the various Federation ships. The mega particle beams, again, dissipated against the sparkling contents, and any further shots progressively missed the Blackguard by a wider and wider margin. "7:58." "7:59." "8:00." Altecha sighed, then looked up from his watch and said, "Two minutes. Two minutes before we're calling them back. Ready damage control, and load countermeasures." Ross' Rick Dom was back to back with a similar mobile suit, both pilots firing their giant bazookas at separate enemies. The newtype's shot instantly destroyed its target, whereas his impromptu wingmate's shot merely managed to knock out a GM's foot. Another Dom sweeped in for the kill on the stunned GM and impaled its cockpit with a heat rod before backing off from the imminent explosion. However, Ross would witness two explosions as the Dom in question also went up in a bright shower of light. Out of the fireball came the dreaded Zephyr Gundam; the mobile suit that had killed Darius Carver the day before. "...I have nothing," murmered Ross in a failed attempt to sense his target. He jerked the throttle of his Rick Dom to meet the famed enemy, blinding a pursuing GM with his scattering beam gun to allow his wingman to destroy the momentarily stopped GM with a 360mm projectile. By now, Ross had caught the attention of Lucy and the AI quickly tossed aside a Zaku that it had just impaled and rushed forward to meet the newtype pilot. The MAF pilot's paranormal senses would serve little use in this battle, and the giant bazooka, whenever he could even get a hit on the Zephyr Gunda, would fail to penetrate the tough luna titanium armour that encompassed the expensive mobile suit. The same could not be said for the Rick Dom, however, as it was now missing much of its skirt and leg flares; Ross just was not used to any mobile suit other than his own personal one, and his performance showed. Reloading the giant bazooka's magazine, Ross quickly realized that if Darius hadn't been able to penetrate the enemy's armour, then he would face the same result. Tossing the bulky weapon at the Gundam, the aged Zeon pilot hestitated for a moment before charging at the AI controlled mobile suit. Lucky swiftly determined that the giant bazooka was not a threat and began to close its shoulder shields just like it had done against Darius. The Rick Dom came down on the Zephyr Gundam just like another had the day before, and Lucy prepared for the similar move by reaching for her beam saber. However, instead of attemping to muscle through the seemingly impervious shield, Ross let go of the heat saber and boosted over Lucy, leaving the now cooled heat rod stuck in the shield. Grabbing the giant bazooka that had floated past the Zephyr Gundam, the Rick Dom quickly inverted itself, aimed, and fired at near point blank range into the back of the Federation mobile suit. Whether due to range or simply due to a lucky shot placement, the round successfully penetrated and dismembered the mobile suit's right arm off its shoulder. Fortunately for Lucy, an experienced GM pilot had swooped in to protect the valuable mobile suit at the cost of his own life, but it was long enough for the AI to retrieve its detached arm while attempting to shower Ross with vulcan fire. "Hah! Found it!" exclaimed a Federation pilot as he manuevered his GM through small bits of debris in an effort to get closer to the disassembled Niddog. The entire battle, the Niddog had been left to its own devices as the Zeon knew they would not have enough time to construct it, so it had been apparently abandoned, and the pilots happily reported the situation back to Altecha. Suddenly, an explosion tore apart the lead GM as it tried to move past an odd cylindrical object. Its pilot had mistaken it as another piece of debris, but the two other GMs immediately recognized the area they entered as a minefield. The two remaining GM pilots looked around to find way out, but a fusilade from a pair of giant bazookas and a single Zaku bazooka annihilated one of the GMs, causing the remaining Federation pilot to panic and inadvertantly run into another mine, disabling the suit and allowing a second barrage of Zeon weaponry to destroy the last GM in the vicinity. "Tsch, amateurs," scoffed the Zaku II HMT's pilot before he and the two Rick Dom pilots sped off back to the main battlefield. The Doms were simply outclassing the GMs, and the lethal dance continued to see mounting Federation casualties, and the original objective of attacking and hopefully destroying the damaged Gwazine proved to be out of their reach. Two more GMs would fall to the more experienced and higher performance Zeon mobile suits before the ten minute mark was up. A flare shot up in the distance, prompting the GM pilots to cease fighting and break off from their engagement. The Zeon pilots ceased to give pursuit, as the Zeus was too valuable to leave defended by anything less than the entire mobile suit contingent available. The skirmish had indeed satisfied Altecha's goal in tying up the Zeon until reinforcements arrived, and he was even a bit surprised when it turned out that they had caught the Zeon attempting to repair their ships. Despite all of the ships sustaining no further damage, however the number of mobile suits lost in the attack left a bitter taste in his mouth. But sooner or later, they would be back to settle the score, and he would see to it that the Federation attains a decisive victory over their enemies. Altecha Chan: 7 VP gained; Undamaged Ross Howe: 4/2 VP gained, no additional damage Leon Rieger: 5 VP gained; Undamaged Berthold Stulinger: 4/2 VP gained, no additional damage |