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"Would somebody please open a channel to Mr. Aznable." The entire bridge crew of the Grey Ghost stopped what they were doing, looking over their shoulders as the door to the extensive bridge of the Mad Angler class submarine opened wide. With a nurse practically carrying him, one half dead Laurent Auclair, clad in nothing but a hospital gown, looked at his new command. "You were supposed to keep him in bed." The first mate stated, looking sternly at the nurse. She cringed a little, but spent most of her time propping Laurent upright. "I need to speak to captain Char." Laurent said it again. Nobody moved. "Open a channel with captain Char or I will walk over to your desk and do your job myself." Laurent stated a third time. A mumbled yes captain came from the front of the bridge, and a few seconds later Char Aznable, seated at his bunk, was on the overhead screen. He did not have his full helmet on, only wearing the eye-shield that covered his allegedly horrible burn marks. "Ahh, captain Auclair. Is there something I can do for you?" Char said, smiling and reaching over for the rest of his helmet. It was early, and he was clearly not expecting the interview. "How is Odessa." Laurent asked, taking another step forward. He did his best to stand upright, but the wounds in his chest quickly lit up in pain. "Our forces are hanging on by a thread. The Mad Angler is currently preparing for a counter offensive at Belfast." Char answered quickly. "You don't look well Laurent, you should still be in the infirmary." "And what about my men?" Laurent asked again. The first mate slid to the back of the room, silently calling security to have them move Mr. Auclair back to his hospital bed. "Last I heard they hadn't been moved yet. They should be on one of the Federation carriers." Char looked into Laurents eyes, sensing something dangerous in the man. Something that he understood. "Ahh this is the Dish News Network, bringing you all Odessa all the time. Now in for our fourth regularly scheduled broadcast today, we have Liiiiiiiam Amon, pilot of the Prototype Gundam, he who hath vanquished the Black Tri Stars. Shaaa, woooo, lets hear it for me." Liam had been surveying the grounds of the fortress for an entire day now, looking for any sign of Zeon movements. M particle density had lessened somewhat, but the very obvious nuclear warhead in the distance still loomed over everyones minds. A crack team of special operatives had moved onto the base in the dead of night and identified the weapon as being radiological in nature, and the Federation army had halted its attack almost immediately. Revil had worked out a very crude plan for dealing with the missile on a battlefield in which he had no remaining snipers, but even so everyone wanted to play the waiting game. Aside from Liams three escorts, he was the only man in the sky. "Liam, this is a battlefield. I know you're a hotshot but we have to be serious." The voices coming from the Jet Core Booster pilots were stern, and to Amon, boring. Liam answered the warning with a barrel roll, taking the oddly shaped plane to its limits in aerial maneuverability. "Come on, we're fine out here. Old Cancer down there is keeping everybody from shootin' at each othe-" Liam's sentence stopped short as the incoming missile siren started to blare in his ears. Looking out towards the airfield, he saw a half a dozen green orbs coming towards him fast, the Dopps having already gained considerable altitude. "What the... I thought they were out of Dopps." Liam said, reaching his hands to the controls and flipping the Dish back around towards the Red Sun. He pulled up on the throttle and threw out every ounce of chaff his plane had, but one of the missiles still managed to arc upwards, slamming into the planes tail. The three JCBs flew past Liam, firing their weapons at the incoming fighters. One of the Zeon fighters exploded but the rest scattered, coming in from all sides and cutting the heavier fighter bombers to pieces. "This is Liam calling White Base. Come in White Base. Mayday, mayday." Liam yelled, 25mm shells starting to tear into his Dish. He could see the white carrier in the distance, slowly moving towards him with a number of Medeas in the rear. Tin Cod pilots on alert would be launching in a few seconds, but it was already too late for the Dish. Pulling the lever that activated the ejection mechanism, the canopy of the plane flew out into the sky, Amon following suit. Moments later, Liam watched the plane explode out from under him. "Looks like they've broken our little ceasefire." Revil said, watching the at that distance tiny Dish explode in a small pop on the horizon. "Have all our units engage the enemy. It's time to take that damnable fortress." "Sir, but what about the warhead?" Came the response from the Comm officer. Everyone on the bridge of the Sir Francis Drake knew where the missile was headed, it was no secret who the SS was aiming for. "We have a plan in the works. Get everybody on the horn, and lets hope for a little luck." The old, white haired man smiled, taking off his cap and looking on to White Base. As the majority of the Federal units started to slowly march forward, Daren Sanders was confused at the generals orders. The last word he had gotten was to not advance until the nuclear warhead had been neutralized. "I swear that has to be some SS operative making a false transmission. Are you sure it's legitimate?" Daren asked. He was sick and tired of sitting in the Tray, he felt much more useful aboard a mobile suit, but his unit had yet to arrive. As of now, commanders were better suited to a commanding position. "Sir, I've doublechecked the signal, it came from the Drake alright." "Send an A-1 encrypted message to the Drake in response, ask them to verify. Until then, AFEF will remain on standby." Sanders responded. He simply couldn't fathom the idea of charging the enemy while they carried such a dangerous weapon. Enough lives had been lost already. "Sir, deciphering that and responding could take them as much as ten minutes." Planes had already started to launch from the Olympus Mons and the Asuka, but at the far southern end of the battlefield, the crew of the Silver Platter could see comparatively little. "That's fine, Do it." Daren responded. He didn't like the idea of potentially leaving the maein force without support, but he liked the idea of causing a disaster even less. "I don't care what your orders were, it's a breach of the antarctic treaty! We will NOT use a nuclear weapon to win this war. Think about what they would do to Side 3 if they decided to do the same!" Yuri Kerane, standing a monstrous six foot four over the diminutive and balding Hans Ektig, was as loud as a bear. The weapons officer in Odessas underground HQ bunker was looking back and forth between the two officers, wondering who he should follow. "I was given express orders by his Excellency, orders you do not override herr Kerane. Now would you please get out of here and find a way to kill those scum Earthnoids after we obliterate Revil." Ektig yelled at the top of his lungs, staring Kerane down. "Corporal, fire the warhead." "Sir, but, I..." "I SAID FIRE THE WARHEAD." Ektig drew his sidearm, pointing it squarely at the comm officers face. The young mans heart racing, he slowly brought his hand over to a large red button at his console. This did not seem to be fast enough for Hans. Quickly moving so he was behind the young recruit, he shot him in the back of the head, knocked the body out of the way, and slammed a black gloved palm on the button himself. Now pointing his pistol at Kerane, Hans hissed, venom in his voice. "Get out." "Captain Bright, I've got movement from the missile silo, it looks like smoke. I think they're starting the launch countdown." Frau Bo said, looking out in the distance with a pair of binoculars. Everyone was on edge, the crew of the Pegasus class ship moreso than others. Bright knew what they had to do, and instantly picked up the phone at his side, a channel already set to go straight to Amuro and Sayla. "Amuro, remember, you need to hit it between the warhead and the propellant tank. Anything else and the minovski field in your beam saber will detonate the bomb." Bright was sweating profusely, his normally greasy hair something rancid after so many days of fighting. Hanging up the phone, he looked at Mirai and Frau Bo. "Have Kai and Hayato ready to launch, we'll need to assist the 08th if everything goes according to plan." Dopps started to fill the sky, moving to defensive positions over the warheads path and at the shore of the harbor. The pilots were green compared to the men that had valiantly died in the first days of the siege, but compared to what was in the air yesterday, the fresh planes from Odessas war factory were a healthy sight to Zeons already exhausted morale. Inside the White Base, Amuro took one final glance at the schematics for the missile, and then closed his eyes tight. I'm not sure we can do this Sayla. He thought to himself, wondering if Revils idea would even get him to the warhead, let alone whether or not he could cut it in exactly the right spot. "Don't worry Amuro, I'm sure you'll do fine." Sayla said in the intercom, almost as if she was answering Amuros thoughts. The next moment, the two doors to the White Bases catapult decks opened up, Amuro and Sayla gripping their controls tight. "Gundam, launching!" The Efreet Custom too battered for another sortie, Eric sat in the trench aboard a less than perfect Zaku II F, annoyed at his current situation. Marion was nearly helpless inside the repair bay, and he felt nearly helpless without her. It was difficult to remember his battles before the incident at Torrington, difficult to figure out how he had survived. Word was coming in from the rear lines, the enemy had started what was probably going to be the final offensive of the siege. With still over a dozen Zakus in the trench, he looked at the men to his right and left. All veterans of countless battles, Eric started to think about how he had fought with Garma before, at Seattle. The loss of his commander was painful, but somehow, he would endure. Cima, at the other end of the trench, was wondering what she had done to deserve such a miserable fate. She was a soldier, but she was the kind of soldier who liked more than anything else to survive. For some odd reason she found herself thinking back to that rat Dolvich that had escaped, the man she had neglected to shoot while he was sitting in Odessas brig. Garahau had a long list of things she would change if she could do it all again, and she took this moment to decide that was on the list. As if to wake her up from her thoughts, suddenly the Zaku I pilot realized that the men around her were leaping out of the trench, with the sort of enthusiasm she hadn't seen in a few days. "What the... What the hell are you idiots doing?!" Cima yelled, eventually climbing out of the trench after them. Their orders were to stay put, and there was a nuclear missile in the air. This was absolutely not the time for heroism. "For commander Garma! Long live Garma!" Came the now static filled voices. The men in the trench, deprived of their leader, had worked themselves into a frenzy. Cima knew they were being stupid, but she also knew that in this sort of a situation, assisting the mob was really the only thing she could do. Following them out of the trench, Cima checked the magazine on her machinegun, at the same time trying to slowly move towards the back of the line. As the two groups of mobile suits charged into each other, a long, black and red missile started to soar through the mid-day sky, a trail of smoke leading it from its silo north of Odessas airstrip to the Sir Francis Drake. Six Dopp pilots had volunteered to guard the missile on its route towards the Big Tray, with orders to break off at the terminal stage of the flight. Looking forward at the handful of Brazilian Tin Cods and Fly Mantas that were still in the air, the pilots didn't notice the Core Booster behind them, a beam saber toting Gundam standing on top of it. "Amuro, you need to get off now. This plane is about to fall apart." Sayla said, doing her best to even keep the core booster at a level altitude. The inside of her cockpit creaked and sputtered, and she knew the techs wouldn't let it fly for days after this little stunt. "Alright, here goes!" Amuro responded, a gulp in his throat. He leapt off of Saylas aircraft, gunning the Gundams thrusters as he did. The Core Booster took a sudden drop in altitude, trailing smoke as it went spiraling into a crash landing towards the west. Blasting on an intercept course towards the missile, the Dopp pilots finally noticed Amuro as he was coming in. Taking careful aim, he shot down one of the fighters with his vulcans and kicked another, ignoring the rest as he flew past the missile, swinging his saber in as timed a strike as he could. The Federal and Zeon armies nearly stopped in place as, just before reaching melee range with each other, a primed nuclear warhead plopped into the mud between them, as harmless as any dud. "Alright boys, seems the Cyclops decided to take this moment to leave the roost, it's time to open up that bombing lane at long last." Amy coo'd into her radio, a flotilla of nearly fourty fighters and bombers making a direct line for Odessa proper. Every last Tin Cod, Jet Core Booster and Depp Rog was filled to the brim with as many bunker busters as it could carry, the thought of fighting Zeonic aircraft totally out of their minds. The defenders had managed to field about twenty Dopps, even recieving some much needed reinforcements in the form of long range patrols from Baikonour. However, there wasn't a Federal pilot in the sky who had not shot down twice his weight in Dopps by now, and Zeons veterans were at this point all dead. Xander, Maria and Patricia moved on ahead, Blaine and Amy trying to catch them, everyone wanting to be the first to get a kill. Kenneth, aboard the Olympus Mons infirmary, looked longingly out the window as the group of them engaged the Zeon aircraft, small green fighters falling out of the sky like rain. Boraguard and the Zeonic artillery, shifting its norm of operations from West to East, slammed down hard on the Asuka, but without the assistance of spotter aircraft it could not destroy the carrier. Zeons airforce quickly obliterated, bombers started to veer off into smaller wings, looking towards seperate targets. Gun emplacements started to fire into the sky, and more than a few of the new reinforcement Mantas from Europe were caught by the experienced defensive gunners. However, there were simply too many Federal pilots in the air, and one by one, the defenses of Odessa were pounded into the ground. Precision strikes on Howitzers, cannons, the repair bay and war factory obliterated nearly everything the base had, the spaceport being taken out by a flight of Depp Rogs on the return trip. For a moment Odessa looked from afar like a carcass, slowly decaying while a cloud of flies hovered above it. Inflamed by the desire to avenge the dead Zabi, the initial charge from the trenches had had some reasonable success, a number of Federal tanks and mobile suits being destroyed quickly. However, it quickly became apparent to the defenders that they were surrounded, and without the nuclear warhead or Erics Efreet they were quickly pushed back. Before they knew it Amuro, Kai and Hayato were coming from the north, and the 08th and Burning were still very much alive to the west. Eric ducked under a beam rifle round and fired his Zaku machinegun at one of the Red Suns GMs, the cold climate model blocking the rounds with its shield. Eric wasn't used to a machine with such limited firepower and maneuverability. Seeing that they were going to be overrun, he launched the flare signalling a general retreat, and by then the mob had lost its appetite for vengeance. Throwing what was left of their grenades and flashbangs, the surviving Zakus retreated back to the base, leaping into the trench and setting up to defend against the countercharge. Cima led a small team back onto the airfield, in a desperate attempt to stave off the Federal bombers. Putting a new drum into her machinegun she fired wildly into the air, two or three Federal fighters exploding in reward. The dark haired woman screamed in anger as she fired, not noticing Boraguards Xamel as it skidded across the airfield, its stubby arms pointing a bazooka at the sky and hoping for similar luck. Back aboard the Drake, Revil was wondering for a moment what sort of medal he should give White Base when this long war was finally over. Looking to his bridge crew, he smiled, hoping that at this point they could finally destroy Odessa once and for all. "It seems Zeon has broken into a rout. Private, tell Sanders to send his men in over the river, just like the initial attack. Hopefully we can flank them and destroy them once and for all." Revil smiled, the comm officer looking back at him with confusion. "Captain, I just finished recieving a coded message from the Silver Platter. They haven't engaged yet. Something about wanting to verify the attack order." "What?!" Revil howled. Of all the times for miscommunication on the battlefield, this had to have been one of the worst. Boraguard Heindsheft - 5/2 VP gained, 1 days damage Eric Kyrion - 5/2 VP gained, no additional damage Cervantes Zuhr - 1 VP gained, no damage Ion Bossa-Nova - 1 VP gained, no damage Allen Gentle - 1 VP gained, no damage Xander O'Reilly - 6/2 VP gained, no additional damage Hector Lagrama - 1 VP gained, no damage Daren Sanders - 1 VP gained, no damage Vina Sealander - 1 VP gained, no damage |