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The sun shined brightly on Mesopotamia, a suiting place, really, given the fact that it was the cradle of civilization, and war had done little to change the landscape. The one thing that it did change, however, was the sudden presence of giant humanoid mobile suits now occasionally seen in the area. Along the banks of the Tigris river, kneeling, was a blue mobile suit that had bulky equipment attached to it that hardly matched the color scheme of the underlying Federation suit. Staring out of the open hatch, Dino Fiddler muttered to himself, "I gave them plenty of time in advanced, and they still didn't bother to paint the cooling systems!" He gave a rather hefty fist slam on his control panel before propping his body up from cockpit's seat and leaning out of the cockpit with the help of a supporting hand. To his surprise, a rather cool breeze had begun to blow in from the gulf to the south, and it came as a welcomed change to the otherwise problem wrought days that were all too common in the past. Scratching the back of his head with his other hand, Dino stared at the clear running water below him, wondering how good it might have felt if he was to take a swim in it at this moment. But his attention turned toward the regular reports sent by the Type 74 crew located a few hundred meters along the river's edge. Dino's attention reverted back towards the cockpit when a beep came over the cabin's speakers right on schedule, prompting the mobile suit pilot to sit back down on the cockpit's seat and close the hatch. With the reassuring sound of the cabin being hermetically sealed, he was soon greeted by a brown haired man sporting a set of rather standard pair of headphones around his head. "Sir, radar picked up activity in the airspace north north west of our position, but we can't get any more specific than that," said Glen before taking off one ear piece to listen to another voice from across the Type 74's cabin. Looking back at the screen, he continued, "Hartinger isn't picking up anything on sonar, so it's just aircraft, and judging by where we are, it's most likely a Zeon air patrol." Finally, Dino would be able to shoot at the enemy in anger after so many days couped up in Europe. He couldn't help but sport a small grin on his face while running his fingers down various instrument panels in the GM Sniper II's cockpit. After pressing several buttons in sequence and then flipping a row of toggle switches, the sniper suit's combat systems came to life with a flurry of lights and sounds. Not a moment later, Dino's hands were on the controls and the GM Sniper II was maneuvering its ballistic sniper rifle in the general direction given by the Type 74's radio operator. Opening up a master communication's line to his team, Dino ordered, "Lambertus, get on the 20. Don't shoot unless they get close, and I doubt they'll be getting close. But just in case. Also, Rumbaugh, protect the hover truck. Again, just in case." A collective affirmative resounded throughout the Dino's cabin area, and he let out a heavy sigh to prepare himself for another battle with the Zeeks. He reached behind his head and tugged out the advanced targeting module before leaning slightly forward to peer into the device. He looked at the various information being collected by the mobile suit's targeting systems. Wind speed, wind direction, atmospheric pressure, everything was being shown to the pilot, but to his suspense, the computer could not find a target. However, it wouldn't be long before a series of chevrons would form on his display, and the module began to zoom in on the floating specks in the sky to show a six gunship helicopters flying in formation towards his location. Taking another deep breath, he worked to aim the sniper rifle at the trailing helicopter on the right. Wanting to make the first shot count, Dino waited several seconds for the helicopters to close the distance gap, before pressing the button that would send the first round screaming towards the formation of Zeon aircraft. He stared at the target distance measurements steadily decrease for a few seconds, then at the resulting explosion as the ballistic sniper rifle's first shot connected squarely into a gunship helicopter's body. The sniper rifle had already ejected the spent casing, and its automatic feeding mechanism slammed another round into the chamber just as the signal arrived to send the second round into the air. However, the helicopters had by then slowed their advance and the second round screamed past their heads, causing some of the Zeon aviators to shout obscenities at no particular person. Another round was already in the air by the time they began to break out of formation, but the third round managed to clip the stubby tail boom of another helicopter, causing some debris to damage its contra-rotating blades. The now crippled helicopter began to plummet to the ground. A visible explosion occurred in the distance, but Dino heeded no attention to it as he fired the magazine's last round home. By now the helicopters were in full retreat, but the last round found its path true and caused another brilliant fireball to erupt in the Mesopotamian sky. By the time the GM Sniper II inserted a fresh magazine, however, the gunship helicopters were already out of visual range, and any hope of downing a fourth helicopter went the way of the mammoth. Again opening a channel with his teammates, "Alright, I think we're done here. Let's leave before they send some more things at us."A few seconds later, the voice of a woman came over his speakers. "But I didn't get to shoot any!" cried Patrina. Dino Fiddler: 3 VP gained, 0 days damaged |