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The 86th Independant fleet, led by Warrant Officer Laurent Auclair, was a clumsy formation of ground assault craft, air assault craft and Laurents personal Jukon submarine. They had been recently transferred to North Africa, and were leaving contested Europe, specifically Spain. However, Spain was a well known Federation stronghold, and it would be difficult to get out of this sector unharmed. The Gallops moved in single file, mobile suits watching for an enemy ambush on either side, the Lillith soaring above. What nobody saw however was Wil Barton's Gundam Massed Production Ground Type, 4 kilometers away under a camouflage netting, nestled in between a pair of old buildings. Taking careful aim at one of the lead mobile suits, Wil exhaled softly as he fired. The first round soared in front of the Zaku, its pilot stopping the MS-06 suddenly. The second and third rounds struck straight into the torso of the suit, destroying it beyond repair. "Snipers! Get the Cannons to give us a cover barrage, launch a smokescreen." Jennifer Morales's commands echoed from the radio of the Lillith above. Eric Kyrion, pilot of the Efreet, quickly launched his suit out of the Krueger where it had been refueling, its smoke emitters creating a battlefield haze in a few seconds. Ordinarily they would be able to trace the source of the shot back to Barton after a few minutes, but to add to the confusion, a salvo of Guntank rounds from nearby Gibraltar slammed into the Morrigan, tearing up its portside engine. Barton carefully covered his mobile suit with the netting, turning his suit off and opening the cockpit so he could watch for any danger with a pair of binoculars. Wil Barton: 3 VP gained, no damage Laurent Auclair: 1 VP gained, no damage Jennifer Morales: 1 VP gained, no damage Eric Kyrion: 1 VP gained, no damage Kalila Darwesh: 1 VP gained, no damage Eugene Rice-Ionesco: 1 VP gained, no damage "Alright gentlemen, you know the rules," Jonas Keller announced over the radio. Standing on the bridge of Lunatics Deam, Keller looked out of the forward view port, watching as the two Rick Doms of the ARES 1st Autonomous Fleet lined up two hundred feet away from each other. Mutt McEvoy and Hudson Kyle were set to duel, with both of their mobile suits equipped with a specialized 100mm paintball machinegun hooked up to a five thousand round paintball pack. "On a count of three, begin." "You're going to eat paint," McEvoy said, laughing. "The same, new kid," his opponent replied. "One," the leader of the Armed Resistance to the Earth Sphere, "Two. Three. Fight!" Both Rick Doms powered up, charging towards each other. Niether fired, instead getting mere feet from each other. McEvoy threw a left hook, his fist glancing against Kyle's head unit. "Gargh!" Kyle yelled and he responded with a punch of his own, striking against the other Rick Dom. Both pilots hit their thrusters, vectoring away from each other. The pilots let fly with the first barrage of 100mm paintball shells, McEvoy's red and Kyle's blue. In the vastness of space, they circled around and around each other, paintballs flying in all directions. "Get back here!" Kyle yelled, chasing his opponent. The other Rick Dom dived downwards, back towards the Lunatics Dream. He flipped the Rick Dom over, sending a spray of paintballs in Kyle's direction, forcing the less experienced pilot to maneuver out of the way. Pulling up, Kyle looked for his opponent, scanning space for the other Rick Dom who had disappeared. Shifting his mobile suit, he slowly re-scanned the space around the ARES fleet. "Where the hell did you go?" he thundered. "Come and find me," McEvoy replied, chuckling. "Rubbish," the other pilot replied. Kyle throttled forward the Rick Dom, sending his suit drifting back towards the Lunatics Dream. He kept his paintball machinegun ready. Further and further he drifted towards the large transport vessel. After a minute, he landed gently on the top of the ship, bringing his mobile suit to a halt. He began to again scan the surrounding space. "Where the hell are you?" "Here!" his opponent yelled in glee. Whirling, Kyle was shocked to discover a charging Rick Dom, paintball machinegun leveled, and a spray of red paintballs headed in his direction. He smashed his controls upwards, away from the ship in panic, only some of McEvoy's rounds hitting his mobile suit. As he boosted away from his opponent, he began firing himself, letting lose with a concentrated burst of blue paintballs in McEvoy's position. The other pilot quickly burst out of the burst's path, boosting away from Kyle's Rick Dom. The two pilots engaged in a pitch battle, circling and strafing back and forth, both firing rapidly from their machineguns. Both pilots landed hits, splattering red and blue paint everywhere. McEvoy got in close, sending red paintballs into the other Rick Dom, several smacking hard against his opponent, forcing Kyle to strafe closer to him. The more experienced pilot, McEvoy knew that his chance for victory was now and charged forward, slamming his mobile suit's shoulder square into his opponent's and sending Kyle spiraling backwards. His opponent off-balance, McEvoy struck, sending a burst of 100mm paintballs directly into the other Rick Dom's torso, splattering a huge swath of the suit's armor with sticky red paint. "Victory!" Keller yelled over the radio. "Haha!" McEvoy cried, laughing. "Victory for me, victory for me!" "Aw, shut up," the defeated pilot cursed. Disregarding the duel's rules, he aimed his paintball machinegun and fired, striking McEvoy's Rick Dom square the head unit, shrouding the suit's mono-eye with brilliant blue paint. "Bastard," muttered the victor. Matt McEvoy: 6 VP gained, 0+1 Days Damaged Hudson Kyle: 4 VP gained, 1+1 Days Damaged "My name is Scarth Maheart, a Federation officer!" Scarth announced in the confines of his Zaku II-C's cockpit. He had only recently gotten his hands on the Zaku model and would quickly be putting it to the test: ambushing a nearby Federation mobile suit patrol. Scarth felt that a little trickery was inline. He tried his introduction again, making sure that we wasn't obviously nervous within the inflections of his tone. "Perfect," he said. He looked down at the massive piloting manual on his lap, going over the controls one more time. It was going to be one of the few times he had piloted a mobile suit. Satisfied, he closed the manual, shoved down between the cockpit wall and his chair, and focused on the controls. Maneuvering his Zaku, he slowly began marching through the north German forest. He headed southwards, towards a frequent Federation patrol route along a highway. He crashed out of the forest, and to his left, two GM model Federation mobile suits were walking away from him. His noisy entry had alerted the two, and both turned to face him, weapons out. "What the hell?" Qayin Gershom seethed, watching as the old Zaku II-C regain its balance after its exist from the northern forest. Safely within the confines of his GM Command, Qayin held his beam gun steady, pointed at the chest of the Zaku. The Zeon mobile suit held, astonishingly, a 90mm GM machinegun, making the pilot very curious as to what the hell was going on. "Shoot it?" asked the pilot of his nearby GM companion. His GM pointed his own 90mm machinegun towards the Zaku and raised his tower shield in anticipation. In Qayin's cockpit, a red light glowed on his com panel. Curious, he punched, establishing a radio link with the Zaku. "Good day, gentlemen," the pilot the Zaku announced, his voice bombastic, "I'm a Federation officer." Qayin twisted his mobile suit to look at the other GM. Punching the com console to silence the radio link, he spoke. "Who the hell is this guy? "No idea," the GM pilot replied. "Again. Shoot it?" "I guess so," Qayin replied, mystified. Turning back to the Zaku, he fired a shoot with his beam rifle, sending a lance of energy barely glancing off the Zeon mobile suit's arm, streaking past the enemy suit. Next to him, the GM opened fire with his machinegun, peppering the Zaku with 90mm shells. The enemy mobile suit returned fire, sending a spray of machinegun fire towards the Federation mobile suits, a burst striking Qayin's GM Command in the torso, knocking him back slightly. When he finished reorienting his mobile suit, Qayin was surprised to see the Zaku gone. "The trees!" the other GM pilot yelled, throttling forward to follow the Zaku into the trees to the south. "Don't follow," Qayin ordered. "We'll report the sighting, but we don't have time to deal with a lone antique Zaku. We've got to continue west." "Understood," the pilot replied, lowering his machinegun. |