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0079.10.31 The sun had just begun to rise over the Atlantic, having illuminated the shadow of war slowly encircling the might of the Zeon operations at Odessa a short time ago. It was still dark, but the shadow in North America, the storm that was spreading out from its centerpoint in Europe, was all too well known to those aboard the ships of the 237th Provisional fleet. Sitting at his bedside table in the Falcon, Andrew Vinsko was looking at a strange email from an old friend. He was about to open it to read the contents when he heard the other person in the room stirring. With the flip of a switch the computer screen went black, Vinsko turning around in his chair. "What is it Andrew?" Martel asked softly, covering her body with the blanket. They had started using the same room just this week, Andrews relationship with the girl growing even as his resolve to assist the duchy waned. He hadn't given up all hope however, in his own mind he was still a member of the TAF. "It's nothing. We have to get ready soon. Didn't you want to meet that young Gouf pilot who came from Australia?" "Yes, I did. Heard she knew commander Char..." Martel mused. Char had been discharged shortly following the Seattle assault for failing to protect Garma, and his whereabouts were currently unknown. Below the waves, and much less concerned about the sun, Laurent was already preparing a battle strategy. It had looked like Task Force Gamma was preparing to make landfall somewhere around the Carolinas, just south of New York. Intelligence had told them of the New York assault, but the actual date and means of assault were still unknown to Laurent. It was his Sealances that had told him the fleet was finally moving. "This entire plan revolves around the Ouroborous, Laurent. Are you sure it can cover us like that?" Erwin was concerned. The bridge lights were flashing red, making it difficult to see the sea charts, but both of them had been trained to make the best of dim situations, on a number of levels. "I have faith in our technology." Auclair responded, half of his attention working on how he was going to coordinate the troops that had been sent from North America proper. "Not what I mean. You know they have air superiority. How many Dopps can we field?" Erwin asked, worriedly. "Mr. Vinsko has assured me he will protect the Ouroborous at all costs. Let's have faith in the man. Our job is to hit them good and hard. Get everything ready, we're only going to have one shot at this." Laurent raised his voice, looking up at his crew. They were good men and women, and he was proud to serve with them. Why New York, why not Odessa. Maurice's eyes were closed tight in his bunk, wondering why he had volunteered to change course like this. He wanted to be at Odessa, he wanted to make it his final stand against Zeon. He wanted to avenge them... But something in him had relented for the smarter decision. Maybe getting a command had tempered him a bit. Maybe the mobile suit had. Maybe his meeting with Revil at Constantinople... He awoke from his self absorbed trance when Tobias came through, a high priority transmission coming straight to his bunk from the Iolar. "Cap'n, I know you aren't gonna understand this much but, I think we're in for a bumpy ride." "Say again, Tobias?" Maurice had been told that Tobias was a little special, that he could tell when something was going to happen before it did. He hadn't experienced it yet for himself. "Not real sure cap'n, I'm just saying. I got a bad feeling about this trip." Tobias sounded a little concerned, but also a little unsure. "Noted. We'll go with you on this one, get everybody on the Iolar at ready stations. Don't tell Corini yet though. Better not to make fools of ourselves." Maurice got out of his bed, starting to put on his flight suit. If they were in for an ambush, he'd be ready. Aboard the Everest, Corini sat by the helm, looking at the clear blue sky around him. He was fond of sunrises, and had often gone to see them at Gibraltar. There was little news from the outside world in a base surrounded on all sides by Zeon territory, and the sun was an appreciated part of his day. They couldn't quite see the North American coast yet, but it would only be another two hours till they made landfall. A quick stop for supplies and they would be on to New York. Corini was musing to himself when his bridge crew started picking up increased minovski particle density. "Sir, I've got a large M particle cloud straight ahead.. I... I don't think I've seen anything like this before captain." "What do you mean cadet." Corini remained calm, looking at his sensor operator. "Sir, I've never seen a particle cloud this thick before. I've got no radar at all sir, it even looks like it's disrupting our sonar..." "I guess our spacenoid friends wanted to meet us a little early. Send out a laser communication to the Meru, tell them-" Corini was cut off by one of the crewmembers behind him, a young woman in her twenties responsible for intership communications. "We're being hacked sir! I have an unidentified intruder on the ship mainframe, it looks like it's already uploaded a virus. I'm not sure how it got in through this kind of a particle field. Trying to lock it down sir." The ships communications officer was the next to call out, Corini becoming less and less calm as each member of the bridge crew, one by one, had their systems shut out for whatever reason. "I'm getting an EMP surge coming from due North captain. I just tried hailing the Meru, all I'm getting is static. We're not going to punch anything through this." "M particle density is getting close to 100%, I've never seen anything like this. Sensors aren't going to be any good at all." "Captain we're going to have to shut down the ships internal computer grid, I'm reading multiple points of contact, they're trying to blackout our wired intel network." "Automated gunnery systems don't look to be responding sir, virus is taking out our infrastructure piece by piece." Corini shot out of his chair, silencing all of them with that booming voice of his, and the command presence that had kept Gibraltar free of Zeons hold for months. "Everyone be quiet! Shut our systems down and get someone to go send a message to the Meru with flags, I don't care. I want every aircraft in the air immediately, we are to engage the enemy as soon as we see them. If you can get a message to the Medeas, have them pull back. Success at New York depends on them." Crewmen scurried around the bridge of the Everest, running to tell pilots to get out of their beds, since the alarm system had to be shut down. Fighters were quickly launched, Don Escargots forming a ring around the four ships of the fleet, the two Hillocks picking up speed to make their positions as wingmen known. The rest of the planes, some fifty assorted anti air and anti ground fightercraft, were shot into the air, sent forward to see what was ahead of them. After about a minute one of the Depp Rogs shot out two purple flares, signaling that there were two Gaws ahead. Aboard the Desu and the Iolar, Maurice and Tobias were already ready. Their ships had avoided the Zeon hacking attempt, and their laser communications were still working barely. Making a quick plan, Maurices team would stay in the area to protect the fleet from a possible underwater assault, while Tobias and Cayden used the abilities of their GM S Types to assist the aircraft. "You sure our GMs can skim on water like that?" Cayden wasn't too convinced. But Tobias was the GM S Types original test pilot, so if anybody would know it was him. Tobias refused to answer, merely leaping his GM out the back door of the Iolar. The green camoflauged mobile suit soared down towards the blue ground below, the air intakes in the back and legs going hot as they started funneling gas, quickly creating a hover cushion for the S Type to skim on. Water was pressed hard to either side, creating the image of an invisible surfboard as the GM rocketed off towards the combat, moving between the huge hulls of the Everest and Meru. Cayden, pleased to see that Obrien wasn't just shitting him, followed suit. The two airborne forces met halfway, more than thirty Dopps protecting the Falcon and Ouroborous. Missiles were exchanged, and the sky in front of the Federal battlegroup became a popcorn like display of explosions. Several of the slower Jet Core Boosters were fried by incoming missiles, Dopps swerving right and left to avoid a similar fate. The Federal fighters, all in all better trained, followed in kind, the elite Tin Cod pilots from the Everest picking off targets one by one. The Federal plan was to keep the Fly Mantas and Depp Rogs safe so they could engage the two Gaws with their full missile compliment, and to a large degree this seemed to be working. The Federation airforce both outnumbered and outskilled that of Zeon. Fighters broke into small dogfights, Dopp pilots trying to make use of their faster speed to get around the JCBs, which had a frightening forward arsenal. However, there were too many JCBs, and the Everests Tin Cods seemed unmatched. Slowly, one by one, planes began to fall out of the sky, the Federation having the clear advantage. Eventually a hole was punched through the Zeon fighter line, the nine Federal bombers moving into a clear position to fire a barrage of missiles at the Falcon. They opened up a barrage, but as they did the MS hangar on the Falcon opened, Vinsko, Martel and Kalila standing at the front on their Dodai bombers, Andrew in his brand new mobile suit, the Dowadge. They opened fire with various machineguns, hitting well near every single missile launched at the Gaw. Those they missed were gunned down by the Falcons own AA guns, Vinsko and his team moving out into the fray on their Dodais. He shot down a pair of Tin Cods with his machinegun, Martel bagging a Depp Rog and Kalila hitting two Tin Cod with her finger machineguns. Unfortunately without properly maneuverable aircraft they couldn't shoot planes down as fast as was necessary, but they were buying the valuable time they had promised Laurent. Below the waves, eleven mobile suits quickly skimmed towards the Federal battlegroup. The 237ths own compliment had been reinforced by crack troops from North America, the infamous Cyclops team. Mikhail took a swig of his vodka and grinned, the overweight Russian taking his Gogg dangerously close to the surface as he prepared to attack the Sarasvati. "Looks like they took the bait sir, ocean's nice and clear." Creuzot said, prompting Laurent to push his plan into action. "All ships, lock on the southside Himalaya. Fire all tubes and then prepare to dive on my mark. Erwin, are the MSMs in position?" "Aye sir. They're about three seconds from spitting distance of the Federal warships." Erwin nodded. Behind them, the U-996s ever present SS officer was very impressed with how things had been going. He'd asked the Cyclops team to help personally, and now wondered if such efforts were even needed. "Alright. Fire everything, dive in four seconds. Helm, I want a fourty degree downtrim, we're going to have 35 snailsworth of bombs to dodge." Aboard the Meru, the sensor operator yelled out, having sighted incoming targets despite the horrendous particle interference. "Sir, I have multiple contacts. Looks like torpedoes... I don't think we can dodge them sir!" "What?!" The captain yelled, the rounds impacting the side of the Meru a second later. Smoke started billowing from the ship, the aircraft carrier tilting to one side as it began to sink through the waves. Shortly after the Sarasvati all but disintegrated, MPCs and torpedos hitting it from several angles. Steiner's Z'Gok jumped out of the water for good measure, kicking a heavy metal foot through the Hillocks bridge before descending back into the waves. "That's our cue!" Maurice yelled. "Kenji, Terry, you ever fought underwater before?" "Neg sir, first time for everything." The two GM CCT pilots followed their commander as Maurice shot his GM Sniper Custom out into the deep blue ocean, the Desu hurrying to get around the cloud of Don Escargots that was now starting to drop depth charges anywhere and everywhere. Before he hit the ground, Maurice fired his beam rifle at a large shadow under the water, rewarded as a reactor explosion showered seaspray over his mobile suit. Tobias's new man in the Gundam Ground Type followed them, the four mobile suits crashing into the water and slowly sinking beneath the waves. Meanwhile, Cayden and Tobias had just caught up with the Federal fighters, which had downed the majority of the Dopps, but were having an understandable amount of trouble with Vinsko, Kalila and Martel. Nobody was looking for attackers coming from the sea, and Tobias's GM, a bazooka in one hand and machinegun in the other, aimed carefully for Kalila's Dodai II. Taking the shot, he was rewarded as she shot her Gouf into the air, the bomber below her exploding in a small barrage of orange fireworks. She whipped out her heat rod, cutting a Jet Core Booster in half before landing on Martels Dodai, which immediately started losing altitude. "Get us over to Martel quick!" Vinsko yelled, communications to his Dodai pilot unimpeded by the thick minovski particle cloud. Tobias and Cayden were getting ready for a second round of shots when Andrew leapt off his bomber, firing MMP-80 rounds at Cayden as his Dowadge landed on the sea and started to surf it much as the two GM S Types were doing. The rounds bounced off Caydens reactive armor, but he had to pull back, Andrew lining up a second shot with his bazooka. Before he could fire Tobias moved between them, letting out a barrage with his own machinegun. Vinsko strafed left even as he fired the round, his attempt to dodge forcing the shell to go wide. The two mobile suits worked around in a circle and then jetted into the air, firing bazooka rounds at each other. Andrew managed to get a glancing round on Tobias' bazooka, and he threw it to one side even as it was exploding, thinking he needed to use the hand to reload his machinegun anyway. Kalila was about to jump onto Vinskos Dodai, when missiles from one of the Federal aircraft destroyed it. A second barrage of missiles hit her Gouf in the shoulder, explosions tearing her suits machinegun arm away from the body. Now lacking any weaponry to properly engage aircraft, she scowled, leaping off Martels Dodai and boosting back to the Falcon. There simply weren't enough Dopps to contend with this much Federal airpower. Martel, having lost a huge amount of altitude, decided she'd rather protect Andrew than the Falcon anyway. Cayden had moved behind Vinsko and he and Tobias were about to engage him in a pincer move when Martel opened up with her machinegun, rounds splashing into the waves in front of Cayden. He pulled back and turned for Martel, the two trading glancing machinegun shots and then circling each other much as Tobias and Vinsko were doing. Andrew timed a cracker grenade for immediate release and threw it, moving to the left and opening up on Tobias with his bazooka. Tobias backed his GM up, evading the grenade and aiming for the point Vinsko was about to fire from. The two aces fired, Tobias' 100mm shell slamming into Vinskos 360mm bazooka round, causing it to prematurely detonate in front of the GM S Type. Tobias smirked, but when the smoke cleared, Vinsko's Dowadge was nowhere to be seen. "Where'd he go..." Tobias looked right and left, but then he realized what he needed to do. Closing his eyes, he felt rather than looked, and at just the right moment he shot the GM S Type into the air, pointing his machinegun straight down. Vinsko's Dowadge came bursting out of the water from under him, heat tomahawk firmly gripped in one hand and bazooka in the other. Tobias's machinegun rounds didn't quite hit their mark, and Andrews mobile suit took some damage to its right side. Unable to make the killing strike, he threw his heat tomahawk at Obrien, the Federation test pilot pulling his suit to the side. The superheated weapon cut through the side of Tobias' GM, but did no fatal damage. However, the Depp Rog that was above Tobias was caught dead on, Vinsko's secondary target exploding nicely as the heat hawk slammed into it. Back at the Federation fleet, the calm seas had since become filled with a thick carpet of depth charges, the 237th trying frantically to dive as the rounds exploded all around them. "4000 meters... 4100... 4200..." The Helmsmen of the U-996 were worried, the ship quickly plunging into deeper and deeper depths. The crew, for lack of a better amount of common sense, stared upwards at the ceiling of the ship, almost as if they expected to see the charges as they sank above them. Every now and then an explosion could be heard, but as yet nothing had made contact. Maurice was quickly finding out how bad of an idea it had been to engage MSMs underwater with a ground unit. Two Goggs had already been destroyed by the Don Escargots, but his four mobile suits, between the Everest and the Cyclops team, was a little bit preoccupied. He fired his beam rifle at an incoming Z'Gok, but the beam didn't go quite far enough, the Z'Gok pulling right and body checking him as it moved past. Before it could shoot its torpedoes at the Everest a line of charges from the Don Escargots slammed into the water just in time, the mobile suit marine exploding even as it positioned itself to fire. "Garcia, Andy, Mikhael, lets get that group of GMs." Steiner said, moving his Z'Gok towards Maurice's GM. Garcia and Mikhael flanked out, looking for Kenji and Terry, and Andy moved around the back, heading for the GMPGT. Maurice threw a grenade ahead of him and boosted back, waiting for Steiner to come closer, Kenji and Terry activating their beam sabers. The fighting all happened in an instant. Garcia spun left as Kenji struck out right. Swerving in behind the Cold Climate GM and righting itself, the Gogg fired its MPCs, Kenji vaporizing along with his mobile suit. Before Steiner could arrive, Maurice shot his own grenade, causing it to explode in front of the Z'Gok. Steiner pulled back and, seeing a line of missiles from the Ganges coming over his head, shot a line of Freeze Yard missiles into the surface of the water above him. Terry and Mikhael both had close calls, the GM and Gogg doing a number on each other as they passed by. Mikhael was more concerned with the Everest, and fired his MPCs into the bow of the ship before diving. The Everest began to take on water, but that one shot was not enough to sink the aircraft carrier. Maurice, his reflexes quick even underwater, turned to look for the last remaining member of the Cyclops team. Andy was having a bit of trouble with the GMPGT, surprised as his missiles would not destroy its thick armor. The two mobile suits grappled each other, Andy trying to keep the Gundam Grounds beam rifle away from his mobile suit while finding a good position to fire his own MPCs. He wasn't looking at Maurice, who took careful aim with his beam rifle and fired, the Gogg going up in an explosion unseen by the world above. "ANDY!!" Steiner yelled, wanting to go save his comrade, but it was already too late. The remaining three members of the Cyclops team looked at the depth charges that were now sinking all around them, and dived, trying their best to return to base. "5000... 5100... 5200... 5300..." Erwin had closed his eyes at this point, waiting for the ship to buckle under the water pressure, or for one of the Escargots charges to destroy it, or both. Laurent was still looking up at the ceiling when the horrendous sound of buckling steel started to pervade the submarine. Everybody winced a little, before they realized that it wasn't their sub that was going under. "Sir.. It's... It's the 936" came the voice of Irene Ames. Laurent was at the same time saddened and also a little relieved. "Keep diving... We need to get clear of those snails." He said dryly, having all but lost his ability to command the situation. After another two minutes they would be in the clear, and at that point Auclair would give the bridge to Erwin, retiring unhappily to his ready room. Back at the front lines, the Falcon and the Ouroborous had started to withdraw, a half a dozen Dopps now between them and the still over a score Federation fighters and bombers. The remaining Zeon fighters moved in between the Gaws to cover themselves as Jet Core Booster pilots tried to assess who still had any missiles left, quickly moving to fire at the Falcons engines from behind. Tobias, Cayden, Andrew and Martel were still continuing their duel, the four mobile suits skidding around on the blue ocean beneath them, taking pot shots as they strafed side to side. Vinsko had now run out of bazooka shells and was using the final clip in his MMP-80. He had been simply unable to hit Tobias, and the one good strike he had gotten was nulled by the GM S Types reactive armor. Tobias on the other hand had been unable to hit Vinsko more or less, but due to his GMs ability to carry over a hundred machinegun shells, he was not going to run out of ammunition any time soon. He pressed the attack, emptying his third magazine and then quickly slamming the fourth into his gun before taking out a beam saber in his free hand. Vinsko strafed right and left as he backed up, a single shell hitting his Dowadge in the leg but not causing any permanent damage. Boosting into the air, he shot around behind Tobias, firing his machineguns mounted grenade at the GM S Types backpack. Tobias saw the shot coming, flipping his GM around and taking the hit in the shoulder, reactive plating ablating to absorb most of the shot. His GM was now pretty well damaged, and though Vinsko didn't know it, Obriens S Types legs had started to malfunction. He wouldn't be able to dodge the next shot. Andrew grimaced. All he had left were six machinegun shells and a single grenade. He threw the grenade and aimed his machinegun, Tobias bringing his gun up to shoot the grenade before it reached him. Both shots hit home, the grenade exploding between the two suits as Vinskos shots tore into the GM S Types arm, destroying its machinegun and most of its hand. Andrew looked at his ammunition counter. Three rounds left. He aimed his gun at Obriens cockpit, but it wasn't the enemy mobile suit that he saw. Behind Tobias, Andrew noticed smoke billowing out of all four engines of the Falcon, as it slowly started its final descent into the Atlantic Ocean, Kalila and the remaining two Dodais on board quickly exiting the aircraft. Vinsko lost his bearings for a moment, and in that moment Tobias shot his GM forward, pushing his throttle to full and slamming his beam saber straight through the cockpit of Andrews Dowadge. As the S Type raced past the destroyed Zeon mobile suit, Tobias saw images on the horizon, somewhat unsure of what he was seeing. A snowy European manor, an old woman, and a portrait of a very uncomfortable young man trying to fill shoes that were not meant for him flashed in front of Obriens eyes. The final thing he saw was a beautiful falcon flying off towards the still rising sun, Andrews mobile suit exploding behind him. "NOO!" Martel yelled, swerving her Zaku to take a bead on Tobias's all but disabled GM. In her rage she had forgotten Cayden, and her Dodai exploded underneath her moments later. She tried to boost her Zaku towards the Ouroborous, but her antiquated mobile suit didn't have enough thrust, and Martel would later meet her fate sinking below the Atlantic Ocean with the Falcon. Two weeks later, a Schutzstaffel recovery crew would find the Falcon, resting on the bottom of the Atlantic floor. The recovery of Vinsko's personal computer would reveal a particularly damning email from his old mentor Ahmed. Unopened, the header of the message read "The truth about your Father." Maurice Jackson - 8 VP gained, 3 days damage Tobias Kendrick Obrien - 8 VP gained, 4 days damage Laurent Auclair - 11 VP gained, Lightly Damaged Kalila Darwesh - 11 VP gained, 3 days damage |