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0079.11.02 The planning room under the bridge of the Everest was alive with excitement, Corini, Jackson and their men looking at the huge map of the sprawling New York base complex. They had taken a big hit to Auclair and his submarine fleet, and they wanted to make sure their plan was flawless. Zeons presence had totally left the Atlantic Ocean, giving them all the time they needed to prepare. "Forward scouts confirm they have about forty aircraft and next to no MSM capability, but a huge number of surface mobile suits, and several battleships." Corini's first mate, Commodore Edgar Sabin, pointed to the small models littering the sprawling complex. "A healthy AA compliment as well. We only have sixteen battle ready mobile suits. If we drop in the middle of the base they'll get eaten by gun emplacements. Drop behind the base and they'll get a defensive position together." The captain of the Vyasa added. "We at least have a leg up on them in air power. Our fighters are a bit of a ragtag compliment now, but if they're not doing anything else a Don Escargot makes a good gunnery platform, and those boys from Gibraltar are some of the best." The flight sergeant and commander of the Tin Cod wing pointed out. He was in favor of a frontal assault, a ballsy man who refused mobile suits. "We can beat them in the air, but once we make it to the ground we're screwed." Corini said. "We have to play the turtle game, gentlemen. Their only long range emplacement is that mega particle gun they built at the lighthouse. We'll need to get lucky and take it early, but after that our guns can shell them from near a mile away and force them to come to us." The crew murmered a while, talking amongst themselves. They could play the defensive game. Zeons forces were tied up in Central Asia, there wasn't any threat of a counterattack. Given enough of a shelling, they could take out the defensive gun emplacements and then paradrop right onto the airfield, taking out the enemy in the confusion. Maurice wasn't saying his piece. He was a little more internally occupied. He was tired of losing men. Damn tired. He kept kicking himself inside, wondering what he could do to save Terry next time. "One problem though." Sabin said, pointing towards the models again. "Those Gaws. Three of them. They launch them with their fighters and come after us. The Everest is already damaged and we've lost our escorts. Those ships will eat right through our fleet." Maurice said something quietly to himself as the rest of the men nodded in agreement, worried about Zeons battleships. Corini caught the ear of the Autonomous Core officer however, and looked at him. "What was that Maurice?" "Oh... It's nothing sir." "No, speak up." Maurice looked around the room, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable, wondering why he was there. "It's just... Why are you scared of a few Gaws? We have some excellent mobile suit pilots on these ships, and we've got beam rifles." At approximately two PM on November 2nd, 0079, the shelling of New York began. Alarms went off amongst the bases barracks as missiles and cannon shells from the Everest and the Ganges flew into the sky, slamming down on walls and grounded fighter craft. As if a stroke of pure luck, the huge MPC that had been built slightly out to sea on the lighthouse was destroyed quickly, removing Zeons ability to fight back at that range. Crater after crater opened up in the countryside, the Federation not batting an eye as shells wound up slamming into old skyscrapers and inhabited parts of the city proper, saving no target except for the old statue of liberty. Federation fightercraft, using their tremendous loiter times to advantage, launched by the dozen, but instead of attacking simply hovered over the Everest, pilots trading jokes with each other as they waited for the counterattack. Missile after missile slammed into the base, defensive gun emplacements exploding one after the other. One well placed cannon shot from the Everest hit a mobile suit hangar, destroying a pair of Zakus as spare parts flew everywhere. Safely on the other side of the base compound, an aide ran to Nimbus Schatzen, the SS officer in charge of the base. He was a violent man and had been known to court martial his men for looking at him wrong. The aide shivvered in his boots as he gave the report. "They're what? How many fighters do they have?" "Near sixty sir." The aide said. He was young, and not used to war, and his voice showed it. "Have everything moved to the west side hangars, but don't launch yet. Tell the base to go silent. We'll let them think they've beaten us and get them to move in. I don't want to interfere with the Federations precious timetable." Nimbus laughed, moving behind his desk and pulling out a bottle of scotch. He would call their bluff, and they would come. And so the shelling of New York went on. For three hours, the Federation rained missiles onto the base uncontested, and for three hours fighter pilots sat, awaiting a reprisal. Even as the sun slowly began to set over the western horizon, the missiles continued. The crew of the Ganges started to take bets on when they would run out of missiles, shifting to a broadside position to get both their VLS' pointed at the enemy. At 5:15 PM, the civilian casualty count was getting a little bit too high for Nimbus to ignore. He ordered the Gaws into the air, with all 38 of the bases Dopps ordered to cover them, the Gunship Heli's and Dodais staying behind for a possible surprise attack. The battleships were quickly launched into the air, Kalila moving her MS team onto their Dodais to support the battleships. "Here they come..." Maurice said, looking at Tobias and Cayden next to him. They had taken all of the Federations crack pilots and sat them on top of the deck of the Everest. Even if the Federation fighters did run out of fuel, they wouldn't be able to land at this point. "I gotta say it man, you planners are pretty brilliant. I woulda just rushed in there." Tobias smirked, Cayden looking at him with a groan. "One day you're gonna get me killed Obrien." The two laughed, Maurice not taking the joke very well. He didn't say anything though, dropping the targetting visor on his GM Sniper Custom and aiming through the cloud of Dopps towards the lead Gaw. Before the two clouds of fighter craft managed to get into range, Maurice fired, shot after shot from his extended range beam rifle going into the Esperia. The Gaw sputtered a bit, smoke started to come out its engines as they were hit, and then with the eighth round the great purple monstrosity exploded in midair. Emboldened, the Federation fighters moved forward a bit and engaged the enemy Dopps. Although the Dopps were the better fighters of the pair, and exceeded the EF in numbers of superiority aircraft, the Federation pilots, veterans from the previous days battles, not to mention the men of Gibraltar, quickly came out on top. The twenty plus Don Escargots made a defensive line, using their AA turrets to act as flying gun emplacements, excellent pilots picking off Dopp after Dopp as they passed them. The Escargots took heavy damage, but successfully broke up the enemy lines, moving the Dopps out of the formation for the expert Tin Cod pilots to pick them off. The battle quickly turned into a slaughter, Zeon units falling out of the sky one by one. Tobias took aim at a third Dopp with his machinegun, but all of a sudden stopped, turning his eyes towards the water. Before Cayden and Maurice could protest he leapt his damaged GM S Type off the Himalaya, throwing his beam rifle aside and taking out a beam saber. The GM slammed into the water, seconds later the explosion of a destroyed Gogg reactor coming up from under the waves. The rest of the mobile suit pilots fired for the Schwaben, and managed to deliver heavy damage to the Gaw assault carrier. The Zeon ships turned around, knowing they would be unable to continue the assault, and headed back for New York even as it was being shelled. "Are you going to quit that easy?" Kalila asked, she and her Dom speeding forth towards the Everest. She knew if she could just take out the enemy sniper they would be able to defeat the Federation here. Her wingman in the Dom exploded as the GMPGT by the Everests bridge fired his beam rifle, and she leapt off her Nimbus Cloud, the Dodai II trying its best to hover above the battleground without being hit. Darwesh landed on the bridge of the Everest, striking out with her heat rod and cleaving one of the GMs in two. Maurice jerked his beam rifle down, firing his final remaining shot at Kalila, but the Gouf pilot pulled to one side, taking out her heat sword and running for Terry's GM. Maurice froze in place, having to think about what was the right course of action. Did he move to defend Terry? Or was it a feint meant to move him away from the bridge? On the deck of a Himalaya the bridge became extremely vulnerable, but at the moment it was being defended by a solid line of mobile suits. Maurice decided he had seen enough death for one day and charged towards Darwesh, body checking her Gouf away from the ships deck. Kalila pulled up her finger machinegun and aimed straight for Corini and the bridge, but Jackson was a little bit too fast and her arm went high, the 75mm shells flying into the darkening twilight sky. Pulling out a beam saber, Jackson slammed it down into Kalila's cockpit, kicking the Gouf off the deck of the Everest as he pulled away. "Sir... Thank you sir." Came the response from Terry, Maurice at least somewhat satisfied that he had saved one of his men. As the sky darkened, the shelling continued, Corini giving the order to stop the assault when the last ray of light left. Their paradrop would have to be rescheduled for the first thing the next morning. Maurice Jackson - 6/2 VP gained, +1 days damage Tobias Kendrick Obrien - 6/2 VP gained, +1 days damage Kalila Darwesh - 8 VP gained, dead 7 days, promoted to Staff Sergeant |