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0079.11.03 As soon as dawn broke, the shelling began again. Although it was only two Federation battlehsips, the Everest and Ganges were unopposed on the water, and took their time picking targets, using valuable ammunition to take out turret after airstrip after bunker. Warning sirens blared across the base proper, and buildings a little too close to the installation crumbled into ruin. The civilians had been evacuated now, and the Earth Federation spared nothing in their wholesale destruction of the base. Corini had the troops wait until high noon to launch, and already New York had lost a full fourth of its defensive superstructure. With the sun high in the sky, the Himalaya started to launch wing after wing of fighters, Tin Cods and Fly Mantas moving out ahead to clear the sky for the bombers, Jet Core Boosters equipped to a plane with heavy bunker buster warheads. The only units they spared were the five remaining Don Escargots, which were kept behind for fleet defense in case of emergency. Zeon launched its aircraft, Zakus and Doms moving to defensive positions and pointing their machineguns into the sky. Altogether used to being shot at by now, the veteran Tin Cod pilots ducked and bobbed through lines of enemy fire, dropping missiles into the cockpits of the few remaining Gaws. As a last ditch maneuver, the Schwaben was put into the air along with the Dodai YS bombers, the bombers being used for air superiority against their design. It wasn't much help, the bombers dropping down onto the base superstructure just as surely as the missiles from the Hillock class destroyer. The Schwaben managed to put up some effective resistance, the Tin Cods and Fly Mantas not having enough firepower to down the purple behemoth, and its AA crew effectively pushing the Federation fighters back. Before long it was the only Zeon unit in the air. The Bodensee had made a desperate escape towards California Base in the night, too disabled to fight effectively. Corini ordered the bomber wing, now unopposed, to drop the Gaw out of the sky. While the Medeas loaded up their mobile suits for a paradrop and the Everests GMs positioned themselves at the mobile suit catapult, the Depp Rogs and Jet Core Boosters lined up for a strafing run of the Gaw. Firing all their air to air missiles at once, the sky became clouded black as a huge number of warheads flew out, striking the Schwaben head on. The Gaw sputtered to a halt and dropped, slamming straight down on the middle of the bases superstructure, destroying the radar tower and flattening a good amount of the base. "I hope my GM's gonna keep up with this..." Maurice said to himself, looking at the number of yellow and red lights on his systems console. The repair teams had been working furiously to get his and Tobias's units ready for combat, every mobile suit needed to fight Zeon on the base. They were outnumbered two to one, and every pilot had to be giving his all. Tobias's reactive armor was completey shot and needed replacing, and the GM S Types left leg was still a little finicky. "Hey Obrien. You know this is a suicide mission, right?" Cayden asked, the two standing at the front edge of the Everest. "Yup." Tobias responded with a grin. Gunning his thrusters, he leapt off the front deck of the Himalaya, starting to skim along the water towards the base, Cayden close behind. Overhead, five Medeas moved into drop position, GMs starting to jump out of them as the huge yellow transports started to circle the base. Maurice was the first to land, a Zaku exploding from his beam rifle before he even hit the ground. "Spread out and fire at will! We need to establish control before our fighters run out of bombs!" Maurice yelled into the radio, trying to make himself heard above the static. The world around him was that of a fireworks display, tracers and explosions and warheads rising and falling all around. A Dom shot one of the GMs that was landing out of the sky, Terry destroying it with his machinegun mounted grenade shortly after. Tobias and Cayden dodged a veritable hail of fire from a half dozen Zakus, strafing right and left and then leaping out of the water towards the bases defensive wall. Behind them, the Everest started to launch its mobile suits, GMs using the improvised MS catapult to propel themselves onto the base. Tobias fired off two rounds of his bazooka, hitting a Zaku square in the chest as he shelled a second with his machinegun. Cayden did similarly, leaping in between two Zakus and hacking them both with his beam saber. The remainder broke formation, milling around in a haze that was only disrupted by a JCBs bunker buster slamming into one of the Zakus, causing a massive explosion. Maurice took up a snipers position, watching the backs of Federation GMs and taking out Zakus that might get an edge with his beam rifle. Slowly he counted shots, making sure every single one counted. Terry and the GMPGT pilot moved over to him, the three forming a triangle and working as a defensive unit, organizing the Zeonic rout. However, while the initial attack was very successful, it soon became apparent just how outnumbered the Federal units were. Zakus regrouped towards the western end of the base, one of the lieutenants in an S type and several North American G models organizing a new defensive formation. A group of four GMs moved to break them out of their hole, and were all shot down to a man. Coming out of a bunker behind the S type, a Xamel reared its humongous form, firing missiles and howitzer shells into the purple hull of the Schwaben. Tobias pulled his beam saber out of a Zaku and suddenly realized he was needed elsewhere. Cayden hurried to keep up as the two moved for the enemy Xamel, which was slowly but surely aiming closer and closer to the fallen Gaws reactor. "They're trying to cause a nuclear explosion. We need to take out that Xamel." Tobias said to himself, not quite sure why he did so. Although nobody could hear his words amongst the fog of war, a number of pilots started moving towards the small Zeon line, letting the Jet Core Boosters use their 50mm guns to push the remaining disorganized units back to the fringe of the base. A number of fighters went down to the Zaku machineguns, but there were still many more, the Fly mantas now almost refueled and re-armed and ready to assist their brethren in the air. Maurice and his two wingmen moved to take out the Zeon defense line as well. Emboldened by his suits heavy armor, the GMPGT pilot moved out ahead, shrugging off 120mm and 280mm rounds like water. He took out one of the II G's with his beam rifle, but before he could move any farther, the Federation line was blinded for a moment by a flashbang. The next thing Maurice saw the GMPGT was covered in a thick cloud of smoke. Seconds later there was an explosion, a Gouf and Efreet running out of the smoke cloud with heat swords drawn. Maurice brought up his beam rifle and fired his final remaining round, but the two blue mobile suits were quick, moving to both flanks and avoiding the shot. Jackson dropped the beam rifle, grabbing a pair of beam pistols off his machines legs and aiming at the two mobile suits simultaniously. However, his targetting receptors didn't seem to be working right, and both shots went wide. Terry clipped the Gouf's right arm with his machinegun, but it wasn't quite enough to stop it. "Terry, get out of here!" Maurice yelled, moving back and aiming both pistols at the Efreet. Nimbus jumped his unit into the air, evading the shot and holding both of his units heat swords high. Coming down in a thruster assisted dropkick, he slammed the Efreets feet into Maurice's GM and then boosted after him, both suits flying and going vertical for a split second. Jackson's head was reeling, and just as he started to see his life flash before his eyes, instincts took over. He brought both beam pistols up at the hip, firing through Nimbus's cockpit just as he swung down with the heat swords. Jacksons sniper lost both its arms, but Nimbus Schatzen lost his life. Tobias and Cayden, along with the remaining Federation GMs, pushed through the enemy line, mobile suit after mobile suit dropping as the Zeonic pilots poured hard on their machineguns. Obrien aimed carefully, firing his last bazooka round at the Zaku II S, hitting it through the reactor. The explosion knocked the Zeon line into disarray, the two GM S Types slipping through. Tobias snaked to the right and Cayden snaked to the left, pointing their machineguns at the Xamel ahead of them, knowing they had to act fast. However, one of the Zakus, having dropped to its back from its commanding units explosion, fired a wave of shells at Caydens unit, destroying his machinegun and right hand. Tobias aimed and fired, quickly realizing that he was out of ammunition. He reached down to reload, but was a little too late. The Xamel made another shot with its howitzer just as Cayden moved in front of it, the two bodies colliding at ridiculous speeds. The GM S Type was hit in the shoulder, but near fourty percent of the mobile suit was torn to shreds, flying backwards and slamming onto the strong asphalt of the airfield. Yelling obscenities, Tobias reloaded his gun and fired, killing the Xamels pilot over and over again. The wave of Fly Mantas from the Everest descended on the enemy line at about the same time, creating the cover the GMs needed to break them. Meanwhile, Maurice struggled to stand his armless GM upright, watching as Terry and the Gouf pilot had a desperate fight with their sabers. Terry was inexperienced in hand to hand combat, and the Gouf was physically the stronger mobile suit, and blow by blow the GM CCT was beaten back. Maurice finally righted his mobile suit, using his thrusters to slam into the Gouf just as it readied its heat rod to make the killing blow. Terry reached for his units machinegun, which had been knocked to the ground close to where he now lay, and the next thing he saw was his commanders unit with the whiplike weapon wrapped around it. Electricity surged through the GM, blue sparks coming out of the joints as the systems were fried and the panels conducted ridiculous amounts of electricity. Grabbing the machinegun, Terry fired carefully at the heat rod, piercing it and allowing Maurice's comatose GM to drop to the ground. Another round of shells went into the Gouf, which took a step towards the Cold Climate Type before going silent. The battle would not last much longer, and losses on both sides were heavy. The air support and heavy bombardment had won the Earth Federation the day, but at a high price. When the final servicable units were counted and the KIAs were looked at, it was found that the Odessa Task Force Gamma had gone from over one hundred aircraft and twenty mobile suits to less than twenty aircraft and five servicable GMs. Maurice Jackson - 10/2 VP gained, seriously injured 7 days, promoted to Major Tobias Kendrick Obrien - 10/2 VP gained, +2 days damage, promoted to Sergeant |