|
0079.11.04 One by one, the black objects started their descent, tiny baubles of atmosphere and safety amidst the hostile emptiness of space. At this height, the Earth seemed peaceful and clear, a brilliant, glowing orb taking up the majority of the horizon. The Mediterranean and the Black Sea glistened a deep, captivating blue, swirls and oceans of clouds passing to and fro, playing games with the wind as they mingled together. Far above the warm bosom that was the Earth, the Principalities First Resupply fleet floated, crewmen watching as the Zanzibar class carrier Penguin led a flotilla of HLV's on their slow descent to the hell that awaited below. "Atmospheric density is rising rapidly, descent angle optimal, oh point two percent variance. Should be a smooth ride sir." The young woman at the helm of the Penguin said softly. She was short, less than five feet tall, and although she was eighteen years old she looked much younger. Already a veteran of the war, this was her fourth descent to Odessa, and she had served under Ridden and Gadem for a number of months. The Crimson Lightning nodded, watching the windows of the Zanzibar bridge with Gadem. Although he too had been to Earth many times, re-entry was a thing you could never get tired of. Gadem, sitting in the captains chair of the Penguin, scratched at his massive beard for a second, and then looked over at the young pilot at the far end of the bridge. "This is your first trip to Earth, isn't it lad." The old veteran asked, partly amused and partly concerned. Gadem was one of the oldest members of the Zeon military, both in age and in seniority. He had piloted a Zaku I in the battle for the independance of Side 6 before the war had even begun. "Y-yes sir." The boy, scarcely older than the Penguins helmswoman responded. His uniform didn't quite fit him, and neither did his position. He was an excellent Zaku pilot, and had a lot of potential, but he was being sent into war far too early. "You may want to put your feet on the ground." Ridden said calmly, his hand giving a tighter grip on Gadems chair. The young pilot nodded wordlessly, grabbing ahold of a console and floating himself back to a standing position. As he did, the Penguin dipped down, in a few seconds going from a parallel descent to almost a nose dive. The horizon in the windows went from an infinite black to a kaleidescope of blues, greens and whites, light and atmosphere glinting off the windows in a feast of colors that one must sea to truly appreciate. Slowly but surely gravity began its pull, and where a few seconds ago the spacenoids were floating in absolute freedom, they were now strapping into chairs, grabbing ahold of anything they could find. They felt as if their very souls were being pulled into the Earth, absorbed by some inescapable fate. The young pilot watched, eyes wide, as the Earth slowly came into vivid focus. There was the crimean peninsula, the small grain trap of land that jutted out of the north end of the Black Sea, an area which had served as a food source for the Romans, the Byzantines, the Khanates, the Russians, and the Duchy of Zeon. There far in the distance was the Ural mountain range, that god-made barrier of Earth that seperated Central Asia. Baikonour was on the other side, protected by a vast expanse of nothingness, the plains of Central Asia looking from this distance like they would swallow you whole. Soon the mountains and the wild land beyond left the young soldiers view. Now he could see specs of gray amidst the brown and green landscape, areas of human settlement. The sun was still low in the sky in this part of the world, and many industries still had their lights on, despite the warnings of air raids or bombardment. He looked across the Ukranian plateau, the highlands that seperated Constantinople and Odessa. The Earth was starting to look not quite so serene as it did from the stratosphere, small pockmarks of brown and black dotting across the face of Ukraine. Small black clouds of smoke started to come into view, areas where the trees had all been mowed down by the passing of a Big Tray. Towns covered in craters and ruin, highways destroyed beyond repair. The young boy gazed out at the landscape, his eyes slowly coming down to their destination. They were moving fast now, and his body had begun to weigh down on him, the heaviness of his descent masked only by the wonder that he saw before him. Odessa. The center of the Principalities mining operations in the Earth Sphere. This old Zanzibar had made many trips to this place, although for many it would be their first, and last, time. The air was hazy, discolored almost, with the land in the periphery of the city much more easily visible than the area around the base itself. "Why... I can't see it." The young pilot asked himself, confused. Johnny Ridden, the only man in the ship not now strapped into a chair, let out a laugh. "Have you never seen a minovsky particle before boy? Look at it, and learn to live in it. That is the true face of war." The Crimson Lightning responded, breathing deeply as he looked out at the terrain. "I haven't seen a cloud like that since Lourm..." Gadem responded, the old man smiling a little. The light bouncing off the distant sun was refracting across trillions upon trillions of invisible particles, creating a dull haze around the entire area, visible to the naked eye. The young woman at the helm strained to pull herself up to the console, fighting gravity as she flipped several switches at her desk. "Visual balancers initialized, AORS activated." She said in a monotone, the windows of the Penguin fading to static for a split second, Odessa coming into view once again. This time the image was clear, and everyone saw the full glory of the Duchy fortress as it opened itself up to them. The base proper was a huge asphalt airfield, with cranes and landings at the southern end where it opened into the spaceport, which had already been cleared and awaited the supply fleets arrival. On the Western end there was a long steel wall, tall enough to cover a mobile suit to the cockpit, a number of miles long, and thick enough to stop a shell from a Federation mobile suits machinegun. Small dots of blue, black and green moved alongside it, Zakus and Goufs taking up positions along the perimeter. In front of the wall, but not exactly next to it, was an equally large trench, dug deep into the Earth. The trench itself was not particularly deep, but the Earth that had been dug out of it was piled high in the front, tons upon tons of packed clay creating a barrier nearly as impenetrable as the barrier wall. The positioning of wall and trench was such that a Zaku on the wall could throw a grenade into the trench, but a GM in the trench would not be able to throw a grenade over the wall. Inside the trench, another pack of mobile suits roamed, creating an almost Napoleonic double line of guns and barricades, the back line on the wall able to easily cover the front line in the trench. Above and to the East of the base, the old city of Odessa sprawled out, the forest on the western end the only area that was not clear and easily visible. Highways, skyscrapers, apartment districts, suburbs, factories and ghettos were all clearly visible at this altitude, the old city an industrial faximile of its ancient self. The majority of the buildings had been evacuated, but a full third of the population refused to leave, and even in this time of war there were cars moving to and fro in the industrial district. The streets were wide enough to give a Zaku room to move through them, and the buildings in the center of the city were high enough to hide a mobile suit from sight, but there would be little room to maneuver inside the city itself. At the top of the city, where the highway from Archangelisk moved into the Odessa area, a group of battleships and mobile suits were stationed, Gallops and a Dobday protecting the northern end of the base from assault. To the southeast of the city was the port, a vast and long array of docks and shipyards, lighthouses and gunnery stations. Torpedo launchers littered the beach, and a number of Zakus and battleships guarded the Jukons, which were at this time undergoing quick, last minute repairs. The ocean to the south curved into an inlet just wide enough to allow a battleship access, the inlet snaking and winding up the southern end of the Fortress to the edge of the perimeter wall. Between the south end of the spaceport and this river was a large open area, and here too a group of mobile suits and battleships sat, defensive gun turrets dotting the rivers edge. To the far west of the base lay an open area that was already full of holes, impact craters and damaged Earth forming a sea of hell between the Zeon forces and the Federal blockade. Looking far to the west, the young pilot saw what was now a vast semicircle of tans, blues and greens, tanks, GMs, Big Trays and Medeas forming a C shaped wall aroudn the outside of the base. They were grouped up in divisions and sections, but were not spaced so far apart that one force couldn't aid those to its flanks in an emergency. As the Penguin pulled back up, turning around in such a way as to land on its belly in its final mooments of descent, explosions started to appear all around the crew, shells popping and tracers whizzing about the sky. It was General Revils salutations and the start of another morning inside the gravity battlefront of Earth. At the far northern end of the base, a pair of Gallops slowly pulled themselves out onto the plain in front of the city proper, the rising sun just tipping over the head of the Pantheran as it ground to a halt. To the west and south, shells slammed into the walls of the base just as they slammed down on the Earth Federation encampment beyond. The 86th Independant Fleet and the Xamel team, led by Boraguard Heindshaft, were conducting punitive strikes on Revil and his men in this early stage of the siege. The Federation had not yet gotten proper artillery readings. The air above Odessa was too hostile for a recon plane, and with Zeon in firm control of orbit it was impossible to send a Flatmouse to get readings from above. Using this to his advantage, Ionesco and Heindshaft led the barrage of Task Force Alpha, although the return fire did not leave the Duchy without any casualties. Aboard the Kreuger, an old face in a new theatre read his mornings orders, personally hand-delivered to him by Garma Zabi himself. Eric Kyrion peered out to the Northwest, looking for his target, the Temujin and its forces partially hidden by towns and railroads that littered the northern end by the western waterway. Although he was a good hundred meters from the Efreet Custom, Marion was still with him at this distance, the glowing, winged girl that only Kyrion could see floating at his side. "This is a suicide mission... Such is the fate of the EXAM system, isn't it." Eric said to himself, looking through his binoculars at the targets beyond. "Don't worry. Things are different now. I will protect you." Outside the two Gallop class ships, Bishop Kratos, wearing a huge grin, walked briskly away from the encampment, having just been given 'orders' by a base executive to dispatch to the southern end of the fortress. His black trenchcoat had a small food stain on the right lapel, and in his hand Kratos carried a bowl of freshly made fleischsalat. Twirling the stringy noodles up with his fork, he took a deep bite and closed his eyes a moment, ecstatic at the blissful feeling of his favorite meal. To Bishop, the dirty landscape of Odessa was a friendly place, considering the last few environments he had been in. Here he was among friends, and the opportunities for, well, a variety of things, were many. Lost in his own personal bliss, Bishop choked a little when he saw them coming towards him. Two Schutzstaffel Panzergrenadiers, wearing their full battle guard, were suddenly standing right in front of him. Their gas masks and red goggled eyes stood out amongst the blacks and dark browns of the rest of their armor, one carrying the ridiculously large machinegun these soldiers were famous for, and the other a pistol. "Well... Good morning." Kratos said, putting the snack down and smiling his usual smile, his mind instantly searching for the reason why they were here, and how he would get himself out of whatever trouble he had unwittingly gotten himself in. "Unterscharfuhrer. You will come with us." The man with the pistol said, his voice metallic and impersonal beneath his mask. These uniforms and armored coatings had been designed painstakingly to make the Panzergrenadiers appear as if they weren't human at all, and it was well known that the best of them could KO a mobile suit with a few well placed shots of their handheld railgun. Kratos quickly took the final two bites of the fleischsalat, his mind racing as he tried to think of a plan. These men weren't normal soldiers, they were trained, merciless, killing machines. Much like himself really. You couldn't become a Panzergrenadier if you did not on some level enjoy inflicting pain in others. Not only were they better trained, but they were armored head to toe. There were gaps in the armor, sure, and Bishop didn't go anywhere without a handgun and any number of knives, but in all likelihood if he sprang on the two of them, even from behind, he would only manage to take out one of them before the other put a bullet through his brain. Secondly, even though this was the northern end of the base superstructure, somewhat away from the central area, there were still people here. He would have to do it indoors or someone would see, and in Odessa that would bring no end of trouble. But where were they taking him? It was likely once they arrived at the final destination, there would be more than two. The SS didn't pull its punches after all. The three black suited operatives came after a few minutes to an old MS hangar, dilapedated beyond repair. Waiting for Kratos to come out in front, Bishop gulped as the two Panzergrenadiers moved behind him, ushering him into the small, dark building. There were no lights on and no windows, nothing but a few random holes in the ceiling delivering thin rays of dust filled light to the grimy floor below. Bishops eyes quickly began to adjust to the dark, but were ambushed as all of a sudden the bright lights of the hangar slammed on all around him. Bishop brought his hand up to his face, squinting hard, but slowly his mind and body readjusted to the new surroundings. Taking his hand down, he looked out ahead of him, a bald scientist in a dark grey lab coat standing between him, and an unnaturally tall, jet black mobile suit. Its shoulders and arms looked huge and powerful, and it stood several meters taller than a Zaku. Its face, shaped more like a Federation mobile suit than one of Zeonics or Zimmads, had two black beady eyes, and an almost rabbit-like shape to it, a huge headspike equalled in height only by two long wing binders that protruded out of the units back. "Welcome, Unterscharfuhrer Kratos. I'm Dr. Lecter, and you are looking at your new assignment." The scientist said, sneering a little as he handed Bishop a manila folder. The two Panzergrenadiers moved to the back of the room, standing at attention as they guarded the meeting. Bishop opened the folder, taking out the papers inside and flipping past a few pages that read nothing but the word confidential in bright red characters. "Beam weaponry, radar absorbtive coating, minovsky particle emitters, ultra low emissions reactor, multi-theatre capabilities... What is this thing?" Bishop asked, looking up at the black mobile suit as it towered over him, the paint partially absorbing the light from the hangar. "An experimental mobile suit designed by Ghirens personal staff, to be used for infiltrating and assaulting enemy positions... You see Mr. Kratos, Ghiren has had a close eye on you, you remember how quickly we had you sped out of Federal custody." Dr. Lecter mused, Bishop being reminded of his time in South Africa. He thought he was doomed, but a personal letter from Ghiren Zabi had saved him from a death sentence in a little under a day. "It has been decided that the best way to make use of your talent without... Mmm... Without involving ourselves in any political fiascos, is to put you on a project that does not exist. This is a project that does not exist, you understand." Dr. Lecter grinned devilishly, staring at Bishop with small beady eyes. Bishop nodded, knowing that at this point he would not be given a choice whether or not to accept his new assignment. He stood up straight, tucking the folder and its contents under his shoulder, and looked out at his new mobile suit as its two black eyes stared back at him. "Now of course, in order for us to go ahead with this project, these two gentlement will need to fake your, ahh, your dishonorable discharge." Dr. Lecter sneered, turning around and moving back with a slight limp to the huge weapon behind him. The Panzergrenadier with the pistol stepped forward, putting a cold, metallic hand on Kratos's shoulder. Bishop gulped. "Ahh... An idea, good doctor. I don't know whether or not his excellency Garma has any knowledge of our... Of our project, but I had just been assigned to a suicide mission." Far across the battlefield, the Temujin and its forces, shielded by the high hills to the southwest and the buildings to the southeast, were more or less protected from Ionesco and the 86ths bombardment. GMs and Type 61 tanks filed out in formation, the Tray slowly getting targetting data from the divisions Type 74 hovertruck. Minovsky particle density was impossibly thick, and even the Big Trays laser communications system was filled with static whenever they tried to talk to anybody in another division. Peoples vision was fine at short distances, but the particle cloud created a fog at ranges more than a few hundred meters, making you never entirely sure what you were looking at. Mobile suit computers and those on modified type 61 MBT's could correct this, but only when they were working properly, which was no guarantee for a damaged GM. "Sir, we have word from the Perry. Snipers cannot get into position with this shelling coming from the base. The supply fleet is going to get through without damage." The communications operator, a young blonde man, worked quickly, trying to manage static and dozens of channels at the same time. "That's fine. I want you to watch that waterway, this is the perfect time for them to give us a surprise attack. They likely won't come through the town, but Odessa has numerous marine models." Captain Alphonso Drake ordered, surveying the battlefield before him. To his right, south and into the main hell of the battle line, smoke and dust shot out of the sky eratically as shells landed to and fro. "Sir, I'm doing a sweep now. Long range visual scanners aren't picking up anythi- wait, I think... You're right sir. We have two Gallop class cruisers incoming, bearing from position theta seven over the water. ETA four minutes, approximate ground speed 170 kilometers per hour. I'm getting I think a single aircraft moving with them." The sensor operator, an older man with a huge scar on his face, a former pilot in the European front, pulled up an enhanced visual of the waterway as waves shot up behind the two Gallops in the distance. "Luggun most likely. Get everyone on alert. Send out a flare message requesting the Perry's assistance as well as a coded distress call, they should be able to get mobile suits here in five minutes if they're quick. Have the Type 61's move in to intercept, they'll be engaging from the other side of that town at theta five." Drake ordered, sweeping his hands out to move his troops into acting. The Federal tanks quickly started powering up, commanders closing the hatches and moving the units into a line to the East of the Temujin. Although the Type 61 was slow and easy to shoot down in a mobile suit war, two dozen of them could line up to provide an effective cover bombardment. The Temujin aimed its long range ballistic cannons, firing at the Kreuger and the Pantheran, but the heavy artillery shells were not accurate enough to hit the fast moving cruisers. On top of the Kreuger, the Efreet Custom sat, Kyrion holding on to the front cannon of the Gallop as it sped across the waves, the Eastward sun cresting over the world to his back. A heat sword in one hand and the other on the mobile suits back, Eric and Marion watched as the battlefield of Odessa rapidly came into view. They passed a number of old, grey towns, and then opened up onto a wide expanse before the small village that masked their drop point. The Kreuger and Pantheran turned their artillery cannons towards the Temujin and fired, the three battleships trading shells almost out of some sort of mutual understanding. Neither side was able to hit each other, but pilots hearts raced, everyone preparing for the moments ahead. "Do you think we'll make it out of this alive..." Eric asked himself, watching as the top of the Big Tray gradually came into view. "Trust me Eric. Everything will be alright." "Alright girls, do not fire until you see an enemy mobile suit come out of those two sea rats in front of us. Everyone give them hell. I don't want there to be a pidgeon standing between us and that beach when we're through with these pissy spacenoid faggots." The squadron commander of the Temujins tank force coldly stated, his words reverberating through the iron coffin that was the Type 61. Positioning themselves on a small hill, the twenty three main battle tanks of the Temujins task force arranged into two neat lines, fourty six 150mm cannons pointed straight at the Kreuger and Pantheran. The five GMs stood behind them, readying their beam spray guns and covering the tops of the back line of tanks with their shields. In an instant the Kreuger and Pantheran hit the Ukranian beach. The Gallops MS hangars opened quickly as the battlesihps shifted to their sides, and Goufs and Zakus started racing out onto the battlefield as the Zeonic warships shifted their turrets to fire on the Temujin. In that instant the sky was torn apart by a cloud of lead. Two Zakus and a Gouf fell almost instantly, riddled to uselessness by the full barrage of the Federations numbers. Behind one of the fallen Zaku II J's a black Zaku appeared, Kratos rushing into the breach before the Type 61 cannons could reload. Sending out a line of shells with his machinegun, Bishop felled three tanks, pushing hard on the enemy in an effort to quickly reach hand to hand combat. The GM line responded quickly, firing beam spray guns that pushed Kratos to the right flank, one shot hitting a shoulder and rendering the Zakus left arm immobile. One of the GM pilots set himself up for the killshot, when suddenly he noticed the rising sun blotted out, a shadow coming over the line of Federal forces. The Earthnoid looked up to see the blue Efreet custom slam down into the Federal line, firing a shotgun shell into a GM and then landing on it, crushing the pilot to death as he swung his heat saber through a second. "Left flank! Move!" yelled one of the pilots, the slow type 61's moving quickly to get out of the way. The remaining Zeon MS slammed into the front line of tanks, the remaining TAF Zaku dropping from tank fire but the Gouf managing to get in close, discarding a bullet riddled shield and slammming his heat sword through one of the main battle tanks. The three GMs turned to aim at Kyrion, but before they could fire the Efreet was already leaping behind the enemy line, turning towards the tanks and firing a devastating barrage of grenades and missiles, a full ten tanks exploding as the warheads slammed into their weak rear armor. Throwing away his 120mm and grabbing his heat hawk, Kratos leapt his black Zaku over the tank line, slamming into one of the GMs and cutting a huge gash in its cockpit. The lifeless mobile suit dropped to the ground, and as the Federal line began to panic, Bishop wondered if he'd pushed a little too hard. For a moment he rememberd that he was supposed to die in this battle. The remaining Type 61's turned their turrets around, only for several to be gunned down by the front-facing machineguns of the Kreuger and Pantheran. Kratos and Kyrion moved to pincer the final remaining GM, and Eric pushed on the pump of his shotgun, the enormous shell casing popping out of the gun and slamming on the dusty ground below. As he was about to take the shot, Marion soared out into the distance, pointing to his right. "Eric! Watch out!" Kyrion turned his Efreet and strafed left, avoiding the pink beam shot only to be body checked by the second Gundam Ground Type, a third leaping over the Temujin and firing a machinegun at Kratos' GM, providing cover fire for the now retreating Federal line. "Karen! You take the gray one, Sanders, you go after the Gouf! I'll handle this guy." Shiro said, the dogtags around his neck bouncing as he manipulated the arms of his mobile suit, the Gundam using its shield to punch Kyrions Efreet in the face. "Eledore! You get some telemetry to the Temujin so we can take out those Gallops!" The Efreet staggered back, almost toppling over a Type 61 as Shiro's Gundam took out a beam saber. "Oh Bibi, this is it isn't it... I'm never going to see you again..." Michael moaned, clutching his diary close and closing his eyes. Eledore kicked him out of the communications chair, quickly moving from the helm of the Type 74 to the sensors area. "Roger that commander, small fry's babbling again but we got this." Eledore looked at Michael and then closed his eyes, typing in data to send to the Big Tray as he listened to the sound of the Gallops hoverjets. At the back of the type 61, Kiki scrambled to the top hatch, having stowed away inside the tank back in Asia. They'd found her at Jaburo, but didn't have the heart to let her away from Shiro. Kicking open the hatch she went for the antiaircraft gun, trying to get a bead on the Luggun flying overhead. Joshua pushed hard on the trigger to her 100mm, Bishop running his Zaku to the side as the shells followed him. Quickly putting the heat hawk on his back weapons rack he threw a grenade, Karen jumping backwards as the cracker exploded all around her. Dashing forward, Bishop body checked Karens Gundam with his Zakus bad arm, the two mobile suits toppling to the ground. "Ahh, get off me you black SS freak!" Karen yelled, trying to get a good hold on the Zaku to kick it off of her. "A tomboy?? Oh I bet you'd taste good..." Bishop responded, licking his lips as he tried to hold the Gundam down while reaching for the heat hawk on his back. Sanders faked forward and then fired a flashbang with his multi launcher, distracting the Gouf pilot long enough for his Gundam to swing around it. Slamming a beam saber through the back of the MS-07, the Gouf fell to the ground and, moments later, Sanders and Shiro had Eric and the Efreet Custom surrounded, much like Eric and Bishop had the GM surrounded shortly before. "This is bad..." Eric said, trying to watch both Gundams at once. He slowly took his second heat sword off the Efreets back, carrying one red hot melee weapon in each hand as the two beam saber armed Gundams circled him. Marion returned to the cockpit, floating into an embrace around Kyrion, adding her hands to his on the mobile suits stick and throttle. Sanders and Shiro pushed forward, moving their beam sabers expertly so as to take out the cockpit without detonating the reactor and destroying even more Federal tanks. In that moment the Efreets eyes started to glow red, and it dropped its stance a little, going into a crouch as it brought both swords out, blocking both of the 08th MS team members attacks. The three mobile suits struggled for a moment, but then Marion burst into the air, coming out of her crouch. She forced Shiro and Sanders off balance, spinning in a 360 degree circle and kicking Shiro's Gundam in the face. The GMPGT went sailing across the battlefield, sliding through the dusty ground in the direction of the beach. Sanders regained his footing and charged again, Marion dropping into a low crouch and grabbing the Gundams right hand at the wrist with both swords. In a scissors-like motion, she chopped off the GMPGTs hand, the beam saber falling to the ground with it. Coming out of the crouch into a tackle, Marion dropped Sanders Gundam to the ground, holding up the two heat swords to deliver the finishing blow. "Marion, behind you!" Eric shouted, watching the rear display as the Efreet Custom operated by itself. Marion swung the machine around, barely blocking the beam rifle shot with one of the heat swords, Karen having filled Bishops Zaku with 60mm holes and then picked up Shiro's beam rifle in the confusion. The heat resistant material that the sword was made of blocked the shot, but it melted the weapon almost instantly, rendering it useless. "I can't handle three!" Marion cried, feeling out for Sanders and Shiro as they started to get their mobile suits to their feet. Overhead, the Big Tray launched out an initial salvo, Eledores telemetry causing it to squarely hit the Pantheran. The Gallop exploded near instantaneously, the Kreuger starting to back out in the direction of the waterway. "This is enough. lets get back to the base." Eric said. Marion agreed, the Efreet taking the one remaining heat sword and throwing it at Karens Gundam as she aimed her beam rifle for the second shot. The superheated blade cut through the E-cap of the Gundam and then lodged itself in the middle of the GMPGTs face, killing Karens sensors and causing a blinding flash as the beam rifle exploded even as it was firing a shot. The Efreet Customs eyes faded back to blue, Eric taking the controls and boosting towards the Kreuger, landing on top of it as it swerved around in a tight circle and sped away, rounds from the now regrouped tanks and the Temujin following closely behind it. Amidst the chaos of the battlefield, Bishop Kratos ran towards the small town to the South, the cockpit hatch behind him blown open under the wreckage of his fallen Zaku. Surely somewhere he could find a motorcycle to borrow. Many hours later aboard the Dhaulagiri, the shelling had nearly stopped. The days festivities over, both sides needed their rest for the battle to come. There was the odd artillery round, the odd sniper who took a shot at a mobile suit that poked its face a little too far out of cover, but compared to the mornings symphony, the night sky over Odessa was more or less quiet. On the Himalaya carrier, all pilots had been ordered to get a good nights sleep. However, there were four fighter pilots still wide awake at this dark hour. Xander, Kenneth, Mary and Patricia had to walk their dog. It was a small Corgy they'd found in the village they'd last stopped at for supplies, and it was just too cute to let go. The brown and white dog ran around the deck of the aircraft carrier on stubby little legs, chasing Kenneth as he soared around the flight deck, arms outstretched like a fighter plane. Behind him, the other three pilots ran, chasing and trying to stifle laughter. It was dark sure, but they were under orders to be asleep, and having a dog wasn't exactly in line with standard operating procedure. "I think Kenneth has found a new boyfriend." Mary giggled, trying to keep her voice down. Patricia blushed, and Xander thought for a moment what else she was into. "I think the boyfriend found Kenneth." Xander replied, the four colliding with each other in a bad set of turns and falling into an orgy of a heap, snickering and looking up at the night sky. "Who would want to be asleep at this time of night? I mean, this might be our last night together, why would we spend it dreaming alone." Kenneth asked, all four of them thinking on a similar vein. "Have you named him yet?" Patricia asked Kenneth, who smiled and scratched the small dogs stomache as it rolled around in their laps. "Cora. His name is Cora." Kenneth responded. Cora was subjected to an orgy of petting and scratching for a few minutes, when Xander caught something odd out of the corner of his eye. In the black darkness of the Dhaulagiri, a Federal officer in a black raincoat was moving towards the far deck of the ship. A man in equally black scuba gear slowly pulled himself over the far deck, giving a quick salute to the man as he pulled a waterproofed folder out of his coat. "This is the Federations entire Odessa battleplan for tomorrow, delivered to me by Revil thirty minutes ago. Most of the Federation hasn't seen this at all yet. I trust I will be compensated handsomly for this." Rear Admiral Elran said, looking at the SS operative as he handed him the folder. "Your status as a wealthy citizen of Side 3 is assured, comerade. Victory to the glorious principality." The operative stated. He was about to finish off a Sieg Zeon when he looked behind Elran at the four young pilots, encircling the two with pistols drawn. The operative quickly started to fall back into the water, but was shot in the face by Kenneths pistol. He, and the Odessa battleplan, dropped beneath the waves of the Black Sea. Elran turned slowly, looking at the four soldiers and their dog, and raised his arms in surrender. It had all been perfect, if it wasn't for these stupid kids... Eric Kyrion - 8 VP gained, 1 days damage Bishop Kratos - 9 VP gained, upgraded to Katarl, Operative specialization gained Boraguard Heindsheft - 4 VP gained, no damage Lucas Marcolini - 3 VP gained, no additional damage Laurent Auclair - 3 VP gained, no damage Bretton Von Ekten - 1 VP gained, no damage Cervantes Zuhr - 1 VP gained, no damage Eugene Rice-Ionesco - 1 VP gained, no damage Steve Myer - 1 VP gained, no damage Xander O'Reilly - 1 VP gained, 2 CP gained, no damage Cameron Sune - 3 VP gained, no damage Hector Lagrama - 1 VP gained, no damage Ion Bossa-Nova - 2 VP gained, no damage Daren Sanders - 3 VP gained, no damage Allen Gentle - 1 VP gained, no damage |
