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"We have a contact. Looks like a Zeek." "Roger that. How deep is he?" "Above the first thermocline, practically skimming the surface. He should be easy pickings for you guys." "Got it. We'll blow the bastard out of the water before he even knows we're here. Let's go, Eagles." "Target destination is in sight, skipper." Laurent Auclair jerked himself out of the musings he'd lost himself in – between the low lighting, the hum of the engines and the slow rocking of the boat as it moved, it was easy to let the mind wander when it wasn't occupied. "Alright, bring us about 30 degrees and ---" "Skipper! Sonar's picking up something above us. Sounds like fighters!" Laurent really perked up here, and he stood, all but running towards the sonar officer, leaning over him to have a better look at what the sound waves were revealing. "Tin Cods?" "Sounds like. I can't be sure." the man replied. Laurent stood up, then turned to face the bridge as a whole. "Cut the engines to one quarter" he ordered, "and fill the ballast tanks. Take us below the thermocline – They'll have a hard time follow---!" whatever he was going to say was cut off as the sub rocked violently. Almost simultaneously, the bridge exploded into action. "Engines answering one quater!" "Ballast takes filling. We're diving." "Sonar detecting more ships – looks like a Don Escargot!" Laurent bit his lip. In the skies, Amy Bauer Meister was pulling her TIN Cod around for another pass, her five wingmen in tight formation around her. "Owl 4, are they still floating?" The reply took a short moment, but the radio from the dish cracked. "We've lost them. They must have dived." Meister swore. "My guys can't hit them anymore then. Radio the Don. I think it's time we get serious." The ship was silent. The engine's hum had been cut to a whisper, and the crew went about tasks as silently as they could. The Jukon was cruising several feet below the thermocline – low enough to avoid accurate detection, but close enough to still 'hear' what was going on above. Laurent stood near the helm, still abesently chewing his lip, staring at the murky waters ahead of him. To his left, the sonar officer waved him over, and gestured to the dozens of blips suddenly appearing, and slowly multiplying. "Depth charges, Skipper, and they're timed. We're in hot water." Laurent made a hiss of discontenment, before standing again, this time contemplating his options. There was no serious damage so far – a few bangs and dents that would compromise their hull pressure at lower depths, yes, and several of the torpedo bays weren't responding. But was that really worth attempting a mine field? Somewhere behind them, one of the charges exploded, and the boat rocked again, at the mercy of the water's movements. "Dive again," Laurent ordered, "and increase the engines to three quaters. We'll get under them. We have to be fast, or we'll be dead in the water." "Engines answering three quarters, Skipper." Quickly, the U-996 dived again, another depth charge rocking the ship and causing bulkheads to slowly crack, making loud sounds inside the ship. The crew of the Jukon cringed with worry, but luckily none of the other rounds managed to hit home, the Don Escargots flying back to base to radio the Jukon's last known location. Laurent Auclair: 5 VP gained U-996: damaged Roughly halfway between Earth and Side 3, the battle for supremacy in the space theatre of the One Year War had turned from massed fleet engagement to innumerable small skirmishes. The EFSF combined fleet, crippled from a dozen early losses in the war, had repaired itself and established a loose buffer zone at the two days from Earth line. At the Earth Federation 'controlled' part of this zone, the EFSF cruiser Sleipner had just changed course. It was to move farther into EF territory and prepare for further operations. "I can't believe it took that long to get my suit cleaned." said Arcaile Nasr, the ships captain, as he slunk a little into his chair. He was pleased mostly with his crew, although it was true he needed a few more hands. He heard a new pilot was arriving today, although he hadn't heard much about her. Looking out at the ships windows, he thought of Sydney a little, as well as when he would have the misfortune of seeing Tracy again. The sooner he could dump her off the better. It would have been a long trip, and a boring trip, if it hadn't been for their company. At about 1300 hours, Arcaile's sensor operator suddenly spoke up. "I have six bogeys bearing ZMF IFF codes bearing towards us coming from the direction of Granada sir, looks like mobile suits. They appear to be on an intercept course." Arcaile sat up in his chair. Mobile suits, out here, without a ship? Zeon Zaku's had an impressive loiter time, and were known to do recon far from their ships, but this was a bit of a coincidence. Regardless, the lieutenant had a duty to make the first engagement of the Sleipner a successful one. "Alright. All hands, battle stations. Plot a missile trajectory and load type two's in all tubes, broadcast minovsky particles to thirty five percent. What's their ETA Johnson?" "Eight minutes sir." the SO responded quickly, pulling up a bad visual of the targets. They were still too far away to make out what models they were. "Alright, I want to see everybody in a space suit, lets get going people." Arcaile said, kicking of of his chair and floating over to the bulkhead that housed the bridge crew's suits. "2 minutes till contact with the target, looks like they're headed for Side 7. Orders Lieutenant?" Darius Carver said softly, his Rick Dom flanked by a second Zimmad suit on his right, and a Zaku II R1A on his left. Slightly below them flew three Zaku II F types, backup from the Helsing fleet. They were on deep strike orders inside EFSF controlled space, and had caught a visual of the Sleipner as it fired its engines before they even had it on radar. "I'll go in first with the Zaku's, if I can't take out the thing you two go for the engines." Anton responded, his Rick Dom pulling the ridiculously large beam bazooka off his weapons rack. Zimmad's beam bazooka incorporated its own Minovski fusion reactor, the closest thing Zeon could come to to a beam weapon without E-cap technology. Unfortunately the bazooka was slow to charge, gigantic, and extremely expensive. Less than a dozen existed in the entire ZMF. Church stayed silent, watching the M particle sensor on the corner of his screen. It still read 0%, although radar had stopped picking up the Salamis several minutes ago. They were a little naked until they made it inside the particle field generated by the Sleipner, and it worried John a little. This entire operation worried John a little, why couldn't he have just stayed home? Worry quickly turned into reality, as before the six of them managed to get into effective weapons range, a Zaku pilot spotted missiles firing from the Salamis's front tubes. The warheads went forward, away from their targets for about a second and then swerved around, adjusting themselves as programmed and then coming straight for the mobile suits. Vereschagin watched the missiles closely, but wasn't particularly concerned. Anti ship missiles were used en masse at Lourm and the one week war, and these warheads, mounting conventional ballistics, wouldn't make big enough explosions to take them out even if they were timed delay rounds. Carver was a little more concerned however. The EFSF had learned a thing or two between January and September, and it showed when, about 200 yards in front of the six Zeon units, the missiles stopped and opened up like flowers. Suddenly warning lights went off all over the Zeon pilots cockpits, as the 8 bogeys turned into nearly two hundred. All six pilots eyes went straight to that telltale number in the corner of their display. 0%. "Break apart and get into that field now!" yelled Anton over the radio, blasting off at full speed towards the Sleipner. Two dozen missiles followed him in kind, tracking with radar locks easily. Carver and Church went right and left, and the three Zaku pilots moved similarly, trying to get underneath the Sleipner and past the missiles. Darius was able to maneuver his Dom between an empty spot in the missiles travel, causing a number of them to turn too abruptly, hitting each other and detonating harmlessly. Church seemed to luck out, only being tracked by a handful of warheads. He spun his Zaku around a few times while flying, trying to pick off missiles with his machinegun while evading them, but only managed to hit one or two. A warhead hit home on his Zaku HMT's leg, exploding and destroying the appendage completely. The Zaku pilots didn't fare so well, the standard F model being a little too slow to evade tracking warheads. Two of the three were quickly caught by the cloud of missiles, being destroyed in a multitude of explosions. Luckily, the third pilot managed to double back into the minovski cloud created by the destruction of his fellows reactors, the small pocket of interference breaking the lock in the missiles guidance systems and allowing him to move back to an attack course. Anton was simply trying to outrun the missiles, boosting straight towards the Sleipner as fast as he could. But as much as he pushed on his throttle, a Rick Dom wasn't as fast as the warheads. In the few seconds time he had to decide he watched to see if he was entering the Sleipners particle field, but the number simply wouldn't go higher than 0%. At the last moment he pushed two buttons on his console, spinning the Rick Dom around and aiming the beam bazooka. The weapon spewed forth mega particles like a machinegun, a half dozen beams of pink particles belching from it in less than two seconds. Several found their mark, the missiles chasing Anton going up like firecrackers. Three seconds later, Anton was relieved to see the M particle density rising rapidly, but annoyed at the loss of his precious bazooka charge. "Target the two Zakus and fire the main cannons, move reactor power to the rear guns." Nasr ordered. He was standing now, a little apprehensive at how maneuverable the enemy mobile suits turned out to be. If missiles couldn't hit them, hwo were his AA guns going to do it? The three rear MPC turrets on the Sleipner opened fire, particle streams being easily dodged by the two Zakus. The four remaining mobile suits crept up on the ship, but then doubled back when the space around the Sleipner opened up with 110mm shells, AA gunners doing their best to keep the bazooka armed Rick Doms from finding firing positions. Arcaile was watching the visual carefully when Tracy came in the door to the bridge, wearing of all things a pilots normal suit. How the hell did she manage that one? A knot formed in Arcaile's stomache. "You ma'am are not allowed on this bridge, we are in the middle of a combat situation. I'm going to have to ask you to leave immedi-" "I am a member of the press with authorization to view and record the actions of this vessel captain, have you forgotten?" Arcaile really didn't like Tracy. "Well if you're going to stay here at least sit the hell down and get out of our way." the Lieutenant actually turned around to tell her. Tracy nodded and pushed herself off the back wall, grabbing the back of Arcaile's chair and swinging herself into it. Yuu looked over at her for a moment, the expression on his face clearly saying 'oh no she didn't'. Arcaile grumbled, but before he could say anything bazooka rounds started exploding along the front hull, Carver's Rick Dom quickly escaping underneath the ship where AA coverage was light. One of the front MPC turrets exploded, smoke billowing from it. "Blasted Zeon. Launch the forward missile bays, buy us some time!" Arcaile ordered, wishing the platform the captains seat was on had a safety railing. The six-tube AA missile launchers at the front of the Salamis fired, their warheads forcing Carver's Rick Dom to retreat for a moment. However, inside the M particle field, the missiles were more of a harmless diversion than anything else. Church's one legged Zaku flew up from underneath the Salamis while Anton and the other Zaku pilot drew AA fire, taking his machinegun to the engine at close range. Although the rounds weren't enough to make the engine explode, fuel started to sputter out of the rear of the Salamis, Church quickly flying away as AA fire found him. The Zaku II pilots turn was next, smashing a bazooka round into the side of the bridge superstructure, taking out the port AA turret but luckily not harming the bridge itself. Arcaile saw the shot but he was a little... preoccupied. "Are you sure you're going to make it out of here alive Lieutenant? What are you going to do?" Tray asked, her hand on a tape recorder. That was the last line Nasr was going to allow. He walked over to his chair and picked up the intercom. "I want this bitch off my bridge immediately. Sanchez, Remirez, get the hell in here." Less than ten seconds later two MP's with machineguns came into the bridge, grabbing Tracy by the arms and hauling her out. She yelled something about how Arcaile would regret this, but he wasn't paying attention anymore. The AA turrets had stopped firing at Anton, who had just been flying around without actually shooting at the Sleipner, and had focused on the two Zaku's and Carver's Rick Dom. This looked to be a fatal mistake, as Vereschagins Rick Dom suddenly appeared right in front of the bridge, leg thrusters steadying the mobile suit as it pointed the beam bazooka straight at Arcaile's face. "Just like back in January." said Anton to himself as he pulled the trigger. However, in the same moment a missile shot between Vereschagin and the Sleipner's bridge, a cloud of sparkling dust trailing behind it. The beam bazooka fired, the entirety of the charge dissipating and splattering in all directions because of the chaff field. Some threads of mega particles managed to eat into the bridge superstructure, but the captain of the ship was unharmed. Anton had little time to curse, turning to his side and seeing another pair of anti ship rockets heading straight for him, a Saberfish fighter on a collision course for his Rick Dom. Anton boosted away quickly, the Saberfish turning as fast as it could in pursuit. The sublieutenants Rick Dom took a handful of AA shells to the side as it passed by Church's Zaku, Church giving a quick signal saying he would pursue the fighter. The HMT Zaku boosted above the Sleipner, emptying the last of his first drum to get the thing to pull off and reloading. John followed in pursuit, lining up a shot behind the Saberfish carefully. But before he could finish aiming, ventral thrusters on the Saberfish spun it around, the fighter quickly letting off a pair of rockets and vulcan fire as it flew backwards. Church cursed, flipping his Zaku in a backwards spin and moving beneath his target. "Different mobile suit, same tricks." mused Cherish to herself, a cacophany of Marilyn Manson playing loudly inside her cockpit. It wasn't anything too personal with these guys, but if they blew up her ship it'd make her look bad. She flipped her fighter back towards the way it was flying, strafing right as she dodged a barrage of 120mm fire from Church. Coming around in a spin, she blasted off back towards the Sleipner at a speed a one legged Zaku II HMT wasn't going to be able to keep up with. "Get the hell away from my bunk cyclops!" she yelled, firing another pair of rockets at Carver's Rick Dom, which had just destroyed another MPC turret and was coming up from underneath the ship by the engines. Darius saw the shots, spinning around and blasting back underneath the Salamis. The two warheads missed the Rick Dom completely, slamming into the Sleipner's hull. The main engine exploded and then suddenly went silent. Woods Saberfish chased after Carver, firing a few dozen 25mm shells into the Rick Dom. The mobile suit took negligable damage, but one round managed to pierce into the cockpit, hitting Carver lightly in the side. He screamed out, but knowing his training quickly pulled a half meter long square of plastic out of a pocket in his chair, letting the escaping air in the cockpit pull it to the breach and seal it. Anton fired a small burst from his beam bazooka, forcing Cherish to pull off long enough for Anton's rick dom to grab ahold of Carver's, allowing the pilots to communicate in the particle field. "We're getting real close to red line Darius, I think it's time to pull off." Anton said, sounding rather annoyed. Darius checked his fuel gauge, making sure the Sublieutenant was right. In a few seconds their mobile suits wouldn't have enough fuel to make the trip back home this far from their ships. "Roger that lieutenant." Darius said, reorienting his mobile suit towards Granada. Vereschagin let off the green retreat flare, the four mobile suits breaking off and heading as best they could back towards Granada. Cherish flipped her Saberfish around in a circle, coming up behind the four mobile suits on a pursuit course. Church swivelled his Zaku around and fired at her with his machinegun, but a second too late, Woods letting off a pair of missiles and then pulling her plane to the right. Both warheads connected with the Zaku II F, destroying it completely. Cherish was going to come around and try for Church next when a laser communications line came from the Sleipner. "Pull off petty officer, you're in the Salamis's missile trajectory." Cherish ignored the order, pretending to be recieving too much interference as she lined up the next shot. Church and Carver both spun around this time, bazooka rounds forcing the Saberfish into the Zaku HMT's 120mm shells. However, Woods was lucky and managed to only take minimal damage. Now unable to sustain pursuit, she finally broke off and headed towards the engineless Sleipner. John Church looked at what remained of the attack wing, three units lost and two units damaged. They would have destroyed the ship if it wasn't for that lucky Saberfish pilot as well. But failing the mission wasn't really what mattered, he was wondering what he was going to tell his wife... Arcaile Nasr - 10 VP gained, Sleipner disabled Anton Vereschagin - 9 VP gained, 2 days damage Cherish Woods - 8 VP gained, 2 days damage Darius Carver - 9 VP gained, 1 days damage 3 days injury John Church - 9 VP gained, 4 days damage |