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The hot Moroccan sun beat down on Emmanuel, his dark blue mobile suit a stark contrast to the oranges and yellows circling around him. He was glad he had brought extra water, the young Jewish man sweating profusely in the heat. It had been an interesting turn of affairs that had gotten him into this mobile suit, as well as into North Africa. He really wasn't too sure what to make of it. Save his homeland? He hadn't seen his homeland in some time, and spent the day hoping he would see it again. His mobile suit, the GM Blue Destiny, was strange as well. Sometimes when he was inside the cockpit, he swore he could hear a voice speaking to him. But in none of his training excercizes had he been able to quite pick it out. This GM was supposed to incorporate some high tech system that helped him pilot, and the brass did seem to be impressed with his skills, as was Emmanuel. He seemed to be a natural, or maybe it was this system? He wasn't sure. He didn't understand mobile suits that much, really. Emmanuel's inner monologue, which had gone on since he was paradropped into the west coast of Africa, was cut short as he caught a few trails of dust coming towards him on the flat expanse ahead. Magnifying his sensor view he could make it out to be mobile suits, but he wasn't sure exactly what kind. Emmanuel really didn't like to fight, but neither did a good deal of people in the Earth Federation military. With a sigh, he started up his combat systems, the Blue Destiny taking its 100mm machinegun off its weapons rack. "What the hell kind of GM is that?" asked Gideon, the four Zaku II D's rapidly converging on its position. This was an ordinary seek and destroy mission, a Luggun flight had picked up the Medea that dropped Emmanuel earlier this morning. However, Gideon was a little worried, he'd never seen a GM that looked quite like that before. "Looks like an ordinary GM Ground from here, never mind the color." responded the lead mobile suit of the Pink Panthers. "And you're the only one with a bazooka Gideon." The four of them laughed. For Zaku pilots, the Pink Panthers had been through quite a bit, including forays with Luna Titanium armored mobile suits. They were somewhat poorly equipped, but heat hawks made short work of any armor. Fanning out to encircle the Blue Destiny, they quickly made their move, wanting to get away from the hot Arab sun and get home as fast as they could. Emmanuel wasn't an easy nut to crack however. As the 4 jetski equipped Zaku's fanned around him, the Blue Destiny opened up with quite a barrage, chest mounted machineguns and head mounted vulcans keeping them from advancing. His 100mm caught one Zaku on the shoulder, but the shield reduced the damage to a negligable amount. If it was one on one Emmanuel would have stood a good chance, but one on four he wasn't able to keep up with all the targets at once. Three Zaku's opened up with 120mm fire, the shells doing little to no damage to the tough Blue Destiny, but they distracted him long enough for Gideon to move in, a bazooka round to the legs knocking Emmanuel's suit to the ground. Jumping off his ski's, Gideon's Zaku grabbed its heat hawk, kicking the Blue Destiny over in the same motion. Emmanuel had forgotten his chair straps and went flying, his head hitting the roof of the cockpit and knocking him out cold with a light concussion. Gideon laughed, kicking the blue mobile suit again and then straddling it with his Zaku. "Looks like we got the pilot boys! Should we capture this thing or just blow it up here?" Another one of the Panthers snickered, answering back. "It's too ugly for a spacenoid to use, why don't we bust it up and call it a day." Gideon nodded in agreement, his Zaku II levelling its bazooka at the Blue Destiny's face. Even if he was going to destroy the suit, he was going to have a bit of fun first. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, the voice of a young girl entered Gideon's mind. Kill me. In the next moment, Gideon pulled the trigger just as the Blue Destiny swung its shield arm up, blocking the round to its face. Firing its back thrusters the blue mobile suit ascended a short distance into the air, knocking the desert Zaku onto the ground. Ignoring 120mm fire from the rest of the Panthers, the blue mobile suit swung its body around, coming down with its shield arm slamming into Gideon's cockpit, plastering his insides against its back wall. The Destiny slammed its other arm against the fallen Zaku's shoulder, looking up at the rest of the panthers with eyes glowing bright red. Kill me. The three Zaku's opened fire, one taking a grenade and throwing it towards the blue GM. The Destiny responded almost before the Zaku's even moved, pulling itself upright with the Zaku II in both arms, letting the shots riddle its backpack and the grenade explode against it, causing the destroyed Zaku to explode as well. Before the smoke dissipated from the blast the Blue Destiny was soaring on jumpjets towards the three Zaku's, vulcans and machineguns riddling another one of the Panthers. The pilot had taken a round to the face before the Destiny even connected, knocking the pink Zaku to the ground and then jumping off it like a springboard. Kill me!! The other two Panthers were a bit too fast, flying in opposite directions away from the berserk mobile suit. Disoriented and horrified at the voice of the young girl they went into a steady retreat, having just enough sense left to throw down smoke grenades to impede the Blue Destinies escape. The blue mobile suit went on all fours soon after they had left, bashing its head into the desert sand several times before going silent, Salazar still out cold inside the cockpit. Emmanuel Salazar - 4 VP gained, 2 days damage 3 days injury Marion - 5 VP gained "Sir, there's nothing out here. We've done three passes in this region and found absolutely nothing of interest." Inside a Gunship Heli, an exasperated Zeon officer grabbed his radio. He and his command, 5 other helicopter units, were busy searching an empty desert, and he knew that as well as his subordinates. Still, orders were orders. Plus, this kid had a big mouth. "Listen son, our orders are to stay out here and patrol the region, and that's what we're going to do. So why don't you sit back, relax, and stop using up all this valuable oxygen before it goes to waste?" While the other members of the patrol chuckled in their cockpits, the younger pilot bristled at the challenge. "Now you listen here, old man, not all of us pl..." Before he could finish the thought, a contact registered on his officer's sensor board, causing him to cut off his radio even as the youth continued to jabber on. Examining his information for a moment, he swore under his breath, and wheeled his gunship about. "It appears we may have company after all. Get a move on." As the helicopters turned about quickly, a GM S-Type could be seen in the distance. Its pilot, Tobias Kendrick Obrien, was employing his full - and extensive - litany of curses, his Irish brogue displaying his frustration. Out here in the desert, any contact at all was assuredly an unfriendly - and as he approached closer, his fears were proven true. Six bogeys. Zeon. " Aoileach! So much fer Irish luck…" Goosing his thrusters, he sped his mobile suit at the approaching forces. Despite their attempts to prepare for head-on tactics, the speed of his arrival caught them off-guard. The GM S-Type's powerful engines sped it across the ground at a blistering pace, as Tobias grabbed his beam saber in one hand, and his machinegun in the other. Loosing one burst that missed wide, Tobias dashed into the middle of the helicopter formation, forcing them to threaten each other if they wanted to shoot at him. Flying by the seat of his pants as usual, he brought up an arm to ward off the vulcan fire from several of the copters. None of the shots did any real damage beyond the cosmetic. His return blow - a cleave with his beam saber straight through the heart of one gunship - was slightly more effective, cutting down an enemy in one devastating slice. The leader of the gunships, furthest from the attack, realized what he would have to do in order for any of his men to survive this scenario. Grimacing briefly, he moved on an intercept course at full speed. As his copter picked up speed, the GM's beam saber bisected another Zeon soldier, and turned to aim at a third target. The Zeon pilots were panicking slightly now, afraid to use their missiles lest they miss and gain a friendly fire kill. "Oh, crap!" The young pilot who had earlier voiced his displeasure at the patrol now stared down the wrong end of the GM S-Type's machinegun. Tobias paused momentarily, feeling almost unwilling to take another life. Something felt odd. The break permitted another of the remaining Zeon pilots to fire a burst of shells that rocked him about slightly. Realizing his situation, his resolve quickly hardened, and he moved to pull the trigger. As he did so, the commanding officer of the helicopter unit achieved his sacrificial objective, slamming into the shoulder of the arm that held the machine gun. Several slugs spat from its muzzle, but they slammed into the sand below in harmless fashion. The GM's reactive armor helped to mitigate some of the impact, but it still sprawled Tobias against his chair, and the helicopter's explosion tore off a significant section of the S-Type's arm. Groggy, Tobias shook his head and pulled back on his joystick, employing a tactical retreat. The GM S-Type was soon little more than a fast-disappearing speck on the horizon, its shaken pilot trying to tell if he had suffered a concussion from the impact of his head on his chair. The three remaining helicopters quickly retreated as well, rotors whirring at maximum speed. The young Zeon pilot had little to say, as he removed himself from the battle. Only the sour taste of survival at another's expense was left. Tobias Kencrick Obrien: 9 VP gained, 3 days damage. Desert. Endless, thankless desert. Will yawns as his mass production Gundam stomps through the wastelands of the Sahara, with nothing in sight but shimmering heat waves, the tracks of his MS, and the cloud of dust the Type 74 in his wake is throwing up. He's been wandering around out here for hours now, and hasn't seen any Zeon forces yet. What he has, however, had to do, is stop several times in order to remove dust and grit from the joints of his MS. The Gundam ground type may theoretically be an all-purpose unit, but in practice, Will has found it cranky and cantankerous to maintain, especially with no proper spare parts available. "Bored, bored, bored... I really wish something would happen." Will's wish is granted in a most unexpected way after his mobile suit passes the next dune, as a Dom painted in desert camoflauge stands up from beneath the camo tarp it's hiding beneath, and fires a bazooka round directly into his backpack. A massive secondary explosion ensues, as the extra ammunition for his 180mm cannon and the e-cap of his beam rifle both cook off simultaneously, throwing his MS forward onto his face. Fortunately for him, the explosion vents itself in the direction of least resistance, which is through the massive hole the bazooka round has punched. Still, red lights appear all over Will's panel. "Shit! What the hell was that!?" Stunned by the sudden attack, Will can only watch as something round and knobby bounces into view, rolling under the figurative nose of his mobile suit and stopping. A small red light is blinking on it, and the only thought that comes through his mind is... "Hey, that looks kinda familia-" A second gigantic explosion ensues, the cracker grenade pummelling the front of his mobile suit with great force, tearing away the V-fin and damaging one of the cameras. Finally getting it together, Will rolls the MS onto it's back, raising his machinegun and pointing it at where the Dom was... ...only to see nothing there but sand. He does, however, spot several more cracker grenades flying through the air towards him from various directions, and with a curse, he scrambles his mobile suit to it's feet, staggering backwards and barely avoiding the conflagration as they land where he was. "He's to the right, si-" The transmission cuts out as another bazooka round sails in from nearby, this time hitting the Type 74 broatside. The thinly armored vehicle seems to bulge outwards at the seam, flames shooting from every orfice, before it finally explodes in a cloud of shrapnel, raining down on the dunes nearby. Will turns and fires away with his 100mm machinegun at the Dom, which is now revealed... and moving towards him at high speed, in the characteristic smooth gliding of Doms everywhere. What's not so characteristic, however, are the three tan-colored Zakus behind it, skating along on giant... skis? Will can't get a good look at them through the sand... Will's reflexes are pretty good as his first burst comes within mere inches of the Dom's camera. But the rest of his paniced volley hits nothing but air as the Dom closes in, the scattering beam gun on it's chest suddenly flashing with terrible, brilliant glory, whiting out his screen. Panicing, he drops the empty machinegun and his shield, and grabs for his mobile suit's beam sabers, swinging them wildly at whatever may be nearby. The proximity indicators on the left and right both light up, a faint beeping sounding in the cockpit in warning, and a second later, a massive impact shakes his entire MS, then another, and then yet another. Red and yellow warning lights start popping up all over his MS's body... then a blank spot on the little paperdoll status indicator of the MS and a loud explosion that reverbates in his cockpit, as the Gundam's head falls apart under the impact of a point blank bazooka shell. As the backup cameras engage, Will raises the arms of his MS to fend off the attacks, to drive his enemies away, to do SOMETHING... ...and to his horror, he sees nothing but a pair of burned stumps, the devastating blows dealt during the camera outage having severed him. A heat saber flashes across his vision next, stabbing into the machinegun port on the Gundam's chest, it's ammunition supply cooking off and sending a gout of flame out around the sword's tip More blows reverbate as warning lights and klaxons begin to sound throughout his MS, the mobile suit falling to it's knees, more loud explosions sounding from the backpack. The Dom raises it's sword to deliver the final blow, and the tip of the heat saber stabs towards the cockpit... and stops. The monoeye of the Dom flashes a few times, then looks away to the east, then it and the Zakus turn, and jet away, As an afterthought, one of the Zakus nudges the Gundam with it's heat hawk, sending it tipping forward and crashing face first into the sand. Will Barton: 7 VP gained, 4 days damage |