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Tobias fiddles with an electronic game as his mobile suit trudges across the endless desert sands, headed for the nearby mine owned by Zeon. Normally, he'd be jetting along instead of walking... but since there's a normal GM with him, that isn't an option for once. Sighing loudly as he loses his last life yet again, he sets the game aside and keys his console. "Hurry up, or we'll be late! Can't you move that thing any faster?" The GM pilot's face appears on the screen, with a harassed look on his face. This is the seventh time Tobias has called him in the last hour, and he's getting rather tired of this. "Shut up, you little shit! I'm going as fast as I can, this GM isn't designed for desert warfare! Any faster than this and the joints will fill with sand before we go a kilometer, which is what I told you the past four times you called!" The annoyed look transferres itself to Tobias's face as well now as he starts to inhale for a retort. As he does so, however, the screen begins to flicker... and a new channel opens, from the aircraft circling high above, which are now beginning to level off and head towards the west. "...bias! ..*fzzt* ...speed land bat... *crackle* ...from the west!" Frowning, Tobias taps the screen a few times, which is now starting to break out in patches of static and snow... and then his eyes are drawn to the Minovsky particle indicator, which is steadily rising at a rapid rate. Cursing, he snaps the screen off and looks to the west, seeing a huge cloud of dust slowly rising up from the desert. At the point of it is a large yellow object, incoming at high speed. Crouching atop the speeding Gallop, behind one of the forward AA turrets, Eric leans forward as he sees a glint of light off of metal from the desert ahead. The Gallop has detatched it's cargo container some distance back to increase it's mobility, and it zips across the sand at near Dom speed, the two machineguns rotating as their barrels elevate. The Zaku behind the other turret gives Eric a thumbs up from it's position, racking the slide on it's machinegun and chambering a round. The battle begins with a deafening CRACK as the Gallop's main cannon opens up, a pair of shells launching out of it's main gun, arcing over the observation tower, and plunging down from high in the sky a few seconds later, detonating in the general vicinity of Tobias and the GM. Cursing, Tobias quickly kicks in his leg jets and boosts away, though the GM with him can't move quite so quickly. Still, luckily for both of them, the first shells miss, the GM diving behind a sand dune and aiming it's machinegun, and Tobias starting to accelerate towards the Gallop in a zigzag pattern to throw off it's aiming. As he moves in closer, the machinegun turrets start to lay down a barrage... then stop, and start firing upwards, as the Tin Cod with him strafes across the Gallop. It's 25mm vulcans spark from the armor, but don't seem to accomplish much. As it pulls up and away, the turrets rotate to follow it... and then the entire ship suddenly turns sharply to the left, as a stick of bombs from the Depp Rogg track across the sand, blasting massive amounts of dust into the air and shrapnel into it's armor. The shadow of the massive bomber covers the Gallop briefly as it passes overhead and starts to climb, but, unlike the Tin Cod, the Depp Rog isn't quite so nimble... which is adequately demonstrated as the Zaku crouched behind one of the Gallop's turrets unloads several dozen rounds into it's left wing, sending smoke trailing from it. "Tobias, this is Jensen. I have red and yellow lights all through my port wing-- I've got to break off! Sorry...!" The main cannons of the Gallop fire again, this time a little better aimed, though not quite well enough: the gunner leads too much, landing the shells in front of Tobias's speeding mobile suit. Gritting his teeth, he slams the thruster control forwards, sending the Armored GM into the air in a boost jump that carries him forwards at high speed. As he bursts out of the dust cloud, he finds himself right above the Gallop, having leapt into it's path by chance. Landing on the rear turret with a crash, his mobile suit wobbles slighty, then catches his balance as he snaps off a burst at the Zaku behind the forwards turret. The stream of bullets impacts it's backpack squarely, the fuel beginning to explode as shrapnel rips through the cockpit, killing the pilot within instantly. The hands of the pilot inside convulse on the controls, the Zaku's hands doing likewise as an aimless stream of machinegun bullets fires into the ground, the green behemoth slumping forwards, then sliding off of the Gallop and landing on the desert floor, burning sullenly under the sun. "Shit! How'd he get here!?" Eric proves to have faster reflexes than the Zaku, merely turning the Efreet to the side and pulling the trigger, the shotgun blast hitting and junking the machinegun in Tobias's hand rather abruptly. To his dismay, however, the pellets prove less than effective against the high speed mobile suit's external armor, and he quickly tosses it aside and pulls out his heat sabers, carefully making his way towards the rear of the land battleship as Tobias's beam saber ignites. Ignoring the Efreet for the moment, he takes the opportunity to slice away the barrels of the Gallop's main cannons, and, since the gunner won't stop rotating the turret in an attempt to shake him off, he stabs his beam saber downwards into the little hatch on top, causing a small explosion and a cessation of movement. As he looks back up, he notices the Efreet crouching for a jump, and his brows furrow in curiosity. As the Efreet launches itself into the air, the Gallop suddenly begins a series of sharp turns, causing his GM to flail it's arms, attempting to keep it's balance. Finally, a bootlegger turn catapults his mobile suit off of the deck of the Gallop and into the sand. Eric quickly attempts to capitalize on this before Tobias can arise, but a stream of machinegun fire from the other GM impacts against the Efreet's left arm, sending it off-couse and landing face-first not far from Tobias. Tobias shakes the cobwebs out and gets to his feet, in time to be squarely impacted by four streams of machinegun fire from the Gallop's turrets. At this range, a few of the rounds clip the Efreet too, but even so, the heavy rounds chew through the armor and smash his MS down into the sand. However, the Efreet pauses, looking away to north... then jumps back onto the deck of the Gallop, which races away in a hurry, as if something else more important is going on... Eric Kyrion: 2 days damage, 8 VP gained Tobias Kendrick Obrion: 4 days damage, 6 VP gained First a cargo vessel from Lisbon to northern Sicily, then an airlift by a Medea from Syracuse to central Europe, and Cameron Sune was wandering, nearly lost, in the western mountains of the former Czech Republic. He grumbled as his GM Cannon and his companion GM slipped into a wide ravine, large, sheer cliff faces on either side of them. "You've been queit," the GM pilot announced. Sune scratched his chin. "I don't think I like this place very much." The GM pilot snorted. "Why should you. Zeeks are supposed to be in the area." "That's what Ground Intel says," Sune replied. "I've haven't seen nor heard a Zeek since we've been here." The two suits reached the end of the ravine, which opened up into a large valley. The entire valley, fed by a large river, was filled with farmland. Despite Sune's uneasiness with being in Zeon territory, this land was a beautiful country... ...with a Gouf walking across it... ~ Kalila Darwesh throttled up on her Gouf, maneuvering across the Czech farmland, heading in a northerly direction. She tugged on one of her curls and bit her lip. Moving through this region of Europe was dangerous - this was the frontier between the Duchy and the Federation, with patrols on both sides slipping in and out of the front-line forces. She rolled the suit's mono-eye to the left and to the right, but noting seemed to pop out at her. ~ "Alright, Petty Officer," Sune ordered, "I want you to head east and begin to flank around the suit. I'll sit here in the mouth of the ravine and open up on the Zeek. Move in and flush the Gouf out of any hiding spot it may find." "Got it, Corporal," the GM pilot replied. The GM bounded off to Sune's left. Turning his attention southwards, he maneuvered his GM Cannon over to a large rock pile, providing the Cannon with suitable cover from the Zeek. Just in case, he thought. Sune began the slow process of lining up his shot, taking into consideration the speed of the Gouf. Smiling, Sune depressed on the trigger, firing his suit's massive 240mm cannon. The round streaked forward, towards the Gouf. ~ Darwesh's mono-eye suddenly registered the incoming round, and she was barely able to juke her Gouf to the right, the round exploding against the Gouf's left shoulder, leaving the left arm of the suit hanging limp. "Shit," Darwesh cursed as she began rapidly zigzagging and accelerating towards the source of the sudden barrage of rounds. Round after round began falling around the Gouf, but Darwesh rapidly closed the gap, moving at nearly 100 kph. Reaching to the magnetic rack, Darwesh grabbed her 280mm bazooka, finally spotting the source of the incoming rounds: a GM Cannon hiding behind a rock outcropping at the north end of the valley. Juking to the left as a sixth shell fell, she quickly aimed and fired. Darwesh's round impacted into the rock outcropping shielding the Federation suit, knocking the Cannon backwards and showring it with rocks dust. ~ "Damnit," Sune yelled, upset at allowing the Gouf to get so close before relocating. He rapidly worked the controls of the Cannon, maneuvering backwards, up the ravine. The Gouf fired again, and the bazooka round glanced off Sune's arm shield. He grabbed his 100mm machinegun off his back rack and raised his arm shield. "Get your ass back here," Sune yelled over the com to his GM. He opened up on the Gouf, the bullets smacking against the Zeek's armor. The Gouf juked right as it closed in on the cannon and launched a third rocket which struck against the Cannon's chest, knocking Sune backwards. The Gouf rocked forwards as machinegun fire hit it from behind. Sune's GM companion burst out from behind the Gouf, peppering the Zeek suit with 90mm machinegun rounds. Clearly outmatched, the Gouf fired a wild fourth round of bazooka fire at the GM, which skimmed off the top of the GM's arm shield, and retreated backwards at full speed. "Are you alright, Corporal?" the GM's pilot asked, standing protectively over the Cannon. "Yeah, I'm alright," Sune grumbled. "Go after it?" the other pilot asked, in reference to the Gouf. "No," Sune replied. "I think we've had enough excitement for one day. Outcome: Federation Victory Cameron Sune: 7 VP gained, 1 Day Damaged Kalila Darwesh: 6 VP gained, 3 Days Damaged |