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The bow of the Lunatic's Dream cut through vacuum like a knife. The ship, with its three rotating cargo bays and massive engine pods, cast a threatening silhouette, but in reality it was all bark and no bite. The Interplanetary Transport Craft sported no (known) weapons of its own and could itself give no resistance to any enemies, but instead relied on its mobile suit pilots for protection. The solar sail was currently undeployed, the ship having reached an appropriate speed hours ago. The captain, a man of sardonic humor with the unfortunate first name of Polonius, rather enjoyed the beautiful sight of the sails rippling with unseen force. It made him feel like a sailor of the old days, cruising blue oceans and taking on cargo at exotic ports. In his mind, he sighed. Though no slump arched his back, he mentally settled deeper into his command chair, the bridge relatively quiet around him. Even through a time of tranquility, he would not allow his crew to see him daydream. It wasn't proper. And Polonius Geoffreys was nothing if not proper. Behind him, he heard the bridge door slide open with a whoosh of hydraulics. He turned his head slightly. His employer, one Mr. Jonas Keller, entered. He was a man who knew very well about daydreams. After all, Polonius thought, he was living one. A man could respect those who lived their dreams. Especially those who lived grand ones. As Jonas Keller strode onto the bridge, he saw Captain Geoffreys nodding in his direction and returned it, indicating with a small gesture that he wished to speak with the good captain. Geoffreys stepped down from the command post to meet the white-haired revolutionary. "Hello, Mr. Keller. I trust everything is alright?" "Of course," Jonas replied as he gripped the other man's hand in a shake. Such a gesture may have seemed odd to an outsider, but Jonas and Polonius had known each other for a long time, and had always greeted each other in the ancient western way. "Hudson and I are prepping our suits for a training exercise that we wish to take place soon. Do you have any objections?" "Another paintball fight?" Geoffreys asked, stroking his thick brown beard. When Jonas shook his head, the captain's eyes widened. "A live fire exercise? I suppose, as long as you are careful. And if you don't object to us being vulnerable to pirates while we repair from your little spat." "John will be on hand to cover the Dream," Jonas replied, "There aren't many pirates who could keep up with her, in any case." The captain nodded smugly. Every man worth his salt was proud of the vessel he captained. The two men parted ways amiably, Captain Geoffreys returning to his seat and Jonas striding out the door. As it closed with another whoosh, the captain grinned slightly. Despite his generally disapproving air, he always enjoyed these little shows. "I'm glad we get a little rematch, Jonas!" Hudson Kyle grinned as he adjusted the instruments to a steady beeping in his cramped little cockpit. The Rick Dom responded with a well-oiled grace, launching from one of the rotating cargo bays of the Dream. Thrusters fired as his suit spun around and pushed it away from the ship, even smaller rockets making minute adjustments to his position. The Zaku II High Mobility Type was quick to follow, exiting from the cargo bay that was now passing above the bow. Its usually bulky silhouette was slightly diminished, as the customized Zaku had left behind its signature chain mine, the powerful weapon being far too deadly to utilize in a friendly duel. One hand of the iconic mobile suit held a menacing punching shield, and the other the standard Zaku machinegun. Hudson had brought only his shotgun and heat hawk, confident in his suit's superiority. "Hopefully you'll make it a little more interesting this time," Jonas joked, producing a incredulous snort from the comm that made his drooping moustache twitch upward in a small grin. As the suits made their way into position, a green flare erupted from the bow of Jonas' ship. Captain Geoffreys' voice erupted into both cockpits. "No time to think boys, get it started!" Both suits stood stock still for a moment, the pilots startled at the abrupt announcement. Jonas was the first to react, his Zaku showing off impressive manuverability as it wove helix patterns in space, though the marksmanship displayed left something to be desired. The machinegun spat hot lead into the void, missing for the first few seconds of fire. By the time Jonas had adjusted for the complexity of his first stunt, Hudson had had more than enough time to put the older suit to shame. The Dom blasted forward with uncanny speed, halos of light bursting from the legs as the large thrusters there ignited. The shotgun came out and coughed out two quick bursts of pellets. The buckshot impacted on the puncher shield, which Jonas had brought up with milliseconds to spare. The man's heightened awareness served him very well in combat, and the fact that this duel was not over instantly stood tribute to it. His Zaku responded well to his touch as it darted around the larger Dom and tried to put some distance between the two, firing the entire time. It was to no avail as Hudson matched every one of his moves with his own excellent piloting skill. The shotgun fired again, muzzle depressing with a rush of combustion as it emptied its deadly load. Jonas was able to dodge once more, but he suddenly realized that by staying at this range he was playing right into his comrade's hands. The Zaku II suddenly stopped with a burst of reverse thrusters, throwing away the machinegun. Hudson paused for a second and justified Jonas' change in tactics. "You want to get close, huh?" Keller asked, rhetorically. The Zaku burst forward, right hand reaching for the heat sword as the left drew the puncher shield back. Hudson panicked for a second and threw away his own gun as he reached for the heat hawk to counter. It was too late, however. Jonas' surprise manuver had given him enough time to strike, and the spikes on the puncher shield tore three ragged holes in the torso of the Rick Dom. The wound sparked and fizzled as electricity bled out into cold space. Hudson knew melee, however, and he was moving before damage assessments scrolled up past his instruments. The heat hawk glowed moltenly as he raised it, whirling around the Zaku and thrusting the axe downward. Jonas caught the attack with his sword, the two weapons locking for a moment and then sliding away. Keller mananged to strike the Rick Dom in the shoulder on the backswing, the heated blade ripping through armor but doing no damage to the motors beneath. In response, the Dom's left fist came up and slammed into the Zaku's head, cracking the pig-like "nose" and tearing off one of the tubes attached to it. Jonas' display turned to snow for a second and then stabilized, but he had felt another attack coming without needing to see it and brought his puncher shield up once again. The heat hawk was slowed by the shield, but the defensive implement was weakened by the previous shotgun blasts and gave way under the not-so-gentle minstrations of the axe. It sliced through the Zaku's left arm, leaving only shorn tubing and wires below the elbow. Jonas jetted backward, his senses and instruments both screaming danger. Hudson followed up his attack aggressively, keeping pace with the wounded Zaku easily. Both suits sparked now, pinpricks of light leaking from their wounds and soaring from the impacts of their heated weapons against each other. They were evenly matched, despite the damage slowing each down - Jonas' newtype reactions kept him up with Hudson's superior skills, and for a few minutes the outcome seemed up in the air. Then, it was all over. Hudson recovered from another blocked attack, the curved edge of his heat hawk slipping off of the straight edge of the heavy heat sword, and Jonas saw his opening. The heat sword, cast off from some unfortunate Gouf, drove in for the killing blow. The small pod on the chest of the Dom suddenly clicked open. Light exploded over Jonas' screens, destroying his visability completely and making the white-haired man squint. As his screens slowly cleared, he found that the Dom was nowhere in sight. He tried to spin the suit around, but something was restraining it. The Zaku turned its head and the monoeye rotated as far as it would go to the right. The image of the Rick Dom's cyclopian visage filled his monitors. Jonas could imagine Hudson grinning inside. The heat hawk came up from under the Zaku's chest and clove the head of the beige mobile suit cleanly off its shoulders. Sparking, it tumbled off into the abyss. Jonas' cockpit went dim as his backup cameras activated - a poor substitute at best, and nowhere near making him fit for combat. He smiled himself as he stroked his drooping mustache. Hudson's face popped up in the corner of his screen, his subordinate opening the video link specifically to gloat. It didn't dampen Jonas' spirits. A man was no better than those he commanded, and if measured by that metric, Jonas was a great man indeed. Hudson Kyle: 8 VP gained, 2+1 days damage Jonas Keller: 6 VP gained, 3+1 days damage "..." Daren lounges in the cockpit of his GM as it approaches the Nile, incredibly bored. A newly minted officer in the Earth Federation's ground forces, he's still getting used to this new fangled mobile suit contraption, which hasn't helped his mood any. He's certain the other GM pilot has been snickering at how he's been moving his GM, though he has no real evidence for this. Daren and the GM splash into the waters of the Nile, serenely oblivious; there's no obvious danger anywhere in sight on the incredibly flat terrain, and Daren's Minovsky Particle indicator reads zero. "None of those spacenoid scum for miles. Perfect." As Daren pushes his throttle forwards another notch, two pairs of giant yellow claws raise from the water, grab the ankles of his mobile suit and the GM, and suddenly yank them both down into the depths, leaving only a spreading circle of ripples to mark their passage. Daren Sanders: Blocked, also lulz |