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Jennifer's lips tighten as she moves the shield of her Gouf Custom slightly, as another set of rumbling explosions echo across the small rocky area her mobile suit is crouched in. The situation is bad... bad indeed. Somehow, the Earth Federation seems to have picked up on her plans for the irritating GM Cannon pilot that's been such a nuisance to local forces as of late... the alternative is unthinkable. Shrapnel sprays off the top of the large rock as a shell lands squarely on it's crown, sending granite spraying. The rising sun illuminates the shrapnel as it flies through the air, many tiny sparkles drifting across Jennifer's view. She finds her eyes almost drawn to them briefly, but quickly pushes the half-formed thought into the back of her mind, concentrating on the here and now. The tactical enviroment is quite poor: the speed and rapidity of the distant cannon fire leads her to believe there are at least two GM Cannons out there. To make matters worse, the Federation has also sent a backup squad, consisting of a trio of GMs, crouched behind a similar set of rocks about 90 meters distant, constantly pelting the positions of the two standing Zeon mobile suits with machinegun fire. The Zaku lays on the ground, on it's back, a scorched hole in it's torso near the cockpit from the beam gun utilized by the GM Command. Jennifer can hear Yuri's harsh, pain-filled breathing over the radio, and an occasional bubbly cough, signifying a lung injury. Overhead, the recon craft the Federation is using comes around for another pass... and finally, something goes right. It swoops just a little too close to the rocks on the same course for just a little too long, and a loud CRACK echoes from nearby, a twisting donut of smoke surrounding the barrel of Victoria's main cannon as it transfixes the Dish squarely, causing it to simply explode in flames. However, the cannon fire continues, shells still raining down, not that much less accurately than before. Most of them seem to now be directed at the Zaku Cannon's position, and Victoria, not being one to take chances, hits the deck, leaving only the cannon muzzle and head of her Zaku sticking out as the two GM Cannons attempt counterbattery fire. Jennifer squints at her main screen, and sees something up high, in the clouds: a second Dish, the rotund craft's pilot smart enough not to get as low as his companion, calmly calling in the fire via his laser communications link. From bad to worse... "Pour it on! They can't last much longer!" Cameron has a jovial expression on his face as the next set of coordinates comes in from the Dish, and he aligns his GM Cannon slightly and pulls the trigger, another shell hurtling downrange. He's been a little worried about taking on one of Zeon's vaunted Schutzstaffel officers on, but it's proved far easier than he expected... the first suprise salvo from Qayin's squad managed to take down a Zaku, and soon after that, his and Tetsuya's accurate fire, aided by the exellent targeting provided by the Dishes, managed to split up and pin down the Zeon squad, and he knows it's only a matter of time until either their cover wears away or he gets a lucky hit. The whole thing is starting to approach the feeling of a grand day out, the three GM pilots in the escort force obviously bored. As he pulls the trigger again, a new communications window pops open from the pilot of the Dish. "Yes, what is it? Is the next set of coor--" He suddenly finds himself rudely cut off "Sir, I'm detecting numerous heat signatures headed your way from the ocean, at high speed! Take cover immediately! Also, three mobile suits approaching from the rear!" "What kind of heat signature-" Cameron's question is answered as he sees a twinkling of sparks in the sky, headed at high speed for his position. Cursing, he dives for cover, yelling something incoherent over the radio. Out at sea, something dark begins to breach the surface, more missiles spraying from open VLS hatches on top, even as the first set arrives, pounding down across his position. One slams a GM in the leg, causing it to spin and flail with it's arms before landing in the sand with an undignified thunk, and Cameron curses as an extremely loud detonation next to his GM shakes the entire suit, the status display for his cannon suddenly flashing red, displaying problems in the autoloader. "Dammit!" Tetsuya's mobile suit takes a hit as well, losing it's left arm and some shoulder armor, but otherwise remaining mostly intact. As more missiles rain down, Cameron rolls his GM onto it's back, then to it's knee, raising his shield and beam spraygun as he faces towards the rear. "It's not over! We have incoming mobile suits!" True to his word, two beams rip through their position, one slamming into the groin of another GM and causing it to tip over, and the other taking out Tetsuya's head. The three mobile suits approaching over the nearby hill are revealed at last: two Acguys, and, oddly enough, a Gouf, sprinting for Cameron's position as fast as they can go, guns blazing... The smirk that's been on Qalin's face ever since the start of the battle slowly dies away as the cannon fire suddenly stops, and confused traffic starts to come over the radio from the position a few miles away. "An attack...? By who? The only Spacenoids in the area are right here...?" Turning back quickly, he sees a most unpleasent sight, as three mobile suits rise from behind various clusters of blasted and blackened rocks, battered, dented... but still quite intact, and quite functional. Cursing, he yells to the two GM pilots nearby. "What are you waiting for? Shoot them, you fools! We've got to take them down before they get over here!" The bazooka of Gavin's Dom fires with it's characteristic ker-FOOM, sending a shell outwards which detonates on the ground right in front of Cameron, causing him to jump back as he raises his shield upwards. He snaps off a beam from his beam gun at the heavily armored mobile suit, but it's already in motion, and it's powerful thrusters have carried it almost two body lengths from his snapshot by the time he finishes tightening his finger on the trigger. The blue form of Jennifer's Gouf Custom rushes forwards with menacing speed as she pegs the thrusters, her Gouf Custom racing fowards with suprising speed for such a heavily armored MS, then landing 20 meters or so in front of Qalin's position. This time he manages to snap off a more accurate shot, which strikes Jennifer's mobile suit in the upper right shield... but he blanches as while a crater is blown almost all the way through the shield, rocking the Gouf, it doesn't penetrate. "Anti-beam coating...!?" The Gouf Custom leaps into the air once again, extending it's left arm as it seems to almost hover in mid-air, the barrels of it's 75mm gatling revolving into a blur as a stream of lead spits forth, dancing along the ground and across the shields of the two GMs. Cameron is a little slower, and it shows as the heavy rounds mangle his beam gun, Jennifer's target, causing it to shatter into lots of pieces of complicated electronic junk. Cursing, he blazes away with his vulcans while he grabs his beam saber, the Gouf Custom now falling towards their position like a meteor, landing behind him as he spins around in a wild slash. Jennifer's arm is unfortunately a little out of position due to needing to block a saber strike from one of the GM's, and Qualin's lucky spin manages to slice off the barrels of her gatling. Ejecting her shield into the face of a nearby GM and ignoring the small hail of bullet fire, she extends her Gouf's right arm, the heat wire suddenly lancing forth and attaching to the side of Cameron's mobile suit with a THUNK, soon followed by a massive electrical discharge, his mobile suit jerking briefly as sparks fly within the cockpit. Moving quickly as a stream of machinegun bullets tracks diagonally across the chest of her Gouf, smashing the left power cable on it's head, Jennifer whips out her sword and grabs the GM Command in a hammerlock, using it as an impromptu shield as she sticks her mobile suit's left arm over it's shoulder and pulls the trigger, sending two dozen 35mm machinegun rounds into it's chest at near point-blank range. As the other GM prepares to bring it's beam saber down on her backpack, it suddenly arches it's back as a glowing rod protrudes from it's chest, then drops it's machinegun and slowly slumps to the ground. Jennifer pushes the GM Command away from her, and deals it's backpack a slash with her sword as she does so, a small explosion occuring as some of the fuel inside cooks off. Luckily for Qalin, the slash just severes some of the lines, rather than his main tank, so his cockpit isn't inudated with burning fuel. "...nice save, Gavin." Cameron slams his beam saber into the chest of an Acguy as it claws frantically at his tower shield where he has it pinned against the ground, jumping back as it's fuel reserves cook off, and turns to view the melee occuring in what was a firing position. Random missiles from the Zeon Jukon in the bay continue to drop in, almost without rhyme or reason, and the remaining mobile suits slug it out brutally at almost point blank range. While Tetsuya screams inside his cockpit, Edward's heat rod dispersing an endless supply of voltage into his suit's systems as it slowly starts to melt, the remaining Acguy and a GM roll around on the ground, trading furious blows at close range. Both mobile suits are already heavily damaged, and even as Cameron watches, the GM manages to finally grab the beam saber from one of the fallen GMs and stab it towards the Acguy's cockpit, while at the same time, it presses it's remaining arm to the GM's chest and fires it's mega particle cannon. A tremendous explosion ensues as the reactors of both MS detonate simultaneously, throwing Edward, Cameron, and Tetsuya to the ground. Fortunately for Tetsuya, Edward's heat rod slips as his Gouf loses it's footing, and his GM is released, falling heavily to the ground. Taking advantage of the blast, Cameron snatches his beam gun off of it's rack and quickly snaps off all the remaining shots in the e-cap: three at Edward's Gouf, the blasts severing an arm and destroying it's head, and two at the distant Jukon in the bay. The blasts are mostly dissipated by the time they reach the ship, but he sees a small explosion bloom in the distance, and the missiles stop. "Pack it up, Tetsuya! We're getting out of here!" Considering his entire body feels like a grilled bratwurst, Tetsuya responds with a groan, though his GM Cannon slowly limps to it's feet, sparks crackling around the outside. The two MS start to move off into the distance as the Jukon begins to come closer to the shore, soon vanishing behind the nearby hills as they head for the closest logistics point. Jennifer Morales 7 VP gained, 2 days damage Edward Night 7 VP gained, 2 days damage Laurent Auclair 7 VP gained, no damage Tetsuya Morimoto 7 VP gained, 2 days damage Cameron Sune 7 VP gained, 2 days damage Qayin Gershom 7 VP gained, 2 days damage "I can't believe they did this to my suit." Anton muttered, floating through the vacuum of space. Before the operation, without his knowledge, in his own ship, Church's men had painted his Rick Dom 100% jet black. It was an insult to his glorious colorscheme. It wasn't enough that Church was planning operations with Anton's ships, Anton's resources that he had bargained for himself, but now he was making a mockery of the MAF, of Kycilia, of Anton himself. I'll show him. I'll take out the ship myself. "Sir, I'm reading what looks to be a mobile suit on radar, coming in slowly. I'm not getting an energy signature." Captain Melendez stood up on the bridge of the Swordfish. They'd had enough close calls, and he was on edge. "We've seen this trick before. Raise particle interference, tell the pilots to get in their units. Launch when I give the word." His bridge crew nodded and went about their business. Shortly after the M particle interference had been established, the floating "debris" powered up and started moving rapidly for the Swordfish. "Well, that's the word. Vigilance, everyone!" shouted Melendez. Antons Dom danced and zigzagged around AA fire and missiles, having gotten a lot of his old rhythm back. He was only going to be able to use a half charge of the bazooka, but that was enough. He'd heard this ship was carrying Federal prototypes, and it had a huge hangar. A monstrous target compared to the sleek designs of a normal Salamis, although it carried more weaponry as well. Deciding to take out the mobile suits before he launched, Vereschagin twirled his Rick Dom above the Swordfish, lucky to avoid the stream of AA fire. Letting loose the mega particles contained in his bazooka, Anton scored a direct hit, slicing a hole straight through the hangar of the Swordfish. However, unfortunately for Vereschagin, no vital systems were hit, as the mobile suits had already deployed... A beam shot through his Rick Doms leg, causing a violent explosion. Three mobile suits and a fighter were closing on him fast. Using the MS-09's superior speed, Vereschagin bolted away, dodging incoming fire as he went quickly to the rally point, muttering about having to follow the plan after all. "Cherish! Get the hell back here!" yelled Melendez's voice over the intercom. "What! Why?! We almost have him!" yelled Woods right back. The pilots of the Swordfish were kind of hotheads. Thierry, Cherish, Nolan and Patricia were all chasing after the jet black Dom. "We need somebody to guard the ship. That might not be the only one." yelled Melendez. Pretty soon he was going to have a stroke. "I think you should go back Cherish. I have a bad feeling about this." said Thierry. He'd recently convinced the ships doctor to let him smoke inside his cockpit, and this had made him feel much better about his rather odd situation. Danyan had made him feel a bit better as well. The two had become fast friends. "Shit, fine. Fine! Stupid ship..." muttered Cherish as her Saberfish pulled off. Nolan took a potshot with his machinegun, but Anton dodged quickly. He was running out of fuel fast, evasive maneuvers in a Dom were hell on your fuel reserve. The mobile suits came quickly to a disabled hulk of a once proud Magellan. Anton let off a burst of speed, ducking behind it, but before the others came into close range, Thierry stopped his unit. Nolan and Patricia stopped soon after. They hadn't been paying attention, and suddenly they noticed radar was working, and there were Zakus all around them. Five, ten, fifteen units. They weren't moving, but it was pretty obvious. Fifteen on three, and they were surrounded. Patricia and Nolan let go of their weapons, preferring capture to death at the hands of such a cheap trick. Thierry however closed his eyes, and aimed his beam rifle carefully. Firing a round at the sleeping Magellan, a mobile suits reactor exploded from inside it. "They saw us!" yelled Church. Five Zakus shot out of the Magellan hulk, with John Church in his R1 high maneuverability type and Darius Carver in his Rick Dom close behind them. "Ignore the others. They're balloons." Thierry said, having just enough time to dodge an oncoming bazooka blast. The three Federal units went in different directions, two mobile suits trailing each. "How do you know?" asked Nolan over the radio. He swerved his GM around, much faster than the two Zakus on his tail, and caught one in the back with his machinegun, killing the pilot. "Not really sure!" yelled Thierry. Hot on his tail were John Church and two Zakus. He danced between them, but couldn't quite dodge all three at once. He lurched around in his smoke filled cockpit, hitting his head hard as a bazooka round slammed into the Gundams cockpit. Amazingly however, the mobile suit was fine. Blood started to seep from Thierry's forehead, and he found it difficult to see. Aiming haphazardly, he fired his beam rifle again, downing another Zaku. John Church's unit swooped in behind the Gundam, which turned around almost instinctively. Brandishing a heat hawk, Church cut through the Gundams shield, when Thierry let go of it. The two mobile suits came apart, but both raised a weapon at the other, A panzer faust blew the Gundams left arm to ribbons as its beam rifle destroyed the R1's right arm. Darius Carver had more luck. A good round with the giant bazooka slammed into Patricias GM, it exploding in a rainbow of color. He moved in for the kill on Nolan, who shot out of the way, giving off cover fire with the rest of his machinegun clip. Carver would let him go, he had a Gundam to take care of. Melendez whistled softly to himself as the Admiral Tipper came into view on his screen. They could barely see it, but the mega particle shots were getting more and more accurate. They were firing at extreme range, assisted by a single Zaku II E that the Swordfish simply couldn't seem to hit. They'd launched a complete volley of missiles, and the fast recon unit had dodged all of them. "Where is Cherish's unit? That irresponsible scamp is supposed to be covering us from this Zaku." muttered the captain of the Fuji class ship, gripping his chair as angrily as he could. His comm officer, always the one to bring him bad news, responded after several seconds. "Sir, I've found her, she's... Attacking the Tivvay by herself..." Three Zaku II F's sat on top of the Admiral Tipper, protecting it from enemy incursion. Cherish didn't pay much attention. Stupid Zeon. Stupid ship. Stupid red color. I hate red. God it's so bright. It's like a giant, stupid target. The saberfish flew straight at the enemy ship, Cherish still convinced that no Zeon ship had AA guns. The three Zakus shot out to defend it, firing their machineguns wildly, but Cherish was used to three simple Zakus, and dodged their shots expertly. Letting loose all twelve of her anti-ship missiles, she banked up. Five seconds later, three things happened in unison. Twelve missiles struck the Admiral Tipper, the Zaku pilots too inexperienced to shoot them down. At the same time, the Tippers fore MPC turret struck a direct hit on the Swordfish, three huge holes opening within the very front of the ship, detonating the missile storage. And thirdly, a stray bullet struck Cherish's saberfish, opening up the cockpit canopy. Thierry shot down his third Zaku just as Church came at him again with the heat hawk, cutting through his beam rifle. The Gundam shot backwards, firing vulcans into the R1 HMT as it pulled out a beam saber, trying to defend itself one armed. Carver spun around in front of Thierry, firing bazooka rounds indiscriminately. Mersault took the RX-78-1 into a spin, dodging two rounds and then taking one to the face, damaging his sensors. However, even in this state he managed to move fast enough to cut a hole in another Zaku, taking them down to one unit. Firing more vulcans, he tagged Carvers bazooka as he was reloading it, the weapon exploding and sending shraphnel all over Carvers Rick Dom. Anton appeared from behind the dead Magellan, having stowed the overly cumbersome beam bazooka and retrieved his MMP-80, but just then a green flare was seen far away from the Tipper. The retreat order had been given. The four remaining mobile suits would have to use all their fuel just to make it to the rendezvous, and with plenty of 60mm shells left, Thierry was proving a hard foe to handle. Carver swooped in for the kill with his heat saber before disengaging, and although he cut off one of the Gundams legs, Thierry turned the Gundam around blindly, kicking Darius's Dom in the back and causing it to fly away from the RX-78-1. Carver shot away, worried that he would miss the rendezvous, just as Thierry passed out from blood loss. Admiral Tipper: damaged Swordfish: disabled Darius Carver: 6 VP gained, 2 days damage John Church: 6 VP gained, 3 days damage Anton Vereschagin: 7 VP gained, 3 days damage Thierry Mersault: 8 VP gained, 2 days injury, 5 days damage, 1 NT gained Nolan Harkin: 8 VP gained, 2 days damage Cherish Woods: 8 VP gained, 3 days damage 4 days injury |