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Bigby had it all figured out. Some cheap wine, dinner, and he might even button up his jacket for this one. Yeah, that?d have to do for his next date. With that all lined up and planned out, Bigby returned to focusing on his real task for the day, a task he?d already thought out as well as he could, given the circumstances. This plan was a good one too, he thought. I?ll shoot ?em. Then, if they?re still there, I?ll shoot ?em again. And maybe a few more time for good measure. He?d thought of several other plans, but with such a long range weapon, he figured it?d be a better idea to keep it simple. Now all that was left was to wait, not get caught pre-maturely, and try not to think about his next hot date. Marko Dresner led his team across the North American landscape at just slow enough of a speed for the Zaku in the group to keep up. Though it was friendly territory, he tried to keep his guard up. Garma?s plan was likely to attract more than a little attention from the Earth Federation, and he didn?t want to be the one they caught off guard. He had to keep the rest of his team safe. Marko closed his eyes for a moment and silently remember the two names etched in his heart. The two names of his subordinates, killed while under his command. It was during this moment that a shell seemed to come from nowhere and strike Felix?s Zaku?s bazooka. The round ignited all the ammunition, completely destroying the Zaku?s right arm and parts of the shoulder. ?Where did that come from?? Marko demanded immediately snapping his attention to his monitors and scanning for the enemy. ?It came from the north, sir. I can?t seem to find his exact location. That shell must have come a hell of a distance.? Maria said, also glued to her monitor. Marko turned toward the north and began frantically looking for a sign of the enemy. He was ?rewarded? with the sight of another shell heading almost directly at Maria. The round impacted mere feet in front of her Dom, causing dirt to splash and obscure her vision, but not doing any real damage. Marko saw something move at the edge of his field of vision in a forest. ?I think I?ve got his position. Felix, you pull back and get out of here, I?ll put down some covering fire while we wait for your slow ass to get far enough away. Maria, you go with him in case there are more of these Federation bastards out there waiting for us. At the very least you can tell Garma and Akane where I died.? ?What was that about Akane?? Felix said with a knowing smile, already starting to retreat. ?Shut up and get going.? ?Yeah! I think I got one!? Bigby exclaimed when he saw the Zaku?s bazooka go up in flames. ?Now that he?s down, I?d better try for a new target.? The three units were still standing there trying to get a grasp of the situation. Bigby?s next round just barely missed the Dom unit. ?Aww, so close.? The three units split, the damaged Zaku taking off to the west, apparently trying to disengage. The Dom and the Dowadge began moving toward his position firing their machine guns trying to create a distraction for the Zaku. Most of the rounds missed by a wide margin, but the occasional round did impact the GM Desert Type?s armor causing mostly cosmetic damage. ?Hey! How am I supposed to pick up chicks in a unit with scratched paint?? Marko pushed his unit as hard as it would go toward the Federation machine. He moved a little back and forth trying to make it a little harder for the enemy to get a good shot on him while firing his own machinegun. He noticed Maria doing the same thing to his left and slightly behind him. Several rounds impacted all around them. ?What are you doing? I told you to cover-? Marko?s reprimand was cut short as a railcannon shell impacted with the Dowadge?s left leg. At such high speeds the Dowadge did sort of weird sliding faceplant into the ground. ?Not again!? Shouted Marko as he became even more intimately familiar with the inner workings of gravity and missing mobile suit legs. Wasting no time, Maria moved her unit around, firing off the last of her machinegun ammo and grabbing Marko?s unit under its arm. She began dragging it out of the combat zone as quickly as she could. ?I think you?ve done enough stalling for Felix. Now who?s going to stall for you? Aren?t you glad I came to help?? Asked Maria, who now felt extremely well justified in recklessly disobeying orders again. Akane is going to kill me? Was all that Marko could think. ?Oh yeah! Got that one good. Best faceplant ever!? Bigby was clearly having a great time, outside of knowing he?d have to redo the paintjob on his unit. That would take some time to do right too. He saw the Dom begin to retreat with the Dowadge in tow and fired off the last of his ammunition, creating more craters, but not really hitting anything important. ?Make sure you bring your mothers next time! I?ll make sure I show them a good time too!? Bigby laughed to himself as he finished physically and verbally harassing the retreating Zeon units. Bigby Wolfe: 3 VP gained, No Damage Marko Dresner: 2 VP gained, Repairing 2 "House real big, cars real big, belly real big, everything real big!" The corridors of the Monarch boomed with hip hop music as Wu Jinyuan bobbed his head, and posed to the song he blasted on the PA system. Jeanne Schwert began to twitch as she grew more and more agitated with her 2nd Lieutenant; How did she get stuck with this man. She stared blankly at the man, in sunglasses and some weird track suit, as he seemed to jig in place to the music. "I'm rich bitch!, I'm a real big timer!" He turned and sat in his captain's chair, flashing a some what childish grin as the music stopped. The eccentric captain removed his sunglasses to see Jeanne tapping her foot and giving him 'the look'. "What?!" "Lt. Jinyuan... We have an exercise to run, what are you doing?" She pointed to the glass display at the front of the ship, motioning towards the two Zaku's that awaited the signal to engage. The lieutenant stared blankly at the two Zaku variants, pausing a moment as he appeared deep in thought. "Right. Testing out the AA guns and what not. I knew that... I'm going to require some tea." The man flinched as a tea cup flew by his head. He got the message, and reluctantly turned to his helmsman and had all hands ready for manuevers. "Let us see what my new ride has got..." Wu grinned as he slowly placed his sunglasses back over his eyes. "What is that noise?" The Schutzstaffel soldier raised an eyebrow as his camera equipment was already engaged, recording the exercise for tactical use, and just stared blankly at the giant battle ship. Over their COMM system, the two Zaku pilots could hear a low bass thumping in the background, and they could barely make out their Officer rapping along with the song. Yoritomo's face appeared on Laredo's monitor, a look of confusion and impatience apparent in his expression. "What's he doing in there?" "Beats me... I feel like I'm recording a really bad music video..." Veil sighed as he watched the data collection continue to roll. 3... 2... 1... ENGAGE "Well that's convienent..." Laredo rolled his eyes as the Gwazine seemed to come to life with out warning. The AA turrets swung towards the two Zaku's, but not wasting a second, the two split, boosting in opposite directions. The Black Schutzstaffel suit rolled to its right, camera focused in on the action of the Gwazine, while the Blue Zaku rolled to its left, arming itself with its beam rifle. The Monarch's guns trained on the Act Zaku as it strafed to the ship's right, registering it as the more immediate threat. "Let's see what my baby can do, be kind to daddy. Fire the 155mm rounds, make him dance." The gunners pulled up targeting solutions on the Act Zaku and began filling the empty void of space with paint rounds from the Gwazine's Anti-Air machineguns. Yoritomo, with much thanks to his new suit, was able to dodge the majority of the shots, taking a few splatters to non-crucial parts of his suit. He returned fire, striking a few of the turrets before having to pull into defensive manuevers. Wu smiled, pleased with the exercise so far; he pulled up the schematics for the main barrel cannons and a mischevious grin spread across his face. "Fire it..." He spoke softly as his main guns came online. The twin barrels tracked the Act Zaku as it deftly dodged incoming AA fire. Yoritomo became confused as his proximity alarms began to go off, and his screens began flashing red, and before he could react, his blue Zaku was drenched in bright pink paint. "Oh you got to be shitting me..." "Confirmed hit..." The gunner looked back at his captain, who looked nothing short of amused at the sight of a giant pink mobile suit. Proud of himself, he had the bridge start to locate the Schutzstaffel soldier that had been assigned to his ship. "Time to see what Gihren's boy can do, Shall we?" Laredo had managed to float around relatively unnoticed by the massive battle ship as its captain had amused himself chasing after the other Zaku pilot, but now realized that their attention was turning to him."Shit... I don't have the gear to go up against this thing." The Schutzstaffel soldier, not one to back down from a fight, drew his machine gun and began pelting the hull with his paint rounds. Before he could get anywhere with his shots, his screen became full of pink and purple paint markers from the AA guns. "Touche..." Laredo's face appeared on Wu's console, a look of irritation apparent on his face as he confirmed the end of the exercise. "Uploading exercise and battle data to the Monarch's computers now... have someone meet me in the Hangar, I want this crap washed off my suit." Wu Jinyuan: 6 VP Gained, No damage Laredo Veil: 2 VP Gained, Repairing 1 Yoritomo Naizen: 2 VP Gained, Repairing 1 Thorvald stroked his braided beard as his suit emerged from the ocean and onto a beach in California. "We finally made it." He said to his suit. He took in the beach with a glance." You boys spotted anything up there?" he radioed to the dish flying above him. Thorvald only had to wait a few seconds. "Enemy armor convoy approaching, eta less than a minute." came the report over the radio. Thorvald nodded to himself and pushed his suit further onto the beach. "That time again." he said to his suit. Thorvald settled his suit into a good position just as the enemy patrol arrived. Three Magella attack tanks and three weasel apc's crested the edge of the beach. Zeon marines poured out of the apc and the entire convoy began firing. Acting quickly Thorvald brought his shield up and returned fire. Fire spit from his suits head vulcans, and his suits machine gun jumped in his hand as he sprayed the enemy armor with fire. Two apc's were torn apart right away shredding a few marines in the process. At the same time cannon rounds and rockets slammed into him all over his suit. Thankfully his armor shrugged off most of the damage. "How do you boys like this!" yelled Thorvald as he dropped his shield and began firing with his chest vulcans as well. The remaining apc went up in a flash and rounds punched through it. Marines just vanished as the large caliber rounds completely destroyed them. In a matter of seconds only the Magella's were left. "You can do better." Called Thorvald as he fired his two chest missles. The first one impacted directly into a Magella destroying it completely. The other partly damaged one forcing the crew to eject the top. "Not so fast!" he yelled and brought his guns to bear blowing it out of the sky. Not wasting this chance the remaining tank charged the Blue destiny firing everything it had as it went. Thorvald yelled and met the tanks charge head long quickly drawing his suits beam saber and slicing through the tanks armor like it was nothing. "Yeah now that was a good fight." he said to himself and the final tank exploded behind him. "A lot of effort just to get in though. Don't you think?" he asked his suit before laughing. Thorvald Siggurdson 7 VP, Repairing 1 "it looks like a Gundam sir..." one of the Zaku II's radioed Lt Commander Schmeisser as they relayed the info from their listening post. Three Zaku II's circled the coordinates of the Federation suit as they used the jagged cliffs and mountains for cover. "Target has been confirmed sir." "Engage with caution, the new Federation model is no joke..." A red monoeye flashed from behind a waterfall, illuminating the cascading water as the Zaku stepped out from underneath its cover. With Panzerfaust in one hand, and heathawk in another, Lt Commander Schmeisser's suit mobilized. "Bring him to me." Jay Tessa moved her newly acquired Gundam Mass Production unit through the dense forests of Oregon's mountain's, cursing as she did her best to stay out of sight and out of mind of any Zeon patrols that would spot her. Little did she know, the Duchy's detector units pegged her as she entered the territory and had eyes on her since she landed on the continent. The metal giant hugged a cliff face as it came into a valley, Sergeant Tessa scanned the area before proceeding; everything appeared clear. "So far, so good..." No sooner did she get the words of reassurance out then the forest seemed to explode, coming to life with missiles and grenades from every direction. Trees splintered, and rocks sharded as debris rained down around the Heavily armored gundam. Three red lights flashed in the clouds of dust and debris, giving away the positions of the enemy units; Tessa was surround on all sides, but one... "Shit!" She gritted her teeth as she was jerked around in her cockpit as the Federation mobile suit rocked from the blasts. Seeing the one free path in front of her, she ran for it, pulling up her shield to cover her escape, firing her machine gun in retaliation. A bright flash could be seen from the top of the cliff, as one of the three Zaku's let loose a bazooka round, the smoke trail spiraling behind it as it landed a direct hit into the Gundam's shield, knocking it down, sliding across the forest floor and off a cliff. Jay winced in pain as she grabbed her side, the tumble had left her with a few broken ribs, and a bruised and battered body - luckily the Gundam's armor left her suit better off than herself. "I need to get out of here..." It took ever ounce of her strength to right her suit, which was still relatively well intact all things considered. The federation sergeant searched frantically for a hiding spot, or quick way out. She slowly began to panic as enemy signatures began to register on her radar, the three zakus not hiding themselves this time. She grasped the controls, fighting through the pain, and took off down the river. The three members of the Midnight Fenrirs fanned out and trekked after the Gundam like a pack of coyotes, chasing the Feddie right into their trap. "Got you, right where I want you..." Schmeisser grinned as his Zaku erupted from the treeline, heathawk sinking into the Gundam's shoulder. Jay's eyes widened as she pulled on the controls and knocked the Zeon Lieutenant away from her suit, sending him stumbling backwards, heathawk still embedded in her shoulder. Thinking she had him, she pulled the weapon out of her shoulder and began to approach the fallen Zaku. "I don't think so ma'am." The Zaku rolled over to reveal the Panzerfaust, and the Fenrirs commanding officer grinned as he let the warhead go, landing right into the chest of the Federation suit, followed by several bazooka rounds landing into the back of the suit. The three remaining Zakus stood at the other side of the forest, bazooka's still smoking as the pilots all grinned. Flames swirled up the front of the suit and smoke seemed to whisp away from every crevice, as the lifeless body of the Gundam fell to the ground. Her cockpit went dark as Jay passed out - so much for getting in un noticed... Jay Tessa: 5 VP Gained, Destroyed 3 The endless field of stars surrounding the Earth Sphere continue to shine while obilvious to the carnage raging in the darkness of space. The false calm is soon shattered by the twinkling of two stars. The two stars grew in size until the bloom from mobile suit thrusters form two dark shilouettes. The blue GM Sniper II and the red Guncannon MPT has been flying in silence for hours. Neither Derek Carter or Michael Kreuz exchange much words other than navigational calculations. Finally, in the middle of the emptiness that is Side 7, Carter signalled his fellow EF test pilot to stop. The spinning colonies of Green Noah & Green Oasis are lost among the stars around them. "This is far enough," concludes Carter," Let's do this." "Fine by me." Tracers and low energy beam shots dart across space. A waltz of violence dances in every direction. Empty catridges went spiraling into the vast abyss as the Guncannon MPT chases the GM Sniper II. Carter knew that if he can keep the GM Sniper II close enough to amass his firepower against it, he will win. Inside the GM Sniper II cockpit, Kreuz knew this as well. Flashbangs and grenades have lured him into a trap last time and the orphan from Side 3 will not fall for the same trick twice. As their battle continued, the path of the two duelists brought them into a debris field. The debris is fresh from the Musai-class Falmel's attack on Green Noah & Green Oasis. What was empty space now became full of obstacles. This is Kreuz's ideal playing ground. While Carter's superior variety of weapons can pump out more paint pellets, the amount of interfering objects renders most of the rounds ineffective. The GM Sniper II's pilot saw the pellets splatter and richochet off the wreckage. As he weaves and darts, Kruez got an idea. Back inside the Guncannon MPT's cockpit, Carter is getting slightly frustrated. His plan should be working by now but he's "killed" more trash than scoring points on Kruez's mobile suit. Suddenly, there was movement and a flash of blue armor. The Guncannon MPT pivots and open fire. Through the muzzle and beam flashes, Carter saw the blue paint of the GM Sniper II's shield. He knew he finally nailed his target and relished the point count in the after action report. But then the shield bounces around the debris field. The GM Sniper II is nowhere near it. But before Carter can react to the decoy, he felt five strong collisions on the Guncannon MPT's chest plate armor. Kruez pulls the bolt on his ballistic sniper rifle again, locking on the final round in his magazine. But he need not worry. Like the marksman he is, Kreuz's five shots had found their mark and now he and Carter are even. Michael Kreuz - 4 VP gained, Repairing 1 Derek Carter - 2 VP gained, Repairing 1 |