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The captain of the Cassidy Carrier Company's (name pending) space freighter Mule was feeling fairly confident, despite all the bad news he'd been hearing about the proprietor, John Cassidy. The captain could spot a fellow entrepreneur, and he wagered Cassidy would turn a profit. He was only a few hours behind the flagship of the convoy, whose name seemed to change more often than the seasons. Of course, in those few hours, Admiral Dozle's Solomon Defense Fleet, charged with patrolling Zeon-held space, had moved directly into the flight path of the Mule. "This is Admiral Dozle Zabi on board the Gwamel, please transmit your identification and clearance codes." At a nod from the captain, the XO hunched over a console and tapped a command out. After a few seconds, a brief but loud beeping was heard from Dozle's end of the transmission. "Sir, these very same codes were used by a vessel that travelled through here a few hours ago, and the flight plan submitted made no mention of a partner ship," said a Zeon officer on the bridge The Mule's sensors registered a missile lock, as Dozle turned back towards the screen. "Stand down and prepare to be boarded, captain, I'm afraid we have to make a little inspection." The captain of the Mule sighed. Maybe the rumors about John Cassidy had some legitimacy to them. The green visor a GM pokes out from cover. Ashley Williams surveys the desert surrounding the ruins of the former RF-1 facility. Seeing nothing notable, she signals the rest of the team. Shadows move within the demolished compound. Private E2 Jane Sheppard appears in her GM S-Type. At her feet is Ella's Dracken-E. "We're clear," reports Williams. "Alright let's go." They shouldn't stay around. Last time, the 42nd Brigade lingered at a conquered Zeon base only to be torn apart the next day. Sheppard is not going to make that same mistake. She switches one of her cameras to the small Dracken-E mobile suit. Sheppard was loaned Ella from the rogue Des Mielle pending some unconventional payment. For the cost of a kiss and supplies however, Sheppard seem to have gotten a pretty good bargain. It was a calm day for the aircraft of the 4th North African Air Patrol. The sky is theirs, and they feel like hawks waiting to pounce on field mice. They didn't have long to wait as their veteran Luggun aircraft began picking up returns from below. An enemy mobile suit team is on the move. As one, the six Dopps broke away from their flying formation. Guided by the Luggun they began their attack run in two groups. One from the east and one from the west. Sheppard's mind was thinking about some trivial matter or another when her proximity alert began screaming. Williams in her GM shouted a warning as she opens fire with her 90mm machinegun. As the rapid THUDTHUDTHUDTHUD of William's GM machinegun broke the desert silence, Sheppard shouts over the radio for Ella to hide. The Dracken-E is very vulnerable to aircraft, especially the premier Zeon fighter. As the Dracken-E ducks behind some sand dunes, Sheppard chambers her 100mm machinegun to join Williams. But then to her horror, she sees a second group of Dopps come up from behind Williams. Together, the two Zeon lets loose their missiles against the stationary GM. The impact of the high explosives rocks the GM, as Williams keeps firing her machinegun. Then a catastrophic failure occurs and the GM's backpack explodes. Sheppard watches in horror as the GM ruptures in a massive fireball. As the dead mobile suit falls, the 90mm machinegun defiantly fires its last few rounds. The sudden clatter of vulcan fire against her reactive armor broke Sheppard's trance. The engines of the GM S-Type scream to life like a chorus of avenging angels. The mobile suit charges at a speed that rivals that of the Dopps themselves. Reacting instinctively, the pilots pull away to avoid crashing into the Federal mobile suit. But as she passes between the Dopp formation, Sheppard attacks. As her single 60mm head vulcan and 100mm machinegun belches fire, she tosses all three hand grenades around her. The Dopps, locked in middle of their evasive maneuvers, is caught in the sudden storm of projectiles and explosive detonations. From the gauntlet, only two of the six Dopps emerge to fly back to the safety of the clouds. The GM S-Type skits to a stop, as Sheppard caught her breath. Surrounded by the death plumes of four Dopps, she watches what is left of the 4th North African Air Patrol flee as the little Dracken-E waddle up to her. Ella, patriotic as ever, is enthusiastic about the victory. Jane Sheppard - 7 VP gained, Repairing 1 If one was on the ground looking up at the skies of North Africa. They likely wouldn't be able to see the Luggun currently cutting through the sky above. Irwing was currently seated behind the controls of the Luggun. "Anything?" he asked his copilot Jeffrey. "Actually yeah." replied Jeffrey. Both men paused for a moment before radioing to any patrol in the area. It would see the ones behind the destruction of RF 1 mine were in the area. Thorvald scanned the horizon as his team moved out from the ruins of RF 1. The head of the Blue Destiny panned around scanning the horizon directly in front of itself. The sun reflected off it's azure paint job. So far they'd been no sign of any zeon patrols. "Hey you lads see anything up there?" he called to the Dish patrolling over head. "Hold on." The pilot said. A few moments passed before the replied. "Solid contact approaching from dead ahead. Looks to be a mix of mobile suits and air units." confirmed the pilot. "Alright I hope you boys are ready." Thorvald said Thorvalds blood ran hot and seconds later for ms crested the dune flying fast on Jet skis directly in front of them. Five attack choppers came in behind them in a spread out formation. Thorvald and the gm accompanying him separated slightly and began firing at the oncoming Zaku D's. The two front Zaku's dodging and returned fire with their machine guns. The back two brought bazookas to bear and fired. Thorvald shrugged off the machine gun rounds and returned fire. Seeing the bazookas come up he yelled "Watch out!" to the gm with him. Acting on instinct he fired the two missiles out of his suits chest. Their aim was true and impacted directly in front of one the bazooka touting zakus. It was sent flying off its skis and cartwheeling across the ground. Sadly it managed to fire off a round. The other zaku did as well and both rounds bore down on the gm. The gm pilot paniced and tried to bring it's shield up but was to late. The rounds tore into it's chest armor and detonated ripping the torso in half. Thorvald realized he was screaming before a dark rage seemed to come out of know where and he blacked out. The Blue destiny seemed to freeze seconds after the gm exploded. Thinking the pilot was panicking one of the less experienced pilots brought his zaku in close to finish him. As the Zaku raised it's heat hawk the Blue Destinys eyes turned red and it lashed out with it's shield arm. The shield tore into the zaku's chest ripping clean through it. The remaining bits of the zaku flipped over a few times before coming off the skies and slamming into the ground. Without wasting a second the Blue Destiny threw itself at the other two zakus. The zakus reacted and fired to try to stave off the monsterous feddie suit. But the Blue Destiny just shrugged off whatever hit it and tackled the first Zaku D it reached. It slammed it's fist and shield repeatedly into the zakus head and chest. The pilot could do nothing but scream as his suit cavedd in on him. It was at this point the heli's swooped down to attempt to save the situation. But the Blue Destiny would have none of that as it tore off the crushed zaku head and hurled it at the nearest heli. The Heli pilot tried to dodge but it's tail clipped the zakus head and spun out of control into the ground. The rest of the Helis dumped missiles into the area to by enough time for the last zaku d to escape. With their ammo exhausted they remaining four helis peeled off. The remaining Zaku D was already far off in the distance burning hard on it's jet skis. The Blue Destiny was left standing among the wreckage as the smoke cleared. It's frame damaged but it's rage not yet sated. Thorvald Siggurdson 4 VP gained, Repairing 3 Marion 4 VP gained The smell of whiskey was quite obvious on Sublieutenant Lon'Dozai's breath as he stood on the bridge next to Rose Caldwell. It wasn't the first time she had seen him in such a state, but it still annoyed her that he had such lack of respect for the men as to act like a drunk slob. "Here, let me help," said Rose tartly as she reached over and pulled his shirt out from Issac's pants. "Might as well complete the image." Issac frowned and opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted before he could speak, he was interrupted by Rhin Mahou as she said, "A line just came in from the Kira Yomato, they appear to see nothing happening inside from their vantage point." "Well lets go get it then," said Issac as he motioned in the general direction of the Texas colony. The entire Disco Fleet soon kicked on its engines and began to approach the Texas colony at a moderate pace. The dock for the ships was empty and the Merimack was entered the dock with out a sound. Soon the marines aboard the Salamis were exiting the ship and making their way into the colony. A short time later they reappeared as the Merrimack crew sealed the door to the ship dock, pressurizing the area. A marine quickly made his way up to the fleet commander with something in his hands. Issac saw the marine was holding a zeon flag as he began to speak, "Looks like they left in a hurry. Nothing left here but a few empty offices." "Well crap, I better hurry then before people steal all the good plunder," said Issac as he walked briskly out of the ship dock into the colony. Behind him Rose began to shake her head in discust. Issac Lon'Dozai: 1 VP, No Damage Marc Simmons: 1 VP, No Damage Cato Goloni: 1 VP, No Damage Issa Kobayashi: 1 VP, No Damage Otaktai Lone Wolf: 1 VP, No Damage |