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The hunt for Zeon forces still haunting the outskirts of the Shoal Zone continues, as mobile suits are brought in to patrol the area. Lieutenant Patrick Foley combs the patrol route with his GM Command, hoping to find any remnant forces before they can launch a guerrilla operation against the fleet. He had the distinct advantage of knowing how a Zeon soldier in this situation would think, cut off from his fleet, the zeek wouldn't run, he'd start sticking thorns in the Federation's side. "Lt. Foley, spot anything?" Jimmy Nielson, one of the Ball pilots in the patrol group asked. "No, nothing yet, and just call me Packie boy, in a firefight you won't have time to say 'Lt. Foley' all the time." Beyond the viewable range of the Gm Command, the Schnee Weiss held position behind a small chunk of colony debris. Florian Cuyler sat in the cockpit, staring at the fleet some distance ahead of him. As he reached out with his mind, the small pressure of several enemies pushed against his senses. "One mobile suit.... and several pods... not quite the target I'd hoped for." Florian frowned, readying three bits to do his bidding. You don't have to be a newtype to get a bad feeling, and that's exactly what Foley had. He could see the piece of debris, alone and drifted from the Shoal Zone, and it just didn't seem right. "Ball Units hold position, I'm gonna check this out." He said, his GM raising it's hand in a 'stop' signal as well. Moving in to investigate, a slight glimmer of light shot out from the debris. Following it's direction, he caught a glimpse of the bit just before it fired. Florian smiled in his cockpit as the beam burst forth from his remote weapon. "Shit! It's that white one!" Foley shouted as his shield was annihilated, citing reports from the earlier battle of a white machine with bizarre attacks. "What? Just the shield?" Florian thought aloud, redirecting his bits for a coordinated assault. The trio of remote guns split up and surrounded the GM, firing in succession. Amazingly Foley managed to dodge many of the shots, but his armor was being whittled away regardless of his attempts. Spraying his 90mm machinegun and head vulcans in multiple directions, Foley scored a lucky hit and sent a single bit tumbling away, useless. "There now, lets see what you've got!" Packie shouted, rushing forward to find the Schnee Weiss stunned from the psychic backwash of the destroyed bit. Foley pulled his beam saber and made a fast downward swing, but Florian recovered too fast and dodged, sending out a new bit to force the GM back while the other two joined in to resume their barrage. Erratically thrusting back and forth, Foley fired again, not at the bits, but at the white machine itself. The attack rocked the Schnee Weiss, breaking Florian's focus, but not before a beam found it's way into the GM's left leg. Florian grunted in anger at the enemy unit, quickly regaining command of his bits and ordering them to fire as rapidly as they could. The resulting shower of beams was nearly impossible to dodge, and the GM took several glancing blows followed by a solid hit to the head. As Foley's monitors went black he expected the end to draw near, but strangely everything went silent. "What!? Why won't you shoot!?!?!" Florian shouted at his bits, which had expended their energy with constant firing. Angrily he let the drained bits drift, and called out three more, but it was too late, Packie's secondary cameras came online and he quickly realized it was time to retreat. Just as Florian began to command his bits, he caught sight of a small cylinder floating toward him. Before the word 'grenade' made it through his mind, a blinding flash erased all thoughts aside from 'cover your eyes'. "All Ball Units, target point three three zero, suppressing fire!" Foley ordered, boosting backward and throwing his smoke grenades, which exploded into a strange sphere of gray particulate haze, concealing the battered GM from view. "GET BACK HERE!" Florian demanded, firing his bits madly into the smoke. A few Balls fell to the unfocused shots, but the suppressing fire quickly forced the Schnee Weiss to back off. "All Units, lets get back to the fleet, Jimmy, call ahead for a new patrol to finish our route." Patrick Foley: 7 VP Gained, Repairing 2 Florian Cuyler: 6 VP Gained, Repairing 1 The Minovsky particle is a strange thing. Found inside a special breed of nuclear reactor, it has a curious tendency to arrange itself in such a manner as to impede all types of electromagnetic radiation. All types; even that of the visible light spectrum. A gray angel soared on halo wings through space, invisible feathers blurring its carapacal body, a phenomenon expanding slowly outwards to the leering stars adrift the inky infinite. Not far now from the angel were two very important points in space; a team of Zakus behind, and ahead, the enemy. The Zakus behind were headed by an intimidating man, Laredo Veil, a man who wouldn't hesitate to shoot a soldier for insubordination or incompetence. The enemy ahead was a Saberfish II, the Federation's most advanced spaceborne fightercraft. They were two points in space, and a line connected them through a third point, the angel, a prototype Mobile Suit piloted by Nadia Adelaide. The Saberfish pilot wasn't thinking in terms of points and lines, but in terms of numbers. Like the number of Saberfish dummy balloons he was preparing to use in an attack, the number of dummy balloons it would take for his strategy to work, the number of dummy balloons it would take to keep him from dying. The lattermost numbers were, incidentally, a smidge greater than he had with him. Regardless, Alex Sentara was readied for combat and-- "Wait. What the hell was that?! There's nothing on radar!" His radar had shown nothing, Minovsky particles masked the Zaku's approach. Inside the Mobile Suit that eluded his sensors, Nadia let out a bark of a laugh and opened fire on some Saberfish that had seemingly come out of nowhere, the balloons Alex had launched confusing the Zeon Mobile Suit's pilot long enough for him to evade a burst of 105mm machine gun fire. The decoys popped like a balloon animal hit by a truck of bricks with spiked tires, and the Zaku searched for the elusive Saberfish II while the Zaku team lead by Laredo approached the battlezone, ready to finish the fight quickly. Now, the assembled force of Zakus searched for the fightercraft on radar and visually. "Find that damn fighter, or I'll execute you all for treason!" The SS officer was in a determined mood, not savoring the prospect of a stalemate, which might as well be a Federal victory. Finding him on radar wouldn't be happening this time, as an M particle bomb detonated near the rear of the Zakus, flooding their immediate vicinity with the tricky particle, disrupting their sensors and temporarily blurring their vision. Temporarily was enough, as a team of anti-MS missiles tore two Zakus to shreds, but fortunately, they were of the cannon fodder variety, and neither of their pilots were very interesting chaps. At this time, Alex Sentara let out a victorious shout, a personality-free "!". The remaining Zakus quickly turned to fire on him, but the Saberfish was wisely retreating, outnumbered and underprepared against a superior force of Mobile Suits. Gigantic projectiles passed by Minovsky particles and Zaku gizzards alike, a singular volley managing to reach the accelerating fighter, piercing the fuselage of the craft, but the majority of their energy was deflected by an unfortunate angle of impact, and the Saberfish finally escaped the Zakus' range unhindered. "Well, that sucks." Nadia groaned. "He was so close!" Alex Sentara: 5 VP gained, Repairing 2 Nadia Adelaide: 7 VP gained, No Damage Laredo Veil: 7 VP gained, Repairing 1 It was like a staring contest, the Workhorse sat not far from the Titan's bow, a few GMs watching it closely. "There's gotta be a way through..." John muttered to himself. "Well we certainly can't blast through, and there's no way this heap can outrun them." Roslyn, his vice-captain reminded him. "I don't see why we can't just move on through at our own risk, it's not like they have a requirement to defend us." "But if something did happen, it'd make them look bad, and they can't have that. We'd have to find some way to make that possibility less of a concern to them..." Roslyn mused, giving John an idea. On the Titan, the operator was startled by an incoming message beeping at him. "Captain Ohm sir, the captain of the transport wishes to speak with you." Basque mulled it over in his head a moment, then spoke. "Patch him through, this better be good." The face of John Cassidy filled the main monitor, smirking somewhat as though trying to hide a smile. Basque couldn't help but wonder what that silly expression on his face was all about. "Captain... Ohm is it? Nice to meet you, I"m Captain Cassidy." "What is your business Captain Cassidy?" Ohm asked slightly impatiently. "Well as you could guess, I really need to be on my way, and that really means I need you to let me pass..." "And? I believe you've been informed, but military operations are in progress here, we can't have civilians running around in the midst of it." "Oh I'm aware of that, but my crew and I can handle ourselves. If you'll be so kind as to let us pass, we can certainly... compensate you for the trouble." John said politely, his tiny smirk broadening into a full grin. "Well, Obviously if you moved into the area of operations I could not provide for your safety, but as we are constantly engaging Zeon threats in the sector, it's inevitable that we would miss one small freighter making it's usual route." Basque replied, hands clasped in front of his own grin. The Workhorse was brought near to the Titan, and it's 'compensation' transferred. Then at the word of Captain Ohm, the fleet parted, allowing the small ship passage to continue it's journey. "Well finally, if the Feds decide to make this a toll road, we'll have to start taking the scenic route." John said, taking one last look back at the Ohm Fleet as it faded from view. John Cassidy: 4 VP Gained, No Damage |