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It used to be a vibrant city. Through the heavy fog, you can sort of imagined what the New York skyline would have looked like in its full glory. But the passing of war had reduced it all to rubble. A lone Asian man stood one what is left of the Brooklyn promenade. He had watched all of this come to pass like the scenes of a bad movie. The ground began to shake under his feet. Over his head, a Gouf leaped on to the island formerly known as Manhattan. Behind the Gouf came the rest of Sebastian Brennan's units that are part of the first phase of the SS officer's defense plan. The Zeon Gundam with Persephone Dawn in her Zaku II Manipulator Type and the Cyan Thunder himself made their way to a clearing near Chambers Street. Rhett Paruta leaped off his Dodai II, as Cora held the subflight unit low over the rubble. One foot of the Dom Cannon crashed into the remnants of a Starbucks cafe. Half a second later, the mobile suit's other foot flattens another Starbucks establishment. Before long, the sound of jet turbine engines can be heard over the sound of their mobile suit reactors. Three sets of weapons pointed at a shadow in the fog. It is the Medea-class Montana, which came down to a soft landing in a clearing where City Hall used to be. Hans Bond popped open an access hatch as Zeon soldiers rush past him into the Medea. "What happen?" questioned Sebastian Brennan over Hans Bond's earpiece. "Bit of a shakeup, I'm afraid," replied Hans as used his refletion on the shattered glass of a storefront to adjust his hair. "The entire flock of Medeas were backing off as I was coming down. Damn near missed the bunch entirely. I let myself into this one and the Dopps got another. The chaps were about to tear the last Medea a new one but Tin Cods took them out. Not a peep from the boyas in the listening post since then." "Federal aircraft?" "You can bet the cottage on that one, old cog. Oddly enough, the blokes on this Medea were using the same security codes as the other Medea when I first got here... Well, I'll be off to see Miss Nimue. I'm sure she miss me by now." "..." High above them on the edge of the Earth's atmosphere and the emptiness of space, a vessel began its descent. The Gray Phantom-class "Orange Base" oriented itself as the helmsman adjusted their trajectory. Too shallow of an entry and they would bounce back into space despite the power of their rocket engines. If their entry is too steep then not even the state-of-the-art Minovsky Craft system will save their ship from tumbling around and tearing itself apart like a plane crashing into the ocean at full speed. Lieutenant Nigel Ferdinand grips the edges of his command chair as the ship shook violently. The blast shutters were already locked in place over the bridge windows, which took away Nigel's ability to see what is going on outside. Not like there's anything but flame and fire from the friction of their reentry that is. The Prince of Orange looked around the bridge of his new ship. Reforming the Korps Commandotroepen is a big statement coming from the Dutch King. It is a message of commitment to the Earth Federation's cause. It also means that Nigel is going to have to put up with Thorvald Siggurdson's crap for the near future. The proclaimed-Lutheran Scottish pilot and the bane of Nigel's existence is hunkered down in the Blue Destiny. He and the other pilots waited on the catapault deck. Aurem Senaiha's GM Sniper stood quietly next to Arieta's GM Land Combat Type. Behind them is Kyle Slater's Ez-8 and a lone GM CCT. Together, the combination of the Dutch-sponsored commandos and the might of the 87th Integrated Fleet would hopefully put a stop to the menance that is Sebastian Brennan. After the first few minutes, nothing went according to plan. For either side. The 87th Integrated Fleet was thrusting forward over what used to be New Jersey when they retrieved the Medea-class Missouri. After sending the transport craft to the rear, the Big-Tray class Paragon moved forward. A swarm of Tin Cods flew up above the heavy fog. They expected to easily gain air superiority and then begin air-to-ground operations against the Zeon fixed defenses. Meanwhile, Don Escargots are to begin ASW manuevers to hunt down the Zeon subs that have to be there. Led by the ace pilot Jim Irwin and Scott Archer, this part of the operation should be a pushover. Suddenly, the Paragon picked up another IFF signal. It is the Montana. Unsure on how an unarmed Medea can survive a Dopp attack, several of the Tin Cods were sent down to check it out. Suddenly, the Medea did a dive for the Paragon. To everyone's surprise, mobile suits began dropping from the plane's cargo hold. As the Zeon Gundam and the Zaku II Manipulator Type fell towards the ground, their weapons open fire on the big shadow that is the Big Tray. The ruthless barrage tore into the Paragon, whose weapon teams were concentrating on the Medea heading towards them. Rhett Paruta and his Dom Cannon on the Dodai II flew around the flak screen. With the Medea exploding and clearing the fog around them, the Cyan Thunder flew over the Paragon while emptying his weapons. The rest of the 87th Integrated Fleet felt the ground shook from the Big Tray exploding. The other Big Trays train their weapons on New York and opened fire with their heavy weapons. Artillery support from long range Guntanks join in the bombardment. As the Federal ground force unleashed their heavy weapons, their air force got their surpise of the day. Jim Irwin flinched as an entire sqaudron of Tin Cods erupted into fireballs. His worst fears are confirmed when he sees Rhett Paruta group up with several Dopp. The flying mobile suit and Zeon fighters bore in on Jim Irwin. Scott Archer sees this and shifts his engines to afterburner to try to save the ace fighter pilot. In an extreme case of deja vu, Jim Irwin pulled every evasive manuever he knew (and some he made up on the spot). But it seemed as if all of Zeon was after him today. Sensing that he'll have to call it quits for this Tin Cod too, Jim Irwin ejected from the doomed fighter. But Irwin's luck doesn't hold out that well. His rocketing chair collided him with the Tin Cod's canopy. Supposedly the transparent cover would fall away harmlessly but that didn't happen. The collision came so hard and so fast that Irwin fell unconcious despite the pain from his injuries. Only the redundant fail-safes of the parachute system allowed him to glide down to earth. Back on the ground, a tide of Type-61s led by Cray Vermillion rolled forward. The armored main battle tanks are flanked by Jarvis Ackart's GM Command and Edmund Blackadder's GMPGT. Riding on top of three Type-61s are Seth Yamanu's marines. They craddled their M136 anti vehicle weapons as they nervously watch the fog for danger. Danger came as the Gallop-class Liger burst out of the heavy fog. The line of Zeon mobile suits that followed it did so under the cover fire of the Dobday-class Berkhalter. What was supposed to be a spoiling attack then turned into a gladiator-style melee. The fog seperated units from each other, which lead to uneven fights. Duncan Keystone's Gouf and Marko Dresner's Gelgoog Test type tore a GM in half. Vanishing back into the fog like ghosts, they join the others in riddling the ranks of Federal tanks with fire. But the Earth Federation is here in force today and for all of Zeon's efforts, the tide cannot be turned back. Noelle Everett swung the Dom's bazooka at an approaching shadow when she was pounced on by Charles Gano's and Edmund Blackadder's GMPGT. Her damaged Dom tried to evade but she tried over a Type 61. Falling flat on its back, her Dom is then torn to shreds by the Type 61s driving around her. Everett's death is repeated by many other Zeon mobile suits that day. Knocked over onto their sides, they are easy prey for the horde of Type 61s who suddenly have enemies at their eye level. Low-flying Fly Mantas followed their tracked brethren in hunting downed Zeon mobile suits. The most experienced of the Zeon pilots managed to regroup. Hugh Jazz covered Esther Mackernan's Gyan Test Type with her Dom as they approached the New Jersey shoreline. They can hear Hudson River as they met up with Sebastian, Duncan Keystone, and Persephon Dawn near the crash site of the Komusai-class Baracus. As the Zeon ground force fell back, they suddenly heard an explosion coming from a completely different direction. The Dobday-class Berkhalter is burning brillantly, the victim of heavy mega particle blasts and aircraft from above. Above the fog, Rhett Paruta looks up to see the descending Orange Base. Before he can train his guns, objects fell from the ship's two catapault decks. Kyle Slater's Ez-8 fell into the cracked defenses of the Zeon fortification while Aurem Senaiha and Arieta sniped at targets from the open hangar doors of the Gray Phantom. "HA! DEFF FROM ABUVE!" cried Thorvald Siggurdson as the Blue Destiny rode its own Dodai II. Wheeeeee! Both Dodai-ridding warriors spotted each other. Then through unspoken consensual agreement, they forgot about the rest of the battle and raced to engage each other. It is now one MS on a subflight versus another. Only one of them will leave this fight. Bullets and shell casings flew everywhere. Strafing and banking ever closer to each other, even the lunar titanium armor of the Blue Destiny began to buckle and bend. Then in a fury-driven attack, the Cyan Thunder collided himself and the Dodai into the Blue Destiny. The subflight craft locked together in a horrific mid-air collision. The two MS plummet into the heavy fog surrounding New York. Weapons caught on empty magazines and batteries as the two machines started wrestling each other. Neither Thorvald nor Rhett could tell which way was up, but that didn't matter. What mattered was to see which one of them would be the one living after this. Heat Tomahawk raced beam saber as the grappling duelists fell faster and faster towards the ground. Thorvald! Let me do this! "Have at it lass!" cried Thorvald as he let go of the controls. Instantly, the EXAM system kicked in and the red visor of the Blue Destiny glowed devilishly. Due to their freefall, Rhett Paruta couldn't tell that the Blue Destiny was setting the Dom Cannon into a reverse piledriver. For a fraction of a second upon impact, just as the cockpit condensed into something the size of a pizza box, Paruta's life flashed before his eyes in a series of awesome sprite comics. The high-altitude reverse piledriver to the ground at terminal velocity caused much of the rubble of Manhattan to be blown away in all directions. The blast was so big that the remains of four consecutive Starbucks cafes disintegrated by the pressure wave. Despite this feat, the Blue Destiny is done for the fight. Burnt out gears and an bewildered Thorvald kept the EXAM unit lying there until retrieved. Elsewhere, the battle continued. As Sebastian's team fell back along the New Jersey coast, Thierry Mersault's Guncannon HDT moved with other Guncannons and Don Escargots along the waterline. Their mission is to seek out the Jukons of the Zeon fleet. Suddenly, missiles burst from the water. Their contrails disappear in the fog only to reappear as the remaining Big Trays of the 87th Intergrated fleet takes hits. From a secluded hidding spot, Kuuro Konishi pulled his Xamel in reverse. He had been hired to use his artillery MS to fire on the Federal ships, but the counter battery fire was getting too close for his liking. Kuuro saw what had happen to the base's howitzer battery. There is nothing left but a lake. He had done his job anyway so it is time to leave. Mersault and the Federal ASW team hurried to the location of the missile launches. ASROC launchers at the ready, they are suddenly pounced upon. A mass of Zeon MSM units led by Alec Irusk's Z'Gok-E sprung out of the water. The Don Escargot wing is immediately destroyed. Mersault backed off as Alec Irusk charged him with his Z'Gok-E. A Hygogg, Z'Gok, and a Gogg overwhelmed the Guncannon HDT pilot. Only the toughness Lunar Titanium armor brought Mersault enough time for the rest of the Guncannon team to come to his rescue. As they dragged what is left of Irusk and his mobile suit away from the shoreline, a Grabro opened fire on the Fly Mantas that wandered too near. While the violence of battle had begun quickly, the end of the battle came much more slowly and gradual. The Orange Base and Scott Archer were stalled by defiant Dopps before they can begin searching for Jim Irwin and Thorvald Siggurdson. Below them, the ground forces of the 87th proceeded slowly and cautiously across the battlefield towards New York. There is no telling what traps the Zeon force left behind in the fog. This hesitation and cautious approach allowed what is left of the Zeon force to leave. The lack of seaward forces allowed the Jukons led by Marina Eimue to escape with whatever they can carry in their hulls. As the roar of war gave way to an haunting silence, a heavy sigh can be heard from the ravaged Brooklyn Promenade. The Asian man turned away before shaking his head and disappearing into the shadows of his home city. Aurem Senaiha - 8 VP Gained, Repairing 2 Charles Gano - 9 VP Gained, Repairing 3 Cray Vermillion - 8 VP Gained, Repairing 3 Jim Irwin - 7 VP Gained, Destroyed 1, Injured 7 Edmund Blackadder - 9+1 VP Gained, Repairing 3 Jarvis Ackart - 8 VP Gained, Repairing 3 Thierry Mersault - 9 VP Gained, Repairing 5 Scott Archer - 9 VP Gained, Repairing 3 Kyle Slater - 9 VP Gained, Repairing 3 Thorvald Siggurdson - 8 VP Gained, Repairing 4 Marion - 7 VP Gained Nigel Ferdinand - 8 VP Gained, Fatigued 1 Seth Yamanu - 8 CP Gained, Injured 3 Sebastian Brennan - 6/2 VP Gained, Repairing +3 Rhett Paruta - 5/2 VP Gained, Killed In Action Esther Mackernan - 6/2 VP Gained, Repairing +3 Tony Knight - 8/2 VP Gained, Repairing +2 Alek Irusk - 6/2 VP Gained, Repairing +2 Marko Dresner - 6/2 VP Gained, Repairing +3 Noelle Everett - 6/2 VP Gained, Killed In Action Duncan Keystone - 6/2 VP Gained, Repairing +3 Persephone Dawn - 6 VP Gained, Repairing 3 Hugh Jazz - 7 VP Gained, Repairing 3 Kuuro Konishi - 8 VP Gained, Repairing 3+1 |