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The crew of the Hillock-class Gwydion are in a bad mood. The weather seems to agree with them as the rainstorms grew worse. Their morale sank ever since the terrorist attack they took the other day. On top of that, their Don Escargot insists that the two EFGF Tin Cods they saw yesterday shot down their Dish aircraft during the explosion on the Gwydion. There is no easy explanation for it and the news left the crew wondering who can they trust in this war. Scarth Maheart leans out the driver's seat window of the heavy transport Ultra Magnus. Overhead, he spots his two Mongoose ground suppression aircraft flying over the beach area and towards the open ocean. To the south, he can see with the aid of binoculars three mobile suits on Dodai YS aircrafts. Around him, the vehicles of the UPS fleet sat idle. The rain makes road travel difficult, but Maheart would rather be on land than fight the baffling winds of the rainstorm. High above the convoy of trucks and armored vehicles, Private Alain Grace wipes his face with his hand. With the Dodai crew doing the job of flying the Efreet around, the wanna-be newtype opens his pill dispenser and pops another two pills into his mouth. Perhaps today he will get a chance to show his superiors his true potential. Someone else is also close to popping pills. Specialist Persephone Dawn breathes slowly in the cockpit of the Zaku II Manipulator Type. At Odessa, she has been placed under the care of Sergeant Cortez, who is riding in the Gouf in formation with her. The sergeant in question is eager to try the Gouf mobile suit out, seeing this as a sign of his advancement up the Zeon leadership ladder. "Aw hell, LOOK!" Everyone on the deck of the Gwydion stop in their tracks as they all look at where the sailor was pointing. There on the horizon, black shadows grew larger against the rolling grey clouds. Someone shouts the dreaded name "Mobile Suits!" over the sound of rain falling. The shout brought everyone back to reality as alarms rang and the ship went to battlestations. Lines of point defense fire reach up into the sky but the Zeon pilots ignore them, the Dodai crews weaving around them even in this bad weather. The two Mongoose aircraft are barely noticed by the panicking crew as they crept closer, their tankbuster cannons primed. Things seem dire for the crew of the Gwydion, until one of the Mongoose aircraft explodes in a flaming fireball. Sergeant Jim Irwin gave a shout as he watches the outdated ground suppression aircraft explode. This is aerial combat and this is where his Tin Cod expertise excels. The other Mongoose aircraft dies as if it was an after thought and the seven Tin Cods flew towards the flying Zeon mobile suits. The rain makes flying difficult but their targets are large. Guided by the Dish aircraft about two miles behind them, the Tin Cods bore into the three flying mobile suits. While it is not normally Irwin's policy to engage mobile suits, their three targets are riding aircraft. A last minute burst of sporadic fire from the Gouf tried to dissuade them, but the EF fighters manage to score serious hits on all three of the Dodai aircraft. None of them explode outright however, their Zeon crews nursing themselves and their passengers back towards shore. Corporal Jack Murphy in his Guntank MPT listens to reports of the mayhem as he slaves the Guntank's cannons towards the approximate dirction of the Zeon mobile suits. With a thunderous roar that momentarily silences the rainstorm, his twin 120mm howitzers belches fire. Back on the Gwydion, a cheer rose when the crew discovers that they can trust these Tin Cods. The ship's anti-air arsenal began to add its own firepower to the harassing Tin Cods, destroying the damaged Dodais out right. But the mobile suits fell close enough to shore to waddle onto dry land. The Tin Cods withdraw with Irwin leading the way. Their fighters did their best in this weather and it was now up to the rest of the EF to finish the job. The ordeal is not yet over for Grace and Dawn. It was also just beginning for Maheart who is watching three Zeon mobile suits crawl up towards the very highway his convoy is on. Artillery is dropping around them but nothing came close to damaging them yet. But above them, the Dish aircraft made contact with the command crew of the Gwydion and the final players in this battle. Private Aurem Senaiha in his GM Ground Sniper and his recently requisitioned GM Land Combat Type, adjust the sights on their long range weapons. Together, guided by the data from the Dish aircraft, a beam sniper shot followed by a rail cannon shot dashes across the raging waters. Dawn never knew what hit her as the entire left side of her mobile suit melts away. The left arm and two manipulator arms fuse together into a lump before exploding, tumbling her mobile suit further in land. In the few seconds it took Grace to see the Zaku II Manipulator Type fall, cruise missiles from the Gwydion and shells from Murphy's Guntank MPT straddle him and the UPS convoy. The high explosvie shells riddles Maheart's vehicles with shrapnel and several of his armored vehicles explode outright. But it was the GM Land Combat Type's railcannon shot that nails the EFreet in the lower right leg, detonating the missile pod and sending the Zeon mobile falling to the ground. The bombardment ended after three minutes. Due to the destruction of the shore and the rainstorm around them, the Dish aircraft couldn't verify the destruction of the targets. Nor could they find any signs of the convoy. Both have mysteriously disappeared. Jack Murphy - 8 VP gained, Repairing 1 Jim Irwin - 8 VP gained, Repairing 2 Aurem Senaiha - 4+1 VP gained, No Damage Alain Grace - 5 VP gained, Repairing 3 Persephone Dawn - 6 VP gained, Repairing 3 Scarth Maheart - 6 VP gained, Injured 2 |