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A convoy of three trucks were bouncing down a rather badly kept road in East Asia. All around there was nothing but a bit of sparse forest. Though you could see a thick line of it in the distance. Scarth Maheart was in the lead truck of his UPS convoy. He was currently bouncing his head and drumming his finger on his steering wheel to the song on the radio. The Touch blared out of his cab's speakers, and Scarth was feeling like it would be a good day. Oh how wrong he was. Far off in the distance at that tree line knelt a GM Sniper. It was crouched as low as it could get. Only the end of it's rifles barrel stuck out past the trees. Aurem was busy making a few last minute adjustments to his scope when he saw a Land Combat GM kneel a little ways to his left. "Just remember you are to wait til I fire." Said Aurem before settling into his seat. The Land GM confired and Aurem took aim. His aim hovered on the lead truck for a moment. But he reasoned the person in charge might try to seek the safety of the center position. With that his aim shifted over the second truck. Aurem took a deep breath and fired. The Driver of the second truck had no chance. The moment the beam connected the entire cab of the truck was incinerated. This proved to be very unfortunate for the Dracken E in the back trailer. For without a cab pulling it the trailer dug into the ground and proceeded to flip end over end. The Dracken E riding on it was crushed and torn apart in an instant. "What the hell!" Scarth yelled as he saw the Trailblazer get demolished behind him. He barely acknowledged the driver of Kup swerving madly to dodge the bits that were being strewn everywhere. The driver of Kup did a magnificent job of throwing out every bad word he could possibly think of and even a few he might have made up. The Dracken E on the back of his truck proceeded to launch itself off in the direction of the fire. It had no chance of surviveal but perhaps it could buy a few seconds for the convoy to make it. Aurem nodded in satisfaction as he saw the outcome of his shot. He noticed what appeared to be a tiny mobile suit launch itself off the back truck. It had appeared to be heading in their direction befre the Land GM put a round into it. "Should we go after them?" he heard the other pilot ask. "No, we've did a fair bit of damage. Let them go for now and hope they take the hint." Said Aurem. Aurem Senaiha - 4+1 VP, No Damage Scarth Maheart - 1 VP, No Damage "I can sense him." Maharaja acknowledged the young newtype's assessment and briefly thanked her before ordering the video feed to the girl's mobile suit be terminated. Immediately the screen reverted to the sight of space dotted with far too many rocks to be considered convenient to many. What made patrols by the contingent on AXIS so dangerous, however, was also what would protect it if attacked. A double edged sword of sorts. Looking at the top of the screen, the commander watched the time turn to 13:00 hours Earth time and subsequently paid little attention to the odd medium sized asteroid that did not share the trajectory of its brethren. As if she'd done this for the thousandth time, Maharaja Kahn called to one of her communications operators and nodded at him before once again returning her attention to the monitor. Adjusting his mouthpiece, the man pressed a button on his console and said, "Grün Team, I need you to break off from your patrol route and investigate a suspected intrusion in area N21-E39-A56, how copy?" A short while later came the response, "Grün Team to AXIS, area N21-E39-A56, solid copy. Grün Team out." James looked down at his vintage timepiece and followed the minute hand as it struck the top of the dial. 13:00 hours, he thought to himself. As if jolted by a lightning bolt, the man worked at a blinding speed pressing buttons and flipping the appropriate switches to bring his mobile suit on line. Using his machine gun's auxiliary camera to peak around the top of his cover, he could see a squadron of red spacecraft perform a full burn and zip off out of sight. "Qualitative analysis of the modified situation confidently projects an increased chance of success." The pilot chuckled to himself for wording such an obvious statement in the manner that he did, but humor was essential to him right now, for it was one of the few luxuries still within his reach. Taking a deep breath, he firmly planted his feet against the pedals of the cockpit and gave a slight jab to one of the control sticks causing the Zaku to move out from its mobile cover. A stronger input followed and the lone Zaku began to move toward the behemoth of an asteroid that remained centered on James's screen. En route to the surface, the former accountant tapped a series of buttons in sequence, eventually becoming satisfied when a red dot proceeded by the three letters R-E-C began to flash on the lower corner of the monitor. "Time for daddy to earn his paycheck," James said to himself while making minute course adjustments with the twitches of his fingers. A mine here, an asteroid there, another asteroid there, oh wait, that one is actually a mine! This was certainly a far cry from the bureaucratic job he previously held, but in a sense it was all the same. A penchant for details and a quick eye were both valuable in the realm of numbers and this. It just so happened that such a gift would help the pilot avoid coming too close to the bundles of joy that were no doubt filled with a nasty surprise. In fact, a small explosion registered on his screen from a small asteroid impacting one of the lazily floating mines. It wasn't long until a series of oversized nozzles came into view as the rogue Zaku slowly began rounding the fortress. "Interesting. Looks like some propulsion system, but the nozzles indicate that the scale of the thing must be monsterous." He maintained his trajectory and followed the asteroid's propulsion systems with his camera for several seconds in order to get various angles of the object. When he was satisfied with the amount of data collected, James once again made a course adjustment and brought the mobile suit close enough for its computer to identify the long rod like objects sticking out of AXIS' surface. "Cannons, MPCs, AA sites, missile launchers. Wow." Then they came to life. "Commander, I don't think there is a main force. It just looks like a lone scout snooping around," reported the executive officer. He was standing next to Maharaja and viewed the same things she did. However, she did seem to be rather relaxed about the entire situation, choosing instead to remain silent and observe the aged C-type reconnoiter her defenses. Finally, she decided that she'd seen enough and gave a flick of her wrist to the weapons officer in the room. "Alright, shoot him down. Don't waste too much on it, though." Maharaja would then be seen leaving the command center, telling her assistant that she would be in her room. James had taken the movement of the AA turrets to be a dead giveaway that he should begin high tailing it out of the AO. Not a moment too soon, the area he had just been in was filled with solid shot and degenerating Minovsky particles. The turrets were good, but his own piloting skills would slowly allow him to edge out into the lead in terms of evading the swath of anti aircraft and the occasional beam lances. But just as he would become relaxed believing he was in the clear, a noxious siren began to emphatically warn him of incoming missiles. Swinging its machine gun behind, the Zaku II let loose a sustained burst from the 120mm, catching a few of the trailing missiles head on, but a fair number remained locked on. James, seeing the persistent munitions, pulled back on the controls at the last moment to perform a sharp turn and avoid the missiles. Clenching his teeth and straining against the immense G-forces created, the accountant nearly passed out after seeing the cream coloured cylinders fail to match their target's turn and continue their wayward trajectory into empty space. He gripped the controls and slowly regained his bearings, but a violent shutter followed by a sea of red on the diagram screen showed that one of his feet were entirely gone. This time, James was keen enough to see the telltale green trail of the beam guns that one of the nearby defense satellites was shooting, invoking a flurry of curses out of the normally quiet man as he performed further evasive maneuvers until well out of weapons range of AXIS' defenses. "I better get paid for this." "Commander Kahn?" "Yes, what is it," came the reply. Clearing his throat, the XO answered, "we were unable to neutralize the scout." "It's fine. Not like it saw anything inside," came the nonchalant reply. Maharaja was busy mindlessly played with a lighter in her hand while staring at a steel wire basket that held a single burning piece of paper. James Radcliffe: 4 VP Gained, Repairing 0+1 |