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He couldn't quite figure it out. For months, even during a horrible war, his life had been uneventful, almost as if the military were trying to keep him out of trouble. He had seen action less than twice in his entire military career. And now he was being forced into Africa, not once but twice! It was almost as if... As if... Nigel was suddenly awakened by his daydream, as his new pet decided the pertinant thing to do after going to the bathroom was wipe its cock off on its masters leg. "Ugh, that's gross Jojo." Ferdinand said, ignoring his own advice by picking up the monkey. "You should go play soldier somewhere. You like playing soldier." The monkey understood the instruction, feigning a salute. He grabbed Nigels handgun out of its holster and goose-stepped down the Benedictus's hallway. "EEEK!" came a female voice from the back of the hangar. "You simply CANNOT let him carry those things in the ship!" It was Nigels wife. While Jojo was busy playing soldier, she was busy playing mom. Aboard the Dignity, two of Jaburo's test pilots stood next to each other, looking out one of the ship hangars portside windows. Since the advent of a minovsky battlefield, windows had been installed all over the Medea, allowing a modicum of comfort, but also allowing personnel to spot the enemy in battle. They were well above the cloud cover, and it would be easy to see any enemy aircraft attacking from this angle. "So, I heard you used to be a drug dealer." Jane said, nonchalantly. She was a woman of few words, but she and Thorvald had become acquainted over the past week. "Wouldn't know nothing about that lass. I'm a conservati-" Siggurdson was cut off. "Lutheran, I know." Jane giggled. Thorvald smiled too. Being in the military wasn't quite so bad as he'd expected. He thought he heard someone whispering in his ear, so he turned away from the window, but all that was there was his dark blue mobile suit, staring back at him. The mechanic teams were busy with the mobile suit refitting it for desert warfare, perhaps one of them was talking. It had been an uneventful trip, and they'd made it a ways farther into North Africa than last time, now over western Tunisia and about to make their starboard turn to RF-1. Nigel had decided to take a nap when warning sirens blared in his ears. He shot up in his chair, his pilot and copilot already accelerating the craft. "What the hell is going on?" Ferdinand cried. The copilot looked back at him. "Dopps sir, ETA two minutes. Your orders?" Nigel gulped, knowing he was going to die this time. He'd already been yelled at enough for not getting his cargo on the ground once. "Launch mobile suits! Immediately! Right now!" He stammered. "And uhh... Have the fighters engage!" Orders were sent out quickly, the wing of Tin Cods at the head of the ship banking off in direction of the Dopps, the Dish staying behind as a rear guard. Some of the pilots were eager to enter combat, having been sitting in their rigid cockpits for several hours. Jim Irwin was not one of them, the country boy reluctant to engage, but determined to do his duty. "Six flies bearing eleven o'clock, you think they're the same ones as last time?" One man said over the radio. "Yeah, looks like they're back for revenge." Another responded. The Dopps were well above them, making a B line for the four Medea carriers. The sky was clear and there was little wind, making the battlefield entirely about pilot skill. "No Heli's with 'em this time so we've got numbers. Break off into two's and stay with your wingman, keep pressure on them." Jim said. He had been teaching rookie pilots for a while now, and was the designated flight leader of the wing. "Remember, Dopps are smaller than you and faster than you, don't engage one on one. Smokie you're with me." Irwin began gaining altitude, Smokie's Tin Cod flying with him. The ten Federal fighters adopted a wide formation, the Dopps tightening up. For a few seconds everything was quiet, both groups playing a game of long range chicken and sizing up their opponents. The Dopps fired first, missile exhaust and yellow tracers painting a line towards the Federation aircraft. Jim flipped his fighter right, doing a barrel roll and launching one of his own missiles into the enemy. The Dopps broke up, moving all directions as the two groups engaged. Two of the Tin Cods in the front exploded early, another pair laying on the vulcan fire and forcing one of the Dopps away from the others. They broke off, pursuing the enemy fighter and dropping altitude, pilots trying to tag the thin blotch of green on the Sahara sands below. Jim and Smokie flew around to the left, making a tight turn behind the enemy wing and coming up behind an enemy fighter. "Come on come on..." Jim muttered, vulcan rounds sailing into the air around the small Dopp. A few rounds managed to tag its fuselage, the fighter splintering and exploding, creating a small dark cloud in the sky in front of them. Another Dopp did a quick U turn, coming straight at them and launching missiles. "I'll go right!" Smokie yelled, Jim and his wingman flying in opposite directions as the Dopp sailed through them. Another Tin Cod was shot to the ground, a Dopp exploding at Jims seven o'clock as a pair of Tin Cods layed into it. "Oh god oh god oh god..." Nigel muttered, watching the explosions from the relative safety of the Benedictus's bridge. "Do you need to piss your pants sir? Might take some animal wisdom from your pet." Joe called, walking up and smacking Nigel upside the head. "Crews are ready to drop, but they had to halt the refit orders. Just give the word. "Yes, drop them! Drop everything now!" Nigel gasped, trying to compose himself. The thick hangar doors of the Medeas opened up slowly, winds battering into the holds as mobile suit pilots prepared to launch onto the desert below. Aboard the Dutchman, Jay Tessa was first in line, followed by Jack Verse. Infantry would jump out last, preventing them from being squished by armor units dropping on top of their heads. "Everything's all green Tessa, you're good to go." Came orders from the flight deck. Tessa whistled, leaping her GM Ground out of the Medea and activating its parachute. She was almost enjoying the fall when proximity warnings blared throughout her cockpit. Two Dopps had broken off from the Tin Cod group, and were using their superior speed to engage the drop team before the Federal aircraft could intercept. "Enemy mobile suit confirmed. GM Ground Type, target the chute." The two Dopps vulcans lit up, tracers sailing in front of Tessas suit before cutting the cables connecting her to her parachute. In an instant she went from sailing through the sky to falling like a rock. "Jay!" Jack Verse cried, his Gundam Ground flying out of the Dutchman and firing at the Dopps. 90mm shells forced the two fighters to break up, one gaining altitude only to be decimated by the Dignity's AA fire. Tessa's body was glued to her chair, the lithe girl hardly able to move as g-forces slammed against her. "Tessa, fire your thrusters!" Jane called, the GM S Type dropping through the air above her. She did her best to reach for the throttle, the GM Grounds verniers blasting for a few seconds just before she slammed into the desert floor. Cracking her head against the front panel, Jay went unconscious. The Sheppards GM S Type and Vermillions Type 61 landed softly on the crest of a dune, the GMPGT and Blue Destiny landing shortly after. In the air the Dopps had now broken off, having destroyed several Tin Cods but unable to damage the ships. Things were looking like they were about to calm down, when a group of pink Zakus on jetskis sailed over the next dune. "Incoming! It's a trap!" Jack yelled, a bazooka shell slamming into the side of his Gundam. The suit was knocked down the dune, rolling across the sand and battering Verse as it went. Thorvald opened up with an impressive amount of machinegun fire, but the Panthers broke their formation, moving to flank the two remaining units from both sides. Jane met their movements, her GM sailing at impressive speeds across the sand, a small storm brewing in its wake. She let out a hail of 100mm fire, catching one of the Panthers with several shells. It blocked with an arm shield and took minor damage, but her aim was improving. Right before she managed a killing blow, a round hit her units left leg, the reactive armor saving it but knocking the GM S Type onto its back. From behind the ridge a group of Magella Attack Tanks and Weasels came into view, firing their cannons in support of the Zakus. Looking on from above, Nigel had finally found his backbone. "Increase particle density and order the surviving fighters to attack those tanks." He called out. Jojo ran into the cockpit, hearing his masters voice and leaping on top of Nigels back to watch the battle, like some sort of monkey cheerleader. In the air, Joe Dzurik was the first to see the tanks from the vantage point of his parachute. He picked up his bazooka, aiming carefully at the Magellas. He fired, the rocket sailing downwards and striking a tank right at the top of its turret. The warhead breached the Magellas ammunition supply, the tank exploding in an impressive fireworks display. Duchy marines filed out of the Weasels quickly, almost directly above the 42nds paratroopers. They began firing into the air, one of Joes men screaming behind him. On the ground, Cray and Ion launched their Type 61 straight at the enemy Magellas, firing shells into the tanks in a spectacular charge. One of the Magellas exploded, the others turning away from the mobile suit battle to engage Vermillions tank. A round hit the side of the Type 61, Cray whistling as he launched grenades into the enemy craft. Jim and the Tin Cod wing began firing into the enemy Weasels from above, forcing them to fall back. An infantry group fired back into the air, rifle shells slicing through one of the wings of Irwins Tin Cod. Smoke trailing out of his fighter, he pulled off, making for the safety of the Chicken Little's hangar. Dzurik took the initiative, dropping the bazooka and pulled a pistol out of his jacket, slicing himself out of his chute with a kabar and falling to the ground. He hit one of the enemy marines in the neck, landing just in front of the mans corpse and rushing into the enemy marines. Another Zeon neck found Dzuriks knife, three pistol rounds exploding into the dying mans abdomen before Joe threw him to the sand. The Magellas began to pull away, launching grenades as the rest of the Federal paratroopers joined Dzurik. While the Federation infantry and aircraft kept the Magellas busy, the Pink Panthers encircled the tough Federation MS, blasting bazooka rounds into Jacks fallen Gundam Ground and Jane's GM S Type. The two mobile suits were hit with round after round, becoming too damaged to stand while the rest of the Panthers took on Thorvalds blue GM. Kill me. Thorvald was definitely hearing things now, but he was too busy to assess his freudian mental state, firing vulcans and machinecannons wildly into the fast Zaku II Desert types. Two of them were quickly gaining on his mobile suit, one providing cover fire with a machinegun while the other moved towards the heavily armored unit, a heat hawk in two hands. Kill me. Siggurdson backed off, dropping his machinegun as its rounds were expended and drawing his beam saber. He fired his two missiles, the Zakus strafing to either side as the warheads smashed into the sand. As the melee armed Panther descended on his GM from the right, 120mm shells pattered off the Destinies thick armor on the left, sparking up the suits cockpit before a single round ricocheted off its head. Please kill me! The Panther leapt off of its jetskis, sailing through the air with heat hawk outstretched. As it descended on the Blue Destiny its eyes turned from deep blue to bright red, changing its movement immediately. The beam saber lashed out, cutting off both of the Zakus arms as another blue hand lunged for the Zakus head, grabbing it and ripping it straight off its metallic torso. Machinecannons fired into the Panthers cockpit, the headless Zaku dropping into the sand in front of the glowing red eyes of the EXAM system. Please! Kill me! Everyone could hear it now, the remaining three Panthers, Jane Sheppard and Jack Verse, even Nigel and his men in the Medeas above. Jojo went wild, the monkey screaming and firing Nigels pistol around the cockpit, a round hitting Nigel in the leg. Ferdinand grabbed the monkey, restraining him before he managed to shoot him somewhere more important. Thorvalds face was white, frozen in his seat as the image of a beautiful, naked, winged girl appeared in his cockpit, looking deep into his eyes. Please, why won't you kill me? The machinegun armed Panther shot to the side, rounds popping off the Blue Destiny as it lurched forwards, verniers blazing and sending the berserk unit sailing towards its skiing target. The Panther picked a sturm faust off its back, firing it at the Destiny which ignored the missile, blocking it with its arm shield. There was a huge explosion, the Blue Destiny shooting out of it legs first and drop-kicking the Zaku. The cockpit was crushed, the pink mobile weapon flying off its skiis and splashing into a sand dune behind it. The Destiny landed on two legs and one arm, sliding through the sand and facing at the remaining two Zakus. KILL ME! The remaining Panthers and Magellas withdrew, throwing grenades and smoke bombs as they fled. Joe ordered the infantry to fall back, while Cray's Type 61 moved towards the Blue Destiny, Vermillion wanting to congratulate Siggurdson on his impressive piloting. The Destiny stood up, leaping for the tank with a beam saber drawn. I WANT YOU TO KILL ME! "What the- What are you doing Thor?!" Cray yelled, watching as the mobile suit descended on him. However, just before the beam saber pierced the tanks cockpit, the eyes on the Blue Destiny turned back to their soothing blue. The beam saber was extinguished, and a frantic Thorvald Siggurdson kicked open the cockpit, having manually turned off the Blue Destinies reactor. Nigel Ferdinand - 8 VP gained, Injured 2 Jim Irwin - 8/2 VP gained, Repairing +1 Jay Tessa - 8 VP gained, Repairing 3 Injured 4 Jack Verse - 8 VP gained, Repairing 3 Injured 1 Cray Vermillion - 8 VP gained, Repairing 2 Jane Sheppard - 8 VP gained, Repairing 3 Thorvald Siggurdson - 4 VP gained, Repairing 2 Injured 1-1 Marion - 4 VP gained, no damage |