Operation Odessa, part 12

Odessa Day "Damn, she's a babe, ain't she." Monsha looked at the picture, whistling loudly. His voice had a lecherous quality to it, and the rest of the team laughed. Their radios were barely working, even though their units, all commander types, were less than fifty yards from each other. "Amy Bauer Meister. Did you hear how many fighters she shot down at Constantinople? Man." "You mean that crater we left back in Turkey? Show's what they get for siding with the moonfucks." Bate laughed. They were in high spirits. Flanked by Admiral A-1 superheavy tanks, and with the Bhatan rolling behind them, there was no reason not to be. It was still morning, the bombardment had not yet started for today. "Things are going to get serious real quick team." Burning grumbled. He didn't mind silliness before a battle, but he would kill a man for not paying attention during one. And the battle was about to begin. At the northwestern front of Odessa, troops began their slow, steady movements through the fog. And what a fog it was. The minovsky particle density was so thick as one approached the base, that even a mobile suits onboard computers couldn't completely correct for it. The trench line and towns in the distance, some fifteen km away, were blurry. The sun was high in the sky, already beginning its descent. It was noon at Odessa, Ukraine. Towards the south, Bryce Hollerfelt sat with his team, his land combat GM guarding Revil and the Sir Francis Drake. Jet Core Boosters and other assorted aircraft flew off to the north, while guns aboard the Big Trays churned out thick, black smoke, belching all over enemy positions. "Geez, I wonder where Arianna is..." Bryce sighed, trying to fit into his new uniform. He understood why he wasn't being ordered to front line duty, but he was still anxious. He knew Arianna would be coming to this battlefield. He needed to meet her before the end of the day. Far to the Southeast, at the edge of the Black Sea, Himalayas, Hillocks and assorted Ferries started their slow ascent towards the coast of the city. Fighters upon fighters upon fighters launched from their carriers, circling around the ships until the lot of them were launched. The fortress had an impressive air defense, and they would be sure to hit them all at once. The last group to launch was the famed Desert Eagles, seven fighters roaring high into the sky. "Looks like we'll be getting first blood. Y'all ready to take back our land?" Blaine hooted, grinning and showing off a single gold tooth. The teams Dish pilot, Kevin Donovan, laughed aloud. "Don't get too antsy boys. We've got our work cut out for us..." Amy mused. Her Tin Cod led the charge, over a hundred fighters and bombers roaring out from the sea towards their targets. ~ "Enemy fighters have started their approach ma'am. How shall we respond?" The radar operator watched his instruments, looking at the ships four foot captain, standing eerily over him in her oversized clothes. "Go to silent running. Prep MIRV warheads in all tubes. Go to firing depth." Marinas cold eyes stared, fixated on a single spot at the front of the bridge. It wasn't that she was looking at anything in particular, but the aura of hatred that radiated from her eyes prevented anyone from discussing her earlier lapses of... Authority. Rumor had gotten around by now, people were discussing how she acted around Xavier in private. She didn't like rumors. Far east of them, a small group of reinforcements made its way towards the base, heading from Baikonour. A wing of ten Dopps moved for the airfields, already low on fuel. They would be unable to arrive for the first assault, but would make it in the air for a second, and everyone knew the bases air squadrons needed all the help they could get. Atop the waves, Noelle Everett and her team moved north, traveling towards the northern edge of the city. She had seen a large Federation fleet moving in from the northeast, and knew that the defenders there would require assistance. The main reinforcements however, were below the water. *BUUUUUURP* Krundle's voice echoed throughout the cockpit, a cockpit he had trouble fitting into. He was on his fourth beer already. He had it figured out. Between two and four beers, his piloting ability improved. At five, it started to go down. He anticipated a lot of combat today, so he was drinking early. The Grabro moved through the sea, silhouetting Gils overall battle strategy perfectly. The Landfill would strike like a wrecking ball, destroying all in its path. His team flanked him, a pair of Z'Goks, another Grabro, and one of Zeons new Hygogg mobile suits, all with expert pilots. They'd heard the Waterproof Gundam would be at that battle, and they sure as hell would be ready for him. ~ "Blasted mud" Cima growled, trying to wipe it off of her uniform. Her Zaku Commander's single eye was perched just above the trench, watching the rumble in the distance. There were dozens of them in the trench, watching and waiting. Shells whizzed by, explosions smacking around them as the artillery slowly gained its bearings. It would be safe for a little while longer, before the hell began. A ways to the south, Ferusha Glavadeen, Ota Naomi and their teams were preparing to stop the advance. Their Zakus had to kneel to be entirely within the trench, but it did provide effective cover. When standing, they would be just high enough to shoot at the enemy while providing a low profile. Smaller dugouts for the tanks were placed a ways ahead, so the shorter Magella Attack Tanks could also benefit from the defensive position. "How the hell did I get into this..." Ferusha muttered. She thought back to her days in Athens, and in California. To simpler times, and a simpler war. Maybe if she had told the people at Flanagan her secret, she'd be on the moon now. Maybe there she'd be safe. Or maybe she'd be cut open already, another failed experiment. There was just no way out. Ferusha looked up at the hazy sky, and for a moment her heart touched another soul on the battlefield. Far off in the distance, Persephones newtype Zaku was crouched behind a building, a team of just under a dozen Zakus guarding the northeastern flank. Dawn was starting to have mixed feelings about the war. She'd seen the man she knew was her caged brother twice now, part of a past she did not fully remember. She was slowly starting to dislike, even to hate her handlers at the agency. She did not harbor any treasonous thoughts, she just wasn't the simple girl she had been raised to be anymore. You couldn't simply input commands and watch her carry them out. She had grown into her own woman. "That's funny..." Nicholas said, looking through the zoomed scope of his 120mm. He was the leader of the team she was attached to, an expert Zaku Desert pilot. He'd moved from Alexandria to Constantinople to assist there, and was then evacuated with Kerane's men. "Hmm?" Persephone responded. Their Zakus were both hidden behind abandoned buildings, close enough that they could still communicate despite the particle storm. "Look Specialist. Dust clouds in the distance... Federation forces here are supposed to be light." Nicholas bit his lip, wondering if this was a ruse, a small number of suits intentionally trying to throw up dust to make their assault look larger than it was. Persephone closed her eyes, calming herself till she felt the full wait of the 87ths pressure coming towards them like a hurricane. The young girls eyes snapped open. "Inform general Kerane, tell him to call for backup. They will attack here." ~ As shells pounded down throughout the base, the four Zanzibars started their slow and laborious takeoff. They would launch early, before the enemy snipers were fully in range. Crews were strapped into their combat positions, fully aware of the Federation fleet in orbit, waiting to stop their escape route. The ships rumbled, crewmen held on tightly to their seats, mobile suit pilots braced themselves inside their cockpits. Huge flowery pillars of exhaust rose into the air, the four capital ships rumbling as they carried the last shipment of resources Odessa may ever send to space. At the head of the line, Ghinius Sahalin was deep in thought. His base had been destroyed, and with it, any reasonable dream of completing the Apsalus project. He would probably never be able to make its cannon strong enough to pierce the walls of Jaburo. However, he knew that it was currently on Odessas front line, and that it had proved invaluable at New Amsterdam and Malta. He was not without failure. Not once did his thoughts move to his younger sister, who shot herself shortly before the final assault on Lhasa. In seperate ships, Johnny Ridden and Rhett Paruta readied new machines, the Crimson Lightning and Cyan Thunder prepared to protect their fleet at all costs. Rhett, as usual, was getting space sick. He worried about Cora, who was down on the front, with a new pilot. Ma Kube had split his team up personally. He didn't know if he'd see any of them again. Gadem was a little annoyed, having given up his Zaku I for Riddens old Zaku II R2 HMT. He understood that the HMT was a superior machine, but Gadem was one of Zeons oldest veterans, one of the few who saw actual combat during the Riah Revolution. His old Zaku was a part of him, and it hurt him to leave it behind. But all things change in love and war, or so he told himself. HLVs started to fly into the air behind the Zanzibars, the heavier ships creating a frontline defense. Pilots watched the city get smaller and smaller through their monitors, till it was nothing but a patch of green next to a patch of blue. The G-Forces inflicted upon them at takeoff slowly levelled out, and for a few seconds a serene feeling washed over all of them, that of leaving the Earth once again. It was a short lived respite from war, however, as one by one the pilots looked up towards the stars, and saw a score of flame-coated battleships hurtling down towards them. ~ Far, far to the south, well away from the main battlefield, the Medeas of the 42nd Brigade moved towards the city, having stopped briefly to refuel on the Bosphorous. Nigel looked at his clock, knowing they were already late for the assault. He had in his possession a number of the Federations top pilots and mobile suits, and Revil was counting on his attack to arrive on time. He was worried. He thought back to Africa, thought back to his childhood, growing up in simpler times. He wished he could have it all back. He wished he could have Dzurik back, specifically. He would know what to do. The fleet was moving over a mountain range now. Nigel looked down on the peaks, catching a slight bit of movement out of the corner of his eye. "All ships, hard turn to starboard." He yelled, the crew immediately following his orders. Bazooka shells and tracer rounds shot out of the mountainside, Zakus placed at an altitude where they could effectively attack Nigels forces. In the bowels of the Oklahoma, Thorvald careened over to one wall, losing his balance as the ship turned. His Koreean sidekick averted his eyes, knowing specifically what he didn't want to see as Siggurdsons blue and gold kilt wafted upwards. The two righted themselves as the turn levelled out, and Jung handed Siggurdson the bag. "Ahh, thankee laddie. Pity she'll spoil by th'time the battle is over. I hear we be landin' soon, won't be enough time ta cook 'er nice n' proper, like me old daddie used ta do." Jung kind of grumbled, wondering if he should be happy that at least Thorvald was discussing this with him at this point. The two shared an uneasy moment of silence, broken by Nigels voice echoing on the loudspeaker. "Attention all ships, this is commander Ferdinand. Enemy positions in the mountains have forced us to detour around the ocean. We will be arriving at the combat zone about an hour later than expected. That is all." Thorvalds eyes lit up at the news, the ramifications of them arriving at the battle late lost on his simple mind. He cheered, thanking the spirits that he was going to get to cook his fish after all. ~ Elsewhere, the 87th Integrated Fleet was precisely on time. Aaron McCaskey led the charge, an unusual amount of bravery emanating from the officer. A quartet of Big Trays rumbled behind him, as well as nearly two dozen mobile suits of varying types and makes. The 87th had more beam weapons almost than the entire rest of the fleet put together, and a huge number of mobile suits. They had not been able to arrive on time for the initial siege, but instead Revil had sent them the long way around, on a wide flank march. Cray Vermillion led the tank team, marines and Type 61s rustling up the dirt as they moved towards the bottleneck guarded by Persephone and Nicholas. Kyle Slater and The Beam Team were just behind McCaskey, backing him up. Slater had tried hard to make friends with the rest of the 87th, but his nerdy demeanor had stifled many efforts. Still, the comeraderie was high among them, and the battle had not yet begun, so many pilots were in good spirits. The EZ-8 was handling well, Slater only wishing that he had had more time to practice with the new controls before battle. They weren't exactly like his old GMPGT. Tybalt and Madeleine moved with him, the trio silently waiting for the carnage to begin. Thierry Mersault moved through the sky, attacking with the fleets aircraft. His Guncannon had been assigned to fleet defense, but he was not a man who enjoyed defending. His worth could only be proven when attacking, so he had decided to leave his Guncannon on fleet defense, and attack through the skies with the Core Fighter. His small luna titanium plane moved towards the city with the rest of the Tin Cods, eyeing a pair of Gaws which lumbered towards them from the southwest. "Looks like we'll be fighting sooner than expected." Mersault smiled. He took a long drag from a cigarette, loading his weapons and watching the two purple behemoths in the distance. They fired mega particle cannons towards the air formation, clipping a pair of fighters. The rest fanned out, moving into squadrons and dropping down to engage the Gaws in attack runs. Tin Cods would distract antiaircraft gunners while the heavier Fly Mantas would attack the ships wings. The two Don Escargots acting as Thierries wingmen were torn to shreds, the slower ASW planes unsuited to attacking Gaws. Mersault loosed a pair of missiles into the Ersats undercarriage, the small warheads doing limited damage to the purple ship. A single 105mm shell struck the core fighter, but the luna titanium armor held strong. "Where's our fighter support?" The captain of the Viktoria Luise II yelled. They had been ordered to counter the Federations attack in the northeast, but they were expecting some sort of backup. There weren't enough Dopps present to provide a static defense wing for the bases four Gaws. "Sir, it seems there's been a mixup with the orders, we're being told to fly back to base." Explosions caused the ship to shake, the captain holding onto his chair. "Lovely way to start the day. Forget attacking the Federal ships, those damn GMs will shoot us down without any support. Turn around and head back." "Aye aye captain." The helmsman answered, flipping the tallship style wheel that acted as the Luise's helm. It and the Ersats banked right, slowly turning back to the base, and its protective layer of fighters and antiaircraft guns. Both ships had already lost an engine, Fly Mantas tearing into the wings while AA gunners shot down anything they could. Thierry moved in behind the Ersats, trying hard to avoid antiaircraft fire while aiming for the ships tail. He fired his remaining two missiles, striking a solid hit on the rear of the Gaw. Tracers arced towards the fighter moments later, forcing Mersault to pull away. He simply wasn't a good enough pilot to get close enough to where he could attack the core of the ship. "Sir, enemy Gaws are retreating." The radio operator of the Gofannon said. The captain nodded, having ordered the 87ths guns to stand by in case the two behemoths approached their position. "Fire as per our orders from Revil then. The 87ths artillery blasted outwards, from the huge Big Tray deck guns down to Jack Murphies small Guntanks cannons. Buildings exploded all around Persephone and Nicholas, the group of Zakus crouching low. They could see a number of Doms and Wappas moving in to support them, and hoped they wouldn't arrive too late. David Anderson looked over his instruments, watching the Adzam rumble as it moved towards the isthmus to the north. A unit of Dodai mounted mobile suits was moving with him, the lot of them trying to head off the 87th before it successfully flanked their forces. Beneath them, Ritter Novosad grumbled, wondering why he was required to babysit the bases Wappa teams, which flitted inbetween the legs of he bases Doms. These mobile units quickly moved to support Persephone, taking up positions close to their Zakus and moving into cover. To the west, bombs began to fall, Federation JCBs doing runs across the northern trench line. Ferusha, Cima, and the rest of the trenches Zakus fired their 120mms into the air, shooting down several fighters and chasing the rest away. However, the bombs were doing their work, a number of Zakus and Magellas exploding as the heavy warheads slammed into them. Ota and her team held their ground, their Goufs being more used to close support than anything else. As the bombs raged across the base, a single man rushed across Odessas airfield, a horned helmet in his hand. His tall and purposeful body was silhouetted by the explosions, his team moving to their Dopps and preparing for the Federations assault. The fighters were like a cloud now, hundreds of aircraft moving from the south and the west, nearly blocking the sun with their might. Lord Garma leapt into his Dopp, revved his engines and strapped his helmet on, catching the glimpse of MIRV type warheads shooting out of the water in the distance, smoke billowing beneath them as they pierced the could of Earth Federation Justice that he would soon face in the air, fighter to fighter, man to man. *** "Keep your positions. Bollocks will take the lead, Reed, you and your men will be our backup." Patrick Foley had insisted that his own fleet be given point on this operation. He had fallen out of interest with the Federation, with few notable mentionables in the last six months of the war. He needed to do something to prove his worth again. "Sir, we're descending on the enemy Zanzibars, one minute to firing range." "Excellent, lets give them a good show." Packie grinned. He turned around, waving goodbye to the staff as he moved to the makeshift hangar of the Salamis Kai and prepared to take off in his own mobile suit. "Bet you we can down the first ship." Alex Sentara yelled on the intercom, fully aware that he was hurting everyone elses ears. Later he would say he forgot that minovsky interference didn't set in till the Columbus's hangar doors opened. "Oh you're on!" Another pilot responded. They were in high spirits, knowing full well that Zeon hadn't sent adequete defenses to the region, and that they outnumbered the Duchy resupply fleet three ships to one. The EF hadn't outnumbered Zeon this badly since the early months of the war. "Here's the deal. Whoever downs the first ship gets to sleep with uhh... Somebodies girlfriend..." Sentara hadn't really thought it through. The hangar doors opened about that time, giving him the perfect angle to discard other pilots protests. "Sorry! Can't hear you! Minovsky Minovsky ssssshhhh shhhhhhhh" The fake noises hurt his throat. Saberfish shot out of the Boss Borot, moving in a direct line towards the closest Zanzibar. They only had a second to watch their surroundings before the battle began, but it was breathtaking. The ships were still inside the atmosphere, and every one was heated to a dull red color, and covered head to toe in sparkling, luminous flames. Trails of white smoke buffeted about behind the ships. The background was half stars, half ocean, a serene spectacle that almost got a number of pilots killed, as they forgot to watch for tracer rounds flying from the Kergerens Antiaircraft guns. "Watch it boys!" Sentara yelled, launching an M-particle bomb and banking to the right. His wing dropped altitude, coming down level with the Zanzibars and moving in. Behind them, numerous lances of mega particles shot in from behind, slamming into the Penguin and the Kergeren. Holes were ripped into their hides, and you could see charred bodies drop out of the wounds and fall to their deaths, burning up in the atmosphere. Patrick Foley and Derek Carters squads zigzagged towards their target, firing at long range with beam weapons and further shredding the ships. Two wings of Zakus shot out of the Kergeren, pouring bazooka and machinegun rounds at the attackers and felling several Saberfish. Sentara rolled left again, firing one rocket at the Kergerens portside engine and taking it out. Packie and Carter broke formation, engaging the Zakus and downing several. Their pilots were inexperienced, and with so much focus on one ship, they were outnumbered. Ghinius closed his eyes, listening to the hiss of air escaping the bridge as the ship started to lose altitude and sink to the planet below. Marc Simmons and his team moved towards the Penguin, which was exchanging fire with the Salamis of the BOLLOCKS. Simmons danced across the Zanzibars hull, destroying several AA turrets while his wingmen cut into the ship with their beam spray guns. The main facet of the battle was ahead of them, and here there was little resistance. Out of the corner of his eye Simmons saw a red mobile suit escape the Penguin and move towards the Kergeren. Suddenly the hairs on his neck started to twinge, and he made a sharp evasive turn just in time, a beam rifle shot tearing through his units left leg. A second shot cut straight through one of his wingmen, the GM exploding in a fireball. "What the hell... That looked like a Gundam beam rifle..." Marcs eyes went wide. He fired suppression rounds with his machinegun and pulled back, unwilling to engage the enemy ace. As mobile suits flitted around the Kergeren and the Penguin, Federation battleships remained in formation, firing on the enemy Zanzibars. The first wave of HLVs was just starting to come into view now, and the order was given to decelerate, and fire on the softer targets. "Several squads are requesting permission to come aboard sir." The comm officer of the Boss Borot looked towards his captain. The old, fat, skirted man with a gigantic chin nodded. Moments later the ship rumbled, floorboards creaking and starting to come undone. "Captain! Enemy ship twelve o'clock high! Musai class!" "What?! Why didn't we see it?" The captains eyes went wide. "Keep firing. Ignore the ships south. If we can take out their carriers, they'll be unable to resupply." Boone said, his horribly long sideburns well manicured for the event. The Falmel drove hole after hole into the Columbus class ship, dropping in from high altitude right in the middle of the Federation fleet. They didn't have much manpower, but Boone would make sure the Federation payed dearly for gaining control of orbit. *** "Looks like we'll have to break off pursuit. Enemy Dopps incoming!" One pilot yelled, the 87ths air wings unable to destroy the two Gaws before they moved back into protected airspace. They were reaching the shore, lightless buildings approaching hastily on the horizon. The enemy Dopp wing advanced, splitting into two formations, one below and one above the Federal aircraft. The two groups let loose their missiles early, spinning in all directions and breaking off into dogfights, planes careening around each other wildly. Thierry had already broken off, moving back to link up with the Guncannon before the ground battle began. One Tin Cod pilot moved outwards from a spin, watching the Dopp in front of him smolder as it splashed into the ocean below. He took a second to look south, watching as the cloud of fighters on the southern shore got larger, and larger, and larger... "That's three!" Amy yelled, pulling up and dodging a trio of missiles, her Tin Cod flying between two of her compatriots, the other Eagles refusing to break formation. Shraphnel and smoke piled up around them, making visibility low even in the clear skies. A Dopp flew straight past her, the eagles turning right and engaging a new squadron. Fly Mantas fired their ordnance early, trying to destroy the line of turrets firing on them from below. Depp Rogs did their best to stay back, slowly being eaten alive by the enemy Dopps. The lithe green fighters were much better able to survive in a dogfight, even if they were heavily outnumbered. Amy did a long roll, coming around behind a Dopp and shooting shells straight into its fuselage. She flew straight through the fighters explosion, bits of metal pattering like rain on her cockpit glass. She watched a Tin Cod explode in front of her, its wingman turning away and almost running into her fighter. She dropped her stick, her Cod falling out of the sky almost in a nosedive, flying straight for the city below. Pulling up, she moved forward, closer into the base, flying through the slowly dissipating smoke clouds from the HLV launch. Tracers from AA rounds formed a forest around her squad, but their maneuvering was too erratic, too unpredictable. It was impossible for a simple turret to hit a Desert Eagle. Blaine whistled as a trio of Dopps came around in front of them, one being shot down by another Eagles missiles. He grabbed his handgun and placed it flat on his canopy glass, firing as one of the Dopps rocketed by him. He caught a glimpse of a blood spatter on the back of the large green cockpit, the fighter slowly losing altitude before crashing into the city below. A team of six Jet Core Boosters flew by them, firing a devastating array of ordnance towards another enemy squad. Three Dopps descended from above them, missiles tearing the JCBs apart in the sky. Both teams flew between each other, exhaust contrails lacing like a childrens toy, mixing with tracers and shraphnel, filling the sky with chaos. "Looks like we'll beat them at this rate, they're running out of birds..." Amy said to herself, looking all over her canopy and watching for the next attack. She saw the Dopp at the last second, its brown body careening out of the sun and firing on her from above. She pulled away, getting a glimpse of the pilot as the two passed each other. "Garma Zabi?!?" She exclaimed, and gave a hand signal to the rest of the Eagles. While they returned to the main part of the fray, she pulled away, moving after a newer, higher priority target. ~ Far to the north, the Mississippi and Spirit of New Amsterdam sped around the lake, trying to cut off the Duchy bottleneck at the northeast end of the city. Bigby Wolfe and Thomas Parks, as well as an unusually large number of GMs, had been stuffed into the two Medeas holds. A squadron of fighters circled around the two Medeas, scaring off any brave pilots who might want to shoot the two down before they could drop their cargo. "We've reached the paradrop point." Thomas Parks said, triplechecking his machinegun as the doors opened. His GM Cold Climate Type was the first to drop, close to a dozen GMs descending around him. Bigby Wolfe's GM Desert Type, and their teams GMPGT were the last to drop. "Looks like our job is done. Lets get out of here before we get ourselves killed, whaddya say." The captain of the Spirit said, his crew laughing. They were all scottish, and wearing the Federations new issue Scottish uniforms. "So now we flank the enemy and... What the pussyeating fuck is that?" Bigby asked, the surprise doing little to soften his tongue. A squadron of Goufs riding Dodais was escorting a huge, turd shaped mobile armor across the sky and straight for them. "Targets acquired." Anderson snapped. The Goufs moved aside, the Adzam turning and charging up its flotilla of mega particle cannons. "All we need to do is buy enough time for the reserves to set up defensive positions, right?" The Gouf Flight Type next to him opened fire first, gatlings and machinecannons blistering down into the GMs below. Beam fire blasted out from both sides, one Gouf being incinerated along with a pair of GMs in the initial volley. Bigby poured machinegun rounds into the side of the Adzam, but saw them do negligable damage. The Dodais dropped a volley of missiles into the Federation MS, their Goufs dropping down after them and attacking, swords and heat rods flailing in all directions. Pilots parried with beam sabers, returning fire with vulcans and refusing to give quarter. Parks tore up a Gouf, eating into the cockpit with 90mm shells and then pushing the metallic corpse aside. Bigby tried to withdraw from the battlefield, unwilling to enter melee combat with the blue Duchy mobile suits. "Shit, need something tougher to deal with that armor..." He muttered. Tin Cods and Jet Core Boosters flew south, the Medea air team giving support fire of machineguns and missiles, trying to push the enemy Goufs off the GM squadron. The lone GMPGT pilot punched the head off a Gouf, slicing it in two with a beam saber and walking through its exploding reactor. The Gouf Flight Type tore through Federation aircraft, shooting down a full half dozen before a Fly Manta rammed it headfirst, the pilot crushed as his plane crumpled into bits on impact. The Flight Type dropped out of the sky, exploding as it hit the dusty ground. "That's right... Keep them busy." Anderson smiled, moving the Adzam slowly forward and firing MPCs on any GMs that moved too far away from the melee. As the shadow of the mobile armor descended over the two units, he dropped one of his three leaders. Unfortunately, before the device could activate it was destroyed, Bigby Wolfe hitting it with a beam spray gun he'd taken from a fallen GM. "Yeah, take that ya goddamn turdshit moonfuck piece of trash!" He grinned, ignoring the battle around him and firing beams into the Adzam over and over, until the weapons charge was drained. Dropping the gun, he boosted into the air and grabbed a beam saber, preparing to land on top of the mobile armor. "Christ.. Adzam, withdrawing from battle!" Anderson yelled, gaining altitude and moving away. He watched as the GMs slowly picked off the Goufs, numerical superiority making up for their slight weakness in melee combat. Thomas Parks sliced through a second one of the blue units, its heat rod grappled onto the CCTs left arm and slowly melting it off. Tin Cods swarmed around the sky, eating the Dodais alive before pulling back to defend the Medeas. "Well, we didn't take that much damage did we fuckers. Next victim please!" Bigby laughed, shouldering his machinegun and looking towards the south. They could see the unit of Doms at the bottleneck, having used the time to find cover, dug in behind trees and buildings. They would be much harder to dislodge. ~ At the western edge of the battlefield, mobile suits and tanks marched on, guns blazing from the artillery on both ends of the plain. Huge columns of dirt were kicked into the sky, shells slamming into the center of formations and pushing units into disarray. One team of Dopps flew West, trying to cut off the team of JCB bombers at the trench before they could move back and resupply. However, a unit of Tin Cods launched from the Jupiter, cutting off the Dopps before they could reach their target. "God damn it, there's too many of those fish in the air!" One pilot yelled, veering south and moving to attack the enemy fighters. The two formations shot past each other, letting missiles fly and eating into each others hides. Dopps twirled in the air, rolling around and coming up behind their targets, destroying them only to be destroyed in turn by Federal aircraft. The battle here went slightly in Zeons favor, the Federation not bringing the brunt of their numerical superiority onto this part of the battlefield. To the north, the squadron of JCBs moved back to friendly skies, having dropped their bombs and weakened the enemy forces in the trench. Ferusha caught another with her machinegun as they flew away, the Duchy forces at the trench regrouping and preparing for the inevitable assault. Federal mobile suits and tanks were getting closer and closer, and the ground was starting to rumble with the sounds of the Admirals advance. They could see the listening post destroyed by a hail of shells in the distance. Ferusha, Cima, Ota and the rest of the Duchy units took cover, waiting for the right time to strike. ~ "Come on! How fucking long does it take to refuel one of these things, they're tiny!" A Dopp pilot yelled, mechanics working as fast as they could on his machine. The Baikonour unit was still refuelling, while turrets and mobile suits did their best to keep Federal fighters away from the airfield. Marko Dresner and his team skated across the asphalt, firing bazooka rounds into the sky and downing several Federation planes. A pair of fighters rolled past them at a negligable altitude, a brown Dopp being trailed by a single tenacious Tin Cod. "Cocky bitch, you won't let me get away, will you!" Garma laughed, pulling up hard on his throttle. The Dopp went into a spin, climbing and climbing while Amy trailed it, firing her vulcans intermittantly to try to guess the precise range to her target. The air battle raged on around them, but they were in an engagement all their own. Garma dropped speed a bit, coming down almost level with Amy's Tin Cod, and the two started circling around each other, their contrails forming a helix as they soared high into the air. Amy gritted her teeth, the resistance on her bulkier fighter tremendous, a degree of pressure that would force any normal pilot into a blackout. She kept circling, the two getting higher and higher, closer and closer... Seeing that Garma was going to be just under her on the final turn, she broke off, Garma moving down into pursuit. By now they were high above the main battlefield, well above anny support from the ground or the rest of their teams. Amy juked left, then right, but Garma was on her, slowly getting closer and setting in for the kill. "Zabi creep..." She mumbled, wondering what she could do to get herself out of this situation. She dropped altitude a bit and hit the emergency jetisson button for her canopy, and it popped open, flying backwards and almost striking Garmas Dopp square on the nose. Garma flew right just in time, and resumed his course, slowly aiming for the killshot, saving his final two missiles for this endeavor. "Got you bitch." He smiled, locking on and firing his missiles. Amy picked up higher at the last moment, pulling back on her throttle and shoving her Tin Cod to an almost perfect ninety degree angle, still flying straight forward. The wind resistance hit her fighter all at once, the large Cod dropping speed instantaneously and moving behind Garmas smaller Dopp. It was one of the few maneuvers the Duchy fighter could not do. "Cobra?!" Garma exclaimed, dropping altitude as fast as he could. It was not enough, Amy coming level straight behind him and pouring vulcan rounds into his fighter. The brown Dopp started billowing smoke, Garma barely making it away with his life. "Damn, I missed." Amy grinned, dropping altitude and moving down to the fray. A number of Dopps were coming up to escort their leader back to base, and she would be unable to defeat all of them. She caught a glimpse of the Gaws coming in from the north, their hides bristling with antiarcraft defenses. The air battle would not be won so easily. *** "Keep shooting, she's almost down!" Packie yelled, flitting around the Kergeren and firing holes through its engines. The ship was trailing smoke now, shaking so hard everyone knew it would break apart soon. Ghinius sat aboard the bridge, unable to give orders, deep within the miasma of his own mind. "What is that?" Carter mumbled, looking up. He caught something moving out of his peripheral vision. Suddenly several 90mm shells hit his Guncannon, the trail of tracers moving off of it and striking three Saberfish dead on, destroying them. "I've never seen that model before. Packie, get a look at this guy!" Carter yelled. He fired off several rounds from his shoulder cannon, but the red mobile suit dodged them easily. As the Kergeren started to explode, the mobile suits pulled off from her now sinking corpse. Alex was too busy arguing with his fellow fish pilots over who had gotten the killing blow to pay any attention. The red mobile suit came closer, firing off another round of 90mm shells and destroying another 3 Saberfish. "A red mobile suit... It's Char! Char Aznable! Everyone, get back to the ships!" Packie yelled. He threw a flash grenade in Riddens direction, boosting back towards the Ogre. Sentara and Carter got the word and moved away as well, using their vulcans to try to halt Riddens pursuit. The Crimson Lightning reached their position, flitting around and destroying Saberfish indiscriminately. Meanwhile, the Penguin, Tirpitz and Shooting Star decreased speed, trying to match their course with the EFSF ships, which had taken up positions directly behind the HLV wings. All the while both fleets were gaining altitude, and the heat staining the ships hulls a dim red ochre was starting to subside. They were exiting the atmosphere now, and little by little maneuvering was starting to become easier. However, it would still be some time before they were completely out of the effects of orbit. "Keep the pressure strong, lets see if we can get them to forget about the HLVs." Boone grinned, his ship shuddering as a missile impacted its hide. "Order all ships to fire on the enemy carriers, I don't want them servicing those GMs of theirs, not even once!" The Shooting Star and Penguin turned their guns on the Sulafat, but their MPCs were blocked by anti-beam rounds from Federal public squadrons. Sparkling chaff filled the sky, dispersing faster than usual as it sank towards the planet below. Zakus launched from the Falmel, moving towards the Boss Borot while the Musai fired indiscriminately on the Sulafat. The hollow Columbus class ship weas pierced several times, and looked like swiss cheese before its bridge was finally eradicated by mega particle beams. With no one crewing the vessel, it began to sink slowly but surely into the Earth. "Those Publics will cause us trouble if we don't take them out now.." Ridden mumbled to himself, stowing his 90mm and reaching for his beam rifle. He was joined by Rhett Paruta, the TAF mismatch of Gattles and Doms backing Ridden up as they flew into the Federal formations. "You take the one on the right, I'll take the two on the left." Ridden barked. Parutas mono-eye flashed an OK sign, and the two of them flew into the Federal Public squadron. One blast of the Dom Cannons shoulder shotguns, and two shots from the Gelgoogs beam rifle, and all three missile boats had been destroyed. "Woah, this is easier than I thought it would be." Rhett mused, happy with the performance of his new Dom. "Where to next, commander lightning sir!" Ridden smirked a little, but the smirk changed to anger as they looked ahead, the Falmel exploding in front of them. The Luna II Defense fleet had caught up with their position, and a half dozen Salamis and Magellans were all opening fire on the lone Musai Scout Type. Char Aznables personal ship lasted no more than a few seconds, dozens of heavy mega particle cannons turning her to dust and ending Boones career. "Shit." Ridden grumbled, looking for his next target. "Lets pay them back for this!" He said, his Gelgoog flying towards the Boss Borot and Orc, which were quickly dropping in speed. Paruta followed him, the two not noticing a salvo of missiles moving towards their position. "Three seconds till warhead spread sir." The Intimidators missile operator watched closely, Reed nodding and looking out over the battlefield. "Lets see you dodge this, Char Anzable." Ridden and Parutas teams flew past the cluster of rockets, which opened up and fired hundreds of micromissiles in all directions. Ridden pressed on the Gelgoogs vulcans, gaining altitude and downing dozens of missiles before they could impact his suit. Rhett turned downwards, instinctively firing his shotguns into the spray and making a shield for himself. However, their Gattle squadron was not so lucky, all four of the green pilots being consumed in the cloud of projectiles. "No! Kaila! Trent! Twanna! and Brett!" Rhett gasped, watching his new friends die one by one. He stalled his Dom for a second, but Riddens voice snapped him out of it. "We need to keep moving! Don't stop to think!" Johnny yelled, his Gelgoog grabbing Rhetts Dom and pulling it forward. ~ In the southern part of the battlefield, the Vengeance stood unopposed, firing wave after wave of missiles into the HLV squadrons and destroying several of them. The two Columbus it escorted launched several wings of Saberfish, which made a direct line towards the enemy transports, as they slowly moved along, gaining altitude as fast as they could. As the Saberfish moved north, they passed the Tirpitz and Buster Ichi Go, both ships close to each other now, dropping speed and trying to come up on each others tails best they could. They fired on each other, both ships sustaining heavy damage. Meanwhile, Ma Kube launched from the Zanzibars hangar, his Gyan prototype escorted by a pair of Zaku IIs. Ma Kube was personally invested in this battle, his vase collection being stowed carefully inside the Tirpitz's hangar. "Captain, we've got three enemy mobile suits coming from twelve o'clock, one unidentified model." The Ichi Go's comm operator looked to her captain, the ship shuddering with the stresses of orbit and enemy fire. "Launch Simmons and his unit, I don't care if they're not ready for battle yet, tell them to protect my ship!" Word got to Simmons, who grumbled, boosting his one legged GM off the Salamis's hull. His remaining wingman went with, the three watching as Ma Kube and his Zakus twisted round and came up towards the Salamis Revised from below. "Only two spare magazines left.." Simmons mumbled to himself, watching the advancing mobile suits. The Gyan fired off 90mm shells, held up its shield and launched a wave of missiles towards the advancing mobile suits. Simmons spun around, dodging the missiles and returning fire. "Interesting design, missiles in the shield. But it won't match our Gundams!" He yelled, dropping down from above on ma Kube. Several machinegun rounds impacted the Gyan, but Ma Kube was the faster pilot, emptying the rest of his magazine into Simmons shield and breaking away. He moved towards the Salamis, firing several missiles into its hide before being pushed back by the Reviseds impressive AA compliment. Simmons wingman tore into the two Zaku II's, carving one up with his beam spray gun and forcing the other to withdraw. "Don't ignore me!" Marc yelled, lobbing a grenade towards his opponent. Ma Kube turned around, boosting away from the explosion and gaining altitude. He fired off a barrage of missiles at Simmons, dropped several hide bombs and then pulled back. Simmons followed, but something told him he shouldn't advance in the same way that the new mobile suit had retreated. He moved around the Hide Bombs, his senses saving him from Ma Kube's ambush. "Is he a newtype?" Ma Kube asked himself, firing his machineguns grenade and pulling back. Despite his suits superior performance, it wasn't enough to down the Buster Ichi Go while dealing with Simmons and his GM E. ~ At the north end of the battlefield, the Boss Borot quickly launched its remaining Saberfish, many of them already having been destroyed by Riddens earlier assault. Alex and his team was the last to launch, having had no time to re-arm his missiles before they were sent out again. There wasn't enough of a screen protecting the Columbus from enemy Zakus. The Falmels elite mobile suits shot the Columbus II down, its heavy armor doing little to protect it from that many machinegun and bazooka rounds. Zakus flitted around, firing machinegun rounds into the Saberfish as they left the hangar. Sentara curved his fighter around mid flight, launching the remainder of his missiles. He caught two of the Zakus behind him, both of them exploding outright. The third backed off, using its machinegun to stop pursuit. "Boss Borot down, Sulafat down... Fuck, where the hell am I supposed to refuel now?" Alex mumbled, looking around at the available ships. The only Columbus left were nowhere near the main battlefield. A ways south, Gadem and his unit launched from the Penguin, which was slowly but surely dissolving under the weight of enemy fire. He watched it smolder and burn, dropping altitude now and starting to fall into the Earth below. It was a good ship, but it simply couldn't stand up to an entire Federal fleet for this long. Aboard the Ogre, Foley and Carter were just about to make use of the Salamis Kai's slim refitting ability when they saw the enemy mobile suits coming towards the ship. The Ogre was already damaged, and doing its best to withdraw from the battlefield. "We'll have to advance before they can refuel us." Foley said, boosting off of the ship. Carter nodded, his Guncannon picking up the rear and protecting the GMs advance. Gadem got a quick shot off on one of their GMs, destroying it with his bazooka before moving away, Foley and Carter opening fire with all of their weaponry. His two Doms boosted in opposite directions, one falling to Carters cannons quickly, the other trying to get underneath the GMs to attack from below. Gadem came in from above, firing bazooka round after bazooka round on the Federal MS. He knew the battle was going badly for Zeon, and wanted to go out with as much of a bang as his personal honor could allow. Meanwhile, Ridden and Rhett moved squarely for the Orc, Otaktai, Michael Kreuz and their units launching and staying within its protective AA screen. They saw the two mobile suits advancing, red and blue, and wondered if they would be able to protect their ship, and come out of this alive. To the west of Odessa, things were getting tense. The Federation battle line, filled with a mismatch of tanks, GMs and Admiral A-1's, was slowly but surely reaching the Duchies primary defense line. Ota looked out of the trench and gulped, watching the machines rumble forward. Zaku Cannons fired shells off as fast as they could, heavy tanks and Luna Titanium armored mobile suits shrugging off the blows. The Duchies aircraft, having beaten off the Federation fighters, circled overhead, protecting the skies till they ran out of fuel. Towards the south, a much smaller Federation assault group crept through buildings and forests, relatively unmolested by enemy artillery. Federation artillery and aircraft fire had pushed the Zeon tank groups defending the river back to the wall, and only a line of defensive turrets stood preventing the Federation from crossing the bridge that was their target. It seemed the Zen soldiers were already running scared, giving up their first defense line without so much as a fight. In the air, the battle was still moving on, even though a good hundred aircraft had already been shot down. There weren't many Dopps left in the sky, but reinforcements had arrived, the squadron from Baikonour already refueled, and the four Gaws moving in from the north. Together they created a defense perimeter that the Federation squadrons, most low or out of missiles, was having difficulty breaking through. "Doesn't anybody have any missiles left?" Amy yelled, shredding yet another Dopp with her vulcans. Her squadron was completely out of ammunition, not that a Tin Cods missiles could do much against a Gaw anyway. The four carriers had slowed down, creating a line of AA defenses while the remains of the Dopps pulled into their hangars to rearm and refuel. Federation aircraft pushed forward, only to be forced back due to a lack of ordnance. The Gaws fired MPCs and missiles into the air, pushing the Federation fighters back. Squadrons of Depp Rogs and Fly Mantas with a few missiles left turned back, moving around in circles and organizing themselves before pressing forward. Amy came in first, dodging antiaircraft shells in order to fire a signal flare close to the Ouroubourous, knowing that it had to be downed first to assist the naval bombardment. Bombers moved in, firing missiles into the Gaw Recons wings, but it only destroyed a single one of the twin engines. It wouldn't be enough to down the Gaw completely, they would have to turn back. Further south, under the water, word had gotten out that the 42nd brigade was late, and that the Waterproof Gundam and Aqua GM had not yet made it to the naval brigade. A counterattack was being planned. "Send word to Xavier, Esther and Krundles units." Marina barked, the U-77 slowly moving towards the enemy lines. "We'll start at both ends, and try to make our way to the middle. Have the other ships join in on the assault." The communication came to Xavier, scratchy but audible. His squadron moved on ahead, sonar catching glimpses of the GM Diver teams moving out to meet them. You sure about this Marina... Brennan thought, gulping and doublechecking his armaments. Stay safe, little girl. At the eastern end of the Federations line, Krundle and his team were the first to attack. Screaming forward, the twin Grabro mobile armors shot a wave of torpedoes into the Field, even as its huge torpedo launchers fired a wave of depth charges into their position. Gil responded by giving his mobile armor an up-trim and launching his only Freeze Yard rounds, creating a protective barrier of sticky goop that blocked the incoming fire. Aboard the Lhotse, Nguen Vao Kai watched as the Field was hit with waves of torpedoes, then split in two as the two mobile armors slammed straight through it. "Get the Escargot teams to the eastern edge, we need to block those Grabros from advancing. Tell the torpedo teams to fire at will." Vao Kai ordered, his small frame slowly scratching his tiny dog. He was a veteran of naval warfare, and wouldn't be intimidated so easily. Gil crumpled a beer up in his hand, squinting and advancing for the Himalaya. He fired a round of torpedoes, but it struck enemy ordnance, the shells exploding prematurely off the Lhotse's starboard deck. The shadows of enemy Don Escargots could be seen overhead, visible at this low depth. "Frogslegs, this is Dish niner three niner, giving you enemy coordinates now." The Dish sailed along with Krundles team, ugly looking ASW aircraft dropping charges into the water. Two Z'Goks popped to the surface in response, letting off a volley of missiles. Not many of the surface to surface rounds hit, but it was enough to force the Don Escargots to break formation. Krundles team sped on, knowing they had to keep moving to evade enemy fire. "Target the Himalaya in the center, all tubes. Open fire!" Marina ordered, still glaring ahead at some small spot at the front of her bridge. Torpedoes were loosed from the U-77, moving straight for the Mountain. The Himalaya fired off a salvo of countermeasures, only one torpedo striking its hull. "Keep firing. And tell the MSMs to keep those Divers off our backs!" Marina ordered. It wouldn't be very long before Federation aircraft had a fix on their position. Xaviers team sped forwards, smacking head first into the squadron of GM Divers in their way. Brennan dropped altitude, firing two torpedoes into a GM and sinking it before coming up on a second and ripping its arms off with his Z'Goks powerful claws. He broke away, dodging its torpedo and grenade salvos and cutting it in two with MPC fire. Another GM Diver hit one of his Acquy's squarely in the chest, destroying it with several well placed torpedoes. The Diver was destroyed itself moments later by MPC fire from Xaviers Z'Gok wingman. "Where's the damn Gundam.." Xavier growled, moving towards the next target. He launched a barrage of torpedoes into the Creek, which groaned under fire before launching a huge volley of depth charges into the water. Xavier turned his mobile suit around, running as fast as he could from the quickly sinking bombs ahead of him. Towards the western end, Esther and a half a dozen Goggs slammed into the Federal lines, the faster Z'Gok Commander type zipping past the GM Divers. Esther smacked into one Diver head on, firing both her torpedoes into it and splitting it in two. Other Divers and Goggs duked it out, the more heavily armed GM Divers dancing nicely with the faster and more heavily armored Goggs. "Captain, enemy destroyer is moving in on our flank, we don't have anybody checking him." Nimue's sonar operator yelled. "I don't care! Keep firing on that Himalaya, prepare countermeasures." Marina yelled. The Gully moved steadily forward, firing all one hundred plus torpedo tubes at the enemy ships. They sailed straight over the Lorelay, slamming into the U-53 from above and obliterating it. "The U-53's been sunk!" The sonar operator yelled. Marina bit her lip. "Sink that damn Himalaya and then press through. We'll use their ships as a shield!" ~ Nicholas and Persephone were pressed behind their cover, dozens of Federal tanks encroaching on their position. Asphalt and concrete flew in all directions, the town guarding them slowly dissolving away. "We need to counterattack soon." Nicholas said, looking at Persephone. She nodded, the two ducking out from behind opposite ends of their cover and opening fire. The amount of lead put out by the Zaku II Manipulator Type was impressive, a half a dozen tanks blowing up instantly. Doms stood up from behind defensive positions, blasting shells into the enemy GM line. "There they are! Lets go team!" Kyle yelled, the Beam Team rushing forwards and ignoring enemy fire. A bazooka round slammed into the EZ-8's shoulder, but it shrugged it off. Kyle fired beam rounds through the buildings, a Dom on the opposite side exploding as his reward. However, they couldn't get too far forwards before they were forced back, Tybalt and Madelaine having to hide behind their shields for safety. On the other end of the lake, Wolfe and Parks were having trouble, their squads disorganized by the earlier fight with the Adzam. Four Doms held the gap, firing bazooka rounds from behind buildings. Bigby and the squads GMPGT took the lead, their armor and shields allowing them to shrug off enemy rounds. "Shit, I should have brought more goddamn ammo." Bigby spat, pushing forwards as best he could. A GM exploded behind him, and another magazine dropped out of his machinegun. He threw the weapon aside, pulling out a beam saber and charging into melee range. Parks and the allied Gundam joined him. "Keep firing!" Nicholas yelled, Persephone mowing down tank after tank. She kept a close eye on her magazines, her quad MMP-80's quickly running out of ammo. Underneath the battle, Ritter and the bases Wappa squads flew forward, dodging machinegun rounds and gunning for the enemy tanks. If we can kill all their infantry, they won't be able to hold the fortress. Ritter thought, zigzagging past grenades and 12mm tracer rounds. He threw a satchel bomb onto the top of a Type 61, blasting past it as the tank exploded from the charge. The Panzergrenadiers came to a halt in the midst of the Federal formation, too close for their mobile suits to assist without killing their own marines. Ritter jumped off of his Wappa, holding a submachinegun in each hand. He proceeded to gun down Federal marines, rifle rounds bouncing off his body armor. "Five... Six... Seven.." Ritter counted. He dropped a pair of magazines and threw a grenade, using the time gained by the explosion to reload. Duchy marines and Panzergrenadiers gathered around him, the group fighting tenaciously between the Federations own tanks. A GM kicked out next to them, throwing several good men into the air. Ritter rolled away from the mobile suits leg as it advanced, firing into enemy soldiers all the while. One tank wheeled around, using its machineguns to slice into the Duchy strike team, killing one of Ritters own men. "Ignore the mobile suits, we need to take care of these marines!" Cray yelled, firing grenades in between friendly tanks. Ion nodded and charged the tank forward, running over a number of the Duchies Wappas. GMs switched to beam spray guns, tearing through buildings and destroying Zakus and Doms behind them as if they weren't even there. Thierry Mersault charged ahead in his Guncannon, laying down vulcan and 100mm fire while tearing buildings apart with his cannons. Persephone ran out of ammunition, dropped her four machineguns and grabbed two heat hawks off her Zakus skirt armor. "Don't look down on me!" She yelled, charging for Thierry and grappling the Guncannon. Holding its arms apart with her own, she sliced into the heavy Luna Titanium armor, tearing the Guncannons arms off before moving slowly for the suits cockpit. "Fuck.. Little help!" Thierry yelled, trying to do something with his unresponsive mobile suit. Just before the heat sabers made their way to his body he hit the eject button, the top of the Guncannon breaking off and the Core Fighter flying away. Aaron McCaskey was there seconds later, firing machinegun rounds into Persephone's Zaku which tore off one of its legs. "Aahh!" Dawn cried, her forehead slamming into the console as the Zaku manipulator crashed to the ground. Nicholas broke cover, throwing a grenade and rushing to help the fallen newtype. "Just a little bit longer, they can't hold out very long." The commander of the Gofannon smiled, watching the melee before him. Suddenly there was a flash from behind the village, the Dobday guarding the bottleneck firing its main guns at a horizontal heading. The six heavy shells smashed into the bridge of the Gofannon, direct hits piercing straight into the Trays reactor. Kerane grinned, the Gofannon exploding and showering shraphnel on the Paragon and the Crusade. Jack Murphy levelled his guns, doing his best to aim over the melee and towards the Westliche's bridge. The wheeled Guntank blasted out round after round, shells tearing into the Dobdays hide. At the bay, a trio of Doms moved in on the Federation flank, Noelle and her wingmen joining the fray. "Kyle, you three handle those Doms." Aaron yelled, moving in and slamming his beam saber into Nicholas's Zaku II D. Persephone could hear Nicholas's last thoughts in her mind, his Zaku exploding over her. She blacked out, the weight of all the dying souls in the area overloading her senses. Slater and the rest of the Beam Team moved towards the coast, using vulcans and machineguns to push Noelle's team back. Everett slammed a pair of 360mm rounds into the EZ-8, Kyle not proficient enough with his machine to dodge the incoming fire. Behind him, Ritter and his men jumped back on their Wappas, flying away while Vermillion and the remainder of the Federal tanks rolled on. Federal aircraft moved in from the south, Tin Cods and Jet Core Boosters showering vulcans and missiles into the enemy from above, which helped considerably in weakening Duchy morale. A number of Ritters marines were downed by aircraft fire, while the Zeon troops were too busy with advancing MS and tanks to fire any suppression shots into the air. After seeing Persephone and Nicholas fall, the Zakus began a rout. The strength of Federal beam weaponry was too much, and the Federal tanks outnumbered them in terms of firepower by too great a number. Surviving Zakus dropped smoke grenades whenever they could, rushing back for the turret line and defensive positions of the base. "We'll cover their retreat. Tell them to give my best to commander Dozle." Kerane said, standing and smiling as he watched the Paragon and the Crusade charge their mega particle cannons. Federal mobile suits parted, creating an open line for the two Big Trays to use their primary weapon. The four MPCs shot out, eradicating the village in front of them as well as the Westliche. Kerane managed a salute before his bridge exploded, his life ended defending Odessa from assault. "Did any of you see Persephone make it out?" One of the Zaku pilots yelled, the group hurriedly rushing for cover at the northern end of the city. Right where the town ended, there was a small line of turrets and defensive positions. Surviving Zakus and Doms, including Noelles squad and Ritters Panzergrenadiers, coalesced in the area, while stationary gun crews covered them. "Negative. Does every single Federation mobile suit have a beam weapon?" Another asked. They turned and looked behind them, the pair of Big Trays looming just a few miles off. As pilots checked their ammunition, and shut power down to damaged areas of their machines, another group of mobile suits came up from the south. The handful of Zaku II Gs bolstered their line, the brown Zaku II FS coming up between Noelles Dom and one of the survivors from Persephones team. "Don't run yet. We haven't lost this battle by a longshot." Garma said, looking at the forces ahead. Meanwhile, Slater and his team wanted to pursue, but were reluctant to do so. Shells were still falling into the city, and the enemy had been routed, butt only at the cost of the majority of their ammunition. "Don't pursue!" Aaron yelled, hoping people would hear him over the minovsky particle interference. "We need to hold and resupply, and see what's going on at the trench!" Towards the south, the Federation forces in the air were in the same boat. Without any missiles, aircraft withdrew, moving south and landing on various Himalayas, despite the danger bubbling from below. "Have the Medeas come over here and refuel what they can in the air." Nguen Vao Kai yelled, even as the Lhotse was rocked with another salvo of torpedoes. "And have the Dish land, we'll transfer to the sky now that we've won air power." Gil Krundle and his team quickly circled around the massive Himalaya, the Grabros slamming it with missiles while the mobile suits protected them from enemy GM Divers, the Lhotse slowly but surely sinking beneath the waves. ~ In the northwest, Ota, Ferusha and Cima were ready, the Invincible Third, the heavy Admiral A-1 tanks, and the might of the Federations mobile suit forces moving in to attack. As they rumbled forward, explosions started pluming out of the ground, dirt kicked in all directions, mixing with the Type 61's own smoke grenades. "Minefield!" Burning yelled, grabbing his machinegun and shooting shells into the ground in front of him. Several mines exploded, the Third making their way slowly through the traps before them. Numerous Type 61's were decimated by the bombs, a handful of GMs and Marine platoons also falling prey to them. The GM Grounds, GMPGTs and Admiral A-1s however kept at the head of the line, their thick hides and luna titanium armor preventing the damage from being too extreme. "Now, hit them now!" Cima yelled, her squad pulling up out of the trench and firing into the enemy line. GMs dropped to their knees, pushing shields in front of them and firing tracers and beams at the enemy Zakus. Ota and her squad lurched forwards, rushing into the enemy lines while Ferusha and her team covered them. Admiral superheavy tanks blasted shells into the Zakus, a number of them pulverized by the ridiculous machines. Towards the north, a squadron of Dodai riding mobile suits descended upon the Federation, Zakus and Goufs leaping off of their rides and engaging the Invincible 3rd. Monsha shot one down as it advanced, Burning cut another in two with his beam saber. Above the line, Jet Core Boosters collided with enemy Dopps, the eight remaining fighters covering the Zakus heads from enemy bombs. "Well, looks like my job is done. I wonder how Rhett is doing.." Cora thought, pulling her Dodai up and moving away from the battlefield. It wasn't that she was a coward, it was just that her Zaku had already been destroyed, and she didn't need to be killed as well. The Jet Core Boosters heavily outnumbered the enemy Dopps, and she wouldn't be able to escape for very long. Ota dived on top of an approaching Admiral, her Gouf slamming its heat sword into the beasts tough carapace. Machinegun fire blistered out of its every pore, and Ota couldn't jump away in time, her Gouf smashed to pieces and falling onto the soft mud. Her suit powered down, and she decided she would play dead, lest the enemy fire on her any more. Her team however, was doing much better work, carving through GMs while Ferusha and Cima kept up the close fire support. Burning and his men were slowly working their way through the enemy line, but it would take time. Most of the Federal aces were busy resupplying in the northeast. ~ At the river, the Federations advance was stalled. An Adzam floated above the water, guarding both bridges simultaniously. The Federal attack force was made up entirely of tanks, and they simply didn't have enough weaponry to deal with an enemy as fierce as the floating mobile armor. Behind the river, Duncan Keystone and his team fired on the Type 61's and Bloodhounds, forcing them to pull back. They would not be able to cross the river until the 42nd arrived from the south. Not far away, in the water, the naval battle was heating up tremendously. Even as fighters landed on the Himalayas, torpedoes smashed into them from below. Xavier slammed his Z'Gok into another GM Diver, cutting it in tiny pieces with his MPCs before moving on to the next one. Goggs moved up to the Cogg, blasting holes in it with their own MPCs, the small barely armored ferry sinking into the waves. At the eastern end of the battle, Krundle and his forces circled the Lhotse like sharks, battering away. "Captain, the Mountain is sunk. Lhotse sinking. We've got them on the run, their mobile suits can't beat ours in a straight fight." Marina listened to the report, grinning sadistically. The Lorelay quickly flitted between the Federal ships, keeping close enough to them that they couldn't fire without damaging themselves, a feat only possible due to her crews expertise. "Biggest threat right now is the Don Escargots. Prep a round of smoke missiles and freeze yard torpedoes, let Xavier and the mobile suits do the work while we support them." She said, smiling with a barely restrained sense of pride. She was finally able to properly support her master. "Aye Ma'am!" The Jukons weapons officer saluted, doing his work as quickly as he could. Missiles shot out of the Lorelay, exploding in vast clouds of dark purple smoke. Don Escargots pulled away, worrying that they would hit each other in the no visibility clouds. As they retreated, a Hygogg shot out of the water, barreling towards a pair of them and flying by means of its rocket booster. It shot arm beam cannons into the craft, destroying several before sinking into the sea. "Man, I want to get me one of those." One of Krundles Z'Gok pilots smiled. However, as he watched in awe one of the few remaining GM Divers snuck up behind him, slamming a beam pick through his cockpit. The Z'Gok sank to the bottom of the sea, Krundle whipping around and grabbing the Diver in one of the Grabros monstrous claws. The mobile armor squeezed and squeezed, the GM eventually snapping in two. At the western end of the battlefield, Esther had the GM Divers on the run, and smashed into the side of the Alp. He fired a round with his MPCs, but it wasn't enough to sink the ship. "Fuck! Wish I had more damned torpedoes!" He yelled, letting off another round. Don Escargots whipped over to his position, firing torpedoes into the water. Two slammed into his Z'Gok, forcing him to dive deeper to avoid the assault. Slowly but surely Zeon was eating the Federation navy alive, but they still had some fight in them yet. The battle raged on over the Ukranian city, deep within her waters, in the midst of her city streets, and in the sky above. Plumes of smoke and dust rose high into the sky, fires and craters covering the landscape. It was in this environment that the 42nd Brigade finally arrived, the flotilla of Medeas late, but not forgotten. "Looks like they started the party without us." Nigel said, leaning over his pilot. The Oklahoma was at the head of the line, Jim Irwins fighter team in front of them. "Keep going with the battle plan. Aurem and Arieta link up with Revil, Hirsch and Charles link up with Vao Kai. The rest of us, we'll just have to break straight through." Ferdinand said, watching the battle below. Inside the Oklahomas hangar, Thorvald strapped himself into his cockpit, a certain item of clothing neatly flung onto the floor. Marion was with him, and they were ready to engage the enemy. "Think we're ready for this one, little lassie?" Siggurdson said, picking bits of fish out of his teeth at the same time. "Always." Marion responded. Ahead of the line, Irwin and his Tin Cod group ran interference. There were no Dopps in the area, but that didn't mean nothing was going to creep up on them at the last second. Jim looked out the corner of his eye, spying the line of Gaws to the East, the remainder of the air battle slowly but surely going in the Federations favor. He wondered how many lives he would have been able to save, had they made it there on time. "Scott, you're going to need to be ready to engage that enemy mobile armor. See him down there, he's keeping our troops pinned over the river." Jim said, wondering if Scott could even hear him with this severity of interference. He moved his fighter close to the Core Booster and pointed, Scott nodding in response. "Yeah I see him. I know you don't like fighting mobile suits Irwin, but we're going up against tougher stuff than that.." Aboard the Din, Jarvis Ackart and his team prepared to be paradropped to the city below. Ackart had come a long way, and he wished that the Lleu Llaw Gyffes had been able to make it to the assault. However, even without his ship, he would do his father proud. Inside the Mississippi, Seth and his team checked their parachutes. They'd been deployed with a unit of mobile suits, an unusual setup for the team of marines, but the 42nd needed to make use of its space as best as they could. Even after the base was taken, the marines would still have their job to do, flushing out the enemy in bunkers and holding the fortress following the initial assault. Towards the East, Amy and her Desert Eagles were flying again. Dozens of fighters had been quickly refueled by Medeas, and Vao Kai had organized the refueling operation such that pilots would only land on carriers that were not being attacked by the enemy. Because of these two things, only a small handful of aircraft had been disadvantaged by the Duchy naval assault. Torpedoes were still slamming into the sides of the Federal carriers, but Amy was more concerned now with the Dopps blocking their route into the city. Missiles and bombs were primed, Fly Mantas and Depp Rogs organizing in order to go on attack runs for the purple behemoths. The Desert Eagles flew on ahead, colliding with enemy Dopps and continuing their deadly dance. ~ "Is that it?" Arianna asked, looking out at the Big Tray in the distance, a small group of mobile suits standing guard. "Yes ma'am, that's the Drake. You should go get in your GM." The pilot responded. Arianna saluted with a blush, and ran for the GM S Type. She had been told he was stationed there, guarding Revil. She was going to get to see him on the same side as herself after all this time, after all of this senseless war. Aurem and Arietas mobile suits were side by side in the hangar of the Medea, in front of the GM S Type. The two pilots held hands in an embarassed fashion, waiting for the drop signal to be called. They were too late to prevent the Zanzibars from launching, but snipers always had a job to do. "What's that... A Medea?" Bryce asked, watching the small yellow craft come slowly into view, a pair of Tin Cods escorting it. Something caused his heart to jump, although he didn't know what. The thunder of the Big Trays guns snapped him out of it, the new recruit shaking his head and turning to watch the battle rage beyond. ~ "Keep firing! We need to break through!" Aaron yelled, dropping another empty magazine onto the ground. The 87ths mobile suit forces had spent time resupplying, and were now redoubling their efforts, trying to take the city. However, with very few beam weapons still containing charges, it was much more difficult for them than the bottleneck had been. Slater yelled as the EZ-8 was struck with another bazooka round, the Gundam falling onto its back with a thud. Doms hid behind buildings, shielding themselves with civilians homes and returning fire with their bazookas. "They must be running low on ammo too... How many more reinforcements can they have?" Kyle groaned, nursing a bruised hip while trying to pick his mobile suit up. "God damn am I sick of this shit." Bigby yelled, rushing the GM Desert Type forwards. "Lets charge! They can't use the city as cover from melee range!" The brown GM charged forwards, shield in one hand and beam saber in the other, its reactive armor blocking the machinegun fire blazing across it but slowly becoming spent. He leapt his unit into the sky, coming down on top of a Dom and slicing it in half. The Duchy unit fired its beam spray gun, but Bigby was ready, closing his eyes immediately prior. "That trick only works so many times, douchebag!" Wolfe yelled, charging into a group of Zakus. "Bigby has them disorganized, lets advance!" Aaron yelled. Kyle picked his Gundam up, the Beam Team leading the charge. They hadn't moved very far across the plain before watching a Dom and a brown Zaku charge towards Bigby's GM Desert. "Brown Zaku?? If I can kill him I'll be a Captain for sure!" Bigby laughed, charging Garma. He slashed forwards with his beam saber, but Garma blocked the blow, parrying the GMs arm at the wrist by hitting it with his puncher shield. "What?!" Bigby cried, his unit taking a step back. Noelle slid in behind him, slicing the GM Desert in twain with his heat saber. Bigbys cockpit was pierced, the young man coughing up blood as the minovsky particles incinerated his body. "We will hold the line here! Make sure our comrades at the trench have a place to fall back to!" Garma called, firing machinegun rounds into the Federal ranks. He looked down towards Ritter, whose Panzergrenadier unit was busy, firing whatever anti-armor weaponry they had into Federation tanks. The Zaku II FS's mono eye flashed out towards Ritter, who saluted after reading the message. "Lord Garma has a special order for HQ, we're to deliver it. We're moving out." Novosad ordered, hopping onto his bike and flying into the city center. ~ At the trench, the Federation lines were stretched thin. The overzealous EFGF had held too many mobile suits back from the main assault, and it looked at this point like the trench line would hold. Admirals and the Invincible Third Team tried their best to break through, but after being decimated by the enemy minefield their support was simply not strong enough. "Keep firing. Jackson, try to find ammo off the destroyed units!" Cima yelled, pouring shells into the 3rd. She had Monsha pinned down, Bates slowly moving around the far side in a flanking maneuver. Burning had dispatched the remainder of the enemy airborne squadron and was returning to the front line. Jet Core Boosters screamed overhead, dropping more salvoes of missiles and bombs into the enemy ranks. The dive bombers tore up the trench, one of the Zakus close to Ferusha exploding as the huge bunker buster slammed into its metal head. "Dammit, I'm going to be out of shells soon." Ferusha grimaced. All she wanted to do at this point was to surrender, to leave. The aura of death around her was apalling, to the extent that she could barely even function. She had never witnessed this sort of battle before, and she wanted it to end. Throwing a grenade, she stepped her Zaku up out of the trench, lurching it back down as a pang of electricity shot through her body. Two large tracer rounds soared overhead, narrowly missing her. "Ion, send a signal flare, tell Alpha squad we're backing them up." Cray ordered, lining up his next shot. Thomas Parks and the remains of his team ran with the tanks, Thierry and his Core Fighter flying overhead. Mersault dropped two missiles into the trench as he flew by, destroying an enemy tank. "Looks like there's still something I can do even without my Guncannon." He laughed, doing a tight turn and coming down for another pass. Parks and Vermillion and their teams lobbed grenades into the duchy rear, the explosions throwing the mobile suits at the trench line into disarray. "Nows our chance, charge!" Burning yelled, throwing a flare into the sky in answer to the message from the 87th. The Invincible Third Team boosted straight into the trench, shields and beam sabers raised high as they began hacking through the enemy Zakus. Cima parried a blow from Bates, pushing him back and slicing a leg off his GM CCT. "Shit.. Have everyone retreat!" She yelled, the dark haired woman grimacing and biting her lip. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, she tripped her Zaku on purpose, landing in the mud and opening her cockpit to get away. She quickly hid between the rubble, watching as her suits cockpit was pierced by Monshas beam saber. "Damn Federation..." She howled, her uniform sullied by mud and defeat. Ferusha cried as shells exploded around her, the Zakus slowly getting out of the trench and making their way back to the main line. There wasn't enough of a Federal presence to cut off their escape. The Berkhalter and Blauer Reise started moving in from the south, Hamon and Lord Genome breaking up the 87ths assault and buying some time. "I hate this.. I hate this.. I HATE THIS!" Ferusha cried, firing the final bits of her ammunition into an Admiral A-1. She turned to run when a beam from a GM cut straight through her reactor, her anger and grief echoing into the hearts of those around as the young newtype was killed by the fury of the minovsky particle explosion, the blast throwing her entire unit into a full fledged rout. ~ Underwater, the battle was going much better for Zeon than on land or in the air. The Creek was already sinking between the waves, Krundle, Brennan and Esthers teams slowly meeting at the middle before turning and going for the Andes. The terrain beneath the waterline had turned from a peaceful blue to a fragmented gray, depth charges and mines, shell casings and debris floating through the water, a hazard to all of the marine life in the area. The Andes groaned and cried, metal buckling and crewmen screaming as mega particle cannons ripped through her hide. The Don Escargot teams were wholly ineffective at keeping up with the large number of Zeon aces concentrated in the water, and the GM Diver teams were on their last leg. "Captain, I'm reading a pair of Medeas moving in from the south. Looks like they're dropping mobile suits, I can't make out the models." Marina bit her lip as she heard it, letting out a sigh and nodding. "That'll be him, damned Gundam... We're pulling out now! Fire the rest of our Freeze Yard and descend to a safe depth, inform Xavier and the rest of the teams that the Gundam is coming. They won't be able to beat that bastard after this much fighting." The Lorelay began to dive, slowly but surely, Marinas expertise keeping her out of serious harm. Krundle and Brennan pulled back, shortly after their claws had torn through the Himalayas hull. Hirsch and Gano dropped into the water, their mobile suits beginning their descent towards the enemy units. Hirschs eyes began to tear up as he saw the carnage, fully half of the Federation navy already sunk beneath the water. "Gah.. WHY... Why did we have to be so late.." He cried, slamming a fist against his forward monitor. He watched the Duchy mobile suits start to pull back. Munchek picked up speed, his Gundam flying ahead of Gano and the rest of the reinforcements and moving for the Lorelay. "I'll get you back for this, you bastard Brennan!" ~ Towards the south, Type 61's and Bloodhounds lined up at the ends of the river, pushing the Adzam back as best they could, the demon armor hovering over the water and watching their every move. Marines ducked behind cover, looking out at the 42nd in the distance and waiting for reinforcements to arrive. It was a young marine who spotted the missile, whose silo opened up at the southern end of the base. "What is that..." The man asked, watching as the warhead climbed into a firing position, pointing west. Far to the East, White Base had finally entered the battlefield. Intermittent fire from the bases antiaircraft guns caused the ship to shake, Bright keeping Amuro and the rest of his team inside the Pegasus until they could launch straight over the base. "Captain, I'm picking up an emergency signal on all channels, it's coming from the enemy fortress." Frau said, Saylas headset fitting just barely over her auburn hair. "I wonder if they're surrendering. Maybe we were too late. Put it on screen." Bright said, waving a hand and looking up at the monitor. The screen flickered on to reveal a masked panzergrenadier, red goggled eyes staring blankly at the camera for all to see. "Good afternoon, Earth Federation dogs. I am Scharfuhrer Novosad of the SS PanzerKorps, and I have an ultimatum to deliver to you. If the Federation does not cease hostilities in the next three minutes, we will fire a nuclear missile at the Sir Francis Drake." The camera immediately shifted to the silo, the old Russian made ICBM warhead clear as day, pointed directly at Revils ship. Meanwhile, deep inside the bowels of the Everest class battleship Montana, a maintenance crew was hard at work patching up a small hole that had been punctured in the ships starboard side. There had been little firing in this direction, but the water here was shallow, and there were many chances for a column of rock to pierce the ship. "Hey Biggs, can you go check the machinery over there? Make sure nothings loose." One of the maintenance men said. His partner grumbled and walked off to the end of the ship. He was nose deep in some mechanical contraption when a hand tapped on his shoulder. "Can you hand me your wrench for a moment, old boy." Biggs turned around, and gave the man his wrench. "Hey wait, who are you?" He asked. He was answered by the wrench slamming into the side of his skull, knocking him out cold. "Thanks, I'll be sure to return it when I'm through." Hans Bond answered, flipping the tool in his hand and turning to walk silently towards Biggs' partner. ~ Flares went up all over the battlefield, white flares signaling the momentary ceasefire. Zeon had displayed their trump card, and Revil needed time to assess the situation and come up with a counter strategy. "What's that, a ceasefire?" Xavier asked, catching sight of the flares flickering above the water. "Garma must have done something..." He turned his Z'Gok around, blasting into the opening hull of the Lorelay, which slowly pulled away from the remains of the Federal fleet. "Sir, are you all right?" Marinas voice flickered onto the radio as soon as Xavier was inside the closed hangar door. "Yeah, this won't last long so get my suit loaded up fast." The officer responded. He switched channels, looking for any sort of priority encoded messages from command. It was only moments later that a pair of torpedoes rocked into the side of the ship. "What was that?!" Xavier yelled, loose machinery smashing onto the top of his mobile suit. "We're still being attacked." Marina answered, a worried look in her eye. "It's the Gundam!" "That damn Hirsch... Alright, I'm going out. Open the hatch back up." Brennan answered, putting his flight helmet back on. "Negative, Krundles team says they'll handle him. You stay here where its safe." Nimue responded. They were both trying to protect each other. Outside the Lorelay, Hirsch leveled his beam rifle at the enemy ship and took aim, slowly adjusting for where the Jukons reactor would be. He looked around at the bodies, the debris in the water, the hundreds of good Earthnoid lives that had been lost just because his ship was an hour late. He couldn't stand it, and he wouldn't cease his attack before it had even began. He was about to pull the trigger when he caught something out the corner of his eye. He boosted the Gundam backwards, only to watch two Grabros fly past his previous position. "Oh, you two want to play do you. I'm not a fan of bears, but we can dance.." Munchek grinned, turning and boosting towards the two mobile armors. He'd downed Grabros before, and on this day, all reservation was out the window. He wasn't the young, depressed child anymore, he was the hero that the dying men floating in these waves deserved. An angel of retribution. Charles Gano and his team moved in behind Hirsch, flanking the remaining Goggs and Z'Goks in the underwater attack wing and engaging them. Gano saw a single, red Z'Gok rush to leave the battlefield, but his team didn't have the numbers to stop Esthers escape. Esther had learned the cardinal rule of dealing with enemy Federal mobile suits: When you see a Gundam, run. ~ "What kind of ammunition do we have left?" Burning asked, switching his machinegun out for his beam gun. The surviving Federal mobile suits coalesced, checking their wounds and taking a brief break from the horror of the battlefield. The Admiral squad had been cut in half, Monshas unit had been disabled, and the Federal GMs and Type 61s had been decimated. If it wasn't for the pincer assault from Cray and the 87th, they may not have broken through at all. "Look at that, they're cheering and waving. I never felt so appreciated." Ion giggled, the battered Type 61 coming to a halt. "Yup, our old girl can come through for even those newfangled robots." Cray said jokingly, patting the side of his console. "You think they'll give us a medal?" While they joked, the remainder of the Duchy trench defenders moved back towards the city, cannon and MPC turrets covering their retreat. Closer to the East however, the battle was still raging, the 87th refusing the ceasefire order and attempting to break through the duchy lines. ~ "Get Ion over here and hooked up as fast as you can, and see if you can get captain Noah on the horn. I need to speak to that young Gundam pilot." Revil ordered, nervousness in his voice. He could see the Federal lines still pushing forward, before his counters to the enemy warhead had been set in place. "Sir, Ion is hooked up and ready to go. We're patching you through to sergeant Ray now." The comm attendant responding. Revil wasn't listening anymore though. A small, black plume of smoke had risen into the sky over the southern portion of the base. "If they won't accept lord Garmas demands, I will not give that scum a second chance." Ritter scowled, taking his finger off of a big, depressed, red button. "Inform the infantry that we will be evacuating the base, priority will go to protecting lord Garma and his ship." Novosad picked his machinegun back up, quickly walking out of the command bunker and towards the war once again. "Sir, should I get sergeant Ray?" The comm officer asked, bleakly. "There's no time. Tell Senaiha to shoot that bloody thing down!" Revil yelled. Aurem, Arieta, Bryce and Arianna had just met on the battlefield when the orders came through. Arianna and Bryce moved away, trying to find cover and watching as the small, dark missile hurtled quickly towards them. "What the hell?! They want me to shoot down a nuke?? What do they think I am, a fucking newtype!" Aurem cried, holding the sniper rifle and aiming as best he could for the hurtling missile. "You can do it Aurem. I believe in you." Arietta said, smiling and watching her partner. The missile came closer and closer, Aurem firing and piercing the warhead in two about a kilometer and a half from their current position. The minovsky particles ignited the charge, the bomb detonating in mid-air. A huge explosion blanketed the area around the Sir Francis Drake, incinerating mobile suits, wildlife, and trees for several miles around the epicenter of the blast. Aurem, Arietta, Bryce and Ariannas mobile suits were flung into the sky, landing behind the Drake, which was literally pushed several hundred meters backwards. The outer hull plating had been flayed, turned into a nightmarish version of its former self. Revil picked his head up, his forehead bleeding from a shard of glass that had narrowly missed his eye. Some of his bridge crew were dead, others permanently blinded by the blast. "Christ..." The old man muttered, looking out at the blackened hellscape surrounding his Big Tray. If the missile had gotten much closer, they all would have been killed. "Bryce.." Arianna muttered, picking her battered GM up off the ground. Her body was tingling in an odd way. She couldn't quite describe the sensation, but she knew something was wrong. Bryce didn't answer. "Bryce?!" Arianna shouted, moving her GM over the fallen LCT and prying open the cockpit. "BRYCE!?!" ~ Shells thundered in the distance, the old cellblock creaking under the weight of the Federal bombardment. The smoke was starting to clear now, and Aleksander could see light piercing through the walls. A shell had fallen straight onto the compound, obliterating much of the roof. "Look at that Alek.. Bet we could break those bars now." Another inmate said, looking towards the ringleader. Dolvich was an ace fighter pilot, who had been shot down and captured in the first month of the Earth drop operation. "You see any guards?" Another asked. The group moved to the edge of the cell, looking around. The only guard on duty had been killed by the blast. Alek quickly took off his shirt, moving over to the toilet and sloshing it in the water. Twirling the wet garment around till it became tight like a rope, he moved to the bars, wrapping the shirt between them and pulling with all his strength. ~ "Holy.. I hope the general is okay." Mirai said, biting her lip and looking at the crater in the distance. Bright saluted slowly, amazed. If only they had made it here on time. "Captain!" The Pegasus's two sensor operators called out from above Brights chair. "Enemy mobile armor coming in from west southwest. It's the Apsalus!" "Launch Amuro and Sayla, tell them to shoot it down before it fires its main cannon! Have our AA gunners stand by!" Bright ordered, putting his faith once again in the young newtype. "If they won't obey the ceasefire.." Takeshi growled "We'll have to show them the penalty for disobeying lord Garma." The Apsalus soared at high speed towards the Trojan Horse, a trio of Dopps escorting it to its target. Flak began firing from the ships machineguns, launch catapults opening up and firing a pair of mobile suits towards Takeshis team. "Look at the size of that thing." Amuro said, wide eyed. The Gundam flew through the air, beam rifle pointed towards the target. "Amuro, don't go too far out, you need to dock with the G-Armor or you'll fall." Sayla said, trying to match Rays speed. They both fired towards the Apsalus, each incinerating one of the armors escorts. "Yeah I know." Amuro mumbled, slowing and landing right on top of the G-Armor. The subflight mounted Gundam hurtled towards the Apsalus, the two looking as if they'd collide with each other. "So the White Devil can fly now. Well, lets see if it can do this!" Yuji cackled. A burst of energy shot out of the Apsalus, which rapidly began to pick up altitude, flying high over the battle. "We're losing it Amuro!" Sayla called, turning around and heading upwards as fast as she could. There was no way they could match the armor in terms of vertical thrust. Amuro fired a pair of shots with his beam rifle, but Yuji juked to one side, dodging the shots. High above the White Base now, the Apsalus hurtled downwards, charging its main cannon. "Shoot that thing down! All guns fire on the enemy mobile armor!" Bright yelled, nearly jumping out of his seat. Amuro aimed carefully, waiting for that moment when Yuji would have to stop dodging in order to lock his shot onto the target. "Amuro..." Sayla gasped, firing the G-Armors MPCs at the mobile armor and missing with every shot. The sky went quiet for a moment, Yuji circling down towards the Trojan Horse. His anti fortress MPC fully charged, he stopped dodging and moved straight over the target. White Base had just met up with the 87th, and a number of its mobile suits and ships had joined in the attack, to no avail. Amuro closed his eyes for a split second, snapping them open again and firing. The beam rifle shot directly pierced the Apsalus's minovsky craft system, causing it to go critical and explode. The explosion knocked the mobile armor out of balance, shifting its position just before it fired its cannon. The shot sliced across the northern part of Odessa, cutting the Crusade in two, but completely missing the Trojan Horse. Yuji tried his best to eject from the mobile armor, but he was not fast enough, a second beam rifle shot from the RX-78-2 piercing the Apsalus's reactor. Both Ghinius and his dream would die in the same day. "Bless that boy. Frau! Have Kai launch in the Guncannon, Hayato in the Guntank! We're pushing through into the fortress immediately!" Bright ordered, sinking back into his chair, the tension gone from his body. ~ At the fortress proper, the Icelina and Viktoria Luise II had landed, and the U-53 had surfaced off the coast of the city. Mobile suits, tanks and personnel were quickly piling into the ships, squeezing tightly inside the hangars till the Gaws were holding much more than they would normally carry. Reinforcements were about an hour out from Baikonour, so they wouldn't have to travel far. "Make sure Lord Garma gets to his Dopp safely, and make sure its refueled!" Marko yelled, his voice barely making it through the particle interference despite the excellent communcations systems of his Dowadge. Mobile suits ran to and fro, everyone hoping they could make it off the base before the small cadre of volunteers finally broke through. "Maybe I should go back." Esther said to herself, her Z'Gok speeding as fast as it could away from the batlefield. She closed her eyes for a second, picturing the blue Gundam hurtling towards her mobile suit. Looking into the air, she saw that she had just passed the Trojan Horse. Muffled cries were coming in on the radio from the south, people saying that the Blue Destiny had been sighted over the river. "...Nah." She smirked, picking up speed and heading as fast as she could for the still Duchy-controlled Crimean Peninsula. ~ "Captain, the Hillock is reporting an enemy sub closing in on us. I'm also reading a number of mobile suits on sonar." The bridge of the Everest rolled lightly with the waves. "Really? Bring us about, tell the torpedo crews to stand by. Have the gun crews stand down while you're at it, we've got friendlies moving in on the base." The captain responded. She was a very short woman, nearly five feet tall, a strange coincidence given the sheer size of the battleship under her command. "Umm, ma'am. The engine room isn't responding." One of the crewmembers said quizically. Moments later there was a soft hiss, and the man fell over dead. The bridge crew leapt out of their chairs and grabbed their sidearms, but each in turn was felled by a silenced 9mm shell, crumpling to the ground softly. Hans walked out onto the bridge, smiled, and held out his open palm to the female captain. "Charmed, I'm sure." Hans winked. The U-18 rolled towards the enemy Hillock, Goggs leading the charge against the enemy destroyer. Don Escargots dropped their ordnance from above, the group starting a dance that closely mimicked that of the battle in the southeast, only on a much more minor scale. Don Escargots sank a pair of the mobile suits early on, but once the remainder found their way to the Hillocks hull, the battle was over quickly. After the area was secure, a small, covered speedboat filled with duchy marines skidded towards the Everest, a single man aboard the bridge flashing an 'all clear' signal with a device on his watch. ~ "I suppose attacking an Adzam isn't against my no mobile suits policy." Jim smirked, his squadron banking left while Scotts went right. The candy shaped mobile armor blasted out towards the group with all its MPCs, the lithe and nimble aircraft dodging all the pink beams. Jim fired a salvo of missiles into one of the armors legs, hitting the leg joint and destroying the appendage. The Adzam focused its fire on Irwin, who rolled and dodged, expertly weaving through enemy fire. "Come on come on come on..." Scott pulled the trigger, two pink beams slicing through the center of the mobile armor. "Yeah!" He announced, rolling his Core Booster in excitement. The Adzam exploded, as if to signal the fall of the forces along the river. Nigel and the rest of the 42nd had arrived. The Medeas circled overhead, now in the midst of an enormous cloud of assorted Federation aircraft. The air battle had been won, and all that was left to do was make one final push inside the fortress before the bombing could begin. "Looks like we're a bit late for the party." Nigel said, his pilot having trouble keeping the Medea aloft while dodging the sheer weight of Federation aircraft. The surviving Federal tanks zoomed across the bridge, meeting up with Ackart and Yamanus teams as they were dropped onto the ground. "Alright, lets move in guys. Yamanu, your team take the port, Thorvalds and mine will lead the attack on the fortress." Jarvis yelled, watching the tanks form up with his more heavily armored mobile suit team at the head. The groups two Guntanks fired on the bases outer wall, quickly blowing a hole in it for the troops to access. Jarvis took a few steps forward and then stopped. One mobile suit was missing. "There's about thirty tanks on the other side of the wall Thor." "Bah, whats thirty tanks a'tween you and me, lass. Lets go while the gettins still good." Siggurdson laughed, his face bespeckled with blue paint. Marion watched the crazed Scottsman work, the Blue Destiny grabbing a beam saber and dashing towards the recently opened hole in the line. "Thorvald, get back here! ... Aw hell. Everybody, support Siggurdson!" Jarvis yelled. Oh but how he hated Thorvald. ~ The Waterproof Gundam flitted between debris, the floating wreckage of ships littered across the underwater battlefield. Gil Krundles Grabro, fresh out of torpedoes, was hot in pursuit. "Get back here ya wee little bitch!" Krundle yelled, crumpled beer cans rattling on the floor of his cockpit. Hirsch pulled off to the right, the Gundam ducking behind a pile of debris and the Grabro bursting ahead. Krundle turned around, only to see Hirsch moving forwards from behind. Munchek aimed and fired, a mega particle beam slicing into the side of the Grabro. Krundle ignored the damage, ramming the Gundam and grabbing it with its claws. "Christ... It's strong.." Hirsch said to himself, listening as the luna titanium frame of his mobile suit slowly crumpled under the pressure of the Grabros powerful claws. He lifted an arm up, firing anti-ship torpedoes into one of the arms. The appendage exploded, the Waterproof Gundam dropping altitude. Krundle zoomed away, making a wide turn before coming out for another attack run. "I'll kill you before you get another chance, bear." Hirsch smirked, aiming his beam rifle for Gils cockpit. Before he could fire, he noticed the second Grabro hurtling towards him. "Not fast enough!" The aquajew said, dropping a pair of ink torpedoes and bursting away. The two Grabros zoomed through the ink cloud, missing the Gundam completely. A mega particle lance struck through the second Grabro on its way, damaging the mobile armor. "I won't be able to handle two for much longer.." Hirsch thought, holstering the beam rifle and grabbing his handheld torpedo launcher. He needed to save ammunition in order to sink the Lorelay, and kill Marina and Xavier. Gil and his compatriot came round, going in for another attack run on the Waterproof Gundam. They were speeding at their target when a volley of torpedoes hurtled into Gils Grabro from the side, tearing it apart. Charles Gano and his Aqua GM slammed onto the roof of the mobile armor, driving a pair of beam picks into its hull. "Two on two fucker, lets play fair." Charles rode the Grabro, firing what verniers he had and driving it into the oceans floor. Gils armor skidded across the ground, coming to a halt deep below the assaulting fleet. The GM Divers that had come with Charles were still fighting the remaining Goggs and Z'Goks, the Federations Don Escargot teams having redoubled their efforts to destroy the remaining Duchy mobile suit marines. "Thanks Charles!" Hirsch smiled, picking up his beam rifle once more. He aimed and fired at the remaining Grabro, striking it and damaging it heavily. The mobile armor, having sustained too much damage to continue fighting two Federal aces, turned and headed back for the city center. Hirsch blasted off after the Lorelay, dodging debris and wreckage and maneuvering straight for his target. Nothing would stop him from avenging the decimated Federation naval fleet. As the battle in the ocean raged on, the Duchy defense lines started to break. The surviving Gaws and Jukons were loaded as full as they could be, the final group of mobile suits and tanks holding the lines in the north and south ends while the Gaws prepped for takeoff. Jack Murphy stopped the Guntank short of the base, keeping back with the Federal artillery and going on standby. Orders had trickled down from the top, Ryer taking command due to Revils incapacitation. With the Federation finally breaking into the fortress proper, the bombardment would have to cease. A few shells came flying their way, slamming into the ground on either side of Murphy's Guntank, but they were down to a trickle now. Zeonic gun crews had more pressing targets to fire upon. "Hope we did enough..." Jack said, watching from his cockpit. He gripped his legs for a moment, wondering how many men would share his fate after this battle. ~ Garma had already been evacuated at the northern end, his Dopp fueled and an escort taking him away from the battlefield. All they had to worry about now was getting out themselves. The northern defense line was more battered than the south, but their opponents were also weary, and dangerously low on ammunition. Alec Irusks team slid along the pavement at the north end of the base, firing bazooka shells and machinegun rounds at short range into incoming enemy GMs. The three units charged forward, forming a relief line while more heavily damaged units ran away. "We need to take out that mobile armor!" Cray yelled, kicking Ion in the shoulder. She nodded, moving the type 61 towards Aleks team. They fired their main cannon, striking Aleks Hildolfr in the side but not doing very much damage. The huge, brown tank had amazingly tough armor. "It's going to take more than that to beat this machine." Irusk grinned, amazed at the power behind his new unit. He fired a short range, scattering shot, the tanks main cannon decimating several Type 61s. Two Admirals moved on Irusks flank, firing their guns into the side of the Hildolfr. The armor started to crack and groan, Alek turning around and responding in kind. The howitzer rang out, slicing straight through one of the A-1 supertanks like butter. Duncan Keystone descended on the other, smashing his heat sword straight through the Admirals cockpit. The last of them had been vanquished. "We need to fall back, let the mobile armors cover us." Keystone said, firing machinegun rounds into the advancing enemy lines and pulling back. His two wingmen covered him, expert pilots in Dom and Gouf buffeting the enemy with fire. Aaron McCaskey boosted ahead, sailing over the battlefield and landing in between the enemy teams. McCaskey and Duncan locked sabers, pulling away and facing each other. Duncans wingman in the Dom skated between them, flashing his scattering beam gun in Aarons eyes and giving them time to escape. At the back of the Federal line, the Beam Team had finally stopped advancing. Mina Nova Sky was too heavily damaged, and Slater didn't want to risk the lives of his team any more. He watched Thomas Parks and the rest of the Invincible 3rd advance towards the enemy, the EZ-8 knelt down behind a building. Slater assessed the damage quietly, wondering to himself if you could make a shield out of minovsky particles. A "beam" shield perhaps. Parks and Burnings teams moved in together, the Invincible 3rd using their still unused beam spray guns to rout Irusks team. The two Xamels exploded under the weight of Federal technology, Alec firing a scattering round and turning away. The Hildolfr was tough, and heavily armored, but it couldn't stand when that heavily outnumbered against Federal beam weaponry. However, there was one Duchy combatant who still could. "I'll cover your retreat, you guys get to the transports!" David Anderson yelled, his Gaw having undergone spot repairs and moved back to the front line. The Adzam shot out an array of beams, forcing all the Federal soldiers in the northern sector back. David refused to flee from Odessa. It would cost him his life, but he would make sure those who couldn't stand and die for the cause would make it out, to fight for Zeon another day. ~ In the south, the Duchies retreat was going much better. An armada of Magella Attack Tanks had been placed on the rear line, and had been more or less unmolested by enemy fire. Thorvald waded through the short, green combatants as if he were marching upstream, 175mm shells forcing the tough Blue Destiny back a step for every two it took forwards. "Maybe we shouldn't have done this on our own!" Thorvald yelled. Marion kept her eye on the shield arm, moving it exclusively while Thorvald handled the weaponry. He slashed through one tank with a beam saber, fired machinecannons into another, missiles into a third. The heavy luna titanium shield eventually cracked in two, Marion using the Blue Destinies arm to block shots and protect the two of them. The rest of the mobile suits from the South joined the line shortly after, leaping over the holes in the now destroyed walls and joining the battle with the tanks. Jarvis and his team fired their beam rifles, Magella Attack Tanks exploding like bags of popcorn as the superheated beams tore through them. "You idiot! Don't go off on your own!" Ackart yelled when he was close enough to Thorvald that he might still hear it. The mobile suits in Seths team joined them, and together the half a dozen elite Federal models started hacking through the tanks, moving slowly across the spaceport and hoping they could make it to the airfield in time. At the back of the spaceport, Noelle Everett and Marko Dresner fired off the remainder of their bazooka rounds, destroying Seths GMPGT before they were through. Marko had taken the rear line, organizing the Gaws for takeoff and filling them to the brim with mobile suits. There was only one left now, the last of the friendly mobile suits shoved tightly inside its hold. Noelle skated his Dom inside, Marko throwing a grenade and following in the Dowadge. He had seen enough death today, enough death in this war, and he would make sure his people got out alive. A pair of black flares were launched, signalling the general retreat from Odessa, and the last remaining Gaw took off, heading East for the Crimean. The Federations aircraft was in hot pursuit, Tin Cods and Fly Mantas zipping around the Gaws, strafing them with vulcans and the remainder of their missiles. The Duchies fifteen or so remaining Dopps held them off valiantly, the bases antiaircraft gunners doing their work towards keeping the fighters at bay. Everyone was giving their all for this moment, knowing that soon the battle would be over. Jim Irwin rolled his Cod in a circle, blasting a hole in a Dopp with his missiles before leading Scott into an attack run on the last Gaw in the group. They hadn't been fatigued by the battle yet, and still had a full compliment of fuel and ammunition. "Just need to get Scott close enough..." Jim muttered to himself, blowing out a pair of the behemoths AA guns as he sailed for the carrier. Archer was about to put his MPCs right between the Gaws eyes when the rear hold opened up, Marko firing machinegun rounds into the sky. The two aces jetted away, one shell nailing Scotts left wing. Jim knew they wouldn't get another attack run like that, they needed to move on to the next target. The already heavily damaged Ourobouros began turning around, using its girth to block Federal aircraft and allow the three personnel carrying Gaws to escape. Amy joined Jim in the skies, the two Tin Cod aces sharing glances and then flying towards the Recon Carrier, Scott and the Core Booster right behind them. They danced around the AA coverage impressively, gunners finding it impossible to trace the erratic planes. Amy and Jims Tin Cods flew past each other, nearly colliding, all the while opening up a huge gap in the Gaws defense grid for the Core Booster to fly straight through. Scott fired his MPCs, once, twice, three times striking straight through the body of the Gaw Recon. It started to sink momentarily before exploding in a glorious fireball, two great purple wings smashing into the city below. The 42nd Brigades air wing had made a spectacular charge, but as Jim looked out past the smoke, he saw the rest of the Gaws making it away from the battle. The Ourobouros had sacrificed itself so that the rest of the defenders could make it out safely. ~ "Enemy Gundam closing fast! We're not going to make it out in time!" Nimue's sonar operator called out, hands gripping her headphones tightly. Marina bit her lip, trying to think if there was any way to get out of the battlefield without sending Xavier back out. Inside the hangar, the decision had already been made. Without his jacket, flight helmet, dog tags or pride, Xavier closed the hatch to his mobile suit. Catalina rushed out of the hangar, the Jukon II's lower hatch filling with water as it prepared to launch its last remaining defender. "I'm going to kill you, Munchek. This time I'm going to save my little girl." Xavier scowled. The door below him lurched open, and the Z'Gok dropped into the grey, debris filled water. "One contact, Z'Gok... It couldn't be that bastard could it?" Hirsch stopped aiming at the Lorelay, and watched the enemy MSM moving towards him. The Gundam moved onto its side, one arm outstretched as turbojets pushed it towards its target. Hirsch fired a round from the beam rifle, Xavier rolling and diving out of the way. The two suits passed each other, each righting itself and turning around. MPCs met the beam rifle blast, the particles actually colliding by circumstance, deflecting off of each other and boiling the water between the two units. "Bastard.." Xavier blasted forwards again, going straight for his target. Hirsch aimed the rifle, looking at his remaining ammunition. One round left. Brennan fired a trio of torpedoes, which exploded in a sticky purple substance, blocking Hirsch's view of the Z'Gok. The rifle fired, the pink beam cutting straight through the Freeze Yard, but Xavier was already gone, using the sticky goo as a smokescreen. He came around from Muncheks side, Hirsch turning and catching the Z'Gok as it rammed into him head first. The two slammed through a huge piece of fallen ship, sparks flying as the piece of metal was split in half. "I'll kill you Munchek!" Xavier yelled, biting his lip. He fired a round of missiles, but at the last second Hirsch kicked the Z'Gok off of him, the missiles shooting out of the water and flying into the air erratically. Munchek grabbed a beam pick off his suits hip, latching onto the Z'Goks leg with his scissor anchor. "I can't believe you'd face me like this you coward! All you're good for is assassinating good men in the dark and running away!" Hirsch yelled. The anchor winch yanked the Z'Gok towards Munchek, who threw the pick straight at Xaviers cockpit. It was about to land when a blast from an MPC evaporated the pick and cut the anchor line connecting the two rivals. One of Krundles surviving Z'Goks joined the fray, joining Xaviers attack on the Gundam. It fired its MPCs again, Hirsch dropping a round of ink grenades and speeding away as fast as he could. "Stay out of this! This is my fight!" Xavier yelled, trying to get ahead of his compatriot, blinded by anger and thinking only of Marina. The two MSMs raced through the dark water, slowly gaining on Hirsch. The Gundams backpack had been damaged by the previous assault, and he was no longer capable of going his maximum speed. "Goddamn cowards, won't fight one on one..." Hirsch mumbled. He flipped his suit back around, firing his final pair of torpedoes at the two incoming targets. The Z'Goks fired back in unison, MPCs obliterating the projectiles. They were about to descend on Hirsch when Charles Gano returned to the fray, picking perfect timing once again. He fired a round of torpedoes between Xavier and his ally, the two Z'Goks splitting up. "I think I regret splitting the Krakens up.." Hirsch smirked to himself. He blasted off after Xavier, the two locking arms and spinning in circles. They were moving south, slowly going back towards the decimated Federal fleet. "You bastards killed my daughter! I won't let you do that to me again!" Xavier yelled, pushing on his controls as hard as he could. Even with the Z'Goks massive physical form, the Gundam was slowly overpowering it. MPCs fired, but the Gundam had gripped the Z'Gok by the wrists, holding the barrels away from their target. "You murder people in cold blood! Zeon killed my family! What gives you any right to talk you Nazi!" Hirsch yelled back. He was in tears, thoughts of his mother and their ruined home at New York flooding back to him. They flew through the part of the water that had been a battlefield just an hour ago. Xavier caught something out of the corner of his eye, and spun the Gundam around, slamming it into an old Don Escargot depth charge. One of the Gundams arms was torn apart by the blast, Hirsch releasing his hold on Xaviers MS and moving backwards. He dropped his final pair of ink grenades, racing south and trying to come up with a battle plan. "I don't care about any of that. I don't care about what I've done. So long as my daughter is okay." Brennan responded, flying straight through the cloud of ink. Hirsch had used the trick too many times, and Xavier wouldn't let it fool him again. Hirsch only had his waterproofed machinegun left, and grabbed it off his rear weapons rack, the Gundam pushing upwards and barreling into the sky. It landed on the half-sunk corpse of the Mountain, the destroyed Himalaya having found some sort of bouyancy and simply idling in the water. When the Gundam landed on it, it began to sink immediately, fires that had been licking the hull put out by Neptunes own whitewash. Xaviers Z'Gok blasted through the roof of the water, landing on the opposite side of the carrier. Hirsch had been waiting, and holding up the machinegun, he riddled his target with all twenty of its 90mm shells. Xavier held up his arms, the rounds slamming into his mobile suits chest. Sparks flew up all over the cockpit, shraphnel hitting Brennans shirtless body. Glass cracked and his monitors gave out. Xavier only had his main camera left, which was flickering, giving him a poor view of the Gundam dropping its spent machinegun, facing him on top of the carrier. The two watched each other for a moment, and in that moment, they could understand each other, at least to a degree. They were both fighting for what they believed in, both fighting to protect people. Hirsch with his family, and Xavier with his nearly adopted daughter. They had both done horrible things, things that neither of them would have considered before the other side had pushed them. Xavier smirked for a moment. It seemed he was going to meet his end at the hands of a man worthy of absolving him of his sins. The two charged, the Waterproof Gundam and Schutzstaffel Z'Gok slamming into each other. Xaviers MPCs fired straight through the Gundams reactor, Hirsch's beam pick slicing into Xaviers cockpit at the same time. Xaviers last thought was of Marina, the two mobile suits exploding and splitting the Mountain in two before it finally sank beneath the waves. ~ An hour later or so, the Federation was still doing mop up. The last of the Duchies ships had escaped safely, but the base was theirs, some sections of it having sustained less damage than others. Mobile suits and Big Trays crowded around, while marine strike teams cleared the remaining bunkers of enemy personnel one by one. Seth Yamanu's team was braced to the back of the HQ bunker, having finally identified it, somewhere towards the center of the fortress. Three crack Marines looked at each other, nodding silently before Yamanu kicked open the door. Machinegun fire cut into his shoulder and he dropped to one knee, his two comrades moving in front of him and firing their own weapons. A red eyed ghost slumped over from the back of the dark room, mask dropping off the panzers face to reveal a human being, eyes glazed over in the throes of Death. "Secure the area! There may be more of them!" Seth yelled, holding a bleeding shoulder and standing back up. His team moved from corridoor to corridoor. Shots were heard behind darkened walls, another pair of SS shocktroopers going down as the team made their way to the back room. What they found at the back of the bunker was a single man, the SS officer having taken command of the fortress while the Gaws and Jukons retreated. Ritter had hoped to hold out in a guerrilla campaign longer, but the base had been too badly damaged, and communications between teams had been too difficult. He gunned down the first man to find the operations room, but when three more soldiers rushed into the room, he dropped his Steyr and held up his hands. Seth limped into the room, blood slowly soaking into his BDUs. "Get him outside, and tell command the building is secure." Yamanu said angrily. One of the Marines grabbed Ritter, who quietly moved out of the room, without resistance. As the two passed each other, Seth ripped off Ritters mask, looking him in the eyes. "The Federation takes prisoners. Remember that." Outcome: Federation Victory Aurem Senaiha - 13VP Gained, Destroyed 3, Injured 7, Radiation Sickness specialization gained Bryce Hollerfelt - 14VP Gained, Repairing 4, Injured 7, Radiation Sickness specialization gained Charles Gano - 14VP Gained, Repairing 3 Cray Vermillion - 13VP Gained, Repairing 5 Edmund Blackadder - 14+1VP Gained, Repairing 3, Injured 1 Jack Murphy - 13VP Gained, Repairing 3 Jim Irwin - 13VP Gained, Repairing 2 Kyle Slater - 15VP Gained, Repairing 5, Injured 1 Seth Yamanu - 13CP Gained, Injured 3 Thomas Parks - 15VP Gained, Repairing 4 Aaron McCaskey - 14VP Gained, Repairing 3, Fatigued 2 Jarvis Ackart - 13VP Gained, Repairing 4, Fatigued 2 Nigel Ferdinand - 13VP Gained, Injured 1, Fatigued 2 Arianna Elvy Saoirse - 14VP Gained, Repairing 4, Injured 7, Radiation Sickness specialization gained Bigby Wolfe - 13VP Gained, Killed in Action Hirsch Munchek - 13VP Gained, Killed in Action Scott Archer - 14VP Gained, Repairing 3 Thiery Mersault - 15VP Gained, Destroyed 6 Thorvald Siggurdson - 13VP Gained, Repairing 5, Injured 1-1 Marion - 13VP Gained, No Damage Alex Sentara - 13VP Gained, Repairing 3, Promoted to Ensign Marc Simmons - 13VP Gained, Repairing 5, Promoted to Chief Petty Officer Otaktai Lone Wolf - 14+1VP Gained, Repairing 4, Promoted to Seaman Kai Nanaki - 15VP Gained, Fatigued 2, Promoted to Sublieutenant Patrick "Packie" Foley - 14VP Gained, Repairing 4, Promoted to Lt. Commander Derek Carter - 14VP Gained, Repairing 3, Promoted to Petty Officer 3rd Class Issa Kobayashi - 13VP Gained, Missing in Action 6, Promoted to Petty Officer 3rd Class Michael kreuz - 13VP Gained, Repairing 2, Promoted to Petty Officer 3rd Class Alec Irusk - 13VP Gained, Repairing 3-1 David Anderson - 14VP Gained, Killed in Action Duncan Keystone - 14VP Gained, Repairing 3-1 Gil Krundel - 14VP Gained, Repairing 5 Injured 3, Promoted to Master Sergeant Marko Dresner - 14VP Gained, Repairing 3-1, Fatigued 2 Noelle Everett - 14VP Gained, Repairing 4, Injured 1 Ota Naomi - 15VP Gained, Destroyed 1, Missing in Action 3 Rhett Paruta - 13VP Gained, Repairing 4, Promoted to 2nd Lieutenant Esther MacKernan - 14VP Gained, Repairing 4-1, Promoted to Captain Ferusha Glavadeen - 13VP Gained, Killed in Action Persephone Dawn - 13VP Gained, 1NT Gained, Destroyed 6 Injured 7-1 Ritter Novosad - 13CP Gained, Captured Xavier Brennan - 13VP Gained, Killed in Action, Promoted to Haptsturmfuhrer Yuji Takeshi - 14VP Gained, Killed in Action