Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam 00 but I do own the OC.
4th October 2307 A.D
Joint US-Taribian Military Exercise, Taribia
Master Sergeant Sofia Fortuna
Taribian Defense Force
4th Wing, 13th Squadron
The Joint US-Taribia Military Games were being held in Taribia this year. A yearly event and one that had benefited both countries greatly by expanding the friendship between the two nations. One of the final events was a mock duel between the two top aces in both forces, an old thing to be sure, and one that was mainly done for fun. Of course it was no longer sporting, the Taribians had basically given up after the third decade of continuous wins by the US. The higher ups had stopped caring about it and it was mostly turned into a very informal event for the two sides to mingle and drink beers together. It had turned into a giant barbeque by the fifth decade, and was a time for both sides to celebrate their friendship and do some fighting, joint maneuvers, and training.
In the process of checking my Realdo, the major called me up, "Hey Sofia!" He called out as he drew near. Wiping my hands clean of oil, we refrained from a formal salute, him calling me by my first name meant he wanted it "locked off".
Smiling at him, I nodded my head, "What's up boss?" I asked innocently enough, leaning against my suit.
"Command wants to make use of your skills again. One of the US aces has been ripping our guys apart faster than usual, they're hoping you can put up a better fight and maintain our professionalism. It's starting to impact morale and professionalism between both sides." He explained as he observed a tablet in his hands, a beer in the other.
"Mock battle?" I asked for clarification, sighing.
"Yup." Taking a swig of his bottle he added, "Do your best will ya? We have a loss ratio of 0:120 already. It might pick up the our spirits if you won for a change." The Taribian military had been plagued with poor morale for decades now, combined with a spiraling military track record, and securing a win this year would do wonders to pick up our morale indeed.
"Yes sir, I'll put in a 120% sir. I'll do it." I said, bored. For the sake of Taribian Defense Force's honor, why shouldn't I?
"Taribia's in your debt..." He spoke with exhaustion in his voice.
I was walking to my Realdo when I saw a Taribian Realdo get blown up by an American FLAG suit. Sighing, it wasn't an unexpected loss, truly gifted Taribian pilots were often picked up by the special services and the main UNION defense force. Since the US had a larger population and manufacturing capacity compared to Taribia's provinces of Guyana and Venezuela which didn't have much of a military tradition anyways. This translated into the present situation after decades of the public's neglect of the military.
When I walked past a trio of American operators, I overheard them speaking...
"The Taribians sucks at this." An officer with blond hair spoke loudly.
"It's getting pathetic, I took one of them down in less than two minutes!" The other operator, with black hair, replied.
"Who can blame them? They're considered cannon fodder even by their own people. It's no wonder they can't fight a worth a damn, they're considered third rate troops for a reason." The third one wearing glasses joined in the conversation.
I was almost out of earshot when I heard more, "Hey do you see that woman over there?" The man with the black hair said to the blond one.
"Yeah?"
"She's the one your dueling."
"I bet you 10 bucks that I will take her down in 3 minutes!" The Blond replied arrogantly.
Burning with fury at their disparaging remarks, 'I'll show them, I'll prove them wrong.' I thought to myself as I walked towards the preparation area.
Half an hour later
I had already boarded my Realdo, taxiing onto the runway. The mechanic had climbed onto my suit to ensure everything was good manually before giving me an affirmative symbol and climbed off. "Hydraulics good, weapons good, engines good, no outer light, you're good to go." He announced.
"Flight control this is Tiger 1-1 requesting permission for takeoff." I radioed the control tower.
"Permission granted Tiger 1-1, you are cleared for takeoff. Stay safe and good luck. Control Tower out." Upon receiving confirmation, I gunned my plasma jets, skimming along the tarmac before rocketing up into the air. After launching right into the air I entered the dueling airspace, preparing, my radar detected an American Flag.
After I knew that it was a Flag, I quickly changed my Realdo to suit mode, to better engage in the dual. I know I will have to play this carefully, to make him overconfident and defeat him mentally, not physically.
"Come on Ms. Taribia, let's get this over with. I got dinner to eat!" The video link showed me the Flag pilot, the cocky blond American from before.
He changed his Flag to MS mode as well, and charged towards me at full speed while firing his linear rifles, I quickly turned around and deflected the fired shots with a defense rod.
"Just die already!" The golden haired pilot yelled angrily, as he drew out his sonic blade and charged towards my Realdo.
'I wonder if he realizes I'm recording this.' I thought, that comment alone was enough to get him grounded with a reprimand and a disciplinary hearing. The US-Taribian Military games were supposed to be friendly. If this got out, it could cause a riot, the US military would lose face, 'oh yeah, he is definitely fucked.' The lack of professionality alone would get him in trouble.
Using my linear blade, I parried his sonic blade away, he countered by accelerating upward, breaking the parry and flying above me, aiming to strike my suit's head.
"It's over bitch!" He yelled out triumphantly, 'Another strike on your permanent record.' I added to my previous thoughts, as he accelerated his Flag downward to strike with the full force of his suit's weight and strength.
I knew this was my moment, he had gotten reckless, believing me to be a simple low grade pilot. Before the Flag's blade reached my Realdo, I launched all my missiles available at his Flag, with no time for his computers to even register the launch, the missiles closed the mere meters of distance with lightning quickness, impacting his Flag's chassis, launching him away with the power of several rockets, before the rocket's reached minimum safe distance and exploded barely ten meters away. In seconds, I had ended the fight, score 1 for Taribia.
15 minutes later
I was numb with disbelief. I didn't feel my arms as they took a mind of their own. Skidding to a stop on the tarmac, everyone was stunned, quiet, and when I disengaged my suit's armored cowlings to allow me to exit, there was suddenly a few claps, before it cascaded into a full blown cavalcade of cheers, clapping, and shouts of joy.
"Sofia! Sofia! Sofia! Sofia!" The crowd chanted with joy. I had won. Something like this could not be adequately described to an outsider, this alone would be getting me earmarked for UNION special forces, and the evidence I had in my suit would get the opposing pilot in deep shit for poor behaviour. Not to mention his poor form during the battle would get his drill instructors in a fury. As I passed a few American officers who had watched the battle in control room, a mixture of emotions were on their faces, the two most powerful were respect, and intrigue.
6th October 2307 A.D
AEU Orbital Elevator Base
2nd Lieutenant Isabelle Carelle
AEU Orbital Elevator Defense Force "Task Force La Tour"
6th Orbital Elevator Defense Squadron
I'd been overviewing the daily maintenance of my Hellion with my chief engineer, when one of my friends had called me over. It was a calm day at La Tour, AEU's orbital elevator. For an African climate, being sunny was usually the least of your worries.
"Hey Carelle, come and take a look at this!" My friend called to me. It was 1000 hours, the scheduled time for testing of the AEU's next generation mobile suit. I quickly ran out of the hanger to the runway, to where everyone else was standing with binoculars, observing the new toy as it zoomed across the sky, almost out of visual range.
It was shocking when I saw the machine, it was painted similar to the Union's Flag, but more stylish and tinted in aquamarine
"What kind of Suit is that?" I asked one of my friends.
"AEU-09 Enact, brand new model, fresh out of the workshops apparently." My friend answered shortly. "It's going to be replacing the Hellion model eventually, and will hopefully allow us to stay in the game against UNION and HRL."
"When's it scheduled for general deployment?" I asked curiously.
"Don't you read the briefings Izzy? Or even watch the news?" Having a chuckle at my expense, making me blush, he sighed, "This one is reserved for an ace, it's estimated that they will make enough for general use in around 5 years. But until then, it's strictly special force, and elite units only." My friend answered as we watched the Enact take down 2 target balloons.
"Command's dropped some hints to the public about this beauty, today is the public showing for it. I'm sure it being on HRL's 10th anniversary will get the message across. Sure will be a clear message to the world, we aren't an underdog anymore."
"Heads up! What the hell-?!" The maintenance officer next to me shouted aloud.
Tearing my eyes away from the show before me, I looked to the source of the warning and saw a Mobile Suit colored in a white basecoat with a blue chest floating in the air near the Enact. It looked nothing like an AEU, UNION or HRL design. No camera, no camouflage, big giant sword….. Wait a minute...
"Hey... is that one ours?" I asked the same friend of mine, my voice dripped with worry.
"No, definitely not..." He said, as realization dawned on us both. We were about to call alarm.
Suddenly we heard a loud explosion and when I turned back I saw a landed Enact lying on the ground, both of its hand mounts and its head cut off.
"What the fuck just happened!" I asked one of my friends in a demanding tone as everyone started to look around wildly for the source of the attack. However I was looking right at the source of the damage
"That suit just took down the Enact easily, what the fuck is that!"
The air raid warning siren started to scream all over the base, "Attention! ATTENTION! We are under attack! This is not a drill, all units are ordered get scrambled and engage the unidentified suit! This is not a drill I repeat this is not a drill!" The speakers screamed out as the base commander nearly panicked. The base itself was a vital strategic location for the AEU, with a permanent garrison of Mobile Suits, Special Attack Aircraft, and large amounts of tanks and Infantry, with QRF Aircraft patrols and nearby bases literally minutes away in case of an attack. All of that meant nothing to me as I saw people running around in organized chaos or just to get the hell out of the way.
I sprinted to the hanger where my Hellion was, the sounds of jet engines roaring was heard throughout the base, my ground team had just finished doing the daily maintenance and were in the hasty process of fueling and arming my Hellion with whatever they could find. I slipped on my flight suit over my normal jumper and slid into the cockpit turning on my craft, getting jumpy and jittery in anticipation for me to get the fuck out of the hanger and not be a sitting duck.
After my crew chief ran in front of me and started to wave a yellow flag I called to control, "Control this is Striker 1-2 requesting permission to take off."
"Permission granted Striker 1-2 you are cleared for take off!" The control tower radioed me back.
Upon receiving permission from the control tower I started my plasma jets and jumped a few meters in the air. Seeing a formation of five Hellions scrambling on the runway, I exited the Hanger and started my lift off process followed by four other Hellions. "This is Striker-lead, all units engage the unidentified suit. I don't think it needed clarification but better safe than sorry." My Squadron leader announced.
"Roger." I replied to him on the radio, and turned my suit and joined another pair of Hellions in a V shape combat formation, zooming towards the attacking suit.
We were immediately in range of the unknown suit, firing our Linear rifles, the round seemed to just hit but had zero effect on the suit. As we overshot our target, having accelerated to several hundred meters a few seconds in our suits, the opponent turned around and unfolded it's sword, immediately launching forward as fast as lightning, severing one of the arms mounts off my nearby wingmmates. The reaction speed for such an attack was currently impossible with any form of Earth tech, and its ability to immediately accelerate several hundred meters a second from a standstill almost broke my morale. Cunningham, my wingman, pulled off from our attack run, his unit's careful balanced destabilized, forcing him to land to the safety of the ground.
"What the fuck are we fighting?! Nothing can move that fast without pulping the pilot!" My other wingman, Krüger, shrieked out in terror on the general comm. So that was how it got the grounded Enact.
"All Squadrons, keep a minimum distance of one Kilometer! Stay as far away from it as possible! Don't get close, it only has short ranged weaponry! Linear Rifles are also ineffective, switch to heavy ordnance and missiles if you have it." My squadron leader announced on general comm. As we all tried to scurry out of the things range and kill it from a distance. More Hellions had deployed, with nearby jet patrols zooming within missile range and dozens of more suits hot on their heels as well, as we all formed a noose around its neck.
"No matter where it came from, even it can't beat all of us! Now where the fuck are those Triple A defences?!" My squadron leader yelled to us on the radio. Indeed, no matter how good it was, it was now badly outnumbered and outgunned, and it was only going to get worse as we deployed our anti suit tank defences, alongside dozens more Hellions from the nearby airstrips. If it could kill us all, then I'd gladly bow down to whoever made it.
As we began to circle around the unknown like sharks, a pink beam came from the ground and hit one of the Hellions in the middle of the suit, turning it into a fireball.
"Now what!?" One of the Hellion pilots shouted in confusion.
I knew something was up now, I immediately started my afterburner but before I could do anything more, my vision turned pink and then I'm falling from the sky. Activating my afterburners saved my life as it threw off the aim of the laser, but it still caught me in the engines and now I was in an uncontrolled free fall. Instead of dying instantly, now I'll die by impacting the Earth. Fucking typical.
"This is Striker 1-2 mayday, mayday going down!" I screamed to the radio hoping someone would hear it, but I also knew that it was irrelevant either way, there was nothing anyone could safely do to save my suit, but I could still save myself. I was trained for this! First I was to manage my uncontrolled spin. Now no longer feeling like I was about to throw up, I pulled up as best I could, angling my descent from a full plummet to at least 40 degree angle. I reflexively turned off my afterburners, a useless gesture since my engines were destroyed, and reduced speed so the airfoils on my suit angled to increase drag. Next I activated my airbrakes, their squealing from the heat and protest at opening a comforting sound, then finally I activated my parachute for my suit, and turned on the shock gel to up my chances of survival and perhaps even future ambulatory-ness.
Then I braced, squealing unashamedly like a little girl and proceeded to have my life flash before my eyes. The day I was pranked by my friend at elementary school, the day I joined the army, the day I visited my mother at the hospital. It seemed like every moment of my life begin to pour into my brain.
"I can't die here," I said to myself, "I won't die here!" I steeled myself. Finally after what felt like eternity, but was only a few tens of seconds, I angled myself up so that I was nearly parallel with the ground, still falling, I lowered my landing gear, and praying…. Crashing to the ground, snapping my landing gear, and skidding with loud shrieks of protesting metal. By the time I stopped skidding, holding tightly to my seat, almost so much that I thought my skin would peel from the bone, If it weren't for the shock resistant gel I would have been thrown about my cockpit like a rag doll. Instead of getting pulped to meat, I only felt a few of my bones break on impact. The second I stopped moving, every single vehicle rushed out of the hangar to rescue my thoroughly totalled Hellion. The last sound I heard before I became unconscious was the sound of a siren...
6th October 2307 A.D
HRL Orbital Elevator "Tenchū"
Warrant Officer Somchai Chokdi
HRL Orbital Elevator Defense Force
3rd Orbital Unit
I was sitting at my desk doing paperwork. Fucking paperwork on a holiday! Today was the 10th anniversary of the Human Reform League. We are supposed to have fun! Not work!
"4,000 cubic meters of liquid hydrogen, 20,000 rounds of 200x25mm ammunition….. Why the fuck are WE doing this? We're a combat unit, not logistics. Why don't those asshats do it instead of us! Everyone is at the party and we're here doing a bunch of paperwork?!" I complained. My Korean friend, Warrant Officer Lee, nodded in agreement. He wasn't happy about this either. I was about to finish the last documents then head home and have some beers with Lee, when the alarm intercom came to life.
"Three unidentified mobile suits detected, coming in fast! Defense Force Three is to scramble immediately." The loudspeakers announced, the alarm started screaming all over the station as me and Lee ran to the locker room, changed to our HRL flight suits, before running out to the hangar. There, the ground crew was at my Tieren's cockpit, checking the equipment and fuel. "All units, all units! Report to your vehicles, we are under attack! This is not a drill!" The intercom added, as we finally reached our suits. The situation just got substantially worse.
"Damn it! Of all things. They had to target the ceremony!" The First Lieutenant yelled out angrily to a trainee. It seemed that the attack had interrupted his own party, and he wasn't happy.
"B-But sir, I only have 120 hours of training in space." One of my squadron members complained. He was the new guy, and was so new in fact that he barely had any experience in even simulated combat. Why he was chosen was anyone's guess. To even get considered to pilot the multi-million dollar suits, you needed years of life experience in the military, exemplary scores of everything, complete and undying loyalty to your country and the league, stable emotional state, and a whole host of other checks to get you even considered for the HRL Orbital Defense Force. If the kid preformed badly today, and he survived, he'd be ejected from the Orbital Defense Force permanently and transferred to a ground unit, if he was lucky. If unlucky, he would be dishonorably discharged.
"We'll just don't die and do what you're told!" The lieutenant replied tersely while he went towards the Tieren's cockpit, he was simply not in the mood to hear the complaints of anyone.
"There isn't time to change your equipment!" The head mechanic reported to us all as I slipped into the cockpit. The Hellions were closing in fast, and the only thing they managed to do was reload the 200mm cannons, and a half-done refueling.
"Well get some replacements for our weapons! We won't last long out here with just our cannons! We'll hold them off long enough for reinforcements then retreat for refit!" The flight lieutenant replied before he got through the hatch on the chest of his Tieren. After I got into the cockpit, I also connected my helmet to the Tieren and linked my HUDs to the Tieren's visual tube which linked the pilot to the Tieren's eye on its head, and the various cameras on its body. I love piloting a Tieren, sure the thing is sluggish, uses outdated conventional weapons, and the visual feeds were rather glitchy. But man, the reliability! The thing can work in almost every environment. I could count the times that I saw a Tieren broke down with one hand. This thing was light years ahead in reliability compared to the Union's Flag and Realdo and even the famous AEU Hellion were less reliable. There was some scuttlebutt on a project whose objective was replacing the screenless cockpit with a more digitalized one, but I never got any more word than that, the only ones who would get the upgrade anyways would have been elite units.
After we all got into our suits, the hanger platform rose up and went on a track to the nearby space elevator. After a few status checks we ran onto the circular freight elevator, and we all braced for the G forces of us very quickly ascending into orbit. "No problem with the photoreceptors, gun loaded, no problem with fire control, water pressure in first and second tank, 50%. I'm good to go." I announced to the flight, as everyone else also made final checks.
"Maximum allowance in B3 Area, 300 seconds until secondary team is scrambled. Lure the unknown force from B3 noncombat area. Command to all units, 287 seconds until unknowns reach the pillar." Flight control radioed us as we ascended and rushed into deep space to intercept the incoming Hellions.
"All units, control attitude, block the enemy's route." The flight lieutenant ordered as my suit's thruster was temporarily shut down. Something that would only happen to an unmaintained thruster. Cursing I rerouted and restarted it, releasing a sigh of relief as it flared to life once more, fucking fuel injector was sticking again. The mobile suits were finally identified as three AEU Hellions with a box for unknown purposes. Possibly an MRL system to pump out even more fire. The hanger then opened and we all rushed out.
Suddenly the Hellions banked and changed course, "The enemy has changed course!" I announced as I armed my my 200mm and 20mms.
"Damn it! They're hiding behind the ring of the orbital elevator!" Lee, my wingman, yelled out as the Hellions hid themselves, safe from our Tierens' gun fire. If only we had our TV missiles installed.
"3-1 and 3-2! After them, 3-3, cover our flanks, provide over watch reconnaissance, don't let them flank us!" The flight lieutenant radioed us as we changed our courses to follow his orders. Accelerating to full speed we knew they would be ready, the Tieren simply can't outrun the Hellion in any circumstances.
"Sir! ETA on reinforcements?!" Lee radioed the flight lieutenant but before he could finish the sentence he was cut off by the leading Tieren reporting in.
"Visual lock acquired: FIRE!" He reported and fired his main cannon. The AEU Hellions, while unsuited totally for atmospheric flight, used their micro thrusters to gracefully glide out of the incoming fire.
One of the Hellion's, using its forward momentum to continue evading us, turned around to aim the large black box at us. And what a surprise, "MRL fire detected! Suggest evasive actions!" My onboard computer reported in a serene voice.
"Flight break! Activate APS when they get in range!" The flight lieutenant yelled as he banked his thrusters and moved towards the Hellions, but we all had misjudged the purpose of the missiles. The Hellion launched its missiles toward the orbital elevator, I was prepared to launch myself as fast I could betwen me and the structure, hoping my APS would soak it all up in time. Fortunately, a pink beam fired toward the missiles. destroying the three projectiles in quick succession.
The source of the beam appeared to us all, and my flight stopped moving as the Hellions made a very quick retreat from it, screaming in an unencrypted radio channel, "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" The suit responsible was not any known model, no universal heraldry, colored white and orange with a strange green particle effect around it.
"What the hell is that!" Lee yelled in confusion, echoed by the rest of the flight. The Hellions, as they tried to get distance, fired at the unknown suit, it was simply too fast. I watched in shock and confusion as the unknown quickly engaged and shot down 2 Hellions as they tried to escape. The last one angled for the orbital elevator, likely hoping to either ram or use it as cover. Likely the latter admittedly.
"Shit! It's gonna ra…" Lee radioed but was never able to finish the sentence as the radio and radar just suddenly died, replaced with white noise and a connection lost symbol.
"What happen?" I began to think but then the E-sensor showed one more unidentified suit flying in front of the Hellion that was on a ramming course with the Elevator. Bigger than the last one.
The Hellion was screaming toward the Elevator, hoping against hope to do whatever it did, moving nearly three times the speed our Tierens could move. I watched as even that speed failed the pilot, as the unknown suit revealed a cannon on its chest and fired out a particle beam of some sort, disintegrating the Hellion. It was at that moment our radios came back to life, "- I-peat, fall back! Fall back to the elevator! Reinforcements have arrived!" The flight lieutenant nearly screamed out as we retreated to the platform we started as quickly as we could, seeing dozens of other Tieren suits flying out to secure the area.
Quietly, I asked into my radio, "So I guess the particle it emits jammed our equipment?"
"Perhaps pilot. Command's going to have a word with us for sure however." The lieutenant said in the gaping silence.
"Touch down in three, two, one." I counted down as my Tieren slowly landed on the platform.
After we docked our Tierens in our hangar, we walked completely silent to the debriefing room. All around us controlled and uncontrolled panic was emitted from our comrades. Hundreds of pilots for fighter jets and drones were running to their action stations, triple A was being set up all around the base, missile jammers erected by the dozens. We stuck out, our silence was a black hole that drew attention. When we arrived, only a few officers were present, but more and more were arriving via electronic means or personally, many looked disheveled and were still wearing their formal dress for the event tonight…. Oh yeah, today was our nation's anniversary…..
"This is gonna be a long debrief." I voiced to everyone, and many of them, including the slightly drunk high command officers sighed as we all took a seat.
"Guards, bring us a couple pots of coffee. This is going to be a long night." Confirmed our base commander as he activated the view screens.
