Disclaimer: This is the only time I'll say it: I do NOT own Mobile Suit Gundam or any of the mobile suit designs present here. However, all characters present here are fully original; if you want to use them for whatever, or wish to reference this story, please ask permission to do so.

MSG 0079: Eastern Raid

A Mobile Suit Gundam Side-Story

Produced by Ninja-Pirate Studios

Written by GM Ace

Author's Intro: Welcome to GM Ace's first real Gundam fanfiction! I hope you are pleased with it, as it is my first. Also, this story is written to celebrate the one year anniversary of the creation of The Ace List, my Gundam UC C2, the first Gundam UC C2 ever created and still one of only two C2s in existence. I'll see you after the story.

Chapter 1: The Waiting Game

Weymouth, Massachusetts, North America

December 24th, 0079 UC

1923 hours local time

The brown haired man was pretty short, maybe five and a half feet, and almost ridiculously skinny. His eyes were concealed by a pair of sunglasses (though no one could tell, his eyes were green), and he stayed by himself in a corner with his back to the wall, talking to none of the other patrons. While not exactly threatening or particularly suspicious, he was still . . . different. But to the waitresses at the local food joint, all that mattered was this customer, who'd been coming here regularly for the past month and a half, was polite, tipped well, and didn't cause any trouble, even with the Zeon soldiers that came here when they were on leave. Although the Zeeks based at the Fore River Base where a decent sort, the locals lived in the Greater Boston Area, and Bostonians were known for their independence . . . and the volatile way they often defended that independence. Every once in a while a fight would break out, and there were still rumors of a resistance movement based somewhere in Boston itself. But there where no such worries about trouble from this quiet fellow. The waitress on duty delivered his usual (a Philadelphia cheese-steak with a side of fries and Coca-Cola) and walked back to the kitchen, looking over her shoulder and wondering what the strange man was always thinking about in that corner.

Brian Terracciano squirted some Ketchup on his fries and munched on them silently, his eyes certainly not flickering sideways to look at the three Zeon navy pukes who were sharing some beers for their off-duty time. Nevertheless, he was acutely aware of them; he wasn't a Lieutenant in the Earth Federation Army's Special Forces for nothing, after all. He had been stuck in this freezing pisshole of a town for a little more than two months, waiting and watching to bide his time while he waited for his orders to move come in. Well, perhaps he was being unfair. Weymouth and the surrounding towns and cities were nice places, all in all, with a lot of history, and while he hadn't been there yet he'd heard Boston was pretty nice as well. The problem was that, first of all, that any length of time spent waiting for orders tended to grind on his nerves, and second of all those nice towns and cities were in the region still referred to as New England. The weather sucks in New England; unpredictable as anything, and very cold during the winters, and the after-effects of Operation British didn't help. It was freezing outside, and there were still several inches of snow on the sidewalks from the Nor'easter that had ambushed the area three weeks ago, never mind the massive mountains of the stuff piled here and there after being taken off the streets. To Brian, who had been born on Luna, the only phrase that described the place was 'some sort of icy hell'. Supposedly the locals didn't mind it that much, having gotten used to it. Brian had a hard time believing it, just as he was hard pressed to believe there were places colder than this on Earth. But that was neither here nor there.

As he took a sip of his Coke, Brian let his mind wander down the well-worn path that analyzed the current situation. The Federation had kicked Zeon's ass at Odessa, had retaken the California Base ten days ago, and was generally on top everywhere on the planet. But although the war had begun in space, and it was going well (word had come down this morning that Solomon was going under), parts of the Earth still lay in Zeon hands, and that was problematic. Australia was still in contention(1), and parts of North America and Africa were still holding out. Plus, there had been some nasty business lately at the Federation's arctic base(2). Finishing the job on Earth was crucial. One must set one's own house in order, after all, before dealing with other problems. And so one Lt. Brian Terracciano found himself staking out the Zeon Fore River Base in preparation for Operation 2004, to help take back the Eastern coast of North America.

The main target of Operation 2004 was the Logan Base in Boston, which consisted of the enlarged and now militarized Logan Airport, parts of Boston Harbor and its facilities, and sections of the city which had been evacuated and walled off to form a buffer zone for the base. The forces there consisted of two Gaws, several flight groups of Dopps and other such assorted aircraft, several Zeon submarines, captured Federal cruisers put to use by the Zeeks, and several squads of mobile suits supplemented by Magella Attack tanks and mechanized infantry. The mobile suits consisted of several Goggs, Zaku Is and IIs, a Gouf here and there, and maybe one or two of the skirted Doms, but Intel was, as always, 'unsure' about that. There were also some hints of new models being shipped here from Pezun shortly before Logan got cut off, but once again there was no confirmation. The Federation had assembled most of its remaining Atlantic navy, as well as forces from around the world (except the Pacific navy; those poor bastards had been hit hard enough and had been ensconced within their harbors for a while now(3)), to form a naval task force to hit Logan from the sea, while several different mobile suit, tank, and air forces would hit them from inland, reinforced by a Special Forces Combined Arms task force that would arrive as soon as their new mobile suits were developed at California Base. But it would still be a hard fight, even if the Logan Zeeks didn't have any help, which is why Brian was in his current position.

The Fore River Shipyard had once been a boon to the ancient United States during World War II in building warships, but had fallen out of military use after that conflict. The Yard continued to host civilian shipping and ferry services into Boston for decades, but no ships were built there and no military forces posted there aside from the old USS Salem, which was no more than a museum. The Salem was now gone, and the civilian work mostly stopped, because ten years ago the Federation decided it needed some more military presence in the Atlantic to complement the California Base. So, the Shipyard was turned into the Fore River Base, home of a small squadron of cruisers and a small building facility capable of spitting out another cruiser now and then. When the Zeeks moved in, they saw no reason not to maintain the Base as a kind of secondary outpost of Logan, and stationed some mobile suits, a single Jukon-class sub, and two captured Federal cruisers there. But the base had never been very secure; it only had a chain-link fence and guards to keep people out. Against an assault by tanks, never mind mobile suits, the base's personnel would have very little to protect them. So, the base commander was considering doing the bug-out boogie, loading the entire base's force on either his ships or in trucks, and bringing them to the Logan Base to reinforce them. And that just wouldn't do. So it had been decided that the Fore River Base would have to be neutralized. However, it also wouldn't do to expose the Federation's mobile suit forces in the region (already thin due to the need for soldiers in space) to any unnecessary danger, so it was up to Spec Ops to pull it off.

Brian, finishing his meal, dropping the necessary money and a generous tip on the tip, and leaving the food joint, thought it was all rather pointless. No matter what happened, the Zeeks here were screwed. Even if some disaster happened and Zeon reconquered Earth, there was pretty much no chance that the Zeeks stationed on the East coast would be rescued in time. And since there were no longer any H.L.V. bases in range, there was no where that the spacenoids could try to escape to with any reasonable hope of success. It would make everything easier for everyone if the damn fools just surrendered. But maybe that was the point; surrendering would make life easier for the Feddies, and it appeared as if the Zeek commanders were biologically incapable of doing that. So, the hard way it was.

Brian traipsed his way back up Route 3A, away from the Base and the Fore River Bridge which led to Quincy. He 'owned' a small place on a quiet side street that never had anything exciting happen on it, and he made his living by 'computer programming'. In reality, the house's real owner was currently in Federation custody, being compensated for his trouble, and Brian actually spent his time hacking Zeon databases and contacting his control and spies within the Base. It was lonely, but there it was. Usually, there wasn't much to do. He had most of the relevant info about his target, the spies in the base had nothing more useful to say and were left waiting for the operation just like him, and his control kept telling him that the right time had yet to arrive. But today, when he sat down at his computer and went through the ten different levels of security and anti-hacking software to reach his control, the message that would start the ball rolling was waiting for him. He leapt out of his seat, barely containing a cheer. The message read: "Commence Operation 2004 sub-mission: Operation 1918". It was finally time to start fighting again.

Author Notes:

(1) This is a reference to the exploits of the White Dingos and their comrades in Australia

(2) A reference to War in the Pocket

(3)A reference to Zinegata's MSG 0079 Side Story: The Forgotten Fleet and the battles that the Pacific fleet fight in it. Check out the story, it's great!