October 1, 0079 U.C. Zeon's Fort Dobbins Air Force Base, Macon, Georgia, U.S.
After 9 months of war, the Principality of Zeon transported many ground forces to their new North American bases that were recently taken over from the Federation when they took control of the U.S. Fort Dobbins in Macon, Georgia was no exception. Several young mobile suit pilots were recruited among the American populous that sympathized with Zeon in wanting independence from the Earth Federation's tyranny. One young pilot was recruited since Zeon's occupation that would change the fortune of one of Zeon's future campaigns.
"Corporal Drakeson! Get your ass in here, Soldier!" The Brigadier General demanded as he seen him walked by his office on his way to the hanger bay where his MS-06 Zaku II is at as he heard the call over the radio for all soldiers to prepare to leave for Cape Canaveral in Orlando, Florida to take off into Space. Drakeson walked into the General's office. Having known the General barely and fearful of possibly being in trouble since he was the one who soaked the Drill Sergeant's dry clothes as a prank while he was in the shower. "Oh damn! Someone fuckin snitched…" He thought to himself as he presented himself the General and saluted to him. The General stood up, returned the salute, and walked around behind Drakeson and closed the door as the noise from the other soldiers were running right outside the door to the hanger before speaking. "At ease, Drakeson." Zann sat down in the chair behind him without another word said. The General seemed to be a man in his mid 40s with some gray hair with some natural black hair but from the looks of it, he tries to dye it to keep it covered but due to the war, its probably been impossible for him. Given by his accent, he sounds to be of Mexican American origin from possibly Texas or even Mexico itself. The Brigadier General has been commander of the base since it's occupation earlier this year. Mainly by recommendation from the Red Comet Char Aznable himself. He looked over at Drakeson and smiled and took a deep cough as he was apparently recovering from a bad cold. "Corporal, you're being reassigned and with that reassignment, I am promoting you to the rank of Sergeant. You're being assigned to Zeon's Foreign Legion Forces and you being shipped off the Oceania region where you will be in command of your own squad. Effective immediately. I don't personally think you're up for the task but I like you. Especially what you did to the Drill Sergeant! BAHAHAHA! Haven't laughed so hard in years." Zann looked at him with shock and surprise by both the promotion and the General's reaction to the prank he pulled last night. He then shook off his surprise and smirked like there was no sense in hiding his guilt as if he had pride in it. "Well that guy was a dick. He had it coming since he was training me." Zann commented as he shrugged his shoulders. "No doubt but Zeon needs people like you in its ranks. Not ass kissers like the Drill Sergeant. No doubt he's a good soldier but to command his own platoon, that's a different matter all in itself. I'm sure you'll do great. A transport is waiting for you at Hanger B and your Zaku II is being loaded up as we speak. You're dismissed." The General said as he stood up return the salute after Drakeson saluted and left his office.
October 3, 0079 U.C. Jungles of Indochina at around 8 A.M.
"Sergeant Drakeson, we got a situation in the jungles around the base. We had reports of a small Federation force in the area closing in on our supply base. I know you just arrived but you're the only one in the vicinity so we're dropping you in. If you haven't noticed, there are three other bases just across the river. Two of them being along banks and one of them being our supply base. It must not fall into enemy hands if we are to have a foothold in this region for our campaign on the Weapons Development Base to the south in Australia. Lay waste to the enemy!" The Zeon Forces Commander in the region said before ending his transmission with Drakeson. Zann was already strapped into his Zaku II and ready to deploy as he was informed an hour prior of the drop. "Haven't even been here five minutes and I'm already being sent out to the frontlines." Zann said to himself as he took a deep breath. The morning sun was peaking over the horizon outside the transport windows as they flew over the region. Within moments, the back hatch opened up and the Zaku II slid out of the transport and almost immediately, Drakeson pulled his mobile suit's parachute and landed in front the main base and began his mission. He looked both directions to get his bearings and began walking and then jumped over the small river in front of him using his thrusters, after a few steps, as he walked down the forest pathway on high alert. "Where could they be? Command said there was some Fedies here." Before long as he looked to his right hand side, a group of 3 tanks coming out of the forest next to him moved towards the Supply Base on far end of the area along another river. The area was divided up into three sections by two rivers that flow parallel to each other. The main base sat on the south end of the area along the shoreline; the supply base was directly east of the main base and say in between the two rivers in the open. Another base was on the north bank side of the river away from the main base. It was flanked by a mountain range on the other side of the river that the base is sitting along. Lastly, the base furthest from the main base sat on top of a hilltop covered by forestry as the area north of the rivers was full of grassy hills and mountains. A small defense force consisting of two to three Magella attack tanks guarded each base. Zann aimed his 120mm MG at the tanks to stop them from over taking the supply base and fired hitting a tank destroying it but then was charged upon a GM holding up a beam sword and slashed at him. Zann, with little time to react, used his Zaku II's shoulder shield to block the attack. The shield took the hit but it was cut in half as it fell to the ground leaving only his shoulder covered. "Damn it! He got me good on that one!" Zann took a step backwards and seen he was being shot at by another GM firing bullets at him. Quickly put away his rifle and his pulled out his Heat Hawk all the while holding the GM's arm to keep him from slashing him again with his hand. "Now lets see how you like this!" Drakeson yelled out as he drove the Heat Hawk horizontally at the GM's waist slowly slicing it in half as the pilot screamed in terror before exploding. "I got one! Now where's the other one at?" Zann exclaimed while searching. The Federation's tanks were quickly decimated by the defense at the supply base. "You in the Zaku! He's over here! We can't defend this place on our own!" A Magella Tank driver blurted out to him to get his attention, as it was apparently that Zann had lost track of him. "Damn it. My first mission out in the field and I lose track of the enemy. Real fucking bright, Zann." He said to himself as he charged over seeing the GM making his way to the supply base while shooting his rifle at the tanks but missing due to poor aim. Zann quickly deducted that these GM pilots were rookies without a lick of military experience and just walking around thinking they're big shots now since they're pilots. Zann shoulder tackled the GM to the river before driving his Heat Hawk into the GM's cockpit totally disabling it. Before he could catch his breath. The base up on the hill across the yells out that two more GMs are coming down the hill towards the supply base completely ignoring their base. Apparently the adjective is to capture the supply base. Drakeson quickly put away his heat hawk and took out his 120mm MG and began firing at the GMs along side the defending Magella tanks as they fired back at them as well with their own rifles. Within a few minutes, the two GMs were destroyed, as their machines couldn't take any more firepower from the barrage of bullets coming from the defense. Zann sighed wondering if that was the last of them. Zann took a sip of water from his canteen while trying to take a breather but out of the corner of his eye, his attention was drawn towards running GM coming down the hill out of the perimeter of the northeastern base and the southwestern base charging in what looks to be to the main base as it jumped over the river and towards the path. "Oh shit! If he gets there, then it's all over!" Zann dashed quickly with his Zaku using all the thrusters he can use to intercept the GM before it reaches the main camp. "Oh no you fucking don't! Not if I have anything to say about it!" Within a moment, Zann jumped on top of the GM's backside bringing it down to the ground at the front entrance of the main base and began firing his machinegun into the backside of the GM until it stopped moving. As Zann was panting deeply and threw water on himself as the temperature had risen quite a bit since it is the jungle. His Zaku II got off the downed GM as Base Commander Jon Reeves came out approaching his MS. "God damn, Son, you know how to wrestle with the enemy! Nice job, Sergeant." Reeves said to him congratulating him on a job well done. Followed behind him were two other soldiers. One was a tall dirty blond semi-long haired guy and another was a mousy dark haired girl with green eyes all dressed in the typical Zeon military uniform. Both looked to be new recruits judging by their appearance. Drakeson saluted his Commander upon exiting his Zaku. "I'm Major Jon Reeves. I'm the commander overseeing Zeon's campaign to take the Oceania region, but the boys call me "Axel." Zann didn't say much or move as he kept his salute in place out of respect. "At ease, Soldier." Zann did as commanded and removed his salute before the commander continued to speak. "So you're the new commander of the Foreign Legion Forces sent to aid us in our campaign. I've heard a lot about you from Fort Dobbins in the U.S.. I gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with your performance after how you handled yourself on your first mission here. Oh! And these two are your newest squad mates." Reeves finished speaking before the male soldier stepped forward saluting Drakeson before speaking. "Private Second Class Gale Turner! Newly assigned here from the California base in Los Angeles, Sir! I will not fail you!" Gale said trying to impress him with introductions." Zann nodded his head and turned his head to the girl next to him who seemed to be a nervous wreck. "I…ummmm…my name is Private Second Class Gwen Atiyah. I came from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, Sir. This is my first real assignment after joining." She said nervously looking down at the ground. Drakeson looked upon her. "Chin up, Private. This is my first real assignment too. Don't be nervous around me. Just follow my orders and don't do any heroics in our missions. Doing stupid things like that will get you killed!" Zann said to his new squad mates as he looked upon them before saluting them. "Dismissed!" They saluted back to him and left his side back towards the barracks of the base. Reeves smiled and patted the man on the back. "Not bad, kid. I'm sure you'll make a fine a leader for these youngins. They're young but it's the best Zeon can provide us since you heard about the Federation's Project V and their mass-production of their own mobile suits. This war is about to take an ugly turn for us if we don't do something." Zann nodded his head in acknowledgement and agreement. "Your squad has their own mobile suits so no need to make orders for some. A Zaku I and a Zaku II and already modified to combat here in the jungle. Fresh out of the Odessa Base. How generous of the Big Wigs to send you something. Most of us only get tanks. I'll let you make the assignments on who gets what." Reeves said to him as they walked into the makeshift mobile suit hanger that was made to repair and resupply the mobile suits. "The hanger isn't much, Sergeant, but once we get further along in this, I imagine we'll be sitting fancy at the Federation's WD Base!" Zann just stood there listening to him ramble on as the exhaustion on his face was apparent as he barely slept much on the transport. He took a deep breath from his tiredness. "Sir, permission to make a request." He said politely to him. Reeves looked at him with a "yes" nod on his face. "I'd like my Zaku to be heavy modified while they're doing repairs." Reeves didn't say a word and looked at his engineering team who was over at Drakeson's Zaku II making the necessary repairs from the battle. "You heard the man! Modify that Zaku for heavy combat when you're done with the repairs!" Reeves commanded his engineering team before hearing a "yes sir!" from them. "Now go get some rest. I imagine you're fucking dog tired." Zann left Reeves's side to go take a nice hot shower before getting some sleep. Given how the base was just a makeshift base camp, there wasn't much to it. The base looked like it was just built overnight given by the shape of the place and crates and materials were sort of scattered in their designated areas. "Could be worse." As Zann thought to himself as he headed over to the shower area of the barracks. He grabbed a towel, upon reaching the men's bathroom, off the shelf without paying attention much as it looked empty as most of the military personnel were either in their bunks, outside, or working in the hangers. As soon as he opened the shower curtain as the shower wasn't on, which was the only shower in the Men's area due to the size of the base, he seen Gwen screaming as she was naked and getting ready to shower. "What the fuck!? I'm so sorry!" Zann yelled out quickly closing the curtain and stood against the wall near the sink that's along the wall on the opposite side of the bathroom, as the bathroom was the size of a simple medium-sized home bathroom, looking at the wall as chest felt like it was gonna burst out of his chest as he didn't expect anyone in here. Much less a woman. Then again, she did look cute and beautiful despite looking like she belonged in a library and not on the frontlines he thought to himself all the while trying to recollect himself. "Ummmm….what are you…doing here? Do you know this is the men's bathroom?" Zann said trying to breathe as that apparently snapped himself up quickly. Gwen came out of the shower with a towel wrapped around her and covering her body up and looked at Zann like she was mortified but then took a deep breath before explaining herself. "The women's bathroom shower is always full, so I go here to take my showers since most either go to the other nearby bases to shower or wait til tonight after their shift is over. Hell, some go out to the river to bathe in private and I refuse to take a bath in the river! Been like this since I got here a couple weeks ago." Zann sighed calming down a bit. "Go ahead, Private. I'll take one later." He said to her before leaving the bathroom letting her shower in peace.
April 4, 0096 U.C. Drakeson Residence, Tampa, Florida
After a good day of working around the house and getting the kids to bed, Zann went upstairs with his wife to bed himself at it was 10 P.M. at night. He stripped off his clothes and slipped on a pair of pajama pants and stayed shirtless as his wife came in out of the bathroom in nothing but a bathrobe to keep her covered up and her hair damp since she just got out of the shower a little while ago. While he was getting his pants on for bed, she got into her night gown and laid down in the bed together leaving the small lamps on as she likes to read before bed sometimes. "Finally I can get some sleep." Zann commented as he put the blanket over him. Gwen looked at her husband in concern. "I'm scared of this conflict with The Sleeves. You heard about what happened up in the colonies, right?" Zann rolled over to face her seeing the look on her face before leaning over to give her a peck on the lips. She licked her lips tasting as she always enjoyed his kisses no matter what. "Don't worry. If this is anything like the last war…." Before Zann could finish, Gwen interrupted him as she's heard this before with the incident with Haman Karn after the Gryps Conflict. "What about when Char nearly dropped Axis on the Earth? We nearly died, Zann, if it wasn't for Amuro!" Gwen said in an outburst showing her concern and emotions. Zann quickly sat up and put his arms around her rubbing her back to calm her. She looked up at her as she laid her head on his bare shoulder. "I'm just worried about the kids if this becomes something just as dangerous. Especially…especially if this Full Frontal really is Char himself…as much as I respected the man. Wouldn't be the first time that Char used another name to hide himself." Zann just sat there and listened to her concerns agreeing with her whole-heartedly. "If you're worried that if the Federation may call me back into the military, you don't have to worry about a thing. My fighting days are over. Ended the day we were discharged." He said to her in a low calm tone to her. They then tucked themselves into bed turning off the lamps to sleep. "I hope you're right…" She said in a hushed voice to herself as she dozed off to sleep.
