Sword and the Stone
Chapter 3: Keep Your Heads Above the Mayhem
Steven Hackett had seen a lot of things in his life.
But this wasn't one of them.
Giant humanoid mechs had 'destroyed' the entire First Fleet in a training simulation.
150 ships and thousands of fighters, slaughtered by 100 Mobile Suits.
The CO of the force, a Major Pinkerton, told him that this was a complete repeat of the Battle of Loum, an embarrassing Earth Federation defeat, down to three Mobile Suits capturing his escape transport.
After that debacle, it was clear.
"Alright, Major. We'll do it."
March 15th, 2185: Earth Systems Alliance dreadnought Everest
"So, why did these Alliance guys just build GMs?"
"Simple answer: beam weapons and money. No offence, but a Gelgoog costs three times more then a GM and that's a bit insulting."
"Just means it's three times as capable."
The Major wanted to give out the statistics on Gelgoogs versus GMs: for every GM lost, three Gelgoogs were killed. But that also counted GMs destroyed by monster weapons like the Big Zam and Zeong.
And even then, there were less Gelgoogs then GMs built.
"These guys aren't going to be using these things in combat. They're building GM IIs and Hizacks for combat duty."
The Major dove toward his Gundam Mk II.
Ever since the 'Second Battle of Loum', a number of Alliance ships had been modified to carry and launch Mobile Suits, like the Magellan-Class was during the One Year War.
At the moment, the Everest was on training duty, officially to train new crew in starship operations, and in actuality to train over 750 pilots in Mobile Suit piloting.
And guess who was the lucky trainer?
That's right, the Major was.
And he was enjoying it.
"Gundam Mk II, heading out!"
Earth orbit
While the Major and the MS teams were busy training the new pilots, the ships were being repaired and the secrets of the Minovsky-Ionesco reactor were revealed.
The EFSF fleet were training the Alliance in Minovsky particle warfare, where the boys on the other end discovered that their railguns, in training simulations and real life, just weren't hitting the EFSF fleet.
"Damn it! Can't we punch through their jamming field?!"
"Negative, sir! It's just too powerful!"
"This is embarrassing. They're not even putting it out at combat density and we can't hit them!"
Then the Albion, leading the fleet, got closer and opened fire with their mega particle cannons. Shorter range or not, they still packed a punch, and kinetic barriers were useless thanks to Minovsky particle overload. The closest frigate was destroyed by the Eagle, followed by another destroyer. "This is Admiral Sheppard on the Kilimanjaro! We're going down!"
The Ra-Horakhty used her huge number of mega particle cannons to destroy the Everest-Class dreadnought.
"Flagship destroyed. Ending simulation."
The destroyed ships reappeared intact and without damage.
"You guys need to get close in to hit us with those railguns!"
"We know, Lieutenant!"
Maya Futyutsuki, acting captain of the Albion, sighed.
"All hands, stand down. Inform the guys at the shipyard that we're RTB. I've got a list to draft."
She left the bridge, shaking her head all the way out.
Asteroid belt
"Alright, people. This is Major Pinkerton. All you greenhorns think you're so hot because you're fighter pilots. Guess what, kids? MS piloting is a WHOLE new ball game!"
"So what? Your ass is mine!"
The Major smirked.
"Alright, hot shot. This is the Ronald Pinkerton School of MS Piloting. Basically, there's only one rule: you 'die', you stay dead. It's 750 on one, and I'm the one. We start..."
He opened fire on a GM and 'destroyed' it.
"NOW!"
He moved into the asteroid field, dodging beam rounds and angry pilots.
"That's cheating!"
"In MS combat, there is no such thing as fair!"
He bisected another GM, then used an asteroid as a shield.
In true Gundam fashion, the cannon fodder MSs died quickly, and without mercy.
In less then 30 seconds, 50 Mobile Suits were destroyed.
This was a combination of the pilots' inexperience, the Major's ability to read the surroundings and his experience in piloting a MS, the Gundam Mk II Commander Type's cockpit and the idiocy of the fighter pilots, who thought that their skill in a fighter would transfer over to a Mobile Suit.
Some had the skills, but they weren't good enough to deal with the Major.
"Come on, people! Those Neo-Zeon newbies are better then you!"
"We'll show you, you bastard!"
A bazooka-wielding GM tried to destroy the Mk II, but was destroyed in turn by a thrown beam saber to the gut.
The weapons survived, and in typical Pinkerton fashion, he took the bazooka before recovering the beam saber.
More GMs rushed the Major, but the bazooka and beam rifle made his life easier.
"Damn it! Just DIE!"
The Gundam pulled what Full Frontal would pull in UC 0096: long range sniping attacks.
Dozens of GMs were destroyed in the sustained beam attack, forcing the group to break up. "Holy shit!"
The Major looked at the E-Cap.
"One shot, then I need to recharge the damned thing."
Another GM, and this time with a beam saber-the Major smirked happily, knowing someone was taking his lessons to heart-rushed at him. He fired the rifle one last time, hid behind an asteroid as the GM exploded, swapped out the E-Cap and loaded in another while putting the empty one in a charge slot.
Another GM, beam spray gun in hand, opened fire on the Gundam, but the Major simply used the thrusters to dodged the hip-fired rounds.
Really, was it so mush of a pain to use the lock on system?
He decided to fire a bazooka round at the GM.
Clearly the idiot didn't know about the CIWS cannons mounted in the head, as s/he wasted more beam rounds trying to destroy the shell.
"FUCK!"
Scratch that, it was a she.
In less then 90 seconds, the Major had wiped out 150 Mobile Suits, and he hadn't even used Kenny yet!
"This is ridiculous! Are you people even trying?!"
Then he saw the other 600 MSs rushing toward him.
"Wow. This is familiar."
He pulled out the beam magnum.
"Sorry, guys, but that won't work!"
He took aim and fired, the ultra-high-powered shot hit one MS, and as we all now, ultracompact Minovsky-Ionesco reactors are nuclear.
When one MS goes near a lot of them, they ALL go.
"And that, kids, is why you DON'T do that! Simulation's over. All Mobile Suits, RTB."
Everest-Class dreadnought SSV Everest
"Alright, people, let's review what happened out there. Ramirez, you didn't use the Vulcans to destroy that bazooka round!"
"I didn't know they existed, Major!"
"Did any of you perform a systems check before you left? I do! Why do you think I kicked your asses? It's not skill, that's for sure!"
The Major sighed as he pointed out their faults and what they should've done instead.
"You aren't flying fighters. A Mobile Suit is a humanoid machine. You must move the Suit like you move yourself! The GM's legs are your legs. The head is your head. The arms are your arms. Think like a Marine; it'll help."
"Then you should be asking Marines to be piloting these things!"
"I'll be ordering a Marine team to begin training your asses into the ground for this if I have to! We're having another training flight at 0500. You'd better be ready this time."
"What are we doing, sir?"
"Team combat. I'll show you how it works."
Earth orbit
Maya was drafting a list of upgrades for Alliance warships.
The list read as follows: 1. All ships are to carry Minovsky-Ionesco reactors and mega particle cannons. 2. If size permits, minimum of 4 Mobile Suits per ship. (Reason: Earth Federation forces were killed by lack of coverage) 3. Designs for ships of Earth Federation and Zeon origin are to be used if refits prove fruitless.
Those there just three out of 50!
"Lieutenant, Major Pinkerton's on the QEC."
The Albion had received a Quantum Entanglement Communicator during her retrofit when she arrived at Earth. It had received a lot of use.
"Major, what's up?"
"The pilots are complete and total idiots."
"That's universal."
"What I mean is they don't know how to pilot an MS. I killed 750 in 2 minutes!"
"They suck that badly?"
"They bunched up and I fired my magnum at them."
Maya sweatdropped.
"That's not suckage. That's just stupid."
"I can't believe this. My reputation for teaching is at stake!"
Maya raised an eyebrow.
"Major, are you that worried about your teaching skills? These guys don't know a thing about Mobile Suits."
"I can teach the unteachable! It's what I do!"
"Major, you've got time to teach the idiots. I'll send a few of our pilots to help if you want."
"I think you're a better help then any of your pilots."
Maya's brow went higher.
"I know that Mk II's yours."
Maya sighed.
"I haven't piloted it in years."
"No time like the present! And get all of the MS teams here too: I think these guys need a lesson in mass MS combat."
"750 against 240? that's hardly fair."
The Major scoffed.
"You're talking to the guy that wiped out those 750 idiots."
Horsehead Nebula
The Illusive Man was hard to surprise.
It seemed he knew everything.
He didn't see this coming.
"Mobile Suits."
The report from Miranda came with the few files she could get from the Albion's computer: blueprints for the MS-05 and MS-06 Zaku I and II.
She couldn't get her hands on the more dangerous Gelgoog or, even worse, the RX-78 Gundam series.
She sent the specs for the reactors, but he discovered that beam weapons were out of the question: the reactors weren't that powerful.
The reactors were also designed for MSs, not warships, so fitting them to a cruiser was out of the question.
"Send these to the construction teams. I want a squadron of them ready before the end of the month."
Mars
The two fleets arrived over the red planet within a day thanks to FTL technology.
"Alright, people, this is a training exercise: EFSF/Neo-Zeon versus Systems Alliance. The newbies have the advantage of numbers, but we have experience on our side. That, and two Gundams."
The second Mk II, a normal one, flew beside the Commander Type piloted by the Major.
"Roy!"
"Oi!"
"Do it!"
"Aye, sir!"
A track started playing.
"Ace of Spades, bitches! Open fire!" (Play Ace of Spades 1984 version)
Beam rounds from the Jegans, GM IIIs, Gelgoogs, Geara-Dogas and Hizacks, bullets from the Zakus, bazooka rounds from random MSs and the Mk II's beam magnum ripped up the Alliance force.
"Major, they're getting close!"
"Use the skills I've taught you in melee combat!"
As he said that, the Major's Gundam killed a GM as it tried to get close.
"Move out! Albion, you have the deck!"
The Mobile Suits got out of the way as the fleet opened fire on the Alliance warships.
The fight was a retelling of the Battle of Solomon, with Phobos acting as the space fortress itself.
The Alliance learned that it sucked to be the Zeon side of that little battle.
"Alright, people, that's enough. AWACS, count up the kills and RTB."
Stats on RX-178C Gundam Mk II Commander Type
Overall Height: 19.6 meters
Head Height: 18.5 meters
Max Weight: 59.1 metric tons
Standard Weight: 36.4 metric tons
Powerplant: Minovsky Ultracompact Fusion Reactor
Power Output: 3400 kW
Sensor Range: 20200 meters
Accommodation: Pilot only, in panoramic monitor/linear seat cockpit in torso
Armor: Gundarium/Titanium Alloy/Ceramic Composite
Max Acceleration: 2.75 G
Propulsion: Rocket Thrusters: 4 x 23300 kg; Vernier Thrusters/Apogee Motors: 14
Armaments:
2 x XB-G-1048L Beam Saber (fixed)
2 x AEX-VCU608 50mm beam Vulcan cannons (head mounted)
2 x 60mm Vulcans (head mounted)
Optional:
AEX01-BRS14X Veritable Geometry Beam Carbine/Sword
Nu Gundam-type Beam Rifle
Unicorn Gundam-type Beam Gatling Gun
Unicorn Gundam-type Beam Magnum
410mm Hyper Bazooka
Shield
History: The Gundam Mk II Commander Type was built late in the Gryps War, but unused until the middle of the First Neo-Zeon War, when Ronald Pinkerton dusted it off and put it to good use after the lost of his RGM-179 GM II. After the end of the war, Anaheim Electronics modified the MS to a higher standard. In fact, during the end of the Second Neo-Zeon War, the Mk II Commander Type was used to develop weapons for the RX-0 Unicorn in UC 0094. Only one RX-178C was built and the pilot for the only unit is Major Ronald Pinkerton.
AN: One of my Guest Reviewers said s/he couldn't understand my writing style. It's non-contextual, mostly, as I hate using the 's/he said' shit, but at times, you can tell who said what.. The text supplies you with the basic stuff. The rest YOU have to picture: it's what being a reader's all about. And I can't draw comics, so you're out of luck there.
Also, I've adopted an Evangelion story: Somewhere, Someday by Otaku-D Man (I think that's his penname) that I've been busy rewriting to my own standards. This explains my lack of updating.
Next Time on Sword and the Stone: April 2185, and the Albion is testing three newly built Systems Alliance MS carriers in the Terminus Systems when Cerberus comes with two modified cruisers and their CMS-06C Cerberus Zaku IIs.
Ja Ne!
