Mobile Suit Gundam:Vanguard Blitz

by ChoasKnight

In the deepest reaches of space, hundreds of years after the One Year War, man exist only in the deepest reaches of space.In a distant star system, a war has began on the second planet from the sun, the planet call Genesis

10. Chapter 9

Mobile Suit Gundam:Vanguard Blitz

Chapter 9

The haze-gray helicopter appeared black in the hot, clear blue sky, moving only a few feet off the water toward the aircraft carrier ahead.Despite the heat, the heavy noise of the blades and vibrations of the fuselage lulled Colonel Sertiva Ge Orsini to a semisleep that was only kept at bay with determination and force of will.The chopper landed on deck, he could feel the change in the pitch of the engines.He looked out the small porthole and saw two Ra Laspers on deck, surrounded by half a dozen multi-color shirts running to and fro between the aircrafts.

The aircrewman came over to help him out of the rig that took the place of a crash seat.No luxury for military passengers, not even for the sake of safety.Orsini fumble with the seatbelt, grumble about the lack of comfort and then the aircrewman tugged it free;Orsini stood, tried to straighten, felt his body as a clumsy machine, heavy with fatigue.Groggily, he noted the smaller framed Lieutenant Geneda Gily coming into the main cabin, if only he had been smaller framed, he would have ridden in the cockpit.Lieutenant Gily glanced at him with concern.He stared back in mute anger, grabbed his bag and a helmet: a mobile suit pilot's helmet.Gily nodd to him as he passed.

" It was a nice landing," he said.

" The pilot has done this a hundred times and more." Gily replied.

" It was still an above average landing," he shouted, although he tried at the end, failing to reach him over the flight-deck noise and finding the discussion irrelevant to their purpose for being here.

A petty officer from Air Ops poked his head into the fuselage.

" Colonel Orsini?"

" That's me."

"Follow me, sir. The Admiral's awaiting your arrival."

Orsini swore and stepped from the chopper and became like any new arrival; he needed help to cross the deck; his sea legs had left him years ago.He followed around the petty officer, waited in the rush as a TRN-19F powered toward the waiting catapult, while half a dozen others were just sitting there on deck, their flight crews visible in the cockpit.Something was amiss, Orsini turned and followed his guide silently and briskly down the waiting catapult, and followed his guide down a hatch in the lower level that led into the Admirals command bridge.

El Virion was shaken out of his gloomy thoughts by the sound of boots coming up behind him and his operations officer shouting out.Pushing himself off the wall to his front with a foot. he swung his seat around, stopping just as General Aldeno left his desk and approached him with the two Elite Syber Force officers to his back right. He had been informed earlier to expect them and ordered to make them comfortable while they were here; personally he would have prefered to have them shot and thrown overboard and openly denied they had ever arrived.

For a moment no one said anything as El Virion looked the Elite officer over.His ruddy face and pilot's helmet in his right hand and bag in his left told El Virion that this guy was a pilot and was expected to do so.He was about to ask what had brought them here in the middle of the ocean, when the lead Elite barked." I am Colonel Sertiva Ge Orsini and this is my assistant Lieutenant Geneda Gily Elite Syber Force Intelligence Bureau.We're investigating the freighter that brought several new types of mobile suits into BolZie Harbour earlier this morning. I understand there was an operation to capture or destroy those suits.Was it successful."

From his place in front of Orsini and Gily, Aldeno answered quickly." It failed miserably."

Turning to Aldeno, Orsini fixed an angry glare on Aldeno. In a voice that was firm and told Virion that he was not to be taken lightly, Orsini spoke slow and deliberate." Explain."

" Colonel Orsini, as I'm sure you've notice, we are in the midst of preparing for the invasion of Kalaro and the outter islands.The operation at BolZie harbour has already been filed. If you wished to review the report, please do so at your leisure," Virion spoke. The man maybe an Elite Colonel, but he was still just a colonel.

Orsini eyes narrowed, he knew there was no way he could order an admiral to obey his command, not without contacting the Elite Syber Force Supreme Commander himself, so mentally he excepted his defeat, but that didn't mean he would simply give up after getting this far. He nodded at Gily." Gather the reports." Turning to the Admiral." With your permission of course."

El Virion hesitated and finally nodded his head, while turning to Aldeno." See to it that our illustrious guests are given an officers quarters and not to be desturbed."

Saluting crisply. Orsini pivot on his boot heels and turn around, took three steps forward and turned his head back." When does the invasion begans."

" At exactly fifteen-hundred hours...today,"Virion replied, while swinging his chair to face the window as the two elites march out.' First a freighter goes to BolZie harbour, one we never detected or was aware of, that was supposedly carrying new types of mobile suits, then Raden loses an entire squadron against these new suits and suddenly the Defense Counsil wants us to take Kalaro Isle. After I've been waiting three days for those same orders and now the Elite Syber Force is here.Somethings not right, not right at all.'

No matter how much he tried to shake the thought away, Virion suspected there was something else going on. His only concern at the moment was will that something effect his mission to take Kalaro isles. Only time will tell.

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" That old weasel," blurted out Gily the moment they were inside the twin bunked quarters." We're elites, we don't have to take this shit from some fishermen."

" Calm down lieutenant," Orsini ordered, and watched as Gily took a seat on the lower bunk." We're visitors here, let the admiral do as he pleases here.Find out what happen at BolZie."

Gily tilted his head slightly." What exactly are we going to do about those LFA units in Kalaro Isles."

Orsini smiled slightly, not a warm, but a cunning knowing smile." Its time we began making our own moves to end this, while the navy and air force concentrate on taking that island, we'll send some of our people to deal with those LFA units."

" Who do you have in mind," Gily asked, jumping to his feet.

" Not sure yet. The invasions set for fifteen-hundred hours, we'll have to find a unit that can make it here in time. Thats your second task while you gather those reports."

Gily nodded his head, saluted and left the room.

Orsini watched him leave at the corner of his eyes, while his own mind search a seemingly endless list of ESF units operating within range of Kalaro Isles.All of those units of which came to mind, none would get to Kalaro isles before the invasion began, mentally leaving the task of finding an ESF unit to assist in his mission in capturing or eridicating that LFA unit to Gily. He switch his thoughts onto the TMS-19B Gizen (r), somewhere out there is prey lurked, hidden from preying eyes, had the pilot abandone the suit once it had run out of propellant, or was it now in the Foundation hands, their technicians disassembling it as he sat pondering to learn its secrets, he sighed not knowing was a pain in itself." Once we deal with those LFA units on Kalaro Isles, finding you will become our next top priority."

l

Colonel Veoha and Kailyn were interrogating the captured Lupos Stratus pilot; in actuality Veoha was asking the questions, Kailyn simply stood in the far corner and watched, his mind endlessly wondering if he shouldn't have simply shove his Seraph blade into the cockpit and kill this Guild off.The pilot was a young man, no older than twenty, he was shirtless, tied to a chair by a rope that passed under his arms and ended with a knot tying both his hands behind the chair.His face was so swollen that he could not have opened his eyes.Blood from his mouth covered his chin.His body was discolored with bruises from a dozen different hands and fist; not discluding boot heels.One arm hung at an odd angle, apparently dislocated at the shoulder when the Lupos Stratus had crash landed on the ground.

Veoha was asking." What is the composition of your fleet. When is the invasion set to began.Why is the Guild Ministry so interested in Kalaro."

The pilot showed no sign of having heard the questions or merely choose not to speak.

Kailyn shrugged from behind Veoha, suppressing his rage to strangle the Guild.Its was as he had expected.This Colonel and those interrogators an hour earlier were not suited for this task, they were in one word; soft.His mind wondered to the eleven comrads he had left behind; no abandone.All dead now, stave one. He had no intention of reuniting pass training, glories or companionship, those were unnecessary thoughts that would eventually lead to doubts, hesistation or worst of all weakness. It was his weakness that had cause Rouk and Oban to lose their lives and it was his weakness that had allowed that Guild bitch to escape.

If their was one reliable rule of interrogation was that everyone could be made to talk in the end.Veoha and his staff were to patient and acting as if they had all the time in the word.He knew better, the Guild attack on Bolzie was a testament to that, twice in a matter of hours.No they were coming, if not today, then tonight, that much was certain.Kailyn stared at the back of Veoha head.Slowly he began to put himself in a cold mental state.He would need to be completely hard-hearted and calculating.He could not allow himself to be touched by the physical and mental suffering he was about to inflick on this Guild pilot.All that matter was whether it worked.He closed his eyes and felt a profound calm settle over him, a familiar bone-deep chill that he had no idea to this day what cause it.Opening his eyes he looked at Veoha again.

No one could succeed every time, and this was war and when leaders fail, people died.It was a hard fact, but still he still cast about for consolation.He didn't want to do what he had to do, but if this pilot knew anything about the Guild's invasion plans or date, they needed to know as well.Kailyn turned to the door, open it and stuck his head out.The two guards outside turn their heads at once."Get me a cup of salt, a pitcher of milk, and a pitcher of water with icecubes, two thin cloths and two devil pepper."

The guards looked each other and stared back at him, a look of pure confusion across their face." Salt and pepper, sir."

Kailyn nodded and closed the door, and turn to face Veoha." What has he told you."

Veoha looked away embarrassed." Nothing."

Kailyn went to the young pilot just a year or two older than himself." Keep you mouth close for as long as you want, in a few minutes, I'll know what you know and alot more.Want to know the best part, your not going to feel good until you talk."

There was no response.

He turned around at a knock at the door.Finally.The guard was standing outside with his water, milk, cloths, salt and two large red berry-looking peppers. Veoha, coldly furious, ask." What are you planning to do with those."

Kailyn pulled out a chair with his empty hand instead and place the contents on the table slowly, well aware that the prisoner was eyeing each item with confused curiousity, before saying."Please be seated, Colonel."

Veoha was furious at being invited to sit in his own interrogation room, but he decided to let it go and simply watched, the Guild had offered no information, except name, rank and serial number, and had not utter a word since.If this Black Knight could get him the information he desperately wanted, then so be it.

Taking one cloth Kailyn approached the Guild, his eyes following Kailyn, meeting his eyes with a cold emotionless glared, but said nothing as he was blindfolded the prisoner.Satisfied the prisoner wouldn't be able to see what was about to happen, Kailyn poured salt into his hands until it overflowed; the crystals falling free to the concrete floor and without hesitation tilted the Guild head back and when he gasp, stuffed the salt into his open mouth, as through giving powder to a dog and tied the mouth shut. At the corner of his eyes Veoha nearly rose to his feet, ready to stop him but recline himself and remain seated.

The prisoner turned his head right and left, his groans muffled by the cloth, but he was unable to stop himself from writhing in agony, and he was in agony, there was no hiding that, but unfortunately it was just the tip of the iceberg." Did you know that the devil pepper is also a very tasty berry, if prepared right." Kailyn removed the blindfold, the pleading glare he got in return told him the prisoner didn't care about that at the moment, he wanted freedom from his discomfort, but not so badly that he was ready to reveal what he knew.

" Yes indeed, of course no one in their right mind would ever think about taking a bite of one in its unprepared state." The pilot stop squirming for a second; his eyes watered with pain, and Kailyn knew the Guild was getting the picture, slowly, but surely and his eyes widen in painful fright." I've heard some guy actually died trying to disproved that devil pepper can be eaten raw.I've always wanted to see if thats tru." Kailyn tilted his head back to Veoha." What about you Colonel."

Veoha looked up in surprised, shock and confusion." Wha...oh yes. Of course I don't believe that bullshit."

" Guess we'll have to disproved that," Kailyn muttered, slowly placing the pitcher of water on the table, at the corner of his eyes he watched the prisoner following the water with sever interest and lifted up a devil pepper, the prisoner's eyes switched to a pleading stare fulled with muffled moans.Kailyn leaned and looked directly into the prisoner's eyes. Kailyn said softly." Remember, only you can make this stop before we began."

There was pause.Kailyn dipped the devil pepper into the picture of milk and quickly without hesistating, bit and swallowed it without allowing his tongue to graces its reddish oily skin.The Guild eyes bulked in surprise and shooked his head sideways in rapid succession. It was there in his eyes, fear and uncertainty, but most important confusion. Whether it was from the salt in his mouth and lack of water or the fear of forcibly eating a devil pepper, Kailyn didn't know.

Humming while his insides began to burn, Kailyn blindfold the Guild prisoner once again and walked over to the corner of the room, where two steal tipped wooden baton layed, picked up one and moved back towards the prisoner." Just a reminder, your government failed to declared war on Kalaro Isles. Now while you thought you were protected by the Thorian Treaty, I'm afraid your not."

A look of fear run across Veoha face as Kailyn walked to prisoner's right side, then, taking careful aim, struck hard at the Guild's elbow with the steel end of the baton.The prisoner gaved a muffled scream of pure agony ( swallowed a large amount of salt) and shuddered in the chair as he straggled with his restraints.

With careful aim, Kailyn struck at the prisoner's muscles shoulder, then his hand, then his ankle.Kailyn paused between blows, just long enough for the pain to ease a bit and for the prisoner to fear the next strike.The prisoner began a muffled series of appealed and Kailyn removed the cloth around the prisoner mouth and moved aside as the prisoner begged, his salt filled saliva spraying atop the desk." You can't do this, please. Dont do this," he begged, hysterically with pain and fear.Kailyn waited, allowing the begging to continue." Please don't hit me again.," the Guild cried.

Kailyn ignored his plea, for him all he saw was Rouk's blood soaked body and Oban's last moments of agony.This guy was a Guild and the Guild would pay, taking extra careful aim, he swung strongly.The impact on the shin as it broke was loud enough to be heard outside.The prisoner screamed and fainted.Kailyn picked up the pitcher of ice cold water that rested on the table and poured it over the prisoner's face.The prisoner came to and scream again.

Eventually, the scream subsided to heartrendering groans." What do you want from me?" the prisoner implore." Please, tell me what you want from me!"Kailyn didn't ask any questions, but Veoha quickly stood, his chair screeching on the floor." When is the invasion set to began."

The prioner hesitated in between groans and cries of agony and quickly said." At fifteen hundred hours today."

It was a break through.The first question was always the hardest.The rest would followed effortlessly.Concealing his satisfaction, Kailyn nodded to Veoha that he was done here, but got no reply and shrugged as he moved towards the door, his stomach burning uncontrollable.Veoha continued." Who's leading the attack."

" Its..sniff... a joint Navy and Air force operation, but the admiral in charge is Fayle El Virion."

Without a glanced back, Kailyn walked out the room, pass the two guards that suddenly gived him a wide birth and walked outside into the open air.Walking as he rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand, he made it as far as the shrub of trees, before his stomach heaved and his throat poured its contents into the shrubs.

l

The battle had become deadly at the edge of the western sector, where the remnants of two Guild mechanized-rifle companys had taken up defensive positions.On three seperate occasions the 6th Mobile Company had attack the Guilds holding this position, and on the third attempt with elements from the 7th Mobile Company had over come it.The burning wreckages of four Lupus Bs, one tank and three Graves, each littered with dozens of 76mm heavy machinegun rounds, a testament of the vicious fighting still going on, but at a lesser scale than it had been an hour earlier.

But still at ten or so different points, at the south and west, the battles was still raging on at close quarters.In some spot both Guild and LFA units were out of ammunition and were battling with melee weapons.A LFA mobile suit supplied with fresh ammo would arrived on the scene and fire a burst from his 100mm machinegun at the first opportunity, destroying the Guild unit and robbing his comrad of a kill.

A dozen units made up of Thrankas and Lupus Ds suceeded in esaping the base, but their commanders anger at their sudden defeat, change course towards the town of Arnes in hopes of exacting some sort of revenge on the citizens. But Colonel Neral, having expected such a development had long since sent a company into Arnes to prevent this exact thing from happening.

Crouching motionless in squads of threes and fours, the mobile suits of the 5th Mobile Company, waited in defensive positions covering the entire north to west areas of Arnes.They waited until the Guild mobile suits got within two hundred meters, before they open fired.Their weapons spat out tongues of flames.Every now and then a 100mm round would struck a vital area and the Guild mobile suit would exploded into a fireball.

These isolated engagements went on for over an hour.Some small groups which had been force back into the open ground, with no where to escaped surrendered quickly or powered jumped in hopes to escape, but a 'Closer' missile or 310mm bazooka round usually blew them apart in mid-air.

The battle ended at 1332 hours, while the the 8th Mobile Company secured the high grounds fifteen kilometers southwest of Arnes, the remainder Companys deployed a heavy patrol screen that surrounded the town of Arnes and the former Guild base for a dozen kilometers, while the totals losses was counted and the prisoners were secured in one of the unburnt mobile suit hangers.

Only nine Thrankas and six Vosgoves had suceeded in escaping with their troops and would likely reach Unterrem safely.Those were all that remained of the 119th Mechanized-Rifle Battalion, which had spent the last few months parading through the street of Arnes on a daily basis as if they were the king of the land, and keeping a strick curfew that the citizens abide with out of fear more than anything else.Now those very citizens were cheering and making plans for a lengthy celebration long in coming.

Colonel Neral herself could now finally moved about the base now named,' Kuzur base'.A large number of fires was still burning, she saw.The base's fuel dump near the small airstrip was ablazed, but a few five thousand gallon tankers were left untouched,and she saw were guarded by a pair of MTRs.Captain Avik Clor, CO of the 8th Mobile Company met her as she was exiting her Lupus Commander Type.

" Kuzur base is fully secure, Colonel Neral!" he proclaimed.

" What's the casaulty list?"

" We fought hard, but the Guild had numbers on their side as usual and they wouldn't give up.We have twenty-one mobile suits down, and out of those seven can be repaired and be combat capable in forty-eight hours. Seven tanks lost and three MTRs.We're gathering the Guild bodies, we'll place them in a few captured Thrankas and send them to Unterrem with the injured like you ordered within the hour."

" Any of the mobile suits escape?"

" None that we can confirmed, we did captured three Lupus Ds and a shit load of fuel, ammo and spare parts for them."

" Send one Lupus D to Tera Cias base, its almost impossible to capture a Lupus D intact. Our tech guys can learn alot from one." Neral waved her hand to the west." Get some radio and radar transmitters set up, real and fake, SAMs and anti-aircraft battery.I want a command and control tower setup in the north, west, and south perimeters, and one in Arnes. One Mobile Company per tower.Colonel Lotus and the 5th Tank Battalion are on their way here, make sure your people have the fuel points set-up as per plan. As of this moment Kuzur base is now our secondary logistical and support base, so get it cleaned up and organized."

Captain Clor nodded saluted and began barking orders to a collection of loosely dress soldiers, who immediately began scurrying about once their orders had been receive.

Neral walked back to her Lupus Commander Type amidst grins and cheers. Fourteen mobile suits out of commission permanently. She had predicted a higher lost than that and was silently greatful she was wrong, there just wasn't enough MS in the LFA arsenal to go around replacing lost MS at will. It could take weeks before replacement mobile suits were given to the 3rd Battalion.Thankfully the three captured Lupus Ds and two squads from Tera Cias would cover the gaps left by the fourteen lost ones.

When the Lupus Commander Type strodded to her command post, Neral exit the cockpit and went directly to where Maj. Ditzel and her operation officer sat reading through the reports.

" Everythings ahead of schedule. We have enough Guild mobile suit weaponary, ammounition and fuel to carry us forward until a proper supply line is setup. Reports from Tera Cias is that the operation across the Foundation border was a completes success, those units will be within striking distance of Unterrem city by seventeen hundred hours."

Neral thought hard on that.Unterrem was now easily an hour away at a tanks maximum ground speed of 95 kph, which gived her three hours before the next phase of the operation was set to begin and to fully secured Kuzur base, and have defensive countermeasures in place.But her instincts told her she didn't have three hours, if she was the Guild commander in Unterrem, she would launch an attack as quickly as possible to retake Kuzur base." Damn it. Send word to Lotus to get here as quickly as possible and assemble the company commanders.We maybe having company sooner than we thought."

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Colonel Tunados Brium, commanding the 114th Guards Regiment and the operational sector of Unterrem, heard about the attack at Safovis base less than two minutes after leaving the conference room of his H.Q after two hours of an endless cycle of briefing, reports and requests, and at the end of it all, he got none of what his regiment desperately was in need of.

He merely sucked in his teeth and demanded more information as he march to his office on the top floor; which was the fourth floor of the Governor's House in Unterrem city.The Colonel's aid immediately run off to gather information, leaving Colonel Brium and his XO Major Serena Alcova to sit alone in the office. Maj. Alcova poured herself and the Colonel two ceramic cups of the steaming hot coffee and took a seat across the desk and turned to face him." An attack at Safovis base, thats near Arnes, the 119th is there aren't they.They can handle it."

Brium took a sip of coffee, savoring the strawberry like flavor for a moment, before placing the cup on the table." Arnes."

He stood and went, with his fists on his hips, in front of the huge map marked with red and blue lines which stretched across the end of his office. He had no idea where Arnes was from memory and took a minute to find the markings of the 119th MRB and his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets at the distance from Unterrem to Arnes, just as someone knock outside his door and his aid, Lieutenant Nister Corel entered with a note pad of hastily written notes.

" Safovis base and Arnes has fallen."

Alcova jumped to her feet." What do you mean Safovis base has fallen, there's an entire battalion station out there. It would take a large force to take on Safovis base and there hasn't been a report of a large enemy force in the area."

" We've lost all communication with Safovis and Arnes, from the reports we're getting from the survivors currently on there way here. It was a large force, at least battalion strength," Corel answered.

Brium paced up and down his office. He was thinking:

" Who are they, they can't be Deikumians.How can a battalion size force assemble without us knowing about, intelligence really screwed up this time.No matter, they're at Arnes and must be dealt with swiftly, but carefully.If they can take out an entire battalion in so short a time, they must be well armed and have already considered engaging our forces as a possible outcome."The colonel, still striding up and down the room, found himself in front of a large photograph of a young girl in a military uniform which was hung behind his desk.

Alcova sat slowly in the chair and drum her fingers across the desk." It'll take time to assemble the troops, atleast an hour. Even longer to gathered proper intelligence. How do we proceed."

Brium stared at the map, his eyes tracing the contour lines and his mind calculating.It was years since he had personally commanded an attack element into battle." Fall in the whole regiment.We move off in one hour.Full load of ammo and fuel, but leave two mechanized-rifle company and one support company behind to maintain a presence in Unterrem. We'll take the second along with us.Seperate the remaining units into three mechanized-rifle company elements.One element will proceed to Arnes with the intention of recapturing and securing that location.Another element will moved directly northeast towards Safovis base and began a diversionary strike.I'll take command of the third element and combat drop forty kilometers west of Safovis and move in to capture Safovis base."

" What do we tell the divisonal commander," Alcova asked." Its only a matter of time before he finds out that Safovis and Arnes felled under our watch."

" One reason we must retake those positions as quickly as possible.I will not be considered an incompetent field commander." Brium slumped into his seat." We'll need air support and lots of it, what do we have available at our disposal."

" I know the sqaudron commander at Opan AFB, he's an old friend from the academy days.With your orders I can request a sqaudron of Y-18Ds for ground support," said Alcova.

" How soon."

" No more than an hour.He'll want details and credit, when we succeed of course."

Brium contemplated if he needed anything else for the upcoming engagement and came up blank.Clicking on the vid-screen to his operations officer, he began barking orders as Brium and Corel exit his offices to began preparing six of eight mechanized-rifle companys and one support company for rapid deployment into the field.

Unfortunately Brium had one major problem he was well aware of.Half his troops were fresh out the academy, who practice twice, maybe three times a month, saw little to no action.Everything they knew about mobile suit warfare was written in books and more often than not their instructors fail to warn them of the human side of the equation.Humans rarely acted the way you wanted them to, his current circumstances did not allow for a perfect operational plan; that would require time and intelligence, he had neither the former or the latter.His enemy was there at Safovis he knew that much, waiting, even plotting their next move.Full blooded combatants no doubt, his own troops were fresh out the oven bread that could easily crumble at the first sighting of artillery fire.

He just hope they held together long enough to carry out their mission, a failure here meant death and not always by the hands of the enemy.

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" There's no way!!" snorted ESF Captain Stillen Ve Ohal, Captain of the Miska class medium sized mobile suit atmosphere carrier, and operations commander of the 7th Light Recon Squadron, code-named Requiem, Velcuz Squadron." My team's been airborne for almost two weeks now sir, we're due some leave in sixteen hours sir."

That was a bold face lie he knew, that would have easily landed him a date with a firing squad; had he been with the regular arm forces, but he wasn't.He was Captain Ohal, a member of the Elite Syber Force and he was beyond such danger.His team was more than fully rested.Standing orders gave them eight hours of sleep, an eight hour shift, six hours on standby, which also consitutes as ship and mobile suit maintenance period and two hours of personal time per day--like the true Elites that they were, their routine were constantly changing if only to suit their mission requirements.But as long as his team was going to be assign another reconnaissance or mundane patrol mission, his team would be in need of that upcoming leave.

" These orders came directly from the Defense Council themselves," said the voice of Colonel Orsini from within the built in communication screen and cockpit speakers, as Ohal leaned forward over the comm.officer's right shoulder." Proceed to the Isles of Kalaro immediately."

Biting his lip in frustration, Ohal slowly admitted defeat; an order from the Defense Council was as good as one directly from the Supreme Commander of the Elite Syber Force himself, it was not an order to refuse or question. Ohal turned his head towards the navigational officer, who was also the co-pilot of the ESF atmospheric attack carrier El Nino, the young officer immediately punched in the coordinates and brought up a highlighted map of an oval shape island on one of the communication officer's sub-monitors.

" What the..You want us to recon a piece of rock," Ohal asked flustered and angry. This was worst than his last assignment.

" This is no recon operation, captain," Orsini said, allowing the words to sink in for a moment as Ohal eyebrows arc upwards." This is a surgical strike to assist the air forces Eighty-fourth AirBorne Division in capturing Fort Nirka base of Kalaro Isles. But your primary mission is to locate and if possible captured at least one mobile suit of the Lucan Freedom Alliance currently hold up at that location.Our information confirms there are at least three, but one is all we require.Once Fort Nirka has been secured by the eighty-fourth, you can continue on your previous course."

" What kind of opposition are we looking at," Ohal asked, he was more than interested in this new assignment, but also very cautious, he had no intention of losing a member of his team on an unexpected operation." In terms of air and ground threats."

" No air threat, the Buchus Battle group has complete air supremacy. Anti-aircraft threats will be minimum at best, even now as we speak the admiral and his battle staff are preparing a massive air-strike to reduce that threat by another forty percent. Two air-motor rifle companys and a mechanized-rifle company from the marine amphibious unit will also be attacking Fort Nirka, with a Gritz class battleship providing artillery support.I'm also working on additional air asset, but those will be coming directly from Senna air force base."

' Three rifle companys, a battleship and other air assets.' That surprised Ohal--and worried him.Just what kind of threat would he be putting his team and the Elite Syber Force's four hundred million dollar aircraft into.

Orsini leaned back, away from the communication screen." There's a high chance the battle group will send in the amphibious landing force before you arrived, which should reduce the ground threat, but also eliminate the possibility of you completing your primary mission.We need one of those mobile suits captured as intact as possible, the pilot alived preferably, but not necessarily needed.These are new machines Ohal, as advance as the Lupus X.We need to know who built them and how many.The Buchus Battle Group begans its air-strike at exactly fifteen hundred hours, its landing force is expected to land within an hour later.The code word is Firestorm.Vellano out."

" Can we get to Kalaro isles ahead of the landing force."

Sergeant Calcom punched in a few keys on the keyboard, before answering." No doubt about it, at max speed we can be in Kalaro's airspace before the landing troops. Right behind the air-strike."

" Take us in at max speed." Ohal ordered, taking his place on the Captain's chair, overlooking the small bridge.

He brought out a topographical map of Kalaro isles on his arm chair monitor and examined it closely.The island was 198.4 kilometers in length and 79.5 kilometers wide. The land was flat in many areas, with several hills, tall trees and thick bushes.Lots of places to hide a SAM battery, but he had no intention of combat dropping right on top of Fort Nirka; that would be suicide.Plus, while his MS could handle such a high altitude drop, he highly doubt the other four could.He would have to land somewhere far and safe, preferably not to far from where the marine landing forces would be coming in; he would have to get that information as soon as possible.The El Nino was more than capable of providing a constant air support to the ground forces, with its two twin barrel 60mm cannons on each side, two six tube multipurpose missile launchers mounted under each wing and its compliment of 50 gravity bombs, it was not an aircraft to be taken lightly; but he had no plans to put the atmospheric attack carrier in potential mortal danger if he could avoid it, with only five Miska class currently in service, he would not be the first ESF commander to incur heavy damage on his aircraft and become a laughing stock of the ESF. He glanced at his wristwatch, it was 1355 hours.Already a plan was taking shape in his head.

The cockpit door leading to crew quarters and the mess hall to his back left open with a low hiss, First Lieutenant Lama Dale, CO of Team Requiem, walked to the right side of Ohal chair in two easy steps. He snapped to attention and saluted crisply." How long before we're home, sir."

" Your just in time lieutenant. Plans have change, we've been ordered to proceed to Kalaro's isles to join the Eighty-fourth Airborne Division in its invasion."

" I see," Dale said moving in closer to view the monitor, he was tall, black, and powerfully built, with cold, fiery dark eyes." I'll have Chief Bostev download what info we have into the simulator and run a few test. Get a real feed for the environment."

" Not enough time, we land in less than two hours.

" But, sir--two hours.Isn't this kind of short notice, we have no idea o--

Ohal suddenly interrupted, his voice hard." I'll be taking command of the team for this operation.Go inform Chief Bostev to get my Lupus X combat ready and be quick about it.Bring my team when you get back, we'll began laying out our plans."

" Sir, your the operations commander, I am the teams commanding officer, its unpractical and unneccessary for you to lead an asssult..

" Your relieve of your command until this operation has reach its conclusion.You can still take part in this operation if you so choose too, but, even so, remember that I am in overall command of the team on this mission. Is that clear."Ohal said coldly.

He was bluffing.He had no right to make such a decision.But he knew that the majority of the twenty-one crew onboard the El Nino would support and follow him, for to them he was the captain.The MS pilots may take the side of Dale, but none would ignore a combat operation.Not when they had spent weeks doing nothing but reconnaissance on Kazan's Regent Fleet's patrol movements and defense pattern.

Dale hesitated.Ohal heard the popping of his knuckles.Was he going to strike a superior officer.Such an act would be considered treason, but the trial would never get as far as prison: the traitors were shot.The ESF handle its own accounts and did not allow the law to intervene.Dale heaved a deep sigh, as through he was expelling all the air in his lungs, then saluted and scuttle out of the bridge to the door leading to the MS hanger at Ohal back right.He had excepted the change in command and obeyed.

A savage joy overcame Ohal.It was akin to the violent pleasure derived from possessing a woman against her will, or the breaking in of a stallion.He had just brought Dale to heel, as he had done Kerina so many years ago.

The memory of her body made him tremble against the leather seat, and at the same time he felt completely bereft and wanted to be sick.

" Sergeant once we know the exact landing area of the amphibious units. I want you to find a spot to land this bird within ten klicks of their LZ.Pilot give me a constant heads-up on our ETA to our objective," Ohal said, turning to the comm.officer to his right." Inform Chief Bostev to have Kerina at her best, this will be her first taste of battle after all.I don't need her being such a bitch.Then get me Colonel Vellano on the Buchus."

The communication officer chuckled and gived him a thumbs-up." You got it sir."

l

For exactly thirty minutes the airstripes of Senna Airforce base were empty.All around men scurried about, receiving commands down dozens of radio channels; planes were fueled, minor repairs given, ordance were loaded, checked for weight, released and then rolled to there designate airstrips.

The first to left off was a single AWAC, the long range eyes of the aircrafts preparing to launch.It rosed forty thousand feet above the ground and at a set altitude radioed a predetermine code-word; once its powerful radars had determine that their was not an enemy aircraft within two hundred miles in all direction.Almost immediately four squadrons of twelve TR-19Ds Laspers took to the air and seperated into sixteen flights of four aircrafts and remain circling overhead, waiting for the precious cargo they had sworn to protect less than an hour earlier.Before the last flight of Laspers had moved into an aerial position over Senna air force base, four AT-31s took to the air and immediately behind them, sixteen CT-30Cs rosed slowly, heavily loaded with there cargo.

Once off the ground the CT-30Cs, each loaded with three fully armed and loaded mobile suits of the 84th Airborne Division formed up into a square formation of four seperate flights of four CT-30Cs, one AT-31 and twelve TR-19D Laspers covering a hundred mile radius, before their slow turn face them southeast towards the LaGrange Ocean on one of a dozen flight paths prepared for them an hour ago.Weeks of preparations, studies and simulations had boil down to a seventy minute flight time.

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Like all members of the Guild Army's 114th Guards Regiment, the young soldiers of 13th Mobile Rifle Company, 117th Mechanized-Rifle Battalion considered them selves the best of the best.This, of course, was due to the efforts of their officers and sergeants, all professionals who were forever vigilant, watching, checking, and ready to correct even the slightest infraction of the regulations or slackness.They took their duties seriously.Which was probably why no one had spotted their company commander, Captain Rilius Revfrem for several minutes as the platoon commanders were deeply involved in the company's final inspection.

As was his way, Revfrem had come forward alone to watch the final preparations and see his men across the line of departure for their very first taste of real combat.Known as the Hardcase, Revfrem made it a practice to move about during exercises in the field checking on his men and ensuring that all was in order.Now that his company had been call on to execute an operation it had trained three times a week, every week for the last two months for, Revfrem was confirming that all was well.

When one of the platoon sergeants noticed Revfrem, he passed the word to his team commander.When the word reached Lieutenant Cassau Felinka, he paused, then continued to complete the inspection of the Lupus D that knelt before him.Finished, he nodded to the pilot of the mobile suit and left to present himself to Revfrem along with three other MS team commanders.

" There hasn't been enough time to assemble enough information on who or how exactly Safovis base fell.What we do know is the force is at least battalion strength with never before seen MS and some or our very own MS, no doubt those that vanish wthout a trace during the last few months. But that should not deter you," Revfrem began." Our enemy is there, hiding and no doubt shaking in fear. We the thirteenth mobile rifle company, will move into Safovis base and remove the enemy quickly. Is that clear."

He slowly contemplate if launching a rapid assault without any real intelligence on the enemy was a good idea.Enemy depositions, mobile weapons, tactics and maneuvers were unknown and he was about to hurl sixteen MS pilots into that unknown.Glancing down at his watch, and impatient to began the operation immediately, the lieutenant asked if there was anything else.Without responding at first, Revfrem looked at the young lieutenant for severals seconds and then the others in order to refocus his mind on the situation at hand.Unable to bare sending his troops into the unknown, Revfrem simply shook his head; it was not his choice.With an expressionless face, Revfrem replied." No, there is nothing else. You have your orders. Began operation Safovis Light."

Satisfied that there was no change in the plan, Lieutenant Cassau Felinka ran up towards his Lupus S, while waving his hand to hurry the Felinka Team into their own MSs.With the sound of the rest of 117th Mechanized-Rifle Company already beganning their move northeast, Felinka knew he didn't have much time to get his team into their designated area of operation.Looking at his watch it wasn't even fourteen hundred hours yet, Felinka wondered if three Mobile-Rifle Company support by a Tank company would be enough to occupied the enemy's full attention, while Colonel Brium move in for the kill from the west.The noise of tracked vehicles and heavily ladden supply trucks rolling on ahead told him that that they had no choice but to do their best and reap the rewards afterwards.Of course this whole operation, from the moment they had had rolled out of the battalion headquarters to the receipt of the orders that had place them on the outskirts of Unterrem city at there staging area, while the rest of the battalion were shuffling north and east, had been fast pace. What, he had ask his platoon sergeant, exactly was commander Brium thinking.

Across the line, the sixteen MSs of 13th Motor-Rifle Company mono-eyes flash to life almost simulthaneous.With the objective less than an hour away at their MS maximum ground speed and of little trouble of getting mixed in with another MS team and adding to some commander's confusion on their match forward, Felinka's Lupus S walked the line ahead and shouted to his soldiers on the Team's to hurry up and move on.

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As the last tank of the 5th Tank Battalion, 1st Erin Sol Bridage, pass the east side of Kuzur base, Colonel Lotus and his tactical command post entered the town of Arnes from the west amidst cheers and whistles forming on both sides of the streets.Mentaly happy to see his countrymen cheering, but subconsciously Lotus was anxious to complete his part of the plan and link up with the rest of the 5th Tank Battalion.The three GR-81, two MTR armored personnel carriers, and one MTR modified into a command post wasn't ordinarily much in the way of offensive firepower at first glanced.In a pinch, against anything larger than a MS team, the best Lotus could hope for was a soldiers death; if they were the normal set of military vehicles that they appeared to be.

Looking first to his right and then to the left to assess that the small platoon was in formation and moving ahead at preplanned speed.Satisfied, Lotus looked down to his left, he watched his XO, Major Kasban Thurman for a moment.Standing upright in the loader's hatch of Lotus GR-81 main battle tank, Thurman was leaning over his folded arms that rested on the flat face of the loader's 7.62mm machine gun while he looked to the front, keeping track of where they were going while watching for any sign of the rest of the battalion.Like Lotus, Thurman was wearing a cotton tee shirt and an armored crew's helmet.A high-powered field glasses on a string wrapped around his neck.Like every true blooded Lucanite who had travel with or within an armored vehicle and face the seering heat of eastern Lucan, both Lotus and Thurman had as little clothing as possible without being stark naked and still maintain the ablilty to function.

Thurman's desire to be up front where he could see what was going on had led him to plead and beg Lotus from the moment they had left Tera Cias base until Lotus had finally conceded.Lotus relied heavily on Thurman opinions and insights in the planning of his strategies amd having is XO at the front instead of the back in the command post would reduce the needed to communicate by at least several minutes; not to mention having a second pair of eyes that were as keen as his own wasn't bad either.

But at that very moment those very keen set of eyes were glancing from a map to the surrounding area, and back again.Finally after several minutes of this, Thurman popped inside the tank and vanish out of sight.

Looking down to his left as the small stocky form of Thurman disappeared, Lotus frowned and glanced back towards Arnes.The small town was easily a dozen kilometers away now and growing smaller by the minute, Lotus then twisted slightly in his open hatch until he faced his back right to make sure that the MTRs were keeping up.In his desire to get behind Unterrem in haste it was easy to forget about the slower, heavily burdened carriers.He was about to key his intercom switch to order the driver to slow down so that the rest of the command post could catch up when Thurman, in a voice that was confused, yet clear and concise, cut Lotus off." We're on the right track, but I don't see the fourth armored troopers tanks or their tracks anywhere."

Snapping his neck about, Lotus instantly focus on the trail ahead of them and the surrounding landscape for the telltail signs of GR-81 and MTR tracks on the same path his tank was on.While his own mind automatically flipped through a mental map of the 4th Armor Troopers direction of travel; unless those ten tanks and four MTRs manage to somehow fly over this trail, they had not pass here." Where the fuck did they go."

Thurman's replied sent a chill down Lotus spined." Guild Lupus-type mobile suit to the front, six hundred meters!"

With that warning out, Lotus's training as a tank commander took over.With a single seamless order, Lotus shouted directions to his three tank platoon in the form of an engagement command that did not come out as clear and concise as he would have liked.But that didn't seem to make a difference as the crew, including Thurman, responded to each element of the command." DRIVER STOP! MTRs FALL BACK ONE HUNDRED METERS! ALL GUNNERS--BATTLE SIGHT--MOBILE SUIT. A.M.T FORMATION PATTERN DELTA V.

The gunner, already alerted to the presence of an enemy by Thurman's acquisition report, had ease up on the throttle and was prepared to continue or stop when Lotus issued his fire command.With measured practice that took several months of intense training under Lotus watchful gazed to perfect, the driver eased up on the brake, bringing the massive tank to a smooth stop.Fifty meters to his front left and right, the two other GR-81s eased into formation at a faster rate of speed than when done in training.

The gunner, lulled into a state of sleep, had also been jerked to life by Thurman's warning.By the time Lotus uttered his first word, the gunner had his eye on the primary sight, and the thermal sight switched from standby to on.Months of training overrode any panic.Instead, his hand moved across the face of the primary sight's controls and knobs, ensuring by the feel alone that all was ready to engage the target.Though Lotus had announced battle sight, the gunner intended to range to the target using the laser ranger finder intergrated in the primary sight.In fact, the gunner didn't have to think twice about that as his right thumb automatically twitched and depressed the laser range finder button on the top of the gunner controls.This action caused the 120mm main gun to jump as the computer received automatically the correct range to the target, computed a proper ballistic solution to the tank's fire-control system, all done before Lotus had finish spitting out the last word of his fire command.

Thurman, steeled for action before anyone else, had dropped to the turret floor and plopped himself down on the seat he had been standing on.Reaching across, Thurman grabbed the long, crooked arm that served to arm the tanks main gun as well as deflect the wide base plate of the expended main gun rounds into the container hanging from the gun's breech.Finished with that, Thurman pulled his whole body over to the side to escape the recoil of the main gun and hung on to the handles as he had learnt.

As he sat there watching Lotus in the dim green light of the turret, he pondered whether he should ask what round Lotus wanted to load next but decided not to. Lotus mind, he knew, was busy contemplating various decision making process.Thurman knowing that they were facing a mobile suit, would load a high explosive anti-tank round next, once the APFSDS-anti-tank round already in the gun's chamber was fired.He would have to remember to announced that to the gunner so that he could change the ammunition selection lever on the primary sight and allow the fire-control computer to provide a new ballistic solution.But that was easy and worth the effort.

If there was any indication that there was more than one Lupus D, Lotus didn't see it.They were committed to taking Unterrem and one or more MS in front of him would not deterr his plan.Although he inwardly confess that three tanks up against a team of four mobile suits would be a one sided battle if he wasn't careful.After all, not only was the most critical locations of a mobile suit out of his tank's main gun's reach, his tanks rate-of-fire was much, much less than a 76mm heavy machinegun.But that was where his new tried and tested Anti-Mobile Suit Delta V formation came into play.While one tank's rate of fire was to slow, three tanks would more than make up for that slight defectiveness.But there was still a mobile suit's ground mobility and powered jump capability to contend with, and those were the areas Lotus had thought long and heard about.After six weeks of trial and errors, he had found a mobile suits Achilles heel when face with main battle tanks.

After a minute of contemplating, Loutus houted." LOADER! ARE YOU UP?"

Thurman, realizing his error, shouted," UP," then silently cursed himself for being so stupid.

Lotus radio in had, shouted," All tanks fire, and fall back twenty meters. MTRs you know what to do,do it like we practice, no screw ups."Three gunners responded with." ON THE WAY" just before they pulled the triggers and the drivers immediately reverse throttle and moved the tanks back twenty meters while keeping formation.

The first engagement of the 5th Tank Battalion was over before the last of the reverberation from Lotus tank had died away.Like giant darts, those depleted uranium penetrators sliced through the armor plate of the left leg of the Lupus D.Thurman's doubts that the round would not be sufficient was only partially correct, as the depleted uranium penetrator, punch a chunk of the Lupus Ds left leg's own armor plating in front of it and out the other side.The tremendous heat created by the transformation of the penetrator's kinetic energy into heat upon contact with the Lupus Ds lower left leg set off the six hundred pounds of thruster propellant, blowing of its left leg by the knee joint, immobilizing the suit, but other wise intact and still as dangerous, but now its critical parts was fair game and Lotus gunner didn't wait for a fire command from Lotus.He simply pulled the trigger and blew a chunk of armor plating around its torso, the two GR-81s quickly followed suit, immmolating the suit in a blink of an eye with HEAT rounds.

With the Lupus D dealt with, Lotus now had to make a series of quick decisions.They were relative to his rank, and position, rather simple decisions.But that didn't make them any less critical.Knowing full well that Guild MS don't travel alone.Lotus knew there was more somewhere nearby, if not immediately behind the one he had just destroyed, which he suspected was a scout, because it had made no attempt to engage them.But that short engagement was a signal as any could be that they were here.

The cry of " LUPUS Ds--3 OF THEM--ELEVEN O'CLOCK," followed rapidly by." FIRING FIRING," caught Lotus by surprise but not for more than a second.

Instinctively he looked up to his front left and saw the three Lupus Ds weaving right and left as they tried to closed the distance between themselves and the tanks and get within weapons range.A predictable tactic." Now." Within a blink of an eye all three GR-81 main battle tanks vanish behind a cloud of white smoke that spewed out from their exhaust while firing their cannons.

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The Guild MS team commander was surprised at the speed with which the tanks reacted.Almost as one, the tanks had turned and began to blow huge clouds of white smoke from their engines.The tanks began to weave about and firing.But that didn't matter, they were just tanks and three tanks was no match for three well armed mobile suits.

Leveling his 76mm machinegun, the team commander fired a burst into the cloud of smoke, mentallly hoping his tracers hit at least one tank, while his team-mates skidded right and left and closed in on the white clouds of smoke. This would be a cinch, but to his surprised the left Lupus D jerked back suddenly, was bathed in a shower of sparks, collapsed to the ground and began to spew clouds of black smoke, its head and torso bursting into flames.That surprise quickly turned to shocked as the Lupus D moving on the right flank, blew spark from its left hand as it was blown cleanly off and the commander, skidded his Lupus D to a stop and powered jump back a hundred meters as his team-mates Lupus D right leg was blown wide open below the knee joint, it collasped and a second later a high-velocity tracer round punch a neat hole in its torso.

' What's going on...two mobile suits just like that,' the commander staggered step his Lupus D backwards, frighten and worried mixed.His Team, the Walthos Team had been ordered to watch and report on any enemy flanking movements and report back, but the sight of three tanks and three MTRs was too good an opportunity for an easy kill score to pass up, by the time he had issued commands to engage, Sergeant Helna Uvis had felled victim to there main cannon.No surprised, there was little to no minovsky particles in the area and the tanks fire control systems was as deadly as there own Lupus Ds, her death was explainable.But Private Bannon and Private Sitom had been on top of those tanks and there's no way those tanks could have elevated their main cannons high enough to strike a vital area of those Lupus Ds.

Walthos mind told him there was more to it and it was best to retreat for now. Then he saw one Lucan GR-81 main battle tank with a large antenna emerging from the smoke cloud.He fired a burst of his 76mm heavy machine from a distance of a hundred and thirty meters and watched through his main screen as his tracers bounce harmless off the tank's thick frontal armor. He would have to get closer and used his higher height to punch down through the tank's lighter top armor. But two more appeared tanks, and took position on right and left of the commander's tank and drove ahead firing alternatly.

Swearing, Wathos skidded backwards another ten meters and leapt clear of the tracers, while watching the ground exploded into dust near his Lupus Ds right feet from the near-hits and it hit him." They're trying to destroy my legs.Of course, sneaky son of bitches.Time to leave." Suddenly, without any warning the ground in front oh him burst into fire, dirt and smoke as he walked backwards, the force from the explosion pushing his mobile suit back hard and on its back.

Shocked speechless, but alive, Wathos kicked his mobile suit to its feet using its thrusters and looked first at the commander's tank and then at each individual tank through the recticule as they closed in firing, something clearly was amiss.Then his eyes snapped open and he shifted his Lupus D mono-eye in the direction of the MTRs, that until now he had been unconcern about and watch as two round objects appeared, growing larger and leaving no exhaust trails.The impact of both high yield TOW-HEAT guided missiles came before Wathos could react and impact his Lupus Ds torso armor, toppling the suit over.A searing pain shot through Wathos body told him he needed to get out of his Lupus D.There was no real conscious thought.He didn't feel the pain or comprehend everything that had happened in the few seconds it took him to pop the hatch and pull himself out of the torso.Nothing registered.No pain, no thoughts.Not even when he rolled off the torso, hit the left arm, and bounced off it like a rag doll and onto the ground did he understand what he was doing.He blindly stagger and run towards the woods, mouth screaming as his Lupus D tore itself apart behind him.

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For a moment there was almost total silence at Lotus's position.It was a dull, numb silence that comes after you endured prolonged exposure to a deafening noise.The sudden firing of machine gun alerted Lotus to the fact that the battle wasn't over.He watched as a stream of tracers struck short, then walked a line into the Guild Lupus pilot trying to escape into the woods.As soon as the firer found the range, he let go a long burst into the center of the pilot's back.While some rounds kicked up dirt, a few found their mark, causing the Guild to plop down.

For a moment he thought of ordering the firing to stop.But it was already to late, the pilot was dead and so was their chance of gaining any sort of real intelligence about the Guild strength at Unterrem.Lotus switched his intercom back on." Ten minutes to resupply. MTR unit, well down.Get those launchers rearm as soon as possible."

If there was one thing Lotus had learned was that Guild mobile suits rarely went after MTRs, they prefer to deal with the deadlier tanks first and then moved in on the easy kills the MTRs afforded.With that single knowledge he had one or more MTRs with every tank platoon, while the tanks draw the mobile suits full attention, the modified MTRs with the antitank guided missile launcher mounted on a small turret, simply waited in the back, out of harms way; but well in range of its 3200 meters ( 1000 meters in a minovsky particle environment) medium-range tube-launched,optically-tracked, wire-guided-high explosive anti-tank guided missiles, or TOW-HEAT guided missiles, that were heavily modified to show no exhaust trails and as little heat as possible, which made it hard to spot until it was almost to late.

" Four mobile suits down," Thurman said with a cheerful grin as the tanks crew threw away empty shell casings and replace them with fresh ones from the two MTRs, while the MTR grews brought out six five gallon fuel canisters and began refeuling the tanks.

Lotus and Thurman snapped their heads back towards the southwest as a crash and rumble like distant thunder rolled over them.They could only see the trees and beyond those a hill.But neitherman needed to see to know what that distant noise was.The endless chain of distant crashes and rumblings, caused by dozens of guns, could only be the LFA preparatory bombardment on the Guild's forward positions.

Lotus snappped his wrist up to his face to glanced at his watch. Its was 1415 hours. The artillery elements of the 5th Tank Battalion had orders to begin artillery bombardment at exactly 1415 hours.Followed by the spear-head attack of the 1st and 5th Armored Troopers, supported by a MS team from the southwest at 1420 hours, while the 2nd and 3rd Armored Troopers attacked from the west at 1425 hours.Leaving the 4th Armored Troopers to come around and attack from the northeast at 1430 hours.

It was a near perfect tree prong attack seperate by fives minutes.He just hoped the combat units of Jalen company, which was reported to him earlier got to Unterrem and hit the Guild's northern flank at 1800 hours as was expected and made it a four prong attack.That alone would stretch the Guild lines and open a breach they could exploit if his battalion hadn't by then.

" Rearm and refueling's done." Thurman said.

" We're twenty minutes behind schedule," Lotus said signaling to the tank driver."Make haste and lets get to Unterrem city."

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" This is..." Kailyn glanced at the mission form and then back at Colonel Veoha as he sat behind his desk, with a sadden look on his face." You do know, no one has ever even attempted to pull something this stupid off."

" I'm aware of that. Its never been done before, because no one has ever had the opportunity to try it before."

' For good reason too, its a suicide mission.Who in their right mind would want to tangle with one of those things one on one,' Kailyn glanced back at the form he held, it was a tempting target to." Its alone and with no support."

" From what the Lupos Stratus pilot said, yes. It's the driving force behind the units being sent to Fort Nirka. We take it out and our chances to repel the Guild attack increase by at least thirty percent," Veoha said leaning over slightly, his eyes burning to Kailyn's." I can't order you to do this directly, being a Black Knight in all.This has to be your choice, but eliminating this obstacle will save alot of lives. Do you accept this mission."

' And end mines. Krill, this so call obstacle has more armor and offensive firepower than a mobile suit and twice as dangerous," Kailyn alternated between looking at the form and outside the window contemplating.' I should have argued to stay in space. Why'd Deleuz and Breton had to send us to this hell hole.Dozens of planetary systems out there and we get shipped off to this backwater world.They can't even build or research particle base weapons because of that Thorian Treaty. And now mom's somewhere out there doing who knows what and Krause's now an alcoholic. Now I'm suppose to take out a target that might as well be a Praetorian Empire's Estren class heavy cruiser using a mobile suit thats five hundred years below the technology ladder.I am so fucked." I accept."

" I'm glad to hear that Lieutenant. I would wish you luck, but your the best man for the job and if anybody can do it. I'm positive it would be you."

' Sure, put more pressure on me.If I'm lucky I'll last all of ten seconds." Kailyn saluted as someone knock the office door to his baack left and his head tilted at the sound.

" Ahh my next guest has arrive.That'll be all Lieutenant," Veoha rosed and nodded at the door." Try not to get kill will you."

Krill, as if,' Kailyn open the door and stared into the brown eyes of one of the LFAs pilots currently residing at the base; he stared as his mind search. If his memory served, this younger guy was the team commander.He shrugged and walked pass, he had things to do and not that much time in order to do it.

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Surprised, Athan stepped aside as his brown eyes stared at the amber ones of the officer leaving the Colonel's office.Those ambers eye and dark eyebrows were familiar somehow, he'd never seen that guy before that much was certain, but those amber eyes were an exact duplicate as the ones he'd seen on one of the LFA's company commanders.What was her name again, he shrugged it off, right now he had more important things to do.

" Is what I'm hearing tru," Athan asked out of breathe, he had just left Varl and Vicati in the midst of completing the final touches on their Graves.Thanks to Tabaro Wilisk, Vicati now had a new Gyriq's right arm and the minor repairs nearly complete.Their only obstacles had been weapons, Vicati was down to her last two 310mm Bazooka clips.Both of her 100mm machineguns had been destroyed during the course of their engagements with the Guild and was now using Neko's backup 100mm machinegun.Varl Grave's 125mm cannon was fully loaded, along with a fully loaded 100mm machinegun, but had to give up his backup 100mm machinegun to Athan, after having lost one of his own 100mm machinegun to the Lupos Stratus.

" If you mean about the Guild invasion that is set to began within the hour, yes its tru," Veoha said, leaning back against his seat." What do you plan to do, we have no transports, no way to assist you off this island and your comrads have yet to send a transport to retrieve your team."

" There has to be some way off getting off this place.We can't afford to be here when the Guild invasion begans," Athan was desperate, the chances of Kalaro's island repelling the Guild's invasion force was below ten percent. With those odds, there was no way he was going to get stuck here just to die.

" Fraid not.Lieutenant, your choices are few and time constrainted.Surrender to the Guild or simply help us defend Fort Nirka against them."Veoha said matter-of-factly.

" Your kidding me right.You chances are shit to none.You can't win by a long shot."

Veoha face twisted into something akin to anger and his tone of voice demonstrated it all to well." Chances, do you want me to tell you about chances. That pilot you just saw leave here.I just handed him a death sentence.He had the opton to refuse a mission I personally handed him and remain here with our defence force defending Fort Nirka, but you know what he did.He accepted the mission I gived knowing full well his chances was slim to none of completing it. Want to know why."

Athan mouth suddenly went dry as he stared at the pured hatred being aimed his way and he croaked." Why."

" Because I told him a bullshit line about if he suceeded, Fort Nirka chances of repelling the Guild's invasion force would increase by thirty percent.You know what my people tell me, even if by some miracle he does completes his mission, our chances will only raise to twelve percent.That's a measly eight percent increase compared to our current survival percentage." Veoha leaned closer, mouth spitting venom as he glared at Athan."I don't give a fuck what you do with your team, you can either fight, hide or die.That's your choice to make, now get the fuck out of my office and don't let me see your face again."

Athan didn't need to be told twice, he bolted out the door and took his leave.It was only when he reached outside and into the glare of the sunlight, that he stopped moving and stood still.None of them wanted to be here when the Guild invasion began, but there was no way to avoid it.They were out of time.The Guild were coming, sooner rather than later and no matter how he twisted it in his mind, they, the 4th Squad, Beta Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Erin Sol Brigade will be here on Kalaro isles when the first shells startd falling.What was he going to tell his team.

He knew Vicati would have a fit, she didn't like it here or wanted to be here.Varl would simply prepare himself to fight to the bitter in with no complaints.But what about him, what did he want.Most of this was his fault, if he hadn't attack that Guild airlift, chances were they would be at Fork Point and halfway to Lucan by now.What ever decision he made would have to be a team choice, he couldn't order Vicati or Varl to fight in the defense of Fort Nirka, that choice would have to be theirs and theirs alone.He slumped towards Hanger 3, his mind wishing there was an easier way to tell his team-mates that they were fucked in so many ways.

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" Radar contact! Confirmed Flight Aurora, bearing three-one-five, range 3-2-9 miles.Multiple signatures, zero-six-nine, contacts course one-two-three, speed two hundred and eighty-six knots." reported the senior airborne control officer aboard the Scano EWACS as he watched his radar picture, he turn to his radar operators" Things about to get hairy over the next few hours."

As a master tactical scope plotted the contacts electronically, Virion said quietly as he glanced at his operations offficer." Right on schedule.Shall we get this over with.Began Phase One."

Orsini watched the operations officer give a five minute brief of the mission profile.It sounded pretty good to Orsini; but then again these fat navy pukes had tree days to whittle down Kalaro's air-defense force to just a few mobile radars and SAM batteries, for the fighters and Lupos Stratus this would be a cinch, how would the marines fear when they got within landing range of Kalaro isles. He glanced at his watch, in an hour he will know that answer.He just hoped Ohal and his team got here on time.

Twenty seconds after the mission brief, just before the first wave of the navy's new fast-attack helicopter lifted off, the Buchus's deck forward of the island structure, the battle staff watched on the monitor screens as seven MSL ( Mobile Suit Landers) left formation and created foam in the waves in there wake as they sped up to thirty knots with three Gritz class battleships on a course to Kalaro Isles; each MSL carrying eight TMS-17G Lupus Dominator type, the navy's varient of the TMS-17J.

The operation officers issued addtional orders and slowly two elevator rosed from within the carrier, carrying two MST ( Mobile Suit Transport) helicopters each, fitted with specialized magnetic clamps underneath each aircrafts and was moved on the flight deck as the elevators descended.The signal operators slowly guided the six fully armed TMS-17F Lupus Gravitors that were already on deck beneath the MSTs and watched as the magnetic clamps attach itsself to the shoulder armor hardpoint.After a quick systems check, the rotor blades began spinning and slowly the helicopter lifted off one after another with three Lupus Gs each, even as the elevator rosed again with four Lupus Gs, as the two remaining MST were moved into position.

" Beautiful," El Virion said. He was still amazed at the power at his finger-tips.In just a few hours, he would control the skies, seas, and soon the island of Kalaro from where ever he sat, and the feeling was damn good." Have the Zhan launch its missiles at all prearranged targets in exactly..."

" Twenty minutes sir.All aircrafts are on course and schedule." the operations officer said after confirming with the radar operators."

El Virion nodded and swivel his chair to face Orsini." Two landers will proceed to landing area F3, I've already made preparations for four transports to proceed to that location and secure that area. When do you expect the arrival of your team."

Orsini turned his head to face the open ocean." If everythings on schedule, thirty minutes after your forces lands and secures the area."

El Virion eyes narrowed." See that they arrive on time.Those units will not await the arrival of your team before proceeding to Fort Nirka.We are after all on a timely schedule."

" They'll be there. Do they have command of the attack force as we agreed."

El Virion swivel in his cheer to face the bridge window." Of course, the commanders have been inform that over-all command will be transfered over to the Elite Syber Force team, if they arrived before the schedule assault."

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