Mobile Suit Gundam SEED/Kidou Senshi Gundam SEED: Rebellion

By: Ominae

Rating: T

NOTE:

Concept of the Gundam SEED series are under the copyright of Mitsuo Fukuda, Bandai and Sunrise. Cameo appearances of characters from Mobile Suit Gundam: Lost War Chronicles are under the copyright of Bandai Games, Masato Natsumoto and Tomohiro Chiba. Cameo appearance of Sophia DiFalco and other elements of Birds of a Feather are a courtesy from Solid Shark. All other characters and technology (weapons, vehicles) are under my jurisdiction, with some exceptions.

Summary:

With the EURM-held EUA Pasir Ris under attack by a joint OMNI-Equatorial Union military taskforce, both EURM rebel soldiers and its mercenary allies spring into action in order to hold off the attack. The mysterous Neo Roanoke makes his combat debut, fighting alongside his OMNI subordinates to crush the rebellion before it gets out of control? Can Rick, his EURM comrades and their mercenary allies get rid of the invasion force? Will Neo be able to get rid of Rick once and for all? Stay tune to this chapter to find out.

Chapter 13: The Mercenaries, Part 5

Somewhere in the outskirts of EUA Pasir Ris, Singapore, Equatorial Union

Neo's Windam and Rick's Secundus were busy exchanging beam saber blows with one another, using their spatial awareness to predict where the next saber strike would take place. As for Morgan and the others, they were busy supporting OMNI forces in raiding EUA Pasir Ris, but were held back by artillery pieces and the mercenary forces.

"Not bad for a rebel Guardsman such as yourself!" Neo taunted Rick before executing a beam saber slash over his head. Rick, having detecting the attempt with his mind, raised his Kris beam saber and blocked Neo's blow.

"I don't need words of praise from an OMNI aggressor such as you!" snarled Rick, doing a shoulder tackle after he successfully blocked the beam saber attack from Neo himself.

"An aggressor?" Neo chuckled like Rick was telling a lie. "From my point of view, you're the one who's the aggressor around here!"

"You OMNI bastard!" The two mobile suit pilots clashed their beam sabers after Neo executed a horizontal beam saber slash and Rick doing a vertical beam saber slash, leading to another standstill.

Damn! Can't budge this rebel! Neo gritted his teeth, trying to gain an advantage with his Windam prototype over Rick's Secundus.

He's different! Rick was impressed with Neo's mobile suit combat abilities. He could evade and counter my attacks! I wonder if he had the spatial awareness for years?

"Captain Roanoke!" When Neo checked his monitors, he saw three GAT-01A2R Slaughter Daggers approaching his position.

"Gotcha!" Rick, seeing that Neo was a bit distracted by the arrival of the three additional mobile suits, won the beam saber clash by shoving the Windam with the Secundus' right shoulder when he got the upper hand after he exerted a little more strength in pushing his beam saber toward Neo's.

"Captain!"

The leading Slaughter Dagger engaged the Secundus in combat by drawing out its ES01 beam saber. "Name's Sham Coza, pal! And you're going to get some real punishment from me!"

Damn! Rick raised his Hindalco anti-beam shield in time to dodge the beam saber slash, countering him by executing a beam slash also. Where did these guys come from?

"Here's help, Shams." Another Slaughter Dagger provided tactical support by firing its MX703 beam rifle. The pilot then introduced herself to Rick, "Name's Mudie Holcroft, rebel. Just surrender while you still can."

Rick decided to put some humor into his situation. "Say, aren't you related to the late H.P. Lovecraft? You know, the guy who did novels regarding the Deep Ones and such?"

"Don't mock me!" Mudie, now pissed off, charged to attack Rick. She operated the Slaughter Dagger's right arm to draw out one of her ES01 beam sabers. "You'll be good when you dead, you Spacenoid!"

"I ain't a spacenoid! I'm from Earth, you freaking racist!" Using the Secundus' thrusters to jump in the air, Rick executed a jumping kick. Targeting the center of Mudie's Slaughter Dagger, he kicked the cockpit area with its left foot from mid-air.

"Urgh!" grunted Mudie, falling on the ground. Shams went out to assist Mudie to get up after she fell down from taking the flying kick from Rick.

"Mudie!" yelled the third Slaughter Dagger pilot. "Shams, take cover with her."

"Right." responded Shams, taking Mudie to safety while the third Slaughter Dagger drew out its own ES01 beam saber.

Not another one! I'm getting tired of these grunts! Rick began to engage the third Slaughter Dagger in action.

"Let me introduce myself, you rebel." The Slaughter Dagger pilot gritted under his pilot helmet. "I'm Sven Cal Bayan of Phantom Pain and I'll be your executioner for the day."

"Phantom Pain?" Rick did not believe who was assisting the loyalist forces. "Dammit, so the government had resorted to Phantom Pain. I wonder if you OMNI people are ready for another Vietnam-style battle."

"Before this day ends, I'll be through with you once and for all." Sven raised his MX703 beam rifle after sheathing his ES01 beam saber. "Die, Coordinator!"

Using his senses, Rick blocked most of the shots with his beam shield and in fact, used his ML-1 beam rifle to counter the beam shots by firing a burst from his beam rifle, neutralizing the incoming beam shots from the MX703 beam rifle.

He somehow reminds me of Captain Roanoke... Sven decided to holster his MX703 beam rifle and drew out another ES01 beam saber again.

"You die instead, you OMNI racist!" Getting back on the offensive, Rick slammed his Kris beam saber right on Sven's beam shield that his mobile suit nearly collapsed if he didn't exert any effort to resist the pressure that Rick had exerted. Besides, where'd Neo head off to this time? Is he... Wait! He's nearby!

Sven gritted his teeth, allowing his shield to block another beam slash attack that followed by a tackle. Someone had better give me a hand at once.

"Did you miss me, Rick?" Neo laughed when he prepared to divebomb Rick from the air, his Jet Striker Pack still mounted on his Windam. He prepared to attack him by unleashing beam fire from his M9409L beam rifle.

If I don't do something, I'll be dead soon...

Rick continued to remain on the defensive, using his Hindalco beam shield to block incoming beam shots and sheathed his beam saber before he drew out his ML-1 beam rifle to neutralize other incoming beam shots.

Back in the main battlefield, other mercenaries were continuing their battle to hold off an invasion force with an OMNI-Equatorial Union military contingent. Both man and mobile suit were facing each other in order to get a victory for their own party.

"Hey, Ed!" Barry yelled at Edward over his radio comm from the cockpit of his MBF-M1A M1A Astray while taking aim at loyalist Primus and Long Daggers with his Type 71-44 Kai sniper rifle. "You still alive?"

"Don't worry about me, Barry!" Edward assured Barry, using his GAT-333 Raider Full Spec in mobile armor mode. "I heard reports that the government's going to send in 3 aces to aid the OMNI forces coming in." Targeting an obsolete ST Kinetics Bionix-2 IFV, he fired a single AIM-957F King Cobra missile that out the lone IFV out even if it fired its 25 mm cannon at him from the ground.

"Miss me, punk!" Edward taunted the destroyed IFV before changing to the Raider Full Spec's mobile suit mode.

Nearby, Heine and Shiho were supporting EURM soldiers and mercenaries on the ground. Heine had his ZGMF-600 GuAIZ with Shiho in her YFX-200 CGUE DEEP Arms.

"Well, well." Heine grinned when he saw the prototype CGUE mobile suit. "I never expected that you'd take the DEEP Arms into battle."

"Just so happened that I found my old mobile suit in one of the warehouses gathering up dust." Shiho shrugged. "Thought I could still use it in this civil war."

"All right..." Heine went to concentrate on the battle ahead. "Here they come!"

"Go Heine!"

Assisting the ground forces, Heine charged to an incoming loyalist Strike Dagger and lunged at it with the dual beam claws that he drew out from his MA-MV03 composite shield. Stabbing it completely, he positioned the downed Strike Dagger in front of him and fired his MA-M12G beam rifle at OMNI Strike Daggers, Daggers and Buster Daggers. The opposing mobile suits fired at Heine's GuAIZ, only for some CIWS bullets to hit the mobile suit while incoming machine gun and beam rifle shots missed. The FAITH agent was lucky that he managed to remember disabling the mobile suit completely or it would have exploded.

"Thanks for being a shield, friend." grinned Heine, dislodging its beam claws from the Strike Dagger. After it fell to the ground, Heine moved his GuAIZ back and fired his MA-M12G beam rifle at it, which exploded in flames.

Nearby, Shiho provided mobile artillery support to EURM and mercenary ground forces with her DEEP Arms' JDP8-MSY0270 thermal energy cannons. She fired at an alternate pace by firing the left energy cannon and letting it overheat a bit before using the mobile suit's right energy cannon.

How long can I hold here? Noting her left energy cannon was already overheat, Shiho switched firing controls to the right energy cannon, bombarding enemy mobile suits, armored vehicles and infantry alike.

Seeing approaching OMNI Daggers, in Aile Striker configurations, and loyalist Primus, Long and Duel Daggers, Shiho disengaged her cannons and drew out her NOL-Y941 heavy laser sword, brandishing it for battle.

"Do you people want to die so badly?" Shiho gritted her teeth. "All right, then die!"

Yuki, filming from the roof of the main building in EUA Pasir Ris, witnessed Shiho's CGUE DEEP Arms slashing through OMNI and Loyalist mobile suits with her NOL-Y941 laser sword, which sliced them into pieces before the mobile suits blew up. She and her cameraman were in awe by the way of her attack.

The reporter and cameraman wore kevlar vests, with the words PRESS inscribed at the back, and kevlar helmets as a necessary precaution.

I just hate it when my luck's playing against me!

Currently clashing with Neo's Windam, Rick engaged the mysterious man into combat with only their beam sabers and anti-beam shields to protect them.

I have to get some help! Desperate to send out a radio transmission, he radioed the base to get some help.

"Anyone out there? I need some help."

"Are you all right?" The voice of a young girl was heard on the radio.

"Who is this?" Rick raised an eyebrow, eyeing the Windam about to do a horizontal slash with its beam saber.

"I'm Meyrin Hawke. Noel's not here right now; she's assisting Ms. Badgiruel as of now."

A ZAFT military academy student fighting in our civil war? No time to ponder that now! "All right, Meyrin. Can you send a transmission to all friendly units to send some backup. I'm in a dire need and I could use all the help I could get."

"Understood, um..." Meyrin got his message, but wanted to get his name.

"Rick. Rick Chung." said Rick, needing to get back to fighting the enemy instead of engaging in a radio conversation with Meyrin. "Rick, out."

"Dammit! Take this!" Rick dashed to the Windam and used his Secundus to unleash a tackle, making the Windam fall to the ground.

"Uwah!" Neo didn't like the disadvantage that he was facing right now as he was vulnerable on the ground. Seeing Rick approach his downed mobile suit, he used his radio to send out an emergency message.

"This is Captain Roanoke! I'm down! I repeat, I'm down. Send some backup over here!"

Ending his transmission, Neo struggled to get the M9409L beam rifle that fell out of his hand. Using the Windam's right hand, Neo was about to grab it when Rick was alerted to his struggle.

"Don't bother, Neo!" Being quick on the draw thanks to his spatial awareness, he quickly fired his 40 mm CIWS to destroy the dropped beam rifle, rendering it full of giant bullet holes. "I'll make sure you have a short and painless death."

This can't be the end! Neo watched as Rick drew out his Kris beam saber, raising it to stab him when he eyed Jane's Deep Forbidden tackling him from the side.

"Looks like we got a signal from the base."

Kaite checked the controls of his Skygrasper, noticing that a message has been received. "Hey, Kestrel! What did the people back at the base say?"

"Got a distress signal from Rick himself. He says that he needs backup." Sophia said, receiving the transmission from the navigator's seat. Looking outside, she saw a small number of GINNs, Edward's Raider Full Spec and Barry's M1A Astray heading out to reinforce Rick's known position with 2 other Secundus prototype mobile suits supporting them. One Secundus had a PT Pindad PM1 ground rocket launcher with the other handling the PT Pindad SR-1 beam sniper rifle. I do hope he's okay.

Dammit! More company!

The radar in Rick's Secundus cockpit had detected three blips, indicating hostile mobile suits approaching. Looking at the main monitor while clashing with Morgan's beam saber, he saw three Primuses running straight for him while drawing out their Kris beam saber simultaneously.

Three Primuses in black and gray colors! Where have I seen them before?

Rick's eyes opened wide when he realized who they were.

Unless if I'm dreaming, those guys were veterans of the Eurasian Foreign Legion. Ken Bederstadt, Garsky Ayrault and Jake Clinton are here. Did Malaysia get these guys to finish us off?

Kicking the shin's of Morgan's Dagger, Rick found himself fighting with Jane's Deep Forbidden. Holstering his beam saber, he drew out his custom-made Dao sword and clashed again with Jane's trident.

"Dammit! Ken and the others are coming to finish me off! Unless help's coming, then I'll be finished in the battlefield..."

Managing to glance at his monitors again, he noted that reinforcement had arrived in the form of several GINNs, Edward's Raider Full Spec and Kaite's personal Skygrasper. Maybe this battle could turn well in our advantage...

"Better give a hand out here!" yelled Kaite to his navigator. "Hey Kestrel! Do we have a clear to bomb that mobile suit attacking Rick?"

"We do!" acknowledged Sophia. "We can divebomb it, though we could give Rick's Secundus minor damage or simply machinegun the Deep Forbidden."

"All righty!" Locking onto the Deep Forbidden, he fired his Skygrasper's beam cannon at it. But unfortunately for him, the Deep Forbidden's energy deflection armor had deflected it away.

"Dammit!" cursed Kaite, flying overhead and trying to swing the aircraft around to try another sortie when his radar had detected loyalist F-7D Spearhead and VTOL aircrafts.

"Better take care of the flies flying around first!" alerted Sophia, noting the incoming fighters.

"Okay!" Giving a thumbs up, he flew towards the incoming Spearhead and VTOL fighter squadrons. Locking onto his targets, Kaite fired the beam cannon, which downed some Spearheads and a couple of VTOL fighters.

On the ground nearby, three GINNs painted in black with a regular GINN were engaged with Neo's elites alongside Edward's Raider Full Spec. Morgan and the others had been ordered by Neo to engage the newcomers while he would stay back and engage Rick himself.

"Why you!" Lunamaria in her own GINN unit had engaged Jane's Deep Forbidden by clashing her MA-M3 heavy sword with Deep Forbidden's trident. "Don't take me so lightly on me 'cause I'm just a teenaged girl!" Seeing that her opponent would win, Lunamaria simply gave the Deep Forbidden a shoulder tackle.

"This is quite a challenge." Hilda fought with Morgan from her own black GINN, fighting to hold her opponent with her MA-M3 heavy sword while Morgan had his ES01 beam saber out. "Either my eyes are deceiving me or I'm fighting Morgan Chevalier!"

"Quite impressive, Hilda Harken!" grinned Morgan, attempting a beam slash. "I never expected you to be in the battlefield."

"Neither did I!" Hilda thrusted her MA-M3 heavy sword, but was met by Morgan's Dagger shield. "Are you fighting with the government?"

"I'm just following orders, Hilda." Doing a vertical beam slash, Hilda dodged by moving her GINN out of the way while quickly holstering her MA-M3 sword and drawing out her MMI-M8A3 machine gun at him. Morgan, thanks to his spatial awareness, used his shield to temporarily daze before attempting to finsh her off.

Right! Now that she's dazed, I could... Morgan sensed something was wrong. Looking at his right, he noted missiles flying straight for him. Jumping a short distance back, the said projectiles landed a short feet away near his new position.

"Don't take your mind off the battlefied, you idiot!" yelled Edward, transforming his Raider Full Spec from mobile armor to mobile suit mode.

"Ah, Edward Harrelson!" grinned Morgan. "As you may know, the OMNI military police has issued an arrest warrant for you on charges of deserting the Atlantic Federation military." He then charged towards Edward's Raider Full Spec, beam saber at the ready. "In addition, you're also being charged with stolen military equipment."

"Hah!" shouted Edward, using his M20 20 mm machine guns at the Jachin Due veteran. "I'm not gonna hand myself to those occupiers! I'm here to help a fellow nation free itself from the influences of OMNI!"

"I see." Morgan cringed, watching 20 mm bullets fly overhead. "Then prepare yourself!" Morgan kept his beam saber before engaging Edward in a fist fight between their two mobile suits.

"Hey Mars! You okay?" yelled Herbert, using his own black GINN in engaging Rena's Buster Dagger in combat. "I think I need a hand here!" Herbert fired his M68 "Cattus" 500 mm recoilless rifle at his approaching enemy. Rena dodged them with ease and used her combined 350 mm gun launcher and 94 mm high-energy rifle to retaliate. Herbert, being a Jachin Due veteran, dodged her shots and instead, blew up a loyalist Strike and Long Dagger into pieces.

"Shit!" Rena pounded her controls, cursing herself for missing the shots. When she looked at her main monitor, she was alarmed to see a shot from Herbert's M68 "Cattus" disabled the end of her 94 mm high-energy rifle, forcing her to decombine them together before the entire weapon exploded.

"Nah!" assured Mars. "I think you should be fine out there." Mars chose to face the incoming Primuses, alongside Lunamaria with an arriving Heine.

"Luna, are you alright?" asked Heine, before raising an eyebrow. "I thought you were engaged by an enemy mobile suit?"

"Someone else is taking care of it." answered Lunamaria. "But that's not important. We got three new enemies coming in on us!"

"Right!" Heine nodded. When the three Primuses were in combat range, one of them opened fire by using its PT Pindad SR-1 beam sniper rifle in order to scatter them. Once that was done, the second Primus drew out its beam saber and lunged at Heine's GuAIZ. The third and final Primus, lagging a bit behind, fired its PT Pindad 100 mm PM1 ground rocket launcher, nearly hitting Lunamaria's GINN.

"Jake, Garsky!" yelled Ken from the cockpit of his Primus. "Keep the two GINNs busy! I'm heading straight for this one!"

"Got it, Ken!" said the two in unison. Jake went to attack Mars, forcing the latter to keep firing his M68 at him until ammo ran out. When it happened, he used the recoiless rifle as a club and swinged it at him, toppling Jake's Primus to the ground. Jake retaliated by firing the MK-1 40 mm CIWS at Mars, forcing to move back. His constant firing of his CIWS enabled Jake to get some time needed to stand up.

Garsky, on the other hand, went head-to-head with Lunamaria himself. "Looky here. It's a shame that GINN of yours doesn't have a beam weapon!" Giving an evil laugh, Garsky drew out his FERFRANS ML-1 beam rifle and fired off some beam rounds at her.

"Damn! He's right!" Lunamaria had tried to dodge some of the beam shots, but one had lodged off a piece of the GINN's right shoulder. Surprisingly, it was still functioning.

"Take this!" Aiming the missile of her GINN's M68 Pardus missile launchers, Lunamaria fired the missile from the Pardus mounted on the left leg at Garsky. Using his ML-1 beam rifle, he fired off a volley of rounds that neutralized the missiles. It, however, exploded near Garsky's Primus and shook him a bit.

"Maybe firing the ML-1 near the missiles was such a bad idea!" Covered by the white smoke that came from the detonated missiles, Garsky didn't know what to do next until he saw Lunamaria's GINN in front of him, using the smoke as cover with her MA-M3 sword at the ready.

"Aaahhh!" Surprising her opponent, Lunamaria hacked the foregrip of Garsky's ML-1, taking the barrel with it.

"I don't believe this!" Surprised as well, Garsky was about to get his beam saber ready when Lunamaria used the same weapon to disable the right arm of Garsky's Primus by slicing it off. Before she could destroy her opponent, gunfire came from Morgan's Dagger when he fired his M703 beam rifle at her, forcing Lunamaria to get away.

"Better get out of here!" Immediately leaving her downed opponent, she went forward to assist Mars in fighting off his own opponent.

Ken, seeing that his opponent was good after a series of melee attacks, broke off and decided to target a particular mobile suit.

The lone Secundus unit that was currently being surrounded by regular OMNI mobile suits.

Rick was now cornered by several OMNI mobile suits, such as Strike Daggers, Buster Daggers and Daggers after Neo gave his orders for them to attack the rebel soldier while he joined up with Morgan in attack Edward since he had received specific orders to capture or kill Edward since he was a known defector in the ranks of OMNI.

More and more of these OMNI fools are coming! And with loyalist mobile suits coming in too, it's taking a toll! Rick was feeling frustrated with the wave of enemies coming in either to attack the isolated EURM and mercenary mobile suits or attack the EURM-held EUA Pasir Ris.

Using his beam shield to deflect a strike from one of the OMNI Strike Daggers, he stabbed it with his own saber before parrying another beam saber attack from a Dagger, slicing its left arm off before slicing the entire mobile suit in half, resulting in an explosion.

Someone's behind me! Sensing his opponent was about to fire a projectiled weapon, he moved swiftly to his left and watched as the projectile from a Buster Dagger's combined 350 mm gun launcher and 94 mm high-energy rifle destroyed a Strike Dagger that tried to draw out its own ES01 beam saber.

What's this? I feel something's burning from inside me. I feel like I want to voice out my frustration, but how?

Watching a Dagger L trying to aim the barrel of its M703 beam carbine at him, he dashed nearby with the helps of his Secundus' vernier thruster and grabbed the lone mobile suit's right arm. He then forced it to drop its weapon by twisting its right arm just enough to make the Dagger L let go of his beam weapon. Managing to pick it up, Rick gripped it tightly and unloaded some beam rounds at the Dagger L, disabling it permanently before letting it go. Afterwards, he fired his MK-1 CIWS to make sure it was destroyed for good.

"Damn! Not you!" Rick saw the leading black and gray Primus charged at him and quickly had his beam saber ready for a thrust attack. Rick sensed him from a distance and drew out his beam saber hastily in order to counter it by executing a horizontal swing that threw the Primus' aim off.

"If I'm right, this Secundus prototype is being piloted by Richard Yamato Chung, am I right?" The voice was very familiar to Rick. With the Primus preparing to execute a horizontal beam swipe, Rick pulled his Secundus back and got his beam saber out at the ready.

"So it's you, Ken Bederstadt." hissed Rick. "So the government did order you and your lackeys to accompany the OMNI murderers?"

"I've been given specific orders by the Defense Secretary to apprehend you and your comrades. Surrender and disable your unit at once!"

"Not a chance. Not while the rebellion's doing so well!" The two lunged at each other and clashed beam saber. Disengaging from the beam saber, they tried again and again to strike a blow against their opponent. The only difference was that Rick was having the advantage thanks to his spatial awareness. With every beam saber blow, Rick was able to place Ken at the defensive, which was also advantageous for Rick.

Now I got you! Rick was ready to disable Ken's mobile suit by getting rid of its legs when a beam shot erupted from nowhere. Ken heard the weapon fire and moved back, watching the said beam blast the earth in front of him.

"What the?" Rick stared at the two Primuses, armed with a PT Pindad SR-1 beam sniper rifle and PM1 rocket launcher.

"It's me, Hamid." greeted the Secundus pilot armed with the beam sniper rifle. "Tim and I were just in time to help you."

"You're not in time to help me!" sermoned Rick. "I was about to finish the War God off!"

"You mean Ken Bederstadt?" Tim murmured, in horror after realizing who his opponent was.

"If that's the case!" Hamid gritted his teeth, aiming at Ken's Primus with the scope of his SR-1 beam sniper rifle. "Then we'd better finish him off for good!"

Rick watched as Ken broke out any attempt to attack him and went straight for Hamid, who panicked by firing beam shots at Ken with Tim firing two shots from his rocket launcher. Seeing the projectile approach him, Ken managed to evade them left and right.

He's quick! Hamid was infuriated at this, not being able to score a hit against Ken. But in minutes, Ken was closing the distance between them and in minutes, he had his beam saber ready to cut his mobile suit into two. Even Tim was amazed by how good Ken was in his Primus.

"If you're not surrendering, then prepare to die!" hissed Ken, who was about to execute the fatal blow on Hamid, his sniper rifle's barrel aiming inches away from the Primus' head, which would make the weapon unusable in that range.

"NOOOO!" Rick didn't bear to watch a comrade of his die under his watch. From the depths of his minds, something had emerged out of its dormancy.

A black seed appeared and broke into half. His eyes had black light instead of a pupil and iris in its place. Minutes later, he gave a loud warcry that was heard by Neo and the others on their radios. Moments later, he kept his beam saber and used his ML-1 beam rifle to fire a shot near Ken's Primus. Surprised by the sudden atttack, Hamid used his sniper rifle's shoulder stock as a club and clubbed the Primus on the head, sending it on the ground.

"What are you waiting for?" Neo barked at Morgan, Rena and Jane. "Take care of him! He's vulnerable!"

"Yessir!" said the three OMNI pilots in unison. The three of them began to run towards Rick, unaware of what was happening to him.

Seeing the three OMNI veterans approach him, Rick then drew out his custom Dao sword and swifly moved to her left side. He then hacked the trident into half when Jane tried to stab him.

"What?" Jane didn't know that her opponent had suddenly become more aggressive. "What's with him?"

"I don't know." Morgan gritted, pointing his M703 beam rifle at him. "Stand back Jane."

"You're wide open!" When he saw Morgan aiming his weapon, Rick drew out a single Armor Piercer combat knife from the Secundus' right hip and tossed it at him.

"Shit!" Morgan fired his beam rifle, only to find out that his weapon was made useless since the Armor Piercer forced the weapon to explode when the Armor Piercer's blade was inside the beam rifle's barrel. "He's gotten better all of a sudden." Minutes later, Rick charged at Morgan and used his Dao sword to slice off a bit of the Dagger's right arm before he made a gash on the mobile suit's neck portion.

"Take this!" Enraged, Rena combined her 94 mm high-energy rifle and 350 mm gun launcher and fired three shots at Rick. Rick sensed the shots and dodged left and right while picking up the Armor Piercer knife that he used to disable Morgan's M703 beam rifle.

"Miss me, woman!" Rick yelled, using his thrusters to guide him towards his targets while sheathing his giant Dao sword. Once near her, he drew out his beam saber and sliced the combined 94 mm high-energy rifle and 350 mm gun launcher in half, creating an explosion that temporarily blinded Rena. With the help of his senses, Rick moved away from the explosion and instead, used it as a smokescreen to chase after Neo's Windam.

I can't underestimate my opponent! Not after what he did to three of my elite pilots! Neo gritted his teeth, ready to fight him when he spotted Sven's unit charging at Rick from behind.

"Captain!" called Sven. "We'll take care of him!"

"No, you fool!" insisted Neo. "Don't do it! He's not the same opponent that you've fought with a while ago!"

"Die, you monsters!" Rick yelled and charged at Sven's Slaughter Dagger. However, Sham's Slaughter Dagger blocked his way and had his MX703G beam rifle ready to fire.

"Don't come any closer!" Shams fired a series of beam shots, which missed when Rick evaded them by using his shield to block them before crouching in front of him. "What the hell is he doing?"

Moving his Secundus to leap a bit, Rick performed a knee attack with the mobile suit's right metallic knee that struck Sham's unit by the chest.

"Urgh!" Shams gritted, not expecting Rick to perform such a move. Mudie's Slaughter Dagger reinforced him by drawing out an ES04 beam saber from Rick's left. Rick, however, sensed it when he felt a tingling vibration on his head. He countered Mudie's attack by striking her shield with enough force to daze her a bit before slicing her left leg off with his beam saber.

"Noo! My leg!" Mudie could only watch as her sensors indicated that her left leg was disabled. "Curse you!" Mudie cringed, banging her controls with her two clenched fists.

"Shams! Mudie!" Sven moved in, drawing out his own ES04 beam saber. Rick nimbly dodged his beam thrusts, as if reading his mind like a psychic, and countered it by parrying his beam saber with his. What the hell happened? He suddenly fights like some elite pilot!

Rick gritted his teeth and stared at his opponent through the black seed in his eyes. "Enough!" With that, Rick slashed Sven's Slaughter Dagger and lobbed off its head. Executing another slice, he lobbed off the right arm that held Sven's ES04 beam saber before executing a running kick.

Sven didn't like it that he was taken out of the battle. "Urahh!"

"Jake! Garsky!" Ken decided to concentrate on taking out Rick out of the battle for good. "Take care of that Secundus out there! He's disabled six mobile suits so far!"

"Right!" Rick eyed the two Primuses charging at him. He started by sidestepping Jake's Primus when it tried to stab him with his beam saber. Using the Armor Piercer that he picked up earlier, Rick stabbed the Primus' left arm that held the beam saber before tripping him with his left foot.

"Crap!" yelled Jake, sensor alerting to the status of his left arm. "Damn knife cut the electrical support for the left arm! I can't move it!"

When he eyed Garsky's Primus, he noted that its right arm was cut off, giving him an easier advantage. Waiting for Garsky to try and attack him with a beam swipe, he jumped a bit enough for him to evade the attack before landing behind Garsky. Rick executed a tackle that took him by complete surprise, sending him to collapse on the ground.

"What the?" Garsky gasped. "I didn't see that coming!"

Witnessing what Rick did to the other mobile suits, the OMNI mobile suit pilots didn't dare to interfere for fear of meeting the same predicament as what Morgan and the others had experienced.

"You're next, Neo!" Charging at the masked man like no tomorrow, Rick had his beam saber at the ready. Neo drew out his ES04 beam saber and charged at him as well, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"If you want him, you better past me first!" Rick blinked, not being able to stop his Secundus from running when he saw Garsky's Primus armed with a M703 beam rifle taken from a fallen Dagger in front of Neo. "You better stay back, Captain Neo. I got him!"

"Idiot!" shouted Neo. "You're going to be dead in a matter of minutes!"

"Heh." Rick smirked at him. "Guess we're doing this the hard way!" Deciding to improvise, Rick tossed his Hindalco beam shield at Garsky, temporarily dazing his Primus.

"What the?" Garsky said, a bit dizzy from the melee attack. "Can't seem to.. What the!"

Rick thrusted his beam saber into the center of Garsky's Primus, amazing his opponent and Neo.

"Hmm..." Neo murmured, able to get away from the attack. "He seemed to be different after he shouted back then. Looks like the CIA reports were right; I mustn't underestimate him."

"Ken! Jake!" Garsky shouted, watching the beam from Rick's beam saber penetrate further into the mobile suit with the beam blade protruding through at the back of Garsky's Primus before it shortened. Drawing his beam saber out, Rick watched his opponent with emotionless pity as the disabled mobile suit exploded in front of him.

"Garsky!" Ken yelled from his seat. Nearby, he saw signal flares fired into the sky.

Retreat? Looking at the flames coming from his comrade's downed mobile suit, Ken made contact with Neo and gritted his teeth before telling him their next course of action.

"Captain Roanoke!"

Ken huffed angrily, telling his ally the most hated thing that he didn't want to say at a time like this.

"We have to retreat at once."

Chapter 13 END

PS - I should stop here for a while. I have to keep my eye out on doing a couple of papers for my Geology and Political Science classes. As such, an update won't be seen for a few weeks. Hope you like this chapter. I think this is the longest chapter I ever made for this story.

References abound in this chapter. Can you see them? There are three. Hint: One of them had to do with the chapter titles for the past 4 chapters (CLUE: I think this should be easy. This is from a Gamecube/recent PS2 game that came out from Capcom). Another is with a move that Rick executed when he attacked Mudie for the first time. (CLUE: It's a Gundam UC anime. Figure out which series is it from.). Last one is someone's line from one of the character trailers in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (CLUE: If you're a frequent VIP, you should know who it is I'm talking about).