Gundam-fall: Changing Fate
Episode 41: Just another day
-HONG KONG: A SHORT TIME EARLIER WITH SIMON AND SERAH-
The simulacrum was busy minding his own business working on his MS unit in the cargo bay of the air transport. While he was tinkering away at the interior of the cockpit, fixing up his partner's systems for combat, a certain blonde ended up standing on the gantry outs ide the mech. She tapped her foot impatiently while she waited for the metal head to do his work, though she had to admit that it was a change of pace to see the annoying bolt-brain doing his work for once. But it mattered not at the moment, there was hell to be paid on her mind and the bolt Brain would not avoid her wrath.
"Hey lug nuts!" Serah shouted at the robotic member of the team, which caught the robot by surprise. Simon jumped up and bonked his metal head against the roof of MT's cockpit.
*CLANK! * "DOH!" The simulacrum shouted in annoyance and mock pain. "What do ya want Blondie? If ya haven't noticed, I'm working here." He told her in a sarcastic tone of voice as he turned to face the source of his issue.
The blonde snorted at his response; her expression was unusually rancid from what Simon could tell as he looked her in the eye. "Hurry it up." She hissed at the simulacrum.
"That attitude of yours right now is really fitting that tsundere trope ya got going on." Simon sassed her with an invisible smirk.
"Keep mocking me and I'll swat you with a pipe wrench again." Serah glared at the Simulacrum, grinding her teeth in fury.
Undisturbed by her undeserved ire as far as he knew, Simon crossed his arms in and put a hand to his metal chin. "Not that this conversation wasn't going to get fun, but what's going on with you today? You're worse than usual." The simulacrum said with a minor tease in his tone of voice.
"You seem to forget what you did to me earlier, AND I AM NOT F-ING HAPPY!" Serah roared, her eyebrows seemed to light on fire as small imaginary wisps of flame were spat from her mouth. "I should punt your head into space!"
"Hmm now what did I do? What did I do?" Simon stroked his raccoon tail in thought as if it were a beard. Serah seemed to be a having a minor meltdown while he did that, her eyes bored holes through the sassy machine man's head. If Looks could kill, Simon would have been vaporized hundreds of times over by the wrath of his fellow pilot.
"You know what you did. You screw brained dolt; how could you forget… SWAPPING MY BODY WASH WITH GREASE?!" Serah turned her fury on full blast, a huge plume of imaginary hellfire flared from her mouth.
A light bulb pinged above the simulacrum's head. "Oh right!" He softly smacked a hand into his palm. "I pranked your ass. I was going for your shampoo to see how you'd look with black hair, but making a pretty girl dirty works just as well."
"THAT'S IT! TO THE SCRAP HEAP WITH YOU!" Serah howled as a large pipe wrench appeared in her hand from out of thin air and the word KILL comically flashed across her eyes.
"W-where did you get that one?" Simon shook a bit at the size of the tool in her hand. He shook his head and put on a brave aura. "I mean, I REGRET NOTHING!" The simulacrum decreed proudly as he stared into eyes of fear itself. Simon's intense sweating intensified twice over while his associate prepared to dispense her vengeance upon him.
"DIIIE BUCKETHEAD!" Serah moved to bat the metal man's head through a bulkhead but just as the wrench was within centimeters of the Simulacrum's head unit an alarm blared loudly. The wrench had stopped cold and Simon's head remained attached to his body. "Tch." The blonde pilot quirked her head to the side in annoyance. "This is not over Simon, mark my words." She growled as she stormed over to her MS unit, away from where Simon was standing.
Simon watched her climb into the cockpit in a huff, the door closed a short moment after she disappeared within her unit. He patted himself from head to steel toe, a quick check of himself to make sure he was still functioning. "I LIIIVE!" He shouted with joy and hopped into his suit.
"Simon, it's Cooper. Respond." The veteran's words sounded like music to the audio receptors of the mechanical man.
"This is Simon, did the Feds send another Giant Titan at us? I don't have a Jaeger just laying around to throw at it." Joked the simulacrum as he approached his mobile suit.
"Very funny wise guy, but we have a hostage situation. Apparently, the feds are holding Captain Noa's wife and kids at gunpoint, and Amuro got nabbed trying to trade himself for them. It's a mess." Cooper groaned in annoyance at the state of the situation.
Simon would have done a spit take if he had the ability to do so. "Holy hell! Are these guys soldiers or terrorists...? Tell me the boss of this outfit have a plan of action!"
"You should've seen what they tried to do with the rookie's mother." Cooper said under his breath.
"Say what?!" That tidbit of information caught the mechanical militia operative off guard. "What'd they do?" The simulacrum exclaimed in surprise.
"Don't ask, that's an order. Anyway, I have no idea what the commanders are thinking." Cooper replied honestly.
"I might've said it before, but I'm REALLY starting to hate these Fed guys as much as the IMC." Simon said as he hopped into his mobile suit unit. The internal display lit up and the simulacrum began checking the controls and status readouts as standard protocol would dictate.
"By this point they might as well be the same." Cooper sighed.
"Alright boys, now what are WE going to do about this?" Serah chimed in from within her own gundam mobile suit.
"H-Hey Angel~ You're not still mad are ya?" Simon chuckled nervously. While he knew he'd messed up, he hoped she wouldn't hold a grudge too seriously.
"I'll dismantle you for parts later, but right now we have a job to do. We are professionals after all." Serah told him in a professional manner befitting of her experience.
Internally a sense of relief washed over the metal man from the words of his comrade, at least he would have time to come up with a way to fix that issue later. "Heh, right. So, any Idea on where they're holding the hostages?" Simon clenched the fists of his gundam and tested the controls again for any stiffness.
"A small ship in the bay, the transport seems to be heading towards it. Enemy mechanized units are most likely nearby." Cooper responded. The gantries around the independent units retracted as the four of them prepped to leave the hangar. With his pre-launch check over, Simon began moving his machine into position. "Word to the wise, during my time at Green Noa I heard that Mobile suits have been known to be able to operate under water, but with way less mobility unless they're specialized units. Normally it hurts firepower, beam weapons are known to be weaker, though I don't know about ballistic weapons."
"So, there's a High probability that "Aquatic" Units are guarding the boat, great." Serah put a hand to the side of her helmet in annoyance.
"Most likely." Cooper responded flatly.
Hayato noticed the mercenaries moving out and ran over to see what was going on. "Where are those units going?" He asked one of the deck personnel. The random deck hand didn't have a chance to answer the question and instead a loud voice boomed from the speaker system of the Jaeger Gundam.
"Director Kobayashi, this is Serah Foche. We're moving to scout out the enemy forces and assess the situation." Was the reply of the Jaeger Gundam's pilot.
The one-year war veteran looked up at the mobile suit and closed his eyes, then he took a deep breath and sighed. "I know can't stop you, so do it." He told the 6-4 pilot with a tired smirk on his face. "You were hired to do this job; might as well let you do your thing. Besides, more information always helps on the battlefield. Do it." He said in a relatively warm tone.
"Thank you, sir. It's better to have your permission than to cause friction." Serah replied as she stepped over to the rear hatch. "Serah Foche, Launching!" She shouted as her thrusters launched her forward into the sky outside of the transport. Right after she launched, the other three independent mobile suits flew off behind her. Given the choices between getting a headache and putting the mercenaries to use, Hayato knew he'd made a decision that would work out in one way or another and the last thing he needed was head pain on top of the hostage situation. With all the units airborne and in a tight formation it would not be long before they reached the position of Lin and Cooper. "We're on the way, Cooper." The group of mobile suit units skirted the surface of the water as they approached dry land.
Cooper nodded in appreciation. "Copy that, we're just sitting here waiting until BT and Lin's titan show up."
"And hashing out a plan." Lin added as she stood next to Cooper.
"We do have the element of surprise, but there's still the enemy mobile suits to deal with, long range won't cut it. Hmm, maybe the rookie could hit them from below. Ya know what, screw it, we're overthinking this." Cooper narrowed his eyes in determination and smacked a fist into his other hand.
"Overthinking it?" Lin raised an eyebrow at her leader's words, with lives on the line this was not the time to be winging a strategy.
"We're just talking instead of doing. You and I hit them from above, everyone else covers us." Cooper said firmly as he stepped onto the edge of the roof where he and Lin were perched. "We have a plan, now let's execute it, work things out as we go along."
"Pardon my skepticism, but this isn't much of a plan to begin with." Serah was not pleased with the idea.
"I'm new to the whole being a leader thing, so excuse me if I'm not a tactical genius." Cooper shrugged in a cool manner.
Simon decided to be cheerful in spite of the tense nature of the situation. "Well, everyone starts from somewhere! But in my humble opinion you get a 9.5 out of ten in my book." He said with his usual gusto.
"Your confidence in me is um... well thanks." Cooper scratched his head at the warm words of the simulacrum. A shake of his head got his thoughts straight and the Buster pilot readied himself for the coming fight. "Anyway, let's get to work."
BT decided to speak up at that moment. "Cooper, I recommend speaking with director Kobayashi. Unit cohesion may falter without cooperation, which will be highly detrimental to operation success. I recommend that trainee Bidan participates in the operation." The titan explained as he flew towards the rooftop with AR right beside him.
"Fair enough, but in order to get the rookie involved in this we have to see if it fits or is better than what our employers are thinking. Like it or not, we are the Mercs here and they're paying us to work with them." Cooper said as he hopped onto BT's outstretched hand and clambered inside the cockpit. Lin grappled over to her titan just as the door shut for Cooper's unit, and AR was waiting for as the 6-4 pilot gracefully plopped into her seat inside the machine.
"Up until recently I always wondered what the life of a merc is like. Alright let's run this by the big man." Simon said as he and the other suits touched down on an unoccupied spot near the water.
BT secured a radio channel and hailed the Audhumla's radio operator. Cooper took the opportunity to speak when it was confirmed that the call had gotten through. "Director Kobayashi, this is Cooper. My team and have performed recon on the enemy positions. We have a plan ready for execution, requesting a green light to move forward." Cooper told the Karaba field commander.
"Hayato here, are there any hidden surprises I should worry about?" Replied the one-year war veteran.
"Possible hostile suits with aquatic configurations defending the enemy vessel." Cooper reported his information to the commander.
"Locations?" Hayato asked.
"Unconfirmed but most likely in very close proximity to the enemy vessel. I may need Kamille Bidan to participate." Cooper said calmly.
"Understood. Kamille was already leaving to take care of the situation on his own. We were already working on a strategy for combatting the enemy. They want a surrender and for us to handover the transport along with all of our mobile suits, instead we're going to use the Audhumla to create the illusion of a surrender, Kamille was going to deal with the enemy troops in the water." Hayato explained as he watched the young pilot leave the deck and descend into the water.
"Great, I think we can find a middle ground between ideas, kill two hostiles with one round so to speak." Cooper smirked in a cool fashion.
"A Combination of the two then?" Hayato asked confidently.
"Exactly, Kamille can deal with the aquatic units with support from our suits while another member of my team and strike from above to rescue the hostages." Cooper nodded.
"Do it then, we have to act fast. Over and out." Hayato ended the call and Cooper gave a thumbs up sign to his fellow pilots.
Cooper flared BT's thrusters and ascended high into the air. "We are green everybody! Lin, you're with me! Simon and Serah, regroup with the rookie and cover us! No one engage until everyone is position, is that clear?" He barked at the three of them.
"ROGER!" The entire squad replied as they raced off after the Buster Gundam and into the fight.
Cooper went high into the air over the enemy watercraft and fired a sonar pulse beacon into the water. Enemies under the water in the nearby vicinity were immediately highlighted in the HUD systems of the allied pilots.
Kamille moved into position near the craft, he understood that a single mistake could cost Amuro and the other hostages their lives. The rookie pilot took deep breaths to focus on the task at hand, losing his calm was not an option for that moment, though the anger at being reminded of the situation with his mother in space still weighed on his mind. He kept wondering to himself just why the titans had to sink so low to get what they wanted. It made no sense to him at all, but then that was war, something that made no sense whatsoever besides that it was violent.
While the rookie moved into position Lin and Cooper ascended higher into the skies above the harbor. BT tagged the enemy craft on with his sensors and calculated the closing distance between them and the enemy. Common sense was that even with the jump kits the two pilots could not assault the craft from too high of an altitude. Jump kits were only rated falls from up to certain heights, any jump altitude above that safety limit was a guaranteed death for the person performing the drop.
Feelings of tension gripped Cooper as he and BT climbed to the limit of the Jump kit's safety limit. BT noticed this and flashed a thumbs up sign to his partner, to which Cooper chuckled slightly but remained on edge. After several short minutes the moment of truth had arrived, it was time to see if he was going to save some lives or have an early meeting with the afterlife. BT popped the hatch and the pilot looked down at the abyss in morbid fascination.
"Cooper, we are now at the optimal position for a drop. The light is green." Said the trusted machine as they soared over the target zone.
"BT, remind me to ask the AEUG for some new underpants after this." Cooper said nervously.
"Copy that, noted for the next supply drop." BT replied.
"I really don't wanna… DO THIS!" Cooper shouted right as he jumped out of the relative safety of his MS unit's cockpit. Immediately after Cooper jumped, Lin had done the same action and both pilots were in free fall. BT fired a flare as the signal for the operation to commence in earnest, all the participants acted on their objectives.
Winds rushed by Cooper as dove down towards the ocean below him, though he was grateful the helmet allowed him to breathe as he fell instead the open air clogging his throat during the descent. He watched several explosions go off in the surface of the water, Kamille had begun playing his part and Cooper felt a measure of pride at the sight. It the student was learning to stand on his own in battle now, Cooper was more than sure that such an attribute would play a greater role as the boy's confidence increased.
In the freedom of the sky it was as if nothing mattered, the only thing around him was the air itself that whooshed around him as he fell. The HUD system made it easier for him to remain on target at least, but if he deployed the jump kit early, he would die from the unit overheating, and if he did it too late the water would act like solid concrete instead of a cushion. From his perspective he could take comfort in the fact that he would feel the impact if he was late.
Suddenly the pilot was shaken from his musings when the alarm sounded for him to deploy the jump kit. Cooper kicked on the thrusters, feeling himself slow gradually to a safer pace as the boat below him grew closer. The pilot drew his pistol and narrowed his eyes, this was going to be hot and it would be over fast one way or another. At that second, he felt like his heart would jump out of his chest when he finally got right above the boat.
A loud clank rang out when Cooper's boots touched the metal deck of the federation watercraft, catching the enemy by total surprise. Time slowed to a crawl as Cooper pulled his pistol up and fired at each of the enemy troopers, his first targets were the men holding Amuro Ray and pointing guns at his head. Next, he shot the men rushing at him with their own handguns drawn to kill him, they went down one after the other as each bullet tore through them. He missed the leader of the group that managed to duck beside the boat's crew compartment.
In only a few seconds the one pilot had taken down an entire squad of men like it was a high-speed shooting gallery. Cooper watched the corpses for any movement but it seemed clear enough, and the bastard who'd jumped away wasn't going to be an issue if he moved fast to get the job done. With the moment for bullet time over, Cooper relaxed and ran to untie Amuro.
Amuro was more than a bit surprised by the militia pilot's skill with a gun, the mercenary was certainly a good pick by Karaba and AEUG if they wanted a professional. "That was some… impressive shooting." The one-year war veteran remarked.
"Worry about my accuracy later, we have to get off this thing and get back to the Audhumla." Cooper as he cut Amuro's hands free of the ropes he'd been tied with.
"Right." Amuro nodded in agreement and flexed his freed hands.
Another loud clank on the deck signaled the arrival of Lin. "What'd I miss? Cause it looks like you had some interesting times here."
"Everything, you missed everything." Cooper dryly remarked as an explosion shook the boat, he noticed it was from Kamille's bazooka shot hitting a mobile suit in the water. The militia pilot felt relieved when he saw the hovercraft that Mirai and her children were using took off immediately after the boom.
"We'd better go! Come on!" Amuro said right before he jumped into the sea.
"BT, we need a pickup. Home in on my signal, we'll be in the water." Cooper radioed to his partner for rescue and jumped into the water. Lin followed right after him and they all began swimming away from the Federation boat.
"Copy that pilot, I'll be there shortly." BT responded as he flew down to assist in battle and pick up the VIPs. Flak from fire below his position exploded around the AI powered gundam as it closed in on the humans. Luckily for BT, Lin's titan AI was busy sniping at the enemy and keeping the focused more on avoiding being shot than doing much of the actual shooting.
For just a simple a rescue mission, the situation had become quite complicated with the waging a of a full-scale battle between the factions once again. Now the battle had truly begun and the fighting escalated quickly with the high performance AEUG units battling it out against the Federation's mass produced mobile suits. Missiles were launched by both sides from weapon barrels of their respective equipment. So far it seemed as if the fight was contained within the bay and away from the shores of the harbor, so there would be minor collateral damage at best for the time being. But the chance remained that the fight could spill over into the dockyards if either of the factions took it beyond the sea.
Another explosion erupted as BT swooped over the pickup point where Amuro, Lin, and Cooper were struggling to stay afloat in the freezing cold seawater. BT fired at a mobile that was attempting to land a shot on him, the enemy suit's head unit exploded when it was directly struck with a beam shot. Another suit closed in from behind BT and the militia gundam was unable to respond in time when it grabbed onto his back and the two of them began to wrestle. BT tried his best to shake off the enemy until and thrashed wildly to break the hold it had on his back, if he wasn't careful he could lose a part that couldn't be replaced. The pilot of the federation suit was very determined not to get thrown off the enemy if it meant actually getting a kill in the fight.
Fortunately for BT, Kamille saw the suit of his mentor struggling to deal with the surprise attack and fired a bazooka shot at the enemy unit. Though the shot damaged BT slightly, it was worth the risk when the enemy unit let go of BT and blew up. BT thanked the cadet and dropped down to secure his objectives. Now that the Buster Gundam was free to do his job and pick up his pilot, Cooper and his fellow pilots climbed aboard then BT flew off in the direction of the allied transport plane.
The militia pilot grinned coolly as he flew towards the safety of the transport. "We're away! VIP is on board!" Cooper said over the radio channel for Simon and Kamille to hear. "I'll be back around with BT to assist after I drop off Amuro!"
"Understood, teacher!" Kamille replied to his instructor's statement.
"Hey! What about me?" Lin tapped her foot.
"Not my fault your suit's supporting the rookie. You want his cover gone that's up to you." Cooper shrugged as he cranked up BT's thrusters and rocketed back to the transport.
Amuro and Lin were taken aback by the sudden acceleration, but Amuro managed to stand. "What about Mirai and her children?" Amuro asked out of concern for his old friend.
"You saw her take off on that boat, I trust that she can take care of her kids. If it helps, Kamille's keeping an eye on them if they need some help before I dive back in the fight. Now hang on." Cooper retorted fiercely.
Meanwhile with Lin's titan, the Polaris gundam was busy auto targeting each enemy unit that came into range. Multiple plasma shots tore apart each suit that was hit, burning straight through their hulls on contact. Enemy counterattacks did provide some challenge for the AI run suit while it fought without its pilot, but so long as the enemy did not overwhelm the upgraded gundam it was not going to be too serious of an issue. Among the attacks coming from the Polaris was a barrage of missiles, courtesy of the suit's weapon core. The AI powered unit did its best to help draw some heat away from the rookie in the standard gundam MK 2. By splitting the attention between the both of them, the fight seemed to go smoother than the AI had predicted.
For just a simple a rescue mission, things had become quite complicated with the waging a of a full-scale battle between the factions once again.
Back with Kamille, other enemy units were proving to be a challenge for the Gundam MK 2 but it was nothing the rookie couldn't handle. He fired a shot straight through the cockpit of an enemy unit, killing it in one shot with the explosion. A suit that been right next to that target was also partly damaged by the blast but managed to dodge the follow up shot Kamille. The rookie curse and fired a few rounds from the Vulcan while he reloaded the bazooka. The Vulcan shots managed to land and did some more minor damage to enemy aquatic unit. He put the fresh magazine in just in time to blast the enemy mobile suit with a bazooka round, causing it to explode right in front of him. Kamille was knocked back slightly by the blast but his gundam didn't take much damage at all.
The veterans were genuinely surprised by the rookie show of skill when it came to dealing with the enemy units on his own. He seemed to be doing just fine by himself aside from a few intense moments. Kamille kept his cool and continued to fight back against the federation units while they swarmed around him. Lin's unit supported him with a few railgun shots and missile launches at the suits attacking the rookie. Fire and smoke covered the surface of the sea as the battle intensified around Kamille and his gundam. A shot came at Kamille from behind but the rookie reacted quickly and dashed to his side before turning around firing off a counter shot at his target. The enemy unit that had fired on him wasn't so lucky since it exploded a few seconds later from the impact of the bazooka shot.
Kamille holstered his Bazooka for a second and sliced an enemy suit clean in half with his beam saber, effectively bisecting the suit. He blasted forward just when the both halves of the suit burst into flames and shrapnel. The rookie leapt backwards towards the shore and fired his weapon again at one of the few remaining enemy units, blowing it up with another well aimed shot. Another enemy suit was headed in the direction of Mirai's boat but Kamille was not about to the federation hurt anyone else today. He kicked on his Gundam's thrusters and blasted straight towards the enemy suit with fist reared back.
A loud clang echoed through the air when the Gundam's fist slammed into the side of the enemy mobile suit. Kamille managed to grab the enemy suit by its head and threw the enemy unit away from him, into the water. He pulled out his bazooka one more time and fired a shot into the water again, blowing up the final unit in a swift fashion. Water soared high into the air as the force of the blast erupted from beneath the waves. Just like that the battle had been brought to an end and Kamille calmed down from his battle high.
With the fight over Kamille took a deep breath to relax, now he could return to friendly territory and get some rest for a while. A feeling had settled in his gut though at idea that something was bound to happen later, whatever it was he'd deal with it when the time came. That was the thought running through his mind as he glided his suit over a wooden dock, practically disintegrating it with the thrusters as he came in for a landing on the shore. The gundam unit touched down with a boom on the pavement, its boots even made cracks in the concrete foundation that was not built to hold the weight of a war machine.
"Take a breath Kamille, you did just fine on your sortie today." Cooper said over the radio to his student.
"I know that, but…" Kamille felt a bit unsure.
"Look, you did what you had to do. It was nothing more and nothing less than just that. If you to focus on something then think about that you saved some lives today without my help for you at all, be proud of that." Cooper replied calmly.
"Right, I helped save Mirai and her family." Kamille nodded.
"You knew your role and you did it well. Now come on back to the transport, we've got a long night ahead to deal with the fallout from this." Cooper said coolly.
"Understood, I'm heading back now. Just… give me a minute to catch my breath. Over and out." Kamille replied.
-END CHAPTER-