Chapter 43
CE 74, April 8th, Dakar Spaceport, Senegal, African Community
Night 02 14
Master Sergeant Kim Rassare ducked as the edge of the concrete roadblock she was using for cover exploded, throwing sharp-edged fragments over her head. Across the first of the four gates that served as working entrances to Dakar Spaceport, battle raged as Blue Cosmos agents strove against the OMNI troopers, seeking to gain entrance into the Spaceport to use its facilities for what Kim presumed to be escape from the Earth's planetary surface.
Kim stuck her head over the jagged lines of her cover to glare at one of the Guti powered exoskeletons currently backing the Blue Cosmos advance. At the other entrances, transmissions from the Senegal regular infantry still engaged in battle told a similar story; Blue Cosmos troopers supported by powered suit support sought to open alternate avenues of access to the spaceport; one group had already forced a unit of Senegal army infantry into their secondary positions. She ducked again as the Gutis turned in her direction, and from behind cover a thunderous impact resonated as evidence of another round from the anti-tank rifle one of them wielded. Kim rolled away as she heard the dull thudding of grenades being shot from a launcher; seconds after she braced herself behind new cover, her old position exploded with the impact of several high-explosive rounds. She didn't need to tell her troopers to run this time; she caught a snippet of Staff Sergeant Hanson Warbeck hollered warning as the explosives arced towards their positions, forcing them to give ground. They had learnt to listen to the distinctive sound of the grenade launchers as well.
"Stancha!" She yelled over the din into her comms unit, her gaze picking out the subcommander for her platoon's heavy-weapons specialists some distance back. "How many rockets left?!"
Kim watched for a second as Corporal Stancha Melshim yelled around his own group. "We still have a couple!" He yelled back, ducking into cover as one of the Gutis took aim with their weapons, a debris cloud erupting as the shots made contact with cover. "But I can't get a clear shot on the Gutis!"
Kim made a sound of discontent, glancing around the battlefield before tapping her comms unit. She allowed herself to feel some sign of satisfaction that her group still retained battleline cohesion; she was in no mood to call out soldiers individually in the midst of a firefight. "Squads 1 and 3, I'm marking a fire target! Shoot to kill! Rockets, bring down the shield bastard!"
Kim drew in a breath as she highlighted her units, picking out one of the exposed rifle-wielding Gutis currently pinning down Staff Sergeant Yohann Fauser's squad with automatic fire. "Now!"
The soldiers of both Kim's and Hanson's squads reached out from cover as best as they could, rifles blazing to force any supporting enemy infantry to duck or get shot. Grenadiers came up a second later, all eight of them in both squads firing high-explosive rounds at the middle Guti powered suit. Rockets streaked overhead a second time as Stancha coordinated their fire against the shield-wielding assault Guti.
One of the soldiers beside Kim collapsed backwards, clutching his chest as blood spurted from in-between his fingers. Kim caught him just before he hit the ground, stopping only to yell for someone else to take him off the front line, before turning her attention back to the firefight. The remaining Blue Cosmos troopers ducked, while the braver ones taking shots for their troubles; the nearest one reeled backwards with a scream that was audible even where Kim stood as one of her own sharpshooters made an example of enemy bravado.
The remaining assault Guti, having learned from the death of its first partner, immediately sought cover, placing its shield high overhead while its leg tracks spun, moving it behind a concrete cover block. Two hit the shield, detonating in fiery plumes that sapped the equipment's protective value but failed to penetrate; the others fell amongst the cover blocks with little effect to their intended target.
The other squads fared slightly better. The rifle-wielding Guti facing Yohann's unit had disappeared under a firestorm of explosions as the grenadiers placed their shots with practiced accuracy, the force of the detonation throwing even the heavyset powered suit onto its side. The rockets followed up, one blowing off a limb while two more hit dead-center on the downed unit, penetrating its armor to kill the operator within.
With two Gutis down, the enemy made it their priority to focus their fire on Kim's rocket troopers. Stancha's squad scattered as both powered suits launched grenades at the rear before starting their advance, with the Blue Cosmos troopers bringing up the flanks. Kim ducked just in time as the assault Guti, left arm raised, raked Squad 1's position with automatic fire.
"Squad 1! Pull back!" Kim ordered. "Squad 2! Cover fire!"
Kim's order came none too soon, as her hearing caught the thudding sounds of grenades being launched again amidst the racket of guns firing. Scrambling from her position, she mustered as much speed as her crouching position afforded her, barely escaping behind cover as the previous line of concrete blocks became awash in blasts of fire.
"They're charging!" Yohann yelled. "Squad 3, suppressive fire!"
As the Blue Cosmos troopers pressed their advance, heedless of the damage their group was taking, Kim cursed under her breath. The infantry could be stopped, but the Gutis remained a key target, and it pushing the lines with its supporting troops was something that Kim had wanted to avoid at all costs. If the enemy broke through before Kim's troops could wrest the momentum of battle back from the enemy, the Gutis would have access to open ground, where they could pair their heavy weapons with their lethal ground mobility. There would be no chance of taking them down without heavy causalities by then. "Squad 1! Fall back to the third line! Squad 2, cover them!"
Kim kept her position as she watched the last of her squad pass her by, the sounds of battle encroaching on their position. The first Blue Cosmos trooper to run the corner of the cover block she was behind of met the end of her rifle in his face, Kim bludgeoning the trooper into the ground before finishing him off with a burst of fire.
Bursts of fire streaked across the area as the OMNI troopers opened fire from new positions. "You're under cover, 'sarge!" Hanson yelled. "Get back!"
Kim turned to retreat just as the assault Guti charged her position, leg tracks whirring, as it rounded the corner and swung its shield. Breath catching in her throat, she let herself fall backwards as the powered suit missed its strike, the impact cracking the concrete cover where it had struck.
Rolling with the fall, Kim came back up, the bursts from her rifle sparking harmlessly against the Guti's armored front, leaving little more than scorch marks, even as she backpedalled. The Guti raised its left arm, the barrel of the submachine gun on its arm staring back at Kim for a moment, before a spray of sparks caught its attention; Yohann fired again, the solid slug of his assault shotgun ricocheting off the Guti's head casing as she made it behind cover, Yohann close behind. "Troopers! Enemy powered suit is spearheading the advance! Prepare for-"
"Cudgel Leader! Danger close!"
Reacting by instinct at those words, Kim ducked down further, and the Guti approaching her crumpled as a burst of 12.5mm CIWS fire slammed into it, with the rounds that missed shattering the nearby concrete blocks; the powered suit was no match for MS-scale weaponry despite its strength over infantry. Behind Kim's unit, the Vanguard Gladius landed, its head-mounted CIWS smoking, with the Lightning and Launcher Gladius close behind. All over the spaceport, the mobile suits deployed; the Manhunters to Kim's position, and the Senegal squadron to the other three gates to support their allies.
"The difference in firepower is clear! Blue Cosmos troopers, surrender your weapons!" Ray's voice echoed from the external speakers. "Enough is enough."
The Blue Cosmos troopers faltered as they regarded the mobile suit. For an instant, Ray thought that he had gotten through to them; then with barely a pause they resumed their advance, charging towards the OMNI troopers.
"Wha-" Sheryl exclaimed. "Are they insane?!"
"So they chose this outcome," Ray gritted his teeth. "Hunter Leader, commencing fire support!"
The Vanguard Gladius opened fire again, destroying the last Guti just before a row of massive explosions ripped up the western end of Dakar Spaceport. Ray tore his eyes away from the viewscreen, gazing with shock as the Vanguard Gladius responded to his controls to face the direction of the inferno in the distance.
"Reinforcements?" Guy exclaimed. "But that's shorewards! No, wait-"
From within the fire emerged twelve mobile suits, eight 105 Daggers with varying Striker Packs backed by two Buster Daggers and two Fortresta Duel Daggers. Moments later the mobile suits opened fire, beams lashing their surroundings as they torched everything within reach. Ray reacted by instinct, the Vanguard Gladius bringing its shield forward as it leapt into action; from that distance a single beam reached out to strike the Vanguard Gladius' shield as it moved away from the infantry to prevent stray fire from hitting them. The originator, a Buster Dagger, adjusted its aim, and fired again, the howling shot casting the ground beneath with an eerie green glow as it impacted the shield of the Vanguard Gladius a second time, sending stray streams of plasma against the nearby buildings that gouged red-rimmed smoking lines into concrete and simply slagged everything else.
"Cudgel Leader to Scryer Leader!" Kim yelled into the intercom. "We've got enemy mobile suits on the southern end!"
"So I've heard," intelligence officer Major Nain bint Aamir replied, her calm tone set against a din clearly audible on her end. "What's your combat status?"
"Four casualties, but we're still in the fight. Enemy powered suit support is down."
" This has crossed over into a heavyweight fight. Wipe out the rest of them, then gather your forces and withdraw to the tertiary fallback point," Nain said. "Security cams have a view of their point of entry; we suspect submarine-launched assault torpedoes. Radar barely had time to respond before they broke for shore. "
"Understood," Kim replied. "Cudgel Leader out."
"Hunter Three, assist Cudgel Leader with the mop-up!" Ray ordered. "Hunter Two, you're with me!"
By now, Ray had separated himself from Kim's group, hastily crossing the spaceport to meet with the new enemies so that they focused their fire on him instead of the infantry's position. Beam shots lashed at the tarmac around him, tearing glowing trenches into the concrete ground, as the Vanguard Gladius evaded enemy fire left and right, while a rocket barely missed its mark, Ray angling his mobile suit's shield just in time for the warhead to deflect to his left before detonating in a fiery display mid-air. From the corner of his eye he could see the units of the Senegal mobile suit squadron, the GINN OCHERs advancing as they stormed from cover to cover, using the low-lying buildings and their own shields as best as they could.
"Blade Leader to Hunter Leader. We're in position to provide assistance!"
"Much appreciated," Ray replied. "Manhunters will take point and scatter their line!"
The Lightning Gladius fell into position alongside Ray, and their thruster-boosted jumps sent shockwaves across the ground as each landing embossed the tarmac with an additional set of deep-rooted footprints fracturing the concrete surface. The two Manhunters weaved their way past a row of hangars, the buildings soaking up most of the brunt of the enemy attack for the moment as some of them spread out to meet the OMNI units in battle.
"Figured we were missing something!" Sheryl exclaimed. "What's an operation against Blue Cosmos without a bit of their classical ultraviolence?!"
"An easy mission, perhaps?" Guy said, his Launcher Gladius landing from a boosted jump to join them, the last of the smoke trailing from its head-mounted CIWS evidence of its prior task. The mobile suit ducked under roof level of a nearby building as a beam shot lanced past, before it resumed it advance. "At this point I think we deserve that much, at least!"
"Blue Cosmos isn't well-known for their generosity," Ray interjected. "Hunter Three, scatter them with counterfire! Hunter Two, you're with me!"
"Acknowledged!" Guy replied. "Lighting 'em up!"
Sheryl pushed her controls forward, leaving the barrel of the Lightning Gladius' railgun folded and in fast-fire mode. "Roger! "
The three mobile suits of the Manhunters spread out, Guy eschewing the Agni hyper impulse bazooka of his mobile suit in return for of volume of fire as he advanced, shield hefted forward and horizontal in the Launcher Gladius' left arm. Flashes of gunfire lighted up the front of the Manhunter unit as it opened up with every ranged weapon it had, a storm of projectiles and beam shots reaching out from its full complement; its shoulder-mounted vulcans, hip block-mounted beam guns, the standard beam carbine it carried, and even blasts from its gun launchers. A short distance behind, the GINN OCHERs of Blade Squadron opened fire as well, forming a withering hail of shot against the Blue Cosmos mobile suits.
The Blue Cosmos mobile suits scrambled as the incoming weapons fire swallowed the two closest targets in a firestorm, the sheer volume of fire tossing the targeted Aile 105 Dagger and the Sword 105 Dagger about like puppets cut from a string as holes were punched into their frames. A Launcher 105 Dagger stopped to take aim, leveling its beam rifle at Guy, only for a railgun shot to smash through its right chest vent, the impact of the shot twisting the mobile suit about as its mangled arm joint gave way, and its right arm was sent flying. The Blue Cosmos mobile suits were split into two groups, one side taking cover against Guy and Blade Squadron's salvo, while the other group, with just three mobile suits, were faced with Ray and Sheryl.
The Blue Cosmos units facing Ray and Sheryl barely got off more than a handful of scattered shots before the Vanguard Gladius plowed into their leading unit with its shield, Ray pressing the initiative gained by Guy's barrage. Beam rifle held close, the Vanguard Gladius loosed a shot from the hip, the blast of energy impossible to avoid at close range. The enemy, a Fortresta Duel Dagger, stumbled backwards as it sought to regain balance, the beam shot directed at the center of its torso eating through layers of ablative armor with ease before petering out just short of a penetrating shot.
Even as both mobile suits were entangled in close-range battle, the back-mounted beam gun of the Vanguard Gladius swiveled on its mount, the gun hurling a green spear of energy at a 105 Dagger closing in towards Ray. The mobile suit brought up its shield in time for the shot to erupt against the rim of the shield, streamers of weapons plasma whipping orange-hot scars into the surrounding buildings and ground as it took aim with its beam rifle.
Whatever response the Blue Cosmos unit was planning was brutally cut short however, as a railgun round slammed into its unshielded right side, the hit aimed near-perfectly at the small space between the interior of its shoulder armor block and the right shoulder. Its right arm destroyed by the shot's entry, explosions chained across the 105 Dagger's upper torso as the railgun round exited from its left side, the force of the impact tearing its shield arm off to leave a flaming, crippled wreck to stumble sideways before crashing into the ground. Sheryl's Lightning Gladius stepped past the destroyed mobile suit without even a second glance, her railgun already taking aim at the Buster Dagger trying to put some distance between the two Manhunters and itself.
The Fortresa Duel Dagger punched forward with its shield in a desperate maneuver, the blow easily turned aside by the Vanguard Gladius' own block as it tried to put the Manhunters unit in its sights. Pulling away before the blow could connect, Ray let the heavy unit lurch forward before shooting it in the back twice, the beam shots from both rifle and turret gun setting off the Blue Cosmos unit's thrusters and torching its innards from behind.
Ray turned his attention to the last Blue Cosmos unit within reach, the Buster Dagger, as it ducked behind a nearby building block to throw off the Lightning Gladius' aim. Noticing the Vanguard Gladius, the Buster Dagger opened fire with its 350mm gun launcher; Ray corrected his course at the last moment, the high-explosive shell detonating against the left edge of the mobile suit's shield.
The Vanguard Gladius strove against the force of the blast; its shield arm was thrown aside from the force, but that was as far as Ray was willing to back down to. Right foot gouging out a furrow into the concrete ground, the Vanguard Gladius leapt forward, tossing its beam rifle for a beam sabre as it closed into melee range. The Buster Dagger fired its beam rifle, but by then the Manhunters unit was already well within minimum distance. The Buster Dagger backpedaled as the Vanguard Gladius thrust forward, the first strike taking off its left arm; a roundhouse swing in from its right sent the Blue Cosmos unit reeling, helpless as the Vanguard Gladius stepped forward and grabbed it by the head, plunging its beam sabre into the enemy's body through the neck joint.
The Vanguard Gladius turned to face in the direction where Ray had last left Guy at, stopping only to pick up its discarded weapon. "Hunter Three! Status!"
"Having the time of my life," Guy quipped, the sounds of weapons fire momentarily overtaking his voice, even in the cockpit. "Blade Squadron has some pretty good shots as well. I count five enemies left."
"These cheap shits aren't so hot after all," Sheryl added. "Good tools in the hands of shitty pilots."
Ray merely murmured a sound of agreement as he closed in on the remaining group of enemies, Sheryl following close behind. Something gnawed at his thoughts deep down, a line of thought that there was no way that Blue Cosmos would launch some haphazard attack on a spaceport that was only moderately important in the grand scheme of things, especially if the reinforcements had arrived by assault torpedo, which implied a significant naval presence just lurking out of view.
A new alert cut into his thoughts as a trio of torpedoes broke the surface a kilometer away from shore. A burst of light flared against the ocean surface as the torpedoes split their casings, and short-range missiles launched themselves out of the nearby shoreline, arcing straight towards the mobile suits defending the spaceport.
"Missiles! Incoming from the shore!" Ray warned. "IR type!"
The Manhunters and Blade Squadron scattered to find cover, CIWS and beam fire meeting incoming missiles as the steel rain fell around them, plumes of fire obscuring their view of the surroundings. Smoke wreathed the bodies of the mobile suits as they fired heat and chaff countermeasure grenades from launcher ports.
"Hunters! Report!"
"Hunter Two still active," Sheryl hissed from between clenched teeth. "Was that submarine support?"
"Hunter Three still on," Guy said. "I wouldn't be surprised, Hunter Two!"
"Watch for amphibious support," Ray cautioned as he braced the Vanguard Gladius against a nearby building wreck, flames flickering from its gutted interior. "We don't have any way of dealing with them right now. Blade Leader, what's your status?"
The GINN OCHERs were scattered about, but Ray saw no downed units. "Blade Squadron is still active. I have one yellow status, but we're still in the fight."
"So they really just want to lay waste to this place," Sheryl snapped. "Why bother even sending out mobile suits then?"
"It looks like it, but I have a feeling we're missing something," Ray answered. Changing the comms channel, he addressed the rest of the pilots. "Regroup; we'll focus our firepower. We still outnumber them in direct battle!"
A geyser of seawater erupted near the shore just as Ray finished his sentence, a dark form rising out of the sea and crossing the shoreline to the shrill alert of the Vanguard Gladius' proximity approach detection systems, its ground thrusters sending waves rolling in all directions as it made landfall on the border of the spaceport. With the spaceport suffering from outbreaks of fire all over, the surrounding illumination ensured that Ray saw little else of what had just crawled out from the dark seas, away from the flames of battle, save for the dark form's light lenses, its silhouette unfolding to reveal two leery lights of red glowing near where the head of a mobile suit would be expected.
"Another assault torpedo?" Guy exclaimed. "No, that's not-"
The first thing that Ray noticed was its height. While not the same height as the Destroy, it easily towered over the average mobile suit. A long component was hoisted into position by its right side; a single line of light glowed near its top, the position indicative of a targeting sensor for a gun weapon. The behemoth flexed what Ray assumed to be its other arm; it turned left then right, as though looking for something. Moments later Ray winced his comms erupted in a ear-piercing scream.
"WHERE ARE YOU?! RAY FERIC!"
Guy shook her head as the shout emitted from the open channel. "What the hell was that?!"
"That voice…" Sheryl said. "The Floggers' pilot…!"
On Ray's display, the warning for reactor radiation emissions instantly flashed, leaving no doubt as to the unknown unit's power source. "Manhunters, heads up! It's got a nuclear heart!"
"No way we can simply shoot it, then," Guy said. "This ain't looking good for us."
The behemoth's details came into view as it approached the burning battlefield, the Blue Cosmos units falling back to rally around it. At this distance Ray could now see its features; a GUNDAM-type head with a single V-fin, and a tall head crest ending in a sensor module, linked to a torso attached to a heavy base. Its movements were janky as it stopped using its ground thrusters and landed, four legs ending in sharp points folding out, each movement driving a hole into the spaceport's tarmac as it stepped forward. Alerts chimed as the Vanguard Gladius' onboard computer attempted to reconcile the silhouette and details it detected, alerts for the Rosso Aegis GUNDAM flashing through Ray's HUD for a moment before he disabled the automatic identification system. One arm clutched the grip of a long-barreled beam cannon; the other was held open, fingers ending in claws that clenched into a fist as it glared at the Vanguard Gladius.
"Vlitz Dyald…" Ray's voice trailed off. "Geroda must be here s-."
"I can hear you! It must be you! The average, nondescript-looking fuck! You won't even get to catch a glimpse of him," Vlitz snarled. "Die! DIE!"
The Manhunters evaded as Vlitz' unit hefted its beam cannon; seconds later a brilliant green lance of light swept through where Ray had been a moment before, the heavy weapon immolating any cover that got in its way. The Vanguard Gladius rolled and came up, beam rifle and shoulder-mounted beam gun hammering blasts of energy at the gigantic Blue Cosmos unit only for them to dissipate into streamers of energy against an invisible shield; on its back, four vanes extended.
"Beam deflection… a Geschmeidig Panzer system!" Guy exclaimed.
"We'll shut it down," Ray said. "All units, focus-"
Ray was about to order a concentrated barrage when a warning from the side forced him to reposition, the Vanguard Gladius turning to face its left as a beam shot lanced against its shield. The source was that of the Buster Dagger that Ray had put down only moments before, rising up against in jerking movements as it took aim at the Manhunters.
"What the…" Ray started. "I missed the cockpit?"
A second blast had both Ray and Sheryl duck as a Fortresa Duel Dagger, its back still smoldering with fire, rise up from where it had lain moments before, its railgun barrel crackling with electricity.
Guy blocked off a beam gun shot as another 105 Dagger rose up, beam rifle held forward, shield arm hanging by its side, the holes that riddled its body seemingly of little effect in keeping it downed. Ray swept his gaze around; the downed mobile suits were all rising up, even the armless corpse that Sheryl had shot through just now.
Ray caught sight in astonishment as the remaining Blue Cosmos mobile suits knelt down, their pilots slinging on personal firearms and leaving their cockpits to run for the nearest hangar building. Before he could open fire, however, their now-pilotless mobile suits stood back up and advanced, weapons blazing as the Manhunters were forced back. The OMNI pilots returned fire, but their shots faltered, striking non-critical areas or else aimed at areas that their enemies would have passed by the time their round had reached the location.
"Enemy reinforcements?!" One of the pilots of Blade Squadron said.
"There something wrong with the controls!" Guy exclaimed. "It's like… we're off! Just by a second, but there's definitely something going on!"
"That can wait! What the fuck is going on!?" Sheryl snarled. "None of these bastards should be moving!"
Ray glared at Vlitz's unit. "He must have something to do with both problems. Manhunters, reset onboard protection systems to free pattern! Get silhouette detection up and switch targeting controls to full manual and clear out its escorts! Trust your eyes before you trust the automatic target search! We won't be able to deal with the bastard otherwise!"
"Understood!" Sheryl and Guy replied.
Ray switched channels to address the African pilots. "Blade Squadron! Fall back and engage support fire! Engage manual targeting and shut down any remote systems; the enemy has heavy EM intrusion influence in the ar-"
A warning siren cut off the rest of the transmission, a burst of static mingling in as the nearest GINN OCHER took aim at the Vanguard Gladius and fired. Ray pulled his mobile suit backwards, the burst of 76mm rounds slashing through the night air and leaving scorch marks on the OMNI unit's shoulder armor.
The Vanguard Gladius evaded fired from both Blue Cosmos and their former allies, dodging behind a nearby building just in time to put it between itself and a hail of heavy caliber rounds that dug blasted holes into the structure.
By the sounds on the squadron comms, both Guy and Sheryl had just barely escaped the sudden betrayal. "Blade Leader!" Guy hollered. "What's the meaning of this?!"
No reply was forthcoming as the GINN ORCHERs regrouped around the now remote-controlled Blue Cosmos units. The sudden attack from the GINN OCHERS had forced the Manhunters away from them; now they advanced as one, weapons fire striking the meager cover left to the OMNI units.
"Fuck!" Sheryl cursed. "The entire squadron was an enemy agent cell?!"
A shot bounded off the edge of the Launcher Gladius' right shoulder shield as it returned fire. The beam shot struck one of the GINNs' shoulder, blowing the limb clean off, but the mobile suit continued to advance. "I don't think so. It must be something related to the new enemy unit!"
"A system intrusion, probably, seeing what's happened to us just prior," Ray muttered. "None of them ever made it to the field, but if it's Blue Cosmos, I can see how they'd end up with one h-"
"Traitors! Boot-licking sympathizer scum!" Vlitz screamed. "Die under a pile of corpses you helped make! Die feeling the weight of betrayal! Under the weight of all those you've betrayed!"
The frontmost part of the torso of Vlitz's unit split open, revealing a stub-length barrel for an energy cannon. The whine of charging energies had barely finished registering within Ray's mind when the monstrous mobile suit fired, the blast of the multi-phase beam cannon raking through everything in front of it. The beam of energy tore its way through the spaceport, tearing an ugly gash across the various boarding terminal buildings in its way as the Manhunters scrambled out of the way, ending in a detonation of roiling energies as the blast petered out.
Ray spared a glance as the destruction, reflections of orange and red playing across his mobile suit's visor as the spaceport burned with the unmatched fury of wanton, hate-fueled destruction. "Hunter Leader to Scryer Leader! Cudgel Leader, respond!"
Neither Major Nain bint Aamir nor Kim answered him, only static. The comms band monitor flexed its lines in a chaotic wave with no pattern; Ray swallowed as the onboard computer warned of possible Mirage Colloid particles in the region.
"Welcome to my death march, Ray Feric," Vlitz cackled, the urge to laugh in sheer bloody-minded joy cracking his voice. "The visage of this Necromancer will be the last thing you'll ever see!"
CE 74, April 8th, Dakar Spaceport, Senegal, African Community
Night 02 26
Major Geroda Rells landed his Jet Dagger L heavily, making sure to keep away from Vlitz's rampaging RGX-ZM Necromancer. The unique transformable unit was supposedly built based on the recovered wreck of a mobile suit purported to have been ZAFT in origin; Blue Cosmos had resurrected the design to serve as the shadow of the Destroy, a unit meant for total usurpation of the combat situation to its advantage through subterfuge rather than sheer firepower.
Geroda set the Jet Dagger L into a kneeling position, clambering out of the cockpit. Beside him, Captain Hanna Ignas did the same, dropping onto the ground, rifle slung and ready to move. No sooner had Geroda cleared the shadow of his own mobile suit did its eyes light up and its cockpit snap shut; moments later it lifted off into the air, joining the procession of mobile suits that surrounded the Necromancer together with Hanna's Jet Dagger L.
The unit's unique feature over others of its day was its use of the Mirage Colloid Virus Spreader, based off that of another illegal unit originating from the previous war. He had hoped that the system would have been able to force the Manhunters into a complete shutdown, but that had been a wistful hope; the components of the Necromancer had been hastily put together during the trip here, and there hadn't been time to update the Virus Spreader's data packages to the more modernized ones used by Blue Cosmos. It hadn't been all for naught, however; no doubt their comms were scrambled, and the Senegal mobile suit forces had none of the protections or counter-systems outfitted on their OMNI counterparts. The battle had gone from a numerically-equal fight to one heavily biased against the Manhunters.
Geroda quelled his thoughts. As long as Vlitz accomplished his tasks, everything else would be a success. Nodding once to Hanna, the two began sprinting for the nearest flight terminal, left untouched by Vlitz for a specific purpose.
CE 74, April 8th, Dakar Spaceport, Senegal, African Community
Night 02 27
The armless 105 Dagger charged straight at the Vanguard Gladius, heedless of the beam shots it was taking in its body. Ray sidestepped the rampaging unit, letting it hurl itself against the bombed-out remnants of a nearby hangar, before opening fire with both beam guns. The once-dead mobile suit staggered a second time as Ray spared no expenses, substituting computer-assisted accuracy for sheer stopping power at short range; a deluge of beam fire cut the crippled mobile suit down, shearing off its legs to leave it lying on the ground. A second later, light poured forth from the 105 Dagger's interior, and Ray barely jumped out of minimum range as the Blue Cosmos unit self-destructed, the blast swallowing everything within its range in a firestorm.
Smoke trailed the edges of the scorched Vanguard Gladius as it landed from its boosted jump, ducking as a Fortresa Duel Dagger swung a beam sabre at it in a horizontal slash. Dirty grey smoke spewed in great gouts from the heavily-armored mobile suit's back as the Vanguard Gladius charged into the enemy with its right shoulder, throwing it backwards; Ray was forced to give up his attack, however, as a GINN OCHER charged in from the side, heavy axe swinging. The Vanguard Gladius ducked under the blow, chopping off one arm from the GINN with its beam sabre, but was forced back further as the Fortresa Duel Dagger pressed its advance, firing its beam rifle and railgun to keep the Manhunters unit on the defensive.
"Hold your blows with the GINNs unless you've got no choice!" Ray hollered.
A charging GINN OCHER was stopped cold as the Lightning Gladius sidestepped a sword blow, before kicking out the older mobile suit's legs from underneath it. Sheryl fired her unit's railgun at near point-blank; the blast shattered the GINN OCHER hip block, putting it to ground for the rest of the fight. The Senegalese mobile suit, however, simply pulled itself over, and began crawling towards the Lightning Gladius, loose parts trailing behind it in a facsimile of spilling innards.
Sheryl clicked her tongue and took aim again, only for the proximity alarms of her unit to force her to step back; a 105 Dagger had flanked her position and would have taken her mobile suit in its side with a beam shot had she not given way. Blasts hammered the ground around the Lightning Gladius as it sought new cover, its original opponent diminished but not taken out of the fight.
"Yeah, we'll just nick the enemy group one hit at a time and whittle them down slowly! That 'oughta work!" Sheryl groused. "I don't think endurance is on our side, though!"
A distance away, the Launcher Gladius' shoulder weapons howled, autocannons and gun launchers bringing low a 105 Sword Dagger as it charged Guy's position. Even as the enemy mobile suit stumbled to the ground, Guy kept his barrage going, mutilating what remained of the mobile suit beyond recognition.
"This would be a lot easier if Blade Squadron could eject," Guy said. "Otherwise we-"
"WHEN I GET YOU IN MY HANDS, I'LL TEAR YOU APART!" Vlitz screamed again, his voice rising in a frenzied pitch as he took aim at the Launcher Gladius currently backtracking its way between two hangars. Guy cursed as he put his mobile suit into a forward lope, thrusters glowing for an emergency boost jump.
The front of the Necromancer flashed for an instant as Sheryl took aim, her eye for speedy accuracy nearly unaffected by the need for manual targeting, and loosed what would have been a killing strike against it. Although its Geschmeidig Panzer system had no effect against solid rounds, the Necromancer's Phase Shift had no trouble stopping the powerful strength of the railgun shot from penetrating its armor, although the kinetic strike forced it to shift nonetheless. Shifting its stance, it took aim with its beam cannon and fired, the Lightning Gladius avoiding the blast only at the last moment as it abandoned its position to two approaching 105 Daggers and a GINN OCHER with a bazooka.
"Thanks. Owe you one for that," Guy said, the Launcher Gladius stabilizing itself as it landed a distance behind from its previous position.
"Helps none of us to go down at this point," Sheryl replied, her Lightning Gladius taking aim at one of the 105 Daggers. The railgun hurled a second round that struck home, sending the 105 Dagger spinning into the tarmac even as the other mobile suits advanced mindlessly. Sheryl's target, however, jerked once before pushing itself off the ground, a jagged gash in its frame where its left arm had once been attached to. As though nothing was wrong, it took aim at where the shot had come from and immediately began returning fire, heedless of ammunition spent or its damages.
Ray shifted cover as a Buster Dagger began sniping his position, blasts of building concrete and metal sent flying by alternating shots of solid rounds and beam shots. Ray paused to take aim as a shot sizzled past his mobile suit by scant millimeters; the return shot from the Vanguard Gladius slammed into the Buster Dagger's hip block, the shot burning through armor to melt its leg joint into uselessness. The Buster Dagger stumbled to one knee as it attempted to drag itself forward with its remaining leg and left arm, its right arm still ready with its gun launcher as it sought to bring down Ray. Beam rifle fire met it head-on, Ray making sure that he had placed as many shots as he could into his target before breaking off just in time to avoid another beam blast from Vlitz's Necromancer. He winced as the shot cut through a GINN OCHER that was attempting to flank him, and the ex-allied mobile suit crashed to the ground in two broken halves.
Ray's comms crackled once, an unexpected sign after having heard nothing but Vlitz's shouting for a while. There was a burst of static, then Nain's voice came on, backdropped against a cacophony of other voices and the sounds of fire and disaster alarms on her end of the communiqué.
"Hunter Leader! This is Scryer Leader. Report!"
"We're engaged by enemy mobile suit forces!" Ray yelled back, striving to make himself heard as the din of weapons fire threatened to distort his voice, even through the insulated cockpit of his mobile suit. "Regular units backed by an unknown superheavy! It's not the typical mobile armor! Not a Destroy either! Blade Squadron has been compromised; they're either under remote control from outside or they've turned against us!"
If Nain had any surprise at Blade Squadron's change of sides, her voice told nothing of it. "Battle status?"
"We're keeping them at bay," Ray paused to change position again as a 105 Sword Dagger stepped into range, taking a vicious swing at the Vanguard Gladius; deflecting the blow with his mobile suit's shield, Ray returned fire, beam shots tearing chunks out of the unmanned Blue Cosmos unit. It backed off for a moment, letting a GINN OCHER with a heavy axe step forward for a fast swing that Ray barely managed to avoid, before stepping back into the battle, a sword thrust nearly spearing Ray on the end of its blade had he not twisted his mobile suit's body to the side. "It'll take a while to get through all of them, however!"
The Vanguard Gladius popped the covers on its left arm's beam sabre rack and lashed out to catch the opponent in its weakened waist block; with a push, Ray chopped through the enemy unit and kicked what was left away. The Sword 105 Dagger's lower half toppled to the ground, little left but the hip joint connecting a pair of legs, but the upper body still crawled forwards on one arm, CIWS guns flashing as they peppered the Vanguard Gladius' front with automatic fire. Ray slammed his shield into the approaching GINN OCHER, chopping off both arms and a leg with a trio of swift strikes before the older unit could regain its balance, even as sparks played out against the Vanguard Gladius' frame from the impacts of light-caliber fire. A fire alert had him kick the GINN OCHER into the side of a building while he put his unit into reverse; seconds later the Necromancer lanced the immediate area with beam cannon fire, incinerating what was left of the 105 Sword Dagger as the Vanguard Gladius and the now-disabled GINN OCHER narrowly avoided a grisly end. The Vanguard Gladius continued its evasive maneuvers as beam shots slammed into the ground as two Jet Dagger Ls screamed overhead, providing support fire to the ground forces.
"Hunter Leader to all! Enemy has aerial mobile suit support! Stay alert for incoming fire!" Ray warned.
"The night just keeps getting better and better," Guy grumbled, hiding behind the burnt-out husk of a nearby building as the two Jet Dagger Ls flew overhead, and began turning around for another strafing run.
"The small fry are easy in comparison!" Sheryl said. " This thing must be nuclear-powered, there's no way it can run all those gimmicks on a battery drive!"
"How dare you continue to stay alive!?" Vlitz thundered. "If you have any loyalty left to the Earth, then submit! Kneel down so that I can end you quickly and painfully! KILL YOURSELF AND SAVE ME THE TROUBLE!"
"Bastard's completely off his rocker," Sheryl growled in the midst of the Lightning Gladius firing, the shot taking an arm off an approaching GINN OCHER, sending it crashing to the ground with its rifle still tightly gripped. "We aren't dealing with a human anymore!"
"Reinforcements are…" Nain's voice momentarily vanished as another beam cannon shot seared past the Vanguard Gladius. "… unit. I repeat, reinforcements are inbound. ZAFT units!"
"ZAFT?!" Ray shot back. "What's ZAFT doing here now?"
"We'll have time to answer that later," Nain said. "Work with them for now."
"Better than nothing, I guess." Ray said. "Roger. Hunter Leader out!"
No sooner had Ray ended his transmission did a 105 Dagger dash around the corner of a nearby building, all defences abandoned as it charged the Vanguard Gladius. Beam damage did little as Ray returned fire; the sudden attack prevented him from accurately hitting vital points, and the remaining shots that would have thrown it off balance or sent a human pilot scuttling for cover or defence barely slowed it down as it barreled forward, thrusters on fire.
With Nain's transmission still in the fore of his thoughts, and in the heat of the moment, preparing to meet a soulless opponent in battle, Ray was slow in heeding the approach alarm on his cockpit. By the time the sound registered in his mind, and he began looking towards the source, the solid hammer flail had already smashed into the 105 Dagger from above it, demolishing its head unit and throwing the enemy mobile suit face -down into the ground.
Ray reacted by instinct, the Vanguard Gladius backing off while slamming a barrage of beam gun fire home. As the 105 Dagger exploded, its remains burning, a GOUF Crusher landed heavily behind the same hangar that Ray was using for cover, its hammer retracted and ready for another killing blow. The black and red-trimmed mobile suit, backdropped against the flames, cast a shadow on its front, with the only illumination being its monoeye.
"ZAFT Raider Team on station for crisis assistance," Commander Alan Reidr said to a shocked Ray. "What's the situation, OMNI pilot?"
Afterword:
The joint battle event between the Manhunters and the Raiders is finally in play. It's been something long in my planning but only usable in short stints given the nature of the original GUNDAM SEED Destiny storyline. I'm a bit hesitant because of the somewhat convoluted situation I made to bring these two otherwise-enemies into cooperation, but at the same time the muddled lines that characterize the second half of Destiny means that this chance was too great to pass up.
If the Destroy was the face of Blue Cosmos domination, then the Necromancer would be the totem of total annihilation. Reserved for when something has to be rendered non-existent instead of merely decimated into submission, I created this opponent as a preliminary showcase what the supremacist organization really had up their sleeves even when they're shackled in their twilight hours.
