MS Gundam Wing: Revolution
Book three, Part Nine
Libra was nearing Earth, the massive diamond shaped battleship moving slowly through space, finally in range of optical detection.
"It's enormous," Treize found himself quietly murmuring. He had KNOWN it was huge, of course, but that was just an academic knowledge. He had, clearly, never really grasped the huge scale of the thing until now.
"I REALLY wish we had Fortress Barge right about now," Miliardo admitted, the head of the White Fang forces waiting in space not far from Treize.
"I'm not sure even it's beam weapon would be effective," Treize admitted.
The majority of forces were still docked in carriers, waiting until the Libfra grew closer. While Mobile Suits were useful, they only had a limited amount of air or water aboard. They couldn't just hang there in space, waiting.
"So how was Colonel Une running around in space as long as she did in the Epyon?" a perceptive reader asked.
"She was raiding supply depots created by OZ."
"Ah."
Back to our story...
"At least everyone has accepted your overall authority in this," Miliardo observed mildly.
Treize snorted.
"Hmm?" Miliardo looked at him curiously.
Treize looked amused as he pointed out, "You know as well as I do that my 'authority' will only last as long as our objectives all agree. I expect several military factions want to seize Libra for themselves rather than destroy it."
"And the colonies would gladly see you dead," Miliardo added wryly. "Wu Fei is still nursing a grudge...," he mused.
"I rather regret needling that young man," Treize admitted.
Before Miliardo could tease his friend about that, the communication system signalled an incoming call. "The US commander," Miliardo noted as he hit 'receive.'
"Our recon unit had picked up activity from Libra," Colonel John Carter reported, sending a video to both men.
From the base of the huge battleship, twinkling lights were pouring out into space. It would have been beautiful, if you didn't know those lights were Mobile Doll combat units. And it appeared there were HUNDREDS of them.
"They're launching earlier than we expected," Treize noted.
"Maybe Akio wants to deploy his forces in overwhelming numbers," Carter noted, "even if he risks them running out of fuel."
"They ARE just Dolls," Miliardo reminded them both, "he doesn't have to worry about pilot survivability. He could just launch them on a ballistic trajectory towards us, then activate them when they reach us."
"My recon unit requests permission to engage the Dolls," Carter reported as another message arrived, "they want to test the combat capabilities."
"No," Treize quickly said, "even with surprise, the numbers are too great. We need all our forces combined to win."
There was a pause as Carter listened. "Uhm," he looked sheepish, "the recon force has already engaged the enemy."
Treize and Miliardo exchanged a glance. "Oh dear...," Miliardo muttered quietly.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
The US recon forces were a group of customized Space Taurus units, who had been floating with extra supplies in the path Libra was expected to take. Powered down to minimal life support levels, enemy sensors would just think they were a clump of asteroids.
"Colonel, we have no idea of the Doll's capabilities!" Captain Kaye Davis argued. "We need to engage them, if only for the combat data."
"No. We've been ordered to stand by," Carter replied.
"Bzzz, bzzzt," Davis fiddled with the communications, "your breaking up. As I didn't hear the last order, we will attack."
"Davis!" Carter yelped.
"Wish us luck," Davis signed off. He switched to local command frequencies, "Lt Hill, Lt Cooper. We're going to attack the nearest bunch of Dolls. I am doing this against orders, so you and your wingmen are not compelled to assist me."
Gerri Hill nodded, her brown hair falling in her eyes. "We need to know how much Libra's improved them," she said, "I'm in."
"Agreed," Sam Cooper replied. Quietly he added, "I am detaching an officer to serve as a relay... just in case."
'In case we get wiped out,' Davis thought, but he didn't disagree. "OK, the Dolls will be at their nearest point in five minutes. Do NOT power up systems before that, we want to maintain surprise." He paused, "Good luck, all."
Waiting was murder, even for just five minutes. But they did so, then as the Dolls came their closest, they brought up targeting systems then opened fire.
Surprise was maintained, and as the eleven Taurus' opened up, they each managed a clean kill. Then the Dolls programming kicked in, and the nearly twenty remaining in the group swooped in to engage. They attacked swiftly, the Virgo units firing off their powerful beam cannons. Worse, they fought in a coordinated way, using each others beams to hem in pilots.
"Come on! You want some of this!" Jack Calhoun yelled as he chased a Doll down, then yelped in surprise as it's electromagnetic shield blocked the beam.
"I REALLY hate these Virgos." Hill muttered. Thankfully they weren't good close range fighters, so if you could get near a beam saber could take them out.
"ARGH!" a pilot screamed as their Taurus exploded.
Hill checked their radar, and realized with a sinking feeling that most of the squad was gone. Lt Cooper was dead and his wing was too, and Davis had died, his second taking up command. "Private Grant!" she addressed the reserve officer Cooper had sent to observe, "Get clear. Do not engage any Dolls, just go."
"But sir!" Grant started.
"They're going to wipe us out, get that data back to base!" Hill ordered.
Grant took off, full thrust away from the battle. A few Virgos opened fire, but they apparently decided Grant wasn't a priority and went after the squadron survivors. Hill and the remaining pilots bobbed and weaved through the beam canon fire, taking out Dolls where they could.
Hill got clipped, spinning for a moment out of control. Wrestling with the controls, she aimed at a Virgo and rammed it, overwhelming the shield as they both went up in a ball of fire.
In a few moments, the remaining fighters were gone. The surviving Mobile Dolls simply resumed formation, rejoined the main force, and carried on.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Well, that's worrying," Juri Arisugawa noted as they went over the data the US had sent.
"I thought we knew what a Virgo unit could do?" Releena asked. Despite a lot of arguments she had come to the front in the carrier with Juri, along with several Gundams. The colonies had several other carriers along too, with regular Mobile Suits and Noin and Sally's Tallgeese units.
"We do, under normal conditions," Noin said.
Juri nodded, "Normally, Dolls have very limited abilities to respond or adapt. They come loaded with pre-programmed battle plans, and can't change on the fly."
"These weren't doing that," Releena realized.
Noin continued, "I would have expected them to wipe out the Virgos, especially with them caught by surprise. Instead except for the initial losses, they counterattacked successfully."
"So either they're using a much more sophisticated control system," Juri mused, "or they have vastly improved the Dolls programming."
"Either way, it's bad," Releena agreed.
Noin frowned, "Let me check something..." She accessed information on her command console, flipping through documents. "The Epyon unit Akio captured, it had the Zero System installed. It can also be used in concert with the Mobile Dolls."
"So Akio himself might be running them?" Juri asked.
"Or his subordinates. Either way... we have to expect the Dolls to be much more dangerous enemies than we thought," Noin said.
"Treize has already reached the same conclusion and put out a warning," Releena observed as they got the message. She added, "He also thanked the US forces for attacking the Dolls, even if it was against orders."
"It would have been worse if we all charged the Dolls assuming the Virgos would be all dumb and stupid," Juri nodded.
Time passed as they waited for the Dolls to get into range, then finally a loud warning alarm went off. "Ok, time to launch," Juri said, She paused then kissed Releena, lingeringly. "Wish us luck," she smiled.
"Luck," Releena agreed.
"Don't do anything stupid," Noin added as they hurried to their docked suits.
"Who, me?" Juri chuckled.
All around them Mobile Suits deployed from carriers and formed up in formations. OZ, the Colonies, US, Russia, International forces and more, all assembled for one purpose.
'Of course, half of us would shoot the other half if they had a chance,' Releena thought cynically. Still, it was an inspirational sight.
The forces neared... time passed... and finally beam cannons fired...
To be continued...
Notes: I used several novelists names just because I needed to name the US pilots SOMETHING. Also, yes, John Carter of Mars. Eh.