UC 0079

With the power of mobile suits being made clear to the Earth Federation, and especially to General Revil, two projects were funded to begin the research and production of their own Mobile Suits. While Project Victory was given a large amount of funding for their promises of super high performance units, the second project would provide results within days of its inception.

Designated as Project Battleline, these researchers would first produce the RRf-06 Zanny, a suit mainly made from scavenged Zaku parts. Its performance was barely up to that of Zeon's Zaku 1, and with a high failure rate due to extremely rushed production of the first prototypes. Yet as the Federation rapidly lost ground, it was decided that these Zannys would be produced alongside the Guncannon First Type in order to simply hold ground until Project Victory could provide more viable mobile weapons.

Now Zeon intends to land its forces on Earth, something the Federation must stop if it hopes to keep the war away from its home territory. This is the story of two pilots, a newtype and oldtype, fighting for the future of humanity itself.

January 19th

Chaos and senseless noise, that's all the pilot could hear outside of his cockpit. Engineers and pilots alike were running every which way, preparing for the battle to come. The Columbus Class Carrier Juniper was one of only a dozen ships that had been deployed to intercept the Zeon fleet preparing to land forces on the Earth.

The pilot heard the signature sound of their communications coming online, as the Captain of the ship began speaking. "Petty Officer Sato, due to mechanical failures, your Zanny will be the only mobile suit launching from the Juniper as of now. The Engineers are busy working on the others, however I expect you to give adequate covering fire for our ships and fighters nonetheless."

Though his fists clenched at his sides, he simply replied, "Understood sir." The thought of facing Zakus alongside other suits had been scary enough, yet the idea of having to engage multiple of them alone was terrifying.

As the captain switched to other communications, one of the Male fighter pilots switched on. "Hey Judah, you know you can claim mechanical failure as well, that death trap is just gonna get you killed."

Though the offer was tempting, he spoke without giving himself a chance to really think it through. "Thanks Yun, but I'm not gonna let you guys go out without coverage."

Yun was quiet for a moment, then chuckled. "Suit yourself Zanny boy, you're the one who volunteered for that thing."

"Quiet on the comms, disruption on the scanners has increased within danger zones, prepare for battle!" Barked another pilot.

Judah took hold of his controls, and with a deep breath, sent his suit on its first steps towards the launch pad.

As the man below signaled green for his launch, Judah flicked on his thrusters and rocketed out into space. Though his hands were already shaking, he held a white knuckle grip on the accelerator to stop it from pushing too far. All around him the steel of the suit was rattling with loosely tied joints, and the display in front of him was flickering from minovsky interference.

Yet he didn't need his more complex sensors to see what was in front of him, a fleet of ships at least thirty strong. Though the backline appeared to be made up of repurposed civilian transports, most of these ships were Musai class Cruisers. At the head of the Armada was a red battleship, either that of a Chivvay or Gwazine class. While he couldn't tell from a glance, Judah knew both would have the firepower to dominate the battlefield.

Of course all around him were the defiant ships of the Federation. Half a dozen Salamis class Cruisers were already opening fire with their mega particle cannons and missiles, along with three Magellan class Battleships that acted as the spearhead of the fleet. Finally, six Columbus class cruisers were sending out their compliments of fighters, along with perhaps another eight or so Zannys that were ready for combat.

"MS Squads one through eight, move to engage enemy suits! Fighters, engage those transports and destroy the pods they hold!" Came the voice of one General Revil, who had accompanied these surviving ships personally to oversee the battle.

With those orders, Judah continued forward towards the enemy. Ducking under the line of fire, his cockpit was soon alight with the purple and green lights as the enemy opened return fire.

From the bows of the Musais, dozens of green Zakus could be seen pouring out, with a few others with different colors that designated them as possible aces and/or commanders. As these Zakus began flying towards them, Judah could hear the shouts of his allies as they called out targets.

Grabbing at his controls, Judah brought his hand-held cannon up to aim at the enemies. With a couple pulls of the trigger, he sent two rounds flying towards the enemies. To his amazement, one of them managed to land in the head of one of the Zakus, piercing through the mono-eye and leaving it seemingly blinded. Yet he had little time to celebrate, as more enemies came to fight.

One of the Zakus in particular came flying straight towards him, opening up with a machine gun. Jerking himself to the side, Judah heard rounds whizzing past his suit, with the occasional chink of a glancing blow causing him no shortage of anxiety.

As his opponent grew closer and closer, Judah heard a blood churning scream from the radio. One of the Zannys near him had a heat hawk embedded into its chest, with its owner turning its monstrous eye towards another victim. A yell signaled the next casualty, as another pilot was caught in a hailstorm of bullets, until one finally struck his reactor and detonated the suit.

Shaking heavily, Judah tried his best to focus on his opponent. As they closed in, they drew their own heat hawk, and ignited the axe blade in an orange hue. Yet just as it was nearing melee range, Judah sent a shot towards them. Piercing through the cockpit, it was flung backwards, as the lights of its eye and thrusters dimmed. It was the pilot's first true kill, though he hardly recognized it as such in the moment.

Just as he was collecting himself, through the Minovsky Interference his sensors finally managed to catch something coming from his side. The Zannys head turned to reveal the headless Zaku flying straight for the Petty Officer axe drawn. Though he spun himself to avoid collision, damage warnings revealed that the enemy's heat hawk had struck the shoulder of the left arm, nearly severing the arm entirely.

Having to one hand it, the hand-held cannon was raised to fire at the headless suit. Though it was less accurate without the stability of a second hand, at close range it was more than able to strike the upper back of the Zaku. The green suit seemed to go limp then, signaling that the shot had crippled it.

The maneuver had turned Judah to look back towards his own fleet, just to watch one of the mighty Magellans detonate. From the smoke flew its seeming killer, a black and red painted Zaku, with extra thrusters on its legs and back, and a rose painted on its chest. In its hand was a bazooka, with its magazine being ejected and replaced by its wielder. The sight was equal parts beautiful and horrific, and it brought to view just how the battle had been going.

The Federal fleet had been left in tatters, with over half the ships in flames. Bits of metal were all that remained of most of the fighters, with the remaining having resorted to dog fighting the Zakus to gain some sort of advantage in the fight. Looking around, Judah could see that he was the only Zanny left on the field, as all the rest had been destroyed nearly on contact with the enemy. Most horrifyingly though, the Zeon transports were flying around the remains of the Federation, and preparing to drop their pods onto Earth.

Though Judah prepared to launch forward to intercept them himself, he heard Revil's voice come on.

"All remaining forces retreat to the remaining Columbuses. We will be evacuating this battle, and returning to Earth to try and aid in the defense of Earth. I repeat, retreat to remaining carriers."

A flicker of resentment attempted to drive him to continue fighting, yet Judah suppressed it, and flew back towards the remaining Colombuses. Their anti-air guns were warding off the Zakus as best they could, yet almost as soon as Judah landed, they closed the doors and began boosting away.

Once Judah brought his Zanny to a standstill and let go of the controls, he began to break down. He could barely recognize when Engineers began guiding him away so they could begin work on his Zanny, though one statement made it through. "I don't know how even one of these things survived the battle."

Watching the retreating ships, the pilot of the Black and Red Zaku grinned wide. They'd torn their ships to shreds, and once again proved superiority over the Federation's pitiful attempts at humanoid weapons.

"Hey Andre, get the hell back to your Papau, you're gonna miss your own drop pod if you don't get refilled now." Came Andre's wingman.

Yet even as he did as suggested, he spoke in a soft tone. "Garu, you shouldn't be so worried. Zeon's victory is certain, just look at what their pitiful attempts at mobile suits could do."

"You know one of those 'pitiful attempts' took out two of us, right?" Garu responded, eliciting a moment of silence from the ace. Did the Federation have someone skilled enough to take down a Zaku in one of those things?