Chapter II:

Meeting the Crew

Grey stood there, his eyes clenched shut in expectancy. He could feel the heat cast off by the expelled 105mm round.

I guess this is how it all ends.

Mere seconds before the Zaku's machinegun round would have torn his body to mangled pieces, Grey felt himself abruptly get shoved away from ground zero. His eyes flew open just as the shots spat into the ground, sending bits of pavement up, and letting out an earsplitting explosion. He opened his eyes and saw another Federal Forces office lying before hir, also clad in a normal suit. The fact that normal suits were tight enough that they left nothing to the imagination, Grey quickly deduced that this person was a woman. One of her legs was missing at the knee, most likely blown off by the explosion.

Grey hastily looked around. The two soldiers were in a small alleyway, temporarily out of the Zaku's sight. Getting up, he ripped a length of cloth from one of the dead civilian's coats, and set about tying up the young lady's wound. Hopefully the bandage wasn't contaminated or anything. Concerned that the officer might be someone he knew, he turned her over and peered into her face plate. After staring at her for a second, he could hear himself gasp.

This was a bad dream turning into a nightmare. The girl who was sprawled out in front him was someone he knew since childhood. She was the type of girl you dreamed about in those angst filled teenage years, the girl next door. Someone who was so beautiful it almost hurt to look at them. He knew the girl well enough, they lived next door to each other all there lives, eve went into the academy together. They were good friends, as good of friends as a girl and guy could be, without taking it to the next step.

Grey watched her blink her eyes open and watched her lips weakly form a smile, blodd dribbling from the corner of her mouth

"Looks like I saved your ass grey," she whispered hoarsely.

Grey heard the sound of a cockpit hiss open, and froze. The enemy pilot was coming to inspect his kill. Grey grabbed his rifle and cocked it back, crouching protectively in front of Gracy's prone form.

* * *

The odd shape of a Koumusai re-entry shuttle floated lazily down to the earths surface. Its once dark green outer hull was marked with dings and carbon scorch marks from some type of battle, but it seemed to still be withing normal working order. Its crew was light, a pilot, and a co- pilot/gunner. There cargo? AN Ms-14S Gelgoog Commader type, and a bulkier cousin of the Gelgoog, the MS-14C Gelgoog Cannon. The two pilots had taken this time to rest. rather the clambering into the cramped shuttle, they found it was more peasceful to rest in there 'Suits.

The commander type was piloted by a middle aged man named Drake Carmicheal. He was of average build, with neatly cropped blond hair framing wide blue eyes. He was used to Mobile Suit combat, and had still been using his old Zaku I until they finally finished testing the Gelgoogs, and he was one of the first to get his hands on this highly mobile, and very deadly 'Suit. The Gelgoog Cannon was given to Jacob Green, a close friend. The other pilot was in his early twenties; his long ebony hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail, catlike in his movements and just as lean.He had known drake since gradutating from the Mobile Suit academy back on Side 3. Drake took the younger man under his wing and helped him hone his skills, and had pulled afew strings and got him the new 'goog cannon varient, something that was even harder to get then the normal Gelgoog.

* * *

A Flight of Jet Core Boosters was making its normal patrol over the eastern section of the Indian Ocean when they picked up something on there sensors, a lone koumusai. Not one to overlook an easy battle, and not the type to stray from racking up another kill, the squadren was more then happy to rid the sky of that ugly green beast

"Alright, here is the plan, we break off into two groups of three fighters, elevate ourselves thirty degrees, and we will be able to hit the side of the koumusai easily, and stay out of the range of there machine guns. Hell boys, we should be able to make it back to base for a late lunch, and have a story to tell at the table" Grinned the squad leader

The fighters broke off into two groups of three, and headed off to meet the koumusai

* * *

The Co-pilot scanned over his senosr readings when the main alarm klaxon begin to ring in the cockpit.

"Shit!" He gasped

"What is it?" grunted the pilot, flipping the machineguns on.

"Feddie Fighters, six of em, looks like they spotted us." the co-piolt squeaked, wiping the beads of sweat of his forehead.

The ship shook as they took the first barrage, and shook agian as the second wave hit them

"Damn, the foreward guns are out, afew more hits like that and the reactor will blow, get those pilots on the comm, tell them we could use there help"

* * *

A little vid-screen popped up on both of the Gelgoogs' monitor, showing the image of a rather nervous looking co-pilot.*

"We've come under attack by a unit of enemy fighters and our main guns have been knocked offline!" he gulped.

Drake snorted. "And I suppose you want me an' Green to get rid of the pests?"

"It would, uh, appreciated, sir." The other answered tersely as he involuntarily ducked, unnerved by the third salvo that hit the Koumusai.

"Idiot" Murmured drake as the image of the co-pilot winked off.

"alright kid, heres the plan, ill drop out ot the shuttle first and distract them, then you drop out and get them with that beam cannon on your 'Suit"

Jake nodded as he flipped the required switches in his suit.

The scarlett colored mono eyes of both 'Suits winked on as the dark cargo hold was lit up as it opened from the botom, revealing wispy white clouds and the blackish blue water of the Indian Ocean.

Drake smirked as he felt the Gee's tug at him as his 'Suit dropped from the shuttle, and started to fall to earth

* * *

"Captian, it looks like they are dropping there cargo!" Exclaimed one of the pilots.

"Over the ocean, are they idiots" questioned the captian.

The "cargo" lit his boosters after falling for a few seconds, he leveled his beam rifle at the lead fighter and fired, ripping the cockpit to shreds. He boosted on top of the next one and pointed the beam cannon point blank at the cockpit and fired agian, grinning as he wathed it become reduced to molten metal.

* * *

Jakes suit fell next, but he didnt let it fall silently, as soon as he could, he ignited his boosters and shoulder rammed a Jet Core Booster, knocking it away, laughing as it flipped end over end

"Stupid Feddies" He growled as he grabbed hold of another plane and blasted it in half with his shoulder mounted beam cannon.

He watched as drake drew his beam halbred and ignited it, slashing the last two fighters in half.

* * *

The mobile suit pilots had just finished locking there 'Suits up inside the Koumusai when the comm vid winked on agian.

"We've got ourselves a problem, boys," the pilot of the ship commented, a bit more confident

than his co-pilot.

Drake gritted out, a bit agitated; "That being…?"

"The shuttles are busted up pretty badly. Where we were gonna put you boys down at orginally is out of the question, we would never make it- ," the pilot checked his gauges, "- and we don't have enough fuel to escape Earth's pull."

"Then where are we going?" Jacob asked.

"The only option we have left is to either ditch the shuttle over the ocean, or try to make it to Africa."

* * *

Grey yawned as he threw down the manual he had been reading for the past few hours. He felt that he knew more about the RX-79[G] Desert Varient then the mechanics did. all he wanted to do now was get some sleep before his breifing tommorrow.

He looked out one of the windows on the medea to the ocean below, it was so beautiful at night, dark black with the soft white starlight reflected off it. Gracy always wanted to see the ocean at night.

"Its beautiful at night, isnt it?" spoke a young woman who was seated in the passenger area with grey.

"What?" asked grey, coming back to reality.

"The ocean, it looks pretty at night." Said the girl, smiling

"Yea, something like that" replied grey, rubbing between his eyes

"You heading to Almalash Base too?" She inquired, her voice sweet, in that always chipper sort of way.

"Yea, im taking command of the 06th Team"

grey closed his eyes, feeling sleep start to set in

"Oh cool! Im going to Almalash base too, ill be the communcations officer." grinned the woman, who had to be at least 18, fresh out of the acedemy, still happy.

"Whats it like on the front?"

"you ever heard of hell?" asked grey, a tone of annoyance in his voice

The girl seemed taken back by that remark, of course she heard of hell, who hasnt

"Yes" she simply retorted

"Being on the front is at least 100 times as brutal as hell, now if you excuse me, I want to get some sleep before we arrive"

The last comment seemed to shut her up, so grey had no problem falling asleep.

* * *

"God, how can people stand this heat?" Grey couldn't help whining as he stepped off the Medea. Luckily, he had tied a red bandana around his head, just below his hairline on his forehead, and that was soaking up most of his sweat. But oddly enough, with the intense heat, his short black hair was still sticking up in spiky clumps.He let a hand pass thru his hair, and grimaced as he wiped it off on his shirt, trying to get the sweat off his hand. He scanned the horizon, and trudged off to the command center.