A/N: READ AND REVIEW, OR—Ah, forget it. You'll do whatever you want to. No "R&R" post thing will convince people to review no matter how hard I try…
BTW, thanks to all you who have posted reviews thus far. Although I've already got the entire storyline set in stone, I probably will include a few of the ideas that have been posted. Again, arigato gozaimasu!
Ah, yes. Almost forgot. I don't own Mobile Suit Gundam, the characters, etc. If I did own all that, I wouldn't be working in a co-op with a Michigan-based refrigeration engineering firm during the summer. No, I'd definitely be writing this in Maui or somewhere nice where it never, ever rains for an entire month at a time, all the while taunting us with occasional 3-hour-long windows of really nice weather, thus lulling us into a false sense of security and tricking me into leaving my car windows down when I go into work (damn you Mother Nature!).
Both that, and the fact that if I DID own MS Gundam, this wouldn't be a fanfic, now would it? ^_^
Note that this is an unusually-long chapter. Think of it as an extra-long episode.
Chapter Three: Escaping the Captured City
"I told you before, we're taking the mobile suits apart for maintenance reasons," Karen exhaustedly tried explaining to the 50-something Titans inspector.
Again.
For the fifth time since he arrived.
Sighing heavily, she restrained herself from taking a nearby wrench and seeing if this man had any brains between his ears or not, and instead decided to just keep on following the vacuous man as he finished up his bi-weekly inspection of the VBDF hangar.
"Chief Joshua, can you please tell me what happened to five of the mobile suits that are on this list, but missing from the hangar?" the portly Titans officer asked, finally recognizing her existence as he looked up from his clipboard. His bushy gray eyebrows almost masked his pupils from her sight, as he only tilted his head slightly above the selfsame clipboard.
Internally bracing herself for the worse, she put up the facade that she had been practicing for the past week-and-a-half, one of frustration and exhaustion (which, at that point, were only half-faked).
"A few days before you people got here, two of our mobile suits on patrol were caught in a small meteor shower. We managed to rescue the pilots, but we had to abandon the MS out there," she explained, waving her hand vaguely to the ceiling of the dome covering all of Von Braun. "They've probably been reduced to scrap by now." She paused slightly, hoping the round man would buy it.
"And the other three suits?" he asked, slightly annoyed that she had stopped explaining. That bought Karen a small grin that she enjoyed purely internally. She couldn't afford to drop her annoyed front for a second right now.
"You'll find the bits and pieces of them in the crates in the storage room," she replied as they started walking towards the stated room. Time to employ some brown-nosing on a very massive level. "I figured that, since the Titans are here, we won't have to worry about anything and it'll give us time to fully maintain the parts to our MS. Taking them apart and servicing each individual subassembly would be a lot more effective than keeping the whole thing together and not being able to access certain areas of the construction," she said, making sure to lace her voice with "feminine frailty" when she talked about the presence of the Titans, as though she were certain that she'd never, ever have to worry about anything now that they were around.
"Well, I'm glad someone appreciates our presence here. You'd be surprised how many people really hate our being here," he replied, a stupid-happy smile spreading across his face.
You don't know the half of it, pal! Karen had to work hard to suppress the laugh that threatened to break out at any time. Oh, brother! This guy's as gullible as they come!
"Well, it looks like everything is OK here," he said, clipping his pen to the clipboard. He smiled back at her as he walked off to his jeep. "And don't worry about anything, darling. Now that us Titans are here, you won't have to worry about keeping these old MS running. I'm sure you've got a nice young fellow waiting at home for you to cook him a nice dinner."
It took everything Karen had for willpower to keep from decking the aging man straight in the face and smile at him instead. She was just lucky he didn't notice how her left eyebrow was twitching with extreme anger, how a vein on her forehead was starting to protrude, or how her hands had clenched into extremely tight fists.
She almost screamed when the ever-so-nice officer went ahead and waved good-bye to her before he drove off.
I swear to God, every Titan out there is trying to kill me. Each one uses a different method, and I think I just survived the one that "kills with kindness."
This was a facet of the Titans she had hoped not to encounter: the kind Titans officer. Granted, this one was a bit too kind, acting more like a kind grandfather than anything else, but it still had the possibility to make her stance against the Titans waver at a critical moment. She had heard what had happened when you began to feel for the enemy.
The Commander told me what had happened when he didn't take out that Zaku pilot. Nearly every man in Kiki's village was killed by the anti-personnel charge she launched after he hesitated.
She gave her head a good shake. Remember Midori, and how you felt after that incident, Karen. Never forget what they stole from her.
Resolving herself, she turned away from the parking lot and headed towards the three crates the Titans officer had looked at earlier. It was a good thing she'd managed to distract him away from actually looking inside. If he knew anything about mobile suit construction (which was unlikely, but one never knows what kinds of cards fate can deal at any given time), he'd have seen that, although two of the crates did contain two dismantled mobile suits, the third was filled with parts from a wide assortment of MS, along with a small compartment meant to hide people, as well.
There would be no way in hell that kind of cargo would pass inspection.
"I'm home!" Karen shouted as she walked through the door of the small home she and Eledore lived in. It wasn't much of a home—a kitchen, a bedroom, a bathroom, a small screened-in porch, and a living room, that was about it. It wasn't much, but, as they say, it was home.
"Oi! Come check this out!" Eledore replied from inside the living room. "Seems the Titans tried to pull a British on Granada," he continued as she sat down next to him on their old couch. "Didn't work, though." The "British" he referred to was, of course, Operation British, the first attack ever consisting of a space colony being dropped onto the surface of an inhabited body in space—namely, Earth. That colony drop by the Zeon had missed its intended target of Jaburo, but managed to completely annihilate Sidney, Australia, instead.
So now the Titans are doing colony drops, Karen thought to herself. When will enough be enough?!
Karen shook her head slowly in frustration. "When the hell will the Federation government reign these bastards in? Sometimes I think it'll take the death of every spacenoid out there before anyone in the government will notice what's going on out here."
Eledore nodded grimly. "Yeah. I also heard that a week ago the government even signed legislature that'll expand the power the Titans get to wield. Makes you wonder what they're thinking, doesn't it?"
Karen merely sighed as she ran her hand through her red mane of hair. "Well, by tomorrow, we'll be out there fighting them, alongside the AEUG."
Eledore smiled a bit as he leaned back and put his arm around his lover. "Then we'll have to be sure to give those Titans absolute hell once we're out there. All this sitting around and waitin' is getting me almost wishing we were already out there."
"I know what you mean," Karen replied, leaning into Eledore's half-embrace. "Just wait 'til I tell you about the Titans inspector that came by today…" she started.
After eating what they regarded as their last meal in Von Braun, Karen and Eledore packed their belongings in a couple of duffel bags. By the time they were finished sorting through what they would take and what they wouldn't, it was an hour before their scheduled meeting time with Frank, Midori, and the three techs that were also defecting at the VBDF hangar.
Just enough time to check on the crates and prepare themselves mentally for the excursion they were about to face.
The two donned trenchcoats and fedoras, and made their way to the VBDF hangar. As scheduled, Frank and Midori were both there, along with two of the techs, all making sure everything was going as planned.
"Hey guys," Eledore said as he and Karen got out of their jeep. He walked over to the back of the vehicle and retrieved their belongings. "Everything set?"
"Everything's good to go," Midori replied. Her voice conveyed a mix of anticipation, anxiousness, worry, and maybe even a bit of happiness. Happiness at finally escaping the captured Von Braun.
Frank just nodded, with a slight grin on his face.
"Where's what's-his-face, the other tech guy?" Eledore asked one of the other techs, the one with medium-length curly brown hair.
"You mean Kenji? He called me earlier and said he'd be running a bit late. Something about car trouble or something," the tech replied. "He said he wouldn't be long and that he'd meet us at the spaceport."
"Good," Karen said, looking over to the cargo truck. The crates were already loaded. "This is good. So far, no really big problems…"
Why is it that, just when someone decides to point out that there are no problems, that the worst kind of problem could arise?
A pair of headlights made their way to the hangar just as the six began getting into the cab of Frank's truck. The vehicle owning the headlights, a military-issue dark blue personnel truck with a large, yellow, bird-like logo emblazoned on the hood, rolled to a stop and six fully-armed Titans riot police scrambled out.
"Oh, shit…" was all Eledore got out before the leader of the Titans taskforce screamed out a "Freeze!" The six ceased all movement as another figure got out of the personnel truck.
"Son of a bitch…" the other tech said. "That bastard Kenji sold us out…"
Kenji just smiled and chuckled, his beer belly bouncing up and down. "Sorry, guys, but this is the end of the line," he shouted towards the group across the 6-meter span between them.
The second tech's green eyes blazed in anger. For a minute it seemed as though he would run charging across the gap between them and rip Kenji limb from portly limb. He was just big enough that Eledore could bet he could do it, too, if not for the half-dozen armed Titans soldiers between the two.
"What the hell is the matter with you?! You told me you hated the Titans, that you'd do anything to get them out of here!" the large tech yelled as he started walking towards his former colleague.
"Yeah, well, ya gotta think, the Titans are willing to give plenty of money and benefits to whoever helps them root out this rebel problem they've got," Kenji replied, shrugging.
The large tech stopped walking as the automatic weapons of the six Titans clicked in readiness to fire. With a slight grin and a speed that seemed almost impossible for a man his size, the tech quick-drew a pistol from a holster under his coat and fired. The shot managed to hit the traitorous Kenji straight between the eyebrows, spraying blood and gore onto the personnel truck behind him.
The return fire from the Titans squad tore through the large man, dropping him within five seconds. Those five seconds were just enough for the five other defectors to jump into the cab of Frank's truck without getting hit by any stray fire. Frank wiggled his way into the driver's side, flipping switches like mad to get the truck going. Fire from the Titans soldiers bounced and ricocheted off of the truck's cabin and body, thankfully not directly hitting any flesh or fuel tanks. As soon as the truck was able to, Frank gunned it, somehow managing to mow down two of the Titans soldiers and smashing their truck in the process.
"We gotta get to the spaceport, now!" Frank managed to bite out. Midori looked over at him, eyes widening as she saw the spreading red stain over his right shoulder.
"Frank, you're hurt!" she half-yelled, somehow tearing off a part of her jacket sleeve and pressing it against his injured shoulder. Even after all she'd been through, the sight of blood still bothered her greatly, especially blood coming from someone who was practically an uncle to her.
"I'll be fine. One of the shots tore a chunk of plastic or something out of the cabin… just grazed me, that's all…" he said through clenched teeth. Looking over at her, he saw the panicked look on her face, and turned his pain-felt grimace into a wry grin. "Guess this means my life as a solid-waste transporter is over."
Midori seemed somewhat relieved by his grin, and managed one of her own. "Yeah, I guess so."
"That's OK. Hated the job, anyway."
For some reason (beyond mere fate, most likely), no other Titans patrols found them before they got to the spaceport. Of course, there would naturally be a military checkpoint at the sprawling spaceport complex. The flimsy wood gate proved little resistance to a multi-ton cargo truck barreling through at around 130 kilometers per hour (A/N: 130 km/hr is about 80.8 mi/hr). The guards at the gate apparently weren't very experienced with handling situations like those presented to them at that moment, and thus responded rather poorly, scrambling in no actual formation and just firing at where they though the truck would move (which, of course, was ultimately not where the truck moved).
Driving through truck lanes as well as pedestrian terminals (both empty due to the Titans' hold of "unauthorized" Von Braun traffic), the group finally reached their destination.
Frank's cargo ship reminded Karen very much of an upside-down six-tube missile launcher, the kind she used during the One-Year War in southeast Asia, except it was much, much bigger. There were three rectangular cargo holds, one to the left and right of the main body, and one on the bottom. Near the back two small thruster "wings", deployable along the bottom half of the ship. The left cargo hold doors, situated at the very front of the ship, were open, showing the inside of the hold. The crates from the previous loads were inside, leaving plenty of room for the next three.
"Don't have much time…" Karen said under her breath. She turned to Frank. "How quickly can we load those crates in?"
The wry grin appeared once more. "Why bother with subtlety at this point? The truck should be able to make it inside the hold without too much trouble… I hope," he replied, nodding towards the doors.
Eledore took a moment to approximate the door span. "You sure this truck'll be able to fit through those doors?"
The wry grin spread into a full-fledged smile.
"Nope."
As the truck approached the freighter, Frank increased the speed a bit. With an ear-grating squeal of metal grinding against metal, the truck forced its way through the cargo doors and inside the expansive hold. Bringing the truck to a halt, Frank was the first to pile out. As the others made their way to the door leading inside the freighter's passenger area, he took a moment to look at his truck.
The doors to the hold were made out of the same high-tensile steel that many mobile suits were constructed from, which meant that they could stand up to quite a bit of punishment. They had managed to come out unscathed, but the truck was another matter. Most of the outer fiberglass and plastic on the sides had been peeled away, exposing the metal structure underneath.
"Damn. Just had a new paint job done, too…"
Midori, the last one from the other four to reach the door to the interior of the freighter, turned back as she reached the door. "Frank, let's go!"
"Right," he replied, running towards the door. Pulling down a lever on a control panel, Frank went through the door as the hold doors began closing.
Frank ran to the cockpit as fast as his legs could carry him. When he got there, he was surprised to see that Eledore had already begun the start-up sequence.
"Where are the others?" Frank asked from the doorway.
"Down in the galley. Midori's looking for some bandages for that shoulder of yours," Eledore replied, not looking up from the control panels.
"Good. Everything checking out OK?" Frank asked as he got into the pilot's seat.
"Yeah. Looks like you keep this old thing pretty well-serviced."
"Thanks. We'll have to talk more about modern mechanical maintenance after we get out of here."
"Yeah."
The ship lifted off less than five minutes later. A few trucks of Titans police managed to find their way to the freighter, but there was little that their firearms could do to stop the freighter from leaving. Frank took the ship from a hover to full-throttle forward thrust as soon as he was pointed at the doors of the spaceport.
"Hang on!" he shouted, right before the massive freighter smashed its way through the primary spaceport doors. The doors gave way with a little bit of resistance, since they were designed to merely keep the port pressurized, and weren't the doors meant to keep ships in or out. Had the secondary doors been closed, there would have been no way for the group to smash their way out.
"So, where're we headed off to?" Eledore asked after a brief silence.
"Shoal Zone of Lagrange Point 1. Few of my buddies in the AEUG decided to hide out there for a bit to recover from a mission they just pulled off," Frank replied. "From what I hear, the Titans pretty much leave the Shoal Zone alone for the most part. There's the occasional patrol, but if you know how to hide in the debris, you can fool 'em."
Eledore nodded and turned back to watching the stars outside. Something to his right caught his eye, and he took a closer look.
"Shit. Looks like we didn't make it out as clean as we hoped," he said, frantically looking at the control panels in front of him. "Hey, doesn't this bucket have any weapons at all?!"
Frank turned and stared at him, his face showing a look of incredulous disbelief despite the wound on his shoulder. "You actually think I'd be able to get ahold of any ship-mountable weapons, much less somehow put them on this thing, with those Titans here? You're a lot stupider than I thought…."
Eledore stared back at him. "Well, then, what do you have?"
Meanwhile, inside the MS hangar of the Titans Pegasus-class battleship Blue Rogue, Commandant Vaughn Devlin prepared himself and his men for further pursuit of the freighter.
"Listen, men. I want to take that freighter intact if at all possible, but if it shows any signs of resistance, open fire and try to disable its engines," the tall, black-haired commandant shouted at his mobile suit pilots. "I want people to interrogate, not corpses to examine!"
The five "Yessir"s from the men reassured Devlin. He had served with those same five men since the formation of the Titans. He knew their abilities, and allowed them to tailor their Hi-Zacks accordingly. After his five subordinates had loaded themselves into their mobile suits, he got inside his Gaplant and got ready to lift-off.
"Commandant Devlin," the captain of the ship said through the comm link from the bridge. "Please, let our MS corp handle this. There's no need for me to let a high-ranking official like you risk yourself on such a small mission."
God, the last thing I need. Another brown-noser captain.
"We'll be fine. Just another walk in the park," Devlin replied, putting on a false grin to help appease the captain's worry.
"I still wish you'd at least take half a squadron or so of our own MS with you…"
"Don't worry about us, really," Devlin said as he switched off the comm screen. "Brownnosing moron."
"Sir," one of his men said, opening up another comm window on the panoramic cockpit screen. "All MS report in the green and good to go."
"Good. Lift off!"
"How's it look, Chief?" the one remaining tech asked Karen as she looked out the galley window into space.
"How's it look? Like that Pegasus is launching MS, that's how it looks. I can only assume that Frank hasn't installed any kind of weapon on this tub," she said, looking over to Midori, who only shook her head.
"Oh, that's just great. Out of the frying pan…" the young tech mumbled, grabbing at whatever restraints were located on his seat.
Midori turned to him and gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. Frank may look like he doesn't have much in the way of wits about him, but I know he's prepared for something like this."
"I got nothin'," Frank replied.
"WHAT?!" Eledore screamed. "You mean you didn't even think about what might happen if a Titans ship gave pursuit?!"
"Hey, you people didn't exactly give me a whole lotta time to prepare for this little stint, OK?! You think I can just walk into some random store and ask the clerk for a beam cannon or somethin'?!" Frank shouted back as warning fire shot across the side of the ship. Some random Titans officer started talking about the terms of surrender, but that transmission was cut off as Frank punched through the screen.
"Well, aren't we all cool, calm, and collected?" Karen asked sarcastically as she made her way through the cockpit door. "Let me guess; neither of you has a clue how to get away from that ship."
"Pretty much," Frank replied simply. Eledore just humpfed.
"Well, aren't we lucky that a certain woman has an eye for detail. Frank, I noticed each of your cargo holds has a separate thruster. Does that mean that these things can detach from the main body of the ship?"
"Yeah. Each one can detach and fly by itself," Frank explained. Realization finally dawned on him. "You aren't suggesting…"
"You can bet your ass I am," Karen replied. "Eledore, get down there and tell everyone to get into the left-hand cargo hold. It's the one with the crates, so it's the most valuable to us."
"Right," he replied, making his way out of the cockpit and to the galley.
Frank was practically in a panic by now. "Now wait a goddamn minute, here. You're telling me we're gonna separate the cargo hold and just fly away on our own? What about my freighter?"
"To sum it all up, yeah. We're also going to separate the other cargo holds and program them to fly off in different directions. The main part of the ship will keep on flying forward, so it looks like we're still in here. It'll make them think we're stashing illegal cargo or something—"
"Well, we are stashing illegal cargo!"
"As I was saying," Karen continued, very annoyed at this point, "the other containers and the main ship will fly off in different directions, as will the container we'll be in. If any Titans MS follow our container, we'll be to the Shoal Zone by the time they realize which one we're in and hopefully the debris or your buddies will take care of them."
"The plan makes sense and all, but what about my freighter?" he shouted back as one "warning" shot found a destination somewhere along the side of the ship.
"You can go ahead and stay here, if you want. I'm sure the Titans will love to have a big guy like you to interrogate," she replied, her tone crossing between nonchalance and apathy. Her eyes, on the other hand, conveyed a great amount of annoyance and anger. "Listen, if you want to stay alive and fight for Midori, you've got to come with us. Now!"
Fight for Midori…
"What are you doing?" Karen shouted as Frank started his way back to the cockpit.
"Even if they are morons, those Titans will never believe that this thing is manned if we just rely on the autopilot. Someone's gotta be in there piloting. Otherwise, that container the rest of you are in will get captured for sure," he replied. "What do you think you're doing? Get to the container!" he shouted as he shut and locked the cockpit door. Another blast that hit the ship knocked Karen away from the door and down the hall towards where the others were headed.
Sorry, Midori-chan. I just can't let you get captured. I can't let you get hurt again.
Even though he hadn't been told about Midori being raped by the Titans officers, he had known the moment he had seen her after the event that something terrible had happened. The intense light in her eyes had been dimmed. Knowing Midori as he did, he knew that only something vastly tragic could allow for something like that. He had seen it only twice before: when her mother was killed in a traffic accident, and when he had told her that her father had been killed in combat.
I can't let something like that happen to you. You're too young to see what I've seen. Live on, Midori-chan, and get those Titans bastards back for whatever it was they did to you.
"All right," Karen said as she shut the door to the port-side cargo hold. "We're taking off. Eledore, get to the controls. Fly this thing like it was on autopilot. Be sure to fly it at an angle equal to that of the starboard container. Midori, Al, get strapped in." Al, the other technician, nodded and strapped himself securely in. Midori went over to Karen and grabbed her by the arm.
"Where's Frank? Why isn't he here?" Her eyes bled fright and concern.
Karen shook her head. "I'm sorry, Midori, but he insists on flying the main body of the freighter to lure the Titans away."
Any hope there was in Midori's eyes instantly melted after hearing that. Tears in her eyes, she tried running for the hatch leading back into the freighter's body, but Karen held her back.
"Listen! We've got to worry about our own asses right now! Frank made his decision; he chose his path! Now let him walk it!"
Midori's resistance gradually ended, her arms and legs hanging limp. Pain-filled sobs, ones that could only be felt by someone who had literally lost everyone she considered to be family, heaved from her as she slumped down to the deck after Karen let go.
After three "Surrender now" transmissions and several volleys of warning shots, Devlin was getting impatient. The first transmission had ended rather abruptly, when a fat, grungy man had punched his camera, and the last two had been made towards static.
"Men, I don't think this one wants to come with us. Prepare to fire at the following coordinates on—" he started, but trailed off as he watched the freighter split into pieces.
The left, right, and bottom cargo holds seemed to almost peel away from the main body of the freighter, each one going a different direction. The main body, on the other hand, managed to maneuver its way away from a warning volley fired from one of the Hi-Zacks, and blasted away from the MS group as fast as it could. The engines on the containers also fired, all of them being propelled in opposite directions.
"Commandant, what do we do?" one of Devlin's subordinates asked. The man seemed a bit panicked, but made sure to keep his cool while talking with his superior officer.
"Hmmm… Norris, you and Glenn go for the right container. Geoff, you go for the bottom one; it's taken a little damage, and probably won't put up much resistance if our quarry is inside. Kaleb and Jorj, you go for that left container. I'll get the middle part."
Each pilot acknowledged their orders and headed off to intercept the fleeing pieces of the freighter as Devlin blasted off in pursuit of the main body.
"There it is!" Eledore shouted out. Karen looked up to the screen representing what was in front of them.
"Shoal Zone…" she said in amazement. She had heard of what had happened there, the massive battle that had taken out hundreds of ships and MS, as well as a few colonies. She could see why it was that no one had tried to rebuild anything out there; the amount of debris was simply staggering.
Eledore carefully piloted the lumbering cargo hold around the fused remains of a Musai that had rammed a Salamis-class. Karen covered her mouth as she saw the bodies of the bridge crew of the Salamis, all killed when they had been exposed to the vacuum of space. Right when he had passed it, fire from their lower back-left shot up and hit the debris they had just passed.
"Freighter section, you are hereby ordered to cease movement and prepare for boarding," the youthful voice of a Titans officer said. There weren't any communications screens, so the warning was purely audio.
"It just keeps on getting better, don't it?" Eledore half-jokingly said, turning his head towards Karen. "Can I discard this facade of a crappy autopilot yet?"
She grinned at him. "Not yet. Let him keep on thinking that you're just a computer moving a few sticks and pressing a few buttons."
Lumbering by a few destroyed Magellan-class ships, the freighter hold seemed to be playing chicken with half of a Columbus-class, until it reached minimum safety distance and finally hit its thrusters, missing the destroyed ship by mere meters.
"Damn, tha's gotta be some shitty autonav comp," Kaleb said to Jorj in a heavy Australian accent. "Pilot prob'ly programmed i' 'imself."
"Yeah. Mebee its sensor lens is fogged over," Jorj replied, his own accent one of French descent.
Both men had been born and raised on Earth. As soon as they had heard about the formation of Jamitov Hyman's paramilitary group, the Titans, they had been among the first in their neighborhoods to sign up. They had been immediately placed under command of Commandant Vaughn Devlin, and since they were the only two who hadn't come directly from the American continent, they had made quick friends with each other. They always joked about the "idiotic" spacenoids, and always made them the butt of any and all dirty jokes they told.
"Looks like it's beginnin' to speed up," Kaleb pointed out as the main thruster of the freighter hold fired. "Maybe the comp saw us an' got scared."
Jorj grinned. Kaleb was a good friend, but he was so damned arrogant that the other members of their team had a running bet as to when Kaleb would let his overconfidence get himself killed.
The grin died when he saw, clustered amongst the debris, a fully-armed and nearly-undamaged Magellan class start opening fire.
Kaleb's Hi-Zack, modified with more armor and weapons, wasn't able to dodge all of the shots, and was quickly reduced to scrap as one of the beam shots found its mark, directly hitting Kaleb's cockpit.
"Kaleb! You bastards…" Jorj said as he gunned the thrusters to his Hi-Zack. Unlike Kaleb, he had modified his Hi-Zack for extreme mobility in space, adding thrusters in places any technician would deem "insane". However, that increased mobility had saved Jorj's hide many times in combat.
Unfortunately for him, the increased number of thrusters weren't able to help him dodge a veritable wall of energy. The incoming fire from the Magellan was soon added to by another ship, a refitted Salamis-class. Jorj was clipped twice before a beam found his MS's reactor, detonating it in a split-second.
TO BE CONTINUED…
A/N: Whoa, whole lotta stuff goin' on, eh? Well, just stay tuned for more updates on this fanfic. I'm just a bit surprised I was able to write 80% of this chapter from 4-8 PM, rather than some time like 2 or 3 AM (which is usually when my writer's block goes to sleep and I can write a whole lot).
One more thing. Hopefully, I'll have some images of ships, MS, etc. associated with this fanfic up soon. I'll be sure to give a web URL sometime in the future. A friend and I already have a 3D computer-generated model of one of the central MS from later on in the story, and I'm working on a model of Frank's freighter (which is a LOT easier to do than a mobile suit, believe you me!). With any luck, I'll have some sort of webpage up and running by the time we reach said central MS in the storyline. And NO, I'm NOT going to let you know what it is right now! That would be a bit too much to give away, even for me!