The day the masses of men learn to think for themselves is the day anarchy reigns and chaos prevails. There are a few outstanding leaders in the world, but the majority of people exist to be controlled.
- Gihren Zabi

Chapter 3: Treasure Hunt


- February 5, UC 0083 -
- 0750 hours (CST) -
 The Titans ships were all approaching the colony in a standard formation, outwardly passive and disinterested in the affairs of the colony just like Federation ships pretty much always were. No one really took the Titans seriously these days, they were just Feddies with black shirts and black mobile suits. Monsha aimed to change that, as the hatch to the forward hangar opened up he could just see a row of Zakus all lined up for him to kill. "This is Unit Two to Home Run. Ready to kick some ass! Where's that Musai you said would be in the area?!"

A Hizack was maneuvering around in space a few hundred meters in front of the Alexandria, this one belonging to Lieutenant Larson. She didn't seem in any particular rush to move out of the way of the catapult, not that Monsha would have waited for her to move anyway. "This is Larson to all units. I've identified the Musai as the cruiser Scarface, formerly assigned to the Zeon Mobile Assault Corp's Special Forces unit. The ship is now registered to a Captain Mitsuo Black, a bail bondsman from Side 2."

Monsha powered up his thrusters and scanned the area. "What the hell? He's a bounty hunter?"

"Captain Black is in charge of a private investigating firm. They salvaged the cruiser after the war and restored it out of their own pockets. I used to work with him to hunt down Zabi remnants before the Federation formed YOUR unit. And we were damn good at it too."

Bate snickered to himself. "Well that explains Larson."

"And it also explains what that Musai's up to." Adel added gently. The catapult fired right then and Bate's GM Quell fired into space, followed by Monsha and Adel's suits as they drifted towards the colony.

Monsha did a quick systems check and frowned at the data he was getting. "Bate, these new suits aren't all they're cracked up to be. The old GM Customs were alot faster in space..."

"These units fight best inside of colonies, which is where those Zabis are hiding out." Bate aligned his mobile suit towards the colony and started towards the bay block. "I don't want to hear you bitching all day Monsha, just do your job already!"

"Okay, right..." Monsha couldn't help but notice that the colony seemed to get bigger the closer they got to it. It seemed to him they should have been close enough to touch down on it, but every second that passed the thing just kept getting bigger. "Hey Chap, what's our range?"

"20 Kilometers Lieutenant."

"20 klicks?! How big IS that thing?!"

Over the radio, Bate and Adel could hear Larson laughing at him. "Stupid Earthnoids, you just never learn... Oh, don't look now but the Scarface is launching mobile suits into the colony."

Monsha looked into the distance where three black mobile suits were heading towards the colony; two Rickdoms and what looked like a Kaempher. "What are those guys up to?"

"They want the bounty, idiot." Larson said sharply. "You're not the only ones who watch the colonial police reports. Black's gang wants to round up those Zeek holdouts and deliver them to the Republic of Zeon for war crime trials. That's how they finance their business, you know."

A low, grim voice crackled over the radio that made everyone else's skin crawl. "No matter what their purpose, spacenoids should not be allowed to move about freely with weapons. Arrest anyone who interferes with this operation, is that clear Lieutenant Bate?"

Bate fought back a shiver, then responded loud and clear. "Understood Colonel, will comply." Bate couldn't shake the feeling that he'd heard Jamitov's voice somewhere before... then he remembered. His worst nightmares. "C'mon gang, you heard the man. Bate Team, move into the colony and secure the area. Larson Team, secure the bay block and cover the colony exterior. Everyone else standby and await further orders."

Bate set his mobile suit down on the bulkhead next to the bay block. Adel set down as well, but Monsha came in at a bad angle and almost lost his footing on the metal. "Damn, this thing's always spinning!"

"Knock it off Monsha. Get into the colony and keep a low profile. We're here to round them up, not start a mobile suit battle."

"Roger..."

The three GM Quells and a few older GMs moved into the bay block and started with the airlock controls. Larson looked again at the three Scarface mobile suits closing in and changed to Captain Black's usual frequency. "Scarface, this is Rugrat, gimme a dollar here."

A voice on the radio crackled back. "Hey Gwen, is that you? Hot damn, you sound sexier than ever!"

Lieutenant Larson smiled in her cockpit. He sounded just as stupid and ignorant as the last time she saw him. "Stow it Galen. Who's out there with you?"

"Roberto and Appoli. You have to ask?"

"Of course not. You're after that bounty right?"

"That's right. And get this, one of them's a genuine member of the Zabi line. Apparently she's Duke Degwin's second-cousin's niece."

Larson raised a brow. Back in the old days she would have passed out from the shock, then brought out her special bag of tricks with the hope of collecting her cut from the bounty. But with the Titans calling the shots now, anyone who didn't have an Earth-stamped birth certificate wouldn't even get credit for the assist. "Guys I hate to do this to you, but the Titans want to bag this one themselves, and they don't want outside interference."

Roberto broke into the channel with his usual devilish laughter. "Don't forget Gwen, we've dealt with the Feds before. As long as we follow the rules, they can't even touch us. Besides, it's not a matter of getting in anyone's way, it's a matter of who gets there first." Galen's Kaempher disappeared behind the colony, Appoli and Roberto following along right behind him in Rickdoms. "Besides, you guys are acting on an anonymous tip. Spacenoids only give non-bullshit tips other spacenoids."

"Roberto, that cocky attitude's gonna get you killed some day..." Gwen said this even knowing that he was right. It was part of the reason she had held back so much from the Titans already. "So Galen, what do you know about this girl?"

An image appeared on Gwen's monitor of a dazed looking teenager with short blonde hair that seemed to have never seen a comb. "Her name is Ulyana Mishkya-Zabi. She's about 17 years old, and she's been in hiding since the war ended. Alot of Zabi hunters are trying to kill her for her last name, but Side 3 just wants their money back and they can't legally get it while she's out of the country, so..."

"Of course. They all stand trial for two minutes, Side 3 seizes their assets and lets them all go back into hiding."

"That's about the size of it. Keep an eye on your little cubs there Gwen, space colonies aren't huge fans of military police forces."

"No shit Galen. Don't do anything stupid now..."

"Asking you to marry me was stupid. I'd rather think of this as 'whimsical.'"

"I'm sorry, but I can't help being a cold-hearted bitch. It's how I was brought up." Gwen's squad moved into the bay block to cover the exit in case any of them tried to escape. Gwen set her own suit down on the side of the colony and peaked inside to witness the festivities inside the colony. "Three groups of idiots locked in an enclosed space colony, all heavily armed and surrounded by civilians, and somebody hires ME to keep them out of trouble. Will wonders never cease..."

- 0920 hours (CST) -
 It was Eric's turn again. The game had gotten tiresome almost 9 hours ago, but until the new mobile suits arrived from Abau-Aqu and the new pilots managed to transfer the rest of their belongings from the Merrimac, there was little else they could do now. Naomi had beaten Lucy in six consecutive chess games, but Mike and Eric had each beaten her four times in staring contests and thumb wars. The great rock-paper-scissors tournament ended with Captain Shiden as the undisputed champion of the ship, and now after four days of waiting they were down to their last resort. "Hit me." Eric said, staring at his cards.

Mike slapped an ace on the deck. "Fourteen."

"Hit me." Mike slapped down a two. "Hit me." A three. "Uhhh... Hit me." A nine. "Hit me." An eight. "Hit me." Another Ace. "Hit me." A king. "Hit me..."

Naomi looked up from her seat, lingering on the edge of sleep. "How many is that?"

Mike counted up the cards. "Fifty-seven... how may are we supposed to have again?"

Naomi sighed. "This is boring."

Eric slumped over the table. "You're just mad cause we took all your money. You know, for a homless girl you really do suck at cards."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

Mike shrugged. "It means that for a homeless girl..."

"I heard what he said, Mike. What's that supposed to mean anyway? Just because I didn't grow up in a big fancy space colony I'm supposed to be some kind of con-artist?"

Eric was too bored to try and defend himself now. "Naomi, you have a third-grade education. If you didn't play cards, what DID you do with your spare time?"

Naomi rolled her eyes at the comment. "Keep it up, Eric, I'll give you a demonstration."

Mike could feel his entire body gaining weight by the minute. Any second now and Eric would say or do something and cause her to loose her temper again, but on a day like today he was much too bored to try and break it up. "Knock it off, you too. Let's go back to that other game we were playing with Lucy."

Naomi straitened up a bit and started shuffling the cards. "Okay, fine. Who's turn was it?"

"Uhhh..." Mike looked at Naomi, then at Eric then, thought it over a bit. "Eric's a think."

"Okay... Naomi…" Eric thought for a moment and then an idea came to him. "Truth or dare.""

"Truth.""

"What is your real hair color?"

Naomi blinked. "How do you know my hair isn't red?"

"You're not white enough."

"Huh?"

Mike actually agreed with him for a change. "He's got a point, Lieutenant. And your nose is the wrong shape."

Naomi tapped her nose self consciously, then made up her mind. "Dare."

"I dare you to take off your shirt."

Naomi sighed and dropped her head on the table. "You see, that's why we stopped playing this game in the first place! With you its either take off your shirt, take off your pants, take off your boxers... C'mon, think of something original already!"

Eric thought for a moment, then shrugged in defeat. "I dare you to... take off your watch."

Naomi sighed. "Oh my god, you are such an idiot!"

"Hey, it's the best I can do!"

"Yeah, sure." Naomi thought of one of her own, and in a split second she put it to use. "Mike, Truth or dare."

"Dare."

"I dare you to punch Eric in the face." Mike didn't even hesitate. The blow caught Eric completely off guard and he flipped backwards out of his chair and rolled out on the ground in a half-conscious stupor. "Nice hit."

"Thanks."

The door to the mess hall slid open and two young officers stepped inside. Mike didn't recognize either of them at a glance, but it only took him a second to figure it out. "Are those the new guys?"

Naomi glanced across the room at the door, then turned back and nodded. "Yup."

"Ball pilots, huh?"

"Yup."

He leaned forward a bit and whispered, "Which one's Anderson?"

"The tall one. Izumi's the other one."

"He's not related to Ryo Izumi, is he?"

Naomi raised a brow. "You know him?"

"I saw him on TV a few years ago. He was the only survivor from Nobel Colony."

"Nobel Colony?" Naomi looked at them again, this time with an expression of amazement. "That was HIM?"

"They say he killed two Zakus with a construction pod trying to defend the bay block. The Zeeks were gonna drop the colony with him it, but somehow he managed to escape during the battle..."

Naomi already knew the story, though after all this time the name and the face had long since faded into obscurity in her memory. This was something she had never expected, not back then and especially not now. In any case, it gave put her at an advantage in terms of judging his character. This was a man whose sentiments and motives would be easy to understand. "That could be useful when the time comes. But that Anderson guy..."

"Transfer them into my team, I'll keep an eye on him." Mike looked them over for a few more moments and then called them over to the table. "Hey newbees, pilot's table over here!"

Brian and Ryo followed his voice and joined them at the table after a moment's hesitation and came to sit down at the table. Brian relaxed in his chair a bit, but Ryo seemed bent on sizing things up before he lets his guard down. "Been waiting long?" He said, eyeing the abandoned deck of cards.

"Not really, no." Naomi scooped up all of her cards, shuffled them and tucked them back into her pocket. "Welcome aboard, you two. This is Lieutenant Mike Jenson, pilot of Gundam 804. And that..." she pointed at the stupefied man lying on his back on a tipped-over chair. "...is our resident blowhard, Lieutenant Eric Swanson, Gundam 803. Say hello, Eric."

"Hello Eric." He said distantly.

Ryo and Brian looked down and him curiously but with a certain disinterest. "Happy to know ya."

"Likewise." Mike glanced at Naomi for some kind of explanation; she had none. Sooner or later he, decided, he would get around to figuring these two out. "So... Have you had a chance to look around?"

"We have." Brian said casually.

"And?"

"Let's just say we're satisfied."

Naomi could tell he was being evasive. She wasn't sure what he was trying to keep quiet, but she could completely understand his reasons. "I would have thought you'd be more impressed than that. This is your first time on a ship with a gravity block, isn't it?"

"Well yeah, but it's not quite what I excepted..."

"Brian, you gotta see this!" Kelly came running into the room dragging Alice behind him in something of a panic. They stopped a few feet short of the table, boiling over with excitement. "Brian, ALL of the officer's quarters have showers!"

Ryo's knee jerked and the entire table lurched from impact. For just an instant, Naomi noticed something in his eyes like shock and awe, and she could tell he was doing his best not to show it. "That's good news. At least we'll have that option if it ever becomes useful..."

"Ours has a Jacuzzi!" Alice jumped in excitedly.

Brian's face went completely blank. "A-A real one?"

"Yeah... well I think it's real. I could fit into it lying down though!"

"Hot damn! We're on...!" Brian remembered himself after a moment and slipped back into his somewhat bored persona. "That'll do nicely. Yeah, I think we can learn to work with that."

Alice didn't seem to be catching on, but she could tell when he was up to something and decided not to press the issue. Naomi, on the other hand, was already onto him. "Lieutenant Anderson, this is not a Titans ship. You can relax now."

"Who said we weren't relaxed? I just don't find the Tarawa especially glam..." Ryo froze with his mouth hanging open; at that moment he felt the air around him turn to liquid and a sudden rush of urgency. The rest of the world faded into the background to what she was sensing now and some strange pressure started building up against the sides of his head. He knew this feeling perfectly well, and he knew exactly what it meant to feel it in a place like this. I know this feeling... it's just like...

Without warning ship's scramble horn started screaming through the corridors of the ship, stirring an immediate response from the crew and the pilots. Naomi grabbed Eric by the collar and pulled him to his feet, Ryo and Brian burst up from the table and sprinted out of the doorways of the mess hall to get to their pilot suits followed a split second later by Mike. Alice were the only ones who didn't move right away, but after a few seconds when the room had cleared and the chaos died away, Kelly took her by the hand and lead her as quickly as he could towards the door. "C'mon kid, let's get you into a normal suit."

Brian dashed first into the normal suit lockers and grabbed his pilot suit, and Ryo joined him after a moment with equal urgency. "Did you feel that just now?" He asked as he checked the last of his seals.

Ryo nodded and reached for his helmet. "Sure felt like him, didn't it?"

"Dieter Cunningham. No doubt about it."

Ryo fished through his pocket and made sure it was still there: the gold bullet with Dieter's Name etched into the hollow point was still safely nestled in that pouch of fabric. "We'll get him this time. Let's go!"


- 0920 hours (CST) -
 Bunch 3 looked like a war zone from all the chaos that had just taken place. Four Zaku-I mobile suits lay shattered in the streets near the industrial blocks and a dozen warehouses and factories were either partially or totally demolished by the battle. Half of the colony was without power, the other half was without water, and every building near where the fighting had started had all of its windows completely blown out.

Monsha's GM Quell was kneeling in front of the entrance to the warehouse next to a dozen black armored vehicles with the Titans symbol painted on the sides. The mobile suit pilots and soldiers inside searched through everything they found there; mattresses, blankets, old electric stoves, a refrigerator, an ice machine, piles of old books, some unused rifles and pistols and heaps of old clothes probably donated by the Salvation Army. Monsha stood at the middle of it all and took in the entire scene, trying and failing to make up a judgment about this situation. "They've definitely been here a while. Looks like a family of gypsies or something."

Lieutenant Bate climbed down a latter from the catwalk and joined Monsha in the middle of the room. "We checked every corner of the building, so far nothing. There's no sign of them anywhere."

Monsha looked around again, this time noticing some of the finer details. "Think somebody tipped em off?"

"Adel doesn't think so. They left everything behind, didn't even take their weapons. There's a few vehicles out back, some false documents and whatnot..."

"So they just up and disappeared?" Bate nodded, and Monsha spat on the ground. "Goddamn spacenoids, I shoulda known."

"We're gonna send a platoon out for door-to-door searches of the area and Alexandrian's blockading the port. Whoever's protecting these people won't get very far."

Monsha walked over towards one pile of books and bent over to look through a few of them. "Look at all this. Fredereich Neitzsche, Carl Sagan, T.H. Lawrence, Aristotle, Zeon Daikun... Bate, I'm having flashbacks to highschool!"

Bate looked at him with a confused expression. "You feel horny and unpopular?"

Monsha growled at him and picked up one of the books. "It's like all they do is eat, sleep, and read philosophy."

Bate snatched the book out of Monsha's hand and opened it to the first page. The title there didn't match the one on the cover, "This looks like trouble... 'The Spacenoid Evolution by Zeon Zum Daikun...'"

Galen turned the volume up on the headset and zoomed the camera in just a bit. It still amazed him that the Titans, even turning the entire building upside down and inside out looking for their suspects had totally failed to notice the array of simple monitoring devices they'd planted there only nineteen minutes ago. He could watch the entire show from the cockpit of his Kaempher and probably go unnoticed for years the way the Titans were carrying about, but he knew that once he was sure they were in the clear they'd be leaving this area with their newest cash cow. "Galen to Scarface, these guys are complete idiots. Can I go home now?"

He could clearly make out Appoli and Roberto trying not to laugh in the background, but Captain Black sounded as calm and focused as ever. "They pick up the trail?"

"Do they ever?"

"No, but this is our first time dealing with the Titans. You never know..." Captain Black listened in on the radio feed from the bug for a few moments more and suddenly second-guessed himself. From what he was hearing the Titans seemed even more inept than the regular investigators, which came as no surprise to him. He wouldn't have expected much else from Earthnoids. "Yeah, you might as well pack it in."

Galen cheered on the inside and turned his mobile suit around in the bay block for the flight back to the ship. "I'm on the way back. Keep the fridge warm for me."

"Copy that." Captain Black clicked off his radio line and glanced off to the corner of the room at their catch, the teenage niece of the Zabi family and the eight-year-old kid they found with her. "You know how much you're actually worth?"

"How much?" She said boredly.

"Your bounty alone is half a million bucks, plus a hundred grand for bringing you in unharmed, and a hundred more for your accomplices. It's less than we expected, but it pays the bills, right?"

"Seven hundred grand will do more than just pay the bills. What'll you do with the rest of it?"

Appoli thought it over for a few moments. "She'd got a good point, but then that's why we do this kind of work. We literally do have more money than we know what to do with."

The girl shook her head in disgust, and Captain Black walked over and patted her on the shoulder. "Don't sweat it Ulyana, they just want a court appearance for a couple of days. We'll give you a ride back as soon as it's all over."

She understood this fact, but it didn't make her feel any better about it. "It still sucks. We're not rebels or anything, I'm not even Zabi by blood!"

"A rose by any other name would suck just as much."

"Hmph."

Galen's mobile suit was just approaching the ship by now and the Musai's engines were now powering up. Captain Black would have ordered the ship to get underway the instant his feet touched the hull if not for the sudden screaming of the communications channel in the back of the room. With a bridge manned by a skeleton crew, Captain Black moved over to the consol and answered the call himself. The signal came in on an EMA frequency, which was a clear indication of just who the signal was from in the first place. "Talk to me, Miles."

"Mitsuo, what's your present location? You're not close to Bunch 3 are you?"

"So what if we are?"

Captain Longhorn's face sagged in a wave of crushing anxiety. "I was afraid of that."

"Don't worry, Miles, we got the heads. We can hit Side 3 orbit in about two days, unless you want to swing by a pick em up..."

Captain Longhorn looked up into the monitor with a severe expression Captain Black had never seen on any man, least of all someone as cool-headed as him. "Mitsuo, I'm approaching Side 2 as we speak. I think you should know, General Corini has informed the ministry that if Ulyana Zabi is allowed to escape into Zeon territory, it will constitute an act of war and the Titans will act accordingly."

Captain Black did a double take at the monitor. "You're shittin me!"

"I shit you not, Mitsuo. Those were his exact words."

Everyone on the bridge felt a churning in their stomachs at the situation, except Ulyana, who simply fell to her knees close to tears. "Miles, that's a pretty clear violation of international laws. Unless she's wanted for war crimes, which is impossible..."

"These guys are nothing like the regular forces. Jamitov flat out told the ministry that any colony harboring members of the Zabi Family will be annexed by military action. You see how this works yet?"

"Damn Titans make up their own rules..." Captain Black groaned in annoyance, partly at the situation, and partly in annoyance that anyone could get away with something so blatantly illegal without having a price on their heads. "Meanwhile the ministry doesn't so much as file a complaint?"

"Of course they will. And the Federal Government is just overflowing with interest for anything the spacenoids care about."

Again, everyone on the bridge reacted with the same disgusted groans, though again Ulyana's reaction differed by her bursting into tears. "No bounty, huh?"

"Not a penny. Sorry about all this, but you know how it is."

"Yup. Take care Miles, I'll be in touch." Captain Black closed the emergency channel and opened a new line directly to the Alexandria and its cruiser group. "This is the cruiser Scarface to Titans warship on my port bow, open communications, I think we might have found what you're after."


- 0922 hours (CST) -
 "Helm, turn thirteen degrees left, ten degrees negative pitch! Give me combat speed immediately!"

The ship started to turn towards the battle area even as the forward hatch opened up on the mobile suit hangar. Naomi and Lucy were the first to get to their mobile suits, with Eric lingering just behind them with the stats still spinning around his head. Naomi literally leapt into her cockpit and powered up the machine without even looking. "Gundam 801, standing by."

The radar officer called off the data both on radio and to anyone on the bridge within earshot. "Enemy mobile suits bearing 0-1-0 minus 7. The supply ship Sindri is taking fire from at least three enemies."

Naomi reached for the equipment rack next to her mobile suit and picked up a beam rifle and two spare packs. "801, standing by."

"802, standing by." Lucy echoed from the station behind her.

"803, standing by." Eric said from the opposite hangar.

Both Gundams stepped off their maintenance stalls and planted their feet on the catapult sleds set into the deck. The locks clamped down on the bottom of their feet and both slid sideways from the stalls to the main catapult line. She waited for the ship to stop turning before she actually powered up her thrusters and charged up the catapult. The battle in space was so close she could already see the flashing of explosions up ahead. "Hurry up, people! That transports carrying the new mobile suits! Gundam G4 launching!" She pushed the foot pedals and slammed the throttles forward. Her mobile suit roared down the catapult and shot into space already under power.

Ryo and Brian ran side-by-side down the corridor to the ship's rear landing bay. It was usually reserved for shuttles and support vehicles, but today it was home for their weapons of choice, the RB-79 battle pods they had come aboard with from the Merrimac. Ryo sprang off the deck like a grasshopper and swung himself into the cockpit by the side of the hatch, Brian took his time and climbed into it patiently. "Contact code 11."

"Code 11, roger." Ryo powered up his machine after only a moment and started moving out of the bay. Both pods rose up over the hull of the ship and then rocketed towards the fighting in the distance as fast as their verniers could take them. "It's always code 11..."

Naomi's computer picked up movement ahead, then selected targets and magnified each of them on her screen. Three GMs from the cruiser group were already engaging the enemy with little success. The Columbus transport had already lost two of its engines and was drifting helplessly as the battle raged around it. She counted the enemy mobile suits and picked out the nearest one, a Zaku with a rakaten bazooka. "Alright..." She lead with a single burst from her beam rifle, not intending to hit the enemy as much as get his attention. The mobile suit almost surprised her with its quick response, whirling around and shooting two shells right back at her. But the shot wasn't aimed and didn't come close enough to hitting her. She had an angle on him now, and firing two more shots she forced him to turn his back to her and try to evade.

Lucy and Eric plunged into the battle the same way, with Mike's Gundam only a few seconds from the combat zone. A along energy blast from Chase's GM Sniper in the distance sliced the legs off one of the attacking mobile suits from the transport, and by now all of them were heavily engaged with the Gundams. "GM unit, get that transport ship clear! We'll buy you some time!" Naomi pushed her throttles again and circled around in front of the Zaku as it flew, then with a sweep of her beam saber sliced the mobile suit in half before the pilot could even react.

Chase scanned the battle zone with his sniper scope and took a count. "Lieutenant, I count maybe nine mobile suits minus the one you just dropped. Two of them look like Gelgoogs."

"Gelgoogs? Where...?" She sensed an attack coming behind her rolled backwards just as the suit fired, letting the beams pass just over her torso without taking a hit. "I see him..." She rolled over to face him and started to shoot back, but the Gelgoog passed her like a blur before she even pulled the trigger. It started to come around to attack again, but another blast from Chase's rifle forced it to break off for now. "Chase, what're you doing with your life? You think maybe you could hit something?"

"They're reacting alot faster than normal. These aint the regular troops... "

The second of the two Gelgoogs stayed mostly out of the fight for the time being and sized up its competition. The pilot couldn't help but chalk this one up to pure dumb luck. Damn Gundams. Just fighting one of those things is a pain in the ass, but FOUR? The transport ship started moving again, partly crawling in secondary thrusters and partly being towed by the Feddy mobile suits. "Assault team, get a move on! We have to capture that ship before reinforcements arrive...!"

Captain Santana's Gelgoog took a break from its own situation for a brief spot check. "Dieter, on your six!"

He spun around in space to find two RB-79s bearing down on him with cannons aimed directly at him. He actually did a double take before he realized that they really did intend to attack him. "Balls? You're kidding me!" He was almost playful as he locked his beam rifle onto the closer one, but the blast that should have blown it to bits missed its armor by half a meter when the machine dodged. He fired another shot without a second thought. And another. And another. Still they sidestepped him with the smallest movements and still the Balls kept moving towards him. They didn't bother to shoot back until they were close enough, and when Dieter tried to dodge he ended up moving right into the path of their fire. His armor deflected two direct hits, but the third from the lead Ball split open the armor around his shoulder and locked his controls for just a few moments. "Not to a damn Ball...!" He bit his tongue as he spun around and tried to take aim again, but the two pods split up on either side of him and started circling.

One of them fired its tow cable across his face, the other caught it on the other side and snapped the cable like a whip; the cable struck the beam rifle in the stock and flipped it out of his hands. "What the... wait a second, I know this!" This was trick he'd seen once before, a maneuver that had claimed one too many comrades in the past. He took a moment to check the markings on the pods, but even that wasn't necessary. Both of these pilots know how to get the most out of those useless machines and moved just like hr knew they should. "What do I have to do to be rid of you assholes?!"

Brian kept trying to setup a shot, but Dieter's suit was more maneuverable than he expected. Just judging the angle would be hard from here, he had to get closer. "You could let us kill you, that might work."

"Like hell!" Dieter fired off a burst from both of his forearm machine guns, but just stopping for one moment was all it took for Ryo to sink a round into his leg and send him spinning again.

"Well you asked! That's about your only chance right now!"

Dieter stabilized again and tried to fire another shot, but a shell from Ryo's cannon destroyed his arm and sent him retreating away from them again. "So you two joined the Titans, huh? Should have figured you'd jump in with that kind of crowd." He hissed bitterly.

"In a pig's eye! We're fighting to hunt down scumbags like YOU!"

Dieter drew his double beam saber, but he knew no matter what kind of speed his suit had he still wouldn't be able to get close enough before they could sink a round strait into his cockpit. Instead he fired a small flare from the launcher in his left hand to signal the other mobile suits of his attack wave. "What do you want from me anyway? I was just following orders...!"

Ryo and Brian both fired a double-punch from their cannons, chewing up entire sections of his arm shield and forcing him to discard it. "You were part of a unit that killed millions of people! You personally have fired gas cylinders into four different colonies!" Ryo fired two more shots and Dieter barely managed to contort his machine around them to avoid being hit. "You're an enemy to all spacenoids and you have to be destroyed!"

"I did what I thought was right!" Three Zakus from the rear support unit came into the battle zone and started closing in. Dieter started in that direction, even as fire from the two pods intensified. "If you were in my position you would have done the same thing!"

"The hell I would! We don't slaughter women and children, Dieter!" Brian's thrusters were running at max and couldn't keep up with the Gelgoog much longer. He tried to aim one more shot, but at the last moment sensed pressure from enemies and boosted to his left out of the path of a bazooka round. Ryo locked into the Zaku at the same time he did, and predicting the pilot they both aimed directly above it. When the cannons fired, the Zaku boosted upwards, both shells exploding under the cockpit hatch. "That one's mine!" Brian shouted.

"I'll give you half..." The other two Zakus bore in with machineguns to lay down cover fire for the Gelgoog, and once again both pods locked on at the same time and again sank a round into the same spot of the Zaku's torso. "... and there's the other half."

"The Gelgoog... SHIT!" Brian spun around and took a few desperate shots at Dieter's suit, but the Gelgoog was already speeding away from them under full thrust, much too fast for them to follow. One shell scored a lucky hit on his armor but at too shallow an angle to do make more than a sizeable dent. "That chicken shit, he's running away! He AWALYS runs away!"

"I know, I know..." The remaining Zaku discarded its rifle and charged in with a heat hawk, and both of the pods turned and aimed again. But before either of them could fire, a blast of mega particles struck down from above, burned through the top of its head and body and out again through the bottom of one leg. The suit lingered for only a moment before its reactor exploded, knocking the two pods around like a pair of golf balls and rattled the pilots around in their cockpits. "DAMN! Who the hell...?!"

The Alex Gundam above them changed packs on the beam rifle and scanned around the sky for another target. "The enemy suits are retreating. Fall back to protect the transport until the Tarawa can make the..."

"What's the big idea?! You tryin to get us both killed?!"

Naomi stopped for a moment, wondering if she had missed something. "You have a problem, Izumi?"

"Problem?! If you were gonna blow it's reactor could you at least have the courtesy and warn me?!"

"Huh?"

"These pods don't have an AMBAC system! When you blow the reactor at this range we can't roll with the impact like a mobile suit!"

Naomi could sense mounting pressure from an enemy behind her, but she was more perplexed by this than she was worried about the enemy suit. "How can you fight battles if you worry about a thing like that?" The Rickdom behind her charged in with its heat saber drawn. Twenty meters from her back a pencil-beam swept out from the distance, slicing the suit neatly in half down the middle. "Good shot Chase... Look, Lieutenant, if you've got a problem we can discuss this later. Right now I want the two of you to get over to that transport and help secure the cargo. We'll offload your new mobile suits a little bit later."

Ryo's teeth were grinding down into sand by now and Brian started to worry about friendly fire. Still, he turned his machine towards the transport ship and muttered angrily under his breath, "Fix the engine Ryo, secure the cargo Ryo, paint the hull Ryo, unclog the garbage chute Ryo, recover that lifepod Ryo... Dammit Brian, Gundam pilots don't do this kind of work!"