Only a coward hides behind machines and armor, fights battles with the touch of a button without even seeing his enemies in person. A true warrior defeats his enemies face to face, hand to hand, a battle of wits and willpower; that is the true test of a fighter's honor... of course, when I think about it, I'd rather be a coward in a Zaku than an honorable smear on the pavement.

- Ramba Ral
- Zeon Military Academy commencement speech-- April 5, UC 0079

Chapter 5: Drop Zone

- February 6, UC 0084 -
- 0710 hours (CST) -
Alice held her breath under the near-scalding hot water and listened to the sound of her own heart beating in her ears. She was in her own world here, a new place devoid of sensation and pain, no smells, no pressures, and as always no sight, a world containing only her and the sound of her heartbeat filling her ears. She heard her heart speeding up in her chest and her face broke the surface again. The water drained from her ears and she returned to the real world of the Tarawa's officer's quarters. "We should have done this a long time ago." She said lazily, kicking her feet up on the end of the Jacuzzi. "A luxury battleship. Who'd have thunk it?"

Brian groaned in a half-hearted protest and slapped his magazine down on the sink. "And to think, all we had to do was join the Gestapo to get it."

Alice splashed feet in the bubbly water and rolled over on her side. "They're not Titans, Brian. Okay, sure they take orders from stuck-up Earthnoids. These days, who doesn't?"

"You shouldn't just be a doormat all the time. Spacenoids have rights too."

"They said they had their reasons."

Brian flipped to another page of the magazine and sifted positions in his chair. "What reasons could justify working for the Titans?"

"I dunno. Maybe somebody's little sister needed to use a hot tub?"

Brian stared at her for a moment, then chuckled and went back to his magazine. "Touché."

Alice sat up a bit and spoke more loudly, "And another thing, you guys fought with Dieter again, didn't you?"

Brian hesitated to answer. "No..."

"Don't lie to me, I can tell."

"Okay, yeah. Dieter was there, and we fought with him. And we almost got him too, but as usual he ran away before we could finish the fight."

Alice groaned in disappointment. "What about all that bullshit you taught me about spiritual brotherhood and all? You talk all self righteous, and yet you two go around chasing after some brainless automaton?"

"You know, we're soldiers. Killing people is part of what we do for a living."

Alice sat up fully and reached for the drain on the tub. "But what if you have to kill someone who's not your enemy? That's not right at all."

"Maybe not, but that's what happens sometimes. Most of us fight because of the side we're on. But every once in a while, there's a personal reason." She pulled her legs up and stood up completely, and Brian handed her a fresh towel. "C'mon, Alice, you know what he represents. I'm surprised you don't want a piece of him yourself."

"I don't. He's never done anything to me."

"How can you say that?"

"Because it's true, he doesn't even know I exist. And you know what Casval would say, newtypes should never fight each other unless it's personal. Anything else is a waste of energy."

Brian laughed to himself. "Is THAT what's been bothering you? All this disagrees with your ideals?"

Alice wrapped the towel around her beneath the shoulders. "Having ideals is kinda pointless if you won't follow them. That's called hypocrisy."

"I do follow them. But sometimes ideals have to take a back seat to reality." He helped her out of the tub and dried her hair with another towel. "We've got a big day ahead. You ready to go to Earth?"

"Hell no."

"Why not?"

"I'm afraid of Earth. I keep thinking some big monster's gonna climb into the ship and try to eat me or something."

"Don't be such a worry wart."

Alice wandered towards the sink and searched around for the faucet; her hand grazed the side of Brian's magazine. "What are you reading anyway?"

"Angler Publications."

Alice shoved him against the wall and hissed at him anxiously, "Don't say that out loud!"

"Why not?"

"What if Mike puts that in his report? We could get hanged!"

Three doors away, behind the control panel linked to the array of microphones strategically placed in Brian's quarters, Lieutenant Jenson flipped backwards out of his chair in surprise and landed on the back of his head. Lucy knelt down next to him and pulled him back to his feet, "What? What'd they say?"

"Nothing, nothing," Mike unplugged the headset and turned off the recorder in the panel. "Let's call it a day, huh? They're not up to anything."

"Are you sure? Naomi wants at least 48 hours surveillance before we give them access to the new Gundams..."

"It's almost 48 hours, that's good enough. Let's call it quits."

Lucy stared at him for a few moments, but decided after a moment's thought he had his reasons. "Your call, Mike."

As soon as she left the room, Mike went back to the microphone and listened in again. Their conversation hadn't even been thrown off by the comment, almost as if they took for granted that someone was monitoring their every move. He counted his blessings and shut off the equipment; the instant the microphone clicked off, Alice tugged on Brian's arm, "Brian, we're chasing a dead-end here. You're not gonna help me this way, we'd get better results at the Flanagan Institute."

"Actually, I think we're finally on the right track. The Tarawa's not exactly a special unit, but it looks like our immediate superiors are EXTREMELY well connected. If we get on their good side, they'd do little research, run a few tests, maybe give you an operation or two... who knows? Maybe it'll all work out like we hoped?"

Alice was doubtful, but as usual she differed to his judgment. "I still think this is a dead end. I'll think positive, but I'm not expecting any miracles."


- 0710 hours (CST) -
Duncan put in the codes one last time on the keyboard of his laptop, this time double-checking for any mistakes that would confuse the computer even further. Finally he got a response, and the diagnostic program came up with a set of data he could understand. "Great! NOW we're getting somewhere!" He followed the lines of problem codes and came to the one relevant one he was looking for. "Huh… the reactor output's too low. That makes sense…"

"You've got to learn to test your machine by feel alone, Deuce." Vanessa called to him across the hangar. "You won't always have time to check your computer in the middle of a battle."

Duncan turned off the computer and tucked it under his arm. "I'm still not used to this Regelg. I'll get the hang of it eventually."

Vanessa pushed off the belly of her Rickdom Sniper and came to perch on the railing of the lift in front of the Regelg. "Got used to the Zeong, did you?"

"Well yeah, but there's something to be said for speed and finesse. Like the Red Comet, you know?"

Vanessa laughed gently. "Deuce, Char flew the Zeong prototype too."

"Yeah, but he did his best work with a supped up Zaku. THAT'S the real Red Comet."

She punched him in the shoulder and pushed past him into the cockpit of the Regelg. "If it's speed and finesse you're after, you should wait until Anaheim finishes the new mobile suits for us."

"The Rick Dias, you mean?"

"Yeah. They're supposed to be quite a bit faster than your Regelg."

Duncan moved in behind her and shoved her out of his seat. "That's what you said about the Galbaldys. I'm still skeptical."

Vanessa moved back to the hatch of the mobile suit and beamed at him. "Are you excited, Deuce?"

"About what?"

"Your girlfriend. You know we're due to intercept Tarawa within the next two hours."

Duncan looked up from the control panel with a sudden gleam in his eye. "Have I been down here working all this time? I didn't even notice."

"Of course you want everything to be perfect for your big date..."

"That's not it." Duncan punched in a command into the computer and the system opened the armored covering on the torso for access. "You're not taking this seriously at all. You think Amuro Ray's a dangerous enemy? You have no idea what we're really up against."

Vanessa watched him for a moment, followed him as he left the cockpit and floated up to the open covering on the chest of the Regelg. "You admire her, don't you?"

"Get real." Two mechanics came over to join him in the work, but Duncan waved them off, intent on finishing this himself. "Anyway, what's the word from the Dupont? I heard they couldn't get those new mobile suits."

"They were running behind schedule. The transport was too close to the rendezvous point and they ended up loosing four of their mobile suits."

Duncan wasn't the least bit surprised. He'd come to expect that from Dieter's unit, but the actual significance of their sortie was hard to ignore. "Intelligence?"

"They've got a couple new pilots, and apparently Dieter's familiar with both of them. He's submitting a report to Admiral Marquis right now, and of course there's Lieutenant Larson on the Alexandria if we need more details."

Duncan new Larson by reputation only, which as far as he was concerned was all he preferred to know. "I don't see why we're so caught up with the Tarawa anyway. They're just Jamitov's cannon fodders..."

"The Titans are still building up their forces, so those little carrier groups are their temporary muscle until they're ready. If we take care of them, we can move freely in space without Jamitov coming down on us." Vanessa sensed his growing excitement in the coming battle. She backed off now to give him some space to himself. "Don't waste too much time with the Merrimac, okay? Our main objective is the Gundams."

"Right, right." Inwardly, Duncan had no intention of going after the Tarawa at all. The ship was no longer an issue for him, it seemed like he could fight pilots of that stature any day of the week. Here I come, Alicia. I'll sink the Merrimac and you with it...


- 0820 hours (CST) -
Captain Bosque was impressed with what he was seeing, so much so that he almost wished he could have been present at the actual testing of the machines. The Gundam on his monitor stood over twenty meters from head to toe, laden with beam cannons and reinforced weapon systems strong enough to battle the fiercest mobile armors. Just these movement tests brought a twinge of excitement to his heart. "This is the new model you've been working on, Carter?"

"MRX-07 Flash Gundam. Psycho's little brother. This recording is from the third test flight two days ago." Admiral Carter paused a moment and watched the recording another moment. The ruined hull of a Megellan class battleship came into view, and the giant mobile suit squared up to it and opened an array of coolant vents on its torso. With no warning at all, one open panel on its chest surged with light and a powerful blast of mega-particles tore the hull to ribbons with a single burst. "The scattering beam cannon is actually based on the smaller device used in the Zeon's Rickdom mobile suits, though as you can see it's about four hundred times more powerful. It'll not only blind your target, but also vaporize him and anything standing next to him at that moment. Psycho Gundam will install a similar weapon system."

Bosque nodded in appreciation. "That's Conner piloting, isn't it?"

"Of course. Despite his emotional instability, he's an amazing pilot. The only one better is Ashitaka, but of course he's off the roster for the time being."

Bosque watched the mobile suit maneuvering again, struggling apparently with its massive bulk, yet moving with a kind of grace he wouldn't have expected. "The Murasame Institute is singing the praises of the Psycho Gundam even though they've yet to produce a working model. We're coming up on that deadline very quickly, and Colonel Jamitov wants to see some results."

"Same for me, Captain, but there's no escaping the reality of this situation. The problems with the technology aren't too difficult to cope with, the strides we've made with the Flash Gundam should say as much. It turns out that the main problem is the system's biological elements."

"The pilot, you mean?"

Carter turned off the monitor and turned the lights back up. "Conner and Miranda are responding well to programming, but in case you haven't noticed, Ashitaka's... well... he's nuts. Fact is the conditioning drove him into a deep psychosis and now he's a danger to himself and everything within a hundred feet of him. But you put him in a Flash Gundam, the machine takes over. It's like he can't even think rationally unless he's in the cockpit of the prototype."

Bosque had read this in Carter's last report, but this reminder was more of a subtle inquiry to that subject. "We've been paying close attention to your work, Admiral. Don't worry, we're well aware of your difficulties."

"That's a great load off my mind," Carter's voice carried an after-taste of sarcasm despite the truth of the words. "Professor Murasame's tinkering with a few new strategies. He thinks we could probably keep the pilots in a stable condition by training them to take on passive and active modes of combat. You know, like a guard dog that only attacks when you say a password or something."

"Keep them docile until we need their teeth?"

"Exactly. Theoretically, they could still engage in combat even in passive modes, but their true abilities wouldn't appear unless switched into their more aggressive modes."

This sounded promising. As little as Bosque new about artificial newtypes or psychological warfare, even he could see the benefits of this idea by common sense alone. "Have you tried this with any of them?"

"The professor wants to try it on Ashitaka first before we do the same with any of the other subjects. Of course, you know we WILL have to erase his memory in order to correct his programming."

Bosque heaved himself out of the chair and started again for the door. "Whatever you're going to do, do it quickly. Admiral Hunter's had some problems of his own on Granada..."

"Granada?" Carter stood up to follow him out, but Bosque stopped him at the door. "I haven't heard any of this. What kind of problems?"

"Never mind the details, I'll just say our old friend Brex is up to his old tricks again. The point is the new models won't be ready for mass production any time soon. If Hunter can't make the deadline, we'll just have to push the Hizack into mass production."

Carter nodded gravely, and Bosque departed the room without further interruption. The conversation hardly ended there, but Bosque was no longer a part of it. The very idea that he'd been left out of the loop in this situation very much worried him, as if the Titans were telling him enough so he would keep Project N operational without too many complaints. But Project N was part of much larger armament program, one that required every element to be in place in order to succeed. There were too many setbacks --the RX-179s being only the most recent-- and yet the schedule remained the same. The Titans were moving much too fast already. "Commander Jamaican," he punched a com line on the desk in the front of the briefing room, "Get a shuttle ready for me in fifteen minutes. I'll be returning to the Wasp shortly."

"Leaving so soon, Admiral? I would have thought you'd at least stay to greet Admiral Dyson."

A chill wound its way down Carter's spine. If he'd had anything to say to Dyson in person, it would be the last thing the man would ever hear. "I'm afraid not. Just give me my regard when he arrives."

"I'll be sure to do just that, Admiral. Have a safe voyage."


- 0830 hours (CST) -
Captain Shiden was the last one onto the bridge, joining the rest of the crew in normal suits for the drop operation to Earth. The entire crew was at battle stations despite the almost complete lack of an enemy presence here, but almost anything was possible in operations like this. As soon as the Captain took his seat, he picked up a handset and signaled on a broad frequency. "Tarawa to all ships, commence operation as planned."

The Tarawa opened both of its mecha hangars on command. The Tarawa's three cruiser escorts did the same; Merrimac and Hunley in the front and Memphis in the rear, all raising their three GMs to their decks for launch.

Naomi stood at the base of the Alex and looked at it with a distasteful expression. The suit looked oppressively bulky with the ballute packs equipped, like a camper on a long hike up the side of a mountain. "Ugh! It's so ugly!"

Lucy bounded off the deck behind her into her own mobile suit. "Quit complaining. You're just gonna throw it away after reentry anyway."

"Not soon enough." Naomi bounced up from the deck and swung into Alex's cockpit, still groaning at the inhibitive bulk of the re-entry system strapped to her suit. The launch bays of the Tarawa were already open, but the mobile suits wouldn't launch until the Tarawa was in the right position. "Okay people, listen carefully. This approach will be extremely dangerous, even with the ballute shields. Watch your spacing so we don't have any mid-air collisions during re-entry."

Brian laughed cynically. "Mid-air collision at mach-twenty... that would really suck."

Ryo felt the worst about this arrangement. As it stood, he would be the first one out of the starboard hangar while Naomi would be the first out of port. There was some consolation that Brian would be right behind him; at least he knew he could count on him not to get them both killed. "I'm still unsure about this Lieutenant."

"We all are, don't worry. Just follow the computer's projections and you'll be okay." Naomi heard a high-pitched whistle in her headset and watched a digital display dance across her forward monitor. "It's time. All mobile suits, launch!"

Ryo pushed the throttles to front and pressed the foot pedals down. The next sensation was a surge of gravity slamming him back into his seat, then suddenly he was in open space. Naomi's Gundam burst out of the ship behind him and quickly began adjusting its angle of descent towards Earth. "This isn't so bad," He said after a moment. He felt more comfortable now that he'd actually launched, almost content now.

Brian was up next. He took one last breath to reassure himself and flipped the switch on the Psycommu interface. He felt the familiar moment of disorientation as the shadow world moved over his eyes and the cockpit around him disappeared, replaced by a colorless montage of imagery and data he could barely discern as objects themselves. None of it looked like anything he could recognize as a ship or a mobile suit or even a planet, and yet somehow he could clearly tell exactly what he was looking at in any given direction. He looked towards his feet and saw two pulsating swirls of energy; the catapult was powering up. "Gundam Murdock, launching now!" Brian fired his thrusters and felt the rush of acceleration, and in almost that same instant a new alert siren surged to life from the bowels of the Tarawa itself.

The radar screen on the bridge was cloudy from the sudden Minovsky jamming, but at this range anyone could clearly make out the set of enemy mobile suits closing on them at incredible speed. Captain Shiden had the briefest flashback to the One Year War. "I need details, Aaron! What kind of suits are they? How could they intercept us this quickly?"

Lieutenant Browning was simply at a loss for words. The only thing he knew was what he didn't know for sure. "Confirming at least six enemy mobile suits... probably Rickdoms, but they're moving a tad fast for that!"

"Time to intercept?"

"Forty seconds, sir!"

"Dammit!" Brian's mobile suit was already well on course, much too far to turn back to assist, but as he watched Lucy and Mike were only just clearing the hangars now. "Tarawa to all suits, we have enemy mobile weapons approaching from starboard! Lucy and Mike, return to ship immediately and provide support! The rest of you, continue mission as planned!"

Ryo looked back over his shoulder. He could see the enemy suits closing with his own eyes, almost close enough to shoot from here. "Lieutenant, we have to..."

"Stay on course, Ryo." Naomi said coldly.

"But the Tarawa...!"

"Stay on course, Ryo." She said again, emotionless and calculated. Ryo turned his attention back to the panel and adjusted his angle again. In another six minutes they'd be entering the atmosphere at an angle most people would call suicide just to get the drop on a few hapless Zeon holdouts. He was about to launch another complaint when he heard Naomi grumbling, "They're not payin me enough for this shit."

"Join the club." Ryo shot back.

"Join it? I OWN the club!"

Lucy released the clamps on the re-entry packs as she passed the Tarawa's engine pod, scanning the space ahead of her for the enemy suits. The three GMs and Balls from the Merrimac had doubled back as well and now the six of them were taking up a defensive formation around their battle group. She watched the enemies whirl around in space for a moment before the Merrimac's guns opened fire. Everything about this was wrong. "Mike, what's going on? They're playing around out there like..."

"They're not trying to interrupt the launch. In fact it doesn't look like they know we've spotted them." Mike sensed pressure from somewhere on his left. He dodge upwards, not taking any chances, but when he looked over his shoulder it became clear that the blast was not aimed at him.

The entire ship bucked violently from the sudden impact, tossing anything not bolted down into the air and spilling the contents of tables all over the gravity block. Everything on the bridge stopped completely for a few moments, and Captain Shiden already knew where they'd been hit without needing to ask. "Helm, standby to change orbits immediately! We can't land on Earth with only one good engine!"

"I'll try sir, but changing orbits aint much easier!"

"No excuses, just do it...!" Another powerful blast struck out from the void of space, this one tearing a chunk out of the cruiser Hunley not far behind the Tarawa.

Mike followed the source of the shooting and scanned the area, finally picking up a heat signature his computer could recognize. "Shit, Lucy, it's that sniper again! The one with the bigass beam cannon!"

Lucy put the numbers together and came to the smartest conclusion. "I bet that crazy Gelgoog is with em too."

Ensign Focker's Guncannon slid easily out of the launch bay and set down just on top of the secondary bridge. He aimed his beam rifle in the direction of the shooting and pulled the targeting scope out from the back of his cockpit. "I got a visual, I think. Looks like a… like a Rickdom or something..." Chase zoomed in as far as the scope could go and followed the mobile suit as it moved, waited for it to stop and aim again to get a good look. It was definitely a Rickdom, only this model was equipped with a massive beam cannon almost the size of a mobile suit itself. He'd seen that weapon before, he recognized it, "He's got a Burstliener! Damn thing's got its own fusion reactor!"

Vanessa felt the pilots' energy peak suddenly. She changed positions as the Guncannon returned fire, giggling playfully at the enemy's sudden urgency. "I think I freaked em out, Deuce!"

"Good for you, but we came here to work, Sis!" Duncan circled around the four Federation warships, staying close to the far edges of their firing range looking for the best opening to get at the Merrimac. He stopped for just a moment and let the ship fire another powerful barrage his way with all of its guns. "Miss..." The beams streaked past him on all sides without him even needing to dodge. It looked like as good a chance as any. "Duncan to all mobile suits, engage the enemy and try to keep those two Gundams occupied. I'm going after the Merrimac."

All four Rickdoms turned where they were and made a single-file formation in flight towards the Tarawa. The first three loaded rakaten bazookas on their approach, with the last one drawing a heat saber in one hand and an MMP-80 machinegun in the other.

Lucy saw them on approach, and she recognized the formation at the same time Duncan did. "A jet-stream attack! Well isn't that cute!"

Mike came up calmly behind her and switched off the safeties on his beam rifle. "How do you wanna break this?"

"I was kinda thinkin about that Delayed Bounce... how about a Windbreaker?"

"Fine with me. Chase, try to do something about that sniper."

Chase moved into a position halfway between the Tarawa and the Merrimac, using the greater bulk of the cruiser for partial cover from the sniper. He watched the Rickdom steady itself again to fire off another shot, this one he could tell aimed directly at him. He barely had enough time to line up the crosshairs before it could fire, but even in that time the Rickdom managed to move out of the way of his beam rifle. "Hurry up, Lucy! That guy's some kinda mutant!"

"Hang on, we'll be right with you!" Lucy was flying head-on towards the first Rickdom, shield in one had and beam rifle in the other. The lead Rickdom charged right in as usual, bazooka leveled at her head for the first attack. These pilots were hardly the seasoned veterans their tactics might indicate, but she still had to give them credit for trying. "Wait for it..." The distance closed to a hundred meters. This was the part where a rookie pilot would be wondering why the Doms weren't firing at him, "Wait for it..." The first one came into range and flashed it's scatter beam strait into her face. The flash blinded her for just a few moments, but Lucy didn't need to see. "NOW!" The scatter beam was Mike's signal to start the maneuver.

Lucy reversed thrust as hard as she could, feeling her stomach flatten itself against her ribcage. Mike shot past her on the left, catching the first Rickdom completely off guard and firing his beam rifle strait into its chest at point blank range. The reactor explosion knocked the other three Rickdoms out of their formation and sent them tumbling into space; one of them was too slow regaining control and thus fell victim to Lucy's 90mm forearm guns. The two survivors turned tail and sped to safety, Mike's Gundam hot on their tails to make sure they stayed gone for awhile. "Excellent! Sit tight, Chase! I'm on my way!" She fired her thrusters again and started back towards the Tarawa...

Almost as soon as she faced the ship she sensed an attack from her right side and twisted in space to avoid it. What she thought was a single shot was followed by a half dozen others, an aim so accurate she couldn't possibly avoid them all. The last beam in the series punched through the thickest part of her leg, exploding the fuel tanks and sending the mobile suit spinning off into space out of control. Chase heard only the sound of Lucy screaming on the radio, but he didn't dare look away from the Rickdom and give it a chance to take him out. "Lucy, what happened? You get hit?" He didn't look away from the Rickdom even now. Even as he spoke it steadied itself again, this time firing off its massive cannon before Chase could get off the shot. He dodged to one side, but part of the beam grazed his shoulder and melted the outer fringes of his armor, "Lucy, answer me! What's going on out there?!"

Lieutenant Dyson's voice exploded in his headset, "Guncannon, check six!"

He spun around on reflex and aimed the rifle, but before he even turned around the blast from Duncan's beam rifle stripped his right arm from his shoulder. Chase fired his thrusters and back-flipped, letting the next two blasts pass directly under and then over his torso, passing close enough to strip the paint from the armor.

Duncan thought to finish the Guncannon and focus again on the Merrimac, but three crimson beams suddenly criss-crossed directly in his path, forcing him to stop in space and change directions away from his target. "Damn, those GMs again...!"

Lieutenant Dyson could barely follow the suit's movements, but he could see well enough to know the Regelg was circling around for another pass. "Guncannon, you still in the game?"

"I'm fine, I'm not through yet..." At the last moment he remembered the sniper, and by some miracle fired his thrusters half a second before a powerful blast from Vanessa's cannon would have reduced him to a cloud of ash. He spun around on impulse and fired both cannons, but to no one's great surprise the shot was nowhere close to hitting him. "Lucy, Mike, I need some help here...!"

"He's coming around again!" Lieutenant Dyson took a few deep breaths and lined up his crosshairs over the speeding Regelg as it drew ever closer. He had his doubts how well a beam gun would work on a suit like this, but given his lack of options... "Alright gang, we'll only get one shot at this! Wait till he gets close, then hit him with everything you got!"

Vanessa dodged another twin blast from the Guncannon with such ease the suit no longer seemed to be a factor in this battle. She stopped in space and steadied herself, aiming the Burstliener along the hull of the Merrimac to find herself a target. "Stupid Duncan, I could have nailed that thing five times by now!" All she had was a consolation prize: One of the three GMs moving to engage Duncan on his drive towards the cruiser. She selected the one closest to the bridge and lined up her sights on its reactor block. "Duncan, try coming in from above."

He didn't need to read her mind to know what she was planning. "Copy that," Duncan moved up and away from the ship at first before arcing back towards it to come in from above the bridge of the ship. Lieutenant Dyson followed his move and adjusted his position to stay between the Regelg and the cruiser, and now as the Zeon came into range all three GMs opened fire...

The column of fire from the beam cannon burned through the mobile suit next to him, ending its existence in a gigantic fireball that knocked both of the GMs sideways, out of Duncan's way. It was just the opening he needed, and he didn't hesitate to take it.

Beam after beam rained down on the Merrimac from above its bridge, ripping the hull open in sections, stripping away gun turrets, armor plates, entire sections of armor around the flanks. Two of the beams struck down through the top of the bridge, punching all the way through the bridge to exit through the keel of the ship itself. Jets of flame started to belch from the new holes in the warship's hull, small explosions giving rise to larger explosions, spinning the ship on every axis like a row boat in a tsunami. The Merrimac was tearing itself apart from the inside; it was already dead.

Duncan passed over the doomed hull just before one final explosion consumed the bulk of it and split the superstructure in half. The force of the explosion almost knocked him into a spin, and yet there was something exhilarating about it. Goodbye Alicia, He thought smugly. "You're clear, Sis! Let's take out the Tarawa and get this over with!"

"It's about time!" Vanessa adjusted her position and aimed again. The expanding fireball of the Merrimac's death was partly obscuring her view, but she could just make out the shape of the Pegasus class assault carrier maneuvering beyond the carnage in front of her. She didn't need a direct hit, just enough to slow it down so she could finish it or even catch up later with another sortie. "And goodnight Tara..." Something flashed in front of her eyes and suddenly the view was different. The high-res image of the dying cruiser and the distant assault carrier were replaced now by a pair of furious green eyes in the middle of a Gundam's head behind the triple barrels of a gatling cannon. "Son of a bi...!"

Lucy's right arm unloaded the last of its ammo at point blank range, spraying the Rickdom from head to toe. The shells ripped through the body of the suit, smashed the main camera and all of the actuators and motors in the arms and legs. They shredded the giant beam cannon and the arm that held it, eventually cutting through all the way to the very core of the mobile suit to puncture the fuel tanks and reactor coolant.

The thrusters on the Rickdom's back were the first to go, and the rest of the suit followed very shortly. Lucy pulled away from the mobile suit and it disintegrated before her eyes. When she turned around to rejoin the battle she was surprised to find the Regelg charging towards her like a mad bull with its double beam saber drawn. She didn't give it any thought, simply waited for him to get close and the jinked sharply to one side like a mechanized matador. Duncan rushed past her like a freight train, slowing down only as it passed the wreckage of the demolished Rickdom. Just for good measure, Mike's Gundam and the two surviving GMs have a brief chase, firing a combined salvo to hasten his retreat.

It was all over, Naomi breathed a long sigh of relief, despite the fact that the hardest part was still just ahead of them. "It's alright, the Tarawa's still there."

Ryo and Brian took one deep breath and exhaled slowly, then took in another one and held it as the first vibrations started. Ryo's monitors showed him the external temperature was rising and his speed was starting to drop off. All of them opened their ballute cushions at once, leaving all of them lying on their backs on a fabric shell through a raging inferno. "We're bouncing through the upper atmosphere. Here comes the fun part." Ryo said cynically.

The one-legged Gundam touched down gingerly on the front of the Tarawa's mobile suit hangar using Mike's suit to support its weight. With her radio damaged, Mike physically opened the cockpit and spoke to her face to face, "Nice kill, Lucy!" He said with a boyish grin. "Finally got that damn sniper!"

Lucy's expression was distant, half hearted. Something else clearly had most of her attention. "I think the pilot bailed out. That Gelgoog might have recovered him." Mike followed the direction of her eyes and found what she was looking at; the wrecked hull of the Merrimac was still spinning in space, much of it falling into gravity to be incinerated in the Earth's upper atmosphere. "We got hurt, Mike."

He stared at the wreckage for a few moments, then nodded himself. "Yeah, we got hurt. Kinda pisses me off too."

Lucy pushed off the edge of her cockpit, drifting slowly into the open hangar doors of the ship. "This won't be the end of it. Let's get cracking with those repairs and start planning for the rematch."