Throughout history, unspeakable atrocities have been committed against women and children as a means to attack the men who care for them. Ironically, the attackers are quick to forget that women and children often very bad tempers and very devious minds.
-- Liann Yashima

Chapter 11: The Littlest Ace

- March 1, UC 0084 -
-1555 hours (CST) -
All three of the Tarawa's mega particle cannons rose a few degrees above the bow and each fired two short blasts, both striking the modified freighter in front of the bay block through the main hull. The ship got off one last shot from its mega particle cannons before exploded, clearing a path for the landing craft from the troop transport a hundred miles behind the Tarawa's battle group. With the loss of this last ship the defending mecha started to cease fire a few at a time, and every minute the skies of the colony grew more and more quiet. Now it was time to move on; Captain Shiden ordered the battle group to set course for Riah's final defense line at Londenium Colony.

The Tarawa's MS deck was wide open and depressurized, and would remain so probably for the duration of the battle. Naomi's Gundam, low on fuel and out of ammunition from its second sortie of the day, landed on the starboard deck and moved the Gundam straight to its station. Once stopped, the Lieutenant threw the hatch open and dove straight out for Eric's mobile suit sprawled out next to the rear bulkhead. The machine looked like it had just clawed its way through mobile suit hell, with one arm and leg completely gone and most of the armor stripped away. The head of the mobile suit was partially collapsed, and its sensor systems were dangling from their wires elsewhere in the hangar as Astonage and his men worked to salvage what they could for use in the other machines. But most of the work was being done on the cockpit itself; Astonage had finally moved a Ball into the hangar and was hard at work prying away what was left of the chest plate to get at whatever was left of Lieutenant Swanson.

Chief Watson met her halfway to the suit and stopped her from getting closer with just a wave of his hand. "It's dangerous, Lieutenant. Possible fire hazard."

"Is he alive?"

"We don't know yet. The system's smashed beyond repair, we don't even have radio contact."

"You try the suit radio?"

"Tried, but he could be unconscious. The concussion from that chain mine crushed the cockpit around him, so it's really just a question of how badly is he hurt."

The Ball's clawed hands managed to peel away another section of armor and the next one moved under it to pry up the plating even more. "Keep me informed," she said, pushing off the deck back towards her mobile suit.

"Where will you be?"

"Alex needs maintenance. The electrical system's all screwed up."

Chief Watson pushed off and followed her with a worried expression. "Electrical system? What's the trouble?"

"He's moving strangely. There's a lot of looseness in the arms after..."

"... Quick movements? Reflexes? Bursts of speed?" Naomi nodded and Chief Watson felt his stomach grumble. "I was afraid of that." He passed her on the way to the suit and pulled himself into the open hatch before she entered. "Get some rest, Lieutenant. I'll take care of everything."

"You sure?"

"I'm sure."

"Alright then..." She drifted past the mobile suit and kept on to the far bulkhead, sought out the nearest airlock and closed the hatch behind her. I keep remembering what Kelly said. They're so high maintenance it must cost a fortune just to keep ONE of them running. She pressurized the airlock and took the helmet off her pilot suit, taking in a full lung of Tarawa's re-circulated atmosphere, Alex is overdue for an upgrade anyway.

She headed straight for the ship's gravity bloc and the mess hall down below where the second team was standing by, Lieutenant Izumi's team with the heavier mobile suits all sitting around the pilot's table in a total atmosphere of relaxation. Lucy was with Mike in the infirmary, which left Naomi alone with the second team for the time being. She took a seat across from Ryo and next to Brian and tipped back lazily in her chair.

Brian was the first to notice her, and even then it took him almost a minute. "How'd it go, Lieutenant?"

"We hit some heavy resistance. Mike and Eric are out of the fight, and Lucy's left gatling is damaged. We accounted for sixteen enemies shot down at the cost of six mobile suits just in the first wave."

Everyone around the table shook their heads in disgust. Brian picked up a coffee mug on the table and turned it in his hands. "We had an easier time with the defenses, probably because the mobile suits had already pulled out. No losses and ten pods shot down. And by the way, we secured the garrison in Libot and they're sending six GM Commandos to support the offensive. They can make up for the lost GMs, at least."

"Good to know, but you guys will be the first wave on the next set. Their mobile suits may not be much, but some of them are flown by veteran pilots. Make sure you take them seriously or you could get into real trouble." Everyone at the table nodded in agreement and went back to the nothing they'd been doing before she arrived. Naomi looked at each of them one at a time and looked for any sign of fear or anxiety. She found it in the last place she'd expected to find it, "What's your story, Ricardo?"

"Sir?"

"You have a problem I should be aware of?"

"No, sir."

She leaned forward a bit and her voice deepened. "You've never been afraid of anything in your life, Rico. What's got you so nervous all of a sudden?"

He hesitated to answer, but with her staring him down there didn't seem to be another choice. "You, Sir."

"Me?"

"Yes, you." He sighed and leaned back a bit more. "Listen, Lieutenant, you and I kinda got off on the wrong foot..."

Naomi raised a brow. "That's putting it mildly."

"Yeah, I know. And you probably don't care to hear this anyway, but I just wanted to say, I'm sorry for what I did to you and I feel like a real bastard."

Naomi blinked a few times in surprise with her jaw hanging slack in her face. If she could only see a flock of pigs flying around the room she'd have a better idea of what was going on. "Y-You're apologizing...?"

"Yeah. I know how stupid that's gonna sound considering what... looks, I just wish I could make things right again and I'm truly sorry for what happened."

As usual, no one had noticed her arrival, but this conversation had made Alice more curious than ever and she made herself noticed from the suddenly occupied seat next to Naomi. "What DID happen?"

Rico got over the initial shock of her appearing out of thin air and answered quickly, "It's nothing, really."

"Then what are you apologizing for?"

Lieutenant Dyson started thinking of ways to dodge, but he knew Alice well enough to know that she wouldn't be asking the question unless she had a pretty good idea of what the answer was. "I'll tell you later, okay?"

Alice stomped her foot in anger. "You guys always say that! It's always, 'tell you later, ask again later, not a good time Alice...' just because I can't see doesn't mean I'm some kind of retard!"

Naomi grabbed her hand and pulled her up into a chair, "Okay, I'm sorry, it's just a sensitive subject and I don't want to talk about it right now."

"Where have I heard that bef...?" Something like a wave crashed against the side of Alice's head, a sudden onset of pressure in her brain resonating in her eardrums and pulsing in rhythm like a strange heartbeat. In her own sightless world a strange bright object started to appear in the distance, but this time she didn't even have to wait to know what it was. "Ah... ah... I gotta go!" Everyone at the table watched her spring out of her chair and scramble across the room, tripping over chairs and people towards the door. Brian shouted a warning to her just a bit too late and she smacked face first into the bulkhead, but got right back to her feet and groped her way along to find the door. "I'll be back later! This is an emergency!"

Brian and Ryo watched her leave, then turned and looked at each other in confusion. "What's with her?"

"Maybe she started her period?" Chase muttered under his breath.

Naomi shot him a look of disgust. "That's not funny."

Alice made it out of the gravity bloc and halfway down the corridor on her own, using the vibrations in the hull from Kelly's frantic work at removing the armor plating from Eric's Gundam. One final lurch as the last bolts separated gave her a direction, and in under a minute she made her way to the airlock hatch of the port side mobile suit deck.

Kelly finished the reloading of the Mudrock's cannons and checked the power status on the beam rifle. Everything was ready, and fueling was just about complete. "There you are big guy. All ready for another battle." He started lowering the lift to run a final maintenance check when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye, turned around just in time to see Alice drifting past him in a pilot's normal suit. "Alice, what are you doing here? The ship is at general quarters!"

"Screw that! Enemies are nearby!" Alice flailed her arms out desperately and finally caught a handhold on the side of the cockpit, pulled herself in and slipped inside.

"Enemies?" Kelly grabbed her arm and pulled her partly out of the cockpit. "What enemies? What are you talking about?"

"It's that sniper again and the other one... they always work in pairs, you know? They're both out there somewhere, they're looking for us!"

"So what?"

Alice kicked Kelly in the chest and slipped back into the cockpit, closing the hatch behind her and locking him out. "If I don't stop them, they'll kill more people! I'm the only one who can kill that pilot!"

"What are you talking about?! Don't be stu...!"

The scramble alarm sounded in every corridor and passageway of the ship, echoed in the radio headsets of the mechanics and any crewmen in depressurized parts of the ship. Ryo's team burst up from their seats at the mess hall and sprinted to elevators to get to their mobile suits while bridge crew and off duty officers braced for what they hoped would be the final operation of the day.

Captain Shiden looked at the radar board, hardly able to believe his eyes. Aside from the group of enemies moving to attack them from their right flank, Londenium's defense line was wide open to attack. "Second Team, we have incoming hostiles up ahead, scramble and intercept them immediately. First Team, launch immediately and proceed to Londenium!"

Lieutenant Holland was surprised to see one of the mobile suits already standing by for launch. "He's quick... 807, targets inbound off the port quarter, range six hundred and closing fast. Sensors confirm six to ten mobile suits and several fighter units. Try to hold them off until the rest of the team gets launched."

The Mudrock stepped forward and locked its feet into the catapult, then slid into position to launch into space. Alice took a few deep breaths and squeezed the controls. "Roger that. Alice, launching in Mudrock!"

Lieutenant Holland tapped his headset in confusion. "What the hell? Was that just...?" He turned forward just in time to see the Mudrock shoot out of the MS deck like a bullet from a gun, turn slightly and disappear out into space to intercept the enemy suits. "Captain, I think our color guard's taking her duties a little too seriously..."


-2255 hours (MTNA) -
Ever since the beginning of this conflict, the Trafalgar had been the darling of Earthnoid media. The pilots became celebrities almost overnight, their names became household by now, and more than a few toy companies had even hired sculptors to design action figures in their likeness, along with to-scale mobile suit action figures for the fans to stage their battles. When the first shots of the fleet action were fired, all cameras everywhere focused on the Trafalgar's battlegroup as it began its attack against Bennay colony and the floating space dock nearby. At least six news ships from four different networks ran their live broadcast, with a few correspondents imbedded onboard the carrier itself to coordinate it all. Most watching on Earth were on the edge of their seats at the chaos on their TV screens, but those few viewers with experience in the battlefield took in different details.

Even from the shaky video on the news ship, she could tell the Riah forces were all highly experienced soldiers by any standards. Their mobile suits weren't the most advanced machines in the world, but the men behind the controls made them look highly impressive. She found herself staring at the screen for a few moments before a large explosion filled most of the frame and the camera angle changed, just in time to catch the fiery death of a Federation mobile suit. "This is something else...!" The reporter shouted off screen, "I don't even... I looks like one of the Trafalgar's mobile suits has taken a direct hit! It happened so fast I didn't..." He paused for a long moment, listening to a mumble somewhere off camera and then back to his microphone, "... they're telling me that machine was Lieutenant Marist's suit. The explosions here are caused by the Minovsky fusion reactors that power them. When those reactors are breached, they make a pretty big explosion. I hope Marist had time to eject." Another series of explosions and the camera angle changed, this time showing a half dozen Riah mobile suits exchanging fire with three of the Trafalgar's pilots. "These MS-117 Galbaldy's are state of the art technology, but like any mobile suit they can only take too much damage... those three red ones are outnumbered but putting up a good fight. There's no telling how this could turn out, the firefight is extremely intense..." Sayla couldn't help but notice the voice sounded familiar somehow, and the way he spoke he seemed very familiar with the subject he was covering right now. He sounded excited, but none of this seemed to disturb him in the slightest. "It may not look like it, but this battle's definitely working to the Federation's favor. The Riah suits are offering heavy resistance but the Feddies are pounding them with everything they've got..."

The bathroom door opened at last and Amuro stretched his shoulders back as he walked into the room. He didn't notice the TV at first, just sat down on the bed next to her and kissed her on the cheek. When she didn't notice him, he first became annoyed, then curious at what it was that had her attention. "C'mon, Sayla, you can't just watch the news all day."

"Something finally happened." She said blankly, still staring zombie-like at the screen.

"Another incident?"

"It's a fleet action. The shooting started a couple hours ago."

"Really?" Amuro watched more closely now and looked for anything of interest. Nothing kept his attention for very long, only the usual chaos of explosions and beams shooting back and forth between mobile suits and warships. As they watched, a pair of massive explosions ripped open the side of one of the cruisers, but from the look of it he knew there was little to worry about. By now he had lost interest in the TV broadcast, and now his attention became more and more focused on the tease of cleavage behind her bath towel. "C'mon, Sayla, I'm sick of this stuff. Let's do something else."

"Just a minute, I'm watching this."

"What for?"

"I find it very interesting."

Amuro growled. "What's so interesting? We've been through it all ourselves, remember? Why watch it on TV?"

"I've never seen it on TV before. It's interesting to see what war is like to a civilian."

Fed up with it, Amuro grabbed the remote and muted the volume on the TV. "No more TV. We came here to have a good time, remember?" He leaned over and kissed the back of her neck, then reached up and started rubbing her shoulders. "Don't you want to have a good time?"

Sayla felt that familiar tingling in the back of her spine. "Yeah, I do..." She relaxed a little bit and felt her body grow a little warmer. All of her curiosity about the Side 6 Campaign gave ground to her desires. She closed her eyes and felt herself fall into his arms... then opened them again as the lighting on the TV flashed suddenly.

She snatched up the remote and turned on the volume again to hear the reporter's frantic rambling, "... believe what I'm seeing! There's been a large explosion here...the Trafalgar's taken a direct hit! There's... there's flames shooting out of the engine pod and the largest section of the hull! I didn't see what hit them...!" This time even Amuro had his full attention as the Pegasus class carrier twisted in space, burning from three massive gaps in the hull. One red mobile suit shot through the frame, shooting off its beam rifle at another Riah suit somewhere offscreen. "That's Ensign Layla's machine! She's fighting with that enemy pilot who hit the Trafalgar... another explosion! A big one! I can't believe what I..."

One final blast ripped open the bottom of the carrier and the ship started to fall behind the cruisers as it tore itself apart from the inside out. In a few more moments, there wouldn't be anything left of the carrier to salvage at all. "God almighty... for those of you who just tuned in, this is Kai Shiden reporting from the cruiser Bosnia in combat near Bunch 3 in Side 6. The Riah forces re getting pounded and they seem to be retreating, but the assault carrier Trafalgar is in serious trouble... man, I hope the crew evacuates in time."

Amuro groaned again and scooted off the top of the bed. "You'll be watching this all night, won't you?"

Sayla turned her head without looking away and nodded slightly.

"That's what I thought." He pulled up the covers and slipped into the bed, stacking the extra pillow under his neck. "Lemme know what I missed, okay?"

"I already know what you missed, Amuro." She mumbled as he pulled the covers over his head. "The point."


-1612 hours (CST) -
The Psycommu interface showed her a total of seven targets and indicated to her that they were moving towards her very quickly. The experience was very strange, instantly knowing things without having to hear or feel them, a steady input of information directly into her brain. The only thing the interface couldn't show her was the exact location of her primary target, the crimson Rickdom piloted by none other than Duncan Marquis.

The rest of the mobile suit teams were just launching behind her now and were catching up quickly, but Alice didn't have time to wait for support. If Duncan and his sniper got into range, the Tarawa wouldn't survive very long. "Okay, there's seven of them, maybe more behind... I can find them, no problem." She came into range of the first group, two Hercules types with rifles and a third shouldering a very large bazooka. The first two locked on and opened fire, while the third waited until he was closer to aim the bazooka. Alice dodged their rifle fire from the distance and armed the beam rifle. This isn't some paintball fight with Naomi, this is a real battle. I hope I can do this right... She picked one out of the three and locked the beam rifle. The mobile suit fired three more shots in her direction, Alice fired four in return. The fourth shot scored a direct hit on the cockpit hatch, blowing the suit's chest wide open and sending it spinning into space in flames. That's one... She locked onto the next and fired another four blasts. The suit dodged the first two, but the third clipped off one of its legs and the fourth hit it dead center and destroyed it instantly. That's two...

The third one moved far above her and fired down with its bazooka. Alice reversed thrust and rolled straight back to avoid the rocket, but before she could fire back the enemy suit exploded from another beam off in the distance. Ryo's Gundam was the first to join her in the battlefield and already he was taking a position to defend her. "Alice, I'll cover you! Fall back!"

"I can't let the sniper get any closer to the ship! Fall forward!"

Mudrock accelerated again and passed him, and now Ryo found himself scrambling to keep up. "Sniper? The one that attacked us before? You can sense him, can't you?"

"Yeah. He's out here somewhere..." Two more mobile suits rose up to attack them from the front, with at least three more rising up behind them, all flying with their backs to Londenium colony in the distance. "Ryo, I think we're hitting their first defense line. There's a lot more of them coming."

His sensors spotted a few more mobile suits closing in just behind these ones and now he nodded in agreement. "This could get ugly. You better head back to the ship..."

"I told you, we don't have time! I have to find that sniper!"

Two mobile suits opened fire at once with rifles. Alice dodged one, blocked the other with her shield and then fired off three quick shots with her beam rifle. The shots were close but all of them missed, and the two suits answered back with everything they had. Ryo moved closer to one of them and sprayed it with his arm gatling, but the other reacted quickly and put some distance between them. "Alice, that power cell won't last forever! Take it easy!"

"I'M TRYING!" She locked on again and fired another four-round blast, scoring at hit with the last shot that left the machine adrift with a hole under the cockpit. She took a moment to catch her breath, then sensed an attack from behind her and dodged left just in time to avoid it. A GM Commando painted in Riah Forces colors fired blast after blast with its beam gun, and Alice dodged every shot like a fly before setting up her aim again and shooting back a series of blasts. The GM darted back and forth as well, dodging five shots one after another before the sixth one burned into its chest just above its main radiator. The pilot ejected from the mobile suit just before it exploded, and Alice discarded the now-empty energy cap from the rifle as she scanned for another target. That's four!

Ryo spotted another GM approaching, aimed carefully and put one beam through its head before it even knew he was there. "She's unreal! Her first time out and she gets four kills...?!" Ryo sensed it finally, a rising pressure from somewhere out in space that seemed to intensify as it got closer. He was surprised to find that he recognized this feeling. Far behind them, Rico and Chase noticed the same feeling as they moved to join the battle, as did Brian in his core fighter and Naomi and Lucy not far away in their mobile suits. Suddenly Ryo was very glad Alice was out here with him. "Alice, you feel that?"

"I feel it."

"Can you pinpoint it?"

"I... I don't know..."

"Concentrate! Try to zero in on it!"

She shut out the ghost world of the psycommu interface and focused in on the strange light she sensed before. At first it was the usual nothingness that was always there, but after a moment... "That way!" She pointed the mobile suit in the right direction and started moving towards it. As soon as she pointed she sensed a second energy just behind it, felt it suddenly explode with radiance in a spirit of hatred... She dodged left half a heartbeat before Vanessa's beam cannon would have split her in two. "That's her alright!"

Ryo's sensors finally spotted them and started calculating range. "There's two of them... Chase, Rico, start working through their main defense line. We'll handle that sniper."

Chase and Rico moved forward leading their force of six GMs in formation. The next line of targets was interesting to see; a mix of a dozen FFS-3 Sablefish fighters and RB-79 Balls closing at full thrust with weapons ready. Londenium colony wasn't much farther behind them, and beyond that there didn't seem to be much of a defense line at all except for what was waiting very close to the colony. Even Chase could see it was a stalling tactic. "If I didn't know better, I'd say this battle was already over..."


-1616 hours (CST) -
Naomi's second wave was just now coming into range of the second defense line as they approached the colony. The lights of battle were already blazing here, explosions and beams crisscrossing from cannons and missiles large and small. The Trafalgar's Galbaldy unit was just arriving at the same time, along with another wave of Titans mobile suits from the other side of the colony. It gave her confidence just to see them all on the same page for once. "Tarawa strike group, we're in the zone! Let's hit em hard and fast!"

Lucy looked over the battlefield briefly and gave the call, "GM teams, split up and engage enemy mobile suits on the way in. Our primary targets are those modified transport vessels. Aim for the big guns bolted onto the hull."

The GM team separated and moved among the enemy, opening fire as soon as they were in range. Lucy and Naomi both started picking targets and their beam rifles went into action in a blaze of energy.

The cruiser Scarface was in the middle of the chaos when the reinforcements arrived, all five of its mega particle guns firing in nearly every direction at every target in sight. Three Titans GMs closed in and opened fire on the old Musai, beam guns pelting the hull from its starboard side and ripping out chunks of its armor, but the explosions merely stripped away the outer layers and left the ship mostly intact. Appoli darted out from behind the cruiser and put a bazooka round into the chest of the lead suit, leaving the other two to break off and fall back away from the ship.

Captain Black laughed as the damage report scrolled on his screen. "You still think that ablative armor was a bad idea?"

The MS deck opened and Galen's Kaempfer moved back out of the deck. "I never said it was a bad idea, I just said it was expensive as all hell!"

"Yeah, but it works."

"Who cares? It only works ONCE!" Galen moved away from the ship and scanned around, finally spotting Chris's mobile suit a few hundred meters below, trading rifle fire with a pair of Galbaldys. "Shotgun..." He locked onto the first one and fired as he got close. The blast shredded the suit from behind and left it burning in space, and Galen blasted the other with his bazooka as it turned around to face him. "You alright, Mackenzie?"

"Thank you for that." Chris's computer whistled again and she spun around as three GM Commandos came into range. She didn't wait for them to come into range; she aimed a little bit ahead of the suit and fired one shot from the rifle. The bullet landed right where it needed to, through the torso right next to the cockpit, blowing open one of the fuel cells to the fusion reactor. The explosion wasn't large, but it spat enough vapor from the side of the suit to momentarily blind the two behind it.

Galen took the chance as it came to him, charging in on the unsuspecting suits to point blank range. His bazooka ripped the first one open, and he drew his beam saber and cut the other in half down the middle before it could draw its own beam. "Heh. Too eas..." Naomi's arm gatling hit him from behind, more than a hundred rounds punching right through the Kaempfer's armor before Galen before he even knew she was there. The suit drifted in space for a few seconds before its reactor exploded, and Naomi circled around the debris and looked for her other target.

Chris cursed under her breath and shot off a few shots from the rifle, and Naomi spun around and fired right back. Both suits dodged each others fire, then pulled away from each other and started to circle. "Alex again? Their mechanics are quick!" She remembered her last battle with the Gundam and thought about the pilot she'd seen there. She had seen enough to know how he moved. "Let's see..." Chris dropped away a good distance and fired a few token shots from the rifle. The Gundam dodged the shots with massive movements with such speed Chris could barely follow it each time. They exchanged fire for a few moments, trading rifles and dodging each other and then firing again in an effort to land a hit. Before she knew it, Chris was flying backwards firing for all she was worth at the blue and white suit attacking her. "He's moving different... it's so FAST!" Chris fired two more shots from the rifle, then turned and ran from the suit as quickly as she could.

Naomi turned around and locked in on her target again, a Columbus class transport apparently modified for battle with armor plating and a pair of mega particle cannons on the sides of the hull. Three Hercules mobile suits noticed her approach, and Naomi paid them almost no regard as she came in. "That old junker won't take more than a few hits..." She noticed Lucy's Gundam closing in from the corner of her eye, and also noticed that none of the defending mobile suits had noticed her yet. She decided it was better if they never did. "Lucy, the hulk's all yours. I'm getting some new trophies on the wall."

Lucy chuckled on the radio. "Sick em, Girl!"

The three mobile suits all aimed with heavy machineguns and fired a long burst as she closed in. Naomi changed directions and flew ahead of the shells, aimed carefully and fired one shot from the rifle. The beam snaked out towards its target in seemingly slow motion and then impacted, a direct hit through the reactor of the farthest suit. The explosion hit the other two in a wave and set them up as easy targets. Naomi closed the distance and sprayed one with her arm gatling, then drew her beam saber and struck down on the other without even slowing down... and to her surprise her beam saber crashed down against the blade of another beam saber, locked for a moment and then threw both of them away. "He has a beam saber! Where did they get that kind of technology?!"

"Who cares? Just kill em already!" Lucy was in range, and the Ticonderoga's defense guns were already spitting flak in her direction in a vain effort to drive her away. Lucy swam around machinegun fire, raised her rifle and fired four quick shots just to soften it up. One of the blasts impacted just aft of the main bridge and opened up into massive explosions from within. Suddenly the defensive guns from the ship lost accuracy. She fired a few more shots, hitting the hull with each one and punching deep into the hull with each one. A few beams pierced the cargo modules-turned MS decks, two others cut through ammo storage at the far end...

Secondary explosions boiled up inside the hull, and finally one massive blast ripped open the portside MS deck and sent the ship into a spin, blowing itself apart from the inside out. Far above the ship, Naomi swatted away the Hercules' beam saber with one arm and them stabbed it through the chest with the other. She waited for it to stop moving, then pulled out and moved off to join Lucy far below her. "Nice shootin Lu..." She spotted it at the exact same time Lucy sensed it, but it was too late for either of them to do anything about it. The shell from Chris' rifle hit the Gundam's thruster pack at its softest point and exploded under the armor, spilling propellant and reactor coolant off into space like the lifeblood of the mobile suit.

Lucy just managed to spin around and fire a token shot from the beam rifle, but Chris' next shot was a direct hit; the explosion blew the cockpit hatch clean off its hinges and peeled back the armor around it like a can of tuna. Naomi fired blast after blast at the Hercules as it retreated and just managed to score a hit, burning through the left side of the suit's chest and sending it into a spin. Chris acted on pure instinct, threw open the cockpit hatch and leapt out just seconds before her suit finally exploded. I never expected there'd be two of them. Must be an entire Gundam unit, five or six units all based on the Alex, She tapped a button on the side of her suit and her emergency beacon started transmitting. It took about two seconds for Appoli's to pick up the signal, and once he did the Rickdom scanned through space and flew out to pick her up. The Titans are worse than the Zeons. If we don't fight against them, we haven't learned a thing. Appoli's Rickdom flew up to her quickly but carefully, closed its gigantic hand around her and then turned back towards the Scarface as it began to retreat.

The Alex's fingers pried open the twisted metal around Lucy's cockpit hatch and peered inside. Amazingly, the cockpit was mostly intact, and Lucy's normal suit seemed to be more or less undamaged. "You hurt, Lieutenant?"

Lucy looked into the giant green eye and smiled softly. "Only my pride."

"Can you still move? There's not many of them left but they're not surrendering. It's dangerous to stay here."

Lucy tugged and the controls again and then frowned at the lack of response. "No good. My AMBAC system is fried."

"Okay, just sit tight." The Alex grabbed the other suit by the hand and started pulling it towards the Tarawa. "How'd he sneak up on you like that, anyway? He was just sitting there aiming his rifle..."

"He came in from a blind spot. I didn't see him until he was right on me."

Naomi raised a brow. "The Gundam has blind spots?"

"Several of them. I noticed it a while ago when you guys were in Afghanistan. The new sensor configuration just makes it worse."

That worried her more than anything else. Naomi hadn't noticed any problems with Alex's optics before, and it actually frightened her that an enemy pilot would know her mobile suit better than she did herself. "How would a Riah pilot know how use a Gundam's blind spots?"

Lucy sighed and kicked her feet up on the smashed remnants of her control panel. "Who cares? You killed him, end of story. Let's just head back to the ship so I can get this damn thing fixed."


-1710 hours (CST) -
Alice fired a few shots as Duncan closed in with his beam saber, all of her blasts falling wide of a direct hit. Duncan's shots were more accurate, but with his shells bouncing off her armor he stowed his machinegun and took the beam saber in both hands. Alice's capacitor energy bottomed out with the last shot and she discarded it in favor of her own beam saber. They closed the distance in a heartbeat, each took a swing at the other and their beam sabers locked up once again. Mudrock's beam saber was far more powerful, and Duncan already felt his own saber starting to loose power. He pulled away for now and thought of another way to attack, but at that moment the other Gundam came up behind him and fired a burst from the arm gatling at nearly point blank range. By some miracle he managed to moved just enough to avoid a direct hit and now started maneuvering to get distance from both of them. "Sis, help me out here! They're double teaming me!"

"I can't get a shot, Deuce! You're in the line of fire!" Vanessa's Rickdom peaked out from concealment inside the floating wreck of a transport shuttle, then ducked back in disappointment. "Those other suits are looking for me! Hurry up and get rid of her!"

"I'm trying!" Duncan pulled away and took another swing at her, but the Mudrock leapt over his attack and then came back down with one of its own. He barely had time to block it before it would have sliced him in half. "This old Rickdom's too slow to keep up with her! I need my ReGelg!"

Vanessa poked her head into the open again, and this time she spotted the Guncannon spiraling in space towards her position. There was a lot of floating debris around this area, so if anything it would take him a minute or two to figure out exactly where she was. "Deuce, hurry up! I don't have time to...!" She sensed a sudden burst of pressure and spun around just as a pair of GMs pushed through the debris and opened fire with beam guns. She dropped her beam cannon and shot out of the wreckage as fast as she could with the two GMs hot on her tail. "Shit, they spotted me!"

"This is Lieutenant Dyson, we've found that sniper! Fokker, get your ass over here!"

"I'll be right there..." Two GM Commandos in Riah colors moved out from concealment in a misguided attempt to ambush him from behind. Chase spun around and fired both cannons into one of them, and in his rush he left the other alone to retreat to whatever base or ship it had come from. The Rickdom Sniper drew a smaller beam rifle from its back and traded a few shots with the GMs as he closed in, and all at once Chase found something amusing about the pilot. "She's a horrible shot! Rico get in closer and keep the pressure on!"

"Roger..." That was easier said than done. Every time they tried to get closer, the Rickdom simply moved farther and farther away.

Duncan blocked Mudrock's beam saber and fired his thrusters straight up again before Ryo could attack him from behind again. So far he hadn't be able to land a single blow on the enemy, double teaming him as they were kept him more than a little busy. "You don't fight fair, Alice! Why don't you fight me one on one?!"

"Screw that! You think I'm gonna fight you solo my first time out?! I'm good but I'm not THAT good!"

"First time...?" A moment's hesitation and suddenly the entire battlefield changed. Four RB-79s from the Riah forces and at least as many GM Commandos passed by, exchanging fire with a group of GM Quells as they chased each other in circles. Duncan recognized that their little duel was starting to drift its way towards the main battle field. Somehow he saw this as a good thing. "You wanna gang up on me, that's fine..." He picked out the nearest GM and switched Riah's frequencies. "GM team, this is Duncan Marquis. I need two suits to help me out here!"

In one sharp movement, two GMs broke off from their fight with the Titans and changed their targets, moving up to support, Duncan's suit as the Gundam's chased it in circles. Both fired off a blast from their beam guns, at once forcing Mudrock and Alpha Gundam to stop and regroup. "Alice, you think you can take him on your own?"

"Not for too long! Hurry up with the GMs!"

Vanessa fired her spraybeam as a distraction and pulled away from the GMs, but as soon as she did she felt a few rounds from the Guncannon's machinegun glancing off the side of her armor. "Three on one? Let's even this out a little..." She took just a moment and concentrated, stopped in space for a split second to pick her target. For half a heartbeat her thoughts resonated with the mind of the GM pilot and in that instant her finger squeezed the trigger.

The beam hit the GM's main reactor, and the explosion knocked Ricardo's suit spinning out for a few moments. It left Vanessa a little time to check out her position, but once she did so she found herself suddenly in the middle of a larger battle field. One of the Titans heavy cruisers was only a half a mile away from there, with several mobile suits and fighters trading punches back and forth amongst the fresh debris fields from makeshift warships and military shuttles.

She sensed another attack, this time from right in front of her. She dodged left just in time to avoid a massive barrage of machineguns and larger shells from Chase's Guncannon and fired a few pot shots in return while she looked for another way to attack him. He was so far away her sensors could barely even see him, but she could sense his presence in any case. The other GM will be on me in a minute. Maybe I can... She saw something moving behind the suit: three FFS-3 Sablefish fighters emerging from the debris field and diving in on the Guncannon's back. "Perfect!"

All three fighters fired their missiles, and on reflex Chase spun around and fired a long spray with his head Vulcans. The missiles exploded in clusters in front of him and the fighters broke off from their run, but for that one second he had his back turned Vanessa steadied herself and concentrated. Her beam rifle fired, the beam crossed the hundreds of meters between them and then hit the bull's-eye of the suit's fusion reactor.

Alice sensed more than saw the explosion, and a split second later sensed Ensign Fokker's mind disappear from her world. She already knew exactly what had happened, and suddenly she overflowed with rage. The feeling swept across the entire battlefield in a terrifying wave. It paralyzed everyone for hundreds of miles, newtype or oldtype, young and old, Titans or Defense Force, and for a few seconds absolutely everything stopped completely.

The crew of the Agamemnon looked around anxiously as if they might find the source of it somewhere nearby. Lieutenant Harrida even searched his radar screens more attentively to find the source of it. But Admiral Juan Dyson was the only one who knew this feeling, and the only one with his eye on the exact source of it. He watched from the distance as one of the Tarawa's Gundams suddenly broke away from its fight and streaked across space to attack the enemy that had just destroyed their Guncannon, its pilot so obviously inexperienced yet somehow moving with the skill of a seasoned ace. That's not Lieutenant Anderson in there, and it certainly isn't Naomi...

Vanessa could barely move from the pressure against her skull, but with the Mudrock charging in towards her, adrenaline overrode everything else and she started firing wildly in a vain effort to scare her off. Alice was screaming in her cockpit, and as she got closer she began screaming in Vanessa's mind, You killed Chase! You didn't have to kill him!

"I didn't mean to, but we're in the middle of a battle...!"

You shouldn't have killed him! He was a kind hearted person! He only wanted to help me!

Vanessa drew her beam saber as the Gundam came in and waited for it to come in, then surged forward and stabbed into the cockpit... Mudrock moved so quickly she actually blinked off an afterimage; it darted up over her attack and then struck down again, slicing straight through the beam saber and her right arm. Vanessa turned and fired off the beam rifle, Alice tossed the beam rifle aside and snatched the rifle out of her hand, then spun around and kicked her in the side as she backed away from her. "Kid, you're letting your emotions get the best of you! That's a good way to get yourself killed!"

"Good advice from a dead woman!" Alice took Vanessa's beam rifle in hand, aimed at the suit and fired blast after blast until the capacitor died out. The beams chopped the Rickdom apart piece by piece; arms, legs, head, thruster pack, sections of armor, finally cutting through the torso of the suit and punching open propellant tanks and coolant lines. Vanessa pulled the lever next to her seat and half a second later the ejector pod separated, drifting in space along with the rest of the chopped-up mobile suit until the reactor section finally exploded.

Admiral Dyson tuned his headset to the Tarawa's frequency and listened in for a few moments.

Ryo fired over Duncan's head with his beam rifle, and Alice turned and did the same with her shoulder cannons as the Rickdom charged in. As before, he didn't bother with her at all, rather flew through the scattering debris of Vanessa's Rickdom and snatched her ejector pod out of space, then fired his spray-beam again and flew away from the battlefield as quickly as they could. "Shit, he's escaping! Ryo, we can't let them get away...!"

"Negative, Alice! Look at your fuel status!"

Alice groped around the cockpit and found the right buttons, held them down for a few moments and let the mobile suit tell her how it was feeling. "Aw man! I almost had him too! And that sniper chick... Geez, it's like IMPOSSIBLE to kill that woman!"

"We'll get another chance, Alice." Ryo looked around the battlefield for a few moments and took it all in for the first time. Londenium colony was far behind them, the lights of battle already dwindling away there, and in this immediate area the last enemy mobile suits were either destroyed or running for their lives along with the rest of Riah's defense forces. The battle was as good as over, with only a few remote pockets of resistance still putting up a fight here and there. "The Tarawa's waiting for us by the colony. I'm sure your brother's worried sick about you right now."

"I thought he launched in a core fighter? What happened to him?"

"He's back with the ship, which is where we should be right now." Ryo turned back towards Londenium and kicked in his main thrusters. Alice followed along, and after a few moments Lieutenant Dyson came out of the debris field and joined them there. Six kills... He thought, glancing over his shoulder at the Mudrock Gundam. Six kills on her first sortie... I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself!

On the bridge of the Agamemnon, Admiral Dyson leaned back in his chair and laughed quietly to himself. "Impressive, Naomi. Those pilots from the Merrimac were just a smoke screen after all." He watched on the main screen as the Tarawa's suits retreated, and suddenly a new thought occurred to him, "Maybe... this one could be useful..."

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Might as well answer some questions as they come in. I do that sometimes, you know?

- Wing Zero Alpha:

I'm using this fic to try and bridge the technology gap between OYW and Zeta-Era mobile suits. By about 0087, the line between space-use and ground-use mobile suits disappears altogether and I've always wondered just when that really happened. I think Kaempher was one of the first to really do that. From what I've seen, it's performance in gravity should be about equal to the Rick Dias, though the Kaempher is notorious for being a gas guzzler and Rick Dias is just... well, FAST.

As for the quotes... I dunno, I just find em places and put em in a fic ^_^.