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With mass-production GMs salvaged from the ruins of Jaburo and a ship capable of taking them to Luna II, all Keith, Tiff and James need are crew. To this end, they set a course for Southeast Asia in the hope they can find people to help man the ship there...
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2nd December 0079
"Wake up! We're nearly there!"
Keith moaned and uncurled from his position in one of the seats on the bridge of the Speranza. He felt guilty about going to sleep, although the ship had semi-autonomous controls for emergencies, the three had spent a sleepless night of coaxing the ship along. A truly horrible moment had been when James had had to shoot down a Dopp, meaning Tiff and Keith had to do double duty for a few minutes.
"Eh... Really, Tiff?" Keith asked, getting to his feet. "Yes! In fact, we're getting quite close!" Tiff replied, yanking him towards the bridge's window. As Keith looked, he saw a massive green jungle below him. "Eh, this still looks like Jaburo..." he sighed. But he saw plumes of grey smoke ahead, and frowned. Meanwhile, James looked up from a control console, with a sleepy moan of "Are we there yet?"
"Yes." both growled. James had been saying that repeatedly for nearly an hour last night, and it had driven them both crazy.
As the Speranza flew over the base, all of them gasped. They'd expected at least some kind of welcoming party. What they found was smoking ruins and devastation, with only a few Federal mobile suits on some sort of patrol really noticing their arrival.
Taking care not to crush one of the surviving buildings, Tiff began to make the Speranza descend. After a few seconds, it touched down among the burning wreckage.
Grimly, the three prepared to exit the ship...
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As the three got off the ship, they were surrounded by surviving troops.
A young-looking one with blond hair and a bandana asked, "Are you the reinforcements? 'Cause if you are, you're damned early..."
Keith sighed. "There won't BE any reinforcements, I'm afraid... what happened here?"
A huge man with black dreadlocks stepped forward. "This huge metal spider just stomped through here two days ago and again last night, wrecking everything here! We tried to destroy it, but nothing we had could even scratch it! I think it's one of those new Zeon weapons... anyhow, how'd you know we won't get reinforced?"
Tiff sighed. This would not be easy news to break. "Jaburo's been destroyed. Two surface-piercing nuclear weapons were fired into the base..."
In unison, the survivors gasped. "Destroyed?! But... how can that be? Surely they'd stick to the Antarctic Treaty..." a young corporal with reddish-brown hair who looked far too young to even be in uniform muttered in disbelief.
Keith wore an expression of sorrow when he said, "Evidently not... I'm as surprised as you. That's why I deserted, and we've come to help you."
Tiff and James gasped. This was not in the plan, but evidently the members of the base were in desperate need. "Alright, you guys had better go see our commander."
the boyish corporal said, and the three followed him into the wreckage of the base.
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The base commander turned out to be one Colonel Kojima, a middle-aged man with dark hair and a bushy moustache.
"Who are you and what d' you want?" he growled as the four entered.
"Corporal Michel Ninorich, sir. Three visitors to see you." the young corporal said.
"Good, Ninorich. Leave us, I'll want to talk to these three, I presume." Kojima said, and Michel walked off.
Keith looked around. This office was the few rooms to survive the attack, and although it was pretty dark, it didn't seem to be that uncomfortable a place.
"Right, sir. I'm Tiffany Patcher of the Medea Supply Corps, and these are James and Keith..." Tiff began, but was cut off by Keith, who interrupted with "We've come to help you, but after we've done that we'll need some of your men. It's an operation of vital importance to the Federation."
Kojima scowled. "And who do I place my men under the command of?" he hissed.
"Keith Holt, ex-Zeonic mobile suit pilot and the Odessa Avenger, who destroyed eleven mobile suits and one Big Tray battleship at that battle." Keith replied, with a grin on his face.
Kojima's jaw dropped. "The.. Odessa Avenger?!" he whispered. Quickly regaining his composure, he growled in a much louder voice, "No matter if he is a legend or no, I will not let my men be led by a Zeonic soldier! And unless you join the Federation properly, I will be forced to regard you as an enemy!"
Keith's face wore an expression of utter rage while his companions stood in shock. He hissed, in a voice that oozed anger far more than yelling could ever do, "So I can call you sir? Over my dead body, Kojima. I'll never take orders from you, and don't try and make me. Not only am I on your side, I have the Gundam and I'm the only help you've got. As for being an enemy, any soldier you send to defeat me will need either a hospital or a morgue when I'm finished with them."
Kojima's surprise escalated. This ace Zeon pilot had the Gundam? But how?
"Before you ask, Jaburo was nuked. I got caught in the blast but survived, and I managed to take the Gundam from the ruins. Kill any of us and you'll have destroyed the future of the Federation.. won't that be something to tell your grandchildren?" Keith said with a smirk.
Despite himself, Kojima was terrified. He could see there was no choice but to listen to Keith's plan, and there was no way he could hope to control this man or his power. Ordering someone to fight him would cause a huge brawl of sorts, one he knew his forces were too weak to try. "Alright... what do you propose that we do?" he said weakly, while secretly thinking, 'I sincerely hope he's really on our side'.
Keith smiled. "You have a problem, in the form of this massive metal spider, yeah? But something that damned big can't have many places to hide. So what you do, is you hunt it down and exterminate it."
"We can't do that! NONE of our mobile suits could even scratch its armour!" Kojima yelled. To his mind, this idea would be utter suicide.
"Ah, but that was before you had the Gundam." Keith chuckled. "Now that you have it on your side, I bet this Zeon metal spider will be no match for it."
Kojima gave up. This was the maddest plan he'd ever heard. Still, if what he'd heard of the Gundam's full capabilities were true, Keith's idea would probably work.
"Alright. You three will be fighting alongside the 08th MS Team, although all our forces will be used in this search-and-destroy operation. Go and get to know your new comrades for a while, we only have a few hours before we begin the attack." Kojima sighed.
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As the three walked to the MS hangar to meet their new colleagues, Tiff began yelling at Keith. "What the hell did you start acting like that for?! He could have had you executed, just like that!" she shrieked.
Keith coolly strode on, quietly answering, "I'm not taking orders from a pathetic fool like him... I bet he hasn't even seen true combat..."
"Whether he's seen combat or not isn't the point! He's still a higher rank!"
Keith stopped walking and turned to Tiff. "I don't care for ranks anymore. Now, I'll only take orders from those that can beat me, and I've never met anyone that good yet. Kojima doesn't even come close..." he growled. "And I'd love to see him try and have me killed, too. He knows I'd tear what's left of his base to bits if he slipped up once while trying that." Keith added, his tone slightly overconfident.
Tiff sighed and started walking again, Keith following.
As they strode into the hangar, another Federation soldier with strangely-styled black hair noticed them and yelled, "Hey, here come the new guys!"
Almost immediately, four other people ran towards and crowded around the three new arrivals. Keith sighed as he recognised three of them. The only other he didn't was a strong-looking young lady with long red hair.
"We heard you were coming.. Need introductions?" she asked with a smirk on her face. "I'm Karen, and this is Eledore." she said as she yanked the blond bandana-wearer from earlier closer.
"OW! Dammit, Karen, that hurt!" whimpered Eledore, before adding "Um.. hi." to Keith.
Keith sighed. This bunch seemed to be the maddest yet. Suddenly, there was a loud squeal, and he turned to see Tiff squeezing young Michel (again, Keith, James and Tiff had seen him before, but Kojima had named him previously).
All others stood aghast, as Tiff resumed her mad bear-hug session.
Michel's whines and gasps for breath were drowned out by the ecstatic, giddy yells of "Oooooh, you're so cute!"
Finally, Tiff let go of Michel, who promptly flopped to the floor gasping for air.
Tiff blushed as she met the stares of just about everyone else around. "What? You have to admit it, he _is_ cute..." she said quietly, before wisely keeping quiet.
Keith sighed again, and helped Michel to his feet. "Sorry.." both he and Tiff said.
Michel just smiled and replied, "'S okay, as long as I can write.."
The young dark-haired man stepped forward. "I'm Shiro and this fella here's Terry," he said, pointing to the huge dreadlocked man from earlier.
Keith grinned. "Right, now that we know who each other is, let's get ready to kick some ass!"
Three trucks carrying one mobile suit each moved in. The first carried James' ground type Gundam, nearly identical to the ones already in the hangar as Keith noticed. Only a few differences were evident: A small antenna on the side of James' suit's head, and the number "10" on its shield.
The second carried Keith's silver Zaku, and the third..
"Whoa, mama!"
"Gundam? THE Gundam?"
"How the hell did that get here?"
Keith just grinned, as one of the tech officers driving a truck got out after delivering his MS and hopped into a nearby hover truck.
At once, Eledore ran over to the hover truck and rapped on the door. "Hey, what the heck d' you think you're doing?" he shouted.
"Orders. There's going to be a separation of hover trucks and mobile suit teams. This thing's goin' to some other bunch of hapless fools." came the reply.
James sighed. "Right... I think we should sort out who uses what mobile suit for the mission, yes?"
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A few frenzied hours of work, discussion and eventually arguing had solved the trouble, and now the team had eight combat-ready machines.
Eledore was the one who lost out the most. All the mobile suits available had been taken, even the GM Ground Types, so he had been relegated to piloting a Fanfan hovercraft. Since he didn't really know how to pilot a mobile suit very well, he didn't take it too hard.
Shiro, Karen and Terry kept their own mobile suits, but somehow Michel was given James' old RX-79 Ground Gundam. Keith had suggested it, but James himself had agreed it was a clever idea. There probably was a simple reason why he wasn't so sad about it: he had the repaired Guncannon, fitted with a leftover Gundam beam rifle and a GM's shield.
Keith kept his Gundam for this mission, while Tiff was at the controls of his Commander Zaku. But by far the strangest machine was the one they didn't use:
The drive base of the scrapped Guntank. Modified with what remained of the original Guncannon beam rifle and a pair of large and boxy multi-missile launchers, the new machine had been christened by Tiff the "Space Tank". Quite generously, Kojima had allowed them to take a GM Ground Type's upgraded reactor and use it, ensuring the tank would have the capability to fire its weapons to the full. Eledore had been asked whether he'd use the Space Tank instead but declined, saying he thought it'd get into heavier combat than he could handle.
All of a sudden, the alert sirens sounded, and Kojima's voice came through the intercom. "Brave men and women of the Federation, it's time to launch a counteroffensive. Our primary target is the huge metal spider that attacked this base recently. Find it, destroy it and any base it may be hiding in. This is a search-and-destroy operation, and it is of vast importance as all of our troops will be used. The fate of our planet may not be in our hands; still, our fate is. This is for this base and its personnel's very survival, and if you survive, some of you _will_ be vital to the Earth Federation. That's all. Good luck, now move out!"
Keith climbed into the Gundam and opened up the commu channel to all Federal units. "Alright, all of you: You heard the man, let's move!"
As other mobile suits staggered to their feet, and tanks and hover vehicles moved out,
Keith's own Gundam rose and moved forward, out of the hangar with his team following. As he did, he heard various battle cries and sayings over the com.
"Time to grease some Zeon slimeballs."
"Kick the tires an' light the fires!"
"Soon they'll be tasting cold steel!"
"Let's get 'em!"
"Our Father, who art in Heaven.."
"Don't fire 'til you see the glow of their camera eyes!"
Finally, Keith added his own in a loud voice, "Death to the Zabis! CHARGE!"
Hundreds of mobile suits, tanks and hover vehicles moved from the remains of Kojima Base. The Gundam was in the lead, closely followed by the silver Zaku and Shiro's easily-recognisable Ez8. Dozens of Jet Core Booster, Fly Manta, Toriares and even Sabrefish fighters zipped overhead, while even more Type-61 tanks and hover vehicles moved along to provide battle intelligence.
Almost immediately, Keith spotted a huge group of Zakus and other Zeonic machines further ahead. They didn't appear to be firing and one seemed to be carrying a white flag on the remains of a communications mast.
"What the..?" he said, just as the communication channel beeped. "This is Sergeant-Major Langley of the Anti-Zabi Rebellion. In the face of the Jaburo Incident, we hereby defect from Zeon to the Earth Federation."
"Really? I'm ex-Squad Leader Holt... I'm also fighting with the Federation."
"What?! Keith Holt? ...The Odessa Avenger? Wow..."
Just then, Keith got a call from one of the other Federal units. Shiro's face appeared on the screen. "What do you think we should do about these guys?" he asked.
Keith smiled. "Let 'em help us out a bit, of course," he answered, before switching communications back to Langley. "We need information. We want to find a huge mechanical spider-thing. Any of you guys know about it?"
"Wha? ...you mean the Tarantula? Why the heck do you wanna know where it is?"
"So we can destroy it."
"That's suicide!" Langley gasped. "I think it'd be a better idea to keep out of its way!"
Keith coughed. "You know who you're speaking to? You know what mobile suit he's in? Huh?"
"..."
"Then you won't mind helping us." Keith said with a grin.
"Alright, if you really wanna know... there's a base to the west. Keep going and you'll eventually hit it. It's near a mountain. Any other way I can help you? I don't like working for the Federation, but it'd beat helping those genocidal maniacs on our old side."
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