(Author's Note: There's going to be no real "the story so far" prelude in this chapter... just straight into the action. And like I said, MSV fans won't be too disappointed. But I forgot to mention, neither will those of 0083.)
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"Red Alert, Red Alert, the base is under attack. All pilots, gunners and combat personnel, to your stations."
Explosions rocked Luna II as the attack began. Keith looked around desperately as pilots swarmed into the bay, climbed into their suits and prepared for battle.
"Dammit!" he yelled, running back towards the Speranza's docking bay. Ken quickly followed, as soon after the MS bay opened and the amassed GM prototypes marched out to face the enemy.
As Keith sprinted towards the ship, he saw from several windows the utter carnage going on outside. Around three Musais, flanked by a pair of Chivvays, had arrived and were blasting anything in sight with their particle cannons, while the GMs launched in defense of the base were busy in a huge, desperate melee with squads of Zakus.
Only three Musais? I thought there'd be more... he thought as he finally reached his destination. As the two got closer, Keith saw that the Speranza and its docking bay were a literal hive of activity.
Gunners frantically manned hulking gatling-gun turrets, whereas most of the pilots that had come to Luna II alongside him were waiting for his arrival.
James grinned at him. "Looks like I'll be able to show you my moves after all!" he smirked.
"Save your breath, you'll probably need it. Tiff! Is the Gundam ready?" Keith shouted, between gasps of air.
"It might be... oh, my god.." Tiff gasped.
"What?"
"...The Gundam's out of fuel. Looks like we over-did it back on Earth. And as you probably know, in space no fuel means no mobile suit..."
"DAMN!"
"I think I have an idea." Ken piped up. "There's something in storage that could be useful.."
"What is it? Tell me, quick, we don't have time!" Keith shouted.
"There was a prototype made before the Gundam you use. It was originally designed for just close-combat, so we never attached any guns to it aside from the ones built in.
It's the RX-78-1."
"Get it, quickly. Actually, no, just tell me where it's stored, I'll get it myself."
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Keith entered the darkened warehouse block, and saw the RX-78-1 for the first time.
It looked almost exactly the same as his own Gundam, aside from its black and white paint job, slightly thinner forearms and little slits in the foot armour. Somehow, he knew the internal framework would be similar enough.
Climbing into the prototype Gundam, Keith quickly flipped the internal controls on.
Startup sequence's the same... for all intents and purposes, this is basically the same as my own Gundam...
Vapour puffed from vents in the Gundam's chest as it clambered to its feet.
Right... now to get this thing out to fight... Keith thought to himself as he carefully pushed the movement controls. Slowly so as not to damage anything else in storage, the RX-78-1 began moving out, heading for any exit its pilot could find.
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"Open the docking bays! All gunners, fire at will. I repeat, fire at will!"
Kojima had been reunited with his wife in the hours before the attack, but it hadn't lasted long. The crew of the Speranza had to watch as this gentle-looking lady scrambled for cover with tears in her eyes, while her spouse manned his post with a strange, stony determined expression.
The docking bay doors slowly opened, releasing air pressure. A Zaku leapt through the widening opening and was instantly turned into a heap of molten metal from a shot fired by one of the ship's mega particle turrets. But more came.
"Dammit, those things are too fast! We can't keep firing forever, and at this rate we'll be toast pretty soon!" screamed one of the gunners into the intercom. Tiff sighed. "The gunners are reporting. Ammo's getting low and we aren't hitting the targets enough. What the hell do we do?"
For once, Kojima seemed at a loss. I suppose Keith was right... he thought as the sounds of blasts echoed around the bridge. Suddenly, almost the entire troop of MS pilots hurried in.
"We can't just stand around while people are dying! Permission to launch?" Shiro yelled.
Tiff smiled. "I suppose we can't wait for Keith forever. Get to your suits and get out there, we can't wait any longer!"
"Wait, we haven't sorted out who's going to pilot what!"
"Use whatever you used before! We don't have time!" Tiff shrieked, on the verge of panic.
"But I... ah, whatever, I'll find something..." Norris sighed, and the pilots scrambled out, heading for the MS deck.
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The Guncannon leapt out onto the soil and rock of Luna II first, and began a horrifying, relentless barrage of beam rifle and cannon fire.
Any enemy suit unlucky enough to stray into its line of fire was torn apart, whereas the lucky ones just disappeared as they suffered critical damage and exploded.
James narrowed his eyes. Zakus were falling one by one, a few had the guts to fire on him but soon found standard machine gun shells could barely even scratch Luna Titanium. The only real danger was if a Zaku could get close... Heat hawks weren't that effective, but with a bit of work could cut into the Guncannon's armour.
Plus, James would have a job forcing the attacker back if they did, as his suit wasn't a particularly efficient close-combat performer.
Suddenly, the welcome whistling of cannon shells was replaced by a harsh click.
"Dammit! Out of ammo!" James growled. Desperately, he yanked the firing trigger again. Same response.
Most of the Zaku pilots were stupid enough to keep shooting (or bright enough to stay back, depending on your views), but one moved forward. Tossing aside its machine gun, it grabbed a heat hawk from its waist and stood motionless for a few seconds while the battery fed energy to the blade.
James' eyes widened in horror and fear. Just as the blade glowed a yellowy-white with heat, the Zaku charged. I don't wanna die... I don't wanna die...
As the vaguely insectoid monstrosity prepared to strike a damaging blow to the Guncannon's tough armour, James panicked. Screaming a curse, he wrenched at the arm controls, and there was an ear-splitting clang as the Zaku was smashed backwards, the blow lifting it off its feet.
"I'm not quite ready to die YET, asshole!" James yelled, as the Zaku struggled to get up, only to find its opponent standing right over it. Stabbing a button, James watched with a grim satisfaction as his aggressor was peppered with vulcan bullets and forced to stay down.
Another Zaku leapt at him, but with a single movement of the controls on James' part the Guncannon easily swatted it aside, sending it hurtling away into oblivion.
Oh, dammit... I can't hold them off forever with no ammo... The constant rattling of the machine gun fire on the Guncannon's armour indicated that, little by little, the Zakus were chipping away at his defenses.
Suddenly, a titanic explosion erupted from the side of Luna II and ...something happened to two of the Zakus. In a split-second, they were cut in half, and stayed in the same position for another second before violently exploding.
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"It's the Gundam! I can't stop it! It's invincible!!" screamed a terrified Zaku pilot as the RX-78-1 bore down upon it.
"You could have just ran away..." Keith said sadly, just before slicing open the Zaku and triggering another explosion as its own reactor blew it apart.
James' face appeared on his commu-monitor, grinning. "Am I glad you're here... did we get them all?"
Suddenly a bazooka round thudded into the prototype Gundam's shield and blew up, knocking it over and blowing off half its shield. "No." replied Keith as the Gundam rose up to face this bazooka-wielding Zaku.
Remember, get in close... This guy was good! He wasn't going to let Keith get close enough to kill him, but every time the Gundam tried to get nearer the Zaku backed off, firing another bazooka shot to force it back.
"Hah!" The Gundam leapt, heading straight for its opponent. The Zaku fired again--
--and a burst of vulcan gun fire blew up its bazooka shell, knocking it backwards at the same time.
"Not such a smart-aleck NOW, are you!?" Keith growled as he pulled at the controls, expertly slicing off the Zaku's right arm. It slowly fell to the ground, still holding its bazooka.
Just as Keith prepared to deliver the killing blow to his enemy, something silvery slammed into the Zaku, and it was sent spiralling backwards.
"...the hell?!"
The silver blur slowed down, revealing itself as Keith's old Zaku, still gleaming and with its trusty machine gun in one hand, its heat hawk in the other. "Didn't expect me?" laughed Norris, just before decapitating his machine's green twin.
"Not at all..." Keith grinned, as he activated the manual hand controls and wrenched the bazooka from the green Zaku's disembodied arm.
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"Sir! We're losing Zakus, they're dropping like flies! And from what few transmissions we're getting, the Feddies have mobile suits out!"
"Don't be too pessimistic about it. Launch the new space-type mobile suits."
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"Looks like we're winning... why the hell haven't they nuked us yet?" James asked.
"I have no idea... but let's take out those ships before they decide it's a good idea to try!" yelled Keith, hitting the Gundam's thrust engine controls. At once, he was rammed back into his seat as the RX-78-1 leapt forward, taking off from the barren rock and heading straight for one of the Chivvays.
The Chivvay's gun crews opened fire frantically as this metal monster hurtled towards them, but it seemed to maneuver far too quickly. Bullets flew past inches from its body, yet none of them ever seemed to hit.
"Die, you heap of scrap!" screamed Keith, bringing his beam sabre down in one almighty slash, annihilating almost all the Chivvay's port defensive turrets in a single attack.
The two surviving turrets beneath him began firing, but they were almost immediately silenced with a kick that crushed them both in a mangled mess. "Norris, get the bridge!" commanded Keith. Deep inside, James smirked at this. Let's see how they like pitting battleships against mobile suits for a change! he thought to himself.
The two only just managed to hear the affirmation "Righty" before the silver Zaku leapt into the task, slicing off the barrels of the ship's front mega particle guns with a sweep of its heat hawk, before returning the deadly device to its hip armour and gripping its machine gun with both hands.
Keith admired, in a slightly macabre way, how Norris spent about a second steadying his aim (and terrifying the bridge crew) before opening fire with a deadly stream of 120mm bullets and sending the Chivvay to the astrological equivalent of Davy Jones' locker.
As the stricken ship lurched back in its death throes, its hull shuddering with multiple explosions as one by one its systems failed, Keith noticed a large shape launch from one of the Musais. Closely followed by two others, these bulky shadows landed on the surface of Luna II...
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"Engines ready?"
"Yessir."
"Railgun charged?"
"Yessir."
"Alright. Now to show these Zeeks a real reason to back off!"
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"What the hell!? A Dom? How on earth do those things work in space?"
"My god, it's fast... ARRGH!"
Explosions were heard as the new Rick Doms began their attack, destroying GMs left and right. The GMs fought back fiercely, but none of their pilots had the experience or the skill to fight off these new, highly-mobile foes.
Anavel Gato smirked as he pulled the firing trigger, blowing a GM into nothingness with a heavy bazooka shell. Damned Feddies... They think they can stop us?!
All of a sudden, another bazooka shot slammed into one of his wingmen, the blast tearing it apart with blackened and twisted remnants of its armour hurtling from the force of the explosion.
Gato's Rick Dom was knocked sideways by a flying chunk of metal from its doomed brethren. As his machine climbed back onto its feet, Gato looked straight into the eyes of the prototype Gundam, a stolen Zaku bazooka clamped tightly in one metal hand, a beam sabre held aloft in the other.
"Finally, a challenge!" Gato said, mostly to himself to hide his mounting fear. This thing was capable of almost anything...
Quick as a flash, he pressed the firing trigger again. A bazooka shell shot towards his black-and-white foe...
... and almost immediately it fired a shot of its own. Both shells met in a massive fireball, but Gato saw the rapidly-approaching death machine rocket towards him through the flames and rushed to meet it.
Both mobile suits lunged in a rapid melee, sabres out. Blade met blade in a frantic dance of parries, stabs, blocks and slashes, as sparks flew from every contact they made. Finally, the Gundam found an opening, one that Gato could just barely defend. Easily pummelling his rushed parry aside, the Gundam's powerful stroke sent his Rick Dom flying, where it smashed into the side of a crater on the asteroid.
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Keith gasped and panted for breath, slumping back in the RX-78-1's cockpit.
Sweat dripped down his brow, as he silently congratulated himself. But somehow, he couldn't shake the feeling that the Gundam was...somehow slower than it used to be.
Probably the prototype wasn't meant for this, he thought to himself.
Kawada's smiling face appeared on his commu screen. "Leave the ships to us, yeah? Oh, and if you can, make some popcorn inside that thing and watch the fireworks!" he said with a laugh.
Keith was just about to reply, but the Osiris' transmission was cut off by another.
"Listen here, you Fed bastard... I'm not done with you yet!"
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Erm.... just review, please? -^^- And I'm sorry the Osiris didn't kick some arse this chapter... but I promise it will next time!