Here goes chapter 6 more action than last chapter, hope you enjoy. -Zakuboy-
Chapter 6: Commando Raid
November 2nd 0079.
Zeon Lieutenant Michel Michalski looked up at his MS-06-R1. "These are the weapons that Colonel Anderson sent to us?".
"Yes sir", said Petty Officer O'Brian from behind him. "Apparently these are test models for the Universal Armament Plan".
"The what?", said Michel completely confused about what the hell the Petty Officer was talking about.
"The Universal Armament Plan sir", the Petty Officer said sounding kind of exasperated. "This is the plan put into place by Gihren Zabi, that is supposed to standardize all the conventional weapons for our mobile suits".
"You mean that these weapons haven't even been battle tested yet" the anger rising in his voice.
"Sir I don't think that they have even been tested in a lab environment" O'Brian said and he braced himself for the blast of anger that he was sure would come form his commander. Instead all he heard was a sigh.
"O.K. what do we have?", Michel said as he rubbed his face in his hands.
"Well sir, each of our suits are equipped with MMP-80 90mm machine guns. Each suit carries three extra magazines plus the one that we have already loaded into the weapons. Your suit got a an extra 360mm Dom bazooka with eight rounds and no reloads. We were also sent a 280mm bazooka with three magazines, 12 hand grenades, and two new heat hawks".
Michel looked up at the massive bazooka that his mobile suit was now carrying. 'That can do a lot of damage to whatever it hits' he thought 'if it hits'. Mounted on his rear skirt armor was his MMP-80, mounted on his left skirt armor he had his two hand grenades. On the left skirt armor he had his heat hawk hanging by the handle. He had mounted his three extra MMP-80 magazines on the inside of his shoulder shield.
"Even if these weapons work as well as their designers say they will the odds are still nowhere near being in our favor. We are all that is left of a force of a dozen Zakus that attacked that base, and that was before they got their fancy new GM that has been causing us so much trouble".
Michel looked up at the Petty Officer who was still standing in front of him with the clip-board that had their units inventory on it. "That'll be all Petty Officer" he said, and O'Brian saluted, turned and walked back to the comm tent.
'We need a way that we can drastically reduce that base's ability to fight before we attack.' he thought. 'But how can four men, without any support, damage a base's ability to fight to the point that four Zakus could take control of it'.
Then an idea hit him and he jogged over to the comm tent where O'Brian had just gone. He lifted the flap and went inside, and saw the Petty Officer look up from the equipment in front of him.
"I need a vidcomm link to Colonel Anderson right now" he said, and O'Brian turned and started to work on opening the link. 'Hope that greedy bastard can spare the little that I'm going to ask him for' Michel thought as he sat down in the chair in front of the monitor that would allow him to see the Colonel as he spoke to him.
"Sir I have Colonel Anderson on the line and I'm transferring him over to your monitor" O'Brian called from the other side of the tent. A moment later the fat face of Colonel Anderson appeared along with only a little static on Michel's screen.
"Ah Lieutenant Michalski what can I do for you today. I hope you got the weapons I sent to your unit?".
"Yes sir we have received the new weapons that you sent but I have called you to ask for more." Michel said preparing himself for instant rejection by his superior.
"Oh", Colonel Anderson said "and what might this equipment that you need be. I have already sent you munitions that should be sufficient for the destruction of that Federation facility. I also sent you a fancy new Zaku, so I can see no reason that you should be having so much trouble destroying the base." Anderson scowled at Michel from the screen.
"Sir" Michel took a deep breath as he prepared to speak again, "the problem is this new GM style unit that the base has received that is keeping my entire force busy.".
"WHAT" Colonel Anderson looked at Michel like he was trying to make some terrible joke. "If a suit can do that to you Lieutenant, it must be as powerful as the Gundam! The idea that the Federation could mass produce a suit with the abilities of the Gundam is preposterous. It would be much to expensive and besides why would a suit with such power be posted to such a remote location as that Federation base?".
"SIR", Michel at a volume that made the Colonel jump, "I have the combat recordings from my suit of this monster in action, and I will send them to you in a moment!". 'Crap' he thought 'I'm yelling at my commanding officer'. He jerked his thumb at the tent flap and O'Brian went sprinting form it in the direction of his commanders suit to retrieve the disk that held the recording. Michel and Anderson simply starred at each other until O'Brian came speeding back into the tent and fell into the chair that he had just vacated in front of all the comm equipment. He shoved the disk into a terminal and pressed a button to transfer the file to Colonel Anderson's office computer.
The Colonel turned his head so that he could look at the video that he had just received. Michel saw that the longer he watched, the higher his eyebrows got. Once he finished watching he turned back to face the comm screen.
"That is certainly an impressive beast the Feddies have created. I now see the point that you have been trying to make, and I'm going to send you a unit of our new MS-09 Dom's so that you can deal with this threat," the Colonel nodded as if to affirm his statement.
"Thank you sir," and this time Michel actually meant it. But I would also like to request some other supplies be delivered to my base of operations as well".
The look on Colonel Anderson's face instantly hardened again. "Lieutenant, I think that I have been more than fair in releasing these Doms to you I would advise that you not ask for more," the slight sense of anger ,that he always had, creeping back into his voice.
"Sir the request I am about to make does not concern mobile suits, or any kind of weaponry". The Colonel's eyebrows went up. "Sir I want equipment to conduct a sabotage mission on the feddie base before we attack it".
This was obviously not what the Colonel had thought he was going to ask for. "Why would you want to do this now that you are going to receive three of the Duchy's most advanced land combat suits"?
"Sir if this raid is successful, it will lower the cost of life for my unit and it will help me sleep at night knowing that I helped these young men make it one more day in this war". 'Crap', he thought as soon as his mouth had stopped moving. 'I shouldn't have brought up that topic when his own son died under my direct command'.
The Colonel seemed to stiffen, but he didn't begin to shout as Michel had worried he might. "What sort of equipment will you need for this mission Lieutenant", he said in an extremely business like voice.
Michel began to outline what he would need.
- - - - - - - - -
November 12th 0079
Ryan slammed the thruster of his RGM-89 Jegan as he dodged a spray of machine gun fire. One of the rounds nicked his left shoulder armor, leaving a spray of red paint across the top. 'Damn she's getting pretty good at this', he thought as he danced around another spray of rounds.
"As far as we can tell Lieutenant, none of the hits, if they had been real, would have caused any damage to your suit except for a dent and some ruined paint", said Colonel Wright over the radio.
"Well it's nice to know that I'm still in the world of the living", Ryan laughed. Morgan's GM, which had been given the nickname "Phoenix" for the amount of flame it produced with it's verniers at full, rocketed at him with it's shield raised and it's 90mm machine gun aimed at him. "Thats an amature move Morgan", he said as just before she was right in front of him he made his suit dodge to the side again.
"What the...", was all that she could before Ryan had whipped around and fired his own machine gun.
The paint rounds hit the gun that the Phoenix held in its hand. The suit instantly tossed the "destroyed" gun aside and deployed the right gattling gun and began to blast away at the dodging Jegan. The Morgan hit the thrusters up to full and raced towards the suit. Instead of dodging the fire this time Ryan crouched his Jegan down and held out his shield out in front of him at an angle. When she was just in front of him he lashed out with his shield and knocked hers aside. Before she could bring the shield back up to defend herself three paint rounds impacted on and around her cockpit hatch.
"And you CPO Meagher, are dead", said Colonel Wright, with the slightest hint of a laugh in his voice.
"Yeah", she said with a slight huff in her voice.
"Hey Colonel how is Captain Simmons doing with his his new sniper unit?", Ryan asked.
"Why don't you see for your self. He's on the top of the hill to your south east", said Colonel Wright over the radio.
"Roger that sir", he turned his suit to look at Morgan in the GM Phoenix. "Last one to the Captain buys the buys the beer", Ryan said.
"Your on bucko, you owe me one for letting you beat me that easy", Morgan laughed.
"You have to beat me first", Ryan said, and with that he turned his suit and blasted into a long jump.
"Hey thats not fair I wasn't ready", she whined as she pushed her suits thrusters to maximum and skimmed along the ground.
"Wars are never fair, get used to it", he said kind of dully. His mobile suit took the shock of the landing and he blasted off into another jump. He looked behind him to see how fast she was catching up to him. Her suit was faster and very quickly she was getting closer.
In the end she beat him to the top of the hill and he promised to buy her a drink when ever they got back to the main base.
"Your GM turned out really well", Ryan said as he sat next to Morgan on the edge of his cockpit hatch.
"Of course it did, it's based off your suit", she laughed. She looked out to where the Captain's GM Sniper Longbow crouched next to a standard GM Sniper. Suddenly the Captain's GM shifted slightly and let loose a high energy beam of mega particles. Off in the distance, way off in the distance, one of the remote controlled Type 74 hover trucks that was being used for a target exploded as the beam hit it.
"GOD DAMN IT", the other GM pilot cried in dismay. "How the hell did you hit that thing. I didn't even see it!".
The Captain's GM looked over at him and tapped the advanced visual sensor visor that he had slid down over the main camera. "It's all in the eye sergeant", he said with a chuckle. "But even with worse equipment you gave me a run for my money".
"Thanks sir, but I think that you were just being nice", and with that his GM turned and started it's trek back to the base about an hour to the north.
The Captain's GM turned to look at where Ryan, and Morgan sat, and it shrugged it's shoulders. Ryan still couldn't figure out how the Captain got his suit to do that. At that point a manned Type 74 came up and stopped next to where the mobile suits had clustered. Colonel stepped out of the side hatch and called up to the pilots.
"Would you three be willing to come down from on high and talk to a lowly scientist?".
Morgan laughed next to Ryan, stood up and walked along her GM's hand and hopped back into her cockpit. Ryan stood up, stretched, and walked back into the cockpit of his Jegan. Without even bothering to close his hatch, or power up his monitor, he knelt the Jegan down onto one knee and positioned his shield so he could use it like a ramp. He got back out of the suit and walked down the shield, trying not to slip on the splatters of paint that were still wet. Once he reached the ground, without falling, he walked over to Colonel Wright where the rest of his team was waiting.
"Well I almost have enough data about the performance of the GM's, a few more days and your unit will be able to go back to your base Captain".
"Thank you sir", Captain Simmons replied. "With these three suits we should be able to do a large amount of damage to the Zeeks".
"Thats why we made them", the Colonel smiled. "My superiors are so impressed that both the GM's are going to be used as a models for new suits. Your suit Captain is going to be used as the basis for a new version of the GM Sniper. All though they are going to remove some features, like the panoramic monitor, and some of the verniers, to make it easier to produce". He turned to look at Morgan. "And your suit CPO Meagher will be given Luna Titanium armor and a fancy head and be called a newtype use Gundam. Thats how good your suit is".
"It's nice to know", Morgan started "that your GM is so good that they are going to make it into a Gundam".
Everyone laughed. "Well", Colonel Wright started "I'm leaving in five days to head up the development project for that Gundam. When I leave you three are going back to your unit. Until then you three take your suits back to the lab and let the techs check them over, and get a few days of rest. Once you get back to your unit I bet you will get very little of it".
"Yes sir" the team chorused, saluting. Colonel Wright returned the salute and he got back into the Type 74 and it raced back towards the design facility.
When the three of them remounted their suits, Morgans reached out and touched the shoulder of Ryan's Jegan. "I don't think that you and I will be doing much sleeping" she laughed. Ryan laughed and smiled. "No we probably won't".
- - - - - - - - -
November 17th 0079
"How do I look sir" O'Brian asked Michel.
"You look like a pile of shit, which means you look like a good Feddie", Michel laughed aloud.
The Petty Officer laughed too. "So do you sir" he said and started making a final check on the gear that Colonel Anderson had sent them, along with the three Dom's. It consisted of a whole lot of high power demolition charges, some Feddie small arms, a standard Federation issue jeep, and of course the two uniforms that they were wearing. Michel was wearing a Senior infantry Lieutenant's uniform , while O'Brian was wearing that of a Master Sergeant. Michel's plan was extremely simple, but if the two of them could pull it off the attack on the base was almost a guaranteed success. They were going to infiltrate the base and plant the charges so when they were detonated they would destroy many of the bases hangers, and barracks.
The plan called for one of the Zaku's to chase him and O'Brian towards the base's main gate. When they neared the gate the Zaku was to fire and "miss" its "target", and instead hit the guard house and the gate. The jeep would then "escape" into the protection of the Federation facility. The Zaku was to then retreat, and avoid contact if followed.
Michel and O'Brian would move around the base placing the charges until they were all set. They would then leave the base and join the rest of their forces which had spent the time moving all of the suits close to the Federation base, with the Dom's carrying the Zaku's so that their footfalls would not be detected by probing Feddie ground sonar. Once Michel and O'Brian got back to where their suits were waiting for them they would advance until they were almost in sight of the base. Michel would then detonate the charges, and the Zeonic unit would swoop down on the confused Federation soldiers, those that survived the blast.
"Alright lets go" he shouted, and he and O'Brian clambered into the jeep which was then picked up by one of his unit's Zaku II's. Michel knew the pilot was grumbling to himself because he had been re-assigned to a Zaku instead of being in his shiny new Dom. But from what little that he had observed of this pilot's ability he didn't deserve to pilot a suit as good as a Dom. So He had given the suit to O'Brian and assigned him as his wing-man. The other two Dom's were paired and the three Zakus worked in a trio.
Michel and O'Brian spent the two hour journey chatting, watching the scenery go by, and running over maps of the Federation base. Finally the pilot told them that they had arrived at their drop off point and he set them down on the road. As soon as he had the Zaku pilot fired several shots from one of the leftover 120mm machine guns into the hill, O'Brian slammed the gas, and the jeep rocketed up the road. After giving it a head start the Zaku came loping after it.
"This is Lieutenant Brian Farmer, Earth Federal Forces. I am being chased south by a Zaku on Rt. 27 requesting support from any unit in the area", Michel shouted into the radio. An answer came back almost instantly. "Lieutenant keep heading south and a GM team will be sent out from the Mexico base". "Roger that Mexico base", he replied and he set down the hand set for the radio. "Step on it", he laughed. "We are after all being chased after all". O'Brian grinned and pressed down harder on the gas pedal.
- - - - - - - - -
A jeep roared up and over the hill to the north of the base. Three seconds after the jeep had come flying over the crest a Zaku blasted over the hill, firing a burst of 120mm shells from it's machine gun. The shells landed about 30 feet to the left and behind the racing jeep. "That guy is not a very good shot", Ryan muttered to himself as he raced to the hanger where his Jegan stood. He raced up the stairs and ran along the cat walk, and clambered into his suits cockpit. "This is Ryan in Jegan ready to launch", he said into his head set as soon as he got it on and closed his hatch.
"Stand by Lieutenant" said the base controller. "The Major wants to give the bases new GM units some experience. You will only be sent out in case of emergency. "Roger that", said Ryan "I'm just going to move to a point so that I can watch the GM's in action". "Roger that Lieutenant Beckner", the controller responded.
Ryan moved his Jegan out of the north hanger and down the main drag of the base. He stopped his suit right next to the command tower and watch as the RGM-79s moved out of the south hanger. They moved through the main gate and blasted off towards the Zaku. "That's sloppy", Ryan muttered. "That Zaku could simply be bait to drag the unit into a ambush. But as he thought this, the Zaku stopped chasing the jeep fired a long burst at the GMs. They took cover behind their shields but most of the shots missed them and hit the bunkers around the main gate, destroying them. It then turned and ran. The GMs moved as if to follow, but an order from the command tower told them to hold their ground and protect the base from a further attack.
Ryan looked down at the main gate and saw the jeep speed through the entrance. He saw that the driver was a young Master Sergeant, and the passenger was a tough looking senior infantry Lieutenant. As they drove past Ryan's suit the Lieutenant just starred up at it, with what Ryan thought was a look of dislike. Ryan raised his suits beam rifle in salute, and the Lieutenant returned it. That Lieutenant had something behind those cold gray eyes but Ryan could not think what it could be.
- - - - - - - - - -
Michel saluted the Earth Federal Forces Major who commanded the base. The Major , who's name tag said Briggs, returned the salute and waved Michel to a seat in front of his desk. "Now what the hell were you doing to the north of this facility Lieutenant Farmer? I was under the impression that we were the farthest north units the Federation had in this area".
"Sir our recon unit had been air dropped north of your base to look for information, and intel on the Zeek unit that has been attacking you recently. We found them and collected signal and visual intel for several days before we were discovered earlier today", Michel handed the Major a file that held relativity invaluable intel about his unit. The number of suits had changed, the type had changed, and most importantly their position had changed. Also the file held some data about him, and the other men in his unit. The Major looked over the information in the file for several minutes before he put it aside and turned back to Michel.
"This Lieutenant Michalski character seems to be one dangerous person from what you were able to find out about him", said Major Briggs. "But I seems, from my observations of the combat data we have on him,that he is incapable of defeating Lt. Beckner and his Jegan.
Michel's fists tightened in his lap. "Sir I think that this guys record speaks for itself. He is an extremely good pilot, and his abilities should not be underestimated".
"Oh, I'm not underestimating his abilities", the Major started to laugh, "but I think that the Lieutenant's suit has such a technological advantage over the Hi-Mo Zaku that in the end that they cancel each other out. The skill that the Lieutenant has plus the Jegan are probably going to overwhelm the Zeek in the end".
Michel stopped himself before he began to scream insults at the Major for scoffing at his ability as a pilot. 'Remember the mission' he thought to himself, and he began to calm down.
"You know sir", a voice came from the door behind Michel. "That ace has given me a run for my money every time I've faced him". Michel turned in his chair to look at who was speaking. "I also think that if that guy ever got his hands on a beam capable suit I would be radioactive dust in a heart beat".
"Lt. Farmer I would like to introduce you to Lt. Ryan Beckner, the pilot of the Jegan who has been holding his own against the ace", the said Major Briggs with a slight smile as if he was pleased to be showing off the pilot to Michel. He wasn't impressed with the man who had been causing him so much trouble and pain. He was only of average hight, with dirty blond hair that was cut short in a crew cut, and alert blue eyes. The eyes were the thing that made the man slightly disturbing. Despite the grin, and laughter on his face, the eyes were cold and calculating. They seemed to be analyzing Michel, and trying to figure out what he was capable of. He look the Lieutenant over once more, then turned back to the Major.
"Sir I would like to ask a favor of you". The Major made a motioned with his hand to indicate that he should keep talking. "I was wondering if you would let us stay here the night before we start our journey south again?".
"That was part of the general idea Lieutenant", the Major laughed. "Lt. Beckner, why don't find a room where the man can get some rest".
"Yes sir", Ryan saluted and motioned for Michel to follow him out of the Major's office. They walked down the hall and out the door. There Petty Officer O'Brian waited. "I'll show you guys to the empty rooms in my barracks. Get some rest and I'll come and get you when it's chow time".
As they walked across the concrete surface of the base towards a set of barracks, Michel spotted something. "What are those", he asked in a fake curious tone, to hide his unease. Ryan looked around and looked where he was pointing. "Oh those, he said. Those are two custom GM units that were made for the members of my team". "Oh" was the only reply that Michel gave, and there was silence for the rest of the walk to the room that they had been given.
- - - - - - - - -
As he walked away from the room where he had left the two men, the thought 'that Lieutenant seems to have something sinister about him'. He thought about it for a few more seconds, shrugged to himself, and went off to find Morgan, and see how she was doing.
- - - - - - - - -
As soon as the Lieutenant rounded the corner and left the barracks, Michel opened the door all the way, and he and O'Brian left the building. They kept a eye out for anyone who was watching them. They walked casually over to where their jeep was parked and they got in.
For the next several hours they moved around the base placing the charges, and camouflaging them. The only charge that Michel was really worried about was the one that he had thrown into the antenna farm next to the command building. Instead of going under a laser link dish like he had wanted, it had hit the dish and bounced out to where it could be seen. O'Brian pointed out that no one was likely to look that closely, because they would not be expecting that kind of attack.
They got back to their room and got about an hour of sleep, before someone woke them by pounding on their door. "I'm coming, I'm coming", grumbled O'Brian as he shambled to the door acting as if he had just been awakened from a deep sleep. "What" he said as he opened the door a crack to see who as in the hall. A woman's voice came into the room, "Lieutenant Beckner would like to know if you would like to join him for an early dinner"? Michel looked over at the door, from his bed, and in the light coming form the crack in the door he saw a look of surprise on his face. Thinking quickly he said "That'll be fine give us a few minutes and we'll be out".
O'Brian came back and started getting dressed. "Sorry about that sir", he said in an apologetic tone. "The woman out there looked so much like my finance, and seeing her was a slight shock". "It's OK", Michel said. "Lets just go and get some dinner, before we have to blow the shit out of this place". "Right sir", O'Brian said, and a minute later they stepped out into the hall.
In the hall waiting for them was the woman who had come to ask them to dinner. If O'Brian's finance was anything like this girl she had to be highly attractive. "Follow me", she said turning down the hall, "we're going to be eating in the officers club, because the mess hall food at this place is really bad". Michel laughed. "If you had been eating dehydrated rations like we have for the past several days anything, and I mean anything, that is hot and fresh cooked will be good". She laughed "Well at the officers club warm, and fresh is a possibility, where as in the mess hall, warm is all you'll ever get". They all laughed as they walked to the end of the building, out the door and across the short stretch of concrete to the building next to the barracks. They walked in and walked to a booth where Lt. Beckner and another man were already sitting.
"Ah", Lt. Beckner said standing up. "Lt. Farmer I would like to introduce you, and your sergeant, to my team commander Captain Paul Simmons", the man that Michel hadn't known stood up and shook his hand. "I would also like to introduce our third team member", he turned and indicated the woman that had brought Michel, and O'Brian to the offices club. "This is Master CPO Morgan Meagher, and she is the pilot of the GM Phoenix", Michel, and O'Brian shook her hand as well.
Over the dinner they discussed the state of the war, and the Zeon's ability to keep fighting. After about two hours the feddie's announced that they that to leave, they all shook hands again and the fed's left the table paying for dinner. "Now let's get out of this place", Michel said to O'Brian, and they left the building. They found the jeep that they had used to make it to the base, and drove to the north gate. Michel pulled rank on the guard at the gate and got them out without question. They then headed north and over the first set of hills they found their unit ready and waiting to pounce on the Federation base.
- - - - - - - - -
"Why the hell does Major Briggs want us to run a scout mission to the south of the base?", Ryan grumbled to the Captain. "The Zeeks are to our north, so why aren't we doing search and destroy missions up there?". "Because the Major wants to make sure that none of those Zeeks have circled around the base, in an attempt to capture Lt. Farmer as he continues his journey south tomorrow", the Captain said with the air on a parent telling a small child why they couldn't have a piece of candy.
The radio suddenly crackled with a long range transmission. "Federation base, this is Lt. Michel Michalski, of the Principality of Zeon. I demand the immediate surrender of your forces our you will face your destruction". "OH SHIT", Ryan said, "we've got to get back there. Those GM's have no hope of defending the base". "Right", the Captain said, "you two get back there as fast as you can, and I'll get back as soon as I can". "Right sir" Ryan, and Morgan echoed each other, and they turned and blasted their suits back towards the base.
- - - - - - - - - -
"So how bought an answer Feddies" Michel sneered over the radio. As he said that a beam came out of the near hanger, as a standard GM moved out. The beam hit the ground a hundred yards down the hill from the Zeon mobile suit force on the hill over looking the base. "That was the wrong answer. Now you are going to pay for your resistance". As a second GM made it out of the hanger before Michel depressed the trigger of the detonator for all of the demolition charges. The base suddenly rocked by dozens of powerful explosions. Most of the bases building's, including both of the hangers, went up in flames, or collapsed completely. "Alright troops lets get some", Michel said as he pushed his Zaku's thrusters up, and skimming, Dom like, down towards the base and the two GM's that were trying to defend it. His troops gave a whoop and raced down the hill after him.
Michel simply had his Zaku run over the chain link fence that encompassed the base. "O'Brian, and I will make the frontal assault. The rest of you circle around and prevent anything from escaping this base". A chorus of conformations came from his pilots and the three other Zakus and two of Doms split off and went around the base on both sides.
"O'Brian, the GM's are hiding behind the first hanger. You circle around to the left, and I'll go right. We'll catch them in a crossfire". "Roger that sir", O'Brian answered and he moved his speeding Dom of to the left. Michel came around the corner of the hanger and saw the two GMs hiding behind their shields, covering each others backs. Michel fired a single 360mm rocket at the GMs, reversed thrust and moved back behind the ruined hanger for some cover. He heard a explosion, and then a second one as O'Brian's rocket detonated too. Michel made his Zaku stick it's head around the corner so he could see the effects of the rockets. He was met by a barrage of beams from both GMs.
Both of them had lost their shields, and left arms to the rockets, but neither had been destroyed. "OK how about this", he said, and moved his Zaku around the corner and made as if to fire his bazooka. Both GMs reacted by ducking to try and dodge the rocket that they thought was coming, but instead they were met by a hand grenade skipping along the ground. Both suits were caught in the blast and they both collapsed, inactive.
"Good move sir", O'Brian commented. "What now sir. I don't think that those advanced models are here. If they were we would have seen them already". "Your right", Michel said with a little question in his voice. "They must have left shortly after they finished dinner with us".
"Sir", one of Michel's pilots reported, "we have captured the base commander attempting to escape to the south".
"Excellent", said Michel, "lets go and have a chat with the good Major", and he began to laugh. He moved his Zaku across the base, which only hours ago had been a functioning military facility. Now all it was, was a smoking ruin. The only building that had escaped any major damage was the officers club, and that was because Michel hadn't seen the point in wasting explosives on the small building. He gave his thrusters a little power and jumped his Zaku a little way into the air, and landed both feet of his suit on the building crushing it.
He then moved his suit to the south gate where all three of his Doms, and the Zaku that had the 280mm bazooka, were facing south on the watch for any reinforcements. The other two Zaku's were covering a small group of prisoners with their MMP-80s. "Well Major, it seems that the technological superiority of your mobile suits has failed to keep this facility from falling into our hands".
"You must be Lieutenant Michel Michalski", said the Major from the ground, where he sat in a jeep.
"Yes that would be me", Michel said, you would probably know me on a more personal level as Lieutenant Brian Farmer". The expression on the Major's face changed to one of icy rage. "Let me come down and have a chat with you", Michel sneered over his suits loud speaker. He knelt his Zaku down and moved the hand so that he could step out onto it. The hand lowered him to the ground, and he jumped off and walked towards the Major.
"I should have known", the Major fumed, "your story was too simple to be true. I can't believe that I fell for your stupid, fucking, lie".
"Well you Earthnoids are so pathetic and simple minded that you would swallow almost any story I gave you", and Michel began to laugh.
"Sir", one of the Dom pilot called Michel, "we've got two extremely fast moving objects coming from the south".
"Well that must be the mighty Jegan, and it's little GM copies, coming home. All units find whatever cover you can. When they arrive, O'Brian, and myself will attack the Jegan. The other two Doms will deal with the first GM to arrive. The Zakus will remain under cover until the last GM arrives, at which point they will deal with it".
A chorus of conformations came from his unit, and they began to move back into the base and find cover behind the ruined buildings. "Well Major, I guess this brings our little meeting to an end". Michel jumped back onto his suits hand, which lifted him back to his cockpit. He clambered in closed the hatch and strapped himself into his crash chair. "Get rid of them", he told the Zaku pilot that was still watching over the prisoners. He turned his Zaku and heard the sound of a burst of 90mm fire. He moved his suit over to where O'Brian had crouched his Dom down behind a partial hanger wall.
Keeping just a tiny amount of his Zaku's head over the top of the hanger wall, Michel watched to the south for the appearance of the Jegan. Suddenly something rocketed over the crest of the hill to the south, shortly followed by another. His camera caught still images of the two mobile suits. The first one was one of the souped up GM's, but the second was the Jegan.
"All units wait for them to get close", Michel grinned as he centered the speeding Jegan in the middle of his cross-hairs.
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"What a mess", Ryan grumbled as he stopped his suit about 1000 meters from the souther edge of the base. "Hey Morgan", he called, "it looks like it's to late to do anything for these guys, but lets look for survivors anyways". "Alright" she stammered, she seemed to be shocked at the amount of destruction at the base. Ryan looked around and was also surprised, in the fact that except for the destruction of the buildings there seemed to be no other sign of a fight.
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"Your mine", Michel said with a insane grin on his face as he depressed the trigger under his thumb. A 360mm rocket roared out of his bazooka straight for the Jegan. On his left screen he saw another rocket from O'Brian's Dom reach out for the suit. Even farther down the line he saw two more streaks of smoke head for the new Hi-Mo GM that had come to the base with the Jegan.
Both suits dodged the initial volleys, not without difficulty, but they did. Both suits then rushed forward on plumes of flame to get in close, where their beam sabers gave them a horrible advantage. "Back up guys", Michel called over his units encrypted frequency, "keep them at range where we have some chance of getting them". The unit of Doms fighting the Hi-Mo GM raced through the base's structures dodging beams, and answering those shots with retaliatory rockets. The Zaku unit however stayed put where it's commander had hunkered them down in half a hanger. 'That's pretty gutsy' Michel thought as he ducked his Zaku down behind the remainders of another hanger to avoid a spread of rockets that the Jegan had fired at him.
Off to the right O'Brian fired another rocket at the Jegan, which was at the top of it's jump. The rocket glanced off of the Jegan's angled shield and shot off behind the light green suit. Keeping his Zaku crouched, he used his suits huge leg thrusters to slide his suit to the side like a Dom. He fired off three rockets at the Jegan as it started to fall to the ground. The Jegan's head turned, and the single vulcan pod on the side of the suits head fired three bursts, one destroying each of the rockets that Michel had fired.
"GOD DAMN IT", he fumed as he made his suit dodge a volley of beams that the Jegan sent in response to the rockets. Michel made a estimated where the Jegan would land and threw his second hand grenade there. The suit responded by firing it's thrusters, and landing in front of the grenade. The weapon detonated knocking the Jegan down on it's face. It's beam rifle went skittering across the ground, and Michel raised his bazooka to finally finish off the pesky mobile suit. Before he could fire the Jegan sent a hand grenade of it's own skittering, and bouncing across the concrete. Michel had to jump his suit out of the way of the explosion, and he lost his aim on the downed suit.
As he landed a beam sliced off the front end of his bazooka. "Zaku unit did you see where that came from? That's gotta be the sniper". "Yes sir we saw where it came from, and we are moving out to destroy it" came the response from Zaku commander. "Good, good" Michel said distractedly as he searched for the Jegan. He found it engaged with O'Brian near the other two Doms and the GM.
As he approached one of the Dom's rockets clipped the GM's beam rifle wrecking it. The GM tossed it's wrecked weapon aside and pointed it's right arm at the Dom. All of a sudden the armor on the back popped open revealing a three barreled gatling gun.
"WHAT THE..." was all the pilot of the Dom could say before his cockpit was riddled with 90mm holes. "YOU MOTHER FUCKER", Michel shouted, raised his suits MMP-80, and unloaded an entire 32 round magazine into the GM. Most of the rounds were taken by the GM's shield but a few got around and made deep dents in the upper chest armor. The GM staggered backwards spraying rounds from it's arm gatling gun, attempting to keep the Zeon suits back.
"O'Brian, you help out getting this bastard. I'm going to go get the Jegan". "Right sir", came the reply, and O'Brian's Dom skimmed of to help the other remaining Dom destroy the Hi-Mo GM. Before he could even focus all of his attention on the Jegan in front if him, it sprayed him with a long burst from it's single head vulcan. Michel took the shells with his his shoulder shield, and returned fire with his machine gun.
The Jegan ducked behind a hanger, then blasted over the top with it's beam saber drawn, and it's shield up in a guard position. Michel fired his single grenade from it's tube mounted under the main barrel. The grenade struck the Jegan's shield and detonated, throwing the suit off balance. Michel followed up the grenade with a shoulder charge, which he planted on the other suit's upper chest. The force of the impact knocked the Jegan out of the sky and it crashed down on top of the remains of a barracks.
"I've got you know", Michel said as he landed standing over the Jegan. "Sir watch out", came the cry from O'Brian. Michel looked to his left in time to see the GM Hi-Mo's shoulder check make contact with his suit. The impact threw his suit off the Jegan and onto the ground. O'Brian came and covered his downed commander, but the GM simply pulled the Jegan to it's feet, and they both blasted off to the south.
"Zaku unit disengage the sniper, and fall back to my position", Michel said as O'Brian helped his suit back to it's feet. A few minutes later all the Zaku's had returned, and the other remaining Dom had come back as well. "Any ideas why they pulled back so abruptly", Michel asked. All he got back was a bunch of negatives. He had succeeded in his primary objective of taking the base from the Feddie's, and that was all Colonel Wright had wanted. He made a call to the San Diego base, and in five hours occupation troops had made it down, and the front line unit was on it's way back to San Diego.
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"The brass told us to return to Jaburo, after I told them the condition that the base was in", Captain Simmons explained to Ryan as they marched their suits south, to the place where a Medea transport would pick them up and take them back to Jaburo. "They seem to think that we would be best used else where and the order calling us south just didn't make it before the Zeeks attacked". "Whatever", Ryan grumbled as he marched his suit south, 'Lt Michel Michalski, I will get you in the end' he thought.
Well thats the end of Ch 6 hope you liked. Please R&R
I hope to have Ch 7 up soon
Zakuboy