Chapter 1: First Strike
2nd June UC 0351,
Mutual Colony Defence
Alliance battleship Victory
The ship carved its way through the darkness of space. Long and sleek, its powerful engines thrust it forward at great speed. She was no ordinary ship; she was the first warship of the Mutual Colony Defence Alliance, the MCDA, named Victory she represented the hopes and dreams of those who opposed the Empire of Lambda Colonies. Despite her bristling with armament she was still vulnerable to the number one weapon of the day, the mobile droid.
The red light of a mega particle beam flashed past the bridge of the Victory quickly followed by the bulky shape of a Type-D mobile droid. As the mobile droid passed beneath the warship the 2-barrel laser cannons mounted on her belly opened up and fired. The mobile droid easily dodged before swinging back around; it fired three more shots but due to its evasive flight pattern it managed to score only a glancing hit.
On the Victory's bridge Captain William Rawlings gritted his teeth in a snarl as his inexperienced gun crews failed yet again to hit the mobile droid. It wasn't just the gun crews who lacked experience; nearly the entire crew was made up of volunteers some of whom hadn't even left their home colonies before. Even Rawlings himself knew that he was hardly a veteran ship commander, but the MCDA was desperate for manpower and so they had to make do. "Who the hell is manning our guns? Are they blind?" he yelled in frustration as the mobile droid made another pass. "They haven't even scratched its paintwork."
"Captain please! They're trying their best," said Commander Mathew Barther, the Victory's executive officer. He was in his mid-twenties with sandy brown hair and a softly rounded face. "It shouldn't be much longer until that droid is out of the range of its control ship."
So far the Victory's shakedown cruise wasn't going well. Originally planned as a short trip around the Side and then a dash to Von Braun to drop off an item, things had gone wrong when they ran into a Lambda patrol almost immediately. Not wanting to risk the new ship after she'd just been completed, Captain Rawlings had decided to run for it. The trailing Lambda cruiser couldn't quite keep up but its mobile droids had been buzzing the Victory for some time now. They had been forced to take a long wide route out towards Side 1; unfortunately this added days onto the journey time.
As the mobile droid came around for another pass along the axis of the ship the laser cannons opened up again. The droids beam shield was carefully positioned to absorb the incoming fire. However as it neared the bridge tower the fire increased intensity causing the droid to veer around. As it veered away it fired a trio of beam rifle shots, two of which sheared their way through the thick armoured hull plating that surrounded the port engine housing. The resulting explosion not only knocked out the engine but also disrupted the mobile droids flight path leaving it vulnerable to the Victory's defensive fire. The Victory's guns responded in kind and quickly turned the mobile droid into another piece of space debris.
"Damn!" growled Captain Rawlings. "We're going to have to find someplace to hide up and repair the engine."
"The patrol ship might catch up with us," said Commander Barther looked at a series of damage report readouts. "If they catch us while we're stationary we'll be dead."
"It's a risk we'll have to take," grunted Rawlings as he hammered a fist into the palm of his other hand. "If we just carry on limping around space they'll catch up eventually and it'll take us too long to reach either the Frontier Side or the Moon. Mr Hague, if you would be so kind as to find us somewhere to stop."
Hague, the ship's navigator, set about examining the charts in the ships computer. After a few moments he came up with an answer and displayed it on the holo-screen that rested between the two command chairs. "There's an old asteroid base that we can hide in. The charts haven't got a name for it but it's been there for a few hundred years. If we're lucky there may even be parts around but I don't know if they'll be of any use."
"It's better than nothing Mr Hague. Helm set course for the asteroid at best speed," A grim smile settled on Captain Rawlings face, he wasn't going to loose his ship not on her first voyage.
---
Petite Mobile Suit,
Somewhere
near an unidentified Asteroid
The blue petite mobile suit used one of its manipulators to lock onto the chunk of debris. It brought up its other arm and activated the laser cutter mounted on the outer surface. The petite mobile suit then began to cut up the debris into smaller, more manageable pieces. Once a piece had been cut away the pilot carefully adjusted his suit's thrusters to bring the suit around. Letting go of the debris and then giving it a slight nudge the pilot let the debris' momentum carry it into the container he had already set up.
The pilot lifted the visor of his normal suit; taking a rag from one of the cockpit's side compartments he wiped his forehead before putting the rag back. His name was Jason Wright and he made a living by collecting and then selling scrap metal. Saying it was a tough life would be something of an understatement but Jason made enough money to get by. After cutting off another section of debris and then putting it in the container, Jason thought that he'd gathered enough for today. He used the petite mobile suit's left manipulator to activate the container's close button. The container was a rough metal box that Jason had built himself; it came complete with motorised doors. It wasn't much but it did the job. Repositioning the petite mobile suit behind the container Jason locked the manipulators onto the handrail, he fired the suits thrusters to propel the two forward towards his destination.
Jason was a spacenoid; he'd lived the whole eighteen years of his life, thus far, in space. He made a living by collecting and then selling scrap metal to the various colonies of the Frontier Side. It wasn't particularly hard to find scrap; there had been so many battles over the years that vast amounts of scrap orbited the colonies. The difficulty lay in actually getting the stuff back to the colonies to sell. The distances were often too far for a petite mobile to make it and so you needed a transport of some sort. Jason was lucky by the fact that despite his young years he owned his own ship, the Vixen, left to him after his elderly partner died a few years before.
The petite mobile suit and the container ducked down below a mass of debris, in doing so Jason's ship came into view. It was a fairly beat up old inter-colony cargo hauler, but it had a large cargo hold and in this business that's what mattered. Jason piloted the container into the open cargo bay. After locking it into place he then moved the petite mobile suit over to the wall socket where it could recharge. Before cracking the seal to the cockpit he checked over his normal suit. Seeing that it was safe he exited the suit and then floated his way over to the airlock.
Once into the main body of the Vixen Jason took off his normal suit's helmet and gloves; he then racked a free hand through his brown hair. He put the helmet and suit into the small locker next to the airlock, of the four lockers three were occupied. With his gear stowed away Jason kicked off the deck plates and floated down the corridor towards the 'bridge' of the ship.
Jason didn't live by himself onboard ship: he shared the Spartan accommodation with two other people. The first was eighteen year old Romana Tyler; while neither of them would admit it they were essentially a couple; the days of pretending were long since passed when they started to share a bed. She was just a bit shorter then Jason with long black hair and was, in his opinion, stunningly beautiful. The second person was the seven year old girl Abby. A year previously Jason and Romana rescued Abby from a badly damaged transport. In the following year the little girl started to consider her teenage guardians as parents. Thanks to a little skulduggery on his part Jason had managed to get Abby into one of Frontier I's finer schools and get some of his friends to look after her when he and Romana were away. Right now Abby was on Frontier I so it was just Jason and Romana on board ship.
"You're back early," said Romana as Jason came onto the bridge. She was sat at one of the two console stations, the plotting map on the wall monitor next to her showed their position hidden within the debris field surrounding a large asteroid.
Jason shrugged and replied "I got tired. I snagged a fair old bunch of stuff. If I go out again tomorrow we'll have got enough to go back and sell. I could do with a rest; this trip has been a tough one."
"Yes it has been a little rough recently hasn't it?" she said getting up and floating over to him. "Are you sure you're ok? You were moving around a lot last night," As she reached him she pressed a hand to his forehead. "I still don't see why you won't let us use that gravity block you found in the asteroid. It'd be so much better than staying on the ship all the time."
"That old thing isn't safe my dear," he said with the air of authority. "I don't think this entire place is really safe, who knows what else apart from that block and ship is lurking around in there. No it's much safer for us to stay here. I don't want to endanger you."
"That's sweet but I'm a big girl now," she said in an overly innocent tone of voice, "I can look after myself."
Suddenly a console on the far side of the bridge started flashing repeatedly. Disentangling himself from Romana, Jason moved over to the console to check it out.
"What is it?" she asked anxiously.
"I hooked the Vixen up to the asteroid's old radar net," he said as he worked the console to get a better reading. "Looks like something is heading this way, a ship, most likely fairly big as well."
"It couldn't be the Empire could it?" asked Romana slightly worried. Technically the asteroid they'd been staying at was within the Empire of Lambda Colonies territorial boundaries and their patrols didn't take kindly to non-citizens within their territory. If they found them she dared not think what would happen.
"I don't think so," replied Jason. "The profile doesn't match any patrol ship and I can't imagine they'd send anything bigger all the way out here without an escort."
"Well if it's not one of their ships who does it belong to?" she asked. "The Frontier Side wouldn't send any ships out here."
Jason pulled out a set of binoculars and floated over the main view window. Putting the binoculars up to his eyes he peered into space in the direction of the unidentified ships.
"I never seen a ship like that before," he muttered. "This could get interesting."
---
MCDA
battleship Victory,
Somewhere near an unidentified Asteroid
The asteroid now filled the view from the Victory's bridge. Captain Rawlings was sure they'd be able to hide fairly easily from the pursuing Lambda ship, at least long enough to conduct repairs.
"Captain, I'm getting a vague response off radar," reported Ensign Iain Duncan-Smith from the radar operator's station. "It's difficult to pick it out due to the debris field around the asteroid."
"What can you tell me?" asked the captain intrigued by what it could be. "Is it the Lambdas?"
"I don't think so sir," replied Duncan-Smith. He rechecked the read outs. "Unlike the debris the target is stationary; the profile suggests a transport of some kind. Most likely it's not of Empire origin."
"Thank you Mr Duncan-Smith," said Rawlings. "Keep an eye on it." Rawlings turned to Commander Barther. "What do you think Commander?"
"At a guess I'd say salvage merchants working off one of the colonies," he said. "There's plenty of scrap metal about, I'm surprised there's not more of them."
"Agreed, when we get closer I want you to take some men over and meet with them," said Rawlings. "They might have information that we can use."
Rawlings barely noticed Barther leave the bridge, obviously to go and round up some men. The captain used his right hand to slowly massage his right temple. He was concerned about the amount of debris surrounding the asteroid; he could recognise some of the shapes from his school history lessons about the Federation period of Earth's history. It appeared that a lot of ships had been lost around this asteroid and he was determined to make sure that the Victory would not be added to that list.
---
Empire of Lambda Colonies Space Forces
patrol ship Pious,
In pursuit of enemy battleship
The Empire of Lambda Colonies patrol ship Pious continued to follow the enemy vessel through space. Despite damaging the enemy they were still losing ground and now they were out of range of the mobile droids. The Pious' commanding officer Lieutenant Icarus Miarcaril sighed heavily, the enemy were proving difficult to catch; clearly their ship was far superior to his own. He lifted his peaked cap off for a few seconds to scratch his head before replacing the cap. He was confident that if they could catch up his three remaining mobile droids would easily destroy the enemy vessel despite it being considerably larger than his own. The simple fact that so far all they'd done was run away seemed to indicate an unwillingness to fight.
"Mr Koff, how long until we intercept the enemy vessel?" asked Miarcail in a slightly lethargic tone of voice. His accent clearly showed he'd been brought up on the Londenion colony.
The radar operator Koff turned slightly to look back at Lieutenant Miarcaril. "Approximately two hours sir, even with the damage they sustained they can still outpace us," he said. "It appears that they are heading towards a large asteroid not far from here."
"Solomon?" whispered Miarcaril as he pondered the situation. "I wonder why they are headed there. It's been abandoned for centuries, unless they have a secret base there. This could turn into a very profitable patrol."
He slipped into a sort of brooding silence. Running into this enemy ship had been a true stroke of luck. Despite his notable success in putting down several resistance groups around Side 3 in January of UC 0350 his recent patrols has been uneventful. His popularity with the High Command was waning and Miarcaril knew that being popular with High Command meant everything in the Empire's armed forces. He was sure that if he played his cards right he could bounce back into favour and get a decent command instead of a puny patrol ship. He let a slight smile appear on his face.
---
Civilian
cargo-hauler Vixen,
Somewhere near an unidentified Asteroid
The sound of the small shuttle pod docking with the Vixen seemed to echo throughout the whole ship. The end of the crunching metallic noises signalled to Jason that the docking process was completed; he knew that due to the Vixen's small airlock that only two people would be able to board the ship at a time. He stood a few meters down the corridor from the airlock, Romana hovered around behind him. It was now that Jason sort of wished he had some kind of weapon, he didn't really like violence but sometimes it was necessary.
The airlock opened slowly to reveal a sandy-brown haired man standing in the doorway holding his normal suit's helmet. "Sorry for the intrusion," he said. "I'm Commander Mathew Barther of the MCDA."
"MCDA?" asked Jason slowly.
"Mutual Colony Defence Alliance," replied Barther. "We're fighting against the Empire of Lambda Colonies. My ship, the Victory, is taking shelter in this asteroid she's taken damage and we need to repair her."
"How was it damaged?" asked Jason.
"A lucky Empire patrol stumbled onto us during our shake-down cruise," replied Barther bitterly. "We were hoping that you might be able to provide us with information about this place, there might be stuff we can use."
Before Jason could reply Romana stepped forward and spoke. "Any enemy of the Empire is a friend of ours. We'll give you all the information we can."
"Romana!" hissed Jason. "How can we trust this guy, we don't even know if he's telling the truth."
"He's telling the truth," replied Romana slowly. "I've just got a feeling."
Jason knew he wasn't going to win this battle, whenever Romana 'got a feeling' about something it meant she'd made up her mind and wouldn't change it. She could be very stubborn at times.
"Perhaps we should relocate to the Victory," ventured Barther as he gestured to where the Victory was hiding. "I'm sure there is much we have to discuss. Plus the facilities are somewhat more comfortable."
Jason surveyed Barther for a few seconds before answering; he was trying to get an impression of the man. "Alright," was his simple rely.
"Excellent!" beamed Barther as he rubbed his hands together. "You might want to grab a normal suit just in case. It's a bit bumpy out there, all this junk floating around and all that."
---
MCDA battleship Victory,
Somewhere
near Asteroid Solomon
The Victory's briefing room was quite large. In the centre of the room was table with several chairs around it. Numerous monitors were sunken into the table, set equidistantly apart. Jason sat quietly in one of the chairs with Romana sitting next to him. Along with Commander Barther there were three other Victory crewmen sitting around the table, Captain Rawlings, Flight Lieutenant Kieron Hall a pilot and Melvyn Quek the ship's chief engineer.
"Now Mr Wright, you say there is a warship within the asteroid?" asked Captain Rawlings. "Do you happen to know what class or type it is?"
Jason sighed; they'd already gone over this once. "Yes there is a warship. She's called Brazen," he replied. "I don't know what class or all that but it looks like she's been there a while but she seems in fairly good condition."
"I bet it's Federal," voiced Flight Lieutenant Kieron Hall. "It's just got to be, no one else has used that place since then."
"Explain if you will Mr Hall," asked Rawlings, slightly annoyed that the young pilot had butted into the conversation.
"Well this asteroid is better known as Solomon, it was converted into a fortress centuries ago by a faction called the Principality of Zeon," said Hall in a matter of fact way. "Then of course there was a war between Zeon and the old Earth Federation. The Federation captured Solomon and have used it ever since. Whatever ships are still in there are bound to be leftovers from before the Federation collapsed one hundred and thirty three years ago."
"How do you know all that?" asked Barther, he was surprised that Hall knew anything of value. Barther had always considered him something of an annoyance.
"I studied history at university before joining the MCDA," explained Hall as he leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms. "Things sure were interesting way back then."
Rawlings considered all the information he'd gathered from this little meeting. Gaining another ship for the MCDA would be a fine feather in his cap, but the problem still remained that the ship in question was over a hundred and thirty years old and might not actually be worth the effort of retrieving it. Not the mention the Lambda patrol ship was getting closer all the time. "I think that will do for now," he said. "Thank you for your time Mr Wright and Ms Tyler. Mr Hall would you be so kind as to escort them back to the hanger and then onto their ship."
"Yes sir," replied Kieron Hall as he stood up and motioned Jason and Romana to follow him.
---
ELCSF patrol ship Pious,
Somewhere
near Asteroid Solomon
Lieutenant Icarus Miarcaril smiled to himself. He'd done it; he'd managed to sneak up on the unsuspecting enemy warship. His early thoughts of an enemy base seemed to have been disproved by his enemy's lack of action, other then to repair their own damage. Still that didn't matter really, just sinking this ship would be enough.
"Prepare to launch mobile droids," he commanded, "Set control routines to Pattern A, heavy weapons package to be loaded."
A flurry of confirmations was relayed to him as his orders were carried out. On the exterior of the Pious the three remaining mobile droids were brought into launching position and then beam cannons that constituted the heavy weapons package were attached to the mobile droids.
"Launch the mobile droids, but don't attack just yet," Miarcaril ordered his mobile droid operators that were situated in a sunken crew pit on his left hand side. "We have to wait for the right moment to strike."
---
MCDA
battleship Victory,
Somewhere near Asteroid Solomon
Kieron Hall led Jason and Romana through the myriad of corridors within the bowels of the Victory before finally returning the main hanger, where a small shuttle would return them to the Vixen.
"This place seems quite big for just a few shuttles," remarked Romana. She was right, the large hanger was empty apart from a few shuttles.
"That's because this is a mobile suit hanger," replied Kieron. "We just don't have any mobile suits."
"I didn't think anyone used mobile suits anymore." said Jason rather absentmindedly. "I thought it was all mobile droids."
"Sounds like you have experience with them." said Kieron coming to a stop and turning round to look at Jason.
"I use a petite mobile suit for gathering scrap metal but that is about it," replied Jason. "I've seen quite a few really old ones up close in the debris field but none of them worked."
"You're in no rush to get back are you?" asked Kieron rather mischievously. "It's just we have something you might like to see."
"I guess we're in no real rush," replied Romana, she looked at Jason. "We may as well." Jason merely shrugged and let Kieron guide them to what was so important.
Kieron led them off to a corner of the hanger and into a subsection off the main hanger. Inside this subsection stood something big. Romana let out a gasp when see saw it. It was a mobile suit and quite an impressive looking one at that.
"I thought you said you didn't have any mobile suits," said Jason.
"We don't," replied Kieron as he tried to rain in his excitement. "This isn't a mere mobile suit! It's a Gundam. It is the Raystrike Gundam."
Jason looked at the Gundam again. It had a blue, red, white colour scheme and certainly didn't look like any mobile suit he'd seen before. The most striking things were the head with its 'V-fin' and 'eyes'. Over its shoulders was a pair of turrets each mounting two cannons.
"So I guess you are its pilot then?" asked Romana as she turned to Kieron.
"Oh I'm not," replied Kieron disappointment filling his voice. "We found it in Frontier I, I have tried piloting it but I was no good none of the MCDA pilots have been. So we're taking it to Anaheim Electronics to have them check it over."
"Mind if I have a closer look?" asked Jason.
"Go ahead," was the answer. So Jason kicked off the deck and floated up towards the cockpit. When he got there he pressed the control panel and opened it up. He dropped down into the linear seat and surveyed the controls. He flicked a switch and the panoramic monitor flickered into life giving him a view of everything around him. For some strange reason Jason felt reassuringly comfortable sitting in that seat.
---
ELCSF patrol ship
Pious,
Somewhere near Asteroid Solomon
Icarus Miarcaril took his silver pocket watch out and checked the time. His mobile droids had managed to sneak in close to the enemy ship because they'd used the debris field as cover.
"Now is the time," he declared. "Commence the attack!"
As he spoke the words orders were sent to the mobile droids and they started to move. As soon as they were clear of the debris all three mobile droids fired at once.
---
MCDA battleship Victory,
Somewhere near
Asteroid Solomon
The Victory shook as all three beam hit. Captain Rawlings lost his balance and slipped from his command chair. "What the hell is going on?"
"Three mobile droids sir!" reported Ensign Duncan-Smith. "They just appeared out of the debris field, they must have snuck up on us."
"Damn it! Return fire," ordered Rawlings. "Helm bring us up to full speed, we've got to get out of here."
As the Victory began to move and three mobile droids came around for another pass. They all fired again but missed because the Victory had moved. While missing the Victory the three beams continued on and struck the Vixen's reactor causing the little cargo ship to explode.
Back down in the hanger Kieron helped Romana get up after she'd been knocked over. He ran to one of the communication panels to try and find some answers.
"What the hell do you mean we're under attack," he yelled down the handset. "I will not calm down! What? The Vixen was destroyed?" Kieron looked across at Romana and the fear in her eyes.
Jason's mind was racing. His ship had been destroyed; he was under attack and sitting in the cockpit of a mobile suit. He had to do something, he had to protect Romana. He checked the Gundam's controls over, they were different to ones he was used to in his old petite mobile suit but he was sure he could still use it. As he worked the control panel the rest of the Gundam's systems burst into life. He flipped a switch the close the cockpit hatch and then gently eased the Gundam forward, the pressing of a few more buttons resulted in the Gundam taking a beam rifle off its recharging station.
"Jason, what the hell do you think you're doing!" Kieron's voice boomed through the cockpit.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" exclaimed Jason. "I'm going to fight those buggers. I can't just sit here and do nothing. Now tell me where the front door is."
"Damn it Jason we're going to get into trouble for this." replied Kieron. "But…what the hell. Come on, I'll direct you onto the catapult."
The Victory had picked up pace now and her guns were blazing, trying to shoot down the mobile droids. The mobile droids however were proving far too agile to be shot down so easily. For the second time in a day William Rawlings found himself cursing his inexperienced gun crews.
"C-captain I think we've got a situation," stammered George Macintyre over the din of the bridge. George was the Victory's mobile suit coordinator and thus had had little to do in the mission so far, but that was changing.
"What is it Mr Macintyre?" asked Rawlings, he along with everyone else was surprised by Macintyre's need to speak.
"Well it's the Gundam sir," said George more clearly. "It's trying to launch."
"What on Earth is Hall trying to do!" yelled Barther. "He can't pilot that thing any better than anyone else."
"Sir it's not Flight Lieutenant Hall," said George. "I think it's that guy off the cargo ship."
Rawlings grabbed the handset built into his command chair and entered the code for communications with the Gundam. Moment later a small imagine of Jason Wrights head appeared on his chair monitor.
"Mr Wright what are you doing?" he asked calmly.
"I'm trying to protect your damned ship!" snarled Jason. "You did a poor one protecting mine but since Romana is still on this bucket I'm going to have to do something!" Rawlings winced, remembering all to well that he'd let Jason's ship be destroyed. "If you don't let me out I'll just blast my way out." Jason continued. "How many of the buggers are out there?"
"Captain you're not going to let him go out there are you?" Barther interjected. He was however silenced by Rawlings holding up a hand.
"Three mobile droids, they are fitted with beam cannons," said Rawlings. "Make sure you come back in one piece." Cutting communication Rawlings nodded to Macintyre to allow the launch.
Jason was a little taken back by the intensity he'd displayed while talking with Rawlings. He just really had the urge to protect Romana and if needs be the whole ship as well.
Another video window appeared filled by the face of the Victory's mobile suit coordinator. "Raystrike Gundam standby for launch," said Macintyre "Be careful out there because those droids will be all over you the second you launch."
"Right," replied Jason. He flexed his fingers slightly and then started to worry that he was in over his head. Before him the great doors that protected the catapult launch bay opened. Beside him a tower of coloured lights started to flash down, when the flashing reached the bottom he half heard Macintyre yell something at him before the Gundam was flung down the catapult track.
Then he was free, free of the ship, free in space. It felt strange at first, like being in his petite mobile suit only bigger, a lot bigger. He took in the sights of the great asteroid Solomon before spinning the Gundam around to look at the Victory. He didn't get much of a chance though as one of the mobile droids was heading straight for him. It fired four shots consecutively but Jason managed to avoid them. Struggling with the controls Jason tried to bring around his own beam rifle but he was too slow to hit the droid which veered off to the left. Cursing to himself Jason sent the Gundam forward trying to hunt down his enemy.
The mobile droid came round again and headed in towards Jason. At close range it fired again, Jason was unable to dodge this time. He hammered the controls and quite by accident activated the Raystrike Gundam's beam shield. Regaining himself he shot upwards and span round and fired his own beam rifle at the fleeing mobile droid. His first shot clipped its right leg but then his second and first nailed it right in the torso striking the reactor and causing the mobile droid to explode.
"Alright," he hissed. "One down two to go."
Taking down the first mobile droid had been nowhere near as hard as he thought it'd be. Now he scanned the area for the other two mobile droids. Then they appeared, heading straight for him just like the last one. He carefully aimed his beam rifle and then fired a trio of shots but the mobile droids easily avoided the incoming fire. In return they fired their beam cannons which Jason blocked with his beam shield.
Jason shot off to the right using a pile of debris as cover before popping up and firing of a quick burst at the approaching mobile droids. One of the shots shot through the left leg of one of the mobile droids causing it to spin out of control. Unable to regain control the droid span off and slammed into the great asteroid Solomon. The last remaining mobile droids was not deterred at all; it kept firing its beam cannon, slowly destroying the debris that Jason was hiding behind.
Inverting his Gundam Jason sped down below the debris and then sent the Gundam into a spin in order to come up and attack the mobile droid from below. Snarling as he did so he fired four shots; the first two were blocked by the droid's beam shield but the third got through the defence and blasted off its head while the fourth burned its way through the droid's chest. Jason watched the seemingly lifeless mobile droid for a few seconds, making sure he had actually destroyed it. He gently moved the Gundam over to the immobilized droid and then poked it a few times, convinced it was dead he turned the Gundam around and headed back to the Victory.
---
ELCSF
patrol ship Pious,
Somewhere near Asteroid Solomon
The Pious' bridge crew were all shocked by the events they'd just witnessed. Most of them had seen mobile droids destroyed before, they were powerful by not invincible, but never like that. The enemy's mobile droid seemed far superior to their own models.
Icarus Miarcaril drummed his fingers on the arm rests of his command chairs, he hadn't expected this. He sighed this was going to take a great deal of thought.
'"Mr Billingsworth would you be so kind as to navigate us away from the asteroid and back to Empire space," he ordered coolly.
---
MCDA
battleship Victory,
Somewhere near Asteroid Solomon
Jason was back in the Victory's briefing room, this time he was taking a moment to watch the light fittings as Rawlings considered what to do with him. The Victory was once again hiding among the ruins of Solomon, a team had been sent to investigate the Brazen and see if it was worth dragging back to Frontier I.
"I'm at a loss as to what to do with you Mr Wright" said Rawlings as he rubbed his eyes gently. "You stole one of my mobile suits and risked getting yourself killed. I am, of course, grateful that you protected my ship though I know you intentions weren't merely the safety of my crew."
"That's right, and don't forget you let my ship get destroyed."
"Yes we can't forget that now can we." continued Rawlings. "Now I know I can't just leave you and Ms Tyler out here so I'm willing to give you both rides back to Frontier I as long as you keep piloting the Raystrike Gundam."
Jason remained silent and merely kept looking at Rawlings, his face didn't betray anything.
"You can pilot that thing better than any of our pilot's can" said Rawlings. "Now you only have to do it until we get back to Frontier I or we get more mobile suits."
"You don't leave me with much choice do you," said Jason finally. "It looks like I'm going to have to pilot the Raystrike."
