Chapter 2: Round Two
2nd June UC 0351,
Empire of Lambda Colonies
Space Forces patrol ship Pious,
Somewhere near the Main L5-L2
SpaceLane
Silence reigned on the Pious' bridge, only the dull hum of machinery broke the still air. The request for resupply had gone out several hours ago and now they were waiting for one of the supply fleet's ponderous cargo ships to reach the rendezvous point.
Mr Koff was the first to break the silence. "Lieutenant I've picked up the cargo ship on radar, she's accompanied by another patrol ship."
"Identification?" asked Miarcaril quietly.
"Not as of yet sir, they are too far away for a visual identification," replied Koff turning back to his radar screen.
"Very well then," said Miarcaril as he stood up and left his command chair and made his way to the hatch at back of the bridge. "Once they are ready begin the resupply operation; I will be in my quarters if I'm needed."
---
Mutual
Colony Defence Alliance battleship Victory,
On route to Frontier
I
Romana sat in the small quarters that had been given over to her and Jason. She picked up a leaflet off the table and started to read it. The leaflet had been published by the MCDA to tell of the cruelty of the Empire of Lambda Colonies. Romana herself knew this all too well, her mother had been branded a traitor by the Empire and executed because of her political beliefs. Romana wanted to help the MCDA, but having Jason pilot the Gundam seemed too much.
The loss of the Vixen was simply catastrophic, without a ship to haul it they would never be able to gather enough scrap to make enough money to survive, let alone support Abby back on Frontier I. When she'd spoken to Jason about it he seemed less than confident that Rawlings would actually do anything about it. Romana was getting the impression that Rawlings didn't care about anything other than his own ship.
She stood and moved over to the cabin's small porthole; she could see the ship that had once lay dormant within the bowels of the asteroid Solomon. It had once been painted a dull grey but that was now pocketed and flaking showing the bare metal beneath. Romana remembered that Kieron Hall had identified the type of ship as a Reinforce class light cruiser. In her opinion it looked quite weak but Commander Barther had informed her that getting a hold of the Brazen effectively doubled the MCDA fleet. It wasn't a very reassuring piece of information.
There was a brief but firm knock at the door. Romana turned to look and spoke. "Enter," The door opened and a rather sheepish looking Kieron Hall stood in the doorway.
"Hello Ms Romana," he said politely. "I was wondering if you wanted to go down to the mess hall and get some dinner."
"I think I'll take you up on that offer Kieron," she said. "I've been stuck in here all day while Jason has been messing around with that thing."
Kieron knew exactly what that 'thing' was; it was the Raystrike Gundam which Jason had been working on for most of the day. He'd just come from a session in the Gundam's cockpit teaching Jason about some of the finer points of piloting. Kieron had to admit that the younger man was getting quite good.
The noise in the Victory's hanger wasn't deafening but it was loud. Jason was sure it'd be a lot worse if the ship had its full compliment of twelve mobile suits, however at the moment only the Raystrike Gundam stood in the hanger. Most of the maintenance crew were hanging around trying to make it look like they were working hard; only a limited number of people could work on a single mobile suit at a time.
Jason adjusted the control panel of the cockpit's linear seat. A display window opened on the panoramic monitor that informed him of the effects of his adjustments. He consulted the manual he'd been given; several pages were missing so he had to guess about some of the Gundam's systems. He still couldn't work out how to operate the shoulder mounted cannons, there didn't appear to be anyway to activate them.
"Hey Jason, open up," called a voice that Jason tried to place. He looked up to see two piloted suited figures hovering around outside the cockpit hatch. "We've got you something to eat."
Jason opened the hatch to allow Max Clifford and Harold Westings in, they were two of the Victory's pilots without mobile suits. "Thanks," he said as he took the package that Max offered. He ripped off the wrapping to uncover a burger made of non-specific meat.
"How's it going?" asked Harold as he pulled himself around to have a look at the linear seat's console.
"I've got most of it pegged now. It's not that hard a machine to understand really," replied Jason. "However there are a few systems that don't seem to work or do anything."
"That was quick," said Max. "We've had people working on it far ages and got nowhere."
Jason shrugged. "I don't know but when I look at the systems they just make sense. I'm not trying really."
"Sounds a bit dodgy that," commented Harold. "Almost newtype-esk."
"Oh don't start that old nonsense again," moaned Max. "It's just a bunch of old stories."
"What are newtypes?" asked Jason who was puzzled by what the two pilots meant.
"My grandfather used to tell me stories about amazing mobile suit pilots called newtypes," explained Harold. "They had some sort of strange ability so that whatever mobile suit they sat in they could understand everything about it, all its strengths and weaknesses. One newtype was so powerful that he stopped an asteroid falling onto the Earth."
"Sounds like some dodgy old bedtime story to me," said Jason dismissively. "No one could stop an asteroid falling."
"Exactly!" declared Max then he turned to point at Harold. "It's just a story but he keeps going on about it."
"Okay, okay. I'll stop talking about it." placated Harold. "So Jason what's the deal with you and that Romana?"
"Yeah," chipped in Max. "How'd you managed to get her alone on that ship with you?"
"We're just friends," said Jason in his own defence. "She's my business partner. We salvage scrap and then sell it."
"Business partner eh?" said Max slyly. "And I suppose you'll be sleeping on the sofa in your shared quarters tonight."
"Of course not, we do sleep together," replied Jason. "You know come to think of it I am getting tired. So I think I'll be off to get a rest." He shut down the Gundam's cockpit systems and slipped out of the cockpit.
After he'd gone Max finally spoke. "They sleep together and are only 'business partners'?"
"We are totally in the wrong line of work," commented the second pilot.
---
ELCSF patrol ship Pious,
Somewhere
near the Main L5-L2 SpaceLane
Icarus Miarcaril looked into the eyes of the podgy Lieutenant Joseph Multan of the patrol ship Devout. Miarcaril was not particularly happy, he hadn't asked for any assistance he merely wanted a resupply but apparently the High Command had decided that his ship alone wasn't good enough for the job of taking on the MCDA. This worried Miarcaril; the High Command was not well known for making quick decisions and this one had come through with lightning speed. Now Multan was in charge of the operation.
This meant that the High Command was taking the MCDA seriously. Miarcaril supposed that they had reason to do so; the MCDA had after all constructed a large warship and apparently a powerful mobile droid as well.
"So this is the enemy ship?" asked Multan as he looked at the monitor replying the recording of the last battle. "It looks big."
"My guess is that it's at least of battleship class," replied Miarcaril sharply. "However its weaponry system does not appear to be very accurate."
"Not very accurate hmmm?" sneered Multan. The fatter lieutenant laughed at Miarcaril's misfortune. "So how did they take out all of your mobile droids? No one in the fleet has lost that many in a single battle for a long time."
"The enemy deployed a powerful mobile droid," replied Miarcaril. "Its fighting style was highly erratic." Rage burned in Miarcaril, he didn't have to take this kind of questioning from this fat fool. He fought to reel in his temper. "Mr Koff! How much longer until the supplies and packed away," he barked over his shoulder.
"Approximately half an hour sir," replied Koff from the crew pit. "We will be ready for operations within the hour sir."
"How's the target doing?" asked Multan.
"It's moving away from the asteroid and appears to be accompanied by a second vessel," said Koff.
"A second vessel?" said Miarcaril. "I don't remember seeing any other ships apart from that cargo hauler we destroyed. There must have been more to that asteroid than I realised."
"No matter," interrupted Multan. "We'll destroy both them with no trouble now that I'm here."
"I would advise caution," said Miarcaril through gritted teeth. People like Multan really annoyed him, pompous and arrogant without a trace of self-control. "We have no idea what there capabilities are."
"Not going soft are you Miarcaril?" asked Multan, disgust was gleaming in his eyes. "I thought you'd be better than this, especially after what you did in Side 3."
Miarcaril's eyes narrowed; if looks could kill, this one would have. "That was an entirely different matter."
---
MCDA
battleship Victory,
On route to Frontier I
Captain Rawlings looked through the pile of paperwork that was mounting up on his desk; the stuff had a strange way of appearing when he wasn't looking. He turned his chair to look out of the small porthole in his office. Off a short distance was the cruiser Brazen, Lieutenant Hall called it a Reinforce class cruiser dating back to the Federation period. He knew the Council would be pleased with this discovery; not many people knew that a sabotage attempt in the shipyards had considerably delayed the completion of the Victory's sister ships. The MCDA sorely needed warships if they were ever to take on the Empire but so far a general purpose cruiser design had yet to be approved.
He'd sent Commander Barther and a detachment of crew over to the Brazen to secure it and bring it along for the trip back to Frontier I. Rawlings thought that Barther could use the experience of commanding a vessel, experience was something that the MCDA truly lacked and they'd need a heck of a lot more of it if they were ever going to beat the Empire.
There was a knock at the door Rawlings glanced at his schedule; he didn't have any meetings planned. "Enter," he said loudly.
The door opened revealing Romana Tyler standing in the corridor, Rawlings was sure he could see Lieutenant Hall hovering around off to one side. The teenager took a few steps into the room and then the door closed behind her.
"Well hello Ms Tyler. I wasn't expecting anyone," said Rawlings, trying to be as open and approachable as possible. "My I enquire what this visit is about."
"I think you know full well Captain," said Romana sharply.
"Let me guess," said Rawlings as he sighed. "It's about your ship right?" Romana simply nodded. "As I said before I'm truly sorry about that. There is little I can do about it."
"I can think of at least one thing," prompted Romana. "How about you, or the MCDA, buy me and Jason a new ship."
"Now look here Ms Tyler, I can't authorise something like that," replied Rawlings getting slightly cross at her forthrightness.
"It doesn't have to be a brand new ship, just a good solid ship," she said primly. "After all Jason is risking his life piloting that thing for you."
Rawlings stared into her green eyes trying to understand her better, they were cold and stern. He decided that she was young, full of life and very stubborn; Rawlings knew he wouldn't be able to win this fight. However he was in a tricky situation; the Council was unlikely to authorise the spending to pay for a new ship but he did feel guilty for what happened.
"Okay Ms Tyler," he said finally. "I'll look into it for you. Now I can't guarantee anything but I can try."
"Why thank you Captain," she said happily smiling. "You've been ever so helpful."
She turned on the spot and marched out of the captain's office. Rawlings watched her go, her mood had changed very rapidly he could remember his father telling him to be careful around people like that. Of course his father had been a little bit eccentric and often warned him about allsorts of things, such as not getting too close to shrubs because they might bite you. If you caught him on a good day he'd make sense but some days he just wouldn't. Rawlings leaned back in his chair and sighed; a part of him longed to be back at home in the English countryside but at the same time another part of him knew that this was his place in the universe.
The door to his cabin slid open and Jason stepped through. A quick scan of the room revealed Romana sitting at the table; she was looked especially pleased with herself.
"Welcome back," she said getting up and walking over to him. "You look tired."
"It has been a long day," replied Jason. He wrapped his arms around her and embraced her deeply. "So what are you smiling so much about?"
"Oh I had a little word with the Captain earlier," she said playfully. "He was quite accommodating."
"What have you done this time?" asked Jason. "I know what you can be like."
"I just suggested that he should buy use a new ship," she replied. "Don't look at me like that. He said he'd look into it for us."
"Romana you're going to cause trouble if you act like that," said Jason sternly. "We're only getting this lift back to Frontier I thanks to him."
"Don't we deserve a little pay back?" she shouted. "It's because of him we're in this mess."
"Romana, I don't want to argue with you right now," replied Jason, exhaustion was nibbling away at his voice. "I just want to get some sleep."
He shed a few layers of clothing and crashed out on the bed in the corner of the room. Thanks to the gravity generating wheel within the Victory's superstructure you didn't have to be strapped into the bed like you had to on the Vixen. Not long after he was joined by Romana who snuggled in close; for his part Jason draped his arm around her.
"I'm worried Jason, I don't like you piloting that thing," she said softly. "It's not right."
"Don't worry. I heard a transport is going to meet us and it's packing a bunch of mobile suits for Hall's pilots. They won't need me after that," he said reassuringly. "We can go back to Frontier I see Abby and then see about sorting out a new ship. Everything will be back to normal in no time at all."
---
ELCSF
patrol ship Pious,
In pursuit of enemy battleship
Icarus Miarcaril stared out of the port hole at the patrol ship Devout. Lieutenant Multan had returned safely to his ship and now they were just waiting for the right moment to strike. A short distance behind the two patrol ships the bulky cargo ship trailed them, Multan had ordered its commander to accompany them. The fat officers' reasoning was that they could use it to load up the debris from the destroyed MCDA ships. Icarus was disgusted by Multan's sheer arrogance; it was as if he didn't even consider defeat.
Icarus was not averse to positive thinking but this seemed a bit too much. He was beginning to think that the Empire was too used to winning. There was every possibility that the MCDA might just teach them how to lose. Naturally Icarus knew that voicing this kind of thinking would get him immediately executed were he back in Side 1, however in the safety of his own head he could think as he saw fit.
He took out his pocket watch and studied the clock face, it seemed like time was dragging. He snapped the watch shut and placed it back in his pocket. Almost on cue a message came through from the bridge. "Lieutenant we have the enemy vessels on radar and are approaching. Lieutenant Multan is preparing to launch the attack," reported Mr Koff.
"Very well, I'll be along presently," replied Miarcaril.
As ever the Pious' bridge was quiet with all the crew working diligently at their posts. Miarcaril slipped into his command chair without any fuss and scanned the various monitors and consoles dotted around him.
"Are the mobile droids prepped and ready to go?" he asked.
"Yes sir," replied Ensign Mikhail Sileno, the Pious' chief mobile droid operator. "However ours are only equipped with standard beam rifles, there were no replacement beam cannons."
Miarcaril didn't like the sound of that. While beam rifles were perfectly good weapons a beam cannon was far more likely to get a clean kill, despite the slower rate of fire. He tried to put this out of his mind as he looked at the map displaying their relative position to the enemy forces. The two forces were practically heading straight for each other. Miarcaril did not think that this was a very wise battle plan; clearly the MCDA ships had superior forward weaponry. Attacking head on was foolish; however Multan was the commanding officer; any failure of this plan would reflect onto him and not Miarcaril.
"Lieutenant we have a message from the Devout," said Mr Ashcroft from the communications station in the crewpit. "All ships are to come up to combat speed and engage the enemy."
"Is that all?" asked Miarcaril. The orders were incredibly vague and he didn't like that.
"Yes sir," was the reply from the crewpit.
"Very well, I suppose we'll have to make it up as we go along," he said. "Mr Billingsworth set course to follow the Devout. Mr Sileno standby to launch the mobile droids; set control routines to Pattern C let us see if that makes any difference."
---
3rd
June UC 0351
MCDA battleship Victory,
On route to Frontier
I
The deafening wail of the sirens woke Jason with a jolt. He had been enjoying a very nice dream but as his brain started to take notice of the real world the pleasant dream drifted from his minds eye.
"First stage battle alert. All hands to combat stations. First stage battle alert. All hands to combat stations. Jason Wright report to hanger immediately, Jason Wright report to hanger immediately."
The message kept repeating over and over again. Jason struggled out of the bed throwing the duvet away and dashing over to his pile of clothes, the cold air of the room chilled him to the bone. He put his clothes on as quickly as he could and then turned to see the face of Romana sitting up right in the bed. He could tell she was scared and worried. "I'm sorry," was all he could manage before rushing from the room.
After he left Romana pulled the duvet in close to her and held it tight to her body. A torrent of emotions tore thought her psyche. "Be safe my love," she whispered.
Jason hammered down the corridors of the Victory. As he exited the gravity wheel he grabbed hold of a linear handle and let it pull him along towards the pilots lounge. Once there he moved towards the lockers and pulled out the pilot's suit which had been given too him. He hurriedly put the suit on and locked the helmet in place. He then proceeded to the air lock to the hanger that was on the far side of the lounge. He was through the air lock and into the hanger in no time at all, from the gantry he pushed off once to send his body hurtling towards the open cockpit of the Raystrike Gundam. When he got close one of the hanger crews helped him into the cockpit and then checked the seals before closing the hatch.
The Gundam was already warmed up with the monitor on. Jason gently placed his hands onto the controls. Off to onside of his head a small communications window opened with the face of George Macintyre inside it.
"Hello sir. We have three hostile ships approaching directly ahead; two of them are patrol ships and one is a transport," said Macintyre. "We expect there to be a total of eight mobile droids."
"Eight? How the hell do you expect me to take on eight of those things?" yelled Jason, he was quite angry. "I wasn't expecting anything like this!"
A second window opened up, this one showed the face of Captain Rawlings. The captain did not have a pleased expression on his face.
"Wright this is Rawlings. Don't worry we're not going to hang around," he said. "The Empire naval forces aren't strong we'll punch through their line. All you have to do is distract the mobile droids long enough for us to pound their ships, as soon as we do that the mobile droids will be dead in space. Don't do anything stupid."
Rawlings' window disappeared. Jason sighed and hit the control switch that set the Gundam's arm out to retrieve the beam rifle from the wall recharging station. He set the Gundam in motion, walking over to the catapult rail. 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 "Raystrike Gundam Launch!" before he was flung down the rail and out into space.
"Target the lead patrol ship with the main batteries," ordered Captain Rawlings as he pulled on his normal suit. "Forward main guns suppress the second patrol ship."
The bridge crew jumped to his commands and the orders were relayed down to the gun turrets. Moments later reports came back saying that all the turrets were targeted and awaiting the order to fire.
On the main communications screen, imbedded into the ceiling mounting near the command chair, Commander Barther's face appeared. "Captain we're all ready over here. However I've only got enough men to man two of the main gun turrets, there's nothing left for the secondary weapons."
"Don't worry Commander," replied Rawlings. "Mr Wright in the Raystrike Gundam will keep the mobile droids off our backs."
"If you don't mind me saying sir you're putting a lot of faith in a civilian," said Barther.
"Commander a few months ago we were all civilians," replied the Captain sternly. "Wright will do his job well; I have every confidence in him."
"Captain the enemy ships have entered optimum firing range!" yelled Ensign Duncan-Smith from the radar station.
Romana struggled her way through the Victory's corridors she was trying to find a place where we could watch the battle. She wasn't very good at navigating around the big battleship and the normal suit she was wearing didn't fit her very well.
"Romana? Is that you?" asked a voice from over her shoulder. She turned to see Kieron Hall in his snug fitting pilot's suit. "You shouldn't be out here during a first stage battle alert."
"I wanted to try and watch him," she managed. "I wanted to make sure he was safe."
Kieron realised what she meant. "Here come with me. You'll be able to watch from the pilots lounge."
He took her hand and led her through the maze of corridors.
Jason could see the eight dots approaching his position and in the background the three enemy ships. Behind him the Victory and Brazen were picking up speed Jason matched the warships' speed. Then without any warning fourteen mega particle beam lanced out into space in the direction of the enemy ships, the Victory was letting rip with her full force and she was angry. Jason could see the Empire vessels trying to evade.
Then the mobile droids were upon him. He battled with the controls to avoid the opening volley of beam fire before bringing up his beam shield to block another volley of shots. He experimentally fired off a few shots from his own beam rifle but failed to hit anything. After their first attack the mobile droids split into two groups of four. One of the groups sped off to harass the MCDA warships while the other stayed to deal with the Gundam. Jason could see that the group that stayed with him was flying a much closer formation that the others. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the defensive fire lighting up the area around the Victory.
Deciding that just waiting to be attack was a little stupid he pushed down hard on the foot peddles, causing his main thrusters fire, sending him hurtling after the mobile droids. They turned sharply and all four of them came in straight at him. Jason brought up his beam rifles and fired a salvo of shots at the mobile droids, three of them broke formation and sped off trying to get around him while the remaining one blocked a shot with its beam shield. Jason coaxed more power out of his thrusters and charged at the last mobile droid. As the two closed he flicked the Gundam off to the right and as the machine began to spin off he fired two shots into the mobile droids torso; one of the beams struck the reactor causing the mobile droid to explode.
The remaining mobile droids finished their turns and headed back inwards towards Jason's exposed rear. Instantly he started dodging their attacks. Bringing the Gundam around he returned fire but failed to hit anything. The mobile droids hounded him and passed close to the Gundam. Without really thinking Jason activated the Gundam's beam shield as one of the mobile droids closed in to buzz him it caught the beam sabre-like edge of the beam shield. It cut into the side of the mobile droid damaging the internal systems and causing it to waver. Sensing the advantage Jason sent a trio of beams into the damaged droid.
The MCDA warships closed the gap between the two forces. The guns of the mighty MCDA flagship poured mega particle beams towards the Empire ships. The Empire ships returned fire but they didn't have anywhere near as many guns and even the ones they did have were weaker. The Victorys main batteries were a pair of massive three barrel 'main gun' mega particle cannons mounted just before the command tower. The huge gun turrets turned to keep a lock on the moving enemy lead ship; the two turrets fired near simultaneously. Six beams tore through space searching their target then the beams struck home. All six burned through the small patrol ship ripping it to shreds.
Jason was entangled in a melee with all of the remaining mobile droids just off the Victory's bow when the patrol ship was destroyed. Instantly the four mobile droids that had been controlled by that ship went off line, they simply drifted in space, one fell prey to the Victory's laser turrets; while Jason decapitated another. He wasn't able to finish it off before the two still active mobile droids attacked him again.
---
ELCSF patrol ship Pious,
In pursuit of
enemy battleship
Icarus Miarcaril drummed his fingers on the arm of his command chair. Once again things were not going well; Multan had been a total fool right from the outset and it had cost him his life.
"Mr Sileno patch us through to take over the Devout's mobile droids then have them withdraw," he ordered. "Mr Billingsworth please plot us a course out of here. Contact the transport and have her withdraw as well. This battle was lost before we even started."
---
MCDA battleship
Victory,
On route to Frontier I
Much to Jason's surprise the offline mobile droids suddenly became active again. He swore under his breath and then all the mobile droids started heading off back towards the enemy ships. He was half tempted to follow them but he knew that would be a less than smart idea.
He watched as the Victory's guns kept pounding away at the retreating enemy ships. A beam from one of the smaller two barrel main guns lanced through the cargo bay of the transport ship. The blast must have ignited the cargo as the whole ship vanished in an explosion. This seemed to him as good a time as any to head back to the ship, so he swung the Raystrike Gundam around and headed for the hanger.
Jason stepped through the air lock and into the pilots lounge he felt exhausted; that battle had been a tough one. In the lounge the Victory's three mobile suitless pilots were all waiting for him.
"Way to go Jason!" cheered Max. "You really showed those tin cans a thing or two."
"Yeah good job man," added Harold. "We'll make a pilot out of you yet."
Jason could see Romana off to one side with her normal suit still on. "Hey Romana you can take that off now the bad guys are gone now."
"No I can't!" she declared in a very angry voice.
"What's wrong?" asked Jason. He went over to her to find out. She leant forward and whispered the answer to him.
"Really?" said Jason rather surprised, but with a smile on his face. He tried to angle his vision to look down through her helmet.
"Don't do that!" she squealed and hit him round the back of the head. "I don't know the way back to our room. Please help me."
"Okay, Okay I'll show you the way," laughed Jason. "Sorry guys we'll have to chat later."
On the Victory's bridge Captain Rawlings breathed a sigh of relief. They'd survived the battle and without taking any damage. He had to admit his gun crews were getting better, experience was a wonderful thing.
"Captain I've picked up a vessel on the edge of our radar range," reported Ensign Duncan-Smith.
"We just never get a break do we," complained Rawlings. "What is it?"
"Sir the profile matches that of the La Vie En Rose."
"Finally our luck changes," said Rawlings with a look of great relief on his face. At this rate they might just make it back to port in one piece.
