Chapter 4: Border Cross

3rd June UC 0351
Empire of Lambda Colonies cruiser Inquisitor,
In pursuit of enemy battleship

From his seated position in the armoured command centre of the Inquisitor Captain William Brentfield observed as his missiles closed in on the asteroid field. A lesser man might have simply bypassed the asteroid field, assuming that only a fool would hide in one, but Brentfield had extraordinarily sharp eyesight and he'd spotted signs of movement within the field long before the rest of his crew had. He'd made sure to have a live video feed set up, rather than relying totally on the computer enhanced pictures that were displayed on most of the monitors in the command centre. He quickly deduced that the enemy had deployed a dummy asteroid field as cover. Therefore he had ordered his navigator to determine the heading of the field and it was speedily reported back that the field was moving on a straight line towards the Frontier Side. That had been all the proof Brentfield needed and so he ordered the missile attack. Although unguided and at extreme range the missiles, he believed, would be an effective way of revealing his enemy without giving away his own position too easily.

He allowed himself a smile as the first wave reached the field and the dummies began exploding. He knew it wouldn't be too long before the enemy ships were revealed. He could feel the excitement building in his stomach; it wasn't often that a warship in the Imperial Fleet had a chance to lock horns with an enemy vessel let alone an enemy battleship. He glanced sideways to take in the patrol ship that was along side his own cruiser. Although he'd only met Lieutenant Miarcaril once he felt as though he understood the young patrol ship commander. Brentfield understood that Miarcaril took his disastrous encounters with the enemy as an affront to his personal honour and that, while he didn't show it on the outside, Miarcaril burned with a desire to redeem himself. Brentfield believed that Miarcaril had merely fallen foul of a cunning plan conceived by the enemy and that he shouldn't take it so personally; only with the supreme arrogance that came with someone born on Londenion could anyone believe that they would be able to destroy a battleship with a measly patrol ship.

Brentfield could understand Miarcaril's desire to prove himself worthy. The numbers of new recruits from within the Empire's heartland of Side One had been dropping off for the last half century. The war of subjugation on Earth had sapped Side One of its youth as millions of loyal young soldiers were killed in the brutal battles across Europe and Asia. As early as UC 0323, ten years into the invasion, the Empire had lost over eleven million soldiers and by the time the Treaty of Von Braun was signed in UC 0347 that figured had reached nearly twenty nine million casualties, with some two thirds being fatal. While the conquered Sides had leant manpower to the war on Earth the majority of the troops had been drawn from the colonies of Side One. Therefore any solider or spaceman from Side One was desperate to prove themselves as worthy as all those who'd gone before them.

"Begin the advance, signal the Pious to do the same," he ordered clearly. "All turrets target the largest vessel; we want to kill that battleship quickly. Prepare mobile droids for launch, set D-Type droids to control routines to Pattern C, heavy weapons package; set C-Type droids to control routines to Pattern B."

---

Mutual Colony Defence Alliance battleship Victory
On route to Frontier I

Flight Lieutenant Kieron Hall was not in a very good mood. The Empire had caught them with their pants down and now he was waiting for his Merlin to be refuelled and rearmed. The hanger crews were slow; deep down he knew he shouldn't be mad at them, this was the first time they'd worked on real mobile suits after all. He was also angry because he couldn't find Jason Wright, Captain Rawlings had said that the Gundam pilot was on his way to the hanger but thus far he hadn't appeared.

The normal suited head of a hanger technician appeared at the hatch to Hall's Merlin. "You're good to go sir, give them hell!"

"About bloody time!" growled Kieron. The technician disappeared and the hatch closed. Down on the hanger floor another technician directed Kieron towards the portside mobile suit catapult rail. Kieron noted that Harold Westing's Merlin was headed towards the starboard catapult rail.

Off to onside of his head a small communications window opened with the face of George Macintyre inside it. "Hello sir. We have detected two enemy vessels approaching; one appears to be the patrol ship that's been following us while the other is one of the Empire's new cruisers."

Kieron quickly did the math in his head. "That should make twelve mobile droids in total right?"

"Yes sir. In roughly twenty minutes we will be crossing the border into Frontier Side space. You just have to hold them off until then," reported Macintyre.

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 "Merlin, Hall unit. Launch!" before he was flung down the rail and out into space.

A few moments later he was joined by Westings' Merlin and then by Max Clifford in his Merlin. They could see the approaching enemy ships through the dummy asteroid field. In Hall's opinion things didn't look good.

"Westings, you hang back and try to protect the ships," ordered Kieron. "Clifford you're with me. They out number us but we've got to hold them off."

Jason Wright was still putting on his pilot's suit when Romana Tyler entered the pilot's lounge. She moved towards him but stopped half way; she could see into the hanger beyond and could see the menacing figure of the Raystrike Gundam. He was stood by the rows of lockers that lined the dull grey walls, only four of the lockers had nameplates fixed to them.

"Romana you shouldn't be here," said Jason as he turned to look at her. "It'd be safer for you to stay in our cabin."

She tried to speak but it was as if the words escaped her. She could see, on the shoulders of his pilots suit, the insignia of the Victory; it was a white disc with a golden rim, in the centre of the disc was a large red V with the motto "Victoria Fortes Sequitur" written beneath it. In between the uprights of the V was a stylised golden Pegasus. He was becoming more and more one of them, a soldier. "Don't go," she finally managed; tears began to roll down her cheeks.

"What do you mean don't go?" asked Jason, he didn't understand what his partner was on about. He walked over to her and wiped the tears from her face.

"He said that you wouldn't have to pilot that thing once they had some mobile suits," she blurted out. "That means you don't have to fight anymore Jason!"

"But Romana they need me!" replied Jason. He understood now what Romana meant, but he couldn't possibly turn his back on the Victory now.

"I need you as well Jason! What happens if you go out there and get killed? What about me and Abby?" she screamed. "I don't want you to get hurt!"

"What's got into you?" he yelled back. "Can't you understand they need my help? There are only three of them and they have to face a hell of a lot more mobile droids. I'm no safer staying here than if I went out there."

"You're not a soldier you don't have to fight!"

"Don't you get it?" replied Jason angrily. "If I don't go out there and Kieron and the others are killed than the Empire will burn this ship from stem to stern. Then we'll both be dead."

Jason looked into her eyes and he could see the fear and horror that permeated them. He knew how she felt, he could see it too but he wasn't going to let them stop himself. Suddenly the Victory began to shake violently and they could hear the sounds of explosions in the distance.

"Warning hull breach on deck eleven, I repeat warning hull breach on deck eleven, all crew members seal normal suits, I repeat all crew members seal normal suits," Jason recognised the voice of Commander Barther giving out the emergency message.

"Wright! Where the hell are you? Why haven't you launched yet?" This time it was the voice of a very angry Captain Rawlings. "We need your support out there now!"

"I'm sorry Romana but I have to go now," he said firmly. "Get a normal suit and return to our cabin, we'll talk later." He sealed his pilot's suit and walked over to the airlock that linked to the hanger.

---

ELCSF cruiser Inquisitor,
Engaging enemy battleship

The Inquisitor's three two-barrel main gun turrets poured mega particle beams towards the location of the MCDA warships. They were bursting the dummy asteroids at a far greater rate than the missiles had been, Brentfield could now clearly see his opponent. He'd been surprised to find that the largest target had not been the enemy battleship but rather one of Anaheim Electronics' flower-like space dock ships. He now had proof that the Luna Cartels were supplying the rebels. Not that it mattered really, long ago the Emperor had decreed that the Moon and the Frontier Side were neutral territory and prohibited the Imperial Navy from attacking them. As long as that decree remained no matter how much evidence they gathered they could never attack without the express permission of the Emperor, and that would be incredibly difficult to get as the elderly Emperor had never revoked a decree before and he was very stubborn.

"Captain, two enemy mobile droids approaching," reported a bridge officer from the crew pit on Brentfield's left hand side.

"Two? Do they match the profile Lieutenant Miarcaril gave us?" asked Brentfield.

"No sir, these are a totally different type and colour."

"Interesting, I wonder where the white one is," mused Brentfield. "Despatch a unit of mobile droids to destroy them, keep the rest concentrated on the enemy warships."

"Sir four of the mobile droids are breaking off to engage us!" yelled Max Clifford. Max gripped his control sticks tightly, he was very nervous and he had a right to be. Sure he'd done quite well in the simulators but actually being in a mobile suit was something totally different. For one thing some of the panoramic screen sections kept flickering; while it didn't really affect his ability to fight it was disconcerting and didn't happen in the simulators.

"I've got them as well," said Kieron Hall. The lack of Minovsky particles in the vicinity allowed the two to communicate by radio, but even so the quality of the transmission wasn't of the highest degree. "Looks like three D-types and a C-type and they are all sporting beam cannons. You take the left pair, I'll take the right pair then we'll meet in the middle, you got that?"

"Yes sir!" Max tried to not let his voice betray his nervousness. That was one of the things he admired about Kieron Hall, the former University student was always cool under fire. Hall was also one of the few people in the Victory's crew that had actually been in combat before. Max's pair were just two D-types, Hall would be taking on the C-type and remaining D-type.

The Lambda mobile droids opened fire first, their beam cannons out ranged the beam rifles carried by the Merlins. Hall evaded all the beams aimed at him easily though Max was forced to activate his beam shield to deflect a beam that ventured uncomfortably close to his own suit. Nudging his controls slightly he started to pull round to the left hand side pair as he closed in on them the targeting crosshairs was superimposed into the panoramic screen. The mobile droids were firing again but he was able to weave between the beams. Max trained his targeting crosshairs over the nearest mobile droid and he waited the few seconds for the computer to get the lock and change the crosshairs colour from green to red, signifying he could fire.

The mobile droid was carrying the hefty beam cannon with both its hands; it could be used singled handily allowing the beam shield on the left forearm to be used easier but doing this greatly reduced the accuracy of the large cannon. Max noticed that these mobile droids were painted a very dark green rather than the dark grey of the mobile droids in all the previous attacks. The dark green meant they were from the Empires Tactical Command and the white Roman numeral I painted on the shoulder armour signified the mobile droids command ship was part of the Side I defence force. The dark grey of the previous attacking mobile droids meant they came under the Border Command. As part of their training to become pilots Max and the rest had been tested on information such as this repeatedly.

The crosshairs turned red and Max pulled the trigger, he held it down long enough for five scarlet mega particle beams to be loosed. The first shot hit the mobile droid and blew off the left arm while the rest of the shots went wild since the rifle's recoil affected the accuracy of the ensuing shots. The mobile droid recovered far too quickly for Max's liking and let rip with its beam cannon quicker than he could react, the shot went low and ripped off the Merlin's right leg.

---

MCDA battleship Victory,
On route to Frontier I

Jason strapped himself into the Raystrike Gundam's linear seat as he did so the various displays, built into seat just above the control sticks, blinked into life giving him read outs of the Gundam's systems. He pressed a series of buttons which set the Gundam off to collect its beam rifle from the wall mounted recharging station.

George Macintyre's face appeared inside a communication window. "Hello sir, we have twelve mobile droids approaching the Victory. Flight Lieutenant Hall and Pilot Officer Clifford have already intercepted four of them and are currently engaged in combat. Pilot Officer Westings is screening the Victory but will soon be overrun by enemy units."

"Okay I got that," said Jason confidently. "Eight droids still inbound; I've managed to do that before."

Down on the hanger floor a hanger technician directed the Gundam towards the portside mobile suit catapult rail. Before him the great doors that protected the catapult launch bay were already open. 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.

"It's about bloody time he launched," growled Commander Barther as he saw the Raystrike Gundam take off. "Where the hell has he been?"

The Victory's bridge was a hive of activity with crewmen coming and going with a multitude of reports. Captain William Rawlings stood calmly by the holographic plotting map that nestled between the two raised command chairs. "We will deal with that later," he said. He'd been much angrier earlier but he'd realised that he was placing a lot of pressure on a civilian. "Right now we must concentrate on the battle. Helm take us around the La Vie En Rose VI we need to engage the enemy."

"I'm trying sir!" reported David Hayes, the helmsman. '"But the La Vie En Rose VI keeps positioning herself between us and the enemy."

"What the blazes does Captain Manering think he's doing," exclaimed Rawlings. Even as they spoke a volley of beams struck the La Vie En Rose VI and a large chunk of one of the distinctive yellow 'petals' was blown off. "Do we have any weapons that aren't blocked?"

"Yes sir," reported Barther. "The starboard mega particle gun turret is clear sir."

"Excellent, prepare to fire," As soon as Captain Rawlings had given the order the armoured shield wheel that protected the starboard twin-barrel mega particle gun began to open. When it was fully open the turret came out from its internal holding place and locked into place. The 'main gun' mega particle cannons that made up the Victory's main weaponry were designed for raw destructive power over a medium distance; the mega particle gun however was designed for pinpoint accuracy at very long ranges and so they had a longer recharge time between shots. "Target the enemy cruiser and fire!"

The massive barrels of the mega particle gun moved into position. Power from the Victory's twin reactors was channelled into the mega particle gun and after a few moments the two dark red beams lanced out into space. With lightning speed they tore through the void seeking Lambda steel unfortunately the beams missed the Inquisitor by only a few centimetres. The beams however did get close enough to burn a scar into the hull of the Lambda cruiser; a pair of furrows was dug diagonally up the starboard side of the bow.

"Hey Harold could you use a hand out here?" Jason brought the Raystrike Gundam to a halt next to Harold's Merlin. "Sorry I'm a bit tardy but I was caught up with something."

"Am I glad to see you Jason," replied Harold Westings. "I wasn't looking forward to taking on eight mobile droids by myself."

By now the Gundam's monitors were displaying information on the approaching mobile droids. Jason could clearly see the four dark green and four dark grey mobile droids. All but one of them were Type-D droids, the odd one was a C-Type with its pair of over the shoulder beam cannons.

"Okay Harold here is the plan," said Jason; his mind was racing trying to formulate a strategy that would keep both of them alive. "I'll charge them and while the operators are concentrating on me you can pick off as many as you can."

"Sounds crazy to me," replied Harold as he adjusted his targeting crosshairs slightly. "But you're the one in the Gundam and I can't think of anything better."

"Alright here I go!" Jason yelled as he pressed his feet down on the foot peddles causing the Raystrike Gundam's main thrusters to fire and drive the Gundam towards the Empire mobile droids. A red light began to flash in the cockpit once he entered the effective firing range of the mobile droids. In perfect unison all eight of them fired their beam cannons at the same time, Jason however anticipated this and neatly sent the Gundam on a sharp right turn to avoid the beams. As soon as the beams began to fade he swung the Gundam violently back on track and instantly dropped his crosshairs over the nearest droid; the crosshairs went from red to green and he pressed the trigger.

Harold found it hard not to be amazed by Jason's performance. The young scrap merchant had no formal military training at all yet he was outperforming all three of the Victory's official pilots, clearly the kid had talent. Harold fired his main thrusters and followed the Raystrike Gundam at a slightly more modest pace. He watched as the mobile droids curved round to form a rough bowl shape around the Raystrike Gundam. Seeing an opportunity he placed his crosshairs over one of the dark green mobile droids. The moment the crosshairs went green he pressed the trigger and sent a stream of four mega particle beams racing towards the droid.

The first beam sliced off the droid's right arm while the second burned through the housing of the droids three back mounted thrusters. Instantly the droid exploded and the remaining two shots were lost in the explosion. Naturally Harold was pleased with this first kill, but he was also worried because it also attracted the attention of the mobile droid controllers who directed the imperial killing machines.

He activated his beam shield and sent the Merlin on a downward course in anticipation of the counterattack. Just as expected two of the mobile droids turned about the let rip with their beam cannons. One of the blasts missed Harold's Merlin while he blocked the other with the beam shield. He returned fire with his rifle but the droids avoid each beam easily. Harold cursed as he struggled to keep his mobile suit moving while trying to get a clear shot. He hated to admit it but the Empire's mobile droids were more manoeuvrable than his Merlin which made it extremely difficult to get a good shot in. Another volley of beams came and Harold tried to block with his beam shield, but the ferocity of the cannons beams overloaded the shield. The second droid swooped round the placed a beam right through the centre of the Merlin's torso. The Mutual Colony Defence Alliance had just lost its first pilot.

Kieron Hall had already dispatched his Type-D droid opponent by the time the Raystrike Gundam launched; the Type-C cannon droid was proving a far more resilient target. The trio of beams cannons it was sporting made it difficult to approach while staying far back enough to use the Merlin's beam rifle left you open to cannon attack. Kieron pushed down on his foot peddles to push the Merlin up to full speed. He let loose a flurry of un-aimed rifle shots before its e-pac was drained by now he was too close to the mobile droid to risk changing the e-pac so he released the rifle from the Merlin's right hand and switched over to his beam sabre.

As he activated the beam sabre he coaxed a little more out of his thrusters to drive his Merlin towards the droid even more. His first swipe hacked the beam cannon barrel that extended over the droids left shoulder in half. In instant he swivelled the hand holding the beam sabre around 180 degrees and rammed it down through the droids head. As Kieron revelled in his victory an explosion off towards the Victory caught his attention, it seemed to burn brighter and longer than all the others.

Jason didn't even have to see Harold's Merlin explode somehow he just knew. He could feel a burning sensation in the back of his head, as the burning increased he yelped in pain. Then several strange things happened all at once. Jason let rip a roar of anger and fired his beam rifle, burning a hole through one of the mobile droids; but not only that at the exact same moment all four of the beam cannons mounted in the Raystrike Gundam's shoulder turrets fired at the same time, each turret downing a different mobile droid. In less than a second Jason had destroyed three mobile droids without even intending to do it. He didn't stop there though, still roaring with anger he pushed the Gundam forward. The shoulder turrets tracked the mobile droids by themselves and just as quickly as before he shot down the other three droids.

Jason had the Raystrike Gundam hurtling towards the Empire warships before anyone else realised what was happening. Jason's heavy breathing filled the cockpit, he wasn't acting on rational thought this was pure instinct it was as if some bloodlust had come over him. Then something felt like it snapped and Jason regained some composure, finding himself hovering into front of the Empire patrol ship's bridge with his beam rifle out stretched pointing at it. He could see the bridge; crew he could see the fear on their faces; they were human just like him. They weren't machines like the droids. Jason's breathing reverberated around his helmet. He couldn't kill people, they might have families waiting for them back home, and he didn't want to be a murderer.

The larger Empire cruiser began to turn and its two-barrelled laser turrets opened fire on the Raystrike Gundam forcing Jason to break away. Jason didn't pursue them; he even let the last remaining mobile droids pass by unmolested. He let go of the controls and just let the Gundam drift as he tried to take in all that had happened. A message flashed on one of the monitors informing him that they had just crossed the border into Frontier Side space, they were safe for now.

---

ELCSF patrol ship Pious
Patrolling the Frontier Side Border

The discomfort that Icarus Miarcaril felt from being harassed on his own bridge by a mobile droid was matched only by the sheer horror of seeing six mobile droids destroyed in a matter of seconds. They had quite clearly seriously underestimated the capabilities of this MCDA weapon, he was beginning to doubt if even a full cruiser squadron could defeat them. Now that the enemy had passed into Frontier Side space they were unable to follow them, so once the Pious resupplied again it would be a waiting game with Icarus trying to workout where the enemy ship would emerge next.

"Lieutenant Miarcaril sir we're receiving a priority communication from Special Operations Command." reported crewman Ashcroft. "They're ordering us to rendezvous with a transport ship."

Icarus felt as if ice had just been poured down the back of his black uniform. Special Operations Command was notoriously known as the Empire's secret police and black ops unit, getting a call from them was rarely a good thing. "Very well set course. Transmit our thanks and commiserations to the Inquisitor."

---

MCDA battleship Victory,
On route to Frontier I

Jason sat on the yellow sofa in the darkened recreation room, further in were tables and chairs along with some games like chess. He felt numb all over and could barely remember his return journey to the Victory let alone getting to this sofa. Two things however had stuck with him, the look of sheer sorrow on Max Clifford's face and the look of resigned bitterness on Kieron Hall's face. If only he'd launched sooner, then maybe he'd have been able to do something.

The door to the recreation room opened, allowing the light of the corridor to flood in before the door closed behind Captain Rawlings. Jason shifted his head to look the older man in the eyes.

"Why?" Was all the Captain asked. Jason knew exactly what he wanted to know.

He considered explaining everything, about Romana and the argument but that didn't seem like the right thing to do. That would only get her into trouble and that certainly wasn't what he wanted, but what she'd caused him to do was causing him a great deal of emotional pain.

"I thought your pilots could handle it," he said eventually. "I'm sorry I was wrong."

"It's easy enough for you to say you're sorry," said Rawlings bitterly. "You don't have to write a letter to his family explaining why he isn't coming home anymore."

Rawlings turned and pressed the door control. It slipped open smoothly and Romana was standing there. Rawlings merely nodded to her and squeezed past her.

"Jason?" she said after she'd entered the room and the door had closed behind her. "Jason is you okay?" His head was slumped back and he was staring at the ceiling.

"Not now Romana," he managed. "I don't think I can stand talking to you right now."