Chapter 4 – Rogue Squadron
Thanks for all the reviews: LM, Infinite Freedom, FreedomOverride, DeathZealot and Victor227. I hope you all enjoy this next chapter...and remember to review please!
In only two weeks, while the official request for the new armour part had languished in red-tape limbo, Rogue Squadron's droid had managed to find the parts needed to make the armour. The Rogue's chief tech, Murdoch had managed to weld the new armour to replace the damaged piece.
Shinn throttled back slightly, matching Stellar's speed, as they were about to jump into hyperspace, in formation behind Heine and Sting. The mission they were about to embark on was a simple escort mission, but the other side, if there would be trying using live-fire. Alliances operatives had been conducting surveys of Core worlds to assess the political climate and determine the strength of Imperial forces protecting them. On one run back towards their operations base, they ran into trouble and had to go to ground at the November Sixteen system. They sank the ship, a modified Imperial customs frigate, in a deep lake and lacked the equipment needed to repair damage that would allow them to move it again.
The Imperials had sent troops down onto the ground. While their reported progress in searching out the Alliance personnel had been slow, they started relatively close to the lake and so the discovery of the ship was only a matter of time. The Alliance had reconciled itself to the loss of the ship and had intended a covert extraction of the operatives, and then the Imperials left the system providing a window for repair and escape.
Andy sent the squadron the coordinates for the trip to the November Sixteen system. To cover the location of their base, the journey would be undertaken in three stages. The first part, a short one would take them to their first transit point, an uninhabited star near the December Nineteen system. From there they would jump back out Rimward to the second transit system and then back in to November Sixteen.
While multiple jumps and changes of directions would add hours to the flight time, obscuring their points of origin was vital. The Alliance had learned that spreading out forces meant it was all but impossible to for the Empire to land a deathblow to the Allaince. Orb had been too easily targeted during the Civil War.
They made the first jump on Andy's mark and came out in the fringes of the transit system all I one piece. The mobile suits manoeuvred around to the exit vector quickly, then had to mark time as the escort ships came about. The larger ships reported that they were ready, so the whole convoy shot into hyperspace and came out at the second transit system intact. The course adjustment wasn't as big this time, so they headed out quickly and arrived in the November Sixteen system just outside its gravitational tug.
Shinn heard Mwu's voice come through the comm. "You're clear for your run."
"Copy, Control. Two Flight, you're on patrol, watch our backs," Andy's voice came through the comm. as One Flight and some Astrays equipped with the new Blast packs escorted the freighter to pick up the personnel on planet and also strafe some of the enemy ground troops. While strafing ground troops wasn't much in the action department, it was more than just watching and shooting nothing.
Suddenly, Mwu's voice cut through the comm. channel, "Control to all mobile suit pilots. We have an enemy cruiser in system. Seems to be only a small carrier, but they are launching their own mobile suits."
"Two Flight, prepare to attack," Heine's voice came through the comm., "Come to a heading of 275 degrees."
"Control here. I have thirty six enemy mobile suits launched. Six Goufs, six Babis and twenty four CGUEs. Beginning evasive manoeuvres. Wait. Confirm, Babis are heading towards the ground."
"We copy control," Andrew's voice came over through strong despite being nibbled upon by static. He ordered the flight of Blast Astrays to take care of the bombers, as the heavy Blast pack would make them unsuitable against the faster Goufs and CGUEs. "Everyone else, take out the Goufs and CGUEs. Keep them off our escort."
As Heine ordered Two Flight forward, Shinn put the Destiny in a move that put it into a lopsided corkscrew motion. While that made it almost impossible to hit anything, it also made it hard for him to be hit, at least until One Flight got here. As Two Flight penetrated the Imperial formation, he drew his beam saber and slashed at the enemy. He was rewarded with the explosion of one of the enemy CGUEs.
Stellar, seeing Shinn draw his beam saber did the same and lashed out at one of the enemy Goufs with her beam saber. The Gouf exploded, as she inverted and then looped around, which brought the other enemy mobile suits in front of her. She headed back in again and picked up on a CGUE that had broken right while its wingmate had gone left. She saw that Shinn was after that CGUE. The other CGUE executed a loop designed to bring it onto Shinn's aft.
Stellar's beam saber shredded the CGUE's right engines and blew apart its right arm. The other engine, still operating at full power, sent the CGUE spinning away. Stellar winced in sympathy for the pilot who would be spinning around uncontrollably-ready to hurl, then drove again into the enemy formation.
Rogue Squadrron's plunging and wheeling though the middle of the enemy mobile suits had an unanticipated advantage in that they had a very high target-to-comrade ratio to shoot at. Moreover, since they had phase-shift armour, even a shot taken in haste at another Rogue wouldn't prove fatal. The same could not be said of the enemy suits – one misfired missile or beam could easily kill a fellow pilot.
Shinn snapped off a shot at a CGUE and watched it disintegrate. A warning from the console and he sent the Destiny into another move, sending it out of a Goufs line of fire. He turned the Destiny around and fired at the Gouf and watched it explode.
"Seven, break left."
Without thinking Shinn sent the Destiny in a quick move in that direction and caught sight of an enemy Gouf's rod shoot through where he had just been. Some beam rifle fire came along that same line and something exploded out there.
"Thanks Commander."
"No problem, Seven."
The Destiny dove down to say clear of the mass of mobile suits. With the arrival of the rest of the squadron he knew there was no way he could track all the mobile suits and sort friend from foe. Even as he came back up he saw less beam fire permeating the cloud of mobile suits than there had been when the forces were less evenly matched. So much twisting and turning going on in there, no one can find a target and stick with it long enough to dust it.
Pulling up to continue his loop around the fringe of the battle he saw the Abyss break free with a CGUE on its tail. Measuring Auel's line of flight, Shinn rolled the Destiny and looped down at a tangent to it. "Rogue Three, break hard to star."
The Abyss rolled on right and pulled away at an angle that case doubt on the existence of inertia. The CGUE following tried to imitate his move, but neither the pilot nor the craft were up to it. As the CGUE rolled, Shinn swooped and stabbed its beam saber right into the middle of the CGUE, sending wreckage into the space around him, "You owe me one, Three," Shinn quickly commed.
Seeing another CGUE loop around to attack Shinn, Auel pulled around and centred in on the enemy, as its shoulder opened up, two beams from its shoulders fired, shredding the enemy CGUE to pieces. "Now we're even," Auel commed back.
Lunamaria centred on one of the CGUEs, which looped and started back at her. Head to head – this pilot knows what he's doing. As Andrew and Mwu had pointed out plenty of times in training, the majority of kills took place in head-to-head engagements. Luckily, I also know.
Lunamaria drove straight in towards the enemy CGUE. The crosshairs went green as she got a target lock and fired, but couldn't see how much damage she'd done because she of the enemy beam fire hitting her shield. She kicked the Impulse into a move which brought her around a full 180 degrees. As she killed her momentum she fired the missiles in the Blast pack that the Impulse had been equipped with (a/n: I am chopping and changing parts of Impulse's packs together so she can use armaments from any pack at any time). She watched the missiles shred away the enemy CGUEs engine sending it crashing into the edge of the atmosphere of the November Sixteen system, and impact at that quick speed proved devastating as the CGUE wobbled and then exploded.
The freighter on the ground reported in, as Shinn heard Mwu's voice over the comm.. "Mission accomplished, Rogue Leader."
"I heard that Control. Rogues, regroup for egress. Flight leaders check for your flights."
"Control to Rogue Leader, I have twelve friendly mobile suits and two enemy CGUEs on recovery vectors and two deployed shuttles on pilot recovery missions."
"Let's head home, people," he heard Andy's voice over the comm. as the Alliance task force departed into hyperspace.
When the squadron had returned to the December Nineteen system base, the squadron was ordered to a debriefing session. The pilots took their seats in the small briefing theatre, and Commander Waltfeld took his position at the lectern, he began to speak, "Congratulations, we made it through the first official live-fire mission without a hitch, and our operatives are all safe. Good job, Two Flight in keeping the enemy off our carrier until we could get there. The tech crew should be finalising repairs to the units right about now. Dismissed."
With that, Commander Waltfeld saluted and the pilots saluted back and he strode out of the room, followed by Captain La Fllaga. The other pilots then left and went to the pilot's lounge.
Once in the pilots lounge, they mingled with the other pilots from the base and Shinn fell into conversation with one of the pilots of the Blast Astrays. "You guys did a good job out there today," the pilot said.
"Thanks," Shinn replied, smiling. "But you guys did well too, taking down those Babis and protecting the freighter picking up our people and slagging the enemy ground troops. Besides, it is just our job. That doesn't of course; diminish my pleasure in burning Imps."
"Yeah, I know, Emperor Raww was one hell of a tyrant, I hated the fact that he destroyed innocent planets like Heliopolis," the pilot said.
"Well, he's dead, though the people in his place are almost just as bad, though not quite as insane, they would probably do ridiculous things like repeat Heliopolis just to stay in power," Shinn answered.
"You're right, and that's why we have to fight, to prevent the innocent's from getting hurt, because somewhere out there, someone will be thanking us for every Imp we take out," the pilot said. That's sort of how I feel, that every Imp I take out, some person out there won't have to go through what I did. "You want a drink?" the pilot asked, as the bartender came up to them.
"I'll have a synthjuice thanks," Shinn replied, as the pilot ordered some ale for himself. "You don't drink?" he asked.
"Nah, I don't, too young for it, I'm only sixteen," Shinn replied, as the bartender laid out the glass of synthjuice in front of him.
"You're only sixteen? Oh sorry, then, perhaps when you're older then. The ale here's very good," the pilot replied.
"I'll remember that," Shinn replied, giving the pilot a rare smile. He felt much more at ease now, more than ever before since he had been orphaned and had lost his sister. Perhaps this is the place where I'll find something new, somewhere where I can move on.
"Shinn, come over here," Shinn heard Stellar call, as some of the other pilots were settled around one of the tables in the bar.
"Hey, looks like your friend's calling, I'll talk to you later," the pilot said as he finished his drink and left, waving goodbye. Shinn went over to where the others were gathered. He took his seat in between Stellar and Rey and they began to celebrate the success of their first mission.
"Hey, Shinn, who were you talking to over there before," Rey asked.
"Oh…he was one of the Blast Astray pilots, he bought me a synthjuice, we talked a little about the mission and about other things. But he had to leave," Shinn replied, "I think they're going on some escort run soon."
"Well, anyway, lets celebrate dusting those Imps and getting our people safely home," Auel said, from across the table, as they each took a drink from their cups. It wasn't much later when they saw Commander Waltfeld and Captain La Fllaga walk in, and order some ale from the bartender.
"Commander, Captain," Stellar called, waving them over, "Come over here and join us for a drink." Andy and Mwu brought their drinks over, and joined the pilots at the table, "so how is the celebration going, guys?" Andy asked, as they sat down in the chairs that they had pulled from the adjoining empty table.
"Fine," Stellar replied, "So Captain, how many kills did we get today?"
"Twenty-eight out of a possible thirty," Mwu replied, smiling, "you guys all did really great, and you got all of the Goufs too."
"I mean individually, Captain," Stellar said.
"Oh, well I don't think that I should say anything about that. Can't let you guys get too cocky," Mwu replied, wanting to put them off from inquiring further.
"Commander," all the pilots complained in unison.
"Ehh…, Mwu, perhaps you should tell them," Andy said, exasperated, "I don't want to have them whining all through the next mission briefing and then trying to count how many kills they have while they are piloting," before taking another swig of ale.
"Okay, Commander, but just because you ordered it, not because they were so effective at whining," Mwu replied, the big grin on his face highlighting the joke. The pilots were all up to their form, as they said again in unison, "Commander, the Captain is picking on us." All of them laughed at the absurdity of the scene.
When the laughter had died down a bit, Mwu spoke, "I suppose so, aright then." He told each of the pilots present the amount of kills they had in the last mission. The looks that passed through their faces mirrored their pleasure of having taken down a superior number of enemies, without any losses.
The door to the pilots lounge opened and in stepped, to everyone's surprise, Meyrin. "Hey Meyrin, come over and join us for a drink," Auel said, waving her over. Meyrin hesitated, seeing that Rogue Squadron's senior officers were there too, but decided to walk over and not let her discomfort at being surrounded by pilots show. Years ago, she had wanted to be a mobile suit pilot, but her parents had forbidden it, and she hadn't really tested out that great anyway, and she was good at her job. But that didn't stop her from envying her sister and mobile suit pilots. Auel pulled a chair from the next table for her, as she sat down next to him and Stellar.
"Hey guys," Meyrin said, "How was your mission, from what I heard, Command is very impressed. I just dropped by with some more supplies for the base."
Dearka and Yzak met each other after a very hard day training new pilots. The new squadrons which they were training were very important in the war against the Empire and the Warlords. While Dearka's girlfriend, Miriallia was occupied with Intelligence work, Yzak's girlfriend Shiho was a pilot in an active squadron on the front lines. After class, they would meet together to compare notes on the new trainees and their progress and how long before another squadron would be ready for active duty.
Today, they met inside Yzak's office. As they both took some of their coffee, Dearka remarked, "I think that our next batch of students are ready to graduate and take the advanced training and then be assigned to the front lines."
"Yes, I agree, they'll be sent to one of the safe bases, where they'll learn their advanced skills and actually be assigned their own mobile suits," Yzak replied, "I hear that our new squadrons may get the new model Murasame's."
"That would give the novices an extra edge, and hopefully increase their survivability," Dearka commented. (A/N: I will phase-shift all the Alliance mobile suits) "Not that we don't train them well enough," he hastily added as Yzak gave him a hard look.
"Don't you find it frustrating that we're here, babysitting trainees, while the others are out there on the front lines fighting. I mean, your girlfriend is probably in deep cover on some Imperial planet, while mine is in the frontline, helping in the effort to take PLANT headquarters," Yzak said, as he sipped more of his coffee.
"Uhh…well sometimes I do, but we're doing an important job too, without the next generation of pilots, we'd lose, that's how I see it, and they need to be trained well enough to survive against superior numbers. And who else out there would train the new pilots as well as us?" Dearka replied, hoping that it would put Yzak's mind at rest. "The new models seem interesting, looks like they are adapting the Impulse's and Strike's multiple weapons packs to the Murasame's and Astrays. Chief Simmons is very good at what she does, don't you think?" Dearka asked, changing the subject.
"Yes, she is, I wonder what other new surprises she has in store for the Empire. She's better than any of the weapons designers they have right now," Yzak answered. Enjoying the rest of the coffee, they returned to their own quarters to prepare the next day's lessons.
Meanwhile, back on December Nineteen, Meyrin had left with the supply ship not long after, and Rogue Squadron was back to training, and getting ready to fly the next mission. After a particularly, long exhausting training mission in the simulators in which One Flight had gone up against Two Flight in an intense melee battle, while capital ships also fired Lohengrin-class and Gottfried-class cannons at them, Shinn and Stellar found themselves alone, while the others had gone to the refreshers, or continued to practice, in Lunamaria's case.
"Shinn…" Stellar repeated trying to get Shinn's attention. Apparently his mind had wandered off somewhere, as it was somehow prone to do when he wasn't in combat.
"Oh, Stellar, yes?" Shinn replied, looking up. Indeed he had been lost in his reflections again, but this time it wasn't because of his sister or his dead parents, it was because of Stellar. He thought that she looked so beautiful. In fact, he had had a crush on her since the day they met. But he didn't know what to say to her.
"Don't you think that it's really nice that we're here, alone right now?" he heard Stellar say, his mind started to melt as he felt Stellar snuggle up closer to him, what am I going to do? Shinn put his arm around Stellar. "It's really cold, isn't it?" Stellar said, wishing Shinn would get the numerous hints that she sent him.
Shinn's mind continued to go all over the place, as Stellar snuggled up closer, he started to feel a little uncomfortable. It had been quite a while since he had gotten close to anyone since his family had died. Not that Stellar wasn't a good person or anything, it was just that he didn't want to go through having another person he cared about deeply to die. She was a casual friend and a squadron member but only that, nothing more. He couldn't bring himself to become close with people anymore because they died and left him alone. In his mind it was okay to have friends but not to have close friends, in his mind he was afraid that they would die. Of course, he would never show that to the others. Shinn unconsciously withdrew his arm from around Stellar and sat lost in his thoughts.