Chapter 6

"Now," Brandt commented to himself, "Let's see what this suit is capable of."
He closed the cockpit hatch, sealing himself within the humanoid mech.
"Control is fluid," he commented, maneuvering the suit to the launch platform.
He maneuvered the suit's feet into the launch brackets, positioning the suit on the catapult.
"Sir, I have a green light, ready to launch on your word," informed the operator, ready to launch Brandt's suit.
"Hit it," he replied, being pushed back in his seat by the force of the catapult, launching him into space.
Brandt's cruisers weren't far behind as they made their way to Side 7 colony cluster to begin their attack.
"This suit is remarkable," commented Brandt, as he tested the maneuverability, changing directions rapidly, and strafing with ease. Brandt engaged his thrusters at full power, causing the blue flame already emitted from the boosters to burst into an intense fireball behind the suit, as it only became a shooting star to the cruisers.
"What...speed..." he commented, barley able to breath under the stress of the suit's speed.
"Sir, we are losing you on the radar," informed one of the cruiser captains.
"Just continue to Side 7...that is where I'll be." he replied, disappearing from view into the vastness of space.

The maintenance crews cheered as Rush stepped onto the ground. He didn't look up as passed them.
"Alright," informed the maintenance manager, "we got work to do."
The men went to work, getting ammunition, repairing the armor of the Gundams, and replaced the Twin Dober Guns.
She stepped in front of Rush.
"I'm Rachel, Rachel Okinawa," she informed, sticking her hand out for a handshake.
"Rush, Rush McKenny," he replied, returning the shake.
"Nice to meet you, Rush," she added, warm and friendly like.
He continued forward, headed to his tent.
"What's wrong," she questioned, catching up to him.
"You know damn good and well what is wrong," he snapped, stopping and turning around to her.
"Don't blame me," she snapped back, "I picked up your signatures on radar and came to investigate, so be lucky you made it out alive!"
"Just shut the hell up and leave me alone," he yelled, storming off.
She ran up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder, spun him around, and struck him in the face with a hard right, dropping him to the ground.
"What the hell is that for?" he questioned, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth.
"You know what," she informed, "You are too proud for your own good, you want to get your revenge and win this war, but you can't stand the fact that you WILL lose men in battle, some you hold dear to you as your best friends. Once you realize that you can't save everybody, maybe you can see the whole picture."
He lifted himself to his feet, standing there, realizing what Rachel had just said.
"You read my like an open book," he commented, still wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth.
"I see that my blow has jarred your senses," she added, playfully.
"For a girl, you hit pretty hard," said Rush, playfully punching her in the arm.
"You don't have a glass jaw, either," she replied.
Rush headed for his tent, still thinking about what Rachel said and still feeling the blow she dealt him.

"Come and get it you bastards," yelled Brandt, as he rushed headlong into the USC's defensive line. Brandt used the suits ability to make weapons "appear" out of thin air, brandishing an automatic beam rifle. He opened fire on the hapless cruisers, destroying 4 of them in rapid succession. The remaining cruisers managed to deploy their mobile suits, all forming a defensive line in front of the destroyed cruisers.
"Hmm...My suit against easily 100 mass produced suits?" pondered Brandt, "should be interesting."
He fired the rifle in a machine cannon manner, destroying 10 enemy suits before the attacked him. Brandt took damage, but held the suit's arm up as he was hit with rounds. One round had went through the arm, but as soon as it did, the armor started regenerating, covering the hit up, and the suit looked as if it was never touched.
"What the hell?" thought Brandt, watching this happen.
He continued the attack, slaying numerous suits and taking out more cruisers. His battalion finally caught up to him, launching the mobile suits.
"Wait," ordered Brandt, as his battalion stopped behind his angelically-winged suit. "I am giving you the chance to surrender Side 7 to the EMF, or I will continue my attack with my battalion and destroy every single USC unit." he added, hacking into the USC radio frequency.
"Like hell," replied a voice, obviously a officer.
"Fine," stated Brandt, "All units, attack and fire at will."
The EMF suits took off in sets of 5, taking different parts of the battlefield.
"It is only a matter of time before Side 7 will belong to the EMF," commented Brandt, "Yet, my quest for a worthy adversary continues, I haven't found a pilot that is able to hold his own against me in a duel, and I can't go on knowing there is someone out there better than me until I face them," he thought, watching his men slaughter the USC suits, who are supposed to be space combat experts.

Rush woke up, early, before the sun was up. He headed for the camps showers, basically a tent with running water. He opened the flap to the tent and walked in. He dropped his shower kit, seeing Rachel, bathing.
He scrambled to pick up his kit and towel, trying to avoid looking and feeling like a pervert.
"Who's there," Rachel asked, looking in Rush's direction.
"Only me," he replied, standing up, looking away from her.
"Don't be shy," she said, "I'm taking a shower, nothing more.
"I don't want to offend you," he stated, still looking away.
"Offend me?" she said, "This is the camp's shower, regardless of gender, even though I'm the only female, but still."
"Ok, if you say so," he replied, headed for the shower stall farthest away from her and facing away.
"Use this one, I don't mind," she offered, pointing to the one next to her.
"If you insist," he said, not looking at her.
He undressed and started the water, which was always cold in the mornings.
"So," said Rush, starting a conversation, "why did you come to my position yesterday," he added, washing his hair.
"I had just finished my recon on an area not far from here," replied Rachel, lathering and washing, "and I picked up multiple mobile suit traces on my scanners, faint ones, so I checked it out."
"I see," he said, rinsing his hair out, "so why are you here now?"
"I came for you," she answered, rinsing her body, "the second part of my mission was to locate Gundam Dreadnought and the pilot."
"And?" pondered Rush, grabbing a bar of soap out of his kit.
"And bring them with me," she finished, turning off the shower, reaching for her towel.
"To where?" questioned Rush, as he begun shaving.
"Anywhere our missions take us," she replied, as she begun dressing.
"And where is the next mission?" he asked, picking up his razor.
"Here," she informed, pulling up her shorts "we are going to take out that base where those mobile suits came from and establish a definite foothold on Earth for the USC forces."
"When do we start," he questioned, applying aftershave.
"As soon as you hurry up," she replied, playfully, sliding on her vest over her black undershirt.