News of taking Hill 1138 and the surrounding valley travelled like wildfire among the Federation forces on the East Orican front. Not only had they taken the offensive but they had one without excessive casualties. Piggybacking on top of this news, and what to the troops seemed even more significant, was the defeat of Kalisha the Lioness, and the near destruction of her entire squadron.
The confidence that had been shaken with the loss of Second-Lieutenant Linker had now risen to new heights. After the 13th had returned to MOB Shambley and gotten some sleep, they all wanted to celebrate their first real victory.
The officer's club was packed as they and many other units besides, piled in with the fighter and bomber pilots who'd also had quite the successful day over that same spot of jungle. The bombers had leapt on the wounded survivors of Kalisha's squadron with a vengeance as they emerged from the valley onto the sparsely forested hill, knocking out all but three of them, and leaving those little more than shambling wrecks.
The party really got started when the 44th Armoured Battalion appeared, whose members had been piloting the Guntanks that had supported the advance. Everyone cheered, made toasts to absent friends, and bought each other drinks as they swapped stories of the battle and anecdotes.
Sahna found herself with an uncomfortable amount of attention. By now, everyone knew that she had been the one to beat Kalisha, in nothing less than a one on one duel. They asked for her to recall the battle for them, wanting to know every detail of the battle between the elite veteran and the rookie.
Callie and Marie did their best to run interference for her but even they got swept up in the celebrations, sharing drinks with the other officers and Callie even danced with some of them.
Hypori was as energetic as ever, talking fast and loud with everyone there, and spent just as much time working off that energy on the dance floor. Unfortunately, nobody seemed to realize, or care, that Hypori was technically under age, and in the spirit of the moment, Hypori found herself accepting many of the drinks offered to her by the Air Force and Army officers there. Eventually, Sahna and Dirk had to carry their unconscious teammate back to their tent.
The next day, Hypori woke screaming in agony and telling the birds she'd kill the next one that chirped, until Dirk reminded her that guns were even louder, and she buried her head in her pillow.
While the two mobile suit teams had indeed won a victory, and only two of them had been wounded, the same could not be said for the mobile suits themselves.
Second-Lieutenant Homesteader's Gundam had been blown to pieces and Lieutenant Sevret's machine was also beyond repair. Dirk's Gundam had taken such a pounding that the techs weren't sure it was really worth repairing but were confident that between it and Linker's machine, they could make at least one Gundam.
Knowing how hard their salvage and repair teams had it, the pilots of the 13th brought them snacks and drinks that evening, much to their elation. Marie warned them not to let themselves get drunk and get behind on the repairs, or else she and Marie would sing them a diddy in the morning. They parted the hangar with a brief demonstration of the powerful voices that had propelled them to stardom, leaving the techs as pale as the luna titanium they were working with.
A week passed and Team 05 was still not operational. Callie and Marie's Gundams were repaired but the three rookies were still without their rides. Dirk's was still being cobbled together, with the cockpit area and cooling system of his machine being swapped over to Linker's former machine. Hypori's machine was still lacking a head, while Sahna's Gundam (dubbed "Peg Leg" by the techs for it's propensity to break its ankles) was still suffering from wiring troubles and the interference of those who came to gawk at the triple line of gashes across its chest.
Sahna stood in front of it, unable to help but stare at those gashes herself, remembering the exact moment it had happened, the sound of rending metal, and how utterly terrified she'd been.
"A sallo for your thoughts?"
Sahna turned her head as Callie came up beside her, smiling brightly.
"Nothing in particular." She brought her gaze back to the scar. One of them had gone directly over the cockpit area, but from this angle she couldn't see how deep it was.
"Just remembering?"
She flashed green. "I don't like to but I can't stop. I know everyone expects me to be happy or proud of what I did, but I don't. I feel like almost every time I close my eyes I relieve that moment. Even though I know I come out alive, it feels like a nightmare.
"Everyone says they expect me to get a medal for taking out Kalisha, but I don't think what I did was anything medal worthy. I was just trying to survive."
Callie patted her gently on the back. "I always thought surviving a deadly encounter was something worth rewarding. Besides, it's not just that you'd be rewarded for."
Callie directed her attention towards the airfield, where a Medea transport was being loaded with an all too familiar mobile suit.
"They're taking Kalisha's ride to Black Butte. Apparently it's a brand new model nobody knew about. Being able to dissect that thing before we start seeing them in large numbers is going to help a lot, and who knows what we might learn to add to our own mobile suits in development."
"Hmmm, that's good," was all Sahna could say. It was good, she knew, but she just couldn't bring herself to feel elated.
Callie sighed. "Are you still upset with us about taking away your dream of being a fighter pilot?"
Sahna blinked and looked at her. Honestly, she hadn't thought about it in quite a while.
"What? N-no, no not really. I mean, part of me still wants to be one, probably always will. It's what Mom did, it's what I always wanted to do. I'm glad I'm here but… well, it just isn't what I planned on, that's all. I still think Mom would have wanted me to be here though."
Callie flashed green, nodding. "Marie's a military brat too. Gramps is an admiral and her mom's a senior captain in the CSF. She'll probably be a commodore soon. She fought during the initial attack on Neo Byzanium and again at Alexandria. It's a miracle she's still alive."
Callie's eyes had a far off look to them. "We were about to go on stage when news of the disaster at Alexandria happened, and the casualties the fleet was suffering." Her voice became softer. "Marie was so worried."
Sahna stared at her. "Did you go on stage?"
"Of course we did; we had a show to do." She had a nostalgic smile. "Marie's stubborn like that. Helped me to get through it too. I'm pretty close to Aunty Silvie."
Sahna blinked. "Aunty?"
Callie arched an eyebrow at her, eyes wide with surprise. "You didn't know? Marie and I are cousins."
Sahna twitched, mentally recoiling a little. She didn't remember Chaser mentioning that in the many ramblings about his favourite dream demons, or maybe she'd just forgotten.
Recomposing herself and trying not to draw attention to her ignorance, she got back to the main topic.
"I couldn't do that," she said. "When I found out Mom died, all I could do was cry and try to pretend it was a bad dream, and I would wake up and she'd come home and tell me all about her mission and the adventures she had hunting pirates."
A moment of silence stretched between them and Sahna found herself thinking back, not to the day her mother died, but to all the times she had come home from her dangerous missions. Right up until the last time, Sahna had never had any doubt that she would come home.
"How did she die?"
"Fighting pirates. All I know is that she was part of the 33rd Squadron, assigned to the Starbolt. The condolence letter was signed by the commander of the 33rd and the Starbolt's captain."
She sighed deeply, letting out all the emotions welling up inside her before they made her look foolish in front of her superior, but she felt a little better. "I feel bad for the Colonel, having to write a letter to Linker's family."
Callie's mantle turned green. "Let's try not to make him write any more then." She patted Sahna on the shoulder and walked away.
Sahna's gaze followed her for a moment, wondering why she'd found it so easy to open up to her. Maybe they were just comfortable with each other now after so many life and death battles. There was trust there.
Her attention was drawn back towards her mobile suit as Sergeant Buckler approached her, wiping his dirty hands on a rag that looked even dirtier.
"Problems, Sergeant?"
"Wiring seems to be holding up now, Ma'am. Afraid you'll just have to accept the scars though. Short of replacing all the damaged sections, which aren't all that bad otherwise, there's nothing we can really do to repair it with what we've got here."
Sahna mouth twisted to the side. "The disadvantage of luna titanium, I suppose."
"Pretty much. It's tough stuff but that also makes it hard to work with. If it were regular armour we could patch it or even fill it in but not this stuff, not with what we've got to work with out here."
She tapped her leg and then pulsed grey. "Well, ideally one should avoid getting hit to begin with. As long as I don't run into another Lioness, I'll be fine. Actually, I kind of like the scars, in a way."
Buckler smirked. "It'll sure let everyone know who you are. 'Course, that might be the same with the enemy too."
"They're gunning for us anyway. We're all marked."
"Fair enough. That just leaves me with one more headache, literally."
"Oh?"
"Ensign Swiftcurrent's mobile suit is basically fixed – Deliverers, it was the least damaged of all the 'suits after that fight. Problem is, we haven't been able to find her a head."
Sahna frowned. "Not even from Team One's salvage?"
"Nope. I mean, we could probably cobble something together from Hillrunner's and whatever's left of the salvaged bits of head we've got, but we'd basically be assembling the damn thing from scratch, and that could take weeks. I have a feeling the Colonel won't want to wait that long."
Sahna brought her hand up to her chin, thinking. "Could we get a new head shipped in from Black Butte? Even if we don't have any Gundam heads could we adapt the ones from the RX-77s?"
"Thought of that, but no. There were whispers there before we left that the Marines wanted to build a unit around a Ground-type version of the Guncannon using spares just like they did with the Gundams, since that way they could get a unit up and running sooner."
"Which means there aren't any spare heads from them either."
"Nope."
Sahna put her hands on her hips and looked around, trying to cobble together some idea. It wasn't her area of expertise but unless they came up with something, Hypori would either have to stay behind, leaving Team 05 one short, or go into battle headless, which was very ill advised.
Her eyes settled on the large piles of salvaged spares tossed at the edge of the airfield, and something caught her eye.
"Wait, it's not just our parts over there, is it?"
Buckler turned to where she was looking. "No, there's parts for the Guntanks over there too, but they don't even have heads, not really."
"And there are Zaku parts there too?"
He clicked his tongue, his mantle turning maroon with irritation. "Yeah, they like to ship 'em out to Black Butte and other labs. There are still standing orders to salvage as many mobile suit parts from the enemy as reasonably possible."
Sahna met his gaze. "Sergent, I know a mere pilot can't appreciate the true difficulties of your job, and I may be suggesting something stupid here, but I might have an idea."
Two days later, Sahna found herself in the hangar looking up at the result of her suggestion that day, with Hypori's bright-yellow eyes burning into the side of her head.
"This was you're idea? Sahna, when I said you needed to develop a sense of humour, this isn't what I meant!"
Sahna was doing her best not to laugh, but she couldn't wipe the stupid smile off her face. On her left, Dirk was having slightly more success.
He said, "techs worked hard. Ungrateful. Headless otherwise."
Sahna flashed green. "Absolutely ungrateful."
"Ungrateful," the techs chorused.
Hypori shot the techs a glare then pointed to the top of her mobile suit. "Is this your idea of a prank?"
Atop the Gundam's shoulders, just now being painted white to try and match the bare metal of the rest of the machine, was the cyclopean head of a Zaku II.
"No joke, Ma'am," Buckler said, doing better than the rest of them at hiding his amusement. "You needed a head quick and this one was available. Maybe try harder not to lose yours next time."
That probably counted as an insubordinate remark, but Hypori wasn't the kind to pull rank on a little teasing.
"Is this thing even gonna' work?"
"It wasn't easy," Buckler admitted. "Had to fit the joints from one of our spares to the one on the Zaku, but they use the same connector standards as us, funny enough. Software was the big issue, but we have a few guys here who worked on the Zakus back at Black Butte, and we even called in there for a little tech support. They actually thought it was a great idea."
"They don't have to look at it, and they don't have to worry about being shot by our own side either. Most troops don't know the difference between a Gundam and a Zaku to begin with. They see one eye and they freak out!"
"That's why we're painting it to match the rest. Don't worry, Ma'am, everything'll work out just fine once you take it out for a few test runs and help us work out the kinks."
Hypori made a sour face, her mantle turning a putrid green, then she glared at Sahna again. "I'll remember this."
"It's not a practical joke."
"Really? Even though I was somehow the last person to hear about what was being attached to my mobile suit?"
Sahna grinned more broadly. That she just might have had something to do with.
The PA system went off, calling all members of the 13th to Colonel Argent's office.
"Discussion over," Dirk said, still smirking and began walking out of the hangar, Sahna close behind.
Hypori let out a feral growl and followed. "I will have my revenge!" She declared loudly. Sahna just giggled to herself. She couldn't remember the last time she had giggled. It seemed childish but it felt good.
The pilots of the 13th Autonomous Corps once again gathered under the shade of the camouflage netting around Colonel Argent's office. Everyone was in a good mood, engaging in spirited banter as they waited for everyone to show up. The only one who wasn't laughing, besides Hypori, was Colonel Argent.
The Army Colonel smiled and did seem genuinely happy, but there was a seriousness in his eyes that Sahna had learned to identify. If anyone else noticed they didn't let it affect their own mood.
Upon their arrival, Colonel Argent called for quiet and held his swagger stick in both hands.
"I'm sure you've noticed that we haven't been sending any of you out for the past week. Well, that's because we've been trying to avoid any unfortunate breakdowns for a special operation we have planned.
"This operation has been in the works almost since we arrived and Command learned what we were capable of. We were still pretty apprehensive about it but in light of our recent victory we've decided to press ahead."
He lightly smacked the map board with his stick and traced the tip down a series of ridges and valleys meandering out to the Horchrest Lakes then out to sea. "At 04:30 hours, each of you – yes, all of you, will be taking a Gunperry transport from here through these valleys and out to sea. Here, you'll meet up with a fighter escort launched by some of our navy carriers in the area, who will escort you the rest of the way to your target."
Sahna blinked in surprise. They'd never worked with the Navy before. She didn't even know they had navy assets in East Orica anymore.
But, I guess mobile suits can't swim.
The Colonel traced the end of his stick along another series of ridges and valleys until they reached a large circle marked "Supporo".
"Your target is the enemy's main base in the area, one of our own former bases just south of the town of Supporo. It has a military harbour, airstrip, spaceport facilities, and just about any other logistics asset an army needs to sustain itself. Your task will be to wreck as much of it as possible, with an emphasis on air defence infrastructure and anything related to the spaceport."
He slid the map board aside, revealing another of the Supporo base with different sections of it marked with objectives and other notations.
He pointed to a deep ravine that ended near the south-western end of the airfield. "At about 06:00, this is where you'll be dropped off. The Air Force has assured us that they can get you to this point almost undetected. A lot of them used to operate out of Supporo so they know their stuff. At most, the enemy should have five minutes warning before you actually land. Once you do, you'll proceed with the first objective, to knock out all enemy air defence assets on and around the airfield."
"Fifteen minutes later, the Air Force will send in its first strike to attack miscellaneous facilities near the centre of the base. They will also help to try and knock out further air defence sites in order to clear the way for their second wave of attacks, which will include a number of our Depp Rogg heavy bombers to crater the runways and knock them out of action.
"By this time the defenders, will probably be engaging you with everything they have. Though, hopefully, if we've managed to get the element of surprise, they will be coming at you in a piecemeal fashion and not fully equipped. Obviously, we're not expecting you to hold out against the whole base, but our hope is that you can buy time for the Air Force to do some damage, and take out a large number of their mobile suits and other vehicles before you have to retreat, which you will be doing on the same Gunperry's you came in on, so bear that in mind."
He pointed to the port on the east side of the base. "If you can manage it, try to damage these port facilities. Most of their supplies and equipment come in by ship and anything we can do to disrupt that will make their logistics that much more of a headache.
"The Gunperry's have been specially geared for this mission so you'll be going in fully loaded. I want you to go through our arsenal, use everything we have available to do maximum damage. We've bruised the enemy's ego, now we need to give them a bloody nose. Make it as bloody as possible.
He looked at Major Crusher. "Major, I'll leave it to you to delegate tasks. This will be the first time we'll be operating as a full squadron, or company, or whatever they end up calling it. They've never faced more than ten of us at once. Let's show them what happens when they run into twenty-two of us."
At 03:00 the mobile suits of the 13th Autonomous Corps began attaching themselves to the Gunperry VTOL transports. Their cavernous cargo containers had been removed, making the large aircraft look skeletal and fragile. They were replaced with a heavy lift rig, a flexible apparatus of hydraulic claws that would grasp either lifting tethers or, in the case of their Gundams, the handles mounted to their shoulders and equipment pack.
One by one, the mobile suits carefully manoeuvred themselves under the Gunperrys and grapple their shoulders and the handle on their heavily laden backpacks before they were gently lifted up off the ground. The process went surprisingly smoothly, which boded well for their extraction, something they absolutely did not want to take any longer than necessary.
"All good, Lieutenant?" The loadmaster asked.
"All good."
"We'll be careful not to drop you."
"I would appreciate that."
At precisely 04:30 hours, the air around the airfield was filled with the deafening howl of twenty-two screaming Gunperrys, as their fans worked hard to lift their heavy loads into the sky one by one. In less than ten minutes, the small aerial armada was underway.
Sahna fought the vertigo she felt as they flew low through small valleys and behind ridges, all in an effort to remain undetected as they flew south towards the ocean. Seeing the ground fly past her so quickly while still looking through the viewscreens of her mobile suit was disorienting.
In order to further reduce their chances of being detected and maximize the capabilities of the Gunperrys, the Gundams rode with their reactors turned off. Their internal batteries were all they had working. If they somehow broke free of their transports, they would hit the ground before their reactors were sufficiently running to use their boosters.
The Gunperrys increased their altitude as they reached the ocean. An escort of navy Tin Cods joined them. Later, the Gunperrys changed their formation and met up with a small fleet of Medea aerial tankers which refuelled the hardworking VTOLs before they continued on their journey, their first group of navy escorts trading with the group that would follow them to their target.
The sun began to peek over the horizon as the armada entered the series of ridges, valleys, and ravines that would take them to their target. When Sahna saw the escort fighters surge ahead of them, she knew they were close.
The ravine they were to drop in was just barely wide enough for the Gunperry's to land, and while the ground was relatively flat, in the middle, Sahna's own VTOL piloting experience told her that landing on such ground in something as big as a Gunperry was less than ideal.
"This isn't like they told us at all!" The pilot complained. "We're going to have to land closer to the mouth if we all want to land like we planned."
"Do what you have to," Sahna said as she brought her Gundam up to full power. "We'll just have to make sure we do a good job of not letting anything get close to you."
"You do that."
The transport slowed to a stop in mid-air and slowly descended. At just a few metres above the ground, the hooks released and she dropped with a heavy thud. The combined weight of her Gundam and its full pack gone, the Gunperry rose and Sahna quickly moved to the side, advancing to the mouth of the ravine where it opened out towards the airfield.
Team 01 was in the lead and the rest of the 13th began to adopt a cohesive formation as they emerged into the open and began a slow jog towards the airfield.
"Maybe we should have Team Five go first," Captain Duskwalker, leader of Team 04 suggested. "Their cyclops might make the enemy hesitate enough for us to take advantage."
"Sir, I second that!" Hypori said firmly. "If I have to wear this stupid zeke head then I deserve first dibs on the enemy."
"It's a first come first serve affair, Ensign," Major Crusher chuckled. "And every team has its assignments. Now, let's move, Thirteenth. Let's give the Collies a taste of what it's like to have mobile suits drop from the sky on their bases."
Author's Notes:
Nice to see Sahna opening up isn't it? There's been a lot of tension up to this point, and now finally everyone gets to release it, even if only for a little while. Of course, in the military, no success goes unpunished, so they're being sent to kick the hornet's nest and see if they can survive getting stung. Well, they knew they were going to be given the "fun" jobs, we'll have to wait until next week to see how they do.
What do you think of Hypori's Gundam having a Zaku's head? You like the nickname the techs have given Sahna's machine? Let me know and thanks for reading.