Eastern Raid
A Mobile Suit Gundam Side-Story
Produced by Ninja-Pirate Studios
Written by GM Ace
Chapter 4: SNAFU
Fore River Base
December 24th, UC 0079
2347 hours local time
"Thank God for Fanfans!" thought Brian as he practically had his suit scampering away from the Zaku who had almost been his killer. "When I get back to the ship I'll buy 'em all a drink, screw regulations!" Brian figured that if he could make it to the water he could ambush the Zaku from there or just make an escape if necessary. Escaping would technically leave the job unfinished, but one Zaku with no supplies short of Logan wouldn't be much of a threat, now would it?
However, it seemed the Zaku had a thing or two to say about being a non-threat. Alarms screamed in the Acguy's cockpit and Brian turned the machine around to find his monitor quickly filling up with a flying, raging Zaku. With a shout Brian brought up the Acguy's arms to try to block the shoulder bash the Zeke was attempting. The Old Zaku didn't have shoulder spikes, which was a blessing, but the speed at which the MS hit shoved the Acguy backwards, the MSM's feet digging trenches into the ground as it dug in. If he hadn't taken a defensive position Brian would have found himself on the ground again, this time with no help. Still, he had to act fast as the Zaku finally touched down after basically bouncing off the Acguy's arms, and whipped its heat hawk around to bisect the MSM.
Deploying his claws again Brian reacted instinctively and went on the defensive, actually catching the attacking Zaku's arm. For a second the two suit's struggled over the arm in question before Brain tried to take the initiative. He swung his suit's other arm right at the enemy's cockpit, trying hard to hold the Zaku in place. Since the arm had no claws it would be more of a club and probably wouldn't kill the pilot. But it might knock him out and would most likely smash monitors and controls in the cockpit, putting the suit out of action. And it should have worked . . . if the Zaku didn't catch the end of the Acguy's arm in the palm of it's hand.
"What?" Brain yelled as he pulled the arm back and swung at a different angle, only to have the same thing happen. "Who the hell is this guy?"
Mark felt sweat running down his forehead as the Acguy took swing after swing at him, and he blocked every one almost before it started. He wasn't even thinking about it, just moving on instinct. He knew that he should have been beaten by now; he had talent, he knew that from training, but raw talent shouldn't be able to keep him in this fight by itself. Whatever, he wasn't going to overlook the fact that his opponent must be a terrible pilot. But he needed to find an opening . . . there!
Instead of catching the next punch Mark practically slapped it to the side, sparks flying as it grazed his suit's arm. In a smooth motion more reminiscent of human martial arts than standard mobile suit combat, the Zaku folded its hand into a fist just as it knocked the attack aside and drove the fist into the Acguy's head. The rogue MSM stumbled back from the blow, finally losing its grip in the Zaku's heat hawk-wielding arm. Without losing a moment Mark swung the heat hawk at the Acguy, which barely managed to step back in time to avoid destruction. Still, sparks flew as the heat hawk grazed the suit's torso and left a black scorch mark just above the cockpit. Screaming with the strength of an adrenaline rush, Mark charged towards his now on-the-defensive opponent
"How is this possible?" yelled Brian to his suit as the Zaku rushed him, swinging the heat heat hawk and aiming punches like a madman. He'd had that Zeke, he knew it! He'd had the spacenoid bastard dead-to-rights! Brian was willing to admit he was not the best of pilots, but nobody should've been able to block all those attacks and turn the tables so quickly! Brian was forced to stumble backwards again and again, doing his best to block the Zaku's bloodthirsty assault. Several times the Zaku managed to slip a punch in, but thankfully they didn't cause much damage and the heat hawk wasn't connecting. Brian was grateful that his monoeye wasn't damaged, despite the fact that he was pretty sure the glass covering it had shattered from that first punch. Caught up in the desperate fight and trying to find a way to strike back, he didn't notice the arrival of the 75E Hovertanks zipping over the water underneath the bridge.
Terry checked his body armor one last time and then hit a button, starting the barrel to rotate so he could fire at the slightest pressure on the trigger.
"Okay lads and lasses," he said over the unit frequency, "let's do this thing. Time for us to go into Hell; just make sure you fly out of it, alright? Shoot fast and straight, give the Fanfans cover as they run for it, and then book it for the fleet. Let's rock!"
The three Hovertanks shot underneath the bridge to see why the sky was tinged with orange: most of the base was on fire, either from the Acguy shredding it from within or from the 1st Airborne letting loose. Terry could see the Acguy getting wailed on by an Old Zaku, but there was no point getting involved in that fight, he and Omega 7 and 5 would most likely just get stepped on trying to help. He gave Dewar the proper orders, and Omega 3 turned toward the shore and went up on the land with the other two units following it. As the Hovertank entered the base Terry hunkered down behind his gun, and none too soon. A lone Zeon soldier clutching a submachine gun but without any jacket or shirt, rushed out from behind a building apparently focused on running away from the MS battle. He skidded to a stop as he caught sight of the Hovertank, his brain taking a second to recognize the vehicle as Federation, and started to raise his gun. Terry never gave him a chance. The gunner just barely squeezed the trigger to send three rounds from his weapon. The Zeke's torso just . . . exploded. That was that. One second a living, breathing person and the next a pile of flesh that hit the ground half a second before the Hovertank goes over him. But Terry didn't have time to dwell on it; he barely had a few seconds before the Hovertank hit real resistance.
Suddenly, Zekes were everywhere. Some had weapons, some didn't. Some were running towards the MS battle, some were running away. They were all targets. Terry opened up, cutting down a group of rocket wielders on their way to helping the Zaku. As he turned his gun to hit a machine gun nest someone had dutifully occupied, he could hear Kessler, Gahan, and Penarubia tearing into the base on their own terms. He half-flinched as an enemy bullet pinged off of the tank maybe ten centimeters from him but merely turned his gun and used it like a hose to wash away the base defenders. Suddenly, the Fanfans were overhead so close he felt like he could touch them as they made a run for open ocean and safety. Chasing after one of them were two armored cars, the machines guns on top filling the sky with gunfire trying to shoot down the Federal pilots. Quickly, Terry turned and fired on the one in the rear. The car may have been armored, but not against the bullets the twenty mike-mike brought to the table. The armor buckled as the bullets punched through and ripped apart the inhabitants. The driver took a hit and the car swerved out of control, quickly rolling over and slamming into a building, black smoke coming from under the hood. Terry was about to turn his aim to the next car when Kempe burst out of hatch with a rocket launcher on his shoulder. He took less than a moment to aim and then fired, scoring a dead hit. The anti-tank weapon would have punched through a Magella Attack or Type 61 the long way; what it did to the thin-skinned armored car was more akin to popping a balloon than destroying a vehicle.
"And you gunners think the communications tech never does anything useful!" yelled Kempe to Terry before jumping back down the hatch. Terry just smirked and turned back to his work, noting that in his moment of distraction as Kempe's rocket went by his head that Dewar had seen fit to run over a few people, the last of them bouncing off the tank's front just as Terry turned around. The gunner just pulled the trigger again, this time taking out a man with a grenade launcher before the Zeke could trash the Hovertank.
While Terry and the other crewmembers of Omega Three took out the armored cars, Omega Five and Seven had each gone off on their own separate path as per the plan so as to spread out the destruction the Angel's could cause. The gunners of Seven were joking with each other as they ripped through a section of the base near the mess hall.
"God, it's like shooting fish in a barrel, isn't it fellas?" yelled the twenty mike-mike gunner.
"No problema, man. These asnos(1) couldn't hit the side of a colony!" yelled back the rear gunner as he drilled an already wounded Zeke through the chest.
"Hell yeah, you got that – holy shit!" The runner gunner turned around to see a Zeke land on the tank after jumping off a roof. The spacenoid's knees almost buckled, but he came up in a crouch, and the gunner saw the glint of a knife.
Back in Omega 3, Kempe bent over his equipment, pressing his headphones into his head as he yelled for the guy on the other side of the line to repeat his message. Again, the voice cut through the static:
"I repeat, this is Alpha-Red-Seven-Zero-Nine to Seventy-Five-Omega-Three, authentication code Four-Two-One-Three-Seven, 'Remember the Nereid', over!"(2) Kempe's mind raced until he realized that Alpha-Red was the callsign for the SpecOps team sent to steal the Acguy.
"Code accepted Alpha-Red, what is your situation, over?"
"I've got a man wounded here, Omega 3, and it's too dangerous to move him anymore. We're hunkered down near the bridge, we even saw you arrive, and we need immediate evac!"
"We're on our way Alpha-Red, just hold on a little longer! Omega Three, out."
Kempe yanked his headphones off and yelled at Dewar to bring them back around for the bridge. Terry, of course, noticed the change in course and screamed for an explanation, and Kempe gave it to him.
"Damn. Dewar, do as Kempe said. Kempe, get on the line to Five and Seven and tell them to pull out. See if you can't get to that Acguy too, 'cause he's gonna be as naked as the day he was born once we're gone," Terry ordered with a grim look.
"Yes sir," replied Kempe, putting his headphones back on, praying that no Minovsky particles were out and about yet. Laser communications might not work with all the wreckage around them. "SNAFU, huh sir?"
"Yeah, I guess so," yelled Terry with a dry smile, turning back to his gun. But the second he did he came almost face-to-warhead with an anti-tank rocket. He didn't even have time to curse as Dewar yanked on the controls and practically hurled the tank almost ninety degrees to dodge the rocket. It went by so close Terry made a note to check for a skid mark on the tank later. The gunner sent a few bullets back the way the rocket had come before he heard Dewar yelling at everybody to get down. Confused, Terry turned his head from where he was aiming to see where Dewar's abrupt course change had them headed. This time he had time to swear, but since he tried to say about ten different curse words at once he just screamed incoherently as he ducked into the tank moments before it crashed straight though a wooden barracks building. Gasping for breath, he stared wide-eyed at his other gunners, who were gasping for breath as well and just as wide-eyed as he was. The coup de grace was when a pillow – a God-forsaken, full o' feathers pillow – fell through Terry's gunnery hatch and landed next to him, in perfect condition minus a tear or two. The gunners just stared at it, Kempe was trying not to laugh as he ordered Five and Seven to evac, and even in the darkness Terry could see Dewar turn beet red at embarrassment over his mistake. Kessler just shook her head.
"This shit's just too weird for me guys," she muttered, Gahan turning to stare at her in surprise at the rare curse. "I should've been a clerk or a cook or something."
"No kidding," whispered Penarubia.
"No such luck, guys" said Terry with a chuckle, just as the tank punched through the other wall of the barracks and came out into the open. "Alright lads and lass, up and at 'em!" The gunners scrambled back to their posts to find their tank wearing what seemed half of the building on top. Terry pulled a bed sheet off the twenty mike-mike and started firing again as more enemy bullets pinged off his vehicle, yelling to his crew.
"Yup, definitely SNAFU: Situation Normal: All Fucked Up!"
A/N
Well, that took quite a while to do, didn't it? Still, I hope it was worth the wait. A few items of importance:
(1)Castilian Spanish for 'donkeys'
(2) The Nereid, of course, was the Magellan-class ship that faced down the entire Zeon fleet to allow the surviving Federal ships to escape the slaughter at the Battle of Loum. Commodore Rodney Cunningham sacrificed his life, his ship, and the lives of its crew to save the survivors, believing that it is what the then-MIA General Revil would have done. The ship fought from 4:55 AM to 5:14 AM before finally succumbing to eight particle beam hits and four anti-ship missiles.