Asteroid belt, August 3rd, Cosmic Era 85.

Knight-Ensign Roland Beckett tightened his grip around the controls of his Vindicator as he and his two fellow knights scouted the route far ahead of the Valiant, a Squire class Mobile Suit transport ship. Though capable of defending themselves if necessary, the Squire class ships were not designed for a direct fight. That's what the Solar Knights it carried were for. Standard operational procedure was for the ship to transport the Mobile Suits to and from the battlefield, occasionally supporting them with long range VTP missile fire.

Sadly, this was one of those cases where standard procedures did not apply. Mainly because the terrorist group, known as the Retributors, could not be bothered to set up nice and clearly defined borders where a battlefield was or was not. As a result, the entire asteroid belt was considered an area where one could come under attack at any moment. To make matters worse, their mission was to deliver reinforcements and supplies to the Solar Knight task force within the asteroid belt, so it wasn't like the Valiant could sit this one out. Sure, the Valiant was escorted by an Armstrong class frigate, the Suvorov, but there were limits to what a single escort ship could do within the narrow confines of the asteroid belt.

"Can someone check the time again? Maybe they're just late?" Rebecca, one of Roland's squadmates, whispered across the comms. It was silly of her to whisper, it wasn't like the enemy could hear them. However, considering how tense the situation was, nobody felt like poking fun at her. Nobody also bothered to answer her. Everyone, Rebecca included, knew that the unit that was supposed to meet them was late. Something had happened. Something bad.

"I bet there's going to be a fight. Any moment and we'll have a bunch of Retributors shooting at us from every direction."

"Not helping, Azhar. Not helping at all." Rebecca replied tensely as she kept switching from her sensor screens to her main camera display and back. "You're the one to talk though. You're at the front of the formation, they will shoot you first."

Azhar chuckled at her words. "Nope. At the start of an ambush, you never shoot at the guy in front. You go for the one in the back, or in the middle of the formation. Never the guy in front. So it's either you or Roland who will receive the first shot. I'm safe."

"Hey, wanna… agh!"

"Enough. Cut the chatter. You three are the advance guard. Look for the enemy and watch out for any ambushes. No unnecessary conversations!" Rebecca's offer turned into a scream when Knight-Captain Brock's voice broke into the conversation. A moment later his Vindicator emerged from behind a nearby asteroid and took position above and slightly in front of the group. "Also, don't stick so close together. I want to see plenty of dark void between Mobile Suits. A tight group is a juicy opportunity. One Mobile Suit is a waste of long range fire."

Roland sheepishly obeyed the order and took the leftmost position of the formation, feeling more and more vulnerable as they spread further out. He took several deep breaths, trying to suppress the jitters. There was that old saying that waiting for the battle was much worse than the actual battle itself. He was certain the saying was true. While Roland had never been in an actual battle, he could hardly imagine feeling worse than he already was.

Brock observed the rookie pilots follow his orders and gave a semi-approving nod. There was still plenty of work to do before he considered these three proper Solar Knights, but they were working on it. "Good. Now make sure to keep an eye on each other's backs as well, not just your part of the formation." He took the upmost position of the formation and urged them forward. There were other squads he had to look after, but he couldn't be everywhere at once. Therefore he and his Knight-Lieutenant kept rotating between the trios. As it soon turned out, the decision to join the advance guard had been the right one. Approximately three minutes later, the sensors of all four Mobile Suits started blaring alarms as they picked up a swarm of hostile signals heading towards them at high speed.

"Contact! Eleven o'clock, low! VTP's!" Roland called out the warning and immediately opened fire. Crimson blasts filled the space as Roland, Rebecca and Brock fired their supercharged beam rifles. Azhar joined in with blasts from his accelerated impulse cannon. Together they managed to take out noticeable numbers of the missile swarm, which consisted of not just VTP's, but a large number of regular long range missiles as well.

A fair amount of VTP's remained, however, weaving around the incoming fire as the missile AI began evasive maneuvers. As they got closer, the weight of interdiction fire increased dramatically as each Vindicator added a pair of 45mm LAW's to the mix. The AI on a VTP missile was fairly advanced, but when faced with firepower of such volume, it had its limits. Explosions filled the space as missile after missile was destroyed.

With only a small number of missiles left, Roland breathed up in relief. They had weathered the first attack without any damage. However, his relief was short lived, when Rebecca's shout alerted him to additional enemies. This time it was a group of Mobile Suits, approaching them from behind, weapons blasting. Though two Strike Cavaliers and a single Garou should not have been much of a problem, the element of surprise had the Solar Knights at a disadvantage. The surprise did not last long and the Retributors were forced to take evasive maneuvers or take cover behind asteroids as Roland, Azhar and Rebecca opened fire at them.

"Don't forget about..." Brock had no time to finish the sentence as the Garou and one of the Cavaliers opened fire at him. A mixture of beam blasts, railgun rounds, and hyper impulse shots forced him to focus on the defensive. The remaining Cavalier used its arsenal to suppress the three remaining Vindicators.

The pair of railgun rounds that were sent Roland's way were easily blocked by the tower shield. He was about to start maneuvering for an advantageous position, when the proximity alarm of his Vindicator warned him of incoming danger. The missiles! He turned around just in time to see a pair of VTP missiles almost on top of him. One missile was taken out by a combination of beam CIWS and LAWs. He nearly got the second one with the rifle, but the missile dodged the shot at the last moment. With no time to intercept the missile, Roland brought up the shield and prayed that it would be enough. It was. Barely.

A powerful explosion rocked the Vindicator, sending it hurtling through space for a fair distance before Roland managed to regain control of the machine. A quick glance at the damage report revealed that the explosion had temporarily overloaded the citadel shield, leaving him with just the physical, phase shift armored shield. He had gotten off lightly. A momentary vulnerability was nothing compared to how much damage the missile could have caused. It might have even killed him. That's what he got for being easily distracted and dismissing one threat just because another one presented itself.

With that lesson in mind, Roland gunned the thrusters and rushed back into battle. He was glad to see that everyone was still alive and well. Okay, maybe not well, since Azhar's Vindicator was missing the right arm and the right leg, a courtesy of a VTP missile he had failed to notice until it had been too late. Despite the damage, Azhar was still in the fight, using the twin LAWs to engage one of the Cavaliers as they chased each other around and between a pair of asteroids.

Rebecca was faring a lot better. Her Vindicator undamaged and she was aggressively pursuing the second Cavalier. Even though the Cavalier's impulse cannon could cause a lot of damage to a Vindicator, the weapon had a low rate of fire and the Cavalier itself lacked maneuverability to take a proper aim. The gatling cannon and railgun were better suited for the task of engaging a mobile opponent. Fortunately, the phase shift armor on Rebecca's Mobile Suit easily dealt with any shots that got past through her defenses. As a result, the Retributor was slowly being pushed back, deeper into the asteroid belt.

Sparing a quick glance at Brock, who was busy dueling with the Garou, Roland made his decision and went to Azhar's aid. "Hold on. I am on my way." He informed his friend. There was no response. Probably because Azhar had plenty of things to deal with. Piloting a damaged Mobile Suit while trying to evade incoming fire at the same time was not a simple task.

Roland snapped off a few shots in the Cavalier's general direction, hoping to draw its attention. It worked. The Cavalier paused briefly and launched a missile salvo at Roland. Azhar used the opportunity to get further away from the Cavalier and took cover behind an outcropping of a nearby asteroid. The missiles managed to cover a short distance before a hail of gunfire blasted them apart. Roland was not taking any more chances with missiles. He continued his advance, charging the enemy and firing the beam rifle as he did so.

The Cavalier took the beam blasts on its citadel shield and returned fire with the impulse cannon, forcing Roland into a clumsy dodge when he remembered, that the citadel shield emitter on his tower shield was still offline. This left him in a disadvantageous position and the Cavalier managed to land a burst of 120mm shells, hitting the Vindicator's chest and right shoulder. Fortunately, the phase shift armor held and Roland was able to raise his shield, just in time to deflect a railgun slug.

Further attacks from the Cavalier were cut short, when a long burst of small caliber linear shells sawed the Mobile Suit in half. The top half of the machine exploded when the compromised batteries detonated, sending the bottom half spiraling through space. Azhar had used the opportunity provided by Roland to not just retreat to safety, but also engage the enemy once it had focused on Roland. "Yes! I did it! I got him! I got him!" Azhar celebrated his first kill. His Vindicator left the firing spot on the asteroid and made its way towards Roland. "Thanks for the help. I don't think I would have lasted much longer by myself."

"No problem. Good to see you're okay. More or less." Roland replied while focusing on his Mobile Suit's status screen. He was glad to see that the citadel shield was back online. Though on a closer inspection, it seemed that the system was slightly damaged and was not working at full power. Against standard caliber weapons, the shield would be fine. It was the heavy weapons he had to watch out for. A couple of hard hits could collapse the energy shield.

Azhar's Vindicator came to a halt next to his and both pilots observed the damage. Both the arm and the leg on the right side were gone. The arm had only a small shoulder stump left, while the leg was gone just below the knee. "Yeah, this sucks. I'm more frustrated by the fact I lost the cannon. Now I'm left with secondary weapons. As for the leg, that's not much of a problem, since we're in space. Though I am not as maneuverable as before. What about you?"

"I'm fine. Took a VTP to the shield. It knocked out the citadel shield, but it was only temporary. Should be fine for the rest of the battle." Roland trailed off as he and Azhar realized that the battle was not over yet, their comrades were still in the fight. They both looked around but couldn't see anything due to asteroids obstructing their view. "Where is Rebecca? Where's the captain?"

"Last time I saw Rebecca, she was chasing after that Cavalier and Brock was busy with a Garou." Azhar checked the sensors. Some of the asteroids contained various metal ores and their presence interfered with long range scans. "I can't see anything on the sensors, other than their general direction. They are still active, but that is all the information I can get."

Roland tried to contact them, but all he got was static on all but the most short range channels. "I can't contact them. All I get is static. I think we're being jammed." A cold realization set in when he realized what it meant. There was someone or something nearby capable of jamming quantum communication. Though such technology existed, it was not so widespread that it could be used in a minor skirmish. "Something has gone very, very wrong."

"No shit. First the rendezvous team fails to show up and then we get ambushed. We have to get back to the Valiant. It might be under attack."

"What about Rebecca and Brock? We can't abandon them." Roland tried to contact the two Solar Knights again, but there was no response. All he had was their general direction and their current status. Both were green, but that could change in any moment.

Azhar chewed on his lip as he considered the situation. It was tempting to return to the Valiant. The state of his Mobile Suit made it an obvious choice, but at the same time he could not abandon his squadmate. In the end, the right choice prevailed. "Fuck. You're right. We can't leave them. Let's go."

"Are you sure you're up for it? Your Mobile Suit is pretty banged up. I can look for them alone. You won't last long if we run into more Retributors." Roland took position next to Azhar as they both headed towards Rebecca's location. They both agreed that Brock, being a more experienced pilot, could handle himself for much longer.

"I will last much longer with you than by myself if I were to run into an enemy on my way back. Let's just get this done." Azhar made sure to cover as much of his Vindicator with the shield as possible.

Moving through the dense asteroid field was not a simple task as they had to be on the lookout for any potential threats. There was no telling how many hostiles there were lurking among the asteroids and Roland had to work hard in order to keep his nerves under control. If they encountered an enemy he would be the main target and would have to do the heavy lifting. He didn't mind having to fight, it was that annoying uncertainty again.

Trailing slightly behind him Azhar was focused less on the surroundings and more on his scanners and comms. He had no success with either. Long range comms were down, long range scanners didn't do well with all the asteroids, showing him only the approximate location of target destinations. The short range scanners worked, but they didn't have as much range as he preferred. The only reliable thing he had were the short range comms.

Their search came to an end when they got close enough to pick up Rebecca's exact location of. They circled around a tight cluster of small asteroids and spotted the thruster flare of their teammate's Vindicator. The Mobile Suit was slowly circling around the destroyed remains of the Strike Cavalier. It seemed she had won the duel. A notable achievement, considering she had done it alone, unlike Roland and Azhar.

"There you are. Took us a while to find you." Azhar must have spooked her, since Rebecca responded by whirling her Mobile Suit around and raising the beam rifle. "Whoa! Whoa! Rebecca! It's us. Don't shoot!"

It took a few seconds for Rebecca to lower the weapon. When she did, Roland was certain he could see the relief in her machine's features. Strange, considering the Vindicator had conventional controls and not the advanced NIC system. "Oh, it's you two. You scared me." Rebecca managed a nervous chuckle and left the destroyed Cavalier in order to rejoin the squad.

"Yeah, it's us. No need to shoot. We lost you while we were busy dealing with the enemy. I took a nasty hit in the process. We tried contacting you, but the long range comms are being jammed, so we had to do it the old fashioned way."

"Jammed? I didn't notice that." Rebecca checked the comms and found out that Azhar was telling the truth. They could only talk to each other. "So, what do we do now? Do we have any idea what's going on?"

"We get the captain and then we head back to the Valiant. Considering what's going on, the ship might be under attack." Roland explained and began heading towards Brock's position, with Azhar close behind. They didn't get far until they noticed that it was only the two of them. "Rebecca?"

"I think it's best we head back to the ship right now. Like you said, the Valiant might be under attack. If something happens to the ship, we'll be stranded out here in a hostile territory." Turning her words to action, Rebecca slowly started to move in the Valiant's direction.

Shocked by his teammates words, Roland came to a halt. "You want to abandon him? We can't do that! He needs our help." He could not believe what he was hearing. Sure, whenever she wasn't in actual combat, Rebecca favored the cautious approach. However, he would have never expected her to abandon a fellow Solar Knight. "We have to help him."

"Yeah, Roland's right. C'mon. Let's go."

"No! We have to go back!" Rebecca's voice rose a few octaves and her breathing became faster, almost to the point of hyperventilating. "Brock is more experienced than anyone of us. He can take care of himself. He does not need the three of us to go looking for him. Especially when we do not know how far he is. He might be behind that asteroid or he could be hundreds of kilometers away. All we know is in which direction he is."

"Yeah, but..."

"Plus, there's no telling how many enemies are out there. Could be one, could be a hundred. We don't know. And we certainly can't go poking around blindly." At this point Rebecca was moving away with almost full speed. "We have to go back."

Before the argument could continue, the sensors of all three Vindicators lit up with loads of new hostile contacts. Roland tried to count them, but quickly gave up. Rebecca responded to their appearance by kicking her Vindicator's thrusters into full gear and retreating back to the ship. Roland didn't move. He was still conflicted between saving Brock and following Rebecca's now reasonable suggestion. He decided to risk it. However, Azhar's Vindicator grabbed his before he could get anywhere.

"Roland. Don't do it. We have to go." When Roland didn't respond Azhar sighed and began pulling him back. Roland tried to break free, but his resistance was silenced by Azhar's words. "Don't be stupid. I want to help him just as much as you do, but that would be insane. Not against these odds." As if feeling that Roland was about to object Azhar continued. "For fuck's sake, look at your sensors. We have their exact position, which means hey're on short range sensors, whereas Brock is somewhere out there. Retributors will be here in any moment. We have to go. NOW."

With a grip that made the gloves of his flight suit creak, Roland pulled at the controls and turned his Mobile Suit around. He cast one last glance at the rear-view camera and, with gritted teeth, began to retreat. He had to hold on to Azhar's Vindicator in order to give him an extra boost. Otherwise the damaged Mobile Suit would have fallen behind and Roland had no intention of abandoning another fellow pilot.

Together they managed to achieve enough speed for the hostile signals to disappear from their short range sensors. That told them that the pursuing Retributors were using older machines. For a moment Roland had the insane idea of turning around and engaging them, but he reminded himself about the fight against the Cavalier, which was practically an ancient design. He might be piloting a more advanced Mobile Suit, but he still had to grow as a pilot. It wasn't like he had no skills. He had plenty. He worked hard, he trained hard and was at the top of his class. What he lacked was the knowledge on how and when to apply said skills. Sadly, that was something no amount of training could teach in its entirety.

A sudden flash of Brock's status signal from green to crimson made Roland gasp. Before he managed to form a single thought, the crimson turned to black. Brock was dead. A cold pit opened up at the bottom of his stomach. "He's dead."

"Keep going. We have to keep going or we're dead as well." The emotionless tone of Azhar's voice made it sound like an announcement. "Keep going. Focus on the task. Deal with it later." It sounded like he was not talking to Roland, just talking in general. Voicing his thoughts in order to retain control over himself.

With a tremendous effort of will, Roland pushed his feelings aside and followed his friend's advice. They kept moving forward, weaving around and between the asteroids. Eventually, the field cleared up to a point where they could see the thruster flare of Rebecca's Vindicator some distance ahead of them. Even though they were within comms range of each other, none of them said anything. There was nothing to be said. Brock was dead. Whether they could have saved him or not, would remain a mystery.

There was a brief moment of relief when the comms came back to life and the voice of the Valiant's CIC operator came through. The relief was short lived, once they heard what the operator had to say. "To all deployed Mobile Suit forces. If you can hear this, return to the Valiant immediately. The ship is under attack by a hostile force. All Mobile Suits, return immediately." So it was true. The suspicions of a large scale attack had been correct.

With fiery determination replacing the cold void, Roland pushed forward. The Valiant was in danger and they had to protect it. Ahead of him, Rebecca slowed down, the news of the attack making her hesitate with the decision to return to the ship. "Keep moving. No slowing down." Roland said and passed her, dragging Azhar's Vindicator along. The stern tone of his voice must have had an effect on Rebecca, because she fell in line behind him without a single word. Good, Roland had no desire to have another argument. He also was not above experiencing a bit of vindictive joy. Rebecca had made her decision to abandon Brock and return to the ship. No way he was letting her change her mind now.

Ahead of them was a massive asteroid and, judging from the amount of stray shots that came from behind it, the battle was on the other side. To further confirm the theory, his short range sensors started lighting up with a vast amount of contacts, both friendly and hostile, the closer he got. As he lead their little group around the asteroid, his sensors went insane as they were suddenly fed a huge amount of data. He must have gotten close enough to the Valiant for his Vindicator to link up with the ship's tactical network. At that point it was unnecessary, because Roland could see very well just how serious the situation was.

One side of the Valiant was practically pressed against the asteroid they had just rounded. A little bit more and the ship would have crashed into it. Whether it was due to careless navigation or because of enemy action, Roland could not tell. Its escort ship the Suvorov was still active, but it had taken damage. Two of the three linear turrets had been taken out and several point defense weapons along its starboard side were quiet. The rest of the armaments were still online, but with the proximity of allied Mobile Suits and abundance of cover limited their effectiveness. All it could do at the moment was to stay near the Valiant and ward off anyone who tried to take out the transport ship.

Thanks to the presence of Solar Knight Vindicators, few Retributors dared to attack the ship directly. However, that meant that most of the fighting was between Mobile Suits. In most cases, this would be the sort of a fight where Solar Knights had the upper hand. Their combat doctrine revolved around large formations of massed firepower. Unfortunately, the nature of the battlefield prevented that from happening and most of the fighting happened in small groups or single duels. This was the sort of a fight in which regular Solar Knights did not perform well. That's what the more elite Solar Knight Paladins were for. Sadly, none of them were here.

Their arrival had not gone unnoticed. Barely had they taken in the overall situation, when someone contacted them directly. "You're here. Good. We need all the help we can get. Where's the captain?" It was Knight-Lieutenant Jasmine Alvarado, their squadron's second in command.

"He's dead. We got ambushed by the Retributors. During the fighting we got separated. We could not get to him in time." Azhar replied.

There was a brief moment of silence, followed by a curse. "Fuck! That's just..."

"There's more Retributors approaching from behind us!" Rebecca spoke up, her Vindicator facing back the way they came as if expecting enemies to appear at any second. "A lot of them. We had to retreat."

"Wonderful, just fucking wonderful." Jasmine cursed as she realized that she was the one in charge of their squadron. "Okay, let me think."

"What do you want us to do? Where can we help?" Roland volunteered as they moved closer to the Valiant. With the possibility of more enemies showing up at any moment and them being the only ones between the ship and potential danger, it made sense to stay near the ship.

"I said let me think!" Jasmine yelled back before cutting the comms. A moment of awkward silence lasted until she addressed the entire squadron. "Listen up everyone, we have more enemies approaching the Valiant. I want the entire squadron to fall back to the ship and prepare to meet those bastards. Knight-Captain Eriksson's squadron will have to make due by themselves. Provide long range fire support if possible."

A chorus of concerned voices acknowledged the order and several Mobile Suits fell back to the ship while others tried to fill in the gaps the best they could. The results of this decision were seen almost immediately. One Vindicator was destroyed and one more was heavily damaged when their pilots tried to run away instead of withdraw properly. The remaining Solar Knight squadron came under heavy fire as the immediate balance shifted. Before the withdrawal, the Solar Knights were at a slight disadvantage. They had superior numbers, but the Retributors had better pilots and advantageous firing positions. Now, with half of Solar Knights gone, the Retributors also had the numbers advantage. What little support the two ships could provide was limited by the terrain and, in the case of missiles, negated entirely by a pair of sharpshooters the commander of the Retributor force had assigned for this purpose. Defeat was only a matter of time.

Roland tried to ignore the sinking feeling as his squadron regrouped around the Valiant, but a single glance at the battered remains made any attempt useless. At full strength his squadron consisted of fourteen pilots. Twelve Knight-Ensigns, lead by a Knight-Lieutenant and a Knight-Captain. Currently, the squadron was made up of nine Mobile Suits, three of them damaged. Not only that, but the death of their leader had dealt a serious blow to their morale. More than one pilot voiced their concerns over the comms, which only served to further worsen the mood. Concern turned to near panic when, through the Valiant, they picked up dozens of hostile Mobile Suits heading towards them.

"Silence! Quiet on the comms! Stop the whining or we're all dead!" Jasmine's voice boomed across the squadron's comms. It worked. Though the horrified silence was not much of an improvement. "We're up against the wall here, so there's no way out. On my mark, the Valiant and the Suvorov will give them a missile volley. At the same time, we will move around the asteroid straight towards them. By the time we're on the other side, the missiles will have reached them. We'll blast them to pieces while they're busy recovering from the attack. Any questions? No. Good. Get ready." The briefing was short and to the point, and gave confidence to a few wavering pilots. They didn't get much time to consider the details before the two ships behind them unleashed a cloud of VTP missiles. Barely a second later, Jasmine ordered them forward. "Go, go. Move."

With Jasmine's Vindicator leading the way, the squadron went on the offensive. With no time to dwell on the situation, many pilots found themselves filled with grim determination. Remembering Brock's advice from earlier, Roland, Azhar and Rebecca made sure to spread out. Other pilots followed suit, widening the gaps of the formation and reducing the chances of a missed enemy shot hitting someone else. As they kept moving forward, training started to take over. Those with the citadel tower shields moved ahead of the formation, while those with heavy weapons moved slightly to the back, along with the damaged Mobile Suits. By the time they were on the other side of the asteroid, they were less of a panicked group of Mobile Suits and more of a combat ready formation.

Explosions blossomed in the distance as the missiles slammed into the enemy formation. Strangely, the Retributor Mobile Suits didn't even bother to dodge. Whether they had been taken by surprise of due to overconfidence no one could tell. In the end, it didn't matter. As soon as Solar Knights had a clear line of fire, they opened up with their weapons. Crimson beam blasts, linear slugs and cannon shells washed over the formation, followed up by a pair of FRALA beams. The Retributors were dropping like flies without returning a single shot.

"Hold fire." Even though Jasmine's order made no sense, Roland stopped shooting. A few more shots went off from the formation, but eventually the shooting ceased, all weapons still pointing at the two remaining Retributor contacts. Roland was about to risk it and ask Jasmine for the reason, when the answer presented itself. A pair of modified VTP missiles entered visual range, casually sailing through space. Confusion nestled among the Solar Knight as the two missiles, showing up on their sensors as a pair of ZAFT Primals, flew past them without as much as a hostile thought.

"What the… decoys?" Someone spoke. "What the hell is going on here? Weren't there supposed to be..."

"Back! Everyone back! There's no Mobile Suits here! They used decoys to draw us away. Get back to the ships." Jasmine threw her Vindicator around and flew back the way they came with the rest of the squadron in tow.

By the time they returned, the situation had deteriorated rapidly. Knight-Captain Eriksson's squadron had been pushed back to he ships. With Solar Knight forces in the middle of an area relatively free of asteroids and Retributors remaining on the edge of the open space, where there was plenty of cover, the battle was horribly one-sided. Only a handful of Vindicators were left and they were too busy dodging shots to prevent several Retributor pilots from firing at the Valiant and the Suvorov.

The frigate should have been a powerful deterrent, it was designed for anti-Mobile Suit warfare, but somewhere, out in the asteroid field, the Retrbutors had a veritable artist with a FRALA. Beams of intense light taking out one weapon after another with pinpoint accuracy. The citadel shields on the ship were powerful enough to stop a regular strength FRALA, but they did not cover the entire ship. Furthermore, the Suvorov's weapons could not shoot through the shield, so small sections of it had to be dropped just before firing. It was during those moments that the FRALA beam would cut into the weapon as it was firing, or, due to the angle of attack, take out a weapon what was supposedly safe behind a shield. Indirect VTP missile strikes were a possibility since the launchers were in a position where the sniper could not reach them, yet. But with excellent counter-missile fire taking out most of the missiles before they could threaten any Retributors, the two ships were nearly useless in the fight.

Jasmine did not slow down when they reached the defenders. Instead, she pushed on, urging her squadron to press forward and close in with the Retributors. Roland was right behind her, beam rifle and LAWs firing in an attempt to suppress the enemy. He was certain he had landed a couple of hits, but since the amount of incoming fire did not seem to be affected, it was difficult to tell.

The aggressive push did force the Retributors to fall back, but Roland had a nasty suspicion they were doing that to draw the Solar Knights deeper among the asteroids where the formation would be split apart and taken out piece by piece. Unfortunately, there was nothing else the Solar Knights could do. They were outnumbered, outfought and, in many cases, outgunned. Vindicators with standard loadouts did not possess heavy weaponry, whereas most older designs sported weapons that could take out a Mobile Suit with a single hit with power to spare. The only hope was to win the individual duels.

However, as they pressed on, the resistance decreased. The sudden counterattack everyone expected never came. The enemy kept falling back, further away to the point where many Solar Knights were convinced that the Retributors were disengaging and withdrawing from the battlefield. No one had any explanation for this behavior and while USN doctrine demanded they give chase and pursue the enemy, no one had any desire to do so.

Their task force had taken a sound beating. Many Mobile Suits had been destroyed and almost all of the active ones were damaged to some degree. Among the pilots, casualties were equally severe. Though some pilots of destroyed Mobile Suits had survived, there were plenty of injuries. Many of them life threatening. The two ships had gotten off somewhat lightly, since most of the damage was focused around their weapons. As a result, their ability to provide effective fire support was limited. The writing on the wall was clear. They were alive because the Retributors allowed it. Pursuing the withdrawing force was a death sentence.

The answer for the Retributors' sudden retreat came soon as the Valiant reported a large number of friendly contacts approaching the battlefield. Two squadrons of Vindicators, lead by an Excalibur, emerged from the asteroid field. The Vindicators split into smaller groups with practiced ease. Some taking overwatch positions, while others began combing the nearby area for any hidden threats.

The Excalibur made a beeline to where the battered survivors had established something resembling a defensive perimeter. It moved with the grace and fluidity of a Mobile Suit equipped with a NIC system. The machine's movements mirroring those of its pilot. It came to a halt near the Valiant and observed the situation with a shake of its head. "Sorry for the late arrival. We got delayed by the Retributors. It seems their intention was to get their hands on you before we could reach you." A female voice said in the heavy tone of a person who has encountered the same problem numerous times. "Still, you managed to hold out, so that's pretty good for your first time. You can relax now, the battle's over. Return to your ship and we'll get you sorted in no time."

With the arrival of reinforcements as well as the reassurance of the Paladin. The survivors felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off their shoulders. They had done it. They had fought against a dangerous enemy and survived. They might not have won, but they had survived. This was an achievement any rookie pilot could be proud of.

"Oh, and one more thing." The Paladin's voice caught their attention. "I am Paladin-Captain Angela de Tylmarande. I am in charge of the task force you were sent to reinforce. Welcome to the belt."