Chapter 11

CE 73, November 23rd, Reipertswiller Outskirts, France, Central Europe

Night 09 29

A green light illuminated the area as a high-powered beam leapt forth from Sheryl's Dagger L's customized rifle, spearing the heavily-armed GINN in the chest before it could even react. The legacy ZAFT unit jerked once, folded slightly at the torso, and fell backwards as the beam thinned and died out, smoke erupting from its joints.

The light from the blast illuminated the night sky for a brief instance, however, on the other side of the ridge, only the operating lights of the mobile suits could be seen as the Manhunters clashed with the incoming insurgent units. Ray saw, for an instant, three BuCUE units speed towards them, the wake of their high-speed dash throwing dust and leaves and dirt everywhere, snapping branches off trees, and their mono-eye cameras leaving a brief light trail; one of them had a back-mounted missile pod, which proceeded to empty its payload at the Dagger Ls.

"Hunter Leader to Hunter Three!" Ray shouted, as he turned to face the three BuCUEs. "Incoming, right flank!"

"Got it, sir!" Guy said as he activated the Launcher Dagger's 120mm vulcan cannon. The rounds from the roaring autocannon stitched a patch along the ground to the first BuCUE, which tried desperately to dodge the bullets by zig-zagging. Ray opened fire with his mobile suit as well, and one beam shot connected with the lead BuCUE's missile pack. The unit jettisoned the damaged equipment, activated its beam sabres, and made straight for the three of them.

Another blindingly bright beam lanced from in-between Ray and Guy's units to hit the lead BuCUE directly at its head; the ZAFT unit seemed to slow to a stop within a second, with patches of red forming on its frame as its internal components heated up rapidly. Behind them, Sheryl's Oracle Lance was crouched as her mobile suit adjusted its left arm support positioning in minor increments; the BuCUE's head melted away as the high-powered beam continued cutting through the unit, separating its top body from its lower half and legs.

The BuCUE fell sideways as its pilot was vaporised, and the three other Mobile Suits of the Manhunters set to intercepting the incoming missiles, a veritable shower of CIWS fire filling the space in-between the opposing sides. A few missiles exploded too close for comfort, and static filled the screen of Ray's unit for brief instances as he tried to ignore the faint afterimages burnt into his vision by the light of the explosions. Under the cover of the explosions, the remaining two BuCUEs entered close combat range with the Dagger Ls.

Ray shifted his machine to fall on its back as the first BuCUE sailed over him, his beam rifle shot barely missing the ZAFT quadrupled machine. The unit sailed over his head and landed, taking a tight turn to face Ray's Manhunter Command again, and its twin railguns fired.

From out of the stark flashes of light two rounds sped straight forward; one of the rounds missed, the round streaking across the mountain before impacting into the soil far from the fighting. The second round smashed into the top of the Dagger L's shield and went wide, taking the shield's entire top section, including the sight slot, along with it. Ray grunted and steadied his Dagger L's beam rifle, but the BuCUE was much faster on land and slammed into the OMNI unit. Both machines rocketed backwards for a short distance as the BuCUE swung its head around, trying to catch the mobile suit that had grabbed on to it with its head-mounted beam sabres; the OMNI unit was much too close for its railguns to aim at.

Ray, however, was much faster than the insurgent pilot; drawing a beam sabre on its "short" setting, Ray plunged the makeshift knife weapon into the Dagger L's back before activating the weapon's full power, cutting deep into its core systems. The ZAFT quadruped slowed to a stop, and Ray manoeuvred his Dagger L off the BuCUE as it started to burn.

Ray turned to check on his teammates, all of whom had just finished off their share of the enemies, when the cockpit sensors beeped as a signal registered a lone pilot trying to escape from the burning wreck that he had caused. Ray watched as the man collapsed and clutched at his leg, and several armed men emerged from the bushes, just mere of dozens of meters away, to secure their prisoner. "That was awfully risky, Sergeant," Ray said. "I could have very well stepped on your troops depending on where the enemy had brought me to."

"They know where to dodge," Kim replied offhandedly. Pausing, she added more. "Yohann says that his squad got another man where Lieutenants Leon and Camelot are."

"Secure them," Ray said. "We'll need whatever information they have in their heads."

As Kim cut the connection, Ray continued sitting in his pilot seat. Something didn't feel quite right, but he couldn't put his hand on it. He took one last look around the area; the forest was silent.

Shaking his head, Ray removed his helmet and put his Dagger L on autopilot back to the camp. "Sakamoto, Leon, I need you guys to effect a lookout three kilometres from the camp point. Keep yourselves hidden. Sheryl, get yourself to a good lookout point, and keep an eye on the MS wreckages, especially that GINN. Kim, increase the number of guards; try and get them to cover a two kilometre radius total, and tell the sensor truck to broadcast in detection mode, low power. Nobody is to engage any enemy forces under any circumstances unless authorized."

"Aye sir," three sets of voices answered him. Ray turned his mind towards formulating ways and means to get the captured insurgents to crack. This would be a busy night.

CE 73, November 24th, Reipertswiller Outskirts, France, Central Europe

Morning 06 45

Early morning saw the people of the Manhunters as wide awake as they were during last night's hunt. Warm breath mixed with the cool air around the forested region as Kim Rassare surveyed her surroundings.

"Any word from our two guests?" Kim asked as Hanson walked up.

"None, ma'am," the well-built man replied. Hanson's squad had changed shifts with Yohann's just four hours ago, and patrolling the cold forest was no easy task. Hanson himself was placed in charge of the interrogation. "They're pretty tight on who's running their organization."

"As is to be expected," Ray said, walking up from behind. Both sergeants saluted, but Ray waved a hand dismissively. "We got into radio contact with Mannheim Base at six-thirty. They'll be backing us up at thirteen hundred hours."

"That's a long while," Kim said. "Anything could happen."

"We have no choice but to wait," Ray replied. "Mannheim's forces were mobilized to crack down on an assassination plot somewhere near Marburg; apparently, some of the radical locals heard that some high-ranking OMNI officer was going to visit the town sometime soon, so they started to plant car bombs and get to other ridiculous shit." Ray shrugged. "OMNI Eurasia Branch got wind of it, and so they sent forces to stop them lest they got the local population too caught up in their maniac tendencies."

"But still, wouldn't that leave their mobile suits available?" Kim asked. "I don't think they would deploy Daggers to trample around town…"

"Beats me," Ray said. "They said that they wanted to deploy their own operation teams as well, so they want to get everything back. Apparently their infantry contingent is returning to base today." He turned to Hanson. "Get some rest. You guys can leave the daytime patrol to the mobile suits."

As the two sergeants left to tend to their tasks, Ray returned his mind to the unsavoury task of getting the insurgents to crack. He was nowhere near as skilled as Nain, so interrogating the two POWs was out of his league. That left only one option.

CE 73, November 24th, Reipertswiller Outskirts, France, Central Europe

Morning 11 14

Sheryl was really enjoying the feel of the fatigues that she had managed to get from Kim. Unlike the pilot suit, the infantry clothing was easier to move in and provided proper cover against the environment she was now in; perched on a tree, Sheryl let herself immerse in the minute of stretching she was allowed to have. Beside her, the trees cast their shadows on her kneeling Dagger L Oracle Lance, the light rays making patterns on the grey scheme of her unit.

She had moved her mobile suit as quietly as she could to the last point where she had sniped the GINN Assault Type last night. From her vantage point, she should see that the unit was untouched so far, and Ray had told her to continue her watch on it.

Last night's hit was a direct shot; at a mere two and a half kilometres from where she was, the shot had been accurately placed directly into the GINN's cockpit, incinerating its pilot. She had made sure that the shot was less than full power however, since she didn't want the beam to melt all the way through to its engine and cause a forest fire.

That would also allow the insurgents to salvage the unit and repair its cockpit block, something that Ray had capitalized upon. Sheryl continued to watch from where she was, her data pad linked to her Dagger L's main display. The place where the GINN had collapsed was less than five hundred meters away, slumped against two trees, moderately hidden to the human eye thanks to its own camouflage pattern scheme.

Movement. The Oracle Lance's main cameras had caught a slight of movement in the area surrounding the GINN. Focusing her full attention to the video feed on her data pad, she could clearly see a few men dressed in patchwork fatigues climbing over the GINN –for God's sake, one of them had a red headband and was also perched the highest; standing on the GINN's shoulder looking left and right, what a lunatic!- and checking it for damages. She could also see the four workloader units in the same forest-pattern colours as their comrades, disassembling the GINN and setting it down piece by piece to transport back to the base.

Normally, such an endeavour would have been easy. Unfortunately, the insurgents did not seem to have considered the possibility of OMNI troops hidden in vantage points, waiting for an easy lead back to their base. Sheryl didn't know whether to feel insulted that the insurgents trusted in general OMNI inefficiency that much that they would not think twice about daylight retrieval, or feel lucky that they were just that stupid.

Sheryl silently lowered herself from the tree and activated her position beacon, ensuing that a few kilometres back, the Manhunters could track her every movement. With the plan being to have Kim's men take the lead once the insurgents had been spotted, the Oracle Lance was well-positioned to act as an intermediary between the infantry scouts' beacons and the main force situated behind.

"Hunter 2 to all," Sheryl spoke softly into the data pad. "I've spotted several insurgents moving in to retrieve the GINN Assault Type. We'll begin the operation to discover the location of the enemy camp."

CE 73, November 24th, Reipertswiller Outskirts, France, Central Europe

Morning 11 57

It was past forty-five minutes since the message had returned to the camp, and Ray had been notified. He had told Sakamoto and Guy to stand guard and be ready for deployment, and had Kim ready her infantry. Now he watched the display screen in his own Dagger L, linked to the systems in the radar truck as it tracked Sheryl's location across the land.

Outside in the forest, Sheryl's Oracle Lance kept its overwatch, while under the trees, while Kim's infantry moved. Ray let out the breath that he had been holding unconsciously. "Has there been a reply from Mannheim Base?" Ray asked the radar operator through the comm link.

"Not since the last one," the operator replied. "They're just telling us to keep tracking, sir."

Ray continued watching as the various blips on the display screen, each representing one of Kim's soldiers, moved through the forest erratically. His own mobile suit, as well as Guy and Kaguya's units, were likewise moving at a snail's pace; the mountains in the area were high, but any attempt at getting to Sheryl's location quickly, and Ray had no doubt that the insurgents would hear them. There was no other choice than to wait for the location to be revealed, before coming down hard; all they could do in the meantime was to shorten the distance as much as they could.

Guy's signal flashed on the screen, and Ray opened the link. "Do you think it's possible that they thought we might have left, sir?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Ray said. "We did destroy a grand total of four mobile suits after all; perhaps, they thought we might have gotten overconfident, and left. But if that's the case, we should be seeing some activity near the BuCUE wreckages." He absentmindedly activated the systems check and watched as his Dagger L ran a full test of its own systems, and thought back to the first fight since leaving Sinai Base for Suez. "Or maybe this could even be their own way of luring us in. Either way, we're banking on Sheryl finding their location undiscovered. Then we come down hard on them like a sledgehammer."

"Point noted, sir," Guy said, and cut the link.

Now, Ray said, as he sat back into the cockpit seat, and booted up its systems. A low humming sound filled his ears as the mobile suit's power generator came online. What are we going to find today?

CE 73, November 24th, Reipertswiller Outskirts, France, Central Europe

Afternoon 12 21

Stacha Melshim let out his breath slowly, the mist dissipating into the cold European air. A Middle Eastern by descent, this was his first time in Europe; prior to his recruitment into OMNI as an infantryman, he had been part of the Egyptian security forces. While he had relished the possibility of travelling around the world, he had never given it much though.

His siblings back in his home village would be thrilled to learn that there was actually a place on this planet where the temperature was a marked departure from the usual "hot", "very hot", or "disgustingly hot".

Focusing his attention back to the present, he watched the group of men that he had been following, creeping behind as they hauled what could be salvaged through the forest, then out onto a small dirt path hidden by tall trees that arced high over it. The salvage crew had slowed down their pace, and now, Stacha watched as one of them approached a small outhouse with a copious amount of camouflage netting and small branches strewn over it, in the side of a small slope.

Stacha watched, his eyes taking note of every detail, as the man opened the door and disappeared into it. Moments later, the ground beneath them begun to shake, and the infantryman gazed in amazement as the very ground in front of him lowered itself.

This... Stacha rushed through his memories, eventually settling in on the first battle with the insurgents while the convoy had been en route to the Lohengrin Gate. A large-scale service lift...? Stacha reached for his comm unit. "This is Red Ten to Base Camp," he whispered. "Enemy base entrance spotted."

"This is Base Camp," the reply came in. "We have the location. We're triangulating on your signal and sending over reinforcements."

"Acknowledged, Base Camp," Stacha said. "I'll remain here, see what I can catch on the camera."

No sooner had Stacha cut the link when gunfire scythed through the leaves and bushes. Swearing under his breath, the young soldier dove to the side, behind a tree, for more solid cover; splinters struck his uniform and body armour as assault rifle rounds ploughed into the wood.

Stacha sneaked a peek from behind his cover. A few of the men from the original group had broken off, and were armed with rifles and rapidly approaching his position. One of them was shouting something and gesturing forward wildly, presumably telling the rest of them to flush him out.

Stacha gripped his rifle tighter. He was no comms expert, but he hadn't expected the rebels to be able to trace signals that easily. Peeking above cover, he quickly assessed the situation before tossing out a smoke grenade; within two seconds Stacha was sprinting through the trees. A total of seven men, with one leader, burst through the smoke, two approaching from behind and four rapidly moving to cut off his escape route.

Stacha continued running as the men opened fire. Rounds smashed through leaves and branches, throwing up dirt where they impacted into the soft dirt. One cut dangerously close to his head, just right beside his left eye; he felt the shot ricochet off his helmet.

In retaliation, Stacha rounded the next tree and dropped to one knee, rifle raised. One round out. The point man of the group dropped with a cry, clutching at a hole in his chest, as the round from his rifle punched a chest wound through the man's load vest.

"Not bad, Stacha, you stuck to the plan perfectly." the radio crackled once. "Keep your head low."

From around him, Sergeant Yohann Fauser and the other infantrymen that comprised of Red Team opened fire, cutting down all but two of his pursuers. Stacha's elation was brief, however; from behind the carnage he could see more men approaching, some of them armed with light machineguns and even an RPG or two.

Stacha heard Yohann activate his comms unit. "Red Leader to all Reds. Status report."

A reply buzzed out from the comms unit. "Red Four to Red Leader, second squad is accounted for."

"Blue Leader to Red Leader, Blue Team is accounted for."

"Grey Leader to Red Leader, Grey Team is accounted for."

"Splendid." Yohann spoke into his comm unit. "This is Red Leader to Base Camp. All squads are in position for the fireworks."

CE 73, November 24th, Reipertswiller Outskirts, France, Central Europe

Afternoon 12 31

The man held out his rifle, his arms steady, as he approached the tree where the soldiers were hiding. Now that their hidden entrance had been made known, there was no way they could let them go. The former soldier felt a measure of remorse at executing OMNI troops, but it was for the sake of freeing all of Europe. Once they linked up with Ivan Zamboise, they would be even stronger. Until then, they couldn't allow anything to jeopardise their operations.

His next thoughts were cut short as the ground in front of him exploded, and the sound temporarily deafened him. His ears continued to ring as he struggled to rise from the ground, and saw one of his men get cut down by a 12.5mm round right in front of him.

"Mobile suits!" someone screamed.

How did we let them get this close, the man thought even as he struggled to rise, to run. Memories from the Bloody Valentine War flashed through his head, the bodies of his comrades strewn over the rocks, or him crawling, one arm broken, from a smoking tank that had been flipped over from the explosion of a missile that was twice its length.

Then he felt the ground right underneath him explode in a shower of dirt, accompanied by copious amounts of blood from his chest. He suddenly felt breathless, and very, very light. Then he felt nothing.

Four Dagger Ls descended, their thrusters smoking from a prolonged boosted jump, as the barrels of their head-mounted CIWS guns flashed violently. Armor-piercing rounds cut a swatch through men and trees alike, bodies broken to chunks and branches snapped by the powerful 12.5mm rounds passing through them. Smaller trees were on the verge of collapsing altogether.

Ray watched as the last armed insurgent fell, and turned to survey the battlefield. In front, Guy had covered the hidden entrance and had blasted the metal doors into slag with two high-explosive shots from his Launcher Dagger L's left shoulder tubes; like before, a well-paved corridor, this one darkened and appearing to be out of use, trailed into the underground, a remnant of a war history, lost to time and embellishment.

Ray checked his machine one last time. "This is Hunter Leader to Base Camp. We're commencing infiltration of enemy base." He flipped a few more switches. "Sergeant, bring the rest of your men over to secure the area, and set up a relay point to the command center. They might have had stragglers or other entrances to strike from, so keep your defence tight. Once you're done, send a few squads of infantry in to suppress the interior of the base."

"Roger," Kim said. "I'll move the truck over. Keep cautious down there, we don't know what they have." A pause, then a new message. "Base Camp to Hunter Leader. We just got a new communiqué from Mannheim Base. It seems that their reinforcements are en route to our location in about a half-hour's time."

"We can't wait that long, not with our stealth compromised," Ray replied. "Tell them to catch up with us." He terminated the link. "Hunter Leader to all units. Those insurgents have accurately homed in on our first communication burst from before; we have no intel on whether they can decrypt them or not. Stay sharp."

Three voices replied in unison. "Roger."

Ray's Dagger L Manhunter Command stepped into the tunnel. It wasn't a vertical path down, but its incline was steep. The previous group used a service lift, but there was no such luxury for the Manhunters and the thrusters on Ray's mobile suit flared to life to counteract gravity's hold on his mobile suit. Screeching sounds echoed as the Dagger L's feet sought purchase where there was little to none.

Ray glanced at his display. Descending at forty kilometres per hour wasn't exactly slow. As his mobile suit neared the end of the drop, the thrusters on his Dagger L gave one last burst before cutting out altogether. The Manhunter Command landed with a loud thud, the sound echoing around the cavernous hangar; steam streamed for an instant from the mobile suit's feet joint vents, and slowly settled towards the ground before dissipating into the air.

Ray's Dagger L was in the ready position, shield held in front, rifle out; but the hangar was as empty as could be, without even a single mobile suit berthed in any of the facility's holding slots. Behind him, three other Dagger Ls landed, and all four took positions in an empty hangar devoid of the enemy.

Ray ran both an outline scan and an infrared scan of the area. He could see signs that the place was hastily vacated; he even saw a half-eaten meal lying in a corner and spare MS parts lying around, but there wasn't a single human or active mobile suit anywhere in plain sight.

He glanced towards a stack of heavy-duty crates in the corner, and inched towards them. Once in range, he kept his rifle, and with his shield held up, drew his Dagger L's beam sabre. Setting the melee weapon to low power, he stabbed through all of the crates, but there wasn't so much as a puff of dust from them.

"Hunter Leader to all. Crates are empty," Ray said, giving a frustrated glance around the area.

"Hunter Four reporting. Thermal shows residual heat in plenty of the hangar equipment," Kaguya said, directing her mobile suit's sensors over the shoulder clamps of an MS berth. "Seems like they just hastily packed and left."

"That quickly?" Guy said, incredulity cutting into his tone. "Sounds a bit impossible."

"Not if this was a decoy hangar," Ray said. "Or an auxiliary hangar that they use it to bring in damaged equipment, before moving it to another place for repairs."

Sheryl's Dagger L swept its rifle around the room. "Hunter Two reporting. There's something off about this. I'm still picking up faint transmission signals."

"What kind?" Ray asked.

"The real-time communications kind," Sheryl replied. "They're encrypted, but if we can get a link to the command truck, we can decrypt the whole thing."

"Preparing for a sneak attack, are they?" Ray remarked. "Well, since we're already here…"

A low rumble echoed throughout the entire darkened hangar, and as one, the Manhunters turned to face the source; a blast door located in the wall.

Ray barely had time to give the order to get their shields ready before parts of the door began to glow a dull red, then orange and finally white. The blast door, a mechanism used to seal off explosions from the rest of the base, exploded outwards as though its other side had been thoroughly laced with explosive. Fragments of metal alloy nearly a half-metre in thickness flew through the air; a couple made contact with the MS shields of the Manhunters, leaving ugly and very noticeable craters on the shield surfaces where they had hit.

One fragment the size of a standard Dagger L's shoulder plate struck Ray's unit in the leg, smashing off a portion of its protective outer armour and rocking the inner frame. Ray frantically tried to align the Manhunter Command as it momentarily lost balance, its targeting reticule going haywire on the display screen.

As smoke covered the entire hangar, weapons fire lanced out; the familiar whine of beam weapons, and the echo of solid rounds striking surfaces, sounded out. A few rockets, thankfully of the unguided kind, ploughed through the smoke cloud; most missed their mark, but a few exploded close enough to make Ray flinch.

"Manhunters, return fire!" Ray shouted, even as the other pilots let loose with everything they had. Braving the hail of enemy fire and moving into a location less exposed, behind a stack of empty service crates and a half-extended hangar slot, the Manhunters formed a defensive line and braced themselves for a second salvo.

Ray watched, his countenance grim, as six mobile suits, firing their weapons, strode out into the dust, shields out front and rifles spitting green death in concert. Five of those were Dagger Ls in forest camouflage colours, some with rocket pods hardwired and strapped to their limbs, but the lead mobile suit was something that Ray had never seen before. It bore a slight resemblance to the Dagger Ls beside it, but its head had a different chin plate and lacked the 'chin goatee' extension typical of OMNI mobile suits. It used a T-shaped green visor instead of the straight-lined and blue visors of most Dagger L units, and two rather prominent side-mounted head fins lined the side of its head, with twin antenna attached.

Its body frame was mostly light-blue with dark-blue armour parts, with a smooth chestplate segment, unlike the blocky aesthetic of the Dagger L units, and looked much sleeker, with larger shoulder units equipped with thrusters mounted on both sides. Its back unit was unbalanced, what appeared to be an automatic cannon was mounted only on one side, and the other was a back unit extension of some sort, which was currently flipped over its right shoulder, and ended in what seemed to be a yellow triangular emitter of some kind. The familiar green glow in front suggested a beam cannon that, as much as Ray could see, was rapidly recharging itself.

The Dagger L's screen display identified a pair of beam sabres, with a different grip than most OMNI-make models, and its left arm had what was unmistakably a solid shield. A beam rifle carried on the mobile suit's right arm that Ray identified as European-make – the rapid-firing RFW-99 rifle – was quickly brought to bear on the Manhunters.

"What the hell is that?!" Sheryl exclaimed. "I've never seen a mobile suit like it!"

The unknown's back-mounted beam cannon fired, a brilliant green lance lighting up the dark space. The beam hit Guy's unit on its shield, and the sheer force of the blast pushed the Launcher Dagger L back. When the beam thinned out, the entire front of the shield had been slagged into a blackened mess, and Guy's unit tossed it shield away, its free arm held protectively in front of its cockpit as the enemy fire intensified.

"That's a pretty load of firepower," Ray remarked, as Kaguya's Dagger L took up covering position in front of Guy's unit, which immediately prepared to fire its Agni hyper impulse cannon. The beam leapt out, a brilliant blast of energy that, for a moment, had Ray's hopes up high; those came crashing down as the blast faded, and the enemy formation continued forward, the emitter of the unknown unit now projecting what was unmistakably a powerful beam shield in front of it. Shielded from reprisal, the other enemy Dagger Ls intensified their firing, and the Manhunters braced themselves against the torrent of enemy fire.

"Damned bandits!" Sheryl said, as a bright green shot erupted from her Dagger L's beam rifle, and straight towards the unknown. A flare of light erupted from the yellow triangle on the end of the backpack attachment that was facing forward, and the high-powered shot similarly dispersed itself over the energy shield. "Who gave these guys beam shielding technology?!"

"That doesn't matter," Ray said, even as he sought to return fire. Doing his best to pick off the escorts he issued new orders. "Manhunters, spread out and hit their flanks!"

Four mobile suits moved off in different directions as the Manhunters sought to break the deadlock. Ray's unit ducked as the unknown fired a powerful beam, the shot barely missing his customized unit to trace a red-hot scar into the roof of the underground hangar. In an instant that the energy shield had dropped, Sheryl fired off a shot; not from her self-built sniper rifle, but the standard carbine for Dagger L units.

The shot connected straight and true, blowing a chunk out of one of the enemy Dagger Ls. As the insurgents turned to face the threat, Kaguya and Guy struck into their sides, downing two more units with precise shots; Ray toppled an enemy unit himself, leaving two Dagger Ls and the unknown to begin retreating back to the twisted remains of the hangar doors, their beam rifles spitting out as many shots as they could in a poor attempt to keep the Manhunters surpressed.

"Well, that might prove to be the answer to our question about that missing transport," Guy said, his Launcher Dagger L leading a multicoloured beam in a straight path across the area as it narrowly missed an insurgent Dagger L. The backwash, however, melted its right arm off and scorched its entire right side, and the unit toppled as smoke belched from its body. The remainder of the beam hit the far side of the hangar, melting off a good portion of the steel alloy wall. The next Agni shot missed its mark as the unknown jumped in front of the beam, its beam shield taking the brunt of the blast and saving its remaining teammate.

"It's highly possible that the ambushed convoy mentioned in the briefing of our original mission was carrying this new unit," Ray said, his shots smashing a neat cluster of holes into the last Dagger L that had dared to peek out of cover and take potshots at him; the unit slumped against a nearby wall, and secondary explosions blew parts off its frame.

While they had more advanced equipment compared to the insurgents that the Manhunters were used to fighting, their skills didn't quite match up to the four-man OMNI squad.

"That would explain its importance in the reports," Ray continued as he continued to manoeuvre the Manhunter Command to a new portion of sheltered area, "Hunter Leader to all units. If they have the capability to procure Dagger L Block 10 units, they must be a fairly powerful group in the region. Be aware of more mobile suits."

"You mean they might be backed by sympathizers in the OMNI brass?" Kaguya asked, as she laid down covering fire in an arc, forcing the remaining unknown insurgent unit to duck behind its shields. Its arms were still free, however, and the rifle on its right arm spat a fierce stream of beam shots, forcing Kaguya and Guy to dodge separate ways.

"That can wait," Ray said, firing a shot at the unknown, cursing as it easily jumped out of the way; far more easily than he had seen any insurgent move a mobile suit. "Right now, we need to either subdue all of them, or bug out of here. I, personally," He moved the Manhunter Command in a rapid backtrack as the unknown fired at him, the beam shots steadily tracing a series of scorched floor panelling towards his unit, "Am in favour of killing everything here."

"Hunter Four. As I am." Kaguya said, firing at the unknown and forcing it to retreat yet again. The massive anti-ship sword swung forward on its back hinge, and the Dagger L dropped its rifle to draw out the melee weapon in a single, smooth stroke, ejecting its arm-mounted shield at the same time.

"Hunter Three, we'll lay down cover fire," Ray said. "Hunter Two, pick them off quickly, leave the unknown alone. Hunter Four, you're clear to engage in close."

"Roger," three voices answered in unison, and the mobile suits of the Manhunters leapt into action.

The unknown immediately focused on Kaguya as the thrusters on her Sword Dagger L flared to life, and the mobile suit charged forward at full speed. Kicking off the ground to dodge left and right, Kaguya used the anti-ship sword's mass to quickly change her mobile suit's trajectory, jabbing the heavy sword into the ground to forcefully change her approach vector, as the unknown attempted to track her unit; the insurgent was just a second too late, the rapid-fire beam shots tracing a stream of plasma energy around the hangar. When both mobile suits were within sword reach, Kaguya's Sword Dagger L stuck its sword into the steel floor, then used the mobile suit's momentum to vault itself over a beam shot aimed for its torso.

The unknown tracked Kaguya's machine as it somersaulted over the cannon shot and landed right in front of it. Servos whined in protest and static electricity arced across the Sword Dagger L's joints, but Kaguya was used to abusing her unit to get the most mileage out of it. Unfazed, she drew her machine's beam sabre in a swift stroke and struck it against the beam shield of the unknown, sparks tracing through the air. The machine drew its own beam sabre, but the Sword Dagger L tracked the movement and fired its head-mounted CIWS, mangling the hand portion of the unknown's left arm in a display of automatic fire.

The machine attempted to jam its rifle into the Dagger L's torso, but Kaguya used her mobile suit's free hand to grab onto the barrel of the rifle. The rifle barrel spluttered, its shots flying harmlessly into the wall, as the Sword Dagger L and the unknown wrestled for control.

The unknown turned to survey its back as Sheryl's unit raised its rifle. With Kaguya occupying it, and the Manhunters having made short work of the insurgent Dagger Ls, all four units now cornered the unknown.

"Manhunters!" Ray shouted. "Move in for capture!"

Then the floor erupted in blazing fire, the howl of hundreds of kilograms of high explosives turning the darkened manmade cavern a harsh, featureless white plain.

Afterword:

Continuing from last chapter, in initial drafts Sheryl was supposed to track the terrorists on foot, hence proving a rationale for actually wearing fatigues. Of course, there isn't a big "for" case for the fatigues even without putting her in a firefight, and after the intial re-writing, where the infantry gained a greater spot, it seemed much more plausible to keep Sheryl where she was and shine the spotlight on the ground pounders every once in a while.