Chapter 17
CE 73, December 2nd, Transport Convoy over Strání, Czech Republic, South-East Europe
Evening 18 11
As the Rosso Aegis rushed the Manhunter Command from behind, its sleek mobile armor form extended with its four activated beam blades, Ray slammed the controls on the Manhunter Command. The mobile suit's backpack thrusters cut abruptly, and white-cored blue flames blazed in from shoulder and leg rocket nozzles in opposing directions to each other, as the customized Dagger L turned in anti-clockwise in mid-air to face the approaching threat.
A white flash briefly obscured Ray's vision as the Rosso Aegis transformed, its feet unfolding, leg thrusters alight, giving the mobile suit the inch of altitude needed as the Manhunter Command lashed out with an activated beam sabre in its left hand, the energy blade barely missing the emitter tip of the Rosso Aegis' own left leg blade. Static discharge engulfed both mobile suits for a brief moment as the energized blades of both weapons touched, before the inertia of both mobile suits brought them away from each other.
The Rosso Aegis immediately transformed again, its powerful back thrusters quickly bringing the mobile armor out of effective range of the Manhunter Command's beam carbine. Ray sent one last shot at the retreating unit, the Rosso Aegis zigzagging between a storm of beam shots coming from both Ray and from units behind him. Making sure that the Rosso Aegis was not going to turn around for a second attack pass, Ray tapped the controls for his mobile suit's main thrusters. The backpack nozzles fired again, slowing down his descent, as Blizzard Five, Caleria Vayer, approached, and her Aile 105 Dagger reached out to grab the Manhunter Command's outstretched left manipulator. The rifle barrel of her mobile suit's equipped beam rifle, the Windam's default M9409L Bema Rifle, was still smoking at the barrel.
A jerk passed through the Manhunter Dagger as Caleria's 105 Dagger fired its main thrusters, the powerful engines of the Aile Striker Pack easily stopping the descent of both mobile suits. Behind her, two Skygraspers screamed overhead, missile bay doors opening to reveal long-ranged AA missiles; one of them was missing its Aile Striker Pack.
"Blizzard Five here," Caleria's voice filtered through the static of the group comm. "Regards from Blizzard Leader to Hunter Leader."
"Hunter Leader here," Ray replied, as the 105 Dagger stretched out and gripped the right hand of the Manhunter Command. "Good moves with the mid-air pack change. Tell her I said thanks."
"We have orders to retrieve you, Hunter Leader-" Caleria begun, but Ray stopped her by pushing his Manhunter Command's left hand free of the 105 Dagger's grip.
"I have my team, you have yours," Ray said as the Manhunter Command fell. "The air battle's not over. We'll meet at Trencin, if luck has it. Hunter Leader out."
Ray watched as the Aile 105 Dagger saluted once and boosted back into the sky to protect the remaining transports, and activated the parachute pack system.
CE 73, December 2nd, Czech Republic-Slovakia Border, South-East Europe
Evening 18 15
"This is Hammer Four, I am taking heavy fire-"
"Stork Two is down, I repeat, Stork Two is down!"
"This is Blizzard Five, vectoring over to intercept. Hold tight, Hammer Four."
"Blizzard Leader to all forces, fall into a defensive net-round th-t-I rep-f-"
The radio transmissions abruptly halted as the Manhunter Command continued to descend, the four massive parachutes being all that prevented the mobile suit from plummeting to the ground like a sack of bricks. A Spearhead veered onto an attack vector, but quickly banked away as the Manhunter Command's head unit automatically turned to track the light fighter's movements.
"Hunter Leader to all forces," Ray radioed on the team comm. "If you're operational, respond. I repeat, Hunter Leader to all forces, if your comms are working and you're operational, please respond."
"Don't think anything can get through the jamming here," Guy said, as the Launcher Dagger L, dozens of meters underneath the Manhunter Command, shifted its limbs to prevent powerful winds from throwing the mobile suit off-course. Somewhere in the corner of his mind, Ray mad a mental note of how skilled Guy was; the Launcher Dagger L was the most unbalanced of the Dagger L variants, yet even with one out of four parachutes punctured, it barely shook as it fired its thrusters, taking position beside the Manhunter Command. "I'm trying out all the comm bands, but the signals are so bad I might as well have shouted into thin air." Guy's display feed fizzled once before coming back into focus again on the cockpit's display screen. "There must be an N-Jammer buried in this immediate area."
"There aren't any nuclear facilities in this place," Ray said. "Why plant an N-Jammer here?"
"Could be for disruption of long-range communications," Guy ventured. "Or an accident of a re-entry pod falling out of course during the April Fool's Crisis."
"Good point," Ray said. "We should bring this up with command once we get back into contact". A blinking alert on the cockpit side display distracted him. "This is Hunter Leader."
"APC Bravo- unter Lea-," a fatigued voice sounded out. "Sergea- Yohann Fauser -ood to hear your voice, Hunter Leader."
"I'd be more worried about my own situation if I were you, Bravo Leader," Ray said, adjusting the radio connection until he found it working better. "You sound dead."
"I'm not, but some of my men are," Yohann replied. "I've got seven casualties out of twenty total, and six more seriously injured. The APC's busted, and the driver's sedated for severe spinal injury."
"I see," Ray said, biting his lower lip in frustration. "I'm sorry to hear that."
"I saw that fight from the APC's external cameras', sir," Yohann said. "We were lucky to have only one APC down in damages."
"Try and lie low until we arrive, Bravo," Ray said. "Put up an encrypted beacon; the area's probably crawling with insurgent infantry; set up a defensive position as soon as possible and wait until reinforcements arrive. Try and establish contact with Radar One or APC Alpha if possible; I'll be prioritizing actions against enemy mobile suits until I'm in range to cover you."
"Acknowledged, Hunter Leader," Yohann replied. "APC Bravo out."
Thrusters flared and thundered as the Manhunter Command and Guy's Launcher Dagger L both jettisoned their parachute packs, and dropped for the last 50 meters. Despite the deceleration, with both mobile suits igniting their main thrusters as soon as the parachutes were free, the impact was still great, and Ray felt his teeth rattle as they slammed against each other from the shock of the landing. "Hunter Leader to Hunter Three," Ray said, shaking his head to clear the spots from his eyes. "Report damages."
"I'm clear, Hunter Leader, except for a sore mouth," Guy said. "Machine checks out okay as well. Hunter Three is ready for action." The Launcher Dagger L hefted its beam carbine.
"Thanks. Take my six; keep an eye out for backstabbers," Ray brought up an expanded map of the area on his cockpit's secondary display, showing the area where Bravo Leader's APC had landed. "We're going to link up with APC Bravo first."
"How do we evac the wounded?" Guy asked.
"If any other Manhunters see this encrypted beacon, they should know to keep their heads low and make all due speed there," Ray said. "I'm hoping for Sergeant Rassare's APC to make it first so we get some carrying space, but if the worst comes to pass, Bravo Leader will evacuate his men on foot, and we'll escort them all the way to Trencin."
"I understand, Hunter Leader," Guy said as the two mobile suits cautiously stepped across the forest. Each low rumble made Ray look around, ready for an ambush; the forest was too dense for the insurgents to pass up a chance for a sneak attack on two mobile suits without armour or infantry escorts.
"Hunter Three," Ray asked as he continued to adjust the Manhunter Command's radar and sensors on the screen, "do you have an active feed of the battle up there?"
"Negative, Hunter Leader," Guy replied. "No IFF, no tactical updates, nothing. Must be the air jamming and that weird signal we're getting on the ground."
"I see," Ray replied. "Keep frosty."
The two mobile suits continued to advance; Guy's Launcher Dagger L swept the sides with its head sensors, the mobile suit's eyes flaring red.
Guy paused. Something moved in the trees beyond; a slight movement, but in a contested area, that was enough to set Guy's alarm bells off.
A thunderous roar sounded out seconds later as a high-speed round cut through the dense foliage, snapping branches in its wake. The round missed the Launcher Dagger L's head, impacting the forest ground fifty meters behind the mobile suit and sending dirt, deadfall, and tree splinters flying over the area in a deafening explosion.
"Contact! Nine o' clock from position!" Guy shouted as the shoulder vulcan of his unit spun and begun to spit out 120mm rounds. The armour-piercing high explosive munitions scythed through the forest in retaliation, sending leaves and splinters everywhere as the rounds punched through thick branches and split tree trunks alike. The sudden shower of sparks and fire at the end of his firing arc told Guy that he had hit something.
From behind a particularly thick cluster of trees toppled a GINN OCHER, a Mk. 39 cannon hardwired into its frame. The mobile suit's frame was riddled with bullet holes, a testament to how accurate Guy's intuition had been.
The Manhunter Command had just turned to aim its beam carbine when the engagement was done. "Good shot," Ray said. "Must have been a scout."
"Just one, thought?" Guy asked. "I thought the insurgents would be smarter than this."
"Perhaps they're getting cocky," Ray said, "Or the coordination between the groups of the NEFA aren't that well-meshed yet."
"Then the sooner we get to the NEFA leadership, the better," Ray said, continuing to advance with the Manhunter Command ready to fire at any time. "Amongst all the scattered groups that have gathered, Joachim and Kasavok hold the most power-and the most experience - at warfighting."
"Not to mention, they've people from Phantom Pain working with them," Guy said. "That's a rare occurrence if I ever knew the meaning of 'rare'."
"Definitely rare," Ray said. "And we'll know it all once we catch them."
CE 73, December 2nd, Czech Republic-Slovakia Border, South-East Europe
Evening 19 19
Kim Rassare stopped, her body leaned against a tree, as she strained to listen. Scattered around here were her men, and they were likewise nearly silent as they crept through the forest, fanned out and ready to take on any infantry that might come their way.
Mobile suits, however, were a different story. Even thought APC Alpha had touched down with no problems, she didn't dare tell her anti-armour personnel to engage the two mobile suits that had passed them by; they might have been able to down the MS, but it would also bring the rest of the insurgents down on them. They could only disable the mobile suits, but they would never be able to silence the machines' radio equipment or destroy the machine's inner workings the way another mobile suit could before a transmission could get out. She could shoot and scoot, but this was no urban region with solid obstacles to impede mobile suits, and trees were of no protection against cannon rounds easily a quarter of her height, or beams capable of fusing the dirt under her boots into sparkling glass and burning her bones into ash within seconds.
Kim tried her comm equipment again. A burst of static greeted her ears, as the radio tried to establish a link to the APC situated about forty meters behind the men. A few beeps and sounds later, the radio gave up, lapsing into dull static, before the equipment attempted to connect out again.
Kim gave a signal, holding up the thumb of her right hand, then pointing to the top of her helmet; a signal for someone in command to receive new orders. Staff Sergeant Hanson Warbeck crept over to the tree where Kim was. "Orders, ma'am?"
"Tell someone to run back and get the APC to advance until they can catch my signal; I'll leave the channel open," she whispered. "The radio's link distance dropped again."
"Do you think the air battle's going south?" Hanson asked. "If that's their jamming-"
"Not our business," Kim said, holding up a hand to interrupt Hanson. "We're heading for that encrypted beacon right now, and that's all that matters to us ground troops."
Just then, Hanson stiffened. From the corner of his eye he caught sight of one of the men further up front, rifle held pointing forward, swinging his left arm down sideways from in front of him in a swift, cutting motion. "Looks like trouble's coming, ma'am."
"I see that," Kim said. "Get the message down for someone in the back to run to the APC's range." Turning to the front, she let her eyes gaze over the surroundings, letting her sight get used to the intermittent darkness. There, well beyond the furthest of her men, was a figure clad in dark colours, with no helmet, a load vest over what appeared to be civilian clothing, track shoes but not military boots, with his body braced somewhat sideways against a tree. His rifle, an old, out-of-production GV-22 assault rifle, with nothing but an iron sight, was further indication that the man was not mainline military.
Kim slowly lifted her MIV-4 assault rifle, setting the rifle butt into the hollow of her shoulder, placing the enemy in within the sights of the weapon's 1.5/2-times red-dot scope. She normally favoured smaller weapons for reliability in close contact, but her favourite R-441 bullpup submachinegun with all of its bells and whistles was stowed somewhere in the trailer for her team's APC, and it would have lacked the guaranteed range in this situation anyways.
Adjusting her stance, she let the scope sight drift over the target, to the area around the insurgent. She could see his head, the man turning around frantically. Behind the trees, she could spot a few telltale signs; the edge of a barrel, an unnatural-looking pile of leaves, the outline of a body pressed against a tree trunk. Whatever terrorist group they came from, they might have been more well-equipped than the standard ideal-loving insurgent, but they weren't much more experienced than the average fresh private.
Kim held up her left hand, palm open, high above her head. Soldiers watching her every move kept her in the periphery of their sights as they silently readied their weapons; thumbs flicked away trigger safety switches, fingers brought from outside the grip guard to rest against the trigger, rifles set into firing position, targets singled out. She inhaled, and exhaled in a long, slow breath.
Then she brought her arm down, and the leaves on tree branches lighted up with brilliant reflections of red and orange, as Alpha Team opened fire on the insurgents of NEFA.
CE 73, December 2nd, Czech Republic-Slovakia Border, South-East Europe
Evening 19 48
The GINN OCHER struggled under the weight of the Anti-Ship Sword as Kaguya pressed her opponent from above, its ex-companion machine naught but a bisected wreck some distance from it. Drawing the heavy beam blade across the GINN's solid sword the way a violinist would draw a bow across a violin's strings, the Sword Dagger L pushed the GINN OCHER backwards, sending it out of balance.
As the GINN struggled to regain its footing, Kaguya repositioned her blade, and with an upwards swing to her right sliced off both arms of the GINN OCHER. The mobile suit stumbled backwards, and Kaguya drove the AS sword into the GINN, running the weapon through the unit's cockpit. With a swift push, the Sword Dagger L swung its sword outwards, the kinetic force of the Sword Dagger L turning from its torso and the impact of the beam blade burning its way out from behind the GINN tearing the terrorist unit's torso from its lower body. In two halves, the GINN crashed to the ground.
From behind, another GINN emerged from behind the crest of the slope that Kaguya's Sword Dagger L was standing on. Ignoring the rifle shots from the GINN, the Sword Dagger L stabbed its AS sword into the ground, and with one swift motion drew and flung its beam boomerang at the GINN.
The GINN tried to duck, but the boomerang was faster, and it pitched to its right as the boomerang's path cut through the mobile suit's left arm joint, depriving the unit of its balance. Without missing a beat, Kaguya engaged the Sword Dagger L's rocket anchor, and fired it at the GINN.
The massive surface-securing device smashed into the GINN's midsection and clamped down, the screech of denting metal and armour apparent as it sought a secure grip. The GINN aimed its rifle at Kaguya, but before it could fire, the Sword Dagger L pulled hard, and sparks flew out of the Sword Dagger L's rocket anchor firing mechanism as it retracted its titanium alloy cable, pulling the hapless GINN over the hillcrest, its aim thrown off-center, and down towards Kaguya.
The Sword Dagger L simply pulled out its AS sword backhanded and activated the short beam blade on its hilt. With one last vigorous tug, the Sword Dagger L pulled the GINN upright and smashed the beam blade into its torso, before slanting to the side and letting the GINN fall to its right, which continued sliding down the hill a distance before its frame begun to bleed smoke and fire.
Kaguya pulsed her short-range sensors one last time to make sure that there were no enemies around, before cresting the hilltop. The sight that greeted her was one of carnage; several tanks and armoured vehicles, including two Strike Daggers and even a GuAIZ, lay in burning wrecks. From her left and a small clump of trees strode the Oracle Lance, the air around its beam carbine's barrel shimmering. Its custom rifle was holstered, and, if Kaguya recalled, had yet to be deployed since NEFA shot the Manhunters transport out from under them.
"Good hunting, Hunter Two?" Kaguya asked as she ran a systems check to make sure she didn't overtax her mobile suit.
"Too easy," Sheryl replied. "But there seems to be a lot of them."
"Well, we're in their lands," Kaguya replied. "I'm just worried that they'll pick up the encrypted signal sooner or later, and then we'll really have to deal with bullshit."
"And then there's the problem of the rest," Sheryl said, sparing one last look at the day's last glow. "What I wouldn't have given to have a chance to shoot down that Rosso Aegis."
CE 73, December 2nd, Drietoma, Slovakia, South-East Europe
Evening 20 16
As the remaining VTOL transports from the afternoon attack, and their escorts, flew in formation to finish the last leg of their journey to Trencin, Esther swore, for the fiftieth time in the past hour since, that if-that when she caught ahold of the pilot of the Rosso Aegis, Rasel Gray, she would make him scream for his mother.
In that brief skirmish in the air, the Mannheim force had lost nearly 50% of their total air force; four out of nine transports had went down, depriving them of one mobile suit team, several battle tanks and armoured vehicles, as well as much of their precious supplies and materials. The only truly good thing to come out of it was that Blizzard Squadron was still intact, and their Skygraspers remained still. Caleria, Benjamin and Karl had done all they could to keep the 219th off the convoy's backs, but the difference in technology was too great; the Rosso Aegis was nigh untouchable even when fighting in the air three-to-one, and the transport that was carrying all of Blizzard's members might have been the fifth transport down if Caleria hadn't scored a glancing hit on the Rosso Aegis.
Esther suspected, however, that the depletion of energy and ammunition due to the high-powered assault that the NEFA units had sprung on them was the larger reason for the enemy's sudden withdrawal from the airspace, and the fact that the most prolific mobile suit in NEFA's possession had escaped destruction and capture, had caused Esther to stew with the restless need for a rematch since.
She squashed her feelings and continued to look through the tactical results of the previous battle, biting chunks off an energy bar. There had been nothing wrong with Mannheim's tactics, but NEFA had possessed the advantage of air power, and they had been forced to counter them with their own air forces instead of having the opponent come to them. Combat had always been, and would always be, a high-stakes game of scissors-paper-stone, and in Esther's opinion, if the Mannheim crew had time to reach Trencin before the air skirmish could take place, then all the mobile suit teams had to do was to repel the Raider Full Specs and the Rosso Aegis; everything else could have been dealt with using conventional anti-air firepower. Trencin Base had plenty of urban spaces to hide indirect missile launchers.
"Blizzard Leader," Rolan cut into her thoughts with a transmission. "They're telling us to prepare for operation drop to Trencin Base. ETA in two minutes."
"Acknowledged, Blizzard Two," Esther said, forcing the rest of the bar into her mouth and chucking the wrapper somewhere behind her. Had she been working for any rear-line test team, that would have been cause enough to have her taken off her piloting duties; on the front, however, such thoughts were, at best, mild entertainment."Tell the crew to prep the Aile Striker packs on the launch rails again; someone's going to need them, whether it's for us, or the Skygrasper squadron."
"Aye, Blizzard Leader," Rolan replied.
Esther gripped her controls as the back door of the VTOL transport opened up, and the Hyperion G, released from its clamps, took its place as the first in the line on the launch rails. The jamming from before had subsided to normal levels, but that was hardly reason to not fear an ambush. Breathing in, Esther watched as the warning lights embedded in the interior of the massive aircraft flashed green; a second later, the launch pad kicked in, and the Hyperion G was shot out of the transport, feet first, into the night. Far and up high, Spearhead fighters and Skygraspers from other squadrons banked and dived, preparing for the bombing run that would hopefully soften any ground targets caught out in the open.
Realigning her mobile suit to face the ground, Esther engaged the Hyperion G's beam shield; a second later, a missile warning chimed, and an anti-air missile slammed into the energy wall, the force shaking the Hyperion G. Streamers of smoke washed off the frame of the prototype unit as the heavy machine fell through the air.
"Contact!" Esther said. "Didn't see the source, but it was probably an MS-borne launcher! If you spot them, you have full permission to open fire!"
Behind Esther, Rolan's Hyperion G took up position to cover the remaining units of Blizzard Squadron as they exited the transports. All around the mobile suits, transports were disgorging their contents; airdropped battle tanks, armoured fighting vehicles, and paratroopers mixed in the air. Flashes of fire erupted from the ground as Mannheim's air complement completed their ground suppression runs, and dropped flare missiles before disengaging to escape to the relative safety of the air, beyond the cloud level where most medium SAMs could not target and attack them; a few Spearheads were already heading for the ground, fiery streaks that told of the insurgent's battle capabilities. "You heard Blizzard Leader!" he said. "Return fire, and perhaps they might not get bored enough to target the transports instead of us!"
"Roger!" Three voices answered back as two Dagger L's opened fire with their GAU-8M2 52mm machineguns. The weapons were older models for the 105 Dagger, but Esther had wanted her men to have a weapon with a faster rate of fire; they could save their beam carbines for when they were on steady ground, but right now she wanted as many areas saturated with projectiles and beams as possible. Even Caleria's 105 Dagger was equipped with a GAU-8M2, its Windam beam rifle slung over its shoulder with a makeshift attachment.
The two Hyperion Gs added their beam submachineguns to the mix, and soon enough the airspace was filled with green streaks and tracers as Blizzard Squadron opened fire on anything that seemed suspicious. An explosion told Esther that something had been hit; in the light of the flames, she spotted the wreck of a ZuOOT painted in shades of grey urban digitalized camouflage. Beside it, a BuCUE, painted in the light grey of a captured unit put to work under OMNI control, vanished as a heavy bomb unit streaked into the area and opened up mid-flight; hundreds of smaller bomblets were released, carpeting the ground in heavy explosives. In an instant a blanket of fire rose, and around the battlefield, similar sights took hold as the air force's attacks reached their targets. A second wave of missiles streaked in from high up before plunging towards the ground, short-ranged but powerful ATGMs that rendered any targeted units into so much worthless scrap, both vehicle and mobile suit alike.
Esther's Hyperion G flared its thrusters one last time and hit dirt, the impact cracking the concrete flooring of Trencin Base's outskirts; Rolan's unit following up a second later; both Hyperion Gs presented their shielded fronts to the enemies, creating a semi-safe zone for more units to come.
Esther herself, however, was seething; if the insurgents were creating military-use combat camouflage patterns for their uses, then it was highly likely that Kasavok was educating NEFA on how to fight. Give them time, she thought, as her team members landed around her, and we might well be facing a third national power on our own grounds, and allied with ZAFT, to boot.
Benjamin and Karl's Dagger Ls immediately dropped their machineguns and drew their beam carbines as they landed, the weapons spitting spears of green death at opponents hiding behind infrastructure mere seconds later. Caleria's 105 Dagger was doing the same, but with a Windam rifle, and far off a mobile suit exploded as the powerful beam weapon struck its target dead-centre.
One-by-one the mobile suits of Blizzard Team landed, weapons fire blazing as they sought out targets using sensors and the flashes of enemy weapons fire. An insurgent GuAIZ fell as Karl placed a neat cluster of shots into its torso, and the subsequent light from its explosion illuminated the area; Benjamin shot down another BuCUE hiding behind a building. Caleria's 105 Dagger fired its beam rifle, the high-powered shot burning through a building to bore a hole through an insurgent Dagger L; in the light of the mobile suit's explosions; she could clearly see the hasty paintwork over the machine's former shoulder markings indicating it as a Trecin Base unit. Around them, Mannheim's main ground force landed, paratroopers and armoured combat vehicles racing towards the front, while the battle tanks arranged themselves into staggered firing positions.
Esther pushed the actuators on the Hyperion G to the max. "Blizzard Leader to all Blizzards," she said as she fired the thrusters for a boost-jump further into the base, "We're storming the front!"
"Aye leader!" Four replies greeted her as her subordinates' mobile suits fanned out, green beam shots arcing a path towards any enemy that dared expose themselves.
An insurgent GINN paused while firing, looking up just in time for a dark-blue Hyperion G to crash an armoured knee block into its head. The mobile suit toppled, and before it had hit the ground, Ester had already stabbed a beam sabre through its torso. Beside her, a GINN that had exposed itself to take aim at her unit fell to the ground, its right leg exploding as a series of beam shots struck it; Rolan's Hyperion G landed on the unfortunate mobile suit, and metal screamed as the weight of the Hyperion G's landing crushed the cockpit of the GINN.
"Funny that they would take Trecin Base and not fortify it against us," Rolan replied.
"We're not sure of that yet," Esther replied, as her Hyperion G bounded into the air with another blast of its back thrusters. "Let's not get too overconfident before the infantry report back."
Flashes behind Blizzard Team indicated where the armoured infantry and fighting vehicles had started mopping up the leftovers; a GINN took a hit to its head from an anti-armour missile, toppling into a building with a shower of debris; several AFVs rounded the corner, one of them with a smoking missile tube; the rest tore into the GINN with volleys from their mounted 105mm cannons, punching holes into the frame with armor-piercing rounds. A BuCUE attempted to manoeuvre around the buildings to get a clear shot at the airdropped tank companies, only to get assassinated through the buildings it was hiding behind as a trio of tanks turned and fired their guns, the glare of light from their firepower temporarily turning their vicinity stark-white; with NEFA's failure to eradicate the task force from the skies, Major Wallace in EWACS Watchtower was providing them a clear view of Trencin Base and the enemies milling around the 3-by-3 kilometers complex.
As the OMNI forces advanced, NEFA's units began intercepting them in earnest;, infantry, re-appropriated armored vehicles, and stolen mobile suits struck back at their attackers, falling back onto a semblance of the same tactics and strategies used by their loyalist counterparts.
NEFA was more militia than military, but the forces that were currently left at Trencin were a mix of veteran insurgents and trained military personnel supplemented by an almost unfair number of automated defences and autopiloted units. While they had their own hidden base of operations to think of, the terrorist organization was not so willing to relinquish its grip on a proper military facility, and the more OMNI destroyed in this battle, the less of their own stolen gear they could retrieve for the next phase of the operation. Regardless, taking the base was the top priority of all Eurasian forces that were present.
Rounding a corner, Esther came within sight of four AFVs with 120mm cannon turrets, and a setup of three automatic anti-aircraft missile launchers positioned in-between two buildings. Were she piloting any other mobile suit, Esther would have had scant seconds to duck back into cover, but the howl of the AVFs' cannons were stopped short as Esther's Hyperion G shifted to face its adversary, the armor-piercing round failing to penetrate the beam shield. Esther's return fire slagged the AFVs into an unrecognizable mess, and the Hyperion G's CIWS gun barrels flashed as she destroyed the missile turrets. Checking her HUD, she realized that her immediate area was devoid of enemies. In front of her rose the base's control tower complex, the primary objective of this battle.
"Blizzard Leader to all, report status."
"Blizzard Two. All clear. I'm heading towards the base control tower. Seems like we're home free."
"Blizzard Three. Advancing with Blizzard Four, Blizzard Five. Approaching base control tower."
Esther pondered her options for a moment. "Right. Blizzard Leader to Blizzard all, advance and secure the area around the control tower. Pay attention to enemy armor; our infantry are coming up in a minute or less, so don't let them take unnecessary casualties. We don't know how many insurgents there might be within the base buildings."
Four replies answered Esther in the positive as Blizzard Team took up positions around the control tower of the base; close enough to intercept possible enemy reinforcements, but far away enough to prevent insurgents hiding in the tower from surprising them with anti-armor infantry weapons. APCs with heavy machinegun turrets, backed by cannon AFVs and even Linear Tanks, rolled through the concrete streets of the large base towards the control tower and to other key locations highlighted on each operation squad leader's tactical map. Watching from her mobile suit, Esther saw two APCs park near her and disgorge their complement of infantry; heavily-armed-and-armored troopers stormed into the tower, and soon enough the flashes of gunfire could be seen from behind darkened windows. Looking out over the base, watching weapons fire and explosions from farther away light up the night sky and drown out the winking of the stars, Esther found her thoughts turning towards the Manhunters.
CE 73, December 2nd, Czech Republic-Slovakia Border, South-East Europe
Evening 20 34
The day had not been kind to the Manhunters. Ray continued watching the display screens, expending more of his mobile suit's precious power resources into its radar and sensors as he scanned both ground and air approaches for incoming threats. Behind him, and with the damaged APC in-between them, was Guy's Launcher Dagger L doing the same. Using data network, the mobile shuts showed their pilots a combined view of the tactical map, allowing both pilots to note on the other's situation.
Their range was poor however; beyond 5 kilometres, they were essentially blind. The constant jamming was still a force to be reckoned with, and that wasn't considering innate jamming carried by individual units.
"The blind leading the blind, huh..." Ray muttered.
The two mobile suits had linked up with Sergeant Yohan Fauser's platoon quickly enough after a second skirmish, but soon after had the enemy attacks had come in earnest; three waves of insurgent infantry and mobile suits attempted to wipe this pocket of OMNI forces off the face of the area, each attack repulsed only because the insurgents were well-under-equipped compared to Guy's Launcher Dagger L. Unfortunately, Kim's infantry contingent hadn't arrived yet, and Kaguya and Sheryl's units were nowhere to be seen. Their radar truck was a concern that they hadn't even addressed yet.
A beeping from the radar elected a tired sigh from Ray. "Guy!" Ray said, following up on agreed precautions in case Guy had succumbed to fatigue. "Red contact coming your way!"
The staccato beat of the Launcher Dagger L's 12.7mm CIWS started up before cutting out halfway. "That was a combat jeep," Guy replied, lethargy evident in his tone. "Hold on. Ghost contacts on the periphery... I read two BuCUEs incoming and two GINN OCHREs. They're closing in now; I can see them on visual."
"I think we can take them," Ray said, just as his mobile suit let out a warning alarm; more new units had been detected. Ray said nothing as he assessed the threat, but an iron grip formed over his heart at the rapidly-increasing numbers. "New contacts. North-east."
As Ray adjusted the settings on the Manhunter Command's radar, one of the north-eastern contacts acceleration. On the viewscreen, the top of the sparse forest shook as the approaching mobile suit snapped smaller trees in its wake.
Barely a second later, the ground exploded as twin shots screamed over the horizon, over the rapidly approaching unit, to land several meters short of the Manhunters' makeshift defensive point. The Manhunter Command stumbled from the bone-jarring impact; on-screen, Ray could see the infantry that were out and about on the ground being flung backwards from the sheer backwash of the impact.
"Artillery!" Guy yelled. The Launcher Dagger L hefted its Agni hyper-impulse cannon, but a second loud whine, this time the dragged-out scream of a plasma beam weapon, forced the Launcher Dagger L to duck to the ground, the heavy Agni cannon making the mobile suit hard to balance properly. "Shit! That was a beam weapon!"
Incoming vanguard unit... artillery rounds and a multi-phase beam blast… Ray thought. "Guy! They're the 391st ATS!"
"The Ravens? Those guys with Kasavok?" Guy asked, as his mobile suit levelled off the Agni cannon against the enemy fire's point of origin and let off a short blast. "What are they doing here?"
"Probably to coordinate with the enemy insurgents to stomp us out," Ray replied. "Change of plans, Bravo," he opened a comm link to the infantry leader on the ground. "You're on your own. Hunter Three will provide counter-fire for artillery, you're going to have to pull your own weight if it comes to a gunfight."
"There's a close-contact threat running around?" Sergeant Fauser asked.
"If this is the Ravens, it'll be a Sword Calami-" Ray began.
No sooner had Ray began his sentence than a camouflage-patterned, dual-sword-wielding mobile suit bash out of the nearby forest to take a vicious swing at the Manhunter Command. Ray managed to bring his mobile suit's shield up in time as he backtracked to his right to avoid getting the infantry caught up in the inevitable melee that was assured to follow. "Hunter Leader to all, Sword Calamity sighted! Contact!"
The Manhunter Command pulled out its beam sabre and held its shield forward, taking the next hit head-on as the Sword Calamity pushed back against the Dagger L. Despite being built during the First Bloody Valentine War, the Sword Calamity, as a special unit, had a strong engineering foundation and was by no means outdated; the media liked to constantly overrate the pace at which mobile suit technology advanced. A ZAKU Warrior was likely to be 30% new parts and 70% reworked GuAIZ R, and the Dagger L was but the same to the Strike Dagger; even the feared Rosso Aegis was but an internal upgrade of the original Aegis Gundam, with the exception of its transformation system.
That unfortunately also meant that Ray couldn't count on technology on his side; the Sword Calamity threw in a second, bone-jarring horizontal strike against the Manhunter Command's shield, sending the mobile suit completely off-balance and flying backwards.
Every fibre of Ray's being screamed at him to bring his mobile suit back to standing. Experience from ground combat told him that the Sword Calamity was not going to afford him the luxury of getting back up before charging again. As the Manhunter Command focused its head sensors on the enemy, rolling with the blow to get back up, a bright glow emanated from the torso of the enemy.
With a blast, the Sword Calamity fired its torso-mounted plasma cannon, sending plasma streams everywhere in a shotgun blast. Roiling energies reached out towards the Manhunter Command, each plasma shot in the blast more than capable of tearing holes into his well-abused unit.
Afterword:
While this arc may seem a bit out of left field, I thought that it would be a nice expansion on the inter-organization and internal conflicts by the Earth Alliance during the Second Bloody Valentine War. There's always been a criminal lack of representation on the EA side and I hope that with this arc, I can accurately provide an alternative view of the Earth Alliance during the second war; why they won, why they lost, and how such actions came to pass, rather than just have the focus be on LOGOS in lieu of everything else.