Chapter 27

CE 74, January 3rd, 'B' Block Barracks, Mannheim Base, Germany, Eurasian Federation

Morning 08 17

"You're crazy," Kim said. "Sir."

"Maybe I am," Ray replied. "But since you agreed so readily, I think you're getting into this as well."

The infantry commander chuckled. "Got me there. I never took to the new arrivals. Some of them are outright thugs."

Ray, Sheryl, and Kim were hidden behind the corner of a nearby building, watching the infantrymen patrol the exterior of the nearest armoury to their location. There were four soldiers in total, standing in pairs and facing opposite directions.

"Not a very insurmountable guard, but they'll definitely get suspicious if anything out of place appears," Kim said. "Leave the opening to me."

Ray watched as Kim left cover and approached the guards. Two of them turned to look at her; one of the guards raised an arm. "Hey there. What are you doing, walking around?"

Kim raised an eyebrow. "Is there something wrong with that? There isn't anything to do right now."

"New orders just came through," the soldier replied. "Only OMNI troops under secondary command are allowed to move. You're assigned to this place under the Eurasian Federation command, aren't you?"

"Details, details," Kim said, opening the door to the barracks office. "Yeah, I get it, I'll keep to myself."

"Hey, what are you doing?" The soldier asked. "Office is off-limits."

"I just need to take something," Kim replied.

"No, the only place with free movements is within the barrack bunks upstairs…" the soldier started.

As quietly as they could, Ray and Sheryl had crept past the soldiers and rounded the barracks once, emerging around the corner where they could see the guards focused on Kim, trying to talk her out of her actions. Leaving the sergeant to her tasks, the two officers made their way upstairs.

The first to spot them was Hanson Warbeck, one of Kim's sub-commanders. "That's a surprise to see you here, sir," the burly sergeant said, bare from his chest down. "Sorry you had to see me like this; there's been nothing to do but do some basic work-out."

Behind him were a few soldiers, some groaning as they massaged their abdomens and arms.

Sheryl let loose a small laugh. "Planking, eh?"

"For five minutes straight every round, ma'am!" one of the soldiers at the back replied.

"Sorry to interrupt your getting swole," Ray said. "But Kim's down there and she's in a bit of a pickle. This is what has happened so far…"

When Ray was finished explaining, the expressions on the soldiers and Hanson had changed from mild bewilderment to anger. "Well, I've never liked the way the Atlantic Federation kept butting into things," Hanson said. "Give us a minute, sir, and we'll get dressed for a scrap."

When Ray and Sheryl had returned to the first floor, Kim was still arguing with the guards.

"C'mon, that paperwork won't finish itself," Kim said, exasperation on her face. "Just let me get my things done in peace and quiet, alright?"

"No can do, ma'am," the same soldier replied. "Look, you guys are on lockdown, alright? You're not supposed to be doing anything else but preparing to move out."

"Move out… to where, exactly?" Kim said.

"That's not up to us," the soldier said. "You just need to follow orders."

"Follow orders? It's pretty convenient for OMNI to just agree and allow the Atlantic Federation to step in like this, isn't it?" Kim eyed the soldier. "So much for OMNI."

The soldier kept silent, but refused to budge. "Those are our orders, ma'am."

The soldier's partner tapped his shoulder. "Hey, wait." He pointed upwards. "Things got quiet up there."

The first soldier glared at Kim, then turned to his comrades. "You, keep an eye on her. The two of you, go up there and check to see…"

"There won't be a need for that," Ray said, stepping forward. "What's the issue with my sub-commander?"

"Restriction orders, sir," the soldier replied. "No one's to access any administrative facilities unless they're from the second force. It's part of the lockdown, you see." The soldier eyed Ray. "That applies to you too, sir."

"Really, now," Ray said, as Hanson and his men filed down, surrounding the guards before they could back away. Kim's soldiers overcame the guards in an instant; grabbed from behind no matter where they turned, the only thing that they could do was look at Ray as he eyed their current state. "That's just too bad, isn't it?"

CE 74, January 3rd, 'A' Block Hangars, Mannheim Base, Germany, Eurasian Federation

Morning 0921

Esther glanced around the corner. "Two at the door of the hangar. We'd want to get to A-1 and A-3, but they have guards down the line, so we can't let those guys off, either."

"So it ends up spilling the blood of allies on our own base," Rolan sighed. "Life sure is hard nowadays."

"Stop nattering," Esther hissed. "We're only moving if Feric and the rest can't make it. Lieutenant Vayer, how's the rear?"

"Silent, ma'am," Caleria said. "Ain't many guards around except for the areas of focus."

"There's a lot of them, but not enough to cover the whole base," Karl said. "We can't be waiting here forever, though. Once word gets out about the guards at the cafeteria, the alarm's going up, and then…"

The comm unit clipped to Esther's belt made a low, buzzing sound. Snapping it up, she held it to her ear. "Feric, do you have anything on your side?"

There was the crackle of static, then the reply. "About forty men and women, for starters. Some are armed now."

Esther grinned. "Good. We'll get moving on our side, then."

"We're going out, then?" Rolan asked.

"Yeah. Stick to the plan, and don't break from behind even if they shoot me," Esther said. "As long as you guys can get to the mobile suits, we can bring the situation to our favor."

"I still think it should be one of us out there rather than you, Captain," Benjamin said.

Esther was silent for a while. "Let me put it this way, Sorbough," she said, pointing to the captain's bars pinned on the collar of her uniform. "The higher this goes, the less likely they'll react at a hair-trigger. Not that a Captain is high enough, but it'll hold."

Rolan laughed. "Shouldn't we get the Lieutenant Colonel to do this then?"

Esther cracked a smile at Rolan's statement, despite the gravity of the situation and herself. "And you'll run the base in place of the commander, right? Dream on." Looking over the corner, Esther addressed her people one last time. "Don't get discovered. Now go."

Once her pilots had dispersed, Esther left cover and approached the nearest hangar alone. One of the guards, spotting her, hailed for her to stop.

"I wasn't aware that we're not allowed to check our units before an operation," Esther remarked.

"I didn't hear of any operation," the guard replied. "I'll have to check with my superiors. Stay put and don't leave."

"You mean the Atlantic Federation," Esther said, straight-facedly.

The soldier coughed once. "Don't make my job difficult, ma'am," he said, as he reached for his comm device.

Esther backed off with both hands held up in front of her. "Hey, hey. No need to get so professional, now."

"Orders, ma'am," the soldier replied. "We'll have to report this all the same."

"Come on, now," Esther sighed. "You really think I should have to deal with the mind games your superiors like to play during their questioning session?"

"Not my decision to make," the soldier replied, pressing the transmitting button on his earpiece. Esther stood, armed crossed, as the soldier relayed the situation to whomever was on the listening end.

The soldier frowned, then acknowledged whatever had been told to him. His partner beside him nodded, raised his rifle, and backed away, as the soldier pulled out a pair of handcuffs from his combat vest.

"You're kidding," Esther said.

"Orders from up top. They want you detained as a temporary measure," the soldier replied. "Put out your hands, please, and we can get this over with quickly and painlessly."

"I won't be arrested on my home base like any common criminal... especially not by some interlopers," Esther said, her voice dropping to a very low tone.

"Ma'am, please," the soldier said. "We have orders. Orders that supersede even your authority on this base."

And from the hangar beside them, a foot-shaped dent formed on the sealed blast doors of the storage building. The soldier looked away for just an instant; enough time for Esther to strike out, catching him by his chin. His partner fired a shot, which missed, as Esther pushed her temporary hostage forward, entangling both soldiers as they went down in a heap. By then, the other two soldiers guarding the other hangar, who had started running towards Esther when the commotion had began, both turned to look at the source of the sudden heat wave they had felt, as the roar of an over-powered beam sabre pushed through the heavy-duty hangar doors.

As Esther ran towards the hangar, the number of dents on their doors increased, as did the frequency of their appearance; the soldiers ducked and ran for cover as, with a final resounding strike, the foot of a mobile suit appeared seconds later as Benjamin's Dagger L kicked the doors down; the resonating scream of two solid steel alloy sliding doors as they were torn from their rails echoed throughout the still morning air, their deafening impact onto the tarmac echoing across the base.

The soldier who had his gun sights trained on Esther moments ago, untangled himself from his unconscious partner just in time to see a dent appear on the hangar doors right behind him. Grabbing his partner by the back of his vest, the soldier pulled him along as he ran; seconds later, both doors were violently struck from their guiding rails as Rolan emerged from within the hangar in his Hyperion G.

There was a momentary burst of static as Rolan activated his unit's external speakers. "One order of military dissention, upsized, coming up," he said. The Hyperion G fixed its mechanical gaze on Esther, who had hidden behind the corner walls of the hangar during the chaos. "Where do you want me to put this bad boy to?"

"Take the others, raid the armoury, and strike the Atlantic Federation barracks," Esther said, running into the hangar; her own unit still stood in its berth, silent, awaiting her hands upon the controls. "Try not to blow them up; the less infrastructure damage we have, the less rebuilding we have to do to prepare for what comes after this. I'll join you guys shortly; speed is of the essence here."

Leaving Rolan to manage her people, the sound of rocket thrusters propelling mobile suits into the air in a boosted jump soon faded into the back of her mind as she climbed into the cockpit. Looking over the controls one, she mentally heaved a sigh of relief; at least the interlopers hadn't thought of disassembling the prototypes or locking them down.

Esther quickly booted her unit up; she would have preferred to wear a pilot suit, but there was no time to get into one, and if she knew her guard protocols well, there would also have been soldiers stationed outside the pilot lockers. Going through one layer of guards at the hangar was bad enough.

The radio was the first to come online; immediately Esther caught a communication burst on the allied channel.

"Mobile suits on the base! We're getting an ID on them; they're the units from the Eurasian Fede-"

The feed abruptly cut out; whether the Atlantic Federation had activated its encryption, or whether something had happened to the person transmitting it, was of little concern to Esther. Now that news of their little mutiny had gotten out on the open channel, it was only a matter of time before the Atlantic Federation moved to crush them. The least she could do was to send her unit to disrupt the main forces; unfortunately, Mannheim Base was a large location, and it was almost assured that the Phantom Pain forces would have stored their units away from the main forces; that information was not told to anyone, not even to Colonel Roan.

She could however, at least, even the score from nine mobile suits against nearly a hundred Atlantic units, to just twelve, if Rolan and the rest were lucky.

CE 74, January 3rd, 'D' Armament Block, Mannheim Base, Germany, Eurasian Federation

Morning 09 52

The guard soldiers scattered as the Manhunter Command trained its gunsights on them. Beneath it, the infantry contingent of the Manhunters hurried into the firearms armoury. Those who carried rifles taken from the guards they had clashed with earlier placed themselves behind cover, weapons pointed outwards for any possible threats.

"C'mon, move faster!" Hanson hollered. "We all know most AtFed soldiers from home are wimps, but that doesn't mean that their guns don't hurt!"

Kim Rassare slung the rifle she had gotten from Ray and tapped her comm device once. "Good enough, sir. Leave the rest to us."

Ray toggled the comm links. "You sure that's good enough, Sergeant? No doubt they're going to come at you with quite a force, now that they know you're armed."

"We all have a job to do, Lieutenant," Kim replied. "There are almost a hundred mobile suits on this base and that's not counting their support fighters and vehicles." She grinned. "You want to keep the chicks in the nest a little longer, don't you? Flatten enough of those tincans from the Atlantic mainland, and Phantom Pain will have no choice but to dirty their own hands if they wanna stop you."

Ray laughed, despite himself. He had sent the rest of the Manhunters on a search and destroy mission as soon as they had surprised the hangar guards with Kim's soldiers, but Kim was spot-on; even assuming that Esther's forces were all accounted for, they were outnumbered ten-to-one, and the Atlantic Federation forces were smart enough to split them up into groups of thirty units or less.

A warning tone notified Ray of approaching human-sized targets; his fingers tensed on the trigger before he realized that they were Mannheim Base personnel.

"We'll hold out fine," Kim said, chuckling. "There are more than enough guns for everyone here. On the other hand, if you guys in the mobile suits get taken out, we'll be in deep shit too."

"I'll leave it to you then, Sergeant," Ray said. "Don't try and set off a fuel tank or anything too flashy."

"I give no guarantees," Kim said, just as the comm link fizzled out and terminated. The Manhunter Command turned; a blast of fire temporarily obscured his vision in front as a mobile suit landed, beam sabre out. The IFF in his unit was still uncalibrated; his computer had not given an enemy approach warning.

Then again, if the unit had come to kill, it would have went for him already.

"Having fun being irresponsible again, Lieutenant?" Major Venna Calis' voice sounded out. "Killing your own students has lost its kick for you?"

Ray resisted the urge to draw the Manhunter Command's weapons; instead, it took up a defensive stance, legs wide, shield held to torso level. "Major Calis. Surely you have to have seen the scenes of Berlin under attack by strategic forces. We're being locked here to prevent us from repelling this unsanctioned assault on an allied nation!"

"A soldier's job is to do what is required of her or him to do, Lieutenant," Venna said, spitting out the last word. "Going off to do your own thing makes you no better than a bandit!"

"Open your eyes, Venna! You and your unit are being used by Phantom Pain!" Ray's grip tightened on the controls. "They're burning Berlin even as we stand here and argue about duty!"

"Enough excuses," Venna said. "I'll bring you down where you stand!"

Ray swore as Venna's Jet Windam lunged forward, its unit back attachment opening its wings as its thrusters fired; the blinding blade of its beam sabre split the air where the Manhunter Command had been seconds before. Unfazed, Venna manoeuvred her unit; the Jet Windam's feet tapped the ground once as it spun on its axis, bringing its beam sabre in a horizontal slash that was barely blocked by the Manhunter Command's own shield.

Rather than fight the older unit in a contest of strength, the Jet Windam jumped backwards and brought its beam rifle up to torso level with its shield arm; a high-powered blast split the air as the Manhunter Command ducked and sprinted forward, shield held in front and angled as the beam blast caught the surface of the shield.

Streams of superheated plasma seared across the base tarmac as Venna's Jet Windam leapt out of the way, taking to the air; as she aimed her beam rifle at the ground, she saw the Manhunter Command disappear in-between two building blocks.

Venna cursed; the Manhunters had struck too quickly to get more than a select few of her own up in the air; not helping matters was that they had ran into a contingent of Mannheim security troopers en route to their unit hangars. While the Floggers had helped them to drive off the three members of the Manhunters that were present as well as the troopers, allowing her pilots to get to the remaining units, to rely on them, or any of the rookies for that matter, for any sort of prolonged fighting, was a non-viable option. "This is Gauntlet Leader. All unit pilots, report status."

"Vambrace Leader, clear. I have Vambrace Three, Vambrace Five, Vambrace Six, and Vambrace Eight with me."

"Gauntlet Two, clear. I have Gauntlet Three, Gauntlet Four, and Gauntlet Eleven with me."

"Bracer Leader, in. I have Bracer Two, Bracer Four, Bracer Five, Bracer Seven and Bracer Nine with me."

"Change of plans. Gauntlet, link up with my position as soon as possible. Vambrace, Bracer, spread out, hunt for the dissidents. If you encounter either the Blizzards or the Manhunters, open fire to kill."

Acknowledgement lights flashed over her HUD. Venna terminated her link, and turned her sights towards the inner portion of the base. Administrative buildings, some taller than the standard six to seven-story high hangars, populated the interior of the base.

You can't run from the past forever, Feric.

CE 74, January 3rd, 'C' Administrative Block, Mannheim Base, Germany, Eurasian Federation

Morning 10 12

The Dagger L stumbled backwards as Benjamin's unit crashed into it with a shield rush; the Atlantic Federation rookie behind the controls was no match for an experienced soldier. Benjamin's unit struck out with its beam sabre, the strike taking off his opponent's mobile suit's head unit. Bereft of its main cameras, the machine stumbled backwards, as another sabre strike across its legs ended its brief tenure of opposition to the Blizzards.

The Blizzards had found the second formation of machines assigned to the rookies that had been permanently stationed at Mannheim. The Manhunters, led by Kaguya, reported the same sequence of events against the units of the 47th ATB; while they had hastened as much as they could, they were still unable to destroy all of the machines in the hangars before some pilots could get into them. The Floggers had appeared soon after, and they were forced to disengage.

And there was still the question of the units from Flogger Squadron. From what little Benjamin had heard of them, the unit was fully equipped with Slaughter Daggers, the latest iteration of the 105 Dagger, several other specialized mobile suits, and their flight leaders operated Strike E variants. Any encounter with them could only end in brutal attrition.

Benjamin's Dagger L ducked as another unit, a Windam, attempted to behead his unit from behind; the Dagger L slashed out with its beam sabre and struck off the attacker's sword arm at its wrist. Seconds later the hardened edge of an anti-beam shield smashed into the faceplate of the lightweight OMNI unit, sending it crashing to the ground; Benjamin's unit stepped down on the fallen machine, and cut out its other arm at its shoulder joint.

"You're doing better than usual, Ben," Rolan said, sending a unit stumbling backwards, a Dagger L with its arms amputated at the elbow. A burst of CIWS fire from its head cannons missed their target as the Hyperion G sidestepped the clumsy burst, and with a sweep of its beam sabres, slagged the top half of the unit's head. Silenced, Rolan's opponent simply toppled backwards onto the wall of a nearby hangar, cracking the concrete walls before sliding into a sitting position on the ground. Its shoulder markings identified it as the commander of this group of units; Benjamin took a brief moment to recall his briefings, that the current "commanders" for the rookies' squadrons were just graduates who happened to score the highest.

"These are just the small fry," Benjamin replied. "We're going to have to face Phantom Pain sooner or later."

"All units within the vicinity have been pacified," Caleria Vayer said, her Dagger L pushing another disabled unit off her. "No destabilizing explosions reported." An alert on her HUD focused her attention to a group of jeeps rounding the corner; one of them waved at the mobile suits, and Caleria had to control herself to stop from laughing at the slapdash paint job of the Eurasian Federation insignia on the bonnet of the lead car. "Looks like the security crew is here."

"Well, we'll deal with it as it comes," Rolan replied. "All Blizzards, prepare to move out towards second objective-"

"New contacts coming in from three o' clock position!" Karl warned. "IFFs read them as a mix of Phantom Pain units and regulars. Fifteen machines identified."

"That was a little too quick to be courteous," Rolan said. "All Blizzards, move into the buildings around here. We'll lure them away from the security details. Security group, do you hear me? Enemy heavies are inbound, keep clear until we lure them away from the group."

The units of Blizzard Squadron scattered, each running in a different direction, as did the approaching vehicles. As the Floggers landed, Rolan could make out their composition; an oddly-equipped Strike E, a Sword Slaughter Dagger, a Launcher Slaughter Dagger, a Blu Duel, and eleven Jet Windams.

Rolan frowned. The Strike E was covered in heavy plating that formed sharp angles against their facing directions, as though it was meant to not just defend against, but to reflect armor-piercing shots from the primary directions of forward, and the sides of the unit. A pair of heavy multi-barrelled autocannons protruded from under its arms on back mounts, as did a pair of cannons; beam or railgun, Rolan couldn't tell; on over-shoulder mounts. What looked like missile pods, four of them, were mounted just behind the unit's head, in-between the railguns, and the unmistakable contours of high-powered leg thrusters added to the monstrously bulky feel of the unit. Its head was encased from its sides and top with what appeared to be additional sensing equipment; the Strike E's true appearance was almost completely hidden behind its bulky helmet armor. A beam rifle and a large shield with the same angular aesthetics, one that dwarfed the standard shields used by OMNI forces, were held in each arm. The tarmac underneath its feet were cracked from the heavy landing.

"I've never seen that unit before," Benjamin remarked nervously. "It looks like it's outfitted for assault operations and heavy breakthro-"

The armored Strike E turned to face Rolan, who had a second to leap out from behind the building it had been braced against before the Phantom Pain mobile suit fired its left shoulder cannon and autocannon at the same time. A beam blast pierced the building where the Hyperion G had stood behind, followed by a trail of shells slamming into the nearest walls as the Hyperion G leapt behind another building for cover.

From behind the Strike E, the three landbound units fanned out; above them were the Jet Windams, each of them attempting to find the Blizzards from the air.

Caleria was the first to reply. "Are they insane?! If they use a siege unit on the base, there won't be anything left for them to operate from after all this!"

"I think it is more likely that they simply don't give a damn," Karl said, as his Dagger L burst from cover; seconds later beam fire lashed the ground where his unit had been, the high-powered blasts from the air punching holes through the concrete tarmac.

Even the relaxed tone was gone from Rolan's voice. "All Blizzards, fall back and regroup at E point," he said, pausing to grit his teeth as the Hyperion G took a cannon blast from the armored Strike E on its beam shield. The members of Blizzard scrambled to get behind their sub-commander's unit; the Hyperion G was the only unit that could withstand the oncoming fire that was currently being directed at them while they attempted to disengage from combat. "Looks like Phantom Pain isn't all talk after a-"

Rolan's voice was interrupted by a new transmission. "Blizzard Leader to all, belay that last order. Fan out and take firing positions."

Esther's Hyperion G landed beside Rolan's with its shield out; beam rifle held forward and firing, the unit boosted forward, forcing the armored Strike E and its contingent to scatter or risk being damaged.

The armored Strike E's powerful leg thrusters fired as the unit moved backwards; its second autocannon came up, multi-barrel rotating, as it showered Esther's Hyperion G in a cascade of high-explosive shells. Esther stopped her unit to take one last shot at the retreating Strike E, before fleeing into the cover of the nearby building herself; seconds later a pair of railgun rounds slammed into the ground where she had been before. Overhead, Jet Windams circled, searching for the perfect firing angle.

"It's great that you're back and all, but now that we're all scattered around the area... what are we supposed to do, hunt them down one by one?" Rolan asked.

Esther gave a short laugh in reply. "Did you think I had a better escape plan than you?"

"I think some of Feric's insanity is rubbing off on you, commander," Rolan remarked. "The old you would have tried to lure them out into the open."

"They already have air cover, open ground is a moot point." Esther replied. "Besides, this place is the best place to neutralize their aerial advantage."

"While also trapping us and them into a one-on-one first-strike basis," Rolan said. "But, well, I can't argue with that. Lesser of two evils, right?"

"If you understand that, then start doing your job already," Esther said. "Blizzard Leader to all, you are free to engage all targets, with one exception. If you see that armored Strike E, note its position and retreat. It's not an opponent that any one of us can take on singlehandedly."

The voices of four people answering in unison steeled Esther's resolve, as her Hyperion G set its back against a building, one hand held onto its corner, while the other pilots vanished into the concrete labyrinth to hunt their targets. The finger-mounted camera showed her an image that she wanted to see; a Blu Duel moving forward in-between the administrative buildings, almost about to cross into her line of fire.

All around here were the buildings that housed Mannheim's administrative personnel during the day. They were slightly taller than the MS hangars, at about 10 stories, but definitely not high enough to keep a daring pilot in an aerial unit from flying low enough to check through each street corner.

The Blu Duel stepped closer.

Esther licked her lips in anticipation.

The resonating roar of an explosion sounded out; a high-powered beam cut into the air, and one of the Jet Windams jettisoned from its ruined jetpack, falling towards the ground. The Blu Duel turned in the direction of where the beam had originated from, and started towards it.

Esther snapped up the opportunity; she steadied her aim, her Hyperion G moving its rifle to take aim at the Blue Duel's back-

-a blast of concrete dust and detritus washed over the Hyperion G as the armored Strike E bulled its way through a gap in-between buildings, and into Esther's position. The Hyperion G pushed itself away from its cover; seconds later the Strike E slammed into the same spot with its shoulders.

Esther fired the Hyperion G's beam machinegun; the torrent of beam shots merely left charred spots on the Strike E's shoulder armor, which had swivelled forward to shield its head. Its torso, likewise, was unharmed. Both machines stood at a standoff, weapons aimed at each other.

The Linebreaker Strike E was motionless for a moment; the intercom on the Hyperion G crackled to life. "This is Captain Hanna Ignas. Your actions are in direct violation of OMNI order. Deactivate your unit immediately."

Esther's reply was instant. "I refuse. Your actions fall under the categorization of belligerent action against allied forces."

The Strike E's arms released the stabilizing grips of its left autocannon, which folded backwards to behind its torso, as did both its shoulder cannons. It kept its beam rifle on its right hip armor slot; moments later, the hilt of a beam sabre ejected from a compartment in its right forearm, straight into the grip of its right hand; in an instant the beam blade flashed to life.

Esther narrowed her eyes in suspicion. Hanna was either overly-condescending, or the armored Strike E would be far more agile than it looked.

There was the sound of a sigh on the intercom, a sound that was almost-imperceptible over the rapidly-growing roar of high-powered surface thrusters. Hanna switched to the allied band, broadcasting her position. "So be it. Flogger Three; on-station in the Linebreaker Strike E. Enemy Hyperion G spotted."

Without warning, the Linebreaker Strike E hurtled, like a rocket, towards the Hyperion G with a blast of blue flames from its thrusters.

"Engaging."

Afterword:

And so the rebellion of the Eurasian Federation begins in earnest. As previously mentioned, in the main series Eurasian troops had zero presence in a conflict that took place on their soil; with this I hope to at least present the possibility that the Atlantic Federation's setup of interference may have clashed with the Eurasian attempt to break free from the Blue Cosmos-led occupational force, disguised as expeditionary troops, and that the events of Mannheim Base is but one such example out of many.