(Set 3, Chapter 8: D-Day)
(7 September 986, 0730 Local time)
The coffee thermos passed clockwise from Natarle to Miriallia, who poured herself a mug of the much-needed 'fuel of armies everywhere'. Afterwards, it continued its clockwise journey to Sai, then to Kuzzey, each pouring themselves a round and adding their personal choice of condiments to the brew. Truth be told, each of the crewmembers in question wanted the whole thermos and more, but they had one of the cooks on retainer to bring refills as needed. Thankfully, they were not relying on one of the Tonberries to bring it.
If ever a case of a whole bridge staff that looked like hell, today was it. Even the Captain looked rough, though to combat she had her own thermos of coffee with a high-power brew all its own to keep her going until the fleet was underway. Not the least of whom had been affected had been Chandratta, whose head audibly bounced off his console several times as the bridge staff drank their fill of coffee to get their minds going properly.
Such would have been hilarious to the outside observer had it not been for the invasion to come. The reason even more so, given why they were so exhausted.
"Helm, engine up, levitator up, prepare to enact move orders. Weapons, full systems checks every six hours. Communications, signal the fleet for readiness checks. Control, have the Aegis on standby on the foredeck in then minutes. It's time to begin this invasion," Captain Ramius notes with something feigned of her usual resolve. It did not take much effort on anyone's part to tell she was incredibly exhausted of her own right.
Things began happening immediately as the ordered personnel began their tasks with slowly clearing minds, their overtired bodies poking at the basic tasks without issue. With only a little more time than usual, the systems were running, being checked, and the Aegis was headed toward the starboard catapult to climb up onto the ship's foredeck. Even Athrun was feeling far worse for the wear, due to his proximity to last night's activity.
Sleep was forthcoming for nobody in proximity to Tolle's quarters. Miriallia had kept him up and going for over four hours, to which they could sense that Tolle had not really objected. Everyone else had, of course, but the Captain was not about to break it up, mainly because she was preoccupied of her own right, which in all likelihood only contributed to everyone's sleep deprivation of its own right. And nobody on the bridge was going to complain about that within earshot of the Captain, of course. All in all, three hours of sleep before shift-change was definitely not enough for general purposes, but thankfully they had four days of approach sail before the landings. And Miriallia had already sworn to the Captain that she would 'take it easy' on Tolle, which left her maneuvering room but more or less guaranteed more sleep for the personnel around the bridge and officer's quarters.
"Conn, Helm, engine and levitator showing green and ready," Mina replies after a few moments. Since her quarters were down in the Enlisted bunks in the gravity toroid, she did not suffer the side effects that the rest of the bridge crew did.
"Conn, Weps, system check commenced, ETC is ten minutes."
"Conn, Comms, message is out."
"Conn, Control, Aegis is up and ready."
"Helm, take us out and lay the course in. Landing Beach California is our destination," Murrue orders.
The invasion had been divided into five beaches, split between two separate parts of the Southern Continent: California and Washington beaches on the northwest side of the continent would be handled by the Figaro First and Second regiments, with the intention of landing about a hundred kilometers away from the Western Pass in the mountains surrounding Vector. An overland march toward the enemy would ensue afterwards, with contact estimated at the narrows of the Western Pass, and that is where the Mobile Forces would come in. Gold, Sword, and Juno beaches were to the northeast of Vector, actually practically in sight of Tzen, and would be the rougher prospect for the invasion and ground action since that would be the expected invasion direction. Doma's three Regiments would be doing the job there, and the troops of Doma had a higher concentration of machine guns per platoon than did the troops from Figaro, due to the expected increased resistance. The Clan Omnimechs would also be assigned to their front, due to their higher firepower to tonnage ratio.
The unstated third invasion corridor would likely be the clincher in this engagement. Natarle fully expected the Empire to be able to stifle, maybe even completely stop the invasion to the north and west of Vector, but the Empire had always sheltered a terrible beast within, the Espers that it raided from time to time to further its Magitek research. The Espers seemed to love the Rune Gods and took orders from them with alacrity, and it went without saying the Espers as a group wanted blood, and lots of it, for the Empire's depredations. Now would be as good a time as any to do the job in that respect as well. Thus, a third operation was arranged for two days from now, for the Rune Gods and the Magic Knights to execute alone. If there was one lesson that the Archangel had derived from their prior operations on Cephiro and in the worlds of the Inner Sphere, it was that magic and technology worked very well when used together properly. Magic also tended to do a helluva lot of damage to technology when used right (or wrong) which justified the risky gamble that Natarle had offered to the Magic Knights.
"Conn, Helm, my course is 1-6-5 at ten knots forward. We should be seeing the invasion fleet begin slipping their moorings in a few moments and moving to join us, Captain," Newman replies.
"Very well," Murrue replies. "Four days," she says, really meaning 'four days of mounting stress'.
"Operation Overlord was a lot shorter distance than this," Natarle replies. "Still, the Germans could look across the channel and see the invasion fleet. It isn't that simple for the Imperials here," she adds.
"Right," Murrue replies, hardly cheered up by such information.
"Conn, sensors, electronic emissions consistent with Imperial Sky Armor detected at range, estimate area of Vector and surrounding military bases," Sai reports.
"Any movement in contacts?" Captain Ramius asks.
"Negative, just sitting on that line of bearing," Sai replies immediately.
"Doesn't look like they know we are coming," Natarle notes. "This is a good thing," she adds.
"It is a start," Murrue replies wearily.
-x-x-x-
(9 September 986, 1045 hours)
While a ship is a thing that runs 24 hours, not all its crew is active at all times. For the remainder of those off-duty and not asleep, there were many ways to rest and relax on the Archangel, which made things easier on the crew. The cafeteria in particular was one of (former) General Celes' favorite places to hang around, since a lot of the crew congregated at the cafeteria and it had the largest of the video projector setups around the ship.
Nowadays, Celes worked as an advisor to King Edgar on Imperial tactics and technology, to assist in developing an effective strategy. Since being chained up and beat down in the smuggling tunnels below South Figaro, Celes had come to the conclusion that what she was serving was something she did not want to serve, or even see continue to exist. Thus, her present employ and her stationing on the Archangel with the King. At the least, though, she had to admit that she hadn't seen much in the way of his supposed lecherousness toward anyone. She also had to admit that whenever nearby Commander Badgiruel his conduct was rather clear and definitely not perverted. Celes would easily have sworn that King Edgar was actually afraid of the ship's commander under that circumstance.
The other place she liked hanging around was the hangar, since there was always something interesting happening in the hangar. It had become something of an informal rule of the ship, that if you sought entertainment you went to the extremes on this ship: the extreme forward (the hangar area) or the extreme rear (the engine area, the hot springs and the holo-rooms). The hot springs she did like, but not as much as the Magic Knights or the bridge staff; the holo rooms she avoided altogether, as the content shown on those projectors was either whorish or wildly over-the-top violent, neither of which she found entertaining. So, her preference was the hangar.
This time around, only a few were actually doing anything in the hangar, and that not much in the way of physical activity. The mechanics, completed of their tasks to prepare the machines for the upcoming campaign, were assembled around a table, playing a game of cards. Poker, she had learned, was a favored way of staying close to one's duty station and screwing off when there was nothing to do. Reading pornography may have been the premise of some others on the ship, but the mechanics kept that to a minimum as far as she could tell. What happened in their quarters stayed there, and Murdoch ruthlessly enforced it.
And, of course, being the cool, calm and professional soldier she was, Celes excelled at games of cards. 'Reading' her intentions was close to impossible, as she was excellent at deception.
"Mind if I join?" Celes asks as she approaches the table.
"Sure, we just started—"
"Fair warning," Murdoch begins before anyone else at the table could say anything. "This game is the result of a bet I lost. Strip Poker, five card draw. You may not want to play unless you want to chance losing your clothes," he warns, to a pair of raspberries from two of the mechanics.
Phrased that way, Celes had a bit of a time deciding whether or not she would take the challenge. Seven months exposure to the crew of the Archangel had drastically changed her outlook on life into something far more daring than she had been as a General in the Imperial Army. Though Leo was known for the caution among herself, Lord Kefka and General Leo, she preferred to use deception and caution as her tools, Leo deception and maneuver, Kefka maneuver and insanity. Between the three, Emperor Gestahl could take any objective, just a matter of sending the right person for the job. Though, now she was less cautious, more decisive and far more challenging than in the past.
The decision did not last long. "I'm in," she replies after five seconds. Of course, she could not help but notice the looks of anticipation around the table, though she thoroughly intended on hosing them all (including Murdoch) before she lost anything really important. In seven months of games twice a week or more, she had the skill and all the qualities to beat them.
"Deal Lady Celes in, then," Murdoch replies after she takes a seat. Chips were issued to her and a new hand was passed to everyone.
"Pass," one of the mechanics for the Aegis says.
"Pass," Murdoch notes.
"Raise ten," the guy to Murdoch's right says.
"Match," The Timber Wolf mechanic says.
"Match," Celes replies, seeing that she already had a pair of fours to go on, it was a good start. The ace, queen and ten would not hurt her in the long run, either.
"Out," the dealer says.
"In," the Aegis mechanic notes.
"Out," Murdoch says after a short decision period.
"Call it," the dealer says.
"None," the Aegis mechanic says.
"Two," the guy to Murdoch's right notes as he drops two cards and gets two back in response.
"Three," the Timber Wolf mechanic requests, and gets his cards.
"Two," Celes requests, dropping the queen and ten from her hand. In response she received an ace and a ten in response, which was an auspicious start to her involvement in the game.
"Call?" the dealer asks.
"Call," the Aegis mechanic notes. Murdoch was skipped since he had already surrendered.
"Call," the guy to Murdoch's right says.
"Call," the Timber Wolf mechanic replies.
"Call," Celes replies, knowing she ran a good chance of winning right now.
"Drop 'em," the dealer orders. Everyone dropped their cards, with a pair in one hand, a pair in another hand, a broken flush in the Timber Wolf Mechanic's hand, and Celes' two pair for the win.
"Why am I not surprised?" Murdoch asks as the chips are grudgingly shoved over to Celes.
"Your technique, my veterancy as a General, inevitable outcome," Celes replies with a sweet, almost heart-melting smile as she sorts and stacks the small pot for the start of her tenure in this game. A game of cards was something not done in a while for her, but she came up among the ranks of the Imperial Magitek Knights. Definitely not afraid to play a game of cards, even when the bounty was the ludicrous loss of one's clothing.
"At least we're not playing strip fencing or strip quickdraw," the Aegis mechanic notes.
"Then we'd be really fucked," the dealer replies as Celes begins sorting the chips she just received.
-x-x-x-
(9 September 986, 1930 hours)
"I probably should object to the strip poker match held in the hangar today, formally object I mean, but..." Natarle's sentence trails off.
"You won't object, and you're not going to punish them because one, they lost to Celes, badly, and two, it's unenforceable," Mu offers to complete her thought. When he said 'badly' he meant it: It had not been a complete blowout victory, Celes had ended up losing and regaining her shirt twice in the match, but in the end even the great Murdoch ended up having to 'technically' forfeit his underwear, though Celes had been humane about such things and allowed them to keep their clothing. Mu suspected this was due to the fact that she didn't want to really piss off the Captain.
Natarle nods. "That's what it comes down to," she replies. It was an old dictum of law anywhere: write a law that you cannot enforce, and you will undermine your authority when people realize you can't enforce it. In this case, saying 'no strip poker matches' would just drive them into unused storage rooms or crew quarters, since the Mechanics did the strangest things when they set their minds to it...
"Don't worry about it. They learned a lesson today, don't play a game against an Imperial General when your dignity is at stake." Umi had learned that lesson the hard way against General Leo, and despite the fact that Leo had lost the match by default she was still a bit sore about it. Umi was said to have been sharpening her skills with a vengeance for a rematch, but Natarle predicted the same outcome as before due to the fact that even in her heaviest armor Umi weighed in at less than half of what Leo weighed with just his sword and shield, much less with his armor on. Weight factored into such battles, and Natarle did not see Umi getting much larger than she already was, maybe some in height but nothing drastic in physical mass.
"What that I could hire away some of your mechanics when the shooting is over, but alas, a ship like this runs on mechanics," King Edgar notes whimsically.
"You might be able to get away with recruiting from the Imperial City's ranks, I hear that a lot of the city is technological and needs a lot of maintenance," Natarle offers. King Edgar simply nods in response.
Mu thought Commander Natarle's conduct was a bit unusual today, and far enough past normal that the glass of red wine she was holding would not have accounted for it. Still and all, he said nothing about it. "So tell me, after this is over, what of the two Regiments and Battalion from Figaro's lands?" The Battalion had come as something of a rude shock to everyone, since Narshe had taken a beating when the Empire went through it. The quintessential north-men of legend, Narshe had mustered a full battalion of its best mountain fighters, and prior trained on hunting rifles they were easily capable to work that many would have called 'sniper detail' in other regards. A company of each had been attached to each of the regiments to provide high-value target interdiction. It was wild to see a soldier routinely take headshots on a silhouette target at five hundred yards without a scope and hit more than miss.
"They will have to remain in Vector to keep the peace," King Edgar replies immediately. There was little talk of not succeeding, since the planning and logistics were so thorough as to easily beat out the Empire's tactics. Celes was thoroughly impressed with the planning and supplying of the invasion, and she had gone over the plans herself to come up with any possible ways that Kefka could put a serious cramp on the assault. Her findings were thin, but there was one major possible that if the Empire threw everything at Washington and California beaches, they could possibly cast those teams back into the sea, at the cost of getting screwed from the other directions. If they hit Gold, Sword or Juno Beaches, they were screwed by the numbers since the Regiments from Doma were heavier equipped and more than willing to take the fight right up into their face. The King's Retainer, Cyan Garamonde, would definitely do his best to make sure the invasion did not fall apart on his side.
"Do not worry too much about it, King Edgar," Natarle offers. "Unless they are waiting for us right on the beach, they should not be able to overrun the troops. I don't expect we will catch them completely unawares, but we should have little issue getting to Vector." The rest was a bloody abattoir after that, of course. City fighting was one of the nastiest forms of war in Existence, and they would inevitably get a taste of it in due time.
"The remaining outstanding variable is the Espers. They have said they would support the Rune Gods, but can we avoid the massacre they wanted so badly?" Edgar asks, since he knew playing with magic at this level was something that if he made one mistake, it was all over. Being King was not normally something this absolutely crazy or absolutely lethal. You usually had to royally screw up for someone to try overthrowing you, but right now even the hint of a mistake could be lethal.
"And that relies on the Magic Knights," Murrue begins. "I...never really wanted to put this kind of pressure on them, after all. Only fifteen and they're on world number five to save. There's something wrong with that thought," she concludes.
"The Gundam Pilots aren't far ahead of that curve," Mu adds. "Oldest of them is seventeen, and already they are elite soldiers. This..." he just shakes his head.
"Can't be helped," Natarle notes sourly. "We have to do what we have to do."
"Indeed," Edgar replies immediately. "We have to do...even if we must kill an Emperor, we must stop the senseless slaughter."
"And then we work on getting home while straightening out the southern continent," Natarle notes, though even Murrue could sense the slight hesitation in her voice.
-x-x-x-
(10 September 986, 2100 hours)
Hikaru and Umi had been waiting for more than ten minutes before the third of them showed up. Umi had last saw her moving in the general direction of Nicol's quarters, which lent credence to the possibility that Nicol and Fuu were seeing each other. Hikaru, out of a respect of whatever Fuu was doing, was not going to poke at the matter regardless of how inquisitive she might feel.
Fuu did show up after a few, though nothing untoward was about her appearance or person, so whatever she was doing did not involve much effort on her part, Umi figured. With all three Magic Knights ready, they could begin their part of the operations. Though they had the plans memorized, they still stopped to listen to Natarle's final parting words about the matter.
A speech, they did not get. "I have two things and that's it," Natarle begins. "One, try to make sure the Espers do not go on a massive rampage. Two, make sure the three of you come back alive."
"Without a doubt," Fuu notes.
"Can do," Umi replies immediately.
"See you at Vector," Hikaru adds.
"Maybe sooner," Natarle replies. "We may have to call for help from your teams to get us off the beaches, if that is what it amounts to," Natarle notes.
"Windam will be leading the airborne teams," Fuu notes. It was detailing that the three of them had worked out in the prior days, who would lead what segment of the operations in and around Vector with the Espers. "If we have to assist, it'll be my team that comes to the rescue. Just, please call before you get in too deep, we may take an amount of time to get to you," Fuu notes, recalling that the Tritoch had not been all that fast in the air.
"Got it," Natarle replies, realizing that she had not thought about the timing factor involved in such an air-mobile reinforcement.
"Thank you, Commander," Fuu gives Natarle a formal bow. "Stay safe, and we'll see you in the Imperial Palace."
"Thank you, Hikaru, Umi, Fuu. Come back alive," and Natarle returns the bow.
Natarle watched from the catwalks as the three Magic Knights mounted the Rune Gods to which they were partnered and moved toward the taxiways. Hikaru and Umi led off, each going to the left and right catapults respectively, and once more the ship rattled to the sound and feeling of the catapults ejecting first Umi, then Hikaru out into the nighttime sky. Fuu launched third from the starboard catapult, twenty seconds after Hikaru had exited the ship, and just like that, the Magic Knights were on their own.
" 'Through the gates of Hell, as we make our way to Heaven, through the Nazi lines, Primo Victoria,' " Natarle recites of an ancient 'heavy metal' song she had once heard when she was young (1). It was all she remembered of it, except for a date said many times in the song that matched the date of D-Day, the first day of Operation Overlord, the invasion of Europe in June of 1944. And today, it was she who was playing the part of General Bradley, storming the enemy shores to bring down the tyranny. Of course, she knew that was similar to the style Tolle was always looking for, but she did not remember the name of the artist that had done it.
Only, the odds were far more heavily skewed in her favor than in the Nazi favor this time around. After all, the Allies did not have the Archangel when they stormed Normandy. It would be close, but not in defender favor as it had been on the sixth of June, 1944 AD.
Out in the skies over the ocean between the southern and northern continents, the conversation had taken on a wildly different tack. "What took you so long, Fuu?"
"I had to ask Nicol something," she replies evenly. Nothing more was asked by Umi, since she had drawn conclusions from that one reply, though in due time her conclusions would be found to be grossly wrong.
The three flew east in silence, heading north of Tzen to avoid overland visual detection. They would overfly the fleets headed for Gold, Sword and Juno beaches, a move that Natarle figured would boost morale in the enlisted as they saw the Rune Gods on the move. It was something that had slightly confused Umi, until she stopped to think of it: the average person put more faith in the Rune Gods than in the Gundams. With enough understanding, she could tell someone why: a Rune God is a god, a Gundam is just a machine in the end. Machines are expected to eventually fail. Gods are not expected to fail, regardless of the height of the challenge stacked against them.
Gods have failed before, Magic Knight. Many Gods have lived, and many have faded into obscurity over the eons. Even more have been killed by circumstance or interfering parties or even bad luck over the ages. We three Rune Gods are fallible just the same, Umi. Selesce was not about to tell her about what had long been rumored among the Gods and more powerful beings, the battles of Ragnarök.
"Huh? Something's on the ocean," Umi notes, looking forward across the waves.
"You're right, there is something there," Hikaru replies.
"It's...a submarine?" Umi thinks aloud as the three Rune Gods continue flying more or less right for it.
"A sub? It's not one of ours, then," Fuu says as she looks at it more closely. It did not have the lines of one of the transports, and it was flying a flag...and heading straight for the transports, none of which had any armaments more than the infantry weapons carried by the troops being carried by the ships.
"We gotta stop it before it warns the enemy fleet or sinks any of our ships," Hikaru notes as she lowers down toward the ocean. "Ruby—"
"DON'T!" Fuu practically shouts. "The lightning will damage our own ships at this distance!"
"Oh," Hikaru groans, not having realized the problem with her attempt until notified.
"I got 'em," Umi says as Selesce pulls the large version of her slender longsword. The Rune God of Water went up, high, then down at a dizzying pace, sword set toward the surface of the water and the smaller submarine that had surfaced.
The sword that pierced the hull was technically longer than the sub was wide, which made the matter all the more speedily destructive for the hapless Imperial crew. The sword penetrated to the port of the sub's conning tower and immediately penetrated into the control room. On its way through it chopped through the ship's captain, through the periscope and platform, through the engine control panel and the torpedo panel immediately to the left of it, and then out into the hull on the far side. On its way down and starboard, the sword also passed through part of the compartment immediately below the control room in a corner, creating a double venting as the sword finished punching through the starboard side of the hull halfway down the sub's starboard side. To make things worse for the sub, Selesce dragged the sword out in a rough fashion, making both the entry and exit punctures far larger than if just a rapier strike as the Rune God hauled the blade out and back. Selesce jumped off the 'deck' of the small submarine as it began rapidly taking on water, consigning it and most of its crew to the deeps of the ocean. Rayearth remained stationary for a few moments to verify the sub went down below the waves, which it accomplished in a matter of two minutes and twenty seconds, leaving only a cloud of foamy bubbles and an oil slick as its gravesite marker.
The first blood of the evolving campaign had been drawn. Selesce had struck properly, as the report of the invasion fleet was sundered by Selesce's strike when the engine panel was destroyed. There would be no warning for the Imperial forces as they wanted, needed, to repel an invasion at the shores.
-x-x-x-
(12 September 986, 0530 hours)
The kids of Tzen were all too happy to leave town nowadays, as the Imperials were making things stuffy and sometimes violent around town. No running, no playing, nothing like that. So, the few remaining adults in town usually ordered the kids down to the shores south and east of the town to fish. It was a lazy task, really, and a good one to keep the kids of both genders out of major mischief for which they might be executed by the Imperials. It also worked to some of the older kids' advantage, as they would set poles, sneak off into the few nearby tree clusters or bushes, and snog...or something more than that, if Zach's description was anything accurate of what he found a few weeks back by accident.
Today was a day like any other. The kids left early to get good positions on the shoreline and settle in for a day of catching fish. By six of the clock, they were all settled in and their lines were out into the sea.
And then, today was a day unlike any they would ever see again.
"Oi, Michael, what is that?" Zach asks as he points out to sea.
"Huh?" Michael asks. "Oh, my word, those are ships! And rowboats coming right for this shore!"
"Figaro and Doma?" It was no major secret that after defeating the Imperials in the north, those two nations wanted to come south and settle things on Imperial turf to their terms. Only problem was, nobody had an idea when they would come or how many would be coming, or even if it would be this year at all.
"That may be them, I can't see the ship's flags from here," Michael says as he watches the rowboats coming ever closer. The troops in the boats seemed of a different type than the Imperials, and each seemed to be carrying a pike, which made them Figaro or Doma for sure. The Imperials typically carried sword and musket or sword and pike, some of the Imperial Templar carried shield and halberd, nothing like they were seeing now.
The major transport ships were still closing on the shore, but ahead of them a series of small rowboats were seeing to getting the troops onshore. Some of the boats were small motorized boats, their noisy motors propelling them swiftly up to the shoreline. The seas out from the shore were alive with a forest of spikes pointed upward, troops dressed unusually for anything they had ever seen before and armed just the same.
The invasion was on, and the kids got to watch the landing phase.
"Everybody ashore!" one of the troopers shouts as the motorboat nearest them unloads its troops. "C'mon lads! We've got a war to go to!" the same trooper shouts as he waves his men up the shoreline, which they trudge through the shallows toward the beachline. Figaro and Doma had been intrigued by the thought of the Higgins Landing Craft, but only a dozen of them had been built, and all were deployed on Figaro's side to better facilitate getting their regiments in place quicker. With the smaller force available to Figaro's forces, they would need to deploy faster to maximize their limited power.
"Move it up!"
"Go! Go!"
The kids simply watched as their chance for getting any fish today was completely blown by an invading army. It didn't take the older kids long to realize that these troops were something completely different from the Imperials, even though most of them still carried a sword every one of them carried a large rifle with a bayonet on it that looked strangely like a sword in its own right. And they all had on their shoulders the symbol of the royal family of Doma. The beach was coming alive as squad after squad of troops disembarked and took up positions, looking outward at the plains south of Tzen for any sign of Imperial activity.
"Thou art from Tzen, no?" a larger guy asks the kids as they had bunched up more or less in the center of the beach as the troops moved about them, setting up the most unusual weapons that two persons worked on. The large guy was kinda intimidating, especially that he carried two swords of the distinctive curved type, though the grandfatherly appearance, massive mustache, and easy voice instantly endeared them to him.
"Yessir, we are," Zach replies immediately.
"Thine Empire, a garrison within thine town's bounds, I gather?" he asks after a moment.
"Yessir, about fifty of their laziest and most cruel troopers, sir, and six of the latest Magitek."
"Thou hast the gratitude of Doma," the old guy notes before looking up and around. "Sergeant! Thou hast a mission!" the indicated soldier approaches and stop at a respectable distance before bowing. "Deliver unto Lord Bezz that he has need to take Tzen, and with grace needs to fell their Imperial Garrison. We need not forces at our backs," he orders.
"Understood, Lord Cyan, it shall be done," he says before he moves off and toward the north.
"Be at ease, children, in hours Tzen will be free of the Imperials, and thou shalt be freed to watch the evolving campaign." As Lord Cyan had said this, the Archangel crossed between them and the sun, casting a huge shadow onto the ground. The children looked to the massive ship as it floated gracefully above them. The whole ship shuddered slightly as the catapults fired, ejecting first the Timber Wolf and the Warhawk onto the ground to provide armored support for the evolving invasion. The kids gasped as the two massive Omnimechs landed with ground-shaking impacts, then after physically looking around the area they began trudging south by west.
-x-
The invasion hit the western shores of the southern continent faster than anyone expected, and this included the small Imperial Magitek patrol that was on shore. Now hours past, the two regiments from Figaro had eliminated the enemy Magitek with almost pathetic ease, replaced its flags and found sufficiently steady personnel to use it. Now the enemy's weapons were serving the invaders, and the enemy would find that as the battles progressed they would see their own Magitek used against them more and more. King Edgar and the Regent considered it a cornerstone of the deployment, that though the main armor punch would be provided by the Archangel Team the Regiments of Figaro would have to pick up the slack. The tanks that Edgar researched from the Archangel's historical database would have been excellent for this kind of warfare, but building them would have been pretty close to impossible (except for the Empire, of course), much less supplying and maintaining them in the field.
The Archangel had dropped the Gundams on this side of the invasion plan, since the likely enemy heavy counterattack would follow the short path, which was being handled by the forces from Doma the battlemechs would be needed there. After all, Doma's crack troops had less than half the overland marching distance to Vector that the regiments from Figaro had to contend with. The enemy would fight the short war with more ferocity, since they would obviously have less time to contend with should they fail there.
"King Edgar, word from the Archangel that the forces from Doma have landed as scheduled and are moving on Tzen to secure the town now. Everything is going to plan," his radio operator notes.
"Acknowledge report," King Edgar replies immediately. The least courtesy he could afford Commander Badgiruel and Captain Ramius was to inform them he had heard the latest news and gossip, especially since they had been kind enough to transfer him to one of the transport ships as he requested. "Get the Chancellor on the line," he orders after a few more moments, looking at a map of their invasion area. The markings were deliberately deceptive, in the case that the maps were compromised by the Imperials in some fashion or another the enemy would have a hard time of discerning the real plan. Also, Figaro's maps said precisely nothing about Doma's invasion corridor, likewise for Doma's maps. And neither map even mentioned the possibility that the Magic Knights would be able to secure and utilize the assistance of the much-feared Espers. The possibility of requesting the assistance of the Espers had actually remained classified to the command elements of each side, none of the ground troops had heard of it prior to launch, and Edgar had made it clear that he did not want it noised about. After all, they may not want to help, so no sense getting hopes up.
"Chancellor here, how goes it my liege?"
"Excellent," Edgar replies immediately. "What is the ETA for the remainder of your regiment?"
"One hour, sir, then we can begin our inland march. Last troops are boarding their boats at this time, then we form up and move."
"Outstanding," the King replies. "Continue as directed, report any change in status. Edgar is out," Edgar concludes. "Archangel from California Beach, come back."
"Archangel reads five by five, go ahead California Beach," Kuzzey immediately requests.
"Status of the invasion?"
"All operations commencing as planned. No outstanding issues at this time, California," Kuzzey notes. Edgar could tell the poor kid still did not like the thought of being in battle, but there really was no way around it in this case.
"Understood, Archangel, California wishes you guys luck. We are over and out," he says before he passes the microphone back to the radio operator.
In the distance, the Gundams had dropped to one knee to reduce their visual signature, looking around with intent for any possible threat that might come the way of the two landing beaches with visual and radar sensors. The skies and grounds were quiet in that respect, the Duel, Aegis and Buster needing fire on nothing in the area as they stood silent sentry over the landing operation.
The invasion was proceeding faster, smoother than anticipated. This worried Edgar on several levels, since military operations were not supposed to go as planned first time every time, yet he could do naught but continue on schedule and hope that what did blindside him would not cost him the whole unit. Not to mention, he owed it to Commander Badgiruel not to fail, since it was her plan and she was definitely being nice about rescuing the North from the depredations of the South.
-x-
"I take it this is the Sealed Gate?" Umi asks, looking up through Selesce's eyes at the gate that was four times larger than even the massive Rune God.
"Well, they didn't make it a personnel entrance, that's for sure," Hikaru notes.
"Ugh, now you're starting to sound like the mechanics," Umi complains.
Rayearth shrugs as Hikaru does when she runs into something she really can't do anything about. Fuu, not wanting to delve into the vagaries of a very pointless conversation, walks her Rune God forward to the door and reaches out to it. Before Windam even touched it, the massive stonework doors began sliding open, the ground shaking underneath as they parted slowly.
Magic Knights, it is now time for us to change forms, Rayearth declares.
Though this is our optimal form for conducting battle, for this campaign it is best if we move as our natural forms.
Cover your eyes, Magic Knights. We shall do the rest, Selesce requests.
They did as ordered, though even with that the bright flash of light—red for Rayearth, blue for Selesce and green for Windam—still got to their eyes and stung a bit. When it subsided, the three took a short fall onto the backs of their Rune Gods. Umi had no problem with standing up after the fall, but the impact on the hard scales of the water dragon was a bit unsettling. Fuu had opposing concerns from Umi: no problem with the landing, but standing on Windam's back in a stable fashion was no simple task. Hikaru's was no problem on either landing or standing, but the grossly unsettling feeling of standing in the middle of a fire. Hikaru's whole mind screamed that she should get away, but there was no 'away' except a hundred feet plunge to the ground, though it only took her seconds to realize this was the kind of Magic fire that provided no heat, just light and effect.
And now we move, Rayearth declares as it begins stepping forward. The feeling was weird to Hikaru as the giant Rune God marched forward toward the land on the other side of the cave, as the flames danced and shuddered with each step of Rayearth, the flames had a warm, invigorating feeling to her, nothing damaging or overly hot.
On the far side of the cave's negative-realm entrance, the Espers were already gathering to see what had opened an otherwise heavily magically sealed gate. Hundreds, flying and nonflying, approaching by teleport, by wing, by run, to see the entities that had entered, and some in anticipation of an attack against the Esper Realm again as the Empire was want to do every few months. In this, the gathering crowd was rather stunned that what had entered was not the hated Imperials but happened to be three massive Gods from another world and their attendant Magic Knights.
"Rune Gods of another world, we Espers welcome you unto our lands. We are apprised of your purpose here, and stand ready to aid in liberating both our lands," one of the larger Espers declares.
Espers of this world, the day of reckoning has come upon both lands here and elsewhere. The past dues of both lands are up for probate, and now is the time to resolve the eternal conflict between the power-hungry Human and Esper. Today, we call you to action. What say you? Rayearth asks in its authoritative mental tone as Windam and Selesce spread out left and right of the fire beast.
"We are ready, Divine Ones, but some of our ranks bear a question if you are willing?" One of the smaller dragons among their ranks asks.
Please ask, Selesce requests immediately.
"Long ago, three Gods created the Espers out of pure magical energy, then sealed themselves away. Would it be possible for you to unseal our long-lost divinities, were we ever able to find them?" A very large ground snake asks.
For a long moment, there was no response. Were they willing to walk the mortal realms again, we would release them without hesitation.
We can request of their sealed forms if they are willing to be unsealed, but we shall not release them except by their own will, Windam adds.
"It would be extremely appreciated," one of the dragons notes. "How may we endeavor to aid the Gods in this time of reckoning?"
On this day, we move in concert with humans who oppose the slaughter of the Espers to destroy the Imperial Army and the sadistic Emperor of the said army. We call upon you to form ranks and prepare to take the battle to them, Windam notes.
There was an amount of hesitation in their ranks, but they did begin preparing for the battle. Units were assembled and divided up between the three Rune Gods, battle strategies were prepared by the sub-unit commanders, and the Rune Gods watched on as the Espers steeled themselves to fight the hated enemy.
For their part, the three Magic Knights could but watch the spectacle as it unfolded, knowing that they would be called into the battle themselves and hoping that the Espers did not mistake them for the enemy.
-x-x-x-
"Begin," Cyan orders to the rifleman next to him. One of the Mountain Jaeger of Narshe grunts, takes one controlled breath, and snaps back the trigger on his Enfield Mark IV.
Four hundred yards away, a sleeping Magitek pilot wakes up with a start, though it was only to take a few soundless breaths and slump over onto the forward instrument panel on his armor. A second Jaeger takes his shot on the one awake Magitek pilot near the south access road for Tzen, the slug striking him literally right between the eyes and blowing through his head with little effort. Such was the power of the Enfield rifle that the slug continued its transit through the back of his helmet and into the wall of a general store immediately behind the armor.
With those two shots, the primary sentries of the southern access to Tzen were dead. Immediately after the second shot, three companies of the Riflemen bolted from their overlook positions and began their charge into Tzen. There were no enemy infantry around to report the incoming charge or to report that enemy infantry had eliminated two Magitek units, leaving the town basically open to attack without resistance. Only a few civilians actually noticed the infantry approach the town borders and wisely stayed out of the infantry's way.
Cyan was one of the first in the charge, and one of the first to actually enter the town. Like the rest of the infantry, he carried the Enfield rifle with the bayonet, though he would much prefer to stick to his swords in close quarters he knew that the rifle and bayonet combination was more effective. So when he entered said city he charged down the main southern entry to the town with his rifle leveled and ready for anything, the foot-and-change long bayonet perched on the muzzle and glimmering in the sunlight. There was some minor reaction from civilians, but nothing as drastic as to shout, scream or call for the Imperials. In fact, there was actually no imperial resistance in the southern half of the town.
The first major imperial resistance was actually encountered in the center area of town. As the three companies of infantry searched into the town's center area, where most of the business and actually most of this the city's residents were at that time, they started encountering imperial troops. Inside the town, the first trooper from the invasion force to actually fire was the trooper that was actually covering Cyan. A single imperial trooper had seen the onrushing infantry and drawn his sword while shouting for assistance, though he only got part of his cry off before the infantrymen had shot him dead center in the chest. Though this action and not the trooper out and stopped his cry made the cry a rather moot point, as the Enfield rifle sounds nothing like any form of arquebus or any other weapon in use by the imperial infantry. In this case, the single flat crack of that shot elicited a much more vehement reaction from the civilians, as the shot was also taken in proximity to several large groups visiting traveling merchants. The city was not panicky yet, but the imperials were alerted and a full-scale battle was very likely in many civilians' opinion.
As Cyan actually stepped onto the main city drag and looked left, he noticed a sizable squad of imperial infantry. To his right he noticed the same, another sizable squad of imperial infantry, though to his right he also noticed two Magitek units. Before he could even comment on the Magitek, one of the Jaeger had immediately sighted the Magitek pilot up, brought his weapon off safety, and fired a single round. The pilot took the hit in the chest and within a few moments slumped over his controls, clearly dead. Cyan and two of the other infantry each fired a single round at the second Magitek unit, the pilot taking two hits and immediately collapsing, unable to continue or even pose a credible threat to the unit.
With the first hail of gunshots, many of the somewhat panicking civilians sought shelter inside the structures adjoining the main drag of the city. Some were brave enough to watch the unfolding battle as the imperials drew their own weapons and started moving against the incoming invasion force, but most sought shelter and stayed there until the shooting stopped. Flurry, flurry, a cavalcade of gunfire erupted along the main drag in two locations, as two separate companies of the invasion force started firing on imperials that weren't being obstructed or backdropped by civilians. In this, the infantry had been trained exceptionally well in combat tactics: never to fire upon imperial troops if civilians are in the line of fire, whether they be in front of or behind the imperials. The two squads of imperials did not last long against proper modern bolt action rifles, though the continued gunfire actually drew the imperials to the center drag of the town far faster than single random shots.
With the incoming imperial infantry came more Magitek armor. For the most part, the Magitek units were more than loud enough to actually catch the infantry's attention and thus warrant being shot as they came along, but not all the time. In city fighting settings, the imperial Magitek armor was at a severe disadvantage, especially against infantry equipped and trained to the use of modern rifles, since the modern infantry had very little issue firing against an exposed pilot in what would be effective armor against infantry carrying blade weapons only. In this, the prior successes of the Magitek units worked against them, since the pilots were not really trained effectively to fight at range against hordes of infantry equipped to fight at that range. Of eight Magitek armors that had actually responded to the gunfire, only one of the said Magitek got a chance to fire any of its weapons, and that one ways are shot resulting only in an injury to one of the infantry.
The imperial infantry, however, was another story entirely. Most of the imperial infantry were clipped with blade weapons only, though some had pistols of a wheel lock nature bought at their own expense. In the close quarters of city fighting, wheel-lock pistols actually posed a significant threat to even modern rifle infantry, and in this Cyan watched as one of his squad mates took a pistol round to the head which very messily killed him. Undaunted, Cyan and the rest of his squad drove forward, rifle shouldered and firing while marching as they trained, moving at a slant towards the side road that the imperial main reinforcements from the north side of town had come down towards the action. Of the 20 or so imperial troops that had responded down this road, only seven of the troops actually survived to close quarters to actually face off against Cyan and his squad. One of the enemy troop singled Cyan out as the unit leader, and charged him down with a wild attempted sword's swing, though decades of training in close quarters combat made Cyan an expert's expert at gauging the actions of foes. The sword came down against the flat of Cyan's bayonet, and before the imperial trooper could back off or reset for another attack, the stock of cyan's rifle came around into the side of his head. The squad's second in Cyan's unit finished that trooper off with a quick thrust of the bayonet to his exposed neck. Freed of combat, Cyan barely had enough time to look up and see as the rest of his squad and his company immolated the remaining troopers that had responded to the initial gunfire. As Cyan looked to the left and right to gauge the actions of the other two companies involved in taking the city, he noted that the commanding officers of those companies had already pushed their troops farther north of main drag of the city that he expected. Not wanting to be left behind, Cyan waved his unit for word, which also brought the rest of the company forward and spread them out down two alleys as well as the road that he had just massacred the imperials on.
Once again confined by the narrow borders of a smaller road, Cyan moved slower, more deliberately, so as to not be surprised by incoming imperial infantry. His whole unit, trained just the same by the cooks from the Archangel, move just as slowly while looking around to the sides, into the buildings, as well as forward and behind the unit as they advanced forward. There was little to no time for talking, only time to think and to react as they moved forward. There was to be no hesitation in this assault, as this was verification and live practice for the assault on Vector.
"Excuse me, milady, does thou know where the imperial garrison be?" Cyan asked of the lady partially hiding behind her shutters in her house.
"No, sir, I do not," she replies hastily before ducking farther out of sight.
Her son was less hesitant to speak to the invading infantry however: "Sir, the imperial garrison is two blocks down the road in the direction you're traveling, on the right side, it has an imperial flag on it."
"For this, thou haveth my thanks," Cyan declares to the teenaged boy before he waves his troop onward.
To Cyan's left, another fusillade of gunshots erupts from the leftmost company of troops, though it was short lived and bore no evidence that the battle was continuing over there or had been lost by his troops. His own company continued forward, moving past the next block and on to the block where he had been informed that the imperial garrison rests. The structure in question was not much of a structure in comparison to the buildings around it, but the flag in question, the imperial banner, was more than ample evidence that the structure he beheld was the structure in question. Despite this being their headquarters, there were no infantry stationed at the door, a curious status given that the imperials actually knew something of security as far as Cyan could tell. To Cyan's right, a quick burst of gunshots, followed closely by the sound of clanging metal and physical battle, though in this case it lasted less than the gunshots from his left. Once more cyan had no doubt that his team was the victor.
"Second platoon, entered the structure and clear." Though normally speaking an older English, what most of the land of Doma considered proper English, when issuing military commands Cyan spoke in a more modern dialect as did his trainers from the Archangel, which helped to remove or reduce confusion about intentions. Having issued the orders to a unit other than his, the matter became something of a waiting game as the thirty-man platoon entered the short-rise structure and began clearing it out. There were some gunshots, some sounds of clashing metal, and even the sound of one good sword fight (Doma had not forbid the infantry to carry personal melee weapons, of which Cyan had his own sword), though the battle became silent after about five minutes. There was no resistance left in the building to provide a fight.
There was no resistance left in town at this point in time, either. "Lord Cyan, message from Captain Westphyle, his company has looped through the entire northern area of the town and cleared it. There are no Imperials left in this town as far as we can tell."
" 'Tis heard, Corporal," Cyan replies. "We may have the measure of thine foe," he notes a moment later.
Within five minutes, the city became eerily quiet as the sounds of battle died out. The southern company of the three reported that the south and central area of the town was clear; combined with the clearing of the garrison, Tzen was listed secured. This phase of the landing was over.
The civilians were more than happy to live under Doma's rule as opposed to the Imperial rule, and they showed it. Within fifteen minutes of the last shot being fired, many of the civilians were out on the streets, cheering the passing troops.
-x-x-x-
(13 September 986, 0815 hours)
In the past several hours, Yzak had made no more than a single token protest as to how slow the invasion was moving forward from Washington and California beaches. No major complaining, no whining (from anyone), nothing of the sort. This was mainly due to the fact that the Imperials had not shown up yet, but Yzak knew that he would get a good chance to vent his frustration soon enough.
"Guys, here they come," Nicol notes calmly as the Skygrasper he was driving comes back toward the ranks.
"How many?" Yzak immediately asks before King Edgar or the Chancellor could.
"More than I want to see today," Nicol replies drolly. "I guess about a regiment's worth, maybe some more?"
"Think we should call in the Archangel to help clean house?" King Edgar asks.
"Yes, we'll need the extra firepower," Nicol replies. "They're just getting ready to hit the mouth of the Western Pass right now," Nicol notes. "If we move up fast enough, we can contain them," he opines.
"Got it," King Edgar notes. "Chancellor, you copy Skygrasper's last?"
"Roger that, my liege. I'm moving my front forward as fast as possible. Can the Gundams give us an armored spearhead?"
"Negative," Tolle replies immediately. "We're about to get caught doing anti-air operations," he notes as the Buster pulls the gun launcher and beam cannon off the back hardpoints. Within moments he had them connected in anti-air shotgun configuration.
"Great," Yzak notes. "Time to swat some flies. King Edgar, can you get your personnel to do some anti-air fire when those sky armors get close to the troops? Anything is better than nothing right now," Yzak says as he thumbs the 'Master Arm' control on his Gundam's weapon control panel.
"Roger that, I'll get the word out," the King replies.
The enemy did not take long to divert from their flight course to begin flying right toward the Gundams. They were quite pleased that the Gundams were out, alone and unsupported as far as they could tell, and the 'floating white devil' was nowhere to be found. They figured they had three sitting ducks on the ground to deal with, then an invasion to cast back into the sea with strafing attacks.
They thought wrong.
"Fire!" Athrun shouts as he depresses the trigger first, unleashing his beam rifle on the leadmost of the enemy flying armor units. The beam blew through even the improved armor and still caused a catastrophic acintic explosion as whatever powered the unit unleashed its fury into the sky around the armor. The explosion only buffeted the armors around it and knocked one from the sky, nothing as serious as the prior attack on the ship.
"Guys, guys, these are new models! Be careful!" Nicol half-shouts as he reefs his fighter in on their formation. He waited long enough for Tolle to get his first shot off, a large shotgun blast from the combined weapons that easily knocked a dozen of them out of the sky at several depths within the enemy cloud of units. As the dust settled from that attack, Nicol went in with his guns and beam cannon blazing, chopping at the flanks of the enemy formation so he did not have to try to blow through the center of the enemy cluster. Several enemy armors went down, pilots killed or soon to be, from his first pass with guns and beams; the missiles he was saving for the ground targets. On his way out he pirouetted to port, heading back over allied formations and allowing him to take an extended pass with the 120mm anti-ship Vulcan carried by the Launcher Strike Pack. Two more went down and one more exploded catastrophically before Nicol ceased firing and began leading them toward the forces from California Beach, and hopefully toward a waiting machine gun ground fire ambush.
The streaks of rockets and lasers passing close to his craft were quite a bit unsettling, since the grouping was a bit tighter than the old versions that had attacked him and Kira in the past. Still, avoiding the incoming ordinance became a lot easier as he moved farther away from them. This time around, however, the enemy was not half-ass ignoring the Skygrasper, they went straight in on him and even pursued Nicol around his first cloverleaf turn.
Just as he wanted, actually.
The continuing fire from the Gundams was joined by the Infantry opening fire on the air forces as they tried running the Skygrasper to ground, and even despite the improved armors it was a deathtrap for the flying Imperials. The thirty-caliber rifles were not capable of penetrating the armor on the new Spitfire-class flying armors, but the pilot was still exposed to open air and thus exposed to flying lead as applicable. Many pilots were hit by the rifle fire, easily over two dozen of the new and more valuable Spitfires went into the ground courtesy of rifle fire knocking out the pilot, and many more lost a significant amount of combat capability to non-fatal hits.
The fifty-caliber machine guns were another story, however, as the heavier and faster slugs had more than enough penetrating power to get through the armor and into the critical systems. In this, the Archangel Team had chosen wisely for their weapons, as the Ma Deuce Machine Guns put out a helluva hail of lead into the air that was being occupied by the enemy Air Force. Technically a weapon far older than even the cosmic Era calendar, the M2 heavy machine gun in its present deployment turned out to be greater death for the enemy sky Magitek units than any combination of weapons deployed, with the possible exception of the Buster Gundam. In less than one full minute, over 50 of the Empire's vaunted sky armors and spitfires hit the ground. This, in and of itself, turned out to be a far greater fear weapon to the imperials then even the great white ship.
"Keep the pressure on," Athrun orders to the rest of the Gundam team.
"Keeping the pressure on, sir," Yzak replies a bit sharply. Despite his sarcasm, Yzak did continue to keep the pressure on, that being one-shot one kill with his beam rifle, and better than one-shot one kill with his rail gun. Much like Nicol, Yzak was conserving his missiles for the ground campaign. The pilots of the enemy armor were even dumb enough to get close enough to his Gundam that he could use the 60 mm Vulcans on the low flying armors.
Nicol's first cloverleaf turn actually continued to draw the enemy over the ground forces and their triple-A fire. Within one minute flying time, the air forces were flying over the ground invasion force from Washington Beach. Also apprised of the need to shoot down the enemy Air Force, King Edgar had his infantry mustered and ready for the anti-aircraft action immediately upon Nichol's flight over the regiment. Where the transit over the forces from California beach was bad, the transit over Washington Beach forces was far worse, as the infantry had set out their heavy machine guns on the backs of some of the Rifleman as they were on all fours, a tactic which gave them a better angle to fire into the air, as when mounted on the ground the machine gun would only go to the ground and would not be able to climb almost completely vertical. This odd and slapdash tactic actually allowed the infantry better firing on the incoming air forces, and within a minute of passing over the Washington Beach forces, the imperial losses climbed to almost 200 armors on the ground.
This got the attention of the imperials, but did not cripple their force. After all, the imperials had sortied with almost a thousand air units.
Another blast from Buster Gundam's combined weapons slashed through the enemy air ranks and knocked down at least another dozen varied air armors, but the fact the remained that the enemy still had over 700 armor still in the air to be dealt with. And the Gundam pilots knew it.
"God, it's like killing flies with an ice pick," Yzak notes sourly. His weapons were doing the job, but not fast enough, as both his Gundam and the infantry forces were taking sporadic standard strafing attacks.
"Anyone have a can of raid?" Athrun asks as a sort of wan joke. Nobody was laughing, of course, given that they were being shot and quite frequently. The Buster had already taken several hits, and the other pilots were not far behind.
"I got some raid, what me to use it?" Chandratta requests over the radio.
"Sure, go ahead, be my guest, you frigging console gamer," Yzak replies tersely, given that the expected answer to the question was extremely obvious.
"Pucker your assholes, imperials, here it comes," Chandratta declares before stabbing of fire button.
"Dude, he did not just say that," Tolle replies with a hint of disgust.
"Reality check, comrade, he just did say that."
"Thank you, Yzak, I absolutely needed that confirmed."
Despite the rough imprecation, the first salvo from the Archangel was immensely effective against the imperial air armor as they continued to swarm forward in a futile attempt to follow the Skygrasper. The 16 missiles fired initially were all of the anti-air shrapnel type, and just as the last battle the Archangel fought against air armor they chopped through the enemy formation without mercy. Instantly over 100 of the enemy ranks converted into flying fireballs or flying rocks at it towards the ground at immense speed. The abrupt appearance of the white warship turned a possibly winnable battle to a nightmare scenario in that none of pilots believed they could win.
The firing of the Gottfrieds and the Valiant linear guns was pro forma, but necessary nonetheless. Though significantly overkill, each one of the fired weapons managed to score more than three kills per beam or projectile. Those few pilots that did not understand where the missiles came from were quickly informed of the slight presence of the white warship by way of the Gottfried beams, which meant the whole force knew that the white warship was there and apparently not afraid to unload on the enemy formation this time around. When combined with the continuing gunfire from the infantry and beam fire from the Gundams, many of the imperial pilots lost heart and immediately turned around their craft headed straight for Vector. In 10 seconds, the whole enemy force was moving away from the invasion infantry, what loose remaining of the enemy force that is.
The air battle was won. The invading infantry had lost almost 100 troops, and none of the Gundams remained unscathed, though victory in this phase was considered crucial by the invading force.
"That went well," Athrun notes. "I worry when things go that well," he appends after a few moments.
"I'm glad you are worrying, because here comes round two." if Yzak could have sounded more frustrated, how was lost on Athrun.
In the distance of the Western pass, the telltale dust cloud of infantry and armor on the move was beginning to get heavier and heavier.
Author's Chapter Afterword:
And this is how it begins.
Personally, I really did not want to end this chapter on this note, but this is actually the best breakpoint that I could come up with without adding another 10,000 words or so to this one chapter. I should also note that I am not personally very fond of cliffhangers, but a little suspense here and there is a good thing. Not to mention, I wanted to save the real heavy and bloody battles for the next chapter, as well as the very violent end to certain parties involved in the making of this conflict. I will leave which parties to your discretion, of course.
I think it bears mentioning that I got called on two things from the last chapter. First off, Barricade got me on an oversight in my writing process leading up to the technological advancements necessary for the production and mass production of the Enfield rifle, Ma Deuce, and light antitank weapons. When I had begun initially calculating what advancements of technology were available on the world of final fantasy six, due to a lot of the technology processes available to both Figaro and the Empire I readily assumed that blast furnace technology was available to both sides. In all reality I should have mentioned this prior, since as Barricade pointed out the blast furnace is an essential part of mass producing firearms. Second, Maddery called me on how Cyan was speaking in the last chapter not matching how he spoke in the game. I hope at this time I have gone sufficiently far enough towards correcting that that Cyan does not seem out of character. Once again, I would like to thank those that review, especially since the corrections given in review are often times little minor details that I overlooked that can make or break a story.
At this point, I think I should mention that I have switched from using straight keyboard to write my stories to using voice recognition software. I did this in response to now having a little kitten in my apartment, and said little kitten likes climbing up on my computer table and playing with my keyboard while I am typing. Now that I've broken out the headset mic, the kitten loves playing with the microphone cable instead of the keyboard. How this matters is that I am still trying to train my voice recognition software, and though I get around 98 accuracy at this point in time, is not always easy for me to recognize where the software makes an error. So, if any of you catch a strange grammatical turn, at least any more strange than my usual writing, do make note of where the error was so I can correct it. On a sidenote, my writing speed using voice recognition also appears to be slightly faster than my keyboard writing speed, and right now speed is my life.
And I do believe an apology is in order. The reason why I have not posted this chapter recently, or even managed to complete it until today, it is because for all intents and purposes I am working two jobs now. I have not had much in the way of free time to do any writing, video gaming, watching TV, or any thing of that sort. Not to mention I have a little kitten to take care of now. Strange, it is, how life can shovel all manner of delay right up into your face. The flip side, my blood pressure seems to of gone down slightly, so there is a benefit. With luck, the next couple chapters should come a bit faster than this.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your patience in this matter. I'm trying to get this done as quickly as possible. And as properly as possible. Stay tuned, I have more than a few surprises in store for the Archangel and her crew. And keep those reviews coming, comrades, because your dreams are but bucket of fuel for the ongoing nightmares of the Archangel.
ADDENDUM 01: I should note that I started using the voice recognition software during the battle for Tzen. From there on, if you see any strange phrasings, do tell me.
ADDENDUM 02: Some interesting facts may be in order for anyone who follows this story:
1. As of this posting, this story has received 15,567 hits, which comes to an average of 676 hits per chapter. That's just insanely inspirational, knowing people read something that much :P
2. AAA has 168 reviews across 23 chapters, which is an average of 7.3 reviews per chapter, which is killer :-P
3. Said story is attached to 7 C2 archives, has 31 users declaring it as a story favorite and 24 story alerts. I should also note that there is a large amount of disconnect between favorites and alerts, as some who have one do not have the other.
4. Archangel's Amazing Adventures beats out every other Fic I've written combined in all of the aforementioned categories, and beats them all hands down.
5. I have a gopher that is making helluva tunnels in the front and side yards of my property. Anyone have a good idea how to deal with it, short of camping on his tunnel network with my rifle until he gives me a clear shot?
These above facts (excepting number five, of course) is all the more motivation to keep writing. Thank you all for the continued visits and reviews. Next chap, I'll do some datum on the location breakdowns that they but in the story traffic section. Until then, keep those ideas and critiques coming, people!
Review Replies:
I do believe I have nine reviews on this chapter, many of them repeat offenders and even a couple new ones. For this you have my thanks, ladies and gentlemen, the input is always helpful.
Knives91: the slaughter is just beginning, Comrade. Do you think I would let the empire get away with this? And I actually have a bolt action rifle, of the exact same type as what's being used in the story. Maybe I should post some Youtube footage of it being used?
Barricade: upon the question of the bumper sticker, I cannot but referred you to the fact that I select such things with the dice. After all, everything I do in this story is more or less indefinite until I actually write it. I have to admit that is half the fun of writing the Archangel's Amazing Adventures. As to killing Mu off, once more I refer you to the dice, though as an author I am inclined to agree with you since said character is rather an interesting character. And once more, thanks for pointing out the slight flub with my technological analysis.
CHM01: keep in mind with your suggestions, it doesn't have to be somewhere specifically messed up. You can, of course, suggest the world to me that you just want to see the Archangel, say, rip through it like a chainsaw? As to Flay, you can rest assured thing shall happen on that thread.
NHO: let us simply say that I am saving bigger bombs for bigger problems at a later date. Thank you for the first review.
FraserMage: always a pleasure. The problems of the imperial army are only like to get worse before this gets better. And maybe I should post my footage of my Enfield in action, since so many of you are commenting on it.
Etienneofthewestwind: Music may be the one thing that saves the crews' moral souls, and may be the one thing that saves them period. As to the towns, I would say the problem is more denial and bribery, but that will change in due time :P As to Flay, I have a fair idea how that will turn out... The elements of the crossover are still in the wings, of course, but in the next few chapters you will see them.
DeathZealot: I know, the cartoon was a bit depressing when you get down to it, but for its time the CGI battle was intense. I think I read somewhere that the production staff had been artificially limited to four Clan 'mechs and only a handful of IS machines for some cracked-out reason or another, I would have loved to see a lot more in there mixing it up both heavier and lighter than what they averaged. Plus they had some non-sequiturs in there, like how did the FedCom have all these Mauler 'mechs when the Mauler is an exclusively Draconis design by TRO? As to the characters, I'd have to say Hawk, Ciro, and Pytor were my favorites for some strange reason.
Evil Manic: You know the routine, comrade, I'm not allowed to drop spoilers. The violence is a guaranteed fact of life, though, so be warned.
Maddery: Thank you for poking a few holes in my conduct to point :P. Honestly, though, I have not forgotten what the crux of Final Fantasy is, and you can rest assured that while magic is sparse right now it shall be deployed in large quantity soon enough. Their individual skills will also come into play as the story advances, of course, but keep in mind that the major fighting is not over yet and there is plenty of room to maneuver here. Plus a whole extra conflict to apply it to.
Gonging Apples: There will be much summons and carnage from their side in the chapter to come. Stay tuned, comrade.
As always, thank you one and all for the reviews. Keep them coming, I need the fuel to get the Archangel home...if it ever does get home, that is :-P Who knows but the dice and the Fates if they shall ever get there?
The Gripe Sheet:
All outstanding gripes have been detailed and sorted out in the afterword.
Footnotes:
(1): This is the chorus for Primo Victoria by Sabaton. Look them up on YT, their FMV for Saving Private Ryan is a killer video.