Archangel's Amazing Adventures

by CSS Stravag

Mass Crossover fic. Chapter 51 UP! Powerful magic draws the Archangel and the ZAFT Creuset Team into a world of magic and intrigue like nothing imagined by the straight-laced CE residents. Their battles on Cephiro are only the beginning of their nightmarish journey as they give Odysseus a run for his money in the 'bizarre trip home' category...

35. By Any Means Necessary

(Archangel's Amazing Adventures, Section 4, Chapter 6: By Any Means Necessary)

(19 November AC195, 1145 hours)
(Recon Point 1, western border of Sanc Kingdom)

"Archangel, Kira, on station at Recon Point 1, requesting vector to known contact."

"Kira, Archangel," Miriallia replied immediately. "Contact one possible ELINT or AWACS flight vector 0-3-0 altitude 6500 meters AGL (1). It's inside a commercial traffic lane, you'll need to get close and verify it. Probably physically wake them up, see if you can't scare them off."

"I'll see what I can do, but I'm not sure how much play I have here," Kira answered after a moment of contemplating it. "If they're in a commercial air route, with a legit flight plan, I don't think...am I even close here?" Kira asked in something of a daze. International airways law was not something he studied in depth in his school days, lo those years ago, not to mention he was on a completely different planet, and anything he thought he knew on the subject would not likely have been accurate.

"Sanc Kingdom does not allow any military aircraft from foreign powers to fly over our territory except by direct authorization," Commander Noin answered for Miriallia, who was just as lost on the subject as the pilot. "We have not issued any authorizations in over a month. If it is a military craft, it is in our skies in direct violation of air travel laws."

"Roger that," Kira responded. "Strike Freedom moving to intercept. Estimate 90 seconds to contact."

Kira consciously did not put on his full thrust or maneuverability to close with the enemy craft, mainly because he didn't want the enemies to get a clear read on the performance abilities of his machine. Even at half airspeed, closing with the rogue ELINT plane was dead simple. It was also painfully obvious to the Gundam what it was looking at.

"Kira, craft identified by silhouette as RC-135 Rivet Joint ELINT and SIGINT aircraft. That's not a commercial bird," the Gundam's artificial intelligence system declared.

Kira hit his radio button. "Command, Freedom, verified threat is RC-135 ELINT craft. I'm going in to shake 'em awake now."

-x-

"Flight Deck, RAVEN Lead, we have possible activity close aboard by SIGINT. Is there anything in our airspace?" the Intelligence Chief asked the pilot of the RC-135 over the intercom.

"RAVEN, Deck, I'm not seeing anything in our immediate vicinity. Do you have a bearing?"

"Possible behind, possible below, hard to pin this sucker down," the Intel Chief noted.

"You have a type?"

"Unknown, heavy-encrypt traffic on multiple frequency-hopping band sets. Whatever it is, they don't want to be heard."

"Do you have a line on their warship?" the pilot asked, clearly (and rightfully) deathly afraid of blundering into the ADA dome of the nightmarish white ship. They were not in a fighter plane, and pretty much a single good hit from any weapon system would tear apart the old United States electronic warfare relic they were flying in.

"Nothing clear, but some heavy sensor sets to the east. Could be them, could be something else." The Intel Chief had hedged his bets for the recorder by phrasing, but his tone told the pilot that he wasn't worried about what his staff was detecting.

"Keep an eye on — HOLY SHIT!"

In terms of prompting, a pilot shouting surprise epithets on the intercom ranked very high on the sphincter scale for anyone listening in. In this case, the Intel Chief took only five seconds to bound up a staircase and he was on the flight deck. It took a further three seconds for the Intel Chief to locate the source of their angst. "Is that —"

"Attention Romefeller Foundation RC-135 in Sanc Kingdom Airspace, you are in violation of sovereign territory. You are advised to depart airspace heading 2-7-5 immediately or you will be downed. You have 3-0 seconds to comply."

"Not good," the pilot said with a clear hint of worry to tone. "Here's your contact behind or below us, RAVEN. What now?"

"If they're offering us a chance to run, take it," the Intel Chief replied immediately. "I know what the mission orders are, but I don't think any of us are here to provide an excuse to invade, follow?"

"I roger that," the pilot answered emphatically. Romefeller was not paying him enough to give them an easy casus belli. He reached up to the overhead console and changed radio channel sets. "Sanc Kingdom Gundam, this is RC-135. We acknowledge order to depart airspace and will comply. Check left, setting heading to 2-7-5 to depart. Have a nice day, Gundam."

-x-

"Command, Strike Freedom, ELINT craft is headed away from Sanc Kingdom territory," Kira reported after the pilot settled down on the ordered course.

"One less set of eyes," Miriallia sighed. "Kira, begin your recon, we'll go on your results."

"Got it," Kira said. "Beginning sensor sweeps in ten seconds."

After landing on a hill he picked out for the purpose of a clear line of sight, his machine dropped to one knee and speared its fingers into the soft ground below. It took a few seconds for the SAPS (2) to filter out background noise and seismic anomalies, leaving only the sounds of mechanical devices to sort through. Some of these mechanical contacts were easily filtered out — the turbines of a nuclear power plant were not likely to pose a threat to a 380,000-ton multipurpose warship, after all. Some contacts were on the wrong bearings to be anything but civilians — New Port City had a lot of civilian vehicle traffic, though a clever enemy would drop Mobile Suits off the shore of the city and march in through the shallows. After several more passes through SAPS, the only signal left for the system was Mobile Suit traffic. After receiving a clear cut to the enemy formations, all that remained was to count and triangulate the contacts.

It would be several minutes before Kira had the information he needed, and altogether dreaded. The SONAR systems in his Gundam's sensor suite had near-continental ranges and accuracy, and at closer ranges (within 1000 kilometers) could accurately place locations and movements of anything detected. As the AI unit in his machine detected units, it began displaying formations, directions of advance, and enemy numbers. "Command, Kira," he began, but hesitated after the final count came up.

"Kira, Command, read five by five," Miriallia prompted, wondering why he hesitated after beginning his transmission.

"Count two enemy axis of advance at this time, total of 1 brigade enemy force. Uploading sensor picture to CIC now."

"Understood, Kira," Captain Ramius answered for Miriallia. "Continue tracking until your position becomes untenable, then return to the ship. We'll work out how to bring them down on the fly."

-x-x-x-

(19 November AC195, 1205 hours)
(Forests west of Sanc Kingdom border, Headquarters Section, Task Force Black Mace)

"Kessler, Whyune," the second ranking officer in the formation prompted on the command net.

"Go, Tania," Viscount Kessler replied immediately.

"2 Brigade is on the move. I had the regiments jump off at the same time but by terrain it's going to come down to a ladder-north pattern. Should I delay my southern fronts to compensate?"

Jacob did not immediately respond to her advisement but simply looked over his maps. A ladder-north strike pattern would mean that the southernmost forces would be in combat first, with units successively engaging in battle farther north as time advanced. In a classic showing of arcane principle dictating modern warfare thinking, the term 'ladder-north' dated back to the Cold War, as it described the way nuclear missiles would hit the ground to avoid fratricide by flying through each other's debris cloud

"Tania, what's the book on this Ramius lady? Hothead, even-keel, airhead, what?"

"Aggressive but highly-disciplined. Some of our analysts think she fits the 'mama bear' type as well," Lady Whyune replied evenly.

"Do not delay your southern fronts. If she fits her book, she'll begin moving forces south in anticipation of that being our primary effort, which allows us to hit her from the north without issue."

"Understood. Should I plan on doing the same with my other brigades?"

That question became more of a judgment call than the first one. They enemy was likely to fall for the trick the first time, but it would not take them long to wise up to it. Repeat offenses would be handled differently, possibly even with timed counterattacks or preemptive strikes. The book (intelligence reporting) on Ramius may have put her as hot-headed, possibly even the 'mama bear' of the Sanc Kingdom defenses, but nowhere in that assessment did it call her stupid or foolhardy. It was extremely unlikely she would make the same mistake twice.

"Negative, Tania. She'll not fall for that one twice," Kessler gave voice to his own analysis of the coming conflict. "Have your other regiments hit the point of departure simultaneously or as near to it as humanly possible. We want massed firepower on their defenses as much as possible, but the first thrust gives us a chance to string out their assets into smaller formations."

"Understood, Jacob," Lady Whyune answered after she considered the logistics of what her commander intended.

"Do you have any other reports at this time?"

"No further reports or intelligence. I will keep you posted as we encounter enemy forces."

"Understood. Kessler is out."

In response to his changing orders, the map officer shifted around the miniatures that represented individual regiments and squadrons in the map table used to control the invasion of the Sanc Kingdom. With two simple orders, he changed the entire tempo of the invasion. Only time would tell if such changes were to his benefit or his demise.

"Mike, any sign of the enemy warship?" Kessler asked after a few moments of contemplating his positions and axis of advance.

"Possible sensor detection from enemy warship, triangulation puts it north and slightly east of New Port City, sir," his primary ELINT controller answered immediately. "Also, sir, I think I have something unusual here. Possible contact with some kind of forward recon asset transmitting on encrypted bands, but it may be ground-bound."

"Not much of a recon posting, if that other yellow plot is what you think it is," Viscount Kessler mused. "That whole area is forest, they would have extremely limited visibility even if they were on localized high-ground."

"That's the thing, sir. It doesn't make a bloody bit of sense for a recon unit to be sitting in wall-to-wall trees with their thumbs up their butts, but ELINT says there is something there with a, erm, I'll quote the signals analyst here for brevity: 'fucking huge bandwidth oh-my-god radiohax' if that makes any bit of sense to you, sir." That Captain Mike had read the SigAnt description with a straight face was testament to the sheer insanity of the entire campaign.

Kessler took in hand the analysis sheet from Mike, and read over the portion described by the Captain. It did indeed say what he quoted, which almost caused Kessler to giggle at the complete lack of standardization...or descriptive discipline. "Okay, we have an unknown recon asset of dubious effectiveness, and we have the warship itself. What do we do about it?"

"Send a platoon of Taurus units to deal with the recon boy, hit 'em at range with space lasers," his operations officer said. "Should we send a unit of Mobile Dolls with to reinforce?"

"Yes," Kessler mused, thinking while staring at the map. "We can possibly divert enemy assets into that area and trap them between the movement axis of two of our regiments."

.-x-x-x-

"Conn, sensors, reporting feed from Strike Freedom is active and showing all enemy formations. It looks like this southernmost attack vector is spread out due to terrain, but the northern attack vectors are all grouped together."

"Sensors, aye," Murrue replied immediately. "Miriallia, status of forces?"

"Us or Kingdom forces?" Miriallia asked in response, since effectively she was the controller for both forces at this time.

"Both," Murrue requested after a second's hesitation. "Or, is it really that bad?" she asked cautiously, dreading the inevitable answer even so.

"It's bad," Miriallia replied. "Right now, Sanc Kingdom Tac-Com is busy having kittens all over the radio band. The Maganac forces and the northern guard have already authenticated to us for command."

"Interesting way to put it," Commander La Flaga said over the radio with an ironic tone.

"Political hacks, suddenly ass-deep in a bad situation," Yzak griped on the radio. "I was anticipating this, but I wasn't anticipating it before a single shot was fired."

"Oh my," Fuu said by way of Windam translating her normal semi-telepathy to radio transmission. "Can we make it without the central command section?"

"It won't be any easier," Kira answered. "Captain, we may have to strike preemptively. I show two regiments on the move from the north now."

For Murrue, this decision was not as simple as the military necessity would seem to be. The major problem was political; fire too soon, the enemy could use that as propaganda to reinforce their position with the civilians. Fire too late, the impact was less effective over time due to less time for long-range bombardment before close combat had to be used. The proper balance between both factors, at least in Murrue's purview, was the border itself.

"Kira, have any enemy forces passed the border yet? Is the invasion official?" Murrue asked.

"Checking now," Kira answered. His report was ten seconds in the coming: "Confirmed, enemy lead elements on the southern front are half a kilometer inside the Sanc Kingdom and pushing forward. It's official."

"Chandratta, prepare missiles for long-range support fire," Murrue ordered.

"Already ahead of you, Captain, but I think we have another option as well," the gunnery officer confirmed his position.

Murrue grimaced, unseen by the rest of the bridge crew. "What do you mean?"

"Yzak, with a little debug help from Athrun and Kira, has written a new targeting interface for my console, allowing me to use the direct-fire weapons as indirect fire support. Mainly for the Valiants, but it is also usable at long range with the gauss rifles, autocannons, and Igelstellungs."

"Has it been tested?" Murrue asked warily.

"Simulated out, it hasn't crashed the mainframe systems yet." Chandratta hedged his position with near-complete confidence. "I'm only suggesting this right now because using the Valiants as mortar-style KEWs (3) would save the missiles for in close...and we need more missiles."

"I noticed," Murrue groused. Since they left Vector, there had been no resupply for the Archangel - and prior battles had forced the expenditure of over half the missile stock of the ship. The growth of the ship had increased the magazine size for the launchers, but adding storage space to an already-half-empty ammo magazine did not give you more ready missiles to use in common practice. "All right, you have authorization. Use the Valiants, but keep the missiles ready just in case."

"Roger that, uncaging Valiants now," Chandratta reported as his hands danced across the control panel. "Valiants are open, targeting systems are online now. Stand by," the weapons officer gave a running monologue of his actions.

"Fire three salvos, let's see how well it does. Miriallia, have Kira track those shells and do a damage assessment after impact."

"Kira, Command, can you verify shot placement from where you are?" Miriallia relayed the Captain's orders.

"I'm on it," Kira replied immediately. "Does the Captain want a kill count on the hits, as well?" he asked after a few moments.

"Roger that," Miriallia answered.

"Fire one," Chandratta said. It was fifteen seconds before he declared "Fire two," and another fifteen before "Fire three," before he stood down the guns to cool off.

"I confirm six rounds in the air," Kira said from his scouting position. "Good track, shells headed for southern fronts. Forested area, we'll lose some impact from the slugs."

"Splash in ten," Chandratta noted as his own systems did estimation on impact of the rounds aloft. "Five seconds." In the interim, he ran a check on a secondary system that he figured he would need soon. "Splash now."

"Two hits," Kira responded. "Four hits," he reported fifteen seconds later. "Six hits, stand by for damage assessment."

"Moment of truth," Sai said to nobody in particular.

"Confirmed two Mobile Dolls downed, one crippled but still mobile," Kira reported. "Look like Yzak's code is spot on."

"I hope it is, that program has maxed out available quantum computing power," Sai reported.

"Is this going to be a problem, Sai?" Murrue asked plainly.

"We'll lose long-range sensor effectiveness temporarily while the program spikes the mainframes," he estimated, given how much it had cost him in sensor range to fire the first shots. "Beyond that, I can't guess what it will do."

This decision - continue using the long-range fire program or restore normal functions - was a bit easier for Murrue to decide. Killing these soulless Mobile Dolls at range was a hell of a lot better than trying to knife-fight them. "Chandratta, continue long-range bombardment at a slower fire rate until enemy forces approach within direct fire envelope."

"Roger that, Captain," the weapons officer said with clear trepidation. "Kira, Chandratta, do you need any support fire at this time?"

"Yes, sir, looks like I have about a company of enemy forces headed right for me. I think someone doesn't like me today."

-x-x-x-

(19 November AC195, 1215 hours)
(Second Southern Front, Sanc Kingdom Western Border)

In another one of Murphy's little 'modifications' of the battle plan, the relayed order to Lady Whyune to challenge the recon asset did not include the request to use Taurus machines with space lasers. Thus, Lady Whyune sent one of her more reliable and skilled Leo teams with a company of Mobile Dolls to do the job.

"Lady Whyune, Captain Torgue, reporting I have crossed the line of departure. Estimate contact with enemy recon asset in 90 seconds."

"Captain, be careful," his commander told him sincerely. "We don't know what kind of asset they have doing recon, but if it is one of their mobile weapons, it will be extremely dangerous."

"Understood, Lady Whyune. 75 seconds to contact. Going silent now, wish me luck."

When the comm screen cut out, Captain Torgue began looking up and around in the general direction of the unknown enemy recon unit. "My unit, radio silence until we engage. Mobile Dolls, advance on line and search for enemy machines. Engage and destroy all encountered enemy forces."

The half-dozen Leo Mobile Suits stopped in their tracks, allowing the Virgo Mobile Dolls to move forward and begin their search. For what it was worth, each of the Leo machines were equipped with the best beam weapons available to Oz for their model - the standard beam rifle paired with heavy shoulder-mounted beam cannons. Against a lower-power Mobile Suit, the beam cannons alone could chop it down to size; the operational hope was that six Leos and a company of Mobile Dolls with overcharged beam cannons could chop down one enemy Gundam.

Captain Torgue thought he heard some manner of whistling sound, but passed it off. It was only in the movies that one heard artillery incoming by way of some manner of whistling; in real life, the lightest artillery used by Oz or the Earth Alliance left the gunbarrel at roughly mach eight — eight times the speed of sound — and still was moving mach two (twice the speed of sound) by the time it hit the ground. The shell would literally hit the target before the sound of its flight arrived at the target. It was a phenomenon not uncommon on the battlefield: snipers as far back as World War Two took advantage of the same principle to surprise their targets, given that most of the battle rifles of the era were easily supersonic weapons and it only took ~75 yards for the bullet to outpace the sonic boom it made.

"You hearing that, sir?" a Lieutenant asked.

"I am. Someone have a pneumatic leak?" Torgue countered. It was rare, but hardly impossible to pick up someone else's machine suffering a high-pressure air leak using their external sound sensors.

"Nope," the same lieutenant answered immediately. His other four subordinates chimed in after a few to report no pneumatic their machines.

"Then what is that whistling sound?" his most junior officer asked. "Artillery?"

"Don't be daft. You'll never hear the sound of artillery in flight, they hit the ground supersonic and still outrunning the sound they make," The platoon sergeant for the manned MS answered coldly.

Their assessment of it not being artillery was only partially correct. Common field artillery weapons did loft their projectiles at such speeds that they still struck the ground supersonic. The Archangel, however, was using a relatively high-velocity weapon - only twelve times the speed of sound at muzzle - though the flight time the projectile had was ample that the Valiant slugs fell below the speed of sound on their way down from their high arc. Bluntly stated, they could be heard by forces on the ground as they came down from their mortar-style arc.

A second after the Sergeant made his pronouncement, the Mobile Dolls directly in front of him were shredded apart by the incoming projectiles. The strikes were purely kinetic, owing their damage to some very large object simply slamming into the Mobile Dolls and hammering them into scrap. In one case this simply left wreckage all over the place; in the other case, the engine in the Virgo detonated sympathetically from catastrophic shielding breach. The vented plasma fireball from the second machine gave off the same blast effect as 6500 pounds of TNT, an impressive blast that took out several more Virgo Mobile Dolls and knocked the manned machines down.

"What the hell was that?" one of the rookies asked.

"That was a reactor explosion, jackass, something hit and destroyed one of the Mobile Dolls," the Sergeant grumbled as he levered his Leo to standing. "Captain, you all right?"

"I'll live, but my Leo is trashed," Torgue replied blearily. "Gimme a second to bandage this gash on my face. What's left, Sergeant?"

"Me, two of the boys, and roughly half our Mobile Dolls, sir." It was obvious from the wreckage of the lead Leo that the Captain would have a letter to write after this battle was concluded. Two others were clearly crippled, one having lost most of a leg and the other had lost its head and shoulders. How the reactor in that Leo had not detonated, the Sergeant could not guess.

"All right, reorganize and spread out our forces. I don't want another reactor cookoff to do that much damage to us again."

"Wha — OH SHIT! It's a Gundam!" the unit rookie shouted. "Captain, Gundam to our fro-" he did not complete the sentence before his machine was downed by a pair of beam rifle shots to the torso. Neither shot struck the all-important reactor, but nobody maintained illusions that his machine was still in the fight.

"Sergeant! Get the men out of —" Captain Torgue was stopped cold as the lifeless Leo piloted by his sergeant slammed into the ground next to his own Leo. "Not good."

Torgue took a few moments to clear out of his downed Leo by way of the emergency escape handle, though the few seconds changed the course of the battle even further into the deepest recesses of futility. The Gundam in question — it was one of the Archangel's Gundams, the large white one — was using vulcan machine cannons and a pair of hip-mounted rail guns to bring down the Virgo Mobile Dolls. It wasn't so much that one or two shots of rail gun or a burst of machine cannon would knock down a single machine, but how quickly the pilot was mulching the Mobile Dolls. In months past, it took dozens of Leos several minutes of fighting to bring down one Virgo, and often at cost of most of their strength. This one machine was killing a Virgo roughly every three seconds while defending against shots from the other machines, a testament to the skill of the pilot and the power of his Gundam.

"I thought this was supposed to be a recon asset," the sergeant griped over the radio. "Who knew we'd blunder into the hunting patch of a Gundam?"

"Not I," Captain Torgue sighed. The last of the Virgo machines went down in the seconds thereafter, hammered by high-velocity rail guns. "I'm going to play a hunch here. You listening, Gundam pilot?"

"I have been," the pilot answered as the Gundam turned to look at him. Face-on and not moving. Torgue could tell this machine was of extremely-different construction from the Colony Gundams that had been terrorizing Oz for months.

"What's your stake in this game? I mean, the Archangel Team, that is," Torgue asked.

"You were right the first time, as well," Kira answered. "The Archangel Team is in it for stopping Romefeller before they do something stupid or omnicidal. I, personally, am in this because I don't like aristocrats, I don't like bullies, and I don't like people shooting at me. That's three strikes in my book, so you're out." Torgue reacted with a jolt, thinking he might have to face the guns of a Gundam on foot. "Don't worry, I won't shoot someone unless they can actually harm me, and without your machines you're out of the game. Hitch a ride to somewhere and get lost, before any more fire support comes down through here."

Without a further word, the Gundam jumped off with impressive speed and dropped into the forest somewhere west of the battlefield.

-x-x-x-

(19 November AC195, 1220 hours)
(Second Southern Front, Sanc Kingdom Western Border)

"How shall we start?" Fuu asked of the other two Magic Knights.

"Hit them with magic attacks, then come in behind with swords and clean up?" Umi posed as one suggestion.

"I'm not seeing any other choice," Hikaru reluctantly confirmed after a few moments. "We'll do fire on the left, wind in the center, water on the right - don't want to mix a fire and water attack, that won't work well."

"I got it," Umi declared. "Say when."

"Rayearth? Any recommendations?" Hikaru asked after a moment, given that the enemy would be primarily shooting at the Rune Gods, and the Magic Knights only by extension.

This is the only effective plan at this time, the Rune God confirmed. The enemy outnumbers us to a degree where elegant solutions are not usable.

"Rayearth says no other options, guys," Hikaru noted with a dour tone of voice. "Plan on hitting them in ten seconds."

It was seven seconds before the Magic Knights began their offensive, to make sure their attacks were timed for best effect. "Inferno Shell!" Hikaru chanted, aiming forward of her with her mind to where the enemy was supposed to be.

"Whirlwind of Blades!" Fuu chanted at the same time.

"Hurricane of Ice Shards!" Umi completed the series a mere second after the other two.

With magic of the scale intended, each spell took a handful of seconds to initiate, but in less than a sixth of a minute the destruction was in full effect. Hikaru's choice of spell was a single attack, albeit massively powerful, and had no control options. Once the shell dissipated all that remained was slag and char, nothing of note and nothing capable of resisting.

For Umi and Fuu, each spell had a duration of effect and could be directed with the assistance of the Rune Gods. Naturally, the two Magic Knights moved the massive bulwarks of destruction directly through the enemy column, aiming for as many manned and unmanned Mobile Suits as could be shredded by their spellcraft. On the left flank, the blades in the wind tornado chopped the Mobile Dolls into smaller and smaller bits of salvage, to eventually throw the detritus far and wide around the forests of northern Europe. To the right, the hurricane of ice picked up a Mobile Doll and skewered it with meter-long rods of ice moving at tornadic speeds, damage to which even a Mobile Doll was not designed to withstand for long.

After a bare sixty seconds, the first phase of the destruction was done. A total of four companies of Mobile Dolls had been scattered around the forest to be picked up later. Given the possibility of civilians in the area, it had been decided before the battle that area-clearing attacks would be minimized unless absolutely needed. The destruction is wrought, Magic Knights. Let us close for hand-to-hand battle, Windam declared by telepathy and with the utmost of gravity. Nobody maintained illusions on this matter: three Rune Gods could take out a Regiment of Mobile Dolls (168) and manned Mobile Suits (42), but it would be painful for everyone involved.

"Ready to go," Umi acknowledged a second after Windam's recommendation.

"Let's do it." Hikaru lead the charge off herself, shield forward as she dodged between trees toward their swath of destruction.

The spells had begun their damage some several hundred meters ahead of the Rune Gods, and moved progressively away from their position. With a swift sprint forward, the three Rune Gods emerged into the area they had cleared with their magic attacks to find what exactly they had done. "What terrible price," Fuu lamented as Windam vaulted over the shredded and charred torso of a Leo land MS.

"Someone has to pay for this," Hikaru replied, though even her voice was tinged with sympathy.

"Emerging enemy units, a kilometer ahead," Umi indicated where by the point of her sword.

"Head for the forest to the sides!" Hikaru changed the plan immediately. "If we charge this field, they'll shred us! Use the trees as cover!"

"Right!" Fuu immediately bolted left with Umi, a scant two paces behind Rayearth. Hikaru's change in plans was timely; the advancing column of Mobile Dolls had definitely recognized them as hostile and began firing on them at a kilometer's distance. The wreckage of trees and machines between the enemy and the Rune Gods absorbed their fire, but a few beams came close enough to get the attention of the Magic Knights.

"We'll run half a kilometer forward and turn in on their side," Umi judged.

"We should be close enough, I hope," Fuu voiced her fears of being caught in the open and a lot closer to the enemy.

"We will be," Hikaru put in her opinion to voice on the assumption that the enemy would continue their advance.

Umi ended up taking the lead due mostly to the variance in the trees, though she didn't realize that Rayearth and Windam had fallen behind her to a significant extent. When she emerged from the forest and into the side of the enemy column, wholly half their guns were oriented in her general direction, the other half were aimed forward of their advance. "Oh SHIT!" she shouted unceremoniously as Selesce back-winged to clear back into the forest and specifically away from the wall of fire.

"They anticipated that move from us," Fuu grumbled as Umi cleared far enough into the forest that the enemy could not track and fire on them. "Now what?"

"Whatever we do next, they're on to us, so it will hurt," Hikaru groused.

They rush the forests! Be on your guard! Selece warned the three Knights.

"It gets better and better," Hikaru declared at her most cynical. "Follow me in!"

Hikaru never had the chance to begin an advance into the teeth of the enemy — those fangs found her fast enough. A pair of Leo Mobile Dolls sighted in on her and began laying down suppressive fire with 105mm high-explosive machine gun rounds, while two more Leo MS took position with Dobergun heavy cannons. Rayearth braced his shield forward and weathered the explosive rounds, but the first shot from the Doberguns knocked the Rune God backwards into a tree and down to its haunches. With the first Rune God downed, even if briefly, fire shifted from Rayearth to Windam.

"Hikaru! Are you alright?" Umi half-shouted as she watched Windam crumple in much the same fashion as Rayearth had. Before fire could shift farther down the line to her, Magic Knight Ryuuzaki put her namesake to good use. "Water Dragon!" She used her basic attack spell, and aimed not for the Mobile Suits but the trees around them, since a Leo could withstand water pressure but not being slammed by trees.

"I'm alive, I think," Hikaru answered meekly at the same time the water spellcraft was ripping the trees up and slamming them into the intrepid Leo land MS.

"Up and at it!" Umi shouted fully. "We can't let them hammer on us!" She charged forward into the gap her water attack had created, first intent to stop the Leo MS from recovering. Before a single machine could stand, her sword had found the torso of their company commander and disabled it handily.

"I'll be there shortly," Fuu commented on her own status.

Umi finished the series with an impaling attack that silenced the last of the dobergun-wielding Leos. Before she could take a step forward, her vision crossed the muzzle brake of one of the Doberguns, dislodged from its carrying platform and readily available for 'reallocation' by an interested party. It did not take Selesce much effort to pick up the Dobergun, as it weighed not much more than his own sword. Shouldering it was also a simple task, and once in place Umi could tell how they were supposed to be aimed and fired intuitively.

"I see what you're doing!" Hikaru said in excited realization. She had clearly not considered the utility of carrying a mobile suit weapon before, though Fuu had done so in past battles.

"Come on! We can finish them off from here!" Umi paced forward to the edge of the treeline again, this time more cautiously and intending to use the old forests as cover. Once in position, she brought the weapon up and sighted in the nearest Virgo MD. She never remembered the conscious choice to squeeze the trigger, all she could remember was the massive blast directed outward from the gun by the muzzle brake, and the horrendous recoil of the monster 350mm cartridge as the gun slammed back into her shoulder. It was the work of a second for her to shake the fuzzy effects from her head, but when she looked up there was a gaping hole in the chest of the Virgo she was aiming at. "Yes! I can do this!"

Umi jumped at the sound of another shot, this time from the other Dobergun held by Fuu. Her shot had achieved the same result on a different Virgo, though now return fire forced her to hide behind the tree she was using for cover.

Fight to your right, not straight ahead! Keep cover behind the tree, Rayearth gave them a solid suggestion to avoid taking fire while giving it.

Fuu fired next, this second shot went slightly high of her intended target and did nothing more than splinter a tree on the far side of the damage swath cut by her own spell. Umi fared better with her second shot, this time removing the right arm and sympathetically detonating the beam cannon generator on the shoulder of her targeted Virgo.

"We still lose if we stand here!" Hikaru declared coldly. "We have to close in! Follow me!" Rayearth pushed forward of the trees Umi and Fuu were covering behind, her shield braced forward and one of the Leo machine guns in her right hand and stabilized against the right edge of the shield. As she cleared the trees, Rayearth looked down the sights of the 105mm machine gun and centered in on a Taurus MS. The targeted enemy fired a shot, another, and a third that actually struck Rayearth's shield, but all for naught. The Rune God was able to retain positive control of the machine gun to a better extent than the Leo MS it was designed for, and Hikaru's skill at aiming sub-machine guns allowed her to walk a ten-round burst across its torso. Several electrical arcs danced across its chest plate and hip plates before it collapsed forward, assuredly downed and no longer a threat.

"We're behind you, Hikaru!" Umi shouted as Hikaru walked another burst across a manned Mobile Suit — this one a Tragos artillery unit. The older machine was heavily-armored, but not well enough protected to withstand a shelling from the weapons carried by his own comrades. Umi darted forward to Hikaru's right side and stopped fast with her cannon braced, then fired a shot at 500 meters into the waist of a Virgo MD. The dual-purpose penetrator round hammered through the armor on the girdle plates, then detonated inside the structure and caused the hip of the machine to give out. The MD collapsed down onto its own legs, then began smoldering as the chest plates glowed cherry-red from excessive internal heat.

"Only a few left!" Fuu went left of Hikaru and snapped a shot off at the Mobile Dolls of a different Platoon. The round missed two forward Mobile Dolls but slammed into the knee of a middle-line unit and blew the lower leg clear off the machine.

"Wha — are they retreating?" Umi asked nobody in particular.

"We spooked them!" Hikaru whooped. "They're heading for the hills now!"

"Command, Windam, central thrust on the east side is retreating at this time. Requesting orders," Fuu made the change in enemy status official.

"Windam, Archangel, good op," Miriallia answered immediately. "Captain wants you three to return to the ship and take a quick breather. That was one regiment out of five the enemy has for this battle, and they've still got four more to put in play. You'll be busy again shortly."

-x-x-x-

(19 November AC195, 1235 hours)
(Forests west of Sanc Kingdom border, Headquarters Section, Task Force Black Mace)

"This is INSANITY!" Viscount Kessler literally heaved the map table through the back panel of the command tent. "Three school girls, in command of biologic mobile weapons, just totaled nearly a whole regiment of Romefeller's best Mobile Suits and Mobile Dolls!" He scratched angrily at his hair, his face staring down to the ground. "What the hell is wrong with this picture, people?"

"We're fighting schoolgirls to begin with, for starters," his aide-de-camp answered bluntly. "Never mind that we just got our ass kicked by them pretty hard."

"I'm not looking for smartass answers, comrade," Kessler replied just as bluntly.

"If I was being a smartass, I would have said that Hello Kitty is next in line to beat our asses raw and steal our lunch money. Unfortunately, we're rapidly heading in that direction. Sergeant, recover the map table. War's not over yet."

"Yes, sir!" The indicated Sergeant exited the tent by way of the front flap, and was back in twenty seconds with the aforementioned map table and two separated legs tucked under his arm. As both Aide-de-camp and Kessler took a few moments to cool down from the brief rage fit, they watched as the non-commissioned officer used 100-MPH tape to reattach the missing legs and properly right the table. "Set and ready, sir!"

"Excellent," Kessler replied heartily, thankful for at least a small gesture of something going right, even if it was directly victim to everything else (so far) going wrong.

"Okay, we know they hold here and here," and the aide, Major Wirth drew two hasty circles on the map where forces prior had encountered and were defeated by Archangel Team forces in direct combat. "Our southern force was shelled by unknown artillery units, and these were ballistic, not missile, so that is likely not the ship."

"Fair enough to say," Kessler misjudged.

"Given a smart enemy is not going to dense-pack his forces, especially critical support like artillery, the ship is probably somewhere between here and here," and the Major drew two lines representing a fair estimation of where the ship should be, in the north sector of the invasion areas. The lines ended up encompassing roughly half of Sanc Kingdom territory west of New Port City. "They probably know by now where we're coming in by land, so they will have forces in these areas," and three more circles were drawn on likely favorable terrain, "ready to hammer us flat. With me so far, sir?"

"I was thinking along those lines, yes." Kessler nodded twice. "What are your thoughts, Major?"

Wirth scratched his head briefly. "So far, they have the field; they knew we were coming, and there really isn't much we can do about it. We need to put some serious damage down on their teams before we can advance further, since it looks like we won't be able to bypass anything at this point, not even a latrine, lest it attacks us."

"Damnit," Kessler groused. "If that bastard Tuberov had not completely devalued the support services in favor of his little fucking toys, we would have options." The Viscount was referring specifically to the support service that most people knew as Artillery — contrary to some circles of belief, artillery was hellishly effective even against something such as a hardened Gundam. "My damn left arm for some decent artillery — forget the kingdom, I'd trade parts of my anatomy right now for a good battery or two of MLRS units. Use the Mobile Dolls to localize and fix them, then hammer on them with MLRS until destroyed. But nooo, that half-Russkie bitch-boy of Dermail's has deprived us of even that," Kessler spat his contempt of the Mobile Doll engineer. "Some days, I swear the REMF (4) crew is trying real hard to deny us the victory they want us to achieve."

"Wouldn't be the first time in history an aggressor party was shafted by their own commanders," Major Wirth sympathized. "Rather than Artillery, what about a composite strategy of Mobile Dolls forward with a rear-line of manned hunter-killer MS armed with Space Lasers? Let the dolls absorb their fury while the hunters pick them off from afar?"

"That may be the best option, now," Kessler said. "Radio, raise Lady Whyune," Kessler ordered.

"One moment, sir," his operator answered.

"Lady Whyune," the radio set squawked after a few seconds of static. Something in the area was interfering with comms equipment, and it was beginning to get frustrating to the command staff.

"Whyune, Kessler," the Viscount prompted. "Your northern front is likely walking right into the waiting gunports of their ship. How do you have your space laser teams dispersed?"

"Mixed in with the reserve companies, so I have a weighted fist to use on that damned ship," the subordinate field officer answered. "I was planning to fix in place with my front, then bring the reserve up to drop the ship," she noted.

"You've got greater problems than the ship," Kessler said. "You're also walking into area we estimate is held by their mobile forces. We have a plan for dealing with them, but it requires the use of the Space Laser weapons and not on the ship."

"How so?" Tania asked plaintively. If there was any one thing she wanted to be rid of, it was the Archangel Team mobile forces, especially after the damage caused to her force structure already.

"Use your Mobile Dolls to distract them, while the Space Laser units knock them down from afar. We can worry about the ship after their striking arm is dealt with."

"And if I have to deal with both?" Tania asked.

"Then we're screwed," Kessler admitted. One of the two groups was bad, both at once was outside the ken of most of Oz, including his ragtag force.

"So reassuring," Tania admitted candidly. "It will take me ten minutes to reorganize my lines to execute this plan. I'll get on it right now. Whyune, out."

"Good luck," Kessler said to the disconnected radio. "Operator, status of the second engagement wave?"

-x-x-x-

(19 November AC195, 1245 hours)
(Sanc Kingdom, Northeastern forested areas)

"Mercurius Team, Archangel, be advised we have detected enemy movement in your sector. They may have stopped to reorganize their lines in preparation for something."

"Archangel, Mercerius, got it," Athrun answered immediately. "All right, boys and girls," he continued to the rest of his ad-hoc team, even though there were no ladies in his area, "we've got a regiment-sized column headed our way. Time to play fast-and-loose with their front lines."

"We may want to call in for support, Pilot Zala," Pytor made his opinion known. "Much as I am loathe to admit, a regiment is an unreasonable force for us to engage without support of some kind, or without the advantages the Magic Knights possess," the aged Jade Falcon noted uncharacteristically. His opinion was directly against Jade Falcon teachings on three levels: a Mechwarrior never asked for help, a Mechwarrior never considered artillery or air support to be a valid form of warfare (except against Dezgra (5) forces), and a solahma (6) warrior always looked for a good way to go out in a blaze of glory. Asking for support from the Archangel flew in the face of all those tenets, showing how far Pytor had become ingrained into the culture and methods of the Archangel Team.

"Agreed," Heero Yuy chimed in. "We can reliably do a little more than half their regiment, but more than that is unlikely."

"Hard to argue with that thought," Athrun agreed. "Archangel, Mercurius Team, what support options do we have?"

"Athrun, Chandratta just said if you ask for it, he will dish it," Miriallia responded almost immediately. "You fix 'em, we'll flatten 'em."

"Man, I hope Tolle knows what he's in for if he ever marries you," Athrun noted with gravity after he thought he had his finger off the radio switch...

...when in fact he did not. "I'm pretty sure I can keep him in line, and vice versa," Miriallia freely admitted. "You worry about the battle, I don't want to explain to Lacus what went wrong. Nor does the Captain, and the same for the rest of you."

"Aff, Operator," Pytor answered hastily. Heero simply grunted in response.

"Mercurius Team, Captain Ramius," Murrue prompted.

"Read five by five, Captain, go ahead," Athrun replied a second thereafter.

"I'm sending the Skygrasper in your direction with the IWSP pack for extended combat against ground targets. Mu has not been able to detect any sort of assault wave to the south or east, so might as well put him where it will do the best good."

"Roger and happy to have the support," Athrun admitted. "We'll move to contact location shortly, requesting Archangel be ready with hot guns and missiles for imminent support missions," the veteran Gundam pilot requested.

"Roger and good luck, Athrun."

"Alright, guys, this is where it gets direct. Heero, I want you on the left flank; given that we just reamed out a regiment on that side, their guard to that side is likely to be thin. If you find a hole, exploit it. Pytor and I will hold them on the front. Pytor, you fire hard and fast, I will spot calls for artillery and missile support. Commander La Flaga, time until you are in the area?"

"Mission accepted," Heero acknowledged. Without further word, he began the trudge toward the area of the encounter between the Magic Knights and their demolished regiment; he was smart enough not to try flying, due to the enemy being hellishly effective in Triple-A operations.

"Athrun, Mu, I'll be in your neighborhood in roughly four minutes. Wrong striker pack to go supersonic, or I'd be there sooner."

"We shouldn't be in heavy combat for a few minutes past that, Commander. Pytor, stay behind me. I'll cover both of us with the Planet Defensers. You worry about putting accurate fire downrange."

"Not unlike my days as a Solahma 'mechwarrior. Lead the way, Athrun."

The Mercurius set off first into the forest areas northwest of Phase Line Indigo, the second defensive phase line in the seven-line operations plan the commanders had finally settled on. The enemy had their own plans, but the Archangel had been hired for the express purpose of fouling those plans in their entirety, and Athrun intended to make it a reality.

"La Flaga reporting, I'll be over the battlefield in 2 minutes," Mu noted at the same time that Athrun began picking up the magnetic anomalies caused by fusion reactors in the forest dead ahead of him.

"Roger that, and good timing. We're getting close."

-x-

"Command, 1 Squad, not a damn thing going on ahead of us. Visibility is patchy, 100 meters to a half-kilometer. Recommend slowdown and more deliberate search, sir," Major Yang Torgue broadcasted on the command frequency.

"1 Squadron, you are authorized to slow down advance. Make sure your Dolls are forward to catch the brunt of whatever the hell we're walking into," the Colonel answered. In truth, he thought the request from Lady Whyune was asinine on the face of it, given the terrain made charging forward at a breakneck pace something of a Leeroy Run. His purpose wasn't to get his guys killed, so he had no problem reducing speed of advance to better cover everyone's ass.

"Way ahead of you, boss," the Major answered. In truth, he had started out with his Dolls forward, he expected casualties and he wanted those to be material casualties, not manpower. Contrary to some opinions way above him, he considered his men to be less expendable than the Mobile Dolls in front of him.

"Erm, Command, this is Lieutenant Abrahams, I have sighting on two unknown Mobile Suits dead ahead of me, sir, somewhere around 1900 meters or so. One red one, one blue one, neither in my machine database. Pics are up on Channel 7, sir."

"Oh shit, that is Mercurius and Vayeate," Colonel Frederick Brekaus bemoaned. "Treize had those built by the Gundam Engineers on the moon. The beam cannons used by the Virgo troops are derived from the beam cannon on the Vayeate — and make no mistake, the original is going to be a lot more powerful."

"Orders, sir?" Captain Nevada Sturmburg requested in the stead of his direct subordinate (Lieutenant Abrahams).

"Move to and engage, have your manned machines hold back and take a clean shot with space lasers," Major Torgue answered immediately. The change in process was a welcome one — the enemy used advantages of speed and defensive strength, all he could do is pick them off at range.

"On it, sir," Captain Sturmburg noted grimly.

"Major Torgue, this is the supporting Infantry formations! We're under attack on the right flank by Gundam 01!"

-x-

"This is Wing, I have engaged on the left flank," Heero declared as he hit the supporting column of enemy infantry with his vulcans and machine cannons. Under normal circumstances he would not have even bothered looking hard at them, but in a defensive civilian guard operation infantry was a major threat to the protected persons.

"Roger that, we have the enemy held at the front," Athrun noted. "Be advised, I have the first wave of missiles inbound, targeting north of your position 700 meters. Avoid if possible."

"Acknowledged," Yuy answered simply. His machine had detected several mixed formations of Leos and Taurus Mobile Suits with a blend of weapons, a hazardous combination even to his machine. The question became who reacted first — him on the flank strike, or the enemy in counterattack?

The answer came clear enough to him before the Gundam advanced another hundred meters into the flanking strike. A pair of Dobergun rounds shredded trees nearby him, followed hotly by a trio of beams from lighter beam guns. The piece d' resistance was a single shot of a Space Laser headed in his general direction — the pilot had haphazardly aimed where they thought the Gundam was, which mercifully put it twenty meters off target. Even still, the thermal bloom of such a powerful weapon was enough to buffet his machine briefly.

It was fairly obvious that he had their full and undivided attention when a second Space Laser came a lot closer than the first, followed by rather accurate harassing fire from a Leo's 105mm machine cannon. "Athrun, time until missiles?"

"Forty seconds," Athrun answered. "Ballistic fire should be on target in five."

"Rog — AAAARRRR!" Heero accidentally overstrained the word due to inertia and partially due to surprise. Even as he was maneuvering for a good shot on the enemy formation, a Taurus had struck a lucky shot with the Space Laser weapon, blowing the left leg of his machine clear off at mid-thigh. Less than a second later, he slammed into the ground with a bone-jarring impact. "Wing is down, critical leg damage," Heero reported immediately as he levered his machine to sitting up.

"Wing, Archangel, acknowledged down and damaged. You have priority for support, call the shots," Miriallia acknowledged his status.

"Support request, target is 2-3-5 at 335 meters from my position, requesting 2 missiles common warhead, attack direction west, 2 salvos."

"Laid in and launching in five. Missiles on target in sixty seconds," Chandratta answered.

Heero made his presence known with his vulcans and machine cannons once again, but without a clear line of sight to the enemy units, all he could do was take partial shots at the enemy. The same applied to them just as readily; he took the odd hit here and there from 60mm chaingun and 105mm machine cannon rounds, but none of the heavier stuff came close to him without striking trees long before reaching him.

North of his position, the first salvo of missiles crashed into the ground and let loose their fury, with results unseen to Heero. He could only guess if those hits would tear rents in their lines or distract them, but his options were limited right now. Given that missiles would deal with the group nearest him, he decided that the second target in his flanking attack was a good opportunity right now. Even despite the terrible fall, Wing had retained possession of the monstrous buster rifle, and this he raised to aimpoint northeast, the second formation of enemy Mobile Suits he intended to assault before his leg was forcibly removed. A switch on his console changed the rifle over to full volley, and a pull of the trigger unleashed a particle blast fifteen meters wide and roughly a thousand meters long. How effective it was after chopping through trees and part of a hill was obvious by the paltry three kills delivered, but in all reality there was no expectation for him being able to do more damage at all.

More harassing fire and more movement from the enemy nearby formation brought Heero's attention back to the nearby force. He moved the buster rifle into position to cook some forest and enemies, but before he could sight in a likely enemy formation he had to stop and shield against incoming beam rifle rounds. "Where are those missiles?" he asked in a frustrated tone.

"Twenty seconds out, Heero, and next salvo is fifty meters west at five seconds behind," Chandratta answered immediately. Interest on the bridge had turned to his condition, apparently.

"Too slow, most of the enemy will be out of the area," he groused. "Support request, target 2-1-5 my position at 160 meters, requesting 2 Valiant slugs, attack direction west, 3 salvos," he called for another (faster) round of fire support.

"On the way," Chandratta declared after three seconds.

Once more, Heero aimed and prepared to take a shot, intended to kill a few of his aggressors and drive the rest into the path of the artillery, but it never happened. An Aries MS came into view at an off-angle briefly enough to hock four missiles in his general direction, then ducked back behind trees for cover purposes. The missiles themselves were not a huge threat to Heero, but to his Buster rifle they were a major problem. One round hammered into the exposed charge canisters and destroyed them, preventing a second shot from his main weapon. With that destroyed, the best he had was the machine cannons in the shoulders of his Gundam — lethal if used properly, but woefully underpowered in this shooting match and difficult to use when sitting down.

"I could really use some support here," Heero opined after a few moments of watching the enemies come ever closer to him with increasing accuracy and volume of fire.

"Splash in two," Chandratta answered his request. Three seconds later heralded the first pair of kinetic impacts from the Valiant slugs, two seconds later another pair, and the third impacts a slight gap later. Of six slugs, two direct hits and one indirect hit knocked out a total of four enemy machines, including one of the vaunted Space Lasers.

What victory he had gained with a timely support call was short-lived, as another Taurus was available to capitalize on his being immobilized. Heero was thankful that it lacked a Space Laser to end him quickly, but slightly disgusted that it would have to be a slapping match between his Vulcans and the paltry beam rifle the enemy carried. Both sides engaged for several seconds, neither side gained a definitive advantage even as his Gundam was knocked flat from the impacts.

The sensor suite warned him of a critical threat approaching, which could only mean a Virgo MD or Taurus with Space Laser. True to the warning, a Taurus broke cover some 200 meters away from him, a dead simple shot against a downed and immobile enemy. "Heero, Archangel Operator, stand by for support," Miriallia said.

It was eerily calm, Heero considered, that he was staring down the barrel of a weapon that was easily capable of killing him, but he still didn't react. He did blink when something struck the enemy MS at very high speed and fragged it down to shredded scrap. "La Flaga, splash one," the Commander reported in the seconds thereafter. "I show two remaining machines, one Aries and one Leo, both appear to be moving toward enemy rear lines."

"Cut 'em loose and fly orbit over the WIng until we can recover," Captain Ramius ordered. "Heero, hang tight, we are moving in now to recover you."

"Worry about the mission, Captain," Heero reminded her of her duty.

"There are multiple missions here, Heero, and you are on one of those lists," Murrue answered definitively. "Duel, Buster, prepare for long-range engagement."

-x-

"Duel reporting ready for action," Yzak acknowledged the Captain's orders.

"Buster here, I'm good to go," Tolle chimed in seconds later.

"Engage free," Miriallia ordered the two pilots on the foredeck of the ship. "Suppress enemy forces as possible, direct support of Wing until we recover him."

"Got it," Tolle answered; Yzak simply clocked his microphone button twice as acknowledgement.

"Athrun, what's your status?" Yzak asked after a minute of flight time.

"We're good for now, only about two dozen Mobile Dolls remaining in our area of operations. See to Heero, then swing by for close air support if possible," Athrun requested.

"We'll be by shortly," Miriallia assured him. "Duel, do you have line of sight to Wing yet?"

"Negative, too much forest in the area," Yzak responded after a few minutes of searching with the magnifier scope.

"We will be over the target area in 90 seconds. Be ready to drop in and recover ASAP."

"Contact right," Tolle half-shouted before he swung his combined weapons in that direction. The enemies were moving in and out of thickets of trees, but to more powerful MS weapons like the Buster's combined rifle, trees were only a small annoyance. A single shot was loosed, and though nothing was visible of the result, Yzak was assured he had struck.

"More contacts, leakers from the engagement over by Athrun," Yzak appended to Tolle's tango call. "Chandratta, on the ship's 2 o'clock, down in the weeds."

"I see them," Chandratta said with a savage tone of voice. "I have an angle for ten beam cannons and two of the Gauss Rifles, plus some of the LRMs are active. Wait one," which turned out to be no more than seven seconds before the patch of forest was inundated with raw firepower. More of the forest itself was cleared out by at least one Mobile Suit engine cooking off; fusion powerplants tended to be very hostile when the plasma toroid inside was vented to open air.

"One straggler from that company. You or me, Tolle?" Yzak asked.

"Your turn, Yzak." Tolle stood down his combined arms to allow Yzak to take the shot.

"Come to papa, scumbag," Yzak groused as he brought the EM Rifle up to aim. It was designed for the Lightning Strike, but that Striker Pack was rendered useless by the proliferation of fusion reactors among the Mobile Suits. "Hot track, firing!" One shot went downrange, leaving the characteristic rifle-swirl of slug particulate as resistance with the air ablated part of the outer casing. It tracked stead for a second before the slug slammed into the upper torso of the wounded Aries MS and caused it to collapse backwards, unflinching. "He's down."

"We're approaching recovery point, I want Buster on the ground to recover Wing, Duel return to hangar to help reel them in," the Captain ordered. In the distance, the Skygrasper loosed another missile which resulted in a spectacular explosion of some kind to their north; Yzak figured it an ammo explosion, since it wasn't the bright white-yellow of a fusion reactor blast.

"Rog — we're going to try a winch recovery?" Yzak asked in semi-shock.

"Nowhere to land, Yzak, we don't have a choice," Miriallia pointed out.

"Winch won't be necessary. If someone can stabilize me, I can fly up to the hangar." Heero brought that part of the methodology to a close.

"Jumping now," Tolle declared as he dropped down between the 'legs' of the Archangel toward the forest canopy below. "Oh, this is gonna — " his sentence was cut short by a combination of banging and shearing sounds over the radio. "Ouch."

"Tolle, are you alright?" Miriallia asked frantically.

"I don't feel real good about that one," Tolle answered with a sigh.

"Why, what's wrong?"

"I just had a tree rammed up the ass of my Gundam, Mir, how am I supposed to feel?" Tolle asked with a bit of frustration to voice.

"This will be a day I'll tell my kids about, many years from now, and they will ask 'why was it so strange' when the tale is done," Yzak grumped.

"If I planned on having kids, I would agree," Heero commented dryly.

-x-x-x-

(19 November AC195, 1300 hours)
(Forests west of Sanc Kingdom border, Headquarters Section, Task Force Black Mace)

"DAMN IT!" This time, not only did the map table evict itself from the command tent, but three chairs went the same direction as well. "A whole God-damned Brigade! By less than a full Company of enemy assets and one bloody Warship! This is so fucking impossible, and yet it's still happening!" Nobody in the room could ever attest to seeing Viscount Kessler this pissed off, and it was truly frightening to the staff. "Can anyone raise Tania?"

"No, sir, last report was from her 3-I-C, she was chopped down by Mercurius, beam saber across the cockpit. No hope," the bravest of the radio officers commented.

"God damn it!" A fourth chair left the command tent at high velocity.

"Sir?" his aide-de-camp asked.

Kessler sighed, trying to release some of his frustration without trashing any more furniture. "New Port City is the linchpin. What do we have on the number two wave?"

"First Regiment will be dropped in on the southern shore in roughly two minutes. Third regiment will be coming in by way of the east, along their proposed evacuation route. There are no assets capable of ranging to either of those formations before they descend on the capital city."

"And Second Regiment?" Kessler asked.

"Unknown, sir. We lost contact with the headquarters company of Second some twenty minutes ago," Major Wirth admitted. "I dispatched a scout team from 3 Regiment, with orders to break off if they are fired on by anyone."

"Damn good plan, bad karma that we had to even do it," Kessler admitted. "Estimated time to arrival at 2nd Regiment's last known location?"

"Five minutes, give or take," the Major answered diffidently. He wasn't worried about the matter; this was war, and things like communications failures tended to happen from time to time. It didn't mean that shit happened until it could be confirmed that shit had actually happened, and the Major was determined to worry about that manner of shit happening only after he knew he had to worry about it. It would be his fatal mistake to let such a problem go without a response.

"I expected a contest of this matter, but these guys are truly dying hard."

"When you tell someone their death is on the morrow, it tends to focus their efforts to a very sharp degree," the aide-de-camp quoted an old lament.

Kessler chuckled at the grim truth behind the statement. "And in reality I can expect no less than that from them," Kessler admitted. "But, as is always true in warfare, time and space are the ally and providence of only one side. So, where is my map table?"

"Outside, again, sir," Major Wirth noted wryly.

"I believe you said the war wasn't over, so we may still have use for it. Sergeant, if you would?"

"Yes, sir!" the same sergeant as prior moved to and reclaimed the table once more. This time, he had to use 100-KPH tape on two legs and substituted the lower receiver of an assault rifle for a third missing leg. For the damaged chairs, cheap folding chairs were put in place rather than attempting to tape the originals back together.

"Viscount, 1 Regiment is reporting beginning of aerial drop operations. No noted resistance in area of New Port City shorelines."

As the two senior officers leaned over the newly-rebuilt map table and began gaming out their assault patterns, they were forgetting that time was adroitly against them. The patience of a planet is not infinite, and fear eventually becomes rage when a people is pushed too far.

-x-x-x-

(19 November AC195, 1310 hours)
(Southern shoreline, Sanc Kingdom)

"This is way more than I expected for an airdrop operation!" Commander Noin half-shouted, half-groaned even while firing on the descending enemy Mobile Suits.

"I expected this," Quatre admitted a moment thereafter. "The shoreline is the Sanc Kingdom's one great terrain weakness. Everywhere else, we have space to absorb an attack and forest to hide in, but not here. New Port City is called that for a good reason, and now we get to fight over it."

"Do not worry, Commander Noin," Rashid tried to allay her fears. "Where the Mobile Dolls land, so can we." His next was on the unit's open band. "Maganacs! Close in, fight them hand-to-hand! These Mobile Dolls are not set up for melee combat! Shields and heat hawks!"

"Yes, sir! We move in sections!" Auda ordered.

"Shields forward! Jump now!" Ahmad ordered of his troops. As one, his team of ten machines jumped up and forward, their shields braced to hopefully block any fire coming from the now-bogged-down Mobile Dolls in front of them.

"My team, jump now!" Auda ordered in the seconds thereafter, angling towards the left flank of the airdrop lines.

"Third section, charge!" Abdul completed the pattern, bringing his unit to bear against the right flank.

The maneuver was not without its problems, as four of the thirty Maganac pilots found out the hard way. The shields blocked a monstrous amount of ground fire, but the shields the Maganac carried were not full-coverage shields and some hits were expected. Even with the losses, though, the effort to close the gap was critical to the success of the defensive operation.

Rasheed was the last to hit the ground, and consequently the last into the fray begun by his men. His heat tomahawk came out and began pre-heating, a process that was necessary for combat against the Virgo Mobile Dolls and their gundanium armor.

In close, the process was incredibly simple and brutal. The Maganac troops, brave to the point of fault, would simply charge the gap between their suits and the Mobile Dolls, using their shields to resist as much of the beams coming their way, then whence in close they would hack into the generator on the right shoulder of the Mobile Dolls. In seven cases of ten, this was enough to cripple the Mobile Doll's one offensive option, the beam cannons. Once disabled, a Mobile Doll would simply retreat for repairs, effectively out of the battle. This further made them vulnerable to a beam rifle shot to the back, since they also recalled their Planet Defenser networks during their retreat. This would be a programming fault later corrected by Romefeller, though not to any avail.

In the other three cases in ten, the Maganac pilot made the mistake of chopping into the beam generator while it was active and spinning. The blade that entered the generator while at speed would become lodged and revolve with the generator as the device tore itself apart internally due to conflicting forces. More than one pilot had described such a happenstance as a 'demonic blender' or 'demonic fan blade' in the brief moments before the Heat Hawk was sent for a flight out into the waves south of New Port City. It still resulted in a mission kill, but had the unfortunate side effect of temporarily disarming the hapless pilot.

"Pilots! Use your beam rifles in close, point blank-shots!" Quatre suggested as more of the Maganac troops were disarmed by whirling generators. His own Heat Shotel blades were more than ample to chop apart a Mobile Doll without resorting to an easier mission-kill tactic, though some of the more enterprising Maganac troops had found out that burying the tomahawk in the skull of a Mobile Doll was just as lethal and didn't randomly relocate said weapon.

Of course, any such strategy was not without faults. In close, there was no time to react to enemy actions, just brace your shield toward the most likely threat axis and hope it was enough. The first wave of Mobile Dolls was silenced with aplomb, but the second line started the renewed dance with two kills of its own: a soft-kill of a missing right arm, and a hard-kill across the torso and a likely dead pilot. Again the Maganac remainder jumped in to force close combat, and once again two of their rank had their legs sheared off by beam weapons fire, but the remainder landed in good order and once more confused the Mobile DOlls by forcing close quarters.

"Maganac Forces, this is Archangel. ELINT suggests that the Mobile Doll Control Systems are in an aircraft due south of your position at 110 kilometers. Can anyone intercept?"

Auda's personal unit did not have the Heat Hawks that the rest of the unit was using; he had customized it with a monster left arm and a gundanium three-finger claw that allowed him to rip apart a Mobile Suit with mere arm strength. It was even useful against these Mobile Dolls, as he found he could pimp-slap the head clean off a Mobile Doll. "A hundred kilometers south of here? I can't even see the damn thing from here! No way we can intercept!"

"Stand by, I can vector in," An unfamiliar voice declared on the radio channel.

"Huh? Who said that?" Quatre asked nobody in particular.

-x-

"Looks like I made it in time. Relena really did make the right choice this time," the pilot of the unidentified unit said mostly to himself. With a practiced flair, he shoved a control actuator on the roof of his cockpit forward until it engaged a mechanical latch, which began the process of transforming his machine from flight mode to combat mode. It was a similar system to what was in use in Wing Gundam, but for a different airframe...

"Unidentified craft, this is restricted airspace. You are ordered to declare squawk and turn course 0-9-0 to egress this area or you will be shot down," a Romefeller pilot declared on the open aircraft control frequency.

"Feel free to try," the pilot of the incoming craft half-taunted the interceptor formation of Taurus Mobile Suits.

"Your funeral, bub," the Taurus pilot answered. "Wait, what the fuck? What is —"

"Oh SHIT! Command, Wing Zero identified course 0-6-5 from the transports!"

"Shoot it! Shoot it down!" Zechs frowned slightly, wondering if ZERO had broken into their command frequency (as it had the Sanc Kingdom command frequencies) or if they were using piss-poor radio discipline and transmitting in the clear.

"Sir, I — I —"

"You have already failed!" Zechs half-shouted in response to their hesitation. His left arm jammed the throttle to the end of the line, putting on a burst of speed that no Taurus could ever hope to match. His right hand flipped over to beam saber control as the distance to the control aircraft closed by the second. Ten seconds, five seconds, no enemy craft was close enough to even take a decent shot at him before his beam saber clipped the command aircraft at the port-side wing root and came out behind the starboard-side wing root. What was left of the craft fell toward the craggy German coastline below in two pieces, each half spiraling in a different direction due to conflicting aerodynamic forces.

"This is Wing Zero, enemy command craft has been shot down. Requesting vector to the next front, over," Zechs requested, given that he figured the Archangel Team was the hottest formation in this op and they had the effective command of the Sanc Kingdom forces themselves.

The answer to his call for orders took ten seconds. "Wing Zero, Archangel, manned Mobile Suits are still active south of New Port City. Move to and finish up, then stand by for further orders. We're confirming a possible fourth attack vector at this time, over," the operator from the Archangel passed down the change in mission with aplomb, even despite her being younger than he was.

Zechs had no way of knowing he had been 'checked out' telepathically in the brief gap between his request and her change in mission profile.

-x-x-x-

(19 November AC195, 1320 hours)
(East of Sanc Kingdom territorial bounds)

"Viscount Kessler will certainly be throwing a major fit by now," Colonel Treize Khushrenada said ironically. "For an officer with such skill as he has, the temper and inability to cope with stress is unbecoming."

"And facing the Archangel is certainly a rage-inducing stress test of any being in Existence," one of his sub-officers completed the thought. "Erm, I know we're here to finish off the last of the Romefeller forces, but we're not here to also go head-to-head with...them, right?"

"No," Treize answered succinctly. "The Archangel Team are mercenaries and vagabonds, not our enemy. We may be hiring them for our own purposes after this phase of the conflict is done."

"Understood, sir," the sub-officer answered curtly, and quite happily. Any day they did not have to challenge the Archangel was by definition a good day.

"Colonel Treize, forward elements are reporting contact with the rearguard elements of the enemy unit, sir," his designated radio adjutant relayed. "Rearguard forces are scattered and disorganized, we have them by surprise, sir!"

"Much as I expected," Treize said. "They are busy with their eyes forward, trying to achieve an impossible conquest. Only the most savvy commander would expect us, and unfortunately the most effective commander on this battlefield sits in command of a certain floating warship." It pained him to have to admit it, but the truth was clear to anyone who watched. Captain Ramius routinely hit far above her weight class, and mer mercenary formation were not exactly lightweights to begin with.

"Your orders, sir?" the radio adjutant requested.

"Drive forward against the enemy rear. If they have assets between us and New Port City, we will have no trouble finishing them off before further trouble begins. I will take to the front."

"Yes, sir," the radio adjutant began the process of relaying orders for the advancing assault. She also made it clear that the Colonel would be moving forward to engage as well.

"This is where the next revolution begins. All forces, Treize Faction, begin the assault!"

-x-

"This is Kira, approaching engagement area. Density of fire is increasing," Kira reported before he dropped off his engine thrust to drop into the forest.

"Roger, watch yourself Kira. Mu is out of fuel, so your nearest reinforcements are the Maganac troops," Miriallia said.

"Soulless Dolls," Kira spat his contempt of the inhuman weapon platform Virgo. His descent onto the road network in front of them was sudden and fast, giving him a key — if brief — advantage. The paired beam rifles of the Strike Freedom spoke several times before the Virgo machines responded with their Planet Defensers; six Mobile Dolls fell under his fire, leaving a small but crucial gap in the front line.

"Kira, Archangel is out of range to support," Chandratta declared. "We'll be in range in three minutes, don't stick your arse too far out in the breeze!"

"Won't be needed," Kira answered as he charged into the gap he created. "We have some unlikely support on this side. My machine is detecting a large column of Mobile Suits from the forces that we saved in Luxembourg."

"Lux — wait, what?" Miriallia asked unprofessionally.

Kira did not immediately respond as he let his beam sabers do some talking on the enemy Mobile Dolls. Such a rash offensive was possible only because the forests that blanketed the Sanc Kingdom reduced the effective combat range of Mobile Suits to no more than 300 meters, and often barely 50 meters. At such a range, Kira could close a gap and saber a Virgo down to pieces in less time than the battle computer in the Mobile Dolls could recognize him as a threat.

Just the same, he was not immune to the 'tender ministrations' of the enemy machines. In the process of chewing up the first rank of Mobile Dolls, he took four hits, each one causing a noticeable voltage drop on his Quad Phase Shift charge indicators. The scenario had been gamed out in sim, and Kira had found that four direct hits in a second would leave him vulnerable for three seconds thereafter. Four direct hits for the Virgo machines was a simple task for their ranks, so long as roughly ten enemy machines could take a shot at him. Even for a computer, they were surprisingly limited in their ability to aim properly.

Kira's next move took him farther into the forests of the Sanc Kingdom, and with it his quest for mechanical blood. "Damned Dolls, and a leavening of manned units hiding behind them," he groused while weaving between thickets of trees used to obscure his location. The second line was more Dolls, and Kira had the proper answer for them on his hips. A quick brace of Xiphas rail gun slugs knocked four Mobile Dolls out completely and rendered two combat-ineffective; unlike the Maganac, Kira did not waste effort on an otherwise defeated Mobile Doll.

"Strike Freedom, this is Treize Faction scout, come in!" Someone requested on the Archangel's tactical frequency.

"Scout, this is Strike Freedom, I read you. Talk fast, I'm neck-deep in Mobile Dolls right now," Kira veritably ordered of the pilot.

"Roger that, Colonel Treize has asked me to relay to you that we have batteries of Tragos and MLRS units, and he wants you to call the shots. Their frequency is one-five-seven-dot-seven-five, callsign Eisensturm (7), over," the Scout answered.

Kira did not respond for another long moment while he made an effort to drop a trio of Mobile Dolls from range. His shots dropped one, but a second cell of Mobile Dolls hammered him three times in the space of two seconds — a result that had his undivided attention. Return fire broke their attempt at controlling the pace of battle, allowing Kira to resume his conversation. "Got it, Scout. If you're not engaged, fall back. I've got this area." Kira took a moment to set a radio button to the new frequency, which he intended to make use of to the best of their abilities.

"Roger that, Scout is out."

Clear of the second line, Kira charged further east toward the assured Manned Mobile Suits that controlled the short-leashes of the Mobile Dolls. "Eisensturm, Strike Freedom, come back," Kira began the call for fire.

"Strike Freedom, Eisensturm, read you five by five. Send your request, pilot," the Treize Faction Fire Direction Center officer requested.

"Eisensturm, requesting fire support mission, target zone 100 meters north of Highway 117, area width from County Road 33 to Highway 82," which encompassed a swath of ground and forest nearly three square kilometers in sweep, and covered most of the remaining Oz Mobile Dolls in theater. "Area saturation attack requested by all available assets. Attack direction west, fire for effect," Kira completed the fire mission order.

"Fire for effect, roger that," Eisensturm answered immediately. "First salvo is on the way, ten seconds to splash. Duck and cover, pilot!"

"Acknowledged," Kira said, though he did not duck nor cover, he simply hammered his jets to head south of the said highway. While the artillery forces chewed up anything to the north, he could help finish off the remaining enemy manned MS by driving them back into the waiting gunsights of the Treize Faction.

It was a merciless solution to the problem, but it had to be done. What the Romefeller Foundation wanted for the planet was nothing more than continual slaughter. Such was the way massive, corrupt states retained their authority over the people, and Kira wanted no part of it.

-x-

"This is where your campaign ends!" Treize half-shouted at the screens in front of him, though he was referring to the last few battalions of enemy Manned Mobile Suits that had not been caught in the artillery barrage delivered by the Strike Freedom. It had been something of a shock on first sight, but the artillery barrage took an entire Squadron of enemy forces and their supporting infantry under fire, a hammering that was neither expected nor could be defended against.

Colonel Treize, operating alone in the same fashion that the pilot of the Strike Freedom was, charged forward into a gap created by his own Taurus units. When inside their maneuver area, the power of Epyon became painfully apparent as he whipped through their Aries and Leo MS with the heat rod on his shield. Machines fell to the superheated chain whip and to the dedicated high-power beam saber, disappointingly not providing any measure of challenge to Treize.

"Colonel Treize, from the right!"

"I see him," Treize replied immediately, his shield coming up to block the single shot from one of the rare Space Lasers. It was the work of a bare second to close the gap and put paid to the Romefeller Taurus that was trying to drop him, and once again not a challenge. Farther to his right and into the northern expanse, Treize MS chopped into the last few companies of MS with fury unseen since Operation Daybreak, mostly because the enemy knew they were trapped and could not surrender.

A specter of movement in the forests to the east drew Treize's attention in that direction. It did not last long, as the unknown machine cleared the forest at a breakneck pace toward the last hold-outs. A beam saber dropped the last enemy Taurus as the Strike Freedom literally bowled over it and proceeded to bring out its beam rifles from storage on its back armor plates. By the time the Gundam hit the ground, the beam rifles were aimed in two different directions at two different machines. The last of the Romefeller machines collapsed to the ground before any save Treize could figure out what hit them.

"Eisensturm, Strike Freedom, secure barrage. This last formation appears down."

"Ah, the best of the Archangel's best," Colonel Khushrenada noted with a wry smile unseen by anybody else. "It would appear you have chosen a costly path, pilot. Why?"

There was no response from the Strike Freedom for several seconds. "If that is you asking, Colonel, you should know the answer already from Umi. If that is ZERO asking, I don't know what answer to give you. I don't know what the future holds, and I don't think it knows, either."

Treize simply smiled, again unseen by the outside world.

-x-x-x-

(19 November AC195, 1330 hours)
(Sanc Kingdom military command center)

"Archangel, this is Home Base, what is your status?" Commander Noin asked over the dedicated command frequency.

"Home Base, Archangel, wait one," Kuzzey gave an immediate reply.

"I think we got 'em all, just waiting on confirmation," Quatre commented. He was still wiping grime from his face and arms, as a beam cannon round had caused something in his cockpit to cook off; he figured it was the heating and cooling system, though Murdoch was looking over it to be sure.

It was thirty seconds before a more proper answer was forthcoming. "Home Base, Archangel, I am relaying through from Strike Freedom."

A popping sound heralded the new entrant to the frequency. "Home Base, Strike Freedom, do you read me?"

"Read you five by five," the radio officer in the command room answered. "You have a crowd listening, Ensign. What's the word?"

"I've identified two companies of stragglers, mostly to the west, and all are retreating hard and fast. I confirm no active hostile military forces inside the Sanc Kingdom borders or approaching the border. Repeat, no active forces inside or approaching Sanc Kingdom borders."

"Yes!" Noin half-shouted, allowing herself a lapse of proper military decorum in the aftermath of this hard-fought battle. She was not alone in the brief celebration.

"Home Base, Strike Freedom, requesting status of New Port City. Did any enemies get inside?" Kira asked, voicing the question that was running rampant through the Archangel's crew. The largest concentration of defenses had been put on the shoreline (the Maganac forces), primarily because a shore landing was expected, but there was no depth of space to provide a safety zone.

"Some enemy fire hit the city, we have scattered reports of casualties and a few killed, but nothing major," Commander Noin answered.

"Roger that," Kira answered with a sigh. "Looks like we beat all the odds on this one."

"Don't forget, knocking them out of here was only the beginning," Captain Ramius explained over the command radio channel. "We bloodied them now, but they still have most of the world and they still hold the Moon. We will not have a choice but to take the fight to them, or they come back with another three or four Brigades to finish the job."

"One round was not enough, two would be entirely too many," Mu La Flaga joked. In testament to the seriousness of the matter, nobody laughed.

"I will announce the all clear from the Press Room," Relena decided on a whim. "Commander Noin, would you please inform the press pool that it is all clear and that I will be holding a conference in fifteen minutes?"

"Yes, ma'am," Noin gave a curt bow and headed out the secured bunker toward the air raid shelter for the administration building.

Relena was next out of the room, though she did not get far in her travel. "Dorothy? I thought you went to the shelter for the students," the Chief Representative asked after a moment's hesitation.

"I had brought up my personal vehicle, in case you would need to surrender to the forces, but my fears of your defeat were happily unfounded," Dorothy replied calmly as she fell in step with the head of state. The door guards to the bunker, part of the Special Forces complement of the Archangel, surged forward of the two as a vanguard.

"When the shore landing began, I was afraid of the same, but the Archangel Team are certainly proficient mercenaries and capable to the task they offered," Relena allayed the possibility of surrender. "My one regret is the necessity of the conflict, but I am convinced now of the necessity of resistance."

This answer somewhat shocked Dorothy, who had spent the past month in class learning the ways of pacifism from this very same person. "Why such a change of heart, if I may ask?" Dorothy inquired after a few seconds of walking toward the main offices of the Administration.

"Simple. A certain pilot reminded me of the cost of doing nothing, and another pilot showed me the wages of doing something. Both are costly, but only in one case does something meaningful happen."

"And I will forever wonder which pilots told you so," Dorothy completed the thought in a rather unusual fashion. "Now you are set on a course, and a world watches you with baited breath. What shall your move be?"

Relena simply smiled. "I am a leader, not a professional. I leave such decisions to the real leaders," and she pointed toward the north, which ended up being down a hallway and directly at a certain person of interest, "Such as..." her sentence trailed off.

"Your brother?" Dorothy completed the thought once she realized who it was Relena was pointing at.

"Today I am no leader," Milliardo Peacecraft (Zechs Marquise to most Oz Officers) dropped that thought hard. "I am just a soldier answering the call to duty of my homeland. I guess my esteemed sister was referring to the Captain of the Archangel, though I would venture to guess Captain Ramius would also beg to differ."

"And her subordinates would disagree," the Soup Cook / vanguard Special Operator answered adroitly. "Captain Ramius is downright humble about nearly everything she does, but one thing's for sure: the entire crew and mobile complement of the Archangel would gladly follow her on a charge against the gates of Hell. Romefeller front lines is another day on the job for us."

"Which proves Lady Relena correct in referring to her," Noin finished off the circle of thought.

Dorothy agreed, at least in part: "Average persons do not engender that kind of loyalty in their troops. As much as I have no position in this coming conflict, I will warn you that my grandfather has the same loyalty from his subordinates."

"Then I guess we'll just see what we'll see," Chief Ryback noted with a hint of detachment. Commander Noin smiled internally behind a poker face, convinced that it would take a crew of hardasses to show a world how to live on their own terms again, and convinced that the Archangel Team was the interdimensional team for the job.

"Lady Relena, your press conference is scheduled to begin in ten minutes," Pagan reminded her from the back of the pack, having received confirmation of the network's readiness from a technical officer.

"Now I go to give the people their outcome, but remember one thing, Dorothy: regardless of who wins this conflict, everyone loses, at least in part."

-x-x-x-

(19 November AC195, 1500 hours)
(Forested area west of the Sanc Kingdom)

Defeat was impossible, Viscount Jacob Kessler had raged, but it was writ to anyone who looked. He had lost for fair, he had failed to pacify Treize and he had failed to bring compliant the Sanc Kingdom. Wholly three Brigades of forces between Luxembourg and the Sanc Kingdom, all smashed by the combined forces of two principalities and a mercenary unit. By all measures of the word, he had failed.

He had done a meager job in rallying the surviving forces to himself, so he could beat a hasty retreat back to Romefeller and present himself before Duke Dermail for his punishment. Such a blunder could not go unanswered. He had no way of knowing that other parties had a different design for him, given that all of his available early warning assets had already been stood down for departure to Romefeller bases...

-x-

"One minute!" Chief Ryback shouted back through the body of the transport chopper he had hijacked from Treize. With that said, the remainder of the Special Operations Squad readied their weapons and pulled down dust goggles; they were officially getting in on the action after the longest hour guarding the Sanc Kingdom administration. "Strike Freedom and Skygrasper will sanitize the area ahead of us, so we can drop in relatively unharassed. Remember, this is a capture mission; I want this Sod alive so he can answer for his crimes. Good to go?"

"AIRBORNE, SIR!" the rest of the unit shouted in response.

"Thirty seconds!" The OZ loadmaster shouted before he began lowering the rear door for the team to exit once the pilot landed.

"It's showtime, girls!" Chief Ryback half-shouted as he stood up and grabbed a hand-hold on one of the load straps above him. The remainder of the unit followed suit in the seconds thereafter, the margin was seconds, but seconds played a key role in fast assault actions such as this.

The chopper slammed down roughly, in fact quite a bit more than Ryback expected. Nobody lost their footing, since all had a grip on something solid in the helo. "Go go go!" The Loadmaster waved them out the back door, which they were all too happy to oblige.

The first man immediately went left of the chopper door and took a knee, his M60 light machine gun already raised and searching for a target. Of threats there were plenty, even after Kira and Mu had dealt with all the assets more powerful than a staff car. It was no surprise that infantry were milling about the area, and even some were trying to fire on the Strike Freedom or Skygrasper, though such efforts ended with the first bark of the M60.

The Thompson SMG was the favored weapon of the special forces unit for close quarters, and this was the right environment for the tool. Infantry body armor was scarce, and ranges were short enough that a good burst would put at least two rounds into a target. When the team began moving and shooting at anyone with weapons, it created a wave of panic in the enemy forces. Fear from the severe beating they received from the Sanc Kingdom, compiled with fear of the Archangel Team, then instant panic of having a Gundam assault the leftovers, and now added to the fear of a Special Forces assault, it all became a cocktail of panic and rout that no officer could ever hope of stopping.

Before the first Commando had to change out magazines, wholly two-thirds of the surviving enemy infantry were running away from the sound of the gunfire. Those that stood and tried to fight back were cut down without reserve by troops far more proficient in CQB than Romefeller drill sergeants would ever consider training for. The panic was only enhanced by the unfamiliar and deep bark of the Thompson, the metallic clanging sound of the M-60, and the mechanical chatter of the AKM assault rifles in the unit, all unfamiliar and somehow sinister sounds from an altogether frightening enemy unit.

A single strongpoint was able to put up a measure of resistance, a heavy machine gun crew that made the mistake of firing on the chopper before the Commandos. Their rounds found the side of the helo and actually punched through, but caused no notable damage to it beyond holes in one side and out the other. The Commandos immediately moved to suppress the strongpoint with concentrated fire, while the pastry chef threw a grenade into the machine gun pit. After the first detonated, a second grenade was thrown in for good measure albeit redundantly; the first blast had ended that phase of the fight without survivor to tell the tale.

"Move to target!" Ryback shouted his order, though allowed his subordinates to take the lead while he covered the left flank and the routed infantry that were running hard and fast toward mama.

As the team approached the command tent and stepped over the remains of a map table, a lone figure emerged from the tent flap with a pistol raised to the sky. His reactions were good, and he even managed to fire once in the general direction of the approaching commandos, but his one miss was answered by two Thompsons and the M-60; what was left of his head and torso was an unrecognizable mess before it struck the dirt and began leaking a puddle of blood onto the ground. A second later, a flashbang grenade entered the tent flap and detonated just past the downed officer, temporarily blinding and stunning the entire command staff.

The first of the team shoved through the side of the tent, not the doorway, lest someone inside be covering that entrance and simply spray it down to counter an assault. Inside, only one guard was present with a weapon, and his day ended with a burst of .45 ACP rounds to the chest. Once that was down, the soup chef used his Thompson to clothesline a lady radio officer down to the ground and pinned her to the dirt with the muzzle of his gun to her sternum. The number two man had done the same with an administrative officer immediately inside the tent, allowing clear ingress for the remainder of the team.

Ryback was the fifth inside the tent, and it was he who identified their target first. "Jacob Kessler, you are hereby under arrest for war crimes. Surrender immediately!" Ryback ordered as he brought his AK up and centered on the Viscount.

"Like hell I'll surrender," Kessler answered defiantly. His hand went to his holster, though when he drew his sidearm he did not take aim at the Commandos; his weapon kept going up, higher, higher...

"NO!" The soup chef shouted, his left hand reaching for a man who would not hear the plea. A half-second later, a single shot was fired.

"Holy fucking shit, that dude really didn't want to be captured," the bread specialist on the team groused with some reverence.

Ryback hesitated a moment before he dropped his aimpoint from the deceased Viscount. "Archangel, this is Cookie. Negative capture primary objective, tango dropped himself with one to the brainpan. We're going to bring in the rest of his staff and any collectibles from the command section."

"Cookie, Archangel, acknowledged negative capture. Salvage what you can and bring it in. I figured it possible he would refuse to be taken alive, so ."

-x-x-x-

(19 November AC195, 1800 hours)
(Sanc Kingdom Administration Building, major banquet / meeting room.)

"It was definitely a lucky one," Pilot Tolle Koenig admitted to some of the students that had clustered around himself and Miriallia. The engagement ring was conspicuous on her hand, given that Miriallia was not one for finery and certainly not when on duty, but today was a day for dress uniforms all the way around. "They had the numbers to crush anyone, but the terrain was against them the whole way 'round. Forests like in this country, you don't rush in and you don't expect to use overwhelming firepower, it just doesn't happen."

"It was mostly the ship on the west," Miriallia noted. "They were slowed down so much, the enemy lines were easy pickings for our missiles and long-range guns."

A couple of the students shuddered. "How did you take it, lady Miriallia? Being shot at, that is?"

"I didn't even notice," Mir answered, creating the illusion that she was harder than most. "I was so busy keeping the ground units on target and moving, I didn't have time to think about the ship getting shot at." Here she nudged her fiance from the side. "And with Tolle and Yzak on the front deck as snipers, anyone that got close enough to shoot at the ship didn't live long enough to tell their buddies about it."

Again a couple of the ladies shuddered, but only on their over-romanticized fancies of Tolle being a stone-cold killer among a unit full of them. They both were and were not correct about it, but Miriallia wasn't going to spare them that illusion. Such an illusion might even keep them safe by way of keeping them away from such a soldier as her newly-confirmed fiance.

As the conversation turned away from the battle and to the future, Miriallia looked around to see how the other officers were doing. Her eyes crossed over Captain Ramius and Commander La Flaga, the 'command couple' as some were beginning to call them. Theirs was not a group of school-age, but a gaggle of Treize Faction officers...

-x-

"For what it was worth, my reserve was Aquarius and the 105 Dagger," Murrue admitted semi-sheepishly. "It is really bad form to commit to battle with little or no reserve, but I do not have much in the way of depth of forces. Really didn't have a choice in the matter."

"Even a couple more high-power machines would have done wonders, especially in the south shore battle," a Major noted but not harshly. "Even still, the striking power of your forces is beyond belief, were the results not easy to see."

"I would never look forward to taking your team on, not even if I had command of Romefeller and an extra Gundam or two," a Lt. Captain said in a hushed declaration. "And all you guys are trying to do is find a way home?"

"Right," Mu answered. "This is our fifth 'universe' so far, and we've been on six different planets not counting our home world or the nuked colonies." This time, it was three of the soldiers that shuddered at the thought of what happened when a colony was struck by a thermonuclear weapon. Murrue had made sure that anyone who wanted to see their video logs of that nightmare would have access to them — and more than a few Oz soldiers had reviewed that footage already. It was already a 'viral' record, the deceased PLANT colonies torn asunder by nuclear arms, and the descending continents of those colonies headed to the surface of Earth, and soldiers on both sides of the war had seen the files already. There were still contacts between friends in the Treize Faction group, and counterparts in Romefeller, and stories like this had a morbid fascination among military personnel...

"The problem we have right now is two parts principle and three parts practicality: Romefeller shot first, no warning, no parley, nothing. Right to the guns, and right to the swamp-em-with-numbers battle."

Mu reinforced the thought, since he was the officer in charge of the ship when the first shots had been taken. "One moment, silence, next moment, someone is trying to give our ship a new engine port by way of torpedoes. Murdoch had some choice words for that," Mu nodded, his expression grim.

"Murdoch? The mechanic that some people are referring to as 'Madman Murdoch'? The same?"

"That would be him," Captain Ramius confirmed with mock severity. She had to restrain herself from laughing outright, given that Murdoch would most likely take such a name as a compliment. Briefly her eyes ranged the crowd looking for the Petty Officer, but her sight crossed Relena first...

-x-

Relena's crowd was by far the largest in the gathering, but neither comprised of schoolgirls or military officers to be regaled with such tales as the Archangel Team could provide. Hers was business, and business was booming this evening.

"The weight of action, the price of inaction, no head of state can escape these questions," Relena segued into her next point from the last. "Neville Chamberlain had to weigh the same options as I did, in centuries past; he chose inaction, and his choice simply emboldened a very noisy neighbor to attack his homeland. His successor, Churchill, called in some favors and put forth a true weight of action. For centuries afterward, they were known as 'the greatest generation' by everyone involved, friend and foe. Mind you, I am not after glory or title or pages in a history book; all I want is an end to the social engineering that is being done by way of continual, unrelenting wars. I ask you all, is this such a hard favor to ask of the old-world aristocracy?"

"For us, no," one of the younger representatives answered in the short silence after her rather direct and penetrating question. "People like Dermail, yes, definitely so. They are high-functioning megalomaniacs, obsessed with power and the use of power, but otherwise rational in their actions...you disagree, miss Catalonia?" he directly asked Dorothy, who was operating as Relena's 'wingman' for the soiree.

"Not so much a disagreement as I do not take kindly to anyone speaking ill of my grandfather," Dorothy replied softly enough to count as an insult in its own right.

"Well, if you will excuse me for calling a spade a spade, milady Catalonia, your grandfather intended to use the pacification of the Sanc Kingdom as a loud example of what defiance of Romefeller authority would cost people. There is no good intention in that kind of action, only power and fear. These are not the actions of a moral, rational man, and I am not inclined to excuse them when my homeland would be on the list of nations to use such fear factor on."

Dorothy relented, understanding intellectually that he was right, but still bristled at the accusation. Had anyone bothered to profile Dorothy, they would have found the same measure of megalomania as her grandfather combined with a rather callous sociopathy, but both at a higher level of function than her Grandfather. She was the needling type, far less given to direct actions than her grandsire, but she desired to see war in all its glory and had a few thoughts on how to go about it even as Relena brought a temporary halt to war on this planet.

"Understandable," Dorothy finally answered. "Still, control exists at some level somewhere in any State; it is a necessity of government. The only question is how much control, and how much the illusion of fear. The same plays out on the international scale just as much, even if it is not always acknowledged."

"And that is a goodly part of the problem," Relena used Dorothy's position to bring the conversation back onto her course. "Fear, suspicion, disdain, these are the tools that states use to manipulate each other, but these are not constructive methods. We need to begin moving toward respect-based actions and policies if we expect to move forward and begin advancing as we can see from other's exploits," and Relena meant to nod toward the rather prominent Archangel Team pilot Pytor, but instead drew attention to Treize Khushrenada...

-x-

"I make no excuses for my actions, or those of my former subordinates," and on this Treize was referring to Zechs, who had donned his mask once more for appearance's sake. "I was under the impression that Romefeller's actions were with the intent of bringing about a new era of prosperity and proper transformation. When it became clear to me that all they desired was to shift power from one variation of tyranny to another, I balked and was dismissed to Luxembourg. Like-minded persons gathered to me, and Romefeller decided it expedient to silence my opinion. Thus my position here."

"I find it mildly hard to believe that one of the greatest champions of the aristocracy would shift opinion so readily," an older independent statesman noted with a thick dose of irony.

"And I do not cease my champion of the position, but the matter of the end result is my concern. I cannot sit idly by and watch as the nobility toys with the lives of the civilians for amusement and power-shifting. Such was the concern of the nobles in the medieval times; those days are long gone, and I propose they remain long gone."

A Countess nodded thoughtfully. "Staunch words, Colonel Treize, and I look forward to you following through with them to the letter," she used the last bit as much as a challenge as a delimiter.

"We shall," Zechs / Milliardo answered curtly. "We have both paid in blood, mistakenly in many cases, to feed the unseen ambitions of Duke Dermail. I am not willing to let the game go on; this is not a tragic opera he plays out on the world stage, this is a sad reality that too many suffer for his manipulations."

"I hear even the colonies stir to Lady Relena's banner today," Treize transitioned smoothly to a new and interesting topic. "While Romefeller would have turned their noses to the colonies in years past, it is impossible to discredit them now as a notable force waiting in the wings; the five guerrilla Gundams originated in the colonies, and even the Archangel was a product of those who live in space." He stretched the truth deliberately on the last to amplify his point. He knew well the history of the Archangel, born in space to a nation that was primarily on the planet, for another planet-bound nation, but he figured the heart and soul of the ship was spacefaring to a fare-thee-well. They certainly did not conduct themselves like planet-bound persons, Treize had to admit.

"The one unknown right now is the Moon," Zechs moved toward a conclusive thought so he could begin milling around. "Romefeller still holds it, and still holds the colonies ransom with the Mobile Dolls. What happens on the moon could well decide the course of events to come."

"Though, in the end, the war will be won or lost here, in Europe," Treize brought home the point. "Romefeller, based in Paris, versus Sanc, based in Sweden; between them, a continent, a mercenary force, a future everyone wants control of but nobody should pay for. This is our Sophist tragedy of our day, but maybe the other players could change the course of the play?"

"I salute that thought," a younger dignitary replied with a raised glass of chardonnay; others in the crowd followed suit quickly. "Though, if I may ask, when the future is decided, what shall you do then, Colonel?"

"I am reviewing options for that time," and his gaze passed over the two betrothed Archangel Team members, Miriallia and Tolle. If anything, he intended to see to their wedding after the conclusion of hostilities, as a measure of gratitude for changing the inevitable and bloody outcome of the wars here in the Earth Sphere.

---

Author's Chapter Afterword:

And thus ends my semi-funk and writer's block. I have done over 30K words in 2 months, which is a real breaker for any major loss of motivation I may have been under. If I can do that much in that little, even on the arse-end of a nasty schedule I have kept for the past couple weeks, I have no recourse but to officially declare myself back in the game.

On the other hand, I didn't exactly do myself any favors by jumping into the deep end of the quagmire with a straight warfare chapter. I will admit, this was rough as hell to go in full bore into one of the nastiest mobile warfare campaigns I have ever put to paper. That said, it is both a good refresher and a good preparatory write; I am headed for some bloody waters in all of my stories, JW, DFA, MMC, and AAA are all going to get real bloody real fast.

You will notice a lot of very rapid changes in the battle actions in areas; this is by design and by dice. Real life is a very unforgiving mistress in warfare, and I aim for that dynamic content in my writing. Granted the advantage swings one way today, but it can swing another way tomorrow. This battle was a pisser for the Archangel crew; fatigue can lead to mistakes, and mistakes can get costly.

One thing I did not like about the canon Sanc Kingdom battle was the compression and lack of options. Granted, with only a handful of MS and one gundam until Quatre tried pulling a big damn heroes moment, there was little to no hope for the Sanc Kingdom and rightly so. Circumstances changed to a significant degree in the chapter before this one, so the outcome changes with it. Again, this is where the true dynamic showing of interdimensional adventuring comes into play: add a new element and subsequent events will change. I've seen a lot of people mash disparate elements together and try to run it through a pre-written history line, and to me those things always struck me as more artificial than saccharin. It tastes good until you realize that what you're eating is empty and impossible to digest...

Well, now, I do believe I have not completely covered all my bases as to material that may or may not have come up in the past couple chapters. Necessarily I had to bury a few things due to the direction the narrative needed to go, but a few threads I am leaving hanging at this time, for the purpose of pulling them loose and revealing all in coming chapters. There were some outlandish guesses made in reviews that may or may not be accurate; I am not going to comment on that directly, but as always I will reply to reviews and the definitive answers will come of the story in chapters soon.

For now, though I wish to thank all of my readers, greenhorn and veteran, for hanging in there and showing patience with me over the past couple of years. Where the lifespan of most fics on this site are measured in weeks, I have readers that have been reading this since its inception in 2009, which is 4 years running and still not done. My plans remain unchanged, I still have several sections to go and a couple revisits to enact, but as the relevancy of material changes, so do my plans...and the bizarreness of the necessary outcome. I have sworn a personal oath to complete, and so long as I have the ability to write I intend to do so. That said, I have my fears at this time, a genuine concern that circumstances at large may compromise my ability to write or may even kill me. The world around us is not as friendly as we are led to believe from day to day, trust me on that if nothing else. Given that I had several attempts at my life before I even turned 16, I can attest to how unfriendly the world is. I will do what I can, as quickly as I can muster it; if I suddenly go silent and fail to respond to even PMs, wish me well in Valhalla. I figure I'll be in good company in those lands.

Enough of that morose crap for a day. NEXT UP: The campaign to move against Romefeller begins in earnest, as circumstances among the minor players begin shifting. Even the best strategists will have a hard time predicting the results of the shifting bands of power...

---

Review Replies: A grand total of 29 reviews spread across several different chapters, the bulk being to Chapter 34. Thank you one and all for the replies, and like usual, first review, first replied :)

Nightblade 1021: Oh yes, several of the Archangel crew have summon skills, but in a dynamic mobile engagement Summons are mostly at a disadvantage. A few of the highest Summons would be hellishly capable in battles like the one in this chapter, but the only summon on that list in the hands of the Archangel is Phoenix and said bird is more of a noncombatant than an offensive measure.

Artguy0123: It is an accolade I would honor.

2ndsly: A bummer to hear your life was/is going to hell. How goes things nowadays?

Well, I've changed around my dice procedures since the major FUBAR in JW1-12. The dice decide the course, now I put a helluva lot more effort into making it reality without it seeming artificial or contrived. Good to see things are starting to work out in that favor.

On the Captain, well, be wary on your guess. There are more than a few things that could cause problems of that nature.

Should the dice come up bones for Tolle, well, them's the breaks. Crap happens and all that. You will note that no such problem happened here, all misplaced trees notwithstanding...

Thank you for the review, and no worries about missing the review for 33. I expect hit-or-miss reviews, and any input whenever you can is a good thing.

Infinite Freedom: Be wary your bet, amigo. I just set up the preconditions that can be one of multiple problems, and let the dice decide at a later time what it actually is that is causing the issue. You may be right, you may be wrong.

On the gophers, yeah, I got rid of that batch, but a new warren of the ground-destroying asshats have moved in. Time to break out and sight in the old lever-action .22 again...

CHM01: Always a pleasure to get a review in from you. Your questions in series:

1. Murrue may or may not be. Keep in mind, she may not be stacking up larger than prior, I don't think I mentioned why it was happening for a reason.

2. The Shuivan variants may show up in later chapters, but not as Archangel-side units. Remember, those machines were piloted by some pretty bad chicks in service of one real omnicidal asshole, so...

3. I left that thread hanging for a reason. Someone will pull on it, eventually.

4. I have had more than one request for Code Geass, but where we go next is classified.

5. Metal Gear Haro? That would be almost as creepy as Metal Gear Kirby, though with some added annoyance.

C0dy88: Ain't that the truth; in a world gone mad with power, those who have none or use none are simply targets for those with the power.

That _was_ their plan. Nope :)

Well, Murrue's plight may have a more simple explanation, or may be a bit longer, or may be what you guessed. I'll leave that up to your imagination for now.

You should come hang with us whackos on the Best Warship forum for SEED. We get some pretty raucous debates going.

NEB Sparky x86: Not sure if you sent those new models to me or not. If you would, please send them again? And do no concern over depowering them, I natively do not play fair.

Takeshi Yamato (BETA): Patience, grasshopper. Kira or Hikaru might make a move, or they might not. The dice shall answer.

Necroblade (BETA): I wonder, is it possible to do a wiki for free? I could certainly do so for the MMC / JW series.

As to Zechs, well, here's his opening move. I think it will get better for him in coming chapters...

Knightowl 4183: Oh yes, it can be done, building new units. Ask yourself one question: why put forth the effort to build new units when you can salvage and modify ones captured in battle?

Another thing to consider is that maintenance of a machine does not require full blueprints all the time; in fact, a blueprint may be counterproductive when planning maint or upgrades. Sometimes, all you need to know is a certain bits of structural or technical data. Aircraft mechanics typically use a minimal set of schematics and work from general understanding of the process, just as one example.

Skywalker T-65: Relena is a linchpin in the story, and she did have a shown propensity for growing some spine (Endless Waltz, anyone?), but it took her to the end of the Wing timeline to do so. Athrun just happened to jumpstart her blossoming into someone capable of holding her own.

Dustin (Anon Review): Welcome to the party and thanks for a first review!

If I can get my hands on the Zoids CC anime, that may be a possible. Thanks for the consideration points!

Flawless Cowboy 2552: Damn good review and thought amigo. Only issue with the thought is, Archangel already has the alternate reality jump capability, the problem is something is screwing with the ship's ability to properly determine its current location and destination jump pattern. I have a plan for that one, a sorta creepy plan, but a plan nonetheless.

You are right about Kira's gundam, and it is all about the nanomachining abilities the said Gundam has for the purpose of self-repair. You are also right about the possible uses, of which Kira already uses for building repair components for the other machines. The limiting factors are time and materials; salvage is consumed at somewhere between 1.5x and 4.5x depending on the conversion type, so it is definitely not an easy operation for scrapping and rebuilding. Additionally, to machine a whole new Gundam would literally take months, approaching a year of machining time; not exactly a fast conversion. The systems in the Strike Freedom are for repair, not necessarily for construction even though they can be put to that use.

Barricade: Keep in mind, I do NOT follow accepted or expected literary norms when I write. What you think is a death flag for a guy may not be any big thing for Tolle in the long run in my writing.

1. Relena is still by nature a pacifist, just a little more realistic about the matter. Don't expect her to deliver a good 'hellfire and brimstone' speech for some time, if at all.

2. Nope, not Athrun in this one, he's just trying to keep it level. And I don't think death would be the result (unless Miriallia found out), but I'm pretty sure bad things will happen to anyone who does get caught in public knowledge of such an incident.

3. Some, but not a huge amount of Espers. And keep in mind the scale of the targets and fluidity of the battle; Espers were not a good call for this engagement due to the rapidly shifting lines and the foes they were facing. Other areas, well, the Espers may show their true strengths.

4. I am actually thinking Wufei versus Yzak right now, but we'll see who gets into it when...

5. It is a good thought, and a possibility for Murdoch's Madmen to get into. Of course, with some Elementals on board, they have a good example even if they tone it down a bit.

6. And people have some mixed words for me about my using dice, but this chapter has some moments courtesy of them...

Etienne Of The West Wind: Always a pleasure to have you picking at my logic (or in this case, lack thereof).

See, the whole thing is a bit of a red herring. I just set up a series of circumstances; obviously, between you and some other reviewers, you've demonstrated half a dozen things it could be in opposition to the given assumption. I wonder how the dice decides on this subject...

Now, on Tolle dying, well, you should know by now that I don't play by the common ruleset. Have you peeps no faith in Tolle?

Relena is just getting started.

Knives 91: My apologies for the delay, I hope the carnage was good enough for you :)

Mega 1987: Val raises a legit question, and with the possibility of new and interesting parties on the way, Terra will get some screen time of the unusual type shortly. I have some significant plans for her.

Strata-Assassin (BETA): Duo and some black Haros? That combination is far too munchie, even for me. Add Athrun and Kira to the mix, and it exceeds all FDA and IATA recommended exposures to weirdness that I know of.

I have never considered myself soft or hard, per se. I am simply an arbiter, the purveyor of insanity in this realm. What happens therein, well, I'm just doing my job.

Athrun is just one of the crew that has changed, and you see a good one in the chapter, if briefly (Pytor). More will be changing in coming chapters, in the inevitable march of time nothing can stay the same.

It looks like comic relief, but it may not be funny if that becomes common knowledge. It may get messy.

Well, it was Miriallia and Heero in the range, with Rashid doing his own thing, but actually I beg to differ on the 'don't bring a knife to a gunfight' thing. Militaries all over the world still issue knives and bayonets, and my personal gear harness has a 13" survival knife next to my rifle ammo. There is a time and a place for every implement, but a smart guy doesn't consider a knife to be a primary weapon except in desperation.

On Dorothy and Sai, you may be reading too far in between the lines...or not. Who knows yet?

Relena's got a long way to go still, in my opinion. She's probably going to take a level in hardness before this gig is up.

NP on the opening delay. I know what your schedule sounds like, I have done my time in college. Operate at your own pace, amigo.

Dustin (Review 2) (Anon Review): A very interesting thought, and for a very interesting series that has been on my to-watch list for some time. I may have to bump the priority there.

Synbad2: Now I know this is a first review, so in following with John McLean's quote after throwing Heinrich out the window, "Welcome to the party, pal!"

I have been giving thought to taunting the crew with the UC Gundam franchise, but I was thinking more along the lines of 0083 Gundam; newer and fresher suits and ships, same hardass feel.

ZeroBlade 88: I don't think you reviewed prior, so once again, welcome to the party :)

FF 13-2 is on my list of games to pick up so I will have to keep an eye out for that tidbit. I figured it inevitable that Square would see that writing on the wall sometime, so it may be purely coincidental...

Or I could do the same with MC and Cortana as you recommend with Noble Team. On the powers that be, well, technically if you've read through the story you've seen hints of them. The Gods of yore are off their thrones, booted by a certain hardass who shall remain nameless. This is pure chance the Archangel runs on, though some of the 'powers that be' are inadvertently making things worse for them...

My apologies for the long space, but as I explained in my author notes, I kinda dropped off into a funk and had no motivation to write. I'm back in the game now, and I intend to stay there.

Hellhound D.O.W.: I hope the chapter meets your expectations, amigo. It was helluva fun writing it out after all this time of angsting over my inability to motivate myself to write.

I don't really have a theme song in mind for the ship, but Ghost River by Nightwish strikes me as poignant. Still and all, I have a respect for Avenged Sevenfold that I don't normally hold for most American high-commercial bands. Not that I live for indie material, per se, my aim is mostly symphonic metal.

On your idea of Phase-shift Gundanium, no dice. Phase Shift is an inherently electric defensive measure, trading electrons for kinetic force. Gundanium is an electrically nonconductive material as per Gundam sources, so you can't combined the two. Of course, there are variations of Phase Shift that can be used, and one exists on the Strike Freedom, so...

Kyryst: Thank you for the questions. Here are my answers to your thoughts:

1. The units salvaged were sold back to the Twycross Militia for extra profit. Nobody in the crew saw a need for the vehicles, so...

2. It has changed multiple times over the story line, and will change several more. I have some serious plans on that note still to come.

3. Those are all options, but some of those changes are reliant on the dice. Stand by for further. (They are saving the ABDC canisters, of which there are few left, for some real heavy threats).

4. The beam cannons from the Virgos were used in turret assemblies around the ship, but so far most of the salvaged MS were used for parts.

5. That possibility exists, though what method possible is still up for debate. Depends mostly on where they go.

6. I would dare to say yes, it would be cruel. On the other hand, between the initial Clan Invasion and the Jihad are a couple good-sized wars to drop in on, so...

7. I think I can gin up a crew chart. A bit late for this chapter, due to my post schedule, but it will be doable for the next.

REVISION to 7: A crew chart has been drawn up, including my tallies of unnamed personnel and the persons with nametags we all know and love. NOTE: This chart will be subject to change as the story goes on.

Tyrant Dragon Knight: Oh, there will be some fracas in that direction to come, trust me...

Lerris (Review 1): You have a point, but remember that Athrun is a mechanical expert, and I specifically did not give them a huge charge from the makeshift generator.

Lerris (Review 2): It is not so much an allergy in my case, but you are right, I should throw it in some more.

Flawless Cowboy (Review Chap 11): I have heard that song, but I thought the name fit to a tee, as you pointed out.

Cyspark 01: When it ends up in water is mostly chance. Remember, this planet is 70% water for its surface. Who knows? They may end up balanced on the peak of Mount Everest in the next jump...

As to the jump pack, well, it is integrated into the ship without issue, but something is interfering with its work...

Knightowl 4183: Something similar already exists in the series: Kira's Gundam. Only thing is, it is not exactly a fast process and it eats a massive amount of material for limited use. Don't expect to make a whole Mobile Suit without feeding it several platoons worth of scrapped MS for the purpose, and don't expect it in the same calendar year as when you start the process. The repair systems on the Strike Freedom were not designed for that purpose.

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE REVIEWS! I have read these reviews several times since the chapter was released, though as much as I wanted to move forward I could not break myself out of my funk until just recently. Now I am back in the game, and I intend to stay that way.

---

The Gripe Sheet:

No outstanding complaints from the last chapter. Much thanks to Necroblade, Takeshi Yamato, and Strata-Assassin for the assist!

---

Footnotes:

(1): Above Ground Level, which is an altitude check used more often by military pilots than ASL (Sea level) in land engagements.

(2): SONAR Algorithmic Processing Suite, dedicated electronic systems used to declutter SONAR returns automatically for the sensor operators (In this case, Kira)

(3): Kinetic Energy Weapons, any weapon which relies on a solid object moving at velocity to cause impact trauma to do damage. Firearms (shotgun, pistol, rifle), gauss rifles, the Valiants, autocannons (using non-explosive slugs) are considered KEW systems, and even your fist or foot is technically a kinetic weapon.

(4): Rear-Echelon Mother Fucker, a common disparagement term used for senior leadership. Sometimes also used for support personnel that are less-than-supportive of the front-line troops, though this is the less-common use.

(5): Dezgra is a Clan term, meaning disgraced or dishonored. In common practice, it is used only to describe those who are beyond the pale, who have no honor and deserve no proper conduct. It is a severe insult to a Clanner to call them Dezgra, and is usually grounds for a Trial of Grievance right then and there when said.

(6): Solahma is another Clan term, This one referring to warriors considered too old to be of value in the front lines. These warriors (Pytor is a prime example) are usually relegated to second-line units with the express intent of them being used for garrison work, bandit hunting, and cannon fodder purposes.

(7): Eisensturm is German, translates to 'Iron Rain'. Rather appropriate for an artillery section, IMHO.

---

EXTENDED NOTES SECTION: The crew of the Archangel & Their home planets (As of this chapter)

Earth (Cosmic Era): 64 remaining crew members, and 9 Special Operations Infantry, including the following:
Murrue Ramius (Captain)
Mu La Flaga (Commander, Mobile Forces)
Arnold Newman (Petty Officer, Spec Forces Sniper and Archangel Helmsman)
Dalida Lolaha Chandra II (Proper spelling), "Chandratta" to most of the crew. (Petty Officer, Fire Control Officer)
Sai Argyle (Ensign, Electronic Warfare Officer)
Kuzzey Buskirk (Warrant Officer 2/c, Radio Operator)
Miriallia Haw (Petty Officer, Mobile Forces Controller)
Tolle Koenig (Ensign, Pilot Officer)
Kira Yamato (Ensign, Pilot Officer / Systems Analyst)
Kojiro Murdoch (Petty Officer, Lead Mechanic)
Elian Rigos, "Gomer" to the mechanical crews (Warrant Officer 3/c, Mechanical Specialist / unofficial 2-I-C of hangar crew)
Casey Ryback (Petty Officer, Head Chef and Special Operations Lead)

PLANTs (Cosmic Era): 0 crew members, and the following personnel:
Athrun Zala (Ensign, Pilot Officer / Mechanical Assistant)
Yzak Joule (Ensign, Pilot Officer / Intelligence Analyst)
Nicol Amalfi (Ensign, Pilot Officer / Infiltration and Recon Specialist)

Earth (CLAMP Continuum): 0 crew members, and the following personnel:
Hikaru Shidou (Magic Knight)
Umi Ryuuzaki (Magic Knight)
Fuu Hououji (Magic Knight)

Cephiro (CLAMP Continuum): 0 Crew Members

Dustball (Inner Sphere): 0 Crew Members

Romulus (Inner Sphere): 2 Crew Members (Enlisted after Twycross battles)

Twycross (Inner Sphere): 28 Crew Members surviving

Clan Homeworlds (Clan Cluster): 16 abtahka Crew Members surviving and 10 Elementals, including the following:
Pytor (abtahka Mechwarrior, Pilot Officer)
Natalya (abtahka Elemental, Battle Armor Infantry Point Commander)

Gaia (Final Fantasy mixed planet): 53 Crew Members, including the following:
Terra Branford (Warrant Officer 3/c, Summoner Specialist, Mage Specialist, and Hot Springs Maintenance Officer)

Earth Sphere (Cosmic Era alternate history): 12 Crew Volunteers from PLANTs, and the following personnel:
Morgan Chevalier (Lieutenant, Pilot Officer)

Sanc Kingdom (After Colony): 4 Crew Volunteers

TOTAL: 133 crew, 38 personnel dedicated to Mobile Forces

MAX CAPACITY CREW: 175 Crew + 88 persons dedicated to Mobile Forces