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...

43. Wake-up Calls

(Archangel's Amazing Adventures, Set 5, Chapter 5: Wake-up Calls)

(Day 18 of contract, 0745 Hours Zulu)
(Central Tristan, Archangel southern LZ)

"I like the way the Engineers set these 50-caliber magazines up for loading," Murdoch said. Feeding in 400 rounds of 50-caliber into a pair of flared magazine nacelles on the sides of the craft was a simple affair for the deck crew. Gomer lowered the slack end of the ammo belt into the feed chute and slowly piled it down, while Murdoch used a combat knife to make sure the ammo didn't bunch up in a weird position that would cause a feed jam. Four boxes of 50-cal ammo later, the left gun was loaded and ready. Reloading the right gun was the same process, same time frame, and same result.

The magazines for the cannons were another story entirely. An entire wing panel had to be removed and the linked cannon ammo had to be slid down a long ammo tray above the wing fuel cell for staging. Once in place, though, the cannon bolt was cycled to feed a round and it was ready. Ditto for the ammo on the other wing, and within twenty minutes total the A6M Zero was fueled, armed, and ready to return to the fray.

"Spare me a minute, Murdoch?" Saito asked as he approached the left wing of his craft.

"What you got, kid?" the Chief Mechanic asked.

"While taking a leak, I was wondering," Saito began but was cut off by Gomer low-whistling.

"All the important questions occur to a man when tapping a kidney," the Hangar 2-I-C said while he checked engine oil on the Zero.

"You guys went out of your way to get this thing ready for battle. New guns, engine cleanup, avionics, the works. Does this mean I have to go with you when you jump out?" Saito asked as he checked the undercarriage of the craft for any major signs of damage.

"Hell no, son. You go with us, that is always optional. You want to stay here, consider it a gift for assisting us through this rather spiky period."

"If you don't come along, we'll drop you a couple fuel bladders, a crate or two of ammo, and some repair parts for time-sensitive engine parts. Should keep you in the air for a little while," Gomer said, given that much was already planned for the A6M on the way out.

"Excellent. Then I'm not required to leave Louise," Saito said. "Is she ready? We're supposed to be airborne in ten minutes."

"Gomer?" Murdoch asked.

"Engine oil and fuel lines are all good," the Hangar 2-I-C answered. "Should be good to go from my side."

"Nothing worrisome here, so you're cleared. If you want to take her up now and wait for the rest of the team in orbit, that would help reduce launch clutter," Murdoch suggested.

"I think I will," Saito said as he passed his flight helmet to Murdoch and took the three steps to climb up into the cockpit.

"Helmet," Murdoch passed it back after Saito was seated and belted in. "Remember, kid, if it starts getting hot and heavy out there, you let the heavy hitters move forward and take the abuse. The Zero isn't designed to take the kinds of damage any of the other units routinely survive."

"I hear you," Saito said. "You guys are the pros here, I'm just helping, and I do want to land this thing safely at the end of the day."

"Not much use to you with bullet or spellcraft punctures in the fuselage," Murdoch agreed. "Bridge from hangar, requesting clearance for Zero to take off and orbit."

"Hangar, Bridge, port-side catapult is deploying ground ramp. You should be ready in 30 seconds," Operator Catalonia acknowledged the request.

"Gomer, give it two spins," Murdoch ordered. The manual spins were intended to move the pistons around, get oil into the chambers before the electric starter was engaged to fire up the engine for real.

"ONE," Gomer shouted with some effort as he walked the propeller through a half-rotation. "TWO," he said on the second lap. "TROIS!" he shouted in French, in defiance of hangar policy which mandated English or Japanese for most actions. "QUATRE!" he shouted the French word for 'four', which came out sounding like 'cat' to anyone nearby.

"It's what's for dinner," Chief Ryback said from behind Murdoch, playing off the English use of the French number 4. "Got some gatorade for you, Saito," the Master Chief said.

"Meow," Murdoch said with a sassy-cat smile to effect.

"Thanks, Chief," Saito acknowledged as he received the bottles.

"Pilots, start your engines," Murdoch said as the ground staff moved away from the business end of the Zero.

"Fire it up!" Gomer shouted.

"Hangar staff, Command, be advised Zero is preparing for takeoff. Stand clear of bird, stand clear of taxiway and runway. Zero, you are cleared takeoff port-side catapult without cat-shot. Set altitude 3500 meters and contact ground when established," Dorothy issued a string of orders for safe craft movements.

Saito held his breath briefly as he turned the engine starter. The machine chugged three times before the engine caught and began firing on its own. It was a welcome roar to Saito, a feeling of power below his arse and between his legs unrivaled by anything else he had done in his life. The fact that he was following in the footsteps of Japan in years past, but for far better reasons than simple imperialism, was simply icing on the cake for the regular guy turned familiar.

"Hangar, Zero, doing full flaps check now," Saito waved each of the control surfaces to verify everything was in order.

"Zero, Hangar, all flaps green. Cleared for takeoff," Murdoch pronounced.

Saito ran his eyes over his fuel pressure gauge (green), his hydraulic pressure gauge (green), and his oil pressure gauge (also green). With those all set and in the green, he was good to go. The Familiar pulled the brake catch, advanced his throttle, and shifted the rudder to make a hard turn left toward the 'runway' area. Sixty seconds of maneuver later, the Zero was lined up on the catapult and ready to launch. The mechanics had helpfully placed a metal grate over the foot pads of the catapult, so he could simply drive over them rather than trying to thread a needle as had been done the last couple times he took off.

Remembering a trick of pilots the world over, Saito hammered his throttle down to the stops to verify his engine would not choke, then when all was verified good, he backed off and started a more controlled power dump to get his machine to takeoff speed.

-x-

(20 minutes later)

"Check it. Archangel Assbeating Association, ready to go," Tolle said after the team formed up and began moving west.

"It's what they pay us for," Yzak agreed.

"Kinda tasteless, but an easy acronym," Athrun pointed out. "AAA. Easy and demure."

"I think I'll stick to the official team designation," Kira sunk the conversation quickly.

"Air Team, Command, change of tactics. Spread out along a western heading, interval of 1000 meters or so between craft. That way we can do a wide-area search and you can still close in to assist each other if needed."

"Roger that," Athrun acknowledged the change of plans.

"If we find them, what do we do?" Saito asked as the units began spacing out into the new search pattern.

"Recon-in-force means we move in, find them, cut our way in far enough to get an idea what we're looking at, then cut our way out and return to base. All we need is to understand what and where," Yzak pointed out for the greenhorn in the flight line.

"Formation, set altitude to 500 meters AGL, that way we have some viewing distance without being a wide-open target," Kira recommended.

"500, roger that, Mercurius is going up!" Athrun said with cheer as he put on more thruster power to increase his altitude, then dropped it back to hover rating to maintain altitude and forward vector.

"Someone's in a good mood," Umi pointed out as an oblique way to ask what was going on.

Athrun sighed, though it didn't sound depressing, just tired. "By taking a pass at Saito, that asshole De Wardes has tipped his hand. He wasn't part of the initial wave, which means he's here with a secondary force. The clever tactician isn't as clever as he thinks he is."

"Never thought about it like that," Fuu said thoughtfully.

"By process of elimination, his ships would have to have been over the horizon and flying low to get in undetected," Kira continued where Athrun dropped off. "That means extreme east of the country, or extreme west, since we had coverage to the north and south borders."

"And eastern landing is out because the Archangel was covering that entire grid," Yzak completed the elimination. "West it is."

"And here we go, already starting to see some traffic," Pytor said from the northern part of the line. "Have five air contacts bearing 3-0-5 degrees, slow-movers. Should I approach and confirm?"

"Negative, continue advance on the line," Dorothy ordered. "You'll have a clean cut to them soon enough," she said, since Sai could see their sensor 'take' by way of his panel compositing all friendly unit sensor readings onto his one screen.

"Aff, Command, continuing on the line," Pytor confirmed the hold.

"Forests like this, I wish they still thrived on Earth," Kira said. "A lot of the planet has been deforested over the centuries," he clarified for the Magic Knights and Pytor.

"The price of progress isn't pretty," Commander Chevalier said.

"Progress is yet another name for Pandora's Box," Athrun said cynically. "And I'll be the first to shout about it, even being a Coordinator."

"Shout it loud and hard," Yzak said. "Still, once progress begins, it never ends. The nature of the beast."

"Contacts dead ahead, air mobile slow-movers," Nicol piped up. "2-7-7, 65 kilometers."

"Nicol, Command, roger," Dorothy responded. "We might have an enemy battle line running almost exactly down the coast, if your position telemetry is accurate."

"Would not surprise me," Pytor commented. "It is the typical forced entry beach landing. Hit them across a wide swath, deny them the ability to concentrate repelling forces in a small area. The hope is that an enemy is caught unaware and can only respond to limited parts of the landing, allowing your forces to consolidate and move inland."

"Plan is a bit outdated, when your fire support forces have national-distance coverage and pinpoint accuracy. Spreading forces out only delays the inevitable," Yzak said.

"Approaching coastline in my sector," Hikaru reported. "No activity here, but I'm seeing something that looks like ships to my southwest?"

"Roger that," Dorothy said. "Hikaru, drop altitude to 250 meters AGL and proceed south along the coastline. Do not stop to engage, keep moving and report anything you see."

"Command, Mercurius, ambush attack my location, just took several spell hits!" Athrun reported. "Can't identify where fro — got them! Four mages and two Dragons, forest southeast of my position!"

"Engage if they pursue, otherwise keep moving," Dorothy ordered. "Report damage."

"Armor damage only, nothing crippling at this time," Athrun answered.

"Continue recon tasking." Dorothy switched her radio off. "Captain, looks like we've got a live AO."

"I heard, try to localize their troop transports so we can destroy them from range," Captain Ramius extended the mission profile.

"Aye aye," Dorothy answered. "All forces, update on oporder. Priority targets for recon are enemy troop transports. Continue as normal."

"Wilco," Commander Chevalier answered.

"Commander, anything?" Dorothy asked Miriallia.

"Oh man, I'm gonnabesick," Mir answered weakly before she popped open a barf bag. Dorothy had the sense to disable her radio while Mir barfed her breakfast out, though that was little solace for Sai, Chandratta, or Kuzzey.

"That's disgusting," Kuzzey said.

"Whatever the hell I ate, it's not agreeing with me," Miriallia complained weakly.

"You may want to get that off the bridge before Sai turns any more green," Dorothy pointed out.

"Bit… late," Sai said as he reached for his own barf bag next to his sensor console.

"Wonderful," Murrue grumped as a second crewmember started in on the ralfing.

-x-

(10 minutes later)

"This is Mu. I'm in the ops center and will take over for Miriallia," Commander La Flaga declared. "Sai is back on duty, Mir is… still offloading her breakfast."

"Military political-correctness euphemisms, gotta love it," Athrun said with a wry smile. "Command, Mercurius, headed southbound the coastline. Not seeing anything so far, they have to be around here somewhere…"

"Keep searching, guys, we'll find them," Hikaru said with hope as she continued south somewhat inland of the coast. There was no need for several machines to cover the coastline, so Hikaru was flying a south-southwest course roughly two kilometers inland from the shore.

"This is Yzak! I've run into resistance from an ambush party in the forests due west of the Archangel. It's nothing serious, I'll have 'em reduced in ninety seconds. Should not need assistance at this time, over."

"Yzak, Kira, if you need backup, I can be on your position in two minutes," the Strike Freedom pilot said.

"Shouldn't be needed," Yzak said, with the sound of his beam rifle and Vulcans audible in the background of his transmission. "I have half of them dead or fled already."

"Archangel Team! We are the best of the best for a reason!" Tolle half-shouted over the radio bands.

"Command, Zero, I have a tent city and dragons on the ground north of my position," Saito announced. "Oh no you don't, you bastards!" Again, the sound of machine guns was audible over the radio. "Two Dragons tried intercepting me from takeoff."

"Tried?" Mu asked.

"Tried, and failed," Saito said. "This is a pretty large tent city, Commander. There's a lot of troops down here."

"I have a tent city here on the south shore, Commander," Athrun declared.

Hikaru continued looking around as her Rune God swept toward the south. This close to the shore, it was mostly flatlands and crags, nothing special, not capable of sustaining proper farmland for a town, and thus strategically unimportant for Tristain to garrison. Hence why it would also make a proper foothold beachhead as shown by the two discovered landing zones.

A short group of trees jutted out from the mega-forest to her left (the east) toward the shores, though once past it Rayearth was once again out over open plain. "Command, Rayearth, approaching southern border, I'm not seeing anything out here," Hikaru reported as Rayearth projected a rough line on her view crystals of the border for Hikaru to see where she was.

"Rayearth, Command, got it. Check to the border, then begin sweeping in toward the east."

Hikaru continued south, past some oddly-shaped rocks nearby the shoreline, wondering if the two identified camps were the extent of Albion's gambit. On the south side of the rocks, though, she thought she caught a glimmer of reflected sunlight from what should have been solid rock, which startled her. "What was that?" she asked herself mostly as she brought Rayearth to a halt and hover so she could inspect the area.

Be wary, Hikaru, something is at hand, Rayearth cautioned his Magic Knight.

"Rayearth, repeat your last!"

"Command, unknown sighting my location. Stand by, I am working on identification," Hikaru answered quickly.

"Roger your last, Hikaru. Shout it out if you need backup," Commander La Flaga ordered.

Hikaru brought Rayearth down to ground level, looking back and forth across the unusual-shaped crags between her landing position and the sea. "These rocks are different, like they're fresh stone, not weathered or sea-battered," she said, looking at a rock that was a bit smaller and showed signs of clear weathering. "Have we had earthquake activity in the area?"

"Negative, none captured on sensors," Sai said, though still a bit weak of voice from his earlier incident.

"I don't remember any earthquakes in the area, Hikaru," Saito said.

This is an earth-magic based illusion, Magic Knight. Each element has its own series of illusive abilities, designed to distract, confuse or obscure, though such skills are less and less useful against beings at or above the levels of the Divine. Observe, Rayearth explained before he raised his left hand and pointed toward the nearest of the 'newer' crags. Divine reach of the darkness, grasp through the false light of Existence and shatter the illusions therein; render unto the eternal cosmos the true sight of nothingness with Shadow Illusive Sunder, Rayearth chanted across the telepath plane, audible almost completely around the world. The reach of the spell was farther than the telepathic audible enchantment, for the Shadow Illusive Sunder did its task around the world, destroying every illusion on planet in one fell swoop of dark energy, even those illusions that had been rendered 'permanent' by old Mages in centuries past.

In front of Rayearth, the crags bursted outward with a puff of black-red light, which dissipated in a couple seconds to reveal what was hidden under the illusion. "Whoa, shit," Hikaru barely breathed once she had a clear idea what she was looking at. "Uh, Command, enemy naval force located my position."

Brace for impact, Rayearth warned her when the Rune God caught sight of several cannon doors opening on the side of the nearest Warship. Hikaru took the advice and hunkered down behind her shield, waiting for the enemy volley to make a clean getaway.

"Holy shit!" Commander Chevalier shouted. "Whatever Rayearth just did, it worked! I have eyes on a previously-hidden battalion or larger formation of enemy infantry with light support assets!"

Hikaru took the hit from four cannons off the enemy warship, as well as several minor magic hits that were nearly completely inconsequential to a Rune God. Once the fire slacked, she fired Rayearth's flame jets and bounded back 200 meters, enough to easily break the enemy gunner's range estimation, then turned and jumped up into the sky toward the east.

"All forces, Command, I'm calling the ball. We have a picture of enemy force deployments, and with their illusions broken they will try moving soon. All units return to ship, refit and refuel for extended campaigning. We're about to go in hard," Commander La Flaga ordered.

"Roger that, I'm breaking contact east," Hikaru said.

"That was a kickass spell trick on Rayearth's part," Kira said with a smile to voice.

"We mortals, we've got a lot to learn," Commander Chevalier said.

-x-x-x-

(Day 18 of contract, 0900 Hours Zulu)
(Central Tristan, Archangel southern LZ)

"This isn't exactly comfortable," Louise griped.

"For both of us," Saito said, careful to make sure his thumb was off the radio switch.

Louise, for better or worse, had decided she was coming along with Saito on this engagement. Despite her effective inability to use most common forms of magic, she could create small explosions when she did try to use spells, and even a small explosion against the hide of a dragon could prove to be a fatal hit in a turn-and-burn scenario.

What had resulted was Saito taking position in the cockpit, then Louise got in and took seat sideways in the cockpit, braced side-to-side against the top of the cockpit frame where the glass would normally close. For safety, Gomer had provided her with a rigging harness that was tied off to a locking lug in the cockpit, and both were wearing goggles and headset earphones so they could communicate. Lastly, someone attached a 'jesus handle' to the inside of the cockpit and out of the way, so Louise could better balance herself in the kind of tight maneuvering needed for combat air patrol.

"All right, guys, you know what the scoop is," Commander La Flaga reported. "The enemy air force has taken to the skies with a vengeance, their remaining Dragons have swept out the last of the Griffon Riders. Our mission is to eliminate the Dragons so they can't support the ground forces while we stage and deploy a counterattack. Good to go?"

"Got it," Tolle acknowledged. "Time to make some noise from the ground!"

"Ground forces, advance to point, localize and begin suppression of enemy infantry formations," Mu put official wording to their planning.

"Basically, search and destroy," Yzak said. "Of course, if the air battle drifts over where I am, I'm pretty sure I can drop a few Dragons with anti-air fire."

"This is Miriallia, I have resumed the CIC," Mir reported. "I heard what the operation plan is. If anything changes, I'll call the shot."

"Welcome back, Miri," Hikaru said. "Any idea what went wrong?"

"Something in my breakfast must have disagreed with me," Miriallia reported. "Anyway, hot intel is as follows: enemy air groups number five in the skies, total count 57 air contacts. No fast movers detected, this is all run-of-the-mill Dragons."

"So that lousy bastard De Wardes is not up here," Saito said wryly.

"Whoa there, sparky, don't get to assuming just yet," Athrun cautioned him. "Just because he doesn't have the foot down doesn't mean he isn't up here. He could be blended in one of the formations, waiting for a chance to jump us."

"Got it," Saito acknowledged the planning error he just committed.

"Kira, you have the southernmost group. Bearing 1-6-5, 47 kilometers, 7 contacts. Get on it," Dorothy ordered.

"Moving now," Kira said.

"Mercurius, Vayeate, you have the second southern group, heading 1-7-5 at 44 kilometers. Be warned, I'm seeing sixteen contacts."

"We will obliterate them," Pytor said as he drove his machine forward.

"Zero, Rayearth, center group. 1-8-2, 29 kilometers, fourteen contacts. Intercept and eliminate all opposition," Dorothy said.

"Got it," Saito responded as he turned over toward that heading.

"Windam, Nicol, you have the number four group. 2-0-2, 53 kilometers. I show fourteen contacts in this group."

"Can do, command," Nicol answered.

"Selesce, you have the northernmost group. I show only six contacts, but they are moving directly toward the capital. Heading 3-2-0, 22 kilometers."

"They won't be for long," Umi said.

"Commander La Flaga, Commander Chevalier, Tolle, Yzak, space out at 2 kilometer intervals, advance west at moderate pace, intercept any enemy raiding parties. If you encounter enemy infantry formations above company size, you are authorized to call for fire support."

"Roger that, moving now," Mu said as he turned the Timber Wolf north to space out from the rest of the formation.

-x-

Kira had one of the greater distances to cover, but also had the fastest unit in the air of the entire team. He was first to charge into their formation in a head-on approach scenario, rocketing past the seven Dragons at mach six, the maximum speed he could get out of his Gundam at this altitude. So fast and nasty was his fly-by that the aerial disruption caused by his decidedly non-aerodynamic Gundam caused enough turbulence to knock two of the Dragons out of the sky with broken wings.

"Two down by fly-by turbulence, turning in on the remainder," Kira reported.

"Roger that, continue as planned," Dorothy acknowledged the highly unorthodox kills.

Kira let down off the throttle, reducing his airspeed to Mach 2 while he banked up and left to come around into the formation's right flank. The Dragons had spaced themselves out in altitude and lateral distance, which made the use of beam rifles attractive but the forest background precluded that. No sense winning the battle, only to have a forest fire torch the contracting party's homeland. He switched over to beam sabers and armed the CIWS guns in his machine's head for the coming task.

Two of the five Dragons tried hitting him with flame breath, likely unaware that blitzing through the atmosphere at Mach Six had heated up his armor in excess of the temperature of flame breath weapons. The use of a wind spell against his machine's body was slightly smarter from one of the riders, but still paltry damage against his Gundam, and the use of a water spell from the third rider only cooled his armor.

In close, Kira started by cleaving the low-altitude dragon with the beam saber just forward of the wings. The particle wash consumed the rider wholly, burned through the heart of the Dragon, and severed its massive spine on the way through. The trauma caused was ample to knock unconscious the Dragon by way of sheer trauma, rendering its death mercifully peaceful.

A pair of decent wind-blade spells against Kira's Gundam chipped the armor on its shoulder, but was nothing particularly damning to the Strike Freedom. Yamato's response was his left beam saber, an impaling attack just below the wings and on an upward angle that caused the Dragon to screech its death-throes before it began its descent to the forest below.

The third Dragon had already turned away and was trying to flee, but Kira knew what the cost of letting an enemy flyer loose in the Tristanian countryside would be. Rather than pursue, Kira put his gunsight a couple meters forward of the Dragon's chest and ripped loose a burst of sixty rounds of 76mm CIWS. The combination of APFSDS and HEAT rounds proved hellishly effective against the body of a Fire Dragon, with the enemy flying through his burst in such a way that the largest piece of the Dragon remaining was its head by the time it was done.

Dragons four and five effectively killed themselves without any real effort on Kira's part. In their fright and haste to try to escape the white demon in their midst, these two Dragons tried taking opposite courses to flee, resulting in a head-on collision of man and beast. Their altitude was sufficient enough that the drop to the ground was fatal for one of them, impaled on the main vertical branch of a dead tree in the forests below; the rider hit the ground head first and was clearly dead with his skull stoved in, even visible from Kira's altitude. The second Dragon appeared to fare better on landing, but Kira did not intend to take any chances; a quad of Xiphas railgun slugs from above shredded the body of the Dragon down to bloody scraps, redistributed across an acre of forest area.

"This is Kira. Southern group eliminated. Beginning ground track toward the shoreline."

"Kira, Command, roger your last. Good show," Dorothy reported.

-x-

"Dorothy, Umi, I have view to six Dragons eastbound. Is this the right group?" Umi asked, not entirely sure she was headed in the right direction.

"Umi, Command, confirmed. You're right where you need to be. Good hunting!"

Umi reached across to her left hand and made to draw her sword, which rendered Selesce drawing the sword outside. With that done, it was time to open the battle in her favor, with some of the superior spellcraft of the Rune Gods. "Water Dragon!" She shouted with her left hand forward.

Unlike the last time she had used that skillset, Selesce let loose with three smaller-than-average Water Dragons, each targeted on a different Dragon on the right flank of their formation. One struck, shearing both wings off the Dragon and causing it to nose toward the ground. The second struck behind the wings and ripped the arse end clear off the Dragon in question. The third struck the head and shoulders of the fire Dragon, decapitating it cleanly to cause it to plummet hard toward the ground.

"Command, three down, moving to close combat," Umi reported.

"I see three on the way down, good shooting," Sai said.

"Time to end this threat, now!" Umi half-shouted as she urged Selesce forward at best speed. When she closed to within a kilometer, the sword came forward, set to impale the number four Dragon. It tried maneuvering, but being a Fire Dragon, such movements were clumsy and ultimately not enough to outdo a Rune God. Umi impaled her target just forward of the shoulder and drove it all the way to the hilt, to the point that Selesce had to fairly pull the dying Dragon off the blade of his sword.

Both of the remaining Dragons tried to flame the Rune God of Water, and both Mage Riders tried their best fire spells, but Selesce's deft maneuvering was perfect for clearing around their line of attack. Umi barrel-rolled to starboard around the four attacks, came level again, and shot up vertical with her sword set to slash the fifth of the Dragons from low to high. The blade cleaved wing, claw, body, and the other wing readily as Umi passed by it, still gaining altitude for the last strike.

"Last one!" Umi shouted as she nosed Selesce down into a dive toward the final threat. In close, the Dragon didn't miss with its flame breath, but even that was a paltry effort against a far older and more powerful being. This final tango was slashed from shoulders down through its chest, in the process the blade of the Rune God cleaved the rider in half on the way down. The blood spray from the vanquished blew back into Selesce's face, which somewhat clouded the view for Umi, but not to the point of being a severe hazard.

"Dorothy, Umi reporting all six are down. Headed to the ground to begin my search-and-stomp mission."

"That was fast," Dorothy said. "From initial engagement to completed, barely 25 seconds."

-x-

"Command, Zero, have track on the approaching Dragons. Moving in now," Saito reported.

"Ah, I see them," Louise said. "Once we get a bit closer, I'll start on them."

"Zero, Rayearth, go right, I'll go left," Hikaru announced. "If you can, try to force them back out to sea."

"Got it," Saito said before he banked right to move toward the far end of the combat line.

The numbers game favored the Dragons in this case — 7-to-1 in Albion's favor — but their eagerness created a schism in their own command structure. Desperate to draw some revenge for the loss of the advance force, eight ended up turning on Rayearth and six toward Saito. "They're coming in fast!" Louise shouted.

"Hold on!" Saito said before he banked hard right to get out of the line of their attack. After a few seconds of hard cut right, he reversed the turn to come in on their left quarter, a perfect angle of attack against Dragons since neither rider or beast had defensive options in that direction. One tried turning in on him, but the 20mm cannons put and end to that plan with six heavy rounds of HEAP ammo to the left side. With one wing completely detached, there was little hope for beast or rider.

"Yah!" Louise tried waving out a spell with her wand at a nearby Dragon, but like usual only caused a minor explosion. Fortunately, her wand aim was off courtesy of the wind and the explosion centered on the back of a rider's head. With his decapitated corpse loosed from the Dragon in question, the monster turned westbound and made to escape the area.

Saito brought the Zero right and across the flank of a third Dragon, this time with both triggers down for the pass. He considered it a bit surreal to watch the impacts of bullets on the target in real-time, especially given how much the 20mm and 12.7mm guns tore up a lightly-armored biologic like a Dragon, but a half-second of gunfire burst was all it took to cripple a third enemy.

With three dropped already, Saito broke right again to briefly disengage and survey the battlefield. Hikaru was already down three herself, with a spectacular cleave on the third as Saito and Louise watched, where she braced her sword and flew face-on against a Dragon, to force the beast to cut itself in half lengthwise as she passed. "Jeez, that is messy," Louise grumped after seeing the two uneven chunks of Dragon on the way to the ground, streaming a rain of blood out behind it.

"No time for rest, we've got three more," Saito grumped. He rolled left to reengage while bring back on the stick, intending to outmaneuver the much slower Dragons with a Chandelle Turn to get in above them. It worked perfectly: because the Dragons could not climb more than a few meters altitude in ten seconds, Saito was able to get in above them a hundred meters easily.

"Hah!" Louise waved at the one of the three on the right side of the craft, which generated an explosion square in the middle of the Dragon's back. It wasn't fatal, but the beast lost altitude quickly and had to abort trying to counterattack the Zero.

"Got this one," Saito declared before he dived down and laid into his triggers. This time around, the Familiar buried the rounds into the shoulders and upper back of the target rather than walk them down the length, which resulted in the Dragon folding in on itself on the way down to the ground. The rider was mercifully dead in the first four rounds of 12.7mm MG ammo, so he would not live to hit the ground.

"Sah!" Louise waved at the underside of the third Dragon as they passed underneath, but her timing was off and the blast landed on the leading edge of the Dragon's wing, inboard of the elbow joint. The blast was enough to collapse the elbow, which folded the wing in mid-stroke and caused the Dragon to roll to the degree of dumping its rider. Neither man or beast would recover, but both bodies would be found a week hence reasonably intact.

"Great shot, Louise! One more!" Saito said as he banked around hard left to come back on target for the last one.

"Hikaru has it," Louise pointed out the Magic Knight closing on it, now bereft of her own attackers. Given the Dragon was flying at treetop level, Rayearth simply stomped on the Dragon's back to drive it down into the forest for a sickening crash and flop. "That… gross, the thought of that hurts!"

"Done here," Hikaru said. "Zero, resume scouting orbit, I'm going in on the ground," Hikaru ordered.

-x-

"Athrun, I have eyes on, enemy formation dead ahead. Sixteen, just as expected."

"Not unexpected," Athrun commented. He was carrying a longer beam rifle same as was used by the Earth Alliance Leo units, which gave him better firepower than simply the beam pistol the Mercurius normally used. "Engage from long range. Once they get close, we start maneuvering."

"If they get close enough," Pytor pointed out the possibility of a victory entirely at long range.

"This looks good. Hit them from here, hopefully we can drop 'em all before we have to go in close."

"Aff," Pytor brought his machine to a stop and brought the massive cannon up to bear. Once the back-mounted generator was charged, the transplanted Clan Mechwarrior fired a single shot at full blast into the leading Dragon. After the one-second beam discharge lapsed, there wasn't much left of the Dragon in question, just a few bits and pieces and a lot of wet mist.

"Bit overkill there, butch," Athrun said sardonically. He popped off two beams at the outside range the rifle would permit him, both hits struck the wing second and blew clean through the dragon from chest to arse.

With it obvious that a full-power blast was gross overkill, Pytor changed the discharge lapse to a quarter-second and adjusted the fire rate control to allow for faster shots. This time, he fired, traversed, fired, traversed, and fired a third. The first two struck, the third missed but was close enough to scorch the wing membrane of the Dragon and knock it out of the sky.

"They're getting smart," Athrun complained as he was able to shoot one Dragon side-on, but the rider on a second target was clever enough to hard-dive for the forest canopy and avoid the hit.

"Ten remain," Pytor counted. "They appear to be retreating."

"Scratch what you can from here," Athrun said. "They don't have anywhere to go, if they retreat to enemy lines, we get them now, if we retreat to Albion, we get them later."

"Aff, Athrun." He waited for the barrel temperature indicator to drop a little further, then unleashed another three-shot attack. At the widening range and against maneuvering enemy forces, he scored a hit with only one shot.

"They're running too fast to get clean shots," Athrun groused. Of his four shots, only one contacted and that was only the tip of a tail. "We'll let them slide. Command, enemy forces have broken contact after we inflicted seven casualties. Do we pursue?"

"Negative, begin your ground sweep. As you said, Athrun, they have nowhere to run," Dorothy said. It would be a fateful decision in the long run.

-x-

"They're almost overhead," Fuu said.

"Patience," Nicol answered her. "Fourteen in the group. Archangel, can you loft an AASW missile in this direction? Hit them from the front, drive them back into our ambush."

"One missile coming up, ETA 14 seconds," Chandratta said.

Ten seconds later: "There it is!" Windam pointed to the East, in front of the enemy flyers.

The Anti-Air Shrapnel Warhead missile was the Archangel's preferred answer to swarms of small enemy units. In this case, it was perfect for Dragon destruction, given the warheads multitude of self-propelled submunitions and its ability to punch sizable holes in the side of the hardest Dragon carapace. After all, Dragons were not evolutionarily adapted to take hits from high-pressure explosions.

The warhead released 90 submunitions in a circular (shotgun) pattern, all set to detonate at the range that the Dragon formation was at. Of the 90 munitions, some 37 actually directly found the Dragons and blew holes in the beasts the rough size of basketballs, with fragmentation trauma exceeding the size of small automobiles. This resulted in nine of the Dragons deceased right off the bat. Another 27 of the submunitions detonated close enough to throw lethal fragmentation into riders and mounts alike, which resulted in every Rider being dead before the echoes faded, and another three Dragons crippled and plummeting from altitude.

The last two Dragons began a lazy circle-back to try to move away from the new killing field, but the missile body for the submunitions homed in on the northernmost of the two and slammed into it with a crushing kill.

"One left, I have it," Fuu said. Windam bolted off the ground with a significant downstroke, climbed rapidly, and Fuu used her massive greatsword to full effect to chop through the last Dragon from the belly up through the spine and out the back. "Last one is down."

"Command, Nicol, Group Four is down. Good shooting to Chandratta, he scratched 13 with that one missile."

"Understood. All aerial resistance is crippled. Begin your ground phase."

-x-x-x-

(Day 18 of contract, 1000 Hours Zulu)
(Royal Palace of Tristan)

"Command, Vayeate, have eyes on enemy formation moving in regiment strength eastbound roughly five klicks west of me. Mostly leg infantry, some cavalry. Tango grid reference 33 by 31."

"Here," Guiche set a black pawn on the grid square that Pytor had called out over the radio. They were using a map of the country and radio provided by the Archangel, and they had authorization to call in any forces the Tristan defenses encountered in their own lands. What few remained of the Griffon Riders had been dispatched to distant towns to provide fast communication if enemies showed up in the area.

"So, we have a line of attack moving slowly eastward, a full division so far," Princess Henrietta said. "Not good odds, discounting the involvement of the Archangel."

"Should be more," Tabitha said, indicating two more locations on the map that she would have deployed forces from Albion.

"What would they use in that terrain?" Guiche asked his fellow classmate. "That is all badlands, disruptive to formation movements."

"Cavalry," Tabitha answered simply.

"Command, Zero, just overflew an enemy cavalry unit, maybe 300 horse, grid reference should be 37 by 64," which was only two grid squares off from Tabitha's prediction for the southern of the two points she expected.

"Zero, Command, commence strafing runs. Attempt to deplete enemy formation as much as possible, I will reroute Mu into an intercept position," Dorothy said.

"Command, Nicol, be advised I have enemy formation of indeterminate size entering the megaforest western edge north of my position. Estimate enemy strength 1 regiment minimum. Nearest grid reference is going to be 41 by 21."

"Fast attack units in the south," Henrietta indicated the three confirmed cavalry units south of the Royal Palace. "Two major Infantry formations in the north. How to counter this," she mused aloud.

"Archangel," Tabitha tapped on the White Queen piece — the Archangel herself.

"All units, begin calling for fire missions, use your guidance lasers if you have them," Dorothy ordered.

"This is Zero, I'm sending you a target location now. It's in a forest, will that affect anything?" Saito asked.

"Yes, the forest will mitigate long-range blast effects." A pause of five seconds. "Six missiles inbound, time to target sixteen seconds."

"Archangel, Strike Freedom, formation in the open, requesting eight cannon slugs, uploading fire coordinates now," Kira requested.

Two seconds later: "Fire one," pause four seconds, "fire two," pause four seconds, "fire three," pause another four seconds, "Last salvo."

"Command, Mercurius, large formation in the open, requesting missile brace along pattern 1-Foxtrot," Athrun requested.

"This is so confusing, milady," Guiche said to the Princess.

"This is war at a speed we could never have imagined," Princess Henrietta said.

"Command, Zero, six missiles on target, good show. Should I continue firing on them in the forest? The trees will absorb a lot of my shots."

"Trees grow back, Saito," Dorothy said tersely. "People, once lost, are done. Use the ammo and return to the ship for a reload if needed."

"This is unreal," Guiche said after the next fire call from Nicol. "And still they march on," Guiche said as he advanced a black pawn to show the northernmost enemy infantry formation was now moving forward even under heavy fire.

"It is all they can do," Tabitha said with some clear sadness to voice. "They fight titans, but their objective is us. They don't have to defeat the Archangel Team to win their battle."

"Good point, Tabitha," Princess Henrietta said. "We will need to deploy our Infantry soon to be in position to counter their formations. Guiche, send word to General McAllister to begin preparations for departure."

"Immediately, Highness," Guiche bowed curtly and turned to head out of the map room as quick as possible.

"This is Buster, I'm three minutes out to get to the southern enemy Infantry formation. Once I'm in position, I'm going to ordinance dump them until I run out of ammo or start taking fire."

"Confirmed, Buster, oplan authorized," Dorothy acknowledged. "Yzak, back him up. Commander La Flaga, Commander Chevalier, please reroute to the northern enemy infantry force."

"No force could last long against an enemy that has this kind of communication, coordination, command, and intelligence ability," Princess Henrietta admitted.

"Terrible battles, two enemies with this kind of ability," Tabitha pointed out.

"And they expect something like this," Henrietta gaped. "I cannot imagine such carnage."

The Princess would not know until later in the day what such carnage looked like.

-x-x-x-

(Day 18 of contract, 1010 Hours Zulu)
(Central Megaforest, Tristan)

"Remember, no poochie," Yzak said to Tolle.

"Roger that, sir, not authorized to screw the pooch," Tolle acknowledged with a heap of humor. In all reality, both pilots expected some resistance, some damage, but no serious threat to their operations.

"Go left, hit them from downhill firing up. I'll take them head on, we force them uphill into the forest thicket, where they can't maneuver so fast."

"Got it," Tolle changed course 60 degrees to the left, trudged off into the forest area some 500 meters, then resumed his base direction.

"Starting to see… yep, recon screen. Command, Duel, soft contact enemy forces, infantry and light horse, 600 meters in front of me."

"Duel, Command, roger that. Do you have a fire call at this time?" Dorothy asked.

"No, not yet. We're going to ambush them, I'll hold off on artillery until after we've seen which way they are headed. Duel is out." Yzak switched his radio back to local radios only. "Okay, Tolle, give them another 300 meters advance, then we begin fire."

"Got it. I have a nice, fat oak tree to hide behind, what about you?" Tolle asked.

"Already concealed," Yzak answered. "Hey, you still have your music collection?"

"Never leave home without it," Tolle answered.

"There's a song on there, Supernaut, Iron Maiden's the artist?"

"Same era, Yzak, different artist. Black Sabbath," Tolle corrected him. "What about it?"

"Put it on subchannel 4 so we can rebroadcast it out our speakers. And queue up Iron Man after that, same artist. We're gonna completely scare the hell out of these punks."

"Got it… and done," Tolle said after a few moments of working through his playlist for the songs in question. "Doesn't this count as psychological torture or something?"

"We're not signatories of the Geneva and Hague conventions. We can get away with a lot of stuff," The Duel pilot justified his position.

"Ah, got it," Tolle said with a bit of malice to voice.

"Give them about another hundred meters or so, and we'll engage them."

"Waiting for your go." Tolle hovered his hand over the play button on his music player to begin the party when Yzak said to.

Ninety seconds later: "Start the music."

Tolle tapped the play button, then reached down for his control surface to get the Buster into action. With a simple push, the hulking fire-support Gundam was moved forward enough to sight up the enemy in the forest ahead of them. A slight transition of control movement and the combined Gun Launcher / Beam Rifle weapon system came up and onto target for a blast shot.

Yzak was next in line to join the carnage, with his shoulder-mounted missile launcher dealing destruction in large chunks on the enemy lines. His Vulcan guns also did some talking, the 76mm rounds hardly hampered by small trees in the area and explosively lethal to boot. With the opening position laid out, the battle was on and so far the enemy was doing as Yzak expected. Consolidate, push, get spellcraft in place. Except, the spellcraft forces were in the back of the formation, shielding them from direct action.

Of course, Yzak had the answer to direct action limitations. "Command, Duel, I have a fire mission."

"Send your fire mission," Chandratta answered.

"Grid square 46 by 36. Requesting saturation strike, enemy infantry appears to be trying to force their way in."

"Roger that, Yzak. I have ten missiles on the way for that grid and the next grid west," Chandratta said.

Tolle pumped another round of charged shot into the enemy formation, but was horrified at what he witnessed. "Holy shit! I just saw an enemy Mage nuke some of his own guys!"

"Welcome to Halkegenia, Tolle," Yzak said crassly. "The local nobility doesn't give too much of a shit about the commoners." Yzak had allowed himself to forget about the radio in possession of the Princess, and without realizing it, had poisoned the waters on future contract work for Tristan.

"I had noticed that, but not to this degree," Tolle said. "This was, like, straight-up punked the guy with an explosion spell. Not enough left of the body for an autopsy, we'll put it that way."

"I hear you," Yzak said. "That's the way it was on our world until the Industrial Revolution." Yzak loosed the grenade launcher round from under his beam rifle, the explosion of which tore a fifty-meter gap in the enemy forces around the explosion point.

"Splash, now, now, now," Chandratta said.

The missiles landed in a Ladder East pattern, with the westernmost target points struck, then walking progressively eastward with each pair of missiles. Without solid target info, though, the last two missiles landed in open ground, not an enemy formation — only two troopers were killed by those missiles, but the prior eight missiles racked up over a battalion of casualties on their own.

"Damn good shooting, Chandratta," Yzak said. "You tore some massive holes in their ass with that volley. Secure fire, we'll take it from here."

"Plan?" Tolle asked.

"Move in, sweeping west-northwest as we go, drive them backwards."

"On it," Tolle acknowledged as he stepped forward, weapons broke down to fire individual Gun Launcher or beam cannon rounds. "Wha — fast mover detected!" He tried getting the Gun Launcher up into place to snap off a shot, but missed behind the tango by some thirty meters. "He's headed your way, Archangel!"

-x-x-x-

(Day 18 of contract, 1015 Hours Zulu)
(Skies above the central Megaforest, Tristan)

"Zero, Command, be warned, he's headed right for you and thereafter right for us. You are the only viable intercept. Engage at will."

"Command, Zero, I roger," Saito switched off his main radio transmit. "Louise, you ready? He's not going to give us any kind of a break."

"I am ready," 'Zero' Louise said. "All I need is a good pointer and I can do some damage."

"I hope you can draw a bead on him fast enough," Saito admitted. "Command, Zero, turning in now. I see him at range."

"That… is him? He's insanely fast," Louise said.

"Yeah, that Dragon is every bit as fast as this plane," Saito said. In the distance, he was bracketed by ground fire from the Mercurius and Vayeate, but the six shots taken all missed due to his heavy maneuvering. "Not looking good."

"We can do it," Louise said with more conviction than she actually felt. In fact, the only thing she was seeing was fear factor in the distance.

"Hang on, and don't let go. I will have to maneuver hard," Saito said.

"Zero, Archangel Sensors, target close rate is 680 kilos — he's moving way faster than your craft. Recommend you draw him east into the fire arcs of the Archangel," Sai recommended.

"Negative, I don't want him knowing where the ship is. He still has several fire dragons, and I'm the only unit in the air right now," Saito said, drawing the conclusion that he would be the only unit in the area to support the Archangel.

"Understood. If you have to, force him into an ambush with the other machines on the ground," Dorothy suggested. "Rune Gods, Command, heads up, you may have to engage De Wardes in support of the Zero."

"Roger that," Hikaru answered immediately.

"Understood," Fuu piped up.

"Let's see if I can do this right," Saito said as he lined up on the incoming enemy. "Almost there, almost there, now!" Saito laid into both triggers on a short burst, then immediately rolled hard right to avoid the breath weapon of the Dragon in question. "Did I hit?"

"He's coming around!" Louise said. She aimed her wand at the enemy rider and concentrated hard, though her effort produced a sizable explosion in the forest beyond De Wardes.

"I'm turning in on him for another pass!" Saito declared, though he never had a decent shot before De Wardes ducked down below the fire line of the Zero. The craft was briefly buffeted by a passing wind storm from the Dragon, but no actual damage came of it.

"Now what?" Louise asked as she tried to target him again, and missed again (this explosion resulted in a pink puff of nothingness in the skies beyond De Wardes).

"We keep trying," Saito said. He performed a quick Split-S turn to double back on De Wardes, which put him slightly below the enemy but also gave him a boost of speed.

"Umi's coming in! She's over there!" Louise pointed her wand, but Saito made sure he didn't look — his objective was De Wardes, and the Magic Knight joining the fray was not of consequence to him — yet.

The approach speed was too fast for Saito to get in on a proper fire angle, and De Wardes missed with his spellcraft high, underestimating the angular shift of a target below his own angle of attack. Louise again tried her hand at creating an explosion against the frame of the Wind Dragon, but her spell caused a glittering puff in the clouds far above the battlefield.

"I've got it!" Saito shouted. "Louise, you're on. I'm going to start a pylon turn left around De Wardes, rattle off those spells as fast as you can!"

"You mean 'rattle off those failed spells,' don't you?" Louise asked suspiciously.

"If it knocks his sorry ass to the ground, that wouldn't exactly be a failure," Saito pointed out fairly.

"He has a point," Dorothy said.

"Starting the pylon now, Umi, try to draw him in toward my left wing," Saito requested.

"I'll try to drive him that way, sure," the Magic Knight answered. "Water Dragon!" Her attempt at spell combat during a dogfight missed grossly, but began the process of forcing him in the right direction.

"He's not close enough," Louise grumped. "Okay, he's close enough now, keep it steady," Louise requested. In the time that De Wardes took to change orientation and avoid a pass by Umi, Louise put four 'shots' downrange, three of which actually struck the Dragon in the flank. A fifth shot struck it on the tail and severed part of the tail wholesale, which careened into the forest below. "Got him!"

"Good shooting, Louise!" Umi said.

"He's slowed his maneuvering! That Dragon must be losing it! Now's our chance!" Saito banked in hard left to reorient on the target, though Umi beat him to it with her Water Dragon spell again. De Wardes was waiting for it with a wind barrier, but a moral spellcaster against a Rune God gave the advantage clearly to Selesce; the water never got through the winds, but the sheer overpressure of the attack drove the Dragon perilously close to the forest canopy below.

"He's in position and weakened, take the shot!" Umi said.

"Firing!" Saito half-shouted as he loosed both triggers again, this time against a target that was umprepared to take the hits or maneuver. The quickly-generated wind barrier was enough to protect De Wardes from the 50-caliber rounds, but it was not large enough to defend the Dragon he was riding from several nasty hits of 20mm API and 12.7mm AP-T munition. "Good hit!" Saito shouted as he saw the blood misting out behind the Dragon he had just perforated.

"He's goin' down!" Umi said. "Splash, splash, De Wardes is down, due north of my location!"

"Roger that, good shooting to everyone!" Dorothy shouted in cheer. "Location marked, we will sweep it with Infantry shortly and verify the kill. Zero, report munitions status."

Saito checked over his gun indicators. "Command, I have less than a hundred rounds total between all four guns. Need a rearm — wait, the Skygrasper is landed, can it be used?" Saito asked, remembering the support craft was not in action at this time.

"Standby one," Dorothy said. Fifteen seconds later: "Zero, Command, cleared to take the Skygrasper out. Just don't bring it back with any dents, okay?"

"Clear," Saito answered immediately. "Zero is RTB for ammo and fuel and to change craft." Saito dropped the radio switch. "The Skygrasper will be better for us, it's faster, better armed, and has two seats," he told Louise.

"Good, this cockpit frame is really digging into my butt," Louise grumped. Saito wisely said nothing in response.

-x-x-x-

(Day 18 of contract, 1025 Hours Zulu)
(Central Tristan, Archangel southern LZ)

Three knocks at the armory door caught the Cooks' attention in the middle of gearing up. "Got room on your run for another?"

"Us, no, we're full-up already," Chief Ryback answered the questioner. "The Marines are forming up as well, so if you want to gear up and head out with them, they could definitely use the extra support."

"Got it," Terra answered by rote. She mostly expected the answer, the Cooks 'n' Commandos were a bit picky who served with them, but that was mainly because they had some of the toughest of the ground ops missions out of the small Archangel Team ground forces.

"Here," the pastry chef tossed her a strange sword that was in sheath in a cloth bag. "None of us can use it, maybe you can."

"What is it?"

"We picked it up on the Floating Continent, just before we got to Kefka and Gestahl. We can't use it, the thing doesn't have a blade or has a blade roughly a quarter-inch long in our cases."

"What?" Terra pulled the top of the bag, revealing the hilt of the sword for all to see. In terms of swords, it was nothing particularly spectacular from the hilt down — standard crossguard, leather-wrapped handle, gilded pommel that was mostly faded. When she drew the sword, she found it was very much different from what she expected, with a small amount of what would normally be blade tang that resided in the sheath, but no blade. "This is highly strang — " she was cut off by the appearance of the blade, a wide blade of pure cobalt blue energy at least a meter and a half long. "Okay, that is different."

"Someone can use it! Perfect!" Ryback said. "Keep it, kid. We were just holding it as a collectible, but if it works for you, do it."

"Right, sir," Terra brought the sword back down toward the sheath, where the blade disappeared so it could be sheathed. With it back stowed away, she hooked the sword on her belt (all Archangel Crew uniform belts included a set of lugs for attaching a sword scabbard). With her new sword in place, Terra grabbed up her usual AKM assault rifle and two bandoleers of magazines — given the expected enemy numbers, she figured she would need the extra munitions. A couple grenades went on the bandoleer, and she was ready enough. What her guns or unexpected sword did not cover, her spellcraft or summons would.

The ship's armory was located roughly in the center of the ship, so Terra had a good 2-minute hike to get out to the hangars where anyone would be forming up. True to expectations, the ship's reserve infantry was forming up, the Elementals were suited and ready to go, and the mechanics had broke out the dozen or so HeavyArmor Magitek units to go with for this campaign.

"Terra! C'mon!" Murdoch waved her over toward. "I was hoping you would swing by. Up to driving a Magitek unit?"

"May I pass?" Terra requested. "Driving a Magitek unit… I've done some horrid things from the seat of that unit. I would like to forego repeating that experience."

"No problem," Murdoch said. "If you don't want to go on with the Magitek teams, we need more troops for the vehicle crews."

"Attention all hands, stand clear starboard-side catapult, Skygrasper launching ten seconds," Dorothy cautioned by way of the hangar speaker system.

"Terra, hop in the Number Four HMMVW. And be careful, kid. This is just another job, don't get in over your head."

"Got it," Terra turned and headed off toward the HMMVW in question, which was sitting with passenger door open waiting for her.

"Welcome aboard the Pork Chop Express," Gomer said from the driver seat. "Pleasure to have a lady of your caliber joining us today."

"Time to earn my paycheck and keep," Terra said as she locked a magazine into her rifle and drew the bolt back. "Where are we headed?"

-x-x-x-

(Day 18 of contract, 1100 Hours Zulu)
(Western Tristan, approaching Albion invasion lines)

"Damnable mercenaries!" De Wardes raged. "This campaign would have been over by now if they were not interfering! And that insufferable brat Saito, why did my former fiancee have to summon him of all things? The damned Gandalfr, able to use any weapon system in Existence like he was a veteran, allowed him to outmatch a Wind Dragon."

"What now, sir?" General Steele asked as Viscount De Wardes continued to fume about his failures.

"We continue as expected! The Archangel may know we are here, and they can hit us from afar, but they are not omnipresent. We only need to get a few good men through to the palace to render this country destitute. The city-states will tear themselves apart if we can eliminate Henrietta De Tristain."

"Continue as normal, understood sir," the General answered with flair.

"Sir! Enemy forces coming from the forest!" One of the General's aide-de-camp officers shouted, pointing with a sword."

"Oh, good word," De Wardes grumped when he saw the flash of green eyes that presaged the arrival of a Gundam.

-x-

"Well well well, what do we have here?" Yzak asked after a moment.

"Kill not confirmed, Saito got his dragon but De Wardes is confirmed alive, this location," Umi noted after she realized why Selesce had highlighted a single person standing in the back of the enemy battalion formation.

"Damn, and I'm tied up supporting Commander La Flaga and Commander Chevalier," Saito grumped. "Guess I don't get the credit for this one."

"Don't worry, you dropped his Dragon, that was no mean feat to begin with," Yzak pointed out.

"Duel, this is Pork Chop Express, coming up on your location now. Looks like we found the par-tay!"

"Get ready to go live, let's see what kind of balls these pukes have."

The enemy command section began advancing forward between the battalions at the front of his formation. "This is good, though I doubt he's coming up here to surrender," Umi said.

"I guessed that," Yzak grumped. "He may be planning a three-on-three, given the company he is keeping."

"Rematch?" Umi asked.

"Were I him, it would be the perfect way to try to flex his 'zack, reclaim some dignity and prove we're worthless."

"He has no clue who he's challenging," Umi said.

Once the enemy command section had passed the front lines and was into no-man's land, they stopped about twenty meters forward of the line.

-x-

Here goes, De Wardes thought crassly. "Yzak Joule, Umi Ryuuzaki, I presume it is you two in the confines of those machines?" the Viscount bellowed toward the Duel.

"You damn well know the answer to that question, asshole. State your peace," Yzak answered by loudspeaker from his own machine.

"You missed me at the Cathedral, but by the same token you managed to prevent me from completing my own objectives. As I see it, we both have cause for a rematch. Three on three, winner takes the glory."

"You do know I am a professional soldier, right?" Yzak asked. "The commensurate, professional response would be this," and he aimed the shoulder-mounted cannon down to the ground; De Wardes had no illusions where it was aimed.

"Good Gods!" General Steele half-shouted in fright.

After three seconds of staring down the muzzle of the gun, no shot happened. "That would be the professional response, but you are right: this is a personal rematch, and I have personal cause to chop your sorry ass up and feed it to the sharks. I'll be down there shortly." The shoulder cannon snapped back up to vertical and the cockpit access hatch popped open.

"You got your match, De Wardes. I hope you know what you're doing," Colonel Kollos said coldly.

"They are Mobile Forces troops, not sword combatants. We will have the advantage."

-x-

"I can be there in five minutes," Hikaru declared.

"Not necessary, I think we have another volunteer," Umi answered, listening to the formation chatter on a different commo band. "Terra will be joining us."

"Miss Branford? I can think of few better suited to the task than her," Fuu reported. "Best of luck, Umi."

"Thanks." She knelt Selesce and tapped her glove to initiate the release from the Rune God. She was joined on the ground by Yzak and Terra, both of which had personal firearms.

"This shall be sword only, correct?" Terra asked after a moment.

"Sword and spellcraft," Yzak guessed. "I'm not making any illusions here, he'll go all-out to impale us all. Hope you're ready to fight dirty, Umi, Terra."

"I shall be," Umi said.

As the three Archangel Team personnel approached the halfway point between the two formations, Terra pulled the bayonet sheathed and attached to the side of her bandoleer pouch, then connected the bayonet to the front of her rifle. With that done, the trio stopped about thirty yards off. "This looks close enough, sir?"

"Yeah, this is good." Terra unbuckled the sling of her rifle, stabbed it down into the ground by the bayonet, and looped her magazine bandoleers over the stock. Yzak slung his Rorynex SMG over the pistol grip of the AKM, and Umi detached her entire leg holster so she could sling it over the receiver of the rifle. "We'll either be back to pick these up, or it'll be our final monument."

-x-

"Well, that simplifies things. I do not know of the one on the right, but the two pilots are definitely not trained magic users. General, Colonel, on grounds I recommend you deal with the lady on the right. I can handle this upstart Magic Knight and her friend."

"Got it," General Steele said.

"All right, what terms are we fighting under?" Yzak asked from ten yards distance.

"Sword and Magic only. Do you two require blades?" the Viscount asked in a slightly condescending tone of voice.

"We have our own," Umi said before she reached to her Magic Glove and drew the sword out. The blade in question was easily longer than the two Infantry Sabers carried by the officers, and almost half again longer than De Wardes.

"I'm good," Yzak said as he drew his massive two-handed sword. Where Umi's blade outsized the enemy's blades, Yzak's sword outsized the enemies altogether, with over two meters of enchanted blade to use on someone.

"I believe that says enough," De Wardes pulled and ejected his Epee, followed quickly by the General and Colonel drawing their own sabers.

Terra was the last to draw her sword, which initially turned out to be a non-sword, just the hilt and tang of one. Before the Colonel could laugh more than once, the blade appeared from the hilt of the weapon, a clearly magicked sword with a blade formed of pure cobalt energy?

"I am now glad I assigned you two on the right. You shall be busy."

"Are we gonna do this, or are you just going to stand there undressing me with your eyes?" Yzak asked sharply.

Insolent punk! I will have his head for this insult! De Wardes set his sword forward and began closing the distance.

-x-

"Water Wall!" Umi shouted, aiming halfway between sides with her open-palm left hand. She had no expectation of anything happening, since the only known variant of her water spellcraft was the Water Dragon spell, but surprisingly something did happen. From where she targeted, headed outward perpendicular from her point of aim, a large wall of water streaked up over a hundred feet into the sky, and remained gushing for several seconds before it faded. This was a perfect opportunity for Umi, Yzak, and Terra to go mobile, since they could not be readily seen by the enemies. The uproarious cheer from allied lines helped to hide the sound of movements, which the three Archangel Team operators used to their advantage.

As the water ceased flowing, the three troopers crossed the impromptu demarc and charged the stunned Albion officers. It wasn't enough to catch them off guard, but it was enough to disrupt their division of combat and return the battle to a 1v1 trio of matches.

Umi blitzed through De Wardes' attempt at a counterattack, her sword took the punishment of some form of wind spell completely unhindered. Epee and longsword clashed, grated down to hilts, and Umi pressed through De Wardes in an attempt to overbear him, which neither succeeded or failed. Yzak actually achieved the overbear on his attempt, but was unable to follow through due to a timely fire spell that drove the Magic Squire away, his sword stopped the spell dead.

The first notable result belonged to Terra. With her sword set, the enemy Colonel moved to meet her blade partway. With no magics on the sword, it provided him no defense against the ancient energy sword, and Terra kept going through his sword, through him, and even partially stumbled on his detached arm as it landed to his side and in her path. She tried following up against the (literally) disarmed Colonel, but his speed was enough to get around the tip of the blade before she could cause more damage.

"Wind Rage!" the Colonel shouted, pointing to Terra with his left hand, and though she had her sword up in guard it did not stop the enemy spell. She took a hit centered on the blade, which drove her back and to the ground, but remained conscious and mobile.

"Thundara!" Terra countered quickly before the enemy could follow through on his gains. She didn't expect much of it, said spell wasn't particularly powerful, but it was intended as a distraction to buy everyone time on the theory that Umi and Yzak would be less affected than the enemy. The result of her hastily-dropped spell was entirely different, with one significant lightning bolt and several thermal sparks on or around the Colonel, and after his body landed his cape and tunic combusted from the sheer wattage that had been pumped through him. (1)

-x-

"Good Gods! One spell, Colonel Kollos — " General Steele was cut off midsentence by an abrupt reengage from Yzak.

"Keep fighting!" De Wardes shouted, his own swordplay under severe challenge from the Magic Knight.

"Yeah, keep fighting, allow me to probate your life insurance survivor benefits!" Yzak shouted angrily as he pressed the attack, the massive two-handed sword moving in repeatable strike patterns that defied the weight of such a blade. It was nowhere near the size of an old Horse-Slaying Sword, and apparently it had less weight to it than a common stiletto dagger but bore all the mass of a Greatsword on impact. The General reeled under such blows, utterly cowed by the consideration of what manner of enchanting would be needed to make such a weapon reality.

General Steele cleared back several meters, which allowed him to better guard the flank of De Wardes and mostly to reassess the situation betwixt himself, Yzak, and Terra. Such was a frightful exposure, though, as Terra pressed in from his left while Yzak resumed the assault on his fromt. In this case, the moderate magicks he had applied to his sword allowed him some resistance to the blue glow of Terra's weapon, but the General found out quickly that a sword could not be in two places at once and his belt knife was a pitiable and useless alternative to a shield or proper defense against a Magic Knight. The two-handed sword penetrated his stomach an inch above the navel, and when Yzak yanked his blade out it dragged the General to his knees.

Terra backed off in what appeared to be a nonsensical move, though belatedly Steele realized it was to allow Yzak the space to wind up and swing through the General's sword guard. The strike knocked the sword loose and catapulted it toward De Wardes. The only thing behind the sword was General Steele's head, which when severed caused his body to finish the collapse nearly straight down to the ground.

The significant cheer and a couple firings of AKM assault rifles into the sky from the Archangel Team acknowledged the second kill.

-x-

Umi could tell that De Wardes was working hard to avoid being distracted by the cheering, but these things were not so simple for someone unaccustomed to facing off against primarily technological forces.

"What now, girl? You got the two Army officers, but that doesn't mean you'll get me!" De Wardes boasted as Umi and he clashed.

"I won't have to," Umi said with a savage smile. "Terra, do it!"

"Esper Transform!" Terra shouted, holding her left hand to chest and within it the Magicite form of her deceased father, the Esper Maduin.

A brief flash of violet-tinged light dazzled those in direct line of sight to her, except Yzak and Umi who were smart enough to look away. When the light receded, Terra had taken on a veritably different form, that of a taller being that was completely violet-white, somehow not human and still stunning to anyone gazing at her. (Terra did not know that her Esper form also came with a subconscious distraction / charm inherent skill, thus the draw toward her.)

"What — good Gods!" De Wardes stepped back several paces in horror at the transformation of an otherwise 'background noise' lady to something altogether alluring and frightening all at the same time.

You thought I was simply the girl that managed the hot springs, De Wardes. Guess again. Terra circled her sword and shifted the grip down to the pommel, resting the hilt on her forearm with the blade pointed over her right shoulder. Of the blade, it had gained an extra two foot in length and doubled its cobalt blue luminosity, a foreboding sign to De Wardes if any. The power of the Eternal Stars shall shine down upon these mortal worlds with an explosion of Firaga, Terra chanted by way of her telepathy, not prepared to use the spell immediately so she had to go through the full working of the magic. (2)

De Wardes managed a combination of luck and reaction speed to clear forward of Terra's aimpoint, which meant only his back was exposed to the blast that consumed a not insignificant part of the battlefield where Umi and the Viscount had been swinging swords. The explosion to his arse was easily ample to drive him forward into Umi's waiting sword, which knocked both of them to the ground but with only one survivor.

"Umi!" Yzak shouted. After the two had landed, no movement could be seen from either Magic Knight or Viscount for over ten seconds.

"I'm alive!" Magic Knight Ryuuzaki shouted after a few moments. "He nicked my waist on the way down, but I think I got the upper hand. Give me an assist?" she asked.

"Certainly," Yzak shouldered his two-handed sword on the way over to help his comrade, accompanied by eerie silence on the battlefield as Yzak approached the downed fighters. "Here," the Duel pilot reached down to the collar of De Wardes cuirass and cloak, then fairly hauled the deceased Viscount off Umi with one hand and tossed aside the body. Umi, for all their rough landing, had managed to retain possession of her sword as De Wardes was removed from the inadvertent dogpile, which resulted in her blood-soaked blade standing into the sky before she let it fall to the ground. "Hand up?"

"That was not what I expected," Umi said as Yzak hauled her to her feet. "Think I may have strained my shoulder on landing, I'll have the doc check it out after this."

"An impact like that, I'd've expected worse," the Duel pilot said sympathetically.

Umi raised her sword to salute the fallen trio of enemy officers; Yzak transitioned his sword to his left hand and shouldered, then saluted in ZAFT fashion. Terra, still in Esper form, saluted the enemy in the same fashion as Umi did, blade vertical with the hilt up to her eye level.

-x-

"Teams stand to, we may have activity," Murdoch ordered after seeing some of the troops on the far side of the field starting to shift.

Gomer, on the other hand, decided a bit of a message was in order. He stood up in the turret ring of his HMMVW, two signal flares in hand and burning brightly even in daytime. "HOORAH! ARCHANGEL TEAM GETS SOME!" he shouted at the loudest he possibly could, which was no small feat given the necessities of shouting in the Hangar.

"HELL YES SIR!" The remainder of the Archangel Reserve Infantry shouted.

Your invasion is lost, Terra quelled the stirrings in the enemy line by telepathy, simply by pointing out the obvious outcome of this action. If De Wardes was your best, you have nothing capable of stopping the Archangel Team. Do you acknowledge this reality? The troops stopped stirring, stopped making noise about possibly rushing the field.

A hue and cry came up from the enemy ranks, pointing into the sky behind the Archangel Team members. Exactly what the enemy were suddenly afraid of became evident with the slow rumble of the thermonuclear engines on the Archangel.

An impact and clatter of armor caused even Terra to look back over her shoulder at the machine in question, though she wasn't surprised by who had arrived. "Albion insurgents, this campaign is lost. Your northern force is broken and scattered, headed back to ships, and your cavalry units in the south are obliterated." The Strike Freedom pointed westward. "The shoreline is in that direction. You shall be outside the territorial waters of Tristan by sunset. Is this understood?"

A large guy with chain armor, beard, and helmet stepped forward from the lines. After a second's hesitation, he threw down his halberd and turned to face the rest of the troops. "C'mon, lads! These Reconquista fucks aren't paying us enough to die here! I say we go home!"

"Hear hear!" more than a few voices shouted in response. Some others took the symbolic step of throwing down their weapons, but most retained their arms for the march back to the ships.

-x-x-x-

(Day 19 of contract, 2000 Hours Zulu)
(Eastern Tristain, Capital City Tristania)

Inasfar as contracts went, this one was utterly smooth in the cleanup process. With De Wardes and a goodly portion of the senior command staff eliminated, the Albion troops were extremely willing to de-ass their target country Tristain with all due quickness. Especially after the unstated threat from Kira that they wanted to be over the open sea before sundown. No enemy had been foolhardy enough to test such a threat, which meant by default the defense of Tristain was done.

Word had spread quickly: the 12th day of the first month of Fall was now a day of celebration for turning back the forces of Albion. Given the defensive action was done, the Archangel Team took the time to join the party as honored guests in the festivities in town. A series of inns and taverns along the central market strip had been booked for the team to party hard, often with some of the Albion Resistance and Tristain Guards.

The best accommodations had been appropriated by the heavy hitters of the Archangel Team: the pilots, the officers, and in this case by Louise and Saito.

"You did some damn good movin' and shootin', Saito. If I didn't know better, I would have said you were a veteran behind the stick on that old Zero."

"Thank you, Commander Chevalier," Saito raised his glass in salute to the colder Archangel Team officer. "So now what? Albion revisited?"

"That's the next logical step," Captain Ramius said. She had had a glass of wine, but that was all she was allowing for herself because of her pregnancy. "We'll spend the next two days preparing campaigning supplies, then we deploy recon over Albion and rebuild our intelligence on enemy forces and positions. Once we have that, we start taking the fight right to their heart."

"Sounds good," Saito said, meaning it. If there was one overarching lesson he had learned from the Archangel Team, it was that you fought a battle, a campaign, a war to the end. Even when you had plenty of reasons not to, you always fought it to the end. "Can the Zero be fitted with rockets or bombs?"

"It can, but that's not an easy thing to do," Commander La Flaga said.

The conversation partially died down in the background from the main table, which caused ears to perk up amongst the command staff. It came to a very quick end after one shout, though: "Princess Henrietta on deck!" Master Chief Ryback shouted from the bar.

"Please, continue, you've definitely earned it," she said as she advanced into the room, flanked by Guiche and Tabitha.

An open seat at the main table was quickly offered to the Princess, with all the officers at the table standing. "Barkeep, a round for the Princess," Commander Chevalier ordered.

"Aye," the barkeep answered.

"Please, as you were," the Princess said after she was seated.

"Welcome to the party, Highness," Commander La Flaga said. "To what do we owe the honor?"

"I'm here to deliver a release of contract for the Archangel Team."

"A release, ma'am?" Commander La Flaga asked. "War's not over yet. I thought you wanted us in for the long haul."

"Your team has broken the back of Reconquista and crushed the invasion force from Albion. In essence, the war is over as far as your original contract is concerned. Your forces have done enough, what must happen next must happen by our hands," she semi-lied. For the matter to be resolved properly, it would involve the other nations in the area, but the tactless comment made by the Duel pilot had been far more injurious to the nobility listening on the radio than he could have imagined. Pretty much everyone in the Tristain command structure wanted the team gone, especially because Yzak had been right to an unholy degree.

"You sure you don't want us along for the rest? We're not under obligation to leave right this minute," Captain Ramius said.

"I would love to have your team in place, especially for the forced landing phase to come, but this is where we must stand your team down. Germania and Gallia have both pledged forces to the coming campaign on Albion Isle, which technically makes your units redundant. And, in this case, I have been informed by the treasury that available hard funding to continue financing the Archangel Team is almost empty; I cannot guarantee you proper compensation beyond tomorrow while meeting the other obligations of the nation,"

"Oh wow, that's cutting it close," Captain Ramius said, taking the answer at face value even though she could detect the faint whiff of politically charged bullshit. Murrue shifted her gaze briefly to look behind the Princess. "Need something, Ensign?"

"No, ma'am, just wanted to verify I didn't have any standing orders before Hikaru and I go take on the town," Kira asked.

"Nothing standing. You do have radios, right?" she asked.

"Definitely," Kira tapped the lapel microphone in question.

"Dismissed, Ensign, Magic Knight, but remember you are on foredeck watch tomorrow 0800. Don't stay out too late."

"Aye, Captain," Kira saluted and was off without further word.

"Apologies, Princess," Murrue said. "Well, if we're surplus to need at this time, and you're not going to retain us for contingency, I guess that means the job is done."

"It has been a pleasure to have your team assisting," Princess Henrietta de Tristain said with a smile. "For certain, you've shown us what the future could look like, and how frightening it can be. And you've saved two nations in as many weeks, when you had no reason to do so whatsoever. I could only wish that I could retain your forces, but..."

"Understood, readily," Commander La Flaga answered. "Occasionally, the bean counters win by default."

"Here is the document releasing your unit from commission, and a treasury note that can be drawn from any of the banks in town." The Princess passed the documents to Murrue. "I am led to understand you will need a few days to draw provisions for the travel?"

"We'll probably take 48 hours to draw supplies and goods with the funds available, then depart with no fanfare. Sounds like you'll be busy, so we'll try to minimize noise while we depart," Commander La Flaga said.

"Thank you," Princess Henrietta said. "And thank you for stopping the invasion. Forces of that scale, we would not have been able to hold them for long."

"We did what we could," Mu said with humility.

As the group continued chatting and drinking into the night, nobody at the table understood that the Archangel's intervention had created an echo that would soon act upon Yzak's crass comment. A year from now, the geopolitical landscape of Halkegenia would be wildly changed from when the Archangel would depart, ironically spurred on by a ship of common soldiers that had stood in defense of (legitimate) aristocratic rule. Where Reconquista had failed because it intended trading one ruler for another, the (yet to begin) White Wings Movement would correct the failings and abuses of the nobility permanently.

-x-x-x-

(2 days after the end of contract, 1600 Hours Zulu)
(Southern Albion, Archangel final LZ)

"That's the last of the transfer," Gomer said to Saito as two of his subordinates transferred a storage case of 20mm cannon shells to him. "Remember, these things have a 20-year shelf life if you store them in a good environment. You're not under obligation to use them immediately."

"Will do, thanks Chief," Saito said.

"Damn good flying with you," Tolle said with a hand extended for a shake.

"It was a challenge, but we got the job done. Now I fly support for the coming multinational campaign on Albion." Saito sighed. "What a twist of fate. A resident of Japan, the most pacifist nation in the world, now I'm doing UN peacekeeping."

"I know, just keep your ass down and mobile, your eyes up and searching and your finger off the trigger until you have a clean shot, you'll get it done," Tolle passed him some advice. The Buster pilot had no way of knowing that his advice would later become the advice that Saito used to convince Louise and Henrietta to choose the right side in coming conflicts.

"Attention all hands, jump engine is now spooling up, jump now 15 minutes to launch. Repeat, 15 minutes to launch. All personnel not intent on remaining with the ship are advised to depart immediately."

"That's us," Saito said to Louise. "Time to go," Saito nudged his 'master'.

"This…" Louise said, staring at the form of the Strike Freedom. "This is… a nightmare I don't have a part in," she concluded after a moment. "Thank you for the lesson," she said to the Gundams along the back wall of the Hangar. Creepily, the Strike Freedom's eyes flickered in acknowledgement of the thanks.

Louise climbed up into the driver's seat of the horse-and-wagon that had been rented for the purpose of moving the munitions and spare parts for the Zero. One of the professors at the Magic Academy had demonstrated the ability to 'clone' fuel for the engine, so Saito would have at least that much for his A6M Zero (Archangel Refit). The crew had transferred enough munitions to the Familiar of Zero Louise for twenty sorites at full usage, which was what the ship could reasonably give up for the Skygrasper.

Once Saito was on the wagon, Louise snapped the reins and the four-horse team was on the move.

"Good luck, kids," Gomer said, pretty well convinced they were headed for a bit of a rocky relationship, given how temperamental Louise tended to be, but Saito had learned quickly over the length of this campaign that he would have to harden up to survive in this no-milquetoast-allowed world of Halkegenia. Gomer had no idea that they were headed for an even stranger fate than they initially appeared to have.

"Bridge, Hangar, last persons are out. Ready to close up vehicle door," Murdoch reported.

-x-

(12 minutes later)

"Jump engine approaching 99 percent readiness," Sai reported.

"Helm, Conn, take her up to 500 meters AGL," Captain Ramius ordered.

"500 meters AGL, aye," Newman answered. "Engines active, levitator active, levitator powered +10 above neutral, rate of rise is 200 meters per minute."

"Another world, another mission, all behind us," Commander La Flaga said.

"I know we were shined on for the reason to pull the contract," Murrue said. "Some people just don't like having the truth slap them in the face, and Yzak did a pretty good job of that over the radio," she sighed. "Still, this contract, while fairly lucrative, this isn't what we signed on for."

"Hard to pick sides when you think both of them suck," Kuzzey said. The depredations of the nobility had come out of the woodwork in the two days after the end of the Albion invasion, enough so that there were almost some shooting incidents between crew and locals. To cap it off, Miriallia and Dorothy had determined that such misconduct was literally legally allowed under just about everyone's system of government.

"Well, time to take our chances somewhere else," Ensign Miriallia Haww said.

-x-

"There they go," Princess Henrietta said wistfully, watching the ship ascend into the afternoon sky.

"In the story of their ship from my world, they were freedom fighters, standing between two equally nasty parties trying to kill off the entire population of a world," Saito said thoughtfully. "Here, they're mercenaries, trying to get home to save their world and doing what they can on the way through."

"Why didn't you go with?" Guiche asked.

"Not hard enough for that job," Saito admitted. "That's a special kind of person there, guys who make the impossible possible, damn the torpedoes full speed ahead while dancing the Macarena for the fun of it. They scared Lady Kirche out of going, and for the same reason I would not even think about asking. Every time they jump, they flirt with the Gates of Hell. After a while, that would have broke me."

In the distance, a loud buzzing started from the ship, then went silent for a while, then buzzed again for a brief moment, silenced again, and buzzed one last time. Saito recognized it as a warning klaxon, though the others did not.

The ship briefly started to drift downward, but before it could descend more than the distance of a man's height, a massive shell of bright light surrounded the ship at a good distance, then momentarily cut out with the sound of air rushing back into the area. The collision of air sounded like a massive thunder rumble.

"The last echoes of their departure," Tabitha said quietly. "Gods protect them on their travels."

"Aye, Gods protect them," Kirche echoed sincerely. She knew now, after seeing the face of the war and how they fought it, Captain Ramius had scared her into saving her own life by way of scaring her out of chasing Archangel Team personnel.

"We have a campaign to finish up," Princess Henrietta said before she lifted the handset on one of now four portable radios in the possession of Tristain. "Base station, Henrietta. The Archangel has left. I will be returning shortly, gather the force commanders for initial strategy."

-x-

The ship jumped out from bright blue sky to black starfield of space, and with it the pressure of the atmosphere was relieved from the outer hull. For several seconds, the entire ship groaned and creaked with the instantaneous change of pressure, but it ended fast enough.

"Jump clean, no damage to hull or systems, Captain," Mirallia reported.

"Good," Murrue said. "Sai, anything?"

"Systems rebooting now," Sai answered. "Uh, oh shit, conn, Sensors, torpedo in flight!"

"What?" Murrue asked immediately.

"On screen!" Sai flicked a camera output toward the main screen. "Wait, no, bearing change on torpedo left to right, she's not aimed at us."

"If not us, then what?" Commander Chevalier asked.

"Some other ship, close aboard, about twenty kilos off our stern," Sai said. "No, wait, there's another ship between us and the target ship, about seven kilos off our stern," he said. "We won't take any blast from it, but we're close enough to catch debris, Captain."

"Sound collision," Murrue ordered immediately. "Helm, do we have engines?"

"Still starting up, Captain. Thirty seconds," Newman reported.

"Did we come at a bad time?" Mu La Flaga asked.

"Torpedo impact, five seconds, four, three, two — " His countdown was cut short by a massive light-blue flash that emanated from the target ship. The entire target ship was encompassed by the flash, as well as the unknown ship and the Archangel.

---

Author's Chapter Afterword:

For the life of me, this chapter was definitely POOCHED BY THE DICE. MULTIPLE TIMES.

I had actually intended this section (Halkegenia) to be another three chapters long, Albion, Albion finished, then a noncombat chapter before the jump out to the next pasture. Unfortunately, Yzak screwed the pooch with his tactless comment that pretty much laser-guided-bombed the bridges between the Archangel Team and the nobility. Princess Henrietta pretty much brushed it off, as did Guiche and Tabitha (Guiche knew to respect mundanes, Tabitha isn't one for Noblesse Oblige to begin with), but the rest of the Nobility is another story entirely. And the rest of the story is where the game changes: Henrietta was effectively forced to dump the Archangel Team, or face a mini-rebellion in her own ranks. (For the record, Yzak's comment rolled a 9 on 1d100, which is not far off completely failing the check.)

The classic recon-in-force job and Rayearth's illusion breaker was a bit of a plan gone well overboard on my part. I started out that section as just a run-through on Recon tactics and sweeps, but first Hikaru saw a 'glitch' in an illusion — not enough to disbelieve it, but enough to realize there was a tango in them rocks. So, I rolled again, rolled a 67, and Rayearth dropped some overkill on all illusions on planet. Oopsie. Now, while some will make a bit of noise about these things, keep in mind that I use the same scaling factor and most of the same mechanics for magic in all my stories — and the Rune Gods are exceedingly powerful beings. Rayearth accomplished what he did simply because he's older than the dirt on some planetoids and is powerful enough to hose even older Mages.

The rest of the battle scenes, both infantry and air, and even the dueling scene, well, the dice most certainly did not favor Albion. Not at all. Here's an example of what I rolled out for the dueling scenes:

77 for Terra against Colonel
46 for Colonel against Terra
84 for Yzak against General
6 for General against Yzak
13 for De Wardes against Umi
98 for Umi against De Wardes

High results are successes, low results are fails. The higher the result, the more spectacular I make it. Results where an enemy rolls in the neighborhood of 50 are considered neutrals, which is where Terra took the hit against the Colonel but ended up barbecuing his ass in front of his Battalion.

And that was pretty much the flow of the chapter in a nutshell. Occasionally, the random number service I use nukes a very well laid plan, but as I have said before, I'm just the poor sod writing this out. The dice are the ones that call the shots, I'm just as much a casualty to the process as the readers are.

Now for the POLITICALLY INCORRECT obligation: MERRY CHRISTMAS! This chapter is my gift to my readers (and my much tortured beta readers) for the year 2014. I wanted to make sure I end the year on a high note, and a chapter of AAA is a hard note to top. And have a HAPPY NEW YEAR while you're at it! My intention for the year is to listen to the talking blowhard in NYC do the ball drop, while sipping on a vodka mixer, and writing fanfiction, so you know next year is going to keep beating ass in the usual fashion and the usual ration.

I'll say this much, this year has had its ups and downs. I've done a lot of Call of Duty, StarCraft II, Borderlands, and strategic gaming of many flavors. Put out a lot of chapters this year, working hard toward completing AAA and JW, and even started a sprawling writing project in Sigma Mercenaries. It's gonna be a bitch keeping things going next year, but I started this massive folly of writing, I intend to finish it up.

That's it for now. NEXT UP: Shit meets fan. Boy meets girl. Boot meets ass. Ship meets ship. In case you don't have the idea yet, next chapter is going to be pretty scatterbrained, but such is the nature of their landing.

---

Review Replies: This cycle has 29 reviews in it, so HELL YES to all my reviewers! Thank you all for the massive fun and feedback!

LLat-2: That is an alternate to the eternal Gundam question, but certainly valid :)

Infinite Freedom: De Wardes survived that round because he was smart enough to break contact and RTB to get the invasion moving. As pointed out in this chapter, he knew his cover was blown and he figured his one (outside) chance was to kick things off post haste.

Knives 91: I didn't directly show it here, but the Valiants used indirectly make excellent KE artillery weapons. They will improve substantially in chapters to come, as the Valiants get upgrades.

Kira's multi-kill ability will get some upgrades, but will really shine in this next section.

Knightowl: True, to a point. Remember, though, the Archangel doesn't engage unless they have clear reason to, though in cases where such significant threat is at hand, Murrue's preferred option may simply be to use the Lohengrins and let the antimatter do the talking if she absolutely had to fight. Another option would be simply depart the area, do not engage and suffer no retaliation.

DS Gundam 00: Hope this chapter is still up to your expectations!

Wing Zero 032: Next location is locked in, but things are always variable in this future…

X-Over: A lot of your suggestions are already in my list, amigo. Thanks!

AznPuffyHair: Not strictly my intention, but the story is now on the move :) On the infant enroute, I think you'll like the way things go in coming chapters, since Murrue is not the only mildly-attached lady on the crew.

Rydan Fall: If I'm going to steal designs, I have to have a justification. That said, justification comes in many forms, and I have a pretty big one already in the Strike Freedom MP/LRRP unit already. That said, a revisit of SEED is not outside the realm of possibility, in more than one possible frame of reference.

HolyDragoon: Depends on your frame of reference for Teh Sux. As to your newfound Sabaton addiction, I have only two words for you. Alestorm, Tristania. That is all.

Gulping: This chapter should settle the fate of the A6M Zero: it may be a trooper, but there never was a real expectation of it joining the ship.

As to the Mobile Weapon engines, everything is operating on fusion reactors from BT or Wing, and the actual fuel source is standard deuterium (H with 2 protons, not the heavy water crap). That can be synthesized by simply electrolyzing water, which is not a rare commodity for wherever the ship goes.

RandomBugger: You make a very good case for low-level magic for the crew, and given my magic system in use in my stories, also readily plausible. I may have to start demonstrating some of that in coming chapters.

As to Halkeginia persons coming along, none. The dice made their noise here, and nobody came along. That's the breaks, sadly enough.

Sabakunoyokho: I'm not going to make any official noise on that note, yet. Stand by for further :)

Like your possibles, though both are already in my list.

NHO: You stated something in your review that is not far departed from a plan I have standing already. I will say no further, nor shall I say what part of your review it was, so…

Terrace4: Damn good guess, operator. You are also right about Saito vis-a-vis Louise, but in this case Saito has had his monkey shocked by the Archangel Team, so things will settle down for the two of them...before things go white hot in Halkegenia.

Winblades: No problem on the review for Sigma Mercs. As I said to another reviewer (or maybe you?) I need to revisit the dialog and decision processes in that chapter. That said, keep in mind that there are a lot of American hardasses that would jump in both-feet-first into a shitstorm like that, and I was just trying to convey that without going full retard TEAM AMERICA about it.

Yeah, there has been a gradual shift in the team, going from scared kids to professionals, and it's not over yet. Nor will it be truly over, given how the ship tends to pick up stray persons from time to time.

The Magic Knights are probably the one subconscious hold-out to not go full merc, but that will change in this coming section. You don't see them use their full spellcraft due mostly to their concerns over secondary casualties. This next area will make things grossly obvious why that is a bad idea. And, as these things happen, the Magic Knights will be using more and more powerful spellcraft in chapters, sections to come. They're about to get a very unexpected instructor in magic arts.

Rhasputin: Always a pleasure to know that I have people binge-reading this thing :) As I have said in prior review replies, I did not intend much for this story, but it has grown so wildly out of any initial planning I may have had.

Not often that people tell me to check out new metal, so I shall do that :)

Guest (Chapter 30 review): They got more than a few, and I enjoyed giving them each and every one of them. Oz more than earned it over the course of the show.

Flawless Cowboy 2552: What was not shown was a complete training session where Tolle and Yzak grilled him on proper radio conduct. It is a bit jarring, but the Archangel Team isn't going to keep a loose cannon around.

Dark Phoenix Jake: Opinion noted and agreed to :)

There were a lot of questions unanswered, but the changing circumstances are about to nuke things for everyone involved. Such are the measures of power and change, I daresay.

Mononoke is a good one, but the ship is wildly past that point in its journeys, so I don't think I could justify it except for a rest chapter or two.

Dragoon 725: Thank you for the long review, amigo!

Have no fear on the status of the Magic Knights. Things will be improving for them in short order, and keep in mind that the magic system I use at core has a lot of variability outside even the purview of MKR. As the chapters come, the Magic Knights will be personally improving their magic arsenals to a significant degree.

Thanks for the consideration of CNC for upgrades. As to the cross of AAA and JW for upgrades, erm, I have to tread carefully there for more than a few reasons. I think there will be more said about that in coming chapters and sections, though.

As to shield penetration systems, well, that will come to a head in a couple sections. I won't say how, but I will say things will get excessively messy in that time where shields will first come to prevalence. And, by the by, the same section will also correct a long-standing gripe of mine about a movie that should have had a sequel.

Jetler: Miriallia is a far more powerful telepath than Murrue, so she has a wider field of effect for both transmit and receive. That said, Murrue will have problems of that nature sooner or later.

MikotoMisaka: My apologies for the dice nuking your recommendations, but sometimes they make the hard calls.

Reishin Amara: FF8 is on the list of possibles, but not this time. Not this time. Still, this will be a fun romp :)

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE REVIEWS! It's absolutely nuts, sometimes, I get reviews that are longer than some of the drabbles posted to FFN. That alone is motivation par excellence to keep writing. You bring the fuel, I'll use it on this inferno!

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The Gripe Sheet:

No notable gripes this chapter. Much obliged to Necroblade, Sieben Nightwing, and Takeshi Yamato for keeping this prose in line and entertaining!

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Footnotes:

(1): Thundara (Bolt2 in the FF3 NA Release) is learned from Maduin, which Terra always keeps on her person (and as such would eventually learn it)

(2): Firaga (Fire3 in the FF3 NA Release) is a spell natively learned by Terra by the time she achieves high levels (somewhere above 50, if I remember correctly). This can be taught to her at an earlier level using Espers, though.