Tale Five: Lieutenant Peter Baynham - AMX-009 Dreissen – Neo Zeon Civil War
The grey paintwork on Lieutenant Peter Baynham's Dreissen signified his choosing to support Gremmi Toto in the Neo Zeon Civil War. The decision hadn't come easily to Peter but he felt that Haman Karn no longer represented the great ideals of Neo Zeon. Toto might be slightly deranged but he would not have gone as easily on the Earth Federation as Haman had been. Peter had even heard rumours that Haman had allowed Mineva Zabi to be abducted; that was intolerable. The desire to return the Mineva Zabi line to the throne of Zeon in Side 3 had fired the drive of the youth in Axis for the whole of their exile.
Peter stared out into the gulf of space that separated the two Neo Zeon forces; Haman's troops were advancing under the cover of a dummy and real asteroid field. Peter steeled his resolve; he was determined to see this through to the end. Gradually his thoughts turned to his twin brother Steven. Peter hadn't seen or even talked to his brother for several months, not since they served together on Earth. Naturally Peter was worried about his brother and he prayed that he was safe but right now there was nothing he could do for him.
Peter could see hundreds of pin pricks of light heading towards Gremmi's forces. He estimated that Haman's troops probably outnumbered Gremmi's. He knew however that Gremmi had a few aces up his sleeve in the form of the Newtype Corps and Rakan Dakaran's Doven Wolf team. By now the pin pricks of light had turned into identifiable mobile suits; Peter could see many different types of mobile suits, lots of Gaza-Ds, Dreissens, Zssas and Ga-Zowms were swarming around.
"For the Glory of Zeon!" roared Peter as he pushed his Dreissen to top speed and charged towards Haman's forces.
Targeting the nearest Gaza-D Peter let rip with his arm mounted tri-barrel beam cannons. The cannons spewed mega particle beams at the Gaza-D, which tried to evade the onslaught, the beams tore through the purple mobile suit's right leg before continuing up into the torso. The reactor breached in a brilliant white flash but Peter didn't pause long enough to register it.
A swift hand movement activated the control switch that drew the Dreissen's melee weapon staff from its storage rack. Through the asteroids Peter spotted his next target, a Ga-Zowm. Peter pushed his powerful thrusters to the max as he charged through the asteroids. As he closed in he activated the beam tomahawk end of the staff and whipped it around in an arch. At the last moment the Ga-Zowm pilot detected the grey Dreissen and started to evade; the beam tomahawk sliced through the Ga-Zowm's hyper knuckle buster. Cursing loudly Peter span his weapon around, deactivating the tomahawk and activating the beam lancer end. He went in with a jab but the Ga-Zowm evaded again and Peter only managed to graze its right knee. The Ga-Zowm replied with a volley from its 80mm Vulcan guns but the Dreissen's thick armour shrugged off the assault. Peter stabbed again and this time the beam lancer pierced the armour plating surrounding the Ga-Zowm's cockpit.
Before he could savour the victory he was forced to evade as a barrage of missiles swarmed towards him. Peter sent his Dreissen into a wide arch and let rip with his arm mounted tri-barrel beam cannons. The origin of the missiles was a Zssa artillery mobile suit complete with additional boosters and launchers. The Zssa ducked behind an asteroid as Peter's beams raced towards it. Thrusting round the asteroid the Zssa again fired off another barrage, this time at near point blank range. Unable to evade or counter Peter's Dreissen was hit by a missile shredded the Dom-like mobile suit's left arm, a second quickly joined the first and blasted the damaged arm off at the shoulder.
"I won't let some upstart like you defeat me!" yelled Peter as he pushed his damaged Dreissen to its very limits. He let loose another flurry of beam fire from his still operation tri-barrel beam cannon. These beams sheared through the Zssa's weak armour and detonated the remaining missiles in its launchers; the beleaguered Haman loyalist mobile suit was torn asunder by secondary explosions.
Peter allowed himself to relax briefly to assess his situation. He quickly ran a test on all the Dreissen's major systems and they were all still functioning within tolerable limits. He could either, play it safe and return to Axis to have the arm repaired, or he could continue fighting despite the damage. A review of the battle situation around him suggested that the two Neo Zeon forces were evenly matched; the Doven Wolf team was still advancing and the mighty Quin Mantha was cutting a bloody path through Haman's lines.
Ultimately the decision was made for Peter by someone else as a great green mobile suit burst through the asteroids firing its claw mounted beam guns. Peter flung his Dreissen into an evasive pattern of movement; he instantly recognised his opponent mobile suit.
"Hamma Hamma? Those are pretty rare," he muttered through gritted teeth. 'Damn. This could be tough.'
Peter knew all about the Hamma Hamma's qusai-psycommu system; he'd been part of the mock battle testing operations, flying against qusai-psycommu mobile suit prototypes. While the system was nowhere near as good as a real newtype, and it took a truly exceptional oldtype pilot to bring out the systems fullest capabilities, but he knew enough to fear its potential power.
Peter turned a fired off a volley from his tri-beam cannon before jetting off into a more densely packed portion of the asteroid field. The Hamma Hamma continued on unabated, letting loose a torrent of mega particles from its beam guns. Unbeknownst to Peter the Hamma Hamma pilot released one of the wire-guided claws, controlled through the qusai-psycommu, it snaked its way through the asteroids to the very limit of its range.
Peter kept his speedy dash through the asteroid field going; all the while he could see the Hamma Hamma eating up the distance between them. He quickly realised that he wouldn't be able to out pace the green mobile suit therefore he had to fight back. Suddenly he flung the Dreissen around to face down the marauding Hamma Hamma, he trained his targeting retinal on the Hamma Hamma and pulled his trigger sending a stream of beams lancing through space. At the same instance the Hamma Hamma pilot triggered the wire-guided beam guns that had snaked their way around behind the Dreissen. Peter's attack struck the Hamma Hamma on its right shoulder, unfortunately for Peter the damaged was only light. The Hamma Hamma's attack was far more accurate; first the right leg was blow clean away, then the mega particle beams smashed there way up through the Dreissens back. Peter died before he even realised he'd been hit.
End of Tale