Tale Nine: Martin Peterson - GAT-01 Strike Dagger – The Battle for Panama
Martin Peterson hated having to wait, especially with the battle raging above their heads but his mobile suit unit had not been given orders to sortie yet. He couldn't understand why they where still waiting while the ground forces were getting slaughtered, as usual; it would only be a matter of time before they broke. The whole purpose of the mobile suit units was to fight the ZAFT mobile suits and yet they were waiting in a dank hanger while their prey ran riot.
Martin drummed his fingers on the controls of his Strike Dagger; he exhaled loudly and tried to relax. He was nervous enough as it was but the waiting was making it worse. It was true he relished the idea of fighting the Coordinators on an equal footing but this would be the first time of him using a mobile suit in battle, which was enough to put anyone's nerves on edge. He could feel the vibrations of distant explosions; ZAFT's missile barrage was systematic and extensive and Martin feared that the hanger would be breached before he could launch.
As far as he was concerned the Coordinators were an affront to all humanity. No mere mortal had the right to play god, and that was exactly what the Coordinators and the fiends who created them were trying to do. In place as beautiful as the Earth only pure humans were worthy enough to live there.
Suddenly the speakers in the cockpit crackled into life. 'All units prepare for launch. All units repel the ZAFT assault.'
'Alright it's about time!' snarled Martin. 'Time to show these Coordinator trash a thing or two about combat.'
'Keep that attitude in check Peterson!' ordered Martin's unit commander. 'Concentrate on your mission.'
The heavily armoured doors that protected the mobile suit hanger slowly opened, as they did so sunlight flooded in illuminating the OMNI Enforcer mobile suits. One by the one the Strike Daggers began their walk out of the hanger and into the battle. When Martin stepped out into the sunlight he could see all the way down the hills to the harbour. Martin could tell that the defenders down in the harbour had been hit hard, missiles and DINN mobile suits seemed to fill the air. The shoreline was crawling with the ugly ZAFT amphibious mobile suits and further inland from them were the GINNs.
'Abominations! I'll kill every last one of you!' he yelled as he pushed the Strike Dagger to full speed and charged down the hillside. His first target was a GINN that had become separated from its comrades. The GINN certainly didn't expect to a mobile suit charging towards it and was caught off guard. As he closed in Martin punched out with his shielded arm, the GINN was hit on the head by the pronged end of the shield. There was enough force to cause the GINN to trip over the wreckage of an Earth Alliance tank. As the GINN lay prone on the floor Martin fired his beam rifle into its torso causing the whole suit to explode.
Martin started to laugh manically. 'Is that the best you've got? Man Plus eh? You're all nothing but trash not worthy of the name human! I will send you all to burn in the fires of hell!'
He forced a thruster assisted jump out of his Strike Dagger to send it over the forest and towards the shoreline. His landing was heavy and caused the earth mobile suit to shudder. He spotted another ZAFT mobile suit making its way up the beach; the library database in his mobile suits computer identified it as a ZnO mass production transforming amphibious mobile suit.
A smile formed on Martin's face. 'It looks like a bug, so I'll squash it like one!'
The ZnO spotted Martin's advance and swung its long spindly arms around to fire energy cannons mounted in the palms of its hands. Martin adroitly dodged the beams and returned fire with his beam rifle; his two shots missed and only succeeded in throwing up a shower of dust and dirt. Martin swore under his breath and advanced again. This time the ZnO fired off its missile launchers, sending a barrage of 533mm missiles towards. Much to Martin's relief only one missile managed to do any damaged and that was only to clip of the bottom of his shield. Using his mobile suit's superior ground speed Martin circled the ZAFT mobile suit, he readied his beam rifled again and fired a series of shots. The first burned through the large crest on the ZnO's head while another sheared through the right arms armour plating sending the limb falling to the ground. Martin's thumb hit the selector button that activated the computer controls to lock the beam rifle onto the rear skirt armour hardpoint. Next he drew his beam sabre the yellow blade burst into life as he charged in under the ZnO's flailing left arm where he rammed the beam sabre into the ZnO's chest. Just as quickly as he struck Martin withdrew and fell back to the relative cover of the forest; as he retreated the ZnO exploded in a shower of burning metal.
Martin was elated. Mobile suit combat was better than he could possible imagine, he didn't know why he'd been so nervous before. The only downside so far had been the poor quality of his opponents. 'Coordinator trash! Don't you have anyone worthy of fighting me? If you're all this weak I'll have no fun!'
Martin's ranting was replied to by a volley of machinegun fire from a group of passing DINNs. He placed his beam sabre back in its recharge socket and pulled out the beam rifle while using his shield to block the hail of bullets. He wasn't entirely successful as a stray round damaged his right knee joint. 'I'll clip your wings!'
He fired off a quartet of shots but missed the DINNs as they turned to strafe him again. The bullets began raining down again but Martin shifted his Strike Dagger to the left and fired again. This time his shot blasted through the wing binder of the lead DINN. The damaged DINN span out of control and hurtled towards the earth before ploughing through the forest and exploding.
Martin only half noticed the EMP blast before it enveloped his Strike Dagger. Then the cockpit turned dark as all the electronics went dead. 'What's this? What the hell is this? Move you pile of junk! Move!'
The remaining DINNs landed near the now crippled Strike Dagger and became to move in on it. Martin struggled with the manual release for his cockpit hatch, when it opened he could see the DINNs menacing approaching, he started to laugh again. 'Bastards! It took cheap trickery for you to beat me! For a blue and natural wor…' He was cut off by the two DINNs letting rip with their machine guns.
End of the Tale