There are some things I'm often asked about this series of stories so I'm going to answer some of them:
Who piloted the Saberfish in the first Tale? That is James Keffer.
What happened to Wendy? Later in the war she is paralysed after her Saberfish is shot up. She recovers and is piloting mobile suits again by Operation Stardust. However she does not meet Keffer again until the Gryps War…
Who is the ace in the yellow and black Zaku? Well that's the "Storm Lord" Anthony Curran. He is co-star in my 0093 fic "Wayward Warriors" and will be having a leading part in the Zeta-Era fic "The Beast"
What happens to Berghahn and Company / What happens to Croft and Company? Well they all make it to Reykjavik base eventually, which is still in United Earth Sphere Alliance hands. They are also all present for the Romefeller Foundation Virgo attack on the base…perhaps I'll do a Tale on that someday.
Now on with the show!
Tale Twelve: Ichiro Suzuhara – YFX-200 CGUE DEEP Arms Ichiro-type – Sometime after the Break The World Incident
The Petrie class land battleship Bartholomew sailed about ten miles south of the island Santa Maria in the Azores. Flying from one of the many aerials that adorned the top of the Bartholomew was a flag that featured a white GINN head set above crossed GINN swords upon a black background. This was by no means a ZAFT land battleship; it belonged to the Diving Kestrels mercenary group.
In the Bartholomew's rather cramped mobile suit hanger the man who used the call sign "Kestrel One" was striding across the deck to his modified CGUE DEEP Arms. To many he was known by the nickname he acquired during the Junius War, Miracle Suzuhara, but to the crew of the Bartholomew he was just The Boss. Ichiro didn't mind having so many names he preferred to let his piloting do the talking. Upon reaching the foot of his rather distinctive CGUE DEEP Arms he leapt onto the cradle that would carry him up to the cockpit. Since acquiring the DEEP Arms it had been modified many times. The old directed thermal energy cannons had been stripped out in favour of a railgun over on shoulder and a small missile pod on the other. Both ideas were taken the old assault shroud concept that Ichiro had once tested during the Junuis War. The DEEP Arms also sported an extensional arrestor taken from a damaged GuAIZ and a beam rifle to match. It was affectionately known as the CGUE Ichiro-type by crew of the Bartholomew.
Ichiro clambered into the cockpit and quickly began the start up sequence. He noted that his other three pilots were doing the same with their mobile suits. None of them were as special or heavily modified as Ichiro's. However they had all had little tweaks that improved the performance or weapons load out of the machines. For example to the two GINN OCHER had their batteries upgraded and had acquired beam rifles; one an Orb Type-71 and the other an Alliance M703. The sole Alliance built machine, a Strike Dagger, had had much of its electronics overhauled and gained some custom built leg mounted missile pods.
Once the start up sequence was completed Ichiro toggled his communication unit onto the mobile suit team frequency. "Are you kids ready yet?" he asked to the team.
"Of course," replied the twins Max and Dax in their OCHERs simultaneously.
"I'm ready to add a little cash to my pile," declared Ethelred in the Strike Dagger. "The quicker we get this over with the quicker we get back to the bar."
"You should take this more seriously Ethelred," said Ichiro sternly. "The data we received on this Zamza-Zah suggests it's a real beast. Not to mention the Federation base has half a dozen Dagger-Ls as part of its defence force."
"Whatever you say Boss," replied Ethelred dismissively. "I'm not scared of some prototype junk those Atlantic Federation dogs can't even get working properly."
Ichiro was about to reply but he was interrupted by a message from the Bartholomew's bridge. The roguish looking face of William Roberts filled one of his monitors.
"Boss the Atlantic Federation base is trying to contact us again," Roberts said in a rather debonair tone. "They don't like us lurking out here at all. If you don't act soon I think they'll try to force us. We are going to get a fight whichever way things go."
"I'd rather get the first punch in," commented Ichiro. "Prepare for a five round barrage with the fore and aft cannons. A nice even spread over the base should suffice. It'll rile them up and should draw out our target. Start firing as soon as we launch."
"Right you are Boss," answered Roberts with his trademark mischievous smile on his face. "Good hunting."
The heavy metal shutter protecting the hanger slowly rose on both of the exits. Ichiro eased his CGUE out of its cradle and onto the Guul that was waiting for him. Registering that the support craft was firmly attached to his mobile suit Ichiro eased the pair out of the hanger. He was soon followed by the rest of his team each with a Guul of there own. A few seconds later the Bartholomew's two main guns started firing.
It did no take the four mobile suits long to reach the Atlantic Federation base. The damage caused by the Bartholomew's barrage was evident as soon as the base came into visual range. Ichiro could see that one of the shells had impacted close to one of the large Linear Tanks. The force of the explosion had been enough to toss the Linear Tank over causing it to crash down onto a barracks. Elsewhere the barrage had hit various aircraft hangers and a rather fierce fire was burning at what Ichiro assumed to be a fuelling depot. Unfortunatly it didn't appear that any of the defence garrison's mobile suits had been hit. A gatling cannon turret began to rise slowly out of a concealed position on the hill over looking the base. Ichiro did not allow it time to deploy fully; bring his Guul around he let rip with a round from his shoulder mounted railgun that easily tore through the turret's armour.
Soon other concealed turrets began relieving themselves and all of the Diving Kestrel mobile suits were engaging them. Dax used a well timed, and aimed, beam rifle shot to take out two at once while his twin brother was able to slice the barrels of another with his OCHER's sabre. Ethelred was less lucky and had his Guul shot out from underneath him by a Linear Tank. Unperturbed by this he leapt into action once he hit the ground and dispatched the offending Linear Tank by throwing a chunk of his downed Guul at it.
At the foot of the hill two rather large concealed entrances began to open and Ichiro was sure that their target was coming out. From the first entrance six Dagger-Ls appeared brandishing there beam carbines but a far more menacing sharp was lurking in the shadows of the other.
"Kestrel Three and Four keep the Dagger-Ls busy!" barked Ichiro over the radio, "Two you are with me after the prise."
Instantly obeying him orders Dax formed up with Ichiro while Ethelred and Max honed in on the Daggers. It was Ethelred that reached the Dagger-L's first; he charged down the first one with his beam sabre already ignited. The unsuspecting Atlantic Federation pilot had his life extinguished as the beam pierced the armour surrounding his cockpit. Max meanwhile loosed a volley from his Guul's rocked launchers but only succeed in blasting off an arm from one of the Daggers. It quickly became apparent that the Dagger-L pilots were incredibly inexperienced. They relied too heavily on their shields for protection which dramatically reduced their ability to manoeuvre. Thanks to this Ethelred was easily able to keep on step ahead of them despite being in an inferior mobile suit. The other failing of the Dagger-L pilots was to concentrate too much on the Strike Dagger and virtually ignore Max in his GINN OCHER. Max deftly blasted the head off one of the Dagger-Ls and then followed up downing another with a beam to the torso.
By now the Zamza-Zah had fully emerged from its hiding place. The intelligence pictures they had received of it did not do justice to the ugliness. Ichiro found it hard to describe what it looked like other than vaguely crab-like. Its destructive power, however, was not in doubt as it fired off two of its multi-phase energy cannons that Ichiro barely avoided. Stabilising his Guul he quickly fired off three rounds from his railgun; while all of them hit they were easily shrugged off by the Zamza-Zah's phase shift armour.
Out of the corner of his eye Ichiro could just about see that the Bartholomew was engaged with a gunnery duel with a Des Moines destroyer. The Bartholomew's well training gunners were clearly winning the battle as the Des Moines was already hit in several places. However he couldn't be distracted by that as the Zamza-Zah was firing again. Ichiro took careful aim with his beam rifle and fired. Much to his surprise the massive mobile armour was able to avoid the shot. Dax was luckier with his fire but he only succeeded in scaring the thick armour. The intelligence report had suggested that the Zamza-Zah was to be fitted with a positron reflector but it appeared that this early prototype lacked that feature. This was something Ichiro was eternally grateful for; he seriously doubted if his team would have been able to defeat it with that sort of defence.
He tried a few more rifle shots but failed to cause any serious damage. Swearing under his breath Ichiro holstered his beam rifle and drew out his laser sword instead. It was one of things he loved the most about the CGUE DEEP Arms. With Dax providing covering fire Ichiro pushed his CGUE and its Guul to the max as he charged in close with the mighty Zamza-Zah. A stray shot blasted the Guul away but Ichiro charged on. With one powerful slash he hacked away one of the Zamza-Zah's hyper-oscillation crushers. For a few seconds it felt like everything was frozen but it passed just as quickly as it came. Ichiro hammered the CGUE's controls sending the extensional arrestor, with beam blade activated, into the general area of the Zamza-Zah's cockpit. It very quickly became obvious that the pilots were dead as the mobile armour gave a lurch and began descending to Earth; to help it on its way Dax pumped a volley of missiles into it then added some ventilation holes with his beam rifle.
Back on the ground Ethelred and Max had finished off the last three Dagger-Ls easily enough. The pair of them was already scavenging for anything worth salvaging. "Kestrel One to Bartholomew," said Ichiro as his CGUE landed on the ground. "Target eliminated. Hack the base computer and see what you can get information wise. After thank uplink our victory to our contact and arrange for payment. We are gonna need some more Guuls. Oh and make sure you send the salvage boys out here, there has to be something worth taking from this dump."
End of the Tale