Tale Twenty Three: Ichiro Suzuhara – YFX-200 CGUE DEEP Arms Ichiro-type - The Battle of Orb
A snapshot from Ichrio Suzuhara's MA-M21G beam rifle tore through the right flight wing of a BABI mobile suit. The sudden loss of flight capabilities caused the aerial mobile suit to crash land. As the bloated purple mobile suit attempted to stand Ichiro's CGUE darted in and sliced off its head with his NOL-Y941 heavy laser sword.
"Astray Squad you can't stay here! You need to redeploy to the third defence line! Hurry!" Ichiro barked over a communication channel to the nearby Orb mobile suits. "You are too exposed, you'll be overwhelmed."
"W-who the hell are you?" stammered the quite obviously petrified Astray squad leader. "We haven't received any orders about retreating."
A beam fell just short of the two Astrays throwing up a shower of dirt. While swearing under his breath Ichiro repositioned his CGUE in front of the Astrays. He swung his beam rifle up towards the sky and fired off a quartet of shots. Two of the beams burned through the torso of a DINN causing it to exploded while another blew off a leg of another BABI. The Astrays added their own fire to finish off the BABI.
"I'm an old friend of Instructor Goodman at the defence academy," replied Ichiro. "You'll never be able to defend Orb with this sort of lacklustre defence plan. Now fall back and reorganise, my squad will cover you."
"Yes sir!" replied the Astray squad leader.
"Max, Dax, Ethelred! Get your arses over here right now!" ordered Ichiro on the Diving Kestrel's private communication channel.
It did not take long for the two GINN OCHERs and the Strike Dagger to reach the little outcrop of rock where the Astrays were located. However at the same time that they came out of cover an object fell from the sky directly above them. Using it's thrusters to break the fall and to throw up a cloud of dust the object revealed itself to be a silver, with dark blue highlights, GOUF Ignited. Brandishing its MMI-558 "Tempest" beam sword the GOUF sliced both the Astrays in half with one swipe.
The GOUF fired it's thrusters to perform a little bunny hop away from the exploding Astrays. At the same time it lashed out with its MA-M757 "Slayer Whip". The electrically charged heat rod lashed across the torso of Max's GINN OCHER. The electrical charge disabled the old desert combat mobile suit's electronics long enough to allow the Tempest beam sword to slice off its right arm in an upwards cut and then hack down diagonally through its torso.
Almost immediately Dax readied his MA-M3 heavy sword and charged in to avenge his fallen brother; he was followed by Ethelred's Strike Dagger with sabre in hand. The two vintage mobile suits were scarcely a threat to the top of the line GOUF. Dax's OCHER first had its heavy sword chopped in half before being sliced in half at its waist. The Strike Dagger faired no better as it was ripped to shreds by beams from the GOUF's Draupnir beam guns.
Ichiro was shocked by the wanton ferocity of the GOUF's attacks. War by its very nature was a brutal affair but as far as Ichiro was concerned there was no need deliberately make it worse. Ichiro brought up his beam rifle ready to fire however the GOUF flicked out it's Slayer Whip, entwining it around the rifle, before he could press the trigger. The electrical charge raced along the heat rod causing the rifles internal component to overload and exploded. Fortunately for Ichiro, however, he was able to throw it away in time.
"I only know one man who has ever used that colour scheme on a mobile suit. He was coward and butcher of his own men. Su-zu-ha-ra!" taunted the GOUF pilot on an open communication channel. The GOUF took some steady and confident steps towards Ichiro's CGUE. "I thought you were dead Su-zu-ha-ra, I didn't think I would ever get a chance to do this!" The GOUF took a mighty slash with its Tempest beam sword towards the CGUE's torso but luckily Ichiro was able to block with his own laser sword.
"I don't know what the hell you are talking about!" retorted Ichiro. He broke the locked swords and with great force swung his laser sword around in a rather sloppy stroke that the GOUF could easily avoid.
"Don't tell me the great Su-zu-ha-ra can't even remember the voice of one of his subordinates!" roared the GOUF pilot. "Did we mean so little to you? Did you even bother to learn our names? Did you even care?"
"S-subordinate? What the?" Ichiro stammered as he attempted to dodge another swipe by the GOUF's beam sword. Unfortunately he wasn't able to completely avoid it and a chunk of armour was nicked out of his left shoulder. "Wait...Bishop? My god is that you?"
"I'm honoured that you would remember me. Maybe our sacrifices had some impact on you after all," sneered Christopher Bishop.
"What do you mean? I'm not coward and I never butchered my own men," snapped Ichiro. "I fought long and hard during the last war. The losses suffered by my command haunt me to this day but there was nothing I could do. We had to fight impossible battles after impossible battles. You know! You were there! I did everything I could to keep everyone alive."
"So you say! But what about Jachin Due! You fled like a coward and abandoned your command," roared Bishop as he flicked out his Slayer Whip again.
Ichiro slipped his laser sword in at the correct angle to intercept the heat rod and slice it in half before it could contact his CGUE. "Don't mess with me! You can't get me with that cheap trick twice!" yelled Ichiro. "I never fled at Jachin Due. I tried to stop the Earth Alliance's nuclear attack force but was stopped by those high performance mobile suits. It's not my fault you were too much of a glory hog to obey more orders and stick close. If you men died it's just as much your fault! You were my second in command and you rushed off into battle constantly!" At the flick of a switch the small missile launcher mounted on the CGUE's right shoulder spewed forth a quartet of missiles.
At such close range the GOUF could barely defend itself in time. However Bishop was able to block with his arm mounted shield though it did result in the shield and the Draupnir beam gun beneath it being effectively destroyed. "Don't blame me for your inadequacies! You say all those deaths haunt you but you've never been to the cemetery have you? Row after row of grey head stones. Each one a dead comrade that will never come back. So many friends!" a manic tinge was creeping into Bishop's voice. Ichiro assumed that he was less than stable. "There is a whole avenue devoted to your team Su-zu-ha-ra. So many, oh so many. And you've never visited them! Have you! Do you have any idea how many of us died for you?"
"I-I don't know," Ichiro admitted. Of all of Bishop's rantings that last comment really did have an impact on Ichiro. He didn't know. During the last war his squadron had suffered heavily casualties on a regular basis. Those seventeen months of conflict had resulted in a lot of subordinates dying.
Taking advantage of Ichiro's brief pause Bishop lashed out with his beam sword. The blade sliced through Ichiro's unprepared laser sword on the blunt side. Continuing the attack Bishop hacked through the CGUE DEEP Arm's left arm and then down into its left leg. Ichiro swore violently as his mobile suit crashed into the ground.
"I've been waiting for this for so long Su-zu-ha-ra," the GOUF Ignited stood over the damaged CGUE variant with its remaining Draupnir beam gun locked on target. "Now I can finally get our revenge."
"It's not time for me to die yet!" roared Ichiro. Using the only weapon he had left he triggered the railgun mounted on the CGUE's left shoulder. The electromagnetically fired slug tore through the GOUF's overstretched arm shredding the Draupnir beam gun before it could fire. Fortunately for Ichiro the slug then went on to strike the GOUF's head. By then the slug had lost a great deal of momentum and thus was unable to destroy the head. However it did enough damage to knock out the GOUF's visual sensors. "I've got far too much still to do!"
Bishop let out a primordial scream of rage when he discovered that the GOUF's sensors were too badly damaged to be repair in the field. "Damn it Su-zu-ha-ra! You got lucky here today! But mark my words I will kill you!"
Before Ichiro could reply the GOUF took off using it's impressive flight capabilities. Ichiro slumped in his seat. He was exhausted both physically and mentally. He found it hard to believe that someone he had once considered a friend could carry such fierce a hatred. He didn't think he had been a bad commander but when he came to think about it towards the end of the war he hadn't made an effort to get to know his subordinates. Now today even more of his friends had been killed. As the battle raged around his damaged CGUE DEEP Arms a tear ran down Ichiro's cheek.
End of the Tale