Titans transport Fyen, Shoal Zone, Side 4
18th August UC 0087

The EWAC Zack limped back to the Perseus' location and it's pilot cursed the luck of the GM sniper, the last shot had severed the EWAC Zack's left leg although luckily the data recorders survived. However the loss of the leg was making the mobile suit more difficult to control. After a short while of debris dodging the EWAC Zack reached the Perseus and her charge the modified Columbus transport Fyen.

As the EWAC Zack came in the Fyen's left hanger door opened and the guide beacon lights activated. Arrester netting had been set up to help the damaged mobile suit land safely. The pilot slowed his speed as much as he could but the mobile suit's momentum carried it forward through the first net and finally coming to a stop on the second set. The pilot sighed heavily to show his relief, quickly he shut down the mobile suit's systems and waited for the hanger crew to come and get him out.

By the time they cracked the seal on the cockpit the hanger doors had closed and the area filled with breathable atmosphere. Clambering out of the cockpit the pilot took off his pilot suits helmet. His name was Ken Grey and while fairly inexperienced at mobile suit combat piloting he'd got reasonable marks at the academy in Nijmegen. He graduated only a few months before the Delaz Fleet Crisis but missed all the action. That year produced some highly skilled pilots, most whom made their way to the Titans. Ken was never really a fan of intense mobile suit combat he preferred doing speedy reconnaissance missions. He took great pride in the fact that in virtually all training missions aggressor units had failed to find him or catch him thus it was very irksome that the GM Sniper Custom had stumbled onto him so easily. The EWAC Zack's leg could easily be repair but Ken's pride would take longer to heal.

"Ensign you better get clean up real fast," said one of the deck crew as Ken touched down on the floor. "The Lieutenant Commander wants to see you on the Perseus ASAP."

"Thanks," replied Ken. He kicked off the deck and drifted over to the hatch which lead to the Fyen's pilot locker room. Ken sighed as he entered the locker room and started to strip off his pilot suit. He really didn't want to go and meet Lieutenant Commander Graser the old Lieutenant Commander was generally grumpy and downright hostile to all mobile suit pilots needlessly so in Ken's opinion. No doubt the Lieutenant Commander would want to grill him over the GM he had seen. It was almost certainly an AEUG mobile suit meaning they'd have a ship nearby; it didn't really bother Ken that much. He'd managed to get a sneak peek at the experimental mobile suit that was being stored in the Fyen's right hanger module. It was a monster and Ken was sure it could take on anything AEUG could throw at it. The only problem he could see with it was that some boy was meant to pilot it; rumour was that the boy was a newtype. Ken didn't believe all that newtype rubbish in his opinion the 'legendary' Amuro Ray was just lucky, nothing more.

Titans cruiser Perseus, Shoal Zone, Side 4

Ensign Zarn Farris sat perfectly at a small desk in his dingy cabin confined within the bowels of the Perseus. Zarn was reading a leather bound book on the spine the faded gold leaf letters revealed it to be Henry V. Zarn found the tale to be terrible interesting, there were some very stirring speeches but the language was old and sometimes difficult to really understand, nevertheless he was enjoying it. He closed the book and then strapped it down in a container on the desk. Opening another container he took out a copy of the Titans Field manual, Zarn considered this to also be terrible interesting.

Zarn had been living at an Orphanage in southern Europe when the Titans recruitment unit had visited the town. They were looking for bitter young people who wanted to get their own back at the spacenoids. When Europe was ravaged by a Zeon unit during the One Year War it had created a lot of orphans who hated Zeon and these were just the kind of people the Titans were after. Zarn joined up despite only being fifteen years old at the time. He volunteered for the Titians sponsored cyber-newtype program in the hopes of becoming a great warrior to avenge his fellow Earthnoids.

There was a knock at the door and then a few seconds later it opened. Standing in the door frame was Doctor Mooro. Mooro was Zarn's keeper sent to keep an eye on him while the testing took place. "Come Zarn a cable transport will be ready soon to take us to the Fyen." said Doctor Mooro quietly. "One of the recon mobile suits encountered an enemy; soon you'll be able to use your power against the traitors."

"Yes Doctor," said Zarn. His voice was plain in tone, but his eyes betrayed a great sense of ferocity.

AEUG heavy cruiser Valiant, Shoal Zone, Side 4

The mood onboard the Valiant had become very tense over the last few hours. They'd been on alert since the moment Marcus' GM Sniper Custom touched down on the flight deck but so far nothing had happened. Commander Kyle Walker lamented on his situation, he was tired and grouchy and now he'd just had one of the ships best pilots shot up by some sneaky Titan. "What was it the Captain had said about this watch being nice and quiet?" he thought, his next words were aloud for the whole bridge to hear. "Do we have any idea where the buggers are?"

"Not really sir," replied Jameson. "There is so much debris floating around that it's hard to keep track on anything. It's why the Federal Forces ignored this place so much after the war. At times it's virtually impossible to navigate. Of course it does make a great hiding place if you're willing to take risks."

"Well everyone has to keep their eyes open at all times," said Walker. "I don't want the Titans to get close to us."

"I share your sentiments Commander," said Alexander Jellico as he came onto the bridge.

"Captain!" said Walker slightly surprised. "How is Lieutenant Cole?"

"He'll live, the Doctor says his injuries weren't that bad," replied the Captain as he sat down in his command seat. "I've ordered Lieutenant Keffer to send out a recon with our remaining mobile suits. I want to know where the Titans are, and attack them if necessary."

"Don't you think that might be a bit rash Sir?" said Commander Walker. "I mean weren't not exactly out here on a combat patrol."

"I have confidence in the abilities of this crew Commander," replied Jellico. "There's nothing the Titans can field which we can't take down."

James Keffer stood with his arms crossed looking over the Valiant's mobile suit hanger; Chief Scott had finally been dragged away from messing around with Raynor's Nemo in order to hastily repair Marcus' GM Sniper Custom. James wasn't happy; he was down three mobile suits and had an unknown number of enemies lurking around. Worse still it was the three most experienced pilots who were out of action, Jason couldn't fly with his Nemo still in pieces, Marcus was still in the infirmary and his own FA Gundam Mk II wasn't combat ready.

The rest of his mobile suit compliment was being prepped for launch. He was planning on sending them out on a recon-in-force mission; back during the last war he'd flown quite a few of them. He turned and left the hanger passing a pair of crewmen he made his way to the pilot's briefing room.

When he got there he noted that everyone was present, including Jason Raynor who was hanging around at the back. James was sure that Jason would be annoyed that he couldn't go on this mission.

"Okay listen up," said James clearly. "As you already know Lieutenant Cole ran into a Titan Eye-Zack while he was out testing the new beam launcher. While they do have a long range the distance to the nearest Titan base is too great, this means there must be a Titan ship nearby."

"Any idea what kind of ship?" asked Ensign Jean Chaput from the second row of seats his faint French accent played through the words.

"No we don't," said James reluctantly. "However all of the Titans Alexandria class ships were accounted for in our last report from Command, none of them were in this region. Chances are it's a Salamis Kai and we do know that one of its mobile suits is an Eye-Zack."

James pressed several buttons on the console in front of him which brought up a map of the region on the wall monitor behind him. "This is where the Eye-Zack was spotted," he pointed to the position; "It fled off in this direction;" he traced out the direction. "This is will be where you start the search."

"Our orders are a bit vague don't you think Lieutenant?" said Aaron Terris. "I mean we have no idea what we're up against and yet again you are refusing to go out."

"Yes Terris the orders are vague, but they generally are on recon missions it's also why four of you are going," snapped James. "You find the Titans, get back and then me and the captain will decide what to do, you got that?" Terris didn't answer. "Now Kullberg, you are getting a clay bazooka this mission, just in case you need something a little heavier than the GM II's beam rifles," Howard Kullberg nodded. "Right get going, wait a moment Terris."

The other four pilots filled out leaving just James, Jason and Terris in the briefing room.

"You've got more experience in combat than the others Terris," said James. "That means I putting you in command of this mission don't screw it up." Terris didn't rely he simply saluted and then quickly left.

"Am I taking a risk by giving him this command?" said James.

"Possibly," replied Jason Raynor who was still sitting at the back of the room. 'It might do some good for all of them to not have us sitting on their shoulders."

Ensign Aaron Terris smiled to himself. He was very pleased. Finally he had a chance to prove just how good a pilot and commander he was. In his opinion Lieutenant Keffer was overly cautious in everything he did, how could AEUG possibly win the war if they kept pussy-footing-it around all the time. They need firm and decisive action striking hard at the Titans and he was the man to get the Valiant back on track.

Sitting in the cockpit of his Nemo he pulled down the visor of his pilot suit helmet then he began to start up sequence for the mobile suit. When all the check list items were green he set the suit in motion. Flipping a switch he set the mobile suit to pick up a beam rifle and shield from the storage rack. He was soon followed by the three other men in his team. In twos they mounted the elevator that went up to the launch deck. First to get locked onto the catapult was Aaron and waited his turn Jean Chaput in his GM II.

"Ensign Aaron Terris, Nemo, LAUNCHING!" he bellowed as the catapult accelerated him away from the deck of the Valiant. Chaput's GM II was launched when the catapult reset itself; he didn't say anything as his mobile suit was launched.

The next pair onto the catapult were Howard Kullberg and Frank Baylies, both piloting GM IIs. They both declared their names as they launched. Once clear they formed up with Terris and Chaput.

They set off into the debris field and the Valiant faded out of view. They flew in a rough V formation with Terris at the head; he was determined to be the first to engage the enemy, he was also being less then cautious in trying to keep his presence hidden.

"Okay team," he said over an open channel to the GM IIs. "Our mission is to find the Titans ship and engage it. We'll move in hard and fast, catching them with their pants down."

"Sir didn't Lieutenant Keffer tell us just to find the ship and then return?" asked Frank Baylies.

"Baylies who is in command here?" asked Terris harshly.

"You are Sir," replied Baylies meekly.

"Right that's what I thought," sneered Terris. "While I'm in command you'll do what I say. Keffer only gave us vague orders and I'm interpreting them however I like."

"Yes Sir," replied Baylies, less then convinced by Terris' orders.

They continued on in silence everyone but Terris was taking great care in trying not making themselves too visible. Baylies believe that Terris was doing it on purpose, trying to make the enemy see them. Hardly anyone on the Valiant actually liked Terris, most put up with him, but there was just something about his extreme arrogance that piqued a lot of people.

Titans cruiser Perseus, Shoal Zone, Side 4

The bridge of the Perseus was relatively quite. A few hours had passed since the return of the EWAC Zack and Lieutenant Commander Graser has spent most of that time looking over the recordings made and debriefing the pilot. When the Lieutenant Commander skulked back onto the bridge; all the bridge crew immediately tensed up. It was clear that he was not in a good mood, yet again.

"L-Lieutenant Commander I may have something here," said the radar operator in an ever so slightly shaky voice.

"What?" barked Graser impatiently. "This better be good."

"Well sir it's a bit unclear but it appears that four objects are headed in this direction," said the radar operator. "Profiles suggest GM IIs."

"AEUG," said Graser as a grim smile appeared on his face. "Contact the Fyen have them ready the Psyco Gundam Test Unit, it's going to have some live fire testing. Have our mobile suit team standby to support and get that EWAC Zack out there as well, I want to see this clearly."

Lieutenant Barry Hoges pushed violently off the wall to propel himself at great speed across the Perseus' hanger. As he got closer to it he held out an arm and grabbed hold of one of the spikes on the shoulder armour. He swung around on it and floated down to the open cockpit. Painted on the cockpit door armour plate was his unit's insignia, a crosshairs on top of a target, they were the 'Sharpshooters' 185th MS Team. Once inside the cockpit Hoges began the start up sequences. The other two Sharpshooter pilots, Josh Renque and Yuri Vedrievich, were also starting up their mobile suits.

"Josh, Yuri looks like a bunch of traitors is headed our way," said Hoges. "You both ready to show what we think of traitors?"

"Gotcha boss," replied Josh Renque. "We'll beat the crap out of them."

"We have to play second fiddle first," said Hoges. "That damned freak on the Fyen has got first dibs."

"What the hell?" grunted Yuri. "Why is Graser letting that brat go in?"

"I don't know," replied Hoges, "but when the freak messes up we'll be there to pick up the pieces."

Zarn Farris was very happy finally he'd get a chance to kill some of the spacenoid menace. Before him stood the Psyco Gundam prototype mass production model, its main colour was military grey; much better than the originally planned ocean grey, with red trim. A quartet of different beam weapons were mounted in to the torso, two powerful beam guns were mounted on the forearms and the arsenal was topped off by the hyper beam sabres/beam cannons mounted on the knees. It was a very powerful beast, and it was all his to control.

He kicked off the Fyen's deck and drifted up to the cockpit opening, just beneath the Psyco Gundam's head. The cockpit sprang to life after he touched down in the seat, his black normal suit blending in with the seat. He could feel the Psyco Gundam's power as the Fyen's hanger bay doors opened; the ship didn't have a catapult strong enough to launch the Psyco Gundam so Zarn pushed the thrusters to maximum to propel the might mobile suit forward.

At the same time Ken Grey launched in the Fyen's spare EWAC Zack, for some bizarre reason of logistics the ship had been assigned two of them but only one pilot. Ken made sure to get plenty of good video footage of the Psyco Gundam speeding off. They were soon followed by the three Hizacks off the Perseus. The Psyco Gundam took the head of the formation, the three Hizacks followed leaving a bit of ground between them and then finally Ken brought up the rear his Gun-Camera firmly trained on the advancing units.

Frank Baylies only realised that the enemy was upon them when a great wave of mega particles vaporised a great swath of debris a few scant meters from his GM II. It was an immensely shocking sight to see huge chunks of colony debris being destroyed so easily and Frank had to force back the feeling of being sick. Seconds after the shot he could hear Terris yelling "Scatter!" over the radio. Instinctively he threw the control stick to the right, amazingly just as he did this another wave of mega particles cut through the area of space he'd just been in.

Regaining his composure Frank sent his GM on a weaving course through the debris field trying to find out where the hell the blasts we coming from. Judging from the power of them it just had to be a cruiser, but they'd be able to see something that big.

Then he saw it, a grey mass charging through the debris field it didn't even try to avoid some of the smaller pieces, it just went straight through them. It was a giant mobile suit. "What a beast!" he exclaimed as the sent the GM downwards to try and evade. Then the beast fired again, not a coherent single beam but lots of smaller beams. Frank's GM was hit badly and he could slowly see everything going black.

Aaron Terris was cursing a lot. He couldn't believe the Titans had managed to get the first blow in. Sure he'd wanted to draw them out by giving away his position, but not like this. His escape course had taken him upwards and gave him an opportunity to spot the Titans beast before it trashed Baylies' mobile suit. He could also see a trio of lights approaching from the direction of where the beast had come from. Enraged due to the fact his first command was going so badly he charged off towards the three lights as fast as his Nemo could carry him.

As he hurtled towards them noticed that they were Hizacks, he took aim with his beam rifle and fired four shots in quick succession. The first succeeded in striking one of the Hizack's backpacks causing it explode and send the Hizack spinning off in a spiral. The rest of the Hizack immediately dodged and all of Aaron's other shots missed. Aaron carried on through the formation and chased after the damaged Hizack. Not wanting to waste anymore beam rifle shots he switched over to a beam sabre. Drawing the weapon he activated it only briefly to cut a slice through the front torso, satisfied that the job was done he turned the Nemo around and headed off back towards where the beast was harassing the rest of his team.

Howard Kullberg's GM II was dancing its way through the debris field, desperately trying to shake off the beastly giant mobile suit that was chasing him. He was convinced that this had to be some sort of nightmare the fact he was being chased by a giant mobile suit seemed proof enough. He swung the GM around and fire two shots from his clay bazooka. The beast destroyed the first round by firing a forearm mounted beam gun; the second however got through and exploded against the chest armour. It soon became clear that only superficial damaged had been caused.

The Psyco Gundam fired its forearm beam guns again but Howard managed to avoid them. In a daring move Howard turned and started to charge at the Psyco Gundam, holding his finger down on the trigger as he went he fired off all the remaining rounds in the bazooka and then changed over to firing the head Vulcan guns. Nothing phased the beast as it surged forward bring its knee up in the process, stopping just short of the torso for a moment Howard wonder what was going to happen. Suddenly a beam emerged from the end of the rod sticking out of the knee socket. Howard only saw a bright light before his cockpit was pierced by the hyper beam sabre.

Deactivating the beam sabre Zarn pushed the wrecked GM away. He was enjoying this a great deal, the battle had hardly started and already he had three kills.

"You bastard!" yelled Aaron as his Nemo charged in from the rear with his beam sabre out. The Psyco Gundam deftly avoided the blade. Sensing a chance for more fun Zarn released one of his hyper beam sabres and readied it.

AEUG heavy cruiser Valiant, Shoal Zone, Side 4

The atmosphere on the Valiant's bridge was very tense. Captain Jellico and Commander Walker were in their command chairs, Lieutenant Junior Grade Raynor was leaning against a back wall and Lieutenant Keffer was pacing up and down.

"Anything yet?" he asked for what must have been the twenty time.

"No sir," came the same reply from Mimi Couris the communications operator. They'd lost both radio and radar contact with the recon team, not usually something to worry about considering the type of mission but James had a very bad feeling brewing in his stomach. The bright flashes off in the distance not so long ago hadn't helped things at all.

"I don't like this," he declared. "Not at all. I'm going out there. I'm gonna get them back."

"In what exactly Lieutenant?" asked Walker. "You don't have a mobile suit."

"I'll take the FA Gundam Mk II," he said with conviction. "Sure it hasn't been combat tested, but this is as good an opportunity as any other."

"It hasn't even been tested in non-combat situations," barked Walker. "How can you contemplate taking it out?"

"Settle down Commander," said Alexander sagely. "James you be careful okay, I don't want to have attend your funeral again."

James nodded and then dashed off the bridge and down to the hanger. He grabbed a helmet off the rack and floated over to the Full Armour Gundam Mk II.

"Hey Lieutenant what are you doing?" asked Chief Scott from the deck below.

"I need to get out there and help the patrol, they've run into trouble," he called down. "Is the beam cannon ready?"

"Well yes but the thing hasn't been tested!" called the Chief with great alarm. "Does the Captain know about this?"

"Of course," said James getting into the cockpit. He ignored the start up sequence and went for a cold start. The cockpit burst into life and he quickly set the mobile suit on its way.

Just before the FA Gundam Mk II was catapulted out into space James yelled "James Keffer, Full Armour Gundam Mk II, launching!"

The Psyco Gundam swung a wide sweeping stroke with the hyper beam sabre that Aaron barely managed to parry. He jetted backwards to avoid another swipe, the enemies beam sabre was far more powerful than his own and was quite easily over powering it. He tried to dart in with a lung but the bigger mobile suit managed to avoid it easily.

Aaron cursed again, how could such a big mobile suit be so manoeuvrable? It was impossible. He tried another thrust but yet again the enemy dodged. As he kept it busy Aaron noticed that the only other GM II was sneaking up behind the Beast.

Jean Chaput was pretty pissed off with his enemy; it'd killed all of his friends with ease. Sure he was French and his people had spent a lot of time surrendering to enemies, but he was not going to do that. He was going to make this enemy pay for what it had done, so what if it was at least ten meters taller than his own mobile suit and bristling with enough firepower to sink a small battle fleet.

While Jean was off on his mental tirade he failed to notice that the Beastly mobile suit had positioned itself to aim it's free arm's beam gun at him. Zarn only needed to fire one shot but he fired three just for the hell of it. He enjoyed watching mobile suits explode.

Aaron looked on in horror, he'd just realised this enemy was toying with him. He could have been killed at any moment, the pilot of that beast must be enjoying watching him try all his best moves and come up nought.

Desperate not to partake in the same fate he started to repeatedly fire his beam rifle. Although several of the shots hit they were so weak that they failed to do any real damaged. Seemingly content Zarn took one swipe and sliced the Nemo in half. Despite the fact the two body parts were falling away from each other the electrical shock caused the beam rifle to keep firing, even through the cockpit had been destroyed.

James arrived on the battle field just in time to see Aaron being sliced up. He was shocked, not by the carnage but by what was causing it. It had more than a passing resemblance to the giant mobile suit that attacked Hong Kong, he'd read the report that had gone out to ship captains warning them to keep a look out for this type of mobile suit.

The Full Armour Gundam Mk II was a bulky piece of machinery, but somehow managed to retain some degree of manoeuvrability. He dashed forward towards the giant mobile suit and fired the 2-barreld beam cannon mounted on the right arm twice. Both blasts hit home and finally an attack actually did some serious damage. There was a smaller explosion from the backpack and arcs of electricity shot out. He fired again but the Psyco Gundam moved sluggishly and the shot hit the right elbow, disabling the arm.

The Psyco Gundam swung around and fired off a blast from its main beam cannon, luckily James managed to avoid it. Suddenly off in the distance a series of flares launched from the Titians ship lit up space, they were retreat flares. Zarn swore loudly but duly turned the Psyco Gundam around and headed back to the ships.

James breathed a sigh of relief that the beast was gone. He surveyed the battlefield; all he could see was wreckage from what had been his mobile suit team. Then suddenly he heard a very weak tapping sound over the radio. He quickly triangulated where it was coming from and headed off in that direction.

What he found was a very badly damaged GM II, the scared insignia showed it to be Frank Baylies'. It was missing a head, the right arm, the left hand and both its legs. James grabbed hold of the GM II and started to haul it back to the Valiant things were bad, very bad.