Gundam 00: Phoenix
Battle in the Skies
Thar Desert, February 12, Phoenix Carrier
At the Phoenix Pakistan base troops, pilots, and all other members of the organization were busily going about packing all the equipment and supplies onboard the carrier. With the base's location now compromised it would only be a matter of time before the UN forces came to wipe them out.
Trucks and tanks were busily moving back and forth between the Phoenix and the base, towing or hauling equipment. Everyone had to pitch in as they needed to get out of the area as soon as possible. The longer they stayed the more likely they were to be attacked, and they did not have enough vehicles and aircraft to put up a fight let alone personnel.
Inside the Phoenix's hanger there was the noise of vehicles constantly coming and going aboard, unloaded equipment being taken to the carrier's cargo bay by the mechanical cranes if it was in a container, items that weren't in containers and unable to be taken to the cargo hold were packed and taken to a designated point also by cranes.
It had been a day since the four Gundam pilots had returned from their mission and they were now all doing something to get the ship fully loaded which had started at night and had continued on into the next day, noon time. So far they had only two hour breaks since Wesker wanted the ship loaded as soon as possible, which wasn't easy since the base contained a great deal of equipment and material. They were taking as much onboard as possible, they could waste nothing.
Daveral and Flint were inside the hanger helping pack equipment while the Nena and Helana were using their Gundams to help bring in the heavier equipment.
Daveral lifted a large computer hard drive stowed in a box into a large square metal container before closing the container door and locking it. Inside the container were multiple electronic systems that were from the bases command centre. He took his time as he was worried that he may accidently break something and he didn't want to get anyone mad at him for the loss of data.
"How much more stuff do we have to pack?" Flint who was sitting on a metal box with a water bottle in hand asked.
Behind him was a stack of equipment from fragile electronics to boxes of ammunition and weapons, this was the tenth pile of equipment they've gotten, although it was the smallest they've recieved and after another load or two and they would be finished.
"After we finished the last pile they dropped another one where the previous one had been."
Daveral leaned against the box before he answered. "Don't know, but I hope this ends, we've been at this for a day," Daveral said as he looked to see a Viper tank come up the hanger bay ramp with a large cart behind it with even more equipment. Luckily for them it was all in containers. "I hate how the other two have it get to use their Gundams to bring stuff onboard while we're stuck doing this by hand. Talk about letting women do the easy work," he then commented as he turned back to Flint.
"Maybe they ran out of boxes," Flint replied as he took a drink from his water bottle.
"Maybe, but I just don't get why we're stuck doing this. Its far above what we're supposed to do," Daveral then said as another container was brought to their station via a crane which then proceeded to take the electronics container to wherever it was going.
He smacked the side of the box with the palm of his hand letting out a sigh of hate before proceeding to check what had to be put in it.
Daveral read the side of the container which was labled 'Armoury'. He then proceeded to begin opening by flicking the switch which opening the lid.
"I guess we're loading weapons and ammunition in this one." Daveral stated as he gestured for Flint to pass him a box, as he had opened the container.
"Why do we need so many guns if we barely have any infantry onboard or at the base," Flint then said as he slapped the inside of the box with a thud.
"Well, it keeps what infantry we do have happy, and if we ever do have some kind of boarding or zombie outbreak we'll have more then enough ammunition and guns to stop it."
Flint gave a small laugh at the zombie outbreak as he picked up a small wooden crate and placed it inside.
After filling the box up Daveral closed it and locked it, a crane coming shortly after to pick it up.
Daveral then sat down on a small metal box as he waited for a new container to be dropped off.
As he sat down he watched the Drei enter with it carrying an extremely large container before placing it in a designated zone as two of the cranes came down to pick it up.
The Drei then proceeded to enter its docking zone as soon as the cranes had moved the container and people got out of the way. The Variant soon arrived back as well also carrying a container following the Drei's exact pattern waiting for the crane to finish moving the container before proceeding to dock.
"I guess that's all the heavy equipment," Daveral noted as he watched a truck being unloaded before going into vehicle section of the hanger bay.
There was a metallic thud on the ground as Daveral turned to see a another small container which was supposed to be packed with electronics inside. He let out another sigh as he grabbed a the closest box beside him, and checked what was inside before he got up and began to place it in after Flint had opened it.
After a few moments Daveral closed the lid and locked it. Before he looked to see there was nothing left in the pile. He gave a sigh of relief.
"I think that's everything...for now," Daveral said as he sat down on the floor before dropping down onto his back. "I do not want to go through that ever again."
"At least you'll have experience for whenever you need to move out of your house or the ship," Flint commented.
Just then one of the dock officers then came up to them looking at a clipboard before at the container and checking it off on his board.
"That's everything," the officer told them, checking in a datapad. "You can go off and do what you like, all your assigned task are done."
"Wahoooo! It's about time!" Flint cheered with a jump while Daveral got off his back sitting back up with a relieved look as the dock officer left to another station.
Daveral got up grabbing his vest which was on the ground which was close by and straightened it as well as patting any tiny bit of dust or debris that had managed to cling on.
"So you're all finally finished?" a female voice came.
The two turned to see Nena approach them who then greeted them with her V-sign and a smile.
"You've got that right," Flint said as he rubbed his right shoulder which was sore.
"You look like you didn't have to go through anything back-breaking." Daveral then said to Nena, a bit annoyed before he kicked the container that was still there waiting to be picked up. "I hate these things now," he stated before he continued. "I see Helana hasn't shot you in the back yet or vice-versa."
"I was thinking about it." Nena replied. "She is an inconsiderate bitch to me. I swear she made me get all the important stuff."
Daveral gave a small chuckle. "Like how you were to other people, right? Can we truly believe that you're much different than before, that you won't treat us like something that can be thrown away?" he said jokingly, not really meaning it, though it was nice to remind her that things were different here.
Nena didn't think it was as funny as she gave him a deathly glare. "Of course I won't." Her gaze then shifted back to normal, though her words were slower than usual. "What makes you think I'll do that?"
Before Daveral could respond in response there was the sound of rubber screeching against metal.
Everyone turned to see a four wheeled, hummer-like vehicle race out of the hanger bay its wheels screeching across the bay floor down the ramp and into the desert. It was probably a patrol just going to do one final check around the ship to report that they were clear for take-off.
"Either we've got a drunk driver, or a speed freak on that thing," Flint stated as he looked at the open bay door.
Daveral then turned back to Nena. "Just be careful. Some people here may tarnish their names, but lets not do anything stupid to tarnish ours."
He then saw something rolling towards them from behind the container; it was a dark red Haro. It rolled until it stopped right at Nena's feet.
"I'm you're new Haro, I'm you're new Haro!" it said to her happily, waving its roundish wings up and down before it began rolling around Nena. "You must be Nena, you must be Nena!" it then said.
Daveral glared at the thing before he stopped looking at it. He didn't like Haros partially due to their repetition of phrases and partially because they just annoyed him, although he knew most of the crew liked them since they were quite handy in doing various task. It continued to speak and he rubbed his head. He also hated their voice, it reminded him of childish cartoons which he never was fond of. He preferred his books.
"I never expected to be given a new one, but a tleast it seems nice unlike my old one," Nena said as she picked up the Haro and looked at it in the eyes before she lowered it down, still holding on to it. "Well I guess I'll have some company where ever I go."
"Well, I'm heading back up to fall for something to eat, anyone want to join me?" Daveral then asked the two as he began to walk towards the observation deck.
"Ah, why not I've got nothing else to do and all that work does make you hungry. Probably going to be a line in there," Flint answered as he quickly caught up with Daveral. "You coming?" he asked Nena.
She nodded her head as the two began to catch up with Daveral.
Thar Desert, February 12
Patrolling the desert was a squadron of five Ace fighters all part of the Phoenix's veteran squadron known as the 'Death Wing'. The name acquired due to the squadron's absurd number of destroyed enemy mobile suits they were credited for. They were the ones who would do a raid and stay to inflict as much damage on enemy reinforcements as possible before returning to friendly territory.
The squadron leader stared through his cockpit looking across the vast sea of sand, they had been on patrol for about an hour and so far they had come up with no contact.
"Alright," he began. "One last patrol run after that its RTB. The ship should be finishing loading up."
"Roger that, Willard," came one of his squadron through the comm link.
The squadron then began to loop.
The squadron leader looked through his HUD. So far they had not found a thing out here, the UN forces must be up to something. To quiet despite all the trouble they had stirred up.
The squadron flew across the desert the fighters leaving their streaks in the air as they raced around at high speeds, which was able to match that of a GN-X mobile suit if not faster, although it didn't mean anything since one strike to the fighter was all it would take to send it into a fireball. The GN-X was much more armoured with anti-beam coating to provide some protection versus Gundams and had better maneuverability. The Ace's auto cannons although powerful needed to do a lot of work if they wanted to do anything.
Suddenly there was a soft, rapid beeping noise came from the cockpit before it quickly subsided. The leader looked to see three blips coming into their sensor radius before dozens more appeared on screen behind the previous ones all of them were too fast to be any ground mobile suit or armour.
The Lieutenant then activated his comm. getting in touch with the Phoenix.
"Looks like they're coming for us, I've got several dozen bogeys entering the airspace, permission to RTB," the leader told through the carriers comm.
"Permission granted," a voice confirmed.
A warning light then began to blare inside the cockpit as Willard watched several crimson red beam shots pass-by, forcing evasive maneuvers from the squadron.
"Damn it, how could those GN-Xs already close in on us?" Willard muttered as he saw three machines coming towards them.
"We've got GN-Xs, they've just came out of nowhere!" one of his squad members shouted.
"I know that! Don't state the obvious!" Willard snapped. "Now break off to engage," he quickly ordered as he checked to see three GN-Xs now visually in sight. "Let's show these guys that how a superior pilot fights!" he finished as raced towards the one of the machines and then began to line himself up with one of the GN-Xs dodging the beams while he continued to get closer into the estimated range where the auto cannons would do damage.
He pressed down on the trigger the auto cannons flaring into life as he saw several large tracers impact into the machine, managing to punch several large holes into the machines left arm. Willard then quickly boosted pass the machine using the fighter's excess energy so it couldn't get a clear shot at him.
He grinned seeing the damage he caused, even with their older fighters, they could still face these things head on.
The mobile suit then began to shoot at him once again, this time using its GN-Vulcan in addition to its rifle. Its comrades were too busy fighting other members of the Death Wing to give any support at the moment.
The beams were narrowly dodged as Willard began to swing around for another pass on the damaged GN-X constantly moving his fighter side to side to make him a harder target to hit.
He fired again, but this time he saw his shots bounce off the chest and its small shield while at the same time it continued to fire at him ignoring the rounds, he quickly then launched a missile at the machine only to have it shot down.
He muttered a curse as he saw that the left arm was still in working order as well as his missile failing to strike the target.
Willard felt his fighter shake as a screen displayed on his HUD showing that several beams had skimmed past his right wing leaving several long black streaks on the wing. He was fortunate for if the beam had actually struck his wing, it would've detonated his missiles in their launchers.
"You're going to pay for that," Willard snarled in anger as he pulled up right over top of the machine going straight up towards the sky as the machine began to shoot at him.
He immediately then began to turn and dive down on the machine firing again unaffected by the Gs due to the fighters G-force dampeners.
The GN-X managed to dodge a burst, before another burst struck down into the mobile suit punching holes into it from above, however the machine was still active as it fired back at him forcing him to evade once more.
A member of his squadron then went in for the kill as the mobile suit tried to quickly turn to face it only to be struck right in the chest right when it was in position to fire this time with rounds penetrating through and lodging themselves in the GN-Tau Drive before a missile rammed straight into it detonating on contact from another fighter that attacked from behind.
The mobile suit began to slowly fall through the sky the GN-Drive having been destroyed, yet it did not detonate. They still had not done enough damage to properly kill it
Seeing this, the two remaining mobile suits retrieved their falling comrade and began to retreat.
"Don't pursue," Willard instructed. "Return into formation and proceed back to base. We'll get them later."
"Even with their better machines they're still no match for us!" one of his squad mates cheered as he watched the machines flee back to friendly line.
"Those machines aren't so scary, with our superior speed we rarely have to worry about getting hit," another then said.
"Ya, but we had them outnumbered which forced them to retreat. We still didn't kill one either. They're much tougher than they look," Willard reminded the pilots. "The upcoming battle is probably going to be hell for us, although we do have four Gundams on our side. Should even the odds against the swarm of mobile suits, but don't let that cause any of you to slack off. I don't want to have to come and save your asses," he then added as he began to adjust course back to the carrier.
"Roger that," the entire squadron acknowledged as they began to regroup around Willard's slightly damaged fighter.
The fighters pushed their engines to the max as they raced off towards the Phoenix, they were going to need to get rearmed quickly if they were to be ready for the upcoming assault.
Thar Desert, February 12, Phoenix Carrier
Wesker scanned the information coming into his terminal. The loading and storing was ninety-eight percent complete. They could not delay as the 'Death Wing' squadron had reported a large amount of enemy mobile suits approaching, which were now coming into long-range sensors, its range improved by relays dropped off by fighters and hidden in the desert sand.
"Sir, all units have been recalled and are onboard the ship and all personnel are present and accounted for," Kail told him with the data appearing on screen. "The base is set to self-destruct when given the signal."
"Good," Wesker replied as he saw through the ships cameras that the final large heavy containers were being moved and lowered into the cargo hold, "Now what's the strength on the enemy forces?"
Kail took a few moments as he brought it up on screen and making sure it was specific and correct. "We've got about two squadrons of AEU Enacts, two squadron of Hellions, three squadrons of Union Flags, four squadrons of Tierens all high-mobility variants, and about a single squadron of GN-Xs, it seems the HRL has been busy making more of their recently acquired mobile suits."
"Time until they are within striking distance?" Wesker then added.
"About fifteen minutes, maybe less." Kail told him. "Fighter squadrons are being moved up onto the ships catapult decks and the Gundams are being prepped for combat. Their pilots should be coming down into the hanger shortly."
One of the ship's officers then appeared on screen from the ships defense mainframe. "Sir, we're having some problems with the defense AI for our turrets, we only have access to the starboard and port side batteries at the moment," he reported.
"It will do, but I expect the systems to be fully operational before or during the battle," Wesker told the man, his voice signalling they needed them now.
"Yes , sir, will do," a reply came before the communications screen flickered off.
"Get us off the ground," Wesker then demanded. "We need to be on our way now to the Pacific Ocean, where we'll meet up with the Naval forces."
The Rising Phoenix's small navy, that had come initially from defectors, was being deployed from an undisclosed location. They were going to meet up with them before the proceeding to South America and attack countries not with any of the super powers forcing them to join the UN Forces while removing anyone deemed corrupt from power.
Various parts of the bridge crew began working on making sure all hatches were sealed and retracting the ships enormous landing gear with reports coming in from various parts of the ship to keep them informed.
"All hands, prepare for take off," Cray then announced through the ship's intercoms as he began getting the ship to lift off.
The ship slowly begin to get off the ground with a rumble and begin to ascend into the sky using its multiple, powerful V.T.O.L system underneath the ship that helped it get off the ground. The ship engines then came online once it was high enough off the ground as they began to move forward at speeds that are impressive for such a massive ship.
"Take off went without a hitch," a report came. "Engines are working at one-hundred percent."
"Keep me posted." Wesker then turned to Kail. "Set base for self-destruct for two minutes, by then we should be out of the area."
"Will do," Kail complied as he began punching in the codes to activate the bases self-destruct sequence.
A timer then appeared on Wesker's terminal which slowly began the countdown to zero.
"It's too bad this ship is so poorly equipped for combat, you'd think it would be armed with additional weaponry," a comment came from one of the bridge hands. "For such a large ship, we can barely fight off raiders."
"It's a carrier, what do you expect, most of this ships space is taken up by the hanger bay, the cargo hold, and the multiple launch bay for our fighters," Kail then responded, matter-of-factly. "Although you are right, we're really poorly equipped for combat. We're only using flak because it's a last resort. Wouldn't mind upgrading, God knows we need it."
"You think they know our location?" Cray then asked Kail.
"They probably got a long range sensor set up that's tracking us and predicting our movements. They could also have several satillietes peering down on us like insects, and even if they didn't, there is no way we're going to be able to get out of the combat zone without a fight with this ship's speed," Kail answered as he then looked to see two blips quickly approach the ship; they were GN-Xs that the Death Wings had previously engaged.
The two mobile suits just flew around the ship firing their rifles at it, only to have shots disperse off the plating, but they were too fast for the flak cannons to track. So they would just have to take the shots.
"Or they could actually scout us out, relaying data," Kail noted with a scowl. Now they knew exactly where they were.
There was then a loud explosion notifying that the base had gone off like it had been intended to. The two mobile suits then quickly stopped and turned to see the base in flames and a squadron of fighters going after them.
Both then began to quickly shoot at the fighters, a beam striking one of the fighter's engine sending it spinning towards the ground before they then began to retreat from a hail of auto cannons and missiles, the fighters breaking off and regrouping around the ship after they had driven them away far enough. Yet, the GN-X unleashed a volley of particle beams on their retreat causing an explosion
"Raptor squadron is reporting one of the fighters were shot down, no ejection from the pilot," a report came.
"Let us hope we can survive this." Kail then turned to Wesker as the main screen changed showing approaching mobile suits that were continuing to get closer and closer.
Thar Desert, February 12, Phoenix Carrier
The four Gundam pilots waited in their machines, standing-by for their time to launch out of the hanger.
Nena watched as a small squadron of fighters were moved onto a lift that descended downwards to one of the ships catapults. The floor closed above once in position.
They had been forced to rush down here when they were eating. She hadn't eaten much, just enough to keep her from being hungry. Probably a good thing unless you wanted to get sick during combat.
A timer on her screens kept counting, displaying the estimated time before the enemy got in range of the ship.
She sighed as the time slowly passed so far it was down to eight minutes, they would be launching when there were three minutes left.
"If only time could past slightly faster," she said to herself.
"Why is that, why is that?" her Haro asked having heard her.
"It's because I want to get this over with," she replied to it as she leaned against her arm. "The less time I spend inside a Gundam the better off I'll be. I just want to survive," she then muttered.
"Why is that, why is that?" the Haro then repeated.
Nena gave another sigh. "Just be quiet for now."
"Roger, roger," it confirmed, waving its wings.
Daveral the appeared on her screen. "Looks like you'll finally get a chance to use those particle disruption canisters that you're equipped with. We're going to be facing a squadron of GN-Xs," he told her before he continued. "Just stick to the plan and stay together, we should be alright if we do."
"Roger," she said as she gritted her teeth as the communications screen shut off.
Already they would be fighting GN-Xs, she was still unsure if she could even take a single one on, she was just going to have to hope for the best and do what she was told. She then promised herself that this would be the day she took a GN-X down.
After a few minutes they received orders to begin to launch just when the timer reached three minutes. They were positioned into the main launch bay connecting onto a linear catapult, a door shutting behind the four machines as the large door infront of them began to open.
The four machines were launched one by one with the Lancaster being first, and the Zesus being last.
Nena scanned around to see at least four squadrons of fighters being launched out of the ship's smaller launch bays. The engines of the strike craft roared into life just when they just exited the launch bay. Fighters circled around, waiting for the rest of their team to deploy before assuming formations.
Nena then turned back to her mobile suits sensor display. The data that the Phoenix was feeding to her and everyone else showed the mobile suits were quickly approaching them from the port and bow of the vessel.
"Everyone," a voice began from the comm. "Fighters are to engage the older generation mobile suits, while the Gundams will engage the GN-Xs. Switch targets as necessary, make sure you do not stray away from the ship, this is a defensive battle. Keep the top and bottom of the ship clear of enemy forces as we do not have our defensive weaponry fully online yet. May we all get out of this alive," the communications broadcast instructed.
When she thought that she would still have to wait for the enemy, a beam came out of one of the few clouds in the sky distance and went through a fighter causing it to detonate. All that remained was a husk of the fighters than spiralled out of the sky alight in flames.
"Here they come!" someone alerted as dozens of mobile suits raced towards them from the direction the shot had come from.
"Form up, the Variant and Lancaster upfront, Zesus and Drei behind!" Daveral instructed with a yell. Already dozens of projectiles began filling the sky, from thelinear shots autocannon rounds, to missiles and then beams.
Nena stuck close to the others exchanging fire with multiple mobile suits that did their best to keep distance from the Gundams, they knew their limits. The enemy GN-X squadron, however, quickly came into range which were skillfully dodging what was heading their way, putting their speed and mobility to good use.
The GN-Xs continued to advance towards them firing their rifles and using their Vulcans to intercept any missile that came towards them. The Enacts, Hellions, Tierens and Flags were all over the ship.
Flags and Enacts engaged in dog fights with the fighters while the Tierens and Hellions went for the ship forcing several Ace fighters to break off from the fight with the Flags and Enacts to defend the ship. Yet, it meant the risk of being chased down by their pursuers.
"Nena!" Daveral then shouted. "Get one of those disruption canisters out there so Flint can close in!"
"Roger!" she acknowledged as she launched one of the canister which proceeded to emit its gas causing any beams going through to disperse in the small cloud.
She watched the Zesus then flew over the Lancaster with its blade in hand and charge in, popping smoke to cover itself as the GN-Xs began to move into position to get a clear shot at the Gundams.
A Flag then strafed the three Gundams soaring past them from behind and began coming around for another attack with additional Flags backing it up, all of them in their flight modes.
Nena fired at the Flags as they began another attack run. She was the only one currently able to engage them with the Variant and Lancaster busily holding back the GN-Xs and covering the Zesus which was now locked in close combat with a GN-X that had drawn its beam saber.
The Flags dodged the beams before they opened fire with their linear guns and with a volley of missiles.
Nena felt the shots ricochet off the Drei's armour as she immediately made the Drei throw one of its missile jamming pods out into the air causing the guided projectiles to change course.
"Enemy from the right, enemy from the right!" her Haro then warned her as she turned to see a GN-X break off from it's squadron and charge towards her guns blazing.
Immediately she began to open fire on the machine with the GN handgun. The GN-X spun out of the way as it continued to get closer.
"Scatter!" Daveral then shouted as several dozen missiles from a Flag squadron approached them.
She shot down as many missiles as possible before throwing another jamming pod out. She then saw the others being engaged by other GN-X machines. The Drei rushed over to help only to have a GN-X charge her, it was the one she was previously occupied with before.
Counter-charging, the Drei drew a beam saber with its free arm to keep the GN Handgun ready for use. Beam saber collided with the Drei attempting to get a shot in.
Before the trigger could be pressed, the GN-X backed off a bit, doing aerial maneuvers to avoid incoming fire before charging back in, its beam saber once more locking with the Drei's.
"You're going to die Gundam! With this machine we have nothing to fear from you anymore!" the pilot of that GN-X roared through the comm.
The GN-X the backed off again before it charged at the Drei once more.
"I don't plan on dying!" Nena screamed back in response.
The Drei launched its missile from its shield pod only to have them shot down by the GN-X's Vulcans, however this bought enough time for Nena to close in and lash out at the GN-X.
The beam saber managed to cut through the GN-Xs right arm before the machine could raise its own saber in defense. It quickly pulled off to avoid the GN handgun which the Drei had raised once again.
"You've almost got him, you've almost got him," the Haro then cheered before it was then interrupted by as a series of linear rounds rocked the cockpit.
Nena grunted as more of the linear rounds impacted into the Drei as she began to engage the Flags.
She struggled to hit the fast-moving Flags as they continued to fly in and out, evading the Drei's shots. She just wasn't quick enough.
"Behind you, behind you!" her Haro then cried out warning her of several beams coming towards the Drei from behind.
The Drei darted off, getting out of the way and spun around to see two GN-Xs firing at her with the Flags flying behind them before they began to turn to start another run on the Drei. There were just too many of them for her to take on alone.
A small barrage of missiles then came towards the four machines. One of the Flags being caught in the barrage as parts of the frame of it began to overload with GN particles before it exploded which sent what was left of the Flag spinning wildly out of control towards earth.
Nena looked to see the Lancaster engaging the enemy mobile suits as it launched a missile from its shoulder-mounted launcher at one of the Flags which exploded on contact with the warhead.
Daveral then appeared on her screen. "Regroup, we'll take out these two GN-Xs then head over to cover the ship." he said as Nena immediately began to take position behind the Lancaster.
The two GN-Xs which had now resumed their attack on the Gundams raced towards them weapons blazing while manoeuvring to evade beam shots that were fired back at them from the Lancaster's carbine and the Drei's handgun.
The Lancaster then unleashed another missile barrage from its left shoulder pod which began to race towards the GN-Xs. The two machines began to shoot down the missiles, however one of them was then struck by a beam from the Drei through its right arm before a missile broke through and impacted into its chest. The frame began to overload with particles before it detonated in a vibrant cloud of blue and red particles.
The second machine closed as two missiles came towards it from behind, those of the Lancaster's main launcher; however, instead of shooting them down it raced towards the two Gundams, evading the shots fired at it. Once it got right infront of the Lancaster it then flew over it. The Lancaster quickly raising its shield as the missiles exploded against it.
The GN-X then came up behind the Lancaster while it was recovering and rammed into it before kicking it in the torso pushing it back before it drew it's beam saber while still firing its rifle. The beams dispersed off the Lancaster's anti-beam coating.
It then went in for the kill, charging towards the Lancaster which had now turned around and began to fire at it with its carbine. The GN-X dodged all the rounds as it continued to move in.
Just when the GN-X was about to slash at the Lancaster, Nena had reacted and thrusted the Drei's beam saber into the machine's back causing it to halt before it fell out of the sky
"Thanks, Nena," she heard Daveral say gratefully. "Anyways, let's return back to the ship and help those fighter pilots, Flint and Helana can take care of the rest."
"Roger." she said, as she took a deep breath as she looked where the GN-X had once been before she followed after Daveral.
Thar Desert, February 12, Phoenix Carrier
Wesker watched as mobile suits darted across the ship, evading the flak cannons that were fired at them. The rest of the cannons had come online the sky filling with dark clouds riddled shrapnel which were quite effective against the lighter armoured Flags, Enacts, and Hellions; however against GN-Xs they were nearly useless due to high speeds while Tierens took a considerable requiring direct hits to effectively damage and that they were always underneath the ship at least several thousand metres below not because it was less defended or to avoid fire, but because that was as high the Tierens could go, yet their cannons could easily get range.
The ships communications link was filled with chatter from the pilots everything from orders and instructions to screams and curses could be heard throughout the bridge.
"Hostile Hellion squadron neutralized," a report came to Wesker.
"Good, now what's our fighting strength?" Wesker replied as the ship rattled from a strike of missile on its hull.
Information began to come up on Wesker's terminal.
The screen displayed five squadrons. So far only Death Wing and Teller squadron were reporting no losses. The remaining three were varied with one having lost a single fighter, another with four destroyed, while the final one had been mauled leaving only one fighter remaining only to then fade off screen before the list then updated to showing only the four squadrons.
"Engines are under attack!" one of the crew alerted. "Engine one has been disable. Engine three is taking a beating and is at risk off overloading."
"Goddamn it," Wesker growled under his breath as he got in contact with the Death Wing squadron.
Willard appeared on screen who checked his six before looking forward again.
"What do you want!" he shouted. "I've got my hands full here make it quick!" he then continued as it was clearly visible that he was being chased with rounds flying past the cockpit.
"Get your squadron to cover the engines," Wesker quickly instructed. "Raptor Squadron was just destroyed and we need you to fill in the line."
"What? You can't be serious! We've got more contacts up front!" Willard protested who could not believe the news. "Can't the Gundams do that? I'm tied up with a squadron of Flags here, if we break off we're going to get shot down!" he then added before his cockpit shook from a nearby explosion. "Damn that was close!"
"We don't have time for arguments just do it!" Wesker then snapped.
The man muttered a curse before switching off the screen.
"Formation D-32 we're going to cover the ships engines, now, watch your six and keep a loose formation!" everyone then heard through the comm. signalling that Willard had acknowledged the order.
If they lost their engines they would fall to the ground like a rock. The ship's V.T.O.L system just didn't have enough power to keep them aloft at this altitude, even if they did dump out all the cargo they had onboard. Luckily, though the ship had four engines and as long as one was operational they would manage to stay in the air, though they would lose altitude, regardless.
"Status report on Daveral's team?" Wesker then said over to Kail.
"The Drei and Lancaster are returning back to the ship, while the Zesus and Variant are still engaging forward elements."
"Have Helana return; tell her it's time to change out to one of the new packs," Wesker instructed as Kail immediately got Helana on the line and began communicating with her about her new orders.
Thar Desert, February 12, Phoenix Carrier
A Flag veered towards the bridge of the ship only to be met with a hail of flak which punctured holes into the machine only to cause it to lose control. The craft continued towards spiralling bridge before a beam shot through the main body finished it off, causing the craft to detonate with debris showering the vessel.
"That was a close one, good shooting!" Daveral complemented Nena as he sprayed shots from his carbine at an enemy Enact which had just strayed into his sights in hope that one would hit.
After several dozen rounds he finally managed to nail the Enact dead on which exploded moments after it caught on-fire. He then looked to see one of the few GN-Xs mocking the ship by manoeuvring around the ships guns before taking them out using its superior mobility.
Seeing this, Daveral moved in, signalling for Nena to follow close behind. Once in range, he opened up on the GN-X which took evasive action while exchanging fire with the Lancaster. Multiple rounds from mobile suits bounced off the Lancaster's armour, as a squadron of Enacts attacked before a fighter squadron chased after them, but this didn't break Daveral's concentration as he continued to track the GN-X as he let loose another burst of beam fire and missiles.
The GN-X skirted off to the right as it began to shoot down the missiles; however, it then took a direct hit from a flak cannon that knocked the machine back and disoriented the pilot long enough for a ordinary missile to crash into the mobile suit, but had only managed to tear off the machines left arm while blackening the paint around the entire machine.
Not what he had hoped for, he had expected the missile to strike at the machine in the torso and be destroyed.
He then looked down to see his missile launcher was completely empty and GN-missile pod was as well.
"Nena!" he called to her. "Do you have anything to resupply me? I'm out of missiles."
"I've got a set of back-up missiles, but will it even work with your launchers?" she replied as the Drei's shield pod opened revealing a clip just large enough to load into the launcher.
"It will do, I think," Daveral told her as he made the Lancaster quickly pick up the small container and load it into its shoulder pod. Soon the systems reported the launcher was loaded.
Even if these weren't GN missiles ,they would still probably work with the shoulder launcher, although he was concerned that the missiles would just detonate right in their tubes due to a mis-fire.
"You're insane, reloading a mobile suit in direct combat?!" Flint then remarked as the Zesus appeared beside the Lancaster after slicing through a Hellion.
"Just take out that GN-X over there," Daveral pointed out towards the one he had damaged.
"Consider it done then!" Flint acknowledged as the Zesus raced towards the GN-Xs using his GN field to get close to engage.
Daveral looked at his sensors before saw several Tierens underneath the ship constantly blasting away at the belly of the ship through a screen that had just appeared in his cockpit, transmitted by the ship.
"That's your target take them out or drive them out of effective range," Kail instructed him.
"Alright then, let's hit the Tieren squadron," he said to Nena and Flint through the comm. as he began to take off towards the targets.
Once in range, the Lancaster began to open fire at them with its carbine. Daveral was only going to use his newly loaded missiles as a last resort, still concerned that the launching mechanism may mess with these different missiles.
The Tierens began to descend seeing the three Gundams coming towards them while still firing at the ship.
One of the machines exploded as a beam pierced through the cockpit, before another was destroyed shortly after. It forced the Tierens to closer to earth and Daveral noticed a few shots failing to reach this height.
The Drei and the Lancaster continued to stay close to the ship. Only the Zesus charged in which forced a retreat
"Helana, better hurry and get out back here!" Daveral demanded as he began to move back up so that he was now engaging the Union and AEU mobile suits again. "At this rate we're going to be the only ones guarding this ship!" he then continued as he saw a fighter explode from linear fire while its pursuers flew through the smoke.
"On my way," Helana replied to him. "Just wait a few moments."
Daveral then looked to see the Cariant firing from the main launch bay carrying a different pack. When it was clear enough the Variant then proceeded to launch with help of the catapult.
The pack on the Variants had several small, fins sticking out. He wondered what they were for until he saw them disconnect off the pack and begin to move on their own and begin to shoot at nearby mobile suits with particle beams. It was then he realized what they were, they were weapons similar to GN-Fangs.
The remote-guided weapons began to open up. While not powerful, they did cause confusion as small aerial weapons had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Their size also made them an annoyance, being difficult to target manually.
The duration they were deployed, however, was extremely short and already the enemy had begun to pull back into a formation that then retreated. Covering fire was laid down, stopping any pursuit.
"Do you think the Fangs scared them off?" Flint then asked.
"I wouldn't be surprised," Daveral replied still watching the mobile suits retreat. "But they still had us outnumbered, and they didn't lose many GN-Xs," he noted before he got in contact with Nena. "Nena deploy the stealth field once the fighters return to base."
"Got it," Nena replied sounding slightly exhausted.
"Daveral, I have a question." Flint began. "If we used the stealth field at the beginning what would happen aside from communications and sensor blackout?"
Daveral pondered the question, he was no expert. Flint probably should have asked Nena.
"We'd get torn apart out there with an uncoordinated defense or there'd be a lot of mid-air collision." he then glanced over to see the Fangs returning to the Variant's pack.
"I'm surprised more of them didn't go for us," Nena commented.
"That's why," Helana then said.
The Variant then gestured to the ship.
Daveral noticed the ship begin to slowly descend. Smoke billowed out of the engines, with only one seemingly functioning. Another seemed ready to take the ship with it as small explosions could be seen.
"Damn it, so that's why they retreated," Daveral cursed as he continued to watch the smoke billow out. "Why destroy the Gundams when you can take out their base of operations," he muttered to himself for not realizing this sooner. There had just been too much to focus on.
The enemy was just regrouping and they would be back in force, not only that, but once the ship was forced to land for repairs they would need some miracle to hold off the next wave. It would not be hard to find them on visuals, even with a communications blackout. All the enemy needed was a good map.
Thar Desert, February 12, Phoenix Carrier
"Sir, three engines have been destroyed; the final one is just barley functional. We need time to make emergency repairs!" the report came from maintenance.
Wesker gave a sigh. Even though they were still alive, with their ship now crippled they would be hard pressed to fix the damage before the enemy regrouped and launched another attack on them.
"Keep the ship on our current course for as long as possible and inform the fleet that we will be delayed," he ordered.
"Understood," came a reply from the bridge.
Delays were going to be costly as Wesker looked out to see the radiant bluish white particles begin to spread across the skies, that would buy them sometime, but the question was how much time would it buy them before they were found once again?