Gundam 00: Phoenix
Guardian Angel
Middle East, September 7, Afghanistan/Turkmenistan Border
The Phalanx dodged an incoming particle blast from the Empress by skirting to the side before returning fire with its railguns.
The Empress' GN Field quickly went up and caused the accelerated metal slugs to simply shatter upon impact with the field. The Empress then launched a pair of wired-guided claws from its hull which then sent out additional wires with electricity coursing throughout them.
Daveral began moving out of the way, but a Gadessa quickly intercepted his movements with a particle blast followed up by its GN Vulcans. In response to the attack, Daveral quickly has the shields raised to deflect the blows.
The wires, however, then came awfully close to Daveral's machine, giving off warning signals causing Daveral to focus back on the main threat he was facing. He gritted his teeth against the impending electrocution–he just wasn't fast enough.
There was no pain, though, as Daveral saw the Pegasus had quickly come in and managed to cut the wires without incurring a debilatating shock before it then went after the Empress mobile armour.
"Mirage Squadron here, commencing attack run on the mobile armour," the lead pilot of the Phantom squadron in the area then announced.
From the blue, seven Phantoms emerged from their cloak and open fired on the mobile armour with their rail guns from a distance before they began breaking off to reform elsewhere, keeping their distance from the new enemy.
The mobile armour put up its GN Field and despite the rail gun round's coating, they simply shattered upon impact proving they simply did not have the power to go through sophisticated fields.
The distraction the fighters provided did, however, allow the Pegasus to close in. Already the Pegasus began screaming down from above on the mobile armour, spraying particle beams into the Empress as it closed the distance and readied it blade.
The attack seemed inevitable and unavoidable, but the second Gadessa fired several uncharged shots which struck the side of the Pegasus, scorching sections of its blade and damaging its right shoulder before Flint could react and knocked the Pegasus off course.
Flint's attack, however, managed to connect and cut through the frontal maw of the Empress before the mobile armour opened up with its lighter weaponry.
The main gun of the Empress sparked from the damage with the cannon torn around the barrel entry rendering it inoperable as particles could be seen dispersing from its maw.
"Damn it, so close," Flint growled as his machine spun around while falling through the air and fired its carbine again, trying to cause additional damage before making its way towards the Empress once more.
"Mirage Squadron, cover Flint from that other machine, I'll handle this one," Daveral ordered as his machine continued to exchange-fire with the Gadessa, but his delay between his shots and missile attacks proved only allowed him to keep his distance against a machine that also had a powerful long-range weapon. "I don't want to get in close. I don't think I'll be able to hold on my own," Daveral muttered to himself as he pressed the trigger. The Phalanx did have a powerful melee weapon which was an adjustable beam javelin that could keep his enemy from getting too close but he didn't know if his close-combat skills were on par with his opponent and he wasn't going to risk a fatal test at this point in the battle.
The Gadessa danced through Daveral's next barrage of missiles while firing its uncharged Mega Launcher and followed up with its Vulcans now coming closer to the Phalanx. The Phalanx once again shielded itself in an instance before dropping the two shields enough for him to return fire.
"You're machine seems to lack the ability at engaging other mobile suits," Revive smirked as the Gadessa dodged the next railgun shot and pushed off one of the Phalanx's shields with its feet hard enough for it to shift position and leave the Phalanx's right-side wide open. "You'll need more than just armour and firepower to beat the Gadessa." The Gadessa then drew a beam saber.
No, not now of all times, Daveral thought with a scowl on his face and instantly, the Phalanx ignited its javelin after drawing it from the hip of his machine and slashed the tip into the approaching beam saber which forced the Gadessa away by sheer force and surprise before the Phalanx raced forward and prepared to spear its opponent.
The Gadessa evaded the blow and got to the side of the Phalanx and fired a partially charged shot into the Phalanx. Barely, Daveral managed to get the shields to shield himself which stopped the particle beam, but the power of the beam sent the Phalanx spinning downwards with its right shield now left with a massive scorch mark.
Revive eyed the Phalanx as his machine was knocked back. "Interesting, definitely an improvement over the old model, still, you're going to need more than that!" he then shouted as the Gadessa went back to range combat and forced Daveral to shield himself once more against the incoming particle beams.
This was getting frusterating for Daveral, it was just a game of back and forth and he knew he was the one who would lose, the Phalanx was meant for engaging warships, entrenched positions, and long-ranged surprise attacks, not the short-ranged fights where he simply did not have the fast-firing weapons. Still, he'd rather be in the Phalanx then the old Lancaster.
"Mirage Squadron, I may need your help with this one. I simply cannot do enough to keep it back," Daveral reluctantly said to the squadron's leader.
"Understood, I'll have two of my men cover you," came the reply as Daveral saw both onscreen and on his sensors, two Phantoms breaking off from their formation and beginning to engage the Gadessa.
The fighters open fired with their weapons and forced the Gadessa to respond and change its facing and responded with its GN Vulcans, hoping to clip one of the fighters with sheer volume of fire.
The Phalanx then fired its two heavy rail guns as the fighter finished their attack run and distracted the Gadessa. The force of the passing projectile ended up tearing part of the machine's left pauldron off and a electric shock from inside the machine caused one of the GN Vulcans to overload and explode, damaging the left arm of the Gadessa.
"That's one less problem to worry about," Daveral said as the Gadessa now could only use one weapon at a time. "Now, let's finish you off," Daveral then finished with a look of determination as he went onto the attack and pursued his opponent that began to back away.
Whoever their opponents were, they needed to be dealt with lest they interfere with their mission any more then they already have.
Despite the damage, Revive kept his cool as his Gadessa began to regroup with Devine's Empress while Hiling fired another blast which resulted in the squadron of Phantoms to disperse before they began regrouping but not before them Empress shot one of the planes down causing it to spiral out of the sky, nose first.
"They're much better than we thought and their machines are quite impressive, yet they're still only human," Hiling stated with a smirk as the Pegasus attempted to go after Hiling's machine only for the Empress to fly over and drive it away with a blast from its lighter cannons with Revive easily keeping in formation for protection against the Phantoms and the Phalanx.
The Phalanx then attempted another bombardment with missiles, but the quick Vulcans of Hiling's Gadessa proved more than a match for the incoming missiles as particle-filled explosions saturated the air. Revive then exploited the opening the Phalanx had left to launch its ordnance and fired the Mega Launcher launching several weakly charged shots.
The majority of the particle beams were blocked, but the ones that got through managed to strike one of the Phalanx's rail guns which were still deployed and though it did not cause any sort of explosion, the particle beam managed to damage the magnetic rails and caused a gaping hole through the side of the barrel rendering it inoperable.
"How long must we entertain these humans?" Devine asked without emotion as the Empress rolled to evade the railguns of the squadron and returned fired which hit another fighter, but this time only caused this Phantom to pull out of the fight.
"Until Ribbons thinks the show should end," Hiling replied with grin. "For now let's just play with them, they can't beat us, even with numbers."
"Keep focused, Hiling. Handle that artillery Gundam, it's starting to get annoying." Revive's Gadessa then fired another tight grouping of particle beams at the Phalanx, forcing it to dodge before it then fired with its other rail gun which Revive easily dodged by simply boosting to the side.
Hiling's Gadessa then followed with a charged shot which caused the Phalanx to evade and caused aircraft around the trio to disperse and ruin any attack runs that had been planned.
Before the shot could completely finish, however, the Pegasus appeared from below, evading incoming particle beams from the Empress with its impressive mobility and before the Devine, Revive, and Hiling herself could properly respond to the approaching Gundam, the Mega Launcher Hiling held fell apart in two before the pieces exploded pushing Hiling away from the blast zone causing her to let out a cry of surprise.
"I'm sick of you firing that thing!" Flint shouted as the Pegasus then quickly spun around and prepared to attack the Gadessa once more. "You're gonna pay!"
"Oh no you don't," Hiling snarled as the Vulcans of the Gadessa came alive, spitting out particle beams and putting up a wall between her and the Gundam. "You think it's that easy to defeat an Innovator than you're sadly mistaken!" she then roared.
Revive used the time to take aim and line up a shot at the Pegasus which was still approaching and upon making his estimates with the precision of Veda's support.
A warning signal came up, but he ignored it as the Empress came in and activated its field to deflect an incoming round before the Gadessa fired a partially focused shot to avoid using up all the particles in the system.
The shot struck the Pegasus as it just moved out of the GN Vulcan's field of fire with its GN Field doing very little to stop or weaken the blast as the Pegasus found its shield arm being incinerated with only some pieces of its forearm left and the force of the blast sent the Pegasus spiralling out of the air.
The Pegasus, however, tossed its blade it managed to strike Revive's machine through the side of the machine leaving a gaping hole and the exposed the Gadessa's mechanical internals.
"Tenacious one, aren't you?" Revive growled with a glare.
Quickly the Empress moved in for the kill, but the Phalanx and the five remaining Phantoms quickly made it before Devine could reach the target and intercepted his attack and drove him off as the Pegasus recovered.
The approaching Phantoms, however, found themselves too close and many ended up taking glancing hits from Vulcans from the Gadessa's and the particle cannons mount on the Empress forcing the remaining Phantom's to break-off and pull out to avoid taking more damage, their light frames barely holding together as smoke could be seen trailing from them.
The two Gundams also began to pull out from the combat zone–after the Pegasus had reclaimed its sword which had spiked into the ground–both having suffered major damage and unable to properly fight back while their enemies still had a considerable amount of firepower despite lacking their heavier weapons. The Empress and the two Gadessa simply proved too much.
Revive could only smile. "Now that they're retreating, I think A-Laws should deal with the rest of the Rising Phoenix quite nicely, if not we'll simply have to deal with them another time," he said as the two Gadessa and the Empress left the area.
Wesker intently listened to what Daveral had to say over the radio as his vehicle rocked across the terrain to keep up with the attack.
"Three unknown enemies forced you to pull back?" Wesker asked as the battle raged not far from his position with the sounds of war clearly audible if not deafening when the artillery began firing, even through the vehicle's thick walls.
"That is correct; we've simply taken too much damage. They definitely weren't A-Laws and if they were than they must have been some sort of special forces," Daveral replied back over the channel utterly confused on what had just hit his group. Wesker could also hear from Daveral's voice that he was regretting his failure to the mission. "They could be coming for you. We've caused some damage, especially on one of them, but...just be ready if they arrive."
Wesker nodded. "Understood." He then looked over at one of his men working at their makeshift command post. "Tell Willard to be on overwatch, we don't need his squadron just yet."
"Roger that," one of the other command operators of the vehicle replied.
Another call then came in causing Wesker to keep the radio up to receive from whoever was calling in.
"Wallace here, we've just breached the walls and are entering into the facilities, minor resistance," the Captain radioed in with gunfire in the background. "Be advised, hangers are beginning to open"
Wesker acknowledged Wallace's update as he continued to keep track of the battle on a grander scale and occasionally give new orders, but mainly, he let his officer preform what was necessary. He hadn't served in every branch of the AEU Military so he did not want to risk his inexperience in certain fields to jeopardize the mission.
"Echo Squadron, commencing airstrike on hangers, ETA five seconds," a squadron leader announced as the main screen showed a squadron of Aces roaring through the skies towards the base before launching several missiles into an area within the base before they began to pull out. "Strike-run complete, targets eliminated, will remain on station, over."
So far so good, but this seems too easy. A-Laws may be scattered around the area, but this base should of had more protection than it presents, could it be a trap? Wesker thought to himself.
This was far too easy, even incompetent commanders could pull this off by their regular forces doing the work themselves. What could it possibly mean? Was A-Laws waiting somewhere in force or was this base trapped to destroy the majority of their forces? So many questions, but no hint of the answers.
Wesker continued to let the battle unfold. So far they had not suffered casualties and that meant something was really up. Was this entire base abandoned and if that was the case, how did A-Laws know they were going to strike here? Surely they would have expected post around Azadistan would have been hit, not somewhere this far in their territory.
Wallace suddenly got on the line. "Sir, there's absolutely nobody here! Everything is machine operated and all we saw were Automatons. Their command room was also empty and no sign of anything not even a scrap of paper!"
Definitely something's wrong if they can reach the command centre that fast, Wesker thought as he responded back to Wallace. "Have all your men pull back, I'll have our vehicles get you out of there. We need to get as far away from the base this–"
"Sir, enemy units incoming, looks like all of A-Laws in the Middle East!" someone shouted pointing to his screen. Warnings flashed as Wesker saw several blips appear on radar with more appearing. "Three battleships and over thirty mobile suits with more incoming!"
"So it was a trap," Wesker then finished with a growl. "Should have known the moment we began shooting," he then added before changing channels. "All units fallback from the area, we'll make our way to our emergency fallback point. We simply cannot compete with that level of firepower," Wesker announced as he saw the mobile suit formations race forward while their battleships began opening fire.
"Willard here, me and the fly-boys will try to keep you covered, but once things start going to hell we are pulling out, over" Willard said through the channel to all forces as Wesker saw their planes switching course to intercept.
"This is Captain Daurian, we will be deploying a barrage of disruption smoke to cover our retreat, it's our chance of enduring this firestorm," one of the COs announced as Wesker saw rounds hitting the ground around them and instantly clouds disruption smoke could be seen gathering and then spreading.
Wesker acknowledged the COs announcement as he began getting in contact with Celestial Being. He didn't want to stress their current resources with them only having two Gundams at their disposal and the Ptolemaios was currently in a state of repair, but the necessity of their situation called for it; with his back-up plan currently destroyed by those three machines that attacked Daveral and Flint he needed all the help he could get.
Middle East, September 7, Azadistan Border
The bridge of the Ptolemaios was relatively calm and quiet as the ship lay under the cover of its GN Camouflage in the more rugged regions of the border.
Feldt watched her screen monitoring the ship as Mileina watched over maintenance with the help of Saji. They needed to get the ship ready again and moving out before Tieria and the other went into party.
Feldt had first objected to letting Saji help out once he was released from his cell and began helping out with Ian's work, but over the short period of time he had been aboard the Ptolemaios had made her more at ease, despite the fact he was not a member of Celestial Being. She always worried about others coming aboard who were not friends or allies, it just felt strange after all these years.
The Ptolemaios, especially its first form, never had any non-members stationed and the closest thing to that was the Trinity siblings meeting them four years ago after they had rescued the Meisters and now the remaining Trinity sibling was a part of the team and like Tieria, she had grown to accept Nena, even if they weren't on the most friendly terms.
Everything had changed; the world, the people around her and even herself. No longer was she being watched over by Christina, instead she had taken her role and watched over Mileina.
There was also Lyle Dylandy, the new Lockon. He tried to differ himself from his brother, despite his attitude was rather similar to his brother; laid-back, and calm, Lyle was the exact same as his brother in those respects, though he did often state his concerns on matters more than the old Lockon did and he wanted to prove himself, become something else than simply a carbon copy of his brother which was a difficult task. It's just something alot of people expected of him, remnants of the past lingering into the future.
Feldt then noticed her console alerting her of an incoming message and immediately she identified it coming from Wesker which she brought up instantly.
"Feldt, is there anyone in charge around?" Wesker immediately asked as he appeared on screen. Instantly she could tell things were not going as the Rising Phoenix had expected as Wesker nearly lost his footing as the vehicle he was in rocked. "This is urgent, we are in need of aid. Flint and Daveral were forced home by an unknown source leaving us without our Gundams for support. A-Laws also seemed to know we were coming!"
"I'll send a message down to–" Feldt was interrupted as she saw Mrs. Sumeragi appear from behind the bridge door and looked at her and then at the screen wondering what was going on.
"Feldt, is that Wesker?" Miss Sumeragi asked as she moved towards her Feldt's console and leaned near Feldt to get a better look at who their contact was. "What is it that you need?"
Wesker grunted as his vehicle shook as shouts could be heard on the other side about the battle. "I'm–We are in need of assistance. Our Gundams were forced away by an unknown source and we've got, I'd say, over half of A-Law's fighting strength in the region." The information and sensor data then appeared on screen giving Miss Sumeragi and Feldt an idea of what was going on. "I've already called for a retreat, but we cannot outrun our pursuers. Willard's people can only hold the skies for so long given their reliance on munitions and that the regular Aces cannot handle dogfights as they used to."
Feldt turned to Miss Sumeragi who stood upright and thought for a moment before looking at Wesker with understanding look on her face. "Since you have resupplied us, I'll have Cheridum and Arios back you up and if you're willing, allow me to give you a tactical forecast."
Wesker looked at Sumeragi who wondered about following the instructions of someone else for a change, but he gave a nod. "I have heard the results of your forecast and I will happily accept."
"Understood," Miss Sumeragi simply replied before she turned to Feldt. "Feldt, get Lockon and Allelujah to their Gundams and have all the information transferred to my console," she told her with Feldt instantly getting to work.
"Lockon, Allelujah, stand-by in your respective machine. We have a mission commencing," she announced through the ships PA system as she turned to see Miss Sumeragi getting to work on her plan and gave a smile before turning back to her screen.
Somethings may have changed around over the four years, but Feldt was glad that somethings had not.
Middle East, September 7, Afghanistan/Turkmenistan Border, Guyana-class Battleship Mojave
"Fire another barrage of missiles, we'll ensure that their smoke will only make it so that we don't not have to see them outright destroyed," Major Rindt said, raising his arm towards the enemy as the missile tubes opened up and began barraging the area ahead. "Colonel Smirnov and Kati may have failed, but I'll ensure we destroy the Rising Phoenix right here and now."
"Sir, incoming enemy fighters from above! They're dive bombing on us!" a warning came.
"Shoot them down, concentrate our main guns on them," Rindt ordered as the cannons began targeting the incoming planes.
The planes, however, had already got in range and began releasing their bombs and quickly pulled away back to a higher altitude.
The large bombs then split open releasing enough ordnance to cover the entire ship and they were coming by the dozens, right towards the ship.
Rindt nearly gasped in shock until several blasts from the cannons managed to clear enough of them with only a couple bombs striking against the hull of the other two ships, but their damage was superficial at best. Clearly these fighters' original purpose was to clear forces on the ground, not attacking armoured battleships–their attack was simply a distraction.
Quickly he regained his composure and turned back to the battle as he saw the mobile suit teams begin to close in despite the best efforts of over three full squadrons of aircraft. They were failing against his superior numbers and firepower, they simply could not single out mobile suits and pick them off, their usual tactic.
"Flank speed, ensure they stay within range. We cannot afford them to get out of sensor range," Rindt then ordered as the ship being began moving forward along with its counterparts.
The enemy had been fooled to think A-Laws was weak and divided and they would pay for their mistake like so many other anti-government forces who had dared to oppose the A-Laws.
Willard felt himself being shaken around in his cockpit as the as blips representing his fighters disappear at an alarming rate.
The ordinary Aces equipped with AA weaponry were simply no match against this much firepower and there weren't enough Phantoms around to even the odds, especially with Mirage Squadron being forced out of the fight prematurely with their own Gundams that made the odds even worse then what they would have been. At least the battleships would not be a problem if the Phalanx was here.
The A-Laws were also doing a good job at keeping together in large squadrons to avoid being picked off and downing any missiles that may be launched, both from the air and the ground.
Locking on to a GN-X squadron at a distance, Willard open fired with a pair of missiles with the railgun following up, three members of his squadron also followed in union. Several ordinary Aces also joined in–if numbers was the only way to do damage so be it, one less mobile suit was one less to deal with.
The GN-Xs switched their focus to the missiles, filling the skies with particle fire and quickly the missiles were intercepted, though a couple did manage to breach the enemies defenses which struck two of the mobile suits, staggering them long enough for the rail guns to finish them off.
Willard's group then began to pull away as the enemy began returning the favour with their weapons.
"Echo Six where–" a short transmission went through before abruptly cutting off as Willard began receiving more and more transmissions from the battle around him.
"They're too fast, I can't hit them!"
"Keep your distance and loosen the formation."
"There's too many I can't–"
Carlos then got on the line, tuning out chatter. "This has gone all to hell; we simply have no advantage in this sort of fight. We've only scored five kills while A-Laws are sending reinforcements. I swear they've brought every mobile suit in the Middle East to this fight."
"Things may have gone to hell, but we need to give Wesker more time." Willard then banked around back towards the enemy with his squadron in tow, keeping a fair distance away from each other to allow room for manoeuvring.
"I really wished we hadn't used up all the seismic munitions on the bases," Jeff commented as the battleships began opening fire in their direction with the mobile suits lowering altitude.
"No need to remind us!" Carlos retorted angrily wishing that they did actually have those bombs left.
The squadron of GN-Xs ahead began lowering their altitude while maintaining fire as the battleship behind them open fired with its main guns at the approaching Phantoms, but the shots were simply far too slow to actually strike the small fighters.
Seeing the enemy closing in and possibly fearing for the safety of the battleship, the mobile suit squadron moved forward to close the distance and to get directly beneath them where the Phantoms could not bring any weapons to bear and strike at their even thinner underbellies.
They're not getting away like that, Willard thought to himself before he directed another volley of missiles from his squadron at the mobile suits just as they were about to overshoot them.
The mobile suits barely had time to dodge as three machines exploded with bits and pieces drifting through the air along with GN Particles.
The squadron then began strafing with their railguns the battleship forcing enemy mobile suits back to defend. They, however, overreacted to the threat as most of the rounds did little more than bounce off the GN Particle infused ship's plating but two missiles which were then launched from the members in the rear got through due to their close proximity and caused one of the cannons to detonate.
"They've got more weapons then we have missiles!" Carlos shouted as their squadron began to flee from the enemy's guns that lit up the sky with shining orange particle beams. The amount of fire a single battleship alone was astounding, three was just absurd.
"Hey, that's one less gun to worry about," Willard replied back taking a quick glance over his shoulder from his cockpit to see if they were being chased before he found a message coming in from Wesker. "Spit it out, what is it?" Willard quickly said forcefully. He had no time to be distracted.
Wesker hit a key on his console, from what Willard could see, and instantly information on some sort of plan appeared on a side-screen.
"I've just got in contact with Celestial Being and they are willing to lend aid as well as a tactical plan on getting us out of here, I need you to follow through," Wesker told Willard.
"If it gets us out of this shit storm than I'm in," Willard replied back with slight nod, though he gave a rather annoyed look to Wesker from behind his reflective visor. This plan better be good, he thought to himself.
Willard then took a quick glance over the plan that requested him and his squadron to disable the missile tubes of the battleships behind the wall of mobile suits by going dark.
He didn't know if they had enough ordnance considering their limited munitions, but it was worth a shot, but they only had one chance to strike at a battleship's launchers after that they were exposed and in a dangerous position
With a single flick of a switch after seeing a green light from the system, Willard's Phantom disappeared with the others following his actions and the squadron began to head around the fight towards the battleships. All he just hoped was that their lines would at least hold long enough for them to actually reach the battleships.
Lockon stared through his scope as Cheridum moved towards the battle before landing and taking aim. Slowly he trained his sights on an Ahead that had just shot down another Ace and planned to move into the disruption smoke to personally destroy the vehicle on the ground at close-range.
Before it could enter the cloud Lockon had already pressed the trigger which sent a particle beam through the center of the machine and caused it to explode with only parts of its legs left to rain down on the battlefield.
He then quickly locked onto the cannons of one battleship and fired his shots in quick succession. The first shot simply dissipated as did the second and third, but the follow up shot finally managed to breach the cannon causing it to explode.
In an instant the A-Laws mobile suits' attention were temporarily shifted to the newcomers as they began breaking their large formation so two squadrons of mobile suits could be sent to deal with the incoming threat; the battleships behind them maintained their present course on bombarding the Rising Phoenix.
"Enemy approaching, enemy approaching!" his Haro warned.
Lockon simply nodded back to the Haro, still maintaining the same determined expression as he locked onto another machine and open fired.
The GN-X that happened to be his target managed to deflect a single shot with its small arm shield which emitted a small field, but another quickly struck followed up by another causing the field to overlord with a final shot striking through the core of the machine causing it to detonate.
"Looks like I've got their attention, alright," Lockon muttered as he locked onto another machine and blasted it out of the air.
The mobile suits quickly closed the distance and began to open fire with their weapons, particle beams slamming around the area Cheridum was.
"Haro, deploy the shield bits," Lockon said as he kept his shooting eye trained on the targets.
"Deploying shield bits, deploying shield bits!" his Haro answered as the bits moved in front of Cheridum leaving only its sniper barrel and holographic scope exposed for the enemy to hit.
The mobile suits continued to close in and some began to flank around hoping to catch Cheridum while it was distracted with the rest of their comrades, but before they could get close enough, some of the shield bits quickly shifted into assault mode and began to open fire. A couple enemy machines were caught by surprise resulting in one of the mobile suits exploding and forcing the flankers back.
Seeing the enemies continue to come closer despite the shield bits and sniper fire, Lockon got on the comm. "Allelujah, you're up," he said as Cheridum's sniper rifle transformed into a sub-machine gun and began spraying shots at the enemy.
"Roger that, Lockon, moving in now," Allelujah replied back to him calmly. Arios then streaked through the sky past the enemy mobile suits around Cheridum towards the where the main battle was going on, but not before it latched onto a GN-X and sheared it in two.
Cheridum then surged forward along with its bits which shielded its advance and fired on A-Laws machines that hoped to flank it as Cheridum launched it missiles and sprayed the enemy mobile suits with particle fire. Inside Lockon looked at timer that counted down on his screen.
In less than thirty seconds he had to make it where the Rising Phoenix forces were heading, but it would not be easy with still over a full squadron and a half on him, but he had to press on.
Several blips then appeared on his screen heading his way as he saw several missiles screaming through the air towards his location. The missiles then broke apart into smaller munitions, but instead of striking Cheridum, they went after the mobile suits and forced them to shoot the incoming projectiles down.
Immediately Lockon used this time to regroup with the Rising Phoenix forces leaving his opponents in the dust as another set of cluster missiles came forth from the disruption clouds and continued to keep the machines supressed.
Some of the clouds began to disperse and Lockon noticed a line of wreckage made up of destroyed or disabled vehicles that dotted the path the Rising Phoenix was taking to escape.
Lockon could only hold back a scowl. Despite the particle clouds, the A-Laws simply had too much firepower coming from the battleships and with their ground vehicles, the Rising Phoenix had little chance of getting away without support.
The bits then reattached themselves back onto Cheridum as it moved back into the fray and began blasting any A-laws mobile suit that happened to be in sight..
Arios roared through the air in its flight-mode before it instantly transformed and fired its rifle at an opposing GN-X that was caught by surprise by his sudden appearance and transformation.
The beams punctured the GN-X's chest and caused the machine to stop generating particles and fall out of the sky helplessly.
Instantly Allelujah had Arios then back-up away from two GN-Xs and a single Ahead that had settled their sights on him and open fired. His machine zigzagged to avoid the particle beams with the amount of fire only growing as A-Laws forces began to regroup after receiving the surprise blow from the Gundams.
More disruption smoke clouds then arose from beneath Allelujah and his machine as he saw the smoke cover now branching into different directions. He could count about four different paths that the Rising Phoenix was taking before his mind focused back on the battle with Arios transforming back into its flight mode.
"How is it that they could have gotten themselves into a mess like this?" Allelujah wondered out loud as Arios strafed a group of mobile suits forcing them onto the defensive before Cheridum pitched in and managed to take down an enemy suit by sheer volume of fire.
The battleships then began to switch their targets to the Gundams as their missile tubes went into action, hoping to overwhelm the Arios and Cheridum.
Before a full barrage went off, however, one of the battleships to the left of the lead ship suddenly had its frontal launchers detonate with its full ammunition magazine going off. A chain reaction ripped throughout the vessel's front end that began to extend to the rear of the ship sending shards and pieces of the ship around the surrounding area.
Slowly the vessel began lowering altitude making it clear the ship could no longer stay up on its own power with such extensive damage.
A squadron of Phantoms then streaked past the ship in triumph as they gained altitude to get out of range from the enemy's guns.
"Wooh, glad they managed to take down of the battleships, now just two more to go," Lockon stated with a slight sigh of relief as Cheridum and Arios fell back from their positions.
"Ya, but from what I see the Rising Phoenix aren't going to risk anymore aircraft aside from the ones committed to Miss Sumeragi's plan. And we're still outnumbered here," Allelujah replied back to Lockon as sets of cluster missiles covered their retreat from the enemy.
"Then we're lucky we don't have to take them all out," Lockon said before his machine took a glance back at the retreating Rising Phoenix forces on his map. "Seems our entrance has finally given the Rising Phoenix some breathing room, we keep this up the Rising Phoenix will have the breathing room they need to make it on their own."
I just wonder how long will we have to keep this up. Allelujah thought to himself.