A/N: Here it is! The long awaited Part II of the Battle of Loum!
KnightOfZaku: We'll see later on!
Battle of Loum II (Arc Finale): Kaningan's Kamikaze
QCX-76A Jormungand
"-have a little more patience! We'll receive the data soon!"
Lt. Aleksandro Hemme slams his fist, "It'll be over by then! I'm going ahead with direct fire!"
"Wait!-" Monique began, but she was cut off,
"Damn it...I can't figure out the enemy's course or magnetic field variation!" Hemme placed his hand on the trigger, 'Too hell with it!' Aiming at the vague outline of a Salamis Class, he fired.
Time slowed down for Ryan Sahalin, there was no way he could dodge in time. He could already see the cannon charging, as well as the SAM missiles preparing to launch.
'Is...this is it?' Ryan thought, he raised his shield.
E.F.S.F Darlene
The captain grinned at the helpless mobile suit. "It's over for you, Black Knight."
"Fire at will!"
Suddenly, a massive ray of blue light streaked across the scene, Ryan was blown back as the Salamis Class sparked with electricity.
'What...was that?!' He raised his Zaku to a more solid standing position. The Salamis Class was completely disabled, it's machinery seemed fried. He wasted no time and quickly finished it off with his 120mm Machine Gun.
He looked to where the ray was fired. And locked on to a railgun, "A railgun? We were never told that they were deploying one."
Z.D.C Jotunheim
"Damn it!" Oliver yelled in frustration, "Where's the data?!"
"Be patient-" Monique began, but Oliver was already heading out,
"I'm going out to collect the data myself! Washiya, follow me!"
"R-right!"
Ryan discarded his bazooka, it was out of ammo.
'Let's see...I have my Sword and 2 clips of ammo left.' He looked around, it wasn't worth pushing his luck. He began to head back to friendly lines when he noticed a lone observation craft flailing around on the field.
"You've got to be kidding."
Washiya and Oliver approached the battlefield in a singular Observation Craft. "We get the data, then we leave-" Oliver began to explain when a solid black mobile suit moved in front of them.
"What the?! Out of the way?!" Oliver made a waving motion, as if to bat it aside.
Suddenly, the mono-eye began to flash. "PLEASE LEAVE THE AREA." It flashed,
"We can't just leave!" Oliver opened to Zeon's public channel,
"We can't just leave!" A voice came through on Ryan's comms. "We need observational data!"
"Data for what? You can't get it if you're dead." Ryan responded, "You need to get out of here."
"We're operating the railgun back there! We can end this!"
Ryan paused, "You're the operators of the railgun?" The same railgun that saved his life,
"...Yes?"
"I see...you can go back." Ryan decided, "I'll transmit your observational data."
"Thank goodness…" A voice said over the radio, "What's your name?" The man asked, "I'm Engineering Lieutenant Oliver May."
"Lieutenant Ryan Sahalin, Black Quad-Stars Squadron. I need to know what ship to transmit the data too."
Oliver explained that they were from the Z.D.C Jotunheim, after confirming that, Ryan turned back towards the battlefield and left.
'I still have some ammo and my heat hawk. I can do this as a favor.' He paused in front of a gathered formation of Magellan Class ships, scanning them. He began to send them the data.
Z.D.C Jotunheim
Monique was on the verge of crying, 'Did they never intend to use us at all?' She wondered, 'Were we even part of the battle plan?'
Suddenly, the monitor in front of her flashed, and numbers began to display. "No way…" She breathed,
It was the data!
QCX-76A Jormungand
"Finally!" Aleksandro cheered, the formerly blurry image cleared, as the gun turned to aim at a formation of Magellan Class ships.
"Fire!"
E.F.S.F Michigan
"Fall back!" Captain Falmer Gazan yelled, "Tell the fleet to pull back to Tianem's forces!"
"Large electro-magnetic heat signature closing in fast-" The radarman had no time to finish his sentence as the Magellan class was completely obliterated, and the two next to it were fried like the Salamis Class.
Ryan whistled, "That is one big gun." He turned, and scanned a trio of retreating Salamis.
"Sayonara." He said, after a few minutes, the entire trio was destroyed by another shot.
Rose barely banked up in time to avoid a shot from a massive railgun. "What the?!" She regained control of her aircraft. "A railgun?!" She looked toward where the shot came from. "It's too far behind enemy lines…"
However, she had more pressing issues. A jolt of electricity went through her body and she banked right in time to dodge a thrown heat hawk from a white mobile suit.
"Nice try snowman!" Flipping over, she fired at the white suit with her machine guns before banking around.
"A golden plane?" Shin Matsunaga wondered, the pilot clearly had the skills of an ace. Suddenly, he had to raise his shield to deflect a torrent of bullets.
"Impressive!" Shin complemented, chasing after the plane.
Rose twisted and turned to dodge the white mobile suit. "Just fuck off already!" She fired off her flares to provide cover and confuse him.
In front of her, however, was a multicolored mobile suit. With a mix of purple, green, and white on it's body.
"Out of my way!" She dropped a single missile at it, before banking again.
Anavel Gato's shoulder shield was knocked by a direct missile impact. "What the?!" He saw a flash of gold as a golden Saberfish passed him by.
"Why you…!" Turning, he began chasing after the saberfish as well.
Rose noticed a blue Zaku I in front of her, about to cleave a Salamis Class open, "Not on my watch!" She clipped him with a spray of machine gun fire. She flipped over, passing over Shin and Anavel's mobile suits and flew backwards, when a red and black Zaku appeared in front of her, she fired instinctively, digging bullets into it's frame.
"Eat it Zeeks!" She laughed, unaware that she was currently gathering the largest collection of ace pilots, all with the single intent to beat her.
Z.D.C Jotunheim
"Adjust 40* degrees!" Monique shouted,
"Yes ma'am!" Aleksandro said eagerly,
"Fire!" Monique shouted, and the Jormungand once again fired.
E.F.S.F Nereid
"Jesus. Christ." Rodney Kaningan, 30 minutes of searching for the fleet, finally received a distress call from the main force of all places. His fleet had moved at top speed, but when they arrived 30 minutes later it was all too late.
The Ananke lay in ruins. Tianem's fleet at the flanks was being shredded, and mobile suits swarmed around them like flies.
"Spread out!" He ordered, "Cover the remnants of Revil's and Tianem's fleet's retreat!"
Rose barrel-rolled through missile and machine gun fire. "Damn...this is bad!" She looked behind her, where the various ace mobile suits she'd attacked were all pursuing her.
She dove behind a ruined Magellan, before using her vernier thrusters to push her around it and below the suits. She fired, nicking Shin Matsunaga's white suit in the rear thrusters. She flew away, gaining a significant lead before the others realized what was going on.
She began to pant, the Gs were beginning to become a little much. She slapped herself, and suddenly she was shocked, and had a vision of a solid black mobile suit.
"That mobile suit! It's acting as a spotter for the railgun!" She realized, and immediately turned towards it.
Ryan scanned another group of ships, these ones the remnants of Kaningan's vanguard. Another shot obliterated three Magellan Class in a row.
Suddenly, he had a shock reverberate through his body. He jetted to the side, A golden saberfish charged at him, raising his heat sword, he cleaved off it's left wing as it passed him but it fired a missile that detonated on his left arm, blowing it clean off and sending debris into the rest of the suit.
"Gah!" A piece of debris impacted his arm. He tried firing at the Saberfish, but it was already heading towards the Federation lines. Several mobile suits paused beside him, seemingly pursing the plane as well, before leaving again, ditching the chaise
Gran Colombia
A Saberfish limped in with a single wing. Out of it, stepped a soot covered Rose.
Bright sighed, "You completely totalled the poor thing."
"Sue me." Rose rolled her eyes, "First battle, I'm an ace!"
"You're joking." Bright rolled her eyes.
Suddenly, an FF-S3R came in, "Oh so now he's back." Rose says,
Harris stepped off, "Impressive, Rosebush." He clapped, "Five mobile suits is no joke."
"Thank you." Rose mock bowed, she was soon swarmed by congratulations from her fellow cadets.
Despite all the positivity, Rose couldn't ignore all the death around her. Many of her classmates hadn't come back, there was no changing that.
Suddenly, she began to feel light headed, looking back, she'd been feeling pain in her arm, but adrenaline had dwarfed it.
"Ah shit." She said, and that was the last thing she said before she blacked out.
E.F.S.F Nereid
The Nereid was all that was left. The railgun the Zeon's deployed, together with their mobile suits, had wiped out his fleet.
The Tianem and Revil Fleets hadn't retreated yet, and had split into two groups.
"General. Your orders sir?" His adjutant asked. His crew was loyal till the end.
"Aim for the front of the Dozle Fleet." He ordered, "We're taking out that Railgun!"
"Sir!" The Nereid moved forward, the barrels fired at anything they could lock on too. A Musai was hit from below, a Gwazine was hit with two beams to the bridge. A Chivvay II was also hit in the hangar.
QCX-76A Jormungand
"Poor souls." Aleksandro said, watching the Nereid charge them. "I accept your challenge! Load the Jotunheim! Charge the reactors!"
Nereid
A mega-particle beam scraped against the Nereid's hull
A Chivvay was hit with two beams to the bottom of the ship, and emerged from the top of the bridge.
Another Mega-Particle beam hit the Nereid's portside.
They fired ASMs at the Musai who fired it, impacting it's bridge and front, it listed to the side - disabled.
"Target the railgun! Fire!"
They fired a forward barrage with it's two front beam cannons at the Jormungand.
Jormungand
"Eat this!" Aleksandro shouted, as the beams approached him, the railgun fired it's final shot. Impacting the Nereid and punching a hole straight through it's bow and coming out through it's engine.
Nereid
"This...is no doubt what Revil would do." Kaningan sighed, as he was absorbed by the blast of light.
Jormungand
Aleksandro sighed, "The age of the gunner...has come to an end at last." that was the last thing he said as the Jormungand was hit with a full frontal barrage of beams.
Ryan watched as the Nereid and Jormungand destroyed each other in a bright flash of light. A tear rolled down his cheek and, strangely, he felt a little at peace with their deaths.
He activated his thrusters, and headed for the nearest ship to him. The Jotunheim.
Lasting from January 16th, UC 0079 to the early morning of January 18th, UC 0079, the Battle of Loum was a disaster for the E.F.S.F. Out of the three fleets sent, the Kaningan vanguard was annihilated, the Revil Central Fleet took 92% casualties, and the Tianem Fleet lost almost half of it's force.
In comparison, Zeonic casualties were fairly small, with only 8 total cruisers and battleships being lost in the fighting.
During the battle, the only Mobile suit casualties inflicted on the Zeon forces would be dealt by Ensign Rose Sahalin, thethisse acts would propel her to near instant fame, as well as a massive promotion to Senior Lieutenant.
Battle of Loum; Combatants
Earth Federation Forces
48 Magellan Class Battleships
142 Salamis Class Cruisers
118 Lepanto Class Missile Frigates
84 Colombus Class Cruisers
- 60 Assorted models of Saberfish Fighters
Leaders
Supreme Commander Johann Ibrahim Revil
Brigadier General Rodney Kaningan
Admiral McFati Tianem
Zeon Armed Forces
4 Gwazine Class Battleships
- 80 MS-06 Zaku II (Assorted A & C Type production models)
12 Chivvay II Class Heavy Cruisers
- 60 MS-05B Zaku II
- 84 MS-06 Zaku II
20 Chivvay Class Heavy Cruisers
- 160 MS-05B Zaku II
27 Musai-Class Early Production Light Cruisers
- 100 MS-05B Zaku I
- 62 MS-06 Zaku II
19 Musai-Class Light Cruisers
- 114 MS-06 Zaku II
30 Papua-Class Transport Ships
- 528 MS-06 Zaku II
- 192 Gattle Fighters
20 Zanzibar-Class Carriers
- 120 MS-06 Zaku II
34 Jicco-Class Assault Boats
Leaders
Grand Admiral Dozle Zabi
- Lt. Colonel Monique Cadillac
Major General/Rear Admiral Kycilia Zabi
- Colonel Erika Lynne
Battle of Loum; Casualties
Zeon Armed Forces
2 Gwazine Class Battleships destroyed
- 1 MS-06 Zaku II Destroyed
3 Chivvay II Class Heavy Cruisers destroyed
- 2 MS-05B Zaku I destroyed
2 Musai-Class Early Production Light Cruisers destroyed
1 Musai-Class Light Cruisers destroyed
- 2 MS-06 Zaku II
2 Chivvay II Class Heavy Cruisers heavily damaged
12 Musai-Class Early Production Light Cruisers heavily damaged
2 Jicco-Class Assault Boats heavily damaged
14 Chivvay Class Cruisers moderately damaged
Earth Federation Forces
37 Magellan-Class Battleships destroyed
3 Magellan-Class heavily damaged
112 Salamis-Class Destroyed
10 Salamis-Class Heavily Damaged
19 Salamis-Class moderately damaged
93 Lepanto-Class destroyed
5 Lepanto-Class heavily damaged
12 Lepanto-Class heavily damaged
5 Lepanto-Class lightly damaged
82 Columbus-Class destroyed
- 52 Saberfish destroyed
2 Columbus Class heavily damaged
- 8 Saberfish heavily damaged
Leaders
Supreme Commander Johann Ibrahim Revil (MIA)
- Brigadier General Rodney Kaningan (KIA)
A/N: Loum Arc has been finished, next, our protagonists will head to the notorious Thunderbolt Sector, and Rosary gets a weapon that - comined with her Newtype skills - may even the odds!