KnightOfZaku: Well, we'll have to see!
Rose grabbed Lilith by the hand, and led her through the grove, before settling them down behind an outcropping and pulling out a pair of binoculars.
"Alright…oh son of a bitch." Rose muttered, switching the electronic binoculars into recording mode, she zoomed in on a black Zaku leading a company of Zakus.
"What is it?" Lilith asked,
"That black Zaku…it's none other than the Black Knight." Rose gritted her teeth, "And there's a solid red mobile suit…Char Aznable." She proceeded to list off several other aces, "Double shit, the entire fucking Corps is here!"
Lilith gritted her teeth, 'It's them!' Lilith thought angrily, the collection of Zeon's greatest aces, right in front of her…
She stood up, and ran back towards the mobile suits.
"H-hey!" Rose called as Lilith ran for the mobile suits.
'This bitch! She's going to get us both killed!' Rose dropped the binoculars and ran after her, but by the time she got to the grove, it was too late. Lilith had donned her pilots gear and the Gundam Sky Type shot from the trees, Rose could only brace herself as it flew past her.
"Damn it!" Rose swore, before she ran for her Gundam and prepared to go after her.
Ryan suddenly felt an electric shock to his nervous system
'Zeon! Death to Zeon!' A ghostly voice called.
Ryan raised his Gouf's hand,and the Newtype Corps immediately stopped, as well as several of the other Zaku pilots
"Hey, Ryan!" Yuri said over the comms, "What's the hold up?"
"It's the enemy, sir." Ryan said simply,
"You're kidding. Sensors haven't-" Without warning, Ryan fired into a nearby grove of trees and immediately afterwards, a Gundam Sky Type flew out.
Ryan jetted backwards as it's beam cannons opened fire, cutting down several normal Zaku's but those in the Newtype Corps dodged it.
Immediately, Ryan raised his Gouf's machine gun manipulators and opened fire, but the Sky Type used it's flying ability to dodge the bullets.
It then drew a new type of Beam rifle, and sniped a Zaku II through the head.
"Enemy spotted! Engaging!" Marion swiftly pulled out her sniper rifle, and leveled a shot at it. Striking it's armor but doing little damage.
"What?"
"Likely has the new armor we saw on the other ones." Ryan explained, "Standard guns won't do anything at this range, everyone, switch to bazookas or melee combat!" He grabbed a 280mm bazooka off his back, and proceeded to hold it in one hand while charging at the Sky Type in the other. Gaia, Mash, and Ortega followed up behind him.
"Let's finish it with a Jet Stream Attack!" Gaia told them,
"We'll show this Feddie what for!" Mash shouted,
"Don't get hit by one of those beam cannons!" Ortega teased,
"If you get hit, then I'm kicking your ass." Ryan deadpanned.
The Quad-Stars lined up in their signature Jet-Stream formation, albeit not as easy to do under gravity, the skill of the Quad-Stars meant they could easily make up for it.
Meanwhile, Lilith kicked a J-Type Zaku II aside before slicing it in half. Smiling, she looked at the leading mobile suit in the formation, Ryan's.
"The Quad-Stars! Prepare to be snuffed out!" Lilith charged at Ryan, lunging at him with her beam saber outward.
'This pilot is a Newtype, But she's too inexperienced!' Ryan quickly ducked to the side, causing Lilith's machine to overstep and come off balance. Gaia then proceeded to reveal himself behind Ryan, hitting Lilith with a barrage of gunfire.
Mash came next, drawing his heat hawk, he slashed off the Gundam's arm before back-kicking it.
Finally, Ortega moved in to finish it off with his Bazooka when suddenly he was forced to fall back when an AGM detonated in front of him.
"Damn it!" Ortega retreated as more AGMs followed him.
Rose burst out of the treeline, her work arms drawn. She fired her beam rifle at the Quad-Stars, forcing them to back off before landing in front of Lilith.
The rest of the Newtype Corps and mobile suit division moved to back up the Quad-Stars.
Rose looked around. 'There has to be hundreds of them…there's only one thing we can do…'
"Lilith." Rose told her icily.
"Yes commander?"
"Get on me."
"But-"
"Get on. Or I will make you." Lilith gulped, this wasn't Rose's usual sass, she was genuinely pissed off, and a pissed off Rose was not a good Rose.
"Get them!" Gaia shouted, firing his bazooka, he tried to land shots on Rose's gundam, but she instead swiftly transformed to dodge the missiles.
Looping over the enemy, she grabbed Lilith with one of the Gundam's work arms, and pulled her away.
"Why were they so far out? We're still miles away from the frontline." Marion wondered,
"Likely, they were trying to spy on us. But that red mobile suit decided to charge us." Ryan deduced, 'That pressure…it felt forced. And the hatred that emanated from that mobile suit indicates that for some reason, she has a serious vendetta against this company.'
"This won't be the last we see of them." Char said simply,
"Why is it that the Golden Valkyrie seems to show up wherever we are?" Heinrich complained,
"We must have some dogshit luck." Zero agreed,
"300th Corps! Have you taken care of the situation?" Yuri asked over the comms, interrupting the conversation.
"They got away." Ryan replied, stowing his weapons.
The duo flew back to friendly lines in silence, however, this time it was a silence initiated by Rose, not Lilith.
"Oh shit…" Vanessa looked up and saw the trashed Sky Type and the Golden Gundam holding it.
Lilith got out first, and stepped out of the cockpit as Rose landed nearby.
"This isn't going to end well. Is it?" Helios deadpanned.
Rose stepped out of her cockpit, and approached Lilith. Despite being taller than the girl, Lilith seemed somewhat cowed.
Rose didn't say a word, instead raising her hand, and backhanding Lilith across the face.
"Are. You. Stupid?" Rose asked icily, Lilith didn't respond, frustrating the small blonde even more and earning herself another slap.
"We could've gotten killed! You're so damn lucky we got out in time!" Rose yelled, "What if you did that when we had the entire team with us?! Stupid shit like that gets us all killed!"
Rose scrunched her face and calmed down. "Shit…well, if you can't control yourself…I'm forbidding you from sorting on offensive missions."
"...What?" Lilith asked incredulously,
"That's right. No more bullshit like this. You'll be staying behind unless it's purely defensive."
"But if I can't go with you then how am I going to kill Zeons?!" Lilith yelled,
"War is more than killing the enemy." Rose countered, "It doesn't matter how many you kill if everyone surrounding you is dead. I read somewhere, a famous general from the middle ages said this: 'The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his'. And with our small size, that's become my personal credo." Rose scratched the back of her head, "This isn't just to protect the team, but to protect you as well."
"But…!" Lilith began, but trailed off. Of course she was right.
"If, and only if you can prove that you can fight not only competently - which you couldn't, by the way - but with others, then you can rejoin us on missions into Zeonic territory."
Lilith tch'ed, and stormed off angrily.
"She didn't take that well, Commander." Vanessa said,
"Shit. I could use a drink." Rose said,
"I'm afraid I can't have a drunkard debriefing me." Colmatta suddenly materialized behind her, causing her to jump.
"Yes sir…" Rose reluctantly followed him, shaking her head with exhaustion.
"The Zeonic army is less than ten miles from our position. Unfortunately, I have no visual data as I was forced to abandon my binoculars." Rose told her,
"I see, they've arrived much faster than we thought. What about strength?"
"I saw at least a division of mobile suits. Not to mention…" Rose paused,
"Spit it out." Colmatta snapped,
"I saw them. The 300th Newtype Corps."
Colmatta groaned, "Not this again-"
"I'm serious!" Rose slammed her fist on the table, causing Colmatta to startle. "Company size. I confirmed it. The way they fought, the coloring of their mobile suits, do you really think any Zaku would've trashed a Sky Type so easily?"
"Speaking of: I heard Subject 04 is suspended from offensive combat duty and is restricted to CAP operations."
"Yes sir." Rose replied,
"Unnecessary. Put her back immediately."
"I refuse."
Colmatta stared at her, "Come again?"
"I refuse. My actual pilots can't spend half their time babysitting a mentally unstable propaganda model." Rose said coldly, "Lilith Aidan will not be returning to combat operations."
Colmatta stood, "I am ordering you-"
"For what good reason, sir?" Rose sighed, finally fed up. "To satisfy the politicians running this war? I'm a soldier. And a young one at that. Now, I know that at the end of the day, not everyone in my squad is making it out of this alive. I've seen too many people die beside me for that. However, what I will do is that they don't die in dumb ways. This is one of them. You may have leeway with the people who can make my life a living hell. But I'll be the one writing the letters to the people whose lives already are."
Colmatta sat back down, "...Fine. You win. But Coliny won't like this."
Rose turned to leave, but said this over her shoulder: "Admiral Coliny - with all due respect - choke on a dick."
"Seriously! She went up and clocked the bitch! Twice!" Helios bragged,
"No way. I mean, Lilith always seemed kinda scary to me." Jeremiah shrugged, "The commander must have some serious balls of steel."
"Or ovaries." Vanessa chimed in, "And it's true. The commander went and slapped Lilith twice. Then she was called aside by Colmatta."
"I hope she slaps him too." Another pilot stated
Without warning, the door was kicked open and the barracks fell silent as Lilith Aidan walked down the aisle, casting stony glares at the pilots around her until she settled on a bunk of her own.
Shortly afterwards, Rose came in and flopped on her own bunk, and was greeted with a few lazy salutes which she returned before lying down on her bunk.
"How'd it go?" Vanessa asked,
"Fine, I guess." Rose shrugged, "Colmatta playing telephone and trying to order me to get Lilith back on combat duty, I refused."
'God…I wonder what Adrian would do in this situation?'
A Zaku kneeled and opened fire at a Type 61 in a dugout position before getting hit by two shells from an RTX-65 Guntank, disabling the mobile suit.
Ryan instantly rushed the tank with his Gouf, slamming his shield into it before pumping bullets from his finger guns into its head. Finally, he finished it off with a quick sweep of his heat sword.
He got up, and stared at the mountain range ahead of them.
'Valkyrie…where are you?'