KnightOfZaku: We will see. We will see.
Early the following morning…
"The Zeon artillery group is about fifteen miles behind their lines." A lieutenant explained to Rose and Federico.
"Great. We get in, hit them hard, and get out. In and out in less than an hour. Semovente can handle this even without the 01st Team." Czariano said confidently,
"Unfortunately, we can't have that." Colmatta said, "Both teams have strengths and weaknesses the other will compensate for. The 01st Team has better mobile suits and higher firepower, but the Semovente will be necessary for guiding the group through the enemy lines. And besides, you can't go wrong with numbers."
'Then why are we losing the war?' Rose rolled her eyes but didn't comment.
"Tch. I signed up to fight, not to be a tour guide." Czariano muttered under his breath.
"You'll be doing plenty of that. Once you've taken out the artillery camp, you'll need to head to an area marked here-" Colmatta pointed to an orange dot on the holo-map, "-where a group of Medea's will be waiting to bring you back here."
"Think your team can handle it?" Czariano asked, and Rose scoffed.
"Course we can." Rose straightened, "We're the 01st MS Team after all."
A Sky-Type Gundam once again shattered its feet upon landing, bringing the simulator to a close.
"...we can't handle this." Rose pinched the bridge of her nose.
For the past day, the 01st MS Team had been failing miserably when it came to simulating the drop. The primary problem seemed to come with managing their descent. The structural design of the Sky Type made it pretty much impossible to mount parachutes, meaning they had to rely entirely on their flight capabilities to pull off a landing. This, of course, meant that the landings were either too hard and they shattered the Gundam's legs, or they went off course and were eliminated from the simulator.
"Damn it…" Vanessa sighed, "I missed the timing again."
Rose patted her on the back, "Try activating your boosters at 5000 feet rather than 4000 and use them to slow your descent."
"Or maybe it's just a skill issue!" Helios called out,
"Shut up. You got it once and you suddenly think you're an ace?" Jonathan snarled irritably,
"Technically, yeah. I've long passed 5 kills."
Jonathan rolled his eyes, and Rose whacked him on the back of the head. "Cut it out you two, I want to do live training with Medeas, but we can't do it until everyone gets it right." She shot looks at the thirteen pilots of the 01st MS Team.
"Now. Let's take it from the-," Rose began but winced as she heard the crashing sound of another Sky Type.
'God damn it…'
"Ryan-chan~!" Alma called to him, "I'm bored!"
Ryan focused on her MS-06G with the Gouf's monoeye. "Sorry, but you're going to have to deal with it for a little longer."
"You spoil her too much." Gaia said, "It's been barely five minutes."
Alma pouted, "You're so mean Uncle Gaia!"
"U-uncle?!" Gaia winced,
"Yeah, 'cause you're old and grumpy!" Alma stuck her tongue out at him over the screen, causing a vein to throb in Gaia's head.
"You little- I'm 26!" Gaia yelled,
"Sure~," Alma said mockingly,
"Now that you say that, big brother Gaia does have a few gray hairs." Seven said thoughtfully,
"From dealing with this brat!" Gaia shot an accusing look at Alma.
"Cut it out. All of you." Ryan said exasperatedly,
For a minute, all was silent, then Zero proceeded to say: "Now that you mention it, I think Gaia has a bottle of hair dye." Which caused the entire company to break out in a roar of laughter, even Char and Ryan gave quiet chuckles.
"That's it! Come out of that cockpit and I'll show you old!" Gaia shouted indignantly, which in turn, caused the company to laugh even more.
The bickering continued for a few minutes until Ryan finally quieted them by pointing out that they'd arrived.
"Wow…It's like a Musai on land!" Alma breathed,
"Hey!" A Zaku Cannon hailed them, "You guys the reinforcements?"
Ryan approached the MS-06K, "I'm Commander Ryan Sahalin, 300th Newtype Corps."
"Major Nordit Bauer, I command this artillery group."
"I see." Ryan nodded,
"It must suck for you guys. You've been assigned to glorified guard duty."
Ryan shrugged, "I just follow orders."
Major Bauer laughed, "Soldier through and through. Well, I'm glad you're here anyway, especially since we're about to move."
"Finally!" Helios cheered as his simulated Sky-Type touched down gently.
"Well, that's all of you, we struggled for a while, but we got it eventually." Rose sighed,
Suddenly, a lieutenant ran into the room they were all practicing in.
"Commander!" The lieutenant huffed, handing her a paper. Rose took it, and scanned over it.
"What?!" Rose shrieked, "Colmatta can't be serious!"
"Commander?" Jonathan asked,
"We need to go. Now."
"What?" Vanessa stepped off the simulator.
"Yes. Sevemonte Corps has already boarded their Medeas. We're being dropped a day early."
"Why?!" Helios cried out,
"Apparently, intelligence shows that the Dabude-Class is preparing to relocate into a large Zeon MS formation, not only that, but they're being reinforced. If we don't catch them now, we never will." Rose explained, "I'm sorry about this."
The members of the 01st MS Team looked amongst each other, and lined up before giving Rose a single, unified salute.
"01st MS Team! Moving out!"
"She's late," Colmatta noted,
"To be fair, this came as a surprise, even to us." Federico shrugged,
Right as he said that, the 01st MS Team burst into the hangar.
"Commander Rose Sahalin - 01st MS Team, reporting!" Rose saluted Colmatta, who nodded in approval.
"Alright. As you've heard, we're pushing up the deployment date to - well, now. We've received intelligence that the artillery group is preparing to move into a more reinforced area. If we don't catch them now, we never will." Colmatta explained,
"Can't we just send in the air force then?" Rose asked,
"Unfortunately, Zeon still has air superiority over the area, bombers would be wiped out." Colmatta said,
'And a fat Medea wouldn't?' Rose perked a brow, but kept her tongue.
"The plan remains relatively unchanged, the Medeas will be in the same position. Prioritize the Dabude-Class battleships, dismissed."
Rose shrugged on a pilot's suit when she sensed the door slowly open behind her.
"I'll be right- Lilith?" Rose cocked an eyebrow as the woman approached her,
"Here." Lilith handed her two full thermoses, "You'll be gone for a while, so I thought you'd need both."
Rose looked down and smiled. "Thanks. I needed this."
Lilith didn't respond, but simply nodded and was about to leave when Rose called out to her:
"You're not trying to come with us?" She asked,
Lilith shrugged, "I can't change your mind. I'll wait."
"Okay then~," Rose was about to brush past her, when she suddenly turned around, and gave Lilith a brief hug, leaving the stunned Cyber Newtype to watch her leave.
Twelve minutes following departure…
"You sure we're not taking Aidan with us? She's a good pilot, even if she's a little…" A pilot named Eli asked from the cockpit of his Ground-Type Gundam.
"Eli…!" Vanessa called out to the pilot, but Rose waved her down.
"It's fine. Anyway, no. Maybe the next mission though, since she seems to have mellowed out a bit, but we'll see." Rose told them,
"We're approaching the drop zone now! Three minutes until drop!" The pilots of the Medea shouted over the loudspeaker,
"Here goes nothing…" Helios muttered to himself, clasping his hands together in prayer.
"Remember the simulator…remember the simulator…" A young and nervous-looking pilot named Lon Kou.
"Hey kid, keep it down, you're scaring the rest of us." Jonathan called out, causing all of them to laugh.
"Prepare to drop!" The pilots shouted, and immediately the group quieted as the rear doors began to open.
'Alright…here goes nothing.' Rose inhaled, and breathed out before pushing her throttle forward.
"Rose Sahalin! Golden Gundam, Dropping!"
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