KnightOfZaku: The next chapter or two is going to be wild.
Operation Wyrm Part II: Big Tray
"Admiral! You know this is unfeasible!" Ryan insisted, it was rare that Ryan got so worked up, but the situation before him definitely called for it.
"It's…out of my hands." Yuri sighed, "M'Quve is ordering the entire army to move out."
"What about repairs? These stop-gap suits won't last through an offensive like this."
Yuri shook his head, "You'll have to make do." He said sadly, "New mobile suits won't come for another week."
"A week we don't have." Ryan collapsed in his chair, "The army is already beginning to move out, and when the time comes…we'll have to be at the frontlines."
"I'm sorry about this," Yuri said
"Don't be. It's not your fault." Ryan told him, "When do we move out?"
"Later today. Prepare your men." Yuri explained,
Ryan nodded and wordlessly left to prepare for the offensive.
"It's so clunky!" Alma complained, "What, do they grease these things with molasses?"
"I can feel the rust grating in the joints," Zero added from the cockpit of his Zaku I.
The 300th Newtype Corps had definitely fallen far. From state-of-the-art high mobility mobile suits, the vast majority of them had now been downgraded to aging MS-06Js or MS-05Js, which lacked the manueverability and versatility of the MS-06Gs and MS-07Bs the Corps were used to.
"I'm…really sorry." Ryan apologized again,
"It's not your fault Ryan-chan, it's all because of that idiot M'Quve!" Alma huffed, "It's always '300th Newtype Corps, do this!' or '300th Newtype Corps, do that!'" She shook her head, "It's not fair!"
"That's the military in a nutshell." Johnny replied to her, currently in an MS-06J Zaku II Ground Type.
"We're approaching the frontline." Char said at last, causing them all to fall silent. Without them realizing, they had already approached their target area…
Six miles behind the Frontline…
"Too easy." Rose scoffed, watching the outline of combat in the distance, she grabbed a radio, and began to speak.
"Alright. 431st Mechanized Infantry Company - fall back, draw them in further! 435th and 436th Companies move to the East and West!" Rose ordered,
Once she received the various affirmatives she put down the radio, and turned to Lilith Aidan behind her, holding a thermos with one hand and handing it to her, which Rose graciously accepted.
"Reports say the frontline has receded two miles already." Lilith said,
"Hardly far enough." Rose said, sipping her coffee before turning and beginning to walk away.
"Where are you going?" Lilith asked,
Rose looked at her, a small twinkle in her eyes as she said: "Well, we have to keep up appearances, don't we? I think it's time a certain ace entered the stage." She donned her pilots helmet as she continued. "Come on, Ensign. You wanted to kill Zeeks right? Here's your chance."
Lilith nodded, "Understood!"
"Marion?" Ryan said tentatively,
"I've spotted four platoons of Type 61s." She said as she looked at her monitor, steadily gazing her sniper rifle's scope over the trenches below her. "And I detected there are another platoon of Guntanks further back and…there's a Big Tray-Class as well"
"The Type 61s won't be a threat, but the Guntanks might pose a problem with their cannons, and the Big-Tray can tear our Zakus apart." Char noted and Ryan nodded.
"Marion. Think you can take out some of those Guntanks?" Ryan asked, "I have a plan for the Tray."
"Understood." Marion said smoothly.
Big-Tray Class Land Battleship - E.F.A.F Richard Nixon
"Sir! Enemy MS has approached our lines!" A lieutenant ran up to a Federation Captain on the bridge of the Big Tray Class "Richard Nixon".
The captain nodded, "Get the targeting data and tell the Guntanks to open fire on the enemy immediately!"
"Right!" The lieutenant nodded.
Without warning, as the Guntank beside the Tray lowered it's cannons to fire, a streak of reflected light shot across the front of the bridge and pierced straight through the tank. It formed a glowing orange hole in the center of the tank, only for the Guntank to explode seconds later.
"What?!" The Federation Captain called out, "How?! We're half a mile away from the frontline!"
As if in answer, two more bullets shot straight through the batteries of another two Guntanks, officially bringing the count up to three.
"Identify where the shots are coming from! H-Hurry!" The Captain screamed,
"Enemy mobile suits closing in! T-They're company size!"
'Half-mile shots… company-sized? It couldn't be!' The captain thought in a panic, right as the final Guntank exploded.
"Damn it! Prepare to fire all guns!" The captain ordered,
"But sir! Our infantry-"
"Do it! That's the Black Knight up there! They're dead anyway!" The captain screamed,
The crew hesitated, then nodded.
"Guntanks eliminated." Marion notified,
"Not bad for a hunk of junk like that." Alma complimented,
"Move in! Focus on eliminating the Type 61s!" Ryan called out to them,
"Roger!" The Corps replied, rushing down the enemy tanks, Alma lept up in the air and slammed her Heat Hawk down on Type 61. Marion proceeded to snipe another Type 61, causing it to explode.
Char rushed in with his 120mm machine gun, gunning down a Type 61 before throwing his Hawk at Type 43, cleaving the tank clean in two.
"Everyone! Watch out! The Big Tray is preparing to fire!" Seven shouted suddenly,
"What?! They're willing to take out their own men?!" Johnny cried incredulously,
"Don't clump up! Scatter!" Ryan ordered hastily,
"Incoming!" Zero shouted, right as several streaks of light arc'ed across the sky above them. As shells rained down on them, the Newtype Corps was hard-pressed not to get caught in the blasts. Alma barely ducked to the side as a shell detonated barely a few meters from her mobile suit. Heinrich pushed his MS-05J to the limit as he rolled and weaved between artillery.
'This wouldn't be an issue if we had better mobile suits!' Ryan thought as he barely rocketted backwards to dodge a sudden artillery shell.
Finally, after a few seconds, the rain of artillery had stopped.
"We should have about a minute to close in on that battleship! Go!" Ryan shouted,
"Impact confirmed! Awaiting visuals!" The gunnery officer shouted,
'Keh. I'd like to see you survive that Mr. Knight.' The Federation captain scoffed, reclining in his chair. 'I deserve a promotion…'
"C-Captain!" The gunnery officer yelled, "We have visual…the enemy has taken no casualties!"
"How?!" The captain stood ramrod straight. "That was a perfect barrage!"
Without warning, a bullet punched straight through their left turret, and it's guns sagged limply at being disabled.
"We've lost Main Gun No.2!" An officer yelled,
'T-these people are truly devils!' The Captain thought fearfully,
"Going for the bridge!" Char shouted, revving the thrusters of his Ground Type Zaku II, he launched himself in the air, almost seeming to be flying in the process.
As he descended, he laid into the Big Tray with a hail of 120mm machine gun fire, tracing a line of bullet holes across it's hole and right main gun.
Once his 120mm machine gun ran out of ammunition, he threw it aside and grabbed his Heat Hawk.
"You're mine!" Char shouted at the battleship, before he slammed his Heat Hawk down into the bridge, cleaving a gash clean top to bottom through the Big Tray.
Finally, his mobile suit landed in a crouching position, still holding the Heat Hawk to one side as the battleship sparked with electricity before bursting into flames and exploding.
"Wow…" Zero breathed
"We've been so focused on Ryan, we almost forgot how amazing Lt. Commander Char is…" Alma muttered.
The Zaku stood up, and sheathed it's Heat Hawk, basked in the flames of the wreckage, it rejoined the rest of the Corps.
Gaia sighed, and muttered to himself:
"Next comes hell, huh?"
A/N: I'm sorry. This chapter came a little later than intended, but I wanted to time it's release with the release of the new chapters of my other fanfictions as well.
Also, I hope you liked the action sequence with our favorite Red Comet. I - personally - love Char Aznable. And I blame Lalah Sune for everything bad that ever happened to him. Like, whenever I see people talk about Char on reddit, it's about how he's always manipulating the women around him, and I always found that to be kind of unfair, especially when I read Char's Deleted Affair. Char genuinely cared about Lalah, sure, it wasn't a conventional relationship and was more built around his own mommy issues. But still, I don't think it's fair to blame him for everything. Let's not forget Lalah spent the next fourteen years turning Amuro and Char into emotional wrecks until they were the shells of men that they were in Char's CounterAttack.
...And I've inadvertently typed out an entire rant.
Yay.
Wiki Link: official-solar-century .fandom. com