KnightOfZaku: Nope! As I said, I want to save that for later arcs. I have something big planned for that!
Operation Wyrm Part VI: Sad Wolf
"HEINRICH!" Alma heard the shrill scream of a girl could be heard over all the comms, but it wasn't long before she realized the scream was hers.
In her own cockpit, Marion was breathing heavily in a mix of shock and overwhelming grief, barely able to even grip her own controls.
"Everyone!" Ryan screamed, his voice cracking slightly. "Snap out of it and keep moving!"
"No!" Zero screamed, "H-he's still alive! He has to be!" He started to turn his Zaku around, but Ryan grabbed his arm.
"Zero." Ryan said icily, "Heinrich is dead."
"No…no…no!" Zero screamed, clutching his head. "Its not trueitsnottrueITSNOTTRUE!"
'We don't have time!' Ryan thought, slinging the Zaku over his own already overburdened Zakus shoulder, he began running at a significantly slowed pace.
"Nice shot Jonathan." Rose congratulated her comrade as the Sky Type Gundam stood up, "One hit confirmed…"
"Lots of target practice shooting up Zeeks." Jonathan slung his R-3X over his shoulder. "What's our next move commander?"
Rose couldn't help but grin slightly, "Fire at will."
"Semovente Corps! Take them all down! For Kiln! For Vega! Drive these spacenoid bastards off our planet and back to their tin cans they call colonies!" Federico screamed, clearly…not in the best frame of mind.
"Is he going to be okay?" Kayla wondered,
"He needs to let off some steam. No harm in that." Rose shrugged, "Besides…" She pushed her throttle forward,
"...I think I'm starting to get a little worked up as well!" Rose rushed forward and with speed far outstripping her comrades and immediately managed to catch up to the enemy.
"How is it that fast!?" A Zaku screamed as the Golden Gundam spun around with an agility far beyond its looks and immolated it with its beam saber.
"Shit! Shit!" Johnny said, "They're really pulling out all the stops to kill us!"
"And its working!" Gaia said as another Zaku was picked off by the Golden Gundam.
Thinking quickly, Ryan dumped Zero's still immobile Zaku on Johnny Ridden and turned to the Quad-Stars "Gaia! Mash! Ortega! We need to hold her off!"
"Just what I was about to say." Gaia swerved around and drew his bazooka. Mash and Ortega both drew their sniper and heat hawk respectively while Ryan drew his heat sword in one hand and a 120mm machine gun in another.
"Let's do this!" Ortega rushed forward with his heat hawk, twirling it, he managed to force the Gundam to block with its beam saber.
Gaia then proceeded to slide around to inside and squeezed off a bazooka shot, however, the Gundam proceeded to rocket backwards and the shot sailed harmlessly in front of it.
Mash then proceeded to come from the other side and fired a sniper shot which the Gundam tilted its head to avoid.
Ryan came from behind and was about to slash at it, but suddenly felt a spark.
'She's going to swing!' Ryan lept backwards as the Golden Gundam slashed at him, only for his left arm to be struck by a thrown twin beam spear.
"What?!" Ryan said in surprise as a Red Sky-Type Gundam suddenly slammed into him, causing him to stumble back.
"Are you alright, commander?" Lilith questioned,
"I'm fine." Rose stated, "Let's take these bastards down."
Rose and Lilith proceeded to charge into a 2v4 with the Black Quad-Stars covering the retreat of their comrades. Lilith deftly twirled her Beam Spear between Mash and Ortega, fending off Ortega's heat hawk before ducking to avoid another sniper shot from Mash.
Rose, meanwhile, faced Gaia and Ryan. Ryan fired his 120mm machine gun, forcing Rose to move to the side where Gaia was waiting for her with a bazooka shot.
'Shit!' Rose immediately flew up, the bazooka shot instead hitting an unfortunately placed Zaku.
Rose immediately countered with AGM missiles and beam rifle fire, forcing the two to scatter to the sides.
Transforming into fighter mode, Rose proceeded to dive down on them and activated her vulcans, forcing them to block with their shields, taking advantage of their slowed movements, she flipped over and fired her remaining missiles down on them.
"Eat this!" She shouted.
Above the Atmosphere - Komusai attached to the Z.A.E.D Jotunheim
"Throw the fixing wires over here! And be careful! It won't be pretty if they break!" An engineer floated around the large mobile tank, making sure everything was going as smoothly as possible.
Above the busy work below, Lt. Oliver May was lost deep in his thoughts.
"Lieutenant…a moment?" Lt. General Albert called out to Oliver as he was about to leave.
"Sir?" May questioned, Monique looked back briefly, but left without saying anything.
"I'm sure you're wondering why we're utilizing the Hildolfr." Schnact stated,
"I was wondering that, sir." Oliver nodded, "With all due respect…tests on this mobile unit were completed years ago. I don't see why any tests are being conducted at all, much less in the Alpine Mountains."
"It's true that the Hildolfr is a sad wolf rejected by the military." Schnact stood, tracing the lines on his mahogany desk.
"Then what are we doing now?" May stepped forward and asked,
Schnact paused, before saying: "Following the operation…the Hildolfr will be left and deployed on Earth. No need to bother collecting it."
"That would mean…No…there's a limit to how much we can improve on site!" Oliver insisted,
"Official reports will say…that this is an unforeseeable circumstance caused by poor intelligence maneuvering." Schnact stated, "However, the simple fact of the matter is that the war on earth is simply not going as well as the propaganda claims." Schnact lifted up a paper, and handed it to Oliver, who scanned it.
"The 300th Newtype Corps requested multiple times for new mobile suits following an escort mission gone wrong. And was denied at every turn." Schnact summarized, "This loss is not the product of unforeseen factors, but Zeon's own negligence. The simple truth is that the war on Earth is not going as well as we advertise it to be. The Zeon Armed Forces are sinking in a swamp that infinitely swallows supplies and manpower. A problem only exacerbated by the machinations of bureaucrats such as M'Quve."
Oliver said nothing, Schnacts current words could very well be considered treason, which - looking back - was probably why he dismissed the Special Operations Captain.
Schnact sighed, and sat back down in his seat. "This has been decided by the brass themselves."
Oliver grunted, but said nothing…
'Using anything available…are we the same way?' Oliver wondered, he thought back to the few encounters they had with the 300th Newtype Corps, a force that was composed majorly of people under the age of twenty.
Oliver was jolted out of his thoughts by a metallic rattling, and turned to face the man who had come up beside him.
"I'm the one who was assigned to pilot the Hildolfr." The man stated, before adding: "...regardless of what some people might think." He turned back to Oliver, and introduced himself: "Major Demaziere Sonnen."
Oliver saluted, "Engineering Lieutenant Oliver May."
"Good to m-mee-" Sonnen suddenly froze up, and began to shake and stiffen. Oliver dropped his salute in concern, but Sonnen quickly took a pill from a metallic case and gulped it down.
Sonnen coughed briefly, before smiling lightly at Oliver: "Mint. Want one?"
'That is clearly not a mint!' Oliver thought to himself, but instead of saying it, he politely shook his head in refusal.
Sonnen nodded in understanding, and began to speak: "The YMT-05 Hildolfr, top speed of 110 kilometers and has a 30 centimeter main gun. A mobile tank destined to be mass produced sooner or later."
Sonnen's words reminded Oliver of Schnact's orders.
"...Following the operation…the Hildolfr will be left and deployed on Earth. No need to bother collecting it."
"Well…this is being taken under the name of tests-" Oliver said meekly, but Sonnen banged his hand against the metal of the Hildolfr.
"Trust me, when we go down there and rescue those brats - even the brass will be convinced!"
Their conversation was cut short by the voices of Hideto and Monique.
"Please Captain~! Can't I even have one mobile suit?!"
"I told you, lieutenant. These are replacement suits for the 1st Terrestrial Mobile Division." She gestured to the assortment of MS-06G Zaku II High Mobility Ground Types and MS-07B Goufs.
"Aw…" Hideto groaned in disappointment.
Sonnen looked around the Hildofr and locked eyes with Monique who gasped in surprise at seeing him, ignoring Hideto's continued complaints as she hurriedly moved on.
"Approaching landing zone, T-minus five minutes." The intercom came on in the Fat Uncle transport.
"Finally. I'm starting to get tired of flying." Wald stated boredly,
"Soon. You'll be wishing you were back on this Uncle." Selma said,
"Honestly, I want to see some of these Feddie mobile suits." Yun Sanho stated, "I heard that even the Golden Valkyrie is there with her Gundam."
"Gundam or not! The captain is going to take them all out!" Egba said confidently over the radio, "He wasn't made Captain of the Southern Cross for nothing!"
"I wouldn't be so sure about that…" Selma stated worriedly, "If aces like the Red Comet and Black Knight are having trouble…"
"They're just a bunch of snot-nosed kids! Nothing like the captain!" Egba said,
Meanwhile, from below the P01B Luggun carrying his mobile suit, Doan remained silent throughout the entire exchange.
"Captain." The pilot flying their Fat Uncle stated, "Zanzibar-Class on our left, carrying the Midnight Fenrir."
"Understood." Doan stated,
Zanzibar-Class Ship Fenri
"Fat Uncle Class and two P01B Lugguns on our right. Southern Cross Corps." Charlotte noted to him,
"Understood. Tell Captain Doan I said hello." Geheart said offhandedly, 'Still, the fact that so many Special Forces teams are here means that M'Quve is really pulling out all the stops here. There's never been this level of cooperation between Mobile Assault Units until now.'
"Captain. We're pulling up to the combat zone! And I've just spotted six FF-4 Toriares along with twenty four FF-3 Saberfish coming straight for us!" Charlotte said urgently.
"Damn. Prepare to intercept! Prepare the mobile suits for a mid-air launch if need be!"
"Understood, Commander!"
"This is Eagle 3! We got a fleet of bogeys inbound! I count a Zanzibar, a Fat Uncle, two Lugguns carrying Zakus, and about a dozen fighters." A Federation pilot listed off,
"This is Darwin Leader. All units, arm air-to-air missiles!" As soon as Darwin Leader said this, the EFAF planes rushed forward to engage the enemy below with the Dopp units rushing up to meet them.
The Dopps flew up at them, using their superior thrust to quickly engage the Saberfish in an opening barrage. A FF-3 burst into flames as a 20mm vulcan ripped through its fuselage.
Darwin Leader banked upwards after a Dopp, before opening fire with his own 25mm guns, but the Dopp quickly outturned its opponent.
"Damn! You'd think with big-ass missile pods like that they'd make an easier target!" Darwin 2 said in frustration.
"Forget the Dopps! Target the carriers!" Eagle Leader ordered, leading the FF-4s in a dive against the Zanzibar and Fat Uncle.
Eagle Leader couldn't help but smirk as the Zanzibar came into his sights. 'I don't need guidance to take something as shitty as you down!' He thought to himself,
Without warning, a hail of machine gun fire ripped into his planes and tore it to pieces.
Doan sighed as restowed his 120mm machine gun and latched his free hand back onto the Luggun as the remaining FF-4s backed off with the death of their leader.
"Nice one Doan!" Wald said cheerfully,
"That's our captain for you!" Egba cheered,
"We lost Eagle Leader!" Darwin 2 called out,
"Damn it! We can't let them through-"
"Sir! We got another bogey coming in from the atmosphere, readings show it to be a Komusai!" Darwin 3 stated,
"More mobile suits?! Shit! Call up some Flydarts!" Darwin Leader ordered, 'This has just gotten a hell of a lot more dangerous…'
As Adrian weaved through the missiles, Seven once again began speaking to him. "Commander! We've detected several large craft approaching the vicinity!"
"Damn it! More Roggs?!"
"No! They read as a Zanzibar, Komusai, Fat Uncle, and two Lugguns carrying MS!" Seven said in cheerful relief, "They're reinforcements!"
"Commander. We've spotted several large craft coming into the area."
"More Depp Roggs?" Rose raised an eyebrow, "I get the Air Force can be some trigger happy sons of bitches, but this is just overkill. The Army is already shelling the shit out of them so much I'm starting to actually feel bad."
"No ma'am. These are enemy reinforcements!" Jonathan stated,
"What?! Are you sure?!" Rose said in surprise,
"Yes! Signatures read as a Zanzibar, Komusai, Fat Uncle, and Lugguns! Hold on…this just came in! We have several more signatures! They read as Zanzibar and Gaw-Class!" Jonathan yelled,
'They're really not pulling their punches now…' Rose gritted her teeth. "All units! Prepare to engage additional enemies!"
"Understood, Commander!" The 01st MS Team replied,
"High-altitude atmospheric entry vehicle detected! We're launching Flydarts!" An officer ordered aboard a Depp Rogg,
"Understood! Launch Flydarts!"
From where there would normally be several tons of explosive ordinance, four FF-7 Flydart interceptors were docked instead. Their pilots quickly entered their cockpits and began their launch procedure.
"Launching Flydarts!" The officer yelled, opening the bay doors, the Flydarts dropped out and immediately began zooming towards their target.
"We've dropped straight into a warzone?! What the hell are our fighters doing?!" Monique raged as she quickly tried to steer the Komusai through the gunfire, yelping as an FF-3 Saberfish strafed her.
"Komusai! This is Lt. Commander Geheart Schmitzer! Can you hear me?!" A voice suddenly came over the radio,
"This is Special Operations Captain Monique Cadillac, we hear you commander!" Monique quickly replied,
"Our sensors are picking up additional interceptors, likely Flydarts. You need to drop your load now or you never will! The other carriers have agreed to do the same!"
"This high up? We're still several miles in the atmosphere!" Oliver said incredulously,
"Its our only option!" Geheart said, right as one of the new coming Gaws was hit by a 40mm shell from a flydart.
"Shit!" Monique swore, before picking up the intercom, "Major! Prepare to launch!"
In the cockpit of the Hildofr, Sonnen grinned.
"YMT-05 Hildolfr! Preparing for mid-air launch!"