KnightOfZaku: To the first question, I'm still trying to figure that out. But the second - yes, the White Base will definitely be a major part of the Aparsas III battle.
Operation Wyrm VII: Dawn in the Valley
Side 3 - Zeon, Zum City Imperial Palace
Gihren Zabi scanned over the report on the piece of paper, on it was a text detailing the situation in the Gurktal Alps.
"Hmph." Gihren said laxly, "Kycilla has gotten herself into quite the situation this time." He smiled slightly, "Still, it's nice watching her panic for once. Reminds me that she isn't quite all she cracks herself up to be." He took a sip of his wine and sighed.
"Should we offer any assistance?" Cecilia asked.
"Cecilia, my dear. People have roles in life. And it is up to them and only them to fulfill those roles." Gihren paused, before adding:
"No matter the cost." Gihren finished the last of his wine and handed it to a servant.
"No. Send troops up north to Poland instead, they'll do much better there."
"Understood." Cecilia bowed politely before leaving.
'Sometimes, the most devastating blows are inflicted without a weapon at all.' Gihren thought to himself, before quietly chuckling into the artificial night of Zum City.
"We need to pull off here Captain! Good luck!" The Luggun pilot stated, Cucuruz nodded before releasing his Zaku from the Luggun and began his descent down to the Earth.
Beside him, mobile suits descended from their various forms of transport, creating a cascade of MS descending to the Earth.
"Be careful. Enemy ground forces might have sniper-type mobile suits." Doan stated, pulling an aiming lens over his eyes and zooming into it.
'Multiple enemy mobile suits, Zakus, Gundam-types, and another unknown type.' Doan pushed the lens aside, activating the boosters in his legs to slow his descent down to Earth and prevent damage. Simultaneously, he and several Zakus drew their weapons, Cucuruz specifically drew a dark blue Zaku II in his sights before opening fire.
"Commander! I count almost thirty mobile suits! Above us!" Jonathan yelled out,
'Who the hell could possibly talk the Zeon brass into pulling something as stupid as this?' Rose wondered incredulously,
"Down!" Kayla would move in front of the Golden Gundam with her shield, blocking several shots before the two moved out of the way of the barrage.
"Spread out around them! Don't let them break our formation!" Rose ordered as the first of the mobile suits began to descend to the earth.
Without warning, a white and green Zaku rushed up to Kayla causing her to stumble back as she quickly raised her shield to block a swift strike from a heat hawk.
Behind her, Rose was too stunned to react, but managed to catch a glimpse of the flame-like wolf's head emblem on the Zaku.
"A Wolf's head…?" Rose questioned, but was snapped out of her thoughts when a hail of machine gun fire came from behind, with three MS-06J Zaku IIs firing their machine guns at her.
"Damn it! Are these guys some kind of special unit?!" Jonathan said in frustration as he once again barely blocked a strike from the sand colored MS-06G Zaku II that was currently swinging its sword at him.
Rose quickly took stock of the situation, 'We don't have nearly enough mobile suits or the experienced pilots to take them on in a melee like this.' Raising her head, she shouted out her next order.
"Fall back! Take to the hills and we'll regroup there!" Rose called out to all her nearby allies.
"Understood, commander!"
What was seemingly an increasingly lost battle came to a swift end as the enemy melted into the surrounding hillside.
"Are they…is it over?" Alma questioned,
"No." Ryan gritted his teeth, "Far from it. They're just watching us now. Maybe a mile or less from here."
One of the mobile suits of the Midnight Fenrir placed a hand on Ryan's Zaku.
"Are you alright, Lieutenant Commander?" An aged voice asked,
"Yes…are you…the Midnight Fenrir?" Ryan questioned, taking notice of the wolf's head emblem on the mobile suit.
"Yes, and we came here to get you out."
After everything was settled, the leaders of each unit finally got together in the Weasel APC utilized by the 300th Newtype Corps for a strategy meeting.
"Right now, we can assume that the enemy is regrouping in the nearby hillside, probably waiting for us to move out of this valley." Gerhart began.
"Right. Which means if we want to get anywhere, we need to go straight through them." Ryan said immediately.
"Right. But it can't just be anywhere." Gerhart stated, "If we try going up the slopes of the valley, we're going to get ambushed by Type 51s and Artillery."
"Are you suggesting there's another way out?" Ryan asked,
This time, it was Colonel Rodin of the Red Team who spoke up. "This valley goes on for another mile or so, and at the end of it, there's a small highway we can squeeze mobile suits down through."
"There's one big risk though." This time, it was Henry Boone who spoke up. "This highway is a bottleneck, leaving us vulnerable to attacks from the hillside."
"That's why we're here." Three officers entered the APC, two men and a woman.
"You must be the Hildoflr's crew." Schmitzer turned towards them.
The red-haired woman between the men nodded, "Special Operations Captain Monique Cadillac, and these are Major Demeziere Sonnen and Engineering Lieutenant Oliver May."
"Yo." Sonnen gave a dull wave.
"Sir." Oliver respectfully saluted the officers present.
"You presented a good point, Captain Boone." Monique immediately injected herself into the meeting, as Sonnen and Oliver seemed content to stand off to the side listening in the cramped APC.
"In order to get through the highway, the Hildoflr will be taking point, while the Red Team, Wolf Gar Corps, Midnight Fenrir, and whoever else we can scrounge up will be protecting our flanks. We'll keep the mobile suits we can't complete field repairs on here with the Komusai."
Ryan looked around, and the other officers affirmed this plan. "When do we leave?" He asked,
This time, it was Colonel Rodin that answered. "I say we leave as soon as repairs are complete. The sooner we get on, the better."
Rose and her unit had indeed set up a temporary base of operations merely a mile and a half away from where they were now. Where they were conducting field repairs and plotting their next move.
"I'm not going to lie, that sudden attack caught us completely off guard Commander." One mechanic explained, "Thankfully, most of our mobile suits are still intact."
"Good-" Rose began, but was interrupted by the arrival of a staff car right in front of her.
"Just who I wanted to see." Rose muttered sarcastically.
Sure enough, the person who stepped out was none other than Major Michael Colmatta
"I must say, you've impressed a lot of people." Colmatta clapped, "This plan of yours is working very well."
"I wouldn't put all your eggs in one basket yet, Major." Upon saying that, Rose straightened herself and adjusted her cap. "About a mile and a half from here, the enemy is preparing to move out."
"And why aren't we preventing this Lieutenant Commander?" Colmatta asked with a raised eyebrow,
"Because the enemy has just dropped in an additional thirty mobile suits. Likely Special Forces units too." Rose stated.
"Zeon would do something like that?"
"The enemy is desperate. And right now, a desperate enemy is a dangerous enemy." Rose replied, "All troops! Complete repairs on the double!" Rose shouted.
"So what's your plan?" Colmatta questioned,
"The enemy isn't going to charge up the valley. That'd be suicide." Rose explained as they walked through the busy FOB. "They're going to make a run for the highway out." Rose lowered her cap before looking back at Colmatta.
"That's when we strike." Rose stated, ominously drawing a cut across her neck with a soft smile on her face.
As the hastily formed coalition of various Zeon units prepared to move out, Cucuruz Doan found himself lost in his own thoughts as he sat at the foot of his Zaku.
"Are you tired mister?" A tiny voice asked him, startling Doan slightly as he turned to look at the girl at his feet.
"Aren't you…one of Commander Sahalin's kids?" Doan asked curiously,
"Yep! Ensign No.7 at your service!" Seven said cheerfully.
"Number Seven? Don't you have a name?" Doan questioned.
"Nope! The people at the institute never gave us names!" Seven said with the same childish cheeriness that made Doan wonder how she could say something like that with such optimism.
"By the way…you never answered my question. You tired?" Without asking, Seven hopped up on his lap, and offered him a canteen of water. Which Doan nodded and wordlessly took.
"Well, I should probably be going. The mechanics always need my help tricking out the mobile suits." Seven lept off his leg and prepared to leave.
Finally, curiosity got the better of Doan, and he called out to the girl. "Wait!"
"Huh? Is there something I can do for you mister?" Seven walked back over to him questioningly, "Perhaps you want some work on your mobile suit? I can do it, but it won't be cheap."
"No…I just…wanted to ask. Doesn't it scare you?" Doan asked,
"Does what?" Seven tilted her head in confusion.
"The…war? The fighting? Never knowing who you might never see again?" Doan was trying to be careful in his words, and put it in a way she would fully understand. And by the looks of it, it was working.
Seven's face finally became downcast, as she leaned against the opposite leg of the Zaku. "Of course I'm scared mister." She admitted.
"It's always very scary. I'm not ignorant. I know bad things happen. I know that I might die but…" Seven choked a little before continuing. "But…I also know that everyone else…is alot more scared than me."
Doan grunted as she continued, "Everyone tries to hide it. But especially in situations like this…I can just feel it. Everyone is filled with fear and doubt. Even big brother." Seven smiled a little. "Especially big brother."
Seven looked up as she kept talking, "But at the same time, he pushes it down…to where even I can only just barely feel it at the fringes of his mind. He forces himself to keep going…for me and everyone else. And when I think of that…I'm not so scared anymore." Seven stepped in front of Doan before declaring:
"And that's why I want to work so hard on everyone's mobile suits and help them by being an operator! Because I know that they're working so hard to protect me…so I want to protect them anyway I can as well!"
"To protect them…anyway I can." Doan muttered to himself, thinking of his own team.
"And you know what mister, I think you're the same." Seven said confidently, "I think you want to protect everyone else as well! So let's do our best!" Seven cheerfully stuck out her pinkie finger. "Promise?"
Doan looked at it in surprise, before finally similing and wrapping his own larger pinkie around hers.
"I promise."
As Ryan and the officers finally left the APC to check on their units, Ryan finally struck up a conversation with Henry Boone.
"It's honestly surprising how much effort the brass is putting in for us." He said quietly, "I didn't think we were that important."
Henry sighed, before almost magically pulling out a cigarette and lighter and sticking the cigarette in his mouth.
"Want one?" He asked,
"Don't smoke." Ryan said quickly and awkwardly.
Henry shrugged, "Suit yourself." He took a drag of his cigarette before politely blowing the smoke out in the other direction opposite of Ryan.
"Want me to be honest kid?" Henry stated.
Ryan turned his head curiously to Henry, and the man sighed, scratching his head.
"Truth is - no one above the rank of Colonel gives two shits about the 300th." Henry said bluntly.
Ryan's eyes widened in surprise as Henry proceeded to take another drag of his cigarette. "Are you saying we don't matter?" Ryan said in a mix of surprise and rising annoyance.
Henry tapped his head, "Exactly." He said without a hint of remorse. "Not you, not me, not anyone here. For the brass we serve, we're slightly bolded numbers on the next report that hits their desk."
'Is he one of those defeatist veterans…?' Ryan thought to himself.
"And now I bet you think I'm one of those defeatist veterans. The ones always moaning about how Zeon's going to lose the war." Henry said almost instantly, causing Ryan to then wonder if Henry was a Newtype in his own right.
"Do you wonder how I got these scars?" He finally lifted up his trademark head-wrapped bandages, revealing an array of scars underneath.
"We're you…at a battle? Loum or Granada, maybe?"
"Oh I was at Loum alright." Henry said somewhat bitterly, "But these didn't come from a Saberfish. I wasn't that lucky."
"The Wolf Gar Corps is a penal unit - Commander Sahalin. And these scars? Torture from my interrogation." Henry explained, "I was setup to take the fall for an attempted coup I didn't even know about."
Ryan was about to reply when he fell silent, he - more than anyone - was aware of just how dangerous accusations could be, even false ones.
"All I'm saying is that: for the sake of both you and your team - I think it might be high time you kids started thinking long term." With that, Henry Boone gave him an offhanded wave and departed to finish his mobile suit preparations.
'Thinking…long term.' Ryan thought to himself.
"Honestly. I can't believe this." Monique complained, "This is not anywhere near organized. What was General M'Quve thinking requisitioning us from our Arizona testing grounds to this god-forsaken place?"
Oliver silently nodded beside the woman, having served the past seven months along side the woman the captain had openly compared to a terrier (a comparison Oliver had to admit was rather on point) he had learned to adapt to her consistent ranting.
"Hey!" Monique thankfully turned her attention somewhere else. "You! Girl! What in the world are you doing up there?!"
The girl Monique was yelling at was none other than Seven, working on one of the mobile suits.
"What do you mean what am I doing up here?!" Seven yelled back indignantly, "I'm working on big brother's mobile suit!"
"Big brother…" Monique was briefly stumped, before quickly responding "It's Commander Sahalin to you!"
"Well - you're not my commanding officer!" The girl stuck her tongue out at Monique before ducking behind the mobile suit's neck, out of sight of the flustered officer.
"Why that little brat…!" Monique stamped her foot angrily, before sighing sadly. "I just…don't get it."
"Don't get what?"
"It's always said that the 300th are the best of the best. Yet at every turn, all I see are a bunch of kids…" Monique sighed, "Is the war really that bad?" She rubbed her arm thoughtfully.
"Captain Cadillac!" Captain Boone called from his mobile suit, "No time to stand around! Get moving!"
Monique scoffed, "I don't need a convict telling me what to do…"
"I've said this many times before, but we can't afford to get bogged down. Especially on such a thin corridor." Ryan explained,
"Understood, commander." The 300th responded in determined unity.
"Good." Ryan nodded, before inhaling.
"Ryan Sahalin, Zaku II, moving out!"
"Commander!" An eager ensign burst into her makeshift tent, "Sensors have picked up movement. And there's an unknown type with them!"
Rose immediately stood from her seat, "Mobilize all our forces!" She ordered hurriedly, "Are the mobile suits ready?"
"Waiting for your order." The ensign said proudly, and Rose nodded as she adjusted her cap.
'Black Knight…you won't leave this valley alive. For my brother and everyone else I've lost because of the arrogant fools leading Zeon!'
A/N: Shout out to dragonngo for helping me edit the early stages of this chapter!
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