Fury of the Jokers Wild

by CSS Stravag

Jokers Wild Set 3. After 400 years, the exiled Blue Cosmos gets their chance to come back to finish the purification of the Earth Sphere. Their mad quest to cleanse the human race will not go unchallenged by the worlds of the new Star Empires, and on one of those worlds, a runaway lady will take up the challenge... (Rated T: V, L, SC)

8. Readiness Drills

(Joker's Wild, Set 3: Fury Of The Jokers Wild)
(Chapter 08: Readiness Drills)

(11 June CE 477, 1815 Hours UTC (Mendel) Time)
(Personal quarters of Lieutenant Division Commander Loussier, Mendel Colony)

Lieutenant Division Commander Carrack Loussier stretched and arched his back to recover from the bad position he had been napping on. Tonight was a rarity, no training missions, no social functions, no extended meetings, no dinner dates, nothing but him and his thoughts tonight so he decided a couch nap was in order. Until the phone rang, that is.

"Incoming call from Carver V Military HPG," the automated message voice noted.

"Accept call," Carrack responded as he approached his commo terminal. "This is Carrack," he answered the call.

"Michel on Carver V," the voice on the far end of the laser-gate transmission answered.

"How goes, you crotchety old fart?" Carrack said with a massive sunbeam-and-shiteater grin.

"Pretty damn good, you young shit," Century Commander Michel Malthus responded with the same sunbeam-and-shiteater grin. In years past, Michel had been the break-in trainer and old hand after Carrack had made it to his first posting, and where Carrack had hit a fast stride of promotions, he never forgot his old mentor and friend from commands past. "Got some goods coming your way, Crocale Fajita meat and local-grown vegetables, all local prepped and flash-frozen for interstellar transport. Restaurant over on Dendez ships all over the Star Empires, for a price."

"Damn, that sounds good, will have to get on the horn to some of my contacts in the USSA to scare up some of the good tortillas and salsa. How much for how much?" Carrack asked.

"If you can get me some of the down-home New York pepperoni for pizzas, I will consider it even after what I am about to bring to the table."

Carrack snorted. "I shall do you one better, couple sticks of pepperoni and some of the good Midwest North American Pork Italian Sausage, I can get it flash-froze in bulk for shipping, ten pounds sound good?"

"Damn good, yeah," Michel said. "Next time you come out this way, have a few good restaurants for you to visit when we do a tour of facilities."

"I will be out in six months, doing Carver V, Outreach, Capolla, and Woodstock," Carrack said. "Now, what is significant enough that you are dropping a preemptive peace offering?"

"One of my Galaxy Commanders, Nicholas Halberton, commands the 383rd. Know him?" Michel led off.

"Aff, I know his reputation, and it is a no-shit reputation at that," Lieutenant Division Commander Loussier acknowledged the name. "What is shaking in his unit?"

"One of his Cluster Commanders has a Provisional Training Trinary that is heavily leveraging the Sim Pod Network to enough of a degree that I have Trinaries under my command that are convinced they could not defeat these troops," Century Commander Malthus noted with a dead-serious mien.

"Damn, that is something," LtDC Loussier said with a snort. "What can you tell me about them?"

"PTT is called Mermaid Team, their matches are all public and observable on the Pod Network. Team was formed up by a go-getter Mafiosi escapee that is daughter to a former ace you heard of in years past — name Leon Neider ring a bell?"

Lieutenant Division Commander Carrack Loussier could do naught but grimace at the mention of that name. "Gods Damn, yes, my ass is still chapped from a few of the beatings I received at his hands," Carrack admitted. "Time and rank is no salve to some of the shit he pulled, I mourned the loss of a damn good one when he perished in that training accident years ago. And you say his daughter is working on doing better?"

"By the numbers, she is outpacing the dear departed Leon by almost a factor of three," Michel said deadpan. "More to the point, Sionet is not the lovable oddball loner that her dad was, she has assembled a crew of former barhands and waitresses and schoolkids with a serious appetite for assbeating, and they have their sights set on a place in the Touman just as much as Star Colonel Mindy has the welcome mat out for them."

"That good? Hot damn," Carrack low-whistled. "Think she is going to Possible the training board?" By which he meant that she would achieve rating on all Ace Missions, all training standards, and all Special Purpose Scenarios that were considered the hallmark missions to prove herself worthy of a fair shot at Commando placement.

"Not just her, her lead Star Commander is working his way towards Possible, and at least two other pilots in the team run a good risk of doing it before the end of next year. The remainder of the team is well on the way to making Ace in the Sims, and they are paying dividends as Network Trainers — Halburton subcontracted them to help train promising Sim Pod users, they are helping increase induction and readiness scores. And the hell of it is, they are making good trainers against my line pilots as well," Michel explained at length.

"Nice, efficient use of training funds I would say. Do you have a write-up of policies and procedures for this Network Trainer program?" Carrack asked.

"Aff, I sent it with my last batch of reports. You want a good example of Sionet's hand in play? Watch her Ace match for Battle of Solomon. The amount of line-capable pilots that could do better than her can be counted on one hand for that battle. And sadly that includes me as well, I know I couldn't stiff Amuro in taking over for Gato, but she did — and she smoked the White Base using his machine and no advantages whatsoever."

"Damn, I think I might be able to do that, maybe," Carrack admitted. "So, you've presented me a damn good pilot and team, what do you intend to do?"

"If they make the grade, I want to Trial them straight into service. My AI entities are calculating they should be ready middle of next year, end of next year at the latest. If I do that, you may get some guff from some of the other commands."

"If they are as good as you say they are, the other commands can take a number," LtDC Loussier said with an unstated harumph to voice. "I shall keep an eye on this team, and if they earn their place and their machines, you will get them, no questions asked. I am willing to play favorites for teams that do the business, and there are some teams that barely pull quals that love to complain, so more is the better to find a go-getter diamond in the rough."

"Thank you sir! That is what I needed to hear, and that will harden the spines of some of the formations below me. I shall send in my 6-month detailed reports here in the next week, with some good numbers you may like."

"Good, I will look for it. Keep your eyes up and your ass down, old fart," Carrack said with a smile.

"Aff, you too, young shit. See you when I see you. Malthus, out." The transmission cut out.

Loussier sighed. "That's some interesting news. Ai, start parsing archived missions for this Mermaid Team and their Star Captain in particular, I want numbers and comparisons to work with."

"Pulling information and battle records from the Carver V Sim Pod Network archives server now. Reports will be ready tomorrow morning, do you want to see some of her more recent matches?"

"Aff, let us start with this Ace Mission for Battle of Solomon," Carrack nodded twice to his main monitor in his den.

The Lieutenant Division Commander of the Commandos would not be disappointed by Sionet's performance, but would be rather red-faced by the team's perverse banter before the end of the night.

-x-x-x-

(6 August CE 477, 1030 Hours Blue Cosmos Standard Time) (18 months to deployment)
(Warship William Sutherland, In orbit around Blue Terra)

"Any idea what the scenario is today?" The ship's radio officer asked.

"Contrary to popular belief, I don't know the scenario, myself," Captain Bainbridge replied to the Warrant Officer's question. "All I get is the radio orders you are receiving and relaying, and I take it from there. Nothing special."

Warrant Officer Harmon Smart snorted but not loud enough to be heard outside of his immediate neighbors. "Be that as it may, Captain, we have deploy orders. On your chair monitor now."

Captain Felicity Bainbridge took thirty seconds to read and reread the order package. "Our next deploy zone is central Europe, the area of Old Germany."

"Heavy old-growth forests, hills and mountain ranges, some rivers that would be inconvenient to cross in a Mobile Suit," the Operator (Ensign Mikki DeWirth) noted dispassionately. "Good terrain for an ambush."

"Good terrain for an enemy to think they can ambush us," the weapons officer countered.

"We do what we must, and anything command can throw at us, we have to be ready for twice that from the space monsters, we're using their playbook for training," Captain Felicity Bainbridge said. It was a bit of a lie handed down from one generation of Blue Cosmos troop to the next, believing that they knew the Mendel 'playbook' from their assbeating on Home Terra in years past. In truth, they understood some of what was used against the Earth Alliance in those centuries past, not what Mendel was thinking or doing in the here and now, and even that was an incomplete picture assembled by survivors, not the full view of what was in years past.

"Orders, ma'am?" the XO asked to bring the discussion back to focus.

"Plot us a course to come in over Belgium and down into the Rhine valley, we'll go for the objective area from there."

"Rhine valley, checking now," the helmsman said. "Rhine valley, entry course calculated, we begin de-orbit in 15 minutes, sir. Atmospheric entry in 30 minutes and powered flight in 45," the Helmsman calculated all the necessary milestones for the entry envelope."

"Very well, execute as stated," the Captain said.

The Helmsman activated the 1MC on the intercom, which echoed throughout the ship: "Attention all hands, assume atmospheric entry stations!"

Captain Felicity Bainbridge continued her instructions: "Operator, issue orders for our Mobile Suits to be ready before entry to simulate an immediate drop expectation. And no Stonebridge, she may insist she is good to go but the regs are clear, no pregnant pilots after the first trimester," Felicity said.

"As ordered, Captain," Mikki said. "Attention all pilots, report to Mobile Suits for immediate deployment after atmospheric entry! Repeat, all active pilots report to Mobile Suits!" The call from a certain room was not overlong. "Operator." Pause of five seconds. "No, Ensign, you are not listed active and are not to deploy. Captain's orders by way of the regulations." Pause of ten seconds. "I know, those are the regulations, sorry Sylvie. Operations is out."

"Got the ration from her?" the XO asked.

"She wasn't insulting or insubordinate, but she definitely isn't happy," the Operator said.

"For good reason, she's driven," Captain Bainbridge said. "She's more interested in piloting and placement than anything else, and a pregnancy is a duty but it is also a handicap. Thank God that command is much more reasonable about maternity leave than the Earth Alliance of years past. Just keep her in the loop for briefings and operations, but she does not pilot until cleared by Medical."

"Don't have to tell me twice, Captain. I've seen this exact scenario end badly in the past, not doing it again."

"Conn, Radio, just received an abort signal from Training Command, standby for further," the Radio Officer announced.

"Confirm abort," the Captain requested.

"Confirmed, we are to abort and return to orbit," the Radio Officer said.

"Helm, cancel de-orbit and maintain present orbital plane."

"Maintain present orbit, Aye Captain," the Helmsman simply canceled the programmed de-orbit maneuvers and the ship would hold its course.

"Conn, Radio, word is that Training Base Cologne has suffered a fusion reactor detonation in the power generator for their Mobile Suit Hangars, casualties unknown, damage to all hangars and better than half the training machines. Emergency personnel are enroute, we have been requested to maintain orbit and may be called in to support rescue operations if needed."

"Damn equipment gremlins," Felicity slammed her fist into the control panel on her chair. "We really need to work out the bugs from these reactors or we'll be going into this campaign hamstrung before the first shot is fired."

"New systems generate new problems," the weapons officer complained. Though Blue Cosmos had been working with fusion engines for more than a hundred years now, such a frame of time was a fart in the wind compared to Mendel and the Magi before them — random detonations of the engines driving Mendel units or powering Mendel bases were unheard of to the Earth Alliance, though the bridge crew would have been surprised to hear that such industrial accidents were not impossible in the lands of their old foes.

"All too true, weps," the Captain said. "Ops, stand down the MS pilots, no joy today."

"Copy all," Ensign DeWirth answered. "Attention all pilots, cancel alert status, repeat, cancel alert status, standby for possible rescue mission deployment. Repeat, cancel alert status. That is all."

The Helmsman piped up next: "All hands, stand down from atmospheric entry, repeat, all hands stand down from atmospheric entry."

"We're on hold until told otherwise," Felicity stood up from the Captain's chair and stretched. "XO, plan out an orbit-only force-on-force scrimmage for our pilots for later today, say, 10 hours from now just in case we have to abort and do some rescue beforehand."

"Can do," the XO responded.

"You have the Conn. I want your plan on the table in 90 minutes."

-x-x-x-

(20 August, CE 477, 2130 Hours Local (Dendez West) Time)
(Sim Pod Bay, Mackie's Club, City of Westport, Dendez Continent, Planet Carver V, Protectorate of Mendel)

"Ready for this one?" Sionet asked.

"Hell no, these pilots are apeshit," Kyle said deadpan, then smiled. "Let's do 'em."

"Oh, before we jump in, we're playing some personal rules as well." Sionet sighed. "We're scoring this one out between the two of us. Whoever gets two kills amongst the Dominion's Gundams gets to be on top tonight."

"Now that's a challenge," Kyle said. "And if I get three?"

"Well, if you do get all three, you call the style," Sionet said. "Same thing if I get all three. Fair?"

"Well bargained and done," Kyle said to make it official. "Man, now that you can use your NT skills to precisely tell when you can and can't get pregnant, turning out to be rather pervy about it."

"It's all the combat stress we're under, uses the same areas of the brain as what we use in bed," Sionet said. "And it's good exercise."

"Multiple angles, I like it," Kyle said. "Ready when you are, my love."

"Simulation commencing in fifteen." Sionet stretched her back out in a couple directions before she settled back against her harness. The new pods issued to Mermaid Team, wholly at the expense of the Commando Training program, were a little more stringent on the safety measures — mainly because the Gravitic Lattice in use on these newer pods could go up to 22.5 Gs in any direction, and her team was already fully released on the newer ratings.

The impetus of being issued new pods was quite a bit more direct than the simple enhancement of felt forces, it was pertaining to the team's increasing Newtype potential. Simply stated, everyone on the team, when tested, achieved some measurable rating as a Newtype, though only half of the team achieved enough rating to really count for anything in combat. Sionet's personal rating was already to A rating, which surprised even her after she achieved that rating. Sionet had shown near zero ability to control remote weapons, but she could easily counter remote weapons used against her and she could read a nominal foe's actions several seconds in advance. And, as the testing showed, Sionet had not hit her ability cap yet, either. Evidence enough was in her personal skillset with her ability to sense perverts around her, sense people's relational feelings, bridge people's minds, and even sense when a lady could become pregnant, and all of those skills were still improving week over week.

Thus, each one of the new pods issued to the team had an integrated Newtype Echo System, which allowed the simulation to not only simulate the sense of what was around them, be it inanimate object or person, but that sense could be extended quite a bit forward by the simulation, as much as five or six seconds — well in advance of what most Newtypes would be able to pre-sense in a coming foe's actions. These pods also had full Psycommu and Psychoframe support as well, meaning that any specifically Newtype-use machines could be accurately simulated to their fullest extent for the pilot. Lastly, for anyone on the team brave enough to try, these pods also had support for and special Commando release to simulate the three 'restricted technologies' of Mobile Warfare: ZERO/EPYON System, Nuclear / Antimatter Weapons, and the Satellite Cannon System.

"Hope you're wearing a good sport bra, Talia just busted another underwire bra earlier today," Kyle said.

"Always do. What is with her? You think she'd get the message by now, normal lingerie is not appropriate attire for a pilot," Sionet said just before the simulation commenced.

"Hai, that should be number eight or nine for her," Kyle said. "Or she likes busting them in battle, which is weird and pervy even for her. Bridge, Justice, reporting ready op," Kyle said on the command circuit.

"Freedom reporting ready op," Sionet chimed in a moment after.

"Stand by, Freedom, Justice, hostile warship is conversing with the Archangel. Apparently the two Captains know each other," the simulated Lacus Clyne reported.

"Standing by," Sionet acknowledged. "IIRC, the commanding officer of the Dominion was the XO of the Archangel for a time."

"Hai, Natarle Badgiruel, I believe," Kyle acknowledged. "By-the-book, Earth-Alliance-First type. We can use that to our advantage."

"Go for broke? Do the enemy special machines and the ship?" Sionet asked. "That's a tall ask."

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Freedom," Commander Waltfeld cautioned. "If they have the same Gundams that were involved in the fighting on Onogoro, this will be a severe challenge."

"Definitely, sir — wait, did I just hear that right, Director Azrael is on that ship?" Sionet asked since she was listening to the conversation in real-time.

"Confirmed, you heard it," Waltfeld said. "It may be a tall ask, but it may also be possible to cool down this war if you do intercept him."

"He's ordered launches, time for you two to deploy, Mermaid Team," the simulated Lacus Clyne said. "Good luck out there."

"We'll do what we can," Sionet said.

"Ladies first," and Kyle gestured to the catapult.

"Don't mind if I do," Sionet thrusted her machine over to the catapult and took position. "Freedom, standing ready for launch."

"Launching three, two, one, go!" Sionet's machine was driven out of the launch bay rapidly, and Sionet got to feel the full force of the cat-shot on the way out. "Freedom clear, reset catapult for Justice."

"Be out shortly, love," Kyle said. "Don't destroy all the toys before I'm in, eh?"

"Ooh, boyfriend-girlfriend, is it? Guess we'll have to send one or both of you to an early grave," one of the enemy pilots said. Going by the voice, Sionet figured it was Oruga Sabnak, the pilot of the Calamity.

"Hope you've got the skills to pay some bills, bozo. We collect on promises like that, and the Mermaid Team doesn't accept rainchecks." Given the distance between the two opposing forces was short, Sionet started off by popping two beams off toward the Calamity, and two toward the Raider. She spared the shots at the Forbidden because of the Genschimidig Panzer armor system and the likelihood that those beams could be arced into an ally machine, so instead she popped off two pairs of railgun slugs at it. At the range and having just started the engagement, she wasn't expecting hits, but she did get one beam on the Calamity (a shield hit) and three of the four railgun slugs contacted on the Forbidden.

"Need to do better than that, heh," the pilot of the Forbidden fired an arcing plasma beam at the Freedom, which Sionet could clearly read incoming and was able to block with her shield.

"Day's just getting started, hombre, and we've got plenty more to dish out," Kyle fired two shots at the Forbidden, then one off-angle shot at the Raider to keep the pilot wary. "What's your pleasure?"

"You put some smackdown on big, green and creepy over there," Sionet nodded the Freedom's head toward the Forbidden. "I'm going to start with the hyperactive gamer, and whoever finishes first reroutes to the slow one in back."

"Crunchies?" Kyle asked before he blocked a pair of beam cannon rounds from the Calamity. "How rude!" He returned the favor twice over, though the Calamity pilot was fast enough to block them at the distance between them.

"Knock them out as they bear into our AO, otherwise Kusanagi and Archangel Teams can deal with them. Break!" Sionet immediately jetted under the flightline of the Raider, while Kyle jetted toward the Forbidden and accelerated hard.

"Whoa shit!" Given the range and closing, the simulate of Shani Andras tried to pop off a close-range non-arced plasma round at Kyle, but against an early-stage Newtype it wasn't enough — Kyle powered up and over the Forbidden, then inverted himself and snapped a beam rifle shot off at an enemy Strike Dagger (A crippling hit), then two beam cannon shots at the back of the Forbidden. The pilot was awares enough to get the movable shields back toward the new threat axis, so the hits had no value.

Sionet planned initially on coming up under the Raider's flight line and taking some shots from there, but the pilot of the Raider had a different plan and closed the gap on her. In close, the simulate of Clotho Bauer tried to snap off a shot from the Zorn 100mm beam cannon in its mouth, but a timely braking maneuver caused the shot to pass forward of Sionet. The braking move had a downside, though, in that the Raider's next move was to try to spear the Freedom with its beam blades in the claws. The hits were ineffective, Sionet blocked both blades with her shield, but they did result in a brief loss of control as she spun on a strange axis after the hits and had to recover quickly.

"As crazy as this sounds, close quarters is going to be my best bet here," Kyle noted off the radio before he ducked behind a debris chunk to get out of the line of fire of the Calamity. A few seconds delay, then he ducked out on a different angle and closed to grappling with the Forbidden by way of spraying down the Forbidden with small-gun cannon fire — by giving the simulated foe all ten barrels of machine cannon available on the Justice, it created a flinch reaction in the enemy pilot that he had to keep his shields forward and limited his offensive options. Kyle kept the hammering on all the way to the point of closure, when Shani thought he would have a clean swipe at the Justice, though the Mermaid Team operator checked him by catching the haft of the Nidhoggr Scythe just a few meters into the swing arc, before it was up to full rotational velocity, and blocked an attempted pole check with the handguard of his MA-M20 Lupus Beam Rifle.

"The fuck? Let go!" (Simulated) Shani Andras shouted on the radio.

"Hope you took your dramamine, pilot," Kyle deliberately fired only the rocket engines on his subflight lifter, which caused the two machines to start spinning. Kyle had conditioned himself to tolerate the G forces for a period longer than pilots were typically trained to, and in this case it worked: after about ten seconds of spin cycle, Shani Andras (simulated) started puking his guts out. As a distraction, it was supreme: once he started puking, Kyle had the upper hand and was able to go for his beam saber unmolested. As a late retort, Shani tried to pop off some rail gun slugs on the Justice in close, but Phase Shift armor powered by a nuclear reactor meant that ballistic weapons were a losing proposition, even at three meters. A decisive slash to the midriff of the Forbidden and it was off the table. (1)

Sionet's second clash with the Raider went about the same as the first, the pilot tied to do a hit-and-run claw-spear on her, but this time Sionet gave better than she received — the starboard claw caught the outer edge of one of the winglets on the back of the Freedom and sheared it off, but as the Raider passed overhead she fired a shot up through the nominal hip area of the enemy machine. It didn't kill it, but the beam destroyed critical transformation gear that now prevented it from changing out of MA mode. "Damn it! I'm hit!" (Simulated) Clotho Bauer shouted.

"Need a hand, honey?"

"I'm good, suppress or down the Calamity," Sionet said. As the Raider looped around some debris for another pass at her, Sionet could sense his actions several seconds out and tripped the Balena plasma cannons on her shoulders to deploy and precharge. After Clotho came out on the bearing that she sensed he would, she jetted forward and low of his flight path to force him to make a course correction for his attack — again, she could sense his correction and attempt to pop off another Zorn shot in close, so she was ready with shield when he did take the shot. As the Raider passed under her, Sionet rotated on her Y axis and clipped him with both plasma cannons, one shot took the right leg clean off the machine, the other struck it square in the back and blew through the chest. (2)

"Two down, one to go," Kyle commented after he saw the Raider detonate from a breached battery.

"How do we do this one?" Sionet asked as she started closing in on the sole remaining enemy machine.

"Thatch Weave him," Sionet racked her beam rifle and drew paired beam sabers. Kyle darted outside and right while Sionet wove outside and left, and the Calamity chose Sionet to track and try to intercept in the process. The simulate of Oruga Sabnak laid down the firepower on the Freedom as best as he could, but only clipped a wing binder on the Freedom and failed to drop it. In so doing, he failed to properly guard against Kyle.

The 'Thatch Weave' maneuver was a historical trick that Sionet and Kyle had picked up from studying WW2 air combat and quickly adapted to Mobile Suit warfare. Initially developed to counter the more-maneuverable A6M Zero fighters in use by Japan, the Thatch Weave used turning physics to create 90-degree side-on intercepts against a foe that is trying to chase an ally. In this case, the foe was ahead of them, but the principle was the same: force him to engage one, and he would necessarily have to turn 90 degrees side-on to the other.

As the two Gundams closed on the Calamity, Kyle clipped the head and shoulder beam cannons of the enemy machine with a beam rifle shot, which cleared the way for Sionet to close on and spear the Calamity in the chest with first her right beam saber, then shanked him from a different angle with the left one. A little bit of creative grinding on her part with the beam blades and a gout of flame escaped the left-side beam cut point, signaling the demise of this machine.

"Even Steven, dear, one and a half for each of us," Kyle said.

"I'm good with that," Sionet said. "Command, Freedom, all enemy special machines are downed. Shall we engage the Dominion?" she requested on an open frequency.

"Freedom, Eternal Command, you are to call out the Dominion to surrender. If they refuse, engage and sink them," Waltfeld ordered.

"Copy all. Dominion Command, this is Gundam Freedom, Mermaid Team Lead speaking. Mermaid One and myself just chopped up your best three and your remaining suits have been mopped up by the Archangel and Kusanagi. I'm giving you one chance to surrender, right here and now, before we cleave the conning tower off the Dominion and fling it at Ptolemaeus as a warning that Side 4 is not a playground. You have thirty seconds to make the call, Captain Badgiruel."

"Acknowledged, Mermaid lead. Dominion is surrendering." As an acknowledgement, the ship fired off surrender flares.

At that point, the simulation completed and began the tally phase. "Well, that worked," Kyle said. "Nice one on the intimidation factor. So, how do we score this one?"

"Well, let's see how much celebration we have to do tonight. Weren't you gunning for the Forbidden today?"

"That's my goal," Kyle said. "Always loved it for some reason, especially Shani's work with it after he was cleaned up by the TF Jokers Wild."

"Whoa, looks like someone was watching it in real-time, we've got our scores early," Sionet said.

"Wholy shitbags, look at that teamwork score," Kyle said. "We both got strong bonus points for tag-teaming them."

"Teamwork pays dividends," Sionet said.

"Teamwork is what we truly look for," a separate voice said over the pod audio system, followed shortly by a video chat screen coming up of a face they knew well.

"Administrator Blake! I thought you would be off-duty by now," Kyle said. Administrator Liam Blake was the Star Colonel in command of the Simulation Network Administration Team, which comprised a crew of motley Techstrikers and Commandos who oversaw the operations and simulations of the SimNet, did final judgments on matches, and awarded points for meritorious conduct over the course of campaigns. Nominally he was a Techstriker, though he had nothing bad to say about the blue-uniformed troops in the Admin group or against those who were angling for such a posting.

"Meh, it is only 1755 here at SimNet Administration," he said. "And I heard through the grape-vine that you two were going to do the 'theoretical what-if' ace mission of Three Ships Alliance against the Dominion, which we spoiled by hammering on the Dominion with our fleet assets in the present CE timeline. Simulations from that time frame showed that those three Gundams could match Kira and Athrun, the two best pilots of that era that were not TF Jokers Wild, so you are already well on the way to besting their theoretical best records."

"What's the common expectation for mastering that ace mission?" Kyle asked.

"One moment, need to look that up," Liam did some quick typing on a separate console. "Looks like 5.5 percent of persons who do ace missions. Overall is 0.015 percent."

"Wow," Sionet gaped. By the first half of his declaration, Kyle and herself were already in the top five percent of network aces. By the second half of his declaration, they were in the top fifteen out of every 100,000 network contestants.

"And against the Commandos themselves?"

Liam snorted. "Kyle, you know I am not allowed to answer that question," the Star Colonel chided him. How well he stacked up against serving line Commandos was not something they would discuss over the pod network, due to the fact that the Sim Pod network was classified as 'unclassified / lightly secured' and thus subject to some intercept or intelligence penetration of foreign parties. Security concerns and all that.

"Pro forma question, sir, sorry," Kyle backtracked smoothly.

"Anyway, if I am doing the math right, this should be your last match for the night, ne?"

"Aye, bedtime for we pilots," Sionet said. "Tomorrow is the annual close-down for the Club Scrubbing, so we'll be on the net but unevenly. Nobody escapes The Scrubbing."

"KP Duty, bummer," the Star Colonel sympathized. For minor infractions, officers as high as Galaxy Commander could still be assigned cleaning details throughout the fleet or bases, so he knew well what that entailed. "Looking at your present unlock points, I am showing Kyle is now high enough to make the grade on the Forbidden but you shall have to rack up some time-in-type before it can be customized. You, Sionet, not sure what your present goal is, am not sure if you are ready to make grade on it."

"Abyss," Sionet said simply.

"Should have guessed, your gene-father was an Abyss driver and a damn good one," He did some more typing on the console to his side. "Close, not quite. I figure another good three or four ace matches and you will be in position to unlock it."

"The rate at which my love chews through ace matches, that is a month's hard work away," Kyle said. Sionet tried to stop herself from blushing from the props from Kyle, but failed.

"Aff, going by the numbers that does sound right. That said, I have a notice for you, little missie," and Liam pointed at the display almost comically.

"Listening, sir!"

"Star Colonel Mindy may have something of a claim over your team due to her ongoing involvement with your work, but that has not rendered you invisible to the other officers in the 3rd Commando Century. Star Colonel Michael Oakley, CO of Epsilon Cluster of the 303rd Commando Galaxy, has issued a network scheduling request for a match against you, him and one Trinary of his forces against yourself and Mermaid Team, should you pass the rather high bar of doing the Siberian Duel from both sides and winning — Zechs Marquise in Tallgeese against Heero Yuy in Wing Gundam. What say you?"

"Square off against serving Commandos? Fuck yes, I'd love to see how well I'm stacking up against the real deal," Kyle said before Sionet could even open her mouth.

"I agree, would love to stack it against the Star Colonel," Sionet said. "And, the match you are referring to, Gundam Guerillas intercepting the Taurus Transport Operation, I have that slated for…" Sionet took a moment to check her ace match schedule she had drawn up some months ago to make sure she had road-mapped a logical pattern of advancement. "Looks like that is ten matches into the future for me, so one a week, two and a half months ahead. As soon as I do 'em both, we'll need to schedule the scrap."

"Very well, I'll relay that to the Star Colonel. Good luck, I can tell you that Michael Oakley is no slouch, given he is descended of the Oakley bloodheritage."

"Aff, one of the pilots of the generation that gave us the Neider bloodheritage," Sionet acknowledged. "But that is a battle for another day, and I hear my bed calling my name right now."

"Have a good evening, pilots," the Administrator gave them a two-finger wave before he signed off.

Sionet and Kyle both climbed out of their pods and stretched. "So, shower and bed-time?" Kyle asked after he stepped down from the flex.

"Hell with that, we're taking a shower together," Sionet said with a devilish smile. Thankfully, their new quarters had much larger and more powerful water heaters for the bathrooms, and not just one bathroom for each gender. They could get away with an extended shower.

-x-x-x-

(29 August CE 477, 1015 Hours Orb Standard Time)
(Office of the Chairman of the Orb Union, Onogoro Island, Home Terra)

Ophir looked at the message indicator on his communication terminal and sighed. The missive could be from anyone, a barrister, a councilman, one of his generals, a random street bum (the latter entirely by accident, as his personal commo number was restricted but not impossible to dial accidentally). And, like most persons throughout the sum total of humanity, the presence of the message quickly overtook any amount of discipline that he would have had to not open the message. So, barely a few seconds of struggling to not open it, and he tapped on the message icon to open it.

"One message, from Morrigan Seiran by HPG on Mendel Ultracarrier Mendel, to Ophir Seiran by HPG on Orb Mainland on Home Terra. Thank you for using ComStar Non-Government Communication Services!"

The screen flickered as the message kicked in, and Ophir was treated to his monthly look at his daughter and her quarters on the obscene Mendel Ultracarrier. This month, his intelligence service training caught a new painting on her wall over her left shoulder of some kind of mountainscape, and specifically on his daughter he caught sight of some kind of hairline cut on her face under her left eye.

"Good morning, father!" She said with some cheer as her opening for the message. The use of the Micro-Gate Laser Communication Systems were typically reserved when coming off the Warships that had HPGs, so sending a standard recorded message was the more common way for sailors to send mail home and receive it from home outside of emergencies. "Long month, a lot has happened since my last message out, so I will get straight to it."

Ophir sighed. One thing that Morrigan had picked up and quickly internalized was the high-accuracy English in use in Mendel and inherited from the parent empire of Mendel — the Multimage Star Empire — and with it the near complete lack of contractions in her speech and a general improvement in grammar or sentence structure. Not that Orb was lacking in decent linguistics, but in Mendel the use of more-accurate English was always pushed for and in the military adherence to Clan linguistic practice was drilled into everyone at the same time they drilled military and combat theory into them.

"Before I begin, the cut under my left eye was from the tip of a quarter staff. I ran a Trial of Possession against one of the pilots to try to take possession of two paintings he had. The landscape over my left shoulder is the one I secured, we had a draw match and I took one of his paintings in exchange for cooking a meal or two for him. I am yet to make use of my Akatsuki IV in a Trial, though, so my victories are few and far between."

That was something of a relief to Ophir, but not much. The fact that Morrigan had already taken to the use of Trial By Combat — a long-standing tradition of the Magi and the Clans before them — intrinsically worried the Chief Representative. Death was not commonly expected in Trial by Combat, but it was far from impossible. Some 35 years prior, Mendel lost a Division Commander to Trial of Grievance back when Ophir was a midshipman in the Orb Navy, there was a big to-do about the battle and the outcome, but Mendel was back on the balls of their feet quickly — the selection process for Division Commanders was very thorough and very direct, and within two weeks the post was filled.

"Still, that is not the big news of the day, father. The report that has made so much news in the outer areas of the Mendel Cordon is the location of a Blue Cosmos enclave on the world of Nanking. The enclave was found in the Ningpo Mountain Range and was very well concealed from orbital scans until a Blue Cosmos industrial raid was launched against some of the manufacturing in the valleys below the mountains. When the raid was finished, the Mendel tracked the enemy ground vehicles back to their enclave in the mountains, and a strike was ordered by Star Admiral Poro Andras."

The sigh from his daughter was characteristic, Ophir knew. She had always had something of a romanticized view of battle, but disdained the casualties that always came with it.

"After the major combat actions were completed, Mendel swiftly dealt with the enclave. 340 men and 110 women screaming the traditional chant of the Blue and Pure World, and they shall never again haunt the rest of Existence," Morrigan explained, and this did surprise Ophir. Something about her explanation was stilted, as if she was trying to reconcile her heart as an Orb citizen with the reality of operations conducted by Mendel. He would never know that Morrigan was already past that reconciliation, and after she saw what happened in the valley attacked by the Blue Cosmos troops, she vowed never to speak against the execution of a Blue Cosmos terrorist. Her hesitation was in finding the proper words for it, not in the morality of the matter.

"The other major piece of news is something you probably heard before I did, the new Lieutenant Division Commander of the Bladesmen, Henrietta Junkers," she said. "I don't have anything on her directly, but word from around the ship is that she is a well-conditioned and inventive officer that knows her duties and knows how to maximize efficiency. Nothing else major going on right now, and if my brothers are still inquiring about the dating scene around here, please tell them that my last two attempts fizzled after two dates each. The dating scene in Mendel is not as easy as some would lead you to think. Looking forward to hearing the latest buzz from home, and how Anantha is making out as representative to Scandinavia. Love you, father!" The transmission cut out a moment thereafter.

"Not too bad, all else being equal," Akachi answered before Ophir realized he was across the desk. "Is it just me, or is Morrigan starting to sound a bit too much like Mendel for my ear?"

"It is not just you," Ophir sighed gustily. "It pains me to hear that in her voice, but it is far from impossible. And, as it happens, it is necessary, we need someone who knows their navy if we are going to subjugate them in coming years."

"It is what it is, and her time back here in Orb Naval Academy should help decondition her of some of her newly-acquired bad habits," the elder brother noted. "You'll like this;" Akachi held up a folder to his father.

Ophir received the offered folder from his eldest son and flipped it open. "Okay, yes, I do like this. Cost is well within acceptable range for what we expect."

"Go for it?"

"Authorize Morgenroete to begin production, I will ram-rod it through the board here in the next week," Ophir signed off on a deal to field a new Astray-type machine for the Orb Self Defense Force, though in so doing he did not realize that he was gambling on an outcome of conflicts to come that he would not have proper control over.

-x-x-x-

(27 October, CE 477, 1615 Hours Local (Dendez West) Time)
(Sim Pod Bay, Mackie's Club, City of Westport, Dendez Continent, Planet Carver V, Protectorate of Mendel)

"Can she do it?" Mirriam asked.

"She's awfully close," Nike pointed out.

"She's within a company of winning this one," Sionet said. "This is gonna be a blowout."

On the screen, Sionet could see Beatrice make her next few moves. Her choice of ace mission for this match was actually not one of the standard combat sets of the Cosmic Era, After Colony, After War, or Universal Century eras, it harkened back to the Multimage timeline, or more specifically action with the Sigma Mercenaries. Sigma was famous throughout the public sphere as a mercenary unit that specialized in asymmetric warfare for hire, but in military circles Sigma was arguably more famous for their support forces — Artillery, Combat Mages, Frontal Aviation and Heavy Bombing being the four pillars under which Sigma really made their mark on the battlefield (and all too often left the battlefield a cratered hellscape in their wake). This made simulations based on their combat histories perfect for an artillery trooper such as Beatrice, and ground upon which Lina had already achieved her Ace rating in artillery.

"C'mon, girl, you've got this," Lina said to the screen. The team could watch the action as it unfolded from Sionet's command console, but since this was Beatrice's Solo Ace Run, they could not interfere. Only SimNet Administration could shake things up, and so far as Sionet could recognize, they had done so twice already to crank the difficulty up on Beatrice. And still Beatrice was posting results well above the historical requirement, despite the difficulty being quite a bit higher.

After all, when the Star League invaded the world of Laguna, they invaded with 9 Divisions on a planet that Sigma only held 15% of the planet's surface at the time — an area roughly the size of Europe from Germany west — and all with the intention of contesting Sigma's claim to the world that the Star League never claimed to begin with.

"Ultimately, the Star League lost, but Sigma paid in blood to stifle them," Mackie said from behind the Mermaid Team troops. "Let's see if Beatrice's expert artillery work can change that equation."

"She's already to the point of matching Sigma's best Arty Trooper, Telly the Gremlin," Sionet said. "She just erased a team with a Time-on-Target pair."

"Three teams and she beats Telly," Nike said. In the intervening seconds, two more MS went offline on the enemy regiment tally.

"One barely-supported Physalis MLRS with a Rail Artillery Cannon managed to fire and maneuver two Regiments into the ground. I'd not believe it possible if we didn't have historical record of it happening," Lina said.

"The hell of it is, Beatrice is doing better, faster, than even Telly the Gremlin did back in those days," Sionet said. "By this point in the battle, Telly had only broke down one Regiment and was chewing through a second. Beatrice has done almost her second, and managed to barrel wear two Rail Artillery Cannons to the repair depot." In point of fact, she got another team with artillery fire as Sionet was describing how far into it she had gone so far. "Just one team to go and she's got Telly's record."

"She's got this one buttoned up," Mackie said. Another scoot in a random direction, then Beatrice unloaded two artillery shells from her Rail Artillery Cannon. The first shot went high, on a mortar arc, the second shot was fired almost flat several seconds later, and what happened was what was considered the holy grail of the artilleryman: a Time-on-Target strike. Both artillery shells landed on the enemy formation within a second of each other, giving the troops no warning that death was incoming: the shells themselves struck at Mach 4, literally outpacing the sound from the firing platform or the shell's flight. By the time the screech of incoming shells arrived at the target, two of the enemy MS were already kills and the third was damaged beyond the point of combat utility.

"Bingo, that's the minimum rating, let's see if she wants to go for broke," Sionet said.

Before Sionet could ask: "Command, Mermaid Three, have achieved operational objectives Alpha and Bravo. Requesting resupply and vector to the next Regiment."

"Copy all, Mermaid Three. Resupply troops are waiting at Nav Sierra, callback immediate clearance when supplied for vector, how copy?"

"Solid copy all, moving to Sierra for some beans, bullets, and a piss break."

"Mermaid Three, Coil Team Lead, porta-potty is open for business and I have my boys standing by for air watch. Good shooting, girl, you've earned yourself a sit-and-think and a few beers after we've booted these fuck-sticks off planet." Coil Team was a historical simulate — the real-world Coil Team had been one of the ace-in-a-day formations composed of ADA 'mechs that had absolutely shone through in the fighting on Laguna. The battalion of air defense troops in Coil Team had accounted for almost a full regiment of enemy air assets, severely limiting the Star League air cover and thus their ability to recon or ground support in the face of Sigma's determined defense.

Beatrice moved her machine to the FARP at Nav Sierra and put it in standby mode to accept reloads, refuel, and for the mechanics to try to patch up some of the sundry damage she had received. With her machine in standby mode, if this had been real-world ops she would have had to take the pilot's egress line down to the ground and then hot-foot it over to the supply truck and its bank of six porta-potties that were available for incoming pilots to relieve themselves when not being shot at. Since this was a Pod Sim, all she had to do was pop her harness, unlatch the pod hatch, and step out.

"Good shooting so far, girl!" Sionet waved at her from the Command Console.

"Thanks! Really gotta go!" Beatrice hurried off toward the restroom bank in the corner of the pod bay and went in the first open can. Given the pod center was open for general business at this time, two of the other cans were in use.

Sionet scrolled through the limited information that she could see of the battle; her information panel was restricted to what Sigma knew at any given time, since she would still be in the theoretical position to tip info to Beatrice and thus spoil some of the scenario. On the other hand, Mermaid Team played by the rules, because each operator knew that if they were called to real-world combat, they would have only the advantages they could derive at that time, and knowing beforehand what was coming was not always on that list of advantages.

Beatrice emerged from the can and made use of the industrial washing station right outside the bank of bathrooms. "Ah, someone invested in that honey-lemon hand soap I love so much."

"Yeah, the janitor shops decent," Nike commented. The bathroom detail had a dedicated janitor now, who did all the bathroom cleaning overnight and a quick spritz-up cleaning in the Pod Bay and the Club around 1600 daily.

"How you holding up?"

"I think I can hang in for at least another Regiment, if my gear holds up. Did Sigma really have that much trouble with the Rail Artillery Cannon?" Beatrice asked. She stopped short of the Command Console so she would not see any of the monitor content that Sionet was looking at.

"Yes, actually," Sionet said. "Remember that Sigma developed it, and this scenario is not long after the first combat-usable versions were fielded. It was not designed for the kind of hammering Telly the Gremlin put it under, much less you have done. It would be about four hardware revisions into the future that barrel life doubled, and that would be a hundred years after Telly was dead and buried."

"Well before the Battle Of The Dolls," Beatrice said, referring to the battle that ultimately drove the Mjolnr into the deep past and into the timeline they were now living.

"Aff, the present production versions of the guns in use by our active duty troops are a lot better," Lina pointed out. "Anyway, time for you to board your unit."

"Anyone got a MRE? I skipped lunch." Nike passed her a GrogFoods Beef Enchilada MRE. "Ah, the good stuff." Beatrice headed back over to her pod, climbed in, and buttoned it up. "Mermaid Three, reporting returned to cockpit. What's the sit-rep?"

"Nothing major yet, we swatted down some enemy air recon over the area. No telling if they got a good position off to anyone," Coil Lead (simulated) answered.

"Status of rearming?" Beatrice asked next.

"We're working on replacing your barrel now, ETA 30 seconds. MLRS tubes are reloaded, rail cannon magazines are restocked, and we have a new shield for you with some party favors for all the bad little boys and girls when they try to get up close and personal with you."

"Nice, the Beam Gatling Gun from a Jagd Doga. Can the reactor in this thing handle that kind of output?" Beatrice asked.

"Yes, but not for long — the power conduits in your arm can sustain maybe 90 seconds of continuous fire for that beast before something cooks. The reactor itself can fuel it all day, just not on the present wiring in your machine. Recommend you use that only as a final act of defiance, Mermaid Three," the FARP commander said.

"So, if I'm doing the math right, if I did a burst of fire every five seconds or so, I could use it indefinitely?"

"May want to switch out after doing that for five or ten minutes and use the M82A Beam Rifle to allow your circuits to cool down. It's on the other side of the shield, trooper," the FARP Commander said. Beatrice maneuvered the shield a bit to look at the far side of the grip panel, and indeed did see the XBR-BOWA M82A Beam Rifle in place.

"I see, thank you for the party favors. I think it's time to go for the hat trick on a third Regiment, see if I can pin down and defecate on a full Division of enemy troops."

"Hot damn, I'd love to celebrate that one with you, girl," Coil Lead said.

"Your Rail Cannon is back in service, Mermaid Three. Give 'em hell, pilot!" One of the ground support troops waved the Support Wanzer to lift the Artillery Rail Cannon up to where Beatrice could easily take it up, and she did.

"Mermaid Three, moving out!" Beatrice ran four paces toward the enemy frontline, then tripped her hover jets and made good speed off into the distance.

Her simulation would continue for another three hours, and necessitate SimNet Administration intervening against her several times more to try to up the challenge, but Beatrice would come out on top in this historical simulation to an unholy degree. Her combination of fire and maneuver would smoke Telly the Gremlin's record by a factor of four, to the point that she exhausted Sigma's historical supply of available reloads for the fairly new Rail Artillery Cannon and almost depleted the available swappable barrels from firing wear.

In the history of the Magi and Sigma, the Star League suffered a brutally humiliating defeat on Laguna in three days of protracted fighting that cost the SLDF 9 divisions for no gain whatsoever. In the simulation as run against Beatrice, the Star League lost two Divisions as crippled and combat ineffective solely to the actions of Mermaid Three, which skewing of odds allowed Sigma's VIII Heavy Armor Corps to exploit a massive gap in the enemy lines and punched through to their transport ships and supply troops. In less than 24 hours simulated flighting, the attack on Laguna broke down and dissolved into a disorganized clusterfuck that saw three Divisions outright annihilated in jungle fighting and another three divisions surrendered before significant contact. Only one SLDF Division escaped the grinder intact, a better result for the Star League than history bore out for them, but still an abject failure of objectives in the long haul. Conversely, Sigma's losses had been cut down by 80% in the simulation, given the wildly shifting circumstances delivered by Mermaid Three, a result that would necessitate SimNet Admin coming up with even more beefcake for advanced versions of the scenario to test how far someone of Beatrice's artillery acumen could really push it.

With this stunning victory, Beatrice became the final Ace-rated pilot in Mermaid Team. It would not be her last ace-rated mission, not by a long shot.

-x-x-x-

(1 December CE 477, 1030 Hours UTC (Mendel) Time)
(Allster Enterprises Orbital Manufacturing and Engineering Station Freya)

"Morning," Cordelia waved her attendant over to her table where she had a basic breakfast waiting for Annette.

"No flying today?" Annette asked as she took a seat and realized that 'Cinderella In Space' was already mostly done with her breakfast and was deep into paperwork.

"Not today, didn't sleep well," Cordelia noted.

"Yeah. Link with Tsukiko?" Annette suspected the depth of their long-distance relationship was greater than she would admit, but…

A glance and a nod from Cordelia was all the answer she initially gave, and Annette expected that. Cordelia bent down to her sausage-egg-bacon biscuit sandwich, but before she took her next bite: "Playing with herself again."

"Join in?" Annette asked the question she wanted to pose to Cordelia, but never could steel herself to ask something so private, and now blurted it out before she could stop herself.

"Yes, I did," Cordelia admitted. "We kept the link going for about 4 hours."

"Holy shit, no wonder you're exhausted," Annette pointed out.

"Yes, mother, not going to school today because I was up all night, with my girlfriend," Cordelia said in a clearly sarcastic whiny teenager voice.

Annette started with a low chuckle at the rejoinder, which quickly escalated to a full chuckle, a belly laugh, and all the way to collapsed-on-the-couch laughing. More to the point, the laughing snapped Cordelia out of her mental morass and she was laughing just as hard by the time they both petered out.

"Okay, I needed that," Cordelia admitted after she sat up and took a sip of orange juice.

Annette took a bite of her sausage-and-egg croissant sandwich. "So, what's got you down after a good night like that?"

"Realization that I love a lady 21 light-years away and that we have a very good long-distance relationship, but I have precisely zero excuse to visit Carver V and the more I think about it, the more maddening it is," she said.

"I know," Annette sighed. "There's nothing on Carver V that would justify the head of R-and-D to visit, and as you pointed out, Tsukiko is not in a financial position to come out this way. Lose-lose for the time being. We've hashed this out before, so what is bothering you for real?"

"The in laws-to-come," Cordelia said quickly. "From what I've understood about them, both are very traditional. Her brother and sister are both cool about it; I've even spoken to the sister across the void by bridging through Tsukiko. That is the one big variable I haven't hashed out yet, the In-Laws."

"The dreaded in-laws," Annette said.

"I fear that my being a lady will drive a wedge between Tsukiko and her parents, and I would not do that to her."

"You'll have to know before you can really pass judgment on the matter," Annette pointed out. "Traditionalists, yes, but it is very possible they may accept you. Tradition comes in many forms, 'Cinderella' Allster, and it is Magi tradition to accept all relations as valid unless one has cause to believe otherwise. And in the Magi ethos of old, the Old Emperor himself defended such relationships against both public criticism and violent traditionalism."

"I know all this, but — " Cordelia was stifled by Annette taking up her hand.

"Knowing is the first step. We need to put it into practice," Annette said. "I'll work out a long-term plan to, say, have Allster set up a research facility somewhere on Carver V, maybe for simulation pods? I hear our Pod Network business on Carver is big business, might behoove us to start investing in upgrading the technology."

"That and it would be a good place to do a Wildlands Proving Ground, a lot of Carver V is unclaimed jungle and badlands that we don't get in Europe or North America," Cordelia pointed out.

"And Naval is big business on that planet, given it is over 80 percent ocean," Annette concluded. "Might take a couple years, but I think we can make it happen."

"And then it is only a matter of setting up a meeting between the two of us, which is not a massive task when you can coordinate a plan across the void by Newtype Linking," Cordelia said.

"So when do I get to meet her?" Annette asked.

"Soon enough, she's asleep right now," Cordelia said. "She did a lot more work than I did, physically at least. She's a lot more sensitive across the bridge than I am. I think that means she is probably the more powerful Newtype between the two of us."

"Dueling orgies? Damn, that's better than my last couple boyfriends," Annette admitted.

"Oh? That mediocre?" Cordelia asked.

"One was mediocre, the other was just flat disappointing," Annette admitted. "Haven't done any decent bed time in a year or two, so no wet spots in my bed."

"Have the maids been complaining?" Cordelia asked.

"If they have, it hasn't come up to me yet," her attendant said. "Wait, if you're bridging, does that mean Tsukiko gets to feel your occasional night with — " Annette broke off what she was going to ask after a moment, but the gist of the question was clearly obvious to her.

"Yes, and also yes, if we end up even partially bridging during that, it magnifies for both of us, almost but not quite a square equation."

"Wow, this is nuts," Annette shook her head. "I really need to work on getting you two together."

-x-x-x-

(6 December, CE 477, 0005 Hours Local (Dendez West) Time)
(Sionet and Kyle's Quarters, Mackie's Club, City of Westport, Dendez Continent, Planet Carver V, Protectorate of Mendel)

Sionet flopped down on the bed and stretched out. Kyle simply flopped and faceplanted on his pillow, then groaned.

"Damn, that was a marathon. Twelve hours SimNet Admin had us in the wringer," Sionet grumped. "Twelve. Hours."

"Unh," Kyle groaned. "I thought I was getting used to this, and then we get our clangers in a vise."

"Twelve. Hours." Sionet sighed. "Exhausting, but fun."

"Unh," Kyle groaned.

"It helped."

"Unh?" Kyle grunted, but this time was more of a question than a groan of weariness.

"Think about it. Didn't you notice the improvement from some of the crew?"

"Unh," Kyle grunted, though this was more of a neutral response.

"Yeah, there was some improvement, 'specially from third star. I could sense Lane and Yvonne both improved marginally with their Newtype skills as the battle progressed. Not only them, but Talia as well, she definitely pushed her bounds."

"Unh," Kyle groaned negative.

"Wow, you're really that tired?" Sionet asked.

"Unh," Kyle grunted more in the positive.

"Bet if I stripped down and told you to get in me, you'd perk up in a hurry," Sionet needled him.

"Honey, I have a headache," Kyle said weakly.

Sionet started giggling at the old excuse for no sex, which rapidly evolved to full-blown laughter. She ended up laughing so hard that she rolled over to her right, misgauged the distance to the edge of the bed, and ended up rolling out of bed and landed on the floor, laughing now at her bruises and inadvertent ineptitude.

"You all right over there?" Kyle asked.

"I'm alive," Sionet raised her hand up over the edge of the bed and waved at him. "And now thoroughly embarrassed, and my back is sore enough getting laid doesn't sound like a good idea," Sionet half-whined.

"I thought you were approaching your band anyway," Kyle half-moaned.

"I am," Sionet confirmed. "That's the upside and downside of being able to sense when someone can become pregnant, all in one sentence. It's all guesswork until you have the Newtype sense to tell exactly when you're ready." She clambored to standing, went over to the high-security safe she had installed to military specification in their quarters, and unlocked it with her codex. Only three persons had access to the safe, herself, Kyle, and Star Commander Elaine Landerson, and the safe was used for storing records and notes about Mermaid Team's advancing skills. Sionet came out with a notepad that she and Kyle used to track team progress, and she flopped it on the bed next to Kyle. "Come on, stop whining and sit up, it's time for some serious paperwork before we crash for the night."

"Aye aye," Kyle levered himself up to sitting and faced his more-than-a-girlfriend-not-quite-a-fiancee. "Newtype tracking?"

"Yeah, like I said, we made some gains, and I want your opinions before I put anything to paper and test on it."

"Fine, then, we'll go straight down the list, starting with Two," Kyle said. "Benjamin. I didn't feel anything different from him that I noticed, you?"

"No, no change from his last. Then again, he also didn't get the workout today that some of the others did," Sionet admitted. She slipped a pen out of her bra band and transferred his prior record over. "Three, Beatrice?"

"Noticed something from her, and she's definitely improved on getting out of dodge when counter-battery fire is aimed in her direction," Kyle said.

Sionet took down the improved results, and noted that Beatrice's last official NT rating showed her as a C-class Newtype. Maybe she was now up into the B rating? "Four, Julio," Sionet read off the list.

"No change. Speed Demon though he is, he still took hits that you or I would have seen coming and dodged," Kyle said.

Mermaid Lead took down the no change result, which meant that Julio was still hovering in the D range as a Newtype. "Five, Miriam," Sionet said.

"I could sense something from her, not sure what though," Kyle said.

"Besides the fact that she's in the middle of her band and running half-pissed-off-half-perverted right now?" Sionet asked. "I'll list that one as no observed change," Sionet took the result down, then took a moment to flex her back to try to work out some of the strain she put on it from her fall. "Six, Miguel."

"Definitely noticed him, I could sense he was feeling his shots out better as the day dragged on."

"That might be an improvement, then," Sionet nodded, then recorded the result. "Seven, Talia," Sionet ordered next.

"Oh fuck yes, big-time improvement as the day went on," Kyle said. He had been genuinely surprised that she had spec'd out into Newtype machines some months ago, and today's match had seen her really push the limit on using remote weapons. "I watched her basically double her engagement range with the Quebley's Bits after lunch, and double it again sometime after 1900, when we were simulated to go up against the Negaverse Black Rangers."

"Any difference in power you notice?"

Kyle frowned. "Minor, if any. I can't say it was notable."

Sionet took down the results. "Darien."

"Yeah, no improvement on power, but I did notice that he was feeling out his strikes with beam saber combat better as the day went on," Mermaid One said before he yawned.

"Don't start that shit, you know there is no rest until the paperwork is done," Sionet cautioned him. "Nine, Christopher."

"No change I noticed," Kyle said. "I think he's about the lowest rated of all of us."

"True," Sionet said before she recorded the lack of change. Before she called the next, she took another moment to stretch out her back. "Ten, Nike," Sionet called out.

"Minor improvement, I could sense her reactions getting sharper as the day went on, even as she started getting fatigued."

With that entry written down, Sionet flipped her tablet to the next page. "Eleven, Lane," she stenciled in his name and prior info quickly.

"Definite improvement, he jumped up from nine remote weapons at once to twelve by the end of the day, and I believe his shot placement improved as well."

"Range improvement on controlling the bits?" Sionet asked.

"Not that I noticed," Kyle said. Lane was already known as a 'swarm combatant', someone who could use multiple bits to engage multiple foes at once, or use multiple bits to engage one foe from several directions at the same time. An operator like Talia, who excelled at long-range remote weapons engagement, could not use as many remote weapons at once but could use them at a significantly longer range than Lane, for example.

"Noted," Sionet took down the results. "Twelve, Lina."

"No change I noticed, you?" Kyle commented after a moment to think about it.

"Nothing on my end." That result was easy to translate over. "Yvonne."

"Yeah, I could sense her feeling her shots out better as the day went on," Kyle said. "Definite improvement there."

"So noted," Sionet had that observation on paper in moments. "Fourteen, Gregory," she said as she used the cap of her pen to scratch her back just below the band of her sport bra.

"Slightly better than baseline, shot placement mostly. I don't want to say he's capped out for sure, but he may be close," Kyle observed.

"We'll have to put him under the hammer to see if there is room for improvement or if he's at the top of his game," Sionet still recorded the minor improvement. "Fifteen, Lalitha."

"Less spray and pray as the day went on, more focused fire and maneuver," Kyle said. The Heavyarms pilot of the unit was excellent at mopping up low-level opposition in large quantities, but her munitions expenditure also could put a severe strain on logistics even despite her results.

"That's good to hear, the Commandos abhor wasted ammo," she said. "Time for the tough one."

"Yeah, you," Kyle said. "Honestly, would you feel too hurt if I said I did not notice any change from baseline?"

"Honest answer, no. I kinda came to the same conclusion myself," Sionet recorded the consensus answer. "Truth is a bitch, some days."

"And myself is the toughest of all," Kyle grumped. "I can't say I noticed anything different as the day went on."

"Going to agree," Sionet said. "Guess we'll have to do some more marathons to see if we can push your limit."

"You do realize, after a day like today, getting some ass is the last thing on my mind?" Kyle said slyly.

Sionet scrunched her face in concentration for a moment, then sighed. "Some sacrifices must be made for the greater good, I am willing to accept reduced dick for increased combat survivability," she said. With a quick flick of the wrist, she had the note tablet closed up. Mermaid Lead capped the pen, slipped it back into her bra band, then groaned and fished it back out. "Why did I do that? I'm about to strip down for a shower."

"Fatigue is getting to you," Kyle needled her.

"No argument from me," Sionet hopped off the bed, slipped the note tablet into the safe, and locked it up again. "You want the shower first?"

"Hell no, I'm just going to rest here for a minute," Kyle flopped back down on his pillow.

"If you're asleep when I get out, I'm waking you up to take a shower," Sionet cautioned him.

"Unh," Kyle grumped in response.

-x-x-x-

(10 February CE 478, 1715 Hours Blue Cosmos Time)
(Dayton Munitions Stockpile And Manufacturing, Dayton, Ohio, Blue Cosmos North America Possessions)

Foreman Mick Jansen was the last person into the room for the supervisory staff, joining several dozen other persons in the room called to the meeting by the owner of the facility.

"Mick! Damn good!" The 4 Shift Foreman stood up and gave the newcomer a good handshake and shoulder clap. "Been a hot minute since I ran into you, how goes?"

"Usual ration, usual fashion," the 2 Shift Foreman took a seat next to him. This facility worked on a very different schedule from most businesses, it ran explicitly in 6-hour shifts, 4 shifts a day, to minimize operator fatigue and reduce accidents. Which was all well and good, because a munitions factory was always an extremely hazardous career path and minimizing those risks saved lives and resources.

"Settle down, gents," the factory owner said. "By now you all have heard from one source or another, we're going back to Origin Terra to purify it."

"Hell yes!" one of the third shift leads shouted.

"Damn good!" Mick said. "For the retaking of our blue and pure world!"

"That's the general plan, Mick," Bart Lobes noted. His family started out under a different name but changed it on arrival to Blue Terra to distance themselves from a family schism. "The departure time is between 12 and 14 months from now. Contracts for munition production are being handed out faster than hotcakes and used panties, and Dayton Munitions has picked up several contracts for 75mm CIWS, 105mm and 155mm HE shells, 12-gauge shotgun shells, and 7.92mm machine gun rounds. We are now in the shit nice and deep, but if this works out, we'll be tapped to go back to Old Terra to set up new munitions factories on top of the burial pits of the space monsters. Clear?"

"Crystal clear, sir!" The 3rd Shift Foreman answered.

"Unfortunately, our missile factory up by Columbus will not be ready before the departure, it is slated to come online fourth quarter '79. We will continue the project but right now all available manpower goes into making beans and bullets for the boys on the frontlines. From here on out, you turn the quality products our troops need, in quantity, and we do it as fast as we can humanly do so, clear?"

"Aye, sir!" a Line 3 Supervisor and former naval officer answered.

"Policy changes will be instituted starting next week. Going forward, if your crew members want to do overtime, they are now allowed to do a half-shift overtime if you are confident they are in good shape to do so. We are not shorting on safety to make this happen, people. All other safety procedures are to be by the book. HR, next one is for you, listen up!"

"Sir!"

"This is about to sound sexist, but this is a directive from the Minister Of Labor so take it as policy going forward. When hiring candidates, you hire the most qualified candidate for the position, and in situations where quals match up, hiring preference is to be given to females first. We expect a draft will be put in place for manpower in the military in the next month or two, so we will shortly have more females to select from as a matter of sheer numbers. We are going to war, and that means as many able-bodied men on the front lines as possible. Same thing is going to happen in a lot of other war-capable industries, so any of you with sisters, wives, daughters, granddaughters in a few cases, nieces who are thinking about getting into the military, tell them to do it right now before the powers that be decide they want the ladies on the homefront."

"How bad is it going to be?" the 4 Shift Foreman asked.

"I don't have anything official on that, Louie, but unofficially I have a few brothers in the Interrogator Program, and they're sweating bullets already. What intel they've picked up from probing the outskirts of enemy territory is not pretty. From inside the Military-Industrial circles, we're expecting losses, lots of losses, and gear is considered expendable far more so than bodies. Generous estimates of just Mendel's population at this time put them in the neighborhood of 60 billion, but I get the feeling that that is low-balling the numbers. And God only knows what the population of ZAFT or Orb territory looks like." The owner took a drag off an electronic cigarette since traditional tobacco smoking was banned on company grounds.

"We're exempt because of wartime production necessity, I take it?" Mick asked. He was still young enough to be drafted if needed.

"I've been told that employment at a production contractor is classified as mission critical, so you should already be exempted from the draft. If you do get a letter, bring it to me and I'll take it up channels — " Bart was cut off by the sound of a shell detonating nearby. "JESUS!"

"That was the 105 line!" Mick was first out the door to look in the direction of the detonation, and pulled his radio as soon as he stepped foot on the balcony. "105 line report!"

"Moey dropped a shell! God damn, sir, there's blood and bits and shit everywhere! Three others wounded!"

"Secure the 105 line! Shut it down, now! Safety teams to the 105 line immediately!" Bart shouted into his own radio. "God damn, that just shaved a year off my life."

"You and me both, boss," Mick grumped. "Just one shell, thank God."

"Let's not make this a trend, people. Safety first," Lobes said by way of orders to his subordinates. Despite his constant extolling of safety as priority, there would be more accidents — some severe ones.

-x-x-x-

(3 March CE 478, 0900 Hours Local (Dendez West) Time)
(Sim Pod Bay, Mackie's Bar And Grill)

"Welcome to the firing line, ladies and gentlemen," Sionet said. "We are about to undertake a redux of the mission that jump-started our desire to become pilots, one and all. And this time, we are doing it with our best machines, our best tactics, and our best support for the teams on the ground. How copy?" Sionet asked.

"Copy all!" Kyle said with a savage smile.

"How are we dropping in this time?" Nike asked.

"Three teams, split up on three axis with three separate mission profiles and three separate support profiles," Sionet said. "This time around, we are not operating as one unit, we will be operating as support for all the good little boys and girls on the mission. SimNet Command will be issuing us frag orders to take down high-value targets as necessary, and for us they will have the difficulty cranked up. That means, if we do not complete our objectives, our high-test OpFor might start interfering with the other school teams, so it is in our best interest to make sure we do the job on time, in full, and move on to the next objective before the tangos get restless."

"Fun times. Who goes where?" Christopher asked.

"Team 1, Kyle and crew, you drop into Konterra and head southbound by route of choice. Your destination is Capitol Hill, secure all major government and historical facilities in the area and await further orders," Sionet ordered.

"Can do, boss-lady."

"Team 2, Miguel and crew, your drop point is North Bethesda. Axis of advance is south-southeast, your destination is Foggy Bottom. Same mission profile, secure all structures of high value and await further orders."

"Not the White House?" Miguel asked peevishly.

"Neg, because Team 3, Lane and crew, has the White House. Your drop point is Woodburn, axis of advance is east-northeast, and keep in mind that you may be called to assist around the Pentagon and Arlington if resistance is too great up there."

"And you, boss? I noticed you didn't include yourself," Nike asked.

"I have orders from Galaxy Commander Halburton to conduct this only as a Strategic Officer, no piloting for me. I will be serving as Teams Operator and planning specialist, and that will include frag-ordering you out to special operations and support operations. Pity I can not join you for this one," Sionet bowed to the team. "The fighting is your challenge, the strategy is mine. You know what to do, so let's do it."

"Yeah!" Christopher and Miguel both high-fived before they hopped into their pods and closed up. Sionet moved over to the command console and activated it for her use as per GC Halburton's orders.

"Sionet is online," she said after the link was established to SimNet Command.

"Copy, Sionet, I hear you," the Galaxy Commander said. "Be advised that each of my Commando Clusters has deployed a Trinary to join in the battle as active forces, they will operate under your command for this engagement as well. Other formations around the planet have included Trinaries as well, I have instructed SimNet to increase the difficulty in their regions just the same. And I noticed some familiar names that have joined in from a pod center over on Kileska."

"Oh, wow, yeah, the name of that formation is not obvious at all," Sionet noted with clear irony to voice. "And I have eyes on the Rigos, just came into the pod center. Six of them looking to join the action." Sionet waved them over to her console and turned off her microphone. "Saiga, Samuel, come in to join the big simulated scrap?"

"Heard you were orchestrating a big one, have room for some greenhorns?" Saiga asked.

"More is the better. I'll set you up some pods, this mission has minimum hardware requirements," Sionet dialed them into pods 40 to 45, which immediately began strobing. "Pick your pod from the strobes and get situated, drop is in 30 minutes. I'll set you up as a Team and assign a drop-zone shortly."

Samuel raised an eyebrow in query. "You're not intending to jam us 'nards-first into a wall of enemies, are you?" he asked with some humor to voice.

"Only if operationally necessary, I prefer my subordinates to come out alive," Sionet admitted. He chuckled grimly at the answer as he turned to take up his pod for the match. In less than a minute, the six Mafiosi had climbed into the pods and buttoned up, proving to Sionet that even Mafiosi culture knew the basics of Mobile Suit operation in Mendel.

Sionet sighed and flipped her microphone on again. "What are my parameters, Galaxy Commander?"

"Simple. You have theater command." Halburton pressed a button on his console, and immediately Sionet's console took over command of the entire battlespace. "Attention all teams and support personnel, this is Simulation Administration. As of right now, this simulation is under the operational command of Mermaid Lead, who will be standing in for Century Commander Michaels who would have had theoretical command of the battlescape over DC. Follow her instructions, follow the instructions given to you by your Operators, first time, every time, and you may yet survive to complete your objectives. Any questions?"

The radio channel was briefly inundated with a symphony of acknowledgements.

Halburton changed over to a private commo channel. "Consider this something of a test, but not quite up to a Trial of Position, shall we say," he said slyly. "You do well here, your team does well here, you are that much closer to placement."

"Copy all, here's to hoping we make this work," she gave the screen a thumbs-up, then noticed one of her other screens was showing an incoming private call from an operator on Kileska. "I think I have a call to take."

"Good luck, Sionet." Halburton switched off his feed.

Sionet answered the other call. The viewscreen immediately showed her mother, with Aurora and Korros behind them. "Mother! You're joining in as well?"

"Just as an Operator, I learned very quickly with Leon that I'm no good in the cockpit." Sionet nodded twice to acknowledge the point. "He meant you when he said 'Mermaid Lead', right?"

"Oh yes," Sionet said. "Who else is in for the family? Aurora and Korros both can pilot a bit, definitely John-Boy and Yancey since they both have their own machines, who else?"

"Me," a face that Sionet really wasn't expecting to see popped into the edge of the screen. "I never was a match for Leon, that guy had a natural aptitude for it, but it never stopped me from trying," her Mafiosi father explained. "Good to see you got the better part of his aptitudes and a much more personable disposition out of it."

"Really? Was Leon crazy or the oddball of the class or something?" Sionet asked.

"Not crazy, but definitely the oddball loner of the class, right down to the trenchcoat and shades and overuse of hair gel. Had a devilish sense of humor, though," Jasmine pointed out. "Jacob was much more relatable and easy to talk to, Mafia upbringing aside," and Sionet's mother pulled him in for a quick kiss.

Sionet sighed. "Before we begin, I want to state for the record that I'm not holding a grudge or anything. I realize now what you were trying to keep me out of, father, but the route you were taking to do that put me on a road I just wanted no part of. The life of the Mafiosi is not all bad, but there just was never a road in it I wanted a part of. So here I am."

"Here you are, about to command several Galaxies of combined forces in a mock assault on what would have been the Earth Alliance's last act of defiance against the world," Jacob summed up the total of what they were about to engage in. "Part of me expected you'd run or lash out, and part of me was very relieved when you ran rather than did something more destructive. Disappointed, certainly, but more in myself for ignoring or trying to bulldoze over the red flags. But now, after having watched you for months blasting your way through battles that frankly scare every single Mafiosi on planet and better than half of the New Terra Mafiosi just the same, there's no disappointment. Only relief that you are easily good enough to blast your way through damn near any opposition, and the pride from it. And a huge dose of fear as to what you could do if you really unwound."

Sionet raised an eyebrow. "The whole Mafiosi network knows?"

"Oh yes, after Aurora and Korros visited, word got out that you were my daughter. Didn't take long for them to start doing their research. A couple summits we've had, some of the other families have inquired if I have any pull with you to do contract work, they're flat scared of you and your team but more than willing to pay top C-bill for your level of services," Jacob Brelle said. "Word on the street is there are no Mafiosi pilots on Carver V that could stand up to you, and maybe two or three on New Terra if they got lucky fast in a fight against you. Still and all, I haven't told them that you don't have machines of your own or access to them, and frankly I don't want to know what kind of hardware you have access to. Plausible deniability and all that, if I don't know, I can't testify against you. Long story short, every Mafiosi family is watching you and your SimNet career, and every family is cheering you on for their own combination of reasons. If your troop doesn't go Commando, you damn sure could make a killing as Mercenaries."

Sionet chuckled at the thought. "We have considered that already, the whole team. We are figuring on doing a few tours as Commandos, then buying out and going Merc if the state of the industry is good at the time. A Trinary of Gundams such as ours would go a long way to settling Contracts," she admitted.

"Definitely," Jasmine said. "You go girl, you keep going, go as far as you can. We're behind you. Now, how soon until we drop in?"

Sionet checked her board. "16 minutes. Get ready, I'm going to assign you a track parallel to Mermaid Team 2, but be warned, I can't pull punches or favorites for the family. Try and keep the shooters out of trouble, Mom, and I will try to keep you from walking face-first into a wall of whoopass, but I'll have to send you where the mission requires and it may not be friendly."

"That sounds a lot like what Leon used to say to me when I tried to learn piloting alongside him, thanks daughter of mine," she said with a crooked smile. "Everyone to your pods!" she shooed everyone off toward their assigned pod. "Let's do this, girl!"

"Stand to for drop orders," Sionet promised her mother.

-x-

(20 minutes later)

"Team 1 reporting, we're on the 95 southbound, we just cleared a column of MLRS units that were headed southbound into town," Kyle noted. "16 vehicles destroyed, no friendly casualties."

"Copy all, continue on objective," Sionet answered, then went silent.

Kyle switched frequencies. "Stingray Team, Mermaid Team 1," he prompted them.

"Mermaid One, Stingray Lead, reading five by five," the middle-school ace pilot answered. "Good to have you in the drop today, sir! What's the plan?"

"Southbound and down in the general concept, Stingray. Do you have a command structure you answer to or an operator?"

"Negative on both, we're just a small-fart school in rural Kileska," Stingray Lead answered.

"Copy. You're with me until or unless you're ordered otherwise," he waved the four-man team over toward where Mermaid One was up on the berm of the I-95 road. The three machines under Stingray lead were Ground Combat Gundams, the lead machine was a RX-78-4 'G04' Gundam, and all were kitted out for heavy combat.

"Yes sir! Stingrays form up!" Within a few seconds, the five troops of Mermaid One were met by the four Stingray Team troops. "Online, sir. What's the plan?"

"For now, we execute an axis of advance southbound toward metro DC. Targets of opportunity are to be engaged as we bear. Is that one of the more recent vintages of the Mega Beam Launcher?"

"Yes sir! I used my upgrade points to settle on an add-on generator from a Vayeate to power it, and the gun is Quarter War (3) vintage, well after all the bugs were worked out of these systems."

"Good, don't want that thing blowing smoke up our butts when used," Kyle noted as he hopped up on the 200 Overpass and did a quick look around. "Clear down the 200 both ways, continue southbound down the 95."

"Copy," Julio used the heavy thrusters on his Tallgeese to vault the interchange overpasses in one bound, then came down in a crouched guard and scanned the area south of the interchange for activity. "Zone clear south until the bend, chief."

"Copy we'll slice the pie when we get to it," Kyle noted. "Command, any activity to the southeast in the technology park?"

"Negative, recon has zero tangos in that park," Sionet reported. "Continue as intended but be on standby for support calls."

"We're clear, sir," Stingray Lead said.

"Julio, you have point for the nonce," Kyle said.

"Moving!" The Tallgeese sprinted southbound down the Interstate for 500 meters, then ducked in behind a brace of trees in one of the median strips between the northbound and southbound lanes of the interstate. "Still no contact, sir. I'm going to shift over to this off-ramp so I can get a good look down the way."

"Watch your ass, Julio," Kyle released him to execute the maneuver. Julio sprinted across the dividing ground between the northbound lanes and the northbound off-ramp that led to the 200 Interchange, and took position in a clearing that was lightly forested. "Anything, four?"

"Yeah, looks like the welcoming committee is on the next overpass, I see four Linear Tanks dug into decent fighting positions flanking the overpass with decent revetments, at least eight missile trucks, also dug in, and two platoons of Infantry with mixed ATGMs. Almost looks like they're expecting heavy armor to come this way, sir," Julio noted with some sarcasm.

"Not at all," Kyle replied with equal sarcasm. "Checking the timeline of forces coming through here, the next on the way is the 603rd Mechanized Infantry, meaning if we don't deal with these punks they will have to, and the 603 doesn't have the kind of anti-armor stomp we do. Recommendations?"

"I have an idea," Stingray Lead said. "Mermaid Three,"

"Beatrice, but yes?" Mermaid Three answered.

"How many of your MLRS missiles are cluster munitions?" Stingray Lead asked.

"Four of them," she answered. The original Physalis MLRS unit used paired three-tube MLRS silos that had to rotate up from storage to fire. The Magi revisions of the machine used static-mounted smaller tubes that would fire vertically and reorient after launch to head down their intended flight path, and each of the 20 missiles she carried was an improvement over the original MLRS used by the original Physalis.

"Can you put one of them on the Infantry? As soon as it detonates and kills the soft targets, Stingray will rush the corner and do their tanks. We're great at killing dug-in armor, we practice it a lot," Stingray Lead said.

"I can do that, I'm outside my minimum range," she said. "Stand clear," she ordered.

"Stingray, stand to for imminent pwnage," Stingray Lead said.

"Firing," Beatrice launched one of her inboard cells. The missile immediately blasted upwards twenty meters, fired a rocket motor to turn horizontal to the ground, and the main rocket motor fired immediately to drive it toward the coming intersection. The flight time was a grand total of three seconds. "Separation! Go!" she ordered. The side panels of the missile blew open with explosive line charges several hundred meters away from the target zone, and inside the body of the missile was 96 Softball-size bomblets. The footprint wasn't huge, but it was plenty large enough to envelop the infantry and even did a number on the exposed vehicle crews and the lighter missile trucks. None of the tank commanders survived the blast and fragmentation, one tank driver was slain, three of the Missile Trucks were outright destroyed, two more were disabled due to crew casualties, and the infantry was almost completely wiped out by the pattern.

As the submunitions rained down on the formation, Stingray Lead bounded forward and his Rays were quickly behind him. On the southern side of the ambush strongpoint, he grazed both the Linear Tanks with a single blast from the Mega Beam Launcher, which also had the benefit of destroying the southern foundation of the overpass bridge, rendering it impassable to common vehicle traffic. On the northern side of the ambush, Ray 2 and Ray 4 struck both of the semi-concealed Linear Tanks with beam rifle shots, both of which were fatal to the machines in question. In the center, Ray 3 took a pass over the Infantry with her chest-mounted vulcan guns on her RX-78[G] Ground Combat Gundam, while on the overpass itself she used her beam rifle to drill the two still-functional and still-present Missile Trucks. The last of the trucks had sped off northbound to clear the counter-ambush attack, meaning it was retreating and thus no longer a threat (or at least someone else would deal with it).

"Stingray lead reporting, all tangos down," he said after a couple sensor passes over the area reported no notable movement.

"Good shooting, kids," Kyle said. "Command, Mermaid and Stingray reporting ambush at the Interstate 95-Old Gunpowder Road intersection has been cleared, request mark for intel sweep."

"Copy, location marked for inspection. Special frag order for Beatrice," Sionet said.

"Listening, boss lady," their artillery trooper said with a smile.

"Dragon Team has identified an enemy strongpoint in Glenmont at the Parking Garage nearby the metro station. Coordinates of the station have been uploaded to your console, fire 1 magazine penetrator shells on a mortar arc into the station to rubble it, how copy?"

"Copy all, boss-lady," Beatrice de-cocked her existing shell in her Rail Artillery Rifle, removed the magazine, and switched it over to hardened target penetrator shells. She set up a targeting solution for the parking garage that would spread the shells around a bit both in level of detonation and location, since the parking garage itself was expanded from its pre-Reunification War three-level design and was now five levels tall. Once the targeting computer in her system had a solid solution, she knelt down behind her shield, raised the barrel to almost vertical, and fired her ten rounds in series, one round every three seconds with slight adjustments to azimuth and direction after each shot. "Ten fired, awaiting ADA."

"Let's move, we've got a long way to go and not all day to get there," Kyle waved the team forward and specifically toward the south.

Thirty seconds later: "Mermaid Three, Dragon Lead, good shooting girl!" Dragon Lead half-shouted on the radio. "That parking garage is stoved in, it pancaked on round nine detonating somewhere in it!"

"That's what I like to hear," Kyle said. "Whoever said artillery is a losing game doesn't know shit about how armies really use artillery," he said.

"It's usually the meatheads that think battles are fought mano y mano that believe artillery is useless," Stingray Lead commented. "Or the fanboys that think Gundams solve all the problems in the world, which is a subset of the same group of meatheads."

"Yeah, it's like in the old Gundam anime shows that the Mjolnr brought along in its archives, it is hilariously wrong how bad conventional forces are portrayed in those shows. Artillery as a useful weapon of war? Hell no, your survival expectancy with turbo cancer would be better than firing a volley of artillery." Stingray 4 noted.

Stingray 3 followed up: "Some of the old Gundam animes, if a Mobile Suit farted in the general direction of conventional forces, they spontaneously blew up. Never mind doing anything useful from a military standpoint."

"I need to install one of those ass-blasters on my machine," Kyle said as a wan joke.

-x-

(10 minutes later)

"Well, isn't this some bullshit," Nike groaned. "Barely 2 and a half kilometers south from our LZ and we're already hip deep in shitheads. I swear, girl, Trial Command must have a hard-on for us," she said, referencing her common 'partner in crime'.

"Normally I'd scoff at that thought, but today, I'm convinced," Talia ducked around the end of an apartment building and rattled off a couple bursts of beam rifle at enemy Strike Daggers using the 955-495 Interchange as an ambush and area control point. Her first burst missed, the second burst clipped one and put it down for the count.

"Brelle Team, how's the right flank looking?" Miguel (Mermaid Six / Team 2 Lead) asked.

"No better than the center," John-Boy answered. "Four Strike Daggers and six or eight Linear Tanks dug in in the median strips around the 270-495 crossovers. And infantry, because fuck us in particular," the Brelle veteran pilot answered.

"Do we rush or flank?" Jacob Brelle asked the clearly-superior Mermaid Team 2 Lead.

"Neither, we lean on our support troops like good little soldiers. No sense getting our asses mauled on small fry like this," Miguel said, then switched frequencies. "All stations this net, Mermaid Team 2, we are stonewalled at the 495-270-355 intersection, roughly two companies of mixed armor and infantry holding about 500 meters of real estate and denying movement through the area. Are there any support options available for these tangos?"

Five seconds later: "Mermaid 2, this is Spade Lead, I have your position and a Star of Aerofighters are inbound to sanitize the area. Stand by for air strikes."

Talia could see the fighters commit in from altitude, ten of them in the Star, and at a certain descent angle and altitude the missiles started flying — fast engine tankbuster missiles, she quickly realized, and in seconds the missiles started striking down the enemy machines. Two of the fighters had broke off left and right and were approaching the intersection from due east and west, with their low-pass bomb drops of ballute-equipped conventional bombs to finish the strike. The first of these last munitions struck the interchange as the armor-busters broke overhead and rattled the buildings around Mermaid Team and Brelle Team.

"Whoo yeah! Aerospace got some!" Yancey (the junior of the two veteran Brelle pilots) shouted. "Thanks, boys!" He concluded after the last of the drop-delayed bombs landed in the kill zone.

"Whoopass delivered, cheap, easy, and on target, or the next sortie is free," Spade 16 responded. "Over to you, Mermaid."

"Let's roll!" Nike bolted forward and stopped at the edge of the sanitized zone to inspect. "Spade, Mermaid 10 reporting, your strike killed everything in the area up to and including most of the mosquitoes. Thank you for the assist!"

"Copy all, Mermaid, Spade element is headed back up top. Good hunting!"

"Command, Mermaid Two, we are south of the 495-270 interchange and moving!" Miguel darted forward of Nike and started pacing in the direction of Bethesda.

"Copy, Mermaid Two. Be advised that your primary operation order is suspended, you are to assist 373 Cluster Armored Infantry in securing Bethesda and the hospital complex in the town. The services of that hospital will be needed to deal with casualties on all sides from this battle. How copy?"

"Copy all, we're on it," Miguel said. "Well, this definitely got a bit more challenging. There is no good highground in the area, so we won't have a look-down-shoot-down advantage."

"Mobile forces?" Surprisingly, the question was from Korros Brelle, not one of the Mermaid Team.

"Mixed company of Mobile Suits, Dagger L, Windam, and commanded by what appears to be a Strike Gundam variant," Talia had already been looking into the area, given they would have had to go through it regardless. "About twice that in Linear Tanks."

"You and Nike are volunteered for the Strike Gundam. Darien, Christopher and myself will deal with the llamas. Brelle team, when we reach Temple Hill Baptist, you split to the right and work on securing the NIH campus with the infantry coming in from Westlake, looks like the 413 Armored Infantry. Good to go?"

"We're on it, sir!" Jasmine Brelle answered for the Brelle Team.

"While we're not being shot at, got a question for your team," Nike asked.

"May have an answer," Jacob responded with a measured tone.

"In your guys' day job, is the arranged marriage thing mandatory, common, or occasional?" Nike asked.

"It's preferred, slightly better than fifty-fifty used," Jacob said. "Jasmine and myself are one of the less-common non-arranged marriages in our families, but one thing is always honored: even if it is arranged, you don't step up to the altar unless both of you really want it. There are no shotgun weddings in our groups, especially with how dangerous and ruthless our day-job is, the last thing we need is to worry about a knife in the kidney."

"And that's why Sionet bailed," Korros pointed out. "She didn't want any kind of marriage into any of the families, so she disappeared before something worse happened."

"Sensor contact!" Yancey reported. "Down the 355, I'm seeing multiple Linear Tanks and at least two Mobile Suits, they're dug in on both sides of the Wood Road intersection."

"Talia, think you can loft a couple of your Fin Funnels down there to thin the herd?" Miguel asked.

"I can, but I'll only get about four shots per funnel before I have to recall them." Talia nonetheless ejected three of her six Fin Funnels and sent them on the way toward the enemy revetments. Explosions were not far behind.

Miguel waved toward the subdivisions flanking both sides of the 355. "Off the road, guys! Start cutting through yards, forest clumps, avoid skylighting yourselves down any thoroughfare! If we blitz down this highway, they will chew us to ribbons before we made the Wood Road intersection!"

"Brelle Team, get in the tree cluster around the Baptist Church and await Nav Points, I'm going to take you around to the northwest side of the NIH complex so the Infantry can support you." Jasmine took a minute to set up a movement plan for her team so they could make the rendezvous without exposing themselves to fire. It wasn't as fast as would be expected of a veteran Magi or Mendel Operator, but it was another telltale that certain aspects of the military culture of Mendel had bled into even unobservant civilian understanding.

"Smoked about a dozen MS and tanks," Talia said as her suit received and locked in the Funnels she had used. The newer versions of the RX-93 Nu Gundam in use by first the Magi and now Mendel forces did not treat the Fin Funnels as disposable, engineers of millennia past had finished implementing Amuro's proposed recovery systems. More recent Mendel engineering had adapted those recovery systems to in-atmosphere work, using Gravitic Lattice to allow all-range attacks even in ground operations, meaning that NT-use Mobile Suits were no longer hobbled in ground operations.

"Good shooting, now we need to move and capitalize," Miguel set up his own Nav points on the fly. "We'll loop east of Stone Ridge School and down between Comfort Hall and the Warrior Food Court, then we work our way south and roll up their resistance as we go."

"On it," Nike bolted forward and crossed the northeast corner of the Stone Ridge athletic field into the tree stand on the far side of the eastern border road to that athletic field. "Okay, limited sensor pass, seeing two Dagger L units in the area, one with an Aile Striker pack, one with a Sword Striker pack."

"Copy, any sign of that Strike Gundam?" Miguel asked.

"Nothing, he must be farther south into the base at this time," Nike commented as the rest of her team closed up.

"Christopher, you first, then Darien, then myself, then Talia and Nike," Miguel said. "We shoot the gap and fan out, Christopher I want you to go west when we break, you have lead clearing for Talia and Nike to prevent them being bogged down by small fry before dealing with that Strike Gundam."

"Copy, boss," Christopher nodded his machine's head to the orders.

"Move!" The five Gundams were quick to move out on the intended path, though only Christopher took the gap between the food court and Comfort Hall. The others jumped over the buildings due to the restrictive nature of the terrain, which temporarily skylighted them but not long enough to be shot at. Of the nearby machines, the Sword Dagger L tried to close with the anti-ship sword but Christopher blasted it down with one good shotgun shell from the main armament of the MS-18E he was presently piloting. The Aile Dagger L didn't get an opportunity to turn toward, Miguel tapped it twice with a Beam Rifle as he cleared over the food court and it was down before he landed.

"Eyes on! Strike Gundam coming this way, intersection of Palmer and Brown, just past the parking garage!" Nike was only barely able to get her shield up to stop two beam rifle shots from the tango, Christopher was not so lucky in that he took three hits in rapid succession and was combat disabled from losing use of both arms. He was able to clear out of the line of fire before he took more hits, though.

"Shit! I'm out, falling back to Dropship LZ for repairs," Christopher reported. "Good hunting, girls!"

"Strike E with Lightning Striker pack!" Talia reported. "I'm going to enjoy this, pilot seems to know his business."

"I'll loop down Gunnel road and put pressure on him from the east, you take him head-on?" Nike asked.

"Do it!" Talia said in a rush. Nike blocked two more rounds of 'shorty' beam rifle and broke left (east) and down Gunnel Road a couple hundred meters, which put a parking garage between her Gaia Gundam and the enemy Strike E. Talia took the gap and went partway down Palmer Road to present the immediate threat and hopefully fix the tango in position. Thankfully, the shield on the RX-93 Nu Gundam was plenty big enough to shield most of her body from beam rifle fire, and the pilot's six shots at her resulted in four blocked hits. Her return fire of two five-round bursts resulted in one peripheral hit and five blocked hits.

"He's not moving, just spamming! Can you get an angle, scrawny one?" Talia asked after it became evident the enemy was just trying to batter his way through Talia's shield.

"Standby one, Miss Busty," Nike bounded down the road to stand next to the Arrowhead Garage and crouched down so she could see between the levels of the garage, and was able to take up a good position for a side-on shot against him. "Got it, now!" She fired one well-aimed shot between a pair of panel vans parked in the 4th floor of the garage, and that shot blew the head and shoulders clean off the Strike E. It remained standing for a few seconds more before the control systems failed and it collapsed into a pile of parts between the cancer center and the parking garage. "Tango down!"

"Good work, girls! Loop around Palmer Road to the west and clear as you go!" Miguel ordered.

"Let's go!"

-x-

(10 minutes later)
(Approaching Shirlington, Northern Virginia (6.5 kilometers air distance to Pentagon))

"Command, Mermaid Team Three, we're approaching the intersection of King Street and South Walter Reed Drive. No tangos in area, does Command have any frag orders for us at this time?" Lane asked.

"Affirmative, Commando Trinary Five has bogged down in the area of Gunston Park and Fort Scott Park, you are to move to Green Valley and establish contact with Trinary Five, coordinate a plan to take some heat off the Commandos so they can resume movement north, how copy?"

"Copy, we're moving," Lane said. "So, we move two kilometers almost due east and relieve some heat from the Commandos. Serious business is afoot," Mermaid Eleven noted.

"No joke, must be some serious tangos to have stiffed the Commandos," Yvonne acknowledged. "Let's go hunting!"

"Make for the South Culpeper and 25th intersection, then cut due east across the subdivision sprawl into Four Mile Run, we'll stop short of the 395 and ask for an update," Lane set them up a walk path on nav points to the heavy tree banks south of Jennie Dean Park. By crossing back and forth through the forested areas of the subdivisions, enemy vehicles and AT missile teams never got a clear shot at them for all of the trees in the way, and a couple squads of missile trucks in the area were quickly dispatched by Lane's quick shooting from his Jagd Doga's paired Beam Assault Rifles and by Lalitha's fast machine cannon work from her RX-78-5 Gundam 'G05'.

After the team crossed South Arlington Mill Drive: "Contact Mobile Suits!"

"I see them, five marks at Jannie Dean Park," Lane said. "Wait! I have friendly IFF signals, they're ours!"

"Command, are we missing a team in this area?" Yvonne asked.

"Affirm, contact lost with Rigos Team in the Fairlington area, presumed KIA in encounter with forces that are now stonewalling the Commandos. They reported heavy contact and dropped off all reads shortly thereafter. Do you have news?"

"Possibly, stand by while we close on possible friendlies to verify," Lane said, then physically waved his troops forward.

Nothing more was said until the team moved into the Four Mile Run forest band and crossed Shirlington Park. "Eyes on five Ground Combat Gundams in pretty rough shape," Gregory noted. "Marking is definitely the Rigos Team."

"Ping them by laser," Lane ordered.

The request was not as simple as Lane made it sound. Lasers required line of sight, which was always dicey in a forest area, but Gregory was able to stop in place and could get a laser on one of their machines easily enough. "Attention Rigos Team, this is Mermaid Team Three on laser comms, attention Rigos Team, declare status," he requested.

"Shot to shit, we're down one and none of our machines are untouched," Samuel Rigos answered. "Good to hear a friendly voice, Mermaid, where are you?"

"Coming to you now," Gregory waved the team forward and they had no trouble closing the 800 meters of gap to where Rigos Team had holed up behind an old TV station.

"Damn, you weren't joking you'd been shot to shit. What happened?" Lane asked.

"Ambushed by some decent troops coming south from Pentagon City," Saiga took that answer. "We gave better than we received, but they outnumbered us four to one. We were able to push them back to the Army-Navy Country Club before our strength faltered and we went completely electronic silent to avoid drawing further wrath."

"And then the survivors went on to bolster the attack against the Commando spearhead east of us, rather than try to track down five vicious Gundams in Arlington Ambush Hell," Lalitha concluded the thought. "Good move, going EMCON when you were out of sight and out of mind, our sensors are as much a curse as they are our greatest strength and by denying them an easy cut to your position, you saved your asses for another fight."

"Speaking of another fight, do you think you have it in you for another round if we can get you some guns and ammo?" Lane asked in following.

"Easily, we're not crippled," Samuel said.

"Command, contact reestablished with Rigos Team, they're down one troop and need ammo and shields. Do we have a quartermaster in the area?"

"Affirm, I already have a Quartermaster team moving up to the Utah Park south of your position, have the Rigos troops fall back to there for rearmament. Do not, repeat, do not have them reactivate sensors and comms until they are rearmed," Sionet ordered.

"Copy," Lane acknowledged. "Rigos Team, word from on high: due south of us, across the 395 at Utah Park is a rendezvous with a quartermaster team coming north to support this offensive. Fall back under EMCON and resupply, do not reactivate sensors or comms until you are geared up and ready to join in, that should prevent any enemy trying to chase you down."

"Got it. What about you guys?" Samuel asked.

"While you're busy cleaning out the FARP, we're going northbound to give them a hard-on in a different direction. Once you're ready, unless Sionet has other orders for you, follow our trail of destruction north so you can join in on the fun."

"Can do, thanks!" Saiga stood his Gundam up from crouching and started southbound toward his promised resupply.

Lane turned his Jagd Doga north and crossed the four lanes of South Four Mile Run Drive, passing around row houses by sticking to the trees to provide concealment. "Commando Trinary Five, Mermaid Team Three, Overlord has put us at your disposal. What do you need to break out of the holding pattern?"

"Mermaid Three, Commando Five, enemy has a defensive wedge set up in the area from the Airport Access Road to the Country Club, with the point of his wedge centered on the Oakridge Elementary School. Best guess, there is about a Regiment of them holding this position, came down from Pentagon City when they realized we were spearheading for them. What is your fighting strength?"

"Five specialist machines plus we identified the remnants of a Team that was lost in the area, with them we'll have ten Gundams or better on the field," Lane said. He counted his machine in the 'better than' category, as a Jagd Doga was not a Gundam (per se) but could easily smoke most Gundams that predated the Second Neo Zeon War. "Do you have somewhere specific you want us to try to roll them up?"

"Aff, do you think you can hit the tip of the wedge and just start rolling up the entire left branch of the wedge? If you get it moving, momentum may cause them to break across the entire line," The Commando Star Captain requested.

"Aff, sir, we'll give it a shot. We'll need a few minutes to position, we're on the wrong side of the 395 right now. Lina, bounce back to Utah Park and hunker down for fire missions, once we're in contact your cannon might help break them."

"On it, boss," Lina broke to follow the Rigos Team south to the FARP rendezvous.

"Remainder of team, let's follow Four Mile Run and cut across to south of Gunston Park," Lane said, then started out in that direction with his team close behind.

"Then we go north and up into the wedge point, follow the bias of their left flank?" Gregory asked.

"That's the plan, Stan," Lane said. "Once we get to the 395, we jump over the underpasses and jet-dash across to the old Tesla dealership."

"Jumping, three, two, one, now," Lalitha was first to jet up to about 40 meters altitude, then jetted straight forward and allowed gravity to draw her back down on a ballistic drop to where she landed past the Tesla Dealership that was east of the 395. The others were able to land in a scattershot pattern along South Glebe Road and immediately paced back up to running speed.

The run to the requested nav point south of Gunston park was quick, 90 seconds tops, and the team turned north to take the fight into the enemy battle line. "Shit, boss, that school is the high ground in the area!"

"No joke, no wonder they've had this much luck holding the area, they're holding a bloody ridge against incursion," Lane grumped. "Yvonne, Gregory, cover me while I use my funnels to plow the road."

"Hell yes sir!" The three machines skidded to a stop on the south side of the middle school bordering Gunston Park, since it was empty today it was fair game as cover for Mermaid Team. Lane dispatched his funnels and quickly vectored them north to start clearing the most obnoxious or dug-in of enemy machines in the forest area barely 220 meters north of where he was standing. With four shots per funnel and six funnels on the Jagd Doga, he was able to take an entire company under fire and dropped them with a pair of shots each, and did so in ten seconds total from first shot to last.

"We've got a breach! Make for that hole before they plug it!" Gregory suited action to words and immediately brought his Agni multi-phase energy cannon to bear on an enemy Strike Dagger trying to reinforce the gap. One good shot and not much was left of the Strike Dagger for salvage purposes. Yvonne, Lalitha and Lane (after recovering his Funnels) were not far behind in moving into the gap.

"Lalitha, Yvonne, cover right and start putting pressure on the right flank! Greg, you and I are going for the Country Club! Lina, start lofting shells on a line from Oakridge to the intersection of 23rd and South Pierce!"

"Working on it, danger close!" Lina reported before she started firing her first salvo. "I'm sending you some Copperheads (4) if you can designate!"

"Not easily, but I can use my assault rifle as a laser designator," Lane was quick to reset his left Beam Assault Rifle into a designator pulse mode — not enough to damage, but it put out beam energy in the same wavelength that Copperhead rounds would look for. "Send me six at five second intervals, I'll walk them down the line!" He used the other Beam Assault Rifle to lay down suppressing fire to the north, where the enemy reserves were trying to move into a holding position and unfortunately found themselves caught on the reverse slope of the ridge — now occupied by Mermaid Team.

"Missile one coming, arrival in five!" Lane was quick to designate a dug-in Doppelhorn Dagger L, and the arrival of the Copperhead detonated the recoilless rifle magazines in place as well as sunder what was visible of the enemy machine.

"Sweet tap!" Gregory moved forward to the remains and started laying down suppressing fire with his Agni cannon and 120mm autocannon.

"Missile two, on the way!" Lina reported. Lane had moved forward, but he turned the designator onto the enemy reserve and targeted a concentration of Strike Daggers amongst them. One Copperhead struck down two and crippled three more, a better result than even Lane expected. Two more sweeps of his active Beam Assault Rifle and their reserve was effectively crippled before they could properly stage to reinforce the line.

"Keep 'em coming! We're starting to make progress!"

"Missile three outbound!" Lina declared.

"Rigos coming up behind you!" Saiga Rigos declared as he crossed over the middle school.

Lane designated a Windam with Aile Strike Pack for the next Copperhead, and the pilot tried to dodge it on terminal guidance but didn't quite make it; the missile struck the right leg of the retreating Mobile Suit and the ensuing explosion left not much to talk about.

"Rigos, relieve Mermaids 13 and 15, drive eastbound and roll up that flank while Mermaid goes north toward the country club," Sionet ordered.

"Will do, Mermaid Lead," Samuel Rigos said. "Taking over, 13," he said to Yvonne after he stepped forward of her position.

"All yours, big guy," Yvonne gave him a quick MS salute and ducked back to join the remainder of Mermaid Team.

"Secure Copperheads, save 'em for bigger and better targets, Lina," Lane ordered. "Command, Mermaid Team Three, starting to see the enemy left flank here disintegrate."

"Mermaid, Overlord, acknowledge all. Pursue enemy forces to rout, Lane, hammer them down as you can. Commandos and Techstrikers in vicinity of Oakridge, be advised enemy left flank is starting to collapse, can you put extra pressure on the right flank and collapse that line?"

"We have the gumption to give them a harangue, can that artillery unit supporting Mermaid give us some support?"

"Commando Five, Mermaid 12, call the ball," Lina responded before Sionet could order it.

"Start walking them west to east from Arlington Ridge to 26th South, common shell please, area is too heavily forested for VT (5) to do enough to justify, how copy?"

"Firing for effect," Lina said before she started firing her cannon as quickly as the capacitors could recharge.

Barely five shells had landed before Saiga caught sight of the first team of enemy machines fleeing northbound from the enemy right flank. "Son of a bitch! It's working, the shitheads are breaking!"

"Keep the fire on!" The Star Captain for Commando 5 ordered. "Techstrikers! Maze Team, Mountain Team, Victor High, move it up! We're breaking them down!"

-x-

(40 minutes later)

Sionet sighed with her finger off the PTT button. Part of her mind was echoing the old Murphy Law Of Combat 'If your attack is going too well, it's an ambush' even though her intelligence said otherwise. The enemy was broken; the defeat of first the holding line south of the Pentagon, then the battles in Le Droit Park and around the McMillan Reservoir had shattered the limited morale that the Earth Alliance was theoretically holding onto for this last defensive engagement. There was some die-hard resistance from BC fanatics, but most of the enemy Mobile Suits had surrendered in place after the defeat of the remaining Regiment around the Pentagon.

To point of fact: "Overlord, Mermaid Two, final area of Foggy Bottom has been secured, infantry has taken possession of a last platoon of BC regulars that tried to take refuge in the Equatorial Embassy and were stopped by security."

"Any damage to the Embassy or personnel?" Sionet asked.

"Negative, tangos didn't have any heavy weapons. They're done."

"Copy all. Hold in area until Armored Infantry and support personnel finish securing, then RTB at Reagan for pickup, how copy?"

"Copy all, awaiting relief," Miguel said with a relieved sigh. "Lost one on the way in, how did the other teams do?"

"Team 1 lost two in fighting around McMillan Reservoir, Darwinian upgrades on the survivors of earlier skirmishing," Sionet said, meaning that the survivors of prior battles were the smart ones that learned from the mistakes of their deceased. "Team 3 lost one in the Pentagon Clash, attempted enemy ace got lucky and downed Gregory at the cost of being shot up by the rest of the team."

"And our Mafiosi friends?"

"Good question, Brelle Team, status?" Sionet looped her mother in.

"Brelle Team down one, Yancey ate it in an enemy suicide charge in skirmishing around Woodley Park, and the rest of my machines are banged up but not out of the fight," Jasmine answered. "Thanks, by the way, at least three times you kept us out of a grinder that I counted, and that many times rescued us from worse."

"Like I told the Rigos, I prefer my subordinates come home alive at the end of the day," Sionet said. "Fixing bullet holes and blast marks may be expensive, but it is wholly easier than writing letters and explaining to family what went wrong."

"And what of the Rigos?" Miguel asked.

"Down three, they were in some nasty fighting around the Pentagon and north into the National Mall. And I don't begrudge them the outcome, the Commandos of Four and Five Trinaries both took a Star of casualties each, never mind the losses taken by the School Teams and the Techstrikers through that slog."

"Team 3 reporting, final resistance in Lafayette Square has been cleared," Lane reported.

"That's it, all objectives met," Sionet said. "Attention all stations on this net, this is Overlord. Final objectives reported completed as of 1115 hours Dendez West time. All forces secure your areas and await relief from Armored Infantry forces, then execute established extraction procedures for your unit. Put 'em on safe and let 'em hang, this one is done."

"All stations, this is Simulation Command, acknowledge objectives completed and good show. AI running tally shows +76 percent over expected results should we have had to force entry on Washington DC back in those days. Well fought and well won, all of you. This right here is why we as a society have encouraged the use of the Pod Network, as these capabilities are far beyond what our ancestors had to work with because we push ourselves better, faster, harder. The AI entities will break down the match and issue personal results throughout the day, so keep an eye out for messages from SimNet Command. Otherwise, forces that have extracted or shut down may depart the sim. Have a good morning or evening, depending on your time frame and location!"

Sionet uncoiled from her command console and sighed mightily. "That was one bitch of a fight!"

"I know, girl," Julio said. He had been the first casualty for Team 1. "We did it, though, first time a combined force of School, private, and military teams completed the takeover of DC," he pointed out. "And we did it against an absurdly higher amount of Earth Alliance machines than they would have had if the battle had taken place in the real world. So yeah, we won this one against uphill odds."

"How much over real-world, do you think?" Samuel Rigos asked as he approached Sionet's Command Console.

"Easily three Regiments more than the EA would have had on the ground," Christopher pointed out. "Maybe more than that. Remember, TF Golden Phoenix and TF Jokers Wild did their damnedest to destroy enemy concentrations before boots hit the ground, and the EA tried their best to dislodge the invasion in Chicago, they didn't have much left around Washington when they surrendered."

"True, didn't think about that," Samuel nodded to the point. "So we fought our way through more force than the EA could have mustered? Nice."

"I'll ask the Galaxy Commander for an itemized list of forces and casualties versus what the EA should have had in this engagement, I'd suspect we were facing a whole Division more than we should have been," Sionet said. "Still, we won," she said with a significant grin to effect.

"And it was a lot of fun just the same," Saiga said. "I think I'm going to start making this a weekly habit, brother," the younger of the two Rigos brothers poked his brother in the shoulder. It was only then that Sionet realized the Rigos crew was out of their pods completely.

"So three of us survived what should have been a bust," Samuel said. "I hope they put you in command if you do make placement, Sionet. Strategy skills like you have are few and far between."

I wish, Sionet thought but did not say. She knew how to win battles decently, but she still told herself that her eye for true strategic-level consideration was green at best. "Oh, got an incoming call," Sionet noted as one of her console monitors lit up.

"Thank you and have a good afternoon," Samuel nodded to the Mermaid Team troops before he picked up his fedora and double-breasted long-coat from a chair nearby the pods. The Rigos troops were not to depart, the Mermaid Team troops would find them in the Grill area next door enjoying a lunch as they went for lunch themselves.

Sionet answered the incoming call. "Galaxy Commander?"

"I do not have the final tally yet, Sionet, and probably will not have the hard numbers until this evening, but from what I have seen of the breakdown, it would appear you were the linchpin of the victory," GC Halberton said. "According to the breakdown so far, your quarterbacking was essential to the results. So, pending final tally, this goes on your record as a complete strategic win and will reflect on your training record for when you take your Trial of Position."

"Thank you, Galaxy Commander," Sionet said.

"You have a ways to go, still, before your team can make a Trial of Position without being Refused by some of the other commands, but I have little doubt you will make it to post," Nicolas Halburton noted. "We will talk again tomorrow after results are posted. Good hunting, Mermaids."

After the link cut, Sionet sighed again, this time in relief for a long and tense battle.

---

Author's Chapter Afterword:

In the old phrase 'the calm before the storm', this is the leading edge of the calm, and trust me, the storm is going to be a roaring bitch to everyone involved. Or in other words, enjoy these days of peace while they last, for tomorrow may not be so peaceful.

The one major thing that has not yet begun visibly is intelligence gathering on the targets, as Blue Cosmos is holding that card close for the time being. Unlike the last major conflict between BC / LOGOS and Mendel, the BC troops of today are smart enough to know that they are not in the know, and they are not going to make the same mistake as their forebearers did in believing they know 'enough' to win. This will both color their perceptions in coming chapters, and change how they approach certain problems.

Speaking of colored perceptions, one of the big things I have not touched on in BC society is weapons of mass destruction. One of the big frustrations of Blue Cosmos in the prior wars was the rather 'timid' use of nuclear arms in specific, and other WMDs in general, and how such weapons are good 'force multipliers' in certain uses. BC will not be making that mistake this go around, the stockpile of nuclear weapons is significant and their deployment will be frequent. You can expect at least some echo of the backstory to the Original Gundam in that regard; credit where due, the writers of the Original Gundam got the effects partially correct about a mass-WMD campaign, but I intend to go the full distance on effects and depredations.

The other thing to think about from this chapter is that everyone in Mermaid Team, as of the end of this chapter, is rated Ace or better, and the Commandos know it. That fact will come to a head in the next chapter, as Mermaid Team undergoes their Trial of Position and receives their placement — including receiving their machines. There will be a special story in that regard, as by the time of the Trial every member of Mermaid Team will be settled on their machine of choice and have it customized to a degree that would frighten most sane observers. That customization from base models will make a huge difference for the team, and set the stage for fights to come, but more so will be the specific 'how and why' of the machine preparation. I won't spoil the process in that regard, you will need to wait and see.

That said, I have two major side stories planned for JW3 right now, and I need to knuckle down on both of them because this chapter and the next is the major timeframe where those two stories really start blossoming. That said, both stories are rated NSFW, so be warned that the content to come will definitely be a departure from my norm in this context. (Of course, this disregards that some of my works are NSFW for extreme violence, but I consider that far less of an issue in modern society. It is the strangest psychological hangup, all else being equal, in that people are more forgiving on violence than sex, even though sex is far more common in proper society than the violence. The dichotomy of the matter is strange when spelled out, or have others seen this in their own musings?)

Other than that, I can say I am moving forward on multiple of my writing projects and I am thinking my next chapter is going to be MMC2-3 and after that (probably early February) I am going to hit AAA next. Sigma is on hiatus for the time being, due primarily to technical reasons on my side but I have a LOT of story still to go and I want to start moving some of those stories forward so it is not buried. Doubly so that Sigma will play a linchpin role in one of my coming stories, so moving it forward is something of a necessity.

Other than that, 2024 is cautiously not starting out as a shithole year, so I'm not exactly optimistic but I'm not headed toward dejection yet. We shall see what the year brings.

That's all for today. NEXT UP: Mermaid Team earns their place in the Touman, while ghosts of wars past stir from the graveyard. The final movement of pawns and pieces comes into place before the inevitable war, and who shall survive?

---

Review Replies: Three reviews since Chapter 7, much obliged to those who put a word in!

Korraganatar The Nightshadow: The matter with Cordelia and her sisters will come to a quick head in the next section, as the sisters try one super-dumb move and utterly fail at it, and blow their cover in so doing. As to the dissonance between BC expectations and coming reality, well, let's just say it will get worse before it is resolved.

Pridefallen: You are correct, Scandinavia is the biggest player on the waves, but with worlds like Carver V, Mendel is not far behind. And the matter will expand in the MMC, as 'wet' naval power will certainly be expanded on both in the MMC mainline and especially for Sigma, who will have a large carve-out for naval contracts.

Alpha 12: Got a lot of points here, so I'm going to take them by the numbers:

1) The divide and conquer will go a ways to prevening a 6-v-1 scrap against BC, but another thing to keep in mind is the force disparity equation. The size of BC is such that they have the force to challenge really only one of the Star Empires at a time, two if they go heavy on the WMD campaign. Their intelligence gathering will bear that out in the coming chapter, so it will be better explained. And then there is the consideration that some of the Empires would not want to be involved in a problem that isn't on their doorstep or harming their worlds. As cynical as it sounds, fighting wars 'over there' is not always seen favorably by citizens of an otherwise uninvolved nation. It is an ass-backwards attitude in the annals of history, but nobody can deny it happens.

2) The thing about the Seirans, well, let's just say they will make a massive mark on history, and not for a particularly good reason.

3) The thing not completely explained in the matter of those terrorist attacks in JW1 is that Lightbringer engages in a degree of 'realpolitik' on the matter of counterterrorism and special operations. Stopping an attack preemptively is not always the best course of action for a given outcome, and Lightbringer is willing to play that card to the pommel when ends profit more than the means cost. It may be a rather disgusting attitude in the sum total of things, but Commandos are trained to think in strategic terms and stopping everything preemptively is not always the best answer. By letting the tangos do some small amount of damage, he achieved his goals: increased readiness for major events and a reminder to the recent immigrants of Mendel to keep their eyes up and outward for threats, and an inherent distrust for Blue Cosmos was born.

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The Gripe Sheet:

No complaints this chapter. Much thanks to Takeshi Yamato for chivvying me into starting right into this chapter starting the day after New Years, and here it be!

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Footnotes:

(1): Kyle's rolls against the Forbidden were 51 for the first engagement (neutral outcome), 88 (solid win).

(2): Sionet's rolls against the Raider were 48 (Neutral), 34 (mutual peripheral hits), 89 (solid win).

(3): The term Quarter War refers to a time period during the Star Empire Wars fought by the Multimage Empire in the history well prior to the arrival of the Task Force Jokers Wild in the Cosmic Era. The Quarter War will be properly handled during Set 6 of the MMC.

(4): Copperhead is the informal designation of Laser-Guided Artillery Rounds.

(5): Variable Time-Fuze Artillery Rounds are designed to detonate at one of multiple levels above the ground, so that the fragmentation from the shell covers a wider area around the shell's footprint and causes primarily personnel casualties, though VT also has notable effects on hover and wheeled vehicles as well.