Chapter 28

U.C. 0094.6.12 1540 Australian Western Standard Time

The Australian Outback, south of Darwin

The plan was not going according to plan.

Which I should have seen coming, honestly, but luckily the plan had been modified. So the original plan had not gone according to plan but the back up plan was going according to plan. That sounded better, I told myself as I dodged incoming fire from a GM III by throwing my Asshimar into a barrel roll,

Warning alerts chimed in my ears from the incoming fire, but I pushed them to the side and fired at the Base Jabber the GM III was standing on right after the end of my roll. The beam lanced through the metal structure, and the GM III suddenly veered to the side as the flight systems began to fail. To the pilot's credit, they squeezed out another volley at me.

I swerved wide to avoid the fire and then rushed in, flipping the transformation switch and transforming into the mobile suit configuration. Another press of a button on the left joystick slid a beam saber into my suit's left hand.

I faked the GM III out with a stab from my beam saber and took advantage of the gap in his defenses made by the movement of his shield to core his mobile suit with a beam shot.

Brinngt!

Behind! I fired the right side thrusters and swung around, bringing my beam saber up defensively, guided by nothing more than mental instinct just in time to block a downward chop from a Nemo. The kinetic force of the Nemo pushed our saber lock against me and I could feel my mobile suit start to dip downs towards the dirt as my engines couldn't handle the additional pressure.

Luckily, I had a free hand. The muzzle of my beam rifle clanged against the cockpit hatch of the Nemo before barking twice. I disengaged my beam saber and flew straight down to avoid the reactor detonation. As I fell, I took the time to blow up the Dodai Kai the Nemo had jumped from before switching back to mobile armor mode and flying back up into the melee that swirled in the cloudless sky above.

But before I had time to do more than give out a few near misses, the Federation sub flightcraft disengaged and flew away to the north.

I transformed the Asshimar back into suit mode and hovered in the air, letting my sensors confirm that this wasn't a feint.

"This is Full Frontal, status report!" I called out over our comm channels. Time to see what the butcher's bill was.

"Graw here, the ground attack was destroyed. Dumb fools thought tanks would be a threat to us." The Australian based Remnant leader reported first. "No vehicle or mobile suit lost on my end."

"Lieutenant Jamico, sir. Some battered suits and arms that need replacing on my end but no casualties." Jamico was underplaying the wounds in his force. From my vantage point I could see that his Gallus-K was missing an arm and Jamico's personal machine had a pocket mark of beam residue on its chest.

Zinnerman and Kirks were last to report in, fitting as they were the rear guard. Luckily the feddies hadn't breached our screen, so they hadn't been under fire.

Still I judged the damage to be significant enough to warrant field repairs.

"Jamico have some of your men scout ahead to make sure the Federation forces aren't coming back around. Everyone else: descend to the ground and begin refueling and resupplying." I flew over to Jamico and established a direct link with his mobile suit. "Lieutenant, take your damage suits over to the Garencieres for repairs."

"That's hardly necessary sir, Riker's suit needs the repairs more than I do." Jamico protested.

"I need everyone at their best for the push into Darwin, Yular." I told him, looking into his eyes through the direct link video. "And your men need you to be at your best as well. That's an order,"

He sighed in acceptance. "Understood sir." I watched his Dodai Kai and the one the Gallus-K was on fly back towards the Garencieres. We had some salvaged Marasai arms that Tomura should be able to put onto the Gallus-K that would allow it to fire a beam rifle.

With that, I floated down to the ground and thumped onto the broken asphalt of the highway. Powering down the mobile suit, I took a deep breath and chugged from my water bottle.

Bleh, lukewarm.

Popping the cockpit hatch, I walked out into the Australian sun, putting on the aviators I had picked up at Alice Springs to shield my eyes from the sun. I was grateful to not be wearing a normal suit, having elected to wear my usual uniform with an alternate sleeveless red and gold vest that I had commissioned from the commissary.

"Lieutenant Fenwick!" I called down to the ranking groundpounder.

"Sir!" The reedy man saluted.

"Status?"

"I'm at sixty-six effectives sir, seven casualties in this last engagement. Those that are wounded are being treated."

"Good, once they're stabilized, send them up to the Garencieres." I ordered.

"Understood sir." Then Fenwick jogged away.

Seven casualties, an unknown number of which were dead along with the five, four of whom had died from a direct hit on their hover truck, from yesterday's fighting put us at twelve casualties. Not bad.

I looked at the horizon. Still no sign of the feddies returning for round two. I walked back into the cockpit and checked the status of the weapons.

"Looks like they need to be charged." I said to myself, studying the readout. The capacitor currently in my beam rifle was three-fourths depleted and I'd already used up one of two spare E-caps I had. Guess, I was flying back up to the Garencieres for a resupply myself.

Still, free time was free time and I needed a breather. Walking back out to the cockpit hatch, I sat down with my feet over the edge and started to munch on a ration pack, after adding a judicious amount of hot sauce to it. Had to make it palatable in some way after all.

As I ate, I pondered.

The plan had been going so well that I was a little shaken at how quickly it had buckled when the Federation had made their own moves.

Initially we'd had further successes at Alice Springs. I'd quickly racked up two MS kills in the Asshimar, the benefits of being able to fly over, transform and nail the backs of grounded mobile suits and fly away before its' comrades could react. There had been more door to door fighting at Alice Springs than the prior base but I'd believed that the minovsky particle density had been enough to block outgoing communications.

Maybe that had been the case or more likely someone had slipped away before the net could be closed by us and had been able to get a distress call out once they had left the particle heavy area.

Alice Springs had still fallen on schedule. We had gained more ammo and small arms along with more fuel and various hovercraft to carry them away from the coast to be shipped back to Jamico's area. On the mobile suit factor, the take had been smaller than Ayers Rock. Two Hizacks in need of a good deal of repair before being of use and, oddly enough, one nearly mint condition Gaplant.

Yular had been happy with the weapons and munitions that we'd taken, so the lower mobile suit haul didn't bother him.

The forces had then decamped from the ruined Alice Springs base around noon and we had headed east, intending to cross the outback and strike at the EFF base at Mount Isa. Come nightfall we made camp and started traveling again in the hours before dawn. Then we got into trouble.

All of a sudden a Federation mobile suit column came up from the outback and attacked. Well, I say attacked but it was more like they ran into us and then we shot at each other in the chaos until we both withdrew to gather ourselves. Marida came down from the Garencieres to lend her funnels to our counterattack that wiped the Federation column out, but they'd gotten the word out before that happened.

The rest of the day and the night of June eleventh had been us fending off Federation attacks as the eastern Australian bases sent patrols to hunt us down. Zinnerman had taken the ship up into the cloud banks to avoid drawing the targeting reticles of the various GM and Nemo models sent after us. He'd also been broadcasting minovsky particles willy nilly to throw off Federation surveillance of us.

The skirmishing forced us to change the plan, so the attack on Mount Isa had been scrapped and we broke north to hit the naval base at Darwin with Kirks's Simbu Base Corps and my men and myself would exfil back into space.

However the Federation Forces at Darwin definitely knew we were coming their way, the small towns and hamlets we passed as our column entered the more settled northern coastline probably didn't help either. The latest probe would cement our position to them.

My resolve settled, we needed to strike now before reinforcements from other bases in Australia and beyond can come to the aid of Darwin. Or worse, before Londo Bell can descend to earth and deal with us.

My adhoc force was managing to hold up against the mobile suits the federation had in Australia, I had no illusions that they'd do the same against the cutting edge Jegans that Londo Bell fielded. In that scenario, only myself in the Asshimar, Marida in her Kshatriya and the two Geara Dogas had even odds in a combat scenario with Jegans.

I finished the last crumbs of my ration and tossed the tin over the side of the cockpit hatch. Time to get back to the Garencieres

XXX

"Have we been able to make contact with the Simbu Base Corps?" I asked as I strolled into the Garencieres bridge. I saw Yonem Kirks hunched over the communications console, one hand holding a headset to his ears and the other fiddling with a dial.

Zinnerman answered my question.

"We think so."

"Think so?"

He nodded, displeasure evident on his bearded face. "We've used all the right callsigns and channels but the Minovsky particles are getting heavier by the minute north of our position, no doubt it's the Federation moving their mobile suits around. Hopefully they're paying attention out there."

I hummed at Zinnerman's words, an idea percolating in my mind.

"Then let's make sure they know the party's on. How many bazookas and bazooka rounds did we take off the bases?" I asked.

"Enough for every mobile suit to have one, certainly enough rounds to go around." Zinnerman didn't know the exact numbers but if every mobile suit could be armed with a bazooka and ammunition to spare.

."Dial up the MS squads and have them start arming themselves with the bazookas then." I ordered, leaning down to Zinnerman's console and pulling up the aerial images a drone had taken of the city this morning. The rise in Minovsky particles since then meant that it couldn't be used again, but we had the images.

"We only need to hit the EFN base here." I pointed at a series of concrete buildings and dockyards in the middle of the city, pretty much smack dab in the center of Darwin's port.

"Right." Zinnerman said, a questioning look on his tanned features.

"And we need to obviously signal to our own naval forces that we are taking so they can swim in and secure the targets." I smiled, pleased with the idea. "So when we start the advance, every mobile suit will empty their bazookas and create a corridor of advance through the city to the base."

"Risky. Especially if the enemy forces can cross the corridor and intercept our forces."

I nodded in agreement and zoomed in on the place I had selected for the corridor. A highway that went nearly to the naval base then split in either direction. "True, which is why myself and the Garencieres team will secure the corridor from incoming federation mobile suits. I'll give Kirks command of the rest of the operation."

Zinnerman raised an eyebrow at that. "Is that the best choice? Not to mention your preference for having overall command."

I shrugged. "It's Zinnerman's command that will be making the other main move of the attack and he has the role of securing the escape routes for Jamico and Graw's commands. He has more than enough investment to have my trust in carrying this out. Plus he can have better overwatch from his transport than I'd be able to in the Asshimar."

"Your decision. I'll tell Marida to prepare for land combat. I suppose you want the Garenciers in the cloud banks while this is going on?" He asked.

I grinned. "If you don't mind, I'd hate to have my ride shot down. Remember, we're leaving as soon as our forces here have dispersed, so make sure to keep the engines warm."

I left the bridge to grab some coffee. Zinnerman's parting words did make me chuckle in open amusement.

"What else would I keep them at? I already had to crash land once, not that interested in making it a habit."

XXX

"To the people of Darwin: I really hope the Federation did the smart thing and you're all long gone by now." I spoke to the empty air as a timer counted down on the cockpit screen. "Should that not be the case, then I pray you keep your heads down. My deepest apologies for this action against your city."

The alarm beeped.

"Open fire!" I barked into the Zeon comm channels and then I followed up on my own words. Smoke belched out of the bazooka I had been equipped with and I felt the vibrations buzz through the metal of the mobile suit. The wonders of fighting under gravity, I could hear and feel more.

A hundred bright new stars lit up the late afternoon sky, rising high up into the sky like the ignited boosters of a spaceship going up into space..before reversing their course and plummeting down to the ground with terrible force. A hedge wall of flames and smoke erupted from the ground in front of us. Then another wave emerged as we reloaded and sent another wave into the city.

The third and final clip of five we sent scattering in an horizontal arc in front of us, hopefully breaking up the terrain to prohibit any ground vehicles from advancing on us.

"All units advance!" I gave the attack order and threw my mobile suit off the Dodai I had been hitching a ride on, and transformed into the suit's mobile armor mode. "Garencieres team, form up on me. My rear cameras showed the Geara Dogas following on their liberated Base Jabber subflight unit, while the Kshatriya managed a fall with style towards the city.

Overhead the column charged into Darwin's airspace and I could spy dust plumes from Graw's land based charge. Suddenly the smoke we had created was pierced by a large green-yellow beam, originating high in the air and striking an unseen target. Kirk's work.

I wished him good luck and then I was weaving in and out of the smoke pillars our barrage had caused, scanners searching for incoming enemy mobile suits.

"This is Marida Cruz, we've made landfall." Marida's report managed to punch through the minovsky interference to me.

I swooped in and transformed my Asshimar into its mobile suit mode. "I see. Then we're moving onto the plan. I'll run interference from the air. Lt. Cruz, put your funnels to work and control the streets. Strabald and Friz, guard her and assist as needed. Hopefully in thirty minutes we'll be back on our way to space."

No sooner had the words passed my lips did my sensors start beeping. A pair of GM IIs jumped through the smoke, their silhouettes highlighted by the blue of their thrusters. A volley of beam fire from the four of us sent them tumbling into so many pieces.

"Good hunting!" I managed before taking to the skies again. The bird's eye view showed me that several MS teams were closing in on the corridor we had created. In a blink of the eye I picked the closest team and shot towards them.

Speed was always the name of the game in combat and the one who was the fastest was the one who could strike first. And striking first guaranteed victory nine times out of ten.

A fact that the mobile suit team I descended upon them, taking out one and destroying the arm of another. I jerked the transformation lever and finished off the crippled mobile suit with a downward beam saber stab.

The remaining two tried to level their beam rifles at me, so I closed the distance and shoulder charged into the shield of one of the GM II, pinning that arm in place while I blind fired my beam rifle. The yellow beams tore through the building behind the other GM II but my wild firing still managed to tear across the waist of that GM II and send it topping to the ground. I then fired my thrusters and pushed the GM II whose shield I had pinned into the concrete of an apartment block, in doing so my right shoulder was only partially scored by the blind shot the GM II was firing.

A quick reverse thrust with the front verniers allowed me to end the final GM II with a stab through its chest. Then I transformed back to mobile armor mode and was back in the air, wilding swerving to avoid beam fire from the ground and squeezing off shots to force the enemy mobile suits to scatter their formation and lose unit cohesion.

Near the shore I could see circling sub flight units and mobile suits jumping over buildings, above them dark spots circled as an out of sight Zaku I sniper variant went about its keen eyed business. Then I was charging another MS team and focused on the close quarters combat.

I quickly lost track of time as I raced from spot to spot, the demands of melee combat forcing me to focus on only the issue in front of me. That and the limitations I was forced to work around with the city environment and gravity. More than once I was forced to push through buildings to avoid incoming attacks as I simply didn't have the maneuverability I was accustomed to.

Somehow we managed to blunt the incoming Federation mobile suits, I would credit Marida's funnels if I could but her work and mine had been separate by the nature of our mobile suits. The Feds had gotten their licks in on me too, numbers managing to tell over my daredevil frontal attack strategy.

Three verniers had been destroyed, my suit's left shoulder was mostly slag and the left foot thrusters were sputtering in and out by the end of those hellish thirty minutes of desperate rearguard action. I felt like I had been put in a washing machine, my clothes soaked with sweat and my muscles sore from the push and pull of gravity on them.

But we did it. The counterattack was thrown off and in the lull the signal flares had gone up from the harbor, meaning we could fall back to them. The squad reports that had come in when I flew into the naval bases perimeter showed a high butcher's bill. Five of our suits had been destroyed, with two pilots managing to eject.

But Kirks incoming warband had been able to secure the predicted six Zaku Mariners from their place in storage and under the guard of our guns, were loaded onto the Fat Uncle transports. I noticed that Jamico had managed to damage his Gallus further but didn't bother to mention it to him. We needed to split

Later I would learn that Captain Amos Graw had been one of the two pilots who had survived their mobile suits being destroyed, though he would lose a leg from shrapnel.

However at the time I was too busy withdrawing with the rest of the Garencieres team back up to the ship. I was also busy worrying about the leg thrusters, the sputtering had gotten worse and I needed to overcorrect in order to be able to fly in a straight line. I did manage a few sentences telling the Remnants to take pride in their work and the proof of their fighting spirit that they had been able to demonstrate to the Federation before taking off.

Then we were back in the Garencieres as it broke towards the upper atmosphere. The Geara Dogas and the Kshatriya had taken only minimal damage and Tomura's team quickly had them stowed for the trip. Unfortunately for my Asshimar, Zinnerman's main mechanic had taken one quick look at the mobile suit and declared it a consummate danger to the safety of the ship.

Apparently there had been a number of very very near misses to the reactor, which itself was showing hairline fractures from the stress I had put it under on top of the damage. So the Asshimar was strapped with a bundle of plastic explosive and made to walk the plank.

Made a pretty explosion at least.

Then finally, blessedly, miraculously the ship broke the atmosphere and I was back in space. There were more tense hours of maneuvering by Zinnerman as we got clear of the space above Australia and cut back into the shipping lanes undetected. This time when we made the approach into the shoal zone, there was no customs ship lurking in wait.

The Garden of Thorns wasn't a pleasant construction but when I saw it come into view I swore it was the most beautiful thing mankind had ever made.

It really was good to be home. The paperwork I got foisted back with was a right bitch however.

A/N: That's that folks. Our brief adventure onto Earth has wrapped up with another bout of embarrassment for the Federation. I'm sure this won't result in more funding being sent to certain groups that were a major combatant against the Sleeves in canon.

Up next we're going to get a Bright interlude to see what this merry adventure has stirred up and then the story is going to swing over to the much anticipated Sinanju heist. See everyone then.