[X]PLAN: Let Them Fight
"Lee, get out of there. Let Celestial Being have their way with the terrorists, and I'll cover Skull Squadron," you say, quickly asserting control over the changed battlefield.
"Don't have to tell me twice," Lee says, quickly re-engaging his ECS and trying to slip away from the melee unnoticed. The optical camouflage stops working once his Shadow has dived back into the ocean, but by that point he can count on the refraction of the seawater to accomplish much of the same effect, thanks to the green-glowing Gundam jamming any seeking weapons the other Arm Slaves or the remaining Tieren might have. You see the Gundam pause, floating over the sandy beach on whatever anti-gravity system it's using, and consider pursuing Lee, but ultimately it remains focused on easier targets.
Zy-98 SHADOW retreats to the water.
You don't have the luxury of remaining stationary, although compared to the Variable Fighters zipping through the edges of the island's mountains, you feel like you're practically floating in a tub. Nonetheless, you zero in on the remaining enemy Variable Fighter. Whoever that is, you
need them down before Roy and Tachibana get splattered by cannon fire.
LILIA casts STRIKE
THELETOS attacks SV-51α (IVANOV) with FUSION CANNON
Roll 4+AIM 4+HIT 2=10 vs. Roll 2+EVA 4+MOB 4=10 Result: AUTOMATIC HIT
(DMG 4+AIM 4)-(DEF 3+ARM 0)=5. Result: NORMAL DAMAGE. SV-51α (Ivanov) HP: 2000/4000
You center the target and fire, as precise as ever, and confident you'll skewer this one as well as you had his wingmate, only to grimace as the enemy pilot predicts your angle and executes a textbook aileron roll, taking the laser blast on one of the few parts of his fuselage he could continue flying without.
"Nice shooting." You hear a gritty, smug voice come over the public laser band. "But aren't you a little green to be waving around a gun that big?"
"Instructor Ivanov! What the hell are you doing out here?" you hear Roy demand over the same band. You guys he might as well ask, if his enemy is going to use it for taunts.
"I could ask you the same thing, Roy. Didn't you say you were going to run if the Union drafted you?"
Ivanov and Roy jockey for position in the air, both of them transforming their VFs into strange half-plane, half-mobile suit forms as they dive for the lower reaches of the mountains, Ivanov trying to tag him with machine gun fire.
SV-51α (IVANOV) transforms into GERWALK
ROY casts FOCUS
SV-51α (IVANOV) attacks SKULL SQUADRON with 55mm GUNPOD
Roll 4+AIM 4+HIT 3=11 vs. Roll 4+EVA 3+MOB 4+2 Focus=13 Result: MISS
"Amateurish," Ivanov comments. "You're running out of room fast, R--
what the--"
The communicator contact is broken as a stream of bullets suddenly fly up out of the jungle and tracers start smashing into the enemy VF.
SHIN's
INSTINCT
SHIN casts FOCUS
VF-0 (SHIN) attacks SV-51α (IVANOV) with 35mm GUNPOD
Roll 8+AIM
4+HIT 2+2 Focus=16 vs. Roll 8+EVA 4+MOB 4=16 Result: HIT
(DMG 3+AIM
4)-(DEF 3+ARM 0)=4. Result: NORMAL DAMAGE. SV-51α (Ivanov) HP:
0/4000
"Great shooting, Stuart!" Roy calls out as Ivanov starts trailing black smoke and pulls out, beelining out of the combat zone.
"...Stuart?" Roy asks, after not getting a response.
"That's not me, sir," the other VF pilot calls in, voice crackling with the terribly gain of a pilot suit-mounted radio. "I bailed after I touched down, and some guy just got in my VF and started firing! I'm down here with a civvie who got too close to the combat zone."
"Second Lieutenant Shin Kudo," an unfamiliar voice breaks in after that exchange, sounding hoarse, like he'd just been screaming. "Realdo pilot, assigned to the
Illustrious. Requesting permission to join operation. Sir."
"The hell? It's one of the missing pilots," Roy comments. "Well, welcome aboard, try not to get killed."
"He's in my plane, Roy!"
"Well, you weren't using it! Sit down and make sure you're not injured. Shrapnel's a bitch."
You roll your eyes. Centuries of progress and fighter pilots are still fighter pilots. For their part, Roy and Tachibana have refocused on combat, and start moving to support the fight on the beach again now that you have control of the air...more or less one Gundam, anyway.
TIEREN SQUAD attacks SKULL SQUADRON with 200mm Smoothbore Gun
Roll 3+AIM 2+HIT 2=7 vs. Roll 9+EVA 3+MOB 4+2 Focus=18 Result: MISS
SKULL SQUADRON transforms into GERWALK
SKULL SQUADRON attacks TIEREN SQUAD with 35mm GUNPODS
Roll 7+AIM 3+HIT 2+2 Focus=14 vs. Roll 9+EVA 2+MOB 1=12 Result: HIT
(DMG 3+AIM 3)-(DEF 1+ARM 2)=3. Result: NORMAL DAMAGE. Tieren Squad HP: 0/6000
The remaining Tieren attempts to blast away at their cover with a cannon, but as goofy as that mixed-mode form looks on a Variable Fighter, it's supremely effective at skating out of the way of big cannon fire like that, and a coordinated barrage from two gunpods takes the last terrorist mobile suit down in the crossfire.
GUNDAM EXIA attacks SHADOW SQUAD with GN SWORD
Roll 6+CQB 3+HIT 4=13 vs. Roll 9+EVA 2+MOB 2=13 Result: HIT
(DMG 4+CQB 3)-(DEF 1+ARM 0)=6. Result: MAJOR DAMAGE. Shadow Squad HP: 0/6000
???????'s CHAIN ATTACK Lv. 1
GUNDAM EXIA attacks SAVAGE SQUAD with GN SWORD
Roll 1+CQB 3+HIT 4=8 vs. Roll 6+EVA 1+MOB 1=8 Result: HIT
(DMG 4+CQB 3)-(DEF 1+ARM 0)=6. Result: MAJOR DAMAGE. Shadow Squad HP: 0/3000
Celestial Being's Gundam continues its grim dance, unfolding an enormous physical blade on its right arm that lets it slash through the Arm Slaves on the beach like they're practically nonexistent. Like some kind of sword dancer, the Gundam moves, and neatly halved enemy mobile units fall in its wake. It's oddly beautiful, if you forget about the people being cut in half inside, or exploding along with the Arm Slaves' electric batteries.
SHADOW SQUAD attacks Zy-98 SHADOW with 37mm RIFLES
Roll 2+AIM 2+HIT 3=7 vs. Roll 6+EVA 3+MOB 3+2 (Aqua Module)=14 Result: MISS
SAVAGE SQUAD attacks GUNDAM EXIA with 37mm RIFLES
Roll 6+AIM 2+HIT 1=9 vs. Roll 5+EVA 3+MOB 3=11 Result: MISS
SAVAGE SQUAD attacks GUNDAM EXIA with 37mm RIFLES
Roll 8+AIM 2+HIT 1=11 vs. Roll 1+EVA 3+MOB 3=7 Result: HIT
(DMG 2+AIM 2)-(DEF 2+ARM 3)=-1. Result: SCRATCH DAMAGE reduced to NO DAMAGE by GN SHIELD. Gundam Exia HP: 8000/8000
The remaining Arm Slaves on the beach, around half a dozen of the antique Savages and the remaining squad of Zy-98s, split up and attempt to find cover behind what you hope are unoccupied prefab buildings on the edge of the lagoon surrounding the diving platform. The Shadows fire into the water after the retreating Lee, to little effect, while the Savages try to do to Celestial Being's Gundam what Skull Squadron did to their Mobile Suit support. It's remarkably ineffective; the few bullets that don't miss the gravity-ignoring mobile suit are blocked by a large shield on the suit's left arm, which itself seems to be a Vector Trap-style blocking field using a concentration of those green particles. Damn, these things are seriously advanced.
Not that that's going to deter Graham Aker, who comes burning into the combat zone with his Union Flag in flight mode moving nearly as fast as a VF.
"Pleased to meet you, Gundam!" he shouts over the public band. As the white-and-blue mobile suit rises to meet this new combatant heading straight for it, Graham rapidly transforms into mobile suit mode to smack into the Gundam with a charging attack - the kind of signature insanity Graham Aker is known for that inspired the whole Variable Fighte project, allegedly.
GRAHAM casts STRIKE
UNION FLAG attacks GUNDAM EXIA with GRAHAM KICK
Roll 7+CQB 4+HIT 2=13 vs. Roll 8+EVA 3+MOB 3=14 Result: AUTOMATIC HIT
(DMG 4+CQB 4)-(DEF 2+ARM 3)=3. Result: NORMAL DAMAGE reduced to MINOR DAMAGE by GN FIELD. Gundam Exia HP: 7000/8000
To his credit, the heavy attack actually pushes the Gundam back...slightly...which is more than bullets have done so far.
"I'm Graham Aker," he declares, "a man obsessed with everything you are!"
It's times like this when you wonder why you came to Earth in the first place.
Tactical Information
Shin Kudo (in a severely damaged VF-0) and Graham Aker have joined on your side.
Several terrorists have been destroyed by you and Celestial Being, with about 3 Arm Slave squads remaining.
Your objective remains to rout the Anti-Union Terrorists.
Celestial Being remains hostile to all other hostile parties.
Allies
Theletos (Lilia, HP: 6000/7000)
Skull Squadron (Roy & Tachibana, HP: 4000/8000)
Shadow (Lee, HP: 4000/4000)
Union Flag (Graham Aker, HP: 6000/6000)
VF-0 (Shin, HP
500/2000)
Opposing Forces (Anti-Union Terrorists)
2x
Rk-92 Savage Squad (HP: 3000/3000 x2)
1x
Zy-98 Shadow Squad (HP: 6000/6000)
Opposing Forces (Celestial Being)
1x
GN-001 Gundam Exia (???????, HP: 7000/8000)
Current Positions
Zone 0:
VF-0
Zone 1:
Theletos,
Skull Squadron
Zone 2:
Union Flag,
Savage Squad x2,
Shadow Squad,
Gundam Exia
Zone 3:
Shadow
Planning
Please vote for a plan for Phase 3.
[ ]Plan: Clean Up
-[ ]All units focus on eliminating the remaining Arm Slaves, then retreating to a safe distance away from the Gundam
-[ ]Attacks from the Gundam will be dealt with as they come
[ ]Plan: Guns vs. Sword
-[ ]The Gundam is powerful, but there's one of it and like six of you. Focus fire and try to force it down or to retreat before it picks you off one by one.
-[ ]You'll deal with the enemy Arm Slaves later
[ ]Plan: Bail
-[ ]Celestial Being only attacks combatants. Signal a retreat and let the Gundam finish what you tricked it into starting against the terrorists. Surely CB won't attack the scientists that want to look over this site later, right?
>This plan requires a DC 5 CHARM roll to get the Union pilots to go along with it, and even that might not be enough to convince Graham.
[ ]Plan: Write-in