Sushi
#fuckcancer
13th Space Assault Squadron
Staging Area, Lagrange 2
Staging Area, Lagrange 2
@Zeitgeist Blue @NephyrisX
[W] Field
[W] Field
_____The 'OVERRIDE' light came on the control bank and Bestia felt the sticks move unbidden in her grasp, tilting sharpy over to one side as the throttle moved to war emergency power. She felt her helmet slam into the seatrest as the GM exploded forward off the line, corkscrewing sideways and under the incoming fire. Then the throttle slammed into full reverse power and she went straight into her restraints, head snapping forward against the shift in gee. As it turned out, piloting a mobile suit was a lot like getting your ass thrown into a wall.
_____"Should we take it easy on her, lieutenant?"
_____"I was expecting better from a war hero!"
_____"Easy, guys. Try not to make this personal, eh?" The three shapes solidified into the new Type C GMs she'd heard so much about, designated one through three on her main display. At this range, it was a point blank engagement. After she'd been reduced to virtual roadkill by their engagement, the three veteran pilots had settled into a holding pattern right in front of her. Behind the modified training machine, the unit Commander watched the engagement from a short distance away.
_____Lieutenant Burning squelched the taunting and switched Bestia over to their tactical frequency. "There's no need, men. Keep it up." The lieutenant leaned down from his seat, mounted above and behind Bestia's head. Unlike the rookie, he had little more than a transparent window for protection from the elements and incoming rounds. "That wasn't a bad try, but I noticed you come to a full stop before you fire. This isn't like a gunnery station in a ship; you aim as much by moving your GM as you do by moving your point of aim. A stationary GM is a dead GM. You understand me? Good.
_____"You have control, Ensign Klaris! Don't get shot up this time!"
_____"Flight one... clear. Flight two in five mikes. Clear forward bays, closing hangar doors." Ever since Lieutenant Akira had arrived at her new assignment, she had felt strangely isolated from the other pilots. Of course they had all come from a scattering of different units and some of that was inevitable, but something about the way the unit assignment had split them up didn't feel right. The way the commander launched first with the other rookie. Or how the other units scattered into their assignments.
_____Now she was in an ordinary, if highly modified GM instead of a Gundam, but the isolation had remained. In the time since the Federation build-up had began, the lieutenant had spent more time thinking than anything else.
_____There was "Jackal," or Commander Niles, a mustang that had gotten a name for herself slaying the Zeon at Jaburo, not very far from where Akira's top-secret training had taken place. They had just met, but the unease had set in right away. Jackal had gotten her orders to keep a close eye on Akira, orders unknown to even Commander Taurus, the squadron leader. She had been left to watch over the pilots that were recuperating in the interim, to act as second-in-command if the commander were to be shot down.
_____"... Lieutenant Akira to the catapult deck. You're up for the training range." The order made no mention of the lieutenant commander, whom for the moment had free reign in the hangar.
@tankdrop24 @Yana @Spiffy
[N] Field
[N] Field
_____"Contact. Identify 3 bogeys, five miles out."
_____"ID?"
_____"Wait one... looks friendly, 13th. That's our relief patrol, boys."
_____"Welcome to the party, 13th. We're going to RTB, see you on the flip side. 2nd MS Team, out."
_____The trio of late-model Type C GMs did a lazy turn in formation, the glow of off-blue thruster plumes lighting up the space. They broke off their patrol pattern and moved opposite the 13th's flagship. The unit that arrived had a pair of high-end custom GMs and an orange-colored light-armor type. Junior Grade Quinn was leading them, an experienced pilot and newcomer to the 13th. Although Havilland outranked Quinn, he was leading the relief patrol for purposes of acclimating to the new unit.
_____The forward Combat Air Patrol covered a sweeping sector twenty miles wide to the front of the fleet, a section that was now starting to edge into a shaol zone of wrecked warships and mobile suits. Once they got settled and got their long-range radars configured for the new conditions, it was going to be a long waiting game until contact.
@Aliexster @EagleBlue @Blazewind
Fleet Center, en route to [E] Field
Fleet Center, en route to [E] Field
_____The bulk of a land-type GM and several GM Cannons filled the space within the Columbus-class transport vessel. The hexagonal bays of the craft had been converted to rearm and launch mobile suits, and the interior was packed with suits in various states of repair. After the commander had launched several minutes ago, Smokey, Heidt, and the newcomer had been on standby. Their less-agile mobile suits would have been at a disadvantage in a patrol environment, and it looked as if they were to be stuck waiting for the larger battle. Times like these were a mixed blessing, with much-needed time to sleep and decompress, but also time for the gnawing anxiety of a combat work-up.
_____What did finally break that monotony was a brief text notification within the cockpit of Rhea's GM, asking for assistance with an external fire on one of the transports replenishing the fleet. It was a routine deployment of mobile suits, which were well-capable of transporting large fire-suppression and repair equipment. By the time they went to the hangar bay, the flames licking alongside one of the boxy columbus-class transports were visible to the naked eye, as their carrier disgorged a squad of RB-79s to assist in the damage control.
@Terran Imperium @Hallesworth49 @DB_Explorer
Earth Federation Army Transport, 20mi Out
Earth Federation Army Transport, 20mi Out
_____It was strange seeing mobile suits caked with dirt in the environment of microgravity, weird seeing brown and earth-toned mobile suits with smooth armor panels. The size of the war had forced the earth-bound army to move to support what was happening at the Zeon homeland, bringing pilots and machines specialized for atmospheric fighting into space for the first time. Ground-type mobile suits with heavy armor panels, shrunken rocket nozzles and overflowing equipment racks sat shoulder-to-shoulder within the bays of the light brown transports, their pilots belted into crash seats not far away from the cargo. The days to come would see them thrust into the harsh and unforgiving environment of space, with significant modification to their earth-type machines and what would likely be a good deal of re-training.
_____They were still quite some distance from the bulk of the 13th, their new home for the rest of the war.
