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Mobile Suit Gundam: The One Year War

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The captured recon Zaku rattled in its cradle as the cargo aircraft banked into what Corvos assumed was a holding pattern. The Zaku though stayed dark inside the cargo bay, power systems barely thrumming under reduced loads.

The inside of the suit was less quiet as the lieutenant cursed out everyone involved in the suits creation, from the Zeon engineers to the Federation team that gave it to him. His hands danced along switches and keys as he followed the stack of papers he had been given. Turns out the stack was something of a manual kludged together from the suits original Zeon manual, testing notes and the reprogrammed OS.

It also kept having him try to adjust systems he had yet to turn on. It was a military system and thus it shared similarities to other systems the Zeon had created.

With an electronic whine of screens coming to life the cockpit came to life in a dim glow reflecting the world outside of the cockpit as other screens scrolled though arcane lines of computer script as systems bootstrapped themselves up and assessed the status of their respective functions.

His radio switched over from his reserve to primary as the commander keyed over the net with the request for a scan. "6-16 copies brining ESM on…" Corvos trailed off as he noticed a blinking light on the suits original comms system – its Zeon comms system. Specifically, the tiny LED indicating he had secure comms. "Wait one command, I might have something."

Hands danced over inputs as he linked the Federations tacked on systems, which included a portion of his electronic support equipment, to the Zeon kit. As his main screen showed the results he could hardly hold back a laugh. It would seem that this unit's codes were still considered good on the network. Forget cursing out the team that recovered this suit, they needed promotions.

The system was in receive only luckily and showed a command node of some sort to their North – right were his other systems we're detecting a major transmission source. "Command, 6-16 we have a possible comms node north of our current position in the vicinity of B3, recommended fire mission timed with the strike on the Zeon air assets, continuing with scan otherwise."

A few more keys sent the information to the rest of the team on the cargo craft via its internal network before he started a more general scan for further surprises.
 
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Saidi had only just plucked her knife from its resting place at her side when circumstance—namely, the discovery of some Zeon anti-air sentries in dire need of a bullet between the eyes—snatched away her partner in crime. She flashed Dusty a thumbs-up as the other operator shifted gears and made to take care of that anti-air crew, and then shot a cheerful grin over her shoulder at the soldier behind her. "Watch this," she said, as if she were about to demonstrate nothing less innocuous than an impressive bit of juggling.

The Zekes had turned their backs on Saidi now—as guards went, she suspected these two were not the cream of the crop—and creeping through the mud and the grass and up the hillside behind them was hardly a feat. No, the fun started once she got to the bastards.

After ten minutes of creeping inch by inch up to the outpost, and then up to the sentries, it was almost jarring when Saidi finally snapped into action. She moved with a practiced and deadly fluidity, slitting the throat of the guard to the left and then instantly pivoting to take down his compatriot on the right. She didn't manage so much as a murmur before Saidi had snapped her neck and left her lying in the grass and mud. The silence of the night went heedless of their passing. Quick, clean, and quiet-- as close as the Special Forces got to a motto.
 
G3​
_____"Stupid cyclops." Zeya pumped the pedals and restarted the main drive for the Federation-refurbished Zaku. "I don't have any power from the right leg, it's moving at a crawl." The water fizzled and bubbled as their comms started to crackle and ebb. From the shore, the Zeon guards periodically launched parachute flares high into the night sky, leaving a glowing wake in the water to their East and West. The flares sunk into the water and fizzled out, leaving them in the dark once more.

_____"Control to advance team. What's the hold up? You're right in front of the shore defenses."

_____"Ugh! You should go, we're sitting ducks out here."

_____"Be advised, we are reading single heat source advancing from the shore."

_____"Chief O'Brien, the monitor says there's a slow leak in the right leg." The deck flipped rapidly through an old-fashioned paper manual for the Zanny, drumming their fingers upon the edge. "You think we could raise the safe limit for the fluid pulse system? It might be enough to compensate for the loss in hydraulic pressure and get them moving again..."

 
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E1​
​
_____"1-2,(@Kensai)​) Commencing drop. Good luck out there." There was a flash of sparks as explosive bolts detonated, and Achilleia's Zudah went scraping down the rails of her cradle until it was just open air, her main display showing a rapidly declining altitude. They were only a few hundred meters in the air, and with limited fuel the timing of her engine ignition had to be both precise and last minute, lest the eyes of Zeon guards see the exhaust plumes from far away. It landed with a thud muted by the muddy ground.

_____Quiet.

_____"Coordinates received. Relaying to Niflheim air team. 6-16(@DB_Explorer), we read your reactor at full power. Cutting main power supply and detaching.​" Lieutenant Anemos was a speck below when the Zaku cleared the bay. With a glance above, Remagen saw the Perry taking a sharp bank away from the drop site, the cargo doors swinging shut. For a moment, the lieutenant saw the grey mound of the bunker in sight, before it vanished into the trees. The extra thrusters adorning the reconaissance machine made short work of the landing, where the wet ground suppressed most of the dust.

_____Still nothing active in sight. The Zeon suits were a short distance away, an off-white on the thermal displays as their reactors continued to cool in the night air.

_____"3-9, good start. No errors on our end, everything good. Commencing with drop.[/sup]" The orange Zaku, swallowed up in the dark, landed in a maelstrom of dust thanks to its enlarged thruster banks. Wielding another long-barreled rifle like Achilleia's Zudah, Callista's mobile suit was armed to the teeth for the coming raid.


_____"Zero to Perry team. Move in on those Zakus and smash those cockpits before we're detected. Keep it quiet, guns as a last resort." Rev cinched her belts and punched the release. Her Zanny dropped out of the second Perry and fell soundlessly into the night. "I'm away. Team's all touched the deck." The transports closed their bays and turned for home, followed by an identical two aircraft stuffed to the gills with missiles.

_____"Roger that. Slick 1 and Slick 2 away. Heavy 1 and Heavy 2 on station with PGMs. Awaiting your call for fire, over.[/sup]"

_____Their sensors read six heat signatures, two sets of three parked parallel to each other, in the thick brush of the E2​ grid. To their south near the initial insertion point, two Zakus guarded the coast. If gunfire broke out, they were certain to hear it.

_____"Look there," Dusty said. "The mobile suits just touched down. Kinda freaky when they're that big." She sifted through the documentation at the missile outpost, as other soldiers dropped thermite grenades into launchers and smashed Zeon communications equipment to pieces. Saidi saw her kills dragged into the brush, dust and dirt kicked away until the scene had simply become uninhabited by Zeon. "Bingo," she said, pocketing a tablet in her plate carrier.

_____"Dusty to Skuba(@Aliexster @tankdrop24)​, we've got a map. There's underground access at C1​. Only problem is there's a platoon of Zeon infantry encamped on the way there. Either way we do this, it's going to be loud. What's the plan here, tread-head?"

_____She turned to Saidi with a shrug. "We're gonna go underground. If they really managed to fit a mobile suit underground, we're fucked. But hey, occupational hazard."
 
_____"Heavy 1, Heavy 2, we have your laser comm. Hang back while we probe them." Ash struggled to stay on Maoin's tail as the nimble little fighter broke through the sky, despite the load of ordnance clinging to its wings and playing hell on its aerodynamics. "Hey, hot shot, that's a fast ride you've got there, but save some gas for the dogfighting." The two Tin Cods screamed for altitude before coming up on his tail, struggling to carry the very same load under their wings. Targeting pods extended from their nosecones and swiveled, their optics scanning the world below.

_____The swamp fog blurred the black-and-white thermal view of the terrain below, but the hot shapes of personnel and vehicles came up as brilliant white spots. "2-5(@Hoshino Yumemi)​, be advised, I am spotting a large structure with aerials at grid B3​, sending my feed to you. This has to be that comms structure 6-16(@DB_Explorer)​ found."

_____Ash paused. The main display showed the location of the enemy's parked aircraft, several kilometers past the bunker. "2-5, we splitting off the Perry strike package on the bunker, or continuing to B5​ to attack their runway? Please advise."
 
@Sushi

Maion thought for a brief moment. The feed there suggested that target was right on the way to removing the enemy's fangs. This was an opportunity that presented itself quite plainly, but...

"Proceed to B3 at high speed. We make one pass, then we continue to B5. If we can't cut the phone lines, we can always do it after snapping their fangs. I say again - proceed to B3 for one strike pass on the way to B5."
 
Sushi said:
G3​
_____"Stupid cyclops." Zeya pumped the pedals and restarted the main drive for the Federation-refurbished Zaku. "I don't have any power from the right leg, it's moving at a crawl." The water fizzled and bubbled as their comms started to crackle and ebb. From the shore, the Zeon guards periodically launched parachute flares high into the night sky, leaving a glowing wake in the water to their East and West. The flares sunk into the water and fizzled out, leaving them in the dark once more.

_____"Control to advance team. What's the hold up? You're right in front of the shore defenses."

_____"Ugh! You should go, we're sitting ducks out here."

_____"Be advised, we are reading single heat source advancing from the shore."

_____"Chief O'Brien, the monitor says there's a slow leak in the right leg." The deck flipped rapidly through an old-fashioned paper manual for the Zanny, drumming their fingers upon the edge. "You think we could raise the safe limit for the fluid pulse system? It might be enough to compensate for the loss in hydraulic pressure and get them moving again..."
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"Only if we assume that it's the secondary hose that's the leaker. If it's the main hose, then all we'd be doing is draining her faster," the Irishman muttered as he thought it over. "But without being able to see the damage done, I can'na say for certain. I'll walk them through the change." Then he looked back and the man and glared. "But I want to see that Zaku's full maintenance records by the time it gets back. This happened befur the Zaku ended up in the shooting gallery, which means it's our fault it's down."

Then he picked the mic back up and said, "A'righ we might have a jury rig ya can pull off that will get the Zaku back to the ship. And I mean, if it starts worken, it goes back to the ship! Even if this works, it won't stop the leak full, but it might make the leak less frequent. That Zaku is not combat ready. Have I made myself clear?"

Only after hearing the affirmative does he go on to explain what should happen.
 
Sushi said:
G3​
_____"Stupid cyclops." Zeya pumped the pedals and restarted the main drive for the Federation-refurbished Zaku. "I don't have any power from the right leg, it's moving at a crawl." The water fizzled and bubbled as their comms started to crackle and ebb. From the shore, the Zeon guards periodically launched parachute flares high into the night sky, leaving a glowing wake in the water to their East and West. The flares sunk into the water and fizzled out, leaving them in the dark once more.

_____"Control to advance team. What's the hold up? You're right in front of the shore defenses."

_____"Ugh! You should go, we're sitting ducks out here."

_____"Be advised, we are reading single heat source advancing from the shore."
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AbZHz101 said:
Then he picked the mic back up and said, "A'righ we might have a jury rig ya can pull off that will get the Zaku back to the ship. And I mean, if it starts worken, it goes back to the ship! Even if this works, it won't stop the leak full, but it might make the leak less frequent. That Zaku is not combat ready. Have I made myself clear?"
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Fumio nodded his head frantically at the Chief's suggestion. "Yes Chief. What do you need from us?" Then to Zeya he said, voice gentle, "You heard him, Havilland. You should get back once your leg gets fixed. We'll carry it out from here."

He pulled back from Zeya's Zanny and turned to the rest of his team. He exhaled slowly to give himself time to think before addressing them. Things weren't going according to plan. First, Zeya's suit acting up then these heat signatures at the wrong time when the attack would begin any minute now. He knew they would come up, one way or another -- they were an inevitability in this life -- but... that did not help him solve each problem any better.

What he did know was what to look for in heat signatures and he sweeped his suit's eyes to them to confirm his suspicions. Zakus coming their way.

"I think it's a patrol," he said, referring to the heat signatures. "They probably don't know we're here so we can give them a wide berth. But the Perry suits just touched down, 2-5's about to drop his payload, and the ground forces are going to go loud soon. So, uh, we have got to hurry."

With that inspiring speech done and over with, he pushed his Zanny forward, wading in the water as if its pilot wasn't in a nervous hurry. As amazing as it was to pilot, it was still a machine and it lost some nuance that Fumio could not express in his piloting. It might have been a good thing, to hid like that, but he didn't think it suited him.

As he moved, his eyes glanced back to the monitor with the Zeon heat signatures then to the monitor which showed the rest of his team, watching to see if they would follow.

@Alectai @Yana @Blazewind @DannyboyZero @AbZHz101
 
Achilleia let the air in her lungs whoosh out as the Zudah hit the deck, absorbing the inertia while her seat rocked and juddered. It was a decent enough landing for the terrain and the tactical situation. Initiating the retro burn a fraction earlier would have made for a gentler touchdown but it would also have kicked up a bigger signature. As it was, the swampy ground took up a lot of the force of impact.

But it also meant Achilleia couldn't use the momentum of the Zudah to take it forward. Instead the squishy landing killed all its movement, leaving it stuck ankle-deep in mud. Not a problem with the Zekes asleep at their posts but on a hot LZ it could have left her a sitting duck.

Sometimes all you can do is choose how you die.

Achilleia absently stroked the crucifix on her wrist. The Zudah strode forward, shouldering its massive antiship rifle.

Sometimes you get to choose how somebody else dies.
 
Looking through the thermal glasses, Rhea says, "I can't see anything else in these damn things either..." With a heavy sigh, she slumps down on the copula to just make sure that they aren't going to run over anything they shouldn't.

Hearing Dusty, she perks up, "Well that depends, are they just standing about at a standard gate house, or are they in a pillbox or some other hardened structure? Either way, us tanks will have to take the lead to take them out, just have to wonder if we can get in close right away to mow them down or hit them with the main guns? Though the infantry should get ready to flank them once the heavy stuff ends."

"Should make things quick, right?" She asks looking down at the driver's seat to see if Mack has something to add.
 
@Zeitgeist Blue,

"Alright," the mechanic sighed. "Yur gonna need to interrupt the boot sequence. So if it's on, turn it off. Once it's fully off, turn it back on and then fully depress the leg pedals and the triggers while having them pulled all the way towards yourselves. If ya do it befur the targeting system comes online then it worked. If the targeting system did come online, yu'r too slow. Once ya menage to get to the point where ya ken see the schematic blueprint, tap the hydraulic system. Under tha should be a tab fer FPS. That be the Fluid-Pulse System in this case. Open that. From there raise the trigger value about 20%. If you manage to pull that off then hopefully the leaking should slow down. If it get's faster, then lower the trigger value back to the original and then an additional 20%. If neither of those work then there is a serious problem."
 
C1​
_____The formation of fighters soared over the grids, the anti-air site silent in their wake. Positions passed below them as they slipped northward into hostile airspace. The heavier Perry-class transports lugged behind, their engines whisper quiet despite their ungainly bulk. "Heavy 1. We're on you, 2-5. Receiving low power radar signals. Enemy structure identified for GREYHOUND, just give us the word." The heavy cargo bays tilted open on the sides of the two transports, cruise missiles sitting on brackets, their nosecones turning and tracking the sights below, invisible to the naked eye. In any other conflict it would have been a gross misuse for the expensive precision-guided munitions. Right now, it was necessity.


D1​
_____"Wait one, over..." Dusty peered through the brush. Her trigger finger impatiently tapped on her rifle's receiver. "One concrete bunker, maybe got a machine gun in it. A half dozen tents, and a basic trench line with an antitank launcher in it. They're split down both sides of the road. She glanced at Saidi. "We can send a forward team to go raid the trench... neutralize them, and the balance of the team can roll up while you suppress that hard point."

_____"We do have a suppressor on the coax," Corporal Hale said, her head popping out of the hatch adjacent to Rhea's cupola. "If we fire short bursts, we could stay some distance back and suppress 'em that way, don'tcha think?"


E2​
_____The site had been hurriedly prepared, but the Zeon couldn't be blamed for lack of effort. Barbed wire and a fence encircled the compound, which helf two rows of crouching Zaku IIs, all covered in camouflage netting under a canopy of trees. They had been invisible entirely from the approach, and it was only up close that the thermals had given away their hiding spot. Rev lowered her Zanny into a crouch, turning its automatic weapon toward the way they had come in. "Remagen, Achilleia, we'll scan for enemy activity. Callista, you know what to do."


G3​
_____"I was wondering when you would get to the point," Zeya huffed. Her machine took a knee, the visor blinking before fading out, the moments following filled with an uneasy silence washed out by the crashing of the waves. She tapped commands into the console, but all her comrades got was silence. Eventually, the mobile suit's visor glared to life, the damaged leg shuddering as the leiutenant brought her machine upright. "Okay. This will do," she said, taking her weapon back from Fumio. The Zanny took an uneasy step back, toward the transport, then another.

_____She opened the comms once more. "Heat signatures. Three of them. A little close for comfort if you ask me." After a pause just brief enough to light a cigarette, she spoke once more. "Are we killing them or running?"
 
Rhea does a double take at Hale as she comments, "Wait, what?" She says looking at the guns in front of her for a minute before she says, "When did those become standard? Doesn't make too much sense on a front line unit though handy here."

Getting back on the com, she says, "Alright Dusty, sounds like a good plan. We can sit over here in cover and provide some quiet fire support with the co-axial machine guns. We hide in the foliage and support the trench team as they take it and the launcher. Then we roll in, put two sabots into the bunker, then we can take who ever is between us and the door. Simple, and open for variation."
 
Zeitgeist Blue said:
Fumio nodded his head frantically at the Chief's suggestion. "Yes Chief. What do you need from us?" Then to Zeya he said, voice gentle, "You heard him, Havilland. You should get back once your leg gets fixed. We'll carry it out from here."

He pulled back from Zeya's Zanny and turned to the rest of his team. He exhaled slowly to give himself time to think before addressing them. Things weren't going according to plan. First, Zeya's suit acting up then these heat signatures at the wrong time when the attack would begin any minute now. He knew they would come up, one way or another -- they were an inevitability in this life -- but... that did not help him solve each problem any better.

What he did know was what to look for in heat signatures and he sweeped his suit's eyes to them to confirm his suspicions. Zakus coming their way.

"I think it's a patrol," he said, referring to the heat signatures. "They probably don't know we're here so we can give them a wide berth. But the Perry suits just touched down, 2-5's about to drop his payload, and the ground forces are going to go loud soon. So, uh, we have got to hurry."

With that inspiring speech done and over with, he pushed his Zanny forward, wading in the water as if its pilot wasn't in a nervous hurry. As amazing as it was to pilot, it was still a machine and it lost some nuance that Fumio could not express in his piloting. It might have been a good thing, to hid like that, but he didn't think it suited him.

As he moved, his eyes glanced back to the monitor with the Zeon heat signatures then to the monitor which showed the rest of his team, watching to see if they would follow.

@Alectai @Yana @Blazewind @DannyboyZero @AbZHz101
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"Sounds as good a plan as any" Sharon agreed--honestly, she was more worried about these things not doing so well in the water--it's not like the Zaku I was built for terrestrial operations, and the Zanny was based off of that--as much as she could tell from the instruction manual anyway.

It was funny how people joked about not reading those, they were really important.
 
Sushi said:
G3
@Zeitgeist Blue @Blazewind @Yana @Alectai @Spiffy @AbZHz101_____"I was wondering when you would get to the point," Zeya huffed. Her machine took a knee, the visor blinking before fading out, the moments following filled with an uneasy silence washed out by the crashing of the waves. She tapped commands into the console, but all her comrades got was silence. Eventually, the mobile suit's visor glared to life, the damaged leg shuddering as the leiutenant brought her machine upright. "Okay. This will do," she said, taking her weapon back from Fumio. The Zanny took an uneasy step back, toward the transport, then another.

_____She opened the comms once more. "Heat signatures. Three of them. A little close for comfort if you ask me." After a pause just brief enough to light a cigarette, she spoke once more. "Are we killing them or running?"
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Fumio pursed his lips, slowing his suit's walk to a crawl at Zeya's question. Her question hung in the air for a few seconds before he finally spoke. "We still need to get into position first," he said, haltingly, finding a decent excuse as to why they couldn't kill them yet. "We can't risk them getting alerted early if we shoot at them now."

It wasn't going to hold, he thought. Already the special forces were clearing out the ground forces with abandon and Rev's team had just finished off their own group of Zakus -- albeit inert ones. The truth was he was afraid of starting when he wasn't ready. They'll do it like it was planned, facing the shore, to give him time to mentally brace himself.
 
The re-purposed Recon Zaku was surprisingly quiet for a building sized robotic war machine Corvos thought as he guided his suit toward the suspected Zeon assembly area. "Minimal chatter on known Zeon Freqs." He reported over the team's narrowband net. "Routine check-ins only - If they've spotted us then they're not squealing about it."

And if their cool enough to pull that off then we're all humped, Corvos thought to himself, but the lieutenant kept that thought off the net. On his suits enhanced vision he watched as Rev's suit crouched low before her voice came over the speakers. "Remagen, Achilleia, we'll scan for enemy activity. Callista, you know what to do."

"Playing look out aye." Corvos replied before glancing at his units Zeon comms system again. "I'm going to see about discreetly keeping the guards off their net – call it insurance in-case someone does try to raise the alarm." Corvos said before keying commands into his suits systems.

It had to be discreet, which meant very focused but he had working Zeon Crypto to use so that was the easy part. Rather then brute forced jamming his system he could spoof the automated portions of their radio net – things like the automatic link establishment. They wouldn't hear any warbling, no droning static, they simply wouldn't hear anything.

Killing them softly indeed.

The computer ran through the finial commands before giving him all greens, the only sign in his cockpit anything had changed was a slight change in the drone of his cooling system as the system drew more power and created more heat.
Meanwhile on the teams net he said a decidedly simple phrase to inform everyone of the jamming. "Buzzer on."
 
Sushi said:
_____The site had been hurriedly prepared, but the Zeon couldn't be blamed for lack of effort. Barbed wire and a fence encircled the compound, which helf two rows of crouching Zaku IIs, all covered in camouflage netting under a canopy of trees. They had been invisible entirely from the approach, and it was only up close that the thermals had given away their hiding spot. Rev lowered her Zanny into a crouch, turning its automatic weapon toward the way they had come in. "Remagen, Achilleia, we'll scan for enemy activity. Callista, you know what to do."
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"Ha," Callista coyly grinned the only way a black marketeer who hit the salvage motherload could, "consider it done."

Grabbing the Heat Knife off the holster on the back of the armour skirt, Callista slowed her Zaku into a crouch and did her best impression of concealing her giant orange construction sign of a twenty metre cyclops and she skulked towards the closest row of camouflage-adorned Zakus. Frankly, it's a miracle no one noticed her squad, but she wasn't in the habit of questioning her luck.

Activating the battery stored in her knife, the bladed weapon began to hum and glowed from a dull crimson, into a striking red and finally a blinding orange. Satisfied with the lethality of her weapon, Callista made her move.

Callista's Zaku lunged at the closest cylcops and plunged her knife into the cockpit and promptly turned into a molten slag before swiftly withdrawing the bladed weapon and perforating the cockpit of the adjacent Zaku. Taking care not to set off the fuel or the ammo stacks on the Zakus, Callista slashed her weapon out the side of the cockpit and into the third one with ease.

Hopefully the Zekes remain this deaf and blind and incompetent. It would make her life all the more easier.[/QUOTE]
 
D1​
_____"Well..." Corporal Hale shrugged. "Not... standard. You could say 'borrowed.'" She rammed the bolt rearward and shoved the charging handle closed with a snap. "Okay, it's live. Whenever you're ready."

_____Dusty took a knee by Saidi, fishing a small cylindrical grenade from her pocket. "I'm thinking we pop some tear gas on the sentries and take the AT in the trench out. I'll wait for the tanks to make their mark and push with the balance of the squad... when you're ready, we'll hit that underground access. Good luck."

E2​
_____The Zudah's displays flashed once. It was an operating temperature warning for the main engine diagnostic equipment. With all their time in space, they had taken the cooling ability of vacuum for granted. It was a routine warning, but one absent from the other mobile suits none the less.

_____"Good work," Rev said. "Milk that Zeke spy for all it's worth." She scanned the screens and comms simultaneously, each soft chirp signifying another coded message from their home vessel. Her eyes briefly widened as Callista drew a slender blade from her Zaku's waist. It was one of their new toys from Fed R&D, a straight copy of the same mechanism that let a Zaku's hawk slice through Salamis hull like it were wet paper. The WO moved with a quickness that belied her reputation for being a REMF. "It's hard to believe you've got so little experience in a Zaku, Callista," Revelle said curtly. "You're a natural."

_____Three quick incisions, three Zaku cockpits smelted into unrecognizable messes. A fourth moderately damaged. "Not bad for a first trial," the lieutenant said. "They should give us bigger blades."

G3​
_____"Wait, chief. Movement to your eleven o'clock!"

_____"What? You're seeing things." The lead Zaku hunched down on its knee, pointing its automatic weapon out toward the open sea. The hull creaked faintly from the motion of the waves, and hastily fitted waterproofing let out the occasional bubble that floated past the mobile suit's main sensor. "Where was it? What did you see, rookie?"

_____"I-I think it was a mobile suit. Maybe five hundred meters away. It didn't look like a rock or the oceanlife..."

_____"... right. You're probably full of shit, but call it in."

_____"Yes s-sir!" The rearmost Zaku extended a long-range antenna from its backpack unit, the static clearing away as the very top poked above the waves. "Grey Nurse, this is Hammerhead. We've encountered what may be a patrol of mobile suits. Are there any friendly units in the area?" They waited for ten seconds before he repeated himself.

_____Still, glassy-smooth silence on the waves. No crackling, no static. "Chief, I'm not getting anything!"

_____"Is it minovsky particles?"

_____"No sir, the density isn't high enough to jam our radio yet, this area is clean. I have a clear signal, it might be an authentication issue... or even a hardware problem, with this salty ocean water."

_____"Hmmgh. Right. New kid, go back to the coast and have the outpost send a direct line to command. Come right back to us afterword. Copy?"

_____"Yes chief!"

_____"Go. Shoo. We'll hang tight and observe for now." The rookie's mobile suit started to march away from the point of contact, its thudding footsteps fading into nothingness. The remaining two took a knee, glaring red sensors sweeping through the fog of the ocean.
 
"Why you sly, resourceful little weasel," Rhea says with a slight laugh, "That was good thinking. Now let's see if I can get this thing started off right."

She looks through the sights to the trench line nearest the trees where the raiders would enter. "Alright Dusty, going to lay down some fire to give your guys a chance to get into the ditch quickly."

The turret traces the trench line and at the first sign of Zeonic troops, will fire off a short burst on the silenced co-ax machine gun. She continues to go down the line to try and catch anybody that runs away.
 
Maion's brow furrowed. He thought for a moment, and that was all he needed. He was loaded down, sure, but ordnance was always a fleeting thing. You could always run out on a fighter, so you had to think economically. They taught that as a gunfighting rule - bring a gun, and bring all your friends who had guns. The Perries were friends with guns, long guns and were already sighting down their targets.

"Heavy 1, this is 2-5. Target that comms structure, render it inoperable. Release your payloads; we have to cut their phone lines yesterday."
 
G3​
_____As Lieutenant Havilland retreated toward Niflheim, the team headed away from the point of contact. They were forced to take a wide sweep around it. The water rose higher above the heads of their mobile suits, and small pops and creaks of pressure inside their bodies filled the heavy silence of their infiltration. The radios hissed away as the volume of water above ate communications with their mother ship.

_____After a while, the murky depths changed into the gentle incline of the shore, and a slow upwards climb brought them to the surface, some two kilometers north of the initial spot. Fumio's mobile suit broke water first, its head shoving above the waves. The main display showed a road just wide enough to fit a single mobile suit, leading up toward a sharply angled hillside studded with barbed wire and angular tank traps. A simple slot cut into the side of the hill with a large barrel protruding from it served as a sort of primitive bunker, although in the dark the sentries there had yet to open fire.


C1​
_____"2-5(@Hoshino Yumemi)​), roger. We have your mark. Heavy 1 engaging." The unweield transports nosed down, putting their flight on a level plane. Targeting pods like miniature mono-eye sensors glared into the night, fed information from Maoin's aircraft. Lieutenant Remagen's meddling had brought the Zeon comms abuzz, turning one hardened bunker into a big fat bullseye on the main display. "You're gonna want to close your eyes for this... GREYHOUND away!" The outboard set of missiles launched with a scream that shook the ground below, the shape of the Perry frontlit by a flash that ignited the night sky. At their distance the impact was almost instantaneous, and the earth-shaking detonation of fire and severed concrete rattled their cabins as the first two missiles struck the mark.

_____Aerials, sandbags, rebar and bodies flew outward from the brilliant epicenter, before the night gobbled up everything. Where there had been a concrete-grey blot, instead Maoin only saw so much burning rubble, a crater flooded with fire. Zeon communications across the base flatlined. Heavy 1 banked hard to starboard, dumping flares. Then the anti-air fire came in, exploding around the formation in a trickle at first, but growing as more and more of the Zeon defenders came to their senses.



C1​
​
_____The earth shook. "That's our cue," Dusty said, flicking the spoon off a cylindrical grenade before throwing it over the rock she was crouching behind. A curling, off-white cloud erupted from the dugout, and she heard the heavy coughing of the men posted within as her boots stamped across the ground. A green Zeon helmet poked up from the ground, and she snapped her rifle up and stroked the trigger, a motion she had done a thousand times in training. The brains hadn't finished draining out of the soldier's helmet when she landed next to his body, firing a dozen more times as the muffled grunts of the Zeon soldiers in the trench were the only signs of life. "Clear. Moving up."

_____Dusty slapped a fresh magazine into her rifle and shoved a Zeon patrol radio into her pack. Soldiers were scurrying around, the air-strike on their communications having finally broken their heavy doze. The tank hiding up the road opened up with a suppressed chatter, the pop and snap of rounds flying past her head louder than the belch of the weapon. Confusion reigned in the place. Dusty tore the pin out of a small, rounded grenade on her vest and hurled it into the open door of the bunker.

_____There was an bone-rattling crump and all was still inside. She moved in, firing into fallen bodies and kicking rifles out of bloody fingers, her squadmates following behind with the clatter of their own weapons. Saidi was raising hell on her own side, leaving a small trail of bodies and smashed Zeon equipment in her wake. "Skuba(@Aliexster @tankdrop24)​, found an access panel and a blast door. It's wide enough to fit vehicles. Come up."

_____The massive armored plate groaned and slid aside on a well-greased track, red emergency lighting glaring out, washin across a two-lane underground road with markers every ten meters. It stretched seemingly out under the entire base, the marker lights splitting left and right. "Road splits. Left or right?"


E2​
​
_____"HQ! We're under attack! A squad of enemy mobile suits is attacking the garrison Dolphin, can you send reinforcements? HQ?" The Zeon pilot shoved the headset into her ears, her breaths frenzied as she saw it, the yellow-colored Zaku smashing their mobile suits to pieces. "Goddamn it, respond!" She slammed a fist into the console, her shoulders sagging. The Federation had stolen mobile suits? Three, four Zakus laid crippled in their storage areas. How many were there? What was the explosion she had heard? Was there an all out attack. In times like these, green flares would have been fired by any guards at their posts, but the men were exhausted. Getting well-earned sleep.

_____The anger in her chest told her to fight, but her training said that even Federal soldiers could put down a single MS-06 with four-to-one numbers. The young pilot flew through the startup procedure. They had to hear the rumble, see the steam gushing out of the Zaku's vents- but she had just enough time to ignite a blinder cracker and throw, shoving the floor pedals and tearing up the forest in a spray of white hot rocket exhaust.



​
_____Rev blinked the spots out of her eyes as the cabin monitors slowly adjusted to the blinding attack. It had gotten her pulse racing, and her finger remained lightly on the trigger as she rose from her crouch and scanned the trees. "... looks like we missed one. Achilleia, Callista, it went north. Hunt it down before it can grab help."
 
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With several explosions, sending the nightvision into an almost blinding her for a second. Seeing the trench go silent, she spins the tank's turret over towards the bunker. "Alright Mack, time to roll out." She says with a few thumps on her console. For a minute, Rhea looks for any sign of the Zekes opening up on the infantry with that machine gun, but can only see the more subtle flashes of light from the troopers taking it over. Moving her finger from the trigger, she leans back a bit, just trying to stay alert for anything heavy heading their way.

Watching as the door opens up, Rhea sticks her head up and looks down both of the roads, she says, "Right takes us East? Then we should go left, that should take us to the airfield to take care of the air support before we join up with the others at the main base."
 
Sushi said:
__As Lieutenant Havilland retreated toward Niflheim, the team headed away from the point of contact. They were forced to take a wide sweep around it. The water rose higher above the heads of their mobile suits, and small pops and creaks of pressure inside their bodies filled the heavy silence of their infiltration. The radios hissed away as the volume of water above ate communications with their mother ship.

_____After a while, the murky depths changed into the gentle incline of the shore, and a slow upwards climb brought them to the surface, some two kilometers north of the initial spot. Fumio's mobile suit broke water first, its head shoving above the waves. The main display showed a road just wide enough to fit a single mobile suit, leading up toward a sharply angled hillside studded with barbed wire and angular tank traps. A simple slot cut into the side of the hill with a large barrel protruding from it served as a sort of primitive bunker, although in the dark the sentries there had yet to open fire.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Fumio craned his head as the various groups in STS-7 began their initial strikes. Over in the distance, he could just make out the anti-air fire that periodically lit up the evening sky.

If the Zeon forces were unaware and complacent during the insertion, now they were fully aware of hostile intent. It'd be only a matter of minutes before his own group would be discovered and he did not want it to be in a place that could get them all killed. He had the long walk around the coast to stew in his thoughts and he was decided on that at least.

His Zanny's head swiveled to face the bunkers and with quick successive taps on his on-board computer painted the bunker and sent them to the displays of the other mobile suits.

"A bunker on our 12," he said, breathy. "Take it out, 2-7, so we can move to C6 and intercept the Zakus going to B5."

@DannyboyZero @Alectai @Yana @Blazewind
 
E2​ ➤ D2​
_____100mm belched a stream of fire as Revelle sidestepped her mobile suit, raking a line of tracers across the camp's edge that severed tree trunks like twigs. The Zaku vanished into the brush with a leap and a flash of rocket exhaust. Letting out a breath, she rubbed the spots out of her eyes. "Remagen, location now."

_____"Aye, Commander."

_____She moved abreast to Achilleia and Callista. Three crippled cyclops, one badly damaged; not bad for a field evaluation. "Forget the last one. We move the balance of the team forward and push through." After a few moments, the Recon Zaku sent encrypted packets of its sensor data to the squad, and part of the main display was shaded over to represent the possible area the machine had escaped to.

_____"North-northeast, Commander. Grid D2."

_____"Roger. Callista, you're with me. We'll advance and keep up momentum. Achilleia and Remagen hit whatever we find and scoot as soon as that's dead."

_____Rev switched to thermals and rested her fingertips on the Zanny's safeties. "Punch it." The Zanny's footfalls were enormous in the once-still night, trees shredded, earth thrown up. Steam was clouding some of her main cameras. As they emerged from the edge of the clearing, blocky, regular shapes were jammed into the dirt as if they had fallen from the sky, a garrison of Zakus still kneeling a short distance away from the cluster of buildings. "Remagen, what do you see?"

_____"Identify three mobile suits, inactive, and a nest of heavy artillery bunkers... wait one... new target, azimuth 0-7-1, two hundred." Revelle and Remagen swung their weapons around in near unison. A bush scattered as a Zaku's machine gun chattered with return fire, then a blinding flash as thei quarry went leaping from the brush, sliding to a halt behind a bunker that went about as high as its waist. It dropped down and vanished from sight, concealed by the bulk of the structure.

_____Rev looked over her shoulder at the rifle-wielding Zudah. "Take the shot. There's nowhere to run now."

B3​
_____They hooked a left. It seemed to go on forever in a gentle curve, nothing but long stretches of empty, pitch-black highway illuminated only by the bloody pools of emergency lighting. Eventually they did make contact, although it was with what looked like a train that had derailed from the road, a small group of Federation soldiers having dug-in around it with piles of sandbags and hastily erected fighting positions. A soldier ran toward their convoy, frantically waving his arms as the special forces made their rounds.

_____"Oh, thank God you're here. We've been stuck in this hellhole for twelve-plus hours now. We've had some skirmishes with Zeon in the underground system. We just need some more time to plant the last charges on this train. Can you help us?" With the bulk of the train derailed, a few cars laid toppled on their sides. Their doors had been smashed partly open, and from her tank commander's seat, Rhea could just barely make out the shape of a blue robotic limb of sorts, possibly a mobile suit. "We have strict orders to keep these out of enemy hands!"

_____Dusty motioned for Saidi to close their follow distance. Her rifle watched the high corners of the path. "I don't like this. I'll keep the ground commander talking, you take a look inside those containers and tell me what they're trying to blast." She pumped a fist in the air, and other special forces troops moved up to screen their comrades from prying eyes. There was a gentle draft coming from within the container, which was one of the few still sitting upright on the tracks. It was pitch black just looking in, dark enough even NVGs strained to see more without illumination. Luckily, it seemed power was still on.
 
Looking about the Feddie soldiers, her eyes go up in surprise to say, "How the hell did you get over here? We were told that the rest of the troops were run off." Through out this whole conversation she has the machineguns faced vaguely in their direction, this might be a false flag operation, though she doubted they could have set something up just in the off chance that the could slow someone down during a counter offensive. In this war, she wasn't sure of anything really.

Getting good look at the car, "Well good news is that the calvary has arrived. So what've you got in there? Hopefully if this operation is a success, we can evac you and this thing someplace safe." Thinking about it for a minute she says, "Though we should get this stuff ready to go regardless. Just hold off on setting them off until we're meet by a flood of green. When was the last time you were hit by the Zekes?"

Looking about the area Rhea asks, "By the way, have you seen an airfield anywhere around here?"
 
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