Episode 26 - Operation Maelstrom

[Inferno]

"Really, just sitting around here?" Criss shot out carrying her beam rifle. "You guys ever going to move on your own?" She dismissed Orsino's shot at her without response. If he was trying to start something, well, she could deal with him when they got back. As if to reassure herself of how simple things were going to be, she recited the mission aloud. "We just get in, find the recon team, and get out." She turned to look at Orsino. "No distractions, no unnecessary engagements."

"I suppose you're unfamiliar with entropy, rookie." Orsino smirked in his cockpit. As if his facts were a direct insult to Criss, he remarked, "I can only see a few friendly suits out there. Let's get this show on the road, shall we?" Orsino blasted off to the debris field.

"Wait up, some of us want some of the action too." Marco fired his Hizack's engines in pursuit of Orsino. "You all might want to keep up," he joked to Criss, who brought up his rear.

The squad of Hizacks advanced into the Debris field, keeping their eyes peeled for hostiles.

[Tangerine]

WHAM

Irene dismissed her second victim by landing a fist on Gaza-C’s head. It goes helplessly below, slowly but certain like a drowned victim. She said nothing abut it.

A severe malfunction on her opponent’s Gaza-C spared her from lunching her finishing strike. The pink and purple colored suit malfunctioned after taking a direct bash from her shield. It moved too fast and too close to her left side, chasing it as if it was Irene's blind spot. A fatal mistake. Probably the pilot is still alive inside but she cared next to nothing about that Axis pilot.

The suit sheathed back its beam saber to the rack. Irene was eager to be with her team. With the rifle back in her hand she pressed forward to Al and Paris’s location. Within seconds she found both of them. What troubled her was Lt. Emington. She couldn’t locate his position.

She couldn't hide her feeling, “Paris, Al! Thank God you two are okay. Where is Lt. Emington?"

[Soma Taozi]

This wasn't going as easily as she had expected it to. When Paris had watched previous battles, most of the combat footage she had viewed was of a pilot blowing away a mobile suit or two and making it look easy. Now she realized that she had only been watching the footage of those people skilled enough to come back from such engagements alive. Where people like her all seemed to not make it back…or to be in such damaged condition that the combat footage was lost.



Paris pulled her Nemo to port, quickly dodging a beam blast from a Gaza-C as it and it's wingman continued shooting at her and Al. Paris ducked her mobile suit to avoid the follow up beam from the Gaza and returned fire. Although not as precise as the two Zeon-...no, Axis mobile suits, the beams caused them to both evade and stopped their attacks for the moment. Paris righted her Nemo and took a few precious seconds to think. The Gaza's were protecting their ships. They were purposely staying just far away from her and Al so only the best of sharp-shooters could hit them, but close enough to make a pilot focus on evasion. These guys may not be the aces, but they knew strategy, which meant that they were at least veterans of a couple battles.



Unlike me. Paris thought as the two Gaza-C's started shooting at her and Al again. She wasn't sure what the rest of her team was doing, but it was clear from the swears and beams off in there direction that they had their own troubles.



Getting stopped by only two mobile suits...damn! Paris swore as she maneuvered her Nemo into some creative evasive maneuvers as the Gaza-C's started firing again. How the hell was she going to avenge her parents if she was such a coward?! Paris looked up at the two distant Gaza's and her fist tightened around her controls. She wasn't going to let these two kick her around anymore!



A small voice in the back of Paris' mind warned her that acting this way wasn't like her...that she had clearly underestimated the effects of facing those people who had taken everything away from her would cause her psyche. But that was just it! People like this...that followed the same beliefs of Zeon…had destroyed her happiness. In their insane quest from retrieving the past they had caused the deaths of countless civilians and although these two Gaza-C pilots may not have been apart of the attack on the convoy of transport ships that claimed her parents life, they were still responsible for collaborating with such people that did! Axis...it was just a new name for Zeon! Underneath it all it was still the same bastards that had taken everything!

“Paris, Al! Thank God you two are okay. Where is Lt. Emington?"

Paris looked up at the approching Nemo in surprise, Irene was ok. But as for Lt. Emington...she had no idea where he was. Paris opened her mouth to respond, but a second later a beam blast flashed right in front her her. Blinding her vision for a split second.

Paris face twisted into a snarl, "That is enough! Al cover fire!" Not waiting for a response Paris charged her Nemo forward at the two Gaza's. Who for a split second seemed surprised that a pilot would be doing something so stupid. Both started shooting at her. Just like flying a ship...just like flying a ship... Paris thought as she ducked, rolled, and dodged the two mobile suits beams. She swore as a beam came too close to her left leg. Burning away the armor around the knee joint and incinerating the edge of her foot. Suddenly beam fire from Al caught the two Axis mobile suits attention and they split apart. Paris smiled, this was perfect.



Quickly detaching her shield, since she preferred to fight close range left handed, Paris reached up behind her waist armor and drew out one of her beam sabers. Bringing the pinkish beam in a downward swing that the Gaza-C barely dodged. Still charging forward, Paris swung the saber in a horizontal swing to the left, cutting the Gaza's beam rifle that the Mobile Suit had just been aiming at her, in half. The Axis mobile suit dropped its sparking rifle and reached for its beam saber. But wither it was anger, stupidity, or just plain recklessness, Paris rushed forward and stabbed towards the center of mass on the suit. But the Gaza rolled away, but Paris still managed to sever the enemy suits leg at the knee. Spinning quickly, Paris barely managed to bring her blade up to catch the Gaza-C's saber swing on her own blade. Paris felt her Nemo being pushed back but the full thrust of the Gaza. It seemed like she had pissed this guy off. Gaza pulled back suddenly, then charged again, bringing its saber down on Paris' blade. Each blow rattled her Nemo, forcing her to stay on the defensive. She had relied on luck and surprise too much, now she was in big trouble. The Gaza brought it's saber down against hers again. Both suits struggling for dominance. "If this keeps u-" Paris gasped as the Gaza-C suddenly kicked her mobile suit in the chest. For the more experienced pilot that move would have been obvious, but for Paris...



Paris Nemo shook around her as she screamed in shock and surprise, letting go of the cockpit controls for a second, and she felt herself bite the side of her mouth. Tasting copper, Paris shook her dazed head and looked up at the damaged Gaza-C. The suit pointed its saber at her challengingly, its visor eye flashing dangerously, and changed.

[The Loser Villain]

b]- Bindra Team -[/b]

"There's no need to worry about me, Tuzenbach. If I have mechanical problems I'll return to the ship. Pay attention to them."

"Yes sir," Nikolai responded to Julian.

He looked at the enemy formation ahead of the team when Pris yelled over the radio.

"Commander--eweryone, Four Nemo engaging and four Rick Dias soon arrive!"

"Copy, moving to engage!" He cut to his left to follow Pris and Djorn towards the Nemos that they were attacking.

"Attack them! Quickly, before they clump together," Julian added to the fray.

Trying to get a lock on Ethan's Nemo he simply gave up on accuracy and started blasting away with his knuckle buster.

- AEUG -
- Team 2 -

"Don't get too cocky, old man. Alright, boring ol' Team 1 looks to be making a good dent in 'em, So lets just follow them. Bernie, you take the lead with that B-type and if you find a nice spot for us to sweep through at the Axis ships or whatever looks good, go for it, and be ready to start dumping those missiles. Me and Marvin'll follow ya and do whatever we do, and Sophie comes last and blasts s*** with that big cannon, and we'll see how long we can pull this off."

"Roger Eddie, old s*** blaster at the ready," Sophie replied with a smile. She made sure to have the cannon ready to fire at a moments notice.

"Axis reinforcements approaching the New Yark team!" Bernard alerted the team.

Able to see the pink Gaza-C team that was closing in on the New Yark team, she checked to she what range they were at. "Damn," realizing they still weren't close enough to fire the cannon. "Just a little closer."

- Team 3 -

"Hey guys," Terrace said over the team radio channel. "Uh, Teams 1 and 2 seem to be advacing further into the fray. I say we join them and not let them have all the fun!"


- The Kirov -
- Hangar -

"What's everybody waiting for on this ship?" Aaron asked himself noticing that Beta or Delta had yet to even move to the catapults. And he wasn't about to launch on his own and risk earning the ire of his supposedly crazy team leader. "No sir, I'll launch when Gamma leader does."

- The Buxoro -
- Hangar -

"That's it!" the alarms rang out that Echo was going into combat and Tim had enough of the waiting around that he bounded over to his Hi-Zack. "Look out Zeeks, Buxoro Team is coming after you!"

Rather then go with the usual load out of beam rifle and heat hawk, he was using the machine gun and beam saber this time. Would probably get into close quarters combat fast, so better to bring the stronger melee weapon. The missile launcher was a must though, a Buxoro unit trademark.

The elevator brought Tim's Hi-Zack to the catapult, "Melton, launching!" and as the lights started to turn green the mobile suit accelerated down the deck and flew into space.

[blind_dead_mcjones]

"Hey guys," Terrace said over the team radio channel. "Uh, Teams 1 and 2 seem to be advacing further into the fray. I say we join them and not let them have all the fun!"

"I second this!" Wales replied over the comm, putting the bazooka away and drawing both beam pistols, hoping he'd be more successful the next time he tried to engage the enemy and taking note of how close some of the axis ships were

"hey, hows about we aim for one of those big ones?" he asked, pointing one the beam pistols at the closest ship within his field of view

[Tangerine]

Sensors positively picked up two or even more suits around Paris and Al. Irene felt dumb for her earlier comment. Those two weren’t okay. The one she fought earlier was the one she pulled from Al’s back but still two more already squared at Paris.

Paris was moving wildly, trying her best against the nearby Gaza.

Irene braked hard, slowing down her suit immediately. She risked her speed, trading it for added accuracy. With both hands she aimed for the second Gaza. The one which was clear from Paris and Al and then she found her sweet spot. A sheer of luck, the target just moved where she wanted it to be. Being an ex-athlete and experienced pilot Irene instinctively pulled the trigger twice despite what the aiming computer told her.

More than just trusting her instinct, Irene was in the group with people who depended on it more than their training. She immediately felt pain in her left eye, gritted her teeth while her vision hazed. Bright light and then complete darkness for a second or two before it recovered. Tears formed on her eyes as she blinked uncontrollably.

That one Gaza was already under fire from Al when Irene’s second shot grazed through the Gaza’s left binder. In turn it collapsed and impaired the suit’s movement. It banked wildly to its ship and seemed to make a run for its life.

Nice one! Irene thought to herself.

Now it’s up to Paris or Al…

[King Monkey]

- Team 1 -

"Roger that, Sir," Jacob replied to Fritz's altered commands. He'd been ready to push through to serve as the point of the spear to lead the other teams to the heart of the Axis forces, but he was just as willing to hang back and mop up the survivors and defend the ship and let Team 2 blow past and get the glory of sinking ships. In fact, he was more willing. He much preferred making sure that he had a place to return home to than making sure that the enemy did not.

There were an embarrassment of targets in the new direction they were headed, but they were far enough away that he had little chance of really hitting anything. So, instead of targeting a specific enemy unit, he just sent several beams from his shoulder mounted cannons into the midst of the Gaza's, hoping to scatter and confuse them.

- Bindra Team -

Djorn's blood hummed through his body, excitement and adrenaline pumping into his brain as they engaged in their first real battle. Pris was trading shots with one of the enemy Nemos and he cheated away from her, pulling a loose roll that sent him far away from her and put him on a fresh angle on the AEUG unit. He wanted to make sure that none of the opponents were free to think so he came to a near halt as he took aim at one of the Suits further back. Two beams of energy shot out from his knuckle buster in response to his actions.

They shot across the darkness of space and streaked toward House's Nemo. If nothing else, it would distract him until more of the Bindra team could catch up to them to overwhelm the AEUG forces.

[Ziryab]

-Axis-
-ahead of the Bindra-

"I prefer that," Pris was contradicting Julian. "If they scatter they swarm us," her Gaza-C juked to her left at Waclaw's counter, causing her to lose track of Djorn as her mobile suit was diving diving rising and diving and such then looped back towards its starting position as stray beam from somewhere further back in the AEUG lines lazily ran across their field. The entire time Pris restrained herself from returning fire, her OYW mindset being set to ammo conservation even though she knew the Gaza-C was loaded with beam weaponery.

"Clumped together they stay in one spot." Pris's Gaza-C leapt upwards and was beginning to rise above the New Yark team. "Can even get in each other's way. So keep moving. Never stop. Make me them halt."

Like a photographer she kept Waclaw as the centerpiece in her viewfinder and tried to keep his comrades in the picture. Those ones are always troublemakers, referring to any pilot that actually knew how to use their shield. Sometimes you had to submit and shoot at it, telling herself and held her breath as she waited for the Nemo's shield line up in front of its body. They were made to be shot at.

Pulling the trigger, the Gaza-C dove in an arc and unloading beam fire directly at Waclaw on the way down.

[Attomoku]

Gamma Team

Lt. Te'litha

Nick had launched a little while ago. He had been waiting on the catapult with all his gear, like a dog ready to be let off the leash, ever since Alpha took off.
He had been halfway down the catapult by the time Trent had to gotten to "...advance into the debris," so eager he was to get to grips with the Axis forces, and God-dammit, he would send at least one of them to hell before him, to heck with worrying about Ritter for now.
He went full tilt into the debris field, barely slowing his near suicidal pace as he juked and dived through the junk, using up a considerable amount of propellant doing his best impression of a tiger-striped, Zeon seeking missile. He blew past the retreating EWAC Zack's, ignoring their plea for escort to end up near the area that Stukov and Pan were in, finding to his extreme disappointment that things had nearly been taken care of by Alpha. He saw the two retreating Gaza's when Stukov highlighted them by firing in challenge, and saw the mad Russian slow when one turned to make a stand. Nick didn't; Maintaining his considerable speed, he put his suit into a tight diving spin to avoid a large piece of mirror and came out under the two suit's relative plane 'on his back'. Unwilling to show any of the civility that Stukov seemed to be showing to the Axis pilot for trying to making sure at least one of their men got out, Nick unlimbered his new rifle and let off a 2 second burst at Lt. Ball before juking around an asteroid back up into a direct pursuit of the final Gaza unit fleeing the battle. "You aint' going to get outta this in any way pleasant, Zeke!!" he roared at the retreating pilot, sounding as if he was barely maintaining the final vestiges of his sanity while his snake laughed hideously in his ear at the ruin he would bring down upon Zeon.

Delta Team

Ltjg. Kelborn

Her Marasai in top form at the moment, Grace grabbed a beam rifle from the rack and locked herself into the catapult "The Marasai's should launch first and create perimeter to cover the 'Extras'* as as they fire at range," Grace radioed Alvarez. "Ltjg. Kelborn, launching!" she acknowledged the tower before she was pressed against the linear chair as the gee-forces built and the catapult flung her machine out into space.

Buxoro Team

Lt. Robin & Ens. August

Both men grabbed the near standard load-out of missile launchers, Beam rifle and Heat-hawk, and took the elevator to the catapult and followed their eager comrade out in the black. "Don't get ahead of yourself Tim," Elijah warned as he went next on the catapult.


*[X-3] = X-'Tres' = 'Extras' (Its something I assume they would make a nickname out of and say its short for Extra-Ugly or whatnot.)

[mcred23]

-Team 2-

"Roger that." Bernard said as he passed Eckardy, giving him a quick, clear transmission. Eddie and Marvin tapped their own thrusters and followed Korbel in an arc.

"Roger Eddie, old s*** blaster at the ready," Sophie grinned as she took up her spot at the back of the formation.

A few moments later, Korbel's voice came through again, this time with a bit of static. "Axis reinforcements approaching the New Yark team!"

They were moving in, but a quick check told Eddie it would be a long few moments before he or Marvin would be in range. If Eddie remembered the range on the C-Type right, Sophie would be getting close, but Bernard's missiles and stuff were a bit shorter. Eddie frowned and hit the proper button to open the team's comm channel. "Bernie, hit 'em when you've got a good shot and we'll take care of what lives," Eddie commented deadpan. The pink Axis suits, called Gazas intel had said, were supposed to be very fragile and otherwise poor suits, thought to be in large part due to their transformation systems. Eddie suddenly wondered how the AEUG had gotten that information, how accurate it was, and good the Axis pilots really were. One way or another, he'd find out in short order, but that wasn't comforting at all.

[mcred23]

-Kalinin Team-

As soon as Sunoue was close to the formation, Bate keyed his comm. "Stay loose and follow me to the shoal. We'll tighten up once we get there and see what's going on." He said quickly, putting action to his words has he goosed his thrusters to start moving at something just above normal crusing speed but well less than the top speed of the Marasai. Most of the rest of the Echo teams were going faster, but Bate was in no rush to take three green pilots into a shoal zone that would have the enemy and a number of friendly units in the area. It promised to be chaotic.

Runnels quickly followed, adjusting her speed accordingly in an instant. Craig started a hair too fast, but this merely allowed him to get closer to Bate, which he accounted for by shifting below the formation. Hicks, typically, started too slow, and had to open his thrusters to their full speed for a second or two to keep him roughly in formation. Bate noticed this and was actually fine, it was better than he expected from the pilot. Hicks was probably already a nervous wreck, he usually was just from the mundane action of take off, and how he'd act in combat... Bate pushed that thought aside, he'd have enough to deal with if the Axis Zeons were in the area being annoying.

The Kalinin team continued their fairly slow but steady advance to the combat zone.

[Rob DS Zeta]

-Ens. Sunoue-

"Stay loose and follow me to the shoal. We'll tighten up once we get there and see what's going on."

Arc did his best to match his speed to Bate, making sure to keep his distance from shaky movements of his teammates. He did his best to keep his breathing steady as they advanced, knowing that he had to keep control of his emotions. He flexed his fingers on the controls once again...

"Calm down, Arc," he told himself, realizing that he was too eager. He knew that all he had to do was follow the commander's lead. As much as he did not like it, Arc knew that he was at a serious disadvantage in space. Despite Bate's uncaring manner, he was the pro here. Arc would follow him for now.

[Fritz Ashlyn]

- Near Gryps 2 -

- The Kirov -
- Bridge -

"MS teams are launching sir... slowly. Several units are headed into the debris now," Mortimer grunted, shaking his head at the sluggish launch times of the ship's suit compliment. "Gamma and Delta are on their way out, captain. Beta is moving in line behind them," Gojiro clarified from his control station. Trent shook his head slightly at the delays and responded in a near-whisper to Chief Kellman, "This is ruining our combat response times... I hope I don't end up regretting my talk with Lt. Te'Litha. If the ship is put in danger because the... situation with Ritter wasn't resolved faster...". Mortimer's neutral scowl deepened into a frown. "Sir, I believe our entire 'situation' will work itself out at Gryps. We're fighting a war that's fatal... Crawling right into our own coffins on our hands and knees trying to pretend the Titans is still a viable entity," he muttered, his vision dropping from the bridge windows to the deck at his feet. "This war isn't over," Trent answered, surprised at his XO's tone, "And I'm a little shocked that you're the one sounding like a fatalist this time, Mort,".

Kellman gave a hollow chuckle and then looked back up at the captain. "We're all being used, sir - that's all. But I've got a job to do, and I'm happy to see you're feeling better today," he nodded genuinely. "Ask me how I'm feeling again in an hour or two," Trent smiled. "Sir, one of the EWAC Zacks has emerged from the debris field. We haven't received word on the other two yet," Fyodor droned, pulling up a distant, blurry view of the retreating Eye-Zack on one of the overhead monitors. "This is LtCmdr. Ritter. X Series 1, launching," Wolf's voice buzzed into Sergei's headphones, and the petty officer cleared the launch tree to cycle. "Beta Team is starting to head out," Sergei announced without turning around to look at the captain.

- Beta Team -

Wolf's jaw set firm as he ignored the G forces pinning him in his seat at launch, and after a few seconds of raw acceleration he allowed his Barzam to slow into a reasonable cruising speed that would allow his team to catch up. Sven would no doubt have something to say about his launching first, but he couldn't bring himself to hide behind his followers. Daren had been quick to take the other catapult when he realized Wolf was leaving, and Nwosu sped up to join his team leader. "Sir, Te'Litha has advanced far ahead of us. I believe we are safe for the time being," Daren offered, appearing in a window on Wolf's screen. "We're safe when he's dead, and that captain pulling his strings is touring the earthsphere without a normal suit," Ritter shot back curtly, "If I run into that one in this garbage, I'll kill him if I think for a moment he's about to move against me,".

- Alpha Team -

Dolk chuckled approvingly as Joson struggled to stay ahead of him in his damaged mobile suit. The Zeon pilot was clearly a veteran, using pieces of garbage and sudden maneuvers to try and break away from the chase. Of course Dolk could have boosted ahead and caught up to him at any point he so desired, or simply blasted him with the heavy beam rifle, but he was happy to hang back and watch Joson run for his life. Now and then he could hear garbled calls for assistance or curses hurled in his direction, but between the heavy interference and his music it was hard to make out most of it. Dolk was growing bored enough with the meaningless pursuit to finish off Joson when the purple Gaza suddenly banked hard and disappeared behind another sheet of debris like it had tried to do before. Lt. Dolk's eyebrows shot up ever so slightly when he spun into a teeth-rattling turn and found Joson missing from behind the metal garbage and nowhere in sight.

The next thing Dolk saw was his monitors filling with the blinding glow of Joson's beam saber... blocked by his own. The data pod drifted lazily away from his suit where he had dropped it and pulled a beam saber in the blink of an eye. The business end of Joson's saber was suspended meters from his cockpit, held back by his own weapon at an angle across the Griffin's torso. "H-how did you--?" Joson sputtered angrily, his frustration and fear boiling over. "You think you're so tough?" Dolk gruffly cut him off, the reflection of their locked beam sabers shining in the lenses of his shades. "You're a living bluff! I'll put you down!" he spat, the Griffin's thrusters blasting away the small debris behind him as he shoved the Gaza backwards into the metal, holding it there. Joson put the full power of his suit into pushing back, but couldn't budge himself. His wordless growl broke into a fearful yell when he realized his own weapon was being forced back upon himself, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?!". "Hear your death knell, cause the master is coming for you," Dolk answered, his brow furrowing.

The thruster flares behind the Griffin expanded to gigantic, glowing wings of blue fire as he crushed the Gaza-C against the metal panel and forced Joson's own beam saber back into himself. Dolk was speeding away from the wreck having plucked up the data pod on his way when Joson's Gaza exploded behind him.

Stukov pulled up and took a moment to process what, exactly, he was seeing when space ahead of him was illuminated by a chain of fire that seemed to snake after the Gaza-C he was targeting. Once he realized Nick had advanced to "assist" Alpha he surmised that he was witnessing the unofficial unveiling of the new Barzam series. "You are wasting ammo, I think," Stukov grunted neutrally at the display. He knew what the X-2 was capable of, but a show of force like that seemed... unnecessary, no matter how impressive the new Barzam was. Still, it caused Ball to wobble out of his flight path to bug out and avoid the line of 120mm death chasing after him. "This is the end of the line for you," Stukov rumbled, firing twice again as he closed the gap.

[Fritz Ashlyn]

- Gryps 2 Space -

- The Dervish -
- Bridge -

"17 minutes until position shift, sir," Filmore announced. Wade nodded and said, "We've got to be ready to push ahead t--". "Hit! That's a hit!" Jane yelled happily, interrupting the status update. The captain quickly looked from his helmsman to the bridge windows in time to see a shrinking explosion near the Axis ship directly opposing them. "Confirmed hit. Adjusting angle of fire..." the voice of the gunnery commander crackled in the earpiece of Filmore's headset. "That's a confirmed hit, sir," Filmore grinned, turning to the captain's chair. "Keep it up. Maybe we can make our pilots' lives a little easier," Abbey smiled. "Bet you they won't appreciate it. Stealin' a kill and all," Jungst remarked with a hint of a smirk. "It's not a kill yet," Abbey corrected him as he leaned back against his seat. At their range it was a testament to their gunners' skill that they scored a solid hit, and that skill had been honed in a long series of tough battles.

- Team 1 -

The rest of the team confirmed Fritz' new orders as he altered course to intercept the Bindra team that was moving to box in the Nemos from the New Yark. Jacob opened fire at range before Fritz could encourage him to, leaving Fritz nodding in approval. The team seemed to be used to their new mobile suits, as Celeste soon joined in with a few solid rounds from her cannon. "Celeste, Jacob, you two hang back like the last time. Watch each other's backs and pick your shots carefully - there's going to be plenty of friendlies crammed in close," Fritz quickly updated his team as he pushed forward. He saw that several of the newest enemies were firing on one of the Nemos at the rear of the formation, so he lead Michiko in a long, wide turn to their left to come in from 'behind' the New Yark unit to come to House's aid. Still at fairly long range, he fired off an early shot with his clay bazooka at Nikolai's Gaza-C more to get their attention than anything else.

- New Yark Team -

Waclaw had been around the block a few times, and when Djorn made his move to climb and fire at the rear of their formation he mentally put him on the backburner to focus on Pris. After a few tentative moves to gauge how closely she would follow him, he realized she was serious when she dove at him suddenly and began to unload with all her beam weapons. "Watch it, Ramon! He's angry!" Waclaw alerted his wingman as he gave up on lining up a shot to go into a full evasive. Keeping his shield between him and Pris he fell back just the way she intended, getting closer to Hard AE and the other two Nemos. "Damn it!" the ensign grunted as he was buffeted by one of the shots that came close enough to damage his shield; he regained control and took the opportunity to fire up at her from a decent angle before he 'jumped' back into his temporary retreat.

"You have your choice of resistance: hard or hard!" Ramon informed the Bindra pilots as he moved forward to assist Waclaw. He fired a few shots at Djorn to discourage his attack on Ethan. Thibaut had to avoid some of the fire directed at House, and was late moving ahead with Sumitani and Waclaw. "One of the Dervish teams is coming in!" the young man announced as his computer identified the friendly mobile suits approaching them.

- Alfred -

“Paris, Al! Thank God you two are okay. Where is Lt. Emington?" Irene asked causing a bit of panic to rise in Al when he realized he had completely lost track of their CO. "I-I don't know ma'am. I moved ahead to help Paris and..." he answered shamefully, temporarily ignoring the enemy as he looked around for Emington. He heard the connection to Paris' suit open up as she prepared to answer, but she instead asked for assistance. "That is enough! Al cover fire!" she called out as she continued to wrangle two of the Gazas. Al immediately spun back in her direction and began to fire at the Gazas without aiming, and luckily for him it was enough to force them to split away from each other. He hesitated when he saw Paris close in to melee range with one of the Axis suits and had to avoid some crossfire from Irene that scored a hit on the other Gaza.

He looked back to Paris' Nemo just in time to hear her scream as she tumbled from the more experienced pilot's kick to the chest. Her Nemo floundered as it reeled from the strike, leaving it vulnerable as the Gaza closed in to loom over her with its beam saber at the ready. The pilot paused as if he was waiting for her to realize what he was doing, and the monoeye of his suit flashed angrily. He rushed forward to put an end to her and was met by a devastating tackle from Al's Nemo. Their direction was changed completely, carrying them away from Paris as the Axis pilot struggled to untangle himself from the AEUG enemy. "Stay away from her! Is killing all you care about?" he yelled, blinking back tears as he clumsily stabbed at the Gaza's midsection with his beam saber. The Axis pilot tried to parry the blow, but due to the impact and their position in relation to each other he only managed to nick Al's blade before it plunged into the upper chest of his mobile suit.

"I didn't want to!" Al sobbed, apologizing even as he forced the glowing blade deeper into the enemy. Metal gave way as it melted through the suit, destroying internal components and igniting propellant. He struggled to separate himself from the enemy as the Axis suit began to explode, and had to shove against a grasping arm to escape before the MS exploded, sending him into a tumble of his own past Paris.

- Team 3 -

"Hey guys," Terrace said over the team radio channel, "Uh, Teams 1 and 2 seem to be advancing further into the fray. I say we join them and not let them have all the fun!". "I second this!" Wales piped up as he changed weapons and advanced with the rest of the team, "Hey, hows about we aim for one of those big ones?". "I hear you," Wes responded. He had a small problem with his computer upon launch and was tied up with that, but now everything seemed to be functioning properly. He guessed that was to be expected getting a new high performance suit, but he made a mental note to talk to Sager when he got back. "We'll go get 'em, guys. Ignore the ones in front - Fritz and Eddie should have that nice and tied up - let's try out these guys..." he instructed his team as he identified an oncoming squad of Gaza-Cs that had yet to engage the 4th. "Let's roll these guys up and hit their ships," he encouraged, speeding up to get his team into the fight.

[Fritz Ashlyn]

- Gryps 2 -

- The Bindra -
- Bridge -

"Kyaaaaah!"

The young comm operator clung to her post and screamed as the rumble went through the ship and slowly began to die down. Wald had let slip some unfortunate language when the ship was hit by enemy fire, and he had been forced to steady himself on the back of Raquel's chair to keep from being upended and floating away. "Pardon me, Mrs. Reyes," he quickly apologized as he found his feet and moved out of her personal space. He straightened his helmet (now very seriously regretting not changing into his normal suit) and asked, "Damage report? How bad is it?". Vada turned from his console looking a bit whiter than normal and answered slowly as reports began to flow in, "Sir, we took a direct hit to our port mega-particle cannon hatch... there's damage and fire on several decks... casualty reports coming in... minor damage to engines...". "Sir, we should fall back!" one of the other operators said. "No," Pizal responded bluntly.

He tugged on the front of his uniform tunic to keep it straight and neat and took a deep breath. "Hold position. Damage control teams get to work. And don't stop returning fire!" he ordered, raising his voice slightly to get his point across and keep the crew working.

- Julian Meighan -

"I prefer that. If they scatter they swarm us. Clumped together they stay in one spot," Pris responded, contradicting Julian's unsolicited advice. "Who the hell do you think you are?" shot through Meighan's mind, but he held his tongue and allowed himself to drop to the rear of the formation. "Scattered or corralled, whichever you want do it quickly! There are enemy reinforcements here," he spoke up to the team as he watched Team 1 swing around to prop up the Nemos they were attempting to take out. Firing a few shots past his team and the Nemos at Fritz and Michiko, Julian continued to operate near the rear of the Bindra team hoping that his human shields would thin the herd a bit before he was forced to jump fully into combat.

- Joson Team -

Lt. Ball continued to charge Stukov, loudly cursing the whole way as he pushed his Gaza to the limit to avoid the machinegun fire coming from the insane person piloting the newest monster to enter the debris. "Where the hell did you come from?" he barked fruitlessly at Nick, who blew past him in pursuit of Christine. "A machinegun? Trying to run me off with a machinegun? Like hell!" Ball yelled, risking a dangerous full-speed turn away from Stukov to chase Te'Litha. He knew it was probably the dumbest decision of his life to attack the striped mobile suit, but when he had his pick of overpowered death-dealers was either one really the foolish choice? Beam fire came from behind as he fell into pursuit of the tiger Barzam. Stukov got off to a slow start following him because of his quick turn, giving him enough time and room to maneuver around the shots.

Up ahead of Ball and Nick, Christine's hands were shaking as he burned propellant trying to go past his Gaza's maximum acceleration to get away from the Titans. "You aint' goin*bzz* get outta this *Kkt*y way pleasant, Zeke!!" Nick's threat found it's way to him, as if Te'Litha's hatred boosted the signal through the interference. "Oh God... There were only three of them... How did they kill everyone s-so easily?" Christine feverishly muttered under his breath, wincing at the threat. "Hey bootlicker! Try fighting somebody looking to mess up that nice paint job of yours!" Ball demanded Nick's attention, firing shots at the Barzam carefully making sure they weren't angled close enough to come near Christine's fleeing suit.

[wonton bob]

-Team 2-

"Bernie, hit 'em when you've got a g*crrk* we'll take care of *zzzzt*"

Unable to hear the complete transmission, Bernard got the gist of the message but wasn't pleased with losing half his load this quickly. With the levels of Minovsky particles rising it was difficult for his comp to get a lock on any one suit and with friendlies now arriving in the area his judgment had to be precise.

On the monitor enemy suits would be highlighted in red and a 'locked' tone would sound for a few seconds before it disengaged because of a signal loss. Deciding to cut down on possible friendly fire he only armed the B-type's left hip missile launcher and aimed in the middle of the Axis squad.

"Rockets away," he reported as a cluster sped it's way to the recently deployed Bindra team while he broke off in full thrust toward the Bindra itself.



- Delta Team -

Ltjg. Allister Grant

Seeing Grace take the lead he agrees with her idea and goes next up on the catapult. Crouching his Marasai before being expelled into space he alerts the bridge.
"Grant. Launching"

Ltjg.Kyle Roberts

As his team is deploying he continues to work on the sensor link which would probably degrade the deeper the Marasais went away from the Barzam. But if he can give his team any advantage then the hard work was worth it.

Code: Select all

LINK COMPLETE. DELTA MARASAIS CONNECTED. 

- Bindra Team -

Matthew's spine tingled with delight at the notion of being involved in such a large battle, if only he was old enough to have joined his brothers in the One Year war.

Wherever their souls roam..I'll make them proud of me.

The on-board comp instantly points out enemy mobile suits, he reacts without hesitation and fires a pair of shots into the New Yark's squad. An alert on screen of a nearby enemy Dias catches his attention seconds before his sensors detect a cluster of six missiles approaching his squad.

"Incoming!!"

[Inferno]

-Herakles Team-

As the three Hizacks weaved through the debris field, they noted the Axis suits. "Sounds like Axis has seen us." Marco observed. "Advance and engage them."

"We should probably put the emphasis on advance," Orsino snarked, catching a glimpse of Dolk's carnage, "I think right now things are under control."

"Hate to admit it, but he's right, sir." Criss was uncomfortable with engaging the enemy directly, but the very least she could be confident that she was surrounded with two capable veterans.

The Hizacks continued to boost forward to the engagement between the Hamburg's team and the Axis unit. It was Orsino in the front who cleared the debris field first to see the engaging forces. He watched as Al, in his odd Nemo variant struggled to clear his dying enemy. Look at that stupid little regret. Just sickening. The reluctant have no place in war. You die first. Orsino shifted his machine gun to one hand as he drew his beam saber with the other, and charged towards Al at full speed, firing wildly. Let's see if you'll cry over this, coward.

Marco watched as Orsino blasted forward. He's barely even aiming... How the hell did he make it through the war? He took his beam rifle and aimed at a Gaza opening fire. Criss, taking his example, began blasting at Irene. This is my first engagement... Here I come.

[Tangerine]

Irene could do nothing as she saw one suit darted toward Al. She cannot see clearly as Al’s Nemo and the Gaza-C he fought blocked her line of sight. But another two approached and this time there’s no mistaken the enemy’s identity.

“Watch out a group of Hizack dead ahead!” She blurted to the radio as she hurriedly evading shots from Criss while trying to get ahead of Paris.

Titans? Where the hell they come from? Did they side with Axis just now?

Her rapid thought begged for answers.

Damn, that Axis ship has to wait.

“Paris covering fire!” She can’t afford to lose Alfred. If things fail to improve in two minutes she’ll call for retreat and regroup.

[The Green Flame]

OOC:Totally did not forget to post this time!

-Debris Belt-
-Herakles Team-

Trailing slightly behind the rest of his team Alex was momentarily distracted by Dolk's display, at least what he was able to catch of it. Now Alex wasn't the best pilot but he could admit that what Dolk had just done was pretty cool. But now wasn't the time to watch the rather awesome show, they had a job to do. Especially since Orsino was dragging the rest of the team into the fight with the AEUG.

"At least slow down Orsino, last thing I need is you to pick a fight with the wrong machine out here and get us all killed" he chided as he readied the Hizack's machinegun and increased his speed to catch up with the rest of the team who was moving to engage anything that wasn't on their side.

With Orsino jumping a rather distracted long-ranged Nemo and Marco taking on a left over Gaza that appeared to be fleeing the AEUG, Alex opted to help out Criss who was actually having her first battle.

"Hey Marco, make sure a certain someone doesn't bite off more than he can chew. I'm gonna keep watch over Criss" he said as he pointed the Hizack's machine gun at Irene's Nemo, firing off a quick 5 shot burst.

[Attomoku]

Gamma Team

Lt. Te'Litha

"Hey bootli*bzt*-gting some*ksh* up *zk*-ice paint job*sk*"
Nick's malicious grin appeared as he got the gist of the message from the Zeke he had passed. "One at a time.. and cowards first," he muttered while coxing a little more acceleration out of his machine, which proved to be faster than the retreating Gaza.
He acquired a lock on the fleeing pink suit, which wasn't hard considering he had fallen in behind it and had gotten off a half second bust when the first beam from Ball's suit passed dangerously close overhead. He allowed himself another half second on the trigger directed at Christine while still steady, before he executed a hard spin out of his current path to avoid the debris and other incoming beams, but trying to maintain his relative longitudinal axis and keep his lock active, letting the arm pivot like a gyroscope, shooting the entire time, ammo be damned; Mad laughter issuing over the open channel. The young pilot could have been killed in that first half second burst, but it wouldn't have mattered at the moment as Nick's sanity started to give way to pure and seething hatred.
A large piece of debris forced Nick to lose visual of his prey, so flipping "upside down" He presented his suit's full profile to the incoming Lt. Ball and smashed the accelerator to the max, Delicious gee-force's squished Nick back into his linear chair, his vision narrowing as G-LOC set in and he played chicken with both Ball and the asteroid behind him. A beam grazed the [X-2]'s leg, causing the paint to peel, and armor to bubble, but little in actual damage as Nick raised his machine gun and held down the trigger, screaming in challenge while firing head on at the Zeon pilot approaching at high speed.


Delta Team

Ltjg. Kelborn

Grace allowed her teammates catch up near the edge of the shoal zone. Her computer acknowledging the linkup to the 'Extras' longer range sensor data a bit after she cleared the Kirov.