PHASE 3: The Blunder

[Random Zaku Pilot]

-Helga Sick Bay

Hector currently laying down as the ship doctor stitch the wound to close it. "Your very lucky Sanchez that the shrapnel did not go in deep, or you would be facing a fatal wound" said the Doctor attending to the wound.

"Yeah yeah, not my fault ouch must you be so rough? Its my first time be gentle hehe" was Hector nervous habit kicking in as he joked. The doctor was not amused and continued his work.

"Doc would I be able to sortie?" was his question. "Not unless you wish to reopen your wound, I say you shouldn't pilot a mobile suit for at least five days and if you must do not strain yourself, but not today not sit up so I can wrap our wound now" said the Doctor.

"Whatever so I stay here wait till I go durka durka boom boom?" was his question the doctor did not answer.

The Doctor sent a message to Josh about Hector not being to pilot due to his wound. Hector started planing to get out the Sick Bay and back to his suit the minute he gets a chance.

(Prolly makes no snese?)

[ScornMandark]

"Copy, Falcon Lead. On your wing." With that, Stan shifted position in formation. He fired a few shots from his carbine at the group, somewhat erratically to encourage the incoming GuAIZ Rs to back up a little.

"Er, What exactly is the plan here, Lt? Where are the rest of the mobile suit teams?" He checked his tactical readout, seeing several suits from the Turkle still active. He also saw the teams from the General and the Scanlan, which had been largely ignored until now.

_________

James moved further from formation, towards the Mancini. "Ok, going to cover. Falcon 4, coming?" He jabbed a bit at Dalos, hoping to ease the tension.

[Kavik Ryx]

"Um, aye Lt. Russel." Dalos took control of his carbine himself in order to shoot of an enemy leg or something. He forgot to turn off the comlink and started muttering, "Damn these **** Alliance targeting systems. Hasn't anyone ever heard of some sort of autolock or something. If we're this stupid, no wonder we lost the war..."

[SNT1]

Carrah remained silent for a few moments after hearing Michael's words, and in the end she smiled a little bit with an audible "heh."

"Alright, we'll follow the Jeanie units, and we'll cover em," with a more rejuvenated attitude she followed the ZAFT teams, although as soon as she saw an OMNI unit she didn't hesitate to instantly up the pressure, firing shots. (4 very long range beam rifle shots at Stan)

~~~~~~

Mike decides to come in for a quick stop, confirming what he wanted out of the mechanics and engineers. "Don't fix the leg, try to recharge some energy while I get a new shield and rifle, mmmK?"

As per commander's orders, Mike wasn't planning to get back on the offensive, so his unit just needed minimal attention, and that said he was back out very quickly (few minutes? heh)

[ZGMF-X28A Nu-Liberty]

"Roger that, mam," Michael coolly said, noticing Carrah's rejuvenated attitude by her voice. Seeing her push on the attack, Michael decided to follow, and fired a pair of beam rifle shots at the Dagger L's legs.

"Disable, not kill," he quietly said.

(Attacking Stan with a pair of beam rifle shots to the legs)

[ScornMandark]

Stan noted another squad join the ZAFT forces on the field. They immediately started shooting, despite the extremely long range. Stan kicked his thrusters up and dodged a bit, jinking right and left, then up as the two follow up shots came firing through. Distantly, he heard the "HIT" alarm going off, but he didn't feel any impacts so they must have been grazing at best. He was still pretty impressed at how accurate they were from so far off. He was also intrigued at the performance increase these L's had over the old Daggers. The increase was slight, but definitely noticeable.

"Oy, oy, what's with this attention now?" He replied with 2 shots snapped off from his carbine at the suit who fired first, then boosting a bit further from standard wing position. "Falcon Lead, this is 2. More fire incoming, looks like we found the party. Where are the suits from the other squads?" Their position was still between the Turkle and the ZAFT forces, although most of the ZAFT forces are apparently pretty far off still.

((OOC - recieved some grazes on the left shoulder and knee, mostly superficial. 2 still rather long range shots back at Carrah ))


----------------------


James snickered a bit at Dalos' words. "I don't know about you, but my targeting scope works just fine, thanks." With that, he started scanning for suits coming at the Mancini. It looked like most of the suits were gunning for the Turkle; while that meant that they were ok for now, their squadmates were gonna be taking some kinda heavy fire.

[ZGMF-X28A Nu-Liberty]

Seeing that his shots had managed to at least graze the enemy, Michael put his boosters on full power in an attempt to close the gap. Seeing the Dagger L opening fire on Carrah's GuAIZ-R, he snickered as he picked up more speed. Then, he came to a dead stop, deciding that less than twenty-five meters was enough.

Aiming his beam rifle at the Dagger L, Michael fired a pair of shots towards the enemy machine, aiming for the head and legs. Opening a COM channel, Michael said to the pilot in that cold tone of his,

"Haven't you ever heard that you shouldn't tango with a date when they don't want to dance?"

(OOC: Closing the gap, but not by much, I reckon. Firing two shots at Stan's head and legs)

[Wedge14]

-Edgle Glendrin-

Ed was panicking his team leader's suit had seemingly been damaged. The onslaught of panick had taken all his attention. He was oblivious to his surroundings.

"I-I-I Don't know I thought he was with you...Are you alright? Duke!? We need to get you back to the ship...or b-b-better yet take my suit. I can't let you continue with that much damage."


-Erin Bruist-

Erin clenched her teeth. From what she could tell that some of the pilots from those Nelson class ships had engaged the enemy.

"Wheres Mike?" She asked to go unanswered. "We need to do something!" She said sending his dagger towards who she believed was Falcon 2.

[Cardi Doorl]

- Combat Area -
- Team 5 and Team 6 -

The six Jeanie suits split apart as the Turkle an Stan Loonis opened fire. Some of them were immediately perplexed by the apparently arbitrary choice in the OMNI ship's missile tubes and the erratic way it was lashing out. Could it be they had such poor discipline?

The GuAIZ R pilots from Teams 5 and 6 certainly didn't have the answer to that; all they had to worry about was not gett killed while fulfilling their orders. Figuring they'd take advantage of the greater concentration of ZAFT machines in the immediate vicinity (in fact, it appeared only two Daggers so far had brought themselves forth to defend their Nelson-class), the team leaders ordered their men to muscle down enemy mobile suits with numbers.

Team 5's trio zeroed in on Lukas' Dagger, They fanned out, trying to form, as much as they could, a loose semicircle around their target while firing at him with their beam rifles.

Team 6's leader figured he'd cut off Stan from Lukas by having his team advance at Stan through the space between the two EA mobile suits. 6 Lead did just that, with his subordinates following him on either flank. All three squeezed off shots with their beam rifles at Stan, with Lead adding in a sustained stream of head vulcan fire.

- Team 1 -

Duke placed his GuAIZ R's hand on the shoulder of Edgle's. "Don't worry about that, Ed. I'm sure Rob'll catch up. Now just stay close; the guys need us out there."

Then, without addressing Ed's other concerns, Duke powered his thrusters. Due to his altitude, Duke had to angle himself upward in order to advance toward the OMNI fleet. He was arguably closer to the EA forces than were the Helga teams. Nonetheless, Duke figured he'd engage in some harassment and brought his railguns to bear on one of the Drakes (the Mancini) and fired once from each, then disengaged said guns while still advancing to where Teams 5 and 6 were fighting.

[Dark Duel]

Three GuAIZ-R fanned out to attack Lukas.
Swearing under his breath, he blocked two shots with his shield, while moving so that the third passed him by, sailing harmlessly away behind him.

He then counterattacked by sending four beam carbine shots towards the team leader, aiming for the limbs.
"Seems that you Coordinators are too cowardly to fight without an overwhelming numerical advantage. How typical." He broadcast over an open line, his tone sarcastic.

[ScornMandark]

Stan heard the braodcast from the ZAFT suit, then saw it lining up its rifle to take shots and turned his Dagger 90° clockwise. As the shots at where his head and legs used to be missed by scant meters, he boosted "upwards," which sailed him horizontally across from that suit. As he was boosting, he fired his head vulcans to distract the ZAFT suit. He rolled and jacknived his suit so his left side was now facing the ZAFT forces, shield held steady. He now presented about half the target he did before, and mostly behind the shield. Team 6 squeezed in the gap he opened and started firing at him. 2 shots impacted the shield, and only a few bullets impacted his armor before the shield moved in to block those. His shield was getting pretty torn up, it wouldn't take much more to be totally useless. Unfortunately, his right hip was left open, which 6 Lead promptly took advantage of. The shot tore off his hip armor as well as the beam saber stored there. The saber exploded behind him with a flash as he boosted straight upwards, desperately trying to get away. He fired a couple of carbine shots at 6 Lead, then chucked his remaining rocket anchor at him, trying to hit with something. He radioed the Turkle directly.

"Command, this is Falcon 2...We need support! Where the hell are all the suits? We are defending Turkle, currently 8 on 2! Sector 6 Alpha mark 36! Support!!"

----------------------------------------

James saw a damaged GuAIZ R fire off a couple of railgun shots at Mancini. 'Not my ship, you don't...' He boosted to intercept, catching one on his shield and missing the other. Wasting no time, (the Mancini could take a few, he lined up on Duke and fired 2 shots, hoping that the damaged suit would be slowed down somewhat.

"Falcon 4, let's score a few points, mm?" Seeing that Duke was heading towards Falcon Lead and Falcon 2, he decided the best defense was a good offense. "4, you split left and cover Lead. No need to hold back."

With that, he boosted towards the several suits trying to surround Stan, firing a few more shots to split up their formation and draw some attention.

[Destroy Gundam]

ooc: Bear with me, it's hard to get back into a fight after a while. I can edit this if needed.

ic:
While he'd been fighting the whole time, Marcus hadn't been able to achieve much. His GuAIZ's battery still had more than enough juice for him to continue fighting. He checked his sensors to see where he might be able to do the most good. They showed he was close to the three-on-one fight between several GuAIZ R from the Jeanie and one of the Dagger L's. He moved his suit so that it was positioned to the left of the GuAIZ on the right and fired a trio of shots at the Dagger from his beam rifle.

"And you're a fool for trying to take all of us on at the same time, natural. Better a coward than a fool."

[Kavik Ryx]

Dalos started to panic, while things seemed less dangerous than before, a sort of chaos engulfed the battlefield. As his nerves started to tense up, he looked toward his right arm and said to himself, "well at least this time I'm not in much danger. Now seems like as good to try this out."

With that said, Dalos took a knife from his Normal Suit and cut it open at the spot he was looking at. That being done, he picked up some sort of capsule from where he grabbed the knife, placed it on his vein, and pushed it down. A needle shot down forcing Dalos to scream out in excruciating pain. However, right afterwards, his mind became lucid, all tension ceased, and his eyes and hands became extra sensitive. Aiming his carbine at Duke's shoulder he fired what he war sure to be a clear shot, followed by two more at a couple of GuAIZ that were attacking Lukas.

[Sume Gai]

-Near Scanlan-

The Sparrow team has split into two groups of two and the group containing Sparrow 1 and 4 had moved towards the Turkle.

They noticed the many Guaizes attacking the Falcon team and moved to assist.

-Near General-

The Raven team were all spti up forming a rather shifty lookcin square around the General. Those on the Port of the ship happened to be in just the right spot to assist the Falcon team.

-Near general-
-Seconds later-
several shots from Raven 2 were the first ones that blazed through space to assist the Falcon team. Raven 3 soon followed as they approached

Sparrow 1 and 4 were flying close together and arrived last each shooting twice at the lead ZAFT suit before breaking off

"Falcon team this is Sparrow 1 and 4 allow us to assist you" Sparrow 1 said over the com

the Ravens then chipped in "let's send these boys home with a few nasty bruses" was Raven 3's greeting.

Turkle
-bridge-

Harken could tell that the falcon team were the ones engaging the team that had attacked the Turkle,

"Where the hell are own own teams? " he called in anger

(total of ten shots at the ZAFT group attacking the Falcons; four at the leader six at random suits)

[ZGMF-X28A Nu-Liberty]

Immediately performing a barrel roll to avoid the vulcan fire, Michael saw that the Dagger L retreated and was heading towards the Jeanie team. He considered that target a coward, not worth pursuing.

Deciding to attack one of the Drakes that was holding position, Michael activated his rail guns and boosted closer towards the Scanlan. Stopping within fifty meters of the cruiser, Michael aimed his rail guns and beam rifle at the engine blocks.

Firing a full-frontal blast, Michael then activated his thrusters and put some distance between himself and the team guarding the ship. His weapons were still activated preparing for whatever came next.

(Attacking the Scanlan's engines with a beam rifle blast and two rail gun blasts)

[SNT1]

"Oi, Stick to the plan! Don't get too far ahead now!" Mike says, commenting to Erin and the other Daggers out there. "Don't be ashamed to pull back, that's the objective, after all. Lt. Jerzy, disrupt the enemy's rhythm!" He points out the structured formations that ZAFT has.

~~~~~~

Carrah notices the focus on Turkle, both the offensive and defensive aspects. She sees Michael attack Scanlan, Carrah decides to cover and unloads a few railgun ammunition at the enemy ship. "Pull back, let's help Team 5 and 6 while their commanding ship's defenses are still weak."

It wasn't long until someone spotted the two. As soon as Carrah decided to get back to helping Team 5 and Team 6, her comes Mike charging with his Dagger, unloading on Carrah! He had seen the attacks all along, but was too risky to fire at them while still in front of the other ZAFT units. In an unsuspecting angle, he fires five shots. While evading the first three, Carrah's forced to block the last two, knocking her off balance, with some visible smoke.

"Bitch is down!" Mike yells as he turns his attention to Michael, firing five shots at him. But his sensors blared by the third shot, as Carrah, while down, wasn't out, and retaliated quickly with her own beam weapon. Firing three shots, forcing Mike to evade two and block one.

"Oh?" Mike can only say as he wards off the attack.

"Team 3, are you getting back?" Carrah calls the other Helga team, looking for backup.

[Random Zaku Pilot]

-Helga Hanger

Hector unit was moderately repaired getting all the important parts fix and was rearmed and recharged. Its limbs still showing burn marks and shrapnel from attacks.

Hector still in his old suit grabbed his helmet. "You sure you can launch?" asked a mechanic looking at Hector. "Yeah these bandages are mostly for show if I decided to duck out" he said smiling and entering his cockpit.

'Hopefully I wont have much work to do, and these wont reopen' thought Hector looking at the bandage that had a small tinge of starting to form.

"Hector Sanchez GuAiz launching" was Hector as he launched. "Don't worry my beautiful Carrah I am here to give some support, and until Josh comes back out you can order me around" said Hector over the comeline.

HE fires a volley of three well aimed shots from the rifle at the Dagger body, and one one railgun volley towards the head area.

'Well as long as I am on pain killers it wont bother me much hehe' he thought.

(Shooting 3 BR shots and 1 railgun volley at SNT1/mike)

[ZGMF-X28A Nu-Liberty]

Just as he expected, Michael saw five shots coming at him. The plasma beams of a beam carbine. First, he performed a barrel roll to avoid the center shots. Then, he boosted upwards to avoid the downward shots. Finally, Michael performed a side-step to avoid the last shot. It passed by him close enough to leave behind a scorch burn on the right shoulder.

Suddenly laughing out loud on an open COM channel, Michael patched open a link to the enemy Dagger L, and said mockingly to Mike, retaining the cold, emotionless tone,

"You're going to have to do better than that. I've seen Strike Dagger pilots with a better shot than that beam carbine is ever going to offer you."

Then, Michael retaliated with a pair of beam rifle shots toward the Dagger L, accompanied by a shot from each of his railguns a few moments later. If he couldn't hit the pilot, at least he could disrupt his rhythm. Closing the channel to the Dagger L, he opened up another channel to Carrah, saying quietly,

"Carrah, if you need to pull back, please don't hesitate. I can take over and get this guy off you with a taunt or two, maybe add a beam rifle shot across his pretty little head."

(Attacking Mike with two beam rifle shots at him, plus a pair of rail gun shots pretty much heading in the same direction)

[SNT1]

"..."

"Ok. Be careful, your position is risky. Thanks Hector."

Carrah leaves that combat and re-enters the skirmish between the ZAFT forces and Turkle. She thought that she was more need there than to play along with a lone Dagger. She fires again at Stan's unit to further disrupt and demoralize their ranks. (3 hasty long range shots at Stan)

~~~~~~

Again, Mike's shots barely made a nice dent, and another unit enters the fray and immediately fired shots. Jumping around and blocking, he realized that this is the same unit that was in love with him, following him around in the battlefield and getting his butt kicked in the process. When it finally fired the railgun shot, Mike attempts to throw another pair of Stilettos at the guy. One of them gets hit by the railgun, causing an explosion, while the other gets promptly veered of course.

"You're going to have to do better than that. I've seen Strike Dagger pilots with a better shot than that beam carbine is ever going to offer you," was the man's attempt to get in Mike's veins.

"Well, I did have a few beers after all, Murdah-boy," was Mike's reply. It was then that he noticed the other unit was leaving. This gave him an opening.

Mike charges, straight into Michael's unit, with his beam rifle on his right hand, and his arm-mounted shield held up, Firing 4 shots. He floored the gas pedal so that he can quickly increase the range against the other GuAIZ and bring him in melee range with his target.

"You're dodging this?" Mike comments as he fired his shots with decreasing range.

[Gambit01]

-Nakamura Team-

"Back to the Turkle!!!" Nakamura repeated once again, seeing his ship under attack. Sensors warned him of yet another mobile suit group charging in (Duke's) and he grinded his teeth in frustration.

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Turkle: Bridge

"Oh, you have a wonderful poker face, Captain! It's chess you would be horrible at; thankfully you have me here for you," the Admiral winked.

"How far apart are the ships?"

"Almost 900 meters apart, sir!"

"Let me know when it is even!" The Admiral ordered, turning his attention to the somewhat shaken captain, giving orders for the ships defenses to do the mobile suits' jobs for them.

"Oh Captain, that's not how you make them do what you want! Here..."

Walking over to communications, Hiroshi took up a head set.

"Oh, Naka-chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!"

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Nakamura's eyebrow's twitched; his fingers tightened along the controls.

"Don't....call me...."

His foot came down hard on the petal controls.

"NAKA-CHAAAAAAAN!!!!!!!!!"

Nakamura went into an action that one could argue was born of temper tantrum, but was far too skilled to be labeled as such. Nakamura went on a series of erratic maneuvers that left him in front of the Turkle, stopping and starting on a dime to make himself a less-than-easy-target. At the same time, during the brief periods of stopping, he sent several beam bolts in the direction of the Turkle's attackers. Due to his constant stop-and-start, there was no way the shots could be accurate, and were more to scare off than actually hit...all save one.

"Charging blindly at a firing enemy; are you RETARDED?!"

With that, Nakamura full on-stopped and sent three accurate bolts towards Team 1's leader(Duke).

"....die."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"That's how you get results, Captain," Hiroshi said all too smugly.

"Sir! 900 meters even!"

Hiroshi spun to face the helm.

"Order all ships to begin the encircling process!!!"

Floating back over to Captain Harken, Hiroshi confided in him in a low voice.

"Now comes the true gamble; do they interpret this as a retreat, take it as a victory and leave us be, or do they fall into the trap and the bloodshed begins?"