Episode 26 - Operation Maelstrom

[The Green Flame]

Alex had hoped to catch Irene off guard as she was firing on Orsino's rear but was denied when a last second reaction deflected his swing away. It wasn't a complete loss however. Despite failing to hack off the Nemo's arm, Alex did manage to force the pilot to focus on him and stop firing at Orsino.

As the Hizack brought it's arm back for another swing, the Nemo crashed its own shield into the Hizack's sending a shake through the cockpit. Slightly thrown off by the sudden tremor, Alex was met with the image of Irene tossing away her rifle for beam rifle.

"Oh hell" Alex muttered as he brought up the beam saber, just managing to block the weapon before it inserted itself into the Hizack's backpack. Sighing in relief at avoiding a rather unpleasant demise, Alex adjusted his position for a counterattack.

Pushing away from the Nemo with its own shield, the Hizack momentarily disengaged itself from melee combat to gain some distance. Readying the shield, Alex once again charged towards Irene aiming for a shield ram to throw her off balance before making another slash to bisect her in two.

[Tangerine]

Irene was about to launch another strike after her earlier attack was blocked, but Alex outsmart her by pushing her Nemo backward. She saw as the Hizack gained some range before sped up to her along with the beam saber glowing hot.

“Eh that is reckless,” Irene commented as she floored her verniers to push her Nemo further backward. In quick succession she fired her vulcan generously toward Alex. Shield in left ready for deflect and beam saber in right ready for parry.

The whirling sound of bullets being feed at high speed into the machine may not echo in vacuum but she can sensed her cockpit shuddered as the twin Vulcan reached their max rotation speed, firing their 60mm bullets at max velocity. At this range, the vulcan was not something you wish to encounter lightly.

The continuous burst locked into Alex while Irene maintained what little range she has as long as she could.

[mcred23]

-Team 2-

The loner Gaza transformed from its ugly mobile suit mode into its ugly mobile armor mode, the shift causing Sophie's shot and his beams to miss. The machine went into a fast turn and sent a few shots toward them.

"S***..." Eddie muttered, this time without keying his comm, while behidn him, Sophie yelled the same four letter word over the radio as the beams missed. Eddie started drifting slightly to his left, lining up his crosshairs on the weird looking machine, when Sophie popped two shots at it. Eddie shifted his aim to his right, closer to the main enemy unit, waited a heartbeat, and then fired a single shot of his own at Julian.

[mcred23]

-Kalinin Team-

They seemed to be the last team to the debris zone, which Bate didn't really care about. The place didn't seem all that bad of a mini-shoal to him, but with his pilots, it could be a huge problem. They entered at a somewhat open point, just ahead of the thickest part, which at least didn't seem as bad as it looked from distance. The area really wasn't too thick or too large by most standards, but just enough to cause all kinds of problems.

And he could already see enough. In and around the debris, Bate could see flashes. Some were yellow and pink beams, which didn't tell him much, but the somewhat more distinctive, to his trained and skilled eyes, 120mm machine gun fire from Hizacks did. There were other flashes and lights, but Bate couldn't get clear enough views to tell if they were thrusters or beam sabers or what. Kirov had some new models Bate barely knew what they looked like, big blue Super Marasais in his mind, nevermind what weapons they had and how they may look. Already, he knew his plan to stay close wasn't even worth the effort, they'd be seperated in the shoal.

All this brough another scowl to his face as he keyed the comm system again. The other pilots might not get a clear video transmission, but the voice one would go through fairly well for how close they were, hovering as they did just inside the shoal. "Alright, spread out and start moving foward slowly. Be alert for friendly flares and units, and make damn sure you know what the hell you are shooting at when you have to!" Bate put action to his words by tapping his thrusters and bringing his beam rifle up and moving directly ahead.

Behind him, Hicks had been drifting foward, and his shaking hands started moving him to Bate's left. He gave his thrusters a tap, feeling this to be as good a place to begin moving as any. Craig came after him, slightly scared himself but not taking any of this seriously, thinking he could probably scare Hicks with a loud noise or something and the CO wouldn't know. Runnels saw those two idiots moving left and without waiting to see what Sunoue was doing behind her, she started moving towards a point between and slightly below Bate and the two rookies.

[Rob DS Zeta]

-Kalinin Team-
-Arc Sunoue-

"Alright, spread out and start moving foward slowly. Be alert for friendly flares and units, and make damn sure you know what the hell you are shooting at when you have to!"

Arc acknowledged Bate's orders, but took a moment to see what the others were doing. Runnels and the other two rookies went off to one side of the commander, so Arc decided to keep to the other side. He tapped the Marasai's thrusters and moved diagonally upwards of Bate.

As they moved deeper into the debris field, Arc's eyes bounced between the flashing lights in the distance and the various pieces of metal and wire that surrounded him. His eyes were peeled for anything that was not a Hizack or a Marasai.

[Inferno]

-Marco-

"Orsino, you've got one behind you!" Marco could clearly see Irene's shot at his charge, and as much as he dislike the ensign, he still had a duty to cover his wingmates. He finished dodging the panicked shots of one Gaza and put a beam shot right through it. Bullseye. He turned to aid his leader, flying towards Irene letting out multiple shots to get her attention. The Gazas had regrouped, and were on his tail. With any luck, he would lure them out into a chaotic three-way struggle.

-Criss-

Irene's shot caught Criss's Hizack on the shoulder, causing her next shot to fly off wildly. Criss however, did not show any panic, no matter how afraid she was on the inside. Rather, she simply took aim at Irene and let out two more shots to compliment Marco's. However, she took notice of Marco's pursuit. Afraid he might be getting in over his head, she turned her attention to the Gazas, blasting one in the shoulder, sending it careening as the pilot struggled to maintain balance.

-Orsino-

Orsino heard Marco's warning ring in his ears, and shifted enough so that the two shots grazed his head and shoulders, slightly damaging his gun arm. Of course, he didn't really mind. He as having fun idly jousting with his new plaything, watching her panicked, short motions.

As he prepared for yet another go at his toy, he contemplated using whatever frequency that guy with the cooler suit had used to taunt her. But before he could switch over, he noticed the Gaza that Criss had forced off of Marco had been knocked behind him, and a twisted idea began to form in his warped mind.

Rather than attack again, he jetted backward, letting go of his machine gun. With his now free hand, he grasped the Gaza-C by the arm. Before the frightened pilot could respond, Orsino jammed the saber right where he approximated the cockpit would be, and hefted the defunct suit at Paris, hoping that the suit would explode just at the right time.

Orsino used the frequency he heard Dolk speak over. "Hey rookie, let's play a game of catch."

[The Green Flame]

Fast approaching the Nemo, Alex braced himself for the impact between the two machines. Contrary to what he expected however Irene had begun pulling away from him in an attempt to keep just out of his reach "Get back here!"

Pushing the thrusters harder, the Hizack chased after the Nemo to reach melee range again. As the Hizack edged its way closer, the Nemo suddenly opened fire with its vulcans. At this close range he wouldn't last long against those bullets but he was too close to break off now.

"You take some, you give some" he said raising the shield to guard against the initial burst, rounds crashing into the shield and damaging the anti-beam coating applied to it. His efforts to close the distance would soon pay off however. Bashing its own shield into the Nemo's the Hizack managed to knock it off balance, leaving it open for an attack.

Taking his chance Alex swung the Hizack's saber with all its might, the beam slicing into the Nemo's saber arm at the elbow and sending it floating away. At the same time however, Alex had to adjust his shield for a decent attack. The end result was leaving himself open to the still firing vulcans which had begun slamming into the Hizack's frame.

Alarms blaring in the cockpit Alex could see the the camera feed go black in some places due to the rounds sending cameras offline as well as striking an exposed area of the shield arm, damaging the connection and making the arm extremely unresponsive.

Deciding to cut his fight short before he got dragged into the larger battle, Alex suddenly broke off from his opponent and headed back towards the debris belt. Stowing the beam saber, Alex grabbed his discarded machine gun as Marco headed towards him with a group of Gazas in hot pursuit.

"Ahhh I really didn't need to see your new friends Marco"

[wonton bob]

- Bindra Team -

Ens. Matthew Korbel

"Matthew? Matthew! What're you doing?!"

"I can't...I-I can't breathe!"

Gripped in fear Matthew didn't care about using up his propellant as long as he returned back on the Bindra. No thought of comrades or the Axis cause crossed his mind as he fled.
As much talk as he did after his first battle when he felt the taste of success his tough act quickly faded during this sortie. Tears of shame floated from his eyes when he realized that he just didn't have what it takes to be a pilot. Wiping his eyes he wished that he had half the courage his brothers did.

A small blip is faintly detected on his sensors just ahead of the Bindra. Unable to accurately identify it the comp labels the object as a Rick Dias variant.


- Delta Team -

Ltjg.Kyle Roberts

After launching from the Kirov, Kyle quickly joins Grace and Allister who lead the way into the debris field.
"See Anything?"

"Lets see.." he responds while boosting up his senors for another look-see. The powerful sensor at maximum range causes a slight fluctuation in the Barzam x-3's power level.

a little flaw in the design? -he smiles to himself.

Instantly a map of the surrounding area up to a portion outside the debris field itself is overlapped on the monitor pinpointing all mobile suit positions which then is transmitted to both Marasais.


- Gamma Team -

Ltjg.Jason Drossel

"Eh?"

Jason is a bit surprised by Aaron's move with the personal comm link and more surprised by what he had to say. Still he couldn't tell him what he really had planned but was in minor agreement on one goal. He would need help surviving till the time was right.

"Fine. I lost all hope for this war a month ago anyway," he confided.

The only thing that was keeping him going was Grace now. For now he would have to trust Aaron but all bets are off if he turns out to be one of Ritter's buddies.

[Tangerine]

((I take it that Criss was firing twice at Irene to complement Alex, not Marco))

Two shots were aimed at her making it hard for Irene to concentrate on Alex alone. There is no terrifying sound involved when the first shot passed a couple of meters to her left. But the second one was quite accurate, forcing Irene to reach for her shield. At an odd angle it blasted the lower part of her shield that was already weakened by Alex’s saber.

Dull clanging sound was heard on the cockpit as some debris thundered to her Nemo. Not much damage was done but how she was shocked when another thing crashed at her shield. It was the same Hizack she fought earlier.

Irene tried something but Alex did a good work, knocking her off balance. “Why you?” opting for the vulcan she fired at point blank range. Just at the vulcan landed hits on the Hizack, a powerful blow cut through the Nemo’s right elbow. Gasped for that error she tried to avoid locking up and was about to slam the Hizack with her shield but Alex already disengaged. Leaving Irene bewildered while warning lights blinking rapidly asking for attention.

It occurred to Irene that the vulcan must did enough damage. “Know when and where to strike and to retreat,” she laughed albeit weakly as she pushed her thrusters forward, grabbed the rifle and turning back to Al and Paris. She would rather have the Titans and the Axis fought each other, than her fighting both of them. With the beam rifle secured in Nemo’s left hand she quickly aimed at Criss, the closest to Irene and fired twice, hoping to deter that Titans from pursuing. Relieving some pressure off Al and Paris is now a priority as she witnessed from afar Orsino doing some damage to her team.

[blind_dead_mcjones]

after narrowly avoiding another pair of beam shots for the umpteenth time, one of wales' return shots finally made their mark on the half a Gaza-C that was attacking, the axis suit going up in an impressive explosion, about then wales realised just how far forward he was, cursing his impetiousness he fell back to where terrace was positioned, firing a few shots on the way to discourage anyone from persuing.

[Soma Taozi]

The Hizack slashed down at Paris’s Nemo, the surprise and speed of the move caught Paris completely off guard and forced her to backpedal and frantically bring both her sabers up to block the furious slash. Although she didn’t get her right arm saber up in time, Paris managed to catch the blade on her left saber, blocking the blow. This guy just doesn’t quit! Who the hell is he?! Paris thought desperately as she swung her unblocked right saber in to slice her enemy in half, but the Titian pilot was already moving. Ducking her clumsy swing by pulling down and to the left, the Titan charging back at her with reckless abandon, but the speed of the move was enough for Paris to scramble to get both her sabers up to deflect the slash. The Nemo rumbled from the force of the blow as the Titian and AEUG mobile suit glowered at each other from across their blades.

The Hizack suddenly stopped its forward momentum, pulled back, brought its saber up, and came back down at Paris with a harder swing then before. Paris started to feel something cold grab her heart. She couldn’t stop him! She was constantly on the defensive! Paris bit her lip and tried to ignore the feeling of panic and her slightly shaking hands. The Hizack backed away again and was about to charge…only to be stopped by a barrage of beams that the pilot barely evaded. Several scaring the mobile suits body.

Paris blinked in surprise and then, realizing that she had an opportunity, charged towards the Hizack and brought both sabers down in a X-swing. But the Hizack suddenly boosted away from her, dropping its machine gun. Still on the attack, Paris’ beam sabers cut the rifle in into three pieces. The ammo inside detonated as the super-heated beams ignited the remaining rounds. Paris clenched her jaw to prevent herself from biting her mouth again as the explosion knocked her back.

Cursing her stupidity, Paris looked up at the Hizack expecting it to be right on top of her…but instead she witnessed the Hizack plunging its saber into a nearby Gaza-C’s chest. “What-?”

"Hey rookie, let's play a game of catch." The voice of the Hizacks pilot came through Paris’ comm channel. The voice was cold, calculated, and it had an edge of barely contained mirth. Paris realized with a start that the pilot was actually enjoying the battle! That he liked the killing! That he enjoyed the destruction around him!

Paris gritted her teeth; he was insane…if only he had just targeted the Axis forces! She would have been fine with-

Paris gasped as the Hizack literally threw the Gaza-C right at her! Acting on reflex, Paris fired her Head Vulcan’s at the sparking mobile suits, blasting an arm off as her cannons found a joint, but the mobile suit continued on at her. Paris was about to pull down and away from the Gaza when she saw something that made her freeze.

The pilot.

A figure could be seen forcing the Gaza-C’s hatch open and climbing out frantically. Clearly the saber had come close enough to the cockpit to fused all other forms of ejection together forcing the pilot to actually jump out. Paris’ Nemo managed to get a close up on the pilot’s face –a young woman with wide eyes–when the Gaza-C exploded. It’s nuclear engine blasting apart. Paris screamed as the large shock wave struck her Nemo, burning away armor, fusing joints together, and slamming Paris into her main control panel.

Paris let out a cry of pain as her helmet connected with the main monitor, breaking the screen’s glass. Paris moaned in agony as her vision became hazy and she could feel a bloody wound on her forehead.

In a daze, Paris reached up to her head and dimly realized that a majority of helmet’s glass was busted and cracked. Fortunately, the AEUG had built both her helmet and the panel screen like a car’s windshield. Meaning that it would crack, but it would shatter. Having broken glass inside a zero gravity cockpit would not improve the pilot’s life expectancy.

With slow movements Paris managed to pry her helmet off. Blood was starting to get in her eyes, when suddenly; Paris’ out of control Nemo hit a large piece of debris. Stopping the AEUG mobile suit, but snapping Paris’ head back and against her seat. Letting out a cry of pain, Paris muscles screamed against the sudden whiplash.

Paris felt the suddenly blackness of unconscious close around her…

[Fritz Ashlyn]

- Near Gryps 2 -

- Alpha Team -

Stukov was still muttering unpleasant things under his breath as he flew closer to the edge of the debris zone. Dolk had charged ahead of him with no regard for orders or common sense. Heyden was perhaps mercifully nowhere to be seen, but nonetheless was another irritating element of his growing headache. The only solace he found was the knowledge that he didn't have to worry about his subordinates' capability to protect themselves. At the moment he'd prefer a couple of aspirin and a handful of antacids, or maybe a quiet room and a bottle of good vodka. "Foolish," he grumbled as he surveyed the part of the battle going on closest to him, "Wasting energy on a fight that is not ours,". The Griffin's sensors were strong enough to identify the friendly Hizack team, several Nemos and a hapless pair of Gaza-Cs in addition to Lt. Dolk.

Interestingly, the AEUG mobile suit closest to him seemed to be nearly stationary... Thinking it was possibly one of the enemy's newer long-range support units, Stukov advanced out of the garbage field at half acceleration. "Pay more attention to your flanks, AEUG," he admonished his opponent as he raised the heavy beam rifle and fired twice at long range.

Back in the debris, Pan lazily wove through the wreckage of Joson's Gaza as he trailed behind his wingmen. With his helmet's visor raised, he took his hands off the controls long enough to light a cigarette and used the pedals to keep his suit steady along its slow course. Nick was still screwing around nearby, but for the most part things has quieted down as the Eye-Zacks lit out. "Buncha crazy bastards," he muttered, taking a long drag on his smoke as he watched the streaks of MG fire shooting off into space from Te'Litha's new toy. After thinking better of getting too close to Nick, Heyden adjusted his course to take him after Stukov and Dolk. Cleaning up whatever they left in their wake should be easy enough, and taking his sweet time getting there might let him get a look at Ritter and his flunkies.

Ahead of the Pan and the Russian, Dolk surveyed the smorgasbord of prey arrayed before him. The trio of Nemos struggling with the Hizack team from the Herakles were his primary focus, and he noticed a pair of them close together, one of them an artillery type. "I keep peace with my law-giver. Judge, jury and executioner!" Dolk called out to Al as he charged. He had a full lock on the Nemo Cannon but held his fire as he watched the AEUG pilot try to back away and avoid what he had coming to him. With a chuckle at Al's clumsy evasive Dolk tossed aside the data pod he still carried, freeing up his mobile suit's left hand again...

- Beta Team -

"Look at him. No restraint," Wolf growled as he watched Nick's pursuit of Lt. Ball. Wild 120mm fire continued to spray into space around them as Beta crept closer. His computer was struggling to isolate the Gaza because of the interference and debris, but Nick stood out quite clearly. Ritter feathered his verniers to 'hop' a hunk of metal and reached over to flip on the firing controls of his shoulder missile tubes. "Hold your fire. I want to see how long he wastes his time on this one," Wolf said to his wingmen. It would be a shame if he carelessly fired a handful of missiles in Te'Litha's direction. With the confusion of combat and the condition the battlefield was in, who knew where they would end up? A happy accident wouldn't give him the satisfaction he was looking for, however. His personal victory over Te'Litha would have to wait a little longer.

- Ahead of the Kirov -

The two remaining Eye-Zacks followed the Buxoro team, both recon units still clutching their small 90mm machine guns despite the huge friendly presence in the area. "Thank God you guys came looking for us. We stayed out there way too long and paid the price..." one of them thanked Lt. Robin on the Echo fleet channel. "The lieutenant didn't make it. I found one of his pods but the other three are still out there somewhere," the other added.

[Fritz Ashlyn]

- Gryps 2 Space -

- The Dervish -
- Bridge -

"He saw what?" Abbey asked incredulously, leaning forward in his command chair as if he didn't hear Loweno the first time. "Yes, sir. We haven't confirmed it yet beyond Ens. Izuruha's observation, but our team is reporting they're being engaged by at least one stick of Hizacks," Capt. Loweno nodded solemnly, admirably keeping his excitement in check. "Damn it, André... That's the only contact with them so far? It may be some kind of long range patrol... We can't spare any mobile suits to go hunting for any ships they might have in the area, either," Abbey muttered, crossing his arms. He shook his head after a moment of thought and ordered, "I can't tell you to ignore them if they're inserting themselves into the operation. But if you can, I want you to figure out what in the hell is going on at that debris field. I was told it was cleared and unused by Axis forces before we arrived,".

"Understood, sir. We'll continue the operation, but leave this little problem to the Hamburg," Loweno nodded. Abbey frowned slightly and responded, "Let's hope it stays a little problem. Carry on, captain,". As Loweno smiled and saluted and the slightly fuzzy channel closed, Abbey turned to Jane and ordered, "Get me a connection to the Argama. Use the communications laser if you have to,". "Aye, sir," she nodded, going to work to punch a hole through the rising interference around Gryps that clouded the area between the 4th and the AEUG flagship. "Hold set course. We'll advance on time, Titans or no," Capt. Abbey said, turning to Wade. "Sir, I've got the Argama - sound only," Jane interjected, calling for the captain's attention. "Good enough. Thank you," Abbey nodded, floating to her station to pick up the headset. "Argama, this is Capt. Abbey from the Dervish. I've got good news and bad news,".

- The Hamburg -
- Bridge -

"Keep trying to contact Lt. Emington and the rest of the team," Capt. Loweno ordered. He fiddled with the helmet of his normal suit as he moved closer to the bridge windows, removing it for a short while to get a look at the action through a pair of binoculars carried by Lt. Stalvern. "Get us ready to move ahead of the fleet - I want to go closer to that shoal area," Loweno muttered to his XO as he swept the field glasses across the fighting ahead of them. "Sir, are you sure that's prudent?" John asked delicately, already knowing what the captain's answer would be. "You heard him, John. We can't spare mobile suits to wander around out there right now. I want us to get a little closer to see if we can provoke a reaction," Loweno answered as he reattached his helmet, "Besides, we'll be close enough to recall our Nemos if we get in trouble,". "If we hold out that long," Stalvern added, taking back the binoculars.

"If we hold out?" Loweno said, raising an eyebrow, "Lieutenant, if I order it, this ship had better fly right up to the Axis flagship and win the ensuing shoving match,". Stalvern nodded with a faint smile, "Of course, sir,". The captain pointed at the edge of the garbage field and said, "Take us ahead of the line, around that area. All gunnery teams stand by to redirect fire,".

- Team 1 -

Fritz, who, as a veteran, was used to adapting to rapidly changing combat conditions without over thinking, simply changed his focus when he realized Matthew was breaking away from the fight instead of starting a long repositioning maneuver. His computer chirped for his attention, signifying with angry red arrows that enemies were attempting to set up an attack from the side in one of his blind spots. "Michiko, on our right!" he warned, hitting his thrusters to shoot himself upwards in an attempt to avoid whatever was headed their way. "I see it--" she responded, snap-rolling her Rick Dias in anticipation of Nikolai's return fire. The effect of the combined attack by Nikolai and Pris was enough to box her in for a brief moment, and she was forced to rapidly decelerate and twist her suit into a climb after Fritz to avoid serious damage. "Damn!" she grunted as one of the beams clipped her left binder, forcing her to eject it to allow it to safely explode.

"Michi, are you okay?" Fritz asked, turning his climb into a shallow dive at Nikolai. "I'll make it," she answered, still sounding irritated. Only part of that could be explained away by their current circumstances. Instead of pressing her further Fritz focused on Nikolai as he gave ground, counting on the other teams to fill in the gap as they advanced. He fired another pair of beam pistol shots at Tuzenbach as Michiko split her attention to fire a scatter round at Pris to deter her direct pursuit.

- Team 3 -

Allowing the rest of his new team room to work for the time being, Wes stayed honed in on his initial attacker instead of turning to break up the formation of Gaza-Cs. They traded fire again, both of them seeming to have the same idea as they let their wingmen move away from their personal dogfight. Curren used the verniers on his suit's back to put himself into a near-prone position as he advanced on the Axis pilot, who in turn transformed into MA mode to goad him into a chase as a test of maneuverability. "I'm not in the mood," Wes muttered, turning out of his charge and slowing down to take a moment to line up a shot. He fired his bazooka, leading the transformable suit as it accelerated into a turn to come back at him. The explosive round went off near his opponent, buffeting him and slowing him down enough for Wes to take a gamble, stand his ground and line up a second shot. The second rocket slammed into the Gaza-C, blowing it apart as the Axis pilot's shot streamed past the head of Wes' Rick Dias, filling the cockpit with blinding light. By the time he blinked it away his enemy was floating wreckage. "It's 4-on-4 now, guys. Keep it up!" he encouraged his team.

- New Yark Team -

Hard AE and Thibaut were forced to slow down even though it was two on one against Pris because of the speed of her attack and the volume of fire she put out. "Ramon, watch out!" Chareux blurted as his shield deflected a minor hit. He moved away from his CO, keeping his shield between him and the enemy. Hard AE moved with him, intending to keep presenting a tougher defensive formation even with only two pilots, but more beam fire caused Thibaut to panic and throw himself into another evasive. This time he tried to go left again but Sumitani was already close to him, and the two very nearly ran into each other. Lt. Sumitani's reflexes were fast enough to avoid a hard collision but they did bump into each other, causing Hard AE a moment of difficulty as the fire continued to pour in - as he recovered from the contact one of Pris' beams collided with his shield at a bad angle, partially deflecting it into his own Nemo's left arm. There was a tiny explosion above the joint where it burned across the limb, and the shield seemed to droop a bit.

"Sorry, sir," Thibaut apologized as they recovered while Pris moved on to attack Team 1. "Hey~," Ramon shook his head, "It's okay. Moving and shooting, hoo~!". He boosted away, leading the young pilot back into the fight.

- Hamburg Team -

Lt. Emington cursed under his breath for the umpteenth time as he struggled to get his computer to cooperate. After launching from the ship he had gotten underway just fine, but between the Hamburg and the battlefield some tiny piece of debris had struck his Nemo's torso. It played havoc with his electronics and forced him to stay out of the battle as he struggled to get his targeting computer and sensors to function properly for more than 10 seconds at a stretch. He was just about to contact his team and move forward when he radio picked up an incoming signal. "Pay more*zzz*ttention to your flank*zk*, AEUG," a voice boomed at him through the void, and he looked up from his control panels in time to see the flash of Stukov's first shots. Scrambling to take control of his free floating suit, Randy slammed his feet on the pedals and jerked the controls, sending him into a wild full-acceleration spiral.

The initial shots missed and he tried to get his bearings. "Wait a minute," he muttered, realizing he was being fired upon by a blue mobile suit he didn't recognize, "That looks like...". He fired a shot back at the Griffin and began to move again, but he felt a coldness form in the pit of his stomach when his targeting computer suddenly turned itself off again. The Nemo's right arm continued to hold its rifle, but the firing brackets disappeared from his monitor and the enemy was now only being tracked as an object. "Not now!" he yelled, slamming a fist into the controls at his armrest. The system flickered and turned itself back on as Stukov charged him and then suddenly went into a high-G lateral movement that made Randy's bones ache just watching it. He was rendered flat footed, spinning in place more than moving forward as he tried to track the Griffin. As he fired another pair of shots the Russian threw himself forward again, in effect sidestepping the beams by advancing closer. The last thing Lt. Emington saw was the long spikes on the Griffin's shoulder rocketing right at his monitors...

Back in the main tangle, Al was forced to backpedal as he watched the sinister blue suit pick HIM out of the bunch. He watched it close in with a single-minded intensity and saw the data pod flip out of the left hand as it rushed him. "I... I NEED HELP HERE!" he yelled, fearing for his life now more than he ever had since joining the AEUG even though the blue suit had yet to directly do anything to him. In a panic he tried to target it with his shoulder cannon, the big weapon lowering to a horizontal angle to point at the Griffin as he also raised his rifle. Dolk was on him so fast, however, that the Titan simply slapped away his rifle as it went off, missing the Griffin completely. The Titan used his free hand to grab the barrel of the shoulder cannon, the sheer power of the Griffin allowing him to push the Nemo at an angle so that the shoulder-mounted weapon also missed high. Dolk's music pumped into Al's cockpit through the physical connection as the Griffin's left hand began to squeeze, warping the cannon barrel and bending it to a slightly acute angle, rendering it totally useless.

"They'll be saying their prayers when the moment comes. There'll be penance to pay when it's judgment day," Dolk's voice crackled through the connection. "W-what? Get off of me!" Al responded, struggling to get his Nemo to wrench it's arm into a firing position. He tried to bash his shield against the Griffin, but the Titan's right arm prevented that movement as he slid his beam rifle up against the Nemo's body. The rifle looked massive in such close proximity, and Al yelled as fear gripped him. His trembling hands switched the secondary weapon controls to the Nemo's vulcans but Dolk adjusted the rifle, smashing it against the Nemo's face. The rifle fired before he could trigger the vulcans, causing Al to reflexively yell in terror again as most of his monitors immediately cut to static. Secondary cameras rapidly began to fill in the gaps, and he found himself still firmly in the grasp of Lt. Dolk. "Do you wanna die?" Dolk yelled back, laughing at Al's fear.

[Fritz Ashlyn]

"Chief Reyes, prepare to fall back into formation and do so as soon as you're ready. Take it easy on the engines... I still don't have a full damage report from the hit we took," Capt. Wald ordered after watching his team struggle to hold back the AEUG for another couple of minutes. His team, as far as he knew, was in the best shape after the initial attack. That made him a bit more willing to back off and leave them to fight without as much direct support, but he hoped the reinforcements M'Quve mentioned would arrive quickly. "Sir, the observers are saying we've got a Gaza headed back," Vada reported. Pizal nodded grimly and turned to one of the other bridge operators to order, "Make sure the hangar is prepared to receive him. Make field repairs if viable and get him back out there ASAP,". "Yes, captain," the operator nodded, turning to relay the message to the hangar crew.

- Joson Team -

Nick's merciful ceasefire turned out to be more of a blessing than Ball anticipated, as the beam saber-backed shoulder charge gave him an idea with a short window in which to attempt it. Flipping upside down himself the lieutenant cut in the direction of a largeish piece of debris "below" them, putting his suit along the path of the melee attack. Adjusting his MA mode's claws to trail behind him, he deliberately hit full vernier power on one side and threw himself into the shoulder charge at an angle he hoped he had eyeballed correctly... The shield on the Barzam's bulky shoulder connected first, roughly changing his angle of travel as the beam saber bit into one of the trailing claws. The limb melted at the joint and spun away, but the collision was hard enough that it served to bounce him around the debris. Still holding his breath, he hit full vernier in the opposite direction to overcompensate for the turn and the rough bump, causing him to rotate back into (nearly) his original direction of travel. With a bit more of a gap between him and Nick (and one less limb), he kept his feet on the floor at top speed as he headed for the edge of the debris.

- Julian Meighan -

"Stop targeting me you idiots! I'll show you who I am!" Julian growled as beam fire crept closer to him from both Sophie and Eddie. He finally decided to move out of his protected position behind the team, boosting in the direction of Coggs' variant Rick Dias and raising his knuckle buster. Dipping below and around the beams, he allowed his targeting computer to do most of the work lining up a shot at Sophie. He was about to fire when Matthew crossed his firing path, forcing him to slow down and hold his fire. "Idiot! Watch where you're going!" he yelled at Korbel as he tried to find Sophie on his monitors again.

- LtCmdr. Graden -

“Kenneth—mh—sir... I don’t believe we’re ready to do this on their own,” Graden heard Pris informally report on the team's situation. They hadn't been immediately overwhelmed, which he knew was surely the fate of other green units in the Axis fleet getting their first taste of combat elsewhere around Gryps 2; in fact they seemed to stiffen up a bit as they resisted the AEUG's initial push, which made him a little proud even though outwardly he maintained his practiced scowl. He continued to listen to the chatter coming from his team as he avoided the tube missiles provided courtesy of Bernard. As they exploded behind him, he heard something faint come from Matthew as the young pilot suddenly changed direction. "Matthew? Matthew! What're you doing?!" Pris called out to him, confirming Graden's fears. "I can't...I-I can't breathe!" Matthew sputtered as he continued his retreat towards the Bindra.

"Listen to me," the CO said, snapping his Gaza-C into a turn to pursue him, "I want you to slow down, open the visor of your helmet and take a deep breath,". His voice was still firm - it was clear he was not so much asking as telling - but there was something about the way he spoke that made it sound like he was speaking from experience. "Do it, Korbel."

[The Loser Villain]

- Buxoro - Team

"Roger that, we'll escort ya back, All right gents, back the way we came."

"Since when are we *sk*abysitters Boss?" Tyler asked a little disgruntled, as they swung around and into escort positions back towards the fleet.

"When it keeps us alive and and out of the way of a major offensive where our enemies are killing each other for us."

"... Touché."

"This is bogus!" Tim yelled as he swung around to follow the team.

"Thank God you guys came looking for us. We stayed out there way too long and paid the price..." said one of the Eye-Zack pilots

"The lieutenant didn't make it. I found one of his pods but the other three are still out there somewhere." the other pilot added.

"Sir, shouldn't we go and retrieve those pods?" he asked Elijah, "I think these guys are in safe enough distance to the fleet and the pods are very important."

- Gamma Team -

"Eh? Fine. I lost all hope for this war a month ago anyway," Jason responded to Aaron's offer.

"Okay then," he knew that full trust wasn't going to be achieved via a conversation in the middle of an operation, or at all, but for now he'd take this.

He released the Barzam's grip on Jason's Marasai as Hepburn neared. "Alright, now that we're all here, we should head into the debris field and see what assistance we can provide."

With that he adjusted the course his Barzam was on and headed towards the light show being put on by the Herakles team and company.

- Team 2 -

The Gaza-C that Eddie and Sophie had been targeting suddenly flew "below" them causing her to lose sight of the Axis mobile suit for a moment. When she finally caught sight of it, by all rights she should have been dead.

But another Gaza-C crossed between them and had stopped Julian from shooting.

"Not going to let this opportunity go," she quickly maneuvered out of his firing line and targeted the pink monstrosity with her own beam rifle. The tone signaled a lock on and she fired twice.

- Team 3 -

"It's 4-on-4 now, guys. Keep it up!"

Terrace was happy to hear that. The team was working together and had already evened the playing field. It seemed the Axis were so green that even with his limited combat experience fighting them wasn't hard. Of course, if he got lazy and let his guard down one of them could get lucky.

The Gaza-C he'd tried to down had avoided the Clay Bazooka round, but wasn't pressing a counter attack. Terrace took aim again, this time setting the rocket to a scatter round and fired. This took the Axis pilot by surprise and the Gaza-C took a thrashing.

With the enemy already damaged, he didn't want to waste another clay Bazooka round and instead grabbed a bean pistol from his back rack and fired again. The beam struck the Gaza-C square in the chest and it erupted, sending debris in different directions.

"Make that 4- on -3!" he yelled with a whoop.

- Bindra Team -

"This is just getting out of control," Nikolai said beginning to panic. No matter what he tried the AEUG pilots seemed to dance around his fire. And with Fritz now bearing down on him again he wasn't sure what to do.

It wasn't until the beam fire came at him the he even thought to evade. But even then one shot lanced through the Gaze-C's left shoulder, take the limb clean off.

"Ahhh! A little help hear!!!" he yelled in desperation as he tired to get away from Fritz's Rick Dias. Not knowing what to do he began to fire wildly at the AEUG pilot, hoping to at least keep him away till help go there.

[blind_dead_mcjones]

"It's 4-on-4 now, guys. Keep it up!" Wes encouraged over the channel, "Make that 4-on-3!" terrace yelled with a whoop.

lets see if i can go for two wales thought as he lined up another gaza in his sights, as if they were anticipating this the other two grouped together and opened fire, forcing him to break away from next to terrace, before he could figure out what to do next a giant twin lance of energy ame out of nowhere, obliterating one of the assaulting gaza-C's, the other breaking away to evade as it was peppered with bits of molten slag.

looking to see where the shot came from wales saw trask's kanone dias behind them, barrels smoking, without a word it fired another twin shot downrange, not hitting anything but forcing the remaining axis pilots to break off their attack.

"trask just made it 4-on-2 in our favour" wales announced.

[Xvlai]

- Debris Field –
- Beta Team –

Feathering his thrusters Sven avoided the same piece of debris as Wolf by dipping ‘under’ it before falling into formation again. Not that Beta Team was maintaining by any idea the strict sense of formation as the debris field made it nearly impossible to do just that. It wasn’t hard to understand what Wolf was referring to when his message crackled over the intercom. The steady stream of fire was a light show that just about anyone could see in the debris field, what’s more it was rapidly approaching. Checking his weapon systems one last time Sven skirted more debris before joining up with his team.

By this time Sven felt sharp, not only did he feel sharp but he felt cold, not physically cold but emotionally. It was killing time and he was ready. He actually ached in part to get into combat it had been so long and for the first time since the murder he felt like he could think clearly without a bloodstained corpse lying in his mind. Cocking his bazooka Sven brought the Barzam around to a position over Wolf’s but still trailing partially. It seemed Wolf was intent on seeing Nick and his madness, Sven could frankly care less at this point. Te’litha had a way of slipping into insanity, not that he was sane normally, during combat and hopefully their appearance would provoke some fight and they could dispatch him as easily as Applegate. Sven’s Barzam visibly flicked a little to the side before correcting its position. There it was again and things had been going so well. Applegate had managed to creep up on him, well, just like Wolf and Sven had on Applegate.

Less to break the silence than to try and break his train of thought Sven spoke for the first time on their short voyage. “Can’t say I care which pawns we fight, but it will feel good to mettle with those Zekes, it’s been too long, and someone has to remind the spacenoids humanity didn’t develop in cylinders.”

[King Monkey]

- Team 1 -

The Axis team that was facing down the Rick Diases from the Dervish were doing much better than they had any right to. They should have been obliterated by now, leaving a clear path to their mothership and to the AEUG's true target, the colony laser behind them. But then, Jacob was learning some of the vagaries of war and one of them was that things never went as expected and seldom followed any logic he could see.

Things were getting far too mixed up for him to blast indiscriminately into the mix. But he could still make his enemies think twice about attacking his teammates. Continuing to drift forward, the got a bit closer to Fritz, Michiko and the enemy suits. Nikolai was far too close for him to get a safe shot, but Pris' Gaza was a prime target.

Making a couple adjustments in a split second, he barely gave his suit time to tell him he had a lock before sending a pair of beams from his shoulder cannons at her Mobile Suit.

Even as he did so, something tickled his awareness. It was just a flicker in one of his side monitors. A flash of blue that was easily dismissed but which made him feel uneasy, nonetheless.

- Bindra Team -

Djorn laughed as Sumitani and Thibaut bumped into each other. "Stupid AEUG pilots are tripping over themselves. But what can you expect from dirt lovers?"

He was too far away to take advantage of their predicament as he followed in Pris' wake. In fact, he turned to boost after her, coming in hot on her tail as he charged toward the bulky forms of Team 1's Rick Diases.

The Minovsky Interference left Nikolai's message to be nothing more than "*sksh*A little help*sksh." But he was happy to help.

Firing his verniers, he threw himself to the side, changing the angle of his approach so that Fritz was in his line of targeting and Tuzenbach's Suit was only sort of in his way.

It was good enough and Djorn fired, sending a hail of knucklebuster shots at the Commander of Team 1.

[Inferno]

-Marco & Criss-

"Nothing to worry about, sir," Marco stated as he brought his Hizack up and around the final Gaza, putting a clean beam shot through it before it could even turn around. "I doubt even Char Aznble could make a suit dance like I can."

"Well, maybe you could make it dance over here!" Criss yelled as Irene's beam shot struck her Hizack in the knee, almost tearing the limb off. Criss was beginning to panic, and it showed. Rather than let out a single, precise shot, she let out a succession of shots at Irene.

But that wasn't the only reason she was stressed. She could see what Orsino did to the Gaza she winged. She even heard his cruel taunt. But what really made her panic as noticing the pilot of the Gaza stumble out, only to be blown into pieces by the explosion of the Gaza. I did that. I blew that poor person away. I knew I was going to have to kill people, but never in such a brutal way. That wasn't war, it was homicide.

As if noticing how stressed Criss was, Marco addressed her as he turned to her. "Calm down and don't fire so fast. We have one berzerker on this team, and he's enough of a headache as it is." He moved to support Criss by flying rapidly at Irene's flank to get her attention. Criss meanwhile, boosted back to the debris field, making a far more careful shot at Irene to cover her escape.

-Orsino-

When Orsino saw the Gaza's pilot stumble out, he didn't recoil in horror. He laughed. He threw back his head and let out a malicious howl at the misfortune of the poor girl caught in the blast.

Still chuckling, he took a look at the Nemo he was fighting. Heheh, not much left... Guess I just improvised a new tactic. Maybe write a book on it. I wonder how much I could sell? At least I should share it with my squadmates. Oh, and I should thank the new girl for the opportunity. Maybe apologize for calling her a coward. Hm, I wonder if the pilot's still alive.... He flew closer to the Nemo, keeping his beam saber trained on the cockpit.

Orsino opened up the open channel. (OOC: Yeah, I can't write good radio static. Just put in there while you're reading it) "I gotta be brief, or another one of your idiot friends will take another shot at me. Anyway, I'm letting you live because you let me have a lot of fun with you. So I figure that you should put up a good fight a bit later when you feel better. So, uh, get well soon, and when you do..." He used his free hand to grab the Nemo's head and twist it to look at the Ouroboros on his shoulder.

"...You'll know how to find me. Now go run home to mommy and daddy and come back when you're ready." He pushed the Nemo in the general direction of the Hamburg, and jetted away. He turned to see Dolk and Al tussling. Guess I'll sit back and take a breather to watch, he thought as he jetted closer to the melee.

[Tangerine]

“Paris.. Paris, Answer me! If you are still able to fight, help me on my approach! We got to save Al!”

WHAM . . . WHAM WHAM . .

As if time paused for her to react as she evaded Criss’ long range shots with few difficulties, changing her flight course only at the slightest. In turn, preserving her only advantage of speed against her enemies.

Without her realizing her breathing becomes steady, almost rhymed peacefully. Unalarmed by the warning sign, “COLLISION IMMINENT!".

I will not allow you… to take the boy's life. Jammed her rifle on the shield and trained her eyes on Dolk’s machine.

“Hey, you! How bout picking on somebody your own size?” She taunted Dolk as she launched her Nemo to shield ram the Blue Griffin from the back.

Al’s close vicinity from Dolk made this the only viable option. If this cannot help him, or her, nothing else will or so she thought. She cannot help it, the only outcome Irene could think of would be the two blue machines and Hizack team to pick her and the rest of her team one by one, very fast. Either the three of them stand up and fight or die painfully.