Ming was just about to fire at the Federation battleship when a red beam shot by right in front him, narrowly missing his suit by a scant three yards. He turned to meet a green Federation humanoid type who immediately fired at him again. Ming evaded, and fired a shot in return. The shell missed as the humanoid type skillfully evaded his shot. Ming grinned, this was a better model than the ones he had fought before, but he was confident he could beat it. His trail of thoughts was suddenly interrupted by a transmission from Mike.

"Captain, the Colonel is telling us to withdraw. We'd better get the hell out of here!" he warned as he fired his bazooka and killed a newly arrived Ball.

Ming grimaced, but decided that he was right. He was still just one mobile suit, after all. "Alright Mike, I'm going!" he replied as he fired a parting round at his adversary.
-----------------------------

Max evaded the last shot fired at him, but by the time he got his sights back at the Zaku it had already turned and fled. His beam rifle had a long range, but the Zaku was maneuvering among the Federation ships and scattered wreckage, making it impossible to have a clear shot.

"We'll get'm Max, don't worry," Maurice said as she joined him in her GM Light Armor, "The Captain has given us permission to pursue, let's go!" she declared as she sped her MS past his. Two more GMs, Juan and Fred's units, followed her. Max nodded and followed close behind, careful to keep the three of them covered at all times...
-----------------------------

"Alright! Begin battle turn!!!" Jefferson ordered as the last of his mobile suits managed to break away. The battle turn was an ancient and still effective way of retreating from the enemy, used by the German Navy since World War I. Basically, it consisted of firing a wave of torpedoes to cover them while the ships turned around to flee. He'd done it many times before, but he was getting worried about the enemy humanoid types...
-----------------------------

"Damn it! Six more missiles heading our way!" a lookout screamed. Outside, the Spruance's point defense guns once again came to life to shoot down the incoming missiles.

"Time to work your magic, Lieutenant Recto!" Sean ordered angrily. They had lost a cruiser and still had no idea where the enemy ships were. This was simply getting annoying.

John nodded quietly as he closed his eyes, slowly visualizing the enemy attack in his mind. Sylvie couldn't help but watch him slowly tap his finger on the radar screen in his trance like state, seemingly divining the presence of the enemy ships. "There!" he suddenly declared, tapping a point on the screen, "Check bearing 1-6-7, elevation 36 degrees. The guy's probably turning right now."

"I see it!" the lookout reported as he saw the familiar profile of a Zeon light cruiser trying to hide among the wreckage, "Musai type! Turning to flee!"

"Good work, John," Sean commended, surprised at how accurate his prediction was.

"Not yet sir, there are at least three of them... gimme a while to find'm for you..."
-----------------------------

"Musai type in sight! Gunnery solution is set!" the Gloucester's gunnery officer reported. They had been listening in to the transmissions in the Spruance's bridge, and now they had also managed to find and lock on to the enemy Musai.

Major Martel nodded. Only one thing left to do, "Fire!"
-----------------------------

The Hannover had just completed her turn when all five beams struck. All five pierced right through the Musai's aft superstructure and exited on the other side, killing nearly all of her crew instantly and causing a massive chain reaction in her gun compartments. The Musai's superstructure, already weakened by the hits, was ripped apart by these explosion, sending thousands of fragments flying off in all directions.
-----------------------------

"****!" Jefferson growled angrily. He had NOT expected that. All his ships had been camouflaged with pieces of wreckage from the shoal zone to make them harder to spot, but some lucky Federation cruiser had managed to spot the Hannover and blow her away. And he was not about to wait for the Federation fleet to get lucky again, "Where are our mobile suits?! We need to get out of here now!"

"The Flipper is on board, but the rest are still being harrassed by enemy MS. They'll be here in five minutes but..." his XO reported.

"Then we'll wait five minutes!" he replied firmly. He never left men behind, and hoped that he wouldn't lose more because of that principle.
-----------------------------

Ming scowled as he saw what was left of the MS force. The Hannover's squadron had been wiped out, and only one of the Hamburg's three Zakus had managed to get out alive. The other two had been taken down by the covering fire of the green MS he had earlier fought, and he was getting VERY pissed off at not being allowed to fight it. At least Mike was still in one piece, though one of his arms had been severed.

"Captain Ming, Sir," the Hamburg's surviving pilot reported, "There's the Hamburg, I'm going to..." his transmission was suddenly cut short by a beam that hit his Zaku and exploded it.

Ming angrily turned to see a red-white MS approaching him rapidly. It fired at him, but he evaded with ease. He then fired a shot in return. The GM managed to block the shot with his shield, but the armor piercing round managed to penetrate the shield and impact the mobile suit. The GM was disabled, but not destroyed, and Ming was about to finish it off when he got a call from Mike.

"Leav'm sir, more of them coming!" Michael warned, and Ming for the second time in the day grimaced in frustration as he turned to leave. He didn't want to run, but even he knew that it was impossible to win against five-to-one odds. In any case, his fuel gauge told him that he really didn't have a choice anyway.
-----------------------------

"You okay, Juan?" Max asked as he slowed to a stop just beside Juan's now damaged GM. He'd told him NOT to get over enthusiastic, and as a result he wasn't able to cover him effectively...

"Sorry, Sir, but forget about me for the moment, we've got bigger fish to fry," Juan replied as he pointed something in front of him. Max turned and saw a Musai in the distance, slowly trying to slip away.

"Go get'm, Max, you're the only one whose beam rifle can hit something that far away," Maurice advised as she joined the two, Fred following close behind her.

Max nodded and carefully aimed his sights at the Musai. The rifle's E-cap was running out of energy, and he only had about three shots left. He didn't think he'd need all of them as he carefully waited for a single, unimpeded shot. The opportunity presented itself a second later, and Max depressed the trigger.
-----------------------------

An exquisitely aimed shot fired by Max yielded spectacular results. The beam hit the Musai's left nuclear engine and destroyed it, but that was only half of the story. The beam managed to pierce right _through_the engine and continue on to the other side, hitting and destroying the right engine as well. The Musai lingered for a while, enough time for somebody to try to launch the Komusai shuttle to escape, but before it could get away the Musai exploded, the shockwave disintegrating the unfortunate Komusai and everybody in it...
-----------------------------

Jefferson could hardly believe it. ONE shot had killed his second Musai... what were the Federation's new weapons capable of?

"Our R-Type and Rick Dom have been recovered!" the XO reported, the shock still in his voice.

Jefferson nodded, "Alright, let's get out of here, flank speed."
-----------------------------

The last Musai managed to get away, John thought as he frowned in frustration. The Musai managed to slip past all of them despite their best efforts to find it. A horrible feeling started filling his chest. If he had managed to find the enemy force earlier, maybe they wouldn't have lost so many men. As it was, they had lost a cruiser, three Sabre Fish and two Balls. Another two cruisers were damaged. ****.

"Don't worry too much, John, we DID manage to get two cruisers," Sylvie said comfortingly as she read the serious look in his face.

"Nah, I'm not worrying. I'm just doing a few mental calculations, that's all," John replied. But she was right. They had done badly, but Zeon had done worse. Zeon could not afford to lose as many ships as did the Federation, their resources were too scarce to allow that. The problem was logistical. It took five days to get reinforcements to Malta from Luna Two, while Zeon took only three. Worse still, the Federation fleet was currently hopelessly outnumbered, and it was highly doubtful if any additional ships would be sent from Luna Two to replace their losses. The Federation might have more resources, but it still had yet to come into play. He hoped that was soon, or he may indeed end up breaking his promise to Cynthia...
-----------------------------

In the Amerigo's bridge, Brigadier General Dolvich was thinking exactly the same thing. In a more refined manner as an experienced General should, but in the sum it was basically the same. Unlike John though, he knew that the invasion against Zeon, Operation Star One, was set to begin around December 24. The problem was, that was two weeks away, and that damn Nicolo still seemed to be keeping secrets about the REAL mission of the fleet...
-----------------------------

"General Nicolo, please explain why did you launch the 17th Fleet a week earlier than planned?" Admiral Tianem asked in a cold tone. He was a busy man now that Operation Star One was about to begin, and now THIS.

"Sir, we believe that Malta Base may come under attack soon, and it was prudent to reinforce it," he replied coolly, not showing any emotion.

"Damn it, Nicolo!" Tianem growled as he smashed his fist on the table, "I told you! Abandon that ****ing base already! It's too far from the main Federation bases and has no real military value anyway!"

"Sir, General Revil has already agreed with me on the value of that base, and I'm sure the fleet can handle it."

"What for? Launching raids into Granada?" Tianem scoffed. It was impossible. They'd have to go through a lot of Lunar cities to get to Granada, and he doubted the Lunarians would just let them past through their airspace and lay waste to one of their fellow city-states.

"Yes, Sir, and to keep a close watch on Sides 2 and 6."

"We already have a base at Riah, remember?" he replied in a very muted tone. Riah was a top secret base, known only to high ranking Generals.

"It's too small to be effective sir, you know that. Besides, it ought to provide a lot of distraction for the Zeon fleet," he concluded.

Tianem frowned. The only reason he had agreed to the forming of the 17th was because it could provide a useful distraction to the Zeon fleet. In his plan, the 17th wasn't supposed to fight at all, all it needed to do was to convince Zeon that the main invasion would go through Granada and hopefully divert substantial numbers of ships and MS into Side 2. The problem was, Nicolo wanted a REAL invasion of Granada, followed by an eventual attack straight into Side 3 instead of a possibly costly slog up Zeon's asteroid bases. The Federation would never allow that, he knew, since it would involve too many neutral territories, and too many helpless civilians, "Fine, but all they do is hold Malta and make a lot of noise, nothing more. Anything more, and you'll have to take it up with me AND Revil, understood?"

"Yes, Sir," Nicolo replied. Tianem could not tell the evil smile forming on the back of Nicolo's head.

"Very well then. Dismissed!"
-----------------------------

Nicolo entered his office, elated that everything was going as HE had planned it. He quickly picked up a folder. It was a report from agent Shoemaker, a mid-level diplomat who was part of Zeon's delegation to Side 6. One of the very few informants they had, he usually gave them excellent information about Zeon fleet movements in Side 2 and 6, as well as protecting the location of the secret Federation base in the area. He picked up another folder detailing a plan he had formulated. Shoemaker would be quite a loss, he reflected, but it was for a good cause... and Shoemaker was a native of Side 3 anyway. A spacenoid.
-----------------------------

Ming looked quietly out in space. Two cruisers and a lot of men that he'd worked with in the past, lost in a single battle. Damn the Feds! And that humanoid type...

"Captain, we've got new orders," Mike said as he joined Ming, "We're to join an attack on a Federation outpost. Probably the destination of that fleet we attacked."

"Have they been informed of the fleet's strength?" he inquired.

"Yes, and they've brought some new gadgets for us to play with. Don't worry, we'll get back at them."

Ming nodded. Mike was always enthusiastic. But he had a lot of things to fight for, while all he had left was his sister. He sighed and smiled lightly, merely thinking of her was enough to calm him down all the time.
-----------------------------

Juan was lucky as usual. Most of the damage was superficial and wouldn't have been fatal. Except for one that is. His GM now had a nice fist sized hole neatly transfixed just a scant twenty centimeters from a fuel tank. Any closer and Juan would have been space dust. All the members of the 44th except the Captain and John were in the hanger now, marvelling at Juan's luck.

"Juan... next time..." Maurice started angrily as she pinched Juan's ear.

"I know, I know..." he moaned, "Don't be in a hurry to die, I know..."

"It should be us who's mad," the chief mechanic interjected as he handed Maurice the repair report, "We have to get him a new shield, and it'll take us the better part of a day to return it to operational status. But he is one damn lucky kid."

"Yeah, he is," Fred answered for Juan with a smile while he struggled to get out of Maurice's grasp, "Come on Maurice, lay off him already, he learns pretty quickly you know..."

"Alright..." Maurice replied as she let go of his ear. Juan then quietly slinked away, embarassed and trying to massage his swollen ear. Sheesh, Fred thought, all because Juan didn't follow what MAX had said...

"Ahem," the chief mechanic interrupted, "The report also says that we are short of a couple of mechanics and help would be VERY APPRECIATED," he finished sarcastically.

"But we're pilots, aren't we supposed..." Eric started. He worked pretty lenient shifts in Jaburo, and had never really been in a full-scale war time operation.

"Work now, complain later," Sylvie answered for him as she picked up a wrench, "Besides, being a mechanic is enjoyable at times." She'd done it often enough while on Earth, assisting the Company's mechanics and learning a few tricks. Then she remembered who was with her in those lessons. Pat, a crazy guy but a good driver and mechanic. Her enthusiasm went down a notch.

"Well, my skills are getting rusty..." Max added as he picked up a tool box. Sylvie managed to forget about those two for a moment and grin, remembering Max had been a mechanic before the war. Her grin quickly tranformed into a frown as she remembered what happened afterwards... and the role she had played in it.
-----------------------------

The shift had changed, but John was still in his station, helping a junior technican to tune the radars to maximize their performance. Major Alfonso had warned Sean about this, but never thought that he was serious. As long as they were in hostile territory, John was never away from his console for more than thirty minutes. Just enough time to eat and stretch his legs. He even SLEPT in the bridge itself, assigning himself a chair in the back to lie down upon when he got sleepy. Not that he slept much anyway. He was a strange and somewhat impolite officer, but he was beginning to understand why Alfonso had liked the kid. He had a good heart, but he was modest about it, never outwardly showing it to others but always keeping it a part of himself as though it was just a part of his uniform.

"Admit it, Sean..." he told himself, you're wondering why Cynthia has fallen for him, and wether he's good enough or not. He frowned. He'd always sworn to himself that he'd let his daughter be free in choosing her future husband unlike how he and Patricia had been treated by their families, but now he was falling into the same spell. He sighed, nature just always found ways to punish you for the deeds you did in the past...
-----------------------------

The most important part of espionage is obtaining information. Equally important was how to pass that information. Agent Shoemaker was no exception to this rule. Before going home after a day at work at the embassy, he passed by Riah's public library to pick up a book. It was an ancient Chinese text, one that he had hoped to translate to read to his niece. But neatly tucked in page 34 of the book was a loose slip of paper containing seemingly random symbols on it. It was the coded instructions for Shoemaker's next mission.

Notice: This story and all related material is copyrighted by Thomas E. "Zinegata" Ting, no part of this story may be taken by any other person. If you wish to use any material, please contact me first. Gundam and all related trademarks are owned by their respective companies.