Chapter 20: Starting LineThe colony looked beautiful, Sylvie thought. It was getting overcrowded after the Federation had stopped building new colonies, but the administration seemed to be doing particularly well in keeping the colony's millions of inhabitants happy. But there was one person in particular that she wanted to meet. "Oh, hello Sylvie," Max greeted her with a smile as he found her waiting in the dock. She smiled back. He had such a sweet smile, especially when...
But then the smile quickly turned into a look of horror. Max raised his hand, pointing at something behind her. She turned to see a huge humanoid machine towering above her. It aimed a rocket, straight at her, and the world around her suddenly seemed to be engulfed in flames... "Time for your shift, Sylvie," a familiar voice called over the intercom. It was John.
"Yeah... I'll... I'll be there soon," Sylvie replied as she got up from her bed. It was wet from sweat. She had another nightmare, another damn nightmare of... ****. Why did this war have to happen? She asked herself. And why did I have to meet him just before it started? Why did fate always hand them both such cruel destinies? She sighed. Why... "Boy, this is getting serious..." John muttered quietly at his post. It had taken a while for him to wake Sylvie up, and he had heard her cry out just before responding to his calls. It had taken some self-control to pretend that he had not heard that, but he knew it was necessary. Sylvie just didn't want to talk about it no matter how many times he tried, and doing so only made the situation worse for her. "Lieutenant Gressier reporting," Sylvie declared as she entered the room. A bone tired junior technician, Sergeant Bennington, nodded as he let her take over his console, happy that he was finally going to get some sleep. "Sleep soundly, Sylvie?" John asked. "Yeah, I guess..." Sylvie replied in a rather unsincere tone.
"Good," John replied in an even tone. "Damn it, Sylvie, what the hell keeps bothering you anyway?"
"Damn, the wreckage is getting worse," Brigadier General Dolvich observed. They were only about five hours away from Malta Base now, but they were now encountering more and more debris from Side 2. This was the reason why Malta had survived for quite some time behind enemy territory, it was just so difficult to navigate through this junk. Fortunately, they had already staked out a clear route to follow, and hopefully they could probably get there without much delay.
December 5, UC 0079 "Enemy has broken through the Charlie Line!" a Sabre Fish pilot screamed as he saw several Zakus destroy the last of Malta Base's outer defense satellites. A moment later he was blotted out by machine gun fire from one of the Zakus. "Damn it," Lieutenant Jean Powell muttered as he pulled his GM back from its forward position. The Zeon fleet at Side 2 had been attacking them for two days now, and they were heavily outnumbered. Despite that, the defense force had managed to keep them at bay with the help of the fixed defenses they had installed in its outer perimeter. Not today, the Zeon force composed of two Tibes, eight Musais and a total of thirty escorting MS had come in full force, and the Federal Forces had been pushed back to their second defense line. There would be only one more before they reached the actual base. "I count six Sabre Fish, and a pair of Balls, that's all that made it out of the Charlie Line," his wingman Norton Willis reported as he pulled his GM beside Jean's, "We're getting twelve more SFish and eight Balls from the main base, plus the cruisers Brandywine and Saratoga. I don't think we can hold them for long," he concluded. "****! Tell'm to send more reserves! We're being shot piecemeal here!" he replied angrily as he nestled his GM into its "space bunker," which was really just some space debris gethered for camouflage and protection, "Who's the commanding officer in charge of the Bravo Line?" "Till the Brandywine and Saratoga arrives, you're it," he replied grimly, "The Captain didn't make it. And the cruiser Jena has been blown to pieces."
Jean muttered a curse. The cowardly commander of the base was still keeping himself and his Magellan from the battle, as well as the fourth Salamis. With all the losses, he doubted he could hold for long. In the midst of the battle one thought suddenly entered his mind. How the hell did they find this base so quickly anyway? Shoemaker sat quietly as a pair of Zeon guards carefully observed him. His luck had finally run out, he reflected. He had been finally caught two days ago carrying illegal documents. Documents detailing top secret Federation bases in Sides 2 and 6. He was SUPPOSED to have passed them to another Federation agent in Granada, but instead he found himself meeting a team of Zeon counter intelligence specialists. He was a dead man, he realized, and they were just keeping him here until they could send him to interrogation experts to suck every last bit of information in his brain. He didn't want it to come to this. He wanted to live to see the day that the Zabis would be overthrown and the "true" Zeon be restored, but now... "Alright, I'm going to sign the confession now, I'll tell you everything I know," he told the guards. One immediately produced a document. It was a document announcing that he was a spy and traitor to Zeon.
He picked up a pen in his pocket and opened the cap. Unknown to the guards, the cap had contained a pill to be used just for this occasion. In a quick motion he tapped the pill into his hand and put it in his mouth. The guards had just realized what he was doing when he swallowed the pill. They frantically tried to make him vomit, but it was too late. The poison was a strong one, and Shoemaker died almost instantly. "Brandywine's bridge is hit! All officers are dead!" a panicking radio officer reported. "That puts you in charge again," Willis said as he shot and killed a Zaku that had come close to their position. The Saratoga had already been hit a few minutes ago, and its officer corps had met the same fate as the Brandywine's.
"Contact the ****ING Commander! Tell him to send us more men, or we start running! NOW!" "Sir, they are requesting more units," an aide reported to Brigadier General Lidell Unger in the bridge of his flagship, the Albuquerque. "What are the reserves?" he asked. "Twelve Publics, another twelve Sabre Fish, four regular Balls, four K-Type Balls, the Monmouth, and us, Sir," he replied quickly and worriedly. "Send in the Publics. And prepare the demolition charges." "But, Sir... the demolition charge... it's a..."
"I know." Jean had already killed three Zakus, but now he was running out of places to hide. Each GM and Ball had been provided with three alternate firing positions. Two of his were gone now, vaporized by Zeon guns, and the he was being forced to abandon the third. He got out just before a volley of mega particle guns destroyed his last bunker. All around him, the defense line was literally falling apart. Out of the eighteen gun and missile defense satellites that had guarded the Bravo Line, eleven had been destroyed by the Zakus. One Musai was slowly limping away from the hits it had suffered from those defenses, but it wasn't enough. The rest of the force, a ragtag group of Balls and Sabre Fish, were now valiantly fighting their Zeon adversaries in a wild melee in this cramped terrain, but it was clear who was getting the worse of it. His train of thoughts was interuppted by a transmission. "This is Torpedo Squadron, where do you want us?" the senior Public pilot asked. "****! Is that all they're going to send?" "Do you want us or not?!" he shot back angrily.
"Yes! Take out those ships!" The pilot of the lead Public nodded as he signalled the rest of his squadron to attack. This was definitely going to be hairy, but this was what the rush boat was all about. They piloted tiny craft whose sole purpose was to deliver their deadly missile loads to the enemy, no matter what happened to the craft, or to them for that matter. Twelve Publics quickly dove out of their hiding spots among the wreckage and headed straight for the enemy ships. Almost immediately, they were spotted by the Zakus who concentrated their fire on them. The lead Public was the first to go. A 120mm shell hit the warhead of one of his missiles, and the resulting detonation blew him and his craft apart. Three more followed him in less than a minute. But the eight surviving Publics pressed dodgedly on. Now they were supported by the surviving Balls and Sabre Fish who managed to exact a heavy toll on the distracted Zakus. The Zeon ships then turned their attention to the Publics as well, and their fire killed two more. But by then the surviving six had reached optimal firing range. Each Public carried two missiles, each enough to severely damage a cruiser. The surviving Publics managed to fire all twelve missiles at the enemy fleet, though two were downed just before launching their loads. One more died before they could get away to safety. But it would not be in vain. The first four headed for the fleeing Musai, and the damaged cruiser could not evade. Its two surviving escort Zakus tried to stop the missiles heading for it, one even blocked a missile with his own mobile suit, taking for himself the missile meant for his ship. But it would not be enough as all three remaining missiles hit the Musai. Its reactor cooked off a second later, with the resulting explosion taking its surviving escort with it as well.
Other missiles were less lucky. Three were downed by the Zakus, one malfunctioned and failed to detonate when it impacted the Zeon flagship, while two missed entirely. But two hit a second Musai, both in almost precisely the same spot at the forward turret area. The resulting explosion broke the ship in half, sending dozens of men flying out into space as the escaping air sucked them out of the ship. The top half carrying the bridge then suddenly exploded, killing nearly everybody caught outside and rocking the bottom half. The bottom half then floated on helplessly, scorched and battered, but it was more fortunate. The Komusai attached to it was still operational, and the survivors just managed to clamber on to the small craft and escape with their lives. "Koln and Aachen have been sunk. The mobile suit commander is reporting heavy losses, he reports seven Zakus destroyed and twelve damaged," the cruiser Wilhelm's Executive Officer reported to his commander, Major General Arthur Hill. General Arthur barely nodded. He was still a little shaken by the dud that had hit his ship earlier. If that thing had exploded... He shook his head, "Alright, pull our troops back to the outer defense line. We'll repair the damage we've suffered and attack again in four hours."
"Yes sir," the XO replied, and soon a flurry of transmissions were sent to the waiting Zeon ships. Their attack had done it, Jean thought. He was relieved, had the Zeon troops pressed on he knew they would have had it for sure... "Lieutenant, you think they'll come back?" Willis asked as he pulled his badly damaged GM beside his. But he was more fortunate than their Captain whose GM had been vaporized by a direct hit from a Tibe even before he could get out of the Charlie Line. "They'll most certainly be back. How many do we have left anyway?" he inquired.
"Don't make me count them, Jean..." he replied in a tired tone as he pointed to all the wreckage around them. There was hardly anybody left, he realized. The two cruisers were both severely damaged, while only nine Sabre Fish and five Balls remained out of the defenders. They needed help, fast, and the 17th fleet was still hours away...
General Unger nodded as he got the report from the Bravo Line. A distress call was sent to the 17th fleet a few minutes later. "Sir, I have a flash traffic from Malta," Sylvie reported as she tried to tune in on the rather weak message, "****... They're under major attack! They are requesting for immediate support!" Sean scowled, "What's the composition of the enemy fleet?" "Didn't say sir... ****! I've lost them!" she reported angrily, "Trying to reestablish contact..."
"Contact the Amerigo, inform them of the situation!" "Did they say the composition of the enemy force?" Brigadier General Dolvich inquired. He was barely able to contain his frustration. Malta had managed to remain undetected for quite a long time, and it just HAD to be discovered before... "Unknown, Sir. The Spruance lost the transmission," the radio officer replied coolly.
He considered the situation for a moment. It was never wise to split your own force when the enemy outnumbered you, but in this case it seemed he had no choice. "Get me Patterson!" "Sir! Unidentifed ship off the port bow! Bearing 3-3-0!" a lookout on the Wilhelm reported. "Hold your fire!" the XO declared, "It's a Musai. But who is..."
"This is the Bremen," a voice told them over the radio, "Reporting for duty to the Zeon Side 2 fleet." "Alright, Sir, understood," Patterson replied to Brigadier General Dolvich as he finished relaying his orders. "What do we do now sir?" his XO asked. "We're going to make a speed run, XO." he replied, "The Spruance, the Anzio, and the Goucester will go ahead of the fleet to reinforce and hold Malta with whatever's left of the defense force till the rest of the fleet could arrive. So helm, head for Malta, flank speed." Within seconds Sean could feel the ship start accelerating forward. "Damn, couldn't those idiots have told us at least what we're facing?" John muttered angrily. "Any problem, Lieutenant?" Sean inquired in an annoyed tone. This was not the time for finger pointing. "No, Sir..." John started, wishing the Colonel had not heard him. But he had an idea... "But sir, permission to speak freely? I may have an idea." "Make it quick Recto," he replied coldly. "How about sending the MS teams ahead of the fleet once we get into range? It'll take the ships around two hours to get there if everything goes well. The mobile suits could probably reach it in one." "That'd leave us pretty exposed, Lieutenant," Sean replied, but he was seeing his point. "But Sir, if we don't we might be too late, Sir. Twelve mobile suits aren't that powerful a force, but Zeon probably isn't expecting them yet. The delay they could cause may buy us just enough time. And at least once we get there we have a better idea of what we're facing." "He's convinced me, Sir," the XO added. Sean made a mental note to thank Alfonso for promoting John. Sergeants weren't allowed to talk like that, but Lieutenants were, though they rarely did, "Alright, we'll launch the MS force once we get into range. But you'd better keep your eyes open, Magic."
"Yes, Sir," John replied, glad the Colonel didn't ignore him. But Sylvie looked at him disapprovingly. Oh ****, he thought to himself. His suggestion, though probably the best course of action, also put the MS force in the greatest risk. And he was already beginning to notice something about Sylvie Gressier... "We didn't know the enemy fleet was getting that close," General Arthur replied as Colonel Jefferson's concluded his report. "We sent the report to Granada, didn't you get it, Sir?" he inquired. "No, Granada didn't tell us anything. Only to attack the enemy base." Jefferson scowled as he heard that. Many of his men had died to learn about the whereabouts of the enemy fleet, and a communications or intelligence foul up had wasted it, "How long before the next attack, Sir?"
"It was supposed to be four hours. But time is of the essence, we attack in an one hour." "How long is the transit time?" General Dolvich asked. "For the MS teams, one hour. For the three ships, about two as long as they don't run into anything. The rest of the fleet will still take at least four hours," the XO replied. Dolvich simply nodded. He could only hope they could get there in time.
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. |
