Ming pulled his R-type Zaku into the Bismark's hangar. It was a lot more cramped than the Bremen's, but it had to be to fit all the MS she carried. Upon exiting the cockpit, he was immediately greeted by the Bismark's commanding officer, Brigadier General Rex Wavell.

"So Ming, getting rusty?" he asked in a rather wicked tone.

Ming frowned. The Home Defense Corp, good as they were, also seemed to have a pretty arrogant commander. And he hated arrogance, "Just got too complacent, Sir. I'll be out of your battleship soon."

"_Battlecruiser_," he corrected, "This is no Gwajin. This is just the greatest Tibe ever made."

"Shouldn't you be worried about the battle sir?" he inquired, wanting the conversation to end.

"Don't worry. We're beating them past the second defense line now. My nine guns have done enough damage to them."

Yeah, he thought, but if you'd done better, maybe those two Musais and nine other MS that had been with him would still be alive right now. He called the chief mechanic, he wanted the repairs to be done quickly.
-----------------------------

"Damn it, who's the moron who trained these boys?!" Jean asked angrily as he saw two GMs take hits. One was killed, the other damaged, and the rest of the MS force was at the point of rout. And if command doesn't get their **** together...

"Enemy rush boats attacking!" a GM pilot reported in a panicked tone as he fired. One of the attacking rush boats, a Jicco, took a hit and exploded. But before he could fire again his MS took two hits and exploded. Jean muttered a curse. He was now down to twelve GMs and seven Balls, and he wasn't sure how would he be able to handle those rush boats...
-----------------------------

"Sabre Fish force! Make a covering attack!" Brigadier General Dolvich ordered.

"Sir!" the Sabre Fish commander responded, "There's too many of them. I only have twenty or so boys with me. If I go..."

"Just do it!" the General replied angrily before he could finish.

The commander muttered a curse and nodded, "Alright kiddies, follow me!" he ordered as he sped his Sabre Fish right towards the enemy line.

Dolvich took a deep breath. He was sacrficing the Sabre Fish force to buy him some time to get what's left of his fleet to the Alpha Line. All he could hope for now was they could stop them there...

The Sabre Fish commander quickly took aim at the leading rush boat, another Jicco, and fired two missiles. Due to Minovsky particles, guided weapons had been rendered useless, and thus these missiles were "dumb" ones who only travelled straight and level. But they were well aimed, and both missiles hit, right on the cockpit. The unfortuante Jicco toppled over and rammed into another one, and both units died in the explosion. Six more died in under the space of a minute, before the surviving three broke off and retreated. But by then the Zeon mobile suit force began to engange them, and vintage fighters had no hope of winning against top of the line mobile suits.

The Sabre Fish commander saw the enemy MS come, and ordered his men to scatter. Seven, including his wingman, went down before they could break out of formation, and soon a wild dog fight was raging around him. He quickly took aim at a Rick Dom busy with another target and fired two missiles. Both hit, but the Rick Dom was well armored, and the resulting damage wasn't fatal. He switched to guns and fired, but the bullets were even less effective than the missiles. Before he could try something else the Rick Dom fired a rocket at him. It was the last thing he ever saw.

By that time the surviving Sabre Fish had begun to fall back to the Alpha Line were the fleet had begun to establish itself. The Zeon Rick Doms pursued them, ruthlessly cutting them down one by one. Only two made it back to the Federation lines.

Dolvich grimaced at that. Their sacrifice had bought them several minutes to set themselves up in the Alpha Line, but not much else. As the enemy Rick Doms began to advance towards his battered fleet, he began to feel their sacrifice was in vain...
-----------------------------

"How... how bad?" Zeon's General Hill asked his new XO weakly. He had been wounded, badly, when the Federation had managed to score a direct hit on his ship's bridge. But he was more fortunate than the rest of the bridge crew, who was now either dead or fatally wounded.

"The Tibe Fredrick has been sunk. So are the Musais Berlin, Munich, Kiel, Konigsberg, and Magdeburg. Twenty-one out of our fifty mobile suits are also dead or damaged, as well as almost all the Jiccos," he reported coolly, "But we've managed to reach their final defense line. However..."

"What is it?"

"They are almost out of ammunition. They are requesting for resupply."

"Then let's do it..." the General replied as he tried to get up, "We can't let them fight without ammunition..."

"General Wavell disagrees and is going to press on the attack. He says the enemy is at the point of breaking."

"Tell him that he's an idiot. And I'm STILL commander of this fleet..."

"I'm sorry, but Commander-in-Chief Giren doesn't agree with that..." his XO replied in a cold tone.

"What... what do you mean?"

He suddenly produced a syringe, "Courtesy of Cecilia Irene, General Hill. You'll be remembered as a hero back home..."

"What..." the General started before his executioner pressed him palm against his mouth. He tried to scream out loud, but before he could feel the pain of a needle penetrating his skin. And the world around him seemed to go black.
-----------------------------

"Max... I... I..." Sylvie started, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Just shut up already!" Max replied angrily as he took aim at the rapidly approaching Zeon force, "What's done is done. Concentrate on keeping alive."

"Listen to him Sylvie," John advised.

"I'm sorry, Max... don't you understand that?" Sylvie thought but could not say out loud. "I'm sorry..."

"MOVE IT!" John screamed angrily as he grabbed the controls from Sylvie. He didn't know much about pilotting, but he managed to evade a bazooka shell sent in their direction, "Sylvie, move this piece of junk or I will!"

Sylvie barely nodded in reply. But she did as she was told, and before more shells could come she managed to nestle her EWAC GM Trainer into a safe position.

Max watched, and muttered a curse. "If she doesn't pull herself together..."
-----------------------------

Colonel Patterson cringed as several bazooka shells streaked towards their lines, but he was noticing something that many did not. There were fewer and fewer shells in the subsequent volleys, was the enemy running out of ammuniton?

A volley of beams suddenly shot by just beside his ship. He grimaced. Even if mobile suits were out of ammo, ships still had plenty. And he needed to take out more of them. "Aim for the lead Musai, fire!!!"
-----------------------------

Jean watched as the ships began to exchange fire. It was largely ineffective for both sides. The Federation fleet was now behind the Alpha Line, mainly out of range of the Zeon guns. The enemy rocket fire was also slackening off, but...

"What do we do, Sir?" a scared GM pilot asked him.

"I..." Jean started, unsure who was...

"This is Captain Karl, I'm ranking officer now," the Captain interjected, "And I think they'll charge us in a minute or so. So get your beam sabres ready and prepare for a melee. Jean, you're in charge of the left flank, I'll take the right. And men, this is the last line. We hold it, no matter what."

"Yes, Sir," Jean responded. Glad to have someone who had their **** together in charge.

Karl nodded at the response. He was in a bad situation, having only a total of sixteen mobile suits including those of the 44th, and a mere eight Balls of all types. But Zeon had spent their rockets in the battle earlier, and now had to engange in a melee if they wanted to keep fighitng. And the GM's beam sabre had a great advantage over Zeon's heat weapons. Which he didn't have... he suddenly realized, and he should be getting one for himself.
-----------------------------

The head of the Zeon MS force muttered a curse. That stupid, arrogant, ***-kissing Wavell, he thought angrily. Did he really think a mad charge could do it? The Home Defense Corp boys were good, but they weren't supermen...

"Begin attack!" the General ordered as the Bismark fired a volley of beams.

In any case, he didn't have a choice.
-----------------------------

"Here they come!" an excited GM pilot reported.

"Open fire!" Captain Karl ordered, and soon red purple beams were lancing out into the darkness, sometimes finding their mark, but largely due to inexperienced pilots, often not. But Max was not one of them.

Max was targetting officers again, as usual. Unfortunately, he couldn't spot the squad leader this time, and he was forced to take down just an ordinary Rick Dom instead. He searched again, but could not find the custom markings of the squad leader. With range closing rapidly, he decided to take one more shot and killed a second Rick Dom. He considered firing a third shot, but with range closing rapidly...

"Beam sabres, ready!" Captain Karl ordered as he primed his grenades. He might not have found a sabre in time, but this would have to do...
-----------------------------

"You heard the man..." Jean encouraged as he drew his own sabre. There were still twenty two mobile suits heading for them, the rest being killed or forced to break off, but the Federal Forces had lost another GM and a Ball due to the enemy ship's guns. But that support was being withdrawn now, lest they cause friendly casualties. But that also meant...
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"Take this!" Fred screamed as he threw one of his grenades at an advancing Rick Dom. The suit was damaged, but not destroyed. Damn it! he thought, how the hell was he supposed to fight with just an arm and a leg? He quickly primed a second grenade to try to...

Before the Rick Dom could recover though, a burst of fire punched three holes into its reactor core and blew the suit apart. It was Juan, who was now discarding his 90mm in favor of a greande and a beam sabre. "This is going to be really hairy..."

Fred had just barely nodded in agreement went a trio of Rick Doms burst into their position. A pair of well thrown grenades landed right in the middle of the group, and the explosions killed one and damaged the other two. Realizing his chance, Juan charged one of the damaged ones, beam sabre drawn...

The Zeon pilot on the Rick Dom was just trying to reorient himself when he saw the GM coming straight for him. Before he could do anything the GM thurst his sabre into the cockpit, killing him instantly.

The second Rick Dom saw that, and despite the damage on his suit he angrily charged towards Juan's GM. Juan saw this though, and quickly blocked the Rick Dom's heat sword with his own sabre. He then quickly kicked the Rick Dom, shattering its damaged torso, before giving it a shoulder smash that would have made any veteran Zaku pilot proud. The damage it caused wasn't major, but it was enough to stun the Rick Dom's pilot for a moment, giving a newly arrived GM enough time to slash the Rick Dom in half.

"Who the hell are you?" Fred asked at the new arrival.

"I'm... Sergeant Martin Nance," he replied, barely breathing, "They need a few more men on the left..."

"I can go but..." Juan explained.

"Go Juan, I think I can hold them by myself here," he told him with a wink.

"Alright, but call me if you need me Sarge," Juan replied.
-----------------------------

Several enemy mobile suit had managed to penetrate the defensive screen, Brigadier General Dolvich saw. And those were now heading right for his ships. The GM force was currently doing well but if they got the ships...

A huge mono-eye suddenly pooped up right in front of his bridge. He cringed as he realized...

Before it could do anything, a yellow-white GM suddenly viciously kicked the Zeon MS away. The General realized to his utter amazement that it was the EWAC GM...

"Sylvie! Stop it, the left foot is damaged..." John reported in a panicked tone. The Trainer only had very light armor, and wasn't designed for...

But Sylvie didn't care anymore, she'd get one of these murderers, "Shut up, John!" she told him angrily as she produced her 90mm machine gun again. She was a bad shot, but at this range, missing was impossible. The Rick Dom took twenty hits before exploding, and Sylvie had just realized to her horror that she had taken a life... Oh ****.... what, what has gotten into me?

Max saw that, and stood motionless for a moment. No... he thought. He didn't want this to happen. Not to Sylvie... But he had no time to care about her for the moment. Far more lives were at stake. He counted three other MS other than the one Sylvie had killed, and he was already taking aim at one of them. He fired, and the Rick Dom went down in flames.

A second Rick Dom tried to attack the Spruance, but the Spruance had more AA guns than any other ship in the fleet, and they quickly turned the Rick Dom into a collander before it could even get close. Max searched for the third one, but he couldn't see where it...

He suddenly felt a massive jolt as the Rick Dom rammed him from above. Max started to move, knowing if that he didn't...

But then a second GM had arrived to help him out, stabbing the Rick Dom from behind. The Rick Dom fell dead instantly, falling dead over Max. Max looked at the GM who had saved him, and realized it was Sylvie. "Sylvie..."

"Max, don't worry about me anymore, alright... I can handle it..." Sylvie told him in a quiet, pained tone. I think I know now, she thought to herself. I know now why you didn't want me to care for you anymore... it's because it's too painful. Because everytime you look at me, you'd remember everything that's happened before... How everybody you loved died before your eyes... how you had to kill to save me... And now you'll never know... how sorry I am... "You'd better go back to the frontline, they need you there," she finished, her voice close to cracking.

"Thank you, Sylvie," Max replied, knowing just how much it had to hurt. She had never taken a life before, and like the man he was before the war, she was a kind and caring person... despite her attitude. He sighed. He didn't want this to happen, he didn't want her to become like him. But it was too late. They both could never come back... He turned around and headed for the line. Sylvie would never know that there were tears in his eyes as he went.

John merely remained silent. Now, he knew why.
-----------------------------

"Damn it, they're doing badly!" Ming growled angrily as he observed the battle from afar.

"Yeah... it's really bad," Mike said as he joined him. His Rick Dom had been damaged by a Sabre Fish earlier, and he was glad that he wasn't part of the hell going on in front of him. The Rick Dom was a good machine, but it took some time to get used to. He made the transition quickly, but most couldn't. And the battle raging now reflected that. But that was the least of his worries. "Ming..."

"Yeah?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the battle.

"Your sister is dead."

Ming turned around, shocked, hoping it was a joke. But it was no joke. Mike produced a telegram, and Ming fell down on the ground.

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.