Chapter 30: Operation Star One"Easy... easy..." Lt. Colonel Yang encouraged quietly as his ship was slowly being towed across the minefield. His ship's engines were still offline due to the damage suffered in the earlier battle, but he was still more fortunate than the Gloucester. But not if he had the incredible misfortune of hitting a friendly mine... "Alright Sir, we've cleared the minefield," the XO reported. Yang nodded and saluted one of the K-type Balls that had helped his ship maneuver pass the mines. The Ball's manipulators almost comically saluted back, before returning to the task of re-laying the mines that they had removed.
"Welcome back, Anzio," Brigadier General Dolvich welcomed as the ship came into view, being towed behind the Spruance and the Johnston. The Gorbachev had also arrived bringing much needed supplies. But that wasn't the only good news of the day...
December 14, UC 0079 - "Admiral Tianem, Sir! Welcome onboard!" the Titan's Captain greeted. The rest of the bridge crew quickly stood up from their stations and saluted. The Admiral returned their saluted and nodded, "Alright, how is the launch going?" "Sir, everything is going according as planned," the Captain reported, "The Luna Two fleet has already arrived to cover our launch, and the first batch of ships had arrived in space without incident." "How about our "little surprise" for the Zeeks?" he inquired with a grin.
"All we need to do is set it up in the battlefield area. We're going to give those Zeon *******s a surprise..." the Captain replied with a grin. It had taken a while to develop it, but Federation scientists had finally perfected the "secret weapon," and they were going to give that Dozul Zabi of the Solomon one hell of a surprise...
"It's hard to believe that this place was just attacked two weeks ago," Major Alfonso commented as his transport aircraft flew over the Borodino's launching pad. Much of the foilage and fixed defenses had been destroyed in the drop operation last November, but nearly all of it had been repaired or replaced. It would certainly make the launch a whole lot safer... "****, this is very bad..." the pilot of a reconnaisance-type Zaku muttered to himself as he saw the gathering Federation fleet. Much of the orbital patrol fleet under Captain Doren's command had been lost some time earlier after a battle with the "White Devil," while most of the surviving units had been sent to follow it to Side 6. Damn it! he thought, we need more men... "Let's get out of here now," the pilot of the senior escorting Zaku ordered. The number of enemy units was growing, and if they didn't get away soon...
A volley of beams suddenly struck the Recon Zaku and blew it apart. The two other Zakus with him died a second later. He tried to turn and flee, but instead he ran right into a trio of Balls. Before he could do anything, all three fired, and his Zaku broke apart around him... "Enemy patrol has been wiped out! No casualties," the battleship Magellan's communications chief reported with a slight smile.
Commander Wakkein merely nodded. With all the ships launching, it would still take some time to properly organize the fleet. But everything was going on schedule, and they would reach their first objective by Christmas Eve. He wondered if Nicolo would like his place in the line... "That *******..." Colonel Patterson muttered as Major Tyler McNiel concluded the briefing about Nicolo's activities. He was setting all of them up for his own damn selfish reasons, no matter how many young kids had to die. That self-serving no good son of a... "And he was planning to blow us all up with a Zeon nuke, too," the Major concluded as he showed them a document, "This is only a copy, but in this letter he had given the engineering crew orders to blow up this base with a nuke when capture seems imminent. To blame it on Zeon..." "Where's the orginal?" the General inquired coldly. "With Admiral Tianem, of course," the Major replied with a grin, "He's making sure that Nicolo will have a nice front row seat at Solomon... He'll have a nice court martial if he survives." "What about the nuke?" Colonel Patterson asked. He didn't think he could sleep very well knowing a "friendly" bomb was set to vaporize them at any moment...
"Taken cared of," the Major replied as he showed him a document, "Commander Wakkein was nice enough to give me a recall order for a nuke, and a couple of other neat stuff..." "Well, looks like I'm back to a regular GM..." Juan said somberly as he observed the damage on his E-type GM. The frame itself had been badly bent courtesy of a shoulder charge by that High-Mobility Zaku, and the engineers had deemed it unsafe for combat operations. "Don't worry, why don't you take mine?" Fred offered. Juan was a better pilot after all... "That won't be necessary," Captain Karl interjected as he joined the two, "Looks like the R&D boys have something new for you, Corporal." "Sir?" the two of them asked together, intrigued. "There," the Captain answered as he pointed to the GM at the far end of the hangar, "They call it the GM Command, and I hear it's a much better suit than an ordinary GM..." "Yes Sir, that's most certainly true!" the chief mechanic added as he joined them as well, "It's got a rapid-fire beam gun, and it's nimble enough for to do those stupid tip-toe stunts in ballet. It isn't made of Luna-Titanium though, so you'd better be more careful..." The Captain grunted in annoyance once the chief had finished. The chief was a good mechanic, but he was a little overbearing sometimes... "Oh, sorry Sir. But I've also got something to cheer you up," the chief added quickly with a grin, "THAT suit is yours, Sir," he continued as he pointed to a mobile suit that carried a pair of massive cannons on its shoulders. It was one of the GM's cousins, the mass-production type Guncannon. "That isn't mine, chief, it has a Major's insignia on it," the Captain objected. "Well in that case, congratulations on your promotion, Sir!" the chief replied with smile, "Guess they wanted to surprise you." "I haven't..." Karl started before remembering that Patterson just LOVED to surprise his officers. He'd already had the same treatment when he was promoted to Captain. He shook his head, that Colonel... "What about the Sniper and the EWAC?" Fred asked. After all, both had also been severely damaged, and he'd hate to lose Max's killer sniping ability. "I'm still fixing them, but they'll be done in three or four days more. Where's the pilot of that EWAC anyway, I heard she did a hell of a job shooting down a beam-totting prototype on her second combat sortie. You suppose she's one of those freaks that Revil and the Zeeks are talking about all the time?" he finished, albeit in a diminished tone. The concept of Newtypes had not been exactly welcomed by all quarters of the Federal Forces. In fact they were even looked upon with suspicion.
"Well, she hasn't killed a couple of famous aces has she?" Karl replied. Though the Gundam's exploits were still a secret, it was very difficult NOT to spread morale boosting news like the death of the "Black Trinary" to the troops, and unavoidably some of the details would be leaked out. He could not have guessed that that was about to change forever... "Bless you," John told Sylvie with a smile as he saw her sneeze just as he entered her room. She was still confined to bed, but it really looked as if... "What do you want now, John..." she muttered back in an annoyed tone before sneezing again. Damn it... she thought, she must've been infected or something... "Just brought you some new reading materials. Helps relieve the boredom," he continued with a grin, "The docs say you're one real pain you know..." "I'm a pain, is that it?" she asked coldly. That was one VERY wrong thing to say right now John... "Well, most of the time you are," he replied bluntly, "Anyway, what do you want, Pride and Prejudice, the news, or the updated GM manual?" Sylvie considered it for a moment. She WAS bored, but wasn't sure what to read. The news was crap, she knew, since they always got late or REALLY badly editted news. The GM manual was interesting, but technical manuals would bore her even worse. That left Pride and Prejudice. She'd read part of it before the war and liked it, but then... "Okay, looks like Pride and Prejudice it is," John told her with a smile, "It's really nice, the forerunner of the modern romantic comedy and..." "John, how the hell..." she started. "You were staring at it, Sylvie. It became pretty obvious then," he replied in a sarcastic tone, "Another one of your traits." "Fine, mind reader... just give me the book..." she muttered with a sigh.
John nodded as he handed her the novel, "Enjoy it, I still have some stuff to do..." he finished as he headed for the door. Stuff like talking with your Mr. Darcy...** "Why didn't you hand her the book yourself?" John asked as he joined Max waiting outside. It was Max who had "suggested" the Pride and Prejudice novel. "Nothing, John. Forget about it. Now do you want to learn some emergency piloting or not?" he replied coldly. "Alright, alright..." John muttered in reply. He only hoped he didn't wet his pants like the battle with that prototype, though thankfully nobody had noticed that embarassing fact. "And John, if you ever tell this to anyone..." "You'll shoot a neat hole in the Electronic Warfare officer's cockpit in the EWAC next time we go out?" he asked jokingly.
Max's cold stare quickly told him it would be something much worse than that. Sylvie sighed as she brushed past the pages of the book. It was a good story, but it was part of their history together, and she just wanted to forget it all. Maybe I really should've just gone home back in January, she thought to herself, just as he told me. I was pretty devastated by what had happened, even more than he was. But I just had to stay, and now I've changed. And now I don't feel anything in my heart anymore... only pain and loneliness. And he couldn't even care one bit about that... damn him...
"Max... I hate you..." she muttered quietly to herself, before throwing the book into the floor. "More bad news, General?" Cecilia Irene asked coldly as Wavell's face appeared on the videocom. You'd better have a damn good excuse... "Yes, my supplies are gone. The damn crew of the Falklands..." "Can you attack and destroy the enemy base or not?" she asked, cutting him off. If he was just going to blame the crew of the Falklands again... "With a little more..." "There shall be no more reinforcements. NONE," she emphasized, her already icy stare growing colder by the second. "Then I can not," he replied honestly. "Fine, return to Granada immediately. We now have more important matters to attend to." "Has the Federation begun its..."
"None of your concern, just return immediately," she finished, before turning off the radio. Damn him! she thought. You're going to pay now.... She turned to an aide, "Contact our agent, arrange for the accident." "Colonel, have you been keeping secrets from me again?" Karl asked as he met the Colonel in the wardroom for dinner. "Well, I guess the secret's out eh?" Sean replied with a smile, "You deserve it, Karl." "After the **** that has been happening..." "Modesty is also a pretty good quality, Karl," Sean continued, "But don't over do it. You've done enough to save this fleet twice over, so stop complaining about it."
"Well, yes..." Karl agreed. But what use was another increase in rank? Extra pay? He scoffed at that. He had nobody to send the money back to anyway... He sighed. Jessica... "Good morning XO," General Wavell greeted as his Executive Officer entered his room, "What brings you here at this hour?" "I was just going to hand you..." "My death sentence?" he asked in a wicked tone, "I don't think so..." Suddenly the XO felt a pair of strong arms grabbing him. He struggled, but then he felt the cold barrel of a gun pressed against his skull, "General Sir..." "And I trusted you..." he scoffed as he pulled something out of the XO's pocket. It was a silenced 9mm pistol. "Sir, you must believe..." "Your friend from the Wilhelm has already talked. Don't try to weasel your way out of this," the General replied coldly, "Tell me all that you know now, or you might die of a a severe brain hemorrhage like he did." "I... I..." the former XO replied, his voice shaking. He didn't want to die... he didn't want to... "Alright... all the data is in my room. Tucked in the framed photograph beside my bed," he confessed, defeated. "Thank you," Wavell replied with a grin. He then aimed the silenced 9mm at his XO's forehead. The XO's eyes went wide as his mouth began to open to plead his case, but before he could speak Wavell pulled the trigger, and the body slumped dead on the ground.
"Clean this up," the General ordered to his two loyal guards. They both nodded as they began to drag the body away. So, he thought, the invasion has begun eh? A perfect opportunity to redeem myself. The Federation Fleet wouldn't be so formidable, all he had to do was to find some way to share in the glory that would soon be Zeon's...
December 18, UC 0079 - "What's happening?" a man asked as he saw a small crowd gathering around the electronics store. All of the TV sets on display seemed to be all tuned into one channel... "It's a battle! Right here!" a young boy jubilantly answered. Living in a neutral colony, he had yet to see part of the war that had consumed half of mankind. And he had yet to understand its full horrors. "Isn't this dangerous?" a young mother asked. Worried about her infant child. "Feh," an independence activist in the background scoffed, "Those Federation idiots don't stand a chance..." "Three... Four..." a second young boy, one right in front of the screen, counted out loud. "My God, is the white one a Federation Mobile Suit?" an onlooker asked. "Five... Six... " the young boy continued. "Are those battleship beams that one is firing?!" another onlooker, this one a disabled veteran, shouted out loud. "Seven... Eight..." the young boy continued once again. "What are you counting, kid?" the activist asked. "The number of Zeon suits the white one took down..." he explained before resuming his count, "Nine. And there goes the ship..." "What?!" the activist asked as he pushed his way through the crowd. He was just in time to see a Zeon Tibe class cruiser exploded. All around Side 6, millions watched as the little battle unfolded in their peaceful part of space. Most people have already heard about the war that had devastated their neighbors, some had even seen it. And they had also known about Zeon's technological superiority thanks to their mobile suits. A superiority that was said to make a Federation victory impossible. That all changed right here, at this moment. Any military tactician worth his salt would have known that the force the "White Devil" had defeated was no great part of the mighty Zeon fleet. Any high-ranking Federal official would have known that this victory paled in comaparison with the White Base's other achievements. But unlike before, this time millions of ordinary people were there to see it, and what they saw was Federal troops, winning, against seemingly hopeless odds. It was moments like this that journalists wait for for all their lives. It was a moment that would leave indelible marks on the millions who watched it, moments that would become part of their heritage, moments that turn simple actions into legends. And from that moment on, despite the frantic ravings of a few, the people of Libo finally knew who would win the One Year War. However, people seemingly missed out one important detail. In an age where men pilotted giant killing machines instead of facing each other man to man, it became easy to forget that there were still human beings who were in those machines. That a person had died each time the young boy continued his count, that dozens of men were snuffed out as the Tibe's reactors cooked off. And that within the Gundam's white shell, a reluctant young man still resided, one that was about to face a tragedy greater than any he had faced before.
Consistency Notes:
- *Of course, I'm referring to Gundam's battle outside Side 6.
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.
"Never, has so much, been owed by so many, to so few." |
