Chapter 6: Prosecution
A pre-new year chapter, hop you like it :-) July 1, UC 0087. 0800 hours Zulu. Somewhere in the South China Sea "****! This is Escargot 06, I've just lost contact with
the sub again!" a voice crackled over the radio, "Slipped under the
layer, heading for bearing 170, going at seven and a half knots..." "Don't worry 06, I've picked her up," another
voice declared over the radio, "Generating targeting solution..." We're getting closer... Lieutenant Colonel Natalie Dolvich
thought as she listened in on her Don Escargot group's radio frequency. Three
hours after Escargot 03 had located the whereabouts of the enemy submarine,
another one of her Don Escargot pilots had managed to resume contact with the
enemy submarine. What resulted was an eight-hour hunt that resulted in six
torpedoes being fired for not a single hit. The ******* was good at keeping
them from getting a solid fix, and had so far prevented the deployment of the
underwater capable but unbearably slow Aqua GMs... "This is Escargot 01, I got her too!" a third
voice reported, "Generating a solution as well!" "This is Escargot 02! Torpedo away!" --------------- "Torpedo in the water! Torpedo in the water!!!"
the lead sonarman on the U-606 screamed into the intercom, "Five hundred
yards right behind us! Going fast as hell at forty knots! It's locked onto
us!" "Right full rudder, raise depth to one hundred feet and
start launching decoys," Yoko ordered in as calm a voice as she could
manage. She had been in such situations before, but never this long, nor
against an enemy so persistent. Time and time again she thought she'd finally
lose those idiotic Feddies, but every time THAT seemed to happen she found
herself being chased by another torpedo... "Splashes in front of us!" a second sonarman
screamed, "I think it's more buoys! OH ****! Second torpedo in the water!
A thousand yards, dead ahead!" Oh ****... Yoko thought. Now THIS was bad... When trapped
between a rock and a hard place... "Yoko..." Jean asked worriedly. He was REALLY at
the point of starting to claw at the sub's walls, knowing that a watery death
was almost inevitable... Duck and pray you don't get sandwiched in between... Yoko
thought on, ignoring Jean. "Maintain bearing and make your depth 650
feet," Yoko ordered as she did a few quick calculations in her head,
"And launch a noisemaker!" "Aye mam," a cooler technician responded as he
released the noisemaker. Being a small torpedo carrying the sub's acoustical
signature, it was often a perfect distraction for enemy homing torpedoes.
However, with one in front of them and one behind them... Come on... Yoko though as she watched the depth counter, and
hoping that her calculations were correct. With two torpedoes heading straight
for her, she knew that radical maneuvering would get her nowhere. All she could
hope for was that she could slip beneath the thermal layer -that ever so useful
convergence of hot and cold water in the ocean that was almost impenetrable by
sound and the boon of submariners the world over- and keep herself from being
detected, and hope that the noisemaker remaining above the layer would be on
the receiving end of both torpedoes. Because if not... --------------- "Two explosions in the water!" Rollins reported as
the X-7 was buffeted slightly by the shockwave. He then heard Lieutenant Honour
mutter a curse. "How's the U-606?" Honour inquired as he tried to
re-balance his tiny submarine. He had been trying desperately to distract the
main search effort for the U-606, but so far the enemy pilots had been ignoring
him or just plain didn't notice him. And now he could only hope... "I don't know sir..." Rollins replied worriedly,
"She has suddenly become deathly quiet..." --------------- "Hit?" Natalie asked as her pilots reported two
explosions in the water. "Can't tell yet mam," one of the pilots responded,
"Maybe we got her, and maybe we got only a piece of her. We're trying to
re-establish contact with her now..." "Where are the Aqua GM squads?" Natalie asked as
she turned to Hawkins, who was busy calling the two Mideas carrying their
amphibious Mobile Suits. "Two minutes away, they are going to do a low-level
jump right on the sub's last known location," Hawkins reported, "Lieutenant
Quito's team will handle things then." "Good," Natalie replied as she picked up her radio
once again, "Escargots, you found her yet?" "No mam," another pilot responded, "She might
have slipped under the layer to hide out. Trying to re-establish contact
now..." ---------------- "Damage report!" Yoko shouted over the alarm
claxons now ringing all over the submarine. From the growing list she could feel
within the control room, she knew that they were taking in water after that
near hit, though how severe... "This is Scott!" the Anaheim infiltrator screamed
over the sound of onrushing water, "We've suffered a major hit and are
leaking badly. We've managed to keep the water under control so far, but the engines
are acting erratically and we have to keep our depth at 100 feet or less. I
DON'T think I can get repairs done any time soon..." "In other words, we are a sitting duck..." Yoko
muttered in reply, and began to consider using her Mobile Suit. They wanted to
save showing its true amphibious capabilities for the moment, but at this
rate... "More buoys!" one of the sonarman reported,
"Right on top of us I think..." At this rate, Yoko thought on, she really wasn't going to
have a choice... "Scott! Get to the bridge immediately! I need you to take
command!" "What?!" ---------------- "Found her!" one of the Escargot pilots reported
as he finally found and isolated the U-606's distinctive machine sounds from
all the other noises now cluttering the ocean, "I think she's been hit.
She's not moving!" "She must have suffered significant damage,"
Hawkins observed, "No submarine skipper would ever stay in one place for
too long..." "Unless they're up to something..." Natalie
countered, "Drop Quito's team now to finish them off and put the Escargots
on standby just in case. I'm not going to take any more chances with these
rebels..." --------------- "Get ready to jump sir!" the Midea pilot reported
to Lieutenant Gabriel Quito, commander of the 45th and 46th Amphibious Mobile
Suit Teams, "We're over the target area now!" "Aye, open hangar bay doors," Quito ordered as he
took one last check of his systems. His Aqua GM was a rather poor amphibious
Mobile Suit, one that was practically written off during the One Year War due
to its unreliability, though seven years of tinkering had done much to improve
their performance. However, he knew that it wasn't often the machines that counted,
it was the men, and his men were among the best trained in the Federal Forces.
Good enough to be regularly called up by the Titans as well, he knew, though
they had never really fired a shot in anger as of yet... "Green light, green light..." the pilot reported,
"Jump now!" "This is 45th MS Team, we are going now!" Quito
declared as his Aqua GM stepped off the Midea Kai. He took a deep breath as he
fell. The first step was always the most difficult... --------------- "****.... I think we've got company..." Scott
reported over the gertrude, the submarine's underwater telephone, to the now
agitated Yoko deploying her Zugock E2, "Five... maybe six units. Sounds
like old Aqua GM types." "Plus any more Escargots they have flying around up
there," Yoko reminded, though she didn't think they'd drop any more
torpedoes for the moment, as homing torpedoes were notorious for causing
fratricide, "Where are they coming from?" "Two groups, one coming in from the north, the second
group coming in due east," Scott reported, "Northern group is getting
close, it should get within your visual range within a minute..." "Got it Scott..." Yoko replied as she turned
northward to face the first group of Aqua GMs, and wished her Zugock had some
on-board sonar as well. Her optics were significantly better than most standard
Mobile Suits, particularly for low-light combat, but sound still traveled far
better than light under the water, and also... Suddenly, a trio of torpedoes streaked right towards her
Zugock. She maneuvered, until she realized they had mainly been blind fired at
her. Another torpedo followed, this time a guided weapon that started heading
straight for her, but Yoko managed to fire a beam that exploded the torpedo
before it could even come close. Realizing that the Aqua GMs had a
significantly better standoff combat capability than her, she decided to close
her distance to the enemy Mobile Suit team. Soon, three darkened figures
appeared in her green lighted low-light monitors, each one aiming a massive arm
torpedo launcher straight at her... The Aqua GM team leader also saw Yoko's Mobile Suit
approaching him, and grimaced as he realized what kind of opponent he was
facing. Knowing his team would be easily ripped to shreds by the Zugock's
excellent underwater melee capabilities, he ordered his men to keep their range
and use their torpedoes, their underwater beam sabres and electrified whips now
definitely the secondary weapon. Unfortunately he made a mistake. He did not
realize that Yoko was carrying a beam weapon. And Yoko was quick to capitalize on that advantage. Now
within sight of the enemy Aqua GMs, she could now effectively use her beam gun
without fear of it dissipating due to the beam's reduced underwater
performance. She quickly fired a shot at the lead Aqua GM, but the Aqua GM
managed to evade her first shot while its two wingmen fired a pair of mini
torpedoes to cover their comrade. Yoko dodged these and aimed and fired a
second shot at her target. This time, its pilot wasn't so lucky. The Aqua GM had taken a hit in its gas tanks and began to
careen wildly as the gas leaked out of its hull and formed a cloud of bubbles
around the Mobile Suit. Before the pilot could try to eject the damaged tanks,
a spark in one of the interior components detonated the remaining fuel within
the tanks, destroying most of the Aqua GM's power systems and leaving it and
its pilot in a long, helpless descent towards the bottom of the sea. As its
still-living pilot begged for help, one of his fellow pilots tried to save him
by carrying the crippled unit to the surface, but Yoko paid no heed to his
humanitarian concerns and shot a hole right through the second pilot's cockpit. The third Aqua GM hesitated to help his crippled companion
after seeing the results of the first rescue attempt, and decided to try to
fight the Zugock first before trying to save his fellow pilot. It proved to be
his undoing however, as Yoko had already closed her range on the slower moving
Aqua GM, As he tried to aim his torpedo launcher at Yoko, the Zugock suddenly
lunged straight at his Mobile Suit and chopped the launcher in half with its
claws. The pilot then tried to draw his beam sabre in a final attempt to fight
back, but Yoko mercilessly grabbed the Aqua GM and disemboweled it using her
claws before it could even reach it melee weapon. Yoko, now viciously satisfied
at seeing the shredded remains of the last Aqua GM, kicked the wreck away from
her own suit and watched as its pieces slowly start sinking towards the abyss. Now satisfied that the northern threat had been destroyed,
she quickly turned around to meet the second group of Aqua GMs now approaching
her submarine. She took one last glance at the only survivor of the enemy
squad, the now crippled Aqua GM that she had first targeted, whose pilot was
still screaming for someone to help him as water slowly ingressed into the now
compromised cockpit. Yoko paid no heed to his ravings, nor would be inclined to
waste a shot to send him off his way in a less painful manner. To her, only the
worse type of death was good enough for her enemies... --------------- "Dear God..." one of the Don Escargots pilots
managed to blurt outloud, "The 46th MS Team just got wiped out mam!
Classify enemy amphibious Mobile Suit as an improved Zugock type. I... I'm not
sure where the 45th is..." "If they are facing a Zugock, I don't think our Aqua
GMs are going to be able to hold out for long..." Hawkins warned,
"I've seen one in action back in 79' during a Zeek raid on Scapa Flow.
Bloody deadly machine, managed to sink four of our ships and half a dozen of
our Escargots before we managed to bring that thing down..." "I know Hawkins..." Natalie muttered at this
sudden complication. Was this a newly acquired AEUG Mobile Suit? Or was it a
unit from Subic? she though. Probably the latter, since Subic was supplied by
those "unreliable" Anaheim guys and was a center for re-developing
Zeon amphibious Mobile Suits. And if Quito's team was facing a Zugock, it
wouldn't be a fight, it would be a massacre... "Order them to concentrate fire on the enemy
submarine!" Natalie decided, "Even if we can't beat that monster,
we're going to make sure it wouldn't have any place to come home to..." --------------- Lieutenant Quito cringed as he heard the last, blood-curdling
scream from the sole survivor of the 46th MS Team. The Aqua GM had just passed
crushed depth, and his scream was followed by the sickening sound of crunching
metal, and then, only silence... ****... Quito thought. This was bad... how the hell... "Sir, we're being ordered to concentrate fire on the
enemy submarine," one his men, voice shaking slightly after hearing the
death of one of their companions, reported as he took a check of their
position, "We should be seeing her in about a minute or so..." "Al... alright, get your weapons ready," Quito
ordered as he readied one of his torpedoes, "And watch out for that enemy
Zugock type. We don't want to be caught unawares..." --------------- Oh ****... Yoko thought as she spotted the three other Aqua
GMs now closing in on the U-606. The three seemed a bit hesitant, probably
because of how she'd left their companion earlier, which had been a deliberate
albeit macabre bit of psychological warfare on her part. To her, there was no
morality in war, and anything that may cause the enemy to be slightly more edgy
and panicky was something to be taken advantage of. If only that would be
enough... All three Aqua GMs quickly fired off a torpedo each at the
U-606, but suddenly the sub fired back a trio of torpedoes of its own and
forced the enemy team to evade while Yoko took down the incoming torpedoes one
by one with her beam gun. The sub couldn't maneuver very well to evade the
torpedo now, she knew, and she had to act as a ferocious goalkeeper to keep
those torpedoes from finding their mark. Unfortunately, the time it took to
take out the torpedoes was also enough time for the Aqua GM team to evade the
torpedoes earmarked for them and start another attack run. Yoko fired two
shots, forcing two of the Aqua GMS to break off their attack run, but none
causing any actual damage. The third however, managed to fir another torpedo at
the U-606, and Yoko was forced to waste two more of her precious shots to stop
the incoming torpedo. Meanwhile, the U-606 had fired its last three loaded
torpedoes at the enemy Aqua GMs to cover Yoko, and this time the support fire
was more effective. One of the Aqua GMs barely evaded one of the torpedoes, but
ran right into a second, which scored a direct hit. Torpedo, Mobile Suit and
pilot were all blown apart, and Quito swore in frustration at the loss of
another man. Yoko meanwhile, decided to grab this opportunity created by
the confusion caused by the U-606's torpedo barrage. She aimed her beam gun at
one of the Aqua GMs, one still seemingly trying to regain its bearings, and
fired a single shot that went through the reactor. Another fireball erupted
beneath the ocean's surface. --------------- F***... Quito thought to himself as he realized he was alone.
F***! F***! "This is Quito! Start dropping torpedoes now!" "Lieutenant! We can't do that..." an Escargot
pilot responded, "We might end up hitting you instead. Maybe we
could..." "I don't care!" Quito screamed as he charged
straight at Yoko's Zugock, "Drop them on the sub now!" --------------- "Torpedo in the water! Torpedo in the water!"
Scott screamed to Yoko over the gertrude, "Right on top of you Yoko!" Damn... maybe they don't care about fratricide at all...
Yoko thought angrily to herself as she re-oriented herself to face the incoming
torpedoes now coming down to the sub from above. She quickly saw two of them,
approaching her at breakneck speed, and fired a pair of shots. One miss, one
kill. Yoko was so concentrated on trying to take down the second torpedo when
she realized she wasn't being left alone anymore... Suddenly, she felt a massive jolt as a torpedo impacted her
Mobile Suit's back. It not only ruined her aim, but it caused her to waste a
shot as well thanks to her accidental pressing of the trigger. She turned
around and found herself getting hit by a second torpedo, this one causing
significant exterior damage, and snarled in frustration as she realized that
last Aqua GM still wasn't getting the message... "Yoko! The torpedo!" Scott reminded in as aloud a
voice as he could manage. He was now frantically trying evasive maneuvers as
well, but... Damn it... Yoko thought as she turned to the torpedo again,
hoping that the next hit by the Aqua GM wouldn't get her, and aimed at the
incoming torpedo. Another shot slammed into her armor, this time causing
significant interior damage, but she ignored this and concentrated her aim at
the torpedo heading for the U-606. As the torpedo approached a hundred yards of
the submarine, she fired, this time her shot finding its mark and causing the
torpedo to explode far enough from the submarine to cause fatal damage. She
then turned to face the Aqua GM once again, but before she could face it
properly she was hit again, and this time she could hear some of the underwater
seals giving way... "Don't think you're going to win Feddie..." Yoko
muttered in defiance as she aimed her beam gun at the Aqua GM. She pressed the
trigger, but to her utter horror, she realized it was dead. The last hit had
damaged her gun, and now... "I got you..." Quito muttered to himself as he
aimed at the now severely damaged Zugock. He never saw the torpedo coming right
behind him. --------------- "Gotcha!" Honour shouted jubilantly as his torpedo
scored a direct hit on the Aqua GM and blew it apart. His X-7 had only room for
one torpedo, but it proved to be well spent, "Mam, are you
alright?" "Honour?" Yoko asked, still slightly dazed at all
the hits she had suffered, "Christ, where the hell were you? Have you been
hiding out all this time?" "I've been trying to draw their fire," Honour
reported, "But to no avail. However, I'm afraid that the last series of
attacks has left us in a dire position. If more torpedoes come..." "We die..." Yoko replied simply, "We
die..." --------------- "Mam, Quito's GM just went off line" an Escargot
pilot reported solemnly, "But we have a lock on all three enemy units, and
they all seem to be crippled..." "Finish them off," Natalie ordered simply,
"Let's end this now." "Aye mam," the pilot responded as his plane began
to fly low over the target area, opening its bomb bay doors as it did so. To
everyone's surprise, its wing suddenly erupted into a fireball and the
unfortunate plane cartwheeled into the ocean. A second Escargot quickly followed
suit. "What the hell?!" Natalie shouted as she began to
look around in the sky around her. It couldn't have come from the ocean, she
was sure, or else she would have seen the shots. Which only meant...
"Sabrefish group! Do you have any enemy aircraft on radar?" "None mam!" the pilot responded in a panicked
tone, "There's no Minovsky interference, but we aren't picking up anything
but... Oh God... I just lost two of my four fighters. Where the hell..." "Stealth fighter?" Hawkins suggested as he began
to scan the sky as well, "They couldn't have... Nobody's built one for
generations!" --------------- Fighter pilot's point of view: You're not outnumbered
fifteen to one, it means you just have fifteen targets... Olivia Sondergard
thought to herself in order to keep calm. She KNEW that Jean was in trouble
when her fighter group had picked up those Titans transmissions, but not THIS
much trouble. Only she and her wingman in their JCB Kais had arrived to help
out, and though they had downed four planes in total, she doubted it would be
enough... Damn it Liv... she thought angrily to herself. Jean's
counting on you, so don't let him down or he'll be dead... Remember... Fighter
pilot's POV... Fighter pilot's POV... She took a deep breathe as she increased altitude to meet
with the two remaining Sabrefish escorting the enemy air group. Neither had
spotted her as of yet, and she quickly ripple fired two of her missiles at the
pair. Both went down. Quickly diving back into cloud cover before anyone could
spot her, Liv quickly began to scan for another target, and decided to break
left and hope that she could find the Mideas she had spotted earlier. Luck
smiled on her, as she immediately found herself in the Midea's tail as she
broke off cloud cover, with a good enough missile lock to shoot. She quickly
fired a missile, before dodging back towards the clouds... --------------- "Incoming!" Hawkins screamed as he saw a smoke
trail heading for the Midea. Before he or anyone on the plane could brace
himself, the plane shuddered as the missile exploded only inches from the
Midea's tail and ripped off a large section of it. This caused the plane to
shudder wildly, and Hawkins found himself slipping and ending up smashing his
face into a nearby console... "Ea... Hawkins!" Natalie screamed as she rushed to
her second in command, fearful of the amount of blood now pouring out of his
head, "Order the planes to start falling back! Get back to Subic and tell
those backup fighter groups to get here as soon as possible!" "I... I think I'm alright..." Hawkins manage to
blurt out as he placed his hand on his forehead. It came away red, but what was
worrying him more was the distressed look in Natalie's face... "We don't
have to go yet..." "Regardless, we're getting out of here before this
thing falls apart, especially with no fighter cover left..." Natalie
chided as she took one last check of Hawkins' injury, and realizing they were
superficial, gave out a sigh of relief, "Get a medic up here now! I want
my XO bandaged up before he bleeds to death..." --------------- "Aren't they going to kill us yet?" Yoko muttered
impatiently as she looked on warily to the surface of the ocean above. She HAD
seen some explosions, but it couldn't be... "Ummm... Yoko..." Scott reported nervously,
"I think we'd better surface now. The leak on this thing is getting a lot
worse, and if we don't surface in six minutes, we're going to be permanent
decoration on the ocean floor." "Alright, get ready to surface, and get ready to fight
like mad when we get there..." Yoko ordered, though she was now having
this crazy feeling that Murphy's Law had just reared its ugly head on her
enemies... --------------- Crazy... Liv thought as she saw the enemy air group start
moving away. Utterly crazy... But then again, stranger things have happened...
Some pilot named McCampbell* HAD set the all-time kill record for one mission
over these islands during the Second World War, but this was just crazy.
Sixteen on two, and the two won? "Don't wonder why they're running Liv, maybe they just
didn't know how many of us they were facing," her wingman, Lieutenant
Gordon, suggested, "Where's the U-606?" "Right here..." a shaken but annoyed voice
answered for them as the submarine emerged on the ocean surface, "I
thought I told you to get to the rendezvous site Liv..." It was Jean. "Ummm... Sorry Captain, but I heard you were in
trouble..." Olivia replied defensively, "I mean sir, if we hadn't
been around well..." "We would have been dead," Yoko confirmed for her,
"Thanks Lieutenant." Well, at least my hunches are right... Liv thought to
herself and feeling relieved that all that had been for something, "But
mam, you need to get out of here immediately. We can't stay over you forever,
and I don't think we can stop them if they send in a serious fighter group to
hunt us..." "There's just a slight problem Liv," Scott added
before anyone could add anything, "This sub's been shot all to hell, and I
can't get her to New Guinea without serious repairs. We HAVE to make port
somewhere or we don't get anywhere at all..." Oh ****... Liv thought to herself with a moan, "Where
IS the nearest port then, and how long before you could get there?" "About three hours away..." Scott replied as he
took a look in his charts, "Manila, capital of the Philippine
Islands..." --------------- *He shot down nine planes during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in
1944, and was awarded the Medal of Honor. --------------- Notice: This fic and all its contents are copyrighted by Thomas
E. "Zinegata" Ting. No part of this work may be taken by any other
person without permission from the author. Gundam and all related trademarks
are owned by Bandai and their respective companies. |
