A Difference of Perspective (Part II) [AEUG]

-- Jose Orlando --

The sight of explosions in the distance caused Jose to mutter, "Aw hell..."

He simply couldn't believe that this was happening. He wasn't under any illusions that the AEUG was a homogeneous organization by any means, the crew of the Rattler was proof enough of that, but this? This wasn't a simple disagreement. This was allied units actually shooting at each other! It was one hell of a mess and he was beginning to wonder just how they'd fix it before someone got killed.

As if on cue, just as Jose saw two shapes resolve into oh-so-familiar GM Customs, the machines turned and fired their bazookas straight at Commander Richard's team. The team Jose was in!

Cursing loudly, Jose twisted his Nemo to the side and oriented downward relative to the enemy machines to get the hell out of the way of the incoming fire. Luckily Abdel's voice over the comm showed that he had the same idea. Jose was grateful, at least, that they outnumbered this current group of hostiles. Hopefully that would be enough to get them to rethink this course of action. In fact, just to help them out, he raised his bazooka and fired off a trio of rounds in sync with Abdel's own attack. The shrapnel rounds were keyed to detonate before impact in order to shower the target area with bits of metal that could tear apart cameras and sensitive mechanics. If they made a fight undesirable that could scare them off.

--------------------------------------------------------------

-- Nathan Langdon --

Nathan gritted his teeth as the fight broke out, praying silently that it would resolve before anyone from his side got killed over something this stupid. Didn't these guys realize there were bigger things to worry about? Hadn't they all joined up to defeat the Titans?

Concerns on philosophy were put to the side as Marito gave him and Layla their orders, the Methuss transforming and speeding off soon after. He needed to focus on the matter at hand: on keeping his comrades alive. Nothing else mattered.

Under what he assumed to be the protective fire of Martio's artillery, the blue-painted Rick Dias likewise closed on the hostile that had become Layla's focus. With as close as the two machines ahead of them were, Nathan knew that using the bazooka would be far too dangerous. Instead he stored the weapon and drew the two beam pistols stored on the Rick Dias' back. While not as powerful or as long ranged, they would allow for more precise and faster shooting for the moment. Coming in from behind in what he hoped would be a blind spot, Nathan centered his reticule and prepared to fire the moment the enemy mobile suit moved to avoid Layla's attack.

Marito shifted his grip on the controls, his knuckles whitening as he put more pressure into squeezing the joystick and angled his wrist ever so differently. The result was immediate as his suit, previously moving steady seemed to shake as he 'fought' with the controls, like a rookie would. A second later, he fired from the two cannons on his back, the shots arcing well clear of any suits, but close enough to be noticed, especially by his targeted prey. To any pilot engaged, he looked like a greenhorn, unskilled and inexperienced, especially as he rocketed past the sniper firing wildly and mostly ineffectually from his vulcans to further draw the attention of any suit in range.

"Come and get it, easy pickings right here."

- Damien's Group -

The return fire from Damien, Jose, and Abdel was having some effect, as the opposing trio of two GMs and an interwar Zaku model struggled to maintain meaningful attack pressure. Damien had moved boldly foward to specifically pressure the Act Zaku that was hanging behind the GMs. It was time to pick off each target one by one, exploiting the performance advantages that the newer Nemo models had over these older mobile suits.

"I will move in close to take out the GM on the left," Abdel called out to Damien and Jose, "CPO Jose, keep the one one the right busy, away from Damien and me."

After issuing that order to Jose, Abdel accelerated his Nemo to close the distance on the GM Custom that was on the left, from he and his team's point of view. He continued firing shots from his beam rifle to suppress the GM's attacks, all the while banking on the Nemo's brawnier acceleration to close the gap without letting the GM run away.

Abdel's intention, if his beam rifle shots didn't score a disabling hit beforehand, was to move in to grapple with the GM face-to-face.

There were three things in Marito's experience that led to a pilot's death; confidence, fear and frustration. The suit on his tail, looking to end his life had confidence. Marito wanted to add frustration to that mix. Every shot that seemed certain to land a sure hit became glancing hit thanks to more wild movements, barely enough to scratch paint. Pushing the suit's mobility as much as possible like a fighter pilot should. He zipped, he slipped. Through the fire he danced, watching for the one moment his pursuer lost his patience and committed to a move that there was no backing out of.... Or he could just do something a little... reckless. A friend of his would be proud.

<<"Lesson 1, kid. In war, fear the elderly. They're still alive for a reason!">> he laughed back over the comms as he stalled his forward momentum just long enough to angle his suit back towards the Nemo Sniper, before kicking them back into high gear and charging at it. His profile minimized as much as possible against the starry backdrop and one of his cannons firing directly at it. Or rather, firing at the Ugallu squadron member beyond him, closer to the fighting. A spray of vulcan fire close behind to limit options... and finally the second cannon, fired at the most likely evasion route for all of that. Truth be told, it was a gamble.

But that was what made being a pilot so fun~.

A battle was never truly over until the other side was either annihilated or otherwise routed, something that the Ugallu squadron was experiencing first hand. The momentum they carried into the abrupt firefight with the Hellfighters had all but disappeared, the Rattler’s pilots not only better equipped but having become veterans in their own right. Across the field, Ugallu suffered losses as the Hellfighters coordinated their efforts in dividing and conquering the enemy while providing the necessary support to those who needed it. Perhaps most notable in this tactic was Marito, having taken the lead in disrupting the Nemo Sniper in a rather daring way.


From the jump, he had made himself an attention grabber and only wanted more as he poured more power into his Nemo Cannon’s thrusters, doing all he could to stay ahead of the Nemo Sniper’s concentrated beam fire, its rifle as deadly as Marito’s cannons. However, an abrupt stall of his forward momentum would turn the tables on his pursuer, his mobile suit reorienting itself to face the sniper in a renewed charge with the stars at its rear and the twinkle of its beam cannons marking its assault. Having already put the formation engaging Ben’s group on notice already, a second shot had forced an Act Zaku to rethink its pursuit of Amir, his Nemo rushing to aid the pressured MK III. The next shot had been aimed at the Nemo Sniper itself, its presence now no longer tolerated by the aged pilot. High-risk beget high-reward as the two pilots traded, the beam cannon blowing away its unshielded arm while the sniper’s counter-shot blasted apart one of the Nemo’s cannons.


Both had come out worse for wear but it was the Nemo Sniper that began to back off first, the accuracy of its return fire far below what was needed to protect itself effectively, let alone support their commander. Its remaining wingman was on course to suffer just as much, the Act Zaku caught between both Layla and Nathan with Marito looming in the wings. It would be the first of the trio to make the first move, the Methuss closing in despite the steady fire of a beam rifle while defending themselves rather unconventionally by disrupting a beam with their own saber. The rare occurrence gave the Zaku’s pilot a momentary pause before drawing their own heat axe as the distance got shorter and shorter, now forced to engage in melee. If they were to be surrounded, close-combat would at least prevent the others from supporting effectively or so the thinking was, the Act Zaku taking its first swing at the yellow mobile suit.


Farther on the opposite side, the groups led by Damien and Claire were making their own progress. Having charged ahead of Jose and Abdel, the Hellfighters’ commander continued to pour fire on the Act Zaku lagging behind its GM cohorts with one round sinking into the Zaku’s main camera, forcing it further on the defensive. Its wingmen, still locked in combat with Jose and Abdel faced their own struggles as the former continued their saturation fire, the spray of pellets eating away at the GM’s shield while hampering its ability to provide support fire. At the same time, Abdel made good use of his Nemo’s superior acceleration, quickly rounding on its counterpart as he skirted out of harm’s way while keeping the GM firmly in the fire. His shots had hit home as well, the suppressive fire giving way to a pair of rounds that split the GM’s beam rifle in two, leaving it with only its shield and sabers for a real defense. <<"Nice shot, Abdel. Pierce, what's your status?">>


Behind all their successes, Claire’s group had struck home as well. Thanks to Pierce hanging back to provide that extra support, one GM was unable to react effectively as it found itself the lone target of no less than four mobile suits with the finishing blows coming from a one-two punch provided by Pierce and Hayes, their beam fire striking the mobile suit in its main camera and rifle arm. And not far off, Miranda ran with that momentum to land a clay bazooka round in another GM’s shield, the explosion blowing it backwards as it reeled from the impact. <<”Pierce here, Commander. Looks like we’ve got them on the run…”>>


The whole of Ugallu seemed to be on the backfoot, something that only became clearer as Ben fired off another beam cannon round, ripping through the arm of another Zaku-type and leaving a molten stump behind. By now, the group tangling with Ben and Malia were down to two undamaged units. But that hadn’t meant they were without their own troubles. The GM unit engaged with Malia had started inflicting some lasting damage on her Nemo as her main camera began to fail as the rifle rounds shattered its visor and battering the dual-eye camera lenses behind them. <<”Lieutenant, my camera’s on the fritz, I need space!”>>


She needed more than just space, Ben quickly realized. When the Zaku-type gunning for Amir had its attack run shutdown by Marito, it had begun angling for Malia instead. And if her camera was out of whack, a second opponent would be a death sentence, especially if he couldn’t pick off the other pursuer in quick succession. Fortunately, the choice was out of his hands as another signal pinged his sensors and it gunned right for the Act Zaku closing in on Malia, its rifle spraying away. Another Nemo? Wait, I know who that is…


He’d nearly forgotten in all the commotion but they had received an extra pilot in the days between now and their last sortie. The captain must’ve given the okay after seeing how far ahead they had been split up. <<”Pretty sharp…Back off, Malia, we’ll cover you,”>> he ordered as he turned his rifle on the GM Custom harassing her. More importantly, he had to snag this new one before she got ahead of herself. <<”Ensign Koori, right? Good timing, form up with me and give Malia some cover fire. Don’t worry about shooting them down, just make em think twice about making a move!”>>


For as dire as the situation for Ugallu appeared, the one constant was that its commander had hounded Fox the entire fight. Through a combination of experience and deadly support, the Gundam had been forced on the defensive and, despite its strengths, was starting to look battered with its shield half what it used to be and the Rick Dias looking to finish the job. For his part, Fox had been rather rattled at both the pressure and, unlike his last encounter against the Titans, that spark of intuition hadn’t shown itself despite the danger he was in. Was he missing something or was it all in his head?


<<”I’m gonna tear you limb from limb, Gundam…!”>>


There it was, a chill down his spine and another rocking impact to go with it, the MK III having taken another hard hit to its shield. It won’t last another one of those…But before he could even worry about that, Fox had to pull himself out of the mess he stumbled into though he doubted it would be so easy. This Bardos guy had been deliberate with every action and didn’t let anything go to waste. If he was to pull a rabbit out of his hat, he needed the right moment. Something like…there!


As the Rick Dias lined up another round, a shot sailed in from the dark, nearly spearing the red mobile suit through its head as it twisted to the side and banked. With an opening given, the Gundam angled its own beam rifle and let off a single round that split the Dias’ bazooka apart, forcing the Ugallu commander to abandon the now worthless weapon. It had taken some time but Amir had finally snaked his way to the aid of his fellow Anaheim pilot, his Nemo in prime condition thanks to other pilots prying the heat off of him. <<”Jesus Fox, you letting this guy bully you?”>>


<<”Me? Never! But since you’re here, let’s show him we do things in the testing division!”>> It was a touch embarrassing but Amir had really saved his skin this time around. He had been so focused on not getting killed, he had no idea how the rest of the battle was playing out. But that would have to come later. Now that they had partnered up, he had a gut feeling that things would definitely start looking up…


((A Map of the situation)) [Not to scale]


((The Toto Times))