Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ Blended Dimensions ❯ The One Year War ( Chapter 11 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

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In the last episode...

Bud, Ranma and Montel arrived in the Gundam Wing universe. But upon their arrival, things start to change from the original storyline. Montel joins the United Earth Federation forces and Buddy and Alpha-One are suddenly recruited by Dr. J, one of the original mobile suit engineers and creator of Wing Gundam. It wasn't until the attack at New Edwards base in San Fransico and the murder of Supreme Commander Marshall Noventa did things finally get out of hand. Thanks to an 'annoymous' tip, the UEF North American forces held off the world wide attacks by Treize Khushrenada's OZ organization and from there the United States of America and it's allies under the UEF rule declared war against OZ. That decision also brought the colonies into play with Side's 1 thru 3 and 7 joining the UEF, 4 and 5 claiming neutral and Side-6 Luna Base already in OZ hands. At that time, Montel finished MS training, finding that he is a natural at piloting a mobile suit but crappy at air combat. He recieved special orders to report to Area 51 in Roswell, NM were he teamed up with Shiro Yamada, Kycilia Zabi, Aina Sahalin, Karen Joshua, Eledore Massis and Scott Bernard to form an elite special forces unit of newly designed mobile suits made to combat OZ and the Gundams. Meanwhile, Bud and Ranma arrive at L1 Colony station Side-1 where they meet Dr. J to work on the YF-19...

Blended Demensions
By Bud

Chapter 11: The One Year War

"Incomming shelling! Take cover!"

"ETA until in position, Scott?!"

"Give me 20 more minutes! I'm under fire!"

"Shit! ETA until that bomber group arrives?!"

"108th will arrive in 30 minutes with a 15 minute extension if needed. But we need that SAM (Surface-to-Air) and AA (Anti-Aircraft) turrents destroyed."

Gulana Highlands north of the Brazilian Amazon river. Base Gulana, a South American UEF base that was taken over by OZ during the first minutes of the attacks a few weeks back. Gulana was a position that was needed for the UEF to begin their counter-offensive to retake South American from the clutches of OZ. The base location was over 500m above sea-level in the Gulana Highlands atop a plateau that stretches nearly 1 mile long. Originally it was a highly fortified air base designed to launch attack craft ranging from Aries mobile suits, conventional fighter planes and up to intercontinental bombers.

The UEF needed this base but reaching it from the ground was out of the question due to the steep slopes along it's south-side. They decided to go the route of strategic bombing of the plateau. But they ran into other problems. Base Gulana is covered by heavy anti-air gun implacements and SAM launchers. To top that off, multiple dual 120mm turrents lined the edge of the plateau along with a massive triple-barrel 200mm turrent and a battalion of OZ MS's to hold off ground assaults and defend their air-space. That is where the 08th MS Team comes in.

The 08th MS Team's objective was to locate and destroy enemy anti-aircraft implacements in time for the 108th bomber group to fly in with CX-88 Intercontinental Bombers and lay waste to key buildings using 5,000lbs. HE bombs and cluster munitions. A total of 5 intercontinental bombers fully loaded and en route. So they were air dropped 2 miles from the base and had to hoof it to their objective.

Ground exploded around Montel's RX-79 Gundam as he hid behind a boulder within the treeline that precedes the base of the steep cliff 600 meters from his position. So far he hasn't had a clear lock with the 180mm dober cannon his mobile suit is equiped with, but with all the shelling and cover fire he recieved from the enemy prevented him from getting that window of opportunity. What he did know was the sound of multiple cannons firing and the faint whistle of projectiles.

"Incomming!" he shouted along the comm net. 300 meters to his left, a concentrated beam of energy lanced out in a straight line burning a huge gash into an OZ-06MS Leo before it exploded into scrap.

"Got one." Kycilia Zabi said calmly. Her RX-79 Ex-8 was in a prone position lying between two boulders with her 3.0 MW Long Range Beam rifle zeroing onto OZ sniper MS's. "Sir, I think they spotted me. I need cover."

Lt. Shiro Yamada, squad commander heard his XO's request and went into action. "Montel! Move to Zabi's position and cover her. Make sure she's protected." He switched over to Karen. "Move to WP-2 and follow my lead."

"Roger!"

"On it."

"This is scott. I'm in position earlier than expected. I'm locked down and ready to fire."

Shiro sighed in relief. "Roger that Scott. Aina!" He switch over to the hover truck. "Instruct Eledore to feed Scott coordinates of weapon installations. Priority on those anti-aircraft armaments!"

"Yes sir!"

"Incomming!" Montel shouted.

Karen brought up her MS's shield and took the brunt of a direct hit from a 120mm shell. Her gundam stumbled back nearly toppling over. "Grrr... Asshole!" She brought to bear her missle pack and locked onto the north-easter gun implacement and fired. The missle streaked thru the air and shot into the space between the barrels. The turrent exploded taking out a Leo that was next to it.

"Scott! Distance: 4887m Elevation: 305m." Eledore read off.

"Roger. Firing."

"Shit! Watch out!" Montel suddenly made his MS jump in front of Lt. Zabi, blocking an incomming sniper shot that would of taken her MS's head off. "Where are you-- There!" He brought up the dober cannon and fired it's high-velocity shell taking out a Leo while Kycilia took out the sniper.

"Thanks." she said evenly.

"No biggie."

"ETA until arrival?!" Shiro shouted.

"20 minutes!"

In the type 74 hover truck, Eledore manned the sonar while Aina watched communications and radar. He listened intently until he heard the vibrations of a building being destroyed. "Direct hit. Scott: 26 degrees right, Distance 4927m, Elevation 302m. Mark."

"Roger."

"Zabi. Change positions. Move to WP-5 and continue. Montel. Head to WP-3."

"Aye, sir."

"Roger."

"This is Eledore. I got movement from topside. Their moving troops forward. And it looks like they're arming those big guns."

"Karen, Montel. Take out that cannon. I'll cover you."

"Roger." Karen replied.

"On it." Montel said, bringing up his cannon and blasting a Leo into pieces.

Shiro crotched behind a huge boulder, shells exploding and kicking up dirt around and into the air. He stood and shot his chain-rifle hitting two Leo's directly in the cock-pit. They both fell back before he ducked back down.

"Montel! Cover me!" Karen shouted. Montel stepped up to her position and laid cover fire with his chain-rifle held in his mobile suit's left hand. MSgt. Joshua's Rx-79 suddenly leaped into a high, thruster assisted jump until she was near even with the level the triple turrent was on. She quickly locked onto the turrent and fired, three missle streaking from their bays and turning the gun implacement into a pile of metal and concrete. As she dropped she aimed her chain-rifle at an Leo and turned it into swiss cheese before landing next to Montel and backing up to reload.

"Good job Karen! Now both of you follow my lead," instructed Shiro as he headed east from their position along the bottom of the hill.

"Scott, this is Eledore. Left 38 degrees. Distance 4900m Elevation 322m."

"Roger. Firing."

At the top the plataeu, smoke billowed up as Scott's shelling made another direct hit causing a chain explosion that sent a pair of MS's flying off the hill to their destruction.

Another beam of energy shot out of Lt. Zabi's rifle eliminating a pair of MS's.

In the distance they heard the sounds of 200mm cannons firing from Scott's RX-77D Guncannon followed by the high-pitched whistling sounds of the arching high-explosive armor piecing artillery projectiles. Shiro, Karen and Montel had their mobile suits drop and cover.

"Incomming!" A loud explosion rang from atop the hill as another AA turrent was taken out.

"This is Eledore. I've detected signatures of OZ-06MS Leo's directly above your position, sir."

"Copy that. Karen. Drop back to WP-3 and give up some cover fire."

"Roger."

"Montel, follow me."

"I got your six."

Both mobile suits ran along the base of the cliff until they reached a 100m high slope. They leaned against the hard rock to to make sure they were out of range of the remaining turrents and Leo's. "Montel. On three, we'll both move 10 meters opposite of each other and use the boosters to climp to the next ledge." Montel agreed and prepared himself. "Ready.... Three!!" and Shiro moved away and rocketed up to the next level.

"Hey! What happen to one and two?!" Montel cried, following his leaders example. The first thing to greet him upto was a Leo with it's 105mm rifle trained on him. He screamed and quickly brought up the 180mm dober cannon and fired. Though the MS was destroyed, the recoil from the cannon was so massive that it put his MS into a mid-air spin and he crashed onto the flat surface of the cliff-side before landing on his size on the large ledge. "Shit..." he cursed, slowly getting his suit up.

Only to be tackled back to the ground by Shiro. "Get down!" Lt. Yamada aimed his chain-rifle at a gun turrent filling it with unwanted armor piercing slugs before it exploded giving both of them a good cloud cover. He suddenly turned to another turrent that was twisting towards their direction. He flipped a switch on his console to paint the target with a laser guided beacon. "Your songs playing Karen!"

"Music to my ears." A missle shot from her launcher and arched over the cliff and homed in onto the target. The turrent didn't have a chance.

"Are you okay, Montel?" Shiro asked worriedly.

"I'm aight." he suddenly shoved Shiro off of him and ignited his boosters. In one motion, he reached for his beam saber on his left, ramming a Leo with his shield and just as quickly sliced the MS in half at the waist as he pulled the saber out.

"Scott. Left 18 degrees. Distance: 5334m Elevation: 462m. This is a hard one so fire three salvos. Intervals of 30 seconds, adjust 2 degrees per shot."

"Roger that. Adjusting 18 left and 2 per salvo. Firing."

"5 minutes until UEF Air Force arrival."

"Wysinger! Come'on!" Shiro's mobile suit did a 85m high booster jump onto a ledge and headed east along it. Montel followed, occassionally turning around to watch their back just in case someone sneaked up behind them. Arriving at the edge, they leaned up against the 30m high flat cliff-side. Using MS hand signals, Shiro told Montel to hold this position while he would climb up to take a look.

"Montel. You hold this position while I got up for a looksee."

"....." Montel just blinked, deciding not to comment.

A short burst of fire exited the boosters exhaust ports and Shiro's RX-79 leaped up into the air. Reaching 30m in the air at the peak of it's jump just before touching down on the summit's plateau, he suddenly fell back down with it's shield smoking hot from a direct hit from a beam rifle. It crashed heavily beside Montel's mobile suit.

"Sniper!!" Lt. Yamada shouted in warning for his team.

"This is Zabi. I'm on it."

Kycilia brought foward her targeting scope in her MS and moves the suit into a crouched position on one knee with the LR beam rifle held firmly. She visibly scanned the area where her commander was last located. She couldn't see an sniper until a beam lanced out from atop of spire located deep within the summit. She zoomed in to 20x magnification and lined up the reticle perfectly with the head of the prone OZ Leo. She quickly squeezed the fire trigger watching the beam cut into the jungle green MS and part of the spire as she moved the rifle to cut a line to the engine of the mecha. In just a few seconds it's engine exploded spilling debri and earth everywhere.

Montel perked his head up hearing the sounds of incomming shelling from friendly lines. On instinct he put his suit into a run towards the edge of the cliff. Igniting his boosters he made his mobile suit jump over onto the adjacent ledge slamming the tip of his shield into the chest of a Leo, disabiling it instantly. Moving up against the 20m high rocky wall, he activated a periscope that rose from a slot on his RX-79's head and peered around the plateau.

"I got friendly IFF on radar. Two minutes until bomber arrival."

"Scott! Adjust 2 degrees west. Elevate 5 degrees. Fire!"

"Roger."

"I got enemy power up near your position Montel!"

"What?!"

A Leo suit suddenly appeared above Montel catching him by suprise. He didn't have time to bring up any defense as the jungle green MS descended with it's beam saber stabbing downward at him. He only had time to bring up his shield and closes his eyes hoping he survives this.

FZZZZHHH!!! CRASH!

"I didn't know dying was like two cars hitting each other." he says curiously. Kycilia suddenly appeared on his screen glaring at him.

"Wake up rookie." she said coldly. "You owe me one."

"What about the one you owed me?!" he growled.

"You just got in the way."

"Bitch!"

"Asshole!"

"Shut up both of you!" Shiro didn't like where all this was going. "Argue later and keep the comm-net clear of your bullshit. We still got a job to do so keep your petty squabling down until we get back to the base."

"Aye, sir."

"Roger."

"60 seconds until bomber run. UEF birds are signalling us to pull out, now." Aina said.

Shiro grumbled. "We can't leave until we find that SAM. It'll tear the bomber wing to shreads." He checked his ammo. "What you guys got left?"

"No ammo and a half charges beam saber." Montel said.

"Half a clip and one missle." stated Karen.

"Recharging weapon, sir." Kycilia grumbled.

Inside the hover truck, Aina switched seats and took up the driver position. Just before she started the engine Eledore told her to stop and shut up as he monitored the sonar.

"Distance.. 2460m, elevation.. 324m.. These waves patterns look like--" He adjusted some instruments and checked again. His face turned pale. "Shiro!"

"What is it, Eledore?"

"I got a squad of Tragos comming out of the base to reinforce."

Shiro cursed. "We go no time now for that! Everyone fall back!" A lock-on tone sounded and he looked around checking if he was targeted but found that it was a friendly IFF laser guide. "What the--?"

"I found it!" Montel shouted, using his mobile suit to point at the large missle battery that popped up from the ground next to him. "It has an anti-beam coating and I can't really effect it. Karen, it's all yours." he said, jumping off of the cliff and sliding down to the base of the hill.

"No problem." Karen smiled and swung the missle rack on her MS's shoulder. Her last missle spiralled out of it;s bay and homed in onto the laser signal. In a few seconds a pyro of metal and debri rain upon the ground as the SAM is destroyed.

"Mission complete. Everyone fall back into the forest. Rendevou at WP-Omega. Move out!"

"Roger."

"Aye, aye."

"Yes, sir!"

"Moving out."

"Affirmative."

As Montel moved into the forest along with the rest of his squad and the hover truck, he could not help but take a look back and watch as OZ units were destroyed one after the other as huge CX-88's flew in and dropped their huge payloads over the plateau. The bombers reminded him of the B-52 Stratofortresses from his home, only they were probably 3 times as large and faster. He watched the smoke, fire and dust rise from the bombs explosions including secondary explosions from munition dumps inside the base.

He shook his head and turned away to meet up with the others. War was never a pretty site and anyone that actually enjoys it are some sick puppies.

Somewhere in the world, Dorothy Catalina sneezed.

100 miles from Angel Falls, Venezuela, South America
El Dorado Base; Two days later...

It was around 2000 hours by the time the 08th MS team reformed from their mission at way-point Omega and headed back to their field base. It took two days before they neared their base of operations. Though it was night time the tropical climate kept the air warm and sticky, much to the irritation of many soldiers on the field but the cool breeze comming from a valley's water fall and near by mountains were a godsend.

Their current field HQ was El Dorado Base, a small facility commedered from the local goverment just a couple miles outside of the city of El Dorado that specilized in mobile suit repair and refit. Everyday, mobile suit units moved in and out of the base before and after battles with OZ forces on the frontlines in central South America. El Dorado was not a true fortified base like many of those of military design, but with the number of mobile suit divisions that visit daily, defense was not an issue. The make-shift base acted as a hub for supply chains that ran all over the continent to bloister the frontlines. Mass shipments would be sent to El Dorado then distributed to divisions bordering the frontlines in central Brazil, the Amazon basin, Bolivia and Chile.

El Dorado also happened to be the home of many small mobile suit and armored divisions. These were men and women that have been on the frontline from the start, having seen more death in the span of 5 minutes than the average person would see in a lifetime. Little did they know what would be arriving at their small outpost.

"I hear we're gettin' some new booties in today." SSgt. Kell of the 06th MS team, according to the patch on his arm, said to his commander as they sat in their mobile suits guarding the entrance of the base. Both were in heavily armored OZ-06MS Leo's with shoulder cannons and 105mm rifles. "Somthin' bout new mobile suits."

"That's what I heard from Colonel Maistrof, our division commander. The 08th MS team is comming in with new fire power to help us out. Them ozzy's been giving the whole battlion a beating, with the old 08th MS team along with the 09th wiped-out the brass transfered in some new mobile suits to fill in for both units."

Kell frowned. "So basically their sending in some newbies."

"Not really. I heard their XO was the Lightning Count's old second in command." said the 06th commander John. "And I heard Scott went to mobile suits. You remember that crazy ass from Corsica Base? He's a real lo---"

"Shit! Gundams!" Staff Sgt. Kell shouted. He brought up his MS's rifle and took aim at the mobile suits marching towards the base.

"Hold your fire! Their giving off a friendly IFF. And their not gundams! Gundam's have really flashy color schemes and really fancy, exotic weaponry that make them really cool in certain ways, not Kojima battalion colors. You goof." He switched to an open channel. "Unidentified mobile suits approaching bearing Zero-Three-Two-Two. This is a restricted area. Please indentify yourelves."

Static.

"I repeat; please indentify yourselves."

Pssshhhtt--!

"This is 1Lt. Shiro Yamada of the 08th MS team. Sending orders, verify S1013243.005"

"Receiving." He looked over the information and nodded. "Welcome to El Dorado and Kojima Battalion, 08th MS team. Pleasure to have you aboard. Follow these designated Nav points to your hangar and I'll inform HQ of your arrival." He watched the hover truck speed by followed by the three RX-79's, the RX-79 Ez-8 and the mammoth RX-77D guncannon.

"Weird shit."

"No shit." said Kell. "Did you see how much fire power their packin'?"

"How could I not."

"Phew! It's hot." said Eledore, stepping out of the type 74 hover truck. He quickly unbuttoned his uniform collar as to not suffocate himself. He looked towards Montel and Scott disembarking from their mecha. "Not bad for a couple of amateurs, eh Sahalin."

She nodded, following his exit from the truck after parking it. "Better than expected. The way they fought showed we can trust them."

"Get off it you two." Karen Joshua growled. "That was both their first battles in MS's and their still green no matter how good they did in one mission." She sighed. "But anyway, follow me. The squad has to report in to the battalion commander."

"Aye, aye." "Yeah yeah."

About a couple minutes pass and the 08th MS team finds themselves under a lightly constructed outdoor building which acted as the battalion commanders out-door office. Behind the small shack was an entrenched Big-Tray Class Land-Battleship called the Outlaw, a huge ship that acted as a mobile HQ for the United States before the building of the colonies. The two massive dual-mega particle projection cannons at the front, two triple-turrent 280mm cannons along it's port sides and it's missle defense arrays made up it's main compliment of weaponry and could also support troop transport but was limited to carrying only 10 mobile suits at one time. One thing was for sure, General Kojima was not a fan of modern air conditioning as he sat behind his desk with his uniform open to allow better circulation. When Shiro and his squad arrived he stood and gave a lazy salute before walking over to a water dispenser to quench his thurst. The water almost made Montel drool.

"Welcome to the Amazon, 08th MS team. And congradulations on your first mission. I hope you've had a safe hike from the DZ." Gen. Kojima said.

"My team is at your command, sir. The 08th MS team won't let you down." stated Shiro.

"At ease people. It's hot and I don't want you all dying from heat exhaustion." He guzzled his water. "Anyways. Talk to the Quatermaster for bunk assignments and whatever you need as long as it isn't ammunition. You'll have to make friends with the chief engineer for that. I give alot of lee-way with dress code. Standard jungle BDU pants at all times and anything less than a standard issue tank-top is grounds for latrine duty. If you need bug repealent, talk to the Quartermaster or head to town. And last but most important: Stay hydrated. I already got two non-combatant deaths due to heat stroke and lack of proper hydration."

"Yes, sir. All that is no problem."

"Good, that means I'll put some faith in you all to stay alive. You all have the rest of the day off. Get some rest. Squadleader and XO briefing at 1000 hours tomorrow morning, so you have 12 hours to yourself but I suggest getting sleep. Dismissed."

"Thank you sir!" Shiro saluted and they whole squad did a 180 turn and marched out of the make-shift patio. They all decided to split up into groups; Shiro and Aina going off somewhere to be in private. Karen, Eledore and Scott went off towards the Quatermasters office to get their bunk assignments. The looks on their faces clearly stated that they were tired and the heat wasn't helping.

That just left Montel and Kycilia standing there looking like idiots.

"Hey," Montel whisper, leaning over a little.

"What do you want?" she replied with a hint of annoyance.

"You smell like shit." he said matter of factly. She glared at him.

"The only reason you smell shit is because you're stepping in a pile of it." she said matter of factly, pointing down at his right boot to prove her point. He glared at her.

"You got a pretty good point their, fucker." He looked at her clothing again. "Aren't you suppose to change into what the General said was manditory? I don't thing body-hugging material that shows off your ass-- assest-- err -- manly physique is good for the weather we're having right now."

She resisted slapping some sense into him with all the soldiers passing by. "My uniform is an all-environmental body armor issued to those in covert-operations and automatically replaces the standard formal and battle dress uniform. You wouldn't know because you are an idiotic, perverted, wet-behind the ears amateur that doesn't know the difference between your brain and your penis."

"What?! You tryin' ta say I got a lil' dick?!" He stepped back and puffed out his chest. "Gurl, I'm a pimp. I got the magic stick." His crotch eminated a blinding bright light.

"Give me that!" Kycilia ripped off the special issue night glow-flare from his belt and immediately crushed it under her foot ending it's light. "There goes a waste of good equipment." she muttered while walking away.

"Did I mention that I have big nuts?" he shouted to her departing form, holding up a pair of walnuts in his hand. She didn't hear him. "Oh well."

Same time; Cape Horn, South America
OZ Mobile Base Kappa, 2300 hours

"Sir. Forward scouts report movement from UEF positions on the equator at Base Gulana. It seems that they have successfully captured the base and are currently fortifying the air field. They estimate that the base will be fully operational in a couple of weeks."

"Shit," cursed the Oz commander of the South American OZ division. "Send in the 15th Hyperions and allow them access to heavy weaponry. Also, back them up with the 223rd Mechanized Battalion. We need to recapture that base if we wish to regain air superiority."

Then came the reply. "It will take the 15th and 223rd seven days to meet up and another day to lay seige to the base. That came from them directly, sir. But they will get the job done."

"That's good enough. Status on the front in Peru?"

"They are pressing the UEF back but taking major losses due to terrain difficulty. They say they need naval assistance, but most of our naval forces have been assigned to the Alantic Fleet that are attacking the Nothern Americas."

He sighed. "Send them air reinforcements. That's the best we can do."

"Aye, sir."

Unknown to the OZ commander and his soldiers, a lone UEF spy in the guise of an OZ organization communications officer intercepted these orders. Though he couldn't stop the transmission or alter the information he was able to forward a copy to the nearest UEF HQ. That's why at this time he was huddle inside a small space in a janitorial closet on his break time talking into his shoe, a nifty whachamacallit.

"That's right. They are planning too--"

El Dorado Base, 0035 Hours
General Kojima's Barracks

KNOCK-KNOCK!! "General Kojima! Sir, open up! This is urgent."

The door swung open nearly knocking down the soldier. Gen. Kojima immerged with a scowl on his face made even worse by his lack of bi-focals.

"What the hell is it, damn it?! I'm trying to sleep."

The aide handed the General an envelope. "It's from Intel." That got Kojima's attention. The elder man went into his bunk and retrieved his glasses, then returned and began to read. While his eyes travelled down, his visage slowly turned from a frown to a serious look. He knew he wouldn't be able to sleep after reading this.

He saluted the aide. "Wake up the Major and tell him to report to my office ASAP."

"Yes, sir!"

"Damn those OZ bastards." he mumbled.

El Dorado Base, The following morning...
Mobile Suit Hangar 8, 1030 hours

Some of the veteran soldiers watched a couple members of the 08th MS team work on their mecha while talking amongst themselves. Most of what they talked about ranged from 'how long they will last?' to 'which pilot would get killed first?' or 'where did they get those MS's?'.

Karen Joshua, Master Sergent and Chief Petty officer, heard some of what the men were saying but paid no attention to them. It was known that veterans would ofter take bets when newbies joined their ranks. Though she wasn't a green like two of her teammates, they were definately rookies in the eyes of the Kojima Battalions veteran pilots until they proved themselves.

While fine tuning her RX-79's equipment she noticed a certain blonde dancing around listening to music with his headphones. "Hey, Eledore!"

Nothing. "Eledore!"

"ELEDORE!!" She threw the wrench she had in her at him.

He took off his headphones to see what Karen wanted. He saw the wrench heading his way and quickly 'eek'ed and evade the craftsman tool. He waved sheepishly at her.

"Get back to work." She shouted. 'Idiot.'

"Hey Karen!" She looked down at saw Scott waving up to here.

"What do you want Bernard?"

He pointed over to his kneeling Guncannon. "I need your authorization to switch payloads from the 200's to the Dober guns. The crew won't allow it unless they got your word."

She looked over to the waiting crew-men then back to the ex-tank commander. "What the hell for?"

"Shiro said we might be moving out soon and wanted us to be ready so he told me to get my MS ready for jungle warfare." he said matter of factly.

"And why wasn't I informed?!" she shouted back.

He shrugged. "We couldn't find you."

'Probably was in the head then.' She looked over to the crewmen. "Load up whatever he wants but I want a list when your done. And load up the Ez-8's sniper weapon into Unit 3 along with a dober cannon and beam rifle. Set-up my container with the 280mm and extra ammo for it and the dobers. Load Unit-1 with two extra 100 mikes, one beam rifle and full rifle magazines."

"Yes ma'am!" the crew-chief said before they got to work on the Guncannon. "You heard the lady, boys. Get working. You five work on the carriers and us three will work on fitting the Gee-Cee. Double-time!"

Another crewmember jogged up to her mobile suit waving a clip board at her. "Hey Sarge. We completed the re-filling of ammunition for the M746A3 100mm's. They're now loaded in a 4:1:1 of armor-piercing incendiary, high-explosive incendiary and tracer rounds as you ordered. They'll be shipped here within 15 minutes from the east-side of the base. Is their anything else you need requisitioned?"

"No, that's it." said Karen, wiping her brow. "Inform the crew chief when they arrive and have him load them up to the mobile suits and my cargo containers." She watched the crewman jog away and sighed. It was good that this base had many supply lines running through or she wouldn't get that mix or quantity of ammunition she required. She got the idea of the ammo mix from the old obsolite Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt II's GAU-8 gatling cannon, the largest airborne weapon used on an aircraft in the 21st century. This ammunition load will help them in future engagments with OZ and/or Gundam units if they happen to meet up with those monster. She frowned at thinking of those weapons from her old unit at New Edwards Base on that day.

"Karen."

"KAREN!" Lt. Yamada became annoyed. He using the lift cable that allowed the pilot to mount and dismount the mobile suit to get up to Karen's position. She looked spaced out. "TEN'SHUN!!"

"Sir!" Karen quickly snapped to attention.

Sigh. "Meeting in module 2900 at 1200 hours." He slowly lowered himself to the ground. "And pay more attention next time."

"Aye, sir." she said while rubbing her temples. She needed to stop thinking of that day.

El Dorado Base, South America
Big-Tray Land-Battleship, 1 hour ago...

"Alright! Listen up soldiers."

General Kojima stood before the assembled commanders and executive officers of the 01st thru 08th MS Teams along with the commanders of the 76th and 123rd Armored platoons. They all surrounded a lowered holo-screen that showed a detailed 3D display of the South American continent. On the map, positions were marked with different color flags that designated major UEF and OZ positions. A red dotted line split the continent in half starting from the Andes mountains in Peru and all the way thru central Brazil. White flags represented UEF forces along the northern borders while black flags showed known OZ locations. Larger flags represented fortified bases.

"Intel has reported that OZ divisions are mobilizing units in an attempt to recapture Base Gulana in the highlands. Right now both sides, especially us here in the UEF, are without air superiority so we're both at a major disadvantage. We need this base, ladies and gentlemen, and at all cost. As of late, military engineers have barely started removing debri and clearing the plateau to reconstruct the facilities into our own forward airbase. Estimated time of completion is approximately 2 weeks. For the problem: They're very close to the frontline. And here is the second problem."

A 2D satellite image of South American appeared on a screen behind the General and also the 3D holo-image zoomed in and only concentrated on the west coast to central portion of the land mass showing mostly the front line.

"OZ units are slowly being pressed back from Peru do to constant harrassment from our Pacific Naval fleet. This is both good and bad." The red dotted-line receeded south in Peru and nearly touched Bolivia's borders. "We're making progress in driving the OZzy's back on the west coast, but 24 hour harrassment from air units are delaying more refined results, plus their nearly unlimited amounts of reinforcements are just making things worse. That brings the main problem into question."

A blue arrow began from the city of Cohija, Bolivia and moved east then slowly curved to the north until it stopped just short of the city of Santarem, Brazil near the fork of the Tapajos and Amazon river. A green arrow started from the city of Teresina, Brazil moving northwest crossing three main rivers until it stopped at the same point of the green arrow.

"According to spies in OZ, they are sending an elite division of mobile suits known as the 15th Hyperions with their 223rd Mechanized battalions whom I understand are equiped with the latest MBT (Main Battle Tank) which is the Type-95. It's faster, more manueverable and has more fire power than our Type-61. I'll give a briefing about this weapon after the main briefing." Kojima sipped some water. "The Hyperions will be armed with heavy weaponry and will be in numbers. That's our main disadvantage. The only thing we have in our favor is the element of surprise. So far they don't know we're expecting them.

Our current plan at this time is to split our Mobile Suit forces up in half; Odd numbered teams moving to the Gulana Highlands to defend the plataeu with the exception of the 5th MS Team who will be staying here as defenders. Even numbered teams including the new 08th MS team will mobilize and move out in two seperate teams, Alpha and Omega, to attack each enemy column at these locations." A pair of black circle lines appeared on the 2D display; one circle southeast of Santarem, Brazil along the Xingu river and the other south of Santarem along the eastside of the Tapajos river. "Also, the 76th Armored platoon will be assigned to Alpha team while 123rd will be stationed south of Santarem and will act as reinforcements for Omega."

"Now, anyone have suggestions as to how we tackle this?" finished the General. Someone raised their hand. "Lt. Commander Sean, 02nd MS Team."

"What are the specifications on the Type-95?" he asked. The 3D display of the continent was removed and replaced by the display of a model of a M1A2 Abrams tank but with dual turrents.

"This is the Type-95 Mammoth. OZ's new main battle tank that they use exclusively here in South America and Canada. What they did was take the old frame design of the US M1A2 Abrams tank and changed the armor to a semi-monocoque depleted uranium/titanium alloy casing. It's armed with two 120mm cannons, anti-tank weaponry and anti-air capability."

The Lt. Cmdr. thought gave it some thought but it didn't take him that long to make the desicion. "The 02nd MS Team volunteers to be in Omega team. We're down to only 4 mobile suits so we wouldn't be of any help to Alpha team. But we do need fire power." he threw that last one out as a hint.

"04th Team volunteers for Omega team. We only have three mobile suits and a couple of green pilots, one of which is my XO. We also need fire power."

Colonel Maistroff, division commander, didn't like the sounds of those two commanders. "What's the status of all Mobile Suit teams? Mecha and personel."

"01st Team has 7 standard Leo's and 1 Tragos. All pilots accounted for."

"02nd Team has 4 standard Leo's and all 8 pilots accounted for."

"03rd Team has 3 Dober gun equiped Leo's, 1 beam rifle Leo, 1 standard Leo and Type 74 Hover Truck. All personnel alive."

"04th Team has 3 standard Leo's and only 3 of 6 pilots, 2 are greens."

"05th Team gots 2 beam rifle Leo's and 6 standard Leo's, 2 with heavy armor accessories. All pilots ready for action."

"06th Team all 6 Leo's and pilots present and accounted for."

"07th Team only has 2 Tragos and a Dober gun Leo. 7 out of 10 pilots are MIA (Missing In Action)."

"08th MS Team has three RX-79 Gundams, one RX-79 Ez-8, one RX-77D Guncannon and one Type 74 hover truck ready for deployment. All personnel accounted for."

Nearly everyone's head turned to Kycilia after she announced the name Gundam as the designation for the RX-79. She returned their looks with a harsh glare.

"What the hell do you mean 'Gundam'?!" one of the soldiers harshly spouted.

"That's enough sergent." coughed Maistroff. "Odd numbered teams currently do not need resupply as to the fact that most of the larger squads even out the smaller ones. As for the 02nd and 4th Team, both of your teams will work in co-op with each other and the 123rd Armored platoon to take out that OZzy armored column. I'm also giving you guys access to a mine layer and anti-tank missle systems.

06th and 08th MS Teams will work together with the 76th to hault the Hyperion's advances. These OZzy's are their elite here in this part of the world. They are 2nd only to Zech Merquise's unit. But they also have a cocky side to them so you could most-likely use that as an advantage. Do whatever it takes but you won't recieve reinforcements if you fail. That goes for all squads."

"Sir?" Shiro stood. "Alpha Team will be the team along the Tapajos, correct? My team would like to request support from combat engineers."

"Why exactly?"

"There is a fork in the road that runs along the eastern banks of the river according to the topographical report. Using the heavy jungle setting and combat engineers we could entrench ourselves and attack then enemy from multiple sides." A 3D holo-map appeared showing the Y-shaped fork that ran along the Tapajos bank. He used a pad in front of him to show possible friendly positions at the break off point of the fork, along the inner and outer left and right paths and also along the main stretch before the fork. "This is the only why for that unit to travel to their destination without traversing through the river or having to climb mountains. Using the engineers, we can build trenches and natural pill boxes for mobile suits and tanks."

"You got is Lt. Shiro. Attention! You soldiers have until 2300 hours to do whatever you like or go over this with your squads. Squad leaders have your units ready by Zero hour before you move out."

"Dismissed!"

"So that's basically the deal." said Shiro, next to him was Commander John of 06th Team and Major Lynn of the 76th Armored platon. Assembled in front of them were their subordinates from all squads listening in on the plan.

"At Zero-hour we're going to march to Nav-point Sigma and---" Cmdr. John paused at hearing the sounds of... a game?! "Who the fuck is playing a video game at a time like this?!"

Everyone's head turned back and zoned onto Montel sitting near the tents opening with a Gameboy Advance in his hand. He looked up and asked, "What?"

"Wysinger! Did you hear anything they said?" Lt. Zabi groaned out, hiding whatever part of her face that isn't already covered with her gloved hand.

"Yeah, we're gonna go on a long hike and ambush them at Sigma point, right? That's all we really need to know since your gonna say it again on the field." he went back to playing the game. Shiro shook his head at hearing an audible 'Hadoken!' from the small device.

"Please tell me he's a newbie." John whispered to Shiro.

Montel's commander nodded. "Yeah, a newbie with the skill of a seasoned veteran." He shouted to the back. "Turn it down, Wysinger and let everyone else listen in. Damn amatuer." At least Eledore was paying attention -- no, he has the headphones on.

Shiro sighed. This was gonna be a long war.

Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean...

..and in today's news, the War for dominance of the America's continues as the newly named United Earth Federation continues to hold back OZ organization military forces from advancing upon the capital cities. The death toll so far has risen to over eight thousand on each side and continues to rise at this very moment. In other news, local militia's have taken up arms and joined the UEF in a successful campaign that retook the port city of Seatle, Washington. Local authorities hope that---

PSSSHHHHTT!!!

--rectly from the bay city of Nagasaki. As you can see, OZ forces are gathering here at this military base to refuel before making their way to their mobile bases in Western Canada. Hopefully they would return safely after removing the threat of war which is the United Earth Goverment so we can actually achieve peace. We also--

An explosion in the background!

..Holy shit! It's a Gundam! Are you getting this?! A Gundam is attacking the military base here in Nagasaki, Japan. And they are suppose to be the things that protect us. Don't those morons know we have innocent civilians on that ba--

PSSSHTTT!!!

--ere we go! Magical Princess Natural Lychee! Tee hee--

PSSSHHHTTT!!!

--ay that this war might last a year--

PSSSHHHTTT!!!

--ta commence on whoopin his ass like: BLAM! THROOOP! SCHWAAH!!--

PSSSSHHTTT!!! Click.

"Nothing of interest on, Col. Treize?" Lady Une ask as she walks into Treize Khushrenada's ship-board office.

"Just the usual news and boring television." he rested his elbows on his desk and leaned forward. "Status on the front?"

"Nothing good, sir. The UEF is persistant in keeping the America's. Their naval fleets continue to elude and harrass our forces to no end whether it may be land or sea and our airforce has had no success with deep surgical strikes. Most of our major wins have been in South America and western Canada though we did lose nearly 35% of our air superiority in Brazil."

Treize rubbed his forehead. "What about our men in space?"

"Would you like good news or the bad news first?"

"Good news."

Lady Une looked at her clipboard. "The good news is that we have full control over Luna base and are beginning full scale production of the new OZ-12MS Taurus units along with an atmospheric version to support our ground and air forces. Most of our Leo and Aries production plants were in the United States and Mexico. Also, we have began construction on small scale 30 crew starships to construct a space fleet to help transport and defend our facilities."

"Why would we need a space fleet? Our Leos, Taurus' and the Barge should be able to defend us." asked Col. Khushrenada.

"That brings me to the bad news, sir. Side-1 thru 3 have joined the UEF and are nearing completion of many starships. We already have reports of weapons test by the colonies and deployment of almost three ships that could be classified as Destoryer-class. We also have reason to believe that they have the backing of the original designers of the Tallgeese and the Gundams--"

"That's enough.. Lady. Please leave the report on my desk and leave. I need some time to think." Treize twisted his chair around and looked outside the port window.

"Aye, sir."

'What have we brought to this world? This is nothing like what Epyon told me...' he thought watching the moon's reflection glimmer on the ocean surface.

El Dorado Base, Venezuela; 0000 Hours

Crews were busy finishing up pre-departure check-list and last minute upgrades to the mobile suits. Omega Team already began their march along the modern military highway that would take them close to Base Gulana, along with the odd numbered mobile suit teams, before they had to cross the Amazon river to reach Santarem before moving to Nav-Point Delta at the Xingu river on the 5th Parallel. 05th Team was currently on garrison duty patroling around El Dorado for any signs of enemy activity. At a last minute decision, the 06th, 08th and 76th decided to take seperate paths and form up at Manaus, Brazil before moving towards Nav-point Sigma while the 76th went directly to secure the ambush location along the Tapajos with the combat engineers. This way they would already be prepared for combat and also seem less conspicuous. It was also a way to hit targets of opportunity on the way to distract the enemy from the current objective.

0005 hours, 12:05am. 06th and 76th departed on the dot five minutes ago since they would be taking an east/west route while the 08th will take a direct southern attack to try and capture Manaus. It was at this time that Shiro decided he had something that needed to be said and made clear.

"08th MS Team, fall in!" Kycilia shouted gaining the attention of the squads. They all quickly formed a line by rank with Aina at the head and Montel at the end. Lt. Zabi soon fell in taking the position as top of the squad. "The commander has some words to say."

Lt. Yamada stood before his teammate dressing very similiar to everyone else, with the exception of Kycilia, in standard jungle print BDU's instead of the standard pilots suit. Under his arm was his piloting helmet. His eyes roamed back and forth between each members, studying their faces in detail. He wanted to remember each of their faces from this day forth. He would be depending on them as they would upon him. "Alright, listen up." he began.

"Usually this is something I would of said before our first mission but they didn't give me the time of chance before they shoved us out of the plane for a para-drop. But, there's not a better time than now." he gave them a serious look. "Orders change constantly in battle, but there is only one standing order that I require everyone to follow. Don't die.

I'll put all my effort into preventing any of you from dying. No matter how brave you are in combat, it's meaningless if you die. As your commander I hope all of you will survive and I know you will." He held out his first in front of him and smirks. "We'll all enjoy the pleasure of victory together and payback the OZzy's for trying to take what's ours."

That seemed to really hit everyone good. They all placed their hand on Shiro's fist ready to move out but there was one hand missing. Everyone's head turned to the ninja-like woman that looked at them with her arms akimbo. She glared at Shiro.

"That had to be the most corny speech I have ever heard." She placed her hand on top. "Better than Zech's speeches, I guess."

"Ready?" Shiro asked. Everyone nodded.

1..

2..

3!

"08TH MS TEAM! GO!"

Many hours later, 400 miles south of El Dorado.
Negro/Branco River fork...

"This looks like a good spot." Shiro stated. He used his HOTAS fine motor controls and raise his mobile suits left hand a make a fist giving the squad the hand signal to stop. "Settle in people. We just travelled almost 650 klicks and the suns starting to come down again. Time for some -yawn- rest."

The team left El Dorado base around 0015, 12:15am in the morning and have been on the march ever since. It took them a nearly 20 hour travel time to reach their point which was around 100 miles from Manaus. They were very close to the front lines and right now was not a time for dilly-dallying. Shiro knew that perfectly along with the other veteran pilots.

But right now that need their rest.

"This isn't going to be a long stop and we're most likely gonna hit the town sometime next morning." Shiro stated. He looked at Aina. "You're trained as back-up for the RX-79, right?"

"Yes, sir. Dr. Fresange recommended that I study the manual and used the VR simulator in the hover truck went off duty." she replied.

"Good. You have watch since you slept most of the time. Wake us p at," he checked his watch. "0100. Everyone else, good night."

Montel sat in the open cockpit of his mobile suit and stared up at the stars thru the tree canopy. He couldn't sleep. The humidity and time of year made nights in the Amazon very unconfortable. He considered shutting the cockpit but he needed the fresh air.

He also couldn't keep his mind off of the battle that would forth come sooner or later. He was like this just before they dropped for their first mission at the highlands. He always found it strange how his mind would freeze before combat but wonce he was in the action, he knew exactly what to do to get the job done. It felt like something was drawing him, telling him through some link of what and how he must do something. Sometimes he felt a pull that made him want to wander off in search of something or someone but he really didn't know why. Whatever it is, he didn't want it.

All he wanted was that Deathscythe Gundam and all would be set for him.

Thing of other subjects, he checked the date on his watch. It has been almost 4 months since he been on this world. By now the fold system should be completely charged from what he remembered. But now it's down to a single problem. He didn't know were Buddy or Ranma where nor did he have the means to contact them. Those two knew how to take care of themselves, that he knew, and are probably kicking it somewhere safe. Plus, he didn't want to leave now since he had a duty to perform.

And he didn't want to leave without Deathscythe!

A faint russling caught his attention. He looked over the console of his MS and checked below. Yamada, Bernard and Joshua were asleep and probably knocked out for the next few hours. He could hear Eledore's headphones from where he slept on to of the hover truck that was parked next to his MS. Sahalin was 2 clicks NE of his position and slowly circling their camp in Shiro's RX-79. That left...

"You should get some sleep." Lt. Zabi said sternly, landing in a crouched position on top of his console. She did not make any nose at all.

"Can't sleep." he said, trying not to look at her.

"I know a trick that will help you." she said in an amused, teasing voice.

He smirked. "You gonna do some nasty things huh?" 'Remind myself not to say that again.' he thought seeing her vicious glare.

"No." she pointed off towards his left. "What do you see over there?"

"Nothin'."

"Look harder."

"I told ya I don't see---- !!"

THAAWWWKKK!!!

"I told you my trick will put you to sleep." Kycilia brought her foot back and hopped away. "Asshole."

"Everyone sleep well. Good." Shiro sipped a cup of coffee in his MS while everyone else followed him. They broke camp at 1:30 that morning and continued on for another hour, after crossing the Negro/Branco river split, travelling 50 miles from their previous position. "Stop here."

"What's up, boss?" Montel asked.

"We've just crossed enemy lines. Kill your lights and switch to FLIR (Foward-Looking Infarred). Keep the tac-net clear and maintain radio silence. They could be anywhere so keep your head on the swivel." he switched to laser communications, a coherent beam that was impossible to detect by electronic interception gear, but relied on a line-of-sight to operate. "Switch to laser comm. and move out."

Up ahead of the team was Eledore in the Type-74 hover truck. Shiro ordered him to move on ahead and use the trucks sensors and sonar to get a layout of Manaus city. There was only one avaliable land entrance since the city was surrounded by a highly fortified wall with high-powered vulcan turrents alocated on towers. The only other possible entrance was the port located along the northern shore of the Amazon rivers Negro tributary.

On another note, the base was swarming with OZ mobile suits, mostly of Leo and Aries designs with support units like MRL trucks and Type-65 main battle tanks. Mostly standard armament for a militarized port city.

"Looks like a tough battle ahead." the blonde muttered. His attention was drawn by a beeping sound from inside. Ducking back down, he stepped over ensign Sahalin and checked the sonar. There was an echoing wave comming from the east and--

This isn't good.

He picked up a rifle with a small 12inch diameter satellite. This was not a weapon but a deviced used for long-range laser communications. All he really had to do was put on some headphone, point in the general direction of whomever he wanted to connect with and -boom!- instant connectivity. A highly advanced version of the unit used for mobile suits, yet this variant in the hover truck did not rely on line-of-sight. He quickly climbed to the top of the truck and pointed the rifle towards the northwest.

"Come in Hex-One. This is Eyes-Front. Come in. Over."

"Eyes-Front, Hex-One. I hear you."

"Sonar reports a floater 75 klicks downstream of the Amazon heading westbound towards Manaus Port. Looks to be an Aegis-class cruiser."

"Shit, that's bad. Very bad. We're 20 clicks from your position. Rendevous at nav-point phi. We'll worry about that ship when we get there. Continue monitoring. Over."

And they had a reason to worry. An Aegis-Class cruiser was one of only two surface ships to carry the BGM-180 Mk VII Air Lance cruise missle. Not really a problem but since those missles contained a 0.1 MT (Megaton) warhead, the only low-yield nuclear warhead currently fielded by the United States, it posed a major problem to the 08th MS Team. The missle could travel the distance of 4000 nautical miles (around 4200 miles) and deliever it's nuclear warload with devestating effects. Since it the warhead is of a fusion design and a very low-yield the effective radius was 500 meters, nearly half a mile in diameter, after detonation and had a half-life of 10 seconds that prevented nuclear fallout.

With approximately 30 of those tactical thermo-nuclear weapons aboard that ship and a world that was 75% water

Eledore ducked back down into the truck and started it up. Since the hover truck doesn't touch the ground it would not be detected by other sonar vehicles. Checking his watch, he backed the vehicle then took off heading northwest to meet up with the rest of the squad at nav phi.

"Nukes?!" Montel, Scott and Aina screamed.

Karen frowned. "Damn OZ bastards are gonna get it now."

"Shut up!" growled their XO. The masked woman pointed at a 2x2ft satellite image print out of the city that layed on the ground. "Pay attention. This city is vital for our success of this mission and a couple nuclear weapons will not deter us from our objective. Sir?"

"This satellite feed that Massis downloaded is an overhead visual of Manaus. The city is approximately 5 miles in radius from the center to the port and extends out in other directions that varies due to the land. This line around the city is a reinforced concrete wall, around 15m in height. Every 100m is a tower armed with a pair of old 7.62mm M134 mini-cannons. From last reports, they are automated but powered by an external power source so they will be an annoyance. Our mecha can shrug off the attacks so they're a minor threat. The two major threats to this operation are the OZ-07AMS Aries and that cruiser. Lt. Zabi will fill you in on that vessel."

"We are dealing with the USS Quarterback, one of two fusion powered Aegis-class guided missle cruisers. Her main armament are BGM-180 Mk VII Air Lance nuclear cruise missles. The USS Missouri, the second Aegis cruiser, is currently at Newport News undergoing upgrades. The Quarterback was stolen from Norfolk, Virginia during the coup by OZ commandos. Luckily they haven't struck the capital or any of our facilities yet since they know we still have ICBMs, SLBMs and the Missouri." she stated.

"Hey," Montel got their attention. "I think I got a idea for this." He pointed at the map showing the river and the hill-top overlooking the city. "If the ship is comming along here then we'll have a clear shot at sinking it when it comes to here using either Kycilia's sniper rifle or our other heavy shit, we blow the bitch up."

Karen studied the distance. "Our missle launcher can hit it if someone gets close enough to use laser guidence."

"Did we bring it?" asked Montel asked.

"No."

"Shit."

Eledore popped his head out from inside the hover truck. "76th reports that they're 30 miles out and will be here in one hour. 06th team got caught in a fire fight and got delay half a day. I also got info on that cruiser. It's 20 minutes from the port."

"Fuck it! We have no time. Suit up!" Shiro jumped into his gundam and started barking orders. "Massis. Wake up Aina and head to this nav point east of the city and fill her in on the way. Contact me when you reach WP-5. Everyone drop containers." All three RX-79 back-packs slid off from the rails to the ground and opened up. Shiro immediately picked up a dober cannon and activated it with the e-cap in the right palm.

"Make sure to take extra clips for the rifles. They'll be more useful with the new ammo mix." Karen reminded them, attaching 4 extra clips to her MS's legs and arming herself with a beam rifle.

Montel quickly went for the 280mm hyper bazooka. He snapped and screwed both halves together and loaded a 7 round clip into the end. "Locked and loaded."

Scott in the Guncannon picked up a pair of chain rifles then attached, instead of rifle mazagine, a linkless feed 10,000 round ammo drum that snapped onto the bottom of the rifles.

The Ez-8 retrived it's LR Beam rifle. Kycilia quickly attached the e-cap to the handle to begin charging. "I'm ready, sir."

"Alright. Listen up. We're gonna hit them fast and hard. Hex-Two, Zabi will head to WP-2 and will attack the Aegis cruiser. Hex-Three, Wysinger will be in position at WP-3 and will attack the cruiser with Zabi. My call sign is Hex-Lead, I'll be at WP-1 attacking the city but in a position to assist with the cruiser if needed. Hex-Four, Bernard will move to WP-6. Your primary target is the port the cruiser is located. You'll circle around the city from WP-6 to WP-7 and submerge in the water until give the signal to attack. Hex-Five, Karen will be in position northwest of the base 500 meters from Zabi position and will fire at will on my signal. Hover trucks call-sign is Eyes Front. Attack signal will be a white flare."

"Roger." "Aye." "Yes, sir." "Understood."

"Move out."

"Man, I hate water." Scott Bernard grumbled as he reached the bank of the Branco 2 miles downstream from Manaus. Looking at the read out of the rivers underwater terrain, there was a sandbar 800 meter away from the port and was pretty close to waypoint-7. But he couldn't traverse his submerged road unless the ship wouldn't detect him. "Eyes-Front, Hex-Four. Status on Quarterbacks sonar?"

"Hex-Four, sonar seems inactive. Eyes-front recommends a speed of 18 knots while submerged."

"Roger, Hex-Four out."

The Ez-8 gundam crawled up the hill that overlooked the city and river split. 7 degrees south by southeast from the hill was a direct view of the port and the floating missle cruiser. Lt. Zabi brought the beam sniper online and locked onto the hull of the ship where it's nuclear payload would be located. Zooming in closer, she watched as traitorous naval men and women exited the ship for a possible days liberty before shoving off again.

"Bastards." she growled in a near whisper, switching the rifles beam output to full for a 6 second burst. Enough power to destroy a gundam in a single hit.

Just across from her and a little ways down the hill, Montel positioned his mobile suit in a crouched position behind a large boulder with the hyper bazooka resting against the shoulder. The gundams hand did some sort of hand gesture she did not recodnize.

"Fo Shizzle dizzle, my nizzle. It's da snoopy Dee, Ohh, double-gizzle!"

"What the hell was that?" she deadpanned.

Montel's suit did another 'hand gesture' that she did recodnize.

"When this is over, I'll take that finger and shove it in your--"

"Shut up!"

"Keep radio silence damn it." Shiro curse. He wonder if those two will ever get along.

Karen's voice interrupted him. "In position, sir. Got a target too. Some idiot put his rank on his MS and he's standing in the cockpit."

Shiro used a laser signal that bounced from Karen's MS to Scotts. "In position?"

"Ready, sir."

"Oh yeah!"

Montel saw Shiro's flashes and he went into action. He jammed his feet onto one of the pair of pedals and launched his mobile suit over the boulder and down the hill. The gundam landed on its backside and slid down the hill while it's pilot manipulated the controls to bring the massive bazooka over it's right shoulder.

"Time to mix this piece up like a muh-fuhka!" He got tone. "BOOM NIGGAH!"

His gundam rocked back from the recoil while a billow of smoke exited the huge 280mm tube as the laser guided rocket blasted from it's housing. Seconds later it impacted with the bridge tower of the USS Quarterback in an impressive explosion that had the boat rocking. He decided to take some initiative, putting his mobile suit into a dead run while occassionally firing the hyper bazooka at the ship. A pinkish-white beam of death shot across his field of vision and started cutting into the hull of the cruiser. He watched as a circle pattern was cut into the port side hull of the vessel exposing a darkened interior. Kycilia had a plan in mind when she called him over the tac-net.

"Hex-Three, Hex-Two. Fire your weapon into the hole now!"

"On it!" He had 2 shots left for the weapon. His targeting computer zero'd onto the 6ft opening and fired. Two explosions rocked the ship. One internal and another external.

"Hex-Lead, Hex-Four. Port is terminated. I'm also getting heavy fire from Aries units!"

"Hex-Four, fall back to Five's position for assistance and---"

"Eyes-Front to group! I'm getting multiple fusion reactions from the cruisers internals, fall back now!!"

"Oh shit!"

"Everyone fall back! That's an order!" Kycilia shouted.

Shiro gritted his teeth. His instruments suddenly spiked. "Too late! Prepare for impact!"

Then it happened. A light so bright that it blinded their eyes. Suddenly the earth began to tremble as the shockwaves shook the very foundation that they stood on, tearing away at the buildings on the surface and eating away at the first couple feet of dirt. Then came the heart-wrenching rumble as sound finally caught up with the speed of light and heat that deafened their ears. They had enough time to brace against the explosion with their shields but the nuclear winds took their toll. With the extreme force of over 5 megatons of TNT, the 08th MS Team were tossed around like a bunch of ragdolls. Their mobile suits were thrown back, tumbled about, slid across the earth surface and even slammed thru trees for miles before the winds finally died down. Not even Kycilia whom was located on top of the hill was protected as the thermo-nuclear fire ate away the hill and sent her flying like a bird caught in a tornado.

Just seconds after the initial explosion, it suddenly became deathly silent.

'Ugh... Oh man..what happened..' Montel groaned, trying to sit up but found himself strapped down in his seat. He quickly unfastened himself but soon regretted it.

"Ow!! FUCK!!" he cried, sliding down and hitting his head wasn't something he liked. "What--.. Shit! The nukes.."

Systems were offline so he tried starting them up. Nothing. He knew that there was power by the pulse he felt from the fusion reactor. He tried again. Nothing.

Then it hit him! "Nukes give off an electromagnetic pulse. And I thought I didn't learn anything in science." he chuckled to himself. But what of everyone else? And how long was he out of it?

He checked his watch, but that was dead.

Then he tried opening the cockpit manually to go outside. It took him some time but he managed to pry open a space big enough to squeeze through. What greeted him wasn't something he wished to see.

The land was devestated. Smoke billowed up from the ground were the fires clensed whatever live there. In the distance, he could see what remained of the city. Nothing but burned and melted slag of what was once a port city and OZ fortress. Torn, mangled and melted remains of OZ mobile suits litered the ground. It was like seeing an abandoned town like in World War II when huge battles in cities would render the place uninhabitable. But this was worse. A combination of 30 0.1 MT thermonuclear warheads along with 2 fusion reactors brought out the destruction that stretched in a 10 mile radius.

He was lucky. There was no any indication of nuclear fallout.

The young black soldier jumped from the cockpit to the debri-littered ground and walked a ways from his suit. He looked back and gasped.

The RX-79 was mangled beyond belief. The luna-titanium alloy armor, nearly as strong as gundanium was nearly melted off from the heavy alloy frame that it protected. Many of the internal electronics and mechanisms of the mobile suit was charred, burned or just plain destroyed by the heat and winds. The only part that actually looked okay was the head and it's sophisticated technosystems. Yet those were fired by the EMP from the blast.

Montel couldn't bare to look at it anymore. He turned and walked towards the city.

"Lt. Yamada!!"

"Zabi!!"

"Eledore!!"

"Karen!!"

No response after her called them out at the top of his lungs.

"Scott!! Anyone out there?!!" He walked to the top of a sturdy pile of debri. "ANYONE ALIVE?!!"

There was a loud whine from under him that mad him pause. He felt a rumble and jumped off the pile as it exploded up.

'The hover truck!' He quickly jump to the top of the Type-74 hover truck and pried open the hatch. "Eledore? Sahalin?! You guys okay?"

He heard a couple groans. Then a response. "I'm fine, but Aina here has a twisted ankle." Good, nothing major.

"How come this thing ain't down like my mobile suit?"

"Anti-EMP coated armor. We're shielded from EMP so to keep our instruments on in case of electronic counter-measures." Montel ducked his head down into the vehicle.

"I'll man the cannon. Aina, you best work on the sensors while Eledore drives. We still gotta find everyone else. Oh, and message El Dorado of what happened."

They began by heading towards the city ruins. Smoke rose from the embers that still burned in the remains adding to the picture of destruction. So many homes destroyed.

People. So many innocent people died by this hand today and he felt the guilt well up from within himself, but he held it back. 'Right now isn't the time for that crap,' he thought.

Up ahead in the distance he saw a movement of something and a reflection of light. "I see somethin' over there."

The truck veer in that direction. "One step ahead of ya."

"No radiation readings," said Aina. "Lt. Zabi was right when she said their was no chance of fallout."

"Just hope she's alive to thank her."

"Over here!"

"It's the boss!" Montel exclaimed and waved to this commander. The truck slowed to a stop and settled down in front of the remains of Shiro gundam. It was in similiar condition to Montel's RX-79 but more of it's armor was melted away and seemed to hand like stalatites from the internal frame.

"You okay, Shiro?" Eledore asked after opening the side-door.

"I'm fine, but how about you guys? Aina?"

"Just fine Leiutenant. Just a couple bumps." Aina waved from her console. There was a beep from the sensors. "I'm picking up blimps on the sensors and sonar can't identify who they are. Still some EMP reminence so I can't get a clear reading on their IFF."

"Mobile suit!" Montel calls out. "It's the 06th and I can see the 76th commin' up from the back."

"Let's meet up with them, Eledore."

"Yes sir."

The two mobile team commanders meet at the foot at 06th's lead unit which was a royal blue OZ-06MS Leo with shoulder cannon augmentations.

"Glad to see you alive, Lt. Yamada." John said, giving the young man a salute.

"Commander." Shiro returned the salute then looked around. "I'm glad too."

"HQ informed us of the situation and scrubbed the counter-offensive operation against the Hyperions. This was a more serious matter." John eyed the city remains. "Very serious."

"So I'm guessing that your here to assess the situation before extraction of my unit?"

The commander shook his head. "Yes and no. My unit will assess the situation." he jerked his thumb back at the arriving 76th platoon. "They're here to pick you guys up and retrieve your mobile suits."

"Our mecha? But their totalled."

"Special orders from Col. Maistroff. Leave nothing behind. Yours and Wysinger's MS's are the last two. They also got the rest of your team."

"They're alive?!"

"That's an affirmative, kid." John patted him before walking away.

Shiro pressed play. Rewind. Then play again.

"This was taken from Lt. Kycilia Zabi's mobile suits black-box recorder before impact."

The tape showed the RX-79 Ez-8 using it's 3.0 MW Beam rifle to cut a 6ft diameter hole in the side hull of the USS Quarterback. Following that the image of a projectile entering the internal compartment of the ship. Seconds later came a blinding light.

"This was taken from Pvt. Montel Wysinger's mobile suit."

Another image from a different angle of the boat. It showed an image taken from an RX-79 (G) witnessing a hole cut in the hull of the cruiser. Then the MS moved, positioning a large bazooka on it's shoulder an firing a projectile followed by the tracking of said projectile entering the ship. Finally, explosion.

"By all rights I should strip all seven you of rank and throw you in the brig for the rest of the war." growled General Kojima as he stood before the 08th MS Team. "But your punk-asses are lucky that the higher-ups want you people on active duty."

"By order from the Pentagon you all will be transfered back to Area 51 along with your mobile suits for refit and will remain their under further orders. You'll be transported to the port city of Maiquetia were you and your equipment will be loaded and transported via container ship to Freeport, TX. You'll leave at 0600 on the 12th. That's two days from now. Until then you are all on liberty. Dismissed."

Port City of Maiquetia, Venezuela
Intermodal Terminal #2..

Loading was underway at the port. Huge super-panamax cranes, usually used in loading and unloading of intermodal shipping containers, hoisted the 08th MS teams mobile suits in specially designed platforms for quick loading and unloading.

Montel watched all this happen while leaning against railing that over-looked the seaport and out into the open waters. He looked tired from lack of sleep from the previous nights. Nightmares of what he unintentionally done to the people that live in the city before the nuclear blast consumed them all. Many of nights he would suddenly jerk awake and sit up breathing heavily when a one vision would be to vivid. He usually never went back to sleep.

'Why can't I get them out of my mind...?' He wondered. He did not even see any people from his position outside the city, yet he still had bad dreams of what happened to them. He looked up at the darkening sky and wondered how his good pal Buddy was doing. How did he deal with everything when on the Macross world? How did he keep a straight face when over 100,000 people died while blowing up that UN Spacy base? Will he too suddenly go crazy like Bud did in the Ranma world before they seperated?

He was so deep in thought he lost track of time. It wasn't until Shiro placed his hand on the black mans shoulder that he finally realized what time it was.

"They're done loading. Time to shove off."

"Just give me a little bit more time.. please." Montel said softly.

"Okay, don't take too long." he said and turned to leave. Then stopped and spoke again.

"I know its hurting inside you right now. You feel like you did the ultimate wrong and you can't make it right in anyway." he paused then continued on his way. "But still..."

"..think of how many lives you saved by setting off those nukes."

Then he was alone again.

'Lives I've saved, eh?' Montel imagined what would happen if those cruise missles were actually fired upon large populations. The thought made him shudder.

"Maybe he's right." He shoved his hands in his pockets and turned towards the loading bay that was a couple piers down.

That was when the sirens began to sound.

"What the--?!"

"ATTENTION ALL HANDS!! INBOUND ENEMY MOBILE SUITS!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! ALL AVALIABLE PILOTS PREPARE FOR COMBAT!"

That was the ports PA system. He looked towards the ship and realized that they needed time to finish loading the last mobile suit. Time that he could provide if he only had a--

There! A group of unmanned Leo mobile suits that he could use. He turned his head to the look around to see he if could spot the enemy. There in the distance was a flight of Aries that would pose a major problem to a cargo ship out at see. He had to delay them, but how? Leo's were helpless againt Aries unless they had a flight augmentation unit.

"Wysinger, Yamada. Get your ass on ship so we can set sail. We can't leave without you." blaired his personnal radio. He responded back with grim determination.

"Go on without me. I'll delay them as long as I can." He ran towards the mobile suits.

"Damn it Montel! Get your ass on board! That's an or-- PSSSSHHHH!!"

"Shit! Damn asshole is going to get himself killed." growled Shiro from the bridge of the ship. "Hold ship here until I get my hands on him." he said to the captain.

"Negative."

"What?! That's one of my men down there and I'm not leaving him."

"I have my orders, kid. We're leaving now. Guards, escort the Lieutenant to his quarters." said the captain, turning his back as the guards dragged away the heavily protesting Shiro Yamada.

Montel spotted a man about to climb into a mobile suit he was looking for.

"Hey you!" The man turned towards him. "I need that mobile suit."

"What?! Your crazy man, I need this shit more than you." he was awarded with a swift kick to the nuts and a broken nose.

"Fuck you bitch. This is important."

The OZ-06MS Leo with flight augmentation pack was not as powerful as a flight capable Aries since the original design of a Leo was for ground combat only. The flight pack gave a Leo a type of high-altitude para-jump ability but for impractical matters it will allow sustainable flight under a ceiling of 10,000 meters for 10 minutes.

The black pilot quickly brought all systems online and double checked the readiness of the flight unit. All systems were green light.

He pushed the throttle up and blasted towards the enemies direction. He could here the explosions and sounds of machine guns getting closer as he neared the enemy.

"Wysinger, come in. This is Zabi." He was surprised. He didn't expect to hear her at this time. He switched to visual communications.

"This is Wysinger. Go ahead ma'am."

"Are you sure of what your doing?" He nodded. "Good hunting."

"Thanks..-- Woah!"

Explosions rocked his sides. He spared a glance to look up and saw a group of Aries bombarding the port using missle pods. That really pissed him off. Without thinking, he brought up the 0.25 MW Leo beam rifle to bear and fired.

One mobile suit was shot down but the rest broke off and started attacking him directly. He new his luck with a gun wasn't that good to he threw it away. Jamming down on a pair of foot pedals and throwing the throttle to full, the flight pack on his MS ignited sending him speeding into the air towards the enemy. They were surprised by the stunt and paused for a single moment. A moment he took advantage of.

Reaching into the left arm shield, he deployed the thermal beam saber and sliced an Aries in half horizontally. It's engine exploded sending him flying towards another MS. In a fit of insight, Montel turned the saber in it's hand upside down and stabbed backward, impaling the Aries through the cockpit before he slammed into it. He once againt ignited it's booster engines, torching and pulling away from the MS where it fell and exploded before hitting the water.

"Come on!"

He flew towards another Aries, blocking it's weapon-fire with his shield. He pulled up and cut through it's center as he passed it overhead. It fell to the ports waters, both it and it's pilot dead.

Montel landed back on the dock seeing that his ten minutes were almost up. He glanced towards the dock seeing the ship depart. They still needed time.

Tracers started littering the air as ground forces finally began to fight back. But he noticed that the enemy numbers were still too many and that the ship might still fall to their attacks. He needed something more effective than just his beam saber.

Then he spotted them on a transport truck. A 16 meter long 2ft thick pole, made of luna-titanium alloy according to his sensors, and a spool of 5 inch thick titanium alloy liner cable. Then were probably going to be used in mobile weaponry creation. He still had two more fully charged beam sabers plus enough of a charge in the one he held to melt titanium alloy. He went into action.

In a matter of moments he wrapped the remaining two beam sabers to one end of the pole using the titanium alloy cable to securing it firmly so it wouldn't move. It was hard doing this as the fine motor controls for mobile suits, with the exception of the RX and Gundam units, were horrible but he managed something. Using the last beam saber, he set it to low power and used it as a MS sized tigg-welder melding the titanium to the beam sabers and luna-titanium pole. When finished he dipped the work into the sea to cool it off.

It took him five minutes to create but it was done. He wasted precious time and the boat was almost out of the port. The terminal was still under attack by the Aries and losing. He used the Leo's link to the beam sabers and activated them. The two weapons flared to life giving the staff an energy blade that extended out to one side. A thermal beam scythe.

The true Shinigami has awoken.

Montel opened a channel to the enemy.

"It's time for you all to meet the maker."

The voice was so cold and deviod of feeling that it actually surprised the OZ pilots. It was in that pause that a pair focused on the source only to see a Leo flying at them with a scythe in hand.

"RAAAHH!!!"

He swong the blade like pro, cleaving the two units in half. Without blinking an eye he turned to another that tried to engage in close but only met the same fate as the other two. One tried to sneak up from behind him but he knew it was there. Grabbing the scythe at the end he turned around quickly and threw the weapon like a tomahawk. It ended up imbedded in the forehead of the unit. Gravity took effect and it slowly begand slicing through the Aries, killing the pilot in the process. Montel flew the Leo directly under the MS and grabbed his weapon, ripping it out of the Aries causing an explosion. He immediately went for the next group.

"Look at him go!" Scott exclaimed, watching the battle overhead from the deck of the ship. With him were the rest of the 08th Team with the exception of Shiro who was restricted to his quarters for the time being. "The last time I saw fighting like that was--"

"New Edwards." Karen stated, wide-eyed at seeing her teammate fight. "He fights like Gundam 02. I thought he was just a green."

"I guess I underestimated the man." said Eledore, also amazed. "He's an ace!"

"He's nothing compared to the OZ aces Zechs Merquise and Lucrecia Noin."

Karen stomped up to Kycilia. "Are you shitting me?! Look at how the man fights and he's only been in an mobile suit for a month! You tell me he's not an ace."

Kycilia eyed the redhead with a look that could kill. She heard three explosions in the distance and came to a decision. "Now he's an ace."

"What? I thought you said..."

"I said he was nothing compared to certain people. He just got his 25th kill. He's officially an ace." she stated matter-of-factly before turning to head below deck.

Aina watched her leave before checking the battle again. "She's right. He's accumulated enough kills in such short of time that he already qualifies as an ace pilot."

"Oh no!" Screamed one of the shipmen. "They're comming at us!"

He was right. Three Aries were en route towards the ship and ready to fire. The had no defenses to protecte themselves leaving the ship, the disabled mobile suits and it's crew a bunch of sitting ducks. All three units too aim.

"Get away from my friends! AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

A beam cut through the mid-section of two Aries while the third remained unharmed. Montel's Leo crashed into the final OZ unit just as his propulsion was cut off. Both the Leo and Aries fell from the sky and crashed into the ocean where they began to sink to the murky depths.

"Montel!" "Wysinger!" The team shouted, running to the side of the ship to search for their teammate. Out in the distance towards the sunset they saw a silhouette of a man waving at them.

He survived.

He saved them all.


End of Chapter 11

Author Notes:

Pretty good chapter if I don't say so myself.

Credit goes to many of the websites on the 08th Ms Team and UC Gundam series. Without them I wouldn't have specs of some of the crap I have in here.

On a side note about a scene in the story. Nuclear warfare is always a threat to man-kind. Unfortunately, the United States and other nations do have the capability of wiping out a huge city like Manaus, Brazil in mere seconds. Nuclear explosions only last seconds, but their long-term effects are more devestating.

Honor also goes to my good friend Ayame K, whose been helping me out with his story and encouraging me to continue it.

This is the last chapter I'm gonna use a recap. It's getting annoying to write and it's really not needed. Too TVish.

C&C+Flame: hibiki54@earthlink.net
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