Rebellion

2: Prelude to a Collapse
Captain Tallia Momoto brought her vessel closer and closer to the docking hangers of the Earth Federation’s HQ at Jaburo. The new high speed cruiser resembled a Salamis Kai class cruiser of the first succession war era. The bridge was brought down, and the lower flag bridge was moved towards the nose, and the main bridge was placed on top and aft of the flag bridge, streamlining the vessel. The weapons were all installed in retractable bays, to allow them to survive atmospheric entry. A set of wings was also installed to allow for flight.

“Coms, request permission to enter dock thirty four alpha” Captain Momoto said

“Yes ma’am. Jaburo control, Jaburo control, this is the Cruiser Kremlin, do you copy?”

“Kremlin, Jaburo control, switch to CH 22alpha over.”

“Roger, 22alpha.”

“Jaburo control, Kremlin, requesting dockage at 34alpha repeat, dockage request at 23 alpha over”

“Kremlin, Jaburo control, permission denied at 34 Alpha, head to dock 37 Alpha.”

“Jaburo control, Kremlin actual, we cannot dock at any docking cell past 34, we are a Cardinal Class vessel and our beam is close to twice the with those docks are designed for over.”

“Jaburo control, Kremlin actual, dock at 34 Beta then, but you had better be fast, that fleet of Kiev class cruisers has reserved all blocks up to 37 delta.”

“Kremlin, Jaburo command, head to 34 Beta, and await orders”

“Jaburo command, Kremlin, roger that, will comply, requesting permission to begin replenishment”

“Kremlin, Jaburo command, permission to replenish granted, get your crews ready, the docking teams are standing by.”

Ensign Sarah Marcella shook her head at the report from the battle at Avian Bend; the federation force was down to four G-Type MS’s and two GM sniper and two Defender types. The eight units were in full retreat, a force of about two hundred Zaku Marine types had almost swept over the entire island. The force was backed up by a total of 30+ landing ships, and at least half of the Zeon’s pacific fleet. As she strolled down the casualty list, her father’s name appeared, much to her dismay, with the status icon of KIA along with everyone from Alpha, Bravo and all but three from Charlie Company, the sniper unit’s pilot was killed before he could even make it to the unit and a shot down Charlie company pilot took the controls.

“Sergeant, Louis take over for me, I need to go to the restroom.” LT. Marcella said, her voice cracking
“Marcella are you alright, you don’t sound too good.”

“I’ll be fine, if anyone asks I’m in the restroom.”

“Yes ma’am, if you want I can call over Ensign Marconi to take over for until you feel better.”

“That sounds like a good idea. Please don’t send anyone after me, I’m going to lie down in my room, I’ll try to be back in a little while.”

“Don’t worry about it; I’ll take care of everything.”

“Thanks Louis, you are great."

“Don’t mention it at all.”

Louis stared after her as she left; the maroon and black jacket and pink mini skirt with long black boots signified her as a communications expert, but the black stripe down the side of her jacket and skirt told everyone she was two things an officer, and an expert at battle field communications.

Lieutenant Vale shook his head as he finally became tired, fourteen hours of pushing his troops hard, along with the for additional troops from the Avian Bend battalion who had been fighting for hours previous to his team’s disastrous aerial assault witch cost him his drop ship, and commander along with recharge caps for the beam rifles and more clips for the weapons, he and the defenders had picked up as much ammo as they could into their packs, and began moving out. And since then they had been harassed by Zeek units all night long.

”Hey um lieutenant, could we stop to take a rest?” Sergeant Icarus pleaded
”well, I suppose it would not hurt anyone to take a rest for a while how’s a five sound?” Vale said showing no emotion as was the norm for him

“VALE! She’s a new kid, don’t be such an ass!” one of his units shouted

“Sergeant Maxwell, if you speak out again, we will keep going until I get tired how’s that sound to you guys?"

“Vale, this is Blackthorn; that doesn’t sound so good if you’re askin’ me.” One of the support Gundam pilots said

“Vale, Grayson. Not such a good idea, if we don’t stop now, the kids from Avian are liable to pass out on us.” Grayson said

“Sir, this is Master Sergeant Satsuma form Charlie company, I would think a rest is in order for the younger ones.” The lead sniper pilot said

"Sir, this is Staff Sarg Matthews in sniper two, I think it’s about time for a rest too.”

“Sir, um I’m Corporal Edison, I would appreciate a rest, please sir?” the second GM D type pilot said.

“Vale, Shatters, this is about as far as this lot of new kids can go for with out a rest.” The second support pilot said

“All points, Vale here, two things, one we’re stopping in 10 minutes, because that puts us across the strait and a few kilometers into the forest before daybreak. Two, in my opinion the only kid here is CPL Shatters, and then I think he’s experienced about as much as one of our trainees has. And under my orders, they are now part of the 16th MS Air Assault Team, and they are to be under the command of Master Sergeant Satsuma. Maxwell, you’re in command of the original team, and obviously, I’m taking command of everyone. Maxwell, you and the rest of the original team are now 16.1, and Charlie company units you are now 16.2.”

“Sounds good here,” Maxwell said

“Fine with me,” Satsuma said.

Captain Tallia wandered through her ship, waiting for the last fuel and ammo to be loaded, and once it was, they were to head back to space, where they would be meeting up with the 134th strike fleet, in an attempt to cut off the Zeon supply fleet, which was in transit to the north American continent, where it would then be distributed throughout the captured Zeon areas. However, her compliment of fighters was not yet armed nor was her compliment of Stryker GM units. As she walked down the port side main companionway, one of the emergency hatches exploded up from under her, sending her flying.

Master Chief Petty Officer Demetry Popov ran down the companionway, burdened by his damage investigation gear. When he made it to the reported explosion, he found the captain sprawled across the deck, blood running from multiple gashes and a broken elbow along with burns all over her ankles. His first concern was with anyone caught in the area that actually exploded, escape trunk number 4FP, which lead down to the port ammunition magazine. One look down the trunk told him all he wanted to know, the trunk’s inner core was warped and pushed up to the point where it narrowed to allow the trunk to pass through one of the main cold storage areas, one deck below; and the ladder on the inside was pushed up through the overhead. He ran back to the captain’s side, and shouted at the approaching damage control team to call for a corpsman.

“Damage control central, to Med Bay. We need a corpsman up her right away, prepare for one repeat one severely injured person. Burns to ankles, multiple gashes, broken right elbow, possible back injuries, DC2 responding to explosion. I hope the Capn’s alright, she’s an officer and all, but she was the best captain…no, the best officer I’ve ever served under.” The DC phone talker said

“Med Bay, DC central, we’re waiting, medical team is on the way, requesting name and IDC of injured party.”

“DC Central, CPO Popov, you copy med bay’s transmission?”

“Roger that, DC Central, I copy, med bay stand by for personal info repeat stand by for personal info.”

“Med Bay standing by."

“Ok, Name: Commander Tallia Momoto, IDC: Foxtrot Lima Alpha 22554466927, need anything else?”

“Negative, nothing at this time Med Bay out, time 1344 Zulu.”DC Central, Bridge. Inform Lieutenant Commander Ray that he has command due to the captain’s injuries.”

“Bridge, DC Central, I copy that. DC teams, damage report.”

“DC Central, XO Damage report follows: Explosion in Port Munitions Magazine, all flash hatches intact. Failure of escape trunk 4FP; failure of flash suppression in the Port Magazine, failure of power to decks Bravo, Charlie and Delta, aft of frame 330, presumed to have been lost in the explosion or when the mag was flooded with fire suppressant; end report.” The DC-C phone talker said

“Roger that, Communications, if it has not already been done, report to Jaburo control and inform them of the explosion and tell them we have a critically injured person needing transport to the med facility. Oh shit, what the hell are we going to do now? Why the hell did it happen to the captain, and not someone less important? What the hell am I thinking everyone on this ship is important?” LTCDR Ray ordered, acting calm; but he had no clue what to do.

Vale cursed as a Zaku crossed his view screen, blasting away with its 120mm machine gun. He twisted at the torso, and fired his shotgun, the massive spread of pellets, shredded the Zaku’s left arm, and downed a few trees in the process. He watched as Icarus fired off her beam rife, its pink lance of energy penetrating the chest of a Zaku, causing its core to blow, leveling a massive area of forest, and starting a massive fire. Another pink lance of energy zinged over his head, and through half a mile of forest, striking a command tank dead on, causing it to explode nicely, and downing a few thin skinned support vehicles with shrapnel. The support Gundams fired their 173mm cannons in unison, clearing a massive area of forest, and downing two Zakus, that cleared even more forest. Maxwell ducked under a stream of 120mm shells aimed at her head, and ripped off a shot from her sniper rifle’s close combat mode. The lance of energy scored a direct hit in a Zaku’s chest, the pilot ejected followed up by a column of flames. Support two piloted by staff Sergeant Blackthorn started to rip off with its 90mm chain gun, spreading a massive field of lead at a flight of incoming fighters, some managed to clear it, while three unlucky ones were downed and another was damaged. The fighters scored a direct hit on Cpl Edison’s machine with HEMS missiles, blowing chunks of armor off its left torso and arm. He screamed in rage at the pesky fighters, and because he was one of the support gunners in Charlie Company, he had a massive 120mm chain gun for a main armament. He depressed the trigger, and the six massive barrels spun up to max velocity, and started spewing massive depleted uranium slugs designed to take out buildings and Mobile Suits at the thin armored fighter/bombers, which shredded them much to his satisfaction. Vale ripped off three rounds from his shotgun, and shredded the torso a charging Zaku. Mathews’ main battle sniper rifle unleashed a massive lance of energy, penetrated the body of a charging Zaku artillery type, and finally buried its self in the side of a mountain, carving a new cave into its face. Another Zaku artillery type charged, twin 120mm machine guns mounted over its left shoulder roaring, followed up by the sharp crack of its 200mm cannon. The ZAT charged at Maxwell, but its service life was cut short, by a beam saber slash through the torso, severing it from its legs, and causing a fantastic explosion as both magazines exploded along with its core. Edison was in a close range fight with a Zaku commander’s type. Both had docked their main guns, and were fighting with their sabers. Vale was about to kill the commander’s type when a Zaku kicked him in the side, causing his attack to miss entirely, and leaving him completely open to another attack. All three snipers blasted at the Zaku, turning its body into a funeral pyre for pilot and mobile suit. Two Zakus charged at Vale as he was getting up, but they were promptly cut down by a duel beam saber attack. The remaining Zeon forces were in full retreat, and were being chased away by Blackthorn and Grayson’s 137mm cannons and a few sniper shots and Edison’s massive chain gun.

The chief medic looked over commander Momoto’s body and shook his head. It was a wonder she was still alive with all of the blood she had lost. The break in her arm was set in a cast, and her ankles were bandaged up. He looked at her face, mainly at the massive black and blue spot on her left cheek where she slammed into the deck. None of her injuries would leave her disfigured, but she would have a few scars for a while.

“Unhh, ahh, crap, what the heck happened I hurt all over and I can’t move anything!” Tallia murmured

“Well, commander, I would not complain about not being able to move, given the list of injuries you’ve racked up.” The medic said

“I can see that much, but I would like to know what freight train ran me over.”

“You’re lucky a freight train did not hit you. However you were standing over an explosion and it threw you for a good distance and burnt your ankles up nicely.”

“What exploded?”

“The port magazine exploded ma’am, you’re lucky, we lost the entire mag crew, along with an entire DC team.” Ray reported

“How… so many people just dead?”

“Well, we received some bad ammunition, and when the mag crew was stowing it, it went off, and took the entire mag and all of its crew with it. The DC team was wiped out when the port trim fuel tank exploded, after it had been penetrated by fragments of the mag.”

“Then what the hell are you doing here, shouldn’t you be back at the ship commanding the repairs?”

“We can’t do that, the ships in the dry docks now, and the entire crew has been evacuated, and our ship is totally stripped of all fuel, ammo and anything else that will go boom until they finish all of the repairs. For now, I am not your XO any more, I am to go out with a recovery ship, we’ve got a unit of eight of our pilots stuck in the area surrounding Avian Bend, and they’re totally boxed in by Zeon units.”

“So, I don’t have a ship or a XO and I’m down 20 crew members and two officers what the hell else is wrong?” Tallia said becoming agitated.

“So far, that’s it unless you want to know that Zeon forces now control 75 percent of the earth, and have totally wiped out the space fleet.”

“How long have I been out, that was not supposed to happen for the next three months?”

“Unfortunately, they broke the North American defense line at its heart, and everything fell apart from there.”

Vale sat down in front of his Gundam’s left foot, and sighed mightily. He watched as Sergeant Icarus stretch and take off her shirt. He turned away at that point, studying the scratches on his shield, and trying to figure out what the mount sensor meant when it said it was cracked.

“Vale, what’s wrong, afraid of staring at a beautiful girl?” Blackthorn said elbowing him in the side

“It’s not that, I would love to, except for the fact that Maxwell thinks I’m a bloody pervert, and she’d have a fit if she caught me.”

“I would not worry about Alyssa, she’s over there too.”

“Ok, I’ll watch from my cockpit, until she notices that and decides to rip my balls off with her damn Gundam instead!”

“That sounds like an idea to me too.”

“Maxwell, Icarus, get the hell out of that stream, everyone look alive, and we’ve got incoming hostile units!” Grayson yelled from his cockpit, “Damn, no rest, no rest what so ever.”

Sergeant Clancy wandered his new Zaku artillery type slowly down the river to the point where the sono boys said there was splashing in the river. He thought it was noting, as it was last time, he checked about an hour ago. He looked around, and saw nothing, and figured it to be another false call. He was about to turn around and leave when a glint of silver caught his eye, he looked right at it, and could not make out what it was, until he kicked it, and a Gundam jumped out from behind the tree, and cut his head off. His integrity board lit up like a Christmas tree, showing half of his sensors gone along with one of the backup cameras. The boards flashed again as his left and right arm along with all of the weapons were cut off from his unit with quick accurate slashes of a beam saber.

“That does it, we’re getting the hell out of here, don’t step in the water, jump it, and hit the ground running, it’s gonna be a long hard run for the next few hours until we’re at a new safe location, where ever the heck that may be. While we’re running, everyone keep one eye glued to your TACSYS in case we get a ride the heck out of here or we see a hostile unit.”

“16.1, Roger any particular heading?” Maxwell called

“Yeah, dead north once we cross the river for ten minutes, then we’ll head off at heading 330 for a while then we’ll change to course 90 after about 15 minutes you alive over there Satsuma?.”

“Yeah, I’m here north for 10 then 330 for 10 then 90 for ten, then what ever else you think up after that.”

“That’s good, let’s get the heck moving, everyone, two columns behind your leaders, leaders form up on me, move it out 16th MSAT!”

Colonel Mao wandered around the premises of his base, wondering how high command could have assigned him to such a lowly post. The base was in a newly captured area, and it was built on the wreckage of a captured base. He was tactically blind, because he had lost all of his sensors and communications equipment, some idiot technician forgot to water proof the connections box, and the entire array had almost burnt down. To be safe, he called back all of his units, and increased physical security by having two extra teams wandering the premises of the base.

Vale was watching the base as well, he too knew that they were tactically blind, and had re called all ms units. He ordered Maxwell and the snipers to the ridge on the west of the base, and the support units to a ridge just outside the perimeter, but far enough away to prevent thermal and visual contact. The pouring rain was helping too; it kept the units cool and distorted all heat sigs, including unfortunately the Zeeks ones too. . He stood next to Icarus’s unit, and waited for the launch clock to click down to zero.

Ensign Marcella slowly made her way back to the communications building, the base’s commander General Kevin Deox had given her some leave, but she had to stay on the base because she didn’t have any where to go and sleeping in hotels was prohibited in case they were spiked. She took control as she always did at 0455 every morning. Her shift started off chaotic, when a unit, the 16th MSAT started an attack on the Zeon’s main base in the Avian Bend Peninsula’s rear. She knew as the day wore on and the mass retreat orders were transmitted and acted upon, the day would just descend further into chaos, and when night time came, it would be no better, but she would hopefully be off duty.