//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: Mobile Suit Gundam: Alicorn // by Alines Reinhard //------------------------------// On the bridge, Discord started his day by making his own tea right on the Captain chair. “Ah… what a morning… Sclerite, where are we now?” A changeling combat operator named Scarlite reported. “25 kilometers from Manehattan shore. I guess we should stay away from this place a bit…” he said “…I’ll contact our friend at Fillydelphia Base!” “Good to know that.” He decided to get out of the chair and walk around the bridge. The Canterlot’s bridge was said to be “a little” different from other Pegasus class ships: the two radar officers don’t have to sit above the captain, below the radar dome. They all sit in a row, which makes the ship more like modern Clop class, which he saw himself when the Cloudsdale was delivered to the military. But a few minutes later, Sclerite reported. “Sir, we just caught an MS approaching our port side! It has a base jabber with it too, Sir!” Discord teleports himself to where Sclerite sits and looks into the radar. “How fast is it?” “350 kilometers per hour, Captain!” “Do you know what model is that?” “Our data bank detected it was a modified Geara Zulu, Sir! I guess it was on a drill or a patrol suit…” A few minutes later, the suit had diverted to another direction and gone away. But still, Discord orders me to stay focused. “Pardon me, Captain!” Sclerite said again “I’ve… I’ve just discovered four suits, 3 of them are the Jesta Commander, the other one… I don’t know what that is…And the Alicorn is also here, Sir! It is flying above Manehattan!” Right after that, Lyra and Bonbon also arrived at the bridge. After a brief summary from the captain of what have happened recently, Lyra asked: “So… Do you know what that new model is?” “We… we are still finding it in our data bank, Lyra…” Discord answers with uncertainty “But with the Alicorn like that… I think we should do it fast!” “Okay, tell Haystack and his team to go out. But be careful not to harm the city below!” she said. … “You gotta answer to me why Rainbow Dash gave you that diary, Brad!” Haystack to Flash on their way to the hangar “…she may know who you are already!” Jumping right on to his cockpit, he was met with a message right from the bridge: it was Discord talking. “Hello Lieutenant, here is the thing…” the captain started “…the Alicorn is flying right above the city, and there is the 265 approaching our ship rapidly. I want you to keep in mind that there is a city with millions of creatures living right below your battlefield, so if you can, lure it out to the sea. And about the 265…” “The 265 is also here, Discord?” Haystack gasped. “Yeah… That’s also why y’all should do it fast, but we’ll block their way as much as we can.” In the meantime, his team had already finished setting up their suits. Haystack started put up his gear while Yamina ask through the com link: “Sir, should we launch now?” “Do it!” A few minutes later, the whole squad was already on their way to intercept the Alicorn Gundam. The Strike Zeta came out last. It immediately transformed into WR mode right after it left the launch pad. “Just execute the plan like last time, mate…” Haystack said to the group “…but Brad has to go faster and block it’s way: we’ll lure it to the sea. Oh, and do we have a name for our team yet?” “I always wanted to tell you about that, Lieutenant!” Watervapor said “We have already used the term ‘Haystack’s team’ for a little too long.” “Okay, then we’ll call ourselves ‘The Phoenix Hunter’, from now on!” he replied with a smile. “But… Sir… We are catching the Alicorn…” Yamina said. “Nah! ‘The Alicorn Hunter’ sounds lame! Using the word ‘Phoenix’ sounds a lot cooler!” After a few minutes following the five colored rainbow with the mysterious white MS on its end, they team have met with something that could dramatically make their hunt less effective. The clouds were getting denser and darker, and the rain started to fall down. “Hey bridge! What’s going on?” Haystack asked with a grumpy voice “I thought we were gonna have a sunny day today?” “Sorry Lieutenant, but the weather forecast says the opposite: we might have heavy rain for the rest of the… d…day…” The signals are getting flickering, meaning that the Minovsky particles are getting denser. “…I… I think you are on your own now… Phoenix… Hunter…” Sclarite said “Good hunting, Sir!” A few more minutes have passed. As Strike Zeta is closing the gap with the Alicorn, Flash could see it’s leg swinging slightly in the air, which makes him guess it is gaining balance.” “The wind is getting stronger…” he mumbled. Suddenly, the Alicorn accelerated into the clouds, making a bright light in the process. Flash covered his eyes for a second before realizing it had gone away. “Just follow it’s moves, guys!” Haystack said “Accelerate!” Flash pushes his throttle into the clouds, following the rainbow trail it leaves. But he soon feels that his attempt could end in nothing, as the rainbow trail is getting dimmer. They finally reached a sky section where it was clear of clouds. The Alicorn is nowhere to be seen, as they looked around the endless sea of dense gray clouds. He looked on to the camera and saw that some of it was covered with water, meaning that it is raining underneath. Suddenly, from one of the clouds, a beam shot went straight into the formation and made it lose its balance. Fortunately, it hit none of the suits, but Haystack could see the Canterlot had failed to stop Black Wine’s personal military unit. And just a few seconds later, they finally saw their opponent: 3 Jesta Commander flying with each individual base jabber, as usual, and a mysterious dark blue Gundam with a new weapon on it’s backpack. “A new… model?” Flash mumbled when he saw the suit fly pass the fight zone. Meanwhile, in the Psycho MkII Gundam, the Chancellor is happily pursuing his own mission with another new weapon in his cockpit: the Psycho monitor. “The pain of the ponies will end, start with this!” he yelled while charging toward the Alicorn. He got into the clear sky section and encountered the white MS, which was still flying in a steady straight course. The INCOME then deployed, charging up itself with some electrical noises and bright pink light, before firing straight at the Alicorn. The white MS successfully dodged it, but it was left with another burnt on the right leg armor. The machine tries to fight back, but it meets with another strike from the dark blue MS with a beam shot. Although it has yet again dodged it, the machine is still struggling to get out of the fight: the INCOME flying all around it while the MkII was threatening to make a headshot. “The Alicorn… Do… something about it… Argh!” Haystack screeched through the com link while trying to fight Joseph’s Jesta. He nearly received a blade cut to his torso, but he then successfully blocked it with his own blade. When Flash heard about it, he rapidly made a kick into one of Jesta's torso, making it nearly fall off of the base jabber. The Strike Zeta transformed into WR mode and came to where the Alicorn was fighting, struggling to defend itself from the MkII. “Flash, come… come over here!” the voice of Yolinda came up in his head, begging for his presence. The INCOME flies around like flies, while the Chancellor is still firing with insane laughter in his cockpit, making punches, kicks and firing his rifle at the confused machine. Some of the shots can be seen hitting the city below. “That machine is panicking, but…” Joseph mumbled while fighting Haystack’s suit “…that pony is insane!” “Darn it Black Wine!” Flash yelled and charged right at the dark blue MS. It successfully hit the torso and made his opponent fall down to the city. “What the… Hey! I thought you were fighting those guys!” the black stallion said with great anger “…you filthy creatures, you ruin my perfect hunt!” He pointed the rifle at Flash and fired some shots at him. Flash successfully dodged them all and pulled out his beam sabers, as soon as the transformation finished. “Eat this!” Flash screamed and charged. The beam sabers changed its blade right into the MkII torso, threatening to get right through the cockpit. However, his opponent successfully dodged the charge while his INCOME was still chasing the Alicorn around, blocking all it’s path by an invisible circle created by the INCOME’s flight path. “You fool! These things give me power! Not even the Magic of Friendship can pass it’s agility!” “Not this time!” Grisela's voice came full of confidence. Suddenly, the Alicorn’s shield flies straight to the MkII, sets it’s target to the dark blue machine. The INCOME nearly twisted into each other, as it’s controller was busy fighting those luminous flying shields. “Flash, are you okay?” Yolinda asked in concern. “We’re not gonna let a pony like you get into trouble, especially since you will save us from this!” Luster Dawn comes up. “It… They… They try to protect me… again?” Flash mumbled in surprise, but his eyes soon turned into anger as he looked back to the white machine “…or you are lengthening my suffering?” “No! We might hate you for how greedy you are, but since we are also trapped, we must go through this together!” Luster’s voice explained in sadness. “What?” “We have no choice but to collaborate with you… You have that diary, right?” “Wait, how can you know?” he asked in surprise. “Flash, look out!” Grisela warned “Behind you!” Just as he turned his head, one of the 265’s Jesta had already deployed some kind of wires from his hand. He is so close to Flash that it doesn't allow him to turn and dodge the wire: it reaches his torso and electrifies his suit. Flash screamed in pain, as the electric sparks shut down the suit gradually. “Haha! What a stupid creature!” Joseph while electrifying the white MS. He has previously taken down Blue Thunder’s Jegan, making him fall down to the sea and destroy his base jabber. Now, as the Zeta lost it’s thrust, both suits also started to fall, but into the city that still had all it’s light on below. “Good work man! Shows those amateurs scumbag what real pilots can do!'' The Chancellor complimented his team. Then he notices the Alicorn has stopped attacking him as it looks at Flash’s Zeta falling down, he brings his suits back into its primary mission. “Psycho Jammer, deployed!” he yelled. The two INCOMEs turned into 2 giant grips with a luminous screen between claws, rushed towards its prey and grabbed it as hard as it could. “No! They got the Alicorn!” Haystack yelled while still fighting one of the Jesta. The battle was paused, as every creature looked at the white machine struggling to get out. Then, the claws open up a bit, but the Alicorn is still stuck inside: it has created a gigantic octahedron cage, trapped the white machine with pain. It’s two shields have fallen down to the ground, plugged on the streets of Manehattan. Most of the ponies and creatures have been evacuated the moment the fight broke out above their heads. The six famous ex-students of the School of Friendship have come in time, luring the city’s citizen out of the danger, along with the police and many other. Gallus, the Equestrian Royal Guard’s Captain at the time, have reported in his writing when he saw the battle “…the mysterious machine, trapped in a colorful cage, was brought down by one of the 265’s suit. It was a brutal sight to see: it’s back was dragged merciless on the side of a building, crashes down the street. I could feel the dark blue MS, the one behind the capture of the Alicorn, make sure it fall as hard as possible. The white machine try to get up, looked at the dark blue Gundam as a prey begging for mercy from the hunter. But it not stopping right their: multiple flashes of electric brought it down again. It was electrify for a few more minutes before it was completely stopped. Some of its opponents try to stop, but it’s comrade suit also blocked all of their attempts. A white suit can be spotted lying down on a street near the sites.” After the battle, creatures could see the caged mysterious Alicorn was brought away onto one of the base jabber, and the white Gundam that had previously seen fighting the MkII was also pulled away by some of other MS from the Canterlot later on. After successfully catching the Alicorn, Joseph and his team deployed the giant net, wrapped around the defeated machine. “Chancellor, our ship has reported that it’s shield has already been recovered by the local military unit. They will bring them to us later!” “Very… good!” Black Wine said while still breathing heavily. “Hopefully we can do something with this… We… We can have a berry punch tonight, shall we?” Meanwhile, Flash has successfully restarted the Strike Zeta. Some of the spark still came up when the monitors lightened up again. He could see himself lying in the middle of the city. However, his team has come back to take the Strike Zeta back to the ship. “Blue Thunder said he is okay. His Jeagan has lost the right limbs and the left leg.” Haystack said. The Two of the suits pulled him up to a base jabber.   “So… what should we do now?” Yamina asked.