//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 // Story: Mobile Suit Gundam: Alicorn // by Alines Reinhard //------------------------------// “Sorry, Miss…” Discord concerns “…you said they are…” “Yes, they are baits none!” the blue pegasi replied “I know they are decommissioned vessels the moment I saw their weapon placement. Those ships are supposed to arm with missiles and small anti air machine guns, not large cannons like that.” The whole crew looked at the explosions in shock and confusion. The combined energy of the explosions was so powerful that they can be felt by the cats at Panthera, as they describe “as loud as an explosion happening right in the middle of the city”.  S.M.I.L.E themselves realized they have fallen into Black Wine’s trap. “Captain, we just spotted three unknown vessels coming from our 7 o’clock direction!” Sclerite reported with a shocked voice “They are launching missiles!” “Darn it… Brace for impact!” Discord yelled. Just after that, a huge missile salvo rained down on the two ships hiding inside the mine, coming with a large number of red cone objects, accompanied with multiple long smoke tails. Though the majority of them hit the rocks surrounding the ships, some of them did make a hit on the ships, making both the Canterlot and the Parrot’s Strength shaken violently. Every creature holding tightly to anywhere stable enough with their teeth clenched, praying constantly as they hope they will survive through the battle. At that time, Flash has already come into his cockpit, holding his suits tightly to the ground while shielding him from the first wave. Fortunately, the suit only suffered a hit into the shield. “Darn it! We are supposed to ambush them!” Haystack said with immense anger. “Turn around! We will protect the Canterlot! How far are they?” “About 20 kilometers from us, Sir!” Sclerite replied “We are turning around!” Discord came to the window and looked out: three large vessels were coming from the South East without any resistance. The Cloudsdale decide to make a mega particle cannon shot towards the mines, creating a huge blast just after it hits a rock near where the Canterlot is hiding. “All mobile suits get to the enemy’s fleet!” the Lieutenant made his decision just after he saw them “We must protect the Canterlot at all cost!” Flash geared himself up for the fight, and his comrades could see the Strike Zeta transformed as soon as it left the rock, charging its way towards the enemy. The Cloudsdale and its fleet continue to attack. Their missiles fly all over the place while still maintaining their sights on the Canterlot , making them harder to be destroyed. However, Flash and the Phoenix Hunters still manage to stop them all. With the MS mode Strike Zeta, missiles after missiles were shot down with his Vulcan gun, as well as his side skirt beam guns.  “Good work y’all!” Haystack said “More missiles will come to us, so don’t let your guard down!” The white MS brought up its shield once again and fired the built-in rifle. It has hit one of the airships that escort the port side of the Cloudsdale, piercing through the bow and blowing up one of its magazine storage compartments, leaving a large hole in front. Then, he turned to the other airships and fired. The shot hit the left rudder and propeller, creating an explosion that ripped off its left engine, both with little resistance. “Hey, not fair!” Water Vapor said with an envious voice “You’re not supposed to do that alone!” “And… where are the enemy suits?” Haystack said with a suspicious accent. “Don’t you said these vessels are bait too, you filthy racist unicorn!” Despite heavy damages, both of them haven’t sunk yet, as Flash looked back and saw both of them are built with hard metal. But then, the enemy took notice: Flash had to face heavy firing from the fleet, with missiles all aiming for the lone ranger looking for a swift victory. They chase him down, but he manages to lure them to a blue rock near the battlefield: the white Zeta flying towards it and quickly climbing up in order to make the missiles hit the rock. However, when he turned back to the fight, the 265’s suit had already gotten into the fight and made their own move to the Phoenix Hunters, with the Psycho MkII Gundam appearing right behind his rear. “Haha, you fool!” the dark blue Chancellor laughed hysterically “We’re here, not those junky old vessels!” The dark blue Gundam pulled out its saber and made its way toward Flash. Its eyes flared up, indicating that it was looking for a prey to kill. “Darn it!” The white MS also pulled out the saber and the two blades clashed again. “Who are you, amateur?” Black Wine asked with contemptuous. “I thought they had locked you after Manehattan.” “Brandon Cultrich, pilot of the Strike Zeta Gundam! And why do you want that Alicorn Gundam?” “Well… as you have known…” The dark blue machine made a strike right above the white MS head. It’s blade flies down, creating a curved bright beam with hot water vapor flying up as it makes its way towards it’s opponent. Flash quickly stops the attack as the clash makes multiple bright beams flash as usual. “…I always wanted to free Equestria from those greedy and dangerous creature who are exploit this kingdom every…” he said with anger, pushing his blade harder towards the Zeta as he speak“…those filthy creatures always wanted to rotten our culture in the name of ‘diversity’, don’t you see it? Anyway, all I want is to kick their butts out of our lands, and to do this, I need to force them as well as other kingdoms to pull their citizens out. And by the way, we have rightful ownership over that mine, so stay out and let us do our job!” The Psycho MkII makes it kick into Flash’s leg, but he quickly puts up his shield and fires the Vulcans. “And you will not have that Blue Rock mine!” he yelled. “Sir, those creatures have reinforcement!” some pony reported to Black Wine “A fleet of airships, 15 of them to be exact!” “Okay… but I have to deal with this stubborn bastard a little bit more…” he replied “…and prepare the Alicorn!” “I’m not gonna let you touch the fleet!” Flash yelled and made a beam shot at his opponent. The Psycho MkII Gundam successfully dodged the attack. With the beam rifle on it’s right hand, the dark blue machine brings it up and starts to return fire at the Strike Zeta. “Guess I’ll buy them some times, eh?” he mumbled, then turned to his team “How is the installation work?” “The AI is ready, Sir!” one of the mechanics reported “Do you really want to aim for the fleet?” “Good! That AI pilot should not fail. You can engage whenever you want, but it should be fast!” … On the night before the battle, the Chancellor came with his team to inspect the suit for the last time. At that moment, the cockpit had not opened yet “due to some mysterious program inside”, as one of the mechanics said. However, Anaheim, after being successfully convinced by the Chancellor that they can return and do their business in peace and come back to the 265, have something special installed inside the thing. “So… we have an AI that can be installed via external USB gate just outside the cockpit” a human mechanic said whilst wiping his sweat after a long work with the laptop “This AI was developed exclusively for the Alicorn, in fact. Since that one operation ended with the Phenex, I think this and the weapon pack the Psycho MkII carried in the last mission are the best equipment they can come up with, right now!” “So… that’s how it works?” Joseph asked the mechanic “I mean the AI…” “Well… the plan is to use the AI to pilot the reinforcement fleet, as Chancellor Black Wine has suggested. The Alicorn only attacks if you attack it or simply when it is feeling threatened. So the AI here will pilot all the way to the fleet to attack them, which will make the fleet retaliate with guns and missiles. The suit will feel threatened once they could see the shots are aimed at it, the ‘souls’ will start their attack on the fleet. The more it feels it is in danger, the more aggressive it gets.” Then, the Chancellor came to the scene to inspect the work. He was genuinely amused by the work AE had given to accomplish his plan. “Sir, I heard that you wanted to fight the reinforcement fleet… But… but why do you do that?” Joseph asked as soon as the Chancellor stopped his short inspection. “The reinforcement fleet, you mean?” he chuckled, then looked back at the Alicorn “Let just say I want it to do that because of show of force!” the Chancellor said as he looked at the white machine, standing calmly inside the MS cage. “They know that things now belong to us, so they will automatically retreat and hand over the mine. Easy!” … “Sir, the AI is ready, we will release it now!” “Good, you can start now!” he said while holding his best against the Zeta. The white machine stood menacingly on the launch deck, waiting to get into the battle. Its new white paint which the 265’s mechanics have brought it up on to the armor shining in the hot sun of Abyssinian’s desert. After mechanics have detached all the wires as signaling the preparation procedure has completed, the eyes flashes with a sharp beam of lights. The suit hovering for a couple of minutes on the deck as it gains power, and magic, within its psycho frame and thruster, before flying away into the battlefield like a rocket. Flash watches process in horror, looking around while still holding his sabers against the MkII. He decided to pull his sabers out and two suits got into a dog fight, exchanging beam shots in the process. “Captain, the Alicorn have already deployed!” Sclerite said with a terrifying tone “But it doesn't head for us…” “What the… where is that thing going to?” Discord asked. “They came for the Panthera’s reinforcement fleet! Its speed is insane!” “Reinforcement fleet?” he asked in confusion. “We have contacted the King himself so he can send that fleet to help us, in case stuff goes haywire. Sorry for not letting you know that before…” Rainbow Dash explained to him, before looking at the radar and continued. “What… what should we do now?” “Contact the Phoenix Hunters!” he commanded “The Alicorn shall not touch the reinforcement fleet!” “Woah…” Water Vapor gasped as he saw the white machine come out “They… they can control that thing?” The whole group gasped as the white MS flew towards its prey with no resistance. “No way!” Haystack said with a terrifying tone. “Hey Lieutenant! Stop that thing, now!” Sclerite said through the com link “The commanders don’t want our helpers to be destroyed!” “Roger that Captain!” he replied. Then he looked back to the place where Flash suits were located. Notice that the white Zeta just doesn't move anymore, he called Flash to wake him up from his own horror. “Hey Brad! Can you come and control that Alicorn for me?” the Lieutenant asked, to bring him back to reality “That thing will destroy our reinforcement fleet and I don’t want that to happen!” The Strike Zeta immediately started to transform to fulfill the Lieutenant’s order. However, the process was stopped in the middle as the Chancellor kicked into his torso twice. The suit was unable to finish the transformation process. “Stop right there, buddy. You will not have that thing back to you!” the Chancellor screamed as he accelerated, following the white MS to where the Alicorn was flying at the moment. … “Admiral, the Alicorn is right in front of us!” an Abyssians Captain said, as the white machine charged right into them with an immense speed. “Isn’t that the suit that 265 have captured before?” the Admiral said in horror. “It still came to us! Speed: 1300 kilometers per hour and still accelerating!” “All missiles fire at it, immediately!” he yelled. First, the first wave of missiles coming straight at the AI controlled machine. The Alicorn dodged all of them, as the failed missiles either crashed into each other or fell into the desert. Then, the second wave came. Just as before, the white machine dodged all of them smoothly in the middle of a cloud of explosions, smoke and the remains of the missile's tail. Terrified by its moves, the Admiral order to shoot more at it, as he fears it could destroy his fleet. The missiles salvos has shown it monstrous mobility as it moves, so fast that naked eye barely catches it movement Shots after shots came out of barrels and missiles pods, flying at their target in furious as the white machine flashes in its eyes for the last time before officially starting the massacre. The psycho-frame lighted up and the shields were deployed, flying around the fleet as they seeking for the threats to eliminate. “Captain… Those… those shields!” an Abyssinian said with a terrified expression. Their first victim is a Mattia class battleship. One of the shields penetrated the armor, tearing the compartments apart and eventually blew it up with multiple hits. The second one is a Panthera class battleship, as the Alicorn came right in front at its bridge and smashed it into pieces, before coming to blow its engine compartment. “No… no way…” the admirals said in shock “De… deployed more missiles!” However, as Black Wine has stated, the more threatened it feels, the more aggressive the ‘souls’ inside it get. It deployed the magic again, blowing all of the missiles that had chased it before. It destroys 2 more vessels before it has shown some sort of ‘regretness’: the movement starts to freeze as if it tries to stop itself from destroying the ships by. There is metallic screeching noise from the armor echoing across the sky, with parts of its armor’s cracks stopping itself from expanding.  “You can see… you are losing, my friend!” the dark blue unicorn said “Now get ready for…” The MkII swung its left arm with an intention to slide the Zeta in half, but the effort was cut short when a beam shot merely touched its back pack. Then, Haystack’s suit appeared. “Hey Brad, leave him to me!” they shouted “You go get the Alicorn!” The Zeta immediately transforms itself and rushes to the scene where the white MS is making a massacre. However, 5 ships have already been destroyed. The Alicorn is still struggling to stop itself to make further damage to the fleet. Flash finally catches up with it and hugs Alicorn’s torso as hard as he could. “Come on, stop it!” Flash yelled at the thing. “Flash, oh my gosh oh my gosh you are here!” Butter Burger said with rejoice. “Great, we need your help!” Grisela said “Some… Something forces us to attack them… Then the fleet attacked us and we… we…” “Come on… Haystack, what should we do?” Flash asked. “Hold it until the reinforcement fleet fully retreated!” he said. As he looked out, the Abyssinian reinforcement fleet slowly diverted their direction back to the city. Five wrecks which previously were some of Abyssinian’s most powerful warships, lying on the ground not so far from each other as they emit thick black smoke as they burn. Flash was horrified, he never knew the Alicorn could have such power. He assumed that an average Panthera class air battleship can take down a few suits, since they are even larger and more heavily armed than Clop class, but the rampaging Alicorn can take 5 of them down easily. After a few minutes, the suit started to calm down. The psycho frame’s light has slowly dimmer to the brightness that it was normally seen by him. Then, he heard five voices echoed in regret simultaneously: “We’re sorry!” And the white machine itself grabbed around Flash’s suit as the two were still hovering above the wreckage, in the middle of the desert. “Uh… Uh… Okay! Good job Flash!” Haystack said “Bring that thing back to the ship. We're gonna retreat as well!” However, as much as he tried to pilot the Zeta, they still stayed stationary in the air. Some kind of magical lights start going around the Zeta, encapsulating both suits as the white machine leaning into the Zeta’s chest. “Can… Can we hug you a little bit?” Yamina shyly asked with a sweet voice. “What?” asked Flash in confusion “Why do you want…” “Aha, there you are!” the Chancellor said “You are distracting, buddy!” A beam shot hit Flash’s Strike Zeta left arm, causing it to explode and blow both suits apart. Unable to pull out his beam saber, Flash was forced to hold his shield with just one hand and firing constantly at his opponent. He looked at his left arm, where only just the shoulder armor still remains. The sound of sirens is constantly alarming that the Strike Zeta is not in a good shape.  Both suits went into a dog fight once again. Meanwhile, the Alicorn is gradually losing power and falling down to the ground, near the burning wreckage. It makes a huge cloud of dust after hitting the ground, slowly swallowed by the smoke from the burning ships that it has taken down by itself. In the air, the battle rapidly turns it’s favor to the MkII just after a few minutes, due to Flash exhaustion: after a kick right into Zeta's torso, Flash has to pull his suit back in order to avoid more damage to his suit. He attempted a few more beam shots but they were all in vain, as the MkII maneuver allowed it to dodge all of the shots. “Darn it… Such a fast machine it is…” Flash mumbled in pain. He could feel that he had some broken bones after the MkII’s powerful kick. Little did he know that the Chancellor’s suit had a special feature to enhance its close combat ability, especially in martial arts-like combat. “Brad, fall back! You’re gonna be left behind!” “Yes Sir… argh!” Another kicked into the suit and it fell down to the ground. “Take this, bastard!” the Chancellor said as he breathed heavily “This mine belongs to ours…” “Chancellor, we have the mines! You can go back to the ship now!” a pony said to him. Flash vision started to get black again, as his opponent left the scene to celebrate his victory. “Yeah… those creatures are still no match for us!” he mumbled and then turned to his subordinate “Recover the suit and if you can, salvage those destroyed ships. Make sure the creatures stay out of the Alicorn as far as possible!” Flash tries to bring his suit back to the fight with his engine fired up, but it is too late: the thruster ignites just about a few meters from the ground. Instead of gaining altitude, the suit flew horizontally on the ground, before losing stability and completely stopped, making another large dust cloud as it hit a pile of rock. At this time, the machine has completely run out of fuel, blocking his last way to chase off the dark blue unicorn. He then panned his eye to the wreckage as the Equestrian fleet came to recover the Alicorn. It is also too late for him since wreckages are too far for him to stop the recovery, despite having detached the shield and run as fast as possible to the white fallen MS. Then, the Zeta stumbled on another and fell down again. “Darn… it…” “Brad… Brad! Are you okay?” the Lieutenant asked loudly “Take the shield and go back to the ship!”