//------------------------------// // Chapter 15 // Story: Mobile Suit Gundam: Alicorn - Volume 2 // by Alines Reinhard //------------------------------// “And 3… and 2… and 1!” shouted Rainbow Dash “Every creature to your position!” All crew members, personnel, and pilots rapidly go to their position once RD orders the mission to be commenced through the com link. Era and the pilots see that coming: without Haystack order, every one of them jumped into their respective MS, and started up the power and the piloting system. They all do, with the hope of being overwhelmed and distracted by their enemy’s defense enough to help Flash, Lt. Gemina, and their team goes into the Cloudsdale’s hangar unscathed. Era has to be the one who launches first for the team. Haystack has requested her to carry Yamina’s Jegan, all the way from their mother ship to the enemy’s shipyard. “Ensign Era Madison, launching procedure complete, request for clearance!” she said through the com link towards Scerlite, asking for permission to fly. “Hold on there, Ensign! We are gaining altitude. Please wait for permission.” The lime green changeling said. The S.M.I.L.E’s tactic for the mission is to fly high above the shipyard at a safe yet near enough distance. After that, the suits will launch towards the shipyard itself, trying to destroy as many guarding mobile suits as they can. During the waiting, Era took some time to look at her cleaned cockpit. It was a proud moment for her. When she was reintroduced to the Strike Zeta for the first time since Antarctica, she has somewhat disgust at how unmaintained the cockpit was. “Brad, I thought you’re in this thing regularly. Look, trash everywhere! You live in here or what?” She pointed to the empty cans, tissues, and some dirt on the panoramic screen. “Well… sorry for that. Sometimes I did eat and drink in this place during shift…” Flash answered in a guilty manner. Era has decided to clean the place herself when Flash has to leave the ship for the attack. She has clean the monitors, and the seats, taken out the trashes, and even decorated it with some glitters and confetti stripes (she glue them between the cracks of the panoramic screen). However, she did not have to wait even a minute. Only 30 seconds later, the lights turned green and Screlite told her: “The launchers is clear, you can take off now!” The white MS quickly brace itself and stormed out of the hangar like an arrow. Besides her are MSs of Moran’s squad: he was requested to stay with the flotilla to protect them. She quickly turned the suit into WR mode. Yamina’s Jegan, with her giant sniper rifle on the back skirt, quickly hoped on her. “Hello there Era! Looking good today!” she said with a cheerful voice to her new human friend. “Hi Yamina! Shall we take ‘em down together?” “Sure is!” … The whole team patiently waited for the order. It has passed 6 PM, the intended strike time of their MS. “What are they doing? It’s overdue?” Flash thought to himself as he looked at the watch. “Radio check!” The sound from his ear pods comes up so sudden it makes him startled a little. But as a soldier who was a part of a special force, he calmed down and reply. “Loud and clear, Lieutenant!” “Good… Now listen, my friend…”  she said through the radio “I know that our free time together will not gonna last longer, so listen: our friend, Ensign Brandon Cultrich here, is the one that must be alive by all cost. Our mission is to assist him to take the Alicorn back, with the hope to overturn the tide of this war. Some of you may die, but you will not be forgotten. That’s all I want to say…” “Yes, ma’am!” the whole squad replied in unison. Right after that, numerous explosions were heard outside, indicating that the attacks have happened. The rumble from those blasts could be felt by all of them. “Hey, they are here?” asked Gemina to her driver. “Yes ma’am!” “Yes, drove us to the landing!” Right outside of where they are, chaos ensues. Fire and smokes quickly covered the ponies and the humans, sending them running all around the place to either find extinguishers or hide. One of the guarding mobile suits has been taken down when it stands not so far from the Cloudsdale’s main entrance. That’s where Gemina, Flash, and their squad intended to enter the ship. “Captain, one of our suit have been lost!” the ship’s main combat operator said. “What the… who shot it?” “It…. It was a Jegan… riding a Zeta… What the?” The Captain quickly ran back to his chair, breathing heavily. He told through the comlink to the Supporter, asking them to stop the process: “Take down your fuel pump, now! We're gonna take off!” “Yes Sir!” a pony at the other side replied. Right outside of the ship, he could see the shipyard being blasted all around. Above it are the reasons for all of that destruction: a group of giant humanoid machines, flying on either a magic-carpet-like machine or a white plane. The one riding on the white plane was sticking a big sniper rifle down, pointing it carefully so the gun could cause maximum damage once its bright pink beam hit the ground. “Lieutenant Joseph here, what’s going on out there? I heard an explosion!” a voice speak through the com-link. Madison could feel both the confusion and frustration in his voice “Is the shipyard under attack?” “Yes…. Yes! You are clear to take off! Herald, instruct them!” Madison reply, with a chaotic mind the situation around brought to him. However, that is enough for Herald, the ship’s combat operator to understand. He said to the pilots. “Get in your MSs, you will deploy immediately!” Back on his chair, Madison quickly pick up his phone and called the whole ship: “Combat Level 1, we are under attack! Tell the engine room to pick up energy for full combat speed: we’re gonna get the hell out of this place!” … On the ground, after an epic ride through the falling debris, smoke, and fire, the vans arrived at the main entrance. Hearing the engine noise, the driver told Gemina: “Quick, they gonna leave this place!” He decided to push the button that was customized for the mission on his steering wheel. Flash then saw his tank cap pop up. Without hesitation, he climbed out of the tank, making it fall down the van. Fortunately, it was not a chaotic process for him due to Flash’s tank being the deepest place. Outside, his comrades have started the battle. “Hey Brad, the ship’s gonna take off. You’ll don’t want to be left behind son!” Gemina shouted as she ran to her target. On the ground, he has seen several of his comrades fallen down. It’s the shipyard’s guard, they have quickly adapted to the situation and shot them down. But he don’t have time to mourn, or take any of their weapon: he decided to ignore them and ran into the ship. But it didn’t bring him to the hangar right away. He entered a long hallway, where he was instructed to brave himself along with his comrades. “Darn it! I haven’t studied the map!” he yelled at himself in his mind. “Okay, ready my fighters?” Gemina shouted. “Yes ma’am!” One of them then threw a grenade towards the door before them and blasted it wide open. Behind it is several pony-armed guards. It seems like they have already prepared for this, as they immediately lighten up their horns and put up the rifles. A gun and magic fight broke out. Flash quickly took on his rifle and fired rapidly at the ponies. “Shit, it's no use!” he cursed. Their first line of defense is a group of unicorns: they set up unicorn shields for their comrades to fire magic and bullets toward them. With the shields, the bullets just bounce back. “4 shield guards, 5 gun ponies…” said Gemina. This means that although they are outnumbered, with 20 creatures, it is still hard for them to break out of their enemies. “Nah, don’t worry! We've known how to do this for a long time!” Gemina said with a smug. She then pulled out a special grenade, having the same look as the one that blasted the door before but with the color red. “Everyone, brace yourself again!” she said, before throwing it at the unicorns. The blast it bring created a bright pink light, knocking down the unicorns. This allowed the creatures to continue to advance toward the hangars. Meanwhile outside, the dogfights have begun. Haystack was yet again met with his arch nemesis, Lieutenant Joseph, and his Jesta. The two almost identical MS pulled out their beam sabers and start their duel. “Nice to meet you again, human bastard!” he said, this time with a high amount of confidence, showing off with a huge grin on his face. The two blades clash with a signature pink light ball. While he was in the struggle, he also decided to use his other hands to man his beam rifle. When his opponent was not paying attention, to it, he opens fire on another Jesta’s base jabber and knocked it out of the sky. That MS was in pursuit with Era and Yamina’s suit. Without his shot, Lieutenant Nikita would have hit them. “Thank you Haystack!” Era said cheerfully. “Continue on your mission, and do not let yourself off guard!” he shouted. But he himself nearly faced a direct slash from Joseph’s Jesta. But his skill has helped him dodge it by a shocking move: he jumped off, directly above the blade, and landed smoothly on his base jabber. “Damn it… Why don’t you swine just die!” Joseph cursed in his cockpit. He decided to do multiple stabs into his opponent: one to the right of the cockpit, another one right to the hatch, one at the left front skirt, and one to the chest armor. However, none of them met their target. “After all of these battles and you still not improve? What a stubborn fool!” Haystack said. But still, knowing his opponent’s strength is saber skill, Haystack still has to be careful. He punched the Jesta into its face and pulled out far away, starting their fights with beam rifles. Just as he puts up his weapon of choice, a large explosion occurred right beside him, blasting himself and the base jabber sideway. It was a physical shell fired from one of the artillery batteries on the ground being stopped by one of his subordinates. That blast was so large it smoke swallowed his entire suit and base jabber. “Lieutenant, you should be more careful!” said Water Vapor through the com-link “We are blasting those batteries on the ground. One shot and you’ll go!” “Understood! Keep up your good work, WP!” Haystack replied, and continue his fight. Water Vapor was surprisingly good at long-range fights, even with only his normal beam rifle. Right after that shot, he has to deal with Nikita’s Jesta. He shoots at it furiously, with vengeance boiling in his blood. “Die, die! This shot is for my fallen friend!” Back on the Canterlot, Moran and his squad are busy fighting the mobile suits that were sent to the ship to take it down. On both sides of the Canterlot are two large yellow circles with 2 rims: one blue and one red. They are the cover for the long-range hyper-particle cannons, which can extend their barrels’ length to 50 meters. However, the engineers on board are still figuring out how to activate it: “Sweet Celestia, Discord! Why don’t you know this earlier?” the brown reindeer asked the ship’s captain directly. “I don’t know. I’m asking the same question as you know. Maybe I haven’t read the instruction?” “Totally!” Right after that, he manages to shoot down one of the anti-MS shells from the ground. It blast nearly knocked him down to the ground and rocked the whole Canterlot with her crew inside. “Darn it!” The Abyssinian’s ship really underestimated their enemy, which is why they only brought with them anti–beam dust to shield themselves from the laser shots. Little did they know that there is a whole new kind of physical projectile that was built with enough punch to kill an MS with just one-shots. “Seems like those cannons are really well hidden…” mumbled Esteban. All around the flotilla, the clouds of smoke cover them, which comes from the AA guns from the ships as well as the Jegan’s shot. “This battlefield is a total chaos, I love it!” Discord said gleefully as he has back to his natural habitat. “Discord!” said Yellow Pickle with a pout “I don’t want to flood this bridge just because of you…” “Oh… okay…” Right after that exchange is another explosion, this time, a shell has hit the port side engine block. The shot knocked out one of the 4 engines and threaten to turn off another one right above it. The alarm then went off, signifying the danger they faced. “Turn off the fire, immediately!” the draconequus said urgently. The camera in that section has allowed the whole bridge to see a horrible scene: in the middle of the pile of damaged metals, smoke and fires, there lies a dead pony with blood covering all over his body. Discord has to order to turn it back to the outside to see what has happened to them. In addition to the ground artillery, Mosquito UAVs have also been deployed in the swarm. It is the pride of the Equestrian defense industry, besides the ability to repair MSs all on their own, as they are 100% indigenous. They can see missiles being shot at the flotilla all over the place. At that moment, none of the ships were still in one piece: to their port side, the Lord Gust is heavily burning on her balloons, and the Halflinger have one of the guns unusable and is burning To their starboard side, the Tabby Town was dealing with UAVs with her bow almost ripped off, while the Sir Charming have her upper deck covered in smoke and fire. “Darn it… At this rate, we’re all gonna sunk!” Then, Discord stunted the whole ship by shouting at them with a straight face. As the Lord of Chaos is an extremely unusual scene to see him being a calm and wise leader like what he shows at that moment. “No, we’ll survive this, and we’ll survive till the end! Those ships have lent us their power, and their soldier, for us to keep up with this fight. We can not afford to lose the Alicorn here, do you understand?” To mark his word, another explosion occurred. This time, an anti-MS shell exploded right outside of the bridge, lightening up the interior as well as rocking it hard. However, the whole crew still managed to hold tight and reply in unison: “Yes Sir!” … “What the… I thought this is the route to the bridge!” Flash said, doubting himself while checking his map again. It seems like he has taken the wrong one. “If I keep following this, it might take me all the way to the middle engine room… Damn it…” “Hey Brad, have you found the route?” one of the soldiers shouted through the sound of gunfire. “Uh… I think we should go to the left corridor. There is an elevator there. Let’s try going down…” “No, Flash! It will let you to the ammunition storage!” Luster Dawn’s voice said into his ear, making Flash startled. He looked around,  only to find his comrades looking at him and Gemina, waiting for the order. After taking out another group of guard pony, the corridor section where they are staying at the moment is surprisingly silent. Sounds from the battle outside, or even the sound of other parts of their team combating the ponies, can’t get into where they stay. “Do you have any idea, blue head?” a minotaur asked. “Flash, listen…” Griselda takes Flash’s ear “…you have to take a stair that pointed to the aft of the ship, which is located just on your left-hand side. From there, you will turn right and run. You will meet about 2 or 3 sealed doors with guards… But we believe you guys can get past that with ease! After that, take another stair upward for 2 decks, and…” “Ta-da! You reach the hangar!” Butter Burger took over with a gleeful voice. “Lieutenant, we’re gonna turn left!” Flash said to his commander, before spitting out the entirety of the plan. “Wait… Do you want to go to the engine room? This map said…” “Trust me. Luster and her friends have told us to take that route!” Right after that, an explosion nearly threw the squad around. That is when they get to hear the Cloudsdale’s alarms for the first time: all of the normal lights are turned off, replaced with red hazard lights flashing on the ceiling, along with an annoying beeping sound to warn its crew to be careful. “That should be one of our shots to this dry dock…” said a kirin. They looked at Flash with doubt. Surely, Rainbow Dash has addressed the situation, but most creatures still have very basic knowledge of magic. They didn’t know much about the curse that Flash has, so they suspect its ability. “Hey bud, I know Luster has influenced you and all, but are you sure she and her friends suddenly gain psychic ability when they are stuck in that Alicorn Gundam?” “I don’t know, not even them have known the full potential of that curse either. But I am positive that being psychics is one of them!” Flash then turned around and saw his commander sigh. She closed her eye for a few seconds and then said: “We don’t have time for arguing. Let's just do what Brad said!” The squad nodded their head and proceed to do what Flash have said. … “Captain, our radar picked something!”  Ensign Rapid Specter said while looking at his radar in both confusion and surprise “It… It was massive!” “What is that?” Discord asked with one of his eyebrows raised “Are you sure is not a cloud?” “It wasn’t. I’ve never seen this ship before!” he replied while heavily sweating. And they don’t have to wait too long to know what actually happens. On their starboard side, the Sir Charming suddenly took a massive hit to the starboard side of her stern, leaving it a huge hole and making the ship completely immobile. “What the… Scerlite, did you see anything?” “Sir… our radar… our radar…” he stuttered in fear. “What?” Scerlite then swallowed his fear and said without any stop: “Sir, our ship has picked a large vessel to our starboard side. Salamis class, NEW HAMPSHIRE!” The whole bridged gasped. At that moment, Lyra and Bonbon just arrived at the bridge, breathing heavily. They must have just run right from their room to the bridge. The married duo never fails to impress Discord on how they can always get their tuxedo tidy. “What… what just going on?” “Your intelligence has a fault or what?” Mind-of-Steel asked with an annoyed voice “We got a giant Federation vessel right on our flank!” The two mares ran right at Scerlite’s radar monitor to see a large icon, with the name New Hampshire on it, slowly but menacingly approaching the flotilla. Then, they looked at the bridge’s starboard side to catch a glimpse of their new enemy. There, behind the thick smoke, a giant purple-painted warship is deploying some mobile suits from its upper hatch, right in front of its main battery. Rapid Specter has counted that the new ship deployed 5 mobile suits in total, which were all Nemos. They are rapidly closing the gap as they hoped through the sand dunes, stirring up the sands and making dust clouds in the process. “They seem to carry large guns with them… This is not good!” Lyra said. “Contact Moran’s squad. We have new MSs join the play!” But they must not hesitate at all costs. The Sir Charming was shot down right after that, with a giant fireball and a loud bang, followed by dense black smoke and rain of debris. “Darn it, the Sir Charming has been sunk. The New Hampshire has just made another shot!” said Scerlite with a scared voice. Moran quickly caught up with the situation. He alarmed his squad about the new threat, pointed his rifle at the hoping Nemos on the sands. “Guy, there’s our new enemy. I want them blasted into pieces!” he said with an angered temper. “They must not allowed to get near this ship!” Haruna started the fight by pointing her sniper rifle at the leading Nemo. When the targeting icon have finally turned green, she opens fire. The shot goes right through the machine's chest, causing it to explode. The Minovsky’s reactor blast caused a gigantic fireball and another dust cloud. But luckily, it happens far enough to only make a wind gust, wiping through the fleet. “Good job Haruna!” Back to the shipyard, Yamina and Era alone have contributed 3 kills, and all of them are GMIIIs. They have successfully dodged every single shell from the ground. The shipyard is now just a pile of burning rubble, ejecting thick black smoke into the atmosphere. The burning is so large that, if you look from outside the town, you can see it smoke almost swallowed the whole town. Meanwhile, Haystack, Water Vapor, and Blue Thunder still haven’t made much progress. Blue Thunder and Water Vapor, each having their own Jesta, still struggle to fight each of them. WV’s one has just taken a shot to its right shoulder armor, melting part of it. But then, he figured out something. “Wait… did that Jesta is…” he mumbled. The machine just keeps flying around him in a clockwise route, making his moving style predictable. He even sees the suit maintain altitude, looking at him and doing some finger-wagging. It is as if the pilot is teasing him. “Haha, come at me, you dirty creature. Show me your rainbow laser!” its pilot said through the com link. “What the… who… who are you?” It is the first time ever he ever heard the enemy’s voice. It’s a human, and he talks perfect Ponish. “I’m your arch nemesis, creature. Listen up animal, you are nothing but just a dumbass living pile of flesh. Killing you is just like killing a random pig back on Earth!” The black Jesta shoots at him with its beam rifle, multiple times. He manage to dodge them all but one: it hit his left arm, causing the beam saber and the hand to be destroyed. “Tsk, not good!” WV gritting his teeth. “By the way, my name is Nikita. Nikita Govarich!” … At the same time, not so far away from the fight, we got to see his comrade Mark Ester hold off 3 MS simultaneously. “What a beast that guy is! Hey Era, can you turn into MS mode?” asked Yamina to her human friend. “What? Just let me stay with you! Height will allow you to have more advantages and safety…” “No, your suit is a high mobility one. I have seen Brad bring it to it’s fullest, and it’s certainly a monster in his hand. I think you could do the same to it too!” “Yamina, don’t you dare do it!” Blue Thunder raised his voice. It was the moment that allowed Mark to shot down the base jabber that carried Blue Thunder. At the moment, he was rushed to shield his friend. His Jegan quickly jumped up on his heavily damaged machine, but he don’t have enough power to stay air born for long. “No, no, no…” he stuttered while struggling to make his MS on the air. “Stay with me, stay here!” But it’s too late. By the time he touches the ground, he knows he is over. All around him are heated barrels of 110 mm AA canons, the ones that spits out those Anti-MS shells that he and his soldier have faces earlier. It was very well disguised, as the whole cannon was put inside an abandoned house with almost its entirety, except the barrel, covered in special sand texture cloth. “Darn it!” he put up his shield to brace himself. Luckily, he still managed to blast it with his beam rifle, causing a large fireball, before the cannon even have time to fire at him. “Ha, gotcha!” Then, there’s some beeping noise in his cockpit, indicating there is indeed a threat around him. With that, he pulled out his beam saber and look around. His forehead sweating heavily, but still, it doesn’t completely stop him from opening his eye fully, along with the help of his MS sensor. “Those AA cannons don’t have an electrical targeting system, which means that…” “BOOM!” An explosion happened right next to him. But once again, Blue Thunder jumped away in time, with only a minor scratch and burn on his suit leg. “Phew…” he sighed in relief. But it was the last time his comrades ever see him have that much luck. Right behind him is another Anti-MS cannon, pointed right into his backpack. He did not notice it due to him still gaining balance from his last jump. When the suit has finally able to stand upright, the cannon commander immediately orders his fellow gunman to shoot the gray MS from behind. The barrel was lit up. Its 150 kilogram shell rapidly charged through the air with a monstrous velocity. The gun was specifically designed to shoot projectiles with higher average velocity compare to others with the same caliber (which including longer barrels).  The shell pierces right through the backpack and goes into the cockpit, slightly touching Blue Thunder’s head with it’s tip. It was the moment that the time around go slower and slower, as the entirety of his life flashes right before his eye like he was in a cinema. “Mother, father… I’m… coming…” he mumbled with the sight of metal flashing all around him. After that, comes the blast. It seems to be a larger one, with its fireball reaching all the way to the very cannon that took his life. It was so hot that it instantly vaporized the crew and even the gun. But, in all that remained of him, there is also the happiness that he gets to see his family in heaven. But to his friends, the pain is immeasurable. “BLUE THUNDEEEEER!” Yamina screamed in disbelief.