Civil War

by Lord of Flies

Chapter Three: Odessa

Roughly two months later…

February 28, U.C. 0079

Terra, Three hundred fifty kilometers from Odessa

Dabude-class Ground Battleship, Stahl Licht

“Lieutenant, how far are we from Odessa?”

The lieutenant, Stahl Licht’s helmsman, replied, “About three hundred fifty kilometers and closing, ma’am.”

I nodded, brushing a purple strand of hair up into its spot in my curled hair. “Maintain current heading and speed,” I commanded, “anything from the forward scouts?”

The operator nodded his head. “No enemy contact yet.”

“Good.”

“Colonel,” the communications officer said, “the Lieutenant General is hailing from orbit.”

“Put her through.”

The screen crackled, then a blonde, orange earth pony mare appeared on the screen. “Ah,” I smiled, “greetings, Applejack.”

The mare rolled her green eyes. “Good to see you, too, Rarity. How goes the operation?”

“No problems. Minor skirmishes with Federal Forces, nothing major yet.”

Applejack nodded. “And Odessa?”

“We’re just under three hundred fifty kilometers out.”

“Good. Ah want that city. Takin’ its mining facilities will hamper the Federation’s means of production.”

“You shall have it,” I nodded, “you have my word.”

“Colonel,” Applejack said, “do not fail me.”

“Of course. I will contact you when Odessa is ours.”

“Ya do that.”

The transmission ended.

I stood. Nodding to my second-in-command, I said, “Moondancer, you’ve got the bridge.”

She nodded. “You’ve got no need to worry about the mission, ma’am. I’ll see to it that we’ll continue the advance.”

Leaving the bridge behind me, I headed to my quarters.

************

Twelve hours later…

Federal Forces Outpost, One Hundred Kilometers from Odessa

“Lieutenant.”

I glanced up, “Yes?”

“The Major wants to see you.”

Sighing, I removed my helmet and adjusted my ballistic vest. “Right,” I said to the soldier, “thank you.”

As I walked toward the Major’s office, I realized how stupid it was to be wearing my tanker uniform with its sleeves rolled up. At least, to others it was stupid. Not that I cared.

What does the Major what me for? Is it about the Republic forces landing over four hundred kilometers out? How close are they?

Running my nose into the door to the Major’s office, I snapped my attention back to the real world. “Ow. I need to stop doing that.”

I knocked on the door. “Yes? Come in!”

Pushing the door open, I entered the office.

The Major turned his chair around to face me, having been looking out his office window. I saluted. “Second Lieutenant Sunset Shimmer reporting as ordered, sir!”

He waved a hand, and I dropped my hand. “I’m glad that you responded so quickly, Lieutenant Shimmer.”

“Just following orders, sir.”

He nodded and smiled. “Of course you are, Lieutenant.”

The Major opened his mouth to speak, but a Federation soldier burst into the office. “Sir! Republic mobile suits have been spotted five kilometers out!”

I paled. “Lieutenant,” the Major said, “go. Fight. Then, come find me.”

I nodded. “Yessir.”

************

“Colonel, are you sure you want to be leading this attack yourself?”

“Yes, Moondancer,” I replied, “I am sure. I have committed myself to this battle. I can not fall back now!”

Moondancer did not reply, likely shaking her head and mumbling to herself about me.

I smiled. My mobile suit, a MS-06S Zaku II Command Type, was optimized for ground combat. It was far, far superior to anything the Federation could field.

Cannon shells glancing off of my Zaku’s knuckle shield alerted me to a M61 tank aiming at me. “Hah! You think that you can take me on? You stand no chance!”

I aimed at the tank. Noticing my sudden movement, the tank began reversing. It caught a pair of 120mm shells, tearing it apart. I chuckled softly. “And thus we see the superiority of Mobile Suits over any other ground units.

“Alright, where’s my next target?”

“There are some Guntanks hampering our advance on the right flank, Colonel. They need to be destroyed.”

“Roger that,” I responded, “thanks, Moondancer.”

************

“Lieutenant! You’ve got another Zeke approaching your position! It appears to be different from the others!”

“Right, thanks, sergeant,” I replied. “Hey, Starlight, we’ve got another Zeke incoming. Bring us around.”

“You got it, Sunny. Just make sure to hit the damn thing. I don’t want to die.”

“Yeah, me neither. Stop calling me that.”

Our Guntank began turning beneath me. I was our Guntank’s gunner, and Starlight was the driver. We were a great team. Slapping my head, I began turning the upper torso of our Guntank to target the incoming Zeke. Starlight stopped turning the lower section of the tank. I spotted the Zeke, running at us, light glinting off its silver painted armor.

The lock-on reticle appearing on my HUD centered on the Zeke, and began shrinking. That Zeke looks different from the others, I thought, why’re they running straight at us?

The reticle shrunk to size of the artillery crosshair. The combined reticle turned bright red, and two words appeared under it.

TARGET LOCKED

I pressed the triggers on my fire control sticks, a vicious smile forming on my face. A pair of 180mm shells erupted from the twin shoulder mounted cannons of our Guntank, tearing through the air toward the silver Zeke.

Midway through the shells’ flight, the realization struck me. The Zeke ignited its foot and back thrusters, shoving it right. The Zeke landed, skidding along the ground, came to a stop, and rushed our Guntank. “Starlight,” I shouted, “this Zeke’s an ace!”

“WHAT?! Oh hell!”

“Reverse! Reverse!”

“I know! I know!”

Sixty tons of Guntank lurched backwards as Starlight threw the mobile suit into full reverse. The loud series of clangs announcing that the autoloaders for the main cannons had completed their reloads snapped me out of my panic. I fired the main cannons, not aiming out of desperation. The shells missed, and the Zeke’s counter fire, a twenty-five shell burst of 120mm AP shells, made its way up the front of our Guntank, one of the shells taking half of the left main cannon’s barrel with it, as another punched through a weak spot and jammed the right main cannon’s autoloader. “Left cannon’s useless! Right cannon’s jammed!”

I heard Starlight swear loudly, cursing the maintenance crews for a lousy maintenance of the autoloaders.

The quad-barreled Bop Missile Launchers, mounted one per arm, began firing, intent on driving the Zeke back. The Zeke, in response, had thrown up an arm with a shield mounted to it once the first missiles began impacting its armor.

After two minutes, the missile fire stopped, smoke rising from the launchers. I asked, “Did we get it?”

My response was the Zeke driving an axe with a superheated blade into the shoulder of our Guntank.

It pulled the blade out of its impact wound, and readied another strike. A scared whimper escaped my lips, and tears began streaming down my face. “No,” I whimpered, “no, please. Please.”

The axe slammed down into my cockpit, and my world went black.

************

I opened my eyes, slowly, blinking multiple times to adjust to the bright lights of the room I was in. “About time you woke up,” a voice said, “I was starting to think that you’d slipped into a coma.”

I sat up, and looked around. I was in a medical room. Starlight sat on a stool staring at me. “Where am I?”

“Paris. It’s been about two weeks since Odessa. How do you feel?”

“Tired,” I replied, “really tired.”

I folded my arms across my chest, intending to make a snarky remark. Well, my right arm, anyway. Realizing that my left arm hadn’t moved, I looked at it. In place of an arm covered with light amber fur attached to my shoulder, white bandages were wrapped around my shoulder. I stared at the bandages in shock. “When did this-?”

“Happen? That silver Zeke did that. You’re lucky that your arm’s the only thing you lost. Some of the doctors have suggested that we fit you with automail to replace it. I wanted to talk to you about it.”

I frowned, but said, “Do it.”

“What? Just like that? Why?”

“I still want to serve the Federation, Star. If I have to have automail fitted to me to do so, then I’m okay with it.”

Starlight nodded. “Alright, I’ll tell the docs that.”

Author's Note:

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