Just as quickly as the odds had begun to swing back in favor of the Zeon they once more began to favor the outnumbered but far from outgunned Federation pilots. Bunched up as they were, the Zeonic tanks were sitting targets for Team 02's support fire. The first round from Ben's cannon landed right on target, annihilating one of the Magella Attack tanks in a brilliant fireball and throwing a nearby Magella Eins onto its side and taking it out of the fight. The second shot landed behind its intended target though it still took out the Zebu Truck at the rear of the convoy and caused the remaining armored vehicles to scatter in order to avoid the same fate.
Cheska's accurate sniper fire likewise did its work in taking out the Zaku I that had been threatening Julian from behind. Now free to focus his attention on one remaining foe that was still in a state of shock from watching his comrade finished off by such a powerful beam weapon out of nowhere, the Lieutenant Commander was quick to launch his attack. Bringing up its shield to protect its cockpit, the Gundam easily shrugged off the burst of panic fire that came out of the Zaku II in front of him. Letting out a blast of fire from the powerful thrusters on its back, the Federation Mobile Suit charged forward through the incoming projectiles with its beam saber in hand with its goal being to close into melee.
Sensing the danger, the Zeon pilot began to back-pedal but it was already too late. With a slash of his weapon, Julian cut off the barrel of the Zaku's gun, leaving it with nothing but a useless chuck of metal in its hands and then thrust his shield directly into the Zeonic suit's face. The prongs on the edge of the shield slammed into the Zaku's head and cut deep gouges into the metal, successfully shattering the glowing mono-eye camera. Blinded and stumbling backwards, the Zaku II was completely open to one final strike that would end it.
The members of the 1st team, meanwhile, were still locked in life-or-death struggles of their own. Amelia's quick maneuvers succeeded in saving her from being bowled over by the sheer force of the Zaku I's punch and indeed create a fair bit of distance between the two combatants. The enemy pilot, however, was not content to stay still as resettled herself and opened fire with her head vulcans and machine gun. Running diagonal to the Federation machine, the Zeon Mobile Suit returned fire with its own machine gun, leading his target so that his rounds would better pepper the GM even as he kept moving. He knew that the performance of the Federation Mobile Suit outmatched his in terms of firepower and endurance which meant he needed to keep moving if he was to survive.
Caiden, meanwhile, found a much stronger opponent on his hands. With his gun in ruins after being destroyed by the blue Mobile Suit's Heat Sword, he was wise to try and switch to melee immediately. The time it took for him to draw his Beam Saber, however, gave the Zeon pilot plenty of time to bring up his own shield to protect himself. The bright pink energy beam cut deep into the thick metal plate rather quickly and chopped of quite a good chunk of it but such a move saved the new model Mobile Suit from suffering any real damage. Side-stepping the follow up swing towards its head, the blue machine followed up with a viscous diagonal strike of his own at Caiden's shield, the Heat Blade digging into the GM's defense and threatening to break through as it displayed power far beyond that of a normal Zaku.
The Zaku II battling Nathan proved to be a rather dangerous and ambidextrous opponent in his own right. With a Heat Hawk in one hand and Machine Gun in the other, the Zaku seemed able engage Nathan effectively regardless of where he tried to go. Whether it was the stuttering impacts of bullets or the bone-shuddering force of the axe blade, the inexperienced team leader was under a constant assault which was rapidly causing his shield to fall to pieces and it would only be a few moments until he was vulnerable. Seeing no other choice, Nathan decided to try something reckless. Pushing off of the ground, he blasted his GM's thrusters and went into a head-long charge at the Zaku. Catching it head on, he used his machine to tackle the enemy Mobile Suit to the ground, leaving both in messy tangle on top of one another. It wasn't pretty but it would hopefully give him the opening he needed.
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MCPO Madeline James & PO 1st Class Kyle Embry
Earth Federation 232nd Mobile Suit Corps (APC)
Atop forested Hill++Woah, heads up++ announced Harry over the comms as his Gundam turned its direction towards the sky,
++Looks like our little support show caught their attention. We've got incoming aircraft!++Those words instantly caught Madeline's attention and caused her to worry slightly about what the next few moments would hold. She had been so focused on what had been going on down on the road below that she had completely forgotten about the Zeon aircraft that had been circling back around to try and support their ground troops. While a few Dopps and a Luggun wouldn't be able to do all that much damage to the Mobile Suits they could easily destroy the fragile APC that she and Kyle were in. Not to mention the fact that besides head vulcans the Mobile Suits of Team 02 wouldn't be all that effective in combating airborne attackers.
Realizing they didn't have much time to waste on such worries, Madeline quickly looked away from her console and spoke to her partner with an urgent tone,
"Kyle...""Yeah, yeah, I know! I know!"
Already the APC's driver was squeezing his way through the confines of the armored vehicle so that he could pop through the hatch of the vehicle's single armament: a pintle-mounted Chaingun. Racking back the slide on the weapon, he brought it to bear on the incoming attackers and began to let loose a stream of continuous fire towards the aircraft, sending hundreds of shells clattering across the armored surface of the APC and onto the ground below. It was going to be difficult to hit the planes but that wasn't his real goal. If he couldn't shoot them down then he'd at least try to ward them off of their strafing runs to keep themselves alive for at least a bit longer. It was at that moment when he noticed something strange about the Zeonic planes.
There were more than the six that had been with the convoy.
"Hey Maddie! There's more of 'em! Looks like the Zekes had some friends on hand nearby!"
"What?" gasped Madeline, shock evident in her voice. It was hard to hear her partner over the loud sound of the machine gun but the message was still quite clear.
"But that doesn't make any sense! There shouldn't be any enemy airfields near here! This convoy was supposed to be headed towards a small outpost!""Well tell them that! I'm staring at a group of Dodais heading right at us! There's probably more assholes on the way!"-------------------------------------------------------------------
Map Key:
W = Weasel APC
MA = Magella Attack Tank
ME = Magella Eins Tank
Z = Zebu Truck
S = Samson Truck
DP = Dopp Fighter
LG = Luggun Recon Plane
YS = Dodai YS
05 = MS-05 Zaku I
06J = MS-06J Zaku II Ground-Type
07A = MS-07A Gouf
0 = APC
1 = Julian Miller
2 = Caiden Smith
3 = Nathan Langdon
4 = Amelia McCampbell
5 = Cheska Gordesky
6 = Benjamin Regard
7 = Harry Shields
Light Green = Forest
Brown = Dirt
Grey = Road