Silent Requiem, a fanfic by Nightmaresama, chapter 3

Gene D'ark had been sleeping peacefully in his bunk when suddenly, he felt a hard tipped combat boot strike him in his rib cage, knocking the wind out of him. He gasped and wheezed to see Hilde standing over him.

"The Zeeks are on the move and heading for this base! We're all loading up the shuttle and pulling out. Let's move!"

"Wow," he thought, "she went through all that trouble to come in here and get me up and ready! She does love me!"

"Major O'Rielly! Is it likely that we're gonna be able take on a whole Federation base?" Sean asked. "I mean, we are just heading back to re-arm before we head out after `em again, right?"

The trio crested the final hill and began their descent into friendly territory. As the watched, the base below seemed alive with action as mobile suits were unloaded from the Zanzibar and as a flight of Dopps taxied onto the airstrip.

`The brass cannot be planning an attack now-can they? That's ludicrous! We would never stand up against their defenses.' Cirrus thought. `Why do they not just let us leave?'

"It would seem that way, given the amount of activity going on down there." She answered coolly.

`None whatsoever.' "It is a possibility, though highly unlikely," she said. `God, I wish I still had my Gouf…'

Gene rushed out of the barracks and ran out to find the rest of the team waiting impatiently as the other units were being scrambled.

"What're you all doing just standing around for?" he asked. "Let's suit up and take it to those sons of bitches!"

"Yeah, we would, if only our MS hadn't all been totalled yesterday." Hilde reminded him.

"So? There's still that detachment of G-types loaded into the Medeas. Nobody would notice if we commandeered those for the protection of the base. I happen to know the recognition codes for the Fourth Team, they'd never realise it was us!"

"Have you lost what little mind you had to begin with?" Hilde shouted at him over the noise of a trio of passing GMs. "We're already in deep shit for fighting that Gouf yesterday, and if we pulled something like that…"

"Well, you guys can do whatever. I'm gonna fight." Gene turned and started of in the direction of the transports.

"Hey! Wait a sec, Gene! I'm coming too!" Duo shouted as he started to chase after his comrade.

"Hell no. I just wanna fight, that's all. I'll be damned if I'm gonna just sit here with my thumb up my ass and wait to be overrun by those Zeeks. Come on you guys! This is an order!"

"He can't be serious," Hilde sighed as she and Alex slowly followed the other two.

The first shells fired slammed into the high wall that surrounded the Federation fortress cracking it but not quite shattering it yet. The division of Zeon tanks pushed forward for a better position in spite of return fire by the GMs.

Gato crouched in a stand of trees and raised his bazooka in an effort to pick off one of the sentries. The cannon spoke loudly and a blaze of orange fire lept from its muzzle as the shell flew towards its target. Seconds later the GM was ripped apart by the blast and collapsed to the earth in a smouldering heap.

"Hurry up with that rearmament!" Max shouted at the crew working on his black and red Zaku. He turned and faced Sean. "Mien Gott in Himmel! How the fuck long does it take to issue a new rifle and missile pod?"

"Apparently, longer than you thought it would, ja?" he shrugged. "Hey did you notice how the Major seemed kinda distant during the skirmish out there?"

"Yeah, even more so than usual. And she didn't seem to think we'd be able to survive the attack on the Fed base out here either."

"Well, that makes a degree of sense. I mean, our generals are nowhere near as effective as theirs. Its stupid how they let pride make them deliver suicide orders like this."

"For the Duchy? Hell yeah. Those damn Feds think that they can just subjugate anyone the please; if my death would bring us any closer to defeating them, then right on. I made my peace with God a long time ago."

He snorted, visibly dissatisfied with the ease his comrade had answered such a difficult question. "Well, that's all well and good for you, maybe, but I still got a lotta things I need to do before my time's up."

"What? But, don't you care about the ideals that we're fighting for?" Now it was Sean's turn to be thrown off.

"A little, but you've gotta remember that this is a war. In the middle of the battlefield, ideals are just that-ideals. They can't save your life or even keep you from getting injured. In fact, the only reason I'm even out here because I got drafted-and because I love combat with mobile suits. It was almost a little foolhardy of our commanders to even think of declaring war in the first place. Sure we've had the better technology at the time, but the Federation had much more people. And it was only a matter of time before they started making their own MS, and what's the result? The Gundam; that damn, invincible Gundam. As soon as that rolled out, we'd already lost. Now all we have are our ideals-and people like you who want to fight for them."

"You'd better watch who you say shit like that around, Max." Sean warned. "That's the kind of stuff they purge people for."

"Kiss mien arse, okay? Look's like they're finishing up with the Zaku; let's do this!"

At that time Cirrus walked up to them. "The siege of the Federation fortress has begun." She said, not wasting time on formalities. "Our objective is to infiltrate the stronghold by way of the river that runs through the northern side of it. Expect minimal resistance, but beware of mines and sharp-shooters; remember that beam weaponry is still deadly underwater."

"All right! We're gonna do like the Midnight Fenrir did when they took the base in California." Sean exclaimed.

Cirrus almost smiled at his enthusiastic response. "That is the data the Brass based this operation on. With any luck, we should succeed."

"That will be all. We shall meet just beyond the last stand trees on the south-western side of headquarters, along the riverbank."

"Dude! This is so friggin' sweet! Me, a mobile suit pilot! Ha!" Gene whooped from the cockpit of the suit. "And not just any MS either, but a mother-fucking, Gundam!"

"You know, Duo, um, there's still time for us to reconsider this idea…" Alex began.

His commander, however, had already grabbed a gun from the hold of the transport and began walking towards the outer wall and the enemy line beyond.

`So,' Duo thought, `this is what real war is like. Up till now, everything was organised and controlled. A little skirmish here, a minor sortie there; nothing was ever confusing or messy. All we had to do was our jobs. But, this isn't like any of that…not at all…'

The stand of trees just outside the fortified wall began to rustle and the distinctly audible sound of MS footsteps could be heard. Yet, as he took aim with the assault rifle, two tanks swivelled their turrets and opened fire on him. The explosions rocked the Gundam and threatened to overturn it, but the stabilisers held and Gene stepped up and picked off the two units.

"Hot damn! I ain't never going back to the Truck after this!" Duo heard him shout in exaltation of himself.

His lips quirked into a smile. What they were doing may not be according to regulations, and could be considered by some to be stealing, but he was certain he had made the right call. Better for them to have to bend protocol a little than to all end up dead at the hands of these stupid Zeeks.

He and the other members of the 2nd MS had just staggered in under heavy fire from the advance siege forces, but they were still ready to continue the fight, had their suits been repaired.

"Nope, direct orders from the Brass," the mechanic replied, nonplussed. "You've got to get on board the shuttle. We're leaving the base in half an hour anyway."

`If we can hold out that long,' Trowa thought. Nevertheless, he gave the order, "All right troops, you know the drill. Everybody out of your suits and get on the recovery ship pronto!"

Kiyone and Leon both slid down the escape wires of their GMs and began walking towards the hangar. Sam opened the hatch of the Truck and prepared to follow them.

"I took off my ring before we had to suit up this morning, and I think its still in the barracks!"

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure your wife'll understand. You'd better hurry and get on the shuttle." She shrugged as she replied.

"No way! I just can't leave it out there for those Zeon to steal after we pull out. I'd never be able to forgive myself!"

"Let it go soldier," Trowa said as he walked up to them. "You can always get a replacement. We really need to get moving."

As if to add emphasis to his words, two shells from the enemy artillery whistled through the air right above them. The whistling was followed by an explosion of a hangar not a hundred yards away.

"I cannot leave that thing behind," Leon shouted over the din and he ran over to the Truck and started the engines.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kiyone cried. "Squall, they're going to break through the outer wall any minute now! You'll be killed!"

She wrested herself from his touch. Tears filled her eyes. "How can you say that? He's going to let himself be killed to retrieve a stupid wedding ring? And you're just gonna sit idly by and watch? What kind of commander are you?"

"If it means so much to him…it's hard to explain what he's going through right now," Sam tried to consol her. "But Kiyone, this is his choice. Stopping him now would only cause more heartache for the team as a whole."

"You're both mad! I'm going after him." She declared and started to charge after the Truck, but Trowa grabbed her arm.

"Let's go," he said simply and pulled her in the direction of the recovery ship.

A reactor of a land-based mobile suit has only a limited amount of surplus energy. It must supply power to all the limbs, the weapon, as well as the surveillance and motor control equipment. Though it is able to supply enough power to fire thrusters for occasional jumps, this excess usage is generally considered only as a last resort for breaking out of close combat. The maximum vertical jump possible, though slightly variable, generally never exceeds seventeen metres.

Given this knowledge, engineers and architects usually agree that the wall that surrounds a fortified outpost must reach a height of at least twenty metres and have a thickness of at least three. Yet given the difficulties in logistics and scarcity of building materials, the Federation fortress currently under assault in New England only has fortifications two and a half metres thick and fifteen metres high. To make matters worse, the fortification does not completely surround the base-the fourth wall was never constructed in favor of cheaper, natural barricades, which include dense forests and a deep canal.

During the siege of the Federation's California base in early 0079, A Zeon commando team code-named Midnight Fenrir, was able to bypass Federation defences by employing a unique tactic. While the battle raged above, the Fenrir would slip surreptitiously inside the base via a canal that led into a subterranean dock for Jukon submersibles. Once inside the caverns, they would be able to finish off resistance from within.

The base commander from the Zeons' New England base seems to believe that history can repeat itself…

Sunlight glistened through the surface of the canal. They were very fortunate it had been dug so deep; the depth of water and the commotion on the surface helped to ensure that no one would notice the Blood Drake suits as they slid stealthily towards the command post.

They had been under radio silence since first entering the canal where it connected to the river, about seven hundred metres upstream. Any transmission between the suits was likely to appear on Fed instruments and since they had already entered the underground reservoir, right below the main command buildings, sound would be much more likely to be heard.

At this point, though, that hardly seemed to matter. Intelligence reports indicated that there were no weapons in the reservoir area and only a few infantry troops set up as guards. This facility was not meant to be entered by anything larger than a tank, so while no heavy armour would be able to fire back at them, they would be counting on blasting their way through to the surface.

It was a difficult plan, but if it succeeded, the top brass of the Fed base would all be wiped out in one blow, and the base would be theirs.

As they reached the side wall of the canal, Major Cirrus broke silence. "Okay Sean, you know what to do."

"Roger," he assented and raised his rifle above the waterline and fired off a few rounds in the general direction of the administration buildings. Several small explosions announced that the coast was clear.

"Good shooting," Cirrus pointed out, "I have no traces of the guards on the thermal scans. Max, prepare to fire."

"Jawol, commander." Still submerged, he took aim with the bazooka at the point where the roof of the cavern was thinnest and loosed a rocket.

The thunderous explosion was followed almost immediately by a massive cave in as the roof, and buildings above it came crashing into the water next to them.

An explosion off by the command buildings caught Leon's eye as he was hurrying the Truck back towards the shuttle. "The hell was that?" he asked himself.

The answer came quickly enough, as three Zeon MS leapt from a chasm below where the explosion had occurred. The suits, two Zaku II's and a Zaku I trainer, quickly began to attack the defending Federation units on their flanks. The GM's and Gundams were going to be quickly routed if something didn't happen soon.

Fortunately, something did happen; a detachment of Type-61 tanks rolled out from their barracks near the shuttle's launch pad and began to lay down covering fire.

'That's good,' he though. 'No matter what happens to the MS, we've got to protect that shuttle'. It seemed callous, but in the long run, he was sure it was the best they could hope for.

He was about twenty metres from the shuttleport, when, in his rearview mirror, he saw one of the Gundams take a direct hit from one of the flanking Zaku II's bazooka. It went down hard after the impact, and dropped it's machine gun. Seconds later, the Zaku I trainer was standing directly above it and delivered two successive blows from its heated battle-axe.

He did so just in time to see that before the trainer could deliver a third and fatal blow, one of the other Zeek units took a hit and it rushed to aid its comrade.

"He ain't dead yet, whoever he is." He observed about the fallen Fed suit "But if I can't get him out of there and to the shuttle, he sure as hell will be."

Gato shook his head to clear it as he forced his Zaku II to stand again. 'That stupid Feddie was lucky I had my attentions elsewhere', he thought, bitterly.

Just then, an unpainted Zaku I trainer landed next to him. Major Cirrus O'Rielly's face appeared on his com-line. "You okay, Gato?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am. Damn lucky Fed bastard got me with a 180mm, I think. I can still fight though,"

"Good. See to it that you provide cover fire for Sean, Max, and I as we prepare to take out their shuttle." Her image phased out and her suit marched forward, machine-gun blasting.

'Right,' he thought, 'covering fire. That's not bad.' He took a knee and loosed a round from the bazooka again in the direction of one of the Feddie hovertrucks that was zipping towards a downed human-type. The shell missed, but it succeeded in causing the truck to swerve crazily and almost wreck.

'All too easy' he began to focus his fire on the tanks surrounding the shuttlepad. They shouldn't prove to be too tough for Maj. O'Rielly and her unit--tanks weren't especially dangerous unless they could score a clean hit on either a joint or the thin armour of a Zaku's back.

Unfortunately, several of the human-types and GMs were pulling back towards the shuttle too. He hoped that reinforcements would arrive quickly.

"I'm doing fucking spectacular, commander!" He shouted back sardonically. "How the hell would you be 'holding up' if you got shot?"

"Duo would have the foresight not to get shot in the first place, you cocky bastard!" Hilde shouted at him. "Schist! How the hell are you going to explain this? I knew this would be a bad idea." Rage and scorn filled her voice as she fired back at the oncoming Zeeks.

"Cool it, Hilde." Duo snapped. "Getting mad only leads to costly mistakes. We're here now, so deal with it."

Ignoring her discontented grumblings, he turned his attention to the problem at hand, "Hey, Leon, are you going to be able to get him out?"

"I think so," the other soldier replied into a headset as he lept from the truck carrying a small arms rifle. "I'll pry him loose; you all just worry about getting back to the shuttle."

Leon laughed back over his radio headset. "Hell yeah! I thought I was gonna piss my pants with that one! Seriously, though, you all need to pull back. The gattling rifle up here can do enough damage to cover our escape if Gene can shoot straight enough to take out their eye-cams. Think you can manage, tough guy?"

"Fuck you Squall." Gene broke the connection in the Gundam as Leon succeeded in pulling the dented metal hatch open with the butt of the rifle.

"Roger that," Duo said as he broke the connection. To the remaining members of his unit, he shouted, "Okay Fifth team, we're pulling back, but don't forget to give these guys plenty of cover while we do."

Rounds from a 180mm cannon cracked by the head of Sean's Zaku II. "Son of a bitch!" he shouted angrily. "They're all pulling back to guard the shuttle!"

"That would be the logical move to make," Cirrus said, thoughtfully. "Of course, in this battle, logic only counts so much. Remember, we took out all of their commanders; all of this is impromptu."

Max's shell was aimed directly at the cockpit of the shuttle, but its mounted ordinance cannons intercepted it in mid-flight. "Schist!" he swore angrily as the round exploded harmlessly in mid-air twenty metres from the target.

Still, the ring of Zeonic mobile suits closed inexorably closer around the shuttle. Soon, the nearest unit was within fifty metres and had opened up with machine gun blasts. It seemed almost certain that they would take the day.

Suddenly, the sound of distant screaming ripped through the air. Cirrus looked up sharply, distinctively remembering that sound.

A squadron of core fighters burst low through the iron-grey clouds. She swore to herself and then announced over the radio, "The Feddies had called in air support from their Toronto airfield. Everyone, take cover, now!"

About half of the core fighters broke off and engage the Dopps and Helicopters the Zeon forces had used to control the sky over the fortress. Being faster and better armed, they quickly established air superiority and soon were aiding their counterparts in raking through Zeon tanks and light mobile suits.

Cirrus and Sean tried their best to proved cover fire for Max, who remained busy trying to line up the perfect shot to take down the shuttle. Yet between the tanks and the fighters, the tide of the battle seemed to have turned.

"Max! Hurry up and take the shot!" Sean shouted, as two tank rounds caught him in the shoulder.

"Do it Max!" Cirrus echoed, though more distracted. It had been a long while since she had seen fighters in action, and she had forgotten all about Toronto Base until she realised how quickly they had arrived.

As she stood transfixed, memories came rushing back to her and she seemed to totally lose herself. She saw the fighter swooping in; saw the missile being freed from its clamps; saw the white contrail as it leapt from beneath the fighter's wing; saw it streak right towards Max's under-armoured back.

'No,' she thought trying to force herself to act. 'It's not the same! I have to do something! That's not Brian up there! It's not the same!'

She saw the explosion. She heard Max give a quick yelp over the radio. She finally heard silence afterwards. She saw the charred corpse of her underling's mobile suit.

It was Sean's yelling that brought her back to reality. "Commander! They got him! They got Max! Man down, Major, man down. Oh, God they got Max!"

Cirrus screamed as she tore into a group of GMs and started hacking them all to pieces with her heat-hawk. As they fell, she tossed a grenade over at a group of offending tanks and watched in rage-driven glee as they and their crews brewed up like fireballs after the explosion.

"Commander! Stop!" she heard Sean calling her but that was all in the background now. It was her fault Max was dead; hers and hers alone…

"Good shot!" Leon shouted upward at the pilot who'd just nailed the Zaku II. "Perfect timing, too. If that Zeek had had one more second…"

"I don't even want to think about what would have happened," Gene said, shaking his head. "Look's like we're going to be safe for the time being, though. Air support is a very handy thing. Now all we've got to do is pull up to the shuttle, hop on board and we're off into space!"

Leon started to agree, but the roar of the shuttle's engines cut off his reply. A blinding white light glowed under the mammoth vessel as it slowly began to climb into the atmosphere.

"Hold the fuck up!" Gene shouted. "You can't just leave us here like that! Come back here you son of a bitch!"

From the driver's side window, Leon watched with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as their one ticket into space slowly climbed out of sight leaving them behind.

The blue sky was replaced by the black vacuum of space long before the main thrusters finally died. When the escape rockets were jettisoned, Duo and Trowa simultaneously tore off their seatbelts and stormed the cockpit. The captain looked more than a little pale when he saw the two angry officers glaring down at him.

"You left too soon!" Duo raged. "Not everyone had got aboard and you took off like a scared dog! We had won the battle! Why couldn't you wait?"

"Shut up!" Trowa started yelling also. "I had a man still down there who only missed the shuttle because he went back to save a downed comrade! You can't just pull out without a second thought! Like he said, we had won! There was no need to pull out so soon!"

"What do you want me to do about it?" The captain shouted back, sounding irate himself at this point. "You want me to turn around while those Zeeks make ready to launch a counter attack? I had to make a judgement call; either wait on those last few stragglers and have everyone killed when the Zeeks started attacking again, or lift off with as many survivors as I could. Further, my orders and timetable came directly from Admiral Revil. All Dust-Offs had to be made exactly on schedule or the timetables for Op. Star One would be totally screwed. So don't lecture me about pulling out too soon; I would have left every one of you-I had my orders and I intended to follow them."

"Fuck your orders, man, and fuck you too!" Duo said as he left as angry as he'd entered.

"That was an order you shouldn't have followed, and you damn well know it." Trowa said as he followed Duo out of the cockpit.

Kiyone swore loudly and at length in her colloquial kansai Japanese, tears again filling her eyes. "I told him not to go back out there! I told him!"

"Chill out, Kiyone." Duo said patiently. "Just because they got left behind doesn't mean anything. They both have common sense, and I'm sure that they won't be killed anytime soon."

"Yeah," Alex nodded, in halfway agreement, "but what about that Zeek base? We don't know if they were throwing everything at us or not; they could be getting ready to launch a counteroffensive even now."

"You've just gotta have faith," Duo said, shrugging. "I know they won't go down without a fight. Plus, they can still pull out to the Toronto Airbase and wait for another shuttle to pick them up there!"

"I'd like to think you were right, Duo, but even if they did get to Toronto, what's to say that another shuttle will pick them up there of all places?" Trowa said, darkly. "It's unlikely we'll ever see them again, dead or alive."

They all shared a moment of silence as the shuttle began its course towards the Federation's space stronghold, the asteroid fortress Luna II.

The skirmish in New England ended in more or less a stalemate. Most of the Federation troops were able to escape, however, all of the top Brass, including the base commander, Brigadier General MacArthur were KIA in an attack carried out by the elite Blood Drakes assault squad. For excellence in carrying out the attack, Major Cirrus O'Rielly received a promotion to Lieutenant Colonel, even though her unit lost one of its own, Second Lieutenant Max Jäger, who was KIA with the arrival of Federation Air support.

Although the Fifth MS was guilty of commandeering four Ground-combat Gundams, due to the fact that all the Brass were killed, there was no one to bring the charges against them.

More than half the surviving Federation troops were listed as MIA because they missed the Dust-Off shuttle; among these were Leon McDaniels and Gene D'Ark, both of whom were to become test pilots of the new Federation Prototype BD mark IIs.

Young Zeon Officer Anavel Gato became an Ace during the battle, and due to ties with Lt. Col. O'Rielly, was able to become a part of the Drakes squad filling in for the missing Jäger.

Silent Requiem This fanfic is complete.

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Silent Requiem

Chapter 3: Temet Nosce