Silent Requiem, a fanfic by Nightmaresama, chapter 6

Aboard the assault weapons carrier EFS Gettysburg the soldiers were all readying to commense the drop operation and begin the Assault on Solomon. The four members of the ship's MS team, the 431st "Reaper" company, were all in the flight deck putting on their Normal Suits and helmets.

As a joke, Trowa whistled loudly as Hilde began to pull her suit up over her shapely calves. Yet, in response to the obscene gesture, she dropped the space suit, hauled back and slugged him in his jaw.

She stood triumphant for a moment, cracking her knuckles, but when she moved to return to her locker, she tripped over the pants that had fallen down about her ankles and collapsed down on top of him.

"Jesus, Hilde, I never knew you felt that way!" He laughed as she struggled to get up.

"Fuck you, you dirty perv!" she shouted, pulling her spacesuit close around her front.

"Dammit!" she cried and backhanded him. "It's all the Federation's fault for not providing separate locker rooms for guys and girls!"

In reality, though, she was really thinking about how lucky she was to have been able to be able to keep her spandex bike shorts and sports bra on under her suit. Of course, as soon as she was up again, she lost her balance and fell over backwards bringing forth another explosive fit of laughter from Trowa.

Eventually though, they were all suited up and started down the hallway to the MS bay. As he got into his suit, Trowa started snickering at Hilde as she walked by. Although she acted like she didn't notice, she gave him the finger and kept on walking.

When the Reaper team had all been strapped in and were situated in their respective cockpits, Sanders began to make his final orders clear: "Alright team," he never called them the Reapers-Sam wondered why-"this is it. When we drop, I'll take point. Trowa, you've got my back right, and Sam, you and Hilde have the back left. I can't stress this enough, Sam, do not, repeat do not let anything get between you and Hilde. She's in a very expensive suit and its one of the few of its kind going out there today. I don't wanna have to tell the Brass that something happened to it, okay?"

"Oh, Sam, mein knight in schine-ink armour!" Trowa interrupted, mocking Hilde's voice.

"I'm just teasing! Come on Hilde, you know I love you! Maybe you'll put on another show for me when we get back, huh?"

She was preparing to say something else even more incendiary, but her CO cut her off. "Both of you'd better shut up and do it now!" Sanders yelled. "We're not playing games here! If any of you screws up, your partner may end up dead. What's it gonna take for you all to listen?"

"Now, let's get out there and do our jobs, and all make it back here, okay? No heroics! If you get caught up with someone you think might be an Ace, back off or call for backup. If you underestimate these Zeeks, you'll end up dead. Now let's roll out!"

The bay doors opened and the Reaper team was dropped into the thick of combat…

"Ya nervous yet Kincaid?" Duo called out from his cramped interior of the GM's cockpit.

"No, not yet." Came the response. In spite of his comrade's steely exterior, he noted there was an undertone of excitement in his voice.

He didn't mention it but instead, directed the conversation elsewhere. "How `bout you, Kiyone? Ready to kick some Zeon ass?"

"Hai! I've been ready to give these damn Zeeks the ass-whuppin' of a lifetime since the moment that colony crashed down back in January! I-" she was cut off.

"Maxwell and Shinegori, if you two don't shut the hell up right now, I'm gonna shoot you both myself. Now stop getting all excited or someone's liable to end up dead." Karen growled from the command position. She was just remembering how much space combat made her stomach turn and this grade-school-level jabbering was hurting her ears.

"Sorry about that, commander, I'm just so fired up. Man! Solomon! This is like… sorry." The radio clicked silent.

Yagami closed in on the fortress and the relay point at a cautious speed. Two of her sister ships, the Dakota and the St. John's, had already been destroyed by recon parties of Zakus and Operation Star One would surely fail should any more be hit. Still, point 35, 11 drew ever closer.

"Sure is a helluva way to be spending Christmas Eve, huh guys?" Kiyone started up again, adjusting her helmet.

"Shit yeah. Last year this time, I was back in Jersey, kickin' back a mug of egg nog next to the tree." Duo answered.

"Hmph. In Side Two, before it got all wasted and everything, we used to 'ave a big parade on my colony. I'd expect it's probably cancelled this year." Alex replied.

"Just thought I'd ask. I was thinking about how my nephew'll be getting ready to open up his presents sometime soon. Too bad I won't be there to see."

The massive Asteroid loomed even larger in front of them. It was time to make the drop.

Karen flipped her radio back on before the troops again decided to tie it up with irrelevant chatter. "Alright maggots, this is it. Remember what you were taught in Basic and you just might make it back alive. Stay close in formation at all times and try to take out as many as you can. Most importantly, none of you had better try and be a hero. As sorry as you all fight, it'd just get you killed faster. Now let's go out there and kick some Zeon ass!"

Machine gun fire erupted everywhere at once. Three GMs were hit before they were even fully out of the drop ship, which later burst into a fiery mass itself. Two whole companies were demolished in a barrage of mega-particle cannons from an enemy Musai battleship. Still, the 107th plowed on ahead in spite of it all and took down two Zakus with great efficiency.

As if to confirm the statement, a shell from a passing Rick Dom ripped past the spot where he just was and struck another GM a few kilometres away. Karen turned from her position at point and fired two successive blasts at the Dom striking it in the head and the upper torso. Seconds later, it exploded in a silent, airless burst.

The Company moved onward, fanning out now. Alex scored two hits with his machine gun and sent the Zakus smouldering through space. Kiyone blasted another Dom as it circled overhead.

Then the hits started coming, and coming hard. Duo engaged a single Zaku as it whipped out its heat hawk and swung it wildly, slicing off the top of his shield. After casting aside its molten remains, Duo managed a controlled thrust and kicked it savagely in its side, sending it careening. He then unloaded a well-aimed blast right at its cockpit, obliterating it.

Several rounds from an assault rifle riddled the command GM. Karen swore loudly and frequently as the small explosions danced over her armor. She then pulled out her beam sword and charged the offending suit-one of the new marine types-slicing off one of its legs at the knee. It returned by issuing a devastating blow from its spiked buckler shield that it wore like a glove on its right hand. The blow sent her tumbling over backwards as the suit managed to escape.

The 431st "Reaper" company was also having a tough time reaching Solomon. In all reality, the unit was having difficulty just breaking point 35, 10.

"There's just too many of `em!" Trowa yelled out as he narrowly escaped the crossfire of two missiles.

"Shut up, Barton! Don't go to pieces now!" Sanders yelled back as he cleaved a passing Zaku in half with his sword.

Sam was fighting hard just to get into his position covering Hilde's Mass Production Guncannon for all the flak around him. "I don't know how much longer I can hold them off!" he called out.

Hilde slid out her scope and picked off two marine types. "Hang in there, Sam," she said. To herself, she was thinking `I sure hope Duo and Alex are okay,' then she shook away the worry. `No way! The Fifth MS wouldn't go down in a mess like this!'

Just then, a Zaku rudely interrupted her thoughts as it swooped in front of her, and kicked her in the side, hard. As she recoiled, she put up a hand and caught its arm as it swung down with the heat hawk to finish her off. But, too her surprise, it exploded right before her eyes for no apparent reason. Then she saw Sam's GM a few hundred meters below, its cannon smoking.

"Thanks!" she called out, but only as another wave of attackers descended on her.

"Die Federation dog!" the special cannon Cirrus had requested was working incredibly well. Perhaps all these new Gelgoog suits could be outfitted with gattling rifles, she thought as she filled two more GMs with the armour-piercing rounds.

She turned and called out over her radio to Rei, "Where's Gato and Heero? Aren't they supposed to be here by now?"

Her comrade was struggling, locked in a duel with one of the more talented Feddie swordsmen. Usually they fell within seconds of taking on one of the Blood Drakes' heat hawks, but this one was frustratingly persistent. They locked weapons and tried to force each other down, but the GM used its vulcan cannons to give it an unfair advantage.

Cirrus snorted in disgust. These cowards would use any means possible to win their battles. She readied her beam sword and swooped down behind it and sliced it in two from across the waist.

"Thanks Lt. Col." she breathed a sigh of relief. "I have no idea where the Captain and Heero are; I believe we left them near the hangar, didn't we?"

The words didn't comfort her though. It wasn't really the kid she was worried about. He was a defector but even still, they could always find another rookie. However, the Drakes were an elite unit and experience in the form of a captain was a hotly demanded commodity. As she dove into battle again, she hoped the two of them were all right, nonetheless.

"This is some crazy shit!" Sean shouted at Rei. "Everywhere you look there's a blast of gunfire about to cut you in half!"

"That's true. I wonder if the Federation seeks only to overwhelm us with superior numbers?"

A GM lunged at Sean's Zaku, momentarily keeping him from answering. Fortunately, he had seen the attack coming and so, did a quick lateral thrust out of the way, and then pivoted to fire at it point blank as it sailed past. The rounds thundered off the metallic exterior one after another until one hit something important and the Feddie shuddered violently with and internal explosion. As the suit continued past, remaining in motion for it had not yet been acted on by an outside force, more such explosions caused it to shake spastically. Finally it exploded in a blinding flash.

"Well and good, but now we must catch up to the commander, lest we end up misplaced like Heero and Gato."

The two of them maxxed their afterburners to try and keep up with the Black Lotus.

The white mobile suit flew past at breakneck speed. Trowa was almost unsure if it had even been there, but the heat signature was unmistakable. "Hey Sanders!" he called out to his CO, "That was it! That was the Gundam! Does that mean that White Base is nearby?"

"I don't know but I hope so; those blasted Zakus are wasting our divisions! And where are Hilde and Sam?" Fire from an azure command Zaku grazed his GM's shoulder, denting it badly. This definitely was not as good as being in a Gundam back on Earth…

A friendly unit dove for the Zeon who'd just attacked him and swung at it hard with a beam sword, splitting it in two. The blue suit was ripped asunder by a devastating explosion that nearly engulfed its attacker as well.

There was little time to reflect on that point though, the Zakus were closing in on all sides. As the machine gun fire erupted again all around him, he sincerely hoped that the Gundam-the Gundam-was somewhere nearby and could lend some degree of assistance.

Sparks erupted in the cockpit of Anavel Gato's Gelgoog Marine. The GM had him locked in a Mercy Hold and he couldn't reach his gun or his shield. Times like this made him almost miss the crude reliability of the Zaku.

He set his jaws and wrestled with the controls further. Blue sparks lept from the GM's arm as it fought back desperately. This wouldn't do…if he stayed around fighting this fool like this they were both liable to be hit by flak and killed. Couldn't this ignorant Feddie see that?

Sweat poured from his face, but he managed to force his overheated thrusters to ignite and break free, tearing the GMs left arm loose with him. The pilot must've been caught off guard because he didn't do anything for a few moments but stare at the void where its appendage had been. Gato spun around and hurtled the arm back at its owner. The force was enough to send it reeling and give him time to unload a whole clip into it. His adversary was torn asunder by the hailstorm of bullets.

He then unsheathed his beam sword and took off searching for the other members of his unit. Why hadn't they stuck together? Should the fortress fall, it would surely be due to this disorganisation of the defense; why wasn't the Commandant taking action?

He managed to catch up with the new kid first. "Hey, kid!" he called, "where is everyone?"

"What sir? Oh, Lieutenant Colonel O'Rielly took Marx and Ayanami on ahead to point 35, 11. If we can hold out a little longer…Commandant Dozul should be unleashing the Byg Zam on the Trojan Horse and the other units to back them up!"

"The Zam? That thing is a damned Battleship!" he said, more to himself than to Heero. "I wonder why the Commandant would choose to use it now? Is the base going down?"

"I dunno sir, but I've heard that the Trojan Horse has already sent out the Gundam and their Core fighters." Heero responded. "If that is the case, would we do better to go and attack them, or should we search for Lt. Col. Cirrus?"

Indecision halted all of Gato's movements. GMs and Zakus continued the fight about two clicks ahead, sending out brilliant flashes of light from their beam weaponry.

Cirrus could take care of herself and the others, right? The blaze of shells and artillery ahead made him rather uncertain. But…if he managed to take out the Gundam or White Base…

"Our first priority is our team members." Gato responded with an air of finality. "We have to make sure we all make it back, should the line fall and we become needed at A Baoa Qu."

At that exact instant, a Core Fighter tore past the two Zeon mobile suits and two blasts thundered squarely on Heero's Zaku. Explosions rocked it as it lurched forward. The blasts had decimated the whole right side of the suit, rendering it combat-inoperable. The kid had been lucky to make it out alive.

Two smaller explosions on what was left of the right leg answered his question. "No, I'm hit pretty bad. I can't follow you Captain,"-strained for breath-"You've gotta go ahead and back them up. I think…I think I can make it back to Solomon. My suit's been ripped a little and I'm losing air. But I should make it back, no problem…"

"If you do manage to make it back, try and inform the Commandant not to launch the Byg Zam-I have a bad feeling about this. Sieg Zeon!" he ended with the Duchy's battle-cry.

Aboard the deck of the EFS Assault Carrier Yagami, captain Vincent Langley surveyed the course of the battle taking place in the vacuum just beyond the double layered plexiglass window. Their forces were suffering but the damage they were inflicting upon the Zeon forces was much more significant. It would hardly take the day and a half allotted in the plans for Op. Star One to take this base into the Federation's fold, and from there, they had the necessary positioning to launch an assault right at the enemy's heart in the middle of Side Three.

Things were progressing much more rapidly now than they had in the early days of the war, Langley mused. The conflicts of Operation British and the Loum Campaign had been a challenge to get through, but after that, the Cosmo-arma of the Federation had hardly seen any action. Unfortunately, his ship had seen much more action in the earlier battles than he cared to remember.

The whole fiasco with that upstart young woman, Cirrus, had nearly torn apart the morale of the vessel. When she began demanding for Langley's own Court Marshall for the alleged murder of Brian O'Rielly, he'd been afraid a mutiny might have sprung up. Much to his relief, however, his plan had gone all to well, and no one, not even the gunner who pulled the trigger, had any idea that the act had been intentional.

It wasn't as though he didn't feel guilty about what he had done. Being with Cirrus those first few days after it had happened was really a challenge. Even in being with Cirrus in the days after the incident, he didn't feel completely as happy as he thought he would have. He had trouble even looking into her deep hazel-brown eyes that he had longed for since the two had first met.

This was compounded by the fact that Brian O'Rielly had been a good friend of his back in their training days at the academy. One of his best friends actually, until they had allowed the woman to come between them. It had started out innocently enough, they had the three of them were all very close, taking in movies and drinking together and the like, but Vince had always felt like an outsider in the group. Like an interloper in their happiness. The feeling soon blossomed into full-fledged jealousy when Brian and Cirrus started going out on social events without him at all. However the final chord was not struck until one year ago today when Brian proposed to her and she accepted.

Vince had then left their company entirely and had gone off to try and forget about them by joining the Cosmo-arma. He probably would have too if they had not both been transferred to his ship. Having them there daily in his face proved to be too much for him and it was the day after they arrived that he began to formulate his plan for disposing of Brian once and for all.

`But, if she is here, will I be forced to try and kill her too?' Vince thought as the battle raged on outside.

Karen's vulcans shot out the eye of an oncoming Zaku and she was able to finish it off with a blow from her sword. Then an explosion caught her attention. The flash came from Kiyone's GM. Had it been hit by a missile?

As the smoke cleared, Karen could see that it really was bad; the whole right leg had been blown off. "Can you still move? Your leg's shot."

"Alright then, get ready." To the whole platoon, she called out, "One-oh-seven! We're going in hard! Get your swords ready, and try not to piss yourselves, `cause we're not stopping for a firefight. Let's roll out!"

"Commander! Commander!" Gato shouted into his radio. There was still no response for all the Minovsky interference. He slammed his gloved hands on the console in frustration.

Where was his unit? There was no means for him to contact them unless he was very close, and that could take hours. Meanwhile, the Feds would overrun Solomon and the base would fall.

His rage erupted on the first GM he saw. Gato grabbed the passing mobile suit by the leg at the ankle, and whirled it around. The resulting centrifugal force resulted in an harsh grating sound as the leg at the knee-joint was torn apart and sent the suit's remains careening into an oncoming Guncannon and GM escort. There was no explosion though, so he readied his machine gun and unloaded a whole clip into the mass of Feddies. At the first sight of the explosion he took off again.

Seconds later, he found himself standing face to face with an oddly familiar white Feddie suit...

Sam grabbed the wreckage of the charred GM and flung it away into the vacuum. The pilot was unquestionably dead given the sight of the thing. He'd honor him and all the other casualties later, but the pressing concern for the moment was finding his partner.

He swivelled his head in an attempt to find Hilde; he'd been the one that new-model had thrown the charred suit at and suffered the brunt of the impact, but she'd been hit by the rounds from the machine gun and the explosion thereafter. There was nothing he could do, as he could not see her, but call out her name: "Hilde? Where are you? Hilde!"

Only silence and muffled static came back over the radio. Then a faint groan caught Sam's attention. She was alive somewhere! The GM's head again scanned the area, looking for signs of its ally. Yet just as he was losing all hope, the shattered upper torso of the Guncannon floated down before it.

"Oh, crap! Hilde! Are you okay? Respond! Please respond!" he begged her voice to answer.

"What the hell was that Sam?" She wheezed, the sarcasm still evident in her voice, "I thought you were supposed to be covering for me!"

He smiled in relief. "Are you alright? That was a really big explosion." He didn't mention the fact that there were no longer any legs attached to the Guncannon lest she fall Shell Shocked.

There was a pause before she answered "I'm really okay, for the most part. My left leg's gone numb though. I--It won't move either." Tension had now started to creep up into her voice stemming the sarcasm. "Sam! It won't move! I can't move my left leg!" she bawled over the radio.

He was starting to panic now too. If they didn't act soon, the Zeeks would be upon them. Still, her leg might be… he tried not to think about it.

"Hilde? I need you to look down under the consol at your leg and tell me if there's any shrapnel in or around it. Can you do that for me? And please, hurry; there's no telling when those Zakus will deicide to come over this way."

She sniffed hard (had she been crying?) and there was silence as she looked. Then she burst out in tears. "It's gone right through it! It's gone right through it!" she screamed in fear and pain.

That was all he needed to hear. "I'm gonna take you back now." Sam was really struggling to keep his voice calm; the image of a sharp piece of metal running through his comrade's thigh was not making that task very easy though. Still, he forced out, "don't worry Hilde, it'll be okay! Just-think about something that made you really happy, and focus on it." The GM scooped up its companion. As they boosted back to the ship he gave one final warning, "…and don't black out."

Amuro's fingers gripped the controls tightly. He couldn't figure out why he was so tense; he'd faced Gelgoogs before, and this one wasn't especially strong. There was just something about it that made him nervous.

Regardless of the thought-or maybe because of it?-he charged towards the suit and lashed out at it with his sword. It evaded the blow easily, and returned with a swing from its own blade. Amuro parried it, and kicked the suit in the head, sending it spiraling backwards. He then took out his beam cannon and fired a bolt at it.

Inside the Gelgoog, Gato barely managed to get his shield up in time to avoid the beam. He returned fire with his own weapon as he charged ahead. To compensate the Gundam did a reverse thrust and swung its sword low, aiming for the legs. Gato blocked with his shield, but the force of the blow was so great, that it sliced right through the bottom half of the shield.

'This guy is good' he thought as he maxxed his boosters to fly over its head and behind it.

Almost as if it had seen the move coming, the Gundam whirled around and let loose a barrage of slugs from its vulcans. The ensuing damage was catastrophic and the Zeon mobile suit was badly damaged.

To finish him off, Amuro took aim with the beam cannon and locked onto the cockpit. `Thankfully, there aren't many pilots this good out at Solomon' he thought as he prepared to pull the trigger.

At that exact moment, the radio crackled in the cockpit and the image of Captain Bright appeared on the monitor.

"Amuro, let him go! We don't have time to waste fighting lengthy battles like that. Sayla and the others all need backup, so you'll need to get back out there immediately!"

"Yes sir" he saluted as the image flickered out. Then, he hit his jets and flew off to aid the rest of the White Base units, leaving the mangled Gelgoog adrift in the vacuum.

Gato's eyes flared angrily. How had the Feds managed to develop something so powerful? Or maybe it wasn't the suit at all, but the pilot himself. Weren't there rumors circulating that the Gundam's pilot was a Newtype? After facing him in battle, Gato now had little doubt.

He ran a quick diagnostic of his own mobile suit to check for major damage or airleaks. Fortunately, the suit wasn't nearly as damaged as it looked; the armour had withstood much of the assault, but, the shield arm had taken a hit and was no longer functioning. Also, the thrusters in the right leg had been hit which would severely hamper manoeuvrability.

All this mattered little though; he still had to find the major and the rest of his battle group. With that, he did a 180 and sped off towards point 35,11.

Karen adjusted the mike of her radio and called out, summoning the 107th together again. There was a temporary lull in the fighting and it seemed a good time for a rendezvous; the proverbial eye of the storm.

She wasn't at all used to fighting in space even after the two weeks of training at Basic. It was harder still down-shifting from a Gundam to a GM. This new suit was much lighter (perhaps because there was no gravity to hold it down), and attacks by Zakus so easy to shake off with the RX-79[G]'s extra armour, could now prove to be fatal.

And there was also the fact that she had shown signs of vertigo when fighting in space.

Just thinking about all the twists and turns and spirals she had had to execute during this battle was enough to make her grab for the plastic bag stowed just under her seat and vomit explosively.

"Commander Joshua!" Duo's voice over the radio, "Commander, they seem to have stopped sending out mobile suits for the time being. Do you think we've almost secured the fortress?"

She leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes, trying to forget how sick she was and answer the question. "I really have no idea." She said finally. "Have the others all arrived as well?"

"I'm down to my last five clips" Alex answered first. "'ave sustained minor damage from machine gun fire and lost shield due to rocket fire."

Kiyone spoke next. "My beam gun is almost out of energy, and my shield's been cut in half. I've also suffered major damage to my right leg as well as shots to the head taking out half of my eye-camera."

`Clumsy, clumsy!' Karen thought. Every time Kiyone was certain to make a couple of small mistakes and get hit for them.

"I've sustained minimal damage and I still have a good bit of power left in my gun," Duo finished.

"Hmm…okay one-oh-seven, we're going to attempt to plow trough the line and hit the base. Be extremely cautious though `cause the Zeeks are likely to have cannon emplacements throughout the exterior of the base. If you get hit at all by anything, to any degree, turn around and return to Yagami immediately, understood? Once again, no heroics. We're not out here to win this war, we're out here to fight hard and hopefully make it back alive. Now, let's go!"

Silent Requiem This fanfic is complete.

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Silent Requiem

Chapter 6: Solomon Phase 1