Mobile Suit Gundam: Broken Arrow [IC/PG-16+]

[a coffee]

"So, you were the decoy, huh?"

 

Maxine grinned a bit inside of her cockpit, hearing the news of her discovery over open comms.

 

Pilots. They always thought they were so damn clever. If only they ever knew the half of what Maxine had been thinking.

 

Maxine wasted no time cutting an angle as hard as she could towards Jared without breaking speed. It was likely she got tapped by just a little bit of the arsenal thrown her way, but the top speed carried from sweeping into momentum the way she did as opposed to cutting it to make a faster turn showed just how graceful and experienced a pilot she was, and now she was Jared's problem.

 

"You know, we gave you a fair chance to run away last time... I'm not feeling as charitable this time, punk." Maxine slipped the large gun behind her mech onto a spare holster she had for when she was more appropriately equipped, pulled out her transformable beam pistol II's, and discharged her flash bomb launchers directly in the middle of the two of them, while Maxine continued her ferociously bullrush towards him.

 

Her goal, in the midst of the confusion from the flash bomb, would be to execute a barrel roll and cut the engine to drop speed as quickly as possible, so she could slam both axes into the side of Jared's mech, kick the engine back on, and wrestle him into a place of submission during their spin from the boost in momentum. If the plan was executed perfectly, she would be fully mounted on Jared's back with both axes ready to hammer down on his cockpit, should he choose to struggle. If not, she would expect to at least tear a heavy chunk of armor away from him if he were to get away during the period of the spin.

 

Either way, it would be up to Kusanagi now to retrieve the weapon, as she has now fully engaged on the target during her period of rage.

[Asriel Dreemurr]

This was not the best situation to be in. The Scrap Queen had taken a few hits from beam weapons, she hadn't seen which of the two pilots engaging their team had done it, and though nothing critical had been broken the MS was already in less than ideal shape. Rosaria had been lured off from the Arrowhead by the jabroni in the Indominus, and Roche and Maxine were stuck fighting the pilot who was fixated on Reyd at the moment. On top of all of that, the Arrowhead and the Hagane were taking fire from both the Mega Bazookas and the enemy's ship. The DWPs pelting them with autocannon fire was just the icing on the cake.

 

But this was not even remotely the worst Kusanagi had been in. She still had her weapons, she trusted the other pilots with her life, and Kenji was already opening fire on the DWPs. In this precise moment it seemed that most of their enemies had forgotten about her, thinking that just the little bit of damage she had taken was enough to keep her down it seemed. A dangerous mistake to make. So she stowed the Scrap Queen's beam rifle on a hardpoint on its back and turned towards where Maxine was fighting their friend in the Seig were fighting. She didn't need much of an opening, just a moment's glance at the Leveler's back where she had stowed the Beam Magnum in order to grab it and reel it in. At the first available opportunity she launched the Extensional Arrestor from the Scrap Queen's right shoulder, sending it rocketing across space, and with practiced precision powered on the electromagnets therein to snag her weapon's stock. From there it was just a matter of reeling the thing back in.

"Thanks for the delivery, Miss Delphi. How's the arm replacement holding up?" She almost sounded casual as she reeled the abnormally large Beam Rifle back in and gripped it in the Scrap Queen's hands. A quick look over it showed that she had four charge packs loaded into the external magazine. Kusanagi really did need to get into the habit of actually re-arming these things from time to time. Still, the four alone would be enough to do what she had in mind. "I'm gonna go help out Kenji, see if we can't clear some of these bastards out and give us some breathing room. I think you three have things covered back here." With that she powered on the Scrap Queen's thrusters and shot off on a course for the enemy's ship, gripping the beam magnum with both of the suit's hands. Her goal was to get in range of the Mega Bazooka launchers before firing it. Not that she expected either of the pirate aces to just let her go, in fact she was planning on at least one of them coming after her.

[Super Chaos Sonic]

Kenji watched as the bazooka round he shout did indeed scatter the DWP team, though he wasn't expecting the one Dauntless with a lavender right shoulder to immediately return fire, which came in the fashion of it's autocannon.

 

"sheet!" Kenji quickly maneuvered the controls and made the Duel Gundam strafe out of the way of the autocannon. Perfect. Playing the role of a distraction...just like ya planned...right? he thought a bit, preparing for another strike...only to see something on the screen. His eyes went wide when he saw what it was.

 

It was a Mega Bazooka round and it was coming in screaming towards him. Kenji cursed once more, before quickly moving out of the way, and then proceeding to grab his rail bazooka after switching the shield back and then aim in the direction that the Mega Bazooka came from, before letting the shot go and having it try and find it's target...hopefully to hit it at least. With the shot out, Kenji put the rail bazooka back on the Duel Gundam's back, before grabbing the shield once more.

 

Alright...alright. Let's see what we can do. Kenji thought, throwing his controls forward and began to strafe towards the opposition.

[Makο]

"Holding course steady at A013 on a contingent of non-thruster assisted zero-g towing calculating for kinetic impact of enemy fire and... starboard armor integrity compromised on multiple plates forcing the rerouting to energy systems from primary network to subsystems g5 through g9 and-"

Hours upon hours of dull, monotonous tow-tending... it changes a man, if only temporarily. Kyy in particular had completely zoned out, his mind still in work mode even amidst new-found conflict. Not to say he wasn't doing his job; in fact, as he sat in the helmsman's seat, he did naught but ramble on and on about the actions he was taking and the various status reports that appeared on the monitor in front of him. In his trance, he only barely noticed that a personal comm he had set up with his brother was activating. He clicked it on as his voice trailed off.

"Ko? Aren't you supposed to be getting off the wreck right about now?"

Comms were a bit choppy with the battle, but they came through well enough.

 

"Yeah, well... to be honest, I'd rather be stuck HERE than get blasted out of mid-vacuum in a shuttle. So I snuck off on my own during the chaos to do some snooping."

 

...

 

"If I didn't know it'd be pointless right now, I'd be scolding the living daylights out of you. Now, if you don't mind..."

"H-hold on! I have an idea, and I need to run it by you. The towline has power and data hookups, correct?"

Unsure where his brother was going with this, Kyy quickly threw up a schematic of the Arrowhead's tow system.

"Yyy... yes they do. Used for providing power to and exchanging data with stranded vessels. Why?"

No answer. He could only hear the cackling of Kokko over the mic. Kyy suddenly felt concerned about it.

"Don't worry. Just have our fire-control system set to 'accept,' and on my cue..."

 

The dots were beginning to connect. This plan was... honestly kinda stupid, but worth a shot, he supposed.

 

"Well, alright. But don't think our pilots will go along with this plan so easily. Expect to get shot down, literally AND figuratively."

 

Kyy cut the comms before his brother could respond. Sibling dynamics are always about who can get the last word in, after all.

 

"Man, we're gonna lose so much speed doing this..."

---

 

With a huff, Kokko turned off his own comms, looking around at the room he was in. Though derelict, it was clearly the Hagane's fire control center. And, as he imagined, it was in relatively good shape. For some random girl to be stuck on an abandoned warship and survive after all these years? His hunch was correct; the vessel was fairly well off in terms of system dynamics and structural integrity. And more importantly, a series of medium-range defensive beam turrets on the hull seemed to be in very good condition, all things considered. Since evidently, the Arrowhead was quite outnumbered... all it should take to even the odds is a little culling, wouldn't you think?

 

After finding the anchor point of the tow system, Kokko began slowly snaking his way towards the FCS room. He felt immensely lucky that the hookups matched; while the two vessels are relatively similar in age, with the amount of part swapping that their crew does, he'd feel no surprise at all if they were completely different. However, it seemed today would be his lucky day...?

"Let's just... hope this works."

With minor calibration, he injected the Arrowhead's power into the Hagane's energy network. An immense creaking and groaning sounded throughout the vessel, having clearly grown accustomed to not having any power at all. Despite this, however, nothing seemed to explode... as far as Kokko could tell, anyway. Either way, he found a way to tap into the energy router to keep only what was necessary online. The Arrowhead's "reactor" didn't need any more stress.

 

"Heh heh heh heh heh heh..."

An unnerving laughter would echo through the FCS room as an active data transfer between FCS began.

[a bad post]

"Those pirates from earlier came back. I need you and the team onboard the Arrowhead ASAP. We're in position to cover the shuttle but while you're still on the Hagane we can't take evasive action. Move it, Doctor." 

 

"Right. Everybody, back to the shuttle!" Reveka began motioning her team back counting each head as they entered the shuttle. "Rodriguez. Alvers. Hapstal. I think that should be every- wait. Where's Kokko!?" Reveka quickly scanned the hanger they were in for any sign of the young mechanic, however, there seemed to be no sign of him anywhere. "Reveka to Kokko, where are you? We need to get off this boat now!" Reveka waited for several minutes for a response, however, got nothing but radio silence in return.

 

"Reveka to Arrowhead. Kokko's wandered off somewhere onto the ship, and I can't get him to respond over coms, what do you want me to do?"

 

----

 

It was becoming glaringly obvious to Roche that the enemy Sieg pilot did really take him seriously at all, which while Roche was well aware of the large gap in skill levels, only served to make him angry. 

 

"Has anyone ever told you you're a terrible bedfellow..." Roche muttered however at that moment he noticed the way the other Sieg was moving changing, and Roche realized that the enemy pilot was ready to go in for the kill.

 

"Today's about to get a lot worse for you." Roche prepared to counter his attack, however just as he was about to the enemy Sieg disengaged and firing a quick burst of his Vulcan as a distraction. "So, you were the decoy, huh?" It wasn't hard for Roche to dodge the attack, however, it did stall him just enough to let the enemy pilot start his charge at Maxine.

 

"Maxine, watch out that Sieg is headed straight for you!" Roche called out before giving pursuit himself. However, as he closed in he could Maxine seemed to have it handled and Motoko seemed to have gotten what he needed from Maxine, that being said he wasn't about to let the enemy pilot get away with taking Roche lightly. 

 

"I'm gonna go help out Kenji, see if we can't clear some of these bastards out and give us some breathing room. I think you three have things covered back here."

 

"You got it Motoko~" Roche replied cheerily over the coms. "Maxine, honey, are you ready to give this boy a show?" 

[Asriel Dreemurr]

“You know, we gave you a fair chance to run away last time… I’m not feeling as charitable this time, punk.” Jared made the mistake of turning to face the mobile suit whose pilot was calling him out, and for his trouble had his cockpit filled with a blinding flash of light. Though momentarily stunned by the flash, he managed to kick his mobile suit into a full retreat to avoid being taken out in the midst of it. Even so he felt as his seig was shaken by an impact, and when his vision returned he was able to see that his left Vulcan Shield was damaged. Just perfect.

 

“I’m gonna go help Kenji, see if we can’t clear some of these bastards out and give us some breathing room. I think you three have things covered back here.” The broadcast over open comms had him looking to see that the damaged Gaze he’d thought was going to be out of the fight was making an exit towards the Gint. Along with the fancy-looking beam rifle he’d first seen the modified Djinn packing. Though before he could turn to take advantage of its back being turned he heard something else.

 

“You got it Motoko~ Maxine, honey, are you ready to give this boy a show?” So the kid couldn’t take a hint. Jared might have found that endearing if the situation is different.

 

“Didn’t you hear me earlier, boy? I said you’re not my type!” He raised his Seig’s arms towards the pursuing modified Djinn and opened fire with the Vulcans on it, sending a rain of 28mm shells down on the axe-wielding machine. Meanwhile his right Vulcan Shield raised and pivoted towards Roche’s machine and did the same.

 

---

 

Davids, meanwhile, was just maneuvering his Mega Bazooka Launcher away from where he had fired on the Gundam. Not a moment too soon either, as a round from the Rail Bazooka came screaming past him. So its pilot was a halfway decent shot. Well, that just made things interesting for him. Even so, he diverted his attention from the Gundam and lined up another shot on the enemy’s vessel.

 

“Damn shame havin’ to shoot the Arrowhead down.” He said to himself as he lined up for the nearer of the two hangars and opened fire.

 

---

 

“Reveka to Arrowhead. Kokko’s wandered off somewhere onto the ship, and I can’t get him to respond over comms, what do you want me to do?”

 

“Take a small team of volunteers and find him. I’ll have STAN on standby to pick you up. Get the shuttle out of there now.” Arthur responded, feeling the familiar shake of the Arrowhead being impacted by a shot from a beam weapon. “Mr. Tostensson, you have firing control of the Mega Particle Cannon. I suggest you use it.” He then keyed into the ship's own comm system, hoping to reach their robotic janitor. "STAN, I need you to grab a vernier pack and get get across to the Hagane to pick up some stragglers."

 

---

 

“Well, that makes things easy for us. Boys, concentrate fire!” While the Duel Gundam was busy aiming up to fire at where the Mega Bazooka Launcher had fired from, Viccars and the DWP team turned their autocannons on it and unloaded at their maximum rain of fire. The frame shook with every impact pitting the armor, and later the shield when he it turned to face down the trio.

 

---

 

Aboard the Hagane, in the Fire Control system, the power provided through the Arrowhead’s tow cables finally took hold. Artificial gravity was returning, lights were powering on, and most importantly a nearby gunner’s station booted up to life. A few moments later, and not only had the damaged vessel’s targeting computer come online, but it also began broadcasting its old ESA IFF code.

[a coffee]

Maxine attempted to circle around back to her original position, fully aware that having her back to a target was far from the most opportune spot for her to be. Using her machine's superior speed, she used the momentum to take heavy dips and curves through the space to avoid the gunfire, without losing much top speed. In an attempt to restore a more dominant position, Maxine swayed out to her left, and came in on a hard curve that saw her picking up speed once again, this time holstering her axes and taking potshots with her rifle to offset the position of her opponent. This attack was hardly meant to do any sort of meaningful damage to the target. Rather, it was more to give the potential threat of a bullet coming just a bit too close to comfort and allowing Roche an opening to strike. In any event, there was not much she could do in the way of offense from her current position.

 

She found herself somewhat impressed by the gall Jared had to stand and face her, even in the face of an attack that left him worse for wear. It may have been supremely idiotic of him, but at the very least it was impressive. Maxine now found herself square to Jared once again, after completing her curve that left them on the same level once more. Maxine adjusted her hair, shaking her head the whole time, opening comms once more. She practically growled her next sentence, making sure her message was clear as daylight:

 

"All these warnings, and yet, you still test us...." Maxine snickered, "Then I suppose you've left me with little choice. PIlots: leave no survivors. They wouldn't pay us the same charity anyhow."

 

Maxine raised her rifle lazily, shrugging with the mech's other hand, "Can't say I didn't warn you." Max immediately snapped to combat stance and started firing at his position without pause, emptying as much of the clip as she could before he got moving, seeking to take major chunks out of the adversary and put an end to this fight as soon as it started.

[Yui]

---

"STAN, I need you to grab a vernier pack and get get across to the Hagane to pick up some stragglers."

 

Picking up stragglers? I'm no cab driver, but alright. Best to let Arthur know he was on the job. STAN reached for the nearest comms - the same one he'd used not long before, after a bit of backtracking - and picked it up.

 

"On it. Tell those kids on the Hagane to not get their britches in a bunch; I'll be there soon." Vernier packs... STAN knew where those were. He was already laying out the fastest route there in his head, switching the small speaker on his chest on along the way. The sounds of metallic footsteps and vintage jazz moved through the Arrowhead as STAN made for the nearest vernier packs, rounded them up, and got ready to head to the Hagane. In theory, he probably could have just jumped out of a door and gotten there through space. But with guns firing and all, that probably wasn't the best idea. If STAN got shot in space and possibly suffered irreparable damage... he couldn't bear to think of the consequences. The humans would have to do all the cleaning! They'd miss the finer details that made STAN so good at his job, and that would really grind his gears.

 

Off to the Hagane I go. Shouldn't be long at all, then we pick up our stragglers, bring them back to the Arrowhead, and it's a job well done.

[Wind Rider]

Rosaria was at a standstill, if she kept rushing headlong into the debris she was just gonna sustain more damage. "Tch... If my funnels weren't out of the question..." But that was the problem, she relied on the Ruby Queen's funnels too much. If she was going to make it out of this fight alive, she was gonna have to mix it up a little. She flew over and took cover behind some debris, she pulled out one of her suit's beam sabers and peeked out from her cover.

 

She wasn't a fan of playing cat and mouse, but she had to play along, use the debris to her advantage like the enemy was. "Have to keep my eyes out... I can't take anymore damage... Now... Where are you?" She stuck to cover as she moved and kept eyes out for any at all movement. "I'm coming out of this alive... I have to..."

[Makο]

"Arthur, I've given full weapon authority to the rest of the fire control team. I'm... a bit busy, at the moment."

As if on cue, the Main Beam Cannon roared to life and sent a salvo down range, directly towards the opposing vessel. With a reaction speed that fast, it was clear SOMEONE in the fire control team was absolutely itching for the chance to do that.

This was a lot more complicated than Kyy thought it was going to be as he managed energy usage, for a few special reasons. Obviously, the Arrowhead's makeshift reactor didn't take well to the sudden burden of powering parts of an entirely different vessels. At full combat status, the Arrowhead hangs around 78% energy consumptions vs 100% production, whereas now, consumption hung around 92%, teetering more or less.

It was a balancing act. Any random fluctuations in energy consumption or some form of malfunction in the reactor could cause critical systems to power down and leave the entire crew a sitting duck. Or worst yet, the reactors could overload under the intense burden and permanently nuke them; best case scenario, the Arrowhead loses all forms of functionality until an entirely new REACTOR could be installed. And the worst case scenario?

Well, crew costs would certainly plummet.

Not to mention that absurd intricacies between the main computer on the Arrowhead and the Hagane. As it turns out, they run the exact same Operating Systems, except decades apart in version. Apparently, Kyy's console wanted nothing more than to spend around 6 hours copying it's own OS files and updating the Hagane's so that it's up to speed with its own. And based on the amount of popup windows he had to force close, the Arrowhead was out for blood. Multitasking on preventing the update from starting and trying to sync the old version of the fire control system with their newer one, Kyy's head was spinning in no time.

However, after a few more minutes of intense data manipulation, Kyy was in full control of the Hagane's FCS, and all the weapons that came with. 5 Medium-Range Beam Turrets and an array of 12 or so Point-Defense Beam Turrets had their code injected into the Arrowhead's FCS, with any crew manning it noticing the 17 new weapons. Additionally, he quickly typed up a message for both their fighting pilots and the FCS crew.

 

"FCS CREW: IGNORE NEW WEAPONS UNTIL SIGNAL GIVEN

 

ALL PILOTS: STAY CLEAR OF THE HAGANE - FIRE SUPPORT IMMINENT"

 

...

 

Kyy set it so that it functioned as text-to-speech for the pilots. Can't read while fighting, after all.

With that, the trap was set. Now, all we needed was for the right moment to strike...

 

---

 

In the deep void of space, you could almost hear the screaming of a young engineer as he tried to put out all the fires on a certain derelict vessel. Luckily, nothing important became... toasty.