"Understood," Joule replied. "Where are we supposed to be based?"
"A boat shed on one of the outer islets; it'll have room for your mobile suits and is out of the way enough that ORB's security forces will be able to pretend they never noticed."
"Pretend?" asked the less reverent of the soldiers. "They know were're here?"
"Of course not," Yitzhak said scathingly. "They don't know a thing, just like my mother and your father never work anything out outside the Council Chambers."
The intelligence man smiled. "Exactly," he said, since the behind-the-scenes discussions and dealmaking of the PLANTs highest governing body genuinely did have much the same sort of widely known but never admitted character.
*****
Mu la Flaga checked his instruments and ruthlessly supressed the frown trying to force its way onto his face. The consequences of an unprovoked attacked on one of the leading nations of the so-called 'Coordinated Axis' were obvious to anyone with half a brain, of course, and however certain his superiors might have been that they would eventually come to pass anyway, he was less than resigned to it. On the other hand, having protested as much as he was permitted to, he really didn't have any options other than shutting up and soldiering; even if he'd been willing to go as far as mutiny, the next person who might be picked to lead this mission was Samantha Akers, who was bloodthirsty even when she hadn't been turned loose over a city full of 'space monsters'.
Not if he could prevent it, thanks.
"White Lead, ready," he reported, and listened as the other five members of the flight did the same. When the three 'Black' elements, the stealth VTOLs carrying the commando teams, had chimed in their status, the mission was finally ready to go.
The transport submarine shuddered and roared around them as compressed air rushed into its ballast tanks and sent it bobbing the last dozen or so meters to the surface, and then the hatches overhead slammed open and the nine aircraft rushed out into the open air.
They were almost on top of the atoll when they launched; Aube proper was a volcanic island, but the place's growing global role as capital of ORB had caused the city to expand until it covered almost the entire landmass. Morganroete's testing facility was on the atoll that had grown up around one of its outlying islets. None of his threat sensors were reading, and out of the corner of his eye he could see the mushroom clouds rising where the Federation fleet's thermobaric weapons had leveled the city's air defense sites.
The next island in the archipelago, Soran, held ORB's primary military training facility. The forces stationed there wouldn't be as capable or well-equipped as the now-demolished squadrons which had been tasked to defend the capital, but they were nearby and it would only be a minute or two before they managed to scramble. It would be his job to keep them from doing anything... permanent... about the infiltration teams before the backup squadrons could take them out, but that shouldn't be a pressing matter for another couple o-
There was a scream and a howl of static across the comms as Black Two came apart in a hail of cannonfire, and Mu was too busy staying concious through his evasive maneuvers to curse. When he came out of the turn he got a clear look at the culprit - a GINN, in full ZAFT colors, was arrowing up out of a copse of trees and firing as it came. One burst missed Black Three, then another, before the third clipped the transport's wing and set it reeling as the pilot tried to regain control.
One of his people, Chigger, he thought, tried to force it away from its target with an attack of his own, but the GINN cut its thrusters and spun and dropped under the shot before bringing its cannon back around to put a final burst straight through the transport's center of mass.
Each of the commando teams had included five (theoretically) qualified pilots. The mission still hadn't failed. Yet.
But there was no more room for error at all.
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"
"A boat shed on one of the outer islets; it'll have room for your mobile suits and is out of the way enough that ORB's security forces will be able to pretend they never noticed."
"Pretend?" asked the less reverent of the soldiers. "They know were're here?"
"Of course not," Yitzhak said scathingly. "They don't know a thing, just like my mother and your father never work anything out outside the Council Chambers."
The intelligence man smiled. "Exactly," he said, since the behind-the-scenes discussions and dealmaking of the PLANTs highest governing body genuinely did have much the same sort of widely known but never admitted character.
*****
Mu la Flaga checked his instruments and ruthlessly supressed the frown trying to force its way onto his face. The consequences of an unprovoked attacked on one of the leading nations of the so-called 'Coordinated Axis' were obvious to anyone with half a brain, of course, and however certain his superiors might have been that they would eventually come to pass anyway, he was less than resigned to it. On the other hand, having protested as much as he was permitted to, he really didn't have any options other than shutting up and soldiering; even if he'd been willing to go as far as mutiny, the next person who might be picked to lead this mission was Samantha Akers, who was bloodthirsty even when she hadn't been turned loose over a city full of 'space monsters'.
Not if he could prevent it, thanks.
"White Lead, ready," he reported, and listened as the other five members of the flight did the same. When the three 'Black' elements, the stealth VTOLs carrying the commando teams, had chimed in their status, the mission was finally ready to go.
The transport submarine shuddered and roared around them as compressed air rushed into its ballast tanks and sent it bobbing the last dozen or so meters to the surface, and then the hatches overhead slammed open and the nine aircraft rushed out into the open air.
They were almost on top of the atoll when they launched; Aube proper was a volcanic island, but the place's growing global role as capital of ORB had caused the city to expand until it covered almost the entire landmass. Morganroete's testing facility was on the atoll that had grown up around one of its outlying islets. None of his threat sensors were reading, and out of the corner of his eye he could see the mushroom clouds rising where the Federation fleet's thermobaric weapons had leveled the city's air defense sites.
The next island in the archipelago, Soran, held ORB's primary military training facility. The forces stationed there wouldn't be as capable or well-equipped as the now-demolished squadrons which had been tasked to defend the capital, but they were nearby and it would only be a minute or two before they managed to scramble. It would be his job to keep them from doing anything... permanent... about the infiltration teams before the backup squadrons could take them out, but that shouldn't be a pressing matter for another couple o-
There was a scream and a howl of static across the comms as Black Two came apart in a hail of cannonfire, and Mu was too busy staying concious through his evasive maneuvers to curse. When he came out of the turn he got a clear look at the culprit - a GINN, in full ZAFT colors, was arrowing up out of a copse of trees and firing as it came. One burst missed Black Three, then another, before the third clipped the transport's wing and set it reeling as the pilot tried to regain control.
One of his people, Chigger, he thought, tried to force it away from its target with an attack of his own, but the GINN cut its thrusters and spun and dropped under the shot before bringing its cannon back around to put a final burst straight through the transport's center of mass.
Each of the commando teams had included five (theoretically) qualified pilots. The mission still hadn't failed. Yet.
But there was no more room for error at all.
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"