Cagalli's expression was quietly horrified, and she cast about for a moment. "Wouldn't capturing those personelle be just as good?" she asked. "Or better, for what we might learn from them?"
The Captain shrugged, slightly. "Yes, it would be, if Ichthys had the room for that many prisoners, or there were time to wait for a ship that did."
"ORB," the princess said carefully, "has a few high-speed troop transports that could probably make it in time. They're not that large, too, so sparing one or two from the Aube operation shouldn't be impossible... I'll follow whatever gets decided," she finished hurridly, "but it seems like it might be worth trying."
"I like it," said Nicol.
"You would," Yitzhak sneered. "But yeah, it beats killing a bunch of secretarial types who wouldn't know any more about mobile suits than they would real fighting."
The Captain, having been part of the Kingdom of Scandanavia's regular navy before emigrating to the PLANTS and joining their relatively frewheeling militia, was not so sanguine about either the idea itself or its chances of success, but the girl had a point about its potential benefits, and it'd be a lot better for the kids' morale than the original plan. And, like they were thinking, it'd definitely be better on moral grounds, which bore thinking on since there were very good odds that the data was being backed up someplace else. "I'll pass the idea up the chain of command. In the meantime, we have a representation of the area's geography loaded into the simulators. Familiarize yourselves with it."
"Yes, ma'am!" the young people chorused, and then the meeting was over.
======================================
The siren's wail snatched Natalie Badgiruel out of a nightmare of being trapped on a surgical table as sneering figures in ZAFT space suits and masks patterned after the X103's cranial facade loomed over her and fed rank after rank of tiny mechanical ants into her body through the cut on her cheek. For the first couple of seconds she was actually thankful for that, then the meaning of the warning penetrated, and with it, the awareness that she'd have to be engaging in heavy activity despite the still-healing wounds she'd taken when the after third of her assault shuttle had exploded around her.
"Shit," she hissed, and hauled herself out of bed.
By the time she'd gotten herself and her bandages stuffed into her pilot's suit and hauled the entire pained mess into the Buster, the small base's entirely-too-excitable airboss had managed to calm down enough to provide her three impromptu test pilots with some useful information. "Attackers are Strike, Duel, four ZAFT GINN series - model unknown - one CGUE command suit and a single Vosgulov class submarine."
"Understood," she heard Lieutenant la Flaga reply. "Dispositions?"
"The suits are coming in as a group; the Vosgulov resubmerged as soon as they were all in the air. Reinforcements are some hours out - ZAFT isn't alone on this one; there are several raids underway all across central America's western seaboard, using more force than anyone expected ORB to shake free this quickly."
"Right," he said, grimly. "Well, ladies, it looks like we're it. Buster, I want you to take on Strike again. Blitz, Duel. Don't take any stupid risks, either of you; I'll handle the ZAFT units then come back to tip the scales.
Not as far as I'd meant to get. Mrg.
Ja, -n
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"
The Captain shrugged, slightly. "Yes, it would be, if Ichthys had the room for that many prisoners, or there were time to wait for a ship that did."
"ORB," the princess said carefully, "has a few high-speed troop transports that could probably make it in time. They're not that large, too, so sparing one or two from the Aube operation shouldn't be impossible... I'll follow whatever gets decided," she finished hurridly, "but it seems like it might be worth trying."
"I like it," said Nicol.
"You would," Yitzhak sneered. "But yeah, it beats killing a bunch of secretarial types who wouldn't know any more about mobile suits than they would real fighting."
The Captain, having been part of the Kingdom of Scandanavia's regular navy before emigrating to the PLANTS and joining their relatively frewheeling militia, was not so sanguine about either the idea itself or its chances of success, but the girl had a point about its potential benefits, and it'd be a lot better for the kids' morale than the original plan. And, like they were thinking, it'd definitely be better on moral grounds, which bore thinking on since there were very good odds that the data was being backed up someplace else. "I'll pass the idea up the chain of command. In the meantime, we have a representation of the area's geography loaded into the simulators. Familiarize yourselves with it."
"Yes, ma'am!" the young people chorused, and then the meeting was over.
======================================
The siren's wail snatched Natalie Badgiruel out of a nightmare of being trapped on a surgical table as sneering figures in ZAFT space suits and masks patterned after the X103's cranial facade loomed over her and fed rank after rank of tiny mechanical ants into her body through the cut on her cheek. For the first couple of seconds she was actually thankful for that, then the meaning of the warning penetrated, and with it, the awareness that she'd have to be engaging in heavy activity despite the still-healing wounds she'd taken when the after third of her assault shuttle had exploded around her.
"Shit," she hissed, and hauled herself out of bed.
By the time she'd gotten herself and her bandages stuffed into her pilot's suit and hauled the entire pained mess into the Buster, the small base's entirely-too-excitable airboss had managed to calm down enough to provide her three impromptu test pilots with some useful information. "Attackers are Strike, Duel, four ZAFT GINN series - model unknown - one CGUE command suit and a single Vosgulov class submarine."
"Understood," she heard Lieutenant la Flaga reply. "Dispositions?"
"The suits are coming in as a group; the Vosgulov resubmerged as soon as they were all in the air. Reinforcements are some hours out - ZAFT isn't alone on this one; there are several raids underway all across central America's western seaboard, using more force than anyone expected ORB to shake free this quickly."
"Right," he said, grimly. "Well, ladies, it looks like we're it. Buster, I want you to take on Strike again. Blitz, Duel. Don't take any stupid risks, either of you; I'll handle the ZAFT units then come back to tip the scales.
Not as far as I'd meant to get. Mrg.
Ja, -n
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"