Robotech - Southern Cross Adventure

[Purr]

After her brief respite, Gabriela put her game face back on and got back to work. The first thing she did was activate Dragonfly, hit record, and put it on auto-follow. She wanted everything here recorded.

"Spirit is up," she called over the squadron channel.

Soon, her Ajax's hands were deep brown digging in the dirt. Weapons at the ready, Gabi tried to make herself one of the first inside the tunnel for any danger. Once inside, she disarmed any enemy that moved and collected the weapons in a pile.

But she was not ready for the sight of the High Lord.

"Madre Dios ("Mother of God...")..." The Asgardian arty-strike she had called in was more successful than she could have imagined! The strike had gotten the High Lord! She briefly wondered again how Captain Sykes would react. She had also wondered how her new sergeant felt about calling in the strike. Conway had been appreciative and congratulatory up to this point, but Gabi still felt like she did not know her well enough to know her reaction.

But then, she felt like regardless of their feelings on the matter, Gabriela would go to the grave feeling she did the right thing here.

And speaking of graves, Gabi could not help but feeling she was in a tomb of sorts. She stood behind and beside Sergeant Conway. With her Ajax's spotlight and ion cannons on her, Gabi recorded what were very likely the High Lord's last words.

"I think Alan's got a great point. Look how long it took for Hitler to be proven dead."

 

[D. Rex]

Marlon would remain with Neo to provide additional overwatch support.

 

[Psychie]

Zerkia looks up at Alan and Deunan as you stand over her, a smile coming to her face. A slight cough lets out a gout of blood onto her chin, and she reaches up and wipes her hand across her face, smearing the blood. In a shaky voice she manages to say, "Well now. That doesn't look <cough cough> good. You miconians are like your cockroaches, ever present, and impossible to kill. <cough> But I wonder. It is said that even a cockroach will survive a nuclear holocaust. How well can you survive <cough cough> my last act of defiance? Run if you can, little cockroach, but it won't matter. The explosion will wipe out the entire valley, and take all of you with it. Long. Live. The. Zentraedi and death to. All. Humans!"

She begins to laugh, a weak, sick laugh, but one of supreme satisfaction, as she coughs up more blood on her face, this time not bothering to wipe it up.

From her position outside the tunnel, Neo calls out on the radio. "Um, boss? I'm picking up a power spike. Something just kicked on, and its pretty big."

 

[Sherwood]

A power spike? Final act of defiance? Oh, shit! "Shit shit shit! Everyone, out! Out out out! The place is rigged to blow!" She shifts the radio to the 'all hands' band, and calls out, "All units! All units! Bug out bug out bug out! There is an explosive device set to go off, powerful enough to take out the whole valley! Everyone needs to evacuate the valley NOW!"

 

[Rykon]

Alan grabs the body of the high lord, ripping her from her resting place if he has to and bolts from the tunnel toward the surface. "Get out now!" He bellows over the radio.

 

[Gundam Watcher 27]

"An Explosion?! I'm going!"
The Ajax turned and ran, Taking the lead.

 

[Purr]

Using the advantage of her taller Ajax, Gabi assisted Alan in his Spartas with all alacrity.

 

[D. Rex]

Marlon took a step back. The sort of an explosion to be able to do such large scale damage... was certainly beyond their current means. Unless they did something really stupid. But why would they care if they knew they were going to die... "Get on out of here, Neo

Marlon hurried his battloid to the edge of the tunnel, and would extend a hand as far as he could reach to help to pull Duenan out of the hole while Gabi pulled out Alan. "We ain't got but a minute if it is what I think is!"

 

[Psychie]

With everyone scrambling out of the tunnel, the only thing slowing you down is hauling the body of Zerkia out with you. With Gabi helping Alan to pull her out, everyone else is able to get out and into the open air once more. From the size of the Zentraedi's body compared to that of the Spartas, it will take two tanks in Battloid mode running alongside one another to be able to get her out, one carrying her legs, the other carrying her torso.

Leaping and bounding, the hover tanks run while the two Ajax take to the sky. Elsewhere, Deunan's emergency message has galvanized the Veritechs of the various squadrons that arrived on scene, and they begin to jet out at high speed to get away.

Everyone, please give me Pilot Veritech rolls.

 

[D. Rex]

After seeing Alan needing a hand with the body, Marlon hurriedly helped him carry the bitch.

Ground veritech:98%

 

[Sherwood]

Pilot Ground Veritech 98%

 

[Gundam Watcher 27]

Rolling for Ajax

 

[Rykon]

Rolling Piloting...

 

[Psychie]

As the squad is moving out, trying to take along the body of the fallen High Lord is slowing you down. But you are moving away fast as possible, and you are getting farther out when there is a rumble deep in the earth behind you. Then suddenly, the day is lit up by a massive explosion, far more powerful than any you have ever seen before, short of a nuclear blast! The shockwave travels fast at you, knocking all of you for a loop, sending the hover tanks sprawling into the ground and the two Ajax are swatted out of the air like bugs. It is only due to the quality of your training that keeps you from slamming into the earth yourselves. As it is, everyone is badly bruised and battered from head to toe, but you are alive.

Looking back over your shoulders, you can see that there is now a crater a football field deep and three times as wide. If Zerkia had not been such a braggart and told you about her little surprise, you would not have made it out of there.

 

[Rykon]

Alan hit his radio to the ASC wide band, even as hardy as he was he felt like hell. He couldn't imagine the others had the will to speak at the moment. "This is Sergeant Samuel McGregor of the ASC Third Heavy. We're bloodied, battered, bruised, and in serious need of extraction. We have classified cargo with us that has to make it back home. I repeat, we require extraction and we have top priority classified cargo, over."

 

[Sherwood]

Deunan shifts in her seat and pulls off her helmet, spitting out a mouthful of blood. Damn. That was quite a bang. Holy crap! "Third Heavy! Ungh! This is Conway. Sound off! Please, don't anyone be dead." Jesus, my head feels like a sledgehammer just hit me.

 

[D. Rex]

Sure. They teach you how to take those sorts of impacts, but it never does prepare you for you for it. He could hear voices on the radio but all he could do was grunt, and wipe the blood from his cracked visor. Oh... yeah. It was on the inside. Of course it was.

Marlon pulled it off and tossed it whichever way gravity determined down was.

He righted his mecha, ignoring the piled on mud and debris. "Marlon here...Not dead." He said, raising his gunpod, he moved over to the damnable Zentraedi. To make sure she was still alive, but most importantly, secured and not about to perform another suicide stunt as they were so fond of doing.

 

[Purr]

Not far from Alan and High Lord Zerkia's corpse, Gabriela felt like she had bruises on top of bruises, but she was smiling. Mission accomplished!

The word "extraction" was music to her ears. She answered Conway wearily. "Sergeant De la Rosa reporting from the dead. We did it, people! Desperada, er, Ryuko-chan? Neo? How you doing?"

From her upside down position inside her cockpit, she reached over and checked on Dragonfly. It was still recording. Gabi, pleased, reached over and kissed the life-saving, super-useful drone. "You sure did your share, little spirit!"

 

[Gundam Watcher 27]

"I am fine...."
Ryuko sounded in distress at the last bit, as if she was struggling to keep back her tears.

In truth, she was very much not okay. Tears ran down her face as the impact hitting the jagged ground was enough to tear open the Cockpit area. Thankfully, the sharp Ground was away from the pilot's own body, but she was very much panicking.

I nearly died twice..... Why? Why am I feeling scared?

 

[Psychie]

Neo calls out on the squad channel, "I'm here, but I think I broke my arm! Ow! Fuck! It really hurts, but I'm alive."

As the call goes out for emergency pick-up, the radio begins to fill with chatter from the various squads, all wondering what the hell just happened. By now, after a quick examination of your prisoner, you can see that High Lord Zerkia is most definitely deceased, but at least you have physical proof of her passing, along with multiple video copies of her last words to you. Whatever it was that blew, it was probably a reflex furnace from one of the many crashed Zentraedi ships in the area. That would be the most likely explanation of what it was to cause such contained but powerful damage to the area.

Over the course of the next several minutes, mecha recovery aircraft soar in to pick up the battered and bloody ground forces of the Third Heavy, and if Gabi and Ryuko are not up to flying, there is enough space in the cargo hold for an Ajax or two. The airlift back to Anton-17 does not take long, but it does give poor Neo enough time to get her arm in a splint and a shot of painkiller in the girl to keep her from going into shock until the bones can be properly set by the doctor.

While it is somewhat gruesome to think about, the body of Zerkia is going to be taken to Brazilia Base for formal identification through DNA records that were made just after the end of the First Robotech War, but there is little doubt of her identity.

 

[Gundam Watcher 27]

5 minutes after return to Anton 17.

Ryuko entered her resting quarters, before she got some clothes together. It wasn't much, just a somewhat loose t-shirt and sweatpants, as well as undergarments, before going to the showers.

A couple minutes was all it took for her to reach the shower room, which was empty. She would strip down before putting her clean clothes on a bench, then head into the showers themselves.

Turning on the warm water, the heat pelted against her skin, the water rolling off as she had her hands against the wall. She looked down at the ground, as the filth that built up from the mission was being washed away. She silently wept tears, saddened by what she went through twice in one day.

 

[D. Rex]

With helmet in hand, the first thing that Marlon did upon setting foot on Anton amd after getting clear of the craft was to light up a cigarette.

The blood and dirt on his armor and face were now but smears as he had did what he could to wipe them off with a rag.

He had plenty of time to reflect over the mission. Everything went perfect. Nobody died. They slayed all in their path and eliminated and recovered person of interest number one. Even still, what lingered most on his mind was the moment of friendly fire that almost cost a squadmate their life. Yes he had been trying to help her, but it didnt work out that way. He was too careless...

This muffled for Marlon the feeling of celebration that should have been in order.

 

[Rykon]

Alan did everything he could to bury the images of the mission in the depths of his memory. The conflict here in Brazil was basically over now. Sure there would be guerilla warfare efforts here and there, but the malcontents have been scattered and their leader silenced for good.

He cleaned himself off and sat in silence for a bit to check in with his sister. Obviously the details were classified until leadership confirmed the facts. However, he had no qualms about saying that he made it through another big operation and that good news should hit the press soon.

He knew it wasn't all smiles and cheer across the board though. Ryuko was unraveling, Neo broke an arm, and Marlon probably wasn't taking the friendly fire thing well. When he finished sending his texts he headed outside, carton and lighter in hand.

"Hey there buddy. You know you aren't gonna be okay with what happened til you say your peace to her face right?" Alan said, taking a seat while he fired up his own cigarette. "Everyone made it. The only damage you've really done is to Lieutenant Dan's work schedule."

 

[D. Rex]

Marlon looked up, and scooted over to make room for Alan. He looked back ahead, at their machines while they were getting getting hosed off in preparation for the hangar.

"I know. But what piece am I gonna say? Fuck you for doing something stupid that I explicitly warned you that this could happen, and also I'm sorry for shooting you."

Marlon frowned and pulled out another cigarette. "I'm not quite sure i want to see her right now. I'd probably just get angry, and regret, at the same time. A bit of damage was all it did. Was just a glancing blow. But a direct hit could have punched a hole through that armor. It could have been worse."

"Staff Sergeant was right though. I should have been more careful. I shouldnt have taken the shot if I had a doubt. I was just hoping I could take the zeek before it did what it did. Didnt expect it to be used against me and Ryuko."

 

[Rykon]

Alan raised his eyebrows and smirked. "Yeah, basically. Say exactly that and it'll get the point across. This is a lesson she needed bro. I almost shot her, you did shoot her, all because she kept charging into the line of fire instead of sticking to her guns."

Alan inhaled deeply and let a dense plume of smoke leak from his throat as he spoke. "Tell ya what. We need to work off all the good luck we just spent not dying. So I'm sending a group text to the squad now. We need to clear the air, get a drink, and fuckin party man. Today's a good day. Don't waste a good time playin stick in the mud."

Alan had been tapping away at his phone as he spoke and sent out the message as soon as he finished. "I'm feelin lucky. Y'all up for cards and drinks tonight?"