Gundam U.C 0088

It was a cold, damp winter night. Only a silhouette of the large Garuda class transport ship was visible though the roar of its ten large jet engines could be heard - and almost felt – from below. The Garuda's five hundred and twenty four metres of wingspan and its massive hull wouldn't keep it concealed for long when it reached its destination, a relatively heavily guarded Earth Federation compound, home of the EF archives, and the mission's primary objective.
'We're approaching the drop point ETA 15 minutes, carry out the final checks for the mobile suits, and make sure the parachutes are secured properly to the mobile suits.' The pilots of the Garuda were nervous. Everyone on the mission had been briefed on the defences of the compound, four medium sized flak towers containing automatic anti-air cannons and a large manual AA gun on each, the defences meant that the mobile suits couldn't be dropped too near to the compound. This wasn't the problem. The real problem was dropping the strike team into the compound. The Garuda would have to fly directly above the compound to drop the squad of thirty soldiers into the compound, this would mean that the Garuda would be a sitting duck; the probability of its destruction was high.
The mobile suit squad for this operation consisted of four mobile suits, two 'ground type' Dreissens and two Zaku IIIs piloted by experienced Neo Zeon pilots had been selected for the mission, two of them had had limited experience in combat on earth during the one year war and were somewhat accustomed to piloting mobile suits in gravity, though it had been nine whole years.
'Hey Sev? You think these Zaku threes are any good? I hear they've been taken over by some other suit... what was it?' said Flaste inquisitively to Sev Souber the squad's leader. 'Wolf, the new suit is called the 'Doven Wolf'', 'Ah that's it' replied Flaste. Flaste was probably the most inexperienced of the four, though compared to any other young Neo Zeon pilot he could probably be considered an ace. Flaste and Sev were piloting the newly developed Zaku IIIs, large, bulky and outfitted with many verniers and rocket thrusters as well as vicious spikes on its left shoulder. Along with the monochrome grey Zakus were the Dreissens. They were specially painted with dark grey and black in the hopes that they would be concealed by the darkness.
'The 'chutes are secure sir!' was heard from the hatch of the cockpit. 'They better be!' replied Sev, he was making the final checks to his mobile suits, as were Flaste and the other two pilots. The hanger, situated at the rear of the Garuda was cleared as the mobile suits came to life, the mechanics hurried out of the hanger; they looked like ants from the cockpit of the massive Zaku. 'Two minutes to drop time' a voice echoed from speakers around the ship. The mobile suits formed a formation close to the large hanger doors, by now they had opened to reveal the ground below. '5... 4... 3... 2...' the two Zakus left the Garuda first; they plummeted a few hundred feet below the dark green Garuda before releasing their large parachutes and activating their verniers to cushion the fall.
Fifteen seconds after the Zakus had been dropped, the Dreissens followed. They were dropped closer to the compound and had come under fire. The slow speed of their descent made them easy targets and the heat and light from their verniers made them easy targets for the anti-air guns on the perimeter of the compound.  One Dreissen had received up to six direct hits to the torso which jerked the mobile suit violently. A scream was heard over the comms as the pilot was brutally butchered by shrapnel from the exploding cockpit followed by the massive explosion from the suit's nuclear reactor. The explosion obliterated part of the compounds thick concrete wall sending rubble flying and crumbling into the federation barracks.  'Jimmy!' a shout of anger and frustration was heard from the second Dreissen, it had survived the drop and was using its three-barrelled beam cannon to give supporting fire to distract the AA guns from firing at the falling commandos.  Three large pink beams from the Dreissen screamed across the compound sending federation guards (who were already in disarray) flying to the floor. The shot had annihilated the southern flak tower, the one which had killed his comrade.
The commandos began to reach the ground. They released their parachutes a few meters above the ground to give them a quicker landing. Many of the federation ground troops hadn't even realised the Zeon commandos were being airdropped. The black parachutes were concealed by the night sky and the commandos themselves were too small to target with the anti aircraft guns.  Twenty six of the thirty commandos had successfully breached the compound while the rest had either been hit by stray bullets or fallen to their death due to damaged parachutes.
The grey Zakus arrived at the compound, three minutes since the start of the operation.  Their main objective now was to give covering fire to the commandos who were proceeding to enter the bunker which housed the 'feddie' archives.  Several of the commandos had bazookas; they were equipped to defend themselves and had continued their fight against the towers and federation soldiers on the ground.  The mobile suits had quickly destroyed the remaining flak towers with relative ease and sustaining no major damage except a non-lethal shot to one of the Zaku's arms. As Sev did a scan of the area with the Zaku's main camera, a large white head with a green visor exposed itself over the roof of a hanger.  Meanwhile three of the commandos were busy hacking a terminal to open the huge doors leading down into the bunker. The twenty or so remaining commandos were providing cover for them against the few remaining federation troops.  On the southern side of the compound about a quarter of a kilometre away from the Bunker entrance where the commandos were situated, two GM IIs engaged the Zakus and remaining Dreissen. The white GMs easily stood out in the darkness and the flashes from their beam rifles laminated their area. The GMs were hugged against the wall of the hanger, now proceeding to cover each corner of the warehouse, the Zeon suits released a barrage of beams into the warehouse causing a large chain of explosions and debris flying into the air.
As if it were a ninja pouncing from a smoke bomb, one of the GM IIs charged out of the smoke cloud with its beam saber pointed forward, and a shout was heard over the comms.  'EARTH BELONGS TO THE EARTHNOIDS!' The suit lunged at Sev's Zaku but he was able to avoid it though the saber left a large molten gash in the shoulder of the Zaku III. The GM recovered from the miss and swung the saber in a clockwise motion. 'Now!!!' shouted the GM's pilot. From behind the Zeon suits' field of vision the other GM sent a spray of shots towards Sev's Zaku which was now locked in close quaters combat with the first GM, beam sabers clashing.  Flaste looked on in horror as a spray of pink beams hit the Dreissen and caused it to collapse to the ground creating a large cloud of dust. Flaste moved the Zaku to intercept the second GM, he fired blindly at the  GM before dropping his beam machine gun and moving into close quaters. The GM backed away but the Zaku was too fast for him to match, the Zaku rammed into the GM as if to tackle it to the floor and its shoulder spikes pierced the torso of the GM, finally putting it out of action.
Meanwhile Sev was still in combat with the first GM. The federation suit pushed the Zaku to the ground causing another cloud of dust. Sev could make out the shape of the GM above,  a loud thud was heard and the Zaku shuddered as the GM stomped its foot down on the Zaku to restrain it. Sev was screwed, he couldn't move and unless Flaste could give him backup when he most needed it, he was unsure if he could get out of this fight alive. 'Flaste!' he shouted but heard no reply. 'Damn you!' Sev pulled a trigger on the Zaku's control stick and its vulcan guns fired at the GM, it wouldn't be powerful enough to destroy a mobile suit, though that wasn't his idea.  He aimed the vulcans at the GM's head and shot into the visor causing it to shatter sending shards flying in all directions, damaging the GM's main camera. This gave him a chance for a counterattack and plunged his own beamsaber into the GM's leg before slicing it off.  'No you don't Zeon!', the GM pilot had switched to another backup camera and was preparing for its final lunge into Zaku, though it was now lying on the floor in a pile of twisted and molten debris. Sev fired the main verniers in hope that it would blind the feddie pilot, it provided propulsion for the Zaku and gave it a quick escape. The GM was immobile and desperately returned fire with its own vulcans, a shot from behind pierced its torso putting out of action for the last time. The shot was from Flaste's Zaku, he had made it too.
Twenty minutes after the fighting had ended, the commandos returned topside from the bunker with their objective. Top secret data, they had transferred and copied it to several memory cards in case the original files were destroyed. The Zaku IIIs, now covered in smoke, burns, dust and damage had been covering bunker and the commandos whilst waiting for extraction. The Garuda which dropped them in had taken several hits and they had been forced to make an emergency landing. Now they had to wait for another transport to pick them up.

'We have incoming!' seemingly out of nowhere a beam pierced the cockpit of Sev's Zaku, causing bright orange flame to burst out of the mobile suit causing it to collapse on several commandos. 'SEV!? No!... it can't...' The rest of the commandos scattered and took cover in a barracks building nearby or through the alley-like gaps between buildings and hangers.  Stunned by the loss of his friend and comrade, Flaste had lost the awareness that a battle had begun. A loud shout through the comms awoke him from the shock, 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? INTERCEPT IT!' the shout put him back into action and he huddled the Zaku against wall and scanned the area, he had a bad field of vision but didn't want to risk exposing the head to enemy fire. 'WE'LL PROVIDE COVER FOR YOU!' the same commando shouted.  Three commandos had positioned themselves on high points of cover in hopes of getting a lock on the enemy suit, but it seemed to have disappeared.... Flaste heard a loud screech, as if metal was being slowly dented. It was. Suddenly are large thud hit him and the suit was knocked forwards, the knock caused massive pain but the shock had fuelled his adrenaline rush and he put the suit right back into action. The enemy suit had rammed right through the wall the Zaku was hugged against and proceeded to fire at the Zaku with its beam rifle. The Zaku slashed at the enemy suits beam rifle and succeeded in destroying it. The enemy suit launched itself backwards over the half destroyed hanger to a safe distance, the pilot had obviously been surprised by the Zaku's quick reaction time.
The enemy suit was a GM III, it boasted a 37% increase of acceleration and its improved beam rifle (Now destroyed) and outfitted with missile pods on its shoulders, it easily outfought the GM IIs Flaste had encountered earlier.  The GM had exposed itself to the commandos when it had retreated from the Zaku and they had gained a lock on to it with their bazookas.  The attempt to hit the GM failed as it agilely darted out of the way of the shots and letting them hit the ground.  Dodging the bazooka shots distracted the pilot for a split second which gave the Zaku time to lunge at the GM before disappearing into the darkness.
Federation Special Forces had poured into the compound and engaged in a fire fight with the commandos, they desperately needed an extraction, though they had another option of transmitting the data to the transport ship coming to extract them. 'Set up the beacon and send the data through to the nearest functioning Zeon line!' An explosion shuddered the ground, and shattered one of the windows 'Preferably BEFORE we get blown to pieces!' one of them shouted. 'I'm on it sir!' replied another man who was typing furiously on a portable computer. 'Damn. Where's the mobile suit cover when you most need it?'



Elsewhere Flaste was tiring from being battered around and pushed to his limits for the past hour, had it not been for the stimulants he had used, he probably would've passed out from exhaustion by now. Shock and fatigue had taken its toll but he was still focused on fighting the GM III, 'was one GM all the federation could spare?' His mind was drifting, but a blast from the GM's shoulder mounted missiles reminded him of the life threatening situation he was in. In numb desperation, he fired the Zaku's Vulcan guns at the GM III but the GM's titanium and gundariam alloyed armour easily deflected the shots causing only minor scratches on the suit.   The GM took the opportunity, the Zaku had lost its quick reflexes that it had at the beginning of their fight, the GM boosted towards the Zaku and took a slash at with its saber, though Flaste countered with his own beam saber but  the GM's pilot swiftly blocked his attack with his shield which was almost sliced in two.  The GM rammed again, using its shield to batter the Zaku and forced it onto the floor.  'This is it, I guess... the others.. I...'  He heard a scream through the communicator  'WE'VE TRANSMITTED THE DATA! RETRE-' there was a loud noise and some interference. The comm was silent.