Chapter Text
Pike-class Fleet Carrier “CVF-41 Crocea Mors” , Unknown Location - 80 AGW (After Great War)
Whenever a ship appears on its destination the crew of a ship normally barely feels it if at all as going through jumpspace is normally a calm affair. For Crocea Mors and its crew, their jump was anything but normal and as the ship went out of jumpspace, it shook strongly, making many people fall, including both Jaune and Bismarck who had been busy looking over the tactical table and coming up with a plan.
“Status!” - shouted Bismarck as he laid on the floor.
“Ship is as good as when we jumped!” - shouted one of the members of the bridge crew.
“What just happened, then?!” - asked Jaune as the shaking finally stopped and he was finally able to regain enough balance to try to get up.
“Misjump” - answered Bismarck angry at that particular bit of information and once he saw the rest of the crew look at him he decided to explain as he got up - “basically, our jump drive went haywire when we made a jump so our travel was unstable. Misjumps are rare and beyond making a ship miss their intended destination, they’re harmless unless you’re supremely unlucky”
“Then that gives us the task to discover where we are then” - said Jaune, for which Bismarck nodded in agreement.
“We also need to see with what exactly we’re working with” - added Bismarck.
“True” - answered Jaune as he started to think before giving his order, tiredness obviously present on his voice - “call all the officers we’ve left to the bridge, I doubt there are many left anyways”
“Time to face the fire then” - said Bismarck as Marcos Dious, their new communications “officer” sent the message throughout the ship.
The following hours were not easy for the crew of the damaged carrier. The injured captain Kileros was present on the bridge if on bed for the officer meeting and the situation was just as bad as they feared. Very few survivors within the ship were military men and not counting the captain the oldest military member was Alergo, a Jaguar faunus ranked captain and with the scars to prove his service. The rest, much like Jaune, were basically rookies, most of them 18 or 19 years old (some even younger like Ruby), their service being basically being part of the project that had developed the Gundam Silver and while volunteers were more than able to make up for the loss of personnel, at best, those volunteers were either militia members, which were not trained to the standards required for their new duties or civilians with no training at all.
The ship’s situation was not much better, the bridge was still only held together by figurative and slightly literal duct tape and prayers, the jump drive had been damaged during the jump reducing both its speed and range, the communication systems were also seemingly damaged too reducing their range and leaving the ship for all intents and purpose isolated as they were now deep in enemy territory, all armor sections were damaged to some degree, the sensor array had been similarly damaged during the battle reducing its range and the few battle ready mobile suits available were the Gundam Silver and a few surviving Huntsman mobile suits, all in all 8 mobile suits, true they had enough spare parts to basically assembly another trio of new mobile suits and another Gundam without risking running out of spare parts for a long while (more if the situation got desperate enough) but they also lacked pilots, the militia haven’t received the training necessary to pilot the Huntsman and that was without counting the possibility that no militia pilot had managed to get into the ship.
Simply put, if they were found by the Grimm, the Crocea Mors would be most likely sunk. The venerable fleet carrier was but a shadow of its former formidable self.
And that was before taking into account they were, in fact, deep inside enemy territory which made the danger exponentially greater, their only salvation had been the fact that they had jumped near a nebula that they were going to enter as soon as they could
Despite the odds however the crew refused to surrender, be it because of duty, for the civilians they had saved or just because of spite and they had formulated a plan which included trying to jury rig some simulators to train the volunteers into a respectable standard beyond that of the militia they might’ve been part of all while trying to get back to remnant as soon as possible.
It was more than likely they would die on the attempt but they were not going to die without a fight.
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Nightmare-class Battlecruiser “Destiny” , Mountain Glenn Sector - 80 AGW
Cinder calmly watched as the slowly expanding field of debris that once was the Valean colony of High Coast, however the destruction of such a colony of vermin didn’t bring her the satisfaction it normally did and for one reason. The single Valean carrier that had escaped.
The bad part is that nowhere had that ship been mentioned at all. Her intelligence had not mentioned it, her briefing had not either, at no point did the ship ever appear within anyone’s thinking and her fleet had paid the price, 1 cruiser sunk and another having to be scuttled by its crew due to the damage and that was just during its flight, who knew how much damage its mobile suit complement might’ve done in the fight inside the colony.
But even worse had been the strange behavior of the carrier. It had not taken part of the fight around the colony, staying through most of the fight on its dock and once it was outside it had not even tried to rally the few Valean survivors around it to organize some kind of retreat but just fled. In fact, beyond a missile barrage and a few shots from some of its main battery turrets, which had been strangely ineffective, the ship had done nothing beyond fleeing.
So either the ship was unable to fight for whatever reason … or unwilling.
Regardless, not counting that single ship and whoever was inside it, the operation had been a complete success, the colony had been destroyed, the Valen forces annihilated and a wedge in the Valen defenses created, the chaos that this was planned to create would do nothing beyond opening more opportunities to the Grimm.
“Ma’am, you've got a call from the capital.” - the communications officer suddenly announced.
“Reroute it to my quarters, nobody is to interrupt me at all” - ordered Cinder before walking out of the bridge into the lift.
“Any better timing and I would’ve thought it had been planned” - thought Cinder as the lift descended before stopping at the appropriate level.
Cinder immediately walked out as soon as the door opened and walked towards her quarters to which she entered. The room was massive, in fact it was bigger than the standard quarters, the ship being modified due to it being her flagship. The only thing lost was some living space for the crewmen but they were of minimal concern. The opulence was also massive, between a private wardrobe, a private bathroom, a king sized bed and several other amenities, the room looked more as the room of a palace or mansion than the room found in a warship. For Cinder it was a reminder of her station and of what she deserved and was owed.
But none of that was in her mind now as she went to her desk and activated the communicator, the different screens displaying not only the other Fleet Admirals in Salem’s service. Tyrian Callows, Vermillion Raddock, Gillian Asturias, Jax Asturias, Hazel Rainart, Arthur Watts. Each of them, feared by Remnant.
Finally there was Salem herself who finally appeared last. Immediately saluting the meeting got underway.
“Cinder, I take the mission was successful?” - inquired Salem, going directly to the point.
“Indeed, the colony of High Coast has been destroyed and their garrison annihilated” - Cinder said proud of her work until she remembered a single detail - “however there was a complication”
“Complication?” - immediately asked Watts with his sarcasm - “so, someone did survive?
Cinder growled at Watts and if glares could kill Watts would’ve been a dead man - “Among the ships inside the colony there was a Pike-class Fleet Carrier that none of the intelligence mentioned at all.”
“So you failed a simple mission, unsurprising” - said watts with his patented “I know it all” voice.
“Last thing I remember, I was briefed that there would be only cruisers, frigates and a few battleships, at no point was a damned Fleet Carrier mentioned at all” - shot back Cinder
“Silence” - suddenly ordered Salem without raising her voice before Watts could say more, making both Cinder and Watts shut up - “there will be no blaming games here. While Cinder indeed failed in completing all of her objectives, she did destroy the colony as ordered and that must be commended. That will be the end of this.”
Both Cinder and Watts silently nodded.
“However I must ask you, Cinder, which was the identity of the fleet carrier that fled?” - asked Salem.
“It was an old ship “CVF-41 Crocea Mors” from what my crew said.” - answered Cinder directly, making Salem remain silent in thought for several seconds with no one in the council daring to speak up.
“So it seems we have missed something important” - finally said Salem - “information just arrived from our spies that that ship was part of something called “Project Maiden”, considering the secrecy of this project, to the point we just learned about it but a few hours ago, it is obvious that whatever this project is, it is very important for Remnant at large”
At this moment, Cinder felt as if pure ice was going down her back - “so that's why it didn’t bother to engage in battle!”
“What's likely is that the ship was transporting the information and materials of the project when it fled” - Salem said to her admirals - “however, there are good news as the ship has not been reported to have arrived at whatever destination it had planned.”
“So we have a lost ship!” - commented Tyrian, his mad laughter then filling the meeting - “I take one of us will have to hunt for the ship”
“That would be correct Tyrian, whatever “Project Maiden” is, it must either be captured or destroyed.” - proclaimed Salem before giving her orders - “however, due to the loss of their project Remnant will get more desperate and likely to implement desperate measures. For that reason I’ll give the mission to Admiral Hei Xiong Junior, he can deal with the missing ship, you all will be soon needed at the frontlines.”
Cinder didn’t like Salem’s decision, the Crocea Mors was her quarry and hers to sink. However, orders were orders and Junior, while not the brightest bulb, had well earned his position as admiral.
After the report and discussion the rest of the meeting went like all others went as reports and plans were made. The war was going the way of the Grimm and as far the Fleet Admirals of the Grimm were concerned, it was their job to keep it that way. Soon, the kingdoms of Remnant would be taken over by their rightful rulers.
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Pike-class Fleet Carrier “CVF-41 Crocea Mors” , Nebula inside Grimm Territory - 80 AGW
It had been over a week since their misjump into Grimm territory and now Ruby Rose was nervous and with good reason, as the only trained pilot left inside the ship, she was in charge of training more pilots. The problem was that all of those available for training were just plain civilians that had worked with mobile workers in their careers but little beyond that. In total there were 11 trainees available, the small mercy was that she only needed to teach them how to pilot the mobile suits, Alergo was dealing with basic military training and they had finally been trained long enough to get basic military discipline and weapon training to advance to their respective specialties. Now Ruby remembered that the plan was to have all the current officers also learn how to pilot mobile suits in case of emergency but she doubted she would see her peers in class in the near future or take the controls of a mobile suit beyond the most desperate of circumstances.
Regardless she had her work cut out for her, despite the fact mobile workers were indeed the predecessors of mobile suits, the latter had diverged heavily by the current standards. The use of neural helmets, the faster speed and more sensitive and fine controls of the mobile suits made them a completely different beast to pilot and that was before taking into account other systems not available to mobile workers like the linear suits, the holographic panoramic display and most importantly, the pilot support AI.
As she entered the hangar she saw her small class, they were already in normal suits and obviously uncomfortable wearing them, regardless as she got closer her class noticed and saluted her with her saluting back as she walked in front of them before turning to face them.
“Welcome everyone to these pilot classes.” - started Ruby, struggling to keep her nerves under control - “as we all know, our situation isn’t the best and I’m here to make sure you can pilot the mobile suits we have at hand as soon as we can, because of that the training will center around learning how to control and fight your new mobile suits effectively above all else”
The class continued to stare at her taking in everything she was saying.
“Once you can control the mobile suits in the simulators, we’ll pass to practical training where we will expand your classes” - continued Ruby - “now lets begin, please follow me to the simulators”
“Yes ma’am” - responded the 11 volunteers saluting her as they followed her to the simulators. They were basically giant screens hooked up to the Huntsman, said screen also hooked up to a small system of joysticks, pedals and levers around a sit simulating the main control systems inside the huntsman cockpit. It was not the most realistic of simulators but it was good enough for now. Magnolia had shouted the ears off everyone in the bridge when it was decided that she would need to jury rig the simulators but she had made a miracle work. Although why Magnolia had requested to talk with Bismarck, Nyx and Lilium after the meeting was done Ruby could not fathom.
When they reached the simulators Ruby turned to face her class and advise them - “Put on your neural helmets, they’re critical for you to control the mobile suit”
As the group did so one of them, one Xander Frey, a human with short brown hair, asked - “why exactly do we need these helmets?”
“Good question Xander” - said Ruby before she answered - “the reason is simple, the mobile suits are an order of magnitude more sensitive and faster than even the highest spec mobile workers, to the point that traditional control methods without the use of the neural helmet is impossible. The neural helmet simply put, give the pilot enough control and finesse to be able to pilot the mobile suit effectively”
“Is there any other system not present in mobile workers that is present in mobile suits?” - asked another girl, a dark skinned cow faunus with long horns named Lily Gozen.
“There is the pilot support AI, it helps in lowering the workload for the pilot and analyzing the information of the sensors and data-link to present it as one whole thing” - responded Ruby before asking if someone else had another question to which all the trainees responded with a no.
After everyone was ready the trainees sit on the jury rigged simulators and Ruby started to guide them through the motions as they slowly learned to activate their mobile suits and once that to launch from the ship’s catapults and through all that deal with the mobile suits’ sensitivity and speed. It was not an easy job for Ruby as she had to jump from simulator to simulator but she made it work. She needed to make it work.
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Jaune couldn’t help but sigh due to the sheer boredom he was feeling as he, Lilium and Bismarck, did their best to noy only train the civilian crew of the bridge in military communications but also how exactly their respective workstations worked, something made frustrating because they themselves had limited knowledge of the equipment used and yet they made it work.
The Dious triplets, Marcos, Romanus and Pauralis (a band of human brother triplets with tan skin, blue eyes and black hair), now the Communications, Operations and Navigation officers respectively had done a good job learning despite the several difficulties they were having. While they still needed to look at the manual while doing their job and repeatedly broke protocol while communicating, nevermind the fact they were slow at their job but they at least could do it despite being severely below standards.
The new Chief Sensor Officer, Danesa Mejía, was having a worse go at it due to the heavy technical nature of her position of managing all the sensors around the ship and transforming the display into information the rest of the bridge could use.
Only Yumi Ikira (a white haired parakeet faunus with feather growing on her forearms) was having a relatively easy time at learning and adapting and only because she already had experience by being the helmswoman of a transport ship back at her previous home and while the Crocea Mors was both bigger in side, weighted more than the previous ship and was more sensitive in its controls, she had made a splendid job on adapting.
That said Jaune was mentally relieved that he was not Magnolia Curtis since, as the last military trained engineer on-board the ship she had to train not only the new mobile suit engineers but also rebuild the whole engineering department. Bismarck, Nyx and Lilium had all volunteered to help once they were done with their daily duties, something which Jaune hoped would be enough for the young engineer.
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Alergo sighed as he looked at the Crocea Mors ’ new medical team, they were most likely the most magnificent of medics but they were now in a military ship, not in a civilian hospital and as such he had them go through the military training manual and it was obvious that they didn’t agree with some of the things written in the document. Regardless they had been doing an admiral job adapting to military life and organizing the medical bay, he just hoped that when the shooting started they would be able to do their jobs.
For Alergo, the training he had given the volunteers had been as effective as he expected, transforming civilians into passable soldiers would take months if not more, however he didn’t had months so he concentrated on the very basics so at least they didn’t die before they shot at the enemy if it came to that.
Now training his own marines had been much harder as power armor wasn’t easy to effectively fight in without training. Despite how powerful it made the common infantry, it was still nothing compared to true mobile suits and that was something he needed to get across.
He was thankful he didn’t need to help in training the engineers, whatever was happening with that was not his problem yet, and considering how overworked his four fellow offices looked he wanted to keep it that way.
“So, how is the medbay?” - asked Alergo to the medics present trying to stave off boredom.
“We’re are decently supplied and the equipment is the top of the line” - responded Violet Korako, a red-haired, green eyed, goat faunus with a temper to match - “however, most of us has not worked with these equipment so we’re going to take time to adapt”
“How long?” - asked Alergo completely seriously.
“Give us a few weeks and I would be comfortable enough to promise no issue will be had.” - responded Violent - “that said, before that and I can’t make that promise”
Alergo sighed, it was as he expected but still it was not nice to hear it - “well, let's hope we don’t have to fight at any point within the next few weeks”
“We’re so bloody deep in this shit” - thought Alergo with frustration. He just hoped he wouldn’t die on their way home.
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Wyvern-class Cruiser “Bad Blood” , Fire Nebula - 80 AGW
Commander Zeig Meistrer sighed in frustration as his ship continued to patrol the Fire Nebula as he had over 2 days now. He had come under order of Admiral Junior Xiong in an attempt to find a supposed Pike-class Fleet Carrier that had, supposedly, somehow gotten deep into their territories.
As if that could happen.
The commander knew what was actually happening, their supreme leader, Salem, had gotten tired of their incompetent admiral and had given him a false mission to keep him far from the frontlines and by connection keep the rest of the fleet away from the glory. The possibility of a Pike-class Fleet Carrier so deep into their territories was so low it was impossible.
This angered Zeig, for no fault of their own, they were being punished due to the failures of their commander. He had tried to have his ship transferred to another fleet but such redeployment attempts had been for naught, apparently no one wanted a ship from an underperforming fleet. And so he was left patrolling a nebula chasing a nonexistent ghost.
As the Wyvern-class Cruiser continued to cruise through the Fire nebula its sensors found themselves losing range as the environment played hell with them, it was something common to happen in nebulas which was why it was considered so dangerous to enter one, however the Fire Nebula had received its name for the fact the effects were even worse with particularly unlucky ships basically having their sensors burned out due to the interference.
“There is nothing in here but if I return now the incompetent idiot will see right through it” - mentally cursed Zeig - “thankfully another two days more and I’ll be able to convince the idiot that there is nothing in here”
As the hours passed, the boredom grew inside the cruiser’s bridge and the crew and their commander were less and less attentive to their respective work. This meant that one of the sensor officers would miss a small ping, easily confused with background sensor noise coming from the nebula they were in.
They would soon come to regret their decisions.
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Pike-class Fleet Carrier “CVF-41 Crocea Mors” , Nebula inside Grimm Territory - 80 AGW
“Enemy ship detected!” - suddenly shouted Danesa from her position as the other sensor officers fed her information - “cruiser tonnage, bearing 22 degrees starboard and closing in!”
The notice went everyone in the bridge into frenzy as they got to their positions.
“Put the ship on Action Stations!” - shouted Jaune as he raced to his seat as Marcos sent the order for action station through the ship’s communicators - “status of the enemy cruiser?”
“The cruiser is not accelerating and it has not launched mobile suits” - said Bismarck as he analyzed the tactical display on the main table as the bridge retracted inside the hull - “its likely they have not noticed us”
“And advantage but one that will not last for long” - thought Jaune as the bridge finally fully retracted into the hull, the holographic display of the bridge now showing the surroundings of the ship while a massive holographic tactical display showed the positions of both the Crocea Mors and the unknown cruiser.
“We’re too close to try to maneuver around it” - immediately said Jaune.
“Oh?” - said Bismarck as he now went to his seat which was at Jaune’s right side - “for me it seems like we have enough space to maneuver”
“Yeah but that will alert the cruiser of our presence” - explained Jaune looking at Bismarck who frowned as a response.
“Which will put us at a disadvantage” - said Bismarck before sighing and looking at the display before asking - “so, you have an idea sir?”
“I do but a crazy one” - answered Jaune looking at the tactical display himself - “it's a crazy one but it lets us use the nebula to our advantage”
Jaune looked at his executive officer who obviously didn’t seem to like the idea but before Jaune could ask Bismarck about it tanuki faunus asked him a question - “you aren’t planning to perform a boarding action, are you?”
Jaune looked at Bismarck in surprise while the faunus officer just looked back with an emotionless face present. Jaune honestly had not looked into that particular possibility but considering the rest of his plan, it would not be the craziest part about it.
“No i didn’t” - answered Jaune while shaking his head before stopping - “although considering what I had planned, your idea fit too”
“Joy” - said Bismarck sarcastically - “in that case, we better start”
“Alright, mobile suits are ordered to walk out the hangar and perch themselves on the catapult and landing runways, the mega particle cannon crews are to get ready to fire at my mark … and the marines are to board their assault craft” - ordered Jaune doing his best to sound sure of his plan and keeping his nervousness and near panic - “missiles are kept in reserve and make sure to not engage active weapon targeting until I give the order, the mobile suits are to prioritize targeting the bridge and whatever mobile suit that launcher from the enemy cruiser”
“You crazy madman” - exclaimed Bismarck seeing the plan, complete surprise in his voice before he started to laugh for a short while and when he finished put a predatory smile on his face - “I’ll say this, those assholes won't see it coming”.
Jaune smiled a bit, in response. Now he just had to wait.
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Ruby couldn’t help but to curse as the 8 best trainees struggled to move their RGX-1001 Huntsman mobile suits without crashing into each other or the walls of the hangars. Another development of Project Maiden much like her Gundam, but instead of being designed for silver eyes like herself, they had been designed for the average pilot, while that made them overall weaker, they were still a quantum leap over the previous mobile suits developed by Remnant with stronger engines, reactors, weapons and most importantly armor.
Ruby knew Jaune was leaning on her abilities to carry the ship and crew in case things went wrong, but she had hoped it was only her who was going to sortie. When Jaune had said his orders, she could only think how insane they were, however she could see the brutal simplicity of it. Kill the bridge making the enemy unable to coordinate and communicate and then have the marines use the chaos to take control of the ship and most importantly, the mobile suits and supplies within. A crazy plan but one that could work.
As the 8 Huntsman finally walked outside to the catapult on the side of the enemy cruiser Ruby moved her Gundam to the very tip of it signalling the group to stop and started her briefing. The armament of her group was very simple, each of the Huntsman were equipped either with their standar long beam rifle or a mega beam launcher, the hip racks and forearm weapons mounts empty as the small squadron was struggling with them in the simulator and in fact just flying and firing the main weapon seemed to be hard enough there, nevermind in a real mission. She herself however was better decked out, one of her forearm weapon mounts was equipped with beam sabers, the other with a beam gatling, the hip racks had their 4 grenades and she was rocking a beam magnum with an attached multi-launcher and her combat shield alongside a backpack mounted beam bazooka.
The mission briefing finally finished, now all Ruby and her squadron were to do now was wait as the enemy cruiser got closer. She knew her trainees were nervous and she had done the best to calm them down but she knew it was not enough.
“Ma’am?” - suddenly asked Xander through the comms, his nervousness plain to all to see and hear - “are we sure we’re all needed in here?”
Ruby smiled looking at the nervous Xander in her holographic HUD - “yes, we are Xander. I know this will be hard but we’re all needed to make this mission a success”
“I … I understand ma’am” - said Xander before closing down the comms system, his image disappearing.
AS the wait continued Ruby saw the main battery turrets track the invisible prey, the nebula hiding it from view but not from the sensors of the ship of her squadron’s mobile suits for that matter. The new ESAD Sensor Suite was working as intended.
As time continued to pass, Ruby started to notice the tint of the enemy cruiser’s engine on the background of the nebula. The ship was now dangerously close and everyone was now on edge if they weren’t before, any close and the enemy will detect the Crocea Mors!
Before Ruby could activate the comms to call Jaune and ask what he was waiting for, the long awaited order was given.
“Mark!” - shouted Jaune through the comms and pandemonium started
The main batteries of the venerable fleet carrier opened up, mega particle shots racing through the nebula towards the enemy ship.
“Go!” - ordered Ruby as she activated the thrusters of her gundam, the rest of her squadron following suit struggling but finally managing to form up in their two groups and race towards the enemy. Behind them, the marine’s own assault craft was finally moving out of the hangar and preparing to launch.
An explosion far away inside the nebula signalled that the main batteries of the Crocea Mors had achieved a hit, the fighting was on.
As Ruby and her squadron advanced suddenly a barrage of mega particle cannon shots raced from the position of their target towards the Crocea Mors only to miss completely, in fact, it wasn’t even close.
As her squadron continued to race towards the cruiser, it fired another barrage towards the fleet carrier which still missed, the returning shots from the Crocea Mors however did not, and Ruby saw another two explosions happen.
Then she and her squadron finally had visual of the target and Ruby had to praise the gunners, one of the shots had gone right through one of the catapults likely exploding in the space between both, another had hit the engines, knocking one of the pods out of commission and the other had hit on the tower that held the bridge making it impossible for it to retract.
Ruby’s squadron separated as planned to start their attack runs against the cruiser just as the enemy CIWS opened up trying to shoot down the attacking mobile suits only for them to evade although said evasion meant the attack run had been successfully cut for the time being.
Not being able to get close enough, the 4 Huntsman equipped with the mega beam launcher opened fire against the ship while still trying to evade the CIWS fire, their inexperienced and limited training showing as 3 shows missed with the fourth just grazing one of the main battery turrets.
Before Ruby could rush and destroy the bridge however, things got worse as three Grimm mobile suits raced from the hangars and raced against her trainees with heavy weapons, Manticores from the looks of it. The others tried to intercept but their shots went wide and they had no enough control to give an effective pursuit, it was at this moment that she realized she needed to deal with the 3 Grimm mobile suits and trust the rest of her squadron to deal with the enemy ship.
“Everyone, concentrate on destroying the enemy’s bridge as we planned, I’ll deal with the enemy mobile suits!” - ordered Ruby as she started her pursuits seeing the 2 Manticores chase after a Huntsman while the 3rd toyed with another.
Ruby grimaced, the Manticores were the closest thing to a standard mobile suit the Grimm had, designed as a general purpose mobile suit it was not flashy but it got the job done and was capable of holding off against most of the mobile suits used by Remnant forces when not fighting against them as a peer. Simply put, they had nothing on the Gundam Silver and she was going to make them realize attacking her trainees was a huge mistake.
As she raced after the two other Manticores and rapidly gaining on them, she shot a single shot from her beam magnum against the third, destroying it without much of an issue just as another salvo was exchanged between the ships. The death of their compatriot was seemingly enough for the other two to stop their chasing the Huntsman and turn to fire against her with their beam machine guns holding their shields up.
For Ruby, that was perfect and exactly what she wanted. Another shot of the beam magnum was enough to carve through another manticore and the shield it was using to defend itself. Left alone the third alone as it fired a barrage of rockets from its shield before throwing it and its beam rifle away activating its beam hawk and rushing into melee.
Ruby for her part didn’t even bother taking out any of her melee weapons and instead holstered her beam magnum on her backpack and rushed unarmed. For Ruby the speed of the Manticore was just slow to be a problem, used to train against Huntsman and even other Gundam Silvers, the speed of the Manticore was nothing. Ruby caught with the gundam’s left hand, the right arm of the Manticore, which held the beam hawk, before it could strike, and then she pressured, the arms of the manticore being crushed under the monstrous strength of the Gundam Silver, then Ruby pulled and tore the Manticore’s right arm and forearm right off.
The Manticore pilot, now panicking, activated its thruster to try to escape but before the Manticore could move anywhere, Ruby activated her right beam gauntlet and thrusted it directly against the Manticore’s cockpit, killing the pilot instantly. And just like that, the mobile suit massacre was finished.
Turning to face towards the ship, Ruby took out her beam bazooka only to notice her trainees had managed to achieve their objective, the bridge was nothing more than twisted burning metal although the CIWS were still firing wildly.
As she got closer, Ruby noticed that all of the Huntsman showed damage caused by the CIWS to both their shields and the mobile suits themselves but all of them had survived. As she rallied her squadron Ruby idly noticed the marine’s own assault craft land in front of one of the enemy’s hangars and begin their job.
As they waited for the marines to finish their mission, Ruby asked how they had managed to destroy the ship.
“Well ma’am.” - answered Xander - “us beam rifle armed unit made false passes to get the CIW concentrate on us while the those with mega beam launchers fired at the bridge”
“It took us a lot of shots but we managed” - added Lily, proud of their achievement.
Ruby herself couldn’t be more proud of their squadron, yes, they had performed well below the standards of the Vytal Combat Group but they had all survived and learned from the experience and as far Ruby was concerned, that was enough.
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Unknown Wyvern-class Cruiser, Nebula inside Grimm Territory - 80 AGW
Alergo could help but to frown as he easily cut down another Grimm crewmen with his beam-axe, his marines were literally cutting their way through the enemy crew with impunity, even the enemy marines were lacking explosive or heavy weapons having been caught outside their own power armor.
Simply put, it was a disgrace.
He was thankful for that but he expected the crew of a Grimm warship to do better but instead, even his green trainees were doing well enough, their power armor easily holding against enemy fire. The tactics of his marines had been simple and their accuracy simply atrocious but when your power armor had an integrated beam cannon on one arm, an integrated beam machine on the other arm, integrated vibro-weapons for melee in both arms, the possibility of using shoulder mounted weapons and manipulators able to use any infantry weapon, it mean that his trainees had a decisive advantage.
Killing the final crewman Alergo signaled the assault craft that brought them in - “coast is clear, bring in the others”
Alergo sighed as he saw the carnage on the corridor and he and his squad started to walk back towards the hangars. Their mission and the battle were finally done.
The crew of the Crocea Mors had not only survived but triumphed in their first battle on the long way home.
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Pike-class Fleet Carrier “CVF-41 Crocea Mors” , Nebula inside Grimm Territory - 80 AGW
Jane watched through the still patched up windows of the now erect bridge the process of his crew going into the damaged Wyvern-class Cruiser and taking anything of value. Then the door of the bridge opened making Jaune turn to see who it was to see Bismarck entering saluting at him, Jaune saluting back.
“So, how are the others feeling?” - asked Jaune
“Everyone is happy with the success of the battle, the marines, mobile suit pilots and the gun crews specially” - answered Bismarck as he also stood alongside Jaune to watch the looting going on - “the CDC however grumbled a bit about not having much to do”
Jaune looked at Bismarck in disbelief - “what?”
“You heard me” - said Bismarck very amused before said amusement disappeared in an instant - “still, we can’t remain here for much longer, sooner or later the Grimm will realize their cruiser is missing and come here”
Jaune sighed already knowing that - “true, as soon as we’re done, we’re getting out of this nebula”
“I assume that is the reason you ordered the engineers to get into the enemy cruiser?” - asked Bismarck.
“Yes, I hope we can get navigation data, we’re so deep into Grimm territory we know nothing about where we or anything is really. last thing I want is for us to jump right into one of the Grimm’s main bases” - said Jaune making Bismarck wince at the idea before he returned to watch the proceedings.
The minutes and then hours passed by until the looting finally ended. The loot had been substantial but what Jaune and Bismarck were putting priority on was the navigation data that had been recovered and what it told was not good.
“Bloody hell, this place is massive” - commented Jaune as he looked at the navigation map displayed on the tactical table, the sheer size of the Grimm territories being plainly shown to everyone. Not taking into account the conquered systems, the Grimm territories were much bigger than any of the kingdoms on their own and even if one combined the territories of Mistral, Kuo Kuana and Atlas, the Grimm were bigger - “damn”
“And we’re in deep shit” - commented Bismarck with frustration as he pointed at the position of the Frie Nebula as they had discovered their location was - “we’ll need to cross over half the Grimm territories to get back to the frontlines themselves”
“If the frontlines don’t continue to advance in the Grimm's favor that is” - added Jaune as he pushed out a shuddering sigh, Jaune noticing Bismarck’s hands ball up into fists - “in any case, we better start moving.”
Bismarck nodded in response, his face now the perfect mask of seriousness - “and our next stop?”
“X-453, it's uninhabited and even the Grimm call it worthless. It will get us a step closer to friendly lines but still far away from the Grimm’s primary sights” - answered Jaune.
“Yes sir. Pauralis, set jump to System X-453 ASAP” - ordered Bismarck still looking at the map.
“Also, Marcos, call all officers for a meeting at the bridge” - added Jaune with his own orders - “and we better deal with what's left of the cruiser too.
As the orders were communicated the main batteries of the Crocea Mors turned to aim at the now floating husk of a Grimm Cruiser before opening up against it, mega particle cannon shots easily burning through the armor causing a multitude of explosions until the cruiser suffered a catastrophic explosion leaving behind nothing more than a expanding bunch of debris.
Once that was done the Crocea Mors turned and entered jumpspace leaving the site of the battle to finally start its journey in earnest.