"So, Liam... any ideas in that super brain of yours that will help us get 54 Junk Techs out of the base and back to the rendez-vous point in one piece?" asked Lowe in a grim tone. He had consulted with Eight on what they could do with the situation. Eight didn't give him very good news. According to Red Frame's sensor data which recorded the battle formations of the Alliance and the Abyss, the best result the computer could offer is a course which has a 67% probability where 48 out of 54 people would be able to make it out safely. To Lowe, that was not good enough.
"Unfortunately, both parties that are involved in this battle aren't responding to my hails. And it's far too dangerous just to make a run for the ship as Eight pointed out," replied Liam. "We have to make a choice soon. We can't just sit here like sitting ducks. Some of the others are on edge because of how close the fighting is." His GINN's hand was firmly placed on the BuCUE's collar, giving Kisato a sense of reassurance. But he knew that it would not hold out for long.
Lowe moved Red Frame's left hand so that it rested on the hilt of the Gerbera Straight. "Were you able to get through to the Professor?"
The Works GINN shook its mechanical head. "Too much interference. But with the situation as it is now, she would no doubt think of a way to increase our odds of getting everybody out safely."
Before Lowe could respond, Eight's voice module piped up. "Alert! Incoming mobile suit!" As Lowe drew the Gerbera Straight, a black mobile suit, the same model that he saw earlier in the base, came into view in front of his small group. The unit's pink monoeye began to blink rapidly, forcing Lowe to shield his vision. It continued this for a full minute until Eight began to pipe up again. "79... 67... 121..." Eight repeated those numbers in sync to the monoeye's blinking.
"How are you coming up with those numbers, Eight?" asked the mechanic.
"The blinking of the monoeye is in a specific sequence. Morse code to be precise," replied the AI.
Lowe quickly ran those numbers through his head. As far as he knew, those numbers weren't navigational coordinates. He was about to make a transmission to Liam asking for his input when he realized that the numbers constituted a specific bandwidth on the communication equipment in his mobile suit. As soon as he changed the frequency, he cautiously uttered out "Hello?"
A young male voice spoke up on the other side. "Good to see that you put things quickly. I wouldn't expect less from a Natural of your caliber, Lowe Gear."
The pilot of Red Frame had to suppress some of his anger, knowing that he's currently face to face with one of the Abyss members. "Who are you and what are you doing here?!? Don't you belong to one of the parties that started this whole mess?!?"
"You can just call me Jim Romelo. Yes, I'm a member of the Obsidian Abyss but the point is that me and some of my colleagues are going to help get your crew to safety." Lowe had to give some credit to the top brass of the Abyss. By doing everything possible to get the Junk Techs to safety, they create some positive word of mouth on their part and more people may be more sympathetic to their cause.
Swallowing his pride, he gave his response. "The first priority is to get my peers out of here so I'll accept what help I can get. What's the plan?"
"It'll be a few minutes before my colleagues arrive. Then we'll figure out where we can go from there," replied Jim smoothly.
Lowe briefly switched to his standard Junk Guild channel to relay the information that he had received from Jim. After everyone was informed, he switched back to the other frequency to address the pilot of the black mobile suit. "For the record, if there was a route that gave me a slim chance of getting everyone out alive without needing help from guys like you, I would have taken it."
An amused chuckle came from the other end. "My, my... aren't you quite the volatile one? If I wanted to fight hostile Naturals, I would be out there right now fighting the Alliance units."
"As far as I'm concerned, you guys are no better than Blue Cosmos!" spat the mechanic.
Jim briefly sighed. "I suppose an assumption like that can't be helped considering how there are many misleading truths floating around. While we wait for my colleagues, allow me to enlighten you of what our organization is trying to do..."
**********
"Get out of my way if you want to live!!" The pack on Dreadnought H's back had been activated and currently Canard utilized the Sword mode. A pair of small machine guns much like the CIWS on the foreheads of the old Alliance G-Weapons were mounted on top of Dreadnought's shoulders while there were two long ends positioned beneath the arms, with a beam saber protruding out of the end.
'ETA is about 4 minutes with all this traffic...' Canard saw a Strike Dagger in freefall heading towards him. He quickly slashed the suit apart but left the cockpit alone so that the pilot could remain alive. This act of defense became misinterpreted by other Alliance soldiers and a few of them broke off engaging Abyss soldiers to start firing at him.
The Coordinator muttered a curse as he activated his unit's beam shields, parts which were salvaged from his old Hyperion Gundam unit. 'Correction... ETA will be 8 minutes if I have to keep dealing with morons like these...'
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(Posted Sun, 19 Mar 2006 21:07)
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