The sickly, gray pallor of dawn did little to settle the turmoil within me. I was a Lieutenant now, a promotion earned from the scorched wreckage of a Zeon warship, but it felt less like an achievement and more like a brand. The promotion was a hollow echo in a life that had become a succession of battles, leaving me with a profound yearning for a custom mobile suit, like the ones Lilith Aiden or Barry Abbot piloted, or at least a personalized GM Spartan like Renato's, just to give me an edge. My only small comfort was a new weapon: the 'BLASH XBR-M-79E beam rifle'. It was a piece of hardware that promised a new kind of carnage.
I dragged myself from my bed, the weariness of the previous mission a physical weight on my limbs. A cold shower did little to wash away the feeling of death that clung to me. In the mess hall, the food tasted of ash. I headed to the garage, where my GM Spartan stood, its familiar frame now looking more menacing with the new weapon. The beam rifle, designed for GMs and Ground Gundams, was an improvement over the 'M-79C-1 Beam Spray Gun' and a redesign of the 'RX-78-2 Gundam's XBR-M-79-07G beam rifle'. Developed by the Blash Corporation for the Earth Federation Ground Forces, it was specifically intended for atmospheric combat. The rifle featured a BP-SS-001 composite box-type sensor system, a licensed design from BOWA Corporation, which improved its targeting precision. This weapon could snipe targets from 10 kilometers away, although its accuracy at that range was notoriously low, demanding immense skill and experience. My mobile suit could store three of these rifles in its weapon container.
I piloted my GM Spartan to the shooting range, its real beam setting a terrifying reality. My first shot was a success, a powerful blast that proved its destructive capability was no joke. The target was obliterated, and the building behind it was left with a scar of molten ruin. But accuracy was another matter. When I tried to fire while moving, I missed. It was much more difficult than using a machine gun or bazooka, and the results of my test were not good. Most of my shots missed or only grazed the targets, causing what would be considered scratch damage in a real fight. The beam rifle felt unstable and unwieldy, a beast I couldn't tame.
Feeling a cold dread creep into my gut , I drove my GM Spartan back to the garage to ask a mechanic for a tune-up to improve its handling. "I see you're having trouble with the beam rifle, Lieutenant," a voice said. It was Captain Barry. He had seen the pathetic results of my mock test. He offered some advice: "when you use that beam rifle, pretend you're using a sniper rifle". A sniper rifle. A tool for silent, distant murder. The words were a bitter pill, but he was right; the beam rifle was powerful but difficult to aim, unlike the machine gun or bazooka. He left me with that single piece of advice: "Just imagine you're a sniper. That's all I can say".
I decided to heed his words and test the weapon in a simulated battle before using it in real combat. The simulation room was crowded, a grim gathering of personnel drawn to the promise of this terrifying weapon. When it was finally my turn, I equipped the beam rifle as my main armament and took Barry's advice. By treating the beam rifle like a sniper rifle, I finally found a way to control its destructive power. It was a brief reprieve from the grimness, a fleeting moment of control.
Just as I began to feel a sliver of confidence, Renato's voice crackled over the comms. "Lydia, got a job for you. This time, you go alone". My new mission was a solitary one: escorting a Federation supply line heading from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. I chose my GM Spartan's original 'minigun' over the new beam rifle, which still felt alien and unpredictable. The minigun was a type of machine gun similar to the 'YHI YF-MG100 100mm Machine Gun' but with a better ammo capacity, and ammunition could be stored on the GM Spartan's back skirt and on the minigun itself.
My destination, Las Vegas, was a city of ghosts, its bright lights extinguished by the Zeon war and a collapsed economy. My rendezvous point was a deserted casino. I was tasked with delivering five crates to Los Angeles, along with five units of 'RX-77-2 Guncannon'. The Guncannons were long-range mobile suits equipped with '240mm cannons' and some with 'Spray missile launchers'. Their main armament was the 'YHI YF-MG100 100mm machine gun,' though one of them used an 'XBR-M-79a Beam Rifle'. The safest route was by land, as traveling by Medea transport aircraft would make us easy prey for Zeon forces.
"Thanks for coming, Black Dog Squad. We're an all-female team on this escort, and we hope you can help us reach Los Angeles," a Guncannon pilot said over the comms. (An all-female team? I never expected this.) I thought to myself. "We'd better get moving. We don't want the Zeon forces to find us," I replied, opening a channel to the pilot. The pilot's name was Katarina Banks, and she held the rank of Ensign.
We began our journey, taking a route through the Grand Canyon, the "safest" path to Los Angeles. Whispers of a new Zeon mobile suit, a fast, muscular monstrosity that moved like a hovercraft, haunted our journey. This was the 'MS-09 Dom,' a mobile suit that used hovercraft technology with thermonuclear jets and rockets under its feet, making it a very fast ground mobile suit and a significant threat. A previous team that took a shorter route for a supply delivery had been wiped out by this new mobile suit. There was a rumor that a pilot named 'Amuro Ray' had taken down three Dom units piloted by the Zeon ace pilots known as the 'Black Tri-Stars'. Taking the Grand Canyon route, we knew the arrival of Dom units was a distinct possibility.
We finally reached the Grand Canyon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The beauty of the landscape was a mockery of the coming bloodshed. The main threat here would be snipers. There were also rumors of a 'black gundam' operating in the desert region that was famous for wiping out Zeon forces. Katarina's voice broke the tense silence, asking if this was my first escort mission. I confirmed that Renato gave me the order and it was indeed my first time. She began to ask about the rumors that the Black Dog Squad were a bunch of problematic criminals. I cut her off, stating, "I'm one of them. I was a criminal on death row with several crimes, and Michael Colmatta offered me a chance to clear my record". I could feel her judgment and fear, a silent accusation that I was just another monster in a war full of them. She stammered an apology.
A long-range beam shot shattered the illusion of peace, striking the shoulder of one of the Guncannons and sending us scrambling for cover. A sniper had spotted us. To make matters worse, enemy reinforcements arrived: four Dom units and two Zaku IIs, a nightmare made real. One of the Guncannon pilots, consumed by fear, fired her spray missile and machine gun recklessly. Her shots hit one of the Zaku units, but the Doms easily dodged them. The Doms were swift, their bazookas and heat sabers a blur of destruction. One of the Doms fired its bazooka, hitting the Guncannon's head. Then another Dom stabbed the Guncannon in the cockpit with its heat saber. The pilot's terrified scream tore through our communication system, a jagged sound of pure terror. The situation was dire. The Doms' hovercraft technology made them incredibly fast, and the sniper pinned us down, making it impossible to counterattack.
A cold surge of adrenaline cleared my mind, and I began to analyze my GM Spartan. It had hand grenades on its skirt and smoke discharges in its head. I asked Katarina if the Guncannons had any other weapons, and she confirmed they had hand grenades on their legs and a '240mm Vulcan' on their heads. We quickly formulated a desperate plan. I released my smoke discharges to obscure the sniper's view. The Guncannons threw their hand grenades at the moving Dom and Zaku units. The explosions stopped them, hitting their faces and legs. A leg hit was a lucky shot, and we began to barrage them with everything we had, causing them to panic. Meanwhile, Katarina took down the Zaku I sniper with a single, well-aimed beam rifle shot.
But the victory was short-lived. A Guncannon pilot screamed, and her mobile suit exploded. A final Dom unit, with a different colored head, emerged from the smoke. It was fast, a blur of motion. It took down two more Guncannon units with its bazooka and heat saber. This was no ordinary pilot; this was an ace, a Newtype, a ghost in the machine. Only Katarina and I remained, a desperate final defense. The Dom almost hit the supply transport with its bazooka before we could continue to Los Angeles.
"Damn you, Zeon scum! I won't let you hit that transport!" I yelled, my patience exhausted. I charged the Dom, firing my minigun, but its movements were too quick to hit. The fear of death, cold and certain, wrapped its tendrils around my heart. Am I going to die here? Is this my finish line? I wondered. "LYDIA, GET DOWN!" Katarina's voice screamed in warning, a lifeline. At that perfect moment, Katarina fired her beam rifle, hitting the Dom's right arm, which was carrying its heat saber. The Dom lost its balance, and I seized the opportunity. I emptied my minigun into its main body until I ran out of ammo, the bullets tearing it apart. The Dom exploded, a final burst of light in the deepening gloom.
We had lost many personnel, but the transport was safe. We continued our journey with minimal ammo to our final destination, reaching the Los Angeles Federation base in the evening. We had turned a UNESCO site into a battlefield. This was my first solo escort mission, and it had been an intense experience. As I was about to board the Medea transport, Katarina arrived to thank me. "I'm glad you were there, Lydia. I hope we can meet again," Katarina said, her voice thick with loss. "Just hope, Katarina. Someday, on the battlefield," I replied, the words a bitter taste in my mouth.
I flew back to my base in California, reflecting on the intense battle. A report from the mechanics awaited me. The beam rifle I had used was still unstable and difficult to aim. However, they had a new, smaller, and lighter version for me to try: the 'BR-M-79C-1 Beam Spray Gun'. It was a handheld mega-particle gun with a lower focusing rate and a shorter range than the beam rifle. It had three firing modes: a basic single shot, a burst shot for area suppression, and a range shot that could cause damage over a wide area. Its output was 1.4 MW. "This beam gun is small, but it's durable and easy to use, just like a pistol," the mechanic said. "I see. These three modes sound interesting," I said. He offered me a chance to test it now, but I was too tired.
I walked back to my room, feeling the stares of many men on me, their lustful eyes on my body, a violation that I no longer had the energy to fight. My body was numb from the encounter with the Dom units. This had been a true war situation. The screams of the pilot who was shot down by the Dom still rang in my ears. After a bath, I collapsed onto my bed, exhausted. It was the most intense battle I had ever faced, but I was proud to have proven myself as a capable Lieutenant. Now, though, my body was spent, and I had no energy left to move. My life, this miserable, violent existence, was now all I had.
To be continue