Explosions lit up the battle line, bright stars flaring up then fading as they were snuffed out. Swiftly Juri swung her Gundam around just as the Tallgeese class Mobile Suit slashed in again. The shield held against her energy lash, lightning crackling as they met then parted in a burst of light. "Dorothy," Juri hissed softly, her long orange hair tied back and concealed by her flight suit's helmet. "So we meet again," Dorothy Catalonia's amused voice came over the radio, startlingly clear in the depths of space. The attack against the colonies had been swift and brutal, a powerful force made of maybe all the mobile suits in Fortress Barge striking without warning against a single colony. It's defences couldn't take the strain, and using a powerful bean cannon used by a Tallgeese suit they had blown the colony out of space...taking the thousands of men, women and children aboard with her. "Why the escalation?" Juri asked, her red, blue and white Gundam floating in the void, beam saber ready, "You know the colonies won't forgive this." "We've never wanted forgiveness," Dorothy answered with amusement, "the stakes of this war are higher than you can imagine." "I know what OZ gets out of this," Juri asked calmly, "but what about you, Dorothy? What do you want?" "What everyone wants, power," Dorothy answered. A beat of silence, "You might say the power to revolutionize the world." "What?" Juri blurted, stunned to hear such familiar words. It was in that frozen moment of surprise that Dorothy struck, her energy lash racing in to burn the arm of the Gundam, melting even the unique alloys of the suit and sending Juri reeling back. With a proud cry Dorothy raced in for the kill... But like any good fencer, Juri was fast on her feet. Swinging her damaged shield arm back she parried with her beam saber. Suddenly it was like she was back in the fencing arena, flicks of her blade deflecting weapons strikes with frightening ease. "Damn you..." Dorothy cursed, trying to press home her attack against that semingly perfect defense. "Ma'am!" the panicked voice came over her communications gear. "What!" Dorothy hissed angrily, cursing the distraction. Juri, sensing her lapsed attention scooted away, bringing her rifle into play and forcing her back even farther. "Sorry to fight and run, but I've got repairs to make," Juri said with a slight smile as she raced away into the confusion of the battlefield. "Do you know what you've cost me?" Dorothy roared at her helpless subordinate. "Ma'am," he cut her off before she could continue, "Fortress Barge is under attack!" "The colonies don't have that kind of force," for a moment Dorothy was stunned by her own disbelief. "Ma'am it's a unknown Gundam," he said, "and it's massacring our defensive force! I don't know how long it can hold!" Making a snap decision Dorothy hit the emergency band and connected to all her Mobile Suits. "Tellgeese Wing, Specials, full retreat! Retreat back to Fortress Barge immediately," she commanded, wheeling her suit around and racing back to their carriers, hanging out on the edge of the battlefield. "They're running," Wu Fei Chang sounded dreadfully eager as the Asian boy asked, "should we pursue!" "No," Quatre Winner's voice, as always, was a voice of reason as the blond boy continued, "we aren't strong enough to defeat them, and we'd suffer terrible losses if we make them stand and fight." "You're welcome to pick off any stragglers, though," Hilde's voice came from their colony base, "communications that we intercepted show they're not waiting around for anyone, right now." With that a flight of Colony Leos lead by Trowa Barton and Wu Fei raced out to swarm over the Specials that fell behind, even as the remaining Colony forces assembled into a sentry force and the rest returned to base. Juri gracefully guided her Wing Gundam into place on the docks, the hatch opening as she flew out into the zero gravity chamber. As space suited repair crews swarmed over her Gundam she felt a pang of regret at the livid burns that ran along one arm. "Sorry old girl," Juri murmured as she headed to the airlock at the base of the massive dock, "I promise to do better next time." The airlock cycle open and Juri stepped in, unable to hear the hiss or air pumping into the room. Once pressure light went green she took her helmet off in relief, shaking out her long hair. "Are you all right?" Releena Peacecraft demanded a few moments later, the brown haired young lady having hurried to meet her in the hallways. She slid forward and kissed Juri lingeringly, only pulling back to look her over carefully. "I'm fine," Juri quickly reached out a hand as she reassured her, "Dorothy just tagged the arm of my Gundam, is all." "Considering how many pilots she killed reaching you, I was worried," Releena said, looking up into her eyes tenderly. "I heard," Juri's voice was flat, "we're going to have to do something about Dorothy very, very soon." "Nice one," Due Maxwell said cheerfully as the brown haired young man reached her side, his braid bouncing, "no one else has survived against Dorothy." "I'm sure any other Gundam pilot would have done as well," Juri shrugged that off. She looked curious, "Does anyone know why they took off?" "Hilde has news," Duo gave Releena a mildly apologetic look, "I'm sorry, but she's called a meeting." "I know, I'm going too," Relena smiled, "I thought I'd meet Juri and let her know." "So that's what you were doing," Duo chuckled. As he was turning away he added, "You two might want to fix your lipsticks, first." Juri blushed even as Releena chuckled, "We'll do that." Not long after Commander Hilde faced the room of senior pilots and staff, her short brown hair falling into her eyes. "We got lucky today," she revealed, "intelligence reports suggest that Catalonia stripped Fortress Barge of every available suit in a attempt to crush our resistance once and for all." "We would have won, even if they hadn't left," Wu Fei protested. "The Gundams might have survived but we'd have lost most of our conventional forces," Trowa corrected flatly, "crippling our defense." "So why did they leave if they thought they coulkd win?" Quatre asked mildly. "We don't have outside confirmation of this but it appears that Fortress Barge has come under attack," Hilde paused, "by a Gundam."
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