Shoot for the Moon

"Ma'am!" Sig said after approaching to get Clara's attention."Let me help." he requested."I can get Cornelius to the Junkyard faster if we use my Zaku Kai." he said wanting to be helpful and not just slink off to be by himself. He had to keep active, and in his mind a part of this was his fault. Or well, a lot of it was, had he not been there that strange newtype would not of detected him. He stared at this with a look of eager determination hoping they would allow him to help.

" Stay safe you two!" Clara figured that they'd gotten themselves enough time by now since the local Federation garrison had been torn to shreds it would likely take a few hours for them to get their marbles together. She would let both men leave on board that Zaku II Kai, with some luck they wouldn't run out into anymore trouble for the next 20 or so minutes.

Cornelius had arrived at Sig’s mobile suit while it was being armed and readied; there hadn’t been a need for much preparation from him barring grabbing his helmet, wallet, and sidearm. He hadn’t had the time to change into his pilot suit but it had already been packed away with the rest of the cargo.

was oddly quiet for a while and sat with his arms crossed thoughtfully overall his chest. Two people crammed into the cockpit of a Zaku was hardly a comfortable fit but he bore with it quietly and listened to the sound of the Zaku’s engines. With the Federation base in shambles they would be spared having to deal with hostile mobile suits for the time being but he would have preferred that they had brought along weapons anyway.

He finally broke the silence with a sigh. “I appreciate the ride, though the events that lead to this were unnecessary if you’d used caution in the first place.” With that he was silent and relatively motionless for the rest of the passage to the junkyard. There was no need to say more on the matter even though there was plenty more he could have said. Sig could easily feel the frustration that was deep in his chest but at the same instant Cornelius was already past it and focusing on more important things than reading the riot act. Cornelius looked at his watch and nodded with satisfaction. “Three minutes ahead of schedule. We’l move faster if you let me off at the location and then double back on your own.”

Finding the mobile suit had been no easy feat, much to the owner’s obstinacy and insisting that he met with Cornelius’s commander directly. The exchange eventually led to a weapon being drawn in lue of the diplomatic approach that Cornelius would have appreciated. The junkyard owner had eventually capitulated under the leverage of a firearm and had shown the way to the machine. A glance at his watch confirmed Cornelius’s fears and he sighed. Of the thirty minutes he had been allocated more than two thirds had passed and he heard police sirens in the distance through the open cockpit hatch. The Kampfer rumbled to life and stood under his command as he closed the hatch and searched for a weapon. Fortunately both of the machine’s beam sabers were in place and one of its shotguns had been left nearby in a cargo container. Testing the weapon’s action he found it loaded and scooped up the shell he ejected before feeding it back into the weapon. “Base this is Peregrine. I have found the mobile suit and am in route. Do not delay launch, I will find a way out even if I have to cut it myself. No sign of hostile mobile suits at my location, will maintain radio contact.”

Sig had his Zaku II Kai place a hand on the control room to the gate controls for the port as the Chivvay-class waited to be let through. He didn't say anything but as his mobile suit's monoeye centered on the window it flashed. He let Clara do the talking and before long the gates had opened allowing the heavy space cruiser to sail on out of the colony. With a push of his thrusters he followed next to the ship as it exited and then accelerated to match it's speed. Sig breathed out a bit relieved that they had gotten out of there in one piece. But, he knew that they were not fully out of the woods yet as he brought his mobile suit ahead of the ship. Paying attention to his sensors and then visually looking around he didn't see anything or sense anything out of the ordinary.

Back when Cornelius had spoken to him he had desperately wanted to tell him it wasn't his fault, that he had to get out of there one way or another. But he knew that Cornelius wouldn't listen, he could feel it from just look at them. So he had resigned to himself and gotten over with taxing Cornelius to the junkyard. Then as he had been requested to left to join up with escourting the ship out of the colony. No doubt everyone thought he was some burdon and a clumsy idiot now for having gotten himself caught. But! This was his chance to make up for it.

" Falcon-2, I am going to have you go back him up. Take out that Salamis class if possible." Clara gave Sig clearance to take one of their heavier bazookas. For the sake of cutting ammo expenditures only two rounds were loaded in the weapon's magazine. As good as the Kampfer performance was, she wasn't going to let Cornelius take on those odds all by himself.

For the time being she figured it would be better to keep Cornelius Dom II in reserve and only go out in it in case of a real emergency. The only priority right now was abandoning this airspace before anyone else showed up.

Cornelius gave both the mobile suit and the Salamis along count after their shadows passed before pushing the door open manually. The putter hatch from the colony opened with a slight rumble that Cornelius could only feel from his contact with his mobile suit. He eased his suit clear of the hatch with the AMBAC system and steadied himself with controlled bursts from his vernier engines. Rather than follow the ship and the suits directly he took off after them and slowly moved vertically along the curve of the colony until he was able to accelerate to a slightly more respectable pace while still remain some cover.

He had swallowed slightly when he realized that the vessel and its escort were moving on a course parallel to his own. The Kampfer could outpace both of the GMs in a straight line and had better performance but he wasn’t sure if he was ready to go up against both of them in a fight with the weapons he had available. As he followed them he began to wonder whether or not this was merely a small patrol group or if the GMs belonged to a motherships than had either already docked or remained hidden. He gritted his teeth slightly and watched them, pushing the thought from his head. Dwelling on such things was the kind of thing that got pilots killed and he had more important things to do than worry about it.