Cosmic Era 75; the Second Bloody Valentine war drew to a close two years ago
Cosmic Era 76; the Second Bloody Valentine war drew to a close two years ago. Following the crippling defeat in the war, the Earth Alliance has begun a rebuild process, inviting all its former agents to help create a new Earth Alliance. Murrue Ramius and the Archangel crew have left ORB and returned home to the Earth Alliance's new Victoria Base in Australia…
"Recapping the breaking news in the world this week; Ronald Crown was elected President of the post war Earth Alliance Government; he replaces Henry Moore, the former President who resigned after news came to light that he was involved in Blue Cosmos. In other news, OMNI's Lunar Base Construction Yard has been the target of terrorist action; over 1000 workers have died in the attack. Evidence left at the scene has indicated connections to the ORB union. This looks set to increase pre existing tension between the Island Nation and the crippled power, war seems almost inevitable." The news broadcast was transmitted across the globe and into the colonies. The broadcast came into the office of a now seasoned First Lieutenant; she sat behind her desk looking over personnel dossiers.
"Lieutenant" the intercom system went off with the voice of a lower ranked officer.
"Yes?" the young officer leaned forward and replied.
"Admiral Mc Donald wants to know if you have finished selecting your squadron"
"I have looked through all the dossiers…almost. I still stand with my original selection" the Lt sighed to herself and continued to flip through the data on her terminal.
"Very well, thank you ma'am" the lower ranked officer's voice vanished from the intercom. The Lt. went back to scanning data; she opened up the key page on her terminal, information on OMNI's newest G Project. 5 new Gundams assigned to her squad would be assigned to a new OMNI battle ship. This Lt. was looking forward to it.
"Seiei" there was a knock on her open door; the Lt. looked up and brushed her fiery red hair aside.
"Oh Li come in" smiled Seiei as she waved her Chinese friend into the room.
"How are you liking your office?" asked Li as she walked over to a small chair and sat down with a smile.
"It's nice, not that big, but yeah, it's nice" giggled Seiei. "How're you doing with training for Titan?" asked Seiei as she glanced back at the Terminal.
"Fine, I've clocked over 100 hours in the simulator now" laughed Li.
"Now that's dedication! I bet you know Titan's systems inside and out" laughed Seiei.
"As well as I can on such short notice" Li smiled and undid her hair tie and let her hair fall down.
-5:00am Feb 3rd C.E.76-
Pasific Ocean
"Distance 10,000 and closing" a man's voice came over the com link of 2 other mobile suit cockpits as the units skimmed across the water. The listeners wore black helmets with two white fangs coming down the side. The units sent up a large amount of sea spray as they skimmed the waters surface…none of them cared, their objective was nearly within range…just a few more moments.
"Distance 5,000" the computer took over as the units closed in on their targets, a small Island in the middle of the pacific.
"Distance 4,500…slowing to attack speed" echoed another pilot's system.
"Okay…Wedge Biggs…fire your missiles" ordered a strong male voice.
"Understood" replied the other two men, none of them were younger then 20, none older than 30. All three pilots gripped their controls and clicked in the fire controls on their control sticks. Each unit fired 6 small missiles from each wing mounted missile pod on their JET pack. The 36 small missiles fanned out and streaked across the water, shattering the image of the moon on the waters surface.
"Impact in 5-4-3-2-1-Impact" as the man reached the last word of his countdown the horizon erupted in flames.
"2,500…accelerate to attack speed…we will take out Onogoro's air hangers first, the Mobile Suits will come from there…Wedge, you take care of the East Side, Biggs your cover the West Side" ordered the last man.
"Understood Luke" replied the two men as their units accelerated and broke formation.
The two front units broke off, one eastward and the other westward. The tips of their wings dipped into the water to aid in their sharp turns. The last unit belonging to Luke banked upward and left a funnel of smoke as it hit its afterburner to aid in the climb. As it reached 20,000 ft above the Island it began its decent. The Astray units of Onogoro began their counter defence, the laser rifles of the first War Veterans fired over and over at the descending unit. Luke grabbed his beam rifle and fired down on the Astray units; each shot either disabled an Astray or destroyed it. As Luke reached the ground he levelled his unit out but kept his course steady, only activating the boosters at the last moment. Luke sent up a field of dust where he was able to spin around slowly and fire at the surrounding hangers and units.
-3:55am Feb 3rd C.E.76-
ORB National Defence Head Quarters
Panic spread through out the National Defence Head Quarters. Only seconds into the attack the reports started coming in. Kisaka tried to re-establish some order to the chaotic base.
"Get the Murusame squads Airborne. Tell E.Y.E.S. to try and find out where the units are attacking from…see if it can see any bases or carriers in the area" ordered Kisaka.
"Colonel, We have a report from the Ashta unit...they said the attacking units are Alliance GAT 04 Windams…" explained a purple haired officer.
"DAMN! I knew the Alliance couldn't be trusted, tell the guard at the Parliament house to be on their mark…get Cagalli-Sama and the other Emirs to the Shelters…And get me the ZAFT Embassy!" ordered Kisaka as he looked around the room yelling commands. "Damn it…why did they have to leave now" a bead of sweat ran down the Native Americans forehead as he remembered the situation regarding the Archangel. The Archangel had returned to the Alliance after an envoy from Glasgow had come requesting their aid in establishing the Alliance. After much debate Murrue and Mwu agreed that they should go, they left all the ORB units and headed to Glasgow with the Windam units that had sided with ORB.
"Colonel Kisaka" Colonel Soga marched into the room and over to the large general.
"Colonel, good to see you" Kisaka and Soga saluted one another before the building shook under the force of an explosion.
"I've been briefed on the situation…the Murusame wing on the Ikazuchi is ready to go…I will stay here, you sortie with them" explained Soga as he walked over to the map of Onogoro "Show me the hits and downed units. See if we cane get a grasp of their strategy" explained Soga.
"Understood replied the sensor officers. One by one the read outs appeared on the map.
"Hmmm…Kisaka…they might hit the Morganrate facility…can you get there?" asked Soga as he looked over the map.
"Roger that" nodded Kisaka as he jogged out the door and down the hall to the landing bay where the yellow Murusame he had been given after Andy returned to space was stationed.
-4:10am Feb 3rd C.E.76-
Athha Residence
Cagalli and Athrun ran down the long corridor of Cagalli's large estate.
"I'll get into Justice ASAP and try to take the attacking units out, if not I'll try to take some of the heat off of the defence force" explained Athrun who was in his ORB flight suit.
"Great idea, I'll head over to the NDHQ to see what's going on" Cagalli and Athrun stopped running in front of the service elevator to the MS dock underneath the estate.
"Get me all the intel you can" smiled Athrun.
"Good luck" Cagalli hugged him close. "Stay safe"
"You too" Athrun broke away from her and entered the elevator with a smile.
-4:20am Feb 3rd C.E.76--
Jiyuu Straight between Onogoro and ORB mainland
"NOT BAD!" yelled Wedge, the youngest of the three attacking pilots. Wedge fired into a Murusame's shield and forced it to spin around he got two good shots in its centre in that time. Smoke around Wedge's Windam was thick, buildings burned constantly. The sirens in his unit's cockpit went off as 6 laser blasts came out of the smoke in a triangle fashion. "Damn" Wedge either evaded them or blocked them with his shield. As he regained his balance he aimed his beam rifle into the wreckage and fired two shots. Each shot was blocked by a Maroon and pink streak that shot from the smoke. The streak slashed his beam rifle in too two pieces and left Wedge dazzled. "What the hell?" he spun around to see what it was…The unit was none other than "Infinite Justice…no way" Athrun came back down with his beam sabres ready to cut Wedges units head off. As Athrun moved to disable Wedge's unit, the black Windam rolled aside and evaded the slash effortlessly.
"What?" Athrun was shocked; no one but Shinn, Kira and maybe Yzak could evade his attack…who was this guy or girl. Athrun blinked and noticed the Windam's shield was pointed at his cockpit; he was going to fire the missiles at point blank range. "CRAP!" Athrun pulled back on his controls but it was too late. The two missiles flew from the shield and into Athrun's unit. The only thing that saved him was the Phase Shift Armour.
Justice spiralled out of control, Athrun fired his grappling hook into the ground and retracted it a few metres to steady himself.
"How could he evade that? He's defiantly a pro" thought Athrun as he looked around for the Windam. The sensors inside Justice went off and Wedge closed in on Athrun. "Damn!" Athrun threw his boomerang at Wedge who simply evaded it and kicked the spinning blade into the ground. "How can he get so much from a Windam?" muttered Athrun as Wedge fired his Vulcan cannons at Justice. Athrun held up his shield, even though the shells did nothing to his armour. "THAT'S IT!" yelled Athrun as he remembered a big flaw in the Windams design…no Phase Shift. Athrun brought Justice square onto Wedge and fired his Vulcan cannons that were positioned all over Justice.
"Hmph" Wedge blocked the attacks with his shield and then threw it into the ground. "What's he up to?" asked Athrun as his eyes followed the shield and not the unit.
"Got ya" Wedge drew his Armour Penetrator in his left hand, and his beam sabre in the other. "See if you can beat this!" yelled Wedge as he charged at Athrun with full engine power.
"Damn!" Athrun blocked Wedge's beam sabre and pulled his own beam sabre back to strike the Windam. The pink sword slashed horizontally but missed Wedge's Windam because he had drawn back as Athrun slashed. Once Athrun's attack was over, wedge went full bore "The only part of your unit with out Phase Shift is the EYES!" yelled Wedge as he stabbed the Armour Penetrator into Infinite Justice's eyes. The explosion tore apart Justice's head and severely damaged the chest section of Justice, the unit was sent tumbling back into the ground. Athrun suffered a beating as he was thrown around the cockpit like a rag doll. By the time he regained enough of his senses he hit the thermal vision switch. This mode called on Justice's Sub Light Flyer to act as his eyes. The unit clipped out 90 degrees to justice and a small camera fed Athrun an image of what he was fighting, the image was distorted and hazy because of the damage to Justice's circuits. Athrun could see the enemy Windam coming in for the kill on his screens. "SHIT!" yelled Athrun as he forced his shield close to his chest.
Two thin Positron beams cut through the gap between Wedge and Athrun. Wedge backed off after 3 small green lasers came his way. A golden streak came across Athrun's screen while he was downed.
"What was that?" asked Athrun as he looked up…he saw the ORB-01 Akatsuki flying in and out of beam Vulcan fire from Wedge's Windam. "Cagalli, be careful, he's a real pro" explained Athrun
"I noticed. Get on your feet" laughed Cagalli as Wedge came in for a slash at her unit. "Shit!" Cagalli narrowly evaded the attack. "TRY THESE APPLES!" Smirked Cagalli as she fired her two Positron blasters, the thin red and blue beams shot off one of the legs of Wedge's unit. "This is the Representative of the ORB union, Cagalli Yula Athha to attacking units, you are invading ORB air space and committing unwarranted acts of violence…no terrorism, we demand that you stop and surrender immediately or we will stop you with lethal force!" ordered Cagalli over every channel.
"Damn her!" Yelled Wedge as he flew away, gaining up speed for a high speed attack.
"Wedge, lets go" Luke's face appeared on the com screen of Wedge's unit.
"What? I'm going to take it out!" yelled Wedge as he drew his other beam sabre.
"Listen, we are retreating we have completed out mission objectives" explained Luke as his unit along with Biggs could be seen leaving a beat up Onogoro.
"Damn! I'll get it next time!" sneered Wedge and he dropped two small canisters from his units wings, the canisters exploded and light blinded Cagalli and Athrun's units while Wedge made his escape. Athrun looked on at the retreating units once his unit's vision returned to him.
"Murusame squads, follow them, see if you can locate their base!" ordered Cagalli as Akatsuki touched down next to Justice. "Athrun are you okay?" asked Cagalli as she opened her unit's cockpit.
"Cagalli-Sama" Two Murusame landed next to Akatsuki, one was Kisaka's the other belonged to an ORB pilot.
"What is it?" asked Cagalli as she opened her visor as wiped away the tears that were forming in her eyes.
"We have the report from E.Y.E.S. ready for you…they were quick at tracking them" explained Kisaka as his unit transformed into its MA form and flew towards the NDHQ
"Understood" Cagalli took off and followed Kisaka there with the other Murusame guarding her rear.
-9am Feb 10th CE76-
Earth Alliance HQ-Glasgow
The news of the events that had transpired in ORB spread across the world like wild fire. The public of ORB was outraged when the Parliament was forced to release documents stating that GAT 04 Windams were the units that took part in the attack. The European Union was now the leader of the Alliance was forced into a corner like a caged animal.
"Admiral?" Murrue walked into the office of OMNI Admiral McDonald, a veteran of both wars and capable commander.
"Ah Captain, good to see you made it here from Victoria ok" smiled McDonald as he stood up and walked over to salute Murrue. "I hear the oceans are ripe with Pirates now that we can't keep the peace to well" McDonald returned to his window and looked out across Glasgow.
"The Pirates may be getting bolder, but the Archangel is still an OMNI Heavy Cruiser and one hell of a fighter" Murrue smiled as she lowered her salute and took off her hat.
"Captain, this Windam attack has left OMNI and the Earth Alliance in bad light with the press. We are almost on the brink of war, if something isn't done we will be thrust back into a war with the ORB union" explained McDonald. "Please sit"
"Thank you Sir" Murrue sat down and folded her hands into her lap "The ORB Union does have a substantial amount of advanced technology, a war would be long and costly"
"We couldn't afford any war right now. We have less than a thousand Mobile Suits in our Space and Terrestrial Forces put together" sighed McDonald. "We would be guaranteed to loose any confrontation in space, our Space Fleet is in ruins, the only surviving ships we have were the ones sent to guard the outer colonies. No more than 64 Ships survived the last war"
"I had no idea the losses were so bad sir" Murrue looked very concerned. "How is the replacement coming?" she asked carefully.
"The Buckingham Ship Yards is working round the clock to finish construction on the Girty Lue line. Since the new charter for OMNI came into effect we have built 20 new Girty Lue Frigates. We have repaired as many of the old fleet as we can" explained McDonald, his eyes almost watering.
"I'm sorry Sir…" Murrue had no idea what to say, had the Archangel come back to the Earth Alliance only to watch it die?
"Captain Ramius, I have a mission for you and your crew" McDonald straightened himself in his chair and put on a commanding voice
"A mission? With all due respect, I only have a skeleton crew. The Archangel has only a hand full of Windam and Dagger units" Murrue was shocked to say the least.
"Indeed, so I have arranged a transfer, as you will be aware there was a bombing raid at our Lunar Ship Yards. This has destroyed one of our newer vessels; the EAS Throne was more or less destroyed" McDonald pressed a few keys on his terminal and smiled at Murrue.
"The Throne?" Murrue raised her eye brow in question.
"Yes Throne as in Archangel; Dominion and Throne, the ranks of the heavenly hosts. The Throne would have been the third Archangel Class. Her crew was stationed here in Glasgow ready to be sent up next month, we will be able to transfer the remainder of her crew to the Archangel. Among them will be the newest G Project units, codenamed Defender, Scout, Titan, and Marauder" explained McDonald.
"New Gundams?" asked Murrue.
"Gundam?" McDonald raised his eyebrow in the same fashion Murrue had only moments before
"Oh back in the first war, Kira Yamato used to refer to the style of Mobile Suit like Aegis, Buster, Blitz, Duel and Strike as Gundams, the full acronym from their operating system" explained Murrue with a chuckle.
"I see. Up until now the project has had no official name, we can consider it the Gundam Project from now on" smiled McDonald.
"Yes sir" nodded Murrue. The wooden door to the office opened and Seiei walked in.
"Sir you requested to see me?" Seiei stood staunch and crisp in front of McDonald and Murrue, her hands clasped behind her back.
"Ah yes. Lieutenant Seiei Kofun, this is Captain Murrue Ramius, Captain of the Archangel" explained McDonald, he knew introductions were not necessary, but a formality.
"It's and honour to meet you ma'am" Seiei nodded.
"Thank you" Murrue stood and saluted Seiei before she sat back down.
"I was just telling Captain Ramius about your squadron" McDonald extended his hand to offer Seiei a seat. "Since we have lost the Thrones, I have assigned your squadron to the Archangel instead, and I have a special mission for you"
"Sir" Seiei nodded in compliance.
"Admiral, you mentioned the mission before. May I ask what it is?" asked Murrue carefully
"Indeed, about a week ago as you all know three 04 Windams attacked Onogoro in a terrorist style raid, we have wrongly taken the blame as it was not our units that took part in the attack. I want the Archangel and the Gundam Squadron to investigate" Seiei raised an eyebrow to the word Gundam.
"I take it we have full access to any Alliance territory?" asked Seiei.
"Full access to all areas of the Alliance" nodded McDonald. At that moment another General entered the room. "Lieutenant if you will excuse us, I have the finer points to work out with the Captain, if you'd get your squadron ready for the transfer?"
"Aye Sir" Seiei stood up and saluted the room before leaving.
-10:30am Feb 10th CE76-
Earth Alliance HQ-Glasgow
Murrue walked into the hanger bay of the Archangel where new units were being loaded in…these units were State of the Art…they were equipped with Neo-Trans-Phase-Armour and about 100 other gadgets Murrue couldn't remember
"Captain" Murdock walked over to Murrue scratching his head in mild frustration.
"What is it?" asked Murrue as she walked over and meet him half way across the hanger.
"It's the new units…I don't know how to store them all" explained Murdock. "Especially the Majors new Strike Unit…" sighed the engineer. All of a sudden the surroundings went dark as a Mobile Suit marched across the hanger, its large foot nearly stepping on the two senior officers. Murrue, with out a word grabbed Murdock and jumped away-taking Murdock with her.
"Watch out! Gundams are being loaded here people!" yelled a girls voice from the unit. The unit bore some resemblances to an X1 Destroy, but more to the old Buster Unit. Its chest section was home to a Scylla cannon like the Destroy's centre one, its legs were the same as Busters and so were its shoulders…apart from the two positron cannons equipped on its back behind either shoulder. Its head was almost identical to that of Raiders and the entire unit had a colour scheme like the Destroy's. The two officers stood up as they looked at the unit.
"What unit is that?" asked Murrue as she looked at Murdock's data pad.
"Uhhh the GAT X111 Obliterator under Seiei Kofun" replied Murdock as he sighed and handed the pad to Murrue.
"The Admiral said nothing about an Obliterator unit" Murrue held out her hand to take the pad from Murdock, she read it over. "Hmm, Seiei is assigned to it, all the other Gundams are here; Titan under Li Quan, Marauder under Dante Gaius, Scout under Danel Winder…nice names…." sighed Murrue as she handed the pad back to Murdock.
"Don't forget the majors X115 Striker unit" sighed Murdock.
"StrikER?" asked Murrue putting emphasis on the ER in its name "115?"
"Yeah…apparently the units stronger and they even boosted the power of the Striker Packs…" sighed Murdock
"Oh well" sighed Murrue.
"Hey people what's with all the sighing" smiled a black haired boy, his hair was mostly black but had multiple light blue highlights in random places.
"Oh…I don't think we have meet before…are you one of the new techs?" asked Murdock as she noticed the boys mechanics uniform.
"No ,no I am Danel Winder…pilot of Scout…I'm just wearing this because I was helping with the transfer and calibration of the Gundams" smiled the boy as he handed Murrue a small data pad.
"These are?" asked Murrue as she skimmed over he contents of the data pad.
"The specs for Scout…or do you want them?" asked Danel pointing to Murdock.
"Yeah I better have them…get my men accustomed to it" laughed Murdock as he took the pad from Murrue. "Oy, Peters get over here…" yelled Murdock, the young boy came over to Murdock's side, he had long yellow hair, and his name badge read Winston
"Hey Danel!" a girl with long pink hair ran over to Danel. She wore the same pink uniform Miriallia and Flay wore in the first war.
"Hey Seiei" smiled Danel as he high-fived the girl.
"Oh, Captain!" Seiei stuttered as she raised her hand and saluted to Murrue.
"Captain…wait…YOUR Murrue RAMIUS?" Danel looked shocked and Murrue nodded to him. "PLEASE TO MEET YOU MA'AM!" Danel raised his salute to Murrue and stood in formal military stance.
"Oh I give up…I'm going to my room…get me when we are ready to launch" sighed Murrue as she threw her arms up behind her head and walked off.
"Danel my friend…this is going to be one LONG assignment" laughed Seiei as she patted the boy on his back.
Please R&R!