- Armed and Dangerous: Phase 3 -
'Things are getting out of hand, and the mission had started off well enough.' Rau Le Creuset reflected recalling how the mission began as he flew through the colony shaft while been pursued by La Flaga's Mobile Armor. The Alliance warship – an old hulk destined for the scrap-yard – had dismissed their presence without a thought when they were detected earlier and the assault team's insertion into the colony had gone off without a hitch, the mobile suit team lead by Miguel Aiman had blown past the colony's merger defenses consisting of Mistrals, two of the GINNs including Aiman's entered the colony to support the inflitration team, the third remained outside to engage the Alliance's few mobile armors.
Not long after, one of the GINNs returned escorting three of the captured prototypes, things however went downhill from there when Athrun returned in the forth and reported that Rusty had been killed and Miguel had stayed behind to capture the fifth. Not long after they received an emergency signal from Miguel, having failed to capture the prototype and his GINN destroyed, then the GINN occupying the Alliance forces took damage from a mobile armor using wire controlled gun pods.
With a grimace Le Creuset recalled the GINN back to the ship and ordered that his CGUE be readied for sortie, first he de-clawed the Hawk of Endymion, before going after the remaining prototype.
After a delightful game of hide-and-seek in the colony's docks with his old nemesis followed by a quick chase through the colony shaft, Le Creuset decided to get back to the task at hand, destroying the one remaining gun pod, he broke through the shaft wall and into the colony interior.
And low and behold, upon breaking through, there was the prototype out in the open, "well that wasn't too hard now was it." He murmured out loud, adjusting to the colony's rotation he made a run at the prototype but was forced to break off when La Flaga attempted an intercept. Maneuvering behind La Flaga, Le Creuset drew his heavy sword, "I'm done playing with you, now die!" Le Creuset swung his blade but La Flaga maneuvered at the last second in an attempt to bring his remaining weapon to bear, denied the kill Rau settled for destroying the rail gun removing La Flaga from the battle.
Then the artificial mountain face exploded and out of the immense dust cloud a ship emerged. "The new warship? So they failed to destroy it." He had to act quickly.
Turning back to the prototype he fired upon it, the rounds impacting harmlessly against its armor. "Phase Shift…?" He had to admit it was surprisingly effective compared to regular armor, but by how much? The prototype retaliated with its head and shoulder cannons, as he flew past his system blaring a warning.
[Alert; Missile Lock!]
The rear-view camera showed the prototype as it fired two missiles from its shoulder launcher, "good counter, but not good enough." He remarked as he shot them down. Missiles were always easier to shoot down when they were caught in a tail chase, though it helped if you can shoot at targets behind you, one of the advantages of mobile suit was that there had a wide range of motion making handheld weapons highly trainable.
He ejected his rifle magazine and loaded one with armor-piercing rounds, "then how about this." First Rau fired upon the warship with his shield mounted 28mm Vulcan cannon; he noted how it easily evaded his fire despite its size. "Nimble lilt' minx." With that out of the way he made another run at prototype which once again threw up another barrage from its head and shoulder cannons, he fired his rifle and once again the rounds impacted harmlessly. "Not even an enhanced APSV?" Rau was genuinely surprised he hadn't expected the armor to be so effective, surely it had limitations? His system blared another warning.
[Alert; Missile Lock!]
This time it was from the warship, they were larger and approaching at high acceleration. He managed to shoot down two of them before moving behind the orbital shaft, placing it between him and the remaining two missiles where they impacted causing considerable damage. Rau grinned, 'that's the problem with laser guided munitions. They can only target what laser points to.' Coming out from behind the orbital shaft, and refocusing on the prototype while been mindful of the warship he noted that it had deployed a new weapon.
However before he could surmise its capabilities it fired, the sudden flare was all the warning he had as the beam raced towards him; he yanked on his controls and managed to avoid a direct hit at the cost of his CGUE's right arm. The beam meanwhile continued onwards and punched a hole through the colony wall, realizing that the odds were against him, he retreated through the makeshift exit.
"How can that be? A mobile suit with that much fire-power." One thing was for certain; the Alliance's new prototypes exceeded his expectations.
When it landed, the Archangel opened one of its catapult hatches to receive them; having Murrue once again climb into the Strike's hand, they boosted up and landed on the catapult deck where she was lowered to the deck floor.
"Lieutenant Ramius!" Someone called. Turning towards the voice Murrue spotted a near dozen crew members rushing towards her, one of them she recognized.
"Good to see you all made it." She greeted them relieved, but before she could continue a voice called out from the back of group.
"Impressive, I didn't expect it to do so well in its first battle right out of the factory." Making his way towards them was a man with blond hair and a purple and white 'pilot suit' that marked him as a mobile armor pilot.
He saluted as he introduced himself. "I'm Lieutenant Mu La Flaga from the 8th Orbital Fleet."
"I'm Lieutenant Murrue Ramius."
"Ensign Natarle Badgiruel." Both returned his salute.
"The ship I was assigned to was downed in combat, so I'd like permission to come aboard." He requested.
"You'll need to request permission from the Captain." Murrue explained, but when Natarle explained that both the Captain and senior staff had being killed during the initial attack and that Murrue as the last the senior officers alive was next in the chain of command.
When he once again requested permission from her, she granted it, his next question was what became of the five pilots he escorted and Natarle explained that the Captain had being greeting them when they were killed.
"Not all of them, one managed to survive and join up with us. That's how we were able to save the Strike." She turns to the Strike. "Lieutenant! Come down here."
Everyone turned towards the Strike as the hatch opened and the pilot disembarked from the mobile suit. As he did so the crew noticed his outfit.
"What's with that pilot suit?" One asked.
"Never seen that design before, new model?" Another wondered.
"Must be for the G-weapon pilots." Noted another.
Once he had descended he removed his helmet, tucking it under his arm. First time seeing his face Murrue noted his dark hair and tan skin "This is Lieutenant Setsuna F. Seiei," Murrue introduced him. "Thanks to him we were able to save this unit, as well as fight off a GINN."
This surprised much of the crew, made evident be Natarle's exclamation, "you defeated a GINN! Considering the current state of Strike, I'm surprised it performed so well." She said skeptically.
"Well at the start it was a bit touch and go, but we managed to overcome it." Murrue explained.
Mu hesitated his expression thoughtful, "a GINN huh… color me impressed, good to see one of you guys made it. I'm-" He went introduce himself but Setsuna beat him to it.
"-Lieutenant Mu La Flaga," he glanced at Natarle, "and Ensign Natarle Badgiruel." He said with a half hearted salute.
"You... know who we are?" Mu asked curiously.
"Of course." Was Setsuna's stoic reply and then added. "The Strike has excellent sound pickup."
"Sound pickup?" Everyone repeated, dumbfounded.
"Ah! That's right these things were going to be deployed on the ground as well as space." Mu realized. "Sorry, mobile armor pilot. When you've been in space as long as I have, you forget there's such a thing as external sound pickup." He joked attempting to lighten the mood.
Everyone chuckled, with the exception of Setsuna and Natarle so the wave of good humor eventually subsided and the atmosphere quickly became awkward.
"We should move to the bridge and discuss our next course of action" Natarle recommended.
"Of course." Murrue agreed, "Everyone back to your stations." Just like that, the group dispersed to begin repairs on the Strike and Mu's Zero as they exited the hangar along with the bridge crew. First they stopped by one of the ship's many storage rooms, where she, Mu and Setsuna collected new uniforms since most of their personal effects had been lost in the first attack. Before moving towards the bridge she turned to Setsuna.
"Lieutenant. We don't know when the next attack will come, so you may have to deploy in the Strike on short notice." She explained, "You should use this time to rest up, I'll have one of crew show to your quarters." She gestured to one of them who stepped forward.
"Understood." He acknowledged then turned to follow the crewman, the rest of them continued on to the bridge. Meanwhile as Murrue and the others decided their next move, four mobile suits launched from the two ZAFT ships towards the colony.
Reaching his assigned quarters Setsuna sat down on the bunk. He wasn't sure why he had followed Murrue this far as he had no obligation to help her, he had expected to be thrown back into the fight between Celestial Being and A-laws, only to find something completely different. He had simply followed the path of least resistance while trying to figure out what the heck was going on. When the other pilots were mentioned he normally would've assumed he'd been discovered and bolt, but his alias had held up so far and the crew seemed none the wiser... for now.
Murrue, now acting Captain seemed to be convinced that he was one of them, The Ensign didn't appear to be convinced, but had accepted Murrue's explanation, the mobile armor pilot however had seemed to suspect something but hadn't said anything to contradict Setsuna's claim. Setsuna made a mental note to keep a close eye on Mu La Flaga. Reluctantly, he settled in to rest not bothering to take off his pilot suit, the next time he woke he'll most likely be deployed, the question was; how long was he going to keep this up for?
Sometime later Setsuna was awoken by the call to battle stations; putting on his helmet he retraced his steps back to the hangar. Upon entering he noted that the mobile armor was still undergoing repairs, 'looks like I'm on my own.' He continued on towards the Strike, seeing him approach one of the maintenance crew opened the hatch for him, nodding his thanks to the crewman he seated himself into the cockpit and closed the hatch before powering up the Strike.
When the hangar crew updated the bridge on the Strike's status, the order was issued, "move the Strike to the catapult and prep for launch." The Strike's cradle jolted as it lurched towards the airlock doors which opened automatically as it approached before locking it feet into the 'Trolley' which had been adapted to launch mobile suits.
After the Strike's weapons were mounted he reported to the CIC. "One-Zero-Five Strike here, weapons are mounted and all systems are green, ready for launch on your order."
Natarle appeared on the monitor, "Lieutenant, as we have yet to calibrate the Strike's gun-sights the use of ranged weapons is considered too ineffective." She informed him. "So we are outfitting you with the Sword Striker Pack for close quarter's battle."
As she explained Setsuna noted the equipment listed on his weapons display.
One "Schwert Gewehr" 15.78m anti-ship sword; a physical blade with a beam emitter built into the cutting edge stored on the power pack. One "Panzer Eisen" Rocket Anchor; a small shield with an anti-beam coating, with built in rocket-propelled grappling claw mounted on left forearm. One "Midas Messer" Beam Boomerang; a throwing beam knife that when under gravity behaves like boomerang. He was positive he could work this.
"The Captain informs me that you can perform adequately in this role." The slight disbelief told him that she was still uncertain about him. "Also, because we are still within the colony interior we cannot fully deploy the Archangel's weapons, for fear that we may cause further collateral damage, and therefore we are only able to provide limited fire support."
"Understood." He acknowledged. "I'll try to isolate enemy units as I engage them so you can pick them off with the ships light weapons."
"Appreciated." She said with small smile, his cooperation made her job easier. "You are clear for launch, forwarding control to you."
"Roger, Setsuna F. Seiei in one-o-five Strike launching." Engaging the catapult Setsuna rocketed along the catapult then upon being released into the air he engaged his PS Armor and took a position in front of the Archangel.
[PS Armor engaged]
Checking his sensors he located one enemy unit approaching by itself, 'Odd, just the one?" Suddenly there was an explosion.
A report came over the radio. "Second group approaching, three units... Captain! One of them is X-Three-Zero-Three, it's the Aegis!"
Setsuna magnified the image of the second group, one of them was the red mobile suit that was taken earlier whose design reminded him of the thrones, 'that guy,' he recalled the pilot whom he had struggled with earlier whose strength exceeded that of normal humans.
"Strike to Archangel, I'm intercepting the second group I'll delay them as long as I can, focus on the lone GINN." He informed them, accelerating towards the three, he knew he was in for tough battle, but he couldn't allow them to engage the ship inside the colony.
In the Aegis, Athrun entered the colony through the breach along with Miguel and Olor. Matthew had entered through the colony shaft via the docks; the enemy no doubt already spotted his approach. Athrun had defied orders at the last minute to join the assault, the reason being that he had to confirm something about his opponent. As they made their way to the target at best speed, their sensors picked up an object approaching them.
"Heads up! Here he comes." Miguel warned.
Magnifying the image Athrun confirmed it to be the Strike, as it closed the distance it drew from its back pack what appeared to be a heavy sword.
"Oh no you don't! I'm not letting you close the gap." Miguel took aim at the Strike with his M69 "Barrus" heavy ion cannon and fired, forcing the Strike to evade. "Olor, go after the ship, me and Athrun will take care of this guy." He ordered.
Olor attempted to bypass the Strike and proceed on to the ship but the Strike deployed a grappling claw and snagged his GINN's leg.
"Damn you!" Miguel cursed and fired the Barrus once more but missed; As the Strike reeled in Olor's GINN it readied its heavy sword and charged intent on running him through. Acting quickly Athrun engaged the Aegis' beam saber on its right arm and deflected the sword strike, he then engage the beam saber on right foot and sliced the cable, freeing Olor.
As Olor proceeded to his target the Strike attempted to pursue but was prevented by another blast from Miguel forcing it to bring its shield to bear in order to block the beam. "Good work Athrun," Miguel praised him. "Let's take him down."
While Olor joined up with Matthew and battled the ship, Athrun and Miguel made repeated attempts to box in the Strike as it attempted to pin them down with suppressing fire from its CIWS and engage them up close. After it blocked another shot from the Barrus, Athrun's suspicions were confirmed, 'that pilot isn't an ordinary Natural.' He remembered when he had first encountered him during assault on the hangar, when his rifle had run out of ammo; he had drawn his knife and moved to close quarters. There he struggled with whom he believed to be the Strike's intended pilot, as a Coordinator he should have won that struggle easily but the pilot had matched his strength, what was most shocking however had been the glowing eyes staring back at him through the darkened visor.
"Get behind it Athrun." Complying Athrun maneuvered behind it but then the Strike deployed a new weapon, it extracted from its left shoulder an object which it then threw at Miguel's GINN. Fortunately the object-which appeared to be some kind of beam saber traveled slowly and he was able to easily avoid it.
Athrun's relief quickly turned to horror, positioned behind the Strike he saw the weapon changed direction.
"Miguel! Look out!" Athrun warned, doubling back the way it came Miguel didn't have time to dodge and it sliced off one of his GINN's legs, unbalanced by the sudden shift in mass the distraction was all the Strike needed as it accelerated towards Miguel and cleaved his GINN in half destroying it.
"MIGUEL!" Turning on the Strike, "you're going to pay for that!" Transforming the Aegis to mobile armor form he targeted the Strike with the "Scylla" 580mm energy cannon and fired, with no time to raise its shield the Strike maneuvered out of way and the beam hit the colony shaft, elsewhere another section of the shaft was engulfed in an explosion.
"Oh no!" Athrun could only stare in horror as the colony shaft tore itself apart; as the colony collapsed the vacuum sucked both mobile suits out into space.
- Armed and Dangerous: Phase 4 -
Athrun looked around at the devastation he had caused, the debris field that not too long ago had been a thriving colony. Controls held in a white knuckled grip he sobbed, "I... didn't mean to." Reluctantly he returned to the Vesalius.
Setsuna stared at debris field before him in disbelief; he couldn't believe the reckless abandon that the enemy had shown in their unrestrained use of heavy weapons. Not even the A-Laws had been this excessive around a colony; even if it was never revealed to the public their sponsors would still hold them accountable considering how much money, resources and time went into constructing them.
"Archangel to Strike, do you read me." Setsuna recognized Natarle's voice over the radio.
"Strike here, reading you loud and clear." He responded.
"What's you status? Do require assistance?" She asked.
"Minor damage, but it won't prohibit me from returning to the ship, no assistance is required." He answered.
"Understood," she acknowledged, "return to ship ASAP."
"Roger." He affirmed, that's when he picked up a distress signal. Locating the source Setsuna found what appeared to be a lifeboat with a damage propulsion unit. "Strike to Archangel, I've located a damaged lifeboat, please advise."
"What's the state of damage?"She inquired.
"Damage appears to be limited to the propulsion unit. Life support is intact." He reported.
"Orb's rescue fleet is most likely already in route to this location, let them handle it." She advised.
"Understood, returning to ship." He didn't argue, frankly he thought they were safer on the drifting lifeboat than an under crewed battleship with a bull's-eye painted on it. With that he orientated himself towards the ship and took off.
Meanwhile on the bridge Murrue now acting Captain winced as her shoulder wound continued to plague her.
"You ok?" Mu asked her with worried expression.
Appreciating his concern she reassured him with a small smile, "I'll be fine, it's only a minor injury."
"If you insist, so what's our next move?" He asked.
"We're still in battle; we need to leave the area as quickly as possible." She concluded.
"You want to make a run for the moon?" He asked uncertain. "With only the Strike and my Zero can we make it in the shape we're in?"
"I don't see any other option." She sighed.
"If I may interject, it would be better to head to Artemis." Natarle offered.
"Artemis huh." Mu said his expression thoughtful.
"But Artemis is a Eurasian base." Murrue pointed out, her expression plagued with worry.
"They'll run us down if we make a dash for moon." Mu warned Murrue.
"I'm sure that once we explain our situation that Artemis would understand and provide us with relief, also this ship lacks many vital supplies and without them we won't make it to lunar headquarters." Natarle informed her.
"But neither this ship nor the Strike is outfitted with recognition codes that our allies acknowledge." She pointed out; there was a risk that Artemis would misidentify them as an enemy vessel and attack.
"The only other choice is to give up." Mu countered, "Like you said, we don't have any other option. We have to take our chances with Artemis and hope for the best."
'That's precisely what I'm worried about.' Murrue thought.
"Ma'am, the Strike has returned." The comm. officer announced.
In the hangar Setsuna gave Chief Petty Officer Kojiro Murdoch the Strike's damage report.
"So all we need to replace is the rocket anchor and the Midas Messer, could be worse, the Midas Messer will be the easiest, we have plenty of spares seeing as we haven't perfected a way of safely retrieving them in battle. The rocket anchor however isn't so simple; you won't be able to use that equipment any time soon." Murdoch informed him.
"Understood, I'll make do with the other Striker Packs for the time being." Before Setsuna could leave Murdoch had something to say.
"One more thing Lieutenant before you head off, I'm short on staff here and there's too much work to be done, so you're goanna have to maintain your machine, no exceptions, even La Flaga has to pull his weight. Speaking of the Lieutenant I have to get on the horn and respectfully ask him to get his butt down here and tend to his Zero."
Indeed the mobile armor looked to be nearly ready for sortie, the main gun had been replaced and the crews were in the process of fitting the last of four pods to the main body.
"You had replacements for the mobile armor?" He asked
Murdock explained. "Yeah the Marseille's mission along with Lieutenant's was to escort you pilots to Heliopolis, after that the Lieutenant and his mobile armor squadron were to transfer to the Archangel and escort us back to Lunar so supplies for them were sent ahead. Don't know if we'll get there though..."
"What about Artemis? I heard that they were also located in L3 cluster." Setsuna inquired.
"Artemis? That's a Eurasian base." Murdock continued. "Look, the Archangel and the G-Weapons are a secret project funded by the Atlantic Federation. Eurasia may be on our side but we haven't been issued an identification code that they'd recognize with the exception of the Lieutenant's Zero, no one outside the Federation is going to help us. More likely Artemis is going to lock its gates and tell us to get lost or use us for target practice."
With that Murdock turned and made his way to the intercom shouting instructions to the maintenance crew along the way. Making his way back to the Strike it was clear to Setsuna that without a recognition code the nearest allied base couldn't be relied on to commit their forces to aide them, and those that could were located on the other side of the Earth, for all intents and purposes they were on their own. Once he was in the cockpit he brought up the Strikes schematics on the monitor and started going through them, if he was going to help maintain it he needed to familiarize himself with it before the crew realized that he didn't have the slightest clue about it.
Not long after he started there was an announcement over the intercom that they heading for Artemis and that a decoy was being deployed to throw ZAFT off their trail, 'So, we're going to try anyway.' It soon became clear to him that the OMNI enforcers were new to mobile suit development made evident by the fact that the Strike's M.O.S was complete garbage; even the outdated Anf had a better system than this. In mobile suit combat even Karathron's forces would trounce them that's how bad it was, in fact he'd put ZAFT's mobile suits in same category as Karathron's.
Nevertheless, between him and the maintenance crew they were able to bring the Strike into some form of order, though it didn't make the M.O.S any less terrible.
On the Vesalius, Athrun was called to report to the Captain's Cabin.
"Sir, I wished to apologize for my earlier conduct." Athrun addressed him.
"It fine, it wasn't like you, you clearly weren't yourself." Rau casually assured him. "But I still would like an explanation to put in my report to the council."
"I needed to confirm something." That peaked his curiosity, what did Athrun find on Heliopolis that would cause him to disobey orders. "Go on." He encouraged.
"During the assault there were two Earth Force's security personnel between me and final units. I killed one and injured the other, at the point my rifle was empty and I switched to my knife to engage in close quarters. As I got close I encounter whom I believe to be the intended pilot for one of the prototypes and… we struggled." Athrun explained.
"Struggled?" Rau couldn't hide his surprise.
"The enemy pilot has strength that is easily a match for Coordinators, but that's not all. His visor was tinted but I was able to make out some details..." For Athrun this was the hard part to explain. "His eyes... they were glowing."
"Glowing?" Rau said his disbelief evident in his tone. "What are you saying Athrun, are you telling me that the Earth Force's have resorted to enhancing their pilots in order to match us in battle. You do realize how serious an accusation that is?"
"I do sir." Athrun knew what he saying sounded implausible considering the Naturals views on augmenting the human body, however... "But one thing I do know for sure is that pilot isn't normal and considering the state of the prototypes M.O.S there's no way the final unit should've performed so well in previous battles. That pilot is most likely the cause."
"Indeed, it would explain the problems we've had up to this point." Rau agreed. "If so, then all the more reason to destroy it. Every battle it wins vindicates its existence and increases the likelihood that we'll encounter more on the battlefield."
Turning to Athrun, Rau's voice took on a dire tone. "This time we're deploying all the prototypes against the legged ship, no more holding back."
After maintenance Setsuna managed to get a few hours rest that was once again interrupted by the call to battle stations, 'I hope this doesn't become a habit.' He thought hopefully though it was unlikely as he made his way back to the hangar. In the pilots ready room he found Mu La Flaga.
"Good you're here." Mu turned towards him, "listen up this is what were going to do." Mu proceeded to brief him on their battle strategy after that they proceeded to their respective machines.
In the hangar Mu's Zero launched first and went on ahead, meanwhile the Strike was being outfitted for battle, when they went to equip him with the Aile Striker he made a request to Archangel's CIC. "Ensign Badgiruel."
"Lieutenant?" She asked.
"I request the use of the Launcher Striker."
"The Launcher? But the Aile is more balanced in both offence and defense not to mention greater mobility."
"That's the problem it would be too tempting to leave the ship and chase them, we can't allow the Strike to be separated from the ship." His response surprised her. "The Launcher is better suited for a defensive stance and its greater range means I can engage them without moving far from the ship."
Natarle deliberated this for moment, "your request is approved, switching to Launcher Striker. After launch head to the ship's stern, there you will find a power conduit." One of his monitor showed the precise location. "The 'Agni' 320mm hyper impulse cannon design allows it to draw power from an external source, connect it to the conduit and it will draw power from the ship directly," His weapon monitor highlighted the external input connector on the schematic. "The conduit has a short tether so you aren't able to move far from that location without disconnecting." She advised him.
"Understood," then he added. "Thanks for indulging me."
Natarle was taken aback by that statement. "Ah... You're welcome..." She shook herself. "Strike, you are clear for launch."
"Roger, Setsuna F. Seiei in one-o-five Strike launching."
- Chapter 2 End -
Author's note;
So as you have probably noticed, there have already been a number of major changes from canon, Kira and his friends have avoided been drafted by Murrue, thanks to Setsuna on the basis that there is no point in keeping a secret that has already flown the coop.
Secondary Flay's drifting lifeboat has similarly been left behind, so don't have to deal with her - for now. Unfortunately the doctor that treats Murrue's shoulder wound is also on the same lifeboat, so she'll just have to cope for now. Since we all know what becomes of the refugees if they join the Archangel, we can all probably agree that they're safer on lifeboat.
And lastly regarding Exia; it's staying where it is for the moment, Setsuna doesn't know how far he can trust the crew and isn't taking any chances. I'm sure he would rather not attempt to explain Exia's existence, Also with the GN drive toast Exia and its weapons are inoperable - for now.