Chapter 2 Gundam furball
"Whoever lays eyes on a Gundam shall not live to tell of it."
- Standard operating procedures for all Gundam pilots
0o0o0o0o0o0
Almost one year ago a bomb killed the leaders of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation. The attack was blamed on the coordinators who, because of birthing problems in zero gravity made up the majority of the colonists. As a show of force a fleet was sent to the L5 cluster. During this show of force, an order was received en route that the mission had changed to an attack on the colonies with nuclear weapons. This atrocity would be known as the Bloody Valentine incident, and would be far from the last committed on either side. Almost one year has passed, and the death toll from the ensuing war is almost double that of the EVE wars; both sides are at a stale mate with no end in sight.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Roger, I have control," he said, as the Aile Striker Pack was loaded on to his Gundam.
He ignored the surprise on the young girl's face; one of Kira's friends no doubt wondering where Kira was.
His training was kicking in even if now and then it missed a gear. In those times it missed a gear, he would ask why was he doing this? He would also see the faces of those he would be fighting, 15 and 16 year olds, too young to know what they were doing like he was back then. Other times he would wish that they were Mobile Dolls, then everything would be fine. He could kill an AI; they didn't have family and friends back home, they didn't breathe, they were just machines; cold, logical, inhuman, like him. But his training would always kick back in, and he would prepare himself for the battle.
"One contact from the Nazca class identified as the Aegis," cut in the controller breaking through his thoughts. The positron cannons must have fired and the engines been spun up according to the plan without him noticing, or ZAFT would not have deployed their mobile suits.
"Has the Laurasia launched anything yet?" he asked.
Kira's friend looked down at her monitor; "no," she said finally.
Either the Nazca's commander was playing it smart or the Laurasia was slow in launching its suits. The Aegis was armed with a rifle, 4 sabres, a shield and a "Scylla" 580mm energy cannon. The energy cannon could be a threat to small warships and suits, but the beam was too spread out and lacked the concentrated energy needed for penetrating a true battleship armour, like the Archangel. The abominable Nelson class would be in trouble but not this ship, this ship had laminated armour which distributed heat over its structure making most energy weapons pointless. The armour had one drawback, it had to be made in one continuous layer or the thermal energy would not conduct properly making it expensive to maintain. A small hole from a kinetic round would mean that all the armour was less effective requiring the whole thing to be replaced.
"Strike why have you not launched yet?" barked Badgiruel.
He remembered why he had been a lone wolf, too many weak people who held him back with their incompetence.
"New contacts Buster Duel and Blitz launching from the Laurasia," said the sensor operator.
"Confirm control," he said as he finished up the pre-flight checks. It didn't matter if something had gone tech as he was launching no matter what, but it gave him the reassurance that everything would work when he needed it. "Commencing mission, will eliminate enemy main force," he said, part of his mind questioning when ZAFT had become 'his' enemy.
The Aegis was obviously a distraction as the Buster was the only one from the X weapons he had been briefed on that could penetrate the armour of the ship, hence its two escorts. If he was wrong then the Aegis was coming in on the only vector the Archangels main guns could hit, so it was of no consequence. As he left the catapult he flipped the Strike 180 degrees and punched the throttle, shooting past the bridge of the Archangel.
"Captain Lowe where are you going?" Came Badgiruel.
"The Aegis is a decoy, engaging Buster, Dual and Blitz," he said.
"Strike engage Aegis; the Buster, Blitz and the Dual have longer intercept vectors," ordered Badgiruel.
"Negative, Buster is the main threat. Aegis was sent to intercept first to pull any defenders out of position; continuing mission," he responded.
He focused on the three suits just outside effective range of his weapons. The first one was the Dual, a command unit with a balanced load-out of close and medium range weapons. Comparable strength to the Strike Aile, that one could be a challenge. He didn't have any distinct advantage in terms of machine.
Next was the Buster flanked by the others. It was a heavy support unit with missiles, twin buster rifles just like his old suit except his could have destroyed the Archangel in a single shot. However he had two beam sabres for when he got in close, even Trowa had something for a fur-ball although that was probably because he never had enough ammo for the mission. The best tactic for dealing with the Buster would be to get in close.
The last was the Blitz, a stealth infiltration and recon suit with most of its weapons in an arm-mount, the only exception being a Gleipnir similar to Altron's dragon fang. The only danger this suit posed was that if it went invisible then it would be just like playing hide and seek with Deathscythe again without ZERO; put enough flying objects into the air and you would find it.
The three mobile suits in front of him split off on separate vectors wide enough to force him to either choose one or fall back to the ship. If he went after one he would give the other two a free run at the ship, but if he fell back then he would have let them close to weapon range on the ship, and he would lose the initiative. The Buster was the main threat. The others had pea shooters compared to it and would not do much more than dent the armour of the ship so could be ignored.
His mind made up he set himself up for an intercept.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Looks like I get the honour of avenging Miguel," said Dearka.
Yzak just snorted, "don't screw this up Elsman."
This felt wrong to Nicol. They could easily surround and destroy the only mobile unit in theatre, but Le Creuset had ordered them to destroy the 'legged ship', so he did not argue. Instead, he followed the intercept trajectory. He, however, kept an eye on Dearka.
"Buster engaging," came Dearka as he locked his two buster rifles together, and fired at the Strike. Rather than dodging, the Strike took the shot on its shield, much to Dearka's evident satisfaction. Satisfaction which was short-lived, as the Strike used the hit on its shield to veer off at an odd angle that negated any defensive manoeuvres. The last thing Nicol saw from Dearka's monitor was him whooping with joy before the buster took a hit to its head and the screen went blank.
"Dearka is in trouble," Nicol yelled over the coms as he reversed his momentum; Yzak was a hairs breadth behind him.
Dearka was still alive and firing back but the head of the Buster was slagged along with his communication gear. Now the Strike was dodging fire as it closed range. This was made easier by Dearka's wild firing which was more likely to hit him or Yzak but right now none of them cared.
The Strike got within arm's reach of the Buster and wrestled the Buster rifle out of Dearka's hands using its shield to bludgeon the buster several times. This was not without Dearka getting in several solid hits and finishing with him unloading his entire missile stock into the Strike's face.
"Great shot, Elsman," yelled Yzak, only for the dust to clear and show the Strike standing there without a mark on it, holding one of those knives in one hand, and in the other, the Buster's weapons.
The Strike stabbed the knife into the remains of the Buster's head, then used it as a spring board and bounced towards Yzak, leaving the Buster to power down and become immobile.
"I got you now MONSTER!" yelled Yzak as he closed range. The Strike's response was to line up a shot with its stolen Buster rifle and fire. Yzak tried the same trick the Strike had just used of bouncing the shot off the shield to let him come in at an unguarded angle. The trick however evidently took more skill than it looked, as Yzak rather than staying in control of his momentum was sent spinning. This only stopped when the Strike fired a second shot that blew off the Duel's right shoulder pad.
The Strike discarded the Buster rifle and closed in on the Duel. Nicol could only watch, having veered to aid the Buster and being therefore too far from the engagement to affect the outcome. The Strike's knife came out again and rammed into the exposed shoulder crippling that arm. Yzak shield-bashed the Strike away, only for it to draw its beam rifle and get a clear shot in at the exposed arm-pit, detaching the Duel's other arm and forcing a power shutdown.
Nicol fired all his lancer darts, more to keep the Strike off balance than to do any damage. He evaluated his options. The Strike was piloted by an expert. Yzak had demonstrated that by trying to copy its moves. At range the pilot had demonstrated high accuracy with its rifle and the Busters Buster rifle; in close it had hit exposed areas with an ungainly precision with knives that would not normally have done anything to the phase-shift armour.
The Strike did not give Nicol anymore time to think; instead it drew a beam-sabre and charged. Nicol panicked and launched his Gleipnir at the Strike, which just fired back with its Igelstellung. This was the first mistake that Nicol noticed the Strike had made as the Gleipnir was also covered by phase-shift armour and was therefore unaffected by the impacts other than a slight trajectory change, which was corrected by onboard telemetry. The rounds from the Igelstellung were actually hitting the Gleipnir with such energy that they were vaporising on impact. For an instant it looked as if the Gleipnir had been destroyed, only for it to burst through the cloud and slam into the other mobile suit's chest.
The whole point of P.S armour is to be invulnerable to kinetic attacks, however the energy from a round hitting would have to go somewhere and the strike was no exception to the law of physics. The Gleipnir caused the Strike to spin off to the side, averting the charge. The Strike however, regained control quickly and fired its Igelstellung at Nicol who brought up his shield reflexively.
"Team two where are you?" asked Athrun over the squad communication channel. It sounded as if he was in as much trouble as Nicol.
"Yzak and Dearka are down," said Nicol realising he was panting.
"Dead?" asked Athrun in a stunned voice.
"No, mobility kills; both have been powered down. Request backup," said Nicol panicking.
"On my way, hang in there Nicol," said Athrun.
The Strike decided that simply firing kinetic weapons at the Blitz was not going to work, so moved back into close range. Nicol activated his beam-sabre knowing he had to delay the Strike until Athrun arrived. The Strike however, would not give him that opportunity.
0o0o0o0oo0o0
Athrun reached the battle between Nicol and Kira just as Nicol slashed at the Strike only for Kira to duck the slash. Nicol had overextended himself, with his attack spinning him around and leaving his back open to Kira's counterattack.
"NICOL!" Athrun cried.
Nicol didn't react fast enough. Athrun could not tare his eyes away it was like a car wreck. The strike raised both arms one holding a beam-sabre in a reverse grip the other holding its shield to block any retaliation by Nicol. The sabre slowly moved up until it was almost in contact with the rear of the Blitz then it shut off... Athrun at first thought the strike had ran out of power but the armour stayed powered up.
The Strike reached around and grabbed the Blitz in a full Nelson grip. Athrun finally figured out why the beam-sabre had been deactivated, Kira didn't want to kill Nicol, he wanted to take a hostage. Kira was no longer the same person to whom he had given Burdy. That boy had been kind, considerate and would never have used a human shield.
"Pilot of the Aegis and Blitz power-down your armour and weapon systems immediately," came a voice over his radio, along with a video. The man in the video was not Kira, from what he could see the man had the coldest blue eyes and a demeanour that made hard vacuum look warm.
Athrun complied as did Nicol, there was no way either of them could get off a shot on the Strike, yet anyway. They would have to bide their time.
"Take your friends and go," said the pilot of the Strike in the most emotionless tone Athrun had ever heard.
"What?" came Nicol and Athrun simultaneously, both stunned. They were on the ropes, two men down, another taken hostage and all their weapons and armour offline in four recently stolen mobile suits, and they were being let go.
"We have over 200 civilians from a damaged life-pod. We do not have the facilities to take you prisoner," said the pilot, in that emotionless tone.
"You are not going to kill us?" asked Nicol tentatively. Hostilities were at the point where prisoners were regularly being shot on each side, not officially but everyone knew of it.
"That would be against the laws of war, and besides, one Laurasia and two mobile suits are not a threat to us," replied the pilot of the Strike.
"We can still fight you or did you forget about the Nazca class?" said Yzak smugly. He must have got his coms gear working, unfortunately.
The other pilot just inclined his head. For a moment nothing happened then the 'Legged ship' fired a positron cannon.
"We are not defeated you natural bastard!" snarled Yzak.
The other pilot just inclined his head again. Athrun immediately started scanning the vicinity for another threat.
"Coward, stand and fight!" yelled Yzak, as the Strike released Nicol.
The other pilot snorted contemptuously.
"Athrun, Nicol take that bastard down!" yelled Yzak.
"If you do that, then. I. Will. Kill. You," said the other pilot.
Athrun prided himself on doing the right thing, the honourable thing, and shooting in the back someone who could have killed them or taken them prisoner but let them go, was not the right thing to do. He was also not stupid, after all, who had heard of a dumb co-ordinator, and attacking someone who had already won didn't sound smart.
"This is Zala in the Aegis acting commander of the Le Creuset team. Gamow, we have taken too much damage and are withdrawing from combat. What is the status of the Vesalius?"
"Aegis this is Gamow actual; confirm return; vectors uploaded to your tack now. The Vesalius has taken damage to its engines, and is withdrawing from combat," came Captain Zellman, Captain of the Gamow.
"Thanks. Be advised we have two crippled suits, one with a pilot whose status is unknown."
"What did I miss?" asked Dearka.
"Those two cowards just let the Strike get away," spat Yzak.
"Correction; the pilot is unharmed," Athrun reported in, relieved that Dearka was alive.
"What?" asked Dearka.
"You and Yzak are down, and the Vesalius has been crippled," Athrun explained.
"It got Yzak?" asked Dearka.
"It was a lucky shot," Yzak snapped.
"Yeah, tell me about it; no-one could have pulled off that shot on purpose," Dearka said.
"That pilot was something else," said Nicol.
"SHUT UP!" yelled Yzak and Dearka, their egos at stake.
0o0o0o0o0
"Archangel this is Strike; mission complete; all hostile forces withdrawing," said Lancaster not letting anything show.
"Strike this is Archangel actual; nice work out there," came the skipper.
Lancaster shrugged, "enemy strength was lower than anticipated."
She coughed, "very well, return to Archangel."
"Confirm," said Lancaster trying to relax.
A text message appeared on a side screen in his cockpit that said in a nutshell, hold on the cavalry is coming. He replied 'mission complete RTB.'
Lancaster checked his power-gauge again trying to calm his nerves. It was low, but not dangerously so, he still had four minutes left, but he shut down the armour anyway. It was unsettling for someone who was used to having the longevity to fight for 12 hours straight to suddenly have to worry about conserving power. The last battle had not physically taxed him and the missile blast had done the most to drain the Strikes armour, but his training had got the better of him. He had become that monster, that weapon. The Buster was lucky he had been aiming for a torso shot but had missed, that kid could have died. That realisation had kick-started his higher brain functions back into action.
He was lucky that the electronics in these new Gundams were not worth a dam and could short out giving him a mission kill without a fatality, he would have to check the Strike to see if it suffered from the same flaw. It was really no surprise that these weapons would require modification before they were combat capable. They were prototypes like the Wing Zero was. These new Gundams, however were more combat ready than ZERO, they didn't drive their pilots insane, well other than ones who had been 'specially' trained.
It would have been so much easier if they had been Mobile Dolls. Oh great, now I am wishing for those monstrosities to come back, he thought bitterly.
0o0o0o0o0
"YOU DID WHAT?" To say Natarle was angry was like saying that a Gundam was good or that Milliardo was a threat to the earth, peace and apple pie. In other words it was an understatement.
"I let them go," said Captain Lowe as emotionlessly as always.
"And why did you fail to capture or kill our enemy?" she said, wondering why the hell she had argued for Captain Lowe to take over the Strike.
"Do we have the facility to take prisoners?" Captain Lowe asked.
"We have a brig," she stated flatly.
"But no guards," Captain Lowe pointed out.
"Then why not kill them?" she asked pointedly.
"Ensign Badgiruel may I remind you that firing on enemy combatants that have surrendered is a war crime, and I am neither a soldier of the Alliance nor a murderer."
Natarle was speechless, how dare this man suggest that she was implying murder, this was war and they were ordered to kill their enemy; that was their duty. Bloody pacifist tree huggers.
"So you are not an Alliance soldier?" asked Mu as he entered.
"Correct, a cyborg cannot enter a combat situation as if say, my arm failed in combat I would become a liability to my comrades," said Captain Lowe.
"Wait what?"
"I cannot be returned to active duty due to my injuries; however citizens of the Sanc Kingdom are allowed to use reasonable force if they find themselves within a battle to protect themselves and others."
"So what is classed as reasonable force?" asked Major La Flagger.
Captain Lowe just shrugged.
"What happens if you use excessive force?" asked Natarle
"I get charged with assault on a member of ZAFT and deported to the PLANTs."
Both Alliance officers winced. That was basically a death sentence. If it had been the other way around the Alliance would hang him; however in low gravity, hanging someone didn't work so ZAFT would just kick them out of an airlock.
"It won't happen," said Lancaster, "I didn't kill any ZAFT soldiers and my actions helped protect civilians."
"Yet anyway," corrected Major La Flagger.
"We will be safe in MO2," said Captain Lowe.
"MO2?" asked Natarle confused, they were going to Artemis and that was the extent of their plans.
"That's what Artemis was called when I was in OZ," said Captain Lowe, reaching the door.
0o0o0o0o0
That was close, his knowledge of Sanc Kingdom law was the same as the name of his old Gundam, which also apparently summed up the two officers' knowledge as well; good. Now all he needed to do was get to MO2 and everything would be fine. The Alliance would let him and Kira go back home and he could start looking into the Bartons and what they had been up to since Operation M.
After finding out what those Bartons were up to, he could look into what just happened with his loss of control. That had not happened since early in operation M, where a young girl had knocked off his sense of who he was so badly, by what amounted to stalking him around the world and into space. She just didn't want to see someone she saw as a truly good person getting himself killed or killing himself and was determined to tell him so. That had slowly, without knowing it, broken the special training's effect on him; he owed her a lot more than he had told her, but somehow he knew that she knew that.
Lancaster felt someone grab his arm; turning around he saw that it was the Major.
"Things may not go well at Artemis," said the Major looking serious.
"How so?" asked Lancaster, his mind racing. The Eurasians were less hostile to co-ordinators than most of the Alliance, not hard, but still notable.
"This ship does not have the correct IFF."
"So they won't let us in?" asked Lancaster, thinking of how the commanders he had known during the Preventers would react to something that looked like the Trojan horse; probably the same way they did during the EVE war, let it in.
"They may not, but more likely they know who we are and will play dumb so they can poke around."
Lancaster froze; they would poke around and find out that someone had reprogrammed the Strike from a buggy scrap of metal into something more than a match for anything ZAFT had. No commander with any ambition would miss this opportunity to turn the war in the Alliance's favour. They would of course 'ask' him to help their war effort, even if 'yes' was the only answer he could give. If Kira could say no they would write down what they found and someone would find out, someone who might recognise the similarities between Kira and himself, and that would be that.
"Lock down the Strike's operating system. After what you did out there I think we can trust you with that," said the Major.
Lancaster nodded: the Major didn't trust him, and to be brutally honest Lancaster didn't trust the man after seeing him put pressure on Kira to fight for the Alliance.
As Lancaster turned to go back to the hangar, the Major called out, "Oh and Captain," Lancaster froze, "nice bluff."
0o0o0o0o0o0
"Sai you jerk," Flay said, her words muffled by Sai's uniform.
At least I am not the only one getting chewed out, thought Kira, looking back to his friends.
"Come on Kira, why didn't you say anything?" asked Miriallia.
"Er I didn't get a chance," replied Kira. It sounded better in his head.
"So you just came back here?" asked Miriallia hotly.
"No, I helped out in the hangar," said Kira, not wanting to say that he had helped out in the hangar because he was feeling guilty about everyone else getting dragged into this because of him.
"Still, did you see that? I know Kira's good in a Mobile Suit, but that guy just took down two of those stolen mobile suits and that was before that red one got hit by the linear cannon," said Tolle.
Kira's stomach felt like it was tying a double bow; that 'red one' was Athrun. When the monitor in the hangar had shown that, Kira had been the only one not cheering. What had made Athrun who had hated war join ZAFT? Kira could not imagine what would have turned Athrun to such a path. Athrun had wanted to become a doctor like his mother and had only got into fights when other kids had picked on Kira, making fun of him because his parents were naturals.
"And then he took that black one prisoner and told the red one to 'take your friends and get lost.' Come on, that's the sort of thing a bad Hollywood action hero does," continued Tolle in his blow by blow account of the battle.
The hangar crew were stunned when they had seen all four machines powered down and then told to get lost. There had even been some cries of outrage, but Kira had been glad, Athrun was safe and so were the rest of his friends. Well, Sai was not, but Flay would not kill him.
"I said take your friends and go," came Mr Lowe, causing all of them to jump, "Kira I need to talk to you."
Kira gulped; the look in the man's eyes was giving him warnings as if they were red emergency decompression lights flashing.
Mr. Lowe led him down the corridor out of sight of the other civilians.
"Put this on," said Mr. Lowe, as he threw an orange mechanic's uniform at Kira.
"But why?" Kira asked, blinking at the uniform.
"Things may not go down smoothly at MO2, it would be better if you and your friends were not associated with the Strike," said Mr. Lowe.
Kira's stomach tied itself into a balloon animal. If he had not piloted the strike none of this would have happened and he and his friends were possibly going to be right in the middle of it all now.
"After the shuttle arrives take this to the Captain, say it's my report about the Strike's performance so far and maintenance requirements. If anyone asks for your opinion say you were working on the Zero. The Chief and the Major will back you up," said Mr Lowe, typing on a data slate. "The records have been edited to show you and your friends came in on the escape pod, and I was the pilot of the Strike."
Kira's mind was running though all the 'bad things' that could happen and they all came down to him being a co-ordinator on an Alliance ship. Why the hell did his parents make him a co-ordinator?
"If anything comes up let me do the talking," Mr. Lowe said as he passed the data slate.
"But..." said Kira weakly
"They will be here soon; I would suggest you get moving," Said Mr. Lowe.
Kira floated off feeling physically ill; yet again Mr. Lowe had stepped in to keep him out of serious trouble. He didn't have to, Kira would rather get into trouble than let someone else take the fall for his problems.
0o0o0o0o0o0
A/N
I need feedback on the fight scenes as they are hard to do and when I am using someone who would be a Gary Stu if he was not a crossover character, things can get awkward.
I feel like I need to rant about Seed warships. When I mentioned the Nelson class was abominable, I was basing it on the fact that in the show these things were getting nailed by fucking frigates (Laurasia) and destroyers (Nazca), not just their escorts, but the fucking tin-cans themselves. The only time this should happen is if it's part of Taffy 3; then, and only then, can destroyers and destroyer escorts fight like battleships.
However as a Wing continuation it makes sense, as political constraints on armed forces have at times created sub-standard equipment. In the peace time ESUN where millions were made redundant by a large scale arms reduction, making ships that were crap for fighting, made sense. After all there was never going to be a war again... Where did I hear that one before? And why has that man with the funny moustache got his arm up in the air?
Thanks for all your reviews, the response from this story is gratifying and I hope not to disappoint. People seem to like how it's not a black hole crossover as I like to call them, such as crossing barriers, which is a good read even if you don't like yaoi. I started out with the idea of Duo and Heero ending up on the Minerva as contract technicians who were called in to fix a last minute bug, but got caught up in GSD. However, when I started to pick at the story one question always came up, where the hell had the Gundams been during Seed? At one point I had it that Heero had been on Junius Seven when it got hit and was out for the war. But as good an idea as that was, there are 4 other Gundams and nuking a colony would piss them off and things would not happen like canon, bits I would have to show not tell. The butterflies were going so far back I said fuck it lets put them in at the beginning and see what happens, and so here we are.
I think I replied to all reviews, if not, my apologies, but just in case here's my answers.
Pairings will be cannon unless I need to do a major ass-pull to get them to work. Unfortunately with some characters from wing I can't keep cannon, (or fanon as wing was never supposed to have pairings), on account of them being KIA or MIA. I'm sorry if things are not the way you want. I would also like to point out it has been 16 years since any Gundam pilot saw another, or any old friends so things may have moved on. If you want to have x and y together you are free to use my idea and roll with it in your own story, just send me a link I would like to see it (please no youi). Raizen Lord of Twilight had a good idea for Heero X Cagalli that would not have fitted in with the story as... well that's a secret, but it sounded good.
Yes Lancaster rescued Kira but you will not find out the whole story until Kira does. So if one chapter equals one episode of Seed, well let's just say you will need to wait a long time.
Yes Duo is alive, see the prologue.
I plan on putting a rather nice piece I did for a creative writing group, for the preview on my profile page so please read. This is the same group that has by the time of this update, got some of my short stories published!
