AN: So apparently beam weapons function as energy-based railguns, in that they accelerate their particles to high velocities, whereupon friction does the damage for them.
That said I wonder how long their magnetic containment fields last because thus in theory they have infinite lethal range in space like ballistic weapons…
Also, apologies for the slow buildup but really, chapter five is probably when things will hit the proverbial fan and we actually get into some real action.
Also I'm gonna be moving the technical stuff to a separate set of omakes because it just seems like word padding at this point after I literally wrote up 13,000 non background fluff words for this one.
As for the OCs, they are side characters primarily, largely to 'fill out the ranks' so to say, although Willie Kemp is a canon minor character from the Origin manga, and was the assigned pilot of the RX-78-02 before he got murderized by Gene.
On that note the Knights are going to serve as an vehicle to aid Amuro's character development, and partially because I didn't want to use 08th characters like MSG: Alpha did because that's just ripping someone's idea off, he really didn't go full Newtype until he met Lalah in MSG all things considered, that said they aren't going to be as impactful on the story as some might think, this is still primarily Amuro's story regardless of how it swaps between POVs.
Yeah, some of them probably will die later on as more battles start taking their toll on the ranks.
Of course we'll have Hayato and Kai in action by then since... Well, it does take time to train pilots even with crash courses.
June 7 SE 0279. Heliopolis Alpha, Heliopolis II L4, Heliopolis System. Orb Union Space.
Amuro fired a burst of his maneuvering verniers off to slide around a piece of large debris as he watched a car glance off his mobile suit's shield, barely affecting his trajectory, Amuro clenched his fist around his control sticks as he tried to avoid wondering whether anyone had been inside the vehicle when it was ejected after the colony suffered a critical structural failure.
"Artoria, scan OMNI frequencies again, we need to know what the hell is going on." Amuro ordered.
"Affirmative." The AI responded as Knight lead chimed in.
["Five, you're too far out in front, we can't cover you!"]
"I've got a plan, I'll rush the ZAFT troops and keep them occupied while you hit them from behind, they're already preoccupied with the Alliance ship anyways, so you'll have a free reign for the first couple of salvos." Amuro reported and then cut comms before Chloe could respond.
Chloe snarled and grit her teeth. She'd have words with Amuro later about operating as part of a team. Even if she could understand his logic it didn't make it any less jarring for him to just go ahead with his plan without any additional input from the rest of them, that would get someone killed because none of them knew Amuro well enough to know exactly what he was attempting, at least not yet…
Bringing her Heavyarms Guncannon's targeting sensor over a Laurasia-class frigate that was plinking ion cannon fire into the debris field, surrounded by GINNs and Infestus fighters, she lined up her shots and waited for the barrier field on the ZAFT ship to redirect in the face of a more immediate threat.
"Knight Lead to Knights two, three, and four, fire on my command, and try not to hit the nugget and his very expensive mobile suit while you're at it."
Her remaining teammates gave affirmative answers, all equally annoyed by Amuro's current antics given their tones.
"Fire." She pulled the firing stub for her shoulder cannons and sent two linear accelerated shells downrange, followed by three more pairs from the other Black Knight Guncannons.
Amuro darted around a ruined apartment complex floating freely in the void as a trio of GINNs chased after him, rolling the suit onto its back he fired a beam rifle shot, coring the 'highest' of them from head to pelvis and causing its reactor to detonate, the other two machines backed off, their machines charred and damaged from the thermal emissions of the detonation.
Amuro smirked slightly as he rolled the Gundam around and under the ZAFT frigate and boosted towards the OMNI IFF signals, which were outnumbered by ZAFT according to the intercepts he was getting, watching the picket Laurasia-class break apart under a fusillade of Guncannon fire off to his right, and seeing Rosie plowing through the wreckage behind him on his rear-view camera, swatting debris with its beam guns.
"They're gonna chew my ass for what I'm doing…" He admitted to himself.
Dodging the wreckage of an OMNI M78B3 Bulldog anti-armor/air light tactical vehicle he aimed the Gundam's beam rifle at a damaged white/grey CGUE and pulled the trigger just as the ZAFT machine noticed him and dodged.
"There's that feeling again, like when I was fighting Char…" Amuro shook his head and evaded a spray of 76mm rounds by side-slipping behind an office building, drawing his beam saber in the process but not activating it yet.
His caution was vindicated when a GINN with a shotgun came over the building and maneuvered to drop down on him, Amuro reflexively slashing it through the torso and firing a burst from his verniers to move away as it slowly drifted towards a mass of cars and suburban housing, firing a shot from the Gundam's shoulder cannon at a passing Nazca-class, knocking out one of its beam cannons and forcing it to back off from whatever it was firing at.
Turning he prepared to move away and rounded the corner.
Unfortunately, he ended up face to face with a reddish, Gundam-type MS bearing a ZAFT IFF tag.
"OH SHIT!" Amuro boosted backwards, as did the stolen OMNI Machine, still marked as unknown, before a datalink update switched its model ID to GAT-X303 Aegis.
"Seriously! Did Dr. Tomino have that much influence with his Gundam theory!" Amuro shouted as he aimed the RX-78's beam rifle at it.
"Unknown." Artoria chimed, Amuro swearing he could hear some snark behind that, he'd have to order the AI to keep quiet unless it was absolutely important later.
"Shut up." He grumbled as he and the Aegis stared eachother down.
Athrun Zala could hardly believe his eyes, a Federation mobile suit bearing an unhealthy resemblance to the Strike that Kira was piloting sitting directly in front of him… Pointing its rifle straight at him and the Aegis.
"Of course, this just had to be Athrun's day." He muttered sarcastically. "Shinn! Quit fucking around with the Gaia and get over here! I need backup!" He ordered.
In the distance, the GAT-X256 Impulse turned its head towards the Aegis. ["The hell? Another G-Weapon?!"]
"Worse, it's one of those new federal MS Captain Gladys informed us about from the Red Comet's warning." Athrun clarified.
["Well I'd love to help you, but I've got my hands full with the X388 and X324!"] Shinn responded as he barely avoided another particle beam courtesy of the Chaos's Callidus Kai beam cannon while the Gaia went in for a beam saber strike that he blocked with the Impulse's shield.
Athrun frowned as he watched the Strike move in alongside the newcomer before a radio transmission came across the ZAFT channels.
["This is Le Creuset to all units, withdraw immediately and regroup, EFSF units have just arrived and we're currently outgunned following the loss of the Fermi and its complement."]
Athrun swore, turned away and headed off, transforming the Aegis into its MA mode for extra speed, glancing back at the view of the Strike in his rear cameras in the process, he'd figure out how to deal with this additional information regarding Kira when there wasn't a Federation carrier and its strike wing ready to slot him with particle beams, missiles and lead if he so much as existed wrong.
Amuro sighed as he lowered the Gundam's beam rifle whilst the Roosevelt and her complement plowed through the wreckage between it and the OMNI ship, now ID'd as the Archangel. The fact that the EA had somehow developed transforming mobile suits was concerning, as they'd either have severe structural defects, would be maintenance nightmares, or it meant that they were already considering mass production of new classes of mobile suit once the final bugs were worked out by these testbeds.
That or they'd totally lost their minds because Amuro figured it'd take another half a decade at least to get any sort of transformation beyond basic mode shifting like some Romefeller Corporation MS such as the Aries or Pisces, which boasted primitive 'transformations' that were basically just minor alternate configurations for the suit.
Turning his suit's head to look at the Gundam-type next to him he opened a voice comm channel. "This is ensign Amuro Ray of the Earth Federation Space Force, who's piloting the machine next to me?"
A comms screen opened revealing a young man with violet eyes in civilian garb. ["Uh… Kira Yamato…"]
Amuro frowned. "A civilian…?" Kira looked away, sheepish. ["Yeah… I kinda ended up being stuck piloting this mobile suit..."]
"Sounds like a story for when we've docked…" Amuro said as he stared at the Archangel, which had been eclipsed from the system's star by the much larger EFSF carrier as the two of ships entered formation, Amuro assumed they were going to maneuver alongside eachother to dock once they were clear of the debris.
Then things got worse for them.
["Amuro! Help the Strike grab that lifeboat over there and get your ass back to the Roosevelt NOW!"] Chloe ordered as the ripples of the Vashti effect began to form on the edge of the system, numerous Musais promptly jumped in, their IFF's identical to the ships of Char's squadron.
"Roger…" He maneuvered the Gundam over to the lifeboat that Kira was going for and carefully grabbed the mobile worker use handles on the opposite side from the strike as the two machines headed towards the yawning hangar of the Archangel, Amuro releasing his end before bolting back to the Roosevelt and landing in the hangar bay.
Their units secured, the two UW ships maneuvered to head out of the rapidly expanding debris field, aware that the ZAFT flotilla was shadowing their every move, and that it would be a matter of time before the Red Comet joined the show in proper form.
ZAS Minerva. June 7 SE 0279.
Rau Le Creuset frowned as he stood at Captain Gladys's side in the Minerva's pilot briefing room, glancing over the assembled ZAFT redcoats, Athrun Zala, Yzak Joule, Dearka Elsman, Shinn Auska, Lunamaria Hawke, Nicol Almafi, Rusty Mackenzie, and Rey Za Burrel.
Additionally, Miguel Aiman, the "Magic Bullet of Dusk" was present along with the rest of the surviving greencoats from the complement of the Minerva and the Vesalius, the pilots from the escorting Frigates would receive separate debriefs.
Nodding to Talia and Captain Ades, Rau turned back to the assembled pilots.
"As the lot of you are no doubt aware, we have failed in our mission to capture or destroy all of the Eternia Alliance's new experimental mobile suits, only capturing the Duel, Impulse, Buster, Aegis, one of the three Strike units, and the Blitz, nor did we manage to locate the Orb mobile suits either, although a transmission from the Fermi stated it was engaging a Junk Guild Marseilles III-class, indicating at least some of the Orb machines may be in the hands of third parties." Rau paused to let this sink in, watching Shinn resist the urge to slam his fist against something, which given the tension in the room would probably end up being Yzak's face, or vice-versa depending on which of them snapped first given both had butted heads repeatedly in the past over even trivial matters.
Oh, how he detested mankind and its arrogance.
"The following units are now believed to be in the hands of the legged ship, Strike units one and two, the Gaia, the Calamity, and the Forbidden, in addition to eight to ten mass production type units codenamed as 'Long Dagger', despite this we enjoyed a numerical and qualitative superiority in mobile suits and pilots. Note I said enjoyed." Rau continued as a screen promptly showed the Franklin D. Roosevelt looming large against the backdrop of the debris field, utterly dwarfing the nearby Archangel, and therefore the Minerva, by comparison.
"At H-Hour plus two a previously unknown class of Earth Federation warship jumped into the system and immediately deployed mobile suits, in the ensuing confusion we lost seven GINNs, eighteen Infestus, three CGUEs, and the frigate Fermi in addition to the six suits already destroyed by the Alliance G-Weapons since we first engaged them in battle. Among this complement are multiple G-Weapon type multirole mobile suits, four experimental-class and ten production-class and numerous Guncannon units, including several of the new 'Heavy Arms' types, all of which bore unique color schemes, indicative of elite or ace level pilots. Two of these Federation X-class G-Weapons bore the colors of known Federation aces, the Gorgon of Hatte and the Grey Fox of New California. However the other two are certainly not to be underestimated either, the Grey one manuvered just as well as the two ace units and the fourth, the white one, is the machine that shot down five Zakus at Gryps." Rau paused again to let this sink in as well.
There was mild murmuring, while some of the Greens and Reds were arrogantly assuming 'natural' aces had nothing on them, Rusty, Athrun, Nicol, and Rey were more visibly concerned.
"Sir… Do we have a plan to deal with this new variable…?" Athrun finally said after some time spent thinking and discussing with Rusty.
"We do not…" Rau admitted, to the visible consternation of his pilots while Ades and Gladys remained even-faced. The white coat then smirked and continued. "But while we don't have a plan…"
["I do."] A voice said as a holographic emitter sprang to life just as Rau timed it for in their brief conversation prior to the meeting, the full color hologram resolving in an instant into the smirking form of the Red Comet, to the shock of the entire room barring the white and black coat officers.
["Now due to security concerns I will be forced to detail this plan in person, therefore I will arrive aboard the Minerva at 1500 local system time"] Char stated before saluting and cutting the transmission.
"You heard him, you have half an hour to relax before we begin debrief… Dismissed." Talia announced as the pilots saluted and began to file out of the room.
EFS Franklin D Roosevelt. June 7 SE 0279.
Amuro grunted as Chloe grabbed him by the collar of his normal suit in the ready room and slammed him against a locker.
"Just what the hell were you thinking! If this had been a full-scale engagement and we didn't have the element of surprise some of us could've been killed covering your arrogant ass, especially if ZAFT had actually fought back instead of withdrawing!" She snarled.
"It worked didn't it!?" He responded, glaring back at her.
"Just because it worked doesn't mean it's not fucking stupid!" She growled back.
"The Gundam has far better armor and maneuvering ability than your Guncannons, it's also fast enough to outrun the GINNs on full burn. By distracting them I reduced the risk to our own forces." Amuro retorted as the crowd of pilots murmured around them.
"Just because you outwitted a bunch of arrogant ass coordinators who had no idea what you were capable of doesn't mean that stunt'll work against a competent and wary opponent! And that armor doesn't make you invincible either dumbass!" Chloe pointed out as she slapped aside Suzaku's hand when the latter tried to get her to back off of Amuro.
Any further argument was cut off by a sharp whistle, everyone turning to see a very pissed off looking Sleggar Law walking up to the two as the crowd parted like the red sea before Moses.
"THE TWO OF YOU, MY OFFICE, LAST YEAR! OR SO HELP ME LORD I'LL SHOVE MY FEET UP BOTH YOUR ASSES AND WEAR YOU AS SHOES ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE BRIG! AND THAT'LL BE SWEET, SWEET MERCY COMPARED TO THE COURT MARTIAL THAT'LL FOLLOW!" He bellowed as everyone but Chloe, Amuro, and the various squadron leaders scurried off like startled rodents, leaving the lead and fifth of the Black Knights standing there, their faces drained of all color.
The two at fault stood at attention, saluted shakily and sprinted for Sleggar's office.
Sleggar slammed his fist against a locker and exhaled as he brought his temper back under control. "Fucking goddamn hormonal teenagers…"
"You can't fault Chloe at least for expecting co-operation without much in the way of her own leadership, or flipping out on Amuro like that, her homeworld is Enfer after all…" Ajax muttered.
"I can fault it because she should know better due to her training!" Slegger replied angrily.
Pierce glanced at the Grey Fox as Sleggar stormed out of the room. "Enfer? I've heard the name before, but what's so special about that planet?"
"Approximately three hundred years before the Realization War, a French sponsored colony expedition departed from Earth, within days all contact, including that via automated locator beacons, had been lost and the expedition assumed destroyed in an accident."
"Go on." Pierce said, gesturing with his hand for Ajax to continue.
"In actuality; all twelve of the colony ships and their combined cargo of about three hundred thousand people made it to a habitable planet… But the automated colony setup systems had failed because of a near miss with an active magnetar that was previously believed to be a normal neutron star, one that had never really surveyed by the Earth Dominion due to cutbacks in the exploration budget. As a result, the ships hard landed on a world highly inhospitable to human life, yet still within our tolerance range climate and atmosphere wise, the aggressive and dangerous flora and fauna soon took a major toll on the colonists, whom were spread out across no less than three continents, forcing the scattered colonization parties to focus on survival rather than getting the ship systems back online. Within three to four generations technical knowledge had degraded to the point it was impossible for the colonists to get the ships and their databanks operational again on their own, which in turn led them to only be able to use the few physical reading materials that were brought along, further degrading education and effectively splitting the remnants of what were supposed to be multiple modern townships and cities into scattered clusters of fuedo-tribal societies." He paused to take a breath.
"Okay, so where does that affect her behavior?" Sayla asked, wanting him to get to the point without an extensive university style lecture.
"Before the ships woke up the colonists from cryo, the onboard computers made rough estimates on the local flora and fauna and genetically reconfigured the reproductive organs of the fertile individuals to produce genetic material for a sub-species of human more adapted to such a harshly competitive and toxic ecosystem, or at least the one the computers thought they'd encounter, given the number of casualties it was worse than anticipated. The result of this and those three hundred years of harsh natural selection was Homo Sapiens Infernalis, an identifiable sub-species of human boasting improved low-light vision, hearing, smell, strength, agility, endurance, a noticeable healing ability, and a much faster reproductive and initial growth cycle to better survive, if not quite thrive, on Enfer." He said, pausing again.
"Chloe's aggressive assertion of dominance back there was a survival behavior ingrained into her homeworld's societies over the centuries, where matriarchs and patriarchs would often be forced to assert physical dominance over impulsive or opportunistic subordinates, especially when not doing so could get the entire clan or tribe killed in a critical survival situation. Since she's the squadron lead of the Knights, she's effectively taken on a matriarchal role, and those instincts are probably clashing with her knowledge of what the military expects of an officer." Ajax continued, as if reading off from an encyclopedia.
"Sweet Mary Mother of Joseph…" Ryu mumbled as Sayla and Pierce whistled.
"Well that's a piece of work if I've ever heard one…" Job John added in.
"Either way, they're both screwed if Bright actually comes down from the bridge to have a chat with them…" Sayla mumbled.
"Bright's too busy, we've just docked with the Archangel and they've sent a party over to help co-ordinate further actions, wouldn't be surprised if our enemies are doing the same." Ryu clarified.
"Wonderful…" One of them murmured.
"By the way Ajax... How do you know this." Sayla asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I ended up Wikiwalking one day." He admitted.
"Really?" Ryu muttered before whacking him on the head lightly.
"What was that for!?"
"Going on a lecture again. You have a bad habit of doing that you know." Sayla replied snarkily.
Chloe and Amuro sweated nervously as Sleggar tapped the base of one of his models of old Anno Domini era naval fighter jets, an FJ-4 Fury to be precise if Amuro was reading the nameplate right. Both had calmly laid out their points in front of Sleggar a couple minutes ago.
"I can get the gist of what happened, and honestly, the both of you are at fault. Chloe for not maintaining better discipline and control of your unit, and Amuro for pulling that maverick shit after launching. I can let the physical assault slide for now because of stress and the societal conditioning of your home planet getting the better of your common sense, but that shit isn't to happen again, period." He turned to Amuro. "As for you Amuro, you could have made some attempt to notify your teammates beforehand. I'm not a disciplinarian like some officers but there must be consequences for this type of behavior, which means the two of you are now assigned to the help assemble the new GM units for your entire squadron. Am I understood?"
"Crystal sir." Both said in unison.
"Good, next time you two want to get physical over a disagreement, take it down to the fighting ring the marines have set up on their deck, it's technically against protocol and medical will bitch if you lose any teeth but one of the best ways I've found to let stress off is to beat the crap out of something or someone. Now report to Chief Omar for your assignments. Dismissed."
The two of them saluted and walked out the door as Sleggar picked up the model of the Fury, another man passing the two pilots as he walked in. "So this is where you ended up after Endymion?"
"Mu! You son of a bitch!" Sleggar stood up and the two ace pilots clapped eachother on the back before each taking a seat. "You're assigned to the Archangel?"
"Nah, I was assigned to escort a bunch of pilots to Heliopolis to pick up the G-Weapons. Only three of them got to their suits… Much of the Archangel's intended command crew died as well." He sighed as Sleggar nodded in understanding.
"So, you're in the same metaphorical boat as us. Captain Cassius is recovering in the medical wing but I know the man, he's too proud to get cybernetics, so he'll be stuck in a desk job for the rest of his career if he's lucky, eight percent of the crew, which was understrength to begin with, is now made up of civilian volunteers and really only the marines had a full complement before they took some losses at Gryps…"
Mu whistled. "So who's the Captain? You?"
"Hell no, I'm not cut out for warship command, Cassius brought over some rising star Lieutenant named Bright Noa for his XO position instead of someone with a higher rank." Sleggar admitted with a shrug.
Mu chuckled. "That sounds about right. Now, about those G-Weapons you have, who's piloting them?"
"The Gundams? I've got Unit 03, the Grey one with the bluish highlights, Sayla's got Unit 00, the blue and white one, Ajax has Unit 01, the one that's in the 'real type' simulator colors he's fond of for some god forsaken reason, and Amuro, the brown-haired kid you just passed, has Unit 02, which has the obnoxious yet oddly fitting white, blue, red, and gold high vis test scheme. Hell, his dad was one of the chief engineers for the entire V project and was on the design team for the 77 Guncannons and the 75 Guntanks."
Mu whistled. "On our end, we've got a trio of real oddball kids piloting the Gaia, Abyss and Chaos… Stella Loussier, Auel Nieder, and Sting Oakley respectively for each suit. As for Strike Unit 01, well we've got Kira Yamato, an Orb Citizen of all things, piloting that."
Sleggar raised an eyebrow. "The hell?"
"Yeah, kid's some kind of prodigy, smart enough to reprogram the shit operating system on the Strike while under fire, which immediately nearly got him killed because I kinda figured out he was a coordinator… While on the hangar deck… With a bunch of twitchy marines…" Mu chuckled, this time rather awkwardly as Sleggar facepalmed.
"Roy always did say you never knew when to keep your mouth shut…" He groused. "So, who's the acting Captain?"
"Some technical officer named Murrue Ramius, they wanted it to be me but again, are either of us cut out for warship command? Anyways, apparently she was assigned as an overseer with Morgenrote under the guise of being a college professor."
"Ramius… Wasn't her father the commanding officer of the Endymion fortress's defense wing…?" Sleggar asked, receiving an affirmative nod from Mu. "Now I remember… We owe the old man a drink in his honor for saving our asses from those Phantom Pain bastards and their Cyclops system…"
"Maybe when we're out of the frying pan and not in the fire… We'll have a toast to those who fell." Mu suggested as he leaned back in his chair.
Sleggar could only nod in agreement.
Bright walked into the lift with Murrue and glanced at her. "We'll need to keep this brief lest the enemy catches us while our ships are docked together as we exit the debris field."
"Agreed."
The two of them stepped onto the Roosevelt's bridge as the Marine on guard duty saluted, the two of them responding in kind as they walked up to the holotank emitters.
"Marker, bring up system level tactical information." Bright ordered as he clasped his hands behind his back.
"Roger that sir!" Marker replied as he typed on his console from his and Oscar's perch well above the deck.
The immediate area around the two officers was suddenly filled with live feeds of just about everything going on in the system being fed from the CIC.
"Oscar, highlight the pact ships for us."
"On it sir!"
The ZAFT and Zeon squadrons were promptly highlighted in red, signifying enemy units.
"They're linking up…" Murrue pointed out after mentally estimating the course and speeds of the two flotillas.
"Indeed… After which they'll come bearing down on us, Rosie is too powerful for them either to take on individually, even for that new ZAFT battle carrier. But together with those numbers and our understrength complement? That's when it becomes less clear…"
"My own crew is understaffed as well, the ten GAT-01Ds and Strike Unit 02 don't even have pilots, leaving us with four GAT-X series mobile suits, eight Moebius units whose pilots I refuse to sacrifice meaninglessly, and Commander La Flaga's Moebius Zero. With about twelve support type Mistrals intended for non-combat use if we decide to send people to die worthlessly for some reason." Murrue admitted with a sigh. "It gets worse when you realize all the experimental tech, including Argothan derived transformation mechanisms, they crammed into these machines makes every single one of them but the Duel, Strike and Buster a maintenance nightmare."
Bright hummed contemplatively. "Right... Show local star systems with charted hyperlanes."
The hologram shifted to show the local stars with a names, co-ordinates, and other key information like known system contents and territorial control.
"What are you thinking…?" Murrue asked as she glanced at Bright.
"There's an EA forward asteroid base, Trident, in the Divinidad system isn't there?"
"Yes… But why there?"
"Because it nominally belongs to the Phantom Pain taskforce according to intel reports… Which means they'll possibly have a mobile suit complement there. I'm no fan of them but if we can get them or the Pact forces following us to cripple or outright eliminate eachother we're killing multiple birds with one stone."
Murrue frowned and exhaled softly. "That's probably the true, but to get there we'd have to skim Garma Zabi's AO, which is probably what they want us to do."
"Not if we head through the system around MGR-1979+2552… It's got two charted hyperlanes, one on either end." Bright murmured.
"An active Magnetar?! Are you certain?!"
"It's our only real chance, they'd have to be insane to follow us and it'd take them too long to get around it, giving us time to elude them, if we go the long way it gives Garma Zabi time to maneuver a supported battle line to block us at the jump point." Bright responded. "So long as we stay in the safe zone, even at near relativistic speeds we'll be fine."
Murrue nodded. "Get too close and it'll start depolarizing our beam and linear cannons… And that's before we get into the danger zone where it starts messing with the human body's electrons."
Bright nodded as well. "Well, once we're done transferring supplies, we'll undock and make a beeline for the old survey hyperroute. With luck we just might make it out of here alive."
Athrun and the rest of the ZAFT reds alongside the greens stood in the Minerva's hangar bay in their normal suits as a red MS-06S Zaku Command Type skidded to a halt in front of them, the hangar sealing up and repressurizing soon after.
The Reds glanced up as the Zaku's hatch opened and Char Aznable stepped out onto the edge of his cockpit, wearing his famous uniform and mask instead of his normal suit.
"That's the Red Comet…" Someone murmured.
"They say he sank five battleships singlehandedly in less than six minutes at Loum…"
"One of Zeon's top aces, he's supposedly got more MS and fighter kills to his name than Commander Le Creuset."
Rau took off his helmet and walked forwards as Char floated down to the floor, ignoring the idle chatter, the two men shaking hands.
"Commander Aznable."
"Commander Le Creuset."
"I assume my Zaku will be refueled while we talk personally?" Char asked as he glanced at his mobile suit, the Zaku's simplistic aesthetics rather unnerving and menacing looking when placed next to the more ornately designed ZAFT units.
"But of course, there's a reason we standardized fuel supplies throughout the pact." Rau responded as he kicked off the floor and headed up to a hatch as Char followed.
Athrun glanced up at the Red Comet as he passed overhead but remained even faced.
"Can you believe the nerve of that guy…" Yzak mumbled.
Athrun glanced back at the rest of the Le Creuset Team. "Can it Yzak, Char Aznable is a guest aboard this ship and he will be treated with the respect afforded that of an allied officer."
"Athrun is right, you lot better get it into your skulls in case the Black Tri Stars come aboard, because those guys have beaten coordinators senseless in bar fights before." Rusty added, rubbing his side idly.
"How exactly do you know that…?" Lunamaria asked.
"I tried to defuse a fight once and ended up making it worse because I was just as drunk as the others, each one of them hits like a damn freight train…" Rusty admitted, neither Yzak or Shinn commenting as they imagined the three burly Tri-Stars pilots beating the living crap out of a trained special forces ZAFT redcoat and shuddered.
Even naturals with significant enough muscle mass could beat the crap out of coordinators after all.
The hangar chief floated over and yelled at them to move it because they were getting in the way, causing the flustered ZAFT pilots to scatter and join Rey, who'd had the sense to move after Rau and Char had left, on the boarding gantries.
EFS Roosevelt/EAS Archangel docking tunnel.
Kira sighed as he adjusted the collar of his new Eternia Alliance cadet's uniform as he, Miri, Sai, Flay, Kuzzey, and Tolle headed over to pick up some repair tools taken on by the Roosevelt at Gryps that were compatible with the Archangel and her mobile suits for Chief Murdoc. As part of their first mission as 'foreign volunteers' in OMNI Enforcer, they were also to try and foster good relations with the crew of the Federation ship.
They stopped at the threshold of the Roosevelt's docking collar and barring Flay, saluted the OOD. "Permission to come aboard."
The woman saluted back and nodded. "Granted, proceed to the checkpoint so that the Marines can verify your IDs.
Kira glanced back at his friends and Flay as they proceeded, seeing her practically hanging off Sai's arm before one of the Federation marines stopped them at the bulkhead checkpoint. "I'm sorry but only those with EA Military ID's are allowed past, acting Captain's orders given we have a sizable amount of refugees aboard." The man said, the vocoder on his helmet mildly distorting his speech.
Flay looked mildly irritated as Sai exhaled in exasperation. "I told you they wouldn't let you aboard, seeing the Alliance's MS was unavoidable but the Federation isn't just going to let you get close without authorization."
Flay pouted but didn't make a fuss, knowing that this was different compared to the relatively lax discipline on the Archangel.
"Ensign Badgiruel would love it here." Tolle joked idly, earning a couple chuckles from his friends.
"We'll be right back with those tools, just wait here okay Flay, and if we're attacked, head to whatever ship is closer immediately." Kira said as his ID was scanned.
"Alright, the five of you are cleared for entry make it quick and stay in the authorized areas or we'll be forced to detain you, that or shoot you for espionage depending on where we find you." The other marine stated bluntly as Kuzzey gulped visibly while the others frowned nervously.
"We'll keep that in mind..." Miriallia stated as they waited for the door.
The door opened and the five of them walked through, passing the marines guarding the other side, and following a pair of armed crewmen to the hangar deck, stepping through the threshold, Miriallia yelped as she realized that she wasn't wearing freefall use garments and stayed on the catwalk. "Just bring the tools over okay!?" She sputtered as she kept her uniform's skirt down with her hands.
Tolle and Sai shrugged as they followed Kira and Kuzzey past the lines of Guncannons.
["Standby for transfer of additional GM components from storage bay five."] The port side hangar's PA announced.
A Guncannon bearing EFMC markings and a dark navy blue and yellow color scheme marched past them as it headed towards a lift to the lower hangar decks.
["Clear elevator well six for transfer of Guntank 23 from ground vehicle bay four to maintenance deck two."]
Kira glanced over as they passed an octet of GMs undergoing construction, numerous crew members and manipulator cranes maneuvering parts for assembly.
"Hey Kira, those look like that 'Gundam' you told us about, which means they're probably the Federation counterpart to the Daggers!" Tolle said excitedly as they floated over to Chief Omar's station, where he was talking to Amuro and Chloe as they assembled a GM earmarked for Kallen, several of the machine's components already painted in Knight Four's distinctive Red and Orange scheme.
"Damnit Chloe let Amuro instruct you on what tools to use! He knows more about engineering than you do! And dammit Gideon the chest vents have to be painted Emerald! Don't give me that look it's what the pilot wants so just do it." Omar shouted as he spotted the Archangel volunteers landing next to him on the deck, their boots automatically gripping the deck plating to prevent them from bouncing off.
"You kids here for the tools Kojiro asked for?" Omar asked before shouting something at one of his subordinates about reactor linkages.
"Yes Chief."
"Alright, they're loaded over there next to the GM, Amuro'll show you exactly where, make sure you get out quickly enough." He turned away from them. "I don't care! Bring unit 00 up there ASAP… Well get the AI to drive it for you if Sayla is busy!" He shouted into a headset mic.
Kira nodded and floated over to the GM after kicking off the floor, Amuro glancing at him as he floated over, the two young men shaking hands. "So, this is what you look like without that normal suit on." Kira stated as Sai, Tolle, and Kuzzey floated behind him.
Amuro nodded. "Pretty much… But…" He glanced over at Omar and Chloe, the latter of whom was giving him a deadpan glare." I'm on punishment detail right now so I can't really talk… Maybe our Captains will let the crews mingle at some point later." He suggested.
Kira nodded in return, giving Amuro a smile in response. "Sounds like an idea, I'll bring it up to Lieutenant Ramius next time I see her, now about those tools…"
"They're down there." Amuro stated plainly as he pointed out the specific boxes with the tool sets.
"Thanks. We'll be taking these then I guess."
Amuro nodded as Kira and his friends picked up the tools before glancing back at them. "See ya later I guess, hopefully it won't be in combat next time."
Kira nodded as he glanced back. "Same…" He sighed and floated back up to where Miri was waiting, the five of them heading back to the Archangel after meeting up with the waiting Flay at the forward docking port airlock of the Roosevelt.
Amuro shrugged and returned to his work on the GM, glancing briefly at Chloe as Ryu floated over, the portly man of Brazilian descent glancing up at the mobile suit they were assembling. "You'll like the new GMs given what I've heard about them, very versatile and mobile design."
Chloe shrugged as she closed a panel after checking some wiring and thruster mechanics. "I guess. The Guncannons are fire support machines and it's been kind of aggravating when Amuro is right about us being liabilities to him..."
"Supposedly it boasts better acceleration than Amuro's Gundam actually, mostly due to the baseline model's lower mass." Ryu stated, giving them a wink as he continued to inspect the suit.
Knight lead smirked as she exchanged a glance with Amuro, the latter sighing as he tested an artificial muscle section in the knee joint to ensure it was working properly, over the next few minutes he kept glancing back at her, seeing that same shit-eating grin on her face as she waited for an opening.
"Don't say it…" Amuro grumbled as Ryu floated off to inspect the next GM undergoing assembly.
"I was just-" Chloe began before the alarms began to blare.
["Attention all hands, level one battle stations, pact warships have engaged combat speed and are launching mobile suits, all pilots report to your mobile suits and fighters and proceed to your assigned launch decks."] The hanger PA announced as Amuro and Chloe glanced at eachother, eyes wide.
"Well… At least we're wearing our normal suits…" Amuro mumbled as the two kicked off from the GM and headed towards their assigned MS, Chloe using a hapless crewman as a maneuvering point to make her way to her pink and gold Guncannon unit while Amuro entered Gundam 02 and began an emergency startup.
Ammo was rapidly loaded onto the Guncannon as manipulator arms handed it a beam rifle and shield, the latter of which locked into an articulated point on the left arm while a handle slid into the Guncannon's free hand before it stomped forwards as the joints unlocked.
Both machines joined the small flood of MS heading up to the port lower launch deck, waiting in line for their turn at elevators.
Heliopolis Alpha local 'airspace.'
Kira grimaced as the Strike joined the Gaia, Abyss and Chaos, in addition to Commander La Flaga's Mobeius Zero, and a mixed bag of Guncannons, Saberfish and GMs from the Roosevelt in picket formation between the two UW ships and their adversaries. The standard Moebius units remained in formation around Mu having been setup as drone fighters as the Commander was unwilling to throw away lives whilst Kira worked on fixing the bugs in the Long Dagger OS.
"All we have to do is cover the ships until the Orb battlegroup that just entered the system arrives and makes the Pact back down, so that means defensive action only…" He mused, watching the enemy mobile suits approach, noting the Duel, Buster, Blitz, and the other Strike had joined the Aegis and Impulse, and all of them were surrounded by Zakus, GINNS, a handful of CGUEs, and fighters.
Three IFFs popped up, reading RX-78-2 Gundam, and were assigned the associated unit numbers by the Archangel's CIC, causing Kira to sigh in relief.
"Makes this fight more even…" He mused as he checked the Strike's reactor drain rate, phase shift armor was hardly an efficient system, even though the electrical adjustments to the armor's molecular structure increased durability to levels normally only obtained by purified Gundanium, a luna titanium majority composite named after Doctor Tomino's Gundam theory, it came at the cost of high power consumption under fire, meaning that the system would automatically shut down after a certain number of consecutive hits to avoid causing undue harm by overstressing the reactor, this was in addition to the hefty power drain it had while even idly active, meaning he could get at max maybe half an hour out of the system, which wasn't that bad considering most combat engagements were exceedingly fast paced unless it was a major set-piece battle.
["All forces, enemy units incoming, about twenty Zakus, sixteen GINNs, three standard CGUEs, two modified CGUEs, forty Dopps, thirty Infestus and… Confirmed IDs as Duel, Buster, Blitz, Strike 02, Impulse, and Aegis… Hold on, confirming one modified Zaku Command type moving at three times the velocity of the others… It's... It's the Red Comet!"] Miriallia announced over the EA channel, Kira beginning to shake slightly, Athrun might hold back but the Red Comet was doubtlessly a cut above him and the other pilots of the stolen G-Weapons regardless.
"Right… Kira Yamato, Strike, engaging enemy units!" He hit the thrusters of the Aile equipped Strike Gundam and rushed to cut off the stolen G-Weapons alongside the Gaia, Chaos, and Abyss while the others focused on the mass production MS.
Clashing sabers with the Aegis, Kira glanced off to the side to see the other Alliance G-Weapons in a glorified feeding frenzy as they went after the Impulse and Strike-02, leaving him to deal with the Duel, Buster, Blitz and the Aegis.
"Gee thanks guys… Something is seriously messed up with those other kids that're piloting those machines…" He mumbled before a volley of beam rifle shots from the Duel snapped him back to reality as the Buster and Blitz slipped past.
["Kira! Just power down that mobile suit's weapons and come with us!"] Athrun demanded over a point to point laser channel as he fired a volley of missiles at the Strike, which the latter MS intercepted with its CIWS vulcans and point lasers.
"I can't exactly do that Athrun… There's people I have to protect on that ship!" The Aile equipped Strike charged forwards.
["Damnit Kira you're a coordinator! We shouldn't be fighting eachother!"] Athrun growled as the Aegis dodged Kira's attack with basic AMBAC maneuvering, Kira turning the Strike and firing at the Aegis once he'd passed the other machine, which blocked the beams with its shield.
"Don't make this about that Athrun, what would you do in my place?!" Kira demanded as the Aegis stopped briefly before rocketing forwards again without an answer.
The Aegis sideslipped around the Strike and attempted to cleave through the Aile pack, Kira blocking the attack with the shield before swiping at the Duel as it closed in.
"Not gonna be easy… They're both far better trained than I am, my only advantage is that their OS's aren't fully patched yet given how jerky their movements are…" Kira thought as he dodged another strike from the Aegis by backing off, the suit's AMBAC system and foot thrusters helping correct the Strike's attitude before he boosted towards Athrun again, continuing their isolated clash, keeping a wary eye on the Duel's movements as it fired away with its beam rifle.
"Clear shot straight to the legged ship and the Trojan Horse… Not gonna jinx it though…" Dearka mumbled as he and Nicol headed for the Archangel and Roosevelt, the two carriers spewing up a veritable wall of flak, with the Midway-class lending her light and medium beam cannons to the barrage as well, something that made Dearka pretty nervous given the Buster was still having response time issues. "Nicol! Go for the legged ship's bridge, I'll distract this damn horse!"
["Roger Dearka."] The soft-spoken scion of the Amalfi family responded before heading straight into the teeth of the Archangel's Igelstellung 75mm rotary CIWS and Stachelschweinstellung 127mm automatic linear flak guns, dodging as much fire as possible to avoid stressing the energy load of his suit before blowing away two of the dorsal CIWS mounts with the rocket harpoons mounted on the Blitz's shield.
Dearka smirked and combined the Buster's main weapons into the hyper-impulse assault gun formation, taking aim at Rosie's bridge tower. "Just gotta sync fire control to the barrier field refresh… And then shoot when it's weakest… With luck the first shot'll punch through or disrupt the refresh cycle for the followup" Before he could pull the trigger after the sync confirmed, an alarm tone blared in his helmet, causing Dearka and thus the Buster to look down in response to the indicated direction of the hostile as a magenta beam shot past the Buster's torso. "OH SHIT!" He swore loudly as he saw the RX-78-2/02 racing up towards him with four uniquely colored Guncannons in tow, all five MS firing at him with their beam rifles.
The Buster danced around their shots as best Dearka could make it, while he was certainly not a novice, the Buster wasn't optimized for mid-close-range fights, and its OS was still buggy as the arms jerked suddenly, throwing off his counter attack shot and sending it off into deep space. As the Guncannons and Gundam flashed past him and began to encircle him in a crossfire the Buster narrowly dodged another salvo of beam rifle shots from all five machines, Dearka decided to swallow his pride, he glanced at where Yzak was backing up Athrun and opened a channel. "Hey Yzak, Athrun! I've found the fourth Feddie G-Weapon and he's got backup! Would one of you two quit fucking around with the Strike and come bail me out of this before they pin me down and go after Nicol too!?"
["Goddamnit Dearka!"] Yzak groused as the Duel broke off and raced towards the Buster, firing shots down at the Guncannons and forcing them to scatter.
Mu glanced around as he looked for Rau Le Crueset's mobile suit, having sensed the familiar pressure of the ZAFT ace when he'd launched. Spotting the Silver CGUE as it tore the limb off a Guncannon that had gotten too close and simultaneously riddled a GM's leg with holes from its shield vulcan, forcing it to withdraw back to the Roosevelt, Mu began his attack run.
"Gotta time this right…" Mu muttered to himself as he dispersed the Zero's gunpods.
["Is that you again Mu you annoying Gnat!"] Rau asked as he holed the Guncannon through the torso with his rifle before the CGUE's monoeye tracked over to the Moebius Zero, the ZAFT machine kicking the artillery MS away and letting it join the debris field.
"Damnit!" Mu dodged as Rau opened fire on him whilst the drone Moebius units engaged, the Silver Phantom of Yggdrasil dodging every strike Mu made against him as he swatted down the drones and dodged fire from the gunpods, striking one of them down as well.
["Absolutely pathetic Mu La Flaga! Did you honestly think that I wouldn't be prepared for such parlor tricks?"] Rau taunted before a beam rifle shot carved through the left arm and shield of the CGUE.
["Were you prepared for me!?"] Sleggar roared as his Gundam dove into the fray and forced Rau to back off.
["Sleggar Law! To see the Falcon of Loum here as well! Either I'm blessed in that I can destroy you both in one fell swoop or lady luck truly hates me!"] Rau retorted as he dodged the now combined fire from the two UW aces, slowly drawing them away from the rest of his forces.
Sayla sliced a Dopp in half and stopped briefly as she felt a tingling sensation in the back of her mind. "Casval…" She turned and blocked a slash from Char's heathawk with her beam saber, her usual calm breaking down as old memories rushed forth, and the sensations confirmed that the Red Comet was indeed her brother like she'd long suspected.
["Artesia… So, it is you after all…"] Char murmured over a direct laser-line comm channel.
It seemed that he too, had suspicions that she was the Gorgon of Hatte.
Gundam Unit 00 forced him back as the Blue and White machine's red targeting sensor 'eyes' gleamed dangerously. "Casval why are you serving the Zabis! I thought you'd join the Federation to destroy them!"
["I could ask the same for you being in the Federation Military Artesia! What happened to the gentle girl who wanted to be a Doctor and hated war!"] Char retorted as he clashed his machine's weapon with hers again, both breaking apart and firing a salvo of missiles at eachother.
"That girl died when Zeon attacked New Texas and killed what was left of the Mass family…" Sayla stated after a moment, beating back a mental probe from her brother in an unwelcome and intrusive attempt to figure out her reasons for joining the EFSF and managing to get a glimpse inside his own mind before slamming her mental barriers shut in response to what she'd seen.
Now trembling as she gripped the control sticks of her machine, she glared at the Zaku in front of her, the Gundam's targeting optic protection shutters narrowing as the suit's AI forced the machine to mimic her facial expression, making it look like the suit itself was leering at the Red Comet.
["Artesia…"] Char's eyes widened behind his mask as he realized what memories his sister had stumbled across in the moment their minds touched before her mental barriers slammed shut.
"BASTARD! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO KILLED THEM CASVAL! THE MASS'S WERE FRIENDS OF OUR FATHER! HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO THEM!? HOW!" Sayla roared as she closed the line, with tears in her eyes she charged her Gundam towards her brother's Zaku repeatedly, forcing him to break off every time, the sheer savagery of her strikes catching the Red Comet off guard as he was forced to side-strafe several times to dodge the wild swings of her beam saber.
With Char unable to bring himself to seriously fight his angered and distraught sister and Sayla too incoherent to seriously threaten the life of her brother, neither were able to hold the definitive advantage in either ranged or close quarters combat, lending their fight to a stalemate as the Red and Blue mobile suits dueled, almost serenely isolated from the larger battle.
Amuro glanced briefly over to where Sayla and Char were fighting before turning his attention to the Duel Gundam, as far as he could tell it was the G-Project's counterpart to the RX-78, a well-balanced no-frills all-rounder, and likely the basis for the other machines.
"Alright, let's see what you're made of…" Amuro kicked the left-side thrusters up and both Gundams circled around the other, sizing eachother up like two old-west gunmen or a pair of opposing samurai. Amuro noticing his opponent's moves weren't all that smooth.
"His OS is still incomplete... They must have panic sortied the G-Weapons because of the Roosevelt's arrival... I can use that!" He realized.
It was the Duel that made the first move, drawing a beam saber and clashing blades with Amuro as the two darted back from eachother before clashing again, their movements blurred to the human eye as Yzak's eyes widened.
"No fucking way, this guy's a natural, how the hell is he keeping up with me!?" The scion of the Joule family thought as Gundam-02 feinted towards him before spinning his mobile suit with a leg swipe and kicking the Duel away.
Grunting, Yzak backed off as Nicol broke off from his run on the legged ship to fire a volley of beam pistol shots at the Gundam which Amuro blocked with the shield.
["Yzak! Are you alright?"] His teammate asked, concern clearly audible in his tone.
"I'm fine… What about the legged ship?"
["The Gaia forced me away after using Shinn as a platform to increase its velocity… We need to fall back, an Orb taskforce just showed up and they're demanding we vacate their territorial space immediately, they're broadcasting on all channels."]
Turning the Duel's head to scan the battleground, Yzak had noted it was eerily still, Mobile suits backing off from eachother and fighters breaking away from their dogfights, switching onto the all comms channel he frowned as a repeated transmission came through.
["Repeat, we demand all hostilities cease and both United Worlds and Pact forces leave our territorial space immediately, any vessel that refuses will be treated as hostile and sunk."]
"Tch… Right, we should've vacated this system long before their response fleet showed up."
Opening an audio channel to Gundam 02, Yzak narrowed his eyes. "Don't think this means we're finished you bastard! You'll rue the day you crossed Yzak Joule yet!" Closing the line, he turned and went full burn back to the Minerva.
["Did he seriously just… Yzak you dumbass!"] Dearka groaned as the Buster and Blitz followed the Duel back to the Minerva.
Amuro for his part could only blink as Chloe's Guncannon drifted closer to him, the entire team having coordinated their plan of action this time instead of Amuro just going ahead and doing his own thing.
A step in the right direction he supposed.
["What was that about…?"]
"I think I just made a rival or something…"
["With the son of one of the Zodiac Alliance's radical faction councilors no less…"] Naoto stated as the Knights headed back to Rosie's port launch/recovery deck.
"Oh wonderful…" Amuro muttered as the Gundam touched down and magnetized to the floor, marching to an available berth.
["Well at least we're acting like a team now…"] Suzaku pointed out.
["Thank the lord for small miracles…"] Kallen mumbled as their suits docked and began to power down.
Rau's CGUE flared its monoeye before turning and racing back towards the Pact flotilla, joined shortly by Char's Zaku as Sleggar and Mu flew over to Sayla's Gundam. ["We'll be settling this another time Mu."] The ZAFT ace taunted one final time as he withdrew.
"Sayla! Report!"
There was a moment before she opened a comm channel to answer Sleggar's query. ["I'm fine… Let's head back…"]
Sleggar sighed before having his suit give Mu a salute and the pair of Gundams headed back to the Roosevelt.
EFS Franklin D Roosevelt.
Bright frowned as the Orb Second Rapid Response fleet loomed large on the main screen, this was the kind of overwhelming firepower, elite level military training, and technological acuity that made the Orb Union an unattractive target unlike Sanc, Northernbell or Riah.
"Tactical reports eight Izumo-class battlecruisers, four Kii-class fast battleships, two Zuihou-class light carriers, four Taiyou-class escort carriers, four Unryuu-class medium fleet carriers, twelve Suzuya-class strike cruisers, sixteen Hiburi-class frigates, and twenty Shinonome-class destroyers. Backed by eight Taigei-class high speed support and replenishment vessels." Oscar drawled off as Shute engaged in a conversation with the commander of the Orb taskforce, explaining their situation.
"Confirm nav computer link to the Archangel."
"Nav computer link confirmed!" Marker replied. "We're ready to go at any time."
"Sir! The Orb fleet says we have an hour to vacate the system before they begin firing on us!" Shute reported, Bright assumed they were being generous.
"Inform them that we'll be out of the system in less than a sixth of that." Bright ordered as he narrowed his eyes at the lights of the pact ships scurrying away.
"Yes sir!"
"Are all of ours recovered?" Bright asked as he picked up the handset and engaged a ship to ship line with the Archangel's bridge.
"Confirmed sir!" Oscar reported as he swept through several pages of reports.
"Lieutenant Ramius is your ship synced with ours?"
There was a brief pause as Murrue checked. ["Confirmed."]
"Roger, tell your crew to brace for immediate jump, we're getting out of here!"
["Roger."]
Bright put down the handset as he mentally counted down, the Archangel and Roosevelt accelerating to relativistic speeds and jumping mere moments later.
Hayato grunted as he felt the ship lurch suddenly before stabilizing as he finished up his latest simulator course, frowning as he stepped out of the Guncannon sim.
"What's going on?"
The Staff Sergeant that was his arbitrary DI glanced at him. "We've just jumped again."
Hayato sighed and glanced at the decks above him before releasing his clenched fists.
"Amuro… I'll show you that you're not the only one of us who can fight…" He mused as he thought of how absurdly lucky the other teen was to be able to pilot a machine of such strength.
"Alright now onto your next course maggot, I know for a damn fact you're envious of Unit 02's pilot so get your ass in gear unless you want to be shining the bottom of his Mobile Suit's footpads for the rest of your career!" The Staff Sergeant shouted as Hayato stood straight and began his latest set of laps through the vehicle bays.
"I'll show Amuro… Kai… Those Zeek bastards… I'll show them all what I'm capable of!" The young man thought as he ran past a line of M61 Tanks.
Chloe yawned as she relaxed in the pilot's rec room, Amuro snoozing away in the chair next to her after Chief Omar released them to get some rest.
Everyone was exhausted, two high tension combat sorties, no matter how brief, within a couple hours of each other was draining due to the adrenaline rush, and while the ship's crew was mostly alert the pilots were beginning to get worn down due to lack of sleep.
Sleggar frowned as he and Ajax watched them before glancing at his subordinate out of the corner of his eye. "How's Sayla doing…" A statement, not a question.
"She's… Calming down… I don't know what she saw inside the Red Comet's head, but it's got her extremely worked up…" Ajax sighed as he scratched the back of his head.
"Damnit…" Sleggar himself yawned as he sat back. "We've been worked up too much. Everyone's so tense that when we actually do sortie it exhausts us twice as quickly…"
"Having two high profile pact aces after our asses tends to do that." Ajax pointed out dryly as Chloe finally nodded off on the far side of the room and flopped onto Amuro's lap unintentionally.
"Yeah… Especially for those kids… I'm still not sure about all this hokey psionic stuff or whatever but if Sayla says it's real then I'll go along with it until I've got definite proof otherwise." Sleggar stated as another group of pilots filed into the room.
"On the bright side, we're going to have to continue transferring supplies to the Archangel once we revert, thankfully the system has a couple gas giants we can hide in the L2 points of while we do that and evaluate the damage we've taken…"
Sleggar shrugged idly as another of the Knights, Kallen, dropped as well.
Naoto simply sighed as he and Suzaku watched the rest sleep.
"So how long do you think we'll get to rest…?" Naoto asked.
"A day or two at best…"
"That also gives them plenty of time to get ahead of us…"
"Or contact Garma Zabi given his AO is in our path like everyone else is pointing out…" Suzaku noted.
Neither of them had anything much to say afterwards.
ZAS Minerva.
Shinn watched as the Impulse's components were docked into the Minerva's primary fighter loading bay, which was intended for multiple space torpedo boat size vessels at max.
"Switching the Striker Mod 2 packs is going to be a pain in the ass…" He mumbled as he glanced at the systems setup, which would require a major refit to the ship's internals to work as desired, hence why they were resorting to using several modified drone units as delivery vehicles launched from the same catapult.
He frowned as he remembered how the three machines had fought him and Rusty to a standstill while Luna's and Rey's CGUEs were kept at bay by the new Federation mass production units. Annoying given their focus on him, although the Impulse and Blitz had some pretty gamechanging tech admittedly, the Blitz's Mirage Colloid stealth system, which rendered it invisible to the visual spectrum and most military and civilian sensor types. And the Impulse's core block system and the more notable barrier projectors mounted in the shield, admittedly they were only rated for anti-mobile suit armaments and other lighter weapons.
They were just an annoyance however...
That Orb battlegroup however… At the very edge of Orb's territorial space they had better response time than the forces guarding the core colonies did six years ago…
And it pissed him off.
Shinn clenched a fist and slammed it against the wall.
"Uzumi Atha you damn idealistic weak-willed idiot…" Shinn mumbled to himself as he headed back to his quarters.
Lunamaria and Rey watched him with concern.
"So what's Shinn's deal with Orb… I know he's a migrant from there but…"
Rey looked at her. "His family was killed in the Elysium 'incident', Blue Cosmos kill teams entered the colony and while they were eventually stopped by the security forces but not after causing severe casualties among the civilian population… As a second-generation coordinator, Shinn's grandparents, whom he was visiting at the time, were targeted as race-traitors by those psychopaths… Both his parents and grandparents were killed by a small team of Blue Cosmos fighters and his sister crippled before a SWAT team backed by the garrison troops cut their attackers down…" He explained.
Luna's eyes widened as she glanced back at Shinn. "But how does that explain his deal with Uzumi Atha…?"
"Because, the colony was run by the Seiran family… There's no way many of those men and women would have gotten aboard without the say so of them or one of the subordinates, all of them were on Orb's no-entry list and should've been shot on sight by security when they tried to enter. Shinn believes if Lord Atha had taken a harder stance on security and reigning in the nobility rather than preaching peace during that period, his family wouldn't have died."
"Oh…" Luna murmured as Rey nodded.
"He couldn't stay in Orb any longer, and he took his sister and moved to the Zodiac Alliance soon after."
Luna didn't say anymore, sighing and heading back to her quarters while Rey wondered if that infodump had been too much for her to handle.
PZS Falmel. June 7 SE 0279.
Char laid in bed, frowning as he mentally went through his encounter with his sister, of all the things that could've happened, what did happen was the most soul shattering experience he'd had in a long time.
His sister's rage and hatred were so palpable it continued to unnerve him.
"Artesia…" He murmured as he rolled onto his side and continued attempting to sleep.
But the guilt of his part of the attack on New Texas wouldn't go away… And Artesia hadn't seen the whole story… How he and Lino were effectively forced to do wipe out much of the Mass family personally to throw off the Zabi's secret police.
It still sickened him.
Slipping out of bed, Char walked to the bathroom to take a shower.
If he couldn't sleep, he might as well do something productive.
EAS Archangel. June 7 SE 0279.
Murrue sighed as the Archangel continued its trip through subspace, it would be another five hours before they reached the Magnetar given the speeds of both ships, so there was plenty of time to catch up on rest before they had to inspect the damage to their ship.
Getting up from her chair, she stretched and began to head for the door. "Natarle, you have the bridge."
"Aye aye Ma'am…" The ship's doctrinal CIC officer responded before returning to her tasks.
Stepping out into the hallway, Murrue noticed two individuals in labcoats waiting pensively for her.
"May I assist you…?"
"Lieutenant Ramius… There is an urgent matter we need to discuss regarding our request to use this ship's medical synthesizers…" The first man said, glancing back at his compatriot whom had a nervous and guilty look on their face.
"Why? Surely you can't be serious about using our limited chemical stocks for personal use…?"
"It's not for us, it's for the pilots of Gaia, Abyss, and Chaos…"
"I still don't understand, they seem healthy if not a little wild and undisciplined…" Murrue responded.
Both men pensively looked at eachother before the second one spoke up. "That's because they're extended Ma'am…"
"Andsworth!"
"We can hardly keep this a secret, you know I was roped into this because of my biological expertise, that's why they sent you and me, because we're as expendable to bastards running the program as those children are since we feel guilty about what we did!" He responded heatedly.
"Extended… I don't understand."
"They're classified as biological CPUs, super soldiers meant to rival coordinators and evolved humans like Enferians in all aspects of combat."
Murrue's eyes widened in shock. "But bio-augmentation is legally limited only to specific special forces units!"
"And that's the issue, the Alliance stonewalled the treaty enough to give them a legal grey area to enable this, by listing Phantom Pain as one of these special forces units and assigning every single extended to them… So there's technically nothing illegal about these children…" Andsworth replied, drained.
"More to the point, if they don't get the medical treatments they require regularly… They will die." The other man stated grimly.
Murrue tensed up before sighing, as much as she hated this, there were both moral and practical concerns driving her decision, she didn't wish for these children to die, some part of her hoping that perhaps another group could save them from this hell her nation had put them in, the other was that they needed every pilot they could get…
"Very well then, you have access to the ship's manufacturing systems and synthesizers for whatever you need to keep them alive…"
Andsworth sighed. "Thank you, ma'am…"
Murrue nodded as she began walked back to her quarters, passing Mu on the way there.
"What was that about…?" He asked.
She shook her head. "I'll tell you later."
Mu shrugged as he headed back to his office.
EFS Franklin D Roosevelt.
Bright stepped into the recovery ward and walked to Captain Cassius's bedside.
"Captain…"
The older man opened his eyes and glanced over at Bright. "You've done an outstanding job according to Ryu…"
Bright allowed a smile to cross his face. "Thank you, Captain…"
"That may be my rank, but you're this ship's commanding officer now Bright… Did I just contradict myself for no reason…? Oh, bother it must be the medication they have me on…"
Bright shook his head, a genuine smile on his face for the first time since this entire mess began. "Captain, if you need anything, just notify KOSMOS and she'll inform the medical staff."
Cassius nodded as Bright saluted before turning and walking out of the room. "He'll be a fine command officer one day… You always had an eye for finding talented people Johann…" Cassius chuckled to himself.
Stepping out into the hallway, Bright passed a few refugees, whom being watched by a pair of marines. In all the commotion it was easy to forget that they had many civilians onboard due to the circumstances behind their current state of affairs.
"Corporal."
"Sir!" The ranking enlistedman and the PFC next to him saluted.
"What's the status on finding quarters for the refugees?" Bright asked, glancing over at a child that retreated behind their mother's legs.
"We're almost done setting things up, we've got the MP detachment running law enforcement patrols to prevent petty crime and in the worst cases, rape or murder, power suits tend to make civvies think twice about doing shit anyways sir." The man replied.
Bright nodded, it wasn't favorable but a murder or rape on the ship would immediately cause a spike in tensions, especially if it involved the crew in any way. "Right, keep the vast bulk of the crew away from those areas and make sure the civilians stay out of all areas designated as off limits to them."
The man nodded. "Will that be all sir?"
Bright nodded back. "That'll be all for now Corporal." He entered a lift and sighed as the doors shut. "Command quarters level."
The lift chimed and began to ascend as bright thought of the situation he was currently in.
"A shame more habitable planets don't exist to let us give the crew decent shore leave…" He mused, although the number of habitable worlds was indeed far above AD era expectations, nearly eight hundred planets and moons over the Orion arm, something that Bright found rather suspicious, there was no way that such a sizeable number of planets within tolerable limits for humanity was a coincidence, something many people before him had undoubtedly thought. And the existence of the Argotha had made it clear that it was very possible that humanity wasn't the first in the region to climb to spatial dominance…
"Were the planets we colonized the leftovers of some old Empire that shared similar biology to us…? Or did someone purposely leave these worlds here in anticipation of humanity ascending to the stars…"
Of course, there would be no answers to this question, not now or perhaps ever.
"What're the casualties…" Bright asked.
"Three Guncannons and one GM lost sir, according to Sleggar one of them had the misfortune of running into Le Creuset." The same artificial female voice he'd conferred with several times stated.
Bright sighed, four more next of kin notes he'd have to sign off on, and he knew they wouldn't be the last. "Too many people have already died in this war…" They'd gotten lucky that their prior battle with the Red Comet's forced had no casualties.
That luck clearly wasn't holding out.
Amuro blinked as he floated weightlessly through the hangar deck of an Aetos-class carrier.
"Odd… I've never been on one of these ships before… And this is way too vivid and consistent to be a dream…"
A man in a federation normal suit gave a thumbs up to Amuro as 'he' looked over at them.
"Your fighter's refueled and ready to go Knight 5."
"Roger."
"That was Chloe's voice… So, she'd been a fighter pilot before transferring to the mobile suit corps… Explains why she had a callsign."
As Chloe strapped herself into the cockpit of a Saberfish and went through a contracted version of the pre-flight checks, Amuro frowned mentally. "Is this why she was so tense regarding that statement Suzaku made about the previous iteration being 'almost wiped out.'"
Her fighter taxied to an elevator and was raised to the flight deck, the flashes of weapons fire and explosions visible in the distance as the battle of Loum raged in the background.
["Hey Five, you think we'll nail ourselves any Zakus this time?"] Someone Amuro didn't recognize asked.
"Hopefully Six." Chloe responded as an alarm tone blared in her fighter and AA fire and missiles from the light carrier and her escorts blazed into the void.
["INCOMING ENEMY MOBILE SUITS, TWO ZAKUS! ALL DEFENSE FIGHTERS GO TO EMERGENCY LAUNCH STATUS"] Someone shouted into the comms, likely the ship's Star Boss or Tactical Controller.
Saberfish began to lift off the flight deck as their underside verniers flared, engines coming to life as they tried to get voidborne in time to counter the attack as a blue and green high mobility Zaku bore down on them, backed by a Blue and Gold standard model command unit.
Both machines tore into the carrier force, maneuvering around the barrier fields faster than they could be redirected to counter and tearing into the fighters and mobile pods protecting the flotilla.
Chloe snarled as she charged towards one of the Zakus, the high mobility type, the machine eyeing her and deftly dodging her missile salvo, intercepting or distracting the incoming munitions, with the fighter's 25mm cannon shells bouncing off its shield, the pilot decided they'd had enough of the annoyance and backhanded her fighter away as it buzzed past them, Chloe's helmet smashed into the control console, the visor shattering, alarm tones blared, there was blood.
And everything went dark.
Amuro heard heavy breathing as Chloe's eyes opened and fuzziness was replaced by the inside of a ship's medbay.
There was a haze of words, mostly medical terms and the such, but one thing made it through the din.
"She's the only survivor of Light Carrier Group 27…"
Followed by another voice, one that certainly wasn't from the memory.
"How the FUCK are you in my head."
And then all hell broke loose.
Amuro slammed into the floor as Chloe straddled him, hands on his chest and her face red with fury.
"What. Did. You. See." She snarled as Kallen woke up and fell off her chair.
Suzaku and Naoto were too stunned to do anything as Kallen got up and wrenched her squadron leader off Amuro.
"What the fuck are you doing Chloe!" Kallen hissed, trying to avoid making a scene.
The Enferian pilot snarled, her golden eyes narrowing as she lowered her fists. "I'm going to go talk to Commander Mass because she has to know what's going on with the lot of us, stuff like having another person looking through your head isn't normal." She stated before storming out of the rec room, dragging Amuro along with her.
"Okay… What the hell is that about…" Kallen asked.
"You'll find out soon enough… This is a matter for the two of them… And Commander Mass to discuss… I suggest you three go after them before you lose track." Sleggar stated as he loomed over them.
The other three members of the Black Knights glanced at eachother before shrugging and following their Lead and Fifth.
Sayla Mass stood up and rubbed her eyes.
"No sense crying over it anymore… For all I know the Zabis probably had a gun to his head... Doesn't mean I can forgive him for what he's done..."
Sensing something, she glanced over at the door to her room as it slid open revealing Chloe Chaffee standing there, fury on her face Amuro and the rest of the Knights in tow.
"Tell us everything you know about whatever is happening to us… Now."
Sayla chuckled darkly, the glow of subspace casting an eerie light into the otherwise dark room from the window as the door slammed shut behind Kallen, the girl yelping in surprise. "Alright… Each of you take a seat… Because I guess I'm going to have to explain Zeon Deikum's newtype theory to all of you…"
PZS Falmel.
["So the Red Comet and the Silver Phantom have need of my aid…"] Garma Zabi, the youngest of Degwin Sodo Zabi's children stated as a hastily cleaned up Char Aznable clasped his hands behind his back, for t.
"While Grand Admiral Dozle is currently massing a fleet to sink the Trojan Horse, it'll take significant amount of time even given his generous estimate of a month of muster time and any delays on his end could enable our prey to escape to a Federation or other UW stronghold before they can begin their operations, and this Alliance attack ship has also put a dent in my plans as its fighting strength is still relatively unknown." Char replied.
["Indeed that sounds like an issue… I have the Sixteenth fast battle flotilla under Vice Admiral Bittenfeld on standby… They'll join your hunt once they've finished resupplying, actually they should be undergoing their resupply in the Patalognia system, considering you'll end up there soon it should be a perfect time to talk strategy while you resupply."]
Chair raised an eyebrow as he exchanged a glance with Dren. "I would be honored to have the legendary Black Lancers accompany us on our hunt."
["Very well then, it shouldn't take them long to do so and transit to meet your group, even if you are unable to sink the Trojan Horse or this 'Legged Ship' even with their help, then my primary battle line should be able to pin it down for either us or the Grand Admiral's forces to finish off at our whim."] Garma stated confidently.
Char nodded, again anticipating a possible Federation trap by deliberately using one of their newest ships as bait but not voicing his concerns. It suited him just fine if the UW forces killed Garma and Dozle, it would be less of a weight on his conscience and it would bring him one step closer to his ultimate goal.
Bringing down Gihren Zabi.
["If that'll be all Char, I'm needed for a formal affair on Argentium, the board of directors of the Bem Corporation is hosting a Gala there in the hopes of ensuring their research labs remain out of the hands of our military."]
Char smirked. "Even Riah has more backbone than some people, good luck dealing with the politicians and bureaucrats Garma."
["Thank you Char, I'll probably need it."] Garma said before cutting the transmission.
"Bittenfeld… He's one of Reinhard's men correct…?" Dren asked.
"Indeed, my dear Dren…" His voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper. "My agreement with Reinhard still stands, he himself narrowly avoided being purged by Gihren's men or some toadying noble several times himself and neither of us have any reason to renege on it."
Dren nodded as Lieutenant Lino Fernandez walked onto the bridge. "I'll be taking over the watch from here Dren."
The heavyset man nodded at him and clapped the younger officer on the back. "Good luck, our intrepid Commander hasn't been able to get much sleep so keep the coffee machine running." He half-joked as he walked to the bridge lift.
"So, what's our new gameplan?" Lino asked as he walked up to Char.
Char smirked at him. "Harry the enemy into Bittenfeld's flotilla, if we fail then continue our original harassment objective to wear down the enemy for a final attack either by Garma's forces or Dozle's hunter-killer fleet."
"Sounds simple enough."
"Only on paper Lino… Only on paper." Char chuckled as the joint ZAFT/Zeon squadron began to accelerate towards the next jump point on the far edge of the Beta Falco system.