Disclaimer: We own neither the Metal Gear Solid nor the Gundam franchises, though I do wish I could write stories like Kojima can. Also, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is a Hideo Kojima game!
Co-written with DragonKnightRyu
Chapter 2: The Storm
Space Colony Heliopolis
"Hm!?" a blonde man in a pilot suit jerked upright as he felt his sixth sense tingling. "Fuck me, Le Creuset's here!"
He practically jumped off the bunk where he had been resting and zipped up his pilot suit all the way while grabbing his helmet from a nearby stand. That done, he cracked his knuckles and stalked towards the door with a heavy feeling weighing over his heart. That sense of his was never wrong - oh how he hated it sometimes.
"Lieutenant?" another pilot questioned in confusion as the man brushed past. "What do you mean?"
"Get to your units! ZAFT is coming!" Lieutenant Mu La Flaga reached the door and opened it, scrambling out and heading for the hangar where his Moebius Zero was stored. "I know the masked bastard - he'll be attacking the colony, repercussions be damned!" he growled.
"Y-yes sir!" the pilots responded, grabbing his helmet as well as they hurried to the hangar. "But… how do you know it's him?"
"It's a gut feeling, and I'm always right about this kind of thing," Mu explained, picking up the pace. "Just get in your units, he'll come very soon."
"Right," the pilot replied unsurely, but wasn't willing to contradict his superior.
It didn't take long at all for the alarms to start blaring, while they were still halfway to the hangar where their units were being kept.
"Condition Red! Condition Red! ZAFT GiNNs are attacking the colony!" the captain reported over the comms.
At the same time, the entire ship shook as explosions rocked the colony.
"Fuck me," Mu repeated, breaking into a run.
Morgenroete Factory District
"I don't know how large a scale this attack is going to be, but it seems there's a very good chance it's ZAFT on the attacking side," Snake said, completely unfazed by the shaking, letting his throat mike pick up what he was saying as he spotted his gear - hidden in a cardboard box that had been shipped into the base by the Support Unit. "We'll likely have mobile suits attacking us, so get your heavy weapons ready."
He motioned for Quiet to head to a tall communications tower nearby - he heard more than saw her move, kicking up dust clouds as she ran towards it at superhuman speed while still invisible. Snake then climbed into the cardboard box. When he emerged, he was wearing a black padded suit, with a few bags for equipment arranged around his person. A grenade launcher hung on his side, and a semiautomatic sniper rifle with a blue-coloured barrel and magazine rested on his back. His tranquilizer pistol was now in a holster on his hip too.
"Kilo Squad, your main priority is to protect the civilians - we can't afford to let them get dragged into this fight," Snake ordered on the fly, even as he pulled out a piece of folded cardboard and quickly opened it up into a full-sized cardboard box that looked like it was used to store equipment. "Get Code Talker to safety too. I'll be at Hangar Five in Morgenroete to give our guests a welcoming gift…"
"Yes, sir!" came a chorus of voices in reply.
"Now… to wait," Snake muttered, looking across the road at Hangar Five, where he could see the faint silhouettes of several mobile suits lying on their backs inside. He pulled out his Int-Scope and zoomed in, frowning when he realized there were only two there. Ryu had mentioned five in this hangar when he had asked him again earlier… so that meant there were three more out on the roads that he had no way to defend.
"Morgenroete isn't going to be very happy about losing three of their units…" he grunted. "Quiet, you cover Hangar Eight."
A burst of static on the comms signalled her acknowledgement.
Somewhere in Heliopolis
"So that's it…" Yzak lowered his binoculars, looking at the trailers carrying three grey-coloured mobile suits, alongside their armed escort. "They've moved on a bit further than estimated, but not far enough to lose us."
"The mobile suits being developed by the EA," Dearka murmured. "They certainly look different from our GiNNs."
"Products of an inferior race," Yzak scoffed. "They really did come out of their holes when we poked them."
"Don't get too cocky when engaging the enemy, Yzak," Athrun reprimanded. "Natural, or Coordinator, bullets kill all the same."
"Yeah, yeah, not like those monkeys'll be able to hit us anyway," the silver-haired soldier mocked as he gestured for Dearka to do it.
Dearka nodded as he pulled out a handheld transponder, pressing the button to send an encrypted signal to the awaiting ZAFT forces. "Message is away," he informed.
"Those Naturals are blockheads anyway," Yzak resumed staring at the convoy of vehicles, patiently waiting for the incoming support.
"Well, don't forget, those 'blockheads', as you put them, are the reason we exist," Nicol pointed out. "Without them, there would be no Coordinators."
"Well, we should just consign them to history then," Yzak said smugly. "It's the age of the Coordinators now."
Behind them, Athrun remained silent as he stared down at the moving convoy, his face set into stone as he mentally prepared himself for the coming battle, just in time for their support to crash in from the central shaft, descending down upon the convoy. "Let's go!" he shouted out in command.
Ryu's Personal Workshop, Morgenroete Factory District
"W-W-What was that!?" Hanami gasped as she clung to one of the walls for support as the entire place shook.
Ryu quickly pulled up the battle reports from within the Oni, finding that the EA escort for the Archangel had already launched their mobile armors, while ZAFT… seemed to have thrown absolutely everything they had at Heliopolis. "I want all of you within the shelters," he commanded as he detached the Oni from the power cables that he was using to power the suit instead of it's internal battery. "The colony is under attack from ZAFT."
"What!? Why!?" Kagami demanded, similarly using the terminals to pull up reports from all over the colony.
"Probably because of the mobile suits we are producing for the EA," Ryu said calmly as he began loading the Oni with weapons, specifically the shoulder-mounted railgun and a three tube rocket launcher, as well as the gatling cannon that was mounted onto his arm. "And before you say anything, Cagalli, no, this is not your father's fault, this is ZAFTs fault for deciding to attack while they were within the Colony."
"Damn it!" Cagalli shouted, slamming her fist against the wall.
"Can we do anything to help?" Fubuki asked.
Ryu shook his head, the helmet moving with the motion. "The best you can do right now is get to safety," he told them. "I will not endanger civilians."
"B-But… what about you?" Kuzzey stared at Ryu, shaking in fear.
"I will be aiding the security forces in pushing the enemy back," he told them. "Don't worry, I'll be fine, the Oni is resistant to small arms fire, so no worries from lightly armed commandos."
"I'm looking for the nearest shelter now!" Kagami shouted, furiously typing away at her terminal.
"As soon as you find it, get there, if your hear gunfire, avoid the area," he told them. "As soon as the danger has passed, I'll come get you guys, alright?"
"R-Right!" Hanami nodded, glancing at the weapons rack for a moment. "U-Ummm, is it okay if we use some of t-these? J-Just in case!"
Ryu glanced over to them, before nodding. "Yes," he confirmed, his reluctance clear in his voice. "But use them only as a last resort."
"That's the plan…" Fubuki sighed, walking over and picking up an assault rifle. She paused for a moment when she realized she didn't know how to operate it, but after a few seconds worth of examining it, she managed to figure out the safety, the mode selector and the magazine ejector button.
Hanami hesitantly took the beam sniper rifle that Quiet had passed up earlier, relying on what she had learned from watching the mute sniper and firing a test shot at the same target. She wasn't quite as accurate though, and it completely missed.
"Hey, I think these are spare cells for it, Hanami," Tolle called out to her, holding out a case for the silverette, before picking up a Designated Marksman Rifle and testing it out briefly.
Kira himself swallowed tightly before hesitantly picking up a submachine gun, mimicking the others as he tested it. "I really hope we don't have to use these," he whispered to himself.
"I completely agree…" Kagami sighed, sliding on a pair of shoulder holsters with handguns in them. "It's one thing to see them in movies, but to actually use them…" she tested the grip of one of the handguns, aiming it at another target and firing. She was quite impressed when the bullet shot out without much of a sound, clearly the guns were very well suppressed.
Mir's hand shook slightly as she picked up a handgun of her own. "Man… this feels… heavier than they look," she quietly whispered as she slid on a shoulder harness of her own.
"E-Er, I think I'll pass…" Kuzzey shook his head when Kagami offered him a handgun.
"Yeah, same here," Sai spoke up. "Sorry, but… my hands won't stop shaking right now…"
"Are you all ready then?" Ryu asked quietly.
"The closest shelter…" Kagami paused to stare at the screen. "... is beyond Hangar Eight."
Ryu cursed to himself softly. "Alright, it's on the way," he said resolutely. "I'll escort you most of the way before continuing on, do you have everything you need?"
"Yeah, we're o-o-okay," Hanami nodded, her hands shaking slightly before she took a deep breath to calm herself down.
Ryu nodded. "Let's go then," he called out before heading for the door, the armor causing his foot falls to clunk loudly off the floor.
The first thing the group heard upon the hangar doors sliding open was the sound of gunfire. A few bullets even flew past them, causing Hanami to shriek and duck behind Ryu's armour.
Ryu quickly zero'd in on the source of the fire, a squad of green coated commandos who seemed to be firing indiscriminately. "Get down!" he commanded the students as he lifted up the Oni's gatling cannon and took aim, and quickly opened fire on the squad, ripping two of them to shreds as the last three hit the dirt. "Move, now!"
"W-What the heck is that!?" one of the greencoats shouted. "Some kind of personal-size mobile suit!?"
The students seized the chance to move up to the next bit of cover, a few metal crates further up ahead. Kagami growled at the attacking soldiers, and poked one of her guns out of cover to spray a few bullets in their general direction without aiming.
As soon as the students were behind cover, Ryu activated the thrusters on the Oni, bringing him up to a slight hover as he charged towards the soldier's position, using Kagami's fire as cover to flank the soldiers, a brief second of horror flickering over their faces as he came around their cover, gatling cannon already spinning up to fire as he took aim.
Hanami had been leaning out for a look and had to suppress the urge to throw up at the messy sight. Kuzzey didn't quite have the same willpower as he emptied his stomach out on the ground behind them.
"You best get it out now," Ryu advised. "There may not be time later," he turned to scan the surrounding area. "If you cannot get to the emergency shelters, take cover inside the workshops and lock them down!" he shouted out to the surviving Morgenroete workers. "Anyone with a combat rating will be needed at the hangers to repel the ZAFT invaders!"
"C-Chief Engineer Hisanaga!?" one of the techs gasped, recognizing the voice coming from the apparent miniaturized mobile suit.
"You have your orders!" Ryu shouted out. "Anyone with a combat rating here?"
"S-sir!" the workers replied, several of them stepping forward with assault rifles. "We're all that's left for those with combat ratings, the others were either injured or killed, sir."
Ryu nodded. "Get to the hangars, on the way pick up as many combat rated as you can, we cannot allow ZAFT to get the ORB prototypes," he ordered. "As soon as I get these civilians to the shelters I'll regroup with you there."
"Yessir!" the tech replied before running off.
Several GiNNs flew overhead on a pass, spraying the area with fire from their machine guns while being careful not to hit the hangars. Luckily none of the shells came close to hitting the students or Ryu, but some of the techs weren't as lucky. This time, Hanami caught full sight of it, and couldn't rein in her urge to vomit. Kagami held her hair back as she did.
"Dammit!" Ryu cursed as the GiNN flew past, ensuring that his helmet recorder was on. "Attacking unaffiliated people like that! When it's all up, let me know and we will keep moving."
Even as he spoke, several small missiles streaked towards the GiNN, impacting against its armour mostly ineffectively - they had been too small for it to intercept. It turned towards the source of the launch, where a man in a black suit wearing a balaclava around his head was standing with a large missile launcher on his shoulder. A logo of a snarling dog over a diamond with the words 'Diamond Dogs' displayed proudly over it was visible on his sleeve.
"Go!" he shouted, diving into a nearby hangar as the GiNN sprayed his area with gunfire. At the same time, another series of missiles flew towards it from a completely different direction. "The Boss called us in to help! He's got Hangar Four covered, and Quiet's covering Hangar Eight! They're safe enough for you to take cover in if you can't reach the shelters!"
Ryu nodded. "Send our thanks," he shouted. "If you need more firepower," he pointed to his own 'workshop'. "There's an armory in there!"
"Won't be needed!" the man came back out with another launcher tube and aimed it at the GiNN while running past the group towards a different hangar in the opposite direction from where they were going. "I've got enough CGMs hidden all around the base to smoke a whole army!"
Ryu nodded before turning to the others as they seemed to be ready to go. "Alright then, follow me," he told them. "You'll all be fine, okay?"
"Y-Yeah…" Hanami whispered weakly, lurching back to her feet and trying to steel herself.
Ryu nodded. "We should be mostly fine from here on out," he assured. "Especially if the Diamond Dogs have deployed."
The GiNN flew overhead them, completely ignoring them this time as its clearly very annoyed pilot yelled out, "Hey, get back here you missile-loving Naturals!"
"Wow… they get annoyed easily, don't they?" Kira asked skeptically. "Aren't soldiers supposed to be disciplined?"
"He's eating missiles from all around the base…" Tolle murmured in amazement. "When did they get into Morgenroete anyway?"
"Oh… since they arrived on Heliopolis," Ryu answered in response.
"I never even noticed them…" Mir blinked.
"And that's the whole point," Ryu affirmed as he checked a corner before waving the students through. "Diamond Dogs are the best at not being seen."
The students ran around the corner only for a bunch of greencoats to suddenly appear out of nowhere. They only took one look at the armed students before opening fire, forcing them to dive into cover into the nearby hangar.
"The G-Weapon hangar," Ryu muttered as he prepared the Oni's weapons.. "Snake, you there!?"
Ryu had barely any chance to even raise his gun before a canister flew out and dropped right between the greencoats' feet. They suddenly found themselves covered in smoke, before the students and Ryu heard loud yells and bodies hitting the ground. When the smoke cleared, Snake was standing there with his handgun and knife in hand, and the greencoats lying on the ground apparently stunned.
"Already KOed a pair of reds earlier," he jerked his thumb back towards the hangar. "They're sleeping at the moment."
Ryu nodded his thanks. "I'm getting the kids to the shelters," he told him. "Combat-rated staff members will be gathering here and at Hangar Five, if there are many left that is."
"You talking about the shelter after Hangar Eight?" Snake asked gruffly, as he fired a round from his handgun into the head of one of the soldiers, much to the students' horror. "Access is blocked, one of the GiNNs dropped a building on top of the entrance. And kiddos, this is a tranquilizer gun."
Ryu cursed, his mind working quickly as he tried to think of options to protect the students, with only one result coming to mind. "The mobile suits," he said finally. "They can take shelter inside of them."
"ZAFT will come for them anyway, if they've failed to secure them they'd rather blow them up," Snake pointed out. "I hate to ask this, but can they pilot?"
Ryu growled and looked over to the students. "Do any of you think you can pilot a mobile suit in an emergency?" he asked them.
After a moment of silence, Kira and the three Yukikaze sisters raised their hands.
Tolle was half-hearted in his response. "Maybe?" he offered. "I'm able to pilot power loaders, and the control scheme is somewhat similar."
"It'll have to do I guess," Ryu muttered. "Are the Strike and the Aegis still secure?"
"They are," Snake confirmed, dragging the downed greencoats into the hangar. "Hangar Eight seems secure, but Quiet's been forced to move a few times so I'm not sure how long it'll last. And she can't see into the hangar, so there's another problem if they're already inside."
Ryu frowned but nodded. "Kira, Tolle, get to the Strike and Aegis inside this hanger, and listen to Snake, if he tells you to deploy them, do so," he ordered. "Fubuki, Kagami, Hanami, you three will come with me to Hangar Eight to secure the other units."
"R-Right!" Hanami nodded, before turning to look at Mir, Sai and Kuzzey. "What about them?"
"You three will split up among the Strike and Aegis," Ryu told them. "It wouldn't make sense to drag you across a battlefield, you should be safe here."
"They will be," Snake waved, peeking out and aiming his prosthetic left arm around the corner before yelling, "ROCKET PUNCH!" - and much to the students' surprise, firing the arm out like a rocket. A loud yell and a thump could be heard a moment later.
The students blinked in unison and rubbed their eyes, staring at the leader of one of the most famous PMCs in the world after he had performed something normally thought impossible for a human that had come right out of your average super robot show.
"Did… did he just do a literal rocket punch?" Tolle asked, halfway between disbelief and awe.
The arm came back a moment later and docked back onto the arm stub, dragging an unconscious greencoat along with it..
"He did," Kagami was rubbing her eyes.
"That… that…" Sai tried to form the proper words for what he was feeling.
"That was amazing!" Kuzzey finished, his eyes glimmering in awe.
"I can't decide if that was cool, amazing, or stupid," Kagami muttered to herself.
"I-I-It was kind of cool…" Hanami commented.
"Alright you three, enough gawking at Snake's guilty pleasure," Ryu said admonishingly. "Let's get to Hangar Eight, the sooner, the better."
"Keep an eye on those few too," Snake gestured at the pair of unconscious redcoats lying beside one of the mobile suits, where they had been joined by a bunch of greencoats too. A long-haired brunette in a yellow maintenance uniform and a cap was alternating between tying them up with rope and staring at Snake in apparent disbelief. "Keep them knocked out and out of the fight, club them over the head if you have to."
"R-right!" The worker confirmed as she finished tying them up before looking around and grabbing a rather solid looking lead pipe.
"Quiet's in position to cover the area from here until Hangar Eight," Snake said, peeking out for a moment. "You've got a one minute window before she'll have to move again. I'll have some more men move into the hangar and clear it out, but you might have to hold it by yourself until they can get there."
Ryu nodded as he quickly checked over the amor systems. "I should be able to make use of a charging station to top up the Oni's power supply," he confirmed. "We should be good, get ready you three, on my mark, we move."
Kagami reloaded one of her guns, but fumbled putting the magazine in and dropped it on the ground. She scrambled for it and slotted it back in. "R-Ready," she said, her hands shaking.
"Likewise," Fubuki nodded, her nerves scrambled enough for her hands to be shaking too.
Hanami just nodded, hiding her hands behind her.
Ryu looked them over. "Don't worry," he assured softly. "This will all be over soon enough," seeing their nerves settle a bit he nodded before looking outside of the hanger again. "I'll go out first, and tell you when to move."
Ryu then moved forward, the powered hydraulics launching him into the open area between the hangers, scanning the area with both the Oni's Identification Friend-or-Foe recognition software and his own eyes, sweeping the arm holding the gatling cannon over the area before looking over to the three silverettes. "Move, quickly!" he called out.
The sisters nodded, flashing Kira and the other students a thumbs up before dashing out towards the other hangar.
Kira swallowed tightly as he watched his friends until they disappeared from sight, ducking into the alleyways between the hangers for cover before turning his eyes to the captured ZAFT soldiers, the nervous tech watching over them carefully.
His eyes darted to their faces, wondering just what kind of man would be so willing to attack an innocent colony so easily. His eyes landed on one of the red coated commandos as his breath caught in his throat. "A-Athrun?" he gasped out in shock as he scrambled forward to study the face through his helmet.
"You know him, Kira?" Tolle asked a little fearfully.
"Yeah… he's… he's the one who made Tori," Kira answered in a daze, still in shock at his friend's presence as a soldier.. "But… why is he here? He hated war… he wanted nothing to do with it…"
"You can ask him later after this whole mess is over," Tolle looked up at the mobile suits inside the hangar, even as yet another explosion rocked the district. "Come on, at the very least we can't let ZAFT take those mobile suits!"
"A-Aren't you kids just students?" the worker with the pipe asked, staring at them.
"A-Actually… we were just hired by Chief Engineer Hisanaga today," Sai informed sheepishly as Kira was dragged away by Tolle towards the mobile suits.. "Heck of a first day. huh?"
"I'll say…" the worker nodded, looking at the mobile suits too. "I'll just let you know first, those are classified military secrets. I'll have to ask you to keep everything you learn about them a secret."
"We already signed the confidentiality agreements with anything relating to the Boss' projects," Mir explained. "Which is apparently… alot."
"My hands are still hurting from all the signing…" Kuzzey wrung his hands.
"I'll be frank with you people," the worker took off her cap. "This is an EA military secret."
"Hey, Kira, isn't this the OS you, Hanami, Kagami and Fubuki were working on?" Tolle called out from the cockpit of the Aegis. "The one Kato had you working on?"
"Y-yeah," Kira called out from the Strike distractedly before forcing himself to focus. "This is it exactly, all the parameters are way off though."
"Can you fix it? Just in case we have to pilot them?" Tolle slid into the cockpit and booted the systems up.
"Yeah, I think I should be able to," Kira confirmed, already at work at the keyboard. "Give me a minute, I'm pretty much having to rewrite the entire thing."
"I'm a Natural though, this system makes absolutely no sense to me either way," Tolle frowned, experimentally moving some sticks. "Kira, at least make sure that yours can move. I'm alright just sitting in here and keeping the hatch closed."
"Already compensating for Natural-use, Tolle," Kira called out. "Remember, who made the OS for the power loader?"
"Do you even have time for that?" Tolle raised an eyebrow, looking over the radar display. It was showing no hostile mobile suits… yet.
"Maybe," Kira returned non-committally. "For movement, yes, combat, maybe not, I just need to modify the power loader OS you use to scale for movement, but a combat worthy OS would need precision settings."
"That's alright for now, Kira," the aspiring pilot nodded, gripping the controls. "Heh, it'll be fine if I can even punch or kick a GiNN with this thing."
"Right," Kira muttered in distraction. "Open your unit's connection, I'll upload the OS."
Tolle took a minute to find the needed option before activating it. "It's open," he called out.
"Uploading it now," Kira returned as he continued to update his own OS. "The Strike is combat ready… except I don't have any weapons other than Igelstellungs and Armor Schneiders."
"I have a beam rifle and beam sabers on top of the Igelstellungs," Tolle checked the armament list. "None of which are properly calibrated and usable."
"The Strike utilizes a pack based support system," the tech called out. "Without a pack equipped, it doesn't have any significant weapons."
"Seems kind flawed to me," Kira muttered. "Are there any packs around here?"
"They're in a different hangar!" the tech shouted. "You'll have to run over there and get it!"
"Don't," Snake countermanded, still watching the outside of the hangar. "That'll draw attention here and make it harder for Ryu to get to the other units in Hangar Eight."
"Ah… right," the tech muttered, a small flush coming over her face. "Wait… more units? I thought that the G-Weapons were the only ones in development here?"
"I'm not from Morgenroete, you'll have to ask someone else for answers," Snake spoke out, watching as another GiNN was led away from their hangar by another bunch of small missiles. "Get those units ready to move fast. The moment Ryu gets the others started up, we move."
"Right, the OS's are set, and startup will be quick, so give the word and we will be ready to go in one minute," Kira replied.
"Good," Snake nodded, then froze. "Dammit, Quiet's been dislodged earlier than expected. Ryu, you've got no more cover!"
Near Hangar Eight
"Understood," Ryu replied as he brought the girls to a halt in a shadowed alley across from said hanger. "I'll contact you when we have an update."
He turned to the trio following him. "Quiet has been forced to relocate, we will have no cover when we approach the hangar," he informed. "If you want, we can return."
"No, we've come all this way, we might as well finish the job," Kagami said resolutely, her handguns at her side, looking across at the hangar.
"Y-Yeah… we're already past the point of n-no return…" Hanami agreed.
Ryu nodded slowly. "Alright, I'll engage the enemy, and you three make a straight shot for the units while I distract them," he instructed. "Do not engage unless they are directly between you and one of the units, alright?"
"Got it," Fubuki peeked out of cover and ducked as she caught a glint of a rifle scope. The bullet shot over the top of her head.
"Dammit!" Ryu cursed as he pulled Fubuki back. "Alright, wait until 15 seconds have passed after I engage them before moving."
With those final words he stepped out from behind the cover and opened fire with the shoulder mounted rail cannon, targeting the sniper, and drawing the attention of the nearby soldiers.
Quickly activating the Oni's thrusters, he began to hover off the ground as he charged the group, firing with his gatling cannon as he did so.
"Go, go go!" Kagami urged her sisters, who darted across the open space towards the hangar.
Hanami resisted the urge to let out a loud shriek as a stray bullet shot by her. They crossed the distance quickly, diving into the hangar successfully and gasping as they caught sight of the three units Ryu had mentioned. Fresh out of the factory, all of them were drab grey in colour, but the similarities ended there. One of them seemed to be an all-purpose model with a standardized frame, another one was massive, thick set and was on a different trailer than the others. The last one seemed to be a high-mobility model with a lighter frame and large wings.
"Don't stop!" Kagami shouted, helping the other two up. "Let's go!"
"Don't let them get to the units!" suddenly a bunch of redcoats showed up from a rear door and began opening fire on them from their rifles.
The girls ran for their lives, ducking behind the mobile suits to break line of sight with the redcoats. Fubuki and Kagami, in that respect, were luckier as their suits were the furthest away from where the soldiers had appeared from, and also closest to them. Hanami was a lot less luckier.
"I got you now, bitch!" one of the redcoats had closed in and drawn his knife without her noticing, but he didn't get a chance to do more than that as the blue-eyed silverette let out a scream and jammed her rifle into his stomach, squeezing the trigger out of instinct. The beam lanced out, vaporizing the soldier's midsection and killing him instantly. The beam also managed to hit a fuel drum, which exploded and set the area around it on fire.
"N-N-No!" Hanami, running on pure adrenaline by this point, jumped up onto her mobile suit, only to screech to a halt as her eyes found another redcoat just about to jump into the cockpit.
"Too late, Natural bitch," he sneered, squeezing the trigger.
A loud bang resounded throughout the hangar.
"HANAMI-NEE!" Fubuki screamed, watching her sister fall off the suit into the blazing inferno that had just roared to life.
"ASSHOLE!" Ryu roared as he leapt out of the flames that began to churn, the Oni living up to it's name as it appeared to be a monster leaping from the the flames, splashes of crimson red covering the armor in various places as the gatling cannon activated, literally cutting the redcoat in half.
Ryu didn't even pause to register the kill as he landed amongst the flames near where Hanami had landed, the two sisters watching fearfully from their cockpits before gasping as he surged out of the flames, a body in his arms. "Get the units out of here!" he shouted out. "Link up with the others, she needs medical care now!"
Ryu surged the thrusters on the Oni to their maximum as he moved, Hanami barely moving in his arms, her entire body was charred, the blackened skin was cracked in various places, some of those cracks were oozing blood, others were oozing pus, all of her hair had been burned off in the intense flames it was a sickening sight. 'And it's my fault,' he thought to himself remorsefully, opening a radio link with Snake. "Snake, tell me that you have medical personnel here," he all but shouted. "Hanami's been shot and has been in a fire, I barely got a pulse!"
There was a sharp intake of breath from the comms from someone that wasn't Snake.
"That twin with the blue eyes?" Snake replied, shock barely evident in his tone. "Shit. Quiet!"
Almost immediately, the female sniper blurred into existence beside Ryu, matching his speed effortlessly despite his thrusters running on full power. She held out her hands, suppressing a gasp when she caught sight of what had used to be a beautiful girl in his armoured hands.
It reminded her of her own past, during the attack on Cyprus…
"Where?" Ryu asked tightly, obviously trying to clamp down on the panic and guilt he was no doubt feeling at the time, his hands tightening slightly around the girl in his arms, unwilling to let go.
She shrugged.
"Ryu, none of my medics are properly equipped to treat people injured that badly. For that we'd need a full-blown hospital," Snake said grimly.
Ryu cursed. "There has to be something Snake!" he shouted in outrage. "The Morgenroete Workshops, emergency rooms, something! I refuse to let her die because of my mistake."
"Unless you're telling me there's a hospital inside Morgenroete as well as a team of surgeons willing to operate under these conditions…" Snake trailed off.
Ryu let out a wordless shout of frustration, his mind trying in vain to find a solution. "If we were on ORB with my real workshop," he muttered. "I have cybernetics and bio-tech… but here… dammit…"
"Wait. There's one thing we might be able to do… Kilo Squad, where's Code Talker?" Snake realized.
"He's at a hospital near Morgenroete, Boss," one of the Diamond Dogs members reported in.
"Quiet, bring the girl there! You're her only hope now!" Snake ordered.
Quiet's eyes widened as she understood what her partner was saying.
"Lead the way," Ryu said tersefully. "This… this is my fault, my responsibility."
"We'll have Code Talker perform parasite therapy on the girl," Snake said. "At this point it's the only way to save her life. He'll transplant… Quiet's parasites onto her."
"I… I see… if it will save her, I will accept responsibility." Ryu nodded sombrely. "This will be on my head."
"Explanations later," Snake growled. "Her life has priority now."
"Right, heading to the hospital, please have the way cleared," Ryu requested as he narrowed his eyes. "And when her sisters join you… tell them that she will be alright."
"They got into their mobile suits okay?"
"Yeah, I told them to link up with you and the others," Ryu confirmed. "The status of the Exodus is unknown at this time."
"Chi… neer… naga… co…" a crackling voice cut into their comms.
Ryu scowled underneath the helmet. "The radio's being jammed," he announced. "Quiet… if we do run into hostiles, take Hanami and keep going… I'll hold them off."
Quiet nodded.
"Get the kids to launch as soon as they're ready. The Strike and Aegis are ready to go," Snake ordered.
"Finally got through!" Kagami's voice could be heard as well. "Boss, how's Hanami!?"
Ryu paused in his response. "Bad," he admitted. "We're going to have to use an… alternative treatment for her."
A sharp intake of breath. "W-Will Hanami-nee be okay…?" Fubuki joined the conversation.
Ryu swallowed, unsure how to answer. "I… I don't know," he whispered in a nearly defeated voice.
"Well, either way the gloves are off," Kagami seethed. "They almost killed my sister. I'm returning the favour. Fubuki, get your OS fixed fast! ZAFT wants our mobile suits? They can have our mobile suits' fists!"
"R-Right!" the younger of the sisters agreed.
"Please, don't do anything reckless," Ryu pleaded.
"I still have to see Hanami when she recovers, don't worry," Kagami adopted a somewhat softer tone. "I have faith in her…"
"You will see her again," Ryu assured, shortly after his HUD flared as the motion tracker picked up a mobile suit coming towards them. "Quiet, take Hanami, MS inbound!"
Quiet nodded and took the charred girl into her hands, taking extreme care not to jostle her too much as she disappeared in a cloud of dust.
Ryu quickly turned the Oni to face the oncoming mobile suit, an dusky orange colored GiNN with a skull and crossbones displayed on the GiNN's shield.
Quickly running through the Oni's remaining armament and power supply, thirty minutes worth of power within combat settings, Ryu took action, leveling the rail cannon at the GiNN before opening fire.
The GiNN immediately noticed the incoming fire and began ducking and weaving to dodge the shots before coming in straight for Ryu, firing the thrusters in the reverse direction at the last possible moment to skid on the ground in front of him. The GiNN came to a stop looming over the comparatively tiny Oni ominously.
"Oi, oi, isn't this a tiny mobile suit we have here?" the pilot said on the loudspeakers.
Ryu's eyes narrowed in response as he kept his breathing calm, analyzing the surrounding area, plenty of blind corners and shadowed areas to take advantage of, plus, the enemy was underestimating him. "This ain't no mobile suit," Ryu growled out finally as his thrusters began to flare up, bringing him up to a hover. "And you fuckers are about to learn what it means to poke the sleeping lion."
"Were you one of those men launching those tiny missiles as us earlier? They didn't really hurt that much," the pilot further added, the GiNN's mono eye staring down at the Oni and flashing briefly.
Ryu grinned fiercely under his helmet. "You're about to find out," he announced, a trio of rockets being launched from his shoulder as soon as the words were out of his mouth, while also sending the Oni hurdling towards the side taking cover between the assorted buildings.
"Good, this'd be a boring chase otherwise!" the GiNN pilot gunned the thrusters, shooting forward only to discover that his prey had seemingly disappeared. "Tch, sneaky bastard."
Ryu watched carefully as he moved, having turned off the thrusters to hide his heat signature, the bulky armored suit moving surprisingly quietly, much of that thanks to the Metallic Archaea powered hydraulics. He moved into position, getting down on a knee and holding the rail cannon steady with a hand as he took aim, specifically, the ankle joint of the GiNN.
Once the shot was lined up, the cannon roared, launching the slug at mach speeds towards the GiNN.
The pilot of the GiNN however, sensed more than heard the round coming and quickly moved. The round only struck the knee, glancing off and hitting the building behind him instead. "Don't get too cocky!" he growled, spraying the building with fire from his machine gun.
Ryu was already moving, taking cover behind a separate building, waiting for the GiNN to cease it's random firing. Picking up a rock, he hefted it in his hand before lightly tossing it towards a group of metal drums nearby, making sure to keep his unit hidden from sight.
The GiNN immediately turned towards the source of the noise.
Ryu moved silently around the GiNN as it tried to locate the source of it, getting somewhat close before he unclasped a cylindrical device from his waist and waited for the right moment.
"Where are you, little mobile suit…" the pilot growled, panning the GiNN's monoeye from side to side.
Ryu quickly accessed the local Morgenroete network, his Chief Engineering codes allowing him instant access to all the systems, in particular, the intercom system.
"Like I said, this isn't a mobile suit," Ryu called out, although, instead of his voice being projected from his suit's speakers, it was projected from a speaker on the opposite side of the clearing between the two rows of hangers. "This is a powered exoskeleton, and you're about to get your ass kicked like Goliath got his handed by a pebble!"
"Cheeky little…!" the GiNN spun towards the speaker, aiming its machine gun and firing.
Ryu's thrusters flared to life as he leapt into the air towards the GiNN. The cylindrical device in his hand activating causing a beam to snap to life, revealing it to be the hilt of a beam saber as he landed on the right shoulder of the GiNN. One yell of exertion later, he drove the saber into the exposed joint, severing its primary circuits and joint links.
"Grk!" the pilot shook Ryu off, but the damage was already done - the arm flopped uselessly at its side. "I'll squash you like a bug!" the larger mobile suit resorted to attempting to step on the Oni, but to no avail as Ryu used the thrusters to full advantage. Constantly moving, he never let the GiNN's much larger foot come within three meters of him. It helped that he was so small he was a lot harder to hit than a standard-sized mobile suit.
As he moved back he began firing rounds from his rail cannon in order to force the GiNN to back off a bit. The arm not occupied by the gatling cannon slowly reached behind him to grip a block of C4 that was planted onto a fuel container as he passed, out of sight from the GiNN. "What's wrong?" he called out over several speakers as he disappeared from sight. "Having trouble keeping up with an actual combatant? Have you been killing so many civvies you've forgotten how to actually fight?"
"Civvies? Hell no, I've been fighting EA morons for the past year!" the pilot growled. "I'll give you this, you're good, tiny mobile suit pilot. Who taught you to fight like that?"
"You want to know how many EA soldiers are here?" Ryu snarled ignoring the question. "They're all on their fucking ships! This is ORB territory, only ORB soldiers and citizens are here."
"I don't like this any more than you do, but I have my orders! If it takes a ZAFT invasion to show you ORB idiots that the EA is just using you to develop those mobile suits, then I'll do it myself too!" the pilot snarled. "We can't let the EA get the upper hand in this war!"
"I wonder, does that help you sleep at night, the phrase 'I'm just following orders'?" Ryu growled out. "Does it help you look your family in the eye knowing you just made orphans and widows, because 'It was ordered'/"
"As soldiers we've all accepted that fact!" the pilot shouted. "I would rather kill now to prevent the EA from being able to strike at my homeland in the future! If I don't kill now, my family could very well die from an EA invasion on the PLANTs!"
"Yeah? And what about us on ORB?" Ryu snapped. "We don't want anything to do with this, we developed those damned things to keep them out of our fucking borders to protect our citizens, and now, you are here, slaughtering them indiscriminately. Don't you fucking preach your goddamn soldier rhetoric to me. Try saying to the families you destroyed, try saying that to your family with your blood stained hands." he tightly clench his fist in anger. "Most of the people here, they didn't even know about this project, and yet you kill them anyways, you say you fight the EA, well guess what, you may just have started a war with ORB!"
"Doesn't justify the fact that you're helping the EA to develop those things! ORB knew the risks of doing this!" the pilot countered, his GiNN stomping hard on the ground to make his point. "You're not the ones with the moral high ground here, ORB, and you know it."
"Yeah, and you do?" Ryu growled angrily. "Do you know how many innocent people I saw die today? Your soldiers laughing as they gunned down unarmed civilians, people who never even held a gun."
"Wait, what?" the pilot did a double take. "ZAFT soldiers laughing as they killed civilians!?"
"Why else would I be so fucking pissed!" Ryu demanded angrily. "If it was soldiers I wouldn't give a rat's ass because they have a fucking fighting chance, but fucking civilians?"
"We were given orders NOT to touch the civilians!" the other pilot growled. "Seems that someone else has been pulling some strings…"
Ryu paused in his offensive preparation as he considered the pilot before him. "Is it that big of a wonder?" he asked. "After all, how often do your fellow 'soldiers' say how worthless Naturals are? Not that much of a step to just plain kill them is it?"
"The people I know say that, but they won't do much beyond talk bad about them…" the GiNN relaxed its pose. "It seems that I've been given cause to retreat anyway, with how much damage you've done to my unit. Fuck, I'm tired of all this political shit we keep getting thrown into…"
Ryu relaxed his own pose. "If you're leaving, I will not stop you," he informed, although he was wary of it being a trap. "But if you're tired of being thrown into politics, maybe you should change careers, I hear Diamond Dogs are hiring."
The GiNN performed a rather odd-looking one-armed shrug. "I'll think about it. We'll meet again. I'm Miguel Aiman, the Magic Bullet of Dusk."
"Chief Engineer Ryu Hisanaga," Ryu answered. "Although a certain group call me Rising Dragon."
The GiNN nodded before gunning its thrusters, taking off into the sky heading towards the colony's exit.
Ryu sighed as he shook his head. "That… was lucky," he muttered to himself, eyeing his power readouts, showing them at being at five minutes of combat power remaining. "Let's hope that luck keeps going strong…"
Hospital Near Morgenroete
"Let me see her!" Code Talker called out to Quiet as she came to a halt in front of the hospital, the barely recognizable human in her arms quickly offloaded onto a waiting gurney. He frowned at the sight. "Naat'aanii was correct, the only way to save her… is to perform parasite therapy on her."
"Will she be alright?" Quiet spoke, causing several of the Diamond Dogs soldiers escorting Code Talker to turn to look at her in shock - her voice wasn't very commonly heard at all!
"She will require… a skin graft from you, Quiet," Code Talker nodded with a frown. "However, I am not sure… how a Coordinator's body… will react to the parasites."
"The odds aren't 0%," the sniper stated. "Do it."
"Very well," Code Talker acquiesced. "I need a… surgeon to do this. My old arms are not as… precise as they used to be. Once the skin graft is… complete… it will take at the very least… a day for the parasites to multiply and repair her body. Gray… Chameleon, please proceed."
A woman with brown hair in a bobcut stepped forward. "Come on, we need to get to the operating theatre quickly."
"It is imperative… that the parasites rejuvenate her heart and lungs first," Code Talker instructed. "Perform the first skin grafts to her torso… Then her scalp, and then her limbs… As many as possible."
Grey Chameleon nodded her understanding as they pushed the gurney up the ramp into the hospital, moving towards the emergency room. "Quiet, go up ahead and let the team get you ready for the skin grafts," the surgeon ordered the sniper. "They will put you under for the operation, trust me, you do not want to be awake when we start pulling skin off."
Quiet shook her head. "Tranquilizers don't work on me for long because of my parasites. I can take the pain."
Grey Chameleon shook her head. "Alright, but still, go up ahead, I want the grafts ready when we arrive," she said. "This needs to be done quickly."
The sniper nodded and disappeared in a cloud of dust as she ran towards the operating theatre.
"Pass over the antibacterial soap." Chameleon requested, accepting the canister before dumping a wad of it onto her hands and slathering it all the way up to her elbows. "Sorry kid," she whispered to the comatose Hanami. "I'd normally do a proper scrub down, but we don't have the time for it."
"It is lucky… that the power is still on here…" Code Talker nodded as the colony shook again. "But the colony shaking… may complicate matters slightly. After the skin graft is complete, we will also need to slather the skin in a… special agar… to induce growth in the parasites."
Chameleon nodded in understanding as they moved. "The shaking won't be a problem," she announced. "My team have steady hands in the middle of combat. My biggest concern is the… language time bomb, will it cause her any issues?"
"It was… removed a long time ago," Code Talker supplied. "I was skeptical at first, but then again… this is a time with technology much more… advanced than ours. It stands to reason… that they would have advanced medical equipment… capable of such a feat… Do not worry. The vocal cord parasites… and the One That Covers parasites… are two different organisms."
Chameleon nodded her understanding as they came up to the entrance to the emergency room. "Here we go, people!" she called out to her team as they entered the room, Quiet was already on the table with several swaths of skin already removed and prepared for the graft. To her credit, she wasn't even flinching from the pain, and her skin was already healing over. "I want a tight operation, follow Code Talker's orders to the letter!"
The team shouted out a chorus of affirmatives as they quickly, but carefully, moved the critically injured girl over to the operating table. "Alright, scalpel," Chameleon called out, taking her position and holding out her hand. "We need to get the damaged skin removed in the graft areas…" she took a calming breath. "And say some prayers…"
Hangar Eight, Morgenroete Factory District
"Finally!" Kagami shouted out as her mobile suit's OS rebooted with all the modifications she had made to it. It was a rush job, no helping it, but she'd have to fix it later when she had time. "Fubuki, you okay there?"
"I can move, but that's about it. This mobile suit is too unique that I can't calibrate everything properly, even with the data from yours," her little sister's face appeared on the HUD in front of her, shaking her head. "I mean… the size, dimensions, power ratings, everything is just scaled so much larger that I can't compensate for it yet."
"Kira's probably completely finished rewriting the whole thing already," Kagami sighed, gripping her controls. "He's a whiz at this kind of thing… let's have him take a look at ours later."
"Umm… Kagami-nee?" Fubuki suddenly asked, looking to her side as a whirring sound began coming from there.
Kagami turned her unit's head towards the source of the sound - the final machine that had been supposed to be taken by Hanami was forcing the holding brackets off it while sitting up from its spot in the hangar… "Umm… we didn't have anyone else ready to take that one, did we?" she asked, blinking her eyes.
"No."
"Oh shit."
"Don't curse like that, Kagami-nee…"
"Get up! Get up!" Kagami hollered in a panic, pushing the sticks forward.
Her mobile suit began to clunkily climb to its feet, at the same time as Fubuki's much-heavier looking one. Already though, the third mobile suit was picking up a nearby rifle and turning to point it at the more fragile-looking of the two, Kagami's unit…
"Ugh!" Kagami grunted, pushing the sticks all the way forward.
Her unit rocketed forward on its thrusters moments before a bright green beam tore into the trailer it had been resting on. The next few shots completely missed - clearly the guy piloting it hadn't had time to calibrate the OS properly either.
A sudden crashing was heard as the white and blue Strike came barrelling through the wall, smashing into the captured unit with what was undoubtedly bone jarring force, and rammed it into the opposite wall. "Kagami, Fubuki, are you alright?" Kira's voice broke in over their radios.
"We're alright! But Hanami…" Kagami trailed off, not quite wanting to describe what had happened to her twin sister.
"I… I heard, that's why I'm here, Snake told me to come here and assist you," Kira explained, his unit turning to the pinned mobile suit. "Pilot, shut down and leave the mobile suit and you will not be harmed!"
"Fuck you! I'm getting the hell out of here and you won't be stopping me! You're just a bunch of lucky kids anyway!" the pilot hollered right back, gunning his thrusters and just plain crashing through the wall the stolen mobile suit had landed against. Before the others could pursue, however, five GiNNs dropped from the sky to block their way.
"Damn it!" Kira cursed as he pulled himself back, away from his attempted pursuit of the stolen unit. "Kagami, Fubuki… we're going to have to fight it seems…"
"Uwaaaah!" Fubuki yelped as her mobile suit stumbled forward, off balance after freeing itself of its trailer. The sheer bulk of the machine had the GiNN pilots gawking at it for several moments and taking a few steps back. It wasn't long before they broke out of their stupor and opened fire with their machine guns.
The shells practically just bounced off the thick armour with no apparent effect.
"Stop it!" Kira shouted as he opened fire with the head mounted Igelstellungs, peppering the GiNNs with the unfortunately ineffective 75mm rounds. "Damn it, Kagami, Fubuki, do you have any weapons?"
"Umm, no!" Fubuki shook her head, before she realized that one of the GiNNs was closing in on her with its sword drawn. "Nooooooo!" Fubuki screamed as she swung her right stick forward on reflex.
Her much heavier unit matched her movement and swung its right hand forward. Upon contact, the GiNN's sword shattered, and the fist went right through to connect with it… caving in the chest armour and sending it flying back three blocks.
"I think that counts as enough of a weapon," Kagami deadpanned, putting her unit into a run back towards its destroyed trailer where she had seen a rifle earlier. She picked it up and aimed it at one of the remaining GiNNs, pulling the trigger on her stick to fire a bright green beam of energy at it. The shot went wide, and her opponent dodged anyway. "Geh. Not calibrated."
"I'm sending the calibrations to you now!" Kira called out. "They're fairly generalized though. Tolle should be joining us in a couple of minutes in the Aegis."
"Too generalized to work on mine! Waaah!" Fubuki's unit tipped over, still out of balance from the previous maneuver. Its head met the pavement as she banged her head on the console and went dark.
"Fubuki? Fubuki!" Kira called out in a bit of a panic, having seen the giant mobile suit fall over. "I think she's knocked out!"
"What a way to go out…" Kagami groaned as the four remaining GiNNs began aiming at them. "Come on, we gotta fight them off somehow!"
Kira took a deep breath as he focused himself, drawing the only other weapons the Strike had, the Armor Schneider. "Kagami, you try to focus on the ones at range!" Kira instructed. "I'll try to keep the ones that close in off of you."
"I just need time to fix the targeting algorithms on this rifle!" Kagami called out, pulling out a keyboard from the size of the cockpit even as her unit leapt backwards. "I'm counting on you, Kira!"
"Right!" Kira affirmed, trying to suppress the nervousness in his voice as the Strike took up a combat stance. "Oh man… this is going to suck…"
"Keep them off me for a minute and I might have a reward for you when we wrap this up!" Kagami winked, squeezing her breasts together for a moment with her arms before getting to work.
"Really, Kagami?" Kira asked, baffled. "In the middle of a fight?"
"It's for motivational purposes!" Kagami laughed, taking the rifle's operating system to town. Her expression immediately changed into a frown when she saw the code. "Really!? They can't even program this properly!?"
"Now's not the time for complaints!" Kira shouted as he found himself under attack from one of the GiNNs, his combat knives holding back the GiNN's heavy sword. It made for an odd scene considering the difference in weight and scale of the melee weapons.
"Done!" Kagami shouted triumphantly, bringing her rifle to bear on the other GiNN. This time, the beam flew true and severed the GiNN's arm at the shoulder. It quickly fired its thrusters and backed off, wielding its machine gun with its remaining arm as it fired a spray of shells at Kagami.
"Grk!" she ramped her sticks forward, causing her unit to lurch forward and duck under the gunfire at the same time. While the GiNN adjusted its aim, she ran off to the side, skirmishing it from mid-range with her rifle.
"Back… off!" Kira shouted as he pushed the GiNN back, shoving it off balance long enough to drive the combat daggers into each shoulder joint, rendering them useless, before using his thrusters to boost away and towards another GiNN, attempting to drive his dagger into the cockpit area,
The single GiNN that hadn't engaged yet rushed forward to the aid of its comrade, firing the machine gun to force Kira to back off prematurely. After a while though, it found itself dodging beams from Kagami, who had managed to disable her own GiNN with beams to the legs and the other remaining arm.
"Go get him!" Kagami yelled.
"Right!" Kira confirmed, boosting to the side before closing in on the GiNN who was more than prepared for him and raised its heavy sword in preparation.
"Go to hell!" the GiNN's pilot roared as it swung the sword in a horizontal arc, aiming to cut Kira's mobile suit in half at the waist. Instead, Kira parried the blow using one of the daggers and spin-kicked the GiNN in the face, wrecking the sensors.
Righting his unit, Kira acted quickly and shoved his dagger into the arm joins of the GiNN and disabled it before looking over to Kagami to see if she needed any help. It turned out the one she had engaged was now lying on the ground, its severed limbs lying all around it.
"I think that's all of them," Kira said, trying to settle his breathing. "These mobile suits though… they're something else…"
"Those pilots weren't that good," Kagami muttered. "We beat them so easily…"
"I guess," Kira agreed softly. "Anyways, we should get back with the others…"
"Don't get cocky, kids," Snake suddenly cut into their comms. "You only beat them because your units far outclass theirs."
"Thought so…" Kira quietly muttered to himself, somewhat disappointed. "Come on, Kagami, I think I'm going to need your help to carry Fubuki's unit."
"Kira… I don't think that's going to be enough," Kagami muttered, looking at her little sister's mobile suit which was half buried in the ground from the force at which it had hit it.
"... Do you know a better way to wake her up?" Kira asked hopefully.
Kagami sucked in a deep breath. "Oi, Fubuki! If you don't wake up now I'll show Kira a collection of your bikini pictures!"
"KAGAMI-NEE! THAT'S MEAN!" Fubuki's voice came through the comms almost instantly in response as the mobile suit pushed itself up on its arms. "You know I'm embarrassed about those!"
"That… worked?" Kira questioned in shock.
"She's quite embarrassed about showing off her figure, so she only ever wears shorts and shirts into the water while swimming," Kagami grinned mischievously. "Those pictures were from when she first tried wearing a bikini to the pool."
"STOP!" Fubuki yelled, the video feed from her cockpit showing her cradling her face in her hands.
Kira sighed in response, shaking his head in resignation. "We really need to get going," he reminded the pair. "Besides, don't you want to look in on Hanami?"
Both the remaining sisters went completely silent. "Y-You know… all that just now was just me trying to distract myself from that, Kira…" Kagami whispered, gripping her controls so hard her knuckles went white. "But… I guess i-it didn't work out, huh…?" A few tears dropped on her lap.
"S-sorry," Kira whispered apologetically, mentally berating himself for his carelessness. "Kagami, I'm sure Hanami's going to be alright, after all, didn't the Boss say they were going to use some kind of new treatment, just for her?"
"S-She'll be alright…" Kagami wiped the tears off her cheeks. "After all, what kind of t-twin would I be if I didn't have faith in her?"
"Right, let's get the units back with the others and see about going to check in on Hanami," Kira suggested. "I'm sure she'll appreciate any support we'd give her."
"Thanks, Kira…" Kagami nodded, watching as the bulky unit stood up fully, before a thought suddenly occurred to her. "Where's Tolle?"
A sudden crashing was heard nearby as a crimson red mobile suit crashed against the wall. "Goddamn thing, I wanted to go right! Not left!" Tolle screamed over the radio in frustration.
"Tolle… you said you'd be able to handle it, right?" Kagami had to resist the urge to giggle. She failed anyway.
"Because I thought I could!" Tolle shouted in response. "Damn thing, I should be able to at least shoot straight if I need to!"
"They already dealt with all the GiNNs though," Fubuki pointed out shyly, looking over the carnage Kira and Kagami had wreaked on the ZAFT mobile suits.
The Aegis seemed to slump, along with its pilot as a sigh echoed over the radio. "Ah, man," he groaned. "Now I got to get all the way back to the hanger…"
"You wrecked it on your way out, kid," Snake pointed out.
"I… I did?" Tolle asked hesitantly. "How? I only hit one pillar on the way out!"
"You only hit the main support pillar," Snake said shortly. "You're pretty good, hotshot."
"Wow, Tolle," Kira deadpanned. "Just… wow… I really need to update that OS. Um, Snake? Where are we meeting then? The hospital?"
"Grab any equipment you need from the hangars first before you move out. There's still fighting going on outside the colony," Snake ordered.
"Right," Kira agreed as he looked over the area before picking up one of the GiNN's discarded heavy rifles. "Where did the woman say the extra equipment for the Strike was at?"
"They're in Hangar Seven," Snake said gruffly. "She told me. That's a siege weapons pack in there though. The others are already onboard the carrier. I wouldn't advise using it, one missed shot and the colony goes bye bye."
"Right, then I'll make do with scavenged weapons for now," Kira sighed after a moment of thought. "I'm not that confident with my aim."
"Try hacking one of the GiNN machine guns," Kagami suggested, passing one to Fubuki...
… whose mobile suit promptly broke the trigger mechanism as it tried to hold on to it with its oversized hands.
"Umm… Snake, could you try and contact our boss and ask him where Fubuki's unit's weapons are at?" Kira requested, sweat dropping a little.
On the ground, Snake let out a sigh as he looked at the panting worker, the two unconscious redcoats and the group of greencoats they had carried out from the hangar before it collapsed. "Young people these days," he muttered.
Outside Heliopolis
"Damn you, Rau le Creuset!" a blond haired, blue eyed man, clad in a purple flight suit and piloting an orange mobile armor with four remote pods cursed as he exchanged fire with a white CGUE unit. "What do you hope to gain from this?"
"That would be telling, Mu la Flaga!" his opponent replied as the CGUE sprayed several shells ahead of the mobile armour. Mu jinked left and right, relying more on instinct to dodge than actually seeing the tracers - his mobile armour didn't have the best field of view.
An instinct that served him well, it seemed, as he managed to not only weave his way through the bullets, but several large pieces of debris the ZAFT soldier was trying to herd him towards.
Quickly turning he lined up a shot before firing off several salvos with his linear gun while detaching the gun pods from his Moebius Zero's hull and guided them through the attached wires to attack the CGUE from several different angles.
Rau hadn't missed the move, and quickly spun around to fire several shots at the gun pods although most of them missed. When he started taking fire, he kicked his thrusters up to maximum and flew off towards a cluster of debris from the fight earlier, using it for cover.
"You're not getting away, Rau!" Mu shouted angrily as he recalled his gun pods and darted off in pursuit. Making sure to fire off his linear gun several times to both ensure that Rau remained in that cover, and to begin destroying it.
Instead, Rau fired his machine gun through the cover he was using, raising his shield as he charged towards Mu's mobile armour with his sword drawn. The mobile armour, forced to dodge the first few shells, barely managed to get out of the way of the shield rush in time. As it was, the CGUE's sword had already torn through one of the gun pods.
Mu let out a tsking sound of annoyance as he banked his mobile armor around to make another run on the white mobile suit. 'This is bad, they just completely blew through our resistance,' he thought to himself. 'Rau never uses brute force tactics like this, he'd always keep something in reserve, hell he sent out shuttles of all things.'
"I'm being forced to do this by the appearance of a certain man on the colony!" Rau shouted, almost as if he had read Mu's thoughts. "I suppose I must add that man to the list of people who seem to keep getting in my way!"
Mu frowned in thought for a moment before his eyes widened. "So, even the 'mighty' Rau le Creuset is afraid of the Diamond Dogs and their leader, huh?" he asked mockingly. "Maybe we should hire him a few times!"
"So you know of his presence on the colony too…" Rau seethed, trying to funnel Mu into a debris field with machine gun fire to limit his mobility. "He's been known to fight against EA forces as well!"
"Well, considering he doesn't really kill in his deployments, I find myself not caring as much as you," Mu countered as he hit the Moebius Zero's afterburner for a short period to launch himself clear of the debris field, launching some missiles from his still attached gun pods as he swung around towards Rau. "What I find interesting is how much you seem to almost… fear him, like he's fucking something up just by existing!"
"I'm not the one that's scared to death of him, it's those cowards in the Council," Rau growled, tracking the path Mu was taking through the debris field easily and spraying shells at him. "Just because the man has taken down a mobile suit on foot."
"Well it is a rather impressive feat," Mu smirked as he jinked around the shells and returned fire. "It's been getting our commandos chomping at the bit to replicate it!"
Rau just growled again as he raised his shield to deflect some of the gunfire. All the while he had never lowered his machine gun.
Mu's instinct flared as he pulled out of his charge, just in time to dodge a burst of automatic fire that would have ripped the Moebius Zero to shreds and switched his tactics to deploying his remaining three gun pods to rain fire down on the mobile suit. "What's the matter Rau?" Mu taunted. "Does the thought of the feared Alliance Commandos actually learning how to take out a mobile suit on foot send a shiver down your spine?"
"No, those commandos barely have the brains to handle a pack of C6 without blowing themselves up!" Rau fired back both verbally and physically, a pinpoint shot to one of the gun pods destroying it instantly as he took cover behind his shield.
Mu scowled at the loss of another gun pod before retracting the other two, using their thrusters to augment his primary thruster as he began circling Rau again, looking for any hole or weakness to exploit.
Rau was about to squeeze the trigger again when he noticed an orange blur exit from the colony. He frowned as he zoomed in on it and caught a literally disarmed orange GiNN on camera. "Miguel was forced to retreat?"
"Looks like all isn't going as planned, now is it?" Mu mocked. "I wonder how many of your men are dead or captured, huh?"
"Tch, it seems I'll have to do the job myself!" Rau growled, orienting his CGUE to point at the colony entrance and ramping the throttle up to maximum. "We'll continue this sometime else, La Flaga!"
"Dammit, get back here Creuset!" Mu cursed as he pushed the throttle forward, his thrusters ramping up to full power to dive in after the CGUE.
Hospital
"This is the one, right?" Kira asked worriedly as the mobile suits closed in on the large, white-painted building.
"According to Big Boss, yeah…" Tolle studied the sign on the wall outside the hospital stating its name. "Hanami's in the emergency room here, he said his men told him."
Kagami and Fubuki were completely silent in their cockpits, both of them shaking in some way or another at the thought of their sister in the operating room.
"Come on," Kira said as he stopped his unit outside of the hospital. "Let's go see your sister, I'm sure she's completely fine."
"I sure hope she is…" Mir was trembling slightly inside the Aegis' cockpit.
"H-Hanami…" Kuzzey whispered from beside Kira.
"Code Talker is the world's leading expert on this operation. Your sister will be fine," Snake assured, riding on the Strike's right hand together with the worker and the two still-unconscious redcoats. He paused for a moment before continuing, "But I must ask for her to come with me afterwards. The operation has some… side effects that she'll need to get used to."
"What kind of side effects?" Kira asked in concern, his brow creasing with worry for his friend.
Snake sucked in a deep breath. "If the operation is a success, she'll be breathing through her skin and gaining energy from photosynthesis instead of eating like a regular human. That means she'll no longer be able to cover too much of her skin if she wants to survive."
"Oh…" the group responded, before realization dawned on them. "Hanami is… really self concious about her body…" Sai commented from behind Kira. "She doesn't like exposing much of herself…"
"I gathered as much," Snake grunted. "Quiet had the same treatment once before."
"B-But she'll be alright, right?" Fubuki asked, her Ariete stopping slightly further away out of consideration for its weight potentially shaking the hospital.
"She will be," Snake affirmed as the Strike lowered its hands for the group to dismount.
The doors to the hospital opened as the group disembarked from the assorted mobile suits, revealing a tired looking Ryu who was out of the power armor. "The operation is going smoothly," he told them. "Hanami's body is accepting the parasites and Code Talker is sure that she will make a full recovery."
"P-P-Parasites!?" Fubuki gasped, staring at Ryu incredulously.
"Aren't those supposed to be dangerous things?" Kagami glared at him too.
Ryu shook his head. "These ones are… special," he told them. "And were the best chance for saving her."
"More accurately they'd be called symbiotes," Snake stepped up beside Ryu. "Seems like all the staff and patients already evacuated," he noted as he analyzed the silent state of the hospital.
Ryu nodded. "Hospitals are given priority evacuation," he informed, tiredly rubbing at his eyes. "Good thing too because the damage is bad all over…"
"C-Can we see Hanami-nee?" Fubuki asked worriedly, still not quite reassured by the two.
Ryu nodded. "They're still operating, minor things at this point, but there is an observation deck," he said in confirmation. "Once they move her out of the OR then you can go up to her."
"S-Sir! You have to see this!" one of the Diamond Dogs soldiers came rushing out of the hospital.
Ryu and Snake turned to the soldier as he came rushing out. "What is it?" Ryu asked tiredly. "It better be important."
"S-She's recovering much faster than expected! Her original skin colour's already back! Code Talker says that it might be because she's a Coordinator…" the soldier hurriedly explained.
Ryu blinked in surprise. "Follow me," he ordered the students as he rushed back into the hospital. "I just looked in on her not even five minutes ago, she was nowhere near that stage!"
"Like I said, it's much faster than expected!" the soldier repeated. "Even Code Talker's amazed!"
The other students heaved sighs of relief as they followed closely behind, having some slight trouble keeping pace with the much fitter soldiers. Kagami exchanged a cheerful grin with Fubuki.
"Can it be a mutation of some kind? But she hasn't been exposed to any kind of radiation…" Snake mused.
"Have the medical team remove a sample of the parasite now on Hanami," Ryu ordered the soldier, his mind running through the possibilities. "I want to look into this myself."
Even as they came up to the operating room, Code Talker was staring at a monitor inside the monitoring room and shaking his head. "I know what you are thinking. I checked… it is no mutation. The parasites are exactly the same, but her… status as a Coordinator is increasing the growth rate of the parasites dramatically…"
Ryu's eyes narrowed as he moved over to the monitors and began adjusting the screens, calling up Hanami's status. "This is definitely odd," he murmured. "Even factoring in the average healing rate of a Coordinator with that of a parasite host… it shouldn't be this high, plus, the scans on her muscles, vital and minor organs, even the nervous system, there shouldn't be this much of an increase in both their function and durability…"
The students peeked into the room and happened to catch a glance of the view from one of the cameras overlooking the operating room. The soldier was right, Hanami had already gotten her healthy skin colour back. Even her hair was regrowing rapidly, although it was getting much longer than how she had it previously.
But something about that image had the guys of the group captivated…
"H-Huge…" Tolle murmured, his eyes glued to two certain somethings.
"Tolle, stop staring at her!" Mir shouted in the defense of her unconscious, and completely naked, friend as she stepped in front of him to block his view. "You already have a girlfriend!"
Kira was averting his eyes, a massive blush on his face after catching an eyeful of soft, bared globes of flesh.
"Hanami-nee…" Fubuki breathed another sigh of relief, a little more concerned with her sister's safety than her voyeuristic male friends.
"At this rate of healing… she should be completely healed within two hours at most," Ryu breathed. "This… this is beyond healing, this is... regeneration!"
"No… the parasites are simply growing too fast…" Code Talker corrected. "A… Coordinator she may be… but even her normal regeneration is not this fast… As they grow, the parasite replaces her damaged… organs… which make it appear to be regeneration…"
"But how can they do this so quickly?" Ryu asked in confusion. "Even if they are able to rebuild them, where are they getting the needed materials for it, are they taking her own cells and forcing division, using their own, is there a limit?"
"Normally it would be using the nutrient agar… providing the nutrients to… accelerate growth," Code Talker explained. "Beyond that, the host's own body… will provide the required… nourishment. The only explanation I can think of… is that her own body is exceptionally… fertile."
Ryu rubbed his forehead as he processed the information. "This is freaking nuts," he muttered to himself. "Is everything over there as messed up as this?"
"Err… what does that mean?" Tolle muttered, his eyes being covered by Mir's hands.
"It means… she is producing enough milk to nourish large numbers of the parasites…" Code Talker added, not quite having the reservations the others did about talking about the subject matter.
Mir shifted her hands to cover Tolle's ears a bit too late. The other guys' jaws hung agape. Kagami let out a bark of laughter. Fubuki ducked her head in shame.
"Wait… she's what!?" Ryu asked incredulously. "But… how? Did the parasites cause it? Does Quiet do that? This makes no sense!"
"Have you… ever wondered why only the female Skulls on the Quarantine Platform… retained some semblance of sanity…?" Code Talker asked. "In the absence… of a… proper source of nutrients… the parasites will parasitize the brain… causing irreparable brain damage…"
Ryu rubbed at his eyes as he let out a deep sigh. "Is she going to have the same issues as them?" he questioned.
"No," Code Talker shook his head. "Quiet's strain… has a stronger preference for lactose compared to the Skulls' version. The girl… will have the same abilities as her, as well… as the same weaknesses."
Ryu nodded in understanding. "Um… weaknesses?" Kira asked in concern, the two other Yukikaze sisters showing the same concern.
"Unable to wear fully covering clothing as she breathes through her skin, salt water will burn her," Ryu listed off. "Missing anything?"
"Correct," Code Talker nodded.
"It's going to be a long road for her as she adjusts to the changes," Ryu to the others. "And all of you are going to have to help her."
"Of course we're helping her!" Kagami agreed wholeheartedly.
Kira and the others nodded in agreement as they had a resolute look on their faces. "She's our friend," Kira informed bluntly. "We'll always help her."
Author's Notes:
AstralXYZ: That's the first part of the siege of Heliopolis done! And yes, I'm officially bumping this story up to an M-rating. I still haven't quite decided if there'll be lemons in this fanfic yet, but the chances are quite high with Ryu here. Rest assured, there'll be more things coming in from some of the previous MGS games as well, not just The Phantom Pain. Exactly what… I won't be telling. You'll have to wait and see. ;)
DragonKnightRyu: Yeah… it's not like I plan for every fic I touch to become a Lemon fic… heck there are some that are not, I blame some of the other co-authors for it… sometimes…
AstralXYZ: Eh, we'll see how this goes in the future. Just be prepared - there'll be lemon warning signs for those who want to skip them later on.
Review Replies:
Since there are so many reviews coming in at once, we'll only reply to those that have questions in them.
MEleeSmasher, there is no sense in reactivating a combat unit that can't think, that can't be controlled. The Skulls will be mentioned in this fic, but they won't be seeing any combat. As for recruiting from enemy ranks and the ship… we already have plans for those, but we're not disclosing them.
RoyalTwinFangs, unfortunately no, we're not taking OCs.
readerofgoodfanfiction, no, there are no boxtrolls in this fic. Only Men In Boxes.
Guest No.2 (I have no idea who you are), Ocelot is stuck back in the MGS world so he won't see any action in this story. There are other people who have been trained by Ocelot and will be playing his role instead.
Sajuuk, we're… not entirely sure how to reply to you. All decisions we make in this story, we make with balance in mind - it's not going to be as fun to write if the good guys are winning too easily. And no, there are no longer any surviving examples of the vocal cord parasites. Not that Diamond Dogs would weaponize it again anyway.
Guest No.3, at this time of posting we have chapter 3 halfway done. We've stated this before, we'll be keeping one chapter in reserve while we work on the one after it. This is so that we can go back to the chapter and make any necessary corrections. Please bear with us, we don't want to rush this fanfic.