You're killin' me, people. Leave some reviews. There are ten people on the alert list, and only six reviews. I should have at least 10 reviews. I will delete this entire story.
Phase 04: Stardust Battlefield
Shinn nervously ran a weapons check. The Blast Impulse was equipped with a pair of 'Kerberos' Beam cannons, 'Deluge' Railcannons, 'Defiant' beam javelins, and two four-barrel missile launchers, and Impulse's default weaponry and mobile shield.
# # #
"Chairman, he's not-!" Cagalli began.
"There's nothing to worry about. I'm not accusing him of anything." Durandal interrupted, turning back to the main view. "I understand how it happened. It's just, if we're going to talk, I wanted to make sure I was talking to the real you, Athrun. That's all."
# # #
Kira sighed and extended his sixth sense as far as he could. Normally, a newtype kept his sense directed around him, like one would using the Dragoon system or a Moebius Zero. But they could also direct it in a single area. He could feel Rey, Lunamaria, Mayu, and Shinn, they're Gundams, and a few mobile suit's GuAIZ Ls, but no ship. His eyes widened, and he stretched it out, searching everywhere.
"Behind us! Dammit!" he ran for the bridge.
# # #
"Has the ship detected them?" Arthur asked.
"No, sir." Athrun narrowed his eyes. They were within a few hundred, the sensors should've picked them up by now. He briefly considered damage, but that didn't seem possible, it was like the ship and every sensor on it was blinded. The Minevra hadn't landed a hit.
Wait a minute. What if that ship was blind? The ship couldn't be blind. But a decoy could.
"Son of a bitch! A decoy!" Athrun shouted, leaning forward.
# # #
Sting grinned. "Let's go." The three Extendeds suddenly shot from the rubble, firing.
# # #
"Scatter!" Shinn cried. The Mobile suits blasted apart, firing. The GuAIZ Ls were immediately lost to Chaos's dragoons.
'Damn! They've already taken out two of us!' Lunamaria cried. She and Mayu were boosting away from Gaia, firing their beam rifles.
"Rey! Get Chaos! I'll take Abyss!" Shinn reversed thrust, and brought out the Impulse's twin 'Kerberos' beam cannons. He fired. Abyss dodged, and the beam hit the solar panel behind. The beam cut right through the wall of glass.
# # #
"What the hell?!" Auel cried. He fired Abyss's Callidus.
# # #
Shinn aimed one Kerberos at the incoming beam and fired. The two met, Abyss's Callidus pushing forward, then started to slow, then stopped dead before the Kerberos's muzzle. Then it reversed.
# # #
Auel's eyes went wide. He dodged the incoming blast and fired his triple beam cannons. The Impulse dodged. Auel was a little shocked. Just one of that suit's cannons had overpowered the Callidus at its max, and that was the Abyss's main weapon!
# # #
Rey and Sting both fired their missiles. Rey spun, firing his verniers, detonating the missiles with his exhaust. Sting did it with CIWS. Sting gritted his teeth and drew a beam saber. Rey charged. Sting raised both brows. He returned the charge and swung. The Zaku disappeared mid swing.
"What?" Rey's Zaku appeared behind the Chaos, and fired its beam rifle. Chaos turned, bringing its shield to bear, and blocked the blast.
"The Yamato Reversal, compliments of Rey za Burrel." Rey announced, firing his beam rifle again.
"You damn show off!" Sting growled, switching Chaos to mobile armor mode, and fired its Callidus Kai cannon. The Zaku dodged.
# # #
"Rey, the Yamato Reversal uses a melee weapon." Shinn declared, annoyed. If you were gonna pull a renowned maneuver, use it right. He switched the 'Deluge railcannons to rapid fire and began spitting rounds at Abyss.
# # #
Kira slammed his fist on the door. Then the ship rocked from the beam cannon miss. He gritted his teeth and ran for the nearest elevator.
# # #
"Ma'am! The Freedom is launching!" Meryin called. Durandal smiled. Athrun's eyes went wide. Cagalli shouted as the ship rocked again, but noticed Athrun leaned forward, his hands gripping the arms of the chair like the control sticks of a mobile suit.
"Can we launch a suit? Doesn't this ship carry more mobile suits?" Durandal asked.
"We've run out of pilots!" Talia shouted over her shoulder, just as the ship rocked again.
Athrun's eyes went wide.
# # #
Kira drew a beam saber and shot at the Girty Lue, carving through its top Gottfrieds. A quartet of explosive rounds struck the Freedom, knocking it down. Kira looked at the pair of Doppelhorn Dagger Ls. He turned Freedom and opened its Baileena beam cannons and Xiphias rail guns. He locked onto the cannons on their shoulders and fired.
The attacks stripped the Dagger Ls of their striker pack-mounted weapons. They aimed and began firing beam carbines. Kira blocked with his shield and boosted at them. He slashed off the left Dagger L's carbine arm, and cut off its head, turned, then did the same to the other. He boosted towards the battle.
# # #
Shinn fired his quartet of missiles at Gaia and Chaos. Gaia shot one before taking cover, Chaos using its CIWS. A beam tomahawk cut through its beam rifle, and Shinn looked to who had thrown it.
Mayu's pink Zaku dodged Abyss's triple beam cannons and fired its beam rifle.
"Nice shot, sis." Shinn said, smiling.
'Thanks Shinn!'
# # #
Lunamaria turned to face the pursuing Gaia, unfolding her Zaku's 'Orthos' beam cannon. She aimed.
"Who do you think you are, anyway?" She said, and fired. Gaia jumped over the blast and boosted back at Luna's Zaku. "You're nothing but thieves!"
"You're finished." Stella said, coldly. Freedom was suddenly between Gaia and the Zaku, and knocked Gaia away with Freedom's shield.
# # #
"Kira!" Shinn cried.
'Get back to the Minevra and defend it. You guys won't last long without a ship. I'll handle these three.' Kira said. The three Zakus boosted away.
"I'm not letting you have all the fun!" Shinn cried, enraged. He fired his beam cannons at Abyss and Chaos. The two suits dodged.
# # #
Freedom slashed at Gaia, who jumped over the attack. "Fun?" He dodged Gaia's counterattack. "You think I had fun, trying to kill my best friend?" He blasted all four cannons at Chaos, forcing it to dodge. "War is never FUN!" Behind his eyes, a purple seed burst. Kira's opals expanded, and his pupils shrunk. He opened Freedom's beam cannons and railguns, and locked onto every piece of debris nearby. Kira unleashed a barrage of fire, coating the whole area in smoke and pieces of glass. Kira closed his eyes.
# # #
Auel looked around. "Man, I can't see a damn thing! Switching to infared!" the whole screen turned blue, with a red humanoid shape lunging at him, a white pillar in its hand. Auel cried out.
# # #
"Auel!" Sting cried. He switched infared just in time to see a white and red blur. Then his screens went to static. "What the hell?!"
# # #
Stella switched to infared. A pair of bright white cones emerged from a central source. Suddenly, her beam blades didn't respond. "Huh?" The red figure lunged at her, a pillar of white held ready. She screamed.
# # #
Shinn's eyes widened as the smoke cleared. Freedom stood in the middle of the three gundams, the only one intact. Chaos's head had been severed, Abyss no longer had legs, and Gaia had lost both beam blades and all four legs.
"What the hell was that?!" he cried.
# # #
Neo gritted his teeth. "Fire a signal flare, call them back. I'll handle him myself." He got up and left the bridge.
# # #
Kira opened his eyes. Flash He gritted his teeth. "Him." He boosted away, leaving the Impulse. He noticed the Minevra had been trapped by several large rocks. He quickly blasted them with Freedom's railguns, then moved on. He felt the gunbarrel fire, and barrel rolled, dodging a pair of beams. The pink mobile armor spun, launching all of its gunbarrels, firing its main guns.
Kira dodged the linear gun shots and fired his beam rifle. He dodged the spiderweb of beams, shooting up into the many asteroids. The mobile armor chased him, firing its beams all over the place, narrowly missing Freedom. Kira turned and set his railguns to rapid fire, spitting out a barrage of yellow comets.
# # #
Neo dodged the shots and recalled his gunbarrels, shooting past Freedom. He launched them again and had them suicide run the mobile suit, beam blades snapping up on every one. Freedom fired its heavy guns, destroying all the gunbarrels. Neo just stared, mouth open.
# # #
"Who ever you are, you can't beat me, Mu la Flaga." Kira said. He noted that he sounded a lot like Rau.
# # #
"Tell me, can you sense my presence? Can you sense it in the same way I sense yours? An unfortunate fate, wouldn't you say, Mu la Flaga?"
"God! Who is this Mu la Flaga?! I'm Neo Roanoke! NEO ROANOKE, you bastard!!" Neo cried, holding his head. Neo's hands shot to the Exus's controls, and he shot away, back towards the Girty Lue. Neo made a promise, he'd never face that winged suit if he couldn't help it. That bastard piloting it-.
"So, you're a-" "Oh, this kid…" "A coordinator, -" "We're not murderers!" "Right?" It felt like years later the cockpit hatch opened, and in looked a tech. Neo was rubbing his head, desperately clawing at it, as if he could get the nightmares out.
"Uh…captain?" Neo's head shot up, out of his hands. He shook his head and got out of the Exus. He walked out of the hangar and waited until the door closed, then punched the wall. He cracked a knuckle, blood leaking from a cut, but he welcomed the pain, concentrating on it.
"You are Neo Roanoke, captain in Phantom Pain."
Not really, The ghost in the back of his head whispered. Neo ignored it. (God, I write a really good psychotic, don't I?)
# # #
The Minevra suddenly blasted (literally) away from the asteroid, turning around on the Girty Lue.
"Prepare to fire!" Talia cried.
"Aiming Tanhauser! Charging…" Arthur said, as a snub-nosed weapon emerged from the Minevra's bow. They would only have one shot, and the Tanhauser Positron beam cannon would do more damage than the Isolde or Tristians in one shot.
"Charged!"
"Fire!"
The Tanhauser lit up, a small laser emerging from the muzzle. Then, a micro second later, the small, insignificant laser beam a beam wider than twice the width of the weapon. The blue and white beam burned a graze off of the Girty Lue's bridge and starboard engines, before ceasing, leaving the ship limping, its wounds smoking as it passed the Minevra. Normally the ships would attempt to broad side each other, but both were too damaged to even launch missiles to hit each other.
# # #
Kira looked up, his cheeks streaked with tears. "W-why? Why do they have to destroy each other?"
The flash of the Skygrasper as it exploded lit up the battlefield.
Watching the Strike take the Lohengrin blast for the Archangel, Mu dying to save his love, and in the process breaking her heart…
The Aegis gave a flash, then exploded, enveloping the Strike in a fireball, propelling Kira, parts of his body burning, over three hundred feet, maybe even a mile…
The shuttle from the Menalos…
He reluctantly flew towards the Minevra.
# # #
Durandal just stared at the playback of Freedom, and Chaos, Gaia, and Abyss, being revealed by the pink curtain of gases. He replayed the source of the smoke screen, watching the mission clock.
Freedom had disabled three of ZAFT's second stage units in just under three minutes.
'Could Kira be the one?' Durandal pondered. 'Could I use him?' Kira was reasonable, and he wanted peace. Durandal considered the possibilities.
I doubt he would accept your proposal, Gil. Rau said from the back of Gilbert's mind.
'In time, Rau. In time.'
# # #
Meryin walked out of the bridge and into the hall. She caught sight of Lunamaria and smiled.
"Shinn! Lunamaria! Rey! Mayu!" she called. She floated near them, Luna catching her by the hand. "You'll never guess who is with Representative Attha!"
"Athrun Zala?" The pilots chorused, not surprised.
"What the hell?"
# # #
"Doesn't the ship carry more mobile suits?"
"We've run out of pilots!"
Athrun dropped his eyes to the floor. He heard talking, and looked up.
"You know, I can totally understand why he'd want to change his name like that." Meryin said.
"What? Whatever the reason, he's a top ZAFT-" the small group saw Athrun's glare and instantly shut up, Meryin crying out and hiding behind Shinn and Rey. "Hey! We were just talking about you, Athrun Zala, and presto, here you are!" Lunamaria said. Athrun didn't like the overconfidence in her voice. "Isn't that funny how that sometimes happens?" she asked, walking over.
"Not really." Athrun growled. "Not in the mood I'm in."
"Well, it's really an honor to meet a legendary ace, like you."
"Wrong guy. My name is Alex Dino."
"Really? So how did Justice handle? Better than a CGUE? I'm assuming you've flown a CGUE." Luna asked.
"Yes, I flew a CGUE." Athrun realized too late it was a trap. He sighed. "Look, I just want to be left alone. But to answer your question, it handled a little more like a DINN."
"Wow. It must've been amazing to fly it in the war."
"I had to shoot my own father!" Athrun cried. "He was a good man once! He loved the plants, then the Earth Alliance killed my mother, and he became worse than the monsters that killed her, and I had to shoot him! How would you feel, I wonder, if you had to shoot your own sister, or your brother, or your parents?! Well, I know how it feels, and you don't ever want to experience that, girl." Athrun was panting when he finished. He looked to the ground.
"Go away." He muttered. Pleaded. Shinn and Rey turned and left, followed by Lunamaria, then Meryin. Mayu walked closer. Athrun looked back up, tears in his eyes. Mayu reached out and touched his shoulder.
"I'm…sorry. I lost my mother, too." Athrun smiled. He looked at Mayu.
"You're Shinn's sister, aren't you? What's…what's with him?" Mayu sat down next to Athrun.
"He…I don't know. I can't tell if he hates himself, the Atthas, the Earth Forces, I just can't tell anymore." Athrun's smile faded.
"Maybe…all three." Mayu looked at Athrun, surprised. "I hated everything after I thought I killed Kira. If I had, my mother would've never forgiven me."
"But you didn't." Kira said, smiling. Athrun looked up and smiled. Kira looked at Mayu. "We knew each other since before birth. Our moms knew each other from a while back. They tried to get together whenever they could." He looked back to Athrun. "Remember your twelfth birthday?"
"Oh, please, Kira, we don't need her sputtering gibberish for the rest of her life, Shinn'd kill us." Athrun pleaded.
"Oh, it wasn't that bad. Our moms threw a surprise party, and Athrun had been drinking too much soda," Athrun groaned and muttered a prayer to god, "and when the jumped out, Athrun's dad grabbed Athrun's shoulders so fast, Athrun peed himself right there, in the front door." Mayu started laughing hysterically. Athrun shook his head, embarrassed.
"What the hell?!" Shinn cried. Kira and Athrun looked to see Shinn staring, mouth open. He ran in and grabbed Mayu's hand. "Stop flirting with my sister!" he roared, then dragged her out. Kira and Athrun looked to the empty doorway, to each other, then back to the doorway.
# # #
Lacus inspected the ring. She sat straight again. "This ring…it was Athrun's Mother's." Cagalli looked at the ring, surprised.
"He must really love you, to give you the last thing he has of his mother." Lacus said, smiling. Haro jumped into her lap.
'Yeah, really love! Really love!' Cagalli smiled.
"I like it." Cagalli said. Lacus smiled wider, tilting her head to one side.
# # #
'How are the motors going?' The Ginn High Maneuver II moved way for a Mistral space worker mobile armor.
'They're just setting the last of them.'
'Make them hurry.' The Mistral placed a device against the spire of twisted metal and tapped two buttons, then backed away.
'Flare Motor Ignition in 5, 4, 3, 2, …particle flux detected.' The device let off a red light. Across the colony, thousands, millions, perhaps tens of millions of red lights lit up, propelling the graveyard forwards, towards its target.
Earth.
# # #
"Kristine…Helen. We'll be reunited…after this." Junius Seven began to accelerate, crashing through asteroids.
Sato's eyes went wide. "Now FALL! Our great tombstone! Fall! On a world that has forgotten the pain and suffering and chooses to wallow in deceit, FALL!! The Hour of Correction is near at hand!"
# # #
"Huh? That can't be right."
"No, I've checked it several times. It's definitely moving."
"How in the hell is it moving? It's not even near the gravity well…"
"Look, I'm just telling you what this satellite signal is telling me, the damn thing's moving, okay?"
"Jeez, calm down. But how could Junius 7 be moving?"
# # #
The white haired commander ran his hand across the place where a year ago a massive scar had been, then sighed and went back to his book. The door chime rang, and in stepped a green coat with dark skin and dusty blonde hair.
"What is it?"
"We're getting' a report from the home land. It says Junius 7 is moving."
"Which direction?" Dearka Elsman paused before answering.
"Well, anyone sunbathing tomorrow'll be able to get a real good look, let's put it that way." Yzak turned into his desk and took the report.
"Mirillia rubbed off on you more than I thought." He muttered. "Can't give me a straight an…swer…. Has this been confirmed?"
"Not yet."
"Well, set up a GINN L-Double-R and have the pilot confirm it! C'mon, Dearka, move!"
"Sir!" Dearka ran from the office.
Yzak leaned back in his chair, looking over the report. "Well, I guess it really is the end of the world."
# # #
God! Another shorty! Dammit. Oh, well. I guess I'll have to live with it. I'm afraid Episode 6 will really start the AU, because I've only seen the first volume of Gundam SEED Destiny.
Anyway, the second volume Title will be Impulse's Anger unless I come up with something else, or I like a suggestion from somebody else.
Next: Scars that Won't heal