Chapter 6: Appearance

Kira woke up. Birdie, his robotic bird perched on his forehead. He sat up. Birdie took off and landed beside an immobilized purple robotic bird. If yesterday's incident didn't happen, Akira would be playing with it now. He would have been eager to turn it on after he came back. The same thing would go for Lycus too. Lacus had got her a purple Haro. Beside him, Lacus slowly awaken. "Kira, are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I just can't help worrying about them"

Lacus sat up and hugged Kira. "I feel the same way too. Promise me that you will come back safely together with our little angels."

"I promise."

Kira, Lacus, Shinn and Lunamaria ate their breakfast quietly. "Lacus, we have a signal from the Archangel," Meyrin told her.

"Put it through," Lacus said.

"Lacus, are they ready?" Murrue asked. Shinn nodded, followed by Kira and Lunamaria. The time has come. The pilots went into their mobile suits, in Lunamaria's case, her jet (Core Splendor).

CLEAR. CLEAR. CLEAR. LAUNCH. "Kira Yamato, Strike Freedom, TAKE OFF!"

CLEAR. CLEAR. CLEAR. LAUNCH. "Shinn Asuka, Destiny, TAKE OFF!"

CLEAR. CLEAR. CLEAR. LAUNCH. "Lunamaria Asuka, Core Splendor, TAKE OFF!"

(Meyrin's voice) "Force Silhouette, LAUNCH!"

As soon as the Core Splendor got out of the Eternal, it immediately transformed and merged with the Force Silhouette and became Force Impulse Gundam. As Lunamaria joined Kira and Shinn, Cagalli and Athrun came from the front.

"Lacus, give me the METEOR system," Athrun said.

"Kira, do you need it?" "No, I don't think so." The right side of Eternal opened and released one of the METEOR systems. Infinite Justice attached itself to it. Then, the five Gundams zoomed forward at top speed.

"Are they here yet?" A rough voice asked.

"No, but they are 3 km away from here." A male voice replied. "Good. Set up the force field. After they are destroyed, killed the brats and send out our secret weapon." "Yes sir."

At the Archangel, Flaga and Wattfield are waiting by their mobile suits. Wattfield still managed to make some coffee for himself and Flaga. They had just drunk the last drop when Miriallia's voice sounded through the Archangel.

"All pilots be ready to launch. There is an emergency outside. Commander Flaga and Mr. Waltfeld, please come to the bridge immediately."

"What happened?" Flaga asked.

"See for yourselves," Murrue said, pointing in front. "Fire the Gottfried cannons!" She ordered. To the two men's surprise, the cannons' ammo hit nothing, but were blocked from going forward.

"What in the world……?" Wattfield and Flaga was shocked to see such a thing.

A grenade was thrown towards the front, and same, it hit nothing but can't go forward. "No good. That grenade can't penetrate through it," Dearka said through his communicator.

Yzak piloted his white GOUF Ignited forward with a beam saber in its hand. He tried to slice the whatever-is-in-front-thing, but failed. "Damn! What is this stupid thing!" He shouted.

Miriallia checked on the computer. "From the data we got, it seems that we are blocked by some kind of force field, and I think we had just been cut off communication to Kira and the others."

Yzak lost his patience. "Darn you Otstanayo!" He gave an order through his communicator. "This is Commander Jule speaking to the ZAFT fleet. Every army personnel, except the special squad in the Eternal, power-up all the firearms you got and give the force field everything you got!"

Murrue also gave similar orders. Orb's mobile suits were launched from the Archangel. Then they blast the force field non-stop together with the battleships on the ocean. As soon as Akatsuki and Gaia had taken off, she ordered to fire the Lohengrin. Soon, the sky was filled with lasers, positron beams, missiles and beam sabers that were attacking something invisible.

Somewhere else……

"Finally, opportunity knocks." A man in his thirties spoke to himself. "Captain, gather more information. This is exactly what we need," he spoke to his laptop.

"Yes sir."

The man poured himself a glass of whisky and took a sip. "Now, I'll just wait for the Coordinators to kill each other." He grinned evilly, apparently satisfied with this thought.

9 km from the Archangel……

Kira and the other pilots are reaching their destination. During his flight, he wondered if his children and their friends are safe and sound. He also wondered why they were suddenly cut off communication from the Archangel and the Eternal. By the time they reached there, they found nothing out of ordinary.

"Do you think we should dive into the water?" Cagalli suggested.

Before any reply can be made, their radars sounded a warning. Two black ZAKUs appeared from the water and sped towards them with two beam sabers in each arms. Kira took aim and fired at the limbs and main cameras, leaving only the cockpits. However, the cockpits that were left still managed to stay airborne. Then they rocketed towards Strike Freedom unexpectedly and self-destruct.

"Kira!"

"Don't worry, I'm alright. And the Freedom isn't much damaged either." Kira replied.

"What in the world are they thinking! Why would they self-destruct to destroy us! Can't they think properly!" Shinn asked. Nobody said anything, except a new voice from their communicator.

"Indeed, hot-head. They can't think for themselves. These droids just do exactly what we told them to."

The five pilots thought they heard wrongly. Droids?

"They pilot better than most humans pilots do. Now, its time for your doom!" As the voiced died down, more and more ZAKUs emerged from the water and started launching attacks at them. Given no choice, the five of them started fighting back. They fought bravely, shooting, shielding, flying, dodging, stabbing, and slashing with all their might and skills. Yet, the enemies' number doesn't seem to be decreasing. "Just how many are there!" Cagalli cried as her Strike Rouge blasted a ZAKU that was trying to attack her from behind. The battle was getting wilder when suddenly; some strange wires shot out from the ocean and tied up Force Impulse and Strike Rouge.

"What……" Lunamaria and Cagalli tried hard to break their Gundams free, but failed. Meanwhile, the guys soon find themselves facing the same problems. Furthermore, the strange wires also stopped Kira from using Strike Freedom's DRAGOON units, Athrun from using the METEOR system, and Shinn from using Destiny's weapons.

As they struggled to break free, their radars sensed another object, something big. Then a ship surfaced from the ocean. It looked like the Minerva, but 1.5 times the size of it.

The voice that they heard just now started talking again. "Ah, the sweet smell of victory. Now, let the execution begin. Who should I begin with?" Complete silence for a few seconds, then, "How about ladies first? I think the Princess should have the honour of going first." He gave a cruel laughed after that. Kira and Athrun tried even harder to break free, but their Gundams still won't budge.

A black ZAKU activated its beam saber. "Goodbye, Natural." The ZAKU then zoomed towards Strike Rouge, with the beam saber positioned at the cockpit. It seemed to be the end for Cagalli, then, suddenly something extraordinary happened. The saber, that was supposed to stab Strike Rouge's cockpit, seemed to be block by something unable to be seen. After that, to their amazement, the ZAKU seemed to be punched, although Strike Rouge still can't move. Then, Cagalli heard a voice that she never expected at all.

"There's no way I gonna let anyone hurt my mom!"

"Athura? Is that really you?" Cagalli asked anxiously.

"Then, she heard her nephew's voice. "Ray, push that button so that they could see us." As soon as he said that, the thing that defended Cagalli appeared. Its appearance caused uproar within the enemy ship.

"It can't be! Contact the underwater base now! That… that's Hades Gundam!" the captain of the ship ordered with a panic tone in his voice.