Chapter 21: Old Allies; New Battle
The two weeks passed very quickly for all involved in the race to see who would succeed in the battle between Heiran Yaturi and Relena Peacecraft. Soon, Heiran's pilots stood on the edge of the debris field waiting for Heiran to give them the order to enter; meanwhile, inside the debris field, the sensors the Sweepers had put out along the edge warned the crew aboard the Peacemillion that their enemy had finally arrived…
"We're no longer the Defence Council until we can bring the ESUN back to life, so Quatre will be the leader of the Peacemillion defence forces until our three suits are operational." Milliardo informed the others as they began picking their way through the debris towards the edge, wanting to keep the fight as far from the Peacemillion as possible.
Quatre balked at his orders for a few minutes before reluctantly giving in. "Maganacs and Virgo II's… please stay within the debris field and keep a low profile. Wufei, Trowa and myself will get them to lower their guards, and then you can come out and surprise them… I hope."
Noin smiled reassuringly at his image on the side screen of her Virgo II's visual screens. "Don't worry about us Quatre, we'll be careful. You guys just worry about yourselves… as the others have proven: three on nine is never very good odds when it's a battle of Gundams."
"We're going on ahead, you guys keep back." Quatre said as the Sandrock, Heavyarms, and Altron sped ahead of the Maganacs and Virgo II's.
"I'm a little bit concerned about doing this… won't this simply become a giant target on the Peacemillion? If we're here in fully rebuilt Gundams, then they'll realize that Relena and the others are aboard… which will cause them to come after us more frequently." Trowa said with a frown.
"I have a feeling it wouldn't have made a difference: they probably still would have destroyed the Peacemillion simply because the Sweepers are known allies of ours. This way we can keep the Peacemillion from danger." Wufei commented coolly as they came closer to the edge of the debris field.
"Despite the fact that it may prove disadvantageous for us, remember to wait for them to make the first move. Relena will already have her hands full with trying to restore the ESUN's tarnished image without us adding any more to it." Quatre warned as he looked over the map of the debris field they had been given by Howard to avoid any spots that were considered dangerous by the Sweepers
"Don't worry Quatre; I doubt either of us were planning on doing that." Trowa said with a hint of a warning glance at the Altron as it flew beside the Heavyarms.
"Does anyone have any dibs on any specific targets?" Wufei asked coolly as he realized who they were talking about.
"I don't have any, especially since we don't really know who is piloting which suit." Quatre admitted as they could now see the end of the debris field on their visual screens.
"Do you want the Epyon, Wufei?" Trowa asked as he remembered Wufei's personal war with Treize Khushrenada.
"It doesn't matter… we'll probably end up fighting all of them anyways." Wufei replied grimly as their Gundams' thrusters erupted with a burst of speed and they charged towards the edge to prevent the others from dragging the fight into the debris field and risking the premature discovery of their allies.
"Okay… so the Sweepers ship is somewhere in the middle of all this… This will be fun." Yamato said with a strong bite of sarcasm as they stared at the floating debris that acted like a wall between them and their target.
The others nodded in agreement as what was once a piece of the Libra's outer wall floated past. The sizeable chuck of debris effectively blocked their view of the rest of the field.
"Damn… how are we supposed to find anything in there with chunks like that floating around?" Marco growled as his Gundam aimed its gun at the wall with the intention of destroying it.
Andrew's Gundam floated in between to stop him. "We have to be careful; we don't know what could be attached to that wall. The Sweepers could have laid traps in among the debris." Andrew's Gundam didn't move until Marco's Gundam lowered its gun, its pilot nodding in reluctant agreement.
Only then did Andrew's Gundam take its place back beside the Epyon and they waited patiently for the piece of wall to move past.
Because of the large amount of debris messing with their radar systems, none of them bothered to look at their radars. So when the wall piece finally floated past, they were horrified to see the Heavyarms, Sandrock and Altron appear from behind the wall.
"When the hell did they get there?" Caden yelled in annoyed shock.
"None of us looked at our radars, did we?" Michael asked grimly as the three Gundams stood between them and the main body of the debris field.
Andrew immediately contacted Heiran, who had been waiting impatiently for word from them. "Sir, it looks like Relena is aboard the Sweeper ship."
And how did you come to that conclusion?" Heiran asked flatly, apparently not impressed with being told something he already suspected.
"We're staring down the Heavyarms, Sandrock and Altron. They snuck up on us while a large piece of the Libra's wall was blocking our vision." Andrew answered apologetically.
"What are they doing?" Heiran asked warily. If he was angry with their mistake, he showed no signs of it.
"They're just standing there…" Andrew said thoughtfully.
"Interesting… they're trying to make me look in the wrong…" Heiran smirked in amusement. "Wipe them out. I'll handle the public if they start crying foul." He ordered.
Andrew nodded in understanding as Heiran vanished. "You heard him Caden…"
Caden nodded and instructed the others to attack; although both pilots secretly hoped that Heiran wouldn't stab them in the back and paint them as rogues that went against his orders in order to appease the still wary public…
"Are you guys in position back there?" Wufei asked as they stared down the enemy Gundams.
"Don't worry, we're ready." Noin replied casually.
"Our radar signals look merely like more pieces of debris." Rashid said with a grin.
Wufei smirked in reply before cutting off communication with them and focusing his attention on the Gundams before them.
"I must admit that it was incredibly lucky of us when that piece of wall debris floated by. It was probably a big shock for them when the wall moved." Trowa said in cold amusement as they prepared to be on the defensive.
"I must admit, it's a lot of fun pulling stunts like that on our enemies." Quatre said as the enemy Gundams suddenly lunged forward with their weapons bared.
With the enemy having made the first move as planned, the Heavyarms opened fire, scattering them as they tried to dodge. Those that managed to dodge the Heavyarms' artillery fire were met with the Altron's flamethrowers. The Sandrock stood in wait with its Heat Shotels unsheathed, ready to attack any of the enemy Gundams that made it past the other two.
Suddenly, the Epyon lunged recklessly through the Altron's flames and aimed its beam sabre at the Altron's cockpit, forcing it to stop aiding the Heavyarms' assault in order to dodge the incoming attack.
The Sandrock was quickly there to take the Epyon's attention away from the Altron long enough for it to bring out its beam trident.
"I can safely assume that the Epyon is being piloted by that Caden kid. He was the only one reckless enough to attack the Tallgeese III in our only training session." Quatre said as the Sandrock fell back to allow the Altron its chance at retaliation.
The other two agreed in annoyance, wondering why Heiran would put a Gundam like the Epyon in Caden's hands.
Without the cross-fire effect of the Altron's flamethrowers to hinder them, the other Gundams were now managing to slip past the Heavyarms' line of fire and join in the attack against the Altron and the Sandrock.
The Heavyarms quickly abandoned its previous tactic and began firing at specific targets in order to prevent the others from getting too overburdened with enemies, while firing at enemies that tried to get in close to it to keep them at bay.
"I can see why the others never fought long." Wufei growled in annoyance as the Altron swung its beam trident wide to break up a grouping that consisted of five enemy Gundams.
"Even the ZERO System is having a hard time." Trowa admitted as the Heavyarms brought out its free hand's army knife to slash at one of the Gundams that had gotten too close for it to safely use any of its artillery.
"All right reinforcements, it looks as though it's time for you to shine." Quatre said as he contacted the others.
"We can't risk letting this fight get pushed into the debris field, so we have to force them to retreat as soon as possible. Make your entrance as fast and flashy as possible to startle them. You are in mass produced mobile suits and you know how fast they get torn apart by Gundams." Quatre instructed them as the Sandrock dodged a pincer attack by Andrew and Quinn's Gundams.
Noin smiled and nodded. "You heard the man. Let's get to work." She said as her Virgo II's thrusters activated and it began its charge towards the battlefield.
The others quickly joined her, spreading out to make their numbers seem larger than they really were.
"Sally, are you sure you're going to be okay out here?" Une asked in concern.
"Don't worry; I can handle myself in a mobile suit. Just worry about getting those Planetary Defensors online and ready to seriously mess up their hopes of destroying the last three Gundams." Sally said while she carried out her own advice.
"Just remember to leave them some space for retreat: we don't want to lose anybody because they were foolish enough to try and stop them from retreating." Rashid instructed, although the words were meant more for his Maganac troops than the three women.
Andrew was trying hard to ignore Caden's curses as their attempts at overwhelming the Altron and the Sandrock were constantly foiled by well-timed attacks from the Heavyarms despite it being attacked by Quinn and Michael.
It was starting to grate on his nerves as well. They must be using the ZERO System. His eyes widened as an opening presented itself against the Sandrock, and he took it. However, just as his beam sabre got close, the area surrounding its impact sparked furiously.
He was forced to retreat as several blasts coming from the debris field forced all of their Gundams to break up and put some distance between themselves and the Heavyarms, Sandrock and Altron.
"What the hell?" Yamato growled in annoyance, and Andrew rightly agreed with him.
There was no way they had missed anything in the debris, especially after furiously scanning their radars when the Gundams had snuck up on them, so what the hell was going on? And what was with that weird barrier of energy around the Sandrock?
Finally, he took in the scene and noticed the greenish-grey disc-like objects floating around the Sandrock and the other two Gundams before they flew back towards three similarly coloured suits and the Maganac Corps suits… which had them almost completely surrounded.
"There is no way they could have amassed such a large force in only two months!" Steven said in shock.
"Those Maganac suits can be explained by having never been disposed of. All they needed was to make NJD cancellers for them. Those other three though…" Quinn said warily.
"We need to tell Mr. Yaturi about this new development." Marco growled in annoyance.
"Andrew, report this to Mr. Yaturi. The rest of us will keep fighting. We should be able to take a few of them out at least." Caden ordered and proceeded to make good on his own orders by lunging at the Altron.
The others quickly joined him as Andrew's Gundam hung back.
"Mr. Yaturi, we've encountered a problem…" Andrew said as he linked his visual feed to Heiran's screens.
Heiran scowled as he watched his Gundams' futile attempts to breach the barriers put up by the unknown mobile suits. "Virgo II's… who would have thought they had some of those…?" Heiran muttered in annoyance. "Fall back. You can't handle them. They have Planet Defensors, and those are nearly impossible to breach. I'll have to observe the archives from the war to see if I can find out how to breach them. I know it can be done, but I don't know how."
"Understood." The communication line went dead and Heiran let his anger fly by throwing his coffee mug against a wall, watching it shatter but feeling no satisfaction from it.
Relena had managed to dig up more relics from the Eve Wars, and this time they were fully functioning mobile suits with powerful shielding systems. One problem after another just kept piling up.
At least he didn't have to worry about the Wing Zero and its twin buster rifle or the Deathscythe Hell and its stealth systems. Those two were menaces. And Relena no longer had the guiding hand of her brother to help her, so that was something to his advantage.
Now he only had the headache of the three remaining Gundams and those damn Virgo II's… it was going to be a problem, but as long as he could endure sifting through the Eve War archives, he should be able to finally put an end to Relena Peacecraft and her precious pets… and the people of the Earth Sphere would finally realize who was in charge.
He sighed and decided to go meet his pilots to settle them down after being forced to retreat yet again. So far they only had the one victory against Relena Peacecraft, but for some reason even that seemed to bother him. He pushed it out of his mind as he left the room, knowing there was still a lot of work to be done and there was no room to concern himself with the ill feelings that were working their way into his mind and messing with his concentration on the bigger issues.
Author's Notes: Heiran's Forces - 0, Relena's Forces - 1. If only thanks to the element of surprise. What will happen next? Read and find out! Oh, and with this chapter, only four more remain until the end of "Is There No Escape from War?".