Author's Note:
This fanfic is to write upon some of the events in Gundam SEED and SEED Destiny that are not touched upon or mentioned in-series, but their dates are listed on GundamWikia and are thus treated as part of canon. They are therefore based upon actual happenings in the Cosmic Era universe, but the events within them are open to interpretation. This fanfic is also an attempt at showcasing a "what-if" of all sides involved in the wars, and how some of the events within the show might have come to be.
Because there are no set dates within the SEED Destiny series, the dates here are displayed only for approximation of the events' chronological placing to the end of the Second Bloody Valentine War, and are not indicative of the exact timeframes of any events that occur in SEED Destiny.
Gundam SEED: Tales of the Cosmic Era
Chapter 25: Tears of the Gods
CE 73 October 8th, ZAFT Nazca-class destroyer [ZSFC-L2-P032] Ironheart, Third Approach Zone Line, PLANT Establishment Armoury 1, Lagrange 4
13 22 [ZAFT Timezone Standard]
Aleiya Varchenowa watched in horror as streaks of light spread out from a single point of fire. The fragments of Junius 7 rained upon the world; Aleiya could even name some of the locations that the fragments were headed towards. The shock she had felt when she first heard of the raid on Armoury 1 paled in comparison to what she was feeling now.
Likewise, all who were watching the video feed, taken from the monitor cams of the two ZAFT Nazca-class destroyers currently on-site, displayed expressions ranging from frustration to outright horror. Even Darian Forsseseur, who was usually calm and collected, had his expression twisted into a terrible visage of anger.
Aleiya clenched her teeth as her shock gave way to anger. Beside her, Houjou had adverted her eyes, her lips trembling.
After their mission at Copernicus, Aleiya had submitted a report, calling for a renewed effort in tracking former ZAFT personnel, as well as a request to be transferred to a special-force group tracing the moments of known insurgent groups around the Earth Sphere. To her mild surprise, news of ZAFT's involvement in the Copernicus Incident was still under wraps, but Aleiya had assumed that the information on the event was simply being processed by the relevant departments.
And while her transfer request was still being processed, this had happened. The words of the insurgents still echoed in Aleiya's mind.
Too bad. When history unfolds, you'll wish that our operation here had succeeded.
So this was what they meant? Aleiya thought. They'd fall as low as the Naturals did during the Bloody Valentine War just to prove a point that's already dead?
The entire bridge was silent; Captain Marcos Viendi was watching with an unreadable expression on his face, but his hands were clasped tight. Commander Nana Sette's left hand was gripping the edge of her console so hard that her knuckles were turning white.
Standing beside Aleiya, the only sign of Genan's emotions was the twitching of his jaw, as he struggled to keep his feelings under control.
Watching the silent rain of debris cover the Earth's surface, Aleiya's mind wandered off to the memories of her time on Earth; the face of a firm but kind volunteer doctor flashed through her mind for a brief moment. "This isn't revenge," she whispered. "This is attempted genocide."
CE 73 October 8th, Victoria Supercomplex, OMNI EUROCOM Special Zone, Lake Victoria, North Africa
20 11
On a typical night, the Victoria Supercomplex would be a place of quiet vigilance, with most of its soldiers sleeping, and its guards content to watch their borders. While the land was a place of sorrow for many veterans of the Bloody Valentine War, not all of its currently assigned soldiers were veterans.
Tonight, however, the base was alight with sirens, movements, and the unmistakable sounds of the Supercomplex's eight massive MR-6 railguns turning on their turret bases, tracking the streaks of lights that arced across the night sky.
The massive steam clouds that were starting to cover the ground of the Supercomplex, especially around the MR-6 turrets, were a testament to how far the guns were being pushed in their only peaceful use since their installation on the base.
The railguns were being used to shoot down the Junius 7 fragments that were passing by overhead. Three guns were dedicated to intercepting fragments slated to land within a 500-kilometer radius around the base, while five others fired boosted rounds to intercept fragments located higher in the atmosphere or further away from their zone of influence.
Complete interception was impossible; the five main railguns fired boosted rounds with an explosive warhead that aimed to knock the trajectories of the fragments they hit into the Atlantic or the Indian Oceans. Guidance was limited but still doable, something that had kept the crew of the five CICs of the Victoria Supercomplex busy for the past one hour or so.
Even then, the MR-6s, weapons of war, were unsuited to intercepting something akin to a railgun round that could only be delivered by a system with two to three times the power and range of the MR-6. So far, the Victoria Supercomplex had only successfully intercepted a handful of fragments, preventing the annihilation of the El Alamein OMNI Outpost and the city of El Alamein, as well as the destruction of Gibraltar and the ZAFT forces stationed there.
The coastal city of Casablanca, in Morocco, also had a close call, with a city impact diverted into a coastal hit, the tsunamis washing almost five kilometres inland.
Across the globe, each and every nation had readied its full capabilities, with the Atlantic Federation, Eurasian Federation and even the Republic of East Asia scrambling their missile assets to help with the interception of fragments. Still, hundreds of projectiles remained, each one a piece of super-engineered alloy tempered to withstand the heat, radiation, and micro-meteorite rigors of space living for at least a few generations.
Junius 7's original point of impact was in Syracuse, Italy, of the Eurasian Federation. While the single-location impact could be considered slightly less devastating to the Mediterranean region than the worldwide devastation that was now being wrought, the interior of Junius 7's base also carried decrepit facilities, many of them with significant stores of toxic materials left over since its semi-destruction in the Bloody Valentine War. Work had only started on clearing them out when structural safety issues had forced the combined OMNI-ZAFT team to pull out for the time being.
In a way, the fragmentation of Junius 7 was a hidden blessing. With the innards of Junius 7 exposed, the toxic materials were left to burn up as they re-entered the atmosphere. The many fragments of Junius 7's outer hull, however, were the main source of the disaster, as fragments over a certain size and material composition could not burn up sufficiently, resulting in a very deadly blind missile that could wreck cities with just the aftershocks of its impacts alone.
Numerous fragments of such make were now falling onto the Earth; if the people were lucky, most of these fragments would hit the water. Already the city of Zhytomyr, in the Ukraine zone, had been confirmed to have suffered from a direct hit; the crater caused by the colony hull fragment had been massive.
Kahora Zashe, OMNI Lieutenant Colonel, watched the events unfold from where she stood.
She hated her powerlessness, her inability to help, but as she was, there was nothing she could do except stand on the foggy pavement of the Victoria Supercomplex, listening to the repeated hammerings of the railguns' mechanisms, as humanity struck out futilely against the rain of death from the heavens.
CE 73 October 8th, OMNI AFRICOM Sinai Army Base, Egypt, African Community
21 31
Ray Feric watched as the night skies above him erupted in a shower of light, the bright lines breaking the otherwise unmarred dark night skies. Behind him, a few other members of Sinai Base watched the spectacle unfold above, their sight unwavering, not a word exchanged.
"You know, sir," 2nd Lieutenant Sharyl Camelot said, "Even if we're not in a predicted impact zone, we shouldn't be out here."
"A sight of beauty," Lieutenant Aaqil bin Saud said. "Yet at the end of this lightshow, only death and sorrow awaits."
"I've got no objections to return inside," Ray replied. "They probably even have casualty estimates coming in already." He continued staring at the skies.
But this sight… it's a reminder of what I failed to achieve. What I failed to protect. He drew in a cold breath. We failed, Kelvin. And now the world will pay our price.
Those bastards will surely use this incident as an excuse rekindle the flames of war again.
A call from behind had Ray turning. The voice belonged to Lieutenant Colonel Rahabinod Ravinan, the base commander. The man was well-known as a hero of the defensive campaigns OMNI fought against ZAFT prior to the Second Battle of Victoria, and preferred to interact directly with his subordiates.
"Get your things in gear and pick your people, Lieutenant," Rahabinod said. "There's been a call from OMNI AFRICOM to all military personnel in tertiary-level zones to report for immediate relief action. I've just notified Major Nain that she'll be the overall commanding of the expedition force; a transport squadron will be on the base shortly to airlift you all to the nearest disaster region."
Ray saluted. "Understood, sir. Thanks for bringing the orders to us." Turning to the people around him, Ray's attitude and tone changed; there was work to be done, and lives to be saved. He'll do what he could now, as opposed to standing around musing about the future.
"Aaqil, I need your help. Liaison with the supply crew, get them on the task as well. If you need people, just take them; we need a Red-Level force package ready in two hours. Prioritize medical supplies, food packs, and field camp equipment, especially insulating items."
"Got it," Aaqil replied. While they were of the same rank, Aaqil had no compunctions to Ray's requests; they were both experienced veterans of the Bloody Valentine War, and although they led different strike groups in combat, their mutual respect ran deep.
"Sharyl, get a hold of Chief Mendez, and tell him to get their men in gear. No doubt Major Nain will pass down the message to them, but I still need you to see what they are bringing. Tell them to get a squad with weapons, just in case."
"Got it," Sharyl replied, and was about to run off when Major Nain bint Aamir approached the both of them.
"Jeez, trust the Lieutenant Colonel to disseminate the information to everyone at once…" Nain muttered. "I'll take care of that, Lieutenant. More importantly, I want the Manhunters to hit the ground ready for action. Consider it a force recon mission."
Ray frowned. "Force recon? I thought we were on a relief op, ma'am."
"There's been a report from an OMNI garrison that insurgent forces have appeared in the city of Kourou, Guiana. They've engaged OMNI security forces there, and have attacked civilians without warning as well. This is not including scattered reports on the AFRICOM battlenet of attacks in other OMNI regions of jurisdiction."
Nain thumbed towards one of the hangars behind her. "I'll be bringing Aaqil and Navana's units as standby forces so they can continue their relief jobs, but I need all available mobile suit forces, and I need Sharyl and her eagle eyes on the ground so we can hit any insurgents if they appear, before they can fire at us. I'll rather not clutter the disaster zone with a regiment's worth of helicopters and battle tanks that most probably won't have a place for them to be deployed effectively, so I'll settle for four mobile suits."
"What about base defences?" Ray asked. "If insurgents are really on the move, it might be a feint to make OMNI dedicate mobile suit forces to indefensible locations, leaving their bases open."
"It's flat ground for a good ten kilometres around here." Nain replied. "Given who he once was, I think the Lieutenant Colonel can handle anything with the 469th's Linear Tanks, short of a full-blown ZAFT invasion. There's also the 551st and 557th Helicopter Attack Squadrons on the zone for assistance, and they have Major Asanogawa leading them. At worst, we'll request for backup from the Egyptian peacekeeping authorities, or pull out from Sinai Base towards the El Alamein Force Outpost to request for reinforcements."
As Ray acknowledged his new orders, and Nain walked off to handle her duties, Sharyl struck her right fist into her open left palm. "Damned terrorists!"
"No choice. Change of duties, Sharyl," Ray said, as the two approached their hangar. "Get your Dagger L and the 94mm beam rifle."
As Sharyl ran off to prepare her own unit, Ray glanced up, looking as his own customized mobile suit. The Dagger L's gaze was impassive, and the dark red and grey colours of the 108th Armor Tactics Squadron's command unit would have made it impossible to see if not for the hangar lighting.
It's time to teach some human scum a lesson.
CE 73 October 8th, Arkansas-class cruiser Potemkin, Norwegian Sea, Eurasian Federation
21 52
"This is nauseating," Lt. Commander Anatoly Hekovic said. "All the places hit… Athens, Shanghai, Rome, Prague, even as far as Philadelphia in the Atlantic Federation… and that's not even counting the locations along the equator. Even this far up north, we still have to partake in relief operations."
Captain Zanaya Helviya's gaze remained on the four Spengler-class assault ships sailing a distance behind the Potemkin's starboard side, escorted by her own ship and three others cruisers. "Such is the folly of mankind, Anatoly. Something like this was bound to happen when negotiations to downsize the Junius 7 remnant fell through."
"If I recall, neither side could agree to a proper method of reducing its size, right?"
Zanaya shook her head. "Nuclear charges or Meteor Breakers, did it really matter? All they needed to do was to find a better place to set up a monument." The Captain adjusted a few settings on her personal workstation. "Not to deride the feelings of those who wanted the next generation to remember the folly of this era, of course, but as always, humanity's limitless creativity in killing off our own kind never fails to surprise me. Nothing is sacred, it seems."
"Transmission from the flagship Admiral Istomin," Lieutenant Junior Grade Fredric Stonner replied. "Fragment hits confirmed on Bergen, Norway, and Hamburg, Germany. We've been ordered to split our forces and provide assistance."
"Tell the Admiral Istomin we're ready to move," Zanaya said, "Have our medical bay prepare for shore operations as well. They need all the help they can get."
"To hit this far north… will Russia be okay?" Anatoly remarked.
"The Fatherland is strong; it will be safe," Zanaya replied. "But the people in Europe are our kin, and we are members of the Eurasian Federation Navy, before we are OMNI. I will not allow them to suffer any longer than they have to."
CE 73 October 9th, Cape Town, South Africa, South African Union
02 13
Richard Camelot wiped the sweat from his face, the mud from his hands drawing a smear of brown across his visage as he continued pulling at the massive piece of wood. With a sucking sound, the offending fragment pulled free, and Richard placed it aside to regard his real target; a young local trapped under a pile of wood pieces, still groaning, but getting softer with each passing moment.
At least the man was free. Whether it was luck or chance, the wood hadn't crushed him, and the piece that Richard removed was only to open a hold large enough to pull him free. "I got you now," he said. "Stay alive."
The man mumbled something intelligible, but it was only after Richard got him into a stilling position that the steel bar embedded in the man's abdomen revealed itself, mud water dripping from the offending debris, that he realized the dangerous position that the man was in.
All behind Richard, the lights of a hundred medium holding tents, set up by first-reaction organizations and other medical groups, adorned the dryer parts of the city. Debris were cleared into neat piles as volunteers, whether doctors, nurses, or even the less-injured citizens of Cape Town, worked tirelessly into the night in order to save as many lives as they could.
The tears of the gods had fallen, and had inflicted their judgment upon the world. It was Richard's job to make sure that wherever he was, as many people survived the tragedy as was possible.
Fianna Alshyre ran over to help Richard carry the man back to a nearby tent, where a medical team was already waiting. "You should rest, Richard," the doctor replied. "Even if you're no longer good for operations, doing this physical labour won't make your mind any sharper."
"He's right, Mr. Camelot," Fianna said. "You should take a rest. You've been working throughout the evening, and now you're extracting people this late into the night. The Lord knows that you'll be needed tomorrow."
"Tonight is a crucial phase, Fianna," Richard said, walking out of the medical tent. "With the infrastructure of every nation strained to the breaking point, by tomorrow there'll only be half the survivors left." He pulled off his glove, and fished his smartphone out of his pocket, which was beeping with a message alert tone. "Even if ZAFT offers aid, they won't make it in time for this place."
Richard's eyes widened as he read the message. It had been sent an hour ago, but it had just arrived; a testament to the warped airspace above, the atmosphere crowded with micro-particulates from Junius 7, and possibly the weapons used to break it apart. The contents of the message were as chilling to Richard as though he was at the scene, however. "My god," he said, moving to let Fianna see the message. "This was from my colleague in New Kourou City, South America. An insurgent mobile suit attacked the city and OMNI relief forces in the region at two o' clock, our time. They were hit at nine or so in the evening over there."
Fianna drew a sharp breath. "At this time?!"
"Precisely why it's at this time," Richard said. "Now we know this isn't a one-off incident, we have to work harder. If insurgents appeared now to harass us, we'll be worse than dead."
"I… I understand," Fianna said. "If there's anything to be done, please, let me know."
Richard watched as Fianna ran off towards the tents, to continue with her work of helping out the medical crews within. He had met her during the closing days of the USSA War of Independence, but she was already on her way to becoming a full-fledged nurse, and she had expressed an interest in his work. They had met several times after, mostly when Richard had opted to stay in South America to continue his medical work, and Fianna had joined the non-government medical organization he worked for in order to broaden her own horizons.
He didn't expect something like this incident to happen so soon right after Fianna and him were asked by their medical organization to pay a visit to their branch in Cape Town. And now, the message that insurgents had launched an attack on non-combatants unsettled him. Were it to happen in this region, Richard knew that everyone in Cape Town, casualty or caregiver, would suffer for it.
OMNI AFRICOM, being the smallest command in the OMNI force structure, was definitely not equipped to deal with multiple emergencies at once. If an armed group were to throw themselves into the region, they would essentially be running amok.
He saw a few people running towards the wrecked areas closest to the shore, and stood up. "What happened?"
The reply was instantaneous. "Someone found a family trapped under a collapsed building. Two elderly, three children, two adults!"
Richard immediately kept his phone and donned his heavy gloves, joining the small group of people running towards the site of the possible survivors. He had slept far less, and in worse conditions, during the Bloody Valentine War and the USSA War for Independence.
Right now, there were lives that needed saving.
CE 73 October 10th, ?, ?, ?,
? ?
The man laughed.
Sato and his merry band of fools had played straight into his hands, and now the world had paid the price. Lord Djibril had wanted a war, but the way he was so able to easily provide the conditions for one… it was almost too funny for him.
The man continued watching the viewscreen, the map on it showcasing the impact points of over a hundred fragment pieces. No doubt the forces loyal to Blue Cosmos were already in motion, moving to prioritize a reprisal against the PLANTs. Good. Let them do that. Perhaps they'll eliminate the Coordinators once and for all.
Most of the fragments had hit somewhere major; at least half of the damage was to coastal regions caused by tsunamis, born from the supersonic impacts of the ultra-dense hull alloy that formed the base material of a typical PLANT, in coastal regions. Fragments that impacted open sea regions were far less harmful to their surroundings.
Of note were the fragments that had hit cities, however. He had monitored the situation, and had managed to hack into the ZAFT battle-net, albeit for a short while, to listen to their messages. He was worried when the ship that had identified itself as the Minerva had fired "its main weapon"; they didn't mention specifics, but the man was relieved that he had worried for nothing. If anything, the so-called main weapon's impact had actually accelerated the velocity of the fragments by forcing the main hull apart.
The man stood as his aide entered the room. "Your Excellency," the aide said. "It seems that Neo Roanoke has gone one step ahead and passed Lord Djibril the information you had gathered."
"Hm," the man said. "Let him do so. There's no harm done to me. The terms Lord Djibril set for me were to give him the conditions for a war. Now that that's done, I no longer have to have any involvement with them. Cut off all links with them. Send the news out to my subordinates that I have to be gone for a while, and for them to properly tend to their part of the garden."
"Yes, sir," the aide replied, and backed out of the room.
"Djibril…" the man mused. "Still, what that might appear as resolution is often linked in ways to impatience that are often hidden. People often trip when they start rushing for a goal. But still, even without this, the Coordinators are doomed. Their genes will guarantee their demise."
The man smirked, clenching his hands together. For I have the knowledge of their true strengths and weaknesses. And their single flaw of nature.
The created can never surpass the creator. Their pride will doom them.
Afterword:
More mini-tales around the world. I thought such an approach would be good for covering the feeling of widespread devastation the Junius 7 drop was supposed to be.
I initially (and randomly, I assure you) chose Benkulu, Indonesia, as the setting for Richard's tale, but with a 10-hour difference I wasn't sure if I could make the time mesh, as I was using French Guiana as the assumed setting for the first episode of Stargazer (they do have an actual spaceport there in real-life), which is referenced to in this short story.