Fractured Universe - Chapter 37
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Gundam series, nor any of the various series which are used or referenced in my fic, so please point that damned lawsuit cannon at someone else, also, don't read this if you are not of legal age to read such material. The story contains possibly disturbing content and should not be read by close-minded people (i.e., people who are easily offended.) Everything in the story is fictional. I am also not responsible for any actions taken by people who read this story and society's problems. I do, however, own my original character; Hope Yamato.
"Supreme Commander Yamato, it seems that the Britannian soldiers stationed in Japan have begun a campaign of genocide." Meyrin Hawke called out to the bridge crew, tapping a section of her console and causing a live video feed to appear on the screen, showing a stadium which was packed with quickly dying civilians.
"Weapons, fire a volley of sedative-laced missiles into that stadium!" Kira ordered.
The red-haired woman sitting at the weapons console, Asuka Langley Soryu, nodded as she input the firing coordinates, and a few short seconds later, the weapons bay on the underside of the Excalibur opened, and a cloud of missiles screamed out of the massive dagger-shaped warship.
"All personnel, report to your assigned vessels immediately." The voice of Lexi Yamato boomed throughout the interior of the huge warship. "I repeat, all personnel report to your assigned vessels immediately!"
"All ships and mobile suits, prepare for launch." Kira announced through the ship-wide communications system. "Let's show these heartless bastards that when you try to wipe out an entire race, you instantly make yourself a prime target for multiple, simultaneous armed interventions!" With his orders given, Kira and his friends quickly began to make their way towards the mobile suit hanger. A few moments later, the Divinity Gundam sped out of the Excalibur's centerline launch bay, the pure white mobile suit wielding a combined beam rifle in its left hand, a double-bladed beam saber in its right, in addition to a physical shield mounted on each forearm, both of which were capable of generating beam shields if more protection should be required.
"Stop this shit!" Kira's voice roared from the Divinity Gundam's external loudspeakers as the angel-winged machine rapidly descended on the chaotic stadium, the amethyst-eyed man having already shrunk his mobile suit in size so that it matched the dimensions of the Knightmare Frames. Much to his dismay, however, the senseless massacre continued without pause. "Fine then, don't try to say that I didn't warn you!" The amethyst-eyed man snarled before opening up with the CIWS guns on his mobile suit's chest and head, raking the entire stadium nearly a dozen times with high-caliber rounds. Finally, nearly 30 seconds later, as his machine's sensor systems confirmed that everything within the stadium was dead; the angelic Gundam stopped firing and hung its head, as if in regret of its previous actions.
An instant later, however, the Divinity violently rattled as a trio of Knightmare Frames burst through the stadium wall, their machine gun rounds pinging harmlessly off the angel-winged machine's armor.
"Who are you?" One of the Knightmare Frame pilots yelled, even as he and his comrades continued to fire on the still stationary Gundam.
"I have nothing to say to heartless killers such as you." Kira replied, before then bringing the combined beam rifle in his machine's left hand to bear, and unleashing nine neon green beam blasts in less than a single second, the searing energy beams effortlessly slicing through the machine guns and legs of the three Knightmare Frames standing before him, disarming all three machines and sending them crashing to the ground.
"Monsters like you are the reason there's war in the world!" Kira screamed as the Divinity spread its wings and took to the skies, raining down an endless torrent of blue-red plasma blasts, neon green beam rifle shots, and pure white temporal inversion cannon blasts.
"Keep crying, you and I are the same breed!" The pilot of a crimson-colored Nightmare Frame, one which had been equipped with a flight unit and was wielding a glowing red sword in its right hand, shouted as his machine sped forward and forced the angel-winged mobile suit into a swordfight.
"That's a lie, I'm nothing like you!" The amethyst-eyed man roared, clashing his beam saber with the glowing sword. "The hatred never ends!" Kira shrieked, even as his mobile suit unleashed its DRAGOON units, swarming the remote weapons around the dozens of Knightmare Frames which were firing at him from the ground. "The destruction never ends!" He continued, opening fire on the now wildly dodging land-bound machines. "All because we never stop fighting!"
"You're wrong!" The pilot of one of the now disabled Knightmare Frames shouted back through the communications line. "The only way to keep peace is with force."
"Wow, that's really messed up." Kira scowled, even as the Divinity's wings swung underneath its arms, revealing not one, not two, but four tactical forty-kiloton nuclear cruise missiles, a pair of the weapons mounted in the relatively small space between the machine's back and each of its angel-style wings, and before any of the enemy forces could even hope to react, both of the weapons took off with a brilliant flash of exhaust. "I am the sum of all these people, and all their knowledge. I am all-seeing. I am everywhere and nowhere." The amethyst-eyed man spoke, as the four huge missiles screamed towards the ground. "That has often served as a definition of God. There is no escape."
Twilight Sparkle, once more in her unicorn form, which now sported a pair of violet pegasus wings in addition to the unicorn horn which she had always possessed, cringed with every explosion, watching with morbid fascination as huge plumes of dirt and concrete rose up, spreading in beautiful clouds intermingled with orange-red fireballs over the fields and roads leading towards the now occupied city of Tokyo, Japan. The ground had quickly become a very appropriate tribute to Princess Luna, a veritable moonscape, dotted with craters, and speckled with limp forms, both human and pony, or worse to Twilight's eye, those which still writhed in pain.
"I hope you've all got your things together." The voice of Fllay Allster suddenly boomed through the battlefield as her mobile suit, the ZGNF-X105 Super Strike Gundam, which was little more than the original GAT-X105 Strike Gundam, with the only real differences being the fact that this machine had been upgraded with Celestial Being technology and was outfitted with all three Striker Packs, unexpectedly faded into visibility. The blue, red and white machine's hip-mounted rail guns already unfolded and aiming at the steadily advancing line of Knightmare Frames. "I hope you are all quite prepared to die."
"All forces!" The commander of the closest group of Knightmare Frames ordered. "Open fire; shoot that thing out of the sky!" In the blink of an eye, the sky was filled with a hail of bullets, the rounds ricocheting harmlessly off the Super Strike's armor.
"Damnit!" Fluttershy suddenly yelled, much to the surprise of everyone near her. "This place is NOT NORMAL! The planet should orbit around its parent star as with all the others." Then, it all came together in her mind, the result of all of the knowledge she and her two friends had gained since joining the Excalibur's crew. "This planet isn't the same as the rest of the universe, because it doesn't belong in this universe." Before anyone could respond to the sudden outburst, however, a single blood red mushroom cloud suddenly blossomed in the distance.
"You wretched beasts!" The voice of Princess Celestia suddenly shouted as she unexpectedly appeared directly in front of the startled forms of Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle, her voice causing every creature in the immediate vicinity to shudder, before then turning to run in fear at seeing a virtual goddess shaking with pure rage. Bolts of magical energy started to trace over the white alicorn's body, and her wings were ablaze as she spread them wide. "How dare you think that you can invade another country without provocation and oppress, and even murder, its people?"
A shove from the side startled Twilight out of the trance which her fear and fascination had lulled her into, and she turned to see the Destiny Gundam, piloted by Hope Yamato, leading Rainbow Dash in retreat as they reluctantly followed by backpedaling in the air. The pony who nudged her was Rainbow Dash, who for once lacked any bravado.
"Supreme Commander Yamato said to get out of here." Dash said, and then glanced at the princess and beyond her, to the Knightmare Frames that were even now moving about to face the sudden, new threat. "I tend to agree with him that this isn't the best place to be right now."
Twilight didn't say anything, but she nodded and darted off, with Rainbow Dash flying behind her, even as the Super Strike Gundam covered their retreat with a torrent of weapons fire. They followed the others in their group and put a ruined skyscraper between them and the park just as the first exchange started.
A constant shower of shrapnel and debris rained through the layer of smoke which now blotted out the sun, a direct byproduct of the four nuclear missiles which had been fired by the Divinity Gundam, not to mention the massive space battle occurring for control of Earth. Here and there, the enormous wreck of a ravaged warship made it through the thick atmosphere intact and crashed in the city to destroy dozens of buildings and leave craters miles wide. Occasionally smaller fighter craft and even mobile suits would also make it through the atmosphere, only to explode upon smashing into the ground.
Hope Yamato, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle raced through the now-deserted and decimated streets, with the unconscious form of Princess Celestia gently cradled within the hands of the Destiny Gundam, the trio rapidly flying back towards the relative safety of one of the dozens of Hannibal-class and Compton-class land battleships which had been deployed to assist in the capture of the country.
'This doesn't feel right.' Twilight thought with a glance behind and slightly above her. In the sky, hundreds of Celestial Being's airborne mobile suits, a vast majority of which had been captured and modified at some point, continued to rain their lead slugs and searing energy blasts down on their foes, but they also continued to die in droves, as the sheer volume of weapons firing upwards guaranteed that they would suffer tremendous losses, despite their nearly limitless numbers. Yet they continued to press the attack, knowing that every minute they bought with their blood was another minute for the princess to be taken further away, and for the remaining civilians to evacuate.
Twilight remembered hearing of this dedication during the past months as she and her friends underwent the rigorous training required by all of those who joined the private armed organization known as Celestial Being. At the time it had seemed odd, maybe even foolish for any creature to display such a disregard for one's own being. But now as she watched it in action, the lavender unicorn could only shed silent tears as she saw more and more machines obliterated or swatted from the sky.
Hovering above them both, wings spread for battle, was the Minerva.
"Shield the bridge." Talia Gladys ordered. "All hands, go to Condition Red. This ship will now begin engaging the enemy."
In the Minerva's central catapult, Shinn Asuka sat in the Core Splendor, staring out at the conflict. The battle was already raging; the blue Knightmare Frames were attacking an army of blue and white Dagger Ls equipped with Aile Strikers and camouflage-painted GINNs, all of which clearly belonged to Celestial Being. Towers of smoke rose over the battlefield already; the guns boomed, and up ahead, a GINN went down in flames and exploded, a cloud of green GN particles spreading out even after the explosion itself had faded. Many of the numerous Celestial Being fleets had already cut off most of the logical escape routes. The Britannian troops were now concentrating their attack from the east, but the Celestial Being forces were steadily forcing them back.
"Shinn." The voice of Shiho Hahnenfuss started; Shinn glanced at the screen. "Launch and attack the Britannians directly."
"I'll go with you." Athrun added, his face appearing on the screen next to Shiho's. "Luna will cover us from the air."
"Roger." Shinn answered quietly. The catapult activated; Shinn braced himself. "Shinn Asuka, Core Splendor, going out!"
The Core Splendor streaked out; Shinn formed the Eclipse Gundam effortlessly and took off towards the battlefield.
The Eclipse landed with a crash in an open spot in the Britannian lines; he slammed his shield into the torso of the nearest Knightmare Frame; the stricken Sutherland went staggering backwards, and Shinn delivered a finishing kick to its face to knock it to the ground. He swung around and fired his beam rifle at an oncoming Sutherland; the machine collapsed forward, skidding to a stop and exploding.
Another machine, this one painted in white with gold trimming, and possessing a pair of glowing green eyes and shimmering green energy wings; a limited production version of the famous Z-01Z Lancelot Albion, rose up behind the Eclipse, its sword upraised. Shinn quickly moved to swing around and take it out of commission, but a flurry of beam bolts suddenly shot out of the sky, the unexpected barrage of energy blasts instantly severing the Lancelot Albion's head, arms and legs, taking it down before the Eclipse could go on the offensive, and as the white and gold machine collapsed to the side, the Infinite Justice Gundam slammed down with a crash, a double-bladed beam saber in its right hand and a beam rifle in its left.
"Unknown machines, you have entered Britannian territory without permission." A voice suddenly boomed across all of the communications channels. "Please leave the area or we will be forced to destroy you."
"Go to hell!" Shinn roared as he raised his beam rifle, while simultaneously bringing his plasma cannons and rail guns to bear, only for the weapons to be destroyed as they were pierced by a flurry of neon green energy blasts, forcing the crimson and black mobile suit to take a step back.
"That's the Freedom Gundam!" Shinn yelled in shock, his crimson eyes widening at the sight of the blue-winged mobile suit which he had personally destroyed more than 2,000 years earlier.
"I've come here to put an end to your senseless fighting!" The pilot of the Freedom Gundam yelled. It was a voice which all of the Britannian soldiers instantly recognized, the voice of the man whom called himself; Zero.
"You'll die here!" Shinn roared as the Eclipse Gundam pulled the anti-ship sword from its back, fired up the crimson machine's thrusters and charged straight at the Freedom, but Zero anticipated the attack, aiming the Freedom's hip-mounted rail guns and fired four rounds at the charging mobile suit. The attack hit the Eclipse in the chest, but the MCPS armor easily resisted the shells. The impact did, however, send the Eclipse Gundam crashing back to earth, damaging its main thrusters and rendering both of its arms completely immobile.
"Damnit, come on! Move! Move!" Shinn cried out while pulling both joysticks, even as the Freedom moved to hover in front of the Eclipse and raised its beam rifle, aiming directly for the cockpit.
"Goodbye, coordinator scum." Zero said, slowly pulling the trigger.
The searing energy blast never came; however, as the Freedom's beam rifle was unexpectedly speared by no less than 36 pure white hyphens of energy.
Shinn smirked slightly as the Divinity Gundam gently landed in front of him, its DRAGOON units once again docking on the machine's back and forming its angelic wings.
While the timelines on the both the Earth and the Moon were relatively stable, the timeline on the Moon was not the best one, as there was now a large palace on the airless lunar surface. Watching from the balcony of the lunar palace, Lord Zedd, Scorpina and Rita Repulsa watched as the Putties and Tengas gathered outside. "Now, fight!" Lord Zedd ordered, as the other two silently watched.
The Tengas cawed and charged the new Putties. Suddenly, some of the Putties jumped into the air and drop-kicked some of the Tengas. Several more began brawling. The new Putties seemed to be able to fight as well as Tommy Oliver, the extremely well-known Green Ranger. After less than ten minutes, the Tengas were down, unable to stand from the beating they had taken. Victorious, the Putties turned to the balcony and bowed.
Zedd nodded. "I am pleased with what I've seen, Scorpina."
"I knew you would be, my emperor." Scorpina smiled.
"So what's your other gift?" Rita asked.
"That will come in due time. But right now, may I suggest sending the new Putties to Earth? I would like to show the Power Rangers just what they are up against now."
"Very well, Scorpina." Lord Zedd replied. "It's been a long time, but...send down the Putties!" With that, the new Putties teleported to Earth, even as Zedd, Rita, and their minions laughed manically.
Shinn Asuka raised an eyebrow as he sat within the cockpit of his Eclipse Gundam when a yellow sphere of light suddenly flashed to life a few blocks away. When the light finally faded a moment later, it revealed group of grey humanoids with red eyes. Without any hesitation, the Eclipse brought its hip-mounted rail guns to bear and fired; the pair of hypersonic shells impacting in the middle of the strange group, vaporizing them in an instant. Before the smoke from the impacts of the rail gun shells had settled, however, another sphere of light appeared, with this one being about the same height as the Gundams.
"Well, you're certainly not the humans I expected, but I suppose you'll be a good enough warm up." Scorpina hissed, lashing her tail at the Twilight and Eclipse Gundams before the light had completely faded, causing the two mobile suits to stumble.
"Hey! Leave my sister and brother-in-law alone, you freak!" Meyrin snarled as her Stargazer Gundam freed a high-energy beam rifle from its rear waist and fired a trio of searing green energy blasts in retaliation. Much to everyone's surprise, however, the energy was quickly absorbed by the Sword of Kismet, which Scorpina wielded in her right hand.
"Uh, uh, uh, you silly little human." Scorpina said, wagging her left claw-hand in disapproval. "Energy is an absolute no-no!" She then pointed the sword at the Stargazer, and fired the energy back into it. Meyrin screamed as she struggled to maintain control.
"Meyrin!" Luna yelled. "That does it, you bitch! If you hurt my sister, you will face my wrath!" As if to prove her point, the Twilight Gundam ignited its thrusters and charged forward before then landing a punishing uppercut with its right hand, knocking Scorpina to the ground.
Goldar stepped in front of the fallen female warrior and growled. "Nobody messes with my lover and lives!" He then fired flaming red energy from his sword, knocking the two Gundams back.
"Cry more, you brainless bastard!" Kira Yamato roared, as the crimson energy hit what appeared to be an invisible wall and bounced back towards its point of origin, forcing the armor-clad creature to dodge his own energy blasts.
"Whoa!" Goldar shouted, barely dodging his own flaming energy, even as the Divinity Gundam slowly faded into visibility. "Insolent human!" He roared in anger and charged towards the angel-winged machine.
"I am the sum of all these people, and all their knowledge." Kira's voice suddenly boomed from the angelic mobile suit's external loudspeakers. "I am all-seeing. I am everywhere and nowhere." The amethyst-eyed man paused for a few seconds, but then he continued speaking. "That has often served as a definition of God." Finally, a smirk spread across his face as he ominously added. "There is no escape."
"Don't take me lightly, human." The gold-armored creature snarled. "Fight me with your full ability and determination."
"You're going to regret saying that." Kira laughed as the Divinity's thrusters ignited, the angelic machine quickly taking to the skies.
The Divinity casually blocked Goldar's sword with its own anti-ship sword. The angelic mobile suit then slashed back at the armored creature's shoulder with the beam saber on its right wrist, but the huge being quickly grabbed and held the Divinity's wrist, stopping the slash. The two combatants tried to overpower each other for a few moments before they both jumped back, putting some distance between them.
"I already told you to fight me seriously!" Goldar growled.
Kira muttered a soft curse as he targeted the huge creature's head with the Divinity's twin chest-mounted multi-phase cannons. Just as the pair of energy blasts were spewed forth, however, the creature faded from visibility, only to reappear when the blasts were far enough away as to not be a danger.
"You cheating bastard." Kira snarled, only for the creature to flap its wings and take to the air, quickly landing on the Excalibur's deck, the massive sword pointed directly at the dagger-shaped warship's bridge.
A fraction of a second later, Kira's face appeared on the main communications screen. His face was very serious, and held a hint of anger. "Captain Ramius."
"Yes?" She answered weakly.
"Please stop." He spoke. "Take all of the Excalibur's offensive weapons offline."
"But Kira..." She protested.
"JUST DO IT!" He shouted, but then he caught hold of himself. "Sorry, but you can see for yourself that he only wants to fight me." The main screen on the Excalibur's bridge showed that the creature had moved the sword away from the bridge. "I can't fight properly unless I know that all of you are safe."
"Very well." Murrue replied, looking down in disappointment since she and the others couldn't do anything to help Kira. "Take all offensive weapons offline." She commanded.
"Please promise me that no one will interfere, no matter what happens." The amethyst-eyed man said. "If anything happened to all of you, I would never forgive myself."
Murrue nodded. "I will relay that message to all of our forces."
With that, Kira signed off, even as the creature lept from the ship's deck, once again landing on the ground and facing off against the Divinity Gundam.
"Kira has changed the Divinity's IFF code to hostile status." Meyrin reported from her console after a few seconds of tense silence.
The gold-armored creature took the opportunity to land on the ground, the landing causing dust and ash to fly into the air. When everything finally settled, Kira discovered that the creature had disappeared from view. Even radar was blank, and the still ongoing fires throughout the city ensured that detection via infared sensors was impossible. Then he saw bursts of red energy beams traveling towards his machine. He deftly maneuvered his mobile suit to avoid the crimson blasts and fired his rail guns in the direction the beams had come from.
As a skyscraper crumbled from the impact of the twin rail gun shells, Kira saw nothing, then he finally understood what the creature was dong. The gold-armored creature was using the buildings as cover, playing hide and seek with him while waiting for the chance to attack. The tactic was actually a good one.
'Fine then.' Kira thought to himself as the Divinity gently touched down. 'I'll play this game with you.'
It seemed impossible, but Goldar was now even more aggressive than before. It took Kira all of his piloting skills to even keep up with the creature. The battle dragged on for another few minutes before finally, Kira got his chance and fired all of the Divinity's weapons at once. The creature's right leg was vaporized by one of the searing blasts, but it still moved closer to the Divinity. Kira fired again, and this time one of the energy beams managed to hit Goldar's left foot, destroying it. As the gold-armored creature's left foot was obliterated, it had thrown its huge sword at the angel-winged mobile suit. The massive blade slicing through the air itself as it sped towards the Divinity Gundam, like a giant missile. When the blade was close to the angelic machine, the armor-clad creature shot it with a pair of crimson blasts from its eyes, and causing the weapon to explode into a huge fireball.
The shockwave from the explosion threw the Divinity backward, disorienting Kira, and before he had a chance to recover, the computer was warning him that something was approaching from behind. He turned to see that Goldar had somehow regained his sword and was slashing at the cockpit of his mobile suit. Without wasting any time, Kira freed both of the Divinity's anti-ship swords from within its wings. The angel-winged machine blocked the attack with the sword in its left hand, while chopping off the gold-armored creature's remaining foot with the sword in its right hand. The amethyst-eyed man was wondering why this creature was so reckless, when something approached from below; the object being one of the Freedom Gundam's beam sabers. The glowing pink energy blade slammed into the Divinity's back, the blade lodging itself in the angelic machine's primary thruster array before exploding.
As the Divinity spun from the explosion, the creature gave chase to it, drawing back both arms and revealing razor-sharp claws. Kira saw an opportunity to end the fight as the creature became a bit careless with the move, and without any hesitation, he slashed the Divinity's anti-ship sword at Goldar's waist. An ear-piercing scream of pain shattered the air as the pure white beam blade effortlessly sliced through flesh and bone, the searing heat instantly cauterizing the already fatal wound.
Even as the angel-winged machine once again stowed both of its anti-ship swords, the blood red accents covering various parts of the white mobile suit suddenly began to glow as its bright amethyst eyes pulsed with light, its wings spreading to their full span.
"Why is the Divinity's IFF code still showing it as an enemy?" Meyrin asked, only for the question to be answered a moment later, as a hailstorm of beam bolts slammed into the Excalibur's energy shields, the shield bubble lighting up with a bright blue glow as they blocked the twin energy beams.
"The Divinity has opened fire on the Excalibur." Lexi's voice spoke, her holographic form appearing on the bridge as the angel-winged Gundam once again unleashed a torrent of firepower from its full arsenal, searing energy blasts erupting from the two twin buster rifles, even as the pair of hyper-impulse cannons, along with both plasma cannons spewed forth searing energy blasts, while the pair of rail guns lobbed out hyper-velocity shells.
Inside the cockpit of the Divinity, Kira didn't even seem to notice when his radar detected a pair of mobile suits quickly descending towards him from high above. Anyone not familiar with the lead machine, which was colored in white and pink, would be quite surprised to discover that it had originally been the ZGMF-X56S Impulse Gundam. In addition to the Destiny Silhouette mounted on its back, the mobile suit was carrying two high-energy beam rifles, each of which had an integrated beam blade bayonet. There was also a rail gun mounted on the machine's right shoulder and a beam gatling gun on its left. Descending alongside the Impulse was its successor; the ZGMF-X42S Destiny Gundam.
The two mobile suits suddenly unleashed a flurry of railgun shells and beam blasts, quickly reducing the Divinity Gundam to little more than its cockpit.