"Are you all right, Fllay?" Kira asked, concern tinting his voice.
"Yes, although Fallen's Plume de Lune is damaged,"
"I am glad you're all right," he said honestly. He was worried for her safety when he saw the extensive damage to the HiMAT-like wings behind Fallen; that feeling was washed away by her voice. After calming himself, Kira thought of his next move. Once again his eyes settled on the wings. If he wasn't pressed by the urgency of the situation, he would have taken his time to examine the system. Although he had learned about it when he was in the college in Heliopolis, it was the first time Kira had seen the actual implementation of the 'Vectorial Thrust Variable Wing' concept. If it wasn't the fact that he was in the middle of a war, Kira would gladly study the whole thing. But as it was, it had to wait. He gently lowered Fallen so that the black mobile suit could stand by itself.
"I can still fight,"
"No," Kira said turned his attention toward Legend and Crusader which were waiting warily for his move. "It's better for you to sit this out. You have done a lot... and I want you to be safe," he said. He knew that his comment may seem to belittle her but he couldn't concentrate if that part inside him wanted to believe that he could still protect her.
Fllay nodded, trying to ignore the warm feeling ebbing in her heart.
"I will take care of the rest," he said. Then Freedom's twin Xiphias 3 railguns swiveled toward Legend and fired.
Rey saw the shots and prepared to intercept it by using Legend's CIWS which was why he didn't expect what happened next. Freedom raised its own beam rifles and fired at the projectiles just before they entered Legend's CIWS range, causing them to explode. Although he was surprised by what happened, Rey was quickly brought out of his reverie by warning from the Legend's radar. Freedom was using its projectiles to mask its movement; he reacted to the warning just in time as Legend's swords clashed with Freedom's own as the white and blue mobile suit emerged out of the explosion. Freedom's pilot was using the explosion to prevent him from seeing its move.
The golden haired ace grimaced. He could see why the older version of himself, the infamous Rau le Creuset was defeated at the hand of Freedom's pilot, one Kira Yamato.
Meanwhile Shinn was confused by the turn of the event. The appearance of Strike Freedom was unexpected since it was supposed to have perished along with Infinite Justice. But if it survived, then there's a possibility that he might be alive. He raised Destiny's head to look at the point where Strike Freedom came only to be shocked. There was no mistaking that the silhouettes that were descending toward him. "Infinite Justice… and Impulse," he said slowly. His former mobile suit had undergone some changes, yet still remained familiar. "ATHRUN! Are you Athrun?"
There was no answer forthcoming.
"GODDAMIT! Answer me, Athrun! Is that you piloting Justice?"
Infinite Justice slowly brought out its Super Lacerta beam saber and merged them to form a very long beam weapon with a handle in the middle. It then pointed the newly formed weapon toward Destiny as Impulse moved away from it.
"Athrun…,"
"Shinn, I'm not going to say this more than once: retreat now or I am going to have to attack you,"
Shinn couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You must be joking… right?" he asked hesitantly.
"No, I'm not" Athrun answered as Justice blazed toward Destiny and tried to chop its Wing of Light. Only Shinn's honed combat skill allowed him to block the attack with Arondight in the nick of the time. "Though I do find ZAFT attacking a country over some prisoners a bit funny for my taste,"
"What the hell are you thinking, Athrun? Your enemy is supposed to be Strike Freedom. Know your enemy!" Shinn said as he pushed his sword, forcing Justice to back up a bit.
"I don't have any enemy anymore, Shinn; I only have those whom I must fight," Athrun answered calmly. "Strike Freedom isn't one of them,"
"Why? Why must you fight us?"
"I can ask the same question to you, Shinn. Why do you fight ORB? Is it your enemy?" his former mentor said as Justice tried to decapitate Destiny's head next.
Shinn blocked Athrun's attack, at the same time. "I…"
"Ignore him, Shinn!" Rey said as Legend clashed sword with Freedom. "He is obviously in cohort with the terrorists and would do anything to protect their lucrative business." Aided by Crusader, Legend managed to push Freedom back, even if for a moment. "Remember that you're fighting for the sake of ORB, Shinn, to get rid of the undesirable elements. Don't let him influence you."
"You told me that you hated Kira and Freedom for causing the death of your family, Shinn. But isn't what we're doing right now is similar to what happened that time?" Athrun questioned him, hoping to make him understand that what happened that day was an accident. However, the question had Shinn arriving at a different conclusion. Unlike Fallen's pilot who accepted his reason even as they stood on different sides, Athrun seemed to be making light of what he told him. Slowly Destiny unsheathed its sword, sped toward Justice and kicked it away from the island's airspace.
"Athrun!" Lunamaria said in surprised over what happened.
"Stay back!" Athrun commanded. "Please lend support to ORB instead! I will fight him."
"I understand," she said as Impulse turned away.
"I've never thought someone like you will become a traitor, Luna," Rey managed to snipe despite being kept busy.
Lunamaria didn't respond to his taunt and flew toward the main land.
"You dragged Luna along as well, Athrun. It was just as well that her sister died or else I don't know how to tell her about you and her sister betraying ZAFT."
"You still don't get it, do you Shinn?" Athrun asked.
"No, it is you who don't get it, Athrun. I never wanted the war too be prolonged unnecessarily, so the casualties can be reduced. I don't know whether you ever felt like how I did, but know that I'll defeat you," he was silent for a moment, "Commander"
Mwu la Fllaga muttered a mute curse as he felt his mobile armour shook a bit as one of its wings scratched some random wall. He was fortunate that unlike Skygrasper, Murasame was moderately armoured and the affected wing didn't broke or something.
However that aspect didn't exactly help his flight from surviving an enemy ambush in the city. That was the reason why he was flying solo among the tall high rise buildings with three GOUFs behind him. He could still remember his flying instructor saying that flying into a crowded city was the fastest way to wreck one's career or aircraft, whichever comes first. But the city he was flying in at that wasn't crowded. Also, his instructor didn't take into account that mobile suits would be the future of aerial dogfighting.
Beam shots passing by his cockpit reminded him that his three pursuers were intent on giving him short , yet effective acupuncture session or turning his cockpit into single occupancy sauna room, both free of charge. Sometimes, he hated his own mouth. As it was, he had promised Murrue that he would return and he did not want to make her cry again due to him dying a second time. Since he had gotten his memory back, Mwu wondered whether it was better for him to keep feigning amnesia but from the way she looked at him from time to time, it wouldn't be a good idea.
A warning tone went off and Fllaga moved his Murasame toward the ground, all the time trying to ensure that the wings wouldn't hit the buildings on its left and right. Few bursts of jade-green beams passed harmlessly overhead. He had no time to celebrate as another alarm told him that he was too close to the ground. Mwu increased the altitude a bit to prevent his Murasame from running smack into a traffic light. The response was a bit sluggish compared to Exxas or even his personal Windam, though he couldn't really complain. It did the job of saving his bacon well. Of course, that would be for the moment as he was sure that the little golden haired lioness would throw him into a windowless jail for reckless piloting.
He couldn't see the three mobile suits that was chasing after him though they were right behind him, using their beam guns and not their melee weapons. It was the exact reason why he dived into the city when they ambushed him; they couldn't use their more potent heat rods and beam swords on him because of the narrow space. Mwu tried to shake them for a few minutes, turning at a very a tight junction or flying acrobatically through a narrow space between two buildings. Despite what he did, they still managed to catch up to him. They also seemed to know that he wanted to separate them and then take them out one by one; the trio stuck together, protecting each other from him. Finally, one of them slightly damaged one of his Mursame's ailerons.
It was then Mwu decided on an action that he had considered doing earlier but didn't because of its absurdness.
He slammed on the Murasame's airbrake, dropping the mobile armour's speed suddenly. He then reconfigured it into its mobile suit mode and drew out its MPG-5Z beam machinegun and its Type 70J Kai beam saber. The move caught his pursuers by surprise and one of them flew directly into its back while the other two overshoot it. Despite the jarring of his cockpit, Mwu took his time to lock on the two before open fired. While the two GOUFs came crashing into a building and the street respectively, the war veteran turned his Murasame around and slashed the ZAFT mobile suit behind it. Still shocked by what had happened, the inexperienced pilot never stood a chance.
Mwu winced as he looked at the three GOUF mobile suits crashing to the ground before exploding. Cagalli really would have his head for all the damages he caused. He shrugged. That would be a good material for the book that he wanted to write; if he ever got around to do it.
His Murasame reconfigured and flew away. He wasn't sure about the book as he was a bit lazy to write; it would certainly make a good bedtime story for his and Murrue's children though.
Barzhakov looked at the Minerva's blueprint that was being displayed on one of the screens. "Hmm… Enishi, it's a good thing that I didn't bet with you. Our goddess's underside armor is a thinner, just like you said at that time,"
Enishi nodded, silently pleased at his vindication.
"It would be fun to play chicken like the last time, but I don't believe they will fall for it. Are they ready in place?"
"Not yet," Sammy announced.
"So we have to keep Minerva busy then," Barzhakov said. "Very well, set course to intercept Minerva." He adjusted his cap a bit. "I think Minerva's captain will be quite estactic to see us."
Enishi shook his head. The last time the two ships had clashed, it ended up with Minerva's captain promising that she would destroy Cherubim.
"Sammy," Barzhakov continued. "Tell everyone that we'll be conducting a full scale GAVE,"
"Will do," the woman said as she snapped on her seatbelt before making the announcement.
"GAVE?" Enishi asked.
"Don't tell me you didn't read the SOP books we gave you." Barzhakov said with an amused expression. "That would certainly taint my respect for ORB's military tendency to go by the book."
"Er… I didn't remember it very well," the ORB military man answered, lying a little. He had skipped through some chapters of the Standard Operating Procedure manual given to him but it wouldn't do for him to admit that; not to someone like Barzhakov who didn't even read such a book.
"You'll pick it up later," the Cherubim's captain commented as he adjusted his own seat belt. "All right, comrades, today we will win over Minerva… or go swim with the fishes."
"Very optimistic of you, Captain," Elizabeth, who was at the helm scoffed.
"Realistic, my dear."
The delta-winged ship began to accelerate toward Minerva as the two ships began to exchange shots. Cherubim's Gottfrieds were answered with Minerva's Tristan whereas its Valiants were matched with Isolde.
Like flying leviathans, the two ships kept battling for supremacy above ORB's water. The disabling of Tannhauser earlier had level the playing field somewhat as Cherubim's armor plating was almost at par with Minerva's. After few minutes have passed, Sammy said, "They're ready, sir."
"Good. Tell them that we'll deliver but the rest is up to them," Barzhakov said. "Reduce speed by 10 percent."
"But sir, if we do that, then Minerva would be able to get behind us," Enishi remarked.
"We're getting nowhere at this rate and the more we stall for time the advantagous it will be for ZAFT."
"I know that, but…"
"Trust me… and buckle up."
"Minerva's almost behind us," Sammy announced.
"Elizabeth… Immelman turn, please. Sammy, prep the jamming rounds"
Even as his safety buckle snapped in place, Enishi couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Immelman turn?"
As if answering his question, Cherubim began to climb. Intead of just gaining attitude, the ship kept turning until it executed a half loop and was upside down. The movement also caused the ship to be approaching Minerva.
"Jamming rounds, followed by Valiants."
Cherubim shook slightly as the ship fired its ordnance. The jamming rounds hit their targets, evidenced by the delta-winged ship's radars and sensors going while because of the proximity to the explosion.
At the same time, Enishi finally realized what GAVE meant. It's just a gravitional equivalent of the well-known All Vectors Engagements term used to refer to ship battles in space. Most surface vessels on earth remained grounded and conduct their operations in the same situation. But space-going vessels fought differently as they could move in various directions and vectors. Examples of that would be Archangel and Minerva. Curiously enough, when it operate on Earth, the two ships' movement became similar to earth vessels, except when they're climbing or descending. He expected Cherubim to be the same.
"Cherubim has always had the ability to fight like this," Barzhakov quipped, as if understanding what Enishi was thinking. "In fact, maybe Minerva and Archangel can do it as well. It's just that there's no need to do so in the past, so we didn't."
"I'm honestly surprised." The ORB soldier's eyebrows knitted. Was there any reason to perform the aerial maneuver then, he asked himself.
"Maybe Captain Gladys was surprised as well, if Minerva's slow reaction is of any indication."
"What now, Captain?" Sammy asked.
"Now we wait and see." The ship shook as a missile exploded few meters away from its bow. "But not staying still of course,"
Anyone not very familiar with the white and red mobile suit would be surprised to know that it was Impulse. Unlike the normal silhouettes that it normally mounted, Impulse was carrying two Mavica-Ts, a nightstick-like weapon that had integrated beam rifle and beam blade. There was a linear cannon mounted on its right shoulder a standard issue ZAFT beam Gatling to its left. Inside its cockpit, Lunamaria was warring with herself. Despite what she had said to Athrun, she was still unsure of the right thing to do. Earlier on, when he had asked her whether she would like to remain in space to guard Terminal's base, he had hinted that it would be quite tough for her to participate in the battle in ORB as it may required her fighting against ZAFT mobile suits. To that, Lunamaria replied that she knew her duty which was to fight against injustice that was being committed by ZAFT. Of course, knowing and doing it were two different things.
She eyed the gun-metal black mobile suit that was making its way to the power station along with hers. Fallen may suffered some damage that prevented it from participating in the fight with Destiny and others, but it could still hold its own against run-of-the-mill grunts. Attha seemed to believe that it can protect the objective, which was why it was requested there. And Athrun thought that it would be better Lunamaria followed along, lest she got dragged into the fight against her friends.
A beam shot forced her to evade.
A Murasame, no doubt being piloted by an overeager greenhorn pilot who obviously didn't know about her status being classified as a 'friendly', flew in for a kill. She considered calling the pilot, but decided that it would be quite useless as the pilot wouldn't believe her. Nevertheless, she didn't want to have to deal with Murasame; killing it would cause her a lot of trouble later on.
But Fallen's pilot had an answer to her predicament. It took aim and fired, all of the shots deliberately made to force the Murasame to stop. Then, Fallen turned away and continued moving. The Murasame didn't pursue. Its pilot seemed to understand that both Fallen and Impulse could defeat it easily but didn't so because of them not perceiving it as an enemy.
With the interruption out of the way, the duo continued with their journey and arrived at the power station few minutes later. The sight that greeted them shocked Lunamaria. Parts from both ORB and ZAFT's mobile suits literally strewn all over the power station.
"Looks like both sides getting hammered," she commented.
Fallen kneeled down to pick up a small object. "Despite being overwhelmed, ORB's defense force somehow managed to hold up."
Lunamaria looked at the object in Fallen's hand and was puzzled why it picked up a mangled and half-burned lion plush toy but kept her peace. Then her computer called for her attention: nine GOUFs have appeared over the horizon.
"What will you do?" Fallen's pilot asked, as if knowing Lunamaria's new predicament and letting her decide.
Swallowing hard, the Impulse pilot opened the communication channel. "This is Lunamaria Hawke…," she stopped as she pondered her next words since she wasn't in ZAFT anymore, "… and I order you to retreat."
The leader of the attackers brandished its beam sword. "You must be joking! There is no way we are going to listen to you," The group split into two, one group attacked Impulse whereas the other one went after Fallen.
Impulse brought up its right stick whose side glowed light reddish to block an attack aimed at its cockpit. It then used the other one to bash the attacker, pushing it away. "What are you thinking you're doing?"
"Taking care of a traitorous trash, obviously." Another pilot said as he fired off several shots.
A lightwave barrier erected in front of Impulse, blocking the shots. Its linear cannon than fired a shot aimed at the feet of one of the GOUFs. The GOUF quickly moved away. "You…" Lunamaria spat as Impulse swerved. A GOUF passed by, its attempt to attack Impulse in the back failed. Impulse dropped to its feet and hit the former's legs with one of its nightstick. The weapon cut through them easily and without its legs, the GOUF fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
"Not bad," the leader said as he resumed his attack while being assisted by his two wingmen.
Even though Lunamaria was a Red elite, she found herself being pushed back slowly. It was then Impulse back stepped into a hole and fall down.
"I got you now!" he said as his mobile suit poised to deliver the lethal blow to Impulse.
By instinct Lunamaria jabbed the night-stick at her assailant's chest. A second later, a green beam pierced through it and the mobile suit exploded. With its Phase Shift armor protecting it from the blast, Impulse stood up in the middle of the burning wreckage.
"SHE GOT THE CHIEF," a pilot shouted in anger. "Let's get her!" he cried as he and his two colleagues lunged toward Impulse.
Impulse aimed the two weapons in its hands. It then fired off the beam rifle built into Mavica-T at the two of them and used the beam Gatling on the last one. Despite what Lunamaria wanted to do, she ended up killing all of the ZAFT pilots that opposed her.
Fallen, who had taken care of its own enemies earlier way earlier moved to Impulse side.
"Why didn't you help me?" Lunamaria asked.
"You wouldn't like it if I did that."
"Yeah," she concurred while she kept her gaze on the burning wreckages.
"Rina, use Phoenix Tail to grab Freedom," Rey said. It was useless as only static sounds answered his call. Someone had jammed the airwaves, he decided. Making a frustated sound, he engaged the airbrake and a beam shot passed just few meters in front of Legend. With the disturbance, he had no choice but hope that his colleague would be able to spot any oppurtunity that will present itself. Calling for additional backup was also out of the question because of the said interference.
Unlike Fallen which had remained elusive throughout its fight with them, Rey estimated that Freedom's speed somewhat similar to Legend, which in turn was a bit slower than Destiny. But
What it lacked in dexterity however, it compensated with heavy firepower.
"I'll get you, Kira Yamato," Rey vowed as Legend evaded a shot from Freedom's combined MA-M21KF rifle. Legend's DRAGOON beam machine guns gyrated on their points and began raining beam shots on its adversary, with Rey aiming to score a hit with the non-stop firing or at least create an opening for Crusader to finish the job.
However, that objective would be very difficult to achieve. Even as Freedom streaked across ORB's sky to avoid his attacks, it did so while managing to keep Crusader busy by unleashing few attacks of its own. Also, the pilot's cunningness complement his skill quiet well. In one instance, Rey thought that he had finally got Freedom in his sight and fired, only to have it moved to the left. It was fortunate that one of Crusader's beam shields was still functioning or it wouldn't have survived the crossfire. That had forced Rey to be extra careful when firing, lest he risked hitting his own colleague.
Rey fired again, this time hitting the two Xiphias 3 projectiles that was aimed at Legend. His blood curdled when he remembered that something similar had happened earlier and prepared for Freedom to charge from the explosion. But it didn't come. Instead, a ruby-colored beam pierced through shroud and would have hit Legend's cockpit if not for Rey's last moment action. Despite that, the shot managed to claim one of Legend's beam pike units.
Although he was normally a calm man, he couldn't help gritting his teet in frustation.
He kept fighting, together with Crusader until the two of them managed to force Freedom to move near Justice, almost causing the two of them to collide with each other. Because of that, Freedom had to slow a bit, which what Rey had been waiting for so that he could target it properly. Just as his finger pressed on trigger button, Justice fired its Grappling Stinger rocket anchor at Freedom which then caught it using its left hand. The red mobile suit then yanked its counterpart out of Legend's attacks and then propelled it toward Destiny. At the same time, Justice moved in to fight the two ZAFT mobile suits. In just a span of few seconds, the two of them changed their position, all without radio communication. The level of cohesion shown by the two was worrying to Rey.
An explosion on Destiny's chest caught his attention but an attack by Justice forced him to refocus his attention. Legend's sword clashed with Justice which then moved away before he could counterattacked. He would have gave chase if not for a beam shot passing in front of him. He turned toward the source and saw that Freedom was coming toward him. It turned out that the shot was fired by Crusader to try to hit Freedom as well as to warn him.
The warning came too late as Legend's hand was chopped off while trying to protect against the attack.
"YAMATO!" Rey screamed as Legend's DRAGOONs swiveled in their places to target Freedom.
Freedom moved the side where it cut off Legend's arm and slashed again, this time taking off its arm as well as a part of the DRAGOON housing behind it. It was at that moment Rey almost swore that he could feel malevolence behind the attack; something unexpected from Yamato whom he had pegged as being more docile than a deer. That would have explained probably how his older self fell by the said person's hand. As sudden as its attack, Freedom took off to avoid the beam shots coming out of the remaining DRAGOON units.
Rey swore that he would get Yamato's hide, even if it would kill him.
Minerva shook as a missile got through its CIWS blanket hit a scant few meters from the bridge, causing its captain to grip her chair's hand rests tightly as the whole place shook."Status?" she asked.
"Damage minimal," Arthur answered.
"Our communication?" Talia asked.
"Negative," Abby answered.
Talia put a thumb under her lip, striking a thoughtful pose. What would Cherubim gain by jamming the radio frequency? She and the others weres so engrossed in their thoughts and duty that they failed to see the door behind them opened slightly and a small fibre optic camera being poked through it. The camera relayed visual to the group of people dressed in light armor body suits and had their gas masks on. Pleased with what he saw, one of them motioned to his squad to get into position. Talia heard the sound of a canister rolling on the floor behind her and a second later, a hissing sound appeared. Then she found the whole room being filled with smoke and everyone began to cough uncontrollably.
As the vile plume caused her lung to feel as if it was on fire and her eyes to water uncontrollably; she tried to activate the alarm. However, doing that was almost impossible as her eyesight wavered. She presevered and managed to locate the correct button on her chair and pressed it.
The alarm didn't go off.
She pressed it again to no avail. It was then she noticed the large shotgun muzzle trained at her face. At the risk of being shot, she raised her head to look at the person wielding the weapon only to have a person wearing a gas mask starring at her. The smoke finally abated, due to the ship's functioning circulation system, revealing to her that all of the ship's crew was under arrest by other masked intruders.
"Don't move," her captor commanded in a voice that was muffled by the mask he was wearing.
"What will happen if I don't?" Talia asked trying to stall for time.
The masked man gestured to around him, not so subtly hinting that the crew would pay for her action.
From her seat, Talia saw Arthur had his face being pushed against his console, Abby had her hands being tied up whereas everyone else had their hands up. Try as she might, she couldn't help becoming a bit distressed by the situation. She slowly nodded and raised her hands.
"Good if you understand," the man said who gestured to the person who was holding Abby captive.
Talia looked at the weapon facing her and wondered if she could try wrestle it away, gambling on her movement being faster than her captor. Before she could think on the idea further, she was surprised by signal flares appearing on the main screen. It was a ZAFT's signal calling for a total retreat. "But why did St. Helens launched..." Talia's widened when she realised that the signal came from her ship and her consternation grew when she saw ZAFT's force becoming disarrrayed and confused because of the signal. As if anticipating what her next reaction, the man in front of her shoved his weapon's muzzle to her heart. Despite that, she scowled. "You planned this from the very beginning, do you?"
The man didn't answer. However Talia could almost feel he was smiling underneath his mask.
At the same time, there wasn't any trace of a smile on the ZAFT commander who was in charge in the attack on ORB. "What do you mean our forces is in disarray?" he demanded from his second-in-command.
"Some of our forces has begun to withdraw, thus losing some of the advances we have made on the theatre," the man answered.
"Why are they retreating?" the commander said, raising his voice slightly higher. "The report just five minutes ago said that we're making significant progress,"
"It's because of Minerva launching the retreat signal."
"SAY WHAT? Did someone replaced Gladys' pea-sized brain with rocks? Contact our force and tell them that St. Helens is still in charge and to keep pressing. I'll have Gladys' head later."
His assistant issued a crisp order to the radio operator who turned toward them and shook his head no. The whole communication network have been jammed.
"Get us to the periscope level and we'll fire our own signal flares."
"Sir, we've picked up Archangel coming our way."
"Where's Coulomb? It is supposed to deal with that cursed ship."
"We can't trace its signal."
"Damn," the commander swore.
While the ZAFT's field command viewed what Minerva did was vert damaging to the attack it launched, its ORB counterpart was baffled, but relieved by what happened. As she stood watching one of the screens showing Cherubim and its mobile suits defending themselves from few stray ZAFT units, Cagalli somehow felt that the ship had something to do with what happened.
"Lady Attha, we have confirmation that ZAFT force is in disarray in many sectors." Kisaka, who was standing beside her reported.
"Have we been able to establish radio with our main force?" she asked one of the CIC officers
"Negative," the officer said as he continued typing. "I estimate that we'll be able to pierce through Cherubim's jamming in five, four minutes more,"
"Four minutes," Cagalli mused out silently. "Then ZAFT's probably have the similar time window, right?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Do we have alternative communication system?"she asked the CIC officers again.
"We can also use flares and there's some other means… for example, we can use the billboards and the public speakers all over the city to transmit our orders. There will be some lag before they get the orders but our situation is better than ZAFT's"
"I see," Cagalli said as she had a thoughtful look on her face.
Kisaka looked at the young leader, knowing very well what was going through her mind. Despite sorely tempted to advise her, Kisaka held his tongue, knowing that she would have to make the decision by herself because either way, the decision would be very painful to make.
Only a few seconds passed though it had felt as if hours had passed before Cagalli made her decision, her eyes were cold-steel. "Signals our own force to counterattack and to keep pressing even if the enemies are retreating…. Also, I want few of our Murasames to follow the retreating mobile suits from afar and then attack their carriers just before they land."
He nodded at her, reassuring Cagalli that her decision was a right one. While it didn't seem fair, but it was important that ORB damage or destroy as many ZAFT mobile suits and ships as it can to ensure that ZAFT wouldn't be able to regroup effectively. The tactic was also intended the break its moral and also sent a message to its high command that ORB is a force to reckon with.
A few minutes later, it could be seen that the situation had changed, with ORB slowly gaining hands, as can be seen from Minerva's main screen. "Now, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to invite all of you to move to that corner," Talia's captor, apparently the leader of the group of armed soldiers who capture Minerva's bridge, said in a somewhat mocking tone.
As every ZAFT personnel began to get up, Talia came to a decisive conclusion. She would not let the ship fall into their hands. Because she could't call for help and the ship's automated system allowed it to be manned almost entirely from the bridge, she decided that the only option she had was to arm Minerva's self destruct sequence, which was located on a secret location on captain's seat. With that in mind, she tried to find an opportunity to activate it. Her gaze happened to settled on Arthur who nodded slightly.
Arthur got up from his seat slowly, keeping his hands up. Then, suddenly, he lunged toward the nearest intruder and attempted to wrestle the weapon he was carrying. Talia quickly seized the chance of everyone's attention being misdirected to activate the ship's self destruct sequece, not stopping even when a gun shot broke out and a scream could be heard. Successfully activating it, she turned to see Arthur's body on the floor. It turned out that the shot was fired by Abby's guard.
Then there was a woman's voice on the speakers, announcing that the ship's self-destruct sequence have been activated and the ship's autopilot began to kicked in. The ship began to descend, as the navigation computer plotted the nearest safe place to land while computer's voice continued, telling that there were few minutes left and asking Minerva's personnel to go to the designated evacuation point.
The hijackers' leader turned toward Talia. "You're making a very big mistake. Maybe you would like to turn it off."
Talia watched Arthur's crumpled form on the floor and then stared at the man in front of her defiantly. "Never!" she stated boldly amidst the blaring siren. "Instead, I suggest you leave the ship before it explode."
There was a sight tremor as the ship touched down on the sea. Meanwhile, with most of the crew being relocated to a corner and being watched by two people, some of the hijackers began to access the ship's computers.
"It's pointless," Talia said. "Even all of you work together, there's not enough time to get through the encryption."
The leader gave a signal to the one who arrested Abby who then sat at her terminal and began typing at a phenomenal rate. To Talia's horror, the main screen showed that one by one security protocols being bypassed. Despite her being in a precarious position, she craned her neck to see the hacker.
"Impressive, right?" a masculine voice caused her to turn to the front.
The man had removed his mask, revealing a face Talia couldn't believe was still alive. "Terrence Shauzer..."
"Yes, in person unfortunately, since I did contribute to the design; I need to be here."
There was an announcement that the self-destruct sequence have been aborted.
"How?" Talia managed to squeak.
Terrence gestured toward the hacker on Abby's seat.
She followed his direction and almost had a heart attack.
"Introducing our best cracker... Meyrin Hawke."
"YOU… TRAITOR!" Talia accused.
"Traitor to what?" Meyrin asked quietly.
"You betrayed ZAFT!"
"No. It is ZAFT that betrayed its principles" Heine, his mask also removed, replied while guarding other prisoners. "At the same time, Miss Poppins was trying hard not to betray her own conviction."
"By killing Arthur?
Terrence pushed Arthur's body slowly using his leg to reveal that there was no wounds on the man's body and eliciting a small groan from him. "Well, it's better to be knocked out by a rubber baton gun than being taken out by a submachinegun, right?"
"Thanks to the activation of the self destruct sequence by you, most of this ships' crew are busy trying to escape. Thus, we'll be able to confine most of them in the escape bays, ensuring thatthere would be a lower chance of a possible attempt to retake this bridge." Heine said.
Talia lowered her head at the thought that she was outsmarted. "I see. So, you allowing Arthur to distract you is intentional,"
"Yes," the blonde pilot replied. "The credit for the whole idea comes from Meyrin. Of course, there's a huge risk of failure if not for the fact that she managed to acquire this ship's ventilation and emergency exits map before Gilbert chased after her. So when Cherubim made that loop and fired the jamming rounds, we took that oppurtunity to land on this ship with our mobile suit."
"The one that we destroyed a few minutes ago..."
Terrence's expression hardened. "Yeah, I guess you got him. But continuing on with the story, we've been able to get in and made our way here without any opposition. I guess the diversionary attack by Cherubim ensured that everyone's onboard would be too busy manning their station."
"So now what?" Talia asked again, giving up on the possibility of her being able to recapture the ship and resigning to her fate.
"The aftermath wouldn't be pretty, but battle will end soon," Terrence said while glancing at the main screen that was displaying an underwater explosion, "as for Minerva though, it is over."
1
Author's note (15 September 2007)
1. It's been a while since I updated and I would like to apologize. I've changed job recently and it's a bit… overwhelming for me. Trying to change few habits at the same time is a bit challenging. For example, last time I used to wake up at 10 a.m. in the weekends, and now I still do wake up at the same time. But I wake up at 5.00 a.m. every working day now.
2. This chapter is even longer than the previous one because I want most of the parts wrapped up now rather than the next chapter. I even deleted two scenes because to make it shorter.
3. Thanks to Zidane Lightning Saix for the term 'Vectorial Thrust Variable Wing'. I was raking my head trying to come up with something suitable to call it, and he had helped with the suggestion
