Shinn looked at Legend and then at Crusader. Unlike Destiny with had fought with nary a scratch, the two mobile suits were damaged enough to affect their fight against Freedom and Justice. If the fight dragged on, it would be obvious how it would turn out. Making his decision, he deployed Destiny's M2000GX high-energy long-range beam cannon and fired at Justice to push it off. Destiny then activated its Wing of Light and then sped off toward Freedom that was in the middle of engagement with Legend and Crusader.
Realizing his attack, Kira counterattacked with a slash though it missed and hit Destiny's afterimage instead. The latter quickly moved closer to its inside and Freedom was forced to raise its shield to block any possible attack. But Shinn, knowing very well that Freedom would make the move, put its right palm above the shield and fired off the built-in "Palma Fiocina" palm beam cannon at point blank. Due to the proximity of the two mobile suits, the shot exploded when it hit Freedom's shield and pushed it back. Shinn quickly followed the attack with another shot from the left palm beam cannon.
The gambit was successful as Freedom's pilot lost control of his mobile suit for a moment and had to retreat a bit.
Legend and Crusader moved to Destiny's left and right. "Good attack, Shinn," Rey congratulated him.
"Seems like the jamming is over."
"In our favor. Together we'll defeat the two of them."
Before Legend could move forward, Destiny's hand stopped it.
"Shinn?"
"Let's not kid ourselves, Rey. Legend and Crusader are in no position to fight. I think it's better for the two of you to retreat."
"We're still on a mission, Shinn." Rey reminded him.
"Look around us, Rey and you tell me the situation whether we're winning or not. You're the clever one. Me? I'm just a self-centered idiot."
Despite what he had said, Rey was by no means delusional about the situation. Despite the gains ZAFT had commanded earlier, ORB force was counterattacking and breaking through its confused flank. He still didn't understand why Captain Talia launched the retreat flare signal prematurely, thus contributing to the chaos. Gilbert would be very displeased when he learned about that. "Very well. Rina. We'll provide cover while our forces regroup."
While Rey knew what Shinn planned to do, Crusader's pilot didn't and decided to ask. "How about you, Shinn?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Shinn asked back as Destiny, Arondight in hand, settled on an attacking stance.
"And you think you can defeat the two of them all by yourselves?"
To that question, Shinn chuckled.
"Well?"
"Sorry. When you asked me that question, I couldn't help myself from laughing."
"Damn arrogant prick! You think you're so hot?"
"It's not what you think. I didn't even know if I can win against one of them." Shinn replied as he gazed at the two mobile suits in front of him. "Against two of them, I know that I'll lose." Destiny's Wing of Light began to ignite. "though I can at least buy some time for the two of you." With that, Destiny sped off toward Freedom and Justice, leaving only trails of light in its wake.
"That idiot..." Crusader's pilot said, not very satisfied with what Shinn decided.
"Come, Rina, we mustn't let his action be in vain," Rey said as Legend left the place, personally hoping that Shinn would survive if not victorious.
Upon seeing Shinn attack, Athrun said to his friend, "Kira, I will fight him."
Truth be told, Kira would prefer not to let Athrun fight his former protégé all by himself. Destiny had shown itself to be a very capable mobile suit. However, the Freedom ace understood that Athrun had unresolved issues with Destiny's pilot. He looked at the small triangle on the radar denoting Legend. When he fought against Legend, he couldn't ignore the small sinking feeling in his gut. It was as if he had fought against that person before. It was just like the time when he fought against Mwu and Fllay in Berlin.
A booming sound echoed in his cockpit, caught by Freedom's auditory sensors when Destiny and Justice clashed weapons, but Kira didn't really pay attention to it. He was more concerned about the person piloting Legend.
Why was it that he felt as if he fought against Rau La Creuset?
Terrence looked at the ZAFT officers who were gathered at one place as one of his men finished putting plastic zip cuffs on them. "Although the cuffs are made of plastic and very light, they're almost as effective as normal handcuff. I hope they're not too tight."
"Do you really care?" Talia asked icily.
Rolling his eyes up, Terrence answered, "Despite our differences, Captain, I do treat prisoners decently." He gestured toward one of the sentries. "I really hope that there would be no fracas like before. I'm sure you recognize that he's carrying a sub-machinegun instead of baton launchers some of us carry. And please note that the switch is set to 'full auto'," he finished, implying that if the sentry opened fire at any attempt to subdue him, the recoil might cause him to hit innocent bystanders.
"Communication jamming has ended," Meyrin, who had resumed her former position as the CIC officer announced. Meanwhile, the other infiltration group members had taken their places as well with Heine at helms, leaving only two who was assigned to look after the captured ZAFT personnel.
"Right on time," Heine quipped.
"Connect us with Cherubim," Terrence said.
"HELLO, CAPTAIN GLADYS." Barzhakov's voice boomed throughout Minerva's bridge as he appeared on the screen. "GLAD TO SEE THAT YOU'RE DOING FINE."
"I'm not sorry to say that I don't wish the same for you," the captured ship captain said with a hint of venom in her voice.
"I GUESS NOT."
"How's the situation?" Terrence asked.
"IT'S AS PREDICTED. ZAFT IS RETREATING, THOUGH I'M QUITE SURPRISED THAT ORB'S FORCE GAVE CHASE EVEN BEYOND ITS MARITIME BORDER."
"First time for everything, perhaps."
"PERHAPS."
"I can't wait to thank Vince for the success of the mission." Even though it was Meyrin's idea to enter Minerva through one of its numerous emergency hatches, it was due to Vince's skill in piloting the mobile suit Maestro that allowed the insertion team that it carried in a modified compartment to enter Minerva safely. The mobile suit couldn't just land on the ship because it could be detected easily. What it did was to follow Minerva's flight almost exactly while a makeshift sky bridge extended from the insertion compartment to the emergency hatch; although Minerva was slow in comparison with Maestro, maintaining the similar flight plan was difficult.
After the insertion was completed, Terrence's team made their way the ventilation system, going out in the open only if needed. That was why they managed to escaped detection by Minerva's internal security whose attention was also misdirected by Cherubim's attack on it. Once they arrived at the bridge, the rest was history. Even the security protocols weren't of any problems as Meyrin had accidentally cracked through them while she was stationed onboard Minerva, so redoing the whole thing wasn't as difficult as predicted. When the ship was in design phase, Terrence had proposed the use of a stronger encryption algorithm but the design committee had decided on the current one instead, which was a good thing for his team.
Barzhakov was quiet for a moment. "CURRENTLY, WE'VE BEEN UNABLE TO TRACE HIS SIGNAL."
"I see." Despite the rather vague answer given, Terrence could easily understand the real meaning of the statement. To put it bluntly, Maestro was shot down. He looked at the face on the screen and saw that there was something else left unsaid. "Fallen?"
Barzhakov shook his head. "SHE PICKED UP MR. SNOOKUM'S REMAIN."
Terrence didn't say anything but slammed his fist on the console, not really caring whether he anything or not. Despite being a dangerous pilot, Nash would never leave his favorite plush toy behind. Terrence should know as he was the video game junkie's best friend ever since he joined Cherubim. "Do you know how he died?"
"OVERRAN BY ZAFT WHILE GUARDING A PRIMARY TARGET, THOUGH IT SEEMED THAT HE MANAGED TO GET THEM AS WELL."
"Perfect score as always," Terrence commented with a sad smile. "He always annoyed me with his record and now I have no chance of breaking it, that dumbass."
"Mr. Shauzer, we have Impulse and Fallen coming in," Meyrin called out.
There would be time to mourn later. As for the time being, he had to concentrate at the task on hand. "Guide them for landing."
"WELL, I'LL LEAVE THE TWO OF THEM TO YOU," Barzhakov finished before signing off.
"I think it's better for them to land on the ship instead of coming in," Heine suggested.
"Like Heine said," Terrence remarked. He could see the logic behind Heine's words. Despite their managing to trap Minerva's crew at the emergency escape points; there might be a few who was still running around. With his small group people operating the highly automatic ship, smoking them out would have to be done later.
The fight between Legend and Destiny had dragged on for quite some time, worrying Kira who was watching on the sideline. While he had respected his friend's earlier request to fight Destiny by himself, he knew that it wouldn't be easy for Athrun to win the fight. Firstly, Athrun was quite hesitant to kill his former protégé which required him to resort to disabling Destiny. That wasn't an easy thing to do as Destiny's pilot was not a pushover.
Kira couldn't be sure whether Athrun would win even he fought seriously. What should he do?
Even while its pilot was deep in his thought, Freedom's hands reached for its beam rifles and fired at its both sides. The shot from right rifle tore through the head of a GOUF that was stupid enough to sneak an attack on him. At the same time, the left rifle hit the flight pack of another ZAFT mobile suit that was about to finish off a crippled Murasame, sending it careening into the ocean.
Eyes still transfixed to the fight between Justice and Destiny, Kira had to admit that the latter's pilot had improved so much since Berlin and certainly more composed than the time when he and Athrun took down Freedom.
Similar thought was running through Athrun's mind as he pushed off Arondight using his own sword. He honestly was surprised by his inability to land a hit on Shinn all that time. He fired off Justice's rocket anchor at Destiny's, intending to snag the mobile suit and then dragged it toward him for an attack.
Shinn had a similar idea, as evidenced by Destiny catching the anchor and then yanked Justice toward it instead. It then sped off toward its opponent.
Knowing that he had to see it to the very end, Athrun did the same.
Both Justice and Destiny were about to deliver a blow at each other when a red beam passed between the two of them. Startled, both of them looked to its origin.
"Instead of hacking each other, maybe the two of you can talk nicely," a feminine voice became audible in their respective cockpit.
"Say what you want, Luna but I'll keep fighting till the end," Shinn said as he eyed Justice.
"Rey had long left," she commented a bit tartly. "if that's the reason why you fight."
"You know that I will not surrender,"
"Then maybe you better just move away a bit and activate the self-destruct, since you're in no mood to live," Lunamaria snorted.
"Meyrin would be very proud of you for saying that,"
"Um… if you really ask for my opinion, I do agree with her, although her words are a bit brusque." Another voice joined in.
"Mey…rin?" Shinn couldn't believe what he was hearing. Wasn't the girl supposed to be dead at the hand of LOGOS
"Look," Lunamaria said, her voice a bit softer despite still having some edge in it, "all we want is for you to give us a chance to show explain to you the reality of the whole war. If after this you decide to walk away, we'll let you do so,"
"On whose words?"
"Lacus Clyne's."
"The pinky pop star?" Shinn asked incredulously.
"The same one who commandeered a battleship in the previous war."
He really didn't know whether he could believe what he was hearing. But he wanted to know, no, to demand an explanation from everyone involved on why they switched side. "Very well," he sighed. "I shall take your words for it."
"Thank you. And Athrun…" Luna's voice was a bit too sweet. "We'll need to talk about you suddenly going gung-ho."
"Not married yet and she already whip your ass," Shinn sneered at his former commander.
"Athrun, acting callously stupid is Shinn's forte. There's no need for you to wrestle the crown away from him."
"HEY!"
Directly above ORB's orbit, three ZAFT Nazca-class battleships were receiving the visual that its high command didn't dream of: ZAFT was suffering more losses than in the attack against Azores Islands. "Damn!" the commander, onboard the leading ship swore. "We were winning! How could this happen?" he asked, knowing that none of his crew had any real answer.
"Sir, what should we do?" his executive officer, an attractive brunette whose uniform did nothing to hide her curvaceous body questioned.
"The bulk of our force?" Stress and frustration had a diminishing effect on his libido; he didn't even turn to feast his eyes on her like he usually did.
"Most of them are beyond the designated perimeter. However Minerva is still inside it, along with some stragglers."
"Then we will carry out the attack, just as instructed by," the commander stopped short of mentioning 'Mr. Chairman', "PLANT's leadership."
"How about Minerva and ..."
"Collateral damages," he said, brushing off the woman's words. "Prepare the stolen Alliance nuclear missiles for ORB bombardment." Some LOGOS idiots had forgotten to remove some nuclear warheads from an underground bunker in Berlin and ZAFT's higher echelon saw it fit for them to be used for 'peace'. The commander also neglected to mention the fact that it would be better to let some of ZAFT forces to be decimated by the nuclear attack; no one would believe that the attack was carried out by ZAFT instead of the crumbling Alliance.
"Captain, we have two incoming," the CIC personnel announced.
"Ours?"
"IFF turned out blank... wait, seems like they're registered on the database... a moment please."There was a puzzled look on the man's face. "I'm not sure why but we've identified them as FALCONs. What should we do?"
The captain tried to remember the reason why the name seemed quite familiar. He became panicked when he died. "Launch all of our mobile suits now!"
As one by one ZAFT mobile suits were being launched from the three ships, the two intruders, a fifty-meter long spacecraft moved toward their objectives. Armed with twin ship-class beam cannons at its canard, the newcomers whose shape vaguely resembled giant birds-of-prey also mounted few missile pods as well as beam rifles on their 'wings', lending an intimidating aura to them. Not that it would matter much, as their opponents were already intimidated by their designation alone. Their designation, an acronym for 'Frontal Assault Launcher, Combat Operation eNforcer', depicted very well what they were designed to do.
Just like the disappearance of Eternal at the end of the first war, the theft of FALCON blueprints as well its key technologies a year before couldn't be explained by ZAFT's investigation committee assigned to it. However, the ZAFT commander who was watching the two units approaching his ships was sure that whoever stole the plans certainly had the technological capabilities at par with ZAFT to be able to produce them.
Suddenly the whole ship shook as the bridge was plunged into darkness. "What the hell happened?" he shouted amidst groaning sounds.
"One of them managed to get close enough to launch and attack." someone said. "Looks like the main reactor compartment was hit, so the safety system is switching it off to prevent possible risk."
"You told me that the two just appeared!" the commander shouted at the CIC officer as the emergency power came to life.
"They are faster than our GOUFs and it seemed that they shot at our ship from out of the normal engagement envelope for mobile suits."
"Can we launch the warheads?"
"Captain," the one piloting the ship interrupted. "We're unable to maintain our vector. We have to use auxiliary power to leave the gravity pull."
In order to launch the missiles correctly, the ship had to maintain its present course for a while longer, something that it couldn't do at its current state. While it could launch the missiles from a position further from where it was, it would give ORB more time to react to them. "Damn! Tell the two ships to launch theirs."
One by one the nuclear missiles were launched from the two ships, their onboard computers programmed to guide them to obliterate ORB off the world map and from ZAFT list of threats. Because of their resoluteness in following their objective, they didn't react when several of their smaller but nimbler cousins chased after them. With more than three assigned to each missile, there was no escaping their premature destruction.
The ZAFT commander was simply speechless at the sight; no one could do anything when the two FALCONs moved in, emptied their missile racks' content at the nuclear missiles and retreated immediately. Finally sitting at his chair, he couldn't even fathom writing the report that would seek to explain the mission's rather spectacular failure.
The calm, breezy evening wind would have calmed her mind if not for the fact that it also carried the metallic stench of burnt oil, probably from an Astray wreckage that was visible from her spot. Cagalli pushed away some errant hairs from her face while sighing.
The price to safeguard freedom was expensive indeed. As a Murasame flew above her, Cagalli couldn't help admiring its sleek look as well as the technology behind it.
It would be difficult for the country to recover; it was not impossible. She clenched her hand in a silent promise; ORB would heal and she would be there to steer it to the right path.
"You're here," Athrun's voice brought her out of her stupor.
Cagalli turned toward Athrun and gave a small smile before turning toward where she was looking. "Kisaka didn't allow me to participate in the rescue mission and assigned Shizuka to someone else… so here I am."
Athrun slowly walked to her side. "A lot had happened."
"Yeah." The wind blew again and she strangely felt nostalgic. "A lot. Beautiful girl, that Lunamaria."
He whirled toward her. "Listen, Cagalli…"
She silenced him by putting her right hand on his lips and smiled softly. "Don't say something that the three of us may regret." Her eyes became a bit glassy. "The paths the two us are travelling now are different." She removed her hand and looked at the ring Athrun gave her. "We were together once and I'm happy for the memories. It's… enough for me."
He nodded. "I'm sorry,"
She shook her head before turning back to where she was looking, thinking for a moment. "Don't be." The blonde girl could almost feel that someone was behind the two of them but didn't mention it to him. "To tell you honestly, I can't juggle my obligation and our relationship to this country; I was thinking about it all this while… I want to continue my father's dream to see ORB becoming a prosperous country… it's now my dream. In fact, I'm the one who should apologize because of me being selfish had made you uncomfortable." True, her other dream was to be with Athrun but she couldn't see it happening without her sacrificing her current one. It still hurt her to make the decision to break up with him but she knew that she would recover, for ORB's sake.
"Cagalli…"
She then slowly removed the ring and put it in his hand.
"We can still be friend can't we?"
He nodded.
Cagalli whirled around and extended her hand, smiling. "I'm Cagalli Yula Attha and I want to shoot you because I want to take your mobile suit."
Athrun shook her hand. "Athrun Zala. The guy that will kick your butt because you wanted to shoot me. Pleased to meet you." With the shake, the two had acknowledged that their previous relationship was over, hoping that the new one would be more lasting.
It was her who let go first. "All right, Athrun. See you around."
She walked away from him and toward the girl who was waiting nervously not far from the two of them. Putting a hand on the girl's shoulder, she whispered, "Take care of him. He's somewhat a chick magnet"
"I will," Lunamaria answered. "Maybe one day we can have tea and I'll share the story where I caught him with the Lacus-lookalike."
"Oh, really? I look forward to it. Oh, by the way, Lunamaria… don't let him cook Italian, his specialty."
"Huh, why?"
"Once you eat them, well… be prepared for a regime of agonizing diet."
Jacques looked at the paper in his hand with an amused look. "I would like to congratulate you, Santiago."
"For what?" the said man asked with a puzzled look.
"For donating the…," Jacques squinted his eyes at the paper, "mansion located just 10 km outside Barcelona to be used as an orphanage."
Santiago swallowed hard. He didn't know how his recent acquisition could be discovered that easily. "Uh, thank you. I'm also planning to do some renovation as well as procure some furniture for the place." One thing for sure, he was very lucky to be issued with just a warning. It was a good thing that the money that was used to buy the mansion came from his own business rather than from shady activities.
"I look forward to seeing the children move there soon. By the way, I would like to tell everyone the content of this letter before we continue. Here, our ever friendly Colonel Ruben indicated that he's very interested to learn the secret to wealth. So, if anyone here got an unexplained windfall somewhere or opened up a multi-million account recently, do expect a warm invitation to visit his office. Hell, he even asked me about the titanium golf club I bought using my own money five years ago." Jacques said while chuckling.
Despite his words, everyone knew the truth that Colonel Ruben who headed the anti-graft taskforce was anything but friendly. To get an 'invitation' from him would mean that the person would be dragged off to an unknown location and be subjected to a very sadistic interrogation that would make police's questioning look like a friendly chatter.
"All right," Jacques said as his expression became more serious. "The battle in ORB had just been concluded, with a very favorable result."
"I hope so," Ivanov said. "We had to diverge some of our resources to support the country."
"Minerva is captured."
There were murmurs among those present.
"So what we will do with the ship?" a woman representative next to Jacques asked.
Jacques shrugged. "Well, Michelle, I propose we just hand it to Clyne."
"You must be joking!"
"No, I'm not. We only want it for one purpose, which is to demoralize ZAFT and we achieved that."
"To just give the highly sophisticated ship to someone else… it's unthinkable!"
"It is, if we remember that Minerva is suited for use by Coordinators. Sure, we can assemble a decent crew by reassigning those currently being stationed at other ships, but I really don't want to deal with their captains' whines and moans. Besides, Terminal is really helping us with some technical and logistic problems. Think of it as a payment for service rendered."
"That reminds me," Ivanov interrupted. "The units that attacked the ZAFT force in the orbits few hours ago, they're Terminal's?"
Jacques nodded. "Clyne showed me when I visited her. METEOR successors, she said. Now that the battle has ended, I have to ask the question 'what's now?'"
"How about LOGOS?" Santiago asked, having found his courage to participate in the discussion.
"Too quiet, and I hate that," the woman named Michelle answered.
"Our spy satellites picked up some activities on in dark region of the moon, but that's all we have," Ivanov said.
"Worrying indeed," Jacques said. "It's as if they're ignoring our force being amassed outside Britain."
"This war has become messed up, hasn't it?" Eric asked.
"Yes, but I have a feeling that it will end soon. And that leads us to the very important topic." he continued. "The Terminal attacked the ZAFT ships just as they were about to conduct nuclear strike at ORB."
"But I thought ZAFT doesn't have any." Santiago asked.
"It doesn't. They belong to our former ally that conveniently decided to park theirs in our country without our prior knowledge or consent," Ivanov said.
"Herein lay the problem. Nuclear weapons have long been the political tool rather than military's; a show of power as well as the final deterrence, if you will. But now we see North Atlantic, followed by ZAFT using them in such a cavalier manner." Jacques said.
"That begs the question why," someone added,
"Yes."
"Unless they have better weapons," Michelle suggested grimly.
"Mein Gott!" someone else exclaimed.
"While I'm not really that religious, I'm also disturbed by that possibility, which is why I would like to see this council to approve this: the use of our own nuclear weapons in case we need to make tactical strikes."
"But people would go against it, not when Berlin is still fresh in their mind." Eric objected.
"I know, and that's why I'm proposing sanctioning their use against tactical military targets only. Targets that are untouchable by mere conventional attacks."
"You really think ZAFT and LOGOS have their own WMDs, don't you?" Michelle asked.
"I know they have such weapons. Now, we'll have a short recess to give us some time to think it over… I hope you consider the possibility that if ZAFT or LOGOS used their WMDs, we may not have the opportunity or time to discuss about this again."
The meeting reconvened after forty five minutes and when it came to making the decision, reluctantly one by one hand was raised in support of the proposal to allow tactical nuclear strikes.
"Well, ladies and gentlemen," Jacques said concluding the meeting, "Let's start praying to this god our German friend mentioned just now so that we wouldn't be forced to use them."
1
Author's note (5 October 2007)
1. It has been a while since the last update… around 20 days. Well, looking at the current situation, the story may continue on until early next year. It couldn't be helped, I suppose, the combination of work and communing cut through my time. Also, since my laptop was stolen recently, it's a bit difficult to type. A good portion of this chapter was typed on my 3.5" PDA.
2. The nuclear weapon question… it's always been debated from time to time. The way I see it, nuclear weapons are good for first strike and/or for deterrence. Tactical or strategic strike is a bit irrelevant since… let's say a nuclear missile was aimed at a military force gathering (tactical) but landed in the middle of a city. No matter of sugarcoating will change the fact that the weapon vaporized the civilians there and it has become a strategic strike. Also, in a fight between WMD-owning countries, who shoot first will gain battle advantage (and the subsequent moral disadvantage). Take for example a MRLS battery. Practically it's only good for single barrage. Once the missiles were shot, it's foolish to remain where it was as the enemy would certainly retaliate. And it also takes some time to fully reload. But the psychological shock effect on the enemy, apart from normal advantages, is better than normal artillery.
