Hey guys, this is not an April Fools Joke this is the next chapter, and it is a long one, I hope all of you are going to enjoy it and that you are all doing well out there. Next I want to thank you all, for reviewing, I really do appreciate you taking your time to do that.
Chapter 90
Flying full speed sideways, Athrun waved in and out between a large number of beams two GOUFs fired at him, he really wasn't in the mood to deal with these guys, he had ONE target in mind, even though he still wasn't sure how he was going to deal with this target. Mayu had pretty much given him permission to kill her brother, but Athrun was not sure that he could bring himself to do that.
Yet as the blue haired man decapitate the two close-quarters combat mobile suits with one swing of the left beam saber, he could hear Mayu's voice yell out that Shinn was a monster that had almost killed Kira, Meyrin and himself. Even now at this very moment, Shinn was fighting with the obvious intention of ending Dearka's life. Just the thought of how utterly heart broken Miriallia would be, if anything happaned to the one she loved, the one who had helped her get through the heart break, he himself had inflicted on her, made Athrun increase the Justice's speed even further.
'Damn it! If killing Shinn is the only way I can stop him, I really do hope that you will forgive me one day Mayu sweetheart, if you ever do regain your memories' Athrun thought bitterly, knowing that one of the primary reasons why Shinn was so messed up in the head, was because of Rey and Durandal's manipulation, each of them were telling Shinn exactly what he wanted to hear.
"Those two really do deserve to rot in the deeps corner of hell, I can't believe I was moronic enough to actually help them out with their crazy scheme. How could I be so stupid?" The blue haired man mumbled under his breath, then angrily narrowed his green eyes, at the sight of a Gunner ZAKU Warrior dropping down in front of him, aiming its long-range beam cannon at him.
But while the ZAKU's dark brown color scheme made it abundantly clear to Athrun, that he was dealing with an elite pilot, he did not even bother slowing down at all, he just kept on heading full speed straight towards the ZAFT mobile suit, waiting for the exact moment it fired the Orthros at him, rolling in one fluidly motion down under the red beam. Once directly below his opponent, he immediately jammed the still activate left beam saber up into the Guul, cutting the machine in two right underneath the ZAKU, who's pilot was wise enough to jump away from the doomed subflighter before it blew up.
With the plummeting ZAKU no longer a threat, Athrun left it to whatever fate awaited it, knowing that even if somebody did catch it, it would still take a while for it to get back to whatever ship it was assigned to, and get a new Guul. Seeing that there was no other ZAFT mass-produced mobile suits nearby, Athrun pulled out the beam boomerang, watching intensely as Dearka and Shinn circled around one another, each of them shooting continuously.
Despite the fact that the Yami was missing the lower part of the left arm, and thereby its shield, Dearka was doing pretty decently against the more powerful Destiny gundam. He simply kept on buzzing around all over the place to make it as difficult as possible for anybody to get a lock on him, but even so, it was still highly obvious that Shinn had a major advantage against the Yami.
So the exact instant Shinn activated the Wings of Light and charge full speed towards Dearka with the unmistakable intention of using the Palma Fiocina on the black Murasame like gundam, Athrun immediately hurled the throwing weapon at the one legged Destiny.
To say that Shinn was fixated on tearing apart the Yami, so he could move on to the new Freedom gundam and avenge Stella's death once and for all, was a serious understatement. The red eyed teen was so frustrated with everything that was happening right now, he just did not understand how his arch enemy had managed survive their previous encounter, Shinn was so very certain that he had killed the bastard back then, but since that assumption had proven to be wrong, the Destiny pilot was absolutely determined to rectify that mistake, once he had finished off the Yami.
Ducking down under the beams the bothersome black gundam was firing at him, Shinn was just about to reach out to grasp on to the Yami's one remaining arm. Just the mere prospect of using the palm beam cannon to destroy that part of the Yami, and thereby preventing its bastard of a pilot from turning any more of the machine's weaponry invisible, made a small wicked smirk appear on Shinn's face. Yet before he could carry out his goal, the alarm suddenly began beeping loudly, that along with a warning shout from Nicol, instantly made Shinn swirled around, barely able to get the shield up to bash aside the incoming beam boomerang.
"Damn it! WHAT NOW!?" The short-tempered ZAFT pilot shouted, not having much trouble locating the gundam responsible for that attack, and it was with widen eyes, that he watched this new Justice gundam, snatch the throwing weapon in midair, then spin around with amazingly high speed only a split second later, kicking out after the Destiny's head with the beam blade mount on the left leg.
Throwing himself sideways to evade the incoming attack, Shinn mentally cursed the fact that both of the Destiny's beam boomerangs was presently inoperable, he could really use them right about now. Yet the sight of the powerful red mobile suit combining its two sabers, was all it took for Shinn to instantly force those thoughts out of his mind, as he reached up and got out the beam sword, holding it in front of him with both hands in a ready position, as the Justice charge straight towards him, swinging its weapon around in an unpredictable manner, that made figuring out where his new opponent was planning to strike, quite challenging.
Activating the Wings of Light again, Shinn was just about to head off to meet the Justice, when the sound of the alarm once more echo out through the Destiny's cockpit, of course easily apprehending who was about to attack him from behind, but also knowing that if he turned to face the one armed Yami, he would leave himself completely exposed to the Justice's incoming attack.
That meant that he was left with no other choice but to go on the defense, something which the pissed off Shinn seriously despised having to do, he always preferred being the one doing the attacking, tearing apart anyone dumb enough to challenge him and leaving them in the dust. It really was a damn shame that he had been unable to finish off the Yami, before the Justice had decided to interfere. Flying full speed straight upwards, the red eyed teenager swiftly turned and fired the beam cannon down at the one armed gundam, that much to his deep annoyance and frustration was able to avoid that attack by transforming into its mobile armor mode, so all the shot hit was the ocean surface.
"God damn it! I hate that stupid thing!" Shinn growled angrily.
"Why am I not surprised, is there actually anything in this world that you like?! I can't believe that you are so insane, that you are willing to attack your own home country like this! If killing who knows how many people are how you want to honor your parents and sister, I will EVERYTHING in my power to stop you, Shinn Asuka! You will NOT get anywhere near Orb!"
While those words did hit pretty hard, the more shocking fact about the whole thing was that the one who spoke it to him, was supposed to be dead, he himself had ended his life along with Meyrin's.
"A...Athrun Zala!? Y...You are aliv...ahhhh!" Shinn did not get a chance finish that sentence, when the Justice smashed shield first into the front of the Destiny, almost knocking him out in the process. Ignoring the taste of blood in his mouth from biting his tongue, Shinn quickly raised the sword narrowly manage to block the twin-edged beam saber, as it was thrust out after the Destiny's head, which meant that the two of them were now locked together, each of them struggling with all their might to overpower each other.
"Yeah, I am alive! I am sorry to disappoint you Shinn, it is not like you and Rey did not try your utmost to make sure, that would not be the case. One question, on a scale from one to ten, how proud of yourself are you right now?" Athrun asked, his voice dripping with the deep disgust he felt over Shinn's actions.
"I...I...AHHH WILL YOU SHUT UP ALREADY, YOU BASTARD! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ANYTHING! YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A NO GOOD TRAITOR!. AND JUST SO WE ARE CLEAR ON ONE THING ATHRUN ZALA, IF YOU EVER MENTION MY FAMILY AGAIN! I'LL HUNT DOWN AND KILL EVERYBODY YOU CARE ABOUT!" Shinn screamed into the radio.
That was it, while Athrun had known pretty much ever since he first met Shinn Asuka, that the short temper ZAFT pilot had the tendency to put his foot in his mouth quite often. The mere fact that he was threatening his loved once yet again, was enough for Athrun to instantly banish all thoughts of trying to reason with Shinn, and get him to see the error of what he was presently doing.
Bashing aside the sword with one hard flick of the right wrist, Athrun swiftly moved in sending a sharp left hook right into the middle of the Destiny's face, which resulted in Shinn hastily backing away from him. Having fully expect him to do just that, Athrun once more thrusted the twin-edged beam saber out after the blue and gray gundam, this time aiming for the cockpit, fulling intending to end Shinn's life, even though he knew very well that it would result in him ending up with quite a few sleepless nights.
Barely managing to block the incoming strike with the shield, Shinn was honestly a bit astonished by the aggressiveness in Athrun's attack, it had not been hard to tell that his former comrade, had been about to kill him just now.
"Listen here Shinn, I you got a lot to be angry about in your life, which is why I up until now have ignored it whenever you bad-mouthed Cagalli or even threaten her, I didn't really take you all that serious. But that was the last straw, if YOU ever get anywhere near Cagalli or anybody else I care about, you, Rey and Durandal wouldn't live long enough to regret it. Do I make myself clear?" The young blue haired man asked in a cold calm tone, that would have made it clear to even the most dimwit person, that he was absolutely serious about this.
"You said it, Athrun! And consider this you little piece of shit, since all the people Athrun cares about, I care about too! You will also be dealing with me, and I have hated you with a passion ever since you shot down Kira in the old Freedom, so ending your miserable life is not something I am going to feel overly guilty about!" Dearka yelled, viciously attacking the Destiny with the beam machine guns and the now visible beam rifle, from the upper right.
Instantaneously throwing himself backwards to avoid the Yami's attacks and pulling out his own beam rifle with the left hand, Shinn quickly tried to lock onto the one armed mobile suit. Yet before he had a chance to get even one shot off, he was hit by an unbelievable amount of machine gun shots, that was clearly aimed at the beam rifle. Luckily by swiftly turning sideways, Shinn was able to prevent the handheld weapon from getting hit by the rain of bullets.
Yet the very instant Athrun's attack ceased, the Yami dropped down from above, swinging out after him with its apparently empty hand. Knowing not to believe what his eyes was telling him regarding this gundam, the pissed off red eyed boy went over into Seed mode, using the sword to swiftly block the black mobile suit's attack. Screaming at the top of his lungs, Shinn furiously shoved the enemy unit away from his, yet before he had a chance to do a follow-up attack, the Yami made a backwards somersault, got over into its mobile armor mode, then flew full speed away from him.
The black Murasame like gundam had scarcely gotten out of harms way, before much to Shinn's immense dread and dismay, Athrun was once again upon him, attacking almost much point-blank range with the two beam cannons located on the Justice's backpack. Reacting immediately Shinn got the Wings of Light up and running, evading rapidly sideways, thereby ensuing that the only damage the Destiny received, was a pretty severe scratch on its remaining leg.
"Damn, I have to make certain not to take any more damage. If I do Vino and Yolan are never going to make me hear the end of it. When it comes to major repairs, those two can be kinda lazy at times" Shinn mumbled under his breath, yet he instantly shook away all thoughts about his two friends, when he noticed that the Justice was still hot on his tail, with the Yami flying around not that far below him just waiting for an opening.
With Athrun and his comrade taking turns attacking him like that, Shinn begrudgingly realized that he was in a boatload of trouble, sooner of later one of them was going to get in a lucky hit.
'Was Athrun always this good a pilot when he was with us!?. When he was piloting the Saviour, he seemed like such an amateur, was he holding back the entire time, to trick us?' Shinn mentally asked, using the shield to bash away the Justice grappling claw, only to clash with the red gundam a split second later, their weapons locked together in a pretty vicious power struggle.
Staring intensely into the Destiny's dark green eyes, Athrun was kinda impressed with how much Shinn's piloting skills had improved, since their last fight during his and Meyrin's escape from Gibraltar. Back then, Shinn had still been learning about the Destiny's capabilities, and how it differ from his old Impulse gundam. Yet those limitations were clearly gone now.
'It's no wonder that Rey and the Chairman are so utterly fixate on keeping him under their thumbs. Guess I got no other choice but to kick things up a notch' Athrun thought determined. And so with an unbelievable amount of different emotions rushing through him all at once, the dominant one being determination to beat the spoiled brat in the Destiny, and thereby protect everyone and everything important to him, Athrun did something he had not done for a very long time, not since fighting at Jachin Due two years ago, he went into Seed mode.
Kicking out after the Destiny with the right beam blade, to split open the cockpit hatch to make Shinn all the more vulnerable to his and Dearka's attacks. Yet before the weapon made contact, Shinn let out a loud shout of anger, as he furiously bashed aside the Justice's combined beam sabers, then backed hastily away from him. Still screaming at the top of his lungs about how much he despised him, and wished they had never met.
"Trust me Shinn the feeling is mutual! I seriously do curse the day you and I met. All of your actions, does nothing but cause pain to the ones I care about, and who knows how many other peoples loved once you have killed, following Rey and the Chairman's crazy lies!" Athrun yelled, with an equal amount of anger and sadness in his voice, just as he once more charged full speed towards the Destiny, slamming left shoulder first into the front of the blue and gray gundam, only to back away immediately as Shinn swung the beam sword out after him.
"Shut up Athrun, you are the one who is lying! The Chairman is trying to make a better world for all of us!" Those hateful words was the only reply Athrun got from Shinn, before they flew full speed straight at each other, their weapons clashing for a brief instant the moment they passed one another.
Breathing deeply, Athrun released his grip on the controls, reaching back he rubbed his aching left side, his rips, those stupid annoying rips hurt so unbelievable much right now. "You are delusional Shinn! Both Rey and the Chairman are nothing but crazy world destroying monsters!" Athrun yelled back, relieved by the sight of the Yami speedily approaching the Destiny from above, with Dearka keeping Shinn distract, his rips would at least be able to get a small break.
Blocking the Yami's incoming attacks with the shield, Shinn glared in the direction of the unmoving Justice gundam, with Athrun being so utterly annoying, so unbelievable infuriating, Shinn want nothing else but to tear the red gundam apart, but with the dumb bastard in the Yami insisting on getting in his way, he could not get anywhere near the Justice.
"Rey, Nicol I am a bit overwhelmed over here, so if it's not too much to ask, could one of you please help me out? Fighting Athrun and his stupid friend at the same time is a real bother!".
"Keep moving Shinn, I'll be there shortly!" Nicol assured him, honestly quite amazed that his special Guul was still able to keep him in the air, he had seriously expected it to have broken down by now, especially because Kira was still targeting it, it had quite frankly had been more luck than anything else, that he had somehow been able to evade all of his old friend's downright ruthless attacks, thankfully the more they kept on fighting the closer and closer they got towards land, which meant that he could soon ditch the crumbling subflighter.
Rolling sideways, Kira tried to get behind the Adamant, firing both beam rifles at the green gundam, aiming for its head and arms. Not surprisingly Nicol swirled around, relying on the beam shield to defend himself, since evading was simply not a possibility, with his movement speed being so limited from the massive amount of damage inflict on the Guul.
"Don't you go make promises you can't keep, Nicol! Before you can help the brat out, you have to get past me firs...!" It was then it happened, just when Kira was about to finish that sentence, he felt an intense freezing cold shiver run down his spine, as the familiar smirking face of a mask wearing man flashed through his mind.
"...Wha? But this...This is...!" The purple eyed man mumbled, Nicol all but forgotten, as he looked around for the very person whose life he himself had ended at Jachin Due. The one who had done so many terrible things, in his crazy endeavor to wipe out all of humanity, the one who had killed his dear friend Asagi Caldwell right in front of him. The mere fact that he was able to sense him of all people there, filled Kira with an unbelievable amount of dread and horror
Blinking rapidly in confusion, Nicol was honestly quite a bit astonished by the fact, that Kira had suddenly stopped attacking him, and was now just hanging there, obviously searching for something or someone. With his old friend behaving so weird in the middle of their battle, Nicol found himself about to ask Kira what was wrong. Yet before he could actually do that, Dearka did it instead.
"Kira, what the hell are you doing!? Now really isn't the best time for you to be daydreaming about Lacus, or whatever you are doing over there. If you hadn't noticed buddy, we are kinda in the middle of a battle here! So if you don't mind, would you please get back to work already!?" The pilot of the Yami asked quite a bit frustrated over Kira's downright odd behavior, it was not overly difficult to figure out, that if Nicol interfered now, it could very well prevent him and Athrun, from finishing off the Destiny brat for good.
Upon hearing Dearka's loud words, Kira immediately snapped out of the almost trance like state he had been in, reacting immediately he reached out and disconnected the commission between him and Nicol, so only Athrun, Mu and Dearka would be able to hear what he had to say next.
"I am sorry Dearka, it's just that...that I can sense Rau Le Creuset..." Kira said, finding it impossible to keep the large amount of uncertainty he felt out of his voice. It was not like Kira himself did not realize how crazy he sounded right now, but even as he waited for one of his friends to give him reply, he raced off after Nicol's Adamant, that was trying to slip past him while he was distracted, once in range he immediately fired the Calidus at the green gundam, aiming to destroy both of its legs.
"Wha...have you been drinking?! You killed that crazy son of a bitch yourself, Kira! So do tell me how the hell is it even possible, for you to sense him here?! There is no way that bastard can still be alive! I saw what happened to the Providence, his machine was completely obliterated by Genesis' last shot!" Dearka yelled in disbelief, absolutely horrified at the mere notion of his old Commander still being alive. While there had been a time when Rau Le Creuset had been one of the people Dearka felt the most respect for. After finding out from Kira and Mu, that the man's true intention was to wipe out all of humanity, that respect had instantly been replaced by hatred, he would frankly have been more than happy to put the lunatic six feet under himself.
Blasting towards Shinn again, Athrun had a deep frown on his forehead as he went over everything Kira had just said, he too was quite a bit freaked out about the fact that Kira could sense that man here of all place, unlike Dearka he had been way too busy stopping Genesis from firing on Earth to see what had happened to Rau Le Creuset's Providence. Yet even as he and Shinn clashed briefly, he took a short quick glance in the direction of the Legend that along with the Akatsuki, was getting closer and closer to where they were currently fighting.
'Could Kira be talking about, Rey?...Does that mean Rey is also a clone of Mu's father...Mmm he and Rau, does have the same blond hair, not to mention their manipulative personalities...But since I do not know what Le Creuset looks like without that stupid mask of his, there is no way I can know for sure' Athrun thought bitterly. Even with all the time he had been stationed on board the Vesalius, Rau Le Creuset's flagship, Athrun had never actually seen the Commander's face, as far as he knew the only ones who had the misfortune of doing that, was Kira and Mu during their encounter with him at the Mendel Colony.
So even as he opened fire on Shinn with the beam rifle, Athrun realized that their only means to figure out, if Rey had some sort of connection to Rau Le Creuset and Mu La Flaga's father, was to ask him. But even if by some small miracle he convinced him to talk, Athrun seriously doubted that Rey would be willing to reveal, if he was a clone or not, it was kinda personal.
Yet the very instant, Shinn fired the long-range beam cannon at him, Athrun immediately shook away all thought of Rey's origin from his mind, or at least tried to. Blocking the powerful red beam with the shield, Athrun fired back with the beam cannons and head machine guns, which Shinn evaded by using the Wings of Light. Still shooting continuously at the Destiny, Athrun took yet another quick glance in the direction of the Legend, just as it broke away from the Akatsuki that was still hot on his tail, firing each and every one of it's DRAGOONs at the Freedom, that waved in and other between the many beams, with Mu trying to back him up, yet before the blond man could do that, he was cut of by Nicol in the Adamant.
"Snap out of it Athrun and pay attention! We can worry about Rau Le Creuset's survival later!" Dearka yelled, slamming shoulder first into the side of the Destiny thereby knocking it of balance, so it's second shot from the long-range beam cannon missed the Justice.
"You are right, I am sorry about that, Dearka! It's just that the thought of him still being alive, terrifies me!" Athrun yelled back, before once again charging full speed towards the blue and gray gundam.
"Ohh I get that, Athrun! There really is no getting around the fact that the two of us was taking orders from a monster, during the first war! A real demon! I for one, am seriously relieved that I did not stay loyal to that creepy bastard! And I can guarantee you Athrun that if he is alive, I am so going to make him regret it!" Dearka growled angrily out through his teeth, as he swiftly blocked the Destiny's incoming sword strike with the invisible beam saber.
"And you can count on me to give you a hand with that, Dearka!" Athrun said, thrusting the twin-edged beam saber out after the Destiny, forcing Shinn to break the saber lock with the Yami and quickly back away from the black gundam, with both him and Dearka chasing after him.
Rolling downwards under the fourth round of beams from the Providence lookalike, Kira fired a single shot back from each beam rifle, but with the barrage of beams raining down towards him, he simply did not have time to aim properly. Not able to evade the gray gundam's fifth round, he dove head first in between the large number of beams, replacing the rifles with the sabers, Kira took full advantage of the skills he had accumulated over the years, to block and knock aside each and every shot, that even came close to hitting him.
Once he emerged from the rain of beams, Kira immediately fired the chest cannon and the railguns at the enemy gundam, thereby forcing it to cease with its assault and rapidly back away from him. Not letting up at all, Kira stayed hot on his opponent's heels, swinging both sabers out after the DRAGOON equipped mobile suit, aiming to decapitate it or at least do some serious damage to its heed. Yet all the Freedom pilot succeed in hitting was the shield, but even though the two of them were only locked together in the following power struggle for a few short seconds, before he was roughly shoved away by the other machine, that again backed full speed away from him while firing the DRAGOONs straight at him, it was still all the time Kira needed to tell, that THIS was the one, those creepy almost bone chilling feelings was emanating from THIS mobile suit.
"Athrun tell me, who am I fighting here?! Who is the one inside this new Providence gundam!?" Kira yelled, his tone of voice making it absolutely clear, that he would appreciate a quick answer to that question. Yet as the Freedom pilot waited for Athrun to find a break in his skirmish with the Destiny pilot to give him a response, to what he wanted to know, Kira rolled to the side, chopping apart the handle of the incoming Javelin his not so friendly opponent threw at him, with the throwing weapon exploding just behind him, Kira increased the Freedom's speed to it's very limited, racing full speed at the gray gundam, that likewise was coming straight at him, with its remaining beam Javelin in hand.
"Damn this...this thing..." Kira mumbled under his breath. While it was true that he had only encountered this mobile suit a few short minutes ago when it interfered in his battle with Nicol, the fact that it so closely resembled Rau Le Creuset's Providence, was more than enough reason for Kira to despise it with a passion.
The very instant he and his opponent was about to clash, Kira swirled to the right, with a swing of the left beam saber aimed at the gray mobile suit's briefly exposed right shoulder, but even with the unbelievable high speed Kira did all of that, the guy in the Providence lookalike, was still able to pull his hand back enough to block the lightning fast saber swipe, as they passed each other.
'This guy he is good...It is almost like fighting Le Creuset again...' Kira thought, as another round of heart-wrenching images of his fight with the mask wearing man, flew through his bewildered mind, only ending once he reached the point, where he saw Asagi's M1 Astray, getting pierced by one of the Providence's DRAGOONs.
'Stop thinking about that Kira, now IS not the time!' Kira mentally yelled at himself, knowing that Asagi's death and his own inability to save the always cheerful Astray pilot, was something that was going to bother him for the rest of his life. Turning swiftly, Kira fired both the Railguns and the Calidus after his adversary, that immediately fired back with the DRAGOONs, yet as he once more start maneuvering in and out between the great many beams, Athrun finally gave him a response to the question he had asked not that long ago.
"The mobile suit you are fighting is called Legend Kira, as for its bastard of a pilot, his name is Rey Za Burrel!" Athrun loudly informed his friend during a short moment where Dearka was keeping Shinn distracted.
"Are you absolutely sure about that, Athrun?!" Kira immediately asked back, replacing the right beam saber with the rifle, quickly taking aim he fired one shot after another in the direction of the gray gundam.
"Yes I am Kira! While Rey and I did not hang out much during my time on Minerva, I just can not fathom how he can be who you think he is! He is way too young!" With that said, Athrun once more rush off after the Destiny.
Knowing that if he kept on asking questions about this Rey guy, Athrun might get injured even further. Kira was certain, that his friend's broken rips was screaming and yelling in pain, each and every time he moved the Justice around, they seriously needed to hurry the hell up and finish this battle as quickly as possible. And so while mentally promising himself to ask Athrun a few more questions about this Rey guy later, he rolled down under a huge number of beams the Legend fired after him.
It was at that moment Mu called out to them. "Hey guys, that creep in the green gundam, just left his scrap pile of a Guul in mid-air and is now falling towards the ground, I am going after him! Good luck guys!" The Hawk of Endymion yelled out to his young comrades, before nosediving full speed after the free-falling mobile suit, that transformed into it's mobile armor mode, then activated its shield as a means to protect itself from the impact of the fall.
"Damn, and I thought I was crazy..." Mu mumbled to himself under his breath, firing both the rifle and the beam cannons after the transformed mobile suit, but while each shot did hit their intent target, the nut case did not seem to pay the least bit attention to the attacks. Which only served to frustrate Mu even more about this whole thing, it was after all highly obvious to him, that this gundam would be a completely other beast on land, than it was in the air. Down on the ground, it would be able to take full advantage of it's massive weaponry, and its overall impressive beam shield.
"That bothersome shield of his is one colossus headache! How the hell am I supposed to get past that?" Mu wondered out loud, only then noticing that with the green tank rapidly getting closer and closer to the otherwise lovely beach below them, there was something down there that needed to hurry the hell up and get out of the way.
"Move it, M1 PILOTS!" Mu downright screamed into the radio.
But even though the warning was heard, neither one of the two Astray pilots had a chance to do anything before the Adamant crashed into them from above, instantly killing both pilots by completely crushing their mobile suits. With the large amount of sand, dust and most of all smoke from the totally destroyed M1s, covering up the Adamant that could now be found in a small crater, it itself had created when it landed, there was no denying, how unbelievable spooky and intimidating the massive green tank looked at that very moment.
"Damn, what a shitty way to go, I am going to have to make pay for that you dumb piece of shit!" Mu growled angrily into the radio. Only to hear a loud surprise gasp on the other end of the line.
"Mu La Flaga you are...are alive!" The individual piloting the Adamant yelled out in surprise.
Firing the beam cannons yet again. "Yeah so I have been told numerous times, not that it's any of your business you stupid creep! I did not know either of those M1 pilots, but the fact that you were WILLING to murder them so gruesomely, is ALL the reason I need to kick your ass! So ready yourself you little creep!" Mu yelled, just as he landed right on top of the green gundam's shield, slamming the twin beam saber down into it, in an attempt to pierce through it.
However, even with the large amount of giant sparks emanating from the attack, it quickly became obvious to the Akatsuki pilot, that it did little to penetrate the Adamant's strong defense. 'This is pretty much pointless! I have to come up with something else, fast! Heh, if I ever steal any mobile suits from ZAFT again, this is definitely going to be one of them. I kinda want to know how this stupid shield function. The only other mobile suit I have seen that has anything like this, is the Hyperion!" Mu thought, just as he leaped away from the Adamant and got back up into the air, firing the beam cannons twice down at the powerful ZAFT gundam, but like expect it had little to no effect.
Completely and utter astound by the fact that Mu La Flaga had somehow managed to survive getting hit by the Dominion's Lohengrin, Nicol forced himself to ignore the bit of happiness he felt over knowing that Murrue Ramius had not lost the man she loved so dearly.
'God damn it Nicol, keep it together! Now is not the time for you to get all sentimental, like all the rest of my former allies, La Flaga is an enemy now. So I have to take him out!' Nicol thought determinedly. Lowing the beam shield, he quickly fired a combine shot of the plasma beam cannon and the two smaller cannons in the direction of the golden gundam, that much to his astoundment stopped moving and let itself get hit by the beams, which resulted in them bouncing of the armor, heading right back at him. Immediately getting the shield up and running again, Nicol cursed angrily under his breath when his own defense was hit by his own attacks.
"Ahh hell, I was not expecting that! Orb really does come up with some bizarre, yet still useful features for their mobile suits. This beam reflecting armor, along with the whole Mirage Colloid thing, Dearka's new gundam had going with its weapons, is quite bothersome!" Yet even as Nicol spoke those words, he once more lowered the shield, firing all three weapons in rapid succession up after the Akatsuki, that was presently coming at top speed straight at him, shooting continuously with the beam rifle. The Hawk of Endymion obviously betting on the notion, that those shots would be fast enough to reach him, before he had a chance to defend himself.
But as validate a strategy as that was, Nicol's swift reaction time made it so that the Adamant was promptly surrounded and protected by its beam shield, so the three shots did nothing but make his machine shake a bit when they hit.
"Nice try Mu, but no cigar. You have to come up with something better than that!" He loudly informed his old comrade, that instantly ceased his approach, when Nicol for just a brief moment lowered the defense, to fire a couple of missiles up after him.
Throwing himself backwards, Mu waited until just moments before they were about to hit him, to use the head-mounted machine guns to intercept the two missiles, making it so, that he was temporarily covered up by the bit of smoke from them blowing up. Taking advantage of the fact that his adversary could not see what he was doing, Mu again fired the rifle and the cannons down at the shield covered gundam, then once more rushed full speed down towards it.
"Oh believe me youngster, I am going to do a lot more than just try! I am personally going to throw YOU, the MINERVA, and every other ZAFT soldier out of this country! My memories might still be missing a few bits and pieces, but I do know, that there is a lot of people I care about here in Orb!"
'Bits!? Pieces!? What the hell is he talking about...could it be...does he have amnesi...?' Yet Nicol instantly banished that question from his deeply bewildered mind, when the Akatsuki with a downward slash into the beam shield, touching down hard on his left side, kicking up a small amount of dust and sand. Immediately following that move with an upward slash, as he got back up into the air.
Mentally reminding himself to remain calm, even though Nicol was quite frankly growing increasingly frustrated and annoyed by Hawk of Endymion's perseverance, even more so by the fact that none of his attacks had any effect on the golden gundam. Breathing deeply, Nicol got the Adamant over into it's mobile suit mode, then quickly leaped up after the Akatsuki, pulling out the lance in the process.
However, just when the green haired pilot was about to strike, Mu did something totally unexpected, he pulled the left arm back, then flung the half wrecked head of an M1 Astray full force straight into the Adamant's face, knocking him completely of balance, and sending him plummeting towards the sandy beach below.
"Damn it! I did not even see him nab that thing, when he was down here before!" Nicol growled out through his teeth, just barely managing to twist the Adamant around enough for it to land on its feet, which it did with a loud ear-piercing crash that could be heard far and wide. Yet even then the green haired man was forced to take a couple of wobbly steeps forward to regain his balance, something he had scarcely done before the sound of the alarm echoed out though the cockpit. Swiftly getting a move on, Nicol blasted off to the right, just barely avoiding getting hit by two red beams, that hit the spot where he had been just a few short seconds ago.
Absolutely determined to do his utmost to keep his well defend opponent from transforming into that hideous downright annoying tank again, Mu fired shot after shot down at the ZAFT gundam, thereby forcing it to stay on its toes, but even as it kept on moving around to avoid his attacks, the blond man had a thoughtful look on his face.
"Hmm as impressive as its defense are, its speed is sorely lacking" Mu mumbled softly under his breath, ignoring the bit of guilt he felt when he accidentally completely demolished the old lifeguard station down on the beach.
Jumping up over two more red beams, Nicol glared in annoyance and a bit of wonder up at the Akatsuki, that was just hanging there, using him as target practice. "Ah to hell with it! I seriously had forgetten all about how good a pilot Mu is. It's no big wonder, how he was able to go up against Dearka's Buster gundam in nothing but his old Moebius Zero and late on that Skygrasper. Yet unlike those two machines and the Strike for that matter, the technology in this new gundam of his, is top-notch and pretty much made for a guy who is an expert in long distance combat. I have to find someway to get in close, there is no way I can beat him from down here, with most of my weapons not working against him!" Nicol growled displeased, shooting back with his last four remaining missiles and the machines cannons, knowing full well none of those attacks would be able to reach the blond man, he was simply too far away.
So the sight of the Akatsuki using its machines cannons to shot down the incoming missiles, did not come as much of a surprise, to him. Yet what was a surprise, was the powerful red glow that suddenly without warning appeared from the right. Immediately turning, Nicol saw three different colored mobile suits, with clear ZAFT origin heading straight for him.
"What the...?! Where the hell did they get their hands on something like that?!" Nicol asked, using the lance to block the lead unit's beam saber as it jumped over him, immediately following that, the second the unit fired two beam shots at him as it pass him, last the third unit fired a small missile at him, which unlike the first two machine's attacks, he was simply unable to counter or evade, all he could do was turn slightly, so the left shoulder took the brunt of the exploding missile, thankfully the Phase Shift armor made it so that the Adamant did not receive any real damage from that attack.
However, what relief Nicol felt over that, was short-lived when the three mobile suits start circling around him, shooting continuously with their beam cannons. That along with Mu's Akatsuki again approaching rapidly from above, made the green haired man swallow loudly, to put it mildly he was in a world of trouble.
"Minerva do you read me?! I could use some help down here! Can't you get Lunamaria back out here?!" He asked.
"Unfortunately not, Sir! The Core Splendor was damaged pretty severely by the Freedom. According to Aves it's going to take at least half a day to replace its wing, not to mention that Lunamaria was pretty shaken up over it ahh...!" Abbey informed him, ending the sentence with an intense scream, as another one of the Archangel's attack send an earthquake like tremor through the Minerva.
Feeling a rush of concern for Lunamaria, which Nicol quickly forced to the back of his mind. He knew he had to stay completely focused on the task at hand, otherwise those three weird looking mobile suits along with the Akatsuki, was surely going to tear him apart. Mu had after all made it abundantly clear, that he carried quite a grudge against him, for crushing those two Astray pilots when he landed.
Leaping swiftly to the right, Nicol just barely avoided getting the left leg blown off, by a shot from the orange colored one of the unknown mobile suits that kept on firing rapidly at him, as the purple one followed shortly by the blue one charge towards him, circling widely around one another in a clear attempt to make it much harder for him, to get a lock on them. But that most certainly did not mean, that the Adamant pilot wasn't going to give it a try, he needed to hurry the hell up and get rid of these bothersome things, so he could focus fully on the Akatsuki. Grabbing the beam rifle with the left hand, Nicol raised the weapon and was just about to open fire on the leading unit of the three machines, when suddenly a well aimed shot from above hit the middle part of the rifle. Releasing his hold on the handheld weapon, it blew up directly in front of him, sending a small tremor through the Adamant, which made him flinch slightly.
"Damn you, La Flaga!" Nicol growled out through teeth. Just as the blue unit leapt with a quick swing of its beam saber through the bit of smoke from the destroyed rifle, aiming to decapitate the Adamant. Blocking that move by swiftly raising the lance. Their weapons were only locked together for a brief instant, before Nicol let out a loud shout of annoyance and frustration, roughly shoving the unknown mobile suit away, something he had barely done, when at top speed the purple unit slammed shield first into the right side of his machine, with the clear intent of knocking him over, which Nicol thanks to the Adamant's massive weight and his own swift reaction time, was able to prevent from happening, by leaping back up into the air.
However, while that did provide Nicol with a small moment of breathing room, something he sorely needed, along with a drink of water, which he of course could not get now. Going up there quickly proved to be quite a mistake on his part, since Mu was upon immediately, firing both rifle and cannons down at him, and with the three unknown mobile suits shooting at him from below, the young green haired man found that the only way for him to get out of this conundrum he had put himself in, was by getting the Adamant over into it's mobile armor mode, where he swiftly got the shield up and running, just as five beams followed shortly by a couple of missiles slammed into him, doing no damage whatsoever.
With him yet again falling towards the ground, Nicol tried his utmost to maneuver the Adamant into a position, so he could at least crush one of those bothersome mobile suits below him, when he landed.
"Shiho! Herbert! Stay on your toes! We are up against one of those crazy people that should be locked up in an insane asylum somewhere!" Hilda in the purple DOM Trooper yelled out to her two comrades.
"Yeah tell me about! Whatever the hell this gundam is called, I seriously hate it!" Shiho yelled from her blue colored DOM Trooper, still shooting continuously up at the shield covered mobile suit, as she kept on moving swiftly around to make sure, that she wasn't directly underneath it.
"Heh, I think hating this gundam is relatively easy thing to do, Shiho! It might not be nearly as annoying, as gravity down here! But it is a close second!" Herbert growled displeased in the orange DOM Trooper, firing a single missile up at the rapidly descending tank, before he too started moving hastily around the place.
Blowing the head of a GINN WASP that had ended up to close to their battle, Shiho quickly shared her opinion about fighting in gravity. "What the heck are you even talking about, Herbert. I, for one, think it's a lot easier to fight in gravity, than out in space. My biggest gripes about us duking it out down here, is all the innocent lives we put in danger, not to mention all the collateral damage we're causing!".
Standing onto of a small hill not that far away, Hilda like her two fellow soldiers and comrades, also fired beam after beam at the massive falling tank. "The civilian casualties also bothers me quite a bit! That's why we need to hurry the hell up and force these dumb bastards, out of here! So enough chit-chat about gravity guys! Stay focused!" The orange haired woman ordered loudly, hearing both Shiho and Herbert shout out a yes Ma'am, just as the tank landed kicking up an unbelievable amount of dust and sand.
Once the dust had mostly settled down, and they were finally able to see again, Hilda with not one bit of hesitation, immediately yelled out for the three of them to commence the Jet-Stream Attack again, hastily jumping over the powerful red plasma beam, the mostly green gundam fired in her direction, when it for a brief moment lower its shield.
Soon all three of them were circling around the well protected tank again, with the golden gundam backing them up from above.
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While all of this was happening down on the ground, Lacus was entering the Archangel's bridge, where she found herself forced to swiftly grab onto Miriallia's chair, as the ship evade shapely to starboard. While the unfamiliar man in an Orb Lieutenant's uniform yelled out for the Helldart and Gottfrieds to be fired.
Once Arnold straighten the Archangel out again, Lacus whispered a soft hello to her brunette haired friend, which Miriallia returned with a small nod. Both girls knew, that they were eager to talk with each other again after not seeing each other, for so many months, but it had to wait. Now was neither the time nor the place for it.
Releasing her grip on Miriallia's seat, Lacus carefully made her way over to the chair beside Arnold's, looking up at one of the smaller screen up there, showing her husband's mobile suit doing battle with a mostly gray gundam, yet even as she watched the Freedom and the other mobile suit clash as they passed one another, the pink haired woman could not help but think about what Mayu had said, when Lacus had asked her if she wanted to go with her up to the bridge.
'No big sis, I'll stay down here in the hangar with grandpa Murdoch and the others, I might... I might be all right with him dying. But that does not mean, I want to see it happen' the eleven-year-old girl had said in a low disheartened tone, then hurried took off before Lacus had a chance to ask her any question.
Having of course noticed the sorrowful expression covering Mayu's entire face, Lacus had wanted nothing more than rush off after the girl to try and console her. The pink haired woman truly dreaded seeing her little sister look so utterly heart-broken, but seeing Mayu half-heartedly start joking around with Murdoch and the other mechanics, Lacus realized that whatever was bothering Mayu, was not something she wanted to talk about with other people around, so it was with a heavy heart that Lacus had left the hangar, heading for the bridge.
Yet as Lacus sat there watching Kira, wave in and out between the large number of beams the Providence lookalike fired at him, some of Mayu's words kept on echoing through her mind again and again.
'I might be all right with him dying. But that does not mean, I want to see it happen... Who in the world were you talking about, Mayu honey' Lacus wondered, those deeply worrisome thoughts, was still pestering the pink haired woman, even when she heard Murrue yell out for them to prepare to submerge, which Arnold immediately gave a quick response to, as the Archangel started descending towards the sea.
"Preparing to submerge!" The helmsman repeated just as the Archangel touchdown with a huge splash, that made water fly all over the place. Not surprisingly the very instant they did that, the Minerva immediately tried to ascend to get away from them.
"Aim Valiants! FIRE!" Murrue yelled as the two cannons was fired up at the gray spaceship, hitting and doing a lot of damage to the back area.
They had just barely done that, when Dalida loudly informed them, that they got three GOOhNs, two ZnO and four ASSH rapidly approaching.
"Starboard ten! Do what you can guys to intercept them, before they can lock on to us!" Amagi yelled loudly, just as they fired a bunch of missiles at the enemy surface ships, taking out four of them.
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At the same time elsewhere Djibril was to put it mildly in a pissy mood, as he sat in the Seiran family's personal space shuttle, drumming his fingers against the armrest on his chair. Sitting there waiting for Yuna and Unato to show up was something that was seriously wearing on his patience, especially because his bodyguard had been killed in a skirmish with some Orb soldiers that had tried to prevent him from getting to the shuttle.
Losing a loyal LOGOS support like that was truthfully a bit of a tragedy. Yet what was even worse was that his dear cat Emperor, had been so frightened by the shot out that he had run off to likely find some place to hide. When the moron who had been holding Emperor had told him what had happened, he had been so tempted to grab the nearest gun and fill the idiot with more holes, than a Swiss cheese. Unfortunately he needed the stupid fool to pilot the shuttle.
"How the hell could he be dumb enough to lose my cat, like that!" Djibril growled under his breath, as he for the fourth time mentally promised himself to arrange for the dumbass to have a small, yet fatal accident for making such a boneheaded mistake, in the first place. Having such an utter fool in LOGOS, was one of the reasons why things was going so badly for them these days.
Yet as entertaining as Djibril found the notion of throwing the moron out of the airlock once they got out into space, the gray haired man instantly shook away those dark murderous thoughts, when he heard the sound of an explosion not that far away from them. Standing up he made his way into the cockpit, where he saw the soon-to-be dead moron and some other idiot working on the controls.
"I had enough of this bullshit! Get me the hell out of here!" The terrorist leader shouted at the two morons in a tone of voice, that he hoped would make it clear to both of them, that it was a very bad idea to disagree with him.
Yet much to Djibril's deep anger and utter frustration, he had just barely finished that sentence, before the cat dropper, gave him another reason to have him killed when the time was right.
"But Sir, Lord Yuna and Lord Una..."
Grabbing him by the collar of his uniform. "I don't give a rat's ass about the Seirans! Get me out of here already, you nincompoop. I need to get to the moon! So I can show Gilbert Durandal that little surprise I got for him up there!" Djibril yelled angrily into the man's face, before forcefully throwing him in the direction of the controls.
Quickly steadying himself by grabbing onto the nearest chair, the shuttle pilot could barely control his temper, if anybody else had dare to tossed him around in such a manner, he would most assuringly have beaten the snot out of them. The thought of just leaving the Seirans behind did not help much on his mood, he had after all been loyal to them for years now, but on the other hand, as long as he got all the money he was promised, so he could at long last finally pay of his colossal gambling debt, who cared about the Seirans, they could rot in hell for all he cared, all he wanted to do was look out for number one.
"Please do sit down Sir, I'll get us out of here!" He said, sitting down in the piloting seat, where he immediately started making the final preparation to leave.
Satisfied with the fact that the soon-to-be dead idiot, was finally doing as told, Djibril hastily swirled around, and made his way back to the more comfortable area of the shuttle. Sitting down, he picked up his glass of red wine, from Unato Ema Seiran's personal collection, swallowing what was left of the expensive liquid, the man waited patiently for them to get the hell out of this shitty country.
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At the same time out on the Minerva. The ship crew was finding it more and more difficult, dealing with the huge number of Murasames presently attacking them, especially the pilot of the green one of the machines was an individual who had caused them their fair share of trouble, he had taken out one of the Tristans which meant that both of them were gone now.
And as they fire upon him with the machines cannons, the ace Murasame pilot immediately got his machine over into it's mobile suit mode, then somersault dexterously up over the large amount of incoming bullets, while shooting back with the beam rifle.
Yet even as it did that, three additional Murasames in their mobile armor mode, rush past him each one of them firing their missiles at them, and with them in such close proximity of them, the Minerva crew just barely manage to shot down a few of the missiles, the rest of them hit their mark and send an intense earthquake like tremor through the entire ship, which made all of them scream loudly, except Talia who was presently talking with the Commander of the St. Helens.
"Commander! We are being push back all over the place! We need to get out of here before we lose everything!" The Minerva Captain said in the most calm and rational tone of voice, she could manage under these dire circumstance, just as Arthur yelled out for them to target the Murasames then fire the Isolde and Dispars, but while the triple cannon did destroy two of the Orb mobile suits, with even more Murasames and a few M1s equipped with Flight Rotor Shrike joining in, the missiles was rapidly taken out, before they could even get close to their targets.
And as yet another tremor went through the Minerva, Talia could barely stop herself from rolling her eyes and sighing loudly, at the glory seeking Commander's predictable response, to her suggestion to retreat.
"Are you kidding Gladys?! We can't just turn tail and run away! If we do that, Djibril is going to escape again, and I am NOT GOING to allow that to happen!" The Commander yelled, clearly pissed at the mere notion of letting Orb win this battle by retreating.
Biting her lower lips in sheer frustration at the man's stubbornness, Talia seriously had no idea how in the world she was supposed convince him, that retreating was their only option, if they did not want to lose everything. Even the Minerva had sustained its fair share of damage from its bout with the Archangel, not to mention the huge number of Orb Murasames and M1s that now seemed determined to challenge them. All that combined had resulted in more than half of the Minerva's weapons being destroyed, which in Talia's eyes made it unreasonable for them to keep on fighting, if not downright stupid.
"But Sir, our forces are on their last leg! If we don't get out of here! Orb is going to wipe us ou..." That was all Talia managed to get out, before the small screen suddenly flashed brightly for a brief moment, then went completely black.
"We lost the signal from the flagship, St. Helens!" Bart report with a hint of distress in his voice.
Of course knowing very well who was responsible for the St. Helens destruction and the deaths of its entire crew, Talia mentally cursed the fact that they had been unable to prevent the Archangel from going underwater in the first place. And it was with a heavy sigh that she got ready to give the order to retreat, when Bart's voice suddenly cut her off, loudly informing her, that a shuttle had just taken off from the other side of Orb's main island.
"Do we have any forces near that location, who can shoot that shuttle down!?" The Minerva Captain immediately asked, realizing that with the high speed of the shuttle, their chances to take that thing out before it got away, was pretty limited, but if Djibril really was making his escape on that ship, they at least had to try.
"No Ma'am! The only forces we got left in that area, is a pair of grounded ZAKUs and four ASSHs!" Abbey said, finding it unnecessary to mention that none of those mobile suits could fly, and thereby go after the fleeing shuttle.
Seriously having less than no idea, what else they could do to take out the rapidly ascending shuttle, Talia found herself again biting her lower lips, ignoring the taste of blood running through her mouth, as she heard Arthur loudly ask if it was somehow possible to get Impulse in the air.
"Unfortunately not, Sir! Like I told Nicol before, the Core Splendor is still WAY to damage for it to fly properly, if we send it out now, it could endanger Lunamaria!" Abbey reluctantly told him, also greatly frustrate over their inability to prevent the shuttle from getting away.
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Back outside, Dearka who had the Yami in its mobile armor mode, rolled up over the incoming red beam, fired from the Destiny's beam cannon, just before the blue and gray gundam clashed with the Justice, their weapons sparkling brightly, as they each struggled with all their might for a short instant, to overpower one another. Before they simultaneously broke the lock, throwing themselves backwards away from each other, while firing their head mounted machine cannons, which only served as a minor annoyance for both of them.
Circling sideways around them, Dearka kept a watchful eye out for the next opening Athrun was going to create, so he could once more pounce on the Destiny. Yet with Shinn Asuka, the crazy brat so utterly fixated on putting an end to Athrun's life, he did not stray too far away from the Justice, which meant that Dearka's chances to attack, was relatively slim and far between.
"Damn it! I wonder if the little creep realizes that Athrun is injured over there!" Dearka mumbled under his breath, smiling slightly when he saw his blue haired friend fire both beam cannons at close range at the Destiny gundam, thereby forcing the little brat to rely on the shield to defend himself.
'Hm, at least Athrun does seem to be doing well, despite his injuries' with that reassuring thought in mind, Dearka swiftly turned and took a glance in the direction of the Freedom, that was presently being chased around by the Providence lookalike.
Yet as Kira in one fluid motion rolled upwards into some thick clouds to take cover from a massive amount of green beams the mostly gray mobile suit fired after him, he evidently turned around in there and start shooting back with both beam rifles, and it was only a brief instant later, when the blue winged gundam appeared once again, heading straight towards his opponent, while shooting continuously, obviously aiming to destroy it's head and arms. The Legend pilot however swiftly blocked the those shots with the shield, that Kira kicked violently the moment he flew past the ZAFT gundam.
"Guess I do not have to worry too much about, Kira. So I'll just stick with helping out our good buddy, Athrun" Dearka mumbled to himself under his breath, glancing briefly down to see how much power the Yami had left. Seeing that it was a little below half, the blond haired man knew that he could keep the fun and games going, for a while longer, especially if he did not use the Mirage Colloid too much. Yet just when he was about to attack the briefly exposed Destiny again, Cagalli's loud booming voice suddenly started yelling if not downright screaming into the radio, almost giving Dearka a small heart attack in the process.
"KIRA! DEARKA! ATHRUUUN! A SEIRAN SHUTTLE JUST TOOK OFF FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ISLAND! ONE OF YOU STOP IT! SHOT IT DOOOOOWN!"
Frankly a bit amazed by the fact that Athrun had not gone deaf a long time ago, from Cagalli shouting all hysterically like that. Dearka used the thrusters to promptly change the Yami's direction, blasting off full speed towards the rapidly ascending shuttle, he could see not that far in the distance. Absolutely determined to blow that stupid ship right out of the sky, and thereby send Djibril on a one way trip straight to hell, so he could NEVER again, hurt any innocent people. Dearka had only spoken with Miriallia about it, but he was still occasionally having nightmares about the destruction of Berlin, and all the awful things he and the rest of the Archangel crew had witnessed there.
"I'm on it! There is no way that crazy son of a bitch is getting away from me!" He yelled. However, before Dearka could get close enough to lock onto the fleeing shuttle, a warning shout from Kira along with the alarm beeping loudly, was all it took for Dearka to instantly roll sideways to the left to get out of harms way, as an immeasurable amount of green beams rained down towards him.
Swiftly straightening the Yami out again, Dearka glared in the direction the overall savage attack had originated from. Seeing the Legend rapidly approaching from the right, the young blond haired man cursed angrily.
"Have you lost your mind you stupid bastard!? I thought you ZAFT swines wanted to get rid of, Djibril! So get the HELL out of my way you mask wearing freak show!" Dearka yelled at the top of his lungs into the radio, knowing full well that if he got caught up dog fighting the Legend now, then Djibril would most definitely get away from him.
Fortunately much to Dearka utter relief, Kira was not that far behind the DRAGOON equipped mobile suit, firing both the Calidus and railguns at it, forcing it to swiftly back away from the Yami, which gave Dearka the opening he needed to once again head off after the shuttle, yet unlike before where his chances to catch up to it had been relatively good, now it was completely hopeless, the few vital seconds he had waste evading the Legend's attacks has cost them all dearly, since they were all the shuttle needed to get safely out into space.
"Ahh God damn it! Damn it! DAAAMN IT! You stupid son of a bitch! If you had not interfered when you did Legend pilot! Djibril would NEVER have escaped me!" Dearka screamed in pure anger, as he swirled around racing full speed towards the gray mobile suit, totally determined to show the dumbass what he thought about what he had just done. The last time the Yami pilot had been this pissed off, was when the Destiny brat had destroyed the original Freedom and almost killed Kira in the process. However unlike that time, Dearka now had away to went his anger and deep frustration.
While Rey was in truth not overly bother by the cursing and all the nasty things the Yami pilot was calling him. One thing that did hit home, was the mask wearing freak comment, why in the world would he call him that, of all things? Did the individual piloting that black gundam know about his connection to Rau, and if that was the case, just who the hell was he. Yet with both the Freedom and the Yami now attacking him, the more reasonable part of Rey's mind realized, that now was not the best time for him to be thinking about that, he had to stay focused, otherwise he might very well end up losing this fight.
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Back on the Minerva, Talia with a deep frown watched the Freedom and the Yami attack the Legend. 'Did Rey just help Djibril escape? No... No there is no way he would do that... He was just trying to beat the guy in the black mobile suit! That's all' the woman mentally told herself, trying not to pay any attention to the small part of herself, that was not entirely convinced, that was actually true.
"Send out the retreat signal! We are leaving Orb territory!" Talia ordered loudly. Glancing one last time at the screen showing the Legend just as it ducked down under the couple of green beams, the Freedom fired at it. One of the shots hitting a DRAGOONs, that immediately blew up.
Yet as the Minerva fired the retreat signal, Talia seriously wondered how long it was going to take Aves and the ship's other mechanics to repair everything that had been damage in this battle, they certainly had a very long tiring night ahead of them. Pretty much the only consolation Talia could find, was that they had not lost any of their pilots in this battle.
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Seeing the signal to retreat, Shinn was severely tempted to just ignore it and keep on fighting. He knew that he could get away with it, since he was a member of FAITH. The red eyed pilot of the Destiny wanted so barely to make Athrun Zala pay for everything he had done, like betraying, spying and most specially kidnapping Meyrin when he had made his escape from Gibraltar.
Yet hearing Rey call out to him, and seeing the Legend heading on back to the Minerva, Shinn begrudgingly turned and followed his friend. Still totally pissed of by the fact that he had been unable to damage the Justice at all, he was definitely going to be spending some time in the simulator tomorrow to practice for his next meeting with the blue haired bastard.
Watching Shinn and Rey retreat, along with the rest of the ZAFT forces there. Athrun pulled off his helmet, dropping it down in the bottom of the cockpit, breathing deeply, he rubbed away the sweat covering his face. Now that he was out of Seed mode, and with the adrenaline rapidly leaving his beat up body, Athrun felt it, his rips were practically screaming in pain.
"Hooly shit! That was one long hard day's work... I'm not sure if I should be happy or disappoint that they left when they did, I really want to beat the snot out of that moron, in the Providence lookalike" Dearka growled displeased, as the Yami now in mobile suit mode, along with the Freedom got over beside the Justice.
"While I can not deny Dearka, that I am quite a bit curious about the guy piloting that machine since he reminds me so much of Rau Le Creuset. I am seriously relieved, that finally decide to retreat. Considering the sheer brutality of their attack, civilian casualties has to be staggering" Kira said with a great deal of sadness in his voice, mentally promising himself to call both of his parents, once things calmed down a bit.
Slowly turning, Dearka looked in the direction of Orb's main island, even from all the way up there, he could easily see quite buildings on fire. "I see your point, Kira. Besides I highly doubt, that this is going to be the last time we are going to encounter the Minerva, I just have to settle my score with Djibril's Little Helper, the next time we met".
"I am sorry to interrupt guys, but could one of you please help me get back to the Archangel, I can barely see straight over the pain and I really do feel like I am about to pass out. All I want to do right now, is lie down and just sleep the rest of the night away" Athrun said, while looking at the setting sun in the far distance.
"I do hope it's alright that I leave that task in your capable hands, Kira. I need to go fetch the Yami's left arm, considering that it was cut off near the elbow it should not be that hard to connect again" Dearka said, before he began making his way towards the beach so far below them, opening the cockpit hatch along the way to feel the wind on his face, and to get some much-needed fresh air. One thing was certain, before crawling into bed with Miriallia tonight, he was going to need a good long soak in the hot spring. Perhaps if Miriallia was not too exhaust, it would not be hard to convince her to join him in there, after everything that had happened this downright shitty day, Dearka would not mind spending a nice quiet evening together with the woman he loved, not doing anything.
Watching the Yami take off, Kira took a deep breath as he took a hold on the Justice. "Leave it to me. But you should hurry back Dearka, knowing Miriallia I am certain that she is eager to see you" the worn out pilot of the Freedom said, then carefully turned and start heading towards the Archangel, that was slowly emerging from the deep blue sea.
Looking to the left as the Akatsuki got up beside them. "Are you ok over there, Mu?" Kira asked his mentor.
"Hmm I guess so, I am just somewhat frustrated that I could not do better against murderous creep, in the green tank like gundam. I wonder where the hell I know that guy from, he definitely recognized me, when I started yelling at him. Do you guys have any idea who he is?"
Upon hearing Mu ask that question, the exhaust Athrun slowly turned the Justice's head and looked over at the golden gundam. "Yeah, Nicol used to be a friend of us, but I am not entirely certain what exactly he is now. But I think I might have an idea about what to do with him, I know someone who could very well be the only person alive, who could talk some much-needed sense into him. By the way Mu what did he do, when the retreat signal was fired?" Athrun asked woozily, obviously struggling hard not to pass out right then and there.
"He ran off full speed down the beach and jumped into the ocean without even putting on his swim trunks" Mu joked bitterly, making both Athrun and Kira chuckle softly. Afterwards nothing else was said between the three of them, as they kept on heading towards the Archangel.
To be continued.
One thing I want to do in this chapter, was show that the Adamant gundam is just as dangerous as the Legend and the Destiny, that it is not a mobile suit that should be underestimated. The same with the Yami, I hope you guys like the Special Features I came up with for that gundam.