By: Shadow Chaser
Previously on Gundam SEED: Entropy Rising…
Some fifty miles away, the task force lead by the Brimstone readied its weapons for its second foray into Panama. Captain Lya Matato had a grim smile on her face. "Status report?"
"All ships report combat-readiness ma'am," one of her officers replied.
"Good. Tell the ships to launch their mobile suits. All ships ahead full," she ordered.
The battle for Panama had begun again.
Phase Fourteen – Anna ni Issho Datta no ni
Kira could pick up the distant communication signals given by ships all over the place and found out that while the first battle against Panama had been won by the OMNI and LF forces, it was still heavy with casualties. Panama had asked for reinforcements and it seemed that many of the OMNI forces, judging by the transmissions he intercepted on his way to Panama, were slow to respond. It was absurd in Kira's opinion, but then again, a part of him chided the fact that OMNI had always never been too trustful. If they wanted Panama to fall, then so be it… Even ZAFT was slow to respond, but that was ZAFT, so Kira didn't care.
The only ships that seemed to care for Panama were the LF's ships, which made Kira want to hurry all the more. He had been skirting the upper atmosphere of the Earth in order to shorten his time from Orb to Panama, and while it was considerably shorter, it had also given him time to think.
He had been such a fool these past few days. Even though he knew that the assassin after him was somehow related to Mendel, he still couldn't believe the way he had acted towards his parents, his friends, his sister, Lacus, and most of all to Athrun. He had pushed everyone away from him and wallowed in his own grief.
Well now, he was ready to make amends and to help his friends. If the Talon were serious, as he had heard their transmission too, then he would stop them from hurting his family all together. His friends were fighting for him, and he realized, that though they were fighting for him, he would also have to carry some of their burdens too. Athrun had too long been a soldier and not known peace for a long time. Cagalli grew up in a peaceful world of Orb, but her life was shattered with so many losses. Lacus lost her father to the war because she tried to speak of peace.
He was the lucky one. He had his parents that cared and supported him. He had never known so many personal losses in the war. Yes, Flay had died because he was unable to stop Rau Le Creuset, but she was not family in terms of what he was comparing to. Flay Alster was a girl he had hurt badly during the war. She was someone he had badly hurt and had been badly hurt by her. While Lacus was his soul mate, Flay was his first love.
Kira touched a few buttons to adjust the fuel settings on his transporter before leaning back as comfortably as he could, given the tight space in the Freedom's cockpit. He had gone outside on occasion, but the winds were always too high, and sometimes the altitude was too much for him to handle.
Flay was just an innocent girl with little to no knowledge of the outside world. She only knew of her own prejudices and of what she learned from her father and from her friends. She was the innocent girl who died such a horrible death. That was what made Kira want to protect her and his own friends. They were like her, the knew of the knowledge they had been given, not the whole truth. Even if they learned about his origins, they still did not experience the horrors he had.
He had to protect them from all of that and right now it seemed that the Talon was the one who had sent the assassin to kill Cagalli. He didn't really know, but it seemed logical. Cagalli was an innocent in this new war. She was only trying to speak the words of peace and try to rebuild her country. She and Lacus were the new innocents in this war and Kira was determined to protect them. He knew that Athrun had sworn to protect them all, but even he knew that his best friend couldn't handle everything.
That was now his duty. His return to duty – to protect the ones he loved.
Murrue Ramius gripped the sides of her seat tightly as another explosion rocked the Archangel. "Target 20 degrees, port, Variant missiles, fire!" she ordered in a hard voice and was rewarded when the missiles detonated, taking out a Talon ship.
"Status!" she turned her head slightly to see Miri.
"Decks 45 through 47 are on fire, but containment crews are on the way-"
"Captain! Missiles incoming from starboard, 50 degrees!"
"Dispersing net, fire!"
The flares of the dispersing missiles intercepting the ones fired by the Talon ships was a bright flare and Murrue shielded her eyes slightly from the glare.
"We've reported damage by some of the Astrays, but Murdoch is handling repairs," Miri continued her report in a calm controlled voice.
"Good, what about communications with the Gundams?"
"Buster is hanging back to help deal with strays," Miri reported.
"Sai, what about the OMNI ships?"
"Looks like a few of them were hit, but the commanders are not retreating yet," Sai said from his seat next to Miri's.
"Send them a battle plan. We're going to try to pincher them. Send the same plan to Eternal and Babylon."
"Roger Captain."
"Targeting solution on the three nearest Talon ships. Preparing the Lohengrins," she ordered.
"Solution found," Romero Pal, sitting at his firing station reported.
"Jam the signals, Petty Officer Chandra," she said to her electronic warfare officer who nodded and tweaked a few buttons and knobs on his control station.
"Lohengrins, fire!" she yelled.
The burst of red and white from the Archangel's main cannons tore through the first Talon ships before the Archangel's pilot, Master Chief Petty Officer Arnold Neumann turned the ship to let the Lohengrin cannons fire rake through the other two ships.
"Captain, we're clear. The OMNI ships have sent us a request for an arrowhead maneuver," Miri suddenly reported.
"Good, send them the confirmation," she replied.
"Next missile or beam weaponry contact?" she asked Jackie Tonomura, her specialist in enemy search and detection.
"None at the moment. The three ships that were destroyed were formerly that," he grinned at her before turning back to his station, one of his hands clasped against his headset that he was intently listening to.
"Spearhead formation," she keyed the comm. over to the various OMNI ships that were on her approach and their faces lit up her own personal communication screens. "The Archangel will be point. Atlanta, Icarus' Flight, and Igerian will follow our slipstream to catch them off guard. Use your Lohengrins," she ordered and a babble of protests replied to her order.
"You can't order-"
"This is preposterous…You're an LF not OMNI anymore Captain Ramius!"
Murrue narrowed her eyes and cut the captains off with a glare, "Do you or do you not want to survive? The Talon's got us boxed in and we need to break through their formations! I may not be a ranking officer in OMNI anymore, but if you'll notice, the point will be the hardest hit, so Archangel will be taking majority of the fire power!"
The grumbles of grudging agreement came over before one of the captains gave a quirky smile. "All right Captain Ramius. We'll follow you on this," the captain of the Icarus' Flight replied and Murrue recognized her as one of Halberton's former 8th Fleet who had transferred to Lunar duty with the 7th Fleet before the Archangel had joined Halberton's fleet.
She smiled slightly before turning to Jackie, "Give me a targeting solution on the Talon ships. Send it to the others."
"Aye ma'am," Jackie replied.
"Helm, bring us about," she ordered Arnold before he turned the stick, so that the Archangel was facing the incoming Talon ships.
The OMNI ships flanked them, and Murrue glanced at her FOF (Friend-or-Foe) board to see both the Babylon and Eternal had slid up next to her to form a tight triangle of ships.
"Captain," Andy Bartfield's face appeared, "so what's the plan?"
"Hit them with your main weapons then peel off. The Atlanta, Icarus' Flight, and Igerian will be shooting them with their Lohengrins." Technically, while the ships were not Archangel-class, they did carry their own Lohengrins like the Archangel's, except they were smaller and had less power. But combined together, they were very deadly to any ship in its path.
"Roger that," Bartfield grinned slightly before turning away to bark a few more orders at his crew. Murrue noticed that Lacus was also sitting in the Eternal's other command chair, relaying information while providing other instructions to help Bartfield.
"Captain Kisaka, did you get all of that?" she asked the commander of the Babylon.
"Got it, the Babylon is ready," Kisaka replied.
"Roger," Murrue took a deep breath before she turned behind her, "Sai, all ships in formation?"
"Yes Captain," Sai replied.
"Broadband communication, Miri."
"You're on."
"Fire!" she ordered and as one, all ships, both LF and OMNI, fired their most powerful weapons at the incoming Talon ships before breaking away to let the three ships hiding behind their slipstreams to fire their own weapons.
"Hard to port! Fire Gottfrieds!"
The Archangel rocked hard to port, turning away from the still remaining Talon ships that were caught off guard by such an immense fire power, but explosions still rocked the ship violently as those ships that managed to evade the combined power of the OMNI and LF fire back in retaliation. Murrue was nearly thrown from her seat, only her restraining belt stopped her from being thrown everywhere.
"Incoming beam weaponry and missiles!"
"Fire Variants and dispersing charges!"
The battle continued on.
Athrun twisted in the air, avoiding missiles aimed at him. He turned around and fired his beam rifle, each shot destroying a missile. He dived down and targeted a group of Strike Daggers before firing his gatling cannons, their yellow beams destroying the weapons and heads of the mobile suits, effectively disarming them.
A sudden beep on his front screen alerted him to the Liberty, Claw, and Corsair Gundam headed his way. Tossing his rifle aside, letting it fall into a thicket of palm trees, he drew out his double beamed saber and activated it.
"Athrun," Yzak's voice came over the comm. and Athrun turned slightly to see the Duel flying next to him, its beam saber also activated.
"Roger," he replied, their unspoken plan well rehearsed as both were formerly of the same squad in ZAFT, even though they didn't get along back then.
He wove in and out of the air current Yzak had made, the Duel flying in front of him as they charged at the three incoming mobile suits. "Scatter fire," he called over the comm. as Yzak peppered the mobile suits with bullets. Clouds of smoke and dust rose as the three raised their shields to defend themselves and Athrun dove underneath the cloud before pulling back up on the stick and climbed.
As the cloud cleared, he slashed through their formation, breaking them apart and taking out the Claw and Corsair's rifles. Only the Liberty evaded his attack at the last minute and Athrun spun around, detaching his glider and homed it in on the Liberty.
He then dove and slashed his beam saber at the Corsair. This pilot he didn't know, but he could tell that he or she was good. His glider flew back at him and he paused for a moment to let the sensors attach it back onto his back before peppering the Corsair once more with a hail of bullets from his gatling guns.
"That's not going to work a second time," a deep growling voice filtered from his comm. system and he realized that it was the pilot of the Corsair.
Athrun was violently thrown forward as the Corsair knocked him from behind and he spun slightly, just in time to bring up his beam saber in a parry. He gritted his teeth and pressed against the Corsair's beam saber when he suddenly was sandwiched from behind. He turned slightly to see the Claw pinning him from behind.
"Athrun!" Cagalli's voice came over the comm., echoed moments later by both Dearka and Yzak.
"Shit," Athrun cursed softly to himself as he saw a seed snap in his mind – seed mode. He tried to throw both the Claw and Corsair off of him, but found himself pinned tightly. A low growl emanated from his throat and he tried to reach his other beam saber that was on his right side, but he couldn't move his hands from the beam saber without having to lose his grip and therefore be skewered by the Corsair's beam saber.
He tried to see if Cagalli, Yzak, or Dearka could help him, but a wave of Strike Daggers and Liberty were fending them off from him; leaving him the only one to get himself out. The LF ships were pinned down by new waves of mobile suits and the advancing, almost suicidal Talon warships.
"It's a pity that you've never joined us, Athrun Zala. Your father had his ambitions and we were ready to see it through," the voice of the Corsair's pilot replied and Athrun found that his voice sounded vaguely familiar.
"May I clip his wings now," the annoyed voice of the female pilot of the Claw came through and Athrun narrowed his eyes.
"Get off of me!" he shouted as he tried to wrench his controls to respond to his movements, but the Claw suddenly tsked.
"Uh-uh," the pilot taunted, "sorry, Zala. No offense, but your little girl's going next after you…"
Athrun turned slightly to see the Claw activate a beam saber before driving it down to skewer him from behind. His eyes widened in shock as he saw the beam saber coming down towards him and there was nothing he could do about…
A shadow in the air abruptly obscured the sun, and suddenly, the Claw was flying head over heels, pin-wheeling wildly in the air before crashing into a heavily damaged Talon ship, exploding it. In place of where the Claw was, stood the last thing Athrun had expected to see.
"It's not killing, but protecting those we love and consider family," the voice broke over his comm. system and Athrun could only stare in shock.
The Freedom Gundam had arrived.
Kira fired his beam rifle at the Corsair, making it duck and fly back from its stalemate with the Justice.
"Kira?!" Athrun's voice came over the comm. and Kira felt the corner of his lips quirk up in a smile.
"I'm sorry Athrun," he apologized, "for being such an idiot these past few days. I didn't get to listen to what you or Cagalli had to say. But thank you, for telling me what I had to do."
"But Kira-"
"While you carry my burdens, let me carry yours," he said before a slight twinge of pain made him wince. It felt like a knife being slowly stabbed into him and it grew stronger and stronger. Kira wondered where the pain came from and a sudden swoop of déjà vu engulfed him and he realized that it was the same feeling he had during his time in the hospital. It was the same exact feeling when he had thought he had felt someone's eyes on him and when he had tried to stop Cagalli's assassin.
"Kira Yamato!" the pained, but angry voice of his clone-brother suddenly exploded in the comm. system and Kira flew up while shooting down at the Liberty who had abandoned its fight with Cagalli's Strike Rouge and the Duel.
"Kira!" Athrun called over, concerned.
"Deal with the others! He's mine!" Kira knew that Griever was out for blood.
His beam rifle clicked empty and Kira glanced at his power levels, and saw that they weren't too drained. He threw away his beam rifle and pulled out both of his beam sabers and activated them. Diving down, he dive-bombed at the Liberty and both met with a clash of beam sabers.
Kira swiped at the Liberty, flipping underneath him while stabbing him with his other hand, but Griever avoided it and retaliated with his own attack. He defended the blows before lashing out with his leg and smiled grimly as the Liberty was turned head over heels.
"I won't give up! You're dead Kira Yamato!" Griever exploded over the comm.
Kira didn't say anything as he knew from his own experiences that jabbering over the comm. was useless during a battle. He concentrated and easily fell into seed-mode. The data from his scanners told him possible attacks that Griever was going to make and he calculated them before storing them in the back of his mind. The pain that had been gnawing at him receded into the deep crevasses of his mind as he concentrated on the battle at hand.
He threw one of his beam sabers in an arc at the Liberty who ducked before firing its gatling cannons at him. Kira raised his shield up, before charging forward and brought the arm with his shield up in a swipe. The blow from his shield towards the Liberty threw it wide open and he grabbed his beam saber that had been arcing towards him and stabbed at the Liberty.
His beam saber missed the cockpit by the barest of inches and instead was diverted to the side where it gouged a deep cut into the side of the Liberty. Kira drew back and fired his head vulcans, peppering the Liberty with a hail of bullets.
A sudden proximity warning made him spin around and he gasped in surprise as the Liberty appeared behind him. There was no way that a mobile suit could travel that fast, he realized, but just then he was kicked hard in the back and Griever didn't stop there. Kira was thrown painfully forward, his restraints digging into his shoulders and abdominal area as the Liberty rode the kick all the way down. Kira crashed into the water and his screens were filled with the blue-green sea.
The force of the impact made him it his head on some of his controls and he blacked out.
Cagalli fired her beam rifle at the Claw before she deactivated the thrusters that were keeping her afloat in the air and the sudden drop made her stomach a bit queasy, but it caught the Claw off guard and bright yellow beam from the Buster hit the Claw head on.
Activating her thrusters again, she flew towards the Claw and dropped her beam rifle, simultaneously taking out her saber and activated it. Slicing the Claw's arm off, she grinned as the Claw retreated slightly away from her, assessing her in a new light.
"Surrender," Yzak's voice blared on the battle frequency they were all using towards the Claw.
"You traitorous bastard Yzak Joule!" the female pilot of the Claw hissed back, "how dare you tell me to surrender."
Cagalli narrowed her eyes and snorted softly in disgust. The pilot of the Claw sure talked a lot. She could talk the talk, but it looked like she couldn't walk the walk.
"Shut up and drop dead then," Yzak snarled over the comm.
The Claw suddenly seemed to think twice about Yzak's last statement and suddenly turned tail and headed back to where the main ships of the Talon fleet were. It was also then that a giant splash of water made her turn just in time to see both the Liberty and Freedom crash into the ocean.
"Kira!" Cagalli called in anguish over the comm..
Kira blinked open his eyes as he shook his head slightly to alleviate the fogginess that was in his mind. He glanced over at his controls and realized that he had only passed out for a few minutes. Shifting in his seat and grabbed the keyboard and typed in a few commands. Freedom hadn't sustained too much damage, but for underwater combat, it was going to be hard.
His sensors showed no immediate mobile suits or armors around him, and a few of the warships passed by overhead. Grabbing the controls, he pulled the Freedom upright and looked up. His eyes narrowed as he concentrated, trying to use the sense of déjà vu he got with Griever to pin point him. He still didn't know how Griever was able to catch him off guard…it was as if he teleported, but that defied every known quantity of physics and of time and space.
He looked up; the Liberty was off fighting elsewhere, probably in a battle with his friends, so that left him room to set up a plan to take down Griever. He treaded along the bottom of the ocean, knowing that he had a limited amount of oxygen in the water. The carbon dioxide scrubbers fared well in space and in the Earth's atmosphere, but they did not do so well in water. Freedom and most other mobile suits except for ZAFT's ZnO and GUUN amphibious suits were just not built for water combat.
A ship passed overhead and Freedom's sensors identified it as a Talon ship. Kira suddenly got an idea and pushed forward on the throttle, lifting the Freedom towards the ship. He latched onto the bottom as quietly as he could and connected his sensors to that of the ship's. Quickly pulling out his keyboard, he hacked in commands to override whoever was controlling the ship and the ship's sensors appeared on his left side screen.
Looking around with the commandeered Talon ship, he finally saw the Liberty who had joined forces with the Corsair and were both fighting Justice and the Duel. Strike Rouge and Buster were providing cover to the Archangel, Eternal and a ship that his own sensors identified as the Babylon, an Orb manufactured ship like its cousin the Kusanagi.
He directed the Talon ship towards the air battle and fired its cannons at the Corsair and Liberty before turning its cannons around and firing directly at the incoming warship. Kira could only imagine the panic going on with the Talon warships. Well there was always a first for everything and this was his first time trying out something like this. He returned the ship's sensors to the battle and fired another volley at the two mobile suits, scattering them before suddenly his eyes narrowed as he saw the Liberty diving straight down at the ship.
The pain had started to return and the sense of déjà vu he had was growing stronger and stronger. He realized that Griever had caught on to his plan and as the Liberty swiped down at the ship with its beam saber, Kira detached himself from the ships before activating his thrusters and powered his way into the ship and through it.
He burst out into the air just as the Liberty sliced through the ship and the huge explosion buffeted him higher into the air.
"Kira!" Athrun's relieved voice came over.
"Athrun."
As one the two best friends attacked the Liberty with all of their weapons, their minds not used to combat with each other, but with the skill that said otherwise. It was as if they both knew what the other was going to do and in tandem, attacked the Liberty.
The Liberty crashed back into the sinking debris of the warship that Kira had commandeered moments ago before flares of retreat lit up the sky from the Talon ships.
Kira knew that he only had moments before Griever was going to escape again and dove down to strike the finishing blow. He was suddenly slammed aside by the Claw and he gritted his teeth as he fought the g-forces and hovered in the air. He turned to see the Claw picking the Liberty up and flying back towards the retreating Talon ships – their numbers dwindled to only a few ships now.
That was when he felt his breath coming raggedly and to his surprise, his grip on the controls of the Freedom were tight. He forced himself to relax and opened a full comm. channel to Athrun, noticing that he was as tired as he was.
"Athrun," he greeted smiling tiredly.
"Glad to have you here with us, Kira," Athrun replied laughing lightly.
"Tori?" Tori chirped from behind Kira's seat and he turned slightly to see his mechanical bird, silent throughout the whole battle, poke its head out before giving a mechanical flutter of its wings as if to say hi to Athrun.
Kira started laughing at his mechanical bird's antics and noticed that Athrun too was laughing. A sense of peace and relief overcame him as both Freedom and Justice headed back to the LF ships.
Author's Note:
A BIG thank you to ShinobiWolf for doing a piece of fanart for me. I will have it posted on my After War site in a couple of days: Please check it out!