(Author's Note: Well, here goes!)

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The Rick Dom leapt from its crater, mono-eye ablaze with light.

Gato's own eyes were narrowed with rage. How dare this scum do this!

Quickly closing in on the Gundam, he lunged -

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Keith felt the Gundam respond to his controls, leaping backwards and narrowly escaping the Rick Dom's attack. "Idiot!" he yelled, yanking on the trigger again and watching as the bazooka shell sailed towards its target.

Swiftly, the Rick Dom swung its heat sabre upwards, striking the bazooka shell with its tip and turning a potentially deadly object into so much shrapnel pattering its heavy body.

"You coward... face me like a man, why don't you!?" screamed his opponent through the comm.   

"Bring it on!"

Keith deactivated the auto-grip, and watched as the bazooka fell from the Gundam's hand, slowly dropping onto the ground.

Instead of doing the same, the Rick Dom charged forward, heat sabre aloft.

"Rule number one, kid! Never trust your enemy!" shouted Gato, moving in for the kill with both bazooka and sabre readied.

"Think I don't know that?"

As the distance between the two was steadily closed, Keith prepared the beam sabre in his suit's left hand. The power of explosive weapons is also their greatest weakness...

"Eat this!" Just as Gato was about to attack, the Gundam rammed its beam sabre straight into the barrel of its foe's bazooka.

The result was one almighty fireball, the destruction of the Rick Dom's bazooka catapulting both suits away from each other. Keith noticed through the flames that the Rick Dom's right arm was now utterly mangled, little more than an immobile, twisted lump of steel.

"Goddammit, you Feddie bastard!" screamed Gato, in rage and frustration.

"Hah... Rule number two: Don't go into battle with a superior enemy incautiously!" Keith laughed.

"What the hell makes someone like you superior to me?!"

"Let's just say you're fighting a veritable legend among Zeon ground forces - the Odessa Avenger."

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Back on the Speranza, Eledore dully watched the Guncannon re-enter Luna II for ammunition and repair. Several dents were visible in its red chest, but the arms had taken much worse. Being of lesser strength due to their standard titanium construction, they were slightly scorched, the burns glistening on the black paint job.

"Oh well, I suppose I'll have to find some other GM to take repairs from." smirked James over the comm.

Suddenly, something came to Eledore. Why was he sitting here? People like those outside were the reason Karen died. You know the suffering they're capable of causing. You know they deserve to die. Go and fight like the rest of the crew, whispered part of his mind, one that couldn't forget. One that despised all the cruelty that had been meted out to Eledore on that day...

His conscience agreed, but for a different reason. You can't just leave the fighting to everyone else, people are dying out there -

The dark, vengeful part of his mind whispered again: Avenge Karen.

But she wouldn't want you to go and get yourself killed for no reason-

She's already DEAD! This IS a reason!

Eledore's mind was suddenly clear. These... these scumbags, they and people like them were the reason for the war, the reason for all the pain, all the suffering.

They were the reason he was alone in the world.

I ought to at least do something good in my life... something to try and right the wrongs...

He was decided. Eledore got up, grabbed a space suit and headed for the launch bays.

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"The Avenger? YOU?!" shrieked Gato over the comm, now cautiously keeping his distance from the RX-78-1.

"Not what you were expecting, was it?"

"You can't be him, he's no traitor!"

Keith laughed bitterly, although his fingers tensed around the controls, just waiting for the next move his enemy would try. "Believe me, I didn't think of being one till I lived through the Jaburo assault. My own side firing nukes indiscriminately, knowing that each bomb would cause slaughter. My own damn side!"

"No... you're wrong!"

"I met the man that did it! I killed him with my own hands! He didn't have a drop of remorse for any of those he killed! All he cared about was power... even when he was murdering his own men, he didn't care!"

Gato was in utter shock. This couldn't be true, nobody in the Principality he knew would be so callous and uncaring...surely they couldn't be!

"You liar!" he screamed, leaping straight for the Gundam. If he was going to die, then at least it would be fighting for justice... but was it real justice he was fighting for?

Keith yanked on the left arm controls, swinging his machine's beam sabre. I'm sorry..

Time seemed to slow. The blades of both mobile suits' sabres met for the final time, and to both pilots' shock the Rick Dom's heat blade was neatly sliced off, leaving just the hilt.

Gato stared at the useless sabre with mounting panic. With a yell of "Sieg Zeon!" he kept moving, trying to attack the Gundam despite being almost utterly weaponless.

Keith blinked back tears as he brought the beam sabre back, with one last stab bringing merciful instant destruction to the Rick Dom and its pilot.        

The last thing Keith saw before losing all consiousness was the doomed Rick Dom, whitish-yellow flames pouring from its pierced chest. Then came a deafening roar, a blinding flash and a sensation of intense heat, then came utter darkness.

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Eledore narrowed his eyes as the Space Tank shot forward, landing on the ground of Luna II. Most of the battle was over; the enemy mobile suits were either being forced back or being destroyed, leaving the ships hanging above.

Except for one...

The last Rick Dom was on the verge of trying to return to its Musai carrier. Obviously its pilot had seen enough and wanted out.

Eledore growled and squeezed the firing trigger. A magenta beam spewed from the Space Tank's beam gun, pierced a hole right through the Rick Dom and blew it apart in one hit.

That'll teach you... Quickly tugging on the controls, Eledore turned around the Space Tank. Soon enough, he found his next target: the surviving Chivvay. 

Time to test the other weapon. Eledore thumbed the secondary weapon button, activating the micro-missile launchers.

At once, vapour trails erupted in front of him as, like the fingers of a giant hand out to grab, the missiles headed directly for their target. One by one, they hammered into the Chivvay's hull and exploded, tearing huge chunks out of its structure with every hit.

By the time the missile volley had finished, there was barely anything left. Fireballs periodically dotted the tattered remains of the once-proud battleship as it slowly fell towards Luna II's surface. But something even worse was going to happen: Eledore saw the Osiris, positioned in an almost-perfect spot for firing on the Musais.

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Kawada grinned. "I'm actually hoping there's gonna be a few survivors on their side. They'll have something to say to their big bosses!"

"Yes, sir," answered a bridge officer, "but are we gonna fire this thing now?"

"Of course! Railgun crew, fire at will. Aim for the Musai!"

The Musais were in a row, with the Osiris right beside them. Staying low to keep out of their particle cannons' range, the ship prepared to attack.

Suddenly, a bang and a high-pitched whistling was heard, and a glowing white blur pierced one Musai, then the other, until all three had sprouted two holes in their structure.

Then as one, the Zeonic battleships exploded, the blasts consuming their hulls as their reactors were hit. It had taken just four seconds for three of the most well-known Zeon space battleships to be destroyed in such a manner, with a single shot.

No other battleship would be able to produce the same result for many years to come.    

Kawada's grin widened, to the accompaniment of cheers from his crew.

"I think it's safe to say the Osiris has played its part in this battle. Return to dock."

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A colony in Side 5, Universal Century 0071

"Hey, Earth-born!"

"Nerdy squirt!"

Keith sighed as the gang moved up towards him. It was like this every day, it had been for over a year. Every morning, just before classes began, this bunch of thugs turned up to torment him.

Trying to sneak into school without them seeing him didn't work; neither did trying to reason with them, as they weren't all that bright. Telling a teacher didn't work: they never gave out good enough punishments, meaning the gang got off nearly scot-free.

The leader, a brutish, ugly boy named Mike McGill, violently shoved Keith into a wall. Hearing him wince, he sneered, "Can't take it, baby-boy Earthnoid?" Keith didn't know why they called him that, he wasn't born on Earth. His father was, but he and his mother were born and raised in the Loum area.

Keith had cried and agonised about this for too long. He felt emotions rise up inside him, ones different to his usual despair and sorrow. Anger and hate bubbled inside his mind. If only I could smash this git's face in...  

Mike punched him in the arm, taking care to aim for where it wouldn't show. At that point, something inside Keith snapped. He wouldn't take this kind of thing anymore, he'd teach this worthless slime a lesson...

Through the rising mist of rage, Keith saw Mike stagger back, blood dripping from his nose from a vicious punch. He didn't give Mike a chance to recover, but instead hit him again, hearing the agonised moan of pain as his fist rammed his tormentor's already-broken nose.

And another blow came. And another. And another, until finally Mike was lying on the ground, gore dripping from his lip and nose. Keith felt a sort of raging satisfaction as the rest of the gang backed off, running as fast as they could.

"Listen, you pathetic, useless trash pile: I won't take your crap anymore. Try this sort of thing again and you'll feel a damn sight worse than you are now." Keith hissed, yanking on Mike's hair. 

The only audible sound from his recumbent attacker was a muffled groan and a few spots of blood on the tarmac.

Of course, there would be trouble afterwards. There usually was. But Keith was sure his parents would understand.

Memories flowed back from later in life: joining up with the Zeon military after watching a televised rally, his first practice sortie, the news that his home colony had been destroyed with the loss of nearly everyone who called it home...

And Keith had fought many oppressors since then. His own instructor, in the final exam. The Earth Federation. And finally, the Principality of Zeon... his own side.   

"Dear Gods, he isn't wearing a spacesuit! Is he crazy or something?"

"It can be like that with our ace pilots. Char hardly ever bothered with one, after his early days. Of course, it could be down to a rush into battle..."

"If it's about being an ace, his own ego almost killed him this time. If the Gundam's cockpit was breached, he wouldn't have had a chance!"

"The fact of the matter is, he's still alive. Just unconsious and a bit bruised, but that's it. I have to admit, I never saw anything like that duel before in my life."

"But you've never seen a Zeon mobile suit operational in your life before, Kawada!"

"I know. But that...that was something different. I couldn't tear my eyes away and give the order to fire. I could barely keep up just watching, heaven knows what it must have been like for the pilots."

"Hey, he's waking up!"

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4th December 0079

Slowly, Keith's eyes flickered open. Through slightly blurred vision (which he had to blink a few times to clear) he saw Tiff, Norris, Kawada and nearly all the rest of the ragtag crew he belonged to now.

"Arrgh... my head..." he muttered, as he tried to get up from the bed he was lying on.

Almost immediately, Tiff tried to stop him with a cry of "Lie back! You've been through enough!"

"Gerroff! I'll be fine, just toss me some aspirin!" Keith replied, noticing the room all of them were in was his, and simultaneously grabbing a glass from the bedside table and filling it.

Just as Keith popped the aspirin tablet into his mouth and took a swig of water to help it down, Ken poked his head in through the door. "Finally, you're awake! I still haven't showed you all Luna II has... when you're ready, then..."

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Keith trailed after Ken as they navigated the winding corridors of Luna II, the sound of Ken's techno-babble floating in his ears. Thank goodness these aspirins worked fast, or I'd have had to shut him up, Keith thought, not paying attention to his young guide. Hell, he was tired. And why shouldn't he have been? Going through that sort of battle would have drained anyone, at least in Keith's opinion.

Finally, the duo reached the exact same hangar they had seen before the battle. The same door at the end was there, and the wall was still lined with GMs.

But far fewer. As they walked past, Keith noticed several of the GMs had damage: scorched armour, massive dents, cracked "visor" cameras...

Even worse, there were empty spaces where GMs once were. Their mere emptiness served as sorrowful proof of the true cost of the war - human lives. Keith felt a sudden nausea at this realisation.

"Before I show you this, you have to remember: this is top-secret. We aren't exactly broadcasting the fact this exists yet, though I will say this: You thought your Gundam was powerful? This, my friend, is more or less equal to the Osiris in terms of power. Of course we wouldn't have made this ordinarily, but with the situation..." Ken's voice tailed off.

"Quit going on and open the damn chamber." Keith sighed. He was getting a certain uneasiness about whatever this machine was. Equal to the Osiris? Surely no single suit has that kind of capacity... or is it even a suit?

"Fine, O Impatient One." Ken smirked, placing a keycard in a slot on the massive doors. Slowly, they slid sideways, revealing a huge shadowy figure in the gloom, a figure that was rapidly being illuminated by the lights which were even now being flicked on in the chamber...

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Luna II has more than just GMs and railgun-equipped ships, it seems...

Enjoy? Yes? No? Want to throw rotten tomatoes? Tell me!