Kido Senshi Gundam SEED: The sixth Gundam.
By: Prayer Reverie
Contact: prayerreverie(at)yahoo(dot)com
Summary: A sixth Gundam was developed at Heliopolis, unbeknownst to the Earth Alliance, Orb or ZAFT. AU for changing the SEED storyline and because of Destiny's confirmation.
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED in any which way (although some days I wish).
Chapter 6: Disappointments
C.E. 71, March 28th
"Target sighted, they're opening the hangar doors!" Dearka said.
"Strike Gundam sighted!" Yzak said happily.
"And a Skygrasper with the Launcher pack." Nichol added.
"Engage at will!" Athrun ordered.
Yzak and Dearka split off, moving together to flank the Archangel, while Athrun and Nichol bore straight in towards the Alliance battleship. Ian moved to flank the other side, arming all his weapons.
Strike was equipped with the Aile pack, allowing it some vertical thrust, but nothing when compared to the Gool lifter units. Athrun and Nichol occupied Strike while the DINNs were keeping the Launcher-Grasper busy.
The GOOhNs had arrived on the scene and began to barrage the submerged parts of the Archangel. It looked like the Archangel would be at the bottom of the ocean by the end of the day. The Archangel rose several dozen meters to avoid the GOOhN's barrage.
Ian's proximity alarm alerted him to another Skygrasper launching.
"Heads up, a second Skygrasper has launched! And ... what kind of Striker pack is that?" The Skygrasper had a black colored pack, which apparently was loaded extra thrusters and some weapons.
The Skygrasper fired several rapid railgun rounds, hitting the first DINN dead on, destroying it completely. Activating its extra booster, the Skygrasper shot forward past the Gundams and the last DINN.
"What in hell's name was that?" demanded Yzak.
"It was a Skygrasper with a new Striker pack!" Ian replied, dodging anti-air fire from the Archangel.
The new Skygrasper banked sharply, and then dived towards the surface of the ocean. One of GOOhNs broke past the surface to target the enemy ship and promptly dived again as machine-cannon rounds flew past him.
Then the odds started to turn. The Launcher-Grasper fired its impulse cannon at Dearka, who was aiming his hyper-rifle at the Archangel.
"Dearka, evasive!" Yzak shouted.
The Buster pulled up, but not in time. The impulse shot obliterated his Gool and the explosion threw Dearka off his senses. He plunged into the ocean, followed by burning wreckage.
"Dearka!" Nichol screamed.
The Skygrasper fired at the second DINN with all of its weapons, but the pilot managed to evade the worst of it. However its left flight wings were blown off, forcing the pilot to retreat.
"Whoever is piloting that Skygrasper is good! Yzak, Athrun, I suggest you two concentrate on the Skygrasper while Ian and I go for Strike and the Launcher-Grasper. The GOOhNs can attack the Archangel" Nichol suggested.
"Good idea. Yzak, with me!" Athrun agreed, and together he and Yzak stopped their attack on Strike and started after the Skygrasper.
"Nichol, take the Launcher-Grasper, Strike has a debt to pay." Ian said coldly.
Blitz's eyes flashed in agreement.
"So Strike, we meet again. You survived last time, but now you can't fly." Ian transmitted.
"And you're wrong in thinking I'll go down here!" Kira said back.
Foregoing all ranged weapons, Ian activated both of his beam sabers and charged at Strike. In response Strike jetted upwards with a boost from the Aile pack and fired at Ian. Dodging the incoming beams, Ian swiped at Kira with his Trikeros Mk. II beam saber.
Strike flipped above the saber and landed hard on Slayer's back, sending the Gundam flying off the Gool and towards the sea. Ian swore and rotated to face Strike as he fell. Arming his missiles, he fired all six, hoping to catch Strike in freefall.
Kira sacrificed his shield to block the missiles and ejected the pitiful remnants and fired twice at Ian. Ian blocked one shot and the other narrowly missed. He called his sub-lifter down to catch him before he hit the ocean. Rotating again to position himself properly, he saw the Launcher-Grasper bearing down on him, the Impulse cannon aimed directly at Ian.
"Oh crap!" Ian hit his thrusters, breaking the target lock, and then continued into a flip which landed him on top of the Launcher-Grasper. Scant seconds later as he was about to fire, the other Skygrasper came around and fired a barrage of railgun rounds. Ian broke off his attack and positioned the shield over the torso of the Gundam. The rounds impacted and Ian was torn off from the back of the Launcher-Grasper and sent flying again.
He was in luck, his Gool had caught up and Ian deftly landed on the lifter. He rocketed away from the Skygrasper, to assess the situation.
"Where are the GOOhNs?" he asked. Then he saw.
The Skygrasper had destroyed one as the ZAFT pilot prepared to fire his Phonon Maser energy cannons. The other was nowhere to be seen, so Ian presumed the second destroyed as well.
In a matter of minutes the Earth Alliance forces had managed to almost even out the odds against them. Whoever was in that second Skygrasper was doing a good job of taking out his enemies.
The Launcher-Grasper was closing in on Nichol, but Athrun had other ideas. Storing his beam rifle, he activated one of his built-in beam sabers and swiped at the fighter as it swept by. While he missed the cockpit, the Impulse cannon below was sliced off, rendering the Launcher-Grasper useless against the Phase-Shift active Gundams.
Then the second Skygrasper switched Striker packs with Strike in mid-air. The black Striker pack looked more threatening on Strike than it did the Skygrasper, now armed with the Aile parts, minus the shield.
Strike assembled the Electromagnetic cannon and fired. An explosion rocked the remaining forces, and everyone looked to see who got hit.
"Gundams, sound off! Yzak, Duel, all systems go!" Yzak ordred, being the first to recover.
"Nichol, Blitz, just fine."
"Ian, Slayer, confused but operable."
They waited for Athrun to respond. The smoke finally cleared to reveal a wobbling and headless Aegis. There was massive damage to the command Gundam, its Phase Shift was down and its arms hung uselessly.
"Nichol, escort Athrun out! Ian and I will cover you two!"
Blitz broke off and guided Athrun back home. Strike prepared to fire again, but Yzak fired his 175mm grenade which exploded against Strike's cockpit. Sparks flew and crackled, but Strike was still in the game.
Duel ascended high in the air, firing his beam rifle, railgun and head vulcans as he went. Yzak twirled in mid-air and fired his thrusters at full thrust, barreling towards Strike from high above.
Kira's thrusters were firing continuously as he maintained his position, attempting to lock onto Duel with his massive cannon. Yzak smiled and fired everything he had; railgun, beam rifle, shoulder missiles and the Gool's missiles.
Too late, Kira fired his railguns and head vulcans to destroy some of the missiles while dodging the incoming fire, but there were simply too many missiles to down in such a short time.
Flying downwards past Strike, Yzak whipped around and fired his beam rifle and railgun again, aiming from below. Kira froze, he was effectively trapped. Images of Heliopolis flashed through his mind, he squeezed his eyes shut to force the images out, when he opened them again, and his eyes had crystallized into seed-mode.
Detaching the Lightning pack, Strike dropped like a stone towards Yzak, who was climbing as fast as he could. Kira pulled out one of his Armor Schneiders and held it in a two-handed grip over his head, blade pointed downwards. Just before he passed Duel, Kira stabbed the knife into the front of the Gool, which promptly swung Strike in a semi-circle. Kira let go of the knife and flipped the Gundam to avoid the engines, then fired his thrusters, propelling Strike upwards, to meet once again with the Lightning pack.
Yzak jumped off the damaged lifter towards Strike as Kira fired his railguns, destroying it completely. Duel crashed into Strike and the two X100 series Gundams dropped into the ocean.
Ian charged at the Aile-Grasper, railguns firing. The Skygrasper had fewer weapons and less mobility with the Aile pack on, compared to his first one.
"You're no match for me now, little fighter." Ian taunted.
The Aile-Grasper started a series of evasive maneuvers, flying closer and closer to the Archangel, hoping to use its multiple missile launchers and Igelstellung CIWS cannons to his advantage.
Damn, I can't beat the Archangel on my own, and I can't take out that damn Skygrasper without flying through the defensive cannons first.
"Yzak, where are you?" Ian commed.
"A little busy right now!" came the brusque reply.
Duel had scored a few minor hits on Strike after they splashed into the ocean, but it wasn't enough to take Strike down.
Strike had its other Armor Schneider in a position to suit both quick attacks and blocks. Duel had lost its beam rifle to a lucky railgun shot, but replaced it with a beam saber. They both floated in the water for a few seconds, staring each other down. Then Yzak charged, his shield ready to take any attacks and beam saber ready to slice downwards.
Kira fired everything he had left, and all of the shots connected with Duel. The shockwave from the explosion rocked Kira, but left him otherwise unharmed. A rapidly expanding cloud of debris obscured his vision.
"Yzak! Report now!" Ian demanded.
"Did I get him?" Kira wondered aloud.
Twin beam sabers sliced through the Lightning pack as Duel appeared out from the debris, minus its Assault Shroud. Yzak then boosted upwards and flew out of the water.
Ian caught Duel in mid-air on his Gool and poured on all his speed to fly home.
-
"So would any of you mind telling my exactly what went on out there?" Le Creuset asked staring at the remaining pilots seated in the briefing room.
"Frankly, we got our asses handed to us sir." Yzak said angrily.
"I noticed that part." Creuset replied.
"The Alliance apparently developed another pack for Strike, and it was quite a shock to see it in action." Athrun tried to explain.
The pilots re-capped the events that lead up to the eventual defeat at the hands of Strike and the two Skygraspers.
"So you're telling me that Strike and the Archangel are still fully operational. We can't expect many reinforcements, but at least we can repair all of your Gundams."
"I wouldn't say Strike is fully operational Commander, but it's still active." Yzak corrected.
"Either way, Strike still poses a threat. We don't know the Archangel's objective, but its either going for the Victoria base, or the Gibraltar base." Nichol said.
-
C.E. 71, April 17th
By the time the Cousteau caught up with the Archangel, the Alliance ship had landed in the African deserts and the ZAFT Gundams were fully repaired. Strike engaged the Desert Tiger, Captain Andrew Bartfelt, and thus far, neither pilot had come out on top.
The Gundams were sent to reinforce the Lesseps, Captain Bartfelt's ship, which was currently in a position to attack the Archangel. Rumors of the resistance group Desert Dawn joining with the Alliance forces had reached the Creuset team's ears.
Though small in numbers and under-armed, they had managed to resist this far, and even destroy or damage a few mobile suits.
"Gundams, you are cleared for launch!"
A/N: Biiiiig battle there. More to come. Hopefully soon. Please R & R!