A/N: Whew it's been awhile….let's pick up the pace a bit shall we?
Kira the Knight ch7- Ill timed Assault
Kira once again lay in the infirmary bed barely conscious with someone beside him he couldn't quite make out who opening his eyes took too much effort and suddenly he found himself praying that he hadn't somehow been captured which was actually highly possible with the way things had gone if Seraph had decided to drag his gundam along there wouldn't have been much any one could have done about it….
"kira….what were you thinking? You fool…why'd you go and get yourself hurt?"
Kira could hear the words but wasn't really grasping them he was only barely conscious and didn't even have his eyes open it seemed like it took an incredible amount of strength just to make his eye lids flinch so he left them be. He heard more garbled talk it should have been sentences but all he heard was.
"….stupid…..hurt….what I….do…you"
Next he felt something on his chest it was a weight pushing down then he felt something wet…instinctively he moved his hand to it. He found it was warm and soft then he began to realize what it was.
'hair?...someones head?....who is…?.....Fllay…' he suddenly realized
Flay looked up at kira when his hand touched her head.
"Kira?" She said questioningly unsure if he was really awake or if he had reacted by instinct.
Kira tried hard to open his eyes again but the medication he'd been put on had other ideas…he laid there fighting to open just one eye for what seemed like hours before finally opening one eye then abruptly closing it when the shock of light hit him.
"uuugh….light…..flay?....you still here?.." he managed to say.
"Yes Kira…I'm here." She answered grabbing his hand.
"could you…..turn off…light.?" His words were becoming garbled and he found speaking a whole sentence hard
'Just what the hell did they put me on?...or is it even the drugs? Maybe I hit my head too hard?' he thought suddenly alarmed. As the possibility that he may be more seriously hurt than he thought entered his mind.
"Of course kira…" Flay replied and went to cut off the light he heard the light flick off.
"there" She said and returned to his side.
Now Kira tried once more to open his eyes and this time when he did he kept them open although everything was hazy for awhile slowly but surely it all slid into focus and he could clearly see Flay's beautiful face giving him a smile.
"Flay…you're a sight for sore eyes…literally" Kira joked.
"haha….kira…you're such a fool…going and getting hurt worse than you already were just to save me." She said
"No…is it foolish to save the only thing I hold dear to me? Whatever the price?" kira asked. He found his motor skills were returning to him and his worries about being hurt slipped away for the moment.
"Kira…" Was all Flay could say she didn't know what to say to that and there wasn't really any arguing with it either.
"Fllay if I hadn't gone out there and you'd died I'd never have forgiven myself for not going. I don't know what I'd do without you…so I couldn't just sit here I had to go there just wasn't any other option for me." He said
"Kira…you don't know what it means to me for you to say that…" She said deeply touched by his words she hadn't thought about it that way or even thought that he'd think that way about her. Well although they'd had that talk and it'd been decided they'd be together she never stopped to think about just what it all meant. Just what was it they had? Was it really love? Or was it something else? Something more sick and twisted?
Fllay found herself without an answer to her own questions although she had told Kira she loved him she wasn't sure if she'd actually meant it. It had been a spur of the moment thing but now faced with real emotion her façade faltered and she found it falling apart as little by little kira was beginning to reach what little was left of her heart.
"Flay you don't have to say anything….it's enough that you stayed here with me all this time…" Kira said seeing her at a loss for words. To which her only reply was a look of mixed emotions she was grateful he had spared her for the moment from reaching a conclusion but it hurt her that she couldn't answer her own question.
But before either of them could say anything more an alert was sounded and once again the base was under attack and Flay sighed
"Looks like we have to fight again….Kira…you rest don't you go charging out there on my account okay? We can't have you getting any worse." She told him as she got up to leave. Kira didn't dare argue with her though he wanted to the state of his body right now screamed at him "don't you dare even THINK about getting up" so he just laid there a simple nod his only reply as his eyes followed her as she left otherwise he was completely motionless.
The battle field only minutes later…
The Angelic and Zeus Gundams were on the battlefield this time with a full company of Ginns. Though the Ginns weren't much of a factor really they served as great distractions.
On the opposing side however…Seraph and Firebird were leading the charge vengeance was still under repair so it was absent from the battle accompanied by a full wing of Skygraspers generously supplied by the federation base where Archangel had been stationed before it launched for this attack. This was most certainly going to be a battle to remember and possibly one that could change the tide of the entire war if the gundams were lost or changed hands and in the distance an unmarked squad watched and waited….their purpose still as of yet unrevealed.
The battle commenced with fire from the Zeus long before anyone else was in range to fire back. He was fully into the secondary firing mode and his dual railguns made quite a dent in the forces of the Federation before they even got halfway. Though they weren't totally stupid and eventually they spread out enough to minimize casualties while keeping formation.
"Flay….go to it" Athren said as he fired another volley.
"right…..Squads 1 and 2 and 3 with me squad 4 you're with Athren. Should anybody get through it's your job to keep them off him understood?" She ordered
"Yes maa'm" Was the resounding reply though Flay had technically shouldn't have been able to order them around since she was by all means a simple grunt like the rest at this point since she hadn't really earned any rank. But her status with Kira which had seen to it that she was able to acquire a gundam and pilot it fairly well made her an asset to Zaft so on the battlefield she was considered superior if no where else.
Flay took off followed by the first three squads of Ginns with turret fire coming from the base itself to support them. As well as Zeus's constant barrages.
But mere moments after the two armies clashed all hell broke loose. The third squad whose purpose had previously been unknown made itself apparent but the puzzling thing was….it was attacking BOTH sides.
"what the? Where'd these guys come from?!" Cagalli said turning firebird to engage them. "I dunno but it's apparent they're no friends of anyone here." La flaga said observing that they were not only destroying skygraspers but Ginns as well. The new arrivals were using black unmarked suits of unknown configuration. The only things that were certain about them were they didn't belong to either side and that they were using entirely beam weapons which meant they weren't any small time organization either.
Flay by this point was thoroughly aggravated not only was Sai not here for her to beat him to a pulp but now she had to deal with cowards who didn't even declare themselves a force. She used the ability of her gundam to form shards of energy around her gundam and sent them flying out hunting down her enemies. Some managed to dodge but most were cut down by her attack.
"Hey…that one's getting better with that suit." La flaga observed
"Quit admiring and get back to the battle!" Cagalli scolded him.
"sorry…just making an observation." He replied making his way through suits as if they weren't even there. Cagalli was doing the same to the Ginns and Athren was practicly erasing skygraspers from the sky. A squad of the black suits turned in his direction and the Ginns surrounding him charged ahead to protect him and surprising faired rather well before the enemy revealed it's true fighting strength.
More squads appeared from under the sand seemingly out of nowhere and Above them a large black suit one hand formed into the shape of a dragon head and the other a wicked looking sickle it even had a tail and wings that curved slightly (think like epyon's wings from gundam wing only bigger)
"Is that….a…..Gundam?" everyone asked themselves at the exact same instant.
"This is getting out of hand we should fall back for now till we can figure out where these guys came from and what their purpose is…and more importantly we need info on that gundam." La flaga said as he gave the order to pull out this attack would have to be put off for now.
Whereas Flay and Athren were thinking similar thoughts
"Flay….We need to get out of here we can't fight two battles at once and neither can they at this rate Neither Zaft nor the Earth Forces will win the battle." Athren said after firing a few shots to free up his squad so they could return to their position around him and away from the battle though they were down a few men.
"Agreed…We'll fall back for now we'll just have to escape with on the Desert Tiger's ship he did stick around to see how we performed didn't he?" Flay asked As she cut through two more suits that were foolish enough to try and attack her.
"Oh right….Let's go if we leave the base I doubt they'll attack it somehow I think their goal is to either destroy or capture the other gundams." Athren said and then opened a channel to the base
"Athren here…We think it'd be best to fall back for now and abandon the base until we can get a more suitable battle situation….perhaps if we had Kira we could pursue this battle but…" he was cut off by the commander
"Say no more I was about to give the order myself you all are to report to Commander Bartfeld's ship immediately. We can't afford to risk the new gundams and the old ones will be put aboard as well We can't lose those either. Kira has already been moved there he's waiting for you two." La kluze informed him
"Right away sir…You get that flay?"
"Yea I got it let's go Everyone return to base we're pulling out of this one." She ordered and though t took them some effort slowly the Zaft forces freed themselves from the battle. As the Earth Forces tried to do the same thing but they found it much more difficult with no base to surport them directly the only support was Archangel which was a good distance away and their only means of transport which meant it couldn't be risked.
Though the new force didn't seem to care much that Zaft was retreating it certainly did care that the Earth Forces were.
3 hours later…
Kira awoke in an unfamiliar bed but there was a familiar face staring back at him.
"Hey…"
"You?.....but what're…."
"Relax…you're on my ship your friends will be here soon enough. They were doing repairs since the maintenance crew is a bit short handed right now" It was Andrew bartfeld A.k.a. The Desert Tiger.
" oh…I see….so I take it the battle went badly then?" Kira asked trying to sit up.
Andrew simply nodded "horrible…many soldiers lost their lives today….and for no good reason. We were attacked not only by the Earth Forces but by another previously unknown group as well." He informed Kira
"An unknown?..." Kira repeated the words as if trying to grasp the concept of another side in the war.
"Yes…It seems they weren't Earth Forces…they got hit harder than we did. Whoever these guys are they've got some firepower. Not one of their suits used shell weapons of any kind and seeing as it's much more expensive to produce a beam weapon than a standard shell based weapon they must have some decent funds to produce such a large force to attack us with just to announce their presence…what really bothers me though is that they had a gundam." He paused after that letting the fact sink in.
"A gundam?!...but…how?" Kira asked
"My guess is as good as yours kid…we have no clue. Everything about them is completely unknown. The Earth Forces really aren't in much shape to fight back right now and they seem to know it. Which may be why they're so concerned with destroying them first. If the weaker of the two disappears and Zaft is all that's left then they can not only focus entirely on Zaft but they have whatever resources they'd acquire by defeating the earth forces as well A very sound plan as opposed to attacking both outright or attacking Zaft first seeing as we're the ones winning this war. If they attacked us it'd only prolong thins as opposed to Attacking the weaking Earth forces and letting Zaft do all the hard work….Ingenious…" He was talking more to himself now than to Kira but kira was still listening carefully.
'who could create such a force and go unnoticed? Who has that kind of money? Or power? Who has that kid of influence? And how did they get a gundam?' were the questions in Kira's mind right now but he had no answers and neither did anyone else.
End Chapter 7-
Okay whaddaya think? Pretty good for a returning chapter eh? Next chapter a few clues may be laying about….but don't read too much into things oh and I'm going to start trying to show more of what's going on back on archangel as well especially now that they have yet another force to contend with.
Next chapter – Zodiac