Gundam SEED: The Keshitai
A Kido Senshi Gundam SEED Fan Fiction by Prayer Reverie
Contact: prayerreverie(at)yahoo(dot)com
Summary: The heroes of the war set off to stop a vicious group from starting another! The fate of the Earth and the Colonies rests on their shoulders. KL, DM, AC, Y … uh …
This will be AU, thanks to Destiny (anyone seen Phase 01: Angry Eyes yet? It's awesome, with good background music!), however try to think of this story as a side-story, or a filler story much as Battlefield of Pacifists and Ground Zero was for Gundam Wing and Endless Waltz.
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED in any way (although some days I wish), but any Original Characters and Original Mobile Suits are mine.
Rating: PG-13. I don't plan on mincing words and there will probably be some descriptive scenes, but nothing outside of the rating boundaries. You have been warned.
King Arthur6687: Note to self: Proof-read is good for all. Thanks for helping out, I'll have to re-post my previous chapters soon. You seem have to great faith in Lacus.
KiraLacus/RyomoSakuno Forever: KiraxLacus seems to be one of the most popular pairings eh?
Angel of Dreams: Fluff? Done. Action? Done. Suspense? I'll try. Intensity? Always. Cliffhanger? Hopefully.
cherri-chan: Phase three should be out on Saturday (6PM Japan Time). I've seen Phase 2, and I think Shin pwns all with his Excalibur Swords.
Chibi Fyrefly: Cagalli is a fighter, pure and simple. I figured 1017M GINN High Mobility types would be the easiest.
Chapter 3: Her Rescuers
C.E. 71
In an instant they were surrounded, outnumbered and outgunned. There was little on their level to use as cover, and there were plenty of men on the upper catwalks with unobstructed angles of fire.
"Surrender now or die!" the leader said.
Yzak looked around to see his options. As a soldier he always was prepared and even now, as a Councilor, he never gave up. Moreover, he had a little trick up his sleeve.
"Get ready to bounce, go through the main doors straight ahead, don't stop for anything!" Yzak whispered to the group.
The group nodded slightly, to show they understood. Dearka look Yzak square in the eyes. There seemed to be a silent countdown between the two.
"I won't repeat myself! Surrender! Or die!" the leader shouted again.
Yzak and Dearka threw two flash-bang grenades, which had almost magically appeared in their hands, upwards. The grenades detonated, sending the men on the upper catwalks clutch their ears in pain and squeeze their eyes shut to block the intense light.
The soldiers on the ground level were distracted for an instant, and that was just what the group needed. They pushed off and hurtled through the line of soldiers supposedly blocking their escape. The sound of flesh on flesh was heard, along with curses and by the time the soldiers recovered from the shock, their captives were gone.
"It's going to be tough to escape; they know where our suits are." Shiho pointed out.
"We'll worry about that later. Right now our objective is to disable and possibly destroy this outpost." Yzak said.
"And rescue Lacus." Kira reminded him.
"We should split up: one group goes for the generators on this rock, the other goes to rescue Lacus." Athrun suggested.
"I, Dearka and Shiho will go for the generators. You, Kira and Cagalli go for Lacus." Yzak agreed, splitting the team into two.
"First we should find out where everything is. Even with our new weapons we can't fight off the entire base." Dearka said.
There was a nearby information terminal, to which Kira stepped up and started to hack their system to access the restricted information. He was muttering to himself about bypassing this and re-routing that until finally the console beeped.
"We're in. Prison cells and Lacus are one Level 13. Generator and Power Regulation controls are located on Level 17. We're on Level 15 currently and there's an armory located two corridors over." Kira said, locating all of their objective locations.
"Right then, to the armory and then we split up. Try not to be more than 30 minutes. We'll meet up at the hangar again." Yzak said.
Surprisingly no one had set off an alarm yet. The guards knew that they had escaped, and the base commander, Syuu, knew as well. What kind of game was he playing?
They reached the armory without encountering any opposition, so they quickly broke in to grab what they needed. Everyone got a thruster pack; to better navigate the corridors, two grenades; one flash-bang and one fragmentation, a pistol with spare clips and spare clips for their stolen machine guns. The Generator Team grabbed high-yield explosives as well.
"Good luck to you." Dearka said before the two groups parted ways at an access tunnel.
"Same to you." Athrun replied.
Yzak, Dearka and Shiho jetted downwards, flying away to accomplish their objectives. Athrun looked at Kira solemnly. All three nodded and they took off for the upper levels.
-
"Sir, shouldn't we alert the rest of the base personnel?" asked one of the guards.
"And ruin our fun? We haven't had a real challenge in ages, especially hand to hand. We'll let our plucky heroes and heroines continue unopposed until they meet guards who don't know about the situation." Syuu replied, relishing this new challenge.
"What about the injured guards on 15?" he asked.
"What about them? They were all careless enough to be distracted, and so they paid a price. Mind you I would have made them pay a bigger price, but that's just me." Syuu said, brushing off all of the guards concerns.
-
It had taken Kira, Athrun and Cagalli only a few minutes to zip up the access tunnel to level 13. Athrun opened to door slowly, trying not to alert any guards of their presence. He still wasn't sure why the alarm hadn't gone off, but he was thankful nonetheless.
"What cell is she in?" Cagalli asked.
"Cell Block 1138, Cell 2187." Kira replied while scanning for patrols.
"Maybe we should don some enemy uniforms, just in case." Athrun said.
Lady Luck was definitely with them, they turned a corner to see two guards floating away from them. There was one male and one female, and they looked young. The three quickly and silently caught up with the guards and knocked them out with their rifle butts.
There was an unoccupied room nearby, so the trio dragged the unconscious guards into the room to change. Athrun and Cagalli changed with theirs backs to each other, which allowed Kira to watch the doors, just in case someone popped in.
"Here's the plan: we'll 'cuff' Kira and pretend he's our prisoner being transferred to Lacus' cell block. Assuming there are only a few guards present, we can overpower them and rescue Lacus." Athrun suggested.
"Sounds good to me." Cagalli agreed.
"Then let's do it." Kira said
The door to the cellblock opened silently, the trio walked in, with Cagalli and Athrun flanking Kira, who had his head lowered. Kira's twin and best friend held their rifles at a low ready position, while his own hands were bound in front.
"Where are you taking him?" the head guard asked. Two other guards looked up from their stations.
"Prisoner transfer to cell block 1138." Athrun replied.
"I wasn't notified of this." The head guard said.
"Commander Syuu kept the intrusion quiet." Athrun wasn't lying.
"That doesn't matter, hand him over and leave."
Kira looked up finally, his eyes crystallized into seed mode. The guard paused at this sight, which gave Kira enough time to pull his handcuffs apart and snatch Cagalli's machine gun out of her hands.
"Look out he's loose!" Athrun yelled, diving to the side and taking aim with his machine gun.
Cagalli dived to the other side and pulled out her pistol as Kira opened fire, scything back and forth and taking out the two hapless guards. The head guard had better reflexes, allowing him to dive underneath the console for cover. Unfortunately for him, Athrun flipped over the console, landing right behind the guard. The two shots couldn't even be distinguished from the racket Kira was making while shooting out the cameras and a few control panels.
Finally there was nothing left to shoot, and as the general cacophony died down, an alarm could be heard. It was a localized alarm, much to Athrun's relief.
"You go get Lacus, I'll answer the call." Athrun ordered. Kira didn't even give a second look; he was already heading down the hall looking for cell number 2187.
"Uh, everything's under control here now." Athrun said as he turned unit on.
"What happened up there?" the man asked.
"Slight weapons malfunction caused by a prisoner's escape attempt. Everything is under control now." Athrun was beginning to sweat a little.
"We're sending a squad up."
"Negative, negative, there's been a reactor leak here, very large leak, very dangerous. Give me a minute to lock it down." You could have cut Athrun's tension with a spoon.
"Who is this? What's your operating number?"
Athrun fired into the console, destroying it.
"Boring conversation anyways." Athrun muttered, noting Cagalli mouthing 'reactor leak?'
"Kira! We're going to have company!" Athrun yelled, turning to Kira's direction.
Kira didn't acknowledge Athrun's warning visibly, but he knew he had to find Lacus' cell. It wasn't much further before he found it. He opened the door and saw Lacus, bound and gagged. Her feet were tied together, barely able to support her, her hands tied together at the wrists above her head, her mouth was gagged and there was something in her ears and over her eyes making her twitch slightly.
"Lacus!" Kira called out, rushing into the cell to help her.
He quickly undid the straps holding her upright and unbound her hands and feet. Lowering her gently to the floor, he removed her gag and noticed wires were trailing from the ceiling to whatever was covering her ears and eyes.
"Kuso, what are they doing?" he asked himself.
Removing one of the earpieces, he brought up to his own ear to listen.
"And so it was, the Coordinators were overrun at Carpentaria, fitting justice for the attack on JOSH-A. It was largely due to the Blue Cosmos' elite Keshitai that ..."
Kira dropped the earpiece and removed the other one from Lacus, and then took the eye coverings off. Her eyes were still twitching under her eyelids.
"Lacus." He said again, softly this time.
"Kira?" she mumbled, as she opened her eyes, still unsure of what exactly was going on.
"I'm here Lacus." He said, hugging her tightly.
"Kira!" she said, more relieved this time.
Lacus broke the embrace and kissed her handsome rescuer passionately on the lips. Kira returned her kiss with equal passion and the melted into each other's arms.
-
Yzak, Dearka and Shiho made it down to the Generator room without any problems whatsoever, which merely reinforced Yzak's belief that the three of them were being toyed with.
The trip down the access tunnel had gone smoothly, and they had made it to their destination rather quickly, only seeing two patrols, both of which were easily avoided. Dearka, Yzak knew, had his doubts about the difficulty of their mission, or the lack thereof.
The trio of Coordinators placed their explosive in key areas, zipping back and forth to accomplish their mission. Their actions reminded Yzak and Dearka of infiltrating Heliopolis and setting explosives to destroy the Archangel and wipe out the crew. The ship had survived and in the end it was a good thing.
Now however, Yzak saw no chance of the Blue Cosmos joining any neutral faction to stop two genocidal factions. To Yzak, the Blue Cosmos had ordered the attack on Junius 7, and the attacks on the Boaz space fortress and the failed and repeated attacks on the rest of the PLANTs.
These people had to be stopped, and it had to be now. No one could afford another war, not with all of the hatred flying around. It would truly become genocide if the flames of war were fed enough to consume everyone.
Yzak wouldn't let that happen, not after all he and everyone else had done!
"Yzak!" Dearka said, breaking Yzak out of his train of thought.
"What?" he snapped irritably.
"Charges are set; we've got to rendezvous with Athrun's team now."
"Right. Set the timers for 3 minutes." Yzak ordered. Shiho and Dearka complied, and they quickly left the room.
"Did Kira say exactly where Lacus was being held?" Shiho asked as they passed level 16.
"Not to my knowledge." Dearka said.
"No he didn't say, but I saw her location on the terminal. Cell block 1138, cell 2187." Yzak said, confirming the location.
An alarm went off as they passed level 14. Yzak sighed and readied his weapon, his squad members doing the same. Finally they came to level 13. It wasn't utter chaos, as Yzak had assumed it would be, but there were more patrols out than they had encountered on level 17.
"What's with all of the commotion?" Dearka asked.
"Athha probably tripped over something." Yzak retorted.
"Emergency in Cell Block 1138." A voice said over the intercom.
"Oh great, now they've done it. I really think Athrun's lost his edge."
The trio managed to get to the cellblock undetected, in time to see a group of 10 men attempting to pry the door open. None of them gave the soldiers a second thought as they quickly dispatched their opponents.
Seeing there were no other guards in the vicinity, they stepped over the bodies and leaned towards the door.
"Athrun! Kira! Are you in there?" Dearka said quietly.
"They won't be able to hear you if you whisper!" Yzak said impatiently.
Their three minutes were up, and the bombs placed on the generators detonated, taking everything from the coolant systems to the power grip with it. The lights flickered briefly, and then died. Emergency lights snapped on, providing minimal illumination. The quiet humming of the air circulators died out as well.
"Objective one complete with bonus side effect of no air." Dearka said sarcastically.
Yzak grabbed the pry-bar that was still lodged in the door. With no power to hold the door shut, it slid open easily, at least for Yzak. He stepped inside, with Shiho and Dearka right behind him. They scanned the room, rifles at the ready. Three bodies were on the floor, and the remains of a communications unit on the console could be seen, along with the dangling remains of security cameras on the walls.
"Zala! You'd better be finished in there!" Yzak called out.
Two figures separated from the shadows, and thanks to his enhanced vision, Dearka could tell that it was Athrun and Cagalli, both holding their machine guns aimed at the door.
"Damnit Yzak! We thought you were Blue Cosmos soldiers." Athrun said.
"In your dreams. Now where are Yamato and Lacus?"
"Right here." Kira said, emerging from the cell carrying Lacus who held on to Kira's upper body tightly.
"I'd rather not leave our suits here for these terrorists to examine, so I suggest we make our escape post haste." Yzak said, turning to leave.
The group made it to the access tunnel unopposed, but as soon as Dearka peeked inside, he immediately pulled out again.
"What?" Shiho asked.
"20 armed guards in there." Dearka said.
Yzak armed his fragmentation grenade and tossed it down the shaft. Counting to three, he closed the door to block the explosion. Muffled cries of pain and surprise were heard, and he opened the door to peek.
"All clear." Yzak said.
Clear of living enemies was one thing, but the tube now held free-falling blood drops and dead bodies, mutilated from the shrapnel grenade. Lacus kept her eyes squeezed shut and held onto Kira tightly as they passed the carnage.
Even Cagalli kept closer to Athrun than usual, at least until they cleared the chaos. Finally they reached level 15, and exited the access tunnel. Stepping onto the deck, Shiho looked around.
"All clear ... for now." She called back to her teammates.
The group was moving as quickly as possible, heading for the hangar bay to board their suits and get off this rock. The extensive damage to the generators meant Port Arthur would be out of commission for several months. Yzak made a mental note to log the coordinates and send in an inspection crew later.
They had just reached the doors when Syuu spoke over the intercom again.
"Well played my friends, very well played. Rest assured this is not the end of us, or the debt between us. There will be a day when the Earth Alliance will strike vengeance for all of your crimes, and come hell or high water your secrets will be rightfully stolen."
"Go to hell Syuu and enjoy the stay." Yzak said.
"And if you ever try to hurt my friends or loved ones again, I can assure you will pay a price larger than you thought possible." Kira added.
"I can assure you Mister Yamato, I have a very good imagination, so I challenge you: do your worst!" There was an audible click as the system shut down.
"Must've been running on a battery backup." Dearka said.
"I guess the base staff is too busy trying to cope without a generator to give us second thought." Shiho said.
"Well, except for Syuu, he seems like the type to hold a grudge." Cagalli commented.
Their suits were exactly as they had left them, which was another surprise to the group.
"You know for a group formerly belonging to the Earth Alliance, their policies in dealing with intruders is sorely lacking." Athrun said, settling in his GINN HM cockpit.
"Beggars can't be choosers." Cagalli replied.
"Yeah, don't look a gift horse in the mouth." Dearka added.
"Enough of the proverbs, let's get back to the Aprilius Null." Yzak said, taking off and shooting out of the hangar.
"Home sweet home." Shiho said, launching next.
"Gonna make like a tree and leave." Dearka said in a sing-song tone.
"Home is where you hand your heart, or park your suit." Cagalli was next.
"Some things just get out of hand around us." Athrun said.
Kira was the last to launch, Lacus was trying to find a comfortable position to sit, and not so awkward that Kira couldn't pilot.
Their timing for escape couldn't have been worse. A distress beacon had been launched when the generators were destroyed, signaling all off-base units to return. Kira had just launched when their sensors picked up over a dozen targets.
"Tally ho! I read 13, repeat one three, mobile suits, GAT-01A Strike Daggers and one Xebec-class light carrier." Sai reported from the Aprilius Null.
"A little over 2-to-1 odds. Null can handle that carrier with no problem, everyone else, break by pairs and call out your targets!" suiting words to actions, Yzak and Dearka broke left, aiming at the topmost Strike Dagger.
"Cagalli, with me! We'll take the bottom Dagger!" Athrun announced.
"It's just you and me then Kira. We'll go for the port-side Daggers." Shiho said.
Lacus' eyes widened. Fighting other mobile suits with a burden in your cockpit? That was almost unthinkable. Kira acknowledged and aimed at one of his targets.
Yzak opened fire with his beam rifle, scattering his group and destroying one of the Daggers.
"First blood is mine!" he called out triumphantly.
Dearka combined his guns to from the anti-armor shotgun and fired at the scattering Daggers. A second one exploded from the barrage.
"Two down!" he tallied.
Athrun and Cagalli opened fire with their machine guns, both of them targeting the same suit to down it faster. The Dagger exploded as the rest of them opened fire, forcing Cagalli and Athrun into evasive maneuvers. Kira switched out his rifle for his heavy sword as Shiho opened fire.
Kira used that as cover and darted forward, bringing the sword down through the head of a Dagger. Shiho damaged another one by destroying its arm. The Aprilius Null opened fire on the Xebec-class, damaging its forward weapons. The CIWS Igelstellung cannons opened fire as well, destroying a fourth dagger. With only seven Daggers to engage, the odds had become considerably more balanced.
The Daggers split into teams, two teams of two and a team of three. The trio of Daggers hounded Dearka while the other teams engaged Cagalli and Shiho. Kira moved to support his teammate and grabbed his rifle.
A lucky shot penetrated the Buster Dagger's armor, damaging the cockpit and taking Dearka out of the fray.
"Aprilius Null, I'm hit! Coming home." Dearka said.
If they had their Gundams, these mass produced units would have been dust in the wind in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately the mass produced units they were flying weren't as superior as the Gundams they were used to flying.
Yzak grabbed both of his beam sabers and charged the lead Dagger, slicing its arms off then stabbing the cockpit before slicing the head off of the next Dagger. As Kira flew past Shiho, he fired his rifle, hitting one of the Daggers in the upper torso, destroying its main thrusters.
Athrun equipped his own heavy sword and dragged it through a Dagger harassing Cagalli.
"Blue Cosmos forces, you are now outnumbered and outgunned. Lower your weapons and surrender, or we'll be forced to destroy you." Yzak broadcasted.
The natural pilots ignored the offer and continued their attack. Shiho lost her GINNs arms to a wild attack from one of the Daggers and retreated while Kira destroyed her attacker. Cagalli attached her sword to her rifle, slammed it into the other Dagger, and then opened fire.
The two remaining Daggers started a suicide charge on the Aprilius Null, aiming for the engines and bridge. The GINN HMs raced after the suicidal units while Yzak moved to take out their carrier.
A blanket of fire came from the three GINNs, destroying both Daggers before they could do any serious harm. The Aprilius Null kept attacking the natural carrier, and with Yzak's help they sent it running in short order.
A medical team was in the hangar bay by the time everyone had secured their suits. Milly was beside Dearka, tending his light shoulder wound as the medics cleared Shiho.
"I think a debriefing can wait for a few hours. I suggest we all get some rest." Yzak said. The others nodded in agreement.
Kira and Lacus made it back to his room without saying much. Lacus was reluctant to let him go even when the doors closed. She looked up at Kira.
"Thank you for rescuing me." She said earnestly.
"Yzak's the one who got us up here and he got us the suits, you'll have to thank everyone. But I'm grateful you're ok." Kira replied.
"As long as you're here, I'll be fine." She replied sweetly.
Kira smiled as kissed her again.
A/N: Well I had a case of Writer's Block for the ending, so don't be surprised if I go back and change a few things. Speaking of changes, I went back to fix most (hopefully all) of my previous errors and changed a few minor things. It may be a while for my next update, I'm busy with Phase Zero, CT914 and G:OB that Amuro is hosting. Again always R&R, Constructive Criticism welcome.