Ayashi no Yuugi

Disclaimer: Standard disclaimers apply.

Chapter 12: Nautilus Strike Part IV

KamuiGaia07: Erm… I'm a bit confused… what should I rate this chapter? There's a bit of strong language being used here…

Anyway, I'm sorry for the delay! I've been a bit busy…

Anyway, I've been getting all these invites for all these colleges, and I don't even know about two thirds of them. I suppose it's to be expected, since I will officially be a senior once the school year starts. Man, time flies, doesn't it? It feels like only yesterday that I saw my high school for the first time…

Anyway, I suppose that it's officially time for me to start thinking what college I want to go to, isn't it? Gods… I don't even know what college I want to go to. I mean, I wanna go to CalState before transferring to USC or a UC, but I'm not even sure if I'll get accepted… In fact, I should start looking for scholarships right now, too… Oh, boy… the amount of stuff I gotta do is overwhelming. I'm really nervous, and its not even September yet! But it will be, and it'll come much too soon. Oh, God, I'm so dead… Will I even graduate? Will I get into the college I want? Will I this, will I that? There are so many will I's and what if's that my head is spinning!

Previously, on Ayashi no Yuugi…

April 23 AC 198; 10:34 AM

CSA L4 Orbital Base, Futune, Central Command Center

"Twenty hundred Nautilus uniforms have been reported in hotels in a two block radius of the Emperor Hotel!"

"Two hundred unidentified MS and MD lining up along the path of L4 shuttle 5983 to colony L2. Possible target, Vice Foreign Minister, Relena Dorlian Peacecraft, Princess of the Sanq Kingdom!"

12:00 PM

Colony L6, CSA Spica Academy Auditorium

"…the enemy mission codenamed Nautilus Strike will take place at 1200 hours. The presumed target: Miss Relena Dorlian Peacecraft!"

…"…you will graduate from Spica Academy as fully fledged Cosmos Star Agents, and you will find yourself thrown into the midst of war. …we are … to prepare you for life in a war torn world…"

April 24 AC 198; 12:00 AM

Emperor Hotel, Colony L4

Soldiers dressed in the uniforms of the Nautilus…

…swarmed in.

Mission Nautilus Strike had begun.

…the wall blasted apart and a … figure dressed in black wearing a silvery mask entered.

…several grenades flew forward… and the only thing left of the Nautilus soldiers in the room were bits and pieces of flesh and bone and… a corpse or two or three lying around in large pools of blood.

4:10 AM

Colony L2 CSA Orbital Base, Gosroth, Central Command Center

"Enemy MS are coming to life! They are taking on an attack formation!"

"MS Team Dark reports that more enemy MS are approaching the target!"

"Contact Battleship Goldstreak! Order her to D5, H6!"

April 24 AC 198; 5:05 AM

Colony L4, Winner Mansion

…"Why would J give the baka command over the mission? He didn't even listen to your debriefing. He-"

"He was debriefed by Madame S, the trainer of GT Kamikaze."

…the Deathsythe pilot, who was wearing a lightweight red spacesuit with a light but strong grey plastic chest and shoulder guard, reinforced by a thin layer of steel in the core. The number 02 was on the shoulder of his right arm in black. Under his left arm was a red padded helmet to go with the suit.

"Let's go," Duo said …

"Who are you and who do you work for?"

"Experiment Z68GX230, Subject Specimen 02, Shinigami, codename Duo Maxwell, colleague of Gundam Pilots 01, 03, 04, and 05,"… "Startup Date: December 12, 182 AC. Purpose: Pilot of Gundam Deathsythe. … Additional information: Classified."

Duo…said, "Let's go. We have a mission to take care of." And he turned and walked off.

XoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoX

Gaia stared unseeingly out the shuttle window, her eyes glazed over. Cosmos sat primly in her seat, reading an e-book on her handheld computer. Relena was sitting between them, and was going over budget reports for the maintenance of the Peacecraft Palace.

Suddenly, the shuttle gave a great lurch and Gaia and Cosmos were on their feet almost instantly. Gaia's eyes focused on the hundreds of MS outside the shuttle.

A loud and angry, "K'so!" came after a few seconds of horrified silence, followed by a multilingual stream of explicatives that would have made a sailor blush.

Cosmos leaned over and stared out the window and uttered a long stream of multilingual explicatives to make Gaia proud. She straightened and slid into the aisle while Gaia grabbed Relena, and they dragged her out of the passenger wing. Gaia pulled out her gun and quickly made sure that the magazine was full and that the safety was off. She reached into her pocket and drew out an earpiece and slipped it on, making sure to check that the communicator was still in full working order before switching it on.

Cosmos took the time to pull out her gun and check it over as well while Gaia checked the other communicator and checking it. Once Cosmos placed the gun in its holster at her waist where she could reach it easily and quickly, Gaia handed her the earpiece which she slid on before the two grabbed a hold of Relena and dragged her off toward the bridge.

They barely gave Relena time to grab her purse.

XoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoX

All Quatre could think of on the flight toward the coordinates given were Duo's cryptic words, the way the had referred to himself as subject specimen 02, an experiment, a machine designed and programmed to kill with a termination date. Hell, not even Heero had a termination date, and he was Dr. J's Perfect Soldier!

"Erm… Duo?" Quatre said quietly into the communicator.

Duo's face instantly appeared in the monitor, looking harsh and fierce behind the tinted plastic of the helmet. "What is it, Winner?" Duo said dully, his voice flat.

Quatre flinched. This was just wrong. This was Duo! Duo never called anyone by their last name unless he was seriously ticked off or seriously distracted.

"Are you alright, Duo?" Quatre asked nervously. "You're not acting like yourself."

Duo's eyes and voice became gentler at that. "It's nothing, Quatre. I'm just worried, that's all. This is a big thing that we've gotten caught up in, and none of us have any idea what to do about it."

"Oh," Quatre relaxed. "Can I ask a question?"

Duo grinned. "You already have, Q-ball. But go ahead, ask away. I won't lie to you though; I can't guarantee that I'll be at liberty to answer the question."

"Well… Earlier, you referred to your self as experiment Z68GX230…"

"You want to know why?" Duo chuckled. "I just wanted to see your reactions, so I just threw that in there."

Quatre blinked and fought the urge to facefault onto the console. "You what?"

Duo rubbed the back of his head and laughed nervously. "I was joking. If I offended you in any way, can I just say I'm sorry?"

"Duo…" Quatre muttered, "You will tell the others, right?"

Duo grinned. "Nope."

"One last question."

"Ask away, Q-ball!"

"Can you tell me why the hell you have a TERMINATION DATE?"

Duo's grin widens. "Because I'll be joining Gundam Team Kamikaze on what is classified as a 'No Return Mission' after that date."

"YOU WILL BE WHAT?"

"Heh." Duo glanced at the monitor. "Oh, look! We're here." He froze, staring at the monitor.

"Duo?" Quatre said worriedly.

Two nonseconds later, Duo swore wonderfully as hundreds of MS converged on the shuttle. Quickly, his hands flew over the keyboard, and flipped the necessary switches and each monitor came to life to show each Gundam Pilot.

"Yuy, Chang, Barton, form a point triangle. Winner, guard the shuttle, we can't let them get Relena. Don't lose sight of each other and keep close enough that we can keep an eye on each other's back."

The other four Gundam Pilots nodded and took their positions ad began blasting, cutting, and ripping apart the enemy MS.

Duo flipped a few more switches and two monitors went blank while the other monitors changed frequencies to show two black haired men. "09, 10, how long before you arrive?" Duo snapped.

"We should be there in ten minutes, 02," the man with green eyes answered.

"Hang in there, Shinigami," the man with a gold eye and a white eye said. "We'll be there soon."

"Hurry up, the enemy's begun the attack, and more are coming by the second."

"Acknowledged," the two men said, and the screens went blank.

Duo flipped a few more switches and snarled into the link, "Kaze, status!"

"I'll arrive in two minutes, Shinn," a male voice answered, his voice sounding strained over the com-link.

Duo glared at the enemy as he intercepted a suit that was on a kamikaze run toward the shuttle. He darted in front of it, blowing it to smithereens before the pilot had a chance to react. "Bring it on, assholes!" He yelled to the looming wave of MS and MD, as Quatre maneuvered to the other side of the shuttle.
The enemy was only too happy to comply.

XoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoX

So what do you do when you're a soldier, there's a battle going on all around you and you're itching to join in but can't since you're busy trying to keep an annoying princess of Sanq (with an obsession over Heero Yuy) alive? Curse her to death mentally so you get the pleasure of imagining all the horrible things you will do to the pacifist Princess and at the same time making sure that you won't injure her precious little ears of course. That was precisely what Cosmos was doing as she dragged Relena out of the passenger wing, followed closely by Gaia, whose eyes were now an icy shade of amber.

As the only two female Gundam Pilots in existence, Gaia and Cosmos had gone through a lot, not to mention that they had fought in the Wars, destroyed the monsters that tended to pop up in the Sanq and Tokyo areas, saved the asses of the Gundam Pilots, Infiltrated Oz and the Romefeller Foundation, weakened their base, and overall, made it possible for the Gundam Pilots to successfully bring an end to the Wars, had been ignored, and had died a total of four times each in the previous year. Six in the past two years. But of course, they had always been revived by their friends, and they always came out alright after Duo, Subaru, or Seishiro had gotten them breathing again.

XoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoX

Heero frowned, dodging a mobile doll as he ran it through with his beam saber. They were much faster than the usual type. He wondered what new training the pilots had been subjected to.

Then, "Yui!"
Heero was already on it, swinging his saber up and dodging to the side as the two remaining halves of the other mobile doll collided with one of its friends.
"No, behi-"
Heero swung around, right in time to see it cut down very quickly and efficiently.
"Really Yui, you forgot me. I'm so hurt." Milliardo commented dryly. Heero and the other pilots compensated, quickly forming a square around the shuttle.

And the dolls kept coming. They were like a swarm of bees literally rolling forward.

"I saw about twenty Tauruses around here somewhere." Milliardo reported quietly to him on a private channel. "But apart from that, I don't think there's any real variety of units. They just got the most convenient. Fairly fast, though."
"Mm." Heero agreed, swerving aside.
"Well," Trowa pointed out. "They don't seem too hard. I don't think we have to worry."
"Speak for youself, Trowa," Quatre's worried voice said over the speakers. "My scanners are picking up at least three hundred, with even more coming. And its Duo and I they're focusing on!"
"And they won't give up." Duo's voice was flat. "But if they want to be suicidal idiots, that's their problem. Kaze, issue a Condition Blue to Gaia and Cosmos over the link Madame S gave you."

The pilots were a bit confused as to who Duo was talking too, until a sharp, "Ryoukai," from Milliardo answered the question.

Of all of them, it seemed Duo was receiving the most attention from the dolls. Glancing over, Heero saw why. Duo was preventing the enemy from making direct hits to the passenger side of the shuttle. It seemed they were quite singular about their target.
Relena.
"Duo, are you alright?" He asked, turning back to his own foes.
"Fine," Duo said grimly.
He was matching his own foes speed for speed, cutting them down as quickly as they came and getting as much advantage out of his long range weapon as he could, and he was doing an impressive job.
Trowa was making use of his well-known artillery, blowing up dozens of dolls with carefully planted missiles. Not one had gotten close to him yet. Heero figured he could handle himself.
Quatre, not having as much an advantage of long distance combat as either of them, was doing a good job, and holding his own with little difficulty, despite the numbers.
Wufei was locked in single combat with one of the dolls, blade for blade. The other pilot was quite crafty, using every known trick in the book, and a few unknown ones, to get Wufei off-balance and at disadvantage. So far none had worked, but he had to give the pilot credit. Heero focused on his own targets, keeping an eye on Wufei.
Block, parry, block, parry. Wufei scowled at the opponent before him. They seemed to prefer swordsmanship to the usual battle style, which put him off a bit, but he was up to the task. The MD and MS around them avoided the battle entirely, indicating the doll was probably the leader. That was fine with Wufei. All the more reason to destroy it. He met the opponents blade once more and felt himself pushed back, before sliding the blade aside. The mobile doll took advantage of his openness and raised it's blade for an overhead slice.
Leaving it's torso entirely unguarded.
Which was what Wufei was waiting for. He thrust forward, neatly slicing his sword horizontally through the torso of his opponent with a yell of victory.
"You are down." he declared with satisfaction, before turning to the other dolls, only to find they had all stopped. Then, just as suddenly, they scattered.
"Huh?" What the hell? Had he just started something?
"Chang. Have your dolls stopped attacking?" Heero asked.
"Actually, yes."
Duo frowned as his sensors picked up something. He typed in a command and his eyes widened in shock. He flipped on the vid-link and snapped, "On second thought, Kaze, make it a Condition Red. There are over twenty Tauruses coming from E6, G7, Delta, and they've got four positron cannons with them."

"What!" Milliardo's yelp of shock came clearly over each pilots' com-link. "Where'd the Nautilus get schematics for the Positron Cannons?"

"Do you remember the Amelia virus Gaia found in the Lunar Console the other day?" Duo asked grimly. Milliardo nodded. "That's how."

Milliardo's eyes widened and he snarled a curse and his hands flew over the keyboard of his gundam's console. The other Pilots were quite curious as to what was going on between the Tallgeese and Deathsythe Pilots, but decided that it was currently not the time to question them.

XoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoX

Two halls away from the bridge, Gaia's hand moved to the communicator in her ear and listened to the speaker on the other end. Her hand dropped away, and her eyes narrowed as she snarled three words, "Konoyaro no baka!"

Cosmos looked over and whispered, "Nani?"

"Remember Kaze's issuing a Condition Blue ten minutes ago?" Cosmos nodded. "Well, it's now a Condition Red. It seems that we didn't remove the Amelia virus fast enough, since we have twenty Tuaruses carrying four positron cannons coming this way."

"Shimatta!" Cosmos spat, and dragged Relena away faster. "We have to get the Pacifist Princess off the ship and out of range of any free floating positron particles and fast!"

"The range would be at least seventeen feet. I hope Kaze and Shinn remembered to charge their positron deflector, because I am so not taking responsibility for their deaths or the deaths of any Gundam Pilots," Gaia snapped.

XoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoX

The com-link bleeped and Duo switched it on. "I hope you charged the Positron deflector, Shinn!" Cosmos' voice said.

"I'm doing my best!" Duo snapped. He flipped a switch and snarled, "09, 10, where in seven hells are you?"

"There are a group of twenty white Leos and thirty Aries nearly ten kilometers behind you!" Seishiro's voice was rather strained, "Six Leos have electron cannons, and the rest of the Leos are carrying beam rifles. Seven Aries are carrying electron shields, six have the standard energy shields, and the others are carrying, you won't believe it, nuclear warheads!"

"We're trying to keep them off your backs," Subaru said, his voice strained, "We didn't get here in time to stop the Tauruses with the positron cannons to get through, but even if we had, you, Kaze, Gaia and Cosmos are the ones with the positron deflectors. All Seishiro and I have are the electron cannons and shields, and those don't exactly make much difference where positron beams are concerned."

"Four positron cannons, seven electron shields, and twenty electron cannons," Milliardo growled, "It looks like that damned virus sent out more than we originally thought."

"Nuclear weapons and energy shields," Duo said, his voice flat, icy, and emotionless. "They came prepared. They were hoping – no, they knew that we, as Gundam Pilots, would not allow anything to happen to Relena or the peace that we worked so hard to bring about, so they came with an arsenal that is strong enough to destroy us. This is no longer a scuffle for power between two military organizations; this is now an all out war for control over earth and her colonies."

"Duo!" Quatre yelled, "I'm getting something big off the sensors!"

Duo's eyes narrowed and he hit several buttons, and studied what was on the monitor. He frowned and hit a button and in a voice that was commanding, level and emotionless, said, "This is Admiral Shinn Asuka, First Class, Type Two Unlimited of the CSA. Identify yourself and your vessel."

In their respective cockpits, the eyes of the other Gundam Pilots (excluding Milliardo) bulged. This was a side of Duo Maxwell they had never seen or heard before.

The cloaking lifted to reveal a very large battle ship with the emblem of an eight pointed star with the letters CSA over it in red. (A/N: Think of the Minerva from Gundam Seed Destiny.)

"This is Alexa Morse, Captain of CSA Battleship, First Class, Level 12, Goldstreak."

"This is Admiral Kaze Haruka, Second Class, Type Two Unlimited, Commander of CSA L4 Orbital Base, Futune. Goldstreak, what are you doing?" Milliardo snapped.

"We thought you might like some help, Admiral Kaze, Admiral Shinn." Morse replied.

Duo and Milliardo exchanged a look over the vid-link and Duo nodded. Milliardo inclined his head in answer and hit a button. "Your help is very much appreciated, Goldstreak, but not yet neccessary."

"Roger that. We await your instructions, Admiral Shinn, Admiral Kaze."

"Stand by, Goldstreak," Duo said.

"Roger, Goldstreak out."

Of course, just then, an Aries slammed into the Deathsythe, throwing it aside and away from the shuttle. Duo swore as he was thrown painfully against the safety harnesses.

Another large battle ship (A/N: Think of the Gosroth from Crest of the Stars.), this time with the emblem of a dagger with the stem of a rose wrapped around the hilt appeared. A docking clamp extended from one of the bays, and clamped itself firmly onto the passenger side of the shuttle.

Milliardo and Duo had made no effort to keep their transmissions to the other pilots a secret. The Nautilus Commanders weren't stupid, they had intercepted the transmissions, and being familiar with the CSAs way of working, they instantly identified Gaia, Cosmos, Duo and Milliardo as high ranking CSA agents, since only high ranking Agents would have known about the Amelia Virus fiasco. There were also Subaru and Seishiro, who had responded to 09 and 10, who were well known to be two out of the six agents who were the Best of the Best among the CSA. With six CSA agents and four of the original Gundam Pilots, the Nautilus knew their chances of winning were slim.

Now, with the revelation of a top of the line CSA Battleship and two Type Two Unlimited CSA Admirals, and four of the best Agents the CSA had to offer, all of whom were Gundam Pilots, and the Original Gundam Pilots on the field, the Nautilus knew that their time was up, and that they had absolutely no chance of winning.

But if they were going to lose, they would go out with plenty of flair.

And they had every intention of taking the Princess of Sanq and Vice Foreign Minister, Relena Dorlian Peacecraft down with them.

XoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoX

The shuttle gave a violent jerk, and the three girls stumbled. Cosmos extended a hand to keep Relena from falling, and once they had regained their balance, the three girls set off once more. Moments later, the shuttle lurched violently toward the passenger side, and the girls were thrown against a wall. Cosmos slapped her hands against the wall, bending her elbows as she did, to absorb the impact. Gaia wrapped an arm around Relena's waist and angled her body so that when her back hit the wall Relena would fall against her, thereby, taking the brunt of the impact.
Of course, that was just before the lights went out along with the humming that indicated that the shuttle was running.
Cosmos snarled mentally. Not only were they now stuck on board a motion dead shuttle, they were stuck on a motion AND power dead shuttle. Without the power for the doors to open and close – they were stuck.

Dammit! How were she and Gaia going to do their jobs of protecting Relena if they couldn't get her to the bridge and out in one of the escape pods? Cosmos sighed. At least they had gotten stuck in the hallways. They could easily move if a stray shot were to hit the shuttle.

'That's true' Gaia's mental voice floated through Cosmos' mind. 'But let's get Princess Peacecrap to the bridge first. If worst comes to worse, we use our powers and blast the walls or the door apart.'

Cosmos nodded and the three women sprinted down the hall. Before they knew it, they were standing in front of the heavy titanium alloy doors which led to the bridge. Of course, it sure as hell wasn't going to open, not without electricity at least. But there were two very gifted Gundam pilots standing in front of those doors, and come hell or high water, they WOULD get Relena Peacecraft onto the bridge.

Cosmos got to work on the console beside the door while Gaia backed Relena into a corner and stood at ready with her gun aimed down the hall, ready to fire the moment someone, say, an enemy, a) came into range, or b) rounded the corner, or c) came down the hall.

After what seemed like forever, but had actually been less than a minute, the door slid open. A single person dressed in a Nautilus uniform rounded the corner, and Gaia pulled the trigger. The body collapsed and Gaia quickly passed Relena to Cosmos who shoved her into the bridge and slipped in, while Gaia backed into the room, her gun still aimed down the hall. Gaia waited until the door slid fully shut before holstering her gun.

"Was that what I thought it was?" Cosmos asked, her voice flat.

"It depends on what you thought it was," Gaia said in her monotone.

"I thought I'd saw a Shadowmancer in a Nautilus uniform," Cosmos said.

"Then you saw correctly," Gaia replied, giving no sign of what she was feeling.

"What the hell is a Shadowmancer doing in a Nautilus uniform, 08!"

"Unknown," Gaia replied calmly, before taking Relena's arm. She glared at the captain and barked, "Where are the escape pods?"

The captain led Gaia and Relena over to the pods. Gaia shoved Relena inside and studied the captain.

"What are the codes for the self-destruct?" Cosmos said from behind him.

The captain jumped. "Why do you need the codes for the self-destruct?" he asked.

"Why else?" Gaia answered, raising a delicate eyebrow. "We intend to self destruct this ship, of course."

"Which means you and your crew will have to be in the pods. As for Relena's safety, we are entrusting that to you," Cosmos said calmly.

"But there is no power!" an officer objected. "Without any power, the self-destruct is completely useless!"

"There must be power," Gaia and Cosmos said patiently in unison, "because the life support is still on."

"But the two of you were entrusted with my safety!" Relena cried.

Gaia allowed a small smile to appear on her lips. "Our orders were to see to your safety at all costs, even if it means our lives."

"We are the Hidden Gundam Pilots," Cosmos said. "We follow orders, now GET INTO THE POD!"

"That goes for the rest of the crew," Gaia said calmly and the crew began to run for the escape pods.

Meanwhile, the captain gave them the codes for the self destruct. Cosmos memorized each code, though incredulously. 'Bambii?'

'Whoever came up with these codes sure had one hell of a social life' Gaia remarked mentally, while filing each code away in her mind for later use.

"Listen carefully," Cosmos said, "Once inside the pods, you must use the computer transmitters that should be inside to contact the battleship that must be observing the battle outside. Then alert the Gundams to move clear. No one must see you, not the Gundams, not the enemy."

"It will be difficult, but not impossible." Gaia said calmly. "Cosmos and I will eject the ships waste, it will provide you with cover, since no one will want to get too close and get hit by the debris."

"I'm assuming the area to access the self-destruct is in the main computer in the center of the ship?" Cosmos said calmly.

The captain nodded.

"Good," Gaia said, "Now move. If any of you are still on the ship when we activate the self-destruct, neither Cosmos nor I can be responsible for your welfare."

She turned away and walked over to the piloting console and her fingers flew over the keys. Cosmos left the bridge and turned and fiddled with the console, and the doors slid shut behind her.

XoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoX

Duo's fingers flew over the keyboard, and he hit a button and said, "Goldstreak, this is Admiral Shinn Asuka. The L1 shuttle has just ejected its waste as a cover for its escape pods. Your objective is to retrieve the pods. Understood?"

"Understood, Admiral." Morse said.

The Goldstreak moved in, and the debris bounced harmlessly off the thick gundanium hull of the battleship. Several transfer shuttles left the launch bays and collected the twenty-nine escape pods. After nearly half an hour, all the pods were collected, and Morse ordered a transmission to be sent to Duo over a private frequency.

"The pods have all been collected. Seventy-six crew, and the Vice Foreign Minister have been safely retrieved."

"Were Agents 07 and 08 among them?" Duo asked.

"No, Admiral. Agents Gaia and Cosmos were not in any of the pods."

"Does the Vice Foreign Minister know why her bodyguards are not with her?"

"The Vice Foreign Minister and the crew of the shuttle report that Agents Gaia and Cosmos are still on the shuttle, most likely preparing to self-destruct the ship."

"They are preparing to WHAT?"

XoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoX

Cosmos swore as she entered the room containing the main computers. She had killed over fifty soldiers and six Shadowmancers on her way to the Main Console. She sat down and her fingers flew over the keys, bypassing clearances and finally typing in the code for the self-destruct.

She sighed and accessed the security system on another monitor...infra- red scanners? She brought it up and the screen displayed a map of the shuttle and its floors, tracking down what had to be hundreds of dots moving around.
The shuttle was crawling with the enemy. If she and Gaia were going down, they sure as hell were bringing as many of those bastards as they could with them.
Cosmos smiled grimly and hit enter. The self-destruct process had begun. She spun from her seat -
And came face to face to a very pretty woman.

A very pretty woman with blue hair and skin, and pointy ears and fangs, who was pissed as hell, to be exact.

Oh… how screwed was she.

Before she could blink, Cosmos found herself hurting all over. She sighed. What was with her and getting thrown into walls? This was probably the twentieth time in less than twelve hours!

She blinked again and began sliding down the wall. Sighing, Cosmos rolled in mid-air, and landed in a crouch on the floor. The woman hadn't moved, and Cosmos felt herself lifting once more into the air.

Oh, no. She was Pilot 07 of Gundam Cosmos Angel, codenamed Cosmos. She wasn't going to fall for that telekinesis trick twice.

She pulled out her gun and fired off three shots. In most cases, getting shot in the abdomen and in the shoulders sent a person reeling back before collapsing and dying from blood loss. In the woman's case, her reaction was to go berserk.

Cosmos gulped as the now thoroughly pissed woman lunged at her, and sidestepped, so the woman went headfirst into the wall. Without even pausing to think, Cosmos dashed out of the room, out into the hall, and sprinted for the bridge.

XoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoX

"04," Heero called. "Anything on the shuttle?"

"No." Quatre said, voice tense. As soon as that...thing had settled over the shuttle, it had steered it away into masses of enemy mobile dolls. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't get close to it.
"What the hell are we supposed to do if we can't get to the shuttle!" Subaru said.
"We can't keep blasting our way through." Trowa said calmly, but with faint undertones of worry. "There are too many. And I don't know how much my artillery can hold out."
They watched helplessly, regrouping. "Any ideas, Duo?" Milliardo asked.
"Yes," Duo's voice was bland. "Move as far away from the shuttle as possible."

What!"
"The shuttle's their primary concern, you're their secondary. Move away, let them think they've won and figure out a plan while you're not being worn down by mobile dolls," he said, indifferent to their disbelief. "I've received a message from escaped crew members asking us to do the same."
"Escaped?" Quatre asked. "I didn't see any escaping."
"The shuttle emptied it's waste materials into space a few minutes ago." Trowa pointed out. "The escape pods could have been hidden among the debris..."
"So now what?" Trowa asked Duo, morosely.

"Follow orders." He said softly, eyes on the shuttle.
"Shinn!" Milliardo said. "You know they could still be in there! We can't just pull back and -"
"Pull back." Duo ordered, his voice cold.
They did so, with Duo leading the way. He didn't like running. None of them did. He sighed silently, glancing back at the shuttle… He blinked… He blinked again, opening his mouth …

XoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoX

As Cosmos gently pressed the joystick, smiling as the shuttle's beam cannon fired off several shots, destroying several enemy MS and MD.

XoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoX

"What the hell are they doing!" He yelled in shock.

XoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoX

"That ought to get their attention," she said grimly.

"And it worked very well, better than I expected," Gaia deadpanned.

"What!" Cosmos yelped.

"Look outside, baka," Gaia muttered, quickly entering coordinates for the next round of fire from the beam cannon.

Cosmos studied the monitor and smiled in satisfaction. The enemy MS and MD were coming in toward the ship. "Yep, it got their attention all right." Her smile faltered and she said softly, "You know Gaia; we've survived some pretty crazy shit in the past."

"Hnn."

"I just can't believe it'll end like this."

"Hnn."

"I just wish we had more time."

"Hnn?"

"I'm serious! We've only come together this decade, mostly because Kamui was on the loose, and with powers like his, he could easily destroy the world!"

"Hnn."

"We trained for the past ten years to be Gundam Pilots, and to find Kamui. Through it all, we've always been there for one another, you, me, Shinn, Seishiro, and Subaru… But we only knew each other for two years!"

"Hnn." Gaia pressed a button and the shuttle's beam cannon fired off another blast.

"I wish we had more time."

Gaia sighed and stood up. "I'm going to shut off the remaining power to the rest of the shuttle. There's no reason to keep the life-support running for the enemy, they're going to have to die sooner or later. I'll divert some of the power from the main backup generators into the beam rifles. The power from the sub-generators should be enough for the shuttle to self-destruct."

Cosmos nodded absently as Gaia went to the console in the back of the room.

She sighed and turned the shuttle around and plunged into the hordes of enemy fighters, firing blindly. She'd used the majority of the fire power in the first shot, though. The blasts she was firing now were nothing more than a light show.
But that didn't matter. Cosmos grinned triumphantly as she looked at the sensors. At least a hundred and fifty MS and MD were close enough for the self- destruct to take out. The majority, she noted looking at the screen, were MDs.
"You little bitch." A voice hissed behind her. Oh shit. She hadn't even heard the door open, and Gaia was in the back, shutting down the power.
Cosmos spun around, throwing her fist in a blind punch, and stopped and gasped as her air was suddenly cut off. The woman smiled, revealing her fangs as her grip on Cosmos' neck tightened.

"My name is Kali." She lifted Cosmos off the ground and raised her hand, which she curled into claws. Oh, god, her nails looked sharp… "And you are dead."

Kali's hand moved forward… Then jerked to a sudden stop. She paused and looked over her shoulder in shock, staring at the slim hand gripping her wrist. Kali's eyes widened as Gaia stepped into view, her face impassive.

"Drop her…" Gaia's voice was dull, as were her eyes… dull and blank.

Kali froze as she probed Gaia's mind and found… nothing. Cosmos took advantage of the Shadowmancer's surprise and kicked her firmly in the stomach. Kali grunted in surprise and pain, dropping her. Gaia slipped behind Kali, and in one smooth move, snapped the Shadowmancer's neck.

Gaia and Cosmos smiled sadly…

XoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoX

They watched in silence as the ship self-destructed.
"Someone had to be onboard for it to self-destruct." Trowa said.
"Couldn't they have gotten off?" Quatre asked immediately.
"I don't know." Milliardo said thoughtfully. "That ship latched onto the shuttle. It must have been boarded..."
There was a short silence. Heero heard a sudden shifting over the speaker, and could see Wufei's intake of breath.
"The self-destruct took out about a hundred fifty of the enemy." He said matter-of-factly, hoping to snap them out of it. "If we take them out now, they won't be back to bug us later on."
Duo sighed, studying the hundreds of dolls swarming towards them... once again. "Back to back," He ordered quickly. "We'll take it from there."

The other's images nodded, flicking off screen. They knew how hectic a battle could get. They faced outward, waiting for the battle to begin, each preparing themselves for the inevitable…