-ZAFT Cuba Base, July 13, C.E. 71, 1300.
The fires had been constantly burning for almost two hours now. Every BuCUE and practically every ZuOOT that had been stationed near the command center had been reduced to smoking debris, along with the command center itself. The bomb that had plunged into the heart of the command center had killed everyone inside and three hangars had been completely annihilated by direct hits. Explosions could still be heard from stray ammunition that caught fire and gasoline that had been exposed to the heat. It was chaos in this part of the base. While everything else at the base had remained relatively undamaged, it was a living hell here.
Rau stood in observation room to the number seven hangar which had been suffered cosmetic damage from several bombs which had plunged into hangar six next door. He had managed to get out of his trapped CGUE and had made his way here to survey the damage. Hangars six, nine, and fourteen had been completely demolished and along with hangar seven, hangars three, five, ten, twelve, and thirteen had also been damaged. That left only five hangars undamaged and operational, not that they really had anything to launch at this moment. The bombers had been all chased away and the total number downed by anti-aircraft fire had yet to be confirmed. Based on the damage that had been sustained, Rau saw it as a relatively minor setback, but it was still devastating, both physically and psychologically.
Movement from behind him took him by surprise and he turned to see Yzak approaching from behind him. The huge scar across his face he acquired in a duel with the Strike still stood out on his face, which now showed an expression of anger, although it seemed more directed at himself.
Yzak saluted when he saw the Rau had noticed his presence. "Commander,"
"Lieutenant," Rau replied with dissent. "I wonder how you managed to escape the explosions from where your mobile suit was docked, Yzak?"
"I wasn't in the hangars when the bombardment started," Yzak responded reluctantly. "I had gone onto the base's premisice to see the pilot's who were stationed here. I was on my way back when the planes came overhead." Coming up to stand beside Rau and staring out into the burning fires, Yzak added, "I still can't figure out how they did it?"
"It's simple enough to understand when you take into account their actions, Yzak," Rau commented.
"What do you mean, Commander?" Yzak asked, his face still showing anger.
"The planes that dropped the bombs. Did you notice the types they were?"
"Yes," Yzak answered. "They were bombers of the J class. That's what gets me. There aren't any Earth Forces bases within 1700 miles of here. So how did they get here in the first place?"
"How, you ask?" Rau chuckled. "Open your eyes Yzak. What's the only other way they could have gotten the planes close enough to make it here without having to refuel somewhere along the way?"
Yzak's eyes widened. "Impossible..."
"No. It's very possible Yzak," Rau smiled.
"But why would they take such a stupid risk?" Yzak retorted, turning to glare at his commander. "Unless those pilots wanted to die, there's no other explanation why they would try to launch from a ship! They wouldn't be able to make it back!"
"I don't think that's what they planned to do Yzak," Rau commented, moving away from his subordinate. He reached one of the few communications relays that still worked in the hangars which were growing hotter by the second from the still burning flames. "Control, do you read me? Control...do you read me. This is Commander le Creuset."
"...We read you...le Creuset...what do...want?" The voice on the other end was glorbled with static because of the smoke which was ascending high into the sky.
"Is the long range communications still operational?" Rau asked.
"Yes, it is," the voice responded. "Why?"
After a slight pause, Rau added, "If you can, put an alert out to all our sentry's on the South American coastline. I have a feeling our bombarders will be headed that way." With that, Rau ended the signal and breathed in deeply.
"What now Commander?" Yzak said from behind him.
"I imagine the both of us will have to head up into space again, Lieutenant..." Rau responded sheepishly.
"I'm sure the Council's going to love this," Yzak said sarcastically."Yes..." Rau answered, thinking about the feeling he'd sensed when the planes had been overhead. Mwu...I know you're one of them...don't think I didn't feel your presence...and I'm sure you felt mine... "I'm sure they will..."
-Somewhere over the Caribbean, July 13, C.E. 71, 1500.
Two lone bombers drifted through the clear skies over the waters of the Caribbean. Each carried only four of their original five men and each was barnishing damage from anti-aircraft hits. Their nose guns were silent and as were their crews. The lead bomber had one bombay door stuck open, which cut its speed dramatically, but the trailing bomber followed behind to make sure they both made it to their destination. Though how far they exactly were from the Colombian coast, nobody aboard knew.
Aboard the lead bomber, Kira constantly flicked the switch of the plane's homing beacon control, attempting to get some sort of signal from the beacon's which were supposed to be already stationed in Colombia. He had been trying to get a signal for several minutes now, but still hadn't gotten lucky. Finally, Kira ceased trying and slumped back into his chair.
"Still not getting a signal?" Mwu asked, next to him, still holding on to the control stick which steered the plane.
"No..." Kira responded, worriedly. Without the homing beacons in Colombia, the plane's were virtually flying blind. Not to mention that their gas tanks were practically running on empty. "How many cans of fuel we got left back there Tim?" Kira called back.
One of the shots they had taken had strewn holes in several of their fuel cans, leaving them with considerably less than they had left with. Tim placed one can in front of Kira and pushed aside several others. "These are all empty!" he shouted.
Reaching to take hold of the lone can Tim had put in front of him Kira called back, "Is this all you got!?"
"That's all we've got Kira!" Tim shouted in return.
Kira did not speak for a moment. The lone can they had left felt as if it was less than half full. That wasn't good. "Kira!" he heard Sai shout from the nose of the plane. "What's the situation?"
"How bad is it kid?" Mwu joined in.
"Guys...!" Kira returned, unable to find the right words. "...You better pray for land...!"
Mwu exhaled painfully when those words escaped Kira's mouth. He slumped back into his chair and took into account what was happening. They had just successfully bombed one of the most heavily fortified ZAFT base's on the planet and had escaped with relatively minor damage. And now they were going to die because their plane wasn't going to have enough juice left in her to reach a safe landing spot. Never thought it'd end this way... Mwu thought sadly to himself. I'm sorry Murrue...I failed you... An image of the woman he had promised he would return to flashed before Mwu's eyes. No matter what happened to him, he would always live with the inspiring feelings she had given to him. Her never give up attitude, her determination to help everyone under her command to succeed to the very best of their abilities, and most of all, her smile, which had melted his heart every time he saw it. He hated to do this to her again. He had already left her alone once, and now, unless by some miracle they made it, he would do it again, this time forever... He thought of all the friend's he was letting down, John, Hugh, Frank, Natarle, Stevy, and the others. He had tried his best, but it still wasn't good enough. Why I do this...?
Next to him, Kira was having much of the same thoughts. Replaying images in his mind, Kira returned to the very beginning, when he had first become involved in the war when his home on Heliopolis had been destroyed. He still vividly remembered seeing the colony come apart from the safety of the Strike Gundam's cockpit. Sitting in the debris of what was once his home, Kira had been shocked to his core. For the next several weeks, he had found himself defending the ship known as the Archangel and his friends aboard it. When he was given the opportunity to disembark, he had turned it down, realizing that he could not abandon the people he had protected with his life. Ever since then, Kira had been risking his own life to protect innocent people. He was just sad that he couldn't protect them all. Images of the times he'd spent with his late friend Tolle came to his mind. Just one of the people he had seen perish in this war. He himself had been practically killed, only to find that Lacus Clyne had saved him. Lacus... The pink-haired princess had grown to be Kira's friend when he briefly was taking refuge on the PLANTs recovering from injuries suffered on the battlefield. She had helped him steal the Freedom Gundam from ZAFT's control and he had vowed to never forget what he had promised to do since the beginning. Protect the innocent people from the war's senseless destruction. Kira's hand moved up to touch his cheek. With mist encompasing his eyes, he still felt the kiss Lacus had placed there when he had departed with the Freedom. He was just sorry he would never feel it again.
Down in the plane's nose, Sai was having the same thoughts Mwu and Kira were having. The seventeen year old had volunteered for this mission and had proven to be quite the shootist when he was put behind the fifty-caliber guns that sat in front of him. In the beginning, Sai had been nothing more than a computer geek, whose only use was figuring out what was wrong with the ship's controls. His personal life wasn't much better. His former fiance Flay had betrayed him and made him into a complete fool. He'd never really recovered from that and had spurned her himself when she tried to get all the attention after Tolle had died. Sai had taken that opportunity to help his friend Miriallia cope with her loss. That had really taken it out of the blond-haired man. Even so, he still had volunteered readily for this mission, despite the fact that he believed from the beginning that it was a suicide mission. He thought of his parents back home in Orb and what his father had told him when he had departed after a short visit when the ship had been in for repairs. "I'm proud of you son." Those words rang through Sai's mind as the plane continued on its course toward Colombia.
For twenty minutes the bombers lumbered on over the ocean, their fuel tanks gradually getting emptier. Athrun said nothing during that time. He just kept his eyes trained forward over the vast ocean, hoping, almost beyond hope that land would come in sight.
"How did we ever end up here Athrun?" Those words broke Athrun out of his daze. Dearka was reclining his head against his headrest and staring up into nothing. "What have we done to get ourselves here?"
"Not really sure Dearka," Athrun replied quietly. "Guess we're just cursed to live our lives in battle."
"Yeah..." Dearka responded. It sure did seem as though the two of them were cursed. They had been put to the test when they both had been a part of ZAFT and now, even after they both had left ZAFT, they still seemed to be the ones who had to endure the brunt of the pressure. As Coordinators, many people in the Earth Forces weren't willing to trust them. The only ones who had were the people in the squadron and those aboard the Archangel. Besides them, everyone else on Earth couldn't stand them.
A strange noise broke Athrun's thoughts again and he turned to see what was the matter. After a quick inventory, there seemed to be nothing wrong with their plane. It was when Athrun turned back to the front of the plane that he saw what it was. The lead bomber's engine was sputtering.
Up in the lead bomber, Mwu and Kira also noticed the urgent problem. "Engine one's fluctuating!" Sai responded grimly. "We're gonna lose it any minute."
The engine sputtered again and again as if it were choking on fumes. It would fire up one second and stop the next in a seemingly never ending cycle. "Mwu, you better start priming that thing!" Kira urged from his seat.
"I'm priming it! I'm priming it!" Mwu responded desperately. He flipped the starter button again and again and finally got the engine to go at a constant speed. Kira blew out a sigh of relief, and said, "I don't know how much longer they're gonna last." Turning to look at the number two engine, he saw that it was still running as normal. "Number two's looking alright, so I think we're O.K. for now. What do you think Mwu?" Kira got no response so he turned back to his co-pilot and saw him just staring out into the front viewport. "Mwu?"
After not moving to acknowledge Kira, Mwu finally uttered, "...I see the coast..."
"What?" Kira responded incredulously. He turned forward to look into the area Mwu was referring to.
"I see the coast!" Mwu shouted into the intercom. It was true. Before them, not too far ahead, was land. Beautiful green coastline. White waves lapped against the shore creating a magic ripple affect below them. It was the most gorgeous thing they had ever seen.
"Copy that Commander!" Athrun shouted back from his plane. "We're gonna make it guys."
"Alright Athrun follow us now, we can make this," Kira told his friend, "Just stick close to us and we'll both be able to land."
"Sai," Mwu ordered to the boy sitting in the nose, "Start looking for a soft landing spot."
"Roger, Commander." Sai responded.
Mwu collected his thoughts then and spoke back to Kira, "Alright Kira, how far do you make that to be?"
"I'd say about two or three miles Mwu. Better start taking her down now."
"Right," Mwu responded as he gripped the control stick and began descending toward the ground. "Listen up, guys! Our best bet would be to have us land first, scout the area for ZAFTs, and then give you guys the O.K. to land. How much gas you got left Athrun?"
"We're still good for at least another ten minutes," Athrun answered.
"Roger that," Mwu said. "Alright Kira, let's take her down." Just after those words escaped Mwu's mouth, the first engine began sputtering again. Mwu attempted to get it refired, but eventually it ceased to fire altogether. "Aw man, engine one's dead..." Kira said uneasily. "We're gonna lose engine two any second!"
"I know! I know!" Mwu commented. Their bomber continued to lose altitude, partly because of the engine failing, and partly because of their own descent. Land was now in clean sight and the plane passed over the rocky coastline and headed inland on only one engine. "Uhh...these are all hard landings..." Kira reported. Then, he pointed ahead of him and said, "I see grass plains right up there."
"Alright, we'll put her down here. Athrun! Pull up and circle back, we'll call you down when we're sure it's safe." The bomber was now only about a hundred feet above the now increasing grassy plains and getting lower and lower in the sky. "Guys! Hold on down there, we're going down!"
Kira moved out of his seat and shouted down into the nose hatch, "Sai! Get out of the nose!"
Sai released his restraints and clambered out of his chair, scrambling through the nose hatch toward the fuselage. Mwu and Kira gripped their controls trying to make their landing as light as possible, though they both knew that it was going to be a rough ride. "Watch the trees!" Mwu groaned as he pulled on his control stick, the ground rapidly approaching.
The open bombay door caught the ground first, dragging into the dirt and grass, causing the plane to lean forward as the nose smashed into the ground. The plane continued to slide for several hundred yards across the field, losing pieces of the fuselage as it went. One wing snapped off after making contact with a tree. The nose plating came apart under the onslaught of the ground. The tail bounced off of the ground and broke from the rest of the plane. Inside, Kira and Mwu jolted in their seats as the plane rode on the ground for hundreds of feet. Sai was catapaulted into the air and landed behind their seats in the cockpit. Finally, the plane came to a stop, smashing into a mound of dirt and mudd, small fires igniting on the plane.
Mwu still gripped the control stick heavily even after the plane came to a stop. He was splattered with dirt on his hands and face. Pain was emitting from his right ankle and he looked down to see it pinned under the diagnostic board. He gingerly pulled his foot out of the casm and saw that it wasn't hurt all that badly. "Everyone alright!?" Mwu shouted to everyone in the plane. He got responses from Kira and Sai, but none from Tim. He turned his head to look behind him and saw that the fuselage of the plane had collapsed behind the cockpit, meaning that anyone caught back there had surely been killed. That's two gone... Mwu thought sadly.
"Come on guys, we gotta get outta here," Kira commanded. He and Mwu broke the windows of the cockpit and eased themselves through the openings and onto the metal of the plane's exterior. Sai followed suit, one of his glasses lenses cracked. The three men maneuvered themselves off of the plane's premises and stepped gingerly onto the ground. Mwu found that his ankle only hurt when he put enormous pressure on it, and he could still walk on it.
"Any sign of ZAFTs?" Mwu asked.
"Not that I can see," Kira answered.
"If there were any, I think we'd have seen them by now," Sai added. "Now we just have to wait for-"
Sai was cut off there by the sound of a plane screaming, meaning it was going down. The three turned and saw the second J bomber sail overhead, dropping towards the ground. It smashed into the ground several hundred meters away in a small pond, pieces flying into the air and beyond.
"Athrun!" Kira shouted, sprinting over towards the crash site.
"Kid wait!" Mwu shouted back, heading after Kira with Sai in tow. It was easy terrain to cross to reach the crash site. The plane had broken into several pieces which were now scattered across the shallow pond and the marsh adjacent to it. The piece that included the forward part of the plane was where Kira was headed. All he could think about was Athrun. His friend. His fellow soldier. Athrun, don't tell me you're...No!, Kira thought to himself while running towards the wreckage. A small fire burned at the back of the piece which looked less like a plane's cockpit and more like a bombed out truck.
"Athrun!" Kira shouted again, but he stopped when he reached the piece. "Aww man..." he said, looking down on the ground and seeing Athrun's nose gunner dead on the ground, blood seeping out of his mouth and ears. He pressed his fingers against the man's neck but got no response. Kira knew he was dead.
"Dearka!" Kira heard Sai shout. Sai ran over to the mound of mud which Dearka now lay upon, just coming to. "You O.K.?"
"Ugh..." Dearka muttered, slowly getting up, "Yeah...I think I messed my back up..."
"Here, let me help," Sai commented, lending Dearka a hand as he slowly got to his feet.
"Athrun!" Kira rejoiced, seeing his friend clamber from the destroyed cock-pit, a little worse for wear. Kira ran over to where Athrun had propped himself up against the ruined hulk, mud plastered on his face and hair. "Athrun you alright?"
"Uh-huh..." Athrun gasped, coughing mud up from his mouth. A laugh escaped the young man's mouth accompanied by, "I've had better landings..."
"I'll say you have..." Kira responded happily. "What happened to that ten minutes of fuel you were supposed to have left?
"Slight, miscalculation," Athrun chuckled, getting his bearings and rising to his feat.
A clang sounded from the rear of the wrecked cockpit and a man stumbled out of the heap. "Jay!" Mwu shouted, running towards the stumbling man. "You alright?" he asked, taking the younger man by the shoulders.
"Yeah," Jay responded, trying to get his bearings, "Ugh...I busted my glasses when we crashed so now I can't see two feet in front of me."
"Here," Mwu responded, taking Jay's arm and draping it across his shoulder, supporting the shorter man across the grass. Sai helped Dearka to his feet and supported him in the same way Mwu did Jay. Athrun and Kira both were able to walk under their own power and the six survivors gathered several meters away from the crash site.
"Everyone O.K.?" Mwu asked, setting Jay down on a boulder.
"Yeah, everyone's fine," Sai responded. "What do we do now?"
"It's too dangerous to attempt to contact anyone..." Athrun commented.
"ZAFT'd pick it up the minute we sent it..." Mwu added. "I think our best bet would be to head into the woods and wait for the Colombians to find us."
"That seems to be our only option right now," Kira stated. "We've got our rations, so we'll be able to stay out here for a few days."
"Alright then," Mwu said standing up. "We better get moving then. It's getting dark out here." He helped Jay to his feet and the six men proceeded into the woods for shelter, their minds heavy with the comrades they'd had to leave behind and unaware of what happened to their other comrades in the other bombers. The only thing other thing on their minds was the ZAFT soldiers they knew were lurking in the area. They had to evade them and get home. For all their sakes.