-Earth Forces HQ, New York, July 16, C.E. 71, 1100.
Revenge is indeed sweat. That was the only thing Azrael could so much as think about. After all these months of having to deal with Namora and the others, he finally was going to get them out of his way. The Archangel could wait for now. All that mattered to him now was that soon, all of the men who had tried to usurp his position would be dead. And soon, every single Coordinator would join them. Burning in the pit of hell. Azrael felt like laughing his grotesque head off right now, but business of course came first.
"Admiral," Azrael said, after the new prisoners had been removed from the chamber, "How goes the plans for our next phase of operation?"
"They await your command sir," Sutherland responded proudly.
"Excellent," Azrael hissed. "Admiral McCarthy. I'm going to need you to get back into space immediately. Head to Panama and use the driver there."
"Yes, sir," McCarthy saluted, "I'll take my leave now sir!"
"Very good," Azrael complimented. "Now then, Jack. I'm going to need you to go along with Admiral McCarthy to Panama. You'll be needed in space very soon as well."
"The new mission you told me I may have, sir?"
"Exactly. Be on your way then gentlemen." After the two of them had left, Azrael turned to the rest of the Council and began discussing what they would do with the Archangel since they had eluded destruction once again. Although several members believed it would be best to just let ZAFT destroy them, Azrael said it was better if they did it now rather than wait. Soon, the doors to the massive chamber opened once again and Azrael's assistant, Captain Rutherford, trotted in. He quickly located Azrael and walked up to him saying something urgent that Azrael didn't immediately catch. "What was that again Captain?"
"Sir, General Bradford is here!" Everyone in the room heard that.
"What?!" Sutherland gasped. "He's not supposed to be back for another week. What's he doing here now?"
"He said he believed Panama didn't need him at the moment and he came back here early. He just landed at the airfield and he'll be here in about fifteen minutes!"
"Damn..." Azrael muttered. If Bradford was here and saw la Flaga and Namora in custody, he'd go and blow the entire thing. They had to move them now and fast.
"Order Namora and the others moved from here at once," Azrael ordered. "Make sure that Bradford doesn't see any of them. Especially his son! Now move!"
Outisde the chamber in a different part of the headquarters, Mwu and John were being led through the long-stretching corridors to nowhere in particular. Their seven escorting guards trotted around them in a perfect circle so they had no chance of escape. As they passed an intersection of hallways, Mwu noticed one guard slow down and practically stop when something or someone in the adjoining corridor caught his eye. A quick shove in the back from the rear guard got the man walking again, but Mwu had to wonder just what the guard had seen as they continued walking on for several more meters. The corridors just never seemed to end. The two head guards were walking at a brisk pace that made it difficult for Mwu and John to keep up, mainly because John was walking for Mwu, supporting his broken ankle.
Suddenly, the front-right guard switched his rifle to his right hand and jammed the butt of the gun into the cheek of the front-left guard, knocking him completely out. The others guards halted and two tried to apprehend the first, but they were taken down by shots from the three other guards surrounding them. John and Mwu were shocked at what they had seen, but their concerns were all relieved when the original guard removed his helmet which had been covering his face.
"Sorry about that Colonel," Stevy said as he moved his hands through his long brown hair, trying to get it back to where he liked it. "I know you said never do that unless duty calls for it but..."
"No apologies needed Stevy," John replied. The other guards removed their helmets and were revealed to be Niada, Sai, and Coop. They put their guns along the side of the wall and while John took watch to make sure nobody saw what was going on, they rounded up the unconscious guards, tying them up and tossing them into a closet. "That was you guys in there the entire time?" John asked.
"Better believe it sir," Niada answered, shoving the last guard into the closet and locking the door.
"How'd you guys figure it out. I mean, what the Council really did to us?" Mwu asked, leaning up against one of the surrounding walls, attempting to nurse his ankle as best he could.
"Well it was pretty easy to figure out, when you consider that we got thrown into a room that was used mainly for interrogating prisoners," Stevy began. "It was just the four of us together so, when one of our guards happened to blurt out what Sutherland was going to do to you guys, I went up and tried to get answers from he and his friend."
"Then, one of them tried to shove the butt of his gun in Stevy's face and that really didn't work," Coop added. "So, we stole a bunch of uniforms and posed as your guards."
"So you heard everything we did," John realized. "Nice work Stevy."
"Thank you sir," Stevy replied, once again taking up his gun and slipping on his helmet. "We have to get out of here while we still can." His voice was muffled but the plastic visor of his helmet. "We don't have any extra uniforms with us so you two'll have to lie low while we go and get the others."
"Not a chance kid," John replied. "We're coming with you."
"Fine then Colonel. First we've gotta find out where everybody else is being held..."
"I saw an old computer terminal a few corridors that way," Sai broke in, "it could have information on where they are."
"Good, then get to it Sai. Two more of you go with him and take Mwu with you. Stevy, I need you to come with me and find Frank," John ordered.
"He's probably in one of the medical facilities now John," Stevy reported. "That's this way."
The six men separated and went to their designated locations. Once at the computer terimnal, Sai tapped in a bunch of codes and signals finally designating the location of the other men in the squadron. Kira, Athrun, and Dearka were being held in separate cells, which were marked extremely dangerous, away from everyone else and were being readied for relocation immedately, as was everybody else. They had to move fast. "This isn't going to be easy..." Sai said uneasily.
"Hey, Coop. Just out of curiosity what made you stop in your tracks back there?"
"...I saw my dad..." Coop responded quietly.
The mammoth doors to the Inner Council's chamber opened slowly and a man stepped through the doors, escorted by two of the Earth Forces' honor guards. His face showed signs of age with lines streaked under his hazel colored eyes and his black hair was now joined by equal numbers of gray hair. He wore his standard Earth Forces uniform with black sashes down his sides and a green rank insignia on his shoulder, signifying his status as a sernior officer in the Earth Forces.
At forty-eight, General Woodrow Bradford, the'Basilisk' still displayed the same intensity he had when he was thirty, and more of it. Before the outbreak of the war, Bradford had been the Eurasian fleet's second in command and was a well respected commander throughout the world. When war broke out, Bradford was lured by his comanding officer into accepting a comission to command a battle fleet against ZAFT, which today was the 5th Orbital Fleet. Bradford had won key victories for the Earth Forces at the 2nd Casablanca Battle, and later at the Battle of Sarga, near the Ptolemaeus Moon Base. Since then, he'd been wandering around the planet keeping tabs on the bases of the Earth Forces to make sure they were performing to optimum efficiency. But now, it was time for him to once again command his fleet of ships.
Bradford saluted Sutherland and Azrael as he approached, standing at complete attention when he finally reached with speaking distance of them. "Welcome back, General," Sutherland said enthusiastically, "It's good to see you again Woodrow."
"You as well, William," Bradford responded seriously. "I'll cut to the chase right now gentlemen. Why have you brought me back here?"
"We, the Council that is," Azrael answered kindly, "feel that it is time for you to once again take over as commander of the 5th Fleet and return to the battlefield. We think you've spent too long down here on Earth just playing watch-boy."
"I see..." Bradford sounded disbelieving. "Which ship will I be designated too?"
"You'll be given the Valiant once again General. WIth the commissioning of the new warships I have little use for the ship at the current time. Therefore, we've decided to put her under your command once again." Sutherland continued on, "I also believe you'd be the best choice to mold the ship's new captain into a real officer."
"What happened to Mannelly?" Bradford asked.
"He was unfortunately killed during the Alaska conflict and we had to find a replacement. If you could sir, we'd like you to head to the ship today and begin command as soon as possible."
"I'll leave this afternoon." Bradford cringed at the thought of having to show another young officer the ropes of how to drive a ship. "On another note gentlemen...has there been any word on Namora's mission to Cuba...?"
Sutherland hesitated for some time but then finally managed to utter, "...we've found no survivors. I'm sorry General..."
Although Bradford's heart sank deeply at the thought that his son Cooper was now gone, he didn't show it in his expression or movement. "Thank you Admiral. I'll be taking my leave now." He saluted and left the chamber without another word. Both Azrael and Sutherland breathed a sigh of relief.
"Well...we dodged a bullet there," Sutherland whistled.
"We don't have time to ponder what else we may have done to deceive him William," Azrael pointed out. "We must leave now if we want to be on time for the commissioning tomorrow. And then we can put our new plans into action."
"Yes, Mr. Azrael."
Meanwhile, Niada, Sai, and Coop, with Mwu providing whatever assistance he could with his damaged ankle, had managed to locate the rest of the squadron in the massive underground corridors of the headquarters. Right now, Sai and Coop approached the cells where Kira, Athrun, and Dearka were being held. They used the stolen identification cards they had confiscated from their uniforms and slid them through the slots which granted them access to the hold. Inside, two guards stood on standby with their weapons drawn. "State your business!" one of them snapped, pointing his gun at Sai.
"We've come to trasnfer the prisoners, under orders from Admiral Sutherland and Mr. Azrael."
"I wasn't notified...what's your identification?"
"Here," Coop responded. He fired a silenced round into the man's chest. Sai followed that by whipping his hand-made bayonet at the other guard and practically beheaded him. With both guards dead, Sai proceeded to unlock the cells of his three friends. Kira came out of his cell and approached what to him appeared to be just another guard. To his relief, Sai raised his visor and showed his face to Kira. With an affirmative nod, Sai unlocked Kira's restraints and passed him a gun. Coop did the same with Athrun, but when they came to Dearka, they found that his back was still seriously injured and he couldn't move very quickly. Athrun gave his friend a hand by unlocking his restraints and slipping his arm over his own shoulders, supporting Dearka's body weight with his own.
"Come on guys, we gotta move!" Sai whispered quietly. The five captives rendezvoused with Niada and the rest of the men and headed further into the underground corridors.
John and Stevy had managed to slice into the HQs computer center and obtain Frank's location. They found him unsupervised inside one of the small medical facilities. He was sprawled out on a small stretcher and he was still unconscious. Stevy guarded the door while John implemented everything he knew about medicine to help Frank stay alive during the trip. Wherever it was the trip would take them. He managed to hook Frank up to a mobile IV and examined the wound as best he could.
"That doesn't look good John," Stevy commented, coming forth to help, "He's going to need to get to a surgeon soon."
"Thank you captain obvious. Come on, help me with his arm. I want to make sure he doesn't lose any more blood than he already has." John managed to remove the sterilization patch that was secured over Frank's now handless wrist. The wound had managed to seal itself up somewhat, but it showed signs of infection by the way his skin was turning a pale green in the area of his wound. The rest of his skin had turned extremely pale as well and they knew it meant he was still losing blood and oxygen with every minute. John cleaned the wound with whatever he could find and replaced the patch with a new one. "Can you find any penicilin in here Stevy?" John asked. Stevy threw open cupboards and drawers, finally stumbling upon a small bottle of the medicine. They managed to inject some of it into Frank's system, but they saved some in case they would need it later, which they probably would.
A moment later, Niada and the others reached the room and lent whatever help they could. "Come on Stevy," John ordered, "take the back end of the stretcher and we'll wheel him out. Niada, take the IV!" They carefully maneuvered Frank's stretcher out of the medical room and into the corridors. Moving as quickly as possible, without disturbing their injured comrade, John and the other thirty two members of the squadron scampered through the underground corridors, occassionally having to knock out or even kill a few guards along the way.
Finally, they reached what appeared to be a loading dock of some sort. A few trucks and other vehicles remained parked in the facility, which now was virtually empty in the late afternoon hours. The group commandeered two trucks and piled into them. Frank was loaded onto the lead truck with all his medical supplies and other things he would need to be kept alive. Everyone else loaded themselves into the trucks and after they had successfully managed to disable all the alarms and security systems inside the facility, they set out into the streets of New York, unsure of where exactly they were going.
"Where would be the best place to go right now sir?" Kira asked from the back of the truck in which John was riding.
"Best bet is to probably find an airfield somewhere and steal something else." He turned to Mike, who was driving the truck and asked, "Mike what's the nearest place we can find something to get us into the air?"
Mike thought about it for a while, and since he hailed from New York, he had an answer right away. "Nearest airfield's about ten, fifteen miles from the city limits. We can get there by nightfall if we're careful."
"Do it!" John ordered.
-Barthun Air Base, NY, 1930.
Night was about an hour away and the sun was just about to set over the yonder horizon. The airfield wasn't anything flashy, but it was the only airfield that wasn't commercially used in the entire New York metropolitan area. Three runways ran adjacent to the main hangars which housed private aircraft and other means of transportation. A control tower stretched about two hundred feet into the sky with its light just now coming on. Soon the runway lights would also come on and this would present quite a problem for the thirty two men who waited for the right moment to enter the airfield.
"How bad is it?" Mwu demanded for a third time. Sai and another man had removed his boot and had examined his ankle which they all knew was broken. Mwu lay flat on his back in the grass some ten feet away from the fence that encircled the airfield. His eyes were trained not on his ankle, but the cloudless sky above him. It meshed together a beautiful scene of blue and yellow as the sun was just now beginning to set over the horizon, it's gold embers dazzling throughout the now darkening sky.
"Umm...let's just say it looks more like something out of a Dr. Seuss book than a human ankle, Commander." Sai's response wasn't all that detailed to Mwu, but by the tone of his voice, he knew it was bad. He would have to rely on somebody else to move for him for the next few days and that would definitely put a hamper on their escape plans.
A few feet away, Dearka lounged on the bed of one of the trucks. His back still hurt like hell and he found that it was impossible to turn or bend it without it screaming out in pain. He'd tried everything to get his muscles to shut up, but all of it had been for naught. He'd seen how Athrun had tried to help him as best he could but Dearka could also tell that he was holding the group up more than helping it.
Minutes passed and the sun finally set over the horizon leaving the night air cool and calm. Jake and Donnie returned from scouting the airfield's premises and reported that while there was tight security at the airfield for some reason, at the moment, things were very relaxed and the guards were on relatively calm status. That was good for the group, who needed to sneak into the base and commandeer an aircraft of some sort to get them out of this city. They could see the skyscrapers of New York rising into the black night with lights gleaming out of windows and lightning rods pointing menacingly at the sky as if it were a balloon waiting to be popped.
John managed to round up all thirty two members of his group and gave them the brief on what they had to do. Although he didn't expect them to find anything that could get them all out, there was the chance that there were several aircraft capable of carrying them out separately. When asked where they would go once they got up into the sky, John said he had no idea. With Frank needing at least three men to move him on his stretcher and Mwu and Dearka needing support themselves, this left only about twenty men who could move on their own and use weapons should they need to. John organized groups of ten men to enter the airfield in three different areas, each with a specified task. Team one, under John's command, would infiltrate the base from the west, neutralize any means the airfield would have of responding to them once they were in the air, and if possible to locate extra weapons for the group. Team two, under Stevy's command, would enter the base from the east, locate a cache of explosives and set them up so the entire hangar complex could go up in smoke to cover their tracks after they left. Team three, under the joint command of Kira and Athrun, would enter from the south, locate the main communication relays to the airfield, and destroy them. This way, if the airfield tried to contact anyone in the surrounding area about their escape, nothing would get out for at least another day. The three teams would also rendezvous inside the hangar which contained their means of escape and leave together. John tried to emphasize that he didn't want to leave anyone behind, but that seemed nearly impossible with the odds they were up against. Thirty two men, well twenty-nine really, against an airfield that had almost a hundred and fifty personnel working at this time of the day.
Wire-cutters were able to claw through the fence on the west side of the base and John's team entered quietly. Scampering across the airfield on their stomachs, they managed to get across the forty or fifty feet of grass and reach the first hangar building. Inside it, they found a small, one-engine plane and a few trucks, nothing of which would be any help to them. But they also did find a sufficient amount of weapons which included sub-atomic rifles and pistols. Knocking out the three guards to the building, they managed to secure the weapons, aired the truck's tires so they couldn't move, and headed to the next hangar.
On the east side, Stevy, Niada, Jay, and the rest of their group came around the open entrance to the base, knocking out the two patrolling gunman. Stevy was able to locate about five demolition charges, which wouldn't destroy the entire base, but it would do enough damage to allow them to escape. Utilizing a supply van that had been sitting by the guarded entrance, they had managed to pile into it and drove onto the base's main premises. Inside the van, Stevy and Niada managed to set the charges up with ten second timers once they were armed. But to arm them, they would have to be within fifty feet of the closest charge for the rest of them to arm. Stevy had done his best to neutralize this risk, but this was as good as he could get it. They drove the van into one of the hangars and parked it there. All ten men managed to stumble out, two of them carefully lowering Frank to the pavement. Stevy checked him over and found that his vital signs were still there, albeit weakening quickly. They had to get him out of here now if he was going to make it. Although Stevy hadn't really gotten to know Frank's sister, Captain Ramius, very well while he had been aboard the Archangel, he wasn't one to see what she was like angry or sad.
Athrun slinked alongside Dearka as his group snuck into the airfield, crossing the southern runway in the process, just barely getting out of the way before its lights were activated from the control tower. Every step or so, Athrun could feel his friend cringe in pain and he knew he was suffering just getting this far. According to Jake, the main communications relay was located in the airfield's central command building, which wasn't good for their objective. But Kira was able to develop a plan for disabling it that looked as if it could work. First, Coop managed to subdue two guards and confiscate one's identification card. Posing as the guard, Coop managed to get inside the command building and locate several antennaes that would have to be taken out, but instead, he announced that they weren't working which got the men who were inside the command center's attention. While they were distracted, Kira snuck in through an open window, and after evading detection, unlocked the rear door to allow the rest of the group to get inside. With all of the team inside, they were easily able to overwhelm the guards Coop had been conversing with and had tied them up and stuffed them into a closet. While this was going on, Sai went to each of the antennae and managed to disable each one's signal so it wouldn't be able to transmit until a new one replaced it. Afraid they had alerted other guards to their presence, the team had quickly left the command center before anyone else came in. They scampered across the open fields, Athrun dragging Dearka alongside of him, which made him drop back from the rest of the team, to the main hangar areas.
John's group hadn't had any luck finding any suitable means of transportation for getting the entire squadron out. Single-engine planes had been the only craft they had been able to find and there weren't enough of them to get them all out. Frustration was building in John's mind even when Stevy's team rendezvoused with them.
"Still can't find anything that'll get all of us out?" Stevy asked.
"Not a chance. Geez, you'd think an airfield this big would have at least some type of big ass aircraft to get us out."
"Uh, guys!" Jay shouted from their left. "I think you'd better see this!"
John walked over to where Jay was looking through an opened door. He peered inside the door as it cracked open a little and was shocked at what he saw. But, he was also relieved. Inside the adjacent hangar, being guarded by scarcely ten or so guards, were the Earth Forces new prototype K-bombers. Each one weighed about twenty tons and could carry twenty bombs of any size inside their massive fuselages. Two tail guns outstretched from the plane's rear along with two tow cable guns underneath the thirty calibers. The nose gun on these planes was located directly below the cockpit and according to what John had heard, operated on a zero turning radius, which made it possible for the entire ball, guarded by armor shielding, to rotate a full 360 degrees during flight, which allowed the nose gunner to shoot anywhere he wanted to. The plane's third gun position, the ball turret on top of the fuselage, jutted out just behind the cockpit, a single fifty caliber gun barrel sticking out of the armor plating. A crew of ten would be needed to operate each plane, which was exactly what John needed.
"Have some of your guys circle around the other side and hit 'em from that end. We'll take the other," John whispered.
"Right. Let's go guys!"
At that moment, Kira's group reached the hangar complex and joined up with the rest of them. "We've still got to cut the main radio transmitter. It's in the hangar next door to us."
Aw crap... John thought. If the transmitter was in the same hangar as the bombers, they may already be up shit creak. The screeching of an alarm confirmed what John had been thinking. The guards inside the hangar with the bombers scampered across the hangar, taking up defensive positions among the crates and steel girders that the hangar employed, though no one bothered to monitor the entrance to the adjoining hangar. Because of this, John was able to lean inside the doorway and gun down two guards before they even knew he was there. The rest of his team shuttled through the doorway and into the hangar while Stevy's group attacked from the other side. Gun-shots sounded into the once peaceful night, erupting in a series of low and high-pitched tones.
As the two other groups engaged the guards, Kira, Athrun, Dearka, and two other men managed to sneak around them and locate the transmitter's console. Quickly dispatching the sole man operating the system, Athrun managed to rig up a small charge on the console which he wired to the rest of the charges Stevy had placed around the airfield.
John managed to claw his way across the hangar's concrete floor and had used his military recognition code to get one of the plane's entrance ramps to lower. He scampered up the ramp and ran through the fuselage toward the cockpit. He finally threw open the door and sat down inside the massive cockpit. Mwu had managed to hobble up with the assistance of another member of the squadron and sat down in the co-pilots seat while the other man took the navigator's seat behind them. They started up the plane's systems and managed to get the engines running. They thrummed to life with such intensity that the entire plane started shaking. The radio was working and John managed to get through to the plane sitting beside them which Stevy and Niada had commandeered. Mwu began calling out positions in the plane and got responses from Donnie in the nose gun, Jake in the ball-turret, Mike at the tail-gunners position, and everyone else.
"We've got ten on board John." he reported.
"Hey Jake!"
"Yes, Colonel?"
"Is Frank on board here?" John asked.
"His stretcher's in the back of the plane right now...he's not looking real good right now John. I think we'd better get out now."
"Right," John replied, activating the plane's comm. "Everybody strap in! We're heading out! Somebody go and make sure Commander Barkhesh is strapped down! Hold on!"
John and Mwu released the plane's brakes and activated the throttle. The giant air machine roared to life as it trundled out of the hangar and onto the warm up pavement. Stevy's plane followed them out with a full crew aboard. John's plane made several twists and turns before finally emerging onto the southern runway. With the push of a button, the plane's engines went to full power and it surged down the runway at a fast speed. The runway was a good mile long, so they had no trouble getting it up and off the ground. Once in the air, they managed to get as far away from the airfield as possible while keeping the second plane, which had taken off right behind them in tow, within sight distance.
However, the third plane was a bit of a struggle. Kira, managed to get a few guards with his small hand-gun but others were still coming. Athrun was crouched beside him, also firing his gun and Dearka fired his gun aimlessly, though with his injured back it didn't make much of a difference.
"Damn it!" Kira shouted. "We're running out of time! We've gotta get out of here!"
"Where's Stevy!?" Athrun snapped.
"He already left!" Dearka answered, getting off another shot which somehow managed to catch an advancing guard in the gut.
"Somebody's gotta arm the charges," he saw Coop had managed to get the entrance ramp on the final bomber to open and was now proceeding with Sai up into the fuselage.
Dearka also saw this. He also knew, based on what Stevy had said before they had infiltrated the airfield, that the charges had to be armed before the timer's could be activated. And to arm them, someone had to be within fifty feet of the closest one. That meant, with the closest one being the one on the transmitter, that the third bomber was within fifty feet of it. But with it's armor thick plating, a signal such as the one to arm the charges wouldn't be able to penetrate the plane's armor. That meant, Dearka realized that someone would have to send the signal while they were outside the plane, and with only a ten second timer set up on each one, the person wouldn't be able to board the plane escape, which would cost the other ten men aboard the plane their lives.
Dearka also knew that he couldn't walk by himself. Athrun had had to help him move ever since he had crash landed in Colombia and injured his back three days ago. Athrun would have to help Dearka get across the hangar's floor to the plane, which would be at a much slower pace than everyone else, and with more and more guards entering the hangar by the minute, it was unlikely that either of them would make it. But if Athrun didn't have to help him...
"Guys!" he shouted over the commotion, finally getting Kira and Athrun's attention. "Give me the arming switch. I'll do it from here! You guys go and get out of here!"
"What?! Are you kidding?!" Athrun and Kira shouted in unison. "I'm not leaving you here Dearka!" Athrun bellowed, catching another guard in the head.
"If you don't all the rest of us will be killed! This way, at least I'm the only one who won't make it!"
"But..."
"Besides, I'm only holding you guys up! The rest of the squadron needs you to pilot that last bomber! You're the only two who can get them out! Leave me here to take everything else out and get out of here!"
"NO!" Athrun shouted again.
"Athrun...he's got a point..." Kira said reluctantly.
"What are you saying Kira?!"
"Athrun! Go! Don't worry about me!" Then, Dearka added quietly, "I was never going to fit in with the rest of you...you two are the only chance we have for an end to this war...I was just here because they wanted me dead. What's the use if I get out? You two actually have people to go back to!"
"Dearka...!" Athrun shouted again, with tears now forming in his eyes.
"Give me the switch Kira!" Kira hesitated at first and then reluctantly handed the small device to Dearka who covered it with his hands. "At least this way I'll take some of the bastards down with me! Go! Go now you two!"
"There must be another way..." Athrun gasped as Kira struggled to drag him across the hangar and eventually began sprinting with Athrun being dragged under his arms. "Dearka!" Athrun bellowed and then he disappeared into the fuselage of the final plane. As the entrance ramp ascened back to join the rest of the fuselage, many of the guards thought that those two had been the final members of the squadron and no one else was still in the hangar. This allowed Dearka to slip out of the main floor and back into the room with the transmitter console. The small charge still rested up against the console's keypads, waiting to be destroyed. Dearka managed to slip himself into a small space between two large cabinets at the opposite end of the room, and with immense pain, croutched onto his knees and pointed his hand-gun at the door. He heard the faint sounds of the final plane with Kira and Athrun aboard rumble out of the hangar and out onto the airfield's runways. Dearka then flipped the switch on the small device and heard a faint beep as the charge armed, its timer ticking down from ten seconds. His gun was still pointed at the door, determined that no one would be able to disarm the charge or send out a signal at the last moment.
Five...Four...Three...Sweat poured down Dearka's forehead, his back screamed out in pain as muscles strained against bone, his heart pounded in his chest, his clothes stuck to his skin and his blonde hair was a mess.
Two...Dearka's mind then remembered a beautiful face, one that he was leaving behind with this final act of courage.
One... Good luck Miriallia...I hope you someday find the peace you seek... Then everything went white.
Aboard the third K-bomber, Athrun watched as the hangars exploded in a great shockwave of orange yellow fire. His plane managed to slowly get up off of the runway and into the sky, leaving the airfield below them afire and cut off from outside contact. Tears streaked down Athrun's face as he left another friend behind. One final great explosion rocked the Earth as the rest of the charges detonated, leaving the airfield in shambles. The bomber gained altitude as it jumped up into the sky and headed towards where the other two bombers waited. Kira reached over and patted Athrun on the back, tears forming in his own eyes. Athrun made a fist and jammed it against the steel of the cockpit and in a display of sadness, anger, and longing, shouted one final time, "Dearka...!"