Declaimer: I do not own the commercial rights to Gundam Seed, Rurouni Kenshin, or Halo (the video game and its line of books)
Gundam World
Phase 4 Episode 3
"We are approaching the artificial planet Heliopolis' radar range, time to contact, approximately five minutes and thirty-four seconds at our current velocity."
"Thank you," Kenshin said slowly, "order all ships to stop the advance, we are taking a few minutes to reorganize our entire fleet formation."
"Yes sir."
The Earth Alliance Fleets slowed and stopped their advance, viewed from a distance, it was as if an army of ants had stopped their migration; the Lexington Fleet took up the rear of the entire formation, with the flagship ship, the Dominion, taking the center back of the group of ships. The Joint Federation Fleet drifted off far to the right side of the Eighth Fleet and fell back. The Eighth Fleet, with Majestic positioned near the center of the entire scatter of ships, took up the front and center of the whole assault force.
"Do a check up on all ship statuses and let the damaged ships take the rear of their positions to provide mainly cover fire."
After all preparations have been made, the mighty engines of the Earth Alliance, renamed Joint Expedition Force, flared and moved forward, its hundreds of ships gliding silently through empty space as their target slowly began to appear on their radar screens.
"All ships, full speed ahead, operation Crusade begins now!" Kenshin stood up from his seat, "permission to establish radio contact has been granted to all ships, get the captains of the flagships on the line."
A moment later, the large overhead screen lit up with the faces of five mighty captains filling it. They Saluted to Kenshin and the Majestic captain did the same.
"Good luck to you all, may the war be ended right here and now, for a peaceful and unified human race."
"The same to you, captain Himura, good luck."
Kenshin gave a stern smile before taking his seat once more.
Ships of various classes flew past the Majestic quickly and headed for Heliopolis, their entire lengths dark and concrete, their engines white hot, their weapons aglow with energy.
"It is almost laughable that a fleet of this size is taking on a planet as big as Heliopolis," Kenshin remarked as his own ship sped up to its maximum velocity and sped towards their target. "It could only make one wonder about the validity of the whole war."
Lufius turned to look at Kenshin in the middle of his weapons assessment, he was struck with how the captain suddenly seemed to emit a powerful aura that have rarely surfaced before; Kenshin had a slight smile on his face and his violet eyes focused straight forward, out the windows of the bridge and into the dark of space; as if he was looking past the troubles of a normal person and into the world beyond. Lufius was sure that the Earth Alliance would win, the only question being when.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
"Enemy Fleet detected in Sector six! More enemy Fleets appearing in Sector four and two!"
Arthur, Saitou's second in command on the Bismarck, who was in the middle of relaying power to the different sectors of the flagship, snapped his head up.
"Call Captain Saitou to the bridge now!"
After only about a minute, Saitou walked in, his face stern, his shoulders set. The Bismarck captain took sat down swiftly in the elevated seat reserved for the captain in the middle of the bridge.
"Arthur, finish off the system adjustments and set sixty percent power to our weapons systems," Saitou began blurting out a series of orders as soon as he sat down, "five percent to shield systems and twenty-five percent to propulsion system, leave ten percent power for emergencies." Saitou paused for a moment before continuing, "and also hail Heliopolis central control and let them run the SCMC (super conductive magnetic coil) immediately!"
"Yes Sir, adjusting power arrangements and hailing HCC."
"Put me through to the ZAFT emergency line." A second later, Saitou's face appeared in every ZAFT ship in range.
"All available and operational ships, prepare to launch into Heliopolis high orbit for counter-attack defense! The EA have showed up sooner than we had expected, but if we fight hard and savagely, we will win!"
Hundreds of ships' engines roared to life and the air locks in the Heliopolis atmosphere overhead opened, creating a wide enough opening for a fleet to pass through; air and life support atmosphere poured out of the gap.
"Acquiring zero gravity in launch area, SCMC reaching maximum electric traffic. All ships have clearance to launch immediately."
The immense ZAFT fleet, led by Bismarck, blasted off from the now Zero-gee surface of Heliopolis and into deep space around the planet. So many ships launched at once that it wouldn't be surprising if the massive backwash pushed Heliopolis itself away from its original orbit.
"Adjust your sights to the main fleet in sector six, they should be appearing on your radars soon." Saitou commanded, "get all MAC guns online and ready to fire in ninety seconds, engage all weapons systems on the Bismarck and all ships in our fleet."
"Yes Sir!" Several people on the bridge yelled at once as the Bismarck shook violently from the sudden acceleration due to its takeoff.
"Sir! The Freedom is still on the Bismarck!" Arthur's sudden yell got Saitou's attention in an instant.
"What? He's supposed to be on the ground helping defend the base!" Saitou barked, clearly annoyed.
"Sir, the signature of the Freedom is on the Ship's M.S. roster, he's requesting clearance to launch!"
"What? Get him on the line now!" Saitou said loudly, the he muttered under his breath, "I'm not here to baby-sit."
A moment later, the helmeted face of Athrun, with little clumps of blue hair falling onto his forehead, appeared on screen as he sat in the darkness of the Freedom cockpit.
"What do you think you are doing Athrun!" Saitou barked to the ZAFT ace through his phone, "I gave you explicit orders to stay on the ground!"
"Sir," Athrun began calmly, not at all unfazed by the tight situation that he was in. Or maybe he was just trying to hold in the dam of panic that would overwhelm him, either way, he was calm. "I checked the Freedom's function abilities, and atmospheric reentry and expulsion are two of its primary functions, so I could go to and fro the ground base at will." Athrun paused, to let the words sink in, "I wanted to help out with the uneven odds out in space, because afterall, if the ZAFT defense fleet is completely destroyed, a intact ground base is close to nothing anyways."
Before Saitou could bite out a scathing remark, his operator got his attention.
"Captain! The EA eighth Fleet has already engaged our second attack-patrol squadron at distance five thousand, they are requesting immediate back-up!"
"What are those idiots doing?" Saitou said through gritted teeth, "make them fall back to extra-high orbit around Heliopolis and join the first line of defense, we can't afford to lose any ships inadvertently."
"Yes Sir!"
Saitou looked back to Athrun's calm and waiting face, the boy seemed to know what he was talking about. Suppressing an exasperated sigh, Saitou gave a wave with his gloved hand.
"Athrun, you are going to face my wrath later after we have fought off the EA, you have permission to launch now, but if you get shot down…" the captain didn't need to say more, Athrun got a hint right away."
"Thank you sir! I won't get shot down for the sake of ZAFT!" He saluted and his line was cut off and replaced by the captain of the super carrier Jennisei, who began to brief Saitou with his situation immediately. The Bismarck captain sighed; sometimes he just wasn't paid enough for his work.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
'ZGMF-010 Freedom, you have permission to launch.' Appeared on Athrun's screen, he gave a slight smirk as the final launch status bar said ' runway CLEAR, communication CLEAR, launch solution CLEAR.' Athrun positioned the Freedom onto the runway in the Bismarck dedicated for the fast launch of the elites. Nicol, Dearka, Yzak and Shishio had already gone out before him.
"Athrun Zala, on ZGMF-zero-one-zero Freedom, going out!" the multiple boosters on the wings of the Freedom ignited and the unit blasted out of the hanger like a meteor. It emerged into a space filled with battleships and mobile suits, all of which had their weapons aimed into one general direction, waiting.
The flicker of light in the deep of space in front of them was followed by a series of additional flickers. Seconds later, warship beams blasted through the ZAFT lines. Everything jerked into action immediately. All mobile suits shot off towards the source of the flickers as even more beams shot through their positions. Several ships were hit and debris drifted from their armor in massive chunks.
Within seconds, the ZAFT fleet had begun returning fire in massive abandon, its ships spreading into formation; beams and missiles were aimed and launched.
Athrun sent his Gundam forward with a slight push on the thruster lever, enjoying the smooth and silent acceleration of his new unit. Within seconds, he had overtaken all of the Zakus and Ginns that were rushing at full speed towards the enemy fleet. Most of them had never seen the Freedom before.
As he approached, his radar picked up literally hundreds of enemy mobile suits and warships rushing forward towards Heliopolis, energy blasts instantly crisscrossed his path and Athrun maneuvered the Freedom effortlessly, dodging the attacks with grace and power.
The first wave of mobile suits approached.
"Let's try the multi-lock-on system." Athrun muttered under his breath as the Freedom began rapidly locking on to every target on his radar screen. After that, it said 'lock-on complete.'
All of Freedom's cannons snapped into place around it, two hyper impulse cannons on the shoulders, two hyper-charged rail guns on the waist, balaena beam rifle held in one hand, it fired. Athrun sat in awe as his unit began firing high-energy beams almost non-stop towards his target.
Soon, red arrows marked 'threat' began disappearing from his radar screen, all of which were hit by the powerful cannons of the Freedom as no other ZAFT mobile suit was anywhere near yet.
"Wow." Athrun had no time to admire his new unit as even more objects appeared on his radar and headed straight for his unit. The words 'locked on' appeared on his screen as missiles, marked deep purple, headed for the Freedom rapidly.
"Crap." Athrun cursed as he weaved his unit in tight twists and rolls to avoid the incoming missiles, "I'm not going to be shot down until Heliopolis is saved."
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
"Aile Strike, please launch." Kira acknowledged the operator and powered up his Strike Gundam. With a short burst of his boosters, the Strike lifted off from the hanger floor and shot out into the spatial battlefield where fire and explosion surrounded his unit.
"Kira," came the voice of captain Himura. "There's a unit on our radar in sector six, quite a distance ahead of the rest of the ZAFT defense. It's causing a lot of disturbance to our advance, I want you and commander Mwu La Flaga and Soujirou to go and eliminate the threat."
Kira stopped, did he say Soujirou? He considered his chances of hailing the bridge and clearing things up without getting yelled at for distracting the captain in the middle of one of the most important battles, but that turned out to be a very low percentage, so he decided against it.
Soon, two green arrows appeared on his radar, one being labeled "burning" and the other "blitz." Kira maneuvered his Strike over to the two and joined up, he opened a private channel with the Blitz.
"Blitz Gundam, this is Earth Alliance Elite combat force, Kira Yamato, do you copy." He didn't need to say more, a moment later, the channel opened and the surprised voice of Soujirou Seta, his friend who was supposed to be back on Earth, came over the intercom.
"Kira? Are you Kira? Strike Gundam?"
"Yes, Soujirou, it is good to see you again, although I could have thought of a million better circumstances for us to meet again. Like maybe at the mall, or Wendy's. " He sighed, just his luck to have his friend turn up in the middle of possibly one of the most dangerous battles in his, in both of their military careers. Before Soujirou could reply, Commander Mwu La Flaga hailed them both.
"Alright boys, this is it, it's really a shame that it's only the three of us instead of the six that should have been, but that just gives us more work to do, let's go!" With that, the line was cut and the Burning Gundam blasted off towards the location of the 'disturbance'. Kira and Soujirou followed closely behind.
"Holy…" Mwu La Flaga murmured to himself as he approached the enemy mobile suit. The video feed that came onto his screen showed one mobile suit, literally taking on a whole army of EAMSs by itself. Mwu had to say that it was a magnificent mobile suit, it's blue wings maneuvered smoothly behind it to make it dodge the many missiles and energy blasts aimed at it each time. It's many guns flared and fired with amazing accuracy even when it was in constant dizzying motion. He opened a channel with the Strike and Blitz.
"Okay boys, we've got a tough enemy on our hands, be careful." A second later, the muttered 'yes sir's came over the line. As soon as the other two Gundam caught up, they fell into formation and shot towards the new enemy.
The winged Gundam immediately aimed its many guns at them and fired. The Burning Gundam spread the thrusters on its back and shot forward, barely avoiding the red beam and graced past its cockpit. It pulled out its beam saber and waved it after it had come in range of the enemy. The Freedom avoided the slash easily and brought its leg up in a vicious kick, sending the Burning Gundam flying backwards aimlessly in zero gee, when the Burning Gundam was disoriented, the Freedom aimed its beam rifle at its cockpit and fired. The green beam was blocked by the Strike, which flew into its path at the last second and blocked with its shield.
Before the Freedom could take aim with its cannons, the Blitz materialized behind it with its rifle glowing and aimed at the head of the Freedom.
"What the!" Athrun had not seen the black Gundam before it was right next to him. He pulled the Freedom out of the way at the last moment, the green beam from the Blitz's rifle burning part of its head. "I've got you." Athrun muttered, the Freedom twisted around and whipped out his saber and prepared a slash. That is when the Blitz disappeared again, completely, without a trace from his radar. "Camouflage system, " Athrun spoke quietly, "this should be that last Gundam that escaped the raid…" he couldn't think, the Strike was closing in on his position quickly, firing beams and missiles that went too close to being fatal, with the Burning Gundam off to his side, flanking him. "Crap," the Freedom pilot pulled his mobile suit back as a swarm of EAMSs came up and fell into formation; their energy blasts crisscrossing his camera. Seeing no means of victory, Athrun turned after one final round from his cannons, obliterating several EAMSs and retreated towards the Heliopolis first line of defense.
"This isn't victory, it's only a brief cease fire, Strike Gundam." Athrun muttered as the image of the Strike Gundam disappeared from his screen.
"He's retreating, looks like catching up to that unit is out of the question," Mwu La Flaga sighed as the Freedom pulled away from him and exited his radar range within seconds, "damn, that thing is fast."
"All units, prepare for the first wave of assault on Heliopolis' primary defense, set your Mobile suit I.D. to '47936EA' to avoid being targeted as an enemy by our cruisers.
"Okay team, let's go, we could end the war right here, if we conquer Heliopolis, Yakin Doe base will be cut off from PLANT," Mwu said over his intercom, "let's go, for a unified human race!" And he blasted off towards the small planet that revolved peacefully despite the havoc that is being wreaked around it.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
"Captain, I am falling back to the first line of defense, the Freedom has sustained minimal damage, only a damaged defense missile turret on the right side of the head." Athrun said after successfully hailing the bridge of the Bismarck, a magnificent feat since the bridge of the Bismarck should be clogged with transmissions from the whole fleet. He could just make out the immense, looming shape of the flagship as he flew near it.
"Athrun, a damaged missile turret is all you're getting, no more damage to the Freedom will be looked over lightly." Saitou replied gruffly over the COM.
"Yes sir."
"I give you command of the first and second Zaku squadron, their locations should appear on your radar soon." As soon as Saitou had said it, big, solid dots on Athrun's radar flashed and began heading towards Athrun's location.
"Yes sir, I have located the first and second attack squadron, they are heading over to my location now."
"Good, use them well, they are good pilots, and they will die for ZAFT." With that, Saitou's voice stopped and was replaced with static. Athrun sighed, piloting the Freedom was one thing, but having a few dozen men's lives on your shoulders is another.
"Alright, first and second Zaku squadrons, follow me and we will intercept the Nazgul-class cruisers in sector three." He pushed the thrusters to 40 percent, so that his team could catch up, and headed for the group of Earth Alliance cruisers that were closing in on Heliopolis too much, too quick.
As they approached, Athrun pushed his thrusters to maximum and shot off towards those dark shapes of the EA cruisers. As he was within firing range, plasma turrets on the ships took aim and projected thin, laser-fine beams in his direction. The Freedom twisted and avoided them easily.
"Prepare for heavy defense fire as you approach, spread out." Athrun said over the private channel that he had opened with his team. "I'm going in." Acknowledgement lights winked on for every unit and they separated on his radar.
Spinning to avoid the missiles that crisscrossed his path, the Freedom's cannons snapped into place and fired, red and yellow beams tore apart all objects that were in its path and shot towards the starboard side of the closest cruiser. The ship's anti-beam barriers for that particular section, which was hit, flickered and went out, then its hatch opened and its entire number of remaining mobile suits exited and headed for the Freedom swiftly. The Freedom fired again and this time, the beam ripped through the hull of the ship, fire erupted from where explosions ripped apart the ship's side and debris filled the space around it, after a moment, it went out, it had used up all the oxygen. The damaged cruiser aimed its remaining guns at the Freedom and fired.
Athrun pulled his joystick to the left and thrusters to full, sending his unit out of the path of fire quickly. He spun and took aim with his hyper-impulse cannons, then, after the damaged hull of the ship appeared in his sights, he fired again. The red, electric beams buzzed loudly and came in contact with the damaged ship; it burned through the remaining armor of the cruiser, finding its engine.
A moment later, the entire vessel exploded, a blinding light filled Athrun's camera and dulled. Where the ship had been, now there were huge chunks of debris, still white-hot and melting.
A few seconds followed before Athrun's team of Zakus caught up and headed for another cruiser while dispatching the remaining EAMSs that were in the area. The blue haired Freedom pilot stopped, looking at his hands. That was the first capital ship that he had destroyed since joining the military, he wasn't sure if he should feel proud. But right now, he was in shock, stats flashed through his memory from his military training. Approximately 750 people occupy and operate one standard battle cruiser, does that mean that he had just destroyed 750 lives?
"Athrun," Raw Le Kluze, his team commander's voice came over the COM, "good job." He said in a calm voice despite the warping effects of the intercom. "Don't think too much, we are fighting a war. Those people chose to die when they decided to fight for their ideals." Le Kluze said as if he was reading Athrun's mind. "Remember, you are doing this so that they don't kill our people."
"Yes sir!" With more determination, Athrun launched into action again, sealing his mind to all emotions.
We must fight savagely
To Be Continued
Author's notes: Hope you enjoyed my attempt at Gundam fighting action, and if you enjoyed it, please review, I'd like some more feedback for my efforts, anyways.
Happy New Years 2006!