Declaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin, Gundam Seed, or Halo.

Gundam World

Phase 4 Episode 4

Beginning of the end

The Yakin Doe base of ZAFT seemed curiously quiet, devoid of the usual commotion that often surrounded it. Now, not a single sound was coming from it. The huge asteroid-converted military base, the mightiest of all ZAFT space fortresses, floated through its stationary orbit around Earth silently. In fact, if anyone were to try to receive a transmission frequency from the ZAFT base, all they would get is an automated decoy transmission that played back over and over again.

The ZAFT had taken a huge gamble, if they had failed, their greatest stronghold would be lost. The fact was, almost all of the fleet that were stationed on Yakin Doe were deployed to Heliopolis, the immense fleet of over 600 ships were quietly gliding towards Heliopolis, ready to take their Earth Alliance enemies off guard. The risk had its rewards, if they were to succeed in their operation, the Earth Alliance would have no fleet, and the war would be over after this battle.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Captain, our first and third squadrons have already broken through the second line of defense, they are requesting permission to commence the landing mission."

"No, let them keep their ships in high orbit until we have secured the perimeters," Kenshin said promptly and continued reading a report that was faxed in from one of his forward squadrons, ignoring the questioning stares of his tactical assistants. "Hmm…" Kenshin rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he scanned over the contents printed on the paper that he held in front of him, his brows narrowing slightly. He turned to the 3 generals that sat beside him on the bridge, who were there to provide tactical aid to the red haired captain. "It says here that the seventh squadron have also broken through the ZAFT defense line, and the remaining ZAFT are in full retreat into the gravity well of Heliopolis or onto the ground base."

The generals looked at him in puzzlement.

"Captain Himura, I think we should commence our landing operation immediately, to beat the iron while it's still hot." The other two commanders agreed by nodding their heads.

"I agree completely commanders, but I'm skeptical." Kenshin paused for a moment to consider what he wanted to say. "Call me paranoid, but I've fought the ZAFT many times before in space, they are not this easy to beat back." Kenshin said thoughtfully, "it's almost as if they want us to land. Feigning weakness, leading us into a trap."

"Captain, may I speak casually?" One of his tactical commanders asked.

"Go ahead commander, let's hear what you have to say."

"Sir," he began. "The success of our mission lies in the speed in which we land, if we do not get the ground base as soon as possible, the ZAFT reinforcements will arrive and corner us while we have no where to rely on for support. We'll be locked out of the castle while their army mows us down, our force may be large, but not nearly large enough to repel two forces attacking at once."

"Ahh, good point." Kenshin said but still wasn't convinced, "but here's another possibility," he said seriously, "the ZAFT are planning something that involves most our fleet landing onto Heliopolis, then, when most of our ships are in low orbit, at the bottom of the gravity well of Heliopolis, they strike and we will have no where to run." Kenshin countered analytically, "according to the battle report, we haven't done disabling damage to the enemy fleet yet, and they are already on retreat, why just hand over Heliopolis?" The bridge was silent for a moment before Kenshin spoke to his transmission officer. "Command the Cruiser-class and Aegis-class squadrons to spread out and eliminate all ZAFT resistance they meet, I want them to secure an area of at least five-hundred kilometers above the landing range ASAP."

"Yes sir, delivering command."

Kenshin looked back to his officers, "well, gentlemen, I've come to a decision." The red-haired captain said with a slight smile on his face. "In five minutes, we will launch our landing operation, accompanied by the Strike, Burning and Blitz Gundam. I'm afraid a defense perimeter is all I can do right now to ensure the security of my forces." The officers stood up from their seats and saluted.

"The might of EA will crush any resistance sir." Kenshin returned the gesture and sat back to assess the battlefield once more.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Athrun, our fleet are falling back, I want you to get onto the ground base and help out with the defense immediately." Saitou's voice was heard in the cockpit of the Freedom, where Athrun and his team of Zakus fought an advancing fleet of EA battleships.

"Sir…" the blue haired boy tried to negotiate, but the line was already dead. He sighed and opened a private channel with his team, "Zaku team, we are heading back to Heliopolis, retreat to your landing ships and prepare for the defense of the Heliopolis ground base, the party's over out in space." He checked his team roster; five out of the twelve Zakus in his team had been shot down. Athrun pulled up the list for KIA soldiers and added the five pilots to the list. Then he turned the Freedom around and accelerated towards Heliopolis.

As the Freedom was beginning to be dragged in by the gravity of the planet, huge chunks of molten debris from ships destroyed out in space zoomed past him and he paid careful attention to avoiding them. The ZAFT fleet was nowhere to be seen, there was not a single trace of ZAFT ships on the ground base either as he landed, only mobile suits that all had their weapons loaded and aimed towards the sky.

The alert siren went off, instantly, hundreds of red beams shot in from the sky. As they connected with the ground, violent explosions ensued and buildings were instantly obliterated. Some Zakus that were unfortunate enough to be caught by one were vaporized. The onslaught passed; only to be followed by the looming, dark shapes of landing capsules descended rapidly. All mobile suits opened fire; giant bullets and missiles coated the atmosphere. A few landing capsules exploded violently, like fire raining from the sky. As they reached about 100 meters above the ground, the armored capsules broke apart and revealed hundreds of EAMSs. Within each there were over 10 Earth Alliance mobile suits and they instantly descended upon the ground base, their machine guns blazing. Fire and explosions danced across the whole surface of the base, it was like hell had been recreated.

The freedom shot off from the ground, it's beam saber drawn and its rifle aimed. It's saber torn across several enemy mobile suits as it flew past them, leaving explosions that dotted the sky. Athrun pointed his external camera to the atmosphere and zoomed in.

He stopped.

There were another wave of landing pods, hundred of them. The defending Mobile suits on the ground would never hold up against an onslaught of this size, they would be slaughtered. He opened the ZAFT emergency channel and spoke.

"All ZAFT mobile suits, this is ZGMF zero-one-zero Freedom, fall back to position C and form a defense line there, fall back ASAP." He said urgently and headed back down towards the ground. There was no way he was going to let his fellow soldiers be slaughtered like this.

On the ground, Earth Alliance troops had already landed and were firing upon ZAFT positions in reckless abandon. Zakus and Ginns, all severely battered, were falling back, running backwards and firing on the advancing enemies. Giant Bullets and beams and missiles zoomed past, forming a deadly web across the sky, creating thundering sonic booms as they rushed by.

The Freedom, its wings spread and weapons drawn, fired upon the advancing mobile suits with it's formidable weapons; eliminating swarms of the enemy, but not nearly enough to stop the advance. The Earth Alliance forces continued to land in the distance and all around them. Buildings burned and explosions shook the ground. They continued to advance despite ranks of them already dispatched.

"Fall back, fall back!" Athrun fired one final round from his cannons and turned to retreat further. "Get the MAC guns online, aim and fire!" The Freedom flew back to the closest ZAFT position as a bright light overhead overwhelmed his external sensors. For a moment, there was only static in all of his communication equipments, including his external field projections and radar, he was blind.

A second later, the Freedom automatically adjusted its sensors to the strong magnetic waves that pulsated throughout Heliopolis and his camera winked on to show a barren landscape where there had been hundreds of EA and ZAFT mobile suits before, his radar was empty.

A huge, steaming track cut through the military base, the soil underneath were exposed and burned. The white-hot wreckage of mobile suits lay there, unmoving.

"My god…" Athrun whispered to himself. "Is… is that what the MAC gun does?" He said as his hand shook slightly in shock, hovering over his thruster lever. At least this position has been saved…

Just as he thought the trouble was over for a while, explosions instantly resumed. More mobile suits appeared from where the beam of the MAC gun had not reached and continued the relentless advance. "God, are they willing to die like this just for their stupid cause!" Athrun grew furious and sent his Gundam rushing forward, boosters at full blast, the backwash sending waves of dust back into the remaining Zakus as they held their position desperately.

Before Athrun got to his enemy, a beam intercepted his path from above. Focusing his camera on the source. He saw the three units that he fought in space descending onto his location.

"If that's the way you want it, Strike, Burning and Blitz, by all means, come and get it." Athrun recited the three names; intelligence extracted from one of the captured EA prototype mobile suits had given them that much information. He adjusted his scope and aim, then, with a push on his thrusters, the Freedom shot towards its prey.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Soujirou, I want you and Kira to go and destroy that MAC gun! I don't want another blast coming from it!" Commander Mwu La Flaga barked over the COM as the three Gundams descended from the sky of Heliopolis. "I'll handle the bird." Not knowing the name of the Freedom, they had casually named it, the 'bird', alluding to the huge, blue wings attached to its back.

"Yes sir!" the Strike and Blitz ignited their boosters and accelerated into enemy positions. After they had left, Mwu La Flaga zoomed in on his enemy, the white, winged Gundam that was rushing towards him at unnerving speeds. As if realizing what the Strike and Blitz were trying to do, it stopped and turned. Before it rushed to flank the two EA Gundams, Mwu sent his mobile suit into its path. The Freedom stopped.

"You are not getting away from me, don't take me lightly." Mwu said before engaging his thrusters and moving forward, moving in a graceful arc towards his enemy, gaining speed all the while. The Vulcan cannon on its head were shooting away at its target furiously while its weapons were drawn and ready.

The Freedom fell back; facing the Burning, while ignoring the metal slugs that bounced off of its phase shift armor harmlessly. The rail guns at its waist snapped into its full length and fired. Two blazing, yellow bolts zoomed towards its enemy. The Burning Gundam twisted and avoided being fatally wounded, the bolts leaving two deep, red-hot dents on its shoulder where it brushed past. The Burning drew its rifle and fired, aiming for the Freedom's cockpit. The white, winged Gundam twisted and spun, avoiding the beams skillfully; with a sudden boost from its thrusters, it shot forward, taking the burning by surprise. Its saber drawn, the Freedom stabbed towards the cockpit of the Burning Gundam.

A twist to the left was all that saved Mwu La Flaga from being impaled by the giant beam that now torn across his whole unit, its heat melting its enemy. The cockpit of the Burning Gundam suddenly buzzed with huge electrical sparks, the command screen blinking with the words 'DANGER EJECT'. Mwu stepped on a pedal and his Gundam boosted forward, pushing the Freedom back along with it, not allowing it to escape. Maneuvered his Gundam so that its mechanical hands grabbed onto the head of the Freedom, Mwu pressed a switch. The hand around the Freedom's head turned gold from heat, and squeezed.

'SELF DESTRUCT'

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"Hmm," he laughed, "I told you, you won't get away from me in one piece. I am a man who makes the impossible, possible." His helmet cracked.

A blinding explosion was seen from the ground, it's area spreading and covering everything in its path in white-hot plasma. Moments later, the shredded, and coal black frame of the burning Gundam dropped to the ground in pieces with a huge thud, sending up columns of dust.

'Neutralized' appeared on Athrun's command screen.

"Damn it." He cursed; the last, desperate attack by the Burning Gundam had surprised him. Completely destroying his heads-up sensors. Now there were only front images taken from the cameras on the Freedom's chest, which made a huge blind spot overhead. His controls cracked with electric sparks from the damage.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

'Burning, down.'

Kira looked down at his control display. What?

"Kira!" Soujirou's voice sounded over the intercom, "my unit says that the commander's Gundam is down!"

"Yes Soujirou, me too…" this was not a time to grieve and Kira knew it. He had known that the Commander's Burning Gundam, along with the Strike and Blitz, wouldn't stand a chance against the overwhelming power of the 'bird', but destroying the MAC gun would saved hundreds of EA personnel. Keeping his voice carefully controlled as not to crack, Kira said, "Soujirou, let's go, the commander did this for us and the victory that we will achieve from this." With that, he pushed on the thruster levers and sped off from the huge smoldering wrecks of what used to be a ZAFT MAC defense gun and Zakus. Soujirou followed suite. "The ZAFT troops are falling back, we have to continuing pushing in and eliminate all remaining enemies. We can win this Soujirou, just a bit more."

"Yes," Soujirou said and barely had time to avoid a trail of machine gun fire that tracked the path of the Blitz. "What the!"

A swarm of Zakus flew towards their location; they fell into formation and proceeded on interception vectors. The Strike readied its shield and boosted into the path of the Zakus. With a few swipes of his beam saber, the inferior ZAFT mobile suits were quickly dispatched and exploded in midair.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"All ZAFT personnel, evacuate from Heliopolis immediately." Athrun stopped in his tracks, he hailed the central control. There was no response. "All ZAFT personnel, evacuate Heliopolis immediately." The message repeated in the calming female voice.

"What is this?" the Freedom pilot tried again and there was still no response. "Had the central control been breached by EA forces?" in the distance, he could see ZAFT mobile suits entering into launch pods and blasting off while some remained to hold their last position. The Earth Alliance's advance had been overwhelming; there was nothing that he could have done to prevent it.

"Heliopolis is set to self destruct in ten minutes, countdown starting now."

"WHAT!" Athrun pulled on the thrusters and his Gundam came to a dead stop, hovering high above the ground. He hailed the bridge of the Bismarck. There was only static. "Answer god damn it!" Athrun pushed the transmission button violently, but nothing came over the line; a furious fist finally smashing it after there was still no response. "What are they thinking!" He sighed explosively, turned the Freedom towards the atmosphere and accelerated.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Captain!" the operator of the Majestic yelled to their captain. "I have intercepted a coded message from the central command coming from PLANT that's directed to all ZAFT units!"

Kenshin's head snapped up from his seat.

"What did you say! Decode it now!" As Kenshin said that, his normally purple eyes changed, gaining a deadly amber hue. He had known this was a trap; most of his troops were on the ground, Kenshin knew he wouldn't like whatever would become of the message. He stood up briskly and rushed to the front of the bridge where his operator sat and leaned over her chair. Hundreds of codes were present on the screen and she worked furiously to decode them; her fingers blurring over the keyboard.

"Captain Himura!" the fleets monitor suddenly yelled from his position. "ZAFT fleet detected at ten o' clock, ship count…" he paused to check if what he was seeing on the screen were real data, "… approximately… six hundred ships… Beta-class fleet." His face went pale.

"Get me on the Earth Alliance Emergency channel immediately! Deploy all spare landing pods to the surface of Heliopolis on the double!" Kenshin barked, his face furious.

"Sir, you are connected. Range, three-thousand." Kenshin rushed back to his seat and picked up the communication handset, pulling on the cord roughly, he spoke into it while glaring at the heads up display that showed countless ZAFT ship signals advancing towards his fleet.

"Attention all ground-based Earth Alliance units." He began urgently, "This is captain Kenshin Himura of the flagship Majestic, proceed to landing location and evacuate from the surface of Heliopolis immediately!"

"Sir! I have decoded the message! It says," she tried to say something but no words came out, "Heli… Heliopolis is set to detonate in four minutes thirty two seconds." A deathly hush fell over the bridge like a thick layer of snow.

"Heliopolis is set to detonate in four and a half minutes! I repeat, Heliopolis is set to detonate, stop the advance immediately and proceed to your nearest exit location now!" Kenshin slammed the phone down on his seat. "Command the starboard fleets to retreat and join up with the Joint Federation fleet to defend our side, permission to use the Tannhauser beam is granted. All ships, prepare for reentry pod receiving, did they eject all of their landing pods!"

"Yes sir, the remaining spare pods have already been sent into the atmosphere."

"Captain!" The slightly panicked yell from Kenshin's operator snapped him to yet again. "I'm receiving a transmission from the Lexington fleet! They are detecting an incoming batch of missiles from the direction of PLANT!." Kenshin almost dismissed the information until he heard what she said next.

"They, they are carrying nuclear warheads."

To Be Continued

Author's notes: the next chapter will be the final chapter for this story, yes, it is ending.I am most likely going to write an epilogue and Sequel to this.

Since that is no longer school project, I am planning on starting them sometime in the future, haven't decided on it yet.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I kind of wrote this whole thing through a semi-writer's block. I usually wouldn't write during a writer's block, but with the impending deadline that is approaching too quick for my liking, I decided to kill my brain cells and beat it till it spat out word after word.

Expect the mother of all final battles next chapter. Which side will be massacred? And how will this end?

Anyways, I'd like to thank Crimson Blademaster on his continuous support for Gundam World; he really helped a great deal by giving me lots of helpful and kind comments! So Thanks!

And also, I'd like to thank my friend, "System Crashed" for his truly constructive criticisms that probably scared off a lot of readers but still helped me edit and re edit this fic till I am satisfied with it! And also, I totally owned him on Halo online!

Thanks also goes out to Ultimate Coordinator Berserker for pointing out that Kira's eyes are actually purple instead of brown, which I have corrected with great shame.

And also, Reader 007's kind words were a great compliment for my fic, which has helped fuel my desire to write it.

And finally Will The Watcher, who submitted the first review for my fic and commented on my relatively tolerable grammar.

Thanks everyone!