Sortie-03 – Orphans of the Sky

OMNI Enforcer Lunar Base Wells, H.G. Wells Crater.

Shortly Before The Crete Naval Battle.

"…Wow."

Those were the first words to emerge from Stephan's mouth as he saw the machine in front of him, the dark of the hangar driven back by powerful lights. At first, its silhouette had made him think he was seeing a Windam with a new Striker Pack attached, but seeing it in the light destroyed that impression in a heartbeat. The mobile suit in front of him, more than anything, looked like someone had taken an ordinary GAT-04 and turned it into one of the legends of the Bloody Valentine War, the spectacularly powerful ZGMF-X10A, better known as Freedom.

"Like it?" asked the engineer at O'Riley's right shoulder. "This is the GAT-Zero-Three-W-Zero, formally known as the Wing Dagger Prototype Specification Zero, more commonly called the Wing Dagger or Wing Zero."

"It's… incredible. What is this 'Wing Dagger', anyway? I've never heard of it." the awe in the pilot's voice was pretty apparent.

"After the War, we needed high-spec machines to maintain our superiority in space after most of the Strike Dagger force was wiped out in Operation Elvis." So began the lecture. "Accordingly, a project was authorised to create a machine exceeding the Dagger-L which was beginning to roll out. The new design is based on ZAFT's Freedom, but using all our best tech. N-Jammer Canceller and nuclear engine, Trans-Phase Armour and laminate cockpit armour, Freedom's wing system with 'Schlag' beam cannons in the wing guns, a quartet of 'Igelstellung Two' guns where the Windam has the new standard See-Whiz, two of those twelve-five guns in the feet, missile launchers in the shoulders, the usual 'Stiletto' penetrators and beam sabres, and an upgraded and self-powered version of the Windam rifle."

"Incredible… absolutely incredible. Wait, though. Surely a nuclear engine is illegal?"

The engineer just laughed. "In case you forgot, we tried to nuke Aprilius One just after 'Break The World'. The treaty is a long-forgotten memory, that's why we're dusting off this thing. You should be proud, there's only a handful around. You'll get it in a few weeks, we've got to reinstall the nuclear bits, fuel it, tune it up, and do a full-systems test, after all…"

"Right, right… you're planning to paint it up like my Windam, right?" the pilot enquired, clearly happy with his new machine.

"Sure, if you want. Don't see what's wrong with the standard Windam colours myself, mind…"

With a laugh ,O'Riley made his way out of the hangar, to receive his new orders. He hoped the new machine he'd been assigned – completely out of the blue, especially after losing half his team – would be ready by sortie time. Having been bounced over to Wells Base after losing two Windams from his team burned in the pilot's mind; being sent to a backwater like this was salt in his wounded pride, almost as if the space forces' commanders didn't believe him capable any more. Him, for goodness' sake, a war-decorated pilot, someone who survived flying those Godforsaken tin-can Strike Daggers when hundreds of others fell by the wayside!

At that moment, however, the base alarm sounded. ZAFT were launching another probing mission? Without thinking, Stephan ran towards the hangar his Windam was stored in, repaired from the last battle. With a new Aile Striker, yet more new rifles, and the latest wave of upgrades, including the latest operating system version and a more efficient energy converter in the battery, it was an even more fearsome machine. Soon, battery power wouldn't be a concern, but for now it was essential.

Ten Minutes Later

Standing on one of the many miniature mass drivers dotted around Wells – in actuality oversized linear cannons – O'Riley's gray Windam prepared to launch, part of a team assigned to engage and destroy the ZAFT mobile suits remaining in lunar orbit, rather than descending to the surface. They just couldn't stay away, it seemed. He hoped he could remember the name of the two new members of the team, both piloting vanilla Windams, rather than equipping one of the Striker Packs available. Andy Bishop had chosen the Launcher Striker again instead of the Doppelhorn, and O'Riley himself was of course piloting an Aile Windam.

Boosters strapped to the Windam's legs, he prepared for launch. The launch controller counted down, ready to throw the team into space. "Five, four, three, two, one… abort track one, restart final checks." O'Riley cursed in frustration. His machine had aborted the launch for the second time, its Aile Striker blowing the all-clear both times.

"Hurry up with those checks, swap the damn Striker if you have to!" he called out in frustration. Moments later an engineering team began analysing the machine via data wires in the APU cable, to see if they could fix the problem remotely. Two minutes later they gave the go-ahead, and the launch sequence restarted.

"Five, four, three, two, one… all tracks go, launch!" with that, the lights along the linear tracks switched from red to green, and all four Windams soared up from Wells, boosting speed with the high-powered supplemental thrusters on the suits' legs. Though it was an unnecessary waste of power, the leader ignited the lower pair of thrusters on the Aile Striker, accelerating ahead of his team to get into the fight as fast as was possible.

Breaking into orbit, O'Riley immediately began a complete scan for the enemy. As he'd been told, this was no probe, but a serious recon-in-force mission. Four high-speed Nazca destroyers had arrived, each no doubt carrying half a dozen of the new 'Zaku' models. Longing for the days when most of ZAFT were piloting the GINN and CGUE to their deaths against his Strike Dagger, O'Riley soon came upon a lone mono-eye machine, one of the big-gun models. From its pose, it was totally oblivious to the Aile Windam approaching, its beam cannon trained on an Alliance team still launching from the moon.

Desperate not to lose any comrades in such a pathetic way, Stephan opened the gun battle with a pair of snapshots, hoping to catch the enemy machine, or at least throw it off-balance. One shot went wide, but the other burned right through the Gunner ZAKU Warrior's foot, basic physics doing the rest as it was thrown slightly off-balance, its red-white beam going well high of the incoming Windam team. This quartet mounted a modified Jet Striker, the semi-experimental new Thunderbolt Striker model, which replaced the high-performance jet engines with rocket thrusters, but retained the wings for additional propellant and weapon storage, as well as adding a pair of beam cannons in the wing roots.

O'Riley left the damaged machine to its fate, the leading Thunderbolt Windam firing a dozen missiles from two under-wing pods. Not all hit home, but enough to transform a ZAFT mobile suit into an expanding cloud of debris. Swinging around, Stephen rejoined his team, and began the charge toward a trio of machines with the large thruster backpack. All three began the battle by firing the missiles in the top part of the backpack, hoping to do some damage before the real engagement began. None hit home, all either shot down by CIWS fire or simply evaded.

From behind a cloud of exploded warheads, the Windam team tore into the fight with beam rifles blazing, O'Riley's rifle approaching its safety limit before he finally released the trigger. One ZAKU was torn to pieces in the onslaught, losing both its legs, then its rifle, right arm, and head in the furious barrage, a final shot piercing its cockpit.

Under constant attack, Stephen couldn't help but think of Blue Cosmos; maybe all this would be easier without Coordinators at all…

Just then, an explosion rocked one of the Thunderbolt Windams' backs. With no enemies behind it, Stephan was confused; the pilot's report clarified things, however. "Engine failure in Striker Pack, abandoning the junk!"

Fantastic, Stephan thought, a new Striker that doesn't even work. In this moment of distraction, another ZAKU with a big thruster backpack bore down on him, beam rifle firing. Raising the Windam's shield kept the green streaks at bay, the pointed piece of dark blue metal on his suit's left arm a lifesaver once again. Having started his career in MS from a background in piloting Spearhead fighters off the deck of a Tarawa carrier, movable limbs and zero-gravity were Godsends.

Without hesitation, O'Riley flicked his mobile suit to face the ZAKU, shield raised to block any further attempts to shoot him out of space. As he charged, the Windam pilot called out, "Stop thinking two-dimensionally, Coordinator!", noting his opponent's rather unimaginative fighting style. As the gap shrank between the two MS, the ZAFT machine ditched its rifle; blinking, Stephen noted its shoulder-mounted shield position itself in front of the body at a right-angle to its usual position. Moments later, the machine grabbed an odd-shaped hilt from inside the top of its shield, the hilt projecting what looked like a beam tomahawk.

"That toy doesn't scare me!" he yelled, firing a few beam blasts from his rifle, caught by the ZAKU's ready-positioned shield with ease. From his cockpit, the red-haired OMNI soldier noted that there was writing on the shield, and not a normal unit marking, either. "'God's in His Heaven, all's right with the world…' trying to scare me with Browning, are you kidding?"

Storing the suit's rifle, O'Riley grabbed a beam sabre from the Aile Striker, igniting the pink blade a few moments after bringing the hilt to the suit's side. The ZAKU charged first, swinging its axe down to slice Windam head. Blocking with his sabre, the Natural immediately took advantage of the situation, ramming the pointed tips of his shield into the ZAKU's abdomen. As the machine drifted back, wounded, O'Riley released the shield missiles into the enemy machine's torso, abandoning the suit as it was consumed in flame.

Without a chance to congratulate himself, O'Riley went back on the defensive, throwing open his throttles to throw his machine above a blast from a Gunner ZAKU's large beam cannon. Sabre still drawn, the Windam pilot charged the machine, whose lack of internal weapons prevented it doing anything to stop him. Weaving between streaks of hastily-aimed red-white beams, O'Riley swung past the suit's spiked right shoulder, beam sabre neatly cutting the torso into an upper and a lower half.

At that point, he was confused. Several Windams seemed to be retreating! Looking through the text messages he'd been ignoring, several had suffered engine flameouts on the Thunderbolt Striker, and a few others had simply taken battle damage. That damned new Striker is useless! Fortunately, a dozen more Windams soared up from Wells Base, fresh and ready for battle.

It was at that moment O'Riley noticed the machine soaring towards him, a crimson, horned, two-shield ZAKU with Gatling guns over its shoulders. The same bastard who'd killed James. Thinking purely murderous thoughts of vengeance, Stephen released the handgrip of his shield and drew his Windam's second beam rifle, and began firing in a staccato pattern, left, right, left, right, attempting to force the pilot into one of the lines of fire.

Unfortunately, the Coordinator was pretty good, weaving out of the fire with surprising ease. The ZAKU's rifle shots were no more effective, though, and it was holding back with its Gatlings for whatever reason, so that was a saving grace, at least. As its rifles began to reach their limit before overheating, the Windam hooked them to storage points and grabbed both the Aile Striker's beam sabres.

At that point, the enemy machine opened up with its Gatlings, to cover itself as its rifle was abandoned in favour of that beam axe. Pink blade glowing furiously, the ZAKU, still spitting fire from its rapid-firing beam weapons. In response, the Windam ducked and dived through scattered beams, occasionally blocking a few too-close blasts with a beam sabre, a trick learned more by luck than anything back at Jachin Due.

Two Nazcas exploded at that point. With the ZAKU distracted – was his mothership destroyed? – O'Riley went for the kill, swinging past the ZAFT machine with beam sabre outstretched. Unfortunately, the Coordinator's reactions were slightly too quick, the machine losing its left leg rather than being split in two.

Kevin Stockdale was understandably annoyed. "Bastard! What the hell just happened!" Furious at the sudden loss of two ships, and the loss of his suit's leg, he flipped over and charged towards the Windam that had taken the limb and charged, huge beam axe first. The Alliance pilot raised his machine's shield, already on the defensive again. However, the shield's anti-beam coating was no match for the massive Falx-G7, and was torn in two by the giant weapon, scorching but not cutting into the Windam's arm.

O'Riley glanced at the message he'd received in the midst of battle. The ever-handy special forces ship Girty Lue had intervened, destroying two ZAFT ships without even dropping its treaty-banned Mirage Colloid system. This was the second battle she'd intervened in recently, having helped one of the Eurasian bases earlier in her journey to Daedalus Base from Azarchel. As the ship became visible, a wall of missiles erupted from Girty Lue's launchers, taking apart a third Nazca with disturbing ease.

Retreat signals sprang from the remaining ZAFT ships, not surprising considering the condition of their forces; Stephan counted a mere sixteen mono-eye machines left on the battlefield, twenty cut down by the waves of Windams being sent out by Wells Base. As the one-legged red ZAKU tried to retreat, O'Riley saw a perfect opportunity to capture a new ZAFT machine.

"Oh, no you don't!" he cried out, blasting away with his beam rifle toward the retreating mobile suit. Its right arm was taken clear off, axe along with it, and the right side beam Gatling fared no better. As the machine tried turning to face him, O'Riley shattered its mono-eye with fire from the Windam's head CIWS guns, before physically grabbing it, Andy Bishop assisting him.

A prisoner…