CHAPTER THREE – Enter the Saviour(Ep.6-9,15-16)
A/N: The flagship is called the JP Jones in the episode. It was named after a famous guy in America's battle for independence, so I just gave the full name. Sorry if the thing isn't quite that accurate. Anyway this is the second part of the series so far. I again added extra bits to it. I just had to put in Shinn getting slapped by Athrun, I thought that was one of the best bits of the series so far, Shinn is just far too undisciplined for his own good. This is a repost and Chapter 4 will also come up.
On the bridge of the Girty Lue, Neo watched on the screen as he saw ZAFT mobile suits battling in the ruins of Junius Seven, "Finding ZAFT mobile suits here…I wonder what that means," his subordinate Captain Lee remarked.
"Who knows…perhaps this uproar is not merely due to a capricious God. Send out Sting and the others. I want to observe the situation. Record as much of it as you can," Neo replied as they continued to observe the running firefight on Junius Seven.
The Girty Lue floated in space, continuing to observe the battle, when a message from the international distress channel, outlining Minerva and PLANT's mission to destroy Junius Seven before it impacted on earth by splitting it down into smaller pieces. "Send the recall signal, we have all we need and if we are to stay in space the Gundams should withdraw now," Neo ordered as the green, pink and blue signal flares were fired into space. The three Gundams withdrew from the battle, brimming with battle data that would supplement the data collected by the Girty Lue. "Send out all the data to Lord Jibril as soon as possible," Neo ordered as his pilots returned into the hold of the Girty Lue. He floated out the door of the bridge to debrief his pilots and inspect the damage on the Gundams. "Ehhh…" he sighed as he entered the hold and saw the damage, "you guys were totally outclassed by those ZAFT pilots. I expect better next time."
The waves crashed onto the beach front as Lacus came to join Kira on the beach, "A storm is coming isn't it?" Lacus asked, worried that the war they had worked so hard to end was going to start again, and this, just as bad as the nuclear attack on Junius Seven which began the last war.
"Yes, I know," Kira replied, thinking much the same thoughts as Lacus as they watched the waves crash on the shore.
Lord Jibril sat in his office in his magnificent country manor, receiving the data from the battle. Of particular interest to him were the pictures of ZAFT GINNs on the ruins of Junius Seven aiding it to fall. Well then, that should do it. The war shall continue. For a clean and pure world. I will have to distribute these. "Good job, Colonel Lorrnoke," he said, "you are required to come down to Earth to finish that troublesome ship, a shuttle will come for you and your three pilots and their Gundams. See that they do better next time, Colonel." He cut off transmission, it would be quite risky to let ZAFT find out that he was behind the attack on Armoury One.
On the Earth flagship John Paul Jones, Neo looked at the radar, "At last we meet again, I've found you, little kitten," he said, as the Minerva appeared on the radar, heading straight for the new base. He called the base and requisitioned all available Windam Mobile Suits. He left precise instructions for the flagship to stay hidden as he went to give his pilots one last briefing.
He joined the other pilots in the hold, as he walked in, Stellar ran towards him, "Neo," her eyes like a schoolgirl who saw the object of her first crush. She ran up to kiss him, but he stopped her.
"It's a shame that I can't go with Stellar to the battlefield. But there is no other way, even though the ship should be safe, you should take care of it," Neo said, as the other two departed to their mobile suits. Sting would be joining him and the other Windams to lead the aerial attack, while Auel would attack from underwater.
Sting and Auel both launched from the flagship, as his custom-Windam slid out to the launch pad he thought to himself, "If we could put an end to this now, I'll be quite satisfied," and then said "Neo Lorrnoke, Windam going out."
The Windams and Chaos flew in formation towards the Minerva, ready to attack and destroy it. Two blips appeared on the radar, one the Impulse the second one unknown. "What is this? Another new model unit huh? From Carpentaria? ZAFT sure is amazing," Neo thought both enemies approached.
In the cockpit of Chaos, Sting cursed, "That insignificant thing," as he broke formation and rushed towards Saviour.
"Hey Sting!" Neo said, as he considered his next move, "Oh well. I guess I'll go engage our old friend over there," as the Impulse moved to engage him. Sting should be able to keep the new suit busy while we take out the Impulse. Shinn, stopped and shot, blowing Windams out of the sky. He saw Neo's Windam and gave chase, shooting as he saw Neo's Windam duck under the clouds. Green beams came through the clouds causing him to have to dodge, how does he fire so accurately through the clouds. Damn! Who is this guy? he flies so fast? Neo's Windam crossed up and down, through the clouds, keeping Shinn busy but the other Windam's were not doing much.
Don't get so cocky ZAFT's ace-kun. "Don't get careless, team up and corner him," Neo ordered, as the Windams fire tracked Impulse which was too busy defending to attack anything.
Damn it! Shinn thought as the fire continued, when Athrun's voice came through the comm. channel, "Shinn, you're moving too far away, what are you doing?" Shinn ignored Athrun as he blew up more of the enemy Windam's, while chasing Neo's Windam. It's this one! Shooting down this one will do it, he thought to himself, as he destroyed the remaining Windams
Neo cursed, as he dodged the Impulse's laserfire "You've improved more than I expected. Well now, what should I do?" as he carefully weighed his next options. The Windams he had scrounged were getting destroyed too quickly; the pilot of the Impulse had improved since the last battle. He flew down towards the island base.
"Neo," Stellar, in Gaia saw that her leader was in trouble as she turned Gaia into beast-form and glided on top of the water as Neo's Windam passed with Impulse behind it, she pounced trapping Impulse in the water. Neo looped around ready to deliver the killing blow but had to pull out as Saviour swooped rescuing Shinn.
"Damn that one's powerful too. Sting, go around from the back," Neo ordered as he and Sting concentrated on the new suit, trying to destroy it, Chaos detached its pods which fired on the Saviour, which dodged and returned fire.
"Shinn, retreat, you're walking into their trap," Athrun ordered as he saw Impulse engage the Gaia in a saber fight. "Shut up, I can take him," Shinn's voice rang with conviction through the comm. channel as he dodged fire from Windam and Chaos.
"We're at our limit already, I guess choosing this place as our stage was a bad idea…Jones, we're withdrawing. Prepare to rendezvous. Auel, Sting, Stellar, that's it, retreat," Neo ordered as he saw that they weren't going to do any more damage without the numerical advantage that the Windams had given them
"Why?" Auel asked through the comm. channel, he still hadn't engaged the ZAFT submarine underwater.
"The suits we borrowed have been wiped out. Plus they have penetrated the secret base," Neo replied, annoyed at the bad piloting of his forces and the good piloting of the enemy.
"What? What were you doing? Numbskull," Auel said, mockingly.
"Don't say that. You haven't taken out anything big either, have you," Neo replied.
"All right then, I will," Auel said, a challenge implied in his voice, as he sped towards the ZAFT submarine.
The Earth Alliance base tried to resist Shinn's Impulse with tanks, but Shinn was enraged and fired wantonly, destroying everything, after he saw the army slaughtering the citizens, he had been reminded about his family and how they had died at Orb. So he shot and shot again, vaporizing the enemy installations. "Shinn? What are you doing, Stop It! They no longer have the power to fight," he heard Athrun's voice through the comm., but ignored it as he went to pull the fence up, separating the men and their families.
Later, back on the Minerva, slap! The sound reverberated through the ship's hold as Athrun slapped Shinn for insubordination and disobeying orders. Shinn full of defiance replied, "I don't really mind if you want to hit me, but…But, I didn't do anything wrong. Those people were saved by what I did, and…"
Athrun slapped him again, harder, twisting Shinn's head around the other way. Shinn's look of defiance remained, "War isn't about playing hero. Don't make solitary decisions just as you please! If you have power, be conscious of it," Athrun advised, though not in a friendly manner, as he turned around and stalked out of the hangar.
Kira and Lacus had not regretted saving Cagalli from a loveless marriage, there was no way they could have let their friend Athrun lose his true love due to politicking by government officials. "There's no way, I could have let that slimeball steal my sister from my best friend," Kira told Lacus as they sat in their room onboard the Archangel. Lacus laughed, "I know, there's no way I could let Athrun lose Cagalli. I have half a mind to go to PLANT to stop them from faking me and to drag Athrun here so that he and Cagalli can get married." Both of them laughed as she said this and they held each other, as Cagalli stood outside, her ear to the door, she had overheard what they had just said. Perhaps they were right. I can't give up so easily. Father never would have. She would get together with Athrun again, no matter what.
A/N: Did you guys like the bit of Kira/Lacus at the end. I know that it is probably a bit out of character for Kira but when I watched that ep, I knew I had to put that snide comment in…I hope you enjoyed that 'fun' bit. Next Chapter: A Promise Unfulfilled.
