Chapter 5: Resistance fighters
A/N, POLL: With Ep20-23 previews spoilers, the direction I took it will be different to the one the series takes…so it will be AU. Unless you guys want me to stay true to the story in which case I have to do some serious re-writing. At least let me know your thoughts…(eg. I offed Heine quickly and don't have the Minerva v Archangel that is hinted at in the spoilers, Also the way I had Shinn and Stellar meeting is different to what they said.) So let me know what you guys think.
The Minerva flew through Eurasia and northern Africa, flitting around battlefields like an annoying insect, striking at EA bases with the help of local resistance and then pulling back. Shinn and Athrun had had a heartfelt talk about the last war and Shinn now at least seemed more stable and less focused on the past, less focused on Mayu and his family. His grief for them was still strong, he knew it would never go away but it no longer ruled his life. He was a soldier, not a boy anymore and as Athrun said, a soldier follows his orders and does his job so that someone somewhere else is safe.
Missions were executed almost daily, as the Saviour and Impulse bought hope to the hearts of countries wishing to remain neutral in the new war. 81st Independent squadron had engaged them several times, each time ending in a stalemate, as the Minerva or the JP Jones had withdrawn when the battle had gone against them, they were no closer to recapturing the stolen Gundams, the 81st no closer to destroying or capturing the Impulse or Saviour. Athrun had piloted and led impressively, and Shinn skill improved greatly and he seemed to be learning really well under Athrun's tuition.
Rey and Lunamaria provided able support in their Zaku Mobile Suits, but the majority of the kills were chalked up by the two Gundam pilots. They had lost count of the amount of times they had battled the Earth Alliance military, though strictly in defensive roles, defending against both Earth Alliance probes and full-scale attacks. Even after ZAFT support had landed on Earth, the Earth Alliance was still bullying its way through the remaining territory on Earth, only Scandinavia and the Equatorial Union, with the help of ZAFT troops in Carpentaria held out against Eurasia and the Atlantic Federation, the two main movers in the Earth Alliance.
Quiet whispers about Blue Cosmos controlling the military again had reached the ears of both the crews of the Archangel and Minerva, and that forebode nothing but trouble. The Blue Cosmos had been troubling last war, now it was stirring sentiment against Co-ordinators. Talia and Athrun were having a conference between the FAITH officers on the Minerva, after Heine had appeared with new orders, but he had disappeared onto another ship after a heated argument with Athrun and apparently, according to intel was dead after intel recovered wreckage of a battle near Scandinavia. Apparently, their ship had been ambushed by a Gundam. It is most likely those Earth Alliance pilots. Heine was always too arrogant for his own good, and there was no way his skill level was anywhere near good enough to handle a Gundam in anything less than another Gundam. Still it is another soldier dead for a war that we shouldn't really be fighting.
The Chaos, Gaia and Abyss have to be taken down soon," Talia said, "they wreak as much havoc as we do and we have to oppose them however we can, otherwise they would overrun the neutral nations. "However, even with ZAFT forces landing quite frequently, we don't have enough firepower here to hold off the Earth Alliance forever, especially if their Gundams keep on ripping through our mobile suits."
"Then we shall have to take the fight to them, and hope we win, it may be risky but in the long-run it would be worth it," Athrun replied.
Rumours of the Minerva appearing in two places at the same time had reached the JP Jones. Neo stood on the deck worried, there definitely weren't two Minerva's out there. He studied photos that had been captured by the army. Either Minerva had two paint jobs or someone had ZAFT had dropped a second battleship onto Earth, but intel had not indicated that there was a second battleship being built on PLANT. He looked at the second ship, the white one, it looked oddly familiar. He frowned, sometimes certain images and pictures would feel different, he felt as if something was missing, it was like a sixth sense. But he didn't have time to worry about that yet, Minerva needed to be taken down, and intel indicated that they had headed for the battlezone near Scandanavia.
He had enough worries already; Stellar was becoming more unstable and Jibril was becoming more insistent about the quick destruction of the Minerva. He wished things were easier, but the Minerva was in the way of peace or so Jibril had said.
The JP Jones sailed on towards the warzone. Back on the Minerva, Talia and Athrun were still discussing the plan to trap the enemy Gundams and destroy them. An attack would most likely be the easiest way to destroy them but it would also be the riskiest. If something went wrong, the tables could easily be turned against them.
"We won't have many reinforcements, they only have old mobile suits and tanks, it will be up to us to provide most of the firepower to destroy the Earth Alliance mobile suits," Athrun said. Talia agreed and decided that they would have to work up a plan.
Outside he met Shinn, who had just found out that Athrun was engaged to Lacus Clyne again, something nagged him about Lacus, and then he realised, he had seen her on Orb at the monument with another guy. "Athrun, I have something important to tell you," Shinn said as he gestured for Athrun to follow him. Athrun followed him and they found the pilot lounge empty. Athrun sat down and Shinn took a chair opposite him, Shinn whispered to Athrun, "I think your fiancée is cheating on you with some other guy, I saw her on Orb while we were there with another man." Athrun was a bit shocked, he knew that his 'engagement' was only a fake, but he realised that he couldn't say anything about that to Shinn, but more importantly he realised that Shinn had seen Kira.
Cagalli sat in the room that she shared with Kira and Lacus, who were both away on duty. Athrun, where are you? I wish that I could hold you in my arms again. I wish I could marry you right now, I wish that you hadn't gone back to PLANT? If only I could tell you now, how deep the love I feel for you. She wondered what Athrun was doing in PLANT right now, she hoped that he hadn't given up on her after she had agreed to marry Yuuna. She had been saved of that folly by her brother but she had also lost Orb, her responsibility to the Earth Alliance. I only hope that the citizens or Orb are now safe.
The Archangel sailed under the sea, heading towards the next battlefield, the next warzone. The crew had decided to go around Gibraltar and North Africa, helping the neutral nations stay neutral. The Freedom and the Archangel had become almost famous for their valour in battle. The Freedom, Strike Rouge and Murasame cut swathes through Earth Alliance Mobile Suits and Mobile Armours, however, they couldn't be everywhere at once, a lot of the times they made inroads into Earth Alliance forces only to have the Earth Alliance attack another front at the same time. They also had to watch out for ZAFT forces that were around. They had destroyed a ZAFT dropship in the previous weeks that had happened to have caught them on sensors and had attacked.
Milliaria had settled once again into the combat role, she wondered about Dearka a lot of the time now, she hoped that they could be together again. What are you doing right now? I hope you're safe and that we'll see one another again. Dearka, Yzak and Shiho stood in the base at Gibraltar. Gibraltar was under attack from Earth Alliance and Blue Cosmos went around fomenting trouble for the citizens.
"Yzak, it is troubling isn't it?" Dearka, in a voice more serious than usual, asked as Yzak came striding out of the base commander's office, an angrier look on his face than usual.
"Yes, the Blue Cosmos bastards keep stirring up trouble and suicide bomb themselves at the base every so often. But what worries me more is the Eurasia forces headed for Gibraltar. And we've heard nothing from the Minerva, except that it is near Scandinavia, working with local resistance against Earth Alliance forces," Yzak replied, "The stolen Mobile Suits are also around somewhere creating trouble for us." An unbidden thought came to Dearka's mind, what was Chairman Dullindal thinking when he created those Gundams, and then to let them be stolen so easily?
Suddenly, the base sirens began to blare out the alarm, Yzak and Dearka ran off towards the mobile suit hangar ready to fight whatever approached. Yzak and Dearka both launched in their Zaku's as Jule squad rose to engage the incoming Windams and Dagger suits of the Earth Alliance.
Yzak lead the Zaku squadron towards the enemy, unleashing the Slash Zaku's laser polearm, slashing at the enemy mobile suits, destroying them. He flew in a controlled fury, Shiho on his wing, as they lead the attack on the Eurasia forces. Die! You stupid invaders! Get out of our territory! His blue Zaku twisted through the air, destroying Earth Alliance Windams and Daggers, killing their pilots. He deftly avoided the laser shots that came from the enemy.
The battle over Gibraltar was furious; ZAFT Zakus and Earth Windams engaged each other in a dazzling display of light. Yzak and Shiho racked up kills in close combat, while Dearka lead the last line of defence and picked off any of the Windams that made runs on the base. Blast! Dearka thought as some of the earth battleships started launching long range missiles at the base, "Zakus, take down the missiles," he ordered as he launched into the air, shooting at the long-range ballistic missiles. He separated his gun into two smaller guns and started firing at the incoming missiles with green laser shots, destroying them, causing them to explode prematurely, covering the sky with a myriad of orange-red against the little blue sky that was left where there wasn't any fighting.
Dearka and Yzak's Zakus's twisted around in the air, flying with grace and agility as they showed the Earth Alliance the skill of the pilots who had survived Jachin Due. Even though ZAFT Zaku's fell less often than the EA's Windams and Daggers, ZAFT was slowly but surely losing the fight as the sheer numbers of EA troops started to overwhelm the brave ZAFT defenders. Dearka watched as one of the Zakus next near him blew up spraying shards everywhere, he only hoped that the people on the ground were safe.
"Damn!" Yzak's voice came through the comm. "there's too many of them, we can't hold the base much longer, there are too many of those bastards."
The evacuation order for Gibraltar came over the comm. system of all of the remaining ZAFT forces, as the Earth Alliance ships and mobile suits continued to rain destruction on the base. ZAFT Zaku's began to retreat to nearby carriers which were launching from the Gibraltar base. Yzak, Dearka and Shiho landed on the battleship as it left the now burning Gibraltar base behind.
Back on Orb, in the secret Morgenraete base, unknown to the Orb government, Erica and Colonel Kisaka worked on new Gundams for the Archangel, based off the designs in the last war. A long ranged sniper model with mirage colloid, perfect for infiltration and assassination, combining elements of the Blitz and Buster Gundams. A second incorporating Eurasia's Artemis shield tech combined to Duel's hand-to-hand capabilities, creating an ultimate duellist Gundam suited for close-ranged combat and specialising in anti-Gundam combat. A third unit based off the Providence was also nearing the end of design stage. They had kept tabs on the Orb government using some of the backdoors that had been installed, they knew that Cagalli had been kidnapped by Freedom and the Archangel, which they had refitted was now away from Orb. They would arrange some way to deliver the new Gundams to the Archangel. Pilots would be harder to find, but having more units allowed them greater flexibility in their mission.
Neo stood on the bridge of the JP Jones, as the Earth Alliance forces approached Scandinavia. The Earth Alliance formation approached the coast of Scandinavia, ready to launch their Daggers and Windams and the three Gundams. As they moved into bombardment range the carriers stopped. "Launch all mobile suits, prepare to attack," the orders rang clearly through the Earth Alliance's comm. systems.
"Sting Oakley, Chaos, away!" The Chaos Gundam launched straight into the air, joining the launching Windams and Daggers.
"Auel Neider, Abyss, launch," The Abyss Gundam dropped into the ocean turning into submarine mode, ready to take out any under sea defenders.
"Stellar Loussier, Gaia, go," The Gaia turned quickly into quadruped mode as it led the charge by impossibly gliding over the water. Stellar concentrated on breaching the first line of defence and getting onto earth.
"Neo Lorrnoke, Windam, launching," Neo launched his custom Windam to lead the assault on Scandinavia. He expected that the Minerva would turn up, he opened a private comm. channel to his three pilots, "Expect that the Minerva and those annoying Gundams will come." He personally looked forward to battling against the kid in white again.
"Condition Red, Condition Red, All pilots to the hangar," Meyrin's voice rang out clearly through the bridge of the Minerva whilst it rested in the docks of Scandinavia. They had been busy helping local resistance against the Earth Alliance on both the land-based front and the sea-based front. Shinn, Athrun, Lunamaria and Rey all rushed to the hangar and entered the cockpits of their respective mobile suits.
"Athrun Zala, Saviour, away," Athrun launched into the sky.
"Shinn Asuka, Core Splendour, launch," Shinn launched into the sky, the other parts of Impulse launching after him, combining with the Core Splendour to form the Impulse.
"Lunamaria Hawke, Zaku, go" the red Gunner Zaku Warrior launched out of Minerva's hangar,
"Rey Za Burrel, Zaku, away," the white Blaze Zaku Phantom rose to join the battle.
The sun shone brightly in the clear blue sky, little knowing that the sky would soon be painted red and green with blood and laserfire. The Earth Alliance fleet readied its weapons, as the Minerva prepared to shield its bridge and prepared for yet another battle, another graveyard.
Athrun would lead the mobile suit corps of Scandinavia and ZAFT forces, while Shinn stayed to defend the shore from any raiding parties which got past, with Lunamaria and Rey to assist him. He gave Shinn command of the three ZAFT suits, Shinn was maturing and Athrun felt that he now knew that he couldn't go rushing out, innocent lives depended on him staying put and following the orders he had been given.
Shinn stood on the coast, whilst Lunamaria and Rey, all in their mobile suits. Athrun assigned me this job, knowing that I would try my hardest to protect the powerless civilians and that I would never leave them behind. That seems to be a sign of distrust, a lack of confidence by then why did he leave me in charge? He probably doesn't want me to rush into a trap like last time, even though I would never ever admit it to his face, his arguments had logic, I had run into more trouble than I bargained for…I wonder who the Earth Alliance commander, the pilot of that purple Windam is? For a pilot of a mobile suit he could hold his own mostly, against a Gundam, certainly his situational awareness is good. I'd like to meet that man and ask him how he does it…Shinn's thought process was interrupted as battle alerts came through. He opened a comm. channel to Lunamaria and Rey, "alright, our mission is to destroy anything that comes too close to the coast. Got it?" He received two acknowledgments from the other pilots and then settled his mind and prepared for the battle.
A/N: So there are new Gundams on the way, what do you guys think of my designs. I mean in there are no shielded Gundams for some reason, even though I think shields may work better especially against beam sabers that are favoured inclose range combat, and combining the elements of Blitz and Buster makes for a perfect hidden sniper. I decided to finish chapter five here. The next Chapter the Battle of Scandinavia. Sorry for the lack of Archangel.
