Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed. The company Bandai is the legal owner. I also don't claim originality with this story; Solid Shark is the owner of the idea. If he does not approve of my use of his idea, he can let me know and I'll pull the story once I have gotten his message.
Claimer: However I do declare ownership of the Crimson Eagle, the Dark Side Bear, and the Lunar Cherry Blossom. I also declare ownership of the twist I'm putting in.
"The Endymion Ghosts"
Chapter Three: "Shattered! Heliopolis is Destroyed!"
Heliopolis Resource Satellite, Orb Union Island-type Colony, L3 Area
The once beautiful and peaceful Island-3 Type Space Colony was now a battlefield of death and destruction. Inside, a lone ship prepared to fight off an enemy force of seven ZGMF-1017 GINN mobile suits, but the lone ship, Archangel, is protected by four G-Weapons, GAT-X105 Strike, -X106 Highland, -X107 Field Strike, and the –X108 Woodland Strike. Then two more G-Weapons appear the GAT-X 303 Aegis and GAT-X 102 Duel.
ZMS Vesalius, planning for the attack on the 'Legged-Ship'
"Commander Le Creuset, allow me to participate in this battle," Athrun Zala, a ZAFT Top Gun with short midnight blue hair and emerald green eyes requested of his superior officer. 17 years old and already a Top Gun Red covering his slightly tanned white skin.
"I'm afraid not Athrun, your friend may prove to be your down fall," Commander Rau Le Creuset said. Tall, with long blonde haired and a white mask covering his upper face. About 25 years old wearing commander whites that match his skin.
"Yeah coward, don't even think of launching!" Yzak Joule sneered. Same age as Athrun, but with an opposite personality and appearance, save for the Top Gun Red Uniform. Silver hair, blue eyes and white skin defines Yzak's appearance.
"Yzak Joule, you are NOT to LAUNCH either," Commander Le Creuset ordered the blue eyed boy.
"Commander I wouldn't…" Yzak was cut off.
"I know full well that your aunt was guarded by Eagleton and his team up till she vanished AND that he took you in as his student AND not to mention that you're his son-in-law, do not think I did not know you would join the battle," the team commander was stern, but he knew both boys would launch anyways.
Yzak started mumbling about there being no justice and a long string of curses that would shock a sailor and everyone on the bridge had a blush. About fifteen minutes later, Yzak finished.
"Now that Yzak is done, we will be only using the GINNs to evaluate the enemy strength for now and sink the enemy battleship, avoid all enemy mobile suits and keep the Colony's main support shaft to your backs. You will be using D-Class Weapons Package for this mission."
"AYE, AYE SIR!" the green suited mobile pilots said as they left to prepare for battle, as the red suits just stood, angered by the way things turned out.
AFS Archangel, same time
"If I know Rau, he'll use his remain ZMF-1017s and go after the ship. He forgets who had the higher score at the academy when it comes to defensive tactics, but he was always a sneaky bastard, but that limits his abilities," Crim Eagleton, the once famous ZAFT Master of Aces, said.
"How can that limit Rau's capabilities?" Lt. Mu La Flaga asked.
"Simple, he'll have his troops put the main support shaft behind them, so we will be unable to fire, but this is where he'll get one hell of the surprise. We go ahead and just blast the ZAFT suits, if we hit the shaft, pray it holds, if we miss, good, but that shaft is the main key to this battle. So we'll not allow them that luxury," Crim said.
"But we can't shoot at the shaft!" protested all the female officers at once, except Captain (Acting) Murrue Ramius.
"You plan to put the Archangel between the shaft and the GINNs and win the battle," she stated, not asked.
"We have four G-Weapons, they have four, but I don't expect him to use all four, most likely one or two and that's were he gets sneaky," Crim replied.
"One or two and that's where he gets sneaky?" asked Lieutenant Junior Grade Sara James, clearly confused.
"He won't be ordering them out. I can guess that Athrun Zala, son of that bastard Patrick Zala will be one and most likely one other, my student…" Crim trailed off.
"Student?" Capt. Ramius asked, clearly confused.
"I think he might be in the Le Creuset Team, but I hope not. He's a good kid… He even – when he was about ten – called me father. I always had great ties to his family to the point that I allowed him to take my daughter's hand in marriage," he replied wiping tears away.
"Yzak," Lina Joule said softly, her own nephew.
"We'll have to be careful then," Lt. La Flaga concluded.
"Now that's aside, what about Kira?" Crim asked, getting back to business.
"Sakura and Justin are talking to him now," replied Lina.
"Good, a loyal son of Orb, that's Kira through and through," Crim said, but that reminded Capt. Ramius of someone from long ago.
Flashback
"Ha! I may be sympathetic to the PLANTs, but I'm a loyal son of the Atlantic Federation and no one dares walks away after insulting my loyalties!" a dark haired blonde with piercing blue eyes and a mean right hook and strong left jab showed the offending Alliance supporter.
"BAR FIGHT!" a red head, with childish green eyes shouted as he joined his buddies in knocking down the Alliance supporters.
The young woman with red eyes and shoulder length brown hair took cover with the other soldier dates in a back room where the owner called the police.
A burst of automatic fire ripped into the room and the sound of a wounded man yelling his head off, filled the bar. The police dispatcher could be heard yelling, "Shots fired, shots fired!"
The blonde man from the start of the fight was wheeled out, his face covered in bandages and part of his left arm missing. The police arrived to pick off the survivors, all Alliance Supporters all Blue Cosmos. The blonde recovered, but his eyes held a sickly red about them, instead of their once shining clear blue.
End Flashback
"Bridge, Dormitory Starboard, Kira has agreed to pilot the X105 Strike, we're taking him to get changed now" Sakura reported.
"Roger that Ms. Sakura, see you out on the battlefield," replied CPO 2nd Class Jackie Tonomura.
"Now let's begin moving the ship," Ensign Loretta Red-Rains said, no one disagreed.
Just minutes after finalizing their plans and positioning their ship, the crew of the Archangel saw the hole made by the ZAFT battleship gunfire and the nine enemy suits enter in two groups.
The battle now being fought
The sight of the four G-Weapons approaching unnerved the ZAFT pilots a little, but they had their orders and with no Zeroes out there, the ship should go down easily. In theory anyways, but attacking squadrons should always, and have traditionally always, outnumbered the defenders in a classic air-to-surface attacks on ships. Though, since the start of the war, the rules changed as smaller numbers of mobile suits wiped out entire squadrons of ships, though the defense screen of mobile armors had always held the advantage in numbers, but now, it was an all mobile suit battle, so the rules of old once more applied.
As the swirling mass of mobile suits engaged one another, skill was the key and so was equipment. The ZAFT pilots found their job cut out for them, but took comfort in the fact that the enemy mobile suits had to both defend their ship AND the Heliopolis' main support shaft. The clumsier weapons of the D-Package armaments meant that the GINNs were seriously lacking in the mobility department, but the Aegis and the Duel more then made up for that, that is until they encountered the second line mobile suits, X105 and X106.
The Cry of the Attacking Eagle resounded on all frequencies and anyone near Heliopolis went wide eyed at the sound. The Aegis soon found itself locking swords with the X105 Strike, while the Duel played follow the leader with the X106 Highland Strike.
"Hiya Duel! Let me guess, Yzak, right? Always thought you'd make a good duelist, but I didn't know that you'll apply the name so literally!" Crim couldn't help himself.
"SHEHEHEHE, still the same as always, eh, father… Please surrender, you and Aunt Lina, please," begged the pilot of the Duel to the point of tears.
"Now you know how Athrun and Kira must be feeling. Athrun was always more like his mother, not one bit like his father. I can guarantee that fact," Crim said.
"Father! Please just give up!" Yzak cried out.
"Yzak, ever hear of GENESIS and/or the NJCs?" Crim asked.
"No, why? What are they?" Yzak asked.
"Tell your mother, that she must force Patrick to acknowledge these weapons in front of the Council, the whole Supreme Council and the PLANTs, and then we may both return. Talk with Athrun and get his aid, but don't tell Rau about this, you'll be breathing vacuum is seconds flat," the older man said very sagely, very fatherly.
"I'll think about it, but first, I must shoot you down. You'll be disappointed if I didn't carry out my duty as a ZAFT soldier," Yzak responded, with the heart of a soldier.
"Correct, I can see I was right, you are just like me when I was younger, but Yzak… If I die here or before I can stop GENESIS, carry out my wishes and see to it that there is never another betrayal of men like us, we soldiers are proud to the point of arrogance, but we are literally a breed apart from others, we deserve to have a soldier's pride, but we are soldiers not politicians or murderers, avenge not only all those sons and daughters of the PLANTs, but also of Earth, their leadership has long since betrayed them, but they don't know it. Work with Lord Uzumi and I can tell you now that we will one day see an end to such radicalism as we see this day," Crim sighs sadly, "Then my sword will be reforged, broken long ago and by those of hate, peace shall return to the Earth-Sphere and we will be the ones to have paved that road others will follow."
"Now we fight?" Yzak asked heavily.
"Yes my student, my son, we fight," answered Crim just as heavily.
The two suits stopped and clashed together in fierce fighting. So fierce that the others on the field of battle stopped momentarily to observe them, each not knowing their pain, but not even trying to second guessing their duties.
With-in the X105 Strike, Kira recalled the words discussed in the pilots locker room. He chuckled a bit to himself as he remembered that he almost passed out. Though he would have most likely – and if he could, he would – pass out. The three males had been momentarily chased out of the locker room by a nude female ex-ZAFT Ace, with lots of items following behind them.
Flashback
"So all we have to do is defend the ship and the main support shaft. Sounds too easy, this is going to be trying," Justin Glick, former Alliance Ace and ensign, said.
"Two G-Weapons, most likely Yzak Joule and Athrun Zala, and their seven remaining mobile suits – if at full complement, which I don't doubt – with D-Class Weapons Package," Crim Eagleton, ex-ZAFT Master of Aces and team commander, said.
"What do you want me to do?" Kira Yamato, former technical college student, but a First Generation Coordinator, asked unsure.
"Protect this ship to the bitter end, which I doubt will be this battle, but maybe the next if we're unlucky, but I doubt that too," Crim responded.
The three males walked into the pilots' locker room, only to run out seconds later with just about anything that could be picked up and thrown, picked up and thrown at them!
"One of these days, I'll teach her a lesson!" Justin yelled bitterly, rubbing a sore spot on his head.
"Sakura! We, too, need to change and its not like it's the first time either that the three of us had to change in the same locker room, or anywhere for that matter," Crim called out.
"Oh! Sorry, reflex from the old days, you know," she said, and the two older males pushed Kira in just to be on the safe side.
"I…I…I…" Kira was at a loss for words.
"What? Didn't they teach you about sex ed. and all that stuff in high school?" Sakura Ryosouke, former ZAFT Ace and team leader, teasingly asked the younger Coordinator.
"Now let's change," Crim said, blazing a trail over to his locker, Justin right behind him, but Kira's locker was right next to Sakura's locker.
'Goddess, give me strength," Kira asked the divine Goddess that protected the children of Orb (yes, check out some 411 on GSD; though, anyone who actually saw GSD, please tell me if I got this right and all available background please)
As Kira was getting ready, he was blushing quite a bit, as Sakura was taking her time and he couldn't stop looking at her, then to his dismay.
"Sakura, are you teasing the kid or something?" Justin asked.
"No Bear, I'm just getting ready, besides, I say he's more suited to Lacus Clyne, the daughter of the Chairman more than me," she gave him a seductive wink.
"He's going to blow a load in his boxers at this rate, so hurry up and get ready, this isn't your old team of all females," the Eagle said irritably.
"I know, but a girl has got to be ready," the Cherry Blossom replied.
"That kid's going to blow if this keeps up," Crim whispered to Justin.
"Sorry kid, but can't help you," Justin said as the two pilots left fully suited.
Kira watched as Justin left wearing a black with purple trim flight suit of Alliance origins and Crim wearing a red with a grey flight suit of ZAFT origins, but with a matching Alliance helmet. The two left to go to their machines. Kira than felt a slender hand on his own.
"Now, let me show you how to get a woman a little wild when you get her in bed, but remember to avoid Flay Allster, she's no woman, but a whiny seductress. These moves will get any girl to be yours, so let's start, we're going to have only several minutes at best before that tightwad comes back," Sakura purred into Kira's ear, he gulped.
End Flashback
Kira shook his head, she had said that he could probably tame Flay Allster, in her words "You're that unbelievably talented, are you sure that you're not a Third Generation?" Kira chuckled, as he remembered how he had to give her a slight hand into her flight suit, which was designed like a Japanese Kimono, with flowing Cherry Blossoms floating gently in a wild wind, also of ZAFT origin, but with a matching Alliance helmet. The colors were pink sakuras on a plain white with teal trimming. Kira wore an Alliance white uniform with blue trimming and got a crack out of Crim about it.
Flashback
"Kira, are you sure you're a Coordinator? Because in those colors, I'd expect you to say 'For a Blue and Pure World!' But that is what I call a slap in the face and a shot below the waist, HEY! That rhymes!" Crim, as Kira quickly found out, truly had a joke filled head.
The four pilots mounted up in their machines and launched.
End Flashback
Kira came back to the present just in time to evade an attack and slice a GINN from just below the right shoulder to the left side of the waist, after using his beam boomerang to tear of the legs at the knees. The GINN exploded, killing the pilot instantly, Kira's second victory and first human kill.
Kira whirled around in time to claim his third victory, by using the 15.78 meter "Schwert Gewehr" anti-ship beam sword to impale his enemy through the cockpit, then withdrew and used the rocket anchor "Panzer Eisen" to throw it into another GINN, causing both to explode and gaining a fourth victory of the day. Then the Aegis – with renewed vigor – charged at the Strike and the two were deadlock in a sword lock.
Elsewhere, two GINNs battled the Archangel herself, as the remaining two other GINNs took pot shots with Ion Cannons safely from on top of the support shaft. That's when the Field Strike and Woodland Strike decided, "TO HELL WITH IT!" and fired back with their Igelstellung CIWS, causing minimal damage to shaft, but forcing their opponents to abandon their defensive points and Sakura brought her "Midas Messer" beam boomerang into play and downed both in a single strike, but the GINNs both released a final blast destroying vital parts of the shaft. Justin, decided to quickly stop the remaining GINNs, but one was picked off by Crim when he confiscated the Duel's beam rifle.
As Crim prepared to fire the RPG, Yzak rammed him from behind and the shot went wild and hit the support shaft!
"YZAK YOU BAKA! You trying to kill us all and the civilians!" Crim chaste him.
"I wasn't about to let you kill Matthews!" Yzak roared back, Yzak then reclaimed his weapon from the Highland Strike.
Matthews, decided to fire off one more burst of missiles, then he was out of there, but as he was about to – and did so – the Archangel, hammered him with a blast from the Gottfrieds and his missiles went wild and destroyed the already abused shaft. The colony began to break up and everyone was being tossed about.
"YZAK!" Crim pushed the young man clear of a wild support line from the shaft, and even with Phase Shift armor, Crim will be out of action for a long, long while.
"FATHER!" Yzak cried out, but two Panzer Eisens grappled the wounded mobile suit and towed it inside the safety of Archangel.
While on the far side of the battlefield, the two friends were bitterly and rapidly torn from the sight of one another…
"KIRA!"
"ATHRUN!"
…And hurled into space, as Heliopolis collapsed around them and in front of the crews of the ships of the Le Creuset Team.