I do not own the rights to Gundam Seed, 00 or Gundam Build Fighter/Try. All characters that are not mine or owned by their respective series creators. Please enjoy
Defend your beliefs
Flay whined slightly as the alarms blared and Kira got out of bed. She had to admit she had no idea what came over her. All she knew was…by doing this…It made that warmth go away. But as she curled up in the blanket, taking in Kira's scent…she couldn't help but begin laughing with tears streaming down her face as Kira left. The knowledge he was going to protect them kept him going right? No…he wasn't going to protect them. As much as he thinks it with what they had just done…no. Now he was going to save her. And she couldn't help but smile cruelly at that thought.
This though made her frown as that confusion came back and she slowly sat up, one hand using the blanket to cover her chest, the other holding her head. Why? Why did she want him to protect JUST her? It was flattering sure…but she wanted him to protect her simply to make him fight. She thought…she thought maybe if she slept with him it might help this confusion, like nature was using her body to enforce some cosmic desire for him and her to be together. No…while she did feel better. The confusion was still there.
"Why? Why is it when I think of him protecting JUST me…I feel such anger…and yet…"she sniffled slightly. "I can't stop crying. I can't help but feel that what I'm doing is horrible…but it's what I want." she shook her head. "NO! I don't want Kira to fight. He fought enough…daddy is safe, and Noah and Nicol could fight for us. So…" she pulled the blanket away from her slightly. "So…why can't I feel any real joy in this? Why do I feel like I did this purely to manipulate him? Why…why….WHY AM I SO CONFUSED?!" she exclaimed as she fell back in bed and cried, sobbing as she could still smell him. Part of her wanted him here, next to her, sleeping, safe….hers. But another part wanted him out there, fighting…like she didn't want him to come back. Like she wanted him to die while taking as many coordinators with him….and that thought made her cry even more.
Defend your beliefs
Noah grunted as he fell back into his pilot seat. As soon as Murdoch came in he told him and Nicol to get into standby mode. So he closed his cockpit and the pedestal for the GP-base rose up from the floor. Placing it he groaned as he closed his eyes. His body ached, why? Was it the heat he had endured? Was it the zero system trying to keep him here? Or maybe that fight with rau rattled him in a different way than he thought.
Either way as the plavsky particles washed over him and formed the controls he strapped himself in. He just prayed the zero system had already fixed EX-calibers OS to account for the sand. Otherwise he was screwed.
Finally he began moving EX-caliber towards the catapult. He saw Kira enter the hangar as he did so. Hopefully Kira hadn't slept with flay. Or if he did for god's sake he hoped flay wasn't becoming the manipulative bitch she was in the series. That would just suck.
He stood EX-caliber behind the airlock of the launch system and sighed as he opened a channel with the bridge.
He saw miriallia and raised an eyebrow. "Why am I not being allowed to launch?" he asked as he saw her glaring at him.
"Because the doctor never cleared you. Nicol is the only one captain Ramius wants launching and even then no launch orders have been given. So I suggest you re-dock EX-caliber and go lay down." she said as she tried to convince Noah to back down.
He smirked. "I'm only heading to bed if you're gonna join me, girlie…."he said with a chuckle and a grunt as his ribs ached. She gasped and glared at him harder but chuckled when he grunted at his rib pain. "See…this is why you let doctors examine you before you pilot mobile suits." she said and he stuck his tongue out.
"Open the damn door or I'll cut it open." he said as he looked at her to see if she'd finally let him through.
She looked back to listen to the captain and he expected her to be allowing him to launch.
A moment later he was proven right as the launch doors opened. "Thanks Mir." he said teasingly as she groaned and closed the com channel. He locked himself into the catapult and waited.
Since EX-caliber was an unknown to them they usually just made sure the magnetic rails were charged to a safe level without overdoing it with the machine set to launch. None of the usual "transferring timing controls'' or "power supply…" stuff was ever said to him. He just sat, waited for the all clear, and launched….
Like now. He got the all-clear and soon felt himself get forced back into his chair.
He groaned as he heard the GN drive spin up behind him as he was launched in the air and he tried to soften his landing.
To both his and his bones disappointment…EX-caliber was not prepared to stand in sand. It began to sink the moment it landed though it soon stopped as the feet shifted and found somewhat solid, compacted sand deep below. Still this would need to be fixed.
At least the E-carbon would hold against the missiles….missiles?
Noah groaned loudly as his machine was rocked by the helicopter's missiles and they began to surround him. He needed to get his machine fixed and fast. So…he decided to treat this like a gunpla battle and brought up the holographic keyboard in his lap as well as the gunpla battle OS set up in the cockpit. It may not be a gunpla battle map…but still he knew how to at least adjust his machine for those. Hopefully it would work either way.
As he began to type away at the keyboard he was at the mercy of the helicopters, so first thing he did was re-route plenty of GN particles to the entirety of his gundam so as to strengthen the E-carbon and hopefully keep it intact.
Once that was done he set about altering his OS to account for the sand or find a way around it.
Defend your beliefs
"There it is…EX-caliber right? That's the mystery machine that commander le creuset battled in orbit right?" asked DaCosta, commander waltfeld's XO as he turned to face his commanding officer.
Andrew nodded. "Yes it appears it is. I'm curious just how well it moves on earth. In space it seemed to move like it was in water. Let's see how it performs on earth." he said as he took a sip of his coffee. The coffee was grade A…so tonight's fight should be the same. "Come on EX-caliber…every fight seems to cause you to reveal some new trick up your sleeve. Let's see if you have any more aces to save yourself with." he whispered.
Defend your beliefs
Noah ground his teeth as he was rocked by more missiles. It seemed to confuse the helicopters, as the strike was finally launched in launcher configuration, how he just sat there and took the missiles. Finally his OS rang as it completed adjusting the machine for him.
With that he looked up and saw a helicopter hovering in front of him, but it was aiming past him. At the strike no doubt. He slowly raised his right arm and left the sword in its stowed position. The helicopter never noticed and never saw the red flash as he pulled the trigger on his rifle mode once, releasing a single red ball of death that destroyed the small flying vehicle.
Like his first entrance everything stopped as EX-caliber stood up finally with a hydraulic hiss from its joints and its GN drive began to pour out more particles. Well…not EVERYTHING stopped. Kira was stopped due to the sand, the remaining two helicopters turned to focus on him but did nothing, likely stunned that the so far mainly CQB machine had a gun on it.
Feeling confident in his suit's abilities now he pushed his accelerator and began to rise above the sand. Not boost up, not jump. Just…rise. Like the exia in episode one of Gundam 00 he rose out of the sand and hovered there. With that his right arm snapped up and he aimed his GN repeater at the helicopters. They scrambled to move but before they could he let loose a flurry of red death. Right as the helicopters exploded though the Bu-CuEs that Waltfeld brought with him launched over the side of the dune. One of them managed to land on EX-caliber, forcing it into the sand….with its GN drive down.
"Shit…this isn't good. If I get a bunch of sand in there it`ll take weeks to clean out….I think" He said as he pushed his accelerator further while the Bu-Cue stomped down on his torso with its foot, trying to push him further into the sand. "that's…not…happening…ASSHOLE!" yelled Noah as he pushed the B-Cue off him with his shield and as he rose he managed to push it into the path of the Bu-CuE Kira kneed with the strike as he fixed its OS.
Noah got his gundam standing up right and watched as Kira beat back a Bu-CuE with the butt of the Agni cannon and proceeded to slam his foot down on its chest before firing the Agni cannon into its chest at point blank range. Noah had to admit…he felt bad for that pilot. He always had since they had re-mastered seed with altered scenes…but…hey at least it wasn't heero with wing zero going berserk right?
For the moment though he turned his attention to the Bu-CuEs in front of him that were currently on their backs trying to get upright with their movement forcing them further and further into the sand.
Defend your beliefs
Kira grunted as he hit the sand with the strike. He had seen as he landed that EX-caliber had sunk into the sand and he was confused as to why the agile machine had fallen…till he himself landed. Now he was trying to figure out why the strike wouldn't stand up straight.
At least for now the helicopters weren't focused on him. So he took that moment to bring down the keyboard and enter the strike's operating system and began trying to fix the problem with the sand. Halfway through though he was alerted to missile lock ons and looked up….all three helicopters were aimed at him. It seemed the other gundams armor was too strong for them to penetrate with missiles.
"Oh crap…gotta move…"he said, trying to get the strike to jump in time to dodge the missiles. Just as he launched though he noticed an explosion and looked to EX-caliber. It had its right arm pointed at where one of the helicopters had been. The other two turned to figure out what happened and as Kira landed he saw a flurry of red bolts fly from behind the swords shield and destroy the helicopters.
So it had a gun hidden under the shield. It made sense why the sword stowed away even in combat now. As he landed though he found his corrections to the operating system hadn't been complete as while the strike originally stood its ground, the moment he tried to react to Bu-CuEs that came at them over the dunes it faltered and slid in the sand…again. He growled and tried firing the Agni cannon at a couple of the Bu-CuEs but found his aim more than completely off.
With this in mind he launched himself once more and in mind flight brought out the computer and began to fix the OS once again.
By the time he landed he had put the keyboard away and found the strike standing perfectly on the sand. He smiled at his work but couldn't revel in it for two long. A Bu-Cue came charging at him, seeming to have the intent to tackle him down as he noticed one had done to EX-caliber.
With the suit now functioning properly on the sand he brought one of the strikes knees up and struck the wolf like mobile suit in the head, knocking it back onto its back in the sand. Had he continued watching he would have seen it try to get up only to have Noah shoved another Bu-CUE on top of it.
Kira found himself about to be tackled by a second machine and growled as he brought the butt of the Agni cannon into its face this time, knocking it onto its back by him. He turned around and planted the strike's foot on its chest. As he leveled the Agni cannon with it he stated, "I will not let you destroy the archangel."
With that he fired point blank on the machine and destroyed it.
Defend your beliefs
The show had been good originally but Andrew was amazed at what he saw now. When he saw EX-caliber get stuck in the sand he had been worried all the hype about the machine was for nothing. But now as it lifted itself off the ground once again he was more than excited to see it fight. From what he understood the pilot mainly used its sword. And to find out it had a gun built into the sword…he was even more amazed at its construction.
Of course he was also watching the strike. But to see them both adapt and now both easily handling the Bu-CUE's he was worried the show would end too soon. He turned to DaCosta. "DaCosta, radio the Lesseps, tell them to fire their main cannons." He stated before going back to his show. He wanted to see how the ship and its machines would react to this attack.
He was ignoring the fact the blitz had yet to show up. Zaft had all the data on it and its pilot. After all he was a former zaft pilot and the machine had been captured by zaft long enough to get plenty of data off it. So he wasn't too concerned by the lack of the stealth machine.
"Also…DaCosta…call in the new machine…"said Andrew as he glanced at his phone and went over the info he had on EX-caliber. He hoped the machine they had received a few days prior in case EX-caliber had shown up on earth could put a dent in it.
DaCosta raised an eyebrow as he looked at him. "Sir…that machine has barely any sort of operational time. EX-caliber could easily out maneuver it…" DaCosta stated as he tried to figure out his commander's reasoning. The sun was also coming up…it wouldn't help them or hinder EX-caliber.
Watlfeld just threw him a glare. "Do it…he wants to fight him…and it`ll be a good test of EX-calibers abilities." He stated to which DaCosta nodded and got on the radio.
Defend your beliefs
Noah couldn't help but smile as he hovered over to the two Bu-CUEs and landed in front of them. They were both just about to get back on their feet finally when Noah skewered the two of them together with his GN blade three. He drew the blade back out and jumped back, using the GN drive to float back a bit further before landing.
He was satisfied with how he fixed his machine. Not as good as Kira since he went through the gunpla battle interface which just meant identifying the problem, essentially making a ticket of sorts, and letting the OS and the zero system sort it out. It was cheating, yes but he didn't truly have access to the OS of the Gundam without his gunpla scanner so he couldn't fix that himself.
He turned to see Kira trying to hit the last machine. It seemed to be a tad faster than the others and he was worried about Kira's use of the Agni cannon. But then he noticed the yellow balls in the air indicating the cannon shells flying towards the archangel.
He cursed himself. He had forgotten about the Lesseps. "shit…ok…let's try this…"he said and before Kira could enter seed mode and try to stop the rounds Noah flew up at maximum thrust and zigzagged between the four circles.
As he hovered in the air it was unclear just what he had done. Till the four circles became 8 and all 8 pieces of the now split shells overshot or just missed the archangel.
With that act he looked down to see the desert dawn group scare off a new wave of choppers and the lone Bu-CUE. So cagalli could still show her face. He wasn't sure if cutting the battle's time basically in half by destroying the two Bu-CUES she'd still have a reason to show up.
As he watched the strike run off to follow Kira's sister's instructions he turned towards where the cannon rounds came from…destroy it now….or later? He wasn't sure. A hail from miriallia made his mind up for him. He answered it and listened to her.
"Noah, captain Ramius wants you to come back and stick close to the ship. With the rebel fighters here she wants you over here in case anything happens." she stated. He nodded and glanced back in the direction of the Lesseps. Next time baby…
He moved back to the archangel and hovered in front of the bridge in case the Lesseps fired again, the GN sword three swinging back to lock into its stowed position. From there he waited to see what would happen next.
That moment came all too soon as a moment later he had to boost forward and raise both shields, gritting his teeth as his suit was hit with multiple types of rounds, once again causing him to feel the soreness his body was enduring.
2 rail gun shells hit him just below the knee, a beam rifle shot hit his main shield, and two large beams just barely missed his head unit and flew just over the archangel's bridge while a series of machine gun rounds pounded both his shoulders while two more lines passed him and barely missed the archangel.
That barrage…it was different but…he recognized it. The freedom. But…it should still just be in its construction phase. So…what was attacking them now?
Then he saw what attacked them. He had to zoom in on it but it was moving fast. And what he saw worried him…but also made him laugh slightly…
Defend your beliefs
Heine Westenfluss couldn't help but grin as he sat in his guaiz. It was an interesting one though. While most of the guaiz were still prototypes, this one was even more of one. Its production was expedited due to EX-calibers appearance and he was chosen as its pilot.
The machine was gray though, like the GAT series prototypes. The YFX-600R GuAIZ EFT or experimental firearms type. He was proud to call the machine his as it was a prototype test bed for some advanced, new line of machines RND was thinking up.
He didn't care.
He just cared about the fact the machine was fast, powerful, and had new tech no one had seen. Though he heard rumors of a "test bed" that was even stronger than his. Faster too. He guessed that was why he had seen that silver haired girl playing a handheld video game system in the hangar. The machine was even in the testing phase for itself let alone the tech it was testing. But the archangel and EX-calibers' survival and landing on earth made them ship out the machine early.
He was then hailed on the radio. "Heine here…yeah she's ready…yeah…roger that, I'm heading out." he stated as he powered up his machine. As he did so he hit the phase shift armor activation button and the machine went from a dull gray to a bright orange he had dubbed "ignition orange"
He was then given clearance to leave the Lesseps and he took off, flying towards the legged ship. But it wasn't his target. His primary mission was to engage EX-caliber and use his massive amount of firepower to overwhelm it and disable or destroy it. Only tips he got…try and hit the shiny cone on its back and that they just learned of a ranged weapon in the sword.
The GuAIZ EFT was armed with a pair of xiphias railguns at its hips, new tech, and a powerful new railgun, along with the lupus beam rifle. It was an upgraded variant to the intended beam rifle for the GuAIZ. A new pair of beam sabers were mounted atop the rail guns. The "Lacerta" beam sabers would connect to be double ended or simply make a longer handle. Finally it had a set of "picus" CIWS in its head again similar to the GAT series.
Then there was the backpack it had. This pack would allow it to have continuous flight even in atmosphere though an experimental system known as the "DRAGOON" system would allow him to detach the pack and either use it as a flight platform or remotely fly it to gain an advantage on his opponents. The pack also carried a pair of large white cannons and four small barrels with two flanking the cannons on each side.
The white cannons were its new "fortis" beam cannons. These cannons could be used as a rapid fire beam cannon or at the cost of more power he could fire a pair of large beams from them.
Finally in his arsenal were the packs four "volucris" machine guns. These were mainly meant to be extra AA fire when he was riding it.
But as he neared the legged ship he found the battle almost over due to rebels supporting the archangel. He glared at them on his monitor and was tempted to obliterate them with his arsenal….but that would be too much energy wasted…and this suit was a power hog.
So instead he opened up the suit's expanded targeting system and began to lock onto EX-caliber. Once he found himself locked onto the target he opened up with everything he had. He wanted to catch the machine by surprise.
And clearly he did. He also had the fortune of having the archangel as a secondary target in his firing pattern so EX-caliber couldn't just dodge his shots like it likely would have, it had to block.
He looked at his battery gauge and smiled. He still had half a battery left…so he pulled out one of the Lacerta beam sabers and charged the seemingly unbeatable machine who looked to be doing that itself.
This…would be fun.
Defend your beliefs
The experimental "sub gundam" as he called prototypes like this and the strike, Made Noah laugh as he brought his GN sword 3 up to block his beam saber. The machine had an average battery life of five minutes with its phase shift armor on and its energy weapons in use.
So…all he had to do was draw out the fight and the machine would run out of power, forcing it to back off and retreat or allow him to destroy it.
To think this was the best the zero system could pull out of its knowledge of gundam seed in order to challenge him….the astray red frame would have been a far better choice.
As the machine boosted back before drawing its rifle in its free hand and firing off a couple shots Noah brought up his shield, finally giving up on hiding it in any more fights and deciding to make life easier for him by utilizing it.
When the prototype charged again while he brought down the shield he hit his accelerator and launched himself up, knowing the machine had nowhere near the speed the freedom or justice had. When he turned around he swung his sword back into its stowed position and intended to end things there with a well-placed shot but instead he had to bring up his GN shield again as he found himself attacked in a rapier fashion as the machine began to thrust the sword again and again, Noah blocking each time…
till finally the machine managed to break his defenses and his beam saber dug into Noah's waist, grazing the cockpits door on the left side as the machine threw it's gun to the side and drew it's second beam saber and performed another thrusting maneuver with the second saber and getting into Noah's defenses before he could shift his shield to block.
Noah screamed in pain as a piece of the door broke off and flew past him. Tearing the left side of his helmet open the small shard of E-carbon also left a sizable gash in his cheek. He reached up to hold the injury and closed his eyes as his right hand held his helmet against his head. He had already forgotten he was in a gundam fight, his life was in danger…and by releasing his control balls the gundam died.
Well not literally but the GN drive cut out on producing particles to keep it in the air, both arms fell to the side and Heine was ecstatic...but he never got to make his final move.
Noah also never noticed the shard of E-carbon that had dug into the back of the cockpit seemed to shatter like a computer game and fade away in a mix of green and blue particles.
Defend your beliefs
Heine knew the key to beating EX-caliber was to throw it off its game. He saw how rau le creuset had trashed the machine before just by a simple outmaneuver forcing the pilot to rethink his strategy. So he planned to throw the pilot a curveball.
With no shield he had no way to block other than sword to sword. So when the near god machine blocked his sword with his own he brought up his lupus beam rifle and fired a few shots off. As expected his shots were blocked by the larger shield on the left arm but he expected him to lower his shield to try and boost forward to spear him with his sword or something so he beat him too it, gunning his engines forward he tried using the beam saber like a rapier and tried to hit him with a strong thrusting attack.
Unfortunately the machine apparently still moved like he did in space as he seemed to simply "jump" up as if weightless enough to stand on air.
Now knowing about his ranged gear though he knew what the pilot planned and he spun around and without thinking gunned his engines to perform yet another strong thrust. He hit the machine's shield but the pilot seemed rattled as he followed it up with another and another.
He smiled. Here it was. As EX-caliber brought it's shield down and swung out to try and bat his rifle away instead he threw it to the side and activated his second saber, drawing it and at the same time thrusting past the shield at an angle to try and drive the saber into the miracle machines left shoulder to try and kill it's use of its strong shield.
Instead the machine shifted up and he grazed the gut of the machine, specifically slashing into its side, even coming close to stabbing into the cockpit. He bit his lip and worried he had just signed his death wish as he was in perfect striking distance, hell he was looking directly at the now visible 3 barrels surrounding the "hilt" of the blade.
Instead the arms of the machine dropped to its side, and he could almost see the machine gain weight as it began to fall. Did he hit the pilot somehow? Did he damage major systems? What all did he do?
He pulled his arm back and moved to stab his right arm into EX-calibers cockpit but not only at that moment did his power run out, killing the violet blade in his hand right as it would have pierced the cockpit, but on top of that he grunted as his machine was rocked by something hitting him from behind and he soon found himself flung into the stand.
Defend your beliefs
As the blitz launched Nicol activated his phase shift armor. Unlike Kira or Noah, Nicol landed perfectly fine on the sand, having rapidly updated his operating system to account for the sand after being told to sortie by the guard keeping watch as he sat in the blitz.
Once again he could not help but think how easy killing them all would be…but found himself unable to turn on them now. He surveyed the area and was curious as to why he had been launched. He tried to find Noah and gasped when he did. He launched the blitz as best he could and moved closer to their fight. It was a new model as well, one Nicol was unaware had been constructed. As he got under them he noticed Noah's defensive opening as the shield swung to bat away the rifle when there now was no rifle to hit and watched as the new pilot took advantage of it.
He watched as Noah tried to move away but it was too late. He merely made the strike avoid his cockpit but instead, like Kira's attack on yzak…it struck close.
Knowing he needed to rescue Noah he did the first thing he could think of. The blitz had launched without its trikeros weapons system as he planned to modify it, instead he held the strikes rifle in his right hand. But instead of using that he threw his left arm up and launched the gleipnir rocket anchor and opened the claw in an attempt to catch the machine.
He smiled when the claw grappled the machine's backpack right as it turned gray. "So it has energy consumption problems…"he whispered as he analyzed the machine while activating the anchor's rockets as it fell to basically throw the new machine to the ground.
Right as it hit the ground he released it and retracted the anchor and began running towards the machine as EX-caliber fell near it. He was about to focus on capturing the machine when he got a SOS from Noah.
Not even a message came with it so instead he moved towards his new commanding officer.
When he reached it he looked to his radar and saw a ZAFT convoy coming to retrieve the new unit. So he dropped the rifle and hoisted the gundam up and began moving him towards the archangel.
He hoped Noah was ok. The damage to EX-caliber seemed minor so he hoped nothing had happened to the enigmatic pilot.
Defend your beliefs
Noah was now lying in bed in the infirmary. His cheek was bandaged up and he was strapped down to the bed with an IV and a full monitor setup.
The cut on his cheek had been deep, but not deep enough to cause any damage to his mouth. He'd have a nasty scar but that was it. The IV had a minor sedative to force him to sleep and rest in his bed.
Meanwhile Nicol was helping Murdoch and his crew try to make sense of the gundams damage. Zaft had carried away the new unit and it's rifle, actually leaving the strikes rifle and any chance to get some of EX-caliber's armor to reverse engineer or something, even ignoring the fact the archangel was basically letting them retrieve their new unit so Nicol and the mechanics had decided to take a quick look through the shifting sands to try and find anything worth salvaging, if anything, of EX-calibers damage.
As far as they knew even in the short time they took to get everything stowed away and get out there the sand already covered up the likely significantly sized chunks of the mystery metal. Instead they did manage to find splinters…of sorts. They had actually found a small bowls worth of shavings of…something that had the same color as the gundams armor which was hard enough to find. But...when they scanned it it came up as plastic, and not even a plastic compound known to man.
So as Nicol tried to hack into the "G-base" Noah used as a key to start the gundam and essentially a smart phone Murdoch scratched his head as his team worked on the strike and blitz's maintenance.
"I don't get it...a gash that big would leave at least a few good sized chunks of metal. Instead all we find is random bits of plastic..."he said. His boys were itching to look at the wiring under the machine's armor, even trying to take apart that one section…but he told them to wait for now. Not exactly to wait for Noah. No this damage HAD to be fixed. But at least till he had some idea of what to do.
Finally Nicol seemed to perk up as he accessed files that had been originally locked away, something had been hiding them almost till it finally gave up. But this had him confused. They were stats and data on EX-caliber, even a blueprint…but the way it all read…EX-caliber should be a plastic model. This was data for a…the files seemed corrupted as almost anything relevant to the design and creation of EX-caliber not only did not ONCE mention celestial being but it also seemed to "black ink" anything related to a "gunpla battle OS" as that was the title of the file he had first read.
Murdoch walked over, curious as to the coordinator boys find. He saw the schematics and raised an eyebrow. "he must have made this when he was a kid…it explains how he knows so much about the machine, probably designed it as some child prodigy with 3D model rendering. I mean it gives us an idea how it was made and works…but…hey what the…" Murdoch and Nicol both blinked when the small device seemed to seize up before once again locking them out.
They looked to each other than to the EX-caliber. Just what was this machine and who or what was Noah.
Defend your beliefs
Flay panted lightly as Kira shifted to lay beside her. After the battle Kira had made a b-line back to her and they proceeded to tumble around in the sheets. Near the end flay had had what felt like a flashback. Not like déjà vu but as if it was a memory she forgot.
She was on the bridge, again screaming for lacus' death as the battle in space came about. It was like being a prisoner in her own body as she waited for Noah to come save the day…to come save daddy….
But he never did. Kira had tried his hardest but ultimately failed. Finally lieutenant badgiruel had called for the cease fire.
Then she remembered Kira leaving for the fight in orbit. She remembered holding that little girl's hand, telling her that Kira would protect them. She had begun to cry inside as she watched her nearly crush the little girl's hand as she again felt that rage that usually led to the warmth which brought her here.
She even heard herself whisper how once he had killed all the coordinators then he could finally die and join her father…and how then and only then she'd forgive him.
Then she was back to their first night together. She remembered laying there, emotionless, letting the teen enjoy himself with the girl he had had a crush on for years. She didn't care. She just wanted him wrapped around her little finger.
Finally she came back to reality as she had felt Kira finish and she cried silently, letting the exhausted pilot sleep.
Was it a past life? An alternate life? What was that she saw? It was like a "what would have happened if Noah never showed up" flashback.
She finally rolled onto her side to face away from Kira and just sobbed. She was so confused, so conflicted…and still Noah was at the center. But why? Why if he was the core of things was she lying in bed, naked, next to Kira? Why not Noah? Why was he not the one she wanted?
She finally got up and simply threw her uniform coat over herself, her eyes somber and screaming of near suicidal confusion and depression. With that she quietly left Kira's quarters and went to find Noah. She was going to get an answer out of him one way or another, to the point she was running on tunnel vision as she walked into the mess hall and got a knife from the silverware section, and, with her jacket barely covering anything, walked past a group of crew members and left them slack jawed while continuing her hunt for the blonde gundam pilot.
Defend your beliefs
Murrue sighed as she fell back into her chair in her office. Meeting the local rebels had been…interesting. Especially when they inquired about EX-caliber. More importantly a fact the man called Ashman had pointed out…
"That machine that fended off zafts new toy…that was the machine called EX-caliber am I correct?" he asked as his group turned away towards the jeeps.
Murrue nodded. "Yes…how do you know?" she asked and he laughed.
"I bet there isn't a single member of zaft or the earth forces or any other rebel groups that don't know about the "angel of death"." he stated as he looked to the hangar. "Though one could easily chalk him up to a god of war. The battle this morning though has shown he has one fatal flaw." he said which made murrue gasp.
He turned to her with a stern look in his eyes. "Your pilot THINKS he is a god of war. When that theory is truly tested he becomes unbalanced. When he is unable to counter attack he loses focus. We intercepted footage from the earth alliance of his battle with rau le creuset. The commander did the same thing the new unit did today. A single out maneuver along with constant attacks and your pilot seems to lose his fighting ability."
Murrue gasped once again. She had never noticed it. She only knew that compared to the strike, even when Kira seemed to become an ace pilot for a short time, EX-caliber made it seem like it could destroy anything in the cosmic era. The speed with which it moved, the fluidity of how it didn't waste a single second of time in each attack, the power he showed in its physical blade…and she had not once thought he may be too arrogant or proud to realize he was not as strong as everyone made him out to be.
"they call him the angel of death simply because once he got away from rau le creuset he inflicted as many casualties in a matter of a few minutes as three GiNN pilots combined along with slaughtering all but the ships and prototypes zaft had on the field…and the fact his group is known as "celestial" being. But still…"he once again looked at the hangar doors.
"He thinks he's invincible…yet doesn't see his machine breaking under the stress he puts on it. When you have a chance you should have your mechanic clean it. Sand tends to gather in cracks and can ruin the inner workings of almost anything." He said vaguely before turning around to join his people.
…she sighed and grabbed the water bottle on her desk and took a sip. She was waiting on a report from Murdoch. Just what had he meant by sand gathered in cracks?
Defend your beliefs
"Oh crap! Are you serious? Look at all this!" yelled a mechanic as he turned off the hangar lights and only shined a few onto EX-caliber. He turned the rest of the lights on and looked to Chief Murdoch who looked worried as he rubbed his grizzly stubble.
"Well kid…any luck getting those schematics back up?" he asked, looking at Nicol who was fiddling with the G-base again.
The green haired coordinator shook his head. "No…in fact whatever locked me out before seems to have doubled its efforts if it's even possible. Though every now and then it has a few glitches and I read a word here like sinanju. Or another was an actual sentence of gibberish except it mentioned a "launcher strike" I don't know…"he said as he looked up to the mechanic. He had decided modifying the blitz was not important right now and had re-armed the blitz along with replacing the lancer dart in its shield.
What everyone was suddenly worried about was EX-caliber. After turning off all the lights and highlighting the machine they had found numerous cracks in its armor. They were minor, but sand was indeed starting to build up on it as it shined in the light against the black and red armor. Murdoch personally had even taken a glance into the GN drives open ports. The GN drive glistened with particles that settled on it after use but after it took a dive in the sand the drive had also accumulated a good amount of sand in the visible gears.
The chief mechanic had no clue what to do. He had no idea what maintenance could be done, how to fix the machine…and with Noah out cold in the infirmary and Nicol unable to get the schematics back up…the deadly machine would have to handle its scars and hope that the GN drive didn't seize up due to the sand. Well…that he could try to fix. He wouldn't go too in depth but he could have his crew clean out the drive and clean the cracks as best they could
Other than cleaning it though…EX-caliber would be a wounded fighter till Noah told them what to do.
…the mechanic prayed that whatever happened in this fight was a one time fluke.
Defend your beliefs
Dearka sighed as he listened to his commander explain that they'd be stuck on earth.
"…help hunt down the legged ship and EX-caliber. Remember though we have no idea how that machine may move in the atmosphere. So don't go in expecting it to move like a sack of bricks….one more thing." he said, deciding it was best to inform Dearka of this at least as he would at least listen.
"EX-caliber seems to have some sort of defensive system in it similar to your phase shift armor. When I fought it it seemed to almost power down while each strike I made felt like it was having less and less effect. While I doubt this means you can wear down its armor, a focused attack may weaken its power output to the rest of its armor and allow for it to be brought down. Sadly that's all I can inform you of for the moment. Good hunting and if you get the chance please…don't hesitate to shoot them down yourself." he stated before getting off
Dearka sighed once again. "So in other words we have to stay down here on earth and work with the occupation forces? Why can't we just return to space? Let the occupation forces handle things?" he asked though as he did so a woman walked up and set a snow white helmet down on the computer's desk.
He looked up and smirked. "Guess it's not so bad…at least there's a few hot chicks down here." He said as he looked at the woman. She had long white hair, almost a snow white like her helmet. She was sweating and taking a sip from her water bottle as she clearly had just come from a patrol or a test flight of her machine.
She wore a snow white combat suit which had some sort of emblem on it. For a moment he didn't recognize it but he had to keep himself from standing and saluting. It was a faith emblem, though it had been made black to stand out on her uniform.
That meant she was the cream of the crop for zaft pilots, something him, yzak, hell even Nicol had aspired to. She likely had operational authority here, maybe even a custom GiNN.
Her green eyes met his and she glared at him. Her well sized breasts passed by his face as she bent down to be close to him. "Look but don't touch space boy…I'm not some piece of ass impressed by your red suit. You think you're hot shit because you pilot the buster? Good luck keeping up with me in that tin can." she stated before walking away.
She had intended to ask them their names and learn if he and yzak were…well him and yzak but she began heading towards her machine which was getting maintenance done after a training flight she had just finished. From what she had heard of Dearka Elsman and both his appearance and his personality…it was him she had just clearly insulted. Not that she cared.
More importantly her left Vernier had glitched mid-flight and nearly failed. She needed the power output changed on it as she figured it likely had been given too much energy and nearly shorted out.
Dearka meanwhile just whistled. He had to admit…the fact she stopped him dead in his tracks before he could start flirting caught his interest. But then again she was a member of faith. The custom flight suit, likely custom machine. If they sortied with her she'd be their CO for sure unless Athrun showed up.
He noticed yzak reaching behind his head and he nearly jumped out of his seat. "Hey yzak take it easy!" he yelled before yzak got his bandages off his head and glared at the wall. "If we have the chance? No…next time we meet…I WILL shoot down the strike. He owes me for this damn scar…"he growled.
Defend your beliefs
Nina sighed as she sat in the cockpit of her machine. She wiped a bead of sweat off her cheek as she worked on her OS. The experimental machine she piloted needed constant maintenance, more so even then the EFT GuAIZ. Hers literally was shipped here with her the moment it was off the assembly line, so it needed tweaks here or a part modified there. It was also bigger than the duel or the buster, both in terms of armor and actual height. There was a reason for this as well as a reason the OS was so faulty…
The machine had a nuclear reactor in it along with a prototype for a device known as an "N-jammer canceler" but…it was a prototype that was brand spanking new off the assembly line and meant she rarely had time to eat, sleep, and do anything else in between test flights. She was already told she'd be working with Waltfeld if the EFT GuAIZ couldn't bring down EX-caliber when they hit the legged ship.
To any gundam fan who knew their stuff, the machine was a custom sinanju. According to zaft it was a beam weapon prototype as it had all the original sinanju's armaments, including beam sabers hidden in the cuffs, the beam axe's and it's beam rifle. It was a more CQC centered suit but it did have the beam rifle. The main difference between it and the original was the paint job. It was white instead of the traditional red and the mono eye shined white instead of red as well. As well as the obvious lack of a psycho frame.
The machine was designed "rapidly" specifically to counter the enigmatic machine…though to be blunt even its own engineers don't remember making it, building it, testing ideas…it just showed up in a zaft prototype workshop and they knew why it was built and shipped it off.
Nina herself didn't remember her 25 years of life very well…only that she woke up, curled around a pillow, in an apartment in aprilius one with the knowledge of being a pilot and faith member and that she was assigned to this machine.
As she flipped her keyboard up and got out she turned around to look up at the machine's head. It resembled a knight of old to her. The machine itself did. Rumor was she was expecting more gear shortly for it, potentially ditching the rifle as that was her primary problem with her N-jammer canceler and the main reason she had been dredged from deep in the ocean off the shore multiple times when her machine shut down after a few medium power shots from it.
She looked into the faceplate of the machine. Underneath was the signature mono eye of zaft design but hers lit up white. And the white crest on its head…the machine was like a knight in shining armor when active. A knight protecting zaft…specifically from the new menace EX-caliber.
The machine was currently a light gray like any phase shift plated machine. Once activated though it had snow white armor except the left shoulder which was black and had the faith symbol on it.
Nina could only stare at its face. Her past was a blur. She remembered being loved, having an older, teasing sister, amazing parents…even a zaft academy sweetheart…but it was all a blur. But when she looked into this machine's visor all she knew was one thing…
She…was Nina Yong…and she was the pilot of the paladin
Defend your beliefs.
So there's another episode…another botch combat scene…lol well I think so. I wish I could write them better, longer, something…but…I don't know. I feel like I'm doing ok on the three different viewpoint styles? I fit in a bit of different things happening with each character before coming back to the fight to finish it.
Let me know what you guys think.
Also yes…this chapter is the first to show real signs of the stress on the zero system. And even though this is Noah's new reality, I mean if he dies here he could die for real, it is still fiction.
Also I wanna again mention…I do not support a flay/Kira pairing. In fact if anything just because they both die and in the end I think her desire to redeem herself was never allowed to be fulfilled I may pair her with Nicol since him and Kira have similar personalities. But right now flay is acting on the fact every time she gets pissed at Kira she also gets a bit…"excited" when the rage passes. If you watch the series closely she starts to get feelings for him just before Alaska and starts regretting her actions, mainly since they think Kira is dead at that point and now she blames herself for his death while also trying to get back together with sai.
Anyways point is, aside from Noah he's the other key factor in her confusion so she clings to the warmth he brings her while directing her rage at Noah.
Also all the cracks I mentioned…yeah with each chapter you'll find EX-caliber is essentially like the zero system. As the system breaks down, so will it.
Lol ALSO the plastic shards…first person to put two and two together as to the lack of EX-caliber in the scanning system in the build fighters universe and the fact the broken cockpit door had part of it splinter into small bits of plastic rather than a few good chunks of E-carbon gets to have a custom machine of their design or choosing appear once Noah returns as a new player to challenge EX-caliber's new form.
Speaking of which please…try not to figure out how they found what equates to plastic shavings amongst sand…it was the best I could come up with to tease you guys with it.
Oh and if you're wondering about my comment about how EX-caliber powers down as it transfers power to other regions of its body to reinforce them it's true…though I'm being very nice to zaft and having it power him down slightly and help with when he kinda loses his shit in a fight. If you read the wiki it states that kinda like phase shift armor the GN particles are run throughout the body and weapons to not only alter their physical properties so they can fly and shit…but also reinforce the E-carbon plating. It's why a physical sword can do the same damage as a beam saber while also blocking one.
It's also why the GN blade three and a lot of the 00's extra gear and advanced blades have "condensed GN particle" tech or something like that. The thin green shit. It's weak as can be and actually pretty fragile. But by running GN particles through it it's as strong and deadly as a beam saber.
…I'm horrible at this author comment shit huh? Anyways read, review, tell me what I can fix, what I can keep, and tell me I'm either epically winning with this fic or that this fic needs to crash and burn. Either way I'm gonna keep writing it so feel free to flame because I don't care. Every review keeps me going and helps me better my writing ^^
PS in case you haven't noticed…I really like the word also…