So…not going to lie...I really had to grind this chapter out. Mostly due to the amount of combat I had planned and amount of characters to keep track of and I just…I lost my groove on this story. But I think I have it now after I realized anime wise, I'm down to like…4 episodes left. So, for the rest of the events I had planned its based-on things I read in another fanfiction but my own take. I think you guys will like it since it will be purely me, little to no anime reference for the next few chapters. I`ll admit a lot of my planning for this actually was based on this other fanfiction for events, it had been so long since I watched the anime. So I apologize for this atrocious chapter but the next one is pretty well set up for a good opening and I think I can bang it out faster and help connect some dots that I couldn't here between events that will/have happened in the side story if that ever gets re-written.
The hero returns!
The bridge of the purgatory shook as they launched another set of missiles to cover the archangel from a volley of missiles while they dodged a blast from the dominion's guns. The battle had quickly dissolved into an all-out dog fight as the Cecil team took on as many of the strike daggers as they could, rozene even allowing Valerie to make use of one of their launch bays as cover to fire from.
Rozene wished Noah had stayed to help them set up defenses. The missiles she laid as traps and counter measures to potential all out assaults had held up as intended, indeed even now a group of them launched from their inert position and slammed into a frigate trying to breech what little of a frontline they had formed. The Kusanagi was about to launch and the young warrior princess did not need to be engaging a battle group just yet in rozenes opinion so as Cecil reported another squad of daggers down she relaxed a small bit in her chair as she watched the frigate beginning to limp away. Not a destruction but she wasn't fighting for kills anymore so the few souls likely lost onboard from the GN torpedo barrage were still more than she wanted to take. But it had to be done. She could see it in her bridge crew as they responded to her every command. They were not happy to be in this battle. But it was one that needed fighting.
Just as she thought she saw the battle turning in their favor she heard the person she had placed as her "tactical forecaster", a position intended for the captain of the ship to her knowledge but she let the tittle fall to her CQC center lead officer, but when they called out, "ma'am the missile counter worked but the Kusanagi has become entangled in one of the tethering cables!" that was not news she needed to hear, especially as she could see on her tactical feed the forbidden was close by duking it out with the freedom and justice. La flaga was fending off strike daggers alone, rather well, from the archangel's flank while it had its duel with the dominion.
As predicted most of the forces aside from the dominion seemed to be targeted at her vessel and if it weren't for the anti-beam torpedoes that had been lying in wait in multiple areas they could have been in a worse position, dealing with such a fleet.
Just as the forbidden broke off from its attacks on the freedom though, having seen the vulnerable prey, her radar tech called out, "ma'am GN particle spike! Its headed straight towards the Kusanagi!"
Worried that it was zaft revealing they had indeed reverse engineered the GN drive from EX-caliber she prepared to bark orders for the ship to move into an interception path the same operator called out, "correction! It's a trans-am, mobile suit silhouette confirmed, checking database...nothing! even in the zero system! It's a new model!" "is it Noah?" asked rozene, hoping her comms officer would respond.
"Unknown! visual Contact in 5..4..3...2..there it is!" everyone looked to the front window to see a machine body slam the forbidden in a way no pilot they had ever seen, more like a heavy hockey body check then anything. The forbidden, shaken from the blow floated away till the justice came in and kicked it even further, moving to potentially engage the new machine. As it hovered by the Kusanagi people could see some similarities to Noah's models, namely the GN sword on its right arm however they noticed the shield on it…no, SHIELDS were larger as it seemed to have a GN sword system on each arm. Also, the machine was heavily armored around the shoulders though the number of red particles flowing out around the large compartments indicated that they were likely housing GN drives or something. Still this did not explain the upside-down kite shield like shields on both arms which covered the arms as well as the many swords visible on its back.
With a swift swing of its right arm not only had it cut the tethering cable, but it also had withdrawn the blade back into the GN sword housing. As the trans-am disengaged, likely running out just in time for the pilot to get there, they saw it had a blue and white color scheme, primarily blue for the torso otherwise the blue was more of a highlight.
"Is that one Noah made...or is it even Noah piloting." wondered rozene as the entire battlefield seem to come to a halt. Everyone waited to see what else the gundam did.
Turning towards the earth alliance battle group and launching towards the fray, bringing the battle back into motion in a single motion it drew both GN sword blades from their housing on its arms and mid swing cut two strike daggers in half. The pilot seemed to be searching for something, rozene would guess the sword calamity but she wasn't about to assume much about the mystery machine.
With that small crisis averted rozene returned to calling out orders and trying to turn the battle in their favor as the machine, while not actively engaging the strike daggers it treated them more like an annoyance, disarming and dismembering them but rarely destroying them past the first two. Regardless rozene let the new gundam be and focused on her own men, debating calling Nina out to battle however the pilot had made it clear she wanted to stay onboard with her daughter while they finished a new mobile suit for her.
The hero returns!
Rau le cruset had to admit he was itching to just jump in his mobile suit and join the fray out there. After they had been openly ignored by a mobile suit flying in to join the show he was watching, the tell-tale particles flowing off it indicating it was a new gundam from Noah's creation, his small wolf pack had decided to hang back to where they were out of radar range of the earth alliance battle group and the eternal and her group of traitors.
Plus, the hawk would be out there in his new suit. He had viewed the footage that Azrael sent him of the battle for orb. The new units fielded had nearly forced the young genocidal purist to have to declare a retreat however his own new prototypes, while inferior to the freedom and justice, had kept Noah and his group in check long enough they fled instead and of course the mass driver was lost in a suicidal explosion that is assumed to have claimed the lion of orbs life as a last ditch effort to stay neutral till the end.
As the captain of his vessel declared the current events, the legged ship and her allies were currently fending off an earth alliance battle group he decided how to handle it and still have his fun. Besides...Kira was here too.
The Mendel colony...how ironic they should all meet here…
"Yzak and I will go into the colony and gather intel. The ships are to stay here and continue observation. Inform me of any other new events." he said as he got out of his chair and headed for the back of the bridge. The captain stammered out a confused, "You're going in person commander?"
"Yes, the last thing we need to do is give Noah another reason to come back by encircling his friends. Let the earth alliance sign their death warrants. The two of us will be sufficient to gather intel. Besides if we do engage them yzak should be plenty of protection in his new unit. Isn't that right yzak?" he asked as he stopped at the door, looking back to the last remaining member of his previous team he commanded. The le cruset team. Still. Fate seemed to line things up so well he couldn't pass up this chance.
Yzak nodded of course, the eager young pilot smirking." of course sir! My duel regen will best anything the earth alliance puts in its way." he stated confidently before following his commander.
Rau smiled. He had no intentions of bringing yzak back with him. He had a sixth sense of these things at this point. If his former teammates don't kill him, they will do all they can to capture him. The similarly looking blitz and buster mobile suits evident enough that the duel regen would fit nicely amongst them with some modification. The fact that zafts engineers rebuilt the duel to such a point also seemed interesting instead of giving yzak the freedom or justice or the new third unit that was nearly complete.
With that rau left the bridge, his protege in tow. He wondered if it was worth sending the girl out somehow. If she could manage to get the right pieces to the right hands, then finally his glorious mission of watching humanity burn itself out would be nearly at hand.
The hero returns!
It was at this point the archangel had lost the dominion, everyone's head was on a swivel at their stations. "Where's the dominion!" called out murrue as she was worried the dominion could be right on top of them and she wasn't being told. To her worst fears she was right as originally their radar operator called out, "I can't tell, there's too much debris!" only to follow it with, "wait there! Above us!" shouted radar which had murrue looking up with wide eyes. "When did they…." she trailed off as she quickly followed it with her umpteenth, "evade!"
The ship shook as it boosted to try to meet the demanding maneuver suddenly. Just as she thought they were out of the thick of it and could fire back she heard miriallia cry out, "we have missile inbound!" "intercept!" replied murrue. "We can't they are too close!" cried the radar tech as they all braced for a hit, but it never came.
While the ship shook and murrue awaited hearing about damage to the ship instead she heard. "New contact!" from radar. Looking out the window she saw a gundam floating in front of them, a series of plates had been interlocked and seemed to have shielded them. The mobile suit was lean, lightly armored but she could see a multitude of guns on it. It was like the gun equivalent to the sword gundam that had shown up. Was this one of Noah's as well?
"Ma'am the buster panzer is also reading as closing in, it has an intercept trajectory with the dominion!" shouted miriallia happily, most likely happy to see her boyfriend on her list of contacts once more even if it was a battlefield.
They all watched as the buster panzer flew up next to them and opened up all of its missile ports, well almost all of them as it seemed it had control over which ones fired and which ones didn't now. Watching it unleash everything it had murrue could feel the bridges morale raise as she got ready to get back into the fight.
She watches the plates break an apart and reattach to rails on the unknown gundam before it flew into the fray to join the others, clearly not intent on defending them further at that moment but it was on their side. That was what mattered.
The hero returns!
As mu turned and cut down another dagger with his build strike 2.0's beam cannons he felt a familiar tingle in the back of his head, his neck hair raising. Seeing dearka he flagged the mobile suit down. Before boosting back towards the colony. "He's here...that bastard rau is here which means zaft can't be far off." he growled as the buster hailed him. Dearka nodded and followed him, fully aware of who would be with rau as this was part of Noah's plan though he did not mention this.
"I`ll back you up, the others should have things here." stated dearka as he glanced to see setsuna and Lyle handling the strike daggers like play things, the two gundam meisters leagues above the natural pilots, especially in zero-G. Even if they weren't fighting with the option to kill, they still had enough skill to deftly dodge and weave and avoid any incoming blows the green natural pilots sent their way.
The hero returns!
As they entered the Mendel colony rau could feel it. He was closing in. oh how he could not believe the fates had made such a reunion possible. Was its father and son or brothers lost to time? He didn't know. He just knew that those little pills he took were not going to sustain him forever and he wanted mu to know his fathers, THEIR father's own machinations. To let his son, know? He never truly understood how to refer to mu due to the circumstances of his own birth.
As what looked like a heavily modified strike and buster showed up, he quickly launched himself at the strike. With that he felt it! There he was! "So, Noah deigned you worthy of one of his designs I take it aye MU LA FLAGA!" he shouted as the two of them traded shots, the buster quickly having to dodge a volley of missiles from yzak.
"How dare you! You took dearka's machine and gave it to a filthy natural!" shouted yzak over the comms but as the buster panzer's head and waist vulcans shot down another volley of missiles both yzak and rau were surprised to get a response from a voice they never expected to hear.
"Yzak you idiot you really think I'd let anyone pilot the buster but me? And this is the buster panzer, your worst nightmare!" shouted dearka over comms before his knees opened up to fire a volley of small missiles that spun and exploded into a cloud of smoke glittering with particles. Rau found his beams weren't going through it to even try to connect with mu, the same evident for Mu as the hawk launched a series of beam saber attacks at him, rau igniting his beam claws to counter as they caught each other's blows on their shields.
"So, the infamous Noah steals another of my team. I take it athrun had joined your little group? Has he abandoned the justice, or will I find a custom aegis amongst the wreckage of those vessels once the earth alliance is done with their little assault?" asked rau as he tried to goad more info on the enemy strength. Just how many custom units would be being fielded once the final curtains were raised?
"Fuck you creuset! All you wanna do is corrupt the world and watch it burn. I know your game thanks to Noah. Yzak we shouldn't be fighting. I refuse to shoot you down but I'm not just gonna hand over my own life so you can be an idiot guard dog for a genocidal maniac!" shouted dearka over comms as he fired his arm cannons at the duel regen, purposefully aiming in a manner he knew yzak would dodge.
"You traitor! And you would expect me to just abandon our people? Let the earth alliance roll over us?" shouted yzak in return. Neither pilot noticed the duel between rau, and mu had moved further into the colony.
As both units finally came to a standstill dearka sighed and lifted his hands off his controls, causing the buster panzer to fall in the Mendel colony's gravity. He hoped this worked...because this wasn't the ocean. This would hurt…. but if it worked for a couple stubborn killers like heero and wufei according to Noah maybe it would work on yzak...who was too stunned to move.
"I won't hurt you yzak. You're an asshole, a hothead and all-around arrogant ass. But you're my friend. You remember that shuttle you tried shooting down over Alaska?" asked dearka as his gundam plummeted
Yzak only responded with a growl, confused as to what his former teammate was getting at. "That shuttle...it was full of civilians. Noah stopped you from shooting it down because he knew if you ever found out...like now. It would kill you." dearka heard a gasp in response as he knew that got to yzak. He was a hot head and eager for blood but yzak wasn't a soulless being.
"But...it was military...in a A.O. full of combatants…" stated yzak solemnly as he heard dearka grunt and yell in pain as the buster panzer landed on its back in the ground.
"Yes, it was. It was trying to get civilian refugees from OUR ATTACK on Heliopolis out of that combat zone cause there was no way that they could stay on the archangel nor was there any way in hell the battle group zaft assembled gonna let the 8th fleet live if it meant the destruction of Noah or the archangel." said dearka as he opened his cockpit and climbed out of the buster panzer, hands in the air. "If you insist on staying with zaft you can either leave me be or take me and my machine in, be a hero of zaft, but Noah will still stop whatever rau had planned. He didn't tell me much, but he knows rau le creuset is the puppeteer behind this giant puppet show. Our group, we are basically actors, a variable in his play to see the world burned. Join us. Join celestial being and help us bring this war to an end without any more civilian casualties. Without the body count getting so high no one ever wants to see war again." stated dearka as yzak landed and opened his cockpit.
Stepping out yzak dew his side arm and aimed it at dearka. "Civilians...how many?" he asked, like the number actually mattered. Dearka shrugged. "I don't know. Noah just explained he did it, so you didn't have it on your conscience later. But it was women, children, hell one of the kids left some kind of origami flower for Kira, the strikes pilot. I mean there were men but no soldiers." stated dearka as he looked up at yzak who was lowering down his lift.
"And Noah stopped it because he knew that we would eventually have this conversation?"
Dearka nodded. "Well and to save their lives. But he already knew about you, knew it would hit you like a gut punch." said dearka as yzak lowered his pistol to a hip fire aim.
Yzak seemed to examine the buster panzer. "And he wants you to recruit me I'm guessing? To turn on the plants?!" yzak was sounding frustrated and rightly so. Dearka could see a whirlwind of emotion on his face.
"Yes and no. he wants you to join us yes, but you aren't just expected to turn on the plants, Hand over any intel or anything. Doesn't matter. Hell, he says now that we are in the end game of the war you don't even have to fight to kill. Just come fight with us, fight to defend the people who wanna see this war actually end." stated dearka as he slowly lowered his hands.
"Why should I believe the word of an enemy? Of a traitor?!" exclaimed yzak who raised his gun again. Dearka sighed.
"I don't recall choosing to be your enemy nor did I betray the plants. If anything, I'm fighting for the plants. I have yet to shoot down a single Ginn. Buster panzer only has natural blood on its hands. And I intend on keeping it that way. Needless to say, I will disable any zaft personnel who try to get past me to the legged ship, the purgatory, or any of the ships now under my protection. And with my new targeting array I have as much accuracy as the freedom, if not more so I know I can do it." said dearka proudly, his haros chiming in and causing yzak to aim at the mobile suit for a moment. "Listen. Not every natural is blue cosmos, there's actually more than a few that have decided to turn on their own people if it means ending this war without any more plants being destroyed or whatever Azrael's end game is. Now I'm gonna get back in my buster panzer. You can either follow me back and join us...or you can label yourself my enemy and keep firing on me. I still won't hurt you. But don't expect to take your gundam back in one piece." stated dearka as he slowly got back down into his cockpit and closed it.
Yzak growled and ran back to his lift, riding it up as the buster panzer slowly got up. Soon both mobile suits stood facing each other, the green particles of the buster panzers GN drive slowly increasing as it got ready to lift off.
Yzak was so confused. Everything dearka said. It didn't make sense. How was he an enemy but not an enemy? And that shuttle was full of civilians?
The hero returns!
While Lyle and setsuna were handling the bulk of the strike daggers Nicol was having his handful dealing with the sword calamity prototype which was coming at him hard, forcing him back towards the purgatory.
Arthur was holding off squad after squad of the strike daggers with his funnels and the rest of the Cecil team had to pull back due to being overwhelmed and damaged but Arthur was gonna run out of ammo soon as Nicol found himself kicking away a strike dagger before having to close his cloak to block another barrage from the sword calamity's cannons. Strike daggers or the sword calamity. He was gonna have to decide soon or be overwhelmed and he was already feeling the degradation of the beam cloak as well as the gundanium from the pummeling he was receiving. But with his gundam in its current state it was hard to hold off so many opponents. He knew it wasn't designed for this type of warfare.
Finally his choice was made for him as he found himself side stepping a downward swing from one of the sword calamity's anti-ship swords followed up by rifle fire from yet another squad of strike daggers being caught on the back of his anti-beam trench coat. The amount of men the earth alliance was throwing into this battle was ridiculous. Finally, he had to make the call and cloaked up, dodging yet another sword swing before he maneuvered and reappeared amongst the strike daggers, returning to the hunter/killer style of fighting the mobile suit was designed for. He hoped someone came to stop the sword calamity as it barreled towards the purgatory, forcing Arthur to retreat with a barrage that caused him to have to dislodge his shields and clipped two of his quad wings.
The hero returns!
Rozene gasped as she saw the sword calamity charging towards the purgatory's bridge. It had its anti-ship sword raised, ready to bring it down. Closing her eyes she expected this to be the end but suddenly her radar operator cried out, " ma'am new contact immediately in front of us!" it was then she opened her eyes to saw a GN field in front of the bridge. It was slowly moving back, revealing the new contact.
It was another gundam! This one had a cloak, a full one worn in a regal style over the shoulders and around the arms. The cloak hid both arms except the gundam was clearly Noah's. It had to be a new one of his as it had a GN drive on each shoulder, both covered but still clearly pouring out GN particles. The left side was covered by a shield of sorts, looking into the zero system it broke down the machine as having a 00[t] GN shield on the left shoulder and a GN sword 4 on its right shoulder.
One hand was extended and seemed to have GN particles covering it, the particles allowing it to catch the sword on its beam, the beam even starting to crystallize under the particles. As it was fully revealed and the sword bits that had formed the portal it came through it retreated to the shield on its shoulder the sword calamity backed up, seeming surprised by the gundams appearance.
"Ma'am we are being hailed by the new gundam!" called out her comms officer. Looking to the main screen rozene was smiling when she saw Noah. His hair was a bit longer and he seemed like he had grown somehow, like he just carried himself differently even sitting in the cockpit of a gundam.
"Sorry I'm late to the party but I had to let the trinity drive system reset after moving us all over here. Hopefully the others have been a help as I sent them ahead in my stead." stated Noah as the sword calamity tried to swing again and the other hand came up to catch the blade this time, the left hand catching it as something shifted under the cloak and a GN sword three swung out and up with the right arm, catching the anti-ship sword and cutting it in half as Noah swung it up. This caused the sword calamity to back up once more, staggered slightly as the pilot was surprised its weapon was destroyed. As it backed up Noah tossed the broken weapon part aside and the arm moved under the cloak again. The air of his movements was almost that of royalty or a knight of the highest rank looking down on a lowly bandit attempting to rob them.
Grabbing its second sword the sword calamity charged at him again and Noah blocked with his GN sword three, a second slash was blocked. All with little effort. Finally, the sword calamity backed off again and this time tried firing its shield cannons at the new machine. Noah simply blocked them with his blade, deflecting them even to a small asteroid nearby, causing it to explode.
The new machines cloak fluttered as the GN drive in the back kicked out more particles and in the blink of an eye Noah boosted to the sword calamity and had it speared with his GN sword three, the blade running through the main torso as the gundams heavy scylla cannon sparked around it. Withdrawing the blade from the sparking weapon Noah backed off and watched as the machine exploded. This seemed to be quite the tipping point as the dominion began to pull away from the archangel, retreat flares firing from it as well as the rest of the battle group.
As the battle dwindled down the freedom flew off towards the inner colony, no doubt to Noah to hear about the Mendel colony and his ties to it. Regardless he turned around and was greeted with an open launch bay for him to land in. seeing it he slowly made his way into the hangar that he had been away from for so long now. It was only a few days for them but for him he had been gone for months. And who knew how long it had been in reality. Still as he landed in the hangar he smiled, seeing the blitz jaeger land behind him before the door closed and he noticed the greenlight come on stating the hangar had cycled atmosphere back inside.
Opening his cockpit, he was delighted even more to hear, "Noah!" "dad!" come from the entryway as he floated down in the zero-G. when he reached the floor a technician was already prepped to de-scan his gundam which he nodded to and chuckled when he was tackled into a hug by two of the most important girls in his life… two of. After all, now he had a third and fourth on the way in the ptolemaios. His life was just gonna get more and more complicated wasn't it? Oh well he would explain all that later.
Nicol floated up and put his hand on Noah's shoulder to which Noah smiled and nodded to his subordinate. It was good to be back.
The hero returns!
It was barely an hour since the battle ended and the archangel now sat behind two ptolemaios class vessels. The second one arrived under advanced cloaking and was in the dock before the earth alliance battle group could realize it. The two ships were currently protecting the Kusanagi, eternal and the archangel even if they were originally designed for combat.
The earth alliance battle group had backed off some as well, but they were certainly far from done. The battle group had certainly suffered losses but nowhere near as much as Noah would have preferred. He was just happy that zaft had stayed back for now. Kira, mu and dearka weren't back yet but Noah was on comms with the leadership of this little alliance and with the ptolemaios crew discussing the plan of how to handle things.
"I think we should hold the justice and M1 units in the back. Let our gundams handle the prototypes and the strike daggers. We will need to push out towards another hide out as soon as we can. When we do we should have the purgatory and the ptolemaios take up the rear so we can spread a particle blanket that will hide our exit vector once entered." stated the tactical forecaster miss sumeragi as she looked over the data Noah sent her on their opposition.
"We also need hold seravee in reserve. I already discussed with tieria why. He knows when he will need him to launch as I have a specific mission for him. However, that just leaves me, Nicol, setsuna and lockon to handle them. I think the justice should at least launch while the baker team will be held in reserve as well as the M1 team. Afterall the baker team is gonna need upgrades soon and the M1 team should be protecting the Kusanagi if anything." said Noah and the rest of the group seemed to agree.
"So, for now focus on repairs and resupplying the ships equally. With the ptolemaios bringing extra supplies, thank you for that by the way, we can make sure the ships are properly stocked." stated murrue and sumeragi nodded to the thanks on her screen.
The hero returns!
Azrael was pushing natarles last nerve. He had just asked if she only fought in battle, she knew she could win after comparing a battlefield to the business world. "We have confirmed that not only are there three nazca class vessels on the other side of the colony, but a fifth ship has entered the colony. Its silhouette was similar to Noah's new ship. If Noah somehow got backup and more machines of the Gabriel or even EX-calibers level, we already have lost with the way your pilots fight and with so many green dagger pilots. Add zaft forces into the mix and we would be lucky to walk away with much of anything let alone our lives." explained natarle as she looked over the outlook of the fleet.
This seemed to hit a nerve in Azrael's unstroked ego. "You have such little faith. How do you know we have lost? Even if Noah did get back up it could just be a resupply ship of some sort. After all we have yet to see Gabriel on the field. How do we even know he is here?" asked Azrael, playing ignorant to the similarities between the newest machine to have arrived on the field and Noah's monstrosity that showed his prototypes up at orb. He also was not acknowledging the lack of one of his machines return and the reason he finally gave in to a tactical retreat.
Natarle sighed and shook her head. "you are insistent on this aren't you? You really wanna meet your maker." she said as she tried to think of a strategy that allow them to get out of this without too much loss.
Azrael sighed. "I just don't believe in loss. I only win after all." stated the man who clearly was in his own world if he really only won. Unless he counted the loss of the sword calamity as a win. "Now we can't sit here, forever can we. Think positive! Quitters never win and winners never quit! When push comes to shove you do whatever you have to to win!" he cheered in a manner natarle could only assume was to himself and in hopes of his own victory. She knew they could lose everything except their own ship but so long as Noah and the archangel were wiped out or he got any of those new machines to play with he would count it as a victory. And that made her stomach do flips.
Natarle sighed again. "Fine...we will launch another assault as soon as your people are ready." she stated as she continued going over all their options.
The hero returns!
Dearka stopped as he flew back towards where he assumed the ships were likely repairing and rearming after the assault. He turned around to see the new duel following him which also stopped. "So... you are thinking of joining us?" asked dearka as he kept his weapons down, sticking to his story of self-defense only.
Yzak lowered his weapons as he answered his comm request. "Maybe…" he said simply. They both had seen the freedom come in and the fact that yzak wasn't trying to capture it gave dearka hope he had gotten through to his former teammate.
"Well you should know the freedom is piloted by the pilot of the strike. And him and athrun have been friends since they were kids apparently." he said which got a gasp out of yzak. "Now… I'm not as devoted to celestial being as they are to their cause but...I have experienced some things that not only have made me rethink my connections to zaft...but also after watching everyone and how they reacted to Alaska, panama and orb...there's just no way I can come back to zaft but as I stated before I will not destroy any zaft lives. Ian Vashti made it possible for this machine to be as accurate if not more so than the freedom. The earth alliance however I have no love for, nor do I really hate them anymore. But they will die if they come toe to toe with me." said dearka, his determination coming through clearly.
It was then the colony once again began to shake around them and dearka looked to yzak on his comms. "Like I said… come with me if you wanna find out the truth behind this whole farce of a war. Or shoot me down. Be a hero of zaft if I'm truly your enemy. But I am leaving. I need to rejoin my new unit." he said as the buster panzer turned around and began to fly off once more.
Yzak found himself questioning so much. With how dearka had changed and how he acted...his determination. Yzak found himself pushing his accelerator and following dearka quietly. If nothing else, he knew there were earth alliance forces where he was going. He could really put this machine through its paces.
The hero returns!
Noah danced around the forbidden as it tried to tag team him with the raider. It was like they thought since the freedom had not taken the field, he would be an easier target. Instead his cloak had barely even been opened aside from lifting the occasional hand to block an incoming beam with a particle shield. That always seemed to piss them off more as the calamity would usually then try a few pot shots. Those shots were usually dodged by the gunpla battler.
Setsuna and Lyle were handling the calamity on occasion, but it seemed to mostly be trying to take on the justice. Otherwise they were taking on the large majority of the strike daggers that were showing up. All in all, what had been an uphill battle for the baker team and the M1's, even athrun and Kira was little more than a teenager holding back an angry child swinging his arms.
Setsuna in his new custom machine was mostly using the bits system to disable the strike daggers and Lyle was using his GN submachine guns and the speed of his machine to get in the daggers faces and put a few rounds into the joints, either destroying them or disabling them, then would kick them back. Both relied on their GN fields to block most shots, especially when the calamity would try its luck on them.
With such a defense from just four machines it was clear to natarle that they weren't getting through to the ships within. Glancing to Azrael she could see it on his face that he was aware of this as well. "Captain we are down to 25 strike daggers in operational status...s-should we finish the launch procedures?" asked the radio operator as they were clearly fearful of Azrael's reaction to such losses. They had shown up with so many and the fact they were down to only 25 and no closer to their goal...it was frustrating him clearly.
"No shit! Launch everythi…" it was then he was interrupted by their radar operator. "Sir it seems all five ships appear to be leaving the colony!" this really upset Azrael as even he knew what that meant as the3 main screen zoomed in on the image of the ships exiting the colony, hangar doors open to launch even more units onto the field. It was clear they were out matched at this point and to that end Azrael slammed his fist on his chair's armrest. Better to leave and live to fight another day with his toys than lose it all now. Plus, the five ships seemed to be flanked by other units exiting the colony such as the freedom could be seen taking the lead along with the buster look alike and the custom strike tailing behind but seeming to head for the archangel.
Just as he was about to call for a full retreat, he was interrupted by the radio operator again! "Sir I have a hail from the approaching nazca class vessels!" from there the message came through over the speakers. No one seemed to notice the zoomed in image capture a rather large and bulky machine slowly launch from the ptolemaios.
It was white with two bulky white formations on its back as well as a third black one directly on its back.
"To the archangel class earth alliance vessel! Before we do battle, I'd like to return a captive to you!"
The hero returns!
So again, this was probably the worst chapter I have written in a while so more apologies. But I promise the next one will be much better and again will tie up more than a few loose ends.