AUTHOR'S NOTE: And now we get into the main story, with this remastered version of the original Chapter 1. This and the next chapter will see the most substantial changes in events that occur leading up to the Break the World Incident, in order to have a more plausible timeline - in particular, the circumstances of the launch of the Minerva, and what happens to the ship before Junius Seven's movement is detected.
As before, this particular version of Gundam Seed Destiny omits the initial Gundamjack, and takes place in the same continuity as Alternate Fate. Thus, it basically covers the equivalent of GSD Phase 1-4
PHASE 01: Stardust Battlefield
February 4th, Cosmic Era 75
Lagrange Point 4
ZAFT Arsenal colony Armory One
Located far from the 119 colonies that make up the PLANT homeland, the steel-and-glass hourglass-shaped colony Armory One had first been constructed in CE 72 as a military arsenal. Since then, it had served as the primary testing ground and development facility for all new technologies created by the Integrated Design Bureau - the PLANTs' sole arms manufacturer, formed by a merger of Martius Arsenals, Maius Military Industries, and the Asimov/Heinlein Design Bureau. It was IDB who developed the vehicles, weapons and mobile suits that equipped ZAFT, the nation's militia, as well as equipment for the colonies' civilian police forces.
The upper half of the colony held the civilian district, which contained housing and facilities for its residents, which primarily consisted of the employees who worked in the colony and their families. The rest of the population consisted of ZAFT personnel stationed at Armory One, at least half of which lived in the civilian sector rather than in the heavily-guarded lower half. The latter held the arsenal itself and the colony's substantial military facilities and defense forces.
It was here that, in CE 74, a complete restructuring of ZAFT's mobile weapons forces had been undertaken, under the project name "New Millennium". Its objective was to overhaul ZAFT to maximize its combat capability while respecting the force limits set by the Treaty of Junius Seven at the end of the Bloody Valentine War three and a half years earlier.
And in the most heavily defended section of the base, one could see the crown jewel of the New Millennium Project, soon to be the flagship of ZAFT's entire military force: a sleek, dark-gray warship with sharp, angular lines and broad, swept-back wings, although these were currently folded along its side: The trans-atmospheric assault carrier LHM-BB01 Minerva, the first new battleship to be launched since the end of the war.
Cannons bristled along her entire upper side, facing both fore and aft. Conceptually a descendant of the Alliance battleship Archangel as well as the previous war's famous Eternal, it combined the best aspects of both into a fast, heavily-armed and armored battleship capable of carrying a large number of mobile suits, and was the finest such craft ZAFT had ever created. Some said the finest military vessel anyone had ever created.
Throughout Armory One, preparations continued at a frantic pace for the upcoming launch of the ship. On the base, a military jeep was moving rather swiftly through the compound. In the passenger's seat, Lunamaria Hawke was looking around as suddenly, a GINN stepped out in front of them. Vino Dupré, her crewmate, was driving, and he swerved out of the mobile suit's way.
"What the hell? This is a mess!" She complained, somewhat angrily. She looked back at the mobile suit, an aging relic of the Bloody Valentine War.
Four years later, nearly every GINN and CGUE had long-since been retired, only a scant few serving in the armed forces - primarily among the defense forces of the PLANTs themselves.
They had been almost entirely replaced by the marginally newer GuAIZ and its mass-produced equivalent, the GuAIZ-R, both significantly superior machines.
And within another year or two, even the GuAIZ would soon follow as the New Millennium Project reached completion.
-"It can't be helped. It's been a while since we've done anything like this." Vino replied. "Almost everybody here's a rookie, just like us. But all it means is the Minerva's just about ready to launch."
-"I guess." Luna replied. Whereas Vino was part of the ship's maintenance crew, Luna was a pilot. Moreover her wine-red uniform, customized with a pink miniskirt rather than the usual knee-length skirt, indicated that she was a graduate of the PLANTs' military academy, and had graduated within the top ten percent of her class. "I wonder if it's true about us getting assigned to lunar orbit...and where's Shinn anyway?"
Vino opened his mouth to reply, when the two teens heard the dull, throaty roar of a jet engine. Both looked up as a small, blue-and-white fighter soared past above them. Behind it were two peculiar-looking craft, dull-grey in color, which almost looked like the upper and lower bodies of a mobile suit - which is exactly what they were.
"There he is." Vino said, pointing above at the three craft. "He was scheduled for some final flight and combat tests on the Impulse before it was loaded on the Minerva."
As he spoke, the three craft began to line up, with the fighter in the middle and the other two in front and behind. As Vino and Luna watched, the fighter - the YFX-M56S Core Splendor - folded in on itself. Meanwhile, the other two modules that comprised the Impulse, the Chest Flyer and Leg Flyer, enclosed it and deployed, forming a single mobile suit, which then landed not far from them as its Variable Phase-Shift Armor activated, changing its colors from dull grey to gleaming blue and white.
The ZGMF-X56S Impulse Gundam was, like the Minerva, the pinnacle of the New Millennium Project. Its experimental Core Block System theoretically allowed it to if need be modify its equipment and replace damaged parts on the fly, during a battle, making it possibly the most versatile mobile suit ever created. In that sense, much as her mothership owed a substantial part of its design to the Alliance's Archangel, the Impulse was a spiritual successor to the equally famous GAT-X105 Strike.
It now stood in the center of a large, flat area that was used for maneuverability and combat tests of mobile suits. On the arena's edge, the GINN with which Vino and Lunamaria had nearly collided earlier turned to face its opponent.
Raising its 76mm assault machine gun, the GINN targeted the Impulse and opened fire. The weapon was loaded with dummy training rounds, but even had it been loaded with live ammunition it would've been harmless against the Impulse's armor. The GINN itself was an unmanned aggressor unit, controlled remotely by technicians on the ground.
In the Impulse's cockpit, sensors alerted Shinn to the incoming attack, and as he turned he saw the GINN and prepared to counterattack. He blocked the shots fired with the Impulse's shield, then drew one of a pair of beam sabers stored on the Impulse's hips and started closing in on his opponent. the GINN stowed its machine gun and drew its sword, but the Impulse nimbly side-stepped the attack as Shinn drove his saber deep into the GINN's torso, where the cockpit is located in most mobile suits.
The GINN shut down, and as the Impulse stowed its beam saber and stepped back, the now-inert mobile suit was removed from the area.
As the Impulse continued through its combat tests, Vino and Luna turned away and headed back towards the ship. After close-combat, Shinn continued with anti-aircraft training, against inexpensive drones simulating enemy fighters and helicopters, which he shot down with the beam rifle. Once the exercises were complete, the Impulse turned and began walking back towards the Minerva.
While Shinn put the Impulse through its paces, deep in the bowels of the Minerva, chief mechanical engineer Matt Aves was hard at work supervising the loading of the ship's mobile suits and their equipment. The ship's hangar was Aves's domain exclusively.
An experienced hand who had served in the Bloody Valentine War, the no-nonsense Aves knew more about mobile suits and how they worked than anybody at Armory One, and probably more than most people even in the PLANTs.
The focus of his attention at the moment was the ship's unusual #3 catapult, located along the top of the hull, just ahead of the superstructure. Too small to launch mobile suits, it was designed specifically to support the Impulse, storing its Chest and Leg Flyers, which made up its body, and the Core Splendor.
It also stored and was used to deploy its Silhouette Flyers - unmanned drone flyers that carried a variety of additional armament for the Impulse and docked to its back in a very similar fashion to the Alliance's Striker Packs. The Silhouette Packs, like the Chest and Leg Flyers, were equipped with autonomous tracking and guidance systems derived from the DRAGOON System, and could be controlled manually from the Core Splendor as well.
At the moment, a second Core Splendor was being loaded, to serve as a spare in the event of irreparable damage to the first.
Once that was completed, Aves turned his attention to the three ZGMF-1000 ZAKU Warriors that were loaded into the hangar. A next-generation pre-production mobile suit, it was intended to eventually replace the GuAIZ as ZAFT's frontline mass-production unit. Developed in parallel with the Impulse, it could also augment its armaments with optional Wizard Packs, which could also be launched from the #3 catapult. However, because they lacked the Silhouette Packs' remote control capability, they were more often than not equipped before launch in one of the two conventional catapults to port and starboard.
Also in the hangar were two ZGMF-601R GuAIZ-Rs.
As Aves watched, the #1 catapult opened to admit the Impulse, which would be carried in its complete form once they deployed. Guided by its pilot, the sleek machine slowly made its way to its berth, and shut down.
Like Lunamaria as well as their mutual friend Rey Za Burrel, Shinn was a Red Coat academy graduate and mobile suit pilot. Shinn and Lunamaria were classmates at the academy, and had graduated second and third in their class respectively - Rey, of course, had been first. They were friends, and had known each other almost the entire time Shinn had lived in the PLANTs. As he left the Impulse's cockpit, the tall, taciturn Rey was waiting for him.
"Good work out there, Shinn." Rey said.
-"Thanks, Rey." The slightly younger Shinn replied. They were a curious pair, these two.
Quiet, thoughtful, and intelligent, the blue-eyed and blond Rey was level-headed and even-tempered.
By contrast, the black-haired Shinn was brash, impulsive, hot-headed and impatient, constantly questioning his instructors. And yet, they were inseparable.
Beyond his curious friendship with Rey, Shinn was unusual in a number of ways.
Whereas Rey and Luna had been born in the PLANTs, Shinn had emigrated from Orb. He didn't talk much about his life on Earth, and people had quickly learned not to ask.
Volatile-tempered, he was well-known among his peers for his fierce hatred of the Alliance, and was also a ferocious critic of Orb and the Athhas.
But the most unusual thing about Shinn Asuka was a pink mobile phone he carried around everywhere, though he never called anyone with it and nobody knew its number. As he stepped away from the Impulse, Shinn withdrew the phone from a pocket and opened it, his expression thoughtful.
-"You know, there's no point carrying that thing around if you never use it." a voice said from behind. Yolant Kent, a good friend of his and like Vino a member of the ship's maintenance crew, walked past Shinn. The latter shot him an ugly look then, flipping the phone shut and slipping it back into his pocket, left the hangar.
Up on the Minerva's bridge, the atmosphere was no less feverish, as preparations were under way, under the eye of Arthur Trine, the ship's Executive Officer.
Arthur was nervous, as their Commanding Officer was due to arrive today, and his reputation had preceded him. So when the bridge door opened and an officer in a white coat, the black collar of his uniform trimmed with gold, entered, he jumped. But he instantly he stood at attention, as did the rest of the bridge crew.
Tight-lipped and frowning, the new arrival was younger than Arthur. He had medium-length silver-white hair, hard blue eyes, and a long, thin scar across his face that did not detract from his appearance, instead lending his handsome features a fierceness they would otherwise lack.
"Sit the hell down." Yzak Joule ordered irritably as he took his place in the Captain's chair of the Minerva. Arthur looked taken aback at the abruptness of the order, but obeyed. "What's our status?"
-"The ship is just about ready, and most of the crew is accounted for." Athur replied "Unfortunately, we're short a couple of pilots due to injuries, but replacements are scheduled to arrive tomorrow, and all our mobile suits are already onboard."
This was not, strictly speaking, true. The Minerva currently carried only six mobile suits, though it had an official maximum capacity of twice that number.
However, the ship was still in trials, and this first deployment would merely be a four-week shakedown cruise. Thus, a full combat complement was deemed unnecessary.
Only once it returned to the PLANTs following the completion of trials would a full complement be loaded, ahead of its formal commissioning on March 10th.
Yzak reflected darkly on the irony of commissioning a warship on the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Junius Seven, but neglected to comment aloud.
-"So our February 6th departure date still stands." He commented, not altogether surprised.
-"Uh, yes, sir." Arthur answered hesitantly. Yzak, who was busy perusing the orders he had received, did not reply. He noticed that his orders also included a tentative schedule of the exercises they were expected to complete, and read it through carefully.
It was not Yzak's first command, but it was the first time he took command of a brand-new ship.
He had his work cut out for him, he realized, but it should be interesting all the same…
Two days later, the ship was ready at last.
Quite a crowd had assembled to see her off, including the Armory One commander and much of the base's senior staff, as well as civilian personnel working on the base and numerous others. At the foot of the gangplank, Vino and Yolant were saying good-bye to their parents, who had come in from the PLANT homeland to see them off.
On the bridge meanwhile, Yzak was seated in his chair, as were Arthur and the rest of the bridge crew.
"Trusting brand-new mobile suits to a bunch of nuggets like this, to say nothing of this ship. I'd feel a lot better if we had a few more experienced hands onboard." Yzak muttered.
The only experienced pilots onboard apart from Yzak himself were Shawn Moran and Dale Watson, who piloted the ship's two GuAIZ-Rs. The other three were all wet-behind-the-ears rookies - test pilots, whose sole task it was to test out the new Impulse Gundam and the ZAKU Warriors in null-G operations, both in open space and in debris field environments, which would be conducted in the Debris Belt.
Privately, Yzak was wishing that his old comrades, Dearka and Shiho, were with him.
He shook his head, dismissing the thought. He would just have to whip them into shape himself.
Finally, it was time.
"Arthur. Begin launch preparations." He ordered tersely.
-"Yes, sir!" Arthur replied. "Minerva, begin launch sequence. The ship is now entering combat status. All hands, prepare for launch."
At the communications console, Abigail Windsor activated the ship's Public Address system. She relayed the same transmission throughout the ship, as a hatch opened underneath her hull and a transmission from Armory One's spaceport came in.
"As of this moment, classification code LHM-BB01 Minerva is validated. Confirming call sign, Sierra Antares One. Launch sequence is under way; damage control, remain on standby. Minerva connected to descent lift. Begin descent." As the transmission ended, the ship began slowly sliding downwards on its lift, out towards the exterior of the colony.
-"Start the engines." Yzak ordered as the ship reached the outside. "The Minerva is taking off."
-"Minerva, taking off! Engines to maximum." Arthur ordered as the ship's wings spread open, and ZAFT's newest battleship began her maiden voyage.
February 13th
Debris Belt - Earth Orbit
The Minerva was currently on station on the outside of the Debris Belt - the ring of rock, metal and debris, castoffs from the construction of the various colonies in the Earth-sphere, that orbited Earth, midway between the planet and its moon.
In the week since they had left Armory One, the ship had conducted speed trials, maneuvering trials, and weapons tests.
On the bridge, under the watchful eye of the irascible Yzak, every single crew member had learned how to do their job quickly and accurately.
The pilots had, for the most part, spent their time over the past week in a variety of simulations, both against simulated opponents and each other. Now, however, it was time for them to get some hands-on experience piloting their machines in zero-gravity.
Their schedule included extensive testing of the Impulse and its Core Block System, but first Yzak wanted to send out all three of them - the Impulse and the two ZAKUs - to get an idea of their abilities - both the mobile suits and the pilots.
Depending on the results, Yzak thought might recommend they be permanently assigned to the ship when the time came to finalize selection prior to their official deployment.
Some of them, anyway.
"A simulation can only tell you so much." Yzak grumbled as the three machines took off. The GuAIZ-Rs remained on standby, for now. His own ZAKU was also being maintained on five-minute standby for launch.
"I haven't done that well in debris field simulations." Lunamaria commented from her ZAKU's cockpit as the three machines entered the Debris Belt.
Shinn, meanwhile, accelerated the Blast Impulse, maneuvering around the various chunks of debris with comparative ease - despite its high firepower, the Blast Impulse had an array of thrusters that gave it excellent mobility. This first sortie was meant to test the maneuverability of the Impulse itself. Later, they would test the Core Block System and the independent maneuvering capabilities of the individual flyers.
Unnoticed by the Minerva, however, an unseen threat lurked: The Niranjan-class stealth battleship SCV/XA-SO1 Nana Buluku, operated by the 81st Independent Battalion of the Atlantic Federation - a unit also known as Phantom Pain. Currently it was using a Mirage Colloid Stealth System, which was illegal under the Treaty of Junius Seven, to conceal itself.
On its bridge, mission commander Lukas O'Donnell observed the situation. Next to him was Ian Lee, the ship's CO. Their orders had been to investigate the possibility of a new ZAFT battleship being in the area, and they'd hit pay dirt.
"All right. Ian, I'll leave the ship to you while we take care of those mobile suits." Lukas commented, then left the bridge.
"Start the engines, disengage Mirage Colloid! Prepare to launch mobile suits." Captain Lee ordered. "Aim Gottfrieds one and two, missile launchers five through eight - Target the enemy battleship."
The ship launched three machines, which turned and headed slowly into the fray - towards the Debris Belt, into which they pursued their still-oblivious targets.
Leading the formation was the mobile armor TSX-MA24F Chaos, designed as a more powerful successor to the Möbius Zero and piloted by Lukas himself; faster and with more than twice the firepower of its predecessor, the Exus had four gunbarrels armed with two beam cannons, which were controlled wirelessly, and it had two linear cannons to the original's one. Unlike the old Zero, or the long-since-retired production-model Möbius for that matter, it was also equipped for close-range combat thanks to a pair of beam claws mounted on its two legs.
One of the mobile suits was the GAT-X731 Abyss, a variable mobile suit loosely based on the GAT-X252 Forbidden and GAT-X255 Forbidden Blue. The Abyss was designed to be able to operate underwater like the Forbidden Blue, or in space as the Forbidden did - though it lacked the latter's aerial capability on Earth. As a result, it was armed with a variety of both shell-firing and beam weapons.
Its pilot was Auel Neider, an Extended Human - trained and enhanced from birth into a living weapon capable of facing a Coordinator on equal terms.
His teammate and fellow Extended was Stella Loussier, and she piloted the GAT-X388 Gaia Gundam, a variable MS designed for high-speed ground combat, both at long and close ranges.
Whereas the Abyss could transform into a more streamlined submarine mode for higher underwater speed, the Gaia was able to assume a quadruped ground combat mode intended to emulate ZAFT's TMF/A-802 BuCUE. Like the Chaos, both were intended as prototypes for possible later mass-production.
Once the Chaos, Gaia, and Abyss were under way, four GAT-01A2 Daggers were deployed as well, two of them equipped with Doppelhorn Strikers for long-range bombardment.
The Daggers split up, with two of them taking positions astern of the Chaos as they continued closing in on the ship, while the other two machines veered off into the Debris Belt.
Meanwhile, the Nana Buluku closed in on the Minerva from behind.
"Heat source detected at Blue 18, Mark 9 Charlie. Battleship-class, distance 900." Bart Heim, who monitored the ship's sensors, suddenly reported. "They've deployed mobile suits, sir. "
-"Designate that track Bandit One. Launch Shawn and Dale's machines!" Yzak ordered. Even as he spoke, Bart reported once again.
-"Detecting targeting lasers active...they're aiming at us! High-level energy signature incoming - beam cannons. Also detecting multiple inbound missiles."
-"Launch anti-beam charges. Activate CIWS, Tristans, and Isoldes." Yzak ordered.
The Minerva launched and detonated a volley of anti-beam charges, which intercepted and dissipated the shots from the enemy ship's beam cannons, while her 40mm CIWS turrets engaged, destroying the incoming missiles.
"Counterattack!" Yzak barked. "Load Neidharts in all missile launchers. Fire Isolde 2."
The Minerva's stern-mounted M10 "Isolde" 42cm triple-barreled anti-ship cannon fired, unleashing a volley directly at the approaching Nana Buluku.
-"Take evasive action! Thirty to port!" Ian ordered, and the Nana Buluku barely avoided the incoming attack, before firing a second volley from its dual beam cannons, and a second missile barrage.
-"Fuck." Yzak swore as the incoming attack was detected. "Engines to maximum! Turn us to starboard and use that asteroid as cover against any direct hits!"
Under the control of Malik, the ship's helmsman, the Minerva swerved out of the line of fire, narrowly avoiding the enemy's cannonfire and hugging the massive asteroid they now used for cover. Her 40mm CIWS took care of a good chunk of the incoming missiles, while the others hit the asteroid, the ship's high speed allowing them, so far, to avoid a collision.
Meanwhile, deeper in the Debris Belt, alarms rang in the Impulse's cockpit as the Abyss opened fire with its multiphase beam cannon, while the Gaia and the two Daggers attacked the two ZAKUs with their beam rifles.
"What the hell?" Shinn exclaimed as he immediately goosed the throttle, the agile Impulse evading the enemy's attack while the two ZAKUs split off, narrowly avoiding the barrage aimed at them.
The three mobile suits surrounded the two ZAKUs and opened fire once again, forcing both Lunamaria and Rey to defend without leaving an opening for them to counterattack, when a barrage of cannonfire from behind obliterated one of the two Daggers, as the two GuAIZ-Rs reached striking range and attacked.
The Gaia and remaining Dagger scattered, and Stella turned her machine's long-range beam rifle on the intruders, neatly taking out one with a shot to the cockpit.
"Shawn!" Lunamaria exclaimed as her teammate's machine exploded.
-"Scatter and engage them one-on-one!" Shinn exclaimed as he evaded a second barrage from the Abyss. He turned and opened fire with the beam rifle, which the Abyss took on its anti-beam-coated outer shoulder armor.
-"You're mine!" Auel spat as he unleashed his machine's two back-mounted linear cannons, four shoulder-mounted cannons, and multiphase beam cannon at the Impulse.
Shinn evaded the attack easily, as did Dale's GuAIZ-R.
However, Dale's return fire was dissipated by the anti-beam coating on the Abyss's heavily-armored outer shoulders, and it retaliated once again with its shoulder-mounted cannons. This time, he wasn't so fortunate, and the barrage obliterated it.
-"Bastard!" Shinn swore as he saw the signal from Dale's GuAIZ-R disappear. He instantly counterattacked, firing the Blast Impulse's twin four-tube missile launchers and "Déluge" railguns, but the Abyss evaded the attack.
-"We're down by two already!" Lunamaria exclaimed as Dale's machine was destroyed. Then a message came in from the Minerva, ordering them to return and informing them of the enemy attack. "And the Minerva's under attack!"
-"I know." Shinn replied. "But there's no way we can return like this...Rey!"
Engaging the remaining Dagger, Rey easily slipped its latest attack and fired his ZAKU's beam rifle, taking it out with a double-tap to center mass and destroying its cockpit.
-"Can you guys take out these two?" Rey asked Shinn.
-"Two-on-two, we should be able to manage." Shinn replied. "Get back to the Minerva!"
-"Right. I'm on my way." Rey replied, and slammed the ZAKU's throttles to their stops.
-"Oh no, you don't!" Auel exclaimed and turned to fire at the retreating mobile suit, but alarms rang in his cockpit as Shinn's Blast Impulse, beam javelin drawn, moved into close-quarters and aimed for the Abyss's cockpit. Auel drew his machine's lance and barely got the beam blade up in time to parry, then fired his multiphase beam cannon.
Shinn was faster, and avoided the attack by millimeters. Then he went evasive, ducking the Impulse into a massive chunk of destroyed colony.
"Damn it...gotta shake off that bastard..."
The Gaia, meanwhile, pursued Lunamaria's ZAKU in its quadruped mobile armor mode, running along the floating debris. Luna turned and fired her machine's "Orthros" heavy beam cannon, but the nimble Gaia avoided the attack easily and slammed into the ZAKU, sending it flying back into a chunk of debris.
Shinn saw the ZAKU slam into the debris directly ahead of him, pulled back the throttle, and executed a perfect ninety-degree pivot, deploying the two "Kerberos" beam cannons as he did so. He spotted the Gaia, locked on, and opened fire instantly, forcing it to break off its attack.
"What the hell is up with you?!" Stella yelled as she righted her machine, even as Auel likewise closed in on the two enemy units. Both the Gaia and the Abyss then opened fire on the two ZAFT machines, hoping to catch them in the crossfire.
"If we don't deal with these bastards and get back to the Minerva, the ship's finished." Shinn growled as they were forced to evade the Gaia's and Abyss's attacks. He redeployed the Impulse's cannons and fired, but the two enemy units scattered. He accelerated towards the Abyss, while Lunamaria opened fire with the Gunner ZAKU's missile launcher and shoulder-mounted railgun at the Gaia.
She and Shinn both used the time it took them to evade to accelerate, trying to head back towards the ship, but the two enemy units were soon pursuing them again.
Shinn flipped the Impulse around and gunned the thrusters, shooting past them upside down, then instantly righting himself and firing the Impulse's missile launchers, while Luna fired her own missiles from ahead. Caught in the crossfire, neither machine was able to evade the attack entirely, and several missiles slammed into each. Though the missiles did no damage thanks to their Phase-Shift armor, this meant that their batteries took a big hit expending power to defend against the attack.
"This guy..." Stella mumbled. "Why can't I hit him?..." She opened fire at the Impulse, but Shinn evaded the attack easily.
Meanwhile, with the Chaos and two Daggers firing at them, the Minerva was doing all it could to evade the enemy attack, but their own opportunities for attack were slim.
"Isoldes, Tristans, FIRE!" Arthur ordered, and the ship's cannons opened fire. However, the debris surrounding them meant they did not have a clear line of fire, and none of their attacks hit. Neither did the subsequent barrage from the port-side missile launchers.
-"Damn it. Half our firepower is useless out here, and with all that debris our shots aren't reaching the enemy. " Yzak swore under his breath.
Onboard the Nana Buluku, Captain Lee noted that for all that, they had yet to inflict any decisive damage on the enemy ship.
"That ship's a tough one, but if they stop moving, it's over." He commented, then he turned to his weapons officers. "Fire a missile barrage into that asteroid they're using for cover!"
-"Yes, sir!"
The launch transients were detected instantly onboard the Minerva, and Yzak ordered the ship to evade.
-"Sir, these missiles…they're not aimed at us." Bart reported as he saw the missiles' trajectory would cause them to miss the ship. Which meant...
-"SHIT! They're targeting the asteroid!" Yzak realized. "Get us clear! Raise bow fifteen!"
Too late. One after another, the missiles slammed into the asteroid around the Minerva, debris hammering repeatedly into the hull.
-"Second wave incoming!" Bart reported.
-"Decelerate twenty!" Yzak ordered, and the ship slowed down, allowing the bulk of the incoming missiles to pass just ahead of the ship. Despite that, more debris hit the hull, the starboard side taking the bulk of the damage.
-"Enemy units closing in!" Abby reported as she detected the two Daggers and the Chaos moving towards the ship. Then she detected Rey's machine closing in as well, and reported it instantly.
-"What about the Impulse and Luna's ZAKU?" Yzak asked.
-"Nothing yet. They're still in the debris field." She replied, and Yzak's fists clenched.
-"With all this debris, I can't take my ZAKU out either. Rey's gonna have to deal with these pricks on his own. DAMN IT!"
Rey, had closed in and now opened fire on the Chaos, which evaded his attack. Lukas deployed all four of his Gunbarrels, but the ZAKU went evasive, easily avoiding the attacks.
-"You've got some skill, white boy. That's good for you…" Lukas commented. "But still…"
He was now forced to evade, as the ZAKU opened fire with its beam rifle and shoulder-mounted railgun.
One of the two Doppelhorn Daggers moved in, firing its beam carbine and backpack-mounted cannons at the ZAKU, which gave Lukas some much-needed breathing room.
-"Out of my way!" Rey spat as he dodged the Dagger's barrage and counterattacked with his beam rifle, his shot punching through the Dagger's cockpit and destroying it.
-"Fall back and defend the ship, Miller!" Lukas ordered the remaining pilot. "This guy is out of your league."
As the remaining Dagger retreated into the debris field, the ZAKU accelerated and followed, but Lukas pursued.
"Oh no, you don't." He commented as he closed in, firing both the linear cannons at the enemy mobile suit, then deploying the Gunbarrels.
Rey accelerated, moving deeper into the debris field and using it for cover against the enemy attacks, while at the same time continuing to pursue the Dagger. Its current course would take it to the Minerva, which Rey could not allow.
The enemy mobile armor's Gunbarrel scored a glancing hit on the ZAKU's leg, but he managed to shake him off long enough to deploy the Blaze Wizard's two missile launchers, and fired a barrage from every single tube, towards the Dagger.
The Debris blocked most of his missiles, but enough of them got through that the Dagger had to evade them. While its pilot was thus occupied, Rey took aim with the beam rifle and shot it in the back, destroying it and killing its pilot.
"Hmm...guess I underestimated the little Coordinator bastard." Lukas muttered as he recalled his Gunbarrels and pulled back out of the Debris field towards the ship. "That's my bad, I suppose."
"Enemy mobile armor retreating." Abby reported. "Both mobile suits destroyed. Rey's ZAKU is returning."
-"Good." Yzak acknowledged, then turned to Arthur. "Arthur, give me a sitrep."
-"Significant damage to the hull on the starboard side. Starboard thrusters number four and six damaged." Arthur reported.
-"How many are still functional?" Yzak asked.
-"Six, but we'd be sitting ducks if we head out there now." Arthur replied hesitantly.
An idea began to form in Yzak's head. He knew it was a risky one, but it was their only shot at turning this around…It was, he thought, the kind of crazy, reckless stunt Dearka might've come up with. Or Athrun.
-"Fire everything we have on the starboard side, directly at the asteroid." He ordered. "We'll shove the hull out in one motion using the force of the explosion, along with the surrounding rock fragments."
-"WHAT?!" Arthur exclaimed, looking at Yzak as if he were insane. "But sir…think of the damage to the ship's hull!"
-"We can repair the fucking hull!" Yzak yelled. "We have to get the hell clear of this debris or we're, as you put it, a sitting duck. Just DO IT! Prepare to fire all starboard weapons! Starboard thrusters to maximum as we open fire - match the timing exactly."
-"Y…Yes, sir." Arthur replied, turning back to his console.
Onboard the Nana Buluku, Captain Lee ordered the ship to move in to finish off the enemy ship.
-"We can't count on a direct hit - there's too much debris in the way."
-"It doesn't matter." Lee replied. "Our mobile suits are going to be running out of power soon. If we can't destroy them, they'll be trouble if they pursue us. Load all missile tubes and activate the Lohengrins."
On the Minerva's bridge, the situation was tense, as they watched the ship closing in.
-"Bandit One is closing in. Distance 155. Detecting a growing energy signature from the ship, sir."
-"So they have a positron cannon of their own. Activate Tannhaüser. Prepare to fire as soon as we get clear." Yzak ordered tersely. His next order was broadcast throughout the ship over its PA system. "All hands, brace for impact!"
-"Distance, 150!"
-"Starboard thrusters to maximum, all starboard weapons fire on my command. Three…two…one…NOW!"
At the same instant, all six remaining starboard-side thrusters ignited even as both Isoldes, the starboard and center Tristan, and all twenty starboard missile tubes fired. The explosions blasted the asteroid to pieces, sending fragments floating out in all directions, but the force also shoved the Minerva outward at a thirty-degree angle.
At the same instant, the Nana Buluku fired her two positron cannons along with a barrage from her missile tubes. One beam sheared off the Minerva's port-side upper stabilizer, but it missed the hull itself, and the second missed altogether. Additionally, the now-moving debris intercepted the enemy ship's missile barrage.
Debris slammed into the Minerva's hull on all sides, but they were moving, and now they were perfectly positioned to counterattack.
-"Turn bow thirty." Yzak snarled. "Target: Bandit One. Tannhaüser, FIRE!"
-"EVADE! HARD TO PORT!" Captain Ian Lee ordered, and the Nana Buluku slewed to port just as the Minerva unleashed her own positron cannon. The blast raked down the Nana Buluku's side, a glancing blow that still caused significant damage to the entire length of her hull and disabled the Lohengrin.
By the time the explosion cleared, the Minerva was accelerating, passing roughly sixty meters to port of the Nana Buluku.
-"Damn it." Lukas growled in the cockpit of the Chaos. "They managed to turn it around. That's fairly impressive. Good for them."
He accelerated towards the ship in order to attack, but the same white ZAKU intercepted him, firing its beam rifle at close range and forcing him to break off its attack.
He retreated, firing off a signal flare. As soon as Captain Lee saw the flare, he reacted. He saw that the enemy ship was turning around to pursue.
"Send the retreat signal to our mobile suits." He ordered. "We're leaving this airspace."
As soon as Stella and Auel, exhausted and nearly out of power, saw the Nana Buluku's flare, they broke off their attack.
"Game over with only two kills." Auel complained. "Whatever. Stella, Lukas is calling us. Time to go back."
-"Right." Stella replied, sighing in relief. The Gaia, switching to mobile armor mode, accelerated out of the debris field as the Abyss did likewise. As soon as they were clear, they linked up with the Chaos and returned to the ship, which withdrew.
"Bandit One is leaving, sir." Bart reported from his console.
-"Power on the Impulse and the two ZAKUs is critically low. Rey's ZAKU is already reentering, and the Impulse and Lunamaria's ZAKU are closing in."
-"Much as I'd like to pursue those pricks and reduce them to scrap, we've taken too much damage as it is." Yzak reported. "Once the mobile suits are back onboard, we'll make what repairs we can and try to contact the homeland. The Supreme Council needs to hear about this."
For his part, Yzak had a feeling that they hadn't seen the last of this team...he just hoped they were better prepared to face them next time.
Debris Belt - Earth Orbit
The remains of Junius Seven
"Solar wind velocity is steady; flare level S3, estimated particle arrival 30 seconds." The broadcast came from one of a multitude of small, nimble mobile pods that swarmed over the remains of what had once been half of Junius Seven - the remaining debris of the colony. These pods were currently installing sizable electronic devices at numerous locations throughout the colony, many of which were already in place.
-"Hurry up," ordered their commander. A man named Kotomine Sato, he was the leader of several teams of GINN High-Maneuver Type-IIs that were currently at the colony. Once a soldier of ZAFT, he and his men had disappeared following the end of the Bloody Valentine War. "How's Unit 9 looking?"
-"Just about ready, sir." replied the one installing the final flare motor. "Particle arrival imminent. Beginning countdown to flare motor activation."
A few seconds later, the hundreds of newly-installed flare motors activated, aggravating still further the oscillation they had already caused and precipitating Junius Seven on its fatal course towards Earth. "Allen...Christine..." Sato muttered, glancing at the family photograph taped in his cockpit. "We'll be reunited after this."
He turned towards the falling colony and saluted.
"Now, FALL!" He yelled as he saw the colony move, "Our great tombstone! On a world that has forgotten the voices of sorrow, that closes its eyes to reality and wallows in deceit! The hour of reckoning is at hand!"
Soon, he would have his revenge…