PHASE 10: Ambush in the Indian Ocean
March 13th, Cosmic Era 75
The Indian Ocean
CVN-133S John Paul Jones
The Alliance carrier John Paul Jones was docked at a small, out of the way base in the Indian Ocean. The base itself was under construction, its intent to serve as a frontline outpost to oppose ZAFT's Carpentaria, in Australia. Currently, it had a contingent of twenty-four Dagger-Ls organized into four-man teams, each led by a single Windam for a total of thirty mobile suits - though once completed, it would house far greater numbers.
At the moment there were no ships at its dock other than the Jones, commanded nominally by a veteran naval officer of the Atlantic Federation named Bernard McCaffrey.
A battle-scarred veteran of the Bloody Valentine War who had originally enlisted as a mobile armor pilot, he had been among the first of the Alliance's mobile suit pilots. Discharged after losing his leg during the Second Battle of Jachin Due, he had been fitted with a prosthetic, and returned to the service in 73 - this time as an officer. Distinguishing himself as a first-class officer, he was soon given command of the Jones.
In spite of his reputation and heritage as the scion of a family known to be closely associated with Blue Cosmos, he did not share the ethnocentric view of the matter of many of his peers and was ferociously opposed to the organization in general, which is why he was irritated at the fact that the one truly in charge was Phantom Pain's Captain Lukas O'Donnell, a man he knew by reputation and deeply distrusted.
But he would have to put that aside, for now.
"The John Paul Jones will be departing at 1100 hours. All hands to level one battle stations; all maintenance crews stand by at combat status." McCaffrey announced over the ship's PA system.
As this announcement was broadcast throughout both the ship and the base, the carrier's hangar was a beehive of activity. Though the Spengler could carry up to four mobile suits in its internal hangar, currently it held only three units: O'Donnell's mobile armor and two mobile suits - the Gaia and Abyss.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Colonel Adler, the base commander, was on the phone with O'Donnell, and the conversation was not going well.
"Send out all of our mobile suits? Is that some kind of joke?" He demanded.
-"You seem to be underestimating our enemy - that's not a good thing for you, Adler. Yes, all of your machines." O'Donnell replied. "Our enemy is the Minerva and at least one, probably two Vosgolov-class submarines. Even with everything we've got, it'll be tough destroying them. Or did you not review the data from the battle they fought outside Orb not long ago?"
-"Of course I did, but that's not my point!" The commander replied. "Our forces were sent here for one purpose: To build a frontline base to oppose Carpentaria. We are nowhere near finished here, so sending out all of our mobile suits is out of the question!"
-"Your mission is to do everything you can to fight against ZAFT as well as build that base. So stop daydreaming and send them out! I'll leave the Gaia behind as defense."
-"But...that's only one unit!" Adler protested. But Lukas had already hung up the phone. He swore angrily, then turned to the other officer who stood in the office with him, his second-in-command.
"Send out our mobile suits." He ordered.
-"All of them, sir?" The other man asked.
-"Of course not all of them! Keep one squad in reserve for defense in case ZAFT gets close to us."
-"Yes, sir." And the other officer left Adler alone in his office. Soon afterwards the Jones set sail and almost all of the base's mobile suits took off as well.
"Phantom Pain bastards." he fumed as he watched them leave.
On the bridge of the Jones meanwhile, Lukas turned to the ship's captain.
"What about the Chaos, Gaia, and Abyss?"
-"They're ready for takeoff, sir." McCaffrey said evenly.
-"Good. Don't move the ship from its position." he replied, and left the bridge to change into his normal suit. Once he was done he headed into the hangar, where he found Auel and Stella already waiting. The latter was looking out at their machines, a sad expression on her slender face.
-"You're so lucky." She said. "You get to go out, and I have to stay behind."
-"It can't be helped," Auel replied, "You know the Gaia can't fly or swim." Which was the truth; much like the first-generation Aile Strike, the Gaia's thrust enabled it to make fairly high powered jumps, but it was incapable of true atmospheric flight. And its armament consisted exclusively of beam weapons, which could not be used underwater - where in any case its mobility would be severely hindered.
-"I also regret the fact you can't join us today, Stella." Lukas said as he approached. The two Extendeds turned towards their commander. Auel's expression was neutral, but Stella was beaming as she saw him approach. She ran towards him. He reached up and stroked her cheek, an uncharacteristically tender gesture but one which he knew she found comforting.
"Unfortunately, that's the way it is. I doubt anything will happen, but all the same you be a good girl and take care of things back here, all right?"
Stella nodded, and the three of them made their way to their machines.
A matter of a few minutes later, the Chaos was airborne, while the Abyss transformed to its submersible mode as it dove and accelerated towards their targets from underwater.
The Gaia meanwhile leapt off the deck and transformed into quadruped mode, using its greater speed to jump from the ship to a formation of rocks partially submerged, from which she then jumped onto the island itself, reverting to mobile suit mode and taking up her position, from which she watched the Jones set sail, with the massive formation of mobile suits leading it.
LHM-BB01 Minerva
Four days out from Carpentaria, the Minerva had been sailing steadily west/southwest without encountering any trouble, escorted by the two Vosgolov-class submarines Nyiragongo and Acatenango. The Nyiragongo travelled with the Minerva on the surface, while some five hundred feet below the surface, the Acatenango followed a short distance behind. Each submarine carried three DINNs as well as four underwater-assault mobile suits.
Most people onboard the three ships welcomed the calm, and were hopeful that they would reach Gibraltar unmolested. However, Yzak was not that optimistic, especially as they would soon be approaching potentially hostile waters.
Yzak's apprehensions proved well-founded, as from his post monitoring the ship's sensors, Bart suddenly spoke up as he detected the incoming enemy mobile suits.
"Checking thermal patterns...Daggers - looks like twenty of them, plus four Windams, sir. " Bart, on the Minerva's bridge, reported. "Total number of enemy units twenty-five, no, twenty-six! One of them is that mobile armor from Junius Seven!"
-"What? So that glorified Möbius Zero on steroids is capable of fighting in the atmosphere, is it? Well that's just fucking great." Yzak grumbled. "Where did they come from? Any sign of a carrier nearby?"
-"No, sir. There's nothing yet."
-"Well in any case, we don't have time to be figuring this out now. Lower the bridge! prepare for anti-MS combat. Establish a com link with the subs."
-"Activate CIWS, Tristans, and Isoldes." Arthur ordered "Launchers One through Eight, load all launchers with Parsifals."
The Minerva and her three escorts immediately went to Condition Red. Fortunately, Yzak had ordered all the ship's pilots - Athrun, Shinn, Rey, and Lunamaria - to be suited up and standing by, with their mobile suits prepped for immediate takeoff if necessary. He contacted Athrun in the ready room.
-"Get the Impulse and the Saviour airborne. Have the two ZAKUs stand by for now." Yzak ordered, suspecting that if one of the new machines they'd seen in space was here, the other two couldn't be far.
-"Roger that." Athrun acknowledged.
Athrun and Shinn immediately headed to their respective Gundams. Rey and Lunamaria were next, and stood by in the ZAKUs' cockpits as the Impulse and Saviour were moved into takeoff position in the ship's two main catapults. As they were preparing to launch, Athrun opened up a line to the Impulse.
"Shinn Asuka."
-"Yeah?" Answered the younger pilot.
-"After we take off, I will be taking over the role of combat commander. Is that clear?"
-"Yes, sir." Shinn said after a moment's hesitation.
Moments later the Impulse was launched, docking with the Force Silhouette as it was deployed from the central catapult, and taking flight. The Saviour followed seconds later
Meanwhile, the Nyiragongo launched its three DINNs, then submerged before deploying four GOOhNs. Two of the machines were in the standard two-tone purple color scheme, while the third, piloted by the MS team commander, was white.
The five mobile suits linked up into a loose arrowhead formation and began preparing to meet the incoming enemy force.
In the Chaos's cockpit, Lukas saw the incoming mobile suits and immediately noticed the unknown signature that belonged to the Saviour.
"Well now, what's this - another new model? From Carpentaria, I guess. You gotta hand it to ZAFT, they do take their MS development seriously. That's a good point for them." He commented wryly, then accelerated towards the small ZAFT formation.
Shinn attacked first, firing at the nearest Dagger. His first attack missed and the Impulse shot past its target. Turning around, he adjusted his aim again and fired a volley that struck the Dagger's backpack from behind, detonating its propellant and destroying the machine's torso.
"There sure are a lot of them." He commented as he took aim at another Dagger next. "Not as many as there were in Orb though."
He fired again, and this time his aim was true; slightly too slow to react, the Dagger was unable to dodge the attack, which pierced the cockpit block. There were three Daggers left, which all opened fire on the Impulse. Shinn blocked the attack with the Impulse's shield and counterattacked, clipping one of the three in the left wing.
"There's no way these guys are beating me!" He said to himself as he closed in, switching out the rifle for a beam saber and charging the damaged Dagger. The Dagger parried his first strike and countered, which Shinn blocked with the shield.
Behind him, the other two Daggers opened fire. He moved upwards out of the line of fire, and one ill-aimed shot from one of the Daggers behind him destroyed the damaged machine. Stowing the saber and retrieving the rifle, he fired at the two attackers; one parried the attack, the other was too slow and took the shot to the upper torso, which exploded.
Next a Windam attacked. Significantly faster and more agile than the Dagger and armed with a longer-range beam rifle, the Windam dodged Shinn's attack and fired a shot from long range, which Shinn narrowly avoided.
"Damn...this one's fast." Shinn muttered as he accelerated, closing the distance between himself and the Windam, which fired a volley of missiles from the launchers on its wings.
The Impulse's 20mm CIWS roared to life, shooting down the projectiles before they could hit their target, and Shinn, again switching to a beam saber, closed to melee range and struck.
The Windam dodged the attack, but Shinn shifted the Impulse's wrist and the saber's trajectory shifted, clipping off the front quarter of the Windam's rifle. Discarding the weapon, the Windam drew its own beam saber and attacked.
At close range however, the Impulse's greater agility gave Shinn the advantage; narrowly avoiding the saber, he counterattacked with a fast stab that slipped past the Windam's defenses and struck the lower torso; raising the Impulse's blade, he bisected the Windam from torso to shoulder, and the machine exploded.
"All right newcomer, why don't you show me what you're capable of!" Lukas said as he closed to within striking range of the Saviour and cut loose with the two linear cannons and back-mounted beam cannon.
The Saviour spun laterally out of the line of fire and accelerated, using the Saviour's superior speed in flight mode to slip past the Chaos before counterattacking from behind with both the "Super Fortis" beam guns and the more powerful "Amfortas" high-energy beam cannons.
The Chaos narrowly avoided the attack, but in the time it took to line up a shot the Saviour had slipped past again.
A second group of enemy machines attacked Shinn, using their numerical advantage against him; Accelerating, he was forced to dive for the deck to avoid their attacks, where he found a second formation that quickly surrounded him.
Forced to defend against the attacks coming from all sides, he increased his altitude, where another Windam was waiting for him and attacked.
"Damn it." He swore as he blocked with the Impulse's shield and counterattacked, which the Windam dodged. Additionally, his evasive maneuvers were causing him to drift farther from the ship. Athrun noticed this and opened up a line to the Impulse.
"Shinn, you're out too far! What do you think you're doing?"
"Huh. Some people are just born complainers." Shinn commented, cutting the line.
He fired at the Windam again, and it dodged the first shot. Shinn however shifted his aim and immediately fired a second shot, which neatly clipped off the Windam's arm, taking the rifle with it.
At the same time, two DINNs attacked the Daggers from above, the surprise attack catching one Dagger unaware and destroying it. The encirclement that had kept the Impulse pinned broke as the Daggers shifted their attention to the DINNs, while Shinn closed in on the Windam, which fired two missiles from launchers mounted in its shield.
Shinn evaded the attack and as he drew his beam saber the Windam discarded its shield and did likewise. The Windam parried the Impulse's strike with its own, then launched another counterattack.
Blocking the attack with the Impulse's shield, Shinn kicked the Windam hard, throwing it off-balance, and struck before the pilot could regain his bearings, slicing it open.
Shinn next turned his attention back to the Daggers, just as one of the DINNs went down, leaving only one.
Shinn switched to the rifle and attacked, careful to keep the DINN out of his line of fire, nailing one of the Daggers as it closed in to attack the DINN in melee range.
"Get back to the Minerva! I'll deal with these guys." He said. The DINN retreated, the Impulse covering him until it was outside the range of the Daggers, and it headed back towards the Minerva.
The Minerva herself meanwhile was also under attack; while roughly half of the attacking force was keeping the mobile suits occupied, the remainder attacked the ship with heavy missiles, though only a few had managed to slip past the wall of 40mm automatic fire thrown up by its CIWS. Then Arthur ordered a counterattack.
"Launchers One through Four, then Five through Eight; Parsifals, fire!"
A first volley of sixteen anti-air missiles shot from the Minerva's launchers towards the mobile suits; most of them were able to dodge or shoot down these projectiles, but many were caught by surprise by the second volley that immediately followed; roughly half the attacking Daggers fell to the Minerva's counterattack.
One DINN was currently in position above the ship, and as it fired on the remaining mobile suits its twin arrived, attacking the remaining mobile suits from behind, taking out two with a volley of missiles from the six-tube launchers in its torso.
However more experienced the DINN pilots were than their enemies, the Dagger was two generations more advanced than the DINN and they also had the advantage of numbers; the last four Daggers all attacked the incoming DINN. Though his comrade moved in and fired an attack that crippled one of the Daggers, the remaining three destroyed it before turning their attention to the remaining one.
At that moment, another volley of missiles left the Minerva's launchers; though the Daggers countered the attack, the DINN's pilot took advantage of the distraction, shooting down two of the enemy machines.
The remaining one drew a beam saber and closed into melee range.
The DINN reversed thrust and backed away as the Dagger struck, with a first slash that cut the DINN's machinegun in half, and a second slash across the torso, aimed at cutting it in two. The DINN's movement was not quite enough to avoid the attack, but it was enough to prevent it from being fatal. Raising his remaining weapon, he fired the DINN's anti-armor shotgun into its cockpit block at point-blank range.
"Minerva, I am damaged and unable to continue combat." The DINN's pilot hailed the ship beneath him, "Requesting permission to land."
-"Granted. Come in for landing through the port-side hatch." Yzak snapped, then turned his attention to the communication from the Nyiragongo's CO, Captain Halsey.
"I realize it seems strange, but we've been searching high and low and our sensors haven't detected a single submarine or ship in the vicinity those mobile suits could have launched from - neither has the Acatenango." Halsey said.
-"So where did they come from?" Yzak asked. "Do you think it's possible they have a base somewhere in the area?"
-"It seems unlikely this close to Carpentaria, but you may be right." The captain replied.
At that moment, the Nyiragongo's sonar officer suddenly spoke.
-"Sir, new contact approaching fast! Signature matches one of the mobile suits the Minerva reported seeing at Junius Seven!"
"It'll be that blue bastard, I bet." Yzak commented - he'd had a feeling that machine was fitted for underwater operations, like the Alliance's production-model Forbidden Vortex - itself a variant of a machine Yzak had personally defeated at Jachin Due.
Moments later Bart confirmed the match, and Yzak turned to Abby. "Have Lunamaria and Rey equip for underwater combat and launch ASAP to support the GOOhN team."
-"Yes, sir!"
The Nyiragongo's GOOhNs made their move, approaching the incoming Abyss as behind them, the Acatenango launched two ZnOs as well.
Meanwhile, the two ZAKUs were moved into launch position.
"Beam rifles will be useless underwater - get the bazookas!" Rey said over the radio.
-"Right." He heard Vino reply from the hangar. With the bazookas plus the ZAKUs' railguns, they could at least provide some extra firepower against the enemy machine.
"Fighting underwater now?" Lunamaria quietly complained. "Oh for..."
The GOOhNs attacked first, firing a barrage of torpedoes from their arm-mounted launchers as they closed in. His machine much faster than its opponents, Auel easily evaded the underwater missiles and transformed to mobile suit mode as he closed in on the nearest GOOhN, using the physical blade of the Abyss's beam lance to cut it in half. Then he laughed.
"Sorry guys - you're outmatched!" He said, and moved in on the second GOOhN; before he could strike, his sensors warned him of an incoming attack as the two ZnOs fired their phonon masers at the Abyss, forcing him to dodge the attack as well as a followup barrage from the GOOhN.
Countering with the six phonon masers mounted to the inside of the Abyss's binders, he shot the GOOhN, whose pressure hull collapsed as the attack pierced it, the pressure crushing the pilot as the mobile suit began to sink. A third GOOhN fired a volley of torpedoes from its forearm-mounted launchers that impacted the Abyss, though its Phase-Shift prevented any damage. Turning to the offender, Auel counterattacked with the Abyss's twin back-mounted linear cannons, destroying it.
"You poor schmucks." He said spitefully as he watched the GOOhN explode. He turned his attention next to one of the two ZnOs, but before he could strike his sensors rang and he spotted two additional incoming mobile suits - new-model production-types, armed with bazookas; Auel recognized their colors from when they'd fought ZAFT at Junius Seven.
"Take this!" Lunamaria yelled as she aimed the bazooka and fired at the Abyss, "it's a little something for showing off!" Rey fired as well, following up with a volley from the railgun.
"Heh. You don't really think that's gonna hit me, do you?" Auel asked as he transformed to submersible mode, its speed allowing him to easily dodge the unguided bazooka rounds; the railgun shots hit, but didn't leave a scratch. "I'll teach you to mess with me!"
He charged, targeting the red one. Both machines scattered, narrowly avoiding the Abyss.
The single GOOhN and two ZnOs attacked next, but Auel fired the Abyss's four shell-firing cannons, which faced to the rear in sub mode, and hit the GOOhN, which exploded.
Athrun spotted the surface disturbance on the water caused by the GOOhNs' explosion, and contacted the ship.
"Minerva! What was that?"
-"It's an Alliance underwater unit - one of those three clowns that attacked us at Junius Seven; the Nyiragongo and Acatenango sent mobile suits against it, and we sent in Rey and Luna for backup. But there's no sign of a launch platform that we can detect." Yzak replied. "Can you see anything from your position?"
-"Negative - no sign of any ship that I can spot." Athrun said, and turned his attention back to the Chaos, which had deployed its gunbarrels. Though slower under gravity than in space, they remained capable of operation even on Earth, and the four weapons pods launched and fired a barrage of missiles at the Saviour.
Athrun used the Saviour's superior speed to evade the missiles, turning in a tight inverted loop that allowed him to get an angle on the projectiles from behind, and he cut loose with the Saviour's 76mm machineguns, shooting down those missiles as he evaded another volley.
"Not bad...he's got nice moves." Lukas commented, recalling the gunbarrels as the Saviour transformed to mobile suit mode and fired its beam cannons at the pods, resulting in the attack narrowly missing.
Meanwhile, Shinn was at low altitude, engaged in combat with an enemy Windam. He fired the Impulse's beam rifle, but the Windam avoided his attack.
"Damn...I can't quite get him..." Even though the Impulse was faster and more agile than the Windams, the performance gap was much more narrow than compared to the Dagger, making it difficult to shoot them down from long range.
Then a Dagger attacked, firing its beam carbine and a volley of missiles from the launchers on its wings. Shinn dodged the attack and countered, firing three shots that pummeled the Dagger's head and torso, destroying it.
Another Dagger attacked from below, a couple of missiles striking the Impulse and causing minor damage to the Force Silhouette, but the Impulse was itself unharmed.
Shinn turned around and pegged it with a shot to the upper torso, then turned his attention back to the Windam.
He spotted it and accelerated towards it, but as he was closing in his sensors blared and before he was able to counter, something collided with the Impulse, sending it crashing into the water.
With the Impulse neutralized for now, the Windam increased altitude, the two remaining Daggers forming up alongside it, and the three mobile suits soared towards the Saviour from below, firing at it just as the Chaos did likewise, unleashing its gunbarrels. Athrun took a glancing rifle shot to the leg but otherwise avoided the attack, countering with a salvo from the Amfortas beam cannons that shot the two Daggers out of the sky.
Returning his attention briefly to the Chaos, he dodged another salvo, this time from the gunbarrels' beam cannons, and fired the rifle - destroying one of them. Lukas recalled the remaining three as the Windam attacked the Saviour from below, emptying its wing-mounted missile launchers and drawing a beam saber.
Athrun dodged the attack and blocked the saber strike with the Saviour's shield, but by the time he raised the rifle to fire the Windam had fallen back and was moving in for another strike.
Stowing the weapon, he drew his own beam saber and parried the attack, then fired the Saviour's CIWS at its head, damaging the main camera.
Blinded by the sudden salvo, the Windam's pilot was unable to anticipate Athrun's next attack, which severed both the Windam's arms as well as its wings, and the crippled mobile suit plummeted towards the water below as Athrun, retrieving his rifle, turned his attention back to the Chaos.
As the Impulse rose from the water, stowing the beam rifle, Shinn saw what had hit him: A black mobile suit, looking like a BuCUE, with small wings protruding from either side of its backpack. He recognized it as one of the Alliance machines from Junius Seven.
"Bastard...you're finished." Stella muttered in the Gaia's cockpit as she recognized her opponent and charged, the Gaia's wing beam blades ignited, aiming to cut it in half.
The Impulse leaped back and countered with a downward slash of the beam saber, but the Gaia leaped nimbly sideways and the attack hit the water, which rose in a cloud of steam on contact with the superheated saber blade. The Gaia transformed to mobile suit mode, and drew its own beam saber.
"Shinn!" Athrun hailed on the radio. "Get back - you're falling into their trap!"
-"Shut up!" Shinn retorted. "I can do this!"
As the Gaia charged, so did he, aiming a pair of vicious slashes at the Gaia, which narrowly dodged and fell back towards the nearby island.
Shinn followed, continuing to attack the Gaia. As far as he could tell, he and the other pilot were nearly evenly matched on the ground, both in terms of their skill and the capabilities of their machines.
Suddenly, his sensors alerted him to another attack.
"What is it this time?" He wondered, and he spotted two anti-air turrets firing at the Impulse, their bullets pinging harmlessly off the Gundam's VPS armor.
Docking the saber and retrieving the rifle, he fired one shot into each, silencing them both.
"What are anti-air defenses doing in a place like this?..." He asked aloud, then looking past the smoking turrets he saw an entire base, which appeared incomplete.
"A base all the way out here? And they're still building it."
Looking closer, he saw people clustered on both sides of the fence. On the inside, it looked like they were trying to slip underneath the fence to get to the people outside, and they wore civilian clothes.
"Huh? They're forcing civilians to work on it!" Then he saw armed military personnel, who turned their rifles on the escaping civilians and fired. Enraged, he turned the Impulse to face the soldiers, careful to keep the fleeing civilians clear of his line of fire, and gunned them down with the Impulse's CIWS.
Underwater meanwhile, the Abyss fired its cannons at the ZnOs. Both were able to dodge the attack, but Auel closed into melee range, switching to mobile suit mode, and hacked it open with the lance before it had a chance to counterattack.
Luna and Rey both fired at the Abyss next, which dodged and countered with a volley of torpedoes.
The two ZAKUs spread out and Rey was able to evade the attack.
Luna however was less fortunate, and one torpedo blew off her arm, taking with it the railgun. Slipping in front of her, Rey fired two shots again, which this time did hit their target - although they did no damage to the Abyss beyond the additional energy drain on its battery.
Only a single Dagger remained airborne other than the Chaos, both of which were engaging the Saviour. Blocking a beam cannon shot from one of the Chaos's gunbarrels, Athrun fired at the weapons pod just as its missile launcher opened, destroying it. The Dagger moved in at this point, firing its beam carbine at the Saviour. Athrun dodged the attack easily and fired the beam rifle at its backpack's engine pods, detonating both and destroying it.
"I think we've reached our limit." Lukas commented, "Perhaps we could have chosen a better stage. Jones, we're withdrawing - prepare to rendezvous."
He turned the Chaos around and began to retreat, moving away from the Saviour at high speed as he opened a communication link to the Gaia and Abyss. "Auel, Stella! We're leaving!"
-"What? How come?" Auel demanded.
-"Because all the guys we borrowed were wiped out, and the enemy found the base we're still building."
-"Who let that happen, you losers?"
-"Just calm down. I didn't see you take out any big targets today either." Lukas replied.
-"Oh yeah? Just watch me!" Auel retorted, and pulled away from the ZAKUs at high speed.
Rey and ZAKU moved to pursue along with the remaining ZnO, while both the Nyiragongo and Acatenango spotted the Abyss incoming.
The latter launched its remaining two underwater-assault mobile suits, but before they were close enough to intercept, Auel had spotted the Nyiragongo.
"The enemy's closing sir! Distance 200, speed 60 knots! confirming torpedoes in the water, sir!"
-"Hard to port! EVADE IT!" Captain Halsey ordered. The sub began veering to port, but too late - the Abyss's four torpedoes hit the sub, rupturing its hull. As it began flooding the Abyss swept past, then fired a salvo from its four rear-facing cannons. The shots hit the sub's forward section, where its torpedoes were stored, and the entire front of the ship exploded.
From the Minerva's bridge, everyone saw the massive spray of water caused by the sub's explosion.
"The Nyiragongo! Damn it!" Yzak swore. Then Bart reported a new contact.
-"Earth Forces carrier at four o'clock, sir! It's heading for the Acatenango!" Yzak knew the Spengler-class had no weapons capable of reaching the sub where it was deep underwater; however he also knew that they had an underwater mobile suit better than anything ZAFT had in its arsenal - well, almost anything.
Auel turned his attention to the second submarine, but he suddenly came under attack as the two mobile suits it had launched fired their phonon masers at the Abyss, along with a volley of torpedoes.
He counterattacked with his own phonon masers, but the UMF/S-6 ASSH was much faster than a GOOhN or even the ZnO, and both dodged his attack easily. They then countered with a salvo that hit its target this time, neatly shearing off the Abyss's right leg.
"Damn it. Guess I'd better get going. I'll get you bastards next time!" He said, and turned away, moving as fast as possible towards the Jones.
Shinn meanwhile saw that the Gaia had turned and fallen back as well. However, his sensors blared as he came under attack himself - a squad of four Dagger Ls and a Windam, the latter equipped with a flight pack.
He leaped back, bringing the shield to bear, but took a couple of glancing hit to the Impulse's leg and head.
"Bastards!" He growled as he took off, and the Windam followed, firing its rifle up at the Impulse. Turning towards it, he blocked the attack and accelerated, closing in to melee range.
The Windam drew its own saber and parried his attack, then countered. He blocked with the shield, then shoved it forward into the Windam, knocking the saber from its hand. He followed up with his own attack, bisecting the mobile suit from the chest to the waist.
Switching back to the rifle, he turned to the Daggers below. From the air, dodging their attacks was easy, and he counterattacked with the beam rifle, shooting down all four of them before turning his attention to the base itself. He flipped a switch and the shield collapsed into a smaller configuration, then drew a beam saber as well as the beam rifle. As the base's anti-air defenses fired, he countered, obliterating the turrets with the Impulse's CIWS before turning on the base itself, destroying every structure within range using either the saber or the rifle.
"Shinn, that's enough!" He heard Athrun say over the radio. "They can't fight back anymore!"
He ignored him. Once the base was leveled he stowed the Impulse's weapons and strode over to the fence. Reaching down with the Impulse's hands, he tore it out, then dropped it.
At the Impulse's feet, the civilians who had been in the base ran across where the fence had been, where they were met by, from what he could tell, friends and family on the other side.
He looked down at the scene, and he smiled. Then he stepped away and took off, heading back to the Minerva.
The Impulse was the last of the ship's mobile suits to return. The Acatenango had surfaced, retrieving its ASSHs and the sole surviving ZnO.
As Shinn entered the hangar, he also saw a white DINN, which he guessed correctly was one of the Nyiragongo's mobile suits. Next to that were Rey's and Luna's ZAKUs and the Saviour. As he left the Impulse's cockpit and headed towards the door, he was met by Athrun, who looked angry. Then, before a word was said, Athrun backhanded him across the face, much to the surprise of everyone in the hangar.
"If you want to hit me, go right ahead, but I don't give a damn! I didn't do anything wrong." Shinn said, surprised and angered by Athrun's reaction. "All I did was help those people back there!"
Athrun hit him again, then replied angrily. "War is not some game to play the hero. If you have all this power, take responsibility for it!"
-"Tell that to the civilians who were enslaved by the Alliance back there and gunned down when they tried to escape!" Shinn retorted, then he stalked out of the hangar.
Equatorial Union
In a small out-of-the-way cove on the western coast of the Equatorial Union, the Archangel remained hidden underwater, their only link to the outside world a floating sensor buoy they had released that captured and transmitted news broadcasts down to the ship, as well as the occasional discreet run of supplies from the Union government.
Murrue Ramius was in her place on the bridge, Andrew Waltfeld standing close by. Also with them was Canard, and next to him was a younger woman with short, dark-blue hair and wire-framed glasses.
Her name was Juri Wu Nien, and like most everyone on board she had fought in the final battles of the Bloody Valentine War, piloting one of the first Astray mobile suits mass-produced by Orb. Except for Canard, dressed in his usual black, everyone present wore an Orb military uniform.
Kira himself was absent.
The huge screen to the right of the bridge was displaying the transmitted news broadcasts. Demonstrations, political posturing by Copeland and the replies by Baum, or the latest statements from Durendal and the Supreme Council.
"Same old, same old." Waltfeld said flatly. "Every day, the same old gloomy news stories." He took a sip from a cup of coffee.
-"Well, what can you expect? we are dealing with a war here." Canard replied. "Still, this news is a little strange."
-"How so?" Juri asked, looking puzzled.
-"This news, except for a few sound bites from Durendal and the Supreme Council, is all concerning combat within the Alliance or down here on Earth." Canard continued. "There've been no stories at all about any fighting in the PLANTs since the original failed nuclear strike."
-"As for the PLANTs themselves, this is mostly what's on TV these days." Andrew replied as he switched the channel on one of the screens. The scene changed to a concert, where a teenage girl with long, flowing pink hair sang in front of a massive crowd.
In this quiet night,
I'm waiting for you,
Forgetting the past,
And dreaming of you.
The resemblance to the late Lacus Clyne was obvious to everyone present, as was the fact that the song was one of Lacus's own, though the infectiously upbeat tune could not possibly have been any more different from Lacus's subdued, uplifting performances.
Time passes by
And memories fade,
But time can't erase
The love that we've made.
Grunting irritably, Canard Pars turned off the sound - that song had always annoyed him, and this new version even moreso.
"For our part, we have to be careful; one careless move on our part could give away our position." Waltfeld spoke again, eyeing the now-silent screen with distaste. "Needless to say, that would be a bad thing not only for us, but also for the government of the Equatorial Union, which is providing us with support under the table. Besides, we can't make our move yet - there's too much we don't know."
-"What about Cagalli? Do we know what her situation is right now?" Canard asked.
-"Last we knew, the SkyGrasper was intercepted by a Eurasian Federation carrier. It took off, under mobile suit escort, soon afterwards so we can be pretty sure she's okay." Andrew answered. "And the kid?"
-"Still in his quarters." Murrue answered. "He...hasn't been doing well since Lacus was killed."
-"Grief. He loved her - it's understandable." Canard said. Murrue nodded.
-"What's worse, it's the second time something like this has happened: During the last war, there was a girl onboard, Flay Allster. There was something between the two, and he took it very hard when she was killed during the Second Battle of Jachin Due; But he's taking Lacus's death even worse."
-"Not to change the subject, but what's next for us? I mean, since the Junius Seven incident, the PLANTs seem to be acting in good faith, which makes the Atlantic Federation and their allies look like war-mongering morons." Canard said next. "The nuclear attack on the PLANTs being perfect case in point."
-"But that was Blue Cosmos at work, right?" Andrew asked.
-"Right." Canard replied. "But even after that, Durendal didn't retaliate in kind; instead, he's fighting a strictly defensive war on the smallest possible scale. As for this…"
-"He's tricking everyone." Said a new voice, as Kira entered the bridge, wearing an Orb uniform. At first glance he seemed all right, but looking closely his eyes were red, and it was clear he'd been crying. His green mechanical bird was on his shoulder, and Lacus's old pink Haro was rolling around at his heels. "Who else could have ordered the attack? And as for these concerts…"
-"Well, you could say tricking people is what politics is all about." Waltfeld said cynically. He had himself a very low opinion of politicians in general. "From the little I know of him, Durendal seems to be a good leader. But I don't trust him."
-"Looking at the deplorable situation in Western Eurasia, I can't help but want to take the PLANTs' side in this." Murrue said, "Still, there was Lacus's assassination. And now, this...I just can't imagine he wouldn't know about it."
-"Cagalli said Athrun had gone to the PLANTs, right?" Kira asked. "I'm sure that when he gets back, we'll be able to find out more about what's going on."
And he turned and left the bridge, heading back to his quarters. Thinking back on his conversation with his best friend while they were both in Orb, Kira found himself wondering what Athrun was up to, these days.
And he hoped to hear from him again, and soon…
March 15th
African Community
ZAFT Forces Mahamul Base
There were no further incidents following the engagement in the Indian Ocean, and eventually the Minerva and the Acatenango arrived at ZAFT's Mahamul Base, where they would resupply before the Minerva continued on its trip to Gibraltar.
The Acatenango would be returning to Carpentaria once its own resupply was completed. Once both ships were docked, Yzak left the ship, with Arthur and Athrun in tow. Everyone else remained on standby aboard, for now.
On the dock, they were met by a cadre of officers, one of which was the base commander. Wearing a black uniform instead of the green worn by the others, with a knee-length jacket like the one worn by Arthur. All three saluted as Yzak began speaking.
"Yzak Joule of the Joule Team. Commanding Officer of the Minerva. This is Arthur Trine, my XO, and our MS team commander, Athrun Zala of the FAITH Special Forces." The last name caused a certain amount of muttering among the soldiers who were meeting them, until the base commander spoke.
-"Excuse us. I'm Joachim Ruddle, commander of the Mahamul Base." He said, saluting. He then stepped forward, and he and Yzak shook hands. "Make yourselves comfortable - you've had a long journey."
-"Thank you." Yzak replied.
The group began walking away towards Ruddle's office, and the latter spoke again.
"Can I offer you some coffee? This place isn't much to write home about, but we do get some damn fine coffee here."
-"Sure, thank you." Yzak said with a small half-grin, as he remembered the last time he was in this general region, and another commander who had been perhaps a little too enthusiastic about his coffee.