PHASE 18: Survival and Sacrifice
April 13th
The Mediterranean Sea, off the western coast of Crete.
LHM-BB01 Minerva
The Minerva was ten hours out from Çanakkale when its sensors detected approaching enemy ships.
"One carrier, eight escort ships - it's the Orb fleet, sir." Bart Heim announced from his seat at the ship's sensor console.
-"What about that Alliance carrier?" Yzak asked.
-"Nothing yet, sir."
-"Keep looking for it. You can bet the Orb ships aren't out here alone." He replied, before addressing the entire crew. "Lower the bridge! Take us to Condition Red; all pilots stand by onboard their machines. Load Launchers 1 through 6 with Dispars, 7-10 with Parsifal. Load Wolfram in tubes 3 and 4, Fafnir in 1 and 2. This time, we're making the first move."
-"Yes, sir!"
-" Arthur, take the conn - I'm going out too."
-"Right."
As the bridge was lowered and the alert rang out, Shinn, Athrun and Lunamaria headed to their machines, even as Yzak left the bridge and headed to the hangar himself.
Meanwhile, preparations were also underway onboard the Takemikazuchi to begin the attack, as the ship's entire complement of Astray and Murasame mobile suits - roughly forty machines - began to take off.
"Distance, 60 to firing range!"
-"Is there any sign of mobile suits from the Minerva yet?" Colonel Todaka asked.
-"Nothing yet, sir."
-"We win!" Yuna exclaimed. "Now then, let's..." Whatever Yuna was about to say, he was suddenly interrupted by an alert from the crewman monitoring the ship's sensors.
-"Missile launch detected from the Minerva! Two of them, closing fast!"
Todaka ordered a counterattack, but it was already too late.
One of the Minerva's deadliest weapons, the MMI-M382E1 "Fafnir-E" cruise missile was designed specifically to take out naval targets at long range, its supersonic terminal speed too high for all but the most sophisticated defense systems to even track.
By the time the Orb ships' CIWS were even online, the big missiles struck their targets - two Aegis-class escort ships - and the missiles' 450-kilogram warhead tore apart the ships' hulls like tissue paper.
-"Son of a..." Todaka muttered under his breath.
None of the intelligence they had about the ship had even hinted at it possessing a missile capable of striking so quickly or with such devastating destructive power. If even one of those hit the Takemikazuchi, he suspected they could easily cripple the ship or worse.
"Counterattack. Load Type-8 fragmentation shells and fire!" He ordered.
The three remaining Orb escort ships fired, and their attack was detected immediately on the Minerva.
"30 to starboard!" Arthur ordered, "Evasive maneuvers and intercept!"
The ship's CIWS turrets sprang to life, successfully intercepting several of the numerous projectiles as they closed in.
The majority of them however suddenly exploded, and shards rained down on the Minerva. Thankfully, the ship's movement had allowed them to evade the worst of the barrage, but the ship was still struck by a large amount of shrapnel, which pitted its hull and shattered the bridge windows above.
Thankfully, the heavy bulkhead that sheltered the combat bridge held.
-"Four more ships at 9 o'clock, sir! One Alliance carrier, five escort ships - they're launching mobile suits! Also detecting nine Orb Murasames, two o'clock." Bart Heim reported.
-"Send out our mobile suits!" Arthur said. "Prepare to counterattack with Tristans and Isoldes."
As the Minerva opened fire on the approaching Alliance ships, the Saviour launched from the catapult, closely followed by Shinn's Impulse Gundam, this time armed with the heavy-artillery Blast Silhouette.
As the Impulse, skimming the surface of the water, closed in on the attacking forces, the Abyss burst from the water below and fired a barrage from the multiphase beam cannon in its torso and the two linear cannons on its back.
He'd underestimated the Impulse's maneuverability though, and Shinn dodged the attack easily, countering with the two big "Kerberos" high-energy long-range beam cannons.
The Abyss slipped underwater, avoiding the attack.
Above, Athrun once again found himself engaging the Chaos, which attacked him repeatedly with its linear cannons and the powerful beam cannon mounted on its upper back. Athrun dodged the attacks, countering with the Saviour's rifle, though the Chaos dodged as well.
Taking advantage of the fact that the Saviour was occupied, the Murasames slipped past and dove at the Minerva, firing first the four "Hayate" missiles from their internal launcher, then a volley of heavier missiles from wing-mounted hardpoints.
The Minerva's CIWS intercepted the attacks, and two of the nine attacking mobile suits fell, shot down by a volley from the ship's big beam cannons.
Of the more than eighty missiles launched, only a half-dozen slipped through the net to strike the ship's hull.
Then the GOUF Igniteds launched, and the Murasames were forced to break off their attack run. At the same time, Lunamaria's Gunner ZAKU Warrior took its position on the deck.
Meanwhile, the enemy fleet was still closing, with the Takemikazuchi and its three surviving escort ships on one side and the Jones and its own four escorts on the other.
The enemy ships opened fire on the Minerva, firing a barrage of missiles at the ship.
-"Intercept them and counterattack! Parsifals, fire!" Arthur ordered.
While the hail of 40mm shells from the ship's CIWS staved off the barrage, a volley of heavy anti-ship missiles shot from its launchers, and one of the Alliance's Frasier-class escort ships went down.
The Jones was hanging well back, having retreated beyond firing range after launching its own mobile suits.
Arthur glanced at the map, which showed the ship pinned in between the two formations.
"So that was their plan...a pincer attack to pin us down at Crete. This is bad..."
On the Minerva's deck, Lunamaria fired at incoming Orb Astrays, shooting them down before they could launch an attack on the ship.
Yzak meanwhile was above, holding off two particularly tenacious Alliance Windams, painted in distinctive black colors.
The first was the same one he'd fought already before. The second was equipped with an Aile Striker, but armed with a rocket anchor mounted to one forearm and, Yzak noted, carrying a Dagger's beam carbine instead of the Windam's longer beam rifle.
The latter attacked, firing its rocket anchor at the blue GOUF Ignited, which neatly sidestepped the attack. as the anchor shot past, Yzak brought the blade of the GOUF's beam sword down, slicing the anchor's wire, then lashed out with the Slayer Whip, stripping it of its arm and the shield it held.
Then the Windam IWSP attacked, and Yzak was forced to dodge. The enemy unit moved into close-range, and Yzak parried its saber with the GOUF's beam sword before bringing to bear the "Draupnir" four-barreled beam machinegun.
The Windam was forced to fall back to evade the point-blank attack, but another Murasame slipped past towards the ship.
"DAMN IT!" Yzak turned to attack the enemy machine, but the Windam IWSP moved in again, forcing Yzak to block the saber strike with the GOUF's shield. When he counterattacked, Sven in the Windam IWSP deftly shifted the saber to parry the attack.
As the duel between the two continued, the Murasame accelerated towards the Minerva, only to be mowed down by a withering hail of beam cannonfire from the other GOUF Igniteds' "Draupnir" machineguns.
When an Astray moved in behind the Murasame, it was cut down from below by the Impulse's "Déluge" railguns, which neatly blasted off its wings, sending the machine plummeting to crash into the ocean. Then the Abyss leaped from the water again and fired, this time firing a barrage from the two pairs of shell-firing cannons on its binders. Shinn dodged again, then fired a first volley from the Kerberos high-energy long-range plasma cannons.
"Not even close." Auel commented as he slipped underwater. He easily evaded an additional volley of shots from the enemy machine's railguns, then slipped into position to attack the Impulse from behind. "I'm sick and tired of looking at that face!" He raged as he again broke the surface and this time cut loose with the full power of the Abyss's weapons.
Shinn cut the thrusters entirely, and the Impulse fell into the water, the shots from the Abyss passing harmlessly overhead.
Then as he ignited his thrusters again and broke the surface he found the Abyss charging, its beam lance held for a diagonal strike across the cockpit. Shinn parried the attack with the Blast Impulse's own beam javelin, then lashed out with a hard kick that threw the Abyss off-balance, sending it crashing back into the water.
Above, Athrun had shaken off the Chaos, but he found himself attacked by three Murasames. Using the Saviour's advantage in maneuverability - especially in mobile suit mode, as the Murasame were attacking him while in flight mode - he dodged the attacks and countered, neatly clipping both the wings of one of them with the Saviour's Super Fortis beam guns.
The second switched to mobile suit mode and drew its beam saber, but Athrun preempted the attack, stripping it of both its arms with two well-placed shots from the beam rifle.
Then he switched to the beam saber, slicing off the arm and wing of the last one as it prepared to attack. For a moment, as he did so he thought of his discussion with Kira.
He shook his head. 'Again, I don't have a choice. Kira…'
Turning his attention back to the battle, Athrun found that another Murasame was attacking him from behind, and as he evaded that attack the Chaos moved in again and struck from in front of him.
"Hey, don't daydream now, red boy." Lukas commented. "Now just hold still so I can kill you!" Then he fired the Chaos's linear cannons and beam cannon, along with the beam guns from its four gunbarrels.
Swearing under his breath, Athrun switched to mobile suit mode and dodged or blocked the attacks, slipping out of the line of fire of the Murasame behind.
Then he counterattacked, snapping off a shot aimed at each one. The Chaos dodged the attack. The Murasame was not so fortunate, and the shot caught it cleanly in the main body, destroying it.
As the Chaos, Abyss and the two machines from the 501st kept the Minerva's mobile suits occupied, the Jones had also launched its remaining mobile suits, a team of four Jet Dagger-Ls carrying heavy anti-ship missiles.
They moved in towards the Minerva and fired their missiles, but the ship countered with its CIWS, taking out the handful of projectiles and one of the Daggers.
Lunamaria turned her attention to the incoming Daggers and fired the ZAKU's "Orthros" cannon, taking out a second even as Arthur ordered a counterattack. A barrage of Dispar anti-air missiles shot towards the remaining two Daggers, and the mobile suits went down.
At the same time, the Minerva's own considerable weapons were targeting the enemy ships. Firing the bow Isoldes, one shot hit the side of one Aegis-class escort ship.
"Missile launchers on the Sokowatatsumi have been destroyed!" The crew reported on the bridge of the Takemikazuchi. "The Kuramitsuha is moving to the front. Target is changing course to 2400."
-"Come on!" Yuna said irritably. "Have our ships move in closer! We've got to keep the pressure on them!"
-"That is out of the question." Todaka replied firmly. "The Minerva still has full use of her weapons, so we can't move too hastily. Remember, they have the ability to take out any one of our ships in a single shot."
As if to illustrate the point, the sensors suddenly reported torpedoes in the water. The Minerva, having altered its trajectory, had fired two of its big "Wolfram" M25 torpedoes, which when they struck ripped open the hulls of two of the Alliance's four remaining escort ships. The two ships began to sink, and a follow-up strike from the Minerva's powerful cannons caused significant damage to a third vessel.
-"What are the Murasame teams doing? What's taking them so long?" Yuna asked impatiently.
-"This isn't some strategy game, Lord Yuna. A real battle is not as easy as you seem to think!" Todaka retorted, momentarily losing his composure.
Meanwhile another team of Murasames moved in to strike, ignoring the mobile suits and targeting the Minerva directly.
"Twelve Murasames, incoming from starboard astern!" Abby reported, communicating the news simultaneously to the mobile suits as well as to Arthur on the bridge.
-"Don't let them lock on! Shoot them down!" Arthur ordered. The ship's CIWS sprang into action, as did the stern-mounted Isolde triple cannon.
At the same time, shaking loose his opponent Yzak turned his attention to the incoming mobile suits. The Aile Windam attempted to follow, but a barrage from the Impulse below forced it to break off.
Accelerating, Yzak took the GOUF's anti-air gunlauncher and fired, even as from the deck below Lunamaria unleashed a barrage from the Gunner ZAKU's single missile launcher. Four of the Murasames went down. The remaining eight launched their missiles and broke off the attack. More than half the missiles struck the ship, causing significant damage to its hull.
"You're not getting another hit like that." Lunamaria muttered as she fired, a sustained blast from the "Orthros" cannon that sheared one of the Murasames in two, even as the GOUFs again fired on them from behind and the Saviour, approaching from above, cut them off and fired. Half the remaining Murasames went down.
At that moment, the Chaos again moved in, targeting the Saviour with a missile barrage from its gunbarrels, which Athrun was forced to evade.
"Where are the Saviour and Impulse?" Arthur asked, an edge of panic creeping into his voice.
-"They're engaged against the Chaos and Abyss." Abby reported.
-"More incoming enemy units, from starboard ahead!" Bart suddenly reported.
-"Hard to port! Engines to maximum thrust! Launchers 1 through 6, Dispars, fire!"
As the Minerva launched its attack and moved to try and stave off the incoming enemy attack, Lunamaria and Yzak likewise fired at the incoming Murasames.
In spite of the attack, a single Murasame managed to slip past the ship's defenses and leveled its rifle at the bridge. Noticing it was empty, the pilot played a hunch and adjusted his aim, targeting a spot on the hull just below where he correctly guessed the bridge to actually be.
In the instant before he could fire, a shot from above and to the left obliterated his rifle. Turning, the pilot saw the Freedom rush past him and, saber drawn, cut down his two surviving teammates, severing their wings and forcing them down.
"DAMN IT! Them again!" Yzak spat as he recognized the Freedom and, behind it, the Archangel. Airborne beside it was the Aile Strike, along with a single Murasame.
In the Impulse's cockpit, Shinn recognized them as well.
"They're doing it again." He said, and he felt his anger rising again as he remembered the battle in the Aegean, and how their interference had cost Rey his life. "Why do they always have to interfere?"
Turning towards the incoming ship, he targeted the Freedom and opened fire, unleashing a barrage of missiles from the Blast Impulse's two quadruple missile launchers. Kira countered, shooting down the missiles with the Freedom's CIWS and, drawing his beam saber, charged the Impulse.
"I've had enough of you!" Shinn yelled angrily as he fired the Impulse's Kerberos cannons at the Freedom, which evaded the attack and closed in, fast.
As it had in Orb, he suddenly felt his awareness of the battlefield expand. His perceptions were increased exponentially, and it seemed that he could tell a few seconds ahead of time what his enemy's next move would be.
When the Freedom struck, he knew where it was aiming, and he shifted the Impulse's position slightly, so that the saber blade, which should have decapitated the Impulse, missed by a scant few inches.
He countered instantly with the Impulse's beam javelin, and the Freedom pulled back upwards, narrowly avoiding the attack.
"Kira, stop it!" Athrun exclaimed as the Saviour charged towards the Freedom, its own saber drawn. The Saviour and the Freedom struck simultaneously, each one blocking the other's attack with his shield.
"I told you to stop this!" Athrun yelled, "You should have gone back to Orb!"
Pressing the attack, Athrun was pushing the Freedom back as Kira, unable to find an opening in which to strike, was forced to defend.
Of course, in close-range combat Athrun had always been the more skilled pilot, and they both knew it.
"Stay out of this, Kira! All you're doing by interfering is making things worse!" Athrun exclaimed, as the Freedom narrowly dodged his strike.
Suddenly, alarms rang in both cockpits as the Chaos attacked.
"Well if that's how it is, I'm taking you both out." Lukas stated as he opened fire with the Chaos's gunbarrels and multiphase beam cannon.
The Freedom and Saviour both slipped back out of the line of fire, and Lukas recalled his gunbarrels. He slipped past them and as he turned to strike again, found the Freedom ready to attack.
"Nope. That's not going to work." Lukas quipped, and he fired the Chaos's multiphase beam cannon. Even at such close range, the Freedom's superior speed allowed Kira to slip above the enemy mobile armor's line of fire.
However, Lukas had for a brief instant left himself open to attack, and Athrun took full advantage of the opening.
Striking from the side, he severed both the Chaos's right gunbarrels along with its linear cannon with the beam saber, while a followup strike from the Saviour's powerful cannons struck a crippling blow to the mobile armor's main body.
The Chaos began to fall, landing hard in the ocean below.
Meanwhile, Yzak opened up a communication from the GOUF Ignited's cockpit to the Minerva's bridge.
"Captain?" Arthur asked.
-"Even though that ship may claim to have no hostile intentions towards us, their attack against us in the last battle caused extensive damage. We are therefore to treat the Archangel as hostile, and act accordingly."
-"Yes, sir!" replied Arthur, and the acknowledgement was repeated by the rest of the bridge crew.
Shinn had once again found himself under attack by the Abyss, and was still engaging the enemy amphibious machine when he detected the Freedom approaching from behind. Before he could turn to face the attacker however, a three-shot volley from the Saviour forced Kira to break off, and the red mobile suit inserted itself between the Impulse and its intended target.
"Athrun." Kira said, still on a certain level wondering why they had to be enemies again.
The same question was weighing on Athrun's mind too, but he knew the reason why mattered little at the moment.
Athrun glanced for a split second at his monitor, and was struck by how low his battery level had fallen. He made a mental note to carefully watch his energy consumption even as he moved in towards the Freedom.
-"That's enough, Kira!" He said, and once again engaged the Freedom directly.
Still focused on the Freedom, Shinn suddenly heard alarms ring in his cockpit as once again, the Abyss moved to strike.
-"What are you looking at, you bastard?" Auel yelled as the Abyss shot from the water once more and opened fire, bringing its full firepower to bear on the Impulse.
At this range, Shinn knew he could not dodge the attack completely, so he turned to present the Impulse's back to the Abyss, and ejected the Blast Silhouette even as he pushed the throttle to the stops, igniting the Impulse's single back-mounted thruster as he did so.
The Blast Silhouette exploded, the blast shoving the Impulse forward - exactly as he'd counted on. Twisting around, he counterattacked, and with a scream of rage threw the beam javelin he still held directly at the Abyss.
"What?" Auel exclaimed as alarms rang in his cockpit. But by the time he realized what had happened, the thrown weapon struck its target, piercing through the Abyss's cockpit block and cutting him in half.
Both it and the Impulse hit the water, and the Abyss's cockpit began to flood as it sank. Then it exploded.
"We've lost Auel, too." Captain McCaffrey commented grimly as he saw the surface disturbance caused by the Abyss's explosion at the same moment as the machine's signal was lost. He shook his head. "How's the Chaos's retrieval?"
-"Complete, sir." one of the ship's crew replied. "Medical teams are standing by on deck number eight, and a rescue chopper is ready for takeoff."
-"Send it to the Abyss's last known coordinates." McCaffrey ordered, although he privately felt there was little hope of recovering the Abyss or its pilot. The thought saddened him, especially so soon after Stella's disappearance.
In spite of its comparatively low thrust, the Impulse began to rise quickly from the water, and Shinn contacted the Minerva.
"Minerva!" he barked on the radio. "Send out the Force Silhouette, and prepare the deuterion beam system!"
-"Roger!" Abby replied.
The Impulse rose from the water, as the preparations began to deploy the Force Silhouette and send it out to the Impulse.
In her Aile Windam's cockpit, Mudie noticed the Force Silhouette Flyer as it took off, and turned towards it to attack.
"I don't know what that is, but I'm taking it out!" She commented.
However, just as she was about to shoot Yzak attacked, firing the gun launcher at the Windam.
-"Oh no you don't!" He snapped, and as Mudie, forced to evade, backed off Yzak fired another volley at the black Windam IWSP in case it too tried to attack the Flyer.
Sven had in fact been thinking of doing precisely that, but he easily dodged the attack from the GOUF as well as a subsequent shot from the ZAKU below.
The Silhouette Flyer reached the Impulse unharmed, and Shinn engaged the docking procedure. The instant the Force Silhouette docked, the Impulse's VPS automatically calibrated itself accordingly and the machine changed from green-black to the usual blue.
Then the Deuterion beam activated, recharging the Impulse's severely depleted battery.
Immediately turning his attention to the two black Alliance mobile suits, he opened fire with the Impulse's beam rifle as the Force Impulse shot upwards towards them.
Sven's Windam IWSP dodged the incoming Impulse's attack easily, as did Mudie in the Aile Windam.
Both of them counterattacked immediately, but Shinn saw the attacks coming and brought the Impulse's shield to bear, blocking the attack from the Windam IWSP's beam cannons even as he dodged the other's carbine shots.
Yzak took advantage of the opportunity to attack as well. Caught in the crossfire, Mudie was able to evade the attacks, but she lost her machine's remaining arm, and with it the beam carbine.
-"SHIT! Not again!" she swore.
-"Fall back, Mudie." Sven ordered flatly from the Windam IWSP. "It's too dangerous with your Windam damaged like this."
As he spoke, he drew his beam saber and accelerated, closing in on the Impulse.
Shinn sidestepped the attack and lashed out, kicking the Windam aside.
Thrown off-balance, Sven was only barely able to bring his shield to bear in time to block a follow-up strike from the Impulse, and opened fire with the Windam's shield-mounted 60mm gatling gun as he pulled back, trying to put some distance between the two units.
Mudie, meanwhile, began to fall back to the Jones as fast as possible. Covering her retreat, Sven turned the gatling gun on the GOUF at the same time as he targeted the Impulse with his beam rifle and beam cannons.
Yzak evaded the attack, while Shinn brought the Impulse's shield to bear, blocking the shots.
At that moment, Lunamaria fired at them from below, and Sven only narrowly avoided the attack.
Then the Impulse fired at the Windam again, and Sven barely got his shield up in time to block the attack.
"This guy..." Sven mumbled as fired a volley intended to prevent pursuit and began his own retreat, looking down at the Impulse. "He's good."
Although the Alliance forces attacking the Minerva were beaten back, the same could not be said for the Orb fleet, as another formation of Murasames were closing in.
"All members of the Orb forces are to attack the Minerva!" the order, coming from the Jones, sounded across the radio, "I repeat, all Orb forces attack the Minerva!"
As the Orb ships unleashed a barrage of missiles and cannonfire at the ship, the mobile suits themselves moved in for a bombing run on the target.
The Impulse and the GOUF Igniteds immediately moved to intercept, taking down two of the approaching Murasames before they'd even had time to fire their missiles. The others launched their machines' four "Hayate" missiles at the ship, although Lunamaria immediately fired from the deck, taking down an additional machine as the Minerva's CIWS intercepted the missiles.
"Tristans, FIRE!" Arthur ordered from the Minerva's bridge, and the three powerful dual beam cannons blasted into the formation, which was forced to scatter in order to avoid the incoming shots. Reforming, the remaining Murasames moved in and dove in for another run, in spite of fire from the Minerva.
"Come and get it!" Lunamaria raged as she aimed and fired at the incoming formation. This time however the Orb pilots were ready, and the Murasames shifted out of the trajectory of her blast before firing the anti-ship missiles each carried on the hardpoints on its wings.
Though many of them were intercepted by the Minerva's CIWS and suppressive fire from the mobile suits defending the ship, some of them got through, and one struck the starboard deck, atop which Lunamaria's ZAKU stood. She let out a scream as her machine fell, critically damaged by the impact.
-"Lunamaria!" Shinn exclaimed as he saw what happened. "You BASTARDS!" He roared as he accelerated, blasting into the formation and destroying first one, then a second Murasame. Yzak likewise opened fire, shredding another Murasame, leaving only one remaining.
"Maximum thrust, hard to port!" Arthur ordered as the last Murasame charged in, firing its rifle and beam cannon at the Minerva.
Even as the ship moved to evade, the Murasame pilot accelerated, throwing his machine into the bow-mounted Isolde and destroying it.
"Damn...that bastard trashed the Isolde!" Yzak raged. On the bridge, Arthur was equally appalled.
"Damage report?" He asked.
-"Isolde destroyed. Starboard catapult badly damaged, starboard Tristan completely inoperational." Bart reported reported. "We have a fire onboard. CIWS are operating at 40%, and the ZAKU is critically damaged. They're bringing it in now."
-"Send damage control and fire crews. Put out those fires!" Arthur ordered frantically.
-"Yes, sir." Abby replied, and relayed his orders accordingly. At that moment, another communication came in from Shinn.
-"Minerva, is the central catapult still operational?"
-"It is." Abby replied.
-"Then send out the Sword Silhouette." Shinn demanded. "I'm taking out their ships!"
On the bridge of the Takemikazuchi meanwhile, Yuna was still watching the battle from his seat near the back.
"We're almost there - finish it off!" he exclaimed. "As long as we destroy the Minerva..."
Next to him, Todaka gritted his teeth, his fists clenched as he thought of the already catastrophic losses they had suffered.
Meanwhile, Lukas ordered the Alliance ships to close in and renew their attacks, seeing that the Minerva was nearly finished. The Archangel had been blocking the Orb fleet's movements, using its Valiant railguns and Gottfried beam cannons to cut them off whenever they tried coming in closer. However, the Orb ships attacked the ship directly in response, forcing the Archangel to back off.
Supplemented by Juri's Buster firing from the deck, the Aile Strike and Andrew Waltfeld's Murasame provided additional support fire, either damaging any enemy machines that closed in or forcing them to break off the attacks.
Still, his own ships were so positioned that the Archangel could not attack them directly - the Minerva stood in its way.
"All right. We'll move forward too." Todaka said as he saw the Alliance ships closing in.
-"But why?...Do we have to?" Yuna stammered.
-"We have to destroy the Minerva, right? Then let's go do it." Todaka replied evenly before turning back to his crew. "Engines to maximum!"
-"Sir, the enemy ships are closing in!" Bart reported.
-"Load Wolfram in one and two. Fire three and four." Arthur ordered, and immediately two torpedoes launched from the bow-mounted tubes, followed a few minutes later by two more.
The Alliance ships moved to evade, but the salvos still took out two of them, leaving the Jones with only two Frasier-class ships escorting it.
Lukas ordered the ships to halt their advance and counterattacked, but even as damaged as it was, the Minerva still outgunned them two-to-one, and it fired its remaining Tristans at the ships.
Shinn had jettisoned the Force Silhouette as the Sword Silhouette was launched. As the Force Silhouette Flyer headed back towards the ship, the Impulse's own systems locked onto the Sword Silhouette, which moved in and docked. For the second time the Impulse's VPS automatically adjusted to optimum settings for its current equipment, this time switching from blue to blood red.
Increasing thrust, Shinn threw the Impulse forward and landed atop the nearest Orb ship, an Aegis-class.
"TAKE THIS!" He yelled as he drew the twin Excalibur anti-ship swords and slammed them deep into the ship's hull, then withdrew them and with another attack hacked the blades across the ship's bridge. Then he leaped off, landing atop a Kuraomikami-class.
At that moment, two Murasames attacked from above. Blocking the strike with the Impulse's shield, Shinn stowed the Excaliburs and drew his beam rifle, which he fired at them. The two Murasames dodged the attack, but Shinn followed up immediately, firing a second salvo that neatly pierced the cockpits of both machines.
Meanwhile, Athrun was still dueling against Kira.
"The Earth Forces are the ones who set this up!" He said angrily as their sabers clashed again. "Are you saying you want them to destroy the Minerva? Because that's how it looks from here!"
-"You just don't get it!" Kira retorted.
-"Don't get what?" Athrun asked. "You say you don't want to fight, yet here you are!" He aimed another slash at the Freedom, which Kira parried.
-"I know what you're saying. But are you telling me that this battle, these terrible sacrifices, they can't be helped? If you're saying that, that these battles are somehow the fault of Orb and Cagalli, then you're attacking the very thing we're trying to save!"
-"I'm not saying this is Cagalli's fault, I'm saying it's yours!" Athrun yelled in response.
At that moment, an alarm bell rang in the Saviour's cockpit. Athrun glanced down at the console, but in that instant Kira turned on the Saviour and struck with both beam sabers.
As Athrun tried to parry, the first attack severed his machine's arms, taking with them both the back-mounted weapons units, and with a follow-up strike Kira cut the Saviour in two just below the waist.
An explosion tore through the Saviour's lower torso as the crippled machine began to fall, and it slammed into the surface of the water below.
-"Athrun!" Yzak yelled from the GOUF's cockpit as he saw the Saviour's destruction. Meanwhile on the Minerva, Abby likewise reported that the Saviour had been taken out.
-"The Saviour...destroyed." Arthur mumbled when he heard the news. This was bad, because it meant they only had four operational mobile suits still in combat, and there were still numerous enemy units to contend with.
-"Sir, the Orb Forces carrier is approaching." Bart reported. "12 o'clock, distance 2000. They're firing missiles!"
-"Evade and intercept them!" Arthur replied, and the ship's remaining CIWS moved into action at the same time as a volley of Dispars were launched to intercept the remaining missiles, even while the ship began to move.
The attack foiled, the Minerva counterattacked with the portside Tristan, a blow that struck the Takemikazuchi on her starboard side, significantly damaging the hull only a short distance above the waterline.
Meanwhile Shinn, having destroyed the Kuraomikami-class, leaped off its deck and landed atop the sole remaining escort ship, another Aegis-class.
Two Astrays moved in to attack the Impulse. Dodging their attacks, he leaped upwards and countered with the Excaliburs, splitting one of them in two.
The second Astray fired on the Impulse with its beam rifle, but Shinn blocked the shot and cut it in half as well.
Landing on the ship's stern deck, he slammed the Excaliburs deep into it and hacked it apart, then sliced open the back of its superstructure as it began to sink by the stern.
On the bridge of the Takemikazuchi, Colonel Todaka watched horrified as his ships were exterminated one by one, with the same relentless brutality that had annihilated four Earth Forces ships, including one carrier, outside Orb a little over six weeks earlier.
He knew what was next, as the Impulse landed on the Takemikazuchi's deck.
He knew he was looking at his own death, and was determined to save as many of his men as he could.
"All hands, abandon ship." He ordered. The ship's remaining mobile suits - a handful of Astrays and two Murasames - plus additional mobile suits from two escort ships that remained to the rear behind the carrier moved in to attack the Impulse.
At that moment, a communication came through to the bridge.
"Sir, it's from the homeland!" Said the radio operator.
-"Put it through." Todaka ordered, and the operator complied.
"NDC-01 Takemikazuchi, do you read?" The signal was faint and badly degraded, and there was a lot of interference. But Todaka recognized the voice he heard, and at last he saw a sliver of hope.
"Lady Cagalli!" He replied. "Takemikazuchi here, this is Todaka."
-"Colonel Todaka. I am ordering you to cease your attack and return to Orb immediately."
-"C...Cagalli!" Yuna replied, "How...wonderful to hear from you! I was so worried..."
-"SHUT UP!" Cagalli replied angrily. "You're lucky I don't have you arrested for treason, Yuna!" Cowed, Yuna did not reply as Cagalli again addressed Todaka. "I repeat. Colonel Todaka, you are hereby ordered to cease combat immediately!"
-"Yes, ma'am!"
Attacked by the Orb mobile suits, Shinn stowed the Excaliburs and switched to the beam rifle, gunning down one of them as it came near. Stowing the rifle, he moved forward, drawing both the Excaliburs and preparing to hack apart its bridge, when something shot upwards just past him. It took him a second to realize it was a signal flare.
Onboard the Minerva, Fafnir missiles had been loaded into the ship's bow tubes and Arthur had been about to give the order to fire on the Orb carrier, when they too saw the flare go up, and immediately recognized its significance.
-"Hold fire! Stand down one and two!" Arthur ordered. "That signal's a retreat flare! We will not be firing."
A moment later, they all heard a voice, which they realized was an open-channel broadcast from the Orb carrier, apparently by the ship's commanding officer.
"All Orb forces, this is Colonel Fumihiko Todaka. By direct instruction of our Chief Representative, I am hereby ordering all Orb forces to cease combat operations immediately and prepare to return to the homeland."
'I know that voice!' Shinn suddenly realized, and then he recognized the name, as a memory floated back to his mind. It had been the day of the attack, the day his parents were murdered.
"At least you made it out alive. That's something to be thankful for. And I'm sure that your family feels the same way...I think they are at peace, knowing that at least, you are safe."
He dimly remembered the words, but it was the man who had spoken them he recalled most distinctly. He had taken him in when he had no one left, and after a few months, had arranged for him to go, alone, to the PLANTs.
Major Fumihiko Todaka - Colonel Todaka, now.
He'd lived with him and his family in the Equatorial Union, before he decided to head to the PLANTs. He'd offered to adopt him.
And he had come within seconds of killing him.
Suddenly, it was over. There were no enemies, no battle. None of that mattered anymore.
He stowed his blades and opened a communication to the Orb ship. Then he removed his helmet.
"It's been almost four years, Shinn." Colonel Todaka said after a while, getting over the sudden surprise of the unexpected encounter as he recognized the young man he saw on the ship's communications screen, that sad, quiet boy from long ago. "I've often thought about you."
Shinn did not reply, so Todaka continued.
"So, you joined ZAFT?"
-"I did." He said. "I felt that it was the best thing for me to do...the PLANTs are my home now. And I decided that I wanted to fight, to make sure that what happened never happened again."
Todaka nodded. "It's good that you have something to protect." He said, and at his words Shinn thought not of the PLANTs, but of Stella.
And he knew at that instant that no matter what, he wanted to protect her. "There are things in this world that are worth protecting. Even if it means one has to fight for them. That is how I feel about Orb and its ideals."
-"I know." Shinn replied.
-"Hopefully we can meet again someday. Some place other than the battlefield." Todaka said.
-"I think I'd like that." Shinn replied. Then he cut the link and took off.
'I'm proud of you, kid.' Todaka thought and, ignoring Yuna as well as the surprised and confused stares of his crew, began to issue orders for the rescue of their men before they left.
Meanwhile on the Jones, Captain McCaffrey knew the battle was over. Without the Orb ships they were down to the Jones itself and one Frasier-class, and they had only one operational mobile suit left.
"I think it's time we retreat." He said, addressing O'Donnell. "This battle is over."
O'Donnell, furious, did not reply, and so McCaffrey took it upon himself to make the decision, and the two ships turned back.
Seeing the scene unfold, Kira returned to the Archangel, and soon enough they too were underway, disappearing underneath the waves.
As he left the Freedom's cockpit, he thought of Athrun's words, and regretted that he had had to fight against him again.
And the more he thought about it, the more something bothered him about the way the Saviour had gone down. He had aimed his attacks specifically so as to disable Athrun's machine with minimal damage to the main body - targeting the arms, the back-mounted weapons, and the legs.
The memory of that ZAKU he had shot down in their prior engagement floated back to his consciousness, and with it a sudden fear that he might have killed his erstwhile best friend. And doubt again insinuated itself into his mind as he wondered whether Athrun had been right. Had it really been his fault that all this had happened?
He thought of Lacus, and the memory of the murder steeled his resolve.
No, he thought. It had been Lacus's murder that had caused all this. And he was determined that whatever Athrun said, he would not trust the PLANTs.
If Athrun had chosen to side with them, then it was that decision that had led to this, had forced Kira to defeat him.
Still, he regretted it.
LHM-BB01 Minerva
When Shinn returned to the Minerva, the atmosphere was somber.
Lunamaria wounded, the ZAKU destroyed, the ship severely damaged. And worst of all, the Saviour had been destroyed by the Freedom, and Athrun was critically injured.
As he changed out of his flight suit and back into his uniform, he thought of what he had learned, and angrily slammed his locker shut.
'The Freedom again...first Rey, now Athrun. It's all down to that guy.' he thought. He was determined that he would not lose anyone to him again.
Taking a deep breath, he left the ready room, as the ship slowly got moving again, its ultimate destination unchanged.