Chapter 31
CE 74, January 25th, Heaven's Base, Iceland, Atlantic Federation
Morning 11 34
Ray's flight had remained relatively uneventful, insofar as being a prisoner being transferred was considered uneventful. Once they had touched down, the contingent had quickly guided him into one of the myriad of prison blocks underground. He barely had time to take in his surface surroundings; a massive airbase that could take in a squadron of large transports at once, capable of launching battalions of flight-capable MSes and fighter aircraft within short order. In the distance he had caught sight of a port tower, as well as a veritable fleet of assault ships and even one or two carriers. There were undoubtedly more escorting cruisers and destroyers somewhere else. Visible fixed defenses were everywhere he turned to look; CIWS, missile turrets, even a few beam cannon emplacements.
Down underground, despite the cells' clean appearance, their location meant that they were dependent on a ventilation system to keep the air breathable. That meant that any smell could transmit across the entire network of over two-hundred individual cells in short order. Ray sometimes caught something in the air that told a different story from his sterile surroundings.
That there were no carrying screams echoing throughout the hallways only tested his psyche further; it just meant that if his suspicions proved correct, then they had very well-built sound-proofed rooms for their deeds.
Despite that, however, weeks had passed and no one had come for him. They, however, had no intention for him to be doing anything either; when he tried to do sit-ups in his cell for want of anything better to do, the guard had come over to admonish him for it. The verbal exchange ended up with him bunched up on the cell floor, the stun anklet on his left ankle leaving him in agony for an hour.
Hunched and silent in a corner of the cell, Ray had spent his hours and days devising ways to attempt an escape. Most of them ended in dead ends.
He only hoped that Sheryl and Guy had fared better during the battle at Mannheim. No one had told him anything, but he had heard enough whispers during his incarceration there to know that most of the fighting Eurasian personnel stationed there had not made it out alive.
The sounds of the locking bolts in the cell door turning jolted Ray out of his thoughts. The heavy metal door slid open to reveal Geroda Rells, flanked by another OMNI officer, and four armed guards.
"Giving me a little sunshine walk?" Ray asked.
"If you want to feel the warmth that much, you can try this," Geroda replied, taking a small remote-control device out of his pocket. Ray's eyes narrowed; the next instance, sharp, stabbing pain shot through his left leg, and he went down on his left knee, teeth gritted. The shock anklet continued its work, the electric shock travelling the length of his leg, stripping it of any muscle strength it had. Through the pain, Ray kept his voice in; but his actions were only halfway his own as the pain forced him to curl up, forehead scraping the cold cell floor, as though he was grovelling at the group now watching his suffering.
"I'd make you lick my boots, traitor, but my schedule's a bit tight," Geroda replied. "Haul him to room three."
The guards filed in and lifted Ray from under his shoulders; with his left leg weakened to the point of incapacitation by the shock, the guards could only drag him across and out of the cell unceremoniously. Still recovering from the pain, Ray could only manage ragged breaths as they hauled him to another room.
Its interior was bare-bones except for two chairs and a device, it being little more than a movable stretcher attached to a stand with additional wires; the soldiers tossed Ray onto it, strapping his limbs in, before filing out of the room. The OMNI officer and Geroda remained as the heavy door behind them slammed shut.
The OMNI officer fished something from out of his pocket, holding it up towards Ray's face. "We sifted the wreckage of your Mobile Suit to find this," he said. "Explain its purpose."
Ray looked up, trying to keep his expression neutral as he fought to focus his vision. "What, never seen a portable data unit before?"
Ray's vision exploded into white as the embedded circuits in the straps holding him in activated, the shock forcing control of his body from him as he writhed from the pain. Nevertheless, he held on, his breath escaping from in-between his teeth in barely-controlled hisses, as Geroda dialed back the switch for the shock straps.
The OMNI officer leaned in closer, the venom in his voice unmistakable. "I'll repeat my question again. What is this?"
Sweat dripped onto the ground as Ray hung his head low from the combined stress of the shock and from resisting it, saliva escaping from a corner of his mouth. He took a deep breath, steadying his voice. "You don't really need my statement to know, do you?"
Geroda scowled as he thumbed the switch again, sending Ray into another bout of spasms. "I tire of this, Feric," he said, powering down the straps again. "You can make this easier on yourself by cooperating."
Ray coughed and gagged, drawing in another breath before speaking. "You... need neither my statement or cooperation to know what's inside," he said, before a bout of coughing cut him off for a moment. "Piss off."
The straps dug into Ray's body again as the electrical currents coursing through his body forced his muscles to strain themselves against their restraints. Ray's jaw snapped shut in an open grimace, and he felt the light slipping from his vision as the shocks continued, preventing him from drawing another breath. At length, the shocks stopped; fingers gripped his jaw and brought his blurry sight eye-to-eye with Geroda.
"Last chance," Geroda snarled.
Ray stared back at Geroda as best as his vision allowed; all he could see were intermediate patches of colours, tears of pain marring his vision. "You can have it back, you piece of shit," he managed, voice slurred.
Geroda's glare took on a murderous tone; he drew back; with as much strength as he could muster, backhanded Ray across his face, before activating the straps again. "FUCK YOU!" he hollered, the shout reverberating around the room amidst the creaking of the platform as Ray involuntarily strained against the straps from the electricity coursing into his body. "YOU PATCHWORK-LOVING DIPSHIT!"
A low grunt escaped Ray's lips as Geroda's blow and the intensified shocks momentarily proved too much for his psyche. In a way, however, the previous treatments had numbed his senses well enough; even as his body shook in violent spasms, Ray managed to keep his voice under control, jaw clenched, eyes shut.
The OMNI officer stepped up. "We have more than enough time to break him," he said. "We can save some of it for later."
Geroda shot Ray a look before deactivating the straps. "I'm aware of that!" He snapped.
The OMNI officer tapped his communications device; the four soldiers from before opened the doors of the room and filed in, undoing Ray's restraints and hauling him away. As they passed the OMNI officer, the man leaned in. "Your resistance will only make it harder on your squadron members."
To the officer's shock, though he hid it well, Ray chuckled. "No doubt your colleagues tell that to Kaguya too."
The officer maintained his poker face. "I'm not just talking about one person."
"Oh, I'm sure of who you're talking about," Ray replied. "You don't have them, or you'd have made sure all of us saw each other on that long flight to h-"
Ray's words dissolved into a fit of gagging as Geroda strode forward and sunk his fist into Ray's abdomen. "Take this bastard away," he said. "We're done here."
The two watched as Ray was hauled away. "Has he been through an interrogation before?" the OMNI officer asked.
"You should know his file," Geroda replied irritably. "He been through it all, he knows your tricks and twists. The only way to get anything out of him is to use him as a punching bag, because that method doesn't have a stopping point. You'll just have to beat him until he blabbers."
"Unless we can falsify evidence of the other two members of his squadron being in our hold?"
"With what?" Geroda snapped as he made for the door. "He knows how you can buy a hairclip, buy a photo frame, buy a trinket to hoodwink people. No, he's convinced himself that he's right until he sees them screaming from pain in front of his own two damned eyes. As I said, the only way to force him to capitulate is to beat it out of him. No, you better find someone to crack that data, it'll save you some time."
He stopped for a moment at the doorway. "And to hell with orders from high up. Don't bother calling me in again unless you want me to use him as a human sandbag."
CE 74, February 2nd, Block B Supercomplex, Heaven's Base, Iceland, Atlantic Federation
Afternoon 15 04
"How's the conductor plug looking, Jane?"
Sheryl Camelot lifted her head up, shifting her gaze from the beam rifle's internal workings to the technician currently peering over her shoulder.
"Burnt. I'll need replacements to get the rifle working again. Why the hell are they sending broken gear to a HQ base?"
Half a month had passed since the night where Sheryl and Guy had met their surprise ally. She only knew him as "Karl Hartner"; and Karl, in turn, knew Guy and Sheryl as "Rohn Iliston" and "Jane Vetna".
The three of them were united by circumstance; though it would have been easy for Karl to oust the two of them as spies and earn himself a better position, the spy, dressed as an OMNI security soldier, had reiterated that any attempt to draw attention away from himself would just compromise the overall situation and raise the base's alert levels.
Guy and Sheryl, with his help, had gotten new identities that night, as well as complete erasure of the fake credentials they had used to move around the base prior. For the next two weeks after, they worked the base as though they were normal personnel; Guy at Block D, and Sheryl at Block B, both as MS technicians.
The newfound freedom in movement had given both of them more time and available attention to look at the base's workings; for one, the facility known as Heaven's Base was massive, taking up almost the entire northern region of Iceland, with support facilities and towns further stretching across the island state. Built to replace the charred corpse of JOSH-A, work had started on it since the end of the Bloody Valentine War, and it was soon to see completion any day now; once ready, OMNI command at Geneva could move out from their old location that they had returned to after the JOSH-A debacle, and into Heaven's Base, more impregnable than either the Geneva Supercomplex or JOSH-A had been.
Every day entailed a massive movement in material; flights both outbound and inbound were plenty, although, for the past few days, less new gear made it into their manifest; instead, broken gear from the European front were arriving with alarming frequency. Through small talk with pilots awaiting refuel for their massive transports, or with technicians moving gear into the base to make space for new arrivals, Sheryl had more or less managed to make a picture out of the garbled bits of news about the new Earth-bound war front.
The Eurasian Federation, now declaring itself free of the World Security treaties, had evacuated its leadership from the Geneva Supercomplex to a locale in Siberia that she had never heard of prior. Despite their tenacity during the fighting after the attack on Berlin, the supernation had been split into half; one side held the Geneva Supercomplex as the tip of the spear, the other stood by its lines around the Eastern European states. Everything else was either Atlantic-controlled or under ZAFT's jurisdiction. Thankfully, the PLANTs and the Eurasian Federation were now nominal allies, and thus kept the Atlantic expansion into the Middle East in check.
Despite the influx of new information, Sheryl's minds constantly wandered back to the members of Mannheim Base. It was impossible to get any solid information on specific people out of hearsay, and suspense only made the need to know worse. Thankfully, keeping up the facade of a mere technician helped to keep her mind focused.
Sheryl's partnering technician's voice snapped her out of her reverie. "We're gonna have to wait, I guess. Parts were supposed to arrive yesterday, but seems like the flight has been diverted."
"Diverted? To where?"
"Let me see... Europe, it seems. Flight went to Dover Base instead."
Sheryl ruminated while her partner continued to sift through the checklists on his tablet. While official channels continued to paint the secession of the Eurasian Federation from the Atlantic-dominated OMNI as a betrayal, and the Atlantic Federation OMNI's interventions in the region as a success, Sheryl could tell even with just the load manifest that things had been going southwards ever since Guy and her had snuck onto Heaven's Base. That a load of spare parts were diverted to a "stable warfront" as reported by the news, and not to a critical base that was in the last legs of getting online, only further fueled her line of thought that the Atlantic Federation may be losing control.
If this kept up, they may be able to break Ray out of this place.
"... do now?" The technician asked.
Sheryl pretended to fumble with the beam rifle's internals before looking back at her assigned partner. "Sorry, could you say again?"
"I said, 'so what do we do now?'" The technician repeated, pointing to behind his back; ten beam rifles in varying states of abuse sat on holding racks. "There's probably going to be more tomorrow, if the load manifest I have here is correct."
Sheryl sighed, silently forming a prayer of appreciation to the technicians of the former-Manhunter Squadron, whose situations on the European front right now were unknown, as she got up from the ground. "Better go ask the tech chief on whether we can lay out the damaged components in them first then."
CE 74, February 6th, Block A Supercomplex, Heaven's Base, Iceland, Atlantic Federation
Evening 19 48
All the hustle and bustle from the evening crowd of Heaven's Base largest mess hall couldn't drown out the resounding snap of a plastic tray being unceremoniously dumped onto the table if it was nearby. Guy looked up as a glum Sheryl slid the tray across the long table, to where Guy was sitting, before settling down herself.
"The menu, it never improves," Sheryl lamented half-heartedly, as she dug into the instant potato mash that constituted part of tonight's dinner. Her expression of mild resignation quickly soured into active disgust when she scooped a clump into her mouth. "This is an insult to the potato scraps that went into making the instant powder! Do these losers even know how to cook?!"
Guy let a chuckle escape as he ate a portion of his own dinner. "At least the place is boisterous."
The mess hall in Block A of Heaven's Base was the largest in the entire base, since the segment was devoted to running the administrative and paperwork processes that kept the base moving. As a result, most personnel of Block A never left to eat in the mess halls of the other locations, and personnel from Blocks B and E often spilled over into A's mess hall during dinner hours.
It also made it easier for Guy and Sheryl to blend in, and the noise afford them plenty of protection against eavesdropping from a distance. Anyone wanting to hear them talk would have to be sitting in their corner.
Unfortunately for Sheryl, the food, regardless of which mess hall in which base block she escaped to, continued to be a capital crime even when compared to field rations.
"How can they stomach this?" Sheryl grumbled. She eyed the burnt layer of mash mixed in on her spoon, and grudgingly shovelled it all into her mouth. "Goodness, they can burn mash that's in the middle of the pot. I pity those waiting in line after me."
Guy made a face, fishing a chunk of beef out of his bland-tasting stew, its consistency highly reminiscent to that of the contents of a glue pot. His fork had barely managed to pierce it. "Any news from our friend?"
Sheryl shook her head slightly. "Not that I can see. The usual spots have been empty since three days ago."
On the night that Guy and Sheryl had met Karl, all three had agreed that some form of correspondence should be kept if they were to combine their efforts. Karl had designated a few locations in Blocks B through D that contained lockers; he had met up with them soon after that night and passed the two of them duplicated chip keys needed for the lockers. Guy and Sheryl took turns to discretely check inside them. Occasionally, additional passkeys had been placed in seemingly innocuous data units; others, verification chips. If need be, Guy and Sheryl could waltz in and out of locations and swap their identities within the hour. Sheryl and Guy both agreed, however, that it should be reserved as a last-ditch measure.
Sheryl stopped eating for a moment. "What are the odds that he's been caught?"
"I wouldn't say it's likely," Guy replied. "Alarms would have been raised otherwise."
Guy paused for a moment before continuing. "Unless he was caught today, then, maybe they're still busy prodding him in the right places to get him to spill the beans."
"Not much we can do about it either way, can we?" Sheryl mused.
"Not much unless it involves jacking a Mobile Suit and going to town on the place."
"Good old Plan B," Sheryl smiled. "Though, I have a feeling that we're going to need it anyways before this whole jig ends."
CE 74, February 12th, Block B Supercomplex, Heaven's Base, Iceland, Atlantic Federation
Morning 09 23
At the sound of her own name being called, Sheryl glanced up from her work on the latest of the beam rifles that needed mechanical checks. Linda Calis quickly strode over, waving as she did so.
Encounters with the unassuming pilot were rare but not non-existent; Sheryl had seen her again at the day after Guy and her had first met with Karl. Thankfully, the danger of having their plans exposed by the new pilot were low; Guy had recounted how he had met with the pilot days later, and managed to convince her that the names they gave on their first meeting were nicknames the two shared with each other.
"Morning!" Linda said. "We sure are getting an awful load of broken gear lately."
Probably includes your enthusiasm meter too, Sheryl mused silently. Outwardly, however, she gave the pilot a smile. "They seem to be shipping plenty of new stuff to the European front. Seems to be getting better, though, from what I've heard. What brings you here today, Lieutenant?"
"I've just been assigned a permanent machine," Linda replied. "The 295th are going to be using the units in this hangar."
In the hangar behind Sheryl were berthed twelve Windam Block 5s, with technicians swarming over a select few; the rest had been put together and verified fit for operations. Jet Striker packs were arranged on auto-load racks inside the hangar, waiting to be loaded onto the OMNI MSes.
The Windams, however, were the least of Sheryl's worries. Throughout the week, she had seen more sobering arrivals; just the other day, an assault carrier had arrived, offloading two battalions of amphibious Forbidden Vortex and transformable Raider Full Spec MSes, adding yet another force of units to the base's already significant numbers of Windams and Dagger Ls backed by Striker Pack-capable 105 Daggers.
When Guy and her had first snuck onto base, the MS forces had been comparatively sparse; now, the base was worryingly crowded, dwarfing even the gathered forces of OMNI she had seen during the assault on NEFA, or on her brief stay at the Geneva Supercomplex. That was not even taking into account the separately-counted naval and air forces the base hosted.
The loud roar of a Euclid Mobile Armor echoing over where Linda and Sheryl were reminded her of Heaven's Base's other occupants. As their hair whipped about from the blasts of wind from the Euclid's high-output turbofans, the mass-produced MA passed overhead, dropping in altitude once it reached open waters at Block B's service port. With a spray of sea water, the MA moved towards the horizon, no doubt to enact its patrolling route.
"That sure was showy," Linda remarked. "Not to mention, they said something big was just offloaded at the Block E docks. No solid word on what it is, though."
Sheryl glanced at the younger pilot. Although her voice was stable, her eyes betrayed the uneasiness she felt at the display of heavy-duty firepower that just passed them by. She may have been naive, but she was no idiot; the surge in firepower gathered in Heaven's Base had not only not abated in recent times, but instead increased further, even as the war situation in Europe continued. There was little doubt that those higher in command expected an attack at Heaven's Base in the near future.
"Well, this is going to be the new HQ of all OMNI forces soon enough," Sheryl said. "This level of armed presence should be expected for a major base."
Linda glanced at the older "technician". "Have you been to other bases?"
Sheryl gave a brief smile. "I joined only after the first war. The only major one I was at was Kaohsiung, and briefly at Geneva. Lots of mobile suits and stuff in both places, though, so that's half the experience."
The sound of someone else calling Linda's name caused her to look away. "Seems like the squadron leader is here," the younger pilot remarked. "Another time then, Jane."
"Take care," Sheryl replied, returning to the beam rifle she was working on. Inside her mind, however, her technician facade was maintained only as a front; her mind was awash anew in considering the obstacles and possibilities they now faced in extricating Ray... assuming he was even still in the base.
The level of firepower concentrated in Heaven's Base was also worrying to Sheryl. Mobile suits and conventional forces were one thing; second-generation mobile armors, however, were something unique to the ongoing war, and from what little Sheryl had known of them from reports before Mannheim were taken over, those MA, while lacking in close-combat manoeuvrability, more than made up for that in speed and firepower, being the primary means of pushing back ZAFT control of the Mediterranean area. If they were being deployed en masse at Heaven's Base, Sheryl could only think of a few reasons as to why; as a staging area for the devastation of Europe, or to defend against an overwhelming offensive from enemy forces by matching their firepower. No doubt the large cargo Linda mentioned was yet another model of MA.
A large battle was of course beneficial to distracting the base personnel long enough for Sheryl and Guy to break in and rescue Ray, but the possibility of getting caught in the destruction of Heaven's Base or getting shot by forces from both sides as they attempted to escape were as unappealing as attempting a rescue without a diversion.
To Sheryl, it was obvious enough that everything was moving towards one final conclusion. Even their contact, Karl, had shown signs of progress; in the days following Guy's and her own speculation on his situation, he had handed them a new set of passkeys for armories and to the MS hangars of Block C. The only question would be if the three of them could successfully carry out their prison break.
CE 74, February 15th, Heaven's Base, Iceland, Atlantic Federation
Time Unknown
To Ray Feric, most of the time spent in Heaven's Base passed in a blur of pain and unconsciousness. While Geroda Rells made true his word, and didn't turn up again, this didn't stop other OMNI and Blue Cosmos personnel from showing up to try their luck with him and the data unit. Each time, he managed to cling on to his pride and sanity, allowing him to maintain some semblance of clarity of mind.
It was this clarity that allowed him to process the gossip and small talk from his guards that filtered through the his cell doors. Apparently, not all was well; the base was becoming more armed by the day, and even those with no business caring about the strategic situation were becoming more worried.
His thoughts briefly drifted to Kaguya. Neither of them have had contact with each other since arriving on the base. Knowing Blue Cosmos, Kaguya would probably still be alive, although in what state, he dared not guess.
Ray pushed those thoughts out of his mind. So long as they kept coming back, this meant that they were yet to crack the code of the data unit. That fact alone, despite the length of time he had kept the data unit for, assured him that OMNI was still looking for data against ZAFT's weapons. That thought kept the steel in his mind as he drifted off to an uneasy sleep, with expectations of another interrogation echoing in his subconscious.
CE 74, February 16th, over Aegean Sea, Europe, Eurasian Federation
Night 21 16
The calm waters reflecting the moonlight surged violently as a DINN Recon slammed into the waves in a barely-controlled crash landing, broken pieces of its wings trailing its fall into the waters.
"...Mayday! Mayday! This is Recon Flight Alpha 17! Alert to all allied units; I've been shot down by unidentified forces! Unidentified forces are in the region and penetrating the First Defence Zone!"
Far up in the sky, a single ZAFT VoLPHAU, the Legacy Sight, banked through the clouds, the roar of its turbofan engines lost into the vastness of the night sky. The light of a full moon reflected off its hull, adding a shine to the dark-blue heavy airlift and combat transport vehicle.
"Signal confirmed. Recon unit is still alive. The Hurricane Blade will pick it up."
Alan Reidr, ZAFT MS pilot and squadron leader, ran the final checks on his unit. "What does the enemy look like?"
The reply came almost immediately from the VoLPHAU's information control liaison. "I have contacts from Alpha 19 and Alpha 21. One heavy, three light. Database checks show a Zamza-Zah and three Jet Windams approaching at high-speed NOE flight across the sea surface. They will cross the midpoint of the Aegean Sea in two minutes. Line command wants Raider Team to launch and intercept the unit. Teams Bombardier and Valiant will remain on standby."
"Roger. Preparing for launch." Alan replied. At this far out from Diocuia Base itself, there was little doubt that the enemy was aiming for a short skirmish on landbound ZAFT lookout posts. Still, there was no reason to let the OMNI forces pick them off needlessly.
The battle of Berlin had bled local ZAFT forces by a considerable amount. Although the Eurasian Federation had finally taken ZAFT's side in this continental tug-of-war, neither one of them could afford to commit to another large battle without first recouping their losses. For ZAFT, the destruction of most of their ground units, and the loss of two Compton-class land battleships, was enough to send them reeling for a good while. Alan was silent as he remembered Fernandz Kodor; the intelligence officer had been killed during the Berlin battle when the Destroy had hit the land battleship he was stationed on.
Only the combined threat of the EF and ZAFT kept the Atlantic Federation from rolling them both over. Until the next group of replacements could make landfall, ZAFT needed to keep its foothold; if it meant that even Deep Strike Corps pilots needed to pull duty as patrol units, then it had to be done.
Tonight, however, Alan and his unit were not just making rounds. Tonight, they were on the hunt.
"Raider 2, prepare your unit. It'll be just the two of us for now. The rest of you can remain on the transport. We'll call if we need help."
"Noted," Raider 2, Grace Sakerfield, replied.
"Looks like we're going to remain in standby for a little while longer," Larry Falke, Raider 4, said.
"Understood," Raider 5, Suzuki Amano said. "G... good hunting, commander."
"We'll keep the seats warm for you," Raider 3, Fredric Koherng said. "Don't hesitate to holler. They have some serious firepower down there."
The back doors of the Legacy Sight opened up, revealing a cloudy exterior that slowly gave way a clear view of the night skies. From within, two monoeyes flashed to life; Alan's GOUF Crusher and Grace's GOUF Ignited stepped out into the open air, freefalling for a moment before their MS's flight packs opened up. With a blast of flames, the two mobile suits streaked towards their targets far below.
Gravity and speed combined to quickly bring the two MSes into range; their intel had been solid, three Jet Windams and a Zamza-Zah. The heavy MA left waves behind as its thrusters propelled it towards land, and towards the ZAFT outposts stationed there.
"Raider Leader to all Raiders active," Alan said. "Engaging!"
No sooner had he said the words than Grace's acknowledgement lights flashed; the next instant, her GOUF Ignited streaked past, unhooking the beam polearm it carried from its rear clamp.
The lead Jet Windam never had time to respond to Grace's charge. The strike split the OMNI MS down its middle; body, Jet Striker, and all, as the GOUF Ignited sped past the group. A burst of seawater erupted as Grace fired her MS's thrusters, their combined backwash forming an indent in the liquid surface of the sea, preventing the waters from touching her unit. Alan's GOUF Crusher followed shortly after, the second Jet Windam being slammed into the sea from the heavy impact of his unit's iconic Spherical Breaker flail hammer, its shield as useful as paper in the face of Alan's killing strike.
The third Jet Windam manoeuvred away as the Zamza-Zah's heat claws unfolded, slashing at Alan's unit. The two ZAFT MS separated, their respective prey chasing them to their doom.
Grace's reply for the last Jet Windam was almost instantaneous; manoeuvring around the OMNI MS, rapid-fire beams from the GOUF Ignited's arm guns took the lightweight MS apart into a shower of charred and broken parts before its beam rifle could even fire. She turned her attention to the Zamza-Zah that chased her leader; position reflectors flashed to life as the GOUF Ignited's beam shots splashed harmlessly against the Zamza-Zah's shields, its monstrous form turning to face her.
The MA suddenly stopped short in midair; the next instant, it was sent careening towards the sea surface by a heavy strike to its left underside that had briefly lifted it upwards, weakening the surface effect its thrusters used to keep it above sea level. Alan had swung the GOUF Crusher's flail in a roundhouse strike to its unprotected underside, embedding the hammer flail deep into the belly of the beast.
The blow would have shattered any normal MS, but the Zamza-Zah was not an MA for nothing. Thrusters firing, the MA stopped itself from pitching forward into the sea, position reflectors still shimmering. Its rear limbs raised and fired multi-phase beam blasts through the waves; powerful beams split the night air in a scream of destructive power.
The shots struck nothing, however; both MSes had kept up with the MA's maneuvers. From directly underneath, thrusters blazing brightly, Grace's GOUF Ignited brought her beam polearm up in an uppercut strike, sending the Zamza-Zah's right rear limb spinning into the dark waters. At the same time, Alan's GOUF Crusher swung its flail hammer in an uppercut strike as well, the superdense weapon skimming water to slam into the left underside thruster, crumpling it into little more than a mound of jagged metal that stopped the engines from ejecting any thrust.
At this close, there was little the crippled Zamza-Zah could do to stop the two MSes from picking it apart. Beam swords unsheathed, both GOUF types tore huge gashes in the unprotected sides of the MA, while arm guns gouged holes into the exposed flanks and joints of its front limbs, the sheer volume of fire tearing them off from the main MA. Its beam guns fired ineffectually, the ZAFT MS more than agile enough to avoid its desperate shots.
Mortally wounded, the Zamza-Zah hit the sea surface and began sinking. Water churned violently as its thrusters fired from under the waves to bring its side cannons to bear on the ZAFT MS; the next moment, a gout of flame erupted from the dying MA as its overheating left engine exploded, casting a temporary orange glow onto the water surface. Its lights darkened, the monstrous machine sank underneath the waves, leaving only a column of dissipating smoke and a patch of bubbles on the sea surface that quickly stopped.
"Should have came in with a bigger screening force," Grace murmured. "What a waste of firepower for a simple night raid."
Alan kept his thoughts to himself. The dead of Berlin would be avenged one by one. He would welcome each and every display of bloodlust from the Atlantic OMNI troops.
"Raider Leader as Raiders active to Legacy Sight," Alan said. "Awaiting next orders."
Afterword:
Is this at least more grounded than letting someone run into a beam blade? I hope so. In any case, this is an in-between chapter for buildup purposes; there's a little bit for the impounded, the discreet, and the wounded, on what they're up to as all sides take stock after the chaos of Berlin and central Europe.