It is the most sophisticated weapon system in ZAFT's arsenal
Ahead of Juliette, Nare had disabled the torpedo tubes of another battleship and was now tearing great gouges along the side of it while Robbie flew cover, picking off Strike Daggers that looked like they were responding to the doubtless pittful pleas of the battleship's captain for some cover. The two young women finished their work on the ship by digging beamsabers into the hull just aft of the battleship's centrifugal deck and flying in opposite directions around the ship, carving fiery lines through the hull until the forward half of the Nelson-class simply snapped off and the rear half butted it aside as it continued forwards, guns still firing.
It can operate without detection
"Ladies," said the commandant, without rising. "Somehow it doesn't surprise me that you'd choose to leave this way." His lips thinned. "No, actually it does surprise me. I'd a strong expectation that you'd be walking out of the front gate as washouts. I also expect - strongly - that you'll find that your rather casual attitudes won't serve you or ZAFT well. However, perhaps you will surprise me again."
"We're good at surprising people," Robbie said brightly.
It can strike without warning
Her job done, Nare turned to join her wingmates in savaging the battleship, leaving the crippled Strike to Nicol. On the Archangel, fire erupted from the open linear catapults and the weapons tracked forwards, hoping to strike by chance one of the invisible mobile suits. The momentary switch of targets opened an avenue of approach and a shadow fell across the large bridge window. Inside, Nare could see the sudden panic as one of the crew dashed for the rear of the compartment, but it was already too late - one slash of the crimson beam saber opened the bridge up to space and she saw bodies exploding out of the broken hull as the Archangel's command deck vented. Many had been gruesomely savaged by her beam saber.
And all it takes to unleash it it's power
Melissa glanced in the direction that Kurz's GINN was pointing and blinked in disbelief. "Damn... looks like there's nobody at the helm."
The battlefield was briefly lit by fire as the Oppenheimer's beam cannon ripped through the reactor core of the other escort and set off a chain reaction that tore the Drake apart, but even that drama was overshadowed by the Drake that roared out of the main body of the Earth fleet, through the cloud of debris that the Oppenheimer had created and ploughed, prow first, into a startled battleship.
The Nelson-class ship, unsurprisingly, didn't handle the collison well as it was carved in two, taking its killer with it in a frenzy of mutual annihilation.
From anywhere in the Earth Sphere
The caverns of Ptolemaus were rocked by another explosion that shook even the ships cradled in the hangers.
"What was that?" Azreal demanded, clinging to his seat.
Natarle glanced at the schematic of the hangers being displayed on one of the overhead screens and a moment later another section went red as damage control reports were fed through from the control centre. "One of the missile stores," she advised. "Looks like one of the ones storing the nuclear weapons."
Is three simple words:
"Good morning, Angels," Nicol said cheerfully.
"You!?" all three girls exclaimed.
Amalfi's Angels
Low Orbit, Earth, February 15, CE 71
"The good news," Commander Rau Le Creuset advised his two remaining pilots, "Is that Yzak and Dearka went down over ZAFT controlled territory. I've notified Commander Waltfeld and he assures me that he will send a detachment to retrieve them from their landing zone."
"That's good news," agreed the shorter of the two red-clad pilots on the other side of the Commander's desk. With his slight build, Nicol Amalfi looked as if he still belonged in a classroom but instead he'd graduated near the top of his class at ZAFT's military academy.
"Indeed," Le Creuset agreed. "However, the bad news is that the Legged Ship has also escaped, and it would seem that that it has also landed in North Africa. Obviously, Vesalius is ill-equipped to follow."
Beside Nicol, Athrun Zala nodded his understanding. Relatively few spacecraft that could operate in the atmosphere and the Vesalius didn't even have a landing pod. The other ship under Le Cresuet's command, the Gamow, had had a re-entry pod but the ship had been destroyed ramming the flagship of the Eighth Fleet only two days before. "So what happens now, sir?" he asked.
"We've received new orders," the blond Commander advised. "Since the Vesalius can't continue the mission, she's to return to the Plants to join the Home Fleet. I'm also being recalled to plan a new operation, so the Le Creuset Team is being dissolved."
"I see," Athrun said quietly, looking at the floor. Despite the prestige of participating in the destruction of Earth's Eighth Fleet, to be recalled without defeating the elusive Legged Ship felt like a reprimand.
"Athrun, you will be taking over the pursuit of the Legged Ship," Le Creuset declared. "There's a supply drop to Gibraltar base in two days and you can take the Aegis with you. Once you are there, you should join Commander Waltfeld in putting a stop to that ship. Yzak and Dearka will be under your command and all our regional commanders have been ordered to cooperate. Congratulations on your first command."
Athrun saluted automatically, straightening up. "Thank you sir." He glanced sidelong at his companion. "Uh... And Nicol?"
Le Creuset smiled. "Sorry to deprive you, but Nicol will be returning to the PLANTs," he said. "I believe he is to be decorated for his part in the attack on Artemis and then receive a command of his own. You've quite the hero, Nicol. I expect you'll have to give a speech or two."
"A speech?" the boy exclaimed, face paling.
"How can it be worse than giving a concert?" asked Athrun wryly. "You drew quite an audience when I went to hear you."
"Yes, but there I can hide behind the piano," protested Nicol. "Besides, you fell asleep."
"I'm sure that you'll do well," Le Creuset said drily. "No one will expect you to do more than mouth some platitudes and look virtuous... and I doubt you've really had much chance to do anything unvirtuous yet."
The colour in Nicol's face reappeared, largely centred on his cheeks.
"In any event, I suggest that you make sure that you're packed, Athrun," the commander told the other boy. "There will be some paperwork to go through as well. Make sure that anything you need for the Aegis is requisitioned for the supply drop and make your best guess for the Buster and the Duel - mobile suit parts are one of the few things that the occupation forces don't have in abundance."
"For your part Nicol, you might want to put any thoughts you have about the Blitz and the other G-weapons into words before we get to the PLANTs - I imagine that there will be a lot of interest in their continued performance. Athrun got quite the grilling when we provided our first report."
Aprilus Two, Lagrange Point 5, March 8, CE 71
It felt strange to be out of uniform, Nicol noted. He'd only worn ZAFT's redcoat for a few months now, but nonetheless he felt out of place walking down a street on Aprilus Two in civilian garb. His parents had been happy to see him home safe, and with a week of leave before he reported to his new duties, but... but there was something different in their relationship and it was not something that he could define for himself.
There was a burst of noise from ahead of the young man and he looked up to see a light coming out of a door onto the darkened street. The noise was raucous and cheerful, a far cry from his bemused thoughts, and he realised that without direction his feet had taken him in the direction of the military academy. The businesses along this particular street mostly catered to the staff, students and employees of the Academy as well as the other military facilities in this part of the city, but most of them wouldn't be open quite so late in the day. Beisdes, the noise didn't seem right for a stationary store.
It wasn't until Nicol was closer that he realised that the door led into bar. That was one form of recreation that he'd never tried at the Academy, mostly because it was frowned on for students to be out that late and while no small number of his classmates had chosen to accept the occasional demerit as the price of night out, Nicol had felt restrained since any misconduct could reflect badly upon his father.
"Of course, I'm not a student anymore," he said out loud. He could hear a piano tinkling inside and it was a flub by the player that convinced him to take the plunge and step through the doorway into the bar. Inside was like another world.
The Academy was new, of course, since ZAFT had only existed as a military organisation for a few years and it had yet to lose an air of industrial starkness despite the best efforts of the hasty expansion to meet the needs of the war, and the streets around it reflected that. The inside of this building was much cozier however, with faux wood tables and bar, the stools and chairs padded with synthetic leather. Several dozen men and women, most less than a decade older that Nicol and no small number who might be younger were occupying the tables and the stools along the bar. The piano that he had heard was in the far corner of the room, not far from the bar with two young women leaning against it like bookends as a third put the ivories through their paces.
It wasn't much of a piano, admittedly, but Nicole almost flinched as the girl missed another note. She'd obviously noticed as well from the way her shoulders tensed and she sat back from the upright, throwing up her hands in annoyance. The young man barely noticed that he was walking closer as he heard her say: "It's no use, I haven't played anything for years."
"Never mind, Juliette," the shorter of the three girls, a blonde, said, passing a glass down to the piano player. "You did your best."
"'Your best'," the last girl growled in a voice that surprised Nicol until he realised that she was mimicking the gravelly voice of Instructor Stevens at the Academy, "'Doesn't count for anything'."
"Oh don't you start," Juliette sighed, slumping dramatically against the piano. "Didn't we come over the wall to get away from that for a few hours?"
"Shhh," hissed the blonde, looking around in case anyone had heard that.
Nicol choked down a laugh and pretended not to have heard the words as he walked closer. Obviously the three of them hadn't bothered to obtain permission from the teaching staff before leaving, which would be more than just a couple of demerits if they were caught, but if they weren't would let them stay well after the curfew. "May I?" he asked, gesturing towards the piano.
"Oh, sure," Juliette said, and blushed slightly as she stood up to let him use the piano stool. She was wearing glasses, which was relatively unusual for a coordinator. Probably she was farsighted, he thought. That was the most common cause among coordinators since shortsightedness was relatively easily corrected for prior to birth.
"Thank you," said Nicol out loud and sat down. He ran through a couple of chords to loosen up and then started play a bouncy little tune that he remembered being taught when he was still quite young. He'd mostly played classical music for the last few years, but that seemed a little too structured for the venue. Some old time rock and roll fit in seamlessly however and the blonde applauded when he'd finished.
"Calm down a little, Robbie," the third girl suggested in a tone that suggested she didn't really expect compliance. "You're pretty good," she added to Nicol. "Do you know any more like that?"
"Doesn't ring a bell," Nicol replied automatically. "But if you hum a few bars..."
"Very funny," she snorted, but her dark eyes were twinkling at the old line. "Play what you want then."
"You're so kind," grinned Nicol and did as lady had ordered.
"So do you come here often?" 'Robbie' asked when Nicol took a break from the piano. She'd brought him over a drink from the bar - on the house apparently, since the bar's manager seemed to be of the opinion that Nicol on the piano was good for business.
"No," Nicol said, shaking his head. "I must have been past this place a few dozen times but it's the first time I've come inside."
"Was that a double entendre?" Robbie asked, with a giggle.
Nicol shrugged and managed to keep from obviously blushing. "I don't think it would count as even a triple entendre... Robbie, isn't it?"
"Roberta Peaches," she admitted. "But Robbie is what everyone calls me unless I'm in trouble."
"And how often does that happen?" he asked, grinning slightly.
"Oh, not as often as it used to," Robbie assured him and paused.
Nicol raised an eyebrow. "You've gotten better at not getting caught?" he suggested.
"You know it," she assured him.
"This isn't fair," Juliette said teasingly. "You know Robbie's name but you haven't told us who you are. I'm Juliette, by the way."
Nicol grinned. "Nicol," he introduced himself. "And that would make you?" he asked the third girl.
"Nare Akai," she said drily. "And it's not that I begrudge you the time to drink, but I think you've got a fanbase behind us who want you to get back on the piano." She indicated the bar's patrons, now more numerous than when Nicol entered, who were all looking expectantly in his direction.
"I guess you have an audience," said Juliette, a teasing note in her voice.
Nicol frowned. "At least I've got a piano to hide behind this time," he sighed.
"Do you have to hide from audiences often?" asked Nare.
"No, well not often," Nicol confessed. "But I've got to give a... a lecture I suppose, tomorrow and I'm half afraid that I'll freeze up."
"Oh, oh!" Robbie said brightly.
"Through the door and down the stairs, Robbie," Juliette advised kindly.
"Not that!" the bubbly blonde declared. "I know what you should do, Nicol! Just imagine that all the audience are in their underwear. Then you won't freeze up."
"No, I'll be too relieved that they're fully dressed, I suppose," agreed Nicol.
Aprilus Two, Lagrange Point 5, March 9, CE 71
Nicol watched unobtrusively from the shadows of the street as the three girls headed back ot the Academy. It wasn't for any particularly noble reason - the PLANTs were not prone to street crime anywhere and certainly not this close to a military facility. However, he'd had a few beers and wanted to let them work through his system a little more before he went home. And possibly use some breath freshener - if his mother found out he'd been drinking there would be hell to pay, command rank in ZAFT or not.
He had to admit that a guilty part of himself found the view as the three girls walked was quite appealing as well.
From half-forgotten whispering by Dearka who'd snuck out of the Academy a couple of times for some reason that he hadn't been particularly curious about, he'd mostly expected that the girls would have some sort of device to confuse the lock on one of the Academy's side doors. Athrun had been persuaded to whip one up on some sort of pretense he thought.
It seemed that the girls didn't have a minor mechanical genius amongst them however, so what he actually saw was Nare and Robbie giving Juliette a leg up to catch hold of the wall. From there, she was able to reach down and with a degree of strain, help first one of them and then the other up to join her astride the perimeter. A moment later and they were gone, dropped out of sight inside the Academy grounds.
"Something to remember," Nicol noted out loud to himself. "Sometimes being sneaky doesn't involve a technological solution."
Then he headed off towards an all night mini-mart. He recalled wondering as a child why they always had breath mints and headache remedies on the minimum distance travel path from door to checkout and he was beginning to have a very good idea.
The Academy hadn't changed all that much. Not that it had been that long, Nicol realised to his surprise. He'd left only - he blinked as he checked the dates - not even six months ago? Good grief, it felt like years.
To be honest, it still looked like images of a stereotypical high school - several blocks of classrooms fronted the campus, separated from the outer wall by less than immaculate lawns framed by dozens of cherry trees. Of course, behind the classrooms were the dormitories and mobile suit hangers, with several layers of basements containing firing ranges, simulators and a dozen and one other functions that wouldn't belong in civilian education, but combined with the young age of the average cadets, Nicol could now - as an outsider - see why some of the older Coordinators found the Academy a trifle surreal.
Chief Instructor Harold Martingale was waiting for him halfway down the path from the gates, flanked by two of the junior instructors, neither of whom Nicol recognised from his cadet days. "It's good to see you again, Commander Amalfi," the man said, saluting.
"It's good to be back in the PLANTs again," Nicol admitted, returning the salute - which felt even more surreal than being back at the Academy: as a field Commander, he outranked everyone at the Academy except a few of the senior administration who weren't too involved in the day to day education of the cadets. "There was a time or two out there that I wasn't quite sure I would be back here."
"I heard you were involved in the fight against Eighth Fleet," one of the junior instructors said. "Hallburton was one of the Earther's best - it must have been quite a fight."
"That was just the cap to quite a hectic deployment, Ms...?" Nicol said, trailing off.
"Commander, allow me to introduce Instructors Alus Hardesty and Irene Mackenzie," Martingale said. "I believe you shared a class with Irene's brother."
Nicol stiffened, looking at the thus far silent woman. "You're Rusty's sister?"
She nodded, eyes conflicted. "I understand that you were on the same mission that he was lost on."
"Yes," Nicol agreed as they turned and walked towards the Academy front doors. "The Heliopolis operation. I don't know what's been declassified..."
Irene shrugged helplessly. "It's no secret that Orb was collaberating with OMNI on mobile suits and that the colony was destroyed in the fighting over it."
Nicol nodded. "The five of us - myself, Rusty and three others - were leading with a commando force infiltrating to secure the prototype mobile suits. We'd tricked them into moving several suits out of the factory and split into two forces. The force I was with hit the suits being moved and captured them all. Rusty's force went into the factory and only one person - the other pilot - made it out alive. From what he says, Rusty was killed storming the loading bay. The factory came apart during the fighting, so his body couldn't be recovered even before the colony came apart." He lengthened his stride slightly to reach the door before Irene and opened the door for her, holding it for Martingale, although Alus caught the door and gestured for Nicol to precede him.
"And you've been flying a captured suit ever since?" the man asked. "Must be weird - how good is it?"
Nicol grimaced. "Too good. The operating system was terrible to begin with, but it's basically a sound design so it can't be long before they fix that."
"Longer than it would have been if you hadn't taken the prototypes," Martingale pointed out. "And that got us a chance to reverse-engineer their advances for ourselves. To change the subject briefly, I understand that you'll be sharing some information on the prospects of Earth mobile suits turning up with the cadets?"
"Yes," agreed Nicol. "The Defence Minister approved a release of the general analysis and we did some brainstorming out on the Gamow about where the Earth Alliance was going with the designs."
"Right then," nodded the Chief in understanding. He gestured to the door that Nicol knew led to the main auditorium. "If you'll follow me inside, I'll introduce you and then the floor is all yours, Commander."
Nicol heard a muffled "Uh-oh" as he entered the room, following Martingale, and out of the corner of his eye he saw three familiar faces near front of the ranked students.
"What do you mean 'uh-oh'," whispered Nare, quietly enough that Nicol could barely hear her over the greetings being offered by Academy's instructors. There were two audible gulps as Juliette pointed him out. Robbie's face was somewhat flushed - perhaps at the memory of her advice to him last night. Probably she hadn't anticipated that she would be one of the audience that she't told him to envisage in their underwear.
"Please be seated," Martingale said from the podium. He looked down at the students. "We're very lucky to have here today, one of ZAFT's finest young officers. Commander Amalfi participated in the recent raid on Heliopolis and then planned and executed a successful attack upon the Earth Forces' Artemis Base, which was previously considered to be impregnable. Cadets, Commander Nicol Amalfi."
Much to his surprise, Nicol felt quite calm as the instructor ceded the lectern to him and the cadets applauded. "Thank you," he said quietly when the noise died down. "It's good to be back here at the Academy."
"I'm sure that you have all paid close attention to the progress of the war. For the last year, ever since the desruction of Junius Seven, the Earth Alliance has been placed on the defensive. Despite their superior numbers, our mobile suits have given us a significant advantage. However, that particular advantage has an expiry date which is going to have a significant impact upon how battles are fought. Mobile suits have proven themselves to be the decisive weapon on the modern battlefield and until now, the Earth Forces have only been able to deploy a handful of captured machines, piloted by co-ordinators who have thrown in with them."
"This has changed," he told the young faces looking up at him. Young? When had that happened? "The raid on Heliopolis captured four of the five advanced mobile suits that were built as prototypes for the Earth Forces. And one suit - the one we didn't capture unfortunately - had a sufficiently advanced operating system that a Natural was able to use it against us." He smiled faintly. "That was quite a surprise for all of us."
"What that means for you, along with all the other pilots in ZAFT, is that in the future we can expect to see the Earth Forces deploying their own mobile suits. And as fighting other mobile suits is not something that we have previously had to expect, things are going to be quite... interesting, for a while. Of course," he added, seeing some worried looks, "It'll take them a while to get used to using mobile suits themselves. So, what will the Earth Forces be deploying?"
"Well, it seems quite likely that they will model their mass-produced suits on the GAT-105 Strike. For one thing, it's the suit that they installed their newest operating system on and the one for which they will have the most combat data. For another, it's proven itself to be quite an effective design. Perhaps we should have a look." One of the instructors nodded and on the large screen behind and to one side of the lectern, an image of the Strike appeared, looming over Nicol. From the angle it took him a moment to put it into context. "Ah yes, this is from my flight recordings during the attack on Artemis. In the background you can see the 'Legged Ship' that we were chasing."
"The Strike itself is a relatively lightweight design compared to our GINNs, but that doesn't make it any less dangerous. In this configuration it carries an anti-shipping beam blade and a beam boomerang - the same weapons it used inside Heliopolis when it killed two GINNs in as many minutes. There are at least two other configurations, both of them sporting extremely powerful beam weaponry. Given that all the prototypes were lavishly equipped with beam weapons, it is likely that a mass-produced version of the Strike will carry a beam rifle at the very least."
"It's also very likely that the Earth Forces will adopt the mission-specific weapon packs used by the Strike - we're looking at doing the same on our next-generation mobile suits although nothing's past the drawing board yet. The Strike's configurations include a fire support version with a light positron cannon and a high mobility version that should be able to fly even under Earth's gravity. Obviously there are a number of other possibilities. Fortunately, it's unlikely that a mass-produced suit will use their phase-shift armor, which renders them essentially invulnerable to kinetic weapons, since the armor is relatively expensive, a severe drain on the energy battery and not significantly more effective against beam weapons than the layered armour on our own mobile suits."
ZAFT Military Station, Lagrange Point 5, March 13, CE 71
The Blitz was a grey statue in one of the mobile suit bays that Nicol had been directed to when he reported to ZAFT Military Station. The hanger containing the bays was located next to one of the large docks where ZAFT's fleet had been built and were now repaired. This particular dock contained a Laurasia-class frigate that looked almost exactly like the destroyed Gamow, and technical crews were opening up the hull to fit new systems whose purpose Nicol could not immediately determine.
"So you are Amalfi," came a sour voice from near the hanger door. "You look older in your press releases."
He turned to see a dark haired woman in the bright green of a technical face sat behind several banks of diagnostic computers. "Uh, yes, I'm Nicol Amalfi. Pleased to meet you."
"Yes, well your new toys aren't ready yet," she replied, looking back down at her instruments without giving her name. "You'll have to wait a bit before you can break them."
Nicol stared at her in disbelief but before he could say anything, a second female voice cut across the hanger. "Oh for god's sake Petra, don't take it out on random targets." The speaker was a motherly looking woman in her forties, wearing the same sort of coveralls as her colleague. "Welcome to Hanger Fifty-Two, Commander Amalfi," she said brightly. "I'm sorry, I meant to meet you at the gates but I got caught up in the paperwork."
"No harm done," Nicol replied and offered his hand, which the woman shook briskly.
"Doctor Rachel Logan," she introduced herself. "Just call me Ray though, everyone does. Too many doctorates and what-not around here to dwell on the things. Don't mind Petra," she added under her breath as she hustled Nicol away from the other engineer. "Her brother's ship was destroyed lately and she's... well, you've met her. Brilliant with armour-dynamics though, and she's even worse when she's not working."
Ray ushered Nicol into an office at the far end of the hanger, having led him past the skeletal structures of what where obviously mobile suits under construction. Inside, a redheaded staff officer was sitting across a cluttered desk from a lean, wild-haired man in civilian clothes. "Ah, Commander Amalfi," the officer said. "Pleased to meet you - it's not often that we get a war hero down at this less than glamourous corner of the station. I'm Janine O'Donnell, head of Project F2, which basically amounts to building the hardware for your team. I don't know how much headquarters told you?"
"Not a great deal," Nicol admitted.
She shrugged. "Then you might as well take a seat and I'll fill you in."
Nicol complied and looked at the civilian.
"Oh, sorry," Janine said, seeing the look. "This is Egon O'Donnell from the Martius University. He's consulting on the project. Anyway, as I'm guessing that you've already guessed, the Amalfi Team is very much a work in progress. The concept dates back to the original information that we received on the G-weapons after their capture and go ahead was given after your attack on Artemis. In short, your new team is to be built around the mirage colloid system. At the moment we're building three mobile suits based on the design information of the Blitz and modifying the Oppenheimer out there to use the system."
"An invisible frigate?" Nicol exclaimed.
"In principle, it's just a matter of increasing the scale," Egon said in a distracted voice. "The main snag is reconfiguring the field generators from holding the colloids around a bipedal variable to -"
"Egon," Janine said firmly.
"Sorry."
"Anyway," she continued. "The final organisation and the personnel are up to you, of course, subject to Headquarters signing off on them. The Oppenheimer has a skeleton crew at the moment. Captain Yui is slated for command but I don't believe that that's set in stone yet."
"Captain Yui?" Nicol asked. "Is that the same man who..."
"His son," Janine said. "Yui senior is back on Earth, if the grapevine is correct - but young Sousuke's not fallen far from the tree. Of course, given his parents..."
Nicol smiled. Hiro Yui and Souko Sagara had been legendary members of the Underground Railway, smuggling Coordinators away from Blue Cosmos for longer than Nicol had been alive, and it was no secret that both had been members of the East Asian Republic's special forces community before that. If Sousuke Yui was a tenth as good then he'd be an asset. "I'll have to meet him," he said thoughtfully, "But it sounds like I'd be a fool not to accept his help."
"I don't think you'll have any complaints," confided Janine. "Now then, how would you like to take a look at the mobile suits?"
It was hard to make out the details of the suits being constructed, as the outer carapaces of armour had not yet been fitted, but Nicol was familiar enough with the principles of mobile suits to realise that what he was looking at was going to be quite different from the Blitz once it was finished.
"You're not copying the Blitz then?" he asked, gesturing at the three endoskeletons that surrounded the major systems.
Ray shook her head. "No - we weren't sure that we could duplicate it without the orginal to work from and then we'd have needed to get the parts... we'd barely be started now and it would take months to finish them. The CGUE seems to have a reasonably compatible layout for the mirage colloid though and there's already a project to refit them to use energy weapons so we could steal most of the power system work from them."
"Plus no difficulty with parts I suppose," Nicol noted.
"Exactly. With eighty-odd percent of the suit already designed we're a fair way towards completing them," Ray agreed. "Of course, the things we haven't done yet are the fiddly bits so we're a month or two away from finishing them - the mirage colloid system, the weapons, the main thruster assembly and the armour are pretty much being designed from scratch - Petra's working on a laminate solution for the armour based on what we use for the GINN assault shrouds and some of the data you retreived from Heliopolis. It'll take a while to work out the bugs but that would be the last thing fitted anyway."
Nicol nodded. "Naturally. What do you have in mind for the weapons? The same as the Blitz?"
Ray shook her head. "The current plan is to use more or less the same machine cannon and blades as a CGUE. Do you think it would be better to copy from the Blitz?"
"No - but the CGUE set up isn't right either," the pilot declared firmly. "Machine cannon and unpowered blades just aren't going to be sufficient these days. The - what are they going to be called?"
"There isn't a name yet," Rays advised him. "They're just designated the model as the ZGMF-X1207."
"Hmm, appropriate," Nicol noted - the Blitz was officially the GAT-X207. "But anyway, given the limited time that Mirage Colloid can be maintained we're going to need a bit more firepower on these suits. And since deployments could be quite long, it'd make more sense to build them around beam weapons rather than expendable munitions - at least to limit the dependence on regular resupply." Her scratched his chin. "We could do with some delayed charges though - that sort of thing could be useful against ships and permanent installations. A larger version of the explosives used against Heliopolis would be best. That and a beam rifle/beam saber set up like the Duel has would probably be the most effective."
Ray frowned. "The Duel had... hmm, let me think. Two beamsabers stored in the shoulders and a handheld 57mm beam rifle. That would put quite a lot of stress on the power systems. Your Blitz had to use a 37mm rifle as I recall, what with powering the mirage colloid as well. Maybe something could be worked out. As for delayed charges, I don't think there's anything like that in use at the moment. Not on that scale. What would you want them to do?"
"Nothing too sophisticated," Nicol assured her. "Just a programmable delay on detonation and some method of securing them to a target. I suppose magnets wouldn't be very practical for the last one."
Ray chuckled. "No, I wouldn't recommend a magnetic solution. A chemical adhesive would probably be best. Off hand we could probably modify the round from a recoilless rifle - it would have the right sort of shaped charge." She paused. "Are you contemplating what I'm contemplating?"
Nicol blinked. "But where would we get a gallon of whipped cream and a hundred strawberries from?"
"N-" Ray paused and stared at him. "What?"
"Just kidding," he said. "What stroke of genius do you have in mind?"
"I'm half-tempted not to tell you," she huffed. "Strawberries and cream indeed!"
"I like strawberries and cream," Nicol said, brow furrowed in confusion. "And I'm a growing boy - food's something that distracts me a lot."
There was a pause as Ray went slightly red in the face. "Okay, I'm sorry. I overreacted. What I was thinking was -"
"That if you use a bazooka round as the basis then they could still be fired from a bazooka, so we could fit one to the Vipers?" Nicol asked innocently.
"Commander Amalfi, did your parents figure out how to have telepathy wired into your genes or something?"
"Uh... no."
"Then stop reading my mind!"
Aprilus Two, Lagrange Point 5, March 22, CE 71
The three girls watched from the sidelines of the Academy's parade ground as the other ex-cadets and their families mingled. The graduation ceremony was over and they had exchanged their academy uniforms for those ZAFT after parading for the onlookers, nine ranks of green with fore-and-aft caps behind the single rank of graduates whose double-breasted cadet uniforms were the red marking their status as the head of the class and automatically entitled to the coveted redcoat of an elite pilot.
"So your family couldn't make it?" Nare asked casually.
Robbie shook her head. "They're all busy. They sent their congratulations though. What about you Juliette?"
"I told them not to bother," the brunette admitted. "It's not like it's a big deal."
Neither mentioned Nare's family. Even before they'd grouped up at the bottom of the class, the word had gotten around that it was a sensitive topic.
"Want to check your orders?" Robbie said after a minute.
"Sure," Nare agreed. "But not here. Let's go down the street one last time."
They turned and walked towards, not the entrance to the Academy but to the sidegate that was more often used by students entering or leaving the campus with less than complete consent on the part of the administation. What they didn't expect to find was a grey-haired officer sitting on a bench next to the gate, hat beside him on the bench.
"Ladies," said Martingale, without rising. "Somehow it doesn't surprise me that you'd choose to leave this way." His lips thinned. "No, actually it does surprise me. I had a strong expectation that you'd be walking out of the front gate as washouts. I also expect - strongly - that you'll find that your rather casual attitudes won't serve you or ZAFT well. However, perhaps you will surprise me again."
"We're good at surprising people," Robbie said brightly.
"Indeed," the Chief conceded. "Just try not to get anyone else killed."
"Well that was nice of him," Juliette observed a trifle tartly as they walked into McGinty's bar, a man holding the door open for them.
"I thought so," Robbie agreed cheerily, looking around the bar. "Aw, Nicol's not here."
Nare rolled her eyes. "Robbie, the old man didn't say anything about not getting ourselves killed. And of course Commander Amalfi's not here - he was only on leave for a week and that was last month."
Juliette arched an eyebrow above the frame of her spectacles. "Were you keeping track?" she asked innocently.
"Ooh!" exclaimed Robbie. "Do you think she has a c-r-u-s-h on him?" she stage-whispered to Juliette, eyeing Nare suspiciously.
"Aren't you a bit old for a spelling bee?" Nare snorted. "Come on, let's get something to drink and then open our oh-so-mysterious assignments and see what we got dealt off the stacked deck."
Three pints of Fosters (the only brands available due to the war were those shipped in from Oceania) were obtained and the three of them claimed a table. "Me first," Robbie declared after a quick gulp from her glass. "Wish me luck!"
"Luck," Nare replied and eyed the envelope in front of her thoughtfully.
Robbie tore hers open and spilled out the slip of paper. "...report aboard the frigate Oppenheimer at Dock Fifty-Two, ZAFT Military Station. Oppenheimer?"
"Laurasia-class," Juliette said thoughtfully. "Disabled over Endymion if I recall correctly and returned to the PLANTs for repairs. No idea whose Team it's assigned to." She lifted her own envelope. "My turn." In contrast to Robbie, she used the corner of a beer coaster to tear open one end of the envelope and drew the orders out carefully. "My goodness. It would seem that I've also been assigned to the Oppenheimer." She and Robbie both eyed Nare speculatively.
The raven-haired pilot blinked and then took another sip of her beer, teasingly drawing out the tension before lifting the envelope and drawing a finger across the seam. She unfolded the orders and frowned at her friends, who were waiting with bated breath before giving one restrained nod.
"Yay!" Robbie cheered, diving across the table with a reckless disregard for the drinks on it (Nare and Juliette rescued them at the last minute, somewhat familar with their friend's habits) to hug Nare. "We're gonna be on the same ship!"
ZAFT Military Station, Lagrange Point 5, March 23, CE 71
"Is that the Oppenheimer?" Robbie asked brightly as she pointed at the looming green mass of a Laurasia-class frigate inside one of the Military Station's internal docks, large sections of the hull opened up for the technical crews that were working on it.
"Well it's the right dock," confirmed Juliette, looking at the unremarkable sign that designated the dock and the associated workshops and hanger as number Fifty-Two out of the sixty-odd such set-ups on the Military Station. Not all the docks were used for warhsips of course - the trio had seen a number of freighters and even land battleships in various docks, the latter disgorging parts, fuel and munitions into warehouses and the former being assembled in parts that could then be shipped down to Earth to play a part in the ground campaigns raging through Africa and southern Asia.
"I guess it must be the Oppenheimer then," Nare concluded. "I can't see any damage though, they must be closing it up again. Funny that they're assigning pilots to her now though. I'd have thought that a crew wouldn't be assigned until the ship was ready to launch."
"Maybe it's readier than it looks?"
"Maybe we could just go inside and find out?" Juliette pointed out. "Do you think the commander will be aboard?"
Robbie stepped across the threshold of the docking section and looked around before pointing to the far end where several offices were obviously occupied. "We could ask there," she suggested.
Despite the activity on the ship no one intercepted the three young women as they crossed the docks. Having been challenged and then cleared by the guards outside the dock, there was no other obvious security.
"Good morning, Angels," Nicol said cheerfully.
"You!?" all three girls exclaimed.
Chapter Two
Seventy-five millimeter autocannon raked at the approach angles of the Archangel as the large white ship writhed under the lethal stings of the mobile suits that harried it persistantly. They had come out of nowhere, two black and grey-painted units with beam rifles that were striking not at the thick laminate armour but at breaks in the protection where they could more easily cause damage.
The Archangel's crew reacted swiftly however and in less than a minute one of the two linear catapults opened up to release the Strike. The mobile suit's matte grey armour lit up in blue and white and red as it launched. The attackers quickly flew towards the rear of the Archangel, sheltering behind its bulk from the G-weapon that would have to overcome the inertia imposed by the catapult before it could chase them. Out of sight of their prey, the two suits activated mirage colloid and faded from view.
Fortunately for the Strike's pilot, he had launched carrying the Aile strike pack, with the extra thrusters that would let it come around quickly. Spinning, the mobile suit opened up the throttle wide - and then the striker pack exploded as a beam rifle fired into it at point blank range, sending the Strike tumbling, momentarily out of control. The pilot compensated quickly and ejected the ruined strike pack, coming around with his own beam rifle... but there was no target to shoot back at. He jerked the suit aside suddenly and a second beam shot from his right, barely missing the Strike. Two shots of return fire sizzled through space but neither impacted on anything.
The faintest trace of motion from above and he instinctively raised the anti-beam shield to ward off the bar of red energy that slashed down at him, the beam saber's blade slashing a corner off the tough shield. Hastily, the Strike snatched one of its armor schneiders and threw the short blade at the source of the beam saber. The weapon glanced off something invisible and the beam rifle immediately came up to fire on the same trajectory. Before it could fire, however, something wrenched the weapon away, leaving the Strike all but unarmed, its shield well out of place to block a shot coming from behind and below, a blind spot for most craft and the Strike lurched suddenly as a beam rifle's shot blasted through one hip, leaving the leg frozen and useless.
Her job done, Nare turned to join her wingmates in savaging the battleship, leaving the crippled Strike to Nicol. On the Archangel, fire erupted from the open linear catapults and the weapons tracked forwards, hoping to strike by chance one of the invisible mobile suits. The momentary switch of targets opened an avenue of approach and a shadow fell across the large bridge window. Inside, Nare could see the sudden panic as one of the crew dashed for the rear of the compartment, but it was already too late - one slash of the crimson beam saber opened the bridge up to space and she saw bodies exploding out of the broken hull as the Archangel's command deck vented. Many had been gruesomely savaged by her beam saber.
Another explosion from further aft and she saw the radar arrays come apart under three shots from one of the other Vipers. Blind and rudderless, the Archangel could only maintain its course, leaving it predictable and vulnerable to the invisible mobile suits. Of course that invisibility was a mixed blessing, Nare remembered - the first time they'd been out in the Vipers there had been three collisions and one utterly embarassing moment when the leg of Juliette's suit had been severed by her shots.
This was different and the attack was being carried out according to a flexible and hopefully efficient plan that divided the target vessel into sectors and had each mobile suit attacking different sectors in an uneven sequence. Nare's next target took her down the side of the bridge tower and out to one of the midship railguns while the other Viper, belonging to Robbie, moved back to the engines. She waited - only two or three suits ever attacked at one time, keeping the actual number of mobile suits hidden from the enemy. A moment later, one of the engines exploded and the Archangel started to veer to one side as its thrust was left uneven.
Nare darted down and cut through the barrel of the railgun, jetting back in surprise as the housing exploded. "The capacitor must have been charged," she muttered out loud. No one could hear her, of course, as missions were carried out under radio silence when the mirage colloid was active or there would be no point in using the stealth systems.
The added distance served her well however, as the ship in front of her suddenly broke in two. It took her a moment to realise that the cause was a series of explosions along the midsection of the ship - shaped charges left by Juliette who seemed to have a natural bent for demolitions. The rear of the ship was still trying to fight when the flaming wreckage of the forward hull, slowing as it spun, ploughed into it. Without hesitation, Nare turned the Viper away from the mass of broken metal and opened her throttles, driving away before the fusion reactor that was the heart of the Archangel overloaded...
Which it did, scattering wreckage in an expanding cloud that would doubtless settle towards the debris belt.
ZAFT Military Station, Lagrange Point 5, April 3, CE 71
The displays blanked suddenly and Nare started before realising that the simulation was over. Nicol wasn't averse to simulating landings, but equally, he didn't feel that it was immensely productive to simulate a long and slow flight back to the Oppenheimer so only about a third of the simulations lasted that long. Those that did usually featured the nasty navigational problems inherent in trying to locate an invisible base ship.
When she opened the hatch of her still incomplete Viper, Nicol was already on the gantry, watching the three of them leave the cockpits. "Well now," he said pleasently. "That didn't go too badly, did it?"
"We brought down the Archangel!" Robbie cheered. "We rule!"
"Yes, very good," Nicol said and then grinned. "So next time, we'll be up against the Archangel with the crew operating at their actual efficiency, not fifty percent, and with Mu la Flaga added to the tactical mix. And having flown against the Hawk of Endymion, I can assure you that he's every bit as good as his reputation."
Nare paled at the realisation that the simulation they'd spent the last three days on, which had been harder than the previous simulations that put them against a Nelson-class battleship and three escorting Drake-class cruisers, hadn't even been going all out. "Only at hal-" she said, standing upright a moment before she actually should have and smacking her head, fortunately helmeted, against the hatch.
Nicol stepped forwards quickly and caught hold of Nare before she could fall and she found herself leaning against the slightly shorter boy. She felt her cheeks warm and was grateful for the helmet to hide her face.
ZAFT Military Station, Lagrange Point 5, April 22, CE 71
"How do the controls feel?" Nicol asked from the control room of the mobile suit hanger.
"It's a little off from the simulations," Robbie replied as her new mobile suit halted on the hanger floor - only two steps outside the bay where it had been constructed. "A bit smoother."
Petra nodded. "Not too surprising. We'll have to keep finetuning the simulations now that we have some more actual data." She glanced up at the towering suit. "See if you can get it moving again, the truck isn't going to be here all day."
Nicol rolled his eyes at the abrasive woman's tone but waved for Robbie to follow the instructions. Ahead of the Viper, Nare and Juliette (who had drawn the two long straws when the three of them had decided who would get the honour of piloting the first operational Viper) waved marshal's batons to guide their comrade towards the door and the waiting Mobile Suit transport.
Robbie managed to line the suit up correctly but it took her a long moment to step back until the transport's elevator mechanism took its weight and slowly lowered the seventy-odd-tonne warmachine into a reclining position. A second transport was still inside the hanger, being loaded with the Viper's weapons. For security reasons, weapons would be carried separately from the suit - it would be bad enough if someone managed to do to ZAFT what they had done to Morgenroete and hijack the Viper, there was no reason to risk letting any such hijacker take an armed Viper.
(Incomplete)
Ptolemaeus Crater, Luna, May 21, CE 71
Nicol held his breath as the spacesuited Earth Forces soldiers came within a few metres of the Blitz's foot. Fortunately Juliette had noticed the incoming buggy in time for the four mobile suits to activate their mirage colloids and hunker down. Unfortunately, the spot that they'd chosen to halt in must have been known to the Earth Forces for the same reason that had drawn Nicol to it - the fact that it was a natural gap in the moon base's sensor network. Remote plattforms dotted the area to minimise the vulnerablility, but their lesser capability still left a few blind spots and the squad of soldiers had dismounted to check this one.
There was a sigh of relief from Juliette as the men, presumably satisfied that they hadn't detected any intruders with their 'Mark I Eyeballs', moved away rather than carrying out a physical sweep of the crevasse that cut through the crater rim. Nicol waited until the buggy had was moving before he said anything.
"Nare, Juliette. Carry out a perimeter check for any new sensors, please. This is probably as good a place as any for us to take a break." The suits were daisy-chained together with fiber-optic cable, so there wasn't even the minimal leakage of a tight-beam laser-comm to betray the presence of the Amalfi Team.
"You want to camp out here?" Nare asked incredulously. "But that patrol almost caught us!"
Nicol chuckled. "That's true, Nare. But they didn't find us. And unless they patrol an awful lot more often than our information suggests, it will be several hours before the next patrol arrives which makes this safer than anywhere that a patrol hasn't reached yet. Better yet, there are a couple of spots where we can lay out the solar collectors to recharge our batteries."
Nare shrugged and then her image vanished from Nicol's screen as she detached from the fiberoptic to carry out the search. A moment later, Juliette followed suit, leaving him with only Robbie for company.
Ptolemaeus Crater, Luna, May 22, CE 71
In theory, Ptolemaus Base was a sealed environment. While the vast man-made caverns were never intended to be pressurised, as a matter of security they were not supposed to have unsecured accesses and all entrances were kept under comprehensive survelliance.
That was just fine by Nicol - the Earth Alliance's reluctance to tell one hand what the other was doing was not only in effect between the various member-states and the available evidence strongly suggested that even if Ptolemaus had been advised of mirage colloid technology, they weren't set up to detect it. Unless, of course, they were set up to detect mirage colloid, in which case the Amalfi Team was walking into a trap.
Some risks needed to be taken, Nicol had learnt at the Academy. What they hadn't mentioned was that someone always had to be responsible for taking the risk and on this occasion that person seemed to be him.
(Incomplete)
Mendel Colony, Lagrange Point 4, July 19, CE 71
Mendel Colony didn't look as if it was serving as the headquarters of a desperate band of political dissidents... it just looked sad and abandoned to Nicol as the Oppenheimer approached it.
"How's the Mirage Colloid holding up?" he asked Sousuke Yuy, who was sitting next to him at the centre of the bridge. Both of them were wearing black and greys, which suited the brunette captain rather more than it did Nicol.
"Below optimal levels," replied Yuy. "if you plan any extended uses then I'd like a couple of days to have it looked at first."
Nicol nodded. "I think we can manage that. Mao called the coin correctly to decide who would cross-train first so she and I will carry out a quick and dirty survey and then we can pull back and give the crew some time to prepare. We'll need some time to plan this out anyway and I'd like the rest of the pilots rested after our last few operations."
"Understood sir." Yuy gestured towards the tactical table at the back of the bridge. "Would you like to review the approaches?"
Nicol frowned slightly as he nodded. There was something about the captain's tone of voice that didn't seem quite right. At the tactical table, Yuy leaned over and asked quietly: "Sir, is there some reason that we aren't planning a strike mission into Mendel Colony? The Clyne Faction -"
"The Clyne faction is political," Nicol cut him off. "Having the military picking sides in a political matter is not something that fills me with enthusiasm. You probably know more about history than I do, Captain..."
Yuy hesitated and nodded. "Sir, I'm not saying this because I disagree... but given how heavily armed the Clyne Faction apparently are, is it really only a political matter? Even if they aren't on Earth's side, they've deprived ZAFT of some of our best weapons."
"Weapons don't matter as much as the hands that wield them," Nicol insisted. "I've known Athrun and Lacus for years and they wouldn't do this lightly. Whatever they're involved in, it's big and I don't have any intention of blundering in without a little more information. Besides," he winced. "We've already run some simulations of attacking the Archangel, back when it was only defended by the Strike and a Mobius Zero, and I used those and Athrun's piloting records to program a simulated strike on Mendel with the Freedom and the Justice defending them..."
Yuy gave him a surprised look. "That bad?"
"They're on an whole new level," Nicol confirmed. "And since it was Chairman Clyne who authorised the development of our equipment I presume that his daughter has at least some knowledge of our capabilities - for that matter, the recent publicity has revealed more than I like about us."
Incomplete
Low Orbit, Earth, August 7, CE 71
While the task force was by no means offguard while they loaded the drop-pods, it would be fair to say that the demands of co-ordinating scores of mobile suits was putting a strain on their ability to control the space around them - and the movement of those suits above the drop-pods added another layer of protection to Team Amalfi's defense against the powerful shipboard sensors. The four mobile suits ghosted along the underside of the pods, and where they had passed, a careful eye would have detected small cylinders attached to the underside of the drop-pods.
It's a shame we don't have more charges, Nicol mused as the slight movement of the pod alerted him to the arrival inside the pod of another Strike Dagger, the vibrations masking the sound of his last charge being pressed against the ceramics of the re-entry shield and chemical adhesives bonding the two securely. The Atlantic Federation's really pulled out the stops - there must be fifty drop-pods and at three suits per pod that would be a full division that they're dropping. But then again, we can't exactly go get more charges from the Oppenheimer - that would just be pushing out luck and anyway, it looks like they'll be starting the drop soon.
In fact, the number of suits moving above him was almost nil so unless the Earth Forces officer was planning to keep his pilots sitting in drop pods for a while there was no time for more theorising and the green-haired commander opened up his thrusters to take up one of the cardinal points around the drop-pods. It really wouldn't do to be under them once they started down.
Nicol waited until the drop pods started to move before he acted. The charges that his team carried weren't really enough to destroy the mobile suits in the pods when they had the thick layer of re-entry shield between them. That was alright though - the charges weren't expected to do the job alone, which was why he reserved his signal - firing his beam rifle into one of the Strike Daggers still escorting the Earth ships - until the drop-pods reached the point of no return.
More than fifty miles away, Sousuke Yuy responded to the explosion of the mobile suit by dropping the Oppenheimer's mirage colloid and activating the frigate's N-Jammer. Loud and proud, the ship closed in on its larger and more numerous prey as first Kurz and then Melissa launched their GINN's from the ship's linear catapult.
"Sir!" shouted the radar operator on the bridge of the battleship Spurance. "ZAFT warship on our port flank - range fifty miles and closing. We're experiencing N-Jammer interference!"
"Hawke reports the loss of one of its mobile suits," added the flight boss from the other side of the compartment. "Cause unknown - it just blew up!"
Commodore Ethan Waldeck scowled heavily and reached for the visor of his vaccum suit. "Order all ships to launch mobile arm- launch mobile suits," he corrected himself. "Captain Antonov is to redeploy his escorts to screen the rest of the task force." He snapped the visor closed with a firm gesture and the rest of the bridge crew followed suit. He'd heard that ZAFT crews didn't bother with such safety measures, which surprised him - did they think they could breathe the vaccum if their compartments were breached?
"Commodore!" the radar operator exclaimed. "There's something wrong with the drop-pods!"
'Something wrong' wasn't really an adequate term. The activation of the Oppenheimer's N-Jammer had been what the triggers on forty shaped charges had been waiting for and they had obediently blasted gaping holes in the drop-pods' heat shields. While not all were affected, those that were quickly discovered that with the suddenly uneven air resistance they were verring off course... and that with the heat shields pierced, internal temperatures were rising rapidly. Two completely undamaged pods lost that status when their neighbours slammed into them, sending them spinning off at steep angles.
A handful of the pilots thought quickly enough to break open the pods and try to return to orbit using their own thrusters, but only a few managed to do so before the pods passed the point of no return and the departure of one suit from a pod only left it even more off balance, ensuring that there was virtually no hope for their fellows. Even this cowardice didn't save those few who managed to stabilise their orbit however... Juliette had been detailed to handle just that contingency and she was waiting for them, an invisible executioner.
With the mobile suit drop crippled and the Oppenheimer drawing the bulk of the attention, the rest of the Amalfi Team sliced through the Earth Forces' defenses with the same lethal precision that they had honed while intercepting the convoys between Earth and Luna. Nicol picked off two more mobile suits as he closed in on a Drake-class escort and then ignited his beam saber as he skimmed along the ship's keel, carving a scar over a hundred metres long and three metres deep into the ship, laming it in a single pass. Robbie and Nare used their same old bait and switch, double-teaming a battleship as the escort ships hesitated between deploying to face the Oppenheimer or dealing with this invisible threat.
Unfortunately for the Earth ships, with the escorts splitting their attention between two threats, the first reaction force that sent against the Oppenheimer was the handful of Mobile Armors still part of the fleet. The only reason that they were even with the ships was because there hadn't been enough mobile suits to fill the drop-pods and the hangers on all the warships and the first squadron received ample reminder of why they had all volunteered to transfer over to the mobile suit corps. Melissa was amongst them almost before they'd realised that a mobile suit was waiting for them and armor-piercing shells ripped through the leading pair with lethal effect. Kurz, for his part, punched straight through their formation and then unleashed all six of the missiles racked on his GINN's legs into the nearest of the three freighters that had hauled the drop-pods out into orbit.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" he asked the second squadron of armors as they closed in on him, completely ignoring the missiles. "Aren't you going to protect the freighter?" They didn't reply, probably because he wasn't even transmitting on an open frequency and he evaded the streams of cannon fire that they directed at him before firing back with the missiles on his suit's forearms, smashing two mobile armors in an instant. The explosions were utterly overshadowed by the death of the freighter, which hadn't the least chance of surviving six hits from missiles intended to pierce the armor of a dedicated warship.
"Stop talking and get to work," Mao snapped as she swooped down behind one of the four surviving mobile armors, having apparently finished off the first squadron all by herself.
"Commander," exclaimed Colin Iblis. "The Earther's drop-pods... I don't know what's happening but they're going down out of control and there's a Laurasia-class ship out there, trying to take on their entire fleet."
"I see." Victor Telchine muttered, watching the destruction spread through the Earth formations. "Well, Headquarters said that we should wait until this enigmatic Team Amalfi, whoever they are, started the party. And it would seem that our invitation has just arrived." He stood up and lifted his helmet off the table in front of him. "Very well, Captain. All ships are to launch mobile suits and follow us in."
On the screen, Colin saluted and then his image winked off. Victor barely noticed as he stalked out of the pilot's ready room, his black flightsuit followed by the green suits of the other pilots.
"So much for the orbital drop," Waldeck growled. "Have the freighters make a run for it. Detail the Themistocles to cover them, all other ships to take up pattern Delta and on an axis towards that frigate. We're going to make them pay, by god."
"One frigate," Spurance's captain said and shook his head. "They must be crazy to attack with such a small force."
Waldeck grunted unhappily. "They've accomplished their goal, captain, so I'd say that they've deployed sufficient forces to carry out the mission. The question is, do they have sufficient forces to survive it?"
"More ZAFT ships approaching," the radar operator half-shouted. "Two, no - three Nazca-class ships launching mobile suits. Approaching from above."
The captain paled. "We still outnumber them," he offered but his reassurance seemed weak even to him.
"We do indeed," Waldeck said, calculating his tactics. "And they've split their forces. We'll focus on that damn frigate first, finish it off before they reach us and then smash these johnny-come-latelies as well."
With the last of the mobile suits from the drop accounted for, Juliette headed for the main battle. The plan as laid out had been to hit the pods and then cut through the Alliance formations, spreading havoc and disorder as a preliminary to the attack by the Telchine Team. Since she was lagging behind the others, it wasn't likely that she'd have them inside her sights but there was no point taking chances. Skimming along the side of a Nelson-class she raised her Viper's beam cannon and put a shot into the back of a Strike Dagger that was looking in the wrong direction. The other three Strike Daggers in the group automatically turned and fired in her direction, smashing a pair of the battleships's CIWS turrets as she jetted away from the ship and then darted in again to slash through the twin barrels of a beam cannon turret.
Ahead of Juliette, Nare had disabled the torpedo tubes of another battleship and was now tearing great gouges along the side of it while Robbie flew cover, picking off Strike Daggers that looked like they were responding to the doubtless pitiful pleas of the battleship's captain for some cover. The two young women finished their work on the ship by digging beamsabers into the hull just aft of the battleship's centrifugal deck and flying in opposite directions around the ship, carving fiery lines through the hull until the forward half of the Nelson-class simply snapped off and the rear half butted it aside as it continued forwards, guns still firing.
Satisfied, Robbie went on ahead to pick out another target while Nare paused to eviscerate a Strike Dagger that came too close and then put two shots from her beam rifle into the rear of the half-ship that they'd cut in two, leaving it crippled before she went after Robbie, who was coming up behind Nicol as he tore through the bridge of an escort.
It was nothing more than bad luck, Nicol would be told later. The escort hadn't even been targetting Robbie - it was trying to predict Nare's moves when it blindfired a volley of missiles into what looked like empty space and three warheads smashed into the rear of Robbie's Viper while her attention was on the next ship over. The first explosion tore apart the mobile suit's aft thrusters, the next hit lower and tore through the armour over one hip. The hits had caused the Viper to turn slightly and the last missile tore into the right shoulder joint from below.
"Robbie!" Nare shouted - uselessly as she was seperated from her friend by a quarter mile of vaccuum and the dictates of silent running. The Viper's mirage colloid collapsed and as it wavered into view no less than five ships and a dozen mobile suits took their chance to take revenge for the devestation that Amalfi's Ghosts had been inflicting upon them. There was a kick of thrusters from the Viper as Robbie evaded the incoming beam fire and then, as two Strike Daggers closed in with beam sabers ignited, Robbie closed in on one, grappling the lighter suit and driving them both against one of the Earth battleships' hanger doors.
The doors crumpled and both suits vanished inside, the side of the ship exploding into fire as volatile munitions and power cells inside the hanger detonated.
Within the Blitz's Nicol's horrified eyes widened... and a violet seed burst behind them...
"We got one!" the Spurance's flight boss crowed. Then his face paled as he listened to the report on his headset. "Dear god, the crazy space monster rammed the Hawke's hangers - half the ship's on fire!"
Waldeck's lips thinned. He'd never be so crude as to say so, but with all the damage done in the past by the Ghosts - and who else could this be? - then a battleship probably wasn't too bad a trade off for killing one of them.
The thought was cut off as a shadow seemed to fall across the bridge. "What's that?" he asked in surprise. He could still see out of the window, so what was... "Clear the bridge!" he ordered, but it was too late for the crew to do more than wonder what the Commodore was talking about before the compartment was full of fire.
Nicol slashed his beam saber almost casually through the bridge of a Nelson-class battleship and kicked off from it towards the burning wreckage that Robbie was buried within. The fires were spreading across the stricken vessel and he doubted that it would be possible for the crew to get them under control. Strike Daggers were being cut down, by a process of elimination the work of Juliette and Nare as they too rushed towards their fallen comrade.
The wreckage of the Viper was visible within the flames and Nicol could also see the structural beam that it was impaled upon. There was another rush of explosions as what looked like a Strike Dagger exploded deeper in the wreck and debris bounced off the phase shift armor of the Blitz. Turning away, Nicol's eyes fell upon the Drake that had scored the hits against Robbie and opened his thrusters to full power, rocketing towards it, beam rifle snapping off precisely aimed shots that smashed missile launchers, thrusters and three mobile suits that made the mistake of getting in his way. Beyond it, he could see the Oppenheimer, Kurz and Melissa duelling with two more escorts and a lone battleship. With a sharp turn that hurled him brutally against his restraints, he flew around the Drake's rear and placed a precise shot into one of the engines, sending it veering off course as it tried to evade.
Another shot blew through the back of the bridge tower, smashing the command structure of the hapless escort as Nicol lined it up as carefully as any pool shot and then took out two more engines, leaving the ship cruising on momentum towards the Oppenheimer's opponents. Without control from the bridge or the forward thrusters that he'd take out earlier, the Drake was careering out of control and it would only take one more slight nudge...
The Blitz placed both hands against the back of the Earth ship and fired its thrusters.
"What's he doing?" Nare snapped as Nicol dove after the Drake-class ship. "Robbie's in there! We have to –"
"Robbie's dead," Juliette said softly, the two suits close enough to establish lasercom links. "And we still have a mission to complete. Let's give her a warrior's funeral and finish the job. It's what she'd want."
"Robbie would want to be back in McGinty's drinking Fosters, or some of that godawful piss from Martius," Nare said bitterly, but she joined Juliette in taking out two of the Hawke's engines and then opening vents in the upper hull that sent it into a declining orbit. She wasn't sure where it would end up from here, somewhere in the Indian Ocean at a guess, but wherever it was, no one would ever be able to open up Robbie's Viper to steal its secrets or disturb her rest.
Melissa smashed a Strike Dagger as it tried to close in on Kurz, the last of the mobile armors by now reduced to one more part of the debris belt. "Take the damn shot!" she snapped at him and the blond pilot brought around the heavy cannon in his GINN's hands to hammer a shot into the forward deck of one of the Drakes. The shot must have hit some of the structural members because the ship promptly began to fold around the hole and a number of escape pods launched from the stricken vessel.
"Holy shit," Kurz said as he dodged away from another Strike Dagger.
"Stop patting yourself on the shoulder, idiot," Melissa snorted, descending on the Strike Dagger from behind and plunging her GINN's sword down through the back of the Earth machine's shoulders and into the cockpit.
"Not me," Kurz said, "Although I am very good-looking. That."
Melissa glanced in the direction that Kurz's GINN was pointing and blinked in disbelief. "Damn... looks like there's nobody at the helm."
The battlefield was briefly lit by fire as the Oppenheimer's beam cannon ripped through the reactor core of the other escort and set off a chain reaction that tore the Drake apart, but even that drama was overshadowed by the Drake that roared out of the main body of the Earth fleet, through the cloud of debris that the Oppenheimer had created and ploughed, prow first, into a startled battleship.
The Nelson-class ship, unsurprisingly, didn't handle the collison well as it was carved in two, taking its killer with it in a frenzy of mutual annihilation.
In the heat of the destruction, it was a full minute before anyone noticed that the Oppenheimer had vanished.
"Where'd that chernozhopi go!" Antonov snapped. The fiery Eurasian officer hadn't batted an eyelid when the Spurance reported Waldeck's death - the arrogant Atlantic bastard had it coming, he figured - but having his prey snatched out from under him was something guarenteed to provoke gutter-Russian from Captain Ivan Antonov.
"Mobile suits approaching our rear," his sensor officer advised.
Antonov glared at the man, who quailed. "Well get the Atlantic Federation's vaunted suits up there and run them off! Let's see how the stinking bastards like fighting on even terms."
Sadly, Antonov's confidence wasn't terribly well placed. The eighteen GuAIZ of the Telchine Team were one of the largest concentrations of that new model of mobile suit in all of ZAFT and they hit the relatively inexperienced Strike Dagger squads like a storm. Twelve Strike Daggers died in the first minute of the attack, although three GuAIZ joined them in oblivion and the surviving Earth Force pilots fell back among their parent warships as the Telchine Team swarmed over the two rearmost battleships in the formation.
One of those battleships came apart rather suddenly, probably due to the an engine hit to judge by the explosions and the other one didn't look like it was going to be doing anything interesting after all the weapon emplacements were reduced to burning holes in the hull. Not a bad job, Victor decided. Unfortunately the job wasn't over yet and the remaining Strike Daggers were regrouping, he was reminded when one of the Turing's pilots managed to get his leg shot off.
"Turing Group, go after the Nelson that's lost its bridge," he ordered – presumably the Amalfi Team's work, that. And judging by the amount of wreckage, they'd certainly been opening a can of whupass on the Earthers. "The rest of you apes, let's show the Earther's how to really pilot a mobile suit!"
Behind the GuAIZ, missiles from the Telchine Team's ships blasted the damaged ship behind them to splinters. After the slaughters at Panama, there had been quiet repercussions for the deaths of Alliance soldiers trying to surrender, but that wasn't the same thing as sparing a ship that could potentially be a menace to ZAFT's personnel.
Nare and Juliette prudently pulled back as the GuAIZ suits slashed into the Alliance formations after their opposite numbers - getting shot up by a chance shot of their own back-up didn't seem like a reasonable risk to take. One of the last Drake's seemed to be getting more cover than it really merited from the battleships 'above' it, so they made a personal visit, tearing into the outboard missile packs with their beam sabers, as they flew past. The detonations of the missiles sent the ship staggering downwards, thrusters firing frantically to keep it out of the dangerzone from which it would not be able to avoid an uncontrolled re-entry. Spinning as she went past the bow, Nare punched shots into the port-side torpedo launchers and the cannon turrets before moving on to the next target. Juliette didn't even spare it that much attention, moving on to a Nelson-class ship and targetting its beam turrets.
Three brightly coloured flares flashed into view and a moment later the familiar shape of the Oppenheimer rippled into view behind them, the hanger bay doors opened invitingly. The two GINNs obediently turned back towards their mothership. With the exception of a couple of overwrought mobile suit pilots, the Earth Forces lacked the stomach to pursue and those misguided exceptions were quickly taken care of by two beam rifle shots. The source of the shots was quickly evident as the Blitz and the surviving Vipers one by one dropped their mirage colloid and fell in behind the two GINN's.
"Wait," Kurz said, looking back. "Aren't we missing someone?"
"Yes," Nare said flatly. "We're missing someone."
"Robbie didn't make it," Nicol advised grimly. "Get back aboard the Oppenheimer. We've done all we can for today."
Telchine's squadron made a swift pass along the flank of a Drake, smashing a turret and two Strike Daggers that thought that they had cover behind the ship.
"Sir, there are recall flares from the Turing," one of the pilots reported.
Pausing, Victor scowled as a Drake unleashed a volley of missiles towards him. "Break and regroup," he ordered, the veteran pilots already in motion. He counted as they broke clear of the remainder of the OMNI formation, a scant handful of ships pulling away from a debris field that had once been a fleet.
Four of his squadron were still with him, but the Turing Group had been lost half their suits and another GuAIZ was missing from the third group in his force. Five dead pilots. Incredibly light for the odds they had been facing and yet so very painful. Those Strike Daggers were going to be a problem once the pilots had some experience under their belts.
"All suits," he ordered. "Time to go home. And if you should run into Team Amalfi any time soon I don't want to hear about them paying for their own drinks."
Aprilus One, Lagrange Point 5, August 13, CE 71
"Congratulations, Commander Amalfi," Patrick Zala said with what had passed for cheer on the part of ZAFT's chairman since Junius Seven. "I don't know if you've heard but they only managed to land twenty mobile suits, not enough to threaten Carpenteria from land. If you hadn't gotten at them the chances are that they could have caught us in a pincer."
"It's good to know that we accomplished something, sir," Nicol replied in a neutral voice.
"You're damned right you've achieved something, young man," the chairman said firmly. "If nothing else it's been a shot in the arm for our morale. The naturals have had us on the run since Spitbreak, so a victory like yours is something to make a fuss about. I've pulled a few strings and the Viper pilots will be wearing red coats in future, something that'll go well with an Order of the Nebula on your coat."
"The Order of the Nebula?" Nicol asked, slightly faintly. ZAFT's highest decoration... the one that Athrun had been awarded shortly before he vanished all of a sudden.
Zala nodded. "Well of course. Presented at the Academy in front of every cadet we can get on the parade ground - give them a hero to measure up to."
"I..." Nicol hesitated. "Chairman, I'm honoured, but I can't honestly say..."
"None of that," the older man snapped. "You went in, less than thirty mobile suits and four ships against more than twenty ships and two hundred mobile suits and once you were done, what did they have left? Intelligence reports that six battleships and an escort limped back to Ptolemaeus, without a mobile suit to their name, and one battleship made it to Artemis with a pair of freighters. I know it's a shame about Ms. Peaches and the other pilots but this is war and against odds like that it's a miracle that your losses weren't heavier. I know that Commander Telchine was most impressed and he's been singing your Team's praises to everyone who will hold still to listen."
Incomplete
Ptolemaeus Crater, Luna, September 10, CE 71
"Alright," Nicol muttered to the blue mobile suit that seemed determined to dog his heels. "If I can't lose you I guess I'll have to use you."
Picking his moments, the green-haired coordinator punched three shots through the torpedo tubes of a moored Nelson-class ship, betraying his location to the Calamity and then jetted hastily aside. The extended pilot took the bait and twin beams of destruction from the cannon firing over each shoulder slashed through the empty space where Nicol had fired from and into the engines of another battleship.
Judging by the cursing that was coming in on the Earth Alliance frequencies, the pilot's inaccuracy wasn't winning him any friends in the OMNI hierarchy.
Banking around behind another battleship while the other pilot was distracted, Nicol laid a charge against the vessel's centrifugal section, where it was unlikely to catch the eye and left the timer at thirty seconds - enough time to get clear and not enough time for anyone to realise the threat - moving off to snap off a shot at the Calamity which whirled and chased after him, light gunfire cracking off armoured hulls around the warships.
A short distance away but behind several rows of warships, Melissa was experiencing a slightly more hazardous situation as in addition to the Forbidden stalking her, a number of Strike Daggers had emerged from ships already loaded and were being directed after her like packs of dogs. Turning on her pursuer, the most junior of the 'Angels' - junior in piloting the Viper although senior in every other respect - brought her beam saber up, activating it for just long enough abruptly to sever the haft of the toad-like mobile suit's halberd before deactivating the weapons so she couldn't be traced by the all too visible blade. She flew up and out of the commotion as two Strike Daggers impulsively fired in the Forbidden's direction.
While the Forbidden chastised it's 'hounds' for their error in judgement, Melissa brought her beam saber across the bridge windows in the nearest ship in a horizontal slash that gutted the compartment. "Let's see how effectively they hunt when they're blinded," she muttered.
The caverns of Ptolemaus were rocked by another explosion that shook even the ships cradled in the hangers.
"What was that?" Azreal demanded, clinging to his seat.
Natarle glanced at the schematic of the hangers being displayed on one of the overhead screens and a moment later another section went red as damage control reports were fed through from the control centre. "One of the missile stores," she advised. "Looks like one of the ones storing the nuclear weapons."
Azreal's jaw dropped. "Nuclear?" he exclaimed. "The space monsters are nuking us with our own weapons?"
It took no small amount of restraint for Natarle to keep her contempt off her face at his obvious terror. For god's sake, his company had made the damned things and he knew this little about them? "No sir, the warheads have safety measures to prevent detonation under these circumstances. However, the solid fuel for their thrusters must have been ignited, causing the explosion. The warheads will be damaged though, so there will be radioactive debris in the area."
Incomplete
Aprilus One, Lagrange Point 5, December 25, CE 71
"Commander!" came a call from the far side of the room.
Athrun stared at the gleaming black grand piano that the call had originated from. At the three dazzling young women in the uniforms of ZAFT elites who were draping themselves over the instrument. "Yzak, you dog, you!" he exclaimed.
"Excuse me," Nicol said mildly and strolled over to the piano.
Yzak raised one eyebrow at Athrun, who stared slack-jawed as Nicol swept the dark-complexioned member of the trio up in a hug, received a kiss on the cheek from the long-haired oriental pilot and a slap on the shoulder from the last, somewhat older, redcoat. "You see what you miss when you go AWOL?" Commander Yzak Joule smirked at his friend and walked off to the bar.
A/N:
I really had high hopes for this idea but some parts never quite came together and it's been sitting on my HD for about a decade.
The Blitz is criminally underused in Gundam Seed - stealth technology is a huge force multiplier and ZAFT, with a severe disparity in numbers, needs that multiplier. So here they make more use of it. Plus Nicol doesn't get thrown under a bus to set up a duel between Athrun and Kira.