Disclaimer: I do not own anything except the Protolord-Class, Alexander Crossfare, Solrena Crossfare, and any other custom people, ships, and MS/MA that I create and the same with Koji Himura, Command Shiki, with anything else belongs to Flashdevil.
Chapter 2: Collapse
Year 70, of the Cosmic Era. Tensions were mounting between Earth Alliance and the ZAFT organization due to the Bloody Valentine Tragedy, these tensions escalated to full-scale war. It seemed a foregone conclusion that the earth forces with its superior numbers would be victorious but these initial assessments proved to be false. Almost eleven months have passed with no end in sight.
However, a new force appeared with a military might and technology that no organization could match. Many analysts are speculating on how fast the war will end and how the war will change due to the completely different tactics and strategies.
Orb Colony "Heliopolis" Interior
"This is GAT-X105 Strike to any Earth Alliance Forces, please respond. Is anyone on this channel?"
A few of the Sentinel marines helped Kira by equipping the Launcher Pack, Kira tried again with the radio. But nothing was coming over it before Alex called over the short-range radio. "Kira, get ready but DO NOT use the Agni as that is meant for Anti-Ship/Anti-Fortress duties," Alex said as Kira was confused and before alarms made Kira jump in surprise as he pulled up a sub-screen that showed four machines with three that were like the Strike. But he had little to worry as Sentinels were well known to be extremely experienced due to the 81 years of service. "Sgt. Areash, give the Strike one of theMalice's guns. It's only usable armaments right now are two 350mm gun Launchers and the 120mm Anti-Ship Vulcan." Alex said over the radio to the pilot of the other red G-Weapon. "Roger". Came the reply
Reyat took the Malice's 90mm automatic combat shotgun and gave it to Kira along with the two clips for it while readying the 120mm "Widowmaker". Kira was observing when Alex began barking out orders. "Koji, deal with the green Gundam. Marito, I want you to deal with the Zeta-type by keeping it away while the rest of you keep the large one busy. Marines, move the civilians away from the tank and prepare anti-air weapon deployment." He said over the radio. "Alex, what are you going to do?" Kira asked.
The Silver Gundam looked towards the blue Mobile Suit. "I will deal with the blue Gundam," Alex replied before turning to the Strike. "Just, stay behind the shield while providing support and only use the Agni when you have a shot and I mean WHEN you have a shot. Just don't miss it." "Right," Kira replied.
"Well, this is going to be difficult," Lockon said while looking at the area before his Haro spoke up. "Incoming enemy, incoming enemy!" Lockon turned to see the Silver Gundam, which was moving much faster than a Mobile Suit should be, heading straight for the Exia. Setsuna reacted by deploying the GN Sword in sword mode when the silver Gundam pulled out two pistols and switched them from pistol mode to sword mode but the blade is in the form of a katana. The two machines clashed, with Exia putting more thrust but was being pushed back which surprised the meisters as no machine should be able to do but this one was matching Exia if not surpassing it.
"How the hell is that Mobile Suit capable of pushing the Exia like that?" Allelujah asked himself in shock before he moved to provide support to Setsuna, but the heavily-armed green Gundam opened up with its two dual 4-barrel 100mm beam miniguns forcing Kyrios to pull away lest he become swiss cheese. Lockon was about to assist Setsuna before his Haro forced him to dodge a beam that was aimed right for his cockpit, which forced him to enter a shooting match with the black Mobile Suit that was taking cover behind a building firing at him.
While the Exia and Dynames were dealing with the silver Gundam and the blackish Gundam-like Mobile Suit respectively and the Kyrios was forced to dodge and weave from the incoming fire that was being hurled by the green Gundam. Tieria was annoyed by the amount of fire that came from the other machines as the remaining pseudo-Gundams were firing at him with a barrage of both physical bullets, which wouldn't have been able to leave little more than a scratch on the Virtue's thick armor, and beams that were more than capable of chewing through it if given the chance.
Tieria was about to fire on the Sentinel forces that are protected by the shield but Lockon stopped him from firing. "Tieria, hold fire!" "But why? They're the enemy and they are armed and we must intervene as it is our duty."
Lockon was busy dodging and returning firing but did reply, "Do you not see the civilians down there? As long as I am the team leader, we will do interventions with a standard." Tieria did know that Veda and Sumeragi did approve Lockon as the team leader as he has the most experience. "We will not kill people just to destroy the enemy Mobile Suits; those are the actions of terrorists. We will not lower ourselves to a terrorist's standards."
"So you believe that we won't be seen as terrorists," Tieria said with a scowl on his face.
"No, I know that we will be looked at as terrorists by many but I will not take any chances of taking innocent lives." Lock said, "Damn, this guy is good. He's even better than the other one outside." He looked over at Setsuna as he was being outmatched by the silver Gundam and badly.
"Incoming, incoming," Haro said to alert Lockon as it automatically moved the Dynames in an evasive maneuver. Lockon turned to see the black machine moving towards him while firing its weapon, which appeared to be modular as it was now firing at a much higher rate, before putting it away on one of its back binders. The black machine then pulled out one of its beam sabers that are on what looks like special racks on the binders as well as a pistol and to Lockon's surprise, the blades were blue instead of pink. Then again, the silver Mobile Suit's beams are blood-red crimson.
Lockon cursed as he was forced to pull out one of his own to block the beam saber as he hates being up close. He was able to see that the black MS' blade is thin and not round like a standard beam saber and the blades are cutting through his beam saber's blade. 'What! The blade is cutting through my blade, how is this possible!?' Lockon thought to himself as he recorded everything about this machine.
Koji looked at the green Gundam as it moved to the side so it did not get cut and was forced to dodge several beam rounds from his pistol. 'Well, it looks like this one does not like being up close and personal given how the pilot is trying to maintain distance between the two of us.' He thought as he boosted the Command Shiki to the Mobile Suit. The two played cat and mouse for a bit while the orange Gundam was being kept at bay by ground fire and the large one was dodging around but not shooting its weapon. The blue machine is currently dealing with the Grim Reaper of Solomon as Setsuna is having a real hard time with a pilot whose skill is unrivaled.
Alex moved to the side with ease as the bladed Gundam fired beams rounds at him from its composite weapon system then boosted to it while firing the two Beam Magnums in rapidly before switching them into beam katana modes and clashed with the bladed machine. The blue Mobile Suit kicked Silver away before drawing a beam saber from behind the right shoulder armor and swung at him but Alex lowered the thrusters so he could drop and have the Mobile Suit to miss but Setsuna was not finished, he continued his assault pushed Exia forward and swung downward at the silver fake but the Silver Gundam used its verniers to dodge the attack before swinging one of its own blades at the Exia.
Setsuna dodged the attack, but the blade did nick the lower left abdomen of the body before he was kicked down to the ground hard by Alex before hearing the pilot of the silver machine.
"Not bad but you're relying on the machine far too much. If you want to beat me, get better and hone your skills to the point where you're not relying on the machine, kid." Alex said but before he could engage the other machines, a large explosion erupted and caused the battle to pause as a large white and red ship flew out.
"The Archangel!" Murrue called.
"So, this is the Earth Alliance's newest carrier. Reminds me of White Base but bigger, right Commander?" Alex said to Koji who was also reminded of the ship from the OYW.
"Yeah, but White Base was in a dock, not an interior bay." The STRIKE commodore spoke.
"Lockon, is this one ok to eliminate?" Tieria asked Lockon, "Yeah, but don't miss. Rather not have to deal with the consequences of having a hole in the colony."
"Roger," The stoic Meister replied, "Virtue, compressing charged particles."
Ensign Badgiruel was lucky that she survived along with a few others of the command staff. When they got the Archangel out of the bay, they were treated to the sight of a battle inside the colony when Ensign Romero Pal called out.
"Ma'am, massive heat source inbound!" Romero said.
"Evade!" The ensign ordered.
The Archangel heaved over to starboard as the beam hit the left leg of the ship. Instead of the beam punching through the leg as the Meisters expected, the ship's laminated armor held up to the GN Bazooka's firepower as the beam dissipated off the hull. When the beam died down, the left leg was still in one piece, but the armor was mostly melted away and any other hit would put it out of action. The sight made the Gundam Meisters look at the ship in shock as it survived the Virtue's GN Bazooka, which was supposed to have the power to destroy an entire ship in a single shot.
"That's impossible, no non-Sentinel ship can survive that attack!" Tieria shouted at the sight and he would have begun to charge the GN Bazooka again if it wasn't for the fact that he was still in shock.
"Status!" Natarle ordered as she was looking at several Mobile Suits with one she recognizes off the bat as the GAT-X105 Strike and the others were odd before Neumann recognizes the Silver G-Weapon belonging to the Leader of the Sentinels and guess that the other machines that were not emitting the odd light belonged to the Sentinels as well.
"Ma'am, look on the ground." PO1 Jackie Tonomura called out which caused the ensign to see that many civilians did not make it to the shelters and were being protected by the Sentinels as everyone knows that the Sentinels do not take prisoners or use civilians as hostages. "Ma'am, that attack destroyed most of the laminated armor and the hull temperature is dangerously high. Another hit like that, and we're done for." One of the other bridge crew called out.
Natarle went through the weapons that they have. The Gottfried beam cannons, Igelstellung CIWS, the Valiant Linear cannons, and the depth charges were offline when they hastily activated the ship and the Gottfried and Valiant cannons will cause too much damage to the colony. The only available weapons were the missile launchers and those were brought online when they first started up the ship. "Ready missile tubes 1-8 with Wombat and Korinthos missiles, target the Mobile Suits that are emitting the green glow. Fire when ready!" She called out.
Missile tubes on the left side of the ships opened up as missiles were loaded in, then fired at the Gundam Meisters. Tieria brought the GN Field to tank two of the missiles while Lockon sniped several missiles out of the sky. Exia moved aside as the missile passed him as their guidance computers were going haywire and were brought down by Exia's GN Vulcans, while the Kyrios moved out of the way to let the missiles hit the shield dome.
"Boss, that light is wreaking havoc on the missile's guidance as well as comms," Koji said as the Shiki's free hand touched the Silver Gundam's shoulder to commence contact communication.
"Agreed. Once we get back to base, I'll see if R&D can speed up on the development of subspace communications." Alex said when a large blast erupted where the Sentinels outpost was being under construction. Out rose a ship like the Archangel, but it was sleeker and more heavily armed. The ship was the Erwin Rommel, CVA-18, named after the famed Wehrmacht General. The large Mobile Suit turned and fired on the Rommel, but just like with the Sentinel Cruiser, it has a barrier but more powerful as the blast did not bleed through.
"Report!" Captain Andrew Burns ordered as the ship was rattled by an attack. Andrew Burns was a veteran of the UC era and a navy man. Andrew stood at 5'11" wearing the captain variant of the MFDU with the captain's rank on the collar. He has blond hair in the form of a crew cut and hard blue eyes.
"Sir, we were hit by an energy blast." One of the bridge crew called out.
"I-Field integrity is still at 100%." "Comms are being jammed." The bridge crew reported one by one.
"Damn, this ship also has the barrier but it's even more powerful," Allelujah said in shock before pulling away to avoid getting too close to the ship's point defense array. Kira saw the enemy Mobile Suits being still from the shock of events that happened. He pulled out the Agni and aimed it at the green Mobile Suit as he remembered Alex's words: 'Kira, get ready but DO NOT use the Agni as that is meant for Anti-Ship/Anti-Fortress duties.' He took careful aim and fired it but unfortunately for him the green Mobile Suit's pilot or in his case, his Haro was not unaware of Kira aiming at him and fired. The blast was dodged and put a new entrance in the side of the colony.
Alex frowned but knew not to blame the kid as he was taking careful aim so as not to miss. 'Looks like that Gundam has either a support system or an AI,' He thought to himself.
"What, I missed!" Kira cried out in shock.
"What power, aside from the Sentinels, how can a Mobile Suit have that much power?" Lockon said with shock written on his face. "Guys, we're pulling out now. We do not have enough data on these new Mobile Suits."
"Roger." The other Meisters replied and began to pull out as the Rommel touched near the park as they had around twenty minutes before the colony became depressurized and unable to support life.
Once the four enemy machines left through the hole left by Kira's shot. The Archangel got to work as soon as it touched down along with the Rommel. Alex ordered the people to stay close to the ships and had the marines to search the facility for supplies and any spare equipment.
Alex, Kira, and the other pilots entered the Archangel as the Rommel has little to no room except for the cradles for the Silver, Todesritter, and the Command Shiki. As Alex and Kira let everyone off, the bridge crew of the Archangel headed to greet them.
"Lt. Ramius." A feminine voice called. Everyone turned to the source and saw a group of EA officers. Sol recognizes the woman leading the group from earlier in the day. Along with her are a handful of the bridge crew, a couple of mechanics, and two to three guards.
"Ensign Natarle Badgiruel." Murrue said.
"It's a tremendous relief that you're safe," Natarle said while saluting and Murrue saluting in return. Then she turned to see three men wearing combat armor colored in black and heavily armed. "And you are?"
"Captain John Price, and with me is Captain John MacTavish and Lieutenant Simon Riley. Please call them by their nicknames Soap and Ghost respectively." Price introduced himself and his team as he saluted which caused the Natarle to salute as Price was a higher rank along with everyone else with her. The sounds of opening cockpits drew their attention. Natarle sighed as Alex stepped out in his signature armor with his helmet on, next was Sol and Cagalli which caused everyone to blink at the appearance of the princess of Orb. The next person was Koji Himura, he was in a custom urban gray and black pilot suit with armor plating and an odd visor attachment.
The next person was a woman, wearing a light blue MFDU. The remaining pilots were two men and two women. The first man was just as young as Sol, the next man is older and same with the women, one teenager and one adult. Kira came out as well when a man wearing an orange and white jumpsuit said. "Can someone tell me what's going on, five of them are kids! Three of them are barely old enough to shave and they are piloting Mobile Suits?"
Murrue sighed before saying, "Unfortunately Chief Murdock, four of them are part of the Sentinels and their leader may look like a teenager but he is 100 years old and as for Mr. Yamato, I had to bring him into the Strike during the battle, though Mr. Crossfare requested that he update the OS while the Sentinels dealt with the ZAFT forces as well as the unknowns."
Before the ensign could complain a voice called out which Murrue recognized the man from before. "Well, that does explain some questions that I have. Lt. Mu La Flaga of the 7th Orbital Fleet." Mu introduced himself and saluted before Murrue introduced herself "Lt Murrue Ramius of Sector 2, 5th special Division. I'm a member of this ship."
"Ensign Natarle Badgiruel of the same division." the ensign replied while saluting him.
"I would like permission to come aboard this ship, so where is the captain?" Mu asked the ensign, whose facial expression became somber before replying.
"The captain and all superior officers perished in battle, the next person in command would be Lt. Ramius." She said which made Murrue a little shocked before continuing, "Only a dozen of us, mostly non-commissioned, are left, sir. Fortunately, I was in the shaft and survived."
"The captain is dead? That can't be..." Murrue said with a bit of sadness in tone.
"Man o' man, this is one helluva mess. Lt. Ramius, permission to come aboard, as the ship that I was escorting was downed when the enemy attacked." Mu said.
"Oh, right. Permission granted, Lt. La Flaga." Murrue said.
Mu turned to Kira and asked, "So who's the young man?"
"As I said to Murdock, he is Kira Yamato, a civilian who was in the factory district during the battle. I brought him aboard the last G-Weap-" Lt Ramius was interrupted by Alex who was now walking up to them. "Gundam, it's called a Gundam." He corrected Murrue. "Right sorry. As I said, I brought Mr. Yamato aboard the last Gundam and Alex requested that I had the young man finish the OS while Alex and his forces dealt with ZAFT and the unknowns."
"Which is shitty as hell." Alex said and sighed before turning to Kira, "Well kid, I would suggest that you tell everyone due that it is an open secret."
"Dad is right, sooner or later people will know. If you keep on hiding it, it will come around and bite you in the ass." Sol said.
"Kira, what are they talking about?" Tolle asked
"What they're talking about is that I'm a Coordinator," Kira answered.
ZAFT fleet, Vesalius
The Vesalius was able to make it to the remaining ZAFT ships despite its damaged engines but it is still space worthy. The fleet is staying just outside Heliopolis' sensor range even though no one is even bothered to check but better safe than sorry.
"Well, that could have been worse," Ades said as he looked at the damage report. "Though, I don't think that council would like the losses Commander."
Rau nodded in agreement as he would have not cared but this is one of the rare few times that he does as this mission has gone south real fast but he was thankful for Miguel for bringing back footage. "I have to thank Miguel for bringing this back, this will help to convince the council of the mission."
"Yeah, but at what cost?" The captain said, "We lost most of our forces, we only have the Vesalius which is damaged, Gamow, two other Lauraisas and a Nazca. We lost between 70-85% of our Mobile Suit force."
"Yes but we need to know the situation and the status of the last G-Weapon and their ship, but the Sentinels will be cautious and will keep an eye out." Rau said before Nicol spoke up, "Sirs, if I may interrupt. We do have a way to check the situation."
"Go head, Amalfi." Rau allowed Nicol to continue.
"The data we finished extracting from one of the Mobile Suits provided an untested piece of equipment." The green-haired young man spoke, "It's called the Mirage Colloid System, and while it's not to the level that the Sentinels have with their optical phased stealth generators, it is capable of allowing the Blitz to become invisible at the cost of the Phase Shift. I could head out to check on the last unit and the Earth Alliance's new warship."
"Do it Amalfi, we need to know what's going on." Rau told Nicol to use the mirage colloid before bringing up images of the four unknown G-weapons "I am worried about these machines as they are more powerful than anything that is not Sentinel."
"So these guys just showed up after we brought three of the five mobiles suits to Gamow and you ordered the ship to leave?" Dearka said from the monitor. Then a video showed one of the Sentinels heavy cruisers tanking a blast and surviving with minor thermal hull damage thanks to its barrier. "Those barriers could be useful if we can get the schematics."
"Unfortunately, that technology is purely for Sentinel use only Dearka." Ades said, "Besides, they have other forms of technology that they created during the UC era."
"Wait, you believe that shit?" came a rude comment from Yzak.
"We have no choice, Yzak." Athrun said, "The weapons, ships, technology, history did come from a past era before what they call the "The Great Disaster" and they are more skilled than anyone else. Of course we have no choice but to accept it."
Yzak growled in frustration as he had no choice but to give up. Athrun was correct as the Sentinels were superior to everyone as they had the advantage in most things including skill but they were also outnumbered. Rau was thinking of what to do next before asking, "Rusty, how are your arm and leg?"
"Still stings like hell, never thought that the Sentinels would have energy weapons at their disposal," Rusty said as he looked at his injured left arm and leg.
"I suggest that all of you rest until Nicol comes back with what information he manages to obtain." Rau ordered, "I will gather data to be presented to the council to show the necessity of the operation."
"Yes sir." everyone replied.
Nicol got ready in the Blitz's cockpit. He was only a few weeks out from the academy and this was his first independent mission. He had the Blitz stride out of its berth and to the launch zone, he waited for the ship to slow down with the use of its maneuvering thrusters. Nicol was nervous as he was about to use an untested piece of equipment. The Gamow opened its MS hanger to let the Blitz out. Nicol waited for the launch sequence to finish before being allowed to launch.
"Nicol Amalfi, Blitz, launching." The ZAFT red coat said as he was launched by the linear catapult, keeping his thrusters cold to ensure his heat signature was as low as possible to keep his launch undetected. All that Nicol would have to do is coast along to ensure that he has enough power to use the Mirage Colloid as he could only use it for 80 minutes until the power dips into reserve levels and now he waits until he is on top of the colony in the range of 20-to-30 km, pretty much a stone's throw in space.
On the Archangel
The reaction to the revelation that Kira said was varied. The EA soldiers pulled their weapons and aimed at Kira and in the same amount of time, the Sentinel personnel aimed their weapons at the EA soldiers.
"Well folks, we got ourselves a Mexican standoff," Alex said as he aimed Alduin at the EA soldiers.
"LOWER YOUR GUNS NOW!" Murrue ordered the EA soldiers which they did and at the same time so did the Sentinels. Natarle was frightened as she knew that they did not have the numbers nor the skill to face the Sentinels.
"Sorry kid for bringing it up but it would be a problem if you kept it hidden," Mu said.
"True, especially since I am a first-generation Coordinator," Kira replied.
"That makes your parents Naturals, doesn't it kid?" Alex said with Kira replying with a nod, "Miss Ramius, I would like to discuss our current situation."
"Right. CPO Neumann, could you escort the civilians as well as the two gentlemen to the crew quarters?" Murrue ordered.
"Yes ma'am," Arnold replied.
The civilians along with Sol, Soap, and Ghost were guided to the crew quarters as for Kira would require a bit of sleep to rest, the other pilots went to the Pilots ready room rest as well while Alex, Koji, Price, Murrue, Natarle, and Mu headed to the bridge to discuss a few things. Outside, Morgenroete personnel that did not make it to the shelters are assisting along with the Sentinel marines by bringing various equipment, supplies, and necessities to survive as the shelters are currently locked down. Trucks are coming with supplies and parts for the Gundams including a couple of spare 350mm "Gáe Bulg" Rail Bazookas that originally belonged to the Duel.
"Ok, thank you," Murrue said to someone on the phone as she placed the phone down, "Well, the hazard level has been raised to 9, thanks to the recent incident."
"So we're stuck with the civvies for now." Price said as he leaned on the ramp leading up to the forward section of the bridge, "Thanks to the kid, the shelters are on lockdown and won't be able to take on any more civilians."
"True, and detaining them is out of the question as long as I'm here, Ensign Badgural." Alex said with a 'No-Buts' tone which she gave him an unaccepting glare. Before anyone starts going off, the door to the bridge opens up to reveal Inaho and his friend as well as a MS mechanic named Calm Craftman.
"Ah, Lt. Kaizuka and Specialist Craftman." Alex said when the two boys entered the bridge. "Specialist, what do you have to report."
"Well boss, all of our Mobile Suits are ready for launch and I did take a look at the OS for the EA's Gundam and the OS is something that any non-Coordinator would have some serious trouble with, also I can see why Naturals feared Coordinators."
"It's because Coordinators are capable of doing things better than Naturals?" Koji asked which Calm nodded his head.
"Yeah, but there are people back on Atlas Station that can make Coordinators seem pathetic in comparison." Calm said with a small smile, though for the EA officers stood there with surprise on their face and to hear that there are people that can make Coordinators insignificant.
"Wait, you're saying that there are people who are better than Coordinators?" Natarle asking for clarification.
Calm looked at Alex for permission to show the officer proof which the Sentinel leader nodded to allow him to do so. Calm walked to the ensign and pulled out a tablet and pulled up a schematic of an FTL drive that was passed up to show her. Natarle took the tablet that was offered and her eye went to the size of dinner plates as the specs for the drive were something that could only be in science fiction.
"If you're wondering, yes, that is a design schematic for an FTL drive. This is why Sentinel is more advanced than anyone else." Alex said which caused Natarle to be shaken with the realization that there are Naturals who can be much scarier than Coordinators, she handed the tablet back to Calm before sitting down in the pilot seat.
"I'm guessing that the OS can't be changed?" Murrue asked.
Calm shook his head, "No, it can't. Hell, you can't replace it with the other OS' as they are completely incompatible."
"Which means that the kid would have to pilot it." Mu tosses his two cents in.
"True, but I doubt that because of his pacifist personality and that is from what my daughter said about him." Alex said, "It's not surprising to see Coordinators in countries like Orb as they don't want to be in the war and that is why I forced everyone to the table so the Geneva Convention can be restarted with a few additions."
"There is also that there are more than twenty Mobile Suits within the Sentinels taskforce that is here." Koji said, "We may be going into some real heavy fighting as ZAFT might call for backup and maybe call for a battleship which could challenge Wyoming in a fight as there have been reports that did say there were some records from the UC era surviving".
"True and we don't know what classes that ZAFT has data on," Alex said before the radar alarm went off.
"What the?" Mu said with a bit of anger in his voice, "Is it ZAFT or the unknowns attacking?"
Calm went to the radar and was surprised by the IFF. "No, it's a friendly unit." he said, "Silhouette confirmed as RGM-89S Stark Jegan from the Spartan."
"The Spartan?" Murrue asked.
"It is one of the STRIKE's ships and it's equipped with retro-reflective panels for stealth operations," Alex said as a Mobile Suit that is light green with dark brown armor on its shoulders, lower arms, chest, faceplate, and lower legs. On its shoulders seem to be two 3-tube missile pods with one on each shoulder and some sort of a high mobility backpack. It is armed with a rifle of sorts and a shield. It has a single blue visor covering its sensors along with some sort of a pod on the left side of the head.
"They must be in the area when the attack happened," Koji spoke as the machine closed in on the bridge. A voice was heard over the radio in the form of contact communication.
"Sirs, thank god you're alive." the pilot said as he put his machine's hand on the bridge's roof.
"The two of us are hard to kill and if ZAFT wants to kill us, they will need to bring out their absolute best," Alex said when Koji spoke up.
"Pilot, what do you have to report?" he ordered.
"Sir, during ZAFTs attack on Heliopolis, there was a ship that was cloaked by using some sort of particles but while effective, it was nowhere near our level." The pilot reported, "The particle was the same type that the Mobile Suits from what Captain Kirk thought was on a mission to the colony, as well as the ZAFT fleet is around 150,000 km away from the colony."
"Hmm, it looks like those four machines do have a carrier," Alex said to himself before telling the pilot to head back to the Spartan and meet up with the task force as a checkup with them.
At the same time, Nicol was observing and was shocked to see another Mobile Suit and saw the new Earth Alliance battleship that survived the bombs. He trailed the Mobile Suit that left the hole to find a small fleet of three ships of two different classes that were around the same length, one that looks like Earth Alliances new warship with two ships with a wedge-like shape that makes up the bow, moving on back it thickens on the dorsal side with a bridge structure, on the sides of the main body of the ship are two engine pods. On the dorsal side of the ship near the bow looks like a catapult system with a large red door nearing the center of the ship for its MS complement. It has four dual-barreled guns on little winglets to the sides of the hanger, two on each side, one dorsal and one ventral. It has two single-barreled guns on the sides of engine pods, one on each mounted vertically and with a collection of Anti-Air/Mobile Suit turrets scattered all over it, and the ship is colored two shades of grey with red on the doors and engines.
The legged ship is a completely different beast as it has many more weapons on it then EA's newest ship but is around the same amount on Sentinels ship. It has some sort of objects on it that Nicol can't figure out. He watches the three ships turn and head towards that harbor to check on the Sentinel task force that is there. Nicol decides that he should head back and report his findings. The Blitz turns and heads back to the fleet and makes it out before the Mirage Colloid runs out.
In one of the Crew Bunk areas, the students are resting with Kira sleeping in the forward left upper bunk with the shutter half-closed while Tolle sits on the bunk beneath Kira's. Mir, Sai, and Kuzzey were on the other side with Sol leaning on the wall segment that separates the forward four bunks from the back four bunks.
"I'm impressed that he can sleep in a time like this," Kuzzey said.
"Well, he was piloting a Mobile Suit for the first time Kuzzey, of course he would sleep like this." Sol said with Sai and Tolle agreeing with her, "Hell, everyone is like that when they first pilot a Mobile Suit."
"True, but it was tough sure as we can't argue with that," Kuzzey spoke before Sai said. "Just what are you getting at Kuzzey?"
"Nothing, when it comes to Kira, all we can think to say is that…" Kuzzey spoke before Sol cut him off, "It's hard on Kira since he is a Coordinator, and his mind is capable of understanding things faster and better than others. On top of that, while yes he does not know how to pilot the Mobile Suit, I think it is more of a second nature that all Coordinators have."
"Yes, ZAFT soldiers are Coordinators which does make it hard for the EA, then there is the Space Revolution Army, while not Coordinators, they did sign an agreement with ZAFT that they will assist ZAFT until EA will allow the SRA to be independent," Sol said having the others stop and think when Alex came up to the door of the room that they were in. Alex looked at Kira and spoke.
"Hey, Kira." Which causes Kira to wake up and look at Alex who is at the door of the bunk, "We need to talk."
"What is it?" Kira asked after he got down from the bunk and walked out.
Alex sighed, putting his hands together for a moment. "Look… you're not going to like this, but I'm going to be honest with you… the people of OMNI are gonna ask you to help them defend this ship, and… I think you should do as they say."
"What?" Kira jumped a bit, "W-why would they do that?! I'm an Orb citizen! They can't tell me what to do!"
"And normally, I would agree with your right to say no," Alex reasoned, "However - I need you to keep this in mind: ZAFT is not gonna hold back when they attack again, and when they attack they won't care about the damage they conduct to the ship or the colony. Meaning that your friends and your families are going to be put at risk. The rest of us will do our part, but having every Mobile Suit we have in our arsenal would go a long way to preventing the worst-case scenario from happening to the colony."
"And what's the worst-case scenario?"
"Orb's very own Junius Seven."
Kira's breath hitched at that, as Alex sighed. "I know, it's unfair… but if it helps, you aren't doing this to help the EA. You are doing this to protect Tolle, Kuzzey, Sai, Mirallia… all of your friends and loved ones here on the colony… at the very least, do it to keep them safe, at least until this whole mess blows over and someone can relieve you of the duty."
"Fine," Kira said in defeat.
"Good. Sol, head to the hanger, and do a check on the Valor as it is your machine for now and you should do the same with the Strike." Alex said as his daughter Sol nodded her head and headed to the hangar along with Kira then Alex turned to Kira's friends, "If you want to help him, ask either Lt. Ramius or Ensign Badgiruel."
Alex left with Koji who was leaning on the door frame to the left of the direction that Alex was facing. As the two made their way to the hangar, Alex saw the pilots that helped out checking their machines, he saw WO Yuki with a couple of mechanics arming the Blademaster with a rifle and a shield as it did not come with any. Alex went to the Silver to do his own maintenance on it while Koji did the same with his Command Shiki.
ZAFT Fleet, Vesalius
Several GINNs launched from the remaining ships sometime after the Blitz's return. Each GINN is equipped with either an M66 "Canus" Short-range Guided Missile Launcher and M68 "Pardus" Short-range Guided 3-barrel Missile Launcher, an M69 "Barrus Kai" Heavy Ion Cannon, or an M68 "Cattus" 500mm Recoilless Rifle. One GINN that is launching is different as it was painted orange with a skull and crossbones on its right shoulder, this was Miguel's personal machine and he was nicknamed the Magic Bullet of Dust due to the GINN's improved sensors and thrusters.
"Olar Launch complete, Miguel to the catapult." a voice over the comms spoke as Miguel moved his GINN to the catapult. Inside the Aegis was Athrun who was starting it up as one of the mechanics ordered the hatch to be closed but Athrun moved the Aegis to the catapult with the crew wondering why the stolen G-weapon was launching. As the Aegis launched, on the bridge of Vesalius, Ades was shocked and said "What, Athrun Zala has taken off in a captured unit. Recall him, order him back to the ship."
"No, let him go as we already finished with the data extraction." Rau countered, "This might be quite interesting, now imagine as two Earth Alliance Mobile Suits fight each other."
On the Archangel and the Rommel, alarms are going off.
"Electrical interference throughout the whole colony, N-Jammer levels rising." PO1 Dalida called out.
"What was that?" Natarle said in surprise.
"Well it seems that he isn't intending to wait until we get outside, that bastard," Mu spoke up.
"Are they planning to hit us while in the colony?"
"For them, it's easy as they can shoot all they want, but we can't shoot back."
"Unless you're armed with flak batteries," A voice came over as an image of a man appeared on one of the screens, the man looks in his early to mid-fifties but is a lot older due to Sentinels extended life program for their members, he has dark brown hair with a brown beard and grey eyes. He has a naval captain's variant of the MFDU.
"Unfortunately no, the Archangel only has anti-air and anti-mobile suit missiles and the 75mm "Igelstellung" CIWS, but no flak batteries." the ensign spoke to the captain.
"Well, I would suggest that the next time you meet your superior, have them order up some AA/AMS batteries."
"True, but we need to get to an EA base and ask." Natarle stated
Before anyone could say anything, Alex spoke up as he heard everything, "Lt. Ramius, if possible, please give the missile a set proximity range to detonate and as long as it is under one kilometer to lower the risk of collateral damage."
"Agreed. Lt. La Flaga, assist in the CIC sense your mobile armor has to be placed in storage for now as we don't have the space." Murrue ordered before picking up the phone and alerting the ship, "Attention, the ship will be entering combat, all non-military personnel please report to the crew quarters. All military personnel please report to designated areas, I repeat, the ship is heading into battle. All hands to battle stations!"
In the hangar, everyone was hustling to get everything, Alex was in his machine's cockpit going over the combined strength of both the Archangel and the Rommel while everyone was getting ready to launch.
"The Rommel has a complement of three MS platoons as well as two spare grunt MS' and my second custom MS Starlancer, a heavily modified and customized version of the MSZ-006C1 Zeta Plus C1. The other machines are the modified RX-80PR-3 Pale Rider Dullahan (which are my bodyguards), three RGM-89D Jegan D Types, one RGM-89De Jegan (ECOAS Type), and the AMS-129 Geara Zulus" Alex said to himself before an unexpecting voice came over the radio. "Moving Silver Gundam to Catapult two."
'Well, it seems that Sol's friends are helping out' Alex thought to himself with a gentle smile on his face, "OK kiddos, this is a breakthrough operation, we are to push back any inbound ZAFT mobile suits and check your aim for those who have heavy weapons, set proximity fuses on missiles… I would rather not have the colony damaged any further, got it?"
"Yes sir" everyone else including Kira replied.
"Good, time to kick the tires and light the fires," Alex said while Kira was placed on catapult one. The Strike was being equipped with the 15.78m "Schwert Gewehr" anti-ship sword, and slightly bulky shoulder armor with the "Midas Messer" beam boomerang that is placed over the Strike's left shoulder, and the "Panzer Eisen" Rocket Anchor on its left lower arm but to Kira surprise, the 57mm High-energy Beam Rifle was also added.
"Bridge, this is Kira. Why is the Strike being equipped with the beam rifle?" Kira asked before Ensign Badgiruel replied back.
"Alex requested that the Strike be equipped with one for mid-range combat as well as dealing with any missiles that do get by."
"Roger." Kira said before thinking to himself 'Well, best to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.'
"Alexander Crossfare, Silver Gundam. Annihilating the enemy."
"Kira Yamato, Strike, Launching."
"Solrena Crossfare, Valor Gundam. Taking Off."
"Rayet Areash, Malice Gundam. Taking out the enemy."
"Inaho Kaizuka, Werewolf Gundam. Launching."
"Yuki Kaizuka, Blademaster Gundam. Taking Off."
"Marito Koichiro, Hurricane Gundam. Launching."
"Koji Himura, Command Shiki. Assassinating the Enemy."
All of the Mobile Suits launched from the Archangel while the Mobile Suit complement of the Rommel launched as well, with Chloe's Todesritter leading them. Alex could see around two dozen GINNs with a small handful of CGUEs. Alex could see one GINN that is orange which he denoted as an Ace.
"Hmm? Well, this is interesting." Alex said to himself, "Ah… Archangel, it seems that ZAFT has decided to send the Aegis out. They've most likely already extracted the data from them and, I see the Buster, Duel and the Blitz with them as well."
"Sir, I have a question?" One of the Jegan pilots called out.
"Go ahead, pilot."
"Sir, do ZAFT Mobile Suits remind you of Zeon's Mobile Suits?"
"Yes, they do. I was shocked when I was shown them during the assault on Sentry Base last year." Alex said as he brought up the image of the GINN, "I'm guessing that some of our former Zeon pilots are kinda taken aback of the appearance."
"DAMN STRAIGHT, BOSS!" One of the Geara Zulu pilots yelled over the comms, making everyone winced at his uproar, "Those machines are nothing more than knock-offs!"
"I could see them finding a partial blueprint of the MS-06C Zaku II somewhere."
"Ok, enough chatter." Alex said, "Listen up, it is going to be a target rich environment so check your aim and do NOT use heavy weapons. Raider Platoon, I want you to act as mobile defense for the Archangel as she has no flak batteries. Echo Platoon, try to cull the herd into a manageable amount. Guardian Platoon, your job is to down any missiles that get past me and the other gundam pilots."
"Boss, where do you want the Rommel at?" Captain Burns asked.
"Captain, have the Rommel above the Archangel to act as covering fire, use only the flak batteries, point defense weapon systems, and missiles that have their proximity fuses set to go off at a predetermined distance." Alex ordered the captain before shifting his attention to the incoming ZAFT forces, "And, looks like they really want to blow the Archangel along with anyone with them as these dicks have heavy weapons."
"What?! They're insane!" Murrue said.
"Well, I wonder who their CO is shoot them in the fucking face for what they are about to do." Alex said. Athrun see's that the Sentinels have deployed several mobile suits as well as the five other G-weapons including the Silver G-weapon and the two machines that held the GINNs back during their first incursion into the colony, Athrun swore as he activated one of his beam sabers blocked the silver machines attack as it activated it beam sabers that are also pistols.
'Good reflexes, but not good enough,' Alex thought as he pushed Silver's thrusters to full power, which caused the ZAFT pilot to panic as the Aegis was pushed back with unexpected force.
"WHAT?!" Athrun yelled as he was being push back, 'How can a machine have this much thrust, no machine is this strong nor this fast' He thought as recalled as the battle began, Yzak was dealing with the Strike look-alike with a beam weapon on its shoulder while Dearka was unable to get close due to the black mobile suit as it was keeping him back, Nicol was dealing with another stealth mobile suit. The rest of the ZAFT Forces are dealing with GINN look-alikes as well as what look like Mass production units of the Strike but at the same time they are not. Sentinel pilots are extremely skilled as they were able to eliminate many ZAFT mobile suits.
"DAMN IT! WHY WON'T YOU STAY STILL?!" Yzak yelled at the Strike copy as it dodge his shots before Dearka called out over the radio, "Yzak, mind toning it down a bit? I'd rather NOT have my eardrums ruptured."
"How about you help me, Dearka?!"
"No can do Yzak, busy here as I am trying not to get pierced as well as trying not to get in the flak umbrella and torn to shreds."
Several more GINNs led by a couple of CGUEs charged the Archangel from the port side, Sentinel pilots in the RGM-89D Jegan D Types that were with Alex during the "Laplace Incident" were reminded of that day. "Are you guys getting a sense of deja vu?"
"Yeah, reminds me of the battle at Industrial 7 during the UC era." One of the pilots said as he downed a GINN with his beam rifle, "Hell, I don't think these guys were ready to face us without any beam weapons aside from the four Gundam-types."
"Keep in mind that they will have beam-equipped Mobile Suits sooner or later, folks." The commander of the platoon fired his beam rifle at a couple of missiles as they were launched while the other two missiles were downed by the Archangel's CIWS defense systems.
"I wonder how our friends in Echo are handling it? I heard one of them was screaming about ZAFT's Mobile Suits being nothing more than Zaku knock-offs."
"Well, judging by how one of the Geara Zulus is tearing apart ZAFT's forces…. I'd say that they feel insulted." Another one of Raider Platoon's pilots replied as he was keeping tabs on Echo platoon as they tore into ZAFT GINNs with unchained fury.
Elsewhere, Kira was dealing with an orange GINN that was faster than the standard but not as fast as the Strike. Kira was using the beam rifle to force the GINN away but at the same time he could not get past it's shield which gave Kira a pause at first sight as GINNs never have shields in the first place. Kira had dodge a blast that hit one of the secondary support cables.
"Damn, I can't get close enough to hit it." Kira said with a bit of annoyance in his tone. Kira wasn't the only one who was annoyed, Miguel was also getting pissed as he kept on missing.
"Hold still would you?!" Miguel said in anger as the Strike dodged a blast from the ion cannon, but the Silver G-weapon came from above and kicked him down to the EA ships where the red G-weapon came out nowhere as it punched his GINN with enough force that it knocked him out.
"Take that machine and place it on the Rommel, I would like to talk to the pilot." Alex ordered as the Aegis came at him with one of its beam sabers active which Alex blocked with one of his beam pistols in the form of a beam saber. Kira was in thought while taking out two missiles before queuing up Alex on the comms
"Alex, I know who is in the Aegis." Kira said which surprised Alex as he pushed the Aegis back.
"Well do you now, who is in the seat of the Aegis?"
"A friend of mine… Athrun Zala."
"Athrun Zala, as in son of Patrick Zala?" Alex asked as he was forced to dodge a shot from the Aegis' beam rifle.
"Yes. I knew him from a Preparatory School in Copernicus City before he moved to the plants." Kira said, Alex thought for a few seconds before opening comms to the Aegis.
Athrun knew that Alex was in front of him and knew that he couldn't beat Alex but before he could do, he was contacted by Alex which made Athrun curious which he opened up and was surprised that Alex was the one contacting him.
"Well, never expect you to contact me Mr. Crossfare." Athrun said with a bit of shock in his tone.
"Please, call me Alex. Mr. Crossfare was my father." Alex said with a chuckle, "And yes, I really never contact an enemy as I am usually trying to shove my size 40 metal boot up someone's size one ass, young Athrun Zala."
This statement took Athrun by surprise as Alex probably knew his father thanks to the signing of the Geneva Convention before he thought, 'But how did he know about him unless, no it can't be' Athrun contacting the strike via comms to confirm that it is Kira. "Kira, Kira Yamato. Please respond."
"Well, looks like the young Zala is calling you, kiddo." Alex said to Kira as both heard Athrun's voice over the comms which made Kira react in surprise as video image of Athrun. This made Kira catch his breath.
"A.. Athrun." Kira choked as he said his friend's name.
"Kira." Athrun replied as he looked at the strike.
"Athrun, what are you here. Why are you doing this." Kira called out as he dodged GINN that came up behind him before using the sword to cut the GINN in half.
"You're the one to talk, why are you in that thing." Athrun awensered back.
"Well, I suggest that you rethink what you said and think about the actions that you did kid and on top of that, Kira is an Orb civilian." Alex said as he shot two more GINNs and a CGUE down, "Your little operation forced him into this and can't you people wait until EA's machines are out of the colony before stealing them."
Athrun thought about it and the Sentinels leader had a point as this operation was launched too early and attacking a neutral nation will cause a major problem and will have the PLANTs to pay the cost of an entire colony.
As the battle went on and the little chat between Kira, Alex and Athrun as well, Inaho shot down two GINNs with his MS' machine pistols before turning to see a GINN who was charging the Archangel with his payload as it malfunctioned and was unable to fire. Inaho calculated the time before impact with how fast the Werewolf railgun rounds speed. After a few mental calculations, Inaho sent Alex a message if he could use one of the railguns to take out an enemy as well as sending him the calculations which Alex gave him to go ahead. Inaho aimed the left Railguns and fired a 204mm High velocity slug going around Mach 20, hitting the GINN as the pilot was not fast enough to dodge the round and was obliterated. He turned to see that the battle was now going into their favor as ZAFT mobile suits were running low until one of the ZAFT GINNs, that was destroyed by one of the Geara Zulu, arms still had its missiles and it fired unexpectedly. The missile detonated upon impact with the central support column, which caused a chain reaction as the column began to rip itself apart due to the colony's axial rotation.
"Damn it! All forces, brace for immediate decompression and try to get close to the ships! Archangel, Rommel, gets some distance between the two of you lest you risk collison!" Alex ordered everyone as the colony started to collapse all around them. Alex turned to see the Strike being pulled out along with the Aegis and himself due to the decompression of the colony.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" Kira yelled as he was pulled out of the colony.
"KIRA, NO!" Athrun called out as he was pulled out near another opening of the collapsing colony.
As the colony began to shudder and collapse, the emergency shelters defaulted to their purpose as escape vessels - as they launched out of the doomed colony in waves to save as many people as possible. At the same time, what few civilian ships that were capable of moving at the time were beginning to high-tail it out of the colony as well.
One ship was just warming up - as its lone crewman groaned as he disengaged the locks to the harbor. "What the hell are those idiots thinking?" He muttered, brushing his black hair back as he observed the colony's collapse from within. "This kind of damage had to have been done by D-Type Gear…" His scarlet eyes closed, as he took a moment to center himself. "...heads are going to fucking roll when this gets back to the PLANT's… let alone Orb…"
He maneuvered the ship through the collapsing debris the colony was projecting, letting out a deep, regretful sigh. "...at least they had some more warning, time to evacuate…" he muttered. As the shower of debris slowly came to a halt, he was able to engage the ship's auto-pilot, which freed him up to leave the cockpit.
'Shit's been getting crazier and crazier…' he mused to himself, 'First those Sentinel guys show up, and now ZAFT attacking an Orb Colony... damn world's gone mad…'
He stepped to the back of the ship - where a well-sized cargo bay could be found. However within it was a single object: a large humanoid mobile weapon, completed with a V-head crest. "Well… it's not too bad…" he muttered, smiling wryly. "At least I got you out… Crimson."
The machine, of course, didn't respond to him - but the man chuckled as if it did. "Yeah yeah, I know you hate being cooped up in here," he said, "But… call it a gut feeling, but I think you'll be seeing some real action soon, buddy."
With the Sentinel fleet, the admiral was now angry as he knew that the boss would not allow heavy weapons to be used inside of a colony. "My god… How could this happen." One of the bridge crew called out as everyone was looking at the colony as it was breaking apart while the fleet was making flank speed while guiding civilian vessels away from the harbor.
"Admiral, orders?" the captain of the ship asked.
"Contact Captain Kirk and have him send out his mobile suits along with the ones from the St. Louis," Tenith ordered before he turned to look at the destroyed colony.
"May god have mercy on their souls." He muttered.
Elsewhere at the same time, Ptolemaios
Deep inside a dense resource asteroid field, a blue and white ship whose hull was in the general form of an aquatic animal drifted, using the asteroids as cover. The ship is the Ptolemaios, the home base for the four Gundam Meisters and their Gundams, which was currently in the process of replacing the last two original containers with Assault Containers. In the ship's briefing room were several large screens located on both the floor and the walls along with a series of handrails meant for navigation and anchoring one's body in microgravity. The room was currently occupied, with several people having gathered with one of the screens on the wall currently showing another group of people and the screen on the floor showing recordings from Heliopolis. One of them is the team's tactical forecaster, Sumeragi Lee Noriega, who had been indulging in a nice beer buzz until she got the mission report from Lockon. This, in turn, prompted her to gather everyone in the briefing room and contact their support ship, the Euclides, to finish up with the resupply as soon as possible.
"Well, this is a mess," Sumeragi said as she looked at the data as well as a video that Lockon recorded, which was currently showing him dueling it out with a sniper unit on a ship that managed to exit the colony before ZAFT destroyed the EA transport to block the Sentinel fleet that was in the colony at the time.
"Yeah, Sentinel pilots are far more skilled than VEDA's predictions." Lockon said as he leaned on one of the rails, "That pilot was able to track the direction of the shot I made and got our location."
"Yes, and on top of that," Sumeragi said as the video switched to another on where the Virtue fired its GN Bazooka at the ship and failed to destroy it, "Your thoughts, Ian?"
Ian Vashti, Celestial Being's most talented engineer, looked at the video, "Well… Sentinel does have a larger lead than Celestial Being if what they say is true, and that would give them at least eight decades to improve their craft and make technology that would either rival us… or surpass us altogether." He said.
"That, and there is also the other problem." He added with a bit of worry in his tone.
"The pseudo-Gundams," Setsuna spoke up.
"Yeah, first off is the silver machine," Ian said as he brought up the video of Exia being pushed back by said silver Gundam. "This machine was able to overpower the Exia with just its thrust alone. Just how is that possible?"
"The GN Drive should allow us to have the advantage over everyone else, including range and atmospheric flight." The team's innovade said, "But the Sentinels, on the other hand, have reactors capable of producing vast amounts of power."
"More powerful than the ultracompact batteries that ZAFT had developed and are not affected by the N-Jammers."
"Then there's that black mobile suit," Lockon said, remembering it's beam saber cutting through his own as the images of that particular event were brought up.
"Yeah, for them to have something like this is outside of our understanding….. and for the fact that it is blue in color instead of pink." Ian spoke while looking at the data regarding the blade cutting through Dynames' own beam saber, "We need more information on it so we can create a way to counter it."
"What about the other machines?" Lockon spoke as he looked at the screen, with brought up images of a bulky green mobile suit with four gatling-type weapon with two on each arm, four missile pods with one on top of the twin gatling cannons and two on the shoulder, and two unknown weapons mounted on the back of the lower arms. While the green mobile suit was using the four gatling cannons to keep Kyrios away, a black and teal colored mobile suit equipped with no ranged weapons at all was just standing there waiting for a chance that one of the Gundams would make a mistake and enter it's blade range. Meanwhile, a blue and white mobile suit equipped with two railgun-type weapons and two missile pods mounted with one of each on each shoulder was firing its beam machine pistols, and it was also equipped with two unknown weapons mounted on the back of its lower arms. The white pseudo-Gundam is firing it's beam rifle and what looks to be a rapid-fire beam machine gun mounted on its left shoulder with a missile pod mounted in its right and the last two machines are standing near the green pseudo-Gundam. The first of the two is a red mobile suit with a missile pod mounted on it's left lower leg, and firing its weapons and it is also equipped with a shield like the white one. The last pseudo-Gundam is EA's mobile suit that has been by the looks of things, successfully saved from ZAFT's infiltration team. It was using a weapon that was handed to it from the red mobile suit, on its back was some sort of heavy weapon. The video kept playing until two ships appeared within the colony.
"Well, I will say this…. Let's forget about their appearances for now and focus on their technology." Ian said as new images were brought up which included the two battleships, "From what I can get from the Gundam's sensor logs, I can deduce that the EA mobile suit is using compressed particles that have a composition comparable to that of high-end plasma which allows it to rival the Virtue's GN Bazooka." Then he used a console to maneuver some of the images around, "I want to know what it's limits are, and what its power source is? How long can it stay active? Can it use its beams indefinitely or does it have a limit? What type of propulsion system does it use? What is it's armor composition? Then there's the ship." The image of EA's newest ship was brought forward, "What type of armor can stop the Virtue's attack? If all of this technology gets mass produced…."
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. It was clear on what it meant.
"What I would love to know," The team's sniper spoke up, "Is how come we didn't notice this any sooner or have any information about this?"
Feldt Grace, the ship's pink-haired tech specialist and CIC operator answered Lockon's question. "For Sentinel, it is extremely difficult to get any info on their operations as we have no idea for their reasons. But Veda came up with a proposed idea that they are improving their technology that they bought from Morgenroete as well as them having beam weapons is probably due to that during the UC era, beam weapons were produced around early/mid 0060s to mid/late 0070s. The first beam weapons were mounted on warships then during the One Year War, with the Earth Federation Forces being the first to develop MS-scale beam weapons along with its newest mobile weapon, the RX-78-2 Gundam." Feldt brought up images of said mobile suit that Sentinel have provided through to let everyone know about the past.
"To think that this... Earth Federation built a Gundam more than 400 years ago," Tieria muttered with a hint of anger as he looked at the image.
"And they made them in limited numbers as well." Allelujah said as the images of the limited produced Ground-type Gundams and other identical RX-78 Gundams were brought up.
"Ok, so Sentinel has been using beam weapons for a long time. What about Earth Alliance's mobile suit?" Setsuna asked.
"Thanks to Orb's neutrality and what info we have on their leader, Uzume Nara Athha, Veda has determined that Orb is a low-priority concern compared to ZAFT. While we do know about Admiral Halberton, he initiated a research project with Morgenroete's President and owner, Rondo Ghina Sahaku. However, they were still 10-15 years away from making a viable MS-scale beam weapon... but if they have data on Sentinel's beam weaponry, then it is only 4-8 year instead. Our attention was directed at ZAFT instead of EA and Orb, as ZAFT have already fielded their own beam weapons and their beam weapon development program is more accelerated than EAs." Feldt was right as ZAFT beam weapon technology was farther ahead than either Earth Alliances or Orbs but was severely lacking when compared to Sentinels as they had 81 years of research and development. On top of that, ZAFTs M69 "Barrus Kai" Heavy Ion Cannon was big and bulky, it also has a slow rate of fire and was only comparable to Exia's GN Sword/Rifle in terms of power output. The weapon was a low threat to the Gundams, but did indicate the rate of development which ZAFTs beam weapon project was going but the Sentinels beam weapons were far, far more superior to ZAFT and Celestial Beings beam weapons as they had time to refine it.
"We should've destroyed them when we had the chance," Tieria said while giving Lockon a look but was taken aback by Setsuna as he said, "Doubt that would have happened, Tieria, as the silver mobile suit would go straight after you after he would have finished me off."
Everyone was thinking on what Setsuna said and would agree with him as Sentinels leader was the most experienced and also has the highest mobile suit kill score of around 1000 kills thanks to the eight decades of combat experience compared to every else.
"What about the EA and Sentinel's new mobile suits?" The ship's Innovade spoke, "We can't just let it go. They would compromise the plan that Aeolia Schenberg laid out."
"Space is a big place, Tieria. We will let Veda and the Observers deal with it as there is little that we can do right now. This was to be the final test run of your machines, as your first true mission will happen in a few days, so rest up." Sumeragi said with a sigh, but the ship's other CIC operator called them via video communication.
"Miss Sumeragi, we have a problem!" Christina called with panic in her voice.
"What is it, Chris?" The tactical forecaster asked.
"Heliopolis was just destroyed!" "WHAT?! How? When?"
"Sometime after the meisters left." The brown haired girl said as she brought up a video that was caught from a ship that was leaving showed the colony collapsing.
"The hell, what the hell happened for it to collapse?" Allelujah asked.
"Could it be the Sentinels?" Tieria said.
"No, they would never use heavy weapons inside the colony and they hold themselves with a high sense of honor and have a moral compass. The EA's new mobile suit was trying to get a shot at me, but Haro moved Dynames for the shot to miss." Lockon said, "However, I have a sinking suspicion that it might have been ZAFT's doing, but it depends on who was the commander of the operation."
"Right. Everyone, it looks like things are going to get harder from here on out. Feldt, I want you to see what you can find on who was leading the ZAFT forces at Heliopolis." Sumeragi said before turning to Ian, "Ian, I want you to see if you can get some better upgrades for the Gundams, as we are definitely going to need them, and as the rest of you," She called out to the meisters, "I want all of you to rest for now until your first intervention."
"Roger/Affirmative/You got it/Yes ma'am" everyone replied.
Sumeragi turned to the image on the floor as the image of the Silver Gundam was in full view. 'This is going to be difficult as the Sentinels have advantage over everyone else. Hell I would think that if Celestial Being were to be in the UC era, I think we would be living our worst nightmare. I need a drink.' She thought to herself and shivered at the thought of the OYW before turning off the screens and leaving.
AN:Chapter 2 is done, it took a while to finish and any help would be appreciated also the chapter was shorter than the previous chapter as later chapters would range .
Also, still looking for OCs, custom mobile suits, custom ships as well as if possible factions. I am not taking on any OCs from the Universal Century but am looking for OCs from AD, AG, AW, AC, PD, and CE. You can have a custom ship with a custom MS from the six eras as long as your OC Bio has some sort of thought on the events of the Prologue as well as I'm in the neighborhood for a beta writer. Please Like, Follow, and Commit and have a good day.
Ship Data:
Rommel-Class Assault Carrier
Unit Type: Assault Carrier
Ships of the Line: Rommel
Manufacture: Sentinel Fleet Works
Operator: Sentinel Navy
First Deployment: UC:0083
Length: 485m
Width: 80m
Height: 98m
Equipment and Design Features:
Foldable Radiator Fins
175 x I-Field Emitters
4 x I-Field Generators
3m of Gundarium γ
2m of Titanium
Laminated Armor (Rommel only)
Armament:
4 x Dual 408mm Beam Cannons
8 x 204mm Railguns
24 x Dual 88mm Gauss Flak Batteries
10 x 6-Barrel 65mm MK15A2 Phalanx-Type CIWS
14 x 10-Tube Missile Pods
8 x 60-Cell VLS bays
8 x M1001 "Reverence" Tactical Weapons Platforms
Complement:
16 Mobile Suits
2 Marine Regiments
1430 Ensigns
435 Officers
Technical & History:
Info will come at a later point.