(Phase 03: Face Punches and Missing Flags)
Kira had found it out the hard way.
When she has little to do (after her term with the scavenge crews) and when he has no excuse to be away from her, Flay tended to…well…not want to leave him. For what it was worth, she had not spazzed out like she had done over a week ago and a world away in Morgenroete. If anything, she had started acting even more clingy than she was prior, which was starting to worry Kira to no end. He could justify it, but it still worried him, since one or both of them could get hurt badly in such a relationship.
Or they would end up getting married, but Kira thought that the remote of the two results. He didn't think Flay was planning on that, but there was a small possibility…
A week had passed since they arrived here. Kira estimated that now the Blitz and Aegis were fully powered and about as ready to attack the Archangel as any. So, Kira had to keep himself ready to fight at any time, and that meant the Aile Strike was hot on the catapult all the time, since it was obvious that they would come. They still wanted to sink the Archangel, for all it would be a meaningless victory, and they still wanted their machines back.
The ship was moving now, had to be at least once a day, since super-wench had come back twice after Tolle got rid of her the first time. Strangely, she had not come back for round four; Kira had this weak feeling that she had run afoul of Athrun and not survived. Despite his present issues with his former friend, or perchance cause of them, Kira figured Athrun would be significantly unwilling to put up with any wench that tried attacking them without cause.
"I think we should play a game, Kira," Flay notes in such a fashion that caused him to dread the obligatory response.
"Well, I think we should—" The alarm goes off, causing her to jolt slightly.
"All hands, level one battle stations! Aegis sighted!" Natarle orders over the ship intercom.
"Sorry, Flay." Kira jumps up and was out the door before she could even begin to protest. (1)
This time, Kira beat Tolle and Mu out to the hangar by almost a minute, but not before the first beams hit the Archangel. Athrun was playing for keeps, and that is how Kira wanted it. Best to settle this fast.
"Kira Yamato, Aile Strike, Launching!" As soon as he leaves the ship he banks right and toward the Aegis. "Damn it Athrun, what's your reason for fighting?"
"The time for talk is long past!" Athrun was not intent on running himself out of power, and immediately went in with shield and beam saber against Kira who was armed and defended similarly.
"This makes no sense! Even if you win, it means nothing!" Kira shouts as he drives Athrun's saber outside, away from the body of the Strike.
"It'll mean something to us, even if we can't get off this damned world!" The two Gundams had landed and the pilots were tearing into each other with power and form in their swings, in a rather desperate attempt to stop the other first. The nature of it was well past absurd, since they were long-time friends basically trying to kill each other over flags (and nations) that they would likely never see again.
"Kira, need an assist?"
"No, Tolle, I think I can handle him for now." The wild antics that had the attention of the Strike also were aiding the Blitz in approaching the now landed warship. Everything was watching the Aegis, except for…
"What the—" Tolle could have sworn he saw movement out of the front viewscreen. The green flash of a beam rifle startled him, all the more so that several of his indicators went red and even more so because the firing point appeared to be 15 meters in front of him. He jerked the control stick and by accident the trigger, firing off a burst of the Gun Launcher down the catapult tube. Nicol had him beat partially, the shield of the Blitz stopped two thirds of the pattern; the rest got the right arm of the Blitz and flayed it open, visibly causing sparks. "Huh? There's something in the port-side catapult deck!" Tolle shouts, realizing he had just shot something. Quite by accident. "Oh, shit, Bridge, cat-shot me! Now!" Tolle shouts as the first thing that comes to his mind.
"Buster, Launch!" Miriallia shouts over the protest of Natarle, and activates the catapult of her own volition.
Nicol was ready for more or less anything, but not this. The Buster had activated the PS armor just as the catapult fired, but the Blitz was still in Mirage Colloid and not protected from impacts. The Gundams collided at the end of the catapult and Tolle dragged the Blitz out of the Archangel by pure inertia. When they got to the forests a mere thirty meters outside the ship, the first thing to be lost was the right arm of the Blitz, followed hotly by its head and other arm as they were sheared off by the trees. In comparison, the only thing the Buster lost was its gun launcher, yanked out of its hand and sitting about three meters in front of the port-side Lohengrin.
Before Tolle could do anything else, the pilot had blown open the cockpit and three persons got out of the Blitz, running east and toward the Strike v. Aegis fight. Tolle was quite shocked to see that the three persons that emerged from the Gundam looked younger than he did, but not by much. He did not doubt that they were pilots, however.
-x-x-x-
"ATHRUN!" Kira shouts as he drives in wildly against the Aegis. It was on an open channel, so everyone up to and including some poor bastard with a crystal-set radio could hear it.
"Damn you KIRA!" Athrun's mind went crystal clear and overdrive, and he saw with unclouded perception what needed to happen. (2)
As Kira went in against Athrun's left, he obliged the Strike by offering his shield—he ejected it, which forced Kira to watch the moving object and not the Aegis. With the Strike momentarily distracted, Athrun jump-kicked the Strike's left arm with his right leg and the same beam saber. This had the effect of both driving the Strike left and away from Athrun, but also severed the shield arm of the great Strike Gundam. That accomplished, Athrun drove in against the Strike himself, using both arm-mounted sabers in a combination of spiking punch-style attacks, one of which grazed the torso of the Strike but caused little damage.
"ATHRUN!!!" Kira shouts again, and as Athrun takes a right cross slash at the Strike, it ducks under it and comes back up right in his face—the beam saber drives right into the upper chest of the Aegis, severing the main upper power relay that fed the arms and head of the Gundam, not to mention the neural linkage for the Gundam. Athrun had two seconds before his internals and beam sabers died, starved of power. The Aegis, on Athrun's final bit of available power, drives its left beam saber into the torso of the Strike, slightly off-center, causing the strike to immediately revert to standard armor mode and stop moving (3).
Then, the unexpected: The inertia of their fighting, now unchecked by the Gundams' (dead) control and movement systems, caused their Gundams to collapse; the Strike literally landed on top of the Aegis with what could be described as a full body press, slightly angled and off-center. It began settling immediately, and everyone on the bridge could tell it was destined to slide into the trench.
The first to blow open their cockpit was Athrun, followed by Kira firing the explosive bolts on his; he had to worm his way out of a small crack where the door could not completely open, but he managed. When he was out on top of the Aegis, the Strike slid farther left and partway down into the trench in the ground, leaving only the legs sticking up and visible to the Archangel.
"Damnit, Kira! I'm gonna kick your ass for this shit!" Athrun threw down his helmet and put his dukes up, more than ready for the battle. As far as he was concerned, this was a simple extension of the Mobile Suit battle.
Kira had nothing to say in response, just an action. He threw his pilot helmet at Athrun, followed hotly by charging him and jumping at him in an attempt to grapple. The fist fight was on.
-x-x-x-
Despite her officer's uniform, Murrue was heavily loaded. She was carrying the standard Earth Alliance assault rifle, her usual pistol, and a pair of flashbangs (4). Natarle had the same outfit, as well as a combat knife (Murrue doubted she would be as good as any of the pilots with it) and Mu had only his pilot's hold-out pistol. Ten crewmembers and assorted mechanics had decided to follow, armed with everything from pipe wrenches all the way to assault rifles, and most had pistols. And five 'Marines' had decided to follow, with body armor, gear harness, and assault rifles.
Tolle was standing over the scene with the Buster, looking down into the trench with more than just a ration of amazement. So were the three other ZAFT pilots, who everyone was crassly ignoring right now in favor of the battle in the trench below. Watching Kira jump-grapple Athrun was a rather interesting happening to most of the crew of the Archangel, and quite shocking to Athrun, who never figured his long-time friend that violent even under the worst of circumstances.
When Murrue got to the trench, all she needed was to look down at the two pilots trading punches like the whole matter was going out of style. She was professional, and special forces; nobody did anything as comical as to point a weapon at the two fighters; this was something best resolved by them, she could sense. The remainder she could handle, especially since the three ZAFT pilots were not all that intent on causing trouble, they were just cheering on their pilot. To point of fact: "C'mon, Athrun, kick the shit out of him!" The one with the silvered-blue hair shouts. Whump. "No, no not like that—yeah! Do it! Kick his face in!" Whump, whap. "Damnit, Athrun, you fight like a girl! C'mon, I know you can kick his ass!"
"Somebody get him a bowl of popcorn so he shuts the hell up." Tolle says over the external loudspeaker, which made it incredibly audible to everyone below. Dearka and even Nicol (despite his broken arm) found it uproariously funny; Yzak went bright red, realizing that there were now about twenty watching the fight, and more coming, and he just got ripped by a natural piloting Dearka's machine. He looked up, thinking—yep, the beam cannon was still pointed right at them. Making trouble would be very bad for his health.
"How long have they been going at it?"
"I dunno, somewhere above six minutes?" Newman replies to the Captain, his assault rifle slung low and safed for the time being. "Ten bucks on Kira. He seems to be doing better by the numbers."
"I dunno, that ZAFT guy seems to be doing pretty well. Could be close," Mu notes with a bit of whimsy.
"My big question is, why are they settling this with a fist fight if they both know this battle has no meaning?" Nicol asks from in the group of ZAFT elites.
"I dunno." Dearka shrugs phlegmatically, scratching his head during. "Built-up frustration, maybe?"
"I dunno about the Strike Pilot, but I think Athrun just needs to get laid," Yzak notes sardonically.
"For a pop star, Lacus must be incredibly 'proper' I guess," Nicol says with a shrug.
"Hey! What's going on? What's so interesting?" Nicol looks to the speaker, and immediately chokes. It was Hikaru, boldly leading the other two Magic Knights. Right up to the largest group in Cephiro with automatic guns. That more than else made Dearka, Nicol, and Yzak question their sanity, until Nicol chocked it up to naiveté. They probably weren't all that knowledgeable about guns.
"Oh, hey." He waves with his off-arm, since his right arm was broken. "The last echo of our war from back home. We've already lost the battle, but those two aren't going to be content until one wins, I guess."
The three girls look over the edge of the trench, down the ten meters to where the battle was happening. "This makes no sense." Fuu notes sharply.
"No kidding," Umi notes. "Should we drop in and break it up?"
"Are you joking?" Dearka asks in a rush. "You try that, they'll tear you to bits. Those guys are Coordinators, they ain't going to let the three of you stop them." He looks to the fighters below, then back to the Magic Knights. "Probably the best of us, as well."
"Oh," Hikaru gasps. The way they were fighting right now made even her doubt her ability to fight when the chips were down—and she had both magic armor and a magic sword, whereas these two were going hand to hand.
Whap, whud, whap, whap, whap, whomp. The fight below continued completely unhindered by the crowd above them, mainly because nobody wanted to try and get between. There comes a point in which people can sense that trying to stop a progressing fight becomes more hazardous than the net outcome of the fight, and every Earth Alliance and ZAFT person there could sense that. So, sensibly, they decided they'd watch instead of becoming victim to the fight.
It was just when Athrun was going to lunge in on a fallen Kira to beat him down while on the ground that the circumstances changed. Athrun was stopped cold by Kira's foot, who kicked him backwards and into a pile of rocks from some form of avalanche. The rocks scattered, revealing a large blue circular gem attached to what would otherwise be some form of ornamental staff. Seeing that stopped Kira cold, and when Athrun deigned to look at what his former friend was, so did it stop him cold. "What the hell?" Athrun asks.
"No—no way!" Fuu shouts. "That's Master Mage Cleff!"
"What?" Nicol looks down and sideways, where the battle had paused. "What, that blue thing set into stone?"
"That's his staff." Umi says. "Now we know it's for real."
"Like anyone with a proper mind would doubt that," Yzak says rather coldly.
"Yeah right, you're not the one that was torn from a school field trip in 1990's Tokyo and dropped in a world full of monsters!" Umi shouts at Yzak from two meters.
"You're not the one that was yanked from a Mobile Suit shooting war in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and dropped in a world where magic is all that's around!" Yzak retorts from half a meter closer than when she was shouting.
"Both of you spoiled brats shut up," Dearka says tiredly, then looks over the edge of the cliff. "Athrun, hey, the girls say that's Master Mage Cleff! Try and get that rock off him!"
"That?" Athrun points to the pile of stone. "He looks like an ornate stone statue!"
"Zagato turned him to stone the first day we were here. It is him!" Hikaru confirms for the pilots below.
"Hey, Mister Murdoch! Toss me that Breaker Bar!" Kira shouts.
"What?" Murdoch shouts in answer. "Two minutes ago you were gonna kill him, now you're gonna help 'im unbury that statue? What the hell are you smoking, kid?" The look he got from Kira was enough of an answer. "All right, all right, you win. Here!" Murdoch dead-tosses the breaker bar into the ground several meters away from the pilots.
"You know, I don't have a freaking clue what's going on right now, but I'll go with it. Murdoch," Murrue prompts from a meter away.
"Yes, ma'am?"
"Call for a recovery vehicle. Some of that is way too big for them to move."
"Captain, I request an explanation, please," Natarle says.
"You know, I don't have one to give, but my gut tells me that statue may hold an answer or two." Murrue shrugs. Natarle made fair to protest, but was silenced by an upheld hand. "Right or wrong, I know you're going to put this in your report, so don't worry about it. Chances are better than 90 to 10 Admiral Southerland is going to strip this section out of the reports on general grounds. Who in their right mind would believe any of this?"
Natarle nodded thoughtfully, looking down at the two Pilots trying to unbury a Master Mage that had been turned to stone. "Yeah, Captain, I don't think anyone short of a very understanding God would believe this. The Admiralty is going to have our asses for lunch, regardless of how many of the crew stand up and say this is what happened." She nods toward the ZAFT Pilots and the three girls in partial armor. "Likely the same with them. Either the firing squad or the insane asylum."
"Did I hear them right? Schoolgirls from 1990s Tokyo?" Newman asks suspiciously.
"You did," Natarle confirms.
"Man, I thought we had it bad, but we got a warship and three Gundams. They started with jack and they survived."
"You said it," Kuzzey acknowledges Newman's point. "They seem to be getting along with the ZAFT guys, so I guess they can't all be evil, probably the same with that one down there."
The recovery truck, a glorified tow-truck with a 20-ton tow boom, backs up to the cliff edge and lowers the stabilizer jacks. "Hey, Kira! I'm sending down a winch cable! Use it to clear the big crap off 'im!"
"Right!" Kira replies as Murdoch pulls the 'extend' lever. Still they were cautiously moving the lighter rocks, making sure they did not cause damage to the statue. The pile was fairly large and complex, and they had a long way to go.
-x-x-x-
Nicol was still flexing his arm about an hour after Fuu had healed it. And, he had to admit, probably still blushing about it.
He knew he had it broke in the battle with the Buster. Losing to a Natural would get him ribbed to no end by Yzak and Dearka, especially such a kamikaze attack as being hammered by a catapulted suit. No matter. They were fated to lose, a classic case of 'shit happens' in non-military parlance, Nicol knew. He was willing to admit it, and be resigned to his new fate. And really, it's not like they would ever sink this ship. It was cursed, classic: the Archangel would probably survive well past the end of time, regardless of how many thousands of ZAFT aces came and tried after the Zala Team were long dead and buried.
Down in the trench, it ended up being Hikaru, Kira, Athrun, Dearka, and one of the Archangel Mechanics pulling stones off the statue. Some of the stones even challenged the recovery vehicle, which was not a simple feat in Nicol's estimate. Those recovery vehicles were designed to pull a stuck Mobile Suit out of whatever jam it was in. Still, progress was happening at a painstaking rate, for they wanted to make sure they caused no damage to Cleff.
Other recovery teams had gone out to pick up the damaged machines and chunks of Gundam, and right now the only machine that was not hangared was the Buster. The pilot had sensibly shut off the Phase Shift, which left a damn near zero power drain on the suit. Likely he had enough juice to fire the beam rifle on that thing several dozen times. Nicol had no doubt that right now the Earth Alliance was holding the whole deck of cards.
"We're clear!" Athrun shouts from the trench below. More than a few cheers come from all three groups present: ZAFT, the Magic Knights, and the Archangel.
"Can you secure the statue to be pulled up?" The Archangel's captain asks. Other than probably being old enough to be his mother in Nicol's estimate, her appearance and sense of humanity were impressive.
"Easily!" The Strike Pilot shouts. "Toss me down some 200-kilo load straps!"
"Here!" Murdoch drops down a burlap sack that had something in it; on impact it made a sound like rattling chains.
The nature of how the statue had become to be made it possible for them to secure it with over five points of contact, including both thighs and around the chest. The straps were secured to a load-bearing coupler and then connected to the tow cable. Kira gave a signal for it to be hauled up, which the Captain passed onto the mechanic. After they were assured it would clear the ground without problem, the personnel began to climb up the crag face themselves, actually outpacing the progress of the statue on its way up.
Dearka and Yzak were off on their own, discussing something or other; Nicol had only a fleeting guess about it. As they came to the top, Umi and Fuu began to walk toward their teammate, Hikaru, and the other four that had recovered the statue. Tentatively, Nicol followed if for no other reason than to check on Athrun. They probably had to move about five tons of stone to get to the (literally) stoned Master Mage.
"Athrun, you all right?" Nicol asks as he splays out on his back when up on the top of the cliff.
"After getting the shit stomped out of me by Kira and moving a large pile of rock, how am I supposed to feel?" Athrun asks acerbically; Nicol could immediately tell he was not in the best of moods, but he wasn't royally pissed off right now.
"All right, all right, dumb question, I surrender. Now what?"
"Ask them, I don't have the first clue about this." He finally drops his arm. "I think I'm just going to lay here for now." He notices something strange about Nicol; "Hey, didn't you break your arm in—"
"Yeah, kamikaze-man over there busted my arm up, but Fuu healed it. Maybe you should ask her for a little help." Nicol asks.
"I'll bet a paycheck you almost refused it." Athrun asks with a ration of humor.
"You'd win that bet," Dearka notes before Nicol could deny it as he and Yzak approaches.
"C'mon, Zala." Yzak sounded seriously different from his normal; in this case he sounded saddened, almost dejected. "We've decided we'll surrender to the Earth Alliance. We can't win."
"Yeah, sadly we won't get our revenge for everything that's happened," Dearka notes dejectedly.
"Puu!" The puff-ball Mokona jumps square onto the center of Athrun's chest. "Puu-pu pu-pu-puu!" With a stubby paw he-she-whatever was indicating the statue that was just being settled onto the ground.
"Does anyone here understand what cream puff here is saying?"
"I think Sir Mokona means for us to listen to Cleff," Fuu says. As an indicator, all eyes were now on the statue, though even those in the ship still would hear what was to come.
Young girls from another world. Soldiers of a war from another existence. I am Master Mage Cleff…what is left of him.
"What the…hell…am I the only one…or are you too?" The Lieutenant Commander asks with a massive ration of shock in her tone and demeanor.
"We all are," the Captain notes coldly; every pair of eyes was on the statue.
On this world there is a legend, the legend of the three Magic Knights. They would be summoned from another world, to save Cephiro in times of dire need. This is the time of such need, yet I am unsure why a whole ship of soldiers was brought from your realms as well. The voice sounded wizened, authoritative, as if the speaker's appearance truly belied his veterancy and wisdom.
"No frigging way!" Yzak shouts. "That voice we heard over the Pacific! That was someone calling us here? Why us?"
I am unsure if the Princess' spell called you by accident or deliberate. But I take it you all heard the voice?
"We did." Athrun says, propping himself up poorly to look at the statue.
"We did as well." Mu says. "What is this all about? What's this 'dire need' and what does this have to do with four ZAFT Pilots and an Earth Alliance ship?"
There are some things that can only be done by the hands of those not from Cephiro. Saving Cephiro from the trouble caused by Zagato is one of those things. Princess Emeraude, by will or coincidence summoned you as well as the three young ladies in your midst. Just as they, unless you fulfill her wish of saving Cephiro, you will never be able to return to your home.
"Oh. Wonderful." If Yzak could have sounded more sarcastic, how was something lost on his teammates. "Now, mind explaining why we can't go back unless we beat down this Zagato dude?"
If you fail to revive the three Rune Gods and stop Zagato, Cephiro will be destroyed. That, unfortunately, includes you as well.
Nicol couldn't really hear what Yzak had to comment about that point, but from the underlying tone he could guess it was laced with no shortage of four-letter words.
"Well, I guess that qualifies as a motivating circumstance. Sort of." Mu notes. "Let's make sure I got this right. This planet is named Cephiro, and the only way for us to get back to Earth, year CE 71, is to stop this Zagato from causing trouble, right?"
Correct, soldier. That is the nature of your present situation.
"Then how do we solve it?" Mu asks. "From where I stand, I see a big problem and no creative way to stop it."
Follow the legend of the Magic Knights. You must awaken the three legendary Rune Gods and use their power to save the world. Once that is done, the Magic Knights will confront Zagato and finish the matter.
"God, that sounded like a cheesy video game plot in one sentence," Dearka notes acerbically. "So, mister Mage, who's the Magic Knights among us? You got three girls from Tokyo, four ZAFT Pilots, three Earth Alliance pilots, and a warship full of Alliance personnel."
And that is the quandary in one thought, pilot. The Master Mage did not seem all that amused by Dearka's attitude. There are only three Rune Gods, but there are over a hundred from other worlds here. It could be any combination of you, or it could be limited to just one group of you, or there could be others drawn from different worlds that you have not met yet. What is here has already defied the legend, yet you must press on. The Rune Gods themselves will know who are supposed to be the Magic Knights. Your lives, and our worlds are counting on you.
"Hey, hey, whoa!" From Yzak, whom Nicol figured would not have had the most tact in this situation. "What do you mean 'our worlds'? Even if we die here, then that should be it, right?"
I cannot confirm nor deny that. The Pillar of Cephiro, the Princess has the power to summon others from a different world to here. I do not know if the Pillar has the power to go to other worlds, and if she does, your homes may be in more jeopardy than this world.
"Well, the name of the game just changed—drastically." The Lieutenant Commander says.
"How so?" The Captain asks her immediate subordinate.
"Absent concrete knowledge, we have to assume this Zagato can get to our worlds, and that being the case we have to take him down. If even a small fraction of this nightmare makes to Earth or the PLANTs, you'd need an accountant to keep track of the bodies." More than a few gagged at the thought, the remainder at her phrasing.
"The thought of that is…wrong." Kira says with a dose of disgust in tone. He looked like hell courtesy of the fight, and had been staying silent for some reason (normally he was quite vocal on such matters). "I guess we have no choice but to put the war on hold and start another, right?" His question was directed to the Captain.
"Hey, I'm all for it. Ask your friend, not me."
"Captain! I must protest! That is a gross violation of military procedure—"
"Stick it in your report, Natarle." The Captain says rather coldly. She continues before Natarle could re-register her protest: "You heard him just as well as I, and didn't you just say that we had to take him down? For all we know, one or more of the ZAFT personnel could be the key to solving this nightmare!"
"Captain, if you do this, it will cost you your career and may cost you your life." Natarle notes just as coldly.
"If that's the price of saving lives, then oh-fucking-well." She shrugs; everyone around was staring at her, shocked; the Captain never spoke like that. "Your protest is noted and I will record it clearly in the ship's logs. The remainder is up to Kira and the ZAFT pilots."
The remainder was not in Kira's hands, it was already being executed by Kira. Athrun was still down on the ground, trying to make sense of the arguing between the Captain and the first officer, when what Nicol said when they first arrived came to mind. 'There are soldiers, and there are soldiers'. His analysis of the personae of the Archangel was cut short by Kira squatting down next to him. It didn't take much effort to notice that there were others with him as well.
Athrun slams down flat, staring at the blue sky as some wispy clouds float by. "I always figured you for a whimsical airhead, Kira, but that right cross you got was a helluva hit. Where did you learn to fight like that?"
"Kuzzey and Sai, two of my friends who're also on this ship."
"So, you weren't lying all those times."
"No. They really were on the ship."
"Oh, sorry. I thought you were being used by the Naturals." One of the persons that had followed Kira snorted. "So, what's it going to be, Alliance Ensign Yamato?"
"Personally, I think we should just put the war back home in a box and lock it up until we get home. If we survive this, and that's based on us actually figuring out what the hell we're supposed to do before it kills us, we may be able to go home, or we may end up somewhere even stranger than here."
"Holy shit, Strike! Don't say that!" Yzak says with a lot of unfeigned shock in voice. "This is bad enough! Please don't jinx it and make it worse on us! I actually want to go home before I die!"
"That's the most sensible thing Yzak has said in three days," Dearka notes with a chuckle. "So, what's the fee for entering the club Archangel?"
"That easy, Dearka? I figured you'd get pissed off and storm out of here." Athrun was still staring straight up at the sky.
"What for?" Dearka asks. "We have zero Gundams and a shitload of problems. Better in one of their brig cells than out on my own."
"Yzak," Athrun prompts.
"Well, I can die now, in the forests here and get shit out the wrong end of some monster, or I can die at home, court-martialed for treason. At least then my mom would get a chance to bury me properly. I'm in."
"Yeeeggh, disgusting." One of the persons with Kira says. Nicol could tell the young lady in question was only marginally a soldier, maybe even one of Kira's friends.
"Life's…kinda strange like that." Athrun says, still staring at the sky. "One day, you think you're gonna set out and sink the Archangel, later that day you're looking for somewhere to set up a generator to charge your two surviving Gundams. Then a week later you find out exactly how screwed you are and have to join forces with your enemy to survive. Why is fate such a pain in the ass?"
"Murphy's law, kid." The tall blond guy next to Kira says. " 'Decisions made above you are seldom in your best interest.' "
"Wait a second, I thought Murphy's Law was 'Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong,' isn't it?" Yzak asks plaintively.
"I have a poster in my quarters with about 400 of Murphy's Laws of Combat." He shifts weight from left foot to right. "My personal favorite happens to be 'You are not Superman; Marines and Fighter Pilots take note.' Probably also applies to Mobile Suit pilots, MPs, and Warship Captains as well." (5)
"And I thought all the screwed up people were in ZAFT," Nicol declares, both as an observation and testing the waters.
"Not hardly," the guy notes. "And that leaves just you two." He indicates Athrun and Nicol.
"Of course I'm in," Nicol says. "Athrun?"
"For now. But you and I will finish this fist fight some day, Kira." Said Alliance pilot shrugs, as if it was the inevitable conclusion. "What about the three Girls?"
"If it is all right, can we come along with you as well?" Hikaru's voice was quite exited by the thought. Fuu and Umi did not look all that convinced…or pleased.
"I don't think Natarle has a choice. The crew wants to go home alive more than the dictum of Military Law that Natarle is trying to stick to."
"Natarle…the Lieutenant Commander?" Nicol asks.
"Yeah, that's her. Still arguing with the Captain, even well after she's lost. Inasfar as it counts, Murrue, Kira and I are already on her shitlist. Don't be too surprised if she tries pulling shit on you as well."
"Right." Nicol says.
"So, you three want in as well? Beats the pants off walking it." Mu says to the three, one of which was holding a mysterious thing that looked a cross between a rabbit and a jar of marshmallow crème.
"Sure!" The one in red half-shouts.
"Where she goes, I go," the one in blue says, pointing to the one in red.
"I will accompany if you will permit it." The one in green gives a respectful traditional bow, not something Mu was expecting.
-x-x-x-
"Well, it's an improvement. At least we aren't in the brig."
"Yeah, well we lost most of our weapons, and you will note that they waffled on whether or not we'll get to pilot if the shit hits the fan," Yzak notes coldly.
"Correction," Athrun says; "The command staff waffled. Kira made it rather clear that we didn't have a choice if we want to get out of this alive. I think the Captain even listened to him. The XO is going to be the problem if any."
"So, whose side is the Lieutenant Commander on?" Dearka asks. "Right now, she has about a dozen on her side, against the rest of the ship who strangely want us to help them."
"She's probably on her own side right now. Either that'll change when the fighting begins, or she'll hold us to it until hell freezes over and existence falls apart," Nicol tosses in as his assessment of how it would go down.
"No, I think she might try wresting possession of the ship from the Captain and anyone loyal to her. That would probably also involve shooting us as well, of course."
"Armed standoff on the bridge of the Archangel; film at eleven." Dearka had said it, and unsurprisingly Dearka was the only person that found it funny.
"I'm beginning to really not like this," Yzak drives over Dearka's laughing, which had the side effect of shutting him up. "There are too many ways to die in this whole situation."
"At least we're used to the thought," Nicol declares, putting words to a morose feeling they all were beginning to have. It wasn't just the Strike itself; the pilot was ever becoming the more competent, and prior to this misbegotten adventure they were beginning to believe he could kill one or more of them if he really tried. "What about them? More to the point, what about the girls? If I remember my old Earth history correctly, Japan after World War Two was a very pacifist nation, they would not be even marginally prepared for this."
"They seem to be doing all right…for now," Athrun notes; "Probably better than us, at any rate." He sighs, staring up at the ceiling in their quarters. "I still don't trust them, but I do trust Kira. I think we'll live…for now."
(Author's Afterword)
The experiment that keeps getting stranger and stranger. Oh, how I am beginning to enjoy this. And then there is the concern that some demons need to be expatriated before one continues with other works. This happens to be one of them; I intend on at least getting the Cephiro 1 section of this story done before knuckling back down on the Jokers' Wild series. I will release a few chapters of the latter during this, but not as hard or fast as normal. I only have so much time to write in a week, after all, in having a full-time job with an hour drive there and an hour drive back, plus owning my own home, plus helping my relatives maintain their homes, plus extended training for work, plus…well, you get the idea.
Now, first off, a note about the fist-fight scene, it was written mostly in Nicol's perspective, and though military trained he does not seem the type that is all that well versed in hand-to-hand combat. I figure he'd have a rather difficult time understanding the actions of the fight, not to mention the fact that the fight is happening down in a trench ten meters below him and twice that to his right; seeing what was happening would come very difficult, since a normal person could barely tell that two people are fighting at 80 feet, much less how they are conducting the fight and not including that he's looking at it from an above and side perspective.
Also, I went back over the speech patterns of Cleff to make sure I was using the right combination of nuance, but without all the redundancy and triple-explaining that he does in the series. On a normal day, hearing it all explained to me is no big deal, or at least hearing enough to understand the rest, but after the tenth time hearing the same bullshit in the same fashion it gets enervating…or just plain annoying.
Anybody in the know about MKR can tell that Cleff is not telling the whole story, like usual.
And you can probably tell that Natarle's attitude is going to cause problems come later episodes.
Next Up: The first of the Rune Gods reveals a nasty little surprise for more than a few persons, and Kira and Athrun work well together when under pressure…
Footnotes
(1) Murphy's Law of Combat: Never sleep with anyone crazier than yourself. Kira's already violated that once in the series, and is well on his way to doing it again, so what shall this fate be?
(2) From various noted musings in the shows and manga, this is about the best description I can come up with for 'Going SEED', where their eyes become hazy and they double their reaction speed.
(3) The whole premise of this is that such devices (beam sabers, the main power relays, etc.) are fed by local capacitors as well as the main suit battery. The local capacitors would hold enough of a charge that when main feed is severed, they would still have a few seconds to act before everything goes to hell. That's how more than a few electronics are built; computers seem to be the monster exception; for a computer, you need a battery backup unit.
(4) Flashbangs are interesting devices, but part of me would figure Murrue for carrying frag 'nades. She definitely isn't a slouch in close quarters, for all that she is primarily a warship officer. Once again, Wikipedia has a pretty good explanation on Flashbang (AKA Stun Grenades).
(5) There is a whole site full of these laws. Do an internet search on it, it has more than just laws of combat. Very funny stuff. I figured the last applied to Mu most of all, and he's probably the kind of guy that would be a believer in Murphy. He is a soldier, after all, and most that I have known understand Murphy well.