Disclaimer: I own neither Witchblade nor Gundam Seed.
"Something wrong Katherine?" Katherine looked up from the flight helmet in her hands. In front of her stood an older boy in an identical red and white flight suit. His blue eyes looked curious.
"Isaac?" Katherine asked.
"You're awfully quiet," the boy elaborated.
"I think she's nervous," Isaac's twin, Zachary Jule, said. The only difference from Isaac's appearance was the length of his hair. Instead of cut short at chin level, he wore his white hair pulled back into a low ponytail. "It's so unlike you."
"Infiltrating the colony will be child's play," a blond beanpole commented idly as he walked out of the locker room. "They never even considered that we'd attack. You're not turning chicken, are you, Katherine?"
"Of course not, Dearka!" a petite girl with a foot long emerald braid exclaimed as a redhead, Rusty McKenzie, walked up behind Dearka. "Neutral is not the same as pacifistic! We can't let our guard down just because Aube hasn't taken sides in the war!"
"Nicole is right."
The six pilots turned to a white uniformed man. He had shoulder length blond hair. In addition to the standard elite commander's uniform, he wore a pair of white gloves and a silver mask over his upper face. "Commander Le Creuset!" Isaac exclaimed.
"Aube may not appear to have much in the way of a space force, but their naval technology is first rate. Should they decide to join the Alliance, our Earthside troops may have a difficult time. Besides, the colony could have protections we don't know about.
"You're success or failure will greatly impact the rest of the war," their commander continued. "Don't let us down."
The six pilots snapped to attention and saluted. "Yes sir! For the glory of ZAFT!" they exclaimed.
They put on their helmets and floated into the shuttle. Dearka went in first and buckled himself in. As the others climbed in, he closed his eyes and bobbed his head in rhythm to some unplayed tune.
"But really, are we doing the right thing?" the redhead asked as he took his seat.
"What do you mean?" the longhaired twin demand.
"Mounting an operation like this against a neutral colony?" Rusty elaborated.
"How neutral can they be if they're making arms for the Earth Forces!?"
The redhead laughed. "I know, Zachary. You're right. That's unacceptable. But we don't have the council's approval--"
"If we wait for that, the Earth Forces will get their new weapons!" Next to Zachary, Dearka still boogied to invisible music.
"I know, I kno--"
"What's up, guys? Don't leave us waiting out here!" a blond man in green flight suit appeared on the ship's video display.
"Understood," Rusty replied. "Let's go!"
Beside him, Katherine closed her green eyes for a quick prayer. As the shuttle launched from the Vesalius, they opened again and stared at the target colony.
Soft pink cherry blossoms fell from trees in a park. Above the trees, you could see the underside of a glass dome, and above that, the earth and stars. Street lamps lined the block surrounding the park. At one corner stood a pair of thirteen year-olds. The boy wore the green uniform of a local school.
The girl held a green and yellow robotic bird in her hands. As she handed it to the boy, her blue hair and brown skirt swayed in the breeze created by Copernicus' air circulation system. "The PLANTs and Sponsor Nations will work things out," she said, giving the boy a reassuring smile. "It's pointless to take refuge, but my father..."
The bird hopped into the boy's hands. "You'll keep in touch, right?"
"Of course. And Kira," the girl turned to walk away. "You'll eventually come to the PLANTs, too. Right?" A cluster of petals blew in front of her face...
"Birdy!"
An amethyst-eyed teen looked up from his memories. His mechanical pet circled in the air overhead before it coasted down to land next to the boy's laptop. "Hey, Birdy," Kira scratched the head of the green and yellow bird. "I was just thinking about your maker."
The robot's head cocked to the side. "Birdy?"
"In a couple months it'll be three years since she gave you to me," he continued. His eyes drifted to his laptop where the news feed covered the fighting in Taiwan. "She must hate seeing this."
"Kira!"
The brown-haired teen looked up at the approaching couple. The boy had brown hair darker than Kira's. Next to him strolled a girl in an orange dress. She wore her auburn hair in a short, cute style. "Tolle! Miriallia!" Kira called back.
"So this is where you've been hiding!" Tolle exclaimed cheerfully. "Professor Kato sent us to fetch you."
"Again?" Kira whined. "I'm still slugging through the stuff he dumped on me yesterday."
"No rest for the brilliant," Tolle quipped as they strolled over. "Come on, Miri and I have to work on our projects too."
"All right," Kira went to shutdown his laptop.
"Is that a new front?" Miriallia asked.
Kira nodded. "Koahsiung, apparently."
Miriallia leaned over his shoulder and skimmed the text accompanying the video feed. "Some of the ZAFT reinforcements are passing awfully close to the mainland," she commented. "You don't think anything'll happen there do you?"
"No way!" Tolle protested. "Aube's neutral. It'll never become a battlefield."
Kira frowned and stared to the side. Tolle's optimistic confidence sounded so much like Katherine's...
"Kira?"
The purple-eyed boy let out a gasp and stumbled back as he became aware of Tolle's face two inches from his own.
"You all right?" Tolle asked. "You just spaced out there."
"I'm fine." Kira closed up his laptop. "Let's go."
The cab station lay just a few blocks over. When the trio arrived, they found a few girls waiting for a car. Kira only recognized the redhead: Flay Allster, a cute girl who did some activities with Miriallia. "It's nothing like that!" Flay protested to the others.
"Liar!" a black haired girl exclaimed.
"Just spill all ready!" a girl in brown pigtails demanded.
"There's noth--"
"Miri!" the pigtailed girl called. "Flay got a love letter from Sai Argyle!"
As Miriallia's eyes widened, Kira and Tolle turned to each other in surprise. Flay's face turned as red as her hair. "THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HER!"
"Flay you should just say yes," her brunette friend persisted. "He's not bad looki--"
"Excuse me." The cluster of teens turned to see three men in their twenties. The one at the front had short, black hair. He wore a long red coat over a black shirt and dark sunglasses. "If you're not getting in, do you mind if we do?"
Kira flushed with embarrassment. "Sorry," he said as he stepped aside. The men climbed into the car.
As the car drove off, the black haired man removed his sunglasses, revealing purple eyes a shade darker than Kira's. "To think there are kids that young fighting on the frontlines," he said to the blue haired man next to him.
The asteroid loomed ahead of the shuttle. To avoid detection, the ZAFT shuttles had turned off their engines and coasted in, but they still traveled fast enough to make the growing wall of rock daunting. As if on cue, each shuttle deployed bags in front of them. They expanded and cushioned the shuttles from impacting the rock. The shuttle pilots then anchored the transports to the asteroid. Within seconds, the troops inside spilled out and glided along the rock surface.
They quickly pried open a maintenance hatch. A filter in their helmet windows allowed them to see the infrared beams of Heliopolis' security system. After a tense minute, their inside man disabled them. "Hurry up!" Zachary ordered. "We're ten seconds behind."
Katherine nodded absently as they followed their memorized route. That strange feeling she had had earlier returned: an unrelenting sense that she raced into her destiny.
For a soldier going into battle, destiny usually meant a sudden meeting with something deadly. Katherine hated the thought.
Then again, I've always hated war, Katherine thought. But that hasn't stopped me from fighting one. If I do go out, it'll cost them. I just wish I'd spent more time with Lucas. And I'd like to have seen Kira again. Or at least know whatever he's up to now.
Kira... What to you think of our war?
The soldiers came to an intersection with another shaft. Through a grate, they could see into a vessel construction/maintenance bay. Inside sat the target vessel. Silver with red trim, it looked sleek and powerful.
Yet it also looked like an upside down holiday bird with its legs sticking out.
Katherine exchanged hand signals with the others. The ZAFT soldiers quickly split into three groups. Katherine's group floated ahead, to the next vertical shaft. They traveled down several meters before they came to a grate out of direct sight. Rusty and Peter popped the grate off. Rusty and Katherine kept watch on either side of the hatch, their rifles readied for trouble. The rest of the group--all in olive green pressure suits that would blend into the shadows better than elite red--entered the bay. They sneaked around placing explosive charges in the ship's vicinity. Katherine saw faint movement from the other groups' target areas.
Tim, Peter, and Lovong all returned without incident. After they glided into the shaft, Rusty and Katherine pulled their weapons back and kicked off after the others. The infiltration squad regrouped, then made their way toward the rotating section of the colony.
They just had to wait for the Naturals to take the bait.
On the bridge of the Vesalius, the masked commander looked up from his watch. "It's time."
The ship's gray uniformed captain, Frederick Ades, gave a flurry of orders in response to Le Creuset's words: "Weigh anchor! Vesalius launch! Catapults on standby! Activate N-Jammers!"
The Vesalius fired up her engines. Beside them, the smaller Gamow did the same.
As the ships approached the colony, a staticy transmission made it through to the Vesalius. "Approaching ZAFT vessels, please respond... ZAFT vessels! Please respond!"
After a short burst of static, another voice, one that sounded less panicked came on the line. "This is a warning to all ZAFT personnel in the vicinity! Your actions are in direct violation of your treaty with our nation! Stop your advance at once! Repeat: stop your advance at once!"
Ades and Le Creuset ignored the transmission. "Launch the GINNs," Ades ordered. Within seconds, three giant robots launched from the Vesalius. They sped toward the colony, the Gamow's mobile suits close behind.
Alarms blared through the station's bays and operation centers. "Captain--"
"Don't panic!" a brown haired man in the Earth Alliance uniform ordered a roomful of people. Half the room wore the same uniform. The other half wore turquoise coveralls. Behind the captain, a large window looked into the bay with the silver warship. "If we overreact, we'll play into their hands. Let's see how Heliopolis plans to handle this." He picked up a phone receiver.
After a short conversation, he hung up and faced the room again. " Newman! Badgerial!" The blue and black haired men that had passed Kira and his friends floated forward and saluted. "Get to Lieutenant Ramius! Commence transfer of the G-weapons at once!"
"Sir!" the black haired man answered crisply. The pair floated out of the other end of the room.
A minute later, explosions ripped through the bay and shattered the window.
As the GINNs closed on the colony, its defense force of yellow shuttles launched. The lead GINN quickly shot apart the first shuttle, and the space skirmish began. Seconds later, the derelict Earth transport launched, accompanied by three purple Moebius planes, and an orange Moebius Zero.
In the confusion, a pair of GINNs flew into the colony.
The ZAFT infiltrators perched on a rock ledge in the wall of the colony that rotated against the asteroid. The vantage point gave them a clear view of the roads to the freight lift and hatchway to the harbor. Zachary watched a vehicle convoy through a pair of binoculars. He saw a prone mobile suit in a flatbed-type transport. Several vehicles accompanied the convoy.
"That's it!" Zachary lowered the binoculars. "Just as Commander Le Creuset said."
"What?" Dearka drawled. "If we poke at 'em, they'll emerge from their hole? They are Naturals, you know."
Zachary relayed the coordinates to the GINNs that had entered the colony.
"Roger!" Miguel acknowledged. "Way to go! That was fast!"
The trio of GINNs approached the coordinates, shooting out roads and other infrastructure as they went.
In space, two Moebius fighters zipped along, exchanging fire with a pair of GINNs. A pair of the shuttles had reached the Vesalius. They exchanged fire with the ship, one even damaging the ZAFT vessel before it blasted them both out of the sky.
The orange Zero tangled with another GINN. The Zero's four huge gunbarrels detached from the spaceplane and blasted the GINN from multiple angles. The GINN survived the onslaught, and the gunbarrels retracted along wires to reattach to the Zero. As the GINN evaded the Moebius Zero, it crossed paths with one of the Moebius units.
The GINN sliced the purple mobile armor in two with its giant sword.
In the factory district, several people stood in a truck lot. "Lieutenant!" one of the men addressed Murrue Ramius, a woman in an orange jumpsuit. "We can't get through to the ship. Status unknown." Before the brunette could reply, a pair of GINNs flew overhead, shooting as they went. Ramius and the others ducked.
As the dust cleared, the Lieutenant raised her head. "Those are ZAFT's! Prep the X-105 and X-303 at once! Get them out of the factory district!"
"Yes, Ma'am!" one of the men replied as he ran off.
Kira and his friends spilled out of Kato's Morgenroete lab. In the hall, they met up with several others, none of whom knew any more than they did. The building continued to shake. Dust and plaster fell from the ceiling. The people made their way to the stairwell at the corner. Sai Argyle, a youth with mousy blond hair and tinted glasses opened the door. The stairwell was full of people racing up to ground level. "Hey, what's going on?" Sai asked.
"Beats me," some redhead said as he walked past.
"We're under attack by ZAFT!" the man behind the redhead said. "Some of their mobile suits entered the colony!" Beside Kira, a blond guy in a brown uniform gasped. "You kids better hurry to the shelters!" the man added as he started back up the stairs.
As everyone else crowded through the door, the blonde turned and ran in the opposite direction. "Hey, wait!" Kira called as he took off after the blonde.
"Kira!" Tolle called after him.
"I'll be right back!" Kira called over his shoulder. The next second the ceiling collapsed between them. The shaking threw Kira into the blonde. As the blonde's hat fell, releasing long, blond hair, Kira noticed a narrower waist than the brown coat implied. And a squishier chest.
"You're a... a girl!?" Kira blurted as the blonde's hand struck his cheek.
"What the fuck did you think I was?" said girl demanded as she pulled her hand back from the slap. "Well?"
"It's just that..."
The girl growled as another explosion roared. "Just go back to your friends! There's something I need to confirm!"
"Easy for you to say!" Kira looked around the ruined hall until he saw an unobstructed turn. "This way!" He grabbed the girl's arm.
"LET GO OF ME, JACKASS!" the girl yelled as Kira dragged her along.
"Ass?" Kira protested.
"I just..." Tears welled in the blonde's eyes. "Never thought we'd get involved!"
"Don't worry," Kira said as they continued to run. "We'll find a shelter."
"That's not what I meant! Well, a little, but..."
The pair emerged into sunlight. They stood on a fenced walkway. Below them lay a loading dock with several fuel trucks hooked to two large, drivable equipment beds. In each bed lay a prone mobile suit. Light gray in color, their shape was reminiscent of Samurai armor.
The GINNs caught up with the convoy of Earth mobile suits. Zachary and the others activated their jet packs and flew over to join the battle. The convoy's escort tanks opened fire, but proved little match for the GINNs. "Destroy anything that we can't take with us!" Zachary ordered as they flew to the battle. As they neared the convoy, they could clearly count the suits. "Intel said six. Are the other two still inside?"
"Rusty and I will continue on," Katherine replied. "You guys stay here and take these suits."
"Right," the long haired elite acknowledged. Rusty, Katherine, and their teams jetted off.
Beside him, Zachary heard his twin mutter, "Be careful." He glanced at Isaac, who's attention seemed fixed on one of their departing comrades.
Oh, Jes-- "She's engaged to Lucas Clyne, Fuckwit!" Zachary pulled ahead of the pack.
"It's not like that!" Isaac spluttered.
They reached striking range. Zachary's attention focused on trading shots with the drivers and foot soldiers. He landed on the road's shoulder and raced to the cab of the nearest truck. He quickly dispatched the driver, with Isaac providing cover fire.
To the left, he saw Nicole lob a grenade into a truck. To the right, Dearka and Thompson traded fire with a trio of Earth soldiers. Zachary raised his weapon to even the odds. The GINNs, finished with the tanks, started in on the supply trucks.
Katherine and the others had located the remaining mobile suits easily enough: they advanced on the loading dock from which gunfire had sailed at them. She fired around the corner of the crate she used for cover. Tom and Lovong dashed her way, firing at the Earth Forces as they went. They drew enough of the enemy's attention that Katherine could step out to lob a grenade at them. The blast knocked a few of them down.
A second grenade from either Peter or Rusty dispatched another two. When the blast cleared, the unit advanced forward.
"WHY DID YOU BETRAY US, FATHER!?" some girl yelled randomly in the distance. The next second, Tom toppled forward, blood pooling around him. Lovong spun into his place. He took out the soldier who fired, even as the bullets cut him down.
Rusty and Katherine fell into place next to each other. They drew fire as Peter slipped around to snipe the last two enemies from the catwalk. A couple minutes later, he got into position--
"BEHIND YOU!"
The pair of redcoats barely took cover before a new handful of Earth soldiers opened fire. But they were effectively pinned between two crates with fire coming from two sides. At least there's a wall behind us, Katherine thought sardonically as she looked up. She did not see a way for anyone to get over them. "That didn't sound like Pete," she muttered, "Do we have friendlies here?"
To her left, Rusty shook his head. "It was someone warning the two on the suit. We just lucked out."
"Damn," Katherine replied. She switched out clips. She fired around the corner. After a quick burst, the weapon jammed. "SHIT!"
Back on the road, the first of four mobile suits activated. "Nice!" Zachary whistled as he stood the suit up. "This is actually impressive. What about yours, Isaac?"
Isaac kept typing commands as he replied, "The Ambush looks impressive, but I want to test it with a decent OS."
"You've not rewritten it, yet?"
"You did get in yours first," Isaac retorted acidly. "Give me a second!"
"Just hurry up! What about you Dearka?" Zachary demanded.
"Great!" the blonde replied. "Update activated. Nerve-links reconstructed. Calibration set. It'll move." He activated the suit, and stood it up next to Zachary's. Isaac stood his suit up a second later.
Only one suit left, Zachary thought. "Nicole?"
"Almost there," the girl replied as furious typing sounded over the radio. "Got it!" A few seconds later, her suit stood next to the other three.
"Where are Katherine and Rusty?" Dearka asked. "They're taking their time."
"We just got these suits moving," Nicole pointed out. "If they encountered additional Earth Forces..."
"We sent the rest of the unit after them. They'll be fine."
Zachary wished his twin sounded more confident in his own words. "In any case," he said, "we take these four back now. Le Creuset's orders were to capture these undamaged."
The four gray suits took off through the colony.
Katherine pulled back from the edge of the crate. "Where the hell's our backup?" she groused as she hastily examined her weapon.
"Considering we have the Naturals on our ass, I don't think they're alive to join us!" Rusty retorted. "Don't you carry a damn backup?"
"A handgun. Just like you."
Rusty stayed silent as he realized a handgun would not be his first choice to use against multiple assault rifles.
Katherine could not find any obvious problems with the rifle. She tried a different clip before discarding the rifle. "It's better than nothing. But first, do you have any grenades left?"
"This isn't a good place to throw from."
"I think I can roll them along the ground to the forces that snuck up on us."
"You think?" Rusty ducked further back as repeated bullet hits broke off a piece of the crate's corner. "Here," he pulled a pair of grenades out of his vest. "I hope you're better with grenades than bowling balls."
Katherine flushed as she pulled the first pin. "Just because Zachary won that challenge," she protested as she sent the grenade off, "doesn't mean--"
"I'VE SEEN ZACHARY BOWL, ALL RIGHT?"
The grenade exploded. "JOSÉ! AARON!" a voice called from the right.
Katherine leaned out far enough to carefully aim at the distracted soldiers. She hit one before they fired back. A bullet grazed the side of her left arm as she pulled back. Cursing, Katherine pulled the pin and let the second grenade roll.
As soon as the grenade began rolling, one of the Earth soldiers began showering its path with bullets. One hit, and the grenade exploded, breaking open the crate to the right. The close wall of the crate fell over the ZAFT elites, protecting them from the shrapnel of the explosion.
Several pieces of medieval armor spilled onto the floor. A gauntlet with a red gem on the back of its hand flew into the air. As it fell in front of the crouching soldiers, Katherine instinctively threw her right arm out. The gauntlet fell onto her arm. Its underside contracted until it fit perfectly over her flight suit. Rusty's jaw dropped. "What the..."
Katherine twisted her arm to the side. The gauntlet repealed the bullets. Suddenly knowing what to do, Katherine pushed the piece of crate aside as she told Rusty to stay down. Katherine jumped into the air and flipped towards the soldiers to the right. She somersaulted over the Earth soldiers with speed and agility beyond any Coordinators'. As she tumbled overhead, she knew any bullets aimed at her would miss, a certainty that she could not have had had she tried a similar stunt with her jetpack.
Katherine landed behind one of the Earth soldiers. A blade emerged from the back of the gauntlet. Katherine lopped off the soldier's head before he could turn around. Two more remained on that end of the lot. Katherine quickly dispatched them.
She looked towards Rusty. He stood, back against the intact crate, gaping at her and--
Katherine suddenly realized that she stood among the flames ignited by one of the grenades. She looked down. ZAFT flight suits were flame resistant, but not flame proof. Her suit remained undamaged. The flames crackled loudly in the silent dock.
Her eyes widened as she looked towards the suits. One of the two shooters had left the far suit and was sneaking around the crate. "RUSTY!" Katherine sprinted forward as the gunman rounded the corner. Rusty got a few rounds off before the Earth soldier's bullets perforated him. The Natural fell, clutching his side. Katherine sliced through his heart as she ran past.
"Hamana!" the woman remaining on the suit called.
Katherine leapt onto a leg and saw that two enemies remained, though just the woman was armed. She pushed forward, deflecting bullets with her gauntlet. One of the blocked bullets ricocheted off the suit and hit the woman in the arm. She fell back, dropping her weapon. Katherine charged in for the kill.
The strangest combination of déjà vu and wrongness slowed her advance. With every step, the feeling grew, yet she could remember maintaining her sprint. And before she even realiz--
"Kath… erine?"
Katherine turned her attention from the woman to the man. A boy her age, the unarmed soldier had messy brown hair and vibrant purple eyes. "Kira?" Katherine breathed incredulously as she took a step back. The brunette teen pulled away from the woman and stood staring back at Katherine.
The woman pulled a handgun. Katherine leapt backwards as she dodged the bullets. She raced towards the cockpit of the second suit. As she powered on the G-weapon--identified in its OS as X303 Aegis--she saw the other suit activate through the flames engulfing the factory.
Shaking off the surreal feelings, Katherine stood the suit up and piloted away.
Katherine leapt onto a leg and saw that two enemies remained, though just the woman was armed. She pushed forward, deflecting bullets with her gauntlet. One of the blocked bullets ricocheted off the suit and hit the woman in the arm. She fell back, dropping her weapon. Katherine charged in for the kill.
She landed in front of the Earth woman and thrust the blade through her heart. The other enemy grabbed her arm as she pulled the blade free. "WHY ARE YOU PEOP--!?" Katherine whirled, swinging the blade as she did.
Time slowed. Familiar purple eyes met hers. They stared wide with shock, then dulled. Katherine felt like she fell off a cliff. "KIRA!"
Blood bubbled out of the brunette's mouth. His knees unlocked. Kira fell forward and to the left, as Katherine took a step back, becoming aware of the blood coating her flight suit. "Kira... why?" An explosion sounded in the distance. "It--It's not you. It can't be."
"Birdy?"
Katherine froze. A green robotic bird wiggled free from Kira's shirt. The bird. She remembered clearly the day she completed it. Birdy hopped to Kira's head. It tugged on a brown lock with its beak before regarding Katherine with its red eyes. "Birdy?" For an unemotional toy, its voice sounded quite accusing. "Birdy!?"
"I... I didn't know, " Katherine told the bird. "Kira... The Earth Forces--WHY would he--"
Another explosion roared through the factory. Time snapped back into focus, and Katherine realized the dock would be completely engulfed in seconds. "I have to complete the mission." Katherine kicked both bodies at her feet away from the cockpit entrance.
"BIRDY!"
She entered the cockpit. Birdy followed. Katherine ignored his repeated calls as she hastily booted up the mobile suit. The X-105 Strike's existing OS was beyond crude. But she could move it well enough to get out of the fire. She stood the suit up and walked it out of its transport. As an afterthought, she grabbed the edge of the other suit's transport. As it was in gear, she pushed it out of the dock.