Disclaimer: I own neither Witchblade nor Gundam Seed.
"The last two mobile suits just exited Heliopolis!" Penobscot, the Mobile Suit Controller for the Vesalius, reported. "Miguel Aiman is signaling from the left one!"
"Miguel?" Ades repeated. "Put him on."
"Resistance was heavy around Morgenroete," Miguel reported. "Katherine was the only survivor. Though she managed to take out the last Earth Forces solider, secure one suit and get the other to me."
"I see," Le Creuset responded calmly. "You're both to be commended on the completion of a difficult mission. The cost was high, but the future cost would have been higher."
"The data we're mining show formidable weaponry," Zelman, the captain of the Gamow, cut in. "But with the original OS, no Natural could move one. At least not well enough to justify spending all my assault troops. Surely your spy could have just taken the data, or a single suit."
"Perhaps," Le Creuset replied. "But this grants us complete data--and may well delay the Earth Forces' development of a more effective operating system."
"By the time the Naturals could write a decent OS, we'd have won this war!" Zelman scoffed.
"They might not plan to wait that long," Miguel stated, capturing everyone's attention. "Katherine identified one of the Earth soldiers she killed as a Coordinator."
"A traitor!?" Zelman scoffed. "How can she be sure? She's little ground experience. A few Naturals are exercise freaks and may seem more--"
"Kira and I attended the same military prep school on the moon," Katherine cut in harshly. The brown of drying blood covered a generous amount of her red and white flight suit.
"Kira?" Le Creuset echoed. "Di--"
"Birdy!" a mechanical voice cheerfully interrupted the masked commander. Something green circled into the camera's view over Katherine's head.
"What the hell?" Ades found himself asking.
"She also identified the pet robot she built for him," Miguel reported dryly as said bird landed on top of Katherine's helmet and peered at the camera.
"It followed me into the cockpit," Katherine sounded sheepish as she tried to grab the robot. Said bird responded by flying back towards the cockpit ceiling.
"You knew this Kira well, then," Le Creuset remarked.
"Yes sir," Katherine replied quietly. "We were the best of friends."
"I see. After you've landed, clean up and report to me," Le Creuset ordered.
Olor grimaced as the Mobius Zero dodged his fire. The next second one of its wired gunbarrels shot up his beam rifle. He reached for the GINN sword, and shots from more barrels pelted at him. An explosive shell hit the GINN's shoulder joint. The force sheared the arm off.
Olor had no choice but to withdraw. Unfortunately, the Zero's pilot was determined to pursue. Olor dodged and evaded the shots until Matthew intervened. As Matt tussled with the Zero, Olor retreated to the Vesalius and requested an emergency landing.
Bodies and debris floated through a shaft in the docks. One of those bodies bumped against a bulkhead. The impact roused the man. Charles Badgerial's purple eyes opened blearily. He forced himself to full consciousness, when the dead body under him registered. The last thing he remembered, he and Neuman had parted ways after they left the captain...
The captain! Charles' eyes widened as they neared the floor. The explosion had come from behind. "Where's the Archangel?" He nodded at the body before he kicked off the floor. The door to the observation deck had blown completely off. An emergency bulkhead had closed over the window to the docks. Debris and a few body parts floated around. "Hello?" he called, knowing it was likely pointless. "Are there any survivors in here?"
A bloody captain's cap floated into his hands. "No, damn it!" he growled. "ANYONE!" he called one last time.
A banging sound came from a side hatch. After a minute, the panel flew in and a bright light shined into his eyes. The flashlight lowered. "Ensign Badgerial," Petty Officer Neuman called to him. "Good to see you're okay."
Miguel typed commands into the Aegis so a pair of technicians, Michael and Richard, could download the spec and armament data. In the adjacent slip, a sandy haired tech named Toby sat in the cockpit of Katherine's suit while another two techs analyzed its data.
"BIRDY!"
"FUCK!"
The bird had flown out the minute Katherine had opened her cockpit. It had spent the past several minutes leading a pair of deckhands all around the hangar. One of whom now floated away from a bulkhead while clutching his shin.
Miguel shook his head and turned back to the keyboard. The robot was annoying, but hardly capable of doing any damage. They should just make Katherine collect the thing after she finished her report.
"I don't know," Michael said whimsically. Startled, Miguel realized that he had spoken that out loud. He looked up at Michael, a short man with waist-long black hair. "She may have built it, but she just killed its master. It may feel--"
"Feel?" Richard scoffed. Miguel groaned to himself. It was no secret that the purple haired man disliked Michael.
Michael rolled his eyes. "Not literally feel. But children's pets are programmed to mimic emotions. The algorithms are complex, but its reaction could easily be 'angry' or 'hate you'."
"And how do you explain it following her here?" Richard asked condescendingly.
Michael shrugged. "First thing it did here was go, 'I want to play with these guys, not you'. That's something my cat would pull."
"Play?" Richard repeated as another round of curses floated their way. "That's what you call it?"
"If its tone indicates simulated moods, that's what it thinks they're doing."
Richard stared at Michael. "I'm having you drug-tested."
"Tell me that doesn't sound cheerful to you." Michael retorted, then frowned. "Didn't sound. You think they caught it?"
"Maybe," Miguel replied as the bird's silence registered.
"Hey, anyone see the little bugger?" one of the crewman called.
"I suppose it's moved on to hide-and-seek," Richard quipped sarcastically.
Miguel sighed. "Whatever. Let's get back to work."
'Showering' in microgravity sucked. One had two choices. Bathing with traditional amounts of soap and water required a breathing mask, and the water had to be scraped off the skin at the end. Most people went with the second option, which amounted to a glorified sponge bath.
Katherine wanted nothing more than to be back home drowning her sorrows under a long, hot shower. Currently, she floated in the middle of a shower chamber, her knees pulled up to her chin. Her arms hugged her knees, a wet cloth held loosely in one hand. A few stray water bubbles floated around from when she wet the cloth. In front of her head floated a bracelet of silver-colored metal with a round, red stone an inch in diameter.
Kira... Why?
Katherine's eyes moved from her feet to her hands as she stretched them out in front of her. Slightly pink from her earlier scrubbing, they still felt blood-stained. Her hands balled into fists as she felt the defeated resistance of his flesh against her sword.
Her sword.
Katherine glared at the bracelet in front of her. She could not see a spec of blood on it, yet she knew it was the weapon she slew enemies--and a former friend--with. The metal may have changed from looking like ancient steel to resembling sterling silver, yet the gem clearly matched the one embedded in the back of the gauntlet's hand. And while such a transformation sounded crazy, so did a gauntlet growing a blade.
What the hell's going on?
A clock chimed out in the locker room, drawing Katherine's attention. Better hurry up, she thought. Shouldn't keep Commander Le Creuset waiting too long...
Katherine reached out to seize the bracelet. The minute a finger brushed the red gem, visions assailed her.
Battles. Hundreds, no, thousands of slices in time from every era of human history. Each gave way to the next after a split-second's viewing. The scenes ranged from one-on-one bouts to the clash of armies, but they all featured a woman wielding a weapon with a distinctive red stone.
"Katherine..." a woman's voice called, echoing from nowhere.
"Birdy?"
Katherine blinked. She floated in front of her locker, fully cleaned, lotioned and dressed in her uniform--black trimmed red coat and trousers with white combat boots. The bracelet hid under the black cuff of her right arm. Birdy's call had come from behind her.
Katherine turned to find the robot perched on the floor a few feet away. Next to it, stood a teenaged boy. The young man had vibrant purple eyes and messy brown hair. He wore pale green pants and a black shirt. Red buckles decorated the outfit. "Kira!" Katherine breathed.
"Hello, Katherine," Kira smiled. "It's been a while."
"So, is it over or not?" Miriallia asked. She and the others had stopped running for cover when the mobile suits took off. They had not heard or seen any signs of battle since then.
"They could still be fighting outside," Sai replied. While the alarms no longer blared, Heliopolis had not sounded an all-clear.
"Should we go to the next district, then?" a girl with black braids in white jeans and a green hooded sweatshirt asked.
"I don't know," Tolle answered. "P--"
An explosion ripped through the asteroid side of the colony. The four friends scrambled for cover as an enormous shadow emerged from the hole...
In the space around the colony Heliopolius, battle raged dangerously close. A GINN shot down a Mobius unit only a couple meters away. Debris hit the side of the rotating cylinder.
Inside the colony, pandemonium reigned. Away from the battles, speculation ran rampant as people tried to get answers. The colony-wide PA system quit blaring its general seek-shelter alarm. "A level eight evacuation order," a voice announced in its stead, "has been issued for all of Heliopolis. All residents are to make their way to the closest shelter at once."
Residents in areas with fighting found those instructions easier said than done. Not only did they have to race away from gunfire and explosions, but the ongoing battle had damaged or destroyed the paths to the nearest shelters.
And in some cases, the shelters themselves.
Thus, Kira's four friends raced around the ruins of the factory district, desperately in search of shelter. Several businessmen, mine workers, and even a small family milled through the area Tolle led them to--all racing from different directions. As the four friends realized this, they slowed. An explosion engulfed the Morgenroete complex, drawing their attention. Everyone stood and watched as a pair of new mobile suits jumped out of the flames.
Instead of the insect-like appearance of the GINNs, these gray suits appeared to have been modeled after ancient samurai armor--well their helmets, at least. Tolle could only stare in awe as some astute fellow cried: "What!? There's more?"
One of the Earth Forces' suits landed near Miguel Aiman's GINN. Miguel smiled and radioed the senior of the two pilots sent. "Katherine!"
"Rusty failed."
Miguel's eyes widened at Katherine's blunt reply. "What?" the blond pilot asked.
Katherine continued her report: "An Earth Forces officer has boarded the other machine."
The other machine landed several meters away, and walked unsteadily.
Inside that other suit, Lieutenant Ramius sat in the pilot's seat. Behind her chair, Kira perched precariously as the woman brought up display feed from various cameras. "What?" the brunette leaned forward as he caught sight of who scrambled away from the suit's descending foot. "Sai! Tolle! Karrie!"
Miguel aimed his beam rifle at the uncaptured mobile suit. It evaded with clumsy moves. Miguel stowed the beam weapon and pulled the GINN's sword. "Okay, I'll capture that machine! You make sure you get yours back to the ship!"
Katherine opened her mouth to say something. Then she frowned and looked to the side. It can't be Kira! she thought. There's no way he would've been there. And even with this shit OS, a Coordinator could do a better job moving that thing. She unfolded the cockpit's keyboard from the right wall and went in to rebuild the operating system for the acquired G-weapon. Though as she looked at the screen saw the same letters from start-up across the top, she had to wonder why the Earth Forces hadn't opted to simply call the things GUNDAMs.
As she worked, she observed the GINN gaining on its slow-moving opponent. The Natural managed to leap into the air and avoid Miguel's first sword strike. But as the Earth suit toppled on landing, Miguel raced forward and leaped into the air. The Earth Suit suddenly turned black with a silver torso and trim. Miguel descended over the suit, slicing his blade--
The blade impacted the black arms of the machine. The GINN sword sparked against the enemy's arms, but caused no damage. "Damn it!" Miguel cursed. "What the hell's that armor?"
Katherine looked up from the Aegis' armament list. "They're equipped with system called Phase Shift armor. Once activated, the GINN saber is useless." She activated her own Phase Shift. The suit turned sapphire blue with gray and yellow trim. "The Aegis identifies that suit as the X-105 Strike. It doesn't have much else on it."
A pair of missiles came flying at them. Katherine activated the Aegis' Igelstellungs and fired several of the 75 millimeter shells from either side of the Aegis' head. They took out the missiles, and then the tank that launched them.
"Get out of here, now!" Miguel ordered. "Remember the mission!"
Kira's thirteen year-old face flashed through her mind. It's not him! Katherine thought furiously. She lifted off from the ground and flew towards the harbor.
Miguel watched her go with a frown. What's gotten into her? She can't be that shaken up over Rusty. Can she? He filed that thought away for later and flew straight at the Strike. Shells shot from the sides of its head. The shots missed pathetically. Miguel laughed. "You've got some nerve! Thinking Naturals belong in Mobile Suits!" He swung his blade again. The Strike dodged.
Barely.
"And your fancy armor can't save you, if you can't even move!" Miguel swung the sword again. And again. All he needed to do was pin the other suit down and find a weakness. The sword impacted the other suit's chest. Sparks flew off the Strike's chest and the hapless Earth suit toppled into a building. Sparks also formed from debris impacts.
The Strike took a few steps back. Miguel drew his saber back as he kept pace with the suit. He thrust the point at the bottom of Strike's cockpit. Armor or no, there had to be a seam there. Even if the pilot survived, the suit should be disabled, and Miguel could haul it back to the Vesalius.
Suddenly, the Strike stopped backing up. Instead it fell to its knees. Miguel's thrust slid over its shoulder. Before Miguel could react, it rose to its feet again. It dashed toward the GINN and knocked it back.
Miguel cursed and struggled the GINN to its feet. He rushed forward again, only to be hit perfectly by the shells coming from the side of the Strike's head. Miguel swung his sword, and the Strike punched the GINN's head. Miguel fell back into a building.
"What the hell?" Miguel stared at his monitor. The Strike's last few moves were almost as if it had a different pilot...
Miguel switched to his beam rifle and shot at the Strike. The Strike dodged and lifted into the air. Miguel pursued. They landed in an area with fewer buildings. The Strike pulled two knives out of its hips. Miguel fired repeatedly. The Strike wove back and forth as it raced towards Miguel. All Miguel's shots missed, and before he could react, the Strike planted a knife in each of the GINN's shoulders.
A quick check of his instruments confirmed that Miguel had lost control of the suit. "DAMN!" Miguel activated the self-destruct sequence as he unbuckled from his seat. Before he jetted out of the hatch, Miguel ejected the disc that would have all the fight data recorded.
It was slight consolation that the Strike failed to move before the GINN exploded. The Strike stood too far away to be damaged, but, with luck, the pilot got shaken around. Naturals did concuss easily, affect all.
The space battle progressed in ZAFT's favor. An explosion ripped through the engine of the Earth transport. It's crew lost control, and it crashed into the side of the colony. The Zero pilot growled at the sight. "Can't we do something about this difference in firepower?" He dodged back and forth with a GINN. One of his fighter's wired gunbarrels shot the rifle out of the GINN's hand. The gunbarrels kept firing from different directions. One successfully shot the GINN's right arm off as it grabbed its sword.
The suit drew back as the Zero pursued.
"Olor's suit's heavily damaged!" Penobscot reported to the rest of the bridge. "Emergency landing! Fire crews to B-deck!"
"Olor's been hit?" Ades asked. "In simple battle like this?"
"It appears we have one annoying fly buzzing around," Le Creuset remarked mildly as he focused on a faint tickling in the back of his mind.
Before Ades could say anything, another report came in: "Emergency laser beacon detected from Miguel Aiman!"
"If that weapon works well enough to take out Miguel's suit, it's all the more reason not to leave the last one in their hands," Le Creuset said as he floated out of his chair. "Prep my CGUE!" he ordered. "I'm headed out!"
Only a few minutes later, Le Creuset barreled towards the Mobius Zero, having not even spared the time to change into a flight suit. The Zero turned to intercept his suit before the Earth armor's sensors would have detected it.
The move, while not expected, did not surprise the ZAFT commander either. "You sense me, as I sense you?" Le Creuset mused aloud. "Some unfortunate karma. Wouldn't you say, Mu La Flaga?"
Bodies and debris floated through a shaft in the docks. One of those bodies bumped against a bulkhead. The impact roused the man. Charles Baderial's purple eyes opened blearily. He forced himself to full consciousness, when the dead body under him registered. The last he remembered, he and Neuman had parted ways after they left the captain...
Katherine typed rapidly on the Aegis' keyboard as a trio of Vesalius techs downloaded every last scrap of data into a shell system. "Thanks," Richard, the lead tech, said as she finished. "Now--"
"Recovery shuttle landing in bay two," the intercom blared. "All unsuited hands to pressurized areas."
"Recovery shuttle?" one of the techs, Toby, asked. "I thought we were down to just suit deployment."
"Didn't you hear?" Michael asked. "Miguel got his suit mulched by the last of these puppies," he jerked his thumb at the Aegis.
"A Natural beat Miguel? No way!" Toby protested.
Katherine frowned and stared at the console. Kira?
"How could a Natural even operate the thing?" Toby asked. "The original OS was crap."
"They'd have had time to get used to it, and their armaments are impressive," Michael observed.
Katherine bit her lip. That sounds possible, but...
"I suppose," Richard responded. "Anyway, we've got data to analyze."
Rau Le Creuset's CGUE hid behind a piece of support scaffolding as La Flaga's Zero approached the colony shell, the pilot doubtlessly hunting him. Le Creuset readied his suit's beam weapon. The Earth Alliance ace was a kill he looked forward to--a good mark in his record, and one less piece of Al Da Flaga to worry about.
The Zero passed behind him, and Le Creuset moved to snipe him. Unfortunately, Da Flaga's spawn spotted him at the last moment. The Zero accelerated away from the blasts, then turned on the CGUE, deploying its gunbarrels. "You're always getting in my way!" Le Creuset growled. "Though I hope you at least say the same about me!"
Le Creuset turned and raced into Heliopolis' harbor.
And smiled when La Flaga took the bait and followed.
Murrue Ramius groggily opened her eyes. She looked straight into the face of a teenage girl with auburn hair and turquoise eyes. "Glad to see you're awake," the girl smiled. "Hey Kira!"
The kid who had wrested control of the Strike walked over to Murrue's left as she tried to sit up. "You're better off laying still for now," he said. "I--" his gaze dropped a bit. "I kind of got carried away in there. I'm sorry."
From what Murrue could remember, the boy turned the fight around. She was not overly inclined to rebuke his actions. Still, she could not overlook an unknown gaining such familiarity with a G-weapon. Especially who could rewrite the OS in the heat of battle.
The girl from earlier brought a bottle over to her. "Would you like some water?"
"Thank you."
As the teens helped Murrue up to drink, she saw that they had laid her on a backless bench underneath an open tent. She guzzled the entire bottle. As she finished, a boy's voice called: "This so-called GUNDAM's amazing!"
"Does it move or not?" a girl asked.
Alarmed, Murrue turned to the side. The deactivated Strike crouched on one knee with a hand on each leg. Two more teens poked about the Strike's cockpit. "Quit playing around up there!" a fifth teen, a boy with light brown hair and glasses, called up from the ground.
The two ignored him.
Murrue grimaced as she realized how out of control the situation had gotten. Fortunately, the water had helped her recover.
And she still had her pistol.
Taking the fight into the harbor proved as advantageous as Le Creuset expected. The combined space limited the ways La Flaga could duck. Still, the bastard refused to die.
La Flaga dodged each and every blast Le Creuset fired at him, weaving nimbly along the maze-like tunnel. The two fighters flew on opposite sides of a docking wall. Le Creuset slowed his speed. "I'd be delighted if you disappeared, Mu," he mused. "Right about NOW!" Le Creuset round the wall's other side and shot La Flaga's gunbarrels up, but the bastard successfully ejected them before they blew.
Le Creuset closed in on Mu's tail.
"GET AWAY FROM THAT MACHINE!" Murrue ordered as she pulled her gun and fired a warning shot above the G-weapon's cockpit. The two teens flinched, the girl looking ready to piss herself.
As Murrue advanced towards the Strike, Kira came after her. "What do you think you're doing? Please! They helped carry you out!"
Murrue turned the gun on him. "I am grateful. But that thing is a top military secret. I can't just let anyone fiddle with it."
"Give me a break," the brown haired boy from the cockpit grumbled. "You had Kira driving it a moment ago."
She turned the gun back at him. "Everyone over there," she ordered, gesturing with the gun. "Your names."
"Sai Argyle," answered the boy with glasses.
The black haired girl on Argyle's right spoke next. "I'm Karrie Buskirk," her voice quavered.
"Tolle Koenig," the brown haired boy on Argyle's left spoke curtly.
The girl in the orange dress stood to Koenig's left. She held the right arm of the Kira kid. "I am Miriallia Haw."
The purple-eyed boy still glared. For a moment, Murrue thought he would refuse to answer. "Kira. Yamato."
"And I am Murrue Ramius, a lieutenant with the Earth Alliance forces."
"Earth Alliance!" Koenig exclaimed.
"But we're neutral!" Buskirk whined.
Murrue sighed. Civilians. Still, once she gave the kids a dose of reality, they should prove useful.
"Aside from you," Neuman reported as they floated through the Archangel, "the only survivors appear to be the few of us onboard the ship during the explosion. But most of them are factory workers."
"And our current status?" Charles Badgerial asked as they reached the bridge. "What of the ZAFT vessels?"
"Unknown. We've had our hands full verifying what happened here."
Charles pulled up a display grid. He gave an impressed whistle. "The Archangel's tough. This wasn't near enough to sink her."
"But all the debris out there's sealed off the harbor," Neuman informed him. "We're trapped."
Charles pulled up the communications grid. "The airwaves are still being jammed. But... This was a diversion? Then ZAFT must be after Morgenreote!"
Neuman's brown eyes widened.
"Damn it!" Charles cursed. "We need to know what's happened out there!"
As if on cue, the bridge received a garbled transmission. The two on the bridge could not make out the full content, but it clearly came from the X-105 Strike. "We have to launch!" Charles proclaimed.
Neuman stared at him. "That's impossible with our numbers!"
"Morgenroete could still be under attack!" Charles retorted. "This ship is supposed have more automation than any existing warship! It's time to test that!"
The bridge doors opened, and three more soldiers floated into the bridge.
One of Mu's gunbarrels had survived Le Creuset's shots. La Flaga left it deployed. It went ahead of his Zero, shooting at Le Creuset's CGUE. Le Creuset dodged the annoyance and crushed it with a foot. He then turned his attention to the big fly.
Da Flaga's bastard dodged Le Creuset's shots. Le Creuset dodged his. They kept this up until a stray shot blew a hole in the harbor's side. Le Creuset smiled, and dove into the colony proper. Mu stuck to his tail.
Le Creuset scanned the area as he flew along. He shortly detected a crouched mobile suit; behind it sat an equipment truck. Several people appeared to be loading equipment onto the suit. "So," Le Creuset mused, "that's it."
He ducked and flew over it as Mu pursued. With its cockpit open and the surrounding personnel acting panicked, Le Creuset dismissed the thing as an immediate threat. Zachary and the others had reported less than fully charged batteries, after all. As Le Creuset flew away, Mu chased after him. Le Creuset looped around and bore down from behind the Zero. As the Zero's main gun pivoted around, Le Creuset swung the CGUE's sword.
With Mu neutralized, Le Creuset swooped down on the last suit. "I'll take you down now, while I have the chance!"
The dull gray suit suddenly turned black with silver trim and stood, holding a large green rifle.
An explosion tore through some trees lining the barrier to the asteroid's interior. Through the hole emerged a red and white warship.