Kira walked the Liberty over to the two disabled half tracks, putting the air conditioners in the cockpit on overdrive, though they did little besides circulate the parched air. He was glad he'd been able to make the tricky shots when he had... another thirty seconds and he'd have fainted and probably would never have woken again. It hadn't been easy drawing a precise bead by manual targeting... but target lock sensors wouldn't work in that hellstorm of plasma fire. As things were the outside of the Liberty was scorched black... no damage had been done but the beautiful paint job was pretty much ruined. Nothing a few hours with a power scraper wouldn't cure but... Kira shook himself.
He had other concerns than cosmetic maintainence. He didn't dare crack the cockpit hatch... even though it was likely far cooler outside than inside the cockpit, givent the amount of red hot metal around the cockpit edges Kira didn't really feel like getting a few third degree burns getting out. He could wait for the metal to cool first. Now standing over the two half tracks he cast his sensors down and brought up the soldiers in his display, so he could see the people he had saved. His heart skipped more than a few beats when he saw who was in one of the half tracks... he practically had to remind himself to start his heart pumping again. Shakily he reached out a hand and activated the external microphone. "Mom? Dad?"
Mrs. Yamato jumped and tightened the bandage she was tying so hard the ex-con whos arm she was binding screamed in agony and passed out. She'd been resolutely trying to ignore the mobile suit which had saved them... it was clearly not an Earth Forces model since it had been ignoring all attempts at communication by Mr. Argyle. For all she knew it was more of a threat than the patrol. It was childish but she'd decided that maybe if she didn't look at it it would go away and leave them be in peace. But then she'd heard Kira's voice come out of the speakers. "Kira!"
"Kira!" Mr. Yamato cried, stupefied.
"Kira?" Mr. Haw looked dumbfounded, as did everyone else who knew who the hell that was. The people who did not know looked even more confused, but that was irrelevant to those who did know.
"What are you doing here?" all three Yamato's asked in unison. There was a short pause. Then everyone, all the soldiers, all of their friends, the Yamato's and Kira all started talking at once. Kira contacted the rest of his friends who were circling several miles away. To say that his news was a bombshell was more than a little understatement.
"Mom and Dad are here?" Miriallia whispered, totally disarmed. She'd thought her parents were back in Orb... they were too old for muster into the Orb military. "And Kuzzey and his family as well?"
"And Sai's parents too." Kira confirmed, voice unsteady.
"What are they doing here?" Cagalli asked venemously. She had strong suspicions about who it was that had betrayed her secrets to Blue Cosmos. "I thought the rich folks stayed out of the ground war in the Atlantic Federation."
"Why are you asking me? I don't know why anybody is where they are." Kira protested.
"You say there are other soldiers there?" Alkire asked.
"Yeah... about ten or so. They look pretty rough... beat up, tired... worn out." Kira replied.
"Come on back to us and lets get on our way." Alkire ordered. The line went dead silent.
"What?" Kira asked, shocked.
"I got a bad feeling about this... I know they're your folks and all... but don't go out amongst those soldiers. Lest you forget... as much as ZAFT doesn't like us... Blue Cosmos hates us a good deal more. And they're actively looking for us too. I wouldn't be at all surprised if some of those soldiers had heard of you. And it won't take long for them to put two and two together to get four. There aren't many mobile suit pilots around with specialty mobile suits that can wipe out a ZAFT team single handedly... and even fewer named Kira. I can barely imagine what your head is worth to Cervantes and Asmodeus." Alkire replied. "We can come back and pick them up after we get to the Archangel."
"You want me to abandon my parents and my friend's parents out in the desert... wounded, without means of transportation and with ZAFT likely on the way to finish them off as we speak?" Kira said, incredulous.
"I wouldn't say abandon... we will come back for them... but that's another good point... ZAFT is gonna be showing up here post haste. No need to provoke a firefight when we don't have too." Alkire continued.
"No." Kira replied. Alkire sighed. He knew that was going to happen. That was the problem when dealing with nonprofessional soldiers... they just couldn't make rational decisions.
"Land the jet." Lacus suggested from behind him. Alkire twisted around to look at her. He knew the kids all thought of her as a sort of de facto leader... but to him she was just a pretty Coordinator girl with a nice singing voice and a heap of good sense which she currently wasn't using.
"Pardon me, Miss Lacus... but I don't take orders from..." Alkire began. Lacus smiled disarmingly, stopping him in mid flow.
"Forgive me, I did not mean to be so imperious. Just wanted to point out that Kira is not going to listen to you. He probably wouldn't even listen to me if I told him to leave them. And Miriallia will no doubt convince Dearka to take her to her family within minutes. And Athrun and Cagalli will hardly leave without Kira. And if you think I'll leave without him then you have sadly underestimated my resolve." Lacus said with a brief smile that nevertheless sent a chill down Alkire's spine. This girl was steel... even though she didn't look it most of the time.
"I think you lose." Raine said from behind Lacus.
"Gee... thanks for the support, Raine. I hope you can see that this is going to be something everyone is going to end up regretting."
"Yes, I do realize that. But I don't see any way out of it either. And niether do you or you'd be flying away right now rather than circling in for a landing."
"Is that what I've been doing? Huh, guess I can't fool anyone anymore."
"Comes with being married."
"Oh... right, we're married... I keep forgetting." Alkire grimaced. For all his levity he was dreading what he just knew was going to happen. This would end in bloodshed before the next couple hours were up... maybe even within the hour. He shrugged. The kid had brought it on himself. They always needed the object lesson the first time. He hoped everyone would survive unscathed. He concentrated on bringing the plane down safely on the hard packed sand. Miriallia had convinced Dearka to take her to her parents, just as Lacus had predicted. Athrun and Cagalli quickly joined them, with Ysak bringing up the rear, escorting the plane.
By the time everyone had debarked from the plane the Liberty had cooled enough for Kira to get out. Lacus, Chanel and Katie were first off the plane, hurrying to their respective males. Alkire stopped the rest of TEMPEST at the door. "Gear up. Those soldiers are going to make a play. Raine, you find a nest and get sighted in on any leader looking types. James, you and Victor circle around and set up enfilade fire... if things turn ugly I want them pinned in crossfire. Vlad, you're on close range support... I need you within easy speaking distance in case they try to take me hostage. I'll be doing the negotiating... hopefully I can talk them out of whatever stupid plan they are doubtless hatching... though since they are likely Blue Cosmos indoctrinated I don't have much hope of that."
"Good idea." Raine replied.
"Aye." James and Victor nodded.
"Yes, sir, Major." Vlad answered, slipping into the back to look for desert camouflage clothing. Alkire strapped on his pistol, ballistic vest, combat knife and picked up his assualt rifle and checked the clip. Full. He set it to full automatic. If things did go south he'd be right in the thick of it... full auto death would be much more use at ranges of five meters or less than single shot or burst, especially against grouped enemies. Alkire jumped out of the jet and quick timed across the desert towards the slightly raised dune where the kids were noisily and tearfully reuniting with their families and friends.
Alkire smiled. He was glad the kids had saved their families... such wonders were all too rare during war... but he quickened his stride still more when he saw how all the other Earth Forces soldiers were grouped at the other half track, shooting suspicious glares at the parents and kids and muttering to each other. He did not look but knew that his teammates were spreading out around him and behind him... he barely managed to pick up Vlad sneaking past him, lepoard crawling like a madman. That he could move at such a speed while on hands and kness was amazing enough... that he could do it while remaining practically invisible and silent was almost disturbing.
"Glad we could make it in time to pull your fat out of the fire!" Alkire called as he came up behind the Earth Forces soldiers. He scanned them quickly. Kira was right... they were a rough looking bunch... but not because of the minor wounds or tiredness. More than half sported gang tattooes and the rest had the unmistakable edginess of cons, ex-cons or men who should have been cons. Plainly the conscription service hadn't been too discerning when selecting recruits. These men were desperate... strung out, tired, hungry, scared shitless... they would turn like a pack of rabid weasels on any show of weakness. And the sight of the kids greeting their parents had them all practically salivitating. Not only had most of them recognized various of the kids as being worth substantial amounts of hard cash if turned in dead or alive... but there were more than a few very good looking young girls over there. And these men had been without feminine company of any sort for quite a long time. In other words the situation was balanced on a grenade pin, just waiting to blow up.
"And who the feck are you?" one of the most hard bitten looking ones, a corporal by his ragged uniform, asked in a thick accent Alkire identified as being from some of the lower class districts of New New York city.
"I am Major Robert Jones, of the Earth Forces Special Operations Unit. EFSOU. I'm sure you've heard of it." Alkire said, not hesitating to drop his real name. These men would probably never be able to repeat it and all he had to do was keep them off balance for a few more minutes while TEMPEST got into position.
"What the feck is a major doing whay the feck out here?" the corporal wanted to know. His filthy name tag read Ronald.
"You don't have the clearance to know that. In fact, it'd probably be best if you forgot this whole thing. Mobile suits and everything." Alkire replied.
"Feck that!" the corporal half shouted. Athrun and Dearka and Ysak looked over at the men who were slowly surrounding Alkire. Their faces tightened. Alkire was glad some of the kids had some sense to maintain situational awareness. "What security level are you, major?"
"Why does that matter?" Alkire asked.
"Because I highly doubt that a mere major has the clearance to be running around with high profile targets liken them kids over dere." the corporal grinned raggedly. "I make them to be Kira Yamato... Lacus Clyne... Athrun Zala... Cagalli Yula Attha... and thems just the big money worth."
"Anyone ever tell you your english stinks worse than your breath?" Alkire asked pointedly. He knew it was coming. He tightened his grip on the rifle. "What of them?"
"Well... we aren't unreasonable folks major... we don't want no trouble. Especially not with you EFSOU motherfeckers. Mean bastards your kind are. How about we split the bounty with you? Maybe even split the girls? Plenty to go around and plenty fine too." Corporal Ronald said with a low cackle. His men surrussed agreement, starting to bring weapons up. Ronald started to draw a pistol and turn.
"How about I split your head instead?" Alkire said calmly. Ronald was just turning back in surprise when Alkire's first burst caught him in the upper chest and neck... blowing his head off in a cloud of bone and blood. The other soldiers may have been shitbags but they knew their way around dirty fights. Within a second everyone had a weapon out and was starting to aim it. Little good it did them. None of the ten soldiers who had been conspiring with Ronald got off a shot. Raine's first bullet blew one man's spine in half, her second took the top half of another's head off in a fountain of gore. Alkire dropped and rolled, hosing his rifle around until it clicked dry. Heavy machine gun and carbine fire filled the air above him, impacts punching men off their feet or boring red meaty holes straight through them and flinging them around in rags.
Vlad exploded from the sand practically at the feet of one man, tearing his leg off at the knee with one hand and smashing him hard against the side of the half track with the other. By the time Kira had finished opening his mouth to shout and Lacus to scream it was over. Ten soldiers were cut down and one was rapidly bleeding to death, held firmly against the side of the half track by Vlad. Blood soaked the sand, turning it into red mud around the second half track. Alkire wiped a trickle of flung red off his forehead with one gloved hand and stood up again. He was unharmed.
"What the hell did you do that for?" Kira raged, coming up behind Alkire. Alkire turned to talk to him and was unprepared for the fist that came out of nowhere and landed square on his chin, sending him staggering to the side. Damn, but the kid was stronger than he looked. Kira followed the sucker punch up with another that Alkire barely managed to take on his shoulder. Kira never landed a third punch, though he did attempt to. Vlad was on him in a flash, dropping the wounded soldier. Vlad didn't hurt him in any way... but he did lock both of Kira's arms behind him in such a way that if he were to try to free himself he'd only end up dislocating both shoulders at the very least. Holding both of Kira's wrists with one mechanical hand, Vlad wrapped his other arm around Kira's throat and applied very light pressure... just enough for Kira to realize that Vlad had him cold.
"I didn't save them so you could kill them!" Kira snarled. Alkire glared at him and wiped a thin trickle of blood from a cut lip off his chin.
"You didn't save them so they could kill you and your family either. Yet that was what they were planning." Alkire countered. "And they only got killed because they were going to attack you."
"But why did you have to kill them? Couldn't you have knocked them out?" Kira said, still extremely upset. Alkire looked around at the eleven soldiers and then back at Kira, eyebrow raised.
"What... me alone? You wanted I should go hand to hand with eleven armed soldiers and try to knock them out? Wake the fuck up, Kira. We're not in a mobile suit anymore... personal combat has different rules than mobile suit warfare. If I'd tried to do that it'd be them standing over our bloody corpses right now, while they took turns raping the girls and then killing them and then probably starving to death out here in the desert... if ZAFT didn't come and kill them first. Is that what you would have preferred? Huh?" Alkire walked up to where he was only inches from Kira. "You don't have to like. You don't have to like me. But you do have to accept reality. If we hadn't killed these men you'd all be dead now. Or wishing you were. And ALL of this could have been prevented if you'd only stayed in your DAMN mobile suit like I told you to! I knew this was going to happen... it's like has happened to me before. But did you choose to listen to the people with the practical experience? NO! You had to decide that you knew best. That's your problem, Kira. And the rest of your problems too!" Alkire swept an angry gesture at Lacus, Athrun, Cagalli, Ysak, Dearka and Miriallia.
"You all think you know whats best for the world! That your way is necessarily right just because it is just and good and reasonable. Well, the world isn't always or even frequently JUST or GOOD or especially REASONABLE... if it were we would not be here right now. Now, don't get me wrong... i fully support your views and I'll do whatever is necessary to end this war we're in... but I'm only here because your way is the best out of a lot of bad choices. Forcing the world to accept pacifism in one giant leap is NUTS! Totally insane with almost zero chance of success. But almost zero is better than just diving back into a war that will do nothing but escalate and escalate until the world goes bye bye in a big nuclear flash." Alkire was panting with emotion. Kira glared at him stone faced.
"I can see you need a reality check. Here... I know just the thing." Alkire walked over to the leg amputated soldier. He nudged the stump with his toe and the man came fully awake, yelling and screaming most horribly. "Why don't you tell them what you were planning on doing, soldier?"
"P-please... help me..." the man gasped. Alkire drew out his pistol and racked the slide.
"I'll end the pain... just tell them what you were going to do."
"W-we recognized the pilot from the wanted posters. And Ronald knew his friends... aghhh!... knew them too. We were gonna shoot you all down... Ronald said they'd pay just as much if not more for bodies. Ughh! God DAMN it HURTS! Then we was gonna split the girls who were still alive... maybe the dead ones too... some guys were pretty... agh... pretty desperate. Not me. I wanted... I wanted the pink one. The one with the beautiful voice to scream for me in a beautiful way. We were just about to start shooting when the bastard major here.. gahhh!... bastard major and his friends had to go and kill us all... god damn you." the soldier hissed and spat.
"From the mouth of the beast." Alkire declared triumphantly. He tossed the handgun at Kira's feet, Vlad released him from the arm and throat lock. "This man is going to bleed to death in horrible agony over the course of the next five minutes. All you have to do to save him the pain is shoot him right in the head. He wants you to. He knows his wound is too severe to fix. He is bleeding internally as well... he'd live if we got him to intensive care within the next ten minutes... but that's going to be pretty difficult."
"You said you'd... ergg... end the pain." the soldier accused.
"I lied. Shit happens. Sucks, doesn't it? Besides, the kid can pull the trigger just as well as I."
"You can't force Kira to shoot him!" Lacus cried, horrified.
"I'm not forcing him to do anything. I'm just as cool sitting here with him and watching the sorry bastard bleed out."
"Kira isn't responsible for what you caused." Athrun said coldly.
"He is responsible. He could have avoided all of this had he followed orders. I'm not going to let him hide from that and niether should you. You could always be a pal and shoulder the burden for him... it's only a single trigger pull."
"That's monstrous." Miriallia said tightly.
"That's life." Victor said flatly from beside her. "Sometimes we make bad choices. And we have to accept responsibility for them. Kira's done it before, I can see the mark of the hard choices on him. And in perspective... its a mercy... I'd take the pistol over a slow agony of bleeding to death."
"But Kira swore he'd never kill anyone ever again!" Lacus protested, in tears.
"He's never kept that promise. Oh, he may not have directly killed anyone... but his interventions probably caused a great deal of death and suffering, indirectly. Just by being alive and refusing to kill people are dying because of him. Like these soldiers. Their lives were taken by him as surely as this ones life will be if anyone gets around to pulling that trigger."
"It's not like that." Kira refuted.
"Deny it. Deal with it like you want. Doesn't matter to me. I'm fine with being a merciless bastard when I have to be. Are you?" Alkre spat back. He turned on his heel and started back towards the plane. Before he'd gone three steps a gunshot rang out. He turned back. Mr. Yamato stood over the dead soldier, gun in one hand.
"I don't know what the fuck that was all about... but I'll be damned if I let my son be forced to violate a promise he so obviously holds dear." Mr. Yamato said viciously.
Alkire nodded a brief salute. "I'm glad someone was man enough to take the responsibilty." He turned back and headed towards the jet again. "Come on, y'all. ZAFT's going to be showing up here in less than an hour or I don't know jack about their scouting protocols. Best we be far away from here by then... and my jet's the only bus leaving this stop until then. You can always try and ride a mobile suit... but they're uncomfortable enough just for the pilots."
After a brief hesitation the adults followed him, with the pilots heading reluctantly back to their machines. Alkire supressed a shiver. He hoped he hadn't irrecoverably damaged his relationship with Kira... but that was unlikely. The kid was just so inflexible on his definition of right and wrong. Alkire didn't blame him though... in fact he admired that conviction. He wished he could see the world so black and white. With any luck at all and probably a great deal of assistance from his friends, Kira would be able to put aside the moral debate when the chips next came down... if not they'd all probably get killed. Alkire didn't even know a fourth of what Kira and company had been through during the last war... but even still he knew that the crap that was coming up made even the most desperate battle of last war look like a picnic.