"We've got a bogey incoming, Commander." Mike reported. "Its a mobile suit... unknown configuration. But it visually matches the one that the scout leader said attacked his team."
"Everybody spread out... if it is in the same capability class as the Freedom then we need to get as far away from each other as possible or he can wipe us out with just a few concentrated volleys. That thing was too heavily armed." Randolf ordered. Immediately his troops widened their formation, and brought their weapons to ready status. They would not let a single mobile suit... no matter how powerful... get past them. Randolf activated his own weapons, and he dropped the Grendel out of the loping gorilla kunckle walk. The big cannons would only drain his power batteries against the foe they were facing now... he'd seen reports on the agility of the Freedom and this was apparently an upgraded model... his big guns would only melt sand. "Hidetata team, go MC." he ordered. The Efreet unit vanished from view and sensors. "Boslvoy and Ragnar teams orient all weapons on the target. Everyone else be ready for targets of opportunity... there's more than one enemy and we don't need to get flanked."
"The enemy is slowing... we're being hailed over the international channel." Mike cut in. A moment later he had patched Randolf in to the comm line.
"This is Kira Yamato, in the Liberty. Calling the commander of the ZAFT forces. Can you hear me? I want to talk. Please respond."
"Who the hell is Kira Yamato?" Randolf asked.
"Beats the hell out of me, sir. Notice he gave no military rank... I wonder which side he is on."
"Not ours, if the scout team is anything to judge by. Fine, I'll humor him. Gives us more time to get a target lock. How's that going by the way?" Randolf replied.
"Difficult, sir. His sensor jamming and stealth systems are quite good... better than anything I've ever seen. The computers just about refuse to give me a solid lock for more than a quarter second. And he's not even maneuvering yet. Lets let him get closer."
"This is Commander Aireg Randolf, commanding officer of Gibraltar base and officer in charge of the North African Theater. Who are you and what do you want?" Randolf replied on the open channel. He was caught off guard by the reply.
"Commander Randolf?" an achingly familiar female voice answered him a moment later. "This is Lacus Clyne speaking." Randolf heard Mike choke over his secondary channel.
"Siegel Clyne's daughter?" Randolf gasped, shocked. He had no idea what was going on. What was such a dedicated peacemaker like Lacus Clyne... possibly the most beloved girl in all the PLANTS... doing out here in the desert? Talking to him no less. From the cockpit of an enemy mobile suit. Wait a minute... "How do I know it's you, 'miss Lacus'? It seems likely to me that this is an attempt to throw us off guard." one that worked... but maybe not.
His vidcomm screen blinked to life. Randolf's jaw dropped. It was Lacus Clyne, or else a clone of her... but clones did not exist... so Lacus it must be. "Miss Lacus... Lacus... Lacus... miss Clyne." the voices of his command ecoed tinnily along his other communication lines. Everyone knew who Lacus Clyne was... she'd helped stop the last war at Jachin Due and had played a major part in brokering peace between the PLANTS and the Earth afterwards. And even before that she had been one of the most wildly popular pop singers in all the PLANTS... and... to the younger generation... the most eligible and desirable girl around. There likely wasn't a Coordinator over the age of two that did not know of Lacus Clyne and all the things she had endured and done for the PLANTS. "Miss Lacus... what are you doing here?" Randolf replied, fingering his prized white moustache in surprise.
Lacus looked back at the ZAFT commander through the vidcomm. He was an older man... perhaps in his late fifties or early sixties, but still quite vigorous by even a casual estimation... Coordinators did live longer than Naturals so he was only in middle middle age. Sun browned face lined with worry and sun, he had short white hair and a magnificent white bushy moustache like the one her father used to have. Pale green eyes studied her intently, looking for some deception. "I'm here to stop this situation from escalating out of control." she replied.
"You certainly have some explaining to do!" Randolf cried. "Why did you attack and destroy one of my patrols? You hate the idea of war and fighting, miss Lacus. I know you do."
"You are right, I do. And so does the pilot of this Gundam, Kira. He hates war just as much as I do." Lacus replied.
"That would be the Kira Yamato who contacted us initially? Here's there with you?" Randolf asked. Lacus shifted uncomfortably on Kira's lap. Even moving the keyboard out of the way there was little room for another person in the Liberty's cockpit... she had to sit scrunched up on Kira's lap... not something she normally minded, but given how he was strapped in she was fairly sure she had cut off the cirulation to both his legs just by how she was sitting, and he had to peek over her shoulder awkwardly in order to see where he was flying.
"Yes it would and yes he is. However, because of the limitations of the cockpit he's rather hard to see." Lacus answered. Randolf smiled.
"I can imagine. He must be someone you trust implicitly, miss Lacus, to let him fly you around in a mobile suit." Randolf could not help noting. His genius was in the little details, so he filed away how she had blushed when he said that. Plainly this Yamato guy was more than just a trusted friend. Lucky bastard.
"He is. But that is currently irrelevant. Right now we need to be focusing on the situation which confronts us. Kira destroyed your patrol, though he did leave the pilots unharmed. He only did so because they were killing fleeing soldiers. We aren't here to fight the PLANTS, commander. We also aren't here to fight the Earth Alliance. We plan to fight the agressors. The people who try to spread the war. Who created it."
"So you are fighting the Alliance then?" Mike cut in, confused. The Liberty settled to the ground nearby. Mike and Randolf walked their Grendels closer until they were standing within easy voice talking range, if any of them had wanted to open their cockpits to the merciless sun.
"No. We are fighting the war itself. The tendency to escalate. The people who would bring death to the helpless and suffering to the undeserving. The people who would use nukes... or any weapon of mass destruction." Lacus refuted.
"That still sounds a lot like the Alliance to me." Randolf replied. "But if you aren't with the Alliance and you aren't with us... which side are you on, Miss Lacus?"
"I am currently on the side of peace... where I have always tried to be."
"That is a very good answer... for the diplomats table. Out here on the field of what may have to be a battle I find those words less than sufficient. You have admitted to attacking and destroying ZAFT troops, miss Lacus. Or at least condoning the actions of one who did. I find it quite odd that a person such as yourself would be way out here in the middle of the desert for no reason at all. Don't you think you are acting a little suspicous?" Randolf told her. Lacus looked a bit taken aback.
"You don't believe me? Do you think I'm a fake or an imposter?"
"No... I know you are the real Lacus Clyne. I was a very casual acquiantance of your father's... I went to your house once, you probably don't remember, you were young... but you are unmistakably that same girl. But you've been out of view for quite some time, miss Lacus. Long enough that I cannot help but worry that your thinking may have been influenced. Maybe even coerced."
"Coerced? By who?" Lacus demanded indignantly. Randolf frowned. She was getting very defensive... a trait unknown to the Lacus Clyne of his experience, who was quite open and frank at all times.
"By whoever was in that jet. By whoever is in those other mobile suits out of sight beyond the dunes there. Maybe even by that man in the cockpit with you. I don't know. I know you were accused of treason in the last war, miss Lacus and I did not believe it when I heard it. I was glad when the charges were proven to be unfounded. But I cannot deny that the seed of the possibilty was planted in my mind. And this situation is nuturing that seed something fierce." Randolf replied, his voice cooling. He hit a macro key on his keyboard, sending a text only message to his command, telling them to remain alert. This was beginning to smell like a bait and lure trap. He and Mike were very exposed out on the dune top.
"Commander Randolf. I assure you that my words and my thinking are entirely my own. How can I prove that to you?" Lacus answered, staring at him so sincerely that he couldn't help but give her a chance. "I only want to prevent violence and bloodshed as much as possible. Talking can resolve this problem and the war... if only people would give it a chance." Lacus continued.
"Fine... exit the cockpit and come over to us. Tell Mr. Yamato to power down his Gundam as well. And tell your friends back in the dunes to come forward as well, with weapons powered down as well. Then we can talk and I'm sure we can get this whole thing straightened out good and proper." Randolf ordered. Lacus thought for a moment and nodded.
"Very well." she said. Randolf watched on the screen as she shifted position. His keen eyes noted every detail... including what could have been the accidental brush of a hand against a macro switch as she struggled with the tight cockpit confines. Could have been. Would have been, maybe... if a slurry of high caliber shells hadn't screamed out of the sky behind his position and ploughed into Mike's Grendel, chewing through the back armor and blowing his friend of twenty years into blood and meat scraps right there on the secondary screen before detonating the Grendel in a thunderous flash of light and sound which threw Randolf's Grendel down like a rag doll. He lay there, stunned, bleeding from striking his head on a side screen. Unable to get the image of that almost casual brush of a hand against a switch out of his mind. The signal switch which could sent any one of a hundred signals. Including an attack signal to waiting forces around the trap he was now convinced he had allowed himself to be lured into. The bait had been perfect. She was, after all, not a fake. She was after all... a traitor! The hardest kind of foe to face... because you never wanted to admit they could exist.
"All teams... it's a TRAP. It's a TRAP! Fight for your lives! DAMN LACUS CLYNE!" Randolf shouted, clawing his way back to full consciousness and rolling the Grendel to it's feet.
-----------------
"Hah! Ha ha ha!" Cray Thresher exulted in the adrenaline rush of combat. The magnifed sound of his 120mm gatling cannons loading new belts of shells carried musically to his ears. He switched for a moment over to his missiles, sending flights of forty at a time screaming down into the ZAFT mobile suits milling around below, causing plumes of burnt sand and dull smoke to rise from fresh craters and burning hulks of mobile suits freshly killed. He turned on his multi-target system, drawing beads on a bulky looking heavy limbed suit with his dual 350mm hyper impulse beam cannon, a pair of BuCue's with the 400mm anti armor shotgun, and a team of Ginns with the four 120mm gatling cannon and six 57mm beam cannon on the shoulders and chest. Wave after wave of munitions and beam energy washed from his guns in a flood, casuing the entire Merciless to shake like a man with terminal palsy. The vibrations thrummed up and down his spine. It was the most pleasurable thing in existence.
Ashino came hurtling in from the side, weaving through Cray's fire storm with ease of long practice. Cray always sprayed his fire around like a man with a garden hose... but he rarely hit the same area twice... because he never needed to. So Ashino always aimed the Bane towards where the firestorm had last touched down, smashing into re-organizing troops like a hammer into crystal. His Death's Shroud smoke projectors were pumping out oily and gritty smoke at maximum volume, quickly helping to obscure the battlefield wherever he went. He deflected panicked beam shots into the ground around him with his shield and gave better than what he got with precision close range fire from his 120mm gatling cannon main weapon, blowing enemies apart with neat bursts of shells.
Every so often he cut loose with his shoulder beam cannons, 3 green beams per shoulder, lancing out to claw red fire and wrecked metal through the enemy. He did not laugh, though he did admit he was smiling a little at the joy of exercising his abilities in the manner he was created to do. This was what he was for. Frost had not engaged. He wasn't interested in ZAFT except if they got in his way. Got in the way of the real enemy. The ones in the scorched black mobile suit currently taking off from the rasied dune only a half klick ahead of him, who had yet to see him coming. And then, after that one, the rest of them, off in the distance, scrambling to react.
"How could you do it? How could you betray the PLANTS and join the Earth Forces? LACUS CLYNE!" Randolf shouted, tears in his eyes. This betrayel cut deeper than bone deep. It was soul deep. This relevation would curdle the morale of every soldier in ZAFT. Who was there to fight for if not your loved ones back home... the people who's image Lacus Clyne had exemplified. He struggled to lock his weapons on to the mobile suit with Lacus in it, but the stupid computers would not give him a target lock. He pulled the triggers anyway, sending tracer fire and beam energy flaring at the enemy, kicking up dust and splatters of glass as his fire chewed into the dunes instead of the armor of the mobile suit. He was shooting low. He struggled to bring his aim up, but by then the enemy mobile suit was away, wings like those of the angel of death, sooty black with char unfolding from its back.
"No! I didn't betray the PLANTS! I don't know what is going on!" Lacus cried back, frightened and totally flat footed by the sudden attack, which had come from nowhere.
"I don't believe you." Randolf retorted, out of weapons but not comm range. "You sold us out to the Earth Forces. Lured us out of Gibraltar and into this heinous trap. Those precious new Gundams of yours that flanked us... they're the ones from DC, aren't they? That's what my computer says, anyway. And I trust it. Unlike people, computers never lie."
"No! This is a mistake! I didn't set you up. I did not want this to happen! I want there to be peace." Lacus protested. Randolf spit back at her, not caring that he was only streaking his own screen.
"The peace of death is all you desire. I can see that plainly now. I swear, Lacus Clyne... I swear I will pay you back in full for this treachery. If need be I will haunt you to your dying day. I WILL HAUNT YOU LACUS CLYN..." Randolf cut off in a blizzard of static. Frost was frustrated. He would have had the Gundam if the stupid ZAFT suit hadn't opened fire and caused it to fly off. He drew a beam sword and cut the ZAFT suit in half and then kicked in the chest as it fell, sending the torso, great rent punched clean through it, tumbling through the sand for a few hundred yards. He then turned back to the fleeing Gundam and powered up his thrusters. They wouldn't be getting away this time. And this time the Fury was EMP shielded... they wouldn't get him with the same trick twice.
"No..." Lacus trailed off with a sob.
"Lacus." Kira said quietly. She did not respond. "Lacus." he said more firmly. Still no response. "LACUS!" Kira snapped loudly. She jumped and looked at him with wide eyes. "Now is not the time. We can work over this later... right now it looks like we have Frost on our tail and I really can't fight him with you in here. We're in mortal danger."
"Frost... so that's what Randolf meant by the Gundams that had flanked him... the Earth Forces must have sent Frost and reinforcements to Gibraltar... and they must have followed the ZAFT forces out here and caught them in the back when I tried to talk to them..." Lacus trailed off again.
"I agree, dear. That must be what has happened." Kira said, struggling to get a better viewing position. He personally had a few misgivings about her theory... there were only three Earth Forces mobile suits he could see... all Gundams... so that wasn't much in the way of reinforcements... Gibraltar had likely been the trap and Frost and his wingmen had been sent to hunt down the missing ZAFT soldiers who had come after Kira and company. He noted with concern how Lacus seemed to be a little out of it... she was usually so strong and focused during tight spots... but then again that was pretty traumatic, having someone believe you had betrayed them and had died believing that before you could convince them otherwise. It made him feel a little sick just thinking about it. But there was no time for that since Frost was rapidly catching up.
"Kira is in trouble." Athrun told Cagalli, uncoupling his power connector and bringing the Righteous fully online. The Rubicon had only been charged to about forty percent power, but it would have to be enough, because there was a battle headed their way... and from the look of things it was no minor squabble either. Explosions rocked the sky and smoke and fire spurted high into the air from over the ridge of dunes. Athrun looked around. Miriallia was sprinting towards the Grand Buster, which had boarding rope lowered and waiting. Ysak was just taking off in the Duelist, heading towards the fight. Alkire was herding the families towards the Archangel bunker, while people he assumed to be Desert Dawn soldiers came hustling out of concealed pits in the sand to hurry them along.
"Let's go save him then." Cagalli said with a small smile, brining the Rubicon to readiness as well. "You go first."
"Thanks." Athrun replied, smiling as well, taking off and zooming towards the battle at flank speed. It was only a few seconds before the blackened form of the Liberty came into view, racing at its own max speed towards him. Kira was being chased. And when he saw what was chasing Kira, Athrun's heart skipped a beat. It was the green mobile suit from Orb. Frost's mobile suit. "Ah shit." he muttered.
"What?" Cagalli asked a moment before her own camera zoomed in. "Ahhh!" she cut off her own scream. "It's Frost!" she announced over the public channel. Everyone who did not already know that froze a moment. And then got moving. A lot faster than before. Ysak brought his flight trajectory around and aimed himself towards Frost, bringning his beam rifle and 25mm gatling beam cannon into play, blasting away in an attempt to slow Frost down so Kira could safely unload Lacus. Athrun gave supporting fire as well... it was difficult because of the shallow angle and close distance between Frost and Kira... his shots were practically skimming the Liberty... close enough that the Angel Halo was actually curving the beams a little. And the fire did slow Frost a little... but only a little. Enough for him to not catch up... but Kira could not pull away either.
Miriallia strapped herself in faster than she had ever done before... she was done before the cockpit hatch had fully finished resealing itself. She pulled her keyboards down from their storage racks as Dearka activated the weapon systems. Mir kept one eye on her screen as she watched Athrun, Ysak and Cagalli try to help Kira escape from Frost long enough to get Lacus clear so Kira could fight. She kept her other eye roving on her sensor screens, watching with much discomfort as Frost's two companions mopped the floor with the twenty or so remaining but rapidly diminishing ZAFT mobile suits. Whoever they were they were good... very good. Maybe not as frightening as Frost, but they were better than the Coordinators they were decimating. And in much superior mobile suits. Even the new invisible ZAFT mobile suits were no match... invisibility did not matter much when the entire arc of land you were standing on was saturated with munitions and beam energy. And whatever that smoke was that one was producing was playing royal hell with the sensors... they were cutting in and out with alarming frequency and the camera displays were beginning to grime up with a layer of sooty grit even as she watched.
"They're too close..." Dearka complained, trying to figure out which weapon to use... all of his had area of effects too large to be safely fired into either group of combatants without significant risk of friendly fire casualties. And while he knew Kira was an amazing pilot... far more skilled that Dearka... he would be nowhere near his best with Lacus sitting on his lap. And not only for physical reasons.
"Archangel! Archangel, please respond. This is Miriallia Haw, in the Grand Buster. Archangel!" Miriallia called into the comm unit, switching through dozens of channels, trying to raise the warship which slumbered only a few hundred meters away.
"... this is... Murd... uster... ple... res... status?" Chief Murdoch's gruff voice cut through the static of heavy jamming. On the bridge of the buried warship Murdoch banged his hand on the communications panel in frustration, looking at the sensor feeds displayed on the bridge screens. "Can't we get this blasted junkheap started any faster? How much longer until we reach critical power?"
"One hundred and eighty seconds, Chief."
"Chief... those soldiers that came from the passenger jet have made it inside... I've put them up in the starboard crew galley for the moment. One of them, Major something or other, demands to talk to someone in charge."
"Yeah, Colonel Kisaka told me there'd be some special forces acquaintances of his coming with the kids. Bring this guy and his friends up to the bridge, but leave the Earth forces soldiers where they are... we'll sort them out later. Shit, they're getting hammered out there. Miriallia! This is Chief Murdoch. Can you hear me? What is your status?"
"... Can... ar you Chief... jammed... new... undams... ue... mos." Miriallia's reply crackled back on the bridge speakers. Murdoch watched helplessly as the big Buster upgrade stamped forward, spewing green beam fire from its shoulder cannons, adding to the firestorm that was already hounding the guy who was practically flying up Kira's ass. It didn't seem to help much... whoever the guy in the short green Gundam was... he was damned good. Damned good. Murdoch looked around at the bridge crew, hustling about their tasks as they tried to bring the ship online in record time. There were more of them than usual... along with a great deal of information Colonel Kisaka had assigned quite a few veteran Orb soldiers who had more loyalty to Kisaka than to the new Orb to help out with the ship. Murdoch was grateful for the assistance... though the Archangel could be run on a skeleton crew... indeed had for much of the last war... having a full crew made an impossible situation into something slightly more managable.
------------------------
Alkire practically sprinted through the corridors of the unfamiliar ship. He'd never been on board the Archangel before but he'd seen pictures of it and he had a rough idea of where the bridge was, and he knew where he'd entered it from. The rest he left up to his keen sense of direction and commando training... he could extrapolate... roughly... just what direction he had to be going in to get to the bridge. Maybe not one hundred percent accurate but he hadn't had the time to be shown the proper way... the guide hadn't been moving nearly fast enough for the emergency they were in. Alkire turned right at what he hoped was an elevator. His training failed him this time.
It was a suite of rooms... a rather large one too. Senior officer quarters of some sort. Occupied. This extra deduction was made simple by the figure of the woman, dressed in casually opened Earth Forces uniform with Captain's pips on her shoulders who stood in the middle of the room with a glazed look on her face. Alkire did not know her personally but he dredged her description from what he'd heard from Victor and James after that time in Switzerland. It was the crazy woman. Captain Ramius... the disassociative one. "Pardon me, ma'am." Alkire said, nodding a polite salute, even though she probably hadn't even realized someone else was in the room. People with battle shock tended to be only loosely aware of reality.
"What's going on?" she asked, her voice sharp like a blade. She turned and started buttoning her uniform jacket with unconscious grace. Alkire noted tear tracks... recent tear tracks... running down her face but her eyes were not the slightest bit wet or unfocused. "I heard the battle stations alarm. And just who the hell are you?" she demanded, edging over to a desk, reaching into her coat almost casually. Alkire watched her the whole way, and held up his arms, well away from his body.
"Major Alkire Majesty... formerly in the EFSOU. Now I'm probably what you might call a crusading mercenary." Alkire watched Ramius continue to draw the pistol that was in her jacket pocket. "I'm a friend of Kira's for gods sake! And we're under attack!" she paused.
"Kira's here?"
"I don't have time to fill you in. I need to get to the bridge and talk to Chief Murdoch so we can get this fat bird into the air and start providing some covering fire! There's a major battle going to shit outside and Kira and all the other kids are right in the middle of it." Alkire said, exasperated. Why did these things have to happen only at the most critical times?
"Let's go then. This way." Murrue Ramius replied, pulling her jacket on and slapping her cover down on her head as she jogged quickly out into the hall and towards the express elevator to the bridge. Alkire looked around the room one more time... noting the silver coffin locket with rose emblem on a chain looped around the picture of a blond haired and blue eyed man in a Lt. Commander's uniform. The man in the picture looked reasonably familiar but Alkire did not have time for that. He followed the re-energized Captain Ramius to the bridge.
--------------------------------
Ysak gritted his teeth. This was bad. He had been forced to pull off from trying to save Kira's sorry ass by the appearance of a second Earth Forces Gundam... this one painted pure white with a black skull like head, equipped with a beam deflecting shield like the one with the scythe in the last war had and armed with a chattering heavy gatling cannon plus racks of missiles and at least four beam cannons on its shoulder pauldrons. This new enemy had attacked with a precision that Ysak found to be very reminiscent of his own... no jerky movements or random fire splattering around... even with a rapid fire weapon this guy placed his shots exactly where he wanted them to go... never firing long enough for recoil to pull him off target. He also didn't get mad and make stupid charges or shout over the comm system like the guy in the last war had. All of which added up to make him a much tougher opponent than Ysak had expected. He couldn't get close to the guy... not without getting swarmed with gunfire and missiles... which while they wouldn't penetrate his armor would shake him up something fierce... likely enough for the guy to lock on his beams which would penetrate phase shift armor like soft cheese.
Ashino was not having an easy time of it either. This Coordinator... likely the one named Ysak Jule, by the information they had been given, since he piloted a machine very much like the Duel Gundam... this Ysak was a canny fighter. Much like Ashino himself. He refused to be drawn out. Refused to try and push in to close range, even though that was where his machine's strengths obviously lay... because to do so would mean exposing himself to the full force of the Bane's armaments... which would mean dying. Ashino rippled off another short burst with the gatling cannon, which the enemy took on his shield. Stalemate. At least until some new variable entered the equation... like if Cray ever finished up destroying the ZAFT mobile suits like a child crushing ants. Or if Frost would show an iota of tactical sense and fight back instead of pursuing the Liberty Gundam like a dog on a short leash. But why should Frost and Cray start acting rational now? When was the world ever that kind to him? Never. No... as usual, Ashino would have to create his own advantage. At least he was well equipped to do that. He hit the overdrive button for his Death's Shroud smoke emitters, emptying the canisters in one mighty rush of gritty black smoke.
Ysak suddenly found himself unable to see... and his sensors weren't working well either, cutting in and out, flickering like they were out of power. And it wasn't just the dark black smoke that was blocking his vision... specks were rapidly building to drifts of gunk on his camera lenses... even the secondarys. Within five seconds minor alarms started ringing as whatever particulate was suspended in the smoke started to seep into his engine intakes and joint seams...where it stuck and glued and fouled lubricants and generally caused a lot of grief. Nothing life threatening... yet... but if he kept getting the stuff in him it would eventually impede his performance. He started his thrusters, intending to lift himself clear of the gunk smog. he was barely a few meters off the ground when the other mobile suit... damn him, but how could he see in this crap?... grabbed him. Physically grabbed the Duelist's legs with its arms. Another alarm started pinging. Some external source was drawing a huge load on the Duelist's nuclear reactor... drawing nearly 80 percent power. The reactor wasn't going to run out of power... but if the load wasn't removed it would eventually shut down to keep from overheating. Ysak didn't know what the enemy was doing to him... but it wasn't likely to be friendly. He kicked and powered up his thrusters as much as possible, trying to worm his way free so he could at least attempt to fight back.
Ashino ignored the armor damage alarms triggered by the blazing jet wash of the enemy mobile suit melting the armor of the Bane's forearms. It was minor damage, little more than cosmetic. Not nearly enough to justify removing the limbs before the power leeching gauntlets had fully charged the Mjolnir cannon, which would occur in another few seconds. Meanwhile, he targeted the other enemies he could see, the bright red-pink one with Orb markings and the Buster Gundam upgrade with his shoulder beams... not getting very close but causing them to slack off their fire at Frost a little to adjust to the new threat. The Duelist landed a few more resounding kicks, cracking a few armor plates off and slightly warping a hip joint... enough to cause a noticable if not visible limp. The Mjolnir capacitors glowed green. Charged and ready. Ashino released the Duelist, which almost comically surged forward almost a hundred meters before righting itself and turning back, leaving the slowly dissipating Death's Shroud cloud. It didn't matter. It would take hours of cleaning to ungum the joints and clean off the camera lenses... and by that time the furious flames would likely have melted the enemy to slag instead, since Ashino would only leave a smoldering wreck behind him.
Ysak was hopping mad. Nobody made him look like a fool and got away with it. Nobody he didn't let do it anyway. Though he couldn't see very well... his camera lenses were still annoyingly grimed up more than sixty percent of the way... he still cut loose with all he had. Railgun, shoulder beam gatling, beam rifle, missiles, CIWS guns... everything. He swept his fire around like a hose of death. He didn't see any explosions... but that didn't mean anything. Many mobile suits just fell down inert when killed... they only blew up in some instances, like if the battery was destabilized or if hit with a very heavy weapon. However, he wasn't so lucky this time... none of his shots had done much besides chip at the enemy. Return gatling cannon fire hammered into his shield side, twisting him around since he could barely see to get the shield up to block it.
"Ysak! The cloak! From the front!" Dearka ordered violently and suddenly over the communicator. Ysak did not pause to think... his friend could certainly see better than him right now. He dipped the Duelist to the left and rotated the torso violently, throwing the Photon Cloak up and around in front of him. There was no sensation of impact... energy blasts had very little mass... but something hit the Cloak with enough power to cause the radiated heat to sear the grime away from his camera lenses, leaving his vision scarred and pitted and missing some spots where the cameras had burned out, but overall much clearer.
Ashino frowned. He hadn't realized that the superconductor cloth could absorb so much energy. He'd seen the report on it from Orb of course... but the output of the Mjolnir cannon was roughly equivalent to that of a Warship's main cannons, though of course much shorter ranged. The lighting bolt should have stopped halfway through the hillside, after carving through the Duelist and four more just like it besides... but the cloak had stopped it cold and dissipated the energy as light and heat without even fraying. Plainly the enemy had some serious technologists on their side, to produce such a thing. Mjolnir cannon exhuasted, trump card played, Ashino tried to come up with a new plan. This was not going to be as fun a fight as he'd thought.