Reddish blue beams of indescribable power... focused anti-matter particles... vomited forth from the Lohengrin cannons in explosions of light and sound. Less than a second later the Archangel vibrated and rocked backwards as dozens of anti ship missiles, two high caliber railgun shots and four beams of intense heat energy joined the Lohengrin blasts in flying towards the mountains housing JIHAD. The Lohengrin impact first, a full twenty milliseconds ahead of the Gottfried beams and almost a half second ahead of the Valiant shots... two seconds ahead of the missiles. The shot from Lohengrin one washed through the huddle of enemy vehicles and mobile suits like a blast of superheated steam through a butter sculpture, destroying nintey percent of the gathered forces in an eyeblink. Not diminished in the slightest, the beam continued on to strike the mountain dead center. Positron particles reacted with their electron counterparts, ripping matter apart in a reaction of such intense power as to render nuclear forces laughable. The Lohengrin beam fully penetrated the forty feet of rock to the primary factory chamber and then continued on to burn through several cranes, two complete mobile suits and four incomplete Strike Crusaders before finally impacting the far wall and dissipating in a tremendous explosion of superheated air and secondary blasts from ignited fuel, severed electrical connections and damaged munitions. Before the blast wave had even struck the workers on the floor of the factory chamber, the gottfried beams had followed the path of the Lohengrin into the factory areas. Diverging slightly, each of the four beams went a slightly different path, burning through mobile suits, workstations, machinery and worst of all, power generators, which went up like bombs. With a thunderous explosion that blew leaves off tress more than a mile away, and a flash of light that drowned out the sun for a few seconds, the entire middile level of the factory mountain disintegrated in fire and rubble and smoke. Fire spread rapidly throughout the maintain, touching off fuel supplies and ammunition dump chambers in a continuing string of blasts that each made the mountain quiver visibly. Structural integrity strained beyond all tolerances, the top floors of the factory mountain broke up and crashed down into the middle levels, collapsing the floor and driving the whole multi-thousand ton mass of wreckage into the lower factory and storage levels, utterly ruining the Strike Crusader production line and demolishing all mobile suit hangers in the mountain.
Seconds before the upper levels collapsed, three mobile suits launched from their respective hangers. The Merciless had to help the Fury along... Zacharis was barely hanging onto consciousness, his wounds having caught up to him as the adrenaline rush of combat had faded. The Bane noticed their difficulties and dropped back to help. The three Alliance Gundams limped away at barely above stalling speed, quite unaware that the Archangel's defense computers had locked on to them and were tracking them and plotting their prospective course, even as the computer operators watched, awestruck as the factory mountain pretty much just folded in on itself in a massive cloud of fire and dust. Lohengrin two struck higher than its counterpart, penetrating the thinner rock near the top of the Facility mountain and utterly devasting the life support and hydroponic systems housed there. The Valiant's and Wombats arrived more on target, tearing away hundred ton chunks of mountain side with each strike. To those inside the facility it was like being trapped in a tin can that was being shaken by a giant, while simultaneously being beaten against an unyielding surface. The pressure waves burst eardrums and shattered teeth throughout the mountain, in some cases even cracking skulls and breaking bones of unlucky people who happened to be lying down or touching some structural support that transmitted the kinetic energy better than the air around it. Down on sub level six, the lights went out just as the instructors and their BCPU's were entering the Doc's private lab. Unable to see anything in the cave like darkness, the instructors of course did not see the Doc's ravaged corpse lying in the middle of the room.
"Redesignate second volley. Both Lohengrin target the Facility mountain. All other targets remain the same." Waltfeld commanded. "How soon until we can fire again?"
"Lohengrin charging, sir. Six zero seconds until fully charged. Gottfried charge time is two five seconds. Valiant's ready to fire, missile tubes forty percent reloaded... seven zero seconds to one hundred percent loaded." a CIC crewmember replied smartly.
"Captain... ship's sensors picked up three mobile suit signatures leaving the Factory mountain just before it collapsed. Heat signatures match those of the three new Earth Alliance Gundams. They headed west and slightly north about thirty seconds ago, at slow speed. In fact, they're still barely on the scope... from the look of things, I think one or two are damaged and have to be helped along. Plotting their course... computers project that they are headed towards the Oceania Union... towards the huge Alliance buildup that the Kusanagi is observing."
"Have there been any communications, either into or out of the base?" Waltfeld asked.
"None we have been able to detect, sir. Ninety five percent probability that no communications have either been sent or received... thats as sure as we can get in a battlefield situation."
"Are they going for help or for some other reason?" Waltfeld muttured to himself, trying to decide what sort of call to make.
"The Doc mentioned that the pilots of those machines... Zacharis Frost, Cray Thresher and Markov Ashino... were due to participate in some large scale battle due to start in the next few hours. I don't think they're fleeing for help... they're actually going as reinforcements to the fleets already in place." Lacus cut into his musings. "Also, I believe they are going slow because of the damage to the pilots, not the machines... Frost and Ashino are both seriously injured and Cray has received wounds as well... I'm not surprised that they're taking it slow... they should be in a hospital, not mobile suits." Lacus considered for a moment. "Actually, I wouldn't really mind if Cray and Frost were in a morgue... Ashino should be in a hospital though."
"More of the unquenchable spirit for forgivness of Lacus Clyne?" Waltfeld remarked. "I'll never understand your ability to forgive people... though I'll always admire it too."
"Ashino is different from the other BCPU's. I have no doubt he still considers himself our enemy... and that he would attack and try to kill us if we confronted him with force. But I think I'm starting to crack through the wall of hatred that was built up around his personality... unlike Frost or Cray, I don't believe him a lost cause... he can still be brought back to the side of peace. Of course, the opportunity to bring him back won't be easy to acquire... but I have hope." Lacus replied.
"Captain, all weapons loaded and charged. Awaiting the command to fire the second volley."
Waltfeld looked at Lacus, who nodded once. "Fire second volley!"
The combined blasts of Lohengrin's one and two eviscerated the top and middle sections of the Facility mountain, boring through rock and steel and living spaces like a drill through a soft apple. Thousands of fanatical blue Cosmos scientists, technicians, soldiers and administrators were vaporized so quickly they couldn't even scream for help. Groaning in terrible structural agony, the twisted remnants of the top eight floors of the JIHAD Facility slowly crumpled down into itself, burying everything from sub level 3 on down under hundreds of feet of rock and steel and debris. Down on sub level 6, emergency power had finally come on, but then the sounds of the upper levels being destroyed and collapsing downward came rumbling down the elevator shafts... the instructors started to panic, especially when the mutliated corpse of the Doc was discovered. Their charges picked up on the mood like sharks scenting bloody water. All hell finally broke loose when the emergency power flickered and died. If there had been anyone but killers to hear them, the screams might have caused insanity in a listener, so terrible were they.
The Storage mountain was a much tougher nut to crack than the other two... it was basically just a hollowed out room of epic proportions, containing inert metal and other supplies that did not readily lend themselves towards combustion or explosion. Still, any material will burn or melt if heated to sufficient temperatures, and the high intensity beam energy from the Gottfrieds easily exceeded the combustion temperatures of all the materials in the storage complex. Raw steel and titanium burst into flames as the metal melted holes in the floor... bricks of magnesium flared up in bright purple white flames so bright they permanently blinded anyone unfortunate enough to look at them without protection. Heat from the burning metal melted the plastics and polymers stacked up, awaiting reconstruction into the controls and circuitry that went into mobile suits. Rivers of molten circuit boards and liquid plastic flowed throughout the subdivisions of the complex, igniting new stacks of material as they went. When the missiles arrived the explosions tossed shrapnel and magma around like confetti, starting hundreds of secondary fires. The Storage mountain did not explode or collapse in a spectacular fashion like the other two...rather it just sort of filled up with smoke and burned merrily for hours and hours, until it would eventually start sagging in on itself like an overweight man who has finally eaten too much. All except for one area... the specially reinforced storage blocks where the completed but disassembled Judgment Gundam was being stored in preparation for transport to its final assembly point in Panama... these survived unharmed and intact, except for minor scorching and heat distortion of the security doors leading to them. But, considering that they were located at the bottom of the mountain, and given that fluids always flow downhill, the storage spaces ended up being submerged under dozens of feet of red hot but slowly hardening molten metal, plastic and stone.
On the Archangel, Waltfeld turned to report that the facility was comprehensively destroyed. He was just opening his mouth when he noticed how Lacus's eyelids were flickering and how she seemed to be swaying. Without any hesitation, Waltfeld moved to her side and not a moment too soon, because the extremely exhausted and overwrought Lacus Clyne had finally reached her physical and emotional limit, now that she could rest assured that the source of the evil she had been forced to observe and endure had been destroyed. She didn't so much as faint as slowly lose consciousness, but in such a way that she lost control of her motor functions first. She was still wide awake and smiling up at him in thanks when he caught her, it was only a few seconds later that her brain finally allowed itself some rest and she closed her eyes. Waltfeld wasted no time in calling for someone to take her to the infirmary... there were actually so many volunteers that he had to shout them down and choose one... every last crewmember on the bridge had jumped up and volunteered at the same time. When Lacus was safely off the bridge and on her way down to the medical sections of the ship, Waltfeld turned back to Murrue. "The target has been destroyed, captain."
"Thank you, commander. Good work. That's for everyone." Murrue looked over at the sensor operator. "Are we still tracking those three enemy Gundams?"
"They aren't on the scope any more, ma'am, but we have their course plotted out. As long as they haven't unexpectedly increased their speed by a factor of two point three, we should be able to ctach up with them in less than thirty minutes."
"No..." Murrue thought for a second and made a decision. "Helm... bring us around to follow their projected course. Go at full speed until we have them at the edge of our sesnor range and then hold that distance. We're going to follow them home and see where they lead us."
"And if they lead us into the middle of an Alliance fleet?" Waltfeld asked in a voice only she could hear.
"That's what I'm expecting them to do. In fact, they should take us right to the fleet in overall command of this entire giant operation... no sane commander would let those three be deployed by a subordinate... no... knowing the Alliance leadership, they're going to be at the beck and call of the officer in charge of the entire attack... whoever that is. And if we can distract or disable that person... well, there won't be much of a battle, will there? Also, the Alliance commander is probably the only person who can authorize the use of WMD's... if we can stop that from happening, we have to try."
"So you have thought it out...I was just making sure." Waltfeld replied, still quiet. "Permission to secure battlestations, captain?" he asked, in his normal voice.
"Permission granted, commander. All hands stand down to alert status orange. Commander, you have the bridge until I return." Murrue ordered.
"I have the bridge, aye." Weltfeld acknowledged. "Give them my condolences, if you would... I'll be down to speak with them and listen to them after you're done." he continued, once again so quietly only she could hear. Murrue nodded and quickly left the bridge, heading for the medical section.
Asmodeus looked impatiently at his watch for perhaps the eighth time. The BCPU's were late, damn them to hell. Nearly fifteen minutes late. He looked out at the CIC room of the brand new Alliance super carrier, the AFNS (Atlantic Federation Navy Ship) Victorious, the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier to enter service since the N-jammers were dropped. It was the first of a new class of carriers, designed not to carry jets or other aircraft, but exclusively for mobile suits. The fourteen hundred foot long ship towered more than fifteen stories above sea level, and went down six stories below the water. Instead of the old runways and catapults, the Victorious featured electromagnetic launching tubes like those found on ZAFT submarine carriers. The Victorious maintained and supported an entire regiment of fifty four mobile suits, half of which were the old Strike Daggers and the other half being the new Strike Crusaders. It practically screamed "Command Ship" at the world, being surrounded by six lesser carriers and all their escorts, for a total combined fleet strength of seven carriers, eighteen destroyers, ten cruisers and twelve attack submarines, carrying over 200 mobile suits and nearly 500 fighter-bomber jets. Four hundred miles to their west were grouped the Euarasian Federation 3rd and 5th fleets, along with the South American 2nd fleet, a force of three carriers, eight destroyers, two cruisers and five attack submarines. The Eurasian and South American forces were based around a cluster of small islands that were little more than a few square kilometers of bare rock each, but were serving as mustering and refueling locations for more than five hundred mobile suits, in addition to the fifty mobile suits and two hundred jets on the carriers. Three hundred miles to the east was the Atlantic Federation 7th fleet... the only AF fleet detached from the command group... and the Orb Protectorate 1st, 2nd and 3rd fleets. The eastern wing of the attack formation boasted two Atlantic Federation carriers, four destroyers, one heavy cruiser and four attack submarines, with a combine total of forty mobile suits and one hundred ten jets. The Orb forces consisted of one mobile suit carrier per fleet, along with three Aegis ships to guard each carrier. Combined, the Orb forces boasted seventy two M4 Astray Guardian class mobile suits... easily the most advanced mass production model in the EA arsenal. Twenty miles to the north of the main command fleet lurked three refitted and recommissioned Atlantic Federation SSBNs (Submarine Service, Ballistic Missile, Nucleaer Powered). Each of these six hundred foot submarines mounted thirty missile tubes, each with a strategic intercontinental ballistic missile housed inside. Each missile contained four 750 kiloton thermonuclear warheads. Finally, two hundred miles to the north of the missile subs lurked one hundred and three ships of the AF merchant marine service... each housing more than five hundred soldiers and a platoon of heavy armor or mobile artillery.
Technicians were plotting the projected positons of the ZAFT defensive forces and making preliminary estimates of the sort of forces the enemy had lying tensed up in wait for the hammer blow. Long range observation units had reliably confirmed the presence of five Nazca class Fast Destroyer's in low orbit around the perimeter of the base, as well as eight Vozgulov class Submarine Carriers arrayed in a double V formation just outside of the Carpentaria defense line. Enemy mobile suit forces were estimated to stand at roughly four hundred units... considerably less than the EA forces, but even the most die hard Alliance commander had to admit that the newest ZAFT models put even the M4's to shame. The Oceania Union had comitted it's entire defense fleet to the aid of it's PLANT allies... two aircraft carriers, twelve destroyers, two cruisers and five attack submarines, with a total of one hundred forty jets and eighty attack helicopters. Oceania union ground forces were also reported as being dug in on the Carpentaria beachline... an estimated fifteen thousand infantry soldiers and three regiments of armor and sited artillery emplacements had been observed. ZAFT had spent the time since they had learned of the attack fortifying the perimeter of Carpentaria as much as possible, digging trenches, laying mines, and emplacing a staggering variety of defense emplacements, ranging from automatic anti-air and anti-personnel gatling gun bunkers to fully manned high energy beam cannon turrets comparable to those found on space warships. Rounding out the defense forces were two Lessups Class land battleships parked so as to be able to serve as reinforcements to any potential weak spot in the lines. Asmodeus shook his head... the scale of the battle threatened to overwhelm even him. He threw a look over at the knot of generals and admirals who were technically in charge of the battle... if he, Asmodeus Sark, was overwhelmed, the dithering fools around the map table had to be so swamped it was fortunate they weren't pissing themselves.
A communication light blinked on his control chair. Asmodeus answered it immediately... only one person would be able to call into the CIC of a warship like this. "Hello, Mr. Zunnichi. This is Asmdoeus speaking, how may I help you?"
"Drop the formality, Asmodeus... can't you get even a little bit excited?" Cervantes admonished his friend from the AF central command bunker, buried far underground in the Rocky Mountains of the midwest AF. "We're literally standing at the cusp of destiny here... this battle will forever decide the future of the entire world... and you sound just like it's some sort of wargame simulation."
"I'll try to be more enthusiastic, sir. It'll be easier once the battle has been won. Already things aren't quite going as planned... none of the BCPU's have yet arrived, and all communications to the JIHAD facility have gone unanswered." Asmodeus reported. Cervantes grunted noncommitally.
"Communications difficulties are to be expected, with the damned N-Jammers still out there. It's hard enough to maintain even the most secure military lines... normal communications are unlikely to work for a number of reasons, considering your distance from JIHAD. And who knows... maybe the BCPU's were delayed for some technical reason... machinery never works right when it's supposed to. What I'm getting at here, Asmodeus, is that you shouldn't worry so much. The BCPU's would be useful for the Australian Maneuver, but by no means does the fight hinge on their presence. We cannot afford to delay any longer, or else the Twelfth Lunar Fleet will be engaged and destroyed before its time. Commence the attack, Asmodeus... you can give the order and it will be obeyed." Cervantes said grandly.
"What of the Izumo class Orb space warship that is currently holding position about fifty miles to the southwest of my position? They haven't initiated any threatening actions, but they haven't responded to communication attemps either. They won't even talk to the Orb forces." Asmodeus asked.
Cervantes gave an exasperated sigh. "You worry so much it frustrates me, Asmodeus. One single warship, and a rogue unsupported one at that will make absolutely no difference to the outcome of either battle. Destroy them if you want, I don't care. Just initiate the Australian Maneuver before I give the order myself... I don't want to embarass you like that."
"Understood sir. I'm going to hang up now, so I can direct the battle." Asmodeus replied tiredly, hanging up as he did so. Maybe not the best of moves, but it was all the protest he could muster. He looked over at the flag officers, who were all trying to look like they weren't watching him expectantly. "Commence the Australian Maneuver." Asmodeus ordered. He didn't shout or gesticulate or grandstand. He just rubbed his forehead in irritation and gave the order that might cause the deaths of millions of people.
Twenty miles to the north, each of the missile subs recieved a signal in turn. Each rose in sequence to about forty feet below the surface and opened the launch tube covers on the missile tubes. With loud punches of pressurized air, each submarine launched it's deadly payload in groups of five missiles at a time, until there was so much pressurized air in the water around them the very ocean seemed to be boiling. With resounding flat, wet slaps, the first fifteen missiles broke the surface of the water from below, jumping twenty feet into the air like startled dolphins before their rocket motors ignited and thrust them into the sky at speeds of greater than a mile per second. Almost instantly, the long range threat monitors of the five orbiting warships lit up, and a slave signal caused the Carpentaria base CIC to alert as well. Alarm sirens sounded all over Carpentaria as troops rushed to their battle positions, mobile suits were manned and final checked and all weapons were primed, loaded and aimed anxiously upwards. The first wave of thirty missiles rocketed over the Alliance command fleet at a height of fifteen miles, just starting to begin their downward trajectory towards detonation points all over Carpentaria and mainland Australia. Each missile would detonate at approximately five miles above its target point, throwing out all four warheads, which would descend to final target points on their own trajectories. All in all, more than three hundred sixty nuclear warheads were in flight, each more than twice as powerful as the missiles that destroyed Boaz.
On the bridge of the Kusanagi, Kisaka's jaw tightened so audibly a crewmember thought his coffee cup had spontaneously cracked. "Power up the engines and all weapon systems. I want firing solutions on as many of those missiles as you can give me." He swore inwardly... the Orb mobile suit pilots that were supposed to fly the cargo of M4 Guardians in the hanger were still trapped in Orb, the islands had been locked down by martial law and no one was allowed to leave until the Australian Maneuver was completed. And they hadn't heard from the Archangel in almost three quarters of a day... Cagalli's fate was still in question, which did nothing good for his temperment. "Any word from the Archangel?"
"Nothing sir." the Coomunications officer replied, wincing as he did so.
"Grahhh!" Kisaka growled audibly. "Very well. Move us into the path of those missiles... to let even one deliver its payload would be a disgrace to the name of humanity."
"Sir, we have tenative firing solutions. Sixty percent probability of intercept."
"Can't you do any better than that?"
"We could sir, if we had the time. If we don't fire in the next fifteen seconds the missiles will be past us... sixty percent is the best we can do."
"Understood." Kisaka took a deep breath. "All weapons... fire at will. Destroy those missiles." Instants later the air filled with green and red energy beams as the Lohengrin and Gottfried cannons fired, followed by a haze of missile contrails as the anti-ship missiles launched. One gottfried missed completely, the other took out a grouping of three missiles. Unlike the shoddily designed and hurriedly produced missiles used against Boaz, the missiles fired against Carpentaria did not explode in nuclear detonations when destroyed... the warheads required an amazingly precise detonation ciruit in order to generate a nuclear explosion... interception fire would just blow them apart like any missile. Both Lohengrin swept wide swatches of sky, each intercepting eight missiles, blowing them into clouds of ionized vapor. There were a tense few seconds as the twelve anti ship missiles from the Kusanagi matched trajectories with their targets and kicked in their maximum speed to catch up in time to intercept. Nine of the missiles struck their targets, destroying ten missiles, with the extra being accounted for by being disable by flying through falling debris. Only one missile from the first wave made it past the Kusanagi. It was an astounding feat. But all the missiles of wave two passed the Kusanagi while it was reloading. And the interception rate was much worse against wave three... only half the thirty missiles in the last wave were destroyed. A total of forty six missiles were still inbound towards Australia and Carpentaria. The crew of the Kusanagi could do nothing but bite their lips and pray for a miracle.
Interception missiles fired from the eight submarine carriers in the forward ZAFT position accounted for twelve more nukes. The Nazca class destroyers started firing and deployed their GuAize mobile suits to assist. One mobile suit was unlucky enough to stop a missile with its torso, destroying them both. Combined, the thirty mobile suits and five warships downed twenty five missiles, leaving only nine missiles remaining. Carpentaria and Australian ground defenses each accounted for another missile. But the seven that remained reached their target points and burst open like deadly flowers. Six of the still living missiles burst over mainland Australia, with the remaining missile dumping it's payload just past the main section of the Carpentaria base. Twenty four warheads rained down onto Australia, targeting major cities and military installations, as well as large sections of farmland. Sydney ceased to exist in an eyeblink as three warheads dropped into its center, suburbs and outskirts. The ancient opera house, which had stood for hundreds of years, turned to ash and metal splinters and blew away in the radioactive winds. Four other cities were wiped entirely off the map by multiple nukes, as were all three of Australia's primary military bases. The scattering of warheads left razed hundreds of square miles of grazing and farmland, with radioactive fallout contaminating thousands more square miles of territory. One nuke, targeted specifically by Cervantes out of spite, landed directly on Ayer's Rock and split the monolithic block of stone into a dozen half melted fragments that would remain too radioactive to approach for hundreds of years. Casualties ran into the tens of millions, as civilians caught in traffic logjams trying to evacuate major cities were incinerated by the nukes. More than forty percent of the entire military strength of the Oceania Union ceased to exist in the space between breaths.
One of the warheads headed for Carpentaria burst at an altitude of three miles... too far away to damage the ground, but at a perfect height to emit a massive EMP pulse wave that fried the circuits of two Nazca classes even through their shielding. The pressure wave sent half the low orbit mobile suits tumbling out the sky, their pilots overwhelmed by the G forces of their spinning machines, helpless to do anything but fall to their deaths. One Nazca class came down in the ocean, sending up a huge cloud of steam and water, before its plasma cores ruptured and the ship exploded into pieces, none bigger than a deck of playing cards. The other ship came down on a section of trench and bunker lines, devastating the area like a meteor impact, even though the ship did not explode, killing hundreds of Oceania Union soldiers billeted there. The remaining three warheads came down almost simultaneously, in a triangular pattern. One exploded in the sea, throwing up a wall of water that swamped two Oceania Union destroyers, while the blast wave capsized one of the cruisers after blowing it's superstructure into twisted wreckage. Dozens of men were picked up by wind and thrown from the flight decks of the carriers... few survived long in the predator infested waters. Both nukes that hit land landed on opposite ends of the Carpentaria 3rd defense line, utterly annihilating all troops and vehicles at those locations and for a mile in either direction. Casualties were initially estimated in the hundreds, but this number quickly grew into the thousands. The third defense line collapsed inwards from both directions before the battle even really began... a serious weakness that could be exploited if the first and second lines were to fall. One Lesseps caught the blast on full face... the only part that survived were the scale movement treads, which were fused into glass. The Carpentaria defense was rocked back hard... but not cracked. Efforts to reorganize and reinforce the defense lines were underway almost at once. Reserve troops came forward to the first and second lines and ZAFT prepared for its counterblow. A small mass driver, used soley for putting inert cargo into low orbit for pickup by waiting ships, was utilized on low power to toss three Gungnir EMP bombs into the ocean, with one bomb per major fleet concentration of the AE. Each bomb sank quickly and detonated about five hundred feet down. The EMP wave was amplified into an underwater electircal storm of terrifying proportions... though it was contained underwater by surface reflection. It didn't affect the surface fleet in the least. However, every submarine for fifty miles around each detonation point suddenly found all its operating circuits completely wiped out... none of its weapons systems, propulsion systems or life support systems worked. Conducted electricity caused massive casualties amongst the crews and the dead boats slowly sank into the ocean, eventually being crushed as they descended too deep.
This was the cue for dozens of ZAFT ZnO submarine mobile suits to deploy from the Carpentaria harbor and the eight submarine carriers. The submarine carriers moved forward as well... now that the subsurface ocean was their own playground, they could destroy the EA fleets at their will. On board the Victorious, Asmodeus narrowed his eyes and acknowledged the skill of the enemy commanders... he had no way of counteracting this underwater attack... it was a stroke of genius, considering the EA had no worthwile submarine mobile suits... if he didn't do something before the enemy covered the few hundred miles to his fleets, the EA effort was doomed. But he still had a few hours yet. Asmodeus leaned back and tapped his fingers on his chair thoughtfully. "Deploy the first and second assault waves. I want two thirds of our forces in the air and on the way before the hour is up. All bombardment tasked ships, move forward at once, take anti submarine warfare precautions as you see fit. I want the third wave to launch twenty minutes after the first two have left. After the third wave has launched, I want the troop ships to make a dash for the coast, utilizing all possible speed. By the time you arrive the enemy defenses should be in tatters, your arrival will break them." Asmodeus paused. "Any sign of the BCPU's?"
"Actually, yes sir. I have the Bane, the Merciless and the Fury approaching at slow speed from the southeast. Their ETA is two hours and thirty minutes from now. I'm sorry sir, but it appears the pilots of the Fury and Bane have sustained serious injuries and will not be able to enter the battle. The Merciless is fully combat capable though."
"Sustained serious injuries?" Asmodeus repeated, incredulous. "How could they have sustained serious injuries? They were at JIHAD..." Asmodeus's voice trailed off. His quick mind didn't take long to connect two hurt BCPU's and the lack of communication with JIHAD. Something had gone terribly wrong at the Blue Cosmos facility. He'd left in an extreme hurry after exacting his revenge upon Ysak, but he'd been confident in the ability of the Doc to recapture him before he caused any damage. He may have despised the Doc for what and who he was, but he could not deny the man's competence and intelligence. And one Coordinator, no matter how pissed off, could not have destroyd the entire facility, especially with Frost there. No... something else must have happened. A mass breakout might have occured... they must have found some way to call for help. The Archangel was conspicious in its absence from it's usual post near the Kusanagi... the two ships were known allies and known supporters of those damn Coordinator kids. "Put the Merciless on the line." Asmodeus ordered. A static filled comm channel hissed into existence as Asmodeus picked up the privacy phone. "What the hell happened, Cray?"
"The damned Archangel happened, Asmodeus!" Cray spat back. "When I get the chance I'm going to turn that blasted ship into so much molten slag..."
"Concentrate, Cray. I need to know what happened, in detail. Why have we lost communications with JIHAD. Why are you three late? Why are Ashino and Frost seriously injured?" Asmodeus practically shouted.
"Yeah, yeah." Cray replied sullenly. "After you booked out of the waste pit room, Ysak kicked me off the catwalk and into the pit. He was fired up and all... never seen a Coordinator fight like that. By the time I climbed back up, he and that other girl... whatshername... had freed their friends from the jail cells. Ashino, Frost and I went in under specific orders from the Doc to recapture them. They put up a fight until Ashino held Lacus Clyne hostage, then they surrendered. Bastards. We took them to see the Doc, because he wanted to conduct an experiment with them. The experiment went balls up... the goal was to piss them off into some SEED mode thing... and it worked. But then they slipped their restraints and were all over us like shit on a monkey. They made another break for it, and Ashino and I went in pursuit, with Frost coming after us. It's his birthday, you know? Apparently the Doc gave him some really nice present."
"Concentrate!" Asmodeus warned, rubbing his head in annoyance... he didn't care about birthdays.
"Yeah, yeah, calm down. Anyway, Ashino's been acting a little weird ever since he met Lacus Clyne, Cagalli Yula Attha and the other girls. I don't know why, but he diverted me to the base armory, in a wild goose chase for the fugitives. In retrospect it seems obvious that the prisoners would head for an exit first, rather than an armory they never knew existed. But at the time I was really fired up and was acting on instinct, not brain power. I nearly got shot at the armory until Frost showed up and helped me kill the guards. We equipped ourselves to take down the fugitives and set out together to hunt them down. By the time we caught up with Ashino, they were already gone into the jungles outside. Ashino had fought with Athrun Zala in some form of hand to hand duel, and somehow ended up losing, even if he did wound the damn Coordinator seriously. Ashino pointed us in the direction the enemy had gone and Frost and I went after them. They were headed for one of the emergency evacuation aircraft put in hiding for use by the senior administrators. We caught up to them after about a mile and Frost split up to flank them. I engaged their rear guard... Ysak and his remaining girlfriend. They're pretty good... I'll have to give them that. She ended up shooting me four times, though only once did she actually wound me, and he nearly got me with a frag grenade. I routed them and forced them to retreat into the jungle and then pursued them. I could hear the gunfire and explosions from the other enemies engaging Frost as I ran. By the time I caught up with them a second time they had already reached the hanger and were warming up the aircraft inside. I pinned down Ysak's girlfriend and Athrun Zala outside the hanger and I would have had them if the Archangel hadn't arrived overhead and deployed those five freaking commandos you know."
"Jones? But he and his comrades are confined in Levansworth Military Prison!" Asmodeus choked.
"I may be crazy, but I don't hallucinate. I know who I saw. If I'd been fractionally slower they would have shot me full of holes. I nearly managed to get three of them... but then they dropped a bunch of smoke grenades and made a run for it. I was about to finish off one of them... the guy with the sword... when I heard someone coming through the jungle behind me. I thought it was a straggler... an easy target. I was wrong. It was Frost. He was out of his head. I know he's usually out of his head... but I mean he was really fucking gone this time. He is wounded to hell and back... second and third degree burns all over, more wounds and gun shot holes than I could count, a right foot almost completely denuded of flesh... stripped nearly naked by some powerful blast... a broken nose squashed almost flat. He's gonna need some help... I think he's passed out, judging froim how the Fury is handling. Anyway, he came charging right past me whirling that scythe of his... but he never managed to catch up to them. They tossed out a couple of satchel charges that knocked us both flying. Then the Archangel above opened fire with its lower CIWS turrets and turned the jungle into a firestorm. By the time I'd recovered and dragged Frost out from under the trees he'd been buried under, the Coordinators and their friends had escaped, and the Archangel was advancing on the rest of the base."
"What were the base defenders doing? Sitting around with their thumbs up their asses? There's more than a company of mobile suits there, not to mention two regiments of the finest soldiers in the Blue Cosmos organization."
"I can't answer that one. For some reason there didn't seem to be any central command in operation during the battle. No one seemed able to reach Doc for some reason. And Frost and I may have accidentally killed the Commander of the guard forces who was inspecting the armory when we burst in. He pulled a gun on us in a room full of weapons... what was he expecting to happen? In any case, the Archangel managed to defeat the guard forces... that ship is really heavily armed, you know? I barely managed to carry Frost back to the hanger areas and get us both into our mobile suits and lifted off before the Archangel opened fire on the factory complex and then on the JIHAD facility and the storage complex. I'm sorry to report that all have been destroyed... the Doc is probably dead, killed when the mountain collapsed. The BCPU project is gone. The Judgment might still be intact, but it's buried under half a mountain. Frost and Ashino are in no condition to fight a battle. But rest assured... I'm raring to go, sir. The Merciless has a full ammo load and I'm looking for something to take out my anger on, if you catch my drift."
Asmodeus sat back, digesting this terrible information. If this was true... and Cray would not lie to him about something like this... then Blue Cosmos had just been dealt a staggering blow. JIHAD was where all of the major technologies created and utilized by Blue Cosmos were designed and developed. It had housed the specialized Gundam production lines, as well as the original Crusader production line. The facility had contained hundreds of projects, not least of which was the BCPU training program. And there were billions of dollars worth of material stored in the storage complex... now all slag and dust. He needed to inform Mr. Zunnichi... damage control had to be deployed as soon as possible, on several fronts. The actual site had to be excavated and salavged for whatever could be found... the leading members of Blue Cosmos would need to be reassured... the faceless multitudes of the organization would need an explanation and someone to blame. "Understood, Cray. Rendevous with the Victorious as soon as you can... we'll have medical care waiting for Ashino and Frost. I'll need you to be ready to head to the front as soon as you arrive. Oh... have you seen any sign of the Archangel since you left JIHAD?"
"Nope. Don't know where they went. Probably retreated... those Coordinators may have escaped, but none of them got off lightly, if you know what I mean. I'd be very surprised if any of them were capable of piloting anything but a bed right at the moment and probably for the next couple weeks, for some of them."
"Okay. Thank you for the report. Remember, be ready for instant deployment as soon as you get here... not nearly as many nukes as we predicted ended up landing... the enemy line is going to be stronger than planned. You'll need to do what you can to change that." Asmodeus hung up and rubbed his eyes. He turned to face the admirals and generals. He forced a confident smile onto his face. "A few minor setbacks, but everything is still going according to plan. The Merciless will be entering battle as soon as it arrives... the Fury and Bane will be staying on the Victorious in reserve as they are refitted to correct some mechanical problems." It wasn't technically a lie... BCPU's were classified as mechanical components, not pilots. Asmodeus sat back again and once again picked up the secure phone, dialling Cervantes's contact number. This was not going to be a fun phone call at all.
Murrue arrived down on the medical deck just as the last bits of medical care were being administered. Ysak and Dearka both sported tightly wrapped bandages over their chests, signifying cracked or broken ribs, and bruise salves were spread liberally over their faces and limbs, which were bound with bandages here and there. Kira's burn blisters had been lanced and drained and his hands bound with surgical tape and gauze to keep out infection. He looked like he was wearing mittens. Athrun's broken hand was in a brace as was his neck and he sported more bandages than both Ysak and Dearka combined... full body casts were no longer used, but he was in just about the next best thing. Lacus had her leg wound cleaned out and rebandaged and was having the almost innumerable scrapes and bruises being attended to as Murrue entered. Cagalli also wore a neck brace and bruise salve was applied liberally across her face, which was swelling up quite a bit. Miriallia wasn't specifically injured badly in any one place, but she too sported bandages and salvings over much of her body. Katie was actually among the least hurt, physically... she had shrugged off bruise salves and all but a few bandages. She'd broken the finger of a medic who'd persisted in trying to treat her and after that she'd been left strictly alone. When Murrue arrived, the five members of TEMPEST were already there, clustered around Katie. The absence of another teenage girl from the scene was so obvious it was almost like a physcial blow. Again... Murrue had not known Chanel well... but she and Katie had been inseperable... where there was one there was the other. But not now. Not ever again.
Katie looked up as Murrue entered the room, which surprised Murrue, since she had been almost totally sure no one had heard her enter... none of the TEMPEST members had reated and their senses were among the keenest she'd ever encountered. "Captain Ramius... it's good that you're here. I wouldn't want to repeat what I have to say and you deserve to hear it first hand."
"You don't have to say anything, dear." Raine said quietly, placing her hand protectively on Katie's shoulder. Katie looked at her and smiled in appreciation.
"Yes... I do, big sis. For one... everyone else but Captain Ramius already knows a little. You guys need to hear this as well... its important."
"Is this about your Newtype powers?" Athrun asked in a near whisper from his cot next to Cagalli's. Alkire's eyes went wide.
"You told them about that?" he asked, incredulous. "I thought we agreed it was a closed topic?"
"I didn't tell them about it because I meant to. The Doc tricked me into telling them about it. He said he'd recorded Chanel's echo, from when she died. He then threatened to do terrible things to Ysak and my friends if I didn't tell him if I was a Newtype and tell him who else was a Newtype as well."
"What sort of terrible things?" Vlad asked, his eyes burning.
"He ordered Ashino to tear out our eyes and force feed them to the girls." Dearka replied. Vlad looked around the room.
"I see everyone still has two eyes."
"I couldn't let them do that! The very idea made me sick to my stomach!" Katie retorted. "Besides... it was just a little information."
"Yes..." Vlad trailed off.
"I identified myself as an Active Newtype. Lacus is also an Active Newtype. Kira is a Latent. Ysak was changed into a Latent by Chanel's echo when she died." Katie continued.
"I'm still not entirely sure what you mean when you say that." Lacus said. "The Doc said Newtypes have abilties beyond the human norm... abilities that most of humanity do not even believe exists. But I've never used any special abilities."
"Yes... I believe you have. You just didn't realize you were doing it." Katie countered. "I have no idea what your powers are, Lacus... I just know that when I look at you with mine, you startle me... you glow so brightly you drown out all the other minds in this room. I don't know if I'm sensing your power or something else... maybe your willpower or conviction. Whatever it is... it's amazing."
"I think I have an idea of what Lacus's powers might be." Kira put in quietly. Lacus turned and looked at him expectantly. "Sing a song for me, Lacus." Kira asked. Lacus narrowed her eyes but nodded. It didn't take long... upon the very first syllable of the very first word, Katie gasped.
"That's incredible." Katie whispered. Lacus ignored her, pouring her heart and soul and emotions into the song. She brought in her love for Kira... her concern for her friends... her feelings on Ashino... everything that had been bothering her or filling up her mind for the past few days. She closed her eyes and concentrated entirely on her own voice and the flow of the song. When she at last opened her eyes at the end of the song, she found everyone was staring at her in total silence.
"My God." Alkire said, his hands trembling. He sat down on the deck suddenly, almost falling backwards, as if his legs wouldn't support him any more. James was wiping tears out of his eyes, as was Victor. Vlad was staring off into the distance, his eyes unseeing as his chest shook with some terrible memory. Raine was dry eyed and still as a statue, but her eyes did not stray from Lacus.
"Okay... I don't quite know how to describe it... but I think I have some handle on what your power is, Lacus." Katie said into the silence. "You can communicate the essence of your thoughts and feelings to people when you sing. Music affects people on a subconcious level... its a studied fact that music can alter your mood and even affect your bodily rythyms. But when you sing with that incredible voice of yours, you do more than just alter the timing of a heartbeat or stroke the sleep centers of the brain. You actually transmit your emotions you are feeling at the time directly into the minds of other people, specifically those who can hear you sing. Those people get an up close and personal view of your emotions... and there are very few people who can really muster the courage to face emotions so bare faced like that. In some cases this might have a calming affect on people... in others it might cause them to question their beliefs or believe more strongly in yours. I'm sure that by altering what emotions you incorporated into the song, you could have a bunch of different effects on people. I think you should avoid singing dirges at all costs."
"I think you're on to something." Athrun whispered. "Remember the White Symphony opera house, Lacus?"
"Yes... where I confronted you about the truth of your beliefs and you returned Mr. Pink to me."
"You were singing... and I found memories... memories of all the times I had come into conflict with or seen Kira... flashing through my mind. I couldn't figure out why I was remembering such things at the time... I thought Kira was dead at my own hands then. But your song brought back all the emotions and feelings that I associated with Kira... when you told me he was alive, I didn't want to believe you... but those memories wouldn't let me believe he was dead either... they were too fresh... too potently remembered." Athrun elaborated.
I was thinking about how sad it was that you and Kira had considered each other enemies. I wanted you to be friends again... I knew that once I could convince you he was alive again you could reconcile if you would only talk with him." Lacus said quietly. "I didn't know it was you in the building... but I had a strong suspicion. I wasn't singing that song for you... but I wasn't singing it for anyone else, either."
"And what about me? I never used to feel such a connection with people... but ever since... ever since... Chanel... died... after she pulled me into that trance state... I've been hearing Katie's voice in my head. I've recently started to get a loose handle on how Kira is feeling when he's close by. And that song just now... I mean... I never was a Lacus Clyne fan, but I liked some of her songs... but none of them twisted open my heart like that just did. What's happened to me?" Ysak asked pleadingly.
"Again... I may be the most experienced Newtype present, but I really know almost nothing. Nobody knows much... the amount that is unknown would be the Solar System... the known amount would be the Earth's Moon. I have no idea how Chanel was able to manipulate your mind into a state that was conducive to trance, much less how she pulled your untrained mind into our trance. I don't think I could do that... I wouldn't even know where to begin. But you were in her head whe she died... you were still in trance, inside her dream, feeling her thoughts. You were a part of her... and when you went back to your own mind, you must have carried part of her with you. And so now you're a Latent. That's my guess... good as any, probably." Katie replied. "I know it's confusing... I remember what it was like when I first realized what sort of powers I had. Chanel and I had been living at the research facility for three years by that point... Eileen had sourced us when we were five, detected our powers even though they wouldn't manifest for several more years. She was the strongest Newtype at the facility, in her own way. It was too bad she was so old... Eileen was eighty four when she realized her powers and a heart condition was due to kill her before five more years had passed. It was worse than hell at that facility. They didn't hurt us... didn't condition us like they did to the BCPU's. But we had no personal freedoms. We were the most precious of beings... they didn't let us have ny personal possessions that might distract us from their studies... our clothes were just hospital scrubs, carefully designed so that you couldn't even choke yourself on them, much less use them to hang yourself. Chanel and I went naked much of the time as a way of protest, as did some of the others. The researchers never minded... clothed or unclothed, we were just research subjects to them, not people. We lived our lives sharing a two thousand square foot series of rooms with four other people, allowed every so often to interact with occupants of the three other cubes, as we called them. Everything was painted neutral grey... there was no color, no outside media of any sort to distract us from the contemplation of our own minds. Out loud talking was discouraged... they wanted us to speak with our minds. The more we exercised our powers and the more we showed them new things, the happier they were with us. We'd get rewards sometimes... small treats of cookies or other food not the standard grey oatmeal. It was living without life. Chanel and I lived there untill we were thirteen."
"That's when we raided the facility, in our search for Vlad after the debacle with Kisaka's fiancee." Alkire took up the story. "By that point, there were only Chanel, Katie and two or three more Newtypes left. The rest had either gone totally insane, usually catatonic... or had died from other causes... Eileen's heart... old age for others... but most commonly from overstretching their powers during an experiment." We didn't find any clues there related to our pursuit of Vlad. But we couldn't just leave those people trapped in their prison. And it was a prison, even if it didn't look like one. They had no personal freedom... they had been brutalized, though not physically. Two of the other newtypes had forgotten how to speak... they could only mew at us as they tried to Beepcall us. The other older Newtype tried to kill us when he saw us... I actually saw a table lifted from the ground and hurled more than ten feet through the air without him touching it before his mind collapsed and he dropped the table. Apparently the sight of our non-grey clothing had convinced him that were were monsters or something. Katie and Chanel did not try to hurt us, but at first they were totally nonresponsive. It wasn't until we took them outside and them glimpsed sunlight for the first time in eight years that they reacted... with tears. It seared my heart to think of the monstrosity of the scientists who could so confine other human beings. Unfortunately, I was to later learn that scientists like that are not nearly as rare as they should be."
"We took Katie and Chanel in... Alkire and I pretty much just adopted them... helped them deal with adjusting to the real world again. We set them up in our homes, brought them with us when we changed locations... they were around for almost our entire pursuit of Vlad. Ever so gradually they started coming out of their shells... it wasn't an easy process and it involved a lot of released pain and tears. They evidenced a strong desire and interest in our work, and not being able to think of a reason why not to, we taught them everything we could about being Special Forces soldiers. They grew up to be not quite so average teenage girls... but that's light years better than they would have been if they'd stayed in that facility. I'm proud of them for recovering as well as they have... I don't think I'm that mentally tough." Raine added.
"But now Chanel is dead. Killed by order of Asmodeus Sark, by the hand of Cray Thresher. Shot through the head in revenge for the slaying of Ray Sark." Victor said, his voice murderously low.
"Asmodeus's revenge was the most brutal thing I have ever experienced." Katie said. "He took Chanel and I hostage and brought Ysak into the room after hiding us from view and gagging us. Asmodeus held a gun on Ysak until he'd said what he wanted to say. He then turned the gun on me, while Cray turned a pistol with a single shot in it on Chanel. Asmodeus revealed us to Ysak. And told him to choose who lived and who died. Asmodeus would kill either Chanel or myself in revenge for his son's death... but it was Ysak who had to choose which of us got the bullet. If he didn't choose in five minutes, Asmodeus would kill us both... and then offer his life to Ysak in repayment. It was strange... I couldn't hear any reluctance in Asmodeus's voice... he sounded perfectly willing to give up his own life as payment if Ysak couldn't choose. Of course, Asmodeus as a whole threw me off... I couldn't sense his mind and neither could Chanel."
"That bastard." Alkire commented. "You have to be twisted and warped to force someone to make that kind of choice."
"I couldn't decide. I love them both... I couldn't make that choice." Ysak said, his voice broken. "If any of you think it was bad, you have no idea. Who would you choose to die, Kira? Lacus or Cagalli? What would you have done?"
"I don't know." Kira replied. "I can only hope I never have to make a choice like that... I don't think there is a right answer for that question."
"The worst part was that Asmodeus believed it was me that killed his son, when Chanel actually shot him. But I couldn't say that, because then he would kill her. Of course, I didn't know then that he was planning to kill one of them anyway." Ysak muttured. "In the end the choice was made for me. Chanel dragged my mind into her trance dream and explained to me that in doing so she had burst major blood vessels in her brain... she was dying of internal bleeding as we spoke. It cut my heart in half, to have to sit there, helpless to stop her from dying, unable to even physically touch her, but still able to talk to her and see her. She ordered me to choose her. I... I..." Ysak trailed off. "There was no other choice." he whispered.
"Too often that is the case." Vlad said into the silence that followed. "I've made some very hard choices in my life... you may not believe it, but many were just like the one you made. A small part of you dies every time you must make such a choice. But calling it a choice is stupid... you had no choices... Chanel made the choice and you just fufilled it for her. I'd tell you not to feel guilty, but you won't listen. Just remember... the fault of the choice lies not with you... not even with Chanel. It lies with the person who forced the choice. In this case, Asmodeus. Blame also lies on the hands of the instrument... this Cray Thresher. Those are the people you should blame." Ysak turned away to face the wall... he didn't want to hear anything more about choices... especially his. And especially not from Vladimir.
The room went silent again and stayed silent for a long, long time... hours maybe, with people unable to think fo something to say just comforting each other with their mere presence. Finally the intercom light blinked on and a fuzz of static spread into the room from the speaker. "Captain? Murrue? This is Andrew. Is everything all right down there?"
"In some manners of speaking, yes." Murrue shook herself out of the near dream she'd been in and answered the intercomm. "What's the problem?"
"We're approaching the Alliance fleet... our long range sensors have picked up a large concentration of ships about forty minutes flight ahead. The three enemy Gundams are just rendevousing with the fleet. I think it's safe to say that if we've detected them, they've detected us."
"Understood. I'll be right up." Murrue looked around at the room. "You should all stay here... none of you are in any condition to be fighting any battles. We'll have to survive without you for once." Murrue took her cap from the wall peg and put it on. She nodded once more to acknowledge them all and their grief and then left. her mind was already focusing on battle strategies and countermoves... she'd need all her experience and battle cunning to bring the ship through this engagement without mobile suit support.
Author Note: All right, this time I actually want requests. I want to know which character you want to see more of. I also want to know what sort of genre you want to see more of. More mobile suit action? More gunfight action? More drama? More romance? If you have the time and inclination I'd also like to know which of my original mobile suits you like the best, and if you can, why. I know I haven't had much mobile suit combat lately... but a hell of a lot is coming in the next few chapters. Most of all, I'd like you to keep giving me great reviews... I do so enjoy reading them, especially the ones that include why you like my story, not just that you do. Thank you all in advance.