Chapter 8 now up so please R&R.
"So what's the plan of action, Captain?" Ryan asked Murrue standing beside her chair.
"Well the resistance group has set up mines for the enemy, once they go off we launch our attack on the Lesseps." Murrue answered looking out from the main screen.
"You think the Desert Tiger will fall for the same trick twice?"
"Who knows, if we get lucky then it will make the battle easier."
"But even with their help those guerrillas won't be able to do much." Mwu added in
"That's where we come in, if the traps work then it won't take much to get the win." Ryan said to Mwu, smirking slightly.
"Yeah, but if they don't work then we'll have a bit of a tough time on our hands."
"For you maybe but a few BuCUEs are hardly a threat."
"Unless the Desert Tiger is piloting one of those."
"Good point." Ryan said seeing Mwu humorous look as he said it.
"Well I say we eat before the battle, I wouldn't mind eating some fresh local eats." Mwu said as he walked out of the bridge, Ryan briefly smiled before following him out of the bridge.
"So what're you going to do while me, Kira and Arli take care of the mobile suits?" Ryan asked as they walked down the corridor.
"Attack the Lesseps of course, and any other ships they may have." Mwu replied
"That shouldn't take long with the launcher pack equipped to your Skygrasper."
"Take even less if we had a pilot for the second." Mwu pointed out, Ryan nodded in agreement, when they entered the cafeteria Arli and Kira were in there, they grabbed their trays and sat near them.
"Um Mwu what is a berserker?" Kira asked as Mwu had finished his kebab, Mwu looked at Ryan who just shrugged.
"Why do you want to know that?" Mwu asked back suspiciously.
"Because that's what the Desert Tiger called us." Arli said.
"Well, they were a mythological warrior who went crazy in battle, they normally tend to be good natured but when they go into battle they become ruthless fighters." Mwu explained
"But what you and Arli go into is different, from what I've seen you still control yourselves and tell friend from foe." Ryan added in reassuringly, seeing Kira's shocked face.
"What about you Ryan?" Mwu asked
"I'm probably the closet thing to a berserker if you remember when I attacked the ship, I was hardly myself." Ryan answered, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Sorry I asked." Mwu quickly said. An awkward silenced passed for a moment before the alarms blared off.
"Looks like its time to attack." Ryan said almost silently as he rushed to the pilots lockers to put on his pilot suit.
"I would wish you three good luck but the way you've all been fighting lately I don't think you'll need it." Mwu said as he left first, Ryan quickly followed making his way to the hangar. He entered Hydra's cockpit and activated the main systems, it was then launched first. As Hydra landed the Lesseps fired its weapon and destroyed the mines.
"Well that was a lot of help." Ryan blurted out loud sarcastically. "Mwu see any BuCUEs?"
"Some are launching now probably about five." Mwu answered the Skygrasper flying above the land battleships.
"Is that all?"
"No, they got ZODDs on the ships deck."
"ZODDs what are they thinking."
"Heads up you got two BuCUEs heading towards you." Mwu warned. Hydra fired it's beam rifle at them, they spilt in two directions charged at Hydra firing their missiles launchers. Hydra dodged and fired it's shoulder cannons, one BuCUE was destroyed as the shot went through it's torso, the other lost it's left front leg.
"You Bastard!" The soldier in the surviving BUCUE shouted out to Ryan and charged towards Hydra the double-edged beam sabre on its mouth shining as it activated, the BuCUE jumped to tackle Hydra.
"At least I'm not a stupid bastard." Ryan said calmly as Hydra drew out its left beam sword and ducked under the BuCUE and thrust the sword upwards going through the head and through the Body cutting it in half as the BuCUE continued forward, exploding as it landed on the ground.
"Need some help." Kira said as the Strike and Combat landed beside Hydra.
"Don't give me that your both late." Ryan said back slightly annoyed.
"Hey you three got BuCUEs coming your way." Mwu interrupted, three BuCUEs were heading their way the Skygrasper was shooting the ships with the launcher pack.
"One each sound fair." Ryan said flatly
"Sure."
"Ok." Were the responses from Kira and Arli as the three Gundams charged at the BuCUEs, Hydra rammed the one in the middle sending it toppling in the sand, Combat and Strike fired their beam rifles separating the other two. Hydra fired it's Gatling guns at the BuCUE, it dodged and countered with it's rail guns, Hydra blocked with the EMF shield and fired it's chest beam cannons, the BuCUE was hit multiple times until it exploded from taking too many hits. Strike kicked it's opponent in the head then fired the beam rifle down at the torso destroying it, Combat landed on the BuCUE and stabbed it in the body with it's beam sabre and then jumped off the wolf like machine exploding seconds after.
"Arli, Ryan, Kira, the Buster and Duel are on top of the Lesseps deck." Mir said to them. Ryan zoomed in on one of his screens and saw the Duel and Buster firing at the Archangel and Skygrasper. Payback time for what you did to the civilians Duel. Ryan thought as Hydra charged towards the Lesseps.
"Ryan where are you going?" Arli asked worryingly
"To take down the Duel it's about time it paid for the civilian ship." Ryan bluntly said, anger in his voice
"No don't, stop!" Arli cried out but Ryan ignored her and flew towards the Lesseps avoiding fire from the Petri and the Tiger's flagship. Hydra went above the Lesseps and landed in front of the two G-weapons, catching them off guard.
"What the?!" The pilot of the Duel cried out.
"Surprise." Ryan said as Hydra kicked the Duel in the chest sending it off balance and crashing on the deck.
"Yzak! Damn you!" The pilot of the Buster shouted out as it fired one it's beam cannons at Hydra, at close range. Hydra blocked with the EMF shield in time and tackled the Buster, the Duel drew both of it's beam sabres and moved in to attack Hydra. No you don't. Hydra drew both beam swords and mimicked the Duel, clashing the beam weapons together sending sparks flying everywhere, the two were evenly matched. The Buster recovered and fired it's beam cannon at Hydra, who pulled back away from it's clash with the Duel to avoid it, the Duel quickly fired its missile launchers at Hydra, it quickly blocked but was the pushed back to the edge of the deck.
"I've had it!" Ryan shouted out activating the Hyper form.
"What, it just changed colour?" Yzak thought out loud. The whip came out of Hydra's wrist and swung it at the Duel wrapping around it's arm, Hydra swung Yzak's G-weapon around and threw it into the Buster knocking both of them off the Lesseps deck. Hydra took out its right buster rifle and shot it at the ZODD destroying it and part of the ship, then fired at the Petri in front taking out one of it's main cannons.
"Ryan the Archangels been ambushed by another ship!" Arli shouted out, Ryan saw on his smaller screen another ship behind the Archangel firing at it.
"Can't you deal with it." Ryan said back
"No, we've got two more BuCUEs and Andrew's LaGOWE!" Arli shouted back, Ryan saw the Strike and Combat evading attacks from two BuCUEs and the LaGOWE.
"Fine." Hydra fired it's buster rifle at the third ship taking out the cannon on top then fired again to do more damage. Ryan turned his attention back to the Duel, which was struggling to keep a good foothold on the sand. Guess this Yzak is an idiot if he didn't make changes to his suit, same goes for the pilot of the Buster.
"Hey Ryan just to tell you, Cagalli has got the other Skygrasper now." Mwu informed Ryan as two Skygraspers attacked the Petri attacking in perfect synchronisation.
"Roger that…Cagalli what are you doing?" Ryan asked Cagalli after breaking connection with Mwu.
"I couldn't just sit and do nothing besides I can pilot it." Cagalli replied
"Just barely, you won't last long get it back to the ship!" Ryan ordered
"I'm fine!" Cagalli shouted back, at that moment the Skygrasper's wing was hit by a missile which sent downward towards the sand, more missiles were closing in on it as it hurtled down. "I can't avoid them!" Cagalli cried out.
"You stupid girl!" Ryan shouted as Hydra charged upwards and fired it's buster rifle taking out all the missiles pursuing the Skygrasper as it landed on the sand.
"Thanks for that Ryan." Cagalli said to Ryan forgetting her anger.
"Just don't let your guard down again." Ryan replied, still annoyed, "Wonder how Arli and Kira are doing?"
The Combat and Strike were still avoiding or blocking the shots coming from the two BuCUEs and the LaGOWE, not getting a chance to counter attack.
"Alright lets launch a jet stream attack on them two, now!" Waltfeld commanded as the three, four legged mobile suits lined up to attack.(Authors note: I thought I'd pay a little homage to the black tri-stars, although it won't be exact.) Two seeds shattered as Kira and Arli's eyes changed, as their pupil decreased and the iris increased in size. The LaGOWE fired it's two barrel beam cannon at them, Combat dodged out of the way the Strike flew upwards, the first BuCUE jumped after the Strike its double-edged beam sabre ready to attack, the humanoid suit landed on it as the third fired it's missile launchers, the Strike jumped off as the Combat shot the BuCUE it was on destroying it. The Strike quickly shot the BuCUE firing the missiles as it went through the head, destroying it, the Strike then dived down and struck it with it's beam sabre, tearing through the armour as it exploded as soon as Strike moved away from it.
"Not bad but it isn't over yet." Andrew said as the LaGOWE charged at the two G-weapons.
Hydra was avoiding shots from the Duel as Buster as they were able to get their footing, Hydra landed on the sand and fired it's buster rifle forcing both of them to move out of the way, the red Gundam then slammed in to Buster knocking it in to the sand, the Duel fired it's beam rifle multiple times only for Hydra to easily dodge each one, then countered with a knee strike to the Duel's head. Before it could get up the Hydra pointed its beam sword at it's torso whilst pointing it's buster rifle at the Buster.
"This is for that civilian ship you shot down in space!" Ryan shouted at Yzak as Hydra prepared to stab the cockpit.
"Civilians?…I thought they were soldiers!" Yzak shouted back, fear obvious in his voice. What?
"This is the Lesseps to all remaining units we are to retreat!" The commander of the Lesseps ordered as the ship and other units pulled back from the battle. Hydra halted it's attack and turned to leave.
"Hey why didn't you kill me!" Yzak protested.
"If I were to kill you it wouldn't bring the civilians back besides you thought they were soldiers, and Arli would be upset…we'll meet again." Ryan replied as Hydra took back off to the ship leaving the pilots of the G-weapons confused. As Hydra travelled back Ryan noticed that the Strike, Combat and LaGOWE were still fighting, the Combat lying on the sand, the LaGOWE had lost it's right front leg and the Strike was no longer in phase shift. Hydra landed between them.
"Waltfeld get out of here the battle is over, do you want to die?" Ryan asked the Desert Tiger.
"Sorry kid but I can't give up, not until one of us is destroyed." Andrew replied back The LaGOWE preparing to charge, Hydra took out it's left beam sword and the Strike took out it's right Armor Schneider. A brief stand-off occurred before all three charged at the same time, the Strike and Hydra running side by side, Hydra ran in front of the Strike and stabbed it's sword through the LaGOWE's head and going through the neck into the torso, the tiger like machine still charged on crashing into Hydra and sending the Gundam into the sand, the Strike then lunged and struck the LaGOWE's torso with the knife, the LaGOWE continued fighting slamming into Strike before both crashed into the sand. Seconds later the LaGOWE exploded from the damage See you later Waltfeld.Ryan thought as Hydra stood and flew back to the Archangel the Strike and Combat followed quickly. Ryan left the cockpit after checking damage and maintenance, Arli and Kira had already left the hangar, to see that some of the mechanics were already working on repairing the Skygrasper that Cagalli had used.
"Your working on it now?" Ryan asked the crew as he made his way down.
"Yeah, everyone else is celebrating and we're stuck with the repair work." Murdoch replied back complaining.
"Well why don't all of you join the celebrations and I'll work on repairing it." ryan offered kindly.
"Are you sure Lieutenant?" Murdoch asked
"Yeah sure besides you do deserve a break as much as everyone else."
"Well if your offering, you sure you'll be fine on your own?"
"Do you want me to change my mind Chief Murdoch?"
"Not at all alright everyone the Lieutenants got the Skygrasper so let's join the celebrations." Murdoch told the other mechanics, they left quickly leaving Ryan to work on the aircraft, he learnt mechanics during his stay in the base which were now proving useful.
"Hey Ryan, how comes your not with the others?" Arli asked curiously
"I'd rather not get involved with the celebrations." Ryan replied not looking up from his work. Arli's expression then turned serious.
"What did you do with the Duel, with Yzak?" Arli asked sternly.
"Him? I let him live." Ryan said looking at her in the eyes.
"Why?"
"Guess he got lucky." Ryan lied, Arli expression became more kind and humorous, Ryan then realised what she did.
"Liar you let him because of me right?" Arli asked humorously
"Of course not." Ryan said back defensively.
"Remember I can read minds." Arli reminded Ryan, although he had already remembered.
"I thought if I killed him you would be upset." Ryan confessed
"See that wasn't so hard, so you coming to the celebrations?" Arli asked cheerfully
"Like I said I don't want to get involved, so you go and enjoy it with the others." Ryan insisted going back to fixing the damage. Arli sighed and walked off to the celebration outside. There's nothing to celebrate, not for me anyway, ZAFT still have control over the land, those resistance fighters have got a long way to go. Ryan repaired some of the damage by the time the crew got back, which was the dead of night.
"You still working on that thing?" Murdoch asked, sounding tired
"Might as well haven't got much else to do." Ryan replied not sounding tired at all
"Well we're leaving the desert and crossing the red sea tomorrow so you might as well rest up Lieutenant." Murdoch stated turning to leave "You can work on repairing the Skygrasper then, we'll help out."
"Alright then, anyway I need to do a bit of work on Hydra." Ryan said putting the tools back and turning away.
"Your kidding, haven't you worked on that thing enough?" Murdoch asked, surprised
"There is something in that Gundam that I'm trying to unlock, so far I haven't been able to, one more thing where is everyone else?" Ryan replied making his way up to Hydra.
"Doing what you should be doing, sleeping, g'd night." Murdoch said leaving with the other workers to sleep. Ryan entered Hydra's cockpit and worked on, frantically typing in different codes and passwords on a screen that showed a blueprint of Hydra, but different, only for the words 'Access Denied' to repeatedly appear. Come on why can't I access the blueprint and program, I've typed in anything that I thought could be the password, Hydra's name, my name practically everything and nothing! Ryan stopped typing and leaned back on his chair Dad said that to access it I need a name of peace…I thought angel would work but it didn't work, maybe he got it wrong, not many names have anything to do with peace these days. Ryan then left it and worked on something else numerous screens appeared of Hydra in different angles, each showed Hydra with a new weapon. I don't have what I need to build it yet but I'm sure I'll find somewhere to.Ryan's eyes were slowly closing as he leant back again, and fell asleep. In his dream two mobile suits were facing off against each other, one was white, the other could be seen s it's twin, only it was black and looked more demonic then the white one laughter could be heard, maniacal laughter as well as screams of pain and death around the two.
Ryan awoke with a start, he looked up to see Arli staring back at him.
"What?" Ryan asked sharply
"Well you were breathing quite heavily, are you ok?" Arli asked concerned
"I'm fine just a bad dream that's all." Ryan replied quickly getting out of the cockpit, to see that Cagalli was also there. "And why is the princess on the ship?" Cagalli briefly showed shock as he said it.
"Don't call me princess!" Cagalli shouted.
"Why shouldn't I you are the princess of ORB aren't you?" Ryan asked slyly
"How did you- Arli?!" Cagalli shouted again, accusingly at Arli.
"I didn't tell him." Arli protested
"She didn't have to once I heard your name was Cagalli Yula I knew who you were, Cagalli Yula Attha." Ryan explained smirking "So where are we now?"
"We're flying over the red sea now, so anyone who isn't working can go up on deck." Arli answered happily "So you coming with us?"
"Maybe a bit later." Ryan answered, the two girls walking out.
"Ok then see ya later." Arli said as they left, Ryan quickly went back into the cockpit as soon as they left the hangar to get something out of it then made his way out. Ryan changed out of his pilot suit to his jeans and shirt then made his way onto the deck outside, neither Arli or Cagalli were on deck. Might as well get some practice in while I can. Ryan unsheathed his sword and began performing various manoeuvres and tricks (Some of which he can make Hydra use, good isn't it.) Ryan stopped abruptly when he nearly sliced Kira with it, who was able to duck in time
"Sorry about that Kira, you shouldn't have snuck up on me though."
"I didn't, where did you get that anyway?" Kira asked accepting his apology
"While I was at the base where Hydra was built, there was quite a lot of stuff there." Ryan explained, trying to not to sound saddened as the memories came back. "I doubt your up here to catch the sun." Ryan said quickly changing the subject.
"Well no I was thinking…" Kira started struggling to say the rest.
"About Waltfeld?" Ryan asked, seeing Kira's expression showed he was right. "Kira I know it's hard to fight someone who you know but you had no choice to fight him besides we both took him out so don't put all the blame on yourself." Ryan continued seeing if it would help.
"So I guess you two wanted to get some fresh air too." Ryan and Kira turned to see Cagalli walking out
"Where's Arli?" Ryan asked unconsciously
"Well she said she was going to the bridge then come out." Cagalli answered her attention on Kira
"well I've had my share of air so I'll see you two later." Ryan said walking back into the ship sheathing his sword "And Kira try not to worry too much you'll end up distracting yourself." Ryan said Kira in a slightly cheery but more serious way leaving the two outside, as he was walking along the corridor he saw Flay, who immediately gave him a dark glare.
"You haven't seen Kira around have you?" Flay asked venomously to Ryan
"Maybe I did maybe I didn't what's it to you." Ryan answered glaring back at her. "What are you up to, one minute your all anti-coordinator next minute you go out with Kira, what are you planning?" Ryan asked coldly
"That's none of your business freak!" Flay shouted back
"I don't have time for the likes of you, if Kira didn't like you I swear I'll just kill you at anytime!" Ryan yelled back before walking off, leaving Flay to continue searching for Kira. Ryan walked into the hangar and saw the new equipment.
"Does it work?" Ryan asked Murdoch pointing to the machinery
"Well it's a ZAFT sonar detector so the kid says it will have some compatibility problems." Murdoch replied
"Did Kira try fixing those problems?"
"Well I think so but even he couldn't rid of all of them."
"Oh well but as long as it helps, by the way is the Skygrasper fixed?" Ryan asked looking over at the aircraft.
"Thanks to your help it's almost ready for combat, 'course can't say how long it will take for it to be done." Murdoch replied scratching his chin, the alarms started blaring.
"Looks like it won't be used in this fight." Murdoch complained as Ryan ran off to put on his pilot suit, he didn't meet Kira or Arli and so was the first one on the catapult.
"Ryan there are two DINNs and two GOOhNs, stay on the hatch if your mobile suit can't fly or swim." Mir informed Ryan
"Don't worry Hydra can fly in the atmosphere so this won't take long, Ryan, Hydra launching."