(AN): Thank you to all who reviewed.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Seed or Destiny.
Chapter Thirty Three
Invisible
Outside the Ravine
Doomsday
With the Minerva out of the way, Kira ordered a meeting of his own. He went back to the Doomsdays briefing room while he connected with the two other ships by link.
The captains of the two ships were standing by as they waited for Kira to brief them about this mission.
Willard was summoned here on Kira's way back so he got here first.
The captains stopped communication when Kira walked into the room.
"Send this to the ships," Kira said handing it to Willard.
Willard forwarded the data straight to the captains as they had all satellite images of the base.
"Despite their little firepower this is a formable base to destroy," Kira said looking at the data himself.
"The only way in our out is through the ravine and as all of you know the large Lohengrin cannon covers all areas," Kira told them.
"A long range bombardment would do the trick," One captain said.
Kira looked at them, "It will fail, the cannon has a protective coating that would allow them to send it underground on a long range attack, besides this little thing could cause a problem," Kira said showing them another image.
"This is what from intelligence states is called a Gells-Ghe or the spider for some," Kira said showing a mobile suit that looked like a spider.
"This has a protective anti beam shield that is rumored to be able to stand up to the highest powered beams, though it is only rumored we have been monitoring their testing all year and it looks as if they could have pulled it off."
"Even with a full out assault this would be the shield and the cannon would be your demise," Kira said as the captains were straight in thought.
"Are you saying the only way past this is to use the Doomsday's Genesis cannon?" Another asked.
Kira glared straight at them making him regret that statement, "Do you think I will waste the first earth shot on a worthless target?"
"My apologizes sir," the captain quickly said.
"The Doomsday will not be taking part in this battle," Kira said again.
All looked shocked.
"What we need to do is get close enough so they cannot use the spider, but the key being we have to be fast enough so they don't place the cannon inside the mountain," Kira added.
The captains were at a loss here, this wasn't looking to good.
Kira spoke up, "Which is why I will head in alone."
Willard quickly looked at him, "Forgive me sir but…" Willard said as Kira cut them off.
"Enough…are you forgetting my suit is equipped with Mirage Colloid?" Kira asked.
It has been awhile since Kira used it that many forgot about it.
"Yes, that could work sir," Willard said again.
"I will get close enough without being detected, the two Lessep ships will make a normal attack run down the ravine, you will open fire making the spider block the attack, by that time the cannon should be preparing to fire, when it does that I will reactivate and destroy the cannon, once it is down we take it down like a normal base, their suit numbers are unknown but I doubt they will be a problem, after the cannon is destroyed the base will be ours," Kira said quickly.
The captains had no objections; this seemed like the quickest way to get past this ravine.
"We begin in one hour," Kira said dismissing them after sending them more details.
Kira then turned to Willard, "Once the cannon is destroyed move the ship forward into range and continue a long range bombardment on the base, fire each round twice, that should bring down most small fish."
"Yes sir," Willard said as he went back to the bridge.
Kira headed down to his hanger and now waited having this time think wasn't always a good thing, usually he would get flashbacks and images from the past when this happened. Before he started working for Ryu they were at the worst, however since he started they have been dying down for some reason; this must be the correct path he is taking. One thing that never stopped was his nightmares. Kira knew this had to be the correct path he was taking, only then will it stop and only then will things be as they should.
Alliance Gulanhan Base
The alliance had been monitoring the Zaft presence since they had fired the first shot at the Minerva. Zaft was at the moment out of their range however when the massive Doomsday arrived they picked it back up.
The captain in charge of the base contacted his superiors and the Eurasian forces stated they had nothing to worry about as that base was built invincible; however one thing they did want was the credit for destroying the Doomsday. Even now the rivalry between the Eurasian and Atlantic forces was at its peak. Others knew they were in for the fight of their life and fighting each other was their biggest down fall.
The captain kept up the monitoring placing all his forces on the base at alert. They didn't have to wait much longer as their sensors picked up two approaching ships.
"Battle stations," The captain ordered as they began moving the cannon to fire.
Panama
Alliance Forces
The power of the Atlantic Federation was at another level then anything Zaft has seen so far in this particular war. The waters of Panama were surrounded by their massive navel fleet. Danilove Class, Arkansas Class, and Fraser Class destroyers were everywhere, Spengler Class carriers, and attack Submarines were all over the coast line of this particular base, not to mention the entire north and south American coastlines. Ever since the invasion had begun, these forces have been coming out in very large numbers.
The entire year Jibril focused much of the resources into the Atlantic Federation, and it was showing.
At the moment Neo was in charge of this particular base, he had come here because he believed Orb would be the first target and since that didn't happen he had to remain on standby at this base.
One thing was for sure and that was he was getting very tired of Jibril running the forces like he was. Jibril wasn't a military leader and they were making a large mistake not attacking the forces right away as more and more kept dropping and from what he heard Zaft now controls all of Australia and most of Africa, that was their gravest mistake and he was getting very tired of it.
Neo was currently at the base when he got a call in.
"Commander, we have incoming," an officer said.
Neo went to the control room of the base.
"Is Zaft approaching?" Neo asked.
"No sir, it appears to be two Orb ships," the officer said putting them on screen.
Neo now knew what was going on.
"Stand down, don't fire on them, this may be a benefit to us," Neo said now trying to contact them.
Archangel and Eternal
"We are approaching Panama waters captain," Miriallia told her.
Cagalli stood up, "Their fleet is a lot bigger then I last remember."
"They seem to be surrounding us captain," Miriallia said again.
"Don't show any aggression, remember we are still under treaty with them," Murrue added.
On the Eternal the same was going on.
"I don't like this sir," Dacosta said.
"Relax, this is natural," Andrew said.
"I don't get why they are just sitting around protecting their own waters," Lacus added, as even she found it very strange.
"We are getting a signal," both Miriallia and Dacosta from both ships told their captains.
"What is Orb doing in our waters?" Neo asked as he came on screen.
Murrue looked at him, it had been a long time and that exact same feeling came to mind when she first saw him, Neo felt it as well.
Cagalli stood up, "We need passage to get to Africa."
Neo knew what that meant, "You are after that massive ship correct?"
"Since you know there is no point in side stepping, allow us to pass," Cagalli said again.
"I am afraid you are too late, all of northern Africa has fallen to Zaft," Neo said.
"We are not concerned with that, this is something we are doing on our own, something we have to do," Lacus added.
"You know you are still under treaty with us," Neo said, "Two of your most powerful ships are going on a suicide mission and I am sure our leadership will not be pleased with that."
Cagalli was growing angry, "My forces will handle it…besides we will fight our way past if necessary."
Neo slightly smiled, they had little chance of that, but their resolve was admirable, besides he liked their attitude to do something.
"You stand little chance, but that won't be necessary, I will grant your ships passage," Neo said.
"Thank you," Lacus added.
"There is one condition," Neo said.
Cagalli knew that it was always something.
"My ship will be heading with you," Neo said.
All were confused by that, "Don't you have orders to hold that base?" Murrue asked.
Neo looked at her, "Let's just say I know what is best for this world and what my leader is doing is not that."
Cagalli and Lacus spoke about it, though his ship was only water based, that meant they would get three more powerful machines as well as Neo himself.
"We accept," Cagalli said.
"I still find it hard to believe that is the only reason," Murrue told him.
Neo smiled, "Let's just say I am eager myself to meet that pilot, besides if things keep going as they are we will eventually be destroyed, this has to stop," Neo said as he suddenly got a flashback, he remembered saying something similar in his past, it wasn't the exact words but it was the people he was talking to.
Shaking that out of his head he ordered his ship prepared quickly and the Orb ships passage through the canal and out into the Atlantic Ocean.
Panama Base
With the Orb ships being guided in and through the canal, Neo made the arrangements for his ship to be able to join them on the other side. Since the ship was already prepared for battle as he expected action by now, all that was needed was for him to board it.
Neo gave a few orders to other base admirals and other captains, most of which knew Jibril wasn't going to be to pleased he was leaving the base without orders, however it was his decision and for the first time Neo was going to do something on his own without taking orders, this was something he believed he had to do.
Neo went to his docked Windam and flew out towards sea where the John Paul Jones was waiting. Upon landing on the ship Neo took command as they waited for the Orb ships.
The Archangel and Eternal were guided through without any trouble as they saw Neo's ship waiting.
For many this man still couldn't be trusted, but he was taking a huge risk going with them and they knew this was without orders so the man had to be respected for that, the second reason they agreed was they needed all the firepower they could get.
Leaving all other forces behind the three ships made their way through the Atlantic and towards Northern Africa.
Gulnahan Ravine
Zaft Forces
The time for the attack came as Kira sing handedly launched in the Armageddon, heading straight into the ravine, he accelerated his thrusters to get a good lead on the other two ships.
The two Lessep class ships were now going to make their way through and follow Kira's plan, basically if this worked it was all up to Kira, he had to be in position in time or the ships would be destroyed.
The Doomsday made its way to the edge of the ravine, where Willard ordered the weapons to lock onto the mountain.
The three triple barrel Gottfried cannons locked on as the three Lohengrins and Valiants, these were the nine weapons that had the most range, the Doomsday couldn't fire anymore without getting closer and Kira's orders for that were a no.
Locked on and ready, all Willard waited for now was Kira.
After Kira launched and entered the Ravine he activated his mirage colloid as the machine disappeared, Kira went into communication darkness as he had to be tricky at this point.
Moving in he tried to get to the edge of the ravine right under the cannon, the fact he made it this far meant they couldn't detect him, but if things were going right then they should see his ships on their long range radar.
Alliance Forces
The alliance forces were monitoring everything and as soon as they came in range they detected two battleships.
"Captain, we have two incoming Zaft Lessep class ships," one officer informed him.
The captain looked at the radar, and slightly smiled, "They think they can take our cannon with two measly ships, what about the third?"
"It hasn't moved sir, or rather it isn't in our radar range," another officer said.
The captain knew that ship was the prize, if they were holding it back meant that they were being cautious, the best way to lure that ship in was to limit its options, destroying these two ships would probably force that one to move in.
"Send out the forces just to be safe, target and charge the cannon," the captain said as he walked over to get a visual from a few cameras they had set up.
The alliance officers did that as they prepared for battle.
Outside Windams were coming out as well as the Gells-Ghe. It was preparing to block any such attack those two ships were preparing for them.
With Kira and Zaft forces
Kira made his way to the end as he slightly stopped his machine to look around; it was clear none detected or could see him.
Looking around Kira saw that many suits were out in a ready stance, but then he saw the spider, it was very tempting to destroy it here and now but, he had a job to do.
Looking upward Kira flew upwards as he saw the cannon starting to move out in fringing range; Kira saw as they opened it from its protective shell and waited to massacre his ships.
Kira was just about there when his ships opened fire.
The Lessep class ships watched their timing and then launched their mobile suits; Bacue's and Babi's were both running and flying towards the target.
The captains of both ships targeted their main weapons as well as their missiles as they fired them straight at the cannon.
Alliance Forces
"Incoming attack captain," one officer on the inside said.
"Is the cannon almost ready?" the captain said not worrying.
"Almost sir," another officer said.
Outside the Gells-Ghe saw the attack as it immediately flew up activating an energy shield.
The attacks were immediately beginning to be deflected and soon they were all stopped as the suit lowered itself giving the cannon a shot.
The cannon was charged as it began to fire.
Zaft Forces
Kira saw his captains were off on timing by about ten seconds, accelerating a little faster Kira landed right next to the cannon quickly combining all his sabers and quickly activating one large beam from the beam spear, Kira had to wait a few seconds as he deactivated the Mirage Colloid taking a straight slash right across the cannon.
The captain saw their attacks blocked as that shield suit lowered itself, and they saw the cannon aimed right at them.
Alliance Forces
The captain inside smiled at the chance as the attacks were deflected.
"We have a shot sir," an officer said.
"Fire," the captain said.
Firing the weapon they watched as a suit just came out of no where.
"Sir…the cannon!" an officer said.
Looking at the monitor the captain saw what it was, "Impossible…" the captain said as they saw a large beam shot out of the spear.
"Sir, we are at full output, if the cannon is destroyed it will cause a chain reaction," another officer said quickly.
"Shut it down…" the captain said but they were far too late.
With Kira and Zaft
Kira would have loved to see the look on their faces as he slashed straight through the cannon, the cannon then exploded just as it was about to fire and set a chain reaction through all the power sources causing the interior to almost self destruct. The power plant on the back near the town also exploded.
For the Lessep class ships that was far to close for comfort but for Kira, this was victory.
Kira then activated his com, "Fire at will Captain," Kira ordered Willard.
On the Doomsday Willard got the message as he fired his weapons straight at the mountain.
Kira knew it was time to split as they had incoming but there was something he had to do first as he was actually being challenged by something.
The captains ordered their mobile suits to move in as the bombardment would be over by the time they arrived.
Nine Beams were incoming as they were all from the Doomsday.
Kira however placed all beam sabers back as he accepted this challenge.
Minerva
Immediately leaving the site, Talia headed her ship west as they were heading for the ocean. Looking over the file she knew she was heading into battle against two ships that were Orb's best. They had three powerful suits and a few others from her pilots. Orb had two ships and mobile suit units unknown, she had a feeling Kira was throwing her into a situation where she would not win.
Bridge
"In all honesty I would take a mission like this then be near that commander any day," Arthur said shaking his head as he was seated in his chair.
"I do not like how things are handling in Plants anymore, the commander breaks every protocol in the book, the chairman doesn't even care, we have no news or mourning for the old chairman, all these attacks out of nowhere when it looked as if the first treaty would work…and lastly why does it seem like the council is just sitting this one out, I haven't seen or heard anything from them in ages?" Talia asked.
"Good point ma'am, but we didn't start this war…I think," Arthur said as half the time he didn't know what was going on.
"Yes…I suppose your right…though…" Talia was speaking and thinking.
"Well what ma'am?" Arthur asked.
"Nothing…let's just hope I don't want to go that far…but with those two it may be possible," Talia said as they went on their way.
They spoke no more on the issue after that as they had to prepare for this engagement which would be no cake walk.
Hanger
In the hanger Shiho watched as Heine was giving the pilots from Kira's team a lecture. She had her own agenda to handle and with what she had gathered she hoped it would be something that would give the others some answers they were looking for. The location she got would help as she knew they would have to be worried when Kira was going to hit Orb. The location was close but not near Orb.
Heine saw the members from Kira's team, he had to admit that they all looked very gloomy, after what they had just saw their own commander do he couldn't blame them, but what was more he saw they didn't really have the respect of their commander, Kira just pushed them off here while he did his own thing.
Shinn was by far the worst but as he was talking to them, they seemed to open up to him a little. He even had them calling him on a first name basis even though he was higher ranked. Even Rey was impressed by him.
They seemed to be more normal around him.
Shiho even noticed that, with Kira he was defiantly out for himself and the chairman was probably the only one he would do anything for, but for Heine he would defiantly give his life to save his friends and team.
Heine was preparing them for the upcoming battle as well, in Shinn's mind was a part that was going to make Kira eat his words, he would destroy both ships and prove his worth.
The ship went on as they would soon arrive at the ocean, they hoped at least soon.
Gulnahan Ravine
With Kira
With an incoming blast about to hit the mountain Kira saw the Gells upper half staring straight at him, Kira knew the pilot was likely trying to identify him or something that he didn't really care about, but one thing was for certain Kira took this as a challenge.
With the sabers returned, the gun launcher assembled and moved towards the front as Kira aimed it straight at this machine.
The Gells pilot saw it was being targeted and activated the shield.
With a quick adjustment from Kira, he fired the long range gun launcher straight at the machine.
The beam connected with the shield as for now it was holding.
Kira however quickly turned to the OS, he quickly raised the output of the beam that was coming out of the launcher and raised it to its highest level. The Armageddon was using all available power and was starting to overheat the reactor, but Kira kept it up. When he fired he hit the exact center.
The pilot was holding it off at first but when Kira made those adjustments the machine was being pushed back.
Taking the reactor levels to critical the blast from the Gun launcher almost made an explosion noise as the beams output increased even more.
The blast now was making a crack in the beam shield.
The pilots thought this was impossible.
Kira knew used the thrusters as he accelerated towards the machine, still not releasing the blast.
The Gell's pilot could no longer contain it as the blast went straight through the shield and because of the larger output incinerated about eighty percent of the machine.
Halting the firing the gun launcher returned to its place as Kira flew straight out of the way, little damage to his machine.
The other mobile suits saw the battle with Kira and were moving to intercept but the bombardment from the Doomsday was a little too much.
Blasts finally reached the mountain as it was taking it straight apart. Mobile suits in the way were immediately destroyed, they had no backup in the mountain as the chain reaction from the cannons destruction left little remaining, all machines were destroyed and if there were survivors they were likely buried under a lot of rubble.
With Kira holding strong in the air, the second wave of attacks from the Doomsday came in and shattered more of their forces and taking out all entrances left inside their base.
Kira knew that was the two shots as he saw about thirty percent of the force left.
By now the other mobile suits had arrived and were engaging, and the Lessep class ships were assisting.
Kira now knew it was time to clean up the trash, moving in towards the battlefield he began his destruction, no suit could stand up to his power.
Overpowering, out piloting them, and pure hatred are what won him this battle.
Slicing the last machine in half, the ravine was conquered.
Once it was over the Doomsday moved in as they had a straight path to Suez.
Kira got a damage report and they lost little in this battle, less then two percent losses, and once again Kira had no satisfaction in this battle, things were way to easy fighting little fish like this, one thing that could make him smile was now he had a clear path to Orb.
Giving orders to the Lessep captains that they would hold ground at Suez, Kira decided it was time to move on, his work here was finished.
Before departing however one thing he saw was the town that natural was working so hard to save.
What was truly ironic was they were cheering them; clearly they had little information on what was going on in the war.
Kira watched from the top of a cliff on the ravine as he saw the people cheering and celebrating.
Something was off a little though, his hand was shaking a little, reaching into his pocket his pills did the trick as he took them.
There was one last thing he was about to do.
Doomsday
Willard had the view in the screen, naturals to weak to defend themselves were cheering because they believed they helped them. Willard knew other wise as he had Kira in the other view on top of that cliff staring down at them.
Sarah was on duty as she watched, it was a good feeling to be able to help these people, she was proud of what they were able to do, but what she saw from the father of her children shattered all of that.
Armageddon
As Kira watched this it was just like the past, they were cheering his work, he once again did all the work while they stood around and waited to be saved, it was just like the past. First they cheer him for helping, and later they would end up repeating history and start another war.
His breathing was heavily as this was a complete repeat of the first war, the images flew into his head again, he had to make them stop. Sure he never meant to help them, but that is what they believed and it was too similar.
With a complete snap, he moved the Gun launcher again to the front, but this time the two rail guns on the hips moved forward and the two plasma beam cannons lifted over the shoulders as the wings extended.
With a flash of the dark blackish red eyes of the machine, Kira fired his payload straight at the town.
For the people it all happened so fast, they paused their celebration when they saw something fire from the lead mobile suit and by the time they knew what was going on it was too late.
The beams and projectiles cut straight through the town vaporizing anyone in the path and causing complete destruction, and the blast from the gun launcher took the town to its final destruction as all that was left when the smoke cleared was the debris and carnage from a few that weren't all vaporized.
Taking a few more pills Kira returned his weapons and flew back to the Doomsday.
Doomsday
Willard knew Kira wouldn't be able to take it and the result would make His Excellency proud.
Sarah, she no longer was shocked at anything he did. The pride for helping that village was all but lost as she knew Zaft was becoming a complete monstrous power, she knew one thing and one thing only she couldn't keep her children around Kira for much longer.
With Kira
Kira returned to the bridge after he got out of his machine, sitting down heavily he looked at Willard.
"Set a course for Orb," Kira said sitting back down.
Willard nodded as he knew they controlled the waters straight to Orb, this should be where the fun began.
Atlantic Ocean
Minerva
With several days of traveling, they were finally out a little into the ocean, Talia stayed on course by satellite images sent to her from space. It wasn't too many days after the fall of Suez that she caught something on radar, three ships approaching.
Archangel, Eternal, John Paul Jones
Like with the Minerva, they had several days traveling, Neo got reports from Panama as the war was not going their way at all, he informed the other two ships, but so far none heard anything about the Doomsday, the reason was none that saw it ever lived to report its location. Last they heard it was still in Africa.
The rivalry between Eurasia and the Atlantic Federation didn't allow Eurasia to inform them that they passed into their territory as they wanted the prize for sinking that ship.
The three ships went forward as they were closing still a ways from the Africa continent, but on radar they got a ships signature.
To be continued…
(A\N): The next chapter is the battle over the Atlantic Ocean, This may take an extra day to get out as I want to get to Orb so I will be making this next chapter longer. See you later.