I don't own Gundam Seed and Destiny

Yamato's Legacy

ch. 2

Shinn Asuka ran down the crowded hallway. It was difficult for him to maneuver among the mass panic that filled the plant. Though he was still dressed in his Orb military uniform, no one gave him a thought.

Another shudder from the plant sent people falling to the ground, and ramming them against the walls. Forming a break for Shin, he ran to the mobile suit hanger.

The plant White Base was the latest plant owned by the country of Orb. A newer colony created not long after the end of the second bloody valentine war, as a replacement for Heliopolis. White Base also served as the primary meeting place of the Orb Representative Zala and the plant Chairwoman Lacus Yamato, on their vacations. On many occasions the two families would take a vacation together on the plant. But now, neither family has here.

It had been ten years since the second bloody valentine war. Many things had changed for Shinn. He joined the Orb military not long after that war, at the request of Athrun Zala, and even served directly under that man. Even attending the wedding of Commander Zala and at the time Representative Atha.

He even got to know to the Strike Freedom's pilot, Kira Yamato. Though not close like Athrun he did have a good relationship. Leaving the Orb military, Kira along with the Archangel and her crew accompanied Lacus to the plants, where she was elected to lead the plants. The Archangel and it's crew became the personal attendants to Lacus Clyne.

But now this plant, White Base was being attacked. Shinn had very little knowledge of a possible reason. His high rank in the military gave him almost all the knowledge of what was going on. Holding a chair in command cabinet of the space military force, he was told about every little thing going on in the plant.

Shinn cursed at himself. The attack had to happen on his weekend off.

Again the base shuddered, but with renewed energy, throwing Shinn from the floor and into another person running in the same direction. After falling on the floor he made an attempt to return to his running stance and head to the hanger.

"Just give it a second." The man he hit said while still laying on the ground.

Shinn returned to his feat and looked at the man odd. Then the plant shook again. Not as strong as before, but enough to push him back off his feet.

"You have to give the colonies supports a second to recoil from the blast, or you will find yourself right back down on the ground again." The man now toward over Shinn, with his hand extended. Shinn used the man's assistance to regain his posture. "I guess you have never been in a colony while it was being attacked before."

The 'man', or to be more precise 'young man', who stood before Shinn, kept a smile on his face. He was dressed in a casual suit, that had a style similar to a Catholic priest outfit. He also had long braided brown hair, and wore a pair of black sunglasses in the dark hallways of the plant.

"No I have not." Shinn got back on his feet. "You in the military? If not, you are heading the wrong way. Escape pods are in the opposite direction."

"No, I am not part of the military. However this colony has become my home for the past few years, and I can't let my home go to waist." The man had a care free personality with him. Even though he knew what was going on, this man did not seem to be taking the attack seriously.

Shinn returned to running to the hangers. The man followed him. "Are you a veteran?" Shinn asked the man.

"Yep. Was a first class mobile suit pilot. Among the five best." He still had the same tone of voice, but Shinn could pick up that he was not telling everything.

Shinn was surprised at that last comment. "Who did you side with?"

"Let's just not talk about it anymore. But let's say that now, I side with Orb."

Not telling Shinn the information he wanted forced his temper to start flaring up. But there was no time, to think about him right now. Shinn had to get to his Gundam. But among the five 'best'. On either the Zaft or the Earth Alliance, this man could be a big help.

Again the colony shuddered. This time Shinn braced himself and held onto a metal railing. He waited for the recoil to subside before continuing.

"They ruptured the hull."

"What?" Shinn asked him. He was not really paying attention to the man, but picked that up.

"I said that they have blown a whole in the colony. They create enough wholes and the suction from the loss of air will rip the colony apart."

Shinn acknowledge what he said, and continued down his path. He decided to trust the man, since he apparently had more knowledge of a plants characteristics while under stress, then he himself did.

It was not much longer and the two found themselves in the mobile suit hanger, where it was fully alive with people running around and launching a counter offensive.

Doing a small scan of the terrain Shinn found the officer with the highest rank and made his way to him.

"Captain, report." Shinn yelled out.

The caption was yelling out orders, but still made the time to salute Shinn as he arrived. "Sir. We are currently employing mobile suits and armors to counter the threat. They are being loaded as they come, and launched as soon as ready."

"Do we know who is attacking us? Is it the Earth Alliance or Zaft?" Shinn asked. He was pretty sure that it was not Zaft, due to the relations of the leaders between both countries, but the possibility was still there.

"Sir we do not know. They are using a type of mobile suit that we have no data on. I can't give you an assessment on their forces at the time, however, it does not look good at the moment."

The man in the priest outfit spoke up. "Then I guess you better stop wasting time and send us out. The longer we wait the weaker this colony is going to get."

"Sir, who is this?" The captain asked Shinn.

"A civilian." Shinn would take a chance on this guy. "Put him in a M1- Astray, and send him out immediately."

"Sir. A civilian?"

"Yes. He tells me he was once an ace mobile suit pilot. I'll authorize it." The man gave Shinn and the captain a wink after that comment.

"But sir. Are you sure?"

"I agree with the commander." The voice belonged to a woman. She wore the uniform of a major, but with a small flashy skirt in place of the traditional skirt. The captain saluted her while Shinn, since he was a higher rank, just gave her his attention. 'Yet the fact that he has a very close relationship with her had nothing to do with it '. "I'll take him to his suit."

"Major Hawk. Shouldn't you be out fighting?" Shinn asked his long time girl friend, and current fiancée.

Lunamaria stuck her tongue out at him. "Where do you think I am heading." She then grabbed the civilian man, by the arm and started to pull him to a mobile suit. "Just came to tell you that your Destiny is ready and waiting for you. Or is a high official of the military cabinet too important to fight?" She then turned her attention to the boy in her arms. "But I don't know, sending a boy as good looking as you out should be illegal."

The man did not know what to say. He just kept quiet, scratching the back of his head. It was getting tense with Shinn around. Shinn's stare was exceptionally scary.

Lunamaria continued. "Say what is your name?"

Shinn was a bit curious. It had not crossed his mind to ask the man his name. He was to focused on getting to the hanger. "Yes. What is your name?"

The man turned his head, looking straight into the eyes of both Shinn and Lunamaria. "Duo." He lifted his free hand and scratched the back of his head. "Duo Maxwell."

"Well Duo." Shinn said. "I hope you are as good as you say you are. Luna, take him to an Astray."

She gave him a big smile before running off with Duo. Shinn smirked at her. He left a few commands with the captain and ran for his Gundam.

Kira's eyes fluttered open. Though not wanting to, he finally let the light from the sun consume his vision. The colony's exterior mirrors, 'called gates' would rotate, reflecting the 24/7 light into and out of the colony, thus simulating day and night.

He could faintly hear a knocking at his door. Or more precise a banging.

Wait. The sun's out? The sun out was bad. It meant Kira over slept and would be late for work. Same for his wife and his daughter would be late for school.

Sitting himself up, Kira scanned the room. First he looked at his alarm clock. It showed no time. Not even a blinking twelve o'clock. Power was out. Power was never out in a plant.

To his right his wife lay, still sleeping. Completely undisturbed by the light. Deciding not to wake her until he had an idea of what was going on, he left her to sleep as he checked on his daughter.

Kelly herself was also soundly asleep in her room. Kira left his sleeping angel to check the door.

The banging at the door would not stop. In fact it got loader and harder as time pasted. The house itself was empty with the exception of the family. It was a big house, but they were a small family, and Kira never wanted servants, or maids. Lacus was happy without them. So no highered help could be at the door.

But the thought of who it could be did not slip by Kira's mind. Only a few people had the ability to get past the front gate without being arrested. The Flagga's along Mr. Waltfield to name a few.

Opening the door he was met by Mr. Waltfield and Yzak. Both looked extremely worried.

"Uh... High." Kira said surprised and confused.

"Come on boy. Get the wife and kid. We have to go." Waltfield almost yelled. He ran past Kira forcing the two to follow.

"Wait. What is happening?"

Yak answered. "The Romafeller party took control."

"What?"

"Just a little while ago, all political members of opposing parties received notification's of treason. Romafeller has ordered execution for them all. That includes Mrs. Yamato."

"You get your wife. I'll get the kid." Waltfield said as he ran off. Kira ran to his room, with Yzak in tow.

"The people won't allow this to happen." He opened the door and went to wake his wife up. Luckily, nothing frisky happened between the two last night, and Lacus was wearing a sleeping gown.

As Kira shook her awake Yzak continued. "The people do not know. Romafeller is using manipulation to it's greatest. A few of us loyal to your wife received intelligence about this. We have very little time."

"What is going on Kira?" Lacus rubbed her eyes, still half asleep. She was abruptly awakened more as Kira softly took her arm and dragged her through the house.

"The Archangel is waiting for us, but it wont be long till Romafeller discovers the ship is powering up to leave." Waltfield joined them with a sleeping Kelly in his arms.

"What?" Lacus asked again. Kira assured her he would explain everything once he himself knew. But he had to get them out of there.

The house did not have any secret passages or escape routes. The only way out was outside.

They began running ounce outside. Being sure to hide behind the bushes as not to be seen if being watched.

Two black cars pulled up, crashing through the estates gates. Men got out of the cars and began firing off their guns at the house. The men then ran into the house screaming and yelling, believing the Yamato's were in the house.

Seeing an opening the family and two friends commandeered the vehicles and drove off to the ship hanger.

Duo followed Luna's mobile suit as they rounded the plant. The plant was cylindrical shaped just like the former Heliopolis. White base itself was dwarfed by the vastly larger plants of the Zaft forces. To Duo it reminded him more of the colonies back home, then the colonies that built up most of the Zaft plants.

Another thing that was familiar to him was the mobile suit he was piloting. Though for reason's unknown to him, the set up of the cockpit was familiar. Not all the controls, but most of them were the same as his personal suit. When he first got in the suit, it moved awkward. The computer did most of the functions for himself, leaving him with very little piloting involved. Though nice for a newby pilot, the controls did not allow for the movement that he was accustomed to with a more difficult suit to handle. After fondling around with the computer for a minute, he managed to shut it down, and restart with a separate operating system. Which was harder to use, but allowed him the freedom he required in a battle. Made him feel more at home.

A little screen popped up on his display, and showed Luna wearing her space suit. "So Mr. Maxwell. You ready?"

"I am always ready babe." Duo replied to her.

She did not smile or have the playful attitude she had before. She kept a serious tone this time. "We are sneaking around the plant and hoping to cause a sneak attack."

"I am pretty sure they are watching all fronts of their attack. Sneaking I think is not an accurate statement."

"You are probably right. But if we can take a little bit of the heat off of our forces that are already there."

Duo thought that over. Elementary, but better then rushing in where there firing. Of course, they could always run into a trap.

The plant finally came out of his view and he could see a battle going on. He could not tell what he was fighting, but he could make out that it was not going good for the colony. The hull of the colony was battered and torn. Even though it was made out of a hard metal, it still had a hard time staying together.

But from what Duo could tell, destroying the colony was not their objective. Another thing that Duo noticed was, he could see Orb ship's, but no enemy vessels.

"An ambush! Spread out and return fire." Luna yelled over the radio. She then moved out of Duo's view. All the other mobile suits surrounding Duo also moved out of formation.

Machine gun fire lit up the sky around Duo as he scrambled to not get hit. Duo realized that this suit handled like a 'gundam', yet it seemed to only have capabilities on par with a Leo, or at most a Taurus.

He could hear screams on the radio from mobile suits being downed. Duo tried to not concentrate on that, but to keep himself alive. But what he could tell from the radio was that it was a slaughter. His team was being killed left and right.

His suit was hit sending him in a sideways fall, away from the small fight. Countering against the force, he was able to regain control. And then he could see what exactly was happening.

He recognized the make of the enemy suit. They were black Taurus's. But there reaction time was to quick. They were easily destroying the mobile suit's, which he knew where piloted by coordinators. That meant either coordinators where piloting the Taurus's, which he doubted, or some thing far more dangerous.

Unknowingly Duo spoke out load. "Mobile Dolls."

Lunamaria was having trouble. Being the skilled pilot that she was, she still could not land a hit. She was out classed, by better suits and better pilots. The enemy suits had not given her a chance to even fire at them, forcing her to continuously dodge their attacks. Which she was barely able to do.

Turning to her left, she moved to place an enemy in her range. She fired off multiple shots, to only miss as they would easily be dodged. Then she would face return fire.

She felt herself fly forward in the cockpit. The seatbelt straps keeping her in place, she quickly recovered to find one of the enemy mobile suits right behind her, with it's main rifle aimed.

Feelings of dread swept over her, as she had thoughts about her life. She closed her eyes waiting for the inevitable. But it never happened.

She felt a nearby explosion, but her suit was undamaged. Opening her eyes she looked strait at one of the Astray mobile suits. Not far from it was the wreckage of the enemy suit.

"Hey Miss. You have to be more careful." It was Duo.

"Maxwell?" Luna asked just to confirm that it was him.

"Yeah. Listen, these suits are not piloted by naturals or coordinators. Their reaction time is to fast to shoot them down from a distance. Who have to engage them in a close quarter combat where their judgment is slower."

"What?" Luna said more to herself then to Dou.

Dou did not answer. Luna watched in awe as Dou engaged the enemy suits. He moved to the left, to the right, dodging weapon's fire, till he got one of them in rage. Then he would destroy it. He was obviously skilled. She was having a hard time just staying alive. But he made killing them look easy.

A familiar looking mobile suit came to her side. The pilot obviously angry at her. "Luna! What are you doing?" Shinn yelled on the radio. "If you stay put you will die!"

Luna finally gained back her senses. Giving Shinn a confirmation she pulled her suit back into position. "I'm okay now Shinn."

Shinn felt relieved over her. She did mean a lot to him. In the corner of his eye, he could see a suit coming at them.

Pushing Luna aside, he lined up his targeting computer and fired at the incoming mobile suit. But just like Luna before, he missed.

Shinn scrambled to activate his beam sword, but it was to late. The enemy suit was right in front of him. Close. Really close. Shinn felt like he could almost touch it.

Then in the blink of an eye, the enemy suit vanished. A red, white, and yellow cotton ball, consumed the suit. Dematerializeing it, sending pieces of the enemy in all directions. And all that was left was a orange and white suit, floating in a combat stance. And as if it did not care about Shinn, it flew off, destroying all enemy suits it came in contact with.

Luna returned to her former state of amazement; this time with Shinn as her companion. They just watched as the Astray sliced up it's enemies as if they were nothing but play toys for it. Like a champion black belt, taking on the worst of the white belts.

"You sure know how to pick them Shinn." Luna called him in. He did not answer, but she saw the grim expression on the screen. "That's Maxwell. The pilot you brought with you."

Shinn just watched as the man did things in the Astray that he could only do in his gundam. But it wasn't long until his attention was taken away, and forced to watch as all the escape pods from the plant jettisoned, leaving the plant lifeless.

The enemy mobile suit's did not pursue, or attempt any hostile actions to the retreating human containment vessels. Instead, they flew by, and occupied the plant.

Duo came in over the intercom. "Look. I don't mean to be a bother, but I think you should call in a retreat. We lost the battle, with way more casualties then expected. I doubt we have the strength to continue fighting. I know this sounds bad but we better be glad that they are giving us a chance to live."

Shinn looked at the readouts of the battle. Right now, they seemed to be at a stand still. The enemy taking control of the plant, they got what it came for, and appeared to be in a defensive formation.

Shinn read the battle details. He had lost 60 of his forces. They were wipped out within fifteen minutes. But the enemy had only 23 confirmed losses. 6 by himself, but 14 by the mobile suit that is currently designated to Duo Maxwell.

Shinn cursed before signaling a retreat. His forces along with the civilian carriers were allowed to leave without any resistance. As he left he could see large combat ship's with hundreds of the new enemy mobile suits make their way to White Base. Not making any radio contact, Shinn lead the way to the nearest friendly plant.

There was a lot of commotion within the plant now. Not a mass panic, nor chaos. Business were closed, while nearly the entire populous of the plant, went to the aid of the incoming White Base citizens. This small civilian Orb plant, quickly and happy to take in the refugees.

Among them, one boy did not contribute to the panic. A new citizen of this plant, he payed little attention to the incoming survivors. They were fine, and they will be fine. They had no need for his assistance.

He wore a blue shirt, tucked into his blue jeans. Long brown hair jetted out forward of his face. He had a brown leather jacket, hanging over his shoulder, where two fingers from his hand kept it from falling. Using his free hand, he flicked the obsolete, chard end of his cigarette into the artificial air. Smoking, a habit which he had picked up recently.

Not a citizen of this colony, or plant, by birth. Nor a coordinator. But he was a young man, unsure of his future, unsure of his present, and once was unsure of his past. He made his way to his home for the past five years. The place he had spent, waiting for his character to ounce again, be played in a new drama.

His home, a run down storage building. Or it would seem. The contents of his house hold where to be of the highest secret. His secret, and a friends secret. Very few knew of what was there, just like very few knew that he was there. Just a front, to hide suspicion.

Sitting down, he started up his computer. His past self's ability to acquire the most secret information was brought back up inside him. Soon he was hacking both the Earth Alliance and the Zaft main mainframes

"Mobile dolls." He confirmed his hypothesis as correct. Black and devilish, the weapons of choice, by his former enemy had followed him. He did not know what was going on, but he had to learn. He had to find out the truth of the matter.

Thoughts raced through out the man's mind. Thoughts of the past, his time in war. His time in the circus. The people he cared about, the people he fought with. And the people he killed. His former self, five years ago would not think of such things. Perhaps he was getting soft.

Terminating his connections, making sure he could not be traced, he shut of his computer. He left for the other end of the storage building. A large room. Size of an airplane hanger, for it once was.

Two small shuttles lay dormant there. Not having moved since they first sat there. It was easy to sneak them in, due to the reconstruction the plant was under, when he first arrived. Apparently, not long before he came here the plant took major damage, resulting in a large section being cut off of itself. Not just this plant, but many plants in the area.

He moved to one of the shuttles, his shuttle. The other he was temporarily holding for his good friend Duo, who had no place to hide it. Because of the commotion outside, getting the shuttle out would be easy. Easy for himself that is.

The shuttle was ready. It always was. He keeping it and it's cargo in top shape was something he did to pass the time. Using an in-house crane, he loaded the shuttle with the large ammunition that he would need.

Most importantly he checked up on the cargo. Loading the ammunition into it, he made sure the green suit would function. The 'unworldy' metal, for this world, that armored the advanced suit fit perfectly. A masterful restoration to the suit of the people.

Not long till the man was one his way. He did not know what he could do, or what he would do, but he had to do something. He was a patient man, but he preferred to be patient near the problem rather then being patient hours away. That patience never helped solve anything.

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