MOBILE
SUIT GUNDAM SEED: A BLOODY DAWN
Chapter 2
"I'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR SHEHARA YOU BASTARD!" I screamed at the top of my lungs over the com. I prayed he could hear my lust for vengeance. I wanted him to tremble at the thought of his death before I laid into him with the final blow. It all seems so long ago. The last time I saw her, the first time I fought him. It's just a fading memory now. But it's strange how such things come rushing to the surface in times like these.
I could hear him over the com. He was going to make me pay? No, I had simply evened the score. What he did to me could never be forgiven. This fool who had scarred me in such a way. I can't stop feeling this pain, like burning flesh it consumes my senses. It refuses to leave me. I will make him suffer. There is no way he can be absolved of his sins. " Your death belongs to me DEMON OF JUNIUS!!!!! ADEL LEAD! I WILL NOT LET YOU ESCAPE ME!!!"
That damn bastard, I'd heard the stories; I remember what you did to those people on Junius. How dare you think you're better then me. You're a killer too, don't you dare make it sound like I'm the only one to ever rob someone of their life. I wanted to say it all, I wanted to tell him just how much of a monster he was. I couldn't though, my Saber tore into his mobile suit but I slipped. I would never get to tell him what I wanted to say. The warning alarms in my cockpit wouldn't shut up, I never imaged I'd die like this, in a cold vacuum. How could I have allowed HIM to beat me? I was too good to die a death along side this miserable human being, wasn't I? I don't remember anymore. My soul was tainted by this terrible war just as much as his I suppose.
My breathing was shallow, I suppose it's irony that the last thing I saw was the beginning of my life. I hated my childhood, being raised in ORB; everyone said ORB accepts Naturals and Coordinators but that was crap. It was mostly Coordinators like myself, but not every Natural there was friendly. Depending on where you lived it was terrible - the kind of treatment we received. I never understood why my parents didn't just live in an Alliance country if they wanted such crappy treatment. I never could figure the two of them out, always so stupid. Those idiots even moved to Junius Seven.
I thank god everyday I was sent off to military school on the PLANTS or I'd have died with them. Children were supposed to love their parents, and respect them but not me. I couldn't stand them. I hated every single thing they ever did because it often just made life harder for us. They made me a COORDINATOR so now kids could laugh at me. They sent me to all the best shcools so kids could pick on me. When I finally developed a back bone they were affraid of me. I hated them for what they did.
I never regretted their death, there was nothing painful about it. When they both died in that nuke I was thrilled but I was sad. Not for them but for the friends I had on Junius. It was the first place I'd ever known people who accepted me. It was painful to watch the news, and they just aired it over and over each time it stole even more of my heart and soul. What was even more painful though was to relive the events that turned me into a monster. I admit I was a murdering bastard. I watched men drop from the sky, in my DiNN. I circled the battlefeild like a vulture in my DINN unit. I picked apart my enemies with a merciless hatred.
I was a man who cursed both friend and foe, a black winged messenger of death. I was an ace, unstopable no one could beat me. No one except him, I remember when I first met him, how I can still taste the humiliation I suffered that day. Operation Spit Break, it was to change our fortunes. No longer would our war be a constant stalemate. No longer would I have to stand by and watch good men die for a cause that seemed hopeless. It was the moment our fortunes would change, we'd defeat the naturals. Victory was a word that never left our minds back then, it was inescapable. It encompassed the fiber of our being. Oh yes, I remember it all too well.
"Are you ready Yuki?" He smiled at me over the com, I could tell he was nervous about his first mission. I remembered a time when I used to have that same nauseous look on my face before battle. But after hearing the screams it slowly erodes away your humanity. Little by little, you stop feeling the regret. They say killing should never become common place but it does. When you had to do it for as long as I had to, it was nothing new. It was like a business man enduring another day at the office.
"Yeah...I guess...I just have a bad feeling." There was so much uncertainty in those eyes of his. He wanted me to reassure him. I couldn't say why, there was nothing but confidence in my eyes. I wondered why he was so scared but I just shrugged it off, he was a newbie after all. He'd never had to face down gun fire even if it was ineffective and often miss placed. Though I guess I could understand his worries even more then just on the surface. Thinking about there were a lot of officers stationed at JOSH-A. They had the new Legged Ship there according to intelligence from the Crueset Team.
I smiled at him, and let out something of a sigh before I began to laugh for some reason. I guess it was the beginnings of insanity. I didn't have a real reason I just laughed, from what I could see through squinted eyes Yuki was gazing at me strangely from inside his mobile suit. " Sorry Yuki, but you need to lighten up. This mission will be fine. Nothing's going to happen to you. Remember you're going to be fighting with ZAFT's best." At those words I saw him nod enthusiastically, apparently I'd lifted his spirits because he no longer had that rookie smile on his face. Now he was like stone, a true soldier if I ever saw one.
The announcement came then, a general broadcast to all forces. Patrick Zala had kept the target for Spit Break a secret, though if you had half a brain it was an easy guess. There was no real strategic value to Panama other then another mass driver, but a mass driver didn't give the opportunity to end the war like an assault on JOSH-A. It was the best target and with forces building in Panama it was clear the objective was JOSH-A. Why had people gasped in surprise? Well, who the hell could figure any of them out? After Zala's announcement the red lights went on. All pilots were to ready themselves and their mobile suits for drop from the MS carrier. The units waited their mono-eye's glowing impatiently with eagerness.
"Good luck commander Bernett." I smiled at the kid, he wasn't that bad: a nice kinda guy. It would be a shame if he didn't make it. Despite the fact he was maybe a little too nice he wasn't that bad. He could be made into a find subordinate. Of course there wasn't time for the musings I was going over in my head. I had only three minutes to drop. I didn't bother to wish Yuki luck I just cut off his com signal: I needed to prepare. I was never a believer in that crap anyway. Luck was something to be made and dammit if I wasn't good at that.
Sitting in my DINN I couldn't keep from smiling. The black, and red unit was waiting for another taste of vengeance. It was a winged Cyclops ready to decimate all who stood before it. When the transport hit the atmosphere we were released from out moorings. The heart shield shuddered violently beneath my suit as we whipped into the atmosphere. The burning heat shield beneath now beginning to break up, rocking the suit with violently shakes. It was like sitting through an earthquake in a lawn chair. Finally we dove into the clear blue yonder, the heat shield bursting from beneath my unit.
Everything shook as my DINN transformed into flight move. The metallic wings spreading from it's back, the assault rifle on the right hip ejecting from it's holster into the right hand. I was ready to fight and when I saw the first gun emplacements I fired. Like a blazing angel of death I showered my foes with burning death. Tracer rounds ripping into gun emplacements and trucks ripping up pieces of Earth and scattering them into the air. I felt like a winged Cyclops ruling over all I could see with an iron fist. I suppose it was so much easier to enjoy the idea of taking a persons life when it was given poetic licensee. Making my enemy less human made it easier, I could squeeze the trigger without regret or concern. Death can't eat away at the soul when it's poetic. At least that's what I tried to tell myself. I really wasn't sure if it was true or not.
It was an amazing feeling, the idea that I was flying, the monitors making my work deceptive, as if I were flying without aid. It was a beautiful feeling but all things that are beautiful die with time. It's a harsh lesson war teaches but one I had so far learned well, beauty doesn't last, death is absolute. Soon though I'd shed these military coils, and become a civilian again. Free to oogle Ms. Clyne like the rest of my civilian comrades. Free to listen to music and stay up all hours of the night without worrying about the stray shot that could kill me.
Slowly I slipped open my visor my oxygen feed dying as my suit's own vitals switched off. The mobile suit pressurizing my cockpit, and feeding me air now. Just another drain on the battery though. We were advised to never remove our helmets during battle. It was easier to just work off power from the pilot suit, saving our units battery for more important things. No one though really expected this fight to last as long as it did. Even after an hour the base was standing. It was just too much, the Earth Alliance had prepared their defenses well.
I did my job though, pressing the red trigger on my suits right arm control's. I never took it off until I felt the shock, and buck of the assault rifle. Only when the last round was expelled did my finger leave the trigger, my movements swift as I pulled another clip and locked it into place. Once again my finger descended onto the trigger and caused the suit to jump back a step. Pressing my foot harshly down on the units thruster pedals I took off over the water. I wanted to pick on some of the ships foolish enough to try and stop us.
I fired again, three of my tracer rounds ripping into the sides of an EA battleship. The explosion made a great splash, the rumble sounding like thunder in a distant sky and the wave crashing against the cost of Alaska with a thunderous slam. From my position in the air I could see the EA officers running from the wave. I just laughed again and moved to the next target finding what looked like a shallow sub in the water. Apparently a GOOhN team had already gotten there though. The splashes from beneath the waves confirmation of the impending Sub's doom.
However my keen eyes spotted three explosions only a moment later. There was no way a Sub could have made such explosions and still kept moving. I had to find out what was going on and quickly. I wasn't about to let the Alliance cowards escape. Besides that sub could have had the Alliance's head council members, so I wasted no time. My foot stomping on the thruster pedal once again. Quickly I took off like a bolt of lightning. to where I last spotted the sub beneath the waves. With a towering wall of water the sub surfaced though I didn't know why, that was until I saw the damage to the Starboard side.
The hole was pretty sizable if they tried to dive they'd be going under for good. How it even managed to float with a wound like that was beyond me. But I didn't care I decided to make my run, I wouldn't allow them to escape! Blindly I went charging forth I beginning to fire at wildly at the heaping mass before me. Each round impacting and ripping into the sub's hull. It couldn't dive it would just sink. It had to stay there and take my punishment there would be no recourse for them now. It was done for as I moved in for the kill it all seemed just too easy. "Add another ship to my total...WHAT THE HELL!?"
Suddenly, I felt my unit shake sparks flying from the units right arm which was sheared off the explosion knocking me away sparks flying from my controls briefly as I surveyed the damage. I must have been careless, the subs flack guns must have struck me. Then however I actually surveyed the damage pieces of my rifle and arm falling into the Ocean below. The splash and waves which moved in all directions a reminder that I was somehow damaged. It was like the Ocean itself was taunting my carelessness. Turning my suit instantly I narrowly and accidentally avoided a slash from something. I had never seen such a weapon like that before. It was like a GINN's sword but it wasn't solid, or edged I had absolutely no idea what this weapon was however I knew for sure I had to avoid the hell out of it. That's when I noticed the unit that was swinging the weapon. It was white and blue, two antennas in the shape of a "V" dawned it's forehead. It had to be the White Mobile suit the Crueset team had such trouble with. It was staring me down it's blue visor peering at me the sparks still flying from my units wounded arm. Pulling the anti-air shotgun from it's "holster" built into the side skirt plating I began to fire at it. Each spray of buck shot dodged in a clumsy and pathetic fashion.
I couldn't help but wonder how a team like Crueset's a collection of "aces" could be defeated but such a terrible pilot. He may have clipped my arm off in a careless swipe but I would not be defeated. He was given the honor of my full attention now and I wouldn't let him escape. Charging at him, I fired again of course he dodged and quickly moved above me and to my left. He was running like a coward with Each shot I fired making note of just how many rounds were left int he shotgun. With only one arm reloading would be nearly impossible. I had to take him down with what I had available to me. I fired again and he evaded once more, my enemy finally showing so initiative and firing a machine gun held in his suits right hand at me. The rounds moving by my left as I pulled hard to evade them though I was still charging at him. I fired again, this time I clipped his suit, the sparks as the rounds ripped into the armor, and the additional sparks as the units right leg began to shoot flames from it's knee joint. There was no place for him to land now, He would die in the air, he would die by my fire.
I charged forth again, I was eager to finish the job, tired of all this pathetic running on his part. He wasn't prepared I could tell by the fact he was sluggish to dodge again. His will to survive had clearly kicked in as he refused to go quietly into the darkness. Fighting was all well and good but no one who handled a mobile suit that badly deserved to live. Again I charged I holding my fire just long enough for him to make the first move. That's when I pulled the trigger and I saw that sword brandishing arm go flying off the mobile suit. The blade disappearing as it fell from the sky and plopped into the ocean. I was laughing now, this fool who tried to stop me was at my mercy. Everything was proceeding as it should I would use the last round in the shotgun to end his miserable life, it was too easy. The sub below me was a sitting duck, when I dispatched of this moron it would be next. I'd be a true hero for this, taking out the unit which caused Crueset's team such horrors and at the same time capture an Alliance sub filled with the highest ranking military officers.
I was about to charge at him again, the pilot of the white mobile suit was doing his best to avoid me now but he had no chance. Nothing would stop me from blowing a hole in his cockpit. All the dodging he was doing now was just trying to save his pathetic life. I finally got him, he was slow to react again, his skills just weren't enough the barrel of my weapon just a few feet from his cockpit. My finger rapidly moving to push the trigger when something unexpected happened. My unit was rocked by another explosion. It wasn't the suit in front of me either a pink flash had rocketed by my suit, and now it was shaking. The warning alarms sounding throughout my cockpit I'd just lost both my suits arms. Turning the unit rapidly I spied a new mobile suit on the field. My targeting computer letting me know the trajectory of the shots. It was another white mobile suit only this one had wings. I'd never known there were two of these things before. "WHAT IN THE HELL IS THAT MONSTER!?"
Suddenly my com filled with cries for help, and then they were muted. The pilot of that white and black mobile suit, he was telling us to pull back. I listened to his message intently but I didn't believe a thing he said. There were no way the Naturals head any kind of weapon that could stop is. It sounded like bullshit to me, I didn't believe a word from this bastard. He shot at my comrades he stole my kill. He must have been working for the Earth Alliance, it had to be a cheap trick to get us to retreat. I moved to charge at the new mobile suit but suddenly my cockpit's warning alarm was flashing again. The world was spinning, and I felt gravity pulling me into my cockpit's seat. The blood violently being ripped to the bottom of my body the suit I was wearing just barely keeping me conscious for my decent. Out of reflex my hand reached for the distress beacon. My unit broadcasting a signal for rescue to any who were listening. A ZnO unit had picked up my signal but I still had no idea what was going on. I just know I was falling, and then I was sinking into the dark ocean. It was the first time in my life I experienced true fear, it made me sick.
I didn't know such a feeling existed that could be so intense as to freeze every muscle in my body all at once. But it did, The next thing I know the ZnO had latched onto my suit. "HOLY SHIT YOU'RE THE BLOODY RAVEN!? I guess not even the likes of you can take on that new Alliance monster!" That pissed me off, I could understand giving credit where it was due but that bastard didn't get me. I was looking right at him, he never even noticed that I was coming for him. He'd be dead right now if someone hadn't taken me down.
"I wasn't shot down by that bastard it was that other mobile suit! The white and blue one!" The pilot of the ZnO looked confused, apparently he didn't see the white and blue mobile suit. How he could have missed it though was beyond me. It was right there flying in the sky only a second ago. Before he could respond that I was crazy I switched frequencies, allowing him to tow me away in silence. That's when I heard the conversation that really pissed me off.
"Congratulations Lt. Lead. Your first mobile suit kill was a true ZAFT Ace!" It was a women's voice, she was too excited, especially since I wasn't dead. I now though had a new target, who ever the hell this man was. He had defeated me, and I would do whatever it took to make him pay for that. I continued to listen hoping to hear more about this mystery man who managed to shoot me down. After all the bastard had managed to cheap shot his way to a victory. I at least deserved some knowledge of the pathetic coward who defeated me this day.
"No, save it, let's just get the hell out of here before the Cyclops detonates." That's when my eyes widened and I felt the shock wave. Fortunately we were far enough away from the mainland to be spared the full brunt of the explosion. Everything shook, within seconds I could feel a violent force pushing against my mobile suit. The pressure of the explosion causing the cockpit screens to crack. Finally as the shaking intensified they broke. Those shards moving swiftly towards my face. I closed my eyes and prayed but it was all in vein.
When I awoke it was in the infirmary a young girl was tending to my wounds. A hand moving to my face pressing into my new scars. The blood increasing as the white gauss began to turn a dark red. From the corner of my eyes I saw the nurse rushing over her hand grasping at my wrist, pulling my fingers from the white strips which covered my new scars. " Sir, you can't pick at your wounds. If you do that they'll continue to bleed." I just smiled at her and forcefully pulled away from her grasp. Fingers again digging into the bandages sending jolts of pain to my brain, but I continued to do it. The bandages continuing to darken in their color. The Nurse gasping in horror as I continued to play with the wounds on my face.
I remember stopping briefly and smiling sickly at the girl who appeared so frightened by my behavior "Is this my blood?" That was all I managed to get out before I went back to probing at my wounds methodically. I wanted those scars to stay fresh, they could never heal and fade away. So long as the blood of my enemy still ran so too would the blood of these scars. I'd pay him for turning me into an ugly monster, his debt to me, would be repaid through his suffering. I would make him suffer, I would have some small semblance of my revenge. When I met her there, at Panama she was pure, untouched by the world. A naive girl forced to fight in a war for a cause she didn't believe in. She was pure oh yes, but I would change that. She would no longer be untainted after I met her. Purity was a virtue of the innocent, but no one was an innocent in my eyes any longer.