Chapter 20: Nuclear Retribution
Duo yawned in exhaustion as he entered Heero's room almost a week later.
The door closed behind him as he went for the lights, only to be slammed back against the door with a hand tightly clamped around his throat.
"It's… good to see you're awake…" He managed to choke out. The hand released him and he gasped for air as Heero turned on the lights.
"Where am I? What happened?" Heero snapped.
Duo held his hand up telling Heero to wait until he caught his breath. He massaged his neck while muttering curses under his breath. "Man, did you have to choke me that hard?"
"Considering I didn't know where I was, I had to take precautions." Heero replied coolly.
Duo sighed. "Unfortunately, you're among friends now. You're back on the Archangel whether you like it or not."
Heero looked away as Duo leaned against the bunk opposite his.
"By the way, what the hell were you thinking when you decided against your own words and use the ZERO System?" Duo snapped as irritation began to take over.
Heero glanced at him with a flicker of confusion, which quickly vanished as the memories leading up to him slipping into unconsciousness returned. "I had never revealed the twin buster rifle's power to the Co-ordinators. The size and destructive force of the blasts it fires at even half of its power would have been a dead giveaway that the Wing Zero was powered by a nuclear reactor. When those Earth Forces attacked, I had no choice but to fight close ranged to avoid raising suspicion."
"You were on the edge of their radar range, why didn't you just pull the fight out of it?" Duo questioned in confusion.
"Unsurprisingly, despite all I've done to gain their trust, they forbade me from taking a battle out of the range of the Plants radar system if one should occur." Heero said with cold amusement. "As for killing them before they reached radar range and lying about it, that was a no-go either. They have energy sensors that would have detected the discharge of the twin buster rifle as soon as I fired it."
Duo whistled. "So your hands really were tied on using the twin buster rifle, eh? But around a hundred mass-produced piles of junk should be no problem for you without activating the ZERO System, shouldn't they have?" He asked curiously.
"There were far more than the debris implied. I had no choice but to activate the system. Around a hundred of them were all I was able to bring down before the others retreated. It's a good thing they did, as I assume you're already aware by now, the ZERO System appeared to be functioning normally, to a point. However, it was also malfunctioning."
"I know. I was stupid enough to check it out after you mentioned it in your sleep."
"For a while there, I almost thought you were smart. You've just proven me wrong." Heero said with a slight smile.
"Hey!" Duo muttered insults under his breath for a few moments before a sly grin appeared on his face. "You know… when we came along, your Gundam left the radar range of its own accord."
Heero shot a dangerous look at him, realizing what Duo had done, and what he was implying. "I should shoot you right now."
Duo laughed. "With what? We don't bring our guns into the room, and your guns are stashed away in case the ZERO System's malfunction caused you to go insane. Fortunately, your sanity seems to be in tact… what little you had at least."
Heero rolled his eyes. "Just catch me up on what's been happening. Any word on what that 'key' was?"
Duo shook his head as he launched into an explanation that started from when they found the Wing Zero in space and went up to the point when he walked into Heero's room.
With no alternatives at his disposal, Heero decided to stay with the Three Ships Alliance. With the combined might of the A.C. universe Gundams and the Freedom and the Justice as their primary force, the Three Ships Alliance was confident that they could end the war with as little violence as possible… that was until the Earth Forces attacked the fortress Boaz, ZAFT's first line of defence.
The neutral forces listened to reports sent to them by Clyne Faction supporters in the Plants with great concern as the Earth Forces made their move. When the reports first started coming in, there was great confusion around the neutral forces. Boaz was next to impossible to defeat in a head on assault, yet here the Earth Forces were attacking something they knew would end up being a suicide mission.
Then the news came in: Boaz was annihilated. The Earth Forces had their nuclear arsenal back at their disposal and they had made it clear with Boaz that they had every intention of using it.
"That'd probably be thanks to that Azrael asshole." Duo growled angrily when they heard as they stood gathered on the Archangel's bridge.
"What should we do?" Murrue asked the screens that held the grim faces of Kisaka with Cagalli and Andrew with Lacus.
"Their next target will be the Plants. We must stop them at all costs. We're moving out!" Andrew growled.
The others nodded in agreement just as news came in that the Earth Forces were heading towards the Plants.
"We're going too, Captain Ramius." Trowa said as all the pilots of the Three Ships Alliance made their way to their mobile suits.
The Freedom and the Justice, with the aid of the METEOR attachments, prevented the first barrage of nuclear missiles from hitting the Plants.
The rest of the mobile suits caught up in time to help stop the next wave.
"Heero, are you going to use-?" Duo's question was cut off as the tip of the twin buster rifle erupted, followed by several massive explosions as the beam destroyed the majority of the second wave.
With no time to stare in shock at its destructive power, the others quickly went to work on destroying the ones that were fired late and missed the rifle's blast.
"Good one, Heero. I was worried you were going to keep holding back on us." Duo said as the Deathscythe Hell and the Sandrock took aim at the mobile armours that were firing the nuclear missiles.
"There's no reason to. You're already fully aware that the Wing Zero is nuclear-powered and the capabilities of the twin buster rifle, so why make our job any harder?" The others chuckled weakly at his words.
Kira had been watching and was secretly thankful that Heero had decided to fight fair and not use that rifle in their fight… or else he knew he wouldn't be here for this battle. He still held some animosity towards the older pilot, but knew that the battlefield was no place for personal grudges… especially when nuclear missiles were involved.
After the second wave was destroyed, Yzak stared at the Wing Zero as he realized that his suspicions about the 'new recruit' were true. "Damn him…" Yzak muttered as an evacuation warning began to flash on his screen. He stared at it in shock for a few moments before screaming at the Three Ship Alliance's mobile suits and ships to flee the battlefield.
ZAFT and the neutral forces were barely out of the way when a massive beam was fired from the Co-ordinator's secret weapon: GENESIS.
The beam annihilated almost all of the Earth Forces' army that had been sent out against the Plants. Those who were missed by the GENESIS could only stare in awe and horror at the power it had.
Both the Earth Forces and the Three Ships Alliance began to retreat as they listened to a sickening speech being made by the chairman of the Plants, Patrick Zala.
When they found shelter, everyone gathered on the Eternal except those who were overseeing the mobile suits. From the grim discussions about what the GENESIS was, came a mutual agreement that both sides had to be stopped from annihilating each other before the Earth was completely void of life.
"It may not be our Earth, but it's still Earth. We're not going to let that weapon destroy it. And we refuse to see any more innocents die. We've watched it too often in both our universe and this one to let it keep going. We'll fight with you to the very end." Quatre said with strong determination that was reflected in his fellow pilot's expressions.
Lacus and Murrue nodded before Miriallia notified them that the Earth Forces had begun towards Jachin Due, the second fortress of the Plants and where the GENESIS was.
Everyone began to head back to their respective ships in order to prepare to intervene before any more destruction could be wrought by both sides. Not knowing if they'd make it back alive, everyone from the C.E. universe said their goodbyes to those they cared for.
The A.C. pilots immediately took off from the Archangel and stood as an advanced guard for the Three Ships as they waited for the 'go ahead' order from the Eternal.
Once it was given, the Three Ships Alliance began towards the ensuing battle between ZAFT and the Earth Forces, hoping to end the slaughter before it truly began…
Author's Note: Sorry it's so short, but at this point I think I was just in a rush to get this story done. Hope you enjoy it.