Kira x Murrue fanfic continuation - Chapter 13
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, or Gundam 00, so please point that damned lawsuit cannon at someone else!
Two years had passed since the Third Bloody Valentine War had begun, the Earth was in ruins and most of the PLANTs had been destroyed.
Suddenly, inside the debris belt around Earth, two bright flashes of light lit up the blackenss, as a pair of ships entered the universe.
The lead vessel had the appearance of a ship of legend, one of the three legendary ships which had helped to put an end to the first two Bloody Valentine Wars; the Archangel, although this ship shared the design and colors of the original battleship Archangel, this one was much more heavily armed and was known as the Archangel II. To the left of the Archangel was a sleek and fast looking ship, one which anyone in the ZAFT military would instantly reconigize it as a Prometheus-class vessel, but this one, having been built by Celestial Being, had been given the name; Ptolemiaos III.
"Conn, sensors, we're inside the debris belt! Massive object to starboard, closing fast!" Meyrin shouted on the bridge of the Archangel.
"Kira, get us clear!" Murrue ordered as she got a look at the object. "Is that the underside of Junius Seven?" She asked, seeing and immediately recognizing the underside of half of a PLANT colony.
"Roger that," Kira acknowledged as he hammered the throttles to the max to get the Archangel clear of the approaching continent of a colony. "We're going to make it by a fair margin," Kira declared when he compared the rapidly-building speed of the Archangel to the approaching colony section.
"That is moving way too rapidly to be in orbit," Shinn said after running some quick numbers through the computer. "And in the wrong direction."
"Conn, sensors, object is on definite collision path to Earth," Meyrin said with a quivering voice.
"Captain, that is not Junius Seven!" Meyrin said, watching the half of the PLANT in question fall toward the planet. "Junius Seven is dead ahead of us!" Murrue looked forward and confirmed that Meyrin was right. The half of a PLANT behind the Archangel was not from the same PLANT as the one in front of her.
"Where the hell are we?" Murrue asked nobody in particular.
"Oh my God," Meyrin gasped, watching the half of a PLANT begin entry of the Earth's atmosphere. "Captain, can't we break it up?"
"Yes, we can break it up with our new torpedos, load all missile tubes with the Vega Destroyer."
Everyone quickly began to carry out their orders and a moment later, Meyrin replied. "All missile tubes are loaded with Vega Destroyers and are ready to fire."
Murrue nodded as she replied. "Fire at will."
An instant later, a single brightly glowing ball of lime green energy shot out of the Archangel's bow mounted missile launcher. The weapon was only about one meter in diameter, but despite its small size, it packed a truly devastaing punch, which became obvious a few seconds later when the brightly glowing ball slammed into the surface of the ruined PLANT, engulfing the entire structure in a massive, white-hot fireball.
The light from the explosion was so bright that the autopolarizing windows of the Archangel and the Ptolemiaos tinted to a deep black . "Helm, take us forward to the Junius remains. Meyrin, see if you can hear anyone out there."
"No, Captain, I can't," Meyrin replied. "Why did this happen?"
"Looks like we made it back, all right, just well after someone ended the war for us." Kira noted sourly.
"Captain, look at the planet; where North America is supposed to be." Shinn requested.
"Oh, my God," Murrue gasped. Where North America had been, there was now a very large crater, or at least what they could see of it. The atmosphere was hazy from dust particles in the upper reaches. "There's...nothing left..."
The destruction was not limited to just North America, though: South America had at least one impact zone and part of Brazil appeared to be flooded; an impact in Central America had erased everything south of Mexico and north of Peru off the map, replacing it with a water-filled crater.
Africa could just be barely seen from all the dust particles in the air, but what they saw looked like it had escaped damage for the time being. Asia would be the next to be seen, and Murrue had the feeling that she would not like what she saw.
"When the PLANTs hit, they are capable of rearranging the face of the world." Shinn said.
Suddenly Meyrin shouted. "Captain, we have a massive ship coming in from out port side! I don't believe this, it's the Executer!"
"How did that thing survive all of this destruction?" Murrue asked, but the only answer that she recived was the slight shuddering of the Archangel as the Executer opened fire with its weapons.
Murrue sighed, she didn't want to face that thing again. "Let's show them that even though this looks like the old Archangel, that it's much tougher, load all missile tubes with the Vega Destroyer!"
Everyone on the bridge stared at Murrue for a few seconds, the Vega Destroyer torpedos were capable of completely obliterating an entire PLANT with only one projectile, and they were hardly appropiate for use against a single ship.
Murrue noticed the hesitation of her crew and she shouted, tears floating away from her eyes. "HAVE YOU ALL FORGOTTEN HOW MANY OF OUR ALLIES THAT DAMNED SHIP HAS KILLED?!?"
Everyone shook their heads as they quickly began to carry out their orders and a moment later, Meyrin replied. "All missile tubes are loaded with Vega Destroyers and are ready to fire."
Murrue let a grim smile cross her face as she spoke, her voice barely above a whisper. "Fire at will, send that ship to hell."
An instant later, a single brightly glowing ball of lime green energy shot out of the Archangel's port side missile launcher. This torpedeo, like the one which had been fired earlier to destroy the PLANT and prevent it from entering the athmosphere, was only about one meter in diameter, but despite its small size, it packed a truly devastaing punch as the crew of the Executer found out a few seconds later.
The Executer activated its positron shields, but to the shock and horror of everyone on the ship, the brightly glowing weapon went through them as though they weren't even there. A fraction of a second later, the brightly glowing ball slammed into the hull of the Executer, engulfing the entire ship in a massive, white-hot fireball.
The light from the explosion was so bright that the autopolarizing windows of both ships once again tinted to a deep black.
Murrue sighed as she then floated out of her chair. "I'm going to launch, Meyrin, you have the bridge."
"Yes, Ma'am." Meyrin replied as the door hissed open and Murrue floated out of the bridge, heading towards the hanger.
A few minutes later, Murrue floated into the hanger and quickly went to the cockpit of the modified Strike Freedom Gundam.
As the Strike Freedom powered up, Murrue noticed a communications request from Kira, and she sighed under her breath as she opened the comm line.
Kira was instantly speaking. "Murrue, please don't launch."
Kira paused for a moment and when he saw that Murrue wasn't goinig to listen to reason, he let out a sigh and quietly asked. "We have three children now, if we both end up launching and something should happen to us, who will take care of them?"
Murrue thought for a moment, but before she could reply, Kira spoke again. "If you do launch, I will disable your machine and tow you back here."
Murrue sighed as she reluctantly powered down the Strike Freedom and once again headed towards the bridge.
Five minutes later, Kira was keeping one eye on the Forbidden Gundam and the Raider Gundam, while keeping the other eye on the Calamity Gundam, the three machines had been rebuilt by the Earth Alliance and upgraded with new technologies, in addition they could now be piloted by Naturals.
Kira gritted his teeth and switched Freedom-Raiser to Hi-Mat mode, sweeping in towards the surface of the ruined PLANT like a comet, setting the beam rifle on his Gundam's lower back and raising his physical shield, just in time to block a beam blast fired from Calamity.
Freedom-Raiser dodged just as Calamity fired its chest mounted cannon and the beam blast obliterated the ruined remains of a skyscraper. The Forbidden, which had now been targeted by Kira, began to fire its beam rifle wildly, trying to get a bead on the fast-moving Gundam, and missing terribly.
As Kira streaked towards the Forbidden with a beam saber in his left hand, a column of bright golden light suddenly engulfed the Calamity. Due to the nature of the beam weapon that had engulfed it, the Calamity simply changed states, moving from solid to plasma instantly. The golden beam continued, cutting a path of cleared space that stretched for nearly three hundred miles. The golden beam dissipated only twenty miles from the reletively lightly damaged Goddard Colony, one of the few PLANTs which could still support its inhabititants.
All of the machines had stopped moving when the golden beam had suddenly sliced through the darkness and destroyed the Calamity Gundam.
On the bridge of the Archangel, Murrue watched in amazement as the Wing Gundam Zero streaked into the fight. As the pilots of the Raider and Forbidden recovered from their surprise, Wing Zero transformed from its flight mode to its mobile suit mode.
In a flash, Wing Zero had freed and ignited a beam saber from its left shoulder, taking the weapon into its right hand and slashing at the Raider. The Raider barely managed to dodge the beam saber slash, but it wasn't able to dodge the blast which erupted from Wing Zero's twin buster rifle an instant later.
Wing Zero then turned its attention to the Forbidden, which was now trying to retreat, but the Freedom-Raiser streaked in, aiming its beam rifle at the cockpit as Kira yelled. "Surrender now!!! This insanity has gone far enough!!!"
The pilot of the Forbidden chuckled slightly, clearly on the brink of insanity as he replied. "After the Clyne Faction vanished everything went to hell and in the end both sides lost. The war simply continued to escalate, it went from bad to worse to insane to apocalyptic. It ended about three days ago when both sides used their weapons of mass destruction on each other. I don't know how much of the PLANTs survived, but I don't think any of the inhabitants lived. Either way, a lot of the PLANTs are now headed for Earth in pieces. What the radiation from ZAFT's superweapon doesn't kill, the colony remnants will kill when they hit Earth."
The pilot of the Forbidden paused for a few short seconds, then he pulled a pistol from a compartment in the cockpit and as he put the gun to his head, he said. "Humanity has paid the price for their arrogance. None of us gave a shit about what was happening, and we're all dead because if it, if not now then within the next week. I only hope that I'll get a chance at seeing everyone who served in both of the two militaries in hell. At least that way I can beat the shit out of them daily for what they did. Humanity never...never...deserved this..."
Before Kira could open his mouth in an attempt to stop the man, he pulled the trigger splattering his brain matter and blood all over the interior of the cockpit.
"We have contacts dead ahead." Meyrin suddenly announced about an hour later.
"Classify them, please," Murrue requested.
"One colony, it appears to have been moved from L4, two ships of unknown class, four Earth Alliance ships of Drake and Nelson classes."
"Helm, continue on our current course." Murrue ordered. "All pilots to ready stations at this time, do not launch until combat is imminent."
"Incoming communications from the Earth Alliance ships," Meyrin declared.
"My screen," Murrue ordered before turning the volume up to be heard by the entire bridge crew.
"This is Captain Ikari of the Earth Alliance warship Manhattan, unidentified ship cease your advance and state your intentions immediately. If you fail to comply within one minute you will be fired upon. This is your only warning."
"Captain Ikari, this is Captain Murrue Ramius of the Celestial Being warship Archangel, we will cease advance immediately if you will explain what the present situation is, over," she replied as the ships closed enough to establish a visual link. "Reverse thrust, all stop."
"Archangel? That's impossible, the Archangel was sunk by the ZAFT warship Executer in the first few days of the war, and your silhouette is too large to be an Archangel-class ship, Captain. I repeat, identify yourself immediately or we will fire upon you."
As soon as Captain Ikari had finished repeating himself, the Ptolemiaos III suddenly faded into visibility and Sumeragi's voice cut through the comm lines. "Attention, Captain Ikari of the Earth Alliance warship Manhattan, this is Captain Sumeragi Lee Noriega of the Celestial Being warship Ptolemiaos III. If you open fire on the Archangel, you are the ones who will be destroyed."
Less then five seconds had passed before the Manhattan opened fire on the Ptolemiaos III with its beam cannons, the crew having reconigized the ship as a ZAFT design. However, the beam blasts which had been fired from the Manhattan slammed uselessly against the brightly glowing GN Field which was now surrounding the Ptolemiaos III.
Murrue let out an annoyed sigh as the Manhattan opened fire on the Ptolemiaos III. She quickly turned to Meyrin and ordered. "Meyrin, aim the Gottfrieds, target the bridge of the Manhattan and fire at will."
Meyrin nodded, quickly aiming the Gottfrieds at the Manhattan, but before they could fire, a hail of beam weapons suddenly peirced both of the Gottfrieds, causing them to explode.
"Where the hell did those beams come from?!?" Murrue yelled as the Archangel violently shook.
"Four mobile suits are approaching us from starboard!" Meyrin announced as she brought the image of the machines onto the main screen, and when she did everyone's jaw hit the floor.
The four machines which were approaching them were ones which everyone instantly reconigized; the ZGMF-X09A Justice Gundam, the ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam, the ZGMF-X19A Infinite Justice Gundam, and the ZGMF-X20A Strike Freedom Gundam.
The Strike Freedom launched its DRAGOONs with a flash and opened fire.
Kira growled as the Freedom-Raiser ignited its Wings of Light and slalomed through a wave of beam fire with a blur of afterimages. The Freedom squeezed off a handful of beam shots, as the Strike Freedom combined its rifles and fired. The Freedom-Raiser dodged again and stormed forward, but another burst of fire from the DRAGOONs stopped it.
Both the Freedom and the Strike Freedom fired a full burst, and Kira scowled as he twisted and turned the Freedom-Raiser through the hail of weapons fire, the Wings of Light leaving glowing afterimages in his wake.
The DRAGOONs flashed in again and Kira dove around them, watching the Freedom and Strike Freedom carefully. The Strike Freedom opened fire with another full burst, as the DRAGOONs swarmed around the Freedom-Raiser.
The Freedom fired its beam rifle, spearing the Freedom-Raiser's beam rifle and knocking the solid shield off its arm. Kira grunted in frustration, abandoning his beam rifle as it was torn apart by more of the Strike Freedom's DRAGOON fire.
The Freedom swept in with another full burst. Kira backpedaled against the attack and swerved to avoid a flashing net of beam fire. He grunted as beam blasts landed against the Freedom-Raiser's beam shields.
Suddenly, the Justice and Infinite Justice seemed to appear out of nowhere, both machines quickly lining up for a killing beam volley as the Freedom unleashed a full burst and the Strike Freedom's DRAGOONs swarmed around the Freedom-Raiser, but the Freedom-Raiser boosted up, dodging the blasts at the last second.
The Freedom-Raiser's eyes flashed with a golden light, as its own DRAGOONs lifted off and darted down below to pummel the four enemy Gundams with beam fire, forcing them behind their beam shields.
"They're afraid." Setsuna grunted, as the 00 Raiser launched from the Ptolemiaos III's starboard side launch bay, quickly ducking a Zaku's furious beam tomahawk swipe before then impaling it on his beam saber.
"As well they should be!" Shinn cackled as the Destiny launched from the Archangel's starboard side launch bay.
More beam rifle shots and missiles filled the blackness of space as Nena Trinity guided her Infinite Justice Gundam out of the Ptolemiaos III's port side launch bay, quickly moving towards a dozen desperate Jet Windams which had launched from the Manhattan. As she approached them, her eyes narrowed; she could sense fear, desperation and hatred.
The Infinite Justice lunged into the blackness, and an instant later, a wave of beams from the Destiny Gundam came plowing through, blowing two of the Windams out of the sky. The Infinite Justice stormed in and Nena plunged down with her beam blades active to tear another two Windams in half. The remaining Windams quickly backed away; Nena instead seized one of them with her Grapple Stinger anchor, swinging it towards its comrades, then she snapped up her beam rifle to spear the Windam on a beam shot, hitting a second machine through the smoking carcass of the first.
A burst of fire tore through the darkness, sending a Zaku spiraling out of control in smoldering pieces. Inside the 00 Raiser, Setsuna drew back his beam saber, eyes scanning the battlefield. The Celestial Being Gundams were making short work of the enemy forces. And down below, he could see the Manhattan driving forward, with a handful of mobile suits floating around it to augment its guns.
'If you're going to be our enemy,' he thought bitterly, 'then I'm not showing any mercy.'
The 00 Raiser blazed with a bright red light and took off with a flash, glowing afterimages illuminating the blackness as Setsuna brandished a beam saber and charged in. The mobile suits opened fire, filling the sky with beams and machinegun rounds, only to watch Setsuna effortlessly dive around their attacks. The ship answered with a volley from its main cannons, the 00 Raiser somersaulted over it, filling the blackness with afterimages and darting down onto its hull.
The first to attack was a Strike Dagger, beam saber held high, only for Setsuna to tear it in half with his sword, plowing through its wreckage. The Manhattan's starboard gun turned towards him, but the 00 Raiser ducked aside from its blast, grabbing a Ginn standing next to it and slamming it down into the mouth of the cannon.
Setsuna glanced to his right, a Zaku came flying towards him, sword raised high. A moment later, the 00 Raiser whirled around to chop the mobile suit in half, and then followed up with a beam rifle blast through the ship's portside main turret.
"And all that's left," Setsuna growled, "is you!"
The 00 Raiser whirled around, whipping its beam rifle up in its left hand and leveling it off at the bridge. Setsuna narrowed his eyes and pulled the trigger.
The 00 Raiser vaulted away as the Manhattan's bridge tower exploded. Setsuna glanced over his shoulder at the Archangel, and an instant later, the shimmering duel beams of the Lohengrins tore through the Manhattan from bow to stern, wiping it out in a furious inferno.
Setsuna watched the smoke spread out and sighed. Suddenly a beam blast shot by only a few feet in front of him, he turned and saw the Justice Gundam barreling towards him. Growling, Setsuna boosted towards the Justice, clashing the sword which he held in his right hand, against the Justice Gundam's beam saber before then kicking it away.
Setsuna raised the rifle in his left hand and fired a quick three shot burst at the Justice Gundam, forcing it back as it ignited its beam shields to block the attack. As the Justice lowered its beam shields, Setsuna charged forward, brightly glowing afterimages following behind him, as he sliced the Justice Gundam in half.
The Infinite Justice Gundam quickly moved to avenge its comrade, but as it stabbed its beam saber forward, the 00 Gundam exploded into a cloud of glowing green particles. In less then a second the 00 Gundam had reformed and now it was directly behind the Infinite Justice Gundam.
Setsuna quickly slammed his sword through the torso of the enemy Gundam, snapping it in half. Before the remains of the Infinite Justice Gundam could explode, Setsuna had already boosted away, now moving to assist Kira against the Freedom and Strike Freedom.
Setsuna growled as the 00 Raiser slalomed through another wave of beam fire with a blur of afterimages, as the Freedom Gundam squeezed off a handful of beam shots from its rifle. The 00 Raiser dodged again and stormed forward, but the sudden appearance of the Strike Freedom Gundam's DRAGOON units, which were spewing beam blasts, stopped it.
The Freedom fired a full burst, and Setsuna scowled as he twisted and turned the 00 Raiser through the hail of weapons fire, the Trans-Am system leaving glowing afterimages in his wake. The DRAGOONs flashed in again but Setsuna was ready this time. He skillfully dodged the beam blasts and cleaved three of the DRAGOONs in half with his sword.
In response to the destruction of three of its DRAGOONs, the Strike Freedom immediately opened fire with another full burst, as the remaining DRAGOONs swarmed around the 00 Raiser, but the Freedom-Raiser streaked in, taking the full brust on its beam shield before unleashing its own DRAGOONs.
"STOP THIS POINTLESS FIGHTING!!!" Kira screamed as his DRAGOONs charged forward with a flash of exhaust. A fraction of a second later, the remote weapons impaled both the Freedom and Strike Freedom in the head, completely disabling them.
And so, Chapter 13 is now complete.
Considering what Celestial Being has already discovered upon their return to the Cosmic Era, it seems as though they are much too late to stop the war; in the span of only two years, both sides have all but annilated each other. Even though the situation looks bleak, it's not over yet; even more atrocities have yet to be discovered by Celestial Being.
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