Respect between Enemies – The BetanWerecat
Gundam Seed: "Descending Sword" and after. OCs with appearances by canon characters. The actions of Kira, Athrun, and the others have far reaching effects. Ah, interpersonal relationships! What joys they are. Rated T for language and off screen activity. (Reviews are welcomed but not required. This is written only for my own enjoyment. Flaming me will get you ignored.)
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed.
The Thoms Team deployed off the Gagarin in the fifth defense line. There was only one more behind them and that, they all knew, would be made up of who ever and what ever could be scavenged out of the corners. As far as reality went, they were the Plant's last chance. If the Earth Forces got this far, the Team had to stop them; because no one behind them would be able to.
At their Captain's order, the Team took up a scattered defensive stance. There were no neat lines here. The object of this positioning was to make sure no more than two mobile suits could be hit with any one shot. It wasn't possible to prevent any given enemy from lining up on two, but you could plan a setup that kept them from getting three. For that same reason, no suit was really close to any other in the Team. It was a formation with its own inherent dangers but it did let them pour fire on any organized attacking force from a distance and that had enabled them to chop up the incoming enemy more than once into bites they could handle when they got close.
Other Teams all around them were setting up in the formations they were most comfortable with as well. Unlike the front three lines, they were intended as a static defense and did not have any over all formation coordination. Lance Thoms knew that if the Earth Forces got this far the idea of staying static would have to go out the window but until then he let his people get as comfortable as they could.
The enemy was closing on wreckage of Boaz. Thoms kept his attention roving around the area, trying to get a feel for this battlefield. They were stationed well up the line between lost Boaz and Jachin Due on the Jachin Due end. Whatever the EA planned, they would almost certainly be coming right through his Team if they intended to hit the far Plants with their filthy nukes.
His own scanners weren't adequate to let him get a real reading on the approaching EA fleet but there was some data being relayed through Jachin Due so he knew about where they were and roughly how soon battle would be joined. He also knew there were one hell of a lot of them coming. The odds here were ugly. He scanned the Teams around him; discreetly listening in to see how nerves and moral were doing among the people his Team was going to have to depend on for survival.
He was reassured to discover that most of the Teams in this immediate area were veterans like his. There was little display of pre-battle nerves and a good deal of constructive inter-Team planning going on. Too bad it had waited until the day of the fight to get started but at least some kind of basic cross-group signals were being swiftly agreed upon so any given Team could get fast help from a neighbor without going through all the details of the formal ZAFT system. This too, Lance knew, would break down into every mobile suit doing whatever it could to save itself and whomever was close if the enemy managed to close to beam saber range.
They had been in place perhaps an hour, and had most of the inter-Team setups done when he noted the Lovel passing between their line and the Plants, strewing mobile suits as it went. So, the sixth line was actually going to exist. He shook his head in pity. Those people were so much dead meat if the battle got to them.
He checked his screens one more time. The EA was close to firing range. The battle for Jachin Due was about to start. Yes! There were the opening salvos! He hoped the sixth line could get itself sorted out quickly because it was not going to have the luxury of time to do it right.
"Captain," Adrian Ito's face flickered onto his intercom screen. "We've got a bunch of kids behind us. Third class cadets. Gold, Green, Silver, and Blue squads."
Thoms sighed. "Nothing we can do, Ito. They have a Master Chief for each squad so they aren't entirely leaderless. It's too late to try to teach them survival skills now. They either will or will not make it through this fight on their own. We can't protect them. We have to protect the Plants."
"Yes sir, I know. I just wanted you to know they were back there. I remember being a third cadet myself and I know my judgment wasn't worth pissing on at that point. They could be a problem if they shoot as wildly as I did at that stage."
"We can only hope their Chiefs can keep them in line."
"Yeah."
Third cadets eh? He sincerely didn't need this. A bunch of less than quarter-trained kids at his back with live weapons they barely knew how to aim. He prayed they didn't see any of the enemy this deep in the lines. Those kids would throw energy all over the sky and God alone knew what they'd hit.
Kayla settled herself deeply into the GINN's seat. This was NOT where she was supposed to be in this battle. She was supposed to be on the other side. Part of her was very uneasy with that, part was not. The part in charge though was the part that could not accept the thought that her people could be allowed to use those nukes on civilians ever again.
In the interim aboard the Lovel, she'd made what preparations she could for the battle. There was water in the GINN's reserve now, and nutrient drink as well. The sanitary system was fully connected and tested for leaks. She knew she wasn't going to rupture her bladder or flood her flight suit; both important things to know going into a major fight that could have a lengthy timeframe to it.
And she knew she was in possibly the worst place for someone with her limited skills to be. Everyone around her was half-trained and greener than spring grass. The Master Chief for Gold Squad had them lined up neatly in a nice, tight bunch he could control but that made them nothing but one big fat sitting target. And the veteran Teams in the line in front of them had already sent word back, very pointed word at that, to watch what they shot at.
There was a major firefight developing rapidly around Jachin Due. This section of the line was quiet at the moment but it wouldn't stay that way long. There were too many men and machines intent on killing each other in this tiny corner of space today.
The kids in the Squad were chattering back and forth nervously. Kayla didn't bother to say anything. Anything useful would give her away; anything else would only contribute to the fraying nerves of the Squad. Besides, she was pretty involved with trying to keep up with all the data her machine was giving her.
This time she had the full boards up and hot. If she shut something off now, the Chief would know about it and ask her why it was down. She couldn't afford to be inventing answers so she had to leave it all on. The data flood was threatening to drown her.
"They'll not get by Jachin Due!" One of the more boastful of the kids announced firmly for what was probably the twentieth time since they'd unloaded.
She wished he'd shut up. She wished they'd all just shut up. They weren't doing themselves any good yakking like that. The empty babble was only raising the tension levels.
Her mind tried to slip into the familiar frozen clarity of her personal combat state. The enemy was coming. They were bringing nuclear weapons to use against the innocents in the glass houses behind her. That was unacceptable. That disgrace could not be allowed to happen again!
She knew none of those people. It was irrelevant. They were people. They were mothers, small children, annoying old goats, and everyday folks just going about everyday living.
Coordinators were the work of Natural hands! They did not deserve to be murdered just because they were alive! They hadn't asked to be created! If they were a monumental space fort, everyone would be proud as hell of them! But no, they were living beings, so everyone was jealous as hell of them! THAT DIDN'T GIVE ANYONE THE RIGHT TO JUST SLAUGHTER THEM!
Her hand slammed down on the comm button and cut it off. This kind of rage was unusable and dangerous, it had to be dumped. She sucked air into the very bottom of her lungs, and shrieked. She drove the rage into the sound, pouring it out with the air from her lungs, letting it rise in shrillness until it was well past just painful to the ears. She sustained the sound as long as she could, forcing as much of the anger and the fear the nukes had set into her out through it as she possibly could. Eventually, she ran out of air.
Kayla sat panting in the seat. It got rid of the worst of the rage alright but it definitely had a price tag. This had cost her a lot of energy, both emotional and physical energy that she knew she was going to wish she hadn't had to spend before long. A blinking light on the comm board grabbed her attention. Oh, yeah, someone had noticed her dropping offline. She toggled her comm back on.
"Grayhawk! Respond! Cadet, are you all right?"
"Yes Chief, I'm all right." Kayla replied grimly. "I just didn't think everyone needed my screaming rage in their ears."
"Those bastards!" Kayla heard the fear under the anger clearly. She couldn't pull the boy's name right at this instant, they'd only been introduced once when everyone boarded the Lovel, but she had no trouble visualizing him. Kid couldn't be out of secondary school yet and someone expected him to fight in this battle? This one was going to be a holy horror for an experienced vet! She heard the same tones in all the kids' voices. They were already half way to breaking. She didn't blame them. Nukes had that effect on people.
The Chief moved on to the next cadet, trying to bring the Squad back under some kind of control. The veteran mobile armor pilot studied the expanding battle, tuning out the others around her since the Chief was there to deal with them. The Alliance fleet was pushing up quickly, too quickly. It was getting itself bunched up against the relentless ZAFT defense. Alliance mobile suit squadrons were gouging deep slashes into the front ranks of the ZAFT defense but the ZAFT mobile suits were closing them almost as fast as they opened.
This was a war of attrition ZAFT could not sustain. They didn't have the reserves for it. They might win this battle, they looked to be killing far more than they were losing, but the sheer numbers of dead were going to leave them vulnerable to a second attempt later. More importantly, where was the second wave of Peacekeepers? They'd done an end-around at Boaz when they'd killed that fortress and that's what she was looking for again. The Moebius mobile armors weren't going to be hauling any nukes through the center of the main battle, they'd never make it.
There! On the left flank, at least one battleship and four or more others! They were already well clear of the majority of the serious fighting. They would be in a position to launch very soon!
"Chief! Company on the left!" Kayla shouted on the general ZAFT frequency, reeling off the coordinates of the breakaway Alliance group.
Adrian's head came up as a clear girl's voice shouted over the combat frequency, "Chief! Company on the left!" and the precise coordinates for what looked like a small attack force. That 'Chief' made the alert soldier one of the cadets. They weren't a total waste after all.
He studied the newly identified group. Battleship, big one but too far to get a clear definition of class yet, and what looked like carriers maybe? The nuclear attack group? It would make sense. This was a flanking movement, same as the one that got Boaz. He made a hasty check of his boards for any similar group anywhere else in his detection range and came up blank.
"Thoms Team! We have identification for the new splinter group. It is one Archangel Class battleship and four Agamemnon Class! There are a number of mobile suits with them, including three distinctive suits first identified during the Battle of Aube. Be very careful of those strange suits! They are uniquely equipped and the pilots are exceptionally skilled." The Captain's announcement focused the entire Team on the new ships.
"This is the nuclear group, isn't it?" Yuri asked, his normally cheerful voice icy.
"It sure looks like a great candidate for it." Adrian replied bitterly.
"This fights coming our way!" Someone from one of the further out Teams shouted.
There was a sharp snort on the line. "This bitch-kitty is coming everyone's way. Don't get greedy."
Oh, yes, it certainly was! And doing it fast too. The front lines were not going to hold! Adrian began to get solid data on the battle as it rolled toward the Team and he shared it out. The surrounding teams, and those of the cadets behind him who had either the sense or the guts to check, were getting near-real time updates now.
It was the three special mobile suits. They were the ones carving the hole in the front. They were seriously overpowered compared to the GINN's they were facing and much better armored as well. Worse, whoever was flying them didn't fly like any Natural Adrian had ever seen before. What kind of traitor would bring nuclear weapons against the civilians in the Plants? Whoever they were, he wanted a part of them!
"All right." Lance Thoms' voice cut through all the other chatter on the comms. "We aren't going to try to make any kind of firm stand. Those bastards are chopping anyone who sits still apart. Go to two-suit sub-teams. We need maximum mobility and minimum exposure! Configure sub-teams now!"
The twelve suits of the Team coalesced into six pairs. Adrian now had the steady security of Yuri off his left shoulder. He had a bad feeling it wouldn't be enough. He hoped they could live through this one.
"We are moving up now! We need all the space we can get between those bastards and the Plants!"
The Team hit their thrusters as one; headed directly for the killing ground.
The cadet squads lost their leadership as the veterans ahead of them moved up to meet the enemy. Kayla was not very surprised to hear some sector officer order the Master Chiefs to form up with the Teams ahead and move up as well. They were going to need everyone they had up there who knew what he was doing. But it left the kids leaderless and on the verge of panic.
"Chief! Chief! What do we do?"
She sat back and let them yell. There would be no working with most of them until they grasped that they'd been abandoned. Fortunately, these kids were mostly made of some pretty good stuff. They shut up within minutes of the departure of their familiar officers. There were still a few crying for help but they were being shushed by their fellows.
"So, what do we do?" Someone asked in a small voice.
"We kill the nukes." Kayla told them all. "Everyone else has gone up. That leaves us back here with one hell of a gap between us. We just got elected to the hero's seat, God help us."
"What the hell are you talking about? And who are you anyway?"
"Names Kayla Grayhawk. And we are falling back people. We need even more space than we already have." She looked around to find she had about sixty cadets bunched up now. "We have to get closer to the Plants, so we are shooting out at the nukes as they come in."
"Out at the nukes?"
"Are you crazy? The battle's up there! I'm not running away!"
"Are you a Coordinator or not? If you are, plug in your 'superior' brain before you shoot off your big mouth!" She snapped. "The line won't hold. It can't. Those three killer suits are far too much for any GINN! But the nukes are coming in on mobile armors and they can't handle any ZAFT mobile suit at all! So we have to get close to the Plants so when they come out from behind those suits, we can hit them! Or are any of you really dumb enough to think you'll live five seconds up there?"
"We've gotta try!"
"You've gotta make yourself COUNT!" Kayla screamed. "And you can't do that dead! Don't play to their strengths, play to what strengths YOU HAVE!"
"There're only sixty of us, we'll never stop them all!"
"Then we stop every last one we can." She snarled. "Now make up your minds! That fight is getting close!"
"She's right." The speaker sounded like he was one of the older, better trained kids. "And at least she's got a plan! I don't hear one from anybody else besides 'lets go get killed'!"
"All right. Whadda we do?"
"Follow me! What flat grid pattern is everyone most familiar with?" She had them! Now if she could just get them organized and moved in time! She turned her GINN and cut in the thrusters, leading the entire mob on a race toward the Plants as they planned the layout on the go.
