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 odds stank. Adrian assessed what he had and didn't like any of it. His GuAIZ hadlost both legs to the wicked scythe of the Alliance mobile suit. This had cost him thrusters, meaning both speed and agility. The loss had had an adverse affect on his entire electrical system as well, making his weapons just that much slower to react to his control's commands. Captain Thoms was in worse shape. His unit was down both legs and the right arm no longer worked at all, also damage done by that same murderous Alliance suit.

At least Lubbek's GINN was in working order. Problem was, he was low on power. He'd admitted that just before Holman had come up on them. Unfortunately, he'd been talking on the Team's frequency so Trace had likely heard him.

A scan of Holman's GINN indicated it was in perfect condition. Since it was likely he'd run like a rabbit from the enemy, he probably wasn't hurting for power yet either. He was in a position to take all three of them if he just handled his machine right. The only silver lining Adrian could see, and it was a thin one, was simply that Trace was a third rate pilot. The one hope they had was out-flying him with their damaged units.

Holman was in showoff mode. He cruised in on them slowly, making fairly flashy evasive moves each time one of them fired on him. Captain Thoms accepted the risk of getting in the way and had nursed his crippled GuAIZ up to Adrian's so they could stand more or less back to back. They were a fat target together like this but they could also support each other this way. Yuri hovered close by, ready to dodge around to take any good shot he could get.

All of them took advantage of Trace's stupidity by getting potshots off at him. None hit for serious damage but they all forced him to burn some of his energy advantage even if it was by no more than it took to dodge them. Then he was close enough to be confident about returning the ill will and the energy loss became a lot more lopsided in his favor.

Adrian knew he was flying better than he'd ever done in his life. He was managing to catch Holman's shots on the shield on his left arm while getting shots off with the arm cannon on the right. He turned fast enough to use that shield to protect Thoms when Lance was vulnerable as Holman tried to hit him in the cockpit from the side. He even managed to get it up quickly enough to cover Yuri's legs when Trace attempted to take those with his sword.

Yet he also knew it wasn't going to matter. His machine, Thoms machine, were both too badly damaged. Holman was going to get past him eventually. And Yuri was going to go power down any time now. There was no one close to call for help.

"You think just because you're from Junius that you're something special. Well you aren't! You hear me Ito, you're just a Natural-loving bastard who'd be up against a wall in a heartbeat if everyone knew what you were doing!" Trace snarled. "And I'm gonna see to it that they do know! I'm gonna see to it that your bitch is given to the entire Fleet as a toy! She's gonna have plenty of Coordinators screwing her before she dies!"

"Oh and you think because your father once worked on the Zala estate you're something of note?" Adrian taunted. "The worthless drunk got fired, Holman. He couldn't hold the job! He still can't hold a job despite the needs of the defense industry 'cause he still won't take his face out of a bottle! He's pathetic! A Coordinator who can't handle his emotions well enough to get medical help! He'd rather stay drunk than admit what everyone already knows!"

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP, YOU BASTARD! SHUT UP!"

"Why? You're already planning to kill me, why the hell should I shut up? Why shouldn't I let everyone know the drunk's jealous, incompetent son is committing murder? That the guy who let himself get shot down by a Natural girl is so green with envy he's intending to kill off everyone who knows about it and the ace pilot who did it! Well, you'll never get that off your record, Second Lieutenant Holman! So whoever reads it will know. Whatever Team you join, they'll know!"

Trace screamed in blind rage, dropped his gun and attacked with his sword. He was swinging wildly, making him both dangerous and ineffective at the same time. Dangerous because there was no science to what he was doing and so very little way to anticipate where he would swing to plan to set a block ahead of him. Ineffective because those wild swings lacked the coordination of plan and aim that would have made real use of the power of the blows that did land. His forgotten gun now drifted far behind him and was receding further with every second.

Adrian was holding Trace off Captain Thoms when the disaster he was expecting hit. Yuri's GINN stopped moving halfway through a sword strike of its own. Lubbek was out of power. Holman instantly switched targets. Adrian couldn't change his defense as quickly. The jealous pilot's sword ripped into Yuri Lubbek's machine.

Adrian slammed his damaged GuAIZ into Holman's GINN, deflecting the sword. Instead of shearing through the pilot's cockpit, the blade tore through the torso just below it. Holman's machine kicked out as it was forced over, catching the ruined lower section of Yuri's GINN to send it spinning away. It didn't go far before it exploded.

Shrapnel from the blast peppered all four machines. Yuri screamed once as his severely damaged GINN was hit by a large fragment. Captain Thoms cursed savagely as the chunk that struck him sent his ruined GuAIZ spinning. Adrian felt like doing the same when he suddenly couldn't move the right arm of his unit any more. A very sizable chunk had hit Holman, knocking him away from the three of them and setting him to rotating. But there was no serious damage that Ito could see; the traitor to the Team would be back in moments.

Adrian got his machine lined up and waited. Behind him, the Captain had managed to slow his spin enough to grab Yuri's wrecked unit. That arrested most of the rest of the spin and allowed Lance to get what was left of his sensors close enough to get a reading on the cockpit.

"Yuri's still with us." Captain Thoms reported quietly. "But he's badly hurt. He needs a doctor."

An obscene giggle cackled over the comm. "Too bad, he's not going to get one."

Neither Team pilot replied. With Yuri out, they could no longer hope to make any kind of stand. Worse, they now had a helpless member of the Team to attempt to defend. And Holman knew it.

Adrian noted there was a GINN coming across the sky at an insanely high rate of speed. It was going to miss them by perhaps a couple of kilometers. Looked like someone had their thrusters jammed on. He wished it was worth making the effort to get hold of that pilot but not with that kind of damage. He couldn't stop or help them at all.


Kayla heard Thoms tell Adrian someone called Yuri was still alive. That meant that Thoms was in the heavily damaged GuAIZ beside the nearly totaled GINN. That also meant Adrian was in the legless GuAIZ facing the undamaged GINN. So now she knew where everyone was and how to identify the nutjob killer.

It was time to hit the brakes or she was going to overshoot this battle. The thrusters flipped into reverse and she immediately began to slow down. A tap on a vector thruster aimed her at the battle. She was coming up on them fast! Given her speed and her questionable accuracy with the GINN's guns at this speed, Kayla drew the sword.

This thing was intended for chopping up mobile suits and puncturing space ships. She's done very little practicing with it in the simulator. Getting into a sword fight would be fairly stupid. But, using her speed to slam the thing right through the cockpit, now that she could do. Because given what she'd seen coming over here, she was still the better pilot.

Did that ass never check his screens? He was still focused on Adrian! There was a GINN coming up his backside at damned high speed with a drawn sword and he was ignoring it! This idiot deserved to die, being that stupid on a battlefield. SHE knew where everyone close enough to shoot at her was!

"I think I'll cut you apart slowly, Ito. I want to enjoy listening to you die."

"First you have to actually do that, Holman. Your record so far is pretty bad."

"You can't move that arm any more. You can't fight any more."

Damn he sounded so smug! Why did all the idiots of the universe always sound smug? She was about seven seconds from hitting him, time to let him know he had company. She really wanted to hit him right in the front hatch and she couldn't do that unless he turned around.

"Won't be Ito who dies today you braying donkey!" Kayla yelled.

"What?"

"KAYLA?"

"I'm gonna cut you down twice you worthless son-of-a-bitch!"

He hit his vertical thrusters. She anticipated that and was slightly ahead of him. He put more power in it that she had though and was rising faster. He was also twisting around, trying to bring his sword to bear. But seven seconds wasn't enough time. Kayla slammed the blade forward, piercing between the hatch covers of the cockpit. The blade went in clear to the hilt, most of the length jutting out the back of the GINN.

DAMN IT! The angle was wrong! He'd likely ducked under it! The bastard might not be dead yet!

Dead or not, he was not going to be fighting any more. That sword would definitely have damage the control systems beyond combat capability. To hell with him! She let go of the sword and put her thrusters in full reverse.

When she'd driven the sword into Holman's GINN, she'd given it a good chunk of her forward momentum as well. Now her reversed thrusters had no trouble bringing her to a quick relative stop. He, however, continued to drift away fairly rapidly. She turned back to Adrian and his friends.

"All ZAFT forces! Withdraw from projected area preparatory to firing Genesis! All ZAFT forces withdraw at once!"

Firing what? Whatever it was, the alert screen told her she was in the affected area! So were Adrian and the others! She headed for them, thrusters on high for a few seconds to give her enough speed to reach them but not so much she couldn't slow down to gather them up safely.

"Kayla! Get out of here! Your GINN can make it! GO!"

"Have you lost whatever you're using for brains this week? I didn't come over here to save your butt only to lose it now! You grab hold of the other two tight as you can, hear me? You, Thoms, you grab on hard too! I'll get everyone outta range. You're sitting just on the edge! I can do it!"

"Kayla! They'll fire it in seconds! You don't have time! GO!"

"You're on my way out! Now shut up 'cause I'm not changing my mind!"

At least he did what he was told, locking the immobile arm around the other GuAIZ and the working one around the wrecked GINN. Captain Thoms seemed to get secure grips on both other suits as well. Good! Now all she could do was hope they held because she wasn't going to really be holding anyone. She spread the GINN's arms wide and hit the reverse thrusters again.

It was more crash than gentle bump but she did hit right where she wanted to. Her cockpit hatch was directly below the one on that Yuri guy's machine. Her arms held the two GuAIZ units and the other GINN was balanced against hers. She brought the thrusters up as quickly as she dared. The grips all held; the four machines were moving as a unit out of the danger zone.

There was a huge machine now sitting beyond Jachin Due. It hadn't been there moments ago. Mirage colloid, it was the only explanation, it had to have been hidden by mirage colloid.

They were at the edge of the danger zone. Kayla had the thrusters on maximum. She was spending power like she had it and she knew she didn't. The GINN could keep this up for another three minutes, then she was going to be dead out of juice. It didn't matter. If they didn't make it out, all the reserve in the universe wouldn't matter.

A voice shouted over the ZAFT combat channel, "Freedom! Justice! Get out of there! They're going to fire Genesis!"

They were clear! They had made it outside the danger zone! But they were still too close for her comfort. She saw the two mobile suits she thought of as Thunderbird's Children go streaking out of the danger zone on a tangent above her. Someone in ZAFT had warned them! Someone in ZAFT cared for more than the color of a uniform too.

Then she realized Holman was still in the line of fire. So be it. If he wasn't already dead, he would be executed by his own people. That they would not know they were doing it or that he was a minor traitor didn't matter. What counted was ZAFT was taking care of it.

The universe at her back lit with an unbearable white light. Kayla shrieked in pain as it stabbed through her eyes despite the GINN's light filters going instantly to maximum. She threw both arms across her eyes to try to protect them.

The light did not diminish behind her but between the GINN's filters and her arms, she managed to bring the intensity in her eyes down to something bearable. She couldn't see the energy that crackled around that beam. As the last of it passed her machine, she didn't see the stray flicker that struck her GINN either.

See it or no, she felt it. The power surge sent sparks flying from about half of her boards. Most of those promptly went dark. The GINN's thrusters fired in wildly random patterns, tossing her hard against the safety harness in multiple directions. One toss, almost the very last one, caught her at a bad angle as her body slipped inside the flight suit. Agony ripped through her right shoulder and side. She screamed once and the universe went dark.