Chapter 13 The Art of War
"You are an idiot!" yelled Admiral Keys of the EA as Heero stood across from him they were already a week into the war against the Earth Nation.
"I disagree this plan sounds good." said Kira as the three man in charge of the planning the attack on the Earth nation stood around a table holographic map.
"We should strike at the heart of our enemy and whip them out in a single massive strike." Said Admiral Keys
"That is what they except and they have massed their forces around their main bases." said Heero "Avoid what is strong and attack what is weak."
"Isn't that one of Sun Tzu's teachings?" asked Kira as Heero nodded his head.
"Who cares about some ancient Chinese's general. War has changed a lot since 5th century BC." said Admiral Keys
"War never changes only the weapons do." said Heero "Besides our target is key to production of their jump dives our first goal is to make sure they can't make anymore of those drives."
"It would be wise to make sure they can't attack us here." said Admiral Keys
"Yes and after we take this, they will come to take it back and then we can choose when and where to fight." Said Kira
"Even with our combine forces they still outnumber us at least 5 to 1." said Heero "We can't be drawn into their style of fight. If we fight them it has to be on our terms."
"Agreed." said Kira
"I agree but we should also focus on dividing our enemy." Said Admiral Keys "It is how Durandal was able to defeat us."
"I don't know if that is possible, from reports I read most of the people seam to be behind Relena." Said Kira
"That is true but she isn't very possible in three key locations." said Heero as he pulled up an image "And this is the first point."
"Are you sure?" asked Admiral Keys
"This is the only place were Relena is not loved but in fact hated." said Heero "They may actually side with us. However we can't count on that."
"We can hope." Said Keys "Commander Yamato how much longer will your engineering teams take?"
"We need another 12 hours." said Kira
"The jump dive will be online in about 24 hours." said Heero "The Orb attack forces will be ready shortly after that."
"Zaft can be ready then." said Kira
"We are having trouble getting all the mobile armor up here so it will take longer." said Admiral Keys "Maybe 36 hours from now."
"So we launch the attack in 48 hours?" asked Heero as Admiral Keys and Kira nodded their heads.
"They will have no idea what hit them." said Admiral Keys "This new battle station surpasses even the famous Jachin Duo in defense and fire power. They will have no idea what hit them when we appear and with Zaft's new toys they can't harm us."
"Admiral Keys anything built by man can destroyed by man." said Heero
"So how are you guys doing?" asked Leilani as she talked over the radio to all her other gundam pilots.
"Good I already destroyed two of my targets." said Rhyu with a grin.
"I'm on three Rhyu." said Siegel with a bigger grin.
"Show off." said Rhyu as Leilani shook her head.
"Boys, we are not here to see who is better we are here to complete our missions." said Leilani
"Say Leilani do you want to go out on a date once this is over?" asked Rhyu as Leilani rolled her eyes.
"This universe is very beautiful." said Mayu out of no where as she looked out of her gundam's cockpit at the beach just as the sun was coming up.
"Shut up you guys." said Uzumi "I got orders from command."
"Go ahead Uzumi." said Siegel
"I have been order to go see a local resistance group and see if they are willing to help us." said Umize "as such I need you guys to cover the rest of my target list."
"Sure thing." said Siegel as he pulled up Uzumi attack list. "I am close to 3 of theses and Mayu is near another two."
"I'll take the other one." said Leilani
"Alright then carry on." said Uzumi as they cut the links.
"As you can see." said Wufei as he rewinds the tap of the intercepted radio message. "They are looking for allies."
"Good." Said Dimitri as everyone looked at him. "They will flush out all our enemies from hiding and then we can destroy them all in one move."
"Well they are not staying in one place for long." said Wufei their longest attack was 10 minutes. "They move in destroy their target quickly. Falling back before we can mobilize a coordinated response."
"Most suits can't take on a gundam and win anyhow." Said Marena
"Correct so we are sending each of you after a different one of the gundams." said Wufei as he handed out computer pad. "You leave in ten minutes."
"I'm off to Africa to go after the wolf like gundam." said Bernardo
"I'm off to get the one in Europe." said Victor
"Austria to get the freedom like gundam." Said Aeneas
"I have the sniper in south America." said Dimitri
"I have Leilani." said Marena as the others looked at her.
"I wanted to kill that traitor" said Dimitri as Victor glared at him.
"Hurry up." snapped Wufei as they headed toward the waiting transports.
A few hours later Victor sat on the transport as it flew over Greenland on route to the Iceland base. "That Rhyu, he asked Leilani out." Thought Victor as he looked out the window ate the storm they were flying through. "Are they a couple?"
As he looked out the window an object came out of the cloud formation. "Leilani?" asked Victor as he looked out at the familiar looking gundam.
"Damn this storm, its may be the only way to sneak up to the Iceland base, but my radar is just as useless as theirs." said Leilani as Wing II struggled in the howling winds. Just then a proximity alarm went off. "What."
Leilani looked out only to see a large transport shuttle. "I have to shot it down before they have a chance to warn the base." said Leilani as she turned her gundam into human form.
Instantly Victor jumped out of his seat and headed toward the transport bay where the Omen lied. He jumped into his cockpit and started closing it just as Leilani pulled her sword and cut the shuttle in two. Victor was just strapping in when his suit became to fall toward the earth, the fact that he was strapped in caused him to crash head first into the cockpit wall.
"Victor?" asked Leilani
"Leilani." said Victor as he passed out.
Leilani pulled a high G turn as she pushed her mobile suit's engines pass the red line as she dove toward the falling Gundam. "Come on just a little bit more." said Leilani as she reached out and grabbed the Omen by the arm. Instantly she turned all her power toward slowing down the decent of the gundams.
"75 feet, 50 feet." said Leilani as she pulled back on her controls as hard as possible but it was no use. "This is going to hurt." With that both suits crashed into the fresh snow at the base of a large mountain.
Victor looked at up at the star filled sky on a warm summer night. Slowly he looked to his side to see Leilani smiling at him her red hair falling between her blue eyes that glowed in the light from the full moon. Slowly she leaned toward him; he could feel her breath on his lips. But suddenly it came crashing down and the starry sky turned into a stone ceiling and a warm summer night turned into a cold windy day.
"Leilani?" said Victor as he suddenly sat up from the makeshift bed. He slowly looked around the small cave which he now found himself in. Behind him against the wall was his survival pack but across from him was a small yet powerful heat lamp and behind that was another pack.
"Glad to see that your finally up, enjoyed your nap?" said a voice in the distance he turned his head toward the entrance to see Leilani standing there in a white flight suit and holding a cup of what smelled like coffee in her hand.
Instantly Victor reached into his patch only to find his gun and his knife was gone. "Don't you remember I packed your survival pack when we were in the jungle together at Victoria, I knew where you keep your weapons." said Leilani with a grin as she turned to look out at the raging snow storm outside. Her mobile suit and his where kneeing near the entrance to the cave blocking some of the wind and snow.
"You shot me down." said Victor
"Yes and no." said Leilani "I shot down a transport. I didn't know you where on until you launched your suit. Besides who do you think caught your falling gundam then dragged you out of your gundam and into this warm cave? I could have just let you fall to your death but I didn't and now we are both here until the storm lifts."
"Thanks for saving me." said Victor "I guess I am your prisoner now."
"If only you were Victor." said Leilani as Victor raised an eyebrow "Nothing would make me happier then to put you, Bernardo and Marena in a safe place until this is all over. However I don't have room in my gundam to hold you until I meet up with a ship. So for as long as the storm is raging you are my prisoner after that your free."
"Or you could become my prisoner." said Victor "That way you can sit out the war."
"I don't think so Victor, Relena would kill me in an instant because of who I am." said Leilani "She still wants my dad and she thinks that me, my brother and my mother are the only things standing in her way."
"So you and I are destined to fight each other." said Victor as he stood up.
"There is no such thing as destiny." said Leilani "Everyone walks the path they choose for themselves."
"I don't believe that." said Victor
"You believe what you want and I will believe what I want." Said Leilani as turned around and headed toward her pack "You want something to eat?"
"Sure." said Victor as Leilani tossed him a MRE (Meal Ready to Eat).
"Sorry it isn't much but I only packed for one." said Leilani as she took out a pack for herself.
"I guess living behind enemy lines means you don't get resupplied that often." said Victor
"No I don't." said Leilani as she started eating.
"I am guessing you are going to attack the Iceland base?" asked Victor
"It is a major supply port between Europe and North America. It's a logical target." said Leilani
"You know you can't win this war Lei." said Victor as Leilani laughed.
"I was about to say the same thing to you Victor." said Leilani "You have no idea of what we can do and Relena trying to nuke only united Naturals and Coordinators against her."
"What…what nuke?" asked Victor
"She didn't tell you?" asked Leilani with a small grin. "Understandable, remembered when we offered a chance for her to make peace by coming to Orb?"
"Ya." said Victor
"Well she sent a shuttle with a large nuke that would have destroyed our whole nation." said Leilani
"She is supposed to be dead." said Dimitri in Victor's memories of the attack on New Edwards.
"If that is true then how are you alive?" asked Victor
"Simple during the first war the Plants, launched an attack in responses for the EA nuking of Junius Seven. They sent Neutron Jammers." said Leilani
"Neutron Jammers?"
"Basically it stops all nuclear reaction in our universe." said Leilani "Imagine how your world would react if we unleashed that on you."
"Not good, most of our power comes from nuclear power plants. Our mobile suits should still work but almost everything else would come to a stop." Thought Victor
"And those weapons are from the First Bloody Valentine war, that was over 25 years ago." said Leilani "Your side has numbers but we have the tech that makes them mean less."
"I guess with coordinators it only makes sense that you have better tech." said Victor "I mean you are better then us."
"I am not better then you Victor." said Leilani "All coordinators have is more abilities then naturals but we have to practice just like everyone else to get them out. I mean look at my dad he is a natural and yet he can mop the floor with any coordinator."
"Ya but he is Heero Yuy a legendary pilot." Said Victor
"Ya, it was rough growing up in a family of gundam pilots." said Leilani "That is why I loved being in this universe. No one was looking at me and questioning if I only got to be a gundam pilot because of who my parents are. I was me, you understand that don't you?"
"Yep, I had people say the only reason why I am a pilot is because of my father being a gundam pilot." said Victor "Yours must have been worst your mother is also a gundam pilot."
"Yes, and my Aunt, Uncle and little cousin are gundam pilots in Zaft." said Leilani "there are five gundam pilots in my family, six if you count me."
"You have a cousin?" asked Victor
"Ya, I have cousins I have an Aunt on my Mom's and Dad's side." said Leilani with a grin "Hell a week before I came to your universe I was at my grandma's 65's birthday party in the plants."
"I see." said Victor "So since she is in the plants does that make her a coordinator."
"She is a coordinator but just because she lives in the plants doesn't mean she has to be a coordinator." said Leilani "There are a lot of naturals who live there. My Aunt Stella for one. Miriallia Elsmen is one of my parent's friends and she is a natural. True her husband Dearka and her children Rhyu and Lys are coordinators. What I am trying to say is coordinators and naturals live side by side everyday all over our universe." As she finished she took a drink of coffee
"Rhyu he is your boyfriend isn't he?" asked Victor as Leilani almost spit out her drink.
"Are you crazy?" asked Leilani
"But he asked you out." Said Victor
"Sounds like someone was spying on us." said Leilani with a grin as Victor mentally punched himself for sharing information with Leilani.
"Fine we were but is he our is he not your boyfriend?" asked Victor
"He was my boyfriend." said Leilani as Victor's heart sank "For a total of one date a year and a half ago and I regret even asking him out on that one date."
"What happened?"
"I used him." said Leilani "I used him to get my father to back off. See he was super protective of me, he still is. I wanted to show him I wasn't his little girl anyone. I was grown up and that I could do things for myself."
"So you went on a date with this Rhyu Elsman to piss off a legendary pilot?" asked Victor
"No, I did it to piss off my dad and to make him give me some freedoms." said Leilani with a grin "That part worked but at least once a week for the past year and a half Rhyu as asked me out."
"Sounds like he really likes you." said Victor as he imagined strangling that blonde hair pilot with his bear hands.
"Ya, it's just sad he keeps after me even though Mayu keeps dropping hints that she wants to date him." said Leilani
"Mayu?" asked Victor
"My cousin Mayu Aster pilot of the Terra. The black haired woman in the message you intercepted." said Leilani as suddenly her watch beeped.
"What is it?" asked Victor
"I have a message coming in." said Leilani as she stood up. "While I am gone you might want to read up on our history." With that Leilani reached into her pack and pulled out a small handheld computer. Quickly she locked out all her personal and military files leaving only the historical text. She tossed it at Victor who grabbed it in mid air. "Here you go take a look at that, maybe your learn something."
With that Leilani walked out of the cave into the blinding snow.
Well I hope you liked this chapter, I have been busy getting ready to go back to school. As such I don't know when I will have my next update because I am busy getting ready. I hope you forgive me. Thank you and please keep on reviewing. Thanks Wilkins75