Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm
Phase 02: Subterfuge
Lagrange 3, Heliopolis Colony, Morgenroete Residential Area
January 25, 71 C.E
4:02 P.M. Orb Time
- The Killer -
Kira had to resist the urge to – brutally – disarm the Lieutenant. Sticking to the overall plan was objectively obvious. Subjectively, however, Kira was finding it hard to not draw the balisong and slit her throat.
It didn't help that Jack was grinning at him from the Kiba, his eyes shouting 'I told you so!' And then the situation got even more complicated.
"Hey! What are you doing with Kira!" The shout came from beyond the Kiba, and looking, Kira could see Tolle, Miriallia and Sai running around the shattered, melted wreckage of the ZONGS, each looking rather indignant. Kira felt more than heard the Lieutenant shift her aim from his back to Tolle's head, and his muscles tensed automatically, readying him to spring back and snap her neck. Instead, he forced himself to relax. A second later, he was gratified to hear the OMNI officer start talking instead of shooting. He'd read her right.
"These Mobile Suits are Earth Alliance property." She stated, somewhat nervously. Wrong. Kira silently thought. "Because you saw them, I cannot allow you to go freely until validated by an officer overseeing the project." In the corner of his eye, Kira could see Jack grinning slightly
"Excuse me," Kira began, "but could you tell us who you are?" The Lieutenant paused for a second before answering.
"Lieutenant Murrue Ramius, OMNI Enforcer, 8th Orbital Fleet." Kira relaxed even more at this. She was one of the sensible ones. Ramius stepped back to the Augury's cockpit, looking around and checking something. "What did you do?"
"I wrote some code to allow for the gaps in the Operating System, and overwrote some of the lines controlling the electroactive polymers for better efficiency." Kira replied.
"I don't even recognize this! How did you do this?" Murrue went on, before stopping herself and just staring in astonishment. "Never mind. I can't pilot it like this, so I guess you'll have to."
- The Madman -
Score: Orb 1, OMNI none. Jack thought triumphantly. As Kira climbed into the cockpit, Jack heard a groan from inside the Kiba, loud enough even for Ramius to hear it. Shit. Turning, he saw Liene climbing around the command seat, fire in his eyes. Stopping for a second, Liene's expression shifted to a smirk that wouldn't have looked out of place on a lion on the savanna that had cornered a mouse. Fuck. He's got me and he knows it. Probably just relishing the irony.
"Who's in there?" Damn her. "Liene? Are you okay?" The engineer spared a glance towards Jack before replying.
"Yes Lieutenant, I'm fine." Jack was practically sweating. One of Liene's favorite jokes was "Some people are like slinkies: Not really good for anything, but you can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs..." And in Liene's eyes, Jack was definitely the slinky. Jack stared at Liene, memorizing every detail, from the white-streaked black hair, the mismatched gray and pale blue eyes, to the fairly pale skin. If Liene got him killed, Jack would wait in hell until the end of Liene's natural lifespan, and pounce on the man when he arrived.
Funny thing was, Liene would probably laugh at that.
"I guess I should thank you. If you hadn't programmed the Kiba, we probably would have been killed." Jack continued staring, albeit for a different reason. Murrue turned to Jack, suspicious.
"You also reprogrammed a G-Unit?"
"He and I attend the same class." Jack said truthfully, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder at the Augury. That didn't dispel the glare. Behind the Lieutenant, Liene was motioning in Orb Sign Language, punctuating with unrelated insulting gestures every so often. 'So the essential point is, he thinks you're a bastardizing asshole, and wants to meet you and Kira later?' Chimamare interjected. Jack was just dying to respond in like, but the continuing presence of the OMNI Officer delayed that. Ramius threw up her arms in exasperation, a bemused, annoyed look on her face.
"Well, nothing to do about it. I guess you'll pilot the Kiba then." There was a little mocking cheer in Jack's head as he bowed.
- The Crucible -
Heliopolis, Surrounding Space
A ZONGS and Three ZAMS? These units are more dangerous than I thought. Rau Le Creuset drifted down the hallway, floating in the low gravity. Opening the door at the end, he entered the hanger. Before him was the red unit Athrun had stolen, a little taller than the ZONGS, and towering over the ZAMS. It drew even with the SCAU, just as dominating as that infamous mobile suit, although for different reasons. The G Unit, or Gundam, as everyone was calling it now, for some strange reason, was colored primarily red, although orange and gold highlights outlined its eyes and decorated parts of its limbs, giving an impression of a blazing fire. Of course, that was when Athrun had first walked it into the hanger, to the awe of most of the mechanics. Now, it was a collection of subdued shades of gray.
"Sir." Turning, Rau saw Athrun at attention, saluting.
"You've heard then?" the commander wasn't surprised. News travels fast on a ship, especially one in space.
"Yes. Miguel, John, Bois, and Hans were all defeated by the Augury and Kiba." Athrun replied, relaxing.
"Indeed. I'll be going back in, to finish those two." Rau said, turning to face his SCAU. It was colored in his cool, calm scheme of silver on white, enhancing the seeming glare of the dual monoeye systems in its head. Athrun nodded, keeping silent about the one issue that plagued his mind.
- The Ace -
Mu swore as he spotted the new contact. With the Mistrals devastated, and him running low on rounds, and some of the more minor damage from the fight mounting up, there was no certainty of him winning this fight. He swore again, louder, as a familiar sensation crossed his mind, driving the tension up a notch. Rau Le Creuset! At that moment, a channel opened.
"Is that you Mu La Flaga? What a surprise to find you here!" The two forces, OMNI and ZAFT, Mobile Armor and Mobile Suit, clashed, the SCAU's stuttering flash of its shield-based 80mm machine cannon contrasting with the bright and sudden sparks of the Zero's linear cannon barrage. The SCAU dashed forward, foot crashing into a gun pod and crushing it, as Rau dashed for the cockpit, heat blade extended from the shield. Mu was far too experienced for such a straightforward attack, jetting the Armor forward, sacrificing the wire of one of the pods for his life. However, he gave up his position as a result, and watched the SCAU wave jauntily at him before darting through the hull door.
Naturally, Mu gave chase.
- The Killer -
Heliopolis Colony, Morgenroete Residential Area
Kira gently eased the Augury into a crouch, watching Ramius for signs that he was doing anything wrong. All he saw was her thumbs up as she ran into the pack transporter. Right now, Murrue was having him and Jack recharge their mobile suits, but where Jack had the Kiba hooked up to a mobile chemical microreactor, Kira was equipping the Augury. Apparently, each pack included an extra capacitor in its main unit, and the Juggernaut pack could equip another one. Within a minute, Kira watched the icons on the HUD overlay change from white to gunmetal gray, signaling the attachment of each piece of the Juggernaut Equipment Pack. Then, an alert sounded, and the inner portion of the hull door exploded inward. On an auxiliary screen, Kira saw the white and silver SCAU emerge from the dust and debris, its left monoeye locking onto the Augury. Le Creuset! Kira felt his heart rate jump, and adrenaline flooded his system. Everyone knew the famous ZAFT ace, who fought in the lunar battle, destroying an entire Berial and its escorts in a ZONGS! It was as perfect an opportunity as Kira could ask for. Murrue waved at him, signaling that the loading was complete.
The Augury rose, the gunmetal-grey pack releasing the two long-barreled weapons at its sides into the Gundam's grip, activating the Gatling gun units mounted on the main unit, and initiating the flow of energy from the secondary capacitor. Kira briefly consulted the armaments screen, selecting the Gatling guns. He would love to see the effect the 350mm Hyper-Impulse Beam Cannons had on a mobile suit, but in Heliopolis, the collateral damage could be catastrophic. The rounds the Gatling gun fired, while relatively large, would just leave disfiguring scars on the inner hull if he missed. Kira took careful aim…and fired, the burst of 85mm projectiles going exactly where he wanted. Just to the side of the SCAU, coming close enough to look like a rookie miss, but far enough that it had little chance to hit the fast mobile suit. Continuing the barrage of just-missing bullets, Kira reached into his pocked, drawing out a radio earpiece. Pressing a pre-determined sequence of buttons on the earpiece, Kira spoke on the command frequency for Le Creuset's team.
"This is Kira Yamato, pilot of the Augury. Rau Le Creuset, can you hear me?" There was a brief pause, a burst of static, before the reply came through.
"This is Rau Le Creuset. What do you want?"
"I would like to request your assistance in an operation."
"Oh, this is rich. You, an OMNI officer, want me to help you?"
"I am an officer of the Orb Intelligence Agency, investigating subversive elements within the higher echelons of the Orb government and military."
"And you would like me to aid in this investigation while you're shooting at me?"
"I do have to maintain my cover." A momentary pause.
"...Alright then, what do you want?"
"Quite simply, continue operating as if you were attempting to catch this mobile suit, and the experimental carrier."
"There's a carrier?"
"Yes." At that precise moment, an explosion sounded, and a column of dust preceded the appearance of an enormous ship, more than a third of a kilometer long. It was shaped like a long, thin wedge, tapered towards the front, ending in what looked like an enormous gunbarrel. On the sides were wings shaped like elongated right triangles, and on the dorsal surface was a smaller wedge-like structure with a large blocky object on top of it. In the back, six enormous thrusters, shaped vaguely like pods, flared, pushing the ship forward. On the forward parts of both dorsal and ventral surfaces were a total of four rounded and tapered rectangular objects. All over the ship, small aerodynamic objects showed the placement of turrets and the like.
"What in the name of Glenn is that?" Rau whispered.
"That would be the Barachiel, prototype flagship and mobile suit assault carrier." Kira explained. At that precise moment, an orange and white mobile armor appeared, coming through the hull door. "I'm about to fire one of my main weapons at you, please escape through the hole it makes in the hull. And move quickly, the nano-repair systems are designed to work fast." All he heard was a grunt from the other end of the line, as the SCAU maneuvered to avoid not only the intentionally missing Gatling gun rounds, but the CIWS guns from the Barachiel, and the linear cannon shots from the Moebius Zero. Leveling the right-hand weapon, Kira took careful aim, feeding his targeting information to Creuset's SCAU so that the ace would know how to dodge. The Hyper-Impulse Beam Cannon fired. Le Creuset elegantly danced around the stream of blue-hot plasma, which still blasted within centimeters of the SCAU's leg armor, impacting the hull. The high-density alloy resisted for an instant, causing the plasma to spread out, affecting more of the hull. The end result was a gaping hole just big enough for a mobile suit. Even as the SCAU moved towards the exit, ferrofluid was already leaking out, the nanomachines suspended in it working to seal the breach. The mobile suit just made it through, the plasma thrusters blasting some of the fluid into the colony as Le Creuset made his escape. "Tell Athrun I said hi."
- The Ace -
"Damn it!" Mu swore, slamming his fist against the side of the cockpit. There was a little popping sound, and a warning flashed on his HUD. "Oh shit." He muttered, punching the comms button. "Barachiel, this is Lieutenant Mu La Flaga of the 7th Orbital Fleet, requesting permission to land." The ace patiently waited for the response. At least, until the thruster failed, then restarted. "Barachiel, please respond, as my Moebius is about to fail catastrophically."
"Erm, Sir, this is Ensign Natarle Badgiruel, current ranking officer of the Barachiel, you may land." That's not good. Mu thought, bringing his badly dinged up unit over to the opening hatch, the rectangular part on the upper right of the ship. As he descended, the ship did too, bringing it in walking distance of the mobile suit that had driven the SCAU off. I have to buy that guy a drink.
- The Killer, The Madman, and The Mad Scientist -
Heliopolis, Barachiel, 1st Catapult Deck/Hanger
4:12 P.M. Orb time
"You know, so long as it's over a radio so the static hides your tone, and the guy can't see your face, you're a pretty good liar Kira." Jack joked. The two new mobile suit pilots were resting on the opened hatch of the Catapult, contemplating their unique opportunity. In response, the Augury's new pilot merely shook his head. "So who's Athrun? Your former boyfriend?" Startled, Kira practically fell off the hatch, barely steadying himself.
"What! NO! He's a friend, from back when I attended Copernicus Elementary..." Both of them immediately sobered.
"So this is where you two have been." They looked behind them to see Liene approaching them from behind. "So... would you be so kind as to tell me what you two are doing, interfering in a project validated by Chief Representative Athha?" The two looked at each other briefly before Kira started talking.
"Uzumi-san didn't clear this." This generated a bemused look from the engineer that clearly stated his current opinion of that. "It's true. We only came here because he noticed a deficiency in the material reports from Heliopolis. We came here, started tracking down the 'errors' and found the G-Project." Kira continued.
"Here's the kicker: Apparently, the whole operation? It's been bankrolled by the Sahakus. And started by them, as far as I can tell." Jack slipped in, grinning. Liene just stood there. Kira was much too honest to lie. Well, at least effectively. And Jack always had that crazy grin when he delivered some truth he expected to knock someone over.
"Well, at least it wasn't the Seirans." He said honestly. Jack nodded, although Kira looked a bit doubtful. "Still, as I've said before: I enjoy making bigger and better weapons for those who I know can put them to far better use than me. And who better than you Kira?"
"Hey! What about me?" Jack cried, indignant.
"I'd rather that you were ejected out the airlock, but I suppose, you would make a somewhat better pilot for the Kiba than me." The three turned to look at the two mobile suits, stored side-by-side at the back of the hanger. Despite the current gray tones of the Gundams, they could easily imagine the units at their best.
The Augury, white torso and limbs with splashes of royal blue and bright gold, blue-outlined yellow eyes flashing, creating a somewhat heroic image.
The Kiba, all curved surfaces colored stark silver with lines of black on its joints, around its eyes, and following its spine. V-fin coms unit curving gently backwards, appearing to be horns, giving the Kiba a demonic appearance, especially with the zigzag design on its faceplate. The six sensor fines, arrayed like a frill along the scalp, lined in black. The two Chilong gauntlets on its hands, claws shining menacingly.
"So, where'd you get the term 'Gundam'?" Liene asked the two, looking them questioningly in the eyes.
"It's what the acronym for the Operating System spells." Kira explained, having coined the term months ago.
"Huh. Catchy term. And I made it without thinking..."
"Oh, get over yourself."
- The Crucible and The Redcoats -
Heliopolis Outer Hull
"Alright, so let me get this straight. We're attacking this highly-advanced mobile assault carrier, which is armed like a miniaturized Berial, and its two mobile suits and Glenn knows what else, to help some Orb officer in his investigation? AM I THE ONLY ONE FINDING ANYTHING WRONG WITH THIS?" Miguel roared, his new ZONGS waving its shield around.
"Calm down Miguel. This is a golden opportunity, one way or another. If what this Kira character says is true, then not only will we be able to wrest control of the prototype ship and the mobile suits from the Earth Alliance, but we'll also ingratiate Orb to ZAFT. If he's lying, then we'll be able to at least destroy them." Rau explained. "Especially with Athrun helping."
The green-eyed Coordinator himself was currently running a systems check, looking for any small errors that could potentially prove fatal. From the outside, the Bastion looked very intimidating, its fiery colors contrasting against the black and pinprick white of space. With the extended V-fin, the glinting blue eyes, and the grill-like faceplate, it gave off a commanding aura. With the shoulder, elbow, wrist and knee flanges, the body of the Bastion looked ominous, almost. The shield it held in its left hand had a 580mm Multi-Phase Beam Cannon built into it, the wide-bore barrel planted directly in the center of the shield's face. In the Bastion's right hand was gripped a beam rifle, about three meters long with a 57mm bore. Across its back was strapped the main melee weapon, a pole-arm.
Check completed, Athrun began logging into the Network.
The Network was, perhaps, one of the greatest advantages the ZONGS and the SCAU had over the ZAMS. By integrating with each other via a combination of quantum communications and tachyon burst transmissions, the ZAFT mobile suits were able to instantaneously pass information to each other. Any information, whatsoever. Targeting data, weather, gravitational anomalies, time, damage, munitions, anything. Which made some of the discoveries about the G Units rather alarming.
For one, the black 'Gundam' as personnel were calling them, had an improved version of the AMBAC system that had caused the scientists back at the PLANTS to rant and rave when the preliminary data was transmitted. However, it appeared that all of OMNI's prototype units had something similar to the Network. And they had lucked out when Athrun had stolen the Bastion, apparently the base for said network. Instead of quantum comms and tachyon transmitters though, OMNI's version relied on encrypted radio burst transmissions.
"Hello? Athrun?" The Red snapped out of his reverie, snapping his head up to see Miguel looking annoyed on the comms screen. "You were listening? I asked what your connection is to this Kira guy."
"Well...I went to the moon after that Blue Cosmos attack on me and my father, remember?" Athrun said, pausing to see Miguel's impatient nod. "I met Kira there. We pretty much became the poster boys for 'BFFs at first sight'."
"...You didn't...date him, did you?" The Bastion's head slowly turned to face Miguel's ZONGS. The next second, a momentary pulse from the Bastion's thrusters sent its shield slamming into the chest of the ZONGS. Before the blow sent the ZAFT mobile suit flying, four insect-like appendages extended from the edges of the shield and wrapped around the ZONGS, holding it tightly.
"I dare you to say anything so much as insinuating that I'm gay again." Athrun's voice hissed, speakers enhancing the menace. "Then we'll see what happens to a ZONGS blasted by a Beam Cannon at close range." Miguel just nodded. Despite his 'famous' status and reputation as an ace, Athrun was generally regarded as a prodigy. Also, despite the prideful denials of the ZAFT engineers, the Bastion out-teched the ZONGS by a good two orders of magnitude.
"Stop!" Rau commanded, voice echoing over the comm lines. "We're almost to the designated point. Get ready" The appendages slowly withdrew back into their storage spaces on the edges of the shield. The Bastion's glare held the ZONGS captive for a moment before Athrun maneuvered the Gundam back the somewhat weaker hull section where Le Creuset and his SCAU escaped.
- The Killer, The Madman, The Mad Scientist, and The Ace -
Barachiel, 1st Catapult Deck/Hanger
The three Coordinators were still standing around when Mu La Flaga came around.
"Yo! You're the guys that beat those ZAFT suits right? I gotta say, that's impressive." Kira and Jack looked at each other before bowing before Mu.
"Thank you very much for your kind praise, Mu-san" Kira said respectfully. "But still, it's nothing compared to what you did, destroying several mobile suits in a mobile armor."
"Aw, come on, it wasn-"
"Respectfully speaking, yes it was. I was one of the refugees fleeing the battle of Endymion." At this, the Hawk of Endymion's eyes saddened.
"The 'heating system malfunction'?"
"Yes."
"Then we're birds of a feather." La Flaga said earnestly giving Kira a friendly pat on the back and getting a weary smile from him. "So, Liene, I heard you had something to show me?"
"Hmm? Oh yes, come with me to the second deck." Curious, Kira and Jack followed the two to the elevator to the second catapult deck that connected the two lower catapults. There, they barely managed to avoid being trampled by a horde of mechanics wielding all sorts of tools and implements. In the center of the hanger, they saw two things.
First, was the badly damaged remains of Mu;s old Moebius Zero, armor plating holed and torn by numerous minor hits that, upon landing, had combined into a series of gaping wounds.
Second, a meter to the left of the wreckage was a shining purple and black mobile armor, vaguely similar in design to the Barachiel, in that it was shaped like an aerodynamic wedge, with pod-shaped engines at the rear. However, there were eight depressions, evenly spread among the surface, four in front and four in back. There were also two smaller, thinner, longer ones that began in what looked like launcher ports near the cockpit area.
"I give you, the Shadowfax." Liene presented proudly. The three pilots made the appropriate sounds of awe, impression, and excitement. "An entirely new design, the Shadowfax was originally thought up by OMNI's design bureau."
"What happened?" Jack asked with a bored look on his face. He'd known Liene long enough to figure this was going to be a long talk.
"I took the design and improved on it, using some of your comments made a while ago." Jack snorted.
"I hope you made the necessary notations on the patent..."
"Anyway, as you all know, the main problem, the reason why mobile armors continue to lose to mobile suits, is because of a lack of reaction speed and a limitation in weapons options." Mu nodded. He'd come across those problems many times in his career as a mobile armor pilot, although the former issue was questionable as to whether it was because Coordinators generally piloted mobile suits and Naturals generally piloted mobile armors. "Well, with the Shadowfax, we have managed to completely eliminate the second issue, and partially solve the first. Those depressions you see? They're weapon mounts, each capable of five different types of weapons – at least, so far." A low whistle emanated from Mu's mouth. "So far, we've made CIWS like the ones the Barachiel mounts, twin-barreled linear repeaters, micro-missile pods, and pulsed chemical lasers for 'standard' weaponry." At this point, Mu was staring at the armor with a look of adoration. "Oh, and for people with spatial awareness like yours Mu, we also have wired detachable beam guns and linear cann-" Liene was interrupted when Mu slapped the engineer on the back.
"You've made my day Liene. When can I try it out?" Right then, an ear-piercing alarm sounded, causing red strobe lights to paint the room.
"Right now, apparently." Liene replied dryly. Turning, he ran for the intercom. Jamming his finger at the button, he selected the bridge channel. "Miss Ramius?"
"What is it Liene?"
"I would advise that you take the Barachiel into the center of the colony's atmosphere. As most of the gravity is generated by centripetal force, the center would have the least gravity, giving the Shadowfax, Augury, and Kiba the best maneuverability available."
Meanwhile, Kira and Jack had already rushed back to the first deck, climbing onto the catwalks leading to their respective mobile suits and leaping into the cockpits. Both strapped themselves in, ran a system check and prepared for battle.
- The Pilots -
The ZONGS moved quickly as the missiles streaked in, the flare of its thrusters propelling it to the side a split-second before they impacted. Instead, the missiles smashed into an artificial hillside, leaving enormous smoking craters. The Barachiel's quad-barreled CIWS guns roared, spewing 75mm rounds at a rate of nearly 5000 per minute. The rounds chewed away at the leg of a ZAMS wielding two large cannons, ripping the limb away as the mobile suit aimed its weapons. The two particle beam weapons fired, gulping power from the large capacitor-backpack attached to the ZAMS. Its' aim thrown off by the impact of the CIWS, the heavy particle beams struck the starboard armor instead of the bridge, destroying a few kilograms worth of armor. On the same side, just to the left of the impact point, a large cannon emerged from the 'bubble', extending to full length at 50 meters, and swiveling on a turret mount. Fuck it. The pilot named Hans fought. He'd already gotten his nose badly cut, practically bisecting the body part. He wasn't about to risk his life to help a foreign agent. He exited the ZAMS just as the railgun fired, the high-density projectile slamming into the ZAMS and crushing it, causing a seeming explosion of kinetic energy.
On the Barachiel, three of the hatches to the linear catapults opened, the two on the top and the bottom left one. From the bottom-left, Mu launched in the Shadowfax, weapon pods filling out the wedge-like design of the mobile armor. The upper-left catapult launched the Kiba, silver and black flowing into existence on its armor as the manipulators attached the gauntlets, claws flashing into a bright platinum as their own Phase Shift Alloys activated.
From the upper right, the Augury launched, a shield clutched in its left hand and its right going to the large sword attached to the pack's main unit as it cleared the catapult. On each of its legs were attached blue pods, similar to ones on its front torso, and outer shoulders. Larger blue pods were placed on the inner parts of the shoulders. The Cavalier Pack was supposed to be the most agile of the three Equipment Packs currently available, and would be most useful in this situation, where the atmosphere and somewhat limited space would impair the Angelos' mobility, and where the Juggernaut's firepower would catastrophically damage the colony if misfired.
The first victim to any of the three was when a ZAMS flew at the Shadowfax, going for the 'easier' target. The pilot, Bois, didn't expect the hail of magnetically-accelerated rounds from the gun forward of the cockpit and on the upper-left to chew at his suit's head and left shoulder, ripping away armor plating and the monoeye. A few rounds penetrated the somewhat denser cockpit armor, ripping away his left arm. The ZAMS dropped way instantly, and Mu fed more power into the thrusters, chasing after another ZAMS.
- The Crucible and The Madman -
Rau Le Creuset, in his SCAU, faced off against the Kiba, Miguel having gone after the Augury with Athrun. The team commander heard a crackle, just like when Yamato had contacted him, and he heard a new voice.
"So, you're Le Creuset, are you?"
"Indeed," Rau replied. "And who would this be?"
"I'm Jack, Kira's partner."
"A pleasure to meet you." At this point, Rau charged the silver Gundam, machine gun firing uselessly as he unsheathed the heat-blade. Jack ignored the bullets, moving instead to dodge the slice from the blade. He discovered the ruse when the SCAU's leg kicked into the cockpit area, rattling him.
'Oh come on! Give me control; let me rip his suit limb from limb!' Chimamare howled, raging inside his skull.
"Shut up you idiot." Jack whispered, too low for the earpiece to pick up. "If you go nuts now, everything could go sour."
'There's no way I was ever a part of you...' the alter muttered, subsiding. Recovering, Jack counterattacked, slicing with the right claws and managing to scratch the paint of the SCAU's head as Le Creuset dodged. The ace returned the gesture, scraping the heat-blade across the Kiba's neck, leaving a small scar of heated armor. Then, the Gundam's faceplate opened along the zigzag design, inside glowing blue-white. The ZAFT commander reacted too slowly, and the searing burst of ions struck his SCAU's right arm, leaping like a straightened bolt of lightning through the shoulder and into a small apartment complex, thankfully already evacuated. The heat was felt by Rau, causing him to feel briefly uncomfortable. The shield rose, this time to fire the machine cannon along with the ones in its torso, bullets ramming into the torso armor of the Kiba. This time, the left claw took the arm as the right sliced at the left side of the head, cutting out the monoeye there.
"You're rather good aren't you?" Rau said, firing the leg thrusters as he retreated.
"Me and Kira used your data to practice against in the simulators."
- The Killer and The Redcoats -
At that moment, Kira was facing Miguel again, the Magic Bullet of Dusk in his borrowed ZONGS.
"So...I guess you think you're hot shit in that mobile suit eh?"
"Well, it's rather different from the ZONGS simulators I'm used to..." The conversation ceased as Miguel charged, machine gun firing as he moved to slam the Gundam with his shield. The Cavalier Pack's microthrusters fired, moving the Augury ever so slightly, causing the burst to miss. When the ZONGS shield moved, the Augury's right hand, still clutching the grip of the sword, moved. The eight-meter blade emerged from its' sheath, beam edge flowing into existence as it sliced down, carving through shield and limb. Before Miguel could move anymore, both the Augury's main thrusters and the microthrusters fired, flipping the Gundam over the ZONGS. A 180-degree spin sliced the "Clarent" sword through the ZONGS midsection, parting legs from torso. The cockpit of the ZONGS fell, only head and right arm still attached. Before it fell too far though, the Bastion's shield slammed into it, appendages gripping the remains of the mobile suit. The two Gundams looked at each other.
"Athrun."
"Kira." The Augury moved, pointing the tip of its sword at the Bastion, which holstered the beam rifle on its thigh, drawing the Beam Naginata. Despite these threatening actions, the two pilots had a rather friendly conversation.
"So, how have you been?"
"I've been OK. You'll never guess though."
"What?"
"Turns out, I'm the Chief Representative's son."
"WHAT!" At this point, the fight had begun, both skillfully attacking, and parrying the others attacks….at least, to the view of any unskilled observers.
"Yep. His daughter's my twin sister."
"I always figured you two looked alike."
To the side, the remaining ZAMS dodged the Shadowfax's fire, although it still had its' legs holed from the railgun shots from the Barachiel. In the bridge, Natarle grew impatient.
"Aim the beam cannon!" Despite their doubts, the crew followed her command, aiming the center port beam cannon. "Fire!" A green beam shot from the bore, speeding through the upper right section of the ZAMS. And into the center structure of Heliopolis. The effect was instantaneous, and obvious.
The structure melted, and the colony shuddered, damage from the fights inside and outside it speeding up the inevitable. The centripetal force ripped Heliopolis to shreds, dirt, concrete, and metal flying away. The rushing winds of the escaping atmosphere pulled the mobile suits along, scattering them all over. It was done minutes later.
The Augury floated in the debris field, Kiba behind it. In the cockpit, Kira's lips thinned, becoming an emotionless line as his eyes briefly dilated, shrinking to pinpricks.
- The Author -
A/N: Phew, done. About four hundred words more than last phase. Anyway, I'll have the tech chapter up today too, so check in about half an hour.
Kira's quite a bit sneakier in this story. He still can't lie well though. Not face to face at least.
Oh, I forgot to tell you guys the meaning of Jack's names eh?
Kagizaki: To rip, tear
Chimamare: Blood-stained
He's Jack the Ripper. ("Your jokes suck") Shut up.
Thawn716: Pretty much
nxkris: Well, I replaced the mobile suits because...well, I wanted to see what I and other people could come up with to fill similar roles. I'd like to think that we've come up with some interesting things.
Alright, I know more people have seen this than have reviewed. Please review, as I want to see what you guys think. Is the story good so far, is it redundant, do the suits suck, come on, and help me improve my writing. I do want to make a living one day.
Knightmare Gundam of Ni