Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm
Phase 5, Part 2: Pop Stars and Allsters
Outer Edge of Debris Belt, Vesalius, Bridge
January 27th, 71 C.E., 7:57 P.M., Orb Time
"Why aren't we launching, Ades?" Miguel demanded. The blond pilot was standing next to Ades' command chair, hand clenched by his side. "We should launch now and destroy those ships!" Ades sighed.
"Commander Le Creuset has ordered us to circle around the OMNI ships, blocking their route of escape. Meanwhile, He, the rest of his team, and the Orb pilots will attack the group from the front." Miguel paused at that. He had to admit, it made sense. Calming down, he made his way to the hanger, where his repaired custom ZONGS waited.
Barachiel, 1st Hanger Deck
Athrun strapped himself into the Bastion quickly, even as Kira and Jack raced towards their own Gundams. Rau was already stepping up to the catapult, being more comfortable in the somewhat familiar SCAU-XU Charcharius. The ZAFT pilots finished their start-up procedures just as the Orb pilots began theirs, moving to the catapults on either deck. First to launch was the Charcharius and the Bastion, both firing thrusters as soon as they cleared the catapults. Next were the Ferox, Noctoraptor and the Enmity, followed by the Cavalier Augury and the Kiba. Mu launched a second later, moving off all by himself. Aside from the Noctoraptor, the Shadowfax was the stealthiest unit. The Gundams and SCAU-XU formed up, with the Bastion holding up the rear and the Charcharius leading.
"Wait, why is Athrun lagging behind?" Yzak asked crossly.
"While we were at Aprilius One, the engineers at Maius had a look at the Bastion, and made some modifications." Rau answered.
"THEY DID WHAT!!!????" Liene veritably screamed over the comms. The engineer was tapping the comms in case the pilots ran across any problems. Rau ignored the steaming engineer.
"Athrun, you might as well do it." The next second saw a change sweep over the Bastion. The flanges began to rotate out, folding out as well until they were practically as long as each of the Bastion's limbs. Sections of armor flipped out on hinges, revealing telescoping antennae. The V-fin's arms extended as well, becoming about twice as long, with sections every fifty centimeters sliding out at ninety-degree angles. The shield was stored on the Bastion's back, Multi-Phase Cannon concealed by shifting armor plates.
"Conversion to Beta Bastion complete." Athrun said, while Liene screamed over the comm line.
"I WAS SUPPOSED TO FINISH THAT!"
"Lay off Liene, you're just annoyed that someone else tampered with your mobile suits." Jack said, before cutting the comms and shifting a bit in his seat, making absolutely sure to be in the most uncomfortable position possible before letting Chimamare take control. The bloodthirsty alter mentally cursed Jack, before moving into a better position. The Kiba's movements shifted slightly, going from a standard mobile suit movement style, to something resembling how a hunting cat moved, lithe and predatory. Of the six others, only Kira and Rau noticed the change.
I wonder….Rau thought, before filing the curiosity away in the back of his mind. The mobile armors had noticed them.
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On their part, the mobile armors assigned to the battle group had never expected to find themselves faced with the stolen prototypes. Nor had they expected to find said prototypes accompanied by a new ZAFT unit. Or the Shadowfax, which most of the elite pilots had drooled over upon witnessing simulations with its theoretical data.
Moving quickly, with anti-mobile suit tactics developed over years of combat, they split up, the thirty or so Moebius armors pairing up. Immediately, when they came within a kilometer of the approaching suits, about a third of them began having problems with their engines, and about half of those reported difficulties controlling the mobile armors. Two of those exploded for no obvious reason. The rest didn't live long enough to wonder what happened.
The Ferox's barrage eliminated ten armors immediately, with a few bursts of the Enmity's Beowulf ripping through three more. The Noctoraptor darted among a group of five too close to each other, not even dodging the badly missing shots before destroying them with beams from the shield carbines. The Augury and Kiba shredded seven, before moving for the Agamemnon hanging at the back of the ship formation. The Shadowfax zoomed past the entire fight, a flight of missiles launching for a Drake-class drifting away from the group. The Charcharius accounted for the rest, destroying two with the thermal bayonet from its linear assault rifle, and a third one with the beam saber in its shield. The scattered remnants were cleared up with bursts from the torso-based pulse lasers, as Rau moved the SCAU-XU towards the forward most Drake-class. Athrun began slowly moving the B-Bastion, until he was within a kilometer of the rearmost Drake.
The crews of the ships were, needless to say, fucking scared of the seven suits and one armor. The two forward Nelsons and the Drakes opened up with everything they had, machine guns, beam guns, missiles, everything began firing.
At each other.
The devastation was obvious, as gaping holes opened up in their hulls, before the Shadowfax's missiles could hit. A few lucky (or unlucky) beams hit chemical reactors, ammunition bays or mobile armor munitions of two Drakes, causing internal explosions that shredded the two vessels.
In the Agamemnon's bridge, Captain Alex Dynam in command of the battle group raged.
"What the hell are you doing!?" He roared into the comms link. The other captains couldn't explain. Their targeting systems were classifying the others as targets. Dynam felt a chill.
Wasn't the Bastion equipped with an EWACS system? But it shouldn't be able to do that! Unless…..
"You!" he barked, pointing at the sensors officer. "Get me images of the Bastion, camera and radar!" The sweating officer complied quickly, remembering the captain's quick temper. The images he pulled up were very revealing. The array of antennae all over the red Gundam's body in the camera image caused it to look like a knight in spiked armor. The radar images showed enormous radio waves emanating from the Gundam, completely overpowering the Nelson's own radio signals and somewhat overlapping the Agamemnon's own.
Fuck me....they got the Beta Bastion up and running! The officer considered for a second. Either he could start up his weapons, and possibly fall victim to the B-Bastion's combination of automatic hacking and advanced electronic countermeasures, or try and flee and get shredded by the Gundams. Even as he watched, they were carving their way through the remnants of the Drakes.
The Enmity stopped briefly in front of the bridge of a Drake straight in the middle of the formation, took aim with its rifle, and fired a grenade into the bridge. The Ferox's HE Equalizer rounds ripped open the hull of another one, even as its Shredder's high-velocity rounds penetrated the bridge. The Noctoraptor's Ballistra fired, the round piercing the reactor and causing a massive explosion. The Kiba's Chilongs almost idly slid through the side of a Nelson, leaking freezing air into space.
"I told you it was a bad idea to divert from the course!" said the useless politician sitting in the seat next to the commander. George Allster, vice foreign minister, was supposed to have been going to Artemis to smooth things over with the ruffled Eurasians there. Something about an incident a week ago. However, after receiving word of the asteroid fortress's virtual destruction, they'd turned the Task Group around back for the Moon.
Then, they'd found the Silverwind. After the 'inspectors' had boarded it and learned the position of the main passenger, Dynam had ordered the group to capture or destroy it. Capturing or killing Lacus Clyne, daughter of Chairman Clyne, would deal a significant blow to ZAFT"s morale. And, hopefully, get Dynam that promotion he'd been looking for.
He did NOT expect to run into the mutinous Barachiel.
"Get the Vice Foreign Minister to the escape pod." Dynam ordered, clenching his fist on the arm of his chair. Allster left quickly enough, led by one of the ensigns. As Dynam returned his attention to the main screen, a flash signaled the very bright, very explosive destruction of the last Drake. Now, all that stood between his ship and the enemy were two rather torn up Nelsons. Dynam really wished he'd saved that pod for himself. Then he issued instructions to the crew. If they were going out, then by God, they were going to take someone to hell with them!
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Chimamare. Was. Bored. It had been ease itself to slaughter those mobile armors, and with the B-Bastions electronic warfare, he'd actually fallen asleep for a few seconds attacking the ships. Currently, the alter was having the Kiba slice through the Nelson, ripping through the hull towards the reactor. He ignored the numerous floating corpses, most with various parts missing, or floating a good distance away from them.
Behind him, the Augury quickly dealt with the last Nelson, swerving around the beams it fired as the laser intercepted the missiles. The micro-thrusters maneuvered the Augury close to one of the beam turrets, allowing the massive Clarent sword to slice it in two before the Gundam moved away from the ship, circling around it towards the bridge. Kira staunched the spasm of conscience as he saw the faces of those in the bridge, the shield leading to smash into the structure. The Clarent, which Kira had stabbed into the ship after slicing the turret, was withdrawn from the gaping slash in the ship's side. Kira launched the Augury towards the last ship, the Agamemnon, joining the circle of mobile suits that surrounded it.
A second later, a pod jettisoned from the ship, flying out into space before smacking straight into the Kiba's gauntlet-less manipulator, the Gundam holding the pod up before taking it back to the Barachiel at a nod from the Augury. This slight distraction allowed the Agamemnon to swivel its beam cannons about, firing at the Silverwind.
The ZAFT pilot's cries were heard as the beams blasted through the Silverwind, leaving the ship smoking for a few seconds before it exploded. Athrun, however, noticed something. Moving quickly, he fired the B-Bastion's thrusters, grabbing the single object that had ejected from the Silverwind.
Before anyone could do any more, the cannons shifted slightly, aiming at the Augury this time. Kira acted quickly, dodging the Augury up, out of the cannons path just before the beams fired. Acting quicker than ever, Kira poured power into the thrusters, manipulating the smaller micro-thrusters so that he landed feet first behind the cannons, right in front of the bridge. The impact caused the hull to buckle around the Augury's feet, slightly holding the Gundam there as Kira used the leverage to swing the Clarent 360-degrees, behind the Augury, over its head, and down through the bridge. Before moving any more, Kira thrust the sword as far as possible down through the hull, before activating the micro-thrusters and zooming the Augury backwards. The cut belched air, items, and bodies, all freezing in the near-absolute zero of space. The ZAFT pilots, except for Rau, gaped at how fast Kira gutted the carrier. After a second, the Augury shrugged, before leading them back to the Barachiel.
Vesalius, Bridge
"Holy shit that was fast." Miguel muttered. His ego was somewhat assuaged now. It seemed that this Kira guy was a lot more skilled than he let on. That, or he'd been spending a lot more time working on his technique. Off to the side, Ades nodded, before placing the phone down.
"Commander Le Creuset wants us to rendezvous with the Barachiel, It seems Athrun picked up an escape pod from the Silverwind."
"So Miss Clyne could be alive?" Miguel asked. The entire crew perked up at that possibility.
"Indeed."
Barachiel, 1st Hanger Deck
The pilots descending from their machines saw the two engineers, Murdoch and Liene, working on the Silverwind pod. The Agamemnon's pod was left derelict, dangerously close to the Kiba's foot. They all ignored that one though, instead moving towards the Silverwind's pod. The ZAFT pilots because they hoped that Lacus Clyne was inside. Kira and Jack because they were curious. Athrun rushed to the pod, pushing aside Liene and Murdoch before rapidly punching in several codes on the keypad. One worked, opening the door.
Out popped a small pink ball, talking childishly.
"Hello, Lacus, Haro!" This was followed by the emergence of a pink-haired teenage girl in a white and purple dress, looking around. When her eyes fell on Athrun, she smiled, and most of the people in sight were dazed.
"Athrun!"
"Lacus!" The two hugged each other, with the little robot bouncing around them, saying inconsequential things. Kira stared, transfixed by the beautiful girl. Jack noticed this, and leaned over to Liene.
"I see a love triangle forming." He said, nodding towards Athrun and Lacus, then Kira.
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A/N: Before any of you ask, yes, the so-called 'love triangle' will be cleared up quickly. I don't know about any of you, but romance makes me uneasy. I feel weird writing it.
("Maybe it's because you're a teen?") Quiet K'GoN, let's not go over your age of maybe six months.
Anyway, file 02 up next, this afternoon
Read and review.
Knightmare Gundam of Ni