Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm
Phase 06: Constance
Debris Belt, Barachiel, 1st Hanger Deck
January 27th, 71 C.E., 8:26 Orb Time
Jack grinned, watching Kira gaze at the undeniably stunning girl currently being held by one Athrun Zala. The black-haired pilot hadn't had anything to rag Kira on in weeks, ever since that time he'd accidentally programmed the simulator to show the Augury doing the Caramelldansen……that had been hilarious. This was bound to be better. Cautiously, Jack sidled up to Kira, standing just behind the elite pilot and looking over his shoulder. Carefully, he leaned in, about to whisper in Kira's ear.
However, before he could say anything, Kira's foot jerked up, like when doctors hit the knee to get a reflex, only in the opposite direction, right into Jack's groin. Kagizaki dropped to his knees, clutching at that particularly sensitive spot, while biting his lip and mentally screaming curses at Kira, even taking a moment to compose a haiku and two couplets insulting him in a roundabout way.
Kira allowed himself a slight smile at his quick interception of Jack, before moving up to Athrun and tapping his friend on the shoulder.
"Athrun? Introductions, perhaps?" The blue-haired Coordinator smiled, turning with his arm around Lacus to face the others.
"Everyone, this is Lacus Clyne," he said, gesturing to the pink-haired girl next to him, who waved slightly. "Lacus, this is Dearak Elsman, Yzak Joule, and Nicol Amalfi." He gestured to each in turn, before stopping at Le Creuset.
"Commander Le Creuset." Lacus said, nodding her head slightly as the ace bowed. Still grinning, Athrun then turned to the crew of the Barachiel, introducing them as well before finishing with Kira.
"And this is Kira, the guy I told you about years ago." Lacus smiled again, somewhat dazing Kira.
"Athrun told me about you. You were the second friend he ever had." Kira was, of course, perplexed by this, turning to stare questioningly at Athrun.
"Lacus is the first friend I've ever had." Athrun explained. "Although, you're my best friend Kira." Frowning, Kira asked the question that was gnawing at him.
"So what are you two? Just friends?"
"Yep. Chairman Clyne wanted it to be something more….but my father wasn't in any mood for that. Personally, I'm glad. Lacus is more like a sister than anything else." Athrun said. Out of the corner of his eye, Kira saw Jack muttering under his breath.
He grinned.
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Debris Belt, Celestial-Class Ship: Grigori, Bridge
"Damn, they shredded those ships like they were made of aluminum." Abaddon's second-in-command, David Sariel, swore. Abaddon himself, sitting in the captains chair, just shook his head. They'd all known the power of the Gundams, but even he'd thought that they'd take longer to destroy the Task Group…….oh well, that just meant that they'd have to be a bit more cautious in observing them. Abaddon switched his attention to the sensors officer, Ivan.
"Did you get the data?"
"Yes Admiral. I believe we have about eighty-three percent of the total needed information. All that's needed is the Augury's Angelos data, and the Kiba's Positron Cannon." Abaddon smiled slightly at this, leaning back in the chair.
"Send out the Constantines." At this, the entire bridge crew stopped their work to stare at him.
"Um…sir? Permission to speak freely." Sariel ventured. At Abaddon's nod, he continued. "The Operating Systems are only partially complete, and while we have several pilots, each is only-"
"I know." Abaddon interrupted, his voice cold as liquid nitrogen. "But we won't be able to complete the system without more data, and to get that data, we need the Augury to launch with its Angelos pack, and we need the Kiba to fire its Positron Cannon, and the only way we're going to do that is if we draw them out. Now, launch the Constantines before I lose my patience." Shuddering, the crew obeyed without any further complaint.
They'd seen the results of that.
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Vesalius, Bridge
The sensor officer frowned, before turning to Ades.
"Sir, do we have any other mobile suit units in the area?"
"No.....as far as I know, only us, the Le Creuset team, and the Orb officers are in the area.....why?"
"Because I'm picking up ten mobile suit contacts on my radar, and no IFF signals." Ades nodded slowly, before acting. Picking up the intercom-phone, he ordered Miguel, Bois, and Hans to launch, and then opened a line to the Barachiel.
Barachiel, 1st Hanger Deck
"Everyone, get to your units. The Vesalius has reported ten unidentified mobile suits approaching it. As a precaution, I want all pilots in their units if they turn out to be hostile." Murrue's voice spoke over the intercom. The engineers acted quickly, with Liene taking Lacus to the halls, while Murdoch and the rest got the Gundams and the SCAU-XU prepped, recharging, and reloading. A few of them took the Agamemnon pod to one side, before getting back to their normal combat duties.
The assorted pilots quickly boarded their machines, strapping themselves in, starting up systems, testing thrusters and all the other standard start-up procedures. Within half a minute, everyone was raring to go.
And not a second too soon.
Jackie saw the mobile suits fly past the three ZONGS from the Vesalius, ignoring them on their course to the Barachiel.
"Ma'am, the unidentified mobile suits have passed the Vesalius' mobile suit team. They're on a direct course towards us." Murrue nodded before motioning to Miriallia and settling into her seat.
"All pilots, launch!"
First to launch were the Augury and the Kiba, followed quickly by the Shadowfax. They were also the last to launch. Seconds after the catapults fired them out at a goodly velocity, green ship beams reached out from behind the unidentified mobile suits and blasted the catapults, rendering them unable to launch anymore.
"Shit!" Was the communal curse. With the 1st deck catapults down, the ZAFT units would have to transfer to the 2nd deck to launch, which took at least five minutes.
At the moment, several of the crew were cursing their lack of foresight in storing all the mobile suits on one deck. Kira and Jack had some rather more pressing things to consider though, such as the hail of beam rifle fire shooting from the ten suits. Each of the suits looked like some kind of medieval knight, down to the helmet-like heads with cruciform visors and the right pauldron that extended down from the shoulder to cover the entire upper arm. The mobile suits held beam rifles, similar to the Enmity's, complete with grenade launcher, in their right manipulators, with large round shields clenched in their left. On the left hip a small beam saber was holstered, with a pistol similar in make to the Augury's Dylandys on the right. At the moment, they were firing at the Augury and the Kiba, and missing rather badly.
"Hey Kira, you thinking what I'm thinking?" Jack asked, settling into the pilot chair.
"What? That these mobile suits look disturbingly like the Gundams?" Kira replied, double-checking the Angelos Pack – Augury connections. He didn't want to get caught short-handed if these were other G Units.
"No. Well, yes, but that's not what I'm getting at. Look at how they move. And how they shoot, for that matter." Kira saw his point. While fast, the mobile suits were moving rather jerkily, and inefficiently. Judging by the thruster flares and clumsy movements, the only reason they were heading towards the Barachiel at all was because of the AMBAC system and sheer stubbornness on the part of the pilots. As for their accuracy, it was as bad as Murrue's when she was piloting the Augury before Kira took over.
"Huh. I guess OMNI had other mobile suit development programs." Kira said.
"I see now..." a voice broke in over the comms. Liene, naturally. "That's what they meant when they said the G Project was just a specialization program."
"Huh?" Both pilots responded, sounding somewhat dense.
"When I was sent to Heliopolis to help in the G Project," Liene explained, "They said that it was just a program meant to specialize. At first, I thought they meant how each of the Gundams were mainly geared in a specific area of warfare or combat, with the Augury being a more flexible iteration. Now, however, I see that OMNI had another development project going, and the G Project was probably – I make no guarantees – just to find ways to incorporate some of their more advanced ideas." Both pilots nodded. It made sense. Sorta like how, after the initial aircraft in the 1900s, developers began making more specialized airplanes. At the moment however, the only thing that mattered was the destruction of this threatening force before them.
In the Kiba's cockpit, Jack clenched his teeth and closed his eyes, Chimamare wrenching both open in a wide-eyed howl of glee a second later. Unfortunately for the OMNI pilots, already somewhat demoralized by their machines rather ineffective fire, said howl was screeched over an open channel, causing ZAFT pilots, Barachiel crew, and OMNI pilots to hear the bloodthirsty roar. Shortly afterwards, the Augury and Kiba charged, crossing the space between them and the OMNI machines within seconds, the Augury's beam sabers flashing and the Kiba's manipulators stiffened into flat, chopping spades. No need to waste too much energy on these.
Fate, luck, chance, whatever the heck it was called, had different plans though, causing the two Orb pilots to struggle against the sheer panic of the OMNI pilots. In their pants-soiling panicked mood, the OMNI pilots desperately tried to get away from the two horrendously threatening Gundams, mainly the one from which the howl had been transmitted. In their desperation, the pilots tried all sorts of maneuvers to get away from them. Surprisingly, most of them worked, if not in the manner they expected, and certainly not in the manner that Kira or Chimamare had expected. One pilot, the first one in the Kiba's path, tried to fire the thrusters to dash straight up, where Chimamare was planning to slam the Kiba's right manipulator into the cockpit before using the left one to rip apart the second mobile suit. Instead, the Constantine charged the Kiba, slamming into its torso and sending the Gundam careening away. Another OMNI pilot tried to both use his shield to block the Augury's sabers and shoot the Gundam, where Kira would've responded by slicing the beam rifle in half with the left saber, kick the shield away, and then bisect the Constantine. Instead, the shield slammed forward edge first, taking the Augury in the head. The Gundam pilots recovered quickly, destroying their respective opponents in a brief fit of rage. The rest of the admittedly brief fight went on like that, with fortunate blunders on the OMNI soldier's part causing difficulties for the Orb pilots. One Constantine, in an attempt to run away, tried to fire its thrusters in front of it. However, it instead spin-kicked one of its brethren into the Kiba's back before being decapitated and then dismembered by the Augury. The unwitting projectile tried to push the Kiba away. This resulted in an awkward punch that caused Chimamare to turn and karate chop it in half before impatiently opening the Kiba's maw to reveal the Positron Cannon.
"Um, Chimamare, are you sure you want to do that? Jack's not too sure that he and Liene-" Kira was interrupted by the flare of the beam of tightly compressed antimatter blasting into a Constantine, causing an annihilation chain-reactions that left the mobile suit as little more than energy. The remaining five decided to fight at this point. Again, luck seemed to be on their side, as their unintentionally unorthodox tactics forced the two Gundams back. Instead of blocking the Kiba's hands with its shield, one Constantine kicked out, catching the Gundam in the side. And when its pilot tried to fire the beam rifle, the mobile suit flipped the weapon around in its hand and bashed the Augury upside the head. These two were quickly slaughtered, as Chimamare tore off the arm of the one assaulting him and whacked it several times with the limb before piercing it through the cockpit. Kira, on the other hand, tiredly sheathed on beam saber, drawing the pistol and double-tapping his assailant in the battery.
The last three OMNI units put up an unintentional good fight, but eventually they succumbed, losing limbs and heads to the two Gundams and being dragged back to the Barachiel.
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Grigori, Bridge
"Perfect, that's all the data we need, and more." Abaddon said, slight smile having returned to his face.
"Um…sir?" Sariel asked. "What about the three Constantines that were captured?"
"All the traitors will learn from them are our existence, and some minor facts about our mobile suits. Considering that we now have all that we need, and will engage in open combat with them after we deliver this data to JOSH-A, our secrecy, or lack thereof, is moot. The latter is also inconsequential, as the Constantines are actually less advanced than the Gundams, as well as that new SCAU that we've seen." Abaddon explained, making sure to speak slowly so the crew could understand. "Now get us to the Moon."
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Barachiel, 2nd Hanger Deck
The pilots, mechanics, and armed crewman gathered around the three sorry-looking mobile suit pilots. One was Asian, another looked like the poster boy for the Eurasian military, and the other could've been from Hawaii. Their dogtags stated them to be, respectively, Ensigns Hiro Hetare, Pyotr Ivanovich Lebedsky, and Kalani Johnson. At the moment, they all looked about ready to soil their pilot suits.
It wasn't hard to see why, as Kira was standing before them with an expression that could only be described as horrendously terrifying. It wasn't because of any identifiable emotion that showed in the unconscious tightening of muscles. It was because of the lack of an expression. Said expression radiated such inhuman blankness, that even Jack was edging away from Kira.
"What the hell is the matter with him?" Yzak whispered to Liene, moving at a slightly faster pace away from the Orb pilot.
"They did the whole Blue Cosmos Anti-Coordinator song and dance." Liene replied. "Kira absolutely hates that. Last time, the security forces at Morgenroete caught a Blue Cosmos spy, and Kira was around. When the spy started ranting about how Orb was damned for harboring Coordinators, Kira threw everyone out and went to work on him. During this, the screams made people think Hell itself was rising. Afterwards, we buried what was left." Of course, Jack had to butt in.
"The strangest thing about that was that we found the guy's testicles shoved halfway down his throat." This was much louder than Yzak and Liene's whispered conversation, and caused the OMNI pilots to audibly gulp. They all began stuttering at the same time, hoping to save their lives (and their balls) with some tidbit of information. While Murrue asked them questions, Mu took notes, trying to accurately transcribe the responses. Minus the stuttering, the pleas for mercy, and the sobbing sounds. Eventually, after about half an hour, the trio was dragged off to the brig, and Kira, much to everyones relief, assumed his normal personality.
"Alrighty, so let's go over this." Mu said, flipping through the little notepad. "First off, we've been tailed since Artemis by that Edward Abaddon guy in a second Celestial-Class ship christened the Grigori, and said individual heads a unit called 'The Watchers' who are primarily a data collection group, although assassinations and other such special operations are well within their capabilities. Second, these dilapidated wrecks were formerly the Earth Alliance's very first mass-production mobile suits, the Constantine, which still lacks a Natural-use operating system, but may be completed with data stolen from the Gundams via the jess-ges- gestalt Network that someone forgot to remove." Mu glared at Liene for a second. "Third, OMNI has been producing these mobile suits for the past year, and after the O.S. is finished, will start using them." Here Liene and Jack stepped in.
"Judging by what these guys said, OMNI should have the O.S finished before we get to landing altitude on Earth, seeing as we need to make repairs to the hangers before moving off to blast through the entire 8th Orbital Fleet." Liene noted. Jack took over from here.
"I took a look at these things. They're pretty simple, as you'd expect. Light armor, paper batteries, and a relatively simple control system. They're made for quick and cheap production, and can be piloted by anyone with about a week's worth of training. This means, naturally, that they're as fragile as a ceramic dish. About a quarter second burst from the Barachiel's CIWS should do them in. However, there's gonna be a lot of them."
"How many?" Rau asked.
"Oh, say about four or five for every ZONGS you have. These things are made to be cheap, disposable, and fast. They'll be swarming." Jack finished, shaking his head. Everyone dispersed on that note, going to their duties. Or, in the case of the ZAFT and Orb pilots, going to hang out with a certain pink-haired pop star.
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Barachiel, Kira/Jack's Quarters
January 6th, 71 C.E., 8:09 A.M.
Jack was pressing his ear against the aft wall of the room he shared with Kira. Luckily enough, that Lacus chick had gotten that room, with Athrun's being next to hers. Kira had gone out, and hadn't come back.
Jack was seething with anticipation. Finally, he'd have something embarrassing to lord over Kira. In public!!!! Sneakily, Jack stole out the door, moving towards Lacus' room, pressing his ear against the frame. Inside, he heard girly giggles, and a boyish grunt.
Holy shit! Did he actually get in her pants this fast? Jack thought, leaning further into the door. Which opened, revealing two very perturbed Coordinators, Kira and Athrun to be specific. Turning to run, Jack found himself faced with Yzak and Dearka.
"So." Yzak said. "You thought you could peep on Lacus Clyne, eh?" The white-haired Red cracked both sets of knuckles, flexing his hands before settling into a low, crouched position that Jack himself knew very well. Dearka smacked a length of pipe on his open palm. Looking over his shoulder, Jack saw Kira holding the balisong in a very threatening manner, while Athrun brandished a pistol, which Jack was very relieved to notice was safed. Until he realized Athrun meant to club him upside the head with said weapon.
"What's going on here?" Quick as a flash, the three ZAFT pilots and one Orb pilots hid their weapons, looking as innocent as possible, while Athrun draped his arm over Jack's shoulder.
"We're just all getting to know one another Lacus. See, while Kira and I have known each other for a long time, Yzak and Dearka don't know all that much about him. And none of us but Kira know anything about Jack, so we figured we'd all go do some...er....male bonding." Athrun said with a grin as fake as a Blue Cosmos peace sign. Lacus apparently took the bait, going into her room. The room that Jack had thought was Athrun's. A second later, the situation was back into the hostile and threatening one that looked like it would have Jack being handled very, very roughly. Then, he saw what was perhaps his one chance at salvation.
"Liene!" Jack very nearly sobbed. "Help me out here!" Liene looked up from the schematics he had been perusing, staring at the situation. He looked from Jack, to Kira, to Athrun, to Yzak, to Dearka, and back to Jack. Then he looked back at Kira.
"I saw nothing." Liene said. "And I most certainly did not gleefully watch you four beat Jack into a mewling pulp." Before Jack could cry out in alarm, Kira hit him in the back of the head with the hilt of his knife before catching him under the armpits and dragging him into Athrun's room. The other four followed him, with Liene anticipating a good show.
Cafeteria/Meeting Room/Break Room
10:26 A.M.
The six Coordinators sauntered into the cafeteria for breakfast, having completed their duties, as well as their......diversion. Upon their entrance, Mu, Sai, Tolle, Kuzzey and Miriallia looked up in astonishment.
"What the hell happened to you?" Mu asked Jack. The teen looked like he'd been painfully assaulted by a number of animated statues, with enormous bruises covering every inch of visible skin, both eyes black, and what looked like a cut above one brow.
"He fell down some stairs." Kira said quickly.
"I fell down some stairs." Jack agreed quickly. Mu frowned for a moment.
"But this ship doesn't have any-"
"Well! See ya!" Jack said, limping out the door. Everyone looked at the five remaining Coordinators, who had at this point retrieved their meals.
"What's the matter with him?" Sai asked, bewildered.
"I think something he drank didn't agree with him." Liene said. The others nodded. Everyone else's gaze slid across the room to rest on the resident pop star, who looked as confused as the rest of them.
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A/N: Poor Jack. He's like, the punching bag. Except that every once in a while, said bag punches back. With claws. Sorry for the short chapter guys, but you know whats coming up.......
G Wager: As far as I know, Maius Military Industries is the main ZAFT weapons manufacturer, with the Integrated Design Bureau coming up with the schematics for the stuff they make. Velshard used the Asimov Design Bureau as the ZAMS manufacturer, seeing as ZAFT probably wouldn't have had the resources to begin mass-producing them at the earlier start of the war in this fanfic.
Infinite Freedom: Thanks, I'll fix that
Jeikobu Kyoudai-teiru: thank you. I have the same problem myself, heh.
Knightmare Gundam of Ni