Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm
Pseudo-Phase: The Battle of Antarctica

Two Days Ago, February 2nd, 71 C.E.

6:10 AM Local Time

"So, everyone clear on the plan?" Commander Richards asked his men, all just-out-of-training Reds in ZONGS. A chorus of affirmatives answered him, each and every single one a lie. Richards knew this because he himself wasn't exactly sure of the plan. Their orders were pretty much as followed: "Go Here and Kill Everything not ZAFT." Where here was was wherever the hell their Laurasia-Class, the Z.S.S Vaalbara, was dropping them. About the only clear part was the 'Kill Everything'.

There was, however, a bit of a clue in the special lubricant coatings applied to their Mobile Suits, made specifically for ice-laden environments.

It was only until after the drop pod split apart, about ten minutes later, that Richards got it. A pure white vista greeted his eyes, relayed by the monoeye camera of his ZONGS. When he altered the angle of his ZONGS head, he saw the reflections of the dozens of ZONGS and terrestrial-fit ZAMS in the kilometers-wide solar panels of the Alliance's energy facility.

Since the April Fool's Crisis, where ZAFT had dropped hundreds of Neutron Jammers, thus denying the Earth Alliance use of its numerous nuclear fission reactors, the Alliance had been primarily reliant on two facilities for energy: The Polar Photoelectronic Transfer Bases. There were exactly two, one at each pole, providing year-round photonically-derived energy to the Alliance cities in northern and southern hemispheres. They were holdovers from the time before the Reconstruction War, old technology that had been phased out in favor of the new Generation Six nuclear fission hyper-reactors.

If ZAFT could take one of them out, they could shut down half or more of the Alliance's facilities: mobile weapons factories, air-defense systems, terrestrial-spatial communications relays......Of course, there was the small matter of the battalion or so of OMNI Enforcer mobile suits.

Richards flinched when a sniper round hit one of his team. Below he could see many more Constantines, OMNI's mass-production mobile suit, aiming weapons, above. A second later, hails of bullets crossed in both directions, as both sides attempted to completely destroy the other. Richards' ZONGS was nicked a few times, one of the shots hitting the shoulder and severing its left arm. Calmly, he raised his ZONGS' machine gun and fired a burst, hitting a Constantine in the chest and feeling a slight glimmer of satisfaction when it fell, nothing left of its cockpit section but a large gaping hole.

Before he knew it, his team landed, crunching photosensitive polymers and ceramics under their suits' feet as they rushed towards their immediate enemies, a team of Constantines. As the OMNI units raised their weapons, one of Richards' team members, Ann, fired off a series of rounds from her sniper rifle, expertly blasting each Constantine in the cockpit. Even as they fell though, another dozen or so of the Natural's mobile suits rushed up, this time with grenade launchers attached to their rifles.

Richards swore when Ann was hit head-on by a salvo of grenades. Say what you will about their common sense, OMNI's troops weren't dumb enough to ignore a sniper. Even before the remains of Ann's ZONGS toppled to the ground, the remaining three members of the team were rushing around the Constantine squad, barely surviving the linear rounds and high-explosive grenades that were fired their way.

"Need some help?" Richards yelped when a barrage of machine gun fire streaked past either side of his ZONGS, in between his two remaining team mates and shredding the Constantines to bits. Turning, and manipulating his ZONGS' camera a bit, he saw a team of ZONGS led by a SCAU trotting up to him, firing off a burst every now and then. "How's it been?" Derrik. It had to be Derrik.

"The usual. Lose two team-mates, get shredded a bit by retarded-ass Naturals, get 'helped'." Richards snarled back, before turning his attention to one of the few Constantines that had survived Derrick's assault. A burst of fire into the cockpit took care of it before Richards ordered his team to move up. They were starting to fall behind the main force.

"Nice way to thank someone." Derrick muttered. his team trailing after.

"Yeah, well, I trust you at my back about as much as I'd trust Rau Le Creuset." Richards growled. sweeping the area for any more OMNI units.

"I still don't get why you don't trust him. Le Creuset is a hero! And the best pilot in the entire mobile suit division! Not to mention a canny commander."

"That's just it. He's so good, but no one knows anything about him. No parents, no birth date, age, hell, no one even knows what his face looks like!" Richards muttered, taking out a single Constantine charging for them with a burst of machine gun fire across its legs before Derrick finished it off himself.

"Damn it's cold out here!" the SCAU pilot moaned, and Richards could almost see the Caucasian Coordinator shudder in his pilot suit. He rolled his eyes. Cold Antarcitca may be, it wasn't cold enough to touch on space. Fortunately, ZAFT's mobile suits were very well fit for cold temperatures, any complications offered by the ice and humidity being eliminated or reduced by slight modifications and coating additions. Unfortunately, OMNI had the same things on their Constantines.

"Hoy, what's that?"

'That' was a Constantine-looking mobile suit, except instead of the weird crucifix-like camera it had a visor-like camera strip and was missing the extended pauldron. Also, instead of the uniformly light coloring of the Constantines, it was colored primarily a dark gray-blue color with a platinum secondary on the edges of the visor and the joints.

"Meh, it's just another one of their suckish mobile suits." Derrick snorted, advancing his SCAU to deal with it.

Out of nowhere, another one of the strange new mobile suits attacked, an enormous anti-ship sword swinging at the SCAU. Derrick didn't even have a chance to scream before the blade cut him in half. Richards swore, turning his ZONGS around.

"Everyone, fall back! It's a tr-" He ceased his order, instead letting his jaw gape at the scene that was behind his team.

A horde of Constantines swarmed behind them, eviscerating the ZONGS, ZAMS, and SCAUs that had been fighting.

"What the hell!" Richards cried, backpedaling his ZONGS.

Only to slam into the new mobile suit. Quickly, Richards spun his ZONGS around, trying to aim his machine gun. He didn't make it, the strange dark machine grabbing his ZONGS arm and lifting the entire seventy-four and a half metric tons of mecha up into the air. The OMNI suit studied the ZAFT unit for a few seconds, its camera strip taking in all the details. Then the mech raised its other arm, aiming its linear assault rifle.

A few seconds later, Richards' ZONGS fell to the ground with a tattered hole blasted through its entire torso, as the other OMNI units fell on the two remaining ZAFT troops.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 -- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? – 00000000000000000000000000000000000000

Two Hours Later

Inside his Strategos, Watcher pilot Major John Thatcher observed as the cannon-fodder Constantines continued to clear the area of the dilapidated wrecks of both ZAFT's mecha and those of the unlucky bastards who hadn't been able to scramble out of the way.

"It's a good thing we were here to get our Strategos, eh sir?" Turning his suit's camera around, John glanced at the slate and emerald Strategos of his Second-In-Command, Captain Brad Penn.

"Too true. If we hadn't been here, ZAFT would've slaughtered the guards and taken out the energy station." John replied "Anyway, how's your Strategos working out?"

"Very well sir. The joints move smoothly, and the sword is very effective." Brad had spent most of the fight dashing in and out of combat, using the extra thrusters of his Strategos' Cavalier pack to wage a pseudo-guerrilla combat. He'd already made double-ace, with six ZAMS, three ZONGS, and two SCAUs set to be painted on his Strategos' head.

"Good. Cause we've got a major battle coming up." John said, starting to move his Strategos towards the aircraft hangers, where awaited their 'Stork' VTOL carriers.

"Where, sir?"

"Orb"

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 -- Quis est a Iuguolo nisi a Iuguolo? – 00000000000000000000000000000000000000

A/N: ("Gaze upon me in fear fools! I, K'GoN, have finally managed to kill that pompous bastard who calls himself an author! Now, bow before my indomitable might, and-")

("Er, K'GoN?")

("What, Neb!!!?")

("Look behind you.")

("Why, what's behi-Gah!")

Yo.

("How are you still alive? You were hit in the chest at point-blank range by an eight-gauge shotgun! It took hours to set that trap up, between setting the shotgun at chest height, and stringing the tripwire in front of your door!")

Plot armor.

(".....Plot Armor.")

Yep

("I thought that was when a character avoids death by an unlikely means in order for the plot to advance.")

Well, considering that I make the plot, wouldn't I have the best plot armor?

("Damn you and your literary logic!")

Anyway, sorry for the long absence guys. School hasn't been getting any easier, and video games are very distracting. By the way, having infinite ammo for a magnum in Resident Evil 5 rocks.

("Lazy asshole")

Quiet you, before I rearrange your quantum nervous system. And you know what happened the last time I did that......

("Gulp")

Knightmare Gundam of Ni