Gundam Seed: Killer's Realm
Yeah, I got tired of posting that disclaimer I came up with. Suffice to say, render credit unto the designer, that which is the designer's. Gundam Seed and its characters belong to Bandai.
Phase 36: Dies Irae Part 2: Meridies Irae
- The Watchers –
OMNI Enforcer 2nd Pacific Fleet, Grigori, Pilot Preparation Room
April 22, 71 CE
2032 Hours
WHAM!
A locker door was slammed quite hard as a slightly tanned (and vertically challenged) 15 year old ensign finished getting into his flight suit. It was a basic Earth Alliance Omni-environmental pilot suit excepting its custom color scheme, being mostly navy blue and silver with black trim. Its wearer, Wesley Mercis (or as he preferred to be called "Wes"), had a serious, determined, and conflicted look on his young face, which currently sported an X-shaped medical bandage on his left cheek thanks to his commander's ... "training" exercises.
"Man, who's hair got up your ass?" a voice queried to Wes from the opposite row of lockers. Wesley turned his spiky black and white haired head to look over his shoulder at his older counterpart. Leaning against the opposing row of lockers with his arms crossed, Michael Archer, like his fellow ensign, had a couple of scratches along with small bruises on his face and a decent shiner over his right eye. However this wouldn't affect the dark blondes shooting aim whatsoever. The blonde 17 year old Michael wore his own custom colored flight suit sporting a black and grey primary coloring with blood red trim.
"Feh, it's nothing." Wes answered. Michael raised his eyebrow at his friend's response.
"Oh, really? Because I'm getting a whole lot of emotions coming off you Tinkerbell, and none of them are varying levels of happy or calm." Wes turned around and scowled at his fellow G-unit pilot for his most recent nickname for a moment before exhaling deeply and leaning back against his own locker and simultaneously bowing his head. Michael's brows suddenly quirked up at his friends very despondent behavior and decided to promptly drop the first sulfuric remark that had popped into his head. "Okay seriously bro what's up?"
"It's...it's just that... my...grandparents live in Orb…" Michael inhaled sharply through his nose in surprise at his friend's confession.
"Oh, so you're worried about them." Michael responded coolly.
Wes gave a "No Shit Sherlock" look. The older dark blonde smirked slightly then stepped forward and heavily clapped his right hand on his buddy's shoulder.
"Don't worry about it man! I'm sure they'll be okay, since they are YOUR grandparents and all they should be pretty tough. Also you did say your grandpa was in the OMNI Enforcers for about 30 or 40 years or something before he retired right? So no worries!" Michael said. Wes smiled slightly at his friends attempt to cheer him up.
"Yeah I guess you're right."
"Of course I'm right! When have I ever been wrong about things like this!" Wes's smile fell into a deep scowl and his eyes gave a murderous glare at the former Juvenile Delinquent.
"Well I don't know. Maybe for example the time back at the academy when you set me up on a date with that cute brunette Russian girl and you said "Don't worry she's definitely not going to try anything kinky on you or anything like that!" I quote. Then after a seemingly good date I walk her back to her apartment and the next thing I know she grabs me, drags me inside, and starts a one-sided game of tonsil hockey before throwing me on her bed. Which by the way I did enjoy very much, but next she gets some chloroform out and tries to put it over my mouth, however I did push her away long enough for it not to knock me out! HOWEVER.. I still got enough of it for it to fuck me up so that I couldn't get away before she broke out some rope and proceeded to TIE! ME! UP! Oh... And also freaking ball-gag me so the sexy, but crazy bitch could watch me struggle for a while, and then she goes to "freshen up"! And comes out wearing this very hot leather Dominatrix body suit, along with a riding CROP! and says " Don't worry baby I'll try to be gentle" I quote again! And last but not least, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO HAVE YOUR "SALAD TOSSED'!" Wes said, screaming at the last part with a deranged look on his face while turning purple and eyes bugging out from lack of oxygen. Holding up his hands in preparation to defend himself from his friend (and ward off the flying spittle) Michael had on an odd expression that some how combined an innocent smile with a sly smirk as he then smugly said
"Well yeah, but you did enjoy her doing that didn't you?" Ending with an insufferable shit eating grin.
Wes, if at all possible, widened his eyes slightly more, looking positively rabid and his whole face turned the color of a bad sunburn and assumed an expression somewhere between psychotically enrage and utterly mortified.
For just a split second Michael actually believed his pipsqueak friend could very well spontaneously explode.
"Shut. Up." Was Wes's two syllable response that sounded frighteningly similar to bones being shoved through a grinder.
With barely restrained wrath the 15-year old continued to speak slowly and deliberately. "You knew she was going to make me into her submissive little sex slave! And you know I don't have any freaking time for something like that when I've got a couple of guys that I want to brutally kill and or maim into a sniveling pile of semi-squishy human waste." The 15 year old growled. Michael rolled his eyes in amusement.
"Isn't Patrick Zala on the top of that 'brutally and mercilessly kill list' of yours" He commented.
"Oh yeah, him and his hypocritical Elitists snobs." the Ensign muttered darkly.
"Alright down boy. Let's get into our Gundams and wait until our hot Commander tells us when it's our time to play." Michael said grinning in anticipation as he began to exit the locker room.
"Oh and in my opinion Wes, Tatiana was well on her way to making you into her VERY willing submissive, now wasn't she midget?" Michael promptly bolted through the doorway, closely followed by a howl of rage and the sound of something large and heavy violently impacting the space his head had previously occupied.
- The Destroyer and the Spy –
Edward's Quarters
"Well, that's interesting." Edward said.
"Yeah. I wonder where this girl is now…." Sariel commented. This earned him an exasperated look from Edward, the Abaddon quite perturbed. "What?" Edward just shook his head.
"I was referring to Ensign Mercis' Blood relations."
"Ah. Yeah."
"It's quite the problematic situation." Edward mused further, steepling his hands on top of his desk. "Ensign Mercis' loyalties are now in question…if this comes to the attention of Azrael, it could very well mean his death."
"I see your point. Well, I guess we can't let the kid down like that. So, want me to delete this?"
"Please do." Edward nodded. "Well, just the part about his grandparents. I'm sure the Blue Cosmos supporters will have a field day with Mercis' enthusiasm for the death of Patrick Zala." David just chuckled. "Moving to other matters, how do you find the Agares?"
"Well, you understand I can't really take it out to play with it. In the simulations though, it's proven just as enjoyable to pilot as I'd hoped. OMNI should give more of its contracts to Adukurf, they make some good shit."
"Indeed. Actually, I believe they are on contract for the next decade, something called the Détruire Program."
"That's good to hear."
- The Troopers –
Orb Territorial Waters
April 22, 71 CE
2040 Hours
On the ocean floor, below even the patrolling pairs of Megalodons, twenty-five of Orb's SpecOpsIntel troopers marched through the muck of the ocean bottom in nothing but Kanehada Powered Suits and infiltration/sabotage gear. Five teams, Shoki, Yokai, Heishi, Usagi, and Kirai, moved towards the waiting fleet.
Not a word passed between any of them, professional resolve and caution guarding against careless chatter.
Shortly they reached an area beneath one of the hulking Haubern-Class super-carriers OMNI Enforcer's navy used for large-scale operations, whereupon they activated their aquatic maneuvering backpacks. Hydro-jet thrusters propelling the five teams up in different directions.
Shoki team shot straight up, the five elite soldiers lightly thumping onto the bottom of the carrier. In a few moments Lilou had detached a device larger than her torso from her chest and set it to remote detonation, before attaching it to the carrier's hull at their initial contact point.
Shoki team leader Gary Shimizu signaled for his team to move towards the carrier's control tower.
Using nano-adhesive pads on their Kanehada, Shoki team deliberately scaled the Starboard side of the carrier to get as close to the control tower as possible while being camouflaged by similar artificial chromataphors as those on Orb's other units, stopping several meters short of the flight deck and the view of undoubtedly a few deck handlers loitering in that general area.
Checking his HUD Gary noted that they were barely in position in time for the opening move of the operation. At less than 10 seconds till 20:45 Gary signaled to Lilou to prepare to "detonate" the device they had left on the hull.
20:44:56
20:44:57
20:44:58
20:44:59
20:45:00
The sonic boom that shook this particular division of the OMNI fleet quite literally created an overpressure wave powerful enough to rattle a person's teeth and perforate their eardrums, to say nothing of the dozens of fractured polymer windows. Shoki team and various other spectators barely caught a glimpse of the culprit's blue-white afterburners as it shot past like greased lightning at nearly Mach 5 and barely 25 meters above sea level. Gary vaguely wondered what Myobu pilot and copilot in the OAF drew the short straw.
At the exact same moment as the sonic boom occurred the device Lilou had planted on the ship's hull, a conical contraption, sparked and lit up for a brief second….
All the electronics on the Carrier sputtered and died.
As Shoki team rapidly moved up to the deck of the carrier Gary had to give ol' commander Vicious his due once more, timing the flyby of the Myobu with the activation of the miniaturized "Gungnir" bombs was a fantastic bit of misdirection. Both in sowing a little chaos and leaving OMNI to scratch their heads as to what actually caused the power failures.
In the rather sudden darkness and confusion, not one person on the crew saw the dark figures of Shoki team as they slipped into the Super carrier's control tower.
As missions went this was one of Shoki team's fairly standard shock and awe "Get in, then GTFO" affairs. Neutralizing an entire super carrier after all is rather tricky business, with a crew in excess of 10,000 members, being discovered as boarders or making too much of a racket on the way to their objective had the potential to be very fatal. Naval vessels operate on a principle of conserving as much space as possible typically. As a result the vast majority of the corridors, passageways, ladders, and few staircases, barely allowed two average sized males to squeeze past each other. To say nothing of the dwarf sized doors, hatches, scuttles, and manholes between compartments and decks that make moving through a ship at a decent pace rather difficult. This was actually the primary reason Shoki team and their brethren were operating sans their OMU, both because a Kanehada wearer was easier to conceal and because not even Lilou's OMU would fit down a single passageway much less a door. At least not without a shit pot of noise being made. And stealth in this mission would be key to both its success and their probable survival. It would likely only take the ship's crew under half an hour to reset the breakers and kick start the backup computer systems. And since the inside of the ship was essentially one giant chokepoint it would still be child's play for the ship's numerous defenders to trap them inside and eventually crack their powered suits open with Anti-tank weapons from the Carriers massive armories.
Entering the control tower Shoki team's first order of business was to set off a few nerve gas grenades in the control tower's air ducts. These particular grenades released a vaporized derivative of a Novichok-5 Agent with a toxic potency 8 times that of VX gas, requiring only 5 milligrams to be present per cubic meter of air to be lethal to humans. One sniff was literally all it would take before the victim began feeling the effects of the nerve agent within a span of thirty seconds. Initial symptoms of exposure being blurred vision, runny nose, slurred speech, tightness in the chest, drooling, constricted pupils, loss of reflexes, and lack of muscle control resulting in twitching and jerking. Seconds later the agent proceeds to it lethal stage where breathing difficulties become exacerbated, uncontrolled vomiting, urinating, and defecating follow before the victim descends into muscle spasms so violent that they break their own bones and expel their own viscera from their orifices.
And the victim is unfortunately conscious through this whole experience until they die of heart failure at roughly two minutes after exposure.
Even Shoki team had to admit that despite how effective the agent was it was also the kind of weapon that they wished humanity could un-invent.
At this point Shoki team began splitting up, darting down the manholes into the corridors below the control tower and navigating by AICA-enhanced blueprints of the Haubern-class Super-Carriers. Very little had been changed from the original specs, letting each team member proceed to their respective targets. Except Boris that is, who due to his exceptional stature, would remain behind instead of venturing into the bowels of the ship. Of course he still had his own job to do as well, namely hosing down all of the important equipment in the control tower's bridge and air traffic center with an oxidizing molecular acid. Then proceeding to the flight deck's catapult control pods and destroying them before subsequently jumping overboard.
John also had a relatively short distance to go to his target, namely the Carrier's CIC, which unlike the bridge, was the real brain of any modern warship and was most likely to have more than a handful of valuable officers in the general vicinity. However, he had to get there first without making too much of a fracas, a task arguably more difficult for him due to his "In Your Face" personality. Heck if it wasn't for his capacity to strictly obey orders it was likely he would never have made it into SpecOps. Still John supposed there were some benefits to stealth, a thought he mulled over while clapping a hand over a hapless sailor's nose and mouth before twisting the young man's head up at an oblique angle before bending it in the opposing direction. Neatly dislocating the young sailor's neck and severing his spinal cord with a wet popping noise. John tossed the rag doll like body into one of many access hatches for various ship systems. But just as he was closing the hatch the sailor's face rolled to face him.
John froze.
The boy's face was frozen in a look of pure terror.
On second thought John hated these kinds of missions.
He much preferred the ones where he just blew shit to hell.
John sealed the hatch on the corpse of a boy not even old enough to drink.
Lilou's job was reasonably straightforward, get to the pilot barracks for the carrier's MS and aircraft compliment and ensure that they could no longer be a threat to Orb. A mild sedative aerosol released into the compartment would likely give her the time she needed to swiftly and quietly slit their collective throats. Lilou personally considered what she was going to do to them would be a blessing compared to the fate that awaited the rest of the crew, courtesy of their newest team member.
Said team member was currently making his way to the carrier's saltwater evaporators at a quick trot using his Kanehada's various light spectrum viewing modes and atmospheric disturbance motion detectors to avoid contact with the crew. Ryan aka 'Apollo' got what the team had considered the worst job of the mission as a result of a lost coin toss with Lilou. His destination, the saltwater evaporators and their related systems, supplied all of the massive vessel's freshwater needs be it for baths, showers, drinking water, engine coolant, pressure cleaners, or reconstituting dehydrated food, it did it all. But Ryan wasn't going to sabotage the system. Oh no, they were going to put it to very good use. Namely by introducing 150 kilograms of Sodium Fluoroacetate into the fresh water distributor pumps. Shifting the cumbersome containers of said material on his shoulder to avoid them snagging on a hatch as he passed through to another compartment, Ryan knew that managing to get inside and contaminate the water system would be extremely hard to accomplish. Especially if they wanted to not alert the crew to the fact that their fresh water supply had been tampered with.
The Sodium Fluoroacetate itself was a Metabolic poison that put simply deprives cells of the energy they need to function. Initial symptoms of exposure are sweating, nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. As the toxin progresses subjects become confused and agitated to an extreme degree, in the close confines of a naval vessel the casualties that could result from this sort of mass hysteria could be devastating on their own even if a lethal dose is not received. Signs of a lethal dose are cardiac abnormalities, muscle twitching, and seizures before lapsing into a coma and dying of organ failure within a half a day. As poisons go it is one of the more ideal ones, being fast acting, odorless, tasteless, colorless, and water soluble, the only problem was its toxicity. Depending on the individual, lethal dosage is roughly 2-10 milligrams per kilogram of weight, roughly one gram per person. If the poison is then diluted in water achieving lethal dosage would then become a hit and miss affair, therefore it was critical that the poison be introduced to the distributor responsible for supplying water to the Carriers kitchen's and mess hall for optimal effect. In short, Ryan was going to be earning his paycheck today, though in his opinion Botulinum Toxin would have been so much more effective. But he suppose that the entire thousands strong crew of the super carrier going utterly bat shit crazy would leave one hell of an impression on the rest of the OMNI fleet.
Gary's own task was to use his plasma sword to disable the ships propulsion by cutting into the ship's massive gear drives, a task that would invariably result in him becoming the center of the crew's probable attention at some point. A situation that his subordinate John would actually envy, especially his exit strategy involving the carrier's methane hydrate fuel…
- The Watchers –
OMNI Enforcer 2nd Pacific Fleet, Grigori, Bridge
April 22, 71 CE
2057 Hours
Lt. Commander Jürgen Prochnow, Executive Officer of the Grigori's CIC was an old man as far as OMNI Enforcer as a whole was concerned. Being cynical, pessimistic, inflexible, overly suspicious, cantankerous, and at times very insubordinate. In short, he was a capital "A" asshole. His abrasive personality though was perhaps tempered by his age of 67 years and more than 20 years without a promotion. Currently LtC Prochnow was standing at parade rest next to the Grigori's command chair listening to Azrael more or less scream at Commander Abaddon over the com-line as to why he had been awoken from his sleep by a sonic boom. Never mind the fact that so had the commander.
"As I've already stated Muruta, we don't know what it was other than it was a fast mover traveling at over mach 5. And in the 15 seconds it took the fleet to lock on to its infrared signature it was already more than 30 kilometers away at an altitude of 11.5 kilometers while still climbing, And accelerating." Edward Abaddon said with surprising calm.
Azrael ground his teeth slightly before responding "Then is it at all within your capacity to tell me what happened to the AFS Franken and her escorts Commander?"
"Other than that they effectively went dead in the water when the UFO flew by? No sir I'm afraid not. However we have dispatched teams to the Carrier and her escorts to get an assessment of the situation."
Azrael glared through the screen at Abaddon some more before grunting and delivering what he must have thought to be the last word. "Inform me the instant the situation changes Abaddon." Azrael said before killing the link.
"Smelly little inbred terrorist prick…" Jürgen muttered before glancing at his CO "My apologies for waking you sir but you did say you wished to be made immediately aware of any… Anomalies." Prochnow stated with a sarcasm rich heavy Czechoslovakian accent.
Edward waved one hand slightly in a 'never mind' response as he turned to look at the old veteran. Jürgen possessed what might have once been considered a regal face but it was now so heavily pitted with such a multitude of scars it looked like his bronze skin had been carved from hardwood with a dull chainsaw. Add to this his imposing stature of 1.93 meters and the perpetual frown on his face and you had a man that looked every bit the jaded combat veteran he was. Of course this was all off set by him constantly wearing a set of old round rimmed wire frame glasses, which seemed to only add to his aristocratic appearance.
"Hypothetically speaking Jürgen, if I were to order you to go and kill Azrael right now, would you do it?"
The look Prochnow gave Abaddon in response almost seemed to say 'Are you Fucking kidding me?'
"Sir, if I were to spend the rest of my days reliving the memory of throttling the life out of that over privileged piece of shit, I would feel Blessed." Jürgen stated emphatically before giving Abaddon a pleading look.
"I was merely posing a hypothetical question Lieutenant. Though your enthusiasm is refreshing." Edward had to restrain the urge to snort in amusement at the disappointed look on his Tactical Officers face.
"By the way sir, do you think we should tell the G-pilots to stand down considering the pussy vetoed your suggestion of a night time probe of Orb's defenses?"
A thoughtful look appeared on Edward's face at that.
"No, I think they can stew for a little while longer."
- The Innocent –
Ensign Ann staggered along the corridor, blinking furiously. A new recruit drawn from the ranks of the barely-trained and conscripted, Katrina Ann had been equal parts excited and apprehensive of her assignment to the A.F.S Franken. On the one hand, the ship was all-too-likely going into battle. On the other, the combat pay would help more in getting her mother out of the slums of New Miami, maybe even out of Florida entirely...
Now though...it felt like a mobile suit was sitting on her chest, it felt so tight...Ann tried to take a breath, but it was difficult...
….There was a dark shape before her...Maybe it's another crewman....please… help me...
- The Troopers –
Ryan had previously flattened himself against the wall of an adjacent corridor at the approach of one of the Carrier's crew. The slow erratic gate alerted him to the fact that they probably posed no real threat and as such he stepped back into the corridor to face a young woman. It took a moment for her un-focusing eyes to perceive him. When she did a trembling arm was raised in his direction, the skin unnaturally flushed. Looking at her still soft featured face form an expression a mixture of pain, fear, desperation, and hope, Ryan watched with barely controlled objectivity as her facial muscles twitched spasmodically. Conscious of her symptoms Ryan wondered what cruel stroke of fate led to a potent enough dose of the nerve agent used on the upper decks to reach this deep into the ship. Likely it was pure chance that the unique updrafts and downdrafts created in the thermally varied interior of such a massive vessel led a particularly cold and dense pocket of the Toxin packed air to reach this far before being neutralized. Shoki and the other teams were protected by virtue of their Kanehada's molecular rebreathers, but the crew of the ships...
The young woman vomited at that moment, the contents of her sparsely filled stomach spewing out over the deck of the corridor before she collapsed facedown, twitching and spasming as the Novichok's effects fully spread to her nervous system. The spasms grew worse, and from her breathing Ryan could tell the agent was running its course. In moments, the spasms grew bad enough that she arced up and smacked her head back into the deck with a sickening crack. Unfortunately, it wasn't hard enough to kill her. More cracks sounded as the muscles spasmed powerfully enough to break the bones they were attached to.
She was dead. It was literally, only a matter of seconds.
'Do no harm.'
The memory of the medical oath he had taken only a few years ago rang in Ryan's head. To some those words strictly meant to not make any person's condition, in which it was within a doctor's power to help, worse. The Spirit of the Oath however decreed that it was a medical doctor's duty to ease the suffering of others as best they possibly can.
'CHUUUF' 'PMP'
The girl's body instantly stilled as steam slithered from the muzzle of Ryan's "Snuffer" a stealth orientated compressed air needle gun firing a tiny explosive flechette. With surgical timing Ryan had discharged the innocuous weapon into one of the girl's ear canals as she briefly seized up. The tiny high velocity dart with its miniscule payload of C16 created a barely audible popping sound as it detonated inside her cranium and effectively liquefied the delicate neural tissue.
"Forgive me." Ryan whispered, even though as he said it he had no idea who he was saying it to or for.
Ryan stepped over the vacant corpse, moving towards the evaporators again.
Down below, Gary worked his task quickly, ignoring the bodies of the crew brought to an end by a fresh dose of Novichok. By now the rest of the crew would have quickly realized just what was happening, and the ship's armories would be broken into for weapons and NBC gear. Burying his plasma blade into the last drive Gary allowed the weapon to remain there a moment as the intense heat caused the surrounding alloys to run together and fuse the titanic gear drives into nothing but a mass of lumpy metals. His third till final task complete Gary quickly exited the engineering section
And bumped right into a crewman.
The young sailor had a gas mask on and an OMNI carbine in his hands, although said hands were slack and the carbine fell out until it just hung from him by the shoulder strap as he gazed in terror at what Gary allowed was probably a frightening sight. After all, without a recognizable uniform on top, the Kanehada made him look a bit like a skeleton and the helmet in battle configuration resembled a sort of phantasmic version of his face.
A flick of the wrist and tightening of his fist sent the plasma sword's newly ignited blade slicing across the sailor's neck, neatly severing his head and cauterizing the stump left behind.
Gary briefly cursed his moment of tandem stupidity, firstly for not checking his HUD's local area threat radar before jumping into the corridor. Second was for reacting in surprise to the crewman's appearance and lashing out with his most immediately available weapon. While the Plasma sword was an excellent melee weapon, using it while in the depths of a darkened enemy vessel was exactly the same as turning on a giant obnoxiously bright neon sign over his head that said "I'M THE ENEMY! SHOOT ME PLEASE!". Which unsurprisingly gained Gary the most expected response from lighting up a road flare and waving it around in enemy territory, he was immediately set upon by the rest of the crewman's group. A thunderous roar of fire (albeit mostly uncontrolled) opened up from the next intersection of corridors, slinging hot lead and frangible bullets. Gary frowned as the bullets slammed into his body at multiple points. Although the Kanehada's various armor layers almost completely neutralized the force of these light caliber rounds he was still treated to the odd and almost ticklish tactile sensation of impact. The Powered Suit registered the bullets striking it's surface and sending buffered down pressure data to his nervous system.
Above, Lilou paused as the deafening echoes of gunfire traveled throughout the ship, alerting the crewman in whose midst she was. The men on the bunks to her left were still, blood trickling down their necks, but the others ahead and to her right were already groggily tumbling out of their bunks despite the mild sedative in the air. A part of her commended these soldiers for their training kicking in so well, even as a single staccato sweep with her SMG-barreled Izanagi spewing the frangible-cased 'Bumble' rounds slaughtered them with ease.
In seconds, the entire compartment was silent again.
John, meanwhile, was calmly and deliberately sliding his knife - not oscillating now, just in case the vibrations created any audible sound - across the throat of a crewman who'd just rushed out of the CIC door. The ensign, judging by his insignia, dropped to the ground with a bloody gurgle as John sheathed his knife and hefted his Izanagi, flipping the safeties on both the main weapon and the underslung shotgun.
Slowly, John pressed himself against the small bit of wall separating the door from the corridor wall and palmed the door controls open, hanging the rifle around to offer the guncam the best view, and opening fire as the door slid open. The XO and a few members of the CIC crew barely had time to glance to check who it was before the combination of Lancer rounds and super-heated flechettes tore them apart.
Outside, on the ship's deck, Boris nonchalantly triggered the detonation of several packs of shaped charge C16 stuck to the VTOL lift components and thermesium bombs tossed into the catapult systems. A wonderfully beautiful explosion of a brilliant white-blue thermesium-phosphorus flame lit up the deck, turning the catapult control pods into glowing craters in the ships flight deck. The hollow booming of the VTOL lifts violently dropping to the bottom of their wells only added further music to Boris's ears. Turning and jauntily saluting the deck crew, who were somewhere between original recipe and extra crispy, Boris gracelessly hopped overboard.
Back below, the seared, shredded, and occasionally pulverized bodies (from a synthetically enhanced limb) of men and women littered the corridor leading to the super-carrier's Methane Hydrate fuel storage tanks. Running up and down the line of fuel tanks Gary used the tin foil thin Anti-Phase Shift blade of a prototype utility knife he had been given for this mission to cut large haphazard rents in the tanks without creating any sparks. A task made somewhat difficult due to a number of contusions and broken bones in his arms, legs, and torso courtesy of the Super Carrier's defenders. His initial encounters with the crew had started off with light weight Personal Defense Weapons (PDWs) firing frangible or hollow-point bullets that more or less disintegrated upon hitting his armor or striking any other hard object, therefore eliminating dangerous ricochets in the close confines of the ship. The crew however had been showing remarkable organization and had been steadily increasing the heat they brought to bear, next coming at him with light assault weapons firing solid copper rounds, then bringing higher caliber Squad Assault Weapons firing AP rounds against him. Then going to the next step and apparently using .50 caliber sniper rifles inside the ship if the jarring booms and violent impacts that had flung him against a few walls were anything to go by. While the Big Fifties still weren't enough to cause Gary any appreciable harm, aside from hurting like a bitch and cosmetic damage to the exterior of his suit, the laws of physics still applied and the large bullets colliding with him were an unpleasant surprise. Of course he was now wishing the crew had kept to the lighter weapons, since some bunch of schmucks got the bright idea of hauling a crew served 25mm assault cannon down here to deal with him. As he was running to pass through a four way intersection Gary saw on his HUD that there was another ambush in waiting down the corridor on his left flank. He initially thought nothing of it and kept moving right up until a barrage of 25mm cannon rounds collided with his left side and sent him cart wheeling like a rag doll down the corridor on his right. A mixture of the intense overpressure stunning the portable assault cannons crew and Gary being bullet punted through a hatch saved his life. That said Shoki Team's Leader was still currently in agony after a first hand experience as a dryer ball. And after that encounter had cut through several walls and floors to make a short cut to his current location. Grimacing once more Gary gazed at the compromised exterior of his Kanehada, gaining a new appreciation for the suit considering its exoskeleton was now the only thing enabling him to move swiftly on his broken left leg. And if the specs were correct he still had a high probability of surviving the next part of the mission, even if he didn't R&D would still recover potential life saving combat data from the Kanehada.
Looking at the explosive white fog now pouring from the fuel tanks Gary randomly tossed some incendiary charges around the room before exiting through the same entrance. This time he was lucky in that it was taking the crew a bit longer to get organized, likely because they were busy blocking off any conceivable escape from this section of the ship. Too bad for them his exit strategy was inconceivable to most, a thought he entertained while activating his plasma sword once more and directing fire from his still functional Izanagi down another intersection. The fact that he was baiting them was so obvious it wasn't funny but Gary was counting on general battle hysteria to keep them ignorant as to just what was about to happen. Following his HUD map Gary slashed through a bulkhead with his plasma sword to gain immediate access to one of the carriers ballast tanks and one of the massive seawater control valves. Jumping through the makeshift doorway Gary cursed colorfully at the jarring and painful landing in hip deep water before moving to spray detonation foam around the man sized valve that opened to the sea. As he worked, there came a large racket through his new door, signifying the approach of what was probably a large and well-armed mob of Enforcer marines, finally ready to kill him good.
His suspicions were part-way confirmed when a graying soldier with a buzz-cut and a tattoo of the Earth with crossed rifles on his cheek poked his head inside the ballast through the still marginally hot "door" with a new-model FMG-256 Javelin V Anti-Tank man portable missile launcher over his shoulder.
The obviously veteran soldier saw Gary's rather ghastly visage, courtesy of the Kanehada's headpiece, and the detonator clenched in one fist. The slightly disbelieving look the old soldier sent his way was entirely expected considering that most people in their right mind would never detonate any sort of close proximity High-Explosive in what was essentially a confined metal box.
"If it's any conciliation, this is gonna suck for the both of us." Gary commented to the guy ruefully, and then triggered the detonator.
The DetFoam on the valve exploded first, allowing seawater to come relentlessly gushing in. The methane hydrate fuel by this point had had ample time to evaporate and disperse through this section of the ship in vast quantities. The incendiary charges in the fuel storage room detonated an instant later with a significantly more fiery effect. Due to the methane and hydrogen vapors in the air, there was yet a third explosion that eviscerated that section of the vessel and blasted a gaping wound through the keel of the super-carrier. And following the natural course of events, the ship began to sink.
Sinking, Gary said one thing:
"Ow."
- The Destroyer –
OMNI Enforcer 2nd Pacific Fleet, Grigori, Bridge
2219 Hours
Edward stared at the half-sunken form of the Franken. A list scrolled down the screen clamped to the command chair's arm, listing the damages inflicted upon the super-carrier. Aside from the gaping hole in its keel and the damage to the catapults, the primary bridge controls were quite literally dissolved away, the VTOL landing pad/lifts' mechanisms were smashed beyond quick repair, and at least half of the crew were dead or dying of one chemical weapon or another.
"Sometimes…." The eldest living Abaddon muttered, with a tone a few notches shy of sulking and with a harsh glare in Orb's general direction, "I really hate that man."
Around him, Jurgen and the bridge crew nodded.
Outside, one of the catapults opened, a large blocky shape easing its way past the doors before dropping like a brick into the waters of the Pacific Ocean.
- The Redcoats –
Orb, "Enma's Locker" Hanger
April 23, 71 CE
0347 Hours
"How long before we hit them back?" Yzak demanded, directing the inquiry at Liene. He and the rest of the old Le Creuset team were gathered in the hanger intended for the Gundams and other mobile suits of similar status. It was just like any other hanger ever made, and remarkably familiar and comforting in its similarity to the Barachiel's hanger, when one accounted for the grossly increased size.
All of the gantries were occupied, most of them by Tetsujins, Except for twelve of them that were obscured from casual view by metallic bulkheads surrounding each gantry from one part of the wall-mounted catwalks to another, mounting various pieces of technical diagnostic equipment for pre-battle tuning. Each of the 'Redcoat' pilots knew precisely which of the twelve mobile suits interred in each casket was theirs, but the one continually drawing their attention was the one at the end of the hall, marked:
XSBF-000
Agrona
"You three are not going out at the moment." Liene replied, somewhat distractedly, indicating Yzak, Dearka and Nicol. "However, you are." He nodded to Athrun.
"What!" Yzak screeched, outraged.
"And so is she." Liene added, motioning at the small door behind them, which opened to reveal a fuming Cagalli in makeup and a beautiful green dress, followed by Andrew, Karl, Jack and Kira.
"-And just why the hell did we have to do that!" Cagalli shouted. "What's the point of dressing me up like a peacock and sticking me up in front of the cameras!" She seethed.
"Morale is a very powerful factor in war, Miss Yula-Athha," Andrew replied. "As the 'Shining Lights of Orb', both you and Kira are the main figureheads of our nation." Lacking an objection to that, Cagalli just sighed. "Further, we have to show that you two, as our leaders, are perfectly willing to fight on behalf of the people of Orb, and it's actually more important with the both of you since neither of you are well-known by the common populace."
At this, Cagalli's eyes lit up with what everyone noted to be an over-eager light.
"In anticipation of this role, I commissioned the XSBF-002 Magatama." Liene waved to one of the techs at the far end of the hanger, near the MS entry. The technician flipped a switch, dropping the bulkhead around the gantry closest to them.
It was a beautiful Gundam, with smooth, golden armor curving elegantly over its subtly feminine figure, delta-shaped wings and a V-fin design that had the antennae protruding out from the forehead at the regular angles, but then smoothly curving sideways with five small sub-antennae per arm protruding upwards at regular intervals, resembling a tiara or crown.
Cagalli was….not pleased.
"Haumea damn it! Andrew! I said I wanted to fight with everyone else, in a standard Tetsujin if that's what it took, but I didn't mean for you to make this!"
"Huh…" Athrun mused, taking in the golden Magatama's features. "You know, when compared with this, the Princeps looks that much more like a knight…." That comment made a connection in the minds of everyone around, a look of suppressed rage growing on the face of Cagalli while humor erupted in the expressions of the others, resulting in…..
"You bastards!" Cagalli shouted at the rest of them, as everyone except Andrew and Liene broke down and started laughing, and even those two had were snickering. It took only a moment for them to regain control.
"There is a legitimate reason for making the Magatma so….ostentatious." Andrew pointed out. "As I said, morale has a large impact on a nation at war, especially for the soldiers fighting on the front lines. Seeing you, in that Gundam, out there, fighting with the rest of the troops would make them fight all the harder. Could you leave them?" By now, Cagalli was calm, and actually looked a bit guilty. "Plus, the pair of you," Andrew added with one of his cruel little grins, indicating her and the Magatama, "Make a great sex symbol."
Cagalli's jaw dropped, and she started sputtering in an unholy rage, while everyone behind Andrew literally choked back new fits of laughter.
"I am not about to model for the PR corps so they can flaunt my image to the public!" She roared, ascending to a high-pitched shriek towards the end. Liene gave her an almost pitying look.
"Your highness, do you really think that with today's technology it wouldn't be a simple matter to do a bio-map of your face and body and render it in any way possible?" He ended with a raised eyebrow, while both Cagalli and Athrun were blushing to the roots of their hair. Now, Cagalli had a look of absolute murder in her eyes, with everyone around silent now.
"You know Princess, that angry look on your face is completely ruined by your makeup and dress." Jack commented, breaking the silence. Cagalli's murderous glare intensified, before she was startled by the sudden appearance of the semi-infamous 'Trio', Asagi, Mayura, and Juri. The former two flanked Cagalli, while the latter now pursued Jack around the hanger.
"Actually, your Highness, modeling for the PR corps is pretty good money." Mayura said.
"Yeah, they pay us a lot of cash to pose for them." Asagi added. The three unattached Redcoats made mental notes to go check out Orb's websites for those images and photobooks, while Cagalli looked scandalized, turning about and heading for the door. She tripped over her dress, sprawling to the floor. This triggered the slightly creepy, if humorous, ambient noise of laughing, emanating from the gantries.
While everyone else paused, slightly scared by that event, Kira motioned at Athrun. It took a few moments, but he caught the message. He walked over and helped the poor girl up, just for her to snarl and stomp off.
"You know, even if she's ticked off at you, it would still be wise to go after her, because you'll just end up regretting it one way or another." Liene advised the former ZAFT pilot. Athrun simply nodded, taking off after Cagalli as the Orbites shared looks, the Redcoats still cowering slightly from the gantries.
Liene then says "Well I guess that answers the AICA question."
"What question?" Jack asked. Liene smirked.
"If a Tsundere blond girl wearing a dress falls down in a hangar full of Tetsujins, do the Mobile Suits laugh?"
- The Watchers –
Pacific Ocean, Grigori, Upper Hanger Decks
April 23, 71 CE
0722 Hours
To the uninitiated, the array of ten mobile suits occupying the decks of the Grigori's upper hangers would seem unimpressing compared to the hordes being deployed from the surviving super-carriers.
However, those with a lick of common sense and knowledge of current events would recognize five of the ten as the strangely named 'Gundams' that had been popping up in the Earth Alliance news reports as 'Humanity's best weapon against the Space Monsters', from the bulky and monstrous Cimeries to the sleek and elegant Samyaza, to the strangely tarp-covered unit in the last berth.
The other five were certainly less impressive, but still a cut above the cannon fodder waiting in the holds of the carriers below. Strategos, each subtly tuned and customized to its pilot's preferences, each with an equipment pack loaded with weapons and tools to allow the suit to do its job.
Abaddon stood in the center of this array of power, the mobile suits' pilots before him.
"I believe this is where most 'great leaders' give a long-winded speech of some sort." He commented, to the amused faces of Thatcher and his daughter, and the confused ones of everyone else. "Get to work."
Without further ado, the pilots scrambled for their machines.
And underneath the Grigori, left there since the destruction of the Franken, the Agares drifted, Sariel in its cockpit.
-The Stalker –
Orb Beachhead
The Tetsujin's cameras were quite easily able to spy on the relatively distant fleet of OMNI naval vessels, so Juri's Scythian was seeing the movement of the ships, arrogantly charging towards her shoreline defenses. A slow smile spread across the blue-heads face, with the Tetsujin's gathering around her towering Scythian like a flock of carrion crows ready to feast.
As the super-carriers approached, teams of Constantines and Strategos dropped out of VTOL pad-doors to sink to the ocean bottom. At this distance, the sea floor was just above the floor of the pressure tolerances of most mobile suits, although barely. The OMNI Enforcer teams would be able approach the shores almost unopposed.
Almost.
Juri grinned as the mines exploded, triggered by remote from Enma' Locker. Sadly, with the greater focus on anti-ship and -submersible defenses, they'd only been able to recently bury the explosives and a relatively small number of them at that, only enough for a single rank of mines before the larger beaches more likely to serve as landing zones. But they'd made the Cosmonauts a little more paranoid now, buying time for the defensive teams to set up.
Then, the Grigori's catapults opened, the top starboard and port ones. From the port catapult came a team of Strategos, each differing from the mooks already on the air or in the sea. All of them flew, coming into a staggered formation, almost lackadaisical in demeanor. Then the big boys came out, much to the mixed apprehension and glee of Juri.
The first out of the starboard catapult was one already known to the Orbites, a sleek and aerodynamic form jetted out from the Grigori, turning into a wide orbit about the craft as it waited. The Samyaza.
A moment later, a new form was ejected, a Mobile Armor with a nose like a broadsword's blade and small-swept-back wings. Juri scanned the thing quickly, pulsing the data back to Enma's Locker. This was the first actually graphical data Orb had gotten of the Verin, OMNI's new aerospace superiority Gundam. The Verin joined up with the Samyaza, feinting and juking in all directions like it was piloted by a kid hopped up on sugar and caffeine, albeit somewhat restrained by the Samyaza's presence. Trailing behind them was an entire company of Constantines and Strategos equipped with flight-enabled equipment packs.
The next two were more classical Gundam designs, more in-line with the original five G-Units. First out was a large and heavy Gundam that looked like an even more brutish than Dearka's Ferox. It was large, massive even, albeit rather short. The angular blue-gray armor by itself must have massed as much as a single Megalodon, making the Cimeries resemble an enormous, over-weight bully. In its left hand, the Gundam hefted a short-barreled weapon with two barrels, hefted like a man-portable minigun. The other hand had a similar grip, but looked more like 17th century hand-cannons, attached by a thick cable to the side of the backpack unit. Folded next to the hips were two beam cannons. Distinguished from the shoulders only by their lighter blue coloring were four middling-sized missile launchers, two per shoulder, and seeming as if someone had just ripped the launch cells off of two MLRS trucks and welded them onto the Gundam's shoulders.
Probably not too far off, that. Protruding at an angle from the spaces between the shoulder-mounted cells were four launch rails, unfolding even as the last Gundam emerged from the Grigori.
Standard Gundam shape, like the Cimeries, the Focalor was splashed with dark green across most of its body, with a slight turquoise tint accenting its knuckles, joints, and eyes. Two moderately-sized gatling-style weapons with three barrels hung from its shoulders on arm-like turret mount, while beam cannons were stored in exactly the same place and manner as the two visible on the Cimeries. A linear cannon unfolded from its storage position on the back of the right shoulder to mount itself on top of the appendage. Gripped in the Gundam's hand was a scythe, fifteen meters long and with the deadly monomolecular blade protruding at a 110-degree angle from the shaft. Molded into the back of the shaft's upper portion was a small ion beam gun.
Okay. No big deal. The Gundams were tough, but their new-fangled Trans-Phase-Shift armor was vulnerable to energy weapons, and even without those, enough physical pounding would drain their capacitors until the Tetsujins could just tear them limb from limb.
Then, something happened that none of them had any idea about.
An enormous limb reached out of the surf, a three-digit claw smashing into the sand of the beach as its owner crawled out of the sea. The great red-green plated body of the beast rose, a red-tipped tail uncurling from under it to arc overhead like the stinger of a scorpion. Enormous red, rectangular claws hung from under its body, next to the front pair of legs. Two large railguns were mounts perpendicular to the body of the enormous mobile armor, between them a line of six missile launchers incorporated into the dorsal surface. Eight CIWS turrets, four on the top and four on the bottom, scanned the sky and land for threats to the mighty machine.
- The Butcher –
Enma's Locker, Command Center
The Orb command center was a large room, one wall dominated with an enormous map of Orb's main island and the surrounding sea for a hundred kilometers, with smaller sub-screens popping up within as events necessitated. One sub-screen now displayed images of the Watcher's new mobile armor.
"Well, that could be a bit of a problem." Karl sort-of gasped. Andrew merely grunted, studying the scans Juri forwarded.
"It looks like one of Adukurf's designs." Liene observed. "It resembles the basic morphology of their proposed construction MA, but on a larger scale."
"It would seem that our intelligence networks have not penetrated the Watchers as well as we hoped." Andrew murmured. On the screen, Constantines and Strategos began to emerge from the waves, trotting after their armored leader. Teams, then squads, followed by platoons formed out of the initial confused mess, the OMNI pilots notably more confident with their elites above them and beside them. "Arturia, deploy the forward defensive screens after Juri and her detachment engage the landing forces." Then a section of the main screen flashed briefly, opening another subscreen displaying a real-time satellite feed.
"OMNI Enforcer aerial forces engaging the defenses at Onogoro Island." Arturia's voice intoned.
- The Torch and The Raider -
Onogoro Island, Airspace
The Samyaza dove, juking to the side as one of Orb's new mobile armors, looking like some variant of the Shadowfax stretched to fit the profile of some kind of 21st-century fighter jet; darted past, 35mm rounds darting from the side-mounted linear autocannons. Growling, Lena pulled the transformed Gundam up, strafing the MA with fire from the Storm beam SMGs. As she did so, a wing of the smaller aircraft locked onto her tail, peppering the Samyaza's backside with fire from their autocannons. Other than a few shudders becoming rougher than normal, there was no effect.
If the former new air-to-air unit resembled an MA shaped like a fighter, the latter looked some sort of fighter without a cockpit, or really anything beyond forward-swept wings and fuselage that all joined together to make a sort of W-shape that constantly shifted, their wings apparently shape-shifting. It was notable that there far more of the latter than the former, and while the more traditional-seeming MA fought like normal aerospace craft, the small flying wing-drones were like some sort of insane swarm of hornets. They'd started swarming the air-borne mobile suits the moment they'd come within range of Onogoro and the Kaguya Mass Driver facility, launching from the small air strips through both Vertical and Short-Take-Off/Landing (VSTOL) methods.
It was currently all the Constantines and Strategos could do to survive. Their flight units were based off of the Augury's Angelos Equipment Pack, leaving them with little more than a standard beam rifle or linear assault rifle and a laminated shield. And it seemed it took multiple beam hits to take a single one of the defending craft down.
A great equalizing factor was the two Gundams, especially the Verin. While Lena's Samyaza had the distinction of being the first 400-series unit, it was in actuality a stop-gap, designed and produced for an unexpected addition to the BCPU team. The Verin, on the other hand…..
The sleek fighter-form of the Gundam was well-suited for its insane pilot's tactics. The initial sortie of the Orb aerial forces had merited nothing more from Clotho than a shrill cry of glee and a massive pulse from the PPDE that was the unit's main propulsion sending it smashing through the formations before it. The Anti-Phase-Shift blades that made up the Verin's nose in its current form sliced through whatever material made up the armor and superstructure of the enemy craft, albeit with some difficulty.
The initial kamikaze run had forced the surrounding swarms to refocus on the Gundams, some of the smaller craft pulling maneuvers that all but confirmed them as drones of some sort, given that said maneuvers - among them turning on a dime, and flipping upside down - would have liquidated any pilot. The larger mobile armors used more conventional dogfighting maneuvers to turn about. Now, the battle was a tangled mess, with beams of various natures flashed between the different combatants, along with linear rounds, missiles, and such.
A powerful bright beam fired from the Verin's main gun, a special kind of weapon mounted on the underside of the current configuration. This weapon had a surprise though, for where normal weapons fired their projectiles and beams in a ballistic arc or straight line, the beams fired by the Hresvelgr arced from the weapon's barrel to strike any target!
Clotho's first shot took one of the mobile armors in the nose when it lined up behind the Verin, the strange glossy material warping and glowing from the heat and stress. More shots followed, striking out at many different targets, repeated shots bringing down several of the enemy craft.
On Lena's part, she tired quickly of the dogfight, transforming the Samyaza into its humanoid form and slicing the Achilles out from its sheath, bisecting one of the drones. A flicker of light preceded an ion beam that slashed across the armor of the forearm, leaving a half-melted blackened streak across it. Growling under her breath, the youngest Abaddon drew and fired the Devastator rifle, a one-two punch of linear round burst and beam smashing into one of the MA, which promptly exploded as the superheated plasma touched off the fuel and missiles.
The Pathing Calculation Program aided the two Gundam's significantly. While less useful against the numerous projectiles that flew through the air, both versions of the program allowed a significant increase in accuracy. In the case of the Version 2 program installed in the Verin, combined with the Hresvelgr, it allowed as close to 100% accuracy as was possible. Every single shot struck a target, and while not every one was a killing hit, it had an effect.
The swarm slowly dispersed as the toll mounted on the Orbite craft, most of the losses inflicted on the drones, although a few of the mobile armors had fallen prey to the Gundams.
"Status?" Lena barked.
"Not good ma'am." The current ranking officer of the surviving OMNI suits replied. "Platoon 27 is virtually gone, and teams 7-13 are severely diminished. Most of the rest of us are moderately damaged, and our energy reserves are running low from having to fire so much during flight."
"Shit. Land then." Lena cursed. Then she did a double-take. "Where's Clotho?"
- The Princess and The Prince –
Enma's Locker Launch Tube Facility 72-A1, Under Zenopolis City
There was a hum in the air, from the charging of literally hundreds of capacitors in preparation for the discharge that would send the Princeps, the Magatama, and a Tetsujin team with Tengu drones attached to their backs hurtling up into the sky.
"You ready for this?" Athrun asked.
"Shut up!" Cagalli snapped. "I'll be fine! Just worry about yourself."
For his part, Athrun was more than a little weirded out by his new Gundam's cockpit, and all the bells and whistles that came along with it. The controls were one thing, a few hundred hours of simulation training having familiarized him with them, to an acceptable extent according to Karl. The constant 'sensations' caused by some of the systems were unnerving. However, he at least was combat-hardened. Cagalli, on the other hand….
"Eh, don't worry about it." The leader of their Tetsujin team, one First Lieutenant Ed O'Malley, butted in. "If she gets into any major trouble, we're here to pull her out."
"Hey!" Cagalli's indignant retort was, by unspoken agreement, ignored.
"We deal with the fodder; you and her Highness get rid of the big ones." O'Malley continued, "Simple and effective. The Cosmonaut's wig out, piss themselves and run, while we make a big pile o' parts out of the little ones for you to stand and pose on impressively."
"I can take care of myself." Cagalli muttered, somewhat dejectedly.
"Be that as that may missie, Ol' Vicious told me and me mates to look after you, so that's what we're going to do, while you're boyfriend does his 'vengeance of the Coordinators' bit."
"It's not-"
"Ah, it doesn't matter. You go make them dead."
The next moment saw the seven mobile suits sent screaming up the shafts, propelled by massive electromagnetic forces until they were clear of the launch tubes, a thundering boom following their sudden flight.
The vista had changed significantly during the ongoing battle. While most of the lower-story buildings of Zenopolis City were still in their normal places, most of the high-rises and other more expensive structures were receded into the ground! Quite literally. Where once they stood, thick-looking armored plates covered the ground.
Athrun was still gawking when Cagalli transmitted a squawk.
"What the hell is that thing!"
A HUD element highlighted the forward beachhead, where a line of metal walls about shoulder-high to a Tetsujin separated the front-most elements of the Orb Army MS Company staffing that area. While the Tetsujins, and what Athrun guessed was one of the Scythians Payne had mentioned, hunkered down behind the shield walls, approaching them was a force consisting of the usual Constantines, Strategos -
- And one frankly enormous Mobile Armor. The thing was as tall as two Constantines stacked atop one another, and as wide as three set side-by-side, and looked like a gigantic metal scorpion, scaled over like a fish.
While they watched, the two cannons on the back of the MA fired, whatever projectiles they fired slamming right into the shield wall.
- The Watcher –
David Sariel was having a great time. He didn't get out in live combat often, but The Watchers' intelligence officer found that he got a big thrill out of it. There'd been several joking comparisons made between him and the 'super-spies' that were popular way back when, during his Intel training, but that didn't change facts.
Probably why he'd ended up in Australia after that discharge, running a criminal empire.
The Agares itself was a fond reminder of those times, in its arachnid design. Ah, the things I did with scorpions and thugs….
He fired another double-shot from the 'Zerkrachen' High-Velocity Railguns, the twin sonic booms creating an interesting ripple effect in the air as the rounds smacked into the surprisingly tough barrier in front of the Agares. The HVAP rounds the Zerkrachen fired were judged to be able of taking down even Gundams due to the sheer force liquefying the pilot in the cockpit, so it was rather surprising to see apparently non-Phase-Shift-Armored defensive barriers resist them.
Shrugging, Sariel brought the Juron mounted on the Agares tail to bear on the probably weakest portion of the wall that he'd been pounding on.
As he did so, one of the Orbites' weird mobile suits popped up from behind the wall, it's similarly weird beam rifle spitting a stream of high-velocity plasma at the Agares' main body. It surprisingly effective, cracking the plate in the center, but still doing little overall damage to the Agares itself.
Snickering slightly, Sariel fired. The Juron, technically classified as the 'Maser-Assisted Plasma Cutter', spat forth a bluish-white stream of super-heated plasma far beyond what any other beam weapon was capable of emitting. The beam struck the wall, and while whatever material they were made of resisted for a few seconds, the beam won out in the end, making the individual barrier sections white-hot and slicing through them like a heated knife through half-melted butter. Sariel swept the beam to the right, cutting into the wall further and further until he stopped the stream.
Half of the wall was sliced off from about MS waist-high up, the half-melted, cut-off halves toppling to the ground, oozing slightly.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Sariel barked in his best command voice. "Get over there!"
The troops were emboldened by the Agares' success, and charged forward. They did so in organized groups, the Constantines equipped with more basic Assault Packs clustering around their more specialized Strategos brethren, guarding them with their anti-beam shields. This didn't really help when the defenders stood back up in force.
David himself was surprised to see that he hadn't inflicted a single casualty among the Orb forces despite the speed and power of the Juron sweep, so the OMNI mobile suits had little chance to react before the Orb mobile weapons cut into them with fire from their strange beam rifles, swarms of missiles from launchers on their shoulders, hips, and limbs, linear rounds form both small forearm-mounted and hand-held linear machineguns, and other assorted weapons of grievous destruction. The anti-beam shields had already been proven to be...decidedly less-than-effective against at least one of the Orbite's weapons, and while they were of more use against these apparently more common weapons fielded by Orb's MS, they were still buckling under the fire and smashed to bits in quick order.
Now that he saw the beams fired by both sides, Sariel could see (barely, with the assistance of the Agares' HUD) that the Orbite's beams had a much higher velocity than the standard beams fired from the Constantines' and Strategos' rifles, and were tinged marginally blue.
Noting that interesting fact away for a later discussion with the MS mechanics, David charged up the Agare's 'Aniquilar' Hyper-Impulse Beam Cannons. There was a deep thrum vibrating throughout the mobile armor's structure as the vacuums built into the cannon's ionization chambers activated, pulling in vast volumes of the surrounding air before the claw-like weapons closed their separate sections into a more conventional cannon format. Then they fired, twin cohesive beams of glowing blue-and-red plasma.
- The Princess and The Prince -
"Well, guess we're not really needed here." O'Malley mused humorously. Athrun could only agree, as a particularly over-confident Strategos led its team of Constantines forward of their lines towards the barricade, some sort of heavy beam cannon slung under their arms, firing uselessly on the shield-walls before counter-fire from a Tetsujin with an Ettin Plasma weapon in Assault mode, smallish pulses of elongated, oval-shaped plasma beams spattering the anti-beam shields of the forward Constantines until the shields sagged.
By now, Juri had apparently taken notice of the oncoming OMNI suits, and swung her weapon, something that resembled a blockier version of a SCAU's linear assault rifle, and fired a shot at the Strategos. Whatever the weapon fired, it was murderously effective, pretty much disintegrating the MS's torso, leaving the head and limbs to fall forward to the ground. The lesser Constantines were suitably shocked by the demise of their immediate superior, falling quickly in piles of molten metal to the Ettin-armed Tetsujin's relentless assault.
"I sup-" Cagalli was interrupted by a brilliant white-blue beam slashing in from the side to strike the northern-most part of the barricade, the contact point erupting in a brilliant explosion that engulfed the area. Before any of them could react to the sudden attack, they were beset upon by the dark-blue Cimeries Gundam, ridiculously performing enormous 'hops' across the beach towards them.
Introducing it was a barrage of thin bright-blue beams slicing across two of the flying Tetsujin escorts. The lasers did little other than leave glowing veins as the Tetsujin's systems automatically distributed the excess heat, but the hyper-impulse shots that followed overwhelmed them, melting away armor by layers until the underlying endoskeleton was exposed.
Coming in seconds after the laser assault, the Focalor's scythe lashed at O'Malley's Tetsujin, clipping the point of one of the attached Tengu's wings off as the Lieutenant evaded the sweeping strike. The next one in line was less lucky, the Phase-Shifted edge of the polearm separating an arm at the elbow and divesting the Tetsujin of the attached Sylph tri-barreled linear Gatling gun.
Then it came after Cagalli, cameras absorbing the sight of the golden Gundam and scythe arcing about to hack through its midsection.
It never made it, a whip made of superheated, interlocking segments lashing about the forearm on the scythe and yanking hard from behind, stealing the Focalor's momentum and simultaneously turning it about to face the Princeps, the red Gundam prepared to rend the green one to shreds.
-The Beast and the Failure-
OMNI Enforcer, unknown location
April 22, 71 CE
Timestamp N/A
"Do the Coordinators think they can cause this massacre and not receive retribution for it!" a Blue Cosmos publicist screamed while he was standing at his podium. As the man ranted on about how coordinators were monsters, abominations, etc; the screen changed to showing hundreds of people in medical facilities receiving emergency care. Then the Cosmonaut went on about the destruction of Joshua and the massacre at Panama; the screen showed anti-coordinator protestors holding up picket screens with the Blue Cosmos symbol, along with racial slurs against coordinators such as "patch worker", "space monster", and "gene freaks".
"We must eliminate the Coordinator scum once and for all! For the preservation of our Blu-"
Mute.
"Well that's one way to get them to shut up." Stated the voice of a figure leaning against the wall of the room with his arms crossed. The room had dim lighting, making it quite dark and casting many shadows. Honestly one could wonder how anyone could possibly prefer to be in a room of perpetual twilight. Still there was enough light coming from the computer console screens for one to see by.
Colonel Cain Eunathas sat in front of the console looking at the scenes with an apathetic expression on his face. The white haired man's eyes looked at the screen as though studying a particularly contagious bacterium.
"Hmph, I agree with you on that." Cain commented as leaned slightly back into his chair and closed his eyes to give them some rest.
The figure merely grunted and stopped leaning against the wall, then walked towards the console. As he stepped out of the shadows, his appearance became more clear.
He looked to be about 17 years old with long black hair that stopped at the middle of his back, his eyes were a unique mixture of grey and purple. Also despite being in the military, he did not wear a uniform and instead wore more casual black leather clothing including a jacket, trousers, and fingerless gloves.
His name was Ensign Canard Pars, former pilot of the Eurasian Federation's "Special Operatives X" and there were a number of reasons why he wasn't a part of the Special Operative X group anymore. One of which is the fact that the Eurasian Federation's chain of command and military forces in general was more or less thrown into total disarray by the Cyclops system at JOSH-A. Another was that his former superior officer was the now deceased Gerard Garcia, and so the top brass of the Eurasian Federation with a recommendation from a high ranking General decided to transfer Canard to someone far, far more competent than Canard's dead superior, someone like Cain, who despite being in the Atlantic Federation could really care less about the (in his opinion petty) rivalry between both Federations.
"Are people actually buying into this shit?" Canard queried as he leaned forward narrowing his eyes at the clear Blue Cosmos propaganda.
"Yes they are, and honestly it's no surprise to me, after all the ignorant masses always believe what they want to hear. It's been shown many times in elections, military campaigns, and geopolitical crises throughout history. Just shows how pathetic the so called 'common' man can really be." Eunathas responded without even opening up his eyes. The black haired teen merely nodded at the older man's statement, then backed away slightly from the screens. He then walked in front of the desk and gave the wall in front of it a murderous glare as he was thinking about what was frustrating him.
"One thing I want to know is why the hell they didn't send us along with the Watchers for Operation Retribution." Canard growled aggressively. Cain then opened his eyes to look at his "protégé" with a strange mix of amusement and tautness.
"What's wrong? Are those advance combat simulations with Cavalier, Juggernaut, Angelo, and Kuro Tenshi Augury not enough to satisfy you and your Thanatos?" The unnaturally pale white haired Colonel smirked. This caused Canard turn around to glare at his "mentor". Cain then dropped his smirk and met Canard's glare with a cold icy stare.
"I'm serious Cain! Why the fuck didn't they send us with them! Yeah, sure between Abaddon and Thatcher and the G-units under their command it's already freaking over Overkill, but if we were there the whole thing would be over and done with in the blink of an eye!" Cain listened to Canard's statement and then typed in a few sequences on the keyboard of the console bringing up the data of the Grigori, its machines, and a map of the Orb union. This caused Canard to calm down and walk back behind the desk to see the display more clearly.
"It's because one, Edward is a very skilled, cautious, and capable tactician." "Two, while you're right on the fact that all of us being present would be as you put it "overkill", the problem is having us on the same ship and battlefield would cause…complications which I will not go into right now. Finally, you and I have other important business to tend to." Cain stated calmly. Canard listened carefully at the Colonel's statement then he reluctantly nodded grudgingly accepting the reason why they had not participated in the Operation. The ensign then stared at the map of the Orb Union for about a minute then turned his head to Cain.
"So how is it going anyway?" Canard asked curiously.
"Our forces have lost about 17% of the invasion fleet" Cain stated. This caused the failed Ultimate Coordinator to widen his eyes in surprise. Honestly if anyone else had told him that he would have said "you're fucking kidding me", but Canard knew Cain long enough to know that the Colonel never joked about such things.
"Wow, never thought a small nation like that could do something that quick"
"The Orb Union has a number of advantages and disadvantages" Cain explained then continued "For example it has the Morgenroete Conglomerate and its partners and subsidiaries, an extremely capable and successful military research and development company, and an expert mass-production firm, making Azrael Industries, Maius Military Industries, the Asimov Design Bureau, and even Acteon Industries second in the world compared to them. It has the blessing of a well-developed industrial base in its space colonies. Another advantage is its main leader, Uzumi Nara Attha and his loyalists/supporters, have more than enough experience in these types of situations. Also it has very skilled pilots such as the pseudo coordinator Jack Kagizaki, the former members of the Le Creseut team, and last, but certainly not least Kira Yamato." Cain noticed that Canard's teeth gritted and his fist tightened in anger at the mere mention of that boy's name.
"Its disadvantages are the fact that it is a small nation with a relatively small population base, and because of its neutrality it has very little in the way of allies. That said it's most major and severe competent threat is the Watchers." Cain changed the scene to the Grigori and its mobile suits. "First of all is the Grigori, whose fire power is rivaled only by the Barachiel and probably by Orb's Neo-Izumo class ships in space. Next are Thatcher and his Strategos team along with their advanced equipment packs to increase the power and utility of their MS. One also cannot discount David Sariel as a mere intelligence officer, especially with the Agares Mobile Armor at his fingers. Finally there are their Gundams, which have an amazing degree of raw power and speed, especially in the hands of the top four First-Generation Extendeds of Lodina, among them the Samyaza, whose abilities have not been fully shown to the enemy as yet, the Repulse and the Outlaw, and finally the most dangerous of all of them. The Azazel, and its pilot." Cain finished.
Canard looked over the data on the screen, especially the BCPU Gundams and the intimidating Azazel. Too Bad for them that somewhere and entity equivalent to a god in their eyes was laughing at their ignorance.
"So what's the other important "business" need to be taken care of?" The former special operative asked.
"An attack on Victoria." Cain stated with a small dark smirk. Canard responded with a feral grin. Victoria was where a large majority of ZAFT's earth forces were stationed. This was going to be fun!
- The Author -
Alright. I hate to post this without whatever else Velshard wanted to add, but it's been a few months since I last heard from him...so yeh...
My future looks promising yet. I'm trying to go to Full Sail University for the Game Design program, so hopefully I'll be in college by Fall.
Also, I kind of need help with something else. Last year, I encountered this website...it has...engulfed me. I can't go a day without perusing it. I've even edited it a little (if just to self-advertise my stories here.) So I gotta ask any other Tropers out there, reading this: Is there like, a support group or something? This thing is ruining my life!
EDIT: I just heard back from Velshard. It seems that...well...it's not really my place to say but he's had some seriously bad shit happen to him...and...just...man...I hope the rest of you join me in wishing him well. He sent me a modified chapter, so I've gone and updated it with his additions as well as one of 00virtuezero's scenes I forgot to add in.
Knightmare Gundam of Ni