Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Seed.

Phase Three: Collapsing Land

January 25 C.E. 71

Heliopolis

Chris stared at the warship as it flew into Heliopolis. It wasn't a ZAFT vessel. If it was, it would have blasted through Heliopolis's superstructure. This ship had come from within Heliopolis's superstructure. Which meant that it had been built here, likely along with the mobile suits. But it still raised the question, was it an enemy or a friend?

The CGUE switched from it's sword back to it's rifle and flew towards the warship. It strafed the warship, but it caused little to no damage to the ship.

"Guess that answers my question." he said to himself.

The CGUE turned and it looked like it was about to perform another strafing run on the ship, when it flew downwards. Heading towards where the Strike was and...

'Liz!'

Chris pushed the Raven as his as it could go. He had to intercept the CGUE before it attacked. But it was too late, the CGUE opened fire on the Strike and the people near it.

"NO!!" Chris shouted.

The Strike knelt down in front of the path of the CGUE's bullets, protecting Liz, Johanna and the others.

"Damn coward!" Chris yelled as he fired the Raven's cannon at the CGUE.

The CGUE flew upwards, dodging the shots. As it did, the Archangel fired four missiles at the CGUE. The CGUE destroyed two of the missiles but the other two missed and hit Heliopolis's central shaft.

'Dammit. We can't risk anymore damage to Heliopolis.'

Suddenly, Chris heard a beeping noise. It was coming from the power status bar. The Raven's power was at thirty percent.

'Damn.'

"Kira." he called over the comm. "I'm low on power and I doubt Heliopolis is gonna be able to take much more. We have to end this fight now. I'll try to keep him busy, you try to hit him with that big gun of your's. Got it?"

"Got it." Kira replied.

Chris aimed and fired the cannon at the ZAFT mobile suit. Yet again, the skilled pilot of the CGUE avoided the shots. The CGUE turned it's attention back to him and raised it rifle at him.

It was about to fire when a massive beam streaked towards it. The ZAFT pilot barely dodged the beam, but his mobile suit lost it's right arm. Unfortunately, the beam continued traveling and pierced Heliopolis's superstructure.

"No..." Chris said weakly as the CGUE fled through the hole in Heliopolis.

Heliopolis had been devastated. Chris couldn't help but wonder if Heliopolis could recover from such damage.

A Short While Later

Aboard the Archangel

The Strike and the Raven landed inside one the Archangel's mobile suit catapults. They knelt down, side by side, and lowered their hands, allowing their precious cargo to get off. Lt. Ramius, Tolle, Kuzzey, and Mir got off the hands of the Strike while Liz, Sai, and Johanna stepped off the hands of the Raven.

"Lt. Ramius!" Ensign Badgiruel called as she and members of the Archangel's surviving crew ran towards the people and the mobile suits.

"Ensign Badgiruel."

Badgiruel saluted her superior. "I'm relived to see that you're alright."

Ramius returned her salute. "You as well. I'm pleased to see that you were able to protect the Archangel. You do realized that you saved our lives."

"Indeed." Johanna said as she stepped forward. "If you hadn't shown up when you did, Ensign Badgiruel. That CGUE would have likely would have destroyed the Raven and likely the Strike."

At that moment, the cockpits of the Raven and the Strike opened and Kira and Chris climbed out.

The Archangel's crew stared in disbelief at the two teenagers climbing out of the two top secret mobile suits.

"Come on." Chief Murdoch said. "What's going on here? Those machines were piloted by a couple of kids."

"Lt. Ramius, Mrs. Dante, what's going on here?" Badgiruel asked.

The two were about to explain what happened, when a man interrupted. "Wow. Now this is a surprise."

A blond haired man wearing a purple EA flight suit walked towards the group. "I'm Lt. Mu La Flaga of the 7th Orbital Fleet." he said as he saluted.

The crew of the Archangel returned the salute.

"I'm Lt. Murrue Ramius of Sector 2, 5th Special Division."

"Ensign Natarle Badgiruel of the same division."

"Johanna Dante of Morgenroete."

Mu nodded. "I'd like permission to come a board. Who's in charge here?"

Ensign Badgiruel looked hesitant for a moment before answering, "The captain and all of the officers of this ship have all died in the explosions at the beginning of the attack."

"What?" Murrue said in disbelief.

"Therefore, I believe Lt. Ramius is now in command." Badgiruel said. "There are only a dozen or so of us left, mostly non-commissioned officers and workers from Morgenroete."

Mu sighed. "Oh, man. What a disaster. Well, in any case, permission to come about a board Lt. Ramius?"

"Permission granted."

Mu nodded and glanced over at the group of teenagers standing around the mobile suits. "And who are those two?"

Johanna answered. "The one who piloted the Strike is Kira Yamato and the Raven's pilot is my nephew, Christopher Dante. They both stumbled into the factory district when we were under attack. Thanks to their help we were able to defeat a pair of GINNs, drive off that CGUE and protect the last two machines."

"What?! These two kids were able to defeat two GINNs?" Natarle said in surprise.

"What happened to the pilots of the G-Units?" Mu asked.

"They were with the captain at the time of the attack and died as well." Nararle replied.

Mu approached Kira and Chris. "You two are Coordinators, aren't you?"

The crew of the Archangel collectively gasped.

"Yes." they both answered.

A group of armed soldiers suddenly pointed at the group of teenagers.

Lower your weapons now, dammit!!" Johanna shouted in a loud commanding voice, startling the soldiers. "They are Coordinators but they are not a part of ZAFT! You trigger happy idiots! If they were a part of ZAFT, they would have just taken the mobile suits and left!"

"Lower your rifles men." Lt. Ramuis ordered.

The soldiers hesitantly complied.

"Lieutenant, I would like an explanation." Badgiruel said.

"It's not that surprising, considering Heliopolis belongs to a neutral nation. So, it'd natural to find Coordinators, who wished to avoid the war altogether, living here. Am I wrong?"

"No, you're right." Kira answered. "Especially since I'm a first-generation Coordinator."

"Which means your parents are Naturals." Mu said. "What about you?"

"Lt. Ramius is right about me and my sister." Chris answered. "We're both second-generation Coordinators and we were born in the PLANTS. But our parents, fearing that a war was going to break out, sent us out to Heliopolis to live with our aunt and uncle shortly before the war broke out."

"Than your parents are still living in the PLANTS?" Murrue asked.

Chris hesitated. "No. They died early in the war."

"I'm sorry for causing such a fuss." Mu said. "I was just curious. Nothing more."

"So what do we do now?" Natarle asked.

"Now? Well, I've just been shot down and the Le Creuset Team is waiting outside for us. He's a persistent fellow, he'll be waiting for us. Especially after that defeat you two gave him."

"Wait. Your saying that the pilot that guy Kira and I had fought and managed to beat a short while ago was the ZAFT ace, Rau Le Creuset?" Chris said in disbelief.

Mu nodded.

"How did we manage that?"

"I'd have to say it was a little bit of skill and a lot of luck." Mu replied.

Elsewhere

Aboard the Gamow

"D-Equipment? Does Commander Le Creuset plan on storming a fortress or something?" Yzak said.

"What's gonna happen to Heliopolis?" Nicol asked in concern.

"It's gonna be bad." Saul said as he watched a GINN being armed with heavy missiles. "A single misfire could cause massive damage to Heliopolis."

"It serves them right." Yzak said. "Calling themselves a neutral state. What a joke."

"So, the people of Heliopolis should suffer for the crimes of the people who run the Orb government. For the crimes of something they weren't even aware of?" Saul asked before shaking his head. "Cause that's what's gonna happen with those heavy weapons."

Yzak, Nicol and Dearka didn't say anything.

Saul sighed. "This whole situation really sucks."

No one disagreed with him.

Elsewhere

The Bridge of the Archangel

Lieutenants Ramius and La Flaga, Ensign Badgiruel, and Johanna Dante stood on the bridge discussing their situation.

"We've loaded up the last of the surviving supplies from Morgenroete. Chief Murdoch is currently overseeing the resupplying of the Strike and the Raven as well as the repairs for your Moebius Zero." Johanna reported. "The Strike and the Raven should both be combat ready in about 10 to 15 minutes, though I can probably get the crews to speed things up. Moebius, however, won't be combat ready for quite sometime."

"Thank you." Murrue said as she sat in the captain's chair.

"So, what's our next move?" Johanna asked.

"Once the Strike and the Raven are resupplied, we'll leave before anymore damage befalls Heliopolis." Murrue replied.

"So you're gonna rely on Chris and Kira then?"

"What?" Badgiruel interrupted. "You can't be serious about letting those kids pilot the mobile suits again. Shouldn't Lt. La Flaga pilot one those machines at least?"

"Have you taken a look at the operating systems for those machines?" Mu said. "An ordinary human couldn't pilot those machines."

"And before you ask about having them change the OS of the G-Units back to their original format, you should now that the original OS didn't work that well. And don't ask me to try to rewrite the OS for Naturals. That's not my field of expertise. I worked on the bodies of the machines, not the programming." Johanna said. "So, we're gonna have to rely on them for protection."

"I agree." Murrue said. "Without Lt. La Flaga's mobile armor, the Raven and the Strike are our only means of defense from ZAFT's mobile suits. And they are the only ones that can pilot those machines are those two boys."

"But Lt. Ramius, we can't just allow two civilians, much less two children, to operate top secret military hardware." Badgiruel argued.

"It's a long way to the moon, and I highly doubt that we'll be able to get there without a fight." Mu said. "And without those machines we're pretty defenseless against mobile suits."

Ensign Badgiruel hesitated for a moment but ultimately didn't say anything.

"Well, now that that's out of the way, I'm going back to the hanger to see if I can get the crews to hurry up." Johanna said as she started to walk out of the bridge.

Murrue stood up and said, "I'll go talk to Kira and Chris about this. Lt. La Flaga, the bridge is yours."

Archangel Crew Quarters

"No. I won't do it." Kira said upon hearing what Lt. Ramius wanted from them.

Chris on the other hand, wasn't sure what to do. He really didn't want to get involved in the war that had taken so much from him, yet at the same time, his sister, his aunt, his friends, were all on board of this ship and he had the power to protect them.

"Please don't get us anymore involved than you already have." Kira continued. "We know there is a war going on out there but we don't want any part of it. That's why we chose to live here in a neutral nation."

"I'll do it." Chris said.

Kira, Liz, Tolle and everyone else started at him in surprise. So Chris explained his decision.

"Now, I don't want you to think that I'm calling you a coward Kira, cause I'm not. But as long as my friends and family are on this ship and I have the power to protect them, I will." He turned to Ramius and added, "But make no mistake, I will not fight offensively against ZAFT. I'll only fight to protect this ship and the people I care about on board."

"I understand. Thank you." Lt. Ramius said. "I suppose one is better than none."

"Lt. Ramius. Report to the bridge at once." a voice on the intercom spoke.

Ramius stepped over to a nearby comm panel.

"What is it?" she asked.

Mu's voice answered. "There are mobile suits approaching. Get back up here and assume command. You're the captain."

A surprised look crossed her face. "I am?"

"I have seniority, but I don't know the first thing about this ship."

"Very well. Prepare the Archangel for takeoff. Order all hands to level one battle stations. Is your mobile armor ready?"

"No."

Then Lt. La Flaga, please take charge of the CIC." Ramius turned around and added, "Chris, get to the hanger and into one of the mobile suits. You'll have to go out alone."

"Actually." Liz said as she stepped forward. "I could pilot the second machine."

Chris response to his sister was simple, "NO."

"But I'm a Coordinator. I can pilot the other mobile suit." Liz argued.

"I said no. I'll go out by myself."

"That's suicide and you know it!"

"I don't care! I'd prefer risking my own life rather than let you go out there with me!"

"Enough." Lt. Ramius said, interrupting their argument. "If Kira does not want to pilot one of the mobile suits and you wish to pilot it than I'll allow you to pilot it."

"You can't be serious!" Chris shouted.

"We don't have any other choice." Ramius said.

"You people aren't being fair!" Kira said, his fists clenched and shaking at his sides. "Fine, I'll do it."

"Alright then. C'mon Kira, we don't have much time." Chris said.

Kira nodded and the two of them sprinted to the hanger.

"Thanks Kira for changing your mind. If you hadn't, my sister really would have piloted the Strike and risked her life out there." He than added, more to himself than to Kira, "This war has taken too much from me already."

The Archangel's Hanger

Chris sat in the Raven's cockpit which was now in the port mobile suit catapult. Kira and the Strike was in the starboard catapult.

Johanna's voice came over the radio. "Alright, Kira, we're equipping the Strike with the Sword Striker, so we won't have a repeat of last time. Hold on for a second."

There was a pause.

"There's four mobile suits incoming. What? The Aegis? Okay, it the Aegis and three GINNs armed with...WHAT?! Are they nuts?!"

"What is it?" Chris asked.

"The GINNs are armed with heavy weapons used for taking out heavily fortified bases. A single misfire could be disastrous for Heliopolis."

Kira gasped while Chris just shook his head in shock. This was insane. How could ZAFT use those kind of weapons inside of a civilian colony.

"Be careful and good luck." Johanna said as the catapult doors opened.

"Chris Dante. Raven taking off!" Chris shouted just before the catapult activated, launching the Raven.

A moment later, the Strike launched.

'Well, let's give this Mobile Armor Mode a try.'

Chris pushed the button to transform the mobile suit and a couple seconds later, he found himself sitting in the cockpit of a bird-like mobile armor.

"Hop on Kira. We need to get rid of these guys before Heliopolis takes anymore damage."

The Strike landed on the back of the Raven and the two machines sped towards the four enemy mobile suits. When they almost reached them, the two GINNs armed with heavy missiles, broke away from the others and headed towards the Archangel.

"Kira, will you be able to fight these two by yourself while I deal with those two GINNs?" Chris asked.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Then hop off and good luck."

The Strike leapt off the Raven and moved in to engage the remaining GINN and the Aegis while the Raven turned around and chased after the GINNs.

The GINNs were fast but the Raven in it's Mobile Armor Mode was faster. One of the GINNs, seeing the Raven catching up to them, turned around and fired a trio of missiles from it's ankle mounted missile pods. Chris opened fire with the Raven's shoulder mounted guns at the missiles, destroying two of them and evaded the third.

'Not bad. But it's gonna take more than that to get rid of me.'

One of the GINNs fired two of it's large missiles and some of it's ankle mounted missiles at the Archangel. The Archangel performed evasive maneuvers as it's point defenses opened fire, destroying the large missiles and dodging most of the smaller ones. The missiles that missed hit Heliopolis, further damaging the already damaged colony.

"Stop it!" Chris shouted as he transformed the Raven back into it's Mobile Suit Mode and fired it's cannon at the GINN.

The GINN dodged the twin shots and fired off the last two heavy missiles and it's remaining smaller missiles at him, before discarding the launchers and pulling out it's holstered rifle and firing. Chris fired both the arm cannon and the Igelstellungs, desperately trying to destroy as many of missiles as he could before they hit him or Heliopolis. He managed to destroy one of large missiles and a couple of smaller ones. He aimed at the second large missile and was about to fire when the GINN fired a upon him, throwing his aim off and missing the missile. The missile impacted the central shaft of Heliopolis, damaging it.

"Are you trying to destroy Heliopolis?!" he shouted as he turned and fired at the GINN.

The GINN dodged the first two pairs of high-velocity rounds, but the second shot of the third pair tore through the it's left leg, but unlike the last one, this one kept fighting rather than fleeing. Seeing no other option, Chris aimed and fired one last shot. The twin rounds tore through the GINN's chest and a second later, it exploded.

Chris barely registered fact that he had just killed someone. This wasn't the time to think about that. Heliopolis and the Archangel were still in danger.

Elsewhere

Kira wasn't fairing all that well. The pilot of the GINN that was armed with the heavy energy cannon was firing like a maniac, not caring whether he hitting the Strike or Heliopolis. Didn't he realize that he was destroying peoples' homes every time he missed? Kira had to stop him.

The GINN's pilot, Miguel, was growing angry. He just couldn't seem to destroy the Strike and it's Natural pilot. Adding to this was the embarrassment of his previous battle and defeat at the hands of the Strike. Miguel wanted payback.

"Get behind it Athrun!" he shouted over the radio.

Suddenly, the Aegis, which had stayed out of the fight up to this point, lunged at the Strike from behind. Kira barely evaded the Aegis. But the second he did, Miguel fired at him again. Kira dodged the beam and struck back by throwing the Sword Striker's beam boomerang at it. The GINN dove over the boomerang and prepared to fire again. But Miguel didn't expect the boomerang to return, severing his machine's right leg. Before the pilot could retaliate, Kira struck, driving his large sword through the chest of the GINN, cleaving it in two.

"AAAAAAAARGH!!" Miguel screamed before his mobile suit exploded.

Kira turned to the Aegis, ready for anything. Kira wasn't sure who the pilot of the Aegis was. He had seen whom he believed to be Athrun steal the machine, but was that same person piloting the Aegis now?

"Kira. Kira Yamato!" Athrun's voice came over the radio.

Kira gasped. He knew that voice. It was Athrun's voice. His oldest friend had been part of the attack on his home and was facing him in combat.

"So it is you, isn't it, Kira?"

Elsewhere

Chris chased after the remaining GINN, who was harassing the Archangel at the moment. However, before he could engage it, the GINN was hit by one of the Archangel's Gottfrieds, destroying the GINN's waist and thighs. Just before it exploded, the GINN fired off all of it's missiles. The missiles flew wildly into the central shaft of Heliopolis. The shaft broke in two, causing Heliopolis to start collapsing all around them.

"No..." Chris said as he watched his home for almost a year crumble into dust.

Suddenly, the effects of the massive vacuum that was beginning created, violently pulled on the Raven. He struggled to control the mobile suit, but it was pointless. There was nothing he could do but sit back and pray that he would survive.

Elsewhere

"Athrun? Athrun Zala?!" Kira said in disbelief. "Why...Why are you here?"

"You should talk!" Athrun shot back. "What are you going in that thing?!"

Before Kira could answer, parts of Heliopolis began to fall all around them. Kira looked around in horror. Heliopolis was tearing itself apart. A few seconds later, both Kira and Athrun found themselves being violently pulled outside the colony.

Kira screamed as he pulled into space. He heard Athrun shout out his name before the Aegis was pulled out in the different direction.

Elsewhere

Aboard the Gamow

Saul, Nicol, Dearka and Yzak watched as Heliopolis broke apart.

"Heliopolis..." Nicol weakly said.

"Jeez...How the hell did Miguel and the others screw up so badly?" Dearka said.

"The council's gonna have Commander Le Creuset's head for this." Saul solemnly said. "There's no way he can get out of something like this without some form of punishment. Using D-Equipment inside a civilian colony. What was he thinking?"

A Short While Later

In the Newly Formed Heliopolis Debris Field

Chris stared out at the debris field of what had been his home for a few days short of a year. But now it was gone. Nothing more than dust in the wind.

"X3...Ra...05 Str...res..." a static filled voice called over the radio.

A few seconds later, it came back, this time at full strength. "X305 Raven, X105 Strike, please respond."

"This is the Raven." Chris called over the radio. "Is that you Archangel?"

"Affirmative Raven." the voice of Ensign Badgiruel answered. "What's your status?"

"Shaken but I'm okay."

"Can you see the Strike?"

Chris took a quick look around. He spotted the Archangel in the distance, but couldn't see the Strike.

"No, I can't see him."

"Very well then. Return to the ship."

"On my way."

He started to make his way back to the ship as Ensign Badgiruel continued to call the Strike. A few seconds later, Kira responded, "Strike here. I'm fine."

"Do you have the ship's position?" Badgiruel asked.

"Yeah." Kira replied.

"Then return to the ship."

"Right."

Meanwhile, Chris had made it about a third of the way to the Archangel when spotted a blinking light. A closer inspection revealed a damaged Heliopolis lifeboat.

"Archangel. I've found a damaged lifeboat out here. I'm bringing it in." he called over the radio.

"What? Who gave you authorization to do that?" Badgiruel said.

'Oh, you gotta be kidding me.'

"I'm bringing this lifeboat in."

"You can't just bring in a civilian lifeboat without proper authorization."

Chris shook his head and pushed some of the buttons next to the radio, filling the radio with static. "What was that Archangel? You're breaking up. I didn't get that last transmission. You can tell me when I come aboard with the lifeboat."

Chris then turned off the radio, picked up the lifeboat and headed towards the Archangel.

Sorry, it longer than I wanted to post this one but that's exams for you. I probably should have the next two to three chapters up before the end of next week. Oh and I fixed the mistakes in the second chapter.

Review!