Yo everybody! I have to say, I didn't think I get this chapter up so soon. I was completely stunned that it's done today. But I'm not complaining and doubt many of you are either. So on with the show!
Phase Thirty-Five: The Final Light
GENESIS fired once more. It's massive beam streaking past the forces fighting at Jachin Due. Heading for the Alliance's Ptolemaeus Crater Base. But in it's path was the reinforcements for the Earth Alliance fleet currently fighting at Jachin Due. Just like before, there was no defense against such a weapon. Much of the fleet was annihilated in a matter of seconds. While the beam continued on it's path. Reaching the Ptolemaeus Crater Base. Even at that distance, the beam was just as destructive. Destroying the entire base in an explosion to rival any nuclear blast.
But even then, it didn't stop the intense, brutal fighting between the ZAFT forces and the Alliance forces. The Earth pilots knew that GENESIS could be fired at the Earth, wiping out everything and everyone on the planet. Just as the ZAFT pilots knew that the Alliance still had nuclear weapons that could be used against the PLANTs, destroying them and killing millions. While some pilots still fought to wipe the other race out, most fought on for one simple reason. To ensure the survival of their homes and loved ones.
The Dominion
"Ma'am! Message from the reinforcement fleet." Flay reported as the message came in. "Half of the fleet has been wiped out!"
Natarle could only grit her teeth in frustration. With Ptolemaeus gone and half of their reinforcements gone, things were not looking good for them. Their only hope now was to punch a hole in the ZAFT lines for the Peacemaker Force to destroy GENESIS.
Suddenly, Azrael bolted out of his seat, heading for Flay's station. He tore off her headset and opened a channel to the Doolittle. "Captain Sutherland! Ready the Peacemaker Force!" he frantically ordered. "Our target is the PLANTs!"
Natarle was stunned. The PLANTs? They needed to destroy GENESIS before it could be fired at Earth. "Director Azreal-"
"We'll destroy every last one of those goddamn hourglasses!!" Azrael shouted. "Recall the Calamity, the Forbidden, the Massacre, and the Raider so they can clear a path!
Sutherland nodded. "Roger."
"But Director Azrael, that won't eliminate the threat to Earth." Naratle argued. "Our focus must be to destroy that weapon!"
"Give me a break." he said in an annoyed tone as he reached into his coat. "Why must you always be such a bitch?!"
He drew a pistol from his coat and pointed it at Natarle. Natarle's eyes widened in surprise while Flay stared at the gun less than a foot from her face in terror.
Clotho fired his beam cannon at CGUE, piercing it's cockpit. "This is too easy." he commented.
"Yeah. Where the hell are those strong opponents?" Kevin asked, mowing down a trio of GINNs.
At that moment, messages appeared on their consoles.
Urgent.
Priority One.
Return to the Dominion to escort Peacemaker Force immediately.
"Aw...More babysitting." Clotho whined. "That's barely any fun."
"Shut up dumbass." Orga said, heading, alongside the Forbidden, for the Dominion. "You want to get in trouble?"
Clotho growled, but followed them. Kevin, on the other hand, was tired of doing what Azrael wanted. He wanted to find those two and finally destroy them. Azrael would punish him for that later. But he didn't care. He wanted to fight those two machines that had constantly escaped destruction.
So, instead of following his teammates, he went in the opposite direction. Searching for someone worth fighting.
The Dominion
"What do you plan on doing with that thing?" Natarle defiantly asked. "Are you trying to take over this ship?"
"Take over? You really don't get it, do you? I've been in charge here from the beginning!" Azrael replied. "Your job is to follow my orders! Yet all you do is question every single order I give!"
"Message from the Doolittle." a bridge officer said. "Peacemaker Force is ready for take off."
"Then have them launch! What about the Raider, the Calamity, the Massacre and the Forbidden?" Azrael demanded.
"The Raider, Calamity and Forbidden are returning."
"What about the Massacre?!"
"It appears to be ignoring orders."
"What?! Gah! Dammit!" Azrael cursed for moment before regaining a fracture of the composure he had a moment before. "It doesn't matter! Once the PLANTs are gone, this war will be over!" he ranted. "All Coordinators are a threat to Earth! So long as even one draws breath, Earth will be in danger! And our purpose here is to get rid of them all!"
"But that's-" Natarle started to say.
"Contain casualties to our own forces to a minimum while incurring maximum damage to the enemy." Azrael said, cutting her off. "That's how a war is suppose to be fought."
The Archangel
"Captain! The Dominion and several other ships are breaking off and heading for the PLANTs!" Sai said.
"They must have the nukes... Tell the Eternal and the Kusanagi that we'll deal with the Dominion." Murrue ordered. "Move us to intercept the Dominion and the other ships!"
The Archangel quickly caught up with her sister ship and the other ships. "Fire anti-beam depth charges! Load Sledgehammers!" Samuel ordered. "Aim Valiants and Gottfrieds! Target the Agamemnon-class!"
The Dominion
"Archangel approaching. They're targeting the Doolittle!" an operator reported.
"What are you waiting for?!" Azrael demanded. "Move us out front! We can't let them sink the Doolittle!!"
Natarle just stood there defiantly. That didn't please Azrael. "If you won't do it, I'll shoot you!!"
Natarle had no real choice. If she refused,he would shoot her and no doubt get everyone else on board killed. She sat back down. She'd fight to protect the ship and crew on board at least. "Maximum thrust! Turn bow twenty!" she ordered. "Fire anti-beam depth charges! Aim Gottfrieds!"
"FIRE!!!" both Murrue and Natarle yelled.
"Alright. Everyone, spread out." Yzak ordered as his team moved to intercept the nukes. "We can't let a single warhead get through!"
His team and the other teams with him spread out. Casting a wide net that would hopefully catch the nukes. But at the head of the Peacemaker, was the Raider, the Calamity, and the Forbidden.
"Hmm...More pests." Shani said as the ZAFT machines approached.
"Hey! Where the hell did Kevin go?!" Orga asked, looking around for their fourth teammate.
"Who cares. Just means more for us." Clotho replied, firing on the ZAFT mobile suits with his railguns, gunning down three.
Yzak and his team surged forward, trying to overwhelm the three Earth machines. But the GINNs and GuAIZs just weren't a match for the power of those three machines. Many ZAFT pilots were cut down by the trio before they could reach them and the Peacemaker Force.
Yzak scowled. Most of his team was just a bunch of kids. Seeing them getting killed like that, infuriated him. "Come on, you bastards!" Yzak shouted, firing on the Raider. "Why don't you try fighting me?!"
The Raider transformed and nimbly dodged his shots and fired back with his railgun and machineguns. "You're gonna have to try harder than that!"
Yzak pulled up his shield, blocking the railgun rounds as the bullets impacted the Duel's armor. But Clotho wasn't the only one that wanted a piece of Yzak and the Duel.
The Forbidden lunged at the Duel with it's scythe raised. Suddenly, a pair of arrestors shot out at the green mobile suit. But Shani saw them in the corner of his eye. The Forbidden spun and sliced through the arrestors' cables. "I got your back Yzak!" Saya called out, firing at the Forbidden with her beam rifle.
However, her attack was useless as Shani pulled down his beam deflection shields, sparing his mobile suit from any damage. "Another weak one?" Shani said. "Then die like the rest!"
The Forbidden's cannon fired. Saya dodged the first beam with ease. She then narrowly avoided the second beam. But she ended up flying into the the third. The beam blew off her shield and tore off the GuAIZ's left arm at the elbow. Saya swore as she fired back. But her shots either missed entirely or were harmlessly deflected.
But she did distract the Forbidden, allowing Yzak move in behind the machine, a beam saber drawn. Yzak roared as he moved in to attack. But it wasn't meant to be.
"Oh no you don't!" yelled Orga, firing at the Duel, forcing Yzak to pull back.
"Dammit." he swore. "Saya! Get out of here. You're no match for these guys in a GuAIZ."
"Don't worry about me sir. I can handle myself." she replied, still desperately trying to get around the Forbidden's shields.
But she was so caught up in trying to get past those shields, that she didn't notice the Raider approaching her from behind until the machine was practically right on top of her. She spun around. But it was already too late.
"Get out of the way pest!!" Clotho roared, firing his hammer at the GuAIZ.
The heavy metal ball slammed into Saya's machine, sending her flying back. Saya fought to try to stop her machine. But it was too late. Orga took aim at her with his energy bazooka and fired. The shot hit it's mark, piecing the GuAIZ's upper torso and going through the back of it's head. A second later, the GuAIZ exploded.
"Saya!!" Yzak shouted in horror.
A smug grin formed on Orga's face. "Bullseye."
This only served to enrage Yzak further. "You bastards!!" he roared, firing his railgun at the Calamity.
The Calamity easily avoided the shots and fired back with his bazooka. Yzak blocked the shot with his shield, but the force of the impact knocked the shield out of the Duel's hand. Yzak silently cursed to himself. There was no way he could beat these three by himself.
"Guess this one isn't that tough." Shani said, his pack moving into position to fire his cannon.
Suddenly, a barrage of beams streaked towards the Forbidden. Shani barely manged to move his shields in time. "Gah! Who the hell took a shot at me?!" Shani growled as everyone turned to the source of the shots.
The Surge, the Neo Blitz and the Buster were approaching. "Looks like you could use some help Yzak." Dearka said as the three of them fired on the Calamity, the Forbidden, and Raider, forcing them to back way from the Duel.
Yzak grunted. "What you guys doing here? I thought you weren't fighting for ZAFT anymore."
"That doesn't mean that we can't help a friend." replied Nicol.
"Yeah. And that's kinda rude to say that to the people helping you out." Saul added.
"Bastards! Eat this!" Orga shouted, firing at the four of them.
The Surge, the Duel and the Buster dodged his shots while Nicol used his Trikeros II shield to deflect the beams aimed at him.
"We can talk later." Dearka said, returning fire with his beam cannon and gun launcher. "Now's the time to kick some ass."
But at that moment, the mobile armors fired their lethal payload. And the four of them weren't in any position to stop them with the Forbidden, the Calamity, and the Raider engaging them.
The nukes streaked towards the PLANTs unopposed, when suddenly the Freedom, the Justice and the Strike Rouge appeared.
"Dammit! Don't you guys care about all the lives you're trying to wipe out!" Kira shouted as a seed shattered in his mind.
The Freedom and it's METEOR fired every weapon they had. The beams and missile hit their targets, destroying a huge chuck of missiles in a couple of seconds.
Athrun took aim at the remaining missiles as his own seed shattered. Athrun let loose his own overwhelming barrage of fire, destroying the rest of the nuclear warheads. But it wasn't over yet. There was still a handful of mobile armors that yet to release their payload until that moment.
Athrun and Kira both moved to intercept the few remaining missiles when a wave of curving beams streaked towards them, forcing them to stop and take evasive maneuvers. "You're not stopping the lights this time!" Shani roared as continued to fire at them.
Cagalli, seeing all the others too distracted with their own battles to safely intercept the nukes, headed for the warheads. She fired her rifle. The first three shots missed their mark, but her fourth hit the lead missile. It exploded, taking all of the other missiles with it.
The 11th Fleet tore through the ZAFT defense lines, fighting like men possessed. Lucius gunned down a CGUE and two GINNs with precision of a surgeon. A ZAFT GuAIZ fired it's arrestors at Ajay's GuAIZ. But before they could reach him, he ignited his beam claws and sliced the cables in an instant. Before the GuAIZ pilot could react, Ajay fired his own arrestors at him. The arrestors grabbed onto the GuAIZ and Ajay charged at him, slashing through the GuAIZ. A Nazca-class and Laurasia-class moved to block the warships of the 11th Fleet, but Basque and his heavy weapons team attacked the ships, targeting their engines and weapons. "You're not stopping us!" yelled Basque as he fired open the Nazca-class's main cannons.
His heavy particle cannon made quick work of the Nazca-class's cannons.
But the 11th Fleet was incurring their own losses. A light blue GuAIZ gunned down another GuAIZ, only to be shot in the back by a pair of GINNs. A trio of GuAIZ overwhelmed white and red GuAIZ, bringing it down with a large barrage of beams.
John, atop the edge of the Odin's catapult, was taking out taking out ZAFT mobile suits with his sniper rifle. Every shot he took, removed at least one ZAFT machine from the battle.
But even then, their advance was slowing. More ZAFT mobile suits and warships were moving to intercept them. They were starting to get overwhelmed by the numbers.
A GuAIZ and three GINNs rose up in front of the Odin, firing at the Farsight. John swore as he jump back to avoid their fire. He quickly pulled up his rifle and pistol. But before he could fire, a barrage of beams tore through them.
"Nothing but worms." Kevin grumbled as he looked around the area. "Where are those two? Where is the white one and the red one?"
"Dammit. Not one of those guys." John said, taking aim the Massacre. "We can't deal with these guys now."
He fired. And the shot would have hit if two GINNs and a GuAIZ hadn't tried attacking the Massacre. "Worms!" Kevin roared as he dodged all of the shots. "Take a shot at me and I'll tear out your throats!!"
The Massacre fired back, destroying the ZAFT machines with ease. However, during that, Kevin noticed the Farsight atop the Odin. "YOU!!!" he howled. "Where are they, coward?!"
John's response was simple. He jumped out the Odin and took off, heading for the Massacre. Firing at the crimson machine as he flew. The Massacre sidestepped his shots and fired back with missiles and Gatling guns. John pulled to the right, firing at the missiles as he moved to dodge the beams. "Diana, take command and keep on going. I'll handle this punk and catch up with you." ordered John.
Kevin laughed. "You think that a coward like you, can defeat me?! Let me show you just how wrong you are!!"
The Massacre suddenly charged forward at the Farsight as John fired on him. Though the Massacre dove and sidestepped John's fire, it didn't return fire with it's own weapons or draw a beam saber, catching John off guard. The Massacre slammed into the Farsight, tossing it back. "DIE!!!" Kevin roared, raising the Massacre's Gatling guns and opening it's chest plate.
At that range, there was no dodging. John was dead...
Suddenly, beams tore through the small area between them, forcing Kevin to back away on reflex. Kevin turned to the source of the beams, only to come face to face with a pair of purple arrestors. Kevin pulled his left Gatling gun in front of him like a shield. One arrestor grabbed one of the gun's barrels while the other grabbed the base of the weapon. "Now sir!" Diana shouted as she held the Massacre in place.
John discarded his rifle and drew one of his sabers. He lunged at the Massacre as Kevin fought with Diana to break free of her grasp. But as John brought his saber down, Kevin detached the Gatling gun and lept back, avoiding the beam blade entirely.
"I thought I told you to take command and keep going." John said.
"Sorry sir. But I felt that you could use the assistance." Diana replied. "Was I mistaken?"
John sighed. "No. You're right of course. Let's deal with this guy quickly and head back to the fleet."
"I'll give you credit. You are strong but no match for me." Chris said.
Their duel had intensified. But Zane was struggling to keep up. The Retribution had already lost it's left foot while the Raven had been untouched since they had started their saber duel.
"Dammit! RAAAGH!!!" Zane roared as swung his sabers at the Raven. Again, it dodged his attack. "Impossible! How can you keep avoiding every move I make!"
"Well, I could ask you've become so slow and predictable." Chris replied. "I can see your movements quite easily. You might as well surrender. You can't beat me now."
"Impossible...You've become like them..." Zane paused for a moment, gritting his teeth in frustration. "No matter! I'll defeat you regardless of that!"
Zane lunged at the Raven, swing his sabers wildly. But Chris dodged, blocked or countered every swing he took. "DAMN YOU!!!" he screamed, his attacks becoming more wild and desperate. "I WILL NOT LOSE TO YOU EVER AGAIN!!!"
Every time the two had battled, the best Zane could ever achieve was a stalemate. But every draw, every defeat, every battle, had pushed him forward. Driven him to become stronger. To become stronger for this battle. He would not allow himself to lose here!
Suddenly, something snapped within Zane. Both pilots paused. Chris stopped when he felt something emerge from the Retribution. A pulse that caused a shutter crawl up spine. Zane, on the other hand, felt the entire world...no the entire universe becoming clearer before him. It was like he had, up until this point, seen everything through a fog, but now the fog had lifted from his eyes.
Not taking a chance, Chris rushed at the Retribution, intending to end the duel right there and now. He swung his sabers down on the Retribution. Only to have the blades perfectly blocked but the Retribution's blades.
Zane started laughing. "I saw it! I saw that attack!" he said, a grin on his face. "Everything has become so much clearer now! Ha ha ha ha ha! It's funny! Creuset always looked down me because I lacked what both you and he have! I was always second to her! Because I didn't have what she had! Her! Creuset's failure! And yet I was always second to her! Even after she rejected him and his quest! But not any more! That doesn't matter anymore! Nor does your new awareness! Because now, we are equal!!"
"Indeed we are." was Chris's only response. "Indeed we are."
The Doolittle
"Have all units target those two mobile suits!" Sutherland ordered. "How many nukes do we have left?!"
"Eight mobile armors have yet to be deployed."
"Then launch them!"
"Sir!" the radar operator shouted. "Incoming mobile suit!"
"Shoot it down!!" screamed Sutherland.
But it was already too late.
"For Junius Seven!" Liz roared, firing at the Doolittle.
The Athena's beams hit the Doolittle's bridge tower, destroying the bridge and creating a chain reaction that consumed the entire ship, obliterating it.
"One down. Three more to go." Liz said, heading for the next Agamemnon-class.
"Possibly, humans can exist without actually having to fight. But, many of us have chosen to fight. For what reason?"
Raider, in it's mobile armor mode, strafed the Justice, hitting it with railgun rounds and bullets. Knocking Athrun back a bit, but did little ease. Athrun fired off a number of missiles as the Raider flew past. Clotho quickly spun around, transforming the Raider back, and firing several shots at the missiles, destroying them. But Athrun didn't let up, swinging the METEOR's large beam sabers at the Raider.
"What's the deal with you two anyway? Why are you fighting so desperately?" Clotho asked, a desperate tone in his voice, as he evaded more of Athrun's swings.
"I want to ask you the same thing. What do you guys think you're fighting for?" Athrun replied.
"Don't ask me, I don't really know." Clotho paused. "...I hate losing. That's my only reason!"
"What?"
"Not that I would ever lose!" Clotho yelled as he spun around and fired at the Justice.
"Die!" Shani roared, firing his plasma cannon at the Surge.
Saul nimbly dodged and sidestepped the curving beams, firing his beam rifle as he did. "It's gonna take more than wild shots to get me."
Saul fired his claw at the Forbidden. To his surprise, Shani pulled up his pack and grabbed the claw's cable with one hand. "Aw shit..." Saul said just before Shani pulled on the cable.
The Surge flew forward, towards the Forbidden, which had lowered it's scythe. It's spiked tip ready to impale the Surge. Saul quickly drew one of his swords and sliced through the cable. The Surge stopped. "Okay. Now I'm mad." Saul said, drawing his other sword.
Elsewhere, Cagalli and a pair of Astray pilots were battling a group of Strike Daggers. Cagalli fired at a pair of Daggers, shooting one down and severing the leg of the other. "Ha! You guys aren't so tough!" Cagalli gloated.
"Lady Cagalli! Behind you!" one of the pilots shouted.
Cagalli spun around. A Dagger, with a beam saber, lunged at her. Suddenly, one of the Astray pilots dove in between the Strike Rouge and the Dagger. Firing his rifle as the Dagger's saber cut through the Astray. Both exploded.
"Lady Cagalli!" the other Astray pilot said, approaching her. "Are you-"
He never got a chance to finish his sentence, a Strike Dagger shot him from behind. "Damn you bastards!" Cagalli screamed, a seed exploding in her mind.
She quickly fired, destroying that Dagger, before taking down three more in rapid succession.
"I've taken care of the ships carrying the nukes." Liz's voice said, suddenly coming over the comm. "We don't have to worry about anymore nukes being fired."
"You heard her, Athrun." Nicol said, evading the Calamity's shots. "Go on and stop GENESIS. The four of us will deal with these guys."
Athrun nodded. "Alright. We'll stop GENESIS. But you guys better not get yourselves killed." he said as Kira and Cagalli took off for GENESIS.
"Just go already!" Yzak shouted. "We'll take these punks down!"
"To protect something? Protect what? Ourselves? The future? If we kill people to protect ourselves and this future then what sort of future is it and what will we have become?"
"Le Creuset!!" Mu roared as he fired on his long time rival and enemy.
Rau smirked as he dodged the Strike's fire ease and fired back. Rau had hoped that he would have a chance to see Mu again before it all ended.
Mu dodged his beams with the same ease. "Is this what you were hoping for, you bastard?!"
"You shouldn't blame me!" Rau yelled, releasing his DRAGOONs. "This is mankind's dream, mankind's desire, mankind's destiny!" he ranted as Mu struggled to dodged the numerous beams coming from multiple directions. "To be the strongest, to go the farthest, to climb the highest!"
A beam destroyed Mu's rifle, but otherwise, Mu had managed to evade his shots. "You're pathetic!" Mu shot back, drawing a beam saber and lunging at Rau.
Rau activated his shield mounted beam saber, blocking his attack. "To compete, to envy, to hate each other, and to devour one another!"
"I won't let your twisted logic make things worse!" Mu said, backing off for another attack.
"But you're too late, Mu. You see... I am the product of all of this! That's how I know!" Rau said, firing from his DRAGOONs again. "I know that humanity will be swallowed by the darkness it's created!"
This time, the beams blew off the Strike's right arm and left leg, sending the mobile flying like a rag doll.
"There is no future for those who have died. And what of those who did the killing? Is happiness to be found in a future that is grasped with blood stained hands?" Lacus said, her pupils dilated. "Is that the truth?"
Two pink beam sabers met and clashed with four crimson beam sabers. Both the Raven and the Retribution looked like they had been through hell. There were dents and gashes on both mobiles suits. But still they fought on. Both machines groaned as they fought to overpower the other. Normal pilots would have retreated from the battle by now. But neither of these pilots were willing to back down. Even had their mobile suits collapsed under the strain of their battle, they would have kept on fighting.
"I've got you now!" Zane said, pulling the sabers in the Retribution's sub arms back.
His plan was clear and obvious. With the Raven's sabers blocking the Retribution's other two sabers, those two would cut through the Raven's chest. The sub arms swung down. "That's not going to work!" Chris shouted.
The Raven's mobile armor legs folded out, their mini-beam sabers igniting as the sub arms dropped. The Raven's blades sliced through the forearms of the sub arms. The energy blades of the two sabers instantly died, sparing the Raven any damage.
"See. Had you done that during our encounter yesterday, that probably would have worked." Chris said as he broke away from the Retribution. "But now...Now that won't work on me!"
Zane scowled. "Don't think you've beaten me. These two sabers will be more than enough for you."
"That a look at your machine. It's got what, another two attacks left in before it completely falls apart?" Chris replied.
"Than take a look at your own machine." Zane shot back. "I doubt you have anything beyond two attacks left. In fact, I doubt you have all that much power left your battery. Where as I am in no danger of running out of power."
"Maybe. Maybe not. Regardless, this battle is about to end. This will be our final attacks."
"Yes it is. And I've already seen the outcome. The Raven in pieces!" Zane roared, charging at the Raven.
"I don't think so. I happen to see something very different!" Chris shouted, charging the Retribution.
The two machines struck. The Raven's left saber stabbed into the joint between the Retribution's right shoulder and body as the Retribution's right saber cut into the Raven's left shoulder, destroying it. Meanwhile, the Raven's right saber sliced through the Retribution's left forearm, severing it.
Zane's eyes widened surprise as the Retribution's limbs flew off. Before he could react, the Raven kicked the Retribution, slamming it into a large chuck of debris. Zane attempted to pulled the Retribution off the debris, but the crash had caused shrapnel to become lodged in the Retribution's main thrusters, damaging them and immobilizing the machine. He looked up. The Raven was hovering over him. "Well? What are you waiting for? End it."
Chris shook his head. "No."
"What?! Are you insane?!" Zane shouted. "If you don't kill me now, I'll keep on coming after you! And I won't stop until one of us has been destroyed! You know that!!"
"Perhaps. Perhaps not." he replied. "You and I were friends once. And I hope that you and I can be friends again one day. Perhaps this act of mercy will show you that there is still some good in humanity."
And with that, the Raven took off, leaving the stranded Retribution. "Coward!! Come back! Come back and finish this!" screamed Zane. "If you don't, I'll hunt you down! I swear it!! I'll destroy you!!"
The Archangel
The battle between the Archangel and the Dominion had reached a standstill. Both ships were in rough shape. Their hulls were pitted with holes and gouges from their weapons. Both ships had lost one of their Gottfrieds. The Archangel had lost it's Valiants while the Dominion had lost it's right radar array.
"We've sealed off weapons bank eight." Murdoch reported.
"The Strike is returning. It's been damaged." Miri said.
Murrue gasped. "Open a channel."
Mu appeared on the main screen. "Damn that new machine of Creuset's." Mu cursed. "I'll get him next time."
"You can report on that later." Murrue said, pulling up her phone. "Ground crew, set up the emergency landing net! Medical staff on standby!"
One of the Archangel's catapults opened for the approaching Strike.
The Dominion
Azrael watched as the Archangel's catapult opened for that damaged mobile suit. "Now's our chance! Fire the Loengrin!" he shouted. "Sink that ship!"
Natarle could only grit her teeth. There was nothing she could do to stop him.
But Flay, on the other hand, could do something to warn them. "Archangel! Get out of there!" Flay yelled over the comm. "Archangel-"
Azrael grabbed her and pulled her from her seat. "How dare you! Bitch!!" he screamed, slapping Flay and sending her flying in the low gravity. "What the hell is wrong with you?!!"
He drew his pistol and pointed it at her. Suddenly, Natarle tackled Azrael, reaching for his gun. The gun fired several times, hitting the deck.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Natarle shouted at the man.
"I know what I'm doing! To you!!" Azrael yelled back, grabbing her collar as the two wrestled for the gun.
"All hands, abandon ship!" Natarle yelled to the rest of the crew.
Most of the bridge crew didn't need to be told twice and fled the bridge for the escape boats. But Flay didn't. Natarle pushed her and Azrael to the front of the bridge. "Go!" she shouted to Flay. "Get to the Archangel!"
Flay knew she had no other choice. But still, she didn't want to leave Natarle with the man. In the end, she reluctantly followed the rest of the bridge crew out of the bridge.
"Damn you, bitch!" Azrael screamed as they fled.
"If you are the commander... If you are in the position to give orders-"
BANG!!!
Natarle gasped. The gun had gone off. A bullet pierced her side. Azrael pushed her off, slamming her into a console. Azrael headed for the door, pausing a moment to glare at her. "I hope you realize what's going to happen to you for treating me like this!"
Natarle managed to pull herself to her chair and push a button, sealing the bridge just before Azrael reached the door. "You're a monster who deserves to die...right here with me..."
A bullet tore through her right shoulder, sending her to the ground. "Damn you! Open that door!"
Natarle simply smirked.
BANG!!!
Another bullet. This time, it hit her left shin. Azrael glanced over his shoulder. The Archangel was still the position to finish them off. "Dammit! I can't die here!" he said, heading for the weapon control console.
He had one last option. One last way to win this. "I can still win this." he chuckled, typing away at the console. "That's right. I was always win."
Natarle tried to get up to stop him, but she was too late. One of the Dominion's Lohengrins fired. The beam streaking towards the Archangel.
"Evade!" Murrue shouted as the beam grew closer and closer.
"It's too late!" Arnold yelled back, frantically trying to move the Archangel in time.
Suddenly, the Strike appeared in front of the bridge, it's shield out. The beam hit the Strike's shield. But it couldn't hold the beam for long. It's body began to fall apart under the strain. If Mu didn't move soon, the Strike would be destroyed. But if he did, the Archangel would be destroyed.
"Ha! I didn't I tell you...I'm the one who makes the impossible...possible..." Mu yelled.
The Strike exploded, sparing the Archangel any damage. Everyone was stunned. Everyone was silent. Save for Murrue, who screamed out Mu's name as her tears floated from her eyes.
"Impossible..." Azrael whispered.
Natarle let out a quiet, strained laugh. "Looks like you lose..."
Azrael was on her in an instant. "How dare you mock me?!"
He slammed her into her chair. "I won't die here! I refuse to!" he ranted, grabbing the ship's helm.
Aboard the Archangel, Murrue brushed the tears from her eyes, glaring at the Dominion. "Aim Lohengrin!" she ordered.
One of the Archangel's Lohengrins unfolded and began charging.
"Murrue Ramius..." Natarle shouted.
"FIRE!!!" both she and Murrue screamed.
The Archangel's Lohengrin fired. The beam streaked out towards the Dominion as Azrael frantically tried to pull the ship out of the line of fire. But he just wasn't fast enough. The edge of the beam caught the bridge. Tearing the bridge to pieces. The rest of the Dominion lifelessly floated in space, effectively dead in the water.
One more chapter to go! Well, one more chapter and the epilouge. I might actually get the next chapter done for tomorrow night. But if not, it will be before Friday. So it's finally coming to an end!
Please review!!