Gundam SEED Destiny
Kira
By: Tellemicus Sundance
Phase 14: The Balance of Power Shifts
November 29, 73 CE
Earth Alliance Lunar Headquarters
7:33pm
In space, there is no air. There is no sound. And, above all else, there is no gravity. In direct view of the sun, temperatures could reach as higher than four hundred degrees, while in the shade they could fall lower than negative two hundred Fahrenheit. Creatures like human beings were not designed to survive in such harsh conditions, and that's not even taking into account solar flares and high-intensity radiation levels. Simply put, a human could die within an instant of exposure and that's if they're lucky.
And as the team of twelve suited individuals dropped lightly upon the rough surface below them, each of them was acutely aware of these dangers outside their mothership. But they had a mission to accomplish, one of significant importance. So they pushed those fears aside and channeled their focus of attention to the sole purpose of completing that mission.
Where they now stood was on the outside one of the hangars of the Earth Alliance's lunar base. After the unsuccessful attack on the PLANTs almost a month ago, this base had been critically weakened due to the massive loss of manpower that occurred in that rash conflict. But though it was lacking in the fleet and mobile suit defenses, its automated beam cannons and missile launchers still worked with lethal accuracy.
As Jared Darre drew forward with his code-hacking 'little buddy,' the other eleven took up positions to guard their flanks, weapons at the ready. It took scarcely a moment before the code was cracked and the door slid open, a blast of dust and what little air inside sweeping out in an instant. Before the air had even fully evacuated the chamber, the twelve operatives flooded inside and closed the door behind them.
In the vacuum of space, the sound of a blaring alarm suddenly going off as the door opened was completely unnoticed by the trespassing pirates. However, the flashing red lights that generally accompanied such an alarm were easily spotted. This caused Jared to quickly plug his little buddy back into the terminal beside the door. Within a few short moments, the alarm was silenced and canceled but the damage was already done. There was now a guaranteed possibility of an Alliance warship dropping by to investigate the alarm; their mission time had just fractured dramatically! As Jared rapidly erased the record of their trespass and established a false trail as a cover, the majority of the team hurriedly swept forward to complete their mission.
"It looks like Professor K was correct after all," Dalen Bertelsen, the commander of the team, said as he surveyed the hangar in front of him with an impressed and highly relieved aura about him. In front of him was an entire cache of unused nuclear missiles stacked neatly atop one another. These unlucky beauties had been part of the small fraction of the fleet that hadn't been destroyed in the attack.
"What? That the Naturals didn't make better use of their weaponry when they had the chance?" Jared asked, the amusement in his voice was quite noticeable. "Of course she'd be right about where they're hiding these things, Lieutenant!"
"The Naturals aren't as stupid as they use to be," Dalen said quietly. Turning to his group, the former FAITH agent barked out, "Alright, people! You know your tasks and your missions! We need the ones we're taking ready in—" He glanced at his watch. "—fifteen minutes! You know how Siemer gets when we're late! Let's move!"
KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA
December 2, 73 CE
John Paul Jones
7:33pm
If there was one thing that Neo immediately knew about the young man who'd greeted himself as the 'Supreme Commander of the Orb Military' Yuna Roma Seiran, it was that this idiot didn't deserve his self-proclaimed title. The young man had enough ego and enthusiasm to power the old GENESIS superweapon sevenfold and that was when he was being 'docile'. Neo couldn't even begin to understand how those under his command could put up with him for more than a few minutes.
When they had concluded their plans for the ambush on the Minerva and entry into the Black Sea, Neo had purposely allowed Seiran to run the 'meeting' and agreed with his ridiculous plan. Honestly, attack the Minerva as it was exiting the strait? That was about the most rudimentary of attack strategies out there! But what really set this strategy up for disaster wasn't the fact that Seiran was grossly overestimating the strengths of his military and underestimating the Minerva, but it was the simple fact of where he was planning to place his own forces. The fool was forgetting all about one simple fact: the Minerva had a positron cannon. By stationing his ships near the exit of the strait, he placing them within easy reach of the warship's cannon as it exited. He was putting his taskforce (and himself) into a direct line of fire!
However, Neo had easily agreed with the plan and complimented the fool for such a 'well-planned operation.' By doing this, he was playing on the man's ego and making him believe that he had earned the confidence and favoritism of the Alliance military. This would make him quite easy to manipulate when things went pear-shaped during the battle, which Neo knew they would. Despite himself, he couldn't help but feel remorse for the poor men and women who'd die today due to that fool's incompetence.
From the bridge of the John Paul Jones, Neo watched as the battle unfolded more or less how he'd imagined. The two pilots of those extraordinary mobile suits were easily fighting off the swarms of Murasames and Astrays. But where the red one was merely disabling them, the blue and white mobile suit was completely crushing them, killing the poor pilots inside within an instant of engaging them.
And then, as predicted, something happened that completely threw the battle into chaos. But not necessarily in the manner that he'd been expecting. The Minerva had just been preparing to fire its positron cannon, like he'd expected, when an unexpected attack from behind had destroyed the charging weapon. In a burst of blinding white light and afterimages, a Murasame-like mobile suit appeared and dropped out of the sky.
"Sorry about that, Minerva," a voice called over an open radio channel as the mobile suit settled in to a hover off to the Minerva's starboard flank. "But you were about to incinerate quite a few of my friends there!"
As the Minerva lost its stability and crashed into the water below, another warship arrived. This one was so familiar that every single person who saw it immediately recognized it: the Archangel had arrived. A moment later, a second mobile suit was launched from the Archangel. This one was several shades of pink with an oriental crest of a lion and a rose painted on its left shoulder plate.
Neo couldn't help but growl slightly as a second voice identified itself as Orb's Chief Representative Cagalli Yula Athha and ordered the Orb forces to disengage from the battle immediately. Though he could commend the girl for trying, he couldn't allow the Orb forces to withdraw at this moment. So he began to playing with the seeds of manipulation he'd planted in the fool earlier. Clearly the man could tell this young woman was who she claimed be, it was obvious in his stuttering voice and hesitancy. After only a moment of hesitation, the entire Orb fleet launched a massive spray of missiles towards the antique Strike Rouge.
Rather than watch the outcome of the immediate crisis, Neo turned to his executive officer as he stood up. "Take over. I'm heading out there."
KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA
As Tolle watched the incoming spray of missiles, he felt that eerily familiar sensation of something exploding in the back of his mind. With a sudden calmness washing over him, Tolle punched the power of the Voiture Lumiere as he dashed in front of Cagalli's Strike Rouge. Turning his back to the missiles, Tolle flared the Fortitude's engines as he grabbed the Strike Rouge. The flare of light not only blinded the eyes of the many people who were looking towards them, but it also caused the missiles' targeting computers to lose their target. With the Strike Rouge in tow, Tolle blasted them straight upwards in a considerable burst of speed.
Once he was sure that Cagalli was safely out of harm's way, he released her and swooped off to the side of the incoming missile barrage. Snatching his beam boomerangs, Tolle launched them sideways across the path of the missiles, destroying a good dozen or two as the Archangel reacted by firing a series of interceptor missiles. The resulting explosions of the missiles looked remarkably similar to all the times that Tolle had seen Kira use the Freedom in Full-Burst Mode.
Catching the returning boomerangs easily, Tolle reclaimed his former position in front of the Archangel. "Seiran, you bastard! I swear to all that's holy and just that I'm going to kick your ass the next time I see you! What the hell was that?!"
If he were paying attention, Tolle might've heard a few sniggers filtering through the radio as he ranted. After all, his dislike for the Seiran heir was a very well known fact among the Orb military. However, the fact that they knew without a doubt that that was indeed Tolle yelling at their Supreme Commander only heightened their confusion. Hadn't the Fortitude and Archangel been the one to kidnap Lady Cagalli in the first place?
KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA
As his GOUF Ignited shot through the air, Heine slashed his Tempest beam sword through one enemy mobile suit after another. Due to the flow of battle, the Minerva was quickly retreating behind the small southern peninsula and that took the warship dangerously close to the awaiting ZGMF-X88S Gaia, which had left its carrier vessel behind in favor of following the battle.
Seeing the bright orange mobile suit flying close by, the Gaia had quickly opened fire on it. Reacting with the finely-honed reflexes and instincts of a veteran pilot, Heine had easily been able to evade the Gaia's shots. Though Heine was many things on the battlefield, never let it be said that he didn't enjoy a challenge. That was why he swooped around and lashed out with his Slayer Whip, the impact knocked the BuCUE-like Gundam off-balance as the electrical surge shocked the pilot inside. Quickly retracting the whip, he swung the GOUF around and lashed out with the other one, smacking the Gaia face-down in the dirt.
Most other pilots would've been quite incapacitated after those attacks, but whoever was in control of the black mobile suit truly was a stubborn one, Heine had to admire the person for that much at least. The Gaia had managed to jump a reasonable distance away after the electricity receded and brought up its beam rifle. However, Heine had already landed his GOUF and wrapped up the weapon before it could fire. The pilot seemed to realize what was going to happen mere moments beforehand and quickly released its hold of the rifle, barely having enough time to bring its compact shield forward to block the shrapnel as the rifle exploded.
"This is no ZAKU, pal," he said, grinning slightly in triumph. "No ZAKU!!"
In his brief moment of triumph, the Gaia was able to snatch out one of its beam sabers and lunged forward with surprising speed. He was just barely able to get his GOUF to duck under a slash meant for the cockpit. As he attempted to jump away and safely return to the sky above, the Gaia made a second vicious slash, impacting heavily enough against his shield to cause some chunks of it to be snapped off.
Okay, perhaps he and his GOUF were above and beyond an ordinary ZAKU, but so were the Gaia and its pilot. He could respect that, even if he didn't like it.
KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA
Tolle was little more than a pattern of afterimages as he danced around the battlefield, disabling Murasames and Astrays, destroying Windams and Dagger Ls, and intercepting missiles that were heading for either the Archangel or the Minerva. As the Archangel continued to defend the Minerva and warding off incoming ships, he turned his attention to the four Gundams that had been fighting one another.
The Abyss, the blue one in the water, was proving to be especially aggressive. And the fact that his Fortitude wasn't designed for underwater usage made it even more difficult for him to fight against it. Oh well, there was still the Impulse, the Chaos, and the red one to play with. He flew towards the Chaos and the red mobile suit, but the Impulse intercepted him with its beam rifle blazing.
"Whose side are you on, Lieutenant?!" a familiar angry voice demanded over the radio.
Glancing at his remaining energy reserve, Tolle let out a small growl of annoyance. The Voiture Lumiere was eating up his power at a ridiculous rate, forcing him to quickly shut it off to better conserve the half of it that he still had left.
"Well, well!" he called over in a cheerful voice, easily breaking off from his intended targets to focus his attention on the Impulse. "If it isn't the Impulsive Grump! How ya' doing?" Rather than answer, Shinn let out an angry yell as he opened fire on the Fortitude.
Bringing his shield up to block the Impulse's shots, Tolle snatched one of his boomerangs and threw it off to the side. Grabbing a saber, he lunged towards the Impulse, catching Shinn slightly by surprise. It was this surprise that allowed Tolle to be able to hack the Impulse's entire right arm off as he shot past. It was also this surprise that made Shinn unable to notice or dodge the incoming boomerang until it was too late. The deadly weapon cut straight through the Force Silhouette on its back, critically damaging its two portside engines as it passed through them. Tolle easily caught the weapon as the Impulse plummeted towards the water, just barely being able to eject the wreckage on its backside before it exploded.
KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA
Neo watched the battle between the Archangel's Murasame unit and the Impulse with interest. Clearly that was no real Murasame mobile suit; its sheer and obvious combat potential was well beyond that of a normal Murasame. Perhaps it was that one unit that he'd heard was responsible for kidnapping the Orb's representative? What was its name again?
Shaking his head, he refocused his mind on the battle at hand. The Minerva was nearly safely out of range and pursuing it was out of the question as long as the Archangel was protecting it. Although he knew the John Paul Jones was about to fire its return flares, there was one certain little girl that he needed to go safeguard in case she decided to disobey orders again.
So, with his new GAT-05 Rapier flying towards the cliffs to the starboard side, Neo focused his mind on the battle between the Gaia and that new orange unit that ZAFT had apparently delivered to the Minerva. It was proving to be a very formidable opponent, mowing down the various enemy mobile suits with a relative ease before engaging the Gaia. Was this one perhaps going to become a new mass production model for ZAFT? If so, then perhaps it was good thing that the Alliance was attempting to upgrade its own armaments.
Bringing his beam rifle forward, he fired a quick series of shots towards the orange mobile suit. Predictably, the suit danced clear as it turned to face him with an answering salvo. With a speed and grace that far outshone that of the Windam or Dagger mobile suits, Neo was easily able to dodge most of the shots, blocking those that he couldn't with his shield. Swinging around the suit and hovering protectively in front of the Gaia with its four wings spread, Neo called out, "You okay, Stellar?"
"Neo!" the blonde cried in relief and happiness at his arrival.
"Fall back to the ship, Stellar," he ordered as he closed the Rapier's wings in preparation for a lunge forward. "I'll deal with this guy." The girl was quick to obey his orders and retreated safely away.
The new ZAFT suit seemed to quickly realize just what was going to happen as it saw the Rapier close its wings. Therefore it was quite prepared when Neo began firing ruthlessly up towards it. Spinning around a short series of shots, the ZAFT machine lashed out with what looked to be a whip. Unprepared for the unorthodox weapon, Neo hadn't been able to dodge it or prevent it from wrapping around his beam rifle. Seeing the burst of electricity dancing down its length, he quickly released the rifle and brought his shield up as the electrical charge caused the deadly ammo to explode.
Growling in annoyance, Neo grabbed a beam saber as he dodged to the side, evading the salvo from the ZAFT machine's beam cannons that were built into its wrist. Changing his direction of travel immediately, he flew straight upwards as the Pollux IX railguns swung forward, quickly targeting the orange machine.
The shots went wide as the ZAFT pilot quickly dodged to the side before charging forward with its large anti-ship beam sword. Neo answered by bringing his shield up to bear and swung his own saber towards his enemy, causing both opponents to block the other's weapon on their shields. As they were breaking apart, the John Paul Jones finally sent up its retreat flares, a signal that most combatants were quick to obey.
KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA
December 3, 73CE
Linz, Austria
10:36am
"Why are we here?" Meer asked with her voice thick from various repressed emotions.
"The Earth Alliance has been unable to suppress the rebellions that have broken out in this region," Akira answered quietly as they walked down the streets of the large city of Linz, Austria. "The rebels have mostly been able to fight off the Alliance by themselves. However, I don't think the Alliance is quite ready to abandon this region just yet, especially not after what happened in the Middle East."
"So you're going to destroy the Alliance base here?" she asked, eyeing him carefully.
"No," he said easily. "At this point, it wouldn't matter if I did or not. The Alliance needs to make a move before I can."
Now she was confused. "Then why are we here?"
"For the time being, this is the safest place I can keep you," Akira answered absentminded as he turned down another random street. "I know some people here who will take good care of you."
Meer came to an instant halt, drawing Akira's attention. "No! I'm not staying here! I want to go home! To the PL—!" She was abruptly silenced by Akira's hand over her mouth.
"I said they would take care of you," There was a clear warning in his voice as he continued. "But they won't be able to protect you for very long if there's so much of a hint that you're a you-know-what. Even though this region is fighting for independence, they still very much dislike people like us. That's why I made you dye your hair the other day."
The former pink-haired imitation glared at him for the unpleasant reminder through her now black bangs. Indeed, Akira had bluntly and unrepentantly forced her to dye her beautiful pink locks to a more natural coloring. When the girl had predictably tried to resist, he had given her a choice: do it herself, or he'd knock her out and do it himself. Meer had been glaring and fighting with him for the past two days since.
"I am being quite serious when I say that your life hangs by a thread here," he warned before taking her wrist and leading her down the street like a parent pulling a misbehaving child. He blatantly ignored the small amounts of questioning stares they were receiving as he continued the conversation. "You might want to think up a name to use while you're here. I'm quite sure that if they suspected who you were supposed to be, you wouldn't live very long."
Yanking her arm free, she snapped out, "If it's so dangerous, why are you leaving me here?"
"…Think of this as a chance of getting to know how the other side thinks and feels about this war," he answered easily. "We're here."
He finally came to a stop in front of a small diner called 'Großmutter K's Café.' It had a small, old-world homey environment about it. And though there didn't seem to be a lot of customers sitting in the small patio area or inside, there were several delicious scents wafting out through the door as they entered.
"Akira!" a voice cried as soon as they entered. Meer barely had time to register the speaker's presence when there came a resounding slap.
"What was that for?!" Akira demanded, rubbing the red hand imprint that was rapidly appearing on his cheek.
"Do you have any idea how worried we've been?!" the woman demanded in a tone of voice that could've had even the hardiest and most rebellious of teenagers cowering in fear. "How on Earth or space did you ever become so reckless?!"
Against her will, Meer began giggle at the sight that lay before her. Here was Akira Iyadomi, her captor and the feared pilot of the infamous Neo Freedom, was being lectured by a rather unremarkable woman in a cooking apron like a little boy who'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar by his mother. The honey-brown haired woman was somewhat shorter and petite when compared to the false-blond in front of her. However, with her current expression, her fierce presence seemed to cause the illusion that she was much taller than the boy.
"Well, I—"
"And what's this I heard about you kidnapping Ms Clyne?!" the woman continued to rant, not seeming to notice Meer's sudden hopeful expression. "Do you have any idea just how stupid that was?!"
"Yes," he said simply, completely unrepentant. "But I had to do it, so I did."
Scowling, the woman's hand lashed out and latched tightly upon Akira's ear. Marching imperiously towards the backroom with the whimpering boy in her grasp, the woman barked, "That's what I figured, young man! Now you get back there and do those dishes or I'll sic Xavier on you!"
As Akira disappeared through the small doorway, the woman finally turned her dark gaze upon Meer's amused and slightly hopeful face. Finally unable to resist, Meer asked, "Are you his mother, madam?"
Chuckling at the irony, the woman shook her head. "Goodness, no. But someone needs to rein his idealistic impulsiveness from time to time. Now, what to do with you…?"
"Could I trouble you for a shower?" Meer asked. She hadn't had a chance to bathe since Akira had kidnapped her due in part because Akira kept hiding them in the wilderness, which was in the grips of winter. And the fact that Akira couldn't risk her drawing too much attention if he took her into town, the most she'd been able to do was wash her hair in a stream that hadn't yet frozen.
"Akira's still playing 'rebellious guerilla'?" the woman asked with a knowing air about her. Sighing slightly, she turned and beckoned Meer towards her as she headed for the same doorway. "Can't be helped I guess. Though leave it to a man to not know how to treat a woman, especially one from high society like yourself!"
"Um, who are you, madam?" Meer asked, completely unable to keep the appreciative smile off her face. She was beginning to really like this lady.
"Oh, how rude!" the woman uttered as though finally remembering her manners. "My name is Oria Falacci. Now what should we call you, my dear?"
Meer couldn't help but pause to gawk slightly at the lady. Did she agree with Akira that she wasn't the real Lacus despite chewing him out for kidnapping her?!
As though reading her mind, Oria smiled slightly as she ushered the younger woman through the small kitchen and up a set of stairs. "I don't know why he did it, but as long as you're here, we can't call you by your real name. It's too dangerous for you. So what name do you want to use instead?"
"…Meer," she whispered, feeling a strange compulsion to agree with the lady. "Meer…Campbell."
KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA
December 4, 73CE
Mathilde Colony
7:56pm
Captain Jonas Brimfield watched silently as the technicians and engineers scrambled about through the hangar. There was a certain air of excitement covering the atmosphere, despite there being no oxygen in the vacuum of the hangar. And why shouldn't they be excited? They'd been working on these three projects for the better part of a year. With the Early Harvest's return, they finally had the necessary materials to finish their work.
And just in time apparently. The various pirating factions and guilds were really starting to become tenacious in their attempts and attacks. Already Brimfield had lost count of how many times he and his crew had to scramble in order to protect their cherished oasis from attacking rivals and enemies. Though the Early Harvest had never been one to make waves needlessly, it was still considered a very powerful ship with an enormous supply of mobile suits at its beck and call. Their rivals had always coveted it and the asteroid factory especially. That wasn't the worst part though.
Brimfield had this unwavering suspicion that something was wrong. After all, he knew that many of the pirate groups who'd recently attacked the Mathilde Colony and the Early Harvest were those who used those antique O'Neil colonies as sanctuaries and supply depots. What little information he could pry from the various pirate captains had all been the same: they'd been run off from their hideouts by the Earth Alliance suddenly coming in and taking over. That was the reason for the sudden rise in pirate attacks; they were searching for a new place to call home.
"They're nearly finished, sir," Lieutenant Ken Ohajin said as he walked into the observatory room and stared down at the nearly-complete projects.
"I know," he said calmly as Professor K began the preliminary power up and assessment. "Lieutenants Bertelsen and Siemer were also able to acquire seven spare missiles in case we need spare parts or to start new projects."
"Captain, have you selected the pilots for those new machines yet?" Ohajin asked curiously. "We must have over three dozen available candidates, ready and willing, to pilot those things."
"…Yes," he answered, his gaze not leaving the gray machines below. "It's such a shame that Akira hadn't stayed, I would've quite appreciated his opinion of these three…Maybe even have given one to him."
Before Ohajin could press his Captain for an answer to his question, there can a small purple flash from the hangar. Focusing their attentions, the pair of commanding officers watched as the X1's purple eyes glowed brightly with power and life as its gray coloring changed to faded orange and white. Then there came two more small flashes, green and yellow, from the other two machines that were too coming to life for the first time. But where X2 took on the Early Harvest's faded orange and white color scheme, X3 shone with a proud yellow and faded orange.
"They truly do look very impressive, don't they?" Brimfield asked quietly. "Especially for mobile suits designed by, built for, and soon to be piloted by pirates." Glancing over at his second in command, Brimfield said, "Please inform Lieutenants Dalen Bertelsen, Henry Siemer, and Charles Goldsboro that their new machines are ready."
"You're giving one of those to Goldie?" Ohajin asked, blinking in surprise. "Are you sure that's a wise decision, Captain?"
"Goldie may be a tad eccentric at times," Brimfield acknowledged thoughtfully. "But that is why he will make an exceptional pilot for the X3."
Saluting, Ohajin said, "As you wish, Captain."
As the younger man left the room to carry out the order, Brimfield turned his attention back to the slowly rising mobile suits with an unhappy frown on his face. Though these three had merely been built to give them a necessary edge over their competitors, he had a sad feeling that they were destined to see far more combat than he was really willing to involve them in. Hopefully, Professor K had finally managed to outdo herself in regards to their designs and expected performance capabilities.
KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA
December 6, 73 CE
Minerva
11:01pm
The last twenty-four hours had been a day filled with revelations, discoveries, and horror. Oh yes, December 6 would be a day that Lunamaria would remember for the rest of her life. Sure, the day started out simple enough.
But then the Captain called her in for a secret mission: spy on Athrun and his meeting with those of the Archangel. The Captain wanted to find out more about the motivations of the Archangel. Luna also suspected that she wanted to learn some information that Athrun might not have been willing to share. As an agent of FAITH, it was well within Gladys' capabilities to issue such an order. So, despite the moral qualms about spying on her combat commander and the man she very much respected, Luna did as ordered.
For the better part of the day, there wasn't much action, although she did secretly enjoy watching Athrun go about his business as he waited for them to contact him. But when they did, Luna had almost lost Athrun's trail when he took the Savior off to the established meeting point with the Fortitude. If that meeting had taken place any farther away from the city, she had no doubt that she would have lost him or arrived too late to carry out the mission.
But as it was, she did miss the beginning of the conversation because she had to land her borrowed helicopter a safe distance away and then she had hurriedly set up her equipment to listen in on the conversation. Ironically, the conversation between Representative Cagalli, Lieutenant Koenig, Athrun, and some other girl was really starting to pick up when she could finally listen in. Athrun was trying to talk them into returning to Orb so they could stop the nation from further participating in the war and he was trying to get them to stop interfering in battles. But it seemed clear to Luna that he didn't get his point across to them.
But it was when Lieutenant Tolle had asked a certain question about Lacus did Luna really start to pay attention in her confusion. A squad of Coordinators had shown up in Orb in an attempt to assassinate Lacus Clyne? Apparently the attempt had been unsuccessful thanks to the timely arrival of the Neo Freedom which had just broken out of Morgenroete mere minutes beforehand. What was the Lieutenant talking about? Wasn't Lacus Clyne up in the PLANTs at that point trying to help calm everyone down with the Chairman? She knew that Tolle was many contradicting things due to his semi-split personality, but he was most certainly wasn't crazy. And the fact that Athrun said nothing to disagree about the possibility of Lacus being in Orb quickly caused Luna to have a revelation: the Lacus Clyne who'd been kidnapped a short while ago was a double! Apparently the revelation about the assassination attempt had shocked Athrun as well, and he promised to look into it.
As the meeting began to wrap up, Luna couldn't shake the feeling that she was going to be seeing the Orb Gundam and the Archangel again in the near-future.
When she returned to the harbor where the Minerva had been docked, she found it missing. It had taken some questioning of the harbor to learn of the general direction of where the warship had been heading towards and why. It was well into the night and Luna's helicopter had started getting low on fuel when she finally located the ship and the abandoned Earth Alliance base that it had landed next to. The place looks like just a bunch of ruins from the outside, camouflage she was sure, so that no one would know that it was a secret research facility where illegal experiments are being conducted) However, Luna's timing couldn't have been any worse because she arrived just as the stolen Gaia had coming charging forward and engaged in battle with Shinn and Athrun. Between the two of them, they had finally managed to takedown the pain in the ass Gundam. That was when Shinn had started acting weird; he took the pilot, a blonde girl, into the Minerva Medical for immediate treatment. It was discovered shortly afterwards that the girl was one of the drug-enhanced humans called Extended Humans that the Naturals had created in their efforts to produce soldiers who could compete on the same levels of Coordinators.
Once the drama of that little fiasco had died down and Luna was able to properly change back into her normal uniform, she had finally been able to deliver her report to Captain Gladys. And as much as Luna wanted to obey the Captain's recommendation about forgetting everything she saw and heard while on her mission, she knew couldn't. For one simple fact: she now knew that the Neo Freedom's pilot, for whatever his reasons were, had kidnapped the wrong person! And the sad fact was because this was a top-secret mission, Luna couldn't talk to Athrun about it either.
This left Luna with little other choice than to just think about it and form her own conclusions. And she certainly had a lot to think about.
KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA
December 9, 73 CE
ZAFT Gibraltar Base
11:25am
As the Desert Tiger, Andy Waltfeld was renowned for being a fierce commander and an even fiercer mobile suit pilot. He had done many brutal and sometimes questionable acts during the previous war, but he was never overly savage or bloodthirsty. He just did what needed to be done in order to complete his objectives, even if some of his schemes could be considered less than sane at times. However, stealing a space shuttle from a ZAFT military installation with the intention to rendezvous with the hidden warship Eternal, and Terminal was probably one of the craziest operations that he'd ever been a part of!
Despite himself, Andy found himself feeling slightly annoyed with Kira. The boy had indirectly and completely unknowingly ruined what was probably their best plan to steal a shuttle by impersonating the imposter-Lacus. Then again, maybe it was for the best that it happened like this.
The one-eyed war veteran and his pink-haired accomplice were currently in disguise. Andy wore a standard ZAFT green uniform with a black-haired wig and sunglasses to hide his scarred eye. Lacus wore a similar uniform, but her hair had been pulled into a tight bun on top of her head and was mostly hidden under the hat she wore. With a slight touch a make-up and eye-liner, something she never really used before, Lacus really did look like a different person altogether.
Andy couldn't help but snort in contempt as they bypassed the ZAFT security so easily. As a former commander, Andy was intimately familiar with ZAFT customs and courtesies, security and detainment procedures. Perhaps it was this knowledge that allowed him and Lacus to be able to sneak through the spaceport, but it was still almost pathetically easy to the man. The ease of which he and Lacus had managed to present false identification and security codes was just too simple. Easy enough to set the man on edge very quickly. Something was going to go wrong, he just knew it!
But he suppressed his fears and focused on the job at hand. He and Lacus were making their way down the entry ramp to the shuttle and he needed to focus. Upon entering the shuttle itself, Andy went straight for the cockpit with Lacus making sure to lock the cockpit doorway securely. This shuttle wasn't scheduled for takeoff for another half hour and it was one of the commercial passenger ones.
Knocking out the two pilots proved to be a matter of simplicity since they were far from prepared. After tying and gagging the pair up tightly, Andy easily was able to impersonate them to the crew and passengers as he prepared to launch the shuttle. Good, so far everything was working more or less how he'd hoped it would.
KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA
Aprillis City, PLANTs
7:56pm
Chairman Gilbert Durandal gently moved the white queen from her position which was safely beside her faithful knight to a new position three squares diagonally. Where she had formerly been safely protected by others of her kind, her new location was surrounded by a pair of enemy pawns and his deadly bishop.
As he gazed across the board that was his game of domination, he couldn't help but frown at the sight of the pieces that lay before him. The white queen, Lacus Clyne's avatar, had just made a bold move. And he knew it was her as well. It was a bold move to take their most powerful ally and send her off by herself with little apparent protection. However, with the layout of the board, that was an easily rectified problem for her since either a knight, two pawns, or a rook could come to her aid within only a turn or two. Yet most of the other pieces on her side were scattered or lost already. All that she had left was the king, a single rook and bishop, four pawns, and her pair of knights.
And while the king, representing the Orb Union, was currently alone and defenseless, he was still a safe distance away from any attackers who'd dare target him. The rook, the Archangel, and a knight, the Fortitude Gundam, had been working closely to support and protect both the king and queen, yet both were currently left out in the open with only each other for protection. In contrast, one white bishop (Logos) and three pawns were working intimately close in their attempts to defeat the stronger pieces on Durandal's side, namely his black queen, the Minerva, and both of his dark knights. However, each attempt had ended in defeat. This strategy among the remaining pieces that had allied themselves with that Logos bishop had thus far resulted in their near-defeat by Durandal's forces. And this entire engagement was proving to be playing nicely into Durandal's hands.
Yet, at the same time, the last remaining piece on the white's side was proving to be the most difficult to predict or defeat. This last piece, the second white knight representing the Neo Freedom and Akira Iyadomi, had already defeated one of his dark bishops, Meer Campbell, interfered with his earlier strategy of destroying the white queen, and was even now disrupting various schemes among not only his pieces but those of the white side as well.
Though at the moment, the knight was silent and unmoving despite being easily targeted by several of Durandal's remaining pawns. But the sad part was that even Durandal wasn't quite sure which side this powerful knight wanted to win this war, or whose side he was ultimately on. But as annoying as that piece was, he couldn't attack it yet. It was too evasive and elusive. He needed to somehow draw it out with a considerable number of his best pieces ready to destroy it if and when it made its appearance.
As he was looking over the board again, Durandal noticed that at some point in his game a single pawn of his had worked itself over towards the opponent's side of the board. Which piece was that again? Oh yes, now he remembered. It was the pawn he'd sent to aid his queen in the recent battle against the Logos bishop's rook, the Orb Union's fleet. That pawn had been an expendable piece, but somehow it had survived the initial fight. As he stared at the piece, he felt a small smile grace his face. Yes, if it could outlast the Logos bishop's next assault on the queen, then perhaps he should award it with a power-up.
As that thought passed through his mind, Durandal absentmindedly moved his queen into the necessary place for a follow-up attack by the Logos bishop. With his piece moved, Durandal stood and moved over to his desk and computer. If he was going to increase that pawn to a more useful piece, he needed to enlist specific individuals to determine the appropriate amount of usefulness that he could transfer to that piece.
Pulling up the Experimental Weaponry Research Division, he sent a request that they begin designing a third high-performance Gundam to accompany the prior two he'd already requested. Though he didn't have a specific use for this new suit just yet, there was still plenty of time and pieces remaining for it to still be of considerable importance if necessary.
KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA
December 10, 73CE
Athina, Greece
4:50pm
He was sitting outside a small diner, sipping a cup of coffee absentmindedly. He had a small laptop resting on the table in front of him which he was reviewing with what could almost be called boredom. At first glance you'd think he was just a common tourist who was taking a small break after a seeing the sights. At least that was display that her old boyfriend was putting on when she walked up and slipped gracefully into the chair across from him.
"You wanted to see me?" Tolle asked, his gaze not leaving the laptop in front of him.
"That's it?" she asked a little snappishly. "No 'hi, how are you, Mir?' or 'what've you been up to lately?' Just straight to business?"
Glancing up at Miriallia, Tolle sighed and nodded his head slightly in apology. "Sorry, I've just been a little busy with this research on this new Alliance mobile suit I saw the other day."
Miriallia barely resisted the urge to snort. Tolle obsessed with enemy mobile suits? How perfectly predictable! For just a moment, she couldn't help but miss the person he had used to be before that fateful encounter in his Skygrasper two years ago. How could he have changed so much in so short a time? But then again, perhaps her Tolle did die in that explosion, and this stranger with ugly burn scars along the back of his neck and shoulders was just his walking corpse?
"I wanted you to bring me to the angel," she said quietly. Her statement earned his full attention immediately. "I was there at Dardanelles when it began. I saw what happened there and I want to help out in any way I can. As I am now, I can't do anything useful. And I figured that I could be of better help to the angel than to my camera."
Tolle silently stared at her with intense interest, a gaze that she easily met and held unwaveringly. After a moment, he returned his attention to his laptop and began typing rapidly onto it. With a short pause, he turned back to her and gave a slight smile to his old friend. "It looks like you'll be welcomed with open arms, Mir. I just hope you've got a change of clothes because all we've got onboard are uniforms and flight suits."
Nodding slightly with a knowing smile on her face, she said, "Don't worry about me, buddy. I'm always ready to rough it up when the going gets tough."
Finishing his coffee and shutting down his computer, Tolle stood and hurriedly paid the bill before guiding the photographer through the city towards where he'd hidden his Gundam for this meeting.
KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA
December 11, 73CE
Linz, Austria
10:12pm
He had been in front of his computer for hours, diligently typing away as he shot through one firewall after another, evading one security system after another. But so far, it had all been for naught because none of the databases he'd managed to hack contained any information on the data he desired.
Sighing in annoyance, Akira turned felt his gaze irresistibly travel up towards the new waitress for the Großmutter K's Café. Though when they were in private she insisted her name was Lacus Clyne, the girl had taken the name of Meer Campbell rather quickly after she'd arrived at this small café. Because of that, along with his suspicions, Akira had taken to calling her that every time he saw, spoke, or referred to her. Yet it wasn't necessarily out of a feeling of maliciousness towards her for the role she had been playing, but more for his own sanity.
Even now as he stared at her, watching her awkwardly balance a tray of food for her late-night customers, he felt that small and annoying jab of pain in the back of his head. Every time he gave into either the pain or his curiosity, Akira always saw an image of a pink-haired girl going through the same or similar motions that Meer was usually doing. That included even this moment, he could only watch in confusion and pain as Meer was overlapped slightly by the pink-haired beauty carrying a small tray of tea and biscuits towards him. But what was really confusing him was how he kept remembering this same girl, who looked remarkably like Miss Lacus, when it was only their faces that looked anything alike, mostly due to Akira making Meer dye her hair.
He felt the small image of the girl carrying her tray towards him rewind itself in his mind, Akira's fingers automatically sought out the silver ring that hung concealed under his clothes. Lovingly clenching and caressing it, Akira didn't even realize that his staring had been noticed due to how deep he was in his confusion. It wasn't until Meer sent him a fierce glare that he managed to separate his mind from his fuzzy memories and returned to the present.
Glancing back to his trusty laptop, Akira gave a weak glare at the useless information that was clouding up the monitor. He wasn't interested in the estimated performance capabilities of the new GAT-05 Rapier, though they would certainly come in handy in the near-future. He didn't care about the rumors of it being designed after his Neo Freedom. And he certainly didn't care to know that only the elite of the Earth Alliance would be given them to use. What he wanted to know was where they were produced, how many there were completed and estimated numbers for construction, and (most importantly) if there were any future or secret plans of producing new, special model prototypes.
"Glaring at the screen isn't going to make the answers appear, boy," a deep voice said from nearby. "Get up and stretch or I'll have you do the dishes again!"
Looking up, Akira spotted the short but stout cook of the Großmutter K's Café, Xavier Falacci. Though the man was clearly still in his prime, he already had a fast-receding hairline which seemed to make his forehead even more prominent than it had already been. Indeed, the last time Akira had seen the man several months ago, he could've sworn Xavier had lost a full inch worth of hair since. And though most people would be a little mistrustful of him based on his ungainly appearance, especially when he was in a less than pleased mood, never had there been a more honest or polite person around.
"You'd have had me do the dishes anyway," Akira grumbled sulkily. "But I really have to figure this out. I've tried everything I could think of and still there's nothing to be found."
"Well, since you already know what's expected of you: get moving boy!" Xavier barked in what he likely felt was a military fashion as he reached forward and closed the laptop. "We may put up with you, but that doesn't mean you can freeload while you're here!"
"What about Meer?" Akira asked, even as Xavier pulled him to his feet and shoved him towards the backroom. "She's probably been a bigger help to you than I ever will be! Correct me if I'm wrong, but since you 'hired' her, you've been getting a lot more customers around meal times."
"That point is irrelevant, boy!" Xavier growled as he finally shoved Akira up to his patented duty station at the sink with its heaps of dirty dishes waiting. "What is relevant is the fact that you're not doing anything to earn your keep around here! Now get to it."
Meer, who'd been discreetly watching the entire scene, couldn't help but giggle slightly at Akira's disgusted expression. No matter how many times she'd seen this happen in the past week since she'd been here, it never failed to surprise or amuse her that the Gundam pilot could or would allow himself to be pushed around by a pair of mere cooks who weren't anything more than ordinary.
Realizing just what she was doing, Meer quickly turned away with a fierce frown on her pretty face. How could she, even for a moment, think of her captor in anything less than disgust for his kidnapping of her?!
KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny - KIRA
20 miles east of Timisoara, Romania
same time
In their trek across the southeastern European lands, the Alhazen had chanced upon this site. The gentle hills and bluffs of the area were very docile in appearance, very peaceful. However, perhaps that was why the Alliance had chosen this site as the location. Colonel Hisashi silently studied the image of the large factory on the monitor in front of him. Though he knew he shouldn't be surprised, he couldn't help but be anyway.
With the region's high amount of rebel activity, as well as how close the new ZAFT port of Diocuia was, for the Alliance to choose to make a factory here seemed very foolish indeed. However, this factory seemed to be one of the more heavily guarded and important ones. And what was the reason for this? This apparently was one of the ones that produced the new mobile suits that had appeared in the battle a week ago against the Minerva.
"What should we do, Colonel?" Deputy Captain Mutomura asked seriously. "We can't afford to allow the Alliance to make any more of those new suits. That one fought on par with our new GOUF Ignited!"
"I am aware of that, Mutomura," he said neutrally. "However, we do not have the fighting strength necessary to take down a factory this heavily fortified." Yes, this factory was without a doubt extremely heavily guarded by six of the Alliance new mobile armors, almost twenty of their new mobile suits, and no less than thirty Windams. If he and his team of one Lesseps-class land battleship and ten ZAKUs went in there, it would be a slaughter for the ZAFT forces. They needed to call for reinforcements or to acquire a mobile suit with some serious firepower to do this job safely.
As that thought went through his mind, something clicked. Hirai let a small smile grace his expression as a quiet chuckle escaped his control. Turning back to his communications officer, he said, "Contact Diocuia. Tell them of what we've found here and that we will soon be engaging the Neo Freedom."
"Y-Yes, sir!"
"Sir?" Jasmine asked, looking up at her superior questioningly.
"Get online," he said with his small smile remaining on his face. "Start spreading rumors about this new factory and what it's building. This is a target that is too dangerous to be left untouched. The Neo Freedom will come to do whatever damage he can to it. All we have to do is wait until that time."
"I see," she agreed easily. "Maybe we could even help him in destroying the factory when he first arrives, get him to drop his guard?"
Considering the idea, Hirai nodded slightly. "I'll consider the option, Mutomura. Not hop to it! We've got an ambush to set up."
(AUTHOR'S NOTE) Whoo! That was one whopper of a chapter! So much stuff taking place, blame canon for that! Although, if I hadn't come to my senses, there would've been a LOT MORE to happen before the chapter ended. I had originally intended to write in the Battle of Crete and maybe even the beginning of the ambush before I ended. Thank goodness I didn't!
Big time shout-out to animefan29 for his patience with me for this chapter! I must've sent it to him three separate times to ask his opinion on it before now. Oh, and to answer your question, animefan29, I don't necessarily believe that having a semi-split personality could be considered 'crazy' by itself. It all depends on how the person affected interacts with others and how s/he handles certain situations that would warrant being called crazy.
Großmutter - grandmother (in German)