Gundam SEED Destiny: Kira

by Tellemicus Sundance

He had no memory, found drifting amongst the final battlefield. Two years of peace have passed since that day, unrest and distrust are again rising. This is the story on how he recovers what he lost, what he forgot, and what he never knew he had. DISCONTINUED

25. A Crippling Loss

Gundam SEED Destiny
Kira
By: Tellemicus Sundance, FictionReader98, & animefan29
Phase 25: A Crippling Loss

January 27, 74 CE
Mathilde Colony
10:45am

"What the…" Dalen started before the colony shook again making him fall flat on his butt. He quickly got up and looked out the window. A number of missiles were flying through space and striking the colony in various places, including the defense systems as he saw several weapon implements blow apart like eggshells. Each missile resulted in the colony shaking slightly more violently from the attacks.

Finally, the alarm began ringing but Dalen and many of the Early Harvest personnel were already running to their battle stations. The Lieutenant quickly ran down the hall followed by a quick jerk left into the hangar where people were running around frantically.

"What the blazes is going on!?" one of the mechanics shouted as several others rushed towards the docked mobile suits.

"I was hoping you'd know!" Dalen shouted back, already halfway up to the Honor as the asteroid shook once more. "Lockdown the hangar and get those mobile suits going!" he added as he practically threw himself in the cockpit and began the power-up sequence.

The machine hummed to life immediately as the systems snapped on. The Coordinator took a glance to the sides and saw that the Courage and Loyalty were as still as statues. So neither Henry nor Goldie was here apparently.

He didn't gave it much thought as he had the Honor take it's beam rifle in its right hand and dashed off towards the port exit… just in time to see another barrage of missiles heading right towards the port itself!

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: animefan29

Between the Firing Range and Factory District

Grabbing his rifle he slammed the butt against the ceiling, popping open the hatch. "Come on," he said to the hapless engineer.

Going into the maintenance ducts turned out to the correct choice as six EH crewmembers that had scurried into them to take cover. By luck one of the men was a security officer whose gun was enough to keep ZAFT from following.

Although that was probably because ZAFT was more focused on securing the factory and its mobile suits.

But that was just another bit of luck, especially when he learned that one individual had the presence of mind to enter a general lockdown command into the factory's main computer, which was connected to all machines for operation and diagnostic purposes. That included the mobile suits.

It wouldn't stop ZAFT, but it would stall them and keep them in one place long enough for the plan forming in Henry's head to work.

The first thing Henry did was go back to the two ZAFT soldiers he had killed and took their grenades, rifles, pistols, and knives. Once the gear was gathered and distributed amongst the techs he outlined the plan over an impromptu map.

"Three of you will take the grenades to these access points," he said pointed to the entrances to service corridors that led to the manufacturing areas. "You'll use all of the hornets' nest and tear gas grenades and one frag grenade. If their wearing their helmets the tear gas won't do much beyond blinding them, but that should be enough. The hornets' nest will serve as the main distraction as it was designed for use in for enclosed spaces and the frag should take a few out. Then the rest of us will open the door for the main entrance where we'll use the guns to finish them. This should eliminate all hostiles with minimal damage to the factory hanger. Any questions?" There were none. "Alright synchronize your watches and get into position."

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: FictionReader98

Spaceport District

By pure reflex, Dalen felt himself squeezing the trigger, unleashing his rifle and CIWS shots. His shots hit home, hitting several of the missiles and causing them to explode. And if he was half the pilot he should have been, he would have been able to shoot down all of the missiles.

But, unfortunately, he wasn't. About a third of the missiles were missed and they continued on, slamming into the entrance to the port to seal it off. Three EH mobile suits were caught in the barrage, the shockwaves either destroying them, propelling them into the asteroid or both.

If Dalen hadn't shot the missiles he had, they would had struck home and collapsed the hangar opening. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw several more weapon placements were blown into the cosmos. Why hadn't they activated?

He liked the probable reasons less and less. This assault was too well coordinated, too precise. First the attack came without warning, despite the sensors, warning systems or mines as a precaution. Their long-range bombardment was systemically destroying their non-active defenses and just now, they nearly collapsed the hangar entrance.

His scanners quickly detected the attacking force. Within the confines of the debris field, he found five ships. Three Nazca-class and two Laurasia-class, as well as a contingency of mobile suits being launched. These mobile suits consisted of various ZAKU models, which included Warriors, Gunners, Slashes, even a few Blaze ZAKUs and GOUF Igniteds. Thirty in all, causing Dalen to pale slightly.

There was no way any pirate group would have this many of the latest models… His scanners picked up IFF signals from both the ships and mobile suits and his blood ran cold in recognition.

ZAFT.

This was no pirate group. It was ZAFT itself. And in force!

But how!? He screamed mentally only for an answer to come almost immediately. Someone had sold them out! But who… the Blood Fins? He briefly paused at that as he ignited the Honor's thrusters into the oncoming swarm. Had the surviving Blood Fins gave away the Mathilde's location in revenge? It would make sense… they couldn't do anything and still be getting payback for being defeated.

Dalen's stomach just squirmed at the thought before pushing those thoughts at of his mind as he fired several shots towards the incoming invaders, destroying two. None of that mattered right now, he had a job to do and he—

Apparently, fate wasn't done jerking with him yet because out of each of the Nazca-class, a new mobile suit launched from the hangars. The first one was mostly blue and white, with black and red wings on its back. The second one was largely colored in gray with blue and red situated most notably in the chest area, and possessed a large 'shell' on its back with eight spike-like things. The third one was mostly white with a black chest and forearms, along with some yellow around the torso section. Besides the unique coloring, the heavy beam cannon mounted upon its back and a large switchblade folded up alongside its right arm, it was seemingly with no other external accessories. However…

Gundams.

These were Gundams!

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: animefan29

Factory District

Henry breathed steadily to show an outwardly calm appearance. Truthfully he wasn't calm. He had faith that the plan would work, but it was very easy for things to go horribly wrong especially once the fighting started. The chaos and confusion, the fear of possible death. He hated firefights for those reasons.

What made it worse was the nagging question in the back of his head. 'How did they get lucky enough to know which hangar had the operational mobile suits?' The factory had four hangars, one for shuttles, one for mobile suits, and the last two mostly being used for storage. 'Knowing where the factory is located is a given, they just need to look at any Mathilde colony plans. And getting Hangar 4 right off the bat could have been just luck. But why didn't they go for all four at once?'

Giving himself a mental shrug he tossed off those thoughts and focused on the job at hand, for as the commander he had to put up a calm front. And such a façade was having a visible effect on his men, two of whom were using the ZAFT rifles while the third had the two pistols.

He checked his watch and counted down the seconds. 3… 2… 1…

Through the doors Henry heard shouts of surprise, pain, and the sound of the frag grenade going off.

Henry gave the signal and one of his men hit the door control. The double doors slid partway open to reveal the smoke obscured chaos inside. The sniper rifle was already to Henry's shoulder, and he zeroed in on the green chest of a soldier that still stood, barely visible from the smoke. Before a thought could enter his mind, he pulled the trigger.

BANG! The green coat went down, blood staining his coat on his right shoulder, but Henry didn't notice.

The sudden shot sowed more confusion, the smoke making it hard to tell where exactly it had come from. But they learned as the sound of semi-automatics filled the air.

Henry's men kept firing from the cover provided from the partially open doors while he searched for the next target. Several bullets ricocheted off the doors drawing his attention upward to a cat walk where three soldiers were still above the smoke, rifles in hand and trying to get a good shot. They were keeping low, using catwalk as cover from the semi-accurate sub-machineguns.

Henry raised his rifle, centering on the far left.

BANG! Blood spurted from the nasty, and fatal, neck wound! It was an ugly shot, but Henry didn't notice as he turned to the middle one.

BANG! Struck the center of his upper chest, probably broke the sternum.

BANG! That shot struck the final soldier, in the left side of his chest, just a little under and to the left of his heart. At best it was nicked, but the lung should have been popped.

BANG! Henry's eyes widened. He knew that hadn't been one of his shots as a lancing pain seared his side. Bringing his gaze back down, he scanned the dispersing smoke.

'There!' It was the man he first hit. The man stood ignoring his shoulder wound, pistol in his left hand which trembled.

Henry zeroed in, centered his target, and pulled the trigger.

BANG! The ZAFT soldier's brain barely even registered as the bullet flew cleanly through his heart.

As the soldier fell Henry's senses alerted to him that the fighting was over. All of the enemy soldiers, ten if his suspicions were right, had been neutralized. Or at least that was the appearance. Slinging his rifle and drawing his pistol he and the others entered the factory hangar.

Quickly they checked the enemy. Henry's estimate had been accurate, the final count with three wounded and seven dead. Not counting the two from earlier of course.

Reverberations through the colony alerted Henry that there was still fighting going on, outside in mobile suits.

"Someone get into the Hizacks to help secure the factory from further invasion! If their pilots come, turn them over!" He called to the others. "We can't have ZAFT trying to infiltrate this location again if they get the opportunity. I'm going to the hangar to get my mobile suit and heading out."

As he was about to leave the moan of one of the wounded soldiers caught his attention. "And someone get these men to a safe location. We may be pirates but that doesn't mean we have to let them die because of carelessness."

With that he left, and never once did it cross his mind that that last shot of his had been perfect.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: FictionReader98

Outside the Spaceport District

Dalen began laughing nervously as he looked out his screens for any sign of the Loyalty or the Courage. Nothing. His laughter became swallower to the point where he was ready to start groaning.

New Gundams?! THREE OF THEM!?!? Against him!? New models from the looks of them and that could only mean colossal trouble! Where was Akira when you needed him!? Only he'd be insane enough to go up against odds like this!!

"This is Dalen Bertelsen of the Honor!" He cried over the radio to the colony. "The enemy is ZAFT! I repeat, the enemy is ZAFT!! Five ships and at least 30 mobile suits of various configurations incoming!"

The ZAKUs all broke off, heading to other sections of the colony while one of the ZAFT Gundams took out its heavy beam cannon and fired in his direction. Quickly, the Honor's thrusters activated, propelling him off to the side as the beam missed him.

Unfortunately, it continued on into the hangar where a large explosion was observed a moment later. "Crap, crap, crap, crap!" He chanted under his breath as he took off away from the colony, firing several shots at the Gundam to follow him and away from damaging Mathilde. He fired his beam rifle several times but the Gundams dodged easily then came after him, like vultures to a carcass.

Charming imagery.

"Goldie! Henry! Get your asses out here!! Enemy Gundams!!!" He shouted in the comm. to the Mathilde colony all over, hoping everyone heard him and made them aware of the Gundams, Brimfield included. He took out one of his half blade Claymores into the Honor's left hand as the white, yellow and black one as it came straight forward at him, a beam saber in each hand, as the ZAFT machine took a swing at him. With his shield, Dalen easily blocked the attack before swinging his Claymore sword around towards the cockpit in return. Before he could finish his swing, a pair of small boxy sections on the shoulders swung open, revealing a four-barrel Gatling gun in each shoulder.

The former FAITH agent shrieked as a result, having the Honor quickly kick the ZAFT machine, using it as a brace and jumping away, narrowly missing a large barrage of beams firing where he had been mere seconds ago. He tried to attack again but saw the third machine already behind him, firing its beam rifle. Again, Dalen managed to dodge by mere centimeters only to find he had dodged right into a nest of DRAGOONs.

"Not these things!!" He shouted to no one in particular as the DRAGOONs opened fired on him, striking in several spots, including the shoulders, legs and chest area. The Honor went tumbling downward, Dalen working frantically trying to regain control. It was a bit strange, though… those shots were unfocused and did minimal damage, like the pilot wasn't use to using them…

After carefully utilizing his controls, Dalen managed to get the Honor back under control. The second Gundam was coming right at him, its beam Gatling gun things still firing rapidly with little attention on aiming. Dalen raised his left arm and shield as he blocked the shots as best he could as he prepared to return fire… only for the first machine, with a huge ass sword in its hand, appearing right beside him, swinging downward and slicing through his rifle.

"I could use some damn HELP out here!!" Dalen called again through the comm. system as he hurled the remains of the rifle at the winged suit before getting struck in the back by the spiky one. Fortunately, the half Claymore on his back took the worst of the shot. Where the hell was Goldie and Henry!? Probably snickering at his predicament.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: FictionReader98

Spaceport District

"Go, go, go!" several mechanics shouted as pilots were running towards their docked mobile suits. "Get your asses out there! It's no mere pirate group! It's – "

The head mechanic never got a chance to finish as a bullet lodged itself in his skull and he crumpled into the ground. Several people, undoubtedly a ZAFT team, stormed the hangar determined to prevent more mobile suits from being launched.

"Hit the deck!" one of the EH pirates shouted.

Several mechanics and pilots threw themselves on the ground, using fallen debris as makeshift barricades. They quickly pulled out their side-arms and began firing off several shots. A few of the ZAFT commandos took cover under their own barricades, but the majority of them were going after the two remaining Gundams and other mobile suits.

One pilot was forced to jerk his head downward to dodge spray of gunfire. "We can't let them get to the machines!" He gestured at the closest ZAFT group. "You guys sneak over on the ground that way, we'll provide a distraction." He looked at others. "You guys, get to your mobile suits and launch. We have to get out there! Never mind what's going on in here, we'll take care of it!"

There was a collection of nods and agreements as that pilot and several others that appeared started firing rapidly at the invaders, who returned in kind. Three people were killed as a result. Several men, about fifteen in all, were crawling on their stomachs amongst the debris trying to get to the Early Harvest's supply of GINNs, Strike Daggers and others. One woman managed to get into her own mobile suit and had the Strike Dagger powered up within moments, taking a few steps forward and prepared to head out.

Unfortunately two things went wrong. The first was that the colony shook again violently from the assault and a huge piece of debris fell from the ceiling, crushing the Dagger immediately. The cockpit and everything downward was crushed flat.

The second thing that went wrong was the emergence of a ZAKU Warrior into the hangar.

"Damn it!" one man snarled, huddling against a corner as the ZAKU surveyed the area, then blasted a docked mobile suit whose pilot was trying to board it. On the other side of the port, the ZAFT commandos had spotted the other group heading towards the Gundams and took positions, opening fire upon them without warning. The personnel had no choice but to take cover and return fire, even as several ZAFT soldiers continued working on towards the two offline Gundams.

"We have to take out that ZAKU!" a pilot muttered as it blasted apart another mobile suit, a GINN.

"And how do you suggest we do that?" another demanded, the asteroid shaking again from the attacks. "Shoot it with our guns? We might as well try and kill an elephant with pebbles!"

The first speaker just snarled before his eyes landed on that crushed Strike Dagger. More specifically, it's undamaged rifle…

"How many men does it take to fire a rifle?" he asked quietly as the others looked at the beam weapon.

"…No way."

"You got a better idea?"

A mechanic laughed. "Charley would love this," she shook her head, her blond hair shaking as she did. "Let's do it!"

At that, the mechanic and most of the team ran across the hangar, firing at the ZAKU. Bullets bounced harmlessly off the ZAFT war machine. It turned its attention at them, shooting back and sending them scattering. During that, a team of four carefully but quickly made their way to the downed Strike Dagger. Thanks to the micro-gravity of the asteroid colony, the three of them struggled and managed to lift the rifle just a few feet, enough that the angle of the barrel was pointing at the cockpit of the ZAKU. The blond mechanic put both of her hands on the trigger, just as the ZAKU noticed what they were doing.

Too little, too late.

"Dance in hell," the mechanic uttered as she pulled back with all her might in the trigger. A green energy blast hit the ZAKU's chest dead on, it exploded a mere second later.

The group gave a brief cheer in victory as the pilots made a new attempt at boarding their machines with the mechanics once again covering them. This time, they managed to get onboard safely, allowing the EH units to power up, and take off to the raging battle outside.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: Tellemicus Sundance

Spaceport District

'Another attack? Oh goody!!' Quickly mounting the jet-sled he'd been riding earlier, he flared the engines and shot back down the shaft of the assembly tunnel. With one hand he controlled the sled, while the other hand was busy snapping his helmet back into place over his head and short electric-green hair.

Even when at full throttle, it had taken him several agonizingly long minutes to come within sight of the hangar entrance. As he drew closer, he caught glimpses of gunfire flashing. The attackers had already landed troops within the colony?! He needed to get to the Loyalty and get outside right now!

The roar of his jet engine announced his arrival long before he even came into sight of the fighting sides. So his entrance into the hangar was welcomed by a hail of bullets from the soldiers who were swarming through the debris that was partially blocking the hangar exit.

'I told you we shouldn't have left sweet Little Betty and Big Bertha back in our room!' Charley mentally whined to Goldie, longing for his beloved pistol and machine gun. But due to the dire situation, Charley wasn't able to continue his moaning as he had to weave through the murderous bullets, angling for his mobile suit that on the opposite side of the hangar.

Up ahead, he spotted a group of soldiers swarming over the Gundam in question. They were trying to open and board the Loyalty! The only reason they hadn't gotten it already was because they didn't have the proper access codes to open the cockpit, codes that were only known to Goldie and Charley. However, they did seem to be using a scanner of some sort.

"Oh no you don't, you bastards!" Charley screamed, mirroring Goldie's thoughts perfectly.

As he came bearing down on the group, some of them quickly noticed his approach and opened fire on him. Shifting the sled slightly and cutting the power of the engines, the bullets pummeled the belly of the steel rocket, doing nothing to stop or deter the speeding missile. The soldiers quickly abandoned the mobile suit as the large projectile bore down towards them. Grabbing the shortened rope and hook he'd used earlier, Charley used the same move as he did in the factory and threw the hook. It caught on the railing of the crosswalk as he passed over it, abandoning the jet-sled as it continued to soar forward. Even without its VPS armor active, the Loyalty emerged from its collision without even scratch upon it from where the sled had smashed into it.

Releasing the rope and launching himself towards the cockpit before the soldiers could react, he punched a special button on his helmet which sent the access codes into the Loyalty's OS, automatically opening the cockpit. With smooth efficiency, he slid into his Gundam and closed the hatch, hands already flying over the controls to activate the mobile suit before he'd even settled into the pilot's chair.

"This is the X3 Loyalty," he called over the radio to the Early Harvest. "What's going on? Who's attacking us?"

"It's ZAFT," was Brimfield's blunt answer, momentarily surprising Charley. "Your orders are to engage the enemy mobile suits and drive them away! Or, failing that, protect the Early Harvest and Late Autumn as we commence evacuation!"

"I copy," Charley said as the Loyalty's yellow eyes and the newly-changed VPS armor colors flashed to life. The Gundam was no longer a simple yellow and orange color scheme. It had been changed to having a mostly orange body with yellow tiger stripes running along its length.

"It's a battle with ZAFT!!" Charley cheered with a twisted sneer on his face and absolute giddiness in his voice. "Oh, I'm going to have so much fun with these guys!"

'No, you're not, Charley,' Goldie yelled back coldly as he tried to claim dominance of his body over Charley. 'This battle is about protecting the colony, not feeding your bloodlust!'

"But—"

'NO!!' Goldie barked as they rocketed through the small opening of the hangar exit and blasted out into the midst of the battle taking place outside. 'Senseless violence does not solve a thing!'

'Oh yes it does!' Charley practically sang back.

Before Goldie could retort, a warning sounded through his cockpit. Spinning his Gundam around, Charley brought up his shield in time to block a dangerously glowing red whip, though the sheer force of the blow actually knocked his machine backwards slightly.

As he was reorienting himself, an unfamiliar voice came over the radio. "Pilot of the EHG-X3 Loyalty, Charles Goldsboro, do you copy?"

Alarms rang through the cockpit as several side-screens came to life, showing that he was surrounded by five GOUF mobile suits, with a violet and lavender machine moving in front of him as the voice continued to speak. "If you power down your machine and surrender yourself, no harm will come to you."

'GOUFs'" Goldie observed needlessly. 'A whole mass of GOUFs.'

Without even responding to the GOUF, Charley snapped into motion. With its left hand, the Loyalty grabbed the heat-whip that was sent towards it as its right hand snatched up its beam rifle. Catching the whip and utilizing his Gundam's considerably superior strength, Charley yanked the GOUF forward and spun it uncontrollably into its partner on his opposite side, heavily damaging them while sending both units tumbling.

Turning with the throw, Charley aimed the rifle below his upraised arm and shot the lead purple GOUF right through the torso. Quickly discarding the rifle as he continued to spin, Charley brought up the Loyalty's Amfortas cannons and delivered a pair of killing blasts straight through the ZAFT machines even as they attempted to retaliate, blowing them to pieces. As he recollected his rifle, the Extended Coordinator took a moment to survey his handiwork with a proud grin.

"A whole mess of goofs!" Charley said, laughing hysterically as the X3 shifted into its armor form and raced away, seeking more playthings to destroy.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: FictionReader98

Above the Mathilde Colony

The spiky Gundam continued laying down fire on him, forcing Dalen to have the Honor dodge relentlessly to evade its attacks. From his left, the second Gundam came charging while the first machine came in on his right. He quickly withdrew a beam boomerang from his left shoulder and hurled it to the left, forcing it to back off momentarily. He turned around, using his Claymore blade to intercept the first's anti-ship sword. The two monstrous blades clashed before Dalen let go his blade, skipped to the side and punched the unit right in the headpiece. The Gundam jerked backwards as the Honor spun around, adding momentum, and kicking the ZAFT machine in the cockpit while grabbing his sword. Just in time to dodge the spiky Gundam's next shot.

"HA!" he shouted, right before the other Gundam was right above him, it's beam sabers put away as he now wielded a retractable solid sword of some kind, stabbing down on top of him. It sliced through his upper shoulder down a ways across the chest before Dalen could have the Honor pull out, a small explosion coming from the damage as Dalen's scanners began flashing warnings at him.

Nothing serious as of yet, but the motors in his right arm had been damaged. Functionality was reduced by 13 percent. A type of 'flesh' wound, if such a term could be used for a mobile suit. If that pilot had been more forceful in his strike, it would have gone straight to the cockpit. Why hadn't he? What was this pilot, a novice?

He didn't have time to survey the damage further as the DRAGOONs came right at him again, blasting all over the place and forcing him to flee backwards. The other two quickly opted for the same action, putting away their melee weapons and firing down rapidly at the EH mobile suit.

In a bizarre type of game and dance, the Honor dashed across the side of the colony, unable to go anywhere else due to the constant stream of deadly energy blasts. He zipped by across the port distinct over to the factory, where he could see surprised faces of fellow EH personal looking at the chase through the windows. The Lieutenant had to constantly weave and dodge, not able to return a shot with his rifle gone. He did, however, take his second Claymore blade and began blocking what shots he could. He might as well been trying to block rain in a thunderstorm for all the success he had.

At that, the three ZAFT Gundams broke apart, each coming at him from a separate direction, one high, one low and the third in the middle. Immediately, the pirate pushed the Honor's thrusters as hard as he could, flying directly towards the middle one, the DRAGOON unit. It was strictly a long range unit, so if he could get close, it was his!!

Using a series of thrusts, sprints and luck, he managed to blast past the DRAGOONs as he snapped his Claymores together into one. The other two units came after him, but they were too far off. His face twisted in concentration he dashed towards his intended target, when placements on its legs opened and it pulled out two javelin-like beam weapons.

"What the hell are those!?!" Dalen shouted mostly to himself as the gray machine used the first beam javelin to divert his Claymore sword, and the second one clashing against the Gundam's upper body, its VPS armor barely holding the beam weapon off. The result was the Honor losing its grip on its Claymore sword as it went flying through space.

A second later, the red-winged Gundam was at right at him, it's massive sword out again as it swing it like a baseball bat, deliberately striking the Honor with the flat side of the blade and 'batting' him towards the white and black unit.

"GOLDIE!!!" Dalen screamed through the radio again as he tried to regain control. "HENRY!! IF YOU TWO DON'T GET OUT HERE IN THE NEXT FIVE SECONDS, I SWEAR MY GHOST WILL HAUNT YOU AND ANY DECSENDENTS UNTIL THE END OF TIME!!!"

His plea was answered by the ZAFT mobile suit he was tumbling towards, firing the beam pistol attached to its sword at the damaged right shoulder of the Honor before whipping his retractable sword forward again, and swatting him away much like the other one had. By this time, the Honor was flying through the space like a ragdoll as Dalen tried to regain control of his machine and failing miserably. The machine then took out its large beam cannon; one that would have explosive results should it manage to hit.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: Tellemicus Sundance

Spaceport District

After destroying a pair of Slash ZAKUs that were harassing the hangar exit, Charley noticed the streaking trails of mobile suit engine emissions and flew off to investigate. What he found was definitely something interesting. He'd watched the byplay of the three ZAFT Gundams with only mild interest as they toyed with the Honor.

So they wanted to play like that? Okay, he'd play with them! Rocketing forward at the maximum speeds his Loyalty could achieve in its mobile armor configuration, Charley let out a loud cheer as he rapidly closed in on the white and black Gundam that was trying to get a target lock on the Honor.

Almost too late, the ZAFT Gundam detected his presence and attempted to react. However, by that time, the Loyalty had already changed back into a mobile suit and brought its shield up. With a powerful crash that sent both machines reeling from the impact, the EH Gundam smashed shield first into the ZAFT Gundam's hastily raised energy shield. Reorienting himself quicker, Charley raised one of his Amfortas plasma cannons and placed its barrel pointblank with the Gundam's cockpit.

"Bye-bye!" he cooed, as though speaking to an infant as he fingered the trigger.

A nanosecond later, the large gray Gundam let loose a series of potshots towards Charley, suitably distracting him. Forewarned by the target-lock alarm, the Loyalty spun and raised its shield, blocking the shots. In the same movement, it also kicked out and sent the enemy Gundam tumbling away from him as he faced the DRAGOON Gundam with raised eyebrows. He vaguely recognized that machine's silhouette from somewhere, but where…? Oh well, not important!

As the DRAGOONs suddenly blasted free of the unit, Charley laughed loudly as he shifted the Loyalty into its plane form. With a boost of its engines, the EH Gundam flew off in a random direction as it idly dodged the slightly slower moving beam cannons behind it, easily drawing the Gundam away from the Honor to chase the agile little fighter.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: animefan29

Spaceport District

With the factory and Hizacks secure, Henry made his way to the port with haste. Fortunately ZAFT's infiltration of Mathilde seems to have been rather limited, thus with no distraction he grabbed his flight suit, sealed it up, and made it to the hangar in record time.

The port was clear of enemy units and a beehive of activity with EH personal, which Henry attributed to how the Honor and Loyalty weren't in their docks.

'Good, those two will have cleared a path for us to work.' he thought has he scrambled towards the Courage, noting that there were signs of tampering around the cockpit.

'ZAFT probably got inside like they did in the factory, but were repulsed.' he didn't dwell on the thought as he entered the code that opened the cockpit hatch and climbed in. Within moments of having climbed into the pilot's chair, Henry had the mobile suit fully activated and ready to go.

"This is Henry in the EHG-X1 Courage. Can anyone give me a status report?" he asked over the general EH channel. The first to respond was Brimfield.

"Henry! Where have you been!?" asked the captain.

"Sorry for the delay, sir. A ZAFT infiltration team got into factory Hangar 4 and I had to deal with the situation. The intruders have been neutralized and there's no discernable sabotage."

"Well that's a bit of good news. Unfortunately Dalen and Charley need your help. ZAFT has fielded three new Gundam mobile suits and their barely being held off. Our top priority is to drive away the enemy mobile suits and those machines are making things difficult. They need to be eliminated."

Henry tensed for a moment as soon as he heard the word 'Gundam'. "Understood sir. I'm launching now."

'Gundams, wonderful,' he thought dryly. 'What kind of systems has ZAFT installed in these?'

The Courage disappeared from sight as Henry activated the Mirage Colloid. Now invisible to the world, he launched the Gundam out into the battlefield beyond, searching for his comrades and the dangerous opponents they face.

It wasn't that hard to spot them really, all of their activity glowing on his sensors. However there was a Nazca-class moving between him and them and moving in a position of threat to the colony.

'First things first,' Henry switched the Courage over from Mirage Colloid to VPS. Bringing the Kerberos up, he unleashed the cannons' full power on the ship, tearing off its portside wing and critically damaging its engines.

The ship listed off no longer a threat, but unfortunately it had caught the attention of one of the ZAFT Gundams. The black, yellow, and blue unit that had a physical sword equipped to its right arm.

'Where's the shield?' Henry wondered, noting that there was no obvious mean for blocking beams.

The enemy Gundam broke off from its engagement with the Loyalty, leaving Charley alone to deal with one that had a large backpack mounted weapons system.

The one coming for the Courage brought up a back mounted cannon. Henry dodged the high-energy beam, putting the Courage on a flight arc for an area with a greater concentration of debris while firing both his beam pistols for cover, only for the beams to be blocked by a barrier of energy.

"A Lightwave barrier!?" Henry exclaimed in shock. Shock that distracted him a moment to long making him responded slowly to an incoming beam that clipped the Courage's leg, partially melting the armor and damaging underlying circuitry.

Gritting his teeth in frustration Henry closed the full shield and switched back to Mirage Colloid.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: Tellemicus Sundance

7 kilometers north of the Spaceport District

Sneering as an idea came to mind, the Loyalty changed back as it turned and charged back at the ZAFT Gundam. With its beam rifle in its left hand and a saber in its right, the EH Gundam delivered a quick slash towards the artillery machine. However an energy shield sprung to life, easily blocking the beam saber. Quickly backing away with a spray of gunfire, the ZAFT machine brought its DRAGOONs to bear, sending the Loyalty into a chaotic game of dodges and almost hits.

In an almost random fashion, Charley lured his enemy into the Debris Belt surrounding the colony asteroid as he sheathed his beam saber. Dodging behind a particularly large chunk of a destroyed Drake-class warship, Charley activated his Mirage Colloid and waited impatiently. It was time to play one of his more favorite games of hide-and-seek, a horribly warped version of it to be sure. But it was a game that he'd mastered after playing it several times during the last few pirate attacks.

After a few moments, the ZAFT Gundam appeared from around the debris, its eyes glowing dangerously as it attempted to locate its invisible enemy. After a moment of stillness, it recalled its DRAGOONs and began to slowly drift through the debris, its head turning every which way as it tried to find Charley.

'Just a little closer,' Charley silently urged the machine as it unknowingly drew steadily closer to a particular piece of debris. 'That's it, just a little closer.'

'Charley, now isn't the time for your games!' Goldie snapped, clearly fed up with his opposite half's violent tendencies. 'We are supposed to be protecting the colony and the ships from the attack. Not playing cat-and-mouse with a machine that could easily blow us apart!'

'You would be right,' Charley agreed, an arrogant sneer pulling at his face. 'But clearly you haven't been paying all that much attention to this fight! The pilot in that machine has no idea how to utilize that Gundam, not a clue as to how to pull out its maximum combat potential! Even you could kick his ass if you really tried!'

'But the colony—'

'Is being protected by everyone else!' Charley snapped. 'Let them do their jobs for once, and let me get back to my game!'

To accent his declaration, he took a shot at the debris that the ZAFT Gundam was now well within blast range of. The beam struck the vulnerable debris, triggering the space mine that was hidden within it and causing it to erupt in a large explosion that showered the powerful Gundam with shrapnel.

Of course the VPS armor of the Gundam was easily strong enough to protect it from any damage. However the force of the explosion disoriented the pilot, as well as momentarily blinding the machine's sensors. That split-second of blindness was just the break that Charley needed to move to a different position.

And not a second too soon, for as soon as the gray unit could see again, it had turned and sent a burst of beam-fire in the general direction that the Loyalty had been hidden in, even striking the very spot that the EH machine had been at by pure coincidence. With a large grin, Charley fired off a single shot at his enemy, easily leading it into another trap as it attempted to calculate his estimated trajectory.

Oh, how he loved this game!

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: FictionReader98

All around the Mathilde Colony, mobile suits continued to do battle, swarming around their targets like gnats. A Gunner ZAKU took aim with its Orthros beam cannon and blasted an emerging EH Strike Dagger from the hangar, blowing it to pieces.

A Blaze ZAKU withdrew and lobbed a hand grenade at an EH GINN, blowing it to atoms before being blasted itself by a pirate GuAIZ.

Two EH mobile suits, a ZAKU and CGUE made a run towards the Nazca-class firing their weapons down on it. The guns on the ZAFT ship fired back, destroying one of them, but the other managed to get away with a few hits along its starboard engine. But then it got slashed in the back by ZAKU Warrior with its tomahawk.

"Carlos! ZAKU on your six!"

Carlos, piloting a rarity, an Orb Astray, turned around just in time to thrust his beam saber into the ZAFT mobile suit's cockpit, destroying the unit. Another Gunner ZAKU took aim with its Orthros cannon and fired. Carlos managed to avoid the worst of the hit, but it still destroyed one of the Astray's legs and inflicted serious damage to the engines. Unable to control it, he plummeted down into the colony, crashing through a window. The air was blown out through the breach, sucking any unfortunate and unprepared pirates nearby into the cold depths of space.

At the hangar entrance, three EH mobile suits, all Strike Daggers, were furiously trying to protect the entrance as more ZAFT units swarmed around. They had managed to blow one to pieces before a Slash ZAKU rained its two Hydra Gatling beam guns onto them, blowing two of them up in a second.

"I need back up!" the third one cried frantically. "Ba—AHHH!!!" Two ZAKU Warriors sliced it into places. The pilot's dying scream echoing over the radio channels.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: Tellemicus Sundance

Spaceport District

The battle, if you could call it that, had quickly gone from bad to worse the longer it was drawn out. It was taking all of Captain Jonas Brimfield's self-control to keep from scowling while he stared at the battle-feed that that was filtering across the display table on the Early Harvest's bridge. These were some really despicable tactics that ZAFT were taking in this battle. Bombs likely placed by a small strike team at strategic locations throughout the colony itself had effectively separated the three districts by cutting the communication lines and venting precious atmosphere into the vacuum of space.

If the recent and numerous pirate factions hadn't started attacking, Brimfield would've been willing to bet that the causalities would've been quite numerous in the colony. But in a twist of ironic fate, he was almost willing to bet that many of the people on the colony had become paranoid of yet another surprise attack and were already wearing their spacesuits.

However, it was shortly after those bombs had gone off that the real attack had begun with ZAFT firing long-range missiles into the factory and spaceport districts. ZAFT was trying to limit the number of opposing enemy mobile suits that could be scrambled to join the battle by isolating them within their respective areas while their own mobile suits moved in to destroy the colony's strangely unresponsive defense systems. Under normal circumstances, this strategy would've been extremely effective at disarming a hostile colony and forcing it to surrender.

But the Mathilde Colony was run by Captain Jonas Brimfield and the Early Harvest, who weren't normal pirates.

"Captain, all our available mobile suits have boarded and the Late Autumn is reporting that they're filled past their capacity as well," Lieutenant Ohajin reported. "The X-units have all engaged unknown ZAFT Gundams and are currently battling with them outside the colony."

"Launch the ship!" Brimfield barked from his command chair. "Order the Late Autumn to follow our departure under the Colloid. Prepare to activate the Amano Heki System as soon as we exit the hangar. Load all launchers with missiles and prepare to fire the Gottfried."

"There's too much debris blocking the exit, Captain!" Yukiko Tomino, the young lady at the helm, called out even as she was busy preparing to obey the command to launch.

"Charge the Lohengrin!" Brimfield barked out immediately. "We'll blast our through the debris and protect our home!"

"Lohengrin One charging…" Takeshi Nojiri, the gunner, reported. "Charging complete, disengaging safety locks…ready to fire, sir!"

"Fire!"

A split second later the massive positron beam shot forth, incinerating everything within its path as it blasted forward. Though they weren't aware of it, the same attack caused the Nazca outside to frantically break off its attack as it evaded to the side. Yet the positron beam still managed to clip its starboard wing and cause critical damage to the engines stored within it, which had to be quickly put into emergency shutdown to prevent a cataclysmic meltdown. The wingless Nazca slowly began to careen to the side away from the colony, its remaining stability completely gone.

With the newly created hole, the Early Harvest's engines picked up power as it forcefully nudged its way through the exit. Before the ship could even fully pass through the hangar doors, the missile launchers on the bow of the ship started opening fire upon the ZAFT mobile suits that were within range. Nearly all the missiles were blocked or destroyed but they did serve to distract the pilots long enough for the Early Harvest to successfully depart.

"Enemy mobile suits approaching!" Yachi Lungho, the CIC and radar operator, reported. "Three Gunner ZAKUs and two Slash ZAKUs—moving into firing positions!"

"Activate the Amano Heki!" Brimfield ordered.

Outside the spaceship, a series of small objects suddenly shot out on small wire lines from the ship's hull and flew off into certain positions around it. Just as the ZAFT mobile suits collectively opened fire, the small detachments suddenly emitted bright beams of green energy that interconnected with one another and formed a prism shield around the entire ship, effectively protecting it from the five ZAKUs' attacks.

"Emergency launch the Hulda Team to draw off enemy fire from us and the colony!" Brimfield ordered as soon the flashes died down. "Raise bow pitch fifty, boost engines and have the Gottfried target the Nazca!"

As Yachi, Takeshi, and Yukiko quickly responded to his commands, he turned to the Ohajin and said, "Contact the Late Autumn, order them to evacuate the factory district while we head to the residential area. Once the evacuations' complete, order them to rendezvous with us!"

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: animefan29

2 kilometers east of the Spaceport District

As the Courage disappeared, compartments opened up on the ZAFT Gundam's shoulders revealing small Gatling cannons that fired a storm of beam energy in an attempt to flush out the Courage. However Henry had already taken refuge behind a small asteroid.

'Damn it, I need more information.' thought Henry as he worked on a battle plan to take down the Gundam. 'So far it's used a high-energy cannon, beam Gatling cannons, and has some sort of beam pistol in that sword. I also saw a standard beam rifle on its waist and two beam sabers. And there's no way that was truly lightwave technology. Eurasia would never let anyone get a hold of their greatest defensive technology, so ZAFT probably developed this on its own. That just leaves the physical sword. Is it some new model of anti-ship sword or is it a heat weapon like the GOUF's whip?'

Alarms sounded, alerting Henry that the sensors picked up a new heat source, right behind the Courage. Henry's eyes widened in alarm, immediately bringing the VPS back online. Just in time as the asteroid exploded, sending superheated rock shrapnel flying everywhere.

It would have significantly damaged the Courage if it didn't have the VPS armor active. "Smart," Henry muttered, moving his mobile suit to dodge the incoming beams. "Super heat the asteroid, causing various materials to change composition and excite any trapped gases to the point the pressure is too much."

The Courage slowed, allowing shots from the beam pistol and rifle to strike the shields. "Let's see how you like this," he said as he launched a wave of Firefly missiles forward. They fell quickly to CIWS and Gatling fire, but the reprieve was enough. The full shield opened and the Kerberos fired.

Then enemy pilot wasn't as distracted as Henry hoped, immediately bringing up its energy shield on its right arm. Only this time the energy didn't disperse, it seemed to disappear as the blue beam energy morphed into a bright yellow. Once the energy was gone, the Gundam pulled out both its energy cannon and beam rifle and fired the two weapons in rapid succession.

"That thing has some power output," Henry muttered as he pulled the Courage into a tight loop around an asteroid, coming around the other side armed with the sniper rifle and fired repeatedly with deadly accuracy.

The Gundam tried to dodge but the beams were too accurate. It was forced to use its beam shield. Again the beams disappeared into the strange yellow energy and with each shot the mobile suit seemed to gain a small boost in speed.

It gained rapidly on the Courage and closed the gap to close quarters combat. Henry stopped his bombardment and pulled out a beam javelin, thrusting it at the charging Gundam, but the beam was blocked by the physical sword.

The Gundam went for a beam saber on its hip but the Courage was just a tad faster, using a beam pistol to shoot the mobile suit's hand as it brought up the weapon. A minor victory that was short lived as the Gundam's physical sword began to overpower the Courage's beam javelin, before the EH mobile suit was completely shoved back.

Henry grunted as his bones shook when the Courage slammed into a nearby asteroid. Gritting his teeth Henry fought to keep his focus, moving the Courage just in time to avoid the Gundam's sword that slashed the rock where Henry's Gundam once was, leaving a massive scar.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: FictionReader98

2 kilometers west of the Spaceport District

With a beam saber in each hand, the Honor shot forth towards the winged ZAFT Gundam which was firing down rapidly with its beam rifle. The former FAITH agent found it rather simple to evade the beams not even having to use his shield.

"Not so tough without your buddies, are you!?" Dalen taunted, glad to be on the offensive. He swung his left beam saber at the machine, forcing it to dodge to the right. Immediately he struck with his right beam saber in an unfocused frenzy, to which the enemy Gundam held up its arm and energy-based shield sprang to life, blocking Dalen's strikes.

Not having the slightest clue what this shield was, Dalen kept up his barrage, swinging with both blades. After a few seconds of this, it became apparent that he couldn't break though the thing's defense, so the Lieutenant made an uppercut strike at the cockpit. As expected, the ZAFT machine parried the blow. In that instance, Dalen jerked on his controls with a series of quick accelerations and decelerations as the Honor moved upward, spun forward and delivered a kick to the upper chest area, propelling it backwards. But not before the ZAFT unit retaliated by slamming its shield into the Honor itself, propelling it the opposite direction.

The two Gundams quickly recovered as the Honor slammed its two beam sabers together while the enemy pulled out its long range beam cannon from its backside and fired a volley, which Dalen dodged. Firing a series of CIWs shots he rushed forward, evading left and right as the Gundam fired shot after shot. As soon as Dalen drew closer to it, the machine reached back and pulled out a beam boomerang and hurled it at the Honor.

Dalen kept a keen eye on it as he lunged out, caught the incoming weapon in the Honor's free hand, and he threw it right back! If the pilot of the Gundam was surprised, it didn't show because the winged machine batted the boomerang away with its shield expertly, and then aimed its beam rifle for a shot. On instinct, Dalen had the Honor withdraw a combat knife from the Honor's hip compartments and hurled the blade with perfect aim right at the rifle. It lodged itself in the nozzle. A second later, the weapon exploded on itself.

"Ha!" Dalen cried out in glee as he flew towards the machine striking again with his double-bladed beam saber. The enemy machine flew upward avoiding the strike but the Honor kept on flying at full speed towards his discarded Claymore sword. He put his beam sabers away as he reacquired his primarily weapon.

But not before having the Honor giving the middle finger to his winged adversary.

That made the machine's eyes glow menacingly, as if to say 'I don't like being played' as it took out its anti-ship sword again as a blast of purplish light flared from its wings like some elegant butterfly. With a newfound burst of speed, the mobile suit shot at the Honor. The EH Gundam complied by surging right back, Claymore ready.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: Tellemicus Sundance

Factory District

The redhead known as Professor K stood before the communication terminal of Assembly Hangar 2 that she was in. On the monitor, she watched various images of the interior of the colony as the sudden assault continued to pound into the asteroid's surface and the exposed areas of the colony, namely the spaceport hangar and the factory's shipping area.

The ZAFT forces were being positively relentless in their attacks. Despite the colony's mobile suits doing their best to drive the attackers away from their home, the expertise of the ZAFT pilots simply overwhelmed even the better pilots that the Early Harvest had to offer. Thanks to those strange new Gundams that ZAFT had brought along, none of her babies (the X-units) were able to come and aid the defenders.

But that wasn't what was making K so uncomfortable; it was the mystery of how ZAFT was able to sneak up on the colony in the first place. None of the Nazca and Laurasia ships or their mobile suits seemed equipped with Mirage Colloid, so that narrowed the possibilities somewhat. And though she was a scientist and engineer by profession, K wasn't a genius for nothing. That was how she was quickly able to use her special access codes to hack into the colony's network and start surveying the interior for the ZAFT strike force that had likely been sent.

And she found them in the most likely place possible; the colony central command center, surrounded by the bodies of the men and women who had been unfortunate to be running the center at the time. Though there was no audio, she could easily guess that the strike team was feeding valuable information about the combat taking place outside the colony to their strike force. This was possible because the Early Harvest, Late Autumn, and all their mobile suits were plugged into the colony network to better increase their combat efficiency when defending the colony.

"Professor, what's going on?" one of her tech assistants asked in a slightly panicking tone as the colony began trembling again.

"ZAFT agents have taken control of the command center," K answered, her voice cold and precise. "They've sealed off the three districts and seem to be venting the atmosphere. And it looks like they're aiding their friends outside as well."

Turning back to the relatively small group of people who were in the hangar with her, K watched as the line of spacesuit-clad people in front of the two shuttles was steadily diminishing. "Takoyama, have we recovered everyone we could find?"

"No, madam," Takoyama answered, sounding extremely distressed. For good reason since her twin daughters had gone missing shortly after the attack started, and multiple collapsed corridors and sealed doorways were barring her and everyone else from properly searching for the lost children and others. "But we have managed to gather as many people as we could find here. We're nearly finished loading the Mirage Shuttles."

Nodding, K turned back to the monitor she'd been using. As she went about her work, she couldn't help but wish that Akira was here. He was the computer genius after all. And it certainly wasn't easy for her to bring up the special Omega Dogma program that Brimfield had her install years ago without attracting the command center's attention.

As she was busy working, she called out over the radio to everyone in the area. "Listen up, people! I need the five best mobile suit pilots in the area to head over to Hangar 4. There are combat-ready mobile suits over there, our new Hizacks! Use them to protect the Mirage Shuttles once we take off and rejoin the Harvest and Autumn!"

"Yes, madam!" a series of voice responded, followed shortly by five individuals separating from the group to rush for the aforementioned hangar.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: FictionReader98

In space, the eight member Hulda Team blasted several ZAFT mobile suits in their opening volleys, temporarily shifting the tide of battle to the pirates' favor. A couple of ZAFT machines, which had been near the residential area during the Hulda Team assault, turned about and fired directly at their new enemies backsides, destroying two of them.

"Draw them away from the colony!" the team leader shouted as a third of the ZAKUs' number went back to the residential area. The EH and ZAFT suits buzzed around like flies as they tried to destroy each other. The team leader, piloting a GuAIZ, activated the dual beam claws mount on the machine's arm and slashed through a Blaze ZAKU.

"This is McGravins in the factory distinct!" came a panicked voice over the team's radio "We're being overrun! There's too m—!"

Then the line went dead.

The remaining members rushed over towards the factory, weapons blazing hard. They were able to destroy two of the five ZAFT mobile suits in the opening moments. However a Gunner ZAKU took aim and fired, missing the team as two GINNs converged on it, one cutting through its weapon and the other cutting the machine itself.

A Slash ZAKU took out a grenade and threw it at the incoming enemy machines, but the team leader fired his anchor claws, managing to hit the grenade and detonating it prematurely. He raised his own weapon and shot a single blast, striking the ZAKU and destroying it.

The rest of his team struck the remaining mobile suit from all sides. The poor guy never had a chance. The team leader smiled at himself. Finally, the battle was looking to be in their favor!

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: Tellemicus Sundance

Outside the Factory District

Outside the ruins that remained of the industrial plant, three ZAKU were scouting through the debris that the Laurasia and Nazca warships had reduced the exposed portion of the factory to. Most of it was little more than clouds of dust, rubble, and twisted metal, although there were a few bodies amongst the rubble, including a pair of little girls no older than ten. Such a sight as those two children was enough to cause the Slash ZAKU pilot who found them to weep uncontrollably in anguish over their deaths; he knew immediately that they had been innocents caught at the wrong place at the wrong time.

But his remorse didn't last long before two things happened in short order. The first was a large interior doorway suddenly opening. The passageway was completely dark inside its recesses, save for a series of glowing mono-sensors that suddenly sprung to life inside it. The owners of the mono-sensors quickly exposed themselves as belonging to some strange orange mobile suits that shot out of the darkness. Those strange ZAKU-like mobile suits quickly opened fire upon the trio of ZAFT mobile suits, immediately causing them to fall back away from the factory.

The second thing was a pair of high-intensity warship-grade beams that shot forward out of nowhere. These beams struck the Nazca-class in its engines before it could be given a chance to respond to the attack. A split second later, a faded orange Nazca-class warship appeared as it deactivated its Mirage Colloid while aiming to disable the Laurasia. What was this? A new enemy?

Reacting quickly to the sudden deadly retaliation that was taking place, the three ZAKU grouped back together near the two ships as their enemies congregated together as well. Despite themselves, the ZAKU pilots couldn't help but wish that they had more backup. Their attack forces had divided themselves up. There was one Nazca per district and the two Laurasia providing backup for the residential and factory areas while the third Nazca took the majority of their mobile suits to assault the more heavily armed spaceport and the pirates' warship.

Based on their information, the pirates had only one operable warship but over several dozen mobile suits of inferior designs available. A common ZAKU could easily outfight most of the machines that pirate groups tended to have in their possession. But when did the pirates acquire this second warship? And what were those new machines? They looked remarkably similar to the ZAKU, and yet very much different at the same time. They were trimmer as compared to the ZAKU's slightly bulky figure. And though these new suits shared the same type of headpiece as a ZAKU, they had extra thrusters attached to the sides of their shins and backside, likely for an increased speed, agility, and performance.

Suffice to say that the pilots of the Slash ZAKU, Blaze ZAKU, and Gunner ZAKU suddenly didn't feel nearly as confident as they felt they should've been when facing the usually undertrained, but overconfident riffraff that were pirating groups.

And this hesitation to engage proved to be very well-founded as the five new machines suddenly attacked, each wielding a special weapon that more than leveled the playing field that the pilots were fighting on.

The Gunner ZAKU took a shot with its Orthros, which was quickly deflected to the side when one of the mobile suits came forward with its Geschmeidig Panzer shield. As the mobile suit shifted to the side, one of its partners behind it returned fire with its own Orthros beam cannon. While this was taking place, the three other suits dashed off to the sides, one of them unleashing a set of DRAGOONs upon the Blaze ZAKU and a second suit was rushing forward at the Slash ZAKU with a pair of large beam swords.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: FictionReader98

4 kilometers west of the Spaceport District

Like two rockets, the two Gundams sped at each other, reared their massive swords back and clashed. The recoil from that clash was massive, violently shaking the pilots in their cockpits and cracking both swords. This close up, both pilots could read the machines codenames printed on the foreheads of both units.

EHG-X2 Honor

ZGMF-X42S Destiny

Neither pilot was fazed as they quickly withdrew and unleashed a massive barrage of sword strikes at each other, their blades clashing over again and again, faster and faster. Sparks flew with each clash of the blades, like fire from the heavens itself was raining down on them. This only intensified as both pilots randomly fired their CIWS at each other.

As one both Gundams backed off from each other, zipping back and forth with their engines pushing themselves to the max as they collided again and again. Thrusting forward once again, both Gundams threw their massive swords into another tremendous strike… and the Honor's sword buckled backwards.

At that same moment, red lights began flashing erratically. A diagram of the Honor flashed up on a screen, its right shoulder bathed in red with a number 47.

What the hell do you mean functionality is reduced to 47 frickin percent!? Dalen mentally roared at the systems when the importance of the message hit him. The some of the Destiny's CIWS shots had hit his shoulder, furthering the damage, and all the intensive swinging just magnified it!

The Destiny pressed forward, shoving the Honor's Claymore blade away, and then kicking the EH Gundam away. Dalen gritted his teeth as he tumbled away, splitting the Claymore sword and returning one of the two swords onto his back. Even though it was a Gundam, he still couldn't wield the full blade with just one hand, especially not when his right arm was only half effective. But he still could do this…

As the Honor flipped to recover from the kick, it withdrew its second beam boomerang and threw it right at the Destiny. Then he opened fired on it with his CIWS. The beam boomerang exploded with an intense but brief light that lasted only a split second, which was all he needed.

The Destiny wasn't affected by the mini explosion as a figure emerged from the blast right towards him. The pilot swung his Arondight anti-ship sword forward… and slashed through a discarded shield.

From behind the Destiny, the Honor deactivated its Mirage Colloid. The half Claymore in his left hand was raised up, ready to strike the exposed ZAFT mobile suit, when an unexpected blast from the side suddenly struck the Honor right in the chest.

Dalen was roughly jolted around the cockpit from the impact recoil, his unprotected head taking a pounding in the process. Badly. Blood began dripping from his forehead over his eyes, his vision quickly hazing over with what felt like a mallet suddenly pounding against his skull like crazy. This is why you wear helmets…

Unable to operate the Gundam, the machine plummeted towards the Mathilde where it crashed into the asteroid with considerable force, slamming Dalen around anew against the metal interior. A moment later, he lost consciousness with the Honor lying on the space rock helplessly, unable to move or defend itself.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: Tellemicus Sundance

5 kilometers from Spaceport

'This is fun!' Charley mentally cheered, though it lacked the same enthusiasm as earlier.

He was gritting his teeth angrily as he deftly evaded the barrage of beams that the DRAGOONs were blasting his way. It was taking all his skill just to dodge the beams, even though they weren't dancing around him like before. Instead, they were grouped near the ZAFT Gundam and were attacking without pause or much aim as they fired at him. It was a simplistic way of using them, but quite effective at keeping him far enough away from being as effective as he could be. And it had the added bonus of allowing the pilot a chance to rest while Charley was forced to flee for his life.

Spinning and rolling to the sides as he attempted to duck behind the various pieces of ship debris, he wished he could take the time to wipe the sweat off his face. It was really starting to build up on him as the fight lengthened, slowly sapping him of even his Extended strength and endurance. This fight was really starting to get annoying for him, especially because he couldn't use his Mirage Colloid to hide under any longer. The ZAFT pilot had figured out a way of forcing him to remain visible by laying out a massive, random barrage into space around his Gundam with his DRAGOONs.

As he was taking a few precious moments to recover his breath, Charley was finally able to think up a possible plan. What he needed was a distraction or two for the ZAFT pilot to fall for long enough for him to get up close and personal. 'That's when it'll really get fun!'

A sudden message appearing on his side-monitor caught his attention. 'X2 down; recover. Return to Harvest and Autumn, factory district,' it read. They actually shot down one of the X-units?!

As the ZAFT Gundam moved into view and opened fire upon the EH Gundam once again, the Loyalty shifted into its mobile armor form and shot away at top speeds. The ZAFT Gundam recalled its DRAGOONs as it gave chase, but the Loyalty had considerably more powerful thrusters than its opponent did and easily outpaced it.

Skimming across the surface of the asteroid, the Loyalty broadened its sensor range, hoping to locate the IFF signal of the Honor. Where could it be?! He easily dodged and ignored the few shots that the persistent ZAFT pilot was shooting towards him as he continued to fly away in a random searching pattern.

Turning and flying off towards the Residential District, Charley blinked as he spotted an alert coming upon his monitor. There, up ahead and several kilometers to his left, was that red winged Gundam from before. But it was its cargo that instantly drew Charley's attention, the X2 Honor hung limply from its arms with its VPS armor deactivated. Adjusting his flight path instantly, Charley gunned the X3's engines for every spare amount of power they could give. I won't let them get the X2!

Letting out a loud yell as he neared the unprepared Gundam, the Loyalty changed back into a mobile suit as it brought its shield up to bear. Moments before he reached the Gundam, it finally detected his presence and moved to counter, dropping the X2 as it reacted to his approach. Just like earlier, he rammed into his opponent's shield with his own with staggering force. The incredible force of impact knocked both Gundams apart for the split second it took for them to recover.

As the red and blue Gundam brought its beam sword to bear, Charley showered it with Vulcan fire that destroyed the weapon. In the seconds it took for him to raise one of his Amfortas plasma cannons, his opponent saw this and quickly dodged to the side, causing Charley's shot to miss badly. Not relenting, Charley continued to fire one shot after another no regard to aiming properly. He was just trying to force the Gundam to back away far enough from the still-motionless X2 so he could dash in and grab it.

Dodging yet another blast, the enemy Gundam brought up its own heavy beam cannon and fired as Charley swung the right Amfortas plasma cannon forward. The two large beams struck one another, clashing for a brief moment before exploding in blinding flash of light. That flash was just what Charley needed.

He rocketed down to where the X2 was slowly falling back towards the asteroid and grabbed it. By the time he was flying over towards where he could faintly see the flashes of the battle his captain's ship was in, the two ZAFT Gundams that were on his heels responded to his sudden move and followed after him in a hurry.

He had just stolen one of their prizes. They would not allow him to escape (again)!

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: Tellemicus Sundance

Mathilde Control Center

Major Ishikawa watched the ensuing battle from the command center with rapt attention. Even with him and his team feeding their comrades crucial information about the pirates' locations, attack formations, and the clearly superior skills of the ZAKU pilots, these pirates were proving to be some truly difficult opponents to beat. As a commander in the field, Ishikawa thought that he could easily guess just why these pirates were so resilient to ambushes and attacks. There was a level trust among these people that normally didn't exist in most pirate factions. A level of trust that allowed them to guard each others' backs, with no fear of being backstabbed or abandoned. And this level of trust helped them to operate and battle together with an efficiency that was almost the equivalent of any nation's military.

"Major," one of his team members spoke up. "I'm detecting new heat signatures over the factory, and heat dissipation suggests a battle—Barfest is reporting critical engine damage and a new enemy warship and mobile suits have arrived!"

"Where's the Galvani?" Ishikawa asked as he came over to watch the monitor of the spokesman.

"Currently engaging the new pirate ship, a Nazca-class," was the answer. "Sir, the pirate mobile suits are overwhelming the Kanatui Team!"

"Send reinforcements from the Izald Team immediately, disable or destroy that new warship as the case may be!" Turning back to his computer hacker, he said, "How's the database download coming along?"

"It had been running smoothly at first, sir," the woman reported. "But a few minutes ago, there seems to be some new program called Omega Dogma that's been activated, some kind of system trap. I can't bypass it, it's…slippery."

"Shut it down," Ishikawa ordered as he turned his attention back to the battles place. "What's the status of our Gundams?"

"They're still engaged in combat over the spaceport area with those pirate machines. The pilots are having quite some trouble with capturing the enemy Gundams."

"Maybe it's time for us to stop playing around with them," Ishiwana thought to himself aloud. "Contact the—"

A suddenly alarm flared to life through the command center and the colony interior, complete with flashing red lights and a deafening siren.

"What's happening?!" Ishikawa yelled over the wailing alarm.

"Omega Dogma activated," a computerized voice said over the loudspeakers. "Initiating in thirty seconds."

"MAJOR!!" his hacker yelled in a fright.

Rushing over to her station, Ishikawa took one look at the computer's monitor and paled immediately.

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: animefan29

2 kilometers east of the Spaceport District

Backing off as fast as he could, Henry activated the Mirage Colloid, hiding from the view of his enemy. The ZAFT pilot didn't hesitate as he brought up its high energy cannon to start shooting asteroids to create shrapnel, which was what Henry wanted. The invisible Courage activated and threw its beam javelin, piecing the end of the cannon causing it to explode.

Despite his mobile suit being undamaged, the ZAFT pilot must have been enraged as it started firing its beam pistol wildly while unleashing a hail of energy from the Gatling cannons in an attempt to flush out the Courage.

"Lose your head, lose your life," Henry muttered as the Courage became visible and lined up a shot from behind an asteroid.

Suddenly the alarms sounded alerting Henry to an approaching threat from behind. The Courage turned and caught a Falx beam axe on one of its opened shields. The Courage shoved the Slash ZAKU off while pulling out the second beam javelin, thrusting it through a gap between mobile suit and its shield.

The skewered ZAKU exploded, and while no longer a threat, the damage had been done. Henry didn't need alarms to alert him to the approaching danger, and was already trying to move away from the area.

Too slowly as the enemy Gundam was already upon him, slashing forward with its remaining beam saber and cutting off the Courage's left leg.

'It's too fast. I have to distract this guy,' thought Henry as he hit a switch, detaching the right Kerberos. The cannon fell into the path of the ZAFT Gundam as it swung its beam saber again.

The beam saber cut through the cannon halfway before the weapon exploded in a fireball. The bright light blinded both pilots, but that didn't stop Henry. He aimed the rifle from the memory of the mobile suit's position.

He fired as the light began to fade and a shadow of a charging Gundam appeared. The beam flew, grazing the mobile suit's thrusters. But damaged thrusters didn't stop the Gundam's attack, the mobile suit swinging its physical sword which sliced off the barrel of the rifle.

The Gundam passed and Henry quickly discarded the ruined rifle, pulled out the beam pistols, closed the full shield, brought up the Deluge railguns, and spun to face his enemy.

Apparently the enemy Gundam had a similar idea, its sword stowed away, the barrels of its beam pistol and Gatling cannons staring down on the Courage, and its arm mounted energy shield guarding its body.

It was an old fashioned Mexican standoff.

'This is not good. If it comes to a shootout like this I don't want to test how long my full shield lasts against that energy shield.'

"Omega Dogma activated," stated a computerized voice over the radio, causing Henry eye's to widen in alarm. "Initiating in thirty seconds."

'Not Good!! I have to finish this.' It was a long shot but it would buy him the time he needed. Using the AMBAC system to its fullest capabilities Henry maneuvered the Courage ever so subtly, aiming the railguns. 'One shot,' the railguns fired, the solid projectiles shooting just above the energy shield, striking the mobile suit in one of the few places not protected by Phase Shift. The Gatling cannons.

The projectiles mangled and tossed the mobile suit but no explosions. The pilot managed to keep the shield in a place where it could protect the cockpit but that wasn't Henry's concern.

Activating the Mirage Colloid, Henry took off, pushing the thrusters for all they were worth and hoping that the heat of all the battles warmed up the area enough that any leaking heat wouldn't attract attention.

The enemy Gundam looked like it would have tried following in the direction the Courage flew off in, but it hesitated and flew away towards its own forces.

'ZAFT must have found out about the Omega Dogma.' thought Henry has he went off in search of the Early Harvest. 'I pray that all our people got out in time.'

KIRA – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – KIRA
By: Tellemicus Sundance

Early Harvest

"We've lost another three mobile suits," Yachi said, distress thick in his voice. They had already lost little more than twenty-five of their pilots, as well as there still being around fifty adults and at least a dozen or two children of the pirates who were trapped inside the colony housing area. "Six ZAKUs approaching from starboard-bow! Two Nazca approaching from portside, and a Laurasia from starboard!"

"Swing to port thirty!" Brimfield called out. "Activate the Amano Heki; prepare to fire Lohengrin Two, target the starboard Nazca; launch Dispar missiles to provide cover for the Late Autumn!"

The battle outside was beginning to really wear on the pirates. They'd just finished evacuating the factory district and met up with their new sister ship and her escorts. At first the ZAFT forces had attempted to prevent them from grouping together, but then suddenly changed tactics. Brimfield could fully understand why: the commander wanted to destroy both ships at once, which would likely be easier when they were bunched up together, blocking their fields of fire.

As far as the mobile suit battle was going, the pirates were notably taking quite a beating despite being numerically superior to their attackers. Having started out with easily four dozen mobile suits, they were now reduced to almost half that number; quite a humbling experience for the pirate pilots who prided themselves on being former elites of ZAFT or the Earth Forces.

"Captain!" Yachi called over. "Detecting surging heat levels from Mathilde! The command center is issuing an Omega Dogma that—"

"Recall all mobile suits!" Brimfield yelled out, an edge of panic in his tone. "Swing to starboard ninety, boost engines to maximum thrust! Get us as far away from the colony as possible! Relay the same orders to the Autumn!" There was only a split second of hesitation among his bridge crew before they quickly leapt to obey the orders.

Outside, there was a quick response as the colony mobile suits suddenly broke off from the battle and began landing on the two ships' hulls. Believing that the pirates were making their last stand, the ZAFT forces immediately began sending a massive barrage of missiles and high-energy beams, attempting to shred through their defenses. And quite a few of those missiles and beams were able to punch through the increased defenses of the two ships, shaking them violently as their hulls began weakening from the beating. Had that pummeling continued as such, the ZAFT forces would've most certainly won.

However, both pirate ships suddenly activated their beam shields to protect their forces as they turned and blasted off away from the colony at the maximum speeds that their engines could allow, passing through the ZAFT fleet easily. The ZAFT fleet was quickly attempting to follow after their obviously retreating prey. Victory was within their grasp if they were finally running!

Mere moments after they'd managed to clear the debris belt of the colony, cracks began forming along the colony asteroid's exterior. Heat and energy levels began rising at tremendous levels. Caught by surprise, none of the ZAFT ships were prepared when several blinding and massive nuclear explosions suddenly tore through the colony, near-instantly incinerating the seventy men, women, and children who had been unfortunate enough to be trapped upon it.

The two pirate ships and their mobile suits clinging to their hulls, protected under the veils of their Amano Heki shields, were the only ones that managed to flee the scene without sustaining near-critical damage. In fact, all but one Laurasia-class ZAFT warship was torn apart by the raw energy and superheated debris that the colony was quickly reduced to. Only a few of the ZAFT mobile suits, including all three Gundams (thanks to their own energy shields) survived the blasts and following debris shower.

The Mathilde Colony was no more.

---

(AUTHOR'S NOTE)

Whew, that chapter was one heck of a pain. I hope that this baby lives up to all your expectations, especially given just how long it's taken us to finish it! And a massive thank you to my friends (animefan29 and FictionReader98) for their individual works on this chapter. I can guarantee that without them, this chapter/battle would NOT have turned out nearly as good as it has.

Omega Dogma is a special program that was installed by Professor K for Captain Brimfield several years ago. It is an emergency system meant to protect the crew of the Early Harvest on the chance that the Mathilde Colony should ever be captured by forces that weren't friendly towards them. In the event of such an occasion, the program monitors the entire colony for any sign of the crew that remain aboard the colony and the circumstances as to why and how. Should the enemy be successful in forcing them to abandon the colony, the Omega Dogma will not only purge its entire network of all data within its records, it will also initiate a self-destruct of the ammunition stores that the pirates had gathered. Had this self-destruct been used with their common stores of energy cells and mobile suit ammunition, it would've only caused a relatively small explosion in the secure holding cells of the factory district. But because of the pirates' raid on the lunar base, the seven remaining nuclear missiles they had left were also triggered, hence the colony's destruction.

Amano Heki—Heavenly Barrier, name of the Early Harvest and Late Autumn's beam shield systems which were developed by Professor K shortly after Akira's departure. It is based on the mono-lightwave barrier used by the Eurasian base of Artemis.

LAMS-07 Hizack (based on the RMS-106 Hizack)
Unit type: limited production, general-purpose mobile suit
Model Number: LAMS-07, Late Autumn Mobile Suit-design 07
Manufacturer: Late Autumn, Early Harvest, Mathilde Colony
First deployment: January 27, 74 CE (Operation Harvest Reapers)
Powerplant: ultracompact energy battery
Color: dark orange (torso), orange (limbs, headpiece)
Equipment and design features:
Mirage Colloid
Sensors, range unknown
Fixed armaments:
2 x MMI-GAU25A 20mm CIWS, mounted in chest
1 x shield, mounted on either forearm
2 x dual beam claw, mounted on forearms
1 x MA-M35G high-energy beam rifle, stored on rear waist
1 x ES04B beam saber, stored in shin armor
Optional armaments:
1 x M1500 "Orthros" high-energy long-range beam cannon
2 x "Schwert Gewehr" anti-ship sword
1 x "Geschmeidig Panzer" energy deflection shield
2 x MA-80V DRAGOON assault beam cannons, stored on shoulders
Reference link for the Hizack—www(.)mahq(.)net/mecha/gundam/z/rms-106(.)htm

ZGMF-X44S classified (FictionReader98's concept)
Manufacturer: ZAFT (Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty)
Operator: ZAFT, classified
First deployment: January 27, 74 CE (Operation Harvest Reapers)
Powerplant: ultracompact hyper-deuterion nuclear reactor
Color: Black (chest, forearms), yellow (abdomen, highlights), white (body)
Equipment and design features:
Neutron Jammer Canceller
Phase Shield, mounted on left arm
Sensors, range unknown
Variable Phase Shift (VPS) armor
Fixed armaments:
2 x MMI-GAU26 17.5mm CIWS, fire-linked, mounted in head
2 x MMI-M850 "Mini-Hydra" Gatling beam cannon, mounted in hidden shoulder compartments
1 x M2000GX high-energy long-range beam cannon, stored on back
1 x beam absorption Phase Shield, mounted on left wrist
1 x "Exia" 10.34m Phase Shift switchblade sword and beam pistol, mounted on right forearm
1 x MX2351 "Solidus Fulgor" beam shield generator, mounted on right wrists
2 x MA-M941 "Vajra" beam saber, stored on hips
1 x MA-BAR73/S high-energy beam rifle, stored on rear waist