Chapter 7 The Night of the Angels Part 3
For the longest time it was if time had stopped for Sally Po as she looked up into the sky, like the other Humvees and police cars her had come to a stop when a blinding light had illuminated the darkness of the forest. The light had faded but high above them a new source of light; it was as if a mechanical angel was hovering above them. It's bird like wings where behind it giving off a deifying roar and from her point of view she saw the glowing green eye of the gundam's face shinning like stars in the night.
"Why is he glowing like that?" asked a soldier stunned by the light that the mobile suit was giving. A few of the soldiers had raised their assault rifles up at the mobile suit but they were no threat to it.
"He must have internal lights on," reported Sally knowing that they had installed internal lights on the outside of their gundams so that they could be seen in the dark during military parades and whenever they let the Gundams be seen by the people.
"But why does he have them on now?" inquired the solider as she readied a heavy machine gun mounted on the nearest Humvee "Shouldn't he be trying to hide from all our mobile suits."
"He isn't afraid of us." Thought Sally as an Aries mobile suit came swopping over their heads trying to get closer for a better attack angle, however without warning the mobile suit spread its giant bird like wings and released a powerful blast of air. The rush of air was so powerful that trees began to fall down in the forest as any bird who had not taken wing when the light came took to the air now; it was so powerful that the nearby Humvees and police car flipped over. The true sign of the engine's power was the fact that the Aries flight type mobile suit could not handle the air and crashed into the forest floor. Sally shielded her eyes from the dirt and other flying partials and where greeted by the sight of the new mobile suit moving off and coming to a rest on a nearby cliff top.
"What power." stated Duo as he looked at Heero's new mobile suit as it came to rest on a small cliff front facing them. The beam saber had turned off but the buster rifle was still out however he seemed him as if Heero was waiting for something. The five news choppers had not left and the ten military ones had moved in closer their weapons at the ready but everyone knew their weapons where next to useless now.
"Heero seems to have made some improvements to Wing Zero," reported Wufei as he came in for a landing on the edge of the forest perverse. Duo did the same since like Wufei's gundam his suit was not designed for flight combat. Flight combat was the specialty of Wing and Wing Zero. Between the two of them and the 30 Aries mobile suits which was now forming a defense line around the area they should keep Heero pinned in until more ground forces arrived.
"Why did he do all this?" asked Duo
"I don't know," admitted Wufei as he pulled out his beam trident and prepared to attack Heero.
"Stop," ordered Duo as Wufei stopped mid step as he obeyed the order of the higher ranking officer. Quickly Duo moved to press a button on his suit's computer however before he could open a channel to Heero's new suit a communication channel opened up as a strange seal of an Angel holding a sword in front of the Earth appeared on his screen.
"Angel Squadron." read Duo unaware that the message was being broadcasted on an open channel and the TV news channels had picked up and had started to broadcast it live to the millions of people around the Earth and Space who were watching. Seconds later the image of Heero Yuy, dressed in a black flight suit appeared. His deep blue eyes stared out of millions of screens as he sat inside the controls of Wing Angel.
"Heero." Whispered Relena as she looked into Heero's eyes with her own loving eyes as she, Noin and a handful of now wide-awake commanders gathered in the briefing room back on base still trying to get a grasp on the situation.
"This is Admiral Heero Yuy, Orb Union Special Forces and Commander of the Angel Squadron broadcasting from Wing Angel," reported Heero in a calm but firm voice as if he was scolding some child for stealing some cookies before dinner. "Calling all the Preventer forces currently surrounding my location, I am sending you a flight path that I will take. If any military force follow me or takes any actions toward me I will engage and destroy them."
"Admiral? Orb Union? Angel Squadron? Wing Angel?" asked Relena confused at the strange words.
"It seems that Heero is in another military," reported Noin who had already suspected as much.
"Why would he?" asked Relena as she struggled to figure out why her love would join another military yet alone turn against her.
"This night, we conducted a recon mission inside your military to ascertain different issues and while this mission was supposed to be a no contact mission I was discovered and here we stand now." Reported Heero before he closed his eyes for a moment "While I would like to express symphony for the deaths I have caused it was for the better of us all that I had to do them."
"Heero." came a new voice as the image split, as Duo appeared on the channel unaware that millions of people were watching the two old friends and rivals talk.
"Duo." responded Heero in a calm voice.
"Heero what are you doing?" inquired Duo
"Duo, it has been 8 and a half years since the last time the two of us fought side by side. Many things have changed, I am not the same man you knew." reported Heero in a calm voice but it began to break a bit as he went on "I am a veteran of both Bloody Valentine Wars. I have fought at the battle of Josh-A, in the battle at Genesis, the massacre of Berlin, both invasions of Orb and fall of Messiah. I have seen the Break the World incident and the Tears of the Sky. All this caused by naturals and coordinators hating each other."
Duo was amazed at the amount of emotion on Heero's face he had always been in so much control and that was before he used the Zero system.
"Heero, we can stop any more deaths. Join with us to defend the peace and end the coordinator threat by killing them all." said Wufei as he joined the conversation. Suddenly Heero's personality changed from sadness to one of pure rage, the look of pure anger in eyes.
"Shit." whispered Duo as he looked into Heero's eyes "He wants to kill us now. Why?"
"This conversation is over, but know this I will destroy any threat to me and the coordinators on Malta are under the protection of the combined forces of the Orb Military, Zaft and the Earth Alliance, any attack on them will result in full scale war. And you don't want to go up against me I am not called one of the Legendary three for nothing." threatened Heero before the line went dead as Wing Angel began to take off heading down the flight path it had sent earlier. Deathscythe took to the air and blocked its path and for a moment both machines just stood there in midair just looking at each other.
"Heero." said Duo sadness clear, as day on his voice as came across Heero's ear inside Wing Angel and out across the millions watching the whole event on TV "We don't have to do this, come back to base with us. Come home."
"Of course we do." stated Heero in a cold voice.
"Too bad!" yelled Wufei as he flew toward Wing Angel, however Heero just dodged to his left and out of the way.
"Shit." cursed Duo as Heero's energy sword reactivated, he knew what he had to do but he also knew it would cost lives. "All forces attack, restrain Heero at all costs."
"Yes, sir." reported back the pilots as the squadrons of Aries which had been staying outside of missile range powered toward the fight as fast as their engines would take them.
All over the world people where glued to their televisions watching the battle in Southern France, they watched as three gundams did battle. Deathscythe charged forward with his beam scythe raised knocking over trees as he went. He brought the scythe down only to have Heero block it with his own beam saber, when the two green beam weapons struck each other sparks of energy flew off.
"Heero stop this." pleaded Duo again as he pushed his suit to the max pressing Heero's beam saber closer to Heero. The multiple upgrades to the Deathscythe meant that it had the same strength as Wing Zero. Something told him this was not right, Heero was being forced back too easily however all thoughts as twin chain guns opened up on Wing Angel's shoulder. Wing Zero had similar guns and Duo was prepared to resound with his own guns when the chain guns began spinning however, instead of bullets beam shots began shooting. Deathscythe jumped back trying to avoid the attack but it was too close as the beams struck the gundamium armor burning the surface and causing alarms to fill the air inside Duo's cockpit.
"What the hell?" cursed Duo as Heero took to the air in a burst of pure speed, he flew higher and higher until he towered over even the flying Aries mobile suits.
"Looks like Heero have done some upgrades." reported Wufei as he prepared to enter the battle however before he did eight white feathers shot off and began dancing around Wing Angel as if they were held up by the wind instead stabilizing engines.
"What the hell?" repeated Duo as suddenly all the feathers stopped around Heero with their pointed ends toward the oncoming squadrons of Areas mobile suits at the same moment Heero's buster rifle began to glow.
Inside Wing Angel, the Angel computer system had selected the targets, which became highlighted on the central glob in front of Heero. The Arias where coming on fast, they were still in their V shaped formations of five suits each. They had not broken apart into attack wings yet believing they were outside of the range of any missile or beam weapon but they were about to get an education. Heero pulled the trigger and instantly both buster rifles and the eight feathers fired beams of green energy toward their targets.
"You have got to be kidding me!" cursed Wufei as he and Duo watched as the first two flights of Areas mobile suits disappeared in explosions. The other flights broke formation as the feathers kept up their fire, the rookies pilots had never had to go up against anything apart from some drones and the drones hadn't shot back.
"Whatever those things are we need to bring those things down." cursed Duo as alarms went off, he looked up just in time to see Wing Angel dropping down on him with an energy sword in hand Deathscythe flew backwards its engines kicking up dirt and knocking down trees as it came to a stop beside Wufei.
"Those are Mobile Strike Pods with independent flight pods but we tend to call them feathers," reported Heero as he stood before his friends his energy sword burning the top of trees, his buster rifle was put away in its holster on his back. "They will keep those students of yours busy, so it is just the three of us."
Heero charged at speeds that should not have been possible, Duo barely had time block Heero's attack as Deathscythe was pushed back. Heero's assault did not last long as Wing Angel jumped back to avoid Wufei's attack.
"Heero there are two of us and only one of you, surrender." ordered Wufei as he began to circle Wing Angel trying to split Heero's focus. Before Heero could, respond both of them came charging at him from two different directions.
"Wufei's got him." Thought Duo as Heero raised his beam saber to block his attack leaving nothing to prevent Wufei from cutting off the undefended left arm. However, it was not meant to be as a second beam saber shot out from a hidden compartment in Wing Angel's arm. With a single movement, the second sword came up to block Wufei's beam trident.
"A second sword." cursed Wufei as he pulled the trigger on his joystick as the head mounted machine guns opened up on Wing Angel however, the bullets only scratched the paint of the Gundamium Phase-Shift armor. Heero's engines came back to life as he rocked backwards away from his two enemies his twin beam sabers in his hands.
"Nice attempt." Reported Heero calmly as he checked the progress on his Feathers, they had destroyed half of the areas mobile suits currently in the area but their internal power sources where dropping meaning they would soon have to return to him, however the plan he had quickly formed was working perfectly as his radar detected multiple inbound mobile suit transport aircrafts.
While most people in the world where watching the fight between the Preventer military force was in overdrive. High above the Earth in the space headquarters of the Preventer MO2 alarms where blaring as those men and women who were off duty moved to their combat positons, mobile suits where getting ready to launch. They were getting ready in case of an attack but since MO2 was currently over western North America, they were a world away from the fight in Southern France.
"Moving Leo forces to grid 3." reported an operator as he looked down at his computer screen.
"I want the scorpions loaded up with long range beam weapons so that we can bring that gundam down. The Leo teams will move in to pin him down once he is on the ground." yelled an older man with a balding head as he stood on a raised platform looking down at the over fifty computer stations manned 24 hours a day every day of the year. Right now, all eyes were on the battle in France.
"Yes, general." confirmed another operator "We have ten transports fully loaded with Leos and Scorpions heading into the combat zone, they will engage in three minutes."
"Where are the other gundams?" inquired the general
"Sandrock is in North America, Heavy Arms is in North Africa and the Tallgeese is currently at colony L-4." reported a woman as she walked up toward the general her high heels clicking on the metal floor. "The nearest one is over an hour away, too far away to make a difference in this fight."
"Lady Une." greeted the general to the civilian head of the Preventer core and the former right hand woman of the Legendary Treize Khushrenada.
"Are we recording this?" inquired Lady Une
"Yes, we are getting power readings and strength estimates for the mobile suit now." confirmed another operator. Lady Une turned her gaze toward the screen as Heero's new suit as it dodged Wufei's dragon flame attack.
"Heero isn't trying to win against Duo and Wufei, order all our forces back to base at once." Ordered Lady Une in a calm but firm voice as the General blinked at her.
"What?"
"You heard me, Heero isn't trying to win he is stalling for time." reported Lady Une "He is passing up chances to take down both of our gundams."
"But why?" asked the General
"He is pulling our gaze from something." Reported Une as her mind went into overdrive as she tried to think of a reason why Heero would appear there "Wait isn't Heero Yuy Military base one of the bases where we store the entire Preventer computer mainframe?"
"I understand your worry Lady Une but the computer mainframe can only be accessed when two different server banks allowing it," reported the general with a slight smile, the computer access was one of the safeguards of the cyber diversion of the Preventer core. It was a network of five giant databases spread out across Earth and Space and the only way to get access was if two of those five computer cores opened up. Meaning someone would have to break into not one but two of the most heavily guarded bases in the world. "And aside from this we have no breaks in our defenses."
"Really nothing?" inquired Lady Une
"No." snapped back the general
"Sir, what about the fire alarms in Dayton?" rebutted an aid as the general looked at her.
"Give me a check on the mainframe is it locked or unlocked?" snapped Lady Une as no less than five technicians began typing on their computer.
"It's open and someone is downloading our files!" yelled one of them.
"Shut them out!" ordered Une as the mainframe was shutdown in a few keystrokes as the kill contention order went out from their station. Lady Une's eyes never left the General's face.
"How bad?" inquired Une
"87%." Reported an aid
"See they only got 13%." Defended the general
"Copied, they got 87% of all our files. Everything from battle plans and new mobile suit RND to food shipment orders, everything was in there" Finished the aid as suddenly a logo appeared on all the screens, it showed an Angel armed with a sword standing in front of the world. Under it was the words "Thanks for all the information."
Down on Earth a small box opened up on the right side of Heero's screen informing him of the computer cut off and how much the download had gotten.
"87%. Not bad." read Heero as Wing Angel flew backwards coming to a stop as its wings spread out behind him, before him Duo and Wufei where forming up for another attack. With a single press of one of his multiple side buttons the feathers. Which had been flying around wrenching havoc on the Aries mobile suit force disengaged and flew back to Wing Angel. With one smooth move all of them docked back within their normal position making the legendary mobile suit whole again.
"It's time to put an end to this," said Heero to himself as he prepared to end the fight here.
"Heero!" cried a female voice over the radio as the image of Relena appeared on Heero's screen however he never opened a channel back. "Heero, it's me Relena the love of your life please end this. Come back to me."
Heero closed his eyes for a moment before opening a channel audio only.
"No." responded Heero as Relena's heart stopped as the words sank in.
Wufei as he sent his twin dragon arms flying forward toward Wing Angel flames hot enough to melt metal shooting out infront of them, to everyone's watching amazement Heero didn't dodge them like he before, instead he flew straight into the fire before coming out seconds later in front of Wufei. Wing Angels armor was smoking but he had no marks on him and in his two hands where the beam sabers. There was nothing anyone could do, as Heero raised his two swords over his gundam's head and brought them down on Wufei's shoulders cutting them off. The Gundamium armor was no match for the beam sabers as Heero cut off both of the Gundams arms with a single smooth move before cross the swords over each other as he cut the legs off. Wufei dropped to the ground as his gundam lost both his arms and legs in a single move however it did not exploded meaning the pilot would be alive.
"My God, he just took down a gundam in a single move." Yelled the news reporter as one of the legendary gundams lied smoking in the forests of Southern France.
Reacting as fast as he could Duo pressed a button on his joystick as the bat like wings folded over his chest and his beam scythe turned off. For a moment, Heero was confused and then a blinding flash of light came from the wings which overloaded the visual system of Wing Angel blinding Heero. Deathscythe bolted forward while Wing Angel was blinded his now reactivated beam scythe with a single sweep he could take off Wing Angel's head cutting off most of the sensory and communication systems without risking Heero. Wing Angel raised its arm but too high, the scythe would cut through his arm as well as his head. However as it came within yards of hitting the arm a glowing field of energy appeared around the arm.
"What?" cursed Duo as the beam broke apart against Heero's energy shield. His mind raised to find an answer and it didn't take him long. "Built in energy shields like the Virgos, that's how he made it through Wufie's flames."
"Nice play Duo." reported Heero as he recovered from the blinding flash of light, then with one quick stab Heero's beam saber went through Deathscythe's head causing all the screens inside Duo's mobile suit to go black. The next stab hit Deathscythe power core, which hadn't been moved since in all the upgrades with that cut Deathscythe gundam was nothing more than a bunch of metal.
"Sorry about that you two." reported Heero as took flight in the distance the transports full of ground mobile suits were about to reach their drop off point and what remained of the Areas force was reforming.
With a single burst of speed far faster than anything, the Preventers had ever seen Wing Angel shot forward a beam saber in one hand and a buster rifle in the other.
"All forces retreat!" yelled a scared rookie areas pilot who had found himself the highest-ranking operator still alive. He did not have to say it again as the Areas broke and ran but they did not get far and the cargo aircraft loaded to the max with mobile suits did not even have a chance to turn before Heero was on them. It was pure slaughter as the scared rookie untested pilots went up against one of the best pilots in the world. When it was all over, Wing Angel stood hovering over the battlefield as the beam saber burned out in his hand.
"Heero." pleaded Relena to herself as she and a room full of officers watched the scene on TV. Then once again Wing Angel spread its Wings and with a burst of speed which would rival any missile he arced up into the sky and disappeared from sight leaving only broken mobile suits, dead bodies and a lot of questions behind him.
Half an hour later while rescue choppers where pulling pilots from their downed mobile suits and mobile suit recovery teams where hard at work. Wing Angel was flying over the Baltic Sea below radar level, once Heero reached Sweden he would disappear into the countless valleys before swopping back down toward his meeting with his wife on Northern Ireland. He knew that the Preventer radars could not track him with his jamming systems and his speed but better safe than sorry. Heero's mind was racing as a small screen appeared on his read out.
"Well that was an interesting fight," offered up Luna as she and her Impulse gundam headed to the same spot.
"Yes, not what I wanted." confirmed Heero as he took a breath "We will have to change our plans."
"You want to invite Relena to dinner?" offered up Luna as Heero shock his head.
"No, not yet at least." confirmed Heero "But we need to send a message back home we need them to try to open a more formal diplomatic front."
"Maybe have Lacus or Cagalli give a record speech and we broadcast it here," offered up Luna as Heero placed his hand under his chin.
"Yes, that would work but we will need an envoy to go to the Preventers and to Yzak." Stated Heero
"The two of us then." confirmed Luna
"No, I want to keep you in back in case we need you for backup." Stated Heero as he ran through his options, Yzak would only really trust a coordinator so any natural was out. Shinn was possible but too much of a hothead, Kira and Athrun would do but better to keep them back for a surprise if battle happened and Yzak would not trust anyone piloting the Freedom or Athrun in an Orb uniform. He only had one option "Dearka."
"Dearka, but his suit can't get back up into space without one of our ships." Offered up Luna
"I know but Yzak and Dearka are best friends, he will trust him." Explained Heero "It isn't without risk but I am not requesting him alone, I want the five teams from Phantom core."
Luna swallowed, the Phantom core was pretty much a copy of the Angel core for the special forces of the Zaft, Orb and Earth Alliance. While some of them where trained as mobile suit pilots most where not pilots. The Phantoms where normally sent out to retake pirate controlled ships or save hostages but they were also trained a pure warriors. In one of the most famous missions, four phantom members had killed 75 pirates, which had taken over the remains of a former moon mining operation for their own, when phantom core was done with them not a single one of the pirates were left alive. The Phantoms where known for two things never failing a mission and never leaving any enemy alive after a battle.
Well I hope you liked this chapter and the fight between Duo, Wufei and Heero. I know some may be upset about how Wing Angel was able to take down two gundams however, I believe that since Duo and Wufei have never been up against some of the technology in Wing Angel and would not be able to stand against it as well. Now until next time please keep reading, thanks Wilkins75