Chapter 16 Clash of Titans
The scene had taken an unexpected turn; all over the world TV broadcasts had been broken to show live pictures of the burning fleet in the middle of the harbor. The once blue waters had turned black with oil and clogged with debris. The TV cameras had turned away from the burning wrecks to the standoff between eight gundams.
"We still have no idea who the other two gundams which joined Heero's Wing Angel are but we can safely assume that they belong to this Angel Squadron," stated the newswoman as the camera zoomed in on the two suits standing on either side of Wing Angel. "Either way they are outnumbered nearly two to one.
"So Heero what is the plan?" inquired Kira as he sat in his red Zaft uniform inside the Strike Freedom
"The shuttle should be cleared taking off in 90 seconds and then we only have to hold them off until they have cleared the fighting," explained Heero
"I recommend the same attack plan we used against those Pirates two months ago." Offered up Athrun
"Sounds like a good move." Commented Kira
"Agreed." Confirmed Heero "Athrun you take Trowa and Wufei. Watch out Trowa has a lot of firepower and Wufei has dragon flames, which will melt your armor if not shielded. Kira you handle Duo and Quatre they are both close range fighter so keep them at a distance. Zechs is mine."
"Guys listen the two that joined Heero are the other two gundams in what they call the Legendary three." explained Quatre "They are the best of the best and have fought beside Heero longer then we have. The red one is called the Infinite Justice piloted by Athrun Zala Attha and the blue one is piloted by the husband of the Zaft Chairwoman Kira Yamato, other than that I don't know much more."
"Doesn't matter we will bring them down." stated Wufei as suddenly the Infinite Justice shot forward slamming into Wufei with his shield, Wufei stumbled backwards from the sudden blow as Trowa opened up on Wing Angel and the Strike freedom but they were no longer there. At the same instant, the Strike Freedom took off into a slight hover before opening up on Duo and Quatre with duel hand held beam guns. Heero meanwhile had bolted straight toward Zechs his beam saber ready.
Tallgeese Mark III and Wing Angel crossed swords as the beam saber of Heero clashed against the more powerful beam sword of the Tallgeese.
"He is faster than I thought!" cursed Zechs as Heero's saber pushed ever closer to his suit. "Duo, you take command I am going to handle Heero."
"Sure." answered Duo as he charged Kira with his beam scythe raised to strike to down the hovering gundam. Duo swung his scythe only stop his attack to prevent a strike to his own suit by Kira's sword that was coming down toward him. For a moment the two suits pushed against each other beam sword against scythe "I will make quick wor…"
Duo stopped mid-sentence as two beam cannons popped out from behind his enemy. There was no time to move or react as the beams hit Duo directly in both shoulders sending him reeling backwards, taking cover behind the remains of an half destroyed hanger.
"I got him," reported Trowa as he locked onto the hovering mobile suit. He fired some shoulder-mounted rockets and opened up on his chain gun however, before his attacks hit the defenseless suit the Infinite Justice flew in front of the attack raising his shield. Normally a shield would only protect the mobile suit holding it however, a glow shot out from all sides around the shield creating an energy barrier, which absorbed the blows. Seconds later the Strike Freedom flew up over the shield and fired six beam shots at Heavy Arms which had to take cover from the
"Damn it." cursed Trowa
While Trowa, Duo and Wufei did battle with the strike Freedom and the Infinite Justice a deadly dance was taking place in the sky over the base. Unlike the gundams the Tallgeese could fight in the air just as it well as it could on the ground, however Wing Angel was designed to fight in the air. The news camera focused on the deadly dance of the two legendary warriors as Heero and Zechs crises crossed across the sky firing.
Tracer rounds from Heero's shoulder mounted beam chain gun left burn marks on the white and blue shield of the Tallgeese Mark III. Zechs banked left bring his own beam cannon up as Heero raised his own buster rifle down toward the Tallgeese. They both fired at the same time as the two powerful beams strike each other causing a blinding flash of light when they canceled each other out. Zechs did not wait for the flash to clear instead he charged straightforward lowering his beam rifle and pulling his sword. Heero likewise let his buster rifle drop and pulled two swords of his own.
"So a sword fight." said Zechs to himself as suddenly alarms filled the cockpit, Zechs pulled up just in time to avoid a beam strike from below. "What the?"
He looked down to see the Buster rifle Heero had dropped hovering in midair with powerful rockets holding it up. Before he could do anything Wing Angel appeared in front of him with two swords raised. Zechs raised his own sword stopping the first sword dead in its tracks; Heero brought his second sword down on the top of the shield. The beam sword cut into the reinforced metal but it did not cut through it.
"Damn it."cursed Zechs to himself as Wing's Angels powerful engines pushed him straight down into the remains of a building.
"You aren't using the Zero system are you Zechs?" stated Heero's voice over his suits speakers.
"No." confirmed Zechs knowing that system was the one who made him see logic in destroying life on Earth to bring about peace.
"Then it will cost you your life." stated Heero as he drove Zechs down. He was inches away from crashing into the roof of the building when suddenly Heero pulled up. Heero flew up as Wufei came charging into the fight with his beam trident stabbing at Wing Angel. Heero either dodged or blocked the attack with his sword. Seeing an opening, Zech activated one of his favorite weapons a whip uncoiled itself from under the shield.
He pulled back and waited for his moment and he did not have to wait long with a single graceful move he sent the whip forward wrapping around Heero's arm stopping him from getting the sword in position to stop Wufei.
"I have you!" yelled Wufei as sent one of his dragon arms forward to an unprotected Wing Angel.
It was like a horrible show for Quatre as he stood in Sandrock watching the fighting around him. Zechs and Heero was having a battle in the sky while the Strike Freedom and the Infinite Justice did battle with Duo and Trowa. The fighting was taking place all around him and yet he had not lifted a finger to take part. He was torn, he was loyal to his friends but Heero was one of his friends and he seemed to only be fighting to protect himself. He focused on the fight between Heero and Zechs and then Wufei entered the fight. His eyes widened as Zechs restrained Heero's arm as Wufei's dragon arm came in. Quatre could see at once that Wufei was aiming for Wing Angel's cockpit; he was going for a deathblow.
"Wufei NO!" yelled Quatre as beams shot full over Quatre's head and slammed into Wufei's dragon arm breaking it off. He turned to see the Strike Freedom armed with six beams cannons all pointing toward Wufei. Within second, the Strike Freedom started firing again into a damaged Wufei.
The Preventer military high command in Europe was in total panic, they had ships sinking and burning in two of the five battle groups in the Mediterranean Sea. One of the three major bases in the Mediterranean was on fire and from all reports, seems to be a total lose leaving only the bases in Alexandria and Gibraltar and their fleets ready. The panic which was going on in Europe was only going to spread as two 400 ft. tall rockets launched from the Preventer missile ship New Orleans headed out into space.
"Misses are turning west heading toward North America!" yelled a Preventer operator inside the mountain command center of Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. The old cold war nuclear bunker had been updated countless times over the years but their mission remained the same to dectact any threat heading toward North America.
"Damn it, where are the self-destruct codes!" yelled the commanding officer as an aid rushed over and handed a piece of paper to him.
"Here sir." Stated the aid as the commanding officer typed in the code but nothing happened.
"No explosion sir, missiles are still inbound, passing over Spain." Reported another operator
"Could it be a failure in the self-destruct system?" offered the aid
"On two missiles at the same time, unlikely whoever launched them changed or removed the self-destruct." growled the commanding officer as he grinned his teeth so loud that it could be heard over the alarms. The defense satellites which would have been able to shot down the incoming threat where destroyed last night by the moon based beam weapon and now millions may die if the missiles are armed with nuclear missiles.
"Do we know what they are armed with?" inquired the Officer fearing the answer, missiles those size could carry dozens of independently targeted warheads which could strike different cities costing millions of lives.
"Rods sir." reported an aid as the Commanding officer did not know if he wanted to curse or thank God in heaven. The Gundamiun rods where a newly developed weapon which followed a simple idea of dropping something very heavy from very high up at a very high rate of speed equals a lot of damage. In every computer simulation, the rods did the same amount of damage as a 8.0 earth quake but they left no radiation behind to kill people for decades to come.
"Sir, they are separating," reported an operator as the two dots broke off into a dozen as each missile broke apart into six independently guided rod made out of pure Gundamiun. He had been part of the briefing about the plan for this weapon, they would have dropped them on Malta and destroy every building on the island aside from the ones around the mass driver which was designed to stand up against a strike like that. It would have made any operation only a clean-up but now the weapons they had made where coming to hit them.
"Do we have a target vector yet?" inquired the Commanding officer
"Yes, but it doesn't make any sense." stated the radar tracker "The first group of six are all heading toward an unpopulated area of southern Arizona and the second are heading higher up into the atmosphere estimated target area is somewhere in southern Mongolia also unpopulated.
"They are launching attacks on Arizona and Mongolia? Why?" asked a junior officer. "There is nothing there but sand."
"The Boneyards." answered the Commanding officer as the men and women under his command looked at him. "In deserts of Southern Arizona and Mongolia are the two largest boneyards where we store decommission equipment. We are talking thousands of mobile suits, aircraft, tanks and vehicles all sitting waiting to be either scrapped or called back up. They are going to destroy whole armies' worth of weapons in two strikes."
"How long until impact?" inquired the commander
"The first strike will hit North America in ten minutes and another ten until Mongolia is hit." Reported an aid
"Send messages to all cities in both strike areas to have their civilians take cover." Stated the commander
"Sir what about moving the forces about to be destroyed?" inquired an aid as the commander looked toward the large screen which covered the wall. They had visual now of the twelve gundamian rods which were either still climbing or leveling off to begin their decent. If they still had their orbiting missile satellites they may have been able to intercept the strike but they had nothing.
"Tell them to take cover and get out the area there is nothing they can do." ordered the commander as he looked at the screen, which showed the coming strike.
With all the fighting take place around them the news cameras wasn't paying any mind to the shuttle rolling through the battlefield toward the far runway.
"No gunfire yet." reported the Zaft copilot as they turned onto the runway, almost instantly the Zaft diplomatic shuttle began to take small arm fire from Preventer forces.
"You were saying." Stated Luna wishing she was back inside her gundam but the Impulse was far away from her. She put her hand on the controls even as the shield proved by Wing Angel's feathers tossed back the small arms fire, as it was flies. Suddenly more gunfire rang out only this was friendly fire as the Phantom Squad members outside opened up on the Preventers.
"Is everyone buckled up back there!" yelled Luna
"What about them?" yelled Lacus back as she looked at the Phantom Squad members outside.
"They have their own exit plan we need to get you out of here," yelled a Zaft Guard before turning toward Luna. "Go!"
Luna did not bother to point out she outranked the guard only put her hand on the stick and gunned the engines causing the shuttle to shot down the runway. The runway was as smooth as the runways in Orb and the shuttle bounced as it moved down the runway all while the feathers provided shielding to it. The shuttle lifted off the ground and quickly climbed into the smoke filled sky as its landing gear raised up into the body.
"We are away," stated the copilot only to have tracer fire shot up toward them, causing Luna to duck the shuttle into the column of smoke to hide from the anti-air fire.
"You were saying?" snapped Luna as she thanked God that the shuttle had the same powerful engines and flight controls as the Zaft defense fighter that she had been trained on before going into mobile suits. She turned up the speed as the defense feathers kept pace with her as they headed out of the combat zone and heading toward the safety of Malta.
Less than a mile away Zech still had Heero's arm with the whip even as Wufei kept taking a pounding from the beam cannons of the Strike Freedom.
"And here I was thinking Wufei wouldn't use his dragon arm," stated Heero as Zech's eyes widened as he relieved that Heero had set it all up. The weakest structural point of Wufei's gundam was whenever his dragon arm was extend, a strong enough blow then could destroy the entire arm.
"My God." stated Zechs seconds before his suit rocked forward as Heero grabbed the whip with his hand. Electrical charges ran down the whip but Wing Angel's arm remained firm even as he put away his sword and the buster rifle landed in his free hand.
Zechs could not move as Heero raised his buster rifle up and aimed it straight at Tallgeese. The barrel began to glow as it began as it began to charge. Out of the smoke and fire of the burning Preventer fleet three glowing flares two blue one white began to descend over the base.
"It would be so easy," stated Heero to himself as he looked at the three flares, which told the Legendary Three that the shuttle was out of the combat zone. Quickly Kira and Athrun disengaged and headed out to sea after the shuttle.
"Heero, the shuttle is clear it is time to pull back." came Kira's voice over the radio as Heero lowered his rife and powered up his engines.
"The next move is yours Zechs end this war or we will," stated Heero coldly as he let go of the whip a split second before he powered into the sky heading toward Malta.
Far away, from the smoke and fire of the battlefield in the desert of Northern Arizona it was nearing three in the morning and the only lights in an area came from the massive Preventer military base known simply as the American Boneyard. This preventer base was the second largest on Earth however it was the least man and mostly staffed by engineers who maintained the thousands of mobile suits dating from the first generations of mobile suits to some of the newest ones who were there for upgrades. Beside the suits there was countless numbers of tanks, aircraft and even spacecraft all sitting in the desert waiting for either destruction or call up for military actions. Since mobile suits where designed to stay upright, most of the time the suits where in groups of four with their backs to each other. Others stood in massive workstations cut into concreate outbuildings.
A handful of military police moved around in armored vehicles making sure no one tried to get into the massive base however the biggest problem came from animals setting off the alarms. Thanks to a busted radio, the guards never got word of the incoming attack. A few actually looked up at what they first thought was some shooting stars however they soon learned the error of their ways as six fifty foot long gundamium rods fell to earth each one causing the same force as an 8.0 earthquake.
It was all over in seconds as each rode dove deep into the earth creating shockwaves, which ripped across the ground shaking the feet of the massive mobile suits. The suits never stood a chance those near the impact zones where destroyed when a massive creator on impact. Those away from impact began to tumble over like standing dominos. Even without their armaments, multiple tons of falling metal damaged the suits and most fell on top of each other or other military vehicles. Other took heavy damage from the violent shaking destroying parts. The shakes where so powerful that they were felt all the way on the west coast and as far, east as the Mississippi river.
Ten minutes later an almost matching attack happened in the deserts of Mongolia with the same effect, by the time it was over thousands of mobile suits and other weapons where nothing more than scrap metal.
While the Preventers where reeling form the attacks on their military a single shuttle headed toward Malta flanked on two sides by the Strike Freedom and the Infinite Justice with Wing Angel flying over watch above them all.
"Ten minutes for Malta." Reported Luna as she looked down at the sea full of burning sinking ships, even from this height they could make out lifeboats full of people.
"Confirm." reported Kira before switching to a private line. "Lacus are you?"
"I am fine Kira." reassured Lacus to her husband as she looked out the window at her husband's gundam.
Luna thought about contacting her own husband but decided that he was likely flying on autopilot with his eyes closed reliving the battle inside his mind like he always did after a fight. She was right and Heero sat with his arms crossed over his chest thinking reliving every move of his sword from the last battle in his mind. He was deep in thought until suddenly a beeping filled his cockpit; he opened his eyes and tapped the small touch screen by his hand.
"So they have landed safely." noted Heero
A few hundred miles off the coast of Africa, a man in a black uniform walked up a flight of stairs and onto a small landing. To his left on a gentle slope sat four people operating different computers systems and a large chair located in the center with two chairs above and below, that chair which was currently empty. The owner of that chair stood by a small table on the landing looking over the holographic map with her violet eyes.
"Captain Hawke we have landed safely and no sign that Preventers detected us." reported the XO to his captain, even though the Captain was far younger then him it was hard to refute that she was skilled in her job. On top of that, that she had the undying support of the crew who had mostly served under the former captain, also having a sister as a vice Admiral and a Brother-in-law as a member of the Legendary three didn't hurt.
"Thank you Arthur." stated Captain Meyrin Hawke as she readjusted her new white uniform.
"Captain we landed right in our target area." reported the helm officer who had guided the ship down from orbit to splash down out of sight of land off the coast of Western Sahara.
"I want condition 2 set around the clock, have Shinn or Stella ready to launch at any moment," ordered Meyrin as multiple lights around the bridge and ship turned yellow telling everyone that the ship was on standby for actions. The ship's radar began to scan for any sign of shipping or anything which would uncover them.
"Bring those new engines on line and let get out of here before we are seen." Ordered Captain Meyrin as she moved away from the table and moved to her command chair, she looked to her left just in time to see the top of the Archangel sink below the waves, they had come down together but had to go their separate ways now.
The Minerva was not designed to operate under water so they had to go their separate ways. Outside the newly upgraded Zaft warship Minerva headed toward the coast of Africa, the plan was to move inland after dark and get into the Sahara desert where they could move unseen. Once there they would head North and enter the water again near the Tunisia Libya boarder. The Archangel would move underwater around Africa before going through the Pillars of Hercules but both ships were heading to the same place, Malta.
Well I hope you liked this chapter, I think I rewrote this chapter at least three times trying to get it the way I want. Now I hope you liked the action scenes and next chapter will hope fully come a lot sooner. Thanks Wilkins75.