Chapter 18 Reifications
It was just past one in the morning as the crackling sound of a fire filled the night air, the glow from the fire illuminated the white sand beach as Heero Yuy sat by the fire with a drink in his hand watching the twist and turns of the flames. In the distance he could see the lights from thousands of smaller fires, which came from the fleet, they had destroyed only hours ago, the firers where so numerous that it appeared as if the entire horizon was glowing. The sound of footsteps caused him to look away from the flames and toward his wife.
"Luna." said Heero softy as his wife moved to sit beside him in the sand.
"This kind of reminds me of the beaches of Orb." observed Luna as she tossed another log on the fire.
"Yes but we are not at home." countered Heero as he paused for a moment "I think I made a tactical error."
Luna blinked she wondered what could her husband mean, they had evacuated Lacus taking only a handful of causalities and they had one prisoner taken which they would get back. They had destroyed all their targeted warships including secondary targeted ships. Then they had launched the gundiam rods which had destroyed the boneyards, judging from the intercepts Preventer communication they had totally destroyed the bases and all the equipment there was out of play in any conflict. Finally, they had activated Nightfall plunging Europe, North Africa and the Middle East into darkness when the N-Jammers shut down the power plants. Sure there was a handful of places mostly the smaller islands which relied on either coal or small nuclear power but that was nothing to worry about. The next move would be all Phantom Squadron and judging from reports they where itching for the fight, the high command of the three nations which made up Phantom squad had given them free reign to do what they want.
"What are you talking about?" asked Luna "All the moves where executed perfectly."
"Too perfectly. When you kick someone as bad as we just did they are just as likely to rise up more angry. They could roll over and surrender but we may have just given then a battle cry." rebutted Heero as he lied down in the sand and looked up at the stars "Besides I could come up with a plan to end this war but it would only set the stage for another war later on. Even if we all leave the people here would just create jump capabilities in a couple of years and come after us on our own Earth. Then we will have to fight them on our own world and they will have no problems will just nuking us right away. Luna, I only have one move which could end the war all together and I dare not use it."
"And what is that?" asked Luna as she lied in the sand beside her husband resting her head on his chest.
"Zaft and the Earth Alliance have built an improved an N-Jammer which I could order deployed and since 85% of their power comes from nuclear it would crush their power." explained Heero "The new one even can shut down gundamium reactors so they can't use that, it would crush them."
"They can just dig them out whenever we leave." Countered Luna knowing that operations to remove the old Zaft N-Jammers where still going on back home.
"Not these ones, each N-Jammer has a dead man switch armed with a hidden nuclear warhead if the N-Jammer is deactivated the bomb goes off destroying everything within a 20 mile radius." Reported Heero as Luna's eyes widened.
"My God." Stated Luna "But it still will not mater, it may work once but they will disarm the bomb before the N-Jammer."
"Which is why they put in another dead man switch." Explained Heero "If one third of the N-Jammers go offline without the deactivation code all the bombs go off. The fall out would plunge the world into a nuclear winter which would last at least six generations."
"Oh God, if it isn't one thing it is another." cursed Luna
"I know but that is the only way to end the war I have all the other ways that could mean the end of the war is under their control." explained Heero "I hate when I can't affect the outcome to the betterment of all."
"Heero you're not God, you're a man sometimes you have to put some things on faith," explained Luna before rolling on top of him and planting a kiss on his lips. "Come on let's get some sleep."
While Heero and Luna where heading to bed the streets of Madrid like every other major city located on mainland Europe was in total darkness. Only a few buildings like Police Stations and Hospitals had emergency power supplies, the darkness had brought out the worst in some people as looting began taking place. With the police force overwhelmed they followed the standard protocol and call for backup from the Preventer airbase just outside the city. By two in the morning Martial law had been declared across the city and civilians ordered off the streets. The Preventers had moved in with armored vehicles and set up checkpoints across the city to control crowds and take stress off the local cops.
At one of these checkpoints, a young private was sitting on top of an armored personal carrier his assault rifle at his side and a smoke in his mouth.
"You know you're not supposed to smoke on duty," laughed one of his friends who stood under a now dark street light.
"If the Captain comes around he will rip you a new one," added another as she scanned the darkness with some night vision. Around them was some department stores and a gas station it would have been a prime target for looters but the sight of a squad of soldiers armed for war with a APC heavy machine gun scared anyone off.
"So what do you think caused this?" asked the smoker as he tossed his smoke away.
"Likely a hacking attack on the nuclear plant." stated the sergeant as he returned from taking a leak behind a nearby dumpster. "They should have the power back online in a few hours."
"If this is the worst those coordinators can do it is laughable." noted the Private only to hear multiple pops. He looked around just in time to see four of his squad mates go down with either shots to the head or chest.
"Take cover!" yelled someone as more pops went off and more of their numbers went down. The squad members rushed for cover inside the APC, even as bullets bounced off the armored sides.
"Sir, I see one of them!" yelled the APC driver, as he looked through his scope "He seems to be dressed in civilian clothing."
"Gang members." cursed the Sargent as he reached for his radio "Command this is Squad 7 we are taking fire from believed game members requesting more support. We have KIAs."
"Understood, we have a mobile response group three blocks away heading your way now." Reported the command
A few blocks away the mobile strike team turned down a long straight road, which led almost straight toward Squad 7. The mobile strike team was made out of a dozen APCs, Humvees and even three tanks only would have to make a single left turn to reach Squad 7. Among the large group of soldiers was two news reporters who were broadcasting to their studios outside of Europe, those reporters just like the soldiers around them had no idea what they were heading into.
The lead Humvee driver had only enough time for their eyes to widened as a shoulder mounted rocket came slamming into his windshield, the resulting explosion ripped the Humvee in half turning it into a twisted mass of metal and the soldiers inside to mincemeat. The two tanks moving behind the Humvee turned their guns toward the building only to take rocket fire from above and behind them.
"Ambush!" yelled a solider in one of the Humvees near the back as the two Humvees behind him exploded blocking the path.
"Enemy forces are trap." reported the Phantom Squad member who was running the ambush. The forces under his command was moving across the rooftops shooting down at the trapped preventers.
"Sir, we have what appears to be a news team setting up by the red brick building." Reported a sniper
"Do not engage the news crew, I say again do not harm the news crew." ordered the Commander as he looked down at the small computer pad built into the suit around the wrist. He could see his eighteen strong force kicking the 100 strong force of Preventers in the teeth.
"How long until they have air coverage?" asked the Commander
"45 seconds." Answered the second in command
"All force pull back to secondary positions in 30 seconds." Ordered the commander and true to their orders half a minute later the Phantoms stopped firing and pulled back just as an attack helicopter came overhead. However, when they left seven Humvees, four APCS and two tanks where left burning and the street was full of dead and wounded Preventers. The ambush in Paris was only one of many as in major cities across Europe and North Africa small groups of Phantoms waged a guerilla war against the Preventers.
The Phantoms launched sniper attack in London killing a Preventer representative during a live TV interview as the island was in a state of panic even though they had power. In Berlin, multiple gas stations went up in giant fireballs, which rocked people in their homes. In Jerusalem a running gunfight between the local preventers and police, Swat team against some Phantoms left ten Preventers dead and only a pool of blood to mark a wounded Phantom. Finally, in Alexandria two massive cargo ships exploded in the harbor.
The people around the world and space where watching the news broadcast coming out form the major cities in the black out area and none of the news was good. They saw the fires entire cities blocks on fire and multiple ambushes of their soldiers, most of them placed the blame for it on the Coordinators but a small percentage began to ask if all of this was worth it. Business began to react as stock markets around the world began to tumble and people rushed out to stock up on supplies.
The sun began to rise over the Middle East and Europe as people began to enter their first day without power. Every city was under Martial law so only the military and emergency vehicles where allowed on the streets. Those who lived in cities where the Phantoms hadn't done any raids woke up to find their power still out and began to wonder what was taking so long in getting the power back on. What they did not know was that the nuclear power plants where working fine but for some unknown reason there was no nuclear fusion going on and no power was being generated.
"Still no power being generated?" asked Relena with a yawn as she and the other leaders of the Preventers and the World Nation gathered around a table. It had been a long night and unlike most of the people they had not been sitting in the dark, instead they had a military grade portable power generator to supply them with electricity.
"None and the staff is confused about what is going on." Reported an aid "And to make matters worse the radios are having trouble working in the area."
"It has to be these N-Jammers." commented Zechs as the others looked at him "Heero told us they had the technology and they must have deployed it."
"Agreed but where could they be?" added Lady Une "They must have a limited range since radios work fine outside the power plants but we have no idea how small they are. For all we know they are the size of a cell phone and could be placed somewhere we would never look."
"So they could be so small we could never find them?" asked Nion
"Correct." Confirmed Lady Une "And we don't even know what it looks like to help our search."
"Options?" inquired Relena
"Besides giving in to their demands and letting them leave in peace not much." Advised Lady Une "We could order the total sweep of the plants but they are massive and we don't know what we are looking for or how many there are."
"Do it, in the short term have all our bases put the field power generator units out to power key buildings hospitals, police stations and the like." Ordered Relena "People will just have to deal with no power for a little bit until we find these Jammers and bring plants back online."
"And they could just deploy another one of these N-Jammers and we would be in the same spot all over again." Added Zechs as his younger sister glared at him.
"How soon can we move in and crush the Coordinators on Malta?" inquired Relena
"Moving out forces whiles cities are under attack will not play out good politically." Noted Lady Une even though in her eyes it was more important for the soldiers to provide backup for the police because it was only going to get worst, she knew the term political would get Relena's attention. When people lost the ability to shower, flush toilets and have hot meals then they tended to get violent, throw in an enemy special forces team trying to make it worst and it was a blue print for panic it will not even mater if the Phantoms are there or not in the end, the people will panic.
"And this is likely going to spread." added Zechs as Relena looked at her brother "Before all this Heero came to me and asked if I have ever played Go."
"Go?" inquired Relena
"An ancient Chinese's game dating back to almost 1000 BC or so." explained Zechs "I will not bother you with the rules but the goal of Go isn't to destroy your enemy like in Chess but to capture as much of the board with the least amount of stones."
"Are you saying Heero is seeing this war like this board game?" asked Relena
"He wouldn't be the first general to look at the battlefield like that a Go board legends say that Sun Tzu was a master Go player." Reported Nion
"And Heero is playing the game perfectly. He knows that we could over power him at Malta so instead of sitting back and preparing his defenses he lashes out and puts us on the defense." Added Zechs
"So we need to play this game and get a head of him." Stated Lady Une as she looked at the map of Europe "He already has Europe pretty much in panic and all our forces are stuck in place dealing with his special forces."
"Dropping in forces from space?" inquired Nion
"We may need them there to deal with any of Heero's reinforcements coming from their own world," advised Zechs as he turned to a world map "We have two fleets in the Indian Ocean in the middle of a war game, we can bring them through the canal and into position to launch an attack."
"At the same time we can send a fleet from England down, it would take more time but we should have more forces in the area then we had." Confirmed Lady Une before placing a hand under her chin "The two main problems is time and containment, this will spread."
"Agreed, time because the longer we have the population in the dark the more likely they are going to want peace," confirmed Zechs even though he believed that peace may be in everyone's best interest. "And containment because this is likely just the opening shots from Heero, if I was him I would carry out similar black out attacks wherever I could."
"Already ahead of that, all civilian international travel out of affected areas are being screened." confirmed Relena "No one can get out without us knowing."
The sun had risen over Malta hours ago and the Coordinator Rebels were out in force trying to fix their mobile suits, which would normally have scarped metal by now. Men and women where still rushing around to prepare the defenses for when the Preventers regrouped and launched their attack.
In the second best hanger on the Island Dearka did another check of his gundams weapons systems. Across the hanger from him sitting in its own spot was Wing Angel with the Strike Freedom to its left just like the Infinite Justice was to his right.
"I thought Heero would be out here by now?" noted Dearka as he struggled to remember when the last time he did not see Heero working on Wing Angel when he walked in to work on his Buster Destroyer.
"He likely would have but I am betting Luna turned off his alarm," laughed Kira
"Well he needs his sleep the same as any of us." confirmed Athrun
"Have you talked to Yzak yet?" asked Dearka as Athrun shock his head.
"He needs some time to process all the changes you told him about," stated Athrun as he looked at a large dent where one of Trowa's bullets smashed against his gundam's armor. "We have had years to adjust to the new balance of the world, he will not."
While Kira, Athrun and Dearka where talking Lunamaria Yuy lifted her head off his husband's chest, they had a rather simple room with only a bed and a dresser, which looked like it belonged in a college dorm room. Luna didn't care right now because she was looking at something she rarely saw, her husband sound asleep. Maybe it was all the military training when he was young but Heero usually slept in a semi alert state as if he could be attacked at any moment. More than once she had seen him reach for the pistol, he kept in the nightstand when there was a strange noise. She had only seen him like this a handful of times and she loved those moments.
Slowly Heero opened his eyes to see Luna looking down at him with a smile on her face.
"What time is it?" asked Heero before turning his gaze away from his wife to the clock and saw the time. "You turn off my alarm didn't you?"
"Yes, and you are not leaving." ordered Luna as she gently turned Heero's face back toward her, she kissed him gently on the lips as Heero ran on of his hands through her short red hair. She pulled back with a smile "Kira and Athrun are more than capable of handling anything that comes up for a while; you need to relax as well besides the next part of the plan doesn't really involve any of us."
"True." admitted Heero as he wrapped his arms around his wife "It's all in Phantom squad's hands at the moment."
"Which is why we both need to relax." explained Luna as the two of them kissed again.
Well I hope you liked this chapter. Phantom Squad has been let loose and they will cause a lot more damage before it is done. Until then I would like to thank everyone who reviewed and I hope you keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75