Chapter 20 They are all Yours
The image from space sent chills down the spin of anyone who saw it, the entire planet Earth which glowed in the darkness from countless numbers of artificial lights was now almost totally black. The lights where gone and the people in the colonies who saw this on their news broadcast couldn't help but think that the world must have looked slimier before the discovery of electrical light. Down on the ground in one of the few wilderness areas outside of Seoul it was nearly pitch black, the bright lights of Seoul was now turned off, the only light came from the full moon which shinned down on the city like it hadn't done in decades. The only unnatural light source came from the fires caused by the crashing helicopters, unlike the airliners which had been required to make their aircraft EMP shielded due to an accident years ago the choppers where not shielded. This meant the moment the EMP hit they lost all power and began to fall out the sky like rocks, only these rocks had people in them. Some of them where luck enough to have experienced former military pilots and they made crash landings allowing the passengers to live but most did not.
"We are a go." came the voice over the radio to a small group of armed men located in a small clearing "I say again we go."
"Alright boys spin it up and let's go have some fun." Said the commander as he raised his head up and spun his pointer finger around. It was a sign to the two men sitting in the stolen Preventer helicopter, within moments the blades started turning as the chopper took off from the ground into the now empty air. The Phantoms did not even bother to close the twin sliding doors on either side as the chopper moved over the crowded streets, there was countless numbers of car crashes, most people where still confused with some trying to get cell phones to work however a small handful which would only grow had entered panic mode.
"Sixty seconds!" yelled the squad commander as the chopper moved between the buildings toward the target.
"What the hell is going on?" yelled Stella as she looked at her lap top, she and the rest of the research team had been in the middle of a high level presentation of what they knew about the Phantoms when suddenly everything electrical had died, even the normal glow from the emergency exit signs was gone.
"This is Rogers, Report now…" said the head of the Protective detail into his radio but he got nothing back. Slowly Stella stood up and moved toward the large glass window which looked out over the city only to see that the entire city had gone black.
"Chairwoman, we should get you somewhere safe," said the Protective detail leader even though he had no word what was going on outside the room.
"Alright." confirmed Stella as they moved out into the hallway, the interior was strangely alight thanks to the large sky light which was flooding the lobby with moonlight. Suddenly a dark shadow crossed over the moonlight causing the whole building to descend into darkness.
"What the?" asked the Protective detail as pulled his pistol and along with Stella leaned out and strained their necks to look up. What they saw caused their blood to turn cold as the outline of a chopper appeared in the moonlight. There was no time to say or do anything as six figures dropped out of the chopper and in a shower of glass busted through the skylight as they fast roped down. There was hardly any time to cover her face from the flying glass when a bullet ripped through the head of the protective agent beside her.
The phantoms dropped down fast firing at any guards who showed themselves, two of them landing on the sky bridge in the center of the building while the other four descended all the way down to the lobby.
"We need to get out of here!" yelled Stella as she turned to run only to have the door leading from the roof burst open as four more armed men stormed in.
"Get on the Fucking Ground!" yelled the lead man as Stella and the rest of the research teams got onto the ground.
Down below in the sub-basement the sound of falling glass could not be heard but the lights going out. Even though the lights had gone off it was not going to stop the integration.
"You're a traitor, blood tells you're a natural and yet you fight for the unholy coordinators." stated his integrator as the light from a small candles filled the room with light. The candles had been burning when the power went out and the phantom's hand was a testament to that fact.
"I stand for my nation and liberty what do you stand for." defended the Phantom as the integrator moved toward a small car battier attached to power strips. He tried to turn it on only to find it was not working also. Giving up on that he moved toward bathtub, which had been set up in the room for his use.
"Damn it the ice melted," cursed the integrator as he moved toward the door to go get some fresh ice to shove the prisoner's head in. When he opened the door he came face to face with a barrel of a gun pointed right at his head.
"Au Revoir" said the French female Phantom on the other end of that gun as he said goodbye to a man she had never known. The bullet ripped through his head and ended his life in an instant, before he even hit the grounds the Phantom rescue team was in the room. Their flashlights filled the room with light showing the walls covered with blood splatter and other tools to make then people talk.
"Come on let's get you out of here." ordered the female Phantom as two of the other members picked up their wounded comrade and began carrying him out with the others providing protection.
Above them near the center of the building the two phantoms which had landed on the skywalk stormed into the main research center and within minutes they had found the computer servers which held the files containing everything the research teams had learned about the phantom's equipment. A few well placed charges and the multimillion-dollar computers where nothing but scrap metal.
"Team One and Two are on their way back up." reported one of the Phantoms holding the research team at gunpoint. "They have recovered or destroyed everything."
"Only one thing left to do." said one of them as he turned his gun on Stella who like the rest of the team was lined up against the wall.
"Do you worst you inhuman monster," cursed Stella as she thought about how her work would go unfinished.
"Stay that weapon!" yelled the leader of the group in anger as he grabbed the weapon out of the others hand.
"Or orders are to remove all the research teams." defended the Phantom which was going to kill her.
"I know that but how are you going to explain to Admiral Yuy that you executed his sister?" asked the Second Phantom as Stella's eyes widened.
"Sister?" asked Stella as she remembered the look on Heero Yuy and Lacus Yamato's face when they saw her in the news conference. "I am Heero Yuy's Sister?"
"Twin sister, well the one native to this universe at least." confirmed the Phantom with a laugh "In fact the one we know is a member of Zaft and married to a Coordinator. Kind of funny considering your group considers us unholy sins against God."
A world away from Seoul Heero Yuy along with Lacus, Luna, Kira, Athrun and the high-ranking members of the Neo-Zaft forces stood by the radio system listing to the reports coming in. Unlike most of the world Malta had shut down all their systems minutes before the EMP nuke blast shaving the computers. One quick reboot later all their systems where back online.
"Seoul reporting in, mission successful they are pulling back now," said the radio operator
"Good, the next domino should fall in the next half and hour." said Athrun as he checked his watch knowing that the Phantoms have rescued their own and recover or destroyed the data. The other Phantoms would be striking at different points around the world but those attacks where independent and the local team leaders would carry them out the way they saw fit.
Off the coast of Africa, convoys of five Preventer ships were under steam heading toward the Straights of Gibraltar. All these ships belonged to the Preventer navy but none of them where truly armed, these where supply ships full of weapons and other supplies, which would be used to support a force in the field.
"Anything on the radio from the mainland?" inquired the Captain of the lead ship to his first officer
"No all we are getting is static, every so often we get a garbled message about massive blackouts but no word yet." Reported the First Officer as suddenly the last ship in the convey which happened to be the fuel carrier went up in a giant ball of fire.
"What the…." asked the Captain as he saw four beams of green light strike another ship causing it explode as well. Quickly the Captain picked up a pair of spotter glasses and followed the beams to their source. Just poking out of the water was the mast of some unknown ship and poking out of the water as well where two twine barrel cannons.
"Hard to port give us some distance!" yelled the First Officer as the third ship went up in a fireball.
"We can't outrun that!" confirmed the Captain as he turned toward a younger officer. "Pull down the colors and put up a white one."
"Your giving up?" demanded the Second Officer
"I am saving your life." Snapped back the Captain
Meanwhile another captain was sitting on her bridge watching as four ships burned in the sea. She was a veteran of two wars and had never wished to see another war but here she was onboard her ship with her husband waiting on standby alert in his Gundam.
"Captain Ramius." Said a young Orb officer to Captain Murrue Ramius Flaga, she kept her last name of Ramius since it was the name she was known as in the military. "Madam the last ship is raising a white flag and their engines have stopped."
"Hold fire." Ordered Captain Ramius as the main beam cannons of the Archangel held their fire.
"Captain we can't take them prisoner." Stated her XO
"I know, send a flash message to them." Ordered Captain Ramius "They have ten minutes to abounded their ship and then we will destroy it."
Onboard the Preventer ship the captain held his breath as he looked down the barrel of those beam cannons. His prayers were answered when he saw flashes of light coming from near what was likely the bridge of the ship. The flashes of light came in starts and stops until a message became clear.
"All hands we have ten minutes to abound ship or this will be our tomb," ordered the Captain as the alarm was sounded and the crew rushed toward the life boat. This was seen by the crew of the Archangel and the moment the ten minutes where up the beam cannons opened up again and that ship and its cargo went up in fire before making its way to the bottom of the ocean.
"Send a message to Malta, the Orb military has done its work for today." Explained Captain Ramius as the Archangel sank below the waves and kept on its path toward Malta.
The Orb Military and the Phantom core were not the only military force in action on Earth, deep in the heart of the Sahara Desert sat one of the largest Preventer bases in the world. The base was home to multiple cargo air wings all designed to backbone support for any Preventer operations across Europe and Africa. The bases heavy lift aircraft where constantly busy since the first black outs in Europe and North Africa by first deploying the fast reaction teams and then supplying those soldiers once they were deployed.
"Any word from high command?" asked the General in charge of the base
"No sir command is still trying to figure out what is going on." Reported another officer there was no time for a response as a barrage of shells began landing in the command center, followed seconds later by missile strikes on radio center. Second later alarms began blaring across the base as the Preventers moved to their assigned defenses, within moments multiple Scorpion and Leo class mobile suits began moving around scanning the surrounding area for any sign of a threat.
"Above us!" yelled a pilot over the radio as he aimed his twin chain guns up just in time to take a beam shot through his head as a white, blue and red gundam descended down into a group of mobile suits. Before any of the suits could do, anything a beam saber came out and with a quick spinning move cut the four mobile suits to pieces.
"I am moving to the west to destroy the aircrafts," reported Shinn as he moved his Destiny gundam toward the runway where the large cargo aircraft sat on the runway in perfect rows. The base commander had never believed it possible for a base located in the middle of no were hundreds of miles away from the nearest city to come under attack. So he had ordered his aircraft to sit in perfect rows and columns to make them easier to guard. That mistake only made them easier targets as the Destiny Gundam began its work of destroying one of the six major cargo air wings in the Preventer military.
"We have to stop him!" yelled a Preventer Captain as moved in his Leo into a firing position on the strange mobile suit however before he could fire, his Leo's legs where cut out from under him.
"Captain!" yelled a younger officer as he turned his Leo to face the new enemy; this suit was unlike any he had ever seen. It looked like a white wolf with red highlights a beam of energy was coming off the side of mobile suit, the suit had used it to cut the legs off from under the captain.
"DIE!" yelled the Officer as he opened up with his gun, however the wolf took off a lot faster then any suit should be able to in the shifting sands of the desert. A luckily rocket hit the ground right in front the suit sending it flying into the air along with tons of sand. Then before the eyes of the Leo fire team the wolf mobile suit transformed into a regular mobile suit.
"FIRE!" yelled Preventers as they opened up however it became clear it was a one sided fight and within moments all the Leo's where destroyed.
"I got your back." reported the only Red uniform natural pilot in Zaft and the sister of Heero Yuy, Stella Asuka to her husband. "I'll take care of the mobile suits you take care of the aircraft."
"Thanks, dear." confirmed Shinn as they moved off to ward their goals. Less than a mile away sitting in the sand was their ship, the Minerva. It was over within twenty minutes and the base was left burning.
"Captain they are on their way back." reported the XO to Captain Hawke as she sat on her bridge.
"Good, send a message to my brother-in-law and sister," ordered Captain Hawke as the Minerva lifted off the ground and began moving North toward Malta.
Back on Malta Heero and the rest of the high command were monitoring the whole situation using the Preventors own communication system. To say there was panic out there was an understatement; satellite images showed fires burning in multiple cities and riots in even more. However the main attack was still to come.
"So far everything is going to plan." said Luna
"It is the EA turn to attack to launch their attack." added Athrun as the five of them stood around a large table.
"I am not sure we should send them out." Advised Kira as he looked down at the map of the world, across the map where multiple red dots which marked the target. "And it will get even worst if they realize who we are going after and worst the system is untested and if one would miss innocent people will die."
"The Strike was untested until you climbed into it." countered Heero "It's the only option we have beside destroying everything."
"We are talking about targeting killing of their leaders," said Kira "Maybe we should just attack all the other targets and leave the others."
"I understand your concern this is putting Lacus, Cagalli and so many others at risk." noted Heero is a strangely calm voice, his eyes never left the table and the list of names on the piece of paper in front of him. "However I would add I know some of the people on this list and if we sign this order I will be killing them as sure as if I was doing it with my own hand and how are they any different then a pilot of a mobile suit or a solider holding a rifle. They knew the dangers when they took the position of high office."
"Heero's right." confirmed Lacus as she placed her hand on her husband's shoulder.
"Then we are agreed?" inquired Luna as everyone nodded their heads, Heero was the last to agree. Luna sent the order to save her husband from giving it to himself. "Send the order, make sure we get their president and top cabinet members in the first strike."
"Yes, Vice Admiral." confirmed a radio operator as Heero's eyes lingered on the names of the list.
"Goodbye Relena, I hope you find peace wherever you end up." thought Heero knowing that the radio message was already on its way to the flight of fifteen newly devolved B-451 Razorback EA mobile Armors which sat in space waiting for the orders to strike. These mobile armors looked more like aircraft than anything else and each had eight of the newly designed Space to ground guided warheads each missile capable of destroying everything within a range of just under a city block each of the missiles had their targets.
Well I hope you liked this chapter and action in this chapter. Now until next time please keep reading, thanks Wilkins75.