Chapter 21 Change of Management
The large touch screen tabletop map of the world was full of flashing red marks, so much so it looked more like a pinball machine then a combat information map. Standing over the map in the front line Preventer military headquarters deep underground what remained of the Sicily Preventer Navy yard was the overall commander of Preventer forces Zechs Marquise. The legendary Lightening Count was trying to get a handle on the current situation in the field however all the reports where confusing, reports of a special forces team assaulting a Sky Scraper in Seoul, military cargo ships disappearing one by one from radar and the one report which was coming in all over the world power is out.
"How many bases have reported in from South America?" inquired Zechs to his wife who was standing across the table from him.
"Less than half of them have reported in and we have major riots going on in Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Rio and five other major cities. The local base commanders have sent forces out to help the police but it isn't even nightfall there yet." reported Nion as she looked down at the map before tapping on it, the smart board caused a small window to appear which showed massive fires spreading through Rio "When that hits it will only get worse."
"Time frame for getting the power back?" inquired Zechs as he turned to the civilian head of the Preventers Lady Une who was to his right while his sister was to his left.
"Getting the plants back up will not take much, we keep parts on site to replace the items the EMP fired the problem is all the business and personal civilian computer networks which were destroyed in the blast." stated Lady Une "That isn't even counting the number of other electrical items which where fired. It will take months just to figure out how bad we got hit."
"How did they get our nuke codes?" inquired Relena "I know they got to it earlier but we fixed the breach."
"Clearly we didn't." stated Zechs as an aid rushed toward Relena.
"Secretary Peacecraft the President and the Cabinet is on the emergency channel." Reported the aid
"Patch it through to this table we will talk to them here." ordered Relena as the aid ran off. Moments later the image of all the Presidential Cabinet members plus the Preventer Supreme General in the Shanghai command center tower. The tower was one of the newest buildings on Earth having only been finished three weeks earlier. The 55 story tall building was located on Hengsha Island in the bay and was the headquarters of the Preventer military on Earth. It housed untold secrets within its walls and even more deep underground in the massive maze of underground bunkers. In fact the entire island of Hengsha was a massive military base full of mobile suits and soldiers. All around it where smaller buildings which held more offices and support buildings.
"What is the situation?" inquired the President in New York
"We are in a tough mess here sir." stated the General "Shanghai is burning and so are countless other cities. I have declared military rule in the cities and we are trying to regain control but we are outnumbered and the people are for the lack of a better term freaking the hell out."
"They are turning on each other so fast?" inquired a Cabinet member who was in Japan but before he could get an answer, the line went to static.
"Where did Jim go?" asked the President
"Maybe it is a bad communication feed." offered up the General in Shanghai as suddenly his screen went black.
"Ok something is really wrong." stated Lady Une
"Get me a satellite view of Shanghai." ordered Zechs it took only a few moments and while that was happening another screen went black.
"What the hell is going on?" inquired Relena as the satellite image of Hengsha island came up. Instantly everyone's eyes widened as the satellite showed a massive tower of smoke rising from the skyscraper, which held the heart of the Preventer Military. For a second the tower seamed sway as a streak came in from the east and hit the base of the tower. It was all that was needed as the tower began to fall.
"My God." said Relena again as the tower fell straight into the water, seconds later other missiles began to boar in from the east hitting the other buildings, theses missiles dived into the concreate before exploding, even if the buildings didn't come down the destruction of the foundation meant it was unsafe to enter.
"They are targeting our leaders," snapped Zechs before turning toward a nearby aid "Get our antimissile systems fire, shot anything that is flying overhead. I don't care if the computers classified it as a bird shot it down."
"Yes, sir." confirmed the aid
"We need to get our leaders somewhere safe." Ordered Zechs
"I am safe, I am deep underground in a top secret bunker in upper New York State." reassured President Barker.
"And this is the deepest bunker in Europe we are safe here." Stated Relena
Unknown to him this death was already in flight, high above his head under the wing of one of the EA new Razorback mobile Armor hung a missile called the Terminate by the EA military. The missile was designed to be dropped from space picking up speed as it went before slamming into its target with so much force it tended to destroy it before the explosion. The charges in the bomb also had the power to turn the very air in a bunker into a fireball.
"Target locked." Reported the pilot of the Razorback, the mobile armor was more like a traditional fighter-bomber that had ruled the sky the before mobile suits. It had forward swept wings and two massive engines located in the back and a bubble canopy for the two pilots. The idea of the Razorback was born in the first war but was not perfected until after the second war, the key feature was the engines that where capable of reaching space without the use of a mass driver. Those engines meant that the razorback could launch from any runway on Earth and reach space.
"Firing slammer 5." stated the pilot of the Razorback as the missile flew off the rail, it shot straight forward before arching down in a deadly dive toward its target. The missile as codenamed slammers since it would slam into its target, digging itself deep into the ground before exploding. The missle's first engine burned out as it began to descend into the atmospheres causing sonic booms as it headed down toward upper New York at hypersonic speeds. The missile's second engine kicked in as it reached Mach 12 before slamming straight into the small hill in the middle of a cow pastor. To anyone passing by it looked like nothing more than a farm; no one would think that deep underground was a Preventer doomsday bunker. The missile busting through five floors, in fact it landed right in front of the president. The President had just enough time to curse before the bomb went off ending his life.
"Targeting secondary target." reported the pilot as the computer system locked onto the next target on his list "Firing Slammer 6."
The sixth missile flew off the rail as the pilot banked his craft so that he could fire the remaining two missiles on the other targets. With that task done the aircraft turned and turned back toward the moon where it would be resupplied at the Angel Squadron controlled base. Thanks to all the radiation in the atmosphere caused by the nuclear explosions had blinded the Preventer radar systems meaning that no one saw the aircraft or the other fifteen other Razorback mobile armor which had fired a total of 120 missiles toward targets on the surface of the earth. One of the final missiles fired headed toward Sicily its target was three of the major leaders of the Preventers all standing together around a table.
The missile flew straight and true as it headed through the atmosphere toward a date with death. The sonic boom of the second engine kicking in happened high over southern France as the second engine kicked the speed up to Mach 12 as it is headed through a thunderstorm. The force of the rain and wind caused the missile to go off target but its onboard computer adjusted the tail fins of the missile, which brought it back onto the path. Nothing seemed able to stop the missile and its duty to bring death but then an act of God happened. Just as the missile finished its finial, adjusted a lightning bolt strike the body of the missile firing the computer systems, which guided the missile and timed the explosion making the missile dumb.
The AA system at the Preventer base didn't even detect the missile it was moving that fast, it slammed into the ground diving deep into the heart of the base underground before crashing through ceiling only two feet above Relena's head before coming to a stop inside the table right in front of her.
She was at a lost for words as she prayed to God believing her death was seconds away, however God had answered her long before. The lightning bolt meant that the bomb electronic trigger was fried so it was almost as dangerous as a dummy practice bomb. The first person to get to the bomb was Zechs who pulled out a knife and began to undo the hatch near the center of the bomb.
"What are you doing?" asked Relena
"The bomb can go off any moment we need to disarm it." supported Zechs as he opened the panel and gained access to the bomb. It did not take him long as he separated the detonator from the explosive charge. "Where safe."
"My God…that really just happened." breathed Lady Une
"Why did…did that happen?" asked Relena
"Heero just tried to kill you and everyone else in this room." explained Zechs as he turned to a radio operator "Find out who is still alive in the government and what all was hit."
That task would take hours and Heero Yuy on Malta who learned about the full extent of the attack before the remains of the Preventer Government did.
"So out of 120 missiles only one failed to explode and took out their targets," reported Heero to the people gathered in the room. "The Phantoms carried out multiple raids on other targets and rescued their captured member in Seoul."
"How much of their government is left?" inquired Yzak
"Of the thirty high ranking members of their civilian government President, Vice president and the rest all but three where killed in the attack." reported Athrun "Relena Peacecraft and Lady Une is the highest ranking member left alive."
"I thought she was would be among the first targeted." Snapped Yzak
"She was." confirmed Lunamaria "But we had that one missile which failed to explode guess who that was meant for?"
"Fuck." Cursed Yzak
"But isn't she too young to be President?" inquired Lacus "I thought their rules said she had to be 30 and she is only 25 correct?"
"Correct, so she can't take the office of the President that falls to Lady Une who was in the same bunker as Relena." stated Heero "Hopefully with her in office we can make a peace."
"We have them against the ropes why make peace!" snapped Yzak
"Are you a fool?" asked Heero as he looked at Yzak with cold eyes which caused a chill of fear to go down even his wife's spine. "Or do you want this world to burn? Without a peace deal that is the path that we will go down and sorry I am not going to kill billions of people so that you can stay here."
"Heero's right Yzak we have to get you and your people out of here, it is the only option." stated Athrun as his old comrade glared at him before storming out of the room. Athrun turned toward Heero with a look that said it all. "You have to forgive Yzak he can be a hard ass but I think we can get him to come along with our plan."
"If he doesn't then we will have to beat him across the head and force him," offered Luna
"That is an option." confirmed Heero "But we still need items that the Archangel has to make our plan work and they are still days away."
Less than a hundred miles away the same reports which Heero was looking at was coming across Zechs' desk however he was focusing on the military forces which had been destroyed while Lady Une was trying to figure out what parts of the government was left.
"The tank factory in Lima, Fort Collins mobile suit training center and Corpus Christi marine barracks have all reported in they have all taken heavy damaged," stated an aid as three more red dots was placed on the large map table. Each dot showed where an attack had taken place in some way or another "We also have reports of a special forces raid on the SAS headquarters in Hereford, Ranger school in Fort Bennings and Russia spetsnaz center in Moscow all report that multiple squads attacked and where repulsed but not without taking heavy causalities on our side."
"Damn those Phantoms are getting bold," stated a new voice as Duo Maxwell entered the bunker and moved toward Zechs. "You have to be crazy to take on the headquarters of our three best Special Forces units we have."
"Or it is a sign of how good they are." rebutted Zechs as the other Gundam pilots entered the room. "We are still trying to find out everything that was hit but needless to say it will be a lot."
"Zechs this has to stop, we have to sue for peace," stated Quatre
"We have lost so much we can't make it all worth nothing," snapped Wufei "I say we launch an attack."
"With what?" inquired Trowa "Let's say for a moment we send in the gundams we would have five gundams going up against four others and Heero alone took down two gundams including your own Wufei."
Wufei glared at Trowa with pure hate at the statement of fact.
"It doesn't matter what I say or think it is what the President thinks and who that is right now we don't know for sure." stated Zechs
"Who is the most likely bet?" inquired Quatre
"Lady Une, so far she is the highest ranking member we know is alive and fits all the requirements but we still haven't heard from the Speaker of the World House." explained Zechs "If she is alive then she will as leader of the lower house of government take over."
"Where was she at?" inquired Trowa
"She was airborne between Japan and Hawaii when the power went down, we have had no contact since." answered Zechs "Likely she is dead."
"So Lady Une is President?" inquired Wufei
"Likely." confirmed Zechs
Half way around the world the sun was rising over Seoul as Stella looked out the window at a city, which was entering its seventh hour without power. Over the course of those hours the city had fallen into a state of semi panic luckily within the seventh hour order seemed to be coming back. The fires were being put out and the police and military where out in force.
"From the radio scanners we believe only about three more hours until they get the power back on." Reported an aid as Stella barely listened. Her mind was elsewhere as she tried to understand what had happened, first death had dropped out of the sky and when the rest of the research team had been killed, she had been spared and all because of who she seemed to be. "The police here are lucky the citizen base do not have the same number of guns available as other places in the world. That makes it a lot easier to restore order here compared to other locations."
"I see." confirmed Stella not really paying attention, she knew the moment the power was back on she was going to compare her DNA to the recorded DNA of Heero Yuy to see if they were truly siblings. "Did we learn anything else going on in the world?"
"Nothing good." stated the aid
It was just after ten at night in Sicily when they finally got confirmation about the state of the civilian government and who was left alive. When that was confirmed, a judge was summoned along with a copy of the world constitution which would be set on top of a bible.
"Rise your right hand," ordered the Judge as Lady Une placed her hand on the bible/constitution and raised her hand. The five news crews which had been rushed down to record history already had their cameras rolling "Now repeat after me."
"I state your name." started the Judge
"I Lady Enuka Une, do solemnly swear that I will defend the constitution of the world nation and to the best of my ability protect the rights and liberty of all humanity across Earth and Space." Said Lady Une as the judge nodded his head.
"You didn't even need me." said the Judge as he extended his hand. "Congratulations Madam President, I just wish it was under different times."
"So do I." confirmed Lady Une as she turned toward Zechs "Get a radio message to Admiral Yuy of the Orb Special forces, we want to talk terms for ending this conflict, we will stop all offensive strikes against his forces if he does the same. We will meet at a time and place of his choosing."
"I will send the message," confirmed Zechs as he went toward the radio.
"Relena please come here," ordered the now President Lady Une
"Madam President." said Relena as she reported to her president.
"Listen I know you don't like the idea of making peace but we have a better chance of making it work if you stand with me on this." admitted Lady Une knowing that while she now held the office of the President the people would follow Relena. The only thing separating her from the office was the fact that she was only 25 and the law said anyone had to be at least 35 before they could become President. The only way to get around it was if everyone else in the line for the President was gone, and now that was only herself.
"Madam President, the man I have loved with all my heart since I was 15 years old just ordered a bomb strike on me," admitted Relena shaking a little bit.
"Madam President." said Zechs as he walked back into the room. "Heero has agreed to have a meeting, on a small island just off the coast of Malta at 10 am in two days and as a sign of good will he is ordering the N-Jammers in Europe and North Africa to turn off, so we should get power back to those areas within moments."
"Thank you God." said Lady Une that was something she wanted to ask for but knew she had no standing to ask.
Well I hope you liked this Chapter, I have started a new story of a Battlestar/Stargate SG1 crossover. So if you want to please check it out, until next time please keep reading. Thanks Wilkins75