Chapter 23 Fire in the Sky
"So it seems that this war will keep going on," reported Heero as himself along with Luna, Lacus, Kira, Athrun and Yzak gathered in the Coordinator war room. "They have refused to agree to our conditions and now the war is back on."
"Heero we can't keep waiting for them to come to their senses and give up." stated Athrun as he placed his hand under his chin. "I am all for giving people chances to come around but when does it end?"
"Are you saying we take off the kids gloves and start killing their civilians?" inquired Kira
"If it is needed, then yes." stated Yzak "Let's use the beam cannon on the moon to start destroying cities."
"Are you a mad man?" inquired Luna "No we are not butchers; we are surgeons if we use that weapon system we will use it like that."
"So what do you planned to do?" inquired Yzak
"I have a plan," stated Luna before looking at her husband "You're not going to like it."
"I don't think I am going to like anything right now." admitted Heero in a tone of voice that made him sound like a wounded animal then the hardened warrior most knew. His normal tone of voice returned as he regains himself. "But it has to be done."
An hour later another meeting was taking place in a government own mansion a few kilometers outside of Rome.
"I knew I should have gone." stated President Une as she held a cabinet meeting with what was left of the Preventer government, at the moment the two most important members was Zechs as front line commander of the Preventer military and Relena who was the sectary of State. In truth everyone knew Relena had more power than Lady Une, Relena was basically the crowned princess and once she was old enough she would take the office of the President.
"We could not let you go, if you get hurt or kill who will take over the government." stated a lower ranking aid who looked like he still should be studying for his college freshman exams.
"In that case the next in line would be Relena." corrected Lady Une before turning back toward Relena. "Why will he not talk terms for peace?"
"He said that he had demands which we would have to give into no questions asked." stated Relena as she shook her head "He is hopeless the Heero I love seems to be totally gone."
"What were his demands?" inquired Lady Une
"The totally freedom of all the coordinators and their supporters on Malta and the promise that we wouldn't devolope universe jump technology." reported Relena as Lady Une blinked. "Those are just not acceptable."
"I would have accepted those terms gladly," snapped Lady Une as she turned toward one of her aids. "Get on the radio and inform Heero that we will accept terms for peace which would allow them to leave Earth and we will never create jump technology."
Before they could send that message, another member of the staff ran in with a message and handed it to Zechs. Zechs looked down at the message and blinked, before rereading the message a little bit slower than last time.
"Are we sure?" inquired Zechs
"I confirmed it myself." confirmed the aid
"God, no." said Zechs as he rubbed his chin.
"What?" inquired Lady Une "What is it?"
Less than five hundred miles away on Malta Kira Yamato was looking down at the same piece of paper that Zechs was, like Zechs he had to reread the paper two times in order to process the information.
"Are these people crazy?" inquired Kira as he ran toward Heero and Athrun who were going over details of Luna's plan. Lacus was there as well as she listened in to find out what her Zaft forces would have to do in the attack.
"We have a problem!" exclaimed Kira as he slammed the paper work down on the table. "The Preventers have moved one of their space battle stations into firing position on the moon base."
"How could they do that without us noticing?" inquired Lacus as she looked at her husband.
"They must have moved it while the moon was on the other side of the Earth and we where distracted by the failed peace talks." Stated Heero "No matter the range on the moon base is longer then the beam cannon on their base, we can blast them away from a distance."
"No we can't." stated Kira as he put the photo taken from a recon satellite they had put up on the table. Heero and Athrun's eyes widened as they saw the position of the Preventer space station, it had positioned itself right behind one of the civilian colonies. Unlike colonies in their own universe the colonies here was huge rotating ring where most of the people lived which was attached to a center column. The Preventer military station, which was almost a clone of Brag had positioned itself so that it could shot through the gap between the outer ring and the center pillar. "They are using the colony as a human shield."
"My God, are they crazy?" inquired Lacus
"They seem to be." confirmed Heero as he tried to process the information. "How much time until they are in range?"
"We will be in range in five minutes while they have fifteen or so until they can fire on us." reported Kira "Not enough time for any of us to get into position to do anything to stop them."
"So it falls on the defense force, the question is do we advise them to fire or not?" inquired Heero as he looked around at the other two other members of the Legendary three and Lacus, Luna was off getting things ready and Yzak was getting things ready for the final move.
"How many people on that colony?" inquired Athrun
"It's one on the largest station so at least a 15,000 people or so likely closer to 20,000 people." reported Heero "Mostly civilians just living their lives."
"And now they are human shields…no they are hostages" stated Kira as he took a breath knowing what was coming next.
"We have around 2,000 people on the moon base, about a quarter of them are coordinator civilians which we still haven't been able to transport back to our world." stated Athrun "And if we lose the moon we are dead down here so add another 8,000 or so people. Then if we lose here they will come to our world and try to kill all of us."
"So 15,000 hostage's vs all the people down here and back home which are billions of lives." stated Kira
"How do we weigh human life?" inquired Heero sadly, as he looked toward Lacus.
"Can we stop them without firing the beam?" inquired Lacus hoping for something to grab onto so that she would not have to decide immediately.
"Possible, we left the EA in charge of the defense and we brought some mobile armor and a Destroy Gundam there to defend it." reported Heero
"A destroyer, we could use that." stated Lacus
"The distance is so far that it would be cutting it close if the Destroy could even get there in time," stated Kira as he looked at his wife. "And even so they could just do this again."
"I recommend that we launch the Destroy and order the commander of the base to fire on the battle station three minutes before they are in range." advised Heero "That would give the Destroy about 12 minutes, as the only civilian leader here the choice falls to you."
"This is the worst call I ever had to make." noted Lacus sadly before looking up "Approved."
Far from the relative safety of Malta, a team of EA members which had been tasked to defend the moon base were rushing toward their combat stations. The EA force while small did have the most powerful mobile armor in the military in their corner, the Destroy Gundam. The 57-meter tall mobile suit had to ship it in multiple parts and assembled it in universe.
"Alright load up and move out we have to Destroy that station before it can fire on us!" yelled the second in command of the base as the three pilots of the updated destroyer gundam got into the cockpit.
"Why not just blast the station out of the sky." inquired the third pilot as he sat down at his controls and began monitoring the power systems.
"Because there is a colony full of people in the way." countered the second pilot as he brought the weapon systems online.
"So we are going to sacrifice ourselves to save them?" inquired the third pilot
"No." stated the First as she locked everything down "The Stations orders are to fire before they get in range."
"That would kill everyone in the colony." Stated the second pilot
"So we are on the clock because if we fail they die." Confirmed the first pilot as the doors to the hanger opened and the Destroy gundam flew out.
Onboard the Preventer Space station the commander and her XO stood there watching the radar screen. Normally the moon was not a target but this time it was.
"We should be in range in 18 minutes," reported the XO as the Captain nodded her head.
"Ma'am we are getting more radio messages from Preventer High command and from the President herself." said a lower ranking radio operator
"We will talk to them once we finish defending them." stated the Captain with a smirk "Until then ignore those fools, they don't understand what is needed for true victory."
The radio operator simply looked at his two higher-ranking officer who glared at the young officer fresh out of school.
"Is there a problem?" inquired the Captain as two armed Marines came forward and stood behind the radioman. For a moment, the whole room was tense and then one of the guards chambered a round in her weapon.
"No, Ma'am." confirmed the shaking young officer as he sat back down, with that the marines moved away and back to their station.
"We are getting what appear to be a small ship and some mobile suits heading toward us," reported a radar operator "They should reach our first defense line in five minutes."
"Well I guess we couldn't expect them to take it lying down," laughed the XO of the station.
While the XO of the Preventer station was laughing the EA commander of the Moon base was far from laughing, he knew that in a couple of minutes she may be forced to fire on a colony full of people. Memories of the destruction of the Plant colonies filled his mind. While a member of the EA military and someone who did not like Coordinators she still did not feel the destruction of those colonies where right, there was no honor it. She believed in the old Japanese samurai code of the bushido, which called for waking an enemy up and giving them a weapon before fighting them.
"Sir we have moved the civilians we have to the far hanger it may make it through any attack," offered her second officer. "We have three of our 9 beam weapons pointed at the station, they all report ready to fire."
"Good work." stated the captain before looking around at the men and women under her command. She had ordered everyone she could spare to head to the same hanger where the civilians where. If they should fail then the civilians there could maybe survive an attack.
"Captain we have MO2 and two other of their stations in range, we could strike at them." offered up a lower officer, the captain thought about it for a moment.
"Charge up the other beam cannons and lock on to those targets." ordered the Captain, they could remove all but one of the Preventer space stations, in a single moment.
"Captain we are getting a radio message from MO2, they claim that the station has gone rogue and they don't want us to do anything." said a radio operator as the second officer rolled his eyes. "They claim that they will take care of it themselves."
"It's a trick, they want us not to fire so that they could destroy us." advised the second officer as the Captain nodded her head in agreement.
Meanwhile on the massive satellite of MO2 the space command of the Preventer space forces was trying to raise his rogue battle station on the radio but was not getting anything. By now all, the Preventer space command was in a panic as they tried to get their forces on the rogue station to fall in line.
"Sir, still no word from the Station." reported the radio operator "Could be a bad contention on their end."
"All their radios?" inquired the General in charge "No, they are actively ignoring us."
"What do we do?" asked the radio operator
"There is nothing we can do," confirmed the General
"Sir, we are picking up multiple energy spikes coming from the moon!" yelled another officer
"We expected as much they will likely fire on the colony and kill those people because we couldn't control our own forces." stated the General as he shook his head "What a waste of good lives."
"Sir they are charging more than one beam weapon some of them are pointed here and at or other stations." Reported the officer as the General nodded his head.
"Alright then, I want everyone to head to the evacuation shuttles and leave MO2 same goes for the other stations we will move the command center to the nearest colony," ordered the General
"Sir we are abounding M02?" inquired a lower officer
"Son, we are standing in front of a firing squad." Explained the General to the younger man "I will save everyone I can from that fate. MO2 is just rocks and metal nothing more, it is not worth dying for in a no win fight. But lock everything down just in case we can come back."
With that alarms began blaring all over MO2 and at first the Prevents didn't understand the orders but soon it became clear what they were ordered to do. People rushed around in a mad dash to lock down computers and weapons. Within minutes, the first shuttle full of people left MO2 and headed toward the nearest colony. The same thing was happening on the other Preventer Space stations minus the one using a colony as a shield.
The mass evacuation did not go unnoticed by the EA personal on the moon.
"Sir they appear to be evacuating their stations." reported the radar operator
"Ok, then we will give them some more time before we destroy those stations," said the Commander, knowing that there was no need to kill anyone who was already running away. "How soon until the Destroy makes contact with that other station."
"Two minutes." reported the radar operator
"They better hurry up," stated the Commander
Outside the Destroy Gundam was nearing the front line of the Preventer defense line, at once all the Taurus space mobile suits opened up on the large object coming their way. The blows where shrugged off as the shield took the hits. Then all the way around the large disk, small points of green light began gathering. At once, the beam cannons fired cutting into the defense line.
"Take that!" yelled the second pilot as the massive suit began to be swarmed by the Preventer suits. The targeting system was having a field day with the suits as wave after wave of Taurus suits where cut to pieces.
"Our shields are holding but we aren't in range of their anti-mobile suit defenses," reported the third pilot
"Well that will not be much longer." Stated the first pilot
"I recommend we transform before we head in, we have more access to the side weapons and it is easier to do it now than when we are under fire of defense station." advised the second pilot "Also it will cause these people to shit themselves when they realize what they are up against."
On the bridge of the defense station the officers where not concern with the approaching small warship. They had every beam cannons pointed right at it and enough mobile suits to stop anything. They were surprise by the video coming in, they had expected it to explode a long time ago but it had some kind of energy shield around it, which was taking the blows.
"Kind of looks like a disk with legs." stated the XO as he watched the video of the battle "Well aside from the giant cannons."
"Doesn't matter." stated the Commander as she looked at the radar, the moon was coming into range.
"What the?" inquired the XO as he watched the strange ship begin to transform, it was something he had never seen before as the disk moved behind it and a face appeared along with two arms. "That's a gundam?"
Just then, a massive beam shot out from the chest of the gundam and destroyed ten mobile suits at once.
"Still doesn't matter." stated the Commander as the anti-mobile suit beam cannons opened up, over a hundred beam cannons opened up on the suit all at the same time. With that, the giant gundam was forced back even as the duel beam cannons on its back began firing back. The beams caused the space to rock but it was not strong enough to destroy the station in a single hit.
"Damn that is a lot of cannons!" yelled the second pilot as he aimed at the cannons but it seemed that for every one he destroyed more appeared. The station was rotating so that cannons who were on the backside would come around to fire while those who were damaged at time to repair. As the Destroy rocked from the blows the shield keep dropping lower and lower and all movement forward was stopped.
Back on the moon the entire battle was being monitored and it wasn't looking good.
"The Destroy is taking heavy fire from the station." Reported the radar operator
"Are they advancing?" inquired the Commander
"Yes, but too slowly." Reported the radar operator
"Madam we are nearing the deadline." said the Second officer as the EA commander lowered her head.
"Very well." said the commander as she moved toward the firing button; alarms began blaring, as the firing button was revealed as a protective clover moved up. There was a whole row of buttons one for each of the cannons. "May God have mercy on their souls."
With that she pushed the button as the main cannon targeted at the Preventer space station fired, a glowing beam of yellow energy shot out the cannon and headed straight toward the Preventer Battle station. Since this was a secret base, they had never done a test fire they only had the believed range and speed of the beam, turns out that while the range and power where correct the speed of the beam was not. This meant that the beam of energy was moving much slower than they had expected.
"Shit, Ma'am they will have us in range before our beam hits," yelled the radar operator.
"Fire the other beams at the targets and head toward the targets and then run toward the far hanger." ordered the Commander to the five people in the command center. It took only a few seconds later for other charged beam cannons to fire at the empty battle stations and MO2.
Meanwhile on the rogue battle station the moon had entered Max range and their own beam cannon.
Unlike the EA commander or the other Preventer battle station, this one did not order an evacuation so the station was still fully manned. The only forces outside the station where the mobile suit pilots.
"Fire!" yelled the Preventer Commander as their own beam cannon fired, the beam cut through the space and as it cut through space it grazed the side of the colony opening a massive hole in side. The hole by itself as a death sentence to everyone there but then the beam from the moon base hit. The beam went straight through the colony before hitting the Battle station.
For a moment, nothing happened as the beam of energy cut through the already doomed colony before cutting into the battle station, when the energy disappeared the explosions started happening. It was chain reaction as explosions began going off in both space station, within seconds there where twin flashes of light as both stations exploded.
"Damn it!" cursed the three Destroy pilots who had been given a front line view of the destruction of two station and the deaths of thousands of lives. While those two stations where destroyed the multiple other beams where crossing the void of space. The beams from the moon hit their targets causing the empty Preventer battle stations to explode in almost the same way only without the cost of lives.
The destruction of the former resource satellite of MO2 was slightly difference but not that much. Since it was larger and the outer cover was made out of rock and was thicker than the metal haul of the battle station it took the blow from the beam better. It still wasn't enough as MO2 broke apart into multiple smaller bits that dropped down into the atmosphere causing a meteor shower so bright that it was visible in the middle of the day on Earth.
The Preventers where not the only ones hit as the energy bream fired from the now destroyed rogue battle station hit the beam cannons on the moon. Just like the stations the blow caused a chain reaction of multiple smaller explosions, the end result was the whole moon base exploding sending a massive amount of moon dust up into space.
The whole world and space was watching the battle among them was the Legendary Three gundam pilots.
"How many dead?" inquired Kira
"Too early to tell," answered Heero sadly "Thousands for sure, depends on if our people are safe or not, either way we need to launch the operation."
"Tomorrow morning?" offered Athrun
"Agreed, tomorrow we strike." confirmed Heero
So sorry about the long wait, I hit so many blocks when it came to this chapter. I knew that it would set up the next phase of the story and I just kept finding myself writing the next chapter of this story instead of this one. In fact, I have the next one almost half the way done so you should not have to wait long for the next chapter. Once again sorry for the wait and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thanks Wilkins75.