Chapter 27 The Battle of Malta
The sun was rising over the small island as alarms began going off onboard the Orb carrier Archangel. The crew was already at battle stations and they all knew what the plan was and what they needed to do. Even so the civilians located in the mobile suit hanger bay began freaking when they heard the alarms.
"Everyone remained calm we knew this would happen." said an orb solider to the crowd of scared refugees.
"All hands to battle stations." said Captain Murrue Ramius as she sat on the bridge of her ship, she would always consider this ship hers even though she knew one days she would retire and this ship would likely pass to another.
"Captain we have three squadrons of Areas mobile suits heading into our combat area." Said the radar operator
"Do we know where there their gundams are?" inquired Ramius
"Not yet." Reported the radar operator
"Alright send a message to the Angles and prepare to start the operation." ordered Ramius as she took her seat in the command chair. "How long until the window is open?"
"Fifteen minutes." reported her XO as Ramius nodded her head.
Out on the beach the gundams stood waiting for the coming battle. Standing behind them in fix positions where the old Leo mobile suits which were the backbone of what passed for a local force.
"So they are coming just as we believed they would." said Kira as he strapped on his helmet as the Strike Freedom came online.
"A little too much so." admitted Luna as she did the same in the force Impulse "They should be counting on something other than brute force."
"Doesn't matter." confirmed her brother-in-law Shinn as he sat in Destiny Gundam.
"Alright we all know the plan, we need to buy fifteen minutes and then the opening happens." Reported Luna "If we miss the opening the next one will not open for another five hours and we can't hold them for five hours."
'Then we better not miss it," said Dearka as the destroyer Buster moved onto a rocky area of beach. He his a button on the control panel as multiple prongs shot down from the side of his gundam's legs. This was a double edge move, it gave his suit more stability and better accuracy but it would put him in a fix position.
"Still no sign of any of their gundams?" inquired Athrun
"I got nothing," said Dearka as he scanned the area with his powerful long range targeting system. Without any warning, the water in front of him exploded into a massive plum of seawater, for a second no one moved then the gundam Deathscythe came out of the plum. It was already within striking distance of the Buster with his beam scythe raised. The Deathscythe brought it crashing down only to have it clash against a beam saber held by the Gaia.
"I will not let you hurt my brother's friend." said Stella as she sat in her cockpit as she forced the scythe up and away. With the blade cleared, she brought her own sword around only to have Deathscythe move back under the water.
"I'll go after him," reported Stella as the Gaia moved toward the water.
"Stop he wants you to go down after him." ordered Luna "His suit is built for stealth and his beam weapons work under water."
"So that is where Heero got that technology." Reported Kira as he remembered when Wing Zero went after a Zaft mobile suit underwater all those years ago.
"So if Duo is in the water where are the others?" said Athrun
"I got them." reported Mu Flaga in the golden Akatsuki gundam. "They are on a carrier, looks like they are about to launch."
"Alright, Stella stay back and guard Dearka as he fires from Duo. Duo does not have long-range weapons but you have seen how good his stealth systems are. Mu, Shinn and I will take on the main force while Athrun, Kira go take on the other gundams." ordered Luna as they headed out.
On the carrier three gundams stood waiting for take off.
"Well looks like Duo got in close but didn't finish the mission." said Wufei as he triple checked his systems as he prepared for take off.
"Looks like we have incoming." confirmed Quatre "Strike Freedom and Infinite Justice are heading straight for us."
"Perfect, you three will deal with them while the rest of our forces overwhelm the other gundams." reported the Admiral in charge as he sat on the bridge of the carrier. "Your all clear for launch."
"I hate to state the obvious since that is normally Duo's job but those two suits are built to fight in the air we aren't." stated Quatre as the Sandrock slowly lifted off the deck of the carrier.
"There is a small island located between us and the Malta, head there and your at least be on ground." reported Wufei as Quatre zoomed in on the location it was a small stipe of sand which pocked out of the water maybe a foot or two. It was maybe a few hundred yards long and had nothing on it.
"Looks like they are heading toward that small island." reported Kira
"Prefect." confirmed Athrun as the two gundams headed toward the island passing by the first flight of Ares flight suits. Those pilots turned to fire on the passing gundams only to realize that other gundams where moving on them. It took only a few beam shots to cause the flight to break apart this led to a giant dog fight in the sky between the multiple Ares flights and the three gundams.
While the battle raged around Malta all over earth and space people had stopped what they were doing and watched the live broadcast which was being beamed from the series of Preventer satellites. Being laid over the images from the satellites was the radio transitions from the Preventers own military channel. The Preventers on the field did not know that this fight was being broadcasted because the Prevents had not done it, the broadcast was being done by Angel Squadron.
Among those watching the battle was the loves one of those taking part including Hilde, Dorothy, Catherine, Sally Po and Mariemaia. They had gathered together in one of the Winner's family homes and not a single one of them was talking instead they where watching as three gundams held their own against the full strength of the Preventers. Explosions where covering the screen and it was clear to Dorothy, Sally and Hilde all of whom had seen a battlefield that the Gundams where pushing them back.
"What a waste." said Dorothy "Brave Soldiers dyeing for a soiled cause."
Inside the dogfight, Shinn was flying around like a mad man as he used the sword to cut apart any Ares suits that got close. At the same time, Luna was using the combination of her beam rifle with her shield. The Akatsuki was using a combination of both the beam sword and cannons. All three of them where thankful for the energy shields built into the suits because while they were better pilots in better machines then their Preventer counterparts the Preventers had the numbers. The real blow against the Preventer Ares attack force came when Dearka opened fire at long range with his missiles and beam cannon, he was not alone. The Archangel and the Minerva fired their anti-mobile suits missiles and cannons at long range. Even so most of their fire was directed toward the surface ships.
Sandrock was the first gundam to land on the island followed moments later by Wufei and finally Trowa.
"What are they waiting for?" inquired Quatre as he watched the two other gundams fly in a tight circle to their front.
"Who cares." said Wufei "Trowa do you have a lock?"
"Tracking." reported Trowa as the Heavyarms tracking system began to lock on the two distance gundams. Right when he locked on to the suits, they bolted toward the three gundams, Trowa opened fire sending a wave of missiles and bullets down range. The weapons either missed or blocked when the two gundams used their built in beam shields.
"Here they come." said Quatre as he pulled his twin swords, before he had time to do much of anything the Infinite justice with its duel sided beam saber was on him. For a moment, the two gundams clashed and it gave an opening for Wufei to hit only to have the sand under him get blasted by the Strike Freedom. Since the ground was soft, sand the blast from the beam strike created a creator and caused Wufei to go down on one knee for a moment. This caused him to miss his shot at getting Athrun in the side; by the time he recovered the Infinite Justice had bolted away. It became clear that since the two angle squadron gundams where built for flight they had the edge on their ground counterparts.
"This is almost too easy." said Athrun as he and Kira danced around the gundams, they had to dodge the massive amount of fire coming from Heavy Arms and flam bursts from Wufei's Alton gundam. Just as he finished saying that Deathscythe jumped up from under the water. Once again, the stealth systems of the Deathsythe had gotten the better of Angle Squadron.
Athrun pulled up so that Duo's scythe came within inches of hitting Infinite justice's leg. He spun around and fired straight into Deathscythe's body sending him flying into the sand.
Luna studied the battlefield and liked what she saw, the areas mobile suits had been scattered and their ships had pushed the Preventer ships back preventing landing of the scorpion ground suits. She looked at her suits internal clock and smiled. It was time to go.
Wing Angle passed over farmland and cities, across lakes and he followed the coast, it flew over the remains of a mobile suit that had taken part in the attack on the Sanc Kingdom all those years ago. Finally, he reached his goal; it was a simple bluff overlooking the sea as it clashed against the rocks. He came to a hover as a beeping alarm filled the air. Heero turned his gaze toward the alarm as his screen zoomed in to show a single person standing out in the open. Quick thermal scans confirmed that she was alone.
The wind gust almost blew her over she shielded her eyes as Wing Angle came in for a landing on the grass. Stella lifted her hands up to show she was disarmed and waited.
"I just want to talk," said Stella as she waited and hoped. Finally, the cockpit door opened and Heero Yuy dressed in a flight suit descended down to her.
"So you know?" inquired Heero as he looked at this universe version of his sister.
"That we are related," inquired Stella as Heero nodded his head.
"So why are you here?" inquired Heero
"I want to talk you out of what you're doing." stated Stella as Heero turned his head and looked out to sea.
"I killed Relena and I knew her better then you." reported Heero "So there is no way that you can convince me."
"I feared that." Said Stella as she pulled out a small handgun from behind her back and aimed it straight at her brother's chest. "So now I am in charge and you will either give me whatever you have to destroy this world or I will end you."
Heero simply raised an eyebrow as if he was being threaten with a butter knife instead of a gun.
"You know years ago when I first arrived on the Archangel I saw Flay aim a gun at Dearka." explained Heero as Stella blinked at the sudden story "I will tell you the same thing I told her, it is hard to kill someone when the safety is on."
"What?" inquired Stella as she turned the gun away to look at the safety on the gun. It was then that Heero strike; he grabbed the gun as it went off sending the bullet flying into a nearby tree. This Stella had no training and it showed as Heero got the gun out of her hand while she fell backwards with a simple push.
"The safety was off!" snapped Stella as Heero broke the gun down in seconds before tossing the pieces over the cliff.
"Yes, it was." confirmed Heero
"You lied to me," snapped Stella
"And this surprises you?" said Heero dryly as he checked his watch.
"You're not supposed to lie to your family!" snapped Stella as Heero actually laughed a bit.
"You're not my sister; my sister is in a gundam right now beside her coordinator husband, fighting for her nation, Zaft." said Heero "You are a murder."
"I have never killed anyone!" snapped Stella
"No you did something much worse; you ordered others to do your work for you without reaching into the pit of evil yourself." explained Heero "At least I am willing to carry the weight of what I have done."
"I fight for humanity," snapped Stella even as Heero remained perfectly calm.
"And I fight for freedom, which one needs to have true humanity." countered Heero
"I will not let you destroy the world." Said Stella
"I am not destroying it. I never wanted any of this it was all your choices which led this to happen," countered Heero as he took a breath and looked down at his watch. "You may enjoy this; you get a front row seat to this fight."
Far away from the Sanc Kingdom the final act in the battle of Malta was taking place. The force of the attack from the two ships and the gundams had pushed the attacking Preventers back. The commanders of the Preventer forces where actually thankful that the ships pulled back. What they did not know was this was all part of the plan.
"All stations report ready," said the XO as Captain Ramius took a breath, even though she and the ship had done this multiple times every time it caused a small knot of fear to coil up in the pit of her stomach. The Archangel had gained altitude and was in its assigned position above the end of the half-finished mass driver, which was built out over the water.
"Lower Lohengrin." ordered Ramius as the powerful true cannons began to lower from directly below the each mobile suit catapults. The lohengrins fired at the same time straight into the atmosphere at the same time the engines in the back of the ship all fired at the same time as the ship picked up even more speed.
"What are they doing?" inquired Wufei as a vortex of ionized air surrounded the white ship causing it to pick up speed as it headed up into space.
"There is your answer," reported Duo as he watched the white ship disappear into the upper atmosphere outside the range of any of their weapons.
"Command one of them got away, I saw one got away." reported Trowa
Onboard the Minerva the ship was at condition one and everything was ready as Captain Meyrin Hawke double-checked her own belt. The Zaft warship moved into a matching location as the archangel and just like the first ship a massive cannon opened up on the front of the ship.
"Fire!" yelled Captain Hawke as the ship rocked as the already ionized air was saturated for a second time creating an even larger tunnel into space. With one last burst of power from the engines the Minerva was on its way into space. Between all the refuges packed on the Minerva and on the Archangel there was only about a hundred people still left on the surface all of them was on the prototype warship the Peacecraft that the Preventers had spent a billion dollars making along with the Mass Driver.
To the people from Orb and Zaft it was a primitive version of standard ship type but what mattered was that it could hold air and with some adjustments and out of the box thinking it could fly.
"I am onboard." Reported Shinn as his gundam landed inside the mobile suit bay of the Peacecraft. Also onboard was all the other gundams minus Athrun and Kira.
"Strap in this could get bad." Reported Luna as alarms blared across the ship.
"Clear for launch." said Yzak as he and a handful of other leaders of the rebels sat on the half-finished bridge of the Peacecraft. With that the ship began rocketing down the half-finished mass driver, pieces where actually falling off the super structure of the mass driver as the ship headed down.
"Time to go Athrun." said Kira as both legendary pilots turned their gundams away from the fight and went flying as fast as they could toward the island and the half-finished mass driver.
"Here we go again!" cursed Athrun as he pushed the Infinite justice as fast as he could.
"Cowards!" yelled Wufei at the retreating gundams.
"What are they doing?" inquired Duo as he saw the Peacecraft come rocketing down the rail. "I thought that thing couldn't fly."
"It can't, there is no way it can pick up enough speed to escape the atmosphere." confirmed Trowa
Onboard the Peacecraft Luna Yuy was monitoring the speed and location of the ship as it went rocketing down the half-finished mass driver.
"Passing first marker." Reported Luna over the radio as she flipped a switch on the flight controls.
Outside the Peacecraft, a series of explosions started to go off as the preplaced and timed charges went off. Each explosive charge on the mass drive was placed so that the shock wave would add a burst of speed to the Peacecraft. In theory, this along with the ionized atmosphere would allow the Peacecraft to reach low Earth Orbit. There the refugees and the gundams would leave and get on the waiting Eternal would take them onboard. Their last move would be to destroy this ship and then there was the final act.
"Come on!" yelled Kira as the added explosions caused an already difficult task even harder.
"Are those two trying to get on that ship while it is taking off?" inquired Quatre
"So it would seem?" inquired Trowa
"Should we try to stop them?" inquired Duo
"It will never work." countered Wufei "We will kill them when they crash land."
"I am not sure that that they will crash." Countered Trowa as the ship picked up even more speed, finally before the eyes of all the other gundams the Strike Freedom and the Infinite Justice got onto the edge of the Peacecraft. There was a final giant fireball as the Peacecraft reached the end of the mass driver for a moment the ship was engulfed in the fireball, when it reemerged the ship had a final burst of speed as it entered the ionized atmosphere. Then before what remained of the Preventer force the Peacecraft headed into space.
"I guess it did work," said Quatre with an inner smile as a series of smaller explosions on the island caused him to turn, all the mobile suits where exploding one after another. The mobile-doll defending Leo's had activated their self-destruct leaving the island open to the Preventers.
Up on the Peacecraft there were cheers as Luna leaned back a bit in her chair, as she did the image of the commander of the Phantoms appeared on her screen.
"Vice Admiral all forces have been evocated from the planet." Reported the Phantom Commander
"Not all forces." Countered Luna as she took a breath, she knew plan even if she did not agree with it totally. "Be careful Heero."
"What was that ma'am?" inquired the commander
"Nothing are we ready?" inquired Luna as she started to fell the weightlessness which came from leaving Earth behind.
"We are." confirmed the commander
The Preventer cargo aircraft was still miles away from the battlefield as the back ramp opened up, causing a massive gust of wind to whip through the hold.
"Commander Zechs, we have confirmation the Coordinators have left Malta." said the radio operator "They escaped using the Peacecraft and the other ships."
"I see." said Zechs into his radio.
"Now all you have to do is stop Heero from whatever he is planning," said the radio operator.
"Drop zone in 30 seconds." Reported the pilot
"Why are you still here, Heero?" inquired Zechs to himself as he wondered why Heero was still on Earth while all the others had gotten away. Why would Heero decide to remain behind.
"Drop zone in 10 seconds." reported the Pilot as the electric motors built into the floor of the transport began to move the mobile suit out. Within seconds his suit was falling through empty air, the Tallgeese Mark III powerful engines kicked on at once and he headed toward the battlefield even as the transport turned around.
"Last time I was here, I was flying Wing Zero and Heero was in Epyon." said Zechs as he flew low over the water. His suits alarm went off and he looked up and there standing on the buff was Wing Angel. His computer zoomed in on the open cockpit and there standing there was Heero.
"So no tricks this time, Heero." said Zechs as Heero walked into his mobile suit. Seconds later the eyes of Wing Angle flashed as its birds like wings spread out behind it. With one quick movement, it brought out a beam saber. "So it begins."
Next chapter will be the clash of the titans, Heero vs Zechs. I thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thanks Wilkins75.