Celestial Being Chronicles - Chapter 55
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Gundam series, nor any of the various series which are used or referenced in my fic, so please point that damned lawsuit cannon at someone else, also, don't read this if you are not of legal age to read such material. The story contains possibly disturbing content and should not be read by close-minded people (i.e., people who are easily offended.) Everything in the story is fictional. I am also not responsible for any actions taken by people who read this story and society's problems. I do, however, own my original character; Hope Yamato.
On the Excalibur's bridge, Kira Yamato let an annoyed snarl escape his lips at the images before his eyes. Several Alliance squadrons were pursuing retreating Celelstial Being forces as they sped towards the Orb Union.
When the Alliance pursuit unit finally lost track of the Celestial Being vehicles and mobile suits, they realized how exposed they had become, overextending themselves from the concentrated firepower of the previously hidden base, and they were quick to change direction and retreat even though there was no sign of any nearby enemies besides the fleeing Celestial Being vehicles they had been chasing. The lead units of the pursuit units, the combat helicopters, were just beginning to relax as the brightly lit base appeared ahead, framed tunnel like by the trees that grew profusely by the side of the road, the trunks as tall or taller than a mobile suit and as thick as a main battle tank was long! And that was when the bright lances of red-blue superheated plasma came spearing out of the undergrowth from concealed heavy weapon positions, blowing the flight of helicopters to burning scrap before they could even think of dodging. The bright green bolts of regular beam guns joined the thicker blasts from the hyper-impulse cannons, forming a criss-crossing light show that completely blocked the road before the returing pursuit force.
A few tanks tried to trust their armor and bull through, only to find themselves with blown off tracks or holed engines before they got halfway through the kill zones and came to screeching halts before being turned to swiss cheese by concentrated fire. Missiles began arcing out of the darkness as well, striking further back down the column of APC's and tanks, the burning wrecks further clogging the road and making it almost impossible to maneuver. Transports dropped their assault ramps, disgorging squads of armored infantry, but in the confusion of the ambush, many were cut down only feet from their transport, or else ran into the woods and disappeared, many after encountering the enemy, although some simply got lost and died natural deaths. Since half foot long sabertooth tiger fangs in the back of your skull will, naturally, kill you.
The Legend Gundam, Providence Gundam, Impulse Gundam and Destiny Gundam, having been bringing up the rear in case of counter attack by the Celestial Being armor and mobile suits, found themselves outside the ambush zone proper, but with no clear targets for their weapons to vaporize, the massive, geneticelly engeneered redwood trees easily absorbed even repeated hits from autocannons or beam rifles, protecting the emplaced Celestial Being infantry from the heavy weapons of the Alliance forces. The Windams began to push forward to take things into closer range, using swords and fists and feet to crush several hidden weapon emplacements, some unintentionally, before they were struck hard from behind by the very threat they had originally been guarding against, the returning Celestial Being armor and mobile suits. Already half entangled in the foliage, the Windams could not quickly retreat without trampling their own forces, and though some did make that hard choice, it availed them little against the now attacking ZAKUs, their beam claws slashing and winking in the firelight of burning armor hulks as they decimated the pursuit force in a matter of minutes.
Shortly after the ZAKUs hit the rear of their disorganized enemy, the commander gave the order to make the rush to the walls of the base. He'd lost contact with the squadron of outdated Strike Daggers a few minutes earlier, but with the rousing success against the hapless pursuit column, the commander was confident that they had already destroyed most of the enemy's heavy strength, and he ordered a pair of ZAKUs to move up to support the infantry attack to help draw away some of the firepower the infiltrators would have otherwise have occupied. Barely a quarter of the way across the open field surrounding the base, avoiding mines revealed by magnetic sensors in his helmet with casual grace, the commander had the utmost displeasure of watching his picture perfect plan fall apart messily right in front of his eyes. The charging Windams came under heavy suppressive fire from the walls, led by a dozen mobile suits.
The lead wave of Windams jumped back from the wall as the ZAKUs closed in, glittering beam blades raised high, only to come up against a sudden countercharge of Orb M-7 and M-4's, mobile suits on both sides crashing to the ground with flaming holes drilled through them, or sliced from head to crotch by an unimaginably hot beam blade. The Windams returned to the fray almost at once, darting between the Orb mobile suits to fire harassing and disabling shots into the groins and legs of the ZAKUs, forcing them to dance awkwardly backward before they lifted into the sky on their thrusters, desperate to disengage as the wall defences began to turn around to shoot them in the back. Unfortunately, clearing the level of the base buildings put the ZAKUs squarely in the sights of the Akatsuki Gundam and the Chimera Gundam, and three of the Windams were suddenly smashed from the sky in fingernail sized pieces by the blindingly bright purple-white lightning from the Chimera and the eye searing blue-red positron blast from the Akatsuki. The Chimera took a step forward, making the ground tremble for a hundred meters in every direction as it moved its towering bulk to stare over the outer wall, which barely even came up to its waist.
The Chimera braced its legs, deploying external stabilizers as its plasma cannons unfolded from its wings, while the rail guns unfolded from its hips. An instant later, the pink Gundam began hosing down the treeline with endless streams of dark blue-red energy bolts and yellow rail gun shells, over ten bolts per second from each plasma cannon, and ten shells per second from the rail guns, lighting up the early night sky with strobes of blue-red luminescence. Purple-white lightning crackled around the Akatsuki Gundam's eyes as their charge built up, and the remnants of an Alliance squadron realized, in abject terror, that there was no way they could outdistance the coming attack, especially not pinned down behind heavy cover by the beam blasts as they currently were.
"Trans-Am!" Cagalli and Lacus chorused in unison, their machines instantly beginning to glow with a distinctive blood red light as the Chimera's wings spread out. Cagalli smirked slightly as she moved the Akatsuki so that is was positioned behind the pink Gundam, even as a thick cord extended from each of the golden machine's beam rifles and attached themsevles to the Chimera's back.
"Linking complete." Lacus announced as the two Gundams brought both of their twin buster rifles to bear, even as the Akatsuki's own plasma cannons and rail guns clicked into their firing positions.
All of the Akatsuki's DRAGOON units along with five of the Chimera's own DRAGOON units, suddenly dropped from their wings and flew through the mobile suits closest to them, as the Chimera's five remaining DRAGOON units swung to the end of its wings, and a field of rainbow-colored energy spanned between each wing. In the same instant, a field of rainbow-colored energy also spanned between each of the Akatsuki's wings and finally the rainbow-colored energy spanned between the wings of both the Akatsuki and the Chimera. The Akatsuki's eyes sudddenly turned gold, while the Chimera's eyes turned blue, their eyes flashing in unison.
Inside the cockpit of the Chimera Gundam, Lacus's pupils seperated into a trio of close-knit mini-pupils, her opals turning multicolor at the edges, extending the spectrum of her vision, while inside the cockpit of the Akatsuki Gundam, Cagalli's pupils also seperated into a trio of close-knit mini-pupils, her own opals turning multicolor at the edges, and extending the spectrum of her vision. even as a rainbow-colored beam field surrounded both the Chimera and the Akatsuki, shielding the two machines from all incoming fire.
"Akatsuki Gundam, Chimera Gundam, now firing!" The two woman announced in unison, an instant before all four of the charged buster rifles fired a massive beam larger than a Tanhauser cannon straight into the formation of charging mobile suits. The Akatsuki and Chimera were the only mobile suits that weren't pushed back by the blast, their wings of light flaring as the shockwave hit them, finally the wings of both machines closed into their normal configuration. Even as the DRAGOON units once again docked with the their respective machines.
As the smoke and debris finally cleared, nearly two minutes later, all that remained was a one-mile deep, three-mile wide, twenty-mile long trench filled with boiling lava.
Meanwhile, nearly two-hundred miles away, The Abyss Gundam, its chest-mounted cannon sparking, arcs of electricity jumping across its armor, suddenly exploded. Then the explosion winked out. There was nothing left.
Within the cockpit of the Eclipse Gundam, Shinn Asuka grinned. "One down!" He smirked and boosted towards the Gaia, but the Divinity suddenly kicked him aside. He gave a shout as he hit the ocean.
In his white ZAKU Phantom, Rey Za Burrel slashed at the Gaia. It would've been a killing blow, if not for the fact that about midway through the attack, one of the Divinity Gundam's DRAGOON units flew by and sliced off his tomahawk blade. Rey gritted his teeth and wrapped an arm around the Gaia, and dragged it to the Minerva.
Shinn raised his Eclipse Gundam out of the water, only to be kicked onto one of the small, uncharted islands by the Divinity Gundam. The angelic machine landing atop the Eclipse, and aiming its beam rifle dead at Shinn's cockpit.
"What the hell are you doing, Kira?"
Kira narrowed his eyes.
"We've fought for millenia to bring this whole world peace, and you just throw it away in a few seconds. You could've disabled the Abyss! You should've disabled the Abyss!"
Luna saw Divinity pin the Eclipse and blasted off the deck of the Minerva.
"Disable the Abyss? What kind of world are you living in? In a war, you kill! You don't disable!"
"You kill? You're right. In a war, you kill, and the cycle just continues! You kill, and you kill, and you kill, until there's nobody left to kill, or you're killed! Until you're both dead! Is that what you want? If you want to kill and kill and kill, maybe I should kill you right here!" Kira snarled in nearly unrestrained rage, as the Divinity's finger tightened on the trigger of its rifle. "As a member of Celestial Being, you should know not to kill unless you have no choice, you ungrateful little shit!"
As soon as Rey had returned the Gaia to the Minerva, it turned around and took off again, speeding towards the pinned form of the Eclipse Gundam.
The Divinity Gundam casually turned to face the rapidly approaching ZAKU Phantom, the angelic machine opening its arms wide. A halo abruptly appeared above the machine's head and the thrusters on its back flickered rapidly on and off. A wave of air seemed to spread out from the front of the Divinity. Rey only realized that he was being attacked when lightning suddenly coursed across the control screens, blowing them out in sleets of glass splinters. His remaining thrusters died and his cameras went black. Unpowered, the ZAKU Phantom dropped out of the air like the stone it had suddenly become. The impact with the surface of the ocean far below snapped off both of the ZAKU's legs like twigs, and a few short seconds later, the machine began the long fall towards the ocean bottom.
As the ZAKU plunged into the depths of the ocean, Kira glanced at one of his sub-screens and smirked. "I suddenly feel like creating a time paradox." With that, the Divinity Gundam's holoshroud flickered to life, disguising the angelic machine as the legendary GAT-X105+AQM/E-X03 Launcher Strike Gundam. Kira then ignited his thrusters and took off, just as the GAT-X105+AQM/E-X01 Aile Strike Gundam, piloted by his past-self, zoomed into the fray, beam rifle blazing.
"God, did I really suck that much when I piloted the Strike Gundam?" Kira asked himself, even as a green beam blast from the Aile Strike Gundam's beam rifle seared the air to his left, missing him by nearly five feet. Even though the shot missed, Kira still responded to the attack, bringing the Divinity Gundam's hyper-impulse cannon to bear and aiming it directly at the cockpit hatch of the still approaching Aile Strike Gundam.
Kira moved his finger from the trigger when the Archangel appeared a few seconds later. The warship was clearly following the Strike, but what confused Kira was the fact that the Archangel was being escorted by a dozen various ships. These escort ships consisted of two Nimitz-class aircraft carriers, two Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruisers, two Knox-class frigates, two Hamilton-class cutters, two Virginia-class submarines and two Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers.
While Kira had been distracted by the small fleet, the Aile Strike Gundam had actually hit him, the green energy blast piercing his MCPS armor and slicing through his left shoulder, destroying not only the combo-weapons pod which had been mounted there, but also the plasma cannon stored within the left wing and the anti-ship sword behind the wing itself.
"You ass." Kira snarled, as he dropped the holoshroud, revealing the true form of the Divinity Gundam, the angelic machine had regenerated its damaged left shoulder, wing and plasma cannon, but a replacement combo-weapons pod and anti-ship sword would have to be launched from the Excalibur. The Divinity Gundam hovered motionless in the air, spewing brightly glowing green GN particles from its wings as its eyes flashed with a bright purple light.
Before Kira could move towards the Aile Strike Gundam, it once again sniped him, this blast hitting his right shoulder, destroying the rocket anchor and beam boomerang which had been mounted there, in addition to the plasma cannon stored within the right wing and the hyper-impluse cannon behind the wing itself.
"What the fuck?" Kira screamed in disbelief, even as the Divinity Gundam once again repaired the damage. As with the combo-weapons pod and anti-ship sword, a replacement rocket anchor, beam boomerang and hyper-impluse cannon would have to be launched from the Excalibur.
"I can't believe you're still fighting me!" Kira's older-self snapped a few minutes later, as the Aile Strike harried him with beam fire. "Your fleet is already surrendering and you have no reinforcements! What more do you want?"
"None of that matters to me!" Kira's younger-self roared. "No, you don't understand, but maybe you will one day!" The Aile Strike charged, quickly freeing and igniting a glowing pink beam saber from the Aile Striker on its back with its left hand. "Maybe you'll know what it's like to have nothing left to lose!"
"I already know what that's like, you mindless moron!" Kira's older-self shrieked, as the Aile Strike's beam saber effortlessly slashed through the Divinity's right leg. "How is this even possible?" As if to make the situation even worse, the Aile Strike suddenly sprouted a pair of glowing pink beam wings. "This is impossible!" Kira's older-self roared, his fear taking over with a vengence after millenia of remaining dormant. "The Strike Gundam never had the capability to utilize wings of light!" But sure enough, the Aile Strike Gundam was now effortlessly streaking through the sky on a pair of brightly glowing pink beam wings, an army of afterimages following in its wake. Kira's older-self snarled as he freed and ignited a glowing green beam sword, identical to the one which the Epyon Gundam wielded.
The Aile Strike charged towards the Divinity, beam saber upraised. Kira's older-self merely scowled as an arm suddenly emerged from behind his machine's back, grabbing the Aile Strike's left arm, stopping the saber slash. The Divinity's eyes flashed with a bright purple light, then the angelic machine grabbed the Aile Strike with both arms as it began to separate from its backpack.
Kira's younger-self watched in a mixture of surprise and horror as another arm and a pair of legs suddenly unfolded from the Divinity's backpack, and finally, a head emerged from the center of the backpack, sprouting up between the shoulders. The distinctive Gundam-style v-fin unfolding from the forehead as the machine's eyes flashed with a bright yellow light. This machine, which was normally hidden on the back of the CB-X60D Divinity Gundam, was known as the GN-009 Seraphim Gundam.
The Divinity rattled as the Aile Strike merely batted the Seraphim away and brought down both its beam sabers onto the Divinity's beam sword. Kira's older-self ground his teeth and surged forward with the thrusters to throw the white, red and blue mobile suit back; but it merely charged again, and Kira's older-self found himself forced to throw his sword and physical shield up to deflect the Aile Strike's sword strokes, one after another.
"What's wrong? Feeling powerless? Is that it?" Kira's younger-self laughed, and with a crash he brought down both beam sabers onto the Divinity's own sword. The white mobile suit staggered back; Kira deployed his DRAGOONs to pummel the Aile Strike, but to his horror, the beams had no effect, and Kira's younger-self cackled with glee as he brought his swords down again. "Well, imagine feeling that way all of the time, because some hypocrite and his whores decided to turn the world into their own personal plaything in a futile attempt to satiate their limitless desire for war!"
Within the cockpit of the Divinity, Kira's eyes flashed furiously as the Aile Strike brought down its swords. "You weren't supposed to survive...the destruction of the Aegis Gundam!"
"Yes, well, it turns out things don't always go as planned, do they?" Kira's younger-self shot back. The Aile Strike surged forward. "Remember me, Kira Yamato, when you go try to build your new world!" The Aile Strike slammed its swords down again and threw the Divinity back. Kira's older-self somersaulted over the next blow and stabbed forward with his sword, but the Aile Strike was there to parry the blow with its left-hand sword and drive its right-hand sword down hard onto the Divinity's beam shield. "Remember me whenever you start thinking that what you're going to do is worth the cost!" He swung the swords again. "Remember what you did when you first returned to Earth! What you did to try and end the Second World War! What you've done all your life!" The Aile Strike reared back and slammed the Divinity with an earth-shattering kick to the chest. "And remember, always remember, that every time you try to justify your actions, it is a lie!"
Eyes flashing, the Divinity lunged forward and rammed the Aile Strike in the chest with its shoulder. The white, red and blue mobile suit staggered back; Kira's older-self charged and raised his sword to seize the opportunity, but the Aile Strike darted backward and dodged the Divinity's sword slash.
"Explaining to you would just be a waste." Kira's older-self snarled. "You're just a mistake, Kira Yamato, and I'm going to correct you!"
Kira's younger-self laughed, as the Divinity went on the attack, even as the Seraphim Gundam once again docked on the angelic machine's back. "Correct me if you think you can, but you'll never be rid of me!"
Meanwhile, the Excalibur's decks were alive with battles. The Sword Impulse Gundam rattled as, what appeared to be a modified version of the Chaos Gundam, battered it with a relentless stream of blade strokes. The enemy pilot's psychotic cackling filled the cockpit and throbbed through Juri's head as she struggled to focus on the enemy's sword strokes.
"Now this is more like it!" The enemy pilot cried, slamming the Sword Impulse back with a punishing anti-ship sword blow. "It's so much faster than the Dagger, and so much more precise too!" The Chaos charged and Juri felt the Impulse lurch back; the Chaos deployed the blade on its right ankle and kicked upward to send the Impulse's shield spiraling away from its arm; and then, with another tooth-rattling crash, it slammed its right-hand blade down onto the Impulse's swords and sent the red mobile suit reeling. "And these blades have so much more heft than the beam saber! It's wonderful! It makes fighting worthwhile!"
The Chaos charged; Juri scowled up at it and swung back furiously with her left-hand sword, stopping its opening blade swipe cold. She brought down the right-hand sword diagonally, but the Chaos slammed its own left-hand blade into the way, and then ripped a scything kick up the Impulse's chest with its right-hand ankle blade and tore a long gash diagonally up the red mobile suit's torso from which sparks flowed like blood.
"No way!" Juri cried; the Chaos hurled her away and charged after her. "He cut through the Mirror Coated Phase Shift?"
"Gotta say I'm not too impressed, swordfighter." The enemy pilot scoffed.
"You haven't seen anything yet!" Juri shot back; with a flash, she hurled both his beam boomerangs forward and switched back to her rifle to shower the Chaos with beam shots. the enemy pilot sneered and jetted back, putting himself in position to cut both boomerangs apart with his ankle blades. A moment later, he drew the Chaos's two beam rifles and returned fire, forcing the Impulse back on the defensive.
"Well, as the saying goes," the enemy pilot said with a grin; the Chaos rocketed after the Impulse, harrying it with beam rifle fire, "anything you can do," the Chaos charged, "I can do better!"
Juri hissed a curse as the Chaos closed in and slashed her beam rifle in two with its left-hand ankle blade. She threw the sparking remains of the rifle aside and took off; the enemy pilot quickly pursued her with a sadistic laugh and a storm of beam blasts. At that moment, two voices eminated from the Excalibur's external loudspeakers.
"Cagalli Yula Athha, Akatsuki, launching."
"Lacus Clyne, Chimera, taking off."
The two Gundams screamed out of the Excalibur's hanger, the Akatsuki from the left side of the ship, and the Chimera from the right, both of the machines streaking towards the Chaos. The pilot of the Chaos didn't live long enough the even register the two threats, as the Akatsuki's eyes lit up with purple-white lightning, the bolts instantly lashing out at the green mobile suit, shorting out its electronics. An instant later the Akatsuki opened up with the twin buster rifle in its right hand, obliterating the Chaos within a blindningly bright column of yellow light.
"This is bullshit of the highest possible caliber!" Kira's older-self screamed as the Divinity Gundam's glowing yellow eyes dimmed, the thrusters died, and finally, the angelic machine's armor reverted to the dull grey of its powered down state, even as it began to plummet towards the surface of the ocean far below. However, before the Divinity Gundam hit the water, it was sliced into four seperate pieces, as the Aile Strike slashed its left hand beam saber through the Divinty from crown to crotch, following the slash an instant later with a horizontal slash to the waist.
"FFFFUUUUCCCCKKKKK!" Kira screamed in disbelief and terror as the Aile Strike's glowing pink beam saber vaproized his body with its vertical slash. The four pieces of the Divinity Gundam seemed to hang suspended in the air for a fraction of a second, before exploding into a massive nuclear fireball, a cloud of brightly glowing green GN particles continuing to slowly spread out, even after the fireball finally faded.