Celestial Being Chronicles - Chapter 68
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.
"So in the end, we have to spill even more blood in order to stop this?" Kira Yamato snarled, shutting his visor as the Divinity moved to the Excalibur's catapult, while the Akatsuki, Blitz, Buster, Chimera, DEEP Arms, Destiny, Freedom, Gaia, Impulse, Infinite Justice, Strike Freedom and Wing Zero Gundams were all brought online.
Across the hanger from the Divinity Gundam, the Wing Gundam Zero's eyes lit up with a bright green light, the machine having been assigned to Lexi, the Excalibur's advanced AI. Technically, the machine was actually being controlled by the Excalibur's main computer and not from the cockpit of the Gundam itself, but even so Lexi was projecting her vestige, clad in a gold and black flight suit, into the cockpit of the Wing Gundam Zero, making it appear as though there really was a pilot inside the machine.
"Human stupidity is a very powerful force." Shinn Asuka replied as he moved the Eclipse Gundam onto one of the Excalibur's few dual launch catapults. "It's sad really."
"It is indeed sad." Athrun Zala agreed as he moved his Infinite Justice Gundam onto another of the Excalibur's many catapults. "But all we can do now is fight."
"It may be sad." Lunamaria Hawke replied as her Twilight Gundam took its place beside the Eclipse Gundam on the dual launch catapult, the two machines intertwining their hands as the pilots waited for clearence to launch. "But considering how far this war has already gone..." She trailed off, not wanting to think about the nuclear missile which had hit Pearl Harbor, or any of the other atrocities which had been commited during this war.
"My first true fight." Lexi whispered to herself as she quickly yet carefully moved the Wing Gundam Zero to the catapult on the Divinity Gundam's left side.
"Divinity, Eclipse, Infinite Justice, Twilight, Wing Zero, you're all cleared for launch." Meyrin Hawke announced a few seconds later, her voice resounding throughout the hanger. Even though Meyrin was currently acting as the Excalibur's combat information controller, directing the mobile suits in the hanger and clearing them for launch, she would be launching into battle soon, in her custom GuAIZ Experimental Firearms Type.
"Everyone ready?" Kira asked.
"Yes sir!" The millions of pilots choursed in perfect unison.
"Kira Jesus Yamato." The amethyst-eyed man called. "Divinity Gundam, god-complex returning."
"Lexi Yamato. Wing Gundam Zero, launching!"
"Cagalli Yula Athha, Akatsuki Gundam, heading out!"
"Hope Yamato, Destiny Gundam, I'm a pretty butterfly!"
"Lacus Clyne, Chimera Gundam, launching!"
"Mayu Asuka, Destiny Impulse Gundam, heading out!"
"Murrue Ramius, Strike Freedom Gundam, taking off!"
"Shiho Hahnenfuss, DEEP Arms Gundam, launching!"
"Kira Yamato, Freedom Gundam, let's do it!"
"Athrun Zala, Infinite Justice Gundam, taking off!"
"Shinn Asuka, Eclipse Gundam, heading out!"
"Lunaramia Hawke, Twilight Gundam, taking off!"
"Dearka Elsman, Buster Gundam, launching!"
"Nicol Amalfi, Blitz Gundam, heading out!"
"Andrew Waltfeld, Gaia Gundam, launching!"
The Gundams launched, along with many, many more machines as the Excalibur shot mobile suits and aircraft out of its hanger bays like missiles.
"I, sir, am offended at your remote controlled weaponry!" Luna scowled within the cockpit of the Twilight Gundam, as nearly a dozen grey DRAGOON units swarmed around her. The weapons had been launched by the Alliance's new GAT-X13S-666A Execution Gundam, although in truth, the Alliance machine was nothing more than a Legend Gundam on steroids. Luna smirked as the remote weapons suddenly stopped firing a few seconds later and dropped from the sky, as the Eclipse Gundam fired its twin buster rifle, the blindingly bright column of yellow energy instantly engulfing and vaporizing the Execution Gundam.
"Surprise, bitch!" Kira roared as the Divinity Gundam suddenly appeared out of thin air, grabbing a Strike Dagger out of the sky and slamming it to the ground. The female Earth Alliance pilot watched in horror as the angel-winged machine's physical shield split down the middle, and an instant later, a solid blade emerged from within the Divinity's shield, stabbing straight into the cockpit armor of the pinned Strike Dagger, the blade begining to glow with heat as it slowly forced its way through the armor.
The Divinity's heat blade suddenly stabbed forward, splitting the female alliance pilot in two at the waist, the wound immediately cauterized by the heat as the blade pierced out of the Strike Dagger's back. The Divinity's eyes flashed with a bright amethyst light as the angelic machine finally released the Strike Dagger and flew away as it exploded.
Even before the explosion caused by the Strike Dagger's destruction faded, the Divinity had ignited its thrusters and flown away, the angel-winged machine now moving to assist the ZGMF-X19A Infinite Justice Gundam piloted by Athrun Zala, and the YFX-600R GuAIZ Experimental Firearms Type piloted by Meyrin Hawke.
Meyrin's GuAIZ Experimental Firearms Type had been highly customized by its pilot, partially evidenced by the light green and soft pink color scheme which its armor now displayed. The former ZAFT mobile suit now sported Mirror Coated Phase Shift armor, a pair of beam shield generators on the forearms, a beam cannon in each palm, a beam claw on each knuckle, a rocket anchor in each hand and foot, and, in keeping with the machine's experimental desigination, it had also been outfitted with a prototype propulsion system known as transwarp.
"When will this end?" Meyrin growled, combining her beam rifles and sniping the still approaching enemy mobile suit forces, which consisted of machines from multiple diffrent universes, a direct result of the severly fractured timeline on and near the planet. Among the mobile suits were GAT-01A1 Daggers and GAT-04 Windams from the Cosmic Era, GNX-704T Aheads, SVMS-01 Union Flags and GNX-803T GN-XIVs from the Anno Domini Era, OZ-06MS Leos, OZ-07AMS Aries, WF-02MD Virgo IIs and WF-12SMS Tauruses from the After Colony Era and rounding out the attacking forces were MS-05B Zaku Is, MS-06F Zaku IIs, MS-07B Goufs, MS-09 Doms, MS-14A Gelgoogs, MSM-03 Goggs, MSM-04 Acguys, MSM-07 Z'Goks as well as a pair of MA-08 Big Zam mobile armors from the Universal Century.
"So, everyone has united and is attacking us, are they?" Kira scowled within the Divinity's cockpit as the two Big Zam mobile armors opened fire on the Excalibur with their primary beam cannons, both of the bright yellow beam blasts dissipating harmlessly against the shields of the massive warship. The Excalibur instantly responded to the two attackers, lashing out at the pair of mobile armors with millions of beam blasts from its Lohengrin positron blaster cannons and Gottfried high-energy beam cannons.
"What the...?" Shinn Asuka started, as the Gelgoog he was about to disable suddenly boosted to the left, revealing the Divinity Gundam's distinctive pink and green beam sword as it swung towards him. "Holy shit!" The crismon-eyed man yelled, barely dodging the Divinity's slash. Shinn glared at the Divinity as it severed the Gelgoog's head and kicked the now disabled machine away, leaving it to slam into and topple a pair of charging Leos. At that moment, a transport plane appeared on the radar. Shinn ignited his thrusters and sped towards the craft, but as he raised his rifle, it was speared by a pair of glowing green beam blasts from the Divinity Gundam. Shinn growled as he dropped the rifle, watching as the weapon exploded in mid-air and the trasnport, which according to his sensors was transporting nearly three tons of weapons-grade plutonium, sped away from the battlefield.
"I don't want to fight you, Shinn." Kira quietly sighed a few hours later, as the Divinity Gundam stood on the Excalibur's deck, facing the Eclipse Gundam, the two machines glaring at each other from a distance of only six meters. "The battle is over, by most accounts, Celestial Being has won. Our losses have been severe, but we're not the only ones that have suffered. The Earth Alliance losses are at least equal to our own."
"Don't talk to me about losses! Not when they nuked those poor helpless civilians at Pearl Harbor, and certainly not now that, thanks to you, the Allaince will soon have more nuclear weapons at their disposal! We may have won the battle, but victory isn't what it used to be. Not with those damned nukes around." Shinn retorted. "You may not want to fight me, I know that you have an oath about not killing most people, but I'd advise you to forget such a thing, it has no place on a real battlefield."
"If I had a dime for every time someone has told me that..." Kira said wearily. "You fight your way, and if you force me, I'll fight mine. I really just want to go back to all of our friends and family, who are worried about us." Upon reflection, mentioning family might not have been the most diplomatic of moves.
"Family? FAMILY! You bastard! You stole my family from me all those years ago! You and Cagalli's precious fight for ideals of peace. You dare speak to me of seeing FAMILY!" Shinn screamed, his voice so raw with pain that Kira actually flinched slightly. He was forced to gun his thrusters and dodge aside as Shinn opened fire. Kira had to grant the pilot of the Eclipse Gundam this much; he may have been emotionally unstable at the moment, but he didn't let it interfere with his shooting. Kira was actually having to work a bit to dodge the blasts.
"Stop it, Shinn. I don't want to fight you!" Kira insisted.
"Then stand still and let me kill you, you son of a bitch!" Shinn rasped, activating his beam swords. "I'll cut you into a hundred steaming little pieces."
"I can't let you do that either." Kira said sadly. Shinn laughed.
"I don't see how you're going to stop me. You can't keep away from me forever." Shinn chuckled slightly as the Eclipse disappeared from view. "Especially when I use the Mirage Colloid. You'll barely be able fight back at all!"
"I wouldn't be so confident in that asessment." Kira said coldly. It was very faint, but in atmosphere Mirage Colloid was slightly less effective than in space, there was the tiniest of blurs in the air around the outline of the Eclipse, barely noticable to the unaided eye. Most pilots would have ignored it as heat haze or an optical illusion. Kira was not most pilots. Shinn charged forward, beam sabers both going high for a pair of downward slashes. Kira abrupdtly reversed thrust and charged forward, planting one foot down and lifting his right knee squarely into the chest of the Eclipse, tossing the machine backwards to land on its back, mangling the beam turret. Shinn started to roll to his feet, but Kira gave him no chance, in a blur of movement the Divinity's right leg came back down and stomped on the right wrist of the Eclipse, crushing the connection to the hand and severing it with a loud crunch! Kira's rail guns pivoted out and downward and blew the Eclipse's legs off at mid-thigh, shorting out the Mirage Colloid. Shinn made a desperate prone swing with his last beam saber, but Kira flipped the Divinity completely over the wild swing and kicked the beam saber out of his hand as it righted itself like an acrobat. "Please, Shinn, you've lost. Don't force me to disable you completely." Kira pleaded, aiming his beam rifles, plasma cannons and rail guns at the Eclipse's head.