Celestial Being Chronicles - Chapter 101
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.
"Dammit!" Shinn Asuka shouted as he ducked behind the smoldering remains of Athrun Zala's destroyed Porsche Panamera Turbo, bullets sailing over his head before he managed to get behind cover.
He had managed to fire a burst from his beam sub-machine gun, but the searing energy blasts had missed his target completely. He had barely passed his marksmanship test all those millenia ago in ZAFT, and he hadn't practiced nearly as often as he should have, and it was now showing when it mattered. All of the beam blasts had sailed to the right of his intended target, and gotten his attention. And now he was pinned.
"What's going on?" Talia growled, her hands clutching her beam pistol.
"War." Athrun said coolly, before he then got up onto his knees and fired two bursts from his own projectile assualt rifle before laying back down behind the crates, inbetween Talia and Shinn.
"One of them is neutralized." Athrun said.
"Yeah." Shinn asked. "Of how many?"
"At least a dozen." Athrun answered. "Probably more"
"Great." Shinn replied, sarcasm lacing his voice.
"These people are nothing more than terrorists." Allister growled, even as he utilized his mental abilities to probe the mnds of their attackers.
Shinn leaned out again, this time intending to hit his target. The enemy wasn't stupid at all, they had already taken cover, two of them behind a burning Sport Utility Vehicle, possibly a Chevy Tahoe, the flames obscuring their forms. Two others were behind a mobile suit hangar. One of them was in a hangar herself, specifically the Strike Dagger hangar.
Shinn chose to attack the Strike Dagger hangar terrorist next. One of the blasts hit her, somewhere in her upper body, and another struck her left shoulder. Her screams were still audible despite all of the noise and she fell to the ground, clearly out of the battle if not dead.
Aoi crawled up beside Shinn, wielding her beam assault rifle in one hand and a flash grenade in the other.
As the Gaia disabled the last Strike Dagger, Andy spoke through the open communications line. "Minerva, send out the Eclipse, Freedom, Justice, Infinite Justice and Strike Freedom." A few seconds later, the five requested mobile suits screamed out of the Minerva's launch bays.
The ground rumbled a few seconds later as five Gundams landed near Athrun's group, and they rapidly sprinted to the newly arrived machines, quickly boarding them. Athrun in the Infinite Justice, Shinn in the Eclipse, Talia in the Justice, Aoi in the Freedom and Allister in the Strike Freedom. As the group boarded their machines, a terrible thought occured to Shinn, and the crimson-eyed man quickly accessed the communications line. "Hey, Athrun?"
"What?" Athrun asked, he already knew this was going to be bad, judging by Shinn's tone of voice.
"Do you think they hijacked anything else besides Strike Daggers?" Shinn asked. "That can't be all what they were really after."
"Aw, crap." Athrun rasped a moment later.
His voice filled the common channel an instant later, even as Shinn instinctively flipped to it. "To any and all Copernicus City pilots, this is Captain Athrun Zala of Celestial Being, can you confirm that the enemy hasn't stolen anything else besides Strike Daggers? Answer me."
"I've got no idea!" Screamed a panicky pilot, probably under heavy fire.
An older, more knowledgable voice answered a second later. "This is Commander Ernest Hemingway of the Copernicus City Defensive Forces, I've heard nothing yet. Communicating with the ground and base is sporadic. All I know is that we're starting to beat them now, we outnumber them and they didn't take as many as we had thought."
'That's good.' Shinn thought, relieved.
"That's why they ran into the city when we began to overwhelm them." The older voice said with bitterness. "They're hoping to use the buildings, civilians and ground troops to their advantage. They trying to turn the city into a massive hostage."
"I know." Athrun said. "Thank you. Just keep me updated, Commander."
"Will do, Captain Zala." The older voice said. Before Shinn switched back to the squad's channel, though, the older voice spoke again, and he sounded a lot less sure of himself.
"Wait, I see something at the edge of the city. It's an odd mobile suit...I think it's a..."
"What?" Athrun asked.
"It's coming right towards me, it's rushing me head-on!" The older voice said, in a tone that was approaching panic.
"We're coming, Commander! Shinn, Talia, hurry! We have to help him!" Athrun said.
"I'm not doing enough damage, it's got a beam saber out!" Screamed the Commander's voice.
"We'll be there in ten seconds, Commander!" Athrun responded, hoping to reassure the other pilot. "What is it? What's the mobile suit? A Windam?"
A few tense seconds later, the commander screamed something that no one would ever forget. "No, it's...it's a Gundam!" With that, the line went dead.
Shinji Ikari couldn't go five seconds without hearing Rei Ayanami's cackling over the radio. In fact, it was borderline incessant.
"Oh my God, oh my God!" Rei exclaimed. "They're just like little bottles to shoot at! This is so easy!"
'Speak for yourself, I can barely control this thing.' Shinji thought. The Chaos was a lumbering monster in his hands, good for squishing infantry but he hadn't been able to do much else. It had been about a minute ago when he had figured out how to use the beam assault cannon equipped to his machine.
And he was borderline horrified with the results.
The Strike Daggers were completely hopeless when faced with the cannon. It was like a heavy machine-gun when deployed against infantry, it tore Strike Daggers open at a frightening pace. Windams could withstand the punishment better but even they collapsed under the withering fire if they took too many shots. The only problem was, he was fast running out of power, and he had wasted many, many shots by firing them into buildings and the ground instead of hitting Strike Daggers and Windams.
He heard his father's voice then, calm and collected. "We have accomplished our mission, we have all five Gundams in our possession. We're going to need to pull back and retreat. The remaining hijacked Windams and Strike Daggers will buy us time."
"How?" Shinji asked as he watched Rei cleave a Strike Dagger through the cockpit with her beam lance. She laughed uproariously again, as the Strike Dagger anticlimatically slammed into the ground in two pieces.
Rei's highly amused voice entered the conversation then. "Why, silly, we're going to blow open the colony and fly through the hole, that's what."
He then heard the ultimate commander of this operation, Ristuko Akagi, speak. Apparently she had stolen a Gundam as well. "All right, I have Savior, Shinji has Chaos, Rei has Abyss, and Hikari has Impulse. I've placed Toji in command of the defense since he has Wing Zero. They can't fall back until we're out of here. The quicker we leave, the quicker they can escape too."
"But I'm having so much fun!" Rei whined.
"Save it, Rei." Ritsuko barked. "You're forgetting we're operating on a limited power supply. You don't want to lose power here."
"Hmmph." Rei huffed.
'At least someone can rein her in.' Shinji thought.
A male voice entered the conversation, which Shinji assumed was Toji. "We can't hold out for much longer and to make matters worse, the douchebags from Celestial Being have arrived."
"More cannon fodder." Rei said with relish.
"Hold them back as long as you can. Don't let them notice we're escaping." Ritsuko instructed.
"Got it, ma'am." The pilot of a stolen Strike Dagger replied. "We won't fail you."
Ritsuko's voice instantly became filled with authority. "All right, everyone in a Gundam, follow me. We'll blow our way out and head to the rendezvous point. Let's not let everyone's deaths be in vain."
"Douchebags!" Athrun screamed in fury, as the Infinite Justice Gundam dropped its mirage colloid and sliced a Strike Dagger in half from crown to crotch, before streaking towards the five retreating Gundams.
"Yeah, you people are douchebags!" Hikari roared, as the Impulse brandished a beam saber from its flight back, ignited the weapon and clashed with the Infinite Justice. "What's wrong, can't handle the truth?"
"And God said; let there be silence." Another voice calmly spoke over every single communications line as a searing beam blast suddenly sliced through the head of the Impulse Gundam, forcing the white mobile suit to break the saber clash and fall back. Athrun smirked, instantly taking advantage of the situation, he kicked the Impulse away before then severing its arms and legs, watching as it crumbled to the ground in five seperate pieces.
Two Strike Daggers, both equipped with Jet Strikers, pulled up desperately to avoid a vicious burst of beam rifle fire from the Infinite Justice Gundam, and Athrun seized his chance with a scream to bury the Infinite Justice's rocket anchor into the chest of one of them, then pull it close and impale it on the beam boomerang's blade. The second Dagger backed away to shower the Infinite Justice with missiles, but Athrun darted forwards regardless and speared the second Dagger on a beam rifle blast.
A moment later, he vaulted back into the sky as a storm of beam bolts ripped up the lunar surface beneath him. He snapped his attention up towards the black sky, just in time to see a golden, gleaming Windam, equipped with am IWSP Striker, slam its beam sword down onto the Infinite Justice's beam shield, and a man's cackling laughter filled his cockpit.
"To think I'd get to fight Athrun Zala, of all people!" The voice cried, and Athrun narrowed his eyes at the blond man on his auxiliary screen, in a blue ZAFT flight suit. "As though today wouldn't be a good enough day as it is!"
Athrun frowned. "And just who the hell are you?"
The Windam surged forward, flinging the Infinite Justice back; Athrun jerked the controls backwards as the Windam brought its left arm around, a glowing heat rod whipping by. "Rudolf Wellington, the one and only!" He yelled. The golden Windam went back on the attack with both its beam guns, and the green bolts slammed uselessly against the Infinite Justice's beam shield. "I get the chance to kill one of the greatest race-traitors ever to our people! Fortune smiles on me after all!"
The Infinite Justice rattled and Athrun ground his teeth as the Windam brought down its sword again to punch him backwards. He darted up over the heat rod and raised his rifle, only for the Windam's second heat rod to lance out, curl its way around the rifle's barrel, and destroy his beam rifle with a surge of electricity. Athrun backflipped away from the Windam's fire and abandoned his rifle, and as he came back down with a crash, he drew a beam saber and clenched his fists around the Infinite Justice's controls.
"Ah, want to die like a knight, do you?" Rudolf chuckled, and the Windam pointed its sword at the Infinite Justice with a flourish. "Yes, you must be trembling by now! Are you remembering who I am yet, Zala? Rudolf Wellington, the Golden Swordsman?"
"I have no idea who the hell you are!" Athrun shot back. "Nor do I really care!"
Fury flashed across Rudolf's features as he snarled. "Well, you will." With that, the Windam charged.
A pulsing red beam sizzled by the Eclipse Gundam and through one of its afterimages as Shinn Asuka roared into the battle. He fired back with his beam rifle and up ahead, the Launcher Dagger that had shot at him ducked aside, just in time for two Sword Daggers to let loose a torrent of beam rifle fire. Shinn threw the Eclipse towards the lunar surface and then darted aside as a third Dagger rushed in with a powerful overhead hack with a beam axe. He whipped around and fired his beam rifle, pounding a shot through the Dagger's chest and blowing it apart, and then took off before the other three could catch him.
"And then there's you!" Shinn shouted, as the Eclipse exchanged its rifle for its anti-ship sword, the beam blade flashing to life. He whirled around to bring the sword to bear on a Sword Dagger behind him, sawing it in two. The Daggers below fired again as their comrade's machine exploded and Shinn threw his mobile suit back on the defensive.
He blinked in surprise as something touched his senses and shot a glance to his right, where he saw two more Jet Daggers line up with missile launchers in both hands. They fired the heavy missiles down towards Copernicus City, the projectiles slamming into the metal surface and ripping it open. The pair of Daggers then abandoned the launchers and darted aside, just as a volley of beams from the Minerva slammed through and blasted the entire area apart in a shower of flames.
Shinn dug the Eclipse's feet into the lunar dirt and readied his sword as the Daggers moved in, but a moment later another green beam lanced out of the smoke and blew the Launcher Dagger apart, and the Freedom Gundam corkscrewed into the fray with a volley of beam rifle fire.
"Vulture Two reports that the gas has reached the lower residential sectors." Fuyutsuki reported from his chair by the captain's seat, glancing across the mapping console towards Gendo. "And Banshee One says that nobody has yet tried to retake the controls for the circulation system."
Leaning back in his chair, Gendo flashed a victorious smile. "Then it all went pretty much flawlessly." He said with a shrug. "Tell Banshee One to destroy the circulation controls and lock the system open. Vultures will abandon the cylinders, they're pretty much empty by now anyway, and return to the fleet. I think our work here is done." He idly stared down at his fingernails. "Nasty stuff, that Sarin Gas. Kills in about a minute if you get enough of it in there, and we injected enough to kill ten million people. They must be almost all dead by now."
Fuyutsuki looked back towards Copernicus, bearing some small scars of the battle on its outer surface and studded with empty gas canisters. He hated to think of what was going on inside. Nerve gas did awful things to people, and Copernicus had always been fairly neutral. He couldn't really say they deserved this.
He shook his head. There was no such thing as neutrality. Not in this war. "Order all units to retreat at once. Fire the flares and activate the blinders. Once we get our troops back aboard, set course at top speed for our next target." He glanced back at Gendo. "The operation seems to have gone flawlessly. Congratulations, Ikari."
Gendo grinned back. "It's what I do."
Silence reigned on the Minerva's bridge as the auxiliary screens showed camera pans of Copernicus's interior, and the bleeding, filthy corpses strewn throughout the streets. Cars smashed, bodies twisted into hideous poses, fires burning, all victims of an invisible cloud of death. The Minerva's bridge crew watched in silent horror.
"That ZAFT fleet is retreating behind blinders and combat flares." Arthur started quietly with a wavering voice.
Meyrin swallowed hard and turned away from the image of a dead woman with a foaming mouth and a face that looked too much like Luna's for her to bear. "Follow their course." She ordered softly. "Lexi, is the Tannhäuser ready?"
"Y-Yes ma'am." Lexi answered.
"Then fire it and clear out the debris in front of us." Meyrin ordered.
The Minerva rocked as the Tannhäuser sliced through the wreckage blocking the port's opening, and with a thundering blast, the way was clear and the debris rained down on the Minerva's hull as the warship ignited its thrusters and exited the docking port. Meyrin peered through the smoke, at the dozen empty gas cylinders standing sentinel over the dead lunar landscape, and the dead cityscape underneath.