Celestial Being Chronicles - Chapter 144
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.
In the research facility of the Mendel Colony, there was a fearsome firefight, people were getting killed left and right as bullets were fired back and forth. Though they had achieved the element of surprise, the Celestial Being infiltration force was dealing with hardening resistance as more ZAFT troops arrived. The strike force had already lost nearly a third of its men, and they had to hurry since their overall progress would determine the mission's success.
As soon as he heard the explosions outside, the young brown-haired man got into his pilot suit and headed down to the mobile suit deck, with his gun drawn. Unfortunately though, when he arrived, the area was a mess and parts of the deck were in flames, even as gunfire flew about in all directions. A close shot brought him back to reality and with uncanny precision; he brought down his attacker with a shot to the head. He then started returning fire at the infiltration force, taking out several men in the process, especially concentrating on those who were close to grabbing the two gundams.
After seeing two more of her men fall to the ZAFT gunfire, the strike leader yelled out her orders. "Give us some cover fire, we're going to get the suits and get out of here."
She and two of her comrades were quick to sneak in as close as they could while the rest increased their rate of fire forcing even the brown-haired man down. However, the young brown-haired pilot immediately saw what was about to happen, and as the small group went for the two mobile suits, he immediately jumped down onto one of the gundams while taking out both soldiers, but missing the leader, who returned fire at her assailant. They both landed on one of the mobile suits and ran for the cockpit while trying to fire at each other. Soon they had their guns pointed right at each other's face when an explosion suddenly pushed them so close that they could see each other's face clearly.
Both nearly hesitated before another explosion occurred, one that shook them back to reality. With the facility nearly engulfed in flames and the strike force preparing to head out, the girl immediately jumped into the cockpit of the waiting Gundam, even as the young man fired at her.
As soon as she was in, she immediately activated the mobile suit's systems and read the name of the suit. "ZGMF-666 Lucifer Gundam." She took a deep breath after reading the schematics. "So, this is a demonic version of the Freedom Gundam, which means that the pilot I saw was him."
Back outside, the brown-haired pilot made a run for the other Lucifer Gundam, and as he jumped in and activated his systems, he was thinking the same thoughts. 'So that was her wasn't it and if she is here then the others are surely nearby.' His hands and face tightened in anger as he spoke aloud to himself. "I'll make sure to send them all on a one way trip to the worse kind of hell possible." On one of the Lucifer Gundam's view screens, he saw the other Lucifer Gundam rise, and he turned to prepare for battle.
Both the Infinite Justice Gundam and the Akatsuki Gundam were engaged in saber duels with GuAIZ mobile suits, which they dispatched easily, after a few seconds, they got word that the mission had been accomplished.
"All units; fall back!" Athurn yelled, as the remaining Astrays, Murasamaes and Tauruses quickly began heading back to the Excalibur, while Athrun and Cagalli waited for any sign of their prize. After a moment of tense waiting, an unidentified object appeared on their radar. The two mobile suits turned and their pilots were treated to a horrific sight; the image of a dark, almost evil version of the Freedom Gundam floated in front of them.
As soon as it moved to approach them, Athrun hailed the pilot of the mobile suit. "Who's in there?"
"It's me, Lacus." She answered. "The other suit is already activated."
"Is that what I think it is?" Cagalli asked.
"Yes." Lacus nodded. "Guess who is the other pilot is."
Before they could continue, the other Lucifer Gundam appeared and its pilot announced his presence angrily. "I thought that I would find all of you here, my old friends."
Athrun immediately activated his communication screen and got the shock of his life. In the seat of the other Lucifer Gundam, despite the fact that he looked a lot older and parts of his skin was pale and broken; it was none other than his former childhood friend Kira Yamato. "It's been a long time hasn't it, Kira."
"Well, it hasn't been long enough for my taste." Kira snarled, before pulling up his beam rifle and firing at all three of his former comrades, forcing them to dodge, before the Lucifer Gundam activated its wings and charged, igniting a beam saber and raining down beam machine gun fire on his foes.
"I'm surprised that you out of all people, would embrace this lifestyle." Kira smirked as he suddenly flew at the other Lucifer Gundam and the two machines locked beam sabers.
"Ten years of the recent events can really do that to a person." Lacus retorted.
"Well, you made a mistake, now let those be your last thoughts before I send you to hell." Kira laughed as he charged in again for another beam saber strike.
For as long as humanity had ever ventured into space, the moon had been an important stepping stone. Even with the damage it had suffered during the end of the First Bloody Valentine War, the moon still functioned as the main headquarters for the Celestial Being space fleet and in a way was its very own Pearl Harbor.
With word of the raid coming in and what they had discovered, an emergency meeting was ordered and many were called up for active service. All group and squadron commanders were to attend the conference.
In a waiting room, Cagalli, Athrun, and Lacus were brooding when the door opened and two new arrivals walked in, both of whom they all recognized. Athrun was the first to speak. "Hello, Yzak, Dearka, how's everything."
"Well everything was just going fine until you three had to participate at that raid." The silver haired pilot replied sarcastically.
After a moment, Dearka added. "Everywhere you guys go; you create havoc that we have to clean up."
"Well we ran into unexpected trouble." Athrun responded.
"Yeah, I'll bet to have both your suits banged up like they are." Yzak nodded.
"They had several new models piloted by very experienced pilots and they also had the other Lucifer Gundam." Cagalli sighed.
"But they shouldn't have been that much trouble." Yzak replied.
"Guess who developed the two suits and was piloting one of them." Cagalli sighed.
"The pilot of the other Lucifer Gundam was Kira." Lacus spoke up, beating them to the punch.
That sent a chill down both Yzak and Dearka's spines and it was a few minutes before Yzak could speak. "You're saying that Kira now works for them." Both of them gravely nodded and silence reigned, as the two new arrivals had to deal with the information.
After a moment of silence, Dearka asked. "Anything else we should know about before we say our prayers?"
"The other three suits that we battled were more powerful than even the Calamity, Forbidden and Raider Gundams of the First Bloody Valentine War, and they were the reason both my suit and Cagalli's were so damaged badly." Athrun said. That was a big problem for both Yzak and Dearka, whose gundams were reliable but were seriously lacking in firepower needed to take on the suits that Athrun had described.
Suddenly, the doors slid open and several admirals walked in. One of them was former Archangel Captain Murrue Ramius, who still looked very beautiful. She immediately nodded to her friends, who quickly took their seats before the lights dimmed.
Within minutes, footage of the recent attacks and the raid on the Mendel Colony were played. Shocks murmurs came from all directions as the sight of what Lacus, Athrun, and Cagalli had faced was being played for them. Yzak's face was contorted in anger, while Dearka's was thoughtful as they watched the battle footage. Even the admirals were spooked by what they saw.
When the footage ended and the lights came back on, everyone's attention was turned back to the as the most senior of the admirals, a dark haired man by the name of; Daren Larson, stood up to speak. "We've been suspecting that ZAFT had been developing new weapons and that it had been preparing to resume the war, united under a new banner."
As the ships streaked out of the Excalibur's hangers, a communications signal suddenly cut across all frequencies, coming in loudly, clearly, and in a tone that turned everyone's spines to ice. "Well, well, you're all bigger fools than I thought, and now you're virtually blind." Murrue was about to order the communications officer to trace the communications link, but the voice chuckled slightly. "Don't bother trying to trace this signal, you won't find me until the last seconds of your life."
"Is that you, Kira?" Murrue asked.
The voice was silent for a few seconds before finally replying. "I'm glad you already know the voice of your death."
"Why are you doing this?" Murrue asked.
Kira's reply was much harsher than she expected. "It was people like you, Blue Cosmos, Athrun and Lacus, who threw my friends and I into this madness all those millenia ago, and now I'm just returning the favor for what you all stole from me." Murrue was shocked and was about to say something, but Kira silenced her and broke her soul. "I hope you see Mu La Flaga when I send you to hell." With that, Kira signed off and there was a deathly silence for exactly ten seconds before someone yelled out. "Admiral, I've got an energy spike."
Before Murrue could issue any orders, a huge wave of energy beams, all from the Lucifer Gundam, sliced through the armada, completely destroying many of the smaller ships, in addition to ripping a Soveregin-class battleship into several pieces. The fleet barely had time to respond before another wave of energy beams from the Lucifer impacted, causing even more severe damage.
"Do we have any power left to the hangers?" Murrue asked. One of the officers nodded and Murrue instantly yelled out a single order. "Launch all mobile suits, now!"
Despite the heavy barrages of energy blasts that were repeatedly striking the ships, Asuka, Cagalli, Hope, Lacus, Mayu, Misato and Shiho managed to clear the mobile suit deck before another wave of beam blasts arrived. Without a moment to lose, everyone started searching, but Lacus's suit, which had been redesignated as the ZGMF-X14A Chimera Gundam, was the only one that could see through the interference, and it took her no time to locate Kira.
"I've detected Kira. I'm transferring his position to the rest of you." Lacus announced, and within seconds, the others were also seeing the same information, even as the pink-winged Chimera Gundam raised its combined beam rifle, aiming it towards the Lucifer Gundam, and firing into the night with several explosions resulting as the blasts struck home against the armor of cloaked enemy ships and mobile suits, some of which had decided to break and attack too early.
The void of space itself seemed to snap open, a flash of blue light filling the blackness as the Lucifer Gundam roared into battle with its anti-ship sword drawn and ready. It lunged down towards the closest Windam and slashed it in two amid a cloud of afterimages; four of the remaining Windams turned their guns to the sky to fire back at the black Gundam, but it foiled their blasts with another blur of illusions, and charged again.
"The Lucifer Gundam!" Hope shouted; the Destiny wheeled around, beam cannon ready.
The Lucifer whirled down to the ground and cut a pair of Tauruses in half. It skidded to a halt on its feet and turned towards the Destiny, Hope's face contorted into a scowl. "Excalibur, activate all weapons and target the Lucifer Gundam! All units, pull back to the ship!"
"You're not getting away that easy!" Kira cried, and the Lucifer lunged after the retreating mobile suits, but a moment later the sensors beeped; he glanced down at the radar, his blood ran cold, and his eyes shot up towards the Excalibur.
"Son of a bitch." He whispered, an instant before the Excalibur opened fire and world lit up.