Aboard the Archangel Mikael, Captain Wengfang was trying to plan out their defense of the Santuary with the rest of the fleet that was stationed there. The Black Flag was going to bring as much of their firepower to the next fight to try and overthrow the Federation once and for all and it was rumored that they even had very cutting edge mobile suits in their arsenal. Out of the fleet at the Sanctuary, the most advanced mobile suit was the Strike Impulse Gundam, but Shinji Asuka alone couldn't fight an army no matter how strong of a pilot or how strong his mobile suit was. Meanwhile, Shinji sat in the mess hall on the Archangel, waiting for orders from the bridge to sortie. He had barely gotten any sleep since he had been on standby over the last day or so. His normally well kept hair had become ragged and the whites of his eyes matched the red color of his irises. He began to doze off as he ate dinner and decided it was necessary for him to go to bed.
Shinji walked over to his quarters, opened the door, and sunk into his bed. His roommate was already fast asleep and everyone was pretty worn out after the long shifts of keeping a steady watch over the skies. After a good rest, Shinji got up and headed over to the simulator and began practicing mock battles. The simulation was a scene from the Second Valentine War, a battle in space against a very large enemy force. Bringing the Impulse Gundam into combat since it was the closest unit to his Strike Impulse Gundam, he went against a very large force of Blue Cosmos units defending their super weapon, the Requiem. He flew around the skies seeking and destroying mobile suits and interchanging through various Sihouettes in order to meet his needs on the battlefield. When going against large groups of units he used the Blast Impulse to mow them down with the long range cannons. Against stronger mobile armor, he switched out to the Sword Impulse in order to get past their much stronger shielding capabilities. In one on one combat, the Force Impulse proved to be a considerably strong unit because of the suit's balance between offense and defense.
Shinji went at the simulator for hours, setting the enemies to aggro onto the allied fleet and the colony and recreating, to the best of his ability, the possible scenarios on the future battlefield that he'd probably face. The scenario was nearly impossible to try and clear successfully with minimum casualties. In several, of the simulations he was shot down because of the sheer number mobile units he would have to face. The task of fighting an entire army seemed impossible, but Shinji kept working at it, as the simulations grew on him, he became more adept at killing off enemies in multitudes. Once he mastered one difficulty level, he moved on to the next, spending hours on end overcoming all odds and gaining a complete mastery over the Impulse System. He aspired to be like his great-grandfather, Shinn Asuka, who was one of the most deadly pilots in ZAFT during his time and the first pilot of the Impulse Gundam.
Three weeks passed since Shinji first hopped into the simulator training. The crew began to worry about him because he barely ever left the room, only exiting the battle sim to go to the restroom or to eat. Shinji even slept in there as to make sure he could maximize his hours piloting the Impulse on the sim. The captain grew weary of Shinji's antics and decided to go over to the Simulation Training room to pull him off himself. When he opened the door to the room, he was hit with the unbearable stench of Shinji's body odor, but he went through it in order to talk to him. What he saw shocked him, other than the fact Shinji had managed to grow a decent beard during that time, he saw his work in the Impulse Gundam. On the big screen that displayed the mock battle, Captain Wengfang saw Shinji flying around in the Impulse knocking down hundreds of enemies at the time. They were all set to the highest difficulty, and he had no allies other than the Archangel supplying the Strike Packages and refueling with the Deuterion Beam.
"My god, Shinji," the Captain murmured, "what kind of monster have you become." Shinji hadn't even noticed his presence, all he did was count up. Wengfang hear him start at 9,800 and he kept counting up from there. "You've downed 9,800 mobile suits total," the Captain inquired those were already impressive statistics for anyone using the simulation room like he was.
"No, Captain," Shinji replied his eyes were still glued to the screen, "just in this mock battle. I've downed maybe 100,000 to 200,000 suits from when I started. Including mobile armors and ships, I have 140 - 240,000 enemies slain."
"Why the hell are you doing this, Shinji," the Captain paused the simulation and Shinji turned his attention away from the screen and towards him.
"At first, I was only training on the sim to practice going against a large horde enemies," Shinji said solemnly, "but then it became a quest to conquer my own boundaries, my grandfather, Shinn Asuka, told me a story about an enemy that he had to defeat. This enemy was undoubtedly one of the strongest he'd ever faced, and it seemed impossible to beat him. But he trained, hours on end, sacrificing sleep, nutrition, and time with the rest of the crew in order to overcome this enemy. Then the time came when that enemy came to face him again on the battlefield. While that enemy had only faced him twice before that fateful battle, my grandfather, Shinn, fought him hundreds maybe even thousands of times. The result, my grandfather obliterated him, he knew his enemy and read him like a book while his enemy barely knew him. I intend on doing the same here."
"But this is insane," the Captain exclaimed, "Shinji, report to your quarters, I need you to be completely ready for the next battle, and not fooling around here in the simulation room." Shinji saluted and drifted out of the Simulation room. The Captain walked up to the computer that kept track of all the simulation records and went to Shinji's logs. Wengfang realized that Shinji had been understating the amount of work he put into winning the next battle. "524,915 mobile suits downed. 100,501 mobile armors downed. 20,000 ships sunk." The Captain looked out the door to see Shinji hopping down the hallway towards him room. "Is it even possible to come up with these numbers, he broke every single simulation record to date." The Captain went though his battle data, and Shinji in the Impulse Gundam managed to turned around many historic battles of the 2nd and 3rd Valentine war, fighting often on the losing side of the battle and by himself turning those defeats into victories.
Shinji sunk into his bed for the first time in days. After cleaning up, he found himself at peace, but he didn't let the captain's orders stop him from training. In his head, Shinji kept running through all the scenarios and kept flying the Impulse. His determination to overcome his own limits crept into his thoughts throughout the entire day, and even haunted him in his sleep. There was always some way to improve, and he kept driving himself to become better.
In the ruins of the old Requiem Base on the moon, the Black Flag gathered all their military units to prepare for the final push into the Sanctuary. The Big Boss heralded it as one of the largest invasions to date. Hundreds of thousands of new recruits marched throughout the base, and mobile suits, armors and ships flew in as the Black Flag prepared to wage war on the last colony held by the UHFS. A large rally was held in the halls of the Requiem Base as the many Black Flag combatants gathered together. Standing at the top of a catwalk was the Big Boss and he was guarded by Fareed and Gara.
"TODAY, WE FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE THAT WAS TAKEN AWAY FROM US," the Big Boss exclaimed, "TODAY, WE FIGHT FOR OUR FREEDOM TO LIVE OUR LIVES THE WAY WE WANT!" The crowd threw themselves into an uproar, chanting "Black Flag" and shooting off several thousand rounds from their guns into the air. Mobile suit crews began loading into whatever suits they had, ranging from ZAFT Zakus, Goufs, and Doms to EA Windams and Murasames. Several engineers went underway to prepare Gara and Fareed's mobile suits to be fit for launch as soon as they could. Fareed's Legend Gundam was outfitted to be a close range combat unit, replacing the beam funnels with sword funnels. Gara's Chaos Gundam was refurbished to handle the use of much more powerful beam weapons with a new core installed and with replacements of the much older funnel system with a new set of weapons and an extra set of funnels.
Their ships launched from the surface of the moon and made their way to the "Sanctuary" colony. Their flagship, Baron Quinn, a red and black Minerva-class battleship, lead the charge towards the Sanctuary.
"Heat signatures approaching the Sanctuary, Captain," one of the officers called, "it's Black Flag's fleet." The Captain took a deep breath and began giving orders. The Archangel roared into action, heading to the front to face off against their enemy.
"All hands to battle stations, this is not a drill," the Captain ordered, "Ready the Lohnegrin III, Raidens, CIWS, Galiants, and load Guardians in the missile chambers." The Mikael's guns began to rotate towards the direction of the Black Flag force. "Wait for my signal to fire," the Captain said before pausing. There was a silence that settled over the bridge as they saw thousands of lights from mobile suits and armors begin to depart from the ships of the Black Flag. The thought that this might be their last fight dawned over them.
In the hangar, Shinji hopped into the cockpit of the Core Splendor, "I'll be launching now, let the Captain know," he told the engineer, "send me out with the Blast Package."
"Yes, sir," the engineer replied. He sent an arm signal to the flight director, and he cleared the Strike Impulse to launch.
"Shinji Asuka, Core Splendor, Launching," the core fighter's engines lit up, and it flew off the platform. Following it were the subsequent, leg, armor, and tactical package parts. Outside of the Archangel, the Strike Impulse underwent its conversion sequence. The Core Splendor folded into a small pod to house the leg and armor parts. Lasers guided the legs and armor into place and there was an electronic hiss as the drills locked them into place. Another set of lasers guided the Blast Strike Package onto the Strike Impulse, this time the Blast Strike Package had replaced its missile chambers with another set of positron cannons.
"Why is Shinji launching now, Captain, they are still too far out," one of the officers exclaimed furiously because of Shinji's lack of discipline.
"Let him do what he does, follow his instructions precisely. If we are going to make it out of this alive, it will be on him," the Captain replied.
"Fire a set of Guardians to my location," Shinji ordered. The gunner, unsure about his decision reluctantly fired them off. Two pairs of missiles flew out of the launch chambers and locked onto the Strike Impulse. They broke apart and launched bits that generated a large Beam Shield, "On my mark send me a new package, make sure each package is loaded with an extra battery, Shinji out." The comms went silent as they watched Shinji in the distance, the first set of enemies began to surround him, but Shinji, undisturbed by their presence, began to take care of them. He saw a group of Zakus and a group of Goufs on his left and right trying to flank him. Pulling out his long range beam cannons, he mowed them down as they tried to get past the shield. A group got past the shield by going over it but, Shinji was well aware of their plan and fired the set of cannons on his back upwards, instantly destroying that group of enemies.
The situation seemed more precarious as the numbers kept pouring onto him, but Shinji remained calm, emptying cannon blast after cannon blast into the enemy's front line. In the distance, the crew of the Mikael saw beams of red and yellow fly across the sky and following them were a series of explosions from the mobile suits coming apart. Shinji fell back behind the guardian shield, and called for another strike package, specifically Force Package. The Mikael sent one towards him and it replaced the Blast Package he started out with. He flew through the horde of enemy mobile suits, shooting through as many of them as he could as he flew past.
As he approached one of the Nazca-class battleships, the captain of it began to panic and ordered his crew to begin firing off anti-air armories. However, the Force Strike Impulse proved to be a hardy opponent as its shield prevented a lot of damage as it flew towards the bridge of the battleship. A group of Black Flag Murasames turned their attention toward him and switched into Fighter Mode. Shinji sensed their presence and flipped the Force Strike Impulse to meet them. He threw a Beam Boomerang which cut through the cockpits of all the Murasames as it made its way around. With the Murasame guard detail down, Shinji flew up to the bridge of the battleship and fired a couple of rounds into it, instantly killing everyone inside. With a few more shots to vital spots, the battleship went down and the Strike Impulse departed.
"A mobile suit unit has managed to break through our front line," one of the officers aboard the Minerva called out. The Big Boss seemed interested.
"Send Gara and Fareed out to deal with him and tell our ships to begin firing, destroy the enemy ships, but primarily focus on the Sanctuary," the Big Boss commanded, "prioritize mobile suit movement to defending our ships, I want to make sure that they are defended properly."
"Yes sir," the crew replied. They began issuing orders to their respective departments and throughout the Black Flag's fleet. Their ships began to fire at the UHFS fleet. Bursts of red and yellow filled the battlefield as beams flew across from one end of the battlefield to the other. Then, Captain Wengfang and the rest of the UHFS fleet gave the orders to their crew to commence firing. The Archangel and the rest of the fleet launched groups of "Guardian" Missiles to create a beam shield around the colony. The Beam Shield lit up creating an impenetrable wall of radiating light surrounding the colony. The fire from the BF's ships was deflected every time the beams struck the shield.
As the fighting drew closer to the line of defense set up by the UHFS, the UHFS Fleet began sending out their mobile suits. Groups of Windams and Murasames flew out of the flight chambers of the UHFS's ships and engaged in combat with the BF's forces. Green and pink beams flew all around the battlefield as the fighting escalated. The Strike Impulse fell back and assisted the Mobile Suit teams in pushing back the enemy force. Flying across the battlefield and targeting squadrons of BF mobile suits and destroying them swiftly. His aim was deadly accurate, firing at the cores of the Zakus and Goufs to make them explode and break enemy formations up into smaller and more manageable chunks.
"Deliver the Chaos Strike Package," Shinji called out over the communications. The Archangel immediately launched a fighter carrying the Chaos Package. The Chaos package was based off of the Chaos Gundam used by Phantom Pain in the 2nd Valentine War. It carried a pair of weapon pods that could be detached and used like funnels. The weapon pods carried a set of Beam Cannons and missiles designed for mobile suit versus mobile suit combat. The Chaos Package also gave the suit a distinct edge in space combat because it increased the Impulse's mobility and speed in a zero gravity environment with its improved propulsion system.
The Chaos Package was laser guided onto the Impulse, replacing the Force Package. Once it was secure, Shinji jettisoned back into the fray. Detaching his weapon pods to let them fly on their own and flying through the front. The weapon pods locked onto enemies and took them out with their variety of weapons loaded onto them. Meanwhile Shinji looked for large groups of enemies and locked on with his the Beam Cannon mounted on the backpack of the Chaos Strike Impulse. When he got a lock, the Beam Cannon fired, lighting up the emptiness of space with a sudden flash of green light followed by the explosions of several enemy mobile suits that were caught in the blast. When an enemy managed to get close enough to challenge the Chaos Strike Impulse, they were met with extreme force as the Chaos Strike Impulse is mounted with a set of Beam Claws that extend from its two mounted shields.
"There he is," one of the BF MS commanders called out from his GOUF, he and his team managed to find the Impulse in the middle of the battlefield, "get him before he kills anymore of our men." His group began to surround the Chaos Strike Impulse and they threw out their whips, locking down the Gundam. Shinji though this was the end as he braced himself for his inevitable death. The one thing he forgot about the simulations is that there were too many factors to account for on the battlefield, especially experience and mental toughness. Letting his guard down for one second cost him his life. "FOR THE PRESERVATION OF OUR GLORIOUS FUTURE," the MS commander cried as he raised his Beam Rifle. The rifle barrel began to glow as the shot charged up, but then a green light descended upon the MS commander's GOUF instantly destroying it. Shinji looked above him to see a golden mobile suit take to the skies.
"The Akatsuki," Shinji said to himself surprised by the sudden change, "Guile-sama, what are you doing?"
"I'm protecting the dream that my grandmother set in motion all those years ago," Guile replied. The Shiranui Akatsuki let its DRAGOONs fly about the battlefield, locking onto enemy mobile suits and incapacitating them. Beams of green light flew everywhere as the DRAGOONs did their work on the enemy mobile suits. A stray energy blast from a BF Battleship headed toward the Akatsuki but it was deflected by the Beam Shield that was created by the Akatsuki's DRAGOONs. Now freed from the grasp of the BF's GOUF units, the Strike Impulse Gundam made its way deeper into the enemy territory. As the Impulse made its way into the back lines, the BF's ships and mobile suits fell before it. Shinji managed to rack up hundreds of confirmed kills and many more unconfirmed as he tore through the battlefield. After taking out many enemies, the BF units on the battlefield feared him and began to back off from areas where it was confirmed to see the Strike Impulse.
Aboard the Baron Quinn, Gara was sitting at the launch pad with his Chaos Gundam Mk II. "Gara Hiragaya, Chaos Gundam Mk III, Launching," the Chaos Gundam launched from the platform of the Baron Quinn. He headed toward the location of the Strike Impulse with great speed. This version of the Chaos Gundam unlike the Chaos Package that Shinji was using on the Strike Impulse, was somehow improved to have extremely powerful propulsor systems. Shinji's instincts kicked in as he felt the Chaos Gundam reach his location.
Then after a few seconds, the two met face to face. Shinji stared down at his doppleganger, "so I see the Big Boss sent his personal guard dogs to finally deal with me." He called in his weapon pods and trained them onto the Chaos Gundam, "I'll make sure to leave your lifeless mobile suit with a reminder for your guys to not mess with us."
Gara looked up and replied, "Same," as he armed his Beam Rifle and his four weapon pods and aimed them at the Strike Impulse.