Gara and Shinji engaged in a duel amidst the chaos of the Battle of the Sanctuary. Gara's mobile suit, the Chaos Gundam Mk III initially took the advantage because Shinji was, at first, unable to cope with fighting against DRAGOON type funnel weapons like the Weapon Pods mounted on the Chaos Gundam. The two mobile suits tried to get a lock on the other but to no affect. They were somehow in a stalemate as they danced around each other. The two pilots were capable of dancing around each others independent weapon systems, while not being able to focus entirely on defeating their opposition. Beams and missiles flew around them as the Weapon Pods from both Chaos Strike Impulse and the Chaos Gundam unloaded their arsenal on each other.
Gara pulled out his Beam Rifle and fired off a few shots. His accuracy was pinpoint, but Shinji shrugged of the shots with the Beam Shields mounted on the Chaos Strike Impulse's wrists. "Send me the Force Package and a new set of arms," Shinji called out over the communications. The officer on deck alerted the Engineering bay, but they were unable to comply with his request because they were still fixing it from his last run. "Send me the Sword Package then," he replied, "I need something else to fight him with other than the Chaos Package."
"Sword Package out," the engineers replied. The armor flew across the battlefield and made its way to Shinji. The Sword Package was guided into place and replaced the Chaos Package. The VPS Armor transformed from a forest green to red as it adjusted with the settings of the Sword Package. Shinji activated the Anti-ship sword and it buzzed to life. Gara hesitated for a bit, sort of in awe, as he saw the machine change shape right in front of him. However, Shinji was no stranger to the system and immediately resumed his attack upon switching, pulling out a Beam Boomerang and throwing at the Chaos. Gara deflected the Beam Boomerang with his shield, but the Sword Strike Impulse was not finished, using the Boomerang as a decoy he charged forward into the Chaos Gundam attacking it with the sword.
Aboard the Baron Quinn, Fareed prepared the Excalibur Gundam, a custom built remake of the Legend Gundam designed with more focus on close range combat. The DRAGOON pods on the Legend were remade to be able to fire beams, but to also support the use of independently moving beam boomerangs on them. In addition to the "Dragoon" system, the Excalibur Gundam also carries a high energy beam rifle, a set of beam swords, a shield generator, and its namesake the "Excalibur" sword. The Excalibur conjoins two Anti-Ship Beam Swords together to create a European Long Sword-esque weapon capable of crushing any enemy defense instantly.
Fareed boarded the Excalibur and the lights in the cabin lit up. It was outfitted with a panoramic seat to give the pilot a realistic display on how the Dragoon system worked. The panoramic cabin allowed him to see all around the hangar, Fareed was a bit phased at first by seemingly being left in suspension but the fear passed over him quickly. As the monitors went from red to green, clearing him for launch, Fareed leaned forward a bit to make himself feel a bit more comfortable in the seat. Fareed declared, "Fareed Al-Shaara, Excalibur Gundam, launching." The Excalibur Gundam's propulsors lit up as it was launched off the catapult of the Baron Quinn. It soared off to rally with his ally that was dueling it out with the Sword Strike Impulse. Following him was a back of gray and black Zaku-type units that followed Fareed's every move as he ran around the battlefield. The pack of "Wolves" left a trail of destruction as they ran through UHFS Mobile Suits that pushed into the Black Flag's line.
"Do you think he'll be alright captain," one of the officers asked the Big Boss, "Gara is even struggling with that transforming mobile suit out there." The officer looked genuinely worried for them but the Big Boss showed only confidence in his two most trust lieutenants.
"Those two are the product of a harsh world that fighter in the transforming mobile suit will never understand," the Big Boss replied, "Gara and Fareed are tough like the rest of my young and valiant soldiers. Their strength doesn't come from any one of them but all of them working together to take down even the most menacing prey. That's how they have operated since Black Flag started employing their help. Now they have more resolve to come out victorious in this battle than every before."
"How so?" The officer was curious, he'd only ever flown around in the Baron Quinn and didn't understand the Big Boss's attachment to the Child Soldiers.
"They want blood, the UHFS took from them the life of their longtime brother in arms, Apollo Raynorth, and now they're taking it." Outside, the Wolves ran around the battlefield with Fareed's Excalibur Gundam. When they came across a group of UHFS mobile suits, one would split off and grab the group's attention while the others would go around and destroy them with a volley of Beam Rifle fire. Fareed's Excalibur tore through the UHFS's line as it released a flurry of attacks all at once with its "Dragoon" units. After taking out a few groups of UHFS units they turned their attention to Shinji and the Strike Impulse.
Gara had been fighting valiantly against Shinji, but Shinji was very familiar with Gara's battle tactics by that point. Shinji broke apart the Chaos Gundam piece by piece. He realized that the Chaos Gundam controlled by Gara was no different than the one he battled and destroyed many times in the simulation training, but Gara's Chaos Gundam proved to be a lot more resilient than the one from the simulator. Just as Shinji was about to deliver the finishing blow, another unit caught his attention as it fired a few beam rifle shots at him. It was a black and grey Zaku that was spraying shots from its beam rifle at him. Shinji evaded the beams and began to return fire with his Beam Rifle. However, a few more beams came his way from another unit painted the same color. Soon Shinji was surrounded by a group of Zaku-Wolves that were desperately trying to take him down.
Fareed soon arrived and helped the crippled Chaos Gundam back to the Baron Quinn. "Spread out and keep him down," Fareed ordered the Wolves, "the rest of our forces will be able to push into the Sanctuary." They all nodded in agreement and began taking turns wearing out the Strike Impulse, circling around Shinji and taking turns taking him on. Fareed joined in on the fight, lining up the Excalibur Gundam's funnels to lock onto him. They ignited with the light of a pink beam that extended from them. The funnels chased Shinji's Strike Impulse around the battlefield, targeting the cockpit primarily. Shinji shook off a couple of them, but took a hit from one that pierced through his shield.
Using the explosion of the shield, he escaped the array of funnels and beams chasing him down. Conveniently he received a message from the Archangel in the middle of the fight, "Shinji, the Force Package has been repaired and is ready for use." Shinji felt a sudden relief but still had to do something about the enemies chasing him around.
"I'm going to make a fly-by near the Archangel, send it to me when I get there. Cover my tail, I have another Gundam unit and several enemies on me," Shinji replied. He took off and began making his way to the Archangel. The pack of Zaku-Wolves and the Excalibur Gundam followed him. As they chased down Shinji, they engaged in small skirmishes with different UHFS mobile suit units on the way there. The UHFS troops valiantly tried to hold them off to prevent them, but to no avail as the Wolves and the Excalibur Gundam trashed their suits with ease.
Inside the bridge of the Archangel Mikael,"Captain Wengfang, I spotted the Strike Impulse, sending out the Force Package as ordered," one of the officers reported. He also noticed the several mobile suits following it. "Enemy units inbound," he called out.
Wengfang commanded, "Fire the CIWS and Missiles make sure they don't get close to the Mikael." The guns rotated and the missiles were launched. One of the Zaku-Wolves was caught in the initial barrage of defensive weaponry and was instantly incapacitated. Upon noticing this the rest of the units backed off and split apart going around the Archangel to try and flank it. UHFS mobile suits launching from the Archangel and nearby ships caught the wolves and began fighting them. The Strike Impulse retreated and detached the Sword Package. The Sword Package was replaced with the Force Package immediately. Supplied with a new shield and weapons the Strike Impulse made its way back out to the battlefield.
The Excalibur Gundam easily bypassed many of the defenses and lined up its next shot to take out the bridge of the Archangel Mikael. Then a rush of blue and white flew by as he pulled the trigger, the shots were deflected by the Force Strike Impulse's Shield. Launching a pair of boomerangs at the Excalibur Gundam, Shinji dived right into the Excalibur, blocking subsequent beam shots with his shield. He returned fire with his beam rifle, almost landing a few good shots on the Excalibur, but they were deflected by the Excalibur's Shield Generator. Shinji had predicted this and figured that as soon as the Shield was lowered the Boomerangs he launched would strike the Excalibur.
Just as planned, the Excalibur lowered the Beam Shields and the Boomerangs were about to fly right into it. Instead of cutting the Excalibur they were stopped by the bodies of two Wolves who managed to catch them before they struck the Excalibur. With his last breath, one of the Wolves cheered Fareed on, "go get him," he muttered, coughing up blood. The Boomerang struck the cockpit of his mobile suit, piercing through it and cutting right through him. Then, the Zaku-Wolves exploded instantly killing them. Fareed stepped back to avoid the explosions and tears filled his eyes as he remembered his them.
"You monster," Fareed cried, "I'll avenge them, Tommy, Dusty, Apollo." Suddenly, he felt like he was back in the desert, a flash back to another time in his life before he joined the Black Flag. His mother had just made fresh bread, and he smelled the aroma from his cockpit. Then he remembered the bitterness of that memory as he watched his home being blown into oblivion. The memory then shattered into a million pieces as he fell into the abyss. A single, beautifully lit, amber crystal stood there, and when he touched it, that too shattered into a million pieces. Then Fareed came back to his senses, he felt a sense of clarity and the world began to move slower. In response to the activation of Fareed's SEED Factor, the cockpit glowed and responded in kind. His eyes faded from a reflective yellow to a darker gold and the world began to slow down.
Shinji armed his beam saber and raised it above his head. Striking down on the Excalibur Gundam, he thought he could have ended the battle then and there, but the Excalibur dodged the attack. Fareed got a lock on the Strike Impulse and mounted an immensely powerful counter attack on the Strike Impulse. Beams flew everywhere as Fareed tried to lock Shinji down. However, Shinji had now gotten used to his tactics with the Dragoons and began dodging the spread of attacks coming from different directions. In the midst of the Dragoon attacks, Fareed didn't let himself sit back, now being able to have complete control of the Excalibur he took full use of aligning the attacks with the Dragoons and attacking with his mobile suit. Pulling out the Excalibur Sword, he closed the gap between himself and the Strike Impulse and swung at it.
Shinji became surprised and overwhelmed by the sudden change of attacks. Somehow, Shinji felt like he was now fighting an entirely different person. The Excalibur's slash sliced through the Force Impulse's shield with ease. Shinji swirled around the Excalibur to evade the attack and find an opening to thrust his beam saber. When he found it, Fareed had already reacted and faced his direction. Pulling out and arming his Beam Javelin, the Excalibur sliced off the arm of the Strike Impulse that was holding the beam saber. "How did he get so fast," Shinji said to himself. However the attack wasn't over, the Excalibur dashed toward the Strike Impulse and cut off its other arm with the Excalibur Sword and kicked it back. Shinji's cockpit rattled as the kick sent him flying out of control.
The Strike Impulse now helpless to block or evade the next attack, sat back, helpless as the Excalibur Gundam recalled its Dragoons. Now inside the back panel of the Excalibur Gundam, the Excalibur Gundam charged up its next attack. Shinji accepted his fate as he sat in his chair watching the beams energy being charged up inside the barrels of the Excalibur Gundam.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Captain Wengfang and the crew aboard the Archangel Mikael did their best to defend themselves from the overwhelming attack of the BF. The Big Boss aboard the Baron Quinn grinned as he saw on the monitor, the Excalibur executing the Strike Impulse. The Wolves defeated their UHFS opponents and rallied with the Excalibur and watched the Strike Impulse go down. The stage was set for a Black Flag victory, then a blinding light opened in the rift between the two warring sides. The appearance of an unknown ship covered in a flurry of an unknown type of particles emerged from it.
"DIE UHFS SCUM," Fareed yelled. He pulled the trigger and a concentrated spray of beams headed toward the Strike Impulse. Several Beams rushed toward the suit
"Trans-am, Time Alter, 75%," a familiar voice whispered. A blinding red mobile suit with red wings flew in front of the blast. The blinding speed was unrealistic, creating after images as it flew by, but that wasn't all. The mobile suit simultaneously raised its Beam Rifle and fired off several shots with pinpoint accuracy, reflecting the blasts fired from the Excalibur Gundam. The red coating faded, as the Trans-am system wore off. Revealing a Gundam-type mobile suit with wings that emitted red particles. The design, inherited from the Destiny Gundam was all too familiar to those who had seen the leaked information from the UHFS system hack that the Black Flag conducted.
"The Gundam Parallel," everyone exclaimed as they saw it rest on the battlefield. Apollo sat in his cockpit staring at the Excalibur, but something clicked inside and realized that it wasn't just an enemy unit but his old friend, Fareed Al-Shaara.