Update: Tweaked/rewritten September 2020.
Breaking Apart
The briefing was, well, brief. The elites had been split up into two teams; Athrun was with Nicol and Eclipse was sent to back up Dearka—mainly because Yzak was still in the infirmary. Three new pilots had joined the Vesalius from the Laconi team when Lacus was transferred over to their ship and, for once, they didn't look straight out of the academy. That was good for them—especially with the Vesalius's record of deaths—and good for the redcoats who needed some veteran comrades.
The plan was this: the "Legged Ship" was positioned at the rear of the fleet and, judging by its position, wasn't expected to join the battle unless absolutely necessary. While that may have been smart on the Earth Forces side of things, it meant there were about ten warships between the Le Creuset team and their target. Not very good odds by any standards, but both the captain and the commander had complete faith in the stolen prototypes and their pilots.
Hopefully, they had such confidence in themselves.
Athrun, Nicol, and one other GINN were to focus their attacks on the left side of the fleet; Dearka, Eclipse, and two more GINNs were to attack on the right; and the last three GINNs—along with the Vesalius, Gamow, and a last Lurasia-class she didn't know—were to plow down the middle. The commander hoped to stretch the enemy thin and, given the amount of strength the Gundams had, one of the teams was bound to create a hole big enough to reach the "Legged Ship." It was a long shot with only three ships and so few mobile suits, but they weren't about to let the warship get to Earth unharmed or unchallenged.
Both Athrun and Eclipse headed to the hanger after the meeting to make some last adjustments to their mobile suits and wait for further orders. The redhead had seemed spacey the entire briefing, or at least Athrun thought she hadn't been hiding her exhaustion well. He was still trying to digest what happened on the Gamow and wasn't about to confront her until he had completely figured out what he had witnessed.
Should I talk to her? he asked himself as he followed her down the hallway. It seemed foolish to be debating the conversation in the first place, and after telling Nicol to forget the affair, he felt hypocritical in talking to her.
Maybe he should let the musician handle things after all.
"If you want to say something, I'd rather have you say it than stare a hole in my back thinking about it," Eclipse muttered, but refrained from glancing behind her. She really didn't want to make eye contact. "I think I know why you're being rather skittish around me and you don't have to pretend to be nice or anything. Personally, I hate it when people are fake, so let's avoid that, shall we?"
"Later," he responded. "Not a good time, but we should probably talk after the battle."
"Fine by me."
"Mobile suits to launch in three minutes," the intercom announced, ending the conversation before either could say something more. "All units check systems. Sealing all Bulkheads. All hands quickly take your positions."
Athrun was the first to launch, followed closely by and Nicol met them in their mobile suits for a brief run through of the plan before breaking off into their teams. Eclipse was armed with a heavy blade and heavy assault machine gun, but given her love for melee, her preferred weapon of choice was probably obvious. She wasn't burdened down by any heavy weaponry this time around so she should be able to perform a bit better and despite her exhaustion, she was quite looking forward to the challenge.
"Dearka, Eclipse! Let's give 'em hell; that Strike's going down."
A unanimous "Huh?" was shared between the GINN and Buster pilots at the sound of the transmission.
There was only one person who talked like that.
"Y-Yzak!" the blond shouted, but he couldn't exactly say he was surprised. It took two doctors, Dearka, six bruises, and two restraints to keep the Duel pilot from going to the briefing. And only after some 20 curse words did the Buster pilot finally manage to get to the bridge, but the big question was, how did he get out? "What, did you gnaw off the restraints?"
"Shut up, Dearka, are we gonna fight or what?"
"I'm choosing the 'or what,' now get back to the Gamow! You're going to get yourself killed!"
"I'm fine, now let's go!" The Duel was gone before he even finished the statement and was about to engage a newly deployed mobile armor before his friend could decide what to do next.
"Eclipse, keep an eye on him. I'll do what I can back here, but this suit isn't made for close-range combat."
"You don't trust him?"
"You do?"
"He's an elite. I'm sure he can handle himself and besides, with the Duel beefed up as it is those puny mobile armors are going to flee at first glance anyway," Eclipse said as she followed Yzak into the fray. His suit did in fact have more fire power—being in Assault Shroud mode—with a Shiva railgun attached to the right shoulder and a 5-barrel missile pod on his left one. The suit could definitely take out more enemies with the new armaments, but they made his suit heavier and produced a few more blind spots in the process. Eclipse knew Dearka's concern was well placed, but she couldn't worry about both herself and Yzak.
"I know but he's badly injured and terribly pissed. Just don't forget about him."
The redhead chose not to respond, leaving the smartass comment for a later time.
It was chaos; there was no other way to describe it. Eclipse was getting used to the one-on-one fights and, honestly, didn't like the "mass-mob fighting" she was getting thrown into. Even back at the facility the simulations were mostly related to smaller units and infiltrations. She kept reminding herself she would get used to it—if she wanted to survive, she would have to—but the transition was still difficult.
Not to mention she hadn't had a descent amount of rest since her escapade with Greed.
"Hey! Keep your eyes open!" Yzak yelled, sniping the mobile armor coming up on Eclipse's rear. Another smartass comment popped into her head—something about her, at least, having two of them—but she bit her tongue once again and focused on the fight at hand.
Two mobile armors advanced on her GINN, one at her two o'clock and another around her 12 o'clock. They were Moebius units and despite there being swarms of them on the battlefield, they were not known for being very much of a threat unless they used their favorite tactic which was overrunning their enemies with numbers rather than with firepower. Given their armaments, Eclipse wasn't too surprised. Its linear gun at the bottom of the unit was the most dangerous, but if it was fitted with four missiles, much like what one of her current opponents was, they produced a little more bite. The two Vulcan guns at its sides completed the extent of its weaponry, leaving the unit to look like a short-nosed fighter jet attached to a long mustache with boosters. Not much of a threat against the prototypes, Eclipse knew, but with as little defensive shielding as she had, her ass was a little closer to the fire.
The one at her two o'clock attacked her with a barrage of bullets—causing more annoyance than actual damage—while the other launched two rockets. The Vulcan guns weren't going to damage her much, Eclipse knew so she fled upward to keep her distance from the other assault. Once she was sure of the rockets' course, she aimed with her machine gun and destroyed them both, having to make a split-second maneuver from a Drake-class Earth Alliance ship's Gottfried cannon blast afterwards. Perhaps the Moebius units' attacks were a little more coordinated than she had expected. She cursed. The Earth Alliance ship that missed wasn't about to mess up again and fired its own Vulcan guns at her mobile suit. She was forced to retreat backwards and into the unfortunate vicinity of two more Moebius units, one equipped with missiles and the other with a linear gun.
The two advanced in front while her previous two adversaries came up the rear. Looking to be nothing more than the typical four on one, the redhead aimed at an armor in front of her, managing to take out its linear gun before its partner fired two missiles. She couldn't see the extent of the damage the destroyed linear gun had done to the mobile armor, but she did hope it would slow the unit down enough to take out the others first.
Knowing there were two Moebius units behind her and knowing the chaos taking place above her position, Eclipse decided to go down, shooting and destroying the missiles just as another forgotten Drake-class warship and a well-placed Gottfried nearly took out her right leg.
"Damnit," she hissed, and fired two more shots—destroying the Vulcan gun on one unit and managing to hit the cockpit of another—before two more missiles came her way. There were still three Moebius units engaging her. She maneuvered away from the missiles, directing them into the view range of the remaining Moebius with a linear gun. She shot at both missiles once they passed in front of his cockpit, destroying them and putting another shorter barrage through the cockpit of the blinded armor.
The remaining two charged at her and Eclipse switched weapons, feeling her lips curl upwards when she put the heavy blade in her hand. The Vulcan guns still did little damage to her armor and the Moebius unit leading the charge had been the one she had taken out the linear gun of previously. It looked to be acting as decoy, Eclipse knowing full well the remaining armor of their little skirmish was still fitted with two missiles.
As expected, they came in tandem. Eclipse waited until just before the first unit was bailing out of the way of the missiles and charged, dropping under the armor and stabbing upwards with her blade. The metal cut clean through and she used the momentum to pull the dead pilot and machine into its partner. The impact caused both to explode, Eclipse managing to get away before her GINN could get damaged from the blast, and just in time to see flashes in her peripheral vision of two Drake-class ships being destroyed.
The Berserker smirked.
Dearka had already moved to another Drake-class when she joined him, playing decoy herself and driving the Vulcan fire towards her as her comrade's rifle took out its engines and bridge in one shot. Show off, Eclipse thought and moved over to support an outnumbered Yzak instead of searching for another ship.
"I don't need your help!" the Duel pilot yelled as she took out a mobile armor coming at him from below. "I'm doing just fine!"
"He was in your blind spot and judging by the fact that you have only one eye working, you can't see half of the enemies coming at you," the Berserker spat, switching back to her machine gun and sniping two more rockets aimed at the Duel. "If you want to get revenge on the Strike, then you have to be smart about it. Stop relying solely on your anger and let's worry about making that hole to the 'Legged Ship.'"
Yzak didn't respond, slicing his beam saber through an enemy just as Eclipse took out another Moebius unit. He hesitated a moment once the area was clear—almost as if he was going to thank the GINN pilot—but decided to attack more of the Alliance before they could regroup. "Dearka, what's your status?" he asked, using a frequency all three were on.
"Give me a few seconds and I'll be there to back you up."
"Looks like our comrades have things under control. Athrun's already taken out a ship and Nicol's working on another. If we're lucky, they might send more troops over to help out on their side, leaving us with less fish to fry," Eclipse stated, following after Yzak when he headed straight towards the "Legged Ship's" position.
"That works for me just fine," the Duel pilot replied, taking out two more armors with one shot from Shiva.
The Berserker nodded and smirked as well, switching to her sword to slice an enemy in half. So far things had been going smoothly, then again the battle hadn't been going on for long. None of the suits had taken damage—at least not the Buster, Duel, or her GINN—and the teamwork between Dearka and Yzak was quite impressive. The Duel had made it to another warship, focusing its attacks mainly on the ships engines while avoiding gunfire. Dearka had found an excellent position above his friend's fight, destroying any mobile armor that neared Yzak. The only problem about the set up was that the Buster was left open. This was where Eclipse was useful.
Three straggling Moebius armors advanced on the Buster as Dearka destroyed a Gottfried cannon on the warship before it could target the Duel. The Berserker cut off the armors and swung around to slice the right booster off one, and stabbing another through its cockpit just as it targeted the Buster. Turning back around, she sped towards the remaining unit. This one had missiles and it fired as she neared. Eclipse planned on just cutting through the missile—to keep her momentum going—as she advanced on her enemies, but the other Moebius armor apparently had enough stability to shoot the missile just before she reached it. Although the explosion didn't do much damage to the machine itself, the Berserker inside was caught off guard for a split second too long. The Moebius unit unleashed another missile just as the first was destroyed, taking out Eclipse's right leg before she could regain her bearings.
Cursing loudly, she gambled and switched to long-range fire, releasing her heavy blade without sheathing it and grabbing her machine gun. She fired five shots randomly at her enemies—to keep them from advancing further—as she tried to stabilize her unit. None of the shots hit and the one armor that could move was in her face before she could put up an ample defense. She cursed again and released her machine gun that time, grabbing the heavy blade in the same motion and stabbing forward with her sword to pierce through the left side of the unit. The hit forced the Moebius unit into a spiral, sending it and its unfortunate pilot careening off harmlessly behind her and lost into the chaos of the battle.
"Eclipse, you alright?" Dearka asked, taking out the remaining Moebius unit with the damaged boosters.
"Yeah, I'm fine, but damnit that was embarrassing. I lost a leg to a mobile armor?"
"You have to remember that your machine isn't as capable as ours. I'm sure your reaction time was fine, but GINN controls aren't always that sensitive. How's it look?"
"Right leg's gone and the booster's damaged as well. I'm fixing the output as we speak, but my performance has gone down considerably."
"You'll have to make do, it looks like Yzak just made our hole to the 'Legged Ship,'" he remarked, not hiding the excitement in his voice. After taking out the engines, the Duel went for the prize and destroyed the ship with an all-out attack. "There's only one ship left and then it's on to the main course."
"The 'Legged Ship's now pulling away? Halberton that bastard. Is he using the 8th Fleet as a shield to allow that ship to get to Earth?" Le Creuset wondered aloud.
"Hm?" Ades replied, turning in his seat to look at the commander. If that was really what the Earth Forces were planning, things were going to get hectic.
"Close in on them! It's imperative we destroy it before it makes its descent!" Le Creuset ordered, causing the captain to jump slightly in his seat. He was on edge as it was.
"Right!" Ades shouted a moment later, relaying the command to the forces.
The pilots fighting took it differently. Athrun and Nicol merely nodded in response before upping their battle performances. Dearka sighed and muttered some curses at the "Legged Ship" while Yzak sat in his cockpit fuming. "Where is he? Just where can that Strike be hiding?"
Eclipse shook her head. The tactic wasn't all that surprising, but if the "Legged Ship" got to Earth without the team inflicting any damage on it whatsoever, things were going to get difficult later on—mostly for the ZAFT troops on Earth. However, with her suit in the state that it was, she couldn't do much of anything other than offer limited support.
The Buster and Duel took off towards the last ship soon after the transmission, forgetting about the Berserker in her damaged GINN. What to do, she thought, but didn't really have to dwell on that matter too much. She planned on following them no matter how beat up her machine was.
Pulling up the OS again, she made some final adjustments to fix the boosters, check her battery life, and just to stabilize the damaged area. The whole matter took seconds and she took off to help her comrades.
When the "Legged Ship" launched the Strike and the Zero, it seemed to have surprised both sides. Judging by the situation, the Earth Forces wouldn't have been too happy about the decision, but they had no other choice than to accept it. Everyone on that ship was stubborn—even ZAFT knew that—so the launches really weren't that unlikely.
Well, at least a certain individual on the Le Creuset team was happy.
Yzak got what he was asking for and luckily the Strike wasn't expecting the upgrades on his machine. The two met soon after the Alliance Gundam fled the ship and based on some obvious interpretation, the Strike felt slightly outmatched. "You're going down!" the Duel pilot yelled, offering up a barrage of shots before pulling out his beam saber. His enemy blocked two shots with his shield and evaded the third with a dodge to the right. Their weapons met then, Yzak's forcing the Strike backwards.
"Damn he's pissed," Dearka muttered over the frequency, watching his friend with mild amusement.
"More than usual?" Eclipse asked, still getting used to her damaged machine. Good thing they were in space and not on earth. She may have had more problems with gravity.
"Surprisingly, yes." He chuckled when Yzak spouted some more colorful language amid attacks. That laughter was short lived, however, when the Zero aimed and shot at the Buster. Three bullets hit him in the back before the mobile armor flew by the Buster and began turning for the second round. Dearka muttered something and returned fire, missing the Zero by inches.
"Hey, don't get too close!" Athrun yelled, alerting the Berserker to his arrival. Nicol was right behind him, but they stopped short of their teammates' position.
Apparently, they knew something the other three didn't.
"Eclipse!" the Blitz pilot shouted. "Call Dearka and Yzak back. They'll be sucked into the Earth's atmosphere at this rate."
"You think Yzak's gonna fall back now? He's finally getting his revenge on the Strike and being very vocal about it too."
"Yes, but the gravity could tear your units apart," Athrun explained, but the Berserker was already out of sight. Damnit, he swore and if it wasn't for Nicol's intervention, he would've followed her.
Helplessness was not a feeling he enjoyed.
Eclipse wasn't totally sure what she could do. Dearka was fighting the Zero and Yzak was kicking the Strike's ass. What was left of the mobile armors and the 8th Fleet were pulling away from the "Legged Ship," so really she had nothing to do.
Hah, except get sucked down with the rest of them.
"Captain Zellman!" she heard Nicol shout and turned towards the Gamow, hoping to see what was happening. Seeing the ship heading towards the flagship of the Alliance, she cursed and went to back it up.
There's no way that ship can survive, the Berserker thought, realizing she could have meant either the Gamow or the Agamenmnon-class warship. Swearing again—she was beginning to think Yzak was rubbing off on her—she pushed harder on the thrust to outmatch the gravity pull. It worked after a while, but she was thrown off course and instead of lining up with the bridge of one of the two remaining ships, she ended up about 10 meters below. Shit, she thought when all her buzzers went off, but what she noticed first was the dramatic temperature change. Things were going to get difficult.
"Eclipse, what're you doing?" Athrun yelled, wanting to go and help, but knowing it would have been a stupid move. "Your GINN can't handle so much pressure and especially not in that state!" She didn't respond and, honestly, it looked as if she was on some kind of suicide mission. "Damnit, Eclipse!"
The Berserker ignored her comrade's pleas, not caring whether he was concerned about her fate or not. Nope, all she cared about was the destruction of the last two ships.
After all, what else mattered?
Aiming carefully with her machine gun, Eclipse took out two Vulcans on one ship's haul, reducing its firepower to only machine guns. Fighting through gravity once more, she swung around to the back and fired at the weakened areas near its engines, taking a few hits to her right side in the process. She was forced to take the hit, her left arm absorbing the attack as much as it could, but the combination of intense heat and bullet abuse forced it apart and she cringed as her unit rocked with the damage. Luckily, the Gamow fired at the ship before it could attack again, destroying it with only one, last shot.
The explosion sent her flying into Dearka's fight with the Zero. The blond had a few choice words about the intervention, but seeing as the mobile armor was fleeing already, the he began focusing on his immediate dilemma instead: falling to Earth. "There's no way I can get out of this. The Zero damaged my boosters and I'm too far into the atmosphere now. Damnit! Can this thing even do entry on its own?"
Eclipse managed to stabilize her unit and took a steadying breath before bringing up her OS and shaking the sweat out of her eyes. "Yes, you can, but it's not going to be pleasant," she responded. "Do you know what adjustments to make?" He confirmed that he would figure it out and she nodded, increasingly worried about her own predicament. She knew she was stuck—there was no question about that—but could she survive the fall?
Wasn't that the million-dollar question?
"Where's Yzak?" Dearka asked as he began making adjustments to his own machine. If he shut off the battery output and focused on stabilizing his unit, he might avoid both an explosion and motion sickness.
Highly unlikely though.
"Still fighting the Strike," the Berserker responded. One of the screens she was looking at overheated and gave a pop before it went black. She cursed, leaving her with no other option than watching her suit spin uncontrollably down to Earth. Her communications quit next and she closed her eyes, stuck in a metal container as the temperatures rose.
I'm not going to make it, Eclipse realized and nearly panicked, but the Berserker stopped the paranoia.
No, this monster wasn't going to die just yet.
Athrun and Nicol watched it all from above; Zellman's heroic sacrifice, Yzak's reckless decision, and even their comrades' descent. The battle was won—that they both knew—but the 'Legged Ship' was still going to make it to Earth. Given, it may be slightly off course—blame the Strike for that one—but on Earth, nonetheless.
"Yzak! Dearka! Come back you guys! Eclipse!" Nicol shouted into the transmission, causing more annoyance than actual help.
"They're too close to the Earth's atmosphere. The gravity's pulling them in and there's nothing we can do about it. Damnit," Athrun cursed, as he watched helplessly. Putting two and two together, he figured Yzak and Dearka would be alright—then again, he didn't know everything about the prototypes and his calculations could be off. If that was the case, they were both about to go through a nasty fall with some extreme temperatures. Eclipse, however, was another matter. He didn't think her GINN would make it at all.
At least not in one piece.
"Did you see the report?" Stray asked as he set a tray of fresh cookies down on the table and took the seat across from his comrade. Most of the SIN-ED members—Stray and FS included—had fled to Earth after the colony incident with Eclipse and Heine. It didn't take them long to find a place to camp—by ransacking some houses on the outskirts of a small village—and start their operations, but ever since the failed connection at L4, things had been getting pretty heated among the senior officials. Mostly between Roan and FS, who were banging heads for leadership as it was. "You know he's not going to be happy about it."
"Who cares; we tried and that's that," FS growled, grabbing a cookie and chomping down hard.
Stray almost made the comment, "What did the cookie ever do to you?" but bit down on his own pastry instead. "Yes, but he was very persistent about her."
"And only God knows why." FS did know why, actually, but he kept that tidbit to himself. Despite everything, Stray still seemed too innocent to know the whole story.
"Whatever the reason, we failed and we're in too delicate a position to not be scared shitless. He'll have our asses for sure."
FS didn't respond and sipped at his coffee. The real reason they had set up that meeting with Eclipse was because of Roan's insistence. Of course, Stray had been all for the idea immediately, but FS wanted to wait. He planned on showing Eclipse how they were going to change things instead of merely telling her. The meeting didn't go well—as they both agreed—and FS blamed it mostly on the timing. She hadn't had a chance to see how ZAFT was going to treat her.
How they were going to use her.
"Anyway, what're we going to do now?" Stray sighed, ignoring his friend's inner turmoil. "He'll be here in a few hours and, honestly, I don't want to get in a huge fight with him again. You know the unrest that brought about last time."
"Six dead and most of them Naturals. I don't necessarily call that a huge lost—seeing as the organization's growing—but they were from De'Amelith. Killing original members wasn't a good idea."
"Like we had a choice and besides, Greed could be blamed for that one." Stray's face went dark at the comment and it actually surprised FS for a moment. Had his friend always been able to do that? "Anyway, you think they'll attempt a mutiny again?"
He shook off the surprise. "I'm trying not to think about it. Let's just worry about this meeting first 'cause, for some reason, Roan has more support here than me. If he's pissed—"
"Then we're targets," Stray finished, sighing lightly while pouring himself another mug of coffee. Even though FS had been the one to free everyone from Januarias 4 and provide the other renegades with shelter, he was the top one on the Black List. Why, neither of them knew, but they figured it was because of conflicting strategies. FS wanted to break down each army individually and from the inside, while Roan just wanted to destroy them outright—a little less time consuming, but practically suicidal by anyone's estimations. However, there had to be more to his plan than that.
The problem was what.
"Why do you think she did it? I mean, you are the head of this thing and she knew she'd have to face you eventually. Why would she attack us?" Stray asked softly, sounding quite hurt.
FS sighed. His friend had been asking him the same question ever since they had heard the transmission and, frankly, he didn't have a decent answer. "I'm sure ZAFT is using her, but they've probably twisted her to think she's doing some form of justice. At any rate, Lexi doesn't just do things for the hell of it, so she probably has something in mind."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right, but, Revelin, does this mean we have to hunt her now? She is a threat to us after all."
"I'm not so sure. Roan seems almost obsessed with her, so just killing her off would be foolish on his part. No, I think he has something planned, but I have no idea what. I really don't like it though." The brunette stood up and walked across the living room to the window. It was a cool, winter day outside and almost lovely if it wasn't for the melted snow, dead grass, and untidy garden near the picket fence. Stray had been working at it—getting it ready for spring—but his efforts had made it look worse. FS could only hope his friend had some kind of green thumb or his long stares out the window were going to be dreary ones from now on.
The cook sipped at his coffee again, breaking up another cookie and dropping it in the cup. FS watched him silently, deciding to ignore his antics a long time ago.
He'd go crazy if he pointed everything out.
"Did you see the letters I found and laid out for you?" Stray asked.
FS nodded. "That's what's making me nervous. I think they have something to do with Lexi, but it's just a hunch. Did you find out who Muruta Azrael and Gilbert Durandal were?"
"I haven't been able to do a descent search with Roan's cronies watching my every move. The name Azrael sounds vaguely familiar, but I'm not gonna jump the gun just yet. Until I know more, I think we'd best assume they're helping him with his 'grandmaster plan.'"
"That's obvious," FS muttered. He felt powerless, with the whispers of mutiny, Roan's secrets, and Eclipse's unknown role floating around. It didn't help that the interrupted meeting at L4 had caused some strain between SIN-ED and the Earth Forces. If the damage wasn't repaired soon, they could lose all funds and ammo. Seeing as destroying the armies was the main target, having no fire power was going to make things quite difficult. "Jaeger, what are we missing? Is the answer slapping us in the face, but we're just too numb to realize it?"
"Y'know, we could always just ask him."
"Hah, yeah, that's a great idea. I'll just leave that to you then while I size up your coffin. Wooden or metal? Wait, would you rather be cremated?"
"He'd sooner kill you than me. I'm a little more loved than you are."
"'Cause you're the only chef."
"Well, it counts for something in this world, apparently," Stray said, walking into the kitchen to grab some salsa. Again, FS decided not to ask, but when he came back and dropped two spoonfuls into his coffee, he gagged.
"Jaeger?"
"Hm?" he wondered, licking his fingers before pouring some on a cookie and shoving it into his mouth.
"Oh, never mind."
A/N: Hey all, sorry this one took so long. The battle part scared me so I was putting it off for quite some time. I just had spring break-that helped me finish it-but now that I've been paying so much attention to this, I have a ton of homework to do... (Sigh) Oh well, such is life.
I hope the battle was easy to follow and, please, if there was anything confusing let me know. I tried my best, but it's still not perfect. I am proud of it-okay a little-but suggestions would be great. I realize Eclipse got pretty beat up during the fight, but she's only in a GINN and, like Dearka said, they don't take damage as well as the Gundams. I hope I didn't overdo it and the fact that she's gone Berserk three times within the past day is really going to take a toll on her. Once is usually enough to drain her body, so that may have factored in as well.
We see a little interaction between Dearka, Yzak, and Eclipse here, but not much. They'll learn to appreciate each other here soon enough and despite outward appearances, they do "give a damn" about what happens to each other. Let's just hope they can pull it together on earth, but first they have to survive the fall. It's not going to be a pretty sight, but hey, that's the risk they took.
Ending with FS and Stray was kind of a wimpy move on my part. There was a lot of action early on and then it just died down as soon as we're with the two at their "cottage." I wanted to throw them into this chapter-mainly because they're key players in this story-but I didn't want to break up the battle. When in doubt, end it on a funny/disgusting note, right? Anyway, they seem to be having some problems of their own and let me tell you, it's only going to get worse. Well, FS's going to be sorry he let Stray anywhere near the garden that is.
I meant to have more interaction between Nicol and Eclipse before she fell to earth, and actually-now that I look at the timeline-I didn't have to rush things so much. I still had a few days to mess with, but oh well, I'll get it in later.
Again, thanks for all the reviews and helpful comments. They keep me going with this story and make me feel special at the same time. Oh, also I'd like to say a huge thanks for the C2 invite. I was surprised and very touched when I saw it. :) Thanks!
Death-Scimitar: I am so stoked to have Andy in the next few chapters (Yes he's going to make an appearance). I've already thought up so many things that they could do/conversations they could have an whatnot. And I can't wait to give Aisha a personality. I was hoping she would've stayed around longer-especially because of her relationship with Andy-but alas, she developed DDS (Dramatic Death Syndrome) and left. (Sigh) ...I suddenly have the urge to have the Gundam boys sing karaoke... Okay, it's not so random of an idea ('cause I've had it before) but it could get interesting. Oh yeah, we really need to stop making fun of Athrun when he says "Piano!" but I know we never will. If no one knows what we're talking about then we're probably the only ones who thought it was ridiculous/hilarious. Same with the "Uh, okay!" in Destiny. Honestly, the guy's a dolt... (Sigh)
Asmus: Thanks for the review and the good advice. Honestly, I was wondering if were caught up on the chapters or not and I'm glad to see you're sticking around. I'm glad you like the fact that I have very few battles (at least per chapter) in this story. That's good for me 'cause writing them is tough and this means I can do more one on one interaction with the characters without feeling guilty. :P Also, if people don't mind the month or so waits between chapters that's really neat. I know the readers may forget what happened in the previous chapter, but if you're all willing to stick around 'til the end, then thanks. :)
CSS Stravag: Yay, I'm glad you liked my close-quarters combat! That's so much easier for me than having my characters word though a machine. I admit though, I'm getting used to the mobile suit fighting-at least after this chapter. I guess I'll have to eventually if I want to take this as far as I'm planning and believe me, I will go through with my plan. As for Eclipse, her time will come. She's slowly breaking emotionally, but her best way of dealing with it is to isolate herself. That method will probably hurt her in the long run, but for now, she has no other outlet.
Darkangelsonic: I must admit that was one huge block of a review. I didn't mind reading it in the least-it was quite refreshing actually-but I have one question: What didn't you get about the "Bob" thing? Maybe I was the only one who found it funny-and looking at my record I wouldn't be surprised-but I'm just curious to know what was confusing. Oh, we won't get into the Destiny conversation. I have a lot to say about that season and not much of it is good. At any rate, having Nicol "revive" is iffy from where I'm sitting, but who knows, it could change. I planned on just following the SEED timeline (for the most part) but lately I've been thinking of some changes I could make. (Shrugs) We'll see.
Strata