"So what was that about Artemis you were worried about, Blaze?" Cipher asked while leaving the Archangel; they had gotten some time off while the ship was being resupplied and repaired, about a week's worth.
"This station gives me the same feeling as back then." Blaze said, careful to drop his tone in case they were being overheard; got in trouble for it once, might as well not do it again, he figured.
Cipher didn't need to ask what he meant. "It's probably just because of their defensive system." Artemis was famous for its impregnable status, owing to its Umbrella of Light defensive shield system.
Blaze mulled it over for a moment. "Yeah, that's probably it."
…
…
"Ah, you must be the ship's captain." Gerard Garcia, the station's commander in chief, greeted Murrue Ramius once she was off the ship.
"Acting captain, sir." Murrue said, taking his offered handshake. "Our maiden voyage was far from smooth."
He chuckled, and then sighed. "Had the Atlantic Federation made us aware of the situation we would have been able to offer some measure of support to the secret project. Please accept my condolences for the losses of your comrades." Garcia bowed slightly.
"Ah, uh, thank you for those thoughts, and for accepting the Archangel's request to resupply."
Garcia laughed. "But of course! Even though we're a tad jealous of the folks in the Atlantic, we're still humans, after all."
I guess that means Coordinators are out of the question. Mu La Flaga mused to himself, before he received Garcia's attention.
"And here we have the famed Hawk of Endymion! It's an honor, Lieutenant La Flaga." Garcia gave an overly exaggerated salute, somewhat unbefitting of his status. "Just between us, I'm a huge fan of yours."
Mu scratched the back of his head. "You're giving me too much credit, sir."
Garcia laughed again. "Please, Gerard is fine; you're an inspiration to everyone here, no need to be so stiff."
Natarle scowled slightly: the man's lack of attention to protocol was getting on her nerves. But he was a commanding officer that outranked her severely, so she held her tongue.
Garcia paid her almost no attention on the path to his office.
…
"Alright, so the Archangel needs to get to Alaska, the sooner the better." Garcia summed up the results of Murrue's debriefing. She nodded affirmative.
"After she's done resupplying, we can have the Archangel fold into the 8th fleet until drop position to Alaska. Would that work?" Garcia said, looking at a holographic globe with several lines draw across it.
"Yes, sir. It would also be extremely advantageous if we were to receive additional crew, as well." Natarle finally said.
Garcia didn't bother to look at her. "Well, all of our non-reserve ships were sent to bolster the 8th fleet's numbers, and our reserve ships were scouring the Heliopolis wreckage for survivors; the first ships are back, by the way. But regardless we're not in a position to spare any crew for the ship. We do have pilots, however."
"More pilots would be extremely helpful; the current ones we have are not very good at keeping their crafts together." Natarle said, adding the last bit as almost an undertone.
"Oh really? What's wrong with them?" Garcia said, finally looking at her.
"Well…"
…
"Man, the Artemis's almost a home away from home." Talisman said while looking around the oddly very not-military looking bunch of shops and stores lined up in front of him.
"It's good, isn't it? At least we'll be able to rest for a while." Miriallia said; the girl with the curly brown hair had invited him along with Kira and the rest of their friends for their down time on the station.
Actually, her original goal was to get all of the Strangereal Aces, but Blaze and Cipher left early and Ribbon was talking to the mechanics, so Talisman was the only one who was free to go.
Also fittingly Talisman was the youngest of the group, so he fit in a little better than the others.
"Where did you learn to pilot like that, Talisman?" Kira asked.
"A few months of flying in space, trying not to die; it's amazing what the EFA won't do if they think you're not a Natural, but at least they paid for our food."
"That's horrible." Kuzzey, one of the less noticeable members of the group, said.
"That's war." Sai sighed.
"Um, once we get back to the Archangel, I'd like you to fly against me, if you don't mind." Kira suddenly said.
"Kira, didn't you want to avoid fighting?" Sai asked worriedly.
Kira nodded. "I do, but something tells me I can't just pretend as if this war isn't happening. The truth is already in front of our faces, and we can't exactly turn away from it."
He then looked at Talisman in the eyes. "That's why I'm going to fight; if my power can end the war just a bit quicker, then I'm going to do just that. I will protect my friends and the people who live without worrying about war."
Tolle looked at Kira, then at Talisman. "Me too! Talisman, teach me to be a fighter pilot!"
"Tolle?" Miriallia looked at him.
He nods, staring back at her. "Like Kira said, we can't turn away from the war that's in front of us, especially now that we're already involved. Kira," Tolle turns to look at him. "We want to protect you, just as you want to protect us; no way am I letting my friend shoulder all the burden."
"Tolle, but…" Kira started to say before Sai cut him off.
"He's right. We're friends, and if you're risking your neck for us, then the least we can do is help as well."
Talisman took a swig of his drink. "That's nice and all, but…" They all turn to look at him. "This is, after all, a war. You're going to be killing people, are you fine with that?"
Tolle looked a little troubled, but Kira's eyes were still firm.
"I will get stronger, until I'm powerful enough to stop the enemy without killing them."
Good luck with that. Talisman silently thought to himself. "Well, it's your call. Once we get back on the ship I'll ask and see if we can have the Strike hooked up to a simulator."
…
…
"So that's the Artemis?" Athrun asked, looking at a picture taken by a long range recon drone.
"Yep, pretty impressive, isn't it? They hollowed out a rock for it and everything." Dearka said while staring at a map projected onto a table, complete with markers, key points, and lines denoting everything they knew about the fortress.
"Why are we sending a kill force for it? Artemis was never a problem before." Nicol asked, also looking at the map and taking notes.
"Well, apart from our attack being driven by the rage of a parent," Rau Le Cruset said while walking in, returning the salutes of his squad. "It's also because high command is worried that the station houses potential prototypes we're not aware of. Plus, taking it out would free our forces to operate around here as we please, if we needed to."
"Your father" Rau looked at Athrun "is also worried about those Moebius pilots we saw." Athrun thought back to the one insignia he managed to see, a dog biting on its chain. "Imagine the type of damage those pilots can do if they got their hands on one of the experimental prototypes…assuming they exist, of course."
"So what's the plan?" Athrun looked at the map, focusing specifically on the key points: the emitters of the Umbrella of Artemis.
…
…
Yzak waited inside the Artemis, having used the unprotected terminal in his room (the Naturals are idiots, he thought) to access the local internet. He found out that the Artemis had planned to send a refugee ship loaded with refugees from Heliopolis to Earth. From there, he could make his way to a ZAFT base. Whether if they'll let him keep his status as an elite, Yzak wasn't sure.
But regardless of the consequences, Yzak was driven by a desire to face the ribbon fighter and prove that he was as good as his uniform suggested.
…
"So we're not using the Duel?" Ribbon asked Murdoch as they ate a hurried dinner.
"Kira's the only guy that can program them, and I'm pretty sure none of you are any good in a mobile suit." Murdoch said. "No offense."
"None taken."
"So we're just going to mothball it for the time being. Eventually we'll transfer it to Alaska but I seriously doubt we'll be doing anything more to that."
"Shame."
"No kidding." Murdoch sighed. "When I first saw those Gs I had trouble sleeping. And now the first thing I get to do on it is to take it out of commission." He was ordered to take the cockpit block out entirely to avoid it being hijacked a second time.
…
…
…
"So, what do you think about the base commander?" Murrue said, after the three commanding officers were back aboard the Archangel.
"He's definitely planning something." Mu La Flaga said after stretching. "Did you see how he paid almost no attention to Lieutenant Badgiruel? Definitely not good behavior."
Natarle Badgiruel flinched a tiny bit. "Hearing you refer to me as a Lieutenant is a little grating, Lieutenant Commander La Flaga." They had received (unofficial) promotions given by Gerard Garcia per his powers as the commander in chief of the Artemis station.
La Flaga laughed. "Sorry, sorry." He then returned to being serious. "The man's obviously got his own agendas to pursue, and it might not be good for us; stay on your toes, Murrue."
Lieutenant Commander Murrue Ramius shrugged. "As long as the Archangel is supplied and good to go before the week is up he can do whatever the hell he wants."
…
"Sir, is this alright?" One of Garcia's aides asked him, upon reviewing the documents of transfer he was supposed to use.
"Yeah, it's fine. Damned Coordinators." Garcia said. He did not like the idea that the Atlantic federation could produce pilots good enough to not only fight GINNs on equal footing, but good enough to fight them, be at a disadvantage, and win. Thus, it was only convenient to have them labeled as inhuman.
"But these pilots are…"
"Our best of the best." Garcia smirked. "Surely their aces wouldn't have problems with doing a little teaching on their days off."
The aide groaned inwardly. "Yes sir, and about the supplying of the Archangel…"
Garcia waved it off. "Supply them as they request; their failures will not be our issue."
"Yes sir."
…
…
[A day or so later]
…
…
"I take it you're the leader of the Archangel's Aces?" Cipher heard, and turned around to face…
A man he's never met before, but judging by the rank insignias the guy was a top brass.
"No sir, he's doing something else; can I help you with anything?"
"Ah, well, you seem like the most capable member of the bunch." Garcia laughed.
Cipher smiled as well, in a way that was almost feral. Looks like we have a leech on our hands. He thought, the mercenary side of him finally happy to have some work.
…
"We're going to have them hooked up in about an hour or so. Until then, you're just going to have to wait." Murdoch said for about the fifth time to a very enthusiastic Tolle.
The Strike and Talisman's Moebius were currently being patched into the Archangel's inter-ship network, where the training programs were located.
"Why can't I just use that one? It's not like they're on duty or anything." Tolle pointed to Ribbon's craft.
"There's a bug with its control program. It's grounded until we get it fixed." One of the mechanics inside the Moebius said.
"With the way they fly these things I'm amazed they're still holding together." Tolle heard another mechanic say.
"No shit. Think Artemis will give us more units?" Said mechanic one.
"They better. Eurasia put a lot of money in the Moebius projects and for once they're winning."
"Will you two shut up and get back to work!?" Murdoch yelled. A pair of "sorry" came from the Moebius cockpit in reply. "Anyways, that's the deal. Until we hook this thing into the system you're just going to have to wait."
Tolle sighed.
"Oy! Kid! How's it going up there!?" Murdoch yelled up to the Strike.
Kira, who was working in the Strike, poked his head out. "Just a little more left." He said, before ducking back in.
"The Archangel really needs a dedicated simulator room." Tolle grumbled.
Murdoch shrugged. "It's supposed to."
…
"Yo. I got some good news and bad news." Cipher clapped Blaze on the back.
Blaze was resting in the Archangel's lounge. "What's the good news?"
"The base commander is a leech and an idiot, so he's going to give us some brand new Moebius crafts."
"How'd that happen?" Blaze turned to look at Cipher sitting down in a soft chair.
"Eurasia was one of the primary sponsors of the TS-MA2 Moebius Project, and we're doing really damn well in the Moebius crafts. Put two and two together."
"He doesn't want Atlantic to take more credit with the new mobile suits; makes sense. So what's the bad news?"
"The base commander is a leech and an idiot, so he's going to give us some dropout pilots to babysit."
Blaze rolled his eyes. One of his wingmen in Strangereal, Archer, was considered to have no talent for flying until he pulled an F-5 out of a hangar in the middle of the base being bombed. "They can't be that bad."
"The man is…very capable at cutting off the fat when it comes to his base." Cipher said, suddenly aware that they were, in fact, talking about a man responsible for keeping the ship they're on in full combat duty.
Blaze was suddenly reminded of Perrault, his old commander on Sand Island. Perrault was also very good at maintaining his power at the cost of efficiency and competency. "I see. But is having more in the air bad?"
"No, it isn't. The true bad news is that the commander is very, very proud of his static defense."
The two aces fondly thought back of the supposedly war-ending super weapons they destroyed.
"Well, shit." Blaze and Cipher said in unison.
…
…
[Some time during the week]
…
…
"Sai, what are you doing? Oh." Miriallia asked, before realizing that Sai was scrolling through a list of names on a wall-mounted display screen.
"A new refugee ship came in earlier, so I wondered…" He trailed off. Miriallia vaguely heard him muttering about the list not having an alphabetical search function.
The two spent an uncomfortable twenty seconds before Sai bolted off without another word.
…
…
[At the end of the week]
…
…
Rau Le Cruset stood in front of the pilots in the fleet in the briefing room. Behind him was an image of Artemis, and four insignias he had managed to scavenge from the surviving GINN black boxes.
"Warriors of ZAFT, I will outline our battle plan against the Artemis space station."
A picture of Artemis with its Umbrella of light deployed was brought up.
"As you know, the Artemis is defended by its laser-based shield system, which protects it against all forms of damage. Because of that, a direct assault is impossible, and a siege against it impractical, therefore…"
A new picture, of a particular gun mounted on their ship, appeared.
"The attack will be divided into three stages: the first stage will consist of a long range attack from the ship-mounted cold artillery to destroy the shield emitters; when the shield emitters have been brought down, the ships will fire all ordnance into the base ports to reduce the enemy deployments."
Various pictures of the Artemis, focusing on several large hangar ports, appeared on the screen.
"The last stage of the attack will be an all-out attack from our Mobile Suit divisions. Your goal, gentlemen, is to completely paralyze the base's ability to fight back and crush Artemis into dust."
Athrun raised his hand.
"Yes, Athrun?"
"What about Yzak?"
Rau smiled. "A special operations force will be deployed to retrieve him."
The insignias of a dog biting on its chain and a Mobius loop appeared on the screen again. "As some of you may be aware, the Federation has recently found some extremely talented pilots. Loathe as I am to say this, if you see these pilots, ignore them and focus on destroying the station; if they're dedicated to chasing you down, request support from nearby allies, or retreat."
The last suggestion brought some murmurs from the pilots.
"We run from Moebius crafts? Really?" One of the pilots laughed. "C'mon, guys. They're cake! They'll show up, we'll pump them full of lead! Boom! Job done."
Rau laughed as well. "If it goes that well, I'll be a happy man. All of you are aware of the situation. Get prepared at once."
…
…
Yzak snuck onto a refugee ship due to deploy to Earth, dressed as plainly as he could with what he stole from an on-ship shop.
…
…
Murrue sat down in the Captain's seat back on the Archangel, the ship ready to deploy after the week of resupply. A moment later, a communications from a ship came in; a ship that Cipher had somehow wheedled the base commander to loan to them as a support craft until the Archangel reached the 8th Fleet.
"Captain Murrue, how's your deployment status?" The other ship's captain asked.
"We're mustering our crew, and will be ready to deploy in fifteen minutes."
"Excellent. I hope that we'll both have a safe voyage."
"Thank you for providing support." Murrue said.
"Think nothing of it. We're all humans, after all."
…
A warning suddenly rang through the base.
"All hands, ZAFT ships have been sighted in probably operational range. All hands, report to your stations."
"ZAFT. Of all the times…" Murrue muttered. "Archangel to Artemis control. Can we still deploy?"
"Negative. They'll chase you down if you deployed now. Sit tight, and eventually they'll go away." The control operator said.
Murrue sighed. "How long would that be?" She asked herself.
…
"Oy, guys, we're deploying."
"Wait, what?"
Blaze looked at the other three pilots, mild confusion written on their faces.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Blaze said simply.
"Same with us, but we're not going to get a clear order with that umbrella blocking our way." Ribbon shrugged.
Talisman was showing some maneuvers to Tolle on a small display. "Besides, the new pilots aren't here, and the new Moebius crafts aren't here. If there's a launch order only Blaze and Cipher can deploy."
As it turned out, Mobius one's craft had sustained a remarkable amount of internal damage due to his piloting, and was cannibalized for parts to keep Blaze and Cipher's crafts afloat. Likewise, Talisman's craft was also scrapped after a thorough search had found its hard points totally melted and unable to function any longer.
"Shit. Well, can't say I'm surprised. Cipher."
Cipher sighed, but got up anyway. "Might as well be on standby."
"Wait, I'm going with you." Kira said, after debating internally for a little while.
"You sure, kid?" Cipher was drafted into helping Talisman with the training sessions, and they both found out that Kira was very good at piloting that Strike of his.
"Yeah; I want to protect everyone."
"Focus on the ship first. If you protect everyone you'll just end up not being able to protect anyone." Cipher warned. Kira gave a good natured salute in response.
…
…
"Range optimal. Ballistic trajectory calculations complete, arming cold."
Rau Le Cruset heard the ship weapon control officer read.
"All ships, coordinate, and prepare to fire on my mark." The ship captain said, looking at a watch.
…
"Mark."
…
"You think they're doing anything interesting out there?" An operator on the Artemis asked her neighbor.
"At that distance? Probably just yell at us." Her neighbor stretched.
Neither of them noticed the small, almost unnoticeable sudden spike of heat that occurred on the ships.
…
"The hell was that?" Cipher suddenly said.
"I don't know, I've got a bad feeling…Murdoch, can we deploy?"
"In your dreams; just because we bolted them up doesn't mean you can fly them." Murdoch was standing next to what looked like a literal junk heap with an engine strapped to it.
…
…
Alarms blared in the station.
"We're taking fire! We're taking fire! Shit! Emitters One and Four have been hit!"
"Bring up the shields! Is there any danger to the shield coverage!?"
…
Rau looked impassively at the display, at the sight of Artemis, being fully covered by its Umbrella of Light.
"We hit two of the five targets; I don't think we'll get a second shot, sir." The captain said, deeply ashamed of his gunner's skill.
The gunner in question owed all of his buddies a round of drinks.
"That's fine. I always have a backup plan." Rau said lightly.
…
…
"What the hell?! Shield Emitter Three is down!" An Artemis operator suddenly said.
"Bring out the cameras!" The chief operator said, dressed as if he rolled out of bed (which he did).
The cameras were active, and…nothing.
They couldn't see anything out of the ordinary as the Umbrella of Artemis continued to cover the base.
Suddenly, another shield emitter was cut to pieces, as they saw a beam of light emit from an unnaturally black part of space.
"Shield Emitter four is down! The shield system has a leak!"
…
…
"Shield system has been compromised! All units! Scramble Launch!"
The catapults on the ZAFT ships worked overtime to launch their mobile suits at the Artemis, which was now covered by a blanket of light with a massive hole in it.
"Natarle! Is everyone back yet?" Murrue asked, the alarm on the system getting to her nerves.
"Everyone is back, plus a few extra."
"Extra?" Murrue couldn't help but ask.
Natarle's face had disapproval written all over it. "Sai brought his girlfriend aboard."
…
"Flay, this isn't a good idea." Sai said for about the fifth time.
"And like I said I'm not going back to Earth while Papa is in space." Flay said for about the fourth time. "And I get to be with you and your friends, so it's a win-win."
Sai could only sigh. "Fine, but stay out of trouble."
…
"Shield emitters six, seven, eight all offline!"
"What the hell is attacking us?!"
…
Nicol took a deep breath in the pilot seat of the Blitz Gundam, before hailing Rau Le Cruset back on his ship. "Nicol here, I've taken out the primary targets. What's next?"
"Find the legged ship; we're going to start phase two."
"Roger."
…
"Energy spikes from the enemy ship! They're going to fire!"
Garcia had reached the command room by now.
"Rotate the station! Don't let them hit us!" The station helmsman roared.
"Firing Thrusters! C'mon, baby, move…!"
…
The ZAFT ships and the Artemis crew watched as the station turned, slowly, to bring about a layer of its shield against the incoming wave of beams and missiles.
And both sides knew: It wasn't going to make it.
…
More warning sirens blared inside the Artemis as the first wave of attacks slammed into its side, destroying installations to pieces and blocking a lot of hangars with debris.
Not all of them though.
…
Garcia gritted his teeth, and raised a station-wide alert.
"All pilots scramble and intercept the enemy immediately! Repeat! Kill every last one of those Coordinator bastards!"
He then raised a specific alert to the Archangel.
"Archangel, have your pilots to deploy as well!"
…
Murrue shook her head. "The crafts they're supposed to fly haven't arrived yet, and our current units are nonoperational." On Cipher's suggestion the Archangel treated the Strike as barely operational: useable as a gun point, but useless once it detaches from the ship.
She heard Garcia swore and close the communication link.
She then heard the door to the bridge open.
"It might be a good idea to get the hell out of here really fast, captain." Blaze said behind her.
"I would, but with the umbrella active like that we're not going to get very far."
Both of them looked ahead at the screen of light outside the dock.
…
"All GINN units! Attack all targets of opportunity! Cripple the station!" Rau Le Cruset found a hangar that wasn't blocked yet and sprayed it with bullets. He was rewarded by a series of explosions from inside the hangar.
"Second Volley, away!" He heard the captain of the fleet say, before opening a private channel. "Nicol, have you located the legged ship?"
"No, I haven't." Nicol said, watching a few of the visual feeds of the small unmanned camera drones fly over the other side of the fortress: it was deemed too risky to send the pilots over to the other side of the station, since it was still covered by the umbrella of light.
Rau heard his unit blare a lock warning, and jinked away from a line of conventional bullet fire.
"Watch yourselves, gentlemen, the station is waking up!"
"Athrun, roger." Athrun dodged a spray of fire from an anti-aircraft gun and fired at it with his rifle, destroying it. He took a moment to look around, and noted with pride how the GINNs were either dodging the attacks from the station or just taking minimal damage, if any.
"Second volley, impact in ten seconds, all units stand clear of impact zone." Rau said, watching his timer. It was actually twenty seconds until impact, but safety is better.
The GINNs that received threat warnings accelerated out of the way as the second barrage of beams and missiles hit the station.
…
"Enemy second wave, hit! Breach detected!" An operator of the station said in a panic.
"Countermeasures! Make sure nobody gets sucked out!" The master operator said.
Garcia gritted his teeth, watching the display of GINNS flying about his fortress like flies while the anti-aircraft guns fire back almost lethargically among the debris, before being destroyed by that unknown red unit.
Correction: By that stolen Red unit.
"Damn those Atlantic bastards, if only they knew what security is." He hissed. "What's the status on the Moebius transfers!?"
"All four units have finished their modifications and are being routed to the Archangel." Another operator said. "We couldn't find the reserve pilots to send to the ship, however."
"That's fine, send them some rookies! Just get them out of the dock!" Garcia could feel one of his veins pop (not that it actually did). I won't let my reputation be tarnished by losing that ship, goddammit!
…
"Artemis to Archangel," Natarle heard over the communications, while she hurried coached Miriallia on its usage. "Do you copy?" She nodded at the younger girl.
"This is Archangel, we copy; go ahead, Artemis." Miriallia said, a brief tremble in her voice.
"We have a delivery of Moebius crafts, please open your hangars and prepare them for docking."
Blaze immediately rushed over to the communications. "Do you have four units ready for action?"
"Yes, we do, but…"
"Then fire them up, we'll be out there right now."
"Wait, what are you—"
Blaze had already left the bridge.
Murrue sighed. "Can't blame the man." Then she raised a ship-wide alert. "Razgriz team, you have orders to scramble, meet Blaze in Catapult One."
…
"Oy, Blaze! What the hell are we doing?!" Cipher demanded.
Blaze noted that everyone was already in their flight suits.
"There're four fighters out there with our names on it." He said simply, before clutching what looks like an oversized coat hanger. The other three aces shrugged and did the same.
"Catapult one, soft deploy." One of the hangar crew said, and launched the hanger out at a fairly gentle speed.
…
"Oh, I am liking this." Cipher said, after seeing the modified Moebius crafts they'll be flying.
Their new crafts were outfitted with oversized engines that wouldn't have looked out of place on a capital ship. Underneath the two "legs" of the Moebius were Linear Guns, elongated to drive a projectile out of the gun faster. Underneath the middle hardpoint of the craft was a single missile. Their insignias were painted on the back of the Moebius crafts, next to a deployable something and two small orbs.
"What're the new toys we got?" Talisman said as he floated into the cockpit and strapped himself in.
Blaze scanned the document he was handed in a hurry. "The missile is the same large-scale one that our ship uses…"
"That explains why it's so flat." Mobius one muttered, going through the startup sequence.
"The Linear guns are using additional coils, so they hit harder but also burn up faster; we got two more Vulcans than normal and a deployable radiator so we don't catch on fire again. These guys thought of everything." He put the paper detailing the changes to the crafts underneath his seat and strapped himself in.
"Razgriz, check in."
"Two" Cipher.
"Three." Mobius One.
"Four." Talisman.
The four pilots looked to the front of the hangar, and their eyes widened in surprise as the umbrella of light vanished from sight.
…
"What's going on?! What happened to the Umbrella?!" Garcia demanded, watching alerts pop up all over the station.
"We…we don't know, sir! The main system overheated and just shut down! Commencing emergency cooling procedures!"
Garcia swore loudly. "Just get it back online!"
…
"The Umbrella has vanished…? Well, no point waiting for it to come back." The ZAFT fleet captain muttered. "All ships fire long range missiles! Transfer targeting to our spotter units when they're free!"
…
Yzak reclined a little in his chair aboard the refugee ship, allowing a moment of pride as he watched his handiwork.
…
"Nicol, the long range missiles are coming in, you're in charge of units five through nine. Guide them well." Rau said.
"Roger, sir." Nicol watched the readout in one of the monitors change to a display of four missiles, before placing in coordinates into those missiles, guiding them to their destinations.
He then saw an Anti-Aircraft gun pop up next to him, and lazily picked it off with his beam rifle.
…
"Archangel! Deploy immediately! Get out of here!" Garcia roared over the intercom.
Murrue wasn't sure what he was doing, but complied. "Archangel, roger, we'll deploy immediately."
"Razgriz, escort us as we make our way out of the battle zone."
"Razgriz one, roger."
...
Nicol heard one of his alerts go off, and watched a second monitor zoom in to the picture of a hangar…and then the Archangel came slowly into view.
"Captain! I see the enemy ship! I could redirect a missile to hit it!"
"Don't bother; it wouldn't make it." Came Rau's reply.
Nicol was about to argue the point when he saw a wing of four Moebius crafts come into view. He maneuvered his camera above the Moebius crafts and saw the four insignias of the Aces of Strangereal. Well, more specifically, he saw the image of the dog biting on its chain.
"Damn." He said under his breath.
…
"More missiles incoming!" The operator on the station said, watching a swarm of blips come toward the station on the radar display. He didn't catch the sixteen special ones inside the swarm of hundreds, for good reason.
"Intercept!" Garcia roared.
Due to the Umbrella being down, the hangars that were undamaged could actually deploy interceptor crafts for a change, and Moebius crafts started to fly against the missiles.
Which would be a relief, if they survived for more than five minutes; the GINNs were liberally spraying each Moebius craft that came into view with machine gun fire, per their briefings: none of them wanted to be known as a pilot who was shot down by a Moebius craft, after all.
…
"Shit, what are they teaching the other pilots?" Mobius one said, watching yet another allied craft fall under a withering hail of fire.
"How many pilots actually survive out there?" Blaze asked. All of them didn't want to answer.
Blaze then saw a communication request from a particular wing of Mobius crafts. "This is Razgriz one, state your intentions."
"This is Artemis detachment squadrons thirty five and thirty six, we've been transferred to your command."
Blaze heard the tremble in the voice and groaned inwardly. Rookies.
"Razgriz one, roger. Stay near and cover the Archangel."
"Blaze, uh. I mean, Razgriz One." He heard someone say.
Kira came onto the screen. "Do I have permission to launch?"
Blaze mulled it over for a moment. "Yeah, but stay near the Archangel for now. Once we're far enough from the station then you can run wild."
"What? Why?"
"Do you think we're going to get away without a chase?" Talisman said, watching his radar: some GINNs have taken notice and were accelerating towards the Archangel.
"Razgriz one to flight, commence interception."
…
"Captain! It's them!" Rau Le Cruset heard one of his GINN pilots say, and zoomed in on the four Moebius crafts with overlarge engines.
"All GINN units: keep your eye out on those units but do not engage! Continue attacking Artemis station!"
…
"The hell is he saying? There's nothing on the station left to shoot at!" The GINN pilot smirked. "Cruset's lost his balls, I say. Let's show these guys what real ZAFT pilots can do!"
…
"Razgriz squadron, you're cleared to engage." Blaze heard over the communications. He still was getting used to hearing Miriallia of all people relaying orders.
"Roger that. Wardog Leader, engage." Blaze.
"Galm one, engaging." Cipher.
"Garuda one, engaging." Talisman.
"Mobius one, engage." Ribbon.
…
Rau Le Cruset felt a sudden chill run through his body.
…
The loudmouth GINN pilot raised his recoilless rifle towards the lead oversized engine Moebius craft, and fired.
Said Moebius craft rolled out of the way and fired back with its two Linear guns.
The pilot felt two massive jolts and the warning in his cockpit told him that he was now missing both of his arms.
…
"What the hell?" The pilot could only watch as the Moebius crafts ignored his now armless suit and go after his squadron.
…
"Report! Michael team has been disabled!"
The Captain of a ZAFT ship looked about in mild confusion: Michael team wasn't exactly the best they had but they certainly weren't rookies either. Was it the Aces Rau had warned them about?
"Have all units use their interlink cameras! Find out what's going on!" He ordered.
…
"They're ignoring us." Cipher said with a mixture of amusement and respect; it takes a lot of guts to ignore someone trying to kill you and focus on your mission.
"Good for them." Blaze said. "Heads up, new group out there. Take them out."
"Got it."
…
"Osprey team, the Aces are heading in your direction, be careful." The Osprey team leader heard over the radio.
"Don't worry, Rau, we'll take care of them." He then raised a general alert.
"Osprey team to all local units, requesting firing support against the Aces."
"Hellion team, roger; can't believe we actually have to try against the Naturals."
"Rosemary team, we're en route."
"Quail team, got it."
"Miguel team, we're here."
…
"Oh, looks like we got a lot of attention." Blaze was surprised to see some twenty-odd GINNs raise their guns at the four of them. "Two, you're with me, we're heading in."
"Cipher, got it."
"Three and Four, we're counting on you."
"Roger."
…
"Enemy lead units are accelerating!" Rosemary team leader said, surprised.
"Yeah, what can they do-" Her teammate's response was cut off when a shot hit her unit square in the head.
"What the-damn!" Rosemary leader looked around frantically before jinking away from a spray of Vulcan fire, only to be hit in the right leg by a Linear gun shot.
"All units, their linear guns are faster than normal! Don't get distracted!" She said as she pulled out her two machine guns and fired at the Moebius crafts speeding past her.
…
"I got the dual wielder." Talisman said with Rosemary leader's back square in his sights. He depressed the trigger and raked the engine with Vulcan fire.
…
"Rosemary leader is down!" One of the Rosemary wingmen said, as the leader watched the four units fly past her and through the blanket of machine gun fire.
…
"Whoa. We don't have a good angle to attack like this." Cipher said, rolling and dodging through the GINN fire.
"We do." Talisman laughed, enjoying the relative lack of machinegun fire in his airspace as he sighted what was his fourth GINN of the minute and fired his linear guns.
"Hey, ZAFT. Look at us for a moment, will ya?" Mobius one said lazily, shooting out the engines on yet another GINN.
…
"Shit, we're losing ground!" Hellion leader hissed. "All units spread out! Don't make yourselves an easy target!"
The Hellion team spread out like they were told, but as a result their fire dissipated for just a moment.
That brief moment was all Blaze and Cipher needed.
The Hellion team was now missing various arms and legs (and a head) on their GINNs.
…
Rau Le Cruset shook his head. "Nevermind them. Athrun, Dearka, Nicol. We're targeting the legged ship." He received three affirmatives in reply.
…
"Archangel, be advised, the Cruset team is heading in your direction." Blaze said, after Talisman alerted him on the location of said Cruset team.
"Roger, can you guys make it back?"
"Negative, we're still engaged with the enemy forces." Cipher said. Although they were able to disable a fair amount of GINNs, all of them were perfectly fine with using their guns with their other arms or firing without the assistance of their main cameras. The end result being that the Aces were having a harder time than normal, because they were up against twenty enemies, some of them firing a little wildly.
"Kira, your turn." Blaze said simply.
"Roger. Kira Yamato, Strike, engaging the enemy!"
…
"Archangel will be out of the combat area in five minutes."
…
"That's…the unit we didn't recover!" Athrun said upon seeing the Strike.
"Inside that unit…is it Athrun?" Kira wondered, before opening a general communications link. "Strike to Aegis. Athrun, is it you?"
"Kira…" Athrun's shock was written on his face. "Kira, why are you with the Naturals?! You're a Coordinator!"
Kira mulled it over for a fraction of a second. "I am here because I want to be; there are people I want to protect on that ship." He raised his Strike's gun towards the Aegis. "Athrun. You're my friend, so I don't want to fight you. Please, leave the combat area."
"Kira…" Athrun raised his gun as well. "I have my duty towards ZAFT. I'm sorry, but I'll bring you back with me, so please don't resist."
Athrun depressed his trigger, and almost immediately heard the incoming fire warning and barely got out of the way. His shot as a result went wide.
"Athrun. You're wrong about one thing: Coordinators, Naturals, we're all human in the end." Kira, in the Aile Strike, pulled out a beam saber to complement his rifle, and threw his shield away. "I may be a Coordinator on a ship of Naturals, but before that… I am a human!" With that, Kira opened his engines to maximum thrust.
Athrun dodged three shots from Kira's beam rifle before he found himself staring down Kira's beam saber.
Kira had learned well from Talisman (and Cipher, who helped out during training). All the moments where he hesitated during training was rewarded by either one of the two aces pounding his head in, super powered prototype notwithstanding. With his skills as a Coordinator and experience of being toyed with for hours on end in the simulator by the Demon Lord of the Round Table and the Angel of Gracemeria, Kira is now miles ahead of what he would have been.
Athrun felt his blood freeze, but Kira had zero intentions of destroying the Aegis to begin with; instead, Kira slashed the Aegis's beam rifle to shreds before boosting back hard to dodge a shot from the Buster.
"Shit. Athrun! You alright there?!" Dearka locked onto the Strike, letting Kira know that he was being targeted. Dearka fired as quickly as he could, but Kira's convoluted evasion cause him to miss cleanly every single time. "What's with this bastard!? He's even faster than those Moebius crafts!"
Kira, meanwhile, was muttering to himself. "Don't stand still, keep moving. Watch for the opening…"
The opening, in this case, was Dearka needing to take a moment for the gun to cool.
"…and strike!" Kira pulled the trigger three times.
"Oh shit!" The buster's thrusters were enough to save it from being hit directly, but as Dearka's cockpit says, the leg sections were grazed and were now demanding to be maintained.
"One more!" Kira took aim at the Buster's head, and fired a shot.
Dearka wasn't able to stop his unit in time.
The beam struck a something dark that had zoomed up in front of the Buster.
"Dearka! Don't get careless!" Nicol said, his Blitz Gundam showing up in the infrared sensors of the nearby crafts.
"Damn. Who'd thought the boy from back when would actually be this good." Rau Le Cruset muttered, trying to find an opening in the blanket of fire that covered the Archangel. "No, that's not quite right…who'd thought that he would find such a talented teacher, right? Mu La Flaga!"
Mu, meanwhile, was sulking on the bridge because the Moebius Zero wasn't cleared for takeoff.
…
"Athrun, Dearka, we'll take him on together." Nicol said, as Athrun shook his head to get the fear out of his system.
"Got it. Nicol, we'll follow your lead." Athrun said, activating the beam saber in the undamaged arm.
"Huh? Uh, right." Nicol said while looking at a series of screens as presented to him by the cameras re-routed to this battlefield. "Dearka, open fire, use ballistic arms too; it's fine if the Armor blocks it."
"Alright, but you better know what you're talking about, man." Dearka locked onto the Strike again, and fired the Buster's missiles.
The Strike backpedaled by turning a full 180 degrees around to use the main thrusters, and then turning back around to pick off the missiles with the Vulcans.
"Shit, now what?" Dearka said, rising to avoid a counter-fire (3 shots very fast together) from the Strike.
Nicol didn't answer; rather, his Blitz did the talking for him, as he fired at Kira from below the Strike, without using the targeting system.
"Whoa!" Kira heard his alarms blare and twisted in an extremely odd angle to dodge the fire from below him.
"Jeez! What's with this guy!?" Nicol accelerated out of the way from the counter-attack fire. "Athrun! Go for it!"
Kira was muttering to himself again. "If I'm being attacked, I should expect to continue being attacked, and if I can counter, I should even if I can't see, thus…!"
Athrun sped downwards toward the Strike, which was facing downwards when it was counter attacking the Blitz. "Kira, don't move!" Athrun said to himself.
Kira, after having been shot at countless times to his back during training by Cipher and Talisman, instinctively, and with his beam saber active, turned at maximum thrust.
Athrun saw a white blur, and then felt his unit shake as his unit's arm was knocked away by a blur of green.
Kira, a little dizzy from the g-force, brought his unit back to a standstill (getting dizzier from the g-force) and aimed his beam rifle, right at the head of the Aegis, and pulled the trigger.
Athrun pressed a button, and the Aegis transformed into its Mobile Armor form, resembling a claw. Which he opened to try and grab the Strike. The beam rifle fire aimed at his head flew off into space, as the target it was trying to hit no longer existed.
Kira maneuvered his Strike for a shoulder charge into the Aegis, right into the claw.
The resulting force stunned Athrun for a brief moment, which was all Kira needed; the Strike spun around and fired its engines at full power, escaping from the Aegis and damaging it with the fire from the engine.
"Kira…" Athrun looked on at the Strike's back in a mixture of shock and awe.
"Athrun! You alright in there?!" Dearka said, taking shots at the Strike without the use of the targeting system. After the first few shots he made a mental note to practice shooting without targeting, since his shots were going nowhere close to the Strike. He also kept himself moving while shooting, which, while making his aim worse, was also proving to be quite a bit more helpful on evading the counter fire from the Strike, which came with alarming frequency and were almost all near-hits.
"I'm fine. My threat radar's going crazy though." Athrun said; his cockpit was practically glowing red with the sheer amount of alerts coming from every piece of the Aegis's body that sustained burn damage.
…
"Yo! Kira! Need a hand?" Blaze said.
"Blaze! Yeah, a little help would be nice." Kira dodged another wave of fire from the almost invisible Blitz and the long distance Buster.
"Razgriz! On me!" Blaze received three affirmatives in reply, and the four Moebius crafts dove down onto the Buster, peppering it with Vulcan fire.
"Archangel to all units, we're going to leave the battlezone at maximum acceleration in sixty seconds, return to the ship." Murrue said over the radio.
"Roger that; Kira, return to the ship, we'll cover your six."
"Kira Yamato, roger." Kira dodged yet another spray of fire from the Blitz while shooting back to give himself some cover, and flew towards the Archangel. "What about the Rookies?" He asked nobody in particular.
"Don't worry about them; we recovered them a while back since they kept getting in the way of our anti-air fire." Murdoch said, laughing.
…
"Cruset team, we're done here; let's go back; the Archangel will leave the combat area soon." Rau said as he accelerates away from the Archangel at last. He was also giving a wide berth to the Strangereal Aces that were heading to the Archangel.
"Roger. Damn." Athrun was both disappointed and angry that Kira not only outperformed him but had apparently allied with the Naturals. And kicked his ass, to boot.
The Aegis (now looking much worse for the wear), Buster, and Blitz accelerated out of the combat area, to be replaced by a veritable swarm of GINNs, many of them missing pieces from their body.
"Shit. Razgriz, we have visitors." Cipher said, looking at the GINNs behind them.
…
"Artemis, shield emitter backup generators ready to go."
…
"Razgriz three, what are you doing?" Natarle demanded, after seeing Mobius One do a very sudden about face and slow down to meet the GINNs.
Mobius One didn't answer, and instead flipped his communications to an open channel.
"To all ZAFT units, leave the combat area. This is your only warning; continue to approach, and I will be shooting to kill."
…
"Asshole, like I'm gonna let you walk all over us like that!" The ZAFT Hellion Team leader snarled, and fired a shot from his bazooka-looking recoilless rifle. His GINN then suffered a direct hit in the cockpit block and went silent.
Mobius One barely bothered to evade the incoming fire as it flew harmless away into deep space.
"What the…the captain's been hit!" A Hellion team Member said, raising his gun in rage; his squadmates followed his example.
They had barely managed to fire a few shots before three shots from the linear guns found their way to the cockpit blocks of those GINNs.
"Oy, ZAFT pilots," The ZAFT pilots heard over the communications; a voice from a different person, much older than the first guy. "The only reason you're still alive is because we've been trying to avoid a kill shot. Run along home like good little boys now."
…
Garcia rubbed his temples. I know what he said, but damn. To think we would want to leave monsters alive for later.
"Umbrella's backup shield emitters are ready to deploy! Main shield system cooling complete!"
Garcia took a deep breath. "Deploy shield!"
…
"Whoa! What the hell!?" Dearka's unit spun a little wildly as the Artemis's Umbrella of Light deployed yet again, this time covering the whole base.
"I guess we overstayed our welcome. All units, mission complete, return to your carriers." Rau Le Cruset said, his voice somewhat harder than usual.
"We can wait until the new generators die out and then mount a new attack, right?" Nicol said as he scanned Artemis for its new emitter locations.
"Well, we crippled the station either way; even if we leave it alone for now it won't be useful for the duration of war." Athrun said, watching the shield flicker as debris from inside the Artemis float into it.
"What are our losses?" Rau asked the fleet captain.
"A few of our ships were hit by long distance counter battery fire, but they're still afloat. Six GINNs were killed, twelve crippled." An operator said. "On the plus side we killed about a million Moebius crafts and a star base, so I think we came out ahead." He added to himself.
Rau smiled; the man forgot to turn his microphone for his additional comment.
Nicol then received another alert on the Blitz. "Captain. I picked up Yzak's SOS signal. I'm almost out of energy, but I can go recover him."
"Negative; we have a shuttle for that. Give them the coordinates and let them handle it."
"Roger."
…
"Razgriz team has bolted onto the Archangel."
Deeming the docking sequence too time consuming, the four Aces of Strangereal elected to use their grapples and tie themselves to the "wings" on the Archangel. Right now the four Moebius crafts had reeled themselves in and had their folding radiators deployed to bleed off the heat from their engines.
"Good work out there, kid." Blaze said to Kira. "Nice to see that training pay off well."
"Yes, sir. It was thanks to your support." Kira said, his adrenaline finally levelling off. "But I never expected Mr. Ribbon to be so…well…"
Blaze chuckled. "Oh, he's not bloodthirsty; those guys would've continued to pursue if we didn't give them enough incentive."
…
Yzak was found in a deployed refugee ship that had a malfunctioning engine due to debris, and was promptly recovered by the ZAFT special operation soldiers. The ship itself was given some quick repairs so it would return to Earth on time; the ZAFT military weren't in the mood to attack civilians.
Instead, they were all (Yzak included) looking forward to a compiled video stream concerning some very interesting units that the Earth Federation was fielding.
…
…
"To all units, this is the compiled footage concerning the enemy's custom Moebius units. Study it, and learn from it."
Athrun, Dearka, Nicol, and Yzak (in a brand new red uniform, no less) were watching the footage in the ship lounge with the other pilots.
"Yzak, what did you do to the station?" Nicol asked him while the video was being prepared.
"I slipped a bug into it that made the cooling system computers malfunction." He said with a smirk. What he didn't say was that the Artemis's firewalls were good enough that the only thing he could do was to slip in such an otherwise innocuous virus. "If it wasn't giving out the right readouts, the cooling units won't work to keep the Umbrella working, and it burns itself to the ground."
"That's...pretty smart." Nicol said. Everyone caught the implied message, and Yzak bopped Nicol on the head in retaliation.
"Hey!" Nicol rubbed his head.
"We got it working, now pay attention." One of the technicians at the front said.
…
"Holy..." Dearka breathed, transfixed by the pilots in the customized Moebius units as they danced through the barrage of machine gun fire laid down upon them. Even though he had fought against them before, it was only when he saw them dance through fire thick enough to blanket the screen did he fully appreciate just how valuable the stolen Buster was in saving his life.
"Yeah." Yzak was focused entirely on the one with the Ribbon Insignia, who was unerringly hitting anything and everything in front of him, even when he was being targeted by his prey.
Kira must have learned from these guys…If that's the case… Athrun thought, feeling the fear rising through his body before he forced it down again.
…
Once the footage ended, the lounge, which before was at least full of conversation, was deathly silent.
All of the pilots (and some crew who came to watch) were now keenly aware that the only reason they were alive was because the pilots in the custom Moebius crafts were firing only to disable. The fact that, despite all of them expending almost all of their ammo blanketing the combat area, not a single Moebius craft sustained anything remotely resembling battle damage (that the footage could see) made them realize just how badly outclassed they were. If the nervous laughter that was popping up was any indication, some of them were having trouble accepting that idea.
None of them, except for perhaps Nicol and Yzak, noticed that the pilots could only fly as they did because they supported and covered for each other; every time the front units streaked past a GINN and caused it to turn just a fraction, it would be hit almost instantaneously in the arm or the back by another unit. Nicol was, at one point, timing their attacks to a metronome inside his head.
After nearly a minute of everyone just sitting there, staring at a freeze frame of the last picture of the footage: the picture of a dog biting its chain…
There was a loud noise that jolted everyone awake.
Athrun had given himself a wake-up slap to the face. "Yzak, Dearka, Nicol. Simulators. Now."
Yzak grimly nodded, slightly smirking. He made no mention of the small bead of sweat that floated from his forehead.
Dearka blinked, looked down, and found his hands trembling.
Nicol was busy writing furiously in a little pocketbook that he carried with him, his face several shades paler than it normally is. His face was concentrated in a look that was some mixture of terror and resolution.
Athrun looked to the other pilots, and saw the fear that was apparent in their eyes, heard some of the nervous laughter that was just beginning to bubble up. He then took a deep breath. "They're better than us; we've just seen it. We have a lot of work to do, for ZAFT."
He then walked out of the lounge, followed by the rest of the Cruset team, with Nicol bumping into the door frame, so engrossed in his writing.
The rest of the pilots sat in silence a little while longer, looking at each other, before the respective squadron leaders ushered their squads to training.
…
"Was that ok? We might have gone overboard." One of the technicians responsible for compiling the footage asked.
Rau Le Cruset clapped the man on the shoulder. "Yeah. I have to thank those pilots if I ever get to meet them; they'll propel the ZAFT army to a brand new level." The technicians were instructed focus on footage from the units that sustained fire and units that were in the heat of the action. As a result, the Aces of Strangereal appeared a lot faster and a lot more vicious than they were, attacking and weaving near the cameras almost as if using magic.
Well, as far as Rau Le Cruset is concerned, they might as well be made of magic.
"Compile their flight data, and send it to the ZAFT high command. Advise them that this should be the new standard all ZAFT pilots should expect to fight against." He then told the technicians. Even if it is untrue…no, the Federation will have this data too.
"Got it."
…
…
"Footage is out; it looks pretty good, Commander." One of Garcia's underlings said.
Per Cipher's suggestion, Gerard Garcia had managed to capture all four pilots and their flying in a much more complete fashion than ZAFT, and the Artemis technicians had also compiled it into a video that was full of "action shots" depicting Moebius crafts shooting down GINNs while doing some extremely fancy flying. Unfortunately, it merely looked like badly made war propaganda, and the end result wasn't nearly as good as it was compared to the ZAFT version. It did wonders for morale however, especially to some new pilots assigned to fly in Moebius crafts; it made them think they would actually survive their first battles.
He also submitted the flight data in its entirety to the Earth Federation (Eurasia) high command and the Artemis simulators, with the express order that all pilots should practice against that data until they can keep up, by any means necessary.
He also, with a brilliant stroke of foresight (if he does say so himself) suggested that the improved Linear Gun should be mass produced for all of their Moebius crafts in the Federation Forces.
The Artemis pilots were much more successful in recognizing the effectiveness of squadron based combat than their ZAFT compatriots, which was about the only thing they did better, even with the complete data that they had.
…
In his office, a man in a crisp blue shirt viewed the video sent to him by the Federation with ill-disguised contempt.
"Naturals my ass. These guys are just as bad as the damned monsters in space."
He then took a deep breath.
"Well, I'll have them die for me; it will be just a matter of patience."
…
"I'll have my enemies dead before me; just you wait, you damned Coordinators! For a blue and pure world!"
…
…
…
{ === + === }
Author Notes
Not gonna lie, had some trouble finding a place to stop.
Give me some feedback on whether if anything's confusing or whatever, since I could use guidance here and there.
Blitz is cool. I mean…Gundam painted black with the ability to just vanish? Perfect special ops unit right there. I figured Nicol should do operations instead of just straight up fighting (hence him having guidance of the long range cruise missiles)
Overall I personally liked how the Artemis battle turned out. It was a lot more involved than I had anticipated. Artemis's Umbrella in the show (I haven't seen the HD-remaster, mind you) lasted for like, a single hit from Nicole, which was probably good for animation budgets, but since I don't have one I can go a little crazier.
An animation budget, I mean. Not that I have a Blitz either, but…