[Skies over the Pacific, near Alaska, 1300 Hours]
…
"Sky Eye here, Razgriz Three, report your status."
Ribbon put his Super Spearhead into a lazy Aileron roll. "Razgriz Three here, nothing out of the ordinary."
"And how's your plane?"
Ribbon scanned the sky. "Same as usual…there's not much we can do with duct tape and metal sheets."
"Copy that. You're cleared to return at the end of your patrol route."
"Razgriz three copies." Ribbon sighs. "Seriously. We're so close to EFA territory and still need to fly patrols."
"Hey, it's all fun and games until ZAFT shows up with their subs." Cipher said with a hint of frown.
"That's what I find unusual, actually." Ribbon saw a glint on the ocean surface, and dove to an altitude of a hundred feet above the ocean surface. "If ZAFT has that kind of ocean superiority, why are the EFA fleets not wiped out?"
Cipher saw Ribbon's plane descend and adjusted his patrol path just in case Ribbon needed help. "It's probably because ZAFT only had a few months to deploy subs."
"It's pretty amazing how both sides had only a few months and yet still had the material to wage large-scale battles all over the place." Ribbon murmurs, pulling his Spearhead high into the sky again.
"Yeah. Amazing." Cipher agreed, his frown deepening.
…
…
"Good work, pilots." The Gründer head mechanic clapped Ribbon on the back. "Your plane dances in the sky like usual, no?"
"The usual problems aside." Ribbon nods. "Think we're going to get into a fight in Alaska?"
"Better safe than sorry." The mechanic shrugs, a huge grin plastered on his face. "We get good data from your patrols. Project ACES making good progress."
That got Blaze's attention. "Oh really? We're looking at new planes?"
The mechanic's face turned apologetic. "No. Factories not on Archangel." He then laughs. "Gründer headquarters has good data on machine. We have good data on pilot. Best of both worlds. Take a look at this." He held out his hand, a small plastic model resting in his palm.
Ribbon glanced at the model fighter in the mechanic's hand and found himself entranced. "This is…"
The mechanic took the model away with a wry expression. "The child of X-fighters from all over the world."
Talisman stole a glance before the model was put away. It looks like a marriage between a CFA-44 and the PAK-FA. "Are we getting the first ones then?"
The mechanic grins. "Oh yes. Oh definitely yes. My babies are my babies."
…
[Space]
…
Rau Le Cruset heard a knock on his door. "Enter."
An aide salutes, having taken no more than two steps into the captain's quarters. "Sir, our satellites have image of the legged ship moving toward Josh-A."
Rau Le Cruset dismissed this information. "As we expected."
"Also, we have caught something…interesting." The aide continued. Upon a wave of Rau's hand, he pulled up a picture on his tablet computer. "Sir, look here."
Rau stared indifferently at the image for a moment.
The aide, picking up on Rau's mood, quickly pointed at a region on the map. "Sir, this region has a comparatively different color from the region around it."
"The EFA is hiding from a ZAFT satellite." Rau said indifferently.
"Yes sir." The aide nods. "But going by the measurements, this region that they're covering? It's 1200 kilometers wide."
Rau blinked. "That's absurd. The EFA has no such complex of that size…does high command know about this?"
The aide interpreted that to mean Patrick Zala. "No sir. I thought you might want to know first."
Rau thought for a moment, and then rose from his chair. "I understand. Good work."
…
…
[Panama Base (under ZAFT occupation)]
Athrun felt good.
It was one thing to teach pilots (many of whom were older than he was, if only by a little) how to fly, it was another to lead them into battle as their actual captain. Seeing their skills proven against the EFA fighters (even if the EFA can't fly worth a damn on a good day) and seeing their training pay off did his reputation and (his pride) a lot of good.
His current good mood, born from the fact that people respect him and he is sixteen years old (or so), quickly turned into confusion as he saw a transport come from the general direction of Carpentaria base.
Athrun saw the transport land on the undamaged airstrip in the base, and hurried to satisfy his curiosity.
…
"What's going on?" Athrun asked as soon as he could see the back of the oversized cargo plane. "Didn't they say we weren't going to get relief for another week?"
Dearka stared at him. "Why are you complaining about that?!"
"I'm not complaining, but…" Athrun said, watching the large cargo boxes get ferried down by the base's trucks.
Yzak folded his arms. "Apparently your father is changing his mind. They're sending in supplies and equipment to reinforce Panama base as a proper ZAFT foothold."
Athrun thought for a moment. It's true that there has been rumors of a ZAFT planned attack on JOSH-A.
Dearka clapped him on the back. "Look on the bright side: we can finally get a good night's sleep for once!" The three Cruset team boys were alternating patrol (by virtue of being the squads with the best pilots) and the rigorous schedule was taking its toll. Though, being coordinators, they didn't show it.
"So what's in those boxes?" Athrun asked.
"My guess? Perimeter guns." Yzak said. "We tore every last one of them out when we got here."
…
[Archangel]
…
Miriallia heard a beep on her communications console. "Incoming message from Josh-A." She read. "ZAFT moving to hold Panama base, attack on Alaska deemed unlikely."
Murrue raised an eyebrow. "Just like that? The top brass is getting stupid."
Natarle looked at Miriallia. "Are there any orders for us?"
Miriallia shook her head.
Natarle frowned. "So they're letting us go back to HQ anyways?"
Murrue stretched; it has been a long day. "We do have the most advanced ship around." She then turned to Miriallia. "Call back our fighters; we're going to reach Josh-A at full speed."
"Yes ma'am."
…
[Next day, 0600 hours]
…
With the Josh-A waterfall in sight, the Archangel finally slowed down from the breakneck pace it sailed at.
"Well, that only took forever." Arnold Neuman, the helsman, grumbled.
"At least it was a boring forever." Sai chuckled, tired from the night shift.
…
…
[Later]
…
…
Ribbon walked by the officer's lounge and saw the TV on. He doubled back to see what was on.
"How does it look?" Ribbon asked Blaze.
Blaze sat lower in his seat. "Bad. The Rebels got a second wind somehow, and the Feds are struggling."
Both of them stared at the news report of the ongoing war in the Equatorial Union.
"Damn. Kind of makes you wish for home, doesn't it." Ribbon sighed.
Blaze laughs. "With all the wars we get into, I'm not sure we can judge."
Ribbon shakes his head. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
"Hey! You guys meeting in here?" Captain Bartlett called out.
"Hey, cap." Blaze said as a greeting, still watching the news.
"What are you guys going to do? This is an EFA base, after all…" Ribbon asked.
"We? I'm going to get my pay and leave." Captain Bartlett said with a nonchalant shrug. "I'm not like you, Ribbon." Bartlett said in a tone that sounded almost wistful.
"And Yellow 13?"
"Hey, he can do whatever the hell he wants." Bartlett laughs. "I'm not going to babysit an Erusean Ace."
"I plan to do the same as Captain Bartlett." Yellow 13 said, having found the conversation while walking through the ship. "Unlike the four of you, neither of us have any strong attachments to the EFA flag…and, well…" He scowls at the blazing skyline depicted on the television. "After that, I'm not sure I want to."
Blaze nodded, not turning his head. "Yeah, I get what you mean…if we weren't such celebs in the EFA I'd think of jumping ship too."
"What are they making you guys do?" Captain Bartlett asked.
"Transfer. We're going to be part of a strike force to retake Panama Base." Ribbon said bitterly. "If I didn't know better I'd say they're trying to get us killed."
"Don't think you can do it?" Bartlett grins.
Blaze turns his head, looking at Bartlett over his shoulder. "We can do it; it's just a matter of how many lives will be lost when it happens."
"Well, the transfer isn't happening for a week at least." Ribbon sighed. "So at the very least we can sit and relax."
"Relax?" The Gründer head mechanic repeated menacingly. "There is work to do; you cannot be relaxing at this time."
Ribbon felt the mechanic's hand on his shoulder squeeze, and wondered for a brief moment how he got that close to begin with. "Right, of course."
"Sucks to be you, Ribbon." Blaze laughed, and then stopped mid-laugh as the mechanic put a hand on him as well. "Er, right. Work, and all that."
…
…
[4 Days later, Space. ZAFT Orbital Fleet]
…
…
Rau Le Cruset ran through a final checklist of his CGUE. "All systems are green. Commander, how are the drop pods looking?"
The commander gave him a thumbs up over the screen. "Drop pods are good to go; we're just waiting for the drop window."
"Five days…Operation Spit-break was delayed five days." Rau mutters to himself. "I guess it's good that the EFA has such poor morale, to have such willing sources of information from within their ranks."
…
[Josh-A]
…
Ribbon turned to stare. "ZAFT is going to attack today?"
Miriallia nodded. "That's what the message said. Captain Murrue wants all of you to get ready."
"Spearheads are good to go." The Gründer head mechanic grunted. "Don't get shot."
"Thanks." Ribbon said as he jumped down from the shell of the XFA-27. He then looked at Miriallia. "Who gave you the tip-off?"
She shrugs. "We have no idea; the messenger didn't leave any hints, but going by the electronic footprint the sender was from space; Tolle thinks it's someone from ZAFT."
"Huh…lucky for us then."
…
[Skies over Josh-A, 1200 hours]
…
"Heh…let's begin." Rau Le Cruset said.
The first wave of pods (which didn't contain him) breached the atmosphere and descended like bullets toward the massive waterfall that shielded Josh-A's main entrance.
Almost immediately, the ground lit up with anti-aircraft fire and surface to air missiles, and the sky was instantly full with missile trails and streams of bullets.
The ZAFT pods, in response, relied on purging their ablative shielding, causing the missiles to go after the comparatively hotter heat panels instead of the pods.
"That's more resistance than I expected…but all things being equal, I suppose it's too much to assume that the EFA had no radar pointed up." Rau grunted. "Second wave, prepare for descent."
"Yes sir." The second wave pilots acknowledged as the first wave's pods deployed, their cargo of GINNs and CGUEs immediately spraying the ground beneath them with bullets.
…
"Shit, right on time, too." Blaze snarled. "Command, can we launch?"
"Negative, Blaze; the fire is too thick. You'll just be shot down if you deploy now." Murrue said.
Blaze cut the radio and yelled an explicative, his Spearhead already hooked on one of the Archangel's catapults.
"What a day, huh?" Ribbon sighed. "If only the two of them didn't leave yesterday."
"They were mercenaries and their contract is paid up, I'm not that surprised…though given their past employers…" Talisman's laugh sounded just a bit hollow. "I'm amazed the EFA paid them at all."
Ribbon then felt the ship shake. "What the hell was that?"
"The ZAFT drop pods are hitting ground…probably in a lot of pieces." Kira said, impatiently drumming on the Strike's console. "C'mon…let us go out there already."
…
"Second wave, away…first wave is making good progress."
Rau looks at the display again.
The first wave of CGUEs and GINNs, following their orders to the T, unloaded everything they had on the ground emplacements, and as such greatly reduced the amount of anti-air fire headed their way.
"However, the EFA hasn't launched any fighters…" He mutters, and then scowls. "Did they anticipate our strategy? Third wave, we're descending, now."
…
"Second wave incoming." Miriallia reports. "High command is clearing all elements to engage."
"Good…" Murrue growls. "About time. Archangel, forward! All fighters, deploy once we're clear of the waterfall!"
…
"Enemy fighters have deployed."
Rau gritted his teeth. The EFA spearheads were deploying from all around the waterfall, from excellently hidden catapults in the ground that shot the fighters vertically into the air, and straight into an interception path against the second batch of drop pods.
Owing to the fact that drop pods have no evasion to speak of (even though they fly very fast) the Spearheads were able to intercept and cripple a large number of those drop pods before the rest opened and delivered their now very angry cargo.
Rau's attention, however, was immediately focused on the legged ship as it protruded from the waterfall, the catapults in its legs extended and ready. "Shit."
…
"Razgriz! Scramble launch! Protect the base!" Blaze roars.
The Four Spearhead lanced into the skies one after another and climbed as one to meet the drop pods.
"I have to admit I don't like this a whole lot." Talisman murmurs as his eyes flicker down to double-check his IFF signature.
"Makes the two of us." Cipher grumbles.
"I'll cover you from here." Kira promises.
The Strike flew behind the Razgriz planes, not having the engine power to keep up with the smaller, nimbler planes in a steep climb.
"Do me a favor, pilots." The Gründer head mechanic ordered. "Use new weapon and use it a lot."
"The 'EML', right?" Ribbon got an acknowledgement in reply. "Ok, let's do this; Mobius one, firing EML."
The slightly oversized Electromagnetic Launcher strapped to the bottom of Ribbon's Super Spearhead fired a bullet with a loud, sharp roar, and the drop pod in front of him shook as the shot missed the center of mass and ripped through one of the four shells of the pod, ruining the pod's aerodynamic balance and forcing the GINNs within to deploy.
Said GINNs were quickly dispatched by a salvo of missiles from the Razgriz.
…
"Shit, they're coming after us now. All units, deploy as soon as you are able!" a ZAFT Captain ordered as his pod deployed and his CGUE dropped away, its guns blaring at the Spearheads rising up to meet them.
…
"Ok, they're coming out; don't get bogged down out there, Razgriz." Sky Eye warns as blips multiplied on his radar in response to the EFA blips.
"Understood." Blaze acknowledged, and then armed all of his missiles at once. "Fox three!"
Blaze's Spearhead flipped and dropped in altitude as the four Belkan-made long range missiles (XLAAs) attached to the bottom of the craft separated and flew toward their targets. Ribbon, Cipher, and Talisman followed suit, and the set of sixteen missiles found their marks in the descending ZAFT GINNs.
Though to be fair, there were a lot of targets to begin with.
The other EFA Spearheads quickly copied the Razgriz's actions, saturating the airspace with missiles and mowing down the ZAFT mobile suits with surprising efficiency.
"Whoa, when did these guys learn how to shoot?" Blaze laughed, diving toward the ground and away from an incoming salvo of friendly SAM fire.
"There's nothing but targets up there, what'd you expect?" Cipher laughed along with him, pulling his aircraft level and turning in a wide circle to engage the ZAFT units closer to the base's massive waterfall entrance.
"Razgriz, be advised: warships are exiting the dock; don't get caught in their crossfire." Sky Eye warned.
Ribbon looked down briefly to see the silhouettes of the other warships finally pulling away from the massive waterfall.
"You know…" Talisman took aim at the back of a ZAFT GINN with his EML and perforated the poor thing. "For an attack that we knew was coming, the EFA got caught pretty flat-footed, all things considered."
"That's true." Murrue mutters. "Maybe the message was sent only to us?"
Talisman laughs. "Ha! We have a guardian angel somewhere." He then notices a set of GINNs that successfully avoided being shot to pieces head toward the defense fleet. "Kira, those are yours."
"I see them." Kira squints into the new targeting hardware that looks a lot like an oversized sniper scope. "Aiming and firing."
The set of GINNs (and one CGUE that Talisman missed) saw the EFA warships long enough before they were summarily taken down by a long range sniping attack from the Strike.
Kira frowns. "I like this new gear, but it's really hard to use when I need to be mobile." He then cuts the engines on the Strike and plummets like a rock for a second, causing a CGUE looking for an easy blindside kill to cut thin air. "Though I guess at this range it doesn't matter." Kira said as the Strike finishes its evasive turn to point its beam rifle at the CGUE, blasting away the head and one of its wings.
"Fox two." Cipher didn't bother looking to see where his heat seeking missiles went. "Sky Eye, Razgriz two is Winchester, requesting permission to go home and eat."
Neil shrugs, glancing at Murrue for permission; she nods. "Sky Eye, copy. To all units: don't get too cocky out there; if you run out then come home, we have a lot of work today."
"Roger that." Ribbon grunts, lining up a pair of GINNs and shredding them to pieces with the EML.
…
"This is going amazingly poorly." Rau Le Cruset remarked; his previous anger at the plan going haywire has been replaced with curiosity, especially when he noticed how the EFA pilots just flew better when those four Demons were around.
"Sir, should we continue with the operation?" The fleet captain in space asked.
"That's a no; call for reinforcements, we'll retreat for now. I hear Panama's great this time of year." Rau said lightly.
Both parties skirted around the issue of getting around the EFA-held territory of North America.
Rau then felt his stomach drop, and wildly looked around for the cause despite his common sense and his immense experience.
…
Meanwhile, Blaze, Ribbon and Talisman were doing the same thing.
"Oh hell, this is NOT good." Blaze snarls. "Sky Eye! Is there something coming on radar?!"
Murrue frowns. "What are they—?"
"Sky Eye here, area is clear." Neil replied quickly, and then switched to a common EFA frequency. "This is AWACS Sky Eye to all friendly units, unknown element possible, stay on your toes, people!"
Mu La Flaga, feeling a little ignored, decided to address the rest of the Spearhead pilots. "Oy! You lot! Stay on my wing!" He received a smattering of acknowledgements in reply.
Ribbon then took a sharp breath. "Shit!" He flipped to the same frequency. "Drop to below 2000 feet! Hurry!"
"How much is that in meters?!" Mu demanded, but taking the steepest dive he dared, with the rest of the Spearheads on his tail.
"This is Josh-A." Everyone heard a gruff voice say over every friendly frequency. "We're commencing with long range support bombardment, stay out of the firing zones."
"Long range…don't tell me." Ribbon snarled, levelling his aircraft a few precious feet from the water surface.
"They already have Stonehenge-type rounds…makes sense for them to make the cannons too." Blaze agreed with his eyes full of fire. "Son of a…who had the blueprints for that thing, and who did he give it to?!"
"Nevermind that!" Sky Eye cut across any retort. "All units, check your radars! The impact range will be shown"
Ribbon saw a wide red circle. "Stay clear of the Bullseye!" He practically yelled as his Spearhead accelerated away from the explosion radius. "These aren't the rounds I'm used to, alright." He says in an undertone.
"Impact in five…four…" Sky Eye counted.
…
"Why are they stopping?" One of Rau's wingmen asked.
Rau's bad feeling just reached a zenith. "Everyone! Drop! Now!"
…
"IMPACT!"
…
The sky lit up with massive explosions that engulfed a massive chunk of the ZAFT mobile suits and drop pods, leaving nothing but burning scrap metal in their place.
As a collateral, several of the EFA warships were also affected by the wake caused by the explosions, tipped over just a little too much, and capsized.
"Holy…" Kira breathed, feeling his heart seize up.
"We lost some of our guys too." Mu punched the side of his cockpit. "Damn it! What the hell are those guys thinking?!"
"Recall all of our crafts; we're heading back to the docks." Murrue commanded. "How's our damage?"
Sai scans through the report quickly. "The port side armor is behaving oddly, and some of the sensors have been knocked offline; nothing serious, though."
"Second wave incoming; get out, guys." Sky Eye warns.
"No mercy, I see." Cipher said coldly, his aircraft already back in the hangar for more missiles.
…
At this moment, Rau Le Cruset gained a very deep hatred for gravity, and the act of falling downwards toward solid surfaces.
"C'mon, c'mon." He muttered, going back to his piloting days a little. "Ok…just a little bit…"
His CGUE fell through the sky, trailing thick plumes of smoke. It then began to purge pieces of its armor while rotating to find the best way to keep itself from slamming into the ground hard enough to kill its pilot.
It mostly succeeded, and Rau's CGUE slammed into the ground hard enough to knock Rau unconscious, sliding and destroying a good stretch of trees.
…
"Second wave…Impact!"
The second wave of Stonehenge rounds wiped out what the first round missed, and the sky was clear of ZAFT drop pods and their mobile suits.
Blaze could only shake his head; his aircraft had suffered an electronics failure due to the pressure and was now floating gently on the water.
Kira stared intently into the sky, taking in the steel carnage and feeling his allegiance to the EFA erode with every passing second. He then noticed that one of the explosions looked as if it lingered in the sky.
"What the hell is that?" Mu wondered, noticing the explosion as well.
Sky Eye heard a ping on his radar. What the… "There's a plane in that explosion?"
"I'll take a look." Ribbon ascended toward the explosion, and soon enough saw the outline of… "Mobius One to Sky Eye, it's a Raptor."
Sky Eye's eyebrow shot up (and so did every else's, but for different reasons). "Try to contact the pilot."
"Roger." Ribbon switched to a common frequency, and heard nothing.
He then took another look at the Raptor; it carried markings that he wasn't familiar with, and flipped around in the air with all the grace of a dead bird, being carried by the air rather than flying under its own power.
Maybe the pilot is already dead. "Unidentified Raptor, can you hear me?" Ribbon asked.
There was no reply, but the Raptor caught the air currents and began to fly more normally.
"This is…Raptor pilot, can you hear me? Respond." Ribbon was about to rattle off numbers but realized that doing so on a common frequency is probably a bad idea.
Still no reply, though the Raptor was now seemingly in control, despite the fact that it was smoking badly from its engines.
Ribbon then switched through the frequency codes given to him by Sky Eye (compiled by the rest of the Aces) for the Eurusean, Osean, ISAF, and Emmerian air forces, and got nothing.
Sky Eye then blinked. "Wait, I'm getting something. Switching…I don't recognize this pattern though."
"M…g…d…com…"
Sky Eye let the computer do the frequency tuning. "This is the ISAF AWACS operator Sky Eye, Raptor pilot, can you hear us?"
A pause. "Magic…magic, respond."
Sky Eye counted to five just in case the computer didn't get the frequency properly. "There's no magic here, pilot. What is your status?"
No magic, right. Ribbon thought despite himself.
Another pause. "This is NATO Task Squadron 108, Callsign Warwolf one."
"Copy you Warwolf; this is ISAF AWACS Sky Eye; what is your situation?"
"I…" a sigh. "I'm not sure. My plane is damaged, and I need to land."
Sky Eye looks at Murrue, who frowns and shrugs; weirder things have happened. "Roger that; Mobius One, guide Warwolf one to land on the Archangel."
"Got it." Ribbon said, flying in front of the Raptor to get the pilot's attention.
…
"So what brings you here, Warwolf one?" Ribbon asked.
"I don't know; a few minutes ago I was…this isn't the United States anymore, is it?" Warwolf One asked.
Ribbon never heard of it. "There's a United States of South America."
"Damn."
Ribbon felt as if Warwolf one said that all the time. "I hear ya; land and we can debrief you on the situation, it's that ship ahead."
"Warwolf."
…
[Archangel, a few minutes later]
…
Warwolf one climbed out of his F-22A Raptor dazedly, not realizing that the engines have actually caught fire while he was rolling to a stop (Murdoch was handling said fire with the hangar crew).
Murrue saw the grizzled man drop to the floor with a groan and stand back up again. She felt like she needed to salute. "I'm Murrue Ramius, Captain of the Archangel."
The man returned the salute half-heartedly, wincing in pain. "Lieutenant Colonel William Bishop of the United States Air Force."
The rest of the crew felt the need to salute back at the fact that they were being vastly outranked.
"Let's get you some medical treatment first." Murrue said hurriedly, as Bishop looked like he was about to collapse at any second.
…
[PLANT, 2 days later]
…
Patrick Zala stared at the replay data of the battle with something tantamount of "unrestrained fury".
"I suppose this was what they were hiding." Patrick said to the empty room. "Damned Naturals, building a weapon like this." He then pulled another image, one of the "suspicious hidden location" that Rau Le Cruset sent to him a few days before. "So where might this place be?"
He read a few more documents (all of them concerning the theoretical capability of the EFA weapon system) and came to the conclusion that nobody knew what the hell was going on and were trying to guess to the best of their ability.
"Agh." Patrick pressed a button. "We have all the satellites in space and nobody knows what the hell is going on."
…
[Panama base]
…
The ZAFT boys finished watching the video of Operation Spit Break, up to and including the drastic turnabout that was the result of the long range bombardment.
Dearka voiced everyone's thoughts first. "Yikes."
"When did they build something like this?" Yzak wonders. "And more importantly, why did the brass say nothing about it?"
"You think the Naturals built it entirely out of sight?" One of the other pilots in the room whispers to his friend.
"No way; we definitely would've seen it if they did." His friend whispers back.
Athrun scans the document that came with the video. "According to what the high command does know, this attack came from a stationary structure somewhere within the Northern America Territories." He grits his teeth. "But they don't have any more to go on than that."
"Shouldn't it be really close to Alaska then?" Dearka taps the map posted on the side of the room. "I don't think the Naturals could put something together with that much power totally out of our satellite coverage."
"And the northern territories do have a lot of forests…" Yzak nods.
"Regardless, our orders don't change…but it might be a good idea to pay a little more attention to your patrols in the future." Athrun says, glancing at a pair of pilots at the back of the room.
"Yes sir." They say a little sheepishly.
…
[Archangel]
…
Mobius One punched a wall. "That was Stonehenge. Why the HELL does Stonehenge exist here?"
"What's Stonehenge?" Cipher asks.
"Erusean superweapon, built to shoot down asteroids." Blaze responds. "Back in Strangereal it gave Mobius One and the ISAF a lot of trouble until they finally took it out."
"Must be fate…I get to kill it here instead of back home." Mobius One snarls.
"Dude, calm down." Blaze says gently.
Ribbon takes a deep breath, not feeling calm in the least; for the past two days the fact that he was within striking range of the weapon that plagued his homeland has made Ribbon nearly impossible to be around.
"Uh…"
All of them turn toward the speaker.
Kira stood at the door of the officer lounge. "Bad time?"
Blaze's laugh was just a tad hollow. "A little bit; what's going on?"
"Uh, your mechanics finished the analysis on the plane the other guy flew in. They want Ribbon to check it out."
Ribbon wordlessly strode past Kira and stomped toward the hangars.
"Did…did something happen?" Kira had a hunch.
"That…thing." Blaze said hesitantly. "The thing that saved Alaska, is not a very good thing."
"It's…a massive gun, isn't it?" Kira frowns. "Why do they feel the need to make a weapon like that?"
Good question. The remaining aces all thought at once.
…
[Archangel Hangar]
…
"Ah, Mr. Ribbon. Good of you to make it." The Gründer head mechanic says in his slightly German-sounding English, raising a hand in greeting.
"What's going on?" Ribbon asks fairly amicably, his rage largely tapered off by the walk to the hangar.
"We finished analysis on this Raptor." The mechanic taps the fuselage of the F-22A. "It is faster than ours. It has a much more sophisticated missile stock system…and it has DFM."
There's a set of letters Ribbon didn't recognize. "What's DFM?"
The mechanic chuckles. "This thing called Dog Fight Module. It lets the computer fly behind the enemy for you…good technology, but bad in a big fight." The mechanic then sees someone behind Ribbon, and salutes.
Colonel Bishop salutes back. "Can my plane be repaired?"
The mechanic shakes his head no. "This world's military doesn't use air intakes, and we don't have the plans to make spare parts from scratch…your plane isn't flying again, so sorry."
"Damn." Bishop sighs. "So I really am in a different world after all."
"The Strike didn't tip you off?" Ribbon gestured to the Gundam in question.
"I had hope." Bishop replied.
"Now." The Gründer head mechanic claps his hands together. "I find this Raptor very interesting; I want to fly it back to headquarters and strip it down for technology."
Ribbon raises an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure the Archangel isn't moving again for a while…how are you going to get it back to Orb?"
The Mechanic points to a Super Spearhead behind him, with what looks like a glorified set of grapples mounted on top of the craft.
"Oh."
"Yes." The mechanic grins. "I need someone to fly it back to Orb though…outside the Fed's attention of course."
"It can't wait?" Bishop asked. "I mean…from the sound of things this base is still under high alert, if a plane left now it'll be shot down by our own people."
"They are not our people, but I see your meaning." The mechanic sighs. "Still. ASAP." He turns toward the plane, then suddenly swings around with a grin. "You, Colonel. You get to help me understand your plane."
Colonel Bishop glanced at Ribbon, who caught his eye and shrugged. "Very well…I don't think I'll be going home any time soon."
…
[Somewhere]
…
A man savagely beats a table, angry at the other man sitting in the shadows.
"Who told you to use Stonehenge?! We haven't properly fortified it yet!" The table-hating man snarls.
"It was a necessity." The other man replies as calmly as he can manage. A small part of his mind registered the currently flipped emotional roles: he was the calm and collected one for a change.
"A necessity?! Josh-A was under no danger!" The man pulled up a series of images. "Look!"
The second man saw the insignias of Blaze, Cipher, Ribbon, and Talisman. "I don't understand."
The table-hating man smashed his fist onto the table. "Your base was under the protection of the four greatest Ace of Aces in the history of mankind, what kind of dangers could you have possibly faced when they're in the skies?!"
The second man was cowed, but maintained an outward image of calmness. "Accidents can happen in battles."
"No, really?" The first man snapped. "Because of your actions you almost killed your own base… Goddamn idiots."
"I think what we need to focus on now is what do we do from here." A third man said, entering the room.
The table-hating man sighed. "Stonehenge Unit One is prioritizing its low level anti-air defenses…Thanks to this moron the only weapons they can field are weapons they can make from their on-site factories."
The third man nodded. "What of the others?"
The second man looked around. "Wait, what others? You made more than one?!"
The first man understood. "Unit two has all of its pieces in place…assembly is almost done and all defensive assets are in place. Unit three is entirely operational, but until we move on to Phase two of our plan it's mothballed."
"What plan? What are you two talking about?!" The second man demanded.
"In the end, not a smart guy." The third man laughed.
The second man rose to retort and then he felt his legs give away. The last thing he saw was the ground rising up to meet him.
"What about them?" The first man asked, gesturing to the image projected on the television of the four Aces of Strangereal.
"If our plan works well, then we won't have to worry about them." The third man smirks. "Do you have the intel?"
The first man held up a thick stack of papers. "It's a good thing we found someone who enjoys doing things the old way." He shuffled the thick stack of papers into a drawer in the room.
"Indeed." The third man chuckled, and tossed the ZAFT-army knife (crudely made) into the second man's pooling blood. "Later, General." He waves to the second man.
The two of them leaves the room in its neat and organized state, save for the corpse and the slightly rustled cabinet drawer.
…
…
[Archangel, one week later]
…
…
The Strike Gundam zoomed through the sky over Josh-A, surveying the lush, tree-laden landscape below it.
"Strike one reporting in, nothing out of the ordinary today." Kira sighed.
"Understood, Strike one, return to base once your patrol route is complete." Sky Eye responded. "Why are we patrolling the sky with a prototype machine again?" He muttered.
"Don't worry about it." Mu La Flaga chuckled, making himself comfortable in the bridge; he and Kira were alternating patrols per the high command's orders. "At least they're not letting our Ace of Aces do the hard work."
High command had considered reassigning the four Aces of Strangereal to other bases within the EFA (in order to both efficiently use their experience and prevent any kind of unfortunate circumstances in case the Aces really were Coordinators) but something had caused them to reconsider, and as such now the recruits in Josh-A were getting a crash course in piloting.
Fortunately, this batch was a lot more obedient and respectful than the ones on Artemis, and as a result their training is going by a lot faster (it also helps that the Razgriz are better atmospheric pilots than zero-G ones)
"Which reminds me." Sky Eye turned toward Mu. "Josh-A is the headquarters for the entire Federation force, right?"
Mu nods. "For all of its Earthbound assets, yeah. What about it?"
Sky Eye frowns. "What kind of headquarters rely on green recruits for its defense?"
Mu thought for a moment. "The kind that protects itself from hundreds of miles away with a giant cannon?" He said.
"Speaking of that giant cannon," Murrue spoke up. "Do you know anything about it? When Ribbon came back he looked like he was about to kill someone."
Sky Eye sighed. "I know about as much about it as you do, which is to say, not a lot."
"Oh." Miriallia exclaimed softly. "That's pretty neat."
"Hm?" Murrue turned towards the girl.
"Take a look at this." Miriallia brought a video up onto the Archangel's main screen. It depicted the ongoing war in the Equatorial Union, with one major difference.
Natarle blinked as a Spearhead with a bright yellow 13 painted on its tail zoomed past the camera. "So that's where they went."
"They work fast, that's for sure." Mu laughed, inwardly a bit jealous that Yellow 13 did such a close fly-by of a television station helicopter.
"Captain Bartlett is there too." Miriallia smiles. "Thanks to them, the EU is gaining ground fast against the Rebels."
"Good…the sooner we end that stupid war, the better." Mu grumbles.
…
Kira, on his way back from the patrol, suddenly stopped in mid-air.
"Strike One, did something happen?" Sky Eye asked, bringing the bridge back up to full alert.
"I thought I saw something…" Kira trailed off. He peered intently at a spot in the visual monitor, unable to be sure if it was a trick of the light or if he actually saw something. The infrared and radars aren't picking anything up…so what's making me feel so odd?
…
Miriallia, once again, was distracted by an incoming message.
"What in the…" She muttered once she read it through. "Captain Ramius, there's a priority one communication from…someone."
"Someone?" Murrue repeated. "Who's someone?"
"No idea; there's no location data at all."
"What's the message?" Mu asks.
"Uh…" Miriallia stares at the message again. "Hamelin."
"The Pied Piper story?" Murrue frowns. "Who the hell sends a one-word riddle in a priority one message?"
"Someone with a lot of money and an excess of time." Mu grumbles. "What do you think it means?"
Murrue thinks for a minute. "Best guess? The sender wants us to get out while we can."
Mu's eyebrow went up. "Get out of where? Josh-A?"
Get out of the EFA, most likely. Sky Eye thought. "This is probably the same person who told us about the ZAFT attack on Josh-A."
"Our guardian angel is telling us to get out while the gettin's good, huh…" Mu says, a grin playing on the corners of his mouth. "Think we should follow it?"
Natarle shot him a hard look. "We have our orders, and it would be remiss for us to desert based on just a message."
"Who said anything about deserting?" Mu laughed, though he himself came to the same conclusion.
…
Kira, unable to shake the weird feeling, looked up.
"Holy…"
"What? What is it?" Miriallia, having heard Kira, asked.
"Why is nobody seeing this?!" Kira demanded. "Archangel, battlestations!"
"Kira, what's going on!?" Murrue demanded in return.
…
[PLANT]
…
Patrick Zala restrained himself from clapping his hands like a gleeful little boy.
"Operation Spit-Break is go. All units, decimate the Naturals!"
...
[Josh-A]
…
"Guys! ZAFT just threw a pair of cruisers at us!" Kira yelled, willing his Strike to move faster toward the base entrance.
"What the hell...what's that supposed to mean?!" Blaze demanded.
Kira tried to shake the image from his head. "I mean, ZAFT dropped two of their cruisers from orbit at us!"
The entire Archangel crew went quiet, forced to imagine what it's like.
Most of them failed.
"Why the hell would they do that?!" Cipher demanded. "That's stupid!"
"You're telling me!" Kira was momentarily thankful that the Archangel was shielded by the waterfall and was inside the base still, instead of being outside like he wanted.
"Getting live camera feed from Josh-A…now." Sai said.
The Archangel main screen came to life and focused upon a pair of very large and blue-looking blots in the sky. Large, blue, and trailing an absurd amount of smoke.
"Holy shit ZAFT went insane." Mu said as he scrambled into his Skygrasper.
"Why has base command not noticed yet?" Miriallia wondered.
"Who the hell cares?" Murrue snapped. "Warm up our engines, we're getting out of here."
"Aye, ma'am."
The Archangel's engines kicked into full gear, and Josh-A's air raid sirens went off full blast.
"Holy…holy shit." Mu repeated, seeing the sheer number of heat signatures appear from around the two descending cruisers.
…
[ZAFT ships, orbit]
…
"The enemy's artillery will be firing at any minute now, keep your eyes on those satellites!" The ship captain ordered.
…
[Skies over Josh-A]
…
One of the ZAFT captains using the cruiser as a heat shield heard a ping in his ear.
"They're gonna shoot any time now, keep your eyes open!"
…
[EFA side]
…
Murrue heard a voice, the same one from before. "All units, stay clear of impact area, we're commencing long range supporting fire."
"Stonehenge incoming." Sky Eye said, feeling a little uncomfortable at regarding Stonehenge as a friendly asset. "Estimated time to impact, thirty seconds."
…
"…and…impact!"
A series of explosions engulfed the two descending cruisers, reducing one of them into a million pieces of shrapnel.
…
[Space]
…
"We have a fix on their position!" One of the ship operators yelled. "Transmitting coordinates to ground troops now."
"Do we have a visual feed?" Patrick Zala asked.
Another operator nodded. "Coming on screen from satellite 22-B, right about…now."
"Christ…" Patrick breathed, seeing the distinctive, eight turret ring of Stonehenge outlined against the ground and dwarfing the nearby buildings for a moment before it shimmered out of existence again.
…
[Archangel]
…
"One enemy ship destroyed…the second one is dropping far too fast." Sai said, alarmed. "Oh…it's going to crash into the base!"
"All hands, brace," Murrue said into the intercom. "Get rolling; we don't want to be buried in the base if the ceiling caves on us."
…
The alive ZAFT cruiser, moving fast (propelled by the shockwave of the Stonehenge blast) slams into the waterfall front door of Josh-A with surprising accuracy. The resulting impact tore a piece of the ceiling down, causing water to flow into the base at a worrying rate.
As a side effect, the attack blasted the reinforced doors wide open; at no point was the reinforced steel gate of Josh-A tested against the impact force of an attack dealt from orbit.
"Oh hell, the base is flooding." Sai breathed.
"Doesn't bother us any." Murrue said savagely. "Get us out of here!"
Neuman nods.
…
…
"Whoa, they're coming out!" the ZAFT captain said. "Watch yourselves! Stay on the defensive until this bombardment ceases!"
…
"Stonehenge attacks are effective." Sky Eye said. "Twenty percent of ZAFT forces neutralized."
The broken and torn gates of Josh-A glowed red as the Archangel blasted away the remaining pieces with its Gottfried main guns, clearing a path for both itself and the other ships in the dock.
"What are we going to do, captain? Protect the base?" Blaze asked.
"I don't think we're going to have that luxury." Natarle said. "Look at the radar."
"Good god." Sai breathed, seeing nothing but red on his radar. "I think…we might have to run."
"Stonehenge has gone silent." Sky Eye suddenly said. "There's no more bombardment data being sent."
…
[Stonehenge ring]
…
Shortly after the first round of fire, Stonehenge's long distance radar showed a swarm of blips headed toward their direction.
Shortly after the second round of fire, those blips revealed what they were: cruise missiles fired from ZAFT submarines.
In order to destroy the first (and incomplete) Stonehenge installation, ZAFT had pooled all of their submarine assets and long range cruise missiles currently available on Earth (not to mention tasking as many satellites as physically possible to monitor the territory of Canada) with the sole intention of killing whatever the artillery platform was back to the stone age.
And they tried.
After the third volley from Stonehenge, EFA interceptors were brought online in an attempt to shoot down the cruise missiles.
It didn't work.
After the fourth volley, the lack of point defense weapons to protect the cannons from fire proved to be fatal. The cruise missile volley blanketed the Stonehenge circle, hitting every meter of the 1200 kilometer installation to the best of their ability.
Three of the eight turrets were immediately hit and destroyed, and an additional two more had their barrels warped beyond use.
"I see the targets, moving to attack." Athrun said, furious at the Naturals for making a weapon of this scope seemingly for the express purpose of killing Coordinators.
Athrun's DINN (inherent flight, beetle-like wings) zoomed over the snowy grasslands, its pilot not registering the sheer amount of damage done to the environment in order to give the installation its element of stealth.
"In range." Athrun muttered, and armed all of his missiles, locking on to the steam vent of one of the Stonehenge cannons. "Firing!"
A salvo of missiles struck the cannon's heat vent, ripping the vent open but otherwise not really damaging the cannon any.
"Focus on taking out their barrels." Dearka said, flying closer than his normal sniping range in order to properly hit said barrels. "If those things aren't straight then they can't fire at us!"
"Easier said than done…!" Yzak growled, annoyed that his heat seekers were being foiled by the near-constant belch of steam around the cannon.
"Oh hell." Dearka cut the engines on his DINN upon seeing one of the massive guns rotate towards his general direction.
"Don't let up. We need to destroy this thing!" Athrun roars, bringing out the DINN's shotgun.
…
…
[Elsewhere]
…
…
The two men from the previous meeting sat themselves down at a round table.
"Gentlemen, how goes our mission within the Federation?" One of the other men asked.
The first man from before (the table-hater) bowed his head. "Due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to make some changes…namely, the sacrifice of the first Stonehenge defense system."
Another one of the other men turned slightly. "We're abandoning it only days after it becomes operational; are you not moving too quickly?" His tone was accusing at best.
"It is an unfortunate necessity." The table-hating man said sadly. "Sacrifices must be made in order to continue our plan, and the turret is better off lost for us."
"I suppose you plan to let it do SOMETHING before losing the installation in its entirety." Another man growled.
The accomplice of the table-hater chuckled. "Oh, it wouldn't be a sacrifice if we didn't."
…
…
[Stonehenge Unit 01]
…
…
"Got them. All turrets are down!" Athrun yells in triumph as the last Stonehenge cannon falls silent, its barrel twisted and useless.
"Good thing, too; we're out of ammo." Dearka breathed a sigh of relief, then switched to a different channel. "Captain, how long until the reinforcements get here?"
The submarine captain tasked with reinforcing the three of them glances at a map. "The fastest guys will reach you three in about fifteen minutes."
"Whew." Yzak cut the thrust on his DINN, letting it drop to the ground softly.
"A little much for you, Yzak?" Athrun teases.
"We just killed the largest anti-drop weapon the Naturals have ever faced, and we managed to do it a week after they brought it online." Yzak mutters. "Athrun, if you built something like this, would you just leave it undefended like that?"
Athrun thought back to the sheer lack of point-defense and interceptor aircraft they met for a base this size. "Yeah, I agree. There should be way more guards than what we've met."
"Hm?" Dearka saw a movement in the corner of his eye, and turned to look.
The center pedestal of the Stonehenge installation (which was not, incidentally, equipped with a jamming system) opened up. Before Dearka could open his mouth, a plume of fire erupted from within the belly of the installation and something flew up and away from the opening.
"What the…Athrun! Look!"
Athrun didn't need the prompt, as he heard the roar of the thing escaping them at high speed. "Oh shit." He breathed. "The Naturals just launched an ICBM!"
.
.
.
{ === + === }
Author Notes:
Still in time for Valentine's Day (2015).
Single Awareness Day forever!