ACES of SEED Chapter 22: Stage 19 - Liberation, a Gundam Seed + Ace Combat Crossover fanfic

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[ZAFT Shuttle]

Yzak rubs his temples. He's been doing that a lot recently. "Does his highness your daddy not want us to find those prototypes or something?" He demands of Athrun.

Athrun, a little bit past the point of caring, shrugs noncommittally in reply.

"Everywhere we've gone it's 'restricted access' this or 'confidential' that." Dearka agrees. "We've been at this for two days and we haven't gotten anywhere."

"That just means whoever stole them have pretty big ranks on their shoulders." Athrun says. "Considering how screwed up things have gotten, it won't surprise me at all of there are at least some ZAFT officers who are thinking of defecting to Usea."

Yzak, taking a break from massaging his poor temples, sighs. "That's…just great." He sits back tiredly. "The mightly Coordinators, defecting and bowing to Naturals. Where do we go from here, Mister Leader?"

Athrun, still past the point of caring, shoots a nonchalant look at Dearka.

Dearka sighs heavily and pulls out a small checklist from his pocket.

…

[Orb]

…

With the Federation fleet sitting at Orb's border, Orb has done nothing for the past few days except to reinforce their defenses.

Or rather, reinforce their defenses as best as they are able with constant Federation probing attacks on the coastline. The Feds aren't just sitting with a blockading naval force for show.

As such, the Aces of Strangereal have volunteered to assist the Orb's military in the defense of its homeland. It would work better if Orb's military was not made up almost entirely of tanks and Astrays (aka things that can't fly for a long period of time).

For now though, Blaze and Chopper were busy chasing down a pair of AI-controlled Spearheads zipping through the skylines of an Orb metropolis.

"Why are we leaving them alive again? They're unmanned." Chopper asks, banking right to keep the Spearhead in front of him square in his sights."

"Like I said, because the intel folk want to figure out what the Feds are trying to find out." Blaze answers.

"Really? Man." Chopper sighs. "You'd think the Feds would've found whatever they needed after taking over Orb."

Blaze laughs. "We only gave them a day, small wonder they couldn't find anything."

A voice comes over their radios after a few more seconds of high speed, window breaking chasing. "Blaze, Chopper, you are both cleared to fire."

"About time." Chopper wanted to know why they left the Spearheads alive until now, but figured it would make more sense to ask when they have their feet on the ground. "Chopper, fox two." He launched a missile.

"Blaze, fox two." Blaze did the same.

The two AI Spearheads pull up in unison to avoid the missiles, and both immediately receive a stream of bullets into their fuselage, courtesy of the two chasing fighters.

"Targets confirmed destroyed." Chopper said as the two burning dead AI Spearheads fell to the earth. "Got any more for us?"

"Roger that; there's another flight of Spearheads southwest." The Orb operator responded. "Hanabi team is chasing them north."

"Understood." Blaze hit full afterburners. "We'll intercept the enemy fighters before they get too far from the coastline."

"If our buddies on the ground don't shoot them down first, you mean." Chopper adds with a grin.

…

A few minutes of flying later, the two of them saw the Spearheads running for the coastline…and the Federation blockading fleet far in the distance.

"Why don't we just sink the damn fleet already?" Chopper asks (again).

"Too many of them, too few of us." Blaze replies curtly. "Now look alive, these guys actually want to dance."

The AI Spearheads had turned to fly directly towards their would-be interceptors.

"That's a first. Chopper, engaging."

The two teams of fighters zipped past each other in a near head-on collision, guns blazing the entire time. The two teams of fighters separated from each other with one Spearhead on fire and falling.

"Damn, he got my wing." Chopper said, ignoring the warning beeps in his cockpit. "I got him good though."

The Spearhead Chopper engaged was relatively ok: damaged, but otherwise still flying.

"Not enough to kill it." Blaze smirks as he pulls a high-G turn, putting himself on the tails of the lone surviving enemy aircraft. "Fox three."

The one remaining Spearhead, damaged by Chopper's pass and unable to evade, took the missile in its engines and exploded.

"Damn." Chopper sighs. "Oh well. We can go home now, right?"

"Yeah." Blaze looks down to check his energy levels. "Wardog leader to control, we're return to base."

"Roger that, Wardog leader, good job out there."

…

[Morgenroete]

…

"Welcome back. How was your trip?" Bartlett said as he tossed a can to Blaze.

Blaze opens it and plops down on the nearest couch. "Sixteen engagements of two-fighter flights. What the hell are the Feds thinking? What does this accomplish?"

"What? I don't get a drink?" Chopper asks indignantly.

Bartlett tosses him one. "We think it's because they're trying to gather more combat data for their computers."

"By losing all the fighters they send? Yeah, that makes sense." Chopper chugs his drink in one go. "Ah…man, this hits the spot."

"They could be scouting for something." Blaze muses. "Though it's anybody's guess as to what they're looking for."

Bartlett thought for a moment. "Orb has two things the Feds could possibly want…advanced Mobile Suit technology, and their Mass Driver."

"The Feds can already produce their own mobile suits…and at an extremely fast pace too." Chopper says. "Unless they're trying to go for quality, I can't see them invading Orb just for…uh, here." He points to the floor.

Chopper has a little trouble pronouncing the facility's name.

"Going by the design behind their Daggers…" Blaze says. "The Feds care a lot more about fielding the numbers than individual performance."

"Those units were intended to be piloted by people, right?" Chopper asks, getting some affirmation in reply. "Man, their armor looks weaker than paper. I'm real glad I'm not using one of those."

"Their armor is stronger than the ones on our fighters." Bartlett reminded him. "It only looks weak compared to Kira's Strike."

Chopper yawns. "Oh, purple eyes? He's something special, I take it? His unit looks weird, too."

"The Strike Gundam is the base machine that the Federation Daggers derive from." Kira says. "So…it does look a little weird, I suppose."

"Welcome back, kid." Bartlett greets Kira via raising his drink. "How was practice?"

"Tough. The Astray pilots are all good shots." Kira sighs. "I wish the Feds would hurry up and do something. I'm tired of waiting around."

"You said it." Chopper nods. "Let them show up, gather their numbers, we can sink them and all go home happy!"

Blaze and Bartlett shared a glance…and a similar thought.

If the Feds have nothing to gain by hitting Orb, then what are they doing here?

…

[Space]

…

"In the end, we find ourselves out here after all." Dearka sighs. "We're ZAFT Aces now, right? Why are they giving us the shitty jobs?"

The three of them (Athrun in the Aegis, Dearka in the Buster, Yzak in a GuAIZ) were sifting through the debris belt around Earth per several leads into the belt. If their information was any more solid then they wouldn't be doing this…but they are.

"I'm having fun on this goose chase." Yzak says, his voice suggesting that he was anything but having fun. "You guys having fun?"

"Yeah, just having a blast." Athrun grumbles. "Just what I wanted to do for the next week and a half."

"Can we stay a little focused?" Dearka pleads. "I mean, there're supposed to be enemy suits here."

Yzak is not convinced. "Enemy suits from where? Artemis is on the other side of the planet, Copernicus is under siege, the Junk Guild has agreed to stay out of our way, what could possibly be out here?"

Predictably, their threat warnings went off.

"Yzak." Athrun sighs.

"I had nothing to do with it." Yzak replies quickly.

"Sure you didn't." Athrun grumbles. "Do we have a visual?" He asks Dearka.

"I see them…" Dearka peers through his sniper scope. "They're probably modified GINNs, by the looks of things. I don't recognize the markings though."

"Deserters, huh?" Yzak grins savagely. "Perfect." He accelerates to meet his enemies.

"Don't fire just yet, Yzak." Athrun reminds him then switches to an open channel. "This is the ZAFT special investigations force, callsign Sable One. Unknown units, state your intentions."

No response.

"Did you really expect it to work?" Dearka asks Athrun wearily.

"It was worth trying." Athrun shrugs. "Alright, we're cleared to fire, but don't kill them."

"Ok." Dearka targets the nearest GINN of the four enemies and opens fire. His target deftly uses the debris and evades. "Alright, so we're not dealing with idiots." He mutters.

"As good as they think they are…" Yzak trades fire with another GINN, "They're not a match for us!" One of his shots connects with the enemy's arm, roasting it and causing the GINN's pilot to purge it in a hurry.

Athrun jinks right to avoid being shot from behind. "They have a good sense of tactics though." He extends out a beam saber in the Aegis's foot and catches the GINN trying to backstab him right in the liver (if Mobile Suits had livers). "But not a good sense of teamwork." Athrun says lightly as he shot the GINN in front of him in the face.

"Got him." Dearka celebrates as he shot the GINN he's facing into a large piece of debris. "Are we gonna interrogate them right here, or…?"

"That won't be necessary." Another voice came over the frequency. "It'll be easier to talk this over on our ship."

The three ZAFT boys look around in alarm as their threat alarms go off…but they don't see anything.

"So how about it?" A GuAIZ with orange marking appear from behind a cloud of debris. "It'll be a lot easier than fighting, I'm sure." Its pilot, one Andrew Waltfield, grins.

…

Yzak's first expression upon seeing the ship they're being led to. "Why is it pink?"

"It's mean to be a ship for peace." Waltfield replies.

"Ok, but why is it pink?" Dearka demands. "Why is someone like you in something like that?"

"Best not to think too heavily on it." Waltfield laughs.

The four of them dock with the Eternal, Waltfield's (temporary) battleship.

The FFMH-Y101 Eternal, like its non-aces configuration, is entirely pink. Unlike its non-aces configuration, however, this Eternal lacks the set of triple white wing-like appendages mounted on both sides of the craft, and most importantly, it lacks the two METEOR units that give the ship increased combat power, relegating it to its single heavy beam cannon and assortment of CIWS and missile launchers for firepower.

It is in this ship that the stolen prototypes are housed.

…

"So…" Dearka says slowly, as he observes the now one-armed Waltfield slowly. "Uh, sir…"

"Nevermind the formalities." Waltfield waves it away. "We're renegades now." He motions for the three boys to sit down in the captain's office.

Yzak instinctively went for a gun, but realized he didn't pack one. "Renegades? Why is the Tiger of the Desert a Renegade?" He asks instead.

"Depends on how much you wish to know, I suppose." Waltfield smirks. "For starters, what brings you boys out here?"

"The Prototype mobile suits that you stole from us." Yzak snaps. "That much should be obvious."

"No, it wasn't obvious." Waltfield grimaces. "Last time we met up with a group of ZAFT suits they tried to kill us."

"No shit, if you're going AWOL it's hard to believe that they'd just leave you alone." Dearka mutters.

Waltfield chuckles. "You got your ordering wrong, kid…well, that isn't much of an issue." He takes a sip of his coffee. "So…for you kids in the front lines. Tell me, what does this war feel like to you?"

"The war…what does that have to do with anything?" Yzak demands.

"It feels like it's strayed from its original goals…not that original goals were too clear to begin with." Athrun says slowly.

"Originally, it was a war of vengeance." Waltfield nods. "Vengeance for the deceased…not that I needed to remind you. It's something else now." He passes a video recording to the three ZAFT boys. "Take a look."

The three of them oblige.

"Isn't this the Fleet attacking Copernicus?" Yzak says dismissively. "I don't see how-oh, oh woah."

The video showed the attacking fleet being engulfed by multiple flashes of light. When the light dissipated, there was nothing but scrap metal left of the ZAFT warships.

"It's the same thing they used to wipe out Panama, isn't it?" Dearka looks to Waltfield, who nods.

"They call it 'Trinity', after the good old days of prototype nuclear weaponry, I suspect." Waltfield says. "Based on analysis, the weapons are not nuclear based…but we don't know what they're made of, other than the fact that they hit impressively hard. No conventional ordnance nowadays can pack that much bang in a cruise missile form."

Athrun frowns. "So the war is escalating, that sucks…but it's not that unusual. This war's been escalating since day one."

"That it is." Waltfield nods. "The problem is…someone just pushed the boulder off of the slippery slope."

Dearka looks confused. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means…well, it means that we find the current rate of escalation to be alarmingly fast." Waltfield pulls up a set of documents and graphs on the computer on his table. "Patrick's suddenly gathering a lot of political power, the formation of a new country out of nowhere, none of this makes any sense to us."

"It's not like the Feds shooting themselves in the foot has anything to do with it." Dearka mutters.

Waltfield caught the sarcasm. He stands up. "Normally I'd consider this to be acceptable, if stupid. However, Patrick seized control of the entirety of the ZAFT military in a matter of days after the Trinity was unveiled…incidentally, nobody on PLANT knows about this." He taps the video. "You can guess why."

"It'll be bad for morale, yeah." Yzak mutters, and then clears his throat. "But none of this explains why you've betrayed the ZAFT military."

"Really?" Waltfield scratches his chin. "I thought it was obvious; I don't feel like dying for a ZAFT that has lost its purpose."

"What is ZAFT trying to accomplish by taking over Copernicus?" Dearka, who's been struggling with this problem for a while, finally asks. "I mean, we know now that they house these goddamn super missiles and they're extremely dangerous, but what was the initial drive for attacking the city?"

Waltfield has a slight smile on his face. "You got me on that one. PLANT had no reason to attack Copernicus, which is a neutral city, unless they had a damn good reason."

"Such as killing the Federation high command." Athrun suddenly said. "Wait, wait. But this means…"

Waltfield nods grimly. "Exactly. Whoever is pulling the strings behind this war has been doing it for a long, long time…which comes back to the reason why we went renegade. It's simply too difficult to investigate on this…shadow, behind the powers while being inside one such power."

"The three of you have a choice right now." Waltfield stares at the ZAFT boys. "You can either go home and pretend like you never saw us…or you can come with us."

"There's no middle ground?" Yzak felt a shiver run up his spine. His pride was telling him to drop the traitor to the nation right here, right now…but his instincts were telling him that the Tiger of the Desert will savage him if he tried.

"Our position is precarious enough as it is." Waltfield said as an apology.

"So what would our job be if we were to be Renegades?" Athrun asks slowly.

"Well…objective number one is to free Orb. We need to get the Princess out of Usea's grasp before they get her for good."

Yzak frowns at that one. "Usea's the bad guy?"

"Call it a hunch." Waltfield shrugs. "It's not that I find Usea detestable…hell, their treatment of Coordinators and Naturals alike have been very evenhanded, even commendable. That being said, there's something off about them that worries me, so it's better safe than sorry."

"Who's the princess again?" Dearka wonders.

"Lacus." Athrun says automatically.

"Ah." Dearka sighs then shrugs. "Sounds like your type of job, Athrun."

"Isn't Orb under Federation siege right now?" Yzak asks. "Getting in and out would be very, very hard."

"They have the Prototypes." Dearka points out. "If their specs are anything like the rumors then they should be pretty damn good."

"Oh, they're good alright." Waltfield nods. "But I can't go to Earth right now, for obvious reasons…and nobody else that came with us is good enough to handle them."

Yzak began to laugh. "What a stupid situation. The Traitor to ZAFT needs us heroes to bail out an ex-princess of PLANT so we can find out what's wrong with it."

"Hey, those are the cards on the table." Waltfield pats Yzak's head (earning a glare in response). "Take it or leave it."

…

[Usea]

…

The invasion and subsequent liberation of Orb was an unknown to the populace of Usea. The average citizen knew that something was happening (and their knowledge was directly proportional to their d distance to Orb) but they lacked concrete proof.

In the past few days, that has been changing. Slowly, videos concerning the battles over Orb's skies began to surface across the world, and soon enough the number one talking point among the Usean citizenry and military alike was the sheer audacity (and utter stupidity) of the plan…and the exemplary performance of the Aces.

…

[Stonehenge]

…

Stonehenge, the powerful Usean anti-air defensive artillery system, used to be under the control of the grey men.

As the above sentence implies, it has since changed hands.

Murata Azrael's ship, a small, nondescript (but certainly retrofitted) fishing boat floated into a hidden dock within the Stonehenge installation's base.

"Yo, my fellow gentlemen." Murata greets the men staffing the Stonehenge's primary control room. He then wrinkles his nose at the smell of blood and bleach mixed together. "Looks like spring cleaning didn't go over so well."

"Yeah, getting stains out of the carpet is oddly challenging." The lead operator laughs. "Maybe I should bring my wife over; she'll get rid of the stains like that." He snaps his fingers.

Murata (and a few others) chuckle at the joke. "What's the situation?" His tone was now all business.

"It doesn't look like the Usean bastards have figured out what we did here." The lead operator replied. "We've established about sixty percent control over the base's functionality."

"Only sixty? What's left?" Azrael scowls.

"A lot of the minor base defenses." The operator brings out a large map of the entire Stonehenge installation on the control room's large array of screens and color coded the sections that they had control over. "It's incredible how many turrets this place has, not to mention the AI-controlled interceptors…whoever designed this place wanted this installation to withstand the apocalypse itself."

Azrael scanned the screens, noting several weapon names he did not recognize. "And you have no control over them."

"The technicians are worried that if we force them too hard we'll alert their ex-bosses." The lead operator explained. "So they're taking it nice and slow just to be on the safe side."

"Fair enough." Azrael shrugs. "Keep up the good work, and if Usea calls…"

"We play along like good little puppies. I know, boss." The operator grins.

…

[Orb]

…

"Uh, guys? We have a problem." A radar operator said. "There're a lot of beeps on the horizon."

"So they're finally going to do it." The lead operator gulped. "Send message to high command, and tell all bases to scramble all assets…bring it up on monitor."

"Roger." Another radar operator pushed a button, and the large screen in front of all of them turned into a colorful display of blue dots…with a paint-like smear of red approaching from the northeast.

…

"So they're finally doing it." Kira breathed. "Oh boy…this is going to be bad." He scanned the horizon one more time, hoping that at least some of the points he saw were just illusions.

"Kira," Captain Murrue's voice came over the radio. "We'll be stationed over the northern city in order to protect against the edge of the enemy attack."

"Got it." Kira looked around at the empty hangar. "It feels so barren now."

"Yeah?" Mu looked around as well. "Not having the four sets of Spearheads will do that, I suppose. Don't get distracted out there, kid. This is by far the biggest battle we've ever been in."

"Why are the Feds doing this?" Tolle demanded. "This doesn't make any sense."

"It's almost as if they're looking to be destroyed." Kira agreed. "Even if they succeed, Usea and ZAFT will both drive in and annihilate the Atlantic Federation, so what are they trying to gain from doing this?"

"Maybe there's nothing for them to gain." Mu said darkly. "Considering the Atlantic Federation's reputation, the world will be better for it if they became the greatest evil…and then died."

Kira scowled. The implications behind someone sacrificing an entire nation as (what appears to be) a political ploy didn't sit well with him.

"But…that's future talk. Focus on the fight right now." Mu bopped Kira lightly on the helmet.

…

Elsewhere, a pair of Astrays were preparing to launch…one with black wings, and one with a single, red arm.

"Takes you back, doesn't it." Pixy says, going through his pre-flight checklist. "The first time we met back home was to protect a nation from going under."

"I think our situation right now is a little bit worse though." Cipher laughs. "Maybe they'll get careless and send lightly escorted bombers our way again."

"Belka wasn't known for its sophisticated decision making." Pixy chuckles…and there was a moment of silence between them. "Buddy…let's do this."

"Yeah." Cipher took a deep breath. "Ustio 6th Fighter Division, 66th Unit. Galm Team Number One, Cipher, taking off!"

"That's a hell of a mouthful." Pixy laughed. "Galm Two, Pixy, launching!"

…

"Hoo boy." Chopper rubbed his eyes. "Someone, tell me I'm dreaming."

"You're dreaming something, alright." Bartlett responds. "Jesus, how did it come down to this?"

The two of them stared silently at the approaching tide of Federation aircraft.

"The Feds are insane, that's how." Yellow 13 sighed. "I wonder if they ever considered stepping back and reconsidering their line of action?"

"It's pretty hard when their initial cause for war was to wipe out space aliens." Chopper grumbles. "Almost makes me wish the Yukes were still around."

Yuktobania was the opposing country of the war Chopper participated in.

"I don't think it'd be that different if the Yukes were around." Blaze pointed out. "Our war was also one of vengeance."

"Vengeance or no, we have a show to perform today." Bartlett chided them. "Focus on the task at hand."

"Speaking of which," Chopper felt like this was the biggest issue. "What should our formation be?"

"I'll take Antares." Yellow 13 said.

"That's fine with me." Antares just wanted to shoot some guns.

Colonel Bishop chipped in. "I'll fly in your formation as well, Yellow 13."

"In that case...Wardog leader to all aircraft, check in." Bartlett grins.

"Wardog Two, roger." Blaze has a self-satisfied smirk.

"What? I'm three again? Aww." Chopper rolls his aircraft in protest. "Aww. Wardog three, ready."

Bartlett cracked his knuckles. "Alright, all aircraft, prepare to engage. Protect Orb at all costs."

…

"Dad, uh…" Cagalli scratches her head, nervous at facing her father even through a monitor. "I uh…"

"You snuck aboard the Archangel." Her father, Uzumi Nara Athha, finished for her. "I know, Cagalli, I know."

"Sorry, dad. I just—I remember what you said about seeing the war with my own eyes, and what I've seen is that this war is big and stupid…and I can't just sit back and do nothing."

"Indeed." Uzumi sighed. "It would seem as if all sides in this conflict have decided to act in the worst possible ways."

"You're…uh…not mad, are you?" Cagalli asks hesitantly.

"I am very mad." Uzumi says evenly. "Especially at how you've apparently decided to join the fighting."

Cagalli looked down at her flight suit and couldn't really argue the point. "Dad, Orb is in danger of being wiped off the map, I can't pretend as if our ideology will somehow save us from a bullet to the face."

"It is precisely because we are so challenged that we must hold to our ideology." Uzumi said. "What good would it do if the Orb you protected was not the same you went to war for?"

Cagalli was never too fond of her dad talking about ideals. "But people can die right now."

"Some of them will likely die by your hands." Uzumi pointed out.

"I know that." Cagalli growled. "I'm ready for it."

It's not a matter of if you have the mental fortitude to kill the enemy in front of you, Cagalli. Uzumi thought.

…

"Kid troubles?" Siegel Clyne asked Uzumi after the Lion of Orb's conversation with her daughter.

"When did she become so bold?" Uzumi chuckled. "I'm deeply worried that she will die out there."

"Makes the two of us…but we can't shelter them forever, not when the reality is on our doorstep." Siegel sighed. "Lacus is out there too, you know? She's really taken a liking to that Yamato kid. She's out there soothing the civilians."

"You got someone on him?" Uzumi asked. "I got a smart bodyguard you can borrow."

"He seems like a good enough kid." Siegel laughed. "No need to stick a gun in his back just yet."

Uzumi shook his head. "If you say so."

Siegel observed his newfound friend carefully. "What will you do, Athha?"

"I will wait here." Uzumi said firmly. "Until the last moment, if need be."

…

"This is AWACS Thunderhead, Wardog Squadron, do you copy?"

"We hear you, Thunderhead." Captain Bartlett responded. "Go ahead."

"Roger. Wardog, be advised, the Federation is fielding a large amount of unmanned aircraft and Mobile Suits. They're going to overwhelm us with numbers. "

"No, really? I would've never guessed." Chopper muttered as he scanned his radar. "You'd think the Federation people would notice if their tax dollars turned into a million jet fighters."

"It doesn't look like they're going to do anything besides overwhelming us with numbers, though." Blaze observed. "They're hanging back too far."

Thunderhead sighed in relief. "Good. We're going to overlay a Jamming field over the combat area to help dampen the effect of the AI controlled units. All aircraft, you may experience decreased sensor abilities, so be careful out there."

…

"I think we can handle having some of our electronics knocked out." Antares said confidently. "Go right ahead, Canopus."

"AWACS Canopus copies, commencing Electronic Combat."

The AWACS aircraft (still practically invisible when viewed from their bellies) started to scramble all forms of communication in the area between the incoming Federation blob of units and the Orb defenders.

…

In response to the jamming, the Federation ships staggered their AI-controlled units to approach Orb in waves (having less units at once reduce the risk of the AI bugging out due to the scrambling).

"The things we do for our goddamned country." The Federation fleet commander snarled. "Let's get this over with. All ships commence fire!" As his ship shook from the missiles launching from their tubes, he heard one of the operators report that the special support ships were slow to arrive.

And thank god for that. He thought.

…

"Incoming cruise missiles!" Thunderhead alerted. "All units get ready for intercept, don't let those missiles reach the cities."

The cruise missiles flew towards the Orb shoreline (a few of them detonated prematurely due to the jamming) before the majority of the rest of them were intercepted by the ground units lined up on the island. The rest caused some minor damage to the Orb's landmass and city outskirt areas.

"Here comes the main force." Bartlett warned. "Alright, don't get overeager and fight conservatively. We're going to be out here a while."

"Blaze, roger."

"Chopper, roger."

…

"Looks like the center line has started, Kira." Tolle reported. "They should be coming up here to this area soon."

"Yeah." Kira looked back at the Archangel, and at the oddly pink-colored Strike Gundam besides him. "Cagalli, are you sure about this?"

"This is my house they're stomping into." Cagalli snaps. "Of course I'm sure about this. I got a bullet for every last one of the bastards." The eyes of her pink Strike, the Strike Rouge, glowed in agreement.

"Don't lose your head in the clouds, girly." Mu chided. "Or it'll cost you in the future."

"For the time being…stick close to your wingmen." Kira sighed. "I won't be able to protect all of you in this fight."

"This isn't about protecting us, Mister Yamato." An Astray with a paintjob of black with red streaks flew up and landed next to the (normal) Strike. "We're here to protect everyone."

"And who might you be?" Tolle asked.

"Nicol. Nicol Amalfi." The pilot of the Astray replied. "I've decided to help."

Don't remember him. Tolle thought. "Nicol, huh? Kind of a girly name."

Nicol rolled his eye. "I know, I know…I get plenty of it back home."

"As opposed to Cagalli who I thought was a boy." Kira muttered.

"You 'thought'? So you changed your mind at some point?" Tolle grinned.

Kira paused, sensing a social landmine. "Er."

"I swear to god Kira if you call me a boy one more time—" Cagalli said, indignant.

"I couldn't help it! You were boyish!" Kira defended himself…badly.

"Enough, kids…save it for the after-party." Mu stepped in. "It looks like we have company, too."

Kira scanned his radar and saw the first wave of AI-Spearheads coming in. "Ok…what's the plan, Mu?"

"Since we don't have the numbers for a straight up air superiority fight, we're going to let them get within range of the coastline before picking them down." Mu said. "Astray pilots, aim carefully and make your shots count!"

…

Unknown to both groups, the third area of operations (south-east edge, closest to Morgenroete) was actually hit first.

While the Orb forces had better training and positioning, the overwhelming numbers of the Federation units slowly wore away at the Orb line.

"Do not let the enemy onto our shores!" The Orb commander in charge of the theater roared. "We must not let them get near!"

"Said the guy that let them onto our shores not too long ago." One of the operators muttered under her breath. "Three Daggers are approaching section 2-A, Negi team, please intercept."

A trio of Astrays radioed in their affirmative and engaged the Daggers with their beam sabers. The Daggers responded in kind and the two groups went into mech-on-mech swordfight action.

"A flight of Spearheads are descending on section 6-D, AA group 5, prepare to intercept." A second operator said.

A line of Anti-Aircraft vehicles angled their guns high, and peppered the air with streaks of bullets. Some Spearheads flew through the streaks and left a smoking mess while others evaded the streaks long enough to drop bombs onto the AA vehicles, turning the tank-like vehicles into scrap metal.

There were, unfortunately, more Spearheads than AA guns.

"Five Spearheads have entered section 5-A. Megumi team, intercept."

"Two Daggers sighted in section 1-C, moving into 1-B. Oliver team, cut off their movements."

"Enemy warship bombarding the shoreline. Sakura team, please fall back along the highway."

"Dammit." One of the field captains growled. "We're slowly being overwhelmed here." An explosion then grabbed his attention. "Control, what happened?"

"The enemy has broken the defensive line at 1-B." An operator responded. "Daggers are coming in your direction."

Another operator then noticed two dots with friendly IFFs…but not of Orb designation. "Wait a moment, two allied units are approaching sector 1-B at high speed."

"Well, tell them to get here faster." The field captain leveled his Astray's beam rifle towards the general direction of section 1-B. "All units keep your eyes open. Ground units, provide us support."

The ground units – normal tanks – raised their barrels in acknowledgement.

Soon enough, the field captain caught the dozen or so Daggers charging straight towards them, and locked onto the nearest one. "Fire!"

The combined Orb unit of 3 Astrays and 6 Tanks fired in unison, bringing down two Daggers while the rest scattered and approached in a pincer movement.

In unison, the ten Daggers returned fire with their beam rifles in a movement entirely unrelated to their maneuvering.

"Looks like their shooting AI needs work." The field captain grinned savagely as the Dagger's counter fire went wide. "Don't falter, take them out!"

"Above you!" One of his teammates called out.

The captain's response was to accelerate and move away from his location, and the bomb from a Spearhead flying over his head impacted the spot he was at relatively harmlessly.

"Shit, where did they come from?" The captain growled, focusing his attention on the Spearheads over his head…dividing his attention just long enough for one of the Daggers to charge into his Astray's backside with its beam saber and running its pilot through.

"Captain! Dammit!" One of his teammates shot the offending Dagger and killed it. "We're—whoa!" He moved to parry another Dagger's beam saber with his shield while counter-firing with the Vulcans on his Astray's head and taking out his attacker's head cameras in response.

"Command, we're losing control of the sector." The captain of the tank unit said as his unit blasted a Dagger's leg off. "Requesting reinforcements."

"Uh…more enemy Daggers are headed your way from 2-A." Was the Operator's response. "We're stretched thin as it is."

"Damn, we're pulling back then." The tank captain said as the tank next to his suffered a direct hit and exploded. "No point fighting at a severe disadvantage. All units fall back, we're regrouping!"

Easier said than done; the second of the three Astrays was cut down by the incoming—and now reinforced—Daggers.

All the Daggers fired in unison again and tore through three more tanks and the last Astray.

"We don't get to run, I see." The tank captain sighed. "Fine, if that's how it's gonna be…Fire! Fire everything we have!"

The tanks raised their barrels as the Daggers aimed their beam rifles.

"Sorry we're late."

The tank captain looked up to see a salvo of beam rifle fire, and six of the ten offending Daggers fell almost at once. (Plus a seventh, since it tripped over its fallen compatriots).

A pair of Astrays flew over the captain's tank…one with black wings, and one with a single red arm.

"I've never seen paintjobs like that before." The tank captain muttered. "Thanks for your support, whoever you are."

"Sure." Solo Wing Pixy responded. "Galm Two to Galm One, we have a lot of area to cover, so let's do this quick."

"Yeah." Cipher, the Demon Lord of the Round Table, responded evenly.

The remaining Daggers fired at the two newcomers with surprising accuracy.

"Whoa, that's pretty good." Pixy maneuvered around the shots without problems. "Would've gotten me a long time ago." With two swift strokes of his beam saber he dispatched two of the Daggers.

"Yeah." Cipher parried the two shots with his beam saber (attached to the offhand shield) and shot down his two attackers with his Beam rifle.

"More Daggers approaching section 1-B." The command operators came over the radio. "They're being backed up by Spearheads. Do not let the Spearheads deeper into the island."

"Roger." Pixy replied. "Galm Two, commencing intercept."

"Galm One to Galm Two." Cipher said. "I'll leave the enemies in the skies to you."

Pixy had a slight smile as he heard that. "Free engagement with air priority, huh? Roger, leave it to me."

…

[Back at the Central Command Room]

…

An operator observing the Galm team's battle blinked hard. "What…what are those two?"

His next seat neighbor leaned in. "What's going on over there? Good things?"

"Look at those two." The first operator pointed to two blue friendly dots being approached by a steady stream of red dots…with the red dots disappearing before they got close to the blue ones. "The two of them alone are holding off the bulk of the attackers on the south-east theater."

His neighbor blinked in surprise. "Whoa, really? Who are they?"

"That doesn't matter." Their immediate superior bopped both of them on the head. "Focus on defending the homeland and stop chattering." Then he leaned down and whispered into their ears. "There are reporters buzzing all around the coastline. Drop a hint to one of them."

…

[Northern Theater, Archangel]

…

Compared to the other two coastlines, the northern theater received the greatest amount of mobile armor (read: Spearhead) attacks, due to its distance from the Federation ships and the relatively higher speed of the Spearheads.

This meant that that Archangel was having a hell of a time fighting the small, agile fighters…initially.

"Ok, we've set up." Mu reported. "Canopus, do your thing!"

"Canopus, Roger." The AWACS operator cracked his knuckles. "Unleashing High Performance Jamming."

High Performance Jamming was just the jamming they are currently using…but unleashed at a much higher level. It affects everyone on the field, but against the AI-controlled Spearheads, who have no subsystems to help maintain their aircraft (called pilots) it is especially lethal.

The Spearheads, it should be said, are designed well enough that they will not lose altitude while their computers recover, but the temporary disruption in their flight capabilities is more than enough for the Archangel crew to pick off the fighters through visual detection while said fighters cruise in a lazy straight line.

As it so happens, this particular batch of AI fighters lost roughly two-third of their numbers before they recovered.

"Enemy Fighters have regained control." Tolle reported. "Jeez. They really get going when they get going, huh?"

The Fighters he was referring to regained control and immediately performed very sharp turns to avoid being shot down by Kira. It helped some.

"That's six." Kira counted to himself. "Any more?"

"The rest are being handled by the AA units." Canopus replied. "Strike Gundam, return and rearm, the second wave is undoubtedly coming soon."

"Already? I have most of my power from the last resupply." Kira, though a bit surprised, followed the order to return and change batteries.

"We'll handle it out here while you eat." Cagalli grinned. "So be a good boy and listen to your elders, yeah?"

Kira rolled his eyes. "Aren't I older than you?"

"Details, details." Cagalli waved his comment away and fired at the Spearheads over her head, with comparatively less results than Kira.

…

[Center Theater, Wardog, Yellow Squadrons]

…

Compared to the other two theaters, the center line is closest to the bulk of the federation fleet, meaning that it received two things: more Daggers, and enemy fire support.

The first part was already annoying, as the Daggers' improved AI put them on more than equal footing with the technologically superior but relatively less accurate Astrays…and the Daggers have armor that more than just rudimentary protection against aircraft missiles, to say nothing of the smaller caliber guns.

Doesn't stop the Aces any, though.

"Wardog Two, I'm making my run." Blaze declares before diving down towards a trio of Daggers.

"We hear you, Wardog two, ready to support." A pair of nearby Astrays reply and aim their beam rifles toward the Daggers.

Blaze zips over the three Daggers, getting the attention of their Artificial Intelligence and earning some Vulcan fire in response. The Daggers were then destroyed (or at least unable to continue combat) via beam rifle fire from the two supporting Astrays.

"Enemy ships are firing onto the shore, all units take cover." Thunderhead warned. "ETA in five…four…"

The two Astrays turned and ran to hide behind some abandoned skyscrapers while Blaze simply climbed above the clouds.

Bartlett gritted his teeth as the first shots from the Federation warships hit the shoreline. "Damn, how many volleys is that now? At this rate our forces aren't going to last."

"We're stretched too thin trying to cover the entire line by ourselves." Yellow 13 agreed, still in the middle of an evasive maneuver to shake off a Spearhead on his tail. "We don't have enough Astrays to perform any kind of offensive positioning."

"It would be better if we were to operate as a marauding force instead of fixing ourselves to one line." Talisman pointed out. "That way we'll be able to provide more thorough support before needing to move on."

"Can the line hold out by itself if we acted like that?" Chopper wondered.

A panicked voice interrupted their thoughts. "All units, we're having serious trouble at section 13-C! We request immediate assistance!"

"Let's do it. All units follow my lead." Talisman said automatically as he banked and zoomed towards the section in danger.

"Your lead? Hey! Wait!" Chopper groaned. "God, what's with him?!"

"I think he knows what he's doing." Blaze observed. "Let's go. The sooner we free up a unit the better."

Bartlett was of the same mind. "Yeah. Wardog squadron, assist Garuda One as necessary."

"Yellow squadron, the same."

…

"What the heck? Our top cover is leaving." One Astray pilot (Pilot A) on the ground observed.

His captain knew what was going on. "They can move freely, we can't; all units hold your ground and fight defensively until they can come back."

"Like we have a choice." Pilot A muttered as a ship-fired shell exploded very close to his Astray.

…

Sector 13-C was in serious trouble.

Of the six Astrays assigned to the area, only two were still alive and kicking…against a total of eight Daggers still advancing on their position.

(Two Astrays plus assorted tanks and anti-aircraft gun vehicles, but against a mobile suit they are not too useful.)

"Anyone out there, please respond!" The new captain due to field promotion called frantically into the radio. "We need help!"

"Everyone else has their hands full." His teammate said glumly. "Let's do the best we can here."

"Shit, man! We're gonna die out here!" The leader is less than composed. "Somebody! Anybody!"

"This is, Garuda One, providing close air support." A reassuring voice said on the radio. "Sit tight, we're here."

A squadron of fighters comprised of X-02s and Shindens zoomed above the heads of the remaining Astrays, and they dove into the Daggers without a shred of hesitation.

"Don't worry about destroying them outright, attack their cameras!" Talisman commanded.

"That's not really possible." Chopper pointed out as Blaze dove down onto a Dagger. The Dagger looked up to aim and received a missile to the face. "For the rest of us." Chopper amended.

"Good thing all of us are the best of the best." Antares said with a feral grin on his face. "Let's do this. Commencing close range support!"

"Is it really a support if we're doing the attacking?" Bishop chuckled. "Bishop, commencing attack."

…

"They don't have any fear, do they?" The previously panicking captain said in awe, watching the fighters dodge shot after shot with the bare minimum of movement, never once wavering from their intended target. "Where did they learn to fly like that?"

"It doesn't matter." His wingman snapped. "We need to get in there and help!"

"Don't need to tell me twice. All Orb units! Assist those Aces!"

The two Astrays charged out of their cover and rained fire upon the Daggers which were distracted by the fighters buzzing around them.

In what seemed to be no time at all, the eight Daggers were brought down through the combination of fancy flying and beam rifle fire.

"Garuda One, thanks for the help." The captain exhaled deeply. "We're going to pull back to 12-C and reinforce the group there."

"What about us?" Chopper asked indignantly.

"Garuda One, roger." Talisman said, overriding Chopper. "Godspeed and good luck."

…

The Federation side wasn't having the best of days.

On one hand, they have these top of the line AI-controlled fighters that can be mass produced on a frighteningly large scale...

On the other, they can't really use all of them at once and the waves that they're sending are proving themselves to be good at only dealing superfluous damage.

It's been two hours since the battle started, and Orb, though battered, was far from out.

"Group 19 has been entirely destroyed." An operator aboard the Federation Flagship carrier reported. "Group 20 has suffered an ECM attack and is unresponsive."

"How are they still holding out?" The ship commander wondered. "Their Astrays aren't supposed to be that good."

"Well, sir…" An operator responds in a small voice. "The southern flank is being held back by a team of two Astrays."

"Their Paparazzi is making a huge fuss, too." Her next door neighbor added. "Take a look at this."

The operator brought up what could only be a live feed from the battleground. The crew of the ship watched as the Astray with black wings caught a Spearhead before it hit the ground (it was shot down by Pixy). Said Astray then tossed the entire Spearhead into an advancing Dagger like…well, a spear, and destroyed both machines in the process.

They even heard the chatter over the general radio band, too.

"Cipher, I see that you're way more vicious when we're just dealing with drones." Pixy commented.

"There's no reason to hold back against them…but I am still getting used to the Astray's control scheme." Cipher replied modestly as threw one Dagger into another and impaled both of them with a streetlight.

"As expected of the Demon Lord, I suppose." Pixy laughed, downing Spearheads like flies with his beam rifle. "If we keep this up we're going to win without any problems."

The Federation crew didn't know who was talking, but knew well enough that it was the enemy talking.

"So he says." The Fed captain grunts. "He's got his head in the clouds."

Yeah, but they are winning. The operator of the video thought. "Your orders, sir?"

"Send message to Azrael." The captain said dismissively. "Let them handle it."

…

[Stonehenge]

…

"Let us handle it?" Murata Azrael frowned. "The hell…what could possibly be the problem?"

The messenger shrugged. "By the sound of things, the AIs they're using are hampered by ECM, so they can't deploy enough of them and keep them all combat-able."

"Good to know." Azrael sighed. "What's Usea doing?" He asked his Stonehenge commander.

"As long as we're not obviously blasting Orb to pieces, we should be safe from detection." The commander replied.

"Alright, I guess this is as good of a time as any. Fire on the coast line, get a feel of how to use the cannons." Azrael commanded.

…

[Orb]

…

"All aircraft! Warning!" Thunderhead's voice boomed throughout all radios (Federation and Orb units). "Incoming fire from Stonehenge, take evasive action!"

"What? Dammit." Kira turned and scanned the skies in Stonehenge's direction, hoping to see an incoming shell. "Those bastards!" He growled as the Strike dropped to the ocean surface.

"Impact in five…four…" Thunderhead counted down.

"Is there anything we can do to stop them from hitting us?" Nicol asked as he followed Kira down.

"Not with what we've got." Cagalli snarled. "Don't you dare hit our city you-"

Whatever she was about to yell at the incoming ammunition was drowned out by the roar of the Stonehenge rounds exploding (relatively) harmlessly in the air.

…

"Yikes." Bartlett muttered. "They're pretty scary from up here, alright."

He (along with the rest of the Wardog squadron) opted to stay at altitude instead of diving for the deck.

"It doesn't look like they're aiming to kill, fortunately." Blaze noted. "I think we can continue combat operations without too many problems."

"They're using the type two shells." Sky Eye said. "We'll give you a heads up if there are any impact areas in your current combat area, so fly without worries."

"Roger that, Sky Eye." Bartlett said. "All units continue attack."

…

"It sounds like they're opening up on the western fronts." Pixy said. "Think they're coming after us next?"

"There will be hell to pay for them if they do." Cipher replied. "We're closest to the metropolis areas."

"I hear you, Cipher." Pixy grimaced. "Then how about we push these toys all the way back to their ships?"

Cipher grinned upon the suggestion. "I thought you'd never ask."

…

When the Stonehenge rounds exploded in midair, the world stopped to watch. Orb's mobilization of its press and its neutral satellite systems allowed the entirety world (and PLANT to some extent) to see the Stonehenge's destructive power…and the planes that continued to fight despite the threat posed by the guns.

There was, however, one pilot that didn't look twice when the guns fired. Instead, he climbed into his plane and took to the skies, racing towards Stonehenge as quickly as his plane allowed.

"Mobius One, Mister Ribbon." The plane's control AI, Nemo, started to say. "You did not leave with your full load of missiles."

"We have the autocannons and the EMLs. It'll be enough." Ribbon said tersely.

"You think?" A girl's voice laughed as his missile alert went off.

"We have guests." Nemo commented emotionlessly as Ribbon's CFA-144 Dracula pulled higher into the air.

Ribbon narrowed his eyes when he saw the attacker. "You again?" He said over the common frequency. "It was fun last time, so stay out of my way this time."

"What?" The girl in the opposing Nosferatu laughed. "I almost got you last time, don't lie. It'll be the same today, too."

Ribbon was not in the mood to play, and he no longer lacked the disadvantage in maneuverability this time. "Mobius One, engaging."

"Oh my, how manly." The girl didn't seem to take him seriously, and angled her Nosferatu down to meet him in a head-on joust.

The two planes charged towards each other…and then immediately broke off from said charge almost simultaneously.

"Looks like you won this one." The girl grumbled as her cockpit alerted her of a hole in her fuselage. She almost wanted to give chase to the ribbon fighter, but thought better of it: what she had hoped would have been an exciting duel was instead a very clear warning from its pilot…and she was, at least, smart enough to know when it's time to leave, especially when her opponent's EML shot would've hit her cockpit had it been off by a mere foot.

…

"That girl has good senses." Nemo commended as they watched the blip that was the Nosferatu leave their radar range. "You decided the battle in one shot, sir."

"Let's just focus on the task at hand." Ribbon said curtly, still on full afterburners towards Stonehenge.

"Yes sir." Nemo said. "Sir, I'm reading aircraft not of EFA origins on the horizon."

…

[Orb]

…

The inclusion of Stonehenge explosions all along the coastline of Orb was not kind to its defensive forces.

While the Blue Cosmos currently in command of Stonehenge are not nearly as competent as its original crew, the psychological effect of the massive explosives was more than enough to cause the Orb line to buckle and break in many areas time and time again. Not even the Aces in the sky, as overwhelming as they were, were able to keep the forces rallied, and the psychological boost provided by the Aces (or, rather, the lack of the boost) was all the more apparent whenever they needed to return to rearm.

Even so, in the face of a never-ending stream of enemies plus constant long range bombardment, the Orb lines held for another two hours before it showed signs of breaking.

"Damn, this is looking pretty bad." Chopper observed when he noticed how deep into the island the Daggers had gotten. "I don't think we'll be able to keep this up for much longer."

"We'll keep this up for as long as we need to push them back." Blaze said confidently as he launched a missile at the Dagger in front of him. "That's all there is to it."

"You make it sound way easier than it has any right to be." Chopper sighed and engaged an AI-Spearhead.

"Blaze is right." Bishop responded. "There's no room for retreat here: if the defensive units are pushed back any further then the airfield will be compromised."

The airfield happens to be a stretch of highway that the planes can use for rearming.

"Well, hell." Chopper said. "Thunderhead, we got anymore death coming above us?"

"Predicted volley incoming ETA 90 seconds." Thunderhead responded. "Showing approximate impact ranges now."

"This keeps on getting better and better." Yellow 13 sighed. "Ground units, we'll work in tandem to take down the enemy, so keep your eyes open."

…

[Federation Side]

…

"They're still not falling?!" The captain slammed his fist into the armrest of his chair again. "How?!"

"Uh…they're flying around the explosions." An operator said in awe.

"That's not possible!" The armrest was hit again. "What's the status on the satellite hack?"

"We're getting a live feed…now."

The operator responsible for hacking into the Orb satellites stared at the screen, blinked twice, then stared at it again.

"And?" The captain demanded.

"There…there are enemy support aircraft in the sky?" The operator frowned. "But they're not showing up on radar at all!"

"Then they're stealth!" The armrest was hit again. "Tell Stonehenge to fire at the sky, kill the damned support planes!"

"He's really going off the deep end, isn't he?" One of the operators (sitting far away from the captain) muttered.

"Totally." Her neighbor sighed.

…

Cipher felt a tug in his stomach, and stopped to look up.

"What the hell is that?" One of the Orb pilots asked…right as a beam of light split the air (and a few Spearheads).

"Oh hell no." Pixy growled, switching to an open frequency. "All units listen up! Excalibur is firing on us! AWACS, we need combat support!"

"Currently impossible, dammit!" Canopus replied.

Pixy looked up to see…the AWACS aircraft. A small speck in the sky, but definitely visible…and smoking slightly. "Canopus, are you ok?"

"Yeah, the beam of light missed." Canopus replied as threat alarms started popping up all over the radio. "But the heat of the weapon damaged our stealth coating. We're being targeted by every fighter in the region."

"Dammit. Cipher." Pixy said. "We should head back."

"Negative. Let the others handle it." Cipher replied. "Every time we hit near the enemy ships, they send out less units to attack the coastline."

"So we're driving straight into the enemy fleet this time, huh?" Pixy nodded. "I understand. I'll follow your lead."

…

"Wardog! Engage! Protect the AWACS!" Bartlett roared as his aircraft climbed steeply to intercept the handful of Spearheads gunning for the AWACS aircraft.

"Yellow Squadron, take down the enemy!" Yellow 13 commanded as he joined in the fray.

The Spearheads at least had the decency to break off of their attack on the AWACS for long enough to let the two squadrons catch up.

The airspace below AWACS Canopus quickly turned into a tangled mess of jets and missiles.

…

"So that was their secret." The Federation captain grinned savagely. "Look at them running to save it."

"Captain, their AWACS is no longer emitting ECM. We can send all of our units through the middle section now."

The captain chuckled darkly. "Do it."

…

"Damn!" Blaze snarled as a Spearhead escaped his attention and charged towards the AWACS. "Canopus, I let one through!"

"I'm on him." Bishop said, chasing down the Spearhead and bringing it down with a hail of gunfire before it had too much time to shoot at the large, cumbersome retrofitted airliner. "Canopus, state your situation."

"We've taken sporadic fire, but nothing serious…no incoming fire from Stonehenge either." Crux (also aboard the AWACS aircraft) said. "But it looks like we're about to have a lot more company up here."

"Canopus, retreat from the airspace." Thunderhead warned with a slight break in his voice. "The ECM coverage is gone and the EFA is sending all of their units."

There was a moment of silence.

"Shit." Bishop said, as the swarm of Spearheads flew up to join in the fray.

"We'll cover Canopus's retreat. All units, fight defensively and don't stray too far from the pack." Bartlett ordered.

"Even if we fight defensively, we're going against AIs. They're just going to ignore us and go straight for the AWACS." Talisman pointed out.

"Then we better shoot them down before they get within range." Bartlett replied.

And then, suddenly, almost all of the Spearheads turned around.

…

"What do you mean, 'they're coming back'?!" The Federation captain slammed on his seat armrest once more. "Override their AIs and tell them to shoot down those support aircraft!"

"They're coming back to protect the ship…" An operator breathed. "So that means…oh shit! Incoming!"

…

The bridge of the Spengler class carrier, seated as it was high above every other ship in the vicinity, took a direct hit from a beam rifle shot and exploded.

"Direct hit on Carrier." Pixy reported. "They won't be bothering us for a while."

"They have a lot more Carriers that just that one." Cipher said, looking at the hundreds of ships spread out over the massive piece of ocean real estate. "We won't be able to get all of them."

"Then let's focus on the ones we can hit; they'll have to maneuver around every ship we sink." Pixy said confidently. "Galm Two, engaging." He declared as he tore through another ship's deck gun with his beam rifle.

"Galm One, engaging." Cipher had, at some point, obtained a second beam rifle, and is now dual wielding beam rifles to great effect.

…

"I don't know what made them leave." Bartlett said. "But it sure as hell worked out for us. Concentrate on taking down the remaining units; focus on the ones that suicide rush the AWACS first."

"Wardog two, roger." Blaze executed a barrel roll to get behind an AI-Spearhead and brought it down with a missile.

"Incoming from Stonehenge." Skyeye (aboard AWACS Thunderhead) said suddenly. "All aircraft brace for impact. Displaying impact areas on your radar; don't get shot down."

"Just when I thought we could breathe." Chopper grimaced and felt his aircraft shake. "Ow. Someone just hit me."

"I'm on him." Talisman said as he went after the Spearhead on Chopper's tail. "Looks like a customized Spearhead." He observed.

"Warning, incoming fire from the Excalibur." Thunderhead growled. "They're trying to kill us all. Canopus, drop your altitude, you're in its line of fire."

"Canopus, roger, commencing rapid descent."

…

[Space]

…

The ZAFT boys were watching this massive battle from the Orb media camera feed…while safely aboard the Eternal.

On one hand, the media were given access to the general frequency (so the pilots could yell at civilians and get them to evacuate certain combat areas, and to direct traffic for the Anti-Air tanks being driven everywhere) and thus the ZAFT boys were able to hear both the increasingly panicky chatter between the groups before they were pacified by what could only be war veterans in the sky.

"It's probably those guys." Dearka had pointed out the first time they saw the Orb forces rally behind a single jet in the air. "They're the only ones who can bolster morale that much with just their field presence."

On the other hand…

"I swear, the Federation is staffed by total morons nowadays." Dearka grumbled. "They should've known that this invasion was going to go badly now that Usea is in the picture."

Athrun shook his head. "After seeing what they've been doing up to now I'm really expecting there to be a puppeteer behind all of this…who are the major arms manufacturers on Earth again?"

"There's really only one, unless there's someone else in Usea I'm not aware of, and that's Logos." Yzak said.

"Whoever named their company must've had a really rough day." Dearka joked. "Naming your company after a word in common use has to be incredibly stupid."

"Given their links to Blue Cosmos…sorry, their supposed links to Blue Cosmos, I'm not all that surprised nobody wanted a piece of them." Athrun observed. "What did you expect us to learn by showing this to us?" He asked of Andrew Waltfield.

"Nothing, really." Waltfield shrugged nonchalantly. "It's boring out here and I figured learning more about our earthling friends would be good for us."

"Speaking of learning, what are those ships back there?" Yzak asked as the camera view switched to one of the news reporter helicopter cameras.

"Whoever's flying that helicopter has balls of steel, by the way." Dearka pointed out as he squinted at the horizon. "If only he could keep the damn thing still."

"They don't look like the usual Fed Cruiser." Yzak said, squinting as well. "Their cross section doesn't fit. It looks like they have something tied on top of the ships."

What could it be? Athrun wondered.

…

"Wait a minute." A Federation commander near the center of the flotilla of Federation ships said. "Those ships behind us…why are they moving?"

"It seems as if they received an order to fire, sir." The operator sitting next to him said. "They're moving into contact range."

"Those things are the…no. dammit!" The commander snarled. "Hail those ships! Tell them to rescind those orders and stand down immediately!"

"But, sir, it's an order from high command—" The operator protested hesitantly; she didn't want to see the large missiles fired at Orb either.

"High command can take a steel pole and sit on it." The commander snapped. "God himself could issue the command, and I'll still tell them to stop. Hurry it up!"

"Yes sir." The operator smiled, before steeling herself for the probably futile task. "This the Spengler Class Carrier baseship Belisarius, special op destroyers, please stand by. I repeat, special op destroyers, please stand by…"

…

[Archangel]

…

The Strike (and Strike Rouge, Cagalli's pink equivalent) were docked in the Archangel for resupply. The two pilots were sitting out of cockpit to refresh before heading back out again.

"What is this deeply oppressive feeling?" Kira murmured, staring at the ground as his stomach suddenly dropped to his feet.

"Huh? You say something?" Cagalli, who was nearby, barely heard him.

"Not really." Kira waved it off. Something big is going to happen. I can feel it. "Can we head out?" He asked Murdoch as the older man walked briskly by.

"In five minutes. The last battery overheated and leaked all over the damn place." Murdoch responded. "This kind of war is hard on the engineering."

Five minutes…do we have five minutes? Kira felt like praying, for some reason.

…

[Federation ships]

…

"Cipher, those ships back there are bad news." Pixy sounded afraid for once. "I don't know what missiles they're packing but they're definitely bad news."

"Dammit. I don't think we can take them as we are right now." Cipher and Pixy were forced to keep moving through the Federation fleet in increasingly complicated flight patterns to avoid being shot down. "New plan, we're bugging out." Cipher said.

"But they're right there!" Pixy resisted as he fired at the Destroyer, barely missing its bridge. "If we kill them here we win!"

"We can't kill them here, that's the point." Cipher grimaces as a stray shot struck his left-hand beam rifle, forcing him to toss it away before it exploded. "Their Dumbheads are coming after us, too…we're not the only ones in this fight, Pixy."

"Right, understood." Pixy nodded and tossed his shield into the Cruiser directly in front of him in retaliation of it damaging his leg. "Alright then, I'm pulling out."

The two Astrays quickly made their exit, leaving the Federation fleet bullets in the dust behind them.

…

The Destroyers, without fanfare, released a salvo of five missiles towards the nation of Orb.

…

"Warning, Cruise missiles incoming." Thunderhead alerted as soon as he picked up the missiles on the AWACS radar. "All units—"

"Those missiles are powerful, aren't they? More than usual, I mean." Talisman said slowly, feeling the dread in his stomach building.

"They're…yeah. Most definitely." Bishop said grimly. "All units, do not allow a single missile to hit Orb."

"Roger that." Bartlett replied. "Wardogs, setup for intercept, take them down far away from the mainland."

The five missiles split up.

"Shit." Bishop hit afterburners to chase down the left-most one.

Bartlett grimaced. "So much for that. Split and chase them down!"

…

"I got the first one." Bishop reported as he intercepted the first missile and strafed it with his guns, nicking off one of the wings and causing the missile to careen into the ocean.

"Fox two!" Blaze had a direct head-on vector with his target and launched a missile at it. "Target down, but no large explosion."

"I got him, I got him!" Chopper said as he...well. "Dammit, I didn't get him."

"I got him." Antares cleans up after Chopper and damages the missile well enough for it to careen into the ocean as well.

Yellow 13 tracked down the fourth missile and sniped its engine block off with one well-placed round from his EML.

The last missile simply failed due to the massive amounts of jamming Thunderhead poured into it.

"Yeah! We got them all!" Chopper celebrated.

"But none of them had those warheads?" Bishop muttered. "That's…fortunate."

"Keep your eyes open." Bartlett said. "There's definitely more up their sleeve."

…

"So the Trinities were duds?" Azrael scratched his chin. "That seems implausible…hmm."

"Maybe, just maybe." An operator said hopefully. "Whoever launched those missiles aren't genocidal and stupid."

"Against Naturals, sure." Azrael muttered.

…

Five explosions tore the surface of the ocean apart.

"Whoa." Was the general consensus of all observing.

"All missiles have been intercepted." Thunderhead said with a relieved sigh. "Continue to engage the enemy forces present in the sector…wait a moment."

"Don't tell me there are more cruise missiles incoming." Chopper groaned. "Please, don't."

"No; incoming fire from Stonehenge and coastal bombardment from enemy ships, nothing unusual there." Sky Eye responded. "Enemy units are flowing to the central combat area…I think they're concentrating all forces on this area, all units stay sharp."

Bartlett didn't seem phased. "Really? That makes our jobs easier. We won't have to separate our forces on three fronts."

"It also makes us more susceptible to cruise missile attacks, so don't let your guard down." Thunderhead chided him.

"All allied units, the enemy forces are concentrating on sections 4-A to 6-A." Sky Eye said through a general frequency for the entire Orb battlefield. "Flow and assist as necessary."

…

The Feds were listening in.

"At least the missiles were stopped." The Belisarius captain sighed in relief. "Are we even in control of the AI units anymore?"

"They're received a command override, they're charging into the center line en masse." An operator responded. "They're not listening to our orders…though I'm not surprised."

"Bah, talk about horrid design." The captain grumbled. "Tell all ships under our command to hold fire until further orders."

"Sir?"

The captain grinned. "It would be unfortunate if we hit our own units, so let's not take that chance."

…

The decrease in shelling was not noticeable by the good guys.

"Looks like the flock is back." Bartlett grumbled as his threat warning grew loud again. "At least they're not coming after the AWACS anymore. Thunderhead, how are you holding up?"

"We're changing our flight patterns every so often…hope it works." Thunderhead responded. "We're fine otherwise."

"Good…looks like the other units are flowing in to the combat area as well." Blaze observed. "Think we have enough to push them to the ocean now?"

"Why did they come back though?" Talisman wondered, watching the swarm of Spearheads creep closer.

"They went back because of us." A new voice pitched in, belonging to an Astray hugging the ocean surface as it ran back to the Orb lines.

This guy sounds familiar. Bartlett thought. "New pilot, state your affiliations."

"Ustio Air Force, 66th Unit, 6th Air Division, Galm Team's number Two." Pixy reported. "Name's Pixy. Nice to meet all of you."

"Solo Wing?" Blaze's eyebrow went up.

"You got it." Pixy grinned. "Anyways, their AI went home to their ships because we were flying over their airspace and hitting their ships. I guess their defensive AI takes priority over their attack orders."

"Sounds like a plan to me." Bartlett said. "All units listen up, we're going to move the battlefield over the enemy ships and pin their forces there."

"Understood." (An operator in) Orb's main control room responded. "We'll pool all assets into this operation as well."

"About time we went on the offensive." Antares grinned savagely. "Let's do this!"

"We're gonna get hit by all of their units if we go over there though." Chopper pointed out. "Not to mention that Stonehenge will definitely shoot at us if we're that far from the cities."

"Good." A handful of the pilots responded.

"Just checking." Chopper sighed. "You guys are really gung-ho, you know that?"

"Thunderhead, can you alert Archangel? We could use some long range support." Blaze asked.

"We're hailing them now." Thunderhead replied.

"Got it." Bartlett aimed his aircraft towards the incoming Spearheads. "All units, we're going to break through the enemy and strike at their fleet directly. Don't get shot down."

…

The Orb media was fortunate enough to capture the incoming cloud of Federation Spearheads (accidentally sending the Orb populace into a minor panic) before seeing the comparatively much smaller air force flying straight into it.

…

"Wow, those guys are insane." The Belisarius Commander mumbled, watching the footage from Orb's media. "Who does that?"

"It…uh…" An operator said slowly as he watched the offending Orb fighters clear the Spearhead cloud. "Wow. They actually made it through?"

The Orb media was too far from the battle to see the fighters clearly (even with as much zoom as their cameras allowed) but it was possible to see the fighters involved as indistinct shapes.

"I think all of them did." The operator's neighbor said as he counted the fighters leaving the Spearhead cloud. "Yeah, I definitely think all of them made it through. They're coming for us, aren't they?" He asked unnecessarily.

"Why wouldn't they be? The Spearheads will fly back and leave Orb untouched if they do." Another operator grumbled. "Captain, your orders?"

"Prepare to intercept the enemy aircraft." The captain responded automatically. "Don't get overeager."

"I wish we had some flesh and blood pilots right about now." The first operator of this section sighed.

…

"Ok, I see the enemy ships." Bartlett reported. "All units prepare to attack. If you're out of ammo then return and rearm, otherwise do not stray from the enemy ship's anti-air coverage area.

"That sounds incredibly dangerous." Talisman remarked. "Roger."

"Roger, he says." Chopper shakes his head. "Seriously, how do you guys plan to do this?"

"Go in at maximum speed, fire weapons, run out unscathed. Easy." Talisman replies confidently.

"Heh." Bartlett leads the flight to the ocean surface. "All units, engage!"

…

The surprise factor of the flight of jets heading toward the enemy ships was great enough that the initial full strength strike of the Aces disabled eight Federation ships in one go.

The fighters then focused on engaging the Spearheads that had followed them.

The engagement did not go nearly as well as planned. While the Aces were able to fix the Federation units over the heads of the Fed warships, they were less successful in actually landing any kind of hit on said warships once the Spearheads joined in the fray. All of their attention was spent on avoiding enemy fire and the Spearheads buzzing around their units.

Even worse, a majority of the Daggers were ignoring the Aces entirely and were moving onwards towards Orb.

"Fortunately Orb's got their defensive line back, so we don't have to worry about that." Bartlett had said when Chopper brought up that little issue. "Focus on keeping the rest of them here and we'll be just fine."

"Your optimism is worrying." Antares growled. "The Spearheads are all over us."

Which was true; it became apparent to the Aces upon engagement that the AI controlling the Spearheads are much better when they have a numerical superiority, and are able to complement each other during combat. During one-on-one combat, the AIs exhibited something that could be considered tunnel vision, and would rarely change their tactics when they had a target in sight.

Now though? Now they're on even footing with the Aces, despite the inferior performance of the Spearheads.

Not to say that the Aces were losing, though. Spearheads were falling from the skies, but all of the X-02s and Shindens (and the two Astrays) were still alive and kicking. The Aces were following Talisman's lead, flying as a group and marauding over the skies of the Fed cruisers, never staying too long over one particular spot.

"Still, at this rate we're not going to last." Blaze noted. "I'm almost dry here."

Side effect to having everyone fly together: everyone runs out of fuel and ammo at approximately the same time together.

"This is Thunderhead." Bartlett heard. "It looks like the enemy Destroyers are tired of waiting."

There was a moment of silence as the implications of that statement sunk in.

"Shit. All units fall back—" Bishop started to say.

"Launches confirmed!" Thunderhead said over him. "Cruise missiles, inbound to Orb!"

"Damn! Intercept!" Bishop commanded.

"Looks like they got skittish when we hit them too hard." Cipher growled. "Take down the missiles before they get too far from the fleet! Thunderhead! We need enemy coordinates!"

"Thunderhead, Roger! Sending data!"

"What the…Cipher, look over there." Pixy said.

Cipher turned and looked down deeper into the enemy fleet.

…

"Do not let those missiles reach the shore!" The Captain of the Belisarius roared. "All ships intercept! Take those damned things down!"

The Belisarius and its escort ships were blanketing the sky with anti-aircraft fire, hoping to shoot down the Trinity missiles en route to the Orb coastline.

"Belisarius, cease fire at once." A direct line from high command (voice only) said. "You are interfering with Federation Operations."

"Shut it." The captain snarled. "I'm not going to sit and watch you kill millions of innocent people."

To puncture his point, one of the Trinity warheads was struck and fell into the ocean, mercifully unexploded.

"This is an act of treason, captain." High command warned. "You will be punished in accordance if you continue."

The captain's response was to terminate the line. "Order to all ships, we're moving out!"

"Captain!" An operator shouted as their ship was struck. "Other Federation ships are firing on us!"

…

"Anybody taking down the missiles is our friend." Cipher said quickly. "But focus on the missiles!"

"Roger!" Pixy followed Thunderhead's coordinates to the first batch of missiles and took down two of them with a volley of beam rifle fire. "Damn! It's out of range!"

"I'm on it!" Cipher cleaned up after Pixy.

"Good shot, boys!" Bartlett followed after the next set of missiles with a Spearhead on his tail. He ignored the Spearheads while they sprayed bullets in his direction.

"Captain!" Chopper and Blaze both chased after Bartlett to clear him of his chasers.

It wasn't successful. Bartlett was able to take down one of the two missiles and they ricocheted and collided with each other and careened into the ocean. Bartlett himself was also eventually hit by the bullets and crashed into the ocean as well.

"Captain!" Chopper said again as he and Blaze took down the Spearheads responsible for shooting Bartlett down. "Do you copy?!"

"Quit your yelling and stay focused!" Bartlett snapped. "I'm fine, now get moving!"

"Next wave in three positions, sending data!" Thunderhead reported. "Three sets of two missiles!"

"Got it! We're on it!" Antares, Bishop, and Yellow 13 split up to engage the cruise missiles.

Two of them were successful. Antares was unable to approach the third set of missiles, and they flew towards the Orb coastline…where they were intercepted by the Strike Gundam.

"We're here!" Kira declared. "And I won't let a single missile pass us by!"

…

[Federation High Command]

…

"We've fired sixteen missiles so far." One of the men tallied. "None of them hit because of the interceptions."

The Trinity missiles were launched in waves to ensure that they did not accidentally detonate over the heads of the Federation fleet.

"Override the launch protocols." The man with the biggest rank in the room snapped. "We can rebuild the fleet easily enough with the technology they have given us."

"But sir…"

"Do it."

…

[Orb]

…

"Oh…oh no." Thunderhead breathed.

"What's going on? Thunderhead!" Blaze demanded.

Thunderhead was never too good when it came to clutch situations, and he stayed silent for a brief second.

"Confirmed Trinity launch, twenty of them!" Sky Eye reported. "They're rising high over the ocean surface! Intercept!"

The previous missiles all flew at very low altitudes.

"Forty…" Kira breathed. "Archangel! Fire into the sky! Assist the interception!"

"Got it, Kira!" Murrue nodded. "Archangel, prepare to fire Lohengrin cannons!"

…

The world watched as the forty missiles flew towards Orb with a small group of jets chasing after them (with a larger group of jets chasing after them) and knew that this was a moment of truth for Orb.

One by one, the Trinity missiles fell to the dogged pursuit of the fighters, most of them falling to the ocean but some of them malfunctioning and detonated in the sky.

Upon seeing the first explosion, the Orb media moved to calming mode, as they realized (quite correctly) that seeing a cluster of missiles of such destructive power fly towards their homeland would cause panic. But the panic never came. Instead, the Orb citizens were hoping, praying, that the fighters chasing down the missiles would succeed…and believing in that hope.

Their hope would rise higher and higher every time a Trinity warhead fell from the sky, and then…

The last missile flew over the Orb coastline, and Kira intercepted it just in the nick of time. Damaged, the missile spiraled out of control and slammed into the ground, where its firing mechanism malfunctioned and detonated.

…

"Damn." Bishop growled. "Orb control, damage report."

Silence.

Bishop tried again. "Thunderhead, damage report."

"30% of the Defense force has been destroyed." Sky Eye responded. "The rest are moving to reform the line."

"Enemy Spearheads are also moving in. We think they're on attacking runs." Thunderhead added. "All aircraft, intercept."

"Not possible. Damn." Yellow 13 gritted his teeth. "We're out of ammo and need to resupply. We burned everything we have taking down those missiles."

"We still have our guns." Talisman growled. "That'll be enough." To make his point, Talisman pointed his aircraft towards the Spearheads flying towards the nearest Orb city and accelerated.

"Think it over, Talisman." Cipher warned. "If we keep this up we're going to be punching out in the ocean." Even though he said that, both he and Pixy were following Talisman towards the city.

Talisman wasn't going to budge. "Better than letting them bomb the city. Even if I die after taking them down, it'll be a job well done."

A new voice chided him. "It's not much of a victory if you die to get it, Talisman."

"Wait…where were you?" Blaze demanded as Talisman looked around in surprise.

"I above you. Look out below!" The same voice laughed.

Thunderhead was awestruck. "This…what…"

His stuttery question was answered when a CFA-144 Dracula dropped on top of the Spearheads and tore several of them open with quick bursts of its EML cannon.

"Ribbon…looks like you're finally airborne." Yellow 13 said with a slight smile.

Ribbon was a little bit grumpy. "This is the second time I got dragged away from taking down Stonehenge." He then shook his head. "Oh well. Advance forces, we're going to shoot these bastards down and then reform our formations. Orb units, take this time to return and rearm."

"Hey, we can fight too!" Cagalli retorted, taking to the skies with fresh batteries. "I need to beat some heads in for them trashing my island!"

"Mobius One, there are too many fighters for you to protect the city against. We'll assist until this group is destroyed." Blaze said. Not too sure what we're going to do against the Daggers on the ground though.

"That won't be necessary." Ribbon turned on a dime to dive through the Spearheads again. "Nemo, you have permission to fire." He said as he exited the Spearhead swarm on the other side, leaving a trail of dead planes in his wake.

"Acknowledged." Nemo said. "Uplinking with Electrosphere."

Ribbon pulled the fighter's nose straight into the air, and two rows of small emitter points rose from the CFA-144's back, glowing faintly red.

"Omni-Directional Laser System, firing." Nemo declared.

The back of the CFA-144 erupted in sixteen red streaks of the tactical laser system, and with every burst of a laser beam a Spearhead's AI computer was hit and totaled, bringing the unfortunate and now uncontrolled aircraft into the ground.

…

Everyone watching the scene on TV just saw a sudden flurry of red beams before the sound of explosions and the sight of black smoke obscured everything else.

…

"Holy…" Pixy breathed. "What was that?!"

"ODLS." Nemo responded mechanically. "Recharging weapon. Next burst will be ready in 400 seconds."

"Now all of you, go tank." Ribbon smirked, levelling his aircraft once again. "We'll handle it from here."

"But…who's we?" Blaze looked around.

Thunderhead noted a set of blips on his radar. "Thunderhead to all Orb forces, there's a new group joining in the fight from the northwest…unknown aircraft, state your affiliations."

Talisman heard a familiar voice in response. "This is the Airborne Warning and Control System Ghost Eye. We're here as support from Usea."

"There are…more than a hundred planes with him." Thunderhead breathed. "All of them identified as CFA-44 Nosferatu Fighter Jets…but these IFFs…"

Talisman then grinned. "If we have this much, then we sure as hell aren't backing down. Let's sink the Fed fleet in one go."

"You haven't changed a bit, Talisman." A voice unknown to the other pilots laughed. "We're with you all the way."

"That voice…Windhover, is that you?" Talisman grinned.

"Hey, I'm here too, Talisman!" Another voice said indignantly. "Don't forget about the Sky Kid, yeah?"

"Friends of his?" Cipher wondered.

"They have Emmerian IFFs." Thunderhead replied. "They're allies…our, allies." He scanned the different insignias with growing awe. "All of them."

"All units, we don't have the time to chat." Cipher declared. "Ribbon might have taken down the first batch, but there are more incoming. Scramble and intercept!"

Some of the Nosferatus broke off from the pack to follow Cipher and Pixy.

"If the Demon Lord says so, then the Rot team will be happy to oblige."

"Crow team, roger. We're moving in to attack."

"Wizard team, Sorcerer team, engage the Spearheads. Show them just who rules the skies."

"It's a goddamn family reunion." Bartlett (who retrieved a spare X-02 stashed in the forward airfield in case they needed new units) said.

"It's not just him, you know." Bartlett heard.

"Hey, pops. We missed you." Blaze replied to the voice with a smile. "You're actually a combat pilot?"

"Yeah." The man known as pops replied.

"Heh. Just like old times, huh?" Bartlett glanced at the Nosferatu that glided down to fly next to him. "Heartbreak One, engaging!"

"Well, maybe not exactly like old times." Pops chuckled. "Heartbreak two, I'm going in."

"Even the Huckebein is joining in on the fight." Blaze heard someone say. "Ofnir, follow his lead!"

"Grabacr, the same. We will not tarnish the memory of Belka by falling behind!" (Pronounced "gra-back").

"I think I recognize those guys from somewhere." Chopper muttered.

But Blaze was distracted by another voice. "Captain, Blaze. Sorry we're late."

A pair of CFA-44s dropped to flank Blaze.

"Nagase. You're still alive and kicking, I see!" Bartlett laughed.

"Yeah. Usea's been good to us." Nagase replied. "We're ready to fly with you again, Blaze."

"Number one, why just Blaze?" Chopper demanded. "And number two-"

"Captain Chopper, please don't push the subject." A young man's voice cut across him. "This is Archer, I'm glad to see you."

"Well, that's all nice and well, but…" Chopper grumbled.

"Looks like we're back together too, huh?" Blaze shook his head. "Someone's playing us for fools." He breathed to himself. It's too much of a coincidence to have all these Aces gathered here, of all places.

Indeed, the presence of over a hundred of the best aircraft Usea has to offer mixed with the best pilots Usea had to offer meant that whatever advantages the Federation had in this battle were completely gone. In no time at all, the Nosferatus went through the Spearheads and Daggers like a woodchipper and pushed the Federation forces straight back to their ships.

The SEED people helped too, I guess. They were useful in taking down the Daggers but for the most part the EMLs of the Nosferatus (especially fired in large quantities) were more than enough for taking down all the units the Federation had to offer.

"Looks like there's just the enemy fleet left." Sky Eye remarked. "What's left of their air cover is in shambles right now."

"Then we're hitting them right here, right now." Talisman declared. "All units, form up and follow me! We're sinking every last one of these bastards!"

Talisman's special trait was his ability to rally his allies for either offense or defense. Through some unknown element, he is able to inspire his allies to greatly improved combat performance through his actions and his words…and he has no qualms about using his abilities right now.

Combine that with the forces currently in the combat theatre…and it's a very bad day for the Feds.

"Avalanche, roger. Engaging!"

"Schnee team, we copy. Commencing long range attack."

"Omega squadron, roger…we'll strike at them from above."

"I'm on your wing, Garuda One." Talisman heard. "Garuda Two, Shamrock, engaging!"

…

"Warwolf One, Warwolf One." Bishop heard. "Did you miss me?"

Bishop smiled slightly. "Not at all, Guts."

"What? Aw, c'mon. I even went across the world to get you!" Guts said happily. "It's good to see you, Colonel."

"Good to have you here, Guts." Bishop nodded. "Let's do this!"

"Warwolf two, roger! Geronimo!"

…

The Federation high command, at the end of the day, could do no more than just watch as the cloud of unknown fighters chew through their ships like locusts.

The general mood among the Federation command: glum.

It didn't improve as the President of Usea declared unilateral war against what's left of the Federation in response for their 'inexcusable' use of a weapon of mass destruction.

Nobody said it, but everyone knew: by the end of the month, The Atlantic Federation would be no more.

{ === + === }

Author Notes:

Wow this one went long.

It's long and very Aces centric…but then we're pretty Aces centric to begin with, so…