{ === + === }
Following the battle for Orb, all aircraft belonging to the Usean task force were asked to land at Morgenroete.
"Look, there's another insignia I don't recognize." Chopper muttered as another squadron of aircraft landed upon the Morgenroete airstrip. "Who are those guys?"
"That looks like the Wizard Squadron." Cipher replied, peering at the tails on the planes. "Right before them was Sorcerer, too…participants in the Belkan war."
"I guess I shouldn't be that surprised given that you're here, but still." Blaze muttered.
"And before that we had Rot from Belka and Windhover from Emmeria." Talisman added. "I find it hard to believe that the new Usea had all these aces just lying around to throw at the problem."
"Strictly speaking, they didn't." Bartlett said. "I heard from Pops: apparently the Usean air force sent to assist Orb got tangled up with a Federation detachment and it devolved into a barfight before they could reach Orb waters. All these aces gathered because of you guys." He points to Cipher and Ribbon in particular.
"They came just to help us?" Ribbon wondered.
Well, I don't think most of them are that charitable. Bartlett thought.
"Aww, no love for the rest of us?" Blaze groaned.
"Sorry, but compared to the Demon Lord and the Grim Reaper you guys are small fry." Barlett grinned.
"Still, where did they all come from? Why did they all come here?" Talisman wondered.
…
"Boy's got a point." Bartlett said to Pops some time later. "Seems to be a bit too much of a coincidence just to have all of us from history come together in one place."
"You got that right." The balding, friendly man named Pops replied. "I wondered about all of this as well…what could cause our timeline to be so conjoined together?"
"I don't really think that's what Talisman was asking, but now that you brought it up…" Bartlett said, watching four members of the Schwarze squadron (all eight had died in the Belkan war) walk past him, talking and joking with each other. "Fate has to have something huge planned for us if they're bringing all of the aces from our world here…even across different timelines."
"To be fair," Pops reminded him. "I don't think we have any prior cases of people shuttled across dimensions to compare to."
Bartlett chuckled. "Yeah, good point."
The two sat and watched a pair of X-02s take off into the skies. They watched as the two fighters rise high before separating away from each other…and then suddenly turning to face each other again.
"Who do you think is up there?" Pops idly asked.
"Let's see…" Bartlett watched as one of the X-02s quickly found the tail of the other one and stuck on like a snapping turtle. "Judging by that flying, it's Cipher versus…" The losing X-02 tried a barrel roll, but Cipher's X-02 stayed on its tail without fail. "…Hamilton?"
"Really?" Pops didn't take his eyes off of Cipher's plane, even as Hamilton's plane tried a series of sharp turns and drops to lose the Demon Lord on his tail. "Is he ours?"
"Judging by his flying, it's Hamilton from Osea…man, fifteen years later and he still sucks in a dogfight." Bartlett shakes his head as Hamilton's X-02 'loses' the bout via Cipher staying on his tail too long. "I still can't believe most of them joined a war just so they can dogfight the two biggest aces in our history one on one."
"Makes the two of us." Pops laughed. "Though I have to admit, I'm one of those guys, too."
"Want some tips?" Bartlett offered with a grin. "Both of them are pretty damn good."
"If the 'Demon Lord' that shot both of us down isn't pretty damn good I'd be very, very angry at…well, somebody." Pops laughed.
"What was Usea thinking, though?" Barlett suddenly wondered. "Orb's too far out for a mission to raise public awareness."
"Now, this is hearsay." Pops started to say, "But…"
…
[ZAFT Space]
…
A squad of GINNs was on routine patrol, keeping an eye out on the Artemis Space Station.
Suddenly, the threat sensors on the lead GINN goes off, and the four of them raise their guns against the unknown threat.
Said threat turned out to be a Mobius mobile armor.
"What's a small fry doing so far away from its nest?" One of the GINN squaddies wondered, not lowering his gun. "Don't they usually work in massive waves?"
"Careful." His friend warned. "You're gonna jinx us, talking like that. Captain, what should we do?"
"Artemis is aware we're here." The captain said…heat signatures in the coldness of space were difficult to mask in even the best circumstances. "So if they were interested in taking us out, they'd be using something much more substantial. Spread out and kill it; we'll drag its corpse home for examination later."
"Aye, boss." The (token?) girl of the squad acknowledged. "I'll go under it."
The four of them surround the lone Mobius craft.
"Taking the shot." The captain declared, and fired a round from his anti-material rifle/badly named bazooka.
The Mobius craft takes the shot head on.
"What the hell…?" The first squaddie scowled as the Mobius seemed to take no damage. "Is it armored?"
"PS armor wouldn't save it from everything." The second squaddie raised his gun. "Let me at 'em."
Right as he squeezed the trigger, the Mobius craft turned to face him with ungodly agility and fired a round directly through his cockpit.
"Gale! Shit!" The captain sprayed his machine gun towards the Mobius craft as it came to life, darting around with speed and precision that meant it was controlled by an AI…and a highly advanced one at that. "Cover each other! Dying to a goddamned Mobius isn't funny!"
Despite their best efforts, the three remaining GINNs fell quickly to the Unknown Mobius craft. It 'looked' at the carnage it left behind, before turning away from both the dead GINNs and Artemis and zooming off.
…
[Some time later]
…
"Wow. What the hell happened here?" Dearka mutters, sifting through the battlezone in his Buster Gundam. "The damage to these GINNs doesn't look like they were caused by Fed equipment, Athrun."
"So I see." Athrun, in the Aegis, agreed. "But how can you tell? They're all in pieces."
"Yeah, but they're not in the pieces that I think they should be." Dearka replied. "Also, screw you, Athrun."
Athrun suppressed a chuckle. "Yeah, yeah…no scorch marks at all?"
"None." Dearka continued his examination. "Whatever hit these guys did it with something either very precise or very powerful."
"Don't mean to interrupt the party," Yzak interrupts in his GuAIZ. "We got a heat signature coming for us at high speed."
"From Artemis?" Athrun checked his radar and moved to put himself between the unknown and Dearka. "No…apparently not. What could possibly move this fast?"
"Hey, wait a minute." Dearka suddenly noted. "I recognize this cross-section…it's the Strike."
But Kira's on Earth. Athrun wanted to say. "The Strike's on Earth. The battle for Orb was just yesterday, there's no way he can get all the way out here in-"
"Incoming!" Yzak interrupted, and the three of them spread out to avoid the streaks of green beams headed their way.
"His shooting could use more work." Dearka lined his rifle up with the projected approach of the unknown Strike. "Let's see how you like this!" He pulled the trigger.
His beam rifle shot zipped right past the Strike.
"Looks like your shooting could use some work too." Athrun took some pot shots at the Strike (with no hits).
"Ah, shaddap." Dearka grumbled. "I'll get him when he's in visual range."
"Well he's coming into visual range real quick now…whoa!" Yzak felt the impact of the beam that struck his shield. "He just got real accurate all of a sudden."
"Here he comes!" Athrun warns and activates the beam sabers in the Aegis's wrists.
The unknown Strike slams into Athrun with its beam saber and takes the Aegis's left arm off with the impact before zipping away again.
"Did you see the coloring on that thing?" Yzak said as he fired (unsuccessfully) after the Strike.
"It was entirely red. Even the eyes." Dearka followed the Strike with his radar as it turned in a massive circle for a second strike. "It's not controlled by a human, then?"
"What gives you" Athrun cuts himself off as he dives to avoid another near-suicidal rushing attack by the Strike. "that idea?"
"Its main cameras are painted over." Dearka fires a shot at the Strike and grimaces as the Strike simply bats it away. "I don't believe it can move like that with just instruments."
"It's using a lot of hit and run tactics." Yzak observed. "I can believe that it's running on just…yeesh. Instruments." He had to accelerate hard to avoid a stream of bullets from the Strike. "Athrun, what's your call? This guy's flying circles around us."
We can't retreat to the Eternal, because we might drag…whatever this guy is, with us. Athrun thought quickly. But if this keeps up we're going to end up just like the GINNs here. He frowned. "Alright, we're pulling out. Full speed back into the junk ring, but don't head back to base just yet."
"Not gonna pull the boss back home, that's for sure." Dearka nods approvingly. "Let's—yow!" The Buster suffered a hit to its leg. "Alright, you little…" He fired missiles after the Strike. "I don't know who's in that thing, but the next time we meet I'm taking his head off."
In their retreat, the three ZAFT boys did not see the red Strike be joined by three more just like it. The quad of red Strike Gundams quickly collected the scraps of the dead GINN mobile suits and retreated from the area.
…
[Earth]
…
"Hey Ribbon, do you—"
"No."
Blaze couldn't help but grin. "It's gotten that bad?"
"Thirty dogfights yesterday. I'm tired." Ribbon groaned into the couch he commandeered. "Fame and fortune can suck it. Just let me sleep."
Thirty? It was way more than thirty. Blaze thought. He won them all, too. "Who was your favorite?"
"Pixy." Ribbon replied (still into the couch). "He at least made the damn fight fun."
"Huh. Least favorite?"
"All of them! Now shut up and let me sleep."
"Cipher's fine." Blaze gestured to Cipher, who was observing Ribbon while sipping on a gallon of coffee.
"Well Cipher can do what Cipher wants." Ribbon grumbled. "Ribbon here's gonna do what Ribbon wants."
"Hilarious. Now get up, we have a briefing to attend." Cipher patted Ribbon on the head. "Usea just gave all of its pilots a mission and we're getting paid to play along."
Ribbon sighed heavily and pulled himself up to his feet. "I feel like I really should've just used the Dracula yesterday. Would've solved a lot of problems."
"Where is the Dracula, anyways?" Blaze asked, as he didn't see the CFA-144 on the tarmac.
"The guys at Gründer have a special hangar for it. They're tuning it and getting data from it at the same time." Ribbon yawned. "Got one for me, Cipher?"
…
[Archangel, Some time later]
…
"They're doing what now?" Sai clarified, as he thought he misheard.
Miriallia rolled her eyes. "The Usean air force is going to stage an all-out attack across the entirety of the Federation's remaining territories of the Americas. They plan to behead the Feds in one swing."
"Wow. I'm pretty sure the can do it, too." Tolle marveled. "Based on what Talisman said, all of the pilots gathered here are aces…pretty good aces, too."
Under the requirement of being an ace after getting five kills, Tolle was now an ace several times over, and he knew he was the least experienced pilot on the entire Morgenroete complex.
The boy's selling himself short a little bit.
"So…what do they want us to do about it?" Sai leaned back, scanning the lounge they were in and finding nobody else. "They're not gonna force the Archangel to tag along, are they?"
"If they do, I'm leaving." Miriallia shrugged. "I like Usea and all and I think they'll make better leaders than the Feds, but…y'know." She didn't quite finish her thought.
Sai could get what she meant, though. "Yeah." All of them joined the Archangel for safety, and now that the safety is evident through the efforts of the Usean military, there isn't pressure for them to stay aboard the ship anymore.
"What will you do, Kira?" Tolle asks him.
"Uh…" Kira scratches his head. "I don't feel like dancing to their tune. The Strike's attached to the Archangel, so if we have to go we will, but…"
"No point risking our necks just because we changed sides?" Sai chuckled. "I hear ya."
Tolle looked unsure. "That being said though…the Archangel's definitely a powerful ship, and we still have the Coo…uh, ZAFT, to deal with." He glanced an apology at Kira, who didn't mind. "Just because we've crushed the Feds doesn't mean the war is over."
"I have an idea." Lowe chipped in (showing himself after eavesdropping during the middle of the conversation). "We can go to space!"
"Uh…" Was he right outside our door? Kira thought.
"I believe what mister Lowe is trying to say…" Nicol amended, peeking from the doorframe. "is that the Archangel and its crew would better serve its interests by going to space and keeping ZAFT under check."
"Are you ok with that though?" Miriallia asked him. "I mean, ZAFT is your homeland."
"It is. I don't look forward to fighting it." Nicol nodded grimly. "But with the current situation in PLANT, it might not be an option."
Kira perked up. "What kind of situation?"
"It's mostly rumors for now." Murakumo Gai, on his way to fetch Lowe, said. "According to my sources, PLANT's chairman has been acting oddly for a while."
"Yo, Gai." Lowe greets him.
"Your Professor wants a word with you…she didn't seem too happy about something." Gai said tersely.
Lowe makes an 'I'm so dead' expression before slinking out of the room.
"Weird? Like…how weird can he get, given that he's trying to wipe out everybody on Earth?" Sai frowned. "Is he suddenly going in the opposite direction or something?"
"In a sense, yes." Gai replied. "Patrick Zala, who up until recently has been very vocal and very visible, suddenly isn't."
"And nobody noticed this?" Kira raised an eyebrow. Someone famous like the chairman of PLANT would have a hard time disappearing.
"Nobody noticed it because as far as everyone's concerned, nothing out of the ordinary happened." Gai nodded. "I know what you're thinking. My sources are implying that the reason why nobody has noticed is because someone's acting as Patrick's puppeteer."
"But…" Miriallia mutters, before looking up at everyone involved. "If he's not out of the ordinary, then how are your sources so sure?"
"They're not. It's just a theory at the moment." Gai responded. "Our only leads so far are the somewhat odd military movements of ZAFT...especially when one of their latest warships went missing."
"Actually, supposedly the chairman's son is gone, too." Cagalli joins the conversation. "He went into the debris belt and never came back out."
So someone's hiding in the debris belt. Everyone in the room said.
"Hi, Cagalli. Do you need us for something?" Kira asked politely.
"Uh…yeah. Dad wants to talk to you." Cagalli gestured towards Kira's general direction.
…
…
…
Following the battle for Orb, Usea enacted an all-out attack upon the Federation territories of America with the full intention of crushing every military base the Feds had, with their forces divided into four main avenues of attack, and each avenue aided and assisted by a handful of aces to both help bolster morale and to deter (read: utterly dominate) any attempt on the Federation to hold airspace.
Naturally, the four aces and their respective squadronmates split up and went with each path.
There are more, but there's too many to list.
The Galm team, comprised of Cipher, Pixy, and PJ went with the first avenue, fighting in the Territory of Canada.
The Wardog squadron, comprised of Blaze, Edge, Chopper, and Archer, went with the second avenue, where they escorted Usean mobile suits from the western coast of North America straight to the other side.
The Garuda team, of Talisman and Shamrock, went with the third avenue, sinking ships like there's no tomorrow around the coasts of Central America.
Lastly, the Mobius and Yellow squadrons (with just the two of them, Mobius 1 and Yellow 13) attached themselves to the force attacking South America.
The subjugation operation would last for two weeks, where the increasingly unpopular Federation military (due in no small part to a massive smear campaign by Usea) were either destroyed or, more commonly, simply surrendered to the invading forces.
There wasn't much of a fight, just a curbstomping.
…
The Archangel, on the other hand, was asked to go to space (which they readily agreed) along with an escort of two Kusanagi-class cruisers, of Orb design.
Their mission: to find the ship that sent them a coded message.
"Do we get to know what's actually inside the message?" Kira had asked.
"Nope, we're the grunts." Mu had denied happily. "Let the higher ups worry about the logistics."
Kira was not convinced, but figured it was fine.
Not like there would be anything more dangerous than ZAFT in space anyways.
.
.
.
{ === + === }
Author Notes:
This story would benefit if I planned things out more.