Disclaimer: I dont own Gundam
The editing and added explanation of the characters goes to 00virtuezero. Sorry for the wait everyone, I've been trying to get the first two chapters of Gundam Rise Purpose done.
Gundam Seed Destiny or Liberty
Chapter 28: Justice and Revenge
The crew of the Alliance and ZAFT personnel could hardly believe what they were seeing. Spirbreak laughed as the Lohengrin fired, its white beam heading straight towards the civilian village. Conile gasped in horror, closing her eyes as she prepared for her home to be destroyed. Suddenly, a grey and red blur flew in front of the blast, intercepting it.
"The Purpose Mk 2," Athrun said in shock.
The pilots watched in shock as the AI machine blocked the beam with its shield. Its armour shook as it took on a gold colour.
"The Arc Dream system," Silver Mask said.
The Purpose's armour shined brightly as flaps on its armour opened, releasing a wave of pink energy. General Spirbreak widened his eyes as the Gundam empowered its armour and shield with the energy of the Arc generator. It burned like the sun, melting the rock beneath it. The beam split, sending waves of energy crashing into the nearby rock landscapes. Silver Mask then focused his attention on Spirbreak, twirling his sabre around as the mobile armour backed away. The Gells-Ghe fired its beam rifles at Athrun and Branden, causing them both to fly into the air.
"Those bastards, still I can't fault annihilating your enemy," Branden growled, then clutched his head for a moment.
He felt the urge to rip the Gells-Ghe and its pilot apart, to tear open the hatch and crush the pilots. The Lohengrin beeped, humming as the beam faded. Every Dagger on the base stopped, looking at the Purpose in awe.
"That's, the power that saved us at Jachin Due," one of the veteran pilots said.
"Incredible," another gasped.
The Purpose raised its head, aiming its gaze at the Breaker Gundam. Its eyes glowed bright red as its clinched its fist in what an observer would assume to be anger.
"All pilots fire at the Purpose Mark 2," the alliance officer commanded.
Some of the Dagger's hesitantly raised their rifles at the Gundam as it floated by them. The Gells-Ghe fired its cannons at Athrun and Branden, whom both switched to their beam sabres. They fired their Vulcan's at the suit portion, and then swung their sabres at the frontal legs. The Saviour then fired its hip cannons, hitting the back legs and knocking the Gells-Ghe to the ground.
"Shit, we're done for," one of the pilots panicked.
"RAAAAARGH!" Branden roared as he crashed his assault sword down the middle of the Gells-Ghe's chest.
The mobile suit split apart and blew up in a torrent of fire that enhanced the Muramasa's demonic appearance. Silver Mask flew the Aero backwards, dodging the Breaker's claws. Shinn continued his flight through the narrow corridor, all the while thinking of the consequences of failure. He knew that if he failed, Conile's village would be decimated, civilians would die and his fellow soldiers would be slaughtered. Shinn let out a yell as he fired the core splendor's nose guns, breaking through the wall that blocked his path. The core splendor and the parts of the Impulse flew out of the cave, drawing the attention of the Dagger squadrons.
"They were going around us, everyone shoot down that fighter," the commander ordered.
"But sir, wouldn't a retreat be better at this point?" one of the Dagger pilots asked.
"If we surrender it'll be certain death, there's no way the towns people will forgive us!"
The core splendor slammed into the legs and the main body of the Impulse followed, clamping over the fighter. The Impulse's blue and white Phase shift armour lit up as it landed on the ground. Shinn looked at the Daggers blocking his way and raised his beam rifle.
"Get out of my way," he growled before rushing forward.
The Daggers fired their beam rifles, hitting the Impulse's shield. Shinn grit his teeth together as the volley of beams pushed the Impulse back. Silver Mask dodged the Breaker's claws and fired his Vulcan's at the suit's chest. He quickly flew over the Breaker, firing his Vulcan's at the head.
"Idiot, my armour's much too hard for that," Spirbreak cackled as he swung his suit around.
The Breaker ignited its beam swords, swinging them into the Aero's shield. Silver Mask growled as his suit was thrown back, slamming into the ground. Shinn ran forward, firing shots from his rifle at the Daggers. Sniper GM's began firing their rifles at the Daggers, giving the Impulse a clear path. Shinn threw his shield and rifle aside and drew the Impulse's armour Schneider knives. He stabbed one Dagger in the chest and threw the body aside, breaking off into a run towards the Lohengrin.
"Sir we've regained control," one of the alliance control staff said.
"Good, bring the Lohengrin cannon down and the shield up, General Spirbreak can get himself out of his own mess," the officer said.
"Cowards, your spirits are broken all ready," the masked general scowled at the Lohengrin.
He then aimed his weapons at the Impulse, firing his cannons and a volley of missiles. Athrun fired his hip cannons, intercepting the missiles. The Purpose then flew next to the Impulse, blocking the beams with its shield. It threw the shield aside and drew two beam sabres from its back. The Purpose flew at the Breaker and slammed the sabres into the Breaker's swords. General Spirbreak fired the beam vulcan's located across the sides of the mobile armour, hitting the Purpose's legs, and sending beams colliding into the ZAFT and Sensou forces behind it.
"Come on, come on," Shinn urged himself forward, stabbing a Dagger in the chest.
He saw the cannon sink into the mountain and desperately tore the Dagger away from its legs. Shinn yelled as he threw the top half of the Dagger onto the Lohengrin cannon. He then fired his chest Vulcans, spraying the Dagger with bullets. The shells struck the battery pack and fuel lines of the suit, causing it to spark.
"NO!" Spirbreak yelled as the suit's explosion caused a chain reaction that collapsed the mountain.
Silver Mask tackled Shinn, flying him away from the Lohengrin. The officers and soldiers inside the Lohengrin base screamed as rock and metal began to rain down on them. Consoles exploded and the officer let out a final wale before the Lohengrin too buried him. General Spirbreak shoved the Purpose aside, firing a beam into its head. The beam shattered the Gundam's 'mouth plate', revealing its circuitry.
"Minerva, move the forces in to take the rest of the base," Athrun said across the radio.
The ZAFT and Sensou troops cheered as they began their uninhibited march towards the Alliance base. Guntanks and Zuoot's rolled across the rocks, firing high artillery shells into any Daggers foolish enough to fight back. Jet Windams were shot apart by the Neo Raptors and sniped by the ground GM's. Shinn landed on the floor, looking up at the Breaker as it tenaciously fought with the other Gundams. He looked at the Purpose as it fought the Breaker head on. The Purpose's beam sabres flickered before deactivating.
'Using the Arc system really drained its energy, wait a minute, the original Purpose could use the equipment of the Strike, maybe this Purpose is the same. The Impulse's equipment using virtually the same method of contact as the Strike does, except it can change the equipment in the middle of battle,' Shinn thought, analysing the improvements to the mark 2 in comparison to its predecessor.
"Minerva fire the Deuterion beam at the Purpose," he said.
Meyrin and the other crewmembers raised their eyebrows in shock, whilst Talia narrowed her eyes.
'It saved the towns people, it wasn't told to do anything of the sort, that alone says that it has free will…that's it not just a machine,' Shinn thought as he pushed his thrusters, 'jumping' at the Breaker.
He slid his knives into the mobile armour's left arm, deactivating the heat pincer. General Spirbreak yelled in outrage as he threw the Impulse off. The Purpose switched to its jet mode, catching the Impulse in midair.
"Hey machine, line yourself up with the Minerva, they can recharge your batteries," Shinn said.
Shinn jumped off of the Purpose's back, landing beside Rey and Luna. Rey threw a beam rifle into Shinn's hand, allowing him to assist in mopping up the defiant Daggers. Luna fired her cannon, hitting a cannon type Dagger. Shinn lined up with a group of GM's, firing his beam rifle as they fired volleys of rockets and bullets from their weapons. A mass production 'copy' Gundam drew its beam sabre and stabbed a Dagger in the chest.
"Preparing to fire Deuterion beam," Meyrin said as the crew cycled through the Deuterion beams activated process.
The Purpose switched to mobile suit mode, facing the Minerva. Kojiro slashed two Daggers apart with his katanas and watched as a thin beam shot from the Minerva, hitting the Purpose's V-fin. The coordinator raised an eyebrow with interest as
"I WILL BREAK ALL OF YOU!" Spirbreak yelled.
He used him remaining pincer claw to bash the Murasama into the wall. Then fired his cannons into the Aero Gundam, damaging its left shoulder. Silver Mask's helmet cracked as his Gundam fell into the ground. Minerva widened her eyes slightly as a message appeared on her terminal.
'Launch Sword silhouette,' it read.
"Preparing to launch sword silhouette," Meyrin said hesitantly.
(Gundam Age OST Vol2 Track 18)
The Purpose's eyes flashed as the sword pack flew out of the Minerva. It flew over the fighter, pulling off both antiship swords. Silver Mask flew upwards, looking at the Purpose as it threw one of the antiship swords. He grabbed the sword, igniting the beams around the blade. Both the Aero and the Purpose stabbed the Impulse's swords into the Breaker, dragging them across the sides of its mobile armour portion. General Spirbreak slammed his fist into a button, ejecting his suit away from the armour. He growled as the gigantic mobile armour blew up, throwing the Purpose and Aero back.
"Idiots, I'm a cyber psyche and a general of Uragiri's army, even if the soldiers surrender I can still force them to fight on," the General explained.
"Well I fought a Cyber psyche for half of my career!"
General Spirbreak widened his eyes and swung around, coming chest to leg with the Saviour's kick. The Breaker opened its shoulders, sending a flurry of beams at the Saviour. Athrun flew around the beams as if they were moving in slow motion, flying straight towards the Breaker. He lifted up his beam rifle, levelling it with the Breaker's chest.
"And no general worth something would do the things you've done," Athrun glared at the suit before he pulled the trigger.
"BASTARD!" the general screamed as the beam tore through his suit, completely consuming his body.
The emerald beam flew through the Breaker's back and the lifeless suit fell towards the ground, exploding in a cloud of fire and energy.
"And for the record, I'm rusty in comparison to that time," Athrun said.
(End OST)
"Wow, the commander's incredible," Luna gasped.
Rey and Shinn sighed as they shook their heads. With the death of their general came the breaking of the Alliance spirits, those forces still remaining quickly surrendered unconditionally to the rebel forces. Conile's fellow rebels moved into the area, working with Sensou and ZAFT infantry to gather up the officers and captured pilots. Complete victory had been achieved by the ZAFT/Sensou alliance. Shinn stood in the middle of a crowd of grateful rebels, all of them patting him on the head or ruffling his hair. Athrun moved through the crowd, walking up to Shinn.
"Well done, you did a good job Shinn," he said.
"You never said it would be so dark in there," Shinn said.
"Well we did tell you to follow the data," Athrun shrugged his shoulders. "But what about your orders for the Minerva to recharge the Purpose?"
"What about them? The thing needed a boost so I gave I requested the Minerva to give it one, and look at what it did, it saved the town and helped you beat that General guy," Shinn explained.
"So you think that it's redeemed itself somehow for what happened to Vincent?" Athrun asked.
"I wouldn't go that far, but it has proven that its more than just another machine," Shinn said.
Athrun looked at the Purpose and nodded his head. The rebels continued to thank Shinn for his part in liberating their town, whilst Athrun walked back to the Saviour. He climbed into the cockpit and took note of the rebels preparing to execute the alliance officers. The unnamed rebel cocked his pistol and levelled it over the officer's head.
"For our people," he snarled.
Suddenly, the rebel's arm was twisted back, generating both a click and a scream. Athrun watched in shock as Silver Mask broke the man's arm. He kicked the man in the chest, sending him into the arms of his comrades.
"You bastard," one of the rebels growled.
He drew a knife and thrust it towards Silver Mask. The blade pierced through Silver Mask's left hand, but the masked man kneed his opponent in the chest. He pulled the blade out of his hand, which now bore a hole that revealed a system of sparking circuits.
'A cybernetic arm,' Athrun thought.
"Why are you interfering, ZAFT gave us the right to do with the prisoners as we would," one of the rebels said.
"The laws of warfare clearly state that surrendering parties can not be executed, especially when the battle is over," Silver Mask explained.
"Chairman Durandal agreed that we would be free, that ZAFT wouldn't interfere!"
"And what of Sensou?" Silver Mask asked, looking over towards Branden and Kojiro.
"I do not have the authority to make a decision on this matter," Kojiro said. He had his usual stoic expression on his face making it hard to tell how he felt about this.
"Kill them, they'd do the same to us," Branden huffed.
"In that case then let us…"
"These are prisoners of war, not war criminals, their commanders are dead and these soldiers will be dealt with in a military court," Silver Mask explained.
He bought a hand to his mask, feeling the cracks beginning to form.
"We have the right to punish those that killed our people, that burnt our homes," Conile said, glaring at the masked man.
Silver Mask suddenly ran through the crowd, picking Conile up by her scarf. The men pointed their guns at Silver Mask. Conile shivered in fear as a piece of the mask fell off, revealing his right eye.
"So tell me, who were these people that killed your people? Did you memorise their faces? Their ranks? What they sounded like? IF you're so sure that they all have to die then why don't you pull the trigger yourself?" Silver Mask asked as he threw Conile to where the gun had been discarded.
Silver Mask picked the gun up and forced it into Conile's hand, aiming it at one of the common soldiers. The soldier quivered in fear, his eyes begging Conile to spare her.
"You think them monsters but your wrong, some of these people may have families, or little daughters like you, do you think they go home with a clear conscience, the truth is every soldier is haunted by the orders we are given. They weren't strong enough to fight their superiors so they have with the fact that they had to gun down civilians to defend themselves, or even worse they had to shoot civilians because they were ordered to," Silver Masked explained as he took the gun from Conile's hand.
"But what about justice?" Conile asked, tears falling down her face.
"There is no justice in war, but there shouldn't be revenge either, and little girls like you shouldn't be forced to hold guns…pat yourself on the back little one, most wouldn't have hesitated to pull the trigger," Silver Mask sighed, covering his exposed eye with his right hand.
"You wont stop us from taking what we deserve," one of the rebels growled.
"Then try to, just remember…I've got bigger guns than you," Silver mask pointed over his shoulder, revealing the Purpose standing over the prisoners.
The Purpose's eyes flashed before it slammed its foot into the ground, scaring the gathered rebels off.
"You bastard, Durandal will hear about this!"
"Then tell him and if he doesn't like it he can try to get rid of me, better men than him have tried!" Silver Mask said as he walked away from the prisoners.
A digitised growl came out of the Purpose's speakers, warning the rebels to not take this any further. Athrun narrowed his eyes at Silver Mask. Even with his mask broken he still kept his identity a secret. Whoever he was, he had obviously just spoken from personal experience.
Durandal sighed as he read the report of the Lohengrin assault. Silver Mask had apparently contacted Flay after his confrontation with the rebels. She took them into Sensou custody and was now negotiating with the Alliance for a prisoner exchange. It wasn't the result he had hoped for, as it seemed Silver Mask was more difficult to control than he believed.
"Its such a shame, your potential is better served as a warrior, not a leader of men," Durandal regarded the masked man.
"Things not going according to your specifications?" Gekido asked.
"No, the Purpose has cast doubt amongst the crew, they are beginning to see its sentience," Durandal sighed.
"Of course, they aren't as stupid as they look, after all you wanted a crew like the Archangel," Gekido crossed his arms as he looked out of the window of the shuttle.
They were flying to Earth, preparing to personally over see the remainder of the war. Durandal cast his eyes over to another report, one handed to him by Noah Bagal in regards to the attack on the supply despot.
"This was a result I didn't expect at all," Durandal mused.
"Then I suppose your going to have to rethink the destiny of that girl," Gekido shrugged his shoulders as he leant back into his chair.
"Her potential was better suited towards academic and research pursuits, yet for her to achieve something like this…"
"Simply regard her as another pawn then!"
Durandal looked to his left, seeing the ghostly image of his former friend. Rau smiled, chuckling softly at the chairman.
"I'm sure her feelings for Vincent Rach will make her very useful in the future," Rau grinned.
"There something wrong?" Gekido asked.
"No, everything's fine, alls I have to do is adjust my strategy, and alter the position of my pieces," Durandal said.
Gekido huffed and rested his head against his arms.
Sensou-Normandy class submarine
Noah whistled at the collection of ground and Aqua GM's gathered inside the submarine. ZAFT had imported a WASP Type GINN and two of the newest ZAFT submariner suits. Inside the women's locker room, Linda and Nia both dressed for the coming battle. Nia zipped up her flight suit and tucked her locket down the collar of her suit. She took Vincent's phone from her locker and looked at the missed call alert, the month old message that Vincent still didn't check. The blonde haired girl couldn't help but think what was on the message that Vincent's father had left him. Was it words of shame and dismay? Had Vincent's father disowned him for what he did at the "True Faith" incident?
When Vincent had told her about this phone when they on board the Minerva, it seemed to humanize Commander Rach even more. She began to see that outside Sensou he had a family and in fact he used to have a normal life like she did back when her family was still alive...Well as normal as normal as it could get for a child of two human rights activists, but still it was normal.
But unlike Nia, Vincent hadn't lost any family that caused him to eventually join the military. It was almost like he purposely threw himself into the destructive flames of conflict/war not for revenge or overzealous patriotism, but to make difference. To save as many lives as he could even if it meant taking others lives. To her it didn't matter what everyone's opinion on Vincent was. Nia strongly believed that Commander Rach was a good man and to her he was a... hero.
"If Captain Gladys catches you with that she'll consider it stealing," Linda said. The brown haired woman raised an eyebrow at the fact Nia was holding a phone that she had noticed Commander Rach carrying round at the Mahamul base.
"I'm not serving under Captain Gladys," Nia said.
"So your serving Sensou, is that why you're wearing their flight suit?"
Nia looked at her flight suit; she'd taken a Sensou model suit from the storage room but fully intended to use her Zaku in the coming battle. She looked back Linda not sure how to answer that to the older woman. She just had to keep it straight and simple.
"I have my reasons," Nia said.
"Love is for children," Linda said coldly. She wasn't fooled by the girl's answer. Linda was teenager once like Nia and she all to well about teenagers and romance. It was nothing but puppy dog love to her. It always ended with bitterness and someone making a life-changing mistake.
"Then I suppose you should say that to Shadi then," Nia retorted.
The younger Gladys kept herself composed at the blonde girls retort. Despite that through she would not admit it especially in front of Nia it did hit a raw nerve.
'Sister, how do you put up with them?' Linda wondered, shaking her head as she walked away.
Nia put the phone in her pocket and walked to her machine. The Normandy class submarine would launch the Aqua GM's as well as two specialised torpedoes. One would carry Noah's team, whilst the other would carry Nia and four customised GMs. Climbing into her Zaku, Nia positioned the suit, gripping the side handle of the torpedo and synching her leg magnets with the launcher. Sheryl stood inside the command bridge, checking the radar systems.
"The base is protected by a network of depth charges, the carrier units will release a jamming wave, however the wave will also disrupt our radar too," Sheryl explained.
"So we'll also be blind, but still, the Russian will have no idea where we're coming from," Ruther grinned. He couldn't wait to test his new Customized Slash Zaku. After his Ginn got damaged at Armory One, Ruther had decided to discard that hunk of junk of a mobile suit. To him it was a dull sword that had became rusted out and used after all the battles it had been through. All lives the bloodthirsty Halion had taken with it great pleasure. Now it was useless to him and his dark desires. So got rid of it and know he had whole new tool to satisfy his desires.
"Do not underestimate Bhishma Alhazard," Sochiro warned his brother. Sochiro's twin was the most reckless member of the Bagal Team. Even more reckless than their commander, but he didn't really care if Ruther lived or died. Despite being blood relatives, Sochiro only saw Ruther as liability and a weapon (like how Sochiro viewed himself as well). He only warned of the danger of Alhazard was because he wanted this mission to go as smoothly as possible. After all order was always important especially among soldiers and their duties. When it came down to all Sochiro was more than ready to kill Ruther if his chaotic blood thirst got in the way of the mission.
"His defence is nearly unbreakable," Shadi said. The 30 year old looked over at the status of his machine. At first glance one would find the sight strange and fascinating at the same time. Like both the Halion Twins his CGUE has been severely damaged at Armour One and while the brothers got rid of their suits, Shadi was not ready to give up his CGUE so easily. However due to the fact CGUE was 3-year-old model and also to the heavy scars it had obtained during battles, it was hard to find the subtle parts to replace its worn out ones. Now after a battle Shadi did see that his CGUE did get repaired of any damages it had sustained, but had decided to keep the physical scars it had on its body for personal reasons.
Still even after the damage that was done to, the lieutenant commander had came up the strange idea of upgrading it with parts from a Slash Zaku Phantom to give both strength and endurance. It was a bizarre looking customized suit that was a CGUE, but at the same time it was something else.
"Then I'll smash through it," Nia said, her voice filled with a new determination.
"Ohhhhhhhh! Feisty! I like her!" Ruther laughed in approval.
Ignoring the older boy's comment, she squeezed the controls and took a deep breath.
'Commander Rach, I swear I'll finish this battle quickly and then return to your side…someone has to look after you!' she thought.
"We are beginning final preparations, pilots ready?" Sheryl asked.
"Noah Bagal here, team 1 is ready," Noah said. The Commander's 'Neo Gargoyle' CGUE was upgraded with components similar to the rare ZGMF-515AS CGUE Assault type, but it had certain differences to it; while the extra would improve its overall defence (even increase its strength by 3 x times the normal of its regular physical strength), the new heavy assault weaponry would greatly improve its overall power. While it was true that Noah could've added beam weaponry instead of bullets, he decided against that so he could save more of his battery energy for his new thrusters that allowed the Neo Gargoyle to fly in the atmosphere.
Nia slid her faceplate down and prepared herself for her toughest battle yet. She wouldn't lose. She couldn't lose.
"Nia Holland, team 2 is a go!"
Next Chapter 29: Gundam vs. Zaku
Hope everyone enjoyed the chapter, next time Bhishma Alhazard takes on the Bagal team while Nia faces off against Vincent's ex Christina McKenzie in her Alex Gundam. Also I'll be posting the first two chapters of Gundam Rise Purpose, so keep an eye out for it on my profile page.