Some of you have asked if I have an update schedule for this fanfiction, that is not something I have, I try to update as fast as I can but I have been kinda busy with work, sleeping at night and playing Persona 5 these last few weeks, it took me 98 hours to complete that game.
Anyway here is the next chapter, I hope you guys like it, there is a few surprises in it, that I look forward to hear you guys thoughts on.
Chapter 77
To say that Andrew Waltfeld was in a heap trouble right now, was a serious understatement. As far as the Desert Tiger could tell, his and Akuto's skills in their mobile suits was just about even, yet the Chaos. The Chaos was giving Akuto a major advantage in the battle, seeing as unlike the Gaia gundam the Chaos had been made for space combat.
"Damn it, this is a nightmare! How the heck am I suppose to beat him? If only we were down on the ground, I am certain that I would have kick his ass already" The one eyed man muttered firing two rapid shot after one of the Weapon Pods, those highly annoying things, were after all one of the main reasons why he was having such a tough time getting anywhere near the Chaos.
Yet as luck would have it, neither one of the beams got anywhere near the weapon pod. Instead Akuto quickly and skillfully maneuvered the pod out of the way, while at the same time firing all of the pod's missiles at the Gaia.
"Are we have a tough time keeping an 'eye' on things, over there? Peeerhaps this is a real 'eye opener' for you, Waltfeld" Akuto said in a provocative tone, yet again trying to get the Desert Tiger to lose his temper.
Frowning slightly Andrew send a shot thoughtful glare in the direction of the red Chaos gundam, while it was certainly true that Akuto's dumbass comment about him only having one eye, did not hurt nearly as much as everything the stupid bastard had said about Aisha before. It still left the Desert Tiger feel somewhat confused, seeing as there was noway Akuto should have known that he was missing an eye. It was not like he had been going around bragging about that injury, so how the HECK did Akuto know about it.
Yet that matter was one Andy was forced to push to the back of his mind as the Weapon Pods and the Chaos itself, began shooting violently at him from three different direction.
'Pay attention to what the idiot is doing Andrew, don't let him distract you! You can solve the mystery of how he knows about the eye thing once you done being shot after, and you and everybody else have made it out of this Godforsaken hellhole alive' the Desert Tiger thought, then practically hurl the shield up just as three beams was about to hit the Gaia.
Immediately after that, the one eyed man took off in a downward spiral with the Chaos hot on his tail. Yet as Andrew kept on doing everything he could think of in the heat of the moment to make himself as hard a target to hit as possible, he took a short glance down at the Gaia's power measure, and the sight of it flashing 'emergency' over and over again, instantly made a deep frustrate sigh leave his mouth.
'I got about fifteen minutes left, maybe less if I use the weapons. Think Andrew think, I have to come up with someway to get past those damn Weapon Pods, if I can't do that there is noway I can take him out', Andy thought. Then while just barely avoiding getting the right arm blown off, he took a quick yet thorough look around the battlefield for something he could use against Akuto.
And the exact moment the Desert Tiger came to the realization that he was actually pretty close to one of the normal blue Nazca Class, he got a pretty reckless idea. 'That might work, even though I could also very well end up giving myself another opponent to fight. But I just can't come up with anything better' he thought, then without further hesitation Andrew took off full speed straight towards the Nazca Class.
And once he was just a bit closer to the ship, Andrew fired a single beam into the bow of the Nazca Class Destroyer, which of course was more than enough to instantly make the soldiers stationed on board the Zaft spaceship fire back, with the ship's two beam cannons.
Watching the powerful beams get closer and closer to him, Andrew gave his lower lips a light nervous bite, while trying to ignore the great deal of sweat presently covering his forehead. This really was crazy. It was only at the very last second, when the beams was about to hit the Gaia and do a lot of damage to the orange colored gundam, that Andrew threw himself and the Gaia so hard sideways that he actually feared a brief moment that he was going to break the controls.
Fortunately that did not happen, and as the Desert Tiger turned his machine around, he saw Akuto momentarily distracted with evading up over the two green beams from the Nazca Class, which gave Andrew the perfect opening to attack Akuto and the Chaos, which he immediately did by firing first a couple of beams at each of the Pods, then three more at the red mobile suit itself.
Yet the very instant the first Weapon Pod blow up, Akuto apparently realized what he was up too and quickly got himself and the second Pod out of the way, just barely avoiding getting hit by the attacks.
"That wasn't very nice Andy, you almost killed me with that trick" The Zaft Commander growled in a hateful tone. As he got the remaining Weapon Pod over beside the Chaos and pull out the right beam saber.
"Does it help if I say that I am sorry even though I don't mean it. It's a damn shame that I did not shot at the Chaos first!. There is a lot of both good and bad people in this world Akuto, yet I think most would agree on, that you are one of the bad once. It doesn't really surprises me that one of your soldiers change side, and start fighting against you! You are a bad leader Akuto Tsuwabuki" Andy said back with as much provocation in his voice as possible, seriously hoping that his provocative words, would make the stupid bastard forget all about fighting rationally.
"Why you! I'll show you what happens to people who talks to me like that!" Akuto hissed out through his teeth. While charging full speed towards the Gaia gundam.
"Yeah, yeah I get that you are full of hot air! Just bring it on already loser!" Andy said back just as the two mobile suits slammed their beam sabers into each others shields.
Yet as the Desert Tiger struggled to overpower his opponent one thought kept on running through his mind. 'Even with one of the Weapon Pods gone the stuck-up fool still has the advantage!. If I have to lay down my life in this battle to protect the Eternal, I am definitely taking Akuto with me. If I could just somehow get a hold on the Chaos, I could pull the same stunt Athrun did when he took out the Strike. Unfortunately as good a mobile suit as the Gaia is, it does not have the Aegis' claw like thingy to grab on to the Chaso with. So the only option I have, is to use the Gaia's hands instead, yet if I do that, it will be impossible to get the Gaia's cockpit open, which means that I likely wouldn't survive the self-destruction...Wait for me just a bit longer my dear sweet Aisha, I will be with you soon...'
And so with a small yet determined frown on his forehead, Andrew mentally apologized to everybody who cared about him for what he was planning on doing to defeat Tsuwabuki. 'Hopefully Lacus, Kira and everybody else, will be able to stop Durandal without me' and so without any hesitation, he bash aside the Chaos' beam saber, then immediately reached out in attempt to get a hold on the red mobile suit's right arm, before Akuto could attack with the close quarters combat weapon again.
Yet just mere centimeters away from reaching his goal, Akuto threw the red gundam backwards away from him. "I don't know what you are trying to do Waltfeld, but it is not going to work!" The large man yelled, just as he made the remaining Weapon Pod left the Chaos' back again.
Not bothering taking the time to come up with a comeback to that remark. Andrew let out a determined short, as he raced full speed straight towards the other gundam, slamming shield first into the front of the Chaos, which knocked it a few feet backwards. After that he moved the shield back, then thrust the right hand out, and grasped tightly on to the elbow on the Chaos' left arm. Yet the very instant the Desert Tiger did that, Akuto punched the Gaia right in the middle of it's face, sending it flying backwards away from the Chaos.
The next ten seconds or so after that, neither one of the two men did anything. They each used the small break in the battle to try and regain their breath, but even as he sat there squeezing the Gaia's controls and panting for air, Andrew slowly moved his gaze down and took a glance at the power measure.
'Mmm only five minutes left...Time reeeally does fly when you are having Fun! Now lets go knock on the Chaos' cockpit hatch with a beam saber, and ask the nutcase, if he is ready to continue...' The Desert Tiger sarcastically told himself. Then after taking one last deep breath he grab one of the Gaia's beam sabers and took off towards the Chaos, which instantaneously react by activating it's own beam sabers.
And it was only one brief moment later, when the two powerful mobile suits once again slammed their melee weapons together.
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Meanwhile elsewhere on the battlefield, Hilda Harken cursed loudly at the three ZAKU Warriors that was presently shooting at her like there was no tomorrow.
Keeping the unbelievable many GOUFs and ZAKU mobile suits at bay, and away from the Eternal, was getting harder and harder with every second that went by, even with the large number of enemy mobile suits she herself had shot down up until now, there was still no end to them insight, they just kept on coming like the five Nazca Class had an endless supply of them.
"God DAMMIT this is frustrating! Why the hell can't all of these idiots get lost already?! I am SOO sick and tired of fighting them!" The young orange haired woman screamed at the top of her lungs, while rapidly using her DOM Trooper's beam cannon, to blow apart two of the ZAKU Warriors that had been chasing her around the last few minutes.
"Maybe you should try and tell them that. You never know, it might actually get them to back off a bit" Shiho Hahnenfuss suggest, using humor in a pretty bad attempt to hide the fact, that she too was reaching her limit. Her ZAKU was missing both legs, and the left arm had sustain a bit of damage too from her using it to knock away a Beam Tomahawk, some idiot had thrown after her, but while the arm was still intact, Shiho had quickly discovered that it's response time had been slowed to about half.
"No offense Shiho, but that weren't really all that funny. If you are hoping to become a comedian after the war, you need to practice a bit" Hilda informed the other female pilot loudly, as she got out the DOM Trooper's beam saber and used it to slice, the last one of the pushy ZAKU Warriors in half, just as it had been about to attack her from behind.
Afterwards the orange haired woman got the Giga-Launcher back out. Yet before she could fire even one shot, Hilda saw in the corner of her one eye something explode in a bright pink flash on the Eternal, and as she turned to get a better look at Miss Lacus' ship, she saw the few remains of the left METEOR unit floating around the badly damaged Eternal, so while Hilda yet again cursed Zaft for this attack on them, she quickly located the Gunner ZAKU Warrior, that was most likely responsible for the destruction of the METEOR unit.
"Shiho! Go take out that Gunner ZAKU Warrior before it can do even more damage to the Eternal! Then stay near the ship, and do what you can to keep the rest of the Zaft mobile suits at bay. If the Eternal takes any more hits like that I don't think she will be able to handle it, Shiho! And we just can't lose the Eternal!" Hilda yelled to the girl, then without the least bit hesitation she took off towards three GOUF and a pair ZAKUs, that was trying to slip past Shiho and her to get to Miss Lacus' ship.
Seriously hating the fact that she had no other choice but to leave Hilda to fight against the five enemy mobile suits all on her own. Shiho might only have met Hilda Harken a short while ago, but after seeing the woman fight so unbelievable hard, in that somewhat weird mobile suit of her's, Shiho could honestly say that the orange haired woman, had quickly gained a great deal of her respect.
"Just watch your back, Hilda! I want to get to know you, and everybody else on the Eternal better!" Shiho said back, before she hastily turned her ZAKU around and began making her way towards the Eternal.
Also sincerely hoping that she would get the opportunity to talk, and get to know the young brunette better, once this nightmarish battle was over. Hilda swirled around, and took a quick look after the blue ZAKU Warrior to make sure that nobody was threatening the girl, and once she had assure herself that Shiho wasn't in any danger, at least at the moment. Hilda once more turn her full attention towards her five opponents.
Yet as she was using the DOM Trooper's shield to defend herself from the two GOUFs attacks, Hilda got in contact with the Factory. "I am going to phrase this as nicely as possible. WHEN THE HELL ARE THE LAST TWO DOM TROOPERS GOING TO BE DONE!? WE CAN NOT KEEP THIS UP FOR MUCH LONGER! WE ARE IN SERIOUS NEED OF REINFORCEMENT OUT HERE!" The one eyed woman screamed at the person on the other end of the line.
While Jason Waltfeld could not deny that he was honestly a bit taken back by the sheer volume of Hilda's bossy voice, and would under less troubling circumstance have made a witty comment or two about it. Yet instead of wasting time doing that, the older Waltfeld immediately began telling Hilda what she want to know.
"Mars should be ready to leave in a minute or two once the mechanics are done with that little surprise they came up with for one of the Nazca Class'. If this plan of their's works like the mechanics claim it should, we might just be able to even the odds a little" Jason explained.
"JUST TELL MARS TO HURRY THE HELL UP! FIGHTING ALL OF THESE MORONS, IS FAR FROM ENTERTAINING!" Hilda yelled, then cut off the communication to the Factory, so she could concentrate fully on the battle.
Watching the screen go black, the older Waltfeld could not help but smile slightly despite the heap of trouble they were presently in. "If I were just forty years younger, I would SO be asking that woman out. There is just something so damn attractive, about strong bossy women" Jason mumbled softly under his breath, while working on getting in contact with the Factory's hangar, if it was possible Jason wanted to tell Mars what Hilda had just told him.
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At the exact same time down in the Factory's enormous hangar, Mars was having a serious chat with a couple of mechanics and a scientist.
"So what you guys are telling me is, that I have to somehow get close enough to one of the Nazca Class to place this thing on it. Then what? What is this thing exactly?!" Mars Simeon asked loudly, while rubbing his beard in a thoughtful manner. As far as he could tell, this thing looked mostly like a few mobile suit parts that had been bolt together in a hurry. There was judging from the purple color, what could very well be the upper arm of an old DINN, and what looked like the foot of a ZAKU Warrior or perhaps Phantom. The rest parts of this so called device, was in such a bad shape that it was impossible to tell where they had originate from.
"It's a homemade bomb we made of all the mobile suit grenades we could spare, and a few mobile suit parts that just lying around. This device Mars might not be powerful enough to completely destroy a Nazca Class. But if you can hit the bridge with this thing I guarantee that it should be more than powerful enough, to destroy that!" The scientist explained over all the noise down there.
Staring silently at the scientist like he had just grown a second head. "Ok let me get this straight, guys. You want me to take this highly dangerous device with me out into combat, get it past all the enemy mobile suits out there, and the cannons on the red Nazca Class. For let us be honest here, that is the one I am going after" Mars said.
"Yeah that's pretty much it" one of the two mechanics answered.
"Hmm well doesn't that sound 'fun and entertaining'. Just so we are clear on one thing here guys, if this stupid piece of crap ends up blowing up in my face, I will spend the first ten years as a ghost, scaring the living daylights out of you everyday for coming up with this cockamamie idea. Now if you will excuse me, I have a 'date' with a certain red Nazca Class" the bearded man said in a grumpy tone, still not totally certain that this idea of theirs was everything it was cracked up to be. If they asked for Mars' opinion, he really did think that the whole idea sounded kinda crazy.
It wasn't much later when Mars' DOM Trooper left the Factory. Immediately after getting outside, Mars quickly located the radio frequency that allowed him to talk with Hilda.
"Hilda, do you read me!? I am joining the party! Holy crap, there sure is a lot of these idiots out here!" Mars yelled, as he hurried fired the Trooper's beam weapon, blowing apart two rapidly approaching GOUFs.
"It's about God damn time you dunderhead! Go over to the Eternal, and help Shiho protect it!" Hilda ordered loudly.
Taking a glance in the direction of Miss Lacus' ship, Mars quickly spot the legless ZAKU that was fighting so unbelievable hard, to defend the Eternal, and once he saw the blue heavy damage ZAKU, blow the head of a Gunner ZAKU Warrior, Mars began talking to Hilda in a deep serious tone.
"I'll go help her out in a bit, Hilda. First I need to go deliver a small package" Mars said, sounding kinda like a small ill-mannered child that was up too all kind of mischief.
Letting out a loud displeased sound. "I don't know what you are blabbering about over there, numskull! But whatever the hell it is just hurry up and get it done. If that Shiho girl ends up dead because you are busy fooling around Mars, I will kick your nuts up into your stomach" Hilda promised in a angry hiss.
"WOW now, there is no need to make threats like that, Hilda, I will be back before you know it!" Mars promised in return. Then without wasting anytime he swiftly rolled up over a Heat Rod, a incoming GOUF threw at him, then after quickly firing a single beam at the blue mobile suit, that used it's shield to defend itself, Mars took off full speed towards the blood red Nazca Class destroyer. Mars seriously did NOT want to get caught up dog fighting while he was carrying around this hastily put together bomb, that could very well end up killing him, if it was accidently hit by a stray shot.
Looking after Mars' DOM Trooper a couple short seconds, Hilda muttered a few words to her at times reckless comrade, even though the communication was already cut between their two mobile suits.
"You better make sure that you keep the promise Mars". With that said Hilda once again turned her full attention towards the battle at hand, she was especially determined to take out as many ZAKUs as she could before they could get to the Eternal.
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Meanwhile about ten kilometers away from the battlefield, Kira was sitting in the Duel Rouge with a deep angry frown on his forehead. It had not been all that long since he had gotten out into space, but while he was of course not surprisingly still deeply concerned about the safety of the woman he loved so sincerely, Kira Yamato simply could not deny that there was also something else that was bothering him a great deal.
One of the very first thing Kira had noticed, when he got out there, was that there was a great deal of Zaft activity near Earth. He had spot about fifteen Laurasia-class, eight Nazca-class, and the Gondwana hanging above what he himself assumed was Europe, which meant that it would only be a matter of time now, before Zaft and the Earth Alliance would launch their combined attack on Iceland to destroy Heaven's Base, and take out Logos that was apparently hiding out there.
But while Kira Yamato did not in anyway root for Djibril and the rest of his crazy Coordinator hating terrorists. With this attack on the Eternal being the second time Gilbert Durandal's forces was threatening his wife, Kira found himself kinda hoping that Chairman Durandal would not make it out of the upcoming battle at Heaven's Base alive. He did not want that man to threaten Lacus ever again, Kira did however seriously doubt that they would be so fortunate.
"If I lose Lacus in this battle, I will head straight to Iceland and tear the Minerva in two with the Duel's bare hands. What the hell is it Durandal got against, Lacus? Why is that bastard so overly keen on getting her out of the way? It definitely has something to do with the fake Lacus, he got running around..." the young man mumbled thoughtful to himself. It was after all only after the fake Lacus had made her debut in the mass media, that those assassins had shown up and attack their home back in Orb to kill the real, Lacus. So whoever the hell that dumb bitch was that was pretending to be his wife, she definitely had something to do with it, that much Kira was sure of.
"But there has to be more to it than the Chairman just wanting to cover up the fact, that the Lacus speaking his case, is not the real one. That man sees the real Lacus as a threat for some reason, and THAT makes me even more worried about my Lacus' safety...It's a real God damn shame, that I did not have time to ask Athrun what he knew about the Chairman's plan, before I left" Kira said, then took a quick glance down at the Duel's controls, to yet again make sure that the old mobile suit, was going as fast as it possibly could.
Yet much to Kira's deep annoyance, the Duel Rouge simply would not go any faster than it was already. "Damn you Duel Rouge, you slow piece crap! Please hold out Lacus, I am almost there!" The young husband whispered softly under his breath.
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Yet while Kira was mentally praying for his dear wife to be alright. Mars was having his fair share of trouble getting close enough to the Shinigami to drop of their highly explosive little gift.
While it had been easy enough to get rid of the pair of GOUFs that had been left behind to defend the ugly red spaceship. The Nazca Class itself had more than enough weapons to keep him at bay, his DOM Trooper was already missing it's left leg.
"Damn it! Maybe I should have gone after one of the other Nazca Class instead, whoever the gunner is on this thing, he is top notch and definitely use to take out smaller targets, and it doesn't really help much that the helmsman, is no slouch either!" Mars cursed, while barely avoiding getting hit by the Nazca Class' main cannons.
"Since I can't get anywhere near it from the front, I suppose my only option here, is to try and get around the damn piece of crap, and then approach it from either the sides or from behind!" The bearded mumbled determinedly to himself.
Then with perfect timing Mars rolled swiftly in between another couple of beams from the Nazca Class Destroyer, then immediately activate all of the DOM Trooper's remaining thrusters, and blasted off full speed towards the left. Hoping that by going with such high speed, he would make himself a that much harder target to hit.
Yet as Mars was trying to get around the Nazca, so he could approach it from it's starboard side, the red spaceship fired a small number of missiles after him.
Cursing angrily, Mars swirled around, and immediately fired all of the DOM Trooper's long range weapons at the hastily approaching warheads. "Come on guys, will you please stop shooting at me already!? If I did not know any better, I would say that you don't want the 'gift' I went to the trouble of bringing all the way out here, to you! You really are a bunch of ungrateful bastards!" He said, just as he took out the last one of the missiles, that had only been a few short feet away from hitting him. It was only thanks to the beam shield, that his mobile suit did not take any damage from the small yet powerful warhead exploding so close to him.
Knowing from his past with Zaft, that the Nazca Class would need about half a minute to reload it's warhead launcher, Mars came to the conclusion that he would never get a better chance than this, to deliver the 'gift'. And so while blowing a few strands of brown hair away from his forehead, he raced straight towards the Nazca Class round like shape bridge, using the shield to take care of the machine cannon shots, the ships crew were firing at him in a clearly desperate attempt, to slow him down and keep him at bay.
Once he finally manage to get close enough to the Nazca Class, Mars hurried got the 'package' over into the right hand, then immediately pull that arm back as far as it would go, then with a angry smirk on his face he hurled the hastily put together bomb, at the blood colored spaceship.
"Eat this and choke on it YOU DUMB BASTARDS!"
The explosion that followed just three mere seconds after those words had left Mars Simeon's mouth, was so unbelievable powerful that it threw the DOM Trooper backwards in a uncontrollable spiral, that made it completely impossible for the man to tell what was going on around him. Heck, if it was not because he was strapped securely into the cockpit chair, he would probably had broken his neck and a few other bones, by how hard the DOM Trooper was swirling around all over the place.
Needing almost two whole minutes to regain control over the DOM Trooper, Mars slowly shook his head aching a couple of times in an attempt to get rid of the deep indescribable dizziness he was feeling. Yet even as he was doing that Mars moved his right hand away from the controls and place it on the lower part of his chest. The very instant he did that, he felt a wave of immense pain run through his body, which made him realize that he likely had a broken rib or two.
And as Mars slowly raised his gaze and looked back out, his eyes widen as he saw that the upper half of the Zaft Nazca Class was now gone. "Holy...Shit! What was that idiotic scientist thinking making something like that? If that thing had gone off inside the Factory, we would all be dead meat now!" The man complained while mentally promising himself to give that scientist and those two mechanics a good slap or two, once he got back to the Factory.
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Yet while Mars needed a minute to recover, and to see if the explosion he himself had caused, had done any major damage to his DOM Trooper.
Akuto Tsuwabuki and Andrew Waltfeld that had not been that far away, had momentarily stop fighting, when they had seen the flash of the explosion. And as of right now the only thing the Commander of the Shinigami could do, was sit there with his mouth slightly open, staring in utter shock at the sad remains of his once glorious Nazca Class ship.
"The Shinigami...You destroyed my Shinigami..." the muscular man growled hatefully, seriously having trouble believing his own eyes. How...How could the Shinigami have been destroyed so easily?. Akuto had handpicked most of his own crew because they were some of the most experience soldiers, in the Zaft military to use a Nazca Class ship. So just how in the world could they be taken out by just a single mobile suit?...It was IMPOSSIBLE!.
Yet as the totally shocked Akuto was sitting there staring at his destroyed flagship. Andy decided to take advantage of this given opportunity, to yet again try and take the Chaos gundam out.
"Stop feeling sorry for yourself in there, you selfish bastard! If it had been the Eternal that blow up, you would be laughing your ass off right now!" The Desert Tiger yelled, as he tried to pierce the Chaos' cockpit with the right beam saber.
Hearing Waltfeld say those words to him, was more than enough to instantly snap Akuto out of his deep impetuous thoughts about how utterly pathetic it was that the crew of his ship, the Shinigami had been defeat so easily.
Yet as he spotted the Gaia gundam heading straight for him with it's beam saber held in such a manner, that it could only mean that Waltfeld, the stupid fool was planning on piercing his mobile suit's cockpit. And seriously not wanting to die just yet, Akuto made a swift upward motion with his own saber, thereby knocking away the ground mobile suit's weapon, before it could do any kind of damage to the Chaos.
Then before Waltfeld could try anything else, Akuto hastily threw himself backwards to get some distance between him, and the Desert Tiger. After that, Akuto spend the next couple of seconds just staring intensely at the Gaia gundam's face, trying hard to decide what was most important to him right now, dealing with Waltfeld or go get revenge for the Shinigami.
Yet in the end the answer was pretty obvious, he need to make the bastard who had destroyed his ship pay. "I'll play with you later Waltfeld, there is just a little something, I have to take care of first" Akuto told the man in the other gundam, then hurried turned around, and took off towards the Shinigami and that weird mobile suit, that had destroyed it.
Seeing the direction the crackpot was going, Andrew instantly realized what he was planning. "Damn it, the son of a bitch is going after Mars!" He cursed loudly, then hurried went after the Chaos.
But even as he was doing that, Andrew took a glance down at the emergency warning that was still blinking repeatedly. "Please hold out just a bit longer Gaia! I need to get off just one more attack, I will not let that stupid creep kill Mars" the one eyed man growled through his teeth, sincerely hoping that he would be able to catch up to Akuto, before he could reach Mars' DOM Trooper.
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Mars had just finished running the much needed status check on his mobile suit, and while it was true that there was a bit of damage here and there. He was certain that the Trooper could still put up a decent fight.
Unfortunately the same thing could not be said about himself, the pain from his broken ribs was just so unbelievable bad, that he was having a difficult time moving.
"God damn it, stop hurting you damn ribs! I don't have time to deal with this bullshit right now, I have to go help out that girl Shiho, otherwise Hilda is going to do something even more painful to me..." he angrily hissed through his teeth.
It was at that exact moment a familiar yet barely understandable voice began talking to him over the radio. "Mar...s...looookkk...o...ut...th...e Ch...aos...rrrrrr...is...heading...ri...ght...fo...r...yooouu"
"Ok, that would probably have been easier to understand if he had been speaking either Klingon or Huttese. Commander Waltfeld, please repeat what you just said, I did not quite get it!" He yelled into the radio.
"L...oo..kkkkk...Ou...t...be...hin...yo...u!" That was all he could heard, which served to make him even more confused.
"What's up with this crappy radio?! Andrew! I don't understand what you are saying! Please repeat it again" Those words had however barely left Mars' mouth, when the alarm inside his mobile suit began beeping loudly, which lead Mars to realize, that Andrew had tried to warn him about something that was coming towards him from behind.
And as he rapidly swirled around, Mars immediately fired two quick shots at whatever the hell it was, that might be behind him. And as he watched the first one of the green beams blow the foot of the Chaos gundam, he mumbled a few displeased words to himself.
"Ahhh well ain't this just greeeat! Fighting that damn machine, with my ribs hurting so freaking much, is just something I can not wait to do! This is going to be so much fun!" Mars growled sarcastically. Then while forcing himself to ignore the large amount of pain emanating from his chest, Mars hurried got the DOM Trooper moving, just as the Chaos fired a couple of beams after him.
And so with one cursed word after another leaving his mouth, Mars skillfully maneuvered the slightly damaged DOM Trooper in between two more shots from the red gundam, then hurried raised the Giga-Launcher and fired three shots back. Which much to his annoyance did not even come close to hitting the Chaos, that swiftly changed it's direction and evade down underneath the green beams, then immediately start shooting back.
One thing that quickly became clear to Mars, as he went up against the Chaos was that the enemy pilot, was a real jerk. "Damn this guy, the way he fights makes it pretty obvious, that he wants to finish me off close and personal. I have to make certain that he doesn't get an opportunity to get in close, I need to keep my distance" he growled, then while hastily backing away, Mars kept on firing who knew how many shots after the red gundam.
At the same time over in the Chaos, Akuto smirked wickedly as he watched the weird purple mobile suit take off in a random direction. "Heh, he fell for it. Just a bit longer now, then this guy will be on a one way trip to hell" the Zaft Commander whispered, making sure to keep up the pressure so that the soon to be dead fool would not take his eyes off him even for a second.
Yet while the Chaos and the DOM Trooper, kept on using one another as target practice, Andrew who was hastily approaching the battle between the two of them realized just what exactly it was Akuto was up too.
"Damn you, Akuto" Andy cursed, then tried one more time to get in contact with the DOM Trooper.
"Mars can you hear me!? Look out behind you!" The Desert Tiger shouted at the top of his lungs into the radio. Yet with all of the radio interference in the area it was clear as day, that Mars had not understood a WORD he had just said. So in the end, the only thing Andrew Waltfeld could do was watch what was about to happen to one long time friends. Heck, Mars had been the one who introduced Andrew to Aisha so long ago, back then Mars had been going out with Aisha's best friend.
Hearing Andrew's incomprehensible voice short to him yet again, Mars instantaneously realized, that something just wasn't right, that something was very wrong. And knowing that, he immediately swirled around as fast as he possibly could.
Unfortunately it was too late, he could do nothing to avoid what was coming towards him. All Mars Simeon could do was simply close his eyes, as the Chaos' remaining Weapon Pod slammed with full force into the front of his mobile suit.
And as the Weapon Pod exploded against the DOM Trooper, Mars let out a deep intense cry of pain, when he was thrown with indescribable force back into his cockpit chair. The pain he had felt when he had broken his two ribs not that long ago, was nothing compare to the deep immense pain he was feeling at this exact moment. It was almost like even his very soul hurt.
Yet even through all the pain he was presently in, Mars felt the air rapidly leave his mobile suit's cockpit, which made it perfectly clear to him that he would not get out of his alive.
And knowing that, the dying man forced his eyes open. And while Mars did notice the many cracks in the glass of his helmet. Which was slowly but surely growing bigger, with each second that went by. He did not pay any attention to them, he just looked out at the stars with a small yet sad smile on his face.
"Hilda, I'm sorry that I couldn't keep my promise to help out that girl, I hope that you will forgive me. I'll see you, Andrew and Herbert, once your time comes" with that said, Mars took one last breath, and as he kept on watching the many stars in the far distance, Mars Simeon slowly died in the cockpit of his mobile suit.
Having just witness the death of one of his very best friends, Andrew could do nothing but stare silently at Mars' heavily damaged, almost totally wrecked DOM Trooper.
And while even though Andrew of course realized that this was not the best time for it. He was simply unable to keep his deeply despairing thought away from the more enjoyable past. He could see himself and Mars having a good time drinking beer together, while watching a football game. Next he could clearly see himself standing at a bar, flirting playfully with Aisha, while Mars was dancing with Aisha's best friend Mizuho.
"God damn it Mars, this was not suppose to happen! You where not the one who where suppose to die here, you where suppose go back to Mizuho and propose to her! You told me that you want to marry her once this damn war was over, you stupid idiot..." Andrew cried, seriously dreading having to tell Hilda, Herbert and especially Mizuho what had happened to Mars.
And without paying any attention to the many tears, that was floating around inside his helmet, Andrew practically had to force his sadden gaze away from Mars' DOM Trooper, and as he looked over at Akuto's mobile suit, and when he saw the Chaos gundam waving at him in a clear attempt to provoke him into attacking without thinking, Andrew really had a difficult time controlling his temper.
'That's not going to work you evil son of a bitch! I will be the one to take you out Akuto Tsuwabuki, but not because I want revenge...No, it's because I want to make certain, that you of all people wouldn't hurt anybody else I care about EVER again...' he thought determined. Yet it was only once he saw a couple of green beams leave the Gaia's rifle, that Andrew realized that he was actually pressing the button to fire the weapon.
Yet as he watched the beams slam into the Chaos' shield, Andrew heard Akuto chuckle wickedly. "You wouldn't have to be sad about your friend for very long Andy, you will soon be joining him. And if you are worried about getting lonely in hell, I promise you that the rest of the Eternal crew will be along shortly"
"Ahhhh just SHUT UP and lets end this already! So I don't have to listen to you anymore" Andrew yelled.
"Heh heh ok if you insist" Akuto chuckled, as he pull out one of the Chaos' beam sabers.
Seeing him do that, the Desert Tiger immediately followed suit. Yet the very instant Andrew activate the close quarters combat weapon, the Gaia's power was finally depleted, which meant that the saber deactivate itself, and the Gaia slowly turned from it's bright orange color, into a dark grey one, that made it perfectly clear that the Gaia was now completely out of juice.
"Not now Gaia, please not now" the one eyed man haft begged his mobile suit, as he slammed his fist full force down into the control panel, not caring one bit if he accidently broke something by doing that.
"My, my would you look at that. It would seem like you are going to make things very easy for me, Andy. Truth be told, that is a little disappointing, I would kinda prefer killing you, while you were fighting back. But I guess beggars can't be choosers" Akuto mocked in a smug tone, as he quickly knocked aside the hilt of the Gaia's now useless beam saber, which Andrew hurled at him just as he finished talking.
And while smirking widely at the sight of the Gaia getting into what looked very much like a boxing stance, Akuto raised his own saber up over the Chaos' head. "Now Waltfeld, I hope you are ready to met your maker!" He growled hatefully, then raced full speed directly towards the powerless ground mobile suit.
Seeing the Chaos coming right at him like a crazy monster that had nothing else but his death on it's mind, Andrew saw the faces of everybody he loved and cared about rapidly flash through his mind. This was it, even though he was not just going to roll over and give up without a fight. He did of course realize that it was VERY unlikely, that he would be able to beat the Chaos with just the Gaia's bare hands. But that did most definitely not mean that he was not going to give it a try.
And with a deep concentrate frown on his forehead the one eyed man kept his gaze focused completely on the Chaos' beam saber, watching whatever move Akuto made with the weapon, and the very instant the crazy bastard swung the beam saber down towards the Gaia's face, Andrew reached out with both hands to try and catch the Chaos' saber wielding right arm.
Yet as luck would have it, Akuto had clearly expect him to do something like that, since he quickly threw the arm backwards out of reach, thereby making it impossible for Andrew to get a hold on the arm. Still closely following each and everyone of the saber's movements, Andrew saw Akuto thrust the saber straight towards the Gaia's totally exposed cockpit.
What followed next seemed to be happening almost in slow motion, Andrew simply refused to look away or close his one eye, he was determined to face his death with his head held high, and without showing any kind of fear. Yet just when the beam saber was about to pierce the Gaia's cockpit, and put an end his life, two well aimed beams flew in from the right, each one of them hitting the elbow joint on the Chaos, completely destroying the right arm, on the Second Stage gundam.
Having been so certain that there was no way for him to survive Akuto's last attack, Andrew could do nothing at first but stare in shock and surprise at the massive damage on the Chaos, as he tried to figure out who it was, that had just saved his life at the very last moment.
It was only when he heard Akuto babbling madly in denial over not having kill him just now, that Andrew got his bearing back, and immediately gave the Chaos a hard violent shove, to get the still dangerous mobile suit away from him. And thanks to there being no gravity out there, the Chaos ended up quite far away.
"No this is not happening! You where suppose to DIE just now Waltfeld, you bastard!" Andrew heard Akuto yelled in a tone that seriously made him question Akuto's sanity, it really did sound like the crazy son of a bitch had completely lost his mind for not having kill him.
Simply unable to describe just how much of a relieve it was to know that the maniac wasn't anywhere near him. And so while letting out a long relieved breath, that he did not even realize that he had been holding, Andrew slowly turned his head, and looked in the direction where the two shots that had saved him had came from. And what Andrew saw, honestly came as quite a surprise to him.
"The Duel..." Andy whispered astonished under his breath. Ever since Yzak Joule in his insane rage towards Kira and the Strike, had destroyed his and Aisha's LaGOWE in the Duel, Andrew had never liked the Duel gundam, or the Duel Rouge as it was being call now, not that he would ever tell Cagalli that, the short tempered blonde really did seem to like the Duel quite a bit. It was just that whenever he looked at that mobile suit, Andrew could not help but be reminded of what the insane nut job that use to pilot that gundam had taken from him. So being saved by the Duel was honestly the last thing he had expect to happen.
And thinking back to the damage on the Chaos gundam, Andy had a pretty good guess on who, was piloting the Duel. He did after all only knew one person, that was so good at crippling his opponent's mobile suit without hurting the pilot. But while Andrew did under normal circumstance greatly respect Kira's strong desire and determination not to kill his opponents, it was just SO damn admirable. This time however, he could not help but wish, that the boy had fired those two shots at the Chaos' cockpit instead of the right arm.
One thing Andrew had no doubt about whatsoever, was that if Akuto was allowed to stay alive after everything that had happened in this battle, like him losing his flagship. Then that man would most definitely return some day in the future, to avenge his wound pride, and knowing that Akuto was more than insane enough to try an assassinate Lacus, or somebody else to get even, only served to make it that much more obvious to Andrew, that it was absolutely necessary to make sure, that Akuto Tsuwabuki was not allowed to leave this area, unless it was in coffin or urn.
And so while still keeping a close eye on the Chaos, Andrew began talking softly to Kira over in the Duel gundam. "It's nice to see you kid, it was good of you to show up when you did. You probably saved me from the world's worse stomach ache" he joked in a low bitter tone.
Having only heard the Desert Tiger use that completely humorless tone of voice, when he at rare occasions talked briefly about how Aisha had gotten killed. Kira instantly knew, that the battle up until now had been a complete and total nightmare, and that Andrew Waltfeld had lost somebody he cared about in this fight, which seriously made Kira feel more than a little guilty about not getting there sooner.
Looking at the half wrecked purple mobile suit that was floating around not that far away from him, Kira began talking to Andy in a low-spirited tone. "I'm just glad I made it here in time to save you, Mr Waltfeld. I am so sorry that I did not get here sooner...I guess...that we lost a lot of good people to Zaft in this battle"
Giving his lower lips a hard bite, Andrew took a quick glance over at Mars' DOM Trooper, before he again looked back at the Chaos, that had yet to do anything since Kira had shown up. "That's one way of putting it, kid" Andy said back.
After that each one of them were silent a few short seconds, as they sat there in their own thoughts. Yet just when Kira was about to open his mouth and tell Andy that he should head on back to the Eternal, he stop when they each heard a insane laughter echo out through the radio. The kind of laughter that honestly made both Andrew and Kira, feel quite a bit uncomfortable and on edge.
"Yoooou! How dare you?! Don't you know who the Duel gundam rightfully belongs to?!"
Hearing whoever was piloting the red Chaos gundam ask him that, instantly made Kira narrowed both of his purple eyes in a puzzled manner, as he tried to make sense of that question.
'I seriously doubt this guy is talking about Cagalli since he have likely never met her. So there is only one other person he can be talking about...' Kira mentally told himself, while thinking about the picture Dearka had once shown him of the silver haired man, that had been responsible for stealing the Duel back at Heliopolis over two years ago, and had afterwards used that mobile suit, until Kira himself had used the Strike to kill him.
"You are talking about Yzak Joule, ain't you?" Kira asked reluctantly. A part of him seriously not wanting to know the answer to that question.
"That is correct Yzak Joule was my nephew, and since you are now piloting his mobile suit, you much have some knowledge about who killed him. You are going to tell me who it was, so I can track down that person, and get revenge. You have no idea how heartbroken my brother was, when he heard that his son had been killed" Akuto demanded loudly, clearly expecting Kira to immediately give him a reply.
Kira however was at this point completely dumbfounded and speechless. It did not matter how hard he tried, the brown haired teen could not even get a single word to leave his now totally dry mouth. Simply put the only thing he could do at the moment, was stare in utter shock at the red gundam. Kira had always known that there was people that despised him for many of the things he had done during the first Bloody Valentine War, he had after all killed a lot of good people while piloting his first mobile suit, the Strike. Yet meeting somebody that wished for his death with such intensity, was mind blowing.
"Teeelll me what you are thinking boy! Otherwise I will hunt down every single person you care about, and torture them endlessly until you give me a reply!" Akuto threaten like only a real maniac could.
Hearing Yzak Joule's uncle whatever the hell his name was, say something like that to him, and having realized almost immediately after he had shown up, that this man was more than crazy and insane enough to carry out those threats, Kira slowly raised his purple gaze, and looked out at the Chaos, still not saying anything.
'This man, the way he is means that he will not hesitate a second about hurting Lacus, Cagalli or Miss Murrue, I can not allow him to do that, I have to stop him!' Kira thought determined. Yet just when the young protective man was about to open his mouth, and tell the crack pot, that he was the one solely responsible for ending Yzak Joule's life, and that he was ready to fight him to the death now, just as long as Zaft soldier promised him, that he would not go after anybody he cared about, Andrew's loud angry voice cut him off.
"You don't need to tell this guy anything, Kira. He is he is completely off his rocker, that is apparently something that runs in the family, if you are so keen on finding out who is to blame for Yzak's death, then I'll tell you who's fault it was, Akuto. Yzak himself was the one to blame for what happened to him, if he hadn't been so unbelievable stuck up, he would have been able to accept his losses, and NOT taken his mobile suit into a neutral nation to challenge the Strike for no other reason, but to stroke his own ginormous ego. If that dumb boy had not been raised to believe that he was better than everybody else, and could do no wrong, he would not have died, the way he did!" Andy yelled.
"Shut your damn mouth, Waltfeld! You do not know anything about my nephew, you are not even half the man, he was!" Akuto hissed angrily out through his teeth.
"Well since Yzak was the one who killed my wife, and who knows how many innocence civilians, I am greatly relieved to know that I am only half the man he was. I do not want to be the type of person, that kills somebody because I could not control my temper, or because I didn't get my way. In my eyes Yzak Joule, was nothing more than a crazy psychopath, that got what he deserved. Who knows how many other people he would have killed if he hadn't been stopped"
"I told you to shut up, Waltfeld! This is it, that was the last straw! How dare you insult my nephew like that. I am going to kill you Waltfeld, and once I die and meet you in hell I am going to kill you again!" The Zaft Commander yelled as loud as he could.
Letting out a breath that had a hint of laughter in it, the Desert Tiger only had one last thing to tell, Akuto. "Heh, you been spouting nonsense like that almost constantly since this battle started, yet I am still alive and kicking. You are exactly like your nephew Akuto, he was also full of hot air" Andrew said.
Akuto's reaction to those words was exactly what Andrew had expected. The man let loud angry scream that would chill most people to the bones, and while getting out the Chaos' remaining beam saber, Akuto rushed off full speed towards the Gaia.
"Ohhh no you don't! You have already spread more than enough suffering here! I will not let you hurt anybody else!" Kira yelled determined, he too had expect the madman to do something like that, so he react immediately by swiftly maneuvering the much older gundam in between the two Second Stage gundams, and without wasting even a second he throw up the beam rifle and fired three rapid shots at the hastily approaching red mobile suit, the first beam hitting the upper chest area, while the next couple of beams hit a much more vital part on the enemy mobile suit, the head destroying it completely, thereby blinding the Zaft Commander.
And knowing that the insane Commander was unable to see what he was doing now, Kira rolled around in one fluid movement and hurled the beam rifle over to the Gaia that just barely manage to catch it. Not that Kira noticed that, he had already gotten out one of his own beam sabers, and was now hastily making his way towards the Chaos, completely determined to tear apart the red mobile suit until only the cockpit was left.
Yet before Kira could get anywhere near the now headless mobile suit, he suddenly heard a unfamiliar male voice call out for him to stop. "Please stay back Mr Yamato! I know from listening to Miss Lacus talk about you, that you do not like killing needlessly, and I respect that, I really do. But this guy killed Mars, one of my best friends, and I am not letting him get away with that, so please let me finish him off?!" Herbert Von Reinhard requested in a tone, that made it completely obvious that he was not going to be talked out of doing this.
Not saying anything Kira just stared silently at the weird purple mobile suit, unlike the other one he had seen of these machines, this one was intact and looked more than ready to kick the crap out of whatever got in it's way.
But while Kira could not deny that there was small part of him, that did consider trying to convince the man, that seeking revenge would not bring his friend back, Kira suddenly found himself thinking about Tolle and Asagi, it was not like he did not know how much it hurt to lose once friends. And back then when those two had died, Kira could not even begin to describe how grief-stricken and heart-broken he had been. Especially when Rau Le Creuset, had started bragging to him about killing Asagi, Kira had felt the desire to get even. It was on the other hand quite a bit more complicated to explain how he felt when Athrun had accidently killed Tolle, when he blew up the Aegis.
"If this really is what you want to do, then I will not stand in your way. You are the one who will have him on your conscience, just don't let your lust for revenge consume you, Mr. If you afterwards start going after that man's family, I will do everything I can to stop you" Kira promised the man in a soft yet serious voice.
It was at that point Andrew cut into the conversation. "You do not have to worry about Herbert doing something crazy like that, Kira. Once you get to know him, you will see that he is a actually pretty decent guy" Andrew told Kira in a reassuring tone.
"I am relieved to hear that Mr Waltfeld. I'll head for the Eternal now, I'll see the two of you back there once all of this is over" Kira said, then without waiting for either of them to give him a response, he hurried turned the Duel around and took off towards the heavily damage pink spaceship his wife was on. The fact that the Eternal was missing both METEOR unit was cause for concern in his eyes, he needed to get to the Eternal, as fast as humanly possible.
Looking after the outdated gundam, Herbert let out a sad chuckle. "Hmm I did not expect that, I really did think that he would try to convince me not to kill the Chaos pilot in cold blood. I think that I now finally understand why you and Miss Lacus speak so highly about him, Commander...It's a God damn shame that Mars did not get a chance to met this kid...I for one believes, that he would very much have liked to have a chat with this young man, he always did like people like him" Herbert said.
"That he did...That he did...Herbert hurry up and finish what you need to do out here, and do me a favor make extra sure that bastard is really dead. If I never see him again, it will be too soon. I'll go get Mars' Trooper and head on back to the Eternal too, we need to give him and everybody else we lost in this battle proper funerals!" Andy said.
"Please do be careful on your way back, Sir. With the Gaia out of power you are pretty much defenseless"
"You do not have to worry about me Herbert, since it wouldn't be very long now before Kira launches in his new machine, I am sure that Zaft will soon have so much trouble on their hands, that they wouldn't even have time to think about going after me"
000000
Yet while those two where talking, Kira was already engaged in combat with other Zaft mobile suits, and as he evade in and out between the shots from two GOUFs, he flung the Duel's shield to the left so it hit edge first into the head of a ZAKU Slash that was getting a bit too close for comfort. And once that threat was dealt with, Kira immediately got out the Duel's second beam saber, and while nimbly maneuvering the old gundam slightly sideways to avoid getting hit by the closed GOUF's Heat Rod, he fired the Railgun at the blue close-quarters combat mobile suit, hitting it's one pink eye before it could do anything else.
Yet with him momentarily distracted, the pilot of the other GOUF Ignited apparently decide to use this opportunity to try and get around him, so could attack him from behind. That however was something Kira was absolutely determined to prevent the Zaft pilot from doing, so he swirled around in one fast yet still fluid motion, where he instantly fired all the Duel's missiles and the Railgun twice, blowing off both arms and the head on the blue Zaft war machine.
And while evading full speed downwards to avoid getting hit by a single red beam from a Gunner ZAKU Warrior, Kira hurried press a few buttons to get in contact with the Eternal.
"Eternal, Lacus can you hear me! PLEASE response!" He yelled, and it was only a second later, when Kira heard his adorable wife happily short out his name, and saw her beautiful face appear on the small screen inside the Duel's cockpit. And having missed the woman he loved so indescribable much these last few month, since she left, Kira found himself momentarily forgetting all about the battle they where currently in. The only thing the young husband could do, was stare longingly into his wife's bright sparkling blue eyes, while she stared right back into his eyes.
The brief romantic moment between the two married teenagers was however quickly brought to an end, when Martin DaCosta start yelling at them. "I understand that the two of you have missed each other a lot, and I am honestly sorry to interrupt you guys, when you are so busy looking cute and adorable! But could you two please put your romantic moment on hold, until we are done dealing with the rest of the Zaft forces here! Kira, you need to get on board the Eternal right away and get your new mobile suit, I for one can not wait to see what you can accomplish in that newly made gundam, Kira!"
Hearing DaCosta shout those words to him, Kira immediately snapped back out of the almost trance like state he had ended up in, the very instant he got eye contact with Lacus, and while sending his wife a small yet confident look, that was meant to tell her, that now that he was there, everything was going to be alright, Kira opened his mouth and quickly told DaCosta that he would be there shortly, and that they should be prepared to open the rear hangar hatch, so he could get on board as quickly as possible.
Then without giving DaCosta the chance to get out even half of the word roger, Kira hurried cut of the communication to the Eternal, and then with a determined look in his purple eyes, Kira took off to meet a ZAKU Phantom and a ZAKU Warrior that was approaching him fast. But even as the leading Phantom began firing it's rifle at him, Kira waited until the very last second to roll sideways to evade the attack. Yet while doing that he quickly fired the Railgun and the head machine guns at the green Zaft mobile suit, hitting both it's beam rifle and it's camera.
Yet almost simultaneous as the Phantom's head blow up, a loud beeping sound could be heard throughout the Duel's cockpit, warning Kira that the other ZAKU was up to no good, and knowing that, he immediately swirled around just as the Warrior fired it's beam cannon at him, and with it being so damn close to him, he did not have the necessary time to increase the Duel's speed to try and avoid the attack.
Instead Kira did the only thing he could think of in the heat of the moment, he swung the left beam saber downwards in an attempt to knock away the incoming red beam. Unfortunately unlike all those other times where he had used the Freedom's two beam sabers to knock away incoming attacks, the shot from the ZAKU's Orthros weapon, was simply put that much more powerful, than normal shots from a beam rifle. So the very instant the Duel's saber made contact with the powerful red beam, it was torn to shreds along with the hand holding the weapon, and the rest of the arm.
Frowning displeased, Kira quickly looked over the massive damage on his sister's old, but still effective mobile suit. "Damn, that wasn't very nice! It's a good thing Cagalli's wasn't here to see that, she would never let me hear the end of it!" He growled under his breath. Then swiftly rolled sideways up over a high-explosive grenade the not so friendly ZAKU threw at him. Yet even as the grenade explode not that far behind him, Kira did not pay an attention to it, he just kept on heading towards the ZAKU Warrior, that seriously did everything it could to preserve the distance between them, by quickly backing away and firing the Orthros again.
Unfortunately for the man piloting the Zaft mass produced mobile suit, Kira had little to no trouble avoiding that attack. He simply moved slightly to the side, so the beam flew right past him, without doing anything, and knowing past from experience, that it would take a few seconds before the ZAKU's long-range beam cannon, would be ready to be fired again, Kira kept on moving full speed towards the ZAKU, that was obviously about to try and get out it's beam tomahawk, which was something Kira was determined to prevent the enemy pilot from doing no matter what. He seriously was not in the mood for his skirmish with this highly bothersome ZAKU to drag out any longer, than it already had.
And so the exact moment the ZAKU wrapped it's fingers around the handle to the tomahawk to pull it out from where it was stored inside the ZAKU's somewhat bulky shield, Kira violently jammed the Duel's remaining beam saber into the ZAKU's ugly head, and without even sparing the Zaft mobile suit a second glance, Kira hurried moved past it, and once more continued heading towards the Eternal leaving the saber behind.
But as luck would have it, Kira did not get very far before he was cut off by three income GOUFs that made it highly obvious from the way they were shooting their beam guns at him, that they where absolutely determined to stop him from reaching the heavily damaged pink spaceship his loving wife was on.
Yet before Kira could give any thought to how in the world he was suppose to take out the three close-quarters combat mobile suits, with only the Duel's Railgun, and the head machine guns. One of the three GOUFs was blown to bits by a single well aimed shot, that immediately send the two other Zaft mobile suits scattering in different directions, to get away from whatever it was, that had just taken out one of their comrades.
And just the sight of yet another one of those weird purple mobile suits of theirs dropping down not that far ahead of him, was more than enough to make the brown haired teen sigh slightly in relief, Kira seriously did NOT want to waste his time fighting anymore of these damn bootlickers, than he had too.
If there was one thing Kira Yamato had no doubt about whatsoever, then it was that their best chance to get out of this mess, dependent solely on him reaching the Eternal, and getting into his new mobile suit, before it was too late.
Just one a single look at the shape his wife's ship was presently in, would be more than enough make it clear to even the most simple minded person, that the Eternal would not be able to take much more punishment if this battle continued much longer. The unbelievable fast pink spaceship was in an even worse condition now, than it had been after the Second battle of Jachin Due. Truth be told, it was actually somewhat amazing, that the Eternal was still holding together.
It was only one small second after the purple mobile suit had appeared, that Kira heard a loud yet still familiar female voice, telling him that she would take care of things out there.
"Keep going Kira! Your darling wife awaits you! I'll keep these morons of your back!" Hilda promised loudly, then with a tight grip on the DOM Trooper's enhanced beam saber, she raced off after the closed GOUF that made it quite clear that it was more than ready to do battle with her by pulling out it's beam sword. Yet the very instant it did that, Hilda immediately grab on to the Giga-Launcher with the left hand, and fired two rapid shots into the GOUFs cockpit, only to slam the enhanced beam saber against the other GOUFs shield a second later.
Yelling a loud thank you, Kira again continued making his way towards the Eternal. Sincerely hoping that the kind orange haired woman, he had only spoken to once before, would be able to handle herself just a bit longer. Judging from the expression he had seen on Hilda's face just now, Kira had easily been able to tell, that she was completely and utterly exhaust, but also VERY sad about something, most likely the death of whoever had been piloting the third one of the purple mobile suits.
And knowing that, instantly lead to Kira to yet again curse the fact, that he had NOT gotten there sooner. Yet even as he was doing that, Kira swiftly rolled and maneuvered the Duel Rouge in and out between who knew how many beams, one of them blowing off the right leg, not that Kira paid much attention to that, he just kept moving around to make himself as hard a target hit as possible.
Fortunately for Kira, the pilots of the four ZAKUs, which was now trying so persistently to stop him from going any further. Soon got something else to think about, when the Eternal fired it's remaining missile launchers, and as the lead unit was blown apart by two of the warheads. The other Zaft machines had no other choice but to immediately back off to avoid meeting the same fate, as their ill-fated fellow soldier that had been piloting the lead ZAKU Warrior.
And with the remaining ZAKUs forced to withdraw and keep their distance from the Eternal. Kira who was still on the move, only needed to take one quick look around, to determined that there was no other Zaft mobile suits nearby, that could get in his way. And knowing that the route to the Eternal's rear hatch was now clear, Kira immediately began, hastily making his way around the pink spaceship. Honestly a bit worried that because of the large amount of damage, the Eternal had taken throughout this battle. That the crew might not, be able to get the rear hatch open, and if that happened to be the case, Kira bitterly realized that he would have to waste even more time out there, by going to the front of the ship, which meant that they might end up losing even more people, than they had already.
Yet once he get a look at the rear hatch, Kira was relieved to discover that it was already sliding open for him to enter the Eternal. "Hmm guess at least a few things today, goes like it's supposed to!" Kira mumbled softly under his breath, just as the Duel's remaining leg was completely torn apart by a single red beam, that came from the left.
And as Kira looked in that direction, he saw much to his deep shock and horror a lone Gunner ZAKU Warrior that had somehow manage to slip past the Eternal's heavy defensive barrage, and was now obviously preparing to fire it's long-range beam cannon at him one more time. And knowing that if the Duel in this weaken state was hit now, by something that powerful, he would be finished. He could not even fire the Railgun since it was position on the right shoulder and he did not have time to turn and try to disarm his opponent with that weapon, and the machine guns, he discovered at that very moment was empty, there was nothing he could do, he was completely and utterly defenseless.
"DAMN YOU! You cowardly Zaft bastard! Is shooting me while I am defenseless really the only way he can win against me!" Kira yelled as loud as he possibly could.
Then as the ZAKU's giant cannon slowly start glowing more and more. Kira mentally called out to his darling wife, telling her that he loved her, and that he was sorry that their marriage was going to end like this.
Yet just when the powerful red beam was about to leave the Gunner ZAKU Warrior's weapon, three beams flew in from behind, two off them blowing off one of the arms, while the last one destroyed the Zaft mobile suit's nasty looking weapon.
"Get away from him you stupid creep! YOU ARE NOT GOING TO KILL MISS LACUS HUSBAND!, YOU ZAFT BASTARDS HAVE ALREADY KILLED MORE THAN ENOUGH PEOPLE HERE! YOOOU ARE NOT KILLING ANYBODY ELSE!" Hilda screamed at the top of her lungs. As she chased after the beaten up ZAKU, that was clearly desperate to get away from her.
Watching Hilda fight the few seconds it took, for the Eternal's emergency retrieval system to pulled him and the Duel on board. Kira let out a light whistle, honestly quite a bit impressed by the orange haired woman's skills in her weird machine.
"I have to remember thanking Hilda for saving my life, once all of this is over" Kira mumbled softly, as the Duel disappeared slowly into the Eternal's rear hangar.
To be continued.