Hello everyone, sorry for the delay, but I was a little sick before and I couldn't work much on writing, besides I was also writing the other chapters. Well, here we have it anyway. I hope you enjoy it.
On reviwes:
Donuts -no Donut- Powerus: Yeah, I guess I made Setsuna a true Celestial Being 'super ace' on par with the ZAFT super ace and the other 2 veterans of the previous war, though I can't tell at this point if he's also on par in Kira's coding department.
Anyway if you say that from the fact that he repaired the Exia during the 4 year span after Operation Fallen Angels, I couldn't tell if he also has hacking abilities.
As a Coordinator, he'll also be able to reach SEED mode, and trust me he'll also become a true monster, but I'll spare the details of that.
Chapter 2: Those who call for the war
01/04/2023
Date: April 4, 76 CE
Location: Armory One - ZAFT Territory - Lagrange 4 - Earth Orbit
Chaos had spread throughout the area of Armory One, now turned into a battlefield when the 3 Mobile Suits of new generation; the Chaos, Abbys and Gaia were occupied by a mysterious group and they began to use them to destroy the hangars and other MS that stood in their way. There was hardly any resistance, but they could do nothing to stop them until the fourth Gundam unit appeared being the ZGMF-X56S Impulse piloted by Shinn Asuka who appeared on the scene to stop them. However, not long after, another Gundam unit quite similar to the Impulse appeared unexpectedly, but navy blue in color that contrasted with the crimson red of the latter.
"What is that thing?" Shinn asked as he inspected through his cockpit vision terminal the mysterious Mobile Suit that had just landed right next to him, a considerable distance from him, but in front of the other stolen MS.
As far as Shinn knew, he had never seen or heard of a fifth G-Weapon identical to his own. Maybe the Chairman had kept it secret or something? At the moment he did not know, but there was something that caught his attention a little about this strange model.
At the same time, inside the cockpit of the stolen Chaos, Sting growled with rage at seeing another G-Weapon right in front of them just like the red one that appeared before. There were only supposed to be 3 units of the G model, or that's what their superiors had informed them before carrying out this robbery operation, and they said nothing that there were more than those 3 that they have in their possession now.
Those thoughts aside, Sting tried to identify of this new unit on the data panel on the main cockpit screen. However, the only thing he found to his disappointment was that the screen put; "Unknow Object".
"What? No data?" He complained as he stared at the blue Gundam in disbelief. Then he tried to contact with Auel through the communication radio, but all he received was a strange static sound. He tried to do it again, but all he got was that annoying static sound that filled the cockpit.
"What's going on?" Sting asked with a grunt as he continued to try to contact with his partners in crime, but it was useless as if there was wireless interference.
At the same time, Shinn tried to do the same inside the Sword Impulse. He was trying to open a communication link with the blue unit to find out about his identity, but for some mysterious reason, the only thing he could hear through the radio was the annoying sound of static filling the interior of his cabin.
"No communication?" Shinn asked equally confused until suddenly only the alarm beep was the only thing that sounded to interrupt the sound of static making the young ZAFT pilot realize that the Gaia pointed its beam rifle at him and fired. Quickly the Impulse was covered with its shield that absorbed the greenish beam without problems.
Inside the cockpit of the Gundam Exia, its pilot, Setsuna F. Seiei, stared at the 2 units in front of him being their main targets.
"Exia, confirmation of the targets: Gaia, Chaos and Abyss. I give way to the-
He couldn't finish the sentence when he saw the only G Weapon that hadn't been stolen charge like a bull, advancing steadily toward the black unit and its pair of huge anti-ship blades combined into a grip ready to attack as its pilot let out a battle cry.
Stella Loussier was bewildered by the speed of the new Gundam.
"What's this!?" Stella shouted in total confusion, backing up and narrowly evading the long reach of the Excaliburs. Leaping up into the air, she took the next move, and opened fire with a storm of CIWS shells upon her attacker.
Shinn didn't bother to dodge her barrage of attacks, so instead he raised his shield covering his Gundam's head and chest. An instant later, all the shells hit the large metal plate squarely. Once the barrage was over, the Impulse withdrew its shield and drew its beam rifle and aimed at the Gaia in an attempt to shoot it down, firing two bright green beams.
The Gaia managed to get out of the trajectory line of fire by quickly descending to the ground with its two metal feet, shaking the area and kicking up some rubble in the process. Again, the Impulse fired again, but the Gaia dodged it again.
Quickly appearing from behind the shattered concrete wall of a building, the Chaos directed it's beam rifle towards the Sword Impulse and pulled the trigger, but Shinn spun around and absorbed the shot with his shield's protective coating.
Sting growled again when he was involved in such an unexpected situation. If only Auel were with them... Then he realized that the newly arrived blue MS was still still still in place since it appeared and did not move a finger to help his companion for some apparent reason.
Setsuna calmly watched as the battle was unfolding between the 2 stolen units and another that, according to his reports, the latter was not included in the list of the targets of his mission. He stared closely pondering that this red unit had not been boarded by the attackers and was in the legitimate good hands by some ZAFT pilot who was doing his best to intercept the assailants.
Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted when he noticed that the green unit, the Chaos, pointed its beam rifle at him. The green beam shot out of the muzzle of the rifle and flew directly towards the Exia, but the latter covered itself with the shield and absorbed the beam easily. An instant later, the blue Gundam removed the shield and pointed its free arm, where protruded its large saber. The great saber bent down revealing the muzzle of a concealed rifle, and then emerged 2 shots of pink laser beams that contrasted with the standard green.
The Chaos managed to evade the shots by moving towards its hiding place allowing the pink beams to go through nowhere where their original target was before and hit somewhere far away.
Once safe, Sting couldn't help but growl in bewilderment. 'What the hell was that!?' The intruder before boarding this MS and using his laser weapons, had already piloted other previous MS, although the latter were only used as simulation training, but had laser rifles capable of piercing the armor of another MS, and as far as he knew all the beams of the rifles that he used including the ones he was using right now had the same color; the standard green.
This was the first time he had seen a beam with a completely different color.
Once again he tried to contact with Auel to help him, but as before he could not open a channel of communication with the Abyss as if something interfered with the communication. He growled again. Why was this happening now of all time? It doesn't matter, he will try to persuade this unit until Auel shows up while Stella is busy with that red unit.
With that in mind, he comes out of hiding again and fires several shots from his rifle at the blue unit.
On the other hand, on a ubication a bit away from the other 2 Gundams, the Gaia changed its humanoid form into it's dog-like Mobile Armor form, landing on the ground and coming at the white machine full speed ahead with her MR-Q17X "Griffon 2" beam blades folded and at the ready.
Shinn growled in response before splitting the Impulse's anti-ship swords in two, holding one blade in each hand. He then charged towards the dog-gundam like a madman, meaning to bash it in the back with the blunt handles and bring it down. Stella, despite being under an effect of almost suicidal wild madness, had enough sanity to see the danger looming towards her and did not want to risk being hit head-on, so she made her Gundam jump in the air before one of the leaves of the red MS pounced on her.
Taking advantage of the fact that it was still in the air on the Impulse's back, the black Gundam fired its high-energy beam rifles mounted on its shoulders. The Impulse covered itself with its shield, absorbing the beams. After it was finished, the Impulse withdrew its shield and with a speed almost like lightning itself, chucked the remaining Excalibur directly at the Gaia, the blade spinning with massive linear and angular momentum similar to a boomerang. When the blade struck it, the Gaia was launched back down to the ground and landed in front of the Impulse.
Command bridge of the Minerva
All eyes of the bridge including the captain sitting in her main seat watched with a mixed feeling of amazement and expectation to the battle that was unfolding outside through the large main monitor of the bridge where a digitized image of the fight between the Impulse and the Gaia could be shown, and they also kept an eye on the mysterious blue unit that was fighting against Chaos that was the real point of interest and attention at the moment .
It was certainly a G-Weapon very similar to the Impulse and some thought it was probably part of the Second Stage Series, however, only those who had more knowledge about the components of the project including their maintenance like captain Talia Gladys knew that this unit was probably not part of their project. The latter could be confirmed when they tried to identify the blue unit using the state-of-the-art information panel, but did not find any specific information about it as if it did not exist. On top of that, they saw some features in its design that didn't seem to be ZAFT's own.
Among them, there was that strange cone-shaped propeller protruding from its back. That object seemed to be so closed that it did not seem to be able to expel the propulsion necessary to move, but to everyone's surprise, it was able to move without any problem somehow and began to fight the Chaos.
On the other hand, they also watched the Impulse battle the Gaia, and its pilot, Shinn, was doing a good job dealing with the other machine, although he began to overdo it a bit when trying to cause damage to the captured machines to the annoyance of some.
"That kid..." Arthur growled as he watched as the Impulse hit the Gaia with a portion of Excalibur. "Hadn't he been ordered to capture those units without damaging them?"
"I guess it can't be helped." Talia replied with a tone unconcerned about the situation. "While it is true that his orders were to capture those units in one piece, but more realistically, I don't think it's going to be an easy task considering the mess of whoever has taken them that they are causing right now." The captain argued as she continued to watch the battle unfold through the digitized screen at the end of the bridge. "I suppose it will be inevitable that in the end we will recover those machines piece by piece."
The deputy captain leted out a huge gasp of surprise upon hearing what his superior officer said. How can she say such a thing so lightly? It is true that these machines are giving them many problems because of whoever is using it at the moment, but those machines belong to ZAFT in the first place, in addition to the fact that the orders were still orders to the complete recovery of the units.
"But, captain..."
"We don't have time to discuss this! I'll talk to our superiors when all this is over." Talia exclaimed aloud cutting off what Arthur was going to say about it, making it clear that she was not in the mood for this. "You keep trying to contact with Shinn to tell him not to rush too much, understood?"
"Yes, ma'am!" Arthur nodded obediently after having recovered from the stupor by the captain's cry before heading towards Meiryn. "You still can't communicate with him?"
The answer didn't take long to come. "Negative, sir. There is still interference in communication with the Impulse." The young communication operator replied as she continued typing her terminal.
Arthur breathed a sigh of exasperation as he saw that communication still didn't work. Since that mysterious blue Gundam appeared, the line of communication with the Impulse had been cut for some reason and despite their attempts to contact him, it was useless as if he were under the influence of a Neutron Jammer.
They wondered if the communicative interference network was due to the mysterious blue unit that was currently fighting the Chaos, but some dismissed such a fact. It seemed unlikely that a single Mobile Suit could give off such an amount of heat capable of affecting communications around it.
Arthur let out another sigh, but of exhaustion. Whatever the circumstances or the identity of this enigmatic machine that apparently seemed to be on their side, all they could do about it was wait for all this madness to end.
Exterior of the colony
Outside the space colony, several Nazca-class space destroyers and Laurasia-class frigates were grouping up to send reinforcements from above. Several MS squadrons had begun to be mobilized over the colony to intercept the attackers.
However, few knew the ZAFT personnel that they were totally concentrated only at one point where the rampage was occurring, never bothered to inspect the surroundings for any evidence by which the attackers came to the colony, and such carelessness was very well exploited by the enemy ship that at this time was lurking stealthily like a tiger towards its prey and totally camouflaged in the immensity of space by means of a stealth system that had been banned by the Treaty of Junius known as "Mirage Colloid."
That camouflage system was not only able to make the intruding ship invisible to human sight by making it "merge" its image in the infinite darkness of space, it was also invisible to advanced radars, so no one was able to witness its existence, allowing the ship to move freely without risks like a ghost ship.
Colonel Neo Roanoke, leader and commander of OMNI Enforcer's special and independent division, 81st Independent Mobile Group, also known as "Phantom Pain," watched expectantly in constant silence as he lay comfortably in his personal seat on the bridge as crew members (mostly operators) did their jobs well in keeping the ship camouflaged with the dark infinite mantle of space and at a distance prudential of the ZAFT ships so as not to attract attention.
Until now, things had gone as planned when his ship managed to enter enemy territory undetected even by the most powerful radars possessed by the Coordinators at his disposal. All thanks to stealth technology that had been strictly prohibited from using and creating derivations by the Treaty of Junius and so it should have been. Neo smiled inwardly by those poor Coordinators unaware that it was precisely what he wanted them to believe. While most of the OMNI Enforcer respected the total ban on the military application of the Colloid Mirage technology and its derivations, apparently putting an end to further development of this highly versatile particle, nevertheless the development of this technology continued in secret by other sectors of the OMNI, as in this case, Phantom Pain.
The existence of this irregular division was kept secret in all extracts as was his acquisition of treaty-prohibited technology such as the Mirage Colloid or the Neutron Jammer Canceller.
It was thanks to this lack of knowledge on the part of his enemies, the EA decided to take advantage of this to launch a dual-objective operation; one, testing the capabilities of the new stealth system and another, anticipating mass reproduction of new ZAFT MS, launching a stealth attack and attempting to capture one or 2 new units for their study. All this was carried out in the Girty Lue space battleship commanded by the enigmatic Neo Roanoke and Ian Lee as captain of the flagship.
The plan was simple, although it would depend on the success of the first phase. A small group of 3 soldiers of abnormal efficiency would be sent to infiltrate directly into the colony under the cover of tourists and access one of the hangars of the armory, eliminate the guards and seize the 3 machines previously discovered and designated as the main targets of the mission. They would then be used to unleash chaos among the armory and focus all the attention of ZAFT personnel on them, completely ignoring the mothership that would expect that great carelessness on their part to initiate their own movement.
"Okay, let's go!" Neo shouted for the bridge to hear him. "Inconspicuously, though!" He said, smiling.
"Aim Gottfrieds one and two! Load missile launchers one through eight with Korinthos!" One of the ship's gunnery crewmen ordered as he typed his console to activate the ray cannons located at the front of the ship.
The image of the rear of a Nazca-class ship appeared on the front screen of the bridge, being seen by commanders, seeing it as perfect prey. "Main guns target the port-side Nazca Class!" Neo ordered immediately as operators begin typing. "Disengage Mirage Colloid upon firing Engines to maximum."
After executing his last instruction, the enigmatic masked man leans back in his seat awaiting the final results of his well-executed surprise attack. He could almost feel sorry for those poor coordinators for what he was about to happen to them. They would never realize where the hell the sneak attack was coming from.
"Now, things are finally gonna get interesting, gentlemen." He commented with a smile.
The captain next to him also smiled a little before regaining his composure and leaning forward.
"Gottfrieds! FIRE!" The man in white yelled, and the cloaked ship fired it's two activated guns. The four green beams shot out of the barrels at a quick speed, two of them striking the unsuspecting Nazca-class' bridge, and the other two hitting the main engine block. The blue ship was destroyed in an explosion of it's main reactor and bridge into a glorious large pink luminous sphere in the middle of space.
Another Nazca class, passing underneath, watched its companion explode a few meters above, and its crew were stunned by the explosion and wondered what had happened.
Meanwhile in the Armory One Harbour:
What was previously been considered just an inside job by some thieves had escalated into a full-blown attack upon the entire colony. With horror the port controllers witnessed one of their own vessel's sink in the blink of an eye, and in reaction, they tried to fight back.
"The Hershel has been hit! Missiles approaching Fourier! 18 of them!" A soldier shouted.
"Unidentified vessel located! One vessel! Location Orange 25, Mark 8, Bravo, distance; 2300!" Another informed.
"That close? How?" Several black suits gathered around one of their subordinate's consoles and conversed.
"Mirage Colloid?"
"Are they Earth Forces?" Asked another black suit standing right next to the operator to observe the terminal.
"Searching heat pattern library. No match found!" The green operator answered.
"Intercept them! Send out our vessels and Mobile Suits!" The man in charge of the harbour commanded.
With alarm ringing throughout Armory One's Harbour, each pilot was rushing towards their respective MS, with several GINNs in total. The pilots entered their cockpits ready for the combat that is going to take place.
A hail of missiles intercepted a Nazca Class and blew it up, making it the third ZAFT ship shot down. But the hunt was not over.
"Nazca Class approaching! Distance: 1900!" The Girty Lue's radar operator informed his superiors.
Neo smiled to himself upon hearing that. By this point the enemy should have figured out who might be attacking them, and they should be mounting a counterattack by now. But now it's too late for that. They don't know that their Mobile Suits are also loaded with Mirage Colloid.
"Turn 20 immediately after launching Mobile Suits! Main guns target Indigo, Nazca Class!" Ordered, several alarms going off at the same time. "Don't get hit by their gunfire!"
Then, a pair of Strike Daggers with large shoulder cannons deployed from the ship and proceeded to fire at the approaching Nazca-class while it launched it's own Mobile Suits. The battle escalated as the Suits on both sides targeted each other and fired away.
Unbeknownst to the fighting forces, not far from the space battlefield, the Gundam Virtue that was in standby mode until a while ago, its pilot noticed the first shots from both enemy factions and decided that it was almost time to intervene.
"Virtue, wait time is over." Tieria declared as he took the controls of the his Gundam. "Commencing intervention against Earth Alliance forces."
The Virtue's eyes lit up in response to its pilot's call and immediately began to move towards the battle site.
Meanwhile in the colony
Stella shouted as she charged the Gaia towards the Impulse with its beam saber in its left hand and shield in its right. The black Gundam was about to wield its saber but the Impulse retreats a little and the Gaia continues to wave its sword, and as before, the Impulse continued to dodge until it counterattacks with its saber and both Gundams collide with each other without having any result.
In the other side, the Chaos fired its beam rifle again at the blue Gundam, but this latter quickly dodged it by moving to the right and blocked another incoming beam with its shield. He then went on the offensive when he fired its strange pink beams back at which the Chaos dodged with little difficulty by rising upwards. Sting grunted at this. What the hell was that?
Then he noticed the arrival of the Abyss piloted by Auel approaching the Chaos from behind.
"Hey, Sting, what the hell is going on?" Auel asked as he communicating with the Chaos radio while the Abyss positioned itself next to the Chaos in front of the Exia. "We were told there were only three new models! What the fuck is that thing?" He asked as he watched the lone blue Gundam adopting a fighting position as if it expected either of the 2 to make their move.
"How should I know?" Sting responded with a growl as he continued to watch the enemy Gundam in exasperation. "That thing suddenly appeared and it looks like it has some kind of laser weaponry firing a pink beam or something."
"Well, what do we do? That thing's not in our plans." He said equally exasperated by the appearance of a new G Weapon that his superiors had not informed him about. "That bastard of Neo!"
Sting was also frustrated by this and also felt like ranting or berating someone for not letting them know about something like this. But he hadn't become the leader of this assailant team not only because of his incredible skills in hand-to-hand combat and piloting, he had a certain level of leadership and kept a cool head capable of making good decisions, not like his blue partner who liked to act mad.
They were certainly in a rather problematic situation regarding the appearance of 2 unknown G-Weapons and even more so when Stella was fighting with the first one that appeared before and that only left Auel and him with the second being the blue. Perhaps with a bit of luck, both could knock down the blue first and then help Stella with the red. With all that in mind, the ringleader made his decision.
"We can't ignore them! Right now Stella is facing another one that appeared before, so it's two actually." He warned seeing the danger posed if 2 of those machines were still in the hands of ZAFT. "It'll be a pain if they decides to come after us. "
With that, the Chaos was the first to charge back towards the enemy blue Gundam.
"Ha. Thinking of bringing its head along as a souvenir?" Auel asked his voice returning to his normal malevolence along with a deranged smile before loading the Abyss behind the Chaos. "Isn't that the sort of thing lame people do!?"
Setsuna watched as the 2 machines approached him and prepared for 1-on-2 combat. While this was going to be intense combat and was going to be his first true showdown where he could come out dead or alive, but he didn't come here from far away to falter and back away like a coward. He had full confidence in his combat skills and also in the power of his Gundam, and if he combine both qualities into one, there will be no challenge he can't overcome. He will fight against anything that stands in his way or the goal of his organization whether any Mobile Suit or those machines identical to his that he and his team derogatorily call 'fake Gundam'.
With steely determination, he waited that any of his 2 targets will initiate their first move.
He didn't have to wait too long when the Abyss was the first to rise into the sky and spread out its large 'shells' on each side of its shoulders revealing a series of 6 holes (3 in each shell). From these holes emergeded 6 green beams that descended directly towards the Exia. Setsuna quickly lifted his Gundam out of the path of the beams before they hit the ground causing a huge explosion that could have caused fatal damage to the Exia had it not moved. The Exia was positioned at the same level as the Abyss in the air.
He wasted no time when he fired his pink beams towards the other blue Gundam who managed to dodge them with little difficulty. The Exia could not continue firing when the Chaos began to fire its beams from the ground forcing the Exia to move from one place to another in a fluid and agile manner in contrast to the Abyss. Then the chest section of the Abyss began to emit energy attracting the attention of Setsuna who soon deduced what he was going to do.
"Die!" Auel shouted before firing his powerful multicolored beam towards the Exia.
Setsuna reacted in time by lowering the Exia out of range of the beam and then fired other beams at the Chaos forcing it to also rise into the air with its pilot growling.
On the other hand, in the fight between the Impulse and Gaia, both Suits were quite even and their pilots frustrated by not getting a damage to the other.
"Bastard!" Stella shouted angrily as she carried the Gaia in her dog form towards the Impulse with her back bumps that look like wings, but as sharp as sabers.
The blades of its wings collided with the small and compact shield of the other machine managing to pass behind it.
"Fuck, this wasn't in our training!" Shinn shouted complaining about the difficulty of the battle.
The Gaia landed in a crumbling building behind the Impulse, and then jumped to another location as the Impulse had fired its rifle 2 times in that corner.
Auel shouted as he fired the multiple bundles of his fins towards the Exia, but the latter defended himself with his shield that managed to block the beams with some difficulty. The Exia withdrew its shield and fired several beams at the fuzzier-colored mecha, but he managed to evade them. The Chaos began firing its 2 rifles from behind, but again the Gundam gracefully dodged them and soared further into the sky. Sting growled again and shot again.
The Exia charged into the air towards the green Gundam, the latter tried to hit the target by firing several times with its rifle, but as before the blue Gundam managed to avoid the beams by moving from one side to another nimbly as it approached its target. Just as the distance had been cut, the Exia drew its beam saber to the surprise of Sting who reacted immediately and raised his Gundam up at the last second before the Exia managed to hit the target.
"Bastard!" Sting shouted in anger and frustration as he fired his beam rifle again from above, but the Exia defended itself with the anti-beam shield. Once this is done, he puts away its sword and rebels its rifle by firing again. The Chaos dodged the beams while quickly charged towards the Exia. The green Gundam unsheathed its beam saber and the Exia did the same while charging towards it.
Both Gundams crossed their respective sabers creating a powerful flash of sparks and particles. Both mechas stared at each other in the middle of this beams fight and their respective pilots did too.
"Who the fuck are you!?" Sting shouted in the hope that the enemy pilot would answer him. It wasn't long before he heard the enemy pilot's voice through his cockpit radio.
"I am... Gundam."
The green haired boy blinked in confusion at his enemy's apparent response. Then he noticed how the arm that held the beam saber of the Chaos began to recede by the force of its opponent and Chaos himself began to retreat heavily as a result of the struggle that the opposing machine was giving him, although he fought hard to maintain the resistance.
Finally the stalemate was broken when the Exia gave a strong kick in the torso of the green machine causing it to stagger backwards by the force of the impact. Then the Abyss positioned itself behind the Exia about to wield its baton-weapon towards the bluer Gundam.
"Take this!"
However Setsuna reacted quickly and hit his opponent's torso hard with the Exia's shield interrupting his attack and then gave another kick that made him back like the Chaos.
Both Athrun and Cagalli, in the ZAKU's cockpit, had watched the combat between the 3 Gundams and both had been perplexed to see how the blue Gundam had managed to subdue both of them alone without problems.
Both stolen Suits backed away at a safe distance from the Exia, and their respective pilots could only stare at it with a mixture of shock and anger. They couldn't believe that a single machine was giving them so many problems despite outnumbering him.
"Shit, Sting, do you have an idea?" Auel asked irritably via the radio in the cabin of the Chaos.
Sting didn't respond as he focused on the damn machine a few feet away through his cockpit screen. Like Auel, he was irritated that a single unit gave them so much trouble, but he also couldn't help but wonder how it was possible that such a thing was superior to the machines they had just boarded and used to destroy the facility. The pink beams, the way it moved gracefully in the air and not to mention that strange cone-shaped propellant from which it gave off that strange glow in the air, all that seemed very strange to him.
This machine was definitely nothing ordinary and looked nothing like what he had seen before.
He couldn't believe that ZAFT had a unit as strange as that in their hands and had they known that there was a Mobile Suit as versatile as that, they would have tried to steal it in the first place. The worst thing would be that if ZAFT kept that Suit to itself, chances are they could cause more unnecessary problems in the future. They had to get rid of that thing as soon as possible and help Stella with the other one and escape from here with these 3 Suits with Neo as soon as possible.
"I have a plan." Sting replied after a pause. "Let's do that trick we practiced during our training."
With that, the Chaos was the first to charge towards the Exia and the Abyss was next behind.
Setsuna prepared for the second round and waited for the approach of the Chaos being in the vanguard, however unexpectedly, the green Gundam rose upwards the air revealing the exposed Abyss advancing in place with its Collidus Cannon well loaded and ready to fire. Setsuna's eyes widened in surprise as he didn't expect this, but he didn't have time to think when the Abyss shooting its most powerful weapon towards the Exia. The Exia moved quickly to the right narrowly avoiding the attack, but the attack continued. With a loud bang, Chaos now descended from above him, the claws on the bottom of his feet lit up with lightning. Setsuna retreated once again avoiding the new attack, but received no respite when the Chaos continued its attack by firing its beam rifle. The Exia defended itself with its shield absorbing the beams.
"A coordinated attack?" Setsuna wondered as he realized the pattern of movement exercised by both the Chaos and the Abyss together as a unitary strategy. He must have admitted that it caught him off guard, but they needed more than that to-
He could not reflect further when he heard the alert alarm in his cockpit and his gaze focused on the source of the problem being the Abyss positioning itself just behind about to fire its fin beams.
The Exia descended downwards avoiding the beams, but as it descended it could not avoid being hit by 2 shots in the torso by the Chaos. The cockpit of the Exia trembled sharply from the impact of the gunfire as it touched down, but thanks to the special Phase Shift armor, it was able to withstand most of the shots.
Athrun and Cagalli watched with concern as the blue Gundam was hit by 2 shots from the green and descended to the ground without problems.
The Chaos continued firing towards the Exia, who managed to avoid the beams by moving gracefully nimbly over the ground as if it were a skating rink which surprised Sting even more. He kept simultaneously firing his rifles at a point near the location of his target forcing him to move back a bit until he finally had it where he wanted.
Setsuna seemed to be less aware of what the enemy pilot was plotting to keep shooting at him in that way since he only concentrated on finding a way out of this situation and being able to counterattack. An oversight that was taken advantage of by Auel who positioned the Abyss just behind the Exia about to impale him with his cane-weapon.
The pilot of the Exia realized too late with his eyes open to the other Gundam behind him about to attack him from behind.
'Shit! I won't be able to dodge it!' Setsuna cursed upon realizing that he will not have too much time to avoid the impending attack.
"GOTCHA!" Auel shouted with bloodlust about to take his prey.
When the Abyss positioned itself behind the other Gundam, Athrun was not left on the sidelines and set out to do something when he took the cockpit controls of the ZAKU quickly without thinking.
"What are you doing!?" Cagalli asked surprised by what her companion was doing.
"Hold on tight!" That was all the blue haired Coordinator said when he propelled the controls forward and pressed the peels causing the ZAKU thruster to suddenly roar and lift the machine a little into the air before rushing towards the Abyss. Both Athrun and Cagalli prepared for the impending collision.
None of the 3 combatant Gundams noticed the sudden irruption of the ZAKU when the latter rammed sharply on the Abyss who was very distracted in giving the coup de grace on the Exia. The impact caused the Abyss to crawl staggering a little towards back. Everyone was surprised by the irruption of this Mobile Suit, especially Setsuna, who did not expect this.
"He saved me?" He asked in disbelief as he looked at the ZAKU who rammed the Abyss with its body.
Auel was a little stunned by the attack, but soon recovered although not in a better mood when he saw the person responsible who knocked him down in that way.
"TAKE THIS!" He shouted enraged as he fired his Callidus Cannon over the green nuisance. The ZAKU had time to cover itself with the shield, but the force of the beam was strong enough to destroy it along with the remaining arm leaving the green Suit crippled.
The ZAKU staggered backwards from the force of the explosion until it ran aground on its back in a hangar structure, or what was left of it. Athrun and Cagalli were a little stunned by the impact, but soon recovered to realize that the Abyss was pointing the barrels of its fins at them again.
"Die!" Auel shouted with a thirst for revenge before firing his 6 beam cannons located at the bottom of the fins towards the helpless ZAKU.
Athrun growled knowing that he would have no chance to dodge the attack and that this is probably his end and Cagalli's, however, seconds before the Abyss fired, the Exia had moved quickly towards where the ZAKU was, right between the trajectory of the latter and one of the beams approaching him. It raised the shield and absorbed the beam, saving the ZAKU and its pilots from certain death. Everyone was surprised by the intervention of the blue Gundam.
Setsuna wasted no time and charged the Exia towards the Abyss with a speed that the pilot of the latter had not thought possible so he was taken by surprise. Auel tried to defend himself by lunging his Beam Spear, but did not notice that the other Gundam drew his beamsaber and with a quick jolt, sliced the spear forcing Auel to back away so as not to be hit as well.
"Auel!" Sting shouted worriedly before firing his beam rifle at the other Gundam, but the latter avoided the shots by moving to the side before firing quickly with his own beam that hit and destroyed the rifle the Chaos was using. The Chaos took a few steps back with its pilot shocked.
His bewilderment and frustration were very great. He was almost certain that they would have eliminated that machine thanks to the coordinated attack between him and Auel, and the latter could have delivered the coup de grace, if that damn ZAKU had not stood in his way in the first place. They've screwed it up. Anyway, he still kept wondering what the fuck was that machine he was facing now, how could he have those strange qualities that the units they were piloting now did not have. None of this made sense, fuck!
Suddenly he heard the alert alarm in his cockpit which forced him to look back to see a squadron of Mobile Suits formed by GINNs flying towards their location. Sting growled at this new situation. With the arrival of reinforcements they will have no escape. Normally he and Auel could deal with that whole squad on their own, but adding that unit in their ranks, they would have a really difficult time and their chances of leaving here are minimal.
When the GINNs entered attack range, they fired their guns towards the Chaos and Abyss, but these 2 managed to pull away from the round of fire. ZAFT's Mobile Suits continued to fire even at the blue unit that was battling the Chaos and Abyss to the surprise of many. The Exia also avoided the shots by moving to the right with grace and aimed its rifle gun at the squadron before firing shots that forced the squadron to disperse still in the air. Its pilot prepared to enter a new phase.
"The main mission is momentarily suspended." Setsuna declared in a monotone voice. "Exia, proceeding to eliminate the ZAFT squad that represents an obstacle."
The GINNs tried to counterattack by firing their rifles at the assailant, but it defended itself with the shield before attacking again with its rifle. Two of them went through the GINN cockpit destroying it instantly and the other pierced a wing causing the latter to fall to the ground.
Everyone watched this in shock when they saw that the blue MS did not hesitate to attack what they believed to be on their side. Wasn't this Mobile Suit supposed to belong to ZAFT and was fighting the stolen units to stop the riot provoked and had protected the ZAKU?
"Hey Sting, what's wrong with this guy?" Auel asked as he watched as the strange MS rushed towards the GINNs squad with the clear intention of eliminating them all. "Wasn't this bastard supposed to be from ZAFT?"
Sting was also at a loss of words over this unexpected event as he watched the MS still fighting the GINNs in the air and it seemed that the former had an advantage over them. He had also thought to his fear that that thing also belonged to the Coordinators because he had protected a ZAKU before, but now, inexplicably, it had been proven that it was not true for his relief upon seeing this. Still, this caused even more confusion by asking himself whether that machine and its pilot don't belong to ZAFT. So which faction do they belong to and why was it attacking them anyway?
"What do we do, Sting?" Auel asked Sting. "Shall we attack?"
"No. We've done enough by now." Sting replied flatly. "We've gotten what we wanted and let's look for Stella to get out of here." With that, the Chaos took off to the sky followed by the Abyss and both moved away from the battlefield to look for their partner.
Setsuna noticed how 2 Mobile Suits he was fighting with had disappeared and almost growled in frustration. If not for the irruption of these annoying obstacles, he could have finished with them. It doesn't matter.
Wherever they went, they will not escape him and his team who will be waiting for them in case anything happens. He just needed to end this quickly. With that in mind, he charged towards the squadron.
Dodging several simultaneous beams of 3 GINNs, the Exia responded by firing 3 times by causing the GINNs to disperse in each direction and fire again. The blue Gundam again dodged it rising upwards and it charged at high speed in the direction of one of the GINNs separated from the rest who fired desperately at the incoming Mobile Suit, but it avoided the beams with ease as it approached its prey. Finally, the Exia fired its rifle 3 times, hitting it squarely in the GINN, making it explode in the air. The other remaining GINNs began firing in unison at the mysterious Gundam, but as before, it dodged the beams as if nothing had happened, leaving the ZAFT pilots stunned by its incredible speed and maneuverability. The Exia fired its beams again forcing the MS to disperse, 2 in each direction, and the Exia shot to the right managing to hit two in one shot.
The last 2 GINNs continued firing but the Exia defended itself with the shield, and as it continued to fire, the Exia charged again with the shield in front blocking the beams. When the Gundam was about to break the distance, the GINNs stopped firing and tried to disperse again, but Setsuna didn't let them and shot the one who tried to attack him leaving the last one with the pilot alone watching in horror how his companions were annihilated.
He didn't have time to retreat when he noticed the Gundam pounced on him like a cheetah about to claim its prey with its huge GN Saber ready to swing it on the target. The remaining pilot could only scream in horror when the huge saber pounced on the head of his GINN and like a hot knife on the butter, the saber pierced cleanly the Mobile Suit armor from head to waist, causing his body to split in half and finally explode as a result.
The Gundam descended to the ground totally victorious with the remains of the last GINN falling to the ground around it engulfed in flames.
The only spectators of this show, Athrun and Cagalli could only stare in shock how that Mobile Suit annihilated an entire squadron by itself. But it wasn't just because of that. From the beginning they thought that this unit belonged to ZAFT since it fought against the attackers and had protected them, but despite that in the end it turned out that it did not belong to PLANT when it attacked and annihilated that squadron of GINNs without hesitation. In coming to that conclusion, Athrun almost regretted intervene in and saving that Gundam when the Abyss was going to give him the coup de grace from behind. The scene where he watched the Gundam annihilate the last GINN was painfully familiar as it reminded him of how his teammate, Miguel Aiman, was killed by Kira in the Strike during their raid on Heliopolis. Ironically, the way the Gundam took down that GINN was also quite similar to how Kira destroyed Miguel's GINN by slashing it with an anti-ship sword.
He never expected to be able to relive that fateful memory.
On the other hand he still couldn't help but be intrigued by the fact that this thing had protected them anyway and he couldn't help but wonder why it intervened and what its goal was. He was also intrigued by the speed and maneuverability with which that machine moved as something he had never seen in a Mobile Suit during the war 5 years ago. Those moves seemed to be somewhat abnormal even for a G Weapon like the Strike, Aegis or Duel. Its way of attacking was as precise as that of the pilot of the Strike demonstrating that the pilot, whoever he is, could be at his same level, but his mobility was another story.
Despite looking like it has few armaments with only its huge deployable saber on his left arm and its pink laser rifle, it was able to give serious problems to those two G Weapons of before easily and even crush that squadron of GINNs without problems. Even its speed and agility resembled that of the Freedom.
Meanwhile, once that squadron of GINNs was eliminated, Setsuna looked up at the sky, to the supposed direction where his 2 targets had previously escaped and he prepared to start his pursuit.
"Exia, successfully eliminating the GINN squad." He declared again how he took the cockpit controls. "Renewing the primary mission of intercepting and destroying the targets."
The conical thruster of the Exia began to resonate as its interior began to light up blue and moments later gave off a strange stream of bright blue particles catching the attention of Athrun and Cagalli. Then the Gundam began to rise in the air like a balloon and moved away from the field.
Athrun and Cagalli blinked on the monitor screen in confusion. The vision of unity along with the glow emanating from his back was...
Beautiful. Those precise and fast movements... They were so astonished to see the mysterious light that few compared it to the glow of an aurora.
If the mode of movement and attack of that machine was an impressive spectacle, then this strange thruster was something from another world. Until now, none of the 2 veterans who survived the last 2 phases of the great war had a sometype of propulsion that released any kind of glowing particles like that, and they also could not say if the EA, ZAFT or Morgenröte could imitate that.
That Gundam was too mysterious to be an ordinary Suit.
Freedom can also emanate particles, the red crimson particles it emanated when it flapping its wings ready for combat. But this one is different. This one was so beautiful and so pure at the same time.
Cagalli was very puzzled. What the hell was that unity? And what was that kind of brilliant propulsion?
The Impulse ran like a madman with its only saber towards the Gaia without pause. "I won't let you do whatever you want!" Shinn shouted angrily as he approached his enemy.
The Gaia stepped back a bit and attacked with its beam saber, only to be blocked by the Impulse's shield.
"Damn." Stella growled as her Gundam and the enemy's stuck in a stalemate.
The stalemate was broken when the Impulse exerted more force and managed to push the Gaia backwards. Already separated at a safe distance, both pilots began to sigh exhausted by the intense battle that seemed not to end easily. Then the Impulse's alarm beep rang out for the attention of Shinn, who watched on the monitor screen as the Chaos and Abyss approached in the air to meet the Gaia.
"Stella, we have to leave now!" Sting shouted at Stella. "Let's go back to the Girty!"
Stella blinked a little confused by her parthner's reaction but couldn't ask when Sting noticed the arrival of the other Gundam. "Damn, here it comes! Stella, let's go back to the Girty right now!"
"Yeah, let's go back with Neo!" Auel shouted in hopes of convincing her.
Suddenly all traces of confusion and doubt of the girl disappeared to make way for amazement after hearing the mention "Neo" and without hesitation, she ignored the Impulse and met with her companions in the air. Shinn saw this and didn't want to let them escape like this.
"I won't let you people escape!" He shouted as he raised the Impulse into the air as well and charged to intercept the 3 machines. However he did not get very far when the Abyss and Gaia fired their powerful weapons and collided with each other just in front of the Impulse forming a large cloud of jet smoke. Luckily the attack did not reach the Impulse, but its pilot was blinded by the smokescreen.
"Shit!" Shinn growled in anger before taking the controls and rushing the Impulse through the smoke in hopes of reaching and intercepting them.
However, once he emerged from the smoke and the view in the terminal cleared, he saw that the 3 units had disappeared having escaped. Shinn growled once again in frustration, but then noticed the arrival of the other G Weapon that was allegedly fighting the Chaos and Abyss before and stood in front of the Impulse. Both Suits stood still suspended in the air 'looking' at each other. Their respective pilots looked at each machine in front of them through the viewing screen in their cockpits.
Shinn observed the characteristics of this particular unit and concluded that it must be a very similar model to the Impulse although it also had certain characteristics that differed from the rest of ZAFT's Mobile Suits. What caught his attention the most was that sky-blue spherical circle that was embedded in his chest. What was that exactly and what was it for?
On the other hand, Setsuna also dedicated himself to silently studying the opposing machine and also found an air a little similar to the Exia, but red, without a GN Condenser (the sphere on the chest) and last but not least the lack of a unique and fundamental feature that would have turned this machine into an 'authentic' Gundam so he did not hesitate to qualify it as a 'fake Gundam' like the other 3 who had just escape sooner. However, unlike the latter, this one had not been stolen and he knew that he was being piloted by a ZAFT soldier.
In the cockpit of the Impulse, Shinn got fed up with looking at the mysterious Gundam and decided to contact him. He opened a channel of communication and began to talk. "Hey, can you hear me!? Who are you!? Are you one of us!?"
Setsuna heard the pilot's voice and could deduce that it was a teenager his age and looks Japanese. Either way, the unit in front of him was not part of his mission and he decided to ignore it for the time being.
With that, the Exia turned around and drove away from the Impulse at an incredible speed.
"Hey, wait!" Shinn shouted in an attempt to chase the mysterious Gundam, but stopped when he saw the trail of light formed by hundreds of green diamonds emanating from his back as propulsion. He could not be hypnotized by such brilliant beauty.
Once the Gundam disappeared from sight, Shinn awakened from his daze and decides to pursue him. Tearing off the Impulse's thrusters, ZAFT's red Gundam blasted off into the artificial sky in pursuit of the stolen units and the mysterious Gundam that also goes after them.