Phase 29: The four horsemen
The flow of time causes Athrun to be redeployed to Earth, as he unwittingly becomes more and more involved in the current nexus of chaos and destruction, which is already swallowing his closest friend, Kira. What will destiny have in store for the two, as well as those nearest to them? Would they be the one to end the cycle of hate or will they be consumed by it?
The briefing room was tense as most of the people were out for blood, which understandably made his friends nervous, especially Miriallia, who has yet to spend any significant time with the members of Desert Dawn. The fact most of the aggression was aimed at Mu, yet the man remained unfazed, impressed Kira.
"Alright, that covers the basic arrangement," Mu said.
"I still say we ambush them," someone remarked.
Mu wagged his fingers admonishingly. "Someone who couldn't stay to hear me explain the whole thing for two hours yesterday because it bores him shouldn't make unnecessary comment."
"I have something to do,"
"You could have smoked your opium after that discussion. In fact, why don't you go have some now?" Mu then turned toward Sahib and gestured in the direction of the man with his hand. "Yesterday, you told me that we must earn your trust. Fair enough. But trust goes both ways. The situation that we have now is that I neither expect this gentleman's trust nor I trust him. Either he's out of the operation, or we call it off,"
Sahib narrowed his eyes. "You're reneging on your promise?"
"I said that it would be a military operation. As in military doctrine and discipline. I say jump and you say how high… not to that extent, but we don't want high people to start seeing things and messing things up."
Sahib was quiet for a while before he said, "Alright. Adib and Sufyan, leave," When they started to complain, he added. "It's not a request,"
Reluctantly, the two left.
Mu watched them leaving, before heading for the room. "Can we expect everyone to act as we agreed?"
"You have my words,"
"Alright. Remember that the less that we do, the bigger the impact it will have. Anyone who has a death wish, you're free to do your own things afterwards, but I'm not about to have people die on me unnecessarily. As an infidel, I may not go to heaven, but I object to going to a worse hell because people under my command rushing off to kill themselves, thinking that they will go to heaven no matter how they die,"
The comment made Sahib smile a bit, but there were some chuckles from those present, as the tension reduced considerably.
"Since we agree on that part, to recap…" Mu looked at Cagalli. "You'll make the call, and we need your team to maintain the coms. Once we achieve our objective…"
"Got it, cut the cables at both ends, and changed the direction of the closest to the area. Then retreat immediately since they would be sweeping the area. Anything else?"
"And you will be working with Signal Wolf to maintain situational awareness, and provide timing to Sahib's firework team," Mu said as Miriallia nodded. "That covers the small things. And now the big decision, which is to select…"
"Let me do it," Tolle said as he raised his hand.
"You?" Mu asked, his face showing that he's not comfortable with the suggestion.
"Yes. It's better we carry out the original plan,"
Mu starred at the young man for a few seconds before he relented. "Alright. Plan A, then. You're on point, Coffee Pod will be your second and spotter as usual while Assassin and I fly CAP. Cagalli will point and confirm. The rest, same jobs,"
The briefing ended and Kira returned to his room to do, what Tolle would call it, some moping. He has yet to tell anyone else, but he had been having some nightmares ever since he heard that Flay's father died. The nightmares would always have either Flay or her father or even both of them killed, either while being onboard of Henry Bake, Archangel, in a shuttle or an escape pod. While the people involved and settings were different, it always involved him failing while trying to rescue the said people.
After the first two dreams, Kira had trouble sleeping at night and tried to pass the time doing maintenance on Strike. It ended up with him being restricted from access to the mobile suit though, only to be allowed for scheduled maintenances. Kojiro, the one who told him about the ban, said that he was spending too much time in the mobile suit. Attempts to justify that his presence was required for maintenance failed, as the automated system that has been installed since Archangel's docking at the moon had mostly alleviated that need.
In his head, he knew that he was suffering from survivor's guilt, where he felt responsible for not doing his best to save Flay from being attacked by that strange mobile suit, that Gundam. But no matter how he tried to rationalize what he was feeling, he couldn't make the ache in his heart go away. Even as he had failed to save her, he made a promise to prevent anything happen to her father.
He didn't hesitate to fight, but yet again, he failed. "Flay," Lying on his bed while hugging his knees, Kira uttered the redhead's name, wishing for the power to weather the adversity. "Flay," he repeated, like a mantra trying to steady his wavering heart.
With his cape fluttering behind him, the hero Peace Messenger delivered his signature move. "Full Burst Peaceful Kick!" he shouted as he performed the jumping attack at the monster shaped like a carton of milk.
There was a large puff of smoke and some spark as the monster fell to the ground. "I'm defeated," the monster groaned before ceasing to move.
"You will pay for this, Peace Messenger," Count Moron Off-rail said before he and his Red Astros followers ran away from the position.
There was another burst of smoke, this time full of confetti as the superhero and Lacus took the center-stage and the audience clapped.
"Clever," Miguel said. "They're using that to misdirect everyone's attention toward Lacus and that costumed guy while the Milky Box monster makes its exit,"
"Yeah," Nicol said as the two of them watched as Athrun waited patiently at the sideline of the event. Even though the main performance has ended, there was still a meet-and-greet event while Lacus and the costumed hero meet and talk to their fans.
"No offense, but we should have come later, when the two almost finish meeting the people,"
"You know he's that kind of person,"
"Still no reason for me not to complain about it,"
Nicol laughed at that statement.
Miguel smiled at Nicol's action before he turned serious. "So, mind telling me what's bugging you?"
"Sorry?"
Miguel pointed at the ground where Nicol was standing and then pointed at the group of people queuing up to meet their artists. "Clearly, you're distracted,"
While the first thought that came to him was to deny his friend's statement, Nicol knew that Miguel could be an observant person if he wanted to. Besides, the crux of the matter that worried him was an open secret in PLANTs. "It's about the nuclear reactor,"
"Ah, that. That caused quite a commotion, didn't it?"
"It kept my father awake all this time,"
"Sorry to hear that. Even my sis told me she's afraid the nukes are going to fly again, but I told her not to worry."
Miguel was wrong, and her sister should worry, though the reason was one not many people expected. After the release of MOMENTUS reactor to the public domain, the PLANT Supreme Council has been holed up for almost a week by then, with the members only coming out into the public to make statements to allay people's concern.
In a moment of carelessness, Nicol's father, exhausted by the ongoing debate and the previous vigil trying to understand the reactor before the system was made public, revealed the council was trying what to do next. There was an initial suggestion for ZAFT to not do anything as PLANTs were mostly powered by solar energy and thus didn't require nuclear power. Building the nuclear reactors, even for testing, requires manpower, materials, and time; precious resources that were required to churn out ZAFT's defense assets.
However, not doing so would deny potentially precious knowledge that could be collected from such projects. Intelligence suggested the Earth Alliance was already building at least four sites for the reactors, two in the Eurasian Confederation and two in the Atlantic Federation, with more to be announced soon. At the same time, there were diplomatic considerations to be made. Already there were requests for ZAFT to supply the nuclear reactors to the African Communities countries that were somewhat affected by N-Jammer deployments, even if the impact was not as great as those in other nations.
Something that his father didn't mention but Nicol could infer was that there must have been some discussions on researching miniaturizing the reactors, for use on ships or even mobile suits. According to the rumors that he had read through forums, Orb already had access to the technology to stabilize the fusion process so that the whole reactor could be miniaturized. A hypothesis has been proposed that Orb was the one behind the development of the reactor and had revealed it to the world to force a temporary stalemate to the war. The one who put forth the idea argued once all sides had diverted their resources to redevelop nuclear energy instead building weapons, it would be easier to deescalate the war even more, forging the way to peace. The idea made sense, given the truth Nicol found out from his father.
"Let's hope it remains that way," Nicol said.
The only problem with the idea of forcing a stalemate was a bit idealistic. However, a pessimistic side of Nicol predicted once another side other than Orb found the way to build a small reactor, it would quickly use that advantage to produce weapons with almost limitless energy. A GuAIZ with such reactor could fire its MA-M21G Beam Rifle almost endlessly, the only limiting factor to the weapon's operation was heat management, or it could mount of a ship-class beam cannon, allowing it to destroy many types of targets with one shot.
"Hope for the best, prepare for the worst, right?" Miguel said, as if knowing what was going on in Nicol's mind, his eyes were tracking Athrun's walking toward them.
"Sorry for taking your time," Athrun said when he got close enough. "I know I could have called…"
"No problem," Miguel cut him off. "There's no beating meeting the apple of your eyes in person, even if you're just want to set the next date. I know, since the same applies to my sis. Besides…" the man extended an open palm.
Athrun slapped the palm, giving him a low five.
Miguel's eyebrows furrowed. "No, man. I appreciate that. But the thing I asked you to do?"
"I did talk to Lacus,"
"No, the other one,"
Athrun stared at Miguel for a few seconds before he realized what the other man meant. "Sorry, I forgot to get the Peace Messenger's autograph," he said as he ran toward Lacus. "Lacus, I forgot. Miguel wanted an autograph from you," he said before patting himself. "Ah, I forgot to bring something to sign,"
Lacus giggled and turned toward her manager, Nellie, who nodded and handed a board to her. After signing the board, she passed it to Athrun.
"Thanks," Athrun turned Nellie. "May I have another one?"
After getting the empty board, he said his farewell to the two of them and went to chase after the Peace Messenger. The actor playing the hero was still in his get up, which was an impressive, given that he remained in character while in the public view. After Athrun caught up to him, he asked the man for the autograph.
"With pleasure," the man said as he took the board and signed it. "Why do you want my autograph when you're more popular than I am, Mr. Zala?"
"Oh, it is for my colleague's sister, and she adores you and Lacus,"
"Not yours?" the man asked, his muffled voice barely hid his mirth.
"That's how it is," Athrun said as he took the returned board.
"May I have some questions? It's personal, but I would like to get an opinion from a real-life hero,"
"I'm just a normal person though," Athrun said, abashed. "But go ahead,"
"Why did you join ZAFT?"
Athrun closed his eyes, recalling the day when he found out about his mother's death. "I joined so that never again people would lose their loved ones," he said with full conviction.
"Yet, the war still continues, and more people lost their loved ones," the Peace Messenger actor pointed out. "Do you still feel the same way after all this time?"
The second question took quite a bit of time for Athrun to answer. "Yes, because not fighting doesn't mean the suffering will stop, but instead make it worse,"
"What if there's another method to bring about the world peace?"
"There is?"
"There's always an option. The Word. The Word has always been there since the very beginning. The Word is with everything. The Word is everything,"
"The Word?"
"Maybe we can talk about it some other day," the costumed actor said, while gesturing at something behind Athrun. "Your friends are coming to pick you up,"
Athrun turned to see Nicol and Miguel were walking toward them.
"Take care of them, and cherish them, as you would Miss Lacus, Mr. Zala, as justice burns bright in you,"
Puzzled by the statement, Athrun shifted his attention to Peace Messenger, only to see the latter was moving away. Athrun gave the autographs to Miguel. "Here, Lacus' as well,"
"Don't know my sister's a fan of her, but oh well," Miguel said while taking the boards only to have Athrun holding on to the board that had the Peace Messenger's comment and signature. "This is the part where you're supposed to give it to me, Athrun,"
Athrun released the board. "Ah, sorry,"
"You can get your own too if you want,"
"No. I'm good,"
"Alright, let's go the HQ for the briefing,"
As she looked at the target through the binoculars, Cagalli Yula Attha, the daughter of Uzumi Nara Attha, found herself recalling an African proverb, 'The one who throws the stone forgets, the one who is hit remembers forever,'
While the proverb didn't originate in the region she was in, and instead, from the southwest, she found it aptly describe the current situation.
She knew why Mu put her in charge of making the decision to proceed or not with the current mission. Despite what seemed to be on the surface, she knew he didn't have a high opinion of her. Mu put her on the spot to prove a point; idealism without actions was just empty ramblings. He had expected her to back away from the responsibility, but she didn't, not because she had to prove herself to him, but because she had to.
Cagalli led the demand for action to be taken against the aggressors who perpetrated the Tassil massacre, not because she wanted to present herself as the heroine who fought for justice. She knew that seeking revenge was a natural response to what happened, and she knew that it would be a destructive pursuit. Revenge begets more revenge, just as killing begets more killing, perpetuating a cycle of violence.
However, Ahmed's mother died. Nasser's sister was raped. Rabbani lost the whole of his family. The soldiers laughed as they shot Sofyan's brother in the legs. Many of the people in Desert Dawn lost their loved ones and homes because of the massacre. Those people, and many more, were angry and needed a target for vengeance.
Cagalli took on the role of being their voice because someone had to do it. Not Sahib or Ledonir, because everyone knew that they were calm and collected people, even in the most extreme circumstances. They would ask for the people to remain calm and not do something foolish. That wasn't what people were looking for. They want someone who could empathize and share their grief and anger, and then channel that anger toward someone or something. Someone needed to lead them in seeking revenge.
Desert Dawn wasn't free from making mistakes as well. Perhaps it was murders of the prisoners that triggered the retaliation from the African Communities army, maybe it wasn't. But the murders still happened, there was no hiding from that. Cagalli wasn't trying to sweep what Desert Dawn deed under the rug, but even if she brought the issue up and beat it to death, those affected by the Tassil tragedy would still not change.
That was why she was content with being the overbearing brat, as she had heard Mu refer to her behind her back. She was seen as a brat by him? She was a brat. That said, she was playing her role very well if the Eurasian officer couldn't see beyond that. Cagalli knew very well how brash and forward she could be, as it was her nature; naïve, she was not. Her father had instilled her the wisdom of a leader, even she has yet to fully appreciate them.
"Let me take over," Ledonir said.
Still seeing through the binoculars, Cagalli shook her head. "Father said a leader's most important role is to take responsibility,"
She was also doing it as a sign of respect for Kira and his friend Tolle who were waiting, the Desert Dawn fighters who risk their lives preparing the place, the people who had suffered because of the barbaric attack, and those people at Archangel who went beyond their way to assist in the current operation; even him.
"Fire,"
The orbital landing went smoothly, void of any attack from Earth Alliance, that to Miguel, it was anti-climatic. To prevent such a thing from happening, he, Athrun, and Nicol were released from a position away from the previous launch coordinate. This reflected a new approach in ZAFT's orbital tactic. Previously, it would identify the area in the orbit where the landing route would be the shortest. Then, it would send most of its assets to that area and commence the drop. Such a tactic was quite efficient and had served it well, but the Earth Alliance was evolving to respond to it, and thus ZAFT had to evolve as well. One of the newer approaches was to launch the assets from different areas at staggered timings. While massively reducing the risk of interception, it was not something that could be used to attack a military installation, as the existence of laser and optically guided medium and short-range air defense systems meant the assets could be intercepted before they could be deployed.
Once the trio had landed with their mobile suits, they were quickly whisked off to the headquarters. Having the first meeting with one's superior at the mess hall was a first for Miguel; it wouldn't be a stretch to say it was the same situation for Athrun and Nicol, as they sat at the banquet table, facing the legendary Andrew Wartfeld, his pilot cum partner, and his righthand man.
"Welcome to Lesseps. I'm Andrew Waltfeld, and this is Aisha," he said while gesturing to the woman to his right, "and Martin," he said as he pointed to the man to his right.
"I'm Athrun, and this is Nicol and Miguel," Athrun said, while gesturing toward Nicol and him.
Andrew waved a piece of paper. "Headquarters told me that it is sending you three to assist. I really appreciate you coming here."
Miguel had to school the expression on his face. The man was waving the paper as if he was trying to chase off some flies, which showed how little he thought about their arrival.
"We're the first group to arrive, but there would be others as well later on," Athrun answered.
Miguel liked Athrun very much as the latter was a good friend, but he was as straightlaced as he could be, and thus missed the sarcastic. A quick glance at Nicol showed that the other pilot was also oblivious to Andrew's condescending treatment. Since he was in the minority, and getting mad at the situation was pointless, Miguel wisely kept silent.
"Oh? That is good news! I'm glad to hear that," Andrew said, expression brightened as the man smiled broadly.
The man should have been informed of other groups' arrival, yet he pretended to be surprised by it.
"Commander Waltfeld, as you're already aware, I was the pilot of Blitz. While my knowledge about Mirage Colloid is limited, we may be able to assist you in researching the rumored invisible munition that we heard about on the way here," Nicol said.
The look Andrew gave him, like a tiger studying its prey, was probably one of the many reasons why the man got his moniker. "Oh, is that so?"
"And everything else," Before Nicol could say something, a server set a plate of food in front of him before doing the same thing for Athrun and Miguel. Then another put two bottles of seasoning in front of them. It
"Help yourself," Andrew said as he accepted a plate from another server.
"But…"
"We can discuss while talking." When Andrew saw them remaining in their seats, he sighed. "Look, it is well-researched that animals wouldn't properly eat in the presence of predators,"
"But we're not animals in front of predators," Miguel said.
"True. So, eat,"
So, Miguel looked at his plate only to see the food was a Donner kebab, and from the smell, a lamb kebab. He took a bottle of mayonnaise and put it on the kebab, before taking a bite. It was indeed lamb kebab, and a delicious one at that.
Andrew watched him eating for a few seconds before proclaiming, "You, I like. Two of your friends, not so much,"
Miguel turned toward Athrun and Nicol, only to see that they put chili sauce on their food. Cringing with disgust before he remembered where he was, Miguel turned toward his food and then gave Andrew a look.
Andrew put down his kebab and finished eating the food in his mouth before saying. "Whenever you feel threatened or nervous, you will adopt a flight-or-fight stance. Eating is the furthest thing in your mind. Forcing yourself to eat, breaks that physiological state, and even if you're still nervous, it's less than before, right?"
What the man said made sense.
The meal proceeded in silence and after everyone had finished, Andrew put a tablet on the tablet and pushed it toward where Miguel, Nicol and Athrun were seated. "Let's hear your thoughts. Take your time,"
Athrun took the tablet, and together with Miguel and Nicol, went through the report on it. The report showed a 3D simulation of a convoy of 12 military transport vehicles, together with three BeCUEs moving through a desert highway, when suddenly the fourth vehicle in the column shook and then veered off the road for a bit before stopping. Simultaneously, the grounds next to the road exploded, but none of the explosions seemed near enough to the convoy. Other vehicles and the three BeCUE quickly moved in to assume a defensive perimeter, but then the timestamp accelerated, showing that nothing else happened for the next half an hour.
"No other attack?" Miguel asked as he looked up from the tablet to Andrew.
"No other attack,"
Athrun pressed some buttons and a photo of a vehicle with a large hole in the door of the left rear passenger side. Another press of the button showed that the door of right side also had a hole, but smaller in diameter. "Casualty?"
"A commander was killed. Whatever it was, sheared the front of her body. The driver and adjutant were okay, but only because they were seated in the front. The vehicle had a closed armored compartment housing the commander. It was supposed to protect her from small arms fire, but in the end, it saved the other two since the shrapnel were mostly confined in it,"
"No enemy in the vicinity?" Nicol asked.
"Apart from some hyena, scorpions, and snakes, no. We have a couple of local soldiers saying that she got cursed because of what she did to the civilians that day."
"Civilians?" Miguel asked.
Andrew gave the three of them a brief overview of what happened, and at the end of it, the three of them were repulsed by it. "And you assisted them?" Athrun asked incredulously.
"No, if attacking civilians is what you meant. And don't throw stones if you're in the glass house, hot stuff. Your father is the one who signed a carte blanche requiring me to help them in whatever they do,"
Before Athrun could protest Andrew's statement, Miguel interrupted, "Did the other explosions hit any vehicles?"
"Nope. Some sand sprays here and there, but that's it. No other injuries or death. Very clean. It's what the Atlantic Federation says… right… no collateral damage,"
"Did they find the sabot?"
"Sabot?"
"Armor Piercing Self-Discarding Sabot. The kinetic penetrator used to penetrate soft or armored target,"
"I know what a sabot is," Andrew shared a look with Martin and Aisha. "Why do you think that's the case?"
Meanwhile, Nicol, who was looking at the tablet, nodded in understanding. "That makes sense," he says as he pointed at a photograph of the destroyed vehicle. "The penetration hole in the left rear is a bit higher, but not that high. So, it's not lobbed like an artillery but instead shot facing straight and downward."
Andrew took the tablet back and examined the photograph. "I see. This is why they set up the explosions. It is to cover the area where the shell landed. If we had the chance to send some people to go there, we probably could find the sabot and would have made the same conclusion," He shrugged and handed the tablet back to Athrun. "But we're don't really care about how she died, and we don't want to give the resistance the chance to take pot shots at us. Any idea what could have made the shot?"
"We believe Buster was the one that sniped the car," Nicol said.
"Buster?"
Andrew said as he received another tablet, this one a bit smaller, from Martin, and browsed through it.
"The specs didn't mention that capability," Aisha said, speaking for the first time. "It is an artillery platform, isn't it?"
"It had shown the ability to fire accurately from a long distance, and we believe it can also provide firing solutions for a concentrated attack." Athrun said.
Andrew tossed the tablet he was holding back toward Martin, who struggled a bit to catch it. "Either those idiots at the HQ are not updating the info for us, or they're keeping it a secret; either way, they screwed up and we must clean their mess. Last question, the three of you drink coffee?"
Nicol, Athrun, and Miguel nodded.
"Good. You pass. We'll have you sorted out and assigned later for the mission,"
"Mission?" Miguel asked.
"Don't worry. You will find out soon enough,"
A/N
1. Collateral damage–injuries and death of those not specifically target for the operation.