Phase 31: Messiah

The two mobile suits, one humanoid, and one beast-like, raised their heads to look at the shooter. With the sun behind it, the perpetrator was the familiar white mobile suit with black torso floating above them. This time, it had some sort of blue appendages which resembled wings on its back, spread out, outlining a visage of an arrogant angel descending on the field

Kira looked at the orange-colored quadrupedal mobile suit cautiously in case it moved to attack him. If he had to describe it, it resembled an orange feline, a metallic tiger. There was a beep, and he risked averting his eyes for a second to look at the secondary screen. The targeting computer identified it as a TMF/A-803 LaGOWE and was displaying a 3D diagram of the said mobile suit with weapons and weak points marked.

It seemed the recent over-the-air update had added the additional feature to Strike since he didn't recall seeing it before. Even the update itself was a bit iffy, since the update was never performed through online connection since it was difficult to maintain the link. But he couldn't complain, since the threat libraries update allowed him to guess the unit in front of him was probably being piloted by Andrew Waltfeld. The orange mobile suit looked like an orange feline, maybe befitting the man's monicker as the Desert Tiger. Perhaps that was why Andrew got the monicker, since he was piloting a tiger-like mobile suit?

His first instinct was to contact the man, but his earlier conversation with Mu made him stayed his hand. While acknowledging that knowing Waltfeld personally wasn't wrong and couldn't be helped given the circumstances, Mu warned that Kira had yet been able to be able to put his own feelings aside during missions. That posed a threat, not only to the mission but also to his own life. Commander Waltfeld was an experienced and professional soldier that wouldn't hesitate to shoot him.

With the shield in its left hand held slightly slanted so it wasn't directly facing the orange LaGOWE, Strike reached for its 57mm High-energy Beam Rifle at its right hip but kept it pointed down.

Kira looked at the radar. The ZAFT's BuCUEs were still surrounding the Archangel, maintaining their distance while trying to score hits on the ship and Buster, which was also on it.

The mission planners, who were in Europe, were wrong in their assessment. They predicted that ZAFT would put in all its resources toward defending the nuclear research site, but they underestimated Waltfeld's thinking. The man split his force and attacked Archangel's force directly, preventing the long-range fire support that has could play a decisive role in defeating him.

"Saber Fouer, on your end?"

"SUSFU, Saber Two," Tolle said.

Kira smiled grimly. Situation unchanged; still fouled up. It was a natural, expected even, progression from SNAFU, which was situation normal, all fouled up response he got when he asked his friend the same question a few minutes prior.

"Your side?"

Kira raised the shield to block LaGOWE's incoming rush. The orange-colored mobile suit pounced on Strike's shield, using its weight to topple Strike so that the latter would fall on his back. However, Kira quickly guided Strike to take a step backward using its left foot, while simultaneously performing a quarter rotation on its right foot and pushing the shield forward. The move redirected the ZAFT's mobile suit away, and it ended up on the ground on its back. Before Kira could take the next step, the quadrupedal moved its body to turn itself on the right side up and sprinted away. "Hostile's relentless!"

"BOHICA?"

"BOHICA," Kira confirmed, wanting to sigh despite the tense situation. Bend over, here it comes again. His friend's taking to using military slang was akin to a duck taking to water; used them without much thought. This was different to Miriallia, who, despite her enthusiastic wolfing of military terminology even in her free time, has yet to achieve full proficiency. "Signal Wolf, Saber Actual sitrep?"

"Still engaging Bogey Red,"

It was a 'hostile', not 'bogey', as the latter designation was given to a suspicious unit. Mirriallia still panicked from time to time and fumbled, which was to be expected, as it would take time to get used to the manner of talking. However, correcting her would have to wait. Rather than remain on its spot, Strike moved away a few steps, which proved to be the right decision, since LaGOWE attacked the position from a blind spot.

As for the red unit being engaged by Mu and Sai, Kira suspected that it was Athrun's unit. He was concerned with his team having to fight against his friend, but at the same time, there was a part of him that was content with not having to fight Athrun. When Sai took him aside after the briefing and told him about Athrun and his team's presence, Kira had resigned himself to the inevitable confrontation. Even as his thoughts were straying into unrelated matters, Strike tried to slash LaGOWE, but the orange-colored mobile suit slammed into it, causing it to stagger. Strike quickly regained its footing and was ready to counterattack, but once again, LaGOWE moved away.

The fact that he didn't have to fight his friend gave him little comfort now he thought of the current situation. He still had to fight against Andrew, another person he didn't want to fight.

Strike blocked a beam shot aimed at its rear.

Out of a frying pan into the fire, or as Flay had put it, escape from the crocodile's mouth side straight into the mouth of the tiger. The expression was fitting, given that he was going against the Desert Tiger, the coffee-pooping civet.

Strike countered with a shot of its own.

Great. Just great. He really didn't want to become like Mu, or his friend Tolle, who was in following the commander's foot step.

A near hit shot caused the left CIWS to overheat while Strike's own shot shaved the tip of LaGOWE's right wing. The attacks were getting more and more intense, as Waltfeld seemed intent on finishing the fight as fast as it could, even as Kira's own order was to draw it as long as possible.

A few kilometers away, Tolle found himself frustrated by the ZAFT mobile suits circling around Archangel like buzzards. Still, he took a deep breath and his forefinger pressed on the trigger with a such a precise pressure normally reserved for a physical gun. He knew that the targeting system would ensure a precise shot to be released. However, he couldn't shake away the physical conditioning recently developed as a result of being trained to use small arms and rifles, especially sniper rifles. Buster fired a shot at a BuCUE in his crosshair and the beam swerved a bit. Tolle clicked his tongue.

However, despite the frustration, Tolle knew that he was getting closer to adjusting his aim perfectly. The desert's environment was affecting the heat convection, which in turned affect the beam's refraction. This kind of problem would probably have Kira scrambling to reprogram the aiming system to account for the necessary parameters. He, on the other hand, decided to turn to his experience as an avid gamer. He neither had the ability and time to come up with all the necessary computations, nor he had the intent to do so. The last beam ended up swerving to the left a few meters away? Then the solution was to lead his aim. Tolle aimed to the right a bit and made his shot. This time, the shot hit the BuCUE's missile pod, and the mobile suit was forced to detach it before it exploded and taking the mobile suit along with it.

Surprised by what happened, the five BuCUEs retreated. Not wanting to waste an opportunity, Tolle shot again. This time, the shot barely missed one of them.

Tolle had the aiming down pat.

The only reason the shot didn't find its mark was because of the evasive movements the mobile suit had made. Still, he had managed to turn the situation around.

The hunters had become the hunted.

Buster was connected to Archangel and had an almost limitless power supply and cooling. That allowed Tolle to keep firing its 94mm high-energy rifle almost non-stop. On the other hand, the BuCUEs, armed with either twin 450mm railguns or 13-tube 400mm missile pod, were simply out-classed.

A stray missile managed to pass the CIWS screen and exploded against Buster's left leg. The cockpit screen showed a bar was knocked off the main power reserve, only to replenish twenty seconds later. A quick check on the statu1s indicated that Buster's power was at 91 percents, with more than 70 percent of munitions still unused. An idea occurred to him.

"Saber Fouer, maintain delaying action. How copy?" Miriallia said.

"Copy. Maintain delaying action," Tolle replied as he felt a chill in his body. It is as if his girlfriend knew he was planning to get off Archangel to chase after the BuCUEs. Her intuition in that regard was so uncanny that it scared him sometimes. Not wanting to dwell on it, he decided to refocus on his task. To show that he wasn't going anywhere, he kept firing from his position.

"Alcon! Alcon! Alcon! Unauthorized launch from port side!" Miriallia said suddenly.

Tolle barely reacted before the port side catapult door deployed and the backup Skygrasper exited it. "Who?"

Kojiro suddenly appeared on the screen. "The Royal Blue Falcon is piloting it! Got onboard while no one is looking!"

"Hey, watch it, it's a Leše-majesté!" Tolle blurted out what was on his mind. Even though it was euphemism for the downright insulting term 'buddy fucker', it was still considered an insult.

Kojiro seemed taken aback by a realization of what he did, but then narrowed his eyes defiantly. "Well, not my kingdom, Saber Fouer"

"Guess not." The man came from the Atlantic Federation, unlike Tolle and Miriallia. "Saber Wolf, what's the Royal Blue Falcon…er… I say again, what's the Royal Blue's vector?"

"240, 200 knots, 12,000 feet,"

As he suspected, the princess was heading toward the operation area. As the Desert Dawn was currently fighting against the ZAFT troop stationed at the facility, it would be logical to expect she wanted to assist it. "Relay the info to Saber One,"

Miriallia looked away for a moment, looking as if she was listening to something for a moment, nodded and turned back to the screen. "Wilco,"

It sucked to be Mu and Sai, but at least it's not Tolle's problem. A missile exploded against Buster's chest. Even though the explosion barely rocked the cockpit, Tolle let out an anguished shout. Given how close it was to the main camera, Kojiro would kill him!

Meanwhile, at another location, Sai was having a different of problem. The red mobile suit chasing after them was piloted by someone skilled. Sai didn't know how Kira managed to fight it to a standstill previously, but if he was alone, he would have been defeated a long time ago. As it was, he and Mu had been trying to gang up on their lone opponent using normal dogfight tactics for a while, but to no avail.

One of the tactics they had used involved baiting the mono-eyed mobile suit to chase after Aegis, which it did. Meanwhile Mu sneaked up from its rear to attack it. Mu had managed to do so, but just as he was about to shoot, their opponent, without changing its vector, aimed its beam rifle at Mu's Skygrasper and fired. It was only through the man' skills and experience that he managed to evade the shot aimed at the cockpit.

"Saber Three, incoming friendly Skygrasper," Mu said.

"Roger," The radar showed a unit designated as 'Royal Blue' moving toward the area.

Amidst the destruction of ZAFT's nuclear research facility, the battle between the defenders and the Eurasian task force continued to rage on, with the former being bolstered by the African Community military while later being aided by the local resistance fighters. The main objective had been achieved, but free assistance was still free assistance and very much appreciated. Sai knew that she would get in trouble later, but the Archangel's trio, duo can't very much do someone with diplomatic immunity.

"Alcon! Alcon! Alcon! Be advised, a bandit is heading to AO at high speed." Miriallia suddenly announced.

"Huh? I thought it's a friendly?"

Before Miriallia could reply, a shadow covered Aegis's main camera and a second later the cockpit was bathed in red light as the diagnostic system was screaming that the mobile suit had a lot of damages, causing it to careen out of sky. The same thing was happening to Mu's Skygrasper and the ZAFT unit they were fighting. Sai was fighting to maintain control of Aegis, that he failed to notice that the battle was forced into silence.

At the same time, a warning tone rang in the Strike's cockpit as an error text box popped up. Kira's eyes darted to the text box. It was saying something about security incongruity.

"Biological readings and records matched. Please say your name, followed by this unit's name and the action you're doing," a female voice echoed in the cockpit.

"What are you talking about?" Kira uttered as Strike blocked a beam shot. "I'm busy here,"

"Please say your name, followed by this unit's name and the action you're doing,"

Kira decided to humor the prompt so that it would shut up and not interrupt his focus. "Kira Yamato. Strike. Fighting!"

"Identity confirmed," the system responded with a new text box and another verbal prompt. "As MOMENTUS safeguard has been breached, it is suggested to initiate AG Protocol. Initiate AG Protocol?"

"What's AG Protocol?"

"Initiate AG Protocol?" the system repeated.

A swipe from LaGOWE's claw nearly hit Strike's head if not for the last moment's dodge. "Yes! Yes! Initiate AG Protocol!" Kira said, wanting the annoying audio prompt to stop.

"Command confirmed. AG Protocol initiated!"

The error text box disappeared, replaced with a box displaying a countdown timer. At the same time, another prompt appeared, telling him that someone was contacting him through an open channel. Guessing that it was from Andrew, Kira, despite his misgivings, opened the communication link. A small video opened, showing that it was Andrew, wearing a flight suit, confirming that he was piloting the LaGOWE.

"What did you do, kid?"

"Huh? What did you mean?"

"Radio on my side went dead. Did your side decide to kill all of them?"

"No!" Kira insisted strongly. "Of course… not," he continued, as doubt filtered through his thoughts.

"Seems like we have no choice but to kill or be killed as well, eh?"

"No! Wait! Something's not right!"

Andrew kept attacking Kira despite his plea for the man to cease fire. "I told you before! There's no such thing as a time out in a war!"

The orange tiger-like mobile suit again pounced on Strike, However, Kira quickly guided mobile suit to take a step backward using its left foot, while simultaneously performing a quarter rotation on its right foot and pushing the shield forward. The move redirected the ZAFT's mobile suit away, and it ended up on the ground on its back. Before Kira could take the next step, the quadrupedal moved its body to turn itself on the right side up and sprinted away.

"Mr. Waltfeld!" Kira said as he aimed at the main body and fired, but the shot only singed its left wing as his opponent changed its movement at the very last moment.

"There's no choice but to fight! It will not end until one of us is destroyed!"

Kira growled in frustration. Even if they were on the opposing sides, there was no need to fight to the death! But it seemed the man was insistent on forcing his hand. It seemed that there was no choice. Kira steeled his determination. There was no way he could allow himself to be defeated. Who knew what Andrew would do if he lost to the man? That was not the time to be arrogant. No mercy. "Very well," he said, almost choking with heartbreak. "If that's what you want,"

"This is it, kid,"

The two mobile suits stood across from each other, ready to end the fight. Strike rearranged its footing, stored its beam rifle and brought out the beam saber. Meanwhile, the LaGOWE took a step forward and hunched in a lunging position.

The wind blew as they waited for the opportune moment to start.

Then, the place became slightly dark as a small cloud covered the sun. That was the timing the two were waiting for. Strike began sprinting forward while LaGOWE glided through the terrain using its caterpillar threads.

Just as they were close enough, a beam shot in front of them, forcing them to evade.

The two mobile suits, one humanoid, and one beast-like, raised their heads to look at the source of the beam shot. With the sun behind it, the perpetrator was the familiar white mobile suit with black torso floating above them. This time, it had some sort of blue appendages which resembled wings on its back, spread out, outlining a visage of an angel descending on the field.

"To all parties. Stop all hostile actions or I would make you," a metallic sound reverberated through Strike's cockpit.

"Hey, what's the idea?" Andrew said.

"Mr. Waltfeld?"

"Later, kid. As for you, unnamed intruder, what's your deal, intruding on people's fight?"

"I would be the one who advocates for peace. You can call me Savior,"

"Whoa, complex much?" Andrew remarked. "So, mind telling us what you want?"

"I want everyone here to stop fighting. Your fight here has distorted the world's chances for peace. For what? A tactical victory which will lead to the destruction of PLANTs?"

"Wow, that is such a hyperbole that I don't know what to say," Andrew remarked. "Guess the evil warmonger like me has no choice but to fight you, eh?" Facing the white mobile suit, his metallic tiger got into a lunging position.

"Wait!" Kira interjected. "Were you the one who were at the orbit attacking one of our communication ships?"

"I was. Why?"

Kira felt anger seeping into his blood. Strike attacked the newcomer with the beam rifle.

The attacked mobile suit easily moved away and fired off its railguns. "Stand down, Strike's pilot,"

"No. You come here interfering in the fight just as you please."

"I have to. It's my responsibility, and I was entrusted with it,"

"No one's asking you your opinion about this," Andrew said as LaGOWE joined the fight, assisting Strike instead of fighting it. "I'm on your side this time, kid,"

"Roger that!" Kira replied, not understanding why the opponent he was fighting ended up on his side.

If Savior was bothered by Andrew attacking him, he didn't let it show. "Do you know about Antevorta?"

"I may have heard someone mention it at a party somewhere."

Kira renewed his attack. "You mentioned it that time, when you attacked Henry Bake!"

"Yes, I did."

"Athrun said that his team was trying to prevent a repeat of a nuclear attack. But in the end, all you did was attack a mere communication ship!"

"Not just a mere ship, but a possible singularity. In the end, it's all for naught, since the Doomsday Clock has restarted, advancing toward midnight."

Kira had heard about the metaphor of humankind causing a global catastrophe through unchecked scientific and technological advance. If the person called Savior said that the clock had advanced, that meant something had triggered the so-called movement.

"MOMENTUS reactor, the so-called 'safer' version of what our people are working on," Andrew said.

The Savior's mobile suit fired loose a few shots. "Correct. N-Jammer Canceller would allow normal nuclear reactors AND nuclear weapons to be used."

"That doesn't answer why you're fighting both of us. Shouldn't you assist Kira instead?"

In the midst of defending against the attack aimed at him, Kira said, "I don't want to fight together with him,"

"Nor will I work with someone as foolish. OMNI launched this attack because it wants to destroy the research on the N-Jammer Canceller technology and you're complicit in it, prolonging this war!"

"Then you're supposed to help us?" Andrew asked.

"Even though you're not giving your all fighting him?"

The remark jolted Kira's attention for a bit, but it finally made sense. If it was true, Andrew had the same issue of putting aside his personal feelings in the middle of the battle. Kira and Andrew were peas in a pod. Even if they were on the opposing sides, came from different backgrounds and had different experiences, in the end they were humans with similar problems.

"Whatever," Andrew sniffed. "Let's go, kiddo,"

"Roger that!" Kira replied.

The two reluctant allies fought the newcomer through a series of fakes and twists, firing their weapons while defending against retaliatory attacks. Even though they managed to prevent their adversary from gaining any advantage, both Kira and Andrew knew that unless they defeated the so-called 'Savior' soon, they would run out of energy.

It was then Strike began to behave strangely. Without Kira's guidance, it jumped to the air in a direction as the radar showed something was coming toward him. Strike jettisoned its equipment, as an unknown Striker Pack moved and deployed in its place. Less than a few seconds later, Strike was holding a new weapon.

"Essence of Shield?" Kira said as he looked at the weapon; that was the name of the weapon identified by the system. The so-called Essence of Shield looked like a type of sword, though it was around half the length of the Schwert Gewehr anti-ship Sword. The difference didn't stop there, as unlike Schwert Gewehr, the blade had a cutting edge on both sides with a corresponding beam blade emitter. However, due to its length, Kira couldn't imagine cutting mobile suits or ships sections easily with it. Maybe he could use it to stab instead? Kira activated the beam blades. The blade became engulfed in a flickering field of blue beam; it looked like the blade was on fire.

"No, this can't be. Is this… your answer?" 'Savior' said, disturbed by the appearance of the weapon.

"Yes!" Kira said. Emboldened, he stabbed the weapon through the shield of the other mobile suit. The shield seemed to resist the beam sword, but then gave way as it was pierced through. Strike thrusted the weapon upward, greatly damaging the shield.

The other mobile suit dropped the shield, showing that apart from the equipment, its left hand was also cut into pieces. "No! You're not supposed to do this!"

"I am!" Kira said as he attacked again, this time managing to stab the left shoulder. He pushed it upward diagonally, and managed to hit the other mobile suit in the left eye before it swerved backward.

"Even though I begged, this is your answer?!" Before Kira could launch another attack, the mobile suit kicked Strike away. It then slashed Strike's head off with the beam saber in its right hand. It then slashed a few more times, cutting off Strike's remaining appendages. It then fired its weapons at the LaGOWE below, disabling the orange mobile suit. "You resist me, even going so far to try to kill me!"

"You're too loud, that's the reason," Andrew groaned as his LaGOWE trembled a bit before toppling to the ground.

"Shut up! I'm not talking to you, low life." The white mobile suit with black torso didn't even turn, as Strike barely landed on the ground behind it. "Why couldn't you understand? You, who has blood on your hands! You're supposed to understand! Yet, you persist in your erroneous and sinful ways! DO YOU REALLY WANT TO DESTROY THE WORLD THAT MUCH?!" It turned its head toward Strike and LaGOWE for a moment, as if trying to decide something, before giving up and leaving.

The extent of damage the single mobile suit caused to both sides was only determined more than 12 hours later. To the Eurasian planners, including one Colonel Pogba, it was an important victory, even though it was a pyrrhic victory. The attack slowed or even stopped ZAFT from its research on an alternative nuclear power supply method. On the other hand, it had to write off all the Panzers while the special force consisting of the famous Archangel and its motley assets suffered heavy damage. Out of these, the damage inflicted on Strike was catastrophic, while its pilot was also injured.

The worst news that would keep most of the planners awake that night was the disappearance of the Skygrasper, piloted by Attha's scion.

TERMINOLOGY

Blue Falcon / Buddy Fucker: Someone who causes problem to other people.

BOHICA: Bend over, here it comes again. You're going to get screwed again.

Bogey: Suspicious / unknown unit.

Hostile: Confirmed enemy unit, to be engaged unless ordered otherwise.

SNAFU: Situational normal, all fucked / fouled up.

SUSFU: Situation unchanged, still fucked / fouled up.

A/N

1. This chapter is inspired by Akazukin Chacha, an anime which was broadcasted in 1990s.

2. This chapter is also inspired by Gundam Seed Destiny, where Shinn berated the Gundam-jackers trio, asking whether they were trying to cause another war.