Chapter 52
The two Ramius' and the male Yamato was still outside on the Archangel's deck messing around with all the snow, when the alarms started ringing loudly out through the entire space ship.
Hearing that Kira immediately got back up on his feet and looked up at the slightly grey sky, to see if there was any enemy mobile suits coming towards them. Yet as far as he could tell, there was nothing anywhere near the Archangel that could be consider a threat.
That however did not prevent him from trying to find the sources for the alarm.
If there really was something hostile approaching this place, he most definitely needed to get down to the Freedom in a hurry, so he could help Dearka take care of their unwelcome visitors.
Yet the only thing flying around over the Archangel was a small white and black bird, that did not seem to care about all the noise coming from the space ship. And it was pretty obvious by the way it kept circling around up there, that it was far more interesting in trying to find something to eat.
So after watching the tiny creature a bit longer, Kira turned his gaze over at the oldest one of the two Ramius', just as she opened her mouth and began talking loudly about the course for the alarm.
"What in God's name is going on now?!" Murrue asked, seriously worried that they where going to be attacked without having anytime to prepare for it. It was after all pretty easy to tell that attacking them right now wouldn't really be an overly risky move.
Fortunately it didn't really seem like an incoming attack, was the course for the loud noise around them. "Lets get inside and up to the bridge!" Murrue said in a bossy tone.
Then reached down and took a hold on her daughter's left hand, just to make absolutely sure that her small troublemaker got inside the white space ship with her and Kira. It definitely wasn't safe for Mayu to continue working on the snowman, when they had no idea about what was happening.
And knowing that it would not do them any good to keep on standing around out there, Murrue pull her daughter along with her over to the door. While Kira hurried followed them as they enter the ship.
Once inside they instantly heard Dalida's voice saying something about they having an emergency on their hands, and that it was necessary that everybody got to their assigned post immediately.
But even though the glasses wearing man's small speech, did sound quite serious. It honestly didn't really tell them anything, about what was going on. The only thing they now knew for sure, was that it had been Dalida who had started this whole racket.
And as the three of them quickly past the ship's Doctor, they didn't get much further before they meet up Miriallia and Dearka. And without saying even a single word to each other, the five of them continued the rest of the way to the Archangel's bridge.
Once there, Murrue Ramius hurried reached out and opened the door and stepped inside, where the first thing she saw was Dalida and Arnold busy working on their controls.
"What's going on you guys? You pretty much gave half of us a heart attack when you turned on the alarms!" She said loudly, while waiting impatiently to hear what they had to say about all of this.
She was actually so caught up in looking at the two of them and waiting for a response, that she didn't even noticed it when Mayu slowly pull her hand out of her tight grasp, and moved over next to Miriallia, where she immediately pull off the thick red winter coat and threw it on the floor.
Then hurried dropped down beside it and looked up at her mother. Also waiting to hear what this was about, seriously hoping that this was really important. She was after all far from happy about stopping her work on the snowman.
Especially seeing as her and Kira had been nearly done with it. Actually the only thing they needed to do now, was to find a few things to put on their white statue.
Yet as she was sitting there on the floor, Dalida hastily turned in his seat and looked over at the Captain. "Well you see Ma'am! Not long ago, we received these video footages from the Terminal" he said.
Then swiftly made the images of the completely annihilate city. And the monster which had been responsible for all of this pointless destruction appear up on the main monitor.
And just the shocking sight of the many destroyed buildings, and the realization that it had not been long since that a ton of innocent people, had died in this extremely merciless assault, was unsurprisingly more then enough to make each and ever one of them gasp loudly in disbelief.
And it took a few long highly tense seconds, before somebody manage to get a few words out. "Holy shit! What kind of sick bastard would actually attack a city like that, when it's still full of civilians?" Dearka asked, while slowly moving his gazes away from the few burning buildings that was still standing upraised, and over at the very thing, that had done all of this.
But even as each and every one of them where trying to come up with a response to that question, none of them really knew what to say at the moment. This whole thing just seemed so far out and unreal as it could possibly be.
So the deep almost unbearable silences continued for an unknown number of seconds. Until Kira finally took a single step forward where he instantly started talking in a low yet highly determined voice.
"I have no idea about what that thing is, but I'm going to stop it before it can do anything else like this. So if it's all right with you, miss Murrue, could we hurry after that thing? Before it can reach it's next target?" Kira asked, seriously not wanting to see another city being destroyed like this. If there was something he could do to stop it.
Hearing just how utterly pissed off Kira sounded right now, was enough to make Murrue look away from the screen, and over at the brown haired young man, where his expression immediately told her, that there was simply noway she could talk him out of going after that machine.
Not that she was actually going to do that, she too wanted to take that monster down, before it could do anymore harm. And knowing that she turned her somewhat angry gaze, over at Dalida where she immediately asked him if he knew anything about where that damn thing was heading.
Taking a quick look at the data, to try and figure out the answer to the captain's question. It only took a small moment or two, before they all saw Dalida give his low lips an extremely hard bite. "Well, according to this Captain, it's currently heading straight towards Berlin!" The man explained.
Not at all pleased with what Dalida had just told them, Murrue got a deeply displeased look in both of her eyes. They where after all quite far away from the German capital, so it would properly take them some time to get there.
"Ok, that means that we got a lot of distance to cover. So get us in the air immediately, Arnold and head full speed towards Berlin. And you Dalida make sure that all of the weapons are loaded. We do not want to face that monstrosity unprepared now" the woman order loudly, then hurried unzip her fluffy winter coat and placed it on the floor beside Mayu's.
After that she dropped down in to her seat and yell out a few more orders, which the two men and Miriallia instantly started working on.
Yet while they where doing that, the door to the bridge suddenly flew open and in stepped Cagalli with a somewhat pale look on her face. "I'm sorry about the delay guys. But when I was done talking with Amagi and the rest of the Orb soldiers, I had a small meeting elsewhere, I really needed to deal with" she explained, seriously hoping that they wouldn't ask her what she had been doing.
She really didn't feel like telling anybody, that she had been busy throwing-up when the alarm had sounded. And even though the blond woman had done everything she could to get up there in a hurry, she just hadn't been able to bring her unwanted appointment with the toilet to an end before now.
And even though they could all easily guess what she had been doing before getting up there, they all knew that it was a dumb idea to comment on it.
The blond woman had after all made it completely obvious to all of them, that throwing-up was not one of those things she enjoyed overly much, as a matter of fact, it piss her more than a little bit, every single time it was necessary for her to do that.
But still not wanting to hurt her feelings by not saying anything at all. Kira moved over and placed both of his hands on his sister's shoulders, then looked directly in to her eyes.
"So are you feeling all right now, sis?" He asked in a worried tone.
Which made Cagalli narrow both of her eyes a bit as she tried to decide if she should answer this question nicely or do the complete opposite. But in the end, a part of her realized that Kira was only asking her this because he was concerned about her and the baby's health.
And with those thoughts in mind she came to the realization that it was probably best to be nice to her brother right now. Besides it was not like this would be her last opportunity to say something nasty to him.
"I'm all right Kira, but I am really starting to get tired of all this damn morning sickness. I'm really looking forward to when that is over" she said, wondering just how much longer it would take before she would stop feeling nauseous half the time she was awake.
Feeling slightly sorry for her, Kira tried to think of something he could do to help her out.
It was not like he needed to get down to the Freedom right this instant, so if there was anything he could do for her right now, then that would be a good way to pass the time, while they where heading for Berlin.
"Why don't I go get you some water, sis? You do seem quite thirsty right now" Kira kindly said.
Thinking briefly about what her brother had just offer to do for her. It only took Cagalli a short moment to decide that it didn't really hurt that she bossed Kira around a bit right now.
She did after all still firmly believe, that every pregnant woman in this world should have a man close by to yell at and boss around. And even though she would honestly prefer to have Athrun as her personal servant.
Kira wasn't really the worse replacement she could get, he wasn't nearly as annoying as some of the other men on board the Archangel, she thought then took a brief glance over at Dearka, who at this very moment was standing only a few steps away from Miriallia, obviously watching the brown haired woman work so hard on the controls in front of her.
And as cute a couple as Miriallia and Dearka made, Cagalli truly was happy that he was not the one, function as her stand-in servant right now. It might not be nearly as bad as Mu La Flaga, but the former Buster pilot did have the highly annoying ability to get under her skin quite easily. Which was honestly not something she felt like dealing with right now.
So after looking at the blond simpleton a bit longer, she once more turned her attention back towards her brother. "Well if you insist on getting something to drink for me Kira, then I wouldn't say no, just make sure that the water is ice cold, I do not want it if it's lukewarm" she said, using a voice that made it completely obvious to all of them, that she wouldn't hesitate even a second, sending him down after a new glass of water, should she not be fully satisfied with the first one.
Raising an eyebrow at that, Kira felt slightly tempt to saying something about feeling sorry for what Athrun had to deal with once he returned back to them.
But fortunately his comment sense was able to prevent him from saying anything like that. Instead he just gave her a deep bow.
"Yes Ma'am I'll go get your ice water immediately. But is there anything else I can do for you, wash your mobile suit perhaps?" He asked, sounding exactly like that kind of waiter, most people would just hate to meet, when they where out having a nice dinner.
Just hearing how utterly sarcastic he sounded right now, was more then enough to make an angry gleam appear in each of Cagalli's eyes.
"Would you just hurry up and go get me my water you idiot! Before I kick you out of here!" She yelled.
Then hurried stormed over to the empty seat, which was locate next to Arnold's chair. Yet before sitting down, she made absolutely sure to send Kira one last cranky glare, which was meant to tell him to watch his mouth.
Yet the only thing he did, when she gave him that highly sulky look, was smile kindly at her as he turned around and slowly left the bridge. "I'll be back with your water as quickly as I can, sis" he called back to her, just as the thick metal door flew shut behind him.
"Man sometimes he can just be soooo annooooyyyiiiiing!" She mumbled loudly, before turning her grumpy gaze towards the control panel located directly in front of her, trying her best to see if there was anything she could do to help out up there.
But as she was busy typing away on the keyboard. She did not notice the slightly romantic display between Miriallia and Dearka.
"I'll see you once I get back Mir, so please don't worry about me" Dearka whispered softly in to her ear, then lean down and gave her left cheek a light kiss. Yet just as he was about to leave the room too.
Miriallia quickly grabbed on to his arm, which again made him look back at her where she gave him a small smile, before she used his arm to pull him just a bit closer to her.
And when he was only a few centimeters away from her, she slowly leaned in and gave his cheek a kiss back, then whispered into his ear, that she would be waiting for him to return.
Which was of course all that was needed to make him leave the bridge with a huge smile covering his entire face.
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Once out in the halls Dearka immediately took a look around after his fellow pilot, but there was no sign of him. Yet knowing that Kira was going for some water to his sister, Dearka had a pretty good guess on where exactly the Freedom pilot was heading.
So without wasting anymore time hanging around out there, the blond man hurried took off in the direction of the mess hall.
He seriously want to talk with Kira, before they reached Berlin. So the two of them could at least try and come up with some kind of strategy, to take down that ugly monstrosity.
If there was one thing Dearka realized about himself, then it was that he might not be the sharpest tool in the shed. But he really did think that it was absolutely insane to go against such a deadly machine, without at least having some idea about how to fight it.
It was not like they could just throw all of their mobile suits at it, and hope for the best.
So while still trying his very best to come up with a useable strategy, for facing that insanely huge machine. The blond mobile suit pilot increased his speed and started walking that much faster through the Archangel's halls.
Seriously hoping that he could catch up with Kira before he fellow pilot and friend could reach the mess hall.
Fortunately it did not take long before he spotted Kira walking a few steps ahead of him in a slow pace. Which made it pretty obvious that he wasn't in a big hurry to bring Cagalli the water he had promised her. And also that he had a great deal of things on his mind right now, most likely about what was happening near the German capital right at this very moment.
And knowing just how much this whole matter with Berlin being attacked was probably bothering the Freedom pilot, Dearka hurried call out after him. "Yo Kira, wait a sec, I really need to talk with you" he yelled loudly, as he hurried ran the last couple of steps over to his friend.
Where he immediately took a long breath, before asking the one question he had on his mind. "Kira do you have any ideas about just how exactly we are suppose to beat that thing?" He asked, doing next to nothing to hide that he was kinda low on suggestions about how to handle this situation. It wasn't like he had actually fought something that big before.
Not saying even a single word at first, Kira just stood there for an large number of seconds, just looking at his second best friend. Until he finally turned his thoughtful gaze downwards towards the floor.
"I really do wish I could tell you that I had some kind of a brilliant plan to handle this, Dearka. But it is kinda hard to come up with a strategy when we don't even know one thing about that monster and what kind of weapons it has" Kira said.
Then told the other pilot, that he actually thought that thing looked like some kind of floating fortress.
Thinking briefly about those words, Dearka slowly moved his hand up and rubbed his chin in a thoughtful way.
"Guess you are right, Kira. It really does look like some kind of badass fortress. But even knowing that, we still have no idea about what we are up against. Actually the only thing we know for sure, is that it had an amazingly high destructive capability" Dearka nervously said.
While thinking about what had been left of the first town, the floating fortress had gone through.
Of course knowing that his friend was right about that, Kira slowly reached up and ran both of his hands through, his messy brown hair. "Yeah we definitely shouldn't underestimate that thing, until we have a chance to try and figure out it's weakness" the pilot of the Freedom gundam said, sincerely hoping that the monstrosity would at least have a few of those, and that it wasn't completely indestructible.
Honestly not what Dearka had wanted to hear, he let out a long displeased sigh.
"Ahhh damn, that's not really much of a plan, Kira. I was kinda hoping that we could have thought up a totally unbeatable strategy, which would have enabled us to take down that thing in five minutes or less" the blond man said. Then slowly rubbed away the few drops of sweat that was presently making their way down his forehead.
Not once taking his eyes away from his second best friend, Kira had no trouble understanding at all what Dearka meant by that. Truth be told he too would have liked to have some kind of battle plan to fight the floating fortress.
But that was pretty much impossible, without anymore information about the monster. "Yeah tell me about it, Dearka. I too ain't really overly excited about the idea of just rushing in there and start fighting that thing head-on" he stated in a unhappy voice.
Then turned around and began walking the rest of the way to the mess hall.
He was pretty certain that his cranky sister was starting to run very low on patient waiting for him to return with her water. So it was probably best that he got moving before she actually started yelling at him over the speakers.
Seeing him go like that, Dearka hurried up beside him. "Well, ain't this just going to be fun" he grumbled displeased.
Just as Kira nodded slowly in agreement.
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Meanwhile only a few dozen kilometers away from Berlin.
None of the Earth Forces soldiers present there knew just what kind of powerful opponents, that was currently making their way towards them at this very moment in time.
Instead most of their attention was turned towards the about fifty different type of Zaft mobile suits, which was hastily approaching their position obviously hoping that they could somehow prevent them from entering the enormous city.
"Hah! Can't those pathetic losers find something else to throw at us, those older models are completely worthless!" Sting laughed loudly, then immediately used a bunch of the Destroy's beam weapons to shoot down eight DINNs that was trying to attack him from above. Not that they had much luck with that, before he destroyed all of them, like they weren't even worth the metal they had been made of.
After that he moved forward a bit and fired of yet another round of beams taking out ten BuCUEs that had been attacking him from the ground. And when he saw all of the four legged mobile suits blow up, he instantly let out a highly wicked laugh.
"Die you annoying bugs, DIE!" He shouted happily, while opening fire on a large squadron of incoming GINNs, which was hastily approaching him by Guul. But even though he did manage to take out a sizeable portion of them in just one go.
The rest still succeeded in getting off a minor bunch of missiles.
Yet thanks to the highly useful beam shield, the enormous war machine did not get any kind of damage, from the minor explosions the missiles made when hammered against the Destroy's defense.
Actually the only thing the warheads did was send a light shiver through the Destroy, which was more then enough to make a huge pissed off frown appear on Sting's forehead, as he glared a second or two after the GINNs.
And when it looked like they where about to attack him again, he instantly shoot off a huge amount of missiles back after the GINNs. Truly enjoying the sight of them trying to evade the many warheads, not that any of them actually succeed in doing that.
And once the last of them had blown up in a smaller explosion.
The green haired man let out another sickening laugh as he continued slowly moving the Destroy forward.
Not having any trouble at all dealing with the few remaining Zaft mobile suits, that was still trying to prevent him and the rest of the Earth Forces from taking their little trip through Berlin.
Yet while Sting was having the time of his life destroying whatever Zaft machine that got close to him. Neo was watching his every move with a deeply ashamed look in both of his eyes, it did not matter how much he tried rationale what was going on around him made a big part of him feel like his conscience was ready to jump out of his body and start yelling at him.
And it did not really help, that those now highly familiar faces was presently flying full speed through his head right now. It was actually so bad that he was tempted to take off his helmet, so he could at least try and get rid of this extremely painful headache.
But as he sat there trying so hard to ignore the many disappointed looks he was receiving right now. He was instantly pulled out of his conflicting thoughts, by a minor explosion that happened only a few dozen feet away from him.
And the sight of the destroyed DINN falling straight towards the ground not that far away from him, made it completely clear to the mask man that he had been more then a little close, to have been shot down by friendly fire.
"Sting would you PLEASE watch where you aim all of those damn weapons! I don't know about the rest of us out here. But I would like very much to get out of this battle alive and in one piece!" Neo yelled angrily to the violent teenager.
Just as another highly deadly attack left the Destroy, taking out a great number Zaft BuCUEs and GAZuOOTs. "Yeah yeah Neo, it's not like I was trying to shot you down on purpose. I just saw an enemy machine and shot it down, precisely like I'm doing with the rest of these so called pieces of useless trash!" He shouted proudly as another round of missiles left the Destroy, heading for three DINNs that was actually trying to get away from the battle.
And once the three Coordinators had joined up with their pitiful friends in hell. Sting continued onward towards Berlin, not caring one bit about the many mobile suits he had destroyed, or the fact that he had almost kill one of his comrades in arms.
Frankly the only thing the green haired man cared about right now was getting to Berlin as quickly as possible, even if that meant he had to disobey Neo's orders.
He simply weren't satisfied with all the destruction he had cost or all the lives he had taken. He just needed to find somebody else to show that it was a very bad idea to mess with him.
And what better place to do that, then the capital of a country.
So while smirking like a absolute maniac over what he was about to do. He of course didn't realize, that Neo was glaring more then a little hatefully down at the back of the Destroy, as it slowly made it's way to the grand city which could now clearly be seen in the far distance.
"Damn that brat, I just knew that it was a bad move on my part putting that trigger-happy idiot in the Destroy" the blond man grumbled to himself. Even though he knew that the only alternative he had for a pilot to the Destroy had been Stella.
And he was pretty certain that there was just noway the girl would be able to handle the large enormous of stress, she would most likely get from piloting the Destroy in the broken down condition she was in.
He wasn't even totally sure that it had been wise putting her in the Chaos. And if he should suddenly get the opportunity. He would more then gladly send the teenager girl back to the Bonaparte.
And just the thought about how absolutely depressed she had been since the Impulse pilot had returned her to them. Made the mask man take a short glance over at the green mobile suit.
Sincerely wondering just how the blond girl was handling everything that was happening around her right now. Up until now, she hadn't said even one word since they left the Bonaparte, it was kinda like she had actually fallen asleep over there in the gundam.
Yet just as he was about to ask her if she was doing all right over there, the gundam suddenly shot forward full speed, and took off in the same direction Sting and the Destroy was currently heading in.
Seeing that and knowing where the two teens was going. Neo gave his lower lips a hard bite, then he tighten his grip on the controls, as he took off after the kids and the rest of the Windams.
Still cursing loudly inside his mind about the gruesome disaster they where about to unleash on Berlin.
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It was about ten minutes after the first wavy of Zaft mobile suits had been send out to intercept the huge monstrosity that had been approaching the capital.
Unfortunately they apparently didn't have much luck with that. Seeing that it hadn't been long since the monster had crossed the city border.
And was now ruthlessly destroying everything in it's path, buildings, mobile suits, and even the poor people down on the street that was trying so hard to escape from the machine.
"Damn those Earth Forces bastards, I just can't believe that they brought something like that here!" A lonely Zaft soldier coursed. While taking a glance away from the unconscious child in his arms and up at the monster that was busy reducing one of the city's main streets to nothing more than a pile of rubble.
He did however not get long to watch the damn piece crap, before he almost tripped over a few big rocks which had most likely fallen of some of the buildings around him.
And after coursing loudly about that too.
He swiftly regained his balance and once more turned his attention back towards where he was going. Sincerely hoping that he could find someplace, where he could get a few moments, to get some much needed air back down into his lungs.
The young Zaft soldier might be in excellent shape, but carrying this kid and all of his equipment seriously was taking the toll on him right now. And he would honestly give his left arm away for a small break to get rid of his equipment.
It wasn't like a normal machine rifle or anything else he was dragging along with him would do much against that monster. And if he could somehow get the necessary time, to get rid of all of this damn junk on his back. He would at least be able to run that much faster.
"Damn it! DAMN IT! I should have done what my mother said, and been a dentist instead!" He complained loudly. Even though he honestly didn't regret his decision to become a Zaft soldier. He just wished he knew where the rest of his squadron where. And that high command could throw something a tiny bit more powerful at that damn thing.
But the black haired man kept on running down the deadly obstacle course the street had been turned into.
He just couldn't help wonder what the heck the people in charge was doing right about now. He just hoped that they where doing everything possible to come up with an idea to stop that damn thing.
Yet as those highly serious thoughts was rummaging hastily through his mind. He and the boy was suddenly thrown full speed forward, by an enormous explosion that happened only a few feet behind him.
And immediately realizing that it simply wouldn't do them any good trying to resist gravity. He swiftly turned sideways so the backpack would take the brunt of the fall.
But as he slammed full force into the unsteady ground, he could of course not keep the words of pain in.
Hitting the thick asphalt so unbelievably hard, truly was the most painful thing he had ever experienced, in his young life. And he practically had to force himself not to past out right then and there.
Yet as every last fibre of his being was screaming at him to get up and get moving. His body functions just wouldn't listen to him, it was almost like both of his legs weight over a ton each.
"Get up you lazy bastard, you can't lay here the rest of the day!" He growled softly to himself, then started working on getting the damn backpack off. There was just noway he could keep going with that stupid thing on.
But as much as he tried to do this small task in a hurry. It took almost five whole minutes to get the heavy piece of crap off. Mostly thanks to the large amount of pain that was shooting through just about every single part of his body.
It was actually so bad that he kinda felt like even his torn up clothes where hurting right now. "Damn it, I'm seriously going to ask for a big raise and a big shiny medal once this is over!" He said out through the pain.
Just as he dropped the annoying backpack and the machine rifle, on the ground behind him. Not that he cared one bit about that, frankly the only thing on his mind as he was stood there, looking very much like a small gust of wind, could knock him over, was getting himself and the kid out of there as quickly as humanly possible.
"Ahh damn it kid, you better name one of your children after me!" The beaten up man said.
Then slowly kneel down and carefully picked up the small kid. Doing his best to ignore all the pain, as he once more stood up straight and began slowly limping away from the battlefield with the child in his arms.
He did however not get very far, before he noticed that his left leg was feeling somewhat soaked and that it hurt slightly more then anything else on his body. If that was even possible.
And after shifting his weight around a bit he saw a great deal of blood was now slowly running down his leg. "Well ain't that just great! This whole thing just keeps on getting better and better"
Then kept on limping slowly down the street, sincerely hoping that he could increase the distance between them and the monster. Before it could course another explosion like the last one.
To be continued.