I am sorry that this chapter took so long, but with everything that has been happening this year, I have been feeling kinda down in the dumps, close to a depression, so writing was not really something I was in the mood for. I hope you guys understand, and that you are all doing well.
Also, thank you all for answering the question I had in the last chapter.
Chapter 88
Neither Dearka or Mu moved even an inch, as they watched the Minerva's four gundams rapidly approaching them. It did not take a genius in mobile suit combat to tell, that enemy units had their sight firmly set on the two of them, which was not really all that surprising considering all the damage they had done thus far to the ZAFT forces.
"So how do you want to handle this, Commander?" Dearka asked Mu, while taking a quick glance down at his controls, to see how much power the Yami had left, fortunately his new machine still had more than enough juice to keep the fun and games going.
Letting out a thoughtful sound. "Do you think if we ask nicely, they'll just turn around and leave?" Mu asked.
"Maaaybe. Give it a shot if you want, Mu! It's not like a little positive thinking has ever hurt anybody. But if you want my honest opinion buddy, I seriously doubt that's going to work, especially considering that the crazy one who almost killed Kira is among them. According to Athrun he is far from a reasonable person. So trying to talk him out of a fight, might be an even bigger challenge than just kicking the snot out of him!".
Thinking a brief moment or two about his own encounters with the red eyed boy who used to pilot the Impulse, especially the battle where he, Stella, Auel and Sting had attacked the Minerva and that one Vosgulov-class ship, Auel had taken out at the end. Back then, the young ZAFT pilot had made it clear to him, that even though he was quite skilled, he was also short tempered and very aggressive when in battle.
"Guess we have to resort to violence then. Since your machine is a great deal faster than mine, see if you can't distract the closest one of them, and maybe even get it to follow you away from it's three friends, if you do that, I'll keep an eye out for an opportunity to finish it off from behind!" Mu said, honestly a bit annoyed, that they did not have time to come up with a better strategy than this, since this plan of attack would put Dearka at risk.
"Great plan Mu! I just love being bait!" The Yami pilot growled sarcastically. Then swiftly got the Yami over into its mobile armor mode, where he without wasting even a second fired a half dozen missiles at the lead unit, which just so happened to be the Destiny. Athrun had told him a little about what each one of ZAFT's newest gundams looked like and who was piloting them. Of course realizing that those missiles was not going to be nearly enough to finish off the mostly blue and gray mobile suit, Dearka whispered the words here goes nothing, then took off in the same direction as the warheads, knowing that he was in for the fight of his life.
Cursing angrily at the sight of the missiles coming towards him, Shinn quickly grab onto the beam sword, then drove headfirst straight towards the first one of the many warheads, cutting it in half just before it could hit him. Yet even with it blow up directly in front of him, the pissed off red eyed boy forced his way though the thick smoke, cutting apart another missile in the process just before it could pass him, then used two machine cannons in the Destiny's head to destroy the rest of the warheads before they could even get close to him, with that obstacle out of the way, Shinn continued heading towards the black Murasame like gundam.
Seeing the Destiny coming at him like a runaway freight train or a like a bull in a china shop, Dearka wondered briefly if it was too late to change his mind and have Mu function as the distraction instead of him, while he attacked the blue and gray gundam from behind.
'Ohh man, what did I get myself into? I need to find a less dangerous job, like on board an rusty fishing trawler out on the north sea, or perhaps down in the deepest part of a coal miner. Hmm alligator wrestler also sounds like a real hoot right about now, or minefield remov...' Dearka did however not get a finish his list of what he would rather be doing at the moment, when he heard the Destiny pilot scream the word die out through the radio, as he swung the large beam sword out after him.
'Guess the little psychopath hasn't change much since his battle with Kira' the Yami pilot thought, rolling sideways in an upward motion, Dearka kicked out after the Destiny with the right beam blade, their weapons clashing briefly as they passed one another, swirling around Dearka got the Yami back over into its mobile suit mode, then immediately fired three rapid shots from the beam rifle in quick succession, plus the gatling guns at the Destiny. Yet the only thing he succeeded in hitting was its beam shield, then it once more came charging full speed towards, while raised its left arm, firing its long-range beam cannon at him.
Ducking down under the powerful red beam, Dearka growled out a few angry curses, as he fired two more shots up at the quick moving Destiny. "Hm this stupid thing, the beam cannon on its left arm, the sword in its right one!. Heh, so this is what its like to fight the Strike when it's using all three Striker Packs at once, hell it is like going up against a Perfect Strike gundam. Speaking of the Strike, where the hell is Mu!? I thought we had some ingenious scheme to beat this guy!" He said then as he evaded a couple of green beams, he took a look around after the Akatsuki, spotting it clashing with the Legend, their beam sabers locked tightly together, each one of them struggling hard to over power each other.
Knowing that there was no way Mu could get away from the successor of the Providence gundam, Dearka once more turned his attention back towards the Destiny, that was still shooting at him like there was tomorrow.
"Ohh this is just great, it looks like I got no other choice but to beat this thing on my own" the Yami pilot mumbled under his breath, then threw himself sideways into some thick clouds, barely avoiding getting hit by yet another red beam fired from the Destiny, unfortunately thanks to the black color scheme of his mobile suit, Dearka of course realized that it wasn't overly hard to spot him in there. So after taking a deep breath, he rushed full speed out of the clouds again, firing all long range weapons at the blue and gray gundam, that quickly activated those strange wings on its back, throwing itself backwards to avoid his attacks, then rush straight at him holding onto it's beam sword.
Seeing that, Dearka angrily narrowed his purple eyes. 'Damn, long range just ain't working against this guy, so lets take things up a notch, and get in close and personal' he thought, even though he wasn't really overly pleased with that idea. One thing Dearka Elsman knew from all the battles he had lived through over the years, was that melee combat was far from his expertise. He seriously preferred fighting from a distance, while leaving those battles that required a beam saber to either Kira or Athrun. Not that he hadn't gained a bit of experience using a saber, thanks to his good old Murasame.
So without further ado, Dearka hammered the lift stick forward and pressed down on one of the foot pedals, thereby making the Yami blast off full speed towards his opponent. Rolling rapidly from side to side, Dearka reached out to activate his gundam's special feature, then quickly pull out the right beam saber, which meant that he now had both of them at hand.
Seeing the black gundam coming right at him, made a small smirk appear on Shinn's face. The prospect of beating the living daylight out of the stupid bastard responsible for causing so much damage to the Minerva, was just so exhilarating. Yet Shinn's deep excitement for the upcoming battle was quickly replaced by astonishment, when he noticed that his opponent seemed to be weaponless.
"Wh...? What the hell is up with this guy?! Is he suicidal or something?!" The red eyed teenager wondered out loud, he just couldn't fathom that somebody was actually crazy enough to challenge him and his Destiny gundam, with nothing but their fists. But on the other hand, if this dumb bastard want a one way trip to hell that badly, Shinn was more than willing to personally send him there.
So with the smirk returning to his face, Shinn quickly raised the beam sword above the Destiny's head. Then raced off to meet the black gundam, hoping to cut it in half and be done with it, then move on to help Lunamaria and Rey against the golden gundam, at least the pilot of that machine seemed to be taking this battle a lot more serious.
Once the two gundams was about to clash, Shinn shouted loudly as he swung the beam swords downwards, yet the very instant he did that the black mobile suit threw itself to the side making a quick slashing motion with the right hand, it was then Shinn heard Nicol shout out a warning to him, which immediately made him activate the Wings of Light, moving hastily away from the creepy looking gundam, once there was a bit of distance between them Shinn realized that the handle of the left beam boomerang had been cut off.
"How the hell did that happen!? How was he able to damage the Destiny with no weapons?!" The boy shout loudly.
"That's where you are wrong Shinn, this thing does have weapons, it can use Mirage Colloid on its handheld weapons!" Nicol said impressed by this mobile suit's special ability.
It was then, that both of them heard a laughter echo out through the radio. "I guess you of all people should know quite a bit about Mirage Colloid, you dumb son of a bitch, so how's it hanging, Nicol? Are you still able to fall asleep at night without feeling guilty from everything you have done?" Dearka asked in a mostly friendly tone.
Silently looking the black gundam over in an attempt to figure out what else it might be capable off. "Yeah I sleep just fine Dearka, I got this cute red haired girl sleeping beside me" Nicol said back in the same tone of voice.
"Good for you Nicol Amalfi, I guess as a friend I should congratulate you on finally landing yourself a cute girlfriend! I am certain that if Mayura had been here, she would have been ecstatic by such news, even though you are trying to destroy her homeland!" Dearka growled sarcastically.
"Shut up Dearka! I am doing these things to honor Mayura!" Nicol growled angrily, changing his hold on the Adamant's beam lance.
Making the two gatling guns spring forth, as the Yami and the Adamant kept on slowly circling one another, each former member of the Le Creuset Team waited patiently to see, who of them was going to make the first move.
"Heh, well if I told myself such utter drivel, perhaps I too would have an easy time sleeping at night, even after betraying all of my friends. Or is it just being around that red haired witch of a girlfriend, that makes it so easy for you to forget everything you have done, traaaitor?" The Yami pilot asked.
"Why you! Don't you dare call Lunamaria such names, Dearka!" Nicol yelled barely able to control his temper, the young green haired man of course realized what his old friend was doing, he was trying to rattle him up so he would make some sort of mistake, yet Nicol was absolutely determined not to fall for the ruse.
"Ohh I am sorry, would you prefer if I call her bitch instead!?" Dearka asked next.
Upon hearing those Nicol let out a loud shout then rush full speed forward towards the creepy black gundam, firing all the Adamant's and the Guul's missiles in the process.
Seeing the large amount of warheads coming straight at him, Dearka smirked sadly, he had done it, he had succeeded in pissing off one of the most down to earth people he knew. The Yami pilot thought briefly about his and Nicol's time at the academy, back then the green haired man, along with Athrun and good old Rusty, had been the most reasonable members of their class, yet now Nicol was pretty much acting like a complete maniac.
'Mayura I am sorry, but I have to stop him! Even if it means killing him, I will not let him destroy Orb! Especially not in your name' Dearka thought, barely able to control his emotion, just the mere prospect of killing one of his oldest friends, was something that fill Dearka Elsman with so much dread that he felt like his heart was being torn out of his chest. Yet he knew that he could not afford to hold back against him, Nicol had made it perfectly clear when he had been about to shoot Athrun, during his escape from Gibraltar, that he did not see any of them as friends any longer.
'If Athrun hadn't told me himself, I would not have believed that Nicol was willing to kill him!' The blond man thought, moving swiftly to the right firing the gatling guns at the rapidly approaching warheads.
Even with the large amount of smoke from the exploding missiles spreading all around them, Dearka was still able to spot Nicol's mostly green mobile suit diving head first into the thick smoke, clearly attempting to conceal itself in there until it had the perfect opportunity to strike.
'Ohh so that's your game Nicol. Well since there is more than enough smoke out here to hide both of us, I hope you don't mind me copying your tacti...' yet before Dearka had a chance to follow through with that idea, the control panel began beeping loudly, which was all the reason the blond haired man need to immediately press down on the right foot pedal thereby sending the Yami full speed forward, just nearly avoiding getting his new mobile suit's head chopped off by the Destiny's beam sword.
"That wasn't very nice, but I guess I should not be surprised to discover that you are so cowardly Destiny brat, that you do not mind attacking somebody from behind, you creepy little bastard" Dearka said, hoping that by keeping the provocation going, he could rile Shinn Asuka up even further, as much as he hated to admit it, the Yami pilot of course realized that the chances of him beating the two ZAFT gundams all on his own was very unlikely, but at least if he could keep both enemy pilots angry, they would hopefully be unable to coordinate their attacks. Hell if he was lucky he might even get an opportunity to turn their abilities against one another.
Judging from how quickly the Destiny brat took aim at him with the long range beam cannon, pissing him off was most definitely something Dearka had succeeded in doing, which was not really all that surprising considering the brat's personality, how he had been able to graduate from ZAFT's military academy, was honestly a bit of a mystery to Dearka, as far as he remembered being at least somewhat level-headed was required, which was most certainly not something one could claim Shinn Asuka was. Someone, probably Gilbert Durandal had to have pulled a lot of strings to allow the brat to pass, if he to guess it was likely because Durandal had at some point before the war broke out, realized how skilled a pilot the crazy kid could become, even with his short temper.
Dearka did however not get long to wonder about just how much leeway the ZAFT Chairman was granting a person so ill-fitted to be a soldier, as Shinn Asuka, when the little bastard fired the beam cannon at him. Cursing softly under his breath, Dearka with no hesitation at all, got the Yami over into it's mobile armor mode, then flew straight towards the powerful red beam, rolling sideways up over shot, while firing the beam rifle and gatling guns back at the Destiny gundam, that much to his annoyance activated those strange Wings of Light things on it's back, thereby making itself seem all blurry as it quickly backed away from him, while continuously firing its own rifle at him. Once in range, Dearka immediately got back over into mobile suit mode, then thrusted one invisible beam saber out after the blue and gray gundam, trying with all his might to pierce the cockpit, and put an end to the Shinn Asuka's miserable life right then and there, unfortunately the only thing he succeeded in hitting was the Destiny's beam shield.
"Damn! You do know that a beam shield, was not something the Strike had you stupid copy!" The blonde man cursed loudly, then upon seeing the Destiny reach out after him with the right hand, Dearka immediately threw himself full speed backwards away from the other gundam. Grateful for the fact that his good buddy Athrun, had told him everything he remembered from his own encounter with the Destiny, otherwise Dearka would not have known to keep an eye out for the palm weapons.
Firing the gatling guns and the beam machine guns, Dearka quickly got ready to charge forward again, when two beams cut him off. Looking up he saw the familiar form of the Adamant thrusting its nasty looking beam lance down at him from above, clearly aiming to impale the Yami's head, countering that move with the beam shield, Dearka soon found himself struggling to keep the green ZAFT gundam at bay, while the Yami was without a doubt the most powerful mobile suit Dearka had ever piloted, the Adamant definitely had him beat in the raw strength department.
'This ain't working! There is no way I can overpower him like this, I have to get some distance and keep moving around, if I can take out that bizarre Guul of his, I can at least ground him' with that thought in mind, Dearka activated both beam blades, kicking out after the Adamant with the right one, yet the very instant Nicol backed away to avoid that attack, the blonde man dropped down a bit, then kicked out after the Guul with the other leg, only missing by an inch.
Keeping on his trail, Dearka made the rapid decision, that if he could keep the close quarters combat with the Adamant gundam going until he could destroy the Guul, it might just prevent Shinn from shooting too much at him, in the fear that he might accidentally hit Nicol, taking a glance to the side, he saw that the Destiny was just floating there, clearly waiting for an opening. Ignoring it for not, Dearka again fired the gatling guns at the Adamant, unfortunately only about twenty or so bullets left the machine cannons, before the screen inside the Yami flashed again and again with the word empty.
"Great, this just keeps getting better and better! Hmm, maybe if I call for time out here, the two little bastards, will let me head on back to the Archangel, to reload" he mumbled sarcastically, only to bite his lower lips afterwards, as he watched the Adamant leap away from the Guul, transforming in mid-air over into it's mobile armor. Then before Dearka even had time to be awestruck by the enormous tank, it fired the two smaller beam cannons at him, yet as Dearka rolled skillfully in between the green beams, Nicol fired the plasma cannon next. Instantly realizing that he did not have time to evade the incoming attack, Dearka swirled around, throwing one of the Anti-Armor Penetrator down into the powerful red beam. The explosion that followed after that move send him whirling backwards in an uncontrollable manner.
"Ahh damn it, someone remind me never to do that again!" Dearka growled angrily, struggling hard to both to regain control of the Yami, and keep down his breakfast, this violent spinning and shaking, was seriously worse than going on a roller coaster forty times in a row, it did not help much, that he out of the corner of his eye spotted the Destiny not that far behind him, with its beam sword raised above its head, just waiting for him to get close enough so it could strike him down.
Not finding the prospect of being sliced to bits all that appealing, Dearka did the only thing he could think of in the heat of the moment, he reached out and got the Yami over into its mobile armor mode, then blasted off downwards in a random direction, with a large number of green beams fly all around him, he now had both of his opponents hot on his tail, each one of them more than happy to use him as target practice.
"Dearka buddy are you ok? That looked pretty rough!" He heard Mu asked over from the Akatsuki.
Forcing back the vomit that was threatening to leave his mouth. "Other than the fact that, I will never be able to visit an amusement park with my girlfriend ever again, I am just dandy, Mu. What about you? Are you ok" Dearka asked back with a hint of worry in his voice, thinking about everything Athrun had told him about ZAFT's newest gundams, the fact that the Legend was a more advanced version of the Providence, was all the young pilot of the Yami needed to figure out, that one should not underestimate that mobile suit under any circumstances.
"For now I am alright. But there is no way the two of us are going to be able to win against these guys on our own, we are going to need reinforcements very soon, otherwise the two of us are likely to end up dead, and I already tried that once before, it was not something to write home about. Besides, I have a few things I need to discuss with a certain beautiful brunette" Mu said, briefly considered requesting assistance from Kazuma and the rest of their Murasames, yet he begrudgingly realized that if he did that, those guys would get slaughtered almost immediately.
'God damn it all! How the hell are we suppose to beat these guys, we are running out of options here!' Mu thought angrily, sending a concerned glance in the direction of the Yami, that in its mobile armor mode was being chased all over the place by the Destiny and Adamant that was continuously shooting at him. And while Dearka was doing a good job of keeping them distract and shooting back whenever there was an opportunity to do so, it was obvious that the kid would not be able to keep it up for much longer. Yet as much as Mu wanted to go give him a helping hand, he of course knew that if he did that, he would lead the Legend and the Impulse right to him.
'Kira, where the hell are you?! Fighting these guys on our own stopped being fun awhile ago!' the blonde man thought with a deep frown, just as he clashed with the Legend, their sabers locked together. Staring intensely into the face of the mostly gray, green-eyed mobile suit, Mu wondered why the hell he was able to tell, that this was the same guy that used to pilot that white ZAKU Phantom he had fought against when he had helped the Earth Alliance steal the Chaos, Gaia and Abyss, this was White Baldy. But what was it about this guy that made it so that he could sense him, unlike Kira who Mu could also sense, he had as far as he knew no connection to this White Baldy guy, he knew nothing about him, not even his name.
Yet Mu was quickly reminded that now really wasn't the beat time for him, to try and figure out this mystery, when the Legend suddenly broke the saber lock, then violently bashed aside his beam saber, before slamming shoulder first into the front of the Akatsuki, hastily backing away from the DRAGOON equipped gundam just as it tried to pierce his mobile suit's cockpit, Mu grabbed on to the beam rifle then without even aiming properly he fired two quick shots at the rapidly approaching death machine, thereby forcing White Baldy to cease with his relentless attack, and focus on his defense instead.
With the gray mobile suit now backing away from him with its beam shield raised, Mu carefully took aim at the Legend's head, yet before he could even get a shot off, his second adversary decide to stick their nose in their not so friendly 'squabble', charging towards him with blazing machine guns, and one of its sabers raised above its head, clearly preparing to cut off the Akatsuki's right arm. Waiting for the exact moment the Impulse swung its melee weapon down at him, Mu rolled sideways around the blue and white gundam, ending that maneuver with a hard kick into the Impulse's behind, sending it tumbling forward with it's back exposed. Not wasting anytime, Mu quickly aimed the beam rifle at the vulnerable gundam, knowing that shooting an opponent from behind like this, was something he was going to feel guilty about later, but he figured that if he and Dearka did NOT fight dirty, there was no way either of them would make it out of this alive.
Yet before he could press down on the trigger and finish the Impulse gundam off once and for all. He was hit by a large number of beams from the Legend , and while none of them did any damage to the Akatsuki, the beams simply bounce of the armor and flew of in the same direction they had been fired from. Yet the one beam that hit right between the eyes, did momentarily blind him. Knowing where both of his opponents were, Mu turned, then blasted off backwards away from them, determined to keep moving around until he could shake away the sports from his eyes.
"Damn, of all the things that can be defective on this thing! Why does it have to be the camera! If my two 'playmates' realize they can blind me like that, it wouldn't be hard for them to kill me... If I survive this Erica Simmons the two of us, are going to have a long chat about running a few more maintenance checks, on new mobile suits!" The blonde man growled under his breath.
Once Mu was finally able to see properly again, he saw the Legend followed shortly by the Impulse coming straight at him, each one of them holding onto their beam sabers. Knowing that if he were to challenge both of them in close quarters combat at the same time, his new gundam would surely end up losing quite a few bits and pieces, which was something The Hawk of Endymion was absolutely determined to prevent from happening no matter what, so while mumbling the words here goes nothing, he fired a quick shot at each one of the approaching gundams, then swung around and took off in the opposite direction, turning and shooting back at them whenever he found an opportunity to do so.
Mu had however not been playing tag with the Legend and the Impulse for very long, when he suddenly heard his buddy Dearka curse loudly. "Ahh to hell with it! Don't you realize this gundam is brand new! So stop wrecking it Destiny brat! Geez you have no idea about how much I hate you!" The Yami yelled, even though he had long since cut of the communication with the two ZAFT gundam, not wanting to listen to Shinn and Nicol blabber on any more than he had too.
Making certain to keep moving, Mu swirled around himself and took a short glance in the direction of the Yami, the brief sight of it's chopped off left arm falling towards the ground so far below them, made the angry frown on Mu's face grow even deeper, if this battle went on for much longer, he was certain that Dearka would end up dead, that thought alone made a few faint images of that Miriallia girl kneeling on the floor, crying softly while asking him where somebody named Tolle was, yet those memories was verge that it instantly made his head feel like it was about to explode, as he tried to remember what he had forgotten.
'Ahh damn this hurt. I am so sick and tired of these damn headaches, I need to find someway to get my memories back!' The blonde man thought, while violently shaking his head, in what turned out to be a feeble attempt to get rid of the extremely agonizing headache. It was at that very moment when he was hit by another round of beams from the Legend's many DRAGOONs, that he start talking loudly to his young friend and fellow pilot.
"Dearka hurry up and retreat, leave these four to me!" Mu ordered in a deeply serious tone.
Rushing forward while continuously firing the beam rifle at the Destiny that was using it's beam shield to defend itself. "Yeah right! That's NOT going to happen Mu, there is no way in hell I am leaving you to fight these bastards on your own!" Dearka yelled back, as he rolled in skillfully between a couple of incoming missiles, then got the Yami back over into its mobile armor mode, ducking into some thick clouds, with the Destiny and Adamant still trying to blow him out of the sky.
"God damn it kid! Why the hell do you have to be so damn stubborn you stupid little fool? Retreat already!" Mu ordered at the top of his lungs, while at ducking down under the Impulse's beam saber, that at full speed tried to cut off the Akatsuki's head. Now underneath the blue and white gundam he had fought against so many times, the Hawk of Endymion reached up, gabbing onto the Impulse's left leg, then with it in tow he immediately swirled around, hurling the enemy mobile suit headfirst, into the rapidly approaching Legend, that barely manage to power down its beam javelin and catch the improper throwing weapon, without accidentally doing any damage to it.
With his two opponents momentarily distract, Mu took a quick look around the battlefield, he could see the Minerva far below him, engaged in battle with four Orb ships, that was clearly struggling to keep it at bay. Just the sight of the ship he hated most of all in the entire ZAFT fleet, was almost enough to make him want to race full speed straight down there, and start blowing and tearing apart one weapon after another on the Minerva, he still owned that damn ship for what it had done to a great deal of his soldiers, most specially Auel Neider, that kid might have been more than a little crazy, but Mu had still cared about him. Yet whatever thoughts Mu had about getting even with the Minerva instantly disappeared from his mind by the sound of Dearka's deeply serious voice.
"There is no need for name-calling Mu. I am sorry for not running away like you are telling me to do, but I refuse to leave you here to fight these guys on your own, when I can still do something to help out. Seeing you die once was bad enough Mu, not mention Kira, Lacus and Murrue's reaction to it, that just made the whole thing even more painful!" The Yami piloted yelled, as he rolled in between three shots fired from the Adamant.
"Damn kid, you really know the stuff to say that hit you right in the feelings! Fine you can stay, but if the Yami loses any more body parts, I better see you hightailing it out of here!" Mu growled angrily, far from pleased with the fact that Dearka refused to follow his orders, he was definitely going to reprimand him for that later.
"Yeah yeah, I promise I will retreat if the Yami gets any more damage. Now if you will excuse me, I am kinda busy over here!" Dearka yelled back, before he once more appeared from inside the clouds, heading straight towards the Adamant firing both the beam rifle and the few remaining missiles he had left at the enemy gundam, in yet another attempt to destroy the weird Guul it was roaring around on, and while the beam shot scratched the lower right side of the subflighter, it was not nearly enough to take it out, and thereby ground the Adamant for good.
Dearka did however not get long to fume and curse about the fact that he had not been able to do any more damage to the Guul, when his girlfriend's voice cut him off.
"Dearka, Mu do you read me? The Archangel is fully repaired and is heading out! We will be engaging the Minerva shortly!" Miriallia loudly informed the two pilots.
"Excellent! I for one can not wait for you guys to join the party, there is just so much to do out here, especially the shooting gallery is a total hoot!" Mu joked sarcastically, then quickly took aim with the beam rifle and fired a single shot at an unfortunate BABI that had been foolish enough to get too close to his not so friendly discussion with the Legend and the Impulse.
Yet while all of this was happening, the pilot of the Impulse was struggling to remain calm and not give into the deep anger she felt, being thrown into the Legend with such force had far from been fun, her left elbow was hurting so damn much from her slamming it into the control panel when Rey had caught her. Yet what pissed Lunamaria Hawke off even more, was the fact that this dumb son of a bitch in the golden machine had actually had the audacity to use her as a weapon against one of her own friends and allies, the redhead could not even begin to describe how much she despised this weird looking gundam.
"Not to be a buzzkill Rey, but I don't think either of us have the best mobile suits for dealing with this stupid thing. I think perhaps Shinn or Nicol would have a lot more luck against it!" The redhead yelled, as Rey roughly pushed the Impulse aside, then immediately fired all the DRAGOONs at the golden mobile suit, that did not even bother to try and evade the incoming attacks, it simply stayed put where it was, as the large number of beams slammed into it. Not all that surprisingly each and every shot was deflected right back at them.
Cursing loudly Lunamaria quickly ducked down under Rey's attack, before it could do any damage to the Impulse. Glaring angrily up at the golden mobile suit, the red haired girl seriously wondered how the heck they were supposed to beat this stupid scrapheap, nothing seemed to work, beams were deflected right back at them, and getting in close enough to attack it with a beam saber, was also proving to be quite a challenge, the enemy pilot seemed to be an expert at keeping his distance.
It was only when the Impulse's head, was almost blown clean off, that the red haired woman finally received a reply from Rey. "I agree with you completely Lunamaria. But switching targets now might be even more problematic, Shinn and Nicol seems to be doing pretty well against the black one, and if we were to distract them now, there is a high chance he might just get away! I am sure that agree with me, that taking both of these machines out now, would be best, so we do not have to worry about them in the future. So let us do our best to keep the golden one distract until Shinn and Nicol can assist us against it" the blonde man said, once again firing all the DRAGOONs after his and Luna's swift moving opponent.
"Fine Rey, I'll do what I can to keep the bastard distract! But since long range beam weapons doesn't work against him at all, I kinda want to switch over to the Sword Silhouette pack, but if I do that I don't think I can keep up with him at all!" The girl complained loudly, then even though she knew it was a waste of effort she raised the beam rifle and fired two shots in the direction of the golden mobile suit.
Watching both of Lunamaria's shots bounce of the Orb gundam's special armor. "Yeah it's high speed and remarkable defenses are most definitely quite a problem, but keep at it Lunamaria, lets make it so this guy does not even have time to breath. And if we somehow manage to corner him, then switch over to the Sword Silhouette and chop him to bits" Rey said then rushed off after the enemy machine.
"Roger that!" Lunamaria answered, then quickly went after her fellow soldier and comrade.
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At the same time down by the sea, the Minerva had just finished taking out the third one of the Orb ships they had been engaging in battle and was now moving towards the fourth one, when suddenly without warning a large number of missiles flew out of the water, heading straight for them.
"Evade and shot them down!" Talia yelled at the top of her lungs, as her ship's crew immediately did what they were told, but even though they did manage to take out a good number of the incoming warheads, they were still hit by quite a few of them, which send an earthquake like tremor through the entire ship.
Once the tremor finally subside, Talia slowly loosen her grip on the armrest on her seat. "Give me a damage report! And Burt find out where that attack came from!" She ordered loudly.
"Already working on it Captain!... But this...this is impossible... Captain it's the Archangel! It's coming out of the sea, on our starboard side!" Burt yelled, his voice filled with so much disbelief, he for one had seriously believed that they had finished the Archangel off during their last encounter, he simply could not fathom how in the world something had been able to survive being hit by the Minerva's Tannhauser, in his eyes that should have been impossible.
Standing up from her seat, Talia watched with widen eyes, as the powerful white spaceship emerged from the deep blue sea. While she could not deny that there was a tiny part of her that was kinda relieved to see that the Archangel had survived their previous encounter, judging from how the ship was now aiming quite a few of it's many weapons at them, Talia knew that this time around the Archangel no intention of fleeing, it was fully intending to fight them with all its might.
"So it did not sink after all. Ok enough gawking guys! Raise ship immediately and get ready to face them! Aim Tristans and Isolde at the Archangel! Load all missile tubes with Dispars!" She ordered while sitting back down, those word had just barely left her mouth, when one of the Tristan like cannons and another round of missiles was fired from the Archangel.
"Increase speed and evade! Open fire!" She heard Arthur yelled with a hint of panic in his voice, he too obviously realizing that beating the Archangel when it was not running away, was not going to be so easy. Especially considering that quite a few of its crew members, might hold a grudge against them, for what had happened last time, one only had to think about how that guy in the black gundam had sent that old Guul crashing into them.
Yet as the Minerva fired one Tristans and the Isolde at the Archangel, Talia glance over at Abbey. "If things get too hairy then be ready to call Lunamaria back here, so she can back us up! I am sure that Rey can handle that golden mobile suit on his own".
"Yes Ma'am!" Abbey answered immediately. Not sure if she should not just call the Impulse back there right away, in her eyes thing were already pretty hairy. The Archangel just seemed so aggressive, it was clearly determined to prevent them from sinking the last one, of the Orb ships they had been facing, and what made things even worse, was that a huge squadron of Murasames that was rapidly approaching their port side, fortunately they were cut off by five GOUFs and two BABIs, yet as one of the BABIs was blown out of the shy by a couple missiles, the green-eyed girl quickly decide to keep an eye on that fight, incase the Murasames manage to get through the ZAFT mobile suits.
Then as Captain Gladys loudly ordered Malik to swing hard to starboard, the blonde girl decide to check up on how their pilots was doing, or to be more specific how Shinn was doing, because of her job, Abbey's observation skills were top-notch, so she of course knew that Shinn had a bit of a crush on her, and while she was flattered by all the attention he was giving her, Abbey simply put wasn't sure how she felt about him, he was cute, but his boasting downright violent attitude was not something she found overly attractive. The mere fact that he was so keen on destroying his own home country, honestly creeped Abbey out a bit.
'God damn it Shinn, why couldn't the two of us have met each other during more peaceful times? If you were not so fixated on fighting all the time, you would actually have made pretty good boyfriend material, I know that we are in the middle of a war, but I can handle all this talk about fighting, why can't you relax a bit like that time we danced after the battle at Heaven's Base, or when we play air hockey together' the young woman thought. Yet as much as Abbey would like to spend some more time trying to figure out how she felt about Destiny pilot, once she saw one of the GOUFs being shot down by one of the many Murasames out there, she immediately shook those thoughts out of her head.
"I am calling the Impulse back now so it can assist Capta...!" Abbey did however not get a chance to finish that sentence, when Burt's loud voice cut her off.
"Captain I am detecting something weird! A single descent pod heading our way!" The blonde man said confused, as he made the descent pod appear on one of the smaller monitors up there.
Turning her seat to get a better look at the descent pod. "Where did that come from? We are not supposed to get reinforcements from space!" Talia said, then watched as the descent pod fell apart, revealing three peculiar looking mobile suits.
"What are those things?" Arthur asked, having never seen anything like those mobile suits before.
Nobody had an answer to that extremely important question. But while it was totally clear judging from their appearance, that the three unknown machines had a ZAFT origin, it quickly became clear to everybody up there, which side they were on, when two of them opened fire on a couple of ZAKUs down on the ground, destroying both of them with relative ease.
Once they land, they only stood still for a few short seconds, before they went on a total rampage, violently destroying and tearing apart every single ZAFT mobile suit they came across, yet as Talia watched the lead unit emit an eerie red light, she seriously considered getting Abbey to tell Lunamaria to go back up their forces on the ground, that was obviously struggling to keep the three rapid moving mobile suits at bay.
Yet before Talia could decide the best course of action, Burt turned his head and called out to her again. "Captain I am detecting one...no wait two more objects approaching from space, they...they are mobile suits!".
Upon hearing those word Talia gave her lower lips a hard bite. Shortly before the Minerva had departed from Gibraltar, she had heard a few rumors about a new Freedom gundam that had helped safe the Eternal when ZAFT forces had attacked the pink spaceship not that long ago, truthfully Talia had taken those rumors with a grain of salt, but if it turned out to be this new Freedom that was coming towards them, she knew that they were in a load of trouble.
"Tell our pilots to get prepare to face whatever it i...!" Yet before Talia could even finish that sentence, Burt slightly panicky voice interrupted her yet again.
"Captain, it's the Freedom!".
Not surprisingly, those simple words made quite a few shocked gasps, echo out through the Minerva's bridge.
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Outside Lunamaria was going up against four Murasames, as she tried with all of her might to get closer to the Archangel. The redhead was greatly annoyed by the fact, that she had been called away from her and Rey's battle with the golden mobile suit, while it was true that she had quickly grown to hate that stupid thing with an almost blinding passion thanks to its special armor, and would so have enjoyed helping Rey finishing it off.
"Get out of my way you dumb bastards!" The redhead screamed, firing two shots into the chest of the closed Murasame. Yet as happy as she was to have gotten rid of at least one of them, she barely managed to get the shield up as a green colored Murasame appeared from above, firing one well aimed shot straight at her, clearly aiming for Impulse's cockpit in an attempt to finish her off for good. One thing Lunamaria had quickly discovered when she had started fighting these downright annoying Murasames, was that the pilot of the green one was quite skilled and should not be underestimated.
Firing the machine guns and pulling out the right beam sabers, Lunamaria was just about to charge the more bold Murasame when a couple of yellow shots cut her off. Looking up, Lunamaria saw something familiar coming full speed down from above, something that filled her with such utter horror and dread.
What happened next, happened so fast that the astonished redhead barely had time to register it. The new Freedom gundam raised both of its arms in a familiar manner, only to throw them forward a second later, firing each and every one of it's long ranger weapons, completely wrecking about twelve ZAFT mobile suits, without doing any harm to the pilots other than their wound pride.
The mere sight of this clearly more powerful Freedom, beat so many ZAFT machines without even breaking a sweat, immediately made Lunamaria curse loudly.
"God damn it! Just how many weapons are on that thing!?".
"Look sharp, Lunamaria! Ignore the Freedom for now, I'll take care of it. See if you can't shoot down the Justice, considering that it is retreating towards the Archangel, it might not be battle ready!" The girl heard Rey's loud voice tell her.
Taking one last glance at the Freedom that was still busy tearing apart ever single ZAFT mass-produced mobile suit it came across, Lunamaria quickly turned and went off after the new Justice gundam, yet the very instant she did that, the Impulse's left leg was blown off by a single well aimed shot.
"And where do you think you are going, Lunamaria Hawke?! Just so we are clear on one thing here, I will not permit YOU or anybody else from ZAFT to threaten my wife, EVER AGAIN!" A deeply angry voice told her.
Blinking rapidly, Lunamaria did not understand how the pilot of the Freedom knew her name, who in the world could have told him that, yet as the right leg got destroyed too, she realized that it was the least of her worries. Turning back around, Lunamaria saw the Freedom coming straight at her with a beam saber in each hand.
"Nooo! Stay away from me!" She yelled, firing two shots at the approaching gundam that did not even slow down at all, it simply bashed away the beams with one of its sabers, in a manner that quite frankly remind Lunamaria about how one would bash away an annoying fly.
Seriously fearing that she and the Impulse was about to get torn to bits for threatening the guy's wife, who was evidently piloting the Justice. Lunamaria let out a frightened scream, as she backed away while firing one more shot at the Freedom, that simply rolled sideways around the beam, then made a quick slashing motion with each saber, cutting off first the right arm and next the head, as he zoomed full speed past her.
Turning hastily around, Kira started at the back of the now totally defenseless Impulse gundam, he could of course easily remember how this machine had beaten him and the old Freedom during their last encounter, he did not want a repeat of that, even though according to Meyrin it was likely her older sister who was piloting the Impulse now, and while she might not be as dangerous a pilot as Shinn, Nicol and whoever piloting the Legend, Kira still wanted her gone from the occasion, so she would not cause any further problem during this battle.
With that in mind he raised the right beam saber swing it downwards into the Striker Pack or whatever the hell it was called, cautiously cutting off what kept the sad remains of the Impulse in the air. Yet as the Strike copy started falling towards the deep dark sea below them, Kira kept a very close eye on it, he had after all no intention of letting the older Hawke sister fall to her death, he did NOT want to cause Meyrin that kind of pain. He did like the redhead, she was a nice person that had saved his best friend's life. It was only one brief instant later, when what he had expected to happen, happened, the girl discard what remained of the Impulse, leaving her with nothing but the Core Splendor.
Determined not to give her the chance to ask the Minerva for new parts to the Impulse, Kira immediately swooped down and caught the small plane, before it could get too far away, breaking off one of its wings.
"Now then, what shall I do with you? Any suggestion?" Kira asked the girl through the radio.
To be continued.
One question does any of you know what the deal is with Lunamaria and Meyrin's parents? Are they dead, alive or are they off exploring some unknown parts of space, let call that the unknown regions... Hmm that does sound a little familiar, but whatever.