A/n
Okay, I apologize for the long spell of not posting a chapter, but there are reasons that is the case which I get into at the end notes. I give fair warning this chapter is a tad longer than normal and has changed in a number of details. Hope you enjoy!
Phase 18: Battle in Orbit
February 15th, 71 C.E.
Earth Sphere, High Orbit
After Tyler left the Archangel, he made his way to the right side of the battlefield, where the two on-site Federation cruisers were holding position. And by the time Tyler got into sensor range of the two cruisers, the Shadow's display was showing delta fighters launching out. As he flew close three delta fighters took up formation behind the Shadow which told Tyler it was his teammates. The other team of delta fighters were in their own formation of four and came to be a short distance from Tyler's group.
Tyler figured it would be more efficient and quicker if he took charge of field operations. It was one of the things that his pilot license allowed him to do and he used that when he saw the need. "Okay everyone, listen up, I'll be taking over as field commander for this operation. Our objective is to prevent ZAFT from breaking through OMNI's Eighth Orbital Fleet. ZAFT's target is the prototype vessel, the Archangel, which is located at the rear of the fleet. There will be allied reinforcement sometime later, I can't say when they'll be on the field for it is uncertain. Any questions, if so make them quick?" There was silence to Tyler's query, so he took that to mean there were no questions to his orders. "As no one has spoken, I'll take that to mean the orders are clear," Tyler said, "That in mind, time to dive in and get to work."
Ahead of the Federation forces, the sight of ZAFT mobile suits launching from their ships and OMNI mobile armors moving ahead of the fleet was impossible to miss. Tyler ordered those with him to break off into pairs and get to work on getting ZAFT to back off. Even as the group worked on closing the distance, OMNI and ZAFT forces engaged in battle. While OMNI outnumbered ZAFT by close to four to one, ZAFT was proving numbers were going to help much. Within the time it took for Tyler's group to get into striking range, the skirmish had turned into a dirty blood bath. Tyler saw it as yet more proof that the ongoing war was a fool's errand and was only meant for mass group extermination.
Tyler didn't miss the CGUEs that were leading ZAFT forces, nor the black one in their midst of them. He instantly knew the black CGUE was Sakura's it was her traditional colors according to records. Tyler kept in mind to be aware and careful of that CGUE as Sakura was in a league that he had difficulty with. Then there were the stolen OMNI mobile suits also among the ZAFT forces and all four in fact, which Tyler hadn't expected. The damage that the OMNI machines took in the last skirmish hadn't been small from what Tyler had glimpsed and caused. He knew he'd done notable damage to the Blitz's weapons and taken on one of the Buster's rifles. Tyler did see that for the two he damaged, they had other equipment than they came with likely substituting for the non-working weapons. Then Tyler recalled seeing the Aegis missing parts before when it had all of them now. And finally, the Duel appeared to have new equipment attached to its framework which gave it a new gun and missiles where Tyler to guess.
Tyler's group dove into the fight working to disarm ZAFT and have them fallback from the OMNI armors. He was aware that he and his colleague would unlikely make a huge difference in this fight. However, a life saved was still a life saved and Tyler didn't like to see lives thrown away needlessly. Lisa stuck with Tyler which the others stayed with their chosen wing-mate as they spread over the field. Tyler kept the Shadow's Mirage Colloid up and the echo trace transmitter running to keep hidden from all but his allies.
Tyler aimed for the nearest GINN grabbing the Shadow's beam rifle bring the crosshairs to settle on the enemy's left leg. He pulled the trigger and blasted off the GINN's leg which got the attention of the enemy pilot. Lisa followed up Tyler's attack with her own targeting the left rear thruster, destroying it. The GINN turned towards the attacks and that allowed Tyler to nail the right arm. Lisa then shot the GINN's remaining leg fully disarming the mobile suit before the two moved on to the next ZAFT machine.
ZAFT forces going against OMNI mobile armors were making progress with being led by two CGUEs. One the traditional silver, which was the personal machine of Rau Le Creuset, and the other was a distinctive black with crimson accents, the mobile suit of the Black Zephyr, Sakura Clyne. Nearby the two CGUEs were the four captured G-weapons with their assigned wingmen flying by them. For the Duel, the CGUE following was more acting as a chaperon since its pilot had been instructed to keep a leash on Joule.
Yzak had wanted to rush off ahead the moment he was told he could launch. He had a specific target in mind to start with which was the enemy winged suit. The desire for vengeance against the one that had given him the scar on his face burned within him. He wanted to get back at and best that damn Natural that had one-upped him in the last battle. But Yzak had been forbidden by pretty much everyone and told in no uncertain terms the consequences he would face should he disobey orders. Should Yzak disobey standing orders, Mindy would then drag him back to one of the ships per the Black Zephyr's instructions. That in turn would put him out of the rest of this battle and dash any chance at payback he could have. While Yzak may not like the orders, he knew that if Commander Clyne said that she would personally court marital him if he didn't do what he was told, then she would do just that. And right now, it wasn't worth facing that event in order to obtain his goal so he would do what he was told and bide his time.
For Mindy, the babysitting job was not one she normally got, she would do it for her commander. Before launching out, she had read up on the pilot Joule and figured he was a loose cannon which Commander Clyne was being forced to handle among other things. And per the orders Mindy had been given, should Joule get out of line and try going off on his own, she was to catch him and drag his sorry ass back to an allied ship. The kid may have a mobile suit with better performance, but Mindy was sure with her CGUE that she could disarm and retrieve the troublemaker. She had used a private com-channel to make sure Joule knew that he would not win should he make an unwise decision.
The other OMNI suit pilots had their own wingmen, assigned by Sakura's choosing which hadn't been argued. Following only a little further back from the Duel was the Aegis with Juno's Assault-Type GINN next to it. The Blitz had Lori's silver-gray GINN High-Maneuver-Type following it at a short distance. Then finally, the Buster with Ryan's custom colored blue GINN with wings for speed and mobility on the right. Sakura had chosen the pairs base on how likely Creuset's pilots would need to be watched and/or handled.
Thus far Joule had done what he was told, Sakura would admit that, but it didn't mean she didn't expect him to do something stupid later on. With what Creuset had mentioned, Sakura assumed that when the chance for vengeance came up, Joule would grab it. That would in turn have him likely going against orders and he wouldn't listen to reason of any sort. The teenager was letting his pride have full reign and being a blind idiot, Sakura had seen the idea many times before. Individuals would go out and humiliate themselves in some way, then be reckless and stupid while they "attempted" to redeem themselves from what occurred. Joule was a classic case of the point, and she had considered having him locked up instead because of that. But with him out on the field, it was too late to change her mind on that idea. "Alright Joule," Sakura began, "your show of following orders thus far has brought its reward, you have the opportunity to get what you want. However, do let that have you rushing off and being reckless or you will be facing far more trouble than you are already."
Sakura focused back to the OMNI armor ahead, "All units but the four captured machines are to fall back momentarily. Amalfi, Zala, Elsman, Joule, the four of you will move forward and engage the enemy mobile armors for fifteen seconds. That should be sufficient to break up their formations," she ordered, "Then you'll then rejoin with your wingmen, understood?"
Athrun and his comrades with the exception of Yzak knew the last line wasn't a suggestion. It was also aimed at Yzak though none of them said the point out loud. Yzak was in hot water and his fellow pilots knew that with his recent behavior. They had tried to help Yzak understand that it would be best for him to do as he was asked and not just go after the enemy machines. Athrun had tried flat-out telling Yzak he would be disciplined with a serious mark on his record by the end should he do his own thing. However, Yzak had not really listened to any of his comrades who had been trying to deter him. Still, all four gave their answer to the field commander's order, "Yes ma'am!"
After hearing the confirmation, Sakura pulled back on the controls, firing reverse thrust along with all the other ZAFT-built machines. With the majority of ZAFT's fighting force pulling back leaving just the stolen mobile suits, the armors were left at a disadvantage and they knew it. With their weapons effectively useless against the G-Weapons, they may as well be using blanks. True, they had expected to have to fight the stolen mobile suits, which had established a grim prospect for the battle. Nevertheless, that didn't make it any simpler to fight this battle and expect to make headway in any fashion.
Yzak, ever the aggressive one, opened fire first at the oncoming mobile armors, launching a barrage of missiles from the pod of his new assault shroud. He then followed that up with several shots from his beam rifle and 'Shiva' railgun. Dearka was only seconds behind letting loose with a swarm from both of his missile pods, weapons ideally suited to facing down the swarm tactics of OMNI's mobile armors. Then, he followed that up with shots from the Buster's gun launcher and the beam rifle he had. Athrun was just being the Buster, firing off several quick shots with his beam rifle, nailing all four mobile armors he targeted with a better accuracy rate than the other two. Nicol only fired off two shots from his substitute beam rifle before storing it on his machine's waist and drawing a beam saber instead. He shot forward and relying on his greater speed, mobility, and armor to close with the mobile armors and slice them apart.
After only a few seconds, the mobile armors were forced to break their formations to avoid being wiped out. And as that happened, the remaining ZAFT forces dove in, Mindy, Lori, Ryan, and Juno immediately moving back into their wingman positions as they had been instructed to. None but Yzak grumbled about their "wingmen" or leash holders in this as the three didn't want the trouble Yzak was toeing the line of.
The opening shots were decidedly in ZAFT's favor, on average it took five Moebius armors to bring down a single GINN, which could equal an escort ship's compliment on its own. But the pilots of the Clyne Team, besides three of them being in more powerful suits were all elite pilots who would probably take seven or more Moebius units to go down. On top of that, the G-Weapons were powerful enough to make even GINNs look frail by comparison. Granted, were this same force to go against Federation Military forces, then that would be different, but that was beside the point. With the work of the G-Weapons, ZAFT quickly broke the mobile armor formations and began the dirty work that this battle would be. "Alright, the OMNI suits are to go after the fleet's ships now," Sakura stated. "The wingman will cover from mobile armors for you-"
Sakura was cut off when another on the com-channel shouted, "Ma'am! Federation forces have appeared on the battlefield! They're shooting-" The ZAFT pilot was cut off abruptly and the sight of an explosion acted as an explanation as to why. Sakura clenched her jaw slightly at hearing that the Federation's military forces were now on the battlefield, for it changed things. There was always the chance that the Federation would show up in a clash between OMNI and ZAFT. And with their stealth capabilities, there was rarely a warning before they interfered, it's what made the action of the Federation like this annoying when it did occur.
The other half of the ongoing "issue" was that the Federation's Military and those who were a part of the organization were skilled and powerful. Sakura knew and had seen how skilled a number of the Federation's pilots were in their fighters having faced a few. Most within ZAFT and she wouldn't doubt OMNI had thought that Federation Fighters would be as simple to deal with. Yet, those initial assumptions had been proven very wrong in enough instances that it wasn't a fluke. The Federation as a whole had made it clear that they weren't interested in this ongoing war between ZAFT and the Earth Alliance. The main reason they interfered in battles like this was they claimed that they wished to stop the senseless killing.
Yet, Sakura couldn't fathom why the Federation would help out the Earth Alliance in this. They had as many issues as ZAFT itself did with OMNI gaining the ability to produce and employ mobile suits. In fact, they would have a few more reasons than ZAFT with their member nations on Earth being put at risk of OMNI attacking them. In Sakura's mind, it was nearly guaranteed that should the Alliance gain the ability to mass produce mobile suits, they would be used at some point against the Federation's member nations. Regardless, the Federation was here now and that had to be taken into account going forward. She looked down at her sensor read-outs and saw there were already GINNs being taken out of commission and not by mobile armors. "All pilots, watch yourselves out here," she ordered, "remember, Federation space fighters are not mobile armors, they're close to equal with mobile suits, treat them as such."
Back on the Archangel, with their decision made, Kira and Lacus made their way to the pilot locker room to suit up. They entered without thinking rushing to their respective lockers and snatching their pilot suits out of them. Both were thinking about Tyler since the Shadow was gone, so he was likely out in the fight and that put his life at risk for the Archangel and others. Yes, Tyler had shown he was good at piloting a mobile suit and could look after himself as required. However, that didn't mean they weren't both worried about him as neither wanted him to die out there fighting against ZAFT. So perhaps, if they were to launch out, Tyler would have the best chance to be able to make it back to those that cared about him.
Flay who was in the locker room, just stared at Kira and Lacus not having expected either of them to still be on the ship. There had been the rumor that Tyler McGregor had stayed, and the locker assigned to him had been empty, so it was likely true. But that also meant that Mr. McGregor was either in the hangar or off the ship in the mobile suit he was assigned. Yet, the two other Coordinators that had been on this ship hadn't seemed to notice that Flay was in the room as well. " Y-you both stayed," she questioned.
Kira and Lacus turned to see Flay in the pink Earth Alliance female cadet uniform standing in a corner of the locker room. As unexpected as Flay's presence was, a friendly face wasn't unwelcome to either of the two Coordinators. The current situation was tense enough, so even a familiar face helped if only a little. Kira smiled slightly, "Yeah, we stayed. We couldn't leave you all alone after all."
Flay was still staring at them, wide-eyed as Lacus worked at the straps of her dress before pausing. "Um, could you come inside or go outside, at least close the door please," she asked somewhat sheepishly. "The ship is nearly deserted now, but I'd rather not give any passersby something to see like this…" Blushing slightly, Flay stepped in and hitting the switch to close the door. When that was done, Kira and Lacus resumed stripping out of their civilian clothes, not really looking at each other in a show of good manners putting on the underclothes they'd be wearing with the pilot suits. Flay quickly turned her back on them, both to avert her eyes and to hide the blush that was forming on her cheeks.
It was as Kira was adjusting his suit that the thought of what his friends had mentioned with Flay being the first to volunteer to join the crew. He had not thought that Flay was one to step forward for things, at least he'd never see her do that kind of thing. "Kuzzey said you decided to volunteer," Kira said curiously, "so, why did you do that?"
"I," Flay started not facing them, "I wanted to make a difference. I want a peaceful world, one where, just maybe, people can forget the hatred that ends out causing this war." Flay paused for a moment, "I still think someone shouldn't have their genes altered just because they can, but I also have come to understand that for Coordinators," she stopped trying to figure out how she wanted to say what was on her mind. "Most Coordinators didn't choose to have their genes made the way they are, that others are responsible." Flay hesitated, "I'm not proud of my behavior towards you in the past, or your friends, it was wrong and I admit it."
It was clear that Flay was sorry for how she had acted and remorse was a good quality to show. Lacus was glad to see the change in the girl, "It's fine, what's important is how you behave now."
"Yes, but it's not just that," Flay replied. "In this world," she stopped with the thoughts of the current troubles of the world came to the forefront of her mind. "With the war and everything, there are the people caught between the two different sides that aren't willing to back down from each other. Nothing is changing with this war, it only seems like things are getting worse and more people are dying because of it."
That gave Kira and Lacus pause as they were adjusting their pilot suits, turning to face Flay. Neither Kira nor Lacus had expected something like this from Flay as she had never shown any notice of what the war was doing or interest in it. Her words brought up the question that had come up often enough during the war between the Alliance and ZAFT. That question was what can be done to help prevent innocent people from dying with the effects of the war. And no one had been able to give a good or satisfying solution to the point of how to protect and/or defend those who were caught in the fighting. The Federation's Military did try hard to help, but even their efforts hadn't done enough to stop people not even involved in the war from being killed.
"When I was a little girl, I had a friend," Flay went on softly. "Her name was Maria, and she was… she was a Hybrid." The two pilots' eyes widened in shock as they stared at each other as Flay hadn't given any sign of being comfortable around non-naturals. Flay continued, "She ended out being killed just because of her heritage."
The classified of Hybrid was a child born of a Natural and a Coordinator and such were considered the black sheep of the human race. That was so since Hybrids were caught between the two genetic types and weren't accepted by either. To some Coordinators, Hybrids were in no better standing than Naturals and in essence wouldn't be accepted by them. Then for a number of Naturals, Hybrids were too much like Coordinators and so would never be trusted by those in power and had harsh rumors spread about them. Kira knew only one Hybrid as most would pass themselves off as Naturals or Coordinators in order to get by. Either that or they sought asylum in the member nations of the Human Federation since they welcomed all who were willing to follow the rules of the nation. The wish to fit in and not to be judge upon how they were born, driving them to where they went.
"So," Flay hesitated, "even though I am not the fondest of Coordinators," she stopped for a moment gathering her thoughts. "I guess, it was never something I specifically had against them as I thought before. You two helped me see and understand that one's genetics don't determine what someone is like. I'm starting to think," Flay paused, "if this ship can really make a difference, then I want to help with that. Because as long as this war goes on, the hatred that exists between all of us can never be forgotten. So that's why…"
It was quite the change for Flay and both Kira and Lacus could see the change that was now apparent, a good change to be sure for the girl. "I see," Lacus remarked softly before she smiled at Flay. "Well then, that is all the more motivation to make sure we succeed in making a difference."
Slowly, Flay turned to face the two smiling slightly, "Yes, good luck you two," she said, "I'll do whatever I can to help."
"We know," said Kira. "Thank you Flay."
Meanwhile, the appearance and assistance of Federation forces didn't go unnoticed by the forces of the Eighth Fleet. ZAFT's main attention was being shifted to defending themselves rather than attack OMNI, and most were grateful for that help. What reason the Federation had to interfere in this was unknown, but at the moment it didn't matter. Onboard the Menelaos's bridge, Admiral Halberton was watching the change in the flow of the battle. He intended to personally thank Tyler for this as Halberton had no doubt the teenager had a hand in getting the Federation Military involved somehow. The young man wasn't one to stand by and watch people die, Tyler had made that very clear. "Well, it would seem to have a Federation Military commander on the Archangel has helped in an unforeseen way, wouldn't you agree Hoffman," Halberton asked.
Hoffman didn't want to admit that the Admiral had a point with what he said. The Federation's military "helped" and "hindered" throughout this war. For OMNI, they tended to cause more problems than they helped with. Granted, Hoffman didn't deny that the majority of the territorial disputes were attempts at grabbing territory by some. However, he wasn't fond of the Federation or its standing and policies they held to. So, Hoffman let out a sigh after a moment, "For the time being Admiral, yes, the Federation's help is appreciated in this."
Halberton didn't push the issue that Hoffman was being testy right now as there were more serious matters at hand. Even with the assistance, the Federation's military was providing, the battle was still far from over. With the Black Zephyr leading ZAFT in this, that battle would come down to which side's tactics would overwhelm the other. That was one of the main reasons Sakura was such a good commanding officer for ZAFT, she didn't rely on numbers but on how to use them effectively. So, Halberton studied the field as it was being displayed and it bothered him the longer he looked at the image. The way ZAFT forces were deployed suggested to him that the "frontal assault" was more a distraction than a means. "There's something wrong with this setup," Halberton remarked, "Blatant frontal assaults aren't her style…"
What the admiral said caught Hoffman's attention a bit as it didn't make sense with the current situation. ZAFT forces were attacking head-on, and it was working well enough for them since the mobile armors were slowing them down but not stopping them. It was a show of how mobile suits were more effective overall than mobile armors. It was why the G-Project was needed, mobile suits were needed to match ZAFT and hopefully in the future to win against them. That in mind, Hoffman turned to face Halberton, "I hear the Black Zephyr is supposed to be close friends with ZAFT's Admiral Treize. If she employs any parts of his tactics it would explain which she is so effective on the battlefield. Thank goodness Treize doesn't come out to the battlefield against OMNI much if at all anymore, or this conflict would be far worse than it already is." He nodded to the battle at the front of the fleet, "With the X-numbers, a frontal assault is doing the job fine sir."
Halberton didn't take what Hoffman said as fact as he knew better especially with their opponent being who it was. Sakura was one that made good plans to get to her goal and Halberton had seen that enough to know it was consistent. And in this battle, he knew the goal was the Archangel and the Eighth Fleet was between that and ZAFT. "I doubt that's all there is, not when her goal is the Archangel," Halberton stated turning to the sensor operator. "Scan the area for evidence of other ZAFT ships, knowing the Black Zephyr, she's got an ambush or a flanking maneuver set up for us."
The sensor operator didn't question Admiral Halberton, the man had experience with ZAFT more than pretty much any other in the fleet. And if there was any chance of the fleet making it through this battle it would be following the Admiral. "Yes sir!"
'But,' Halberton thought, 'If this is anything like back during the Grimaldi Conflict, then she's probably staying at least one step ahead of me. If not for Tyler's warning, she would be more than one and the situation would be far direr.'
Unfortunately for Halberton, he was right about being one step behind Sakura in this battle. As per her plan, the two Laurasia-class Frigates fired up their thrusters and began closing the remaining distance to the fleet. Their movements were caught from the planar north, but too late to change their formations much before being forced to defend themselves. The Laurasia-classes launched their mobile suits out to attack the OMNI ships whose mobile armors were busy with the other ZAFT forces. Several of the mobile armor squadrons tangling with the mobile suits at the front as well as the handful that had been held back for fleet defense rushed to try and intercept. However, as the mobile armors were being blocked, the Drake-class escort ships at the rear of the fleet began to orient themselves upwards as well in order to bring as many missile pods to bear on the new arrivals as possible.
Unfortunately for OMNI, Sakura had expected that response so ZAFT forces weren't going to let that happen easily. Granted, the Federation's forces were making such difficult, but ZAFT was managing even if not the best. Still, as the four stolen prototypes rushed at different enemy ships with their wingman flying cover for them, Sakura, Creuset, and the four pilots flying off the Fairchild, Christian Rosen, Rika Sheder, Luna Mosswell, and Elliot Sutherland moved forward as well. They leveled their machine guns and opened up on the scattering mobile armors shredding them from behind with a storm of bullets.
The attack was avoided by some but not others resulting in some mobile armors being destroyed. The remaining mobile armor pilots tried harder to shoot down the ZAFT suits after seeing more of their comrades killed. "Bastards" one Moebius pilot cursed over an open channel as he fired his missiles on Luna's GINN. She fell back, allowing her wingman to shoot forward and pump the Moebius full of bullets leaving the missiles unguided and easily evaded.
Meanwhile, the Aegis shifted to mobile armor form as it flew at a Drake-class and latched its claw onto the escort ship's vulcan turret. Athrun pulled the trigger, firing it Multi-phase energy cannon named "Scylla". The Drake-class was completely obliterating it by the shot, the ruins of the turret flew away from what remained of the crippled warship. It was really a miracle that the ship hadn't exploded from the blast. Athrun was focused on the battle but at the back of his mind the thought of Tyler likely being out on the battlefield wouldn't leave. Tyler would not just sit by and do nothing while others were fighting, that wasn't how he was Athrun knew. He hoped that he didn't have to fight Tyler, but knew it was a distinct possibility and even likely as much as he didn't want to admit it.
Athrun wasn't the only one having thoughts come into the back of his mind as the battle raged. The objective was simple for the mission, take out OMNI's prototype ship and hopefully the mobile suits onboard with it. And thus far, none of the three enemy suits had appeared on the field that Nicol had seen or heard. That both relieved and worried him somewhat since they had all proven to be effective fighting machines. Although it raised a question in Nicol, with their power and effect, why would OMNI not use them in this battle? Granted, Admiral Duane Halberton may want to get them to an OMNI R&D complex in the best condition possible. However, if the enemy ship was downed, that would hinder that point far more than if the suits were damaged in the fight.
Of course, Nicol wouldn't complain in any way if he didn't have to fight the Blitz's twin in this battle. The last skirmish with that suit had shaken Nicol and he wasn't interested in repeating that experience soon. True, he had learned lessons from that encounter which he wouldn't soon forget, but it still frightened him what had happened. Nicol was still convinced even if his comrades were not that the black machine's pilot was the most dangerous. If there had been the time, he would have wanted to ask the Zephyr of her thoughts on the pilot. Yes, she chided them for what happened, and rightly so, but she wouldn't have missed the oddities that occurred. Nevertheless, Nicol focused back on the present, "Lori, I'm going under with mirage colloid," he said as the two flew at a Drake-class next to a nelson-class vessel, "targeting the Nelson-class."
As per orders from her commander, Lori had been staying close to the OMNI suit that Amalfi was using. Out of the four pilots Creuset had, Amalfi was fine, better than two out of the other three since he followed orders well enough. That made Lori's job easier as she and her comrades were essentially chaperones for the young pilots. Amalfi wanting to go for a ship was fine, it didn't stretch his leash too much. "Roger that," Lori replied before watching the Blitz disappear as its mirage colloid activated.
Nicol couldn't help but think that her voice didn't match her appearance, it sounded somewhat unfeeling. It wasn't his business of course, but at the same time, it was unsettling the tiniest bit. When the Blitz disappeared, Lori fired her thrusters in reverse and leveled her machine gun at the Drake-class in front of her, opening fire with full auto. She wasn't really bothering to aim as she was just distracting the enemy, instead of focusing on her surroundings so that she wouldn't be caught unawares when an enemy attacked her. It was important in this battle, especially since Federation fighters were on the field.
As good a pilot Lori was, a Federation fighter could match a GINN and win half the time or more. And that was bolstered with the Federation pilots being as skilled as ZAFT's own pilots, and some were better admittedly. It was a fact that those in ZAFT didn't like to admit, but most in ZAFT knew was not an exaggeration. ZAFT wasn't as blind as OMNI in understanding and knowing the Federation's military was a force to be reckoned with. What reason they had to interfere with this skirmish really didn't matter, only that the Federation was targeting ZAFT forces.
Nicol rushed forward after vanishing, dodging the Nelson's interception fire closing the remaining distance. And once by the bridge of the Nelson, the Blitz rematerialized catching the enemy off-guard as he fired off the rifle he had. Nicol blasted the bridge tower with a number of shots before it exploded, then he focused on firing at the cruiser's weapons. After they were disabled, he quickly pulled back to rejoin Lori as were the standing orders. Nicol wasn't as foolish as Yzak to go against orders when it was the Black Zephyr giving them.
Around another part of the battlefield, Dearka was doing his part and taking down mobile armors along with shooting enemy vessels. Certainly, Dearka was unhappy with using the ion cannon the Buster had been given in place of the energy rifle that had been destroyed. But he kept his complaints to himself and silently hoped for another shot at the black enemy suit that had beaten him. Whether that happened in this battle or in a different one, Dearka didn't really care. He didn't believe the black machine would be taken down during this battle, what had occurred to Nicol made a clear point in favor of that. Though Dearka wasn't as reckless as Yzak, he knew that Athrun and Nicol had a point that the enemy pilots were no pushovers.
"Take this," Dearka shouted. He dodged shots from a Drake-class as he leveled the ion-cannon and shot straight at the centerline of the ship several times in rapid succession. The hull was punctured by the shots, but it took the total sum of the cannon rounds to bring the ship to a halt. Once the ship stopped moving, Dearka sent a barrage of missiles into the holes he had made, causing the entire ship to explode like it had been stuff full of firecrackers.
Meanwhile, Yzak was forcing himself to show patience in following the orders he was given. He knew better than to fly completely off the handle and go for what he really wanted to take on right now. He had heard the threat from the Zephyr via commander Creuset and that had gotten him to hold his tongue. Yzak wanted payback, but he wasn't fool enough to not know that others could hinder such. That in mind, Yzak knew as much as he didn't want to admit it, would do better following orders for the time being. It would get him to his goal more efficiently than if he just made a path straight towards his prize.
Yzak went for the ship his "wing-woman" Mindy directed him towards under covering fire from her CGUE. He wasn't any more pleased that his "babysitter" was a woman and was keeping him on a tight leash. But again, to get a shot at the enemy suits, Yzak would play the obedient soldier. Biding his time would hopefully pay off and soon, if not then Yzak would be vigilant for the right opportunity. Yzak still used OMNI's forces to vent his frustrations on, which he had lots of as of late. He broke away to get a better firing angle, sidling alongside the Nelson cruiser, and began firing repeated shots from his rifle and railgun until the ship was completely and utterly pulverized as its internal munition stores went off. "Damn it! I don't like to wait," Yzak cursed angrily to himself as he pulled back, sticking near Mindy as per his orders. "This better be worth it, so that I get a shot at that winged machine and the other two."
At the same time, Tyler was mucking through the fight between OMNI and ZAFT disabling mobile suits as he went. ZAFT was making progress slowly but surely, OMNI's Eighth Fleet's defensive line was weakening and the ships were being attacked. However, the Archangel was still unreached by ZAFT and that was the point grim as it was Tyler knew. And as much as the scene irked Tyler as much for the needless loss of like happening as anything else, he was aware it could be worse.
But then Tyler got the view of the Duel punching holes in the OMNI ships and by what he saw enjoying the idea or venting their frustrations. Tyler didn't like when another did horrible things just because they had the ability and/or opportunity and bashing or killing in these circumstances and relishing in it qualified for that in Tyler's mind. Plus, from his observations, the Duel and the Buster had pilots that were short-tempered or just outright reckless in battle. He'd never gotten along with the hot-headed types before now, in fact, Tyler had a pension for knocking them down a peg when he got the chance.
The Duel had a CGUE with it and there were a few GINNs around the same area fighting OMNI forces. Tyler was sure that he and Lisa could handle the GINNs without much issue in no time which would leave the Duel and the CGUE. However, from what Tyler saw, the Duel was focused on attacking OMNI and wasn't interested in much else. To change that would require drawing its attention away and a frontal attack may do the job, but Tyler wanted to set the terms of the dance with the Duel. And it was upon looking at one of the GINNs that Tyler got an idea to have the Duel come to him rather than go to it. One of the GINNs had an Ion cannon which as Tyler knew was technically classified as an anti-ship weapon but was also good against mobile weapons too. Plus, Tyler was aware that said cannons could run on their own were they still connected to their battery with minor modification. That in mind, Tyler opened a channel to Lisa, "Yo Lisa, think you could disable the GINN with the recoilless rifle?"
Lisa paused wondering what Tyler was cooking up in his mind. With the group in front of them, the GINNs was not the biggest concern, it was the CGUE and the Duel. The GINNs would be easy to disable, but for him to point to a specific one implied he had something in mind for the other. "Yes, I could," she replied slowly, "why that one specifically?"
Tyler felt a smile come to his face, "Because I want his buddy's ion cannon, I have an idea to get the Duel's attention which requires it," he returned.
Lisa didn't know what Tyler had in mind, and normally she would want some more detail about what he intended to do. However, with the battle going the way it was, Lisa knew there wasn't the time to ask him about his plan. And past experience said that Tyler's crazy plans did have a good chance of working in the end. "Sure, I'll take the GINN, go ahead with whatever you are cooking up," Lisa replied.
After hearing that, Tyler moved forward towards the cannon bearing GINN, storing his beam rifle. He activated his shield's beam saber when he was right up in front of the suit and sliced off the backpack and the left arm, then kicked it away from the Shadow. The way Tyler disarmed the GINN was to keep the cannon with its power pack which he wanted. It took Tyler about a minute to do the minor alteration needed to rig the battery to work with the ion cannon's manual trigger and not the cockpit trigger command. Then Tyler swung the cannon to point and the nearest Nazca-class before he pulled the trigger. The ion cannon shot grazed the Nazca which drew some attention, more so when the Shadow appeared with said ion cannon.
It was at the second shot that Yzak had caught sight of the shooter and was frustrated to see it was the black enemy mobile suit. It may have not been the winged suit as Yzak really wanted to get payback on specifically, but it would be a start as it was still one of the three enemy units. Yzak didn't exactly believe what his comrades had said about the black machine. It was an OMNI-designed fluke that had an irritatingly lucky Natural pilot inside period. And Yzak wouldn't let himself be beaten by a Natural a second time in a row due to luck or a fluke. That in mind, Yzak had the Duel charge forward at the black machine, his beam rifle aimed at it. Yzak shot at his opponent but they evaded both which only added to Yzak's frustration. As Tyler weaved out of the beams sent his way, a smirk crept to his face as his idea had gotten the attention of the Duel's pilot as intended.
Mindy had taken notice that the two GINNs nearby had been attacked and disarmed a moment ago. And with no mobile armors around to be responsible, that meant that Federation forces had reached where she and the Duel were. After the ion cannon shot that was aimed at one of the Nazca-classes, Mindy homed in on the source and a moment later saw a black mobile suit. Its appearance matched the report of one of the three enemy machines encountered by Creuset's team. Supposedly, the suit she was seeing had a similar system or the same as Amalfi's machine from what reports said. And of course, Joule had rushed recklessly at the newcomer without thinking, proving that her Commander was right that Joule was a potential problem.
Yzak drew a beam saber when he got close up and swung down at the Shadow, but Tyler blocked with his shield. Mindy would have jumped in, yet a Federation fighter appeared and fired its weapons at her CGUE forcing Mindy to defend herself. Yzak on the other hand, at being blocked, his blood was boiling that his opponent wasn't falling as they should. And over the next few minutes, that didn't change at all, every attack Yzak tried, the black machine would either evade or blocked. It would also counter the Duel with the ion cannon it had taken if the Duel was a distance away or its shield's beam saber when up close.
It was as Tyler noticed a few more GINNs coming their way that he decided it was best to finish the bout with the Duel. So, the Shadow kicked the Duel's torso and brought out its Oscillator rifles, and unloaded at its opponent forcing the Duel back. Then Tyler lightly punctured the ion cannon's battery pack and chucked it at the approaching ZAFT suits. Tyler followed that up by having the Shadow disappear from sight just before the ion cannon blew up close to the GINNs. The ion cannon's destruction caused minor damage to the ZAFT suit, but it more surprised them and caught them off guard.
As the battle continued, the reports of the losses being suffered by the Eighth Orbital began coming into the Menelaos. "Seleukos is hit, it's out of commission," one of the bridge operators said, "Cassandros, not responding."
"Antigonos and Ptolemaios are down," said another operator.
The number of ships that were unable to keep going was rising and the battle hadn't been going on for all that long. "How can that be," Hoffman questioned gasping in surprise. "Four vessels destroyed only three minutes into the battle?"
"The Seleukos and Cassandros are moving," said a third operator. "They've sustained heavy damage and are withdrawing from the battle."
"Understood," Halberton replied, "try to send them communication to keep an eye out for enemy ambushes as they retreat. I doubt the Black Zephyr would use such underhanded tactics, but I wouldn't put it past her to avoid hitting them either."
"Yes sir," was the reply.
Meanwhile, Creuset was flying around the battlefield, watching the fighting while lightly participating himself. Granted, he wanted to see the legged ship sunk, that ship had been quite the hassle after all. However, where ripping apart OMNI's Eighth Orbital Fleet had sounded interesting during the briefing, being out on the field hadn't lived up to the expectation. True, the Federation popping up complicated things a bit and that added something to the battle, but it was still tedious. One of the things that made the fight tedious was those that "disabled" their opponents rather than killing them. He observed Athrun and Nicol doing damage to the enemy but not killing their opponents. Whereas Dearka and Yzak were clearly aiming to dispatch their opponents without hesitation. "Athrun and Nicol are too soft for my taste," Creuset remarked. "Show the enemy mercy, you only encourage them to come at you with a new weapon in hand."
Sakura heard what Creuset was muttering and honestly, she knew the mentality and was still didn't like it. To kill and slaughter needlessly was nothing more than murder, that was what started this whole war in the first place. If that kind of behavior was emulated or actively encouraged, it would only make current circumstances worse. Hence why Sakura disarmed the OMNI vessels and had them running and not destroy them like some were. "Are you sure we shouldn't finish those vessels off Zephyr," Creuset asked lightly.
There were times Sakura wished Creuset and those like them would keep their mouths shut for their own good and everyone else's benefit. "Creuset, would you shut up while you're ahead," Sakura growled. She didn't see why she should waste the time educating one that should know better than to question her judgment or actions. "In war, the best thing isn't to shatter and destroy the enemy but to take them whole and intact. When the enemy can no longer do battle, their deaths can only be murder and that would make us no better than terrorists and villains. Is that clear, Rau Le Creuset?"
Rau hadn't meant it to sound like he was questioning Sakura since he knew that was an extremely unwise thing to do. The woman had earned her feared reputation and ticking her off was something she made you regret. Rau was in more than enough hot water right now and didn't need more problems added to it. "Yes, of course, crystal clear ma'am," Creuset replied, gunning down a Moebius. "I know better than to question you, I was merely wondering as to your thoughts."
If Sakura wasn't fighting, then she wouldn't let the masked-man's flimsy excuse fly without consequences being given out. But as things were, Federation forces were in this, and that required being focused on the tasks at hand. "Then my opinion is established with what I just said," Sakura stated, "Now, do yourself a favor and cover me."
As Sakura moved forward, a trio of mobile armors charged at her, but Creuset quickly picked all of them off per orders. While Creuset did that, Sakura charged at a Nelson-class dodging under its fire before opening up on the hull. After closing the rest of the distance, Sakura took her heavy blade out and sliced a hole in the armor through which she proceeded to crash her CGUE. Sakura was sure that her suit's armor should hold with going through the decks of the OMNI ship. A late colleague of hers had proven the point many times as plowing through ships was a favorite maneuver of his.
Rau winced slightly in a brief flash of sympathy for the crew, he knew what the Black Zephyr was doing. And as expected, she proceeded to fly her machine through deck after deck of the soft interior… and then suddenly blasted back out behind the bridge tower. Detonations chained along the length of the hull, and by the time Sakura and Creuset had regrouped, the cruiser exploded. It was a move that a late ZAFT champion was infamous for and none had been able to pull it off as well as them. "That's a suicidal tactic," Creuset commented, "that the sort of move I would expect from the Roc, not from you Zephyr."
Sakura knew the move was a risky one, Kurt had perfected it over the years he did it. However, the difference was the move really worked better with the scythe weapon that Kurt used. The CGUE's heavy blade was a poor substitute for the superior cutting weapon. In theory, the OMNI prototypes' beam sabers may be able to equal the customer scythe Kurt had, but without testing, it was only theory. "It might work better if I can get my hands on a beam saber and that phase shift armor," she replied. "As for the Roc, Kurt had a large, heavy scythe as his weapon of choice for a reason. He would use it in that manner to cut open ships like tin cans and that custom blade was designed for that." Sakura returned flatly not being reminded of her fallen friend. "I would think you would recall that correctly, now let's go!"
As the battle kept going, to say the crew of the Archangel was frustrated would've been an understatement. They were still under orders from Admiral Halberton not to join the battle at large and it was easy for the commanding officers to see that none were happy about that orders. It was despite the fact the Archangel had more firepower than any other ship of the fleet and was at least five times as maneuverable as any of them. Yet Murrue could guess the reason the Admiral had ordered what he had. The Archangel and one of the mobile suits it carried were valuable to the Alliance, more than the Eighth Fleet as a whole. But as Murrue had been watching, it was becoming clear that as long as the Archangel was here, the fleet would be worn down and destroyed.
It wasn't until a sound came from Murrue's right, that her attention was shifted from the battle in any way. The beeping came from the control set on the captain's right armrest, "Huh," muttered Murrue. Her eyes settled on the phone mounted on her right armrest, intended for various quick communications purposes for the Archangel's captain was ringing. She picked it up, curious as to whom it was calling to the bridge, "Yes, what is it?"
Mu down in the hangar in his armor was frustrated that he was sitting and doing nothing to help in the fight. Thus he was calling the bridge to get an explanation as to why his hands were tied as they were. "Hey, why the hell am I still on standby," Mu demanded irritated. "Those four stolen prototypes are at it again, and now they're backed by the Black Zephyr's pilots! The Eighth Fleet is in deep trouble and we're just sitting here because of foolish orders! How can you not see the problem with this damn it?!"
It wasn't that Murrue didn't understand where Mu was coming from along with the frustration that was clear in his voice. She had issues with the standing orders that had the Archangel at the back of the fleet. "Lieutenant La Flaga," Murrue started.
Krystal agreed with Mu having their hands tied due to orders wasn't helping and they shouldn't be just sitting around. Granted, even if they went out they may not make a great deal of difference, but it would still be something. "Mu is absolutely right," Krystal snapped, "the Eighth Fleet is taking that beating for us here on the Archangel! It's just wrong for us to sit here and do nothing but watch!"
Mu would admit that he and Krystal wouldn't be a lot of help against ZAFT forces, but even a little help was better than no help. The Archangel was the reason the fleet was taking a beating as well as from whom the beating was coming from. "It's not as if my mobile armor or Krystal's alone will make much of a difference," Mu stated in frustration, "but still!"
Murrue didn't blame either Mu or Krystal for wanting to launch out to the battlefield. Yet standing orders wouldn't allow them to do that since they were on standby in case the enemy broke through the fleet's defensive lines. Hence, why Murrue couldn't let Mu and Krystal go out even though they were demanding to. "Our ship hasn't been signaled to join in yet," Murrue returned evenly, "We are ordered to remain on standby."
Krystal wouldn't accept that orders required them to sit on their butts and do absolutely nothing while allies got killed. "You're freaking kidding me," Krystal began, "that's bull-" Mu cut over Krystal, "I agree with Krystal wholeheartedly," Mu gritted his teeth, "this is ridiculous for us to be stuck here and not be out there!"
Murrue turned off the link sighing lightly, feeling much the same as Mu and Krystal even if she wouldn't express it in the same way. The Archangel being at the back of the fleet was doing nothing to help in the situation. In fact, it was doing more harm as the Archangel was ZAFT's target which was causing the Eighth Fleet to fight for their lives as they were. If the orders were to change then maybe the Archangel could do something that could change things. With that in mind, Murrue looked over her shoulder at Miriallia, "Connect me to the Menelaos!" Miriallia quickly did as she had been ordered hearing the no-nonsense tone in Murrue's voice.
Meanwhile, on the Menelaos, reports of how bad things were kept coming in as the battle kept playing out. "Xerxes and Paris, moving out front," a Menelaos operator called. ZAFT forces were still pushing forward and against the fleet's defensive lines. True, the Federation force was helping slow ZAFT down in their push though it wasn't stopping them. "X numbers approaching," a second officer warned.
That the stolen G-machines had made it past the defensive line effectively was a bad turn and there were already too many of those. Yes, they had better systems to block enemy fire than the GINNs and CGUEs. However, that the G-Weapons were close needed to be dealt with quickly. "Use the main guns, shoot them down," Hoffman ordered, "Don't let them get closer!"
"Admiral, we're receiving a communication from the Archangel, connecting real time with them," a communications officer called. Halberton, frustrated by the battle wasn't all that interested in hearing complaints or questions from the Archangel. Things were complicated enough without humoring those that weren't directly involved in the situation. So when the link opened, Halberton wasn't in the best of moods, "What do you want?"
Murrue could hear the strained tone in her mentor's voice, and she could sympathize with what she'd been seeing. But that was the reason Murrue was contacting the Menelaos, the situation needed to change and quickly. And the best way that Murrue could come up with was for the Archangel to pull away from the fleet and descend down to Earth. "We request to pull away from the fleet," Murrue stated. "It's imperative that we begin our descent sequence as soon as possible, Admiral. Please authorize it!"
The idea Murrue suggested was absurd given the current situation, "You can't be serious," Halberton exclaimed.
The mention of the Archangel pulling away and descending was sounding more like the ship and its crew running away. The sacrifices made in the battle thus far would be wasted if the Archangel just slipped away. "Are you people trying to flee this battle to save yourselves?" Hoffman posed.
Murrue scowled at the suggestion that the Archangel and her crew were trying to run away and save themselves. The Archangel pulling away was to take attention off the fleet as she was what ZAFT was after. "This ship is the enemy's target," she replied, "We must move away from you! If not, then the whole fleet will be destroyed before the enemy attempts to capture us! Alaska is out of the question, but from here we could still reach Alliance territory, even Human Federation territory would be agreeable right now! We can shake off the GINNs and ZAFT vessels in the Earth's atmospheric interface, Admiral!"
Halberton sighed as he knew that his subordinate was quite right that the Archangel was the target and the reason that ZAFT was still pushing forward. The fleet was doing what it could to stop ZAFT but they were only slowing them down, not halting them. The Federation was helping but it wasn't changing the fact that ZAFT was still pressing forward slowly. He looked at one of the sensor boards to see another escort ship signal turn red meaning it had been destroyed. The number of mobile armors was close to half of what it had been at the start of the battle again showing the battle was not going well. "Murrue Ramius, you haven't changed a bit," Halberton admitted with a slight smile before looking back at the display screen, "still as reckless as ever."
"As you well know, a subordinate learns from their superior," Murrue retorted.
"Very well," Halberton returned. "Commence the needed preparations for the Archangel's descent on the double. We'll provide cover for you up to the entry interface, we won't allow one single enemy to get past us."
Murrue knew what Halberton said meant the fleet would do was essentially suicidal and all for the Archangel and her crew. But the war had made such required by some as much as it hurt to admit that point. "Yes sir, "Murrue replied as the communication cut. Back on the Archangel, with the com-channel closed, Murrue knew what had to be done now and there was no time to lose. "Everyone, prepare to descend and go through atmospheric interface immediately," Murrue ordered.
"Atmospheric Interface" the term for the process of a ship that is larger than a shuttle would descend into Earth's atmosphere and go through it. Historical records state that early manned spacecraft had special equipment such as parachutes, air brakes, and material that shielded them from the heat of the atmosphere. Thrusters were the current way to 'slow down' a ship as it fell, but that only helped so much. And then, heat shielding was handled by various heat-resistant gels that were produced in modern times. Even with the improvements made since man left Earth's surface and returned, the process of entering and then descending through Earth's atmosphere is still a risky activity and so can be difficult and can have horrible consequences if done incorrectly.
Down in the Archangel's hangar, Mu was still fuming at just sitting around and doing nothing while the battle with ZAFT was going on outside. Krystal was doing much the same but wasn't showing the feeling as much as Mu was. It was ridiculous to them both how the fleet was getting pounded and they weren't out there fighting. "All hands, prepare for atmospheric entry interface," Miriallia announced over the internal speaker system.
That message got all in the hangar to pause letting the subject matter sink in. Mu popped out of his armor with an incredulous expression on his face at what implications were being said with the announcement. For the Archangel to descend down to Earth at this time was out of the blue and didn't make logical sense with standing orders. It also meant that the fleet would be standing as shields to block ZAFT and sacrificing themselves to get the Archangel to Earth. "Descending," Mu questioned loudly and incredulously in the hangar looking over to Krystal.
She was wondering the same thing as Mu, why would the ship be setting up for descending now. The situation was bad enough as it was, to "run" while the fleet was fighting with everything they had wasn't ideal. She had a dumbfounded expression, "With the situation we're in," she asked.
Where Murdoch could understand the place the two armor pilots were coming from, it didn't change anything. None of them were on the bridge or making the orders that were being announced. It did also bring the thought of McGregor would have trouble getting back but there was nothing anyone could do. "What good's it gonna do you to argue or question about it," Murdoch posed. "But I guess it's better than sitting around not doing anything. Honestly, I don't blame that McGregor kid at all, launching out when he did, he's out there working to make a difference while we just get to standby."
Mu and Krystal had already heard about Tyler "insisting" on launching out before the battle had gotten started. There had been more to the story which they had learned when they had gotten down to the hangar. Murdoch had mentioned something about Tyler saying he had a license to do what he saw fit and used that as reasoning to go out among other things. Whether the kid had a pilot license of some sort neither armor pilot could say, but it wouldn't be a surprise. Mu and Krystal kind of wished that they had gone out at the same time as Tyler if they were honest.
Kira and Lacus had entered the hangar and heard some of the conversations about the descent order that had just been announced. For the Archangel to enter Earth's atmosphere while the battle was going on was a risk, both teens were aware of that. And there was no guarantee that atmospheric entry interface would shake ZAFT forces off. Kira pushed off and began to sail towards the Asuka, "Even if we lose the ZAFT ships and GINNs, there are still those four machines," Kira stated.
Everyone in the hangar turned in shock to see Kira and Lacus in pilot suits floating towards the Asuka and Strike. As far as they knew, Kira and Lacus had left on the last shuttle leaving the armor pilots and Tyler as the only pilots. "What the," Murdoch exclaimed, "you two kids are still here?!"
"We'll stand by in our machines," Lacus said smiling.
"We're still at level one battle stations, right," Kira posed.
With that, the two teens turned their attention fully to their respective machines. It wasn't that any in the hangar were saying the two Coordinators weren't welcome, they always would be. it was the point the teens had been given an out to leave and hadn't taken it. Murdoch stopped by the red zero armor, "I thought they got off this ship," he said frowning with Mu and Krystal.
"They're still at such a young age," Mu remarked, "and already, they've been exposed to their share of war and battlefields. It's going to make their lives tougher."
"You have to give them credit for their commitment," Krystal commented.
As the Archangel began pulling away, Halberton turned to the Menelaos chief communications officer and nodded. The com-officer immediately opened a fleet-wide communications channel, "This is Halberton, this message is to all ships," Halberton began, "From here on, the focus of our energies will be to protect the Archangel until it reaches the atmosphere's entry interface's final phase! We expect this to be a harsh battle, but if we are to win the conflicts that lie ahead, we cannot afford to lose that ship, so reassemble the formations! With the will and determination of the Eighth Fleet, we'll make certain that not one single enemy gets through! We'll show them what the Earth Forces are made of!" As Halberton's speech/orders were heard, the soldiers of the Eighth Fleet with renewed determination, regrouped their formation around the Menelaos, determined to make their commanding officer proud.
With ZAFT forces struggling to keep up the pressure that they had been putting on the Alliance forces, the regrouping wasn't helpful. It was mostly due to the work of the Federation fighters that were picking off the GINNs one by one at a fair pace that made things difficult. The number of Federation fighters on the field was unknown, but the results were something none could deny. Yet, OMNI rallying and regrouping, fighting harder than before was making it harder for ZAFT pilots to gain ground. Sakura felt some respect for the renewed effort the opposing forces were making against them. It wouldn't change things with the outcome of this battle, Sakura would see to that, but still.
As the fight continued, a Moebius shot down a GINN, only to be taken out by the shoulder-mounted gatling guns of a GINN assault-type from the Clyne Team. Three more mobile armors fired off all their missiles at the Blitz, and although Nicol managed to shoot two down, he was forced to simply take on the role of a tank and take the rest with his Phase Shift armor. As he did so, Lori took advantage of their distraction to gun down all three Moebiuses with precision burst-fire from her 76mm heavy assault machine gun that was loaded with armor-piercing rounds.
Four Moebiuses clustered up in a rotating formation firing their linear guns in rapid succession on Christian and Rika of the Clyne Team. The two dodged and returned fire with their machine guns, only for the armors to break apart. One fired off its missiles, vulcans, and linear gun at Rika all at once while the other three each let loose with a different weapon on Christian. Both ZAFT pilots were about to counter the Alliance armors when out of nowhere, Christian's high-energy cannon was hit and exploded, clearly not from weapons that the mobile armors had. The two GINNs, CGUE, and the Blitz were scanning around for the source of the shot but saw nothing.
Nicol became on edge after seeing the shot, the GINN's cannon had been hit by a shot from a beam rifle. Mobile Armors didn't carry beam rifles yet, so that left a mobile suit or possibly a Federation fighter as the culprit. Out of the enemy forces, the type of strike didn't match any known weapons the Federation used regularly. Then there are only three mobile suits to work with and did have beam rifles to work with. Of those three machines, the style of hitting and seeing nothing of the source fit one of the three machines perfectly and really none of the others. That was the 'twin' of the Blitz itself and that meant nothing but trouble in Nicol's mind.
The Federation had the capabilities to be invisible while striking their target and that fact was proof of the stealth abilities they had. However, it was the third enemy mobile suit that fit this more in Nicol's mind and he couldn't dismiss the point. That black suit with its pilot was still in Nicol's opinion, even if it wasn't shared by others, the most dangerous of the three enemy mobile suit and pilot combinations. In fact, that machine and its pilot scared Nicol in a couple of ways and more with the possibility they could do than any had before. Memories of what happened in the last encounter haunted Nicol.
The two pilots from the Clyne team forces onto the defensive as shots came from seemingly random directions. The point of being attacked and seeing nothing of the source was
frustrating them. Yet, while that was going on, Nicol opened a com-line to his 'wingman', "Lori, I'm relatively sure our allies are going against the black enemy mobile suit. In the previous encounter, it was clear to me that its mirage colloid had been improved compared to what the Blitz has equipped. The pilot somehow overcame the flaw in the mirage colloid system and that allows it to move around undetected," remarked Nicol. "Then they showed skill that the other two didn't have and shouldn't be underestimated."
The tension was mounting quickly as the attacks came intermittently, that's until one of the two GINNs got its shield arm sliced off by a beam saber. Rika spun around gazing at where her comrade's suit was now missing an arm instead of just being peppered. Granted, the Federation's style was to do shooting unseen, but they didn't have energy bladed weapons according to ZAFT intelligence, at least not yet. The Federation forces were already making things more difficult when this situation had nothing to do with them. So Rika growled in frustration, "Whoever you are, come out and fight us face to face," she shouted in challenge over an open com-line.
Rika moved forward and slashed at nothing, then the arm of her GINN gripping the heavy blade was slashed off. Rika looked to her left and saw a black mobile suit appearing which looked much like the stolen OMNI suits. And it had a beam blade in its right hand still ignited ready to use to cut Rika's GINN in half. Nicol caught sight of the Blitz's twin becoming visible proving that Nicol's assumption had been right. He watched as the Shadow activating its phase shift armor shortly after appearing. The other thing that Nicol took note of, was that the Blitz's twin had different equipment again from the last battle. That proved that it could, like the X105 Strike was supposed to be able to do, yet another contribution to the danger of this mobile suit and its pilot.
Lori and he moved forward, but the black machine had already shoved the GINN it was next to a short distance away from it. The other GINN rushed forward at the Shadow, to which Tyler stored his beam saber and readied himself to receive his opponent. Tyler caught the GINN's left arm and shoved his shield at the suit's torso with the railgun's barrel aimed at the cockpit area. Tyler pulled the trigger for his railgun punching a hole through the GINN even though he wished he wasn't forced to kill another. Then Tyler swung the GINN around and chucked it away before it exploded. "CHRISTIAN," Rika cried as she saw her wingman's suit explode.
Nicol and Lori had only closed around half the distance between them and their allies when one of the GINNs was destroyed. However, the Shadow faced the remaining GINN and ignited its shield's beam saber by that point. Tyler surged forward at the ZAFT machine intending to cut it in half just below the cockpit if he could manage it. Rika on the other hand thought she was about to die by the weapons of this mobile suit. Rika screamed as the saber came at her yet, just before the enemy suit struck, it was knocked off course.
Tyler righted the Shadow after being struck and faced in the direction the shot came from and he didn't like what he saw. Of course, the Shadow wasn't damaged, the phase shift armor prevented that from happening. But now Tyler found himself facing off against none other than the black CGUE and a silver one too. Tyler wasn't the only one to notice the newcomers, Nicol saw a moment before the black machine was knocked out of the way, Commander Clyne speeding towards them. Commander Creuset wasn't far behind the Zephyr and out of those on the battlefield, Nicol would put his money on them to be able to take on and down the Blitz's twin.
Tyler on the other hand, wasn't liking that he was facing Sakura already or at all. He didn't deny that Sakura was more skilled than him when it came to piloting a mobile suit. And right now, Sakura didn't know he was in the Shadow, so her "liking" of him wouldn't help or slow her down from trying to take him out. The last time Tyler faced one of Sakura's caliber, he had seriously feared for his life before the end of the mock battle. He didn't want any kind of repeat of that experience, but Tyler doubted he was going to be given a choice. True, Lisa was nearby to support, but that wouldn't be enough he felt against Sakura.
Tyler had just enough time to raise the Shadow's shield before the black CGUE was in front of him bringing down its heavy blade. The full weight of the blade was around what Tyler expected from his stalker with her record. Sakura was pushing forward against the enemy machine, not letting it get a chance to counter. "Rika, withdraw," Sakura ordered as she pushed harder, "You can't do any more good with your machine in its current state."
Rika knew it was best if she retreated while her commander kept the enemy machine busy. "Y-yes ma'am," Rika replied.
Sakura was forced back a moment later as the black machine used its legs to shove her away. After getting a bit of distance, Tyler brought out the Oscillator rifles and began unloading them at Sakura. Yet, Creuset moved forward shooting at the Shadow, to which Tyler weaved right then left to not get hit putting the Oscillators away. However, Creuset was forced to stop as he came under attack by an unseen enemy from his left. Tyler barely had the time to catch a breath before he saw Sakura rushing at him again. He had the Shadow orient back and Sakura's heavy blade moved past Tyler though the clearance was far too close for Tyler to feel comfort in any way. No, it was bringing back very unpleasant memories that Tyler didn't like recalling at all of said mock battle against another of a similar caliber.
Upon reflex, Tyler pointed the Shadow's shield at the CGUE and fired a round from the railgun. Sakura saw movement after the miss with her heavy blade and threw her controls hard to the left and dodged the weapon on the enemy's shield. Barely a minute in, and Sakura had some questions about this enemy machine answered. The pilot's skillset was different than what the other mobile suits had shown, and completely unlike what OMNI pilots employed. In fact, Sakura had only seen such resourcefulness from Federation pilots normally. And this pilot was a cut above many Federation pilots she'd squared off against which was unexpected. That implied they weren't an ordinary Federation pilot, meaning either one from their special forces or a licensed pilot. Nonetheless, by the time Sakura focused back on finding her opponent, they had vanished.
Shortly after the Shadow disappeared, Rau's attacker stopped assaulting him and left him alone. Nicol had been fascinated as well as shaken by what he had just witnessed mere moments ago. The suggestion he'd made that the black machine's pilot might be able to hold their own against a champion had been frightening back at the time. To see that proven was an entirely different matter than just imagining the idea like he had before. It showed that the enemy pilot was definitely better than other pilots the enemy had to work with. The fight had been fascinating as it gave a view as to the possible potential of OMNI's prototype mobile suits.
Rau stared in the direction the enemy machine had been, thinking about a number of things. It had been obvious that McGregor was no normal pilot from the last time he'd gone against the teen. However, that the teen had fought against Sakura and lived to tell the tale had Rau reassessing his original thought of the kid. While he may not like the teen, that he'd left a fight alive and in a "draw" against Sakura was impressive. "So, even your knights can be taken down," Creuset remarked.
Sakura let the questions that she had on the black mobile suit pilot move to the back of her mind. "Anyone can be shot down," Sakura stated, "The Battle of Endymion proved that," Sakura paused for a moment, "the Mocking Jay fell there, or have you forgotten that. However, that black mobile suit has proven far more dangerous than most ever do. Whoever the pilot is, they clearly are experienced at piloting a mobile suit and fighting with one. But I can say they aren't OMNI, rather a Federation pilot, there is no doubt in my mind about that."
Nicol had a double take at hearing what Commander Clyne said about the black machine's pilot. If it were true and there was little reason to doubt, then Nicol and his comrades had been fighting an individual really out of their league. It would explain a couple of things that had been strange before now about the black machine. Nicol was curious what the others would think at being told of the likely possibility Commander Clyne suggested.
"Yes, that would explain a number of things," Rau said in reply. Then a message popped up on one of Creuset's screens, "Hmm, the legged ship…"
Sakura looked down at her own display and saw what Creuset was talking about. The message detailed that the movements of the target ship had changed and showed it was breaking away from the fleet itself. It made sense to Sakura as the ship was seen as important and so if it were to get away before ZAFT reached it, that would "protect" the ship to an extent. "So, Halberton is going to use the Eighth Fleet as a shield to let that ship begin its descent to Earth," Sakura commented. She took a moment to assess the situation as it was changing even if the goal wasn't. "Amalfi, Zala, Elsman, Joule, we'll break away from the main engagement to pursue the legged ship as far as we can. Your firepower will be necessary to break through the final enemy defense line in the time there is before our target gets beyond our reach up here."
"Yes ma'am," the four pilots replied promptly.
At this point, eight GINNs had been lost including Christian's assault-type, and both Rika's GINN and Commander Porto's CGUE had been forced to retreat back to their motherships. The Federation's efforts against ZAFT had been efficient, showing once again that Federation fighters were able to take on mobile suits. And the Federation fighters seemed to have one of the enemy mobile suits with them as well. The Ziegler and Galvani were still bearing down on OMNI from the planar north, let loose another barrage into the fleet. They sent two more ships up in flames just as ZAFT had been doing since first launching mobile suits. The whole battle was tipped in ZAFT's favor, thanks to the surprise flanking maneuver and the tremendous power of the stolen OMNI prototypes, leaving only a handful of mobile armors. Sakura and the two left of the Clyne team, along with Creuset's team had been able to break off and punch through the Eighth Fleet's formation.
That suffered a bit when one of the two Laurasia-class vessels were struck on their port side. This was quickly followed by two Federation cruisers appearing and began bearing down on the ZAFT warships. The appearance of the Federation vessels added more of their fighters on the battlefield, which didn't help ZAFT at all. Sakura knew that if the fresh Federation pilots reached them, ZAFT forces would likely need to fall back and withdraw ending this battle. That in mind, the group she led forward towards the Archangel picked up their pace while the rest of those that were fighting the Alliance made a desperate attempt to delay the Federation Military forces.
As Sakura's group heading towards the Archangel approaching the Eighth Fleet's final defensive line, all of the Alliance warships opened up with everything they had. The CGUEs and GINNs were all forced back with the exception of Ryan on Dearka's wing. Ryan was dodging the shots expertly and so stayed with his assigned machine. But the four stolen OMNI prototypes opened with everything they had, successfully obliterating a pair of escort ships. Yzak didn't wait for Mindy to take back her position on his wing, taking the opportunity to charge through the hole created. He felt he'd waited long enough and the bout against the black enemy machine had only fueled his frustrations. Yzak would have his vengeance against the enemy mobile suits whether he had to blast apart the legged ship to get to them.
Dearka spotted Yzak rushing off towards the target, blatantly disobeying orders that were standing. And since he was a comrade, Dearka couldn't not give a warning, "Yzak you're disobeying orders," he shouted as he gave chase, Ryan still on his wing.
Yzak didn't want to hear Dearka call him out when he had his target in sight to attack, "Shut up," he shot back angrily.
With the ZAFT suits in two groups, three breaking off from one left only a few to hold their positions. Athrun and Nicol who were with Commander Clyne's group didn't disobey orders, instead waiting for their wingmen to regain position. Unfortunately, that gave the Eighth Fleet the opportunity to close up the hole behind the Duel, Buster, and GINN. Sakura was not happy that Joule was being an idiot and letting his pride get the better of him. She suspected it very well could by what Creuset had mentioned, but for the teen to do that now put others in a bad position. And because of that, she would go through with her threat, "Yzak Joule, mark my words, you will face consequences for your actions. And don't think your mother's position will get you out of trouble with me for even a moment. If you survive this battle, then I will not only personally court martial you, I will do it in the presence of Lanus Treize, Joule!"
The prospect of a personal court martial by the Black Zephyr herself was terrifying to the vast majority of ZAFT. However, for her to state it would be done in front of the leader of the ZAFT military made the horrible event mortifying in a way that words couldn't accurately describe. However, Yzak ignored the threat as he didn't care at the moment. All that he wanted was his chance to get a shot at the enemy mobile suits that had caused such problems in his view. So, he ignored the orders and continued, gunning for the legged ship where he believed he would find the other two enemy mobile suits, which hadn't appeared.
Back on the Archangel, the enemy units breaking through and getting past the fleet's final defense line didn't go unnoticed. Sai typed in a command to identify the three signals that had gotten past their allies. It didn't take long for them to be shown as the Duel, the Buster, and a GINN. Miriallia saw the message that Sai had gotten, "The Duel, the Buster, and a GINN have broken through the Eighth Fleet," she announced over the PA to the rest of the ship.
Kuzzey saw it was quickly getting worse than what Miriallia just announced, "The Menelaos is engaged in combat," Kuzzey added, though his voice was only heard over the intercom of the mobile weapons.
Murdoch and the other mechanics gasped at the news as it didn't bode well at all for their allies who were buying them time. Kira was frustrated at the news, and still being stuck in the Archangel doing nothing to help. That it took this long for any of ZAFT to reach this point, Kira felt that Tyler and others had something to do with that. It didn't feel right for Tyler to be out on the battlefield and they not be there with him. "Lieutenant La Flaga," Kira shouted.
Mu could hear Kira's frustration clearly in his voice, and he could understand it all too well being stuck just as much. "Yeah, I know kid," Mu replied. He called the bridge once more, "Captain! Let us fight to the last second! There's still time before the ship starts reentry, as long as we get back before that, we're good!"
Murrue gawked at what Mu was suggesting as it was suicidal to a degree to even consider, and that was in the best-case scenario. Atmospheric conditions were dangerous for ships and shuttles, many things could go wrong and that normally led to death. Yet, for mobile weapons, the chances for things to go bad were a great deal higher. And with the Archangel descending, it was more a point of when rather than if mobile weapons got into lethal conditions. "Don't be ridiculous," Murrue began sternly, "You want us too…"
Lacus had figured that the ship officers might use the conditions they would launch out to as a means to discourage them. The atmospheric environment would be dangerous and that was putting it mildly. However, from what she'd read on the specs of the mobile suits, they had been "designed" to be able to work within that kind of environment, though that hadn't been tested. That said, in theory, the Strike and the Asuka should be able to handle the atmospheric conditions for the time needed. If worst came to worst, the machines were supposed to be capable to do reentry on their own. She hoped that none of them had to put that idea to the test with some of the things that Sakura had told her about what it was like to do reentry. "According to the catalogue specs for all of OMNI's prototypes," Lacus began reasoning, "They are able to undergo reentry on their own including the Strike, the Asuka, and the Shadow. So they should all be able to survive the atmospheric reentry process, in theory at least."
What Lacus was saying was true, the specs that the designers used claimed that the machines could do reentry alone. However, that was only speculation based on perfect conditions and figures that shuttles used for the process. Plus, it was not intended that idea would be tested with the prototypes themselves. And where Murrue would admit courage when it was shown, this was bordering on reckless endangerment. "Lacus, what are you," Murrue stuttered, surprised to see pink-haired teen again, much less in the cockpit of the Strike where she was. The bridge crew gasped in surprise at what the young teen was suggesting as much as seeing the young teenager in the mobile suits. It was thought they left with the last shuttle before the battle got into full swing. "What are you doing there? I thought you," Murrue started.
The current argument was getting nowhere, and Kira wasn't going to wait much longer. "Captain," Kira stated, "If this keeps up, then the Menelaos will be in great danger of being destroyed. We may not be able to save the whole fleet but let us launch and do something while there's still time!"
Murrue hesitated, uncertain on what to do in this situation which was difficult as it is already. Tyler had already gone out to the battlefield, without permission and had threatened to do things if he wasn't allow to go out. But that teenager did what he saw fit and had said so a few times, regardless of any orders given from anyone else. Had any other stated the threats Tyler had, they would have been thrown into the brig to cool down. And if up to Natarle, Tyler still might end out there when he came back, if he did. That in mind, if the other four pilots launched, the chances of them getting back before the Archangel started atmospheric interface were fairly slim at best. Although, their chances were better than Tyler's chances of getting back to the ship before the third phase of reentry since the Shadow's signal disappeared. Murrue knew the importance of getting the Strike to Earth HQ, so letting it launch at this point was crazy. Phase three of entry interface was the most dangerous as it was when a craft came into the Earth's Thermosphere. That was the point where burning up tended to happen the most according to records kept.
Natarle sighed slightly in her own well-concealed worry with the current situation, yet someone needed to make a decision and Murrue was hesitating. So, it fell to the vice-captain which was Natarle as she was the acting one and she could swallow her pride enough to agree the pilots were right. The fleet was suffering and at the rate ZAFT was advancing, they would reach the Archangel before reentry. Even with the help of the Federation's military ZAFT hadn't been halted yet, though slowed down. So, she hit a button of the unoccupied mobile weapon control station, "Alright then, permission granted," she said, "But you must return before we reach phase three. The specs may say it's possible for the mobile suits to survive the full reentry process, but none of them were tested in the conditions that Earth's atmospheric environment. We don't know what will happen to you in the cockpit in those temperatures, so keep a constant eye on the altitude and time, all of you. Do not, I repeat, do not drop below eight-hundred-fifty kilometers."
"Yes ma'am," Kira and Lacus replied as the com-line cut out.
Murrue didn't appreciate being stepped around, certainly not by her second-in-command. Her decision put their pilots in serious danger allowing them to go out at this point. So, Murrue stood up and glared down at Natarle, "Ensign Badgiruel," she snapped.
Natarle moved to glare right back at Murrue not regretting the decision she had just made as she had done it with good reason. If the fleet was destroyed and the Archangel too, then the sacrifice of the Eighth Fleet would be in vain. "If this ship is sunk, then the sacrifices of the fleet will be in vain," she reasoned. Murrue's eyes narrowed as the two women began a glaring match that made the rest of the bridge crew feel nervous with one exception. Sofia was watching with interest, 'I wonder who will crack first and show their claws,' Sophia thought.
Down on the hangar deck, the Strike and the Asuka were moved to the catapults for launch. Murdoch watched this with a worried expression on his face, one mirrored by Mu and Krystal in their Zeroes waiting for their turn to launch out. "Even I have never made a sortie in this kind of situation. I done a few simulations of atmospheric combat, but," Mu muttered.
The airtight shutters closed behind the mobile suits followed by the quick hiss as the air got sucked out. "Yes, it's certainly nuts for us to go out yet, it's better than sitting around doing nothing Mu. And I know about the simulations you're talking about, so let's hope those were exaggerating what the idea is like," Krystal replied.
As the mobile suits were receiving equipment, Mu keyed the radio to give the two teens on last piece of advice/encouragement. "Hey you two, be careful when you get out there, okay? Tyler may already be out on the field, but there is no signal from the Shadow registering to the Archangel. So, we don't know his position or whether he is able to help us or is defending himself, meaning we're on our own. We'll also have to take account the effects of gravity while we're out there, it will pull you down and deeper into Earth's atmosphere closer to the point of no return."
Krystal nodded, knowing what Mu was implying and not saying about what could happen out there. Atmospheric combat was one of the worst kind one could go into, the chance of death was high in it as so many things could go badly. "Mu is right, be on your guard and keep an eye on your machine's readouts," Krystal warned.
Once the Strike equipped with the Aile striker pack, the catapults open on both legs of the Archangel. "Yeah, we will," Kira replied as the he looked out and seeing the view of the Earth below them. The scene was a beautiful one that Kira would love to see longer if not for the battle going on. "The view is beautiful, it's a shame that we have to see it in a situation like this."
Lacus agreed with Kira's comment on the view of Earth below the Archangel, it was breathtaking. She'd seen pictures of Earth from above a number of times and had liked the pictures, but this was the first time she'd see the view with her own eyes. It was a real shame that a battle was preventing the taking in of the amazing view. "Yes," Lacus agreed, "But when this is all over, I think we should try to see it, when we can take the time to truly enjoy it later." She paused as she didn't have good feelings about how this battle would end. Lacus couldn't say what it was exactly that was giving her the bad feeling, but it wouldn't leave her. "Kira, I have got a bad feeling about this," Lacus remarked.
Kira knew and understood the feeling that Lacus was talking about as he was having serious concerns and worries about what they were going to do and its ending. He had read about the dangers of some environments that fighting took place in, and Earth's atmosphere came up in iterations often. However, his best friend Tyler was out there fighting ZAFT and Kira didn't in any way feel comfortable with Tyler putting his life on the line for him and others alone. Then, there was definite chance of Athrun being out there too. Kira cared about both of his best friends, even when they were in a situation they may be forced to face-off against one another. "Yeah, so do I," he returned, "Yet there isn't much we can do but go ahead and launch so." Kira paused shaking his head to clear it, "Well, let's go. Kira Yamato, Asuka launching!"
"Lacus Christopher, Strike launching," Lacus announced a moment after Kira launched. The two Coordinators felt the catapults launching them forward and away from the ship at high speed. As they cleared the catapults, they activated their Phase Shift armor readying themselves for combat.
Both Zeroes were quickly to follow the two mobile suits flying out of the Archangel's catapults. "Alright, let's see what we can pull off," Mu muttered, "if we can turn the tide, then it will be close to a miracle."
Mu had a point with their chances of changing things being slim, Krystal knew that just as well as her friend did. However, the chance was still there and where there was a chance, faith could bolster that. "Have some faith Mu, it's what we got to work with," she returned, "So, cling onto that and use what we have."
At the same time, Tyler was working on calming his breathing after escaping Sakura. He'd known going against her wouldn't be pleasant, quite the opposite in fact and he had been right. Lisa had distracted Creuset and he was grateful for her help as Sakura had demanded his complete attention. But he had managed and had gotten away from her for the time being and that was better than the alternative. However, Tyler then took in the battle as it was now and wasn't happy with the direction it was going. ZAFT forces were slowed down and the Eighth Fleet was doing better than they would be if the Federation hadn't been assisting. Nonetheless, two groups of ZAFT mobile suits broke through the Eighth Fleet's defense line shortly after Tyler had gotten away from Sakura.
In one group was the Duel and the Buster along with some GINNs and in the other was Sakura's CGUE, the Aegis, and the Blitz along with other ZAFT machines. Tyler saw the two groups were heading towards the Archangel and were going against the fleet's final defense line. All but one of the ZAFT machines were forced back, the one GINN sticking close to the Buster for some reason. But the four stolen OMNI prototypes opened with everything they had, successfully pressing the line and making a hole. Tyler witnessed the Duel rush forward through the hole, quickly followed by the Buster and the GINN. The hole closed before any of the other ZAFT suits could get through, but Tyler wasn't comfortable with even the three getting through.
Tyler then caught sight of the Asuka and the Strike launching out from the Archangel, followed by both Zero armors. For them to launch out at this point was not just borderline reckless, it was seriously close to blatant disregard of safety. Tyler planned for only himself going out and doing this dirty work, no one else getting shoved into it. Kira and Lacus were too nice for this war, they would do things they would end out regretting later, Tyler was sure of that if they kept doing what they had. Hence, why Tyler had come out, to shoulder the horrible things that were done so that his friends would be spared. He already had blood on his hands, and it sickened him, which was why he didn't want Kira and Lacus to get blood on theirs.
Shortly after launching, the Archangel's defenders began clashing with the Duel, the Buster, and GINN. Tyler's friends and their fellow Archangel pilots looked to be holding their own for the time being. However, should the other ZAFT machines that had broken through the fleet's defenses join the fight, it would make things much worse. Tyler knew that atmospheric conditions would make things challenging for those he had been with, they needed more trouble to be added.
If the defender of the Archangel fell, then the ship would follow them and though that would technically fulfill the objective of the current mission Tyler was assigned, it was definitely not the way he wanted it to be done.
That in mind, Tyler wasn't about to allow that to occur while he was alive and breathing. Even if it meant he fought against Sakura again, Tyler would do that and do his damnedest to best her. With that resolution, Tyler felt the onset of his SEED mode and he felt his doubts fade away from his mind. Tyler's SEED mode, he gained "eyes in the back of his head" along with increased speed with my reaction time, those two qualities are common with those with SEED factor. Yet, he had another more individualist quality that comes into play when he went into SEED mode which stood out. Tyler suddenly could somehow predict with extremely uncanny accuracy where his opponents WOULD be when he attacked. It's this ability that others had nicknamed 'target forecasting' which put Tyler in the top ranks of Federation pilots.
Tyler had been being nice and trying to avoid killing ZAFT pilots before SEED mode came on. He activated the Shadow's phase shift and zoomed forward at the group that didn't have Sakura in it. The GINN that Tyler did pass, he shot the head and sliced off its legs before using the machine as a "springboard" to pick up speed. As Tyler quickly approached the group of ZAFT mobile suits, they were focused on defending themselves against OMNI.
Mindy had been doing what was needed after the Duel had ran off on its own. She would have felt sorry for Joule with what he would face with Commander Clyne, if he hadn't knowingly earned the punishment. But her attention was drawn from that when the GINN who was covering their rear had an enemy pass them. Mindy glanced in that direction and witnessed the black enemy suit flying toward the group. The GINN that had been the rear guard was headless and legless and floating backwards. Mindy twisted around and fired upon the suit in the attempt to veer off. However, the enemy suit simply barrel-rolled out of the line of fire, not even slowing down or breaking its stride. That caught Mindy's attention as the enemy pilot seemed to know what was coming their way. That was proven more then the others in her group began attacking the black mobile suit and it evading.
Meanwhile, Sakura also took notice of the legged ship sending out their remaining mobile weapons. "So, they've launched off their two other mobile suits," Sakura muttered as she shot down a missile barrage aimed at her. She then smirked suddenly as two more objects emerged from the legged ship, "Well, if it isn't the Hawk and the Peregrine," she remarked, "it's been a while since I've had a challenge, hopefully those two can provide even if they aren't the Eagle."
Creuset had felt the thirst of a challenge that Sakura had coming in when facing the black enemy machine. Yet now, it was strengthening since the previous opponent had escaped before the battle had gone too far. A part of him hoped that she'd lose all rational thought in her desire for a good battle, but most of him knew better. If Sakura hadn't known it before, then she'd definitely learned her lesson about that at Endymion when she had come close to being defeated by a mobile armor pilot known as the "Silver Eagle" who she simple called the Eagle. At that moment though, Creuset spotted something on sensors. "The Gamow," he questioned. The second ship of his team was moving forward, all guns blazing and its path a direct intercept course with the legged ship, "Has Zelman gone suicidal?!"
If the Gamow were to hold its course, it would break up in the atmosphere and none of the crew would survive that. Creuset wasn't the only one to notice the Gamow's change in course and where it would put the Laurasia-class. "Captain Zelman, this is an order," Sakura stated coolly after noticing the Gamow's course, "Pull back your ship immediately."
Zelman heard the order, but with the work and sacrifice made against the legged ship, if they escaped it would all be for nothing. "But we can't let them escape," Zelman reasoned.
Sakura knew the view that Zelman was using, but that was how good people died and there had been more than enough of those. "What you're doing isn't going to ensure the destruction of the legged ship, only the loss of a good crew and their captain," Sakura returned, voice still calm, but lost the cold tone. "So, I repeat, you are ordered to withdraw."
Even as Sakura ordered the Gamow back, she and the others took advantage of the distraction the Laurasia-class's approach had caused. That was done by blasting their way through the Eighth Fleet's formation and heading for the engagement with the legged ship's mobile weapons. There were several of the Alliance vessels turning in order to continue engaging them, even at the risk of plunging into the atmosphere themselves. "Yes, understood ma'am," Zelman replied at last. The Gamow fired reverse thrusters and began to turn around to withdraw, its cannons rotating so as to continue firing on the Eighth Fleet. Even as it did so, numerous blasts from the fleet's vessels smashed into the frigate's hull, though not destroying the vessel.
As Sakura's group surged forward, it was Athrun that happened to glance in the direction of their allied group. What he saw was the Shadow zooming at the group, doing some of the most insane acrobatics Athrun had seen in person. Shots were flying at the black machine, but none were making contact or even forcing the phase shift to protect the suit. Nicol realized that the Aegis was looking in the direction of the other ZAFT group and glanced that way too. The sight of the Blitz's twin dancing out of the fire sent its way was impressive yet terrifying. Nicol swallowed hard at seeing the same signs that he other suits the legged ship carried. That the black machine could show similar was horrifying, but there was more to it than that. It was being done more efficiently than the other two from what Nicol was seeing. Granted, Commander Clyne had suggested that the pilot was a Federation pilot, but that still didn't explain it completely.
Sakura gazed the same direction as the Aegis and the Blitz just in time to see the black suit to reach one of the GINNs. It then proceeded in cutting off the weapon arm off the GINN then kick it away. That was followed by their opponent using its beam rifle to nail another GINN destroying it. And it wasn't the proficiency the enemy suit had that got Sakura to wonder, it was that they didn't look their opponent's way, it was like they knew where they were already. The black machine finished but using one of the two CGUEs as some sort of springboard launching itself forward before it shot a round from its shield.
Athrun was in mild shock at seeing what his friend Tyler had just pulled off. Sure, after studying the last battle, he would admit Tyler was skilled more than Athrun figured. But this went beyond that and even that didn't explain what Tyler had just done. He'd whipped four ZAFT suits as if they had been standing still and he was dancing around them. It was that thought that brought back the things the other two enemy machines had done in the previous battle. There had been a change, Athrun would swear to that if asked, but the Shadow hadn't shown the same back then. Yet now, it was not only showing the same points, it was upping the that and accurately attacking without even looking.
Sakura could tell that her group was out of range of assisting their allies. When the enemy suit was dodging amazingly, Sakura doubted anything they used would have any better affect. The black suit after using the CGUE to zoom forward dove into the atmosphere. Sakura didn't worry about Ryan, he would get out before that suit could take him down. It was the two from Creuset's team that were concerning. She told Creuset that if anything happened to them he would be the one to do the paperwork, yet realistically, with Creuset's record, Sakura would likely be doing said paperwork instead. Sakura very much disliked doing paperwork, and with the two the enemy was fighting also having family in politics, that complicated things further.
While that happened, Kira and Lacus blazed out of the Archangel when suddenly the mobile suits began to slow and shake. Kira looked down at his displays, "It must be gravity pulling me down," Kira muttered. He pressed a button and had the Asuka's thrusters blaze away harder. Gravity would be a dangerous thing to be kept in mind in this battle for to ignore it meant you would fall and burn up if one went too deep into Earth's atmosphere. The Strike at his side, obviously having done the same, compensating for the pull of gravity.
In the Duel, Yzak smirked as he caught sight of the two mobile suits which he wanted payback on. "There you are, you damn Naturals," he snarled, "finally got the courage to show your face again. You're not just going let that black suit fight while it's invisible like a coward." He reached up and grabbed a saber as he closed the distance between the Duel and the Asuka. "This is for the nasty wound," Yzak growled over an open-channel.
The Duel rushed forward at the Asuka and quickly met in a clash of beam saber on its shield. Kira instantly noted that the Duel had additional equipment it didn't have before in the last battle. "The Duel, with upgraded equipment," Kira questioned as the Duel fired two rounds from its new shoulder mounted railgun at him. The railgun wasn't the same as the one the Shadow had in its shield, but it still would have kick to it that Kira didn't want to be hit by. He dodged the second swing and took a leaf out of Tyler's playbook using the Asuka's shield and rammed the Duel. Kira backed off a bit and began to weave out of the barrage from the Duel's Igelstellungs and then countering with the Asuka's own Igelstellungs.
At the same time, Lacus narrowed her eyes as both the Buster and the blue GINN with it with them closing in on her. "You won't win!" she said as she fired four shots in rapid succession forcing the two opposing suits to separate. Both opposing machines returned fire to her, but Lacus evaded the high-energy beam cannon shot from the Buster. Lacus then blocked most of the bullets from the GINN with her shield, and for those that she didn't block, the Strike's phase shift armor absorbed. The Buster fired missiles at her, but she gunned most of the projectiles down with her Igelstellungs and blocked the remainder with her shield. Then, both of the Moebius Zeroes arrived to join the battle deploying their gunbarrels using them to put on the pressure on the enemy mobile suits. Yet, Mu and Krystal were not letting the gunbarrels go out to the farthest extent with the environment as it was.
Now that Yzak had gotten them into this situation, they were attacking and defending against the legged ship's defenders. Dearka was a tad surprised to not see the black machine and its Mirage Colloid wouldn't work effectively in atmospheric conditions. So, either wasn't being sent out which didn't make sense or it was already out and somewhere else. Dearka focused back on the task at hand and pressed forward against the Strike while the wingman that he had been assigned was taking on the two mobile armors. Dearka dodged a shot from the Strike, returning fire with the beam rifle and kept switching between that and the gun launcher. Dearka would have liked to go against the black suit wherever it was right now, so he could get them back for destroying the Buster's beam rifle, thereby making the combined rifle entirely. Yet with the orders received from the Black Zephyr… well, he wasn't as crazy as Yzak was being. Dearka certainly didn't wish to face a court martial from her, definitely not in the presence of Admiral Treize.
Lacus defended herself from the counter attack with her shield. At the same time, Mu took advantage of the Buster being thrown off by the Strike's response and Krystal having the full attention of the GINN, bringing all of his weapons to bear on the Buster and opened fire directing everything right at the center of the Buster's torso. The phase shift armor managed to hold up just fine, but the sheer force of the impacts sent it tumbling lower and closer to the atmosphere of the Earth and closer to the point of no return. Dearka had to work at righting the Buster for a moment, "Ugh, this machine is getting heavy," he muttered. He fired the Busters thrusters to try and get back up to a more stable position, yet Mu kept up the barrage on the Buster.
However, then the GINN broke away from Krystal and attacked the red Zero and forcing Mu onto the defensive and stopping him from peppering the Buster. Lacus tried to helped Mu, but the GINN countered and sent the Strike flying back a ways. Mu, the Hawk of Endymion redirected all of his firepower at the GINN, but Ryan evaded the shots and pumped two of the gunbarrels full of bullets in rapid succession. "Oh crap," Mu cursed as the GINN quickly closed the distance between Mu and the mobile suit that was swinging its sword at him.
Mu pulled the Zero around to dodge, but the sword cut off the barrel of the linear gun. Ryan would have then, proceeded to open up full auto on the mobile armor, but the blue Zero came up from behind and spat weapon's fire at the GINN. Ryan evaded most of the shots, but some landed didn't cause much damage. However, if given time, things would get worse for Ryan himself, he would've taken a few shots at the red Zero, but things changed. His assault rifle was raised up, but before he could fire at the mobile armor, a beam pierced the rifle forcing Ryan to let it go as it exploded.
Upon glancing in the direction of the shots had come from, Ryan spotted the black mobile suit that had been mentioned. The things that had been said and reported were very troublesome to put it mildly and now that suit was coming straight at him from above. Ryan pulled back, yet the Shadow came passed and cut of a portion of Ryan's GINN's right arm off. Tyler after clipping the GINN's arm off flipped the Shadow and kicked the ZAFT suit hard sending it flying. As Ryan worked at righting his suit, Dearka at seeing the black suit brought the beam rifle up to settle on it. However, he was struck and was forced back, but what had Dearka trying to process what was going on was the black machine hadn't looked his direction before using its railgun. It was like the pilot had already known Dearka was there and didn't need to work at all to deal with him.
As the Buster worked to right itself, Tyler pointed his beam rifle at the GINN, the cockpit specifically. Ryan got the message he was silently being sent, "back off or he was dead" and he wasn't interested in finding out the accuracy of the reports of the enemy unit were. He pulled upward since he was getting dangerously close to the no point of no escape from Earth's gravity well after all. The Buster shook as the Shadow shot its railgun sending it lower and lower, until Tyler estimated the machine was lower enough it couldn't pull out. That effectively dealt with the Buster for this battle as the pilot would now need to focus on reentry.
Mu was completely surprised to see the Shadow come out of nowhere, no, he was in shock at what Tyler had just done. By what chief Murdoch had said, Tyler had left just before the battle's start and that was the last heard of him. The kid had popped up, disabled a GINN and dealt with the Buster in around a minute. Not did the oldest teen do that, he made it look simple, and where he could make things hard look easy, this was more than usual. But as Mu saw his Zero wasn't taken the heat of the atmosphere well with two lost gunbarrels and damaged linear gun, he was forced to focus back on his situation. With two of the four gunbarrels missing, his thrusting power had taken a hit and with gravity pulling down that loss was magnified. "Archangel, this is La Flaga," Mu said over the radio, "I've been hit and am returning to the ship."
"Roger that," Miriallia acknowledged.
Meanwhile, Kira continued to tangle with the Duel, his beam saber locked with the Duel's own. That shifted between a shooting matched between the two machines, their phase shift armor protecting them from the other's attacks well enough. Yet, after a bit, Kira moved forward and kicked the Duel, sending it tumbling downward, "DAMN YOU," Yzak roared over an open channel. Kira was just considering whether or not to finish the Duel off with his beam rifle when he suddenly sensed a familiar presence and tossed himself back, dodging an attack by Creuset's CGUE.
Ryan joined the rest of the group of mobile suits after his ascent and began helping Mindy's group. Sakura saw that most would need to keep OMNI off the others to have any chance at the target. She did observe the Duel which had been sent tumbling downward, recover and fly up to a more stable level. Joule was stubborn she'd admit that, not that it would get the teen out of trouble with her. Nor did Sakura miss the appearance of the enemy black machine again and she wanted another go at them to see how good they were. "Juno, Lori, take the others and hold OMNI back," Sakura ordered, "Ryan, keep with Mindy's group and do the same."
There wasn't a question in the order, the four had come to trust Commander Clyne's orders. "Ma'am," the four replied and broke off in the fights they had been in and did as they were ordered to do.
Sakura prepared to dive down and go after the Strike and perhaps confirm a question she had. "Amalfi, change of plans," Sakura announced as she eyed the Strike. "Go assist holding off the Eighth Fleet ships from pursuing us."
It wasn't that Nicol had an issue with the order from Sakura, it was what she had said at the briefing that was coming to his mind. Sakura had stated clearly that none were to fly or fight solo period or else they would be on their own to get out of whatever situation they got into. Yzak was a prime example as to why that was such an important thing in this battle and showed the wisdom that Commander Clyne had. But then why would she go against her own rule now? It didn't make sense to Nicol, "Ah, yes of course ma'am, but didn't you say," he began questioning.
Sakura knew what she'd said before about not flying or fighting solo, but the fighting style of the Strike was too similar to not find out if she was right. "I know what I said about flying solo, now go deal with the pursuit ships anyway," Sakura commanded leaving no room for argument.
"Y-yes ma'am, right away," Nicol replied slightly scared by the way she'd barked the order at him.
The Blitz pulled away and Nicol went to do what he was told, not wanting to be on the bad side of the Black Zephyr, like Yzak already had. Sakura shook her head before she dove down towards the Strike and Lacus had just turned to see a black shape coming at her. It took a moment for Lacus to register that the shape was a CGUE, and she took out one of its beam sabers and swung it at her opponent. The movement was virtually identical to the style Sakura had taught her sister several months back. Lacus forced the CGUE back yet then it fired a shot off, piercing the Strike's rifle. Lacus instinctively tossed it away bringing her shield up to defend against the explosion of the rifle.
Even in the short observation, Sakura had seen enough to know who the pilot of this final Alliance prototypes was. The CGUE's sword hit the Strike's shield which Lacus just managed to block the incoming blow in time. That single hit and the custom colored CGUE made Lacus realize who was in the opposing suit's pilot was. There was only one that she knew that was this good at fighting, "No way," Lacus gasped freezing in shock, "Sis…"
Sakura proceeded to make three quick slashes that Lacus only barely parried. Then twisted her sword around to knock the beam saber out of the Strike's hand. Then Sakura reached out the CGUE's hand and grabbing the Strike's shoulder, establishing a direct contact link that would let her communicate with her sister undetected. "Hello Lacus," she said a softer and a little warmer tone in her voice for one of the rare times that she showed emotions… other than around their father and Tyler. "I'm glad to hear you're safe, though I am surprised you got caught up in this," she continued. Even as she spoke, she continued to perform mock attacks, like kneeing the Strike's hip to make it look like Sakura was still being serious in the fight.
There was so much she wanted to say, to talk about with her sister with the events of the previous weeks. Before the collapse of Heliopolis and the start of this journey, Lacus had no idea what her sister dealt with. True, there was still a lot she didn't know, but she now had a view into the world that her older sister fought in daily. "Sakura, I," Lacus tried to say.
Questions still remained on how her little sister got to this place, but those could wait for a later time. And by the tone, Lacus had learned how ugly battle was by this point, which was something she'd hoped to shield her from. Sakura would be giving a real dressing down to Creuset later for playing a part in getting Lacus here. "It's fine," Sakura replied, "I trust you you are doing the best you can. I know you wouldn't do this without good reason, so let me just say this, be careful of the Atlantic Federation higher-ups. A lot of them are Blue Cosmos and they'll only do what they see is needed to advance their own interests and destroy what doesn't."
The warning was odd even from her sister, it said there was an amount she wasn't saying to Lacus. And it wasn't that Lacus didn't trust her sister, she did meaning she would do just as suggested. But for Sakura to see the need to give that warning was unsettling in its own way. "Sis," Lacus uttered.
Suddenly, something black moved over to where the Strike and the CGUE were and smashed into the black CGUE suit, forcing it to have to work to right itself. Lacus then found herself, looking at the back of the Shadow, which had put itself between the Strike and where the black CGUE ended out. She was very happy to see that Tyler was still alive at this point, but she felt he misunderstood and had gotten between her and her sister. Sakura on the other hand, glared at the black enemy unit. It had been interesting before now, but it had gotten between her and her little sister. To those that did such Sakura made them suffer for ever considering do that action and to her satisfaction. So this Federation pilot was asking for punishment and Sakura would deliver on that in spades. Next over an open channel, Tyler's voice was heard, "Time for you to back off and go Sakura, this farce is done."
Thoughts of vengeance and punishment evaporated faster than water in a desert at high noon. In fact, Sakura's mind came to a halt at the sound of that voice and her heart skipped a beat. She looked down at her main display and saw the radio contact was indeed coming from the black mobile suit. The very idea/possibility that the pilot of the black unit could be someone she knew had never entered her mind. She'd never imagined that her beloved Tyler could be the pilot even when he was a member of the Federation's Military. His voice always put her at ease no matter where she was and made her feel like a 'normal' person, kind of like Lacus and their father… but there was more to it than that, which Sakura couldn't explain. Just hearing his voice made her feel happy in a way that not even Lacus or their father did. Perhaps it was that feeling he caused her to have, which drove Sakura Clyne to chase the young man as much as she did whenever their paths crossed. Sakura couldn't say for sure, all she could determine was she liked the young man a great deal.
The last time she had seen him and had been able to have him in her embrace had been around the PLANTs and that had felt wonderful! But Sakura had been interrupted in showing her affections to him by her father saying those on the National Defense Committee wanted to speak with her. Then, she'd been forced to endure the old fools on said committee, trying to tell her how to do what she should do. As if they had any idea what she does best or had any right to tell her what she, Sakura Clyne should do. Only Lanus Treize, who had earned her loyalty could give her orders of any sort and expect her to follow them like they expect a normal soldier would. "Tyler, oh my, you should've said you'd be around here, for you to dance with me in this kind of place, how bold of you," Sakura squealed in a happy tone, mixed with giggles and a broad smile coming to her face. "Why didn't you tell me before now that you were into dancing on a battlefield? I would have made arrangements for us to end out like this much sooner."
If Lacus's jaw could've dropped, then it would have, but it went slack and was open in shock at hearing her sister talk to Tyler like she was… and she was even giggling! She could barely remember the last time Sakura had giggled like this, it had been years at the very least. Sakura tended to be cold and calculating around everyone but their father and Lacus herself and even with the family, Sakura didn't show much emotion and none of it strong simply put. However, her sister was talking like she did years ago before the war. She was acting almost like her old self, and Lacus had begun to think she would never see her older sister like she used to be ever again.
Oh yes, Tyler had mentioned that Sakura had a 'thing' for him as he put it several times. He had even supplied a few spares details about his experiences with Lacus's older sister, but other than that, there was nothing to suggest what was happening right now. Lacus herself, after hearing some of the things that Tyler had said from himself and from Kira, she had a hard time believing what was described by him. For the things he had said Sakura did around himself, she wouldn't do any more, it had been so outlandish. Yet not only was there clear evidence being provided now that what Tyler had been telling the truth, but Lacus hadn't thought or imagined that it was to this degree!
There was then an updraft sending Sakura off away from the Strike and the Shadow. Lacus was about to thank Tyler and ask him what the interaction between him and Sakura but didn't have the chance. The Shadow shot off towards where the Asuka was fighting another CGUE and the Duel was still around the area as it had recovered from tumbling. Lacus glanced around and saw the Menelaos had developed a bubble of heat from the atmosphere faint as it was. A moment later she spotted the two shuttles being released from the Menelaos.
Back on the Archangel, the battle continued as the ship was working its way through the entry interface process. They had passed phase one with little issue, but as they had begun phase two ZAFT forces had broken through the Eighth Fleet's final defense line. Thus far the enemy forces hadn't reached the Archangel but some of them had gotten worryingly close. "Captain, we have two minutes before reaching phase three of entry interface," Arnold Neumann announced, "Preparing to release ablative gel now!"
The time for the mobile weapons of the Archangel being out in the fight had run out and they needed to back to the ship. If they didn't, then they would be forced to do atmospheric reentry on their own that that was extremely reckless if not suicidal. "Order the Strike, the Asuka, the Shadow and the remaining Zero to return at once," Murrue ordered, "their time has run out."
"Kira, Lacus, Major McAlester, return to the ship immediately! Tyler if you can hear me, then get back to the Archangel," Miriallia said in a tone of worry. "We have only two minutes left before starting phase three!"
Krystal looked down at her main display and saw the altitude reading showing nine-hundred kilometers. That was just seventy-five kilometers from the edge of the no return zone where Earth's gravity became stronger and it was very difficult for thrusters to escape. Between eight-hundred-twenty-five and seven-hundred-seventy-five was the no return zone lower than that you wouldn't escape Earth's gravity. "Crap," Krystal got out, "wish I could stay out longer, but can't if I don't want to not burn up."
The blue Zero fell in to the same path that the red mobile armor had been taking. When Mu was close enough that he fired an anchor that shot towards the ship and once it had attached, pulling the mobile armor to the upper deck. The blue zero did the same when it got close enough and came to be next to Mu's armor once it was reeled down to the upper deck as the temperature kept climbing higher. Once Mu had attached his mobile armor to the Archangel, he looked around to see where the mobile suits were as they needed to get back here pronto as well! "Where are you kids?! Get back to the Archangel now! Our times has run out," Mu shouted in frustration. Mu had been growing fond of both Kira and Lacus… even Tyler, sure none of them are perfect, but they were good kids. There was no reply other than the radio crackling with static as the minutes dragged on.
Back with Kira, he was clashing with Creuset, CGUE blade against beam saber both mobile suits pressing against the other to make their opponent back down. He heard the message from the Archangel, but with the fight he was in he couldn't get back to the ship. And the fight was made harder as it wasn't a one vs one, but a two against one with the CGUE and the Aegis fighting the Asuka. It was putting Kira to the wall defending himself and unable to effectively counter attack his opponents.
Athrun wasn't actively trying to shoot down the winged mobile suit since the pilot was supposedly Kira Yamato, his other best friend. The last thing Athrun wished to do was to shoot down and kill one of his two best friends. And by the information he'd been told by Tyler, Kira was inside that mobile suit due to OMNI taking advantage of Kira's naiveté and kind heart. The good and kind nature that Kira had was one of his best qualities and had been proven multiple times. It was also why seeing him be fooled and tricked to assist the Earth Alliance caused such a conflict with Athrun himself. It was hard to watch and not help Kira understand what was being done to him by those he was around.
Athrun fired his beam rifle at the Asuka aiming for a leg, but Kira managed to break away from the CGUE before the bolt hit him. For all of the machines, the increasing influence of gravity was taking a higher and higher toll the long the battle continued and the further into the atmosphere they fell. At least, it was becoming increasingly evident that the Asuka's greater thrusters were giving Kira the advantage in the fight, even with him being outnumbered two-to-one by Creuset and the Aegis. The Aegis was also compensating for the force of gravity, but even Athrun has being hard pressed to keep up with the winged suit with the adjustments he was having to make.
However, things became direr as the Federation forces pressed forward and ZAFT was being forced to fallback. That didn't mean that ZAFT was giving up without a fight and attempting to take down the Archangel. However, those that broke through were losing the support from their allies they had before as the Federation pushed them back. For a few ZAFT mobile suits, they did get shots fired off in the Archangel's direction, yet due to the anti-beam depth charges and Earth's atmosphere, the beams didn't reach the ship. Yet, ZAFT didn't keep their struggle long as two out of the four Nazca-classes and both Laurasia-classes had been disabled and had to crawl away from the combined fighting force of the Alliance and the Federation.
Back in the upper atmosphere, Kira kept fighting both the CGUE and the Aegis, his worry about the Archangel grew, but he couldn't make his way over to the vessel as the two machines wouldn't let him get far before attacking him again. That changed when the something black rammed into the Aegis and when Kira glanced over, he identified the black object as the Shadow. The black mobile suit held the full attention of the Aegis, making Kira able to focus on the CGUE, making this and even fight of two against two. Kira himself, was happy to see Tyler was okay, even during the heat of battle and the atmosphere.
After another minute, the dull glow of orange that had formed around the mobile suits, became brighter as they passed the halfway point of the exosphere, the outermost layer of Earth's atmosphere. The glow around the Archangel also brightened as they continued descending, but also, the time before the ship began phase three of atmospheric entry interface was very short. Phase three of atmospheric interface started just before a ship reached the thermosphere, which was not only the biggest layer that made up the atmosphere, but also the roughest and had the most heat. The problem with this situation, the Archangel would need to release the ablative gel that would cut down the effects from the heat and accompanying friction of the atmosphere. Doing so would make it impossible to open the catapults and allow the Strike, the Asuka, and the Shadow to come back on board and it would slow the Archangel down relative to the descent speed of the mobile suits.
The ZAFT forces at last let up on their attack, no longer able to keep up their attempts to divert the ship's course and fend off the opposing forces. With the assistance of the Federation forces and OMNI's Eighth Fleet wasn't completely wiped out, but more than half of them had been destroyed. Then most of the Alliance vessels had taken damage of some sort and to varying degrees and so wouldn't be able to go into battle for a time.
For those in the atmosphere, they were beginning to realize that they were getting to the point of no return from one of the things that gave Earth the abilities to support life. Rau was trying to get his CGUE to climb out of the atmosphere, but his mobile suit's thrust wasn't enough. "Athrun, we're at the limit," Creuset said as he struggled to move. "My CGUE can no longer fight under these conditions. I'm not even confident that I can break free of Earth's gravity at this point."
Athrun knew his suit had the power, it would take an amount of the battery's power, but that was a small price to pay. "The Aegis can do it," Athrun replied before breaking away from the engagement it had been in with the Shadow. Then the red mobile suit shifted into its mobile armor mode, before zooming forward and grabbed the CGUE in his machine's claws. After that, Athrun shot upward and away from the Earth, leaving the Asuka and the Shadow where they were. For the ZAFT forces, Sakura gave the order to withdraw, even if she was still very close to the atmosphere and so still under the pull of gravity. "All forces are to withdraw," Sakura ordered, "The battle is over."
"But Commander we can at least finish off the Eighth Fleet despite the Federation's interference," one of the ZAFT captains called.
"No," Sakura returned sternly, "To continue fighting now would be meaningless. There's no reason to get ourselves killed to take down the enemy." Somewhat reluctantly, all the ZAFT forces obeyed her command, pulling back from the Eighth Fleet engagement. On the other hand, Halberton let out a sigh of relief that ZAFT forces were pulling back. He had been worried before but was grateful that the Federation had stepped in and helped the fleet out. The losses they'd sustained were harsh, but they could have been so much worse than they were. Halberton then turned to the whole reason that the fleet had done what they had, the safety of the Archangel. "What's the status of the Archangel," he asked, yet when the answer came from the sensor officer, his blood ran cold.
After saving Kira from being ganged up on and potentially killed, Tyler took in what the circumstance around were like right now. He was still concern about the things that could possibly go wrong in this present crapshoot this battle was quickly becoming. Those worries increased sharply when he saw not one, but both civilian shuttles being released from the Menelaos in order to descend down to Earth. Tyler understood the reasons why Halberton would do so, but both shuttles were still coming onto the battlefield and putting the civilians in danger. They could be seen as a target by some idiot who think there are soldiers onboard trying to escape the battle or something stupid like that.
Yet, then Tyler spotted the Duel still in a moderate range of the Asuka and the Shadow, but also close enough to notice the shuttles. In fact, Tyler saw the Duel turn to face the shuttles and point's its rifle at them. With that view, Tyler put on a burst of speed in the direction of the shuttles. Kira noticed the movement and a moment later saw the Duel aiming for the shuttles which explained why Tyler was flying in that direction. Kira zoomed at the Duel in order to stop them from trying to shoot the shuttle as there were civilians onboard them. "Don't do it, they're only civilians," Kira shouted as the Asuka was just about to reach the Duel.
Yzak ignored what was being said, "You soldiers want-a-be cowards that want to run away do ya," he snarled before firing his beam rifle. The beam seemed to move in slow motion to Kira as it traveled towards the lead shuttle. Most of the refugees had shut their eyes when the mobile suit pointed its rifle at the craft they were on. The lead shuttle pilots knew there was no way they could evade in time, but the Shadow appeared between the shuttle and the mobile suit blocking the bolt with its shield. The appearance of one of the allied mobile suits was as a god sent, the shuttle pilots for both craft took that as motivation to get the pilot onboard the shuttles down safe for that action. Tyler stayed where he was while Yzak stared at first in slight disbelief, "What the," he exclaimed before the disbelief morphed into burning anger, "Damn you, Natural pilot!"
"Back off you hotheaded idiot," Tyler stated in a cold voice, "Leave these shuttles filled with refugees alone. You insist on threatening them, then I'll personally use you as a shield to block the heat and ride you through reentry, taking the steepest entry angle I can," he growled at the Duel. "Now then, let's pick up where we left off earlier and I intend to finish the job this time even if it means I take you out!" Kira hadn't heard Tyler speak like that before, let alone threaten to kill another flat out. Tyler wasn't the kind of person to actively work to kill someone else, it showed how seriously Tyler was fighting.
Yzak was angry before, but the retort he received fueled him further yet also made him wonder just who the pilot of the black machine was. The Duel rushed forward firing at the Shadow which Tyler blocked the bolts to make sure the shuttles weren't hit. Kira moved forward to help Tyler but got caught in a thermal updraft and was flung a distance away from his friend. Tyler stayed where he was to protect the shuttles were passing as they descended down towards Earth surface. The Duel kept closing the distance and drew a beam saber to which Tyler drew his second beam saber.
Tyler employed the Shadow's shield to block the saber and swung his own to make the Duel back up a bit. He was also required to keep an eye and balance how he used the Shadow's power to prevent early reentry. Tyler knew the Shadow would need serious repair before a major battle after this one. While it would provide a reason for Tyler to see one of his friends around home, it wasn't one he wanted to have. Yet, Tyler kept his general position as the shuttles kept moving downward. It was another minute before the shuttles passed where they were in danger of being hit.
Once both shuttles had gotten far enough away to vanish from the attention of this pilot of the Duel, Tyler went off the defensive. He was going to give the hotheaded idiot who needed SERIOUS anger management a lesson on letting their emotions do the driving would get them. Sadly, and somewhat surprisingly, the Duel's pilot needed more anger control training than Natarle did and Tyler didn't think there were many that would outdo that woman. Tyler glanced down at his main display and noted the secondary battery in the flight system had just dipped below twenty-five percent. The Shadow's main battery was still fully charged and ready to go as he'd been using the secondary battery for this battle.
Tyler had an idea on how to deal with the Duel in a way that would get the result he wanted, but it required a sacrifice. That said sacrifice would be the flight system for its battery which would be used as an explosive. However, it was the best Tyler could come up with that would finish the fight with the Duel in a timely manner. With how low they already were, time was of the essence as the point of no return was coming up quick. That in mind, Tyler sent the command for the attached equipment to be ejected, the parts that amplified the suit's thruster output. The flight system broke up and quickly melted in the atmospheric heat leaving the battery compartment.
Tyler grabbed the battery and rushed forward at the Duel to begin his plan he had in mind. The opposing mobile suit took out its beam saber and swung it at the Shadow, yet Tyler evaded. Tyler moved to be behind the Duel and got the Shadow's right arm around the Duels torso. He then shoved the battery against the Duel's thruster before Tyler got the left arm around the Duel's head. Tyler then had the Shadow begin diving down into the atmosphere dragging the Duel with it. Yzak yanked on his controls to try and free the Duel from his enemy's hold. He was also seeing the altitude readout were dropping and approaching the point of no return. Tyler let go of the duel and pulled back a bit, "Okay then you punk, enjoy doing reentry without the main part of your propulsion system."
Tyler aimed his railgun at the battery he had shoved onto the Duel and fired puncturing the battery causing it to explode. The explosion did heavy damage to the Duel's main thrusters, making them inoperable overall. An alarm that came after the explosion drew Yzak's attention and when he looked down the main display showed the main thruster was offline now. He had lost to the black machine twice in this battle and that infuriated Yzak even more.
With the Duel dealt with, Tyler took the time to gage his current position and found that the Archangel was a long distance away from where he was. With Tyler currently in the point of no return margin and still falling at an alarming rate, he was in a harsh position. Without a ship to act as a shield against the atmospheric heat, Tyler would have to count on the Shadow's phase shift and Tyler didn't have a great deal of confidence in that. Tyler also noticed the Strike was the closest to the Archangel and the Asuka was closer to where he was. And while Tyler had known that he might have to do reentry, it didn't mean that he wanted to do the idea.
Tyler figured that overthinking things wasn't going to help the current circumstances. The two shuttles were beyond the dangers the battle provided and Tyler would take that for the moment. So, Tyler flew the short distance over to where the Asuka was, which required the Shadow to climb an amount to reach Kira. His friend was pretty much in the same position as Tyler himself was in being forced into reentry soon enough. Tyler had done reentry once but that had been in a Federation Delta space fighter which were designed to be able to go through the atmosphere and be okay on the other end.
And while the prototypes that OMNI made along with the Asuka and the Shadow said in their specs that they "should" be able to do entry interface, that wasn't necessarily true. Tyler knew for a fact that none of the prototypes had been put in anything like atmospheric conditions. And the one time Tyler had done reentry had taught him that you make sure the system you used worked in that environment. Yet Tyler felt that he would be doing reentry whether he wanted to or not and he wasn't looking forward to it. The mobile suits had been doing okay under the conditions they had been under thus far in this battle so that said something.
Tyler was still worried about Kira as battle was a corruptive thing which Tyler knew personally. He didn't want Kira to have to be sullied by blood on his hands like Tyler had to deal with his two years of service in the Federation's military. Kira and even Lacus were too innocent to get into the mess of fighting in this war and yet they had been doing that. Once Tyler got over to where Kira was, he use the Shadow's short-wave radio, "Kira, you okay?" The com-channel wasn't stable and there wasn't any picture or video of Kira, but with the interference from being in the atmosphere, this is the best Tyler got.
Kira was glad to hear Tyler's voice even if he wasn't getting a picture on the com-screen. This battle had been harder than the last one and while the atmospheric condition contributed to that it wasn't the only thing. But things were not looking up and Kira wasn't so ignorant to not see Tyler and he were still in risky circumstances. "Yes, I good for the moment," Kira replied.
Out of the corner of his eye, Tyler saw movement and when he looked in that direction, the view of the Archangel coming closer to our position was clear. Yet, at its current speed, it wouldn't get close enough for Kira or Tyler to be able to land on the ship before they were forced to begin reentry if they didn't want to possibly burn up. But as Tyler thought about it, there could be a way for at least one of them to make it back. And the Shadow would do better as sending rather than receiving in the method to get one suit back. Kira was the better choice in Tyler's mind, the crew trusted him more than Tyler. Kira would defend the ship with all he had, Tyler had no doubt about that for several reasons.
With that in mind, Tyler's decision was made and he knew that Kira would vehemently disagree with him. Tyler would be against his plan in Kira's position and wouldn't blame his friend for the resistance he would show. "Kira, with the distance we both are from the Archangel, the two of us can't get to the ship as things stand." Tyler paused for a moment, "Yet there is a way to get one of us to the Archangel," Tyler hesitated, "and it's best that it's you, just keep the Asuka's shield in front of the cockpit."
Kira processed what Tyler just said and as it sunk in, horror filled him as he began to understand what Tyler was implying. Tyler intended to send Kira back to the Archangel at the cost of him not going and doing atmospheric reentry himself in the Shadow. Kira focused forward to see the Shadow had backed up and had its shield in front in preparation to ram the Asuka. "No Tye wait," Kira shouted.
Tyler put the pedal to the metal and rushed forward and rammed the Asuka sending it flying towards the Archangel. "Sorry Kira, it's better this way, we'll see each other later," Tyler said in farewell. He then aimed the Shadow's railgun and fired nailing the Asuka's shield increasing the suit's momentum. It wasn't the ideal way to send off one of his best friends, but it was the best he could do at this time.
Phase end
A/n
And done with that Phase! Now, lots to cover in this as I owe a bit of an explanation as to why it has been so long since posting. My life has been crazy, I know that doesn't say much, but simply put I haven't had much time to write. Then combine that with a spurt of writer's block and well… yeah that's the main reasons why it has been so long. It may not be much of an apology but it's the truth and I would rather give that than an excuse.
With that out of the way, on to the details of why I made the changes I did. So overall the battle ended the way it did before but there were parts that changed, like the Shadow going against the Duel earlier on, or Tyler facing Sakura as examples. I think if we are all honest, then for those that have watched canon, Yzak Joule is a hotheaded, gung ho, idiot that most of us don't like. Whether that is the writers of canon's intent, not really the point, so a bit of bashing if you will on the Duel and Yzak. Should you not like Tyler whips him twice in one battle, deal with it, I'm the author, my choice. Then with Sakura, come on, two amazing pilots going against one another, who doesn't want to see that kind of thing? The other thing I changed is Tyler got to show off his SEED mode a little different which I like better.
Anyway, on a bit of a personal note, please some of you readers write a review. I'm not asking for a paragraph or essay telling me things or a list of questions (Though those are always neat). I don't care about spelling or grammar (I'm no English teacher, I assure you), as long as I can understand what is being said, it's good. For those who write on fanfiction, I would bet some of you know what I'm talking about when I say, sometimes, it feels like I'm writing to hear myself think for the reason I have to do so, (Those are private, I'm not insane, that's all that needs to be said). Anyways, thank you for reading my rant for reviews. Until the next chapter!