Gundam Wing: Destiny's Call

by operation meteor

Sequel to Journey to a New Battlefield. It's been two years since the Bloody Valentine War and tensions are rising. When a shadowy group attacks the colony of Armory One, a certain Gundam pilot takes to the battlefield once again. However, little to his knowledge, some old friends are on a journey to his new world. M for language and violence (again, it's war. What do you expect?)

32. Chapter 32

Author's Notes: Hello there! My sincerest apologies for how long this chapter took. It's been quite some time since I've written a battle as large as this one, and when combined with the changes I've made when compared to Seed Destiny canon, I wanted to take a bit longer to make sure I did it well. Also, ever since the winter holidays, I've been incurably addicted to playing Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, which I do hope many of my dear readers will take to be an acceptable excuse for my tardiness. Two playthroughs down, working on NG++ and constantly experimenting and practicing with builds keeps a guy entertained!

Surprisingly, only one song for the chapter: "ADFX-10" from Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. It's the only one that really stood out as being appropriate for this chapter, and only in a very specific scene. You'll see what I mean soon enough.

Enjoy!

Episode Thirty-Two: Nightmare Unleashed

December 28th, C.E. 73

Blue eyes narrowing behind his visor, Rey sighted in on the final drone and pulled the trigger. An emerald particle beam flew forth from the Legend's rifle, and the relatively small target drone was utterly vaporized.

Complete overkill on something like that, Rey mused as he checked his display for a potential surprise drone wave, but at least I know that the targeting sensors are properly calibrated. The rifle's tracking and feedback are finally synched up right where I want them.

A chime sounded from the console, signaling the exercise's end. Even so, Rey didn't relax his guard; ZAFT's trainers would occasionally throw a curveball, such as another round of targeting drones, after a session was 'officially' done just to keep soldiers on their toes. He only loosened up when Meyrin's face appeared on the main monitor.

"Exercise complete," she announced with a friendly smile, "Time elapsed; nine minutes and thirty-three seconds for the final round. Ten second improvement over the previous one. Good job, Rey."

Rey nodded, hoping that the cockpit camera was only catching his head and upper torso; he didn't want Meyrin to see how his right arm was starting to tense up. "Thanks, Meyrin. That's it for now, right?"

Meyrin nodded. "Athrun's lining up his final approach right now, so hang back for the next sixty seconds before coming home."

Rey winced before catching himself. "Sixty seconds… understood."

Meyrin leaned forward, concern evident in her indigo eyes. "Rey, is everything okay?"

"I'm fine," he curtly replied, "Standing by until I'm clear for approach."

Meyrin pulled back, though she still looked somewhat worried. "When you get back, rest up, okay? If you want, I can request that a meal be brought straight to your quarters so you can just eat and then lie down. You look like you could use it."

Rey allowed himself a very small smile; even if he didn't dare let on to Meyrin his rather precarious situation, he was still grateful for her thoughtfulness. "I'd like that. Thank you."

"I'll make sure a hot dinner's waiting for you, then," Meyrin replied with a smile, "Come back home and relax, Rey. Minerva, out."

Taking up position hovering off the ship's starboard bow, Rey waited patiently for Athrun to finish his landing. Destiny was being slow and cautious in its landing approach; no doubt Athrun was being extra careful due to fatigue brought on by dealing with the mobile suit's incredible raw speed. Rey could sympathize, though in a different manner. Legend couldn't match Destiny's acceleration or top speed, but it was still a demanding machine.

How fitting that I should have to master it, Rey thought with a grimace, just as he conquered its predecessor. I wonder… what would he have to say were he still alive?

Rey shook his head; he needed to focus on the here and now. Landing the Legend was still something of a challenge for him, mostly because Rey had to bear in mind the large protruding half-disk sections of the unit's backpack and the armaments attached to it when lining up for hangar entry. Both the ZAKU Phantom and the Impulse were much easier to maneuver through tight confines by comparison.

There was a good reason for Rey's new machine being considerably larger than his previous ones, though. An evolution of the ZGMF-X13A Providence Gundam that had both made its debut and been destroyed in the final battle of the First Bloody Valentine War, the ZGMF-X666S Legend was easily traced back to its ancestor through aesthetics alone. Not only were their silhouettes extremely similar, but the Legend's Variable Phase Shift Armor was predominantly dark grey and dark blue like its predecessor, though the Legend had prominent red trim on the torso as opposed to the Providence's bit of red and much more visually distinctive yellow accents. Like its forebear, the Legend was equipped with a Neutron Jammer Canceller, though in this case that piece of equipment allowed a hyper-deuterion engine to function rather than the ultracompact nuclear fission reactor that had powered the Providence.

The Legend's evolved power source was appropriate, as the armaments powered by it had also been enhanced. Most prominent among them, of course, was the DRAGOON System that dominated the unit's split-disk backpack and was partially incorporated into the mobile suit's waist. There were ten DRAGOON pods in total, with eight set on the backpack while the remaining two were mounted on the waist. The pods were split into two distinct subtypes, the majority of which were the eight smaller GDU-X5 Mobile Beam Assault Cannons. Relatively slender and wedge-shaped, these pods were equipped with two beam guns apiece. Meanwhile the final two pods were the larger and somewhat conical GDU-X7 Mobile Assault Beam Cannons, which were mounted at the apex of the split-disk backpack. Each one was armed with a combination of five beam guns and four beam spikes, the latter essentially turning the pods into detached beam sabers with wider and shorter blades.

The Providence's single battle in the last war had proven just how deadly the DRAGOON System could be. Unbeknownst to most, however, the Providence's sole sortie in outer space had masked the system's greatest weakness; it could not be utilized on Earth. While other attack pod systems like those found on the Atlantic Federation's prototype Nosferatu unit had thrusters powerful enough to be viable in Earth's gravity and atmosphere, ZAFT's DRAGOON System lacked this. The pods of the DRAGOON System were designed for incredibly precise manipulation by the pilot, so the thrusters were fine-tuned for that purpose and excelled at it, but said thrusters lacked the level of brute power possessed by their Atlantic Federation counterparts and thus could not sustain flight in Earth's gravity. Providence had never been forced to confront this weakness in its brief service life, but the Legend's combat debut would be on Earth, and finding a workaround for this drawback had been paramount to the unit's designers.

To overcome this vulnerability, the Legend's DRAGOON System had been heavily modified. The split-disk backpack mounting system had come about in part to solve this problem, with both halves of the backpack capable of swiveling up and down, while the DRAGOON pods themselves could also swivel around, including forward and back. These swivel mounts allowed for the pods mounted on the backpack to track and engage targets around the Legend without separating from the mobile suit. While it worked to make the weapons viable in atmospheric combat, accurately targeting units with those mounted pods was a very difficult task, even with the highly sophisticated tracking software and improved quantum communication system that had been installed to help with said task. That was in no small part the source of Rey's exhaustion after every trial flight so far; the mental exertion required to effectively employ the attached drones as essentially a series of turrets was just as great as it was to use them as detached armaments in simulations.

Fortunately for Rey, he had other armaments at his disposal. Augmenting the Legend's primary ranged weapons system was the MA-BAR78F High-Energy Beam Rifle. Typically held in the unit's right hand, it could be stored between the split-disk sections of the backpack when not in use. Possessing much higher firepower and rate of fire than the beam rifles used by ZAFT's more conventional Second Stage series mobile suits, the weapon was extremely effective at precisely picking off mobile suits and would no doubt also be useful for damaging or destroying warships with well-placed volleys. Meanwhile, the unit's head possessed a pair of MMI-GAU26 17.55mm CIWS. They'd proven useful in dispatching target drones when Rey had been having trouble with the DRAGOON System, and in live-combat they would be suitable for destroying incoming missiles or perhaps small aircraft but of limited utility against larger targets. Of course, if circumstances ever forced Rey to rely on the CIWS against larger targets, then that likely meant things had deteriorated to the point where he had much bigger problems to worry about.

The rest of the Legend's weapons were geared towards close-quarters combat. Stored in the outer side of each leg was an MA-M80S Defiant Kai Beam Javelin, which functioned as the Legend's beam sabers and could be combined into a double-ended weapon. Rey couldn't see himself using the sabers in that second configuration; it struck him as impractical and unwieldy. Given the Legend's focus on mid to long-range combat, he'd only be mixing things up in melee range if the situation got desperate. Should it come down to that, the Legend had a defensive ace up its sleeve, or rather, on it. Set on the back of each hand was an MX2351 Solidus Fulgor Beam Shield Generator, the same model as that equipped on the Destiny.

I'd rather not rely on them, Rey thought as he brought the Legend into the battleship's hangar, but I suppose they'll be handy in a pinch.

Deftly situating the mobile suit in its docking berth, Rey quickly powered down the machine and popped the hatch. He silently cursed the distance from his position to the hangar exit, and he could only use his left hand to help with his climb down; he did not trust his right.

"Hey, Rey!" Yolan called out, the dark-skinned and black-haired technician waving as Rey passed by, "Want to join us for cards later?"

"Another time," Rey curtly replied as he rushed for the exit.

Leaving a slightly worried Yolan behind, Rey left the hangar and breezed through the pilots' locker room without even bothering to swap out of his flight suit. His left hand clutched at his right arm while he briskly moved through the ship's corridors, and he could feel the subtle tremors going through the limb begin to intensify. By the time he got to his quarters, it felt like the arm was about to shake itself right out of its shoulder socket.

"Damn it!" Rey hissed as he slipped inside his room.

Forced to let go of his right arm, he fumbled for a water bottle before grabbing a small cylindrical container. Hastily unscrewing the lid, Rey downed two white pills immediately before gulping water. He then collapsed back on the bed, careful to avoid falling on the food tray that had been left there per Meyrin's request. Rey could only lay back and wait as the tremors in his right arm gradually subsided.

"It shouldn't have started until after I got back," he murmured to himself, "but I could feel it when I was flying… the dose isn't strong enough anymore. Shit…"

Once his right arm was back to normal, Rey picked up the bottle of pills and studied it. There was still about half of the contents left, but he would have to up the dosage from now on, which meant he would go through the rest quickly. He resolved to head over to the sickbay after he'd rested; the chief medical officer was the only one aboard the Minerva who knew of his condition and had the appropriate medication in stock.

Yes, a quick restock tomorrow morning, and increasing the dosage. Perhaps doubling it before any flight operations, just to be safe. That would keep him going.

For a while, anyway.

"For long enough to see it through," he muttered before turning to the meal Meyrin had ordered for him, "After that… as long as I can see our vision born, I can be satisfied."

What little life he had left, spent to bring about an era of true peace…

…it was a fair trade.

….

December 29th, C.E. 73

"How'd the simulation exercises go today?" asked Murrue, "Is Shinn adapting to the Strike Rouge well?"

"Like he was born to fly it," Heero replied, "It helps that the Impulse's Force Silhouette Pack was designed as an improved version of the Strike's Aile Striker Pack."

Murrue nodded in understanding. "I imagine that made the unit shift much easier for him. He might view it as a disappointment compared to the Impulse, unfortunately."

"He hasn't made any complaints," Heero noted.

Murrue smiled. "Probably because he's just grateful to be assigned a mobile suit instead of being stuck in the Skygrasper."

"That's true," Heero conceded.

The day's work had wrapped up some time ago, so Heero and Murrue had retired to their quarters. Sitting together at the small table, they were enjoying some idle chatter while waiting for the treaty ceremony playing out on the laptop's screen to conclude. The Eurasian Federation Prime Minister Anton Mikhailov had flown out to Orb so he could personally sign the new security pact. The contrast between the two national leaders was striking; Cagalli's youth versus Mikhailov's advancing years had been no small topic of debate among the political commentariat, with more than a few talking heads voicing the view that Orb's Chief Representative would be taken to the cleaners by the more experienced statesman.

Shows how little the pundits know, Heero thought with no small measure of satisfaction, Cagalli's gotten everything she wants out of him, and she only had to 'give up' what she wanted to provide Moscow from the start.

Negotiations between Cagalli's government and the Eurasian Federation diplomatic delegation had proceeded quickly over the past few days, with both nations eager to sign a security pact. The terms agreed to included standard line items such as mutual defense and aid in the event of outside aggression, along with exclusionary clauses in the event that one of the parties involved initiated a war of conquest or other such crimes. Technology sharing and transfers were also signatory items, though Heero knew that Cagalli had made sure to keep anything related to the Gundams or any material from the After Colony world out of the negotiations; there was no telling how the Eurasian Federation would react to such a revelation.

Moscow had been particularly keen to establish a manufacturing license agreement with regards to Morgenroete's Murasame mobile suit. While the Dagger and Windam lines had served the Eurasian Federation well and they had manufacturing lines set up within their territory, those were still designs originating in the Atlantic Federation, and the invasion of Europe had naturally prompted an upswell in hostile sentiments towards anything from North America, including weapons. As part of the security pact, the Orb Union through Morgenroete would provide schematics for the Murasame to Moscow, with a licensing contract worked out so Orb's military industrial giant not only got a percentage of the profits but would also provide the Eurasian Federation military with future upgrade packages. Another clause had been inserted to set up joint-development ventures for future mobile suits and other weapons systems between Morgenroete and the Eurasian Federation's top armaments manufacturers, with the intention of creating cutting edge weapons platforms that would allow the new alliance to match or exceed their foreign rivals in combat capability and performance.

It'll be interesting to see what comes from that research and development cooperation, Heero mused, Morgenroete's designers have cooked up impressive units in the past, with the Murasame being just the latest. I wonder what sort of modifications the Eurasians will come up with. Definitely something to watch for.

"Speaking of the Skygrasper," Heero eventually remarked, "we should get a separate pilot assigned to it now that Shinn's using the Strike Rouge. He's proven that it still has value as a strike platform."

Murrue's brow furrowed. "I'm not so sure. The thing is, Shinn's skills were what made the Skygrasper viable. It's an outdated platform now; only a talented pilot can make it work in this day and age."

"That's fair," Heero conceded, "Finding another pilot that can match him on the Skygrasper's probably a tall order, and any pilot with those skills would be priority candidates for new mobile suits off Morgenroete's production line. Maybe it's better to just maintain it as a reserve unit, then."

"Well, if things get dicey enough, we can field it," said Murrue, "Of course, if it gets to that point, we'll probably have much bigger problems on our hands. Not sure how much good an old fighter jet would do then."

They spent a few minutes watching the signing ceremony before Heero spoke again. "You think Moscow can be trusted to honor their side of the pact?"

"They have no incentive not to," Murrue pointed out, "Orb punches well above its weight, both militarily and economically. That's reason enough for the Eurasian Federation to want a partnership. Plus, we've already proven that we're willing to fight for them. Just look at our battles back in Europe."

"That was Terminal fighting for them," Heero reminded her, "We're not officially under the Orb Union's flag."

"No, but Cagalli was flying with us at the time," Murrue countered, "She might've been in self-imposed exile, but she was still officially Orb's Chief Representative, and she put her life on the line to help us save Moscow. That counts for a lot of diplomatic goodwill."

"That's true," Heero admitted, "and the Eurasian Federation's kept most of their Pacific Fleet close to Orb since our recent operation, including those new missile submarines. Awfully handy as a deterrent force."

"Right up until ZAFT gets serious in this part of the world," Murrue remarked with a heavy sigh, "I think we both know that they'll be coming for us over here eventually."

Heero nodded. "They will, but right now it sounds like they have other targets in mind."

"They do if the latest information from Eric's contact network is accurate," Murrue concurred as her eyes narrowed, "Can we be certain that they're going for Iceland, though?"

"It makes sense," said Heero, "Major Atlantic Federation stronghold, and a likely place for LOGOS members to take shelter at considering what's happening back in North America; given Durandal's big speech, there's plenty of political value in going after that target."

Murrue shook her head. "Politics is one thing, but military logistics are another. If they do launch an invasion of Iceland and it bogs down, keeping reinforcements and supplies flowing is going to be a complete nightmare."

"Even if it doesn't, their losses are going to be heavy," Heero ventured, "No way the Atlantic Federation lets a base that important go down without one hell of a fight."

"One that both Wufei and Athrun will likely be thrust right into the middle of," Murrue added, tapping a finger on the table, "I know they're good, but even they might have their work cut out for them here."

Heero's eyes narrowed. "Possibly. Well, it's their fight. They know the risks."

"You don't want to intervene?" Murrue asked.

"This one's not our battle," Heer pointed out, "It's ZAFT going after a legitimate military target. We might be working against Durandal as much as we are the Atlantic Federation, but I don't see why we need to get involved here. Either he takes a major base away from LOGOS, or his invasion force gets repulsed. Both of our enemies bloody themselves against each other regardless of the outcome."

"Good point," Murrue conceded, "Realistically, we couldn't do much from our current position, anyway. No way our warships can get out there before ZAFT's fleet likely departs, and even if they could, they'd just draw fire from both sides. It'd be the same if we sent you and our other Gundams out there."

Heero nodded. "Exactly. We don't have any skin in this one, and no innocents are threatened. I don't like Wufei and Athrun being caught in the middle of all this, but they made their choice to stick with ZAFT."

"And it's on them to survive the consequences," Murrue grimly concurred.

….

December 31st, C.E. 73

With dusk giving way to night, most people would probably have preferred to be heading home, preparing to celebrate New Year's Eve with friends and family. Soldiers being deployed, of course, did not have that option. Chairman Durandal could have simply remained in his office, reading the report announcing the fleet's departure from Gibraltar, but that wasn't good enough for him. For such a momentous occasion, he had requested one of ZAFT's pilots take him up in a helicopter so he could witness the armada set sail firsthand.

An exercise in vanity, he told himself, I daresay I've earned that right, though, with all the work I've put in to bring us to this point.

There wasn't much in the way of daylight left, and the coming night promised only a slender crescent moon and twinkling stars, so making out individual ships was harder than one might have expected. ZAFT protocol for night sailing, much like that of most navies, was to run their ships with minimal lighting. Of course, in this day and age, vessels would be detected by radar long before anyone could visually identify them using their lights, but old habits died hard. Thankfully, Durandal had come prepared, having equipped himself with a set of night vision goggles. As the helicopter hovered over the sea, Durandal cautiously slid the side door open and slightly leaned out to get a better view.

"Be careful, sir!" shouted one of his bodyguards from the adjacent seat, a strong hand falling on Durandal's shoulder.

Durandal brushed the hand aside. "No need to concern yourself with my safety. I promise you that I'll be perfectly fine."

The bodyguard looked skeptical but said nothing. If Durandal's security staff had their way, he would never have come down to Earth in the first place. A head of state who took this sort of risk in time of war was every bodyguard's nightmare. Durandal could sympathize, but he knew the propaganda value that his actions had for both domestic and foreign audiences. While the LOGOS cabal had fled their homeland or were hunkered down in fortified shelters, here was the PLANT Supreme Council Chairman leading his nation not from the comfort and safety of the capital, but from a military base that wasn't even a stone's throw from potential enemy action.

Of course, the Atlantic Federation's hardly a threat to Gibraltar now, he thought with a satisfied smirk, not with them having betrayed their European allies and their continental invasion force now confined to northern France. Combine that with their losses during the British Isle base attacks and all the forces that they've pulled back to Iceland, and Gibraltar is as secure now as Carpentaria.

In fact, those Atlantic Federation losses were compounded by defections, and Durandal could dimly see the results of that now. His decision to wait on launching the fleet until more Atlantic Federation defectors had arrived at Gibraltar was proven to be a wise one, for while only a few more ships had shown up, among the stragglers had been two more carriers. This brought the total number of former Atlantic Federation warships now departing with the ZAFT armada for the assault on Heaven's Base to 41. These vessels consisted of 33 destroyers, five cruisers, and three Spengler-class carriers. As a bonus, those three carriers were all equipped with the newer Windam mobile suits rather than the older Dagger-L series. With each carrier housing 15 of those units, they provided a valuable augmentation to the fleet's already-formidable naval aviation component.

While Durandal had originally intended for all the Atlantic Federation defectors to be at the front of the fleet, advice from Talia and several other ZAFT officers had convinced him to alter his plans. The three Spengler-class carriers had been shifted towards the central protected core of the fleet, and were now sailing alongside the few surface carriers ZAFT had in its inventory. As for the destroyers and cruisers, most of those were still towards the front, but some had been interspersed further back in the fleet, while some of ZAFT's equivalent vessels had been moved up front. It sent a clear message; this was a united front.

Smarter than just using them all as fodder for the first wave, he mused, though with the way our fleet's arrayed, the defectors do still make up most of the front ranks and will correspondingly be amongst the first casualties. Still, it does make for better imagery. It will during the day, anyway.

Near the head of the formation, Durandal could barely make out the silhouette of the Minerva in the dark. Talia had been determined to lead by example, and while Durandal personally would have preferred for her ship to be further back, he could certainly admire her bravery. He took some comfort in the fact that the Minerva was the most heavily armored ship in the fleet; she was built for punishing frontline duty.

Apart from the Minerva, ZAFT's contingent of surface ships was surprisingly modest given the nature of the target they were going after. ZAFT's oceanic naval doctrine had traditionally leaned towards subsurface vessels and underwater mobile suits as a means of countering the Earth Alliance's conventional superiority in surface combatants. Still, the need for a surface fleet was recognized in both this war and the last. Ironically, while the Treaty of Junius Seven's limitations had forced a reduction in the size of ZAFT's space fleet, clauses and line items in the agreement had allowed for an increase in the number of oceanic warships they could possess. Theoretically, this was intended to let ZAFT build up just enough surface strength to be considered as meaningful deterrence to the Earth Alliance. The reasoning went that, if ZAFT's forces from Gibraltar and Carpentaria were bolstered, they would pose enough of a threat to the Earth Alliance's interests despite still being numerically inferior that it would help discourage a new round of hostilities from breaking out. Unfortunately, theory had failed to live up to the test of reality.

Shipyards in the friendly Oceania Union combined with orbital drops of hulls in specialized protective entry containers had enabled ZAFT to build up its surface navy in peacetime and further reinforce it once the new war broke out. Still, for surface combatants, the ZAFT assault fleet setting sail wasn't much larger than the contingent of Atlantic Federation defectors. After the Minerva, those surface warships consisted of 41 destroyers, 12 cruisers, and four of the new Sea-class carriers. 350 meters in length, they followed a traditional single-hull flat-top design possessing a starboard side island, with four heavily reinforced elevators to facilitate rapid transfer of mobile suits from the hangar to the flight deck. While only 70 meters longer than the Earth Alliance's Spengler-class carrier, the Sea-class was considerably wider and possessed a deeper draft, side-effects from the design's cavernous hangar and her incredible weight at full load. Each vessel carried 35 mobile suits, all of them AMA-953 BABIs. The Sea-class's shipboard armaments were purely defensive, consisting of an array of 75mm CIWS and VLS cells stocked with anti-air missiles. The lead ship of the class, the Mediterranean Sea, was the invasion fleet's flagship. Meanwhile, her accompanying sister ships were the Adriatic Sea, Black Sea, and Aegean Sea. The flagship herself was actually short by two BABIs, instead having the new mobile suits of the Galm Team in their place.

This will be their trial by fire, Durandal mused, Marine Admiral Silvestre Barboza has taken the Mediterranean Sea as his flagship, I believe. I know that Marine Admiral Cosgrove has high hopes for him and the class. Fortune willing, they will live up to and surpass those expectations.

While the combined surface fleet was impressive, it was far from the entire armada. Beneath waves would be a force of no less than 70 Vosgulov-class carrier/submarines. Not all were currently present, with many already out on Atlantic Ocean patrol; those would be linking up with the fleet over the course of its journey. The aerial mobile suits carried by those vessels were DINNs and BABIs, while their underwater units were a mix of the older UMF-4A GOOhN and UMF-5 ZnO machines along with the much newer UMF/SSO-3 ASH. The aquatic units would be critical to clearing out the underwater minefields that satellite recon had spotted the Atlantic Federation establishing.

As imposing as the combined fleet was, it alone would not guarantee success in the operation. Far overhead in orbit, Durandal knew that the drop force was assembled and moving into position. Composed of 40 Laurasia-class frigates and their escort screen, when the time came, they would rain down a force of 240 additional mobile suits courtesy of specially designed descent pods. Those pods would each carry 3 units, mostly comprised of ZAKU Warriors and ZAKU Phantoms with assorted Wizard Packs, though a few of the newer GOUF Igniteds would also be among them. As the ZAKU-series units were not meant for atmospheric flight, they would be launched from their descent capsules and deploy heavy parachutes for the final leg of their drop. In this phase, they would be vulnerable, which was why securing air superiority and eliminating enemy anti-air emplacements was paramount to the operation's success.

The invasion fleet has our top pilots flying for them, Durandal reminded himself, and you made certain that they're equipped with our latest mobile suits. They'll accomplish the mission you've set out for them.

There was one last force, separate from both the invasion fleet and the orbital drop contingent. Waiting beyond the horizon were the transports holding the troops who would occupy Iceland and reinforce the assault on Heaven's Base once the enemy's defenses on the island's surface had been neutralized. This consisted of 20 large troop transports, each one carrying three thousand men along with vehicles, equipment, and supplies. These valuable transports were in turn protected by a dedicated escort force of 15 destroyers and 5 Vosgulov-class submarine/carriers. Once the transports had dropped off their precious cargo, they would make the return trip to Gibraltar and pick up additional troops and materiel ferried down from orbit before journeying back to Iceland.

He smiled as the fleet, already difficult to see in the encroaching night, made its way towards the dark western horizon. Durandal's gaze lingered on the faint silhouette of the Minerva, an image of its lovely Captain bubbling up in his mind.

"May fortune smile upon you, Talia," he murmured.

The cost for victory will doubtlessly be high, but it is a price worth paying…

…to secure our destiny.

….

I shouldn't be here, Lunamaria told herself as she stood outside the door to Wufei's quarters, I should be resting, letting Wufei rest… seriously, what the hell am I doing?

That was a very good question. Wufei hadn't asked her to come to his room once their training session had ended. He'd simply left once the simulation exercises were done, while Lunamaria and the other ZAFT pilots had convened in the briefing room for a quick post-training analysis before returning to their quarters. By rights, Lunamaria should've done the same. Yet, here she was, anxiously tapping a foot in the hall and working up the courage to knock on Wufei's door.

Why?

Because she was afraid.

Truth be told, Lunamaria had been afraid ever since the briefing for Operation: Ragnarök, the official name for the impending assault on Heaven's Base. Knowing the sort of opposition that they were in for, especially considering that they weren't certain as to all that they might encounter, was unnerving. The simulation exercises that had taken place every day since the briefing had only made things worse, with each one playout out various scenarios which often involved enemy forces far beyond what the briefing had suggested. Lunamaria understood that the point of those exercises was to make sure that the pilots involved were ready for anything, but the cumulative effect they had was to make her even more anxious than she already was.

In the past, she might've talked about it with Meyrin. Her little sister had always been a good listener, and while she might not have known what to say here, Meyrin probably would've had at least a little kernel of wisdom to drop. When Lunamaria had seen her sister in what few breaks they'd had since training for the operation started, though, Meyrin appeared to be almost as nervous as Lunamaria. The last thing Lunamaria wanted to do was push whatever fears Meyrin had into overdrive.

So, she was here instead. Standing outside the quarters of the best pilot aboard the ship, a man who seemed to thrive when going up against indomitable foes. Was she hoping that Wufei would bolster her courage? Perhaps, but there was something else she wanted from this… though Lunamaria was having a very hard time defining just what that was.

Her hand shook as she raised it, and the subsequent knock on Wufei's door might have been from the tremors rather than intentionality. It didn't matter; the die was now cast either way.

The door slid open a moment later, revealing a puzzled Wufei. "Lunamaria? What brings you over here?"

Lunamaria fidgeted as she struggled to find the right words. "Well, uhm… you see… I just… I wanted…"

Her brain kept fumbling, and she fully expected Wufei to roll his eyes and scoff. He watched her in seeming curiosity for a few seconds, but sarcasm and scorn were apparently not on the menu tonight.

Instead, Wufei simply stepped aside and gestured inwards. "Want to come in? Might be better than just standing out here."

Lunamaria quickly nodded, her face flushed with embarrassment. "Thanks."

She stepped inside and looked around as the door shut behind her. As a Gundam pilot and not officially a member of ZAFT, Wufei had been afforded one of the ship's guest cabins. Lunamaria was mildly envious, because it was spacious compared to the room she shared with her younger sister. Glancing at the bed, she saw a book on it. Looking closer, she recognized it as the one he'd purchased way back during their shore leave in Orb.

Houses of Iron: The Great Warrior Clans of China.

Man, that feels like a lifetime ago, Lunamaria thought, I wonder how things are going back there now that Orb's broken off from the Earth Alliance. I hope the people there are doing okay.

"Guess I'm not the only one who can't sleep," Wufei grunted.

Lunamaria was taken aback by that. "Wait, you're having trouble sleeping, too? I figured you didn't get those 'eve of battle' jitters like the rest of us."

Wufei shook his head. "I never said that I didn't. I'm just more accustomed to them than the rest of you."

"Guess that makes sense," Lunamaria conceded, "You had a whole other war under your belt before this one."

"A war, and plenty of death before," Wufei quietly added.

Lunamaria winced as she realized what he was referring to. "Oh, your late wife… sorry."

Wufei looked at her thoughtfully for a moment. "No need to apologize. It's a shame that she never got to meet you. I think you two would've gotten along well."

He then chuckled. "You two probably would've conspired to drive me insane. As if you don't do that already."

Lunamaria raised an eyebrow. "Is that supposed to be a compliment or an insult?"

Wufei surprised her with a small smile. "It's the highest praise I can offer a woman. Take it as you will."

Lunamaria felt a surge of heat rush to her face, and she suddenly felt the need to look anywhere other than at him. "Oh, uhm… thanks, then."

She saw him turn to glance at the book on his bed. "For a time, I wondered if another version of her might be in this world… or another version of me, for that matter. My clan existed here… was here. Seems some fates are universal, though."

There was more than a hint of melancholy in his tone, which Lunamaria took as a sign to tread carefully. "You mentioned them before… that you're the last, right?"

Wufei slowly nodded. "In my old world and this one, it turns out. In one, the clan destroyed itself rather than submit to the world power. In this world, it was annihilated during what your world calls the Reconstruction War. In both, our fate was the same; we could not adapt to the changing times, and thus were destroyed by them."

Lunamaria tentatively reached out to take his hand. "Wufei… I'm sorry."

She expected him to brush her off, but he did no such thing. He simply closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, it seemed as though a great invisible weight was pressing down on him.

"Maybe that's why I really came here," he said, and Lunamaria couldn't tell if Wufei was talking to her or himself, "When our old war ended, my world had changed… and I was afraid that I'd be destroyed by the new era. Coming here wasn't about finding Heero. Not for me, at least. It's because I was running… because I'm a coward. I wanted to escape the fate of my clan. In the end, though, the new world I found had already destroyed its version of my clan. Maybe there's a message for me in that. I'd defined by war… and war consumed the Long Clan in two worlds. Perhaps it's destined to consume me. That would be fitting. I couldn't find an appropriate battlefield to die on in the old world… so I'm looking for one in this world."

Fire ignited in Lunamaria's chest, and she seized Wufei by the shoulders, forcing him to face her. "Bullshit!"

Wufei blinked rapidly; this was perhaps one of the few occasions Lunamaria had seen him truly caught off guard. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me!" Lunamaria snapped, "I'm calling bullshit on all of that! You did not come to my world to die, Wufei! Not if I have anything to say about it."

"Then why am I here?" Wufei asked, looking genuinely lost, "When I found out about the struggle that's defined your world, I thought I could fight and find a new purpose. That I could use the only skills I have to pursue my ideals of justice in this world, that I could find fulfillment as the warrior I've been all my life. Instead, I feel like… like I'm starting to fight just for fighting's sake. I've seen where that road leads, Lunamaria. I killed a man who went down that path outside Moscow. It's the same one I'm on now."

"You're not him," Lunamaria shot back, "He was too far gone. That rabid dog you put down was fighting for money and his own bloodlust. You still have your sense of honor and justice."

"For how much longer?" Wufei questioned, "Look at the two of us; we both have been questioning the motives of the side we're on for a while now. You're bound by oath and duty, but I'm an independent. I can leave at any time… but I'm still here. Why? Simple; because I can have the fights I crave. There's no honor or justice in that."

Lunamaria vehemently shook her head. "That's not true, and you know it. Look, I know you and I have been uncomfortable with where ZAFT is going, but we both still have good reasons for being here. I want to protect my sister and my people, and you're fighting because you're a good man who wants to stop the Earth Alliance's genocide campaign against my kind!"

"That may be true for now," Wufei conceded, "It might still be true after the coming battle. Still… there's a reason why Heero and the other Gundam pilots left the Minerva, Lunamaria. Their sense of justice might not be the same as mine, but they still have one of their own, and it's just as strong as mine. They believe there's more to Chairman Durandal's actions than simply a desire to protect the Coordinator people and restore peace to the Earth Sphere. They're probably right, too. They wouldn't have lied about him targeting Lacus Clyne at the start of the war. If the Chairman's willing to resort to such lengths to protect the identity of his imposter songstress, then what else is he willing to do? Even if you, I, and so many other soldiers have just ideals that we're righting for, do those really matter if our leaders commit crimes behind our backs? What if my old friends are right and that there is another agenda at play here?"

Lunamaria took a deep breath while keeping her gaze locked with his. "Would you leave?"

Wufei's eyes widened slightly. "Leave?"

"Like your friends did," Lunamaria continued, "They left, and they fought against ZAFT when we targeted them. If ZAFT crosses a line that's too much for you, would you leave like they did? Because if you did… I'd go with you."

Whatever he'd been expecting to hear from her, that clearly had not been it. "Wait… you would? Why? You'd be abandoning your comrades, your sister, your people… for me?"

"I wouldn't do it lightly," Lunamaria elaborated, looking down at the floor for a moment, "It's not like I'd want to abandon them. However, if ZAFT went down a path that violated your idea of justice, and you felt like you had to leave, then I'd follow you."

"That doesn't answer my question," Wufei pressed, "Why?"

"Because… ever since I've met you, I've seen how strong your sense of justice is," Lunamaria answered as she raised her gaze to meet his again, "I've seen you do what you feel is right. You don't follow orders without question, and you don't just seek out fights; you look for battles where your skills can make a difference! You did it when you joined us during the war, you did it for Vienna and Moscow when our superiors refused to intervene, and I know that you'll keep doing it because that's the kind of man you are."

"If you're wavering now," she continued as she kept her eyes locked with his, completely heedless of how hot she could feel her face getting, "then it's because your sense of justice is telling you that something is wrong. If it's telling you to go somewhere else, tell me where that is so I can join you. I… I want to fight for more than just my people and my family. If ZAFT starts going down the wrong path, then I want to be on the right one so I can keep them from becoming what they were during the last war. The best way to do that is to follow you, Wufei. No… more than that. I'd follow you…"

"…because I love you."

….

Wufei stood speechless as he looked at Lunamaria. He should've seen this coming. He really, really should've. Her behavior since they'd met, her growing closeness to him over the course of the war, and especially how she'd acted around him during the last few weeks should've made her feeling about him quite obvious. Yet, here Wufei was, still caught completely flatfooted.

Ever since his wife had died, Wufei had made no effort to pursue women. He'd always believed that battle and training should come first, and he would begrudgingly admit that his attitudes towards women weren't exactly modern. What did that really stem from, though? The traditions he'd been brought up in with his clan…

…or from the pain of losing Meilan?

When Lunamaria spoke again, Wufei could've sworn she was reading his mind. "Wufei, I… I don't know what all happened between you and your wife, but… the way you spoke about her before… I can tell she meant a lot to you. If you… if you can't return my feelings because of that, I promise that I'll understand. I mean that, I really do. I just… with what we're heading towards… the battle we're about to fight… I don't want to leave anything unsaid. I want you to know… what you mean to me."

It was only now that Wufei belatedly realized just how close they were. Lunamaria's face was mere centimeters away from his… and drawing closer with each passing second. Before he could react, she closed what little gap was left…

…and kissed him.

Not a hard or forceful one, but gently, almost delicately. Her lips lingered upon his like a painter slowly making a brushstroke along canvas. It was tender, soft, and sweet…

…and heavenly.

Time seemed to slow as she gradually pulled back. The look in her indigo eyes struck Wufei as something between affection and sympathy. Even for someone like him, whose romantic experience was as brief as it was tragic, the underlying message was clear. As much as she was making her own feelings known, Lunamaria was trying to tell him that she would accept Wufei's, regardless of what they might be.

For a brief second, the woman before him was replaced by another. Red hair became black, indigo eyes became obsidian, and the ZAFT uniform turned into a dark grey jacket and matching pants. In that moment, Wufei saw Meilan Long, his late wife. He saw her smile, and then she faded, with Lunamaria standing before him once more.

A hallucination, his mind told him, and yet…

…it's enough.

The woman he'd once been pledged to would not have wanted him fixed on her after her untimely death. Meilan was not that kind of girl. She was brave, fierce, determined to be free…

…and for those she loved to have their freedom.

And with that, Wufei had his answer.

….

Well, that's it, Lunamaria thought as her heart hammered faster than a machinegun, cat's out of the bag now. Ball's in his court.

At least her fears about the coming battle were completely forgotten now. Of course, that was only because they were now replaced by nerve-wracking anxiety over what she'd just done. It was all Lunamaria could do to keep from just bolting straight out of the room. As things stood, she'd probably end up leaving in short order. With the way Wufei was silently looking at her, a rejection was doubtlessly incoming.

That was what Lunamaria believed right up until she felt Wufei's hand on her back pulling her towards him…

…followed by him taking her into a fierce kiss.

Shock was swiftly followed by exultant joy as Lunamaria realized what was happening and what it meant, and she threw her arms around Wufei's neck. Throwing caution to the wind, she dared to push her tongue forward, and was rewarded by the Gundam pilot opening his mouth. Lunamaria darted in, and there was no looking back.

When they finally broke for air, Lunamaria's chest felt like it was on fire, and in the best way possible. Wufei looked like he was about to speak, but Lunamaria was not in the mood for words right now. Instead, she pulled him towards the bed, and he did not resist.

Their clothes hit the floor a moment later, and a cool winter's night suddenly became blazing hot.

….

Laying back in bed, drenched in sweat and breathing harder than he would after a strenuous training session, Wufei momentarily felt like he was in a dream. Only the sensation of Lunamaria's nude body beneath the sheets huddled up next to his, along with her heavy breathing in his ears, convinced him that he was very much awake.

He was not alone in questioning if this was the real life or just fantasy, as Lunamaria raised her head from Wufei's shoulder to look at him. "Hey, uh… that just happened, right? I'm not going crazy?"

Wufei smirked before reaching up to pinch her cheek. "You feel that?"

"Ow!" Lunamaria yelped.

Wufei chuckled before shifting to gently caress that same cheek. "There's your answer."

"You jerk," Lunamaria grumbled, though she then smiled as she placed her hand over his.

The two of them held each other's gaze for a moment before the wonderful red-head sharing Wufei's bed spoke again, her face the deepest possible shade of scarlet. "So, uhm… probably going to sound like a dumb question after that, but I… need to know for sure. What we just did… does that really mean…?"

Wufei rolled his eyes before shifting his hand to the back of Lunamaria's head and pulling her down for a kiss. "Fine, I'll make it official. Yes, Lunamaria; I love you."

Lunamaria's smile grew as she shifted to lay atop him, resting her head just beneath Wufei's chin. "Good. I love you, too, Wufei… even if you are a jerk."

He reached down to gently run his fingers through her hair. "I'll try to work on that… for you."

Lunamaria shifted so she could look up at him, raising an eyebrow. "Did I hear that right? You sure I'm not dreaming?"

"I could pinch you again, if you want to be certain," Wufei offered.

Lunamaria giggled before leaning forward just enough to kiss his cheek. "I'll pass, thanks."

Wufei wrapped his arms around her as she reached up to loop hers over his shoulders, and they laid there together in contented silence. As he basked in the moment, Wufei found himself understanding a bit better now why Heero had gone down his particular path since coming to the Cosmic Era.

I guess he wasn't wrong, Wufei mused as he looked down at his partner, When you find a woman that accepts you and risks her life alongside yours on the battlefield… hard for that not to have an impact, really.

"Hey, Wufei?" said Lunamaria a few seconds later, "Can I ask you something?"

Wufei chuckled. "Do you really need my permission at this point?"

She reached up to playfully slap his cheek. "Hey, I'm trying to be serious here."

"Alright, then," Wufei replied in a conciliatory tone, "I'll be serious too, then. What's up?"

She waited until his eyes met hers. "When this war's over… what will you do?"

Wufei needed a moment to give her a proper answer. "Well, I've already decided that I'm not going back to my old world. Apart from that… I guess it depends on whether or not I'm still working with ZAFT when the dust settles."

"If you're not, then I'm not," Lunamaria declared, "If you are, then I'll still be with them, too. Like I said, I'll follow you in this war. After it's over, though… will you follow me?"

It took a second for Wufei to get the underlining meaning. "Are you asking me if I'd want to live with you after the war?"

He didn't think it was possible for Lunamaria's face to get any redder, but he was very much proven wrong. "Well… yeah. I mean, it's not like you've got a house anywhere in the Cosmic Era, right?"

"I don't," Wufei readily conceded, "Do you have one, though? Your parents' house doesn't count."

"Oh, uhm…" Lunamaria began awkwardly, "Well, you see… I basically went straight from home and school into ZAFT. I've never lived anywhere that wasn't either my parents' house, a base or the Minerva."

"Thought so," said Wufei, "Then that's something we'll have to figure out together when the fighting stops."

"That's a yes, then?" Lunamaria asked hopefully.

Wufei smiled. "It is."

Lunamaria's eyelids began to flutter. "I'll have to… start thinking of… places for us."

Wufei leaned down to kiss her brow. "Maybe save that until after the battle. I think you need some sleep right now."

Lunamaria yawned. "I think you're right. Goodnight, Wufei."

Wufei ran his fingers through her hair one last time. "Goodnight, Lunamaria."

….

"The fleet's set sail, then," Nazara murmured while studying the latest report at his desk, "A bit earlier than expected, but still within projected margin of error."

Phantom Pain's leader found it quaint that Durandal had ordered ZAFT's invasion fleet to leave Gibraltar at night; in an age of highly sophisticated military reconnaissance satellites, did he really think that simply having his force depart in evening would be enough to hide them? True, the Earth Alliance and ZAFT regularly destroyed each other's satellites to hamper such observation efforts, but new ones were usually deployed in short order. The constant skirmishing between squadrons in orbit trying to knock out or place new satellites was one of the few active theaters in an otherwise static front up in outer space.

Likewise, Nazara thought as he read through the file, they were never going to hide their orbital drop force from us. We could dispatch an interception, but their escort screen's nothing to take lightly; we'd have to divert a considerably-sized battle group, and ZAFT's no doubt watching our perimeters for openings like hawks. In any case, it's not worth the effort. After all, Nibelung will wipe out the dropped mobile suits. Better for us to let ZAFT throw them into our trap.

Moving the reports aside, he placed a call to a woman that was far from Iceland but whose work would be invaluable to the coming battle. A few seconds later, the raven-haired and cold blue-eyed Rear Admiral Dorana Xen appeared on the screen.

"Ah, Colonel Nazara," she greeted, "I take it the time has come?"

The masked officer nodded. "We've confirmed that ZAFT's fleet has left Gibraltar. They're coming, Rear Admiral."

"Good thing I'm far away from there, then," she quipped.

Nazara folded his arms. "It almost sounds as though you doubt that we can win."

"Oh, I have no such doubts," Xen reassured him with a cool smile, "Not when you have some of my most potent toys in your arsenal. I simply find the ruckus of large-scale combat to be distracting from my ongoing research. Speaking of which, I've received the latest systems report from my subordinates at Heaven's Base. I assume that's why you're calling me at this late hour?"

Nazara nodded. "I've received those reports myself, but I'll confess that much of the technical jargon goes over my head. You're the expert, so I'd rather consult with you directly. Tell me plainly, Rear Admiral; are your 'toys' prepared for their grand debut?"

Xen's smile became a predatory grin. "Oh, yes. Prepare yourself, Colonel, for a performance that no human pilots could ever hope to match."

….

January 1st, C.E. 74

Back behind his desk at Gibraltar, Durandal studied the latest progress report. He'd only slept a few hours, and that hadn't come until the early hours of the morning. One wouldn't know it by looking at him, though; the telltale signs of sleep deprivation were expertly hidden by makeup.

Even after the fleet launched, it had been a late night. The work of a nation's chief executive was never-ending, doubly so when said nation was at war. While the imminent assault on Heaven's Base was by far the biggest ZAFT operation currently underway, it wasn't the only one.

"You're sure about the signal trace?" he asked the striking raven-haired, emerald-eyed woman on the monitor.

Admiral Anastasia Gorshkov, leader of ZAFT's Fleet Intelligence Service, nodded. "It wasn't easy thanks to all the interference in the debris field combined with just how many satellites they were bouncing through, but yes. We still haven't cracked the encryption, but it's one we've previously seen in proximity to suspected Terminal operations. It's them, Chairman. I'd bet a year's pay on it."

Durandal let slip a soft chuckle. "No need to put your salary on the line, Admiral. So, they've been sniffing around Mendel… I should've known. No doubt, her followers are chasing the scent of my work. It was bound to happen sooner or later."

"The signal pings from the colony have been small," Anastasia continued, "That's helped them hide amongst background transmissions. If I had to guess, I'd say they're only sending bits of data back to their base with each one. They switch up which satellites are used and the order of them with each transmission, which put up an additional hurdle for tracing. Credit where it's due; they put in serious work with their covert communications network."

Durandal smiled. "Well, her faction's always focused on quality over quantity. Given their track record, one can't fault them for it. It's one of the many things that makes them so dangerous."

"Speaking of dangerous," Anastasia replied, a rare note of trepidation creeping into her voice, "Chairman, respectfully, are you certain about this operation? If it succeeds, your pawn's performance will continue as planned… but if word leaks about what we've done, public outcry at home will be immense. Perhaps uncontrollably so. I know this is all to move the plan forward, but if anything can derail it, this might just be it. If she or any of her retinue survive and get the word out… that's the ballgame."

Durandal took a deep breath; of all those on the Defense Council, Anastasia was one of the few who knew the full scope of his vision. With all the family that she had lost in the last war, she was invested in a way that few of his inner circle truly were. Her questioning him now was not prompted by doubt in his vision, but by genuine desire to maximize success in carrying it out.

"I understand your concerns, Admiral," he answered a moment later, "but this moment was inevitable. Case Black Rose was meant to deal with it immediately, yet the target's protectors foiled it. Now, though, if our suspicions are correct, she is no longer in the company of her deadliest warriors. The uptick in suspected Terminal activity in outer space combined with movements by her father's previously-inactive allies point to her taking a more hands-on approach in orbit, while her best pilots are confirmed to still be on Earth. Now is the time to draw her out and see her removed from the stage. If anything, it's long overdue."

Anastasia slowly nodded, and her next words were spoken in grim resignation. "Very well, Chairman."

"Are the forces allocated for Case Garden Shears ready?" Durandal asked.

"The L4 contingent is in position and on standby," Anastasia confirmed, "and we have scouts monitoring the suspected asteroid base sites. If our predictions are correct, once we chase the meddlers out of L4, they'll signal their leadership for help, and our real prize will reveal itself. Then our destroyers will move in to run her down."

Durandal intertwined his fingers beneath his chin. "Excellent."

"When do we commence the operation?" Anastasia inquired.

Durandal considered it for a moment. "Once our assault on Heaven's Base begins, the eyes of the world will be drawn to that battle. That spectacle will provide ideal cover. When that engagement's underway, you are clear to execute Case Garden Shears. That is all for now, Admiral. Dismissed."

Anastasia stiffened in salute. "Aye, Chairman."

She vanished from the screen, leaving Durandal alone with his thoughts. The operation would hopefully kill two birds with one stone; eliminating Lacus Clyne along with any information her followers had uncovered about his past at L4. The threat to his imposter songstress would be removed, allowing Meer's performance to continue for as long as Durandal required. Yet there was always the chance that events could go awry. It would not be the first time that Lacus had escaped a hit squad, after all.

"I'll have to work up further contingencies," the Chairman murmured to himself, "just in case her luck hasn't run out yet."

There was one more matter nagging at the back of his mind. After he'd returned to his office from watching the Heaven's Base assault fleet depart, he'd gone back to work and had stayed up well into the start of the new year. During that time, he'd received a message from the leader of the resistance movement supposedly operating within the heart of the Atlantic Federation.

A message brazenly demanding that he call off the Heaven's Base operation, claiming he was walking into a trap.

Durandal fully expected the Atlantic Federation to have all manner of nasty surprises in store for his fleet. This was their last major surface base, unless one counted the hastily fortified region surrounding the new Anchorage mass driver, and said fortifications were little more than a panicked response to the revolts currently raging across North America. They would fight to the death for it, but turn it into a trap? At this point, what could they really do? Their surface forces were all but spent, with the last major intact units about to be destroyed by his armada. The Atlantic Federation's orbital forces remained formidable, but those on Earth itself were in the midst of their dying gasps. Victory at Heaven's Base would no doubt be costly, but it was assured.

"I don't know what her game is," Durandal quietly remarked, "but if she seeks to turn the tide of history in her direction, I will not abide. There is only one path that human history can take now if our species is to guarantee its survival. There is no way but my way."

The only way to achieve our destiny.

….

January 2nd, C.E. 74

The tension in the air was palpable as Talia's officers went through one final check of the ship's systems. The Minerva had already gone to battle stations, and her mobile suits were airborne, but they had not entered combat yet. That would change soon enough, of course. With the sun high in the sky glaring down upon them, Talia felt as though the entire fleet had a spotlight on it.

I suppose that's appropriate, she mused, I wish our arrival would've been timed with nightfall, but it wouldn't really matter either way.

"Weapons status?" she asked.

"All armaments confirmed operational and ready," Arthur confirmed.

She nodded at her XO before turning to Meyrin. "What's the word from the underwater vanguard?"

"Mine clearing efforts are underway," the red-headed girl replied, "and resistance has been met. Enemy underwater units are reported to consist primarily of GAT-707E Forbidden Vortex mobile suits, and in large numbers. Some older Aqua Dart squadrons appear to be operating in support. Our forces our advancing, but not without losses."

Talia grimaced. "So, the intel was only partially right, then. They'll make the subsurface operation difficult."

"I thought the Forbidden Vortex was supposed to be a limited production model," Arthur chimed in.

"Apparently, we can subtract the word 'limited' from that label," Talia deadpanned, "The enemy must've cranked up the production considerably if those are the main underwater opposition. I don't envy our subsurface pilots."

Signals intercepts combined with satellite photos and a lucky hack courtesy of the SIB had shed recent light on the Atlantic Federation's new and, before now, rarely seen underwater mobile suit. The latest in the evolutionary line started by the GAT-X252 Forbidden Gundam which had made its debut during the previous conflict, the GAT-707E Forbidden Vortex was designed to apply its predecessor's Geschmeidig Panzer energy deflection system to facilitate ease of movement beneath the waves. As such, the mobile suit possessed a backpack similar to that of the original Forbidden, but the equipment installed was geared towards underwater combat while the energy deflection system was repurposed for mobility and protecting against water pressure.

The backpack's sole energy weapon was a Phonon Maser Cannon, a sonic device just like those used on ZAFT's aquatic mobile suits and the only energy-based armaments capable of being used efficiently in underwater combat. A pair of supercavitating torpedo canister pods were mounted on the backpack where the original Forbidden's railguns would've been, and according to the hacked files were usable only in the Forbidden Vortex's high-speed assault form, where the backpack folded up and over the mobile suit's head and upper torso. The pod-like protrusions on the backpack sides, which primarily functioned as shields, had four metallic claws on the ends, while from the back end extended a tail that ended in an anchor that could also be used in close-quarters-combat. Within each of those shields were also housed a pair of Nidhoggr close combat heavy scythes, for a somewhat excessive total of four. Each arm had an Armfuerer 115mm machine gun built in, but these along with the head-mounted pair of Igelstellung 75mm multi-barreled CIWS could only properly be used when the mobile suit was above the surface. Rounding out the armaments was a metal trident, further emphasizing the mobile suit's focus on close-quarters combat.

According to the SIB, thought Talia, the units are also equipped with Trans-Phase Armor. That'll make them tough nuts for our underwater mobile suits to crack. They'd also be prohibitively expensive… for the Atlantic Federation to push them into mass production despite the costs shows that they really didn't appreciate our underwater superiority during the last war and are desperate to reclaim it. Well, on an individual level, I'd say they succeeded. We'll be relying on experience and weight of numbers to overwhelm them. It's going to be ugly down there.

"Keep an eye on the sonar readings," Talia ordered, "If any of those get beneath us, raise us up as high as possible and send one of our units down to deal with them."

"Transmission from the Destiny!" Meyrin called out, "Athrun Zala reports contact made with the enemy. The air battle has begun!"

Sure enough, Talia could see the sky ahead light up with explosions. Since the Destiny was the fastest mobile suit in the fleet, it was hardly surprising that Athrun had engaged first. The others would be right behind him, playing their part as the invasion's aerial spearhead. Talia had deployed all but two of her ship's mobile suits forward, retaining only Kriyya and Alvise's GOUFs to fly combat air patrol for the Minerva.

Above the Minerva and the accompanying warships at the front of the fleet, BABIs, DINNs, and green-painted Windams belonging to the Earth Alliance defectors raced forward to catch up with the vanguard and engage. The image on the main bridge monitor then shifted to show a tactical map focusing on Heaven's Base's harbor and its defenses. Red dots were all over the area, with Talia's focus being on the large concentration of hostile warships.

"Get firing solutions for the Tristans and Isolde," Talia commanded, "Concentrate fire on enemy cruisers and destroyers directly between us and the enemy's surviving carriers. We need to punch a hole through to attack them immediately!"

"First targets acquired!" Arthur announced.

Talia nodded. "Fire at will."

The battleship rumbled as she opened fire with her main armaments. Talia would've preferred adding the Tannhäuser positron cannon to the mix, but there were defector warships currently along its firing path. In such a crowded environment, the heavy weapon was best saved for guaranteed shots with no allies in the way. For now, her particle beam cannons and triple 42cm cannon would put in work, with their first salvo punching straight into a cruiser's magazines and turning the vessel into a spectacular fireball. Around the Minerva, the Earth Alliance defectors let fly with swarms of missiles from their VLS cells along with cannon rounds from their forward guns, while additional ordinance flew overhead as the ships further back in the formation locked onto targets and opened up.

Of course, the enemy wasn't about to just sit back and take it. Alarms rang as missiles and shells flew right back at the ZAFT fleet. The Minerva's CIWS spun into action while Dispar interceptor missiles took flight, and the sky over the battleship was filled with fresh explosions. Kriyya and Alvise wasted no time in opening up with their GOUFs' Draupnir 4-barreled beam guns to augment the Minerva's anti-missile defenses. Warships around her took hits and responded in kind, with the Minerva herself trembling under impacts.

"Damage?" Talia asked.

Arthur glanced at his display before shaking his head. "Armor's holding well."

Talia nodded. "Good. Keep up the barrage. Acquire any shore batteries within range and attack them with our Parsifal missiles. Prioritize anti-ship missile launchers. We need to clear out the harbor defenses ASAP."

This operation's going to be hard enough on the fleet as it is, she thought, especially for the Atlantic Federation defectors that Durandal put up front. They risked their lives to do the right thing and fight alongside us against their former masters; the very least I can do is try to watch out for them.

Durandal might've shown a cynical appreciation for the defectors by concentrating most of them at the head of the fleet, but Talia would show that her gratitude towards their new allies was genuine. She would do everything in her power to bring as many soldiers back alive as possible, whether they be ZAFT or defectors.

As many as were within her power to save, at least. Unfortunately, in a battle as fierce as this one promised to be, Talia knew that her power would only go so far.

….

Biting back a string of colorful curses in her native tongue, ZAFT Red Shashlova Valya Kirillnova, or 'Shash' for short, grimaced as she watched the volley of torpedoes she'd launched from her UMF/SSO-3 ASH detonated against the blue and black Trans-Phase Armor of the Forbidden Vortex she'd targeted. The warheads had done no actual damage, and while Shash had been hoping for the target to at least be staggered by the volley, its pilot appeared to be a cut above the rest; the unit was still on course going straight for her.

"Doing this the hard way, then," the icy blue-eyed blonde muttered under her breath.

The twenty-six year old woman swiftly shifted her black and yellow machine from its crustacean-like mobile armor mode to its mobile suit form, and not a moment too soon. The Forbidden Vortex she'd targeted had closed the distance and thrust its trident forward. Shash was just barely able to catch the pronged weapon with her machine's left claw before pulling the trigger for her Type PJP3 Dual Phonon Maser Cannon. That weapon accomplished what the torpedoes could not, overwhelming her opponent's Trans-Phase Armor and reducing the Forbidden Vortex to crumpled metal.

"Got a bit of breathing room, it looks like," the slender woman noted as she checked her surroundings before pulling back, "Doubt it'll last long."

Knowing that the enemy was fielding powerful underwater mobile suits, ZAFT's strategy for the subsurface engagement was to put its best pilots in its latest aquatic machines, the ASH, and have them form the front rank. Shash and her fellow aces were tasked with holding the line against the enemy's underwater mobile suits until pilots in the older GOOhN and ZnO units could clear out enough of the Atlantic Federation's mines to secure a sufficiently wide lane of travel for the surface fleet. Heavy resistance had been expected, and the enemy was more than living up to those expectations.

Her mobile suit vibrated as the closest GOOhN behind her destroyed a mine with one of its torpedoes. The Atlantic Federation hadn't skimped on their underwater defenses, and Shash had found herself maneuvering through a veritable forest of anchor chains during the initial approach. There was little risk to the underwater mobile suits; the mines were meant for warships and thus their chains were long enough to have them float near the surface. As long as the mobile suits stayed low, they could avoid the worst of any detonations.

Alarms rang from her console as new contacts popped up on her sensors. Shash gritted her teeth as she and her comrades squared off with a new force dominated by Forbidden Vortex units, with a scattering of older Aqua Darts on the flanks. The ZAFT units let fly with a volley of torpedoes, and their foes responded in kind. Diving to avoid the enemy's salvo, Shash then immediately brought herself back up to level with her foes as the Atlantic Federation mobile suits advanced, her ASH's claws and Dual Phonon Maser at the ready.

She would see her mission completed, no matter how many soldiers she had to drown before it was over.

….

For all the trouble he'd had, and to a degree still had, in getting used to the Destiny Gundam's extreme speed, Athrun was very grateful for it now. With the sky over the harbor seemingly filled to bursting with mobile suits, missiles, shells, particle beams and flak, being the fastest machine on the field was a huge advantage. Pushing the Destiny's Voiture Lumiere 'Wings of Light' for all it was worth, Athrun almost felt as if the other combatants in the air with him were standing still even as the extreme acceleration hammered him like a professional boxer laying into an opponent.

ZAFT's designers and engineers definitely still have the touch, he thought as he sliced a Windam in half with his Arondight beam sword, I should ask the Chairman to pass along my thanks to them.

Assuming I get through this battle in one piece, anyway.

Even in a mobile suit as quick and well-protected as the Destiny, survival in a large-scale battle such as this was hardly guaranteed. The engagement was barely minutes old, and the butcher's bill was already racking up. ZAFT and Earth Alliance mobile suits alike were blowing each other out of the sky, and there was a steady rain of superheated metal debris falling towards the sea below. Speaking of the sea, the water's surface was a roiling cauldron as bubbles and geysers fountaining into the air signaled the destruction of one side or the other's underwater units. Athrun took small comfort in nothing that the aquatic detonations were growing steadily closer to the shore; ZAFT's underwater contingent was making progress, though they were no doubt paying for it.

It wasn't just mobile suits, whether in the air or beneath the waves, tearing into each other. Missiles and shells were flying back and forth between both sides' assembled fleets. The Atlantic Federation vessels were fighting with their backs to the island, cornered but clearly determined to go down swinging. Indeed, Athrun could already see several enemy destroyers heading down to the bottom or ablaze, but it wasn't just the Earth Alliance taking losses. ZAFT's surface contingent was pressing hard, and the enemy was making them earn their advance with blood. His tactical display showed that three of the defector destroyers were already lost, along with two of their ZAFT counterparts. There would surely be more joining them before the day was done.

As much as Athrun wanted to unleash the Destiny's powerful weapons upon the opposing warships and make things easier for the combined ZAFT/Earth Alliance defector fleet, his orders were clear; securing air superiority took top priority. The quicker he could accomplish that, the sooner he could aid the other elements of the assault. Blitzing across the sky like a scarlet comet, Athrun kept the Arondight sword in the Destiny's right hand while using the MA-BAR73/S beam rifle to pick off Windams as fast as he could get them in his sights.

"Careful, Athrun," Rey cautioned, "You're getting too far ahead."

Checking his sensors again, Athrun saw that Rey was right. He'd taken his role as spearhead a bit too literally, plunging into the enemy ranks intent on pushing as deep as possible. Athrun had certainly done that, but to the point that he ran the risk of overextending and getting himself surrounded.

"Copy that," he acknowledged as he slammed his thrusters in reverse and popped off a beam rifle volley to cover his pullback, "Clear out my flanks?"

"Already on it," Rey replied.

The sky around him suddenly became filled with emerald particle beams, and five Windams turned into fireballs. Athrun didn't need to look behind him to know what the source of those shots was. Rey had worked just as hard as Athrun to get the hang of his new mobile suit, and his efforts to master target tracking with the Legend's many weapons were paying dividends now.

I'm sure he's had his doubts about me ever since Kira took me down so quickly, Athrun thought, but when we're up against a shared enemy, I'm glad he's got my back.

It made sense for the Destiny and Legend to have been developed and delivered as a pair; the two Gundams complemented each other well. With its greater speed, Destiny was meant for leading the charge and punching the initial hole in the enemy's lines, while the Legend's multitude of weapons and ability to track so many targets made it perfect for widening breaches created by the faster unit while at the same time providing covering for the Destiny. It made the two machines a formidable duo in large-scale battles, especially at the hands of two experienced pilots such as Athrun and Rey, even if they had only recently begun piloting their respective mobile suits.

Deadly duos were something of a theme for today's battle. Pushing forward alongside Athrun, if just a bit further back, Wufei was carving a swath of destruction through the opposing Windam squadrons. Altron Custom flitted across the sky like a green dragonfly, practically dancing through the storm of munitions filling the air. When closing with a group of targets, Wufei would lead with the Gundam's Dragon Fangs, crushing his unfortunate foes with the twin serpentine weapons before getting into melee combat with their surviving comrades. Then, Nataku's double-ended beam trident would whirl and thrust, catching violet beam sabers between the three prongs of one end before the weapon flipped around to throw off the enemy blades before spearing them with the other. Yet for all his incredible skill in close-quarters-combat, not to mention the speed of his Gundam and its durable frame, not even Wufei could solo so many units without running the risk of encirclement and being brought down by overwhelming concentrated firepower. Thankfully, Lunamaria had his back.

Repainted in her trademark scarlet color-scheme, the GOUF Bombardier which had once been used by Galm Two was proving to be quite formidable in Lunamaria's hands. Blasts of crimson energy flew forth from the unit's M1500 Orthros beam cannon at a steady pace, picking off individual units around Wufei and forcing others to scatter. Any that came after Lunamaria directly either found themselves blown apart by her machine's Draupnir 4-barrel beam guns or, more likely, knocked out of the sky by Altron Custom's Dragon Fangs as Wufei turned to protect his comrade.

Good thing Wufei stuck with us, Athrun mused as he put away the Arondight sword and instead unleashed one of the Destiny's Flash-Edge 2 Beam Boomerangs and let fly, the violet weapon's subsequent arc slicing through three Windams while Athrun picked off a fourth with his rifle, I'd hate to be in this fight without him. It'd be nice to have the other four Gundams from his world with us, too, but it can't be helped. One's better than none, at least.

The dynamic of 'melee on point, range as support' was also playing out with ZAFT's mercenaries. Along the eastern flank, Athrun could see Jack's slender blue Raijin twisting and weaving through enemy fire, its twin MMI-540 Valkyrie beam swords ripping through hostile machines like a blender. Unlike Athrun and many of the others, the contract fighter from Maverick Security Consulting was fighting at a much lower altitude, appearing to split his efforts between slicing up any machine that came down to engage him and tearing into anti-air emplacements set along the harbor's eastern shore. It was an incredibly dangerous move considering that the Raijin's protection amounted to all but nothing; the unit didn't even possess Phase Shift Armor. A few well-aimed or simply lucky anti-air shots would be enough to take the Raijin down. The trick, of course, would be actually hitting the Raijin. Seeing as Jack was maneuvering his machine like a hummingbird on cocaine, anyone fortunate enough to land a shot on it would probably be well-advised to start investing in lottery tickets.

The Atlantic Federation's pilots were certainly giving their best effort at winning that lottery. There was almost a constant flow of Windams taking Jack's bait, diving upon him in the hopes of catching him unawares. Often, the mercenary would suddenly rise up to meet them halfway, cutting the unfortunate pilots down before immediately diving to carve up a surface turret or mobile surface-to-air missile launcher. Those that he did not intercept were not in the clear instead finding themselves picked off by the dog of war watching Jack's back; Frost Druid.

Trailing the Raijin, Klara Rask's ZGMF SP-34RX, or 'Spear,' was doing a fine job of making any Atlantic Federation pilot who took the temptation to make an attack run on Jack quickly regret their life choices. The Harkema Advanced Industries test pilot was putting the prototype's SRG-X1 railgun to good use, sniping incoming Windams so efficiently and quickly that Athrun had a hard time telling if she was actually aiming or simply incredibly lucky with her instincts. For those enemy pilots who decided that Frost Druid was a more pressing target than the Raijin, they swiftly found out that the Spear was good for more than just long-range covering fire. The Canister Gun Pod mounted in the unit's right arm brutally tore apart any target that got close with its bursts of superheated metal flechettes. Any Windam lucky enough to evade the CGP wasn't out of the woods, as they would instead find themselves caught in a hailstorm of emerald energy bolts courtesy of the Spear's chest-mounted MMI-960 Cerastes Gatling Beam Cannons.

Like Jack, Athrun knew that Frost Druid didn't have the luxury of Phase Shift Armor for protection. She, too, had to rely on her unit's maneuverability, though in this case the barrel-like unit's evasive efforts looked more akin to a rotund individual frantically rolling all over the place like they were on fire and trying to smother the flames. The orange and black mobile suit wouldn't be winning any points for elegance and grace, but the multitude of maneuvering jets lining the cylindrical torso were enabling incredibly quick dodges at angles that other machines would've found impossible. It might not have been pretty, but Athrun couldn't argue with the effectiveness.

While Jack and Klara were diving deeper into the fray the Flash-Edge 2 beam boomerang Athrun had thrown earlier returned. Rather than put the weapon away, he kept it in the Destiny's right hand and activated its secondary setting. Violet energy sprang forth, this time to double the length compared to when Athrun had thrown it. Instead of letting fly with it again, he kept it in the Destiny's right hand; the blade was now long enough to serve as a beam saber, and it was actually easier to use in fast-paced combat than the Arondight sword, which was best employed in either one-on-one engagements or against large targets. Stabbing one Windam with the violet blade before sniping another with his beam rifle, Athrun then caught sight of the other, much more famous mercenary duo in ZAFT's employ.

As befitting his position as Galm Team's flight lead, Cipher was on point, showing just how much of a devil he was in close quarters combat. Now he was flying the machine which had been reconstructed and upgraded just for him; the ZGMF-06A2 Galahad Fencer. Rebuilt from the wreck which had been recovered in the aftermath of the apocalyptic final clash at Jachin Due, from what little Athrun had learned since the machine's unveiling it had been modified with heavy input from Galm One himself. While the nuclear-powered machine kept the same light grey and black trim Phase Shift Armor pattern, along with the head-mounted MMI-GAU2 Picus 76mm CIWS, the rest of the unit's equipment had undergone a marked transformation.

Gone was the large MMI-515 Caledfwlch anti-ship sword, instead replaced by a pair of MA-M01 Lacerta Beam Sabers. At first glance, these seemed like a downgrade; they were the same models which had been used on Freedom and Justice, and while they were still deadly melee weapons, they lacked the reach of the Caledfwlch. Athrun's best guess was that Cipher had decided to switch to them due to how Heero had cut the anti-ship sword from the metallic tip down during their final duel; regular beam sabers lacked that vulnerability. A small dark grey shield was mounted on the mobile suit's left forearm, and within it was stored the MA-M858 Demon Lash, a lengthier version of the MA-M757 Slayer Whip Heat Rod used by the original model. The chest-mounted Slash Harken rocket anchors were completely removed, apparently determined to be of little practical use by the mercenary. The DRAGOONs were gone as well, replaced not by new weapons but instead four black wings mounted in an X-array on the back of the machine housing a Voiture Lumiere Propulsion System. The waves of light emanating from it were a much darker hue of red than those of the Destiny, perfectly matching the emblem of the hellhound gnawing at its chain emblazoned upon the mobile suit's left shoulder. Instead of the DRAGOONs, the Galahad Fencer instead had a pair of M170 Balaena Pfeil Plasma Cannons, lighter and more efficient versions of the original M100 Balaena Plasma Cannons used on the Freedom, mounted on its back beside the black wings and swiveling up to fire over the unit's shoulders. While they sacrificed some of their predecessor's firepower, they made up for it with a faster rate of fire.

I'm surprised he ditched the DRAGOONs, Athrun thought, but I guess he felt that simplifying the loadout and going for greater speed was the right call.

The way Cipher was fighting certainly supported that notion. Galahad Fencer was capable of the same fearsome speed as the Destiny, but unlike Athrun who was still wary of the punishing force resulting from it, Cipher was going full-bore without looking back. The mercenary's Wings of Light made him seem like a red comet blazing across the battlefield. Athrun saw him close the distance with foes in the blink of an eye, impaling hapless targets with his beam saber while shredding others with the whip. Occasionally, he would open up with his plasma cannons as well, pulverizing whatever unfortunate foe was in his sights, but the melee weapons combined with the Voiture Lumiere were definitely getting the biggest workout.

Of course, Galm One wasn't alone. As he cut down foe after foe with the grace of the fencers that his reborn machine was partially named for, Cipher had his right-hand man covering his back. Blasts of orange-red energy melted Windams trying to flank him, while others were picked off by particle beams, missiles, and rail cannon slugs. The source of these shots was a single mobile suit; the ZGMF-X07A2 Morgan Sorceress, with the lethal Pixy at the controls.

Like the Galahad, the Morgan had undergone considerable changes in equipment since its recovery at the end of the First Bloody Valentine War. While still very much a long-range assault unit that kept its light grey Phase Shift Armor pattern with a crimson right arm, its old Tartarus rifle and experimental warhead launcher were gone. Instead, the right arm held a rifle the size of Wing Zero's infamous main weapon, and while it couldn't outright match the Twin Buster Rifle for raw firepower, it certainly wasn't for lack of trying. The QZX-R1A Tannhäuser Licht was essentially a mobile suit-portable version of the positron cannon found aboard the Minerva. Although the weapon was considerably lighter and more compact when compared to the Minerva's cannon, it was still very heavy for a mobile suit, and only a nuclear-powered and thoroughly reinforced and reconstructed machine like the Morgan Sorceress could properly wield it. The weapon's refire rate was notably quicker than that of the original Tannhäuser, but it still required a considerable recharge period before the pilot could take another shot with it.

A slow-firing weapon would leave any mobile suit, even a nuclear-powered one, vulnerable. Luckily, Morgan Sorceress was packing more than just a really big rifle. It still had the pair of hip-mounted MMI-M15 Xiphias rail cannons for more precise and quick-firing mid-range action, while its left hand held an MA-MP35S beam pistol for close combat. No longer carrying the old tactical nuclear missiles, Morgan Sorceress instead had two AGM-198 Fire Wasp missile launchers mounted on its back, each one containing no less than 30 conventional multi-purpose missiles. Rounding out the weapons were the old pair of head-mounted MMI-GAU2 Picus 76mm CIWS.

Holding 60 missiles on its back was a danger even for a machine with nuclear-powered Phase Shift Armor; all those warheads detonating from enemy fire simultaneously probably wouldn't overwhelm the mobile suit's protection, but the massive explosion and shockwave could still severely injure or possibly even kill the pilot. As a result, the designers of the Morgan Sorceress had taken a page out of the Eurasian Federation's playbook, and had even surpassed Moscow's R&D projects in a key aspect. Set below the backpack was a series of eight dark grey spheres mounted on a rack. Controlled by an incredibly sophisticated and powerful set of electromagnets, the eight spheres formed what ZAFT's designers had called the MX3666 Heiliges Schild Lightwave energy shield. The shimmering green barrier created by the floating orbs formed a hemispheric shell protecting the mobile suit's rear and flanks; the only way to land a meaningful hit on Morgan Sorceress was to attack from head-on.

Eurasian Federation Lightwave barrier technology's always been limited by non-nuclear power sources, Athrun thought as he sniped a Windam through the cockpit with his beam rifle while observing Pixy's shield tank hits from hostile craft like they were nothing, I guess breaking treaty restrictions opens a lot of doors.

Pixy was certainly putting those newfound capabilities to good use. As his flight lead blazed a path of destruction along the western flank of the harbor, Galm Two was amplifying his buddy's carnage. While Cipher's violet beam saber flashed like a bolt of lightning, Pixy rained down a torrent of brutal covering fire. His rail cannons and beam pistol picked off targets with the precision of a true professional, with his positron rifle only seeing use in breaking up larger formations to make the scattered and panicked survivors easier to snipe. Missile volleys further widened the breaches opened by Cipher, with Pixy sprinkling warheads about to maximize the disorientation of the harbor's defenders.

By contrast to Galm Team's highly aggressive and destructive duo, the trio of Heine, Manuel and Larissa were making a much more methodical advance. Heine was on point in their formation, employing the Impulse's β Sword Silhouette Pack. Both of the pack's MMI-710 Excalibur Anti-Ship Laser Swords were joined together at the hilt, forming the mobile suit's combined dual-bladed Ambidextrous Form. Athrun could see Heine using it to put on a credible Darth Maul impression, spinning the double-bladed weapon in wide arcs as he cut down one foe after another. As their GOUFs were likewise geared for high-speed, close-quarters combat, Manuel and Larissa had positioned themselves on Heine's left and right flanks respectively, employing their Draupnir 4-barrel beam guns to spray emerald bolts at anyone who came at them from the sides or tried to circle behind.

"Athrun, movement below," Rey announced, "Looks like those new Euclid units are advancing."

Stabbing a Windam with the extended blade of his beam boomerang, Athrun reoriented himself to get eyes on the mobile armors. Sure enough, he spotted at least a dozen skimming over the water, with more launching from the shore. The bulky yet streamlined machines were positioned as spearheads, with groups of Jet Windams and Jet Dagger-Ls formed up around and behind them. Athrun quickly understood the reason for this formation when he saw cannon rounds and missiles from ZAFT and Alliance defector warships streak towards the mobile armors only to meet shimmering fields of light and prematurely detonated.

"Positron reflectors!" Athrun hissed with a grimace, "Just like the Destroys. Shit, not good!"

The Euclids' pilots proved Athrun's fears justified as the mobile armors opened fire with their beam cannons. Defector and ZAFT warships alike belched smoke and flames or were destroyed outright by the emerald energy blasts, and Athrun couldn't help but note that these beams were noticeably larger than those one would see fired from a standard mobile suit's rifle. The Atlantic Federation had clearly been determined to make up for the weaknesses of their old Moebius units, and they had succeeded. The larger design may have presented a bigger target, but the addition of a positron reflector negated that vulnerability.

From what Athrun could see, it appeared that the Euclids' energy barriers only shieled the top and front of the mobile armor. The obvious counter would be for mobile suits to attack the large machines from the flanks and behind, and he could see BABIs, DINNs, and Windams from the defectors angling to do just that. However, the Atlantic Federation's pilots had prepared for those exact tactics by keeping their own mobile suits in flanking and rear cover positions around the hulking mobile armors, resulting in attack runs becoming pitched low-altitude dogfights while the Euclids pressed on and continued to hammer the combined ZAFT/Alliance defector fleet's forward ranks.

The bad news for the combined allied fleet did not stop there. As the assault force pressed further into the harbor, massive, dark-grey, crab-like machines were visible on the eastern and western shores leveling their guns at the approaching warships; the giant defensive mobile units from the briefing had made their debut. Athrun counted three on each side of the bay, and the blasts of scarlet energy that ripped forth from the cannons mounted on their upper hulls told him that these were all Karkinos variants. The crimson lances tore across the harbor and slammed into their targets, utterly pulverizing warships and any mobile suit unlucky enough to be in the line of fire, friend or foe. To make matters worse, Athrun saw a series of gigantic geysers suddenly erupt around the fleet, and he could think of only one source; the 16inch-equpped Heikegani variants firing from further back. No shots in that volley had connected, but that was cold comfort to Athrun, who immediately recognized them as establishing the range. The next salvo would undoubtedly be much more accurate.

"The fleet needs help," Athrun said, already putting his beam boomerang away and redrawing the Arondight sword, "Those mobile armors will plow right through them!"

"I understand your concern," Rey interjected as he filled the air with emerald beams, "but our mission is to establish air superiority, not partake in the fleet battle."

"Those mobile armors are flying," Athrun argued as he picked off a Windam with his beam rifle, "They're aerial targets."

"Extremely low altitude targets," Rey pushed back.

Athrun scowled. "I don't care. Keep the sky over me clear; you'll still be fulfilling the air superiority mission that way."

He expected Rey to protest, but the blond ace simply continued to pick off targets while acquiescing. "Very well."

Sighting in on the nearest Euclid, Athrun took the Destiny into a steep dive. Several of the Windams escorting his target reacted immediately, climbing and filling the air with particle beams. Prepared for such action, Athrun had already activated the Solidus Fulgor beam shield generators on the back of the Destiny's hands. A barrier of pale violet energy effortlessly tanked the shots, all while Athrun continued to rapidly close the distance.

Unleashing a quick volley with his beam rifle that took out three machines and caused others to scatter, Athrun adjusted his angle of attack and came in behind the Euclid. The pilots of the bulky mobile armor were already attempting to turn their machine around, and while they may have been successful had the fight been in outer space, fighting against Earth's gravity in such a heavy unit was another matter entirely. Athrun made a wide swing with the Arondight, cutting first into the Euclid's thrusters and then into the heart of the mobile armor itself. Flames and smoke belched out as Athrun quickly pulled back, and the mobile armor plunged into the sea.

As he acquired the next Euclid, Athrun briefly glanced overhead. He had the satisfaction of confirming that Rey had indeed taken up position above, using the Legend's mounted DRAGOONs and its rifle to turn himself into a flying anti-air battery. A torrent of emerald beams flew forth, overwhelming the groups of Windams that tried to swarm the Legend.

Athrun then heard Rey's voice over his cockpit speakers. "Pick up the pace. We need to maintain the advance."

Athrun nodded as he charged in on his new target. "Copy that."

Coming at the second Euclid from the mobile armor's left, Athrun zigzagged while sniping escorting Windams with his rifle. Like its doomed comrade, the Euclid was rotating to meet Athrun's charge, and this time it had started early enough to pull off the maneuver. Heavy particles beams and a rain of bullets flew forth from the mobile armor, but the Destiny's incredible agility made dodging the former easy while its Variable Phase Shift Armor had no trouble deflecting the latter. Feinting a head-on attack, Athrun then banked sharply to the right. Moving far faster than the mobile armor could turn, Athrun shot down two more of the escorting Windams with his beam rifle before carving into the Euclid with the Arondight. The large machine spewed sparks and fire before lurching over and crashing into the ocean, quickly sinking.

The breach Athrun had opened in the wave of advancing Euclids and their supporting mobile suits wasn't much, but it was enough to give ZAFT and their allies a chance to counterattack. As the Euclids pounded the fleet with their beam cannons, BABIs, DINNs and green-painted Jet Windams used the breach in the escort screen to begin flanking the mobile armors. The older DINNs had the least effective weapons when it came to engaging such large and heavily armored targets, so instead they put their machine guns, anti-aircraft shotguns and chest-mounted missile launchers to use in further breaking up and distracting the escorting Windam squadrons. Meanwhile, the BABIs and defector Jet Windams took advantage of the depleted escort screens to get around and behind the Euclids, the former opening up with their beam rifles, gun-launchers and chest-mounted Ardor multi-phase beam cannons while the latter added their beam rifles and the missiles mounted on their wing-hardpoints to the mix. One by one, additional Euclids began to succumb, but a hard struggle to keep the remaining mobile armors from getting into the fleet and wreaking havoc would still play out.

Convinced that his actions had at least given his comrades a chance to rally and push back against the Euclid threat, Athrun began climbing, putting away the Arondight sword and drawing one of the beam boomerangs instead to employ it as a lighter melee weapon. The beam rifle in his mobile suit's left hand continued to unleash volleys of emerald bolts as he ascended, picking off machines that were distracted by the storm of fire being put out by Rey.

"Sorry for the delay," said Athrun as he retook his position on point.

"It's fine," Rey grunted, "I put quite a dent in their aerial squadrons, and you were good for bait."

Advancing again, Athrun grimaced as he saw the Karkinos units along both eastern and western shores unleash another salvo from their topside beam cannons. Rivers of scarlet death flowed across the battlefield and into the fleet, obliterating destroyers and cruisers as if they were nothing more than practice targets. Athrun wanted to engage them, but he had already deviated from his mission orders before; he needed to resume securing air superiority in preparation for the orbital drop. Still, it galled him to leave such dangerous machines alone when the Destiny was more than capable of destroying them.

Rey seemed to be reading his mind. "Keep moving forward. The mercs will take the heavy shore units."

Checking his sensor display, Athrun confirmed that ZAFT's four contract fighters were indeed making for the Karkinos units. Galm One and Two were descending rapidly along the western shore, while Jack and Frost Druid mirrored them to the east. As much as Athrun wanted to see for himself just how they'd tackle such formidable targets, he needed to make up for the precious time that he'd lost in engaging the Euclids.

All he could do was hope that the mercenaries would prove themselves worthy of their lucrative contracts.

….

"Talk about rolling out the red carpet," Pixy quipped with a wry smirk as he and his flight lead flew through a hail of anti-air fire.

"I'm not one for the celebrity treatment," Cipher deadpanned while stabbing a Windam through the cockpit with his violet beam saber.

Pixy snorted as he picked off a target with a pair of Xiphias rail cannon slugs. "Says the most famous mercenary in the world."

"Fame won't take out our targets," Cipher remarked, "Time to earn our pay."

Pixy nodded, already sighting in on the closest of the giant crab-like machines along the western shore. "Let me take a test shot. We still need to confirm if these things have positron reflectors."

"Agreed," Cipher acknowledged, "Engage at will. I'll cover you."

Pixy chuckled as he moved ahead. "It's usually the other way around."

Gaining altitude, Pixy drew a bead on the closest of the Karkinos units. While the giant dark grey mechanical crustacean had its main guns leveled at ZAFT's fleet, a hail of missiles flew up at Galm Two from its topside launchers. Pixy let fly with his CIWS and rail cannons, intercepting some of the warheads while evading the rest or tanking them on his Phase Shift Armor and Lightwave shield. Windams were quickly moving in to chase him off, but they were immediately intercepted by Cipher. Galm One swiftly began tearing into the attacking units with his beam saber, Heat Rod, and plasma cannons, leaving Pixy free to line up his shot.

"Let's see if you're as tough as you look," Galm Two murmured before pulling the trigger.

A stream of orange-red energy blazed forth, zipping through the air towards the Karkinos mobile armor…

…only to splash against a field of shimmering translucent violet light.

"Tanked it," Pixy noted, already taking evasive action, "Positron reflector confirmed. Looks like coverage is topside."

"Take up overwatch," Cipher ordered, already diving in.

Pixy grinned as he turned his guns and missiles on the surviving Windams, which were attempting to pursue his flight lead. "Do what you do best, buddy. I've got your back."

Letting fly with rail cannon slugs and warheads, Pixy made the Atlantic Federation pilots pay with their lives for going after Cipher. His mobile suit barely more than a streak of crimson light, Cipher was upon the first Karkinos in the blink of an eye. A wild spray of emerald beams flew out from the crab-like mobile armor as the guns rimming the machine opened fire, and Pixy saw both claws suddenly become lined with violet light, confirming that they indeed housed beam emitters. For an ordinary pilot, they would be formidable foes to challenge.

Galm One was no ordinary pilot. Cipher began his assault with a quick pass, plunging his beam saber into the mobile armor's rim and dragging it around, destroying the beam guns which had so desperately been trying to shoot him down. The massive mobile armor tried to turn itself so it could engage him with its beam claws, but Cipher was too fast. His next pass sliced the machine's right legs out from under it, causing the hulking unit's main hull to slam into concrete. The finishing blow came as Cipher came around to the mobile armor's front, using his Demon Lash Heat Rod to take out the right beam claw at the joint before closing in and thrusting his beam saber into one of the bulbous protrusions on the machine's top that housed some of its missile launchers. The mobile armor's warheads detonated rapidly and triggered internal secondary explosions as Cipher pulled back, and the giant machine was blown apart.

"Nice one," Pixy complimented while blasting a Windam out of the sky with his rail cannons.

"That's just the first unit," Cipher remined him, Galahad Fencer already making for the next, "Keep the interlopers discouraged."

Pixy chuckled as he unleashed a blast from Morgan Sorceress's powerful rifle, obliterating two Windams. "Don't need to tell me twice."

….

If there was a Valhalla, the battle of Heaven's Base was probably as close to it as Wufei would get. It was the largest battle of this war that he had taken part in yet, the sheer scale and ferocity of it shoving all previous doubts completely out of mind.

They really went all out with their defense, he thought while crushing a Jet Windam with one of Nataku's Dragon Fangs, which just means that this is a battle worthy of my skills.

While he wished that his fellow Gundam pilots were with him, Wufei wouldn't have traded this grand stage for anything. As he tore into targets with Nataku's double-ended beam trident, his mind kept flashing back to that final battle at the Libra years ago, and he half-expected to see Tallgeese II come charging forward to meet him. This was the sort of battle that Treize undoubtedly would have felt right at home in.

Wufei wouldn't find his old nemesis here, though. Set aside the fact that Treize was dead and of a different world; Wufei could not see the man who had once led OZ and the World Nation deigning to associate himself with a power as rotten as the Earth Alliance. OZ had plenty of crimes under its belt, but Wufei knew that even a man as cunning and ruthless as Treize had standards.

Thoughts of Treize were banished to the back of Wufei's mind quickly enough as he evaded a swarm of missiles and particle beams. A large-scale battle was no place for distraction, after all. Even his experience and skills could only do so much to keep him one step ahead of Death's jaws. Howard had emphasized speed when upgrading Nataku, and the incredibly powerful thrusters he'd installed were putting in more than their share of work today as Wufei darted across the sky, yet even that phenomenal agility had limits. Even as Wufei continued to cut down foes with his double-ended beam trident or pummel them with his Dragon Fangs, he had one eye constantly on his sensor display, which showed an ever-increasing volume of red dots trying to surround him despite his efforts at evasion.

Luckily for Wufei, he did not have to rely solely on skill and speed to keep the forces attempting to swarm him at bay. A blast of red energy flashed through the air, blowing apart one Windam and causing several others to scatter. This was followed up by a hail of emerald bolts, to which two more Windams succumbed. Wufei did not need to look behind him to know what the source was.

Of all the people who could be watching my back today, Wufei thought with a smile as he glanced at the blue dot on the sensor display tailing him, I'm glad it's you…

…Lunamaria.

Wufei was honestly more worried about her than himself; the GOUF Bombardier Lunamaria now flew was a solid machine, but it was still a mainline mobile suit without Phase Shift Armor or a Gundanium alloy frame. More importantly, while Lunamaria was putting the unit to good use in helping Wufei establish air dominance, that wasn't its designed purpose. The GOUF Bombardier was first and foremost a mobile assault machine meant for attacking fortified targets and warships, not tangling with more agile units. It was a testament to Lunamaria's ever-growing skill that the unit had performed this well thus far, and the battle was still young.

"Hang back a bit further," Wufei ordered as he impaled a Jet Windam.

"Not a chance," Lunamaria immediately replied, "This range is good for covering you. If I go further back, the Draupnir will lose effectiveness."

Wufei clenched his jaw, wanting to argue further but recognizing her point. "Fine. Just watch yourself."

"Take your own advice," Lunamaria quipped while blasting another Jet Windam with her heavy cannon, "You're moving too far ahead too quickly. Slow up before we get cut off from the others!"

Checking his position, Wufei belatedly realized that she was right. His enthusiasm for the fight had resulted in a much more aggressive advance than even he had intended, and he had dragged his partner along for the ride. The two of them were over the port city itself, which meant it wasn't just mobile suits going after them; they were in the thick of the enemy's anti-air network. Shells, missiles, and particle beams were flying up at them in a reverse rainsquall, threatening to overwhelm them.

Diving, Wufei cut loose with his flamethrowers. Great streams of fire spewed forth from his Dragon Fangs, melting autocannon and beam turrets mounted atop the buildings along with their unfortunate crews. Nataku rattled as bullets and missiles detonated against its armor, the tremors intensifying as more guns focused their fire on Wufei.

"Alright," he eventually conceded, gaining altitude while laying down another curtain of flames to cover his retreat, "Let's pull back and regroup with the others."

He heard Lunamaria sigh with relief. "Finally. I was afraid I'd have to come up there and punch some sense into you."

Wufei couldn't help but smirk. "You'd try."

The closest friendly formation was Athrun and Rey, so Wufei and Lunamaria angled to link up with them. As they carved their way through Jet Windams and Dagger-Ls that had tried to cut them off, Wufei got a good look at the brutal fight playing out in the harbor. While the Galm Team had just finished off the last Karkinos unit operating on the western shore, Jack and Frost Druid were still contending with the second machine on the eastern shore. Given that neither the Raijin nor Spear were nuclear-powered, it made sense that the pair would have to be more cautious and methodical in talking the giant crab-like machines. While Klara used her rifle, chest-mounted beam gatlings, and canister gun to shred the swarms of missiles flying forth from their target, Jack danced on the ground, weaving between the lances of green energy spilling out from the Karakinos's rim guns. Eventually closing the gap and dodging the massive beam-lined pincers, the Raijin went underneath the Karkinos and thrusted both its blades up into the mobile armor's belly. Dragging the swords along its foe's underside, Raijin then came out behind the Karkinos as the machine collapsed in a heap of fire and scrap.

"Nice move," Wufei remarked while cutting a Jet Windam in half.

The third and final Karkinos on the western shore would doubtlessly fall soon. For the combined fleet's sake, it had to; the powerful topside energy cannons of the Earth Alliance's new machines had already taken a fearsome toll. While ZAFT was still advancing, several destroyers and a few cruisers had succumbed to shore fire from the formidable mobile armors, and they still had the remnants of the enemy fleet to finish off. Matters were not helped by the consisted salvos of 16-inch gunfire from the Heikegani units further inland. ZAFT and the Earth Alliance defectors were not taking the hits lying down, but the ship-to-surface missiles that they fired at the Heikeganis were either shot down by Atlantic Federation mobile suits or detonated harmlessly against the positron reflectors protecting the large mobile armors.

We'll need punch through the air defenses quickly so Galm Team can attack the Heikeganis, Wufei thought, otherwise those heavy guns will savage the fleet with impunity.

As he stabbed one target while Lunamaria shot down a machine behind him, Wufei saw that the two of them weren't the only familiar faces moving to link up with Athrun and Heine. The Impulse and two GOUF Igniteds were also heading in that direction, methodically carving a path for themselves through the hostile air units. Heine was putting in good work with the Impulse's conjoined anti-ship swords, swinging the massive double-ended weapon around him and forming the buzzsaw head of his formation while Manuel and Larissa widened the gap with sustained fire from their Draupnir 4-barelled beam guns. Wufei couldn't help but be impressed with Heine's display of swordsmanship; the FAITH operative's skills with the Impulse's large main weapons were steadily improving.

"Glad you could join us," Athrun remarked as Wufei drew near, the veteran ZAFT ace stabbing a Jet Dagger-L with the blade of one of the Destiny's beam boomerangs while sniping a Jet Windam with his rifle.

Wufei shrugged as he crushed a Jet Dagger-L with one of his Dragon Fangs. "We didn't want to hog all the fun for ourselves."

"How generous of you," Rey deadpanned while shredding an incoming flight of Jet Windams with a barrage from his rifle and the DRAGOONs swiveling about on the Legend's backpack.

"We need to advance together," Lunamaria reminded them, her heavy cannon blasting a Jet Dagger-L out of the sky, "The orbital drop's not far off now, and we still haven't secured air superiority!"

"Then let's rectify that," Heine chimed in, slicing a Jet Windam in half, "Athrun, Wufei and I will take point. The rest of you will follow and provide covering fire. We'll advance towards the Heikegani units inland and clear out their supporting mobile suits and any surrounding anti-air artillery. Galm Team can the take them out."

"You get all that, Galm?" Athrun called out.

"Affirmative," Cipher acknowledged, he and his wingman moving towards them while mowing down any Atlantic Federation mobile suit unfortunate enough to be caught in their line of advance.

"Sounds like a good plan," Pixy added.

Jack's voice came over the channel. "Frost and I will join you soon. Just need to wrap things up over here."

"Save some of them for us," Frost Druid quipped.

Wufei heard Pixy chuckle. "No promises."

"Catch up when you can," Wufei said, already gunning his engines to close in on a fresh group of targets, "Clock's ticking."

….

Talia was nearly thrown out of her seat as the Minerva was rocked by a heavy impact. "What the hell was that?"

"16-inch round," Arthur answered, picking himself up from a most undignified fall, "Had to have been."

Talia was forced to concur. "The Atlantic Federation really hit the jackpot with the Heikegani design. Damage report!"

"Direct hit on the portside Tristan!" the damage control officer shouted, "Right gun barrel's still functional, but the left one's wrecked."

Talia took a deep breath. "At least they didn't take out the whole turret."

"We might not get so lucky with the next one," Athur muttered.

Talia shared that concern, but she had other matters to focus on. "Maintain fire on the enemy fleet. We have them on the ropes. The sooner we knock them out, the sooner the transports can move in."

"What about the Heikeganis?" Athur asked in distress, "They'll blow the transports clean out of the water!"

"Our mercenaries will have them dealt with soon," Talia reassured him before turning to Meyrin, "Our spearhead's still moving forward, right?"

Meyrin glanced back from her station and nodded. "Our mobile suits have advanced over the port city and are moving inland. They're still engaged with enemy air defense, but they're getting closer to the Heikeganis."

"Tell them to hurry up," Talia ordered, "Those guns are making a mess out here."

It was an exaggeration, but not by much. While the combined ZAFT and Earth Alliance defector fleet was still pressing its advance and pounding the Atlantic Federation warships and shore emplacements with everything they had, losses were slowly mounting. The defectors had already suffered ten destroyers and two cruisers sunk, and several more ships were sporting varying degrees of damage. ZAFT's surface fleet was faring better, though not by much; the current count was seven destroyers and two cruisers lost, with the Minerva and plenty of other ships suffering hits.

Friendly naval losses were not limited to the surface fleet. While the main underwater advance had resulted in wide lanes being cleared in the minefields and heavy Atlantic Federation casualties, ZAFT's aquatic mobile suits had taken a severe beating in securing those gains. To make matters worse, the Atlantic Federation's underwater preparations had proven to be more thorough than ZAFT's planners had accounted for. While the enemy had stationed a large chunk of their aquatic mobile suits in the harbor or on the approach to blunt ZAFT's subsurface advance head-on, it turned out that secondary squadrons of Forbidden Vortex units and Aqua Darts had been lying in wait further out to sea. Once ZAFT had committed to the attack, those secondary squadrons had struck from both flanks, gunning for the Vosgulov-class submarine/carriers. Escorting mobile suits had been retained for this eventuality, but the pincer attack had been well-organized, and several Atlantic Federation units had been able to break through the screen. As a result, five submarine/carriers had been lost so far, and a fierce underwater battle was still playing out with between the surviving escorts and attackers.

The air battle was even more vicious than the naval one. New BABIs and the older DINNs along with the defectors' Jet Windams were clashing with their Atlantic Federation counterparts in one of the most ferocious dogfights Talia had ever seen, in this war or the last one. ZAFT's designers had proven that they could create top-notch atmospheric combat machines despite the Coordinator people primarily residing in outer space, and the fruits of their labors were doing them proud. Most of the BABIs were in their mobile suit form, picking off targets with their beam rifles and gun-launchers while scattering formations by using their heavier chest-mounted cannons. Some of the BABIs instead operated in their mobile armor configuration, taking advantage of their wing-mounted machineguns and missile launchers to throw massed salvos of bullets and warheads at hostile squadrons while the older DINNs supported them with rifles and shotguns. Despite the skill of ZAFT's aviators and their allies, though, the Atlantic Federation pilots weren't going down quietly. Friendly and hostile machines, or pieces of them, plummeted into the sea trailing smoke and fire with such frequency it felt like the Minerva was sailing through some macabre rainstorm. Talia could take comfort in the fact that her ship's pilots had not only racked up an impressive kill count already, but had created the primary breach in the enemy's aerial squadrons that the rest of the allied pilots were surging into. The fighting was bloody, but the advance was steady.

We should have just blockaded this damn island, Talia silently fumed, sign a separate peace with the Eurasian Federation, then focus our naval and land assets in this part of the world on cutting Heaven's Base off from supplies and wearing them down. We could have gained Moscow's cooperation in the bargain, or at least non-aggression. Instead, the higherups ordered this bloody head-on assault. Gilbert…

…whatever plan you're executing here better be worth the price we're paying.

….

"Come on," Wufei muttered under his breath as a whirling slash from his double-ended beam trident cut down a Jet Dagger-L, "Just a little further."

Moving beyond the port city hadn't lessened the opposition faced by Wufei and the others in the slightest. Just as the satellite imagery from the briefing had shown, the land beyond the urbanized region had been fortified to a ridiculous degree. A massive series of earthworks had been dug out and filled with concrete pillboxes, overlapping anti-air batteries, countless artillery pieces and heavy machineguns, and so much more. While Wufei, Lunamaria, and the other spearhead pilots continued to fight their way through desperate and determined enemy pilots, they were being constantly assailed by withering ground fire.

As a result, they were having to split their efforts. Wufei, Athrun, Heine, Jack and Cipher were primarily contending with the aerial units, continuing to carve a swath of destruction through the Windam and Dagger-L squadrons as ZAFT's more conventional mobile suits engaged stragglers in their wake. Meanwhile, Lunamaria, Rey, Frost Druid, Pixy, Larissa, and Manuel were concentrating on thinning out the ground emplacements. There was only so much that their small group could do, advanced mobile suits notwithstanding, so the overall focus remained on continuing the advance.

They were quite effective despite their small numbers, though. As Wufei impaled a Jet Windam on his beam trident, he saw Lunamaria blast a battery of heavy anti-air cannons to bits with the GOUF Bombardier's heavy cannon. A much larger orange-red wave of energy flew forth from Pixy's main gun, tearing through a trench line and detonating multiple missile batteries. At the same time, Frost Druid was picking off emplacements in rapid succession with precise shots from the Spear's railgun, while Manuel and Larissa made daring low passes with their GOUF Igniteds, spraying emerald bolts along their flight paths to suppress gun emplacements. Up front with Wufei, Athrun and Cipher were taking full advantage of the extreme agility provided by Destiny and Galahad Fencer's Voiture Lumiere systems, streaking across the sky like shooting stars as their blades and guns struck down foe after foe. Heine and Jack couldn't quite match their speed, but the blades of the Impulse and Raijin were no less deadly, as multiple Atlantic Federation pilots were finding out in rapid succession.

"Targets sighted," Cipher announced, "Pixy, get up here."

"Copy that, buddy," Pixy acknowledged.

Crushing a target with one of his Dragon Fangs, Wufei spotted what Cipher was referring to. Set up behind a formidable line of anti-air and artillery emplacements were the six Heikegani units that had been bombarding the combined ZAFT and Earth Alliance defector fleet throughout the fight. Even as Wufei and his comrades advanced towards them, the giant dark grey crustacean-esque mobile armors kept up steady salvos of 16inch gunfire, determined to punish ZAFT's invasion force to the very end.

"We'll sweep from the western flank," Cipher declared, his mobile suit already breaking in that direction as Pixy raced to catch up, "Jack, Frost Druid; advance from the east. Everyone else, provide cover."

"Moving in now," Jack said, Raijin's twin blades slicing a Jet Dagger-L in half, "Coming, Frost?"

"Right behind you," Frost Druid answered, shredding a Jet Windam with her chest-mounted beam gatlings.

While the Heikeganis were primarily a threat to the fleet, the missile launchers mounted on their upper hulls were also a danger to the orbital drop force, which only further emphasized the urgency in taking them out. The Earth Alliance seemed keenly aware of the units' importance, for Wufei's sensors were picking up fresh squadrons approaching to defend them. Crushing a Jet Dagger-L with one of his Dragon Fangs, Wufei took a moment to analyze the incoming reinforcements. It was a mixed group; comprised of several Jet Windam, Jet Dagger-L, and even F-7D Spearhead fighters.

"Already pulling out fighter jets," Wufei remarked, "They must really be desperate."

That was his first impression, but something about the incoming formations struck him as odd. As he cut down a Jet Windam, Wufei took a second look at the approaching reinforcements. Their formations were orderly and tight… too tight. And as they maneuvered for their opening attacks on Wufei and the others…

…they did so in perfect unison.

Alarms began blaring in Wufei's head. Even members of the most disciplined squadrons, whether they be comprised of mobile suits or jet fighters, would show at least a subtle degree of variation with how they flew in formation. To an outside observer, their arrangements might appear perfect, but a closer look would reveal tiny deviations among individual members. They would not disrupt the overall formation; it was simply human nature. The flight lead would make the first move, and the others would maneuver in turn according to drill and doctrine, with even the fastest and closest-knit units still showing the smallest fraction of delay in adjustment.

The incoming units, though, were showing none of that. They were flying with machinelike precision.

Machinelike…

Wufei's blood chilled as memories of his last war surfaced. Evading fire from both ground and air units, he focused his sensors on the closest of the approaching reinforcements. Adjusting the settings, Wufei studied their heat signatures…

…and his worst fears were confirmed.

The mobile suits and fighter jets were showing normal heat readings from their batteries and engines, respectively, but where the heat marker of a human pilot should have been in their cockpits, there was nothing.

He immediately switched over to the invasion force's general channel. "Attention all ZAFT forces, this is Wufei. Unmanned enemy reinforcements detected. I repeat, unmanned reinforcements detected. The Earth Alliance is deploying Mobile Dolls!"

….

Of all the twists and turns that the battle could have taken, the deployment of unmanned mobile suits and fighters had not been on Athrun's Bingo card. His first and, until now, only encounter with such units had been the battle with the Atlantic Federation black ops forces in the Debris Belt before the Second Bloody Valentine War officially kicked off. Even then, the unmanned machines then had not exactly been impressive; they were nothing more than beam-cannon equipped TS-MA2 Moebius mobile armors.

That was then, Athrun told himself as he picked off a Jet-Dagger L with his beam rifle, and this is now. The enemy's had months now to refine and upgrade whatever software's controlling these things. Wufei sounded worried; that alone is your cue to not take these units lightly.

Even without the audible concern in Wufei's transmission, Athrun would've been worried, and for a very simple reason; when Heero had spoken of the war in his old world, he'd never undersold the threat posed by Mobile Dolls. While the Gundam pilot hadn't been shy about his disdain for the unmanned machines, he had also been very upfront with how potent a danger they could be in combat, to the point that they'd even given Heero and his friends trouble when OZ and Romefeller had deployed them.

Lock-on alarms blared in his cockpit as the oncoming fighters and mobile suits unleashed mass missile volleys. The Spearheads immediately peeled off after launching their warheads, likely repositioning for a second salvo from a new vector. The Jet Dagger-Ls and Windams continued their advance, rifles at the ready. Destiny's Variable Phase Shift Armor combined with the power provided by its Hyper-Deuterion Engine meant it could theoretically tank all those missiles, but the sheer force of so many impacts could stun the pilot inside and leave Athrun vulnerable to follow-up attacks. He wasted no time in firing his beam rifle while taking evasive action, simultaneously activating one of the Destiny's Solidus Fulgor beam shield generators. Athrun saw his comrades take similar precautions, with Rey activating the Legend's beam shield generators while filling the sky with particle beams in an effort to thin out the approaching warhead swarm. Wufei laid down streams of fire from Altron Custom's flamethrowers, while Lunamaria opened up with her heavy cannon and smaller Draupnir 4-barrel beam gun. Manuel and Larissa did the same with their GOUFs, while Heine sent one of his beam boomerangs flying.

Even with all of that, the incoming missile volleys were only diminished, not eliminated. In desperation, Athrun and his comrades added CIWS fire to the mix, or Vulcan fire in Wufei's case. Belatedly, Athrun realized that the massed missile volley was a distraction. On his sensor display, he saw that the Jet Dagger-Ls and Jet Windams had fanned out in a broad hemispherical front. It did not take a genius to realize what was coming.

"Shit!" Athrun hissed as he put his beam rifle away, bringing the Destiny's high-energy long-range beam cannon to bear.

Pulling the trigger, he swept the weapon from left to right. The crimson energy blast didn't cover as wide an area as something like the Twin Buster Rifle, but it managed to destroy four targets and cause others to scatter. Unfortunately, the fact that it only took out four units meant that the Atlantic Federation was applying the hard-learned lessons of war to their Mobile Doll programming. The survivors opened up with a barrage of particle beams, putting Athrun and his comrades firmly on the defensive.

"How are unmanned machines a greater threat than the manned units?" Heine asked in disbelief as he weaved through the storm of energy, letting fly with another beam boomerang in response but only taking out a single Jet Windam Mobile Doll.

"They don't have the same limits as human pilots," Wufei answered, crushing a target with one his Dragon Fangs while swiftly zigzagging through enemy fire, "There's probably a central command intelligence or operator overseeing them and updating their orders. Combine that with their built-in tactical programming and instant processing of data, and you get this."

"Does that mean human pilots are now obsolete?" Larissa inquired as she tanked particle beams on her GOUF's shield.

"I don't buy it," Manuel defiantly growled while frantically evading, "Machines are not replacing humans!"

"Yet their performance is already demonstrably superior to the human pilots we were engaging earlier," Rey noted, blocking shots on his beam shields while picking off a few targets in response.

"I never said they were superior to humans," Wufei countered as Altron Custom danced across the sky, "or that they could replace us, though there are always fools who buy into that. Survive long enough against them, and you learn their patterns. You can adapt to fighting them if you can conquer the learning cliff."

"You sound as if you're well acquainted with foes like these," Heine remarked between heavy breathing as several hostiles advanced on him, firing as they came.

"I am," Wufei confirmed.

"Any hot tips?" Lunamaria chimed in as she blasted one target out of the sky, only to find herself falling back under a concentrated barrage.

"Whatever happens, don't let them isolate you," Wufei answered as Altron Custom spun, dived and climbed like a coked-up falcon, "I learned that the hard way. Stick together and watch each other's backs if you want to live through this fight."

Easier said than done, thought Athrun as he darted across the sky, Galm Team, Jack and Frost Druid are busy with the Heikeganis, so our combat power's cut. The seven of us are massively outnumbered by an enemy that might as well have a hive mind!

And the coordinating intelligence behind the Mobile Dolls was taking full advantage of that. While the fighter jets continued to engage in long-range attacks with their missiles, the Jet Windams and Jet Dagger-Ls were taking the fight to Athrun and the others at mid and close-range. The Mobile Dolls were subdividing into flights of four, with two members of each flight focusing on rifle fire while the other two moved in with beam sabers. It was a simple but potent combination, forcing Athrun to split his focus between blocking and countering melee attacks while at the same time contending with covering particle beam fire. Without supporting fire from Rey, the situation would've been much worse.

"Where the hell's the main force?" Manuel growled as shots slammed into his GOUF's shield.

"Advancing," Heine answered as he struck down another target with a beam boomerang while fending off multiple close-up attackers with his conjoined anti-ship swords, "We just need to hold out a little longer!"

"They better hurry," Larissa chimed in as she sprayed emerald bolts everywhere she could, "We're getting surrounded here!"

"Damn it," Lunamaria hissed as she blasted a Jet Windam out of the sky while Wufei intercepted two more which were moving in on her with their sabers, "The enemy's pulled a nasty card with these Mobile Dolls!"

No doubt about that, thought Athrun grimly as he swept the sky with another torrent of crimson energy, Galm Team, hurry up with those ground units. We need all the help we can get!

….

As Cipher weaved through the storm of missiles and particle beams coming from his first target, he heard Pixy's voice over his cockpit speakers. "Come on, buddy, don't play around with them. Things are getting dicey up here."

Cipher didn't answer, though the strain in Pixy's tone was enough to hammer the urgency home. As a blast from Morgan Sorceress's powerful rifle slammed into the Heikegani's positron reflector, Galm One darted in from the mobile armor's right side. His plasma cannons struck the heavy unit's flank, destroying some of the energy guns that rimmed the machine and creating a wider opening in which he could operate. Cipher took full advantage of that, swooping in to slice off the Heikegani's right pincer at the connecting joint before driving his beam saber into the machine's front.

First one down, Cipher thought as he pulled up to set himself up for an attack on his next target, five to go.

Checking the other side of the defensive line, Cipher saw that five become four a second later as Jack pulled a ballsy flanking strike that took the Raijin underneath its target. Coming under starting from the Heikegani's left side, his mobile suit slipping between the mobile armor's legs with centimeters to spare, the mercenary raised his blades and dragged them along the mechanical crab's belly. He came out the right side a second later, with the mobile armor collapsing in fire and smoke behind him.

The bold attack wouldn't have been possible without Frost Druid watching Jack's back. Some of the 'mobile dolls' as Wufei had designated them had tried to interfere, forcing the Spear's pilot to draw their attention with fire from her sniper rifle. The programming behind the unmanned machines was nothing to sneeze at, with the units taking Frost Druid's shots on their shields and returning fire at a steady pace as they advanced on her. A few got close enough to draw beam sabers on her, but they soon found themselves shredded by superheated metal flechettes from the Spear's CGP.

"Cipher, above you!" Pixy called out.

Acting on instinct, Cipher banked hard to the right, and not a moment too soon; a salvo of particle beams rained down through the airspace he'd occupied just a split-second prior. Reorienting himself, he saw eight Mobile Doll Jet Windams overhead, four with their rifles trained on him while the other four had fanned out with their beam sabers drawn, attempting to envelop him.

A salvo of missiles from Morgan Sorceress flew at the formation, but the Mobile Dolls would not be so easily dealt with. The ones with their rifles drawn immediately switched targets, and a hail of particle beams and CIWS rounds took out most of Pixy's warheads, with only one of the Mobile Dolls succumbing to the salvo. They did serve as a valuable distraction, though, leaving Cipher free to deal with the four saber-wielding units. A volley from his plasma cannons took out one machine, while a wide swing with Galahad Fencer's Demon Lash shredded another. The remaining two tried to pincer him, so Cipher slammed down on the throttle and went straight for the one coming from his right, parrying their thrust and impaling the unit through its torso. He flew his machine straight through the ensuing explosion to throw off the second unit before immediately flipping his mobile suit around and lashing out with the Heat Rod again, entangling the Mobile Doll and ripping it apart.

"Nice moves," Pixy praised as he opened fire with his two Xiphias railguns and picked off one of the remaining Mobile Dolls, "Now get on that next mobile armor, will you? I'll keep these things busy."

"Copy that," Cipher acknowledged, already diving in.

….

Another heavy hit rocked the Minerva, with Talia braced firmly in her seat. "How bad this time?"

"Could've been worse," the damage control officer answered a moment later, "Only destroyed one of the 40mm CIWs. Armor in that spot's still holding."

"Small favors," Arthur murmured, "That was 16inch again. Surprised it didn't punch through."

Talia grimaced. "The mercenaries should've taken out all the Heikeganis by now."

Arthur checked his display before turning back to her. "I'm showing four of them have been destroyed. They're going after the last two now, though the enemy reinforcements aren't making it easy. I never would've imagined that Mobile Dolls could be so formidable."

Talia bit her lip. "We should've known that the automated Moebius units they deployed in the Debris Belt were just the start. They've clearly been refining their programming throughout the war."

And now ZAFT was tasting the fruits of their enemy's labors. The main body of the fleet's aerial combatants had caught up to the spearhead, and the fighting was the ugliest of the battle yet. While Talia's pilots and the mercenaries had acquitted themselves well against the Mobile Dolls so far, the seamless coordination and inhumanly precise maneuvering of the unmanned units was not something that ZAFT had prepared for. Sure, unmanned Jet Windams, Jet Dagger-Ls and Spearhead fighters all possessed the same on-paper specs as their manned predecessors, but the programming guiding them turned the machines into new beasts altogether.

There was a cold and efficient simplicity to their tactics. The F-7D Spearheads flew in rhythmic loops, lobbing massed missile volleys before breaking off to escape retaliation, only to set themselves up for new attack vectors. With the large missile salvoes forcing the targeted pilots to scatter and evade, the Jet Windams and Jet Dagger-Ls would move in, some using rifle fire to pick off foes while others advanced to engage in close-quarters combat. Making matters worse was their uncanny capacity for evasion; no human pilots meant that the units could pull off maneuvers in atmosphere that manned machines could not. In using their most agile mobile suits as unmanned platforms, the Earth Alliance was taking full advantage of that increased maneuverability. While Mobile Dolls were going down to return fire, each kill was one that a ZAFT pilot had to earn, and the Coordinators were more than paying for the effort.

This really is becoming an attritional meatgrinder, she silently fumed, Gilbert, whatever long-term strategy you're enacting here, I hope it's worth the blood we're spilling here.

The progress that ZAFT's assault had made provided little consolation. The vicious naval battle that had been dominating the harbor and, to a lesser extent, the ocean beyond was finally starting to wind down. Most of the shore defense units and emplacements had been destroyed, and the last of the Atlantic Federation's surface vessels still in the fight were all sporting severe damage. They would be finished off soon, but not without cost. The Atlantic Federation defectors had lost an additional four destroyers and another cruiser, while ZAFT's surface losses had gone up by three destroyers and a cruiser. While the enemy fleet's ferocious resistance had certainly been a factor, far more damaging to ZAFT's combined fleet were the regular salvos of 16inch gunfire coming from the Heikegani units further inland. With the mercenaries setting upon the last of them, friendly fleet casualties would hopefully be significantly reduced going forward.

As for the underwater aspect of the battle, it was still going, with a further 5 Vosgulov-class carrier/submarines having been claimed by the Atlantic Federations' formidable Forbidden Vortex squads despite the fiercest efforts by ZAFT's aquatic units to repel them. The latest update Talia had gotten on the situation indicated that the enemy's subsurface forces were being whittled down and would eventually cease to be a factor, but it sounded like that would take longer than the surface fleet action.

As long as a subsurface threat remains, Talia thought, even a reduced one, it means we can't bring up the troop transports and start the landing operation. That puts even more emphasis on our air and orbital drop forces.

Talia's eyes darted over to the small personal monitor mounted on her chair. A timer had been counting down since the start of the battle; the moment for the orbital force to begin its descent was fast approaching. With Mobile Dolls now contesting the skies, and the combined ZAFT and defector mobile suits desperately struggling to counterattack, the situation was hardly ideal for an orbital drop. The only good news that Talia could see was that, prior to engaging the Mobile Dolls, ZAFT's aerial units had made an effort to sweep away the Atlantic Federation's formidable array of anti-air emplacements immediately beyond the port city, meaning that the orbital drop force would at least have a decent landing zone.

With the impending orbital drop and the naval battle gradually coming to a close, the plan of isolating the port city looked to be mostly on track. When the troop transports were eventually brought up to begin landing operations, Talia could only imagine the fierce fighting that would unfold as they moved into the port city itself and further inland. Casualties for the invasion force were already substantial, though still well within what was considered to be acceptable margins for the operation. Talia was not looking forward to reviewing the total casualty figures once the battle was finally over.

"Captain, I have signals from Kriyya and Alvise," Meyrin called out, "They're requesting to be detached so they can join the fighting up front."

Talia was tempted to give the green light due to the new Mobile Doll threat, but caution stopped her; with all the nasty surprises that the Atlantic Federation had thrown at them so far in this battle, she was reluctant to completely deprive the Minerva of its already-limited combat air patrol. "Denied. We need air cover in case additional enemy reinforcements deploy and break through our forward squadrons."

"Understood, Captain," Meyrin acknowledged.

I know our pilots up front need all the help they can get, Talia thought grimly, but our fleet's already dangerously light on air cover. The front squadrons will have to hold out until the orbital drop force lands. Those units might primarily be meant for ground combat, but they can at least provide supporting anti-air fire and give the Mobile Dolls something else to worry about. It'll have to be enough.

….

The last of the Heikegani units was smoldering wreckage behind him, but Jack didn't have time to celebrate. He'd been in the process of climbing to join the brutal aerial battle along with Frost Druid and the Galm Team when fresh alerts sounded from his sensors, and he spotted no less than six massive units lumbering forward in the distance.

"Frost, you getting this?" Jack asked as he zigzagged through enemy fire.

"Affirmative," Frost Druid confirmed while the Spear twisted and twirled amidst particle beams and missiles, "Destroys. I'm surprised we didn't run into them sooner."

"No kidding," Pixy chimed in as he blasted two unmanned F-7D Spearheads out of the sky with his rail cannons, "I was expecting them to be up front on the shore, not back here. What gives?"

"We must be getting close to the main base entrances," Cipher surmised while slicing a Jet Windam Mobile Doll in half with his violet saber and shredding a second with his Heat Rod, "The enemy likely held them back as a precaution."

"Guess we better take care of them before they get too close to the drop force's projected landing zone," Jack suggested, already adjusting course.

"Think they're unmanned, too?" Frost Druid inquired.

"Hard to say," Pixy remarked, "Looks like they're working in two-unit formations for mutually supportive firing arcs. Humans can do that just as well as a computer program."

"We won't know for sure until we engage them," Cipher said, "Ranged units, open up and get them to deploy their shields. Their return fire will show if they're manned or unmanned."

"Galm One, we should split off and hit them from the flanks," Jack said, "Minimize the overlapping fire heading at us."

"Affirmative," Cipher concurred, "Galm Team will take the west. You two have the east."

As the respective mercenary duos adjusted course, Pixy and Frost Druid took probing shots. The Destroys already had their large arm drones detached, and the positron reflectors mounted on them blocked the attacks without difficulty. The return fire was swift, with tightly packed salvos of particle beams flying forth from the drones forcing the mercenaries to bank sharply in evasion.

Surprisingly accurate given the range, Jack mused, but that's not enough to confirm if these things are unmanned units.

What came next was another matter. As the mercenaries set up for their attacks, the Destroy pairs on the respective flanks moved in perfect unison to respond. At the same time, while the unit pair in the center remained in their mobile suit configuration, the four machines on the flanks shifted simultaneously to their mobile armor forms. With the disk-shaped backpack now folded up and over the units, the energy cannons along the disks' rim now had clear arcs of fire, and they immediately filled the sky with emerald light.

"That settles it," Jack declared as he weaved through the fearsome barrage, "These are Mobile Dolls, too."

"Pixy, relay that intel back to the fleet," Cipher ordered as the gap between the mercenaries and the Atlantic Federation's titans quickly closed, "Engage at will."

"Frost, you ready?" asked Jack as energy beams zipped past him with mere meters to spare.

"Affirmative," Frost Druid answered, "I'll take potshots at both units to get their attention on me. Spear doesn't have the firepower to put these beasts down for good, so that's on you."

Jack grinned. "Put on a good show for them, and I'll hit 'em where it hurts."

He eased up on the throttle so Frost Druid could move ahead. His fellow mercenary began taking shots with her sniper rifle, her fire focused on the Destroys' topside warhead launchers, most likely attempting to trigger a missile detonation. Frost was a good shot, but even her accuracy inevitably suffered as she had to fire while constantly evading the storm of energy beams flying back at her, so her first shots hit the upper armor, leaving scratches and slight indentations but doing no real damage. Her follow up shots didn't even do that, with the rounds instead being blocked by the Destroys' positron reflectors. Still, her attacks had the intended effect of getting the pair of behemoths to focus their fire on her, with only scattered shots heading Jack's way.

That changed once Jack closed the distance, though. Whatever programming the Atlantic Federation used for their Destroy Mobile Dolls was clearly smart enough to recognize a decoy, because the unit that Jack was targeting turned both of its arm drones and a good chunk of its firepower towards him, letting fly with a blizzard of particle beams and missiles. The second unit attempted to join in, but Frost closed in for a daring attack with her beam gatlings and canister gun pod, and while the emerald bolts and superheated metal were only a marginally greater threat to the Destroy than the prior sniper rounds, the controlling program apparently recognized them as dangerous enough to deserve its attention.

"I can keep this one busy," Frost declared as she zipped through the sky while surrounded by particle beams, "You're on your own with the lead unit."

Jack chuckled as nearby missile detonations rattled him. "Should've known it wouldn't be so easy."

Altering his approach, he took the Raijin into a sharp and sudden climb. He could not go too high without risking crossfire from the massive aerial battle, but the change in elevation was just enough to throw off the Destroy's aim. He swiftly rushed in, both swords at the ready. However, both arm drones whirled around to target him, forcing Jack to pull back while in mid-swing, resulting in his blades only cutting up the barrels of the heavy energy cannons mounted atop the Destroy rather than slicing into the warhead launchers and triggering a detonation, which had been his intention.

Zipping around to the Destroy's right, barely one step ahead of the particle beams both arm drones were sending his way, Jack decided to change targets. He feinted towards the Destroy, as if intending to thrust his swords into the disk-shaped pack's underside, but at the last moment banked hard to the left. His maneuver brought him right up to his real target; one of the arm drones. Jack's twin blades flashed, and the Destroy's left arm drones fell to the ground in superheated pieces.

"Got a bit more breathing room now," he muttered while dodging fire from the Destroy and its remaining arm drone.

"I'm running out of it," Frost Druid quipped, flitting about like a dragonfly on speed, "Hurry up and take that thing down."

"Working on it," Jack shot back as he zeroed in on the second arm drone.

Missiles and energy beams flew from the Destroy behind Jack while the surviving arm drone enveloped him in a web of emerald light. His machine was rocked by a missile detonation that nearly threw him into the path of a particle beam, and even with a last ditch maneuver the beam still took off the Raijin's left leg below the knee. It was a potent reminder of just how fragile Jack's machine was; one lucky hit could be enough to take him down.

Finally in sword range, he thrust out with both blades, cutting into the drone's 'fingers' and then the hand itself. The drone exploded as Jack extracted his swords, and he whirled around to take on the Destroy itself. Still in its mobile armor form, it flooded the air with beams and warheads, desperate to keep Jack at bay. Going in low, skimming just a meter over the frigid ground, he managed to get beneath the Destroy's arcs of fire. Gunning his thrusters, Jack took the Raijin into a sudden climb and stabbed the mobile suit's twin blades into the Destroy's torso. Smoke and fire belched forth from the machine, and the mechanical titan detonated as Jack hastily pulled away.

"Sorry for the wait," he quipped as he moved to join Frost Druid in taking down the second unit.

"Help me kill this thing and I'll forgive you," Frost deadpanned.

Checking his sensors, Jack saw that he wasn't the only one who had scored a kill; one of the Destroys that Galm Team had targeted was likewise down. Now that each pair could go two-on-one against the remaining targets in their respective formations, the next kills would likely come faster, but that still left the final two Destroy Mobile Dolls to continue their advance. Indeed, they'd already moved forward a considerable distance, spewing beams and missiles into the raging dogfight overhead.

"We have to hurry," Frost Druid urged as she peppered their mutual target with sniper rounds and beam gatling bolts, "The orbital drop's starting."

Jack grit his teeth, already moving in on one of the new target's arm drones. He hated working within a time crunch like this, and they'd already hit the deadline. He could only hope that the surviving Destroys were more concerned with their immediate targets than the ones which would soon start raining down all over the battlefield.

….

As much as Wufei wanted to engage the remaining Destroys, he had more immediate concerns to deal with. Leaving aside the orders to focus on securing air superiority, he couldn't have broken free of the aerial clash in any case; the Mobile Dolls were relentless in their advance, and it was all Wufei could do just to keep them at bay. Between constantly dodging particle beams and blocking saber strikes, Wufei was largely stuck on the defensive, only able to take down his foes through counterattacks. Even those kills were only made possible by dedicated supporting fire from Lunamaria giving Wufei invaluable openings to strike; without those, he'd likely be in outright retreat.

"Wufei, dive!" Lunamaria shouted.

Instinctively, Wufei did just that, and not a moment too soon; a flurry of particle beams flew through the airspace he'd occupied just a split second ago. The shots had come from two Mobile Doll Jet Windams to his right, with one immediately getting blown apart by a blast of crimson energy from Lunamaria.

"Good catch," Wufei said as he crushed the second unit with his left Dragon Fang, "Thanks."

"No sweat," Lunamaria replied through labored breathing, "I've always got your back."

While a reassuring sentiment, Wufei could not help but worry. The aerial battle had become a grinding stalemate, and experience had taught him long ago that prolonged combat ultimately favored the Mobile Dolls. After all, unlike human pilots, machines didn't tire; they could keep going as long as they had energy and didn't break. The Atlantic Federation had finally found a way to make their trademark 'overwhelm through material superiority' strategy effective, and all it had taken was removing the human component from their weapons.

We have no idea how many more Mobile Dolls the enemy's holding in reserve, Wufei thought as he blocked a beam saber strike before thrusting his beam trident through the attacking unit, White Fang launched repeated wave attacks to wear us down during the old war. If the Atlantic Federation uses the same playbook, then the situation's only going to get worse.

His sensors began chiming with new contacts. For a moment, Wufei feared that the Atlantic Federation had already launched its next Mobile Doll wave, but upon checking his display he found that the contacts were friendly. Then he saw the altitude markers next to them, and he realized it was the orbital drop force.

Lunamaria saw them, too. "Reinforcements! About time!"

The situation was not ideal. Not only was the airspace still contested, but there were still two Destroys on the field throwing their considerable weight around. The mercenaries moving in on them from both sides promised to eliminated the pair of behemoths soon, but the Destroys' formidable arsenals could still wreak carnage on the dropping reinforcements before they were neutralized. Indeed, missiles were already flying up from the Destroys even as their arm drones and energy cannons began firing upon the approaching mercenaries.

"Keep the Mobile Dolls focused on us," Wufei ordered, knocking a Jet Dagger-L out of the sky with one of his Dragon Fangs, "We need to keep them off the orbital drop force until they land and can provide us supporting anti-air fire."

"Copy that!" Lunamaria acknowledged with renewed determination, "Let's do this!"

As he and his comrades continued to hold the punishing Mobile Doll counteroffensive at bay, Wufei periodically glanced up at the sky. He could see scores of dark dots steadily growing larger; those would be the drop pods. From what Wufei had seen in the briefing files, ZAFT used pods that held three mobile suits apiece, and when they reached a specified altitude the mobile suits within would jump out, each unit deploying a set of three massive parachutes for the final leg of their descent. In such a state they would at least be able to fire their weapons, but that didn't change the fact that they'd be incredibly vulnerable.

Losses during the drop will be unavoidable, Wufei thought as he cut down a foe while Lunamaria shot down another trying to attack him from above, and all we can do is try to minimize them.

I just hope it's enough.

….

In the cockpit of his mobile suit, Colonel Nazara wore a sadistic smirk as he watched the battle play out. He wasn't on the field yet; he would be taking the stage in grand fashion quite soon. Beneath the mask, his blue eyes gleamed with twisted delight as he watched the Mobile Dolls fight the Coordinator horde to a standstill.

And these are just the converted units, he thought, licking his lips in anticipation, Durandal, if you think this is the worst I have in store for your forces today, you are gravely mistaken. All that I've served you so far is just the appetizer.

A chime sounded, and the voice of one of his subordinates came over the cockpit speakers. "Colonel, we have confirmed parachute deployments; the enemy's drop force is now in optimal range."

Nazara's grin oozed malevolence. "Then the time has come. Deploy Nibelung…"

"…and launch Sovereign."

….

Seeing as his attention was dedicated to the task of fighting back against the Mobile Doll onslaught while rank and file ZAFT pilots died around him, Athrun could be forgiven for not immediately picking up on the fact that an entire mountain was splitting in half just a few kilometers north of his position. Granted, it was relatively small as mountains went, more of an overly large stony hill capped with snow, and he would not have paid it any mind at all save for the fact that a chance glimpse in that direction showed two sections of the low mountain sliding east and west.

"Hey, to the north!" Athrun called out while dodging a volley of particle beams, "Anyone else seeing this?"

"Affirmative," Rey replied as he blasted two F-7D Spearheads and the missiles they had fired at him out of the sky, "We should expect additional hostile reinforcements."

"I don't think so," Wufei chimed in as he blocked a beam saber strike from a Jet Dagger-L before whirling his beam-trident around to cut down his attacker, "Not from here, at least; all the reinforcements we've been fighting so far have launched from further back."

"Then what the hell's that thing?" Lunamaria asked while blowing apart a Jet Windam.

Athrun climbed to get a better vantage point. As the 'mountain' halves drew further apart, they eventually revealed a massive dish-like device, which the Destiny's sensors put at a stunning 10km in diameter. Zooming in while evading enemy fire, Athrun realized that the 'dish' was actually a giant parabolic mirror. Jutting out from the center was a strange cylindric spire-like device capped by a rounded, tapered cone.

Then Athrun's sensors detected a massive energy spike as the spire began to light up, and he immediately recognized the threat. "Everyone, pull back now!"

As he slammed his thrusters for all that they were worth, Athrun kept an eye on the giant disk-like weapon. The glowing central spire glowed white-hot, and a second later countless green particle beams shot out of it. In the blink of an eye, all those beams were reflected off the parabolic mirror and sent racing skywards.

Right into ZAFT's orbital drop force.

Athrun could only look on in horror as a storm of small emerald beams shredded the descending mobile suits. The sky above was suddenly filled with explosions as the Atlantic Federation's newly-revealed weapon accomplished its mission, utterly decimating the reinforcements. Checking his sensor display, Athrun saw with dismay that, where there had previously been 240 ZAFT mobile suits coming to their aid, there was now barely more than 60. Scattered bits of searing-hot metal fell upon the battlefield, a fitting funeral 'rain' for ZAFT's orbital drop force.

"Son of a bitch!" Manuel snarled, "This was a setup from the start!"

"How did the SIB miss a weapon this large?" Larissa asked in dismay.

"Worry about that after the battle," Heine chided them, "Keep the Mobile Dolls away from the drop force survivors!"

Heine's orders were reasonable enough, but Athrun had doubts. ZAFT's operational plan had counted on the drop force to cut off the port city, eventually taking it in cooperation with the troops aboard the incoming transports before regrouping and advancing further inland. With the orbital contingent now reduced to roughly a quarter of its original size before it had even hit the ground, the task of taking the port was now exponentially more difficult. ZAFT would have to divert more of its aerial mobile suits to make up the numbers, which under these circumstances meant ceding ground to the Mobile Dolls. The entire invasion plan was in jeopardy.

Yet no new orders were coming in. Was the invasion force's leadership still locked onto the same plan despite the devastating losses suffered by the orbital drop contingent, or were they frantically scrambling to rework their strategy? In theory, multiple contingencies should have been prepared for prior to the operation, but Athrun suspected that even the worst-case scenarios had not included the weapon that the Atlantic Federation had just sprung on them.

And as fresh alarms sounded from his sensor display, Athrun had a sinking feeling that ZAFT's nightmare was only just beginning.

….

Back on the Minerva, Talia blinked in stunned disbelief when the update came through. The stalled and grinding battle against the Atlantic Federation's new Mobile Dolls was bad enough, but hearing that roughly 75% of the orbital reinforcements had been shot down in a single attack boggled the mind. It was so far beyond any of the envisioned scenarios that she needed a moment to properly process the calamity's scale.

It was small comfort that Talia had the luxury for such a moment. The naval battle had finally been drawn to a close, meaning the Minerva and the rest of the combined fleet's surviving surface assets were now focused on long-range bombardment of hostile defenses further inland marked by mobile suits. The grueling struggle beneath the waves was now settled, though not before an additional 6 Vosgulov-class carrier/submarines had gone to the bottom. While some of the surviving underwater mobile suits were retained as precaution against potential subsurface attacks, most were now moving forwards to take their assigned roles in the amphibious landing stage of the operation.

In combination with the orbital drop force, ZAFT's amphibious mobile suits were meant to seize the port. However, with the orbital drop force now brutally mauled and its ragged survivors now struggling simply to land and get organized, the Atlantic Federation defenders within the port city were able to keep the bulk of their assets concentrated to the south. Theoretically, the aquatic mobile suits could force the landing and fight their way through the city, but the costs of going against a concentrated rather than split defense promised to be gruesome.

Arthur's thoughts seemed to mirror Talia's. "How on Earth are we supposed to take the port now? The orbital force was vital, and they've been shot to pieces!"

Talia was thinking of how to respond when a chime sounded from her personal console. Taking a look, she saw that a hastily revised battleplan had just been sent over from the flagship.

"I have an answer, and none of us will like it," Talia eventually said, "We're being ordered to bombard the port city itself. The troop transports for the occupation force are now being brought up to land reinforcements."

Arthur's eyes widened in horror. "But the transports aren't carrying mobile suits! They're seriously just going to drop infantry and vehicles into an unsecured city?"

"The escorting Vosgulov vessels have been ordered to deploy the bulk of their air and amphibious mobile suits to make up the drop force's losses," Talia replied as she studied the new plan, "Eighty percent, to be more precise. That leaves barely more than a token escort. The drop force survivors have been ordered to take up position just beyond the northern outskirts. Our forward aerial units are to keep inland reinforcements away from the port at all costs."

Arthur shook his head in dismay. "Captain, those costs… they'll be exorbitant."

"You don't need to remind me, Arthur," Talia grimly quipped.

She could see the carnage playing out in her mind. Even if the Minerva and the rest of the combined fleet reduced the port city to piles of rubble, there would still be plenty of cover left for the defenders to use. Given just how fanatical the Earth Alliance forces had been in their defense of Heaven's Base so far, the body count would be horrific. Worse still, the fact that reinforcements were now being called to take the city that they were equipped to hold after it had been taken would only exacerbate the casualties.

And then those 'reinforcements' are supposed to hold out until the next transport flotilla arrives to reinforce them, Talia thought, which is going to turn this entire operation into a protracted siege. That's exactly the sort of battle our doctrine is meant to avoid! Durandal, we're going against everything that we've been trained for to fulfill your objectives here. Even if we win, we'll be paying for this 'victory' for a long time to come!

"Your orders, Captain?" Arthur asked with trepidation.

Talia sighed, knowing she had no choice now that her superiors had sent her the new plan. "Every weapon that's suited for bombardment is to target the city. Tannhäuser fire is to be restricted; only use it when we have a confirmed clear lane of fire from local forces and a solid backstop. We can't risk it cutting clean through the city and catching our own forces."

Arthur nodded. "Understood, Captain."

The Minerva was at least in a good position to carry out her new orders. She had clear fields of fire into the port city, and only the left barrel of her portside Tristan dual beam cannon was out of action; the rest of her heavy weaponry was operational. Soon enough, particle beams, rounds from the Isolde triple cannon, and missiles were flying from the battleship, with the rest of the combined fleet joining in. Fresh plumes of flame and smoke began billowing from the port, and Talia could not help but wince in sympathy for the troops defending it. Regardless of them being her enemy, she did not begrudge them their position. Defending an urban area that would be under attack from two fronts was a grisly task, even if they had the advantage of cover. If the troops were not killed directly by fire from ZAFT and the defectors, then collapsing buildings and flying debris were just as likely to take their lives.

Not to mention that we're creating a giant mess for ourselves to clean up later, she silently added, I can't imagine the nightmare our engineers will have to deal with… assuming we're still capable of taking our objectives.

Talia's private doubts on that were only amplified by a near-panicked cry from Meyrin. "Captain, I'm getting data from the Destiny that you really need to see! It's a new contact, and it's huge!"

Talia gritted her teeth, bracing for the worst. "Get it onscreen, Meyrin."

She saw the main bridge monitor shift, and Talia's eyes widened in complete shock. What she saw, rising out of what must've been a truly massive concealed hangar, was a gigantic warship. Ascending on blue flame flowing from four large main thrusters, eight sub-thrusters, and rows of lift thrusters set along the lower hull, was a kilometer-long leviathan. Its dark-grey hull shape struck Talia as a cross between a whale and a swan, with a smooth and flowing main body that widened as it progressed from the bow back, while at the stern the frame suddenly swept up on both sides like a pair of soaring wings. The image on the screen then shrunk and repositioned as Athrun sent in new shots of the vessel from different angles, showing among other things a flat section of the upper body with four mobile suit elevators and launch catapults along with rows upon rows of vertical launch systems for what Talia could only assume was a substantial missile payload, while the lower hull bristled with what looked like very heavy firepower.

Arthur looked downright dumbfounded. "What in the name of the heavens is that?"

Talia turned to Meyrin. "Does Athrun have an ID on it?"

"Just got an update from him," Meyrin confirmed, "Contact's IFF is transmitting as Sovereign! Captain, Athrun's confirming mobile suit launches from Sovereign… wait… correction, Captain; they're Mobile Dolls! Lack of human heat signatures have been confirmed. There are additional Mobile Dolls taking off from underground hangars!"

Talia privately despaired as she saw the new warship continue to climb. It was over twice the length of the Minerva, and Talia couldn't even begin to calculate its mass, yet it was already at a higher altitude than her ship could manage without external boosters. She was convinced by that fact alone that Sovereign was nuclear-powered, which could only mean that the Minerva was almost certainly outgunned. To make matters worse, new Mobile Dolls were flying from the warship at a rapid pace, and its sheer length and internal volume likely meant that it carried a lot of them.

Her doubts about the battle had been growing since the engagement's start, but only now was the grim realization setting in; ZAFT very well could lose here. In fact, they were likely to lose now.

And that loss could be catastrophic.

….

Clearing the catapult and racing skywards, Colonel Nazara grinned with sadistic delight as he beheld the massive battle taking place just up ahead. Oh, how long he had waited for this day to arrive, to finally avenge the defeats that LOGOS had suffered at the hands of ZAFT throughout this war, and to unveil to the world the iron fist that would hammer it into submission once and for all.

Having gained sufficient altitude, Nazara turned his machine around to briefly gaze upon one of the magnificent fruits of Project: Reaper. The planet-side half of the program, the DX-01A Sovereign was truly a marvel, floating in the air like a baleful god ready to unleash its divine retribution upon the world. Powered by two nuclear reactors, one main and one backup, each with two dedicated N-Jammer Cancellers for redundancy's sake, the airborne dreadnought could theoretically menace the skies for up to ten years before it would have to return to its dedicated cradle at Heaven's Base for the necessary reactor work. Of course, in practice, its deployment duration was dictated by the humans crewing the vessel, with the dreadnought carrying enough food, water, and other such necessities to sustain its personnel for up to two years before replenishment was required. Said crew had been handpicked by Colonel Nazara and a select advisory board, all fully dedicated to the sacred missions of Blue Cosmos and Phantom Pain.

Such a loyal crew, all the more valuable in these days of cowardly defection and desertion, deserved the utmost protection, and Project: Reaper spared no expenses in that regard. Not only did the airborne dreadnought possess armor plating that would be the envy of all warships that had come before, but Sovereign had a special layer of defense atop that; the vessel was equipped with no less than six positron reflectors. These were positioned to provide full coverage to the bow, stern, dorsal, ventral, port, and starboard sides. LOGOS had dumped considerable resources into Sovereign and her half-sister taking shape in a top-secret shipyard on Luna, and they were determined to safeguard their investment.

Of course, Sovereign was first and foremost an offensive asset, and no expense had been sparred when it came to her armaments. While the top part of the ship was cleared of obstructions to facilitate rapid Mobile Doll deployment via the four launch catapults, flanking the launch ways were rows upon rows of vertical launch systems for missiles. These were divided into sub-types. The two outermost rows, respectively along the port and starboard sides of the dorsal surface, had a combined total of two-hundred Helldart anti-air missile launchers subdivided into clusters of four launchers each. Meanwhile, the inner rows of launchers between the launch ways, totaling one-hundred and likewise divided into four-launcher clusters, were equipped with considerably larger Sledgehammer Mk. II missiles for long-range bombardment of warships and surface emplacements. Along the edges of the dorsal hull, past the Helldart launchers and just before the hull-shape dropped, were 75mm Igelstellung CIWs, with each flank having a row of thirty such weapons with overlapping fields of fire, for a total of sixty on the upper hull.

The upper-hull armaments alone would've made Sovereign a formidable conventional combatant, but Nazara knew that those were mere appetizers. The main course was found on the dreadnought's lower hull, and those were what had won the ship her classification. No less than twelve Gottfried Mk.71 225cm Dual High-Energy Beam Cannons were set in retractable turrets arranged in two rows of six, one starboard and one port. Two more turrets, mounted along the ventral surface centerline near the bow and stern respectively, held the vessel's most powerful armaments; twin barrel Aufprall Dreizehn High-Energy Beam Cannons, the same monstrously powerful guns as those found atop the Destroy's backpack. Each turret had two of the twin-barreled weapons, for a combined total of eight. Much less prominent were the scattered retractable 75mm Igelstellung CIWS, with the ventral surface containing forty of them.

While many considered the ship's pride to be in her incredible gun and missile arsenal, Nazara and others knew that the vessel's most potent striking arm came in the form of the sixty mobile units she carried. The Colonel's upgraded machine, now officially designated as GAT-X666D Nosferatu Dracul, was the only manned mobile suit among them, though it more than deserved its place. While it kept the beam rifle and saber, along with the smaller hip-mounted M18M-D6 Wireless Gunbarrel pods, it was the larger back-mounted pods which had undergone a significant transformation. Capable of supporting heavy weight thanks to its nuclear reactor, Nosferatu Dracul's back now had four large protrusions jutting out of it. Looking like two pairs of half-open seeds set one above the other in a pair of V shapes, the individual 'seeds' contained two of the machine's larger M16M-D4 Wireless Gunbarrel pods, for a new total of eight drones with two beam cannons apiece. To make the greater arsenal even more formidable, the entire network of drones, back and hip-mounted, were no longer directly controlled by Nazara; they were instead directed by a dedicated support AI set with a multitude of pre-programmed deployment patterns. This freed up the Colonel to focus solely on piloting and using the Nosferatu Dracul's rifle and saber, with him only needing to designate targets for the support AI to concentrate its efforts against.

Nazara could not wait to unleash Nosferatu Dracul's upgraded arsenal upon his enemies. However, he had not been among the first wave of launches from Sovereign. The Mobile Dolls that did make up that first wave were rapidly closing with ZAFT's formidable mobile suit spearhead, and the Colonel was just as eager to witness that contest as he was to get in on the action.

"Fly well, my ravens," he murmured with a twisted sneer as his sensors zeroed in on two Mobile Dolls in particular, "Gorge yourselves upon knowledge and flesh…"

"…Huginn and Muninn."

….

As his combined anti-ship swords claimed another unmanned Jet Windam, Heine could feel an increasing sense of desperation. He was no stranger to desperate battles, nor was this the first engagement that had swung so badly against him; the disastrous Operation: Angel Down was a recent and standout example. For all that operation's importance, though, it had ultimately been an engagement of limited forces; the operation's failure had been costly, but those costs had been contained to those units immediately involved in the battle. The Heaven's Base assault, however, was threatening to become a far greater calamity than Operation: Angel Down had turned out to be.

So much has gone wrong, he thought as he cut down another Mobile Doll while Manuel and Larissa covered him with particle beams from their Draupnir guns, between the orbital drop force getting shredded by that hidden weapon, Mobile Doll reinforcements, and now that huge ship that just launched and its Mobile Dolls… Chairman, what's happening here?

For all that Heine admired Chairman Durandal, he knew that the man wasn't perfect. His vision for humanity's future was sublime, but the journey towards fulfilling it had its share of missteps. Even so, in all the time that Heine had known the man, Chairman Durandal's plans had rarely gone this badly wrong. The intelligence failures in this operation had proven to be disastrous beyond even the worst case scenarios. Yes, a massive facility like Heaven's Base, with so much of its infrastructure being underground, could conceal surprises for an attacking force, but a ten-kilometer-wide anti-air superweapon and a secret shipyard capable of constructing and maintaining an entire dreadnought? Even if the weapon and ship themselves were hidden beneath the surface, the intelligence agencies should've been able to find hints of the large-scale construction taking place. Personnel and resource transfers, increased traffic from major resource refinery centers to the base; those were just a few of the hints that SIB and other such agencies should have been able to catch. Instead, ZAFT had walked head-first into what Heine was now certain to be a trap, and the FAITH operative could not help but wonder what else his superiors and their intelligence apparatus had missed.

The intelligence failures would have to be reckoned with later. Heine's top priority right now was simply survival for himself and his comrades. Yes, there was still the mission, but was taking Heaven's Base still viable after all that had happened? Even if ZAFT managed to secure their beachhead, and that was looking to be a big 'if,' there was simply no way the current invasion force could do anything beyond settle into a defensive posture and wait for reinforcements to arrive. Unless Heine and his comrades managed to take out the dish-like anti-air system that had decimated the orbital drop force, those reinforcements would have to come by sea, which meant the survivors of the initial invasion force would have to hold out against what would surely be a fierce counterattack.

At this point, Heine was almost hoping for a retreat order. While he wanted victory just as much as any other soldier of ZAFT, the ever-mounting costs of a win here would almost make it Pyrrhic. ZAFT had already dedicated a considerable portion of its available surface forces to this operation, and now even more would be required to accomplish the mission. Military commanders could fall victim to the sunk-costs fallacy just as well as anyone else, and Heine seriously feared that ZAFT was heading in that direction. Yet until a withdrawal order came in, he had to proceed with the intent of achieving the objectives laid out by the Chairman; as a member of FAITH, Heine could do nothing less.

"New contacts approaching!" Larissa called out as she blew apart a Jet Dagger-L with her Draupnir, "They're from the dreadnought, coming in fast!"

"No kidding," Manuel muttered as he blocked beam fire on his GOUF's shield, "Those things look nasty."

Focusing his optical sensors on the designated contacts, Heine was struck by an odd sense of familiarity. It took him a moment to realize where it came from; the two units approaching his team looked like enlarged versions of the Eurasian Federation's Wyvern prototype he'd seen go up against Heero at the Dardanelles engagement. Studying them intently, Heine could see that they followed the same minimalist design philosophy. Their black frames were sleek and streamlined, with slender arms and legs connecting to a slightly bulkier torso, while their heads each had a single glowing red optical sensor. Thin swept-back wings jutted out from just below their shoulders. Their increased mass despite being unmanned units was puzzling for Heine until he checked their energy signatures and bit back a curse; they were nuclear powered.

Despite having a much more formidable energy source than the batteries of the predecessors, though, the pair of machines appeared quite modestly armed. Heine saw ignited violet beam sabers in each unit's right hand, while the left held a powerful-looking but still relatively mundane beam rifle. His sensors picked up a pair of 75mm CIWS mounted in the machines' heads as well, but that was standard issue for Earth Alliance units. Gaining a bit of altitude, Heine then caught sight of something very strange; each unit had a pair of odd ovoid pod-like protrusions on their backs mounted just below the wings. What on Earth were they?

Start "ADFX-10"

Heine got his answer a moment later as the pods suddenly launched themselves clear of the mobile suits carrying them; they were drones. Propelled on a pair of powerful thrusters, they had twin beam cannons mounted in their noses. Once they were clear of their mobile suits, thin wings unfolded from the drones' sides and settled into an unusual forward-swept configuration. Sleek as the mobile suits they'd launched from, their central fuselage began in a pointed nose, swelled upwards until it peaked in a slight hump, and then fell back towards the thrusters. In addition to the wings, a pair of swept-back control fins also unfolded near the rear of the drones.

The drones immediately climbed high above their mobile suits and fanned overhead, while their host machines suddenly rocketed forward. Much to Heine's dismay, the two mobile suits and quartet of drones were all racing straight towards his formation.

"Brace yourselves," Heine said, readying his conjoined anti-ship swords, "I'll hold off the mobile suits; you two take down the drones ASAP. Once that's done, back me up."

"Copy that!" Manuel and Larissa acknowledged in unison.

Heine knew that he needed help beyond his wingmen, but a quick glance showed that his comrades had their own problems. Black Mobile Dolls similar to the ones he was about to engage, though apparently lacking the back-mounted drones of these two, were all advancing rapidly on the spearhead mobile suits. To make matters worse, Heine also spotted the purple nuclear-powered mobile suit that had been flagged way back at the Armory One attack among them, once again upgraded from its prior configuration. No help would be forthcoming to Heine and his comrades.

Shifting the conjoined anti-ship swords to the Impulse's right hand, Heine reached back with the mobile suit's left to grab a beam boomerang. As the two black machines opened up with their beam rifles, bracketing him with very narrow misses, Heine let fly with the beam boomerang. His hopes for that scoring a kill were slim; he just wanted to break up the Mobile Dolls' formation so he could engage one up close and try to take it out quickly. Unfortunately for him, whatever programming the Mobile Dolls were running on was one step ahead of Heine's plan. As the beam boomerang made its arc, the two machines fluidly evaded, with one going low and the other high. Their movements were the bare minimum required to avoid the projectile, and they shifted back into formation in the span of a second.

"Got some moves, huh?" Heine growled as he closed the distance, "Well, so do I!"

Gunning his thrusters at the last moment, he made a wide sweep with the double-ended weapon. To his satisfaction, one of the black machines was forced to block his attack head-on, but the other slipped to the left. Heine then whirled around, spinning his weapon in a broad arc. That briefly forced both machines back, but their evasion was immediately followed by counterattacks that Heine just barely managed to block.

He attempted to pull back, determined to get enough space to separate his swords to better contend with the two machines, but the programming driving them was relentless. Both Mobile Dolls pressed the assault, with one unit taking Heine head-on while the other circled and struck from the flanks, adding in beam rifle shots for good measure. It was all Heine could do to simply keep the two machines at bay. They were astonishingly quick, and their reactions to his moves were instantaneous. All of Heine's experience and his enhanced Coordinator reflexes were only managing to keep him alive, and they were hard pressed to compete with the lightning-fast computations of the machines assailing him.

Looks like the Earth Alliance finally found the perfect counter to us Coordinators, he thought ruefully, Lodonia's Extended human experiments were all for nothing; it's artificial intelligence that's matching us now. No, not matching… I hate to admit it, but these things are better than me.

At this point, Heine's only hope lay in his comrades. Manuel and Larissa's foes were just drones; fast ones to be sure, but hardly the same as what he currently faced. As soon as the two ZAFT Reds could take down their targets, Heine's situation would rapidly improve.

Then a panicked shout from Larissa rang out. "Manuel, above!"

Still locking blades with the Mobile Dolls, Heine dared risk only the briefest of glances at his comrades. He saw Manuel's GOUF spraying emerald bolts at one of the drones, but his target was fiendishly agile. It dived, climbed, spun, and turned liked a wasp, with all of Manuel's particle beams sailing harmlessly past. That wasn't the only drone Manuel had to worry about, though. As Larissa's warning indicated, another was overhead, diving in like a hawk. A pair of beams flew forth from its nose-mounted cannons…

…and punched clean through the GOUF's head and torso.

The instant Manuel's GOUF detonated, the second pair of drones made their move. Larissa swept her Draupnir across the sky, letting fly with a veritable wall of energy bolts, but the drones were just too fast for her to track. One zig-zagged in front of her, drawing Larissa's file while the other banked sharply and came in from her right. To her credit, Larissa clearly saw it; her GOUF was already reorienting so it could get both drones back in sight. Unfortunately for her, it was already too late. Both drones opened fire, and while her GOUF's shield blocked one pair of particle beams, it couldn't cover both angles, and the machine was blown apart by the second drone's salvo.

In the blink of an eye, Heine had lost his two teammates, and there was no time to mourn. Now he was the center of attention, and his opponents once again changed tactics. Only one Mobile Doll continued to engage him up close, while the other pulled back to circle around Heine along with the four drones. As his conjoined anti-ship sword clashed with one Mobile Doll's beam saber, the other Mobile Doll and the four drones filled the air around Heine with particle beam fire, creating net of green energy that was quickly drawing shut.

"Athrun? Rey?" Heine signaled as he evaded fire with increasing desperation, "I could use some help! Galm Team? Wufei? Anyone!?"

Heine pulled every move and trick he could think of to buy time. Rapid and random climbing and diving, banking, sweeping swings with the sword while letting fly with a beam boomerang to distract and maybe pick off a drone, bursts of CIWS fire attempting to shoot out the Mobile Dolls' main cameras or pick off the smaller craft; everything that he'd learned in this war and the last.

It wasn't enough. Like wolves cornering wounded prey, the soulless programming behind the Mobile Dolls was methodical and ruthless. Every move was met with an instant counter, with reactions so quick that no human, even a Coordinator, could hope to match them. The artificial intelligence behind Heine's foes was always one step ahead. Even retreat wasn't an option; when Heine attempted to break out and regroup with ZAFT's rank and file troops, hoping covering fire from them would save him, particle beams from the circling drones immediately cut off his escape route.

"This is Impulse, requesting immediate backup!" Heine called out as he crossed blades with the first Mobile Doll, "Any friendlies, I need covering fire now!"

He spun the anti-ship sword, and the first Mobile Doll momentarily backed off. It was no reprieve, though; particle beam fire from the drones forced Heine to move towards the foe he'd just tried to get some space from…

…and then the second Mobile Doll charged in from behind.

Heine frantically attempted to evade, first left, then right. Both times, the drones cut him off with pot shots. As the two Mobile Dolls closed in, Heine swung his blade in a wide arc, hoping his foes would break off their charges. They did no such thing; one went beneath the swing, the other above. Then, they were both on top of him, thrusting out their beam sabers in unison. Heine saw light, felt a brief but overwhelming rush of heat…

…and fire consumed him.

End "ADFX-10"

….

Athrun and the other members of ZAFT's spearhead had been painfully aware of Heine's distress calls, but as much as they might have wanted to help their comrade, disengaging from their own foes was simply not an option. In Athrun and Rey's case, they were locked in fierce combat with two machines that were quite similar to those that had felled Heine's team, though there were key distinctions. Like those that had slain Heine, Athrun and Rey's foes were sleek, black, nuclear-powered Mobile Dolls whose designs were clearly evolutions of the Eurasian Federation prototype that Heero had dueled previously in the war. They were minimalist units, with their reactors instead providing incredible power to the machines' thrusters and protection rather than armaments, making for phenomenally maneuverable designs more than capable of keeping pace with a machine like the Destiny or staying one step ahead of the sheer volume of fire that the Legend could put out. That wasn't to say their armaments were lacking; apart from their beam sabers, rifles, and head-mounted CIWS, each unit also possessed two small particle beam guns set in swivel-mounts on their shoulders. While not individually powerful, they had a high rate of fire and incredible tracking, as was exhibited by the fact that Athrun and Rey were having to rely on the Destiny and Legend's Solidus Fulgor beam shield generators at an alarming frequency to block shots from them.

I guess the Earth Alliance is finally moving past their brute force tendencies, Athrun thought as he deflected his foe's beam saber with the beam boomerang in the Destiny's right hand while firing off a quick volley from the rifle in the unit's left, and that's bad news for us. Destroys and those big mobile armors are actually easier to take out than units like these. For one thing, it's damn hard to hit these things!

The Arondight anti-ship sword would have given him greater reach than his foe, but that advantage was nullified by the enemy's agility and the larger weapon requiring broader swings that left gaps in Athrun's defenses. For Athrun's fighting style, the beam boomerang was much more suitable, easier to wield against an opponent as highly aggressive and agile as the black Mobile Doll. Likewise, while Destiny's M2000GX beam cannon was more powerful than all the weapons possessed by the Mobile Doll combined, it could not match the beam rifle's rate of fire, which was much more useful in a situation like this than raw firepower.

Going with the lighter, easier to wield weapons played into Athrun's key strength, which was the Destiny's incredible speed. The Voiture Lumiere 'Wings of Light' enabled acceleration and top speed that exceeded what the Mobile Dolls had demonstrated thus far, and Athrun was playing that advantage to the hilt. Destiny was a shooting star in his hands, despite the strain such speed was placing on his body. He didn't want to think about how long he'd need to rest once the fighting was over; the sheer force of acceleration felt like an industrial press crushing him into his seat. Nevertheless, that punishment was worth it, for it let Athrun gain just enough distance from his foe in short bursts to keep mutually supporting Rey whenever it looked like his comrade was about to be outmaneuvered by his respective foe.

However, while the black Mobile Doll couldn't match Destiny's speed, whatever programming was behind it made up for that fact by being seemingly capable of anticipating Athrun's course and reacting inhumanly quickly. Its ability to adjust aim and put particle beams in Athrun's path was uncanny; it felt like going up against Heero and the ZERO System. As a result, Athrun was only in stalemate with his opponent, and he knew that a prolonged battle would only serve to favor the tireless machine against him.

Athrun and Rey weren't the only ones struggling with their new foes. A quick glance showed that Wufei and Lunamaria were likewise engaged with a pair of the same Mobile Doll models that had the Destiny and Legend occupied. Actually, Wufei had it worse; he was taking on both of the black Mobile Dolls in close-quarters combat, using the wide reach of his double-ended beam trident and Dragon Fangs to keep the machines from getting past him and reaching the far more vulnerable Lunamaria. For her part, Lunamaria was engaging with extreme caution, taking extra care with her shots to avoid hitting Wufei by mistake. It was a delicate balancing act, but the duo was holding their own for the time being.

Matters weren't much better for the Athrun's mercenary comrades. While the contract fighters had finished off the Destroys, they'd only been able to do so right when the new dreadnought had taken flight and launched its units. Three of the same model Mobile Dolls as those being engaged by the rest of the surviving spearhead units were mixing it up with Galm Team, Jack and Frost Druid. That trio was accompanied by the only Mobile Suit to have launched from the dreadnought, one that Athrun immediately recognized as an upgraded version of the same nuclear-powered unit which had led the attack on Armory One. Now that unit was fielding ten supporting drones, eight large and two small, and its pilot was putting them to good use in raining fire upon the mercenaries while the three Mobile Dolls engaged in close-quarters combat. The Voiture Lumiere of Galahad Fencer was allowing Cipher to keep pace with the swift machines, but the others were having more difficulty. Playing to Morgan Sorceress's strengths, Pixy had pulled back and was filling the sky with fire from his railguns, beam pistol and missile launchers, but his foes were proving devilishly tricky to hit. Meanwhile, Jack had one of the Mobile Dolls locked in a lightning-fast duel, with the Raijin's focus on mobility proving vital in allowing the mercenary to keep pace with his agile unmanned foe. Frost Druid was a slight disadvantage in that she couldn't engage in melee combat, but the Spear's beam gatlings and canister gun pod were demonstrating their usefulness in keeping any of the Mobile Dolls from getting close enough to use their beam sabers on her.

Unfortunately for the rest of ZAFT's force, the vanguard units keeping most of the nuclear-powered Mobile Dolls at bay did not mean that the rank-and-file troops were free from danger. The two units which had so quickly dispatched Heine's formation were now tearing into the assorted BABIs, DINNs and what few defector Jet Windams were left on the field. It wasn't anywhere approaching a close contest. The two advanced Mobile Dolls and their deployed drones appeared to dance through the storm of fire being sent towards them by ZAFT, almost appearing to taunt their foes at times by dodging shots with the tightest possible margins of error. When the Mobile Dolls struck back, it was with terrifying precision and speed. The two black machines swooped through ZAFT's formations, rapidly cutting down their foes with beam sabers while picking off others with their rifles. Meanwhile, the four drones circled at higher altitude, periodically diving to pick off opponents before swiftly ascending and evading return fire. That they could do so with seeming impunity only served to emphasize just how much work the Earth Alliance had put into these two incredible machines and the programming behind them.

Athrun then belatedly realized that the Earth Alliance had yet another Mobile Doll variant in the mix. While the nuclear-powered units were justifiably the focus of attention, the Destiny's sensors were picking up additional Mobile Dolls that lacked the distinct energy signature of a nuclear reactor yet also weren't converted machines such as the Dagger-Ls and Windams that had been fielded earlier in the battle. While deflecting saber strikes from the enemy with his beam boomerang, Athrun risked a brief look at these previously unidentified machines. They were noticeably smaller than the unit he was fighting or those which had wiped out Heine's team, which made sense given that they were battery powered. Destiny's instruments detected no Phase Shift Armor in their composition; the black hull was just standard titanium alloy. The machines looked just as fragile as Athrun's sensors reported them to be, with spindly legs that honestly struck him as more bird-like than humanoid, and its arms were so slender that he was half-surprised they could support any weaponry at all. The entire frame, with its streamlined and gracefully curved torso and shoulders, angular aerodynamic head and scarlet eye, thin swept-back obsidian wings, and efficient lightweight limbs, looked to Athrun as though its designers had crossed a high-end European sports car with a bird of prey.

Compared to the frame that carried them, this Mobile Doll variant's weapons seemed almost quaint. Destiny's scanners picked up two standard Igelstellung 75mm set in the unit's head, while behind each shoulder was a four-cell missile launcher mounted on joints which folded upwards to allow the weapons clear arcs of fire over the unit before then folding back behind the unit to reduce drag. The unit's right hand held a particle beam pistol, while mounted on the machine's right wrist was a new variant of beam sword, its violet blade appearing roughly three-quarters the length of standard issue weapons. A casual observer would question the loss in reach, but Athrun immediately understood the tradeoff in that such a weapon was considerably easier to wield for a machine whose focus appeared to be on high agility and precision combat. Like its nuclear-powered cousins, Athrun couldn't help but be struck by the surprising elegance in the design of the new battery-powered units. The Atlantic Federation had taken the philosophy behind the Eurasian Federation's Wyvern model and put their own spin on it, resulting in a far-more cost effective and efficient unit than the brute force philosophy behind gargantuan machines such as the Destroys or the various heavy Mobile Armors that they'd fielded throughout the war.

That new design philosophy was already paying dividends. Athrun's brief glance had shown him that at least dozens of these lighter Mobile Dolls had launched from the dreadnought, and they'd rapidly closed in to do battle with ZAFT's main force. While the converted Jet Dagger-Ls and Jet Windams were engaging the DINNs and BABIs head on, the new Mobile Dolls came in from on high and the flanks before plunging into the fray like falcons going for the kill. They led their charges with eight-missile salvos each, using the ordinance more to break up formations or distract their targets rather than going for outright destruction. The Mobile Dolls would then follow up with rapid and tightly-grouped volleys of particle beam fire, picking off targets with clinical precision. Any units which survived the volleys then found themselves confronted by the rapidly approaching Mobile Dolls, wrist sabers ignited and thrusting forward to impale their victims.

As much as Athrun wanted to help out ZAFT's grunts, he had his hands full. The foe he was dueling with was certainly not about to let him disengage, and was pressing hard. Its saber thrusts had the accuracy and grace of a fencer, with Athrun's experience in countless close-quarters engagements combined with Destiny's high-spec performance being the only things keeping him in the fight. It had been some time since he'd last found himself against an enemy of this caliber.

You can take this thing, he told himself as he deflected a slash and countered with quick stab that his opponent only narrowly evaded, and you're one of few here who can. No pressure.

As if summoned by his very thoughts, more pressure immediately arrived in the form of new orders relayed by Meyrin. "Spearhead team, engage the dreadnought!"

Athrun's eyes widened in disbelief as he blocked a strike from his opponent. "Meyrin, you've got to be kidding! We're kind of tied up here!"

"I know," Meyrin replied, her tone at least sympathetic, "and so does the Captain, but those are orders from up top. If that dreadnought gets the chance to engage the fleet, the whole operation's finished!"

Athrun was tempted to point out that the operation had already gone sideways, but he resisted that urge. "We'll do what we can."

"Be careful," Meyrin said, "Minerva, out."

There was nothing else for it now. The rest of the team would've gotten the same transmission; there was no need or time for Athrun to confer with them. If he wanted to tackle the dreadnought, he'd have to take down the foe in front of him first, and Athrun knew now that there was only one way he could do it.

His focus, already honed to a razor's sharpness, zeroed in on the target and nothing else. Adrenaline, already coursing through his veins, began to concentrate in a single focal point. A second later, he saw it in his mind's eye.

The spinning seed touching a calm surface, followed by an explosion of brilliant light.

Athrun immediately pulled back. It wasn't a retreat; he just needed to buy himself a bit of space. Putting the beam rifle away, Athrun swiftly drew the Destiny's second beam boomerang. Using both weapons as twin sabers, he then charged right back in. Dodging fire from his opponent's rifle and shoulder cannons, Athrun led with a slash from his left blade. The Mobile Doll blocked it, but Athrun had been counting on that. He then lashed out with the second beam boomerang. The Mobile Doll reacted instantly, pulling back, but not quick enough; the blazing violet energy blade sliced through both its beam rifle and the cannon mounted on its left shoulder.

As if the Mobile Doll could sense that something within its foe had changed, it shifted into a more defensive posture, angling to present a side profile and reduce how much space its beam saber needed to cover. This suited Athrun just fine. He let fly with the beam boomerang in his left hand, with the Mobile Doll swiftly evading to the right while keeping its saber raised to meet Athrun's subsequent charge. The right beam boomerang was still in his Gundam's hand being used as a blade, and it locked with the Mobile Doll's saber. Athrun then thrust out the Destiny's empty left hand, and a blast of blue energy fired from the palm-mounted Palma Fiocina cannon. That blast caught the Mobile Doll right in the face, utterly trashing its primary optical sensor. The Mobile Doll pulled back yet again…

…straight into the return path of the beam boomerang Athrun had thrown earlier.

The blade sliced clean through the Mobile Doll's torso, and the unit exploded as Athrun caught the returning weapon. He paid no attention to the detonation, not even acknowledging his victory. Instead, he put the left beam boomerang away and accelerated while swinging the Destiny's powerful long-range beam cannon forward. He didn't know if it would be enough to neutralize the dreadnought, but Athrun would be damned if he didn't take his best shot at it.

….

"You sure about this, buddy?" Pixy asked as he fired off a volley from his beam pistol, only for his target to effortlessly dodge every shot.

"You have the heavy firepower," Cipher replied, "I'll get you your opening; head for the dreadnought once you see it. That's an order, got it?"

Pixy nodded. "Roger that, buddy."

Galm Two pulled back, continuing to lay down fire with his beam pistol to keep the purple mobile suit and gun drones engaging him at bay. Meanwhile, he saw Cipher once again lock sabers with one of the nuclear-powered Mobile Dolls, only this time he managed to ensnare his foe with Galahad Fencer's Demon Lash, tying the Heat Rod around the unit's left arm and shoulder. The Mobile Doll tried to break free, but that moment of struggle was all Cipher needed to line up a shot with his machine's shoulder-mounted plasma cannons, and he blew his opponent apart with a point-blank range salvo.

Pixy whistled as explosion faded. "Nice."

"Get going," Cipher said as his machine raced towards Pixy's opponent, firing off another blast from its plasma cannons and forcing the mobile suit to evade.

Pixy wasted no time, gunning his engines and leaving his flight lead behind. Looking around, he caught sight of Athrun and moved to form up with him.

"Guess we're it," Galm Two remarked.

"We are," Athrun confirmed grimly.

It was hardly ideal, but it couldn't be helped. Galm One, Jack and Frost Druid were still stuck engaging Mobile Dolls and the purple gun-drone mobile suit, while Wufei and Lunamaria likewise had their hands full with unmanned foes. None of ZAFT's rank and file troops would be able to help; they were all currently fighting for their lives.

Focusing on the dreadnought, Pixy bit back a curse when he saw the airborne warship's escort screen. "I've got fifteen… no, make that at least twenty Mobile Dolls on combat air patrol around the target. Three nuclear-powered, the rest battery."

"How many missiles do you have left?" Athrun asked.

Pixy glanced at his ammo counter. "20. Not enough with how fast these guys are."

"It'll do," Athrun replied, "Mass fire them; it'll break up the screen a bit. I'll follow the barrage and cause as much havoc as possible."

Pixy quickly realized where Athrun was going with this. "Giving me an opening for my big gun. That works."

"Aim well," Athrun ordered, "They won't make this easy for us."

Pixy smirked as he gained altitude and began locking onto targets. "No kidding."

"Hold on," Athrun then said, "I'm picking up a massive heat signature coming from the ship… move!"

Pixy didn't need to be told twice. He raced for altitude as the flying leviathan suddenly unleashed a hailstorm of anti-air missiles. Making sure his shield was activated, he darted through the air like a mosquito dodging swatting hands, firing his CIWS, railguns and pistol to thin out the barrage. There was a brilliant flash of red as Destiny opened fire with its heaviest weapon, followed by a string of detonations as several missiles were caught in the blast. Despite the best efforts of both pilots and their incredible machines, the two of them found themselves rocked and buffeted about by dozens of close detonations and impacts. Pixy had it easier; his shield took most of the hits, with only a few warheads impacting the front of Morgan Sorceress. While his Phase Shift Armor prevented meaningful damage, Pixy knew that wasn't the real threat. The escorting Mobile Dolls were already moving in for follow-up.

"Time to cut loose," Pixy muttered, "Here goes nothing."

Holding down both triggers, he let fly with strings of missiles from both launchers, completely emptying his remaining stockpile. As his barrage flew forth, Pixy saw Athrun fire off another blast with the Destiny's heavy cannon, further breaking up the approaching Mobile Doll formation. Much to Pixy's disappointment, only two of the battery-powered machines went down to his missiles, and Athrun's shot didn't score any kills. Most of the warheads were either picked off by incredibly precise particle beam fire from the Mobile Dolls' pistols or bursts of 75mm CIWS rounds. Still, the unmanned units were much more spread out now than before, and Athrun was already swooping in to play the part of lethal diversion.

"He's not bad," Galm Two remarked to himself as he watched the Destiny weave through the enemy squadrons, deflecting saber strikes and dodging incoming fire, "Glad my shot two years ago didn't kill him."

It was simple to sight in on a target as big as the airborne warship, especially since Pixy was now taking up position directly overhead. He had the largest possible target profile before him, and Galm Two wasted no time in pulling the trigger. A river of orange-red energy flowed forth from Morgan Sorceress's deadliest weapon, with Pixy eagerly anticipating the ensuing explosion…

…only for his shot to splash and dissipate against a shimmering barrier of translucent violet light.

Pixy's head snapped back in utter astonishment. "You have got to be kidding me!"

Zigzagging through a swarm of Mobile Dolls, Athrun sounded no less dumbfounded. "That thing has a positron reflector!?"

"Maybe it has limited coverage," Pixy said, gunning his engines as he raced to change firing positions, "I'll try hitting it from behind! Can you keep the Mobile Dolls off me?"

"No promises!" Athrun hissed through gritted teeth, and Pixy saw him fending off beam saber slashes from two of the nuclear-powered units.

Lock on alarms suddenly blared, and Pixy's sensors picked up a fresh heat surge from the warship. "Crap! Watch out for missiles!"

Sure enough, swarms of warheads flew from the dark leviathan's upper hull. This time, though, they weren't just the anti-air missiles from before. As Pixy frantically evaded and shot down as many warheads as he could, he spotted larger missiles also launching from the warship, and those weren't heading towards Galm Two or Athrun. His sensors immediately identified the larger missiles as ship-to-surface ordinance, and it didn't take a genius to realize what they were aimed at.

He shook his head; the incoming missiles were the fleet's problem. Pixy's was the warship. The sooner he took down the target, the sooner the threat to the fleet would be eliminated. Weaving through anti-air fire from the warship and particle beams from the Mobile Dolls, he took up position behind the flying leviathan and swiftly lined up the shot. Pulling the trigger, Pixy watched as the energy blast raced towards the target…

…only to once again be stopped by a positron reflector.

"Well," Pixy murmured as he frantically evaded volleys from the Mobile Dolls that had pursued him, "I think we're in trouble."

….

There was nothing Talia could do but watch as the dreadnought's massed missile barrage rained down on the fleet. She had already given her orders, and her crew was carrying them out to the best of their abilities. The ship's CIWS were unloading everything they had, while Kriyya and Alvise were augmenting the streams of bullets with particle beams from their Draupnirs. Around the Minerva, the surviving warships and what mobile suits had been kept back for defense likewise threw whatever firepower they had into the sky; the air was saturated with bullets, beams, and missiles. The sky became almost blindingly bright as scores of warheads were prematurely detonated by the ferocious counterfire.

Unfortunate, it was not enough. The remaining missiles, easily more than half of the dreadnought's salvo, hammered the combined fleet. Minerva herself shuddered under multiple impacts, but while the mighty battleship still had more than sufficient armor to endure the hits, the warships surrounding her did not have such protection. Her eyes glued to the tactical display, Talia looked on in somber silence as friendly contacts blinked out of existence.

"What's our damage?" she asked when the last detonation faded, as much to distract herself from the allied fatalities as out of necessity.

"Three more of the CIWs are out of commission," the damage control officer answered a moment later, "but that's the worst of it."

"Until the next volley," Arthur murmured, his face pale as he stared in dismay at the tactical display, "Dear lord…"

"Captain, an update from our vanguard!" Meyrin called out, "Athrun and Pixy managed to get close enough for an attack, but they've done no damage to the dreadnought; it's protected by positron reflectors!"

Talia blinked; she couldn't have heard that right. "Excuse me?"

"The dreadnought's shielded, Captain," Meyrin reiterated, "Positron reflectors, just like on the Destroys and those new mobile armors. Galm Two hit it with the heaviest weapon available, and the vessel shrugged it off without a scratch. Destiny also reports taking a shot with its heavy cannon and meeting the same result."

"Then nothing we have can take that thing down," Arthur stated, his eyes widening as the true scale of their new threat sank in, "Captain… what do we do?"

Talia didn't immediately answer. Her gaze had returned to the tactical display, her eyes narrowing as she studied the updated casualty figures. They weren't pretty; the aerial dreadnought's missile barrage had done a number on the combined fleet. The Atlantic Federation defectors had lost ten destroyers alone in that bombardment, along one cruiser and one of the Spengler-class carriers, while their surviving warships were all sporting moderate to severe damage. Matters were even worse for ZAFT, with no less than twelve destroyers and four cruisers going to the bottom. Several other ZAFT warships had suffered hits in that salvo, and given the airborne hostile's sheer size Talia was willing to bet that it had plenty of ammunition to burn through.

If the fleet had it rough, the mobile suits fighting inland were getting it even worse. The Atlantic Federation's Mobile Dolls, whether they be converted older units or purpose-built unmanned machines, were ruthlessly grinding ZAFT's forces down. The defectors were down to just a handful of Jet Windams now, though those surviving pilots were putting up one hell of a fight against the forces of their former homeland. The BABIs and DINNs fighting alongside them were hardly in a better state. ZAFT's pilots were experienced and well-trained, but no prior battles or exercises had prepared them for fighting machines that could react faster than any human, Coordinator or Natural. While the converted units were at least proving to be manageable, the purpose-built Mobile Dolls were utterly ravaging the BABIs and DINNs. The pilots of the combined force were scoring the occasional kills against them, but the fallen units were universally battery-powered; neither Coordinator nor Earth Alliance defector could so much as touch any of the nuclear-powered machines.

"Second missile volley from the dreadnought confirmed!" the sensor operator called out, "Missile trajectory plotting now… Captain, their aimed at the drop force!"

Talia could only look on helplessly as a rain of ordinance fell upon the battered drop force survivors. Several of the warheads were blown apart mid-air, either by the drop force members themselves or their airborne comrades, but the anti-air fire they could throw up was nowhere near as potent as that of the fleet. A far larger percentage of the missiles made it through this time, and a host of friendly contacts vanished from the tactical display. By the time the last missile detonated, the drop force survivors had been all but annihilated.

That's it, Talia thought as her shoulders sagged and she sank into her chair, this battle's truly lost. Our casualties, the enemy's new weapons… there's no way we can take Heaven's Base in this state. We're getting slaughtered on the front porch…

It came as blessed relief to Talia when Meyrin's voice rang out and gave the news that she was silently praying for. "Transmission from the flagship, Captain; all forces are ordered to withdraw!"

Talia had to work at keeping her composure; it wouldn't do for the crew to see just how eager she truly was to follow this order. "Helm, proceed carefully; it won't help anyone if we collide with our comrades. Whatever anti-air firepower we still possess, use it to cover the ships closest to us. We can still tank hits if needed; plenty of our allies can't. Recall all our mobile suits."

"Withdrawal will be tricky for the vanguard team, Captain," Meyrin pointed out, "They're keeping the enemy's advanced Mobile Dolls off everyone else."

"I know," Talia conceded, "but they have to make it back here. Our losses are heavy enough already."

There was a pang in her heart when she studied the tactical display again. Talia could see just a handful of survivors from the orbital drop force, ZAKUs; they weren't capable of atmospheric flight, which meant retreat was impossible for them. It quickly became a moot point as the port city's defenders, emboldened by the airborne dreadnought and Mobile Doll counterattack, began redoubling their fire against the scattered drop force remnants. Between shells, rockets and missiles from forces dug into the urban landscape and air attacks from the Mobile Dolls, the last drop force survivors were completely annihilated.

"Updated withdrawal instructions, Captain!" Meyrin called out, "The surface fleet's to form up and screen the troop transports until we've broken off contact with the enemy."

Talia bit back a curse; she'd completely forgotten that the transports and their escorts had been ordered to move up earlier for the landing operation. There was no way they'd survive a mass missile volley from the dreadnought, which meant the Minerva and her battered compatriots in the assault fleet would have to augment their anti-air defenses. Screening for such vessels would force Talia's ship to significantly reduce speed.

If that dreadnought and its Mobile Dolls advance, Talia thought with mounting dread, they could easily run us down. We can't afford to lose all those troops and supplies on the transports, but tying down us to protect them makes us perfect targets. Damned if we do, damned if we don't…

As the Minerva and the rest of her battered compatriots began pulling back, Talia could only hope that the enemy would be satisfied at having driven them off. ZAFT's casualties today had already been disastrous. So many soldiers, vessels, and mobile suits lost, and that was just the beginning. PLANT leadership would be humiliated and pilloried; even the typically favorable and pliant press Durandal had cultivated throughout his term wouldn't be able to spin this as anything other than a catastrophe. The Earth Alliance, previously thought to be on its last legs, still had cards to play. Perhaps most ominously, the very nature of war itself in the Cosmic Era had been upended. Ever since the First Bloody Valentine War, the mobile suit had reigned supreme on the battlefield. Now there was a new challenger to that supremacy…

…one that lacked humanity in the most literal sense of the word.

Talia couldn't begin to imagine what horrors would follow.

….

For ZAFT, the battle had become a living nightmare.

For Colonel Nazara, it was a dream come true.

All the grand promises of Projects Reaper and Iron Legion, for so long little more than a string of tests, reports, and revisions, had finally been borne out. To see the planet-side half of the dreadnought pair at long last loom over a battlefield as she was destined to, her pathway across Iceland heralded by the Mobile Dolls she'd unleashed, was nothing less than supreme catharsis. Nazara was so overjoyed that he even vowed to himself that he'd personally thank Rear Admira Dorana Xen once the battle was over, and even go so far as to ensure her funding was significantly increased. For all that woman's infuriating sense of self-importance, the masked Colonel would happily set aside his disdain for her considering the spectacular results her work had achieved today.

Credit where it is due, Rear Admiral, Nazara thought as he fired volley after volley at Galm One with Nosferatu Dracul's drones, your toys are everything you claimed they would be and more.

Of course, their performance had not been perfect. While the pair of ILX-01s, these being the nuclear-powered Mobile Dolls codenamed Huginn and Muninn possessing dedicated support drones, had swiftly wiped out the Impulse's formation and were even now continuing to butcher any ZAFT soldier that fell withing their sights, the lesser brethren of those units unfortunately could not match their superiors' so-far perfect record. Two of the ILX-02 Guntrams, nuclear-powered machines that did not possess the support drones of Huginn and Muninn, had been lost already, though Nazara could take consolation in the fact that they'd only gone down when fighting against ZAFT's most advanced mobile suits on the field. More losses had been suffered amongst the battery-powered ILX-03 Krähes, though that was to be expected given the design's emphasis on agility over protection. Even then, their losses were minimal compared to the casualties that they were inflicting upon ZAFT in return.

One might expect a cruel man such as the Colonel to give such losses no consideration; after all, they were unmanned units. For Mobile Dolls that used converted mobile suits, that might be true, but Nazara's sentiments were another matter entirely when it came to the purpose-built machines. They were the future of the Earth Alliance's war machine, a crucial piece to play against not only the Coordinator menace, but all who dared challenge LOGOS for supremacy. In fact, Nazara privately cared more about the new model Mobile Dolls than he did about any of the flesh-and-blood Atlantic Federation soldiers who had been slain in the battle.

War's purpose is to rid the world of dead weight, Nazara thought with a twisted smirk as his beam saber met that of Galm One, and that is what all those fallen cannon fodder were. They should be honored to meet their ends here, for their sacrifice has made today's victory possible. Humanity needs no longer fight the Coordinators ourselves; we now have the tools required to exterminate them like the pests they are!

Those tools were now driving his hated foes back into the sea. Even ZAFT's formidable vanguard mobile suits had shifted towards a fighting retreat, albeit a very hard fought one. Nazara was currently at a standstill against Galm One, while the two Guntrams supporting him remained locked in a fierce dogfight with the other two mercenaries. The Colonel had to give the latter pair of contract fighters the credit they were due; their machines were battery-powered, yet they were keeping pace with the nuclear-powered Guntrams. It was a pity that both pilots were Coordinators, for Nazara would very much have preferred having them in his employ as opposed to ZAFT's.

Confident that the Guntrams would either overwhelm the other mercenaries in time or force them to flee the field, Nazara redoubled his offensive against Galm One. All ten of his wireless gun drones, large and small, filled the sky with particle beams, yet none of them could touch Cipher. His new machine was insanely quicky, flitting through the emerald web of energy as a streak of scarlet light. Nazara tried to lock him in place with his beam saber while the support AI positioned his drones for flanking shots, but Galm One always seemed one step ahead of him, constantly disengaging at the last possible second. While Cipher was known to favor saber combat, he was proving equally adept at using his new machine's Heat Rod to keep Nazara at bay while firing off periodic salvos from his plasma cannons to force the Colonel onto the defensive.

"Your new toy's impressive," the masked officer sneered over an open channel, "and it's the only thing keeping you alive, mongrel."

"Same goes for you," Cipher retorted, sounding almost bored, "All your drones make dealing with you annoying. Should've known this would be how you'd compensate after last time."

As if to emphasize his point, Cipher suddenly lashed out with his Heat Rod while simultaneously firing off a salvo from his plasma cannons. Belatedly, Nazara realized that the shots and whip were not meant for him when he saw two of his larger gun drones turn into fireballs.

Nazara's sneer became a snarl as he charged forward, opening up with his remaining gun drones and beam rifle as Cipher's mobile suit danced through the barrage. When he closed to saber range, the mercenary deflected and parried his strikes with what felt like contemptuous ease. Galm One then made another wide swing with his Heat Rod, this time ripping Nazara's rifle to superheated pieces.

"Impressive," Nazara begrudgingly growled as he tried to encircle his opponent with Nosferatu Dracul's remaining gun drones, only for the mercenary to rapidly ascend above them, "You continue living up to your reputation. However, not even a merc of your renown can turn the tide of this battle!"

"Agreed," Cipher replied.

The mercenary's matter-of-fact answer took Nazara aback, though the subsequent plasma salvo and Heat Rod sweep were far deadlier than Cipher's frankness. Nosferatu Dracul avoided direct damage, but both of the mobile suit's smaller gun drones were destroyed. As Nazara regrouped his remaining six gun drones, Galm One began to pull back, with the two lesser mercenaries supporting him doing the same.

"Oh no, you don't!" Nazara snarled, gunning his engines to run down the enemy, "You don't get to walk away from this battlefield!"

Before he could reengage, new lock-on alarms blared in his cockpit. Nazara immediately banked to the right, barely escaping a blast of scarlet energy that flew through the airspace he'd just occupied. While the shot failed to hit him, it did destroy another of his gun drones, causing the support AI to swiftly reorganize the remaining five. Another energy blast, this one reddish-orange, ripped forth a moment later, scoring no hits but forcing Nosferatu Dracul, the gun drones and the two Guntrams to scatter. Gaining altitude, it didn't take Nazara long to get eyes on the source of those shots; it was the two mobile suits who had dared to attack Sovereign, both beating a retreat.

His cockpit speakers crackled, and the deep voice of the dreadnought's commanding officer came through. "Colonel, the enemy is withdrawing in earnest. We are prepared to pursue at your order."

Nazara thought for a moment before recalling the larger considerations at play. "Have Heaven's Base launch the reserves; they can run the Coordinators down. Sovereign must preserve her Mobile Dolls and munitions for the next phase."

"Then Operation: Scourge commences now?" his subordinate asked.

A malicious grin appeared below the Colonel's mask. "It does. Recall Sovereign's Mobile Dolls, and I will join them. Europe believes they've already thrown back the worst we can unleash upon them. The time has come to show them just how wrong they are…"

"… and just how steep a price they must pay for their defiance!"

….

Breathing hard and drenched with sweat, Wufei still refused to back down as the two Mobile Dolls pressed their assault. His double-ended beam trident had become a veritable shield in his hands, spinning and sweeping around him as he fended off saber strikes while counterattacking with Nataku's Dragon Fangs. Neither of his inhuman opponents were intimidated by the stalwart defense; they were not programmed with that emotion in mind. Instead, they simply continued changing up their approach vectors and saber attack angles, relentlessly probing his defenses and waiting for a crack to appear.

Feels like I'm fighting Romefeller and White Fang all over again, he thought grimly, actually, this might be worse. The Virgo units fought like heavy infantry; dangerous and powerful, but conventional and predictable. These things… they're another beast entirely.

Matters would've been worse were it not for Lunamaria still backing him up. While she'd occasionally been forced to divert her attention and deal with interlopers, for the most part her efforts had been concentrated solely on providing supporting fire and buying Wufei precious moments to catch his breath. Of course, the Mobile Dolls didn't take that lying down; they would always attempt getting around Wufei to eliminate Lunamaria, and the Gundam pilot would always thwart that effort. As a result, the clash remained at a standstill, but Wufei knew that meant the enemy had the advantage. After all, they would not tire, while he certainly would and was.

A blast from the GOUF Bombardier's rifle momentarily caused both Mobile Dolls to scatter, and Wufei seized the opportunity. He unleashed streams of fire with his Dragon Fangs, aiming to obscure their visual sensors. Wufei then rushed forward, thrusting his beam trident out, hoping to impale one of the Mobile Dolls through the torso. However, his opponent's programming was too sharp; it already had its beam saber in a guard position, anticipating just such a move. Sparks flew as the energy blades clashed before Wufei was forced to pull back.

"Damn it," he muttered under his breath as he was forced to fend off another round of saber strikes, "Thought that would do the trick…"

When he sensed an opening, he let fly with one of his Dragon Fangs. He was only aiming to discourage one of the Mobile Dolls, but to Wufei's surprise both units actually pulled back. Wufei feared they would then go after Lunamaria and quickly repositioned himself for the intercept, yet the unmanned units instead turned around and began withdrawing towards the ship they had launched from.

Wufei blinked in confusion. "What the hell?"

Lunamaria's voice came over his cockpit speakers, sounding just as puzzled as Wufei was. "Wait… they're retreating?"

Wufei didn't like it. "Stay with me."

He put Nataku into a climb that was angled back towards ZAFT's combined fleet. As Lunamaria mirrored his flight path, Wufei took a moment to survey the battlefield. It wasn't just the two nuclear-powered Mobile Dolls he and Lunamaria had been engaging that were pulling back; every Mobile Doll which had launched from the airborne leviathan was now withdrawing to their mothership. The aerial warship itself fired off another volley of missiles at ZAFT's fleet, but the vessel itself was no longer advancing towards them. Instead, its course had altered, with Nataku's sensors plotting the ship's trajectory as heading southeast. While its flight path would keep the vessel in range to continue lobbing missiles at ZAFT's fleet for some time, the ship's speed was noticeably picking up, meaning the vessel would eventually pass beyond optimal launch range.

"What the hell are they doing?" asked Lunamaria, "They're winning, so why are they leaving?"

A whole host of new hostile contacts began appearing on his display, all emerging from the underground base, and Wufei realized what was happening. "The new warship's leaving, but the Earth Alliance isn't retreating. They're deploying reserves to attack the fleet as it withdraws!"

Those reserves were substantial, too. Surging forth from previously concealed entrances were dozens of the formidable Euclid mobile armors, along with scores of escorting Jet Windams. Changing his settings, Wufei did a heat signature scan, and it confirmed that these reinforcements were Mobile Doll conversions.

"We're heading back to the fleet," Wufei ordered, "They'll be counting on any mobile suits left to screen their withdrawal. We need to hold the enemy's reserves off until the fleets out of their operational range!"

"Copy that," Lunamaria acknowledged, "I'm right behind you!"

The fleet would be kept in range longer if the air dreadnought was taking a different course, Wufei thought as he and Lunamaria moved to link up with the rest of the vanguard team's survivors and fight their way back towards the Minerva, which means that the Earth Alliance has another objective in mind for it and their most advanced Mobile Dolls. That can't be good.

Whatever objective the Earth Alliance's new leviathan was after, Wufei did not have time to concern himself with it now. Taking point with Athrun, Cipher, and Jack while the ranged mobile suits backed them up, the surviving vanguard members plowed into the chaotic furball still raging over Iceland. Even with their deadliest Mobile Dolls now withdrawing to their mothership, the Earth Alliance still had plenty of units on the field to pursue ZAFT's retreating mobile suits. Despite the ZAFT and few surviving Earth Alliance defector pilots' best efforts at effecting an organized withdrawal, their pullback was perhaps just barely better than an outright route. The BABIs were being employed as a rearguard, taking advantage of their heavier firepower to lay down covering salvos while the lighter DINNs and defector Jet Windams raced towards the fleet. However, the BABIs in turn were being mercilessly hammered by the enemy's greater numbers, with hostiles practically engulfing them from the front, flanks, and above. It was yet another unfolding disaster in a day full of them, but at least this was one that Wufei and his comrades could mitigate.

Nataku slammed into an attacking Jet Windam formation from behind, Wufei's spinning double-ended beam trident cutting down two machines before they even knew what had hit them. A blast from Lunamaria obliterated a third, while the fourth's attempts at evasion only took it right into the path of Wufei's Dragon Fang. As that unit was reduced to crumpled scrap metal, Wufei saw Athrun draw Destiny's long Arondight sword and claim two kills with a broad swing, while a hail of emerald beams from Rey blew apart three units as they attempted to encircle his comrade. Cipher's beam saber and Heat Rod claimed victims left and right, while supporting fire from Pixy's beam pistol and railguns secured Galm One's flanks. Meanwhile, the twin blades of Jack's Raijin ripped through a pair of Jet Dagger-Ls like they were made of tissue paper, with additional targets getting picked off by precise railgun fire courtesy of Frost Druid. With the best pilot's in ZAFT's assault force tearing into them from the rear, the Earth Alliance units were forced to scatter and regroup, which gave some much-needed breathing room to the retreating Coordinators.

"Get back to the fleet ASAP!" Athrun shouted over the general tactical channel, "Those mobile armors will be on them any minute!"

Indeed, the Euclids had already cleared Iceland's surface and were racing over the water, bearing down on ZAFT's fleet like sharks closing in on wounded prey. Overhead, their escorting Mobile Dolls were fanned out, rifles and missiles acquiring targets. Some of the assault force's DINNs had already caught up with them, but their brave pilots' efforts only resulted in a few of the unmanned escorts peeling off to intercept. Missiles and cannon rounds flew from ZAFT's battered warships, but the Euclids already had their positron reflectors up and running, and the initial barrage was shrugged off with no noticeable effect.

Wufei was determined to rectify that. Plowing through the chaotic aerial battle, he pushed Nataku as hard as he could without leaving Lunamaria's slower GOUF Bombardier in the dust. Not too long ago, Wufei would have acted with much less restraint, but he was finally starting to learn a thing or two about why Heero had really stayed in the Cosmic Era. Of course, he would never admit as much to Heero himself.

As the vanguard team rushed to aid the fleet, with the battered survivors of ZAFT's assault force following in their wake, the Euclids had reached firing range and were wasting no time in sending particle beam salvos downrange. Their shots must have been near maximum range, for a surprising percentage of the emerald beams hit the sea instead of warships, sending plumes of instantly vaporized water skyward. Unfortunately, a fair number of the shots did strike targets, punching new holes in already-damaged warships, and for some of them these newest wounds turned out to be fatal. Wufei knew it was just a matter of time before the Euclids reached an optimal firing range, and their next shots would be much more accurate.

That was when Lunamaria said exactly what he needed to hear. "Wufei, get over there! I'll catch up. The fleet needs you now!"

Wufei briefly checked his display, and it was only when he saw that several DINNs were just behind Lunamaria's machine that he acknowledged her. "Copy that. Don't take too long."

"Just make sure to leave one or two for me!" she called out.

It was false bravado, but Wufei smirked at it just the same. "No promises."

Pushing Nataku's thrusters to their limits, Wufei rocketed forward. It wasn't just him; the rest of the vanguard's nuclear-powered machines were surging ahead, their pilots no doubt reassured that the battery-powered units in their formation now had sufficient allied support if enemy reinforcements caught up to them. Eyeing his potential targets, Wufei quickly settled on the Euclid that was at the end of the formation's left flank; he'd start there and begin rolling them up.

The enemy was not blind to his approach. As Nataku rapidly approached, a trio of Jet Windams broke off for interception, beam rifles blazing. Weaving through their volleys, Wufei let fly with both of his Dragon Fangs the moment he was in range, crushing two of the machines and sending their remains plummeting towards the waves. The third Jet Windam ignited its beams saber and managed to catch Wufei's initial beam trident thrust, but he simply spun the weapon around, knocking aside the Mobile Doll's blade before thrusting with the other end of his polearm and spearing the machine through the torso.

Then the Euclid was before him, and Wufei moved in to strike it down. His approach had set him up perfectly, right behind the heavy mobile armor. The machine began turning to bring its guns to bear on him, but it was child's play for Wufei to keep at its rear; a mobile armor could not hope to outmaneuver a Gundam. He then made a downward swing with his polearm, cutting clean through the Euclid's left joint section, severing its thrusters, and destroying the left beam cannon in the bargain. The mobile armor immediately keeled over, and Wufei followed-up with a thrust at the unit's core, piercing its power supply as the Euclid hit the waves and turning the machine into a briefly-lived fireball before the ocean consumed it.

While Wufei had gone for the left flank, Cipher and Pixy had taken the right, and they were tearing into it. With Galm Two laying down covering fire to keep the escorting Jet Windams off his flight lead, Galm One had free reign to do what he did best. Against a machine as agile as Galahad Fencer, the Euclids might as well have been standing still. Cipher came at them from above, piercing his first target's beam cannons with two precise thrusts before slicing into the unit's central fuselage. He then dragged his beam saber along until it came out the Euclid's backside, and the mobile armor blew apart as Galm One moved on to his next target.

Meanwhile, the center of the Euclid formation was being assaulted by Athrun and Rey. They took a similar approach as the Galm Team, with the Legend unleashing a hailstorm of particle beams to scatter and pick off the escorts while the Destiny charged in, Arondight sword raised. Athrun's anti-ship blade was made for targets like the Euclid, and it only took a single swing for him to cleave clean through the first mobile armor in his sights.

Euclids might have been falling, but enough remained operational to threaten the fleet. As Wufei moved on his next target, a new salvo of particle beams flew from the surviving mobile armors, damaging some warships and sinking others. The fleet was continuing to throw fire right back at them, but the Euclids' positron reflectors remained impervious to ZAFT's ordinance. Though the heavy mobile armors were falling one by one to Wufei and his allies, the Gundam pilot knew that the new machines had already proven their worth in this battle.

The Earth Alliance will definitely be fielding more of these in future engagements, he thought as he plunged Nataku's polearm into his next target, I bet they work even better in outer space. ZAFT better come up with countermeasures quickly, or their next fleet engagements up in orbit are going to be ugly.

As the vanguard continued to whittle down the Euclids while their comrades caught up and joined in the action, there was another threat to ZAFT's fleet; the Earth Alliance's new airborne dreadnought. Alarms rang in Wufei's cockpit as the aerial behemoth let fly with another mass missile volley. With more friendly mobile suits returning, ZAFT's missile defense screen was increasing in effectiveness, and Wufei even caught sight of a familiar red blast from Lunamaria as she provided distant supporting fire. Scores of warheads detonated in the sky, but others plunged into their targets and spread fresh fiery devastation amongst the fleet.

Double checking his display, Wufei confirmed that the dreadnought was not moving to pursue the fleet. With a bit of luck, ZAFT's withdrawal combined with the airborne leviathan's present course would soon take the fleet out of range. From there, once the pursuing mobile armors and their remaining escorts were dealt with, ZAFT's battered and bloodied survivors could begin the long voyage back to Gibraltar unmolested.

It would be a voyage home from a crushing defeat, but at least there would be survivors.

….

Disaster.

Complete and utter disaster.

That was the result of what had been Durandal's plan. His ambition to crush the Earth Alliance's greatest fortification on the planet, to destroy their highest concentration of surviving surface forces and scatter the remnants to the wind, to hammer home to the world that the Atlantic Federation was finished as a global power, had completely backfired.

In his Gibraltar office, the PLANT Supreme Council Chairman could only sit in numb silence as the calamity's full scale became apparent. It was small comfort that the armada had successfully broken off contact with the enemy and was on the way home, not when the grand force which had set out from Gibraltar with such high hopes had been so brutally and decisively repulsed.

The casualty reports were staggering. For the Earth Alliance defectors alone, the losses were appalling. 27 out of 33 destroyers, 4 out of 5 cruisers, 2 out of three carriers, and no less than 39 out of 45 mobile suits were confirmed destroyed, along with their experienced crews and pilots. ZAFT's surface fleet had more survivors in simple numbers, but that didn't make their losses any less severe. While the four carriers had all survived, 29 destroyers, 10 cruisers and 103 mobile suits from the surface force were confirmed lost, and most of the survivors had suffered varying degrees of damage. Even the Minerva, easily the toughest ship on the field, had taken a beating. The loss of Heine was a particularly cutting blow for Durandal; he'd been truly dedicated to the Chairman's grand vision for the world, and such devotion was priceless. Then there was the total annihilation of the orbital drop force, a stunning calamity in a day full of them.

Matters were little better for ZAFT's subsurface force. While Vosgulov-class carrier/submarine losses had been relatively limited, 16 of the vessels going down was still a bitter pill to swallow. Far worse were the mobile suit losses. The underwater fighting alone had been fierce, with 237 of ZAFT's aquatic mobile suits confirmed destroyed while many others were badly damaged. The real gut punch came in the final tally of the submarine/carriers' aerial mobile suits; 293 had been lost, with a good portion of the survivors having limped back to their motherships held together by mangled metal, frayed wiring, and the tenacity of their pilots.

The only bright spot was the troop transports and their escorts. By some miracle, none of the transports, the surface warships or submarine/carriers escorting them had been lost, though several of the destroyers had been damaged by missiles from the Atlantic Federation's new airborne monster. 11 of the aerial mobile suits launched from the Vosgulov-class vessels dedicated to protecting the transports had been destroyed, but those were downright minimal casualties compared to those suffered by the assault force.

There was no choice for ZAFT's western forces now but to assume a defensive posture at Gibraltar. The surviving forces combined with Gibraltar's garrison would have to be enough to hold ZAFT's vital base. Any future offensives on the surface would be confined to the east, launched using the Carpentaria fleet. From what Durandal understood, the aerial dreadnought's last reported course had it heading towards Europe. There was a chance that the Atlantic Federation was now coming for Gibraltar, but even with today's heavy losses and the enemy's deadly new weapons, the base's garrison should be sufficient to repel a solo assault by the dreadnought and its Mobile Dolls. Of course, if the enemy managed to muster reinforcements that had somehow remained concealed from prying eyes until now, then it would be a different story.

It would also be a matter for someone other than Durandal to contend with. The scale of the Heaven's Base disaster was so great that the Supreme Council had already issued a recall; the Chairman was to return to the PLANTs. While the civilian government and Defense Council had both been united behind him thus far in the conflict, a defeat of this magnitude in an operation that Durandal himself had championed would inevitably result in cracks forming in his ruling coalition. He would now have to defend himself in the political arena, reassure his core supporters that this setback was not a fatal one, and ensure that his detractors remained marginalized and powerless to thwart his broader plans.

He silently cursed himself for having so readily dismissed the warning he had been given by the leader of the North American resistance prior to the operation. Heaven's Base had indeed turned out to be a trap, and Durandal had walked ZAFT right into it. Now he was forced to deal with the fallout, and it would be a mighty struggle to keep his grand vision from falling apart.

If there was any silver lining to be found, it came in the form of something completely unrelated to the battle at Heaven's Base. While ZAFT's surface forces were now in retreat, a message from Admiral Anastasia Gorshkov of the Fleet Intelligence Service had come through.

The first stage of Case Garden Shears was underway.

The Clyne Faction's rats poking around L4 would soon be on the run. If all went according to plan, those rats would signal their leadership for help, and said leadership would respond with haste to secure whatever intelligence the rats had obtained at Mendel. The Eternal would finally reveal herself.

And Lacus Clyne could at last be removed from the stage.

Preview for next time!

With ZAFT's assault on Heaven's Base decisively repulsed, the shocked survivors can do nothing but limp back to Gibraltar as the Earth Alliance retakes the initiative. Rather than counterattack against ZAFT, LOGOS deploys its formidable new armaments in a reprisal operation against the Eurasian Federation. Having long stood strong as a beacon of defiance against the Atlantic Federation invasion of continental Europe, the besieged city of Paris now finds itself the proving ground for LOGOS's horrific arsenal. On the far side of the world, Terminal is completely out of position to respond, while in outer space, DaCosta's contingent in L4 is suddenly forced into a flight for their lives. Next time, on "Destiny's Call", Episode Thirty-Three: A Dirge For The City Of Light.

'Lose your father, your husband
Your mother, your children
What are you fighting for?
It's not my reality
It's just an old war
It's not even a cold war'

Broken English, by SCHAFT.

Author's Notes: A while back, I said that while the story's move to 'M' rating wouldn't change the overall tone or writing style, that it was more a precaution than anything else. That will remain the case throughout the story… for the most part. The reason I bring this up now has to with what's coming in the next chapter. As certain readers of culture will have already realized, the song quoted above comes from a particular sequence in a gloriously brutal and faithful adaptation: Hellsing Ultimate. I've always had a dark fascination with this particular sequence, and consider it a work of beautiful carnage, the horrors of war unleashed in an uncompromising tapestry of unfathomable violence befitting a species as bestial as our own. Yes, in Hellsing, the foot soldiers carrying out what I refer to as the Great London BBQ are Nazi vampires, but the man who orchestrated the entire campaign is very much human. Perhaps not entirely in the flesh (spoilers for those who never finished the series), but in spirit, absolutely. So, consider the coming butchery to be my homage to a masterpiece of violence, and a tribute to the horrifying darkness that each and every one of us carry but, for the most part, are too cowardly to acknowledge openly. Apologies to any French readers in the audience; your country, and the city I'll be putting to the torch in this story, is a wonderful one that I'm very much inclined to visit someday. You simply got the short end of the stick here.

On a lighter note, there are a whole host of inspirations that I paid tribute to in this chapter alone. Project: Reaper, one of the products of which being the aerial dreadnought Sovereign, very much owes itself to my love of the Mass Effect trilogy. Yes, there's a Harbinger in the works too, as a variant designed to operate in outer space. No, it won't be 'assuming direct control', much as I love that line and meme. The actual hull design is a much larger and bulkier version of the Arkbird from Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War. As for the Mobile Dolls it deployed in this battle, their inspirations come from two sources. The two most advanced of the nuclear-powered units, the Huginn and Muninn, are of course named for the advanced unmanned fighters that serve as the final bosses in Ace Combat 7: Sky Unknown. The Guntram, the other nuclear-powered Mobile Doll variant, is a simpler unmanned evolution of the Wyvern which debuted earlier in the story, leaving out the subordinate drones in favor of a lighter weight design.

Speaking of lightweights, the battery-powered design Krähe's frame is basically the Nachtreiher AC from Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. It's one of my favorite designs in the game, and the build I used for the Krähe is one that you can easily recreate in the game. All you need is the frame itself, the quickboost-dedicated thrusters you get for clearing one of the training courses, the basic starting pulse blade and missile launchers, and the basic laser pistol from Arquebus. After that, use whatever generator and fire control systems you think work best, and you have it. It's an interesting build that I've had fun playing around with, though I have a different build I'll typically run with the Nachtreiher, one that I even saved and named as Epyon because of course my weeb ass fucking did, what else would you expect from me?

On a completely unrelated note, while I have the next couple of chapters and of course the wider story already planned out, I was hoping for a bit of input from you lot regarding a chapter I've been considering but am unsure about implementing. It's not one that's strictly necessary for the overall plot; rather, it would simply focus on the political arena back in L5. The movements of Chairman Durandal, the Supreme Council and Defense Council, covert opposition figures like Eileen Canaver and other members of the Clyne Faction, and basically how the whole war looks from the eyes of those back in the PLANT's domestic scene. It mostly just stems from me being a political science geek (really should've gone with that as a major, the more I think about it) and would be an exercise in indulgence. Like I said earlier, not strictly necessary for the story as a whole, just something to add a bit more flavor and differing perspective to this story's version of the Cosmic Era. No combat of any sort, just people talking and plotting. Anyway, let me know if that's something you'd like to see. If the idea gets a positive reception, then I might just put it to page.

Wow, much longer end-chapter author's notes than I usually put out, thanks for putting up with me here. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Feel free to review, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time!