Phase-06: Break the World
"You wretches! No one will get in the way of our wish! Not now!" Sato, the scarred leader of the extremists, bellowed. The defenders of the meteor breakers were being overpowered by the ferocity of their attackers, especially since they weren't properly armed. Dearka ordered the retreat for now. They had to minimize the losses in personnel and equipment until the reinforcements arrived. It would be pointless to lose the meteor breakers or the people to operate them. He fired his "Orthros" cannon, dispersing the enemies.
"I'm sending out rifles for your GuAIZs! Dearka, protect the meteor breakers! I'll be right there myself!" Yzak yelled before leaving the bridge of the Voltaire.
The parts of the ZGMF-X56S Impulse gundam combined, with the addition of the Force Silhouette pack. Shinn Asuka was followed by four ZAKUs, piloted by Rey Za Burrel, Lunamaria Hawke, Athrun Zala, and Seren Elvira Ledford. Cagalli, who had woken up, entered the bridge of the Minerva, Chacha on her shoulder. The Chairman and the captain were talking. It seemed that the enemies were using GINNs, the High Maneuver Type II. Gladys asked if there were any sign of a mother ship, and Heim replied there were none. Trine wondered if after all, those guys were the ones who had altered the orbit of Junius Seven and what sort of fools would do that. That made Cagalli gasp, revealing her presence. Alerted, Durandal turned to her.
"If that's true, then all the more reason why we can't let them drop it on Earth. Update Rey and the others." Talia instructed. The Chairman offered the princess a seat. She sat down and inquired about Seren and Athrun.
"What? You don't know?" Gilbert was surprised. "They came to us and asked to be allowed to help. Right now, they're out there." He informed the Orb leader whose eyes widened in horror.
Beams zoomed through the remains of Junius Seven. Yzak launched in his Slash ZAKU Phantom with customized blue colors. A GuAIZ shot at an approaching enemy but the GINN H. M. II evaded and instantly closed in thanks to its higher mobility and bisected it with its katana. Despite his skills as a pilot specialized in heavy artillery, Elsman also had trouble with those aggressors. Those people were experts at operating that type of GINN. Joule joined the battle. He drove some away and stood before a meteor breaker. He commanded the workers to continue with the demolition. If they stopped, they'd be playing right into those guys' hands. He evaded a beam and shot down an attacker. But then the two friends detected more enemies... the three stolen units were entering the fray!
"You've gotta be kidding! Causing all this commotion in a place like this!" Sting shouted angrily, turning his mobile suit into MA mode and sending his gunbarrels.
"So you're the ones responsible for making this thing move?!" Auel was just as angry. He fired his "Callidus" Multi Phase beam cannon and destroyed a meteor breaker and the two ZAFT machines guarding it. Stella attacked with her rifle. The reinforcements from the Minerva arrived a moment later. Shinn cursed those three from Armory One and went ahead and Luna swore to get them this time.
"Those machines are not our objective!" Athrun reminded them.
"I know that! But they're attacking us! Unless we get rid of them, we won't get any work done, right?" Lunamaria argued.
"He meant prioritizing the demolition work as much as possible! We're going in numbers so that we can split the work. We don't have time to play with those guys!" Seren retorted.
And indeed, meantime, the descent angle of Junius Seven had increased by 1.5 and its acceleration had increased by 4%. Meyrin reported that the Joule Team was attacked by the Chaos, Gaia, and Abyss. Arthur wanted to go after Bogey One since like this, their forces couldn't proceed with the demolition. Gladys thought for a moment and turned to the Chairman. She asked for his assessment of Bogey One's current involvement. Were they pirates? Or part of the Earth Alliance? Durandal admitted it was a difficult one. He would rather not get into a battle with the Earth Forces.
"There's no saying what it could trigger after all." The captain agreed.
"But the situation has changed."
"Yes. If they declare themselves to be part of – or associated with – the Earth Forces, battling them here would be meaningless."
"On the contrary, they could be interpreting our actions as protecting those GINNs." The Chairman pondered. Trine didn't want to believe it. But as his superior pointed out, it couldn't be helped. If those machines happened to be Daggers, he would be suspicious of the Earth Forces and their participation. Her words made Cagalli lower her head. As much as the young Head of State would like to refute it, Gladys was right. And even assuming Earth was saved, if news of the presence of those GINNs on the scene got out to the world... "Can you contact Bogey One?"
"If we use the International Rescue Channel..."
"Then try reaching them using that. We must make it clear to them that we are making every effort to crush Junius Seven and stop it from falling to Earth."
Asuka fired at the Abyss that blocked with its shoulder binder and retaliated using its 3-barrels cannons. The Gaia and Luna's ZAKU engaged in a shoot out. The Chaos in MA mode targeted meteor breakers and took a GuAIZ down. Yzak sliced through two GINNs with his MA-MR Falx G7 beam axe. The ZGMF-X24S transformed back into a mobile suit when it came under Rey's fire. Seren shot GINN heads, arms, and weapons with her MMI-M633 beam assault rifle, controlled enemy flights with the two back-mounted MMI-M826 "Hydra" Gatling beam cannons, and switched to the beam axe when she was swarmed with foes while cleverly positioning herself so adversary beams would be blocked by her two shoulder-mounted shields or so they would fire at each other. Ledford clicked her tongue and gritted her teeth. Skilled enemies would normally avoid having allies in their line of fire but those people didn't seem to care! It was like they had no attachment to life anymore! They wanted to die and take as many others as possible down with them. One by one, she cut them down with her beam axe or shot them with her rifle and beam cannons. Then she went to shield a meteor breaker and retaliate. Athrun protected another one from a GINN H.M. Type II, shooting its head and left leg before being attacked from behind by two others. He maneuvered, dodging the beams, and shot them down from a sideway position, the rifle behind his back. He and Seren were always careful not to hit the cockpit and only targeted the head or limbs, no matter who their opponents were, because they wanted to save as many lives as possible, they had chosen to never kill unless absolutely necessary, or unavoidable. However, it wasn't easy to make those guys behave. They kept coming back, relentlessly, desperately, and kept fighting until they were killed or completely dismembered. And the GINNs weren't the only ones targeting the meteor breakers, so were the stolen units, and notably the Chaos. Athrun went after him, evaded the beams of the gunbarrels and even destroyed one. He suddenly closed in, and was right in front of the Chaos, shocking its pilot.
"Stop it!" Zala yelled. Sting tried to drive him back by firing his four head-mounted 12.5mm CIWS guns. The Coordinator punched him away and shielded him from the beam of the remaining gunbarrel before grabbing the beam tomahawk inside and hurling it. It sliced through the gunbarrel that exploded. Oakley flew away as to not get caught in it. He couldn't believe it. That guy was much stronger than the other ZAKUs! The Gaia turned into a MA and fired at the red ZAFT Armed Keeper of Unity from behind. Hawke evaded and retaliated with her powerful "Orthros" beam cannon. However, the X88S once more displayed its excellent speed, mobility, and efficiency in this terrain by jumping on a debris and then onto the Gunner ZAKU, knocking it down. Stella landed and charged. She roared, leapt and fired her beam assault cannons, but Hawke did a back flip from her supine position and managed to avoid being pinned down, though a beam destroyed her unit's right leg. Destabilized, the red machine could not properly defend itself.
"I'll finish you, red suit!" The EA pilot shouted. But she was so intent on her prey that she failed to notice Seren's standard ZAKU Phantom until it kicked her away. Loussier swore and fired despite her disadvantageous position. Ledford avoided and hurled a beam tomahawk that sliced part of the Gaia's right 'wing' as well as the beam rifle fixed to its flank. This gave Lunamaria enough time to recover.
However, while this three-way battle was raging, the ruins of Junius Seven were inexorably falling towards the Earth. While some of its inhabitants were unaware or still decided to live their own life as usual, most were minutely following the colony drop in any way they could. The different governments and armed forces were doing their best to find and implement countermeasures to avoid damage, panic, and protect the populations. Heads of state gave press conferences to inform the people.
At a certain orphanage, children were playing soccer before the church, the sea gently rolled on the sandy beach, washing a half-buried green pilot helmet with no visor... and on the porch overlooking the sea, Kira was sitting on a rolling chair. He could no longer enjoy this peaceful scenery though as he heard the television playing. Representative Unato Ema Seiran, prime minister of Orb and member of the high ranking Seiran family was giving a speech informing the citizens about the situation concerning Junius Seven and the steps taken to deal with it... as well as the difficulty to find effective solutions due to lack of time. Inside the building, Reverend Malchio and Caridad Yamato were also listening worriedly. Lacus, who was standing at the entrance, gazed at Kira who was was sitting on a chair on the porch. He turned towards her. The unsuspecting children started playing with Torii. At Washington DC, the president was asked why things had come to this, and why Junius Seven was falling at that speed but they had yet to receive information about it. The most pressing questions though were: was it still possible to avoid a collision? What were the estimated time and point of impact? Currently, the PLANTs and Earth Alliance forces were working together to crush the object to pieces. Right now, they wanted the citizens to take shelter immediately. A journalist voiced the people's worries. Was there even enough time to evacuate?! What about the chances of success of the demolition operation?! There wasn't enough room in the shelters to accommodate the world's population! In a deep underground room of his manor, sitting on chair with dozens of screens before him, Djibril was petting his black cat while listening to the world leaders and inhabitants scrambling about.
Some meteor breakers were activated. The giant drills perforated the rock, causing large cracks to appear both within and at the surface. A message was displayed on the monitor of the Girty Lue. It was the Minerva telling the 'unknown nationality warship' that ZAFT was trying to demolish Junius Seven and asking them to recall their mobile suits if they wanted to prevent the damage that would be inflicted on Earth should the colony fall. That surprised the captain of the Girty Lue. Dearka fired his "Orthros" cannon, vaporizing the right leg of Sato's unit. Yzak arrived and ordered the workers to hurry up. If they took their time, it'd be too late even if they managed to split it! Athrun was clashing with the Chaos, Shinn with the Abyss, Luna's ZAKU was being chased by the Gaia, though she suddenly knocked it back with a shot from the "Orthros". Rey and Seren were shooting GINNs and protecting the precious machines. Another meteor breaker was driven into the ruins, widening the crevices until the colony cracked in two. The partisans of the late Patrick Zala were dismayed. All the parties stopped fighting.
"Great! We did it!" Elsman cheered. Durandal closed his eyes. In these conditions, they had done well to break it in half... but it was still far from enough! Captain Lee was shocked, but Roanoke was keeping calm and focused on assessing the situation. Sting and Auel also wondered what was happening. That thing just split in two! And although the slightly smaller half seemed to be slowing down, the bigger half actually seemed to be accelerating further down!
"What are you rejoicing for?! This isn't nearly enough to cut it! Hurry and move your hands!" Seren sharply snapped everyone back.
"That's right! We're not done yet! We need to break it into smaller pieces!" Her boyfriend agreed. It was with astonishment that Yzak and Dearka recognized their voices.
"You bastards! What the hell are you doing here?!" Joule bellowed as always before smiling.
"That's not important right now. We must continue with our mission." Athrun replied.
"Don't waste time asking questions whose answer you already know!" Ledford added.
"R-right." Dearka stammered.
"I know that!" Yzak barked as he and Athrun flanked a meteor breaker being transported by Elsman while Seren was heading the convoy. Zala noted Yzak hadn't changed. "Neither have you!" He shot back.
"Oh boy." Their comrade of the former Le Creuset Team sighed in a 'they've-started-again' way while cracking his neck. Seren smiled. But then they were attacked from the front by two GINNs. Zala and Joule went up to meet them. The Blaze ZAKU Warrior shot a GINN's beam carbine and the blue ZAKU Phantom sliced through the enemy who didn't have time to defend with the shield or sword. Seren fired her two "Hydra" Gatling beam cannons, restraining the movements of the remaining assailant who avoided them but not Dearka's shot that pierced right through him after calculating his evasive maneuver. Those four had displayed perfect teamwork, like one mind divided in several bodies. Sato had also realized their level of danger. And Auel, seeing them carrying the meteor breaker and mistaking it for a device made to move the wrecked colony, cursed them and shot his "Callidus" multi-phase beam cannon that narrowly missed the machine. Again, Zala and Joule went after the enemy.
"Yzak!"
"Shut up!" Commander Joule retorted, firing the back-mounted Gatling cannon whose beams were blocked by the right binder of the Abyss while Athrun flew past them on the left side of the EA machine. "I'm the one in command now! Stop giving orders! You damn civilian!" Yzak's beam axe cut the X-31S' beam lance. And a second later, Athrun sliced through the stolen unit's left leg from behind. Sting came to his comrade's help but had to avoid Seren's beams. Because he was distracted by her fire, he could barely evade Yzak's slash. Ledford took advantage of the pilot's momentarily flustered state to close in and sever the Chaos' left arm and in a fluid movement she turned her weapon and cut though the shield when the blue ZAKU sealed his escape. And Shinn who had also come over, thinking that mass-produced mobile suits like the ZAKUs wouldn't be much effective against such high-performance prototypes as the stolen units, couldn't believe his eyes. He knew of Luna's and Rey's skills... but those four went beyond that. So these were the abilities of the survivors of Jachin Due?! Great calligraphers didn't need to choose their brush and could perform outstandingly even with tools of lower quality. And their greatness was how their natural skills had been tempered by their combat experience and all the gruesome battles and terrible situations they had overcome over the long time they had spent together both as former enemies and allies. Dearka set the meteor breaker at the designated point and activated it. The drill bore into the rock.
"Shinn! What are you doing?! We're not finished with our mission yet!" Rey snapped his friend, who had been too busy gaping in awe, to reality. But then, the Girty Lue launched the flares signaling the retreat. Stella smiled at the lights, mesmerized by their prettiness, and the fact that her beloved Neo was calling her (and the others).
"Looks like they finally believe us." The PLANTs Chairman remarked.
"That could be true, or there could be another reason." Talia argued. Her superior wondered what she was talking about. "The altitude." She answered. Trine gasped, and Cagalli's eyes widened in horror. Indeed, the ruins were entering the ionosphere. After it passed its two top parts, the exosphere and the thermosphere, it would reach its last region, the mesosphere, where the colony would start burning up. And then, with 50km left to the ground, it would cross the stratosphere and finally, the last 12km of the troposphere before crashing. The Chaos, Abyss, and Gaia returned to Bogey One, and soon after, Lunamaria's ZAKU landed in the Minerva. The ZAFT pilot was panting. "If we continue to fall with Junius Seven, the ship won't be able to escape Earth's gravity. We must decide now what lives we cannot afford to lose. Who we can save, and who we cannot save. I'm sorry to have to bring this up under those circumstances but Mr. Chairman, Representative Athha, please make your way over to the Voltaire. The Minerva will now descend into the atmosphere and continue with the demolition of the object using the main cannon as long as the ship will hold." The captain declared, causing her second-in-command to gasp in shock and stammer. "I don't know how much more we can do but it wouldn't be right if we didn't try everything we could."
"Talia... however..." Durandal was thinking about the danger of descending to Earth like this in such circumstances.
"I am a woman with lots of luck. Please leave it to me." Gladys smiled reassuringly and the Chairman finally complied, thanked her and apologized for the trouble. She gave the instruction to inform the Voltaire and send out the retreat signal to their mobile suits. Gilbert offered a hand to Cagalli who shook her head negatively.
"I'm staying here. Seren and Athrun haven't returned yet." The blonde girl said softly. "And if the Minerva's willing to go that far, then I want to be here with them!" Her plea turned more desperate.
"However, there are other duties where statespersons are required." Talia argued. As head of her country, it was inappropriate of Cagalli to risk herself to this extent as it was especially during such times that her country needed its leadership. However, since the Representative was insisting so much though, the Chairman chose to respect her wishes. The captain sighed. The Minerva launched the retreat signal. Dearka cursed. They had reached the critical altitude. All ZAFT units received a message in text only warning them that the Minerva was going to descend into the atmosphere while firing the "Tannhäuser" cannon. They left the ruins and returned to their respective ships. Yzak saluted the brave vessel that was approaching Junius Seven and that would keep fighting. The shuttle with Durandal left the Minerva and headed to the Voltaire. Helped by Vino and Yolan, Hawke was coming out of her cockpit when an announcement rang informing all hands that upon retrieving all mobile suits, the ship would keep crushing the object with the main cannon while descending into Earth's atmosphere. All hands were expected to review their manual and take appropriate action.
The smaller half of the broken colony had again divided in two. Shinn was last to withdraw, or so he thought. He noticed that Athrun and Seren were still there, trying to properly position a meteor breaker, and asked them what they were doing. They had received orders to return.
"Yeah, we know. You'd better hurry on back." Zala said.
"You'll end up being blasted away along with it! Are you okay with that?!"
"Even if it's with the Minerva's main cannon, firing from a greater distance will have a greater margin for error. So if we can at least get this one going..." Athrun reasoned.
"Right, it's more efficient to destroy it from within. We want to do as much as we can, as little as it might be." Seren concurred. Shinn gritted his teeth and decided to assist them.
"Why would people like you side with Orb?" He questioned. But before the two Orb civilians could answer, they found themselves under fire from three remaining ZAFT deserters, including Sato who roared.
"I won't let you do any more damage!" His comrade bellowed. Asuka took out his beam saber and charged to face them. Athrun grabbed his beam tomahawk but stayed in front of the device, and he did well as he shielded himself and the meteor breaker from a GINN's beams, though some still fell dangerously close and tilted the machine, lowering its efficiency.
"My daughter's tombstone must be dropped for this world to change!" A fanatic shouted right before Shinn bisected him.
"Daughter?" The pilot of the Impulse whispered, shocked. Athrun's tomahawk clashed with Sato's katana. Sparks flew.
"What are you-" Patrick Zala's son stuttered.
"Why have you forgotten the sorrows of the lives mercilessly thrown away here?! Why do you live in a fabricated world, laughing with those who caused this?! Tricked by the cowardly successors of Clyne, ZAFT has changed for the worst!" The extremist leader accused the teens who froze, their mouths agape.
Even though he didn't want to, Athrun couldn't help but recall the explosion of Junius Seven where 243 721 Coordinators, mostly civilians, died, and where Lenore Zala, his mother, died... no, they were killed... just like that man's daughter... he recalled placing flowers on his mother's empty grave, and her kind and beautiful face and tender smile... those who had killed her and all those people, were the Naturals. Shinn too, despite having tried to coexist in Orb, his family had been brutally slaughtered... by those Naturals. And Seren, who, as such a small child, had been drenched in her mother's blood as she was lying beneath her corpse... her mother who had always been an advocator of peace had covered her daughter to protect her and taken all the shots fired by those Naturals. Seren remembered the blood on her hands when she had tried to wake her mother, she remembered the nausea, how much she had screamed until her throat hurt and she lost her voice, how much her eyes would burn from all the tears she'd cried. She remembered her father's smile and promise to join her later, and how he had died in the explosion of the facilities at Onogoro... because those Naturals had attacked... because those people could not stand the difference, because they wanted to steal everything and exterminate them to the last... always... it was always their fault...!
Could people ever understand, could they ever change?! Will history always repeat itself, no matter how many times we try to forgive, no matter how strongly we wish for peace? No matter how much they tried to shut this voice, it always returned and echoed. Like a healing tissue had been scrapped away, the wounds, the hate, the rage, the grief, the emptiness those three had once endured were exposed again in all their rawness. They had never forgotten. Only a mere two years had passed. And they probably would never forget for as long as they lived. And their memories, their emotions, their wounds were as vivid as if it had all happened just the previous day.
"Why can't you realize..." Sato slashed at his opponent who shielded himself. "...that for us Coordinators the path of Patrick Zala was the only one and correct path?!" He yelled. Athrun Zala's eyes widened. His father... his father that he had loved, and who had built and fired GENESIS, his father who had almost wiped out all life on Earth because he had been driven mad and lost his self in sorrow and hatred. And those people... were just like him... prisoners of the past who had become like possessed by evil spirits and turned into embodiments of resentment spouting nothing but old malice... but... those children too held some of that malice... they knew what it was to have your existence denied, what it was to lose those you loved to those who won't acknowledge you as humans, they knew about suffering that could completely devastate a person...
Athrun was pushed back and his unit's right arm was sliced. Seren charged and slashed with her beam axe that was blocked by the sword. Shinn tried to join them but the other GINN attacked him from behind. Asuka evaded and got his enemy's back... as well as one of his arm... but the radical wrapped his machine's legs around the Impulse's midsection and detonated himself. Caught in the explosion, Shinn screamed and his two allies cried his name. The head of the GINN hit the meteor breaker, tilting it the other side and activating it. Shinn held his head and shook it a little, trying to recover. His mobile suit seemed fine except for bumps and scorch marks. Meantime, the ruins of the colony had reached the critical point, generating atmospheric drag and aerodynamic heating. As they entered the mesosphere, the pressure and resistance started compressing the objects and vaporizing them. The ionization caused the combustion of the bodies, leaving trails of incandescent dust and gases. The Minerva entered the second phase of the descent sequence and folded its wings. The captain asked about the Impulse and those two's ZAKUs, but Meyrin couldn't get their position. Cagalli cried Seren's and Athrun's names. Time to break for it. Ledford shook her opponent off. Her boyfriend grabbed her wrist and they tried to get away.
"This time for sure! We'll let those Naturals know how we feel!" Sato bellowed and grabbed onto Seren's unit's leg. Shinn cut that leg and kicked the extremist down who crashed into Junius Seven and exploded, resulting in more and deeper cracks. The Impulse grabbed the hands of the two ZAKUs and dragged them away. However, the gravity was too great and the power of the ZAKUs' engines insufficient. Gravity caught the Orb Coordinators and pulled them down and away from the ZAFT pilot. The three were falling freely.
Reverend Malchio, Caridad Yamato, and Lacus Clyne had assembled all the children of the orphanage outside. Lacus asked everyone to follow her. The little ones wondered if they were going to go shopping, even though they still wanted to play. The sky ranged from a very dark blue to a bright over the ocean. Lacus looked around. She couldn't see Kira. Then she spotted him on the shore. He was staring at the sky where the remains of Junius Seven could be seen falling in a rain of fire and debris.
Our wishes for peace were the beginning of everything that led to fighting. We had no doubt about the rightness of our path... because we chose the path that allowed as many people as possible to live... because we thought a path of destruction could only end up crumbling. Still, when wounds that could never fully heal are reopened, we cannot help but wonder... is forgiveness a sin? Is our dream of coexistence an objective or a delusion?
Author's note: huge thanks to maeljuri for the reviews :) I would be very happy if you could continue to give me your impressions when you feel like it. Also unfortunately updates will be slow for a long time. This story requires more work than anticipated. I'm always tweaking things. I have other stories requiring work, other hobbies, and my own life too. I apologise for current and future delays and thank you for your patience. Guess that's the price to pay for you and me to get decent chapters/stories.