“Remember Leon, you may be given the most powerful mobile suit in existence, but if your piloting skills are horrible, you’ll never be able to fight the enemy effectively. The strength of a mobile suit never determines who wins in a battle.”
“Hey Leon, wake up! We’re about to land.” said Alex.
“Hm? Oh good, finally.” Leon replied as he took off his headphones. “Why did I have a dream about Commander Vaulken just now? Something doesn’t feel right.”
The three of them arrived in Atlas after 10 hours of flying. It was a relatively large military base. There were about 25 mobile suit hangars and around 50 mobile suits were outside the base on standby. Soldiers and mechanics were running around everywhere, carrying packages or spouting out orders. The whole military atmosphere brought back memories of Leon’s days at ZAFT. The three were welcomed by many soldiers as soon as they got off the transport ship.
“I’m glad you three made it. Welcome to Atlas. Make yourselves at home.” said Chairman Landon.
“Didn’t expect to see you here, chairman.” said Alex.
“Someone has to whip these lazy soldiers into shape.”
“Haha, I feel sorry for the soldiers.” Rhapsody remarked.
“There’s going to be a mission briefing in 2 hours, so unload everything you brought. We’ll handle your mobile suits, so don’t worry about that. Lieutenant Vale will escort you to your quarters.”
“Hello, nice to meet you all.” said Vale.
“Likewise.” Leon replied.
“I’ve heard a lot of good things about you three. I only hope that you can live up to what the rumors said.”
“Depends on what those rumors were, haha.”
“Alright, here’s where you’ll be staying. The cafeteria’s down to your left and the conference room is to the right. You’ve got 2 hours to kill, would you like a tour of the base?”
“Nah, I’m just gonna sit for a while and relax.” Leon said as he put on his headphones and turned on his music player.
“I’m gonna find a nice, shady spot outside and paint some of the scenery.” said Rhapsody.
“And I want to finish this novel.” said Alex.
“Alright then, I’ll see you three later.”
“Are we going to have to wake you up again Leon?” asked Rhapsody.
“It’d be nice if you guys do.” Leon replied.
Alex smacked his forehead. “I don’t understand why you sleep so much if you drink so much coffee.”
“It’s a mystery to me too.” Leon said as he closed his eyes.
-------------------
“So, these are the new recruits I have to train? State your names!” yelled Commander Vaulken.
“Sir! Leon Sieghart, sir!”
“Sir! Rhapsody Giftregen, sir!”
“Geez, these pilots get younger and younger everyday. We’re gonna have to work twice as hard in order to make you two into decent pilots!”
“WHAT?!” Rhapsody yelled.
“NO COMPLAINING!!! NOW, DROP DOWN AND GIVE ME 50!”
“How the hell can push-ups make us into better pilots?!” Leon yelled.
“I said no complaining! Do 100!”
“Argh…”
“200!”
-------------------
“Now that you two are done with the basics, we’ll put you into mobile suits.”
“Sweet! Do I get to pilot something with a large amount of weapons?”
Commander Vaulken gave Leon a smack upside his head. “Have you learned nothing from my lessons? A mobile suit doesn’t determine the outcome of a battle, it’s the pilot’s skill that does.”
“I’m sorry…”
“You two are low-ranked pilots, so you’ll be piloting GINNs. If you do well in battle, you might get a different mobile suit. Understand?”
“Yes sir.”
“Now go out there and make me proud.”
Leon woke up and found himself in the middle of a large room with a screen in the front.
“Finally awake, sleeping beauty?” Alex asked.
“How’d I end up in here?” Leon asked.
“You wouldn’t wake up, so we ended up having to drag your body to the mission briefing.” replied Rhapsody.
“Is that why my head hurts?”
“Shh! Chairman Landon’s about to speak.”
Landon turned on the screen, revealing a map of the Alaska Base. “Neo ZAFT has occupied the southern areas of Alaska. We’ve been receiving multiple distress signals from the civilians there. Our mission is to destroy the bases and drive them out of the state. Our reconnaissance team has reported that there about 225 mobile suits in the area, so be prepared for some heavy fighting. We’ll strike tomorrow morning. If we succeed, Neo ZAFT will lose their strongest military base. Vale will lead the main mobile suit force and will attack as soon as Leon’s team takes out ZAFT’s frontline defense. Take as many pilots as you need for your team, Leon.”
“Yes sir.” Leon replied.
“Alright everyone, get plenty of rest and eat a good meal tonight. It may be your last.”
-------------------
The sun had risen and the Atlas mobile suit force departed for Alaska. Leon pondered why his recent dreams were about his old commander.
“Maybe the dreams are trying to tell me something. Maybe I’m thinking too deeply into the situation. That or I’ve just gone crazy.” Leon thought to himself.
“10000 kilometers from drop point.” said the captain of the transport ship.
“Alright everyone, get to your mobile suits and get ready.” said Vale.
-------------------
“Sir! Our EWS has picked up 20 transport ship signals. Do you want us to intercept?”
“No, let them come. The fools don’t even realize what they’re getting themselves into.”
“Yes sir.”
“Oh, and prepare the Lervingthis for me.”
“Of course, sir.”
-------------------
“So how many mobile suits are in the frontlines?” Alex asked.
“There are 100, so we’ll have to take down 125 more once we get passed them.” Rhapsody replied.
“Shouldn’t be too much of a problem.” Leon said.
“Don’t be so cocky.” said Vale.
“Heh, you obviously don’t know us too well.”
“Can we just go?” said Alex.
Leon’s team went first, as planned. And as expected, they were met with heavy retaliation. Neo ZAFT wasn’t able to produce any new models, so they were fighting the standard ZAKU’s, GOUF’s, BuCUE’s and BABI’s. Like Leon stated before, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
“Rhap, Alex. Have all the flight pack-equipped Eagles go with you and take down the aerial mobile suits. The land Eagles and I will take on the ones on the ground.” said Leon.
“Gotcha!” replied Rhapsody.
Rhapsody and Alex took their team and flew towards ZAFT’s aerial mobile suits. Her Murasame fired at a group of GOUF’s with its two long-range beam cannons. Leon’s team had to be careful because Rhap’s combat style caused pieces of mobile suits to rain down from the sky. She loved blasting enemy mobile suits apart. Alex’s Murasame dodged gunfire from a BABI then used its recoilless cannon at it, causing it to crash into a nearby GOUF. A couple of the flight-pack equipped Eagles met their demise and came crashing down onto the ground. Other Eagles retaliated and fired their beam machine guns at the ZAFT mobile suits. One GOUF took out its beam sword and attemped to slash Rhapsody, but she fired her Murasame’s grapple stinger at it. The stinger clamped itself onto the GOUF and Rhapsody swung the GOUF, ramming it into a BABI. Alex transformed his Murasame and had an aerial dogfight with a couple BABI’s. Alex and the ZAFT pilots fired a volley of missiles, causing a large smoke cloud to form. Alex’s Murasame emerged from the cloud unharmed while the two BABI’s exploded.
“Alright team, let’s do this. I want the sniper rifle-equipped Eagles to find a good shooting spot and start blasting away. Dual rail-cannon equipped Eagles will support the snipers. All other Eagles will attack head-on along with me.” Leon commanded.
“Yes sir, Commander Sieghart!” replied the Eagle pilots.
“Commander Sieghart…God, that sounds weird. Never call me that again.”
Leon took out his Murasame’s shotgun and blasted the first couple of ZAKUs’ heads off. A BuCUE attempted to slice him with its beam sabers, but he kicked its head off with the foot beam cutters on his Murasame. Leon then took out his Murasame’s beam lance and slashed his way through some more BuCUE’s. Another BuCUE was firing its rail cannons at the Eagles. Leon jumped on its back and redirected the cannons at a group of Blaze ZAKU Warriors before stabbing into the BuCUE’s head with his Murasame’s beam katars. Slash ZAKU Warriors used their beam axes to destroy some of the Eagles on his team. The Eagles fought back with their beam sabers. One Eagle jumped on a Blaze ZAKU Warrior and stabbed the head with its Armor Schneider knife, disabling the ZAKU’s camera. The ZAKU moved around clumsily until it was shot down by the Eagle’s rail cannon. The Gunner ZAKU Warriors were being gunned down by the Eagle snipers before they could even land a shot in with their beam cannons. The whole area was covered in gunfire. Some of the BuCUE’s were being disabled from the pieces of mobile suits falling from the sky.
“Geez, these pilots suck.” Leon retorted.
“You were right commander, this is easy!” replied an Eagle pilot.
“The aerial force has been taken care of, Leon.” said Rhapsody.
“Vale, the frontline defense has been destroyed.”
“Understood. We’ll be there soon.” replied Vale. He transformed his Shrike into its mobile armor form and led his Eagle team towards the base. Leon looked up and saw only Vale’s Shrike. Something was wrong.
“AAAH!!!” yelled an Eagle pilot.
“Shit! Requesting back-up! There’s an unidentified mobile suit destroying all of th---OH GOD!!! AAAH!!!” yelled another pilot.
Silence. Vale’s entire team was dead. Shouldn’t have Vale been able to pick up that mobile suit’s signature? Or was it equipped with a Mirage Colloid? Everyone rushed to the scene of the devastation. Leon observed the destroyed mobile suits and saw cuts that were too clean and precise to be from a beam saber. Some of the Eagles were melted from some intense heat.
“This is way too bizarre. I’m detecting nothing but high levels of heat.” Rhapsody commented.
“It is rather unfortunate to see blood being shed. But people who don’t value their lives don’t deserve to live.” said a mysterious voice.
Everyone looked up and saw the cause of the deaths. It was a black mobile suit wearing a cloak, holding two shotels that were glowing bright orange due to an extremely high temperature.
“YOU BASTARD!” yelled an Eagle pilot as he fired his beam machine gun at the black mobile suit. The shots went right through the mobile suit. “What the hell?!”
“It’s creating mirages using heat…what kind of technology is this?!” yelled Vale.
“Everyone, spread out! Get out of the area!” Alex yelled.
The black mobile suit appeared in front of the Eagle snipers. The only things that can be heard were the sounds of metal slicing into metal and screaming. Leon rushed to the scene as quickly as possible but was too late. The snipers were cut in half by the shotels. Leon looked ahead and caught a quick glimpse of an emblem of a sword on the mobile suit’s skirt armor. His eyes widened with shock.
“C…C…Commander Vaulken…”
