Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY - Golden Goddess

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Phase 02 - The Goddess of Victory

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The missiles came down with a blaze of fire, and with a shout, Athrun Zala rocketed over the smashed lines of Orb's M1 Astrays. They were still getting back to their feet; none of them could open fire as the Justice Gundam blasted over their heads towards the imposing girth of the Orb National Defense Headquarters.

On the Justice's subflight lifter, the Aile Striker-equipped Strike Rouge picked off another Astray with its bazooka. Inside, Cagalli glanced down anxiously at the Justice.

"We have a fifteen minute window," she said urgently.

"I'm going as fast as I can," Athrun answered. Another Astray popped up from behind a building; Athrun blew its head off with his beam rifle and sent the rest of the mobile suit tumbling backwards. "Captain Ramius says everything is going according to plan so far," he added.

“So far,” Cagalli said dourly. “Let’s hurry up so things don’t have a chance to go bad.”

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Yzak grunted as the Duel landed with a crash, and he took cover behind the Duel’s shield. An Astray came charging in, beam saber raised— Yzak deflected its saber stroke with his shield and took it down with a point-blank railgun shot. He dove aside to dodge another beam shot, and up above, the Buster Gundam shot down a second Astray with its beam cannon.

Yzak glanced over his shoulder, taking cover behind a building. He looked down the street— it was a long, wide thoroughfare that passed the Orb assembly building, and it was teeming with Astrays. A blue-painted Loyalist Astray ducked out from behind cover and managed to squeeze off a beam shot, beheading an Orb Astray down the street, but a wave of beam fire tore it apart a moment later. Yzak snarled a curse and deflected a volley of beams with his shield.

“We’re not going to get anywhere like this!” he shouted angrily, pausing to fire a missile volley back at the Orb mobile suits. He looked up over his shoulder, finding the Buster dropping down behind him.

“We’ll have to shoot our way through all that,” Dearka said breathlessly, as the Buster hunkered down behind another building. Yzak squeezed off a beam rifle shot and ducked back behind cover, as the Astray he had hit exploded. “Flying over it won’t be an option; the Seirans have too many Murasames overhead. We‘d just get sucked into a dogfight.”

“Where the hell are our Murasames?!” Yzak snapped. “I thought Fllaga and Bartfeldt would take care of them!”

“They’re pinned down at the docks,” Dearka answered dourly, “so we’re pretty much on our own.” He paused. “Cover me, I’ll clear us a path.”

The Buster and Duel dove out into the street, and Yzak opened fire with a furious beam rifle volley. The Orb mobile suits down the street took cover behind their shields; the Buster combined its guns and leapt out from behind the Duel, firing its hyper impulse rifle down the street and tearing through six Astrays as they tried to block the blast with their shields.

“It’s a start,” Dearka grunted, detaching his guns and diving back behind cover with the Duel. “Give it thirty seconds and I’ll try it again.”

“This is a disaster,” Yzak growled. An Astray vaulted up over the building tops, beam saber raised— Yzak cut it down with a railgun shot and sent the broken mobile suit’s corpse slamming into the street. “We don’t even have half of what we need to attack this place.”

“Well, we’ll have to make do with what we do have,” Dearka said. “ZAFT had control of half the Earth within one year, and they were outnumbered ten to one.”

“Yeah, and look where ZAFT was a year later,” Yzak shot back. “Go!”

The Duel leapt back out from behind the building, opening fire again. Dearka combined his guns and fired another blast down the street, taking down eight more unlucky Astrays.

“Good enough!” Dearka shouted. “Let’s go!”

The Duel and Buster took off, the Loyalist Astrays right behind them.

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“We’re not getting anywhere!” Mwu shouted, as the Aile Strike Gundam pitched dizzyingly out of the sky to avoid a squadron of furious Murasames. “And I’m all out of genius plans! What about you, Andy?!”

“If ‘fight like hell’ is a genius plan, then we’re doing it!” Andy answered; up above, the Aegis slithered out of a storm of beam fire and transformed to its mobile armor mode, wiping out two Murasames in one blast from its Scylla cannon. The Aegis returned to its mobile suit mode to bat away another beam shot and return fire with its beam rifle.

“Dammit,” Mwu grunted— he whipped around and shot down a charging Shrike Astray with his beam rifle, dodging more beam shots from a trio of Murasames. “Fllaga team! Focus your fire on the enemy Murasames! The Shrikes aren’t that threatening!”

“We have to cover Yzak and Dearka!” Andy shouted. “It won’t be long before they get pinned down from above!”

“What about Athrun and Cagalli?” Mwu yelled back, as he dove out of the way of a Murasame squadron and shot down the left-hand machine.

Andy scowled in frustration. “They’re on their own!”

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Jona Roma Seiran smiled as the reports filtered by. The Orb Raiders had attacked, along with the meager forces of the Athha family loyalists hiding out in and around the United Emirates of Orb. The Athha loyalists were putting up a tough fight for now, but Jona knew better— it would only be a matter of time before they collapsed.

“How long until we reach Orb territory?” Jona asked loudly.

“Three hours sir,” the helmsman asked. Jona nodded.

“Increase to flank,” he said, “and order the same of the fleet.”

At Jona’s side, Todaka blinked in surprise. “Admiral,” he said, “we’re already running at 115 percent on the reactors.”

“Then give me 120,” Jona said with a shrug. “Our homeland is under attack, Captain. Should that not spur you on?”

Todaka hesitated a moment; Jona smirked back. At last, Todaka turned around. “All ships, increase to flank!” he ordered.

Jona sat back, crossing his arms. Today was the day where all would see just what the goddess of victory was truly capable of.

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The Justice Gundam landed with a crash behind the safety of a skyscraper, lunging out of the path of a storm of beam fire. Nearby, the Strike Rouge landed behind the Justice and ejected an empty clip from its bazooka.

“Where is our air cover?!” Cagalli growled, as a Seiran Murasame deposited a volley of missiles into the Justice’s shield. “Dammit, where the hell are Mwu and Andy?!”

“They’re pinned down at the docks,” Athrun answered, pausing to shoot down the Murasame as it came around for another attack. “We underestimated the Seirans’ positions here!”
An explosion split the air overhead, and a blue-painted Shrike Astray staggered out of the air in flames. Cagalli cursed under her breath. “They must have known we were coming!”

A Seiran Astray leapt up from behind another building nearby— Cagalli squeezed off a shot from her bazooka and sent the Astray reeling, and a moment later, Athrun finished it off with a beam rifle shot.

“We shouldn’t hang around here,” Athrun said gravely. “We can’t hold out here by ourselves, and we still have to get to the National Defense Headquarters!”

“I know!” Cagalli shot back. Another volley of missiles came down nearby, but Athrun cut them out of the air with a CIWS burst before they could hit and scanned the skies urgently. “Look,” Cagalli said, “you cover me while I make a run for the front entrance.”

“The front entrance?!” Athrun echoed in disbelief. “Are you mad? That’s the place they’ll be guarding the most heavily!”

“We have to get in somehow!” Cagalli shouted back.

“There’s better ways than that!” Athrun snapped. “If you’re going to do something, do it right!” Cagalli blinked in surprise, falling silent. “You make a run for the front door and they’ll kill you! I’m not about to let that happen! If you want to get in there, we’ll get in there, but we’re not doing it the suicidal way! Got it?!”

Cagalli was silent a moment. “…yeah,” she said quietly. Athrun returned his attention to the skies, as a squadron of Murasames came storming towards them.

“We can get in through an underwater passage,” he continued. “We’re only attacking by land and air, so I doubt they’re prepared for an underwater battle. We just have to get across to the harbor.”

“Mwu and Andy are supposed to be covering us from the air,” Cagalli growled.

“But they’re not,” Athrun countered, “so we’ll have to get creative.” He glanced to the side— there was a dilapidated, beam-riddled skyscraper threatening to topple over near the Seiran lines. Athrun looked up and opened fire on the incoming Murasame squadron, forcing their numbers apart and sending two of the Murasames plummeting helplessly to the ground. “Shoot at that skyscraper,” Athrun instructed. “I’ll cover you!”

“But Athrun— ” Cagalli began.

“If you’ve got a better idea, feel free to share it!” Athrun cut her off. “Otherwise, get going!”

The Strike Rouge leapt out from behind cover, while Athrun let loose a vicious burst of beam fire towards the Seiran mobile suits. Cagalli aimed carefully at the building’s crumbling foundation and fired off three shells before ducking back behind cover. The skyscraper toppled over with a deep rumble, and a pall of dust rose up over the battlefield.

“Come on!” Athrun shouted. The Justice seized the Strike Rouge’s hand and pulled it out into the dust. The Seiran mobile suits were fleeing desperately as the skyscraper toppled down onto their lines, and Athrun and Cagalli slipped past easily in the confusion. Athrun wheeled around in front of the harbor, firing a volley of machinegun and beam fire towards the Seiran forces to keep them further off balance, and glanced at Cagalli over his shoulder. “Get into the water! I’ll be there in a second!”

The Strike Rouge leapt into the ocean, and Athrun turned back around, finding the survivors in the Seiran mobile suit force shambling towards him, weapons raised. He glanced to his left and caught sight of a massive fuel tank— Athrun leapt backwards, over the water, and cut the tank apart with a volley of machinegun fire. He dove into the water just as a massive fireball consumed the Seiran mobile suits.

“We could sink the entire fleet from here,” Cagalli said, as the Strike Rouge touched down at the bottom of the harbor.

“That’s not our job,” Athrun said. “Follow me. We‘ll go up inside, clear out a hangar, and set down there.” The Justice set down on the harbor floor and began to tramp across the ground towards a massive circular airlock door.

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The Duel Gundam staggered back from the blow of an artillery shell and ducked behind the relative safety of a skyscraper. Inside, Yzak hissed a curse— the Seirans had reinforced their positions in front of the Assembly building, and called in enough artillery to stop the Duel and Buster in their tracks. The Loyalist Astrays had taken cover behind buildings and wreckage long ago, while the two Gundams tried to press valiantly on. But Phase Shift armor, it seemed, could only take so much damage, and Yzak was in no mood to see how much more it could take before giving out.

“We’re going to need to stop all that artillery somehow,” Dearka grunted, as the Buster slid to safety behind a skyscraper. “Maybe someone can distract the batteries?”

“That someone won’t last long,” Yzak countered, as the ground shook from a nearby impact. “And we still have a ways to go.”

A Loyalist Astray up ahead of the two Gundams leapt out of cover, trying to hurl a grenade towards the artillery line; a barrage of shells and beam fire slashed the mobile suit to pieces, and the arm collapsed at the foot of the wreckage, grenade still clasped in its hand. Yzak and Dearka tried to shout out a warning, but it was no use— a massive blast ripped its way across the street, and a skyscraper next to the blast tilted dangerously over the street.

“We’re going to do more damage than good to this country at this rate,” Dearka growled. He blinked in surprise. “Watch out!”

The two Gundams and the remaining Loyalist Astrays backed away as the skyscraper finally came down with a crash, throwing up a veil of dust and smoke over the battlefield.

“Do you think we can make it?” Dearka asked, glancing urgently at Yzak.

“We’ll have to,” Yzak muttered. “All units, follow us!”

The Duel and Buster vaulted up over the fallen tower, landing with a crash and activating their infrared sensors. Yzak scowled at the lines of artillery and opened fire with a full blast from every ranged weapon on his machine, while Dearka unleashed a volley of missiles on the artillery lines. A chain of explosions blew the cannons apart, and the missiles sent the Seiran Astrays reeling back.

“Go!” Dearka shouted, the Buster waving frantically to the Loyalist Astrays. “Before they recover!”

The Loyalists opened fire, cutting through the Seirans’ lines. Yzak glanced back at Dearka.

“What are Zala and Cagalli doing?” he asked angrily, firing a beam rifle shot through the haze and taking down a Seiran Astray down the street.

“They’re still trying to get into the National Defense Headquarters,” Dearka answered, pausing to duck under a beam blast from another enemy Astray. “Commander Bartfeldt says they went underwater.”

“What do they think they can do there?” Yzak snarled, deflecting a volley of beams with his shield and firing back. “All units, let’s go!”

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“Are they insane?!” Mwu snapped, as the Aile Strike Gundam dove backwards dizzyingly. “Half of our force is getting shredded on the ground, and the other half is getting shredded in the air! We can’t hold out much longer like this!”

“Well, talking sense into Cagalli has never been one of Athrun’s strong points,” Andy grunted back, as the Aegis Gundam took four beam shots to its shield and fired back with its rifle, picking a Murasame off as it swung around to flank him. “Yzak and Dearka are going for the assembly building!”

“We’ve got to get over there one way or another!” Mwu shouted, as the Aile Strike wheeled around and shot down a charging Shrike Astray. “Murasames, form up in Delta Zero formation! Andy, we’ll have to try that maneuver!”

“That maneuver?!” Andy asked, his face lighting up in delight. “About damn time!” He glanced over his shoulder. “Alright boys, all those hours in the simulator will have to pay off today!” The Orb Raider Murasames swung around, lining up in a staggered formation behind the Strike and Aegis.

“Shrike Astrays, ascend over the battlefield! We’ll distract the enemy Murasames, and you can move in and support the Duel and Buster!” Mwu added. “All Murasame units, we’re doing this one by the book!”

The Murasames swept in behind the Strike and the Aegis— the combined formation took off with a flash, shrieking forward at top speed. The Murasames opened fire with their beam rifles and cannons, as the formation streaked in low over the dock, tearing down Seiran Astrays as they tried to take cover behind their shields. The Murasames shrieked over the battlefield— up ahead, their enemy counterparts tried to open fire, unleashing a wave of missiles, but the Orb Raiders machines returned fire with a storm of CIWS fire, blasting through the smoke and slicing through the attackers.

“We’re almost there!” Mwu shouted. Up ahead, a tower of smoke rose into the sky from the street in front of the assembly building— he watched Yzak’s Duel somersault into the air, pounding the Seiran troops below with a beam rifle volley before gravity dragged him back down.

“Break formation!” Andy ordered— the Murasames rocketed apart as a wave of beam fire from the Seiran troops flashed through the air. The Aegis roared down toward the ground, igniting the beam saber on its right leg and ripping a charging Shrike Astray in half with a scything kick.

The Aegis landed with a crash on the top of an office tower and picked off two Astrays down below before it took off again. Mwu darted own into the street, firing down at the Seiran forces with his beam rifle before lunging back up into the air.

“It’s about damn time you showed up,” Yzak grunted— the Duel staggered back as a volley of beam shots landed against its shield. “They’re pinning us down here!”

“Murasames! Air support, now!” Mwu snapped, as the Strike picked off a Seiran Murasame of its own. The Murasames swept in over the Seiran Astrays’ heads, pounding them with missiles.

“There’s only so much we can do down here,” Dearka added, pausing to fire his hyper impulse cannon down the street, smashing through three more Astrays. “Where are Athrun and Cagalli?!”

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The ground shook as Athrun’s grenade blasted the doors open, sending two twisted sheets of steel clattering down the halls. A squad of Orb soldiers backed away as Athrun himself burst through the smoke, assault rifle spewing rounds that went ricocheting down the metal walls.

“Where are we?!” Cagalli shouted through the din, as Athrun somersaulted up over the Orb troops’ heads, emptying his rifle into their ranks from above as he sailed through the air. He landed deftly, seizing another assault rifle and tossing his empty one to the side.

“It looks like some kind of access tunnel,” Athrun said. “I guess they use this in the event of emergencies.”

“But we have to get to the command center!” Cagalli protested. Athrun checked the clip and liberated another four cartridges of ammunition from the bodies. “If there’s any place where we could take control, it’ll be there!”

“Of course it will,” Athrun said, casting a weary glance down the hall. “But that doesn’t mean they’re going to listen.” He blinked in surprise, as his accelerated hearing picked something up. “Wait— ”

A sliding door at the end of the hall came crashing down, and Athrun and Cagalli stared in disbelief as a linear tank crunched its way into the hallway.

“A tank?!” Cagalli exclaimed.

“Look out!” cried Athrun, tackling her to the ground as the tank opened fire. A shell smashed into the wall behind them, and the blast sent them tumbling forward. “Dammit!” Athrun grunted, skidding to a halt and putting himself between the armored monster and Cagalli. “Are they insane?! They’ll cave the whole tunnel in if they do that again!”

The tank’s hatches opened, and soldiers wielding machineguns popped out, leveling off their weapons at Athrun. He narrowed his eyes, seizing Cagalli by the arm and diving aside as the soldiers opened fire.

“What is wrong with them?!” Cagalli screamed. “They’re going to bring the whole building down!”

The linear tank’s cannon boomed again, smashing into the wall. Athrun and Cagalli dove aside, shielding their heads as flaming debris rained down around them. Athrun looked up in frustration at the sound of creaking support beams. The tank slowly began to back away into the side passage it had burst out of. He looked back towards the shattered wall, noting an exposed room on the other side.

“Come on!” Athrun barked, seizing Cagalli by the hand and darting forward, towards the ruined wall and diving through the opening. The tunnel came down behind them with a blinding plume of dust— together they stumbled forward, onto a large open platform. Athrun’s eyes darted around furiously, scanning for cover and enemies— something caught his eye, and he looked up in surprise—

“What the hell is that?” he grunted, squeezing his eyes shut as a blinding light flashed into his eyes. He squinted up at it painfully.

“It’s…” Cagalli began, “…a mobile suit…?”

A blazing golden machine, with a modified frame of the Strike and the face of a Gundam, sporting a winged backpack, stood before them surrounded in wires and pipes and a thin metal gantry holding it in place.

“It’s not like an Astray or a Murasame,” said Athrun, blinking and shielding his eyes from the glare off the machine’s brilliant armor. “It’s like…a gold-plated Strike, or something.”

“But…what is it doing here?” Cagalli growled. “Is this supposed to be some new model?!”

Athrun’s headset beeped; he tapped the receive button in annoyance, turning away from the blinding machine. “This is Zala, what is it?”

“You bastard, where the hell have you been?!” Athrun winced in pain as Yzak’s furious voice exploded from the speaker. “We’re getting torn apart out here! Hurry the fuck up!”

“We can’t get up to the command center,” Athrun answered testily. “A tank attacked us in the access tunnels underground. We’re in a mobile suit hangar.”

“What?!” Mwu’s voice cut in. “A mobile suit hangar?! And there’s no one there?!”

“It looks like nobody is supposed to be in here,” Athrun replied, looking around. There was a large hatch in the ceiling of the cavernous hangar, but other than that, no conceivable way that this could be a facility intended for frequent use. “Everything’s too nicely polished anyway.” He blinked. “Especially the mobile suit.”

“There’s a mobile suit in there?” Mwu asked anxiously. “A new model?”

“I’ve never seen one like it before.” Athrun glanced over at Cagalli. “What are we going to do?”

“That doesn’t matter! Get out of there!” Mwu snapped. Athrun and Cagalli both blinked in surprise, turning to listen to Mwu’s insistent voice. “We’ve sustained too many casualties! The Seiran troops are getting resurgent, the Athha loyalists are almost all dead, and the Megami won’t be able to hide offshore under Mirage Colloid forever! We’re pulling back, you guys have to as well!”

“What?!” Cagalli screamed. “Pull back?! But we haven’t— ”

“We’ve lost!” Mwu shot back. There was a pause. “That’s an order, dammit! Just pull back!”

The line cut out— Cagalli’s eyes widened in horror.

“They were intercepting our transmission,” Athrun explained. “We have to do as he says. We’ve spent too much time here as is.”

“No!” Cagalli screamed. “We can’t! We have to stay and finish this attack! If we let the Seirans win— ”

“They’re already won!” Athrun snapped. “We had one chance to take them down in a big military operation and show the people of Orb how dangerous they are! We blew it! We didn’t have enough strength to attack this position and the fighting has spilled into the city! Staying any longer will just cause us more damage!” He glanced towards the door in alarm as crashes rang behind it— soldiers were trying to break it open.

“If we leave now we’ll never get a chance like this again!” Cagalli shot back. “We have to defeat them here! We can’t let them control Orb! They’re already dragging the country to its doom; we can’t let them get any farther!” She grabbed Athrun by the collar, glowering at him. “We’ve come this far in order to take back Orb and have a place where we don’t have to fight anymore! Now you want to turn back?! We just have to— ”

“Cagalli!” Athrun roared, pushing her back a step. She trailed off in shock, watching him with wide eyes. “Listen to yourself!” he continued angrily. “You just heard that we have to retreat or we’ll die! Does that not mean anything to you!? What good will we have done anyone if all we do here is get ourselves killed?!” He gestured angrily at the golden mobile suit. “We’re human beings, Cagalli, not gods! You can’t keep pushing us like this! The Seirans knew we were coming, they knew where we would attack, and they were prepared! We didn’t have enough troops to attack this position, and now all our allies are dead and we have one window of escape left! Do you want to die here and know you couldn’t accomplish anything?!”

“That’s not important!” Cagalli insisted. “My life makes no difference! I’m not just doing this for myself!”

“And I’m not standing here trying to make you see reason for myself either!” Athrun shot back. “I’ve stood by your side ever since the day Orb was first invaded, protecting you like I said I would! Human life isn‘t all about politics and ideals! I’m not going to let you die in a place like this!” The door wrenched painfully under the pressure of the soldiers behind it, trying to force it open with crowbars. Athrun seized Cagalli by the arm and dragged her towards the shining machine. “We’re leaving, and that is that!”

The door slammed open with a blood-curdling shriek— Athrun whirled around, tearing his two handguns out of their holsters under his arms and opening fire as a squad of Orb soldiers stormed into the room, rifles drawn.

“Go!” Athrun screamed, backing away as the soldiers ducked behind cover. Cagalli raced towards the ladder, leading up to the boarding gantry. Athrun focused his fire on the soldiers not shooting at him— they would be the ones to shoot at her. Up above, Cagalli leapt up onto the gantry and turned to glance down at Athrun— he howled in pain as a bullet struck him in the shoulder, and dropped the gun in his right hand. Another bullet sliced through his left leg, and he fell forward, grinding his teeth in pain.

“Athrun!” she screamed. The soldiers turned up towards her— she dove into the cockpit of the golden mobile suit, slamming the hatch shut. “Shit…I have to do something…” She glanced around the cockpit— its setup was nearly identical to the Strike Rouge, and she quickly brought the mobile suit online, glancing down at the startup screen. “Akatsuki…?”

The Akatsuki’s eyes flashed bright blue as the mobile suit tore itself out of its restraints. Cagalli scowled down at the soldiers and tore them apart with a blaze of CIWS fire; the Akatsuki kneeled down next to Athrun, extending its left hand, and he hobbled painfully into its palm. Cagalli keyed open the frequency for the Megami.

“Cagalli!” Murrue exclaimed. “Where have you been?!”

“We’ve secured the new model,” Cagalli said, as she pulled a bleeding Athrun into the cockpit. “Send someone to pick up the Justice and Rouge. Athrun is hurt; I’m coming back to the ship.”

“It’s about damn time!” Yzak’s voice cut in angrily. “Dearka, come on! We’ll get their suits and then we can go!”

Cagalli cut the line and slammed the hatch shut, glancing at Athrun as he tried to staunch the bleeding in the crash seat. “Athrun— ”

“Just get back to the ship!” Athrun grunted, slapping a square of patching material over the hole in his leg.

The Akatsuki stomped forward, tearing its way out of its berth and slamming its feet down onto the floor with a crash. Cagalli looked around anxiously for a way out— she glanced up at the ceiling and took aim at the ceiling hatch with her beam rifle. Two shots and a thundering explosion later, the hatch slammed down on top of the mechanisms the Akatsuki had been ensnared by. Cagalli glanced again at Athrun; he grunted in pain as he squeezed patching material over his shoulder.

“Don’t worry about me,” he grunted. “Just get us back to the ship.”

Cagalli looked up at the sky, dotted and crisscrossed by thick black smoke. She set her hands around the Akatsuki’s controls, and took off with a roar.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Shoving the inert Strike Rouge into the hangar for the mechanics to deal with, Yzak landed the Duel with a crash on the Megami’s top deck, standing next to the starboard Gottfried. He glanced up ahead, watching the Orb Raiders’ Murasames pull back around the ship, fighting desperately as the Seiran troops moved in.

“Where the hell are they?!” Dearka barked, as the Buster landed next to the portside Gottfried and fired up at the charging Seiran Murasames with his hyper impulse cannon. “It’s not like we’ve got all day here!”

“Cagalli said she’s coming back,” Andy insisted as the Aegis backed up towards the Megami’s dark hull. “And we can’t well leave without her.”

“Well she better get her ass in gear!” Yzak snapped. “Otherwise— ”

A thunderous explosion cut him off— all eyes turned back towards the city, as a tower of smoke rose up from the ground.

“What the hell was that?!” Dearka demanded. “I thought we were retreating!”

There was a roar of thrusters, a beam went slicing up from the smoke to skewer an unsuspecting Astray, and a blazing golden mobile suit lunged into the air.

“Jesus Christ! What is that?!” Yzak growled, squinting at the thing as it reflected the sunlight.

Up ahead, watching impassively as the Seiran Murasames wheeled around to face it, the Akatsuki raised its beam rifle.

“I’ll break through them,” Cagalli said resolutely. Athrun eyed the oncoming mobile suits carefully— the Akatsuki roared forward, opening fire with its beam rifle and a pair of high energy cannons mounted on its backpack. Three Murasames went down in flames— the rest returned fire, and Cagalli skirted their fire, shooting back and rocketing up into the air. Another Murasame whirled around her, firing at her with its beam rifle— Cagalli turned to face it, but the beam came streaking towards her—

…and landed harmlessly against an invisible barrier inches before the armor.

“What?!” Athrun exclaimed. Cagalli looked down in surprise at the main screen.

“’Yata no Kagami…?’” she read. “It can deflect beams?”

“Cagalli!” Athrun grunted. “We have to leave, now!”

Cagalli glanced back at him over her shoulder. She wanted to stay and continue to fight; it was her last chance to build something in the world at last, to carve a niche out for the two of them, for their friends, for everyone who wanted no part in the war-torn world, to prove that she could do something. But Athrun was hunched in the crash seat behind her, squeezing space suit patching material over bleeding wounds in his shoulder and leg. Her friends were already pulling back, urging her to do the same, retreating from this fortress that the Seirans had turned her beloved country into.

She looked forlornly at Orb one last time, and took off towards the Megami.

——————————————————————————————————————————

“214 M1 Astrays destroyed…87 Murasames destroyed…1937 casualties reported thus far,” the deckhand read from his display on the bridge of the Takemikazuchi. Jona sat back, hand to his chin in thought. “The Athha family terrorists were completely destroyed. Of their 189 mobile suits, 165 were destroyed, thirteen were captured, and the remaining eleven escaped. A total of 43 Athha loyalists were captured.” The deckhand trailed off in confusion. “But…um…the ORB-01 Akatsuki mobile suit was stolen— ”

“So she got her hands on it after all,” Jona interrupted testily. “I suppose it’s no matter. It’s not as if one mobile suit can make that much of a difference to Orb.”

“Shall we return to port to bolster the defense forces?” Todaka inquired from his place beside Jona’s chair. Jona sat back, examining the Takemikazuchi’s massive digital map, watching the Megami race away from Orb, clawing its way east.

“Continue to follow the Megami,” he said. “They are defeated. Soon they will be crushed.”

——————————————————————————————————————————

The main screen was emblazoned with news reports, depicting the ZAFT forces in space being torn apart by the Earth Alliance in battle at Arzachel Crater. Murrue sat back with a sigh, watching them lifelessly as Mwu entered the bridge tiredly.

“…the ZAFT forces retreated with 65% losses,” the anchor intoned somberly. “The battle was also marked by treachery, in the form of famous Impulse pilot Shinn Asuka, who attacked his comrades during the battle and deserted along with an unidentified Earth Alliance unit…”

“Well, at least we aren’t the only ones who have everything blowing up in our faces,” Mwu muttered, coming up next to Murrue’s chair and crossing his arms. Murrue glanced up at him and sighed again.

“We’re heading east as fast as we can,” she said. “At 1900 we’ll activate the Mirage Colloid and turn north. We’ll have to lie low after this.”

“Try telling that to Cagalli,” Mwu snorted. “She still thinks we should turn around and give it another shot.”

“Well, the rest of us are here to sift through all her ideas and pick out the good ones,” Murrue said, rubbing her eyes wearily. “We can’t afford anything more than defensive combat right now. Not after losing all our allies in this attack.”

“Should we talk to her about it?” Mwu asked, arching an eyebrow. Murrue shook her head.

“She’ll learn from her mistakes,” she answered. “It won’t deter her, but it’ll give her pause.” She glanced up at Mwu. “We’ll have to fight harder than ever now.”

Mwu shrugged tiredly. “That’s how it’s always been.”

——————————————————————————————————————————

A bandaged Athrun glanced dourly at Cagalli as she stared blankly at the sea from the Megami’s observation deck. Orb was just a dark puff of smoke on the horizon now— but either way, it was not worth looking back. That was the site of their failure, their failure to make a place for themselves, their failure to make things right. How could they return?

“I’m sorry,” Athrun said quietly. Cagalli glanced at him solemnly. “I know I was snappish today. The battle just got to my head and I got caught up in it all.”

Cagalli continued to gaze at him blankly for a moment, and then looked back at the sea. “It’s alright,” she said. “It got us out alive.”

“And with a new model,” Athrun added. “Every little bit helps.”

Cagalli looked over at Athrun. She opened her mouth to say something, but stopped herself. Athrun glanced at her in surprise. “…thank you,” she said at last; Athrun blinked at her. “For protecting me,” she went on, looking away awkwardly, a faint blush forming on her cheeks. “For staying with me.” She turned her eyes back out towards the sea forlornly. “I led us all to failure and got all our allies killed, but you haven’t abandoned me yet.”

“You didn’t lead us to failure,” Athrun said, taking her by the shoulders. “As long as we’re still alive, as long as you’re still alive, we haven’t failed. The Seirans want to crush the Athhas forever. As long as we can protect you, and as long as you continue to lead us to try and find a place where we can have peace, we’ll have something to fight for.”

Cagalli blinked tearfully. “We…can still fight again…”

Athrun nodded painfully. “We can still fight again.”

Cagalli was silent a moment, before stepping towards him, throwing her arms around him. “Just…promise me you’ll still be with me for it,” she whispered. Athrun blinked in surprise, watching her pull away far enough to look imploringly into his eyes. They had failed, and were tasting the bitterness of defeat— even the mighty Cagalli and her seemingly Phase Shift-armored heart had to falter sometime.

And, Athrun reflected, it was better that she faltered here, in his arms, where only he would see it.

Athrun pulled her close; she tensed up for a moment, before she relaxed into his embrace, and their lips met in a tearful kiss.

“I won’t leave you to fight alone,” he promised as their lips parted. “Otherwise there’s nothing to fight for.”

Cagalli smiled through her tears. “We’ll have something together,” she said. “Someday. I swear it.”

They both pulled each other close and turned their eyes towards the sea.

——————————————————————————————————————————

End