Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY

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Phase 26 - The Friend of My Friend

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"We'll have to fight Stella," Auel said quietly.

He sat in the cockpit of the Abyss Gundam, his hand still over the switch to close his visor. He glanced across the hangar at the Chaos—at Sting.

"Of course we will," Sting answered, just as quietly.

"Then what will we do?" Auel asked anxiously. "We can't kill her."

"We'll fight her," Sting said with a hint of authority, "and we'll see what happens."

He glanced meaningfully at Auel; Auel nodded uneasily and looked across the hangar, as Neo climbed into the cockpit of his Windam.

"And what about Shinn?" Auel asked, glancing back at Sting.

"Same thing," Sting said with another shrug. "We'll just have to wing it and hope for the best."

The Abyss stepped onto the starboard catapult. Auel scowled at the sight up ahead; there was a colony with an asteroid attached to the nearer end, and in front of that colony, a ship that Sting and Auel knew all too well.

“The Kasselheim, as it’s called,” Neo began with his usual sarcastic cheer, “has some spiffy new engines. However, we have some spiffier new Windams, and we’re going to go take them for a test drive. While we’re at it we’ll try to capture Stella.”

Auel clenched his fists around the Abyss’s controls—that fucking Neo always had to take things lightly.

“Auel Neider, Abyss,” he growled, “launching!”

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Shinn cracked his knuckles as the Impulse Gundam warmed up. Bogey 1 was back—he paused and shook his head, realizing that he was still using ZAFT’s designation for Stella’s mysterious blue mothership. But it didn’t matter. The Chaos and Abyss Gundams would be back...and so would Neo.

“Shinn,” Kika’s voice interrupted. Shinn glanced down at his screen; Kika smiled at him. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Shinn looked away awkwardly. “I told you,” he said quietly, “I have to fight for Stella’s sake.”

“But will you be able to?” Kika asked. Shinn looked back at her, trying to look confident.

“Do I have a choice?” he asked back.

Before Kika could answer, he cut the transmission and stepped onto the catapult.

“Don’t overdo it, Shinn,” George warned, as his CGUE moved into position behind the Impulse. “They’ve got those new mobile suits, the Windams.”

Shinn scowled up at the thin sparkles of light up ahead. He could feel Neo’s presence, and with a sickening feeling of realization, he could feel two more familiar presences...but they didn’t feel right, somehow.

A blaze of beam shots slashed through space towards the Kasselheim; the ship lurched and slowly heaved out of the way of the blasts. Shinn’s eyes flashed.

“Shinn Asuka, Impulse, going out!”

The catapult fired and the Impulse rocketed out of the hangar with a flash of exhaust. Shinn clenched his teeth—somewhere out there, Neo was coming for him.

“They have more mobile suits,” he grunted, scanning over the elusive Bogey 1’s ranks. They had the Chaos and Abyss, plus Neo’s purple Windam, six blue and white bazooka-toting Doppelhorn Windams, and ten Dagger Ls. He glanced back at the Kasselheim and felt a surge of energy rise through him as the Gaia took off.

“It’s your friends,” Shinn said quietly to Stella, as the Gaia fell into formation next to the Impulse, “isn’t it?”

Stella nodded slowly, staring forward at the Chaos and Abyss.

“Sting...and Auel,” she murmured. Shinn looked back at them.

“I don’t want to fight them,” he said grimly.

Stella looked at him. “They don’t wanna fight Shinn,” she added softly. Shinn blinked in surprised and looked back at her.

“They what?” he asked in disbelief. Stella returned her gaze to the charging Alliance mobile suits; Shinn grunted in frustration and gunned the booster. “Well,” he muttered to himself, “I know one of you I want to fight!”

The Abyss Gundam opened fire with its shoulder shells; Shinn and Stella darted away from the beam blasts and returned fire with their beam rifles, but the Abyss deflected their shots with its shells and fired back with its chest cannon.

“Shinn! Stella!” Chris’s voice shouted, as his 105 Dagger spiraled into the fray and opened fire with its beam rifle. “Distract the Gundams and Windams! We’ll take care of the Daggers!”

The Chaos dropped in with a beam rifle blast; Shinn and Stella pulled back behind their shields, and Shinn scowled up at the Chaos as it leveled off its rifle for another shot.

“How are we supposed to distract them?!” Shinn snapped, pushing the Gaia aside as the Chaos fired.

“The mines!” Zora yelled, as her GuAIZ rocketed over the Chaos’s head and fired at the oncoming Daggers. “Lure them into the mines!”

Shinn glanced at the porous asteroid attached to the end of the Neo Shanghai colony. He snarled a curse under his breath and took off towards it with Stella in tow.

“Stella,” he said quickly, “we’ll have to fight in a close space. Will you be okay?”

Stella nodded slowly, and Shinn glanced anxiously over his shoulder.

Inside the Chaos, Sting scowled as he rocketed after the retreating Impulse and Gaia.

“Dagger squadron, you handle the pirate MS,” Neo’s voice ordered. “Lee, you handle the ship! Chaos, Abyss, Windam squadron, we’re going after the Gundams!”

“Yes sir!” the Windam pilots chorused; the Windams took off after Neo’s purple Windam. The Abyss slid into formation next to the Chaos as they both followed.

“Stella’s going to fight us,” Auel said quietly.

“And we’ll wing it,” Sting instructed him.

At the mouth of one of the mine tunnels, Shinn turned and watched the Alliance mobile suits approach.

“They fell for it!” he exclaimed in surprise. “What are they planning?”

The Abyss’s shoulder shells swung open for another attack, while the Windams leveled off their guns for a barrage of their own. Shinn shoved the Gaia deeper into the mines as the Alliance mobile suits opened fire.

“He’s smarter than I thought,” Neo grunted. “Follow him into the mines!” His Windam took off towards the asteroid.

“We’ll have to split up,” Shinn said quickly as he and Stella retreated further into the mines. “Be careful in here, Stella!”

The Gaia vanished in another direction. Shinn dove into the darkness, swiveled around, and clenched his fists around the Impulse’s controls, anxiously waiting.

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“Gottfried, fire!”

The Girty Lue’s Gottfried guns blazed; across the battlefield, on the Kasselheim, Mev Typhoon scowled.

“Mike, dodge it!” he instructed. “Yun, get the weapons ready! We’ll fight this one ship-to-ship!”

“Captain, Chris says the Impulse and the Gaia have led some of the Alliance mobile suits into the mine!” Kika exclaimed, looking anxiously over her shoulder at Mev.

“Good,” Mev said. “Tell Chris to keep the Alliance Daggers busy. We’ll take on the mothership.”

On the Girty Lue’s bridge, Lee watched impassively as the Kasselheim swung around for a return barrage of its own. The missiles streaked forward.

“Igelstellungs, shoot them down!” Lee barked; a storm of CIWS fire picked the Kasselheim’s missiles out of the black sky. “Move in and hit them at close range!”

The Kasselheim turned again and began to pull away, towards the colony. Lee scowled. “Don’t let them escape! Disable their engines!”

On the Kasselheim’s bridge, Mev gripped his armrests tensely and watched the Girty Lue carefully.

“Yun, fire the Valiants! Now!”

The Kasselheim’s Valiant railguns fired; Lee’s eyes widened as the railgun shells streaked past his ship and exploded, surrounding the Girty Lue in fire and smoke.

“Pull up!” he ordered. “Gottfried five and six, fire on the last known vector! Don’t let them hit us!”

The Girty Lue’s Gottfrieds tore apart the fireball and blazed past the Kasselheim; Mev stood up.

“We’ve got them dazzled,” he said “Gottfrieds, fire!” He clenched his fists as the Gottfrieds rumbled and the Girty Lue lazily rolled out of harm’s way. “Mike, pull us closer to the colony. We’re in for a long fight.”

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Shinn scowled at the approaching two Windams as they scanned through the darkness of the mine after him. The Impulse crouched behind a piece of heavy machinery in the shadows, beam rifle ready. He counted down a handful of seconds, waiting for the Windams to move into range—

The second Windam opened fire with its Doppelhorn Striker before Shinn could attack, blowing the machinery apart and forcing Shinn out of hiding. He pulled back behind his shield; the Windams fired again, raising a storm of loose rocks around the Impulse. The first Windam charged with its bazooka and fired; Shinn ducked underneath the shell and stabbed a beam rifle shot forward. The Windam slapped it aside with its shield and fired another bazooka shell into the Impulse’s face, sending it staggering back.

“Dammit!” Shinn growled. “They’re good!”

The second Windam fired a trio of shells at the Impulse; Shinn screamed as he jetted aside, and swept into the first Windam’s face, drawing his beam saber and slicing off both barrels of its Doppelhorn Striker. The Windam pulled back and hurled the ruined pack at the Impulse; Shinn hacked through it with his saber and went reeling back from the resulting explosion. The Windam slammed down and fired its bazooka; Shinn hacked through the smoke to cut the shell down with a blaze of CIWS fire and storm forward, slashing the Windam’s bazooka in two. The Windam pulled back and drew its beam rifle—the second Windam fired another volley of shots.

Shinn’s eyes flashed as he picked the shells out of the air with his CIWS and charged. He ducked beneath the second Windam’s shots and darted past the first Windam, diving into the second Windam’s face and slicing its Doppelhorn Striker in two. The Windam abandoned the ruined Striker pack and swung around with its bazooka, just in time for Shinn to lop off the barrel with his saber and kick the Windam in the face, sending it staggering back.

The Impulse landed with a crash as the first Windam caught its comrade. Shinn scowled at the two mobile suits.

“Damn them,” he growled. “How did the Alliance come up with such a good machine?”

The Windams fired their beam rifles; Shinn jetted to the side as the shots slammed into the rock wall with a burst of fire.

“And it’s too damn cramped to maneuver in here!” Shinn added in frustration, ducking beneath another volley of beam shots and pulling back behind his shield. "What was I thinking, going in here?!" The Windams charged after him; Shinn looked up as a flash of recognition pricked his consciousness.

Immediately, the Impulse lunged back, away from the Windams, drawing its beam rifle. The Windams raised their own rifles; Shinn screamed and fired his rifle up into the ceiling of the tunnel. Rocks went flying, smashing down onto the Windams and forcing them to the tunnel floor. With a final shout, he aimed back down at the first Windam’s cockpit and drilled a fatal shot through its stomach. The other Windam took cover behind its shield; Shinn’s eyes flashed as he turned his rifle on the remaining mobile suit, and with one last beam shot, it was all over.

The Impulse turned and took off down the tunnels.

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Neo’s Windam swept forward, beam saber in hand—inside the Gaia, Stella tensed and raised the Gaia’s own saber. The two machines met with a crash.

"You're too dangerous a loose end to keep around now, Stella," Neo grunted; the Windam surged forward, shoving the Gaia back, and swung its saber horizontally, seeking to slice the Gaia in half at the waist. The Gaia threw itself back to avoid the Windam's saber; the Windam charged after the Gaia, and the mobile suits' two sabers clashed in a spray of sparks. "A little girl like you can't be allowed to run around free!"

The Gaia jetted backwards as the Windam brought its saber down again; Stella clenched her fists around the Gaia's controls.

"Neo said he'd protect me..." she murmured; the Windam charged, loosing a hail of CIWS fire on the Gaia. The bullets bounced harmlessly off the Gaia's Phase Shift armor. "But...Neo didn't protect me..." she whispered to herself, deflecting the Windam's beam saber stroke with her shield and pulling back. The Windam followed with another horizontal slash that Stella used the Gaia's shield to deflect. "And now..."

The Windam roared up over the Gaia and swung back down, beam saber raised for an overhead hack. Stella's eyes flashed angrily.

"Neo's trying to kill me!" Stella screamed; the Gaia surged upwards; inside the Windam, Neo blinked in disbelief—

The Windam shuddered and staggered backward as the Gaia delivered a scything kick across its face. Neo grunted in pain as he was thrown back inside his mobile suit, and struggled to regain his balance. He pulled back and drew his beam rifle, but an instant later the Gaia cleaved the rifle in half with its saber.

"Dammit!" Neo snarled, jumping over the Gaia's head and drawing his saber again. The Gaia took off after him and swung its beam saber wildly after the retreating Windam. "How did she get this rebellious?! Not even Sting and Auel have attacked me!"

"Neo's trying to kill me!" Stella shrieked, boosting up into the Windam's face and kicking it in the stomach. "Neo LIED!"

The Gaia brought its saber down; Neo swung his own forward to parry her blow, and the two mobile suits were stuck pushing against each other.

Neo scowled inside the cockpit of the Windam.

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"Shit, they keep coming!" Shinn grunted angrily as another Windam fired its bazooka at him in the mine tunnels. A second Windam lined up for a volley from its Doppelhorn Striker—Shinn whirled around to fire his beam rifle at the Windam's Striker before it could fire, blowing it apart in a violent explosion. The disarmed Windam staggered forward painfully—Shinn leapt backwards to avoid a bazooka shell from its comrade and fired again, spearing the wounded Windam on a beam shot through the torso.

As the Windam was torn apart in a thunderous explosion, Shinn stormed up into the other Windam's face, drawing his beam saber, slicing the Windam's bazooka in two, and kicking it backwards. The Windam drew its beam rifle, but Shinn stormed forward to slash it in half as well. The Windam drew back—Shinn charged after it, beam saber pulled back for a killing blow, and the Windam drew its own saber. The mobile suits clashed, and Shinn grunted in frustration as the Windam deflected his saber with its own.

The Windam surged forward, swinging its saber towards Shinn. He ducked beneath the blow, saw his opening, and lunged forward, driving his saber into the Windam's stomach.

"These things are incredible," Shinn breathed as the impaled Windam exploded. He turned and headed back down the tunnel, switching to his beam rifle. He could see the light of the stars twinkling up ahead, and thin green lines of beam fire ripping the sky apart.

A volley of beam shots ripped apart the rock as Shinn exited the tunnel, and he rocketed up out of the smoke, holding out his shield to deflect another volley of beam cannon shots. He skirted to the side as a red energy cannon blast smashed into the asteroid with a violent explosion.

Up ahead, the Chaos and Abyss Gundams loomed in front of him.

"That's the Impulse," Auel said quietly, scowling at the Gundam as it floated against the asteroid surface.

"We have no choice," Sting said grimly. "Shinn, for Stella's sake, you'd better survive."

The Chaos's eyes flashed, and the gunbarrels lifted off with a blast of exhaust. Shinn's eyes widened in surprise as the gunbarrels darted around him, and he took off to avoid a gauntlet of beam fire. The Abyss leapt up over the Chaos's head to fire a round of beam shots out of its shoulder shells. Shinn blinked in surprise as they seared by him and slammed into the rock face harmlessly.

"They're not shooting to hit me!" Shinn gasped, blinking at the two Gundams, as the Chaos fired towards him with his beam rifle and forced him closer to the asteroid. "Are they trying to box me in?!"

"Dammit, go back in the mine!" Sting shouted as he tried to lead the Impulse back into the tunnels with his beam blasts. "We don't want to fight you!"

"What?!" Shinn exclaimed. The Abyss fired a storm of beams at the Impulse, forcing it to retreat along the rock face.

"What part of it don't you understand?!" Auel shouted back. "Get back in the mine so we can't fucking find you!"

Shinn pulled back behind his shield as the Abyss took swipes at him with its beam lance. The Chaos's gunbarrels barred the way with a volley of beam fire—Shinn slammed on the brakes, but immediately the Abyss rammed into him and forced the Impulse back, seizing it by the arms and pushing it towards the rock.

"You're just lucky Stella likes you!" Auel shouted. "Or else I'd tear your fucking head off!"

"That's why you're letting me go?!" Shinn exclaimed.

The Chaos swept in, beam rifle raised. "Stella won't come back to us of her own free will," Sting snapped, "so if she's going to stay with you, we're gonna make sure you take care of her!"

"Now hurry up and get your ass out of here!" Auel snapped. "You're gonna blow our cover!"

The Chaos fired; Shinn's eyes widened in surprise as the blast seared by the Impulse and slammed into the rock behind him. As the smoke cloud surrounded them all, the Abyss let go of the Impulse, and Shinn jetted back down towards the tunnel.

Auel and Sting stared tensely at the cloud for a moment. Behind them, three combat flares went off, signaling a retreat—Sting and Auel glanced at each other, before the Chaos and Abyss turned and took off back towards the Girty Lue. In the tunnels, Shinn watched them go in disbelief.

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Rey had an idea that Aoma was coming long before she showed her face on the hatch of his ZAKU Phantom, but that didn’t make him any happier to see her. As she alighted on the hatch and peered warily inside the ZAKU, Rey sighed quietly to himself and stood up, crawling out of the ZAKU’s innards and staring disdainfully at Aoma.

“What is it?” he asked gruffly. Aoma blinked in surprise and fumbled for words momentarily.

“Commander Hahnenfuss sent me to tell you—” she began.

“That we won’t attack the Kasselheim,” Rey finished harshly, glaring at her. “I know.” He turned to delve back into the ZAKU’s interior and make her leave.

Aoma blinked helplessly. “Um,” she started awkwardly, “what are you doing in here?”

Rey glanced in dismay over his shoulder. “I’m adjusting the ZAKU’s operating system,” he said curtly. “Is there anything else?”

Aoma glanced aside awkwardly. “I...I guess not,” she said. “I’m...sorry for bothering you.”

She pushed off the ZAKU’s hatch and disappeared around a corner. Rey rolled his eyes and returned to work.

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“...they didn’t want to fight...” Stella murmured.

She stood on the Gaia’s open hatch, staring at the hangar doors, holding her helmet loosely in one hand. Shinn alighted on the hatch next to her and took her by the shoulders worriedly.

“Are you alright?” he asked. Stella looked at him slowly.

“...Sting and Auel...didn’t want to fight...” she said quietly. “...they’re Stella’s friends...”

“I know,” Shinn said, offering a smile.

“...did Shinn fight them?” Stella asked suddenly, turning to face him. Shinn blinked in surprise.

“They...they pretended to,” Shinn said haltingly, “but they told me to hide in the mine.”

Stella smiled slowly. “...Sting and Auel are Stella’s friends,” she said, “...so they won’t fight Shinn.”

Shinn smiled back awkwardly. “I guess not,” he said, wondering what else there was to say.

“...Shinn won’t hurt them, will he?” Stella asked, looking back at him with wide, earnest eyes.

Shinn opened his mouth to answer, but something stopped him. Stella wanted her friends to be safe, and while her friends were his enemy, there was no reason that Shinn could not extend to them the same charade of combat that they had extended to him. They weren’t like normal soldiers—they knew that Stella cared about him, and didn’t kill him because of it.

Maybe that was what made them “Extended.”

Shinn smiled back. “I won’t,” he said.

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“It’s a big colony,” the man said, “at least thirty million people. They’ve got mobile suits and everything.”

Shinn found himself in a bar, stingy and dark and smoky, deep within the Neo Shanghai colony. George was next to him, both of them in a dark, secluded booth, listening to the silent bar as a single man, gaunt and ghostly-looking, spoke slowly and spookily to the patrons.

“They say it’s a holdover of that old colony craze in the ‘30s,” the man went on, pausing to take a liberal swig of beer. “You guys remember it, right? When all those colonies started settin’ up crazy governments ‘n’ shit?”

There were murmurs of agreement. Shinn tuned them out. George stared calmly at the speaking man.

“This place, they call it the Marshall Colony,” the man went on, leaning in, as if he was a little boy at a campfire. “They say the Atlantic Fed helped start it up as a prison or somethin’ like that. But it’s crazy there.” Another pause for more beer. “Now, I dunno how much of this is true and how much is bullshit, but I hear things about this colony.”

“You hear things about every colony,” someone snorted. “What’s your point?”

“Well, this one’s different,” the man said with a hint of defensiveness. He looked around melodramatically. “I hear it’s full of monsters.”

“Monsters?” something echoed. “Man, what the hell are you drinking?”

“I’m serious,” the man said, “it’s full of monsters.” Another pause, another swig. “Just let me finish” He straightened his collarless jacket and cleared his throat. “Now, I’m not too sure about it all, but the rumors say that about twenty years ago, the Atlantic Fed started getting ready for a war against the PLANTs, and they realized that as they stood, the Naturals would’ve gotten their asses kicked, right?” A few nods answered him, though some faces seemed less than pleased. “I mean, no offense or anything, but...well, anyways,” the man continued awkwardly, “they set the colony up as a prison, for all their worst criminals, the guys that got 25 to life, you know, the rapists and murderers and shit.” More beer. “But they wanted to have some guys to fight the Coordinators, so they started doing these creepy-ass experiments on the prisoners, turning little children into super-soldiers, shit like that.” He paused. “I even heard they’d just take kids they thought would make good subjects out of their homes and kill the families, and make it look like a random murder-robbery. And then they’d find some guy, accuse him of doing it, and ship him up to the colony too.”

“But the Marshall Colony ain’t an Atlantic Fed colony anymore,” someone countered.

“Well, that's what they said,” the man answered with a shrug. “But they still secretly send weapons 'n' shit up there all the time. It's still a bigass prison.”

“And what does that have to do with this job you’re bragging about?” someone asked.

Shinn and George glanced meaningfully at each other.

“I’m gettin’ there, I’m gettin’ there,” the man groused. “Now just listen. Heard about this from the Kingfish, you know him. Someone, didn’t say who, wants proof that the Marshall Colony’s been dealing with the United Emirates of Orb. Some heavy shit.”

Shinn scowled at the name.

“Orb?” someone asked in surprise. “Why would they be dealing with a shithole like Marshall?”

“How the hell are you supposed to prove that they’ve been dealing with Orb?” another person asked. “They got the whole colony on lockdown.”

“I dunno,” the man said with a shrug, “but whoever this guy is, he wants that info. He’s willin’ to pay two million Earth dollars for it.”

Various people spit their drinks out in shock.

“Two million?” someone exclaimed incredulously.

Shinn and George glanced at each other again. George stood up and stepped into the light.

“Excuse me,” he said loudly, catching everyone’s attention, as he strode towards the ghostly-looking man. “I couldn’t help but overhear something about two million Earth dollars.”

“What, you gonna take that job?” the man asked, staring disbelievingly at George. “You fuckin’ nuts, man?”

“Yes, I intend to take that job,” George said calmly, “and I’d like more information about it.”

“What?” the man exclaimed. “What makes you think you can do this?”

George allowed himself a small smile. “I have a friend,” he said, “who should be quite up to the task.”

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To be continued...