Mobile Suit Gundam SEED ETERNITY

Phase 04 - The Stargazer

"There really isn't much to tell," Grey said awkwardly as he, Erin, and Merau strode down the Charlemagne's corridors and made for the crew lounge. "I mean, honestly, our fights with the Twilight don't last too long."

"That was in those standard Dark Windams," Erin answered, with far too confident a grin for either pilot's taste. "The Luna Project machines are far better. And with your skill— "

"We'll see," Merau interrupted. "There's only one way to find out just how good a machine is."

Erin shifted uncomfortably. "Well, once we get into combat with them, I know you'll be impressed." She smiled at Grey. "I'll see you later."

She disappeared around a corner and headed for the hangar, leaving Grey and Merau to stand at the crew lounge's doorway awkwardly. Finally, Merau crossed her arms and chuckled.

"You know how you said you joined the Phantom Pain to get chicks?"

Grey buried his face in his hands. "Yeah, but I kinda thought they weren't going to be in the Phantom Pain too." He shook his head. "You know she totally thinks you're my girlfriend or something."

"You should be so lucky," Merau laughed, and slapped him on the shoulder. "So what are you going to do about it?"

"I don't know. I was hoping this sort of thing wouldn't happen." He shook his head again. "Like we don't have enough drama going around here."

Silence filled the air inside Sven Cal Bayan's bunk as he locked gazes with Lieutenant Junior Grade Kelly Maynard, the young commander of the Charlemagne's new combat team. They had brought the Luna Project's machines with them as the foundation of this new unit. And Lieutenant Maynard had a sterling performance history as a mobile suit squad leader on the vicious battlefront of the Arabian peninsula, where she had acquitted herself well in ferocious mobile suit combat in the blistering desert. Surely she deserved to be here.

But many people deserved to be on the Charlemagne, and they were, and they had been blown away soon enough. It was not enough to deserve to be here.

Sven Cal Bayan abruptly stood up. "We will see how effective you are in combat," he said. "Your target will be the Twilight. We will assess your performance against the Resistance's 'Angel of Death.' Is that understood?"

Kelly saluted sharply. "Yes sir."

Sven sent her on her way and put a hand to his chin in thought. Shams would of course probably complain that he was using human lives as his measuring stick for an enemy pilot's skill again...but, really, what choice did he have?

"The Star One is going to focus on evacuating the staff from Troya Station," Athrun explained, as he, Shinn, and Rau drifted around the mapping console on the Minerva's bridge, all in their flight suits. He pointed toward the green shape in the screen's center. "The Minerva will keep the Seraphim occupied."

Rau crossed his arms pensively as he studied the map. "That will be difficult," he said. "Look at the radar spread. The station has taken damage. And a research station like Troya is not built to withstand warship fire." He shrugged. "We will not have long before the station splits apart, and trying to fish survivors out of colony wreckage is a task that would consume time we do not have."

Shinn and Athrun both shot Rau a distasteful look, and Shinn put a hand to his chin. "What would ZAFT even want with a place like that...?"

"Research and technology, most likely," Rau answered.

Athrun sighed. "Yeah, DSSD's been working on a new propulsion system, among other things. The Alliance has expressed all kinds of interest in it, but so far it's been low priority. But I don't know why ZAFT would care." He glanced dubiously at Rau.

"I don't know of anything either," the masked man answered. "Either way, it would behoove us to get to Troya and secure their treasures ourselves."

The part right before a battle was always the worst for Stella Loussier, as she strapped herself into her trusty Gaia Gundam. The battle itself wasn't scary— because Shinn was out there, and so were her friends, and she had the Gaia and she could fight. The scary part was before it all began, because she was just sitting here, waiting to launch.

She sat back as the catapult doors opened and the Legend stomped into the starboard catapult. Rau was sort of weird, and Stella really didn't know what was up with the mask, but she didn't see why Shinn was so mad at him. Maybe he was mean and Stella just didn't see it. But he was nice enough to her.

The catapult fired and the Minerva shuddered. Stella eased the Gaia into the mechanism next. This part was always fun, being pressed back into her seat by the g-forces. And the fighting after that...well, it definitely wasn't scary.

"Okay Stella, you've got the all-clear," Roxy said with a smirk. "Go kick some ass."

Stella nodded enthusiastically. "Stella and Gaia, going out!"

Settled into the Legend Gundam's cockpit, Rau Le Creuset broke into a grin as the Legend went spiraling towards the jet black Seraphim. That had been a fine ship, the sister vessel to his own Deliverance, but now it was his enemy. Funny how these things worked.

The Seraphim let loose a vicious salvo of missiles, cut down a moment later by the Legend's CIWS guns. Rau blinked in surprise as two mobile suits came streaking at him— a Blaze ZAKU Warrior and a Slash ZAKU Warrior, all in red, beam rifle at the ready.

"Only two?" he chuckled. "Let's see if your luck lasts through today!"

The Legend backflipped as the two ZAKUs opened fire, and then darted beneath the Slash ZAKU's barrage of beam Gatling shots. Rau held back a laugh and activated his DRAGOONs.

Beams sizzled by the Destiny and Gaia Gundams as they made their approach to the battered Troya Station. Shinn scanned the black sky for a sign of his enemies, and abruptly they appeared— a Slash ZAKU Warrior and a Blaze ZAKU Phantom, beam rifles ready.

"Stella, split up," Shinn instructed, and a moment later the Slash ZAKU filled the sky with beam Gatling shots. The Destiny rocketed up over the two ZAKUs to draw their fire, and the Gaia lunged at them both with its beam saber shining to life.

Instead, the Slash ZAKU charged down towards her and swung back with its beam axe, stopping the Gaia's blade cold. Stella scowled in frustration.

"It'll take more than that...!"

Up above, the Destiny whirled around the ZAKU Phantom's furious beam rifle shots and pounded a salvo of his own against the ZAKU's shoulder shields. The ZAKU darted aside as Shinn rushed in for a finishing palm cannon blow— but instead, Shinn whirled around with a beam boomerang in hand and hurled it through the ZAKU's beam rifle.

Monoeye flashing, the ZAKU drew both its beam tomahawks and lunged to slam them both against the Destiny's beam shield. As the boomerang came whirling back in, the ZAKU jinked to the right, and Shinn caught it with a grunt of frustration.

"Well, if it's going to be like that!" cried Shinn, and with a crash he stashed his beam rifle and drew the massive anti-ship sword instead. The ZAKU raised both its tomahawks and waited as the Destiny charged.

"Split up!" cried Athrun, and with a crash the Infinite Justice fired its thrusters and darted apart, along with the Savior, as a blazing red beam tore through the space between them. Athrun scanned the space ahead of them and found a crimson Gunner ZAKU Warrior on the warpath, a Blaze ZAKU Warrior just behind it, beam rifle leveled off.

"Well well, so they're back for more," Viveka growled. "I'll take care of the guy with the cannon."

The Savior rocketed forward and lunged to the right just as the Gunner ZAKU let loose another blast. The Justice roared after it and pounded the Blaze ZAKU with beam fire; it fired back a salvo of missiles, but Athrun effortlessly tore them down with a CIWS burst and charged in close. The ZAKU drew a beam tomahawk and brought it down with a crash onto the Justice's beam shield.

Nearby, the Savior whirled around the Gunner ZAKU's blazing beam shots and lined up for a plasma cannon volley. The ZAKU jetted upward as Viveka opened fire; she ground her teeth in frustration as the red ZAKU forced her back on the defensive. She dove to the left as the ZAKU fired again and closed in with a shout—

An instant later, she slammed back the controls and yanked the Savior back as the ZAKU whipped around and hurled a grenade towards her. As the red cylinder showered her with flames and shrapnel, she threw the Savior to the side again— just as a blast from the ZAKU's cannon pounded its way through the smoke.

"Very clever," Viveka snarled, "but you'll have to do better than that!"

The Chaos and Abyss Gundams rocketed down through a drifting field of wreckage on approach to the Troya Station. The debris of nothing but DSSD Civilian Astrays and parts of the station littered the surrounding space. Sting furrowed his brow as the two mobile suits approached the colony and began to reach bloody, bullet-riddled corpses. Perhaps ZAFT had sent infantry as well as mobile suits— which, he supposed, would make sense if their purpose here was to capture Troya's research materials as well as its prototype mobile suit.

The sensors wailed. "Auel, one o'clock!" he shouted, and the two Gundams jetted apart— just as a pulsing red beam ripped through the space between them. A Gunner ZAKU Warrior burst out of the wreckage, cannon leveled off for another blast, and a Slash ZAKU Warrior came after it, and then a Blaze ZAKU Phantom, and a Blaze ZAKU Warrior.

Sting clenched his fists around the Chaos's controls. "Okay, there's only four of them," he snarled. "Auel— "

"Motherfuckers!" Auel screamed, and the Abyss let loose a devastating barrage of beams. The four ZAKUs split up, with the Slash and Blaze ZAKU Warriors ducking back into the colony while the Gunner ZAKU and ZAKU Phantom remained outside. The Gunner ZAKU fired again to force the two Gundams back on the defensive; Sting ground his teeth and the Chaos's gunbarrels lifted off with a flash of exhaust.

"We'll have to take care of these two before we go after the ones inside," he grunted. "Auel! Cover me!"

"Aoma, we should at least send a couple of our mobile suits to help you," Ali protested from the Impulse's auxiliary screen. "We have seven left around the ship. We could spare two."

Aoma scowled as she dodged fire from a very determined Slash ZAKU Phantom and its Blaze ZAKU Warrior partner. "I told you, keep them all around the Star One," she answered, "and start docking with Troya as soon as possible. Nostravich said that there were ZAFT infantry entering the station. Whatever they're there for, they're probably not going to leave witnesses."

She threw the Impulse to the side as the Slash ZAKU came charging at her with a furious axe swipe. The Impulse leveled off its rifle for a killing blow— but an instant later she went rocketing upwards as the Blaze ZAKU opened fire with its beam rifle.

"There's only two of you this time," she snarled. "And I'm not letting you get away with this one." The two ZAKUs' monoeyes burned bright against the blackness of space. "Ali! Don't waste time! They're getting killed in there!"

Licking his lips as the beams flashed around his rumbling DOM Trooper, Varder Ehrmacht watched eagerly as the Stargazer leveled off its beam gun and fired. This thing was definitely something else— judging by the way it had caught seven or eight of his and Lilith's beam blasts and now had them spinning around it in an elegant display of the Voiture Lumiere's capabilities.

"It would be a shame to scuff up all that pretty armor," snarled Lilith as the beams blazed around her GOUF, "but I'm starting to get sick of this!"

The GOUF rocketed forward and sprayed the Stargazer with beam bolts— but a moment later, the white mobile suit flung its left hand forward and sent a column of green blazing energy straight at the red mobile suit. Varder cursed and shouldered the GOUF to the side, just in time to activate his beam shield and take the brunt of the attack.

"Lil, stop using the beam guns!" he shouted. "We have to get that thing to exhaust what it's already captured."

The Stargazer darted to the side and attacked with another wave of beams; Varder roared over the blasts and leveled off his Gigalauncher to fire a bazooka shell. The projectile slammed into the Stargazer's beam shield with a thundering burst of smoke and the white mobile suit staggered back.

"Gotcha!" screamed Lilith, and her GOUF burst through the smoke with sword upraised—

The alarms let out a terrified shriek and Lilith jammed the controls back, as a shimmering red beam ripped through the space between herself and her prey. She turned her eyes in disbelief towards their source. "Is that— ?!"

Varder grinned. "The Twilight!"

Across the way, the Twilight Gundam folded up its long-range cannon, drew a beam saber, and charged with a blast of exhaust.

Athrun Zala ground his teeth as the missiles pounded against his Infinite Justice Gundam. Up ahead, the triumphant Blaze ZAKU Warrior lined up its beam rifle for a killing blast—

"Not like that!" Athrun snarled, and with a roar of engines the Justice hurled itself out of the smoke and stormed forward. The ZAKU reared back and fired its rifle, but the Justice plowed through the blast with its beam shield active and slashed the rifle in two with the blade on its carry shield. The ZAKU lurched back, drew a tomahawk, and swung furiously towards the Justice's exposed shoulder—

Instead, Athrun sent a sweeping kick upwards with the Justice's right leg, the beam blade shining to life, and tore off the ZAKU's arm at the elbow. With a crash, he brought the leg back down across the ZAKU's face and knocked it to the side— and before it could recover, he speared it through the cockpit with a beam rifle blast and let it die in a thundering inferno.

He glanced up. "Viveka, where are you?"

His answer came from a piece of debris exploding, and from the flames burst the Savior Gundam, with the Gunner ZAKU right behind it. The ZAKU leveled off its beam cannon to open fire; instead, the Justice showered it with beam rifle blasts and forced it back on the defensive.

"Cornered!" Viveka screamed, and pounded the ZAKU's shield with plasma cannon blasts. The ZAKU's shield snapped in two and the arm disappeared in a blaze of red plasma— and a moment later, Viveka stormed forward to put a beam saber through the ZAKU's cockpit.

"Well," Athrun started as the impaled ZAKU exploded, "now that that's done, let's go. ZAFT sent in infantry, and they're on their way back out with Troya's computer core."

Viveka blinked. "Bad?"

"Bad. Come on."

"Forget resisting, Ali!" Aoma snapped as her Impulse Gundam shuddered under the Slash ZAKU Phantom's beam Gatling barrage. "Tell them to just get to the Star One! Fighting a bunch of ZAFT marines isn't going to do anything but get them all killed!"

She snapped her eyes back up and vaulted above the Slash ZAKU's horizontal axe swing— right into the jaws of the Blaze ZAKU Warrior as it descended upon her with a beam rifle barrage. The ZAKU came screaming in with its tomahawk raised; Aoma whirled to the right, leveled off her beam rifle, and shot the passing ZAKU through the chest as it tore by.

The ZAKU threw sparks and exploded, and its flaming smoke burst apart as the Slash ZAKU came charging at her. She backed away and took its furious axe swing to her shield, but the reverberation rattled through the Impulse's body and she bit back a curse.

Troya Station's wall burst open with a pillar of fire, and from the flames emerged the two ZAKUs that had slipped into the colony. Sting and Auel turned their fire on the opening— only for the Gunner ZAKU Warrior and Blaze ZAKU Phantom to lunge into the way and deflect the fire with their shields. The Slash ZAKU Warrior and Blaze ZAKU Warrior emerged with a large white block in the latter's hands. The Slash ZAKU darted up in front of the Blaze ZAKU and let loose a beam Gatling barrage that pounded the two Gundams and forced them back.

"I'm guessing that thing's important!?" Auel grunted.

"He's trying to get away— " Sting started. "Like hell you will!"

The gunbarrels lifted off and showered the four ZAKUs with missiles, but the three ZAKUs stood up to defend their cargo-laden comrade. The Gunner ZAKU leveled off its cannon to fire back, but one of the missiles snaked its way past the red mobile suit's defenses and plowed into the cockpit— and as the stricken machine staggered back and exploded, the other two mobile suits closed ranks around their burdened companion and poured fire after the two Gundams.

"Not so fast, motherfuckers!" roared Auel, and the Abyss fired off a punishing beam cannon barrage. The blasts slammed against the two ZAKUs' shields and drove them both back— but an instant later they both somersaulted up and charged straight at the two Gundams. "What the fuck?!"

"Auel, go after that third one!" Sting cried. "I'll— "

He was cut off as the two ZAKUs opened fire and the Blaze ZAKU Phantom let loose a wave of missiles. Sting bit back a curse and opened fire with his CIWS guns, but the ZAKUs kept coming and he braced himself for battle again.

Beam sabers clashed and Varder Ehrmacht's ecstatic cackling filled the cockpit as the DOM Trooper and Twilight Gundam locked beam sabers, sparks flying amid the ruins of Troya Station. Emily ground her teeth as the DOM surged forward, and with a crash it slammed its foot down into the Twilight's stomach and sent her Gundam reeling back.

"At your limit already?!" Varder cackled, and the DOM swept in again with saber raised. "I guess it's true what they say!" The Twilight jetted backwards to avoid the DOM's killing saber swipe. "There's only so much a superior machine can do against a superior pilot!"

Emily glanced over her shoulder anxiously at the white mobile suit surrounded by swirling green energy. The Stargazer was assiduously avoiding every move the GOUF made after it— but if she was going to help, she'd have to beat this DOM first.

"I don't have time for you," she growled, "so in that case— !"

The DOM charged forward with a finishing saber stab— but instead, the Twilight darted to the right and pounded a kick into the DOM's exposed side. Varder yelped in surprise and brought his Gigalauncher to bear, only for the Twilight to tear it from his grip with its left hand. He brought down his saber, only to catch the Twilight's blade instead, and with a crash the black Gundam sent him reeling from a knee to the chest.

"Goddammit!" he shouted. "What the hell— !?"

Instead, the Twilight backflipped away and rocketed towards the GOUF.

Inside the Stargazer, Selene shot a look over her shoulder as she saw the Twilight storming towards her, and let out a cry of alarm. Sol jerked the Stargazer to the right— just as the Twilight rocketed through and slammed the GOUF back with an overhead saber hack to its shield.

"Varder!" Lilith screamed. "Distract her!"

In the Stargazer's cockpit, Selene's eyes went wide. "Sol, get that one! Now!"

Sol leveled off the Stargazer's beam gun and opened fire, and with a crash he blew the GOUF's beam rifle out of its hand— but when he ticked the gun to the right and pulled the trigger again, nothing happened, and instead the lights in the Stargazer's cockpit began to go dark and the swirling energy dissipated.

Selene felt her blood run cold. "The energy...we didn't have time to install the nuclear reactor, so we were running on batteries..."

Inside the GOUF, Lilith flashed a victorious smile and deflected the Twilight's saber stroke with her shield. An instant later, the DOM rocketed back into the fight and forced the Twilight on the defensive with a vicious saber slice of its own. The GOUF whirled down towards the Stargazer and shot forward its right arm—

Sol tensed himself in the Stargazer's cockpit seat. "I'm sorry, Selene," he whispered—

A moment later, Selene let out a cry as her cockpit seat burst out of the Stargazer's cockpit, just as the GOUF wrapped its heat rod around the silent Stargazer's chest. Selene snapped a hand up to her radio, eyes wide with disbelief as the GOUF rocketed away, towing her darkened masterpiece behind it.

"Sol! What are you doing?!" she screamed. "What— why did you— "

"You're the only one who could rebuild the Stargazer from scratch," Sol's voice replied, broken by static as the GOUF roared away with its prize. "I know we were going to finish it together, but at least the Stargazer will survive this way. Just get out of here, and survive, and— "

The line went dead, and the DOM burst up into Selene's view with its monoeye burning bright as it stared down at her. The DOM reared back with its saber and Selene clamped her eyes shut—

Instead, a mobile suit hand seized her drifting cockpit chair, yanked her back, and slammed a beam saber up into the DOM's path to deflect its blow, and inside the Twilight Gundam, Emily ground her teeth in fury at the crimson enemy machine.

Varder licked his lips in the DOM Trooper's cockpit. "You're just getting better and better, angel girl," he chuckled, and the DOM surged forward with a shout.

Emily winced at the scream filling her cockpit from the passenger sitting in her Gundam's left hand. Troya Station had just been destroyed— and next was Varder's victorious cackling.

"Looks like I win this one, angel girl!" he laughed, and with a crash the DOM brought its knee up into the Twilight's chest. He brought down his saber towards the Twilight's exposed torso— only for Emily to yank back the controls and hurl her Gundam clear of the DOM's finishing blow. Varder charged forward, saber pulled back—

Instead, the Twilight shot forward and sliced off the DOM's right arm at the shoulder. Varder hissed a curse and rushed off into the darkness, leaving Emily behind with a combat flare in his wake.

She turned her eyes towards the Twilight's left hand, where sat a weeping woman strapped into an unbolted cockpit seat. Pure, raw anguish was emanating from her and shaking Emily's nerves. Obviously she had just lost friends, in that white mobile suit and on that station...and Emily knew how that felt.

"Excuse me, ma'am," she started, and the woman looked up at her sharply. "I'm sorry about all this, but I need to get you back to the Minerva now." The Twilight turned its blue eyes towards the Resistance's winged warship. "I think you've been separated from the rest of the station's evacuees, but we can look after you until things get settled." She paused for a moment, wondered if it would matter if she smiled, and turned the Gundam's eyes towards her passenger, hoping they would look reassuring in her stead. "What's your name?"

The woman stared apprehensively at the Gundam's cold blue eyes for a moment. "I'm Selene," she said, her voice shaking. "And you are...?"

Emily smiled. "I'm Emily. The Angel of Death." The Twilight turned back towards the Minerva. "Let's get out of here, before the Alliance or anyone else shows up."

The Twilight took off with a burst of exhaust, and Emily forced down the memories of herself as that broken person grieving for lost friends. This time it was different; this time she had to be strong.

To be continued...