Mobile Suit Gundam SEED ETERNITY

Phase 19 - Gathering Swords

Sven Cal Bayan ground his teeth as he felt the Crusader's feet slam down onto the Moon's surface and a cloud of dust kicked up around him. Herding Yukiko into the observation deck had not paid off here— not since the battle was so far away from the ship. So he would have to wait.

One of the last ZAKUs lunged up from behind a dusty ridge and charged with its beam tomahawk held high— only to be cut to shreds by a beam volley from above, and the Vanguard landed with a crash next to the Crusader.

"Hey Sven, wake up in there," Shams called out. "There's still a squad left. We're flanking them but we're going to need a fast unit for the linkup."

Sven nodded and the Crusader vaulted into the air, with the Vanguard not far behind.

"Man, what's gotten into you?" grumbled Shams. "You're more emo than usual."

"It's not your concern," Sven shot back.

"The hell you say. If you get your ass shot down it sure as fuck will be my concern."

Sven scowled back. "I told you. It's not your concern."

The Crusader's eyes flashed, it activated its beam wings with a wave of light, and the Gundam rocketed back into the fray.

The lone surviving ZAKU Warrior went down with a crash, and Travis Alterman grit his teeth as he put the Nebula Blitz's beam saber through its cockpit. Fire rushed out of the opening and the red Gundam backed away as its mortally wounded opponent succumbed to a fiery death.

He glanced around the battlefield, at the dim red smoke and smoldering wreckage of warships and mobile suits. This had been a few drops of water to a parched man in the desert. Enough to remind him of what it felt like to drink deeply, but in no way a substitute.

That meant he would have to think and be all intellectual, and he hated that.

Travis glanced up towards the looming Charlemagne as it hovered over the battlefield, the undeniable victor. Of course the good captain had ignored his orders to engage the Minerva on sight. And the more pragmatic of his superiors would understand why, but you couldn't just go ignoring orders in the Phantom Pain— especially orders against its nimble nemesis. The more Travis saw of this man in action, the more he became convinced that he would make a terrible commander for the Phantom Pain. Lord Djibril's army required ruthlessness to make the world bend to its master's will, and Ivan Danilov was not a ruthless man.

Most vexing, he reflected, if Ivan Danilov were a more ruthless man, then Travis and his frustrated Nebula Blitz might get to see more action. And that was the most annoying part of this spy business.

Shinn Asuka stared up somberly at the silent Gundam Eclipse in the Minerva's bustling hangar. Emily had fought Kira Yamato to a standstill with this machine. She hadn't beat him— not quite— but this new power of hers against that improved Freedom...with this power she might have destroyed Kira Yamato.

He turned his thoughts towards his archenemy. The pathetic man that was gassing colonies and slinking through the shadows. But soon, Shinn told himself, he would have a new mobile suit of his own, one that could stand up to that new Freedom— and soon he would be able to close that chapter of his life. It was a chapter he needed to close, he knew; he couldn't stand being haunted by the ghosts of dead friends and comrades forever.

He glanced over as Athrun landed on the gantry next to him. "Well," he said, "she had quite a day today."

Athrun cast a grim look at the Eclipse's silent face. "But she didn't kill him."

"No, she didn't."

"I guess destiny is reserving that for one of us."

Shinn leaned back against the railing and glanced over towards the GOUF Ignited across the hangar. "My talk with Meyrin didn't go too well either."

"What— why not?"

"Meyrin wanted proof. And how are you supposed to prove that he's been trying to destroy the world?" He shook his head. "I don't really have any. Just what you've said. And...well, looking at it from her point of view, it's kind of a crazy thing to say."

Athrun scowled over at the GOUF. "Not if you know him."

"Yeah, but we don't. In ZAFT we only met him once, at the Academy, when he gave some lectures about mobile suit tactics." He shook his head. "Figures, he had to be some big war hero."

"Well, we have to do something about him. If what you said is true..."

"I know." Shinn glared over at Rau's empty GOUF. "One is bad enough."

"They've been asleep forever," Stella Loussier sighed outside the Minerva's sickbay as the door slid shut. Roxy glanced over her shoulder at the sullen Extended.

"It's so they'll heal," she explained. "They'll be back on their feet faster this way."

Stella looked unconvinced and Roxy shoved her hands into her pockets and mentally searched for another soothing platitude. At the very least, the drugs and healing factors would kick in faster if neither Sting nor Auel— especially Auel, probably— were conscious for it...but the halls of the Minerva were a bit lonelier now that they weren't filled with two cranky Extended cussing at each other.

"When will they wake up?" Stella asked suddenly, and Roxy shrugged.

"When they're better."

"When will that be?"

"I dunno."

A put-out Stella turned away and glanced forlornly at the infirmary door before she drifted off down the corridor. Roxy glanced after her and heaved a sigh. Of course, take away the two most disagreeable members of the ship's crew and the whole thing goes to pot.

But she was feeling the itch to see her friends back on their feet. Alcoholic intolerance aside, they made good drinking partners— and with all the angst and drama on the rest of the ship, she knew she needed a good drinking partner or two.

The sound of a foot landing on the gantry outside caught Emily's attention, followed by the telltale distortion of an Extended, and she didn't even need to look up to know that Lily was there.

On the Eclipse's cockpit hatch, Lily stood with crossed arms and a petulant look on her face. "You've been working in there all day. When are you going to come out?"

Emily shrugged back. "I'm busy."

"You're always busy."

"Well, giant robots are high-maintenance." She frowned down at the console and the bewildering array of values for the Eclipse's Voiture Lumiere drive, and the brick-like manual in her lap. "Especially this one."

Lily pouted for a moment. "Trojan says you're acting funny."

"Am I?"

"You are! You're all broody and depressed. It's not cool. Stop it."

Emily smiled sadly. "It's more complicated than that, Lily."

"No it's not! You just have to stop thinking about the stuff that's making you sad." She flashed a cheeky grin. "That's what I do."

"And how do you do that?"

Lily's smile disappeared and Emily seized the chance to return to her work. "Well...uh, you just don't," the Extended answered after a moment's thought. "Hey! Pay attention! This is important!" She dropped her hands down onto the Eclipse's console. "How come you're being all bummed out?"

"It's complicated."

"Oh come on!" Emily glanced up in surprise at the feeling of hurt from the young Extended. "Everyone says that! How can it be so complicated that I can't understand it?"

Well, that was hard to argue with— but Emily glanced away all the same. She would have to figure these things out for herself before she could go telling everybody else about them. "I'll tell you later."

Lily frowned. "Later?"

"Yes, later."

"You promise?"

"Yes, I promise."

Lily looked unconvinced, but stepped away anyway and regarded Emily skeptically for a moment. Then she pushed off the cockpit hatch, and left Emily to sit back and sigh, her work forgotten.

Morgan Chevalier had to admit that the Lucifer's technicians had done well with the slender mobile suit before him. With the body of the Windam, the wings of the Aile Striker, and the four violet gunbarrels of the Exus mobile armor, the Fenrir was several steps above his old Windam— and that was what he would need against that formidable new Gundam the Resistance was fielding. It had torn his mobile suit to pieces at Terminal, but now the Fenrir would have a chance to bare its fangs and let loose its howl across the battlefield.

He glanced across the hangar, where the Lucifer's other mobile suit with a Gundam's face sat waiting. The Raigo Gundam had the masked ND HE floating in front of it, and even with the mask and flight suit, Morgan could see in him the look of a cornered animal, coiled and ready to pounce.

That, really, was the most sickening thing about the Extended. Training people to fight was one thing— it was something he had done himself, and had done to others. But leaving people with no ability other than to fight? It was not as though the Extended were ever intended to be discharged or something anyway, but that powerlessness, that deciding of one's destiny, that kind of engineering of human life...wasn't that what Blue Cosmos railed against in the Coordinators?

Of course, as his memories returned of his Windam being dismembered by the Resistance's blindingly fast new mobile suit, it wasn't as though Coordinators were the only ones with superior abilities. The new Gundam had the same pilot as that old Twilight and its elusive Angel of Death.

Morgan returned his gaze to the Raigo, and its masked pilot. ND HE...a man whose destiny had been decided by another. That was the essence of the Extended.

But, the Moonlight Mad Dog reminded himself, Colonel Joaquin was not the only man who could decide destiny.

Trojan Noiret threw his DOM Trooper forward with a shout, beam sabers on the end of his rifle blazing. Up ahead, a crimson Blaze ZAKU Warrior flung up its shield to deflect the blow— only for Trojan to level off the DOM's Gigalauncher in its left hand and spear the ZAKU through the cockpit on a beam bolt. But from the flames a Slash ZAKU plunged down towards him with a sweeping swipe from its beam axe, and Trojan jammed the DOM backward to dodge the blow.

The ZAKU charged forward, but a moment later a wave of beams plowed through it and tore it to flaming shreds— and in a silver blur, the Vent Savior Gundam shot by in mobile armor mode.

"Not having such a great day, are ya, Undefeated of the East?" giggled Lily.

Trojan frowned back. "The hell you talking about?"

"Ah, I'll explain later." The Vent Savior arced upward and went spiraling after the ZAFT warships. Trojan shook his head and returned his attention to the oncoming team of red ZAKUs— the ones from the black Eternal-class cruiser. A Gunner ZAKU sent a shimmering blast of red plasma streaming towards the DOM; Trojan threw his green mobile suit aside and returned fire with his own rifle and Gigalauncher, only for another Blaze ZAKU to streak in from above with its beam rifle blazing. Trojan pulled back behind his beam shield, sparks flying around him, and waited for his opportunity.

"We'll do this the way we planned," Shinn said, clenching his fists around the Destiny's controls as his Gundam sailed into battle. "There's an old warship wreck up there."

Stella smiled. "Stella knows what to do."

With that, the Gaia whirled out of formation and set down softly on the charred hulk of an Alliance warship. Shinn glanced up ahead, at the force of ZAFT mobile suits on its approach. He could feel their fear, at last outweighing their anger. They were discouraged and desperate, and now there were well over a dozen on their way in, weapons primed. They raised their guns and opened fire—

The seed burst, the beam wings snapped to life, and the Destiny roared forward with sword drawn.

A wall of afterimages rushed up around the Gundam as it danced around its enemies' beam fire, and with a resounding shriek, the Destiny rushed in and slashed its first victim in half. The bisected ZAKU exploded— only for another with a Gunner Wizard to back away and level off its cannon. The Destiny blasted forward, slammed its left-hand palm cannon clear through the ZAKU's cannon, and then ripped it in two with a sword stroke. A Blaze ZAKU lunged up from behind, beam rifle leveled off, and Shinn spared it a glance—

...just as a beam blast from the far-off Gaia Gundam plowed through it from the right and blew it apart. Shinn backflipped over the cloud of flames and rushed down after the survivors, who had all backed away for distance and let loose a shimmering barrage of beam fire.

"Three of you down," Shinn grunted— and slammed down the booster as he saw his chance— "And here's four!" The closest ZAKU seized its beam tomahawk and flung itself forward with a downward hack— the Destiny pounded the blade to the side with its sword, then slammed its palm cannon into the ZAKU's chest, and blew apart the green mobile suit. A wave of beam fire raced out from the darkness and claimed a fifth ZAKU, and as the ZAFT mobile suits backpedaled, the Destiny seized its chance to rip another in two.

Shinn scanned the ten remaining mobile suits, waiting for them to make the next move, the fear pulsing from their cockpits.

"Did you guys really think you could do this without being punished?" he asked quietly. The ZAKUs broke their formation and opened fire; the Destiny snaked its way through their blasts and charged. "'cuz today I'll show you the same mercy you showed them!"

The Infinite Justice rattled as a wave of missiles detonated around it; Athrun gritted his teeth and glowered through the flames at the squad of Blaze ZAKU Warriors unloading their missiles into his Gundam's Phase Shift armor. But it would take more than that to take down even his own hobbled mobile suit; the Justice switched its rifle to its left hand and drew a beam saber in its freed right—

With a blast of thruster exhaust, the Justice rushed out of the flames, fired forward its anchor, yanked the first ZAKU close, and chopped it in two with his saber. The remaining five pulled away with a desperate wave of firepower; Athrun dove through the blasts and fired back with his own rifle.

Below loomed one of the two surviving Laurasia-class frigates, guns turned up towards the Justice. The warship let loose a fearful fusillade; Athrun scowled and threw his Gundam into the open spaces between the shots.

"Let's see you follow me!" Athrun shouted, and plunged down towards the desperate warship. The ZAKUs hesitantly followed and opened fire— only for a stray railgun shot to blow away one of their number.

The Justice roared down towards the warship and darted aside from a pulsing beam cannon blast. With a crash it swept in and peppered the ship's hull with beam rifle shots, then darted aside from another beam cannon blow. One of the ZAKUs dove in from behind, a beam axe blazing and ready for battle— Athrun whipped around to stop the blade cold with a saber swipe. The Laurasia angled its guns to fire—

Instead, Athrun jetted backward, pulling the ZAKU with him, and then darted upward— just in time for the Laurasia's beam cannon blast to vaporize the ZAKU. And before it could follow up with another shot, the Justice swept down with a beam rifle barrage of its own and punched a blast through the ship's bridge. The stricken vessel reeled back as flames gushed out like blood from its wounded prow; a moment later it shuddered again, as Athrun tore apart the ship's upper surface with beam fire and sent the ship staggering off the battlefield, towards the atmosphere.

The ZAKUs charged; Athrun cast a glance towards them and took off towards the next warship.

"Don't think you've defeated us yet!" cried Varder Ehrmacht as his Proto Gaia brought down its saber onto the Gundam Eclipse's shining beam sword. "You can kill grunts, but you haven't killed me!"

Emily ground her teeth as the sparks flew. "I certainly still could," she shot back— only for the instinct of danger to rise up her spine. She hurled the Proto Gaia forward with sheer thruster power and whipped around, just in time to face the missiles and beam blasts of the charging Proto Savior. "And you too!"

With a flash from its eyes, the Eclipse waved its hand and the missiles arced away to explode harmlessly around the combatants. The Proto Savior charged forward, beam cannons blazing; the Eclipse rocketed up, closed the distance, and slammed its sword down into the mobile suit's giant backpack. It vanished with a blaze and the Proto Savior itself staggered out of the flames, just as the Proto Gaia pressed the attack with its saber.

"That was only the Ratha parts!" screamed Lilith, as the Proto Savior went on the attack with a beam barrage of its own. The Eclipse snaked its way through the blasts, parried a blow from the Proto Gaia, and then whipped around and sawed the Proto Savior's beam rifle in two. "Dammit! You— !"

"I don't have time for you two," Emily growled; the Proto Gaia slammed its own saber down onto the Eclipse's sword. "And I've killed better people than you, so just get out of here now."

In the Proto Gaia's cockpit, Varder Ehrmacht trembled with rage, his fists tightening around the mobile suit's controls, his teeth grinding. "You're going to just dismiss me like that?" The Proto Gaia charged forward with a series of furious saber swings. "Me?! Of all people?!" The red mobile suit brought its saber down with an eruption of sparks. "You little bitch! You have no idea who I am! I'm the Widowmaker of Mars!" The Proto Gaia surged forward, into a vicious swordfight with the Eclipse. "At Mars I personally destroyed twenty mobile suits in one battle— and you have the gall to blow me off?!"

Emily scowled back and glanced down at the altitude reading, and then over her shoulder— where the Proto Savior was sweeping in for the kill. "You aren't on Mars anymore."

With that, the Eclipse pushed off from the Gaia, whipped around, and slashed off the Proto Savior's left arm and left-hand plasma cannon as it passed by. The Proto Gaia charged instead with a scream from its pilot and a furious saber swing— but the Eclipse ducked below the blow and then jerked upward, and with an ear-splitting shriek, it claimed the Proto Gaia's left leg at the knee, its left-hand hip armor, its left wing, and its left arm at the shoulder.

"Have you had enough yet?" Emily asked, as she glanced at the tactical map. "Because I really don't have time for you."

"You aren't going anywhere!" shrieked Varder, and it plunged down after the Eclipse with a blaze of exhaust.

Sven Cal Bayan stopped on his way to the hangar in the Charlemagne's corridors at the feeling of a hand on his arm. He glanced over— and felt his blood run cold as he saw Yukiko reaching out from a side hallway, a stern look on her face.

"Are you going to do it this time?" Sven blinked and for a moment wondered if she had found out. "Destroy the Destiny?"

Sven wrenched his arm free. "I will do as my duty requires."

"You're more than that," Yukiko shot back. "The Crusader will make you more than that. You're the Earth Sphere's hope." She paused. "Have you thought about my proposal?"

"I will not be turned into an Extended," Sven snarled. "Nor will I take Gamma Glipheptin or in any way surrender control over myself. That is final."

Yukiko frowned back. "You're selling yourself short. You could maximize the Crusader's potential as an Extended. And you could defeat the Destiny, decisively, once and for all, so they can't bring it back."

Sven whirled around. "I will defeat the Destiny myself," he shot back, "without interference."

"I'll be watching."

"Of course you will."

He pushed off down the hallway and clenched his fists around his helmet.

A stricken Laurasia-class frigate, the one that Rau Le Creuset recognized as the Averroes, listed to starboard up above. A handful of ZAKUs remained by the ship's cratered hull, bravely pouring firepower after his GOUF Ignited.

The GOUF ducked down between the walls of firepower thrown up by the ZAKUs. Up ahead, the green mobile suits moved forward as their warship belched smoke and fire; the first came charging forward with a barrage of missiles from its Blaze Wizard. Rau expertly cut them down with a beam gun salvo; the ZAKU came rushing up from below the blasts, rifle leveled off—

Instead, Rau seized his chance to slam the GOUF forward and slice the ZAKU in half at the waist with his beam sword before it could react. The remaining three up above poured firepower after him, but came up empty-handed—

"Minerva, now!" Rau roared.

From the winged warship came a shimmering quartet of beam blasts, and the Tristan blasts slammed straight through the crippled Laurasia and blasted it apart with a thundering explosion. One of the ZAKUs vanished in the blaze; the other two scrambled for distance, but Rau lunged up over one of them and cut it in two. The survivor whirled around with its rifle ready, only for the GOUF to chop it in two; the ZAKU resorted to its beam tomahawk and slammed it down onto the GOUF's spiked shield.

"Well fought," Rau chuckled, "but not enough!"

The ZAKU shuddered as the GOUF slammed its sword through the cockpit. Rau drew it out, kicked the dying mobile suit away, and watched it explode, satisfied.

The Proto Savior shuddered as the Gundam Eclipse claimed its right leg at the knee with a powerful downward sword hack. The black mobile suit staggered away, sparks spewing from its wounds. Emily glanced over her shoulder and whirled around to smack aside the Proto Gaia's saber; she turned again to deflect the Proto Savior's blow, and then rocketed over the two wounded mobile suits.

"You think that Gundam makes you better than me?!" Varder shouted. "I'll show you, little girl! A superior mobile suit has its limits against a superior pilot!"

The Proto Gaia charged, beam saber held upward—

Instead, blindingly fast, the Eclipse closed the gap between them, slashed off its right arm at the elbow, and sent the rest of the mobile suit reeling with a lightning-fast kick to the chest. Emily swung up her beam sword for a lethal blow and burst forward—

The Proto Savior lunged up into her path and deployed its remaining plasma cannon to be sliced in two by the Eclipse's beam sword. The rush of fire sent the Eclipse staggering back— and as Emily hacked the cloud apart, she saw the Proto Savior seize the ruined Proto Gaia with its remaining arm and rocket into the Debris Belt as fast as its remaining engines would carry it.

Emily sat back with a sigh, staring after that retreating, pulsing point of hatred.

With four ZAKUs left, Shinn scanned the black skies for his next target— and found, looming far ahead, the cerulean hull of a Nazca-class destroyer, the last warship on the field.

"Stella! Cover me!" The Destiny somersaulted over the remaining ZAKUs and then blasted off towards the destroyer. The four ZAKUs followed, only for one of them to be blown apart from a blast from afar by Stella. The three survivors turned their shields towards the Gaia and their rifles towards the Destiny, and one of them rocketed after the latter Gundam. Shinn glanced over his shoulder— an instant later he whipped around, sword upraised, and sawed the ZAKU in half.

"Stella will finish the rest!" Stella cried, and the Gaia lunged out of hiding with a beam saber lit. Shinn turned again, sword drawn, and went charging towards the Nazca.

"Then it's just down to you!" shouted Shinn, and with a flash the Destiny darted through the warship's desperate fire. He plunged the sword down into the ship's hull, smashing one of its beam cannons— and then, as sparks and shrapnel flew, he whipped up the Destiny's long-range cannon and poured a blast through the ship's bridge, and another through the engines.

As fire tore the vessel apart, a mobile suit lunged out of the splintering hangar. Shinn watched it go, catching sight of its purple armor and the distinct snake symbol on its shoulder armor. A flash of recognition shot through him— the Destiny vaulted up after the retreating Civilian Astray and dodged the desperate fire from its beam gun.

"So!" Shinn cried. "You're the rat that's responsible for all this, huh? Leons Graves!"

"I'm just a mercenary!" Graves shot back. "If you want someone to blame, blame ZAFT!"

"Don't try to worm your way out of this, you son of a bitch," Shinn snarled— and with a flash of afterimages and thruster exhaust, the Destiny charged forward. "Capture is too good for you," the Destiny raised its sword, "so I'll just be the executioner myself!"

Graves leveled off his beam gun to fire— but the sky filled with afterimages and his scream of terror as the Destiny lunged up above him and dropped back down with a devastating sword slice that chopped his Civilian Astray in two.

Leons Graves and his Civilian Astray vanished in a blast of fire and Shinn let out his breath. He cast a glance back towards the battlefield, where Stella had handily finished off the two surviving ZAKUs. The ZAFT force looked to be completely gone, so—

The instinct jolted him and he threw the Destiny back, just as a beam rifle blast sizzled by. He glanced towards the stars—

Up ahead, in front of the massive Charlemagne and the black Archangel, beam wings spread, eyes blazing, the Crusader Gundam went on the attack.

To be continued...