Mobile Suit Gundam SEED - Pain

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Phase 04 - Kill or Be Killed

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“Captain!” the sensor officer exclaimed, turning towards Richards in the captain’s chair. “We’re picking up a Nelson-class in approaching on the starboard side! It’s not responding to hails!”

Richards eyed it carefully. “It’s heading straight for us,” he said, “almost as if it’s on a combat bearing.”

“It’s the Wyoming! Receiving a transmission!” the communication officer cried.

The screens came to life, and Richards found himself greeted by the smiling, chiseled face of Nanto Fredrik.

“Lieutenant Commander Samuel Richards,” Fredrik said, his imposing baritone filling the bridge. “Are you surprised to see me?”

Richards narrowed his eyes at the man, his eyes hidden behind black sunglasses. “Not especially.”

Fredrik chuckled under his breath. “Consider yourself under arrest for insubordination and suspicion of intent to sell military secrets to a foreign nation,” he said. The John Adams’ bridge crew stared in shock. “My men are coming to detain you and your accomplices, and recover that which you have stolen from us.”

Richards scowled back. “What kind of man are you to talk about those boys as if they were weapons?” he asked.

Fredrik’s grin grew wider. “You’ll see,” he said. “Deactivate your engine. Your ship is to remain dead in space while we conduct our arrest and search. Do not test me, Commander.”

Richards glowered back, and glanced towards his crew. “Helm,” he said, “cut the engines and stand by for docking.”

The bridge crew numbly complied, and as the ship came to a halt, Richards glared back at Fredrik. It was out of his hands now.

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“Hey, hey, what the hell is going on?!” Clotho demanded, as Lily herded him out of the infirmary with Orga and Shani. “Why did the ship stop?!”

“There’s another ship out there!” Orga exclaimed, looking out the porthole. “Are they coming for us?”

“They’re coming for you,” Lily said grimly. The three pilots looked back at her in disbelief. “You guys have a few minutes to get to those mobile suits of yours and escape. Now get going.”

“But what about you?!” Shani insisted, shoving past Orga and Clotho.

“That doesn’t matter,” Lily said, waving him off.

“It does to me!” Shani yelled, glaring back at her. She looked at him in surprise. “Everyone is telling us to leave without them!”

The ship rattled, and Lily looked up in anger.

“They’ve docked,” she said. “You guys are running out of time. Get going.”

“What is it worth if we can’t take the people who matter to us with us?!” Orga shot back.

“It’s not about us!” Lily answered. “It’s about you! None of us want to see you go back to the Alliance and the drugs and the pain! That’s why you have to go! You have to leave us, or Azrael will have won!”

The three pilots looked angrily at each other.

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McCormick cut off his live video feed of the bridge as Wyoming docked. He glanced outside the infirmary, finding Lily arguing with Clotho, Orga, and Shani.

“What are you three still doing here?” he demanded. “You’re running out of time. They’ve already docked, and you still have to get down to the hangar.”

“We don’t want to leave without you,” Clotho said defiantly. McCormick shook his head.

“You can’t save us and yourselves at the same time,” he said. “We would just slow you down and you’d be captured again. Do you want to go back to Azrael?”

“What’s the point if we’re just alone again?!” Orga yelled.

“You don’t have to be alone,” Lily said. “We’re not the only ones in the Earth Sphere who will care enough about you to not send you back to the Alliance.”

The door at the end of the hall came crashing inward, and three flak-jacketed soldiers wielding assault rifles tramped into view.

“You! Halt! Hands in the air!” the first shouted, as they trained their rifles on the three pilots. “We have orders— ”

McCormick put himself between the soldiers and pilots. “Those orders are unjust,” he said. The soldiers approached, rifles raised.

“Orders are orders, doctor,” the first soldier shot back. “You are under arrest.”

McCormick glanced over his shoulder meaningfully at the pilots and Lily, and with a shout, charged towards them, wielding a scalpel. Before they could fire, he had already killed the leader, slamming the scalpel into his throat in a gruesome spray of blood. The sounds of gunfire filled the hallway as the remaining soldiers cut McCormick down.

Lily ground her teeth and seized the three disbelieving pilots by the arms, pulling them into a side door and locking it behind her.

“Run!” she shouted.

“But the doctor— ” Orga began.

“He died so that you could get away!” Lily shot back. “Are you going to let that death be in vain?!” She pulled out a scalpel of her own. “I’ll protect you along the way, but you’re running out of time!”

The three pilots looked painfully at each other, and, tears in their eyes, took off down the corridor.

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“Escaped!?” Fredrik roared, standing on the bridge over the restrained Richards. “What the hell do you mean ‘the doctor stopped you’?! Find them! Seal the ship! They can’t escape!”

Richards watched stoically, flanked and held back by Fredrik’s soldiers, as Fredrik turned angrily on him.

“You think you’re clever, don’t you?” he asked. “How many more of you sentimental weaklings will stand in our way?! Wars are not won by kindness, they are won by sacrifice!”

“The war is over, Commander,” Richards said stonily.

Fredrik purpled in rage and struck Richards across the face. “The war is NEVER over!” His eyes flashed behind his sunglasses. “You goddamned traitor, you will be punished for this! I will have you begging me to kill you!” He looked back at his lieutenant. “Find them at once!”

Richards suppressed his smile and prayed.

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“Goddammit, goddammit, goddammit, why is this happening?!” Clotho growled, squeezing tears out of his eyes as he raced down the dark back hallways of the John Adams. “Why are they killing everyone?!”

“They’re killing everyone because they’re the same kind of people that Azrael was!” Lily said. “That’s why you have to get out of here!”

A trio of soldiers appeared at the end of the hall, guns raised— Lily shoved Clotho into a side doorway, an instant before Shani yanked her aside as the soldiers opened fire. The shots tore by, punching holes in the walls behind them.

“They’re pinned!” one of the soldiers shouted. “Move in!”

As the soldiers approached, Orga charged out of hiding with a scream and seized one of the soldiers by the head, snapping his neck in two. He seized the dead man’s rifle and lunged at the remaining two guards, struggling to aim at him. With a sickening crunch, he beat down the second man, and as he fell, the second soldier drilled a misdirected shot through his comrade’s head. Orga seized the fallen rifles, tossing them at Shani and Clotho.

“These fuckers killed the doctor,” Orga said, his eyes burning. “Let’s make ‘em pay.”

Another soldier rounded the corner with a comrade— Shani and Clotho opened fire on the shocked infantrymen, cutting them down. Lily watched them in surprise.

“You’re coming with us,” Shani said sternly, offering her his hand.

“We still need to get to the captain,” Orga added. He glanced over his shoulder, moving into an empty room and pointing at a computer terminal. Lily set to work, bringing up a video feed of the bridge.

“We’ve secured the three prototypes,” Fredrik’s lieutenant reported on the bridge of the John Adams. Fredrik smiled thinly.

“The pilots cannot escape in anything but those machines,” he said. “I‘ll return to the Wyoming. It’s only a matter of time.” He glanced at Richards. “And as for you, Commander…” He raised his gun, pointing it at Richards.

“No!” Orga shouted.

On the bridge, Richards watched Fredrik carefully.

“If you kill me,” he said, “you will only make them angrier.”

Fredrik smirked.

“I can live with that.”

He pulled the trigger.

Clotho, Orga, and Shani screamed in outrage as Richards pitched backward, blood pouring from his chest.

“That guy!” Clotho shrieked, pointing vindictively at Fredrik. “I’ll kill him!”

Orga’s eyes flashed furiously. “Come on,” he said, “we’re getting back to our fucking machines! These motherfuckers are going to DIE!”

“You still have to fight your way into them,” Lily warned.

“That’s alright with me!” Clotho snapped. “Let’s go!”

The four renegades beat their way out of the room and charged back down the hallways.

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The hangar doors came down with a crash, and four figures emerged from the smoke. A platoon of soldiers fortified behind a set of stacked crates opened fire— Clotho, Orga, Shani, and Lily ducked behind another pair of crates to return fire.

“Dammit!” Orga growled. “They’re right there!” He looked up— towering over him was the silent Forbidden Gundam.

“But you’ve got to distract them!” Lily insisted. “Otherwise they’ll kill you as you go for the cockpits!”

“Then we’ll just have to kill them first!” Clotho cried, firing back. One man across the way went down— Clotho ducked back behind cover as the remaining soldiers shot back angrily.

“If you guys cover me— ” Shani began. He was cut off by a bullet ricocheting with a deafening ring off one of the nearby crates. He looked back—

Lily knelt behind him, blood gushing from her abdomen.

“Lily!” he screamed, grabbing her by the shoulders as she pitched forward. She looked down at her blood-soaked hands, her face ashen, and finally looked back up at Shani.

“They…they couldn’t…” Orga murmured.

Lily smiled weakly at them. “I guess…you have to go without us…”

“No!” Shani exclaimed. “You…you helped us! It can’t end like this!”

Lily coughed painfully, blood trickling out the side of her mouth. “Just…promise me,” she murmured, growing cold in Shani’s arms. “Promise me…that you’ll find a place…to call home…” She coughed again— more blood came out. “A place…to be free…”

“Lily, don’t!” Clotho cried, reaching towards her.

She coughed one last time and was silent.

The three pilots looked in horror, as Shani held her still-bleeding corpse. Her last words rang in their heads. They slowly looked back towards the Alliance soldiers as they moved in for the kill.

“Them…” Orga whispered.

“They killed her…” Clotho added.

“So we’ll…kill them…” Shani finished.

The three pilots snapped their rifles up and opened fire.

The soldiers retreated, several of them dying in the onslaught, and scampered back to their cover. Shani vaulted up through the air towards the Forbidden’s open cockpit. The soldiers tried to pick him off, but Clotho and Orga opened fire, forcing them back. Shani leapt into the cockpit, slamming the hatch shut. The familiar feelings returned as he went through the sequence that was burned into his brain. The Forbidden— a newer version, he noted— came online, its eyes flashing.

The soldiers panicked and screamed as the Forbidden Gundam shredded them with its Igelstellungs.

Clotho and Orga leapt into their own machines, and with a crash, the Raider and Calamity Gundams tore their way out of their hangar braces.

“They killed Lily, and the doctor, and the captain,” Orga growled. “That guy with the sunglasses was the leader.”

“Then we’ll RIP HIM APART!” Clotho shrieked.

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“They’ve what?!” Fredrik shrieked, standing on the bridge of the Wyoming. “They’ve reached their mobile suits?! What the hell is going on?! I thought you said they were secure!”

“Somehow they fought their way through!” the lieutenant protested. “We can’t stop them like this!”

Fredrik slammed his fist down against the armrest. “Captain!” he roared, turning towards the Wyoming’s beleaguered captain. “Deploy the Dagger team at once! Kill them!”

“But sir, I thought our orders were to capture them!” the captain protested.

Fredrik furiously drew his gun and killed the captain. “Dagger team, launch at once!” he screamed, brandishing his gun at the shocked crew. “I will not let those children escape!”

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The hangar wall of the John Adams buckled as the Raider Gundam slammed its hammer into them. Clotho stepped aside, glancing over at the Calamity. Orga scowled and raised his bazooka, pounding a shell into the broken wall and blowing through.

Not far away, they could see the Wyoming launching a squadron of Strike Daggers. The Forbidden raised its scythe menacingly.

“This’ll be just like we used to do,” Orga growled. “We kill them before they kill us.”

The three Gundams took off.

The Strike Daggers moved in, beam rifles raised. Clotho looked down at the Raider’s controls.

“Did they upgrade these things?!” he asked.

The Calamity jetted backwards, taking aim with its beam cannons. “Let’s find out!” He opened fire— the Strike Daggers rocketed apart, but one was too slow, and went down in flames as the Calamity’s shot speared it through the cockpit.

“They’ll die!” Clotho shouted, lunging up and bringing his hammer down with a crash onto another Strike Dagger. A second Dagger moved in behind him, beam saber raised— a moment later, something tore it in two, and the Forbidden leapt out of the smoke, a pink beam blade shimmering on the end of its scythe. Two more Daggers opened fire— Shani scowled, activating the Geschmeidig Panzer, and sent the shots sailing aside. He returned fire with his railguns, slamming the shells into the Daggers’ shields and knocking them back.

The Calamity shot down another Dagger with its bazooka, as Orga cast a furious glance towards the Wyoming. “Is he trying to get away?!”
The Raider transformed into mobile armor mode, dodging a wave of beam fire and firing back with its mouth cannon, taking down a Dagger with a shot through the chest. “I won’t let it!” Clotho shouted. “Those bastards!” The Calamity leapt onto the Raider’s back, squeezing off another bazooka shot that sent the Daggers scattering. “Hey! What the hell are you doing?!”

“Just take me over there!” Orga shot back. He fired a pulsing Scylla cannon blast through another oncoming Dagger, blowing off its gun arm, and Shani leapt in behind it to finish it off with his scythe. Another Dagger rose behind him— Shani scowled, firing a plasma cannon shot that twisted tightly around the Forbidden and slammed through the Dagger from behind.

Blasting up towards the Wyoming with a flash of exhaust, Clotho narrowed his eyes at the ship, opening fire. It returned his shots with a missile barrage and a quartet of beams, but the Forbidden leapt up in front of the Raider to deflect the beams with its Geschmeidig Panzer.

“That guy with the sunglasses!” Orga shouted. “He must be on that ship!”

“I’ll crush him to pieces!” Clotho screamed, ducking around the Forbidden and opening fire again. The Daggers rose up in their way.

“I’ll get rid of them,” Shani said quietly, plowing through their beams with his armor. One of the Daggers came down with a beam saber raised high— Shani impaled it on the spear end of his scythe and hurled the sparking wreck into another Dagger, wiping them both out in a blaze.

The Raider took off over the Forbidden’s head, firing its Ahura Mazda cannons down as the desperate Daggers tried to pick it off from below. Shani streamed into their ranks with his scythe, taking down two Daggers in one winnowing swing, and with a crash, sending another reeling with a dual railgun blast to its shield. The Wyoming opened fire again with a wave of missiles— Orga fired back with his ram cannon, detonating a pair of shells in the midst of the missiles and blasting them apart in a titanic cloud of fire.

On the bridge of the Wyoming, Fredrik’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“This is impossible!” he shouted. “They’re cripples! They haven’t had any Gamma Glipheptin! They’ve been rotting in bed for six months! How can this be happening?!”

“The three prototypes are heading straight for us!” the sensor officer cried.

“SHOOT THEM DOWN!” Fredrik roared.

Inside the Calamity, Orga leapt off the Raider’s back, firing a full burst from his weapons and pounding through the Wyoming’s portside catapult. The Raider fired back with the new dual beam cannon mounted on its arm, taking down another Strike Dagger as it desperately tried to protect the Wyoming.

Shani slammed through the remaining Strike Daggers with a deflected array of beam shots, ripping the last one in two with his scythe and charging towards the defenseless Wyoming. It wildly opened fire again with its cannons, as another squadron of Strike Daggers came streaming out. At their head was a 105 Dagger armed with a Sword Striker, wielding the massive anti-ship sword with both hands and charging straight towards the Forbidden.

“There’s more?!” Clotho snapped, pulling up as a squadron of Strike Daggers attacked him. Orga pulled back behind his shield as a second squadron swept in after him, and Shani rocketed up, the Sword 105 Dagger giving chase. It sent its beam boomerang hurtling up towards him— Shani batted it aside with his scythe and charged back towards the Dagger, the two machines crashing together.

The Calamity leapt up, pounding off a beam salvo that tore through two Strike Daggers and sent the rest scattering behind their shields. They returned fire with a barrage of beam shots— an instant later, the Raider sailed up into their ranks, crushing one of the Daggers with its hammer.

“He’s trying to get away!” Orga growled— the Calamity surged forward, plowing through a storm of beams with its shield and blowing another Dagger apart with its bazooka.

“Like hell he will!” Clotho shrieked, smashing another Dagger with his hammer and twirling it in front of him, letting another Dagger’s shots crash uselessly against the crude shield. The Raider charged forward, blasting apart a second Dagger with its mouth cannon and roaring up towards the damaged Wyoming.

The Sword 105 Dagger brought its sword down with a crash on the Forbidden’s energy deflection shields, sending the hulking Gundam reeling backward. Shani scowled and charged forward, twirling his scythe on his right hand. The Dagger fired its Panzer Eisen anchor towards the Forbidden’s scythe— Shani scowled as he brought it back up with a slash, cutting the anchor in two. The Dagger ejected the anchor and charged forward with its sword, slamming it against the scythe’s blade and pushing the Forbidden back again.

“Murderers!” Orga screamed, as a beam barrage from the Calamity blew away three more Strike Daggers. The remaining few moved in with their beam sabers— an instant later, the Raider came down between them to shoot down two more. The remaining two turned their firepower on the Raider, only to be cut down a moment later by the Calamity’s ram cannons.

“They’re down!” Orga shouted. “Clotho, take the ship out!”

The Raider flashed up into the sky in mobile armor mode, firing wildly at the desperate Wyoming. Down below, the Sword 105 Dagger turned to pursue— a moment later, the Forbidden’s scythe tore it in half, and took off towards the Wyoming.

On the Wyoming’s bridge, Fredrik pointed furiously at the approaching Gundams.

“Shoot them down!” he roared. “Don’t let them get close!”

“But sir, our mobile suits have been destroyed!” one of the bridge crew cried back.

“FIRE!” Fredrik screamed. “FIRE AT WILL!”

The Wyoming’s guns blazed to life, sending the three Gundams scattering.

“We can’t get close unless we take out those guns!” Orga grunted, as a pair of beams slammed into the Calamity’s shield. “Dammit!”

The Forbidden rocketed ahead, beams flying off its Geschmeidig Panzer, and reared back with its scythe to cut off the Wyoming’s ventral beam cannon turret. The Calamity ducked through another blaze of beam shots, blowing the Wyoming’s starboard catapult off with its Scylla cannon and crushing another turret with a bazooka shell. The Raider stormed through a wave of machinegun fire, blasting back with its own cannons and tearing chunks out of the Wyoming’s hull. Clotho lunged up to the bridge, the Raider reverting back to mobile suit mode. On the bridge, he saw Fredrik staring up at the Raider in horror.

With a scream, Clotho drove the hammer down into the Wyoming’s bridge tower.

The ship’s engine block flashed as the Calamity pierced it with another Scylla shot, and with a thunderous explosion, the Wyoming broke in two, arms of fire spilling out the shattered hull.

The Calamity, Forbidden, and Raider backed away, watching the explosion…and a moment later, exhaust flashing behind them, they took off into the darkness.

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To be continued...