Mobile Suit Gundam SEED DESTINY

EDIT 02/26/2009 - For some reason it never took the first time, but there is a change to this chapter from the original version. I apologize for the, err, unprofessionalism of all this.

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Phase 47 - The Destiny Plan

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Rey gazed down hesitantly at the shiny, stylized badge of FAITH in his hand. He looked back up at Gilbert Dullindal, sitting grimly behind his desk, fingers interlaced, watching Rey stoically.

“Use this power to protect the Sword from all manner of enemies,” Gilbert instructed. Rey saluted sharply. “The war is almost over. We must not falter now.”

“I understand,” Rey said quietly. Gilbert glanced at him, arching an eyebrow.

“You are dismissed,” he said. Rey saluted again and took his leave, drifting out the door.

He gazed down numbly at the shiny badge still clenched in his fist. It was an award for skill, and a token of trust.

Rey scowled as he clipped it to his lapel. Gil trusted him, and always had, so this shiny token meant little more than an affirmation of that which he already knew. It only gave him the power to do what no normal ZAFT soldier could be tasked with, something he had done since the beginning of this war.

He looked back down at it. They had said that Shinn would be given this badge. Rey scowled— only the trustworthy could be endowed with the power of a FAITH member.

Rey alighted against a railing overlooking a mobile suit hangar. He gazed down below at the workers and mechanics as they strove to prepare a legion of ZAFT mobile suits of all conceivable make and model for the impending battle. And yet he could not shake the unbearable feeling that it would all be for naught— that somehow, Gil would be stopped; that somehow, Shinn would find the power or the trick to bringing the two warring sides to a halt, to stalling the world in this swamp of hatred and warfare.

Rey shook his head. Shinn would not understand.

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As the mechanics reloaded the Judicator’s CIWS guns, Dearka Elthman cast a surprised glance down the catwalk at Miriallia as she ambled towards him. She smiled warmly as she steadied herself next to him against the railing.

“They let you out of the bridge?” Dearka asked with a smirk. Milly huffed with mock indignation and looked down with a smile at the hangar floor.

“Only for a little bit,” she said. “I thought I’d go and spend my time off with a friend.”

Dearka smiled back. “Good to see where I rank,” he chuckled. “So what do you wanna do when this is all done?”

Milly glanced at him with an arched eyebrow. “If you’re asking me to marry you— ”

“Oh, no,” Dearka interrupted, shaking his head and laughing. “My silly male mind won’t be able to wrap itself around the concept of commitment for another ten years at least.” He looked back at her. “But seriously…what are you going to go after this is all over?”

Milly gazed back down towards the hangar floor soberly. “I haven’t thought about that,” she said. “I’d rather survive it all so that when it is all over, I have a whole world of opportunities in front of me to choose from then.”

“That’s what we’re all fighting for,” Dearka said with a nod. “No lunatic with a mask can take it away from us.”

“I guess all those stories you hear about friendships from war are true, then,” Milly added, smiling. “I never wanted to fight, but now that I’m here, if I could go back and change it, I’d do it all the same way again.”

Dearka nodded again. “In the end,” he said, “we still have each other.”

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Casting a wary glance across the observation deck, Shinn eyed Lacus Clyne carefully as she gazed at the stars. She had called him here to talk, but he could not sense what about…although the emotional turmoil churning inside her, the turmoil only she and he could feel, was probably a good hint.

“That machine,” Lacus began, “that you were fighting against yesterday…who is its pilot?”

Shinn arched an eyebrow at her. “He’s an old friend of mine,” he said quietly. “When I left ZAFT, our friendship sort of…frayed.”

Lacus turned her surprised eyes towards Shinn. “You have been fighting your friend all this time?” she asked. Shinn looked back out at space, nodding.

“Rey and Gilbert were using me,” he said flatly. “They wanted me to fight for the sake of some future where everyone would be a Newtype.” He turned back towards Lacus. “I couldn’t do it, and I couldn’t let Stella die, so I left.”

Lacus glanced back towards the stars. “Kira and Athrun faced the same situation,” she said. “However, they reconciled their differences and learned to fight together.”

“And look where they are now,” Shinn snorted. “Rey won’t join us; he hates me now. And I won’t go back; I promised Stella I would protect her. So our destiny is just to fight each other until one of us is dead.”

Lacus turned towards Shinn, regarding him sadly. “Do you accept that?” she asked. Shinn glanced back at her, eyebrow arched.

“Do I have a choice?” he asked back. “Rey and I are not Kira and Athrun.” He looked back out the windows. “After all, I did betray him.”

Lacus was quiet for a moment. “How did you betray him?” she asked.

Shinn glanced back at her. Rey had told him his deepest secret— would it matter to tell Lacus?

He shook his head. “It had to do with the Chairman,” he said. Lacus turned towards him, surprised; Shinn sensed it and held back a sigh. “Rey is…well, he’s not well. He won’t live much longer.”

“He is a clone,” Lacus concluded. Shinn glanced at her himself. “His presence felt strange…like that of Commander Le Creuset, but somehow altered.”

“He said his telomeres are short,” Shinn went on resignedly. “Chairman Dullindal had a plan to build some new world where everyone would be a Newtype. Rey was fighting for the sake of that world. He wanted me to carry on the fight, since he can’t.” Shinn shook his head. “But I couldn’t do that, not at Stella’s expense. So I left, and I took that dream with me.”

Lacus paused. “And you do not regret your choice,” she added.

“Why should I?” Shinn asked. “If I had stayed, Stella would have died, and I’d just be a tool for the Chairman.” He closed his eyes unhappily. “If he joined us now, I’d forgive him, and hopefully he would forgive me, and we could spend whatever time he has left as friends, not enemies. But I couldn’t do what he asked of me.”

Looking back at the stars, Lacus was silent a moment. “War is a truly terrible thing,” she said quietly, “if it can turn friends into enemies.”

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Lord Djibril smiled as he sat back in his chair in the Daedalus Crater control room. Arrayed before him on the main screen, stretched out across the forward wall, was an overview of the Daedalus base’s defenses. It was formidable indeed— in addition to a fleet of nearly two thousand warships and nearly fifty thousand mobile suits, Daedalus Crater was protected by five Destroy Gundam units, a wing of powerful mobile armors, and thirty thousand automated Mobius units. He glanced at a side screen, displaying an overview of the humming mobile suit factories, as they churned out a wing of Exus mobile armors for the use of their unstoppable Extended. Already, the Exus units produced were being fitted with nuclear missiles. Even if ZAFT threw their entire fleet at Daedalus, they would not be able to punch through these defenses.

At his side, Neo Roanoke nodded as a black-uniformed Special Forces lieutenant drifted up next to him with a clipboard. Djibril glanced up at Neo, as he dismissed the lieutenant.

“Vice Admiral Stone’s fleet has arrived,” Neo said. “We’re almost at full combat capacity.”

Djibril sat back, satisfied. “I am having the -X723 Apocalypse shipped here for your use,” he said. “But for now we shall wait, and let ZAFT make the first move. Once their fleet sets out from the PLANTs, it will be powerless to stop the Requiem.”

Neo glanced at the main screen, as it displayed the battle plan against a green wire grid. “Shouldn’t we fire the Requiem at the PLANTs while their fleet is still there?” he asked. Djibril laughed and shook his head.

“And rob ourselves of the glory of conquering the Coordinators in battle?” He smiled. “No, Neo, we will strike down their homes while they are left undefended, and as we burn their fleet alive, they can turn back and look upon the burning homes.”

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Outside the observation deck windows, a GINN Trainer laden with mobile suit weapons drifted by, flanked by a CGUE armed to the teeth with machineguns. Kira watched it pass by emotionlessly, as it angled towards a nearby Laurasia-class frigate. He had, conceivably, one more chance to destroy Athrun.

He watched as a pair of GINN Trainers loaded Valentine’s new mobile suit into the Deliverance’s hangar— what looked like a ZAKU Phantom in dark gray, equipped with the Legend Gundam’s backpack; the Providence ZAKU, they had called it.

He glanced over his shoulder as Valentine drifted onto the observation deck; she greeted him with a thin smile and a gentle kiss.

“What are you doing up here?” she asked, steadying herself against the railing.

“Nothing important,” Kira answered quietly. Valentine eyed him carefully for a moment.

“The Chairman will be making his move soon,” she continued. “The time to use the Sword is coming.”

“I will defend it,” Kira resolved, looking up determinedly at the stars. “Our new world will come, one way or another. I will not let Athrun stand in its way.”

“Of course you won’t,” Valentine said soothingly. “And this time,” she added, whispering in his ear, “you’ll kill him.”

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“Captain!” Sai exclaimed, as Murrue burst onto the bridge. “Twelve warships are coming at us from twelve o’clock! Distance, 7600 and closing!”

“Who is it now?” she snapped, sliding into her seat. She scowled up at the imposing array of twelve Izumo-class battleships. “Is that Orb?!”

“They’re launching mobile suits!” Milly added. “At least forty Murasames!”

Murrue studied the image of the fleet for a moment. “Launch our own mobile suits,” she said. “Orb is coming to finish our longstanding fight.”

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“We have entered the Megami’s sensor radius,” the deckhand reported. “The enemy ship appears to be activating its weapons and mobile suit catapults.”

Jona glowered up ahead at the dark and intimidating form of the Megami. They had dogged him throughout the Seiran family’s all-too-brief rule in Orb, they had eluded his Takemikazuchi Fleet, and their ineptitude had robbed him of Orb’s finest political prize. But now he had them cornered and caught by surprise— finally the Orb Raiders would die.

“Launch all mobile suits,” he ordered, “and move in to engage the Megami at point blank range.”

He scowled as the Orb Raiders’ distinctive mobile suits began to take off, charging towards his fleet.

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The beams went flashing by the Akatsuki as Mwu drew back behind his shield, skirting around desperate beam rifle shots from a squadron of Murasames. A beam volley came down from above, spearing two of them, and the Strike Rouge shot by, angling up towards the first Izumo as it poured CIWS fire towards her.

“Luna!” Mwu shouted, swarming his remote turrets around her and projecting a shield, sending the beam blasts of another Murasame team flying. “Don’t be so reckless!”

A wave of missiles came streaking through the battlefield, as a Murasame team from the Orb Raiders shot by, forming up around the Strike Rouge. Mwu took off over the Murasames’ heads, opening fire on the Izumo with his remote turrets and picking off another team of enemy Murasames as they tried to defend the ship.

“I can fight them too!” Luna cried. “Even me!” The Strike Rouge plowed through a wave of CIWS fire behind its shield, spearing the dorsal Gottfried cannon with a beam rifle shot. Mwu smirked inside the Akatsuki, covering her with a wave of turret shots.

“They shouldn’t have attacked us!” he laughed. “Luna, get over them and take out the bridge! I’ll hit the engines!”

The Akatsuki and Strike Rouge split up, spiraling through a wave of beam rifle fire and charging down towards the ship’s hull. Luna pulled up over the smoldering remains of the dorsal Gottfried, firing at the bridge and spearing a Murasame in front of it with a beam rifle blast. Another dove in from the side, beam saber raised— Luna knocked it aside with a blow from her shield, taking it down with her rifle, and burst through the flames, roaring up towards the bridge tower and shredding it with a point blank CIWS burst. She jetted backwards as a Murasame came down from above with another saber slash, picking it off with a rifle shot to the chest.

Mwu clenched his teeth as he plowed effortlessly through a wave of beam rifle fire, smashing a trio of Murasames with a return volley from his turrets. The remote turrets burst away from the Akatsuki, forming up around the Izumo’s engines and spearing them on a relentless volley of beam shots.

Mwu watched with satisfaction, pulling his turrets away, as the Izumo’s engine block exploded and the rest of the ship vanished in a plume of flame.

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Metal shrieked and sparks flew as Andy shot by in the Mustang over the hull of a dying Izumo-class, plunging both his anti-ship swords into the hull and cutting his way through the bridge. The ship staggered under the force of a series of explosions— with a shout, Yzak landed on the smoldering deck and pumped a series of beam cannon rounds into the ship’s core, lunging away as the ship died in a thunderous burst of fire.

“And here I thought they’d be tough!” Dearka laughed, as a pair of Murasames charged towards him. With a flash, he drew both of the Judicator’s beam sabers, slicing the two charging opponents in half at the waist— a moment later he fired a flurry of missiles up towards the next Izumo, smashing dozens of craters and scars into the ship’s hull.

“We don’t have time for this shit!” Yzak snarled, spiraling through the desperate beam volleys of a squadron of Murasames and returning fire, picking off one with his beam rifle. “Someone find the flagship and we can end this!”

Andy somersaulted up over the hull of the Izumo, driving both his swords into the bridge and spearing the engine block on a Scylla shot. A Murasame lunged up behind him, beam saber raised— Andy smirked and crushed its cockpit with a blinding strike from both of his rocket anchors. “At the rate we’re going, it won’t last long anyway!”

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As another Murasame exploded, Shinn dove down towards the smoldering hull of a battleship, sword drawn.

“These guys are nothing,” he growled, somersaulting over another Murasame and slicing it cleanly in two with his sword. The Gaia shot by underneath him, beam saber drawn and cleaving through a charging Murasame before it could react. The Izumo’s Gottfried angled to fire— Shinn pierced it with a long beam cannon shot and dropped down to slam his sword into the ship’s hull, striking missile stores and blowing the vessel in two. Stella lunged up over the bridge, driving her beam saber down through it, and Shinn finished the ship off with a final beam cannon blast.

“We’ve taken out a third of them already,” Shinn muttered. A Murasame raced towards him, beam saber raised— Shinn scowled and ripped its arm off with a palm cannon blow, kicking it aside and letting the Gaia finish it off with a beam rifle shot through the cockpit.

Stella glanced over at the red and black Izumo, as it fired a storm of missiles after one mobile suit.

“Is that Athrun?!” Shinn exclaimed, pulling back behind his beam shields and returning fire.

“We should help him!” Stella insisted, ducking under a saber-wielding Murasame and spearing it with a beam rifle shot.

“He can take care of himself,” Shinn grunted, lunging around another missile volley and leaving a cloud of afterimages in his wake. “Let’s go after that one!”

The Murasames formed up in front of the second Izumo, opening fire. Shinn scowled and drove his way through their shots with his beam shields, snapping his anti-ship sword out of its rack and cutting two Murasames in half in one horizontal blow. The Murasames turned their rifles on him, but a moment later, two more went down in flames as the Gaia swept into their ranks, beam rifle blazing.

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“Why are we failing?!” Jona shrieked, as the Amaterasu quaked. “How can they be so powerful?!”

“We’ve lost contact with the Murasaki!” a deckhand cried, as outside, the ship in question snapped in two like a twig under the force of a thunderous explosion, and three mobile suits darted away from it.

“Enemy approaching!” another man screamed. Jona stared up in disbelief up ahead, as the Infinite Justice tore through two Murasames with its twin beam saber and spiraled down towards the Amaterasu’s hull.

Inside the Infinite Justice, Athrun looked up and scowled, magnifying the image of the bridge. “Jona,” he growled. “You…the man who burned Orb down again!”

The Infinite Justice somersaulted over the charging Murasames, drawing its beam rifle and destroying the Amaterasu’s dorsal Gottfried. Jona’s eyes widened in horror.

“Shoot him down!” he screamed, pointing at the charging Gundam. Athrun’s eyes flashed angrily as he activated his subflight lifter, the beam sabers coming to life with a blaze, and sent it streaking forward towards the bridge—

The screens flickered to life, and the world at once saw a determined face.

“Citizens of the Earth Sphere,” the voice said, “human beings of all walks of life, of all nations and creeds and religions, of all genetic backgrounds, I offer you greetings. I am the Chairman of the PLANT Supreme Council, Gilbert Dullindal.”

In the control room at the Daedalus Crater base, Lord Djibril scowled. “What the hell are you doing…?” he growled.

Gilbert paused for a moment. “I make this speech on all frequencies, to all who dwell in this realm of our home, the Earth. We stand at the brink of a terrible battle, during a terrible war. The forces of ZAFT and the Earth Alliance are marching towards each other, ready to do battle, ready to destroy, ready to die. Already this war has claimed thousands of lives, sparked by a tragedy that itself claimed thousands of lives.”

On the Megami, Lacus watched carefully as Gilbert spoke.

“What is he doing?” Murrue murmured.

“He is playing his hand,” Lacus explained. “Sai, please prepare to broadcast a live message on all frequencies.”

“Wha— why?” Sai exclaimed. Lacus looked over at him, and he paused a moment, before smiling and nodding. “Right.”

“It has been like this throughout history,” Gilbert went on. “A terrible tragedy, leaving thousands dead, sparks an even worse war that leaves even more people dead. The greatest wars of the AD calendar were all repetitions of each other. Humanity had killed ten million of its own and destroyed its finest civilization by AD 1919, and yet by AD 1939, they had picked up their weapons and put them in the hands of a new generation, for a new generation’s war. Thinkers and visionaries throughout history have tried to answer the question of why we never learn to sheath our swords— of why, after killing ten million of our own, we killed a million times more a generation later. Such an answer, I believe, can never be found. But there was one man who gave us a different way. That man was George Glenn.”

On the Deliverance, Rau smiled as Valentine and Kira watched, Valentine emotionlessly, Kira incredulously.

“Is the Chairman trying to…sell the Destiny Plan?” Kira asked, glancing in shock at Rau.

“Fifty-nine years ago, George Glenn set out for Jupiter,” Gilbert continued. “He left us with the genetic modification techniques used to create him, and eventually, the Coordinator people. The world promptly descended into chaos, and over half a century of strife has followed, culminating in the Valentine War of three years ago and the war we are embroiled in now."

On the Amaterasu, Jona glanced at the ship's captain.

"Get us out of here."

"Through all this fighting, we have lost sight of what George Glenn told us, and what he gave us. He told us that he was made, and he had released the technique used to make him so that more of his kind could be made, in order to bridge a gap. He told us that humanity was evolving to meet the needs of its new environment in space, and to make the transition from the way we were to the way we would be in the future, we needed a genetic stopgap. George Glenn gave no name to the evolved being for which Coordinators were made to help us become. I call them Newtypes.”

On the Minerva, Talia scowled at Gilbert’s face as the rest of the bridge crew watched in shock.

“What is he saying?!” Arthur exclaimed. “That Newtypes are real?!”

“Damn you, Gilbert,” Talia growled. “You were planning this all along.”

“Newtypes, as Glenn predicted and as I have witnessed, bear extraordinary powers,” Gilbert said. “Their gifts are many, but their greatest is the power of understanding. Their minds can connect— they can understand each other, and others, and thus transcend the conflicts that come from a lack of understanding. Newtypes can transcend violence and bloodshed; they can transcend war. We cannot bring back those already dead, but we owe it to ourselves, and to our children, and to the children yet unborn, to strive towards this ideal. We owe it to the universe to become what George Glenn wanted us to become. We owe it to the universe to become Newtypes.”

On the Girty Lue, Lee eyed the screen carefully and glanced at Neo.

“What the hell is he saying?” Lee asked angrily.

Neo smirked. “Don’t worry, Lee,” he answered chidingly. “Just watch.”

“Our evolution into Newtypes is, of course, no small feat,” said Gilbert. “But there is a way— Newtypes are the result of a life in space, not on Earth.” His eyes flashed. “People of the Earth, I am not the first man to urge this of you. But I intend to be the last. Many men in the past, great men, men that you cannot remember, have striven towards this ideal, and tried to convince you to join us, your brothers, your people, in outer space, where we can evolve and become a species beyond war and hatred. But to do that, we must break our bonds to the Earth, move off its surface, live in the cold of space, to become what we are destined to become. We must call to an end this pointless war and strife, and agree to walk forward together towards our destiny as a people of Newtypes.”

“I’ve got the signal!” Sai shouted on the bridge of the Megami.

“Wait, please,” Lacus said sternly, watching Gilbert closely.

“There can be no evolution if we remain divided and tied to the Earth,” Gilbert’s voice boomed. “We all, regardless of politics, regardless of race, regardless of genetics, wish to see the end of conflict. We all wish to see the end of the days where we must send our children to die, only to bring a false peace that forces us to send more children to die a few years later. We all wish to move forward, unburdened by our warlike ways. I come before you now with a plan to do that. We must move off the Earth; we must let her rest in peace, and make our abode in outer space, to become all that we are meant to be. People of the Earth— I hereby offer to you a chance to become far superior to any mere Coordinator! I offer you my plan for the evacuation of Earth— the Destiny Plan!”

The screens went blank— the face disappeared— a moment later, the face reappeared, but not the same as Gilbert’s. The world watched in surprise as the face changed.

“People of the Earth Sphere,” a girl’s voice announced, “lend me your ears.”

The screens flickered to life.

“I am Lacus Clyne.”

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To be continued…