Gundam Seed: A New War, New Enemies(Crossover, PG-13)

[WaterTrainer243]

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Seed, Gundam Seed Destiny, or Star Wars. Gundam Seed is the property of Bandai Entertainment and Star Wars is the property of the brilliant mind of George Lucas and 20th Century Fox.


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Gundam Seed: A New War, New Enemies
By: SulliMike23

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Prologue

Location: Earth Orbit, Jachin Due
Date: 9.26.CE 71
The Second Battle of Jachin Due

Chaos, utter chaos; that’s all that this battle had brought in just two years in the Earth Sphere between the PLANTs and Earth. Three sides, four factions, one goal: end the war. Each side had their different purposes to end this bloody and horrible war; the Earth Alliance forces wanted to eliminate the threat to the Earth in their beliefs, which happened to be ZAFT and their kind of people, coordinators. ZAFT wishes to eliminate the Earth Alliance forces and every last one of their kind of people, naturals. The Orb forces and Clyne faction, on the other hand, which to end the war in a peaceful solution with the combined efforts of coordinators and naturals; however, their efforts are proving to be futile as both the Earth Forces and ZAFT aren’t willing to accept each other’s existence as human beings.

In the beginning months of the war, many innocent lives were lost in what would be the largest battle the Earth has seen since World War II. ZAFT began the war with a technological advantage with their new weapons known as mobile suits. The Earth Alliance, caught off-guard with this advancement, was unprepared to handle such lethal weapons with their mobile armors. As the war progressed, so did the Earth Forces’ need to equip themselves with mobile suits. Thus, the G Project was introduced by Orb’s Morgenrate company, which developed five experimental mobile suits; the Strike, the Aegis, the Duel, the Buster, and the Blitz.

A few months after the development of these five mobile suits, the Earth Forces developed more of their own mobile suits in order to turn the tide in the war. However, because of corruption among the ranks in the Earth Alliance and ZAFT many soldiers felt that this war was taking a turn for the worse in every direction. Thus many have joined the Three Ship Alliance consisting of the Earth Alliance Forces’ assault carrier Archangel, the Orb Union’s Kusanagi, and a new experimental ZAFT warship Eternal. These individuals aboard these three ships have been shunned by both the Earth Forces and ZAFT for questioning this war and not joining one side in the fighting. For Orb, they wished to remain a neutral independent state and not have anything to do with the war. However, because the Earth Forces are run by the Atlantic Federation, which is controlled by a racist group called Blue Cosmos, the Earth Forces attacked Orb in order to show the Earth that every Natural on the planet should be against Coordinators.

The Archangel was an experimental warship and the first mobile suit carrier for the Earth Alliance Forces. It was docked at an Orb colony called Heliopolis when it was under construction and fell to a skeleton crew when ZAFT attacked and destroyed the colony. She escaped along with the GAT-X105 Strike Gundam and made it to the Earth Forces’ headquarters in Alaska only to be deceived by the Earth Forces in Operation Spit-break. For the most part, the pilot of the Strike Gundam was a young Coordinator named Kira Yamato, thus one of the main reasons why they were considered renegades to the Atlantic Federation.

The Eternal was built as a carrier for ZAFT’s newest mobile suits based on the designs of the 4 Gundam mobile suits they stole. The two mobile suits were designed to run on nuclear power, despite ZAFT had created Neutron Jammers to neutralize nuclear powered weapons. It was an effort to end the war in a swift blow with the annihilation of every Natural on Earth.

The individuals on all three of these ships felt that the war was going to destroy humanity and they were proved right when the Earth Forces got their hands on the information of N Jammer Cancellers and used nuclear missiles on a ZAFT asteroid base and ZAFT had used a new and powerful weapon called GENESIS. Both of these attacks attracted much attention throughout the Earth Sphere and caused fear to run through the veins in many individuals. However, these attacks also piqued the interest of others, who weren’t fighting in this war or weren’t from the solar system at all.

Hundreds of miles away in the orbits of Jupiter and Neptune belt lay two ships who were watching the battle between these three combatants with fascination. They watched the battle and watched as GENESIS fired again towards Earth’s moon and destroyed the Earth Forces’ base in the Ptolemaeus crater, wiping out every man and woman at the base. They watched as the Earth Alliance Moebius mobile armors launch their nuclear payloads at the PLANTs only to be destroyed by the ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam’s weapons. One of these ships watched in fear, while the other watched in utter malice.

Location: In orbit around the planet Jupiter
Date: 9.26.CE 71
ISD Dominance

The planet Jupiter; the massive gas giant of the solar system that’s over twenty times the size of the Earth and one of the many wonders of our solar system that fascinates astronomers to no end. If one were to look closely through a high powered telescope, they could see some of Jupiter’s moons, but something else as well. The object they would see is the shape of an arrowhead of a spear, has a bulky exterior with a rectangular object on top, complete with two dome shapes, and notice the object is metal. This shape is a shape well known, and feared, in many corners of another galaxy; this is the shape of an Imperial class Star Destroyer.

The massive ship carries a heavy load of laser and ion weapons and at least fifteen fighter squadrons making it a fortress in space. The crew can number in the thousands with troops and droids included. The hangar bays can carry massive assault ground vehicles called walkers and a few shuttlecrafts. One would think that they could easily destroy one of these massive spacecraft; but then they’d think twice after coming into full contact with one and end up destroying themselves.

On the bridge of this massive and powerful starship, the crew continued to observe the battle taking place hundreds of miles away around the planet Earth. The captain was a veteran of war; he was as young as the Empire was when he fought in the Clone Wars and he fought at many battles when the Rebel Alliance began its formation. Some believed he was immortal, others believed he was just lucky, many believed he had the force with him, but he on the other hand believes he just carries out his orders and gives out orders to the letter. He was very loyal to Emperor Palpatine and was furious when he had found out that the Alliance had destroyed the Death Star around Yavin 4.

He was among the many Star Destroyer commanders when the Empire struck a tremendous blow to the Alliance when they attacked Hoth. After the Battle of Hoth, he was ordered to explore a Galaxy his Emperor had been having interest in to expand the Empire. The exploration led him to a solar system filled with turmoil and destruction and mostly on the third planet. They had picked up strange readings on their comm. scan and decided to investigate. Their investigation led to the battle of Jachin Due, where they watched strange weapons similar to their walkers with mobility and weapons similar to their spacecraft from a Super Star Destroyer right down to a small TIE Fighter.

“Very astounding!” The captain said as he watched the Freedom fired its weapons along with the METEOR’s weapons at several Earth Alliance and ZAFT mobile suits and destroying their weapons, heads, and legs, but not the mobile suits themselves. “Such powerful and amazing weapons from one planet!”

“Yes sir, and all capable of maneuvers our walkers and fighters have never dreamed of!” The XO said as he stood next to the captain watching the battle on a crewman’s monitor.

“Captain Zavan, should we send a group of our shuttles to disable one of these weapons or bring back one of their debris?” The junior officer they were watching the battle with asked.

The captain thought for a moment and then shook his head. “No, we must wait until this battle is over and then we go in and retrieve what data we can recover on whatever these weapons are.” With that the crew continued to observe as the battle at Jachin Due continued.

Location: Orbit of the planet Neptune
Date: 9.26.CE 71
ACC Freedom

The Planet Neptune, known for its blue appearance and mysterious surface. One of the furthest planets from the Sun and has three moons; it also switches from the 8th planet to the 9th planet and back every few hundred years when he crosses orbits with Pluto. If one were to look up close through an even more powerful telescope, they would admire the planet’s surface of blue gas, a white dot marking a storm, and another object about the size and shape of an asteroid.

Up close, the shape looks like an eyeless, metal whale with barnacles covering its entire body, even on its wings. What they don’t notice will be a small hangar bay on the side and the engines at the stern. This was a Calamari Cruiser from the Rebel Alliance; one of the many symbols of hope in the galaxy run by the corrupt and powerful Galactic Empire. The Rebel Alliance was formed shortly after the Clone Wars when the Empire became too corrupt in its ranks. Like many tyrants on Earth, the Rebel Alliance was a group of people who didn’t fear to stand up against the Empire despite their overwhelming odds.

Many star systems in the galaxy joined the Alliance in their war to end the Empire’s tyranny, revive the Jedi order, and free the galaxy of Emperor Palpatine’s evil. The planet Mon Calamari was among these many planets that joined and helped build their fleet of starships to combat the Empire’s Navy. Commanding the Freedom was a young Mon Calamari named Captain Yatari. He had been tracking the Dominance since she left their galaxy in search for more star systems to expand the Galactic Empire; and like their Imperial counterparts, they had been watching the Battle of Jachin Due for quite some time now and are shocked, amazed, and afraid of the weapons the planet Earth had at their disposal.

When they witnessed the GENESIS firing its weapon, they imagined seeing the Death Star’s super laser firing at Alderaan and destroying it into an asteroid field. Knowing the Empire was in the system, they also feared that they would somehow get their hands on this technology the Earth people possessed, so they could wipe the Alliance out in a single blow.

“Captain, these weapons…” He executive officer mused as he stood next to Captain Yatari, who was in his chair observing a hologram of the battle. “If the Imperials got their hands on these…”

“Yes I am aware of the consequences Commander; but for the moment we cannot make our move against the Dominance, our fighters would be outnumbered by theirs and their weapons would tear us apart.” Captain Yatari answered with an upset tone. Like many of his officers and crew…he didn’t like the situation any more than they. “We can’t do battle without support from the fleet, if we did it would be suicide.”

“But what should we do if they made weapons like those?” The young commander asked.

“Then we should make our own; as soon as the Imperials leave…we send out a party of our own to retrieve what debris we can find and gather enough information about them as possible before heading back to our galaxy.” Captain Yatari responded as the battle of Jachin Due came to an end with the destruction of the GENESIS weapon.

Location: Coruscant
Date: Unknown

The Emperor sat on his throne looking out towards the massive city that makes up the planet Coruscant and the many ships passing by like traffic on Earth. He had just had a meeting with Prince Xizor and his assistance by his Black Sun company and was waiting for a report from his reconnaissance ship that had explored a far away galaxy. He had high hopes that the ship would return to his galaxy with good news and word of a planet worthy to expand his Galactic Empire…to a Universal Empire. So far…nothing…not even a shuttle returning with the news; still he gave in to his patience, after all his patience did pay off when Anakin Skywalker joined the dark side and became Darth Vader and had also destroyed the Jedi order.

Just then, the door to his throne room opened and a middle aged admiral came walking towards the Emperor’s throne and kneeling. Feeling his presence, Emperor Palpatine turned in his chair looking at his officer. “You may speak admiral.” He said calming the Admiral.

The Admiral stood up and looked at the Emperor with a look a child would’ve made if he had found out a secret that he was so excited to hear. “My Emperor, the Dominance has returned to our galaxy and is currently in orbit around the planet Geonosis.”

The Emperor grinned, “Excellent, and what do they have to report?” He asked in his calm and aging voice.

“They have found a habitable planet that is currently habited by humans who have the means of space travel, but not hyperspace technology. The planet is called Earth.” The Admiral explained in an excited voice.

“Ahh…good; tell me more, admiral.” The Emperor said as his voice became very pleased like a greedy businessman after stealing money from a rival company.

“The planet’s people are currently at war with themselves over their petty differences and were unaware of the Dominance’s presence in their system making them unable to detect a long range assault from our ships.”

This made the Emperor even more pleased. “Good…and is there anything else?”

“Yes my emperor; apparently these humans have developed weapons that none of our techs have ever seen before. One of their weapons had the destructive power similar to our Death Star.”

This piqued the Emperor’s interest to the point where he actually raised his eyebrows (if he had any). “Oh? What else can you tell me about these weapons?”

“They had maneuver abilities that surpassed even our most maneuverable TIE Interceptor and their weapons were far more effective than one of our Star Destroyers alone. Their capabilities were remarkable and our scientists are attempting to assess them in order to make our own model of these unique machines.”

“Very interesting,” The Emperor mused. “See to it that our first prototype is in production as soon as possible.”

“Yes my Emperor.” The admiral bowed before the Emperor dismissed him.

Palpatine turned his throne to look out at Coruscant again with a grin. This is an interesting development that I have not foreseen. Perhaps this new planet may become useful in the nearby future of this empire. He then began to make a very sinister cackle that seemed to echo even through the depths of space and beyond.

Location: Orb Union, Kira Yamato’s residence
Date: 9.30.CE 76
Time: 0300 Zulu time

Kira jolted out of bed as if waking up from a nightmare. Cold sweat covered his skin and matted his hair to his forehead and he was breathing quite heavily. Looking around, he noticed it was still the middle of the night. Next to him lay Lacus Clyne, the young girl he had met almost five years ago during the first war between the Earth Alliance and ZAFT when he rescued her escape pod. They were now married and already expecting their first edition to their family in 5 months.

He sighed and lay back down on the bed looking up at the ceiling and wondering what he had dreamt about just now. It was as if something was telling him a person who was far more sinister and cruel than Le Creuset was had been cackling. He also saw visions of mysterious ships and people who had been observing the war and obtained some of the debris. But were these visions or just a mere dream?

I better not think about it. Kira thought. Maybe it was just a dream.

Little did Kira know his dream wasn’t a dream at all; it was indeed a vision of what would come.

End Prologue…

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A/N: Well that’s the prologue for you. It’ll take me a while before getting the first chapter going, I still have college classes to get through and I don’t have a laptop of my own yet. So don’t expect anything anytime soon.

 

[WaterTrainer243]

Chapter 1: Arrival

Location: Orb Union, Kira Yamato’s residence
Date: 9.30.CE 76
Time: 1200 Zulu time

It’s been three years since the last conflict between the Earth and PLANTs and both sides are now once again in the rebuilding stages after the war. This time, however, the Earth Alliance and ZAFT are now run by politicians who know how to listen to reason and have talked with one another. Racist groups such as LOGOS or Blue Cosmos are now considered to be outlaws and members of them have never been welcome in the political levels of society since the last war.

Orb, the nation that was always caught in the middle of these conflicts has found time to rebuild their fleet and country since the two attacks on it by both ZAFT and the Earth Alliance forces. They announced a unique proposition to both the PLANTs and Earth that has had much controversy and prejudice. They announced that in order for both sides to better understand one another, they must have a pilot exchange program so that both sides will not start another war.

Radical, as it may sound to many, others believed it to be a good idea; the politicians of both sides agreed to this program and built a conjoint group of their own forces with Orb to hunt down those who would spark up another war. The soldiers who volunteered for this group were among the many that fought and survived the two wars between ZAFT and the Earth Alliance and saw that the leaders in both wars were foolish to start them in the first place. Among these many soldiers were the crewmembers of the Archangel, Yzak Joule, Dearka Elsman, and more.

However, as long as mankind exists…there will always be wars. Kira knew that, even though he wished it wouldn’t be that way even his wife, Lacus, wished the same thing. He stared up into the sky watching as the clouds moved ominously and the birds fly overhead. The one thing that nagged in his mind was Rau Le Cruset’s words before he killed him. He still remembered how his sick mind believed that it was always mankind’s wish to destroy itself; and how his crazy belief caused him his own death.

“Kira...” a soft voice called out to him. “It’s almost lunchtime.”

“I’ll be inside in a minute Lacus.” He called back with a smile.

Lacus Clyne…the one person who always knew how to soothe his worried soul and the souls of many others like him; she always believed that Coordinators and Naturals could live in harmony if they would just accept the facts that they were all human no matter what. He wished that there were others who thought like her; in the back of his mind he knew that there were. Kira just simply wanted no more reasons to fight; as did many other weary soldiers who fought since five years ago.

Location: Space, in orbit around the Moon
Date: 9.30.CE 76
EAS Victory

Nothing, absolutely nothing; that’s all he was patrolling. Captain Jean-Pierre was becoming frustrated with the fact that he was patrolling for nothing for the past few years since the second war broke out. Even though he was from the Eurasian Federation, he did have a little thing against coordinators; but after learning that the two wars were started by racist groups who wanted nothing more than the extermination of ALL coordinators, he decided it was best to follow his morals instead of his racist superiors. True, he disliked coordinators because they killed many of his comrades…but he didn’t hate them to the point where he wanted every Coordinator, from the oldest man to the youngest child, dead. He was of French descent, which made him more passionate and more proper when it came to war; just like his ancestors before him hundreds of years ago.

If it had been him in charge of the war, he would’ve pitted Patrick Zala, Gilbert Dullindal, Blue Cosmos, and LOGOS against one another and have them fight it out while the rest of the Earth sphere watched. Still, he wasn’t in charge of those wars, nor was he in charge of any other war. But like many soldiers throughout the Earth sphere, he was getting tired of these pointless racist wars between coordinators and naturals and just wanted nothing more than both sides to just get on with life without starting another war. Still, he knew that as long as racist groups like Blue Cosmos existed, there would always be someone out there just waiting to start another war to wipe out all of either naturals or coordinators.

He just sat in the captain’s chair of his Drake-class ship and watched the emptiness of space, minus the PLANTs, debris from previous wars, the moon, and the Earth, as they continued their patrol. He took a quick look around the bridge at the crew as they continued to do their duties at their stations making sure they were doing their duties. Even though this was a military ship, they were not at war (for the moment) and he saw that there was no reason to not let each crewmember have at least a rest before returning to duty. It made him a likeable person among the crew, especially with one of the exchange pilots from ZAFT.

Ever since the exchange program was introduced, he felt a little uneasy letting his personal emotions affect his judgment as well as tried to keep the crew from killing them as well from their personal emotions. Either way, it made every soldier from the Earth Alliance and ZAFT uncomfortable. Still, the coordinator crewmembers aboard his ship actually have proven themselves to be exceptional in the ship’s operation. He noted a few ZAFT uniforms among the crew on the bridge making sure who’s who.

“Mister Alexander,” The captain said in his French accent, “Status report?”

A young ZAFT officer at the sensor station looked up at the captain with an almost dull look, as if he’s been bored out of his mind for years. “Nothing to report sir, just small chunks of debris, a few asteroids, small rocks,” He shook his head, “Nothing worth our time.”

The captain sighed with a frustrated look; he then leaned back in his chair to relax. Like many other people aboard the ship, he too was getting bored out of his mind just waiting for something to happen that will at least make him sound battle stations. Sighing, he got out of his chair and stepped down from it, turned to the secondary officer on the bridge, and about to tell them to take over.

“Wait…” Alexander said causing the captain to stop in his tracks and look at him. “I’ve got something here,”

The captain walked to his station and looked at Alexander. “What is it?”

“I’ve got several objects about three hundred kilometers from our current position in sector two-two-Charlie-five-bravo, and they’re huge.”

The captain looked down and looked at the images on the radar screen; on the screen were at least ten to fifteen objects in the shape of…arrowheads? From the look of the screen; they also seemed to be closing and coming at a fast rate. What on Earth could these objects be? Moreover, are they ships? The captain turned to the communications officer, which happened to be a young woman wearing an Earth Alliance uniform.

“Miss Ito,” She turned to the captain well aware of what’s going on. “Send a transmission to these contacts, if they are ships. I want it on all channels; have them identify themselves and state their intentions.”

She nodded with a ‘yes sir’, placed her hand on her headpiece, and spoke into it. “Attention unknown craft, this is the Earth Alliance battleship Victory; please identify yourself and state your intentions.” Nothing, “I repeat, this is the Earth Alliance battleship Victory to unknown craft, please identify yourself and state your intentions.” Again she had no response from whatever they were; she turned to the captain, “No response, sir.”

The contacts continued to bear on the Victory without even stopping. Little did the crew of the Victory know, they were going to be the first casualties of another war.

Location: Space, sector 22C5B
Time: 1537 Zulu time
ISD Dominance

Admiral Zavan smirked as he heard the transmission from the Victory after they had asked them to state their intentions and identify themselves. He wasn’t the type of man to listen to idle threats or pleas, he was the one who made demands such as those. Still, this ship was just an obstacle in the way of their goal, the Earth. True, it was armed very well, but with the weapons the Victory possessed, they could not match up to a fully functional Imperial-class Star Destroyer. Years ago, he was in this system exploring planets to conquer for the Empire and found Earth; but since the Battle of Endor and the fall of the Empire, he had been on a quest to rebuild the Empire and strike back at the New Republic just as they did at the Battle of Hoth. The first planet he had in mind for the rebuilding of the Empire was Earth and would start here and go throughout the rest of this galaxy and conquering every inhabitable system before heading back to their galaxy.

Of course, he realized he’d have to, “persuade” the inhabitants of Earth to join the Empire. He knew there would be resistance, so he came prepared with a fleet built for one purpose, conquest. It would cost several of his pilots, but these Earth people knew nothing of the Empire, nor were they aware of the shields that protected their ship from attacks or the generators that were vulnerable to attack. Even so, he didn’t want to take any chances but he also wanted to let the Earth people at least give his fleet a fight so they can at least remember that resistance was indeed futile.

“Admiral, should we respond?” The executive officer, Captain Pinka, asked.

“Yes,” Zavan said before continuing, “Arm turbo laser batteries and prepare to launch fighters.”

The XO grinned with his commander, “At once sir.” He replied with a sly tone before turning to the ship’s communication’s officer. “Battle stations, shields up, and get the crews to their fighters.”

At that moment the alarms all over the Star Destroyer and every trooper, engineer, officer, and pilot began running throughout the ship to their assigned stations. It had been years since they last went into battle, but now it was against an entirely new enemy with weapons that could destroy them easily. But they also had weapons of the same nature and their new foes had no information on their ships.

Within the fleet of Imperial craft, the other ships also sounded battle stations and ordered their TIE Fighters to launch into the attack. Their target: the Earth Alliance battleship Victory.

Location: EAS Victory

The captain sat in his chair along with his XO, which was a younger middle-aged man wearing an Earth Alliance uniform. The two sounded level three battle stations, only because the unknown craft had not responded to their hails, and already pilots were clad in their normal suits ready for combat. He pondered in his seat about these newcomers; who were they, where did they come from, and what were they doing out in the middle of space like this with a fleet big enough to launch an attack on…it finally snapped to him; it was an attack! After being in two wars, he would know this but can’t risk his crew to question his orders to sound level one battle stations until his theory was correct.

He just sat in his chair gripping the arms of it while watching the mysterious and large fleet in front of them. He wished he was in the captain’s chair of the lead ship of that fleet so he could get a clear view in the mind of the commander of that ship and know what he was thinking. He could just see it now, a lone ship out here in the middle of nowhere, sending a transmission that was a standard procedure to either get acquainted with the other ship if it was friendly, they get no response because you have better plans for them, what would your plan be? The answer was quite obvious; attack it with whatever you had but either made sure there were few or no survivors to let the Earth know who attacked them.

The question was: how were they going to attack the Victory? Should they attack them with their main weapons, launch their mobile armors or mobile suits against them, or use a combination of both? The way he figured, the final option would be the best if they wanted to leave very few or no survivors. The other question, would his ship be ready for an attack like this? He knew the answer would probably be ‘no’, but he had to at least give his crew a fighting chance before sending a distress call out to warn the rest of the Earth Sphere. But like all battles, this was like a game of chess; positioning your pieces throughout the board waiting for the right time to strike before the final checkmate.

Down in the mobile suit deck, crews were rushing to fix their mobile suits to defend their ship from an unknown attack. Even though there was a ZAKU Warrior from ZAFT onboard as well as a Windam, the pilots seemed to get along despite one of them being a coordinator and the other being a natural. The two pilots also happened to be veterans of the two wars that was fought between Orb, the Earth Alliance, and ZAFT and had met after both major conflicts with their mobile suits barely intact. They eventually became friends and agreed to share the same assignments as one of them was given them. They didn’t care what their superiors thought, they were close friends as they came and wouldn’t have it any other way. The names of these pilots were Peter Wallace and Raphael Lipinski.

“Hurry up with my Windam’s specs will ya?” Peter yelled as he floated up to his mobile suit’s cockpit and sat in the pilot’s seat while clad in his custom red normal suit. The helmet had a small picture of a firebird on the side that symbolized his nickname the ZAFT forces referred him to during both wars, “the Red Phoenix”. The reason why he was nicknamed this was because of the fact every time a machine he piloted was assumed destroyed it would appear out of nowhere and attack his enemies in surprise making them think he was reborn from his ashes.

“Hey Pete,” Raphael’s voice came over the comm. as his image appeared on a screen on the upper portion of Peter’s cockpit. “Any idea on what we’re up against?” Raphael’s normal suit was also custom colored as was his ZAKU Warrior. The two colors he preferred were blue and green which earned him the nickname “the Blue Dragon of Boaz”. At the battle of BOAZ he managed to destroy several Earth Forces units before retreating from Boaz’s destruction. When he and Peter first met, they did fight each other like any other two soldiers would; but when both of their forces ceased fighting at Jachin Due they met in person and admired the other’s fighting skills. In the second war they met on the battlefield again and had a similar rivalry against one another; but when the two of them learned of their forces trying to annihilate one another once again, they both defected to Orb and helped them fight to end that long and bloody struggle.

It was at the second war the two of them became friends and fought side-by-side for the first time. Ever since then, the two of them were like a team that was completely unstoppable. They watched out for one another like long-lost brothers and they fought as if they rehearsed the battles by heart. No one on either side whether it was ZAFT or the Earth Forces could match up to both of their skills combined; it was as if they were clones of Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala.

“I dunno; the Captain seems pretty worried though.” Peter replied looking at his friend with a neutral look that then turned into a smirk. “But it doesn’t matter, I doubt whatever they launch against the two of us would stand a chance against our skill.”

“Don’t get too overconfident Pete! We don’t know what kind of mobile suits they may be launching against us.” Raphael said with a serious look causing Peter to frown.

“C’mon Raph, I was just trying to lighten the mood.” Peter defended acting like a child arguing with a family member.

“I know, but I’d hate to see something happen to you.” Raphael said again with a small smile. “You are my friend after all.”

Peter smiled back. “I know, but I know that with you watching my back I have a feeling I’ll come back alive. Besides, I’ll also be watching your back too. You may be a coordinator, but even I know you have your limits.”

“Ha ha, yeah that’s for sure.” Raphael laughed and gave a thumb up to Peter. “Just be careful out there will you?”

“Hmm, count on it!” Peter replied with his own thumb up and a wink.

Suddenly the alarm claxons around the hangar deck began to sound and the light interiors of the ship turned red to sound general quarters. The PA followed shortly after with Yukari Ito’s voice, “All hands level one battle stations; this is not a drill! I repeat all hands to level one battle stations; this is not a drill!”

“Sounds like this is the real deal, Raph; we’re going into battle.” Peter said as he shut his helmet’s visor down and activated his mobile suit’s OS. The acronym General Use Neuro-Dynamic Attack Module appeared on the screen before the OMNI forces symbol. Of course, the letters G-U-N-D-A-M spelled the term GUNDAM, which most OS in mobile suits use whether they’re Orb, ZAFT, or Earth Alliance.

“Sure looks like it.” Raphael said as he also shut his helmet’s visor and turned on his mobile suit’s OS as well. The same GUNDAM acronym appeared on the screen as his mobile suit’s mono-eye camera lit up. The two mobile suits stepped carefully to the two launch catapults that would launch them into battle. Just as they were doing that, Yukari’s face appeared on both their screens.

“The unknown craft released several groups of small objects. We can’t tell if they’re mobile suits or mobile armors just yet, but if they attack the Victory all at once we won’t know if we can hold them off with the weapons we have.” Her voice showed hints of both fear and worry.

“If that’s the case I’m gonna have to take the jet striker pack out so I can take a few of them out with my missiles.” Peter said as he marched his mobile suit to the prep station so they could attach the striker pack to his mobile suit.

“I’ll also have to take my ZAKU Warrior’s Blaze Wizard pack for the same use.” Raphael said as he also marched his mobile suit for his pack.

“We already thought of that and knew that would be the case.” Yukari said as the mechanical arms attached the packs to their mobile suits and the mobile suit bay opened the catapult doors. “Just be careful out there you two.”

“We always are.” Peter said in a low but cautious voice as he prepped his Windam to launch. “Peter Wallace, Windam, LAUNCHING!” He cried as his mobile suit’s thrusters kicked in and launched him into the depths of space towards the fleet of unknown craft and their approaching mobile weapons.

“Just doing our job Yukari.” Raphael said in the same tone as his friend as he also prepped his mobile suit to launch. “Raphael Lipinski, ZAKU Warrior, LAUNCHING!” He also felt the G forces of the launch as he followed his friend into space to face the unknown.

On the bridge, everyone had already put themselves into normal suits to prepare for the worst. Even the smallest crack in the bridge’s observation glass could be fatal for anyone who didn’t have their normal suits on properly; the vacuum of space could suck the air out of their lungs within seconds and they’d suffocate to death in that same instant. It was a standard procedure in combat for any ship to prepare their crew just in case any air leaks out of the ship that could contaminate the entire ship or in case a few of them get sucked out into space. Everyone seemed to be on edge now that they were going to fight whatever these things were; they had no idea what kind of weapons these things had so they didn’t know if they would end up dead or not. It was all a game of Russian roulette from here on out.

“Unknown contacts closing on a direct course towards us, I count at least thirty squadrons of them!” Dawson Alexander cried as he stared at his radar screen as the unknowns continued their approach on the Victory. “The ZAKU Warrior and Windam are holding station about fifteen kilometers from our bow; unknowns at thirty kilometers and closing.”

“Still receiving no reply from any of the unknown craft on all frequencies, no Neutron Jammers are in effect.” Yukari Ito also interjected as she continued to try and contact the unknowns for some idea on who they are. “Usually in this type of situation, Neutron Jammers would be in effect to knock out both the communications and radar of the ship; surprisingly there were none.

“Ready all our weapons just in case of an attack, order Lieutenant Wallace and Lieutenant Lipinski to try and make contact with these unknowns as best they can. If they do become hostile they are to use whatever means necessary to keep them away from the ship.” The captain ordered as he watched more of these events unfold from is chair.

“Your orders are to try and make contact with these targets as best as you can. If they do become hostile you’re ordered to keep them off the Victory as much as you can.” Yukari said to the two of them as their mobile suits waited for these craft as they approached the ship at a fast speed.

“We’ll try, Yukari, but they do have us outnumbered and we don’t really know if we’ll be outgunned.” Peter said as he continued to tap his finger onto one of the control sticks in his cockpit.

“If it does come right down to fighting them off, we’ll take out as many as we can; but we can’t be sure of the skill on their pilots.” Raphael also replied as he continued to wait in his mobile suit.

“The Victory is only armed with vulcan turrets, torpedoes, and missiles. If these things completely surround the ship and attack her all at once, we won’t stand a chance.” Yukari said in a worried tone as she looked at both pilots through her console.

“Like we said, Yukari, we’ll try to hold them off but we can’t hold them all off.” Raphael said again as he lowered his head and narrowed his eyes at the approaching targets.

“Targets within communication range.” Peter said as he opened his COM link with the unknowns. “This is Lieutenant Peter Wallace of the Earth Alliance forces to unknown group of craft, please halt your approach or we will open fire.”

Among the cluster of TIEs they all listened to Peter’s transmission, but paid no heed to it. They just kept on coming at them at full speed with their weapons charged and ready to fire. They knew they would lose a good number of their craft, but that was to be expected of pilots for the Empire; they fly, they fight, and they die for the Empire no matter what the cost.

“I repeat, this is Lieutenant Peter Wallace of the Earth Alliance Forces, you are ordered to cease your approach or we will open fire; this is your final warning.” Peter said again as he began to grip his controls and raise his shield and weapon at the approaching craft.

“It doesn’t look like they’re gonna stop anytime soon Pete.” Raphael said to his friend as he also raised his mobile suit’s shield and weapon at the craft.

“Then I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way then.” Peter replied as he smirked. His look then turned neutral as the targets came into visual range. “Here they come!”

Just as the targets were about one kilometer away from Peter and Raphael’s mobile suits, several green beam shots lanced right out at them. Acting on instinct, the two pilots took evasive action and managed to dodge and block a few of the shots. Peter then got a good glimpse of the targets and managed to notice that they weren’t mobile suits; they were more like mobile armors. The design, though, was unlike any he had ever seen before. It looked as though a pair of solar panels were attached to a ball with a single viewport. He also noted two small red lights on the bottom where the viewport ended; the assumed those were the beam cannons on these machines. His theory was confirmed as they fired again at their two suits before flying past them at neck breaking speeds.

“Damn these guys are fast!” Peter shouted in surprised as he dodged one of them from flying into him. He then turned around, aimed his beam rifle, locked on, and fired a pair of shots that took out two of them. He then locked on to another group and fired three of his missiles at them. The white streaks seemed to spiral as the heat-seeking warheads chased the small mobile armors; surprisingly, they didn’t even make any moves to maneuver away from the missiles before they took the hits. This was very confusing to Peter; if these were mobile armors, wouldn’t they have the maneuver abilities as them?

At the same time, Raphael was also firing his missiles and beam rifle at the attacking craft and took out several them himself. Even though these machines were fighting back, they weren’t making it any harder for them to take these machines down. Peter sort of guessed this was how it felt for ZAFT soldiers during the first war when the Alliance hadn’t developed their own mobile suits yet. The attacking craft seemed to swarm around them but for every one they destroy, it looked as though two would take their place. It was getting frustrating and dangerous more and more by the minute. Only two of the attacking TIEs managed to break through the mobile suit defense and head towards the Victory with their weapons blazing at the ship.

“Lock missiles onto targets and fire!” Captain Jean-Pierre shouted as the ship took a few shots from the attackers.

One of the panels on the front of the ship’s engines opened up and revealed a good payload of missiles stacked up for battle. Two of them launched out and streaked across space and rammed right into their targets turning them into space dust. Several kilometers away, the large Imperial fleet continued to advance onward towards the battle while Admiral Zavan continued to grin at their efforts. He had to admit, for a group of only two mobile suits, they put up a valiant fight against his attacking TIE Fighters and Interceptors. But he figured this little game should come to an end.

He turned to Captain Pinka and said, “I suppose this has gone on long enough, launch our new weapons.”

Captain Pinka reflected the Admiral’s grin and replied, “At once, admiral.”

Underneath the mighty Star Destroyer down in the hangar deck, several tech crews were making the final preparations for their newest weapons for combat. Past the many walkers of the hangar stood several other objects similar to them that walked to the edge of the hangar bays to prepare to deploy into battle against the two defending Earth mobile suits. As they approached the magnetic field, several lights appeared in the hues of the machines making look like several pairs of menacing eyes were lighting up.

“All engineers clear the hangar area, repeat all engineers clear the hangar area; we are opening the magnetic field.” The PA system announced throughout the ship’s hangar bay.

At the same time Admiral Zavan ordered his fleet to recall their fighters and continue on course. He also ordered his TIEs to return the ship and let his new weapons handle the Earth ship and mobile suits. As that order was carried out, every TIE Interceptor and TIE Fighter began breaking off from their assault on the Victory and the two defending mobile suits causing confusion among the crew and pilots of the Earth defenders.

“What’s going on here?” Peter mused as he destroyed a retreating fighter with his beam rifle.

“Looks like we scared them off, Pete.” Raphael answered as he made his ZAKU float next to Peter’s Windam.

“No way Raph, they had us outnumbered; they could’ve taken us out at anytime. Something doesn’t feel right.” Peter interjected before his friend could jump to conclusions.

On the bridge of the Victory, the crew was just as curious as the pilots as to the reason why the attackers were retreating. “What’s going on here, they had us where they wanted us; why were they retreating?” Yukari asked as she watched the mysterious would-be killers fly back to their ships.

“This definitely doesn’t feel right; Mister Alexander, anything on radar?” The captain said as he turned to the ZAFT radar operator.

“Just the attackers retreating and their ships, sir.” Dawson replied as he continued to watch his screen. The captain nodded in relief but was stopped with what Dawson said next. “Wait, I’ve got a group of contacts breaking through their formations and heading towards us. They’re in the same kind of formations as the attackers were.”

Peter and Raphael overheard the conversation on the bridge and also picked up the new contacts on their radar screens as well. They prepared their mobile suits for even more combat and aimed their weapons and shields at the new contacts as they approached. They were already sweating and panting from the first wave of attackers; but that wouldn’t stop them from continuing to fight off these new targets. As the new contacts began to appear on their screens, they both decided it was a good idea to have a good look at these new contacts. They both activated small screens on their visual screens and on these screens were the shapes and silhouettes of what appeared to be…

“Mobile suits?” Both pilots shouted in surprise.

The mere sight of these machines was just frightening; they were as bulky and curved as a ZAFT mobile suit, but had some of the features of an Orb and Earth Alliance mobile suit. For instance, their camera area where either a ‘visor’ or mono-eye would be, we had eyes; but these eyes were more along the lines of being a pair of swimmer’s goggles. Their rifles were the most unique rifles they laid eyes on. There was no doubt that they were beam rifles, but they looked like a small machine gun without the magazine and clip. To put it in lame terms, they were mobile suit designs they had never seen before!

The Imperial mobile suits then lifted their rifles at the two mobile suits defending the EA ship and fired. Now in most cases, beam rifles can only shoot at least five to seven shots per-minute; these ones on the other hand managed to fire at least fifty shots per-minute! The speed shots from their beam rifles seemed to stun Peter and Raphael as they dodged and blocked almost each shot fired at them and fired back with their own weapons. From their positions, neither Peter nor Raphael could tell the new mobile suits had any type of shields on their left arms whatsoever so they figured they’d be taken out easily; they were sorely mistaken. Each of the machines lifted their left arms and then beam shields appeared out of nowhere and their shots simply…bounced off? The shots did hit the shields, but they also bounced off of them into different directions as if they were rubber balls hitting a wall.

“What the…!” Peter shouted in surprise as he witnessed his shot not hit its target.

“They have a new type of beam shield?” Raphael mused as he too witnessed his beam shot bounce off the shields the same way. After the two saw what happened, they snapped back to reality as they came under fire again by the new mobile suits. The managed to bring their shields up just in time for their foes’ shots to hit them before splitting up in two separate directions. “We have to split up if we’re gonna take them out Pete!”

“I hear ya buddy; let’s do it!” Peter yelled as he and his friend began their assault on their new enemies. They fired their missiles but the new foes used their shields to block the missiles without getting a single burn mark on them! Luckily, Peter managed to luck out on one of these machines and hit its head completely decapitating the unit. He then followed up with a missile that blew the new mobile suit into a million pieces. “That’s one down!” Peter cried joyously.

“There’s still more!” Raphael shouted as he managed to outmaneuver one of the machines and blast it into oblivion with a beam shot of his own.

“Uh oh! Looks like we’ve got more problems Raph!” Peter shouted in a shaky voice as the enemy fleet was now a little too-close for comfort. From the point of view of both pilots, these ships were humungous! They looked bigger than any capital ship the Earth Forces, ZAFT, or Orb had combined!

On the bridge of the Victory, the crew was just as surprised as both of their pilots were. The only things anyone had ever seen that could be as big as these ships were the PLANTs and the asteroid base Jachin Due. Anyone who could make ships this big couldn’t be from Earth! From what many of them could guess; nearly a dozen Drake-class ships could fit into a ship like that. Some even thought these could carry at least a million mobile suits each!

“Uh…captain, orders?” The ship’s helmsman asked as he was almost petrified at his console.

The captain didn’t reply, he too was quivering in his boots even though he was one who was supposed to remain calm in a situation like this; but how could his ship possibly face off against a ship THIS huge? He then found his voice and replied in a shaky voice, “O-order our mobile suits to cover us, we’re retreating.” Everyone was still staring at the huge ships before the captain yelled, “I said order our mobile suits to cover our retreat!”

“Yes sir!” Yukari shouted as she called Peter and Raphael and gave them the orders. They both acknowledged the order and began fighting back at the new mobile suits with all their might to keep them off the ship. But as they began fighting, the lead ship of the large fleet in front of them began firing beam weapons out at them catching them by surprise. They both managed to evade the shots but they just kept firing as if they were determined to take them down without remorse.

“Jeez! Since when do ships use beam cannons like anti-mobile suit weapons?” Peter shouted as he barely dodged an attack by one of the new mobile suits and the enemy ship.

As the Victory began to make its turn to retreat from the area, all four panels of their engines opened up and fired every missile in the launchers. Each missile went for separate targets; many went after the huge ship chasing them down, the others went for the mobile suits the monstrosity launched. In the process, only five of these mobile suits went down and six of these missiles were destroyed by defensive fire from the huge ship. One managed to hit, but it didn’t even scratch the hull!

The Dominance then retaliated and a few of her turbo laser batteries directed their aim towards the Victory and fired. Green laser blasts streaked past the mobile suits that were locked in combat and managed to hit the Victory’s port dorsal engine and caused it to explode. The impact rocked the ship and sent people all over the ship in many directions.

“We’ve lost one of our engines sir; the others got damaged in the explosion but are still operable!” The chief engineer on the bridge shouted as he assessed the damage on the ship.

“Maintain our course as best as you can helm!” The captain shouted as he held on to his seat.

Another laser blast struck the bow of the ship; the explosion detonated their torpedo ordinances making a gaping hole in the front of the ship. Again the ship was rocked, but this time there were casualties. Raphael and Peter watched as a few crewmembers of the Victory were sucked out into space with their normal suits either damaged, or not wearing normal suits at all. They both managed to take out two more mobile suits, but there were still three left and they weren’t giving them any chances of heading back to Earth.

“We’ve just lost our bow sir; one more direct hit and we’re done for!” One of the officers on the bridge shouted after the shaking was done.

The captain could only sit there in silence; his ship was going down! But he couldn’t let so many of his young officers die out here; many of them had their whole lives ahead of themselves. He on the other hand was an old man; he lost his wife and son in the Bloody Valentine war and had no other living relatives. He knew the best thing to do was to go down with his ship like any other brave captain would while the rest of the crew evacuated.

“Abandon ship.” The captain said in a quiet tone; but it caught a few ears.

“Sir?”

“I said abandon ship, all hands abandon ship!” He shouted loudly this time. All at once the crew on the bridge began to get out of their seats and head out of the bridge. Yukari stayed behind and launched a distress beacon while also relaying the abandon ship order throughout the ship. She then got out of her seat and was about to head out the door when she noticed that the captain was not moving out of his seat.

“Aren’t you coming too captain?” She asked him.

“No Yukari, I’m afraid not.” He replied making her gasp. Before she could protest he brought up a hand to silence her. “It is tradition for the captain to go down with the ship; but not the crew. Now go, I will be fine.”

She nodded but had tears welling up in her eyes before she left the bridge. The captain then looked out at space and wondered; if these new enemies weren’t from Earth or the PLANTs, could they be from one of those stars out there? He wished it were impossible, but in the past many things such as mobile suits and beam weaponry were considered to be impossible to make; now look where mankind has gone, new weapons for war and new ways to wage war. But this was an old tradition that had been passed down for centuries in the past.

Back in the battle, Raphael and Peter heard the order to abandon ship and went to cover the escaping shuttles from the attacking mobile suits with all of their might. If the ship was going down, at least the shuttles wouldn’t over their dead bodies. Just as the shuttles left the Victory a stray turbo laser shot struck the middle of the ship’s hull and managed to hit the ship’s reactor. The end result: the destruction of the EAS Victory; explosions went throughout the ship and ended with one final explosion that lit up the battlefield.

The Imperials watched as the Earth ship exploded into millions of pieces and also watched as the escaping craft and mobile suits went to retreat from the battle. Admiral Zavan thought for a moment; if he left no survivors to tell the tale then the Earth wouldn’t be ready for them and that would make it too easy of a victory. No, he wanted a challenge. So he grinned and looked at his officers.

“Let them go, order our mobile suits to withdraw and order the fleet to hold position here.” He ordered and the crew responded with their orders.

Back in space, Raphael, Peter, and the surviving crew members of the ship watched as the enemy fleet held their positions and the mobile suits turned around. They then looked where the EAS Victory used to be and all at once, they saluted in respect for both the ship, and her captain. This was where the first casualties of a new and even more brutal war that was about to begin.

To be continued…

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A/N: Whew! That was a long chapter; tell me what you guys think! I’ll make notes of many of the stuff in this chapter some other time. Just tell me what you thought of it.