Chapter 8: R.O.B: Chapter 7: Hijacker

 

As expected, the sudden attack from ZAFT has taken the Earth Alliance and Orb Union by complete surprise and with outward communication being jammed, reinforcement won't arrive anytime soon. With ZAFT sending Mobile Suits into the colony, even the heavily armed convoy of the Earth Alliance finds themselves overmatched as a pair of GINNs strafe them overhead. As the 76mm HVAP rounds from the GINNs' machine guns rip and tear through the armored convoy, Lieutenant Murrue Ramius is forced to duck down to avoid the destructive fate that befalls the convoy. Of course, the Bulldog missile carriers and the Mobile Linear Cannons of the Earth Alliance tried to fight back but their lacking mobility and firepower amounted to nothing before being made short work by a GINN piloted by Miguel Aiman.

The arrival of the ZAFT Special Operatives using their maneuvering jetpacks only serve to hasten the downfall of the convoy transporting the G-units. Seeing the hopelessness of the situation, Murrue gathers those she can reach before making a retreat for the last two G-units back in the factory. Being outmatched by ZAFT, she knows that they can't hold onto the other three units. She hopes that they can secure the last two in hope of turning the situation around.

With the dwindling force of the Earth Alliance retreating, the leader of ZAFT special operatives, Athrun Zala, orders the extraction of the G-units: Duel, Buster, and Blitz. He, himself, and a few others will head out to secure the last two G-units while Miguel Aiman covers for them.

As the two sides battle their way into the factory containing the new Mobile Suits, in the heat of the moment, Murrue almost shoot-to-kill a pair of kids that somehow strayed into an active combat zone. The diversion, though shocking, is short-lived for Athrun and his ZAFT operatives are gaining ground, leaving Murrue to hastily commanded the pilots to get in the G-units. Due to the suppressive fire, however, they are unable to relocate to the Mobile Suits.

As both sides are stuck in an exchange of fire, with the Earth Alliance losing badly, Murrue is unknowingly flanked from behind by a sniper. Thankfully, the kid wearing black from before returned, warning her of the impending danger.

"Behind you!" Kira shouted out to the female technician officer that is Murrue.

The woman slides down before turning around, dodging the sniper shots before raising her rifle and firing the last of her bullets. They struck true and the sniper wearing green combat gear falls onto the catwalk.

Seeing the kid still standing up there, Murrue discards her empty assault rifle, calling out to Kira. "Get down here, it's not safe!"

"Don't mind me! I'm heading over to the evacuation site!" Kira shouted back, leading to Murrue saying it was a dead-end where he was heading, just in time for a major explosion to occur off to Kira's side.

Seeing that he has nowhere else to go, Kira jumps down onto the Mobile Suit, right next to Ramus. As the combat is still ongoing, Kira takes cover next to the lady, just in time as a burst of bullets impacts his general direction. This causes one of the pilots for the G-units to lose his life before Murrue leans out and kills the shooter with her pistol. The last pilot from the Earth Alliance also retaliates, taking out an operative wearing red combat gear from ZAFT's side.

Unfortunately for Athrun, the dead operative is his friend and also the designated pilot for the new Mobile Suits. "Rusty!"

Athrun roars, enraged at the loss of his friend, knowing that the lad is struck by a headshot. Throwing caution to the wind, he then charges to the location of the Earth Alliance's pilot, and with a burst of gunfire, kills the opposition. Murrue calls out the dead pilot's name before trying to engage Athrun, yet, the ZAFT operative proved to be better and grazed a shot on Murrue's shoulder, causing her to be knocked back. Athrun is about to finish her off if not for his rifle to malfunction.

"Useless bullpup!" Athrun cursed before rushing to Murrue's location atop the Mobile Suit with his knife drawn. Yet, when he arrives up there, whom he sees shocked him to the core.

As the two teens gaze into each other's eyes, a memory of the farewell years ago resurfaces in their minds.

"Kira...?" "Athrun...?" They muttered the name of the one before them.

Unfortunately, circumstance forces them to end the unfortunate reunion short. Having recovered from being shot at, Murrue leans out and points her pistol at Athrun. With a trained reflex, the ZAFT operative jumps to the side of the G-unit, dodging Murrue's bullets. Not willing to waste any more time, Athrun proceeds to jump inside the other G-unit, leaving Murrue and Kira to get in the one they're standing on. Both sides close their hatch at the same time, yet, Athrun is the one to pilot his Mobile Suit out first through an opening in the ceiling.

As for Kira and Murrue, Kira is kicked to the side as the technician officer clumsily powers up the G-unit and operates it out of the factory. Kira mutters the name of the Mobile Suit that Murrue and his are in, stunned. "G-Gundam?"

Once outside, Murrue takes stock of the situation around them with the cameras of the Gundam showing them the captured G-unit standing next to a GINN in front of them, devastation and corpses are all around them. Suddenly, Kira is shocked to see his classmates from a corner of the screen, running in search of shelter. 

Seeing that the Gundam in front of him is unarmed and inattentive, Miguel Aiman slings his GINN's machine gun before pulling out the sword attached to the GINN's left hip.

"You focus on getting back first!" Saying to his friend Athrun, Miguel follows up by. "I will capture the Mobile Suit! If not possible, destroy it!"

Though Athrun decides to give his permission to do so, a part of him wonder. "Was that really Kira?"

Yet, the operative convinces himself. "Impossible, Kira can't be there, not with the Earth Alliance." Failing to notice that his childhood friend may have strayed there because of the chaos. Athrun then removes his stray thoughts before working on setting up his G-unit.

Miguel, true to his words, charges the Gundam Kira and Murrue are in with his sword held high. Slashing forth, aiming for the joint of the Gundam, Miguel is a bit surprised to see the Gundam leaps back with its thrusters ignited. Its maneuverability was stunning for that singular moment. Yet, failing to nail the landing properly, Kira and Murrue are thrown about in the Gundam, causing Kira to lose his footing. Kira falls onto Murrue and while the two of them are struggling to regain their posture, Miguel dashes forward. 

Jumping up before giving an overhead slash, Miguel gives Kira quite a scare but Murrue reacts faster by deploying the Phase Shift armor of the Gundam. Shocking both Athrun and Miguel in the process, the Phase Shift armor completely blocks Miguel's sword without it leaving behind a scratch.

"NANI!?" Miguel jumped back, still surprised by the toughness of the Gundam. "What the hell is wrong with that armor? The fucking thing is a Unicorn now with its color and all that jazz?!"

"The MS is equipped with Phase Shift armor." Athrun opened a comm channel and explained the matter to Miguel. His Gundam, Aegis, is now changed to a red color, a sign of its Phase Shift armor turned on.

Suddenly, his sensor starts giving out warnings. Turning over to the direction of incoming missiles, Athrun uses the built-in CIWS on the Aegis to destroy the missile and the Bulldog missile carrier that fired them.

Seeing that his friend is still lingering around the hot zone, Miguel says over the comm. "Get out of here, Athrun, you can't linger around here forever."

A trace of unwillingness appears on Athrun's face as he gazes at the blue and white Gundam standing further away. Though knowing that Kira may be in there, the mission comes first. So, igniting his thrusters, Athrun flies out of the colony, leaving Miguel behind to contend with the enemy Gundam.

With his friend on an exfil course, Miguel turns to address the enemy MS. "A Natural piloting a Mobile Suit... Tsk! You're way over your head!"

Blasting forward, Miguel proceeds to attack the Gundam relentlessly. Though Murrue tries to engage the GINN with her CIWS, none of them even hit the enemy. Being on the receiving end of heavy-handed attacks, Kira and Murrue are knocked back right onto the path of Kira's friends.

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Kira is shocked when he notices that they almost run over his classmates. Without giving them a moment of respite, however, Miguel charges forward again, this time, with a stab heading straight for the cockpit. Unwilling to take the attack head-on, Kira leans forward and takes control of the Gundam, making it crouches and leans to the side, dodging the stab from Miguel. Pushing the control lever forward, Kira makes the Gundam rushes forth with a shoulder slam, knocking Miguel's GINN off its feet.

Miguel can't help but groan a bit painfully as the GINN is slammed onto its back.

With precious time being bought for him and his friends. Kira turns to take to verify something about the Gundam. During the short engagement between Murrue and the GINN, he noticed that the Gundam is awfully sluggish. He prays to God that his conjecture will be proven wrong but reality begs to differ. Murrue can only watch on with a shocked expression as she sees Kira adeptly operating the instrument.

Being a coder himself, he easily operates the Gundam's console and figures out that it operates on a very, very shitty OS. "This is nuts! How can you operate such complex machinery with a power loader's OS!"

If he could, Kira would have facepalmed by now. Seeing Kira's exasperatedly look, Murrue can't but sheepishly say despite the situation they've found themselves in. "T-That's because it's not completed yet!"

Having none of that, Kira turns to address Murrue. "Please, move! Hurry!"

Though her logic refuses, Murrue's instinct has a nagging feeling that's better for the kid to handle the Gundam. So, against better judgment, she steps to the side, letting Kira takes the pilot seat. 

Taking the hot potato that is the Gundam, Kira pulls up the keyboard before quickly typing away at it. He proceeds to clean up the messy OS and when the work is one-third of the way done, Miguel's GINN starts standing up.

Being an Ace pilot, Miguel is livid for being knocked on his ass. He will make sure that Mobile Suit pays a steep price for the transgression. Blasting forward with his sword raises, albeit more cautiously, Miguel is about to kick off another assault when Kira uses the CIWS to engage. Only this time, the CIWS aims directly for the sensor head of the GINN, causing a disturbance that forces Miguel to stumble. "Nani!?"

Seeing that the GINN has lost its momentum, Kira is about to seize a chance to throw a right hook with his Strike Gundam, a name he learned from the short coding session, but something else happens instead.

From the window of a ruined building that is right next to them, a circular object is thrown out right at the GINN's head. Unknown to Miguel, the object will seal his fate in Heliopolis.

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[*Whistle* Now that's what I call heavy metal!] Yahweh couldn't help but whistle at the sight of Miguel's GINN wiping off the Earth Alliance's force before going into a CQC against the Strike Gundam.

Shaking her head after Yahweh's comment, Viola, now sporting the attire she used when she helped Yasaka and Serafall, says. "Kira and that lady inside the MS are in deep trouble though. Unless some sort of miracle happens, they will die at this rate."

[I thought you are going to help them?] Yahweh asked, Viola could feel that she also stopped her coding work while also tilting her head.

"I will, it's just that I think Kira will pull a surprise on us all. Call it the sixth sense that is telling me so."

Giving Viola a mental eyes-rolling, Yahweh resumes her work while saying. [Are you sure you're not basing it on your worldly experience?]

Shrugging, Viola answers. "Sure, let's go with that then."

[Anyway, I will have to chat with you later, something else just comes up and I need to direct my attention to it.] Yahweh stated. [Have fun, Viola!]

"Ciao." Viola gave Yahweh a mental wave of goodbye, feeling the latter's presence in her mind fading.

Shaking her head, Viola returns her attention to the ongoing battle. Viola waits patiently for the GINN to reengage with the Strike Gundam and when it comes to a stumbling halt, she smirks before throwing out a very special grenade. It's an EMP grenade.

Right when the grenade touches the armor on the GINN's head, it explodes into an electrifying blast. The high-voltage currents disable the sensors and instruments on the GINN, causing Miguel and even Kira and Murrue to exclaim in shock. Though the GINN is built for EMP blast, it will still take some time to recover from the shocking intrusion. Not wasting her time though, Viola runs and jumps out of the building. With grace, Viola lands on top of the GINN's shoulder with her white trench coat fluttering in the air.

Kira and Murrue, having seen the unexpected guest, zoom in on the GINN and are deeply stunned when they see Viola.

"Viola!?" Kira shouted out her name in surprise.

This makes Murrue turn around, questioning with her eyebrows raise. "You know her?"

Having been asked that, Kira can only dumbly nod, his dumbfoundedness is mirrored by his group of friends that are hiding behind the Strike Gundam.

As for Viola, she proceeds to calmly type a few short commands on the holographic keyboard that appears on her right wrist gauntlet. Once that is done, the GINN's hatch is forced to open, revealing a flustered Miguel who've never been in such a shitty situation. He is just about to do something about the hatch when Viola jumps down, pointing her revolver at Miguel.

"Sweet dreams." Viola said with a smile before pulling the trigger. With a bang, the large caliber bullet blows a hole in Miguel's head, causing the dead pilot to slump over. His life was lost in the most unexpected way possible.

Forcing his body out of the GINN, Viola takes the control of the MS and reboots it swiftly. After a few seconds and with a closing of the hatch, the GINN gives a low hum as it returns to life, only this time with a new pilot. Of course, Viola also cleans up the OS and the self-destruct system swiftly. Can't have her new toy being destroyed by a push of a button from the ZAFT, right?

All of this happened while the spectators that are Kira and Murrue, along with the rest, can only stare at the process with dumb looks.

This is, quite possibly, the first recorded instance of a live MS being hijacked, by a girl no less.

 

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