I have finally seen the Gundam Seed Freedom movie, it's totally awesome, and I kind of want to talk with you people about it. I'll do that at the end of this chapter, since I do not want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't watched it yet.

Chapter 99

Presently, Lunamaria Hawke was sitting in her Core Splendor, drumming her fingers impatiently against the arm rest, why was this taking so damn long, she was so damn tired of waiting, when the hell were they going to get there? Get to the Alliance's Daedalus Lunar Base so they could make their attack on the Requiem super laser, so they could blow that stupid weapon sky-high, so it could NEVER be used again.

Thinking back on it, it was weird, but also sort of funny in a way. Just yesterday a few short hours ago, Lunamaria had been trying so very hard to come up with a method to get her sorry ass off the Minerva, to get as far away from Rey, Shinn and Nicol as possible. After their failed shitty attempt to destroy Orb, along with the new Justice and Freedom plus the other sweet, powerful gundams that had been present to defend that country from their attack, all three of her fellow mobile suit pilots, seem to have, in Lunamaria's humble opinion, gone completely over the deep end. They all seemed totally possessed by the notion of heading on back to Orb, to once more do battle against the Archangel's forces, to wipe out every last one of them, most particularly, Kira Yamato.

Lunamaria really didn't get it; what precisely was it about the Freedom pilot? That made EVERYONE and their grandma want to kill the poor fellow. Having gone over the brief conversation she had, had with him so many times now, Luna had with some reluctance reached the conclusion that he really was a nice friendly guy, who did not in any way deserve all the hatred directed towards him.

"Hmm, perhaps that'sss why I feel like I do not fit in here on the Minerva any longer; I just don't share that intense hatred towards Kira Yamato and everyone else on board the Archangel. I-I guess that hatred is just something one needs to be a part of the Minerva's crew," Lunamaria mumbled under her breath, then took a quick look around, like she was worried that someone might have heard her through the Core Splendor's closed cockpit, feeling relieved that nobody outside seemed to be paying all that much attention to her, even Yolan who was working just beside her craft.

Letting out a long relieved sigh, Lunamaria turned her slightly unfocused gaze towards the Destiny gundam, Legend gundam, but most specifically of all the Adamant gundam, her boyfriend's artillery type mobile suit, as much as she hated to admit it, she felt sort of distant from Nicol these last few days. Truth be, his crazy hostile behavior recently actually frightened her a bit, but it was not just him that gave her the heebie-jeebies, but Rey and Shinn too, especially Shinn. Ever since their heated argument about killing Cagalli and Athrun's infant child, he had hardly spoken one word to her, and he would always glare at her with such disdain whenever they were in the same room together.

Yet just as the older Hawke sister was seriously started considering the notion of somehow getting herself off the Minerva, then, head off to Orb, a country she was not entirely sure that she was welcome in, considering her previous actions. But still she wanted to go there anyway, in search of the Archangel and more importantly her dear little sister. That idea, however, had instantly disappeared from the Impulse pilot's mind when Djibril had destroyed those six Colonies with that new super weapon of his, the redhead wanted to stay put on the Minerva to help maker that evil son of a bitch pay for his actions, to make him suffer worse than anyone had ever suffered before, that was the reason why she was still on board the Minerva, still a part of its crew.

Reaching out, Lunamaria pressed a single button on the Core Splendor's control panel. "Abbey? Bridge, how much longer? When is the operation commencing? Sitting her waiting it kinda nerve-wracking," she stated with a hint of impatience in her voice.

Yet instead of Abbey answering her like Lunamaria had expected, it was, to her mild surprise, Captain Gladys herself who was the one to give her a reply. "Please try to be patient, Luna; the Gondwana and the Lunar fleet are engaging enemies' front line defense forces right now. You remember the plan, right?" Talia calmly asked her.

The redhead nodded ever so slowly a single time, only for then, a split second later, realizing that at present it was not possible for the Captain to actually see her.

"YES! Yes Ma'am, of course I've remember the plan, with the Gondwana and the Luna fleet fighting to prevent them from replacing the destroyed relay station and keeping their main forces distracted. Nicol, Shinn, and Rey, will launch in their mobile suits to engaged and distract whatever forces they might have in reserve. While they do that, I'll use the Impulse to sneak all stealth like into the main Daedalus Base and destroy that Requiem weapon of theirs" Luna said, loudly cracking her knuckles, as a way to show how serious she was about this.

Quite pleased by the response. "Good, oh and one last thing, Luna, if you see any crafts that might be carrying Djibril, then destroy it, we do NOT want that man to escape again," Talia said, roughly forcing and pushing away the guilty she felt over the fact, that Lunamaria was the only one of her ship's pilots she trusted to carry out that highly vital task. Rey had already helped Djibril escape once back in Orb, probably to help further his and Gilbert's true goals, so he might be willing to do that again. Shinn was clearly out for the terrorist leader's blood, but there were simply no telling what the battle-crazy Destiny pilot would be doing throughout the battle. And finally there was Nicol, who was quite frankly a complete enigma to her these days; he was just such a difficult person to read and figure out. Yet one thing was obvious: he had his own objectives in this war, that just so happened to align with Rey's and Gilbert's. So with her three male pilots so untrustworthy, that left only Lunamaria.

"Yes, understood, Ma'am! I'll keep a watchful eye out for any suspicious ships and even mobile suits cowardly running away. Besides causing unimaginable mayhem and mass murder, fleeing with his tail between his legs, really does seem like the thing Djibril does best. I wonder how many of his stupid, mindless followers he left to fend for themselves, to save his ownmiserablehide." Lunamaria growled out through her teeth.

Taking a quick look around the bridge to make absolutely certain that her attention was not required elsewhere. Seeing that her bridge staff were all focused on their own work, Talia went back to her conversation with the older Hawke sister, knowing that she might very well be forced to cut it off at any moment.

"Probably way too many to even count Luna. He left all the other Logos leaders at Heaven's Base when he made his escape back then; all of them were given a short but relatively harsh trial where all the proof of their terrorist activities was shown; which resulted in each one of them getting the life sentence afterward, they were immediately sent off to our most secure prison facility," the Minerva Captain explained to the redhead.

"I see, I guess it sort of make sense for creeps like that to be sent to the Nibelheim prison" Luna stated next.

"Yeah, it does," Talia answered back. The Nibelheim asteroid prison was ZAFT's biggest and most secure, well-guarded military prison, but unlike what the name indicated, the prison facility was actually located on the surface of Mars, near the Hellas Planitia crater. The whole asteroid thing in its name had simply been an attempt on ZAFT's part to hide its true location, from the Earth Alliance, but they had of course found out about it at some point. Yet with it being so far away, the attacks on it, had been relatively few and far between. It was like it was too much of a hassle to go all the way there to try to break out the few prisoners held there, even if they were at times pretty important.

Kinda of pleased to know that such utter scum like that would be locked up in such a harsh place to pay for their many twisted crimes, Lunamaria was just about to ask the Captain if she should try to capture Djibril alive so he could be sent there to join his so-called comrades, with him having deserted them the way he had, she was sure that they were going to be delighted to see him again. Yet before the Impulse pilot could get even a single word out, she was interrupted by Abbey's loud voice.

"We received the signal Captain, we are to commence our attack!" Abbey loudly inform the Captain and everyone else listening.

Immediately upon hearing that, Talia spun her chair around, so she had a clear view of the main screen, shouting out quite a few orders. "Increase our speed to the maximum! Activate the Tannhauser, and target the two Agamemnon-class ships ahead of us! Once they are destroyed, send out the Destiny, Legend and Adamant! And Bart, do make sure that you keep a close eye out for anything unusual, knowing Djibril and Logos tendency for the despicable surprises, there is no telling what they are going to throw at us in a battle like this!" The Captain yelled out to her crew, of course, referring to something like the Zamza-Zah Mobile Armor they had encountered the first time they had left Orb. The Forbidden gundam, along with those five Destroy gundams they had gone up against at Heaven's Base. So who knew, their depraved enemies might very well have something even more nasty and wicked hidden away somewhere in reserve; at the very least, they knew about the yellow Sword Calamity gundam that had been there to assist Djibril, when he had gotten out into space, when he made his escape from Orb. Hopefully that close combat mobile suit had already been taken out, so her pilots did not have to go through the hassle of dealing with it.

"I'll stay alert, Captain!" Bart immediately answered her.

"Good! Open FIRE!" Talia Gladys practically screamed at the top of her lungs, her ship firing its main powerful cannon, immediately followed by the Tristans completely blowing the closet Agamemnon-class ship to bits and pieces, the second Agamemnon-class evade sharply to the left thereby just barely avoiding getting hit by the Tristans, and as it turned towards them, Talia saw nine Windams and seven Doppelhorn Dagger Ls hastily change direction and head full speed straight for them, however the very instant they did that, Arthur yelled out for the Isolde and Tristans to be fired, eliminating a good amount of the incoming enemy mobile suits in the process, but even with that it did not take long before they were under fire, the Dagger Ls being a practically big threat.

"Keep them at bay and get our pilots out there! We will be overwhelmed if this keeps up!" Talia ordered, ignoring the bit of shaking her ship was doing from getting hit, as Arthur loudly shouted for the Neidhardts to be fired.

000000

Meanwhile, down in the hangar, Shinn smirked confidently under his red helmet, as his Destiny gundam was dropped down onto the catapult. It was time; it was, at long last, finally time to make Djibril and all of his evil, disgusting followers pay and suffer the grim consequences of their horrible actions. They were SO going to feel the deep boiling hatred and immense wrath of Shinn Asuka. He was going to make sure, that the few fools had the misfortune of surviving this encounter, would never be able to forget him, and Destiny, that they would have nightmares of him for the rest of their pathetic, miserable lives. That was the very least they deserved, not that the red-eyed young man, was planning on leaving any survivors, he was going to slaughter everyone he came across.

"Shinn Asuka, Destiny launching!" He yelled out, simply unable to keep the sheer amount of pure glee and excitement he felt, over participating in this major crucial battle, out of his voice.

But despite however much Abbey, who were listening up on the bridge found Shinn's thrilled tone of voice, to be all sort of odd and creepy at a time like this, the blond girl really didn't have time to react to it, as she watched the Destiny fly forward on the catapult, propelling the powerful blue and gray gundam, and it's weirdo of a pilot out into space.

Immediately when Shinn got out into the darkness of space, he activated the long-range beam cannon, firing it straight into the back of an unaware Doppelhorn Dagger L annihilating it completely, spinning hastily around he fired the beam rifle a few times taking out even more enemy mobile suits, Windams and Daggers alike, following that the Wings of Light sprang to life, as he blasted full speed forward, firing the long-range beam cannon directly down into the bridge of a Nelson-class destroying it and killing everyone onboard without giving it a second thought, and even as the gray ship blow up behind him, Shinn flew upward grabbing a hold on a passing Windam, using the Palma Fiocina to destroy it's head, then spin rapidly around hurling the headless blue and white mobile suit down into a couple of incoming missiles, fired by one of it's allies in a meek attempt to help out.

"Sam no! Why you, I am going to make you pa...!" The Windam piloted yelled before Shinn cut him off.

"Ah, put a sock in it! I have no interest in whatever the hell terrorists and mass murderers has to say! I am sending you all straight to hell!" With that said, Shinn grabbed onto the beam sword, racing straight towards his doomed adversary with the massive blade raised for a downward slash.

Upon seeing the powerful blue gray gundam approaching him with such breakneck high speed, all blurry like because of those Wings of Light on its back, the Windam pilot let out a frightful panicky scream.

"Nooo, wait! I don't want to die! I surrender! My wif...Ahhhh!" The man cried out in total despair, not even able to finish his last sentence, before his mobile suit was sliced straight in half, instantly putting an end to his life.

For the briefest of moments, Shinn felt a hint of guilt run across his heart and being from so mercilessly killing an opponent who had been willing to yield, yet as a couple of green beams hit his shield, the red-eyed man forced those unwanted feeble emotions away, racing rapidly towards his next opponent, which his cockpit display told him was called a Buster Dagger. It looked vaguely familiar in a way. Shinn remembered seeing a mobile suit like this back in Orb two years ago; shortly before his parents and sister had gotten killed, he wondered if it might actually be the same one. If it was, he was definitely taking it out; he was going to make whoever was inside it pay for being a worthless douchebag who could not protect his family properly.

Swinging the sword out after the Buster thingy, with the savage intention of decapitating the artillery-type mobile suit. Yet before the blade made contact with its intended target, the Buster Dagger skillfully somersault full speed backwards away from him, firing a couple of shots from each of its two massive weapons, that Shinn with the Wings of Light spring to life, rolled sideways up over in one fluid motion still heading towards the green mobile suit, that quickly took off away from him, obviously quite determined to keep him at a distance.

"Damn, I am sort of impressed here! This stupid bastard is no amateurish chump like the rest! You're good, not that staying away from me is going to help you! You are a still a dead man walking!" He angrily shouted into the radio, not really expecting a reply, so he was somewhat taken a-back when he actually got one.

"Woman! I am a Goddamn woman, you pathetic, worthless Coordinator! And if you are so determined to take me out, you have to do a whoole lot better than that. I've seen newbie pilots fresh out of the academy who fights better than you, you short-tempered brat," Rena Imelia told him somewhat calmly. Even though deep inside, the Sakura Burst was not too overly thrilled about fighting this mobile suit; it was, from what she had observed so far, an incredibly fast and highly maneuverable machine, and those peculiar Wings of Light on its back, made it quite the challenge to get a lock on, not to mention its massive armaments. The loud brat might only have been using close combat weapons up until now, but the blue and gray gundam obviously had more than just that, up its sleeve.

The fact that this stupid bitch of a woman was pretty much calling him an amateur, really served to grind Shinn's gears. "I don't care if you are the devil herself; I am still taking you down!" He yelled, swiftly grabbing onto the beam rifle with the left hand, then, in quick rapid succession, he fired both it and the long-range beam cannon after the Buster Dagger, immediately forcing the female pilot over on the defense as she duck and wave in and out between his increasingly vicious attacks, as she, in the brief intervals she was able to get, fired a red shot back from her own long-range cannon.

'Damn, the mere fact that she is able to move an artillery-type mobile suit around so damn fast, is just crazy. Presently, she is probably the biggest threat here; I have to take her out fast!' Shinn mentally screamed, reading the beam sword again, then with a loud shout he raced straight towards her. Yet even in his almost blinding fury of rage, the red-eyed teenager was still able to perceive the fact that his female opponent quickly pulled the beam cannon apart again, which meant that she was now again holding onto two smaller, but still highly effective weapons, firing each one of them straight at him.

Rapidly holding his deranged, almost bull-like charge towards the Buster Dagger, Shinn cursed and shouted out his displeasure and anger, hastily throwing himself down underneath the two shots, then used the shield to block a third. Yet as he raised the beam rifle and started shooting back at the outright nutty but still highly skilled woman, a pair of DRAGOONs suddenly appeared from above, each of them firing a single beam down at the artillery-type mobile suit, completely wrecking both of its arms and weapons.

For just the briefest of moments, the Sakura Burst found her mind flashing back to that time so long ago, when she had still been a military and mobile suit instructor in the Alliance. Rena remembered how she had told five certain pilots, whom she had been particularly proud of, that they needed to toughen up after a failed training mission, to, just to grin and bear it when things got rough in a battle, that quitting was not a viable option unless they actually wished to lose their lives without fighting back.

Nevertheless, the prospect of doing battle and trying to defeat two such powerful gundams as these, in a severely damaged weaponless mobile suit, was frankly not an idea Rena was overly thrilled about attempting, which meant that she only had one single option left at her disposal if she wanted to live through this: to tell the story of her encounter with these two mobile suits. Then, with clenched fists, she rolled right in between the two hastily incoming firing DRAGOONs, as they, with their small beam blades activated, were made to slice and dice up her mobile suit's cockpit, flying full speed upwards while delivering a hard, severe kick into the Destiny's briefly exposed head, as the short-tempered brat again tried to cut her mobile suit in half with that massive beam sword of his.

"You know, guys, this has been quite the interesting skirmish! I think the last time I had this much 'fun', was when I fought against a certain, idiotic Ripper. But, since I have no intention whatsoever of laying down my life for a bastard like Djibril, I'll take my leave now! Good luck, guys, later!" Rena somewhat playfully told the two of them through the radio, then without further ado, she hastily spun around, and took off in what appeared to be a completely random direction. Yet even as she was doing that, there was a small part of Rena's mind that wondered if this battle would have been more in her favor if she still had her Sword Calamity unit; unfortunately, she had lost that mobile suit during her last encounter with Edward Harrelson.

'I have to try and find that mobile suit again; or get a new one, I knew for a fact that the Alliance had about five of those units builded, it's a great deal more effective and useful, than my outdated Buster Dagger,' Rena thought determinedly, hoping that once she was able to get her mitts on a Sword Calamity again, she would be able to get a rematch with the angry person piloting the Destiny and maybe his comrade too.

Needing only a second to recover and regain his bearings from the severely hard kick the Destiny had received, Shinn was quick to locate the speedily retreating woman, far from pleased to see her running away in such a cowardly fashion, the boy grinned his teeth so hard that it kinda hurt a bit.

"Ahh, what the shit! Get the hell BACK HERE, you stupid bitch! We are not, dooooone!" Shinn cried out with such anger and frustration, about to take off after her, when Rey cut him off.

"Enough, Shinn! Forget about that nutty woman! With this being such a target-rich environment, we have plenty of adversaries to defeat without you having to go chase after every fleeing opponent! Stay focused; we need to bust open the patch forward, for the Minerva, for Lunamaria and more importantly, for a brighter future for us all!" Rey said, hoping that his brief inspirational speech would be enough to get Shinn's mind back on track, but even as the blond man spoke those words, he dispatched the rest of the DRAGOONs from the Legend's back, using the blades on two of them to cut off the head and long cannons on a Doppelhorn Dagger L before it could fire any of its weapons at him, finally putting an end to its pilot's miserable existence with a single shot from the beam rifle straight into the cockpit.

Yet even as that Dagger L exploded, Rey immediately send off four other DRAGOONs to rapidly blast and blow apart eight hastily approaching Windams, who had clearly believed that ganging up on him and getting in close, was the trick to take him out for good. Not that the blond-haired man, would ever permit these pathetic little vermins a chance to test that theory, and as one Windam after another exploded in a thick pick cloud of smoke all around him, Rey directed the DRAGOONs towards the next enemy threat, which was a Drake-class ship, destroying and taking out a few of its weapons first, then the bridge, killing everyone on board.

Sparing the tiny spot that was the fleeing Buster Dagger, one last look of discontentment and hatred, Shinn made the mental promise that if he ever was to encounter this crazy witch of a woman again, he was so going to get even with her. With that dark thought in mind, Shinn slowly turned the Destiny around, where he was granted the grand pleasure of watching the Drake-class ship explode into nothing but dust and debris.

Letting out a short whistle. "Damn, Rey, that was impressive. Seeing how you use those DRAGOONs out here in space really hammers home just how incredibly useful they are. I sort of wish I could get a few of those installed on the Destiny, if I had those, it would be SO much easier to deal with the Freedom and Athrun when that time comes!" Shinn told his best friend, then without waiting for a reply, he blasted full speed off towards a large squadron of different types of mobile suits.

Watching Shinn tear so brutally through the enemy mobile suits, Rey felt a pleased smirk run across his face, which only grew deeper and more sinister as a shot from the Minerva's Tannhauser hit the starboard side of an evading Agamemnon-class ship, completely and utterly annihilating it from existence, along with a huge amount of different-equipped Daggers and Windams, who had unsuccessfully tried to distance themselves from the exploding gray ship.

From what Rey was able to described from a single quick glance around the massive battlefield, they were doing quite well so far. Hopefully, they would be able to keep it up; they should, as long as their enemies kept on depending on those less powerful, somewhat antiquated mobile suits. But there really was no telling when they were going to deploy something a lot more powerful and deadly, but up until now the biggest hindrance to their steady process had been that woman in the Buster Dagger, it really had been a damn shame she had been able to escape like that.

Rapidly shaking those thoughts from his head, Rey hastily sent off the DRAGOONs towards his next incoming opponents, which were a couple of black and red Zamza-Zah mobile armors. Yet as he opened fire on the lead one of them from the front, hitting nothing but its powerful reflector shield, he directed six of the DRAGOONs to swiftly duck underneath the large machine, attacking it continuously from below, causing a massive amount of damage to it by first destroying both of its lower legs then a few other pretty vital parts, that made the shield flicker a bit. Clearly, the mobile armor was having some issues keeping the shield on.

Again, feeling a dark smirk run across his face, as Rey, for only the briefest of moments, imagined having a certain mask on his face. For some reason or another, that was happening a lot more frequently these days. He wondered a bit if it meant his time was almost up. If that truly were the case, he had just one last thing he needed to do, and as Kira Yamato's face flashed through his mind, the Legend pilot was just about to deliver the finishing blow to the Zamza-Zah, when his savage assault was so rudely interrupted by the other Zamza-Zah mobile armor, that fired its combine multi-phase cannons down towards him in an attempt to take him out and save its partner unit.

Frowning in slight annoyance at that, Rey was just about to engage the bothersome dark and red machine, when the Adamant suddenly appeared from above, slamming its activated beam lance straight into the back of the distracted Zamza-Zah, pulling it brutally out again, tearing apart quite a few bits and pieces in the process, before slamming the lance back into the Zamza-Zah, finally after delivering a third blow, he leaped away from the mobile armor, while firing the shoulder missiles down into it, and as it blew up, Nicol was quick to locate his next opponent.

Watching his green-haired friend use the lance to slash and tear his way through a couple of incoming Windams, as Rey finished his own Zamza-Zah off, that had while he was briefly distracted by Nicol's actions, made a mostly feeble attempt to try to escape from the battlefield, apparently they realized that they did not stand a chance against him, with all the damage he had already caused.

"Hm, well, that was quite something, Nicol. However, if you do not mind me saying so, your fighting style seems to have grown a lot more brutal since we left Orb; it seems like you are having quite a few unresolved anger issues, my friend, are you doing okay?" Rey asked him in the most calm, rational tone he could muster under these dire circumstances.

Aggressively swinging the beam lance overhead, Nicol with a shout, tore his way through six Doppelhorn Dagger Ls, who had been having the sheer audacity of getting in his way, yet even as those mobile suits exploded all around him, he, with a backwards somersault, got the Adamant over into its mobile armor mode, relying solely on the beam shield to deflect a couple of powerful incoming shots from yet another Agamemnon-class ship, wondering for only a moment just how many of those ships their enemies had out there, before once again getting back into mobile suit mode, heading full speed straight towards the massive spaceship, absolutely determined to blast and tear it apart.

Evading dexterously head first, right in between another couple of shots from the Agamemnon-class ship's main cannons. Nicol, fired a couple of shots back from the beam rifle, taking out a few Anti-Air guns that were also being fired at him in an unsuccessful attempt to slow down his rapid incoming approach. Once underneath the gray ship and out of range from its more dangerous armaments, the green-haired man again transformed for only the briefest of instances, firing both the plasma beam cannon and the smaller beam cannons right up into the stern of the ship. Completely demolishing its engines, leaving it adrift.

Quite pleased with that resulted, the smirking Nicol instantly followed that move by transforming the Adamant yet again, blasting at top speed straight upwards. He made a brutal slash with the lance into the side of the gray spaceship, cutting a massive gaping hole in its port side, not caring even the slightest bit about the many screaming people that came streaming rapidly out of it to their demise.

Leaving the heavily damaged, immobile Agamemnon-class to whatever fate might await it, which was likely to be destroyed by the hastily approaching Minerva, Nicol searched around for something else to fight and do battle with. There were plenty to choose from; it was practically an entire shooting gallery of nothing but mindless targets. But the Adamant pilot would honestly prefer that it was at least bit of a challenge. Finally, he settled on about thirty or so incoming mobile suits that were obviously targeting the Minerva.

Yet even as he headed off towards them, Nicol with a loud clearing of his throat, finally gave Rey a response. "Yeah, well, it's been quite a stressful and frustrating time for me. It doesn't help much that Lunamaria seems to have been avoiding and ignoring me since Orb; it's so bad that she even went back to sleeping in her old room. I-I think she might be considering breaking up with me. So yeah, I have a lot of repressed anger that I seriously need to deal with, and tearing these stupid creeps to bits is just peeeerfect for that, if you know what I mean," he growled out through his teeth, as he with a well-aimed shot blasted away the Windam that tried its best to keep away from him.

"I am very sorry to hear that, Nicol. In my humble opinion, the two of you make quite the excellent couple, I do sincerely hope, that once this nightmarish ordeal, is over and done with, that when we finally manage to put an end to Djibril, that Lunamaria and you can somehow make up and repair your relationship. I really do quite enjoy seeing the two of you so happy together. You guys deserve it," Rey told him, even though it was honestly just a colossal load of utter bullshit, he really did not care if Lunamaria and Nicol were together or not; he was simply put telling Nicol what he figured he mostly wanted to hear, so he would keep on being as useful as possible. The way he saw it was that if Nicol were to get all depressed about his and Luna's relationship not going the way it was supposed to, his determination to see this through to the end might waver, and they could not have that now.

Even with the massive amount of resentment and bitterness, Shinn presently felt towards Lunamaria since she had so vigorously criticized and talked down to him, after the battle at Orb. The Destiny pilot, who up until now had quietly been listening in on his comrades' conversation, was quick to chime in and share his two cents on the matter.

"You might not believe me, Nicol, considering how crazy awkward and tense things are between Lunamaria and me these days. But I, too, hope that the two of you can somehow work it out. Luna is far less bitchy and mean towards me, when she is together with you, she is so much easier to deal with when she is in a good mood" Shinn said, firing the Long-Range beam cannon into the chest of a Windam.

"Thanks, Shinn, I guess. Now enough chit-chat and laughter, guys, let's stay focused on the task at hand; we are not out of the woods yet!" Nicol said, opening his helmet for only a brief moment to brush away some of his green hair hanging down in front of his eyes.

"Roger!" Rey and Shinn immediately answered back. With that said, the three pilots of the Minerva continued their intense struggle and fighting against their increasingly many opponents, slaughtering them all without mercy.

000000

At the same time inside Daedalus Lunar Base main control room, Djibril loudly kicked over an office chair, as he spun around grabbing roughly onto the collar of Ian Lee, the base's commander violent shaking the man.

"That ship, get rid of it! Get rid of it, already! I have had, everything, I can take of the Minerva! DESTROY IT! IT CAN BE INVINCIBLE! IF WE ARE STRUGGLING SO HARD AGAINST IT, THEN GET THE REST OF OUR FORCES BACK HERE!" The more and more panicky Djibril shouted, as his distressed blue gaze flicked over to the main screen, that showed the Minerva again firing its positron cannon, completely wiping out a couple of Nelson-class ships, and a great amount of their Windams and Daggers.

The mere sight of those two battleship ships getting obliterated in such a savage way, made the terrorist leader feel like his very blood was turning to ice. What had he done to deserve to have the Minerva chase him all over the world, even as far as to the moon? Why was it that damn ship of Coordinators could not leave him alone? This was yet another reason why he despised their kind as much as he did. Djibril, pondered for only a moment if this was how his old moronic friend Muruta Azrael had felt, just before he was so mercilessly and unjustifiably murdered by those treacherous scums on the Archangel.

However, as the gray-haired man wondered what precisely Azrael would have done in this dire situation, knowing him, he would probably have acted all lousy and pathetic, then tried to run away like the worthless coward he was. If only that stupid moronic fool had not failed in demolishing the PLANTs two years ago, then Djibril, would not have to go through this hellish ordeal, and their blue and pure world would be free from all Coordinators.

Yet before he could give the matter any more thought, Djibril was pulled back to reality by Ian Lee gently pushing his hands away. "Please try to calm down, Sir. If we recall our forces now, relay station Faure would be completely overwhelmed and likely destroyed by their Luna forces and the Gondwana, which means it will be impossible for us to fire the Requiem again; our forces need to stay put where they are." Ian Lee tried as calmly as possible to explain to Djibril, ignoring the small part of himself that loathed seeing the Logos leader, the man he respected with every fiber of his being, acting all panicky and fearful like this. Even though he, himself, was starting to feel the pressure over the intensity of their current situation, however, the soldier part of his mind realized that going into a full-blown panic now was not going to resolve anything—quite the opposite, as a matter of fact.

Frowning angrily at that, Djibril could barely content his intense desire to punch the man in front of him, how dared that worthless little swine deny following his command, who the hell did he think he was?. Honestly, the only reason why did not give into his present anger towards Ian Lee was the Requiem thing, he wanted that weapon to be fired again, he did not want to lose out on this chance to wipe out Aprilius One and thereby the ZAFT Supreme Council.

"Then do something else, you fool! Don't let that damn ship get any closer to our location! Stop it! Destroy it!" Djibril yelled straight into Ian's face, about to grab on to the Commander's collar again, but the dumbass went and ruined that by turning away from him, with a small wicked smirk on his lips, that made Djibril wonder just what exactly the man was thinking about.

"Ohh, I intend to stop it, sir; believe me! From the very first moment, me and the Girty Lue's crew encountered the Minerva at Armory One. It has cost us an immense amount of trouble. I truly do regret not having a nuclear missile or two to fire at it, when Roanoke and I had it cornered in the Debris Belt, if it had been destroyed at that point, things would most certainly be a whole lot easier for us now" Ian Lee growled angrily as he watched with narrowed eyes as the Minerva wiped out a Drake-class ship with its dual beam cannons.

Immediately upon hearing the words nuclear missile, Djibril moved a bit closer to Ian. "There is a bright idea, if I ever heard one. I know for a fact that we have quite a few nukes stashed away here; can't you use them, on the Minerva?".

Not at all sure if Djibril was actually serious about that ludicrous far out suggestion, Ian glanced with a hint of uncertainty in his blue eyes over at the Logos leader, trying for just the briefest seconds to read Djibril's dark, hate-filled expression. But at this precise moment, it was impossible to tell what the gray-haired man was thinking, so in the end, Ian decided that it was probably best that he gave him a response and a damn good reason for not using nuclear missiles.

"Unfortunately, that's simply not a feasible option, Lord Djibril. If we start using nukes at this late stage in the game, we will wipe out a great deal of our own forces too, and we could also very well do considerable damage to the Requiem with such a move. But please do not worry, Sir, I have another move up my sleeve that will most assuredly remove the Minerva from the equation for good; this will be the very least time we ever have to deal with that damn ship of space monsters." Ian calmly reassured his fanatical boss, then turned around and ordered the people up there to send out their secret weapons.

Quite a bit curious and excited about what these secret weapons of theirs might very well be, Djibril with the words that he expected a damn good show, finally dropped back down into his seat, breathing deeply in and out, wondering if there were anyone presented up there that wasn't doing anything too productive; he needed someone to swing by his room to get the highly expensive bottle of scotch he had found in the Seiran family shuttle. That bottle was truly the most valuable thing he had obtained from his brief cooperation with that worthless family; even those times he had slept with Mrs. Seiran during his visit had not been overly great; apparently, she was the type of woman who preferred strong, powerful men, but she had not been overly great at satisfying one; frankly, going to bed with her had been like sleeping with a coat stand.

Yet all thoughts of that unsatisfying fling with another man's floozie of a wife, was instantly banished from Djibril's mind, when a minor explosion shook the base, which made him raise his narrowed blue gaze, looking up at one of the smaller screens, that was showing three Destroy gundams being raised.

About ready to facepalm himself at that outright idiotic sight, the Logos leader let out a long sigh of sheer frustration. 'Oh, good lord! Some secret weapon—those massive wastes of money—worked soo well against the Minerva at Heaven's Base; why would they work any better now? God, I am completely surrounded by idiots and fools. Hmm, perhaps it's about high time I get ready to hightail it out of here; I just have to come up with another way to get even with Durandal', Djibril bitterly thought, glancing casually around the room to locate the best escape route, thankful by the fact everyone else presented up there was so incredibly busy that they did not notice what he was doing.

000000

Back outside, Shinn with the Wings of Light up and running, used the beam sword and a beam boomerang to savagely tear his way straight through a Zamza-Zah, that had made a pretty poor attempt to take him out with its many long armaments, then even as the hideous green mobile armor blow up directly behind him, the Destiny's bright green flashed ominously for a moment as its pilot quickly spotted three Windams that was trying to slip by him to get to the Minerva.

"Nice try guys, but you are not going anywhere!" He shouted, hurling the boomerang full forced up towards them, cutting apart the first two, while the third one, that was lacking just a bit behind manage to mostly avoid it, only getting its legs cut off, which was enough to make it swirl around and run hastily off, clearly having lost its will to keep on fighting.

Still feeling somewhat annoyed by the fact, that the bitchy woman who had been piloting the Buster Dagger, had survived their not so pleasant encounter, Shinn found that he was not at all willing to let yet another opponent survive his intense wrath, he was just about to take off after the damage Windam. When suddenly something down on the surface of the moon caught his undivided attention.

"Rey, Nicol, are you guys seeing what I am seeing?" Shinn asked his two comrades.

"Yeeah, we are, they are using Destroy gundams again. How pathetic and utterly predictable" Rey answered, using the DRAGOONs to rapidly and randomly take out one enemy mobile suits after another, which resulted in him briefly being encircled in thick clouds of pink smoke, that quickly dissipated in the airless space.

"And only three of them this time around, but I guess that leaves one for each of us" Nicol stated seriously, firing the beam rifle in the unprotected cockpit of a Zamza-Zah, a part of him wondering just how many of those bothersome mobile armors their enemies had here.

Immediately upon hearing those words, Shinn let out a short laugh. "Heh, you make quite the excellent point there, Nicol old buddy. If you guys are up for it, I'll bet my evening's dessert pudding cup, that I'll beat my Destroy unit before you beat yours" the Destiny pilot loudly said, then without waiting for a response from either of his fellow pilots, he raced off towards the closed Destroy gundam.

Of course, having always been the person who enjoyed a good thorough challenge, Nicol was quick to chime in, as he swung the lance out cutting off both the cannons and the head on a Doppelhorn Dagger L, leaving it adrift.

"Well, well, that's quite interesting proposition Shinn, and while it might in truth be somewhat inappropriate during these dire circumstances, I'm in. I'll even up the antics and bet my next three pudding cups," the green haired man said, as he too quickly went off towards the second Destroy gundam, leaving Rey behind.

Rey was quite frankly not at all certain how he was supposed to react to this. Part of him felt like he should firmly reprimand his two fellow pilots for inappropriate behavior during combat, yet seeing how vigorously the two were fighting their two large, deadly opponents, made the blond man change his mind about it. Hell, they might as well try to have just a bit of fun, while they put an end to Logos once and for all.

"I, ahem, am in too; you guys just name your prize!" The Legend pilot loudly called out to Shinn and Nicol, then immediately sent of all the DRAGOONs towards the third Destroy gundam, that as fast as it could raise both of its large bulky hands, firing all the finger beam guns at the rapid approaching DRAGOONs in a meek attempt to keep them at bay, easily able to make the DRAGOONs evade the incoming attack, Rey felt a smirk run across his lips; it really was quite the blessing in disguise that the Destroy unit were so damn slow and cumbersome.

If Logos were to ever design a newer Destroy gundam with speed as its main function, instead of mindless destruction and mayhem, they would all definitely be in for quite the challenge. But fortunately, it seemed like Djibril along with the rest of Logos was completely incapable of leaning anything new.

"Heh, guess it really is quite rough teaching an old terrorist of a dog new tricks," Rey called out loud, hastily using the DRAGOONs to intercept a large amount of income missiles.

"Yeah, tell me about it. While the Destroy gundam might in some regard be an impressive piece of highly deadly machinery. I don't believe we have fought anyone who has been able to fully utilize its destructive capabilities. I think the only one who even came close was the crazy son of a bitch weencountered at Berlin. And let's be honest here, guys: Kira handled most of the work back then. These pilots, however, are clearly not as well-trained as that deplorable bastard," Nicol hissed, swiftly evading in between a couple of incoming missiles, then immediately got the Adamant over into its mobile armor mode, blocking a couple of powerful green shoots from the Destroy, only to lower the shield and fire three shoots back, hitting and destroying one of the twin barrel beam cannons on its massive back.

Ducking underneath a couple of red beams, Shinn fired the long-range beam cannon down into his very own Destroy unit. Unfortunately, much to his intense annoyance only hitting its shield, yet that did not prevent him from firing the weapon a second time, as he used the Wings of Light in an attempt to get in close. Yet, with his mad, shouting adversary firing all the Destroy gundam's massive array of weapons towards him. Shinn, was forced to cease his rapid approach, abruptly throwing himself backwards to avoid the incoming attacks, and likewise depend on the shield to take care of the rest. But even as he blocked those attacks, the red-eyed boy fired back with the bean rifle, hitting and destroying the multi-phase energy cannons on the Destroy's upper chest. Thereby rendering three of it's most powerful and dangerous weapons useless, but that just served to make his opponent fire his remaining weapons at him.

"Emm, well, if you ask me, Nicol. I do not think the Freedom pilot really did all that much against that, Destroy! If not for his interference I would have been able to take out those stupid Murasames that were harassing Stella, then take out that Destroy myself, that way everyone would have been happy," Shinn growled in pure anger and hatred, so very easily able to imagine himself walking hand in hand with Stella on a quiet beach, enjoying the setting sun, or going swimming together, he wondered for a moment how precisely Stella would have looked in a bikini.

Ever though, both Nicol and Rey paid practical attention to the happy bit. Neither one of them choose to comment on it, as they continued fighting so unbelievable hard against their specify opponent.

"While I am generally more than happy to dish and criticize Kira Yamato for hours on end. This really isn't the best time for it. We are not out of the woods yet. So pay attention, Shinn," Rey told him, feeling a vein run across his forehead when two of the DRAGOONs were hit and destroyed by an attack.

Slicing and tearing apart one of the detachable hands, then even as it blew up all around him, Shinn fired the long-range beam cannon at the face of the Destroy gundam in an attempt to blind it, frowning in sheer hatred when all he hit was the swiftly deployed beam shield. He did not entirely agree on these pilots being as amateurish as Nicol had previously claimed; his opponent, for one, was pretty damn skilled at keeping up his guard and staying on the defense, attacking whenever he was given an opportunity to do so. It was a cowardly tactic, in Shinn's opinion, but it seemed to work pretty well for his dumb bastard of an opponent.

"There is no need for you to boss me around like that, Rey! I am paying attention to what I am doing! I am the kind of person who can multitask; I can so very easily fight this guy and complain about the Freedom pilot at the same time!" Shinn angrily shouted out to his fellow pilot as he flew head-first straight in between a massive amount of incoming missiles, actually using the sword to cut down and destroy a few of them. And as they blew up all around him, he almost felt at home in between the clouds of pink explosions, which served as a pretty decent hiding spot for him as he once again opened fire on the Destroy with the long-range beam cannon, hitting the upper part of it's backpack, causing a massive amount of damage to it. But that did not in any way mean that the Destroy pilot was out of the game yet, which was made all the more clear when its second hand left the large gundam.

Smirking with maliciously glee at that sight, Shinn instantly took off to meet the approaching fist, hurriedly taking aim and using the beam rifle to make the first move, yet as luck would have it he only hit its powerful shield. But even though Shinn felt absolutely determined to get rid of this darn thing as quickly as he possibly could, so he could continue fighting the Destroy's main body, the red-eyed pilot could not deny that there was a part of him that was kinda enjoying himself; he was quite frankly having the time of his life. Feeling the sheer adrenaline rush through his body from a good battle was just so thrilling and addictive.

And so with the Wings of Light up and running Shinn rolled underneath an attack from the incoming hand, then immediately swirled around and hurled both Beam Boomerangs up into it, then raced in and finishing it off with the Palma Fiocina, leaving it as nothing but a total wreck, then after collecting the Boomerangs again and putting them back where they belonged, Shinn once again turned his full attention towards the Destroy gundam.

000000

Yet while Shinn Asuka, Nicol Amalfi, and Rey Za Burrel were standing so steadfastly and strongly against their most large opponent, each one of them slowly but surely chipping away at them, with all of their might.

The frowning, Lunamaria Hawke, was sitting silently in the Core Splendor, still impatiently drumming the fingers on her left hand against the arm rest of her seat, as she waited for the precise moment for her to join the fray and play her crucial part in it. Yet as another explosion went through the Minerva, the slightly restless redhead was just about to bite the bullet and get in contact with the bridge to ask Abbey when it was her time to leave. She was quite frankly getting, ohh so, sick and tired of just sitting around there doing nothing, she wanted so badly to join the battle too and help teach that bastard Djibril a lesson he would never forget in the short time he had left of his pathetic, miserable life.

However before the pilot of the Impulse could even get a word out to her new best friend, Lunamaria heard Captain Gladys shout out the one order she had been waiting so keenly to hear all of this time.

"All right, we got the signal! Send out the Impulse!".

Immediately relaying that order to the listening Lunamaria. "You heard her Luna! Hurry, get out there, and please try to be careful," Abbey told her, flinching ever so slightly as another vigorous tremor went through the Minerva, while the Deputy Captain loudly called out for the Tristans to be fired.

"No need for you to worry, your pretty little head, Abbey. This is going to be a total piece of cake," the redhead reassured her. Even though she honestly did not really believe those words herself, she simply wanted to do what she could to try to lessen her friend's intense worries. Ever since the disaster that had been the attack on Orb, the two of them had been hanging out a lot. Lunamaria, because she did not only despise being alone these days, but could not stand being around Nicol. And Abbey, because she was an isolated, lonely girl, who obviously did not even want to be on the Minerva in the first place.

It had only been during their second day of hanging out, when Abbey had revealed to her with some reluctance, that her only reason for joining up with the ZAFT military, was because her dumbass of a father had forced her to do so, which was, in Luna's honest opinion, a really scummy move on his part. Following that, Abbey had told her all about how her actual goal in life was to become a novelist, which Lunamaria found to be quite interesting, especially because of her own intense enjoyment of reading different romantic novels.

While Luna's words might have had the intention of helping Abbey calm down, they had the complete opposite effect. It honestly worried the blonde girl quite a bit that her friend had sounded so self-assured and overconfident. Her older brother had sounded the exact same way when he had gone into that very battle during the last war, where he had lost his right arm. Yet before Abbey could really think of anything to say to Lunamaria about watching her back out there, the Captain's loud, bossy voice cut her off.

"What is the status of the Destiny, Legend, and Adamant?" Talia quickly asked, only to immediately afterward yelled out for Malik to evade.

Quickly clearing her throat "Ahem, each one of them are going against a different Destroy gundam, Ma'am, they seem to be doing quite well from what I can tell" Abbey hastily told the Captain, brushing a bit of her long blond hair away from her blue eyes.

"Excellent, keep watch for an opening, if we get a chance we are backing them up with the Tannhauser!" Talia ordered next, then yelled out for the Isolde to be fired at a nearby Drake Class.

Leaving Abbey and Captain Gladys to do what needed to be done, Luna loudly yelled out a familiar phrases.

"Lunamaria Hawke, Core Splendor launching!".

With that, the small fighter plane raced forward on the catapult, followed shortly by the main parts for the Impulse and the Blast Silhouette. Once out in space, the powerful mobile suit was quickly assembled. Having not had the opportunity to test out the Blast Silhouette other than in the flight simulator, Lunamaria wondered for only the briefest of moments, if she would be able to use this massive amount of weaponry as well as Shinn had, the few times she had seen him kick ass while using this Silhouette pack. Yet as two incoming Doppelhorn Dagger Ls opened fire on her, the redhead quickly shook those doubts out of her mind, throwing herself to the side, firing back with the long-range beam cannons, blowing both of them to bits.

Seeing that there were no obvious threat anywhere near her, Lunamaria spund around and took off towards the surface of the moon, hoping that by staying low, it would be that much more difficult for anyone to spot her, she did however not get far when she spotted a pair of old Moebius mobile armors.

"What the heck? Why in the world, would they even send something so utterly outdated and obsolete into combat these days? Those things are even worse put together than Shinn and Rey's combined intelligence. But perhaps, it might be a good sign that we are seeing stuff like this now, it could be a sign that they are running low on actual mobile suits, which would make this so much easier for me," Luna whispered quietly under her breath, using the Javelin to rapidly slash the two pink mobile armors apart, before they had a chance to report and give away her position.

Taking a quick glance around for anything else that might reveal her presenced, Lunamaria hastily continued onward, meeting surprisingly little resistance the second thing she encountered on her way, was a Dual Dagger that had clearly taken quite the massive beating and was missing its left arm, this machine too, the girl made short work off, even as the mostly gray mobile suit charged towards her shooting like crazy. It was getting increasingly obvious that whoever the command in charge of the Daedalus Lunar Base was, he or she was not expecting anyone to make this approach.

Spotting her entry point to the base in the distance, Lunamaria felt a brief smirk run across her face. "Far be it from me to complain about this being way too easy. But I just can't make heads or tails of this. Why the heck would they leave such a vulnerable point so exposed? Why isn't anybody guarding it? Peeerhaps, this really will be a piece of cake, like I told Abbey." the redhead in a whisper, yet she had barely finished those words before a beeping sound rang alarmingly out through the Impulse's cockpit.

Hastily throwing herself to the side, thereby just nearly avoiding getting hit by a powerful red beam. Taking a quick glance down at her controls, Luna saw the words Sword Calamity, suddenly appearing and flashing repeatedly on her screen, which meant that whatever she was about to go up against, it was a machine that was in the ZAFT database.

"Oh great, did I accidentally trigger a flag or something by bellyaching about this going way too smoothly? I reeeally do not like the whole calamity thing in this mobile suit's name," Lunamaria said as she looked out at the rapidly approaching yellow gundam armed with two massive beam swords.

"Halt! You shall go no further Impulse pil...!" Her female opponent yelled out before Lunamaria loudly cut her off.

"Ahh, shut the hell up, you stupid, worthless bitch! Nobody cares about your mindless yammering about how you are going to stop me. Just get lost and let me throoouuugh!" Luna yelled, firing both the beam rifle and the long-range beam cannons directly at the yellow close quarters combat mobile suit, which evade to the side, hastily trying to take cover behind a pair of old Strike Daggers that had been left adrift and some parts of a likewise old Drake-class ship, yet Lunamaria's attacks were more than powerful enough to blow those things to bits.

Quite pleased by the fact that she had been able to successfully forced the Sword Calamity out of its barely constructed hiding spot and back into the opening, Lunamaria was quick to keep up the intense pressure. Firing again and again after the yellow gundam, absolutely determined to keep it at a distance and simply blast it apart from as far away as possible, the pissed off redhead had no intention whatsoever in trying to challenge this colossal headache in melee combat, even through a part of her was sort of curious about how she would actually do against it, if she had been using the Sword Silhouette pack.

"God damn you! Stop shooting at me already!" Luna heard her opponent cried out in despair and desperation, as she ducked down underneath two green beams, then charged full speed towards her, while hurling a couple of beam boomerangs at her.

Speedily backing away to diminish her loud adversary's chances of getting close enough to use those massive beam swords against her, Lunamaria simultaneously got a lock on the incoming throwing weapons, firing both long-range beam cannons towards them, hitting and destroying both of them one after another. Then, with the pink smoke concealing her follow-up move, Lunamaria took aim with the rifle, firing two shots straight at the Sword Calamity, hitting first the chest, taking out the Multi-phase Energy Cannon, then the head, thereby rendering the yellow mobile suit completely blinded and useless.

Immediately following that, the panting Lunamaria was faced with a bit of a dilemma. Should she finish this thing off for good, or leave it be? It might be easier, in the long run, to simply take it out now and kill its pilot. But as she tightly squeezed the controls, she remembered how Kira Yamato had let her live back in Orb, when he could so very easily have ended her life right then and there.

"Ahh, damn it all, ending the life of someone who is incapable of fighting back, seems like such a pathetic and wicked thing to do. I wonder if-if this is the reason why the Freedom pilot does not kill when he could so easily do so. To hell with it! His kindheartedness is definitely rubbing off on me. Is THIS the reason why he is Athrun's best friend, and Meyrin is willing to fight on his side, against me and ZAFT?" Lunamaria questioned with a pissed-off frown, then after sparing the half-wrecked disabled Sword Calamity gundam one last glance. The redhead hurried, turned around and took off towards the entryway to the bass, sincerely hoping that she would not encounter anything else like this.

Instantly upon entering the massive bass, Lunamaria spotted a couple of Doppelhorn Dagger Ls, which she made short work off before they could even attempt to hinder her approach, swiftly continuing onward down the passageway, only encountering minor resistance along the way, blasting apart five Windams, that tried their utmost to stop her by ganging up on her and attacking her at the same time. The red-haired gundam pilot finally spotted her target, just as she heard Abbey's loud panicky voice rang through her ears.

"You need to hurry the hell up, Luna! Even though most of their forces are gone now, those bastards are still attempting to fire the Requiem, if they DO, half of our Lunar fleet will be gone in an instant. My-my brother is among them!" Abbey cried out, even though she knew that she was likely going to get severely reprimanded later by either Captain Gladys or the Deputy Captain for getting all emotional at a time like this, but she really did not care.

While Talia Gladys, did hear Abbey's frightened panicky words about her brother. The Minerva Captain paid very little attention to it, as she yelled out for the Tannhauser to be fired, all she had in mind was destroying the Requiem, she wanted, SHE NEEDED, to stop this disgusting weapon for good, before it could be fired again, if it were to hit one or more of the other PLANTs, William, her dear son could end up getting killed, she would not allow that to happen.

"Captain, the Tannhauser is overheating! We cannot keep firing it like this, for much longer," Arthur anxiously informed, part of him quite a bit astound by how Talia was behaving right now.

"I don't care, Arthur! Keep firing it! Even if it blows up! We survived it, doing that before!" She yelled, her mind briefly flashing back to how the Freedom pilot, had destroyed the Tannhauser so long ago, when they had first encountered the Archangel, yet the frowning woman quickly shook away those thoughts as she shouted out for the Tristans, and Isolde to be fired, which they immediately were, taking out a large amount of rapidly approaching mobile suits and mobile armors in all different shapes and sizes.

Having NEVER heard that kind of intense desperation in Captain Gladys' voice, Lunamaria realized how little time she actually had, if they were really trying to fire the Requiem again, even more innocent men, women, and children would needlessly lose their lives, she would never permit that to happen, so while strongly biting her lower lips, she loudly called out to Abbey and the Captain.

"Just hang out a bit longer, guys! I'm almost there. I will not let them fire this damn thing, EVER AGAAAIIN!" The Impulse pilot loudly screamed at the top of her lungs, as she viciously blasted and tore her way through the last hindrance in her patch, which consisted of four Windams and two Doppelhorn Dagger Ls.

Finally reaching her destination, Lunamaria glance into the control room for a split second, letting her narrowed blue eyes swiftly wander over all the people in there who were clearly panicking at the sight of her powerful gundam. Not spotting anyone who even looked like Djibril in there, the girl frown in sheer anger and annoyance, she really hoped that evil son of a bitch was going to slip away again, once she was done there, she would go look for him afterward, backing away slightly the redhead took aim with each and every one of the Blast Impulse's weapons, then with a loud shout of pure rage she opened fire.

"GO TO HELL, YOU MURDEROUS BASTARDS!".

Even as the red beams from the long-range beam cannons tore their way through the incredibly thick glass protecting the control room, Lunamaria kept on continuously firing over and over again, absolutely determined to make sure that none of the people who had been responsible for firing the Requiem at the PLANTs, would have a chance to get out of this alive. In her mind, each and every one of them deserved to rot in the deepest corner of hell.

Finally, after almost two whole minutes of this, Lunamaria stopped, simply sitting there breathing deeply in and out a few times. "The control room is gone Abbey, Captain Gladys, I did it, I destroyed it..." she breathed out to her friend and Commanding Officer, almost in tears at this point, this should put an end to the Requiem for good, right?.

"Excellent work, Luna, now hurry up and get back out here! The battle is far from done yet! They are still doing something with the Requiem, even with the control room gone, they might just be able to fire the accursed thing anyway!" Talia yelled out to Lunamaria, wanting the redhead outside as quickly as humanly possible, so they could continue vigorously attacking the crumbling base without having to worry about killing the female pilot in the process.

"Ahh, damn it all. Damn those evil bastards! How long are they planning on keeping this crazy lowdown charade going?! By the way, as far as I could tell, Djibril was not presence in the control room! So he most BE somewhere else, if I had to make an educated guess, he is going to try to flee again!" Lunamaria yelled, as she spun around and took off from her position, heading the same way she had come from.

Not at all pleased by that piece of information. "Tch, that disgusting man truly is the very definition of a coward. We'll keep a close eye out for any fleeing crafts. You just focus on getting out of there, Luna! Now taking aim and FIRE!" Talia called out, as the Tannhauser was yet again fired at the Daedalus Base, blowing apart an evading Agamemnon-class ship that tried but failed to fight back.

000000

At the exact same time, back outside. Shinn while still using the Wings of Light, dove agilely down underneath a destructive red beam from one of the Destroy gundam's few remaining weapons, only to a split second later slash upwards with the beam sword, cutting open the Destroy gundam's exposed cockpit. For only a moment. Shinn found himself imagining the enemy pilot's overall terrified expression. But since the boy had a bet, he was so determined to win, no matter what. Shinn ignored all thoughts of that as he released his hold on the swords, slamming both hands into the Destroy, repeatedly firing both Palma Fiocina into the machine, sending sparks and parts flying all over the place. Even as he spotted his opponent fanatically stumbling in an attempt to get out of the huge gundam, he just kept going with the Palma Fiocina, until the Destroy finally started tumbling over and collapsing in on itself.

Leaving the Destroy, and it's dumbass of a pilot to their miserable well-deserved fate, Shinn spend less than a moment trying to locate the beam sword, but seeing no sign of the weapon anywhere, he decided to simply leave it be where it was, he could most accusingly handle the rest of this battle without it.

Having been so utterly caught up in tearing the Destroy gundam he had been facing to bits and pieces, Shinn had no idea whatsoever about where Rey or Nicol could be, but he knew for a fact both of his friends could easily take care of themselves, so with a loud shout, he took off straight towards a Zamza-Zah, simply figuring that would be the most challenging thing he could go up against at this moment, but even as he opened fire on it, the red-eyed boy called out to Rey and Nicol.

"I'm sorry to interrupt whatever you guys are doing! But I've finished off my Destroy unit, how did you guys do?!" The Destiny pilot asked, hastily blocking an incoming attack from the ugly green mobile armor, as Rey's almost calm voice could be heard through the radio.

"Great job, Shinn. Unfortunately, it would seem that we each owe Nicol a few cups of our dessert pudding. He won this little wager of ours with a landslide. I admit, I am not too pleased about that outcome, with me not being a betting man, I kinda wanted to win this one!" Rey admitted, with a light frown, more than happy to use the DRAGOONs to take out his frustration on the enemy mobile suits closing in on him.

With a shout of pure anger, Shinn flung the two beam boomerangs at the Zamza-Zah, that lost one of it's four limbs, then with a bright green flash of the Destiny's eyes, the teenage gundam pilot ripped and tore his way straight through the worthless mobile armor, killing everyone on board the damn thing.

"Speaking of Nicol, where is he by the way?" Shinn asked, as he got out the beam rifle, then flew off towards an Agamemnon-class ship that was in serious need of some major repair.

"Causing havoc and chaos inside the base somewhere. I very much doubt he is going to need our help, but we should still keep an eye on the radio just in case. But I would very much prefer that we stay put out here, Shinn. The Requiem is still glowing green, which is a sure sign that it's still powering up to fire. We might need to do something a lot more drastic to stop it." Rey growled out, feeling his vision turn completely blurry for a split second. He really did wish that he had taken just a few more of his pills before going out there, but the truth was that those pills really did seem to be losing their effectiveness the more he took them. He seriously needed to speak with Gilbert about that later, when this was over. Maybe his always clever father figure had some helpful advice that could help him deal with this particular issue.

Firing and blasting apart a lonely Windam, Shinn cursed under his breath for a second. "Ahh, damn it all! What the hell is Lunamaria even doing in there, sleeping!? I would have thought that she would have reached the control panel by this point. I thought her skills had developed enough for her to handle this on her own!"

"Don't you dare take that tone with my, Shinn Asuka, I already destroyed the control panel. It's not my fault this stupid weapon of theirs is set to auto-charge or whatever the hell it's doing. Let's just hurry and go wreck it some more, before it fires. If we help each other out, I am sure that we can stop it!" Luna yelled out as she suddenly appeared from seemingly out of nowhere, yelling out for the Minerva to fire the Deuterion Beam so she could get the Impulse recharged.

Sparing his good old mobile suit a brief displeased glare, Shinn mumbled a bit in agreement. "Fine, I'm sorry for biting your head of Luna, now let's hurry and get moving, I am far from done kicking all kind of ass yet. I'm almost tempted to go search for that Buster Dagger thing I fought in the begging of this battle!" He growled out, as he raced off after Impulse, that was already firing continuously on an ill-protected part of the Requiem.

"Wow, does my ears deceive me?! Someone actually managed to get away from you, Shinn, I thought you were a better pilot than that!" Lunamaria scornfully called out to him, with him having mocked her piloting skills mere moments ago, the frowning redhead sincerely felt like this was his rightly deserved punishment. Besides, she was still completely incapable of forgiving him for his stupid nonsense about wanting to kill Athrun and Cagalli's little infant child, or Athha demon spawn, as the dumb idiot had so colorfullyphrase it.

Glaring after the swiftly flying off Impulse. "Ahh, shut up, Luna, nobody asked you. That insane, bitchy lady, in the Buster Dagger, was a pretty skilled pilot. I am definitely hoping to encounter her again someday so I can settle the score with her" Shinn growled out through his teeth, as he hurried went off after his old mobile suit, absolutely determined to cause even more damage to the Requiem than Lunamaria ever could.

Listening to the two's loud bickering for only a moment, Rey was just about to head off to join them, when, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the familiar shape of a certain ship. While it might have been several months since he last saw this craft, the Legend pilot was still capable of recognizing this mostly dark blue spaceship. Its presence was not unexpected; in fact, it made perfect sense that it was there. While its stealth feature made it just about ideal for covert operations, like having some of its merry crew sneak on board Armory One to steal the Chaos, Gaia and Abyss, there was no denying the fact that Bogey One was also a perfect vessel to make one's escape on.

"Bogey One? Heh-heh, you are getting so pathetically predictable, Djibril. I guess it's about high time that you were removed from the equation. And since I was the one who helped you get away, back in Orb, it seems most right that this task falls upon my shoulders. I know for a fact that Gilbert is so immensely grateful for your participation and cooperation in our plan for this world, and since that is the case, I will make your death as painless and fast as possible," Rey mumbled menacingly under his breath as he took off full speed towards the Girty Lue with all the dispatched DRAGOONs following ominously behind him.

000000

On board the Girty Lue, Djibril was kicking up such a storm. "Goddamn it! To hell with Chairman Durandal and each and every single one of his ilk of Coordinators. Creating that weapon, creating the Requiem, has cost me, cost Logos millions of hard-earned dollars, and now it's being turned into a smoldering wreck. I am so going to make Durandal pay for his. I will not rest until I get my well deserved revenge against that man!" The terrorist leader practically screamed at the top of his lungs, as he settled down into a seat.

Yet as Djibril listened to Commander Ian Lee loudly shout out orders left and right, he wondered where exactly he should go next—should he head on back to Earth, maybe Orb, then try to come up with another way to get vengeance on all the world's Coordinators. NO, Orb did not work! With the entire Seiran family now rotting in the deepest, farthest corner of hell, there was no way that Athha girl would permit access to that country ever again. Scandinavia? No, no, that was NOT a functional option either, Germany? Yeah, right, the worthless traitors there would hunt him like a rapid dog for sickening the first Destroy gundam on their capital. He was quite frankly running out of places to run and hide, not to mention the even worse dilemma he was presently facing. Djibril was slowly but surely running out of powerful, useful weapons to throw at his increasingly many enemies, who wished to do him harm for trying to make this world a better place, free of all Coordinators.

Those immensely racist thoughts instantly left Djibril's highly twisted mind, upon glimpsing a highly menacing form of a mobile suit appearing directly in front of the Girty Lue, its green eyes flashing briefly, which only added to the immense intimidation it emanated. Feeling his blue eyes widen in horror, Djibril screamed out in pure panic and fright.

"Ah, noo! NO, not now! Open fire, shot it down!" He cried out, not ready to die yet.

Just as Ian Lee yelled out beside him. "The Mirage Colloid, get it up and runni...! Ahhh!" He screamed as a couple of DRAGOONs raced past the gray gundam, heading straight for the Girty Lue's bridge, continuously opening fire and blasting apart missile launchers and machine cannons. Then, mere seconds before they impacted with the totally unguarded bridge, the beam blades sprang to life, piecing straight through the viewport, instantly killing every single person in there. Djibril the prideful Blue Cosmos and Logos leader, did not even have time to see his life flashing before his dark blue eyes before he at long last got his long-awaited, well-deserved death and punishment for his numerous horrific crimes.

Even with the Girty Lue's bridge reduced to dust, Rey continued having the DRAGOONs speedily circling around the blue disabled ship, rapidly firing away at it, randomly destroying more and more parts on it. He was absolutely determined to make sure that this ship could never be repaired and used against ZAFT again, and as the engines exploded with a bright orange flash, Rey Za Burrel watched with pure glee as the ship crashed down into the surface of the moon, where it blew up.

000000

At the same time Requiem, Lunamaria hardly even took the time to aim properly, before firing all the Blast Impulse's powerful weapons at the massive highly destructive super weapon, causing an immense amount of damage to it, but despite that, it kept on increasingly glowing greener and greener, indicating that it was getting dangerously close to firing.

Ahh, to hell with it! Was there no end to this?! Why could they not stop this disgusting piece of shit weapon?! Lunamarika Hawke had personally wrecked and destroyed the control panel, killing every single person in there. Did this-this mean, that they had an emergency control panel hidden away inside the base somewhere? Had she made a mistake by not making absolutely certain that there wasn't more than one control panel? Yet just as the redhead starting to considering actually entering the barrel of the Requiem, to try to stop it from in there.

However, before the redhead could make up her mind about what to do, a bust of green energy shot out from the weapon, heading straight upwards towards the first relay station.

"Ohhh, no! NOO!" Lunamaria cried out, yet before the panic could really set in, and she could do something totally reckless to try to stop the beam from hitting any of their ally forces, fighting so frantically to take out the nearest relay station, or worse the PLANTs. Yet before the stubborn pilot of the Impulse could do anything, that would likely cost her, her life, the intensity of the immensely highly destructive beam seemed to suddenly start diminishing rapidly until it completely stopped.

Following that there was an intense eerie silence surrounding them, that was only occasionally broken by the sounds of Shinn violently fighting and finishing off the last remaining resistances, which consists of a group of seven or eight Slaughter Daggers, for a moment Lunamaria considered leading him a hand, but seeing the all out crazy was he was fighting, she realized that she would likely only get in his way. So she decided to stay put right where she presently was, so she could keep a close eye on the Requiem in case something else happened.

Finally, after about a minute, Shinn was done playing whack a mole with the dark-colored Daggars. Each one of them had been reduced to nothing but a smoldering wreck.

"Daaamn that was intense, I really thought you-we had failed to destroy this thing, that even, hah-more innocent people were going to die," Shinn breath out, as he reached up and pulled off his helmet, leaving it adrift inside the Destiny gundam, he could really use a drink of cold water right about now, he could not even remember the last time his throat had felt this unimaginable dry, he was almost tempted to pull out the emergency rations from underneath the seat.

Quickly deciding not to say anything, despite the intense annoyance she felt over Shinn having been so fast and ready to place the blame for them having not stopped the Requiem in time squarely on her shoulders, Luna glared up at the Destiny gundam, that was hanging not that far above her. The redhead did wonder if there would ever come a day when he would stop being such a major jerk and insensitive idiot.

"Mhf, I just wonder-haa-wonder why it stopped so suddenly? While it is true, that the two of us did our fair share of damage to the damn thing. I do not think, it was neeearly enough to actually stop it. So wh-haa-what precisely happened?" Lunamaria asked him, even though she really didn't expect Shinn to have any sort of practical answer, that could help them obtain a better understanding of their current situation.

"Ufm, I don't know Luna, from where I was hanging it seemed to simply ran out of juice," Shinn said, considering for a moment if he should just keep on firing randomly at the weapon, with the way the Requiem was now, it would, in his opinion be a real hoot to see how long it would take for him to disassemble the massive weapon.

Yet before Shinn could go through with that fun idea, he was loudly cut off by the sound of Nicol's voice. "It, running out of juice, is more or less what happened, Shinn, Luna. I went inside it and cut off it's main power supply, but I would never have been able to do that without you delaying its firing sequence by you destroying its control plane, Luna," the green-haired man said, simply unable to keep the intense exhaustion out of his voice. Now that the gruesome battle was finally over, he seriously would not mind laying down on his bed for a couple of long hours and taking a good, long, well-deserved nap.

Still holding tightly onto the beam rifle, Shinn reached out and scooped up the dark, blue-eyed head of one of the Slaughter Daggers, staring intensely at it for a long moment, it looked pretty sweet, in its own unique way, the boy was so very tempted to ask the others, if they thought it might be alright if he kept it as a winning trophy from this battle. But he of course quickly realized how ridiculous an idea that truly was, if he were to start collecting mobile suit heads in the same manner any normal person would collect something as mundane as stamps. It would not take long before the Minerva's entire hangar would be filled to the brim with them, and in the end there were only two heads he truly desired, those of the Freedom and the Justice's.

And with that dark thought in mind, Shinn let out a long tired breath, as he casually chucked the head over the Destiny's shoulder, then called out to the others.

"Ah, hell yes, yes! That means we did it, guys, we beat them! We stopped them from firing the Requiem at the PLANTs, now they can NEVER use that damn thing again. We even got rid of that evil bastard Djibril, at the same time, now he can never harm anyone, ever again" the red-eyed boy called out with pure and other glee in his voice.

"Yes that we did Shinn, excellent work you guys. It truly was an honor to have fought alongside you in this battle, I can not even begin to describe how proud I am to have such reliable allies fighting by my side. Now let's leave the Lunar fleet to keep watch and guard over this place, while we head on back to the Minerva. I don't know about you, but I could use a bit of rest" Rey told his three friends, still feeling the intense desire to get some of his medicine down into his body, he really did feel like his entire being was screaming for his pills right now.

Then, as five Nazca-class lead by the Burckhardt and ten Laurasia-class were slowly approaching the place, the four Minerva pilot swirled around and began making their way back to the approaching Minerva.

000000

At the same time on board the Space Fortress Messiah, Gilbert's eyes ran over the message he had just received from Rey.

'You have most definitely done quite the excellent job, Rey. With Djibril now finally removed from the equation, the Requiem is now mine to use as I wish. With it, I will most assuredly change and recreate this twisted world of ours, into what it was meant to be, soon my Destiny plan will be underway. But know this Djibril your efforts and contribution will not be forgotten,' Gilbert thought with a hint of a smirk, as he glanced over at his chess board most specifically of all, at the white queen, that it this point was standing on the left side of the board, ready to take one of the rooks with its next move.

Lacus Yamato, along with her husband, plus whatever few aliens they had so desperately scrape together, like Orb, were pretty much all, which was standing in the way of his brilliant plan. Soon this whole world of theirs would be changed in such a crucial way that it could never go back to how it was, it was the only correct path for all of humanity.

Still thoroughly considering his next move to dealing with the two major hindrance, that were the two Yamatos. Gilbert reached ever so slowly out towards the chess board, picking up the white queen, staring intensely at it for a long tense moment before putting it back on the board.

To be continued.

Like I said at the very beginning, there will be some major spoilers for the Freedom movie here. You have been warned. I think this movie is probably the best gundam movie I have ever watched. Pretty much the only thing I did not like about it was the Archangel being destroyed, she has been my favorite spaceship for well over twenty years. Not that the Millennium isn't an awesome ass kicking ship in its own way; Captain Alexei Konoe was an awesome fellow, with him just giving his ship to Murrue like that. Next, I can not deny that I kinda wanted to see Kira do battle in the Rising Freedom gundam a bit more before it was taken out, it seemed like a pretty interesting mobile suit. Finally, the scene where Lunamaria beat up and smacked the crap out of Shinn for worrying her, was just hilarious.