R.O.B Chapter 13: Collapsing Land

Author notes:

I'm back! As expected, another cannon divergence chap. I hope I painted a good picture with this one because I tried to make it as realistic as possible while still being a fun read.

Though I have to say this, Viola is doing a great job at pissing off ZAFT pilots lol.

P.S: I will be working on the next chap soon so stay tune!

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Massaging her temple, Murrue has so many things she wants to say right now but in the end.

"You know what, I give up." Murrue decided to stop thinking when dealing with Viola lest she had a brain hemorrhage.

Her sentiment is mirrored by Natarle while Mu holds his stomach and laughs at the chaotic way Viola carried herself. If he hadn't known better, he would think that Viola was the actual leader of the Alliance and Orb Union. The girl literally bossed around the Secretary-General and the Lord, after all.

"I'm honestly impressed and scared. Not because found out that we unknowingly participated in a black project, but because the two leaders easily committed themselves to do Viola's bidding." Natalie commented, her hand rubbing another to try and calm her goosebumps.

Viola circles around Murrue before taking a seat on the armrest of Natarle's chair, crossing an arm over the latter's shoulders.

"That, my dear, is because they know me and what I'm capable of doing, not to mention the fact that joining me means they can reap profitable returns. My sway over public opinion is not for show, now imagine if I incite the public to turn on the people that landed us in this trouble. That will be a sight to behold."

Natarle rolls her eyes. "I forgot, you literally axed some politicians when they tried to mess with you. I'm starting to pity your enemy now."

Patting, Natarle's head, the woman blushes but does nothing to stop it, Viola says.

"Don't be, those racists are better off dead. They have been poisoning the thoughts of the common populace long enough. Now, they will be hunted and killed by the same people they led astray. Oh, the irony."

Mu snickers. "Reminds me to never be your enemy, Viola."

Murrue also echoes. "What he said."

"So long as you all stick with your codes of honor, I think we'll be cool." Viola smiled.

Suddenly, a communication request from the Heliopolis command arrives. Murrue patches it through and is surprised to see the sensor feed from the station. The ZAFT vessels are moving in for a blockade formation.

"It's about damn time." Viola said while taking a peek at the information panel. "Well then, Murrue, Natarle, Mu, I will be prepping for sortie."

Taking on a serious look, Murrue nods. "We'll be counting on you and Kira. Good luck."

Giving a thumbs up, Viola walks out of the bridge, leaving the officers to do their things.

Taking a deep breath, Murrue, as the acting Captain, announces while pushing an alarm button. "General quarters! Mu you take command of the CIC. Natarle, you will be in charge of communication with our MS. Prepare the Archangel for takeoff!"

"Roger!"

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"Our priority is to escape Heliopolis while being careful not to damage the colony in during the battle." Murrue said as the Archangel took off using its thrusters, leaving behind a swath of scorched land.

Sitting next to Natarle in the CIC, Petty Officer Jackie Tonomura comments in a soft tone. "That would be impossible though."

Catching that, Natarle adds. "But it doesn't hurt to try."

As the bridge crew of the Archangel is running a final combat check, the situation in the hangar is much the same. Kira's Strike is stepping forth onto the catapult while mechanical arms are attaching additional equipment to the Strike.

"Sword Striker. A sword?" Kira asked no one in particular. "Why do I have a feeling that this thing is more like a childish fantasy than an actual weapon."

"That's because it probably is, Kira." Viola's face suddenly appeared on a video screen, causing Kira to jump in shock.

"Geez, Viola, can't you just call normally rather than forcefully patching into my comms?" Kira complained.

"Yeah, well, me doing this will help in case the enemy intensifies the jamming. After all, they have access to the Alliance communication protocol now that they have the other G-units." Viola explained her reasoning.

"Thanks, I guess... Are you sure about this, Viola? Do we really have to fight a war that's not ours?" Kira asked though he already knew the answers to those questions.

Viola commands her GINN to step on the second catapult while answering. "It's never about being sure or not, Kira. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade out of them. If it's not us who stands up to fight, then who will protect what we hold dear? Surely you understand that, hence you didn't flinch when I kill that Alliance soldier."

"...You're right." Kira agreed with Viola's assessment. He may be a peace-loving boy but that doesn't mean that he's a pushover. He will fight back if he has to.

"Anyway, we can have a philosophical discussion later." Viola said. "I hope you're ready, Kira, because the enemy just sent over three Mobile Suits, and one of them is..."

"X-303, Aegis!" Petty Officer Jackie announced in the CIC. His words prompt Murrue to exclaim in shock.

"They're already sending it back out in an actual battle!?"

"Whatever the case, it's our enemy now. And it seems like Viola is right, the GINNs are using base-destruction equipment." Mu said as they were in visual range after the ZAFT MS flew into the colony interior.

Aside from the Aegis, the GINNs are either carrying short-range ballistic missiles or a heavy ion cannon.

"Launching Strike and GINN!" Natarle announced as the Archangel's catapults sent off their two MS in response.

Turning over to the CIC, Murrue says. "Projectile weapons are useless against phase shift armor. Link laser designator to main cannons, fire at will!"

"Deploying Gottfried. Laser designator linked. Trajectory calculated..." With the two "Gottfried Mk.71" 225cm dual high-energy beam cannons turning toward the group of three enemies MS, Mu who is in charge of the CIC shouts. "Fire!"

Four green beams are shot at the group of Mobile Suits, yet, befitting their Coordinators status, the ZAFT pilots dodge out of the way of the main cannons' firing line. This leaves the beams not so harmlessly hitting the surface of the colony, causing major explosions and leaving behind molten material.

Aboard the Aegis, Athrun gives out orders to his comrades Matthew and Olor.

"Olor, you focus on that ship. Matthew, cover him. I will be dealing with the enemy G-unit."

"Alright, show that Natural who's the boss, Athrun." Matthew answered before splitting away with Olor, heading for the Archangel.

Athrun flies in a different direction, scanning the battlefield for the Strike and the enemy GINN. Suddenly, his sensor pings and shows him the Strike sortieing with what seems to be a gigantic sword on its back. Not waiting for the GINN to show up, Athrun immediately plots an intercept course to the Strike.

Of course, with such an obvious maneuver, Kira instantly notices the Aegis Gundam. Having been briefed on the capability of all the G-units, Kira understands that letting it approaches the Archangel is a bad idea. But there's also the fact that Athrun may be inside...

"Viola, can you protect the Archangel?" Kira said over comms.

"Fine by me but judging by your tone, are you saying that you gonna block that Gundam on your lonesome?" Viola asked back while already flying out to block the path of the enemy GINNs.

"I can do this... I must do this." Kira replied with conviction.

"I see, well then, best of luck." Viola proceeded to cut the comms line for now while Kira boosted toward the Aegis with his sword drawn.

Olor leaves the task of intercepting the Alliance MS for Matthew and Athrun while he aims for the Archangel with his missile targeting system online.

Matthew's GINN, equipped with a Barrus Kai heavy ion cannon, fires off a shot at the Strike. Already anticipating such a response, Kira uses the anti-beam coating of the rocket anchor mounted on the Strike's left forearm to deflect the ion beam. The resulting flash from the act confuses Matthew, making him think that he might have scored a good hit on the Strike. So imagine his surprise when a beam boomerang is thrown right at him. Thanks to his quick reflex, he manages to maneuver the GINN out of the way, barely dodging the boomerang.

However, Viola was waiting for that opportunity. The moment when Matthew's GINN is restabilizing itself, Viola fires a three-round burst of 76mm APFSDS at the GINN, scoring direct hits on its right leg. Unable to respond to such a deadly snipe from long-range, the right leg of the GINN is destroyed, reducing its overall mobility.

"Damn it!" Cursing, Matthew struggled to regain balance while also aiming the Barrus Kai at Viola. Yet, the beam boomerang from before returns unknowingly and cut off the left leg of his GINN. "NANI!?"

The sudden loss of leg thrusters put the GINN into a nose dive. As Matthew is trying to reconfigure what's left of the flight system to regain altitude, Viola swoops in for the kill. Unwilling to waste ammo, Viola uses the heavy blade on her GINN and delivers a clean stab toward Matthew's cockpit. The Coordinator pilot can only utter a short terrified scream over comms before the line fell to silence.

"MATTHEW!" Olor and Athrun called out his name. Outraged, Olor locks onto the Archangel and fires off his leg-mounted Pardus missiles. A failed endeavor though for Viola intercepts the missiles with her machine gun.

Witnessing Viola and her hateful GINN being a nuisance, Athrun is just about to divert his course and set himself on a murder path but is blocked by the arrival of the Strike Gundam. Standing face to face, the two Gundams stare straight at each other, an action mimicked by their pilots. As the pair are locked in their staring contest, Viola has already disabled the self-destruct sequence on the now-dead Matthew's GINN before throwing the carcass on the Mobile Armor docking pad of the Archangel.

Olor, seeing such an act that dishonors his comrade, rushes forth to engage Viola with the rest of the Pardus missiles on his leg hardpoints. Not willing to lose her salvage of the day, Viola loads her second-to-last magazine before accurately engaging the missiles. As the explosions from the Pardus missiles blotted out the sky, Viola uses this chance to disengage from the Archangel and flank Olor.

When the smoke is clear, Olor immediately notices Viola's action. With the Archangel still engaging him from the front and Viola flanking his side, Olor immediately knows that he's in a pinch.

"Athrun! Where are you, Athrun!? I need support!" Olor shouted over the comms line while launching all four of his Canus cruise missiles. Much to his dismay, Viola shot down two of them while the Igelstellung CIWS on the Archangel knocked out the rest. Unfortunately, one of the Canus that the Igelstellung shot at was only partially disabled, which caused it to veer straight into Heliopolis supporting structure and causing heavy damage.

"Shit! She's onto me!"

While Olor is now stuck in a dance with, quite literally Lady Death herself, Athrun and Kira are in relatively tense silence. If you ignore the falling colony structure around them that is.

The silence is broken when Athrun ignores protocol and opens an open channel to the Strike.

"Kira! Kira Yamato! That's you inside that Mobile Suit, isn't it!?"

Hearing this voice, Kira finally acknowledges the truth. "Athrun! Athrun Zala! Why! Why are you here!?"

"That's what I want to know! Why are you in that thing!?"

With both sides now face to face, childhood friend to childhood friend, Athrun, and Kira suddenly find themselves at a loss on what to do.

Viola, however, gives them a reason to fight.

Outmaneuvering Olor's more cumbersome GINN, Viola uses her heavy blade and slashes at the unprotected back of the GINN, causing heavy damage to its flight system before kicking it away from her as its tries to bring its missiles to bear. Mu, being the astute veteran, takes the chance and manually targets the Archangel Gottfried cannons and fires at the disabled GINN. The beams tore the GINN in half while Olor screams in bloodied pain before the GINN explodes and along with it, the remaining upper half of his body.

Though they killed off the last GINN, it's not without consequences. The Gottfried beams carried on to hit the supporting structure of the colony, causing further damage to the heavily damaged spinal column. The entire colony groans as it struggles to keep itself intact.

Murrue can't help but reprimand. "We can't let the colony takes any more damage!"

"Then what the hell are we supposed to do!? Viola is on her last mag!" Natarle snarked back.

"Orlo!" Witnessing another one of his friends die to Viola, more because of his own inaction, Athrun was royally pissed.

Ignoring Kira and his Strike Gundam, Athrun makes for a hasty intercept on Viola's flight path, screaming bloody murder and relentlessly pulling the trigger on his 60mm high-energy beam rifle.

Understanding that her GINN is outmatched in a frontal engagement, Viola swiftly dodges, pushing her GINN way past its safety limit. She is, however, completely fine even under intense G.

Knowing that Viola can't fight back because of the phase shift armor, Kira chases behind the Aegis. Though he has a gigantic anti-ship sword, Kira still hasn't found the heart to strike his friend on the back, not yet anyway. Hence, he launches the rocket anchor at the Aegis, clamping tight on its leg and stopping it from flying any further.

"Damn it, Kira! Whose side are you on!?" Still livid, Athrun turned around and used the Aegis's beam saber to cut at the line connecting the anchor to its launcher. While this is happening, Viola fires her last shots at the thrusters and sensor head of the Aegis. Though Viola fails to cripple any of them, the APFSDS does cause a brief moment of instability in the Aegis's operational system.

"And you!" Athrun fires a disengaging shot at Kira which the latter blocks successfully before transforming the Aegis into its Mobile Armor form. With hatred clouding his judgment, Athrun charges the most destructive weapon an MS has ever fielded, the Scylla 580mm Multi-phase Energy Cannon.

Aboard the Archangel, Mu sees the energy reading going off the chart. "Not good! Viola!"

"Die!" Athrun screamed while pressing the trigger, firing off a multi-colored beam at the blasted GINN. Kira did try to stop him but it was already too late.

Were it any other pilot, they would have died almost instantly when being aimed at by a beam weapon. Yet, Viola is not a run-of-the-mill pilot, not by a long shot. Knowing that she can handle an inhuman amount of Gs, Viola had disabled many safety features aboard the GINN. Because of that, Viola can pull an evasive maneuver that put her under almost 15 Gs, suddenly stopping midair before quickly back flipping and flying in an opposite direction, thus narrowly dodging the death beam without as much as a scratch.

"NANI!?" It's unclear who shouted that but the point still stands that Viola survives the assault. Her beautiful dodging ability places Athrun under a trance spell as he stares in disbelief. Well, not just him but also the other spectators.

Unfortunately for them, their viewing time has to be cut short because the Scylla beam proves to be the last straw for the colony to fall apart. Because the beam burned away the seams that were holding the landmass of the colony together, Heliopolis is now disintegrating into the vacuum of space.

Being the first to be placed under the vacuum effect, Kira screams as he is rocked around in the Strike's cockpit. Hearing the scream of his childhood friend, Athrun reflexively reaches out with the Aegis. "Kira!" But he too is being pulled away in a different direction.

Viola, on the other hand, has made it back onto the Archangel, taking refuge alongside Matthew's GINN as the battleship is also being jettisoned into space. "Ara ara~! This has proven to be quite a mess, indeed." She commented lightheartedly while the colony was launching escape pods.

"Not good, Commander!" Captain Ades of the Vesalius shouted in shock.

Creuset, however, maintains an impassive look.

Aboard an escape pod is one, stunned, Cagalli Yula Athha. All this while, she still can't believe what just happened.

"Compulsory evacuation orders are now in effect. Compulsory evacuation orders are now in effect..."

The announcement under the red lighting of the escape pod falls on deaf ears.