Chapter 17

-Battlefield-

Ryu dodged a burst of beam fire from the Duel, Yzak no doubt was pissed, and he came in lashing out with his full arsenal, his assault shroud providing him additional firepower. Buster moved in to support, with a whole lot of missile and beam fire, missing Ryu almost every step of the way, Barbatos took evasive action and retaliated.

"I don't have the times to play with you both." Ryu said over the coms. 'Because I need to minimalize the ZAFT forces and find where's Lacus taken to.'

Ryu didn't wait to hear their response, but he could tell he was getting under their skin. Yzak took formation with Buster and lashed out in a combined attack. Duel going low, with Buster going high, Ryu then unpacked both GN-Swords and equipped it on each Barbatos hands, he then move towards them fast and countered Duel's attack and swung around at the Buster, catching the unit in the shoulder and sending Dearka barrelling out of the way.

The fight between them was fierce, as the battle had only started a few minutes ago, for men in the battlefield this feels like hours. For Ryu, he was fighting with all that he could, suppressing the intent for killing all of them for in the way. He didn't need to wait long before the other mobile suits joined in on this battle.

Ryu then unpacked one of the High-Energy Long Range Beam Cannon, Ryu let loose a blast as the approached group of GINNs closing in. Six exploded, while the other suits managed to scatter. Drawing his GN-Swords, he flew after them, taking down one after another.

Ryu vaguely aware of a beeping coming from his machine's sensors.

His attention turned to the approaching ships, multiple ZAFT warships, with the Nazca-class under Le Creuset's command, these two ships began to circle around them. On top of this, the ships began to deploy teams of mobile suits, aside from one, but it didn't matter, the Alliance were completely surrounded now.

"Tch, i'm not aware if the Battlefield was this fierce on the Novel, Manga, or the Anime version." Ryu said

As the thirtenth machine he'd impaled exploded, he saw a new contact on his radar. It was a light gray mobile suit, more sleek and streamlined than a GINN. Running the profile through the Archangel's database, he came up with a match; the CGUE, a limited production model that was being used by officers. On its left arm a shield was mounted, and attached to the shield was a heavy machine gun. However, he noticed that this machine had additional thrusters mounted on its legs for increased mobility, unlike a normal CGUE, and had traded its metal sword for a violet beam saber instead, which it held in its right hand. Looks like they've already started adapting the technology from the Alliance suits. He had to hand it to ZAFT's engineers; they didn't waste time.

The modified CGUE was heading straight towards him, and Ryu wasn't going to just wait for it to arrive. Taking aim, he fired off a shot from the the High-Energy Long Range Beam Cannon. The machine dodged the blast, though six more GINNs did go up in flames. Zigzagging left and right, the CGUE was extremely maneuverable. Gunning his GN-drives, Ryu charged towards his new foe, and their blades met in a clash of light.

Pulling back slightly, Ryu swung at his foe's left arm, attempting to remove its ranged capabilities. However, the enemy expertly parried the blow, and counterattacked, swinging at the Barbatos right shoulder. Ryu brought his sword up and redirected the attack, causing the machine to move past him. Both pilots swung around, faced each other, and charged again, attacking and counterattacking, but neither could make headway.

They continued their duel, blades clashing, guns blazing, moving almost too fast for the eye to see. Ryu moved in to slash his foes left arm again. The CGUE once again blocked, and then countered with a stab at the Barbatos head. Ryu moved out of the way, then brought up his machine's knee and hit the enemy right in the chest. The impact forced his foe back a little, staggered by the raw power of the Barbatos. But the CGUE recovered quickly, and soon the two aces were at it again.

Adjusting his radio, he started broadcasting on an open channel.

-Bridge, Archangel-

"Are you serious? Are you people trying to flee this battle?" said Admiral Halberton as Murrue explained why the Archangel had begun moving away from the fleet.

Murrue stood her ground against the harsh accusation. "This ship is the enemy's real objective. We must move away from you! It will take pressure off the fleet, allowing you to reorganize."

She knew that the admiral definitely needed a little breathing room. The launch of Barbatos had thrown ZAFT into momentary disarray,no to be right she can assume that he can flipped the battlefield into Alliance favors. But once the reinforcements and CGUE had entered the fray and engaged it in a duel, the GINNs had reorganized and, in concert with the prototypes and warships, were hammering the 8th fleet. The last of the escort ships had succumbed to enemy fire, and two battleships were already heavily damaged, with most of the others sporting at least minor hits. The mobile armor squadrons had been reduced by fifty-five percent since the start of the battle, and their own situation was only getting worse as the GINNs and GAT series machines intensified their assault. ZAFT still had hundreds more machine in the fight.

The admiral nodded. "Very well, begin your descent preparations. I'll reform our surviving ships over you."

"But sir," said Murrue, "you should withdraw some of the battleships, have them live to fight another day."

But the admiral stubbornly refused. "No, Captain Ramius. By the honor of the 8th fleet, we will die before allowing ZAFT to destroy the Archangel." With that he cut the connection.

"Damn it!" she said, slamming her fist against the rail of her chair. She had gotten what she wanted, permission to descend, but the admiral had ignored a chance to at least save some of his command.

Or maybe, she thought, he believes the fleet to be doomed. She certainly couldn't blame him for that, and as she took another look at the tactical monitors, she saw that the fleet had already moved closer to the atmosphere over the course of the battle, making a withdrawal much more difficult to pull off. Even if we had drawn off some of their mobile suits, they probably would have still had enough firepower to trash the 8th fleet, or at least keep them from retreating.

Miriallia's voice rang out. "Barbatos is broadcasting on an open channel!"

Murrue couldn't believe it. He's not encrypting his transmission? Then it can't be meant for us. Then who… "Put it on speaker!" she said.

"You've got some moves, lookslike you've learn your homeworks." he said, and she realized that he was talking to his foe. Turning her gaze towards the tactical monitor, she brought up an image of his fight with the CGUE.

Another voice came over the speaker, and Murrue realized that it was the same as the commander that they had turned Lacus over too. "Let's just say, I'm still sleepy last time." he said.

"No way," said Murrue softly, "Commander Le Creuset has taken the field?"

The ZAFT officer spoke again. "Are you a Coordinator? What is someone of your caliber doing with the Naturals?"

"You're mistaken," replied Ryu, "I'm a Natural. As to what I'm doing with the Archangel, that's none of your business."

"I beg to differ," said Creuset as their blades met yet again, "since I'm charged with destroying that ship. And I will fulfill that charge as soon as I defeat you!"

Ryu felt something, something in the back of his mind, he looked around for it. Barbatos could feel something.

He reacted almost instinctively, like every nerve in his body was screaming for him to turn, and he did so to counter the incoming beam blast. Barbatos rolled back as it was hit by a highly concentrated long range beam blast, telling Ryu what had attacked him was coming in to take a strike out on him.

Barbatos maneuver out of the way as a series of beam strikes gutted the Nazca-class he had been next to, the ship exploded, sending debris in all directions as it went critical. Ryu pulled away and armed his shield barrier energy, and just in time as the following blast struck hard enough he was thrown back.

"This attack and power…" Ryu said as he looked to see what had struck at him.

A white and blue mobile suit appeared, with two pairs angelic wings gleaming in the brilliance of the encroaching horizon. Its eyes brilliant and menacing, he could feel the gaze of its pilot. And he heard the voice of the woman he loved.

"I found you." She said.