Episode 8 conclusion!
Athena opens the tactical net to the Zeon frequency, “This is Major Athena Ibaz of the Earth Federation Forces: attention to all enemy combatants. You will cease all hostilities and allow our forces to pass out of the Frontier 8/Mars Zone immediately. If you fail to comply, this flagship and all of its personnel will be destroyed.”
On the bridge of the Iron Fist, Rear Admiral Dieter Herrmann blanches in terror, croaking through the tactical net, “All forces! Cease fire immediately! Let them through!”
1Lt. Garrett Lockner, struggling to pilot his damaged Zimffer-S, protests the order, “Sir! We can’t let the enemy escape into free space! They’ll continue to be a thorn in our side if we let them live!”
“As you were, Lieutenant!” Rear Admiral Herrmann replies harshly, “Lives are at stake! Comply with orders or face court-martial!”
Coward! Garrett seethes angrily, It’s your probably only your own life that you fear for! What red-blooded man of Zeon would not gladly sacrifice his life for his nation’s honor?!
Nevertheless, Garrett forces himself to comply with orders…despite the further wound to his pride. The Deimos fleet had already lost two ships and over two dozen mobile suits, barely inflicting any damage on the enemy Federation fleet. Revenge could wait until circumstances were more germane.
“You Earthist pigs will pay for offending Zeon!” Garrett snarls at the depleting Federation fleet, then orders the Talon Squadron to withdraw.
“Jolie, Jonah,” Athena instructs, “disable the ship’s engines.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the couple replies, both relieved that their commanding officer hasn’t ordered them to commit further acts of mass slaughter.
Athena acknowledges as much, God forgive me. I’ve turned those two wonderful kids into killers on a massive scale. Oh, Jolie, Jonah…I’m so sorry for bringing you into this. I pray that in the end, the better world we do this for emerges, or I’ll have sold all of our souls in vain.
The two Centurion Gundams fire a small number of missiles into the Iron Fist’s engine block, enough to critically damage the Zeon flagship’s primary and secondary engines, but not enough to cause the ship to explode. Fortunately for the crew, Zeon space battleship design powers life support and onboard systems through a separate, self-contained generator rather than the main engines.
Athena had taken that into account. Ruthless as she could be when called for, she has no particular inclination towards mass murder.
“All units: deploy magnetic clamp cables,” Athena orders.
The mobile suits of the Centurion Team deploy the magnetic cables from nacelles tucked in their lower arms. The cables’ clamped heads attach themselves to the hull of the Iron Fist
The dozen mobile suits of the Centurion Team drag the Iron Fist towards the border of the Frontier 8/Mars Zone, the remaining enemy ships and mobile suits unable to fire without striking their flagship.
Athena transmits to the Zeon forces on their frequency, “We’ll be borrowing your flagship and its crew for a short time, gentlemen. They’ll be returned to you intact, provided we experience safe and unmolested passage into free space.”
Then, to the Centurions, Athena instructs, “Team? Farewell gift for our hosts.”
The Centurions understand their commanding officer’s insinuative order instinctively, opening fire on the receding Zeon armada with all of its weapons. The Federation fleet led by the Amuro Ray follows suit, firing its aft weapons.
The Deimos fleet is forced to take evasive maneuvers, unable to counterstrike for fear of jeopardizing their flagship and its crew.
Episode 8 to be continued...
Episode 8 continued...
Thirty minutes later, five-hundred kilometers beyond the border of the Frontier 8/Mars Zone, the Special Forces Fleet is met by a contingent of the Earth Federation Forces’ Asteroid Belt Armada, fifteen ships and two-hundred mobile suits strong, in a rendezvous that had been arranged weeks earlier. The Asteroid Belt Armada, commanded by veteran Federal Forces officer Commodore Oscar Dublin, former White Base bridge tech under Bright Noah’s command during the One Year War.
Assured that her fleet is safe from further attacks by the Deimos Zeon Forces, at least for the present, Athena issues new orders, “Disengage magnetic clamp cables.”
Obeying their commanding officer’s directive, the Centurion Team release the magnetic clamp cables from the disabled Iron Fist.
Athena opens communications channels to the Zeon ship, “You may send a distress signal to your forces to recover you after we’ve cleared the area. Our fleet’s guns have an effective range of 50 kilometers, with missile capability up to 2000 kilometers. Bear that in mind if you have thoughts of calling in reinforcement for retaliatory action.”
They do, and the Special Forces fleet, now escorted by the Asteroid Belt Armada, departs for the Federation spaceport located at the dwarf planet Ceres, the Earth Federation Forces’ strongest foothold in the Asteroid Belt Zone.
Athena talks to her team once more, “Centurion Leader to all units. Good work today, ladies and gentlemen. Return to ship. Debriefing session in conference room in thirty minutes.”
The Centurion Team returns to the Amuro Ray, triumphant, but not in a celebratory mood.
The Cour de Leon lands on the mobile suit deck of the Amuro Ray, received on the same catapult devices that had hurled it out into space several hours earlier. Athena secures her mobile suit at its assigned maintenance dock and doffs her helmet, shaking her mane of blonde hair loose before she disembarks from the cockpit.
Athena floats out of the cockpit and is greeted by 1Lt. Molly Duran, approaching the Cour de Leon with toolkit in hand.
“Hey, there, Major,” Molly says cheerfully, “Let me get the Leon refreshed for you!”
“Thanks, Molly,” says Athena, floating by, patting her engineer on the shoulder, “Excellent work by you and your crew today. You guys turned the tide of battle. Things wouldn’t have gone nearly as well without you.”
Molly blushes. Athena rarely dishes out the praise so openly; it’s a real treat when she does, “Just doing my duty, ma’am.”
Athena gives Molly a “thumbs up” and floats away.
Molly watches the major go as she begins working on the Cour de Leon, Now that’s who I want to be, Molly thinks to herself wistfully.
************************************************** **************************
The cockpit hatch of the Centurion Gundam Unit-2 opens, but before Chief Warrant Officer Jonah Michaels can float out from it, he’s pinned back inside by 1Lt. Jolie Minh, who immediately wraps him in a warm embrace.
Jonah holds Jolie tightly, stroking her fine, jet black hair through his gloved hands.
“Hey, boyo,” Jolie says softly, “Looks like we made it through another one.”
“Yes,” Jonah admits, “It’s a relief. But we killed so many people today, Jolie.”
“I know,” Jolie says, “I…didn’t feel good about that at all. But Athena reasoned that it was the best tactic, and it was, but maybe a bit cruel. I bet she isn’t feeling much better about it.”
“No,” Jonah agrees, “It must be hard to be in command. You have to constantly make decisions that go against what your conscience tells you.”
Jolie nods, “It’s what drives ‘Thena to drink, I think. That girl’s carrying a conscience as heavy as a titanium block.”
“We’d better get to that debriefing session before she decides to take it out on us,” Jonah says, nervously joking.
“Right,” Jolie says, headed for the pilots’ locker, “See ya there!”
Athena, Jolie, Jonah, and the rest of the squad spend ninety minutes in the conference room dissecting the most recent battle, noting which tactics worked and which didn’t, and identifying holes in the enemy’s strategy they could exploit, and holes in the Centurions’ own strategies that needed plugging.
The team generally dissolves into its individual activities following the conference, but the team’s three officers, Major Athena Ibaz, 1Lt. Jolie Minh, and Chief Warrant Officer Jonah Michaels gather at the bar in the team lounge, nursing drinks together.
Athena offers Jolie a cigarette, and to her surprise, Jolie declines it, “I’ve quit smoking.”
“Oh?” Athena says, raising a curious eyebrow as she inserts the cigarette between her own lips and lights it, “When did you make this uncharacteristically wise decision?”
Jolie tells Athena, “Jonah wanted me to quit because it’s unhealthy, so I did.”
Athena smiles wanly, “Good to see you’re finally getting better counsel than I can give you,” as she downs a shot of whisky, her third.
Jonah, sitting next to Jolie, stoops over his own untouched glass of whiskey, looking very disturbed. He says, in a barely audible tone, “Ma’am…Athena…the tactic we used against the Deimos Zeon fleet today…”
“It was ruthless and inhumane,” Athena confirms, “and I’d do it again without a moment’s hesitation. It’s my duty. You’re going to have to get used to the idea, Jonah.”
“Are you all right?” Jolie asks Jonah gently, tentatively
Jonah downs his shot of whisky in a single gulp. He loathes its smell. He hates its taste. He wants the tranquilizing effect it brings.
“Hey,” Jolie says, putting her hand on his, “wanna talk about it?”
Jonah shakes his head. His hand trembles on the whiskey glass. Athena pours him a fresh shot.
Jolie wraps Jonah in a comforting embrace, but even this does not quiet his tortured mind.
Athena puts her own glass to her lips and downs a fourth shot of whisky.
“Ever read Machiavelli, Jonah?” Athena asks somberly.
“Yes, ma’am,” Jonah replies vacantly, “and I’d always thought his worldview was inhumane and immoral.”
“That depends on how you interpret what Machiavelli actually argued,” Athena says, smiling knowingly, “Many people mistakenly believe that Machiavelli advocated the viewpoint that the ‘ends justifies the means.’ That’s a very limited understanding of what Machiavelli was trying to convey, however. Contrary to popular belief, Machiavelli was not an immoralist…or even an amoralist. Morality was the root of his argument - that measured cruelty…discriminate, swift, effective, and short-lived…must be undertaken to uphold morality.
Jonah’s eyes flash angrily at Athena, “So you’re trying to tell me it was ‘moral’ for us to kill all those troops?! In cold blood?! Athena, we didn’t know those soldiers! They could have been someone’s son or daughter, father or mother, brother or sister…friend or lover! Didn’t that cross your mind at all?! Doesn’t it bother you?! ”
“More than I could ever tell you,” Athena replies, looking Jonah in the eye with a fixed stare, downing a fifth shot of whiskey, “but you said it yourself. We didn’t know those soldiers. You can’t know that had we not killed them today, they might have gone on to kill someone else’s son or daughter, father or mother, brother sister…friend or lover, perhaps yours. Didn’t that cross your mind at all? Doesn’t it bother you?”
Jonah turns to Jolie, who looks at him plaintively.
Jonah drinks down his second shot of whiskey, its bitter taste in his mouth inconsequential in comparison to the bitterness in his heart.
“It’s the same lie, no matter where I go!” Jonah screams as he dashes his whisky glass to the ground, shattering. He leaves the lounge.
“Jonah, wait!” a worried Jolie chases after her distraught boyfriend.
Athena lets the couple leave. She downs a sixth and final shot of whiskey, and inhales from her fourth cigarette of the hour, its smoke concealing the anguish within her soul.
END OF EPISODE 8
New chapter is still in production, so the newest update is an image:
This is Chief Warrant Officer Jonah Michaels' RX-780 Centurion Gundam Unit-2. Note the painting of Jolie Minh on the mobile suit's shield.
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RX-780-2 Centurion Gundam