Mobile Suit Royal Gundam Pt. 07

"Put it on screen," The Vice Chief orders. They could see the Royal Gundam being shot by a black, brown, green and tan camo colored Hunter Zaku using a sniper rifle with beam rounds. "How come Beta Britannia didn't report a Hunter Zaku sneaking in from behind?!"

"It's using our IFF code so it appeared as friendly."

"The whole fleet is getting this, right?"

"Yes Ma'am!"

****

The Ultimate

"Sir, something is going on at their space station."

"We're putting it up on screen now."

Everyone save Überstein watch with dread as a Hunter Zaku was attacking the Royal Gundam.

"It's Marius!" The Supreme Leader roars and strikes the side of his chair with his fist.

"This is not good," Lady Helga observes.

"We have to reassure them now!"

****

Before Chief Bonaparte could say anything, Glendarah was already barking orders, "Attack! All units attack, drive away the Zoya!"

All weapons were green. The Templars charge in and attack The Ultimate while the mobile pods defend the fleet. The Hunter Zakus counter attack.

****

The Ultimate

"The Dove and Astro are pulling in to cover us."

"Pull us back!" The Supreme Leader barks

****

"Ma'am two ships are covering The Ultimate."

"All forward cannons fire, fire!" The Vice Chief barks.

"Stand down! Everyone stand down!" Chief Bonaparte barks.

"Belay that order!"

"Glendarah!"

"Wake up! Marius killed Lorenzo, and he's threatening to kill your son! You expect me to believe that the Zoyanese didn't know?! He's one of their elite, even if he did go rouge you think they didn't know, ask yourself why didn't they open up with that?!"

Chief Bonaparte relents, "Send support to the Gundam."

"Belay that order as well, it's Wheat's fight. All Templars forward!"

Chief Bonapart sits silently allowing Glendarah to take command of the battle.

****

Magnolia dodges enemy fire and fires a bazooka round into a Templar and it explodes. Captain Brax flies in from above and destroys a Templar. Another one comes at him but he quickly takes it out as well. Holly swoops in with a retractable claw on the right arm and slices the right arm off a Templar, it attempts to retreat but Holly was too quick and slices the head off and then the chest. Abrigail thrusts a javelin straight through the chest of another Templar. The four move on in search of more blood.

****

The Royal Gundam takes three more beam shots. "Looks like I got it," Alpha 1 observes. The Gundam turns forward facing the Hunter Zaku. "Even with beam weaponry the armor on the Gundam is still tough but I'm tougher!" He resumes firing.

Bernkastel groans in pain, she couldn't maneuver faster enough. The next beam shot hits the head and the whole right side was completely gone. She takes another hit and another and another. Bernkastel screams in agony, she wasn't going to to last much longer. The Zaku continues unloading shot after shot on the Gundam. "This is it, I'm going to die," Bernkastel says wearily.

Bern!" A familiar voice rang out.

Bernkastel looks and sees the Templar Command Type flying to the rescue. Adriana fires at the Hunter Zaku and it takes off.

All Bernkastel could do at the moment was watch as Adriana pursues the Hunter Zaku. It fires back with beam shots and manages to destroy Adriana's shield. It switches to its secondary weapon a wrist mounted minigun and fires but Adriana dodges and the Royal Gundam fires at it. The Hunter Zaku flies away. "Damn it I missed!"

"Bernkastel are you alright?"

"I'm fine now go away, this is my fight, I don't need your help!" Bernkastel flies in pursuit.

"Bern, wait!"

Bernkastel flies around for a minute, "Where are you, Marius!?" Suddenly she's hit from above. Before she could return fire, her rifle is damaged. "Damn!" She tries to fly away but is bombarded by beam and bullet.

"It's over Gundam!" Suddenly his alarm goes off and he turns around to a rocket heading straight for him. Alpha 1 fires at the rocket but it kept coming and then there's an explosion.

"I got him!" Adriana cheers.

"Damn it, Adriana, why?! He was my opponent! Why do you always have to go and ruin everything!"

"I promised your grandpa I would watch over you!"

"Don't you remember the last words I said to you?! I meant it then and I mean it now! You're dead to me! I don't need you anymore!"

Adrian just stood there unsure of what to say. A blue beam suddenly pierces through the Templar Command Type but it didn't explode only floated away. Bernkastel's eyes widen in horror. "Adriana? Adriana?! ADRIANA!" She could see the Hunter Zaku appearing out of the explosion. She pulls out her new beam rifle but is shot twice and losses it. "Shit!" The Hunter Zaku fires again but Bernkastel flies up and is hit in the left leg.

She manages to activate her new blue beam shield which blocks two beam shots. "Finally something goes right, but power is slowly draining." She flies at full speed towards the Hunter Zaku.

Alpha 1 fires three beam shots but she blocks all three. "Damn you!"

The Royal Gundam comes at the Hunter Zaku but it throws a flash grenade and pulls out a long knife. Alpha 1 was about to stab her in the chest but at last second she barely spots the knife and grabs hold of the knife arm. She quickly pulls out her new beam saber which was the color blue and thrust it into the chest of the Hunter Zaku. "I got you, Marius!"

She flies to the Templar Command Type, straps on a jetpack and exits her Gundam. "Hang on, Adriana, I'm coming!" She reaches the gaping hole but all she could hear was Haro calling for Adriana. "Adriana, Adriana, Adriana, Adriana, Adriana, Adriana." Bernkastel just stared at her remains and memories of the times they spent since childhood came flooding into her mind.

She takes Haro and sees the picture of the three of them together floating and grabs it. She makes her way to the floating remains of the Hunter Zaku. She unholsters her pistol and takes the safety off. She enters the gaping hole, she was going to finish off Marius once and for all but notices something strange, Marius wasn't wearing his typical orange armor with black boots, gloves and helmet. It didn't matter though, she defeated him and she was going to make sure he was dead. She takes off the helmet and her eyes widen in horror. This man wasn't the one from the picture, it was Captain Juan.

The pistol slipped out of her hand, it was a setup. She thought it was strange that she alone was assigned to the rear. She'd been convinced that it was to keep her safe but no, her worst fears had been justified. Captain Juan was no spy, could he had been? No, she knew better, during her time people including the Vice Chief had begun to distrust her, and Alex had broken up with her thus officially falling out a favor with Chief Bonaparte.

This meant that Marius was never on Earth, it was soldiers led by Captain Juan acting under Chief Bonaparte's orders who assassinated her grandpa. She and Adriana had thought the whole gun battle was strange, only her grandpa's firearms and bullet shells were present not any of Marius', it seemed like more than two were present and now she was sure of it. This also meant that they had no intention of negotiating peace with Zoya, she was a sacrificial lamb and no doubt Adriana was also on the assassination list. Despite her mistake, Adriana had proven herself to be her real friend at the cost of her own life.

Bernkastel screams. She races to Royal and makes her way to the battlefield.

Once she reaches the fleet she starts dropping mines on several Celestial warships. Several of them are damaged. She finds a discarded anti ship rifle and starts firing at the ship's engines thus disabling them.

As she continues forward, she stops and was stunned by the battle that was taking place. It was exactly what she read in the history books, what she'd been trained for. She attempts to go forward but Royal wouldn't move. "Come on! We have to! They betrayed us, they killed my grandpa and best friend! And they tried to kill us!"

"Where's Adriana?" Haro asks.

"She's gone..." She coughs up blood but ignores it. "Come on Royal! You've taken my blood, now take my RAGE!"

Royal's remaining white eye flashes and Bernkastel charges in. She shoots the head, arms and legs off each Templar she finds. She kicks one off a Hunter Zaku.

****

"Ma'am, the Gundam is attacking our troops!"

"What?!" Both the Chief and Vice Chief exclaim in unison.

"Several of our Celestial warships have been disabled!"

Chief Bonaparte radios Bernkastel but she doesn't response.

****

The Ultimate

"Sir, we're getting reports that the Gundam is attack its own!"

"Put it on screen." They look and see the Gundam shooting and slicing through the Templar mobile suits.

"Sir the Dove has sunk."

"We're pulling back."

"Sir?"

"We don't know what the Gundam's intentions are. We retreat for now."

****

The Chief and Vice Chief watch as the Dudael fleet start to leave but they were more concerned with the Royal Gundam as it was with them.

"Bernkastel! Bernkastel!" Chief Bonaparte radios.

The damaged Royal Gundam stops, turns towards them, flips them off with both hands and follows the Dudael Fleet.

Chief Bonaparte collapses in her chair, she couldn't believe it. Bernkastel had switched sides.

To be continued...