Gundam Seed: Kira Reloaded c19

In the meeting room aboard, Archangel Kira laid down his plan for how they would deal with ZAFT’s North Africa Occupation Force once and for all. 

A large board, like a TV, is on, showing the cartography of the Western Sahara Desert.

“Once again, we will be splitting up. Even if the tiger knows I am not aboard it, he will still attack the ship. He simply needs to attack the Warship. It's because it's the only target for him.

As he does that, I will be snipping their forces from the side. 

The revelation of my position should split if not change their focus overall.”

As he explained the plan, the simulation was shown on TV.

“The issue is that we have no idea for his numbers. But we do know that Gibraltar cannot give much as they have their military campaigns in Eurasia.

We can safely put that number around ten but below twenty.” 

As the Pilot of Strike said, he pressed a few options on his tablet. His choices appeared on the screen.

“Now, the surprise element we will use is the sun…”

As Kira explained, the Lieutenant and Ensign Badgiruel were grilling him for variables and possibilities. At the same time, the lady was adding his strategic mind to her future report. The lady wants to ensure Kira stays with Earth’s Alliance, as the longer he stays on the warship, the more she realises how dangerous he is as a possible opponent.

Oh, another thing he prepared: drones. 

Yep, Kira realised that Drone technology does not exist in the Seed Timeline. 

He uses parts of BuCUE to make them. The ZAFT land units have comms, thrusters, batteries, and visual abilities. 

To make this work, he will deploy them high in the air and use them for relay points. As radio for long distances doesn’t work, he might as well use BuCUE spare parts for comms and long-range visuals. 

Though this scheme won’t work for long, ZAFT will quickly understand how it works.

But it doesn’t matter; what matters is that he has to win this battle.

If they are prepared for the next fight, he will create something new to get an edge.

‘Mobile suits are one thing, but logistics and comms? Those didn’t advance since the beginning of the war.’

After the meeting, it was time for the next part.

…

…

…

“Might I ask why you are bringing monitors to the bridge?” The captain asked Kira with a twitchy eyebrow. 

“To give you all an aerial view,” Kira said as he connected some of the cables and attached the monitors to the walls.

“I have repurposed some BuCUEs into Arial drones for comms and videos.” As he said that, he brought over his laptop and connected it to the monitors. 

That moment, a big Lacus background popped on the big monitor, a BuCUE’s main screen.

Lieutenant snickered, seeing the picture. He found it cute, and at the same time, part of him was a little afraid of what would happen if something were to happen to the girl.

He then started a program and wrote execute. Seconds later, a wall of letters wrote on itself.

In the next second, they saw 12 different angles of the hangar bay. 

“All of the BuCUEs had frontal cameras, two thrusters and a battery; we can use that to communicate and observe the battlefield from the air.

Since radio has become a short-distance communication, we can use BuCUE drones to increase the distance. “

Instead of saying anything, Ensign Badgiruel chipped in.

“Have you ever considered joining Earth’s Alliance’s R&D after the war?” 

Kira chuckled at hearing that.

“We should worry about surviving the desert first.” 

This time, Lieutenant chipped in.

“We already survived space with minimal resources; by those standards, this is a joke.” As the blonde said that, he looked at the 12 images on the monitor.

“But this will give us an advantage how we used to have before Neutron Jammers.” Mu La Flaga smirked. Who knew the kid would find use in all that junk he collected?

“That’s the point, Lieutenant.”

“Right. But first, attach this monitor properly because, in a battle situation, it can fall off.” Captain sighed as she understood the worth of the drones.

She had never considered overcoming Neutron Jammers with sheer scale before. No one would do such a thing, but then again, no one considered picking a fight with the entire occupation force with a single mobile suit before either.

~~~

Alarm Ringing

[Archangel is entering Level 3 battle stations! I repeat! Archangel is entering Level 3 battle stations!]

As alarms blared through the warship, the Archangel proceeded to move towards intercepting the main fighting force.

“I still think we should ask the resistance to join us,” Cagali said as she looked at how the Strike was loaded into the catapult deck.

To think that they will modify the machine so extensively just to fight in the desert.

“Captain already said that they have prepared for all the possible situations. They don’t need variables.” Her bodyguard said with crossed arms. As a military man, he likes Kira Yamato a lot. If possible, he wants him to join Orb’s defence force.

Snort

“It's more like it was HIS idea.” 

The blonde girl rolled her eyes as she was on the warship. She noticed that this ship was more or less Kira's playground. 

He modifies the mobile suit and even gives tactics for future battle engagements. 

But then her eyes went to the side and saw a pinkette dressed in Earth Alliance pink uniform. This girl was also looking at Strike, a few metres away from their location.

‘To think that Lacus Clyne was part of Earth’s Alliance.’

The Princess of Orb was out of words.

One thing is for sure. The world is going crazy.

How on Earth did she end up in this place? Why is she with Orb’s national turned Earth’s Alliance?

All of this is so confusing to her! 

~~~

The hatch opened as Strike was loaded into the Catapult Deck, and the lights lit up on the launch deck. For this battle, Kira’s loadout was the most custom he had ever done. 

Instead of having all of Aile's backpack's wings, Strike only had two, which assisted him in turning; on top of that, he had a holster for his linear rifle attached to the side. 

Most importantly, he had a yellow cloak that would help him hide in the desert while he waited for ZAFT forces. 

He had a BuCUE linear railgun on his right shoulder and a missile pod on his left for extra weaponry.

“Kira, we shall begin phase one of the plan. You may launch.” 

Captain said via comms, and the green light lit up, giving him a green signal to go.

“Roger.”

The mobile suit was launched with the press of a button on the controller.

Instead of igniting the thruster, he pressed an extra button on the control stick, which changed the travelling modes.

This button activated an extension for the software he installed from the BuCUEs. 

The caterpillar threads attached to the backs of Strike’s legs moved down, turning into something akin to roller blades. 

Once he landed on the sand, he ignited the thrusters. In addition to Aile's package thrusters, he added two more from BaCUE, giving him more thrust power to slide through the sand. 

The machine's HUD changed; instead of flight support, it was land assistance. One of the monitors changed into twelve smaller ones to show what the drones see.

By all means and purposes, Strike now was a desert hunter. 

‘I Should named this Desert Hunter package instead of Landstrider.’ 

Kira sighed as he started to get the hang of sand surfing. He could see that Archangel was releasing the BaCUE drones. Those were makeshift stuff he built from the mobile suit parts.

Simply put, those were Mobile Suit’s main camera attached to two thrusters and a battery. 

Those drones can fly around for many hours because of how powerful the battery is and how small the parts are. 

“Legion, once the drones are out, begin building the network.”

[Understood]

As Kira instructed, the drones proceeded to fly and build a network. Because of the Neutron Jammers, which are all over the Earth’s Sphere, radio waves for long distances are impossible, which is why short-distance ones are possible with a radio that is strong enough to be built in.

So why not abuse drones for communications?

As Kira travelled quite a distance, he found a small mountainous location.

‘It appears I am close to the Atlas Mountains.’ The Pilot of Strike checked the map and saw he was at the edge of where the mountains should start. 

He laid down the machine on his stomach and pulled out his blue and yellow Linear Railgun. The Ultimate Coordinator made sure he kept the BuCUE colours as a reminder of where he ‘looted’—well, more like Conquered the weapon.

However, with upgrades, he made the weapon more like a sniper rifle than a linear railgun, which ZAFT created for mid-range battles.

As he placed the weapon, he connected it to the machine and went through activation sequences. With his experience in weapon crafting, he made sure he had a separate battery just for this weapon.

From AI and his calculations, he knows that he has around 5 shoots before the battery runs out of juice.

It should be more than enough to take out the command base.

‘But no doubt Desert Tiger already knows my fighting style. He should keep his Land Battleship empty and use it as bait.’

As Kira checked the systems, he thought about the upcoming exchange.

After checking the weapon, he looked to his right, where twelve different lifestreams were running.

He checked the network and how stable it was.

“This is Strike. I am in position.” 

“We hear you loud and clear, Strike; it appears the drones are working. We are around 80 kilometres away from you and moving towards the Mediterranean Sea.” 

‘80 kilometres? Not bad for a makeshift drones.’ The Ultimate Coordinator stroked his chin as he looked at the map and how the drones were spread out. He should be able to get around 120 kilometres of coverage if he wants to push it, but if he does that, he could fry the comms of the salvaged BuCUEs.

“Good. Knowing the tiger, he should be using the cover of the night to attack. We can attack them a day break before that.” 

~~~~~~With ZAFT~~~~~~

“Ah, man, this is so boring. Why do we need to attack at nightime.” Dearka, Buster's pilot, complained that he had nothing to do; he was lazing around in his cockpit. Since Lesseps-class Land Battleship was not designed for humanoid models, they were outside.

“You didn’t need to come with me, Dearka. You could have joined Commander Le Creuset and Operation Spitbreak.” Athrun replied from his Aegis Gundam, which was on standby. The pair's models were fully on with Phase Shift armour, as they knew that Kira could attack the battleship at any moment.

“And skip this? There is no way! Strike is our target, and we shall destroy it!” The blonde tried to pump himself up, but his hands were a little bit shaky. He recalled several close-to-death encounters with that machine. 

“Suit yourself.”

But at that moment, they got a call from the commander. Andrew Waltfeld was inside his customised LaGOWE.

“Legged ship spotted! Watch out for Kira Yamato!” 

The image of Archangel appeared on the monitors of every single ZAFT pilot.

“We are entering condition red! I repeat—”

The officer aboard the Lesseps class land battleship wasn’t able to finish as a yellow stream of light slammed into the commander's centre.

CRACK

**BOOM**

Athrun and Dearka’s mobile suits stood on the battleship's sides when the explosion's force sent the pair flying to the sides and right into the sand.

“Damn!!!” Buster's blonde pilot got the treatment of shaking and rolling inside his mobile suit, but he didn’t have a chance to attach the belt.

While Athrun was slightly better, as his belts were on, the force still made him feel the world spinning around.

“BEGIN PHASE ONE! STRIKE HAS REVEALED ITSELF!” 

Dearka, who was trying to get over the pain and spinning world, could hear the commands of his current superior.

‘Damn it, Kira Yamato! I am getting sick and tired of your surprise attacks!’

The red uniform-wearing ZAFT pilot held his head while ruthlessly complaining to himself as the battle of the Atlas Mountains started.