The Tyger.

Despite the hustle of the Halban’s bridge, Admiral Fletcher Hayes remained totally absorbed in the book he held as he reclined in his commander’s chair. Filled with poetry, the tome was older than reckoning, the Hayes family having handed the book down from generation to generation. Fletcher Hayes didn’t meet the typical appearance of a career soldier, even by ZAFT standards, the fifty years old coordinator appearing to be almost unhealthily thin while maintaining a six-foot-three height. Silver streaks were threatening to consume the admiral’s blond crew cut.

“Sir, orders from the council, sir.”

Brought out of his reverie he had an almost owlish look as he pushed the prescriptionless glasses down enough to look the young ensign directly in the eyes. The Halban’s entire crew knew of his eccentricities, and did their best to honor the commander’s peace when he read, but orders were orders. Even though he knew what the young soldier’s message was going to be, Fletcher wore a “Well get on with it,” look on his face.

“It has finally begun, the order is to begin the drop operation.”

Carefully closing his book, Admiral Fletcher pushed his glasses back into position with his middle finger as he stood from his seat. His entire purpose for being assigned to the Halban and ZAFT’s Earth Liberation Army supply fleet was about to be fulfilled. Clearing his throat slightly, he commanded the attention of the entire bridge crew without a word. With a meaningful look at the red-headed communication’s officer, the young woman in the pink uniform quickly punched the buttons needed to broadcast Hayes’ voice to the entire fleet into her console before returning her attention to the admiral.

“Why are we here? When I ask that question I don’t mean to ask why all of us are at this place in Earth’s orbit right now. No, I mean why is ZAFT about to engage in the largest deployment of land forces to date. The reason is a very simple one. We are going to save humanity.

From millennia to millennia humankind has stumbled from one war to another until we finally reached an impasse that nearly brought extinction upon all of us. There was a saying in the bygone ages. When I was a child I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man I put away my childish things. That time is now! We will put away our childish things. We will put away our petty squabbling, our infantile fears and prejudices…”

Even though his voice was quiet, it was impossible to ignore the fervor he held for ZAFT’s grand mission.

“It is our duty, not as soldiers, but as those that will bring a new Renaissance to humanity to ensure that Operation Lilium succeeds. Go now, and bring peace to our human brothers!”

Roars of approval filled every ship in the supply fleet, Fletcher settling back into his seat, contemplating the operation that had just begun.

—

Beowulf usually didn’t bother heeding his superior’s orders, regardless of his role as a soldier of the ESA. The lanky man was accustomed to functioning autonomously, doing what he wanted when he wanted it done, and had no plans to change that part of his lifestyle. However when his orders came to him over his radio, he did something unusual, he accepted. His usual orders, the ones he ignored, were drab and boring. These orders though, they were something special, something fun.

“Your assignment is simple, destroy the ZAFT fleet in orbit, and prevent it from reinforcing its holdings on Earth. The rules of engagement are entirely at your discretion.”

Not much for politics, Beowulf did however recognize the meaning hidden in the last part of the communication. It was military speak for “If it moves, kill it anyway you can, we don’t care how.”  Without touching a control he steered the Rafflesia toward the coordinates supplied to him by ESA Command, the five red petals rapidly disappearing into the darkness with a flash of its thrusters.

—

The drop operation had gone on so far without a hitch. Fletcher resisted the urge to pull out the book, carefully placed between his leg and the arm of his chair, out and to start reading it again. He listened to his crew remain in constant contact with the pods as they dipped into the atmosphere. It was awesome to see the Avogadro send huge sections of what would ultimately become two Lesseps class, and three Petrie class landships from orbit to planet.

It was almost halfway through the drop operation when the klaxons began going off inside the Halban. Admiral Hayes rushed out of his seat, behind the radar operators in a flash. One of the drop pods winked out of existence. Paint of what appeared to be a large flower blasted toward the fleet on the radar, the oddly shaped aggressor moving with alarming speed.

“One point of contact, it appears to be a mobile armor.”

He wasn’t sure how the fleet could have missed the mobile armor up until it had started firing, but what was done, was in the past. His mind raced as he watched a second drop pod disappear off of the radar, a squeal of static coming from the capsule’s COM as it exploded. There wouldn’t be time to scramble all of the mobile suits, at least not before half of the pods were destroyed. That left only one option- stall for time. He gave orders over his shoulder in his usual quiet voice, ordering the Halban directly into the line of fire between the drop ships, and the marauding unit. While the Halban was acting as a distraction, the Nozieres would be deploying its mobile suits, and staying with the two drop ships in case anything happened to the Halban.

—

It hadn’t taken Schaeffer long to remove two of the pods from existence, his mind ready to give the command to his mobile armor to delete a third as one of the ships suddenly flew into his line of fire. His lips curled in a grin that would have chilled anyone who witnessed it, the pale skinned pilot spitting as he watched the Laurasia act as a living shield for the drop ships and their cargo.

“What a delightfully noble gesture…fools.”

Keeping his distance as he fired, the Rafflesia’s beam cannons were more than powerful enough to be effective against the Laurasia’s armor. Even with the sheer mass of metal that made up its armor, the Laurasia took a beating from the innumerable gold-lances of energy that tore into its port side as it defended the drop ships and pods with its own mass.

Positioned to display as large of a surface as possible to Rafflesia, the Laurasia class’ main weapons weren’t able to place the red mobile armor in its line of fire. Even though, it was still able to generate a moderate screen of AA bullets and a few missiles using its ancillary weapons, before it was nearly crippled by the much faster Rafflesia. Behind the Halban, the Boyle and Avogadro frantically worked to deploy their remaining pods, trying to give the reentry vessels as much of a chance as possible to escape the Rafflesia.

Two GINNs, deployed from the Nozieres, flew over the Halban with their weapons blazing. Another quickly flew from the beleaguered Halban itself; the trio of mobile suits converging on Beowulf. Though they lacked the capacity to disable the Rafflesia, their conventional weapons peppered the red mobile armor from every angle.

Enjoying every moment of the battle, Schaeffer simply turned his attention from the ship, a storm of particle beams annihilating one of the GINNs in a single burst. Despite quickly dispatching one of the GINNs, two more mobile suits quickly replaced it. The furball was thick with beams and mobile suits, Beowulf forgetting the drop pods as his position changed from getting to be the agressor, to having to defend frantically against the swarm of GINNs and GuAIZs.

—

Smoke and the stench of burning metal choked the bridge room as Fletcher asked for a status report. He could barely make out the replies he was getting over the chaos of COM chatter, klaxons, and three separate responses to his demand for an update.

“…ilium is almost compl—“

“Critical damage to our—“

“…distracted by our mob…”

Once again he found himself wishing that he was reading his book once more, but he quickly pushed the thoughts out of his head, focusing on the issue at hand. Someone had thought to put video of the Rafflesia battling the combined mobile suits of the ELA Supply Fleet. Each explosion from a destroyed mobile suit pulled at his heart as he watched the pilots fight valiantly for the future. In that moment he knew what needed to be done.

“Everyone be quiet!”

Everyone on the bridge stopped, shocked to hear Admiral Hayes yell at the top of his lungs.

“Order the other ships to retreat as soon as the last pod is safe. Afterward sound general evacuation of quarters, load everyone into the hangar and go to Earth with the ELA fleet. The Halban is going to cover the retreat.”

The silence endured for almost ten seconds as what Admiral Hayes had said sunk into the crew. Chaos erupted once more on the bridge as everyone began acting on the orders in unison. The young red-head at the communications array stood at her position, torn between wanting to leave, and wanting to stay. Fletcher knew the conflict running through her head the moment he saw her expression, the Admiral picking up the book from his chair before walking to her. The nineteen year old looked at him, giving a deer in headlights expression as her eyes pleaded for an answer.

Hayes slipped the book into her hands, missing it the moment his touch left its reassuring leather cover.

“Go. Go, and please protect this book. I have no kin, please take care of it and ensure that your children pass it down to their own progeny.”

She looked at him for a moment longer before rushing out of the bridge, joining the stream of crewmen and woman rushing to the Laurasia class’ hanger.

“Sir.”

Hayes turned to view the origin of the voice behind him, the same ensign that had relayed the orders to begin Operation Lilium earlier, as well as the majority of the bridge crew standing at attention.

“We’re staying with you.”

He simply nodded before assuming he position in the captain’s chair. They all had no delusion of what was going to happen next.

“Order the retreat now.”

—

The Rafflesia was brutalized, huge gaps in its armor left by the sheer quantity of conventional weapons fielded by nearly a dozen mobile suits. It was hard to tell how many of the mobile suits were drifting in pieces around his mobile armor, the Rafflesia continuing to tangle with the remaining mobile suits despite its damage. Before he could tear further into the remaining units, Schaeffer suddenly found himself alone in the Rafflesia as the suits retreated without any sort of warning. It took him a moment to realize what was going on, his mind not quiet recovered from the confusion of having to fight and defend from every angle simultaneously.

“Oh you dirty…”

His words came out in torrents of profanities and slurs as he realized that the drop pods were beyond his reach, and that the ELA fleet was retreating. The first ship remained however, a huge portion of it detaching and beginning to descend on Earth. Despite his rage, he saw an opportunity to get a final drop of blood from the fleet. With total disregard for his own safety, Beowulf threw the Rafflesia at the nearly destroyed Halban.

—

“It has been an honor to serve along side all of you these last years.”

The crew didn’t respond as they fired the last functional weapons on the Halban. They knew that most of their weapons were going to miss the red mobile armor, but they fired anyway as they watched the mobile armor come for their lives.

With a jarring impact the Rafflesia slammed stem first into the Halban’s bridge. It’s tentacles whipped around the ship like a giant squid of yore, the chainsaws eviscerating whatever they came in contact with. It was doubtful anyone was left alive on the ship, but Beowulf continued to gut the ship before he finally detached to watch the ship drift down into orbit. It was only seconds before the ship disappeared into an orange fireball, dozens of smaller spheres of flame breaking off as the Halban disintegrated in Earth’s atmosphere.

Without anything left to fight Beowulf simply let the Rafflesia drift in Earth’s orbit as he let his mind wander, thinking of the fleet that got away.

Outcome: Operation Lilium successful.
Rafflesia: 14 VP, 4 days damage.
ELA Support Squadron: Halban destroyed, 2x drop pods destroyed, 4x GINN destroyed, 1x GuAIZ destroyed, 1x GINN High Mobility Type destroyed.