Mobile Suit Gundam 0098: The End Begins

Episode 13: "It's my fault...I killed him...I killed Dred!"

Frame 13: Operation Top Shadow Part 2

“Exactly, now just keep moving from colony to colony and make sure you don’t hit the ones with civilians inside. I'll take out one mirror on each colony, Zach you take out the second mirror and one of my men will take out the third. As soon as you're done removing the mirror move onto the next colony. That way they can fire the Hyper Energy Cannon as soon as it's charged up again,” explained Dukey, continuing taking out colony mirrors and every once in awhile he was attacked by two or three Tai-Sons. He would simply cut their mobile suit in half and continue his mission.

Zach hit his thrusters again and took off toward the next one. And then the next one. “This seems too easy, I have to keep my senses fully alert. I have a bad feeling something’s going to happen...” thought Zach as his Nova raised its blaster again, aimed and fired, obliterating another mirror. All but one of the enemy base colonies was destroyed. Dukey contacted the Raider and said, “Sergeant, put the prisoner on the tele-com. The Sergeant grabbed the prisoner and held him up to the tele-com. “I want you to open a com-link to the final Titan base colony and tell your men to evacuate immediately and surrender to the AEUG!”

Dukey's sergeant opened up a com-link to the colony.

"Fellow Titans, I am Sergeant Laloo Satigma. I order you all to evacuate the colony base immediately and attack the AEUG forces attacking from below the colony!"

“Damnit, does that bastard not value his men's lives?!” asked Dukey to himself as the Sergeant turned off the communications. Dukey then opened a link to all his mobile suit pilots.

“Listen, there is going to be a full out attack on us from the Titans. We must all stick together and try our best to finish our mission. We just have to take out this final colony and we can all go home. So try your hardest to take out the mirrors, and clear out of here as soon as possible!”

The colony began spitting out Titan battleships and mobile suits all at once. Dukey and his men attacked the Titans head on, it was their only option.

“Lt. Commander Dred, stay behind me and Zach! I know about the Titans killing your family, but it's not worth your own life to get revenge!” shouted Dukey. The pilot backed off a bit more. He was Dukey's top mobile suit pilot before Zach joined up with them. An ace Oldtype, but an ace nonetheless.

“Start firing your beam rifles into the enemy crowd,” commanded Dukey. All of the Raider team's mobile suits began firing at the Titans fleet. They were taking out Tai-Sons after Tai-Sons, but then the Titans began firing back. Dukey looked behind him as his men were being shot down.

“Damnit! No amount of pride or money is worth the lives of my men,” said Dukey in raged as the universe seemed to have frozen in time. Dukey fired his beam rifle at the two main battleships taking out the bridges faster than the naked-eye can see. Then he dashed into the crowd of mobile suits and started slashing away. Losing his control was his mistake. By leaving the front of the attack, he left the next man open for attack. Time unfroze and Dukey looked back to see Dred's GM III explode right before his piercing gold colored green eyes “NOOO!!! YOU TITANS…YOU’RE ALL SCUM!”

Zach watched as Dukey was taken over by rage. Zach slapped his two blasters together and shouted, “THIS ENDS NOW!” with his eyes closed.

Zach opened up his dark grey eyes and the physical characteristics were different. His pupil shrunk and a growth of the iris took place. Zach suddenly unleashed the entire force of his blaster, obliterating the mobile suits coming at them. Turning them all into dust. When the coast was clear and the final mirror destroyed Zach hit his thrusters and boosted to Dukey,

“DUKEY SNAP OUT OF IT, WE NEED TO GO!” Zach’s psyche without warning broke into Dukey's mind as he snapped out of his dangerous mindful rage. Dukey’s body sat there in the Hyaku Shiki…just breathing heavily as if he ran across an either state. His eyes were closed and his hands were shaking.

“It's my fault…I killed him…I killed Dred!” Dukey watched as his men retreated from the colony.

"Captain, get out of there, we must fire our cannon to take out their final base!" Dukey just floated there and stared at the colony. “It's my fathers rage that made me do it…my father killed Dred!”

"Zach, get the Captain out of there, we need to fire the cannon now or the Raider will come under attack!" explained the Sergeant. Zach hit a few switches and buttons in order to increase his booster performance.

“COME ON!” A yellow warning light started flashing in Zach's eyes "Warning, Danger to Boosters, Overload imminent." Zach grabbed Dukey by the shoulders and hit the boosters, flying out of the path of the canon but towards the Raider. “Hold out just a bit longer...”thought Zach as his eyes returned to normal. A loud beeping continued as the warning inside Gundam Nova turned from yellow to red. The Raider was in sight, he just had to push it a bit further. 

"FIRING HYPER ENERGY CANNONS!!" The blast took out most of the remaining Titans’ forces and completely obliterated the colony. What was left of the Titans was left to retreat to Nexus, the new Titan space station within the reaches of Jupiter. "Mission accomplished, everyone board the Raider and let’s get back to Grenada for the debriefing," commanded Dukey. Zach docked the Gundam Nova into the Raider, with help he carried the silver Hyaku Shiki into the Raider as well. Dukey passed out inside. Black smoke was coming out of the thrusters of the Nova.

“Sigh....well it was time to upgrade anyways,” thought Zach. Zach then noticed some medics carrying Dukey off from his cockpit.

“Hey is he gonna be okay?”

"Yeah he'll be fine," the doctor said. "He's passed out from trauma more than likely."

“Hmm...” They took Dukey off to his quarters.

“Poor bastard...”