Chapter 7: Annihilation

On a Shadowscythe base in a distant galaxy, Lord Valoth listened to one of his soldier’s reports. “Loreon is now controlled by EbilCorp and the pilots of the Dragonguard are locked within the local police station.

“Excellent, send our newest Gundam out to cause some havoc.”

“Anything else, Lord?”

Valoth thought. “Oh yes, the virus we implanted in the Kingadent’s computer has detected activity. We know the locations of two superweapons to be used against us. Send Hellfire and Shadestorm to Zargon and 51.”

“I will right away.” The soldier delivered the instructions to the pilots and they all took off. The old Ravager design, GS-001, had been upgraded to GS-004 and was now known as the Slayer.

The unit soon joined the fleet orbiting Loreon. From there he contacted the false Kingadent.

“Is it time for the invasion yet?”

“Yes. Whenever you are ready. I have assigned all SDF to the opposite side of the planet to investigate, meheheh.”

The pilot shut off communications and ordered everyone to move when he did. He could not stand Mr. Z, who was very obnoxious and idiotic. This new Shadow Gundam was his work though. Without EbilCorp the CDB Coating could not have been applied. Slayer took off and the rest of the fleet followed him as he plummeted towards the planet.

As the Gundam fell towards the planet he received a message. “Lord Valoth?” he said surprised.

“Yes, I forgot to mention a new detail about this Gundam. It runs on a revolutionary power source.”

“It doesn’t run on dragon’s breath?”

“It did, minion. But we figured out how the CDB was attached to the exterior of the Gundam. As you know normally it would begin to burn through the exterior made of our dark materials, but EbilCorp created a substance that acts as a barrier between the CDB and the metals.”

“And you applied the same idea to the power source?”

“Yes.” Valoth said laughing. “The CDB was infused with this substance and then the substance was infused with darkness. The CDB is beginning to absorb the darkness...”

“What has it become?”

“The exact opposite of Crystallized Dragon’s Breath. I call it Liquified Dracolich Breath, or LDB.” said the leader proudly. “Now that we no longer need EbilCorp, I do not care if you destroy any of their technology or units.”

The pilot smiled. This was perfect, the Shadowscythe were no longer under the control of that idiot moglin. They were once again the most dangerous force in all the worlds.

Slayer crashed into the Kingadent’s palace and caused a gigantic series of explosions and a large crater. He looked up as the rest of the fleet arrived and began to fire upon the city and nearby towns. The mechs stationed around the palace to protect the new Kingadent, who was now dead, were not destroyed and turned to face him.

“Big mistake.” said the pilot. Activating the shoulder it fired five shadow beam javelins at the first mobile suit, completely destroying it. The other four charged and the Slayer created a shadow blade from its right arm and did a spin attack, slicing the rest in half. “Pathetic humans.”

---

Inside the prison, the SDF prisoners all heard the attack begin on the city. The ground shook as the mechs landed and buildings were destroyed. Lisa began to panic. “What is happening?”

The police chief, Duncan opened up communication with his men. “All officers, the Shadowscythe have begun an invasion on the city! Assist all citizens in evacuation attempts. Do not, go after the enemy. Repeat, do not go after the enemy.”

There was a much louder boom and the police station went dark. The energy bars locking the prisoners faded.

“We have to get to the Carrier of Hope!” Starbuck commanded. The three used the opportunity to escape and headed towards GEARS University which was now surrounded in a large shield.

“Look, there’s a ship!” Tek said pointing towards the sky. A large unfamiliar, golden ship moved into place above the city. The speakers on the ship broadcast a message to the entire city.

“Citizens, do not panic. The Paladin is here.” said a familiar voice.

“That sounds like Dean Warlic....” Lisa said. “Thank goodness!”

The ship then began to do something none of them thought possible. It transformed and took a humanoid shape with one large arm that acted as a cannon. The cannon began to charge up a large amount of light energy which was then fired as a beam through the Shadowscythe fleet. The majority of the fleet was annihilated as the beam moved from left to right.

The group continued to move while this occurred and soon reached GEARS. They boarded the Carrier of Hope and Tek and Lisa remained inside, while Starbuck took control of the Phoenix.

The Phoenix flew into the Shadowscythe mobile suits as they all marched towards the city. Once in the middle he activated the Phoenix System and the wings of light emerged. The orbs began to repel the mobile suits and proceeded to destroy some.

Starbuck noticed in the mess of destroyed mobile suits, there was a Shadow Gundam. It looked like the one that was trying to corrupt the dragonoid, but improved. There was a shadowy energy around it.

“Defeating an army of weak suits is not that impressive.” the pilot said to Starbuck.

“You...speak our language?” Starbuck said shocked.

“We have been laying siege to the planet for months now. Did you not think we would learn to communicate with you?”

“I always imagined the Shadowscythe as mindless undead creatures.” Starbuck said trying to insult the pilot.

“Some of us are. But others like me, were assimilated from intelligent races.”

“What do you want?”

“The same thing all of us want. To assimilate the entire universe. To control everything. Now enough talking, be smart and let me corrupt you now.”

Without saying a word, Starbuck lunged forward with the Phoenix and using the scythe held in the right arm slashed at the Slayer. The Shadow Gundam predicted this and created a shadow barrier to block the attack.

Slayer then stepped to the side and slashed at the Phoenix with it’s blade. The blade broke against the side of the Phoenix, but it also exploded causing the mech to topple over.

“You haven’t had much practice with a Gundam, have you?” taunted the Slayer.

Angered, the Phoenix aimed the gun in its other hand at the Shadow Gundam and began to fire Purification Needles. The needles pierced the shadow, but Starbuck saw underneath there was a layer of CDB. The needles had no effect on its own element.

“Your entire mech is based upon defeating Shadow. But how can you defeat Shadow covered in Light?” The Slayer aimed the Corruption Cannon at the Phoenix which was still on the ground, and turned it on full power. The cannon fired upon the Phoenix. The shadow energy was repelled.

“You can’t touch me!” Starbuck yelled.

“Really? Look again.” the pilot said. Starbuck realized that the light shield meter was lowering and the force of the cannon had him pinned to the ground. An alarm began to beep and Starbuck looked for ways to attack but found none. The meter was now below 10% and continued to drop.

“I’m sorry everyone.” Starbuck said as the meter reached 2%. The end was now.

Next Time in Gundam: Shadow.....Transfer! With Starbuck's death near and the attack on the city stopped, the short-lived but damaging invasion will soon end. However Loreon is not the only planet under siege by the Shadowscythe. A new Shadow Gundam appears.