Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the OCs in this story and probably the story idea? (shrugs) Oh and maybe some mild swearing.

GSD: Shifting Shadows

Shift 01: Operation Meteor

Asteroid Belt, IMC: Shifting Shadows

Commander Graves sat alone in his office, his slightly wrinkled face marred with a frown. On his desk was a report of the Armory One Incident that happened 11 earth standard hours ago. The revelation of new type mobile suits and its subsequent theft by an unknown entity, which was really an Earth Alliance black ops operation if one squints at it closely enough. This threw the IMC's entire itinerary to establish first contact operations with Orb down the drain.

"Two years, in just two years," Commander Graves sighed in resignation. He press the intercom button, "Central, what does it take to get some god-damn peace in this place."

On the other side of the line, John "Central" Bradford was confused by the commander's out-of-the-blue question. He looked at the nearby operator manning one of the MiCo stations who also heard the Commander. The operator looked at Central with a confused expression.

"I- I don't really know sir." Bradford heard muted sigh on the other end of the line.

"Get Chimera Squad Leader and tell him to report to my office."

"Yes, Commander."

Commander Graves leaned on his chair, a plan beginning to form in his mind.

Chimera Squad, one of the three special ops squad which answers and takes orders directly from the Commander, is primarily use for tertiary operations. Meaning, they are back ups for the other two squads and where rookie pilots are placed to earn combat experience; Thus the squad is usually use for patrols and clean up operations. Which is why Lieutenant Ian Ran combed his wavey chin-length charcol hair back in confusion.

"Can you repeat that again, sir?"

"I want you and three others to make contact with a ZAFT battleship. I believe that Chief Representative Attha and her bodyguard, one Alex Dino also known as Athrun Zala are onboard the Battleship Minerva currently in pursuit of an Earth Alliance ship." Commander Graves pulled out a disk and placed it in front of the young Lieutenant. "Once you confirmed the representative is onboard, give this to her. In person."

"Anything else?" Ran grabbed the disk gingerly and held it up on his face.

"Ensure the safe return of Representative Attha back to Orb." Ran saw a problem right away.

"We're not allowed to bring our mobile suits." He stated to the commander. Most of IMC's mobile suits were developed and built in-house by the IMC's Engineering Division lead by Doctor Raymond Shen and his daughter An-Yi "Lily" Shen. IMC's Mobile Suits were designed primarily for space with long operational times in mind thus they were powered by a miniaturized Nuclear Reactors. This, however, presents a problem and a rather glaring hindsight. The area around earth is suffuse with Neutron Jammer particles and Dr. Vahlen and her team hadn't have time to develop a means to counteract the jammers; as she was too busy combining phase shift armor technology with Vahlenium alloy which IMC use as their primary armor component for their fourth-generation mobile suits.

"Your team will be provided with Mobile Suits we 'appropriated' before hand. You have one hour to prepare yourself and whomever you're taking and report to Hangar 4." Ran stood up and saluted the commander before taking his leave.

Saros Graves, second son of Commander Robert Graves, tried to quell his nervousness by reading a book. This mission is going to be his sixth sortie out of his home. In front of him, the mobile suits were being loaded into a fast cargo hauler by cranes. All four suits were old third-generation IMC mobile suits called the Chimera. The Chimera is design to use the CAS or Change Armour System. Typically called the Chimera System, it replaces the armour and weaponry to change the mobile suit's performance to better suit the battlefield and roles. This makes Chimera-type mobile suits the mainstay mobile suits of IMC with fourth and, currently in-development fifth-generation, equipped with NRs. Currently the Chimera is equipped a custom-made armour to resemble CGUEs painted in dull metallic gray with MA-M4A Heavy Swords. However, each mobile suit is incorporated with retooled technologies common to the latest mobile suits developed by EA, and ZAFT. Such as the new high density ultra compact rechargeable battery which increases the operational time of the mobile suit by two hundred percent. The increased operational time is somewhat offset by the fact that each suit is equipped with the phase shift armour, integrated beam sabers, and MA-M21G beam rifles for the three pseuodo-CGUEs with the fourth equipped with an IMC develop and built Mark-1 IMC-LRS (Long Range Sniping) Beam Rifle.

"Yo!" a voice greeted the young pilot. Saros look up to see his squadmate Vivian Onatis wearing the somewhat bulky but well-armoured Deep Space Survival Suit or DS3 for short with the accompanying helmet with reflective visor tucked in one arm. Pilots sometimes call the suits Squeezers because of how hard it was for first time pilots to 'squeeze' inside one.

"Hello, Vivi." Saros greeted, more like murmured back at her. She leaned forward, twisting her head one side and cupped her ear.

"Say, that again." She smirked at him while Saros frowned slightly. "Just kidding, Commandy Boy." Saros twitched in annoyance at that cursed nickname. "Say, have you seen De Arc? Didn't see her back at the locker room." He shook his head in reply as he tried to get back to reading. Just then, Joan "de Arc" Watson scampered towards them wearing the DS3 with Lieutenant Ran just behind her holding a thick folder.

"Hey, guys." Joan greeted at her two squad mates with a wave. "Some mission right?" We get to meet a bon-a-fide princess and her knight!" She said it with her excitement barely contained.

"Please, this is 'the' Athrun Zala we're talking about. A ZAFT elite red coat, Hero, and quite a looker too." Saros took a stepped back and covered his face with the book, trying to protect himself from the cheeriness of the two girls.

"Okay, Boy and Girls" Ran's voice halted the girls' fangirlism, "All aboard the hauler. We won't have support for this mission." He pointedly look at Vivi, "No showing off and don't lose your equipment."

"Sir!" The three pilot snap their heels together and saluted.

7+ hours from mission start, 10 minutes away from interception

Lieutenant Ran floated inside the cockpit of the the cargo hauler and grab the pilot's head rest to stop himself. "What is it?"

"Message from the commander, additional orders." The pilot handed him a datapad. Ran quickly read through it.

"Mission received. We're heading out."

"Sir?"

"We're faster with our mobile suits." Ran stated as he pushed against the headrest and floated out of the cockpit. "Saros, Vi, De Arc," He order through the radio, "Start up your mobile suits. We're launching in two minutes." He received three short affirmatives.

Saros Graves lock his suit's helmet in place as he floated towards his mobile suit. He looked at Vivi as she closed her CGUE's cockpit, she gave him a thumb up before being encased inside. The CGUE's eye flashed red before it moved side to side. Saros stepped inside his CGUE and initiated the start up sequence. As the system booted up, he opened up one of the suits external pockets and checked to see if the book was inside. The book in question is Sun Tzu's Art of War. He already read it a couple of times before and consider it his good luck charm. The smooth black walls flashed into existence as the camera system came to life, showing the Lieutenant making his way to his mobile suit. Saros glanced over the console and found everything in working order and closed the cockpit, sealing him inside.

Outside, the cargo container the mobile suits were crammed into began the depressurization process. The container then opened revealing a debris field. A holographic screen appeared showing a flight plan. Saros quickly downloaded the plan into the systems navigation control.

"Chimera Squad head out!" The lieutenant's suit floated out of the container, its phase shift armour adding a lighter shade to the dull grey metallic color of the mobile suit. Vivi and De Arc match the lieutenant's maneuver, both activating their phase shift armour but floated just outside the cargo container matching the hauler's velocity.

Saros's mobile suit grabbed the IMC-LRS beam rifle that was securely attached to the container before hefting it. Applying a bit of thrust, the suit floated out of the container's confines. A small screen popped up, with the lieutenat's reflective visor, "Stagger Formation, full burn for eight seconds. Compensate for debris but make sure to stay on course."

"Roger!" "Affirmative" Saros just nodded before the video link winked out. Ran's mobile suit shot out first before the three followed. On the distant horizon was the corpse of Junius Seven with Earth as its backdrop.

Shift 01 End