Gundam Eternity: First Draft

by Maileesaeya

It is the end of Cosmic Era 70. The conflict between the Earth Forces and ZAFT stands at a stalemate. After a bold attack by ZAFT uncovers the location of the Earth Forces prototype mobile weapons, an attack on the neutral colony of Heliopolis draws Kira Yamato into the war and sets him on a collision course with a ZAFT ace known as the Silent Möbius... REWRITE IN PROGRESS.

1. The Round Table

Evidently, I'm some kind of a glutton for punishment.

This is the rewrite of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Legends that I've been planning for awhile. It went through several versions before finally settling on the current one, which I believe is likely to work out for the best.

This opening chapter is long. This is because it has a major battle going on (itself a good 8000 words and a chapter all its own), with scenes introducing a variety of characters, including all five mains and a few of the love interests. Really, with all of that, it should be huge.

That being said, this may be my final post to this site. Certain things have come up, and I'm looking to move my writing over to a blog that is currently under construction (there's a link on my profile). But I have no intention of giving up on my writing.

So, without further ado, I present to you all Mobile Suit Gundam Eternity.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED or any of the related characters or mecha. I do not own the song Born for This, by Paramore. I own all original characters, but only a few of the tweaks made to the setting.

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Mobile Suit Gundam Eternity
Book I: The Bloody Valentine War
Story By: Maileesaeya
Arc 1: The Five Constellations
First Phase: The Round Table

"Hey, let's make a promise, okay?"

"Huh?"

"You said you've been told that you have a power, right Kira-kun? And that you want to use that power to change the world?"

"Yes…"

"Then, when you change the world with your power, I'll sing a song to honor it… a song to shake the whole galaxy!"

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

"Mommy, is that you?"

"It'll be okay Nozomi. The doctors will fix everything."

"Mommy why can't I see?"

"Ma'am, it's time."

"Mommy? MOMMY!"

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

"Hey… don't cry…"

"You shouldn't say that when you're crying yourself… hey… Sakura… when we grow up… we'll be together again, right?"

"Of course we will. How could you even think otherwise?"

"No reason really. And on that day, however many years from now, we'll be idols together, okay?"

"Of course we will! Someday, somehow, we'll sing together! And when we do, we'll shake the galaxy itself to its foundations!"

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

"Mom? What's wrong? Mom!"

"Oh Yzak… your father…"

"Dad? Mom, what happened?"

"His ship, the Mandelbrot… it was destroyed. He's dead."

"WHAT?"

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

"Dad, I don't want things to be hidden from me. Please, be honest… is there going to be a war?"

"… yes. I'm afraid it's… an inevitability at this point."

"I thought so…"

"Nicol… your piano…"

"Mom, dad… I can't… I can't just sit here playing the piano if innocent people are going to die!"

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

"Nine billion. That was the death toll of the Reconstruction War. In the wake of that terrible and tragic war that engulfed the world for decades, the people threw down their weapons, and swore to never again allow such tragedies. Instead, they began to push into space, reaching for the stars."

"It wasn't to last though. That man dreamt of helping guide humanity to the stars. Instead, his actions divided the world. It was like a festering wound on the human race, promising a slow death for humankind. And the best hope? They had it the worst of all, an existence between, belonging to neither side, rejected by all around them."

"It was five decades later that it all went to hell. The human population had grown again, recovering from the war and the disease; even the second disease only slowed it a little. Four point seven billion people, half a billion of them separate from the others, the genetically-engineered Coordinators. That was how many there was when the war began."

"Do you know how many were left when it was over?"

"Heh. But that's not why you're here, is it? You're here for a more specific story, the story of one group that rose up from that war. I never was one to believe in heroes… but those people? Yeah… I saw them. I knew. Heroes really did exist…"

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

"It was a cold and snowy day…"

Pendragon Mountains, United Kingdom, Territory of the Atlantic Federation
December 15th, Cosmic Era 70, Beginning of the Eleventh Month of the Bloody Valentine War

Throughout history, there had been many great wars that had borne great advances in technology and unspeakable tragedies inflicted upon the world. However, never was there a conflict to outdo the Reconstruction War that had heralded the end of the Common Era and the beginning of the Cosmic Era. That twenty-seven year long conflict had left countless dead in its wake, and reshaped parts of the Earth itself.

The war had left much of the United Kingdom a desolate wasteland, and its population only a fraction of what it was before. As a result, it was subjected to the earliest terraforming experiments of the Cosmic Era, resulting in massive shifts in the geography of Great Britain.

The Pendragon Mountains were the most well-known of these shifts, a range that dominated what was once Scotland, the highlands and lowlands disappearing together into the mountains.

In Cosmic Era 12, disaster struck in the form of a small asteroid crashing into the Pendragon Mountains, blasting an enormous crater and putting an end to the terraforming. However, that asteroid had brought a number of valuable minerals with it, scattering them throughout the impact zone and the surrounding mountains.

The newly formed basin was known as the Round Table. The last of the resources from the terraforming had been used to speed along the recovery from the impact, and it was now easy to forget the origins of the Round Table, a resource-rich and rather beautiful basin in the Pendragon Mountains… that was also the sole effective ground route to the Atlantic Federation base codenamed 'Camelot'.

Located where it was, the base had been largely unimportant in the current conflict—although strategically placed for conflict with the Eurasian Federation, the frontlines with the Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty (or simply 'ZAFT') lay opposite Eurasian territory at the moment, and the Earth Alliance base at Suez was larger, directly on the frontlines, and much closer to the main ZAFT base in the area, Gibraltar.

Camelot was an easily defended base though, and as an air base, was an excellent resource base for long-term travel, as well as a favored training ground for cadet pilots of the Atlantic Federation. The difficulty of assailing it, combined with its location deep within enemy territory, meant ZAFT had ignored it, despite the potential usefulness of taking out the training base and claiming the valuable mineral resources of the Round Table.

Today, however, for the first time, ZAFT had launched an attack on Camelot.

The reason for the sudden, unexpected move was actually pretty simple: ZAFT Intelligence had traced the trail of the Earth Forces prototype mobile weapons to Camelot.

For ZAFT, who had suffered several crushing defeats in the immediate aftermath of the Earth Forces deploying mobile walkers from Amaterasu Corporation on the frontlines, it was vital that they learn all they could of the new mobile weapons and, if possible, take them away from the Earth Forces.

Hence, the current large-scale battle taking place over and within the Round Table, the basin and surrounding mountains covered in snow from the cold winter months.

"Swallow 1's been shot down!" "Where the hell is our air support?" "There's too many of them, we can't–" "The Captain's machine has been hit!" "Valiant Squadron is gone!" "A THOR! THEY'VE GOT A FU–" "Everyone just hold, reinforcements are on the way!"

Flying towards the battlefield, Sakura Daimon shook her head slightly.

"Alright team, looks like it's on us now," she said, glancing at the monitor displays of her teammates all around her, all of them flying DINN's custom-painted a metallic grey-blue color the same as Sakura's own. The shoulder of her DINN was also marked with a Möbius strip, her emblem of choice as a commander in the mobile force.

"You got it Commander," said Joseph Turner, her chief lieutenant, and the team's resident sniper.

"I want everyone to be careful out there," continued Sakura, looking forward again. "Keep your eyes peeled and your senses sharp."

"Will do Commander," said Naomi Sherrill, another of her lieutenants. "Nobody wants to bail out into a mountain of ice."

"Heh… alright everyone, come on! It's time to dive into the fireworks!"

The back 'hood' of her DINN rose up to cover the main head, while the mobile suit's white wings spread before Sakura sent her machine corkscrewing into the battlefield, the five other pilots of her team following suit.

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

Morgenroete Technical College, Heliopolis Colony, Lagrange Point 3, Colony of the Orb Union

Kira Yamato let out a small sigh as he typed away at the Morgenroete computer to which he'd been given access, calculating different formulas and designs, and running numerous simulations as he tried to find a solution to his current problem.

At fifteen years old, Kira was a prodigy. One of the genetically-enhanced Coordinators that made up around ten percent of the current human population, Kira was far more intelligent than many of his peers, which is why he was doing the current project for Morgenroete Incorporated.

"Kira? Had any luck?" asked Sai Argyle, a friend and classmate of Kira's at the college. Kira let out a sigh, shaking his head.

"No, unfortunately," he said, glancing back at Sai. "The Corona's wings are a tricky piece of work. If we can make them functional, then they'll work brilliantly. But at the moment, it just seems more practical to put on wings more like those on the Eridanus."

"Well, keep trying," said Sai, pushing his glasses up slightly. "I know you can pull this off."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence…"

In general, Sai was probably Kira's best friend. Although a Natural only a year older than Kira, Sai was smart enough to be in the same year of college as Kira, and the two sometimes degraded into "technobabble" around others, then insisted that they were the only ones actually speaking English.

Kira was fifteen years old, and was about five foot, five inches tall, had short, straight brown hair and his eyes were a light violet color, but deep enough that the color was unmistakable. He was relatively slight for his age, and his slender face made him look even younger than he really was. Nevertheless, as a prodigy Coordinator, he was a genius of the highest caliber.

Sai was another story, sixteen years old and about four inches taller than Kira, with short light brown hair and green eyes—not that the color could be seen behind his faintly-tinted glasses. He was a bit more solidly built than Kira, and had sharper features. He was honestly even more of a prodigy than Kira, being a Natural nearly as smart as the genetically-enhanced Kira.

Kira and Sai, as two of the brightest at the college, had been recruited to assist in the development of a group of prototype mobile suits: the GAT-X101 Cepheus, GAT-X102 Andromeda, GAT-X105 Corona, GAT-X204 Cygnus and GAT-X303 Eridanus. They were prototypes optimized for combat so as to field test the technologies they possessed and best determine in what way to continue development to full, standardized production.

However, these weren't machines for Orb, the nation of which they were citizens; they were being developed for the Atlantic Federation, one of the leading powers of the Earth Alliance. That didn't exactly sit well with either of them, but they knew it wasn't their place to argue with it. The sooner they got this done, the sooner those damn machines could get off Heliopolis, and the sooner they could go back to their ordinary lives.

Each of the five prototypes tested different systems and concepts:

The Cepheus, earliest of the five models, was a fairly basic design, developed with versatility as its core concept.

The Andromeda, the second model, was optimized for long-range combat, with firepower on par with a full-sized battleship.

The third model, Eridanus, was a transforming machine, inspired by the mobile fighters of Amaterasu Corporation, optimized for multiple modes of combat and with impressive speed and mobility.

Then there was Cygnus, the fourth model, an electronic warfare and espionage specialist equipped with an experimental new jamming system theorized to surpass even the neutron jammer within small areas.

Finally, the Corona, fifth and final model, intended to be the strongest of all, with firepower similar to the Andromeda and mobility similar to the Eridanus.

Naturally, it was the Eridanus and Corona that were giving Kira the real trouble. He and Sai were mostly working on the frames of the machines, uninvolved in the equipment or OS development. The frame of the Cepheus had been fairly easy, and even the frame of the Cygnus had been quite easy, despite the special features they'd been ordered to put in. The Andromeda presented more of a problem, as the frame needed to be able to properly handle the many powerful weapons it was supposed to arm and include sections for placing built-in weapons.

It was on the transforming Eridanus and the unique wing design of the Corona that the frame designers were all being stalled on. Amaterasu Corporation was the only group to have ever perfected transformation technology on this scale, and they refused to share those secrets with anyone. However, the transforming Viking mobile walkers purchased from them had been brought in for the Morgenroete engineers to study, but it was extraordinarily small-scale compared to what they were doing.

And the Corona… it wasn't a transforming machine. The base frame was easy; however, it was intended to have fully mobile wings rather than the standard adjustable fixed wing, more like a bird wing than a plane. Not an easy task when the wings needed to endure the extreme stress of combat, had to keep from being dead weight, needed to be able to support enough thrusters to hold up the over seventy ton bulk of the Corona, had to have a strong enough connection to the Corona to not break holding that bulk, endure the stress of atmospheric entry and do all this while still maintaining their full mobility. It was an insane order, but if they could pull it off, the Corona's mobility would be insane as well.

However, pulling it off was the trick. It was why a pair of young, mechanical geniuses more inclined to outside the box thinking were given the task while older, more set in their ways engineers focused on the problems with the Eridanus frame.

"There's got to be something," muttered Sai, typing away at his own Morgenroete computer, "maybe a different material?"

"Yeah, maybe," muttered Kira, "but we're talking something that has to be tougher than neo titanium without being appreciably heavier. The only thing I can think of that meets that criteria would be luna titanium."

Sai winced.

"Ah… yeah… let's think of something else," he said.

Neo titanium was the material used to armor most mobile weapons. Although the frames were usually built from regular titanium, neo titanium was used to provide the armor, being tougher and lighter than the normal product.

Luna titanium, however, took it to a whole new level, massing about half what neo titanium did and being several times tougher. All that being said, the formula behind it was a major secret of Amaterasu Corporation, and it was rumored to be so hideously expensive that even they only ever used it for special projects.

Which, of course, left them more or less back at square one: how the hell were they supposed to make this work?

"Torii!"

The chirp came from the mechanical bird sitting on top of the monitor Kira was working at. The bird, a pet made for Kira by an old friend many years ago, tilted its head slightly and briefly spread its wings.

"Hmm… maybe…"

Well, why not? Inspired by Birdy's little display, Kira went to work on an alternative design, one that just might improve the flexibility beyond the original expectations.

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

The Round Table

The six DINNs diving into the battle quickly tracked down several clear targets and opened up, precision fire and state-of-the-art targeting systems helping compensate for the high-speeds involved. Even still, the tremendous speeds involved made targeting difficult, particularly when even a projectile with a muzzle velocity of over a kilometer and a half per second could be too slow to hit a target only a kilometer away.

Three F-7D Spearheads still went down.

"It's about damn time you people showed up!" came the voice of Major Navarro, the leader of the ground battalion. "I swear, you folks in the mobile force think the whole world will just sit around waiting for you to finish your god damn tea?"

"Can it Major, we've got more important things to do than argue with one another," said Sakura as her team broke formation by wing-pairs. "You do your job and we'll do ours."

She heard Navarro grumbling slightly over the comm. line. Not a surprise, really—the rivalry between the five branches of ZAFT, but especially the rivalry between the four referred to as the "main force" and the one referred to as the "mobile force", were the stuff of legends within the organization, and well-known to those outside who took notice of anything other than the mobile force.

Navarro was part of the "main force", specifically the ground forces branch of ZAFT. Sakura and her two lieutenants (plus the engineer back on their flagship) had been part of the ground force as well on the frontlines in Africa for months before remarkable victories had bought them enough attention to be promoted to the elite mobile force, where they could perform their duties far better, with far more ease, and over a much wider range. However, many within the main force were resentful of the mobile force, which were the focus of all ZAFT media attention and propaganda; the public face of ZAFT, such that most thought the mobile force was the entirety of ZAFT.

And man did a lot of people resent that.

Sakura herself had never really been one of them; she'd had family in the mobile force, and should've been placed there rather than the main force on graduation, but there were those up top who had loathed her foster father to insane extremes. Her squad hadn't resented the mobile force either, though that probably had more to do with the fact that they were grunts on the frontline, fighting every day just to survive, a ragtag bunch of misfits put together by their superiors so that they could die all at once in a manner deemed useful. They were too busy resenting their own branch to resent another branch.

The scream of engines played over the speakers of her cockpit alerted her to enemy fighters approaching before her fractured and heavily jammed radar did. A grim smirk forming on her lips, Sakura pulled back her momentum, reversing thrust. Her wingman, a mobile force veteran named Brett Noland, stayed with her the whole way as the Spearheads overshot the DINNs before they could unleash their powerful anti-air missiles.

That was the problem with fighter jets—they relied on constant momentum to keep airborne. If they slowed down too much, they'd stall, or those that could hold steady in the same spot couldn't get moving again quick enough when they did. Mobile suits, or at least the DINNs, didn't suffer from that particular problem, giving them a significant edge in mobility.

Now that she was tailing the fighter pair, Sakura held the advantage. She leveled her machine gun and opened fire along with Noland. Within seconds, they'd found their marks, and the two Spearheads fell burning from the sky.

"There are still a lot of them… come on, sweep them from the sky!"

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

Amaterasu Corporation Valhalla-class Battleship Heart of Winter

"Packing up to go?"

Mai Sakamoto paused in her packing, glancing back at the source of the question to see Makoto Taiyonoha leaning against the door to her room. Slowly, Mai nodded.

"Yes," she said softly. "My contract's almost up." With that, she returned to packing.

"I guess it is… I'll miss your company."

Mai snorted, stopping her packing for a moment and turning to face Makoto fully.

The young woman before her was fifteen years old and stood five feet six inches tall. She had mid-back length silken red hair, blazing emerald green eyes, sharp but kind facial features, C-cup breasts, thin waist and curvy hips atop long smooth legs. Undeniably beautiful and dressed in torn black jeans and a black sweater that made her look like a punk of some sort.

From her attire, few would've guessed that she was the former Crown Princess of an entire nation only a few years ago, or that she was now the daughter of the CEO of an entire mega corporation.

Mai herself was twenty-two years old and five foot eight inches tall. She had straight, thick black hair that fell to her shoulder blades, dark gray-brown eyes, a stern face, average breasts and a prominent swirl-pattern tattoo on her right shoulder that was clearly displayed by her sleeveless black shirt. To go with the shirt, she wore black pants and fingerless black leather gloves. She looked even more the part of a punk than Makoto did.

A few years ago, she was an idol singer living in the PLANTs, back before her personal tragedies had stripped away the idealism of her youth. After leaving the industry a broken woman, she'd been drafted into ZAFT and swiftly rose to prominence as a naturally gifted ace pilot. However, Mai had gone AWOL only a few months into the war for reasons she kept to herself, and subsequently became a mercenary pilot to get by. Her latest contract was as a flight instructor for the mobile fighter corps of the Amaterasu Corporation.

"I don't know why you're still interested in me at all," said Mai. "I retired from the music industry over a year ago. I'm just a grunt mercenary now."

"No," said Makoto with a small shake of the head. "You're still Mai Sakamoto. You're still the woman who inspired me to take my own career as far as I could."

"You need a better role model kid. You don't want to be like me."

With that, Mai turned back to her packing. Makoto watched her for a moment with sad eyes before turning and leaving, finally acknowledging Mai's silent dismissal, and not mentioning the person who'd inspired her to become an idol in the first place.

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

Silver Dawn Hotel, Onogoro Island, Orb Union

Serenity Rivera let out a sigh of relief as she threw herself onto her bed in the top VIP suite of the hotel.

She was a young woman, about eighteen and a half years old; five foot eight inches tall standing. She had waist-length soft brown hair and faintly grey-blue eyes. Her lips were thin, nose pert, skin soft and her figure showing off gentle curves. At the moment, she was still dressed in her typical stage wear, a white dress hanging off her shoulders with attached gloves and a large blue 'frill' at the top covering her breasts and biceps.

She was tired after her performance down in the hotel's oversized lobby not even half an hour ago, but she was cheerful, thoroughly pleased with getting to perform, and with her earlier meeting with none other than Roxana Iris Hiryū, the Crown Princess of Orb herself.

Orb had a rather weird system of government, with two components, a democratically-elected house of representatives and a monarchal branch overseen by the Five Noble Houses, one of which was the "royal family" of Orb that served as the overall leader of the nation. Up until recently, the royal family had been the Taiyonoha House, but they'd withdrawn from the Union several years ago and handed over the reins to the Hiryū House.

The secession of the Taiyonoha had been on the day of the launch of the perfected Terra Firma-class worldships Frontier and Galaxy, and the Taiyonoha now led the Terra Firma Fleet alongside the owners of Sakurai Industries, the partners of the Taiyonoha-owned Amaterasu Corporation in the creation of the Fleet.

But despite the secession, they still had a great deal of influence over Orb; for one, they still owned many large businesses in the nation, and for another, there was a decades old friendship between the Taiyonoha and the Hiryū, epitomized by the friendship between the former and current crown princesses.

The Silver Dawn Hotel in Orb was one business the Taiyonoha still owned, a 5-star hotel of the highest caliber, hence Serenity's stay at the hotel. For an ordinary idol, it would be added to the inevitable debts incurred.

But Serenity was different; being careful with one's career and in control of those around you made being an idol singer a much less dangerous career path.

She knew that the music industry ate up young would-be idols and spat them back out when things started going south for them. Serenity had carefully avoided that, surrounding herself with four individuals she trusted implicitly who had, at one point, basically worshipped the very ground she walked on and saved her life from a few dangerous incidents over the course of her nearly two decades of life. They proceeded to steadily seize on what she needed to attain her desired career while skipping the chances of being spat out if her popularity were to wane at all.

Specifically, she and her friends had attained ownership of the record company that produced her. Non-hostile takeovers were fun.

There was a knock on her door.

"Excuse me? Miss Serenity? May I come in?" came a soft voice from the other side. Serenity smiled faintly.

"Of course," she called. "Come in, please."

The door opened and Crown Princess Roxana Iris Hiryū stepped into her room.

Roxana or Sana, as she generally preferred to be called, really looked the part of royalty, even if she didn't dress in any of the stereotypical finery. She was sixteen years old, five foot six inches, with hip-length light brown hair and warm brown eyes set a little wide and a slightly longer-than-average neck. She was also very curvy, with large breasts, wide hips and a 'supermodel thin' waist. Small soft hands, long legs, dressed in what looked like some kind of corset-inspired purple dress with a red skirt that only came to her lower thighs, with a somewhat transparent white jacket.

"I just wanted to thank you again for coming here to perform," said Sana. She frowned slightly. "But it's too bad Makoto isn't here. She really admires you."

"I could say the same thing," said Serenity. "After all, she's the daughter of the woman I was named after." The princess chuckled.

"You admire her for her mother? Isn't that a little odd? Plus, Makoto is three years younger than you."

"Perhaps, but she's one of those people who is… how's the saying go? 'Wise beyond their years'?"

"I guess so."

Serenity smiled slightly.

"Maybe I shouldn't be talking," she said, "I still haven't gotten to meet her in person."

"All those common portrayals of her? They're all true. The woman is a diamond of royalty."

Serenity giggled.

"If you say so…"

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

The Round Table

"Commander, we've attained air superiority over the Round Table," reported Joseph. "But…" an explosion down below, "we might still have a problem."

"Probably," agreed Sakura. "Thors are dangerous and powerful siege-walkers, after all. Not to be taken lightly." As she spoke, Sakura was flying to get within range of the powerful engine of war guarding the route to Camelot base. "Not to mention they have impressive anti-air capabilities. Everyone form up, we'll let the air force maintain superiority while we attack the Thor together."

"Yes ma'am!"

As her team began to gather into formation, Sakura stared down at the engine of destruction with a grim expression.

On the African front, Sakura and her unit had encountered a Thor months ago. As far as anyone knew, it was the first time a ZAFT unit encountered the war machines and survived. They'd managed to take it down—the first time a Thor had ever been beaten in real combat—but had taken heavy casualties in the process. Ronald North and Kim Soon-ei were the ones Sakura remembered most vividly, and the squad mechanic Alexander Rommel had nearly been crippled for life after rushing out to fix the damaged leg of Sakura's GINN while under heavy fire from the Thor. That was when her reputation really started to build, with people left and right ignoring the sacrifices that had made it a pyrrhic victory for Sakura.

A single Thor was over sixty feet taller than the largest mobile suit, was several times more massive, and had the firepower to match, with two main cannons mounted in each arm, each one firing a solid, two hundred and fifty millimeter slug at velocities exceeding mach five, four massive ship-caliber strike cannons mounted on its back, eight vulcan cannons for anti-infantry and point-defense, and eight oversized anti-air missile launchers capable of launching several volleys in rapid succession. As if all the firepower, nigh-impenetrable armor and incredible size weren't enough, the Thor could be pushed to move an impressive sixty kilometers per hour and was capable of turning a hundred and eighty degrees in under fifteen seconds. One ZAFT base had been annihilated by a Thor that never fired a single shot, simply waltzing right through the base and letting its mass do all the work.

They were engines of destruction like the world had never seen. The only way to take them down was to outmaneuver them and strike at the heavily armored cockpit and leg-joints. While not where the armor was thinnest, these were the only points where significant damage could be inflicted. You could tear through eighty percent of the rest of a Thor's body and expect it to still keep going. The damn things were engineered to be nearly invincible.

But Sakura had taken several down in her career. Once she'd learned how to fight them and gotten the proper equipment to do the job with, it came pretty naturally to her. Still wasn't easy, but she could manage, usually without casualties.

"Split by wing-pairs," ordered Sakura as they got closer and the Thor began firing anti-air missiles at them, forcing them to perform high-speed evasion to avoid the heat-seekers. "Noland, we'll take the front. Joseph, take Andrey and strike at its left flank. Naomi, you and Julian will attack its right flank."

"Yes ma'am!"

The team broke according to Sakura's orders. As they did so, they all leveled their machine guns and began to open fire.

"We'll be on the receiving end of the bulk of its anti-air power," murmured Sakura, shooting down a missile. "This'll be tough. I usually have more to work with. Alright Noland, let's go low."

"Are you sure? The CIWS fire gets more intense down there."

"I'm sure that we can't afford to waste ammo shooting down every missile that comes our way," said Sakura. "Let's go!"

The two DINNs dove down, flying along not even a hundred feet above the ground. As they did so, the Thor was forced to let up on its missile fire, resorting to the numerous CIWS emplacements on its body as they drew closer, its heavier cannons too slow to hit fast-moving air targets like the DINNs.

"Come on, come on, come on," muttered Sakura, diving closer as her teammates opened up harassment fire on the Thor's flanks. She'd already closed to within two thousand feet, and the anti-air fire from its twenty millimeter cannons was intensifying. "Noland, now!"

"Opening fire!" came Noland's response as he shifted to a better firing position and let loose a barrage from his chest-mounted launchers, a dozen powerful air-to-ground missiles now streaking across the sky.

The Thor's CIWS swatted them from the sky. However, Sakura's follow-on attack with her machine gun hit the first gun straight on, silencing it. Shifting aim, she quickly took out the next vulcan, and then a third, clearing out a significant chunk of the Thor's coverage.

Sakura was an ace pilot; she was dangerous in all fields of mobile suit combat, but her greatest strength was undoubtedly her excellent marksmanship. With the massive interference of the N-jammers ramming guided weapon effectiveness to practically nil, it was an invaluable skill to have, and very useful against enemies like the Thor.

"I'm closing in," said Sakura, flying closer, Noland sticking close to her wing as she did so. The Thor shifted to bring its undamaged vulcans to bear, but Sakura was already too close. She practically rammed her DINN into the Thor's side, grabbing hold and bracing her machine against it while Noland began to attack the CIWS guns.

In the corner of her eye, Sakura saw one of her team's DINNs get hit by a missile from the Thor.

"Andrey's gone down!" called Joseph.

"Damn…" muttered Sakura. He was the newest and least experienced member of the team. It was to be expected, and they'd all gotten used to taking losses. It still stung.

She could usually take down Thors without casualties. Usually… but not always. There would never be an "always" of no casualties.

So instead of worrying about her lost subordinate, Sakura focused herself on the task at hand, readying her hundred and ninety millimeter shotgun. It had impressive range, and was designed for anti-air combat, but made an effective weapon against almost any enemy, especially a heavily-armored Thor.

"Joseph, hit the damn thing's leg joints," ordered Sakura. "Drop it to the ground!" As she gave the order, Sakura aimed her shotgun at the armored cockpit and opened fire.

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

Cat's Eye Café, Frontier Island-1, Terra Firma Fleet

"She's cloning herself," muttered Kagami Yoshida, eyeing the café-owner out of the corner of her eye. "It's the only explanation for how she manages to always be at every one of these cafés when we're visiting, no matter which one it is."

"Personally, I'm more curious as to how she manages to own so many," said Miho Tamura lightly. "What is it? This one, one on Galaxy and one down in Orb?"

"Yeah," said Kagami. "I've been to each of them at different times, and yes, she always seems to be there."

"Okay, so maybe cloning isn't that far-fetched," said Miho. "But don't you think there's another explanation? Having people dress up like her or sisters or something?"

"Oh come on! That's boring!"

"I guess…"

"Besides…" Kagami paused for a moment. "Don't you think it would be hard to get that level of resemblance? Hair, facial structure, figure, eyes, mannerisms, voice… it's a bit much to be a disguise or even siblings, unless they were identical triplets."

"Okay, okay, you win—cloning it is."

"What's all this I'm hearing about cloning?" cut in a voice suddenly. The two looked up at Sakura Kinomoto, the teenager who ran (and apparently owned) the Cat's Eye, a cute girl with light brown hair worn in a bob cut, bright emerald green eyes, and a one hundred percent cheerful persona. According to rumors, she was also the chef, and definitely the main waitress—her ability to seemingly handle everything went beyond human.

She was also the one primarily responsible for the popularity of the Cat's Eye—she managed to give it an incredibly relaxed atmosphere that could draw a lot of people in.

"Ah, we were just wondering if that was how you managed to get everything done," said Kagami with a light smile. Kinomoto smiled in response.

"Ah, how scary! You've caught onto my secret! I must now eliminate you so that knowledge of this does not spread!"

The three laughed slightly, Kagami and Miho somewhat nervously—Kinomoto could be scary when she really wanted to be.

"Anyways," continued Kinomoto, "I've got your orders here." The next thing they knew, she'd quickly put both of their orders in place. Miho blinked.

"Where was she hiding all of that?" she asked incredulously as Kinomoto walked off with a slight bounce in her step.

"She can't be human," muttered Kagami, covering her eyes with her hand in exasperation. She peeked out from between them to eye Miho, who had a cute, confused expression on her face.

The two of them were wards of the Taiyonoha and Sakurai families, and had been the best of friends since they were young. And, truthfully, Kagami found her best friend more than a little attractive.

Miho was quarter Japanese, but you wouldn't guess that by looking at her, and her European ancestry was far more prevalent. She had deep burgundy eyes, soft, rounded facial features, a prominent bust, slim body and long blonde hair. She also happened to be the idol of the Terra Firma Fleet, meaning she had hordes of screaming fans.

Kagami always thought that she seemed kind of plain by comparison—she had an attractive figure with a good-sized bust, pretty enough facial features, brown hair and violet eyes, but she wasn't nearly the looker Miho was. Probably part of why she'd gone into the military and become a pilot in her foster mother's mobile fighter corps.

"I know what you're thinking," said Miho suddenly. "And I'll repeat myself once again: you are a very attractive young woman. Standing next to me won't detract from that just because I'm an idol singer."

"Hah… Miho knows me too well…"

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

Heliopolis Shopping District

"Now let me see…" muttered Flay Allster softly to herself as she looked through the latest shop. She was already carrying a fair bit, but she wasn't so weak that it was troublesome for her. Still, she knew she had to get home and wrap these gifts up soon.

But she needed to get just one more present… and it was proving incredibly difficult. Of course, it would've been easier if she'd really known Kira Yamato, rather than just being a peripheral acquaintance. Okay, so she knew some things about him: that he could be rather shy, that he was very gentle by nature, and that he was very protective of his little sister.

He had a comforting presence, and she was pretty sure he could seduce non-committed women by standing in their general vicinity, and most committed women by simply saying 'hi' to them. She knew this because her friends, Jessica Bradford and Misha Kaga, were crushing on him and had never had a single conversation with him. Kira's long-time friend Kaley Forbes was crushing on him and Flay was pretty sure Miriallia Haw might've had a crush as well even though she was dating Kira's friend Tolle Koenig. About the only girl Flay knew who wasn't crushing on Kira (besides herself of course) was Melanie Wilson, Kaley's best friend.

Also, she suspected that Sai, Tolle and a few other men might've been attracted to Kira. However, that might've just been her inner yaoi fangirl acting up.

So… summarizing: Kira was young, handsome, intelligent, kind, shy, athletic… in other words, as a man, he was ideal. The only thing he didn't have going for him was wealth… not that it seemed to matter. The lack of wealth was both an advantage and disadvantage to Flay, because it meant he couldn't afford certain things, but also that he would probably be uncomfortable with anything too costly.

Walking down the rows of shelves in the comic store, Flay let out a sigh. She'd thought there might be something good here, but it seemed like she was wrong. She was about to leave when she spotted something out of the corner of her eye and decided to get it for herself.

Any straight boy would appreciate yuri manga… but it would raise questions to receive it from a girl, and probably be an awkward present.

After making the purchase and quickly fleeing in mild embarrassment, Flay found herself walking down the streets, sighing faintly. She glanced up at the central shaft and the make of the colony.

There was something she hated about regular colonies: they had no weather. During the daytime hours, it was just sunny, sunny, sunny, a perpetual summer, and the nights like this one were naturally warm. Island-3 colonies like Heliopolis had no agriculture on the colonies themselves, instead leaving it all to a dedicated agricultural ring attached to the cylinder. As such, there was no need for any other weather conditions… and Flay hated it. She wanted to listen to the gentle patter of rainfall and play in the snow of winter. She didn't get any of that here; the only space habitats that offered it were the PLANTs and Terra Firma worldships.

But, of course, the PLANTs were the Coordinator homeland, and her father would never allow her within ten thousand miles of it, and Flay herself was more than a little terrified of Coordinators. And the Terra Firma Fleet was always on the move, and she knew her father hated it because one of its leaders was a Coordinator, and worse still, the other was a Natural who had wed a Coordinator. Her children were Hybrids.

The Hybrid… it was ironic, but even though Flay hated Coordinators in the overall sense (though hate might've too strong a word), she had nothing against Hybrids; her dislike of Coordinators stemmed from the fact that it was Coordinators who'd killed her mother, so the differences between Naturals and Hybrids didn't off-put her.

The Hybrids, offspring of a Natural and a Coordinator parent, sat somewhere in between the two races. They were hardly spoken of, a black sheep of the human race. Coordinators saw them as Naturals and Naturals saw them as Coordinators. They often received even more extreme prejudice than either of the others did. There was a silent agreement that they were to be treated as abominations beyond any other, and even Orb wasn't immune to this prejudice, though things had improved significantly in recent years. Terra Firma was the only place where the prejudice was mostly non-existent, probably at least in part because their princesses were Hybrids.

Flay knew all of this because a friend of hers had actually been a Hybrid. Her father had never known about it, but that girl had been one of the handful of Hybrids around; most of them were very secretive about it, passing themselves as Naturals or Coordinators to evade the prejudice, but it didn't always work.

Her friend had been murdered. Flay had never had to see it, and it had never been put to her in such a way, but she knew. She knew that Kelly and her family had been murdered, and why it had happened to them.

Perhaps that was part of why Flay felt so comfortable with Hybrids. But she supposed she'd probably never know.

As Flay walked down the street, something in the window of a hobby shop caught her eye. She turned to take a closer look.

It was a model kit for an old world fighter jet, an F-22A Raptor. She stood there for a moment, just staring at it… and then decided to buy it.

Somehow, she thought it would be a good present for Kira.

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

The Round Table

Bullets steadily wore down the armor around the Thor's leg-joints, but it may have been a moot point, as Sakura's shotgun blasts managed to get through the cockpit armor and inside to kill the pilot. The Thor went silent, and Sakura let out a small sigh of relief.

But she'd lost good people to a seemingly downed Thor before. With that in mind, Sakura lifted her shotgun and blasted the cockpit several more times, just to be sure, and then pushed off, taking to the skies and causing the now inoperative Thor to start tipping as her subordinates finished tearing into the joints, downing the Thor entirely.

"Commander Daimon, this is Captain Baker of Indigo Squadron. Thanks for the reinforcements."

"No problem captain," said Sakura as her team regrouped with the other ZAFT forces that now held control of the skies.

"Commander, we can maintain air superiority here now. If you could take your team and–"

"Bandits inbound!" cried a voice over the radio.

Missile warning alarms started going off in the cockpits of the ZAFT pilots in the air, a mix of DINNs (mostly the Daimon Team), a few Guul-riding GINNs and several squadrons of F-7D Spearheads, the same type of fighter used by the Atlantic Federation.

The ZAFT forces all broke by wing pairs, the heat-seeking missiles turning to pursue. Fighter pilots all cranked up their throttle as they tried to shake the missiles, while the DINNs began an ascent. The GINNs, on the slower and ultimately less-maneuverable Guuls, began firing on the missiles with their machine guns and the Guuls own built-in missile launchers.

Several Spearhead pilots threw themselves into a sudden turn, cut thrust, and fired off flares to draw off the missiles, while others cut sudden turns that caused the missiles to overshoot and detonate too far away to cause damage.

The air force DINNs, after gaining some distance, fired off a few of the missiles mounted in their chests. The five mobile force DINNs ascended into the sky, breaking apart to discover only one machine was being pursued. That machine flipped on its back as the missile pursued, then flipped head down and began to shoot down; twisting to the side shortly before impact with the missile, causing it to overshoot as its proximity trigger went off, detonating far above the DINN in question.

However, several Spearheads were hit and most of the GINNs were hit, as were two of the air force DINNs.

"Joseph, sit-rep!" said Sakura as she quickly looked over the damage. "What are we dealing with?"

"Twelve Vikings and twelve Spearheads," said Joseph. "Our remaining forces are six DINNs, two GINNs, and seventeen Spearheads."

"That gives us a narrow advantage in numbers," muttered Sakura. "But…!"

Another barrage of missiles was launched their way. They scattered, evading as before, but another GINN and Spearhead went down before the ZAFT forces shot forward to counterattack, unleashing a barrage of their own air-to-air missiles.

"But it looks like this won't be easy!"

"Commander Daimon, can your team handle the Vikings?"

"If we do our jobs right, no problem," said Sakura. "Everyone, form up on me, we can't let them outflank us! Captain Baker, we'll leave the Spearheads to you."

"Roger that."

The Daimon Team gathered together in a V-formation with Sakura at the head, charging at the Vikings. The main problem Sakura always faced with most mobile suits was their limited range, something that often proved lethal against Vikings equipped with long-range missiles.

However, it seemed the Vikings had already exhausted their supply of long-range missiles. The distance closed to thirty miles quickly, and then the Vikings fired off their short-range missiles.

"Julian, flares!" ordered Sakura.

"Yes ma'am!"

Julian pulled his DINN slightly ahead, the chest opening up to expose the launchers mounted within. He fired off four missiles that went streaking ahead of them. Around twenty seconds later, the missiles all exploded into several flares that lit up immediately, catching the attention of the heat-seeking missiles. The missiles tracked the flares and crashed into them, detonating in response to proximity with their 'targets'.

"Range seventeen miles," called Joseph. Sakura nodded.

"Joseph, Naomi, open fire!"

Julian's DINN had pulled back into position on the right tip of the formation. Joseph and Naomi, without flying forward from their positions on the left tip and Sakura's right flank, respectively, opened up their launchers and fired off a barrage of their own air-to-air missiles.

The Vikings responded by breaking formation in fours, one group going up, one going left and one going right. Then, as the missiles closed in on them, they began to perform evasive maneuvers and shot off flares of their own.

Sakura shook her head slightly even as they continued to close the distance. Under N-jammer interference, heat seekers were the only homing missile that still worked, and even it had been hurt and could be more easily fooled by flares than in the past. Since heat seeking had been discarded almost entirely after the Reconstruction War, it had been a major early advantage for ZAFT when they deployed the N-jammers.

It also meant long-range missiles couldn't be fired into a dogfight containing allied forces. IFF systems were just too shoddy to do so safely. These pilots knew what they were doing.

But then, so did Sakura and her team.

"Joseph, will you be alright without a wingman?" asked Sakura.

"Sure, no problem."

"Then let's go! Vikings are good, but our DINNs beat them in a dogfight! Don't let them catch your tail!"

The DINNs broke apart, spreading out to pursue different groups, Sakura and her wingman taking the group on the right, Naomi and hers taking the group on the left, and Joseph pursuing those that had flown to a higher altitude. As the latter did so, he shouldered the sniper rifle he'd replaced his anti-air shotgun with and began to take aim.

Sakura was a good marksman, better than most in ZAFT, which was saying something. But Joseph was another story. He wasn't a good marksman.

Put bluntly, he was the best.

Joseph fired. The high-speed projectile sped through the sky.

The targeted Viking crashed its cockpit into it. If anyone had actually been witness to exactly what happened, they'd have been gaping at the incredible display of skill—such a shot required perfect calculation of range, muzzle velocity, velocity shed, relative speeds of the shooter and the target, exact behavior of the target and the ability to put the bullet at the exact desired point, all in the span of only a few seconds.

Back down below, Naomi and Julian pursued their own group of Vikings, swiftly closing the range between them. The Vikings broke into pairs heading left and right, and Naomi shook her head slightly.

"Divide and conquer," she muttered, turning to pursue the pair on the left, Julian sticking close to her. "Julian, ready your semi-guided missiles."

"Yes ma'am."

As the range closed to an absurd three kilometers, Naomi leveled her machine gun and opened fire, observing how the Vikings moved, evading to the right. On her radar, she spotted the Vikings beginning to come around to pursue her and Julian.

"Julian… now!" said Naomi as she fired again at an angle that would encourage the Vikings to evade left instead of right and hence towards her wingman. As they did so, Julian fired a barrage of missiles that crossed the too-few kilometers distance between them in the space of a bare two seconds and detonated around the Vikings, destroying them.

Then, the DINN pair spread out their wings and flipped over as the Vikings pursuing them opened fire. Pulling back, the two leveled their anti-air shotguns, switching them to a higher spread mode that would catch the missiles ahead of them easily at close range.

As the missiles closed, they pulled the triggers simultaneously and destroyed all of them. The Vikings screamed in soon after, twin gatling guns blazing at the DINNs.

Meanwhile, Sakura and Noland were relentlessly pursuing their own targets. Much like Naomi and Julian's, the Vikings split by pairs in two different directions.

"Noland, pursue the south-bound Vikings for four klicks, then hit the dirt and proceed half a klick northwest. I'll be counting on you when I bring the enemy over your position."

"Roger that Commander. Good luck."

"Thanks," said Sakura as the two split, each pursuing their own Viking pair. Sakura let the throttle loose, and felt herself get pressed into her seat as she did so.

The Vikings didn't notice what she'd done until they split when she was five kilometers away. In general, sane folk didn't punch throttle up to full during a close-range fight like this.

Of course, Sakura did want to close this to extreme dogfight range, and was a woman working under a man she explicitly knew wanted her dead, so really, it wasn't anything unusual for her.

When the Vikings split, Sakura pursued the one on her right. The pilot began to punch up the throttle, but he wasn't picking up speed nearly fast enough, and Sakura closed to two kilometers.

Then, she opened up with her machine gun. She missed for the first second or two, but then bullets began to connect, pinging off the Viking's armor for a second before tearing through and turning the fighter to Swiss-cheese.

In the corner of her eye, Sakura saw the other Viking coming up on her in the radar. The Vikings Noland had pursued were swinging back around as well.

Sakura cut throttle, then flipped her DINN over, her braided hair falling straight down as she sat upside down in the cockpit, wings of her DINN spread to full to create as much drag as possible. Then, she fired her throttle back up to full.

She had less than five seconds to make all the calculations, line up her shot, and pull the trigger at the right instant. Aided in part by her computer, Sakura succeeded.

The blast from the anti-air shotgun tore straight through the Viking. He hadn't even fired off missiles so surprised was he by the maneuver she'd pulled.

Sakura reoriented herself to the ground, now soaring towards the remaining two Vikings. The pilots fired off a barrage, and Sakura swung herself to the left, diving low to evade. She was too far for the proximity alarms though, and the missiles quickly curved to pursue. She successfully overshot them, but they just began turning, while the Vikings pulled in on her, sticking behind the missiles so as not to become victims of the heat-seekers themselves.

Teeth grit, sweating from nervousness, Sakura pushed her throttle as high as she could and gunned for Noland's position.

She was taking a gamble; if he wasn't there, then she was almost certainly done for.

Sakura zipped over the approximate location she'd ordered him. She thought she might've seen his DINN, but passed too quickly to be sure. One eye turned to the window screen displaying the view from her aft camera.

She gulped slightly. Seven missiles on her tail. Two Vikings behind them.

"Come on…"

A barrage of missiles soared up from the ground and slammed into the bellies of the two Vikings, obliterating them.

"Yes!" whooped Sakura. She spun left, trying to drag the missiles around as she sought the location where the Viking wreckage had crashed. "Noland, clear the area, I've got some serious heat on my tail!"

In the distance, she spotted a DINN take to the sky. She located the wreckage, pulled up high with the missiles still tailing her, rising to her altitude. She was still sweating, and the missiles were closing on her.

As they approached, she began to dive straight towards the wreckage, quickly running the calculations.

She had… five seconds to contact. She tried pushing the throttle higher and made sure her wings were folded and the aerodynamic helmet deployed.

Four seconds. Still not close enough. Three seconds, and still she needed to dive further.

At two seconds to impact, Sakura spread wings and fired off every thruster she could to shoot back off into the sky, silently praying she'd been successful.

She was, and the heat-seekers locked onto the burning wreckage, crashing into the ground in a brilliant chain of explosions.

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief, putting a hand to her chest, trying to calm her racing heart.

Why, why didn't this thing have some kind of real CIWS of its own? She'd have to see if she could get some complaint lodged that wouldn't be intercepted by Patrick Zala.

"Commander, are you okay?" asked Noland, retaking his position on her wing.

"Somehow," said Sakura. "If I ever so much as think of doing something so stupidly suicidal again, please disabuse me of the notion."

"I'll try," said Noland dryly. "Naomi has things well in hand. Should we assist Joseph?"

"Yeah, let's settle this."

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

Memorial Plaza, PLANT Colony Aprilius One

"Are you ready for this?" asked Shayla Whitson, staring down at the panting girl sitting in the chair next to her. "I don't think anyone would mind waiting a few more minutes."

"I've rested enough," said the girl, shaking her head slightly as she looked at the mirror. She frowned slightly, undoing her hair clip and grabbing a brush that she began pulling through her dyed pink locks. After a few seconds, she was satisfied and replaced the clip. "Besides, I've been waiting a long time for this."

"I understand," said Shayla. "Good luck Lacus."

Lacus Clyne smiled at her manager before standing up and stretching slightly, grateful for Shayla's help and concern.

Shayla, who stood five foot, eight inches tall, was in her mid-forties, but she looked nearly a decade younger, which she claimed was simply how her genes were set, being a first generation Coordinator. That enhanced youth was about as far as her parents went towards trying to control her birth though, and the rest of her appearance was completely natural. She had light brown hair kept in a short bob cut, warm brown eyes, and a fairly average appearance, with a figure even more modest than Lacus's own. She'd been with Lacus from day one of the teen's idol career, and helped her through a few rough spots.

Lacus herself was fifteen years old, stood five foot one inch, had hair dyed a rosy pink color (her natural hair color was a deep brown), big, sky blue eyes, and a good figure with long slender legs, wide hips and a thin waist, though she had very small breasts, barely an A-cup (not that she minded, it mostly meant she didn't have them getting in the way).

Lacus had wanted to sing from a very young age, and it had shown in her behavior a lot. She admired the late Kiyoka Daimon, a former idol singer and music teacher who'd been famous world-wide, and still looked up to Mai Sakamoto as well. She was also rather envious of Miho Yukari, the Terra Firma Idol, because the girl was a blonde bombshell with access to holographic technology that she used for her performances. Mostly, Lacus envied the holo-tech, as she preferred not having large breasts to get in her way.

After stretching, Lacus gave Shayla another warm smile before walking out onto the temporary stage, to massive cheers from the gathered crowd.

"Everyone, thank you for coming to my show tonight!" called Lacus, holding up her mic. "I really appreciate you being here, as well as your patience while I rested after that last song." Lacus gave the crowd a sheepish smile, and there were some light-hearted laughs. "Now, my final performance for tonight; it's a song I wrote myself, and I've wanted to sing it on stage for a quite awhile now. I hope you all enjoy hearing it as much as I enjoyed making it, and as much as I know I'll enjoy singing it!"

More cheers. The stage lights faded for a minute, leaving Lacus as only a barely visible silhouette in the night.

Then, the spotlights snapped on as the music began to play.

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

The Round Table

The Daimon Team mopped up all twelve Vikings with no losses, but they'd nearly exhausted their supply of missiles and flares in the process. Sakura herself was the only one to still carry a full load. They were now heading back to regroup with the air force units.

Oh no I just keep on falling
(Back to the same old…)
And where's hope when misery comes crawling?
(Oh my way, Ay…)

"Com… on, we… oble…" came Baker's scrambled voice as they approached. Sakura looked at the scrambled radar read-out, trying to get a bead on the fight going on while boosting power to her comm. in the hopes of getting a clearer message. "Command… imon do yo… y? We have… blem… enemy…" Sakura pushed her throttle a bit further.

"Captain Baker?" murmured Sakura. Finally, the transmission came through, loud and clear, and Sakura felt her gut clench.

"Commander Daimon, we have a problem! The enemy pilots are aces, they're pushing us… argh!"

"Captain Baker!"

With your faith you'll trigger a landslide
(victory)
To kill off this common sense of mind

"Joseph, get me a sit-rep, now!" said Sakura.

"Working on it… looks like… crap! Picking up nine enemy Spearheads and only six of our own left. No other forces in the airspace."

"You've gotta be kidding me," said Naomi with evident disbelief.

It takes acquired minds
To taste, to taste, to taste this wine
You can't down it with your eyes
So we don't need the headlines
We don't need the headlines
We just want…

"They shot down two mobile suits and ten fighters with only three losses?" murmured Sakura, sympathizing with how Naomi felt. "Unbelievable… alright team, looks like it's on us again. Push throttle to full, we can't lose control of the airspace! We'll sweep these guys from the sky as well!"

"Ma'am!" called her four pilots, pushing up their throttle to match Sakura's.

(We want the airwaves back, we want the airwaves back)

"This is Commander Daimon to the remaining ZAFT air forces," said Sakura, firing off a long-range shot with her team to try and draw some attention, "what's your current situation?"

"This is Lieutenant Sven of Indigo Squadron: not good Commander. These guys are faster and better than we are, and they have us outnumbered now."

"Roger that."

Everybody sing like it's the last song you will ever sing
Tell me, tell me, do you feel the pressure now?
Everybody live like it's the last day you will ever see
Tell me, tell me, do you feel the pressure now?

Sakura quickly took stock of the situation. The ground forces were advancing swiftly now, but they wouldn't last long if air support failed now. She made her decision.

"Lieutenant, take your remaining pilots and go low, provide the ground forces with close air support. My team and I will handle the enemy fighters."

"Are you sure Commander?"

"I'm sure; we can't afford to let the operation fail here!"

"Roger. Will do Commander. Thanks."

Right now you're the only reason
(I'm not letting go, oh…)
And time out if everyone's worth pleasing

The ZAFT Spearheads broke away. The Earth Forces Spearheads turned to pursue, but the Daimon Team arrived at that moment, filling the air with lead from their machine guns. After capturing the full attention of the enemy pilots, they ejected their spent magazines and loaded in new ones.

"Naomi, Julian, you two are on Joseph's wings," ordered Sakura as the combatants all broke apart. "I need you to cover him so he can go high and provide sniper support."

"Commander, I'm good, but I'm not sure if I'm that good."

"Well, we'll just have to find out, won't we?" said Sakura as she managed to shoot down a Spearhead. Noland took down one that had moved to flank her at about the same time.

(Well ha!)
You'll trigger a landslide
(Victory)
to kill off their finite state of mind

Joseph soared to a higher altitude, flanked by Naomi and Julian… and pursued by no less than six of the seven remaining Spearheads. Sakura cursed slightly.

"Hold on just a sec, we'll deal with the straggler and then…"

However, the last Spearhead turned to fly straight at them and opened fire with its machine guns. Sakura and Noland broke to the left… and then the Spearhead was suddenly on their tail and fired off two missiles at Sakura.

"Commander, on your six! Break right!"

Sakura did so, while Noland turned and leveled his weapons to take down the two missiles… only to have two more missiles suddenly slam into him. Sakura's eyes widened.

"Brett!" cried Sakura as the DINN went down. But there were still two missiles pursuing her, and she cursed as she flew low before suddenly turning up, twisting about so that the missiles would fly precariously close and overshoot her. They detonated a safe distances away as she turned to face the lone Spearhead soaring straight at her.

It takes acquired minds
To taste, to taste, to taste this wine
You can't down it with your eyes
So we don't need the headlines
No, we don't want your headlines
We just want…

"A quiet soldier who bears a blue Möbius strip as her emblem…" came a new voice over the radio. As Sakura fired on the Spearhead and it broke to the left, she realized it was the enemy ace. "I've heard stories about you. They say you stand out, not for your overwhelming skill or power… but because your voice is one they've never heard."

He fired two more missiles at her, but she was ready, and gunned them down before blasting off a shot with her anti-air shotgun. She missed, though, and instead fired a missile of her own, followed by another one two seconds later. A flare decoyed the first missile but not the second… but then the enemy pilot suddenly cut thrust and twisted down, evading the missile and causing it to overshoot.

(We want the airwaves back, we want the airwaves back)

"Do you know what they call you? The 'Silent Möbius'. You mobile force punks are so cocky that you never shut up in battle… or maybe you're just in love with the sound of your own voices. But… not you. Now why is that I wonder?"

Bullets sliced through the air, but both pilots caught nothing but air. Sakura didn't know which was more shocking—that this pilot managed to evade her for this long, or that he was able to bring her in his sights this often.

Everybody sing like it's the last song you will ever sing
Tell me, tell me, do you feel the pressure now?
Everybody live like it's the last day you will ever see
Tell me, tell me, do you feel the pressure now?
Everybody sing like it's the last song you will ever sing
Tell me, tell me, do you feel the pressure?

"Hah… now this is quite a turn, isn't it? Here I am, just your average Joe in the Atlantic Federation flying against a mobile forces ace, and I'm the one who won't shut up and leave the comm. lines clear. Now how 'bout that?"

Another missile came Sakura's way. She wasn't in a position to shoot it down, and had no flares of her own, so she eyed it on the radar as it approached, and then threw her machine hard to the left at the last instant, letting the missile overshoot her again.

She heard a whistle over the radio. "I must say, you're pretty good. Got a real name for me?"

Sakura said nothing, focusing entirely on the battle. She'd never been in a real air battle this tough before; her only real battles to prove this difficult were the early encounters with Thors.

"Ashley. Ashley Harper. That's mine. But I don't think you care, huh?"

Alright, so you think you're ready?
Ok, then you say this with me
Go!
We were born for this
We were born for this

Two more missiles. Teeth grit, Sakura flipped over and soared right between them; they detonated as she passed, and some shrapnel hit her DINN, but the damage was negligible.

"Alright then, fair enough, 'Silent Möbius'. Guess I'll put your nickname on your grave instead!"

Alright, so you think you're ready?
OK, then you say this with me
Go!
We were born for this
We were born for this
We were born for this
We were born for this

Sakura fired three missiles on the Spearhead. They streaked across the sky, turning to pursue as the fighter evaded. It came around, flying her way, and she leveled her weapons, ready to shoot down the fighter or whatever else the pilot threw at her.

Then, the Spearhead turned nose up as the missiles closed, but didn't rise, just… sitting in place, a Pugachev's Cobra. Sakura's eyes widened and the missiles reached their destination, just as the pilot suddenly started moving again, and the missiles proximity triggers caused them to detonate as the Spearhead shot away after the absolutely insane stunt. The now-unmolested Spearhead came in at Sakura's left. A single missile blasted off, and Sakura pulled to try and evade.

The missile reached its target and detonated.

We were born for…
We were born for…

"Aahh!" cried Sakura, thrown about in her seat as the DINN was thrown through the air, falling from the sky, half of its left wing gone. The Spearhead pursued her, bringing the DINN in line with its guns.

However, Sakura recovered. The DINN flipped over, spreading its right wing along with the broken left one, and firing engines full throttle back up at the Spearhead. The pilot was evidently caught off-guard, and his machine gun fire went wide as the two suddenly shot past each other… but Sakura seized the Spearhead and cut thrust, adding her weight to the fighter and letting it drag her around, nearly shearing off the wing in the process.

Everybody sing like it's the last song you will ever sing
Tell me, tell me, can you feel the pressure?
Everybody live like it's the last day you will ever see
Tell me, tell me, can you feel the pressure now?

Sakura was left-handed, and had held her machine gun on that side. She'd lost it when she'd taken that missile hit, but she still had her shotgun.

She put the barrel of the shotgun to the Spearhead's body.

"I see… so that's how it ends…"

Sakura pulled the trigger.

Everybody sing like it's the last song you will ever sing
Tell me, tell me, can you feel the pressure?
Tell me, tell me, can you feel the pressure?

The blast tore the Spearhead apart. Sakura let go as she fired another shot to be certain and flew back into the air; it was more difficult with the damage, but not impossible. However, she'd probably lost around forty percent mobility.

"Joseph, Naomi, Julian, are you guys okay?" asked Sakura.

"We're fine Commander," said Joseph. "We've cleared out the enemy fighters. No losses ourselves."

Sakura breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Good, let's regroup with the air force."

"Roger. And Commander? I'm sorry about Noland."

We were born for this
We were born for this
We were born for this

Captain Ashley Harper, leader of Camelot Air Base's Tomahawk Squadron and head flight instructor at the base, sighed as he fell to the Earth, descent slowed by his parachute.

He'd faced mobile suits plenty. He'd taken down his share of them, and put down more than one mobile force pilot.

But today he'd met his match in the form of the Silent Möbius.

"Hah… even when she took me down, she didn't breathe a word…" he muttered to himself.

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

Memorial Plaza, Aprilius One

Lacus panted as the lights dimmed and the crowd cheered wildly. Sweat glistened on her skin giving it a faint sheen, and her hair was a wild mess after her dance.

But it was worth it. Every time she did something like this, it was worth it.

"Everyone, thank you!" called Lacus one last time after she regained her breath before exiting stage right.

"You did great Lacus," said Shayla, smiling brightly at Lacus.

"Thanks Shayla."

"Once you've cleaned up a little, I'll take you home," continued Shayla. "I'm sure your father will be happy to see you."

"Yes, he has the next few days off," said Lacus brightly.

Lacus's father, Siegel Clyne, was the chief ambassador of the PLANTs, working directly for the Diplomatic Committee of the Supreme Council, which was headed by Aaron Gray, who was also the current Chairman of the Supreme Council as a whole.

As chief ambassador, Siegel was busy almost constantly, trying to negotiate some kind of ceasefire between ZAFT and the Alliance. Sadly, he hadn't really made any progress there.

As a result of all this, Lacus hardly ever got to see her father anymore, so she was really looking forward to the upcoming opportunity.

"Well, hurry on and get cleaned up then," said Shayla teasingly. Lacus smiled and walked off to the changing room.

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

Yamato Residence, Heliopolis

"I'm home!" called Kira as he closed the door behind him.

"We're in the kitchen!" came his mother's voice. Kira took off his shoes and walked down the hall and into the kitchen, where he found his mom, Caridad and his sister Stella sitting at the table, evidently waiting for him.

Truthfully, Caridad wasn't his actual mother; rather, she was his biological mother's younger sister, and had adopted Kira and Stella after their parents' deaths.

Originally, Kira had lived on an L4 Colony, Mendel, and would've grown up there if his parents, Ulen Hibiki and Via Yamato, hadn't gotten killed as collateral in a Blue Cosmos terrorist strike when he was barely three years old. That same attack had killed Kira's older brother and sister, and his twin sister as well, none of whom he really remembered clearly anymore. Stella, barely a year old at the time, remembered none of it, though she did know the truth, as no one had ever really tried to hide it from her.

Stella was a little over a year and a half younger than Kira, almost literally a month shy of fourteen years old, as her birthday was the sixth of January. She was almost exactly five feet tall, had short blonde hair and cheerful violet eyes with a slight red tint. Cute, childishly innocent features meant she often attracted a lot more attention than her brother was comfortable with, but at least she was still barely into her teenage development.

"You know, you don't have to keep waiting up for me," said Kira, eyeing the food on the table. Caridad shrugged.

"We're family," she said softly.

"Nī-san, how long is this extra work you've got gonna keep up?" asked Stella pleadingly. Kira sighed, glancing away.

"I'm not sure… we've started to have breakthroughs, so hopefully not too much longer, but I'd have to guess at least another month."

"I understand this work is important for Morgenroete?" said Caridad. Kira nodded.

"Very important," he said; he wasn't allowed to tell them the details. "The sooner it's done, the better."

"Yeah, I want my big brother back!" said Stella. Kira smiled as he turned to face her.

"Don't worry, I'll be done soon," he said. "I'm not going anywhere."

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

ZAFT Nazca-class Destroyer Blackwell, Flagship of the Falcon Team

"I'm telling you Yzak, she's supposed to be one hell of a looker," said Dearka Elsman as he moved down the corridor of the Blackwell alongside his best friend.

The friend in question, Yzak Joule, let out a small sigh of exasperation. Dearka was something of a playboy, and big joker about practically everything. It was really pretty irritating at times.

Of course, Dearka possessed pretty rugged features and was handsome in his own way so he didn't have much problem getting girls. He had wild blond hair that stood out with its sharp contrast to his dark skin inherited from distant African origins. He possessed dark purple eyes that were almost always half-lidded or outright closed, a visible outward display of his cocky attitude. At five foot, nine inches, he was a bit taller than Yzak, and was half a year older than Yzak, with his seventeenth birthday in four months.

Yzak, on the other hand, had always been called a "pretty boy" behind his back, but never to his face thanks to his cold demeanor. He had neck-length straight silver hair and bright blue eyes that were usually pretty cold as well, though warmth sometimes showed through. He'd turned sixteen four months ago, and was five foot, nine inches, barely shorter than Dearka.

"Oh come on, say something."

"I met Grace at the academy," said Yzak. Dearka gaped at him. "Yes, she's attractive, but I could hardly care less about that. Here's what I do care about: she's damn good at what she does. That's all that matters to me."

Sophia Grace was a new addition to the Falcon Team that Yzak and Dearka were a part of. Dearka had never met her because she was in a different training group at the ZAFT military academy, and hadn't graduated until a few months after they did. But Yzak had met her once, and remembered her well.

She was intelligent and had good reflexes. And yes, she was, as Dearka put it, "one hell of a looker"—large breasts, thin waist, long blonde hair, soft blue eyes and gentle facial features, standing exactly five foot seven inches, and seemingly always dressed in a loose long-sleeve shirt and blue jeans, clothes that ultimately failed to hide her figure. She'd attracted a lot of attention from many of the hormone-addled teenage boys at the academy, though not nearly as much attention as the top graduate had attracted from both sexes months earlier.

But while Yzak did remember her appearance and could appreciate her being easy on the eyes, what he'd said to Dearka was wholly true: all that really mattered to him was that she was good at her new job.

"Okay… how good?" asked Dearka slowly.

"How's one of the top two in her class for an answer?"

Dearka whistled slightly.

"Damn… that's not bad at all."

Yzak nodded slightly as the two continued towards the lounge.

"She's good, but she doesn't have any real experience yet," he said. "Of course, we've only had minor skirmishes ourselves. Haven't even shot down one mobile armor."

"Pieces of junk go down too easily to the others," agreed Dearka. "Ah well, it'll change eventually."

"I suppose…"

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

Camelot Air Force Training Base

With the air wing and the Thor eliminated, the ZAFT forces made swift progress through the Round Table and blasted through the meager leftovers of a base defense at Camelot proper.

Camelot looked somewhat like an actual medieval castle—it had four control towers arranged in a square looking like the turrets of an ancient castle, with hangars between them replacing the walls of a castle. Between all of this were the more general base facilities: the dormitories, the briefing hall, recreational facilities and so-forth. Around the "walls" were the runways, and pillboxes beyond that, with quite a few anti-aircraft installations about the base, which would've proven more useful if the mobile suits hadn't all landed and taken them out before the Spearheads soared in to really spread some chaos.

The entire base received its power from the nearby Avalon Hydroelectric Dam, which was placed on the Nimue River where it flowed out into the Round Table.

But for all the visual impressiveness, once the Round Table was conquered, the base proper had quickly fallen to the might of ZAFT's mobile suits, spearheaded by the Daimon Team.

For however short a period of time, Camelot now belonged to ZAFT.

"We've got it Major!"

"Good work men. Now come on, let's clear out! Have we secured those transports yet?"

"Yes sir, transports are secure."

Sakura couldn't help but smile lightly as she walked her DINN about the base, keeping an eye out for any enemies still hiding out, or at the very least deterring anyone from making a move. Small arms fire was pretty worthless again mobile suits.

For all the losses taken, ZAFT had won the day. They had the data, and…

"In-incoming enemy forces! Holy shit there are a lot of them!"

Sakura looked at her sensor readout.

"This is Commander Daimon, link my machine in, let me see what you got," she said.

"R-roger."

A few seconds later, Sakura was seeing the same thing on as Camelot base, with its more powerful sensor systems, was seeing, and she paled slightly.

"Goddess…" she breathed out.

Ten Thors were advancing through the Round Table, surrounded by what she could only assume were numerous tanks, and probably with more infantry and armor down there. In the skies were literally dozens of fighters, a mix of Spearheads and Vikings filling the air like a giant cloud of metal.

"How soon can those transports be ready?" demanded Navarro.

"Five minutes! But they can't possibly outrun those fighters!"

"Damn it!" cursed Sven. "Those air forces will be here in five minutes!"

"Shit," muttered Sakura. "That data's vital to ZAFT; we have to get it out of here! Major Navarro, if we buy you some time, can at least a few of your men get away with the data?"

"Maybe…" Navarro's voice was very quiet. "But I think you're our best chance, Commander. I don't like it, but the Daimon Team has the best chance of getting out of here. Stiles! Get that data to Commander Daimon now!"

"Major Navarro…"

"I understand," said Sven. "All air force units, you're with me. We're going to delay those guys as long as possible. Commander Daimon, get that data out of here and get it back to the Council!"

Sakura closed her eyes, barely suppressing a snarl of frustration. Sven and the others were exhausted and heavily outnumbered by fresh reinforcements; they'd be lucky to delay a handful of the enemy for more than a minute. The Ground Force could use Camelot's anti-air defenses, but…

Unbelievable. How the hell had the Atlantic Federation brought in such a massive response force so soon?

"I understand," said Sakura, opening her eyes and approaching the base as a man ran out. They had four minutes, so she held out the DINN's hand and allowed the man to jump on, lifting it to her cockpit as she popped it open.

"Commander, here," said the man, Stiles she assumed, holding out a disk. With a nod, Sakura accepted it, then put Stiles back down and closed the cockpit, securing the disk.

"Alright team, we're bugging out," said Sakura. "Major Navarro, Lieutenant Sven… good luck."

"To you as well, Commander," said Navarro as the DINNs lifted off.

The next few minutes were a nightmare for the Daimon Team, listening to the screams over the radio as the air force pilots fell one by one, and the Vikings landed around the base and began attacking the ground forces.

"Commander, incoming long-range missiles!" called Joseph. Sakura grit her teeth as she spotted the missiles on the radar.

Two hundred kilometers; at the speed those missiles possessed, that would give them about two minutes to hit. She pushed the throttle a little.

"Any enemy aircraft in pursuit?" asked Sakura.

"Don't see any."

"Understood. It looks like we've got close to a dozen missiles pursuing us. At eighty-two kilometers, we'll turn and prepare our weapons to shoot them down."

"With all due respect Commander, you shouldn't," said Naomi.

"She's right," added Joseph before Sakura could say anything. "It's vital that you get out of here; you're the one carrying the data, and you've taken damage already."

"The three of us will pull back and decoy the missiles," said Julian. "We'll do our best to shoot them down, but if we don't, then we'll at least make sure none of them reach you."

Sakura wanted to object. She really did. But she knew that they were right. She had a duty that meant she couldn't be shot down; all of them were expendable, but that data was not.

"Okay," said Sakura, closing her eyes and pushing her throttle up as the others dropped back a little, closing tightly together to keep themselves between her and the missiles. "Don't any of you three die on me, you hear?"

"Roger that… Sakura," said Joseph.

The next minute or so was tense and eerily quiet as the missiles steadily approached. Then, as the missiles closed to eighty-two kilometers with the trailing DINNs, about thirty seconds from impact, the three all turned and readied their weapons. Sakura continued forward with her throttle at full.

She didn't see what happened next. In a way, she was grateful for that.

"JULIAN!" cried Naomi. Sakura choked slightly as Julian's signal disappeared. She didn't see his DINN consumed in an explosion before falling from the sky in pieces.

But she could imagine it well enough.

Like Joseph and Naomi, Julian had been part of Sakura's MS team in the ground forces. He'd been with them from the beginning, and had saved her life on a few occasions.

Now, of the twelve men and women Sakura had worked together with on the frontlines, only three remained.

"Damn it… damn it!" cried Sakura, slamming a fist against a panel of her DINN. She shook her head, clearing away the frustration and taking a few calming breaths.

Their friendships, their bonds, had been forged in the fires of battle. And it was in the fires of battle that those bonds died.

"Joseph, Naomi, status?" asked Sakura.

"All missiles shot down," said Joseph. "Julian's gone."

"Understood… come on you two… let's get going. The Aldrich's still waiting for us."

"Yeah…"

Sakura lowered her throttle to cruising speed, allowing her remaining teammates to catch up with her, taking up wing positions to the left and right. Then, the three DINNs headed for the rendezvous with the Aldrich, a Vosgulov-class submarine that would transport them back to Gibraltar for their return to space.

It took them nearly an hour to get there, but they reached the rendezvous without incident, despite the damage to Sakura's DINN. Letting out a sigh, Sakura switched her comm. on.

"Aldrich, this is Commander Daimon, requesting permission for me and my team to land," said Sakura.

"Roger that Commander Daimon. Permission granted; opening hangar bay doors now." A moment of silence as a trio of large doors opened atop the submarine. "Daimon Team, you are clear to land."

The three DINNs each moved over a separate opening and descended into the sub. They then moved out of the launch catapults and over to the mobile suit cradles, settling their machines down and deactivating them. Afterwards, they popped the cockpits opened and clambered out, lowing themselves to the hangar floor.

Then, Sakura finally vented her frustration a bit more heavily, slamming a fist full force against her DINN.

"Damn it…" She looked down at the disk she held and snarled. "This data had better be worth the sacrifices we made today!"

Half her team had been wiped out, an entire battalion had been captured or killed, and she didn't have any idea what kind of forces ZAFT had deployed in the air, only what had been there when she arrived.

Sakura glanced around as Joseph and Naomi approached her and the mechanics went to work.

None of them had worn pilot suits, something of a force of habit from their time on the African front, only ever suiting up in space, and otherwise spending most of their time in uniforms, though often with the coats open or pulled off.

Naomi was nineteen years old, stood five foot eight inches, long brownish-red hair, grey-green eyes and a monstrous figure with huge F-cup breasts that, when they'd first met, Sakura had been forced to remind herself several times not to stare at. Sakura sometimes wondered how she managed with a chest like that, though to be fair, Naomi worked hard to keep it under control (but Sakura was sure it was uncomfortable, and shuddered at the thought of what kind of back pains Naomi might have, something Sakura was familiar with).

Joseph was the oldest of them at twenty-two, standing a full six feet with extremely light brown hair worn in a ponytail, and falling just slightly past his shoulders unbound. As a first generation Coordinator, he possessed excellent eyesight, but wore glasses that had once belonged to his deceased father, though with non-corrective lenses of course. His features were sharp, eyes a faintly golden brown and he rarely smiled, but he was far more open and gentle than he'd been when Sakura had first met him.

Sakura herself was the youngest of the team—in fact, she was the youngest commander in the entire mobile force at eighteen years, though she'd be turning nineteen in a day under two months. She was five foot ten inches tall, had thigh-length blue hair and vibrant blue eyes with a slight tint of red to them. Like Naomi, she wasn't lacking in the looks department—she was pretty enough in her own opinion, with long legs, thin supple arms, formidable curves and DD-cup breasts (maybe it was little hypocritical of her to wonder how Naomi managed with her chest…).

The good appearance was hardly uncommon, of course; Coordinators were hardly ever ugly, and as the public face of ZAFT, the mobile force definitely wanted "good-looking privates" to work with. In any other military, Sakura would've criticized that fact, but seeing as it hardly mattered in ZAFT, the detail was actually mostly ignored.

"What do you two think?" asked Sakura. "Do you think this data will be worth the price?"

"I don't know," admitted Joseph softly.

"Yeah… but I agree with you Sakura," said Naomi. "It had better be worth it."

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

The Heart of Winter

"What did you say?"

Mai, and most of the Amate pilots in the lounge with her for that matter, was reeling from shock.

"ZAFT conquered the Round Table and occupied Camelot for a short while," said Makoto. "The Federation drove them back out pretty quickly, but it was still pretty impressive."

"Foolish is more like it," said Mai. "What did they lose? A few battalions and several mobile force units?"

"One battalion and two air wings actually, if our Intelligence is right," said Makoto.

"Wait, that few?" questioned Mai. "I've seen the Round Table; it's a killing field for ground units!" Makoto shrugged.

"Intel suggests they were bolstered significantly by a mobile force team," said Makoto. "One from the Sixth Division, if I remember right. They had six DINNs going in."

"Wait, a single six-man team did all that?" questioned Haruka Nasakawa.

"So it would seem," said Makoto, glancing at Haruka and his twin sister Sora. Next to the two was Kazuha Ohira. "They only got out with half their members, but we think they may have fulfilled their objective."

"I see," said Mai. She shook her head. "It was still foolish to attack Camelot."

"Foolish or not, they did succeed. Still, I wonder if the price paid will really be worth it to them."

With another shrug, Makoto turned and left. After a moment, Mai left as well, leaving Haruka, Sora and Kazuha alone in the lounge. The three glanced at each other before sitting down.

The three were considered "top graduates" of Mai's training for the mobile fighter corps, along with a handful of others, and had been friends for a long time.

Haruka, who was a few weeks over sixteen years old, was five foot eight inches, had somewhat messy silver-white hair, brown eyes and handsome features along with a sturdy body. He was also probably the biggest chick magnet in the world, much to his endless frustration; their friend Kagami had joked that he could give women orgasms just by standing in their general vicinity.

Sora was three inches shorter than her twin and likewise had silver-white hair, though hers was almost perfectly straight and fell to her hips, warm grey-blue eyes, and pretty facial features. She had a fairly modest figure, and almost no breasts to speak of, was pretty withdrawn (though decidedly not shy), and her body was, truthfully, pretty fragile. She also at least seemed to have a brother complex—Haruka and Kazuha still hadn't figured out if she was just messing with people.

The Nasakawa twins were both Naturals, though they did have some Coordinator blood inherited from one of their grandfathers, but all that usually meant was that you might get a slightly better immune system than normal, and while Haruka might've gotten that, Sora definitely hadn't.

Kazuha, on the other hand, was a second generation Coordinator, and was a good nine months older than the twins. She was the same height as Haruka, had thick, straight black hair that fell to her waist, bright violet-grey eyes and beautiful facial features. She had a pretty formidable figure, and prominent chest to boot.

"The Round Table…" murmured Kazuha before shaking her head slightly. "I've heard stories about that place. It was supposed to be impossible to occupy Camelot because of it."

"Evidently not," said Haruka. "Even if it was only for a short time, ZAFT managed to occupy it. Though I agree, I always thought Camelot could only be dealt with by bombing it to oblivion, thanks to the Round Table."

"Hmph, the place is nothing special," said Sora. "So it's a great big basin named after a mythological artifact. Big deal."

The other two sighed slightly.

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

ZAFT Nazca-class Destroyer Vesalius, Flagship of the Le Creuset Team

"Sir? You wanted to see us?" said Miguel Aiman, stepping into the shipboard office of Commander Rau Le Creuset along with Athrun Zala, Rusty Mackenzie, Nicol Amalfi and Liza Farkas.

"Yes, thank you for coming so quickly," said Rau, turning to face them, eyeing each in turn, particularly the three newcomers.

Athrun had been the top cadet of his academy class, and had turned fifteen two months ago. He had handsome features, effeminate blue hair, and striking green eyes, and was just under five foot seven inches tall.

Nicol didn't have nearly the good looks Athrun did, but a nature far too gentle for war reached clearly into features; he had brown eyes, extremely attention grabbing green hair (inherited from his mother Romina), and was barely five foot five inches tall, the shortest member of the Le Creuset Team pilot roster. He'd be turning fifteen come March.

Last among the recent graduates was Rusty, who was also the oldest at sixteen, thirteen months older than Athrun. Rusty was a first generation Coordinator, had wild orange hair, grey-blue eyes, features that were somehow sharp and soft at the same time and a laid back demeanor, standing five foot seven inches exact. Personally, Rau rather liked the kid.

Rau himself was a man in his late twenties with long wavy blond hair and a good physique. He had blue eyes and features that most would probably consider handsome, but few ever saw—he hated his face with a passion and wore a mask at almost all times to conceal his eyes and the area immediately around them, though for practicality purposes he'd left everything below his nose untouched.

For the other two, both were once members of the ZAFT Space Force before reassignment to the mobile force under Le Creuset; they were both experienced and competent, particularly Miguel, who served as something of Rau's lieutenant in the field.

"I called you all here to inform you of our upcoming mission," said Rau. The pilots all shifted slightly, especially the younger ones—no surprise, as they hadn't seen much action lately.

"What's the mission sir?" asked Liza.

"For the time being, a simple escort mission," said Rau. "I'm not sure if you're aware, but a joint-operation of the air, ground and mobile forces was launched to occupy the Earth Forces Camelot base."

"Wait, Camelot?" questioned Miguel. "You mean they assaulted the Round Table?"

"Yes, and they conquered it too," said Rau with a thin smirk. "However, they only held Camelot for a short time before an Atlantic Federation response force arrived. Everyone was captured or killed… except for the mobile force team deployed. Half their members survived and returned to their transport, and we will be escorting them back to the PLANTs for debriefing with the Council."

"I see," said Miguel.

"Sir, what team is it?" asked Liza curiously.

"The Daimon Team," said Rau. Athrun started slightly, catching Rau's attention. "Is something the matter, Athrun?"

"Ah, no, sir," said Athrun as everyone looked at him. "It's just… may I ask who's the commanding officer?"

"Sakura Daimon," answered Rau, genuinely curious as to what was going on. "Do you know her?"

"… yes, I've met her," said Athrun. "I… just never imagined I'd be seeing her again after we both joined ZAFT. It's a bit of a surprise sir, that's all."

"Sakura… Daimon…" echoed Nicol softly. Both names clicked in his head—Athrun had told him, in passing, about Sakura awhile back. And as for Daimon, that was the family name of a deceased world-class music teacher whom Nicol idolized.

"Well, then I'm sure this is a rather pleasant surprise for you Athrun," said Rau warmly. "In any event, we will be rendezvousing with their flagship, the Kiyoka, in two days time. Be ready to meet them then."

"Sir!" said the five, all saluting. However, Nicol's thoughts were whirling.

His idol had been Kiyoka Daimon… this couldn't possibly be mere coincidence, could it?

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

Officer of Ezalia Joule, House of the Council, Aprilius One

The next day

Ezalia Joule, a member of the Defense Committee of the PLANT Supreme Council, eyed the three ZAFT Reds before her.

Oldest among them was Yukari Himemiya at eighteen years old with an upcoming birthday in March. She was a bright girl with light violet eyes, hip-length copper brown hair usually worn in a pair of pigtails, cheerful features, long legs, well-curved hips and a slightly below average chest-size, and was five foot nine inches tall. She was also one of the top graduates in the short history of the ZAFT academy and an experienced ace in her own right now.

Next was Shiho Hahnenfuss, who was sixteen years old (seventeen in March, a few weeks after Yukari's birthday), and stood a flat five foot seven inches. She had very sharp facial features, dark violet eyes, long brown hair and a good figure with a prominent bust. She'd been in the same class as Yukari at the academy, and was likewise one of the best graduates in the academy's history as well as a skilled pilot.

Finally, Nozomi Nakajima was the youngest, having turned fifteen only a few days ago. She was five foot nothing, had topaz brown eyes, light brown hair that fell to her waist, a shy demeanor… and the top cadet in her class and yet another top graduate, who had excelled in piloting, physical exercises and most especially marksmanship—she was, in fact, a better sniper than any of her instructors had been.

They were here now for reassignment. Yukari, despite having skills that should've seen her placed in the mobile force, had been a pilot in the space force, while Shiho had been assigned to the Irving Team of the mobile force, but that unit was being disassembled after the death of the commanding officer. Nozomi, on the other hand, had just graduated from the academy a week ago, and had yet to be in a real battle as the others had.

Ezalia cleared her throat.

"The three of you all scored remarkably during your tenures at the academy," she began, "and Misses Himemiya and Hahnenfuss have continued to demonstrate remarkable skill. You are three of the top ten scorers in the academy's history, and I've decided to acknowledge that."

"Ma'am?" questioned Nozomi. The more experienced two remained quiet, awaiting Ezalia's full explanation.

"Miss Himemiya, you're being transferred to the mobile force as of this moment," said Ezalia. "The three of you are being assigned to the Daimon Team to replace pilots lost in an engagement over the 'Round Table' yesterday."

"The Daimon Team?" questioned Yukari in surprise as Shiho started slightly. Both of them knew Sakura, Shiho because they'd all been in the same class and Yukari because… well… "Ma'am, isn't it a little unusual to assign me to the Daimon Team? You are aware that the commander is my foster sister, aren't you?"

"Yes, I'm aware," said Ezalia. "Nevertheless, after a quick search, I have come to believe you three are the best candidates among those available to replace the losses of the Daimon Team. There isn't a problem with any of this, is there?"

"Ah, no ma'am," said Yukari. "I'll… look forward to it."

ETERNITY – Mobile Suit Gundam SEED – ETERNITY

"It all started on that snowy day. My first thought was… she had potential."

"And then what?"

"Then… well, then things kicked into overdrive. I've told you how this story starts. I can tell you how it ends. But if you want the middle part, you'll have to find someone else. But… I might be able to point you in the right direction."

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Daimon Team
ZAFT Mobile Force, 6th Mobile Division, 66th Mobile Team
Unit Emblem: Blue Möbius strip
Commanding Officer: Commander Sakura Daimon
Members: Joseph Turner, Naomi Sherrill
Deceased Members: April Goodrich, Ferris Hill, Forbes Robinson, Caitlin Finney, Manuel Dozier, Blake Mitchell, Leonard Taylor, Andrey Vorobyrov, Brett Noland, Julian Larson

Tomahawk Squadron
Atlantic Air Force, 8th Air Division, 32nd Tactical Fighter Squadron
Commanding Officer: Captain Ashley Harper
Former Members: Marcus Jones, Elena Burke, Ellery Morgan, Aldan Cooper
Deceased Members: Loyal Patel, Lily Dent, Aaron Hairston, Sarah Albert, Ishmael Thompson, Brody Padgett, Logan Fagan, Adam Callaway, Hanna Chandler, Karston Wilson, Sutton Moore, Jerold Green, Cleavon Brown, Duff Jackson, Hartwell Anderson, Timothy Harris, Ivy Aldridge, Jorge Fowler, Gabriela Swartz

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Glossary Entry:

ZAFT:
The Zodiac Alliance of Freedom Treaty (or "ZAFT") is a militia made up of civilian volunteers from the PLANT space colonies and terrestrial allies from the Oceania Union and the African Community.

ZAFT possesses only a loose ranking structure, but its forces are organized in five separate branches, dubbed the Space Force, the Ground Force, the Air Force, the Naval Force and the Mobile Force. These five branches are generally grouped into two groups, with the Mobile Force divided from the other four branches, which are collectively referred to as the "Main Force".

The so-called Main Force makes up the bulk of ZAFT and is modeled after the military practices of the Atlantic Federation, with a semi-formal ranking structure and clear role assignments.

The Mobile Force is much more loosely organized, with a nearly non-existent rank structure. The Mobile Force is made up of teams of elite mobile suit pilots and the various warships that ferry them throughout the conflict. Mobile Force teams are expected to be capable of handling a variety of combat situations and to be able to deploy at a moment's notice to bolster the ZAFT Main Force on any battlefront.

Traditionally, cadets who graduate at the top of their class in the ZAFT military academy—nicknamed "ZAFT Reds" for the color of their uniform—are placed immediately into the Mobile Force while other graduates are assigned to the Main Force or as crewmen of ships operating under the Mobile Force.

The Mobile Force serves as the public face of ZAFT, and it is a common misconception that the Mobile Force makes up ZAFT's entirety and that all units act entirely autonomously as dictated by the team commander. However, the Mobile Force is separated into divisions given specific theaters of operation; for example, units of the First Mobile Division are generally deployed for major offensive operations and serve as aggressor squadrons, while units of the Second Mobile Division serve primarily as space units.

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Author's Notes: Once again, I'm clearly a glutton for punishment. This is insanely long even without all that data I put in at the end.

In case it wasn't obvious, I was heavily inspired by Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War (best game in the series as far as I'm concerned). The story will have five main characters who will not always be equal to one another. If I manage this right, who you consider the ultimate hero of the story will be a matter of personal interpretation, but long-term I want Kira and Sakura to both be the hero of the story, and balancing out one another in various ways that I won't mention right now because that would be spoiling and we can't have that from me of all people.

Reviews telling me how I pulled this off would be appreciated. Hope to hear from you. I'll probably be out of contact for a few days.

And please, read the A/N at the top, specifically the blog stuff. I'm serious about that stuff.