Untitled
Feathers and Bones
one: Star Light, Star Bright
Standard disclaimers….
AU/cross over as well as a touch of what if… between Macross, and Gundam Seed universes.
I'm aiming to have Murrue X OC, mostly since she is my favourite character, and I hated seeing her get jerked around so bad, between GS, and GSD.
The OC charter's mecha the VF-27 Typhoon has a look much like the General Galaxy VF-22 Sturmvogel II, with some miner changes, like particle cannons mounted in the body.
So if it doesn't seem very GS/GSD at the start, well that's because I'm just setting the stage.
Right, so on with the show.
"Jolly Roger 01, I have the ball." called the pilot as he brought his Variable technology fighter, VF for shot, in for a landing on the Uraga class escort carrier, after a long patrol.
"Copy, Jolly Roger 01 has the ball." Replied the L.S.O. (Landing Safety Officer) whom was standing just off to the left of the flight path for the returning fighters.
With a grate shaking of the flight deck, even in the depths of space, the VF-27 Typhoon, announced that it had made the trap onto the flight deck of the ship.
The L.S.O. watched as 'Jolly Roger 01' taxied the fighter around on the flight deck, towards one of the elevators, and it struck her as funny, Even after almost 200 years since Space War One, we still use ships that look like they'd belong in an ocean rather then deep space like this. Hell even our latest and greatest fighters look like they should be flying in a sky, rather then space, but I guess that has more to due with the fact that they can do just that, space or at-mo fighting…
As the Typhoon neared the elevator 'Jolly Roger 01' sighed how he wished these carriers were bigger the hanger area of the ship was so cramped with fully 96 fighters and bombers below decks, space was a premium.
The Typhoon it's self shared a lot with it's older progenitor the old VF-22 Sturmvogel II, she was every bit the predator that her elder sibling was, just with another 40 years of technological development behind her.
Once the elevator had reached the hanger deck 'Jolly Roger 01' taxied the Typhoon into it's place at the far end of the deck, once their the engines stopped their high pitched wine, and the canopy opened up, as the pilot removed their black, white and yellow helmet that bore the same Skull and Cross bones on either side of where the ears would be, as the helmet touched the H.U.D. (Heads UP Display) they took a deep breath, It may be recycled air, but it beats the on-board air-supply…
"Commander Kross, did you see any action out there today?" asked the ground tech as she saw too placing the ground chocks so that the wheels couldn't move.
The pilot smiled a little, before speaking "Yea, only splashed four of them today though, I don't get what these people are thinking, they know that they've got equipment that is out of date, at least to what the military has, so why are they even trying to put up a fight…"
"Well Sir, if you ask me, I think they should just give up, this Anti-Government movement just doesn't make sense, I mean, we all depend on U.N. Spacey for everything…" the tech spoke again, as she brought the ladder over for Commander Kross to get out of they Typhoon.
Kross stood up, and placed a leg on the ladder well turning so that it was easier to descend, one on the ground the tech took up a spot behind, well she thought I do love the way the flight gear hugs the male pilots, epically him, and to think, he got dumped…
"Chief, are you there?" Spoke Kross, snapping the tech back to reality.
"Yes sir? Sorry, I was just thinking about something…." She said, with a slightly pink huge on her cheeks.
"I was just asking, if there had been any mail today, we've been out on the front-lines now almost a month, with no mail." He said as he flashed her a quick smile, he knew he was popular on the ship with the female crewmembers, hard not to be, with as they put it "classic good looks" to go along with copper blond hair and deep jade eyes.
"I think so sir, but I don't know off hand, but if I were you, I'd get some sleep, you've been pulling C.A.P. duty for the last two days in a row now…" she started to trail off as she watched him walking to the lockers, she leaned against the Typhoon and sighed a little envious of the aircraft, since it got to spend so much time with 'him'.
Steeping out of the showers, he walked over to his locker, labelled 'A. Kross', as he opened it, the first thing his eyes fell on, was his flight helmet, with the word "Reaper" written across it, in some gothic script, then over to the inside of the door, where all the pictures that he held dear to him, sat, one stood out against all others, it was of him and her, with her chocolate brown hair, porcelain like completion and eyes the colour of gold, smiling and laughing over something, that he couldn't remember after all these years, that was from a happier time, when they could both say those three little words, that made all the difference in the world, that was before they were posted apart, and he got a letter from her, saying that she wanted to call it off, that maybe they would be better off not together.
He sighed, inwardly as he reached for the white pants of his uniform, fallowed by the black high neck shirt, and jacket that was black with red markings, well showing on the arms his rank down at the cuffs.
Once dressed he walked out of the locker room, and proceeded unto the bridge of the ship, saluting either as he passed the various people he came across, as he entered the bridge, the Captain spoke, "ahh Alexander, how are you today m'boy?"
Alexander Kross, Lt. Commander of the United Nations Space Forces, (U.N. Spacy, was it's more common name, even if it was some 150 years out of date, since it was now more like United Worlds Space forces, but something things are hard to change.) Age 26, Fighter pilot and current Top-Gun, looked over the bridge, in typical U.N. Spacy fashion, something that hadn't changed since the first Battle Fortress, if the captain was male, then the bridge crew was female, and vice versa, he couldn't help but wink at the cute girl that couldn't have been more then 16 or 17 manning the communications position, before responding to the Captain, "I'm doing well sir, we engaged two squadrons of old Thunderbolts, but they couldn't hold up against our Typhoons…"
"You truly are a wonder Commander, but I've got news for you, you are being sent to Terra, for re-assignment, it's going to be pain-full have to give up, one of the best pilots I've seen in all my years of service, I remember you steeping off of the shuttle, fresh out of Flight School, and full of fire, now some ten years later, I've had the pleasure of watching you grow into a man, and a talented officer, if a little free spirited…" the captain spoke with a bit of a chuckle at the end.
"I'm being re-assigned, sir? But what about my Squadron?" Spoke Alexander, he eyes full of some surprise.
"Well, it would seem that your talents, and skill in dog-fighting are needed else where, at a training school to be more to the point, you've become to valuable to risk out here on the battle field, and I hope, that with you teaching combat manoeuvreswe'll see less loss of life… as for your squadron, you X.O., Lt. Ramins will be promoted to lead them, and I guess, I'll have to find me a new Commander Air Group too… such a pity, but those are our orders." The captain sighed before continuing "How ever, you will be flying back in your Typhoon, so at least you will get to take that much with you, make sure, since this is a long distance folds, that you take a copy of your personnel docket, as well as specs on the Typhoon, as you know, people do get 'lost' during long distance folds, just on the off chance something does go wrong, we'll also have your Typhoon loaded for combat, with a good spread of anti-fighter, and anti-ship weapons. Get some sleep you head out at 08:30 Terra standard time tomorrow."
Alexander saluted with a sharp and crisp, "Sir!" before spinning on his heel and walking off the bridge, to collect up his personal belongings.
He didn't sleep, how could he sleep, with so much work that had to be done, before he left the ship that had been his home for so long, having to say good by to so many people he'd become so close with, but he'd sleep on the flight back to Terra, the seat of Human Government, the catapult rocketed his fighter forward at a full 7G's, with his after-burners flaring as wide open as they could.
Once he was at a safe distance from the ship, he started in-putting the co-ordnance for Terra, but in his sleep deprived state, he hit a 7 when he should've hit a 4, not realising the error, he hit the enter button, thus started a chain reaction with in the Typhoon, there was a light hum as the fighter was enveloped in a sphere of multi-coloured light, then vanished from the space around it.
Murrue Ramius, sat up in her bed, looking out at the stars, thinking over the events of the last day, I can't believe that this is all happening to me, here I am in a war, I started off just in the engineering section of an R&D group that was trying to level the field in this war, now I'm in command of a war-ship, that is drastically under-staffed, and half crewed by civilians…
I wish you were here with me, I need your strength, but you can't give that to me, since you are dead now, floating some where in space… if I can get us to Artemis I can get this ship supplied, then it's just a short trip to the moon, and I can go back to being in the R&D section, no more being in command for me, at least not yet…
She stood and walked to the window, placing her right hand on the window, as if to touch the stars, well her left hand clutched her little amulet, hoping that in some strange way, it brought her closer to him.
"Captain Ramius to the bridge, Captain Ramius to the bridge!" came over the speaker in her room, from one of the civilians that had started working to help the ship through it's trials, she sighed, put on her uniform, and as she reached the door, she couldn't help but utter the words "no rest for the wicked."
As she floated onto the bridge, the dark haired Ensign, that always seemed to be at odds with her, spoke up, "Captain we've picked up, one Nazca class and one Laurasia class fallowing us, I think it's the same ones that have been dogging us since Heliopolis, I think they might attack us soon."
Sure enough, not twenty minuets had gone by, before they detected the launch of several mobile suites, with little time to waist they launched the one mobile suite they had, as well as the one mobile armour, Murrue hoped that they'd both be fine, and would come back alive, she didn't want to see any more death, not when they were barely a day and a half from safety.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep…
That was the sound the brought him from his slumber, he looked at his display, it was telling him, that he was about to de-fold into the Sol system, he shook off his sleepy-ness, and gripped the flight stick and throttle, as the Typhoon rocked and jolted violently, his head hit the dash and bounced off, if not for the helmet, he would've suffered a minor head injury for sure.
As the light vanished from around his Typhoon, he brought the manual systems on-line, and began to run the navigation system's self check to make sure he was in the right part of space, a few seconds later, the stars matched up, with where they should be, Sol system, January 26th….
He stared to run the radar systems up, to pick up, anything in the area, the pulse went out, now all he had to do, was wait for the returning pulse….
Sweating at his station Petty Officer 2ed class Tonomura, watched as a new signal just appeared, just 80 km off the port side of the Arc-Angel, and slightly high, he ran the data of this new target through the computer, but came up with no known model, he tagged it as a low threat target for now, but would watch it to see what happened.
As the pulse came back, Alexander read the information, three unknown ships, that was it, with in the 640km radius of his RADAR pulse, that alone was strange, it should've been a lot more then that, but what peeked his interest was that none of the ships had a known profile, not to mention the smaller craft that were engaged with each other.
Alexander turned his Typhoon towards the closest of the craft, and it was also the largest one, at least according to RADAR it was….
Petty Officer 2ed class Tonomura, noticed the unknown turn towards the Arc-Angel and start to close the distance at an almost un-real speed, faster then most missiles, that could be found in either the Earth Forces or ZAFT armouries, at least as far as he knew, with this new data, he had no choice but to make this object known, as he alerted the Ensign, she came over and watched the speed that the dot approached she spoke, "Has it started to target us with lasers yet?"
Those would prove to be the very last words she would udder before the object flew passed the bridge, the even the Igelstellungs couldn't keep up, with the tracking.
But perhaps the thing that drew all of the bridge crews attention was the two bright white-blue columns of flame shooting out behind the craft, as it shot passed them.
The dark haired Ensign's right hand accidentally landed on the fire button, for the anti-mobile suite missiles, causing them to launch.
As Alexander drew near the large white ship, he noted targeting RADAR starting to lock onto him, he pushed the throttle fully open, and was knocked back into his seat, he rotated the Typhoon 90 degrees so that he'd pass the bridge, and have a good look inside, as he shot passed, he noted white uniforms, but not much else, and that was when he heard soft, sexy female voice he had programmed in for the computer started to repeat one word over and over "Missile!"
He started to look around as fast as he could, as he looked behind him, he noticed them, well 6 to be exact, red tipped darts flying after him, instinctively he released chaff and flairs well putting himself into a high-G turn.
Five of the missiles went for the flairs, well the last one tried to fallow him through the tight turn, but was too much for missile, as it broke apart under the stress, and exploded, harmlessly.
He grunted as he brought himself around to face the ship again, and flicked the master-arm switch, and brought his targeting systems online, once he had a solid tone, his finger hovered over the button to lose a Harpoon Mk VIII anti-shipping missile, should that missile hit home, it would blow that ship in two. But wait, what if that was an accident, what if they didn't mean to shoot at me…. I'll blow past them again, if they shoot a second time, they are space dust. He thought to himself, as me kept his finger over the trigger.
Murrue spun in her chair to glair at her X.O. "Ensign Badgiruel, what are you doing?!"
"Captain, Missile lock detected from the unknown!" barked out Petty Officer 2ed class Pal.
Everyone on the bridge held their breath, as the unknown craft blew passed them again, with out firing, then looped around, and flew off again.
Once it had flown off, they all let out their breath, though it had only been a second, most of them, would've sworn it felt like an hour.
Alexander flew passed the ship a second time, then a third, convinced it wasn't actually trying to shot him, he moved on to the little engagement that was going on between the white ship, and the other two.
As he neared the area, he saw a bright flash, heading his way, he stood his fighter up, sending it in a vertical plain, just in time, as yellow energy beams, impacted on the underside of the Typhoon, being absorbed by the pin-point barrier system, that was standard equipment on all U.N. Spacy VF's since the late 2040's, though the computer did flash the master alarm briefly, as the barrier system was brought down by that one shot. Grate, now I've got a full minute before it can take another hit, so now, I've just got my armour plating left….
That thought though, was cut short, as a orange thing, that was the only way he could describe it, flew passed him, and then became five orange things, to shoot at for a lack of a better term, he'd call a destroid, non-transformable mecha, it had two large guns, he watched as it let fly another yellow beam salvo, at him, again, Alright, once I'll chop up-to not knowing what is going on, but twice, it's on now buddy!
Alexander brought his Typhoon around, in it's own body length, his vision blurred as he did that, even with inertial compensation the force of the turn was still very hard on his body, at the same time, he selected his Medium Range High Manoeuvrability missiles, he locked, the said on to the Tac-net, that should be there "Jolly Roger One, Fox two!"
He couldn't help but grin, this would be an easy kill.
The Buster spun to fire on the unknown mobile armour, that just fired a pair of missiles at him, and he missed?
He couldn't get over himself, the missiles actually got out of the line of fire, he was rattled around in the cockpit, as both missiles hit home, doing as he knew no damage would be done, still he was rattled, by the impact.
Alexander's smile turned into a hanging open jaw, he had never in his 10 years of flying, seen anything shrug off two missile hits like that, there wasn't even a mark on the unit, nothing.
He came around again, this time, he let fly a burst from his gun-pod, the rounds struck the unit, again nothing!
Wait, something did happen, it's colour changed, it was now a dull grey, he came around again and fired again, this time, he hit the unit in it's left arm, just above the elbow, and it was severed clean off, Alexander couldn't help but give a wolfish grin, as he came around again, for what would be his first kill of the day, but it would seem that fate would be against him, as three of the units started to flee towards the two ships he hadn't gone to see yet.
Not put off by this turn of events, he continued to close on his pray, when those ships opened fire on him, he dodged the green beams, but was left with no choice but to turn from the battle.
Alexander gave a bit of a growl as he turned away from the ships, when he heard over his radio "Did you try this frequency yet?"
The voice was that of a young woman, fallowed closely by that of a man "No, not yet, hey you, in the strange mobile armour, do you read us?"
Alexander blinked a couple of times, before responding "This is Lt. Commander Alexander Kross, Call sign Reaper, requesting ID challenge."
Murrue sat bolt upright in her chair, and looked at the speaker, in shock, that was 'his' voice, but he was dead, wasn't he?
Ensign Badgiruel, took over the headset, and spoke into it, "This is Ensign Badgiruel, of the Earth Forces Carrier Arc-Angel, please state the unit you are attached too."
Everyone on the bridge watched her, as her eyes went wide, then narrowed, before speaking "I've never heard of such a unit, please state that again, in case something was lost in transmission."
A few more moments passed, before she pulled off the headset, then spoke "Captain, he is requesting landing clearance, what should I tell him?"
It took a few moments for it to sink into Murrue, could this all be a dream, no it couldn't be, if it was, it'd be more like some sick joke, she slowly nodded her head, to give clearance, for this person to land on the ship.
Once he'd gotten his clearance to land, he brought himself into the return path, and watched as the ship opened up, one of it's massive leg type attachments, he lowered his landing gear, and slowed to what he thought would be the right speed for landing, as he neared the touch down point he heard over his communication system, "You are coming in to fast, slow down, or you will hit the wall!"
Alexander through his engines into reverse, to slow down, to a near crawl, as he hit the path way he taxied the Typhoon, to a spot that it'd be safe in.
Once he was in the hanger, he found an empty space, and shut down the systems, opened the cockpit, and went to swing himself out of the cockpit, as he did so, he was shocked, he was floating!
Petty Officer 1st class Murdoch, felt something akin to amusement, as he watched this pilot move around like he didn't know what to do in micro gravity, or at least he wasn't used to being in it.
On the other side of the hanger Lt. La Flaga watched as the pilot of the white, black and yellow mobile armour, floated as if he didn't know what to do, he shot himself up, to grab the man's hand, and pull him down.
Alexander reached for the hand of this person in a pinky purple and grey flight suite reached for him, once he caught it, he spoke over his built in loud speaker, "Thanks for the save, why isn't the gravity turned on?"
All Lt. La Flaga could do was blink, gravity on a ship? Once they were back on the flight deck, he watched as the other pilot, bounced over to his craft, and grabbed a few things from it, before asking again "What way to the lockers? I need to change before talking to the captain of the ship."
Lt. La Flaga, motioned for him to fallow him, once they were in the locker room, getting changed, he said "I'm Lt. Mu La Flaga, The Hawk of Endymion. And you are?"
Alexander had just gotten his pants done up, then extended a hand, to the man, well saying "I'm Lt. Commander Alexander Kross, call sign Reaper. Once I'm done here, can you take me to the Ship's Captain?"
Mu shook the man's hand, and gave a nod, that he'd take him to see the Captain.
Murrue and Natarle sat in the briefing room, waiting for Mu, and this Lt. Commander Kross. As they sat, Natarle noticed the look on her Captain's face, was one of wonderment as well as apprehension, when the door came open, and Mu walked in, fallowed by a man in a black and white uniform, with copper coloured hair, and green eyes, even Natarle found herself with a bit of a pink huge to her cheeks.
Murrue, was floored, it was Alexander, her Alexander, but his stance, and his eyes held something different; this couldn't be her Alexander, not with such a predatory look in his eyes.
Alexander Kross, stood in the room, looking over the rank markings he could see near the neck lines of their uniforms, and he noticed, no-one here, except for him, held a rank higher then Lt. That was when it happened, his eyes, moved up, from the neck of one of the female officers, and for a moment, his heart leapt, before he reminded himself she dumped him, besides, he knew he wasn't in his reality, he had become one of those un-lucky bastards that got lost in a hyper-space fold, that one in a million chance….
She saw it in his eyes, or did she, it was only there for a second, longing then pain, a lot of pain, before it was hidden behind that predatory look again, she stood up, and spoke "I'm Lt. Murrue Ramius, acting Captain of the Arc-Angel, a pleasure to meet you." There was so much more she wanted to say, at least she would've if it hadn't been for the two other people in the room, and probably would've made a fool out of herself too.
Alexander saluted her, it looked like her, sounded like her, but she didn't hold herself like she did, but it rattled him, none the less, "Lt. Command Alexander Kross," he then placed a copy of his docket on the table, "In there you'll find all my information, and this is going to be a long, long talk, for both of us."
Murrue picked up the file, and begun to read it,
Name: Kross, Alexander James
Age: 26
Sex: male
Height: 188cm
Weight: 90kg
Blood Type: AB
Rank: Lt. Commander
She stopped reading at that point, everything so far, had matched 'him', and she looked at Alexander, well taking a seat, and then gestured for him to take a seat as well, "I have no doubt that is so, if you don't mind may I ask you, about your craft? I've never seen a mobile armour like it before…."
Alexander sighed inside, she was so calm and collected, just like 'her', he took a seat, placed his cap on the table, and begun a very long speech, "I don't know what a mobile armour is, but what I fly is called a Veritech Fighter, a VF-27S Typhoon to be exact. A Veritech fighter is a transformable fighter, which has three modes. Jet, Soldier a humanoid type configuration and a hybrid called Gear-walk, jet configuration has the greatest speed, manoeuvrability, and weapons payload of all three modes. At the other end of the spectrum Soldier has the slowest speed, least manoeuvrability, and the lowest payload, how ever, it is the most versatile of all three modes, then comes Gear-walk, a hybrid of the two, has most of the advantages of all the modes, but also most of the flaws too. As I no doubt showed today, I favour Jet mode, out of all three. Now I've got a question for you, why did you launch missiles at me?"
Natarle found herself blushing, before she spoke up, "That was an accident, my hand landed on the launch button, when you flew past the bridge…"
"Thought so, okay, on to the next part…" he gave them a brief run-down of the last 180 years of U.N. Spacy, as well as the chance that every jump made can send them to another place, time or reality, usually taking away a way to get home, and that is why, they take with them, a copy of the personal file, as well as data on their craft. Well they filled him in, on what has happened on earth since the late 1990's.
"… So the question is now, what happens now? I've got to pick a side, speaking I genetically should go with what was it again, ZAFT? Since I'm genetically enhanced to be a better pilot, but hey, they shot at me 3 times, you guys only shot at me once. So for picking a side, I think I'd rather stay here. But then that leads to all kinds of issues, considering the secrets locked up in my Typhoon…" asked Alexander, he had undone his jacket, well sipping on a bottle of water.
Murrue dismissed Mu and Natarle, before trying to come up with an idea, no matter what she said, she'd get a lecture from one of them, and in privet, and she could handle that, not in front of an unknown element.
Once she heard the door close, she floated over to Alexander, she wanted to reach for him, before she could he spoke, "So, what happened to me, at least the me, of this reality? Drop the act, I saw the look on your face when I wal… floated into the room, something happened."
She was taken back, by the roughness of his words, and the sharpness of his tongue, "You, died, just over six months ago, I got the letter, and I cried over it, for months, on some nights I still do…" her words were so soft, so quite, he almost missed hearing them, "What about me, where you are from, did we even know each other?"
He looked over his shoulder, and she saw it again, the pain in those eyes, before it was covered up again, in what could only have come to him, in all those years of combat flying, "Yea, we did… At least I thought I knew you." He scolded himself, he didn't have to be so harsh with her, she wasn't 'her', at least mentally, "Look, I don't mean to be so harsh, it's just hard to keep in mind that you are not the same person, that sent me back that ring, and telling me, that you thought it'd be better if we saw other people, then having that guy walk into the video mail, and kiss you… And you know what was the worst part about it; we were only posted a 20-minuet hyperspace fold apart. And before you ask, you dumped me, only six months ago, so the pain is still a little fresh, but I'll do my best, to try and keep it under control, you don't deserve me acting out." By this point he had put his back to her, and he was looking out the window, still able to see her, standing there just behind him, she seemed to be clutching something under her jacket, well looking at his back.
And that was when he saw it, the tears starting to form in her eyes, it tugged at his heart like it always did, and he mentally kicked himself again, for what he was about to say, "If it's going to be too hard on you, I'll leave, so that you can try and get through this messed up situation you are in, because lets face it, you are not ready to be a Captain," that did it, the first tear started to float away from her eyes, "but that's not to say, that you won't make a good one…" the rest of his words fell on deaf ears, since she was so lost in her thoughts I find him again, and he wants to leave me again? Why does the world like to torment me like this?
Her thoughts came to an end, as she felts some arms around her waist, and a familiar scent in her nose, she closed her eyes, and let this one moment bring her happiness, before she asked, "Why are you holding me?"
"If there is one thing I hate seeing, it's you crying, and I figured, if this always managed to cheer 'her' up, stands to reason, it'd work here too." Came a soft, almost caring tone from Alexander, before he let her go.
She smiled a little, "Thank you, Commander Kross, I appreciate the hug, after all that's happened in the last day, I really needed it. As to your question earlier I'd like to keep you on-board the Arc-Angel, as more combat pilots, and machines will be more helpful, I can't let you go into Artemis, since they would see that your craft isn't something that should exist, and they might want to take it…." He pressed a finger to her lips, to make her stop talking.
"I'll just fly a long range Combat Air Patrol, say, four hours long? Would that give you enough time to load up on supplies?" he asked, his tone almost playful, and his eyes showed an almost happy look to them.
"It should be enough, if everything goes smoothly, but if not, you might have a long time to wait…." This time she had turned away, from Alexander, the more she looked at him, the more she wanted to feel his touch, she knew she craved her Alexander, but this one could due in his place, if he didn't have such a predatory stance and look about him most of the time.
After several hours, Alexander had his gear in a room, and was back down in the flight deck, helping the techs see to his Typhoon.
Petty Officer 1st class Murdoch, found himself impressed with the manual for this craft, he called over to it's pilot, whom was half buried in one of the engines, "Hey kid, this thing seems easy to maintain, and the ammo for the… " He flipped through the pages again, "Gun-pod seems easy to make, just takes steel, and some time in a machine shop, but I've never seen rail-guns with these kind of specs…"
Alexander smirked to himself, here the rail-guns were more about energy fields, rather then brut speed, of a light weight projectile, "It's more about having something to create a magnetic field for the under slung particle beam, the spinning of the gatling-rail gun, makes the mag-field for containing the charged particles for the particle cannon. Well the other two hull-mounted particle cannons are drawing there mag-field from the main power-cells of the fighter, that's why they can only be used in Jet or gear-walk modes, since the linkage for them, changes place, when the Typhoon goes into soldier modes."
"Well no-wonder you took down the phase shift armour with it, it's got a really impressive rate of fire…" Murdoch said, as he put down the manual, and begun assisting in the removal of the missile from the main missile bay found in the belly of the Typhoon, "So what's are these really big missiles, you know, the four."
"Those are the Harpoon Mk. VIII, they get used for anti-shipping work. You read up on the pin-point barrier system right?" Alexander didn't really wait for a response, "Well what that missile has one of those systems on-board, so it makes has one of those barriers up front as it flies in at a ship, uses it to bust through the hull, then blow up, inside the ship. I've sunk a battle ship with those before, spilt the bitch in two with one missile to mid-ships."
Once the external missiles had been removed, and placed in storage, Alexander went off on his patrol, to stay out of Artemis.
Four hours came and went, with no word from the Arc-Angel, Alexander kept flying about the area, eventually he just cut his engines, and powered down all but life-support, and drifted in space, looking out at the stars, he was alone with his thoughts, and that he found more unsettling then most times.
God, I was such an ass to her, she didn't do anything wrong, she didn't do anything to hurt me, if anything I'm being the jerk, by treating her affectionately then, the next moment pushing her away…his thoughts were broken when his proximity alarm went off, letting him know about a craft that was approaching with in 50km of him, he watches on the RADAR as the one craft, is approached by a pair of craft, then they left his passive RADAR range, and he thought nothing more of it, but something about it, just nagged at him, giving into his boredom, he adjusted his drift course to fallow along, with out give away his position.
As he closed the distance, he found that he had to set the computer to auto-avoidance, to keep power levels low, well he watched, a silver and green ship, be boarded, by a small craft from some craft that measured about 130m give or take and a brownish-grey in colour. After what seemed like an hour, the brownish-grey ones opened fire on the silver one. The Silver ship, wasn't firing back, was it un-armed?
Alexander had done many things in his time, with U.N. Spacy, but attacking an un-armed transport wasn't one of them, he powered up his combat systems, setting everything active, he now gave his position away, but he charged forth into battle, he as the range counted down, he charged the two hull-mounted particle cannons, once the range was set, he fired.
The two beams of bright blue, slammed into the side of one of the two Brownish-grey ships, the sides buckled under the hit, they whole side of the ship was exposed to space, but now, his side has been declared, and the other ship started to launch small craft to try and fight him…
Alexander came around again, this time, his shots hit the bridge of the damaged ship, and the craft crumpled, before it exploded in a bright ball of light.
In the instant that he looked to watch the ship blow apart, three small pink ships attacked, Alexander caught it out of the corner of his eye, and shifted his Typhoon into it's soldier configuration, and brought the left arm around to block the incoming shots, he felt the Typhoon shutter, as the three rounds hit the barrier, fallowed by the master alarm telling him that it had come down again, but it had done it's job, saved him and the Typhoon, he spun up it gatling-rail gun, and let it create the magnetic charge he needed, once the charge reached what he wanted, he moved the shield out of the way, and stuck the gun pod out, it was almost against the hull of one of the three pink ships, as the particle beam discharged, ripping the small ship to peaces, with that, he shifted back to the jet configuration, and gave chase to the two remaining craft, he cut the second one down, with a blast from the Particle cannons, well the third one, tried to get above him, in a climb.
The pilot of the moebius unit, looked behind him, to see that white, black and yellow mobile armour still on him, the last thing he saw, was a short flash of blue-white light, from under the main body of the craft, before the 50mm spikes of steel ran through him and his craft.
Having seen what was a weakness in these Brownish-grey ships, Alexander came around again, and struck the bridge, with his particle cannons, and it too, crumpled from the hit, and exploded in a bright ball of light, he turned his attention to the silver craft, as it limped away, but his attention was brought back to where he needed to be, when the Arc-Angel appeared with in his active RADAR range.
He turned to head for, as he'd come to call it, 'the barn' it was a term that had been used to reference a carrier for longer then her knew. As he approached he kept his speed up, again he got that young woman's voice telling him to slow down.
This time, he hit the button that was labelled 'G', the Typhoon shuttered a little, well Alexander put it into a roll, as the legs swung down into position, the tails folded back on the arms to look a little bit like bracers, well the arms, one holding the gun-pod, slipped out under the wings, he could see it, the air-lock door, it was close, he pushed the throttle fully forward, to bring the Typhoon to a halt, just before the door.
Once the door opened, he walked in, in that awkward walk of the hybrid configuration, is prone too, it drew some strange looks, as he neared the mecha scaffolding, he hit the 'S' button and it shifted to it's soldier mode, and walked with much grater ease, Alexander turned it so that he could steep backwards into the scaffolding, once he felt the tell-tail impact, he powered down the systems, and opened the cockpit, to let himself float down to the deck.
Alexander saluted to the crew, as he bounced off the deck, then onto the locker rooms, there he met up with the two other pilots on board, they seemed to be in a discussion, about the morality of what was going on.
"We're not killers, Kira." Said Mu, he seemed to be losing his cool a little.
"I know, but, I don't want to have to kill!" the brown haired boy yelled back.
Alexander sighed, then floated over, "Kid, I know we've not been introduced yet, but take my words here, with a lot of weight, because this is coming from someone who's had to do this job for a long time. We are not killers, we are soldiers, and sometimes we have to shoot people, because if we don't shoot first, they will shoot us, I don't mean to be callous about this, but how long have you been a pilot?"
Kira blinked a couple of times, before responding, "Just over two days, but it feels like it's been two years already."
Alexander was taken back, only two days for this kid, no wonder he'd broken down like this, he changed his stance from being somewhat aggressive, to trying an understanding, maybe even a mentoring stance with the boy, "Two days, I guess you must be the pilot of the, what was it called, Strike? And you are here protecting people that are your friends right?" the boy nodded, "Well, if you don't fight, that just leaves myself and Lt. La Flaga to defend this ship, and we can't do it on our own, you help us, get through this, and I'll do everything I can to help you, get through this. It can't be easy for you, I understand that you've had no formal training, and as much as officers like myself or Mu here might not think about it, that training helps us, not to think that we are shooting to kill, because we know, if we don't pull that trigger first, they will. Neither of us wants to kill, but we don't have a choice, and neither do the guys and girls shooting at us. Take it as some sick cosmic joke, that people that should be able to get along with one another are forced to fight each other."
With that Alexander went to change, and give a de-briefing to the Captain, of what went on in the belt of debris.
Kira watched him go, in some strange way, his words helped.
Alexander came to the Captain's cabin; he knocked twice, once he heard her soft voice "Enter." He smiled to himself; it brought back some memories of happier times for him.
Once the door slid shut behind him, he saw the look of worried on her face again, before she hid it, under a practiced expression of calm, what he was going to say, could wait, rather he asked, "What happened?"
Could he read my thoughts? Or could he read me like a book? She thought to herself, before answering, "We were unable to re-supply at Artemis, we came under attack, and were forced to leave, after taking the ship back… We're running out of water, and other consumables."
She was trying so hard, to be a good officer, a good leader, Alexander could read it on her, like she was an open book, but she just didn't know what to do, he floated over to the wall, beside the window she was looking out of, and he told her about the engagement, he was in, he saw her eyes narrow when he told her about the drake class ships, as he was informed they were, firing on the un-armed transport.
"You did the right thing, helping them out, it bothers me, a little, to hear that forces from my own side, are doing things like that…" she had started, before Alexander cut her off with, "And that was when I saw it, a lake, at least 8km in diameter, of solid Ice, that would solve one problem at least, let me show you on the map."
He floated over to her terminal and brought up the map, and highlighted the area, and she brought her right hand to her mouth, well gasping He can't be serious! That's the remains of Junius Seven, but maybe he's on to something….
"What? Did I do something wrong?" he asked, hearing her reaction, to what he found.
"N…No, you didn't it's just that this what is left of Junius Seven, I told you about that, the Bloody Valentine raid…" she trailed off, seeing him nod, in understanding, before speaking, "Not to be a vulture, but they the sprits of the dead, don't need the water, or some of the other consumables we might be able to get, there. I'd just recommend we don't take personal effects. Some times we have to do, less then noble things, to stay alive. Just part of the job, anyways, think it over, you've got my support, no matter what you pick."
With that, he floated off, and out of her cabin. She started to hatch a plan to keep everyone on this ship alive…
Alexander watched as these small craft moved about picking up peaces of ice, and moving them back to the ship, he boosted over to one, in his soldier configuration, and said over the radio, "hey you're Tolle right?"
The boy stammered to answer, "Yes, that's Me." he'd seen Alexander in the corridors over the last couple of days, and found his calm reassuring.
"Alright, and you're with that girl running the communications for the fighters, and the ship right? Miriallia is her name?" Alexander asked thumbing the switch to his pulse lasers, which are mounted just to the sides of the mono visor that covers the main cameras, when the boy told him that was a yes, he started cutting out of the Ice:
Tolle
Miriallia
He then cut around it, picked up the piece of ice, then handed it to Tolle in that small utility craft, before speaking, "Take off, and show this to her, I'll get this sheet back to the barn."
Alexander watched him go, he laughed to himself, to be that young again, and that in-love, he picked up the peace of ice, and started to move through what was once a town, when he saw it, sitting in a shop window, a simple teddy bear, with a little red bow around it's neck, it's white fur made him smirk.
He stopped heading back, to grab the bear, very delicately, so not to disturb anything else, he brought it, up to his cockpit, and got it inside, before heading back to the ship.
Once on board he heard Ensign Badgiruel, berating the kid again, "You really do have a talent for brining things back, that really should be left behind don't you."
He placed the Typhoon in it's dock, as the door to the pod opened, to have a pink haired girl come floating out of it, that seemed to draw everyone's attention to her.
Alexander just shrugged it off, to leave for the showers, and get some sleep, before paying the Captain a little visit.
Again, he stood out side her door, knocked twice, then came her soft voice, telling him to enter, as he walked in, she was again looking out the window, he thought to himself, Every time I see her like that, it's just like the first time I met 'her' on Eden five…
He smiled at that thought, and then held out the bear, well saying, "For you, you try so hard, and do so well, with such little. I admire that."
His voice was so warm, and gentle to her, it was the first time she had heard him speak like that to her, it took her back to a happier time, she turned to see the bear in his hands, she smiled, and couldn't help but blush a little, "Thank you Commander, but are you sure that this is appropriate?"
His head tilted a little to the left, and the left side of his face curled up into a little smirk, "Well if you don't want it, I'm sure I can find a young woman on-board that would like a teddy bear… But I really do admire the way; you are dealing with these hardships. You are doing so much better then I would be in your place, I'm so used to having the resources of an entire fleet to draw on." He placed the bear on her desk, before flopping down on her couch, and continuing, "Besides, I was a real jerk when we first met, I let my self be baited by my feelings, rather then my brain. As a pilot, it's hard not to go with your gut reactions, sometimes it's all that makes the difference between life and death."
She smiled, and took the bear, it was so soft, and inviting, she sat beside him, and spoke "I know, I'm finding it hard, to look at you, and not see they you I knew, I know he is gone, but it's times like this, when I see you being sweet, and sensitive, or hearing what you said to Kira to try and get him to understand, as well as Tolle and Miriallia, they both appreciated it. I think out of everything that has happened, pressing them into service has been one of the worst, it's been so hard on those kids…" she was looking down into the bear's head, when he spoke.
"I was there age, when I shot down my first enemy, I remember seeing the look on their face, through the gun camera, just as the first round struck the cockpit, and it tore them apart. You never forget the first time; it's how you deal with it, that's important. Kira needs some one to guide him through this; I'm trying to be a mentor for him, having been in his place, but not having been there. Where I'm from, all pilots are enhanced, we usually burn out, in about 15 years, forcing us to become ship board Captains, since we can't keep up, with the new kids anymore. But we don't make a point of letting the enhancements separate us from everyone else, when it comes down to it, we are all still human." He stood and walked over to the drink dispenser in her cabin, and took out two waters, handing one to her, before walking back over to the window.
"Really? You don't see the difference between enhanced people and those that aren't?" she knew she was asking a stupid question, but she could see him smile, it was warm and inviting to her, "I know stupid question right?
"Don't worry about it, I can understand your surprise, but we've had bigger issues to deal with, like space aliens trying, and nearly seceding, in wiping out the human race, a few different times, things like that, seem to bring people together, when there is a threat to everyone, it just makes things easer to accept the smaller things. And don't let it get around, that I'm sometimes a nice guy, it'd ruin my image." He smirked at the last bit, causing her to laugh.
"Alexander, I can call you that right?" she hesitated, but sighed inwardly, when he nodded that she could, "I have a feeling things are going to get a lot worse, soon, I mean the 8th fleet will be here soon, but we've got a V.I.P. on board now, that girl with the pink hair, Lacus Clyne, she's the daughter of the leader of the PLANT Siegel Clyne..."
He whistled, before speaking, "Well that is a bit of a problem, and when we link up, with the fleet, they might want to use her as a bargaining chip."
She blinked a couple of times, before speaking, "So part of those enhancements, did they make it, so you could read people's minds? Oops! Sorry!" she finished with a blush coming to her cheeks, well her hands shot up to her mouth.
She was worried did she offend him? She watched his shoulders start to roll, and his head fall, he was laughing? She hadn't heard him laugh, it was low and quite, but he was.
"So, if we are going to start being so informal, can I start calling you Murrue, at least in privet? I understand the need to keep some distance between you and your officers out in public. And no, you didn't offend me, I thought it was cute, 'she' used to accuse me of mind reading all the time." He at this point had turned to face her, his green eyes showing there amusement, at her, not even trying to be hidden.
She smiled at him, every time he came to her cabin, she felt a little closer to him, each time a new level to him was shown, and she saw a little more of 'him' in this Alexander Kross, she scolded herself, for looking for it, thinking it could only end in heart ache, but she felt like being a little care free, when she spoke, "Of course you can, Alexander, I was thinking, once we meet up with the 8th fleet…" her words were cut short, by Miriallia, calling for her to come to the bridge. She sighed, maybe later. She thought, as she straitened her uniform, and left for the bridge.
They both entered the bridge at the same time, and watched the events un-fold, the advanced fleet was cut down, before them, and that pink haired girl was used as a bargaining chip, once things had settled down, Alexander confronted Natarle out in the corridors, "What the hell is wrong with you?" he yelled at her, grabbing her by the lapels of her jacket, and spinning her to face him, "Using a civilian like a shield, it makes me wonder just how many officers, in this earth alliance force, actually have morals!"
Her violet eyes glared back at him with the same fire, they show to her Captain, "And just who the hell do you think you are, treating me like this? You, who aren't even part of our forces, just some tag-along, whom we found, and let hitch a ride with us… I did what I did, to save this ship, I had no intention of letting that girl come to any harm, she's far too valuable to high command, as a way to bring this war to a close, quickly."
He let go of her jacket, with a bit of a push, letting her float into the wall, before he headed off down the corridor.
As he floated down the halls, he started to hatch a plan, I'm not part of their forces, so anything if I do, they can't do anything about it, other then not letting him land again, but lets face it, if this is the kind of people they are, then I'm not so sure I want to be here.
A boy with brown hair, wearing a blue jacket as he spoke "Commander Kross, can I ask you something", stopped him?
Alexander looked at the boy, searched his mind for the kids name, "Sure Kira, what's on your mind? And you can call me Alexander, if it makes you feel a little better, I'm not actually part of the Earth Forces…. Before you ask, I'll tell you about it some time, it's just a really long, and complicated story."
Kira's expression softened, before he spoke, "I've got a friend on the other side, he's a very good friend of mine, he pilots the red mobile suite, the Aegis…" Kira leaned against the wall, looking a little unsure of himself, before he continued, "That girl, Lacus, she's engaged to him, and I don't like seeing here being used as a shield…"
Alexander smirked at this, "Well first off, that's got to be a tough brake for you kid, I saw how taken you were with her, but more importantly, I'm right with you, I hate seeing civilians used as shields, it's cowardly, and un-becoming of military personnel. I was going to do something about it, but knowing a bit more, about what's going on, how about you take her back, and I'll just help, like leaving the doors open, to the lockers for the flight gear?"
Not really waiting to hear the kid's response Alexander headed off to the lockers, to get the flight gear ready for the kid, and the girl, then out to the hanger deck he floated, to wait, for everything to get set into motion.
Having saw his little plan work, a-be-it with some problems, but nothing too major, at least as far as he saw it, till the kid came back, and the two of them were steeping out of the lockers, to see the Captain, Mu La Flaga, and Natarle Badgiruel, standing all looking rather annoyed with something, but it was Murrue that spoke, "Kira, what you did was very serious, you have to come with us."
Kira, looked to Alexander, whom sighed, before steeping forward, placing his hands together, with his palms up, "It was my idea to give the girl back, I talked the kid into doing the exchange, since that girl seemed most comfortable around him, it made the most sense, so drag me off."
Murrue sighed, this wasn't a turn of events she had planned on, she had intended on making a show of a trial to Kira, to make him understand that what he did placed the entire ship in danger, but to see that 'he' had a hand in it, made it harder, He's an officer, he should know better then to do something stupid like this! "Alright, take them both." Was all she could say.
So that was Chapter one, not bad, for a start, some 22 pages, give or take, and hey, if you made it this far, thanks for reading, and I'd appreciate a review or two.
I'll write more and post more, as time allows.