Disclaimer: Vandread is property of Gonzo and Media Factory animation studios
Gundam SEED is property of Sunrise and Bandai Entertainment.
Kazuki Uraki and all other OCs mentioned are owned by yours truly.
A/N: Welcome to Vandread SEED Destiny or as I like to call it VSD. Many of you are undoubtedly wondering why I ditched VS and decided to start working on VSD, so to put it simply I didn't feel like doing a recap of the series like most of the other fanfics out there and in the end I decided to make a side story to GSD while including enough Vandread elements so it doesn't overly interfere with the actual Gundam SEED canon. As mentioned in the above disclaimers Kazuki does make a return and hopefully with this setting we'll get to see some more action from him. So without further delay I'll let you start reading and enjoy the fanfic.
PS: Leave a review and tell me if there's anything you'd like removed or added.
Sincerely, D-I
Vandread SEED Destiny – Phase 01: Crossing Paths
September 27, Cosmic Era 71 During the final stages of the Second Battle of Jachin Due the Earth Alliance once again prepared to use nuclear warheads on the PLANT homeland however this decision along with the Atlantic Federations previous actions did not sit well with their allies and soon led to defections who sided with the goals of the Three Ships Alliance and a civil war within the ranks, however this wasn't exclusive for the soldiers amongst the Earth Alliance for even those within ZAFT had their misgivings about the turn of events that had unfolded before them.
By the end of the war both the Earth Alliance and the ZAFT forces saw many soldiers leaving their ranks for one reason or another, some becoming pirates, mercenaries, members of the Junk Guild or terrorists who continued the ideals of Patrick Zala.
Opening - Ignited by TM Revolution
CE 73 August 10; Ex-Earth Alliance vessel JELLICOE; Location: L 4 – en route to Mendel Colony
Aboard a lone refitted Nelson-class vessel that once had belonged to the Eurasian Federation klaxons blared violently as it approached towards the operation zone. "All hands report to your stations, pilots standby in your machines." People floated throughout the ship as they hurried to their stations
"Here." A blonde haired woman handed a data pad to a brunette pilot dressed in dark blue and black flight suit.
Jade green eyes skimmed over the details on the hand held device with an intensity and focus as his mind absorbed the stored information "The mission?" he asked indifferently, looking back down at the data pad making sure he hadn't missed anything.
The blonde haired woman nodded as they floated towards the hangar "They're another group from the Debris Belt that have made their way to L4 looking to for easy prey, like survey ships and Junkies." The commander of mobile suit team on the Ex-Earth Alliance vessel stated nonchalantly.
Grabbing a hold of the railing next to the door that led to the hangar of the Jellicoe, the former Combat Coordinator look back to his superior officer "Mobile Suits?" he asked already knowing the answer.
The door hissed open and a dark haired man stood in the door who wrapped an arm around the teen's neck "Apparently nearly every group now days has one. But at least it'll be more of a challenge this time however that's if they don't run. Right Kazuki?" the dark haired man in a yellow and black flight suit said jokingly upset how the pirates always tend to flee at the sight of a superior force
Not wanting to deal with anymore, unnecessary banter Kazuki removed his comrade's arm and floated past to his mobile suit without saying a word to his easy-going comrade however gave a nod to the mechanic who updated the combat coordinator of the changes to his custom black and white GAT-01A1 105 Dagger.
The raven-haired man's right eye twitched after being ignored so casually and turned to face the other pilot that disappeared into the cockpit of the customised black, red and white mobile suit "You know it's stuff like that, that reminds me why I don't take you out drinking with me. OW!" he shouted irritated by Kazuki's usual neutral and seemingly aloof attitude before letting out a yelp as he felt someone pulling on his ear.
"Just get ready, moron." The blonde haired commander growled unimpressed by his childish behaviour and released her subordinate from her grip.
Stumbling slightly across the deck plating the young man kicked off and turned back to face her with a grin "Fine but only if you go out with me after the mission. Okay I get it, I get it." The man winked as he let out an uneasy laugh, before ducking into a mass production Buster Dagger as his superior let out a warning glare "Next time then…Whoa!" he quipped after putting on a helmet and ducked back in as female squad commander threw a spanner at the shameless flirt after finally having enough of his antics however to her disdain the tool ricocheted off of the edge of the armour and hit one of the mechanics on the back of the head prompting her to make a swift retreat to her Duel Dagger, Fortresta.
Unknown Vessel; Location: L 4 – Mendel Colony
Outside of the Mendel colony a vessel of unknown origin drifted silently through space and violently came to a halt. The sudden jolt stirred the crew of the double hulled, knife like vessel who had all fell unconscious after the Paksis made another jump in an attempt to escape the Harvest Fleet "Ugh where are we?" the elderly female captain asked as she held her head pounding head after briefly glimpsing the cylindrical colony out of the corner of her eye.
After shaking her head and gathering her thoughts Ezra looked at her screen and scanned the area for anything that might be familiar "Checking, stellar charts. I am unable to confirm our location, none of the stars match what we have on record." She responded double-checking the readings on her console to make sure which she was seeing was correct and not some glitch in the system.
"Are we in another galaxy?" Buzam frowned as she, like the rest of the crew tried to figure out how the structure beside the ship suddenly appeared however her greatest concern was their exact location.
Not wanting to stick around and discuss the issue Magno turned her attention to the helm "BART! GET US MOVING!" she ordered at the top of her voice.
"I'm trying! But it just doesn't want to move! It's as if we're stuck or something." The shaven headed man complained as the hull of the ship groaned and creaked; threatening to break under the pressure while it struggled to move.
The radar operator's eyes widened when she saw what the problem was and when a series of blips appeared on her screen "Captain! The ship appears to be caught in some sort of tether and I'm detecting multiple signatures on sensors!" panic ran through Amarone's voice as she displayed the image on her screen which showed two heavily armed Marseille III class transport vessels and a Pirate Cruiser followed by a swarm of custom ZGMF 1017-GINNs and mobile armours
As the fleet made their move on the helpless Nirvana the crew watched with baited breath as they waited to see whether the ships and their escorts were either friend or foe and their answer came when Coco Belvedere's console beeped "We're receiving some sort of signal from one of the ships, text only it reads. 'Surrender your vessel and supplies immediately or you will be destroyed. From the Hillas pirate gang'" she read aloud to the bridge crew.
"The nerve." Magno Vivan gritted her teeth at the ironic situation that they were in now.
Hearing the captain's despise for the message they were sent the commander wasted no time "All Dread teams scramble!" The platinum blonde shouted, her voice echoed throughout the ship and swiftly put up a line of defence in front of the Nirvana
Seeing that their prey wasn't going to surrender so easily the pirates were the first to open fire on the seemingly unarmed battleship in front of them signalling the commencement of the battle and beams of green and blue quickly filled the dark abyss of space. "What the are these things? Are these Vanguards?" Jura complained as explosions flared around her red coloured Dread fighter and a custom assault GINN hunt her down.
"Just remain on guard and don't get careless." Meia replied to Jura's whining in a serious tone however she gasped when a pair of high mobility custom GINNs appeared in front of her and began hammering her shields with 76mm AP/HE round from their heavy assault machineguns.
As a Dread spun out of control past the Nirvana, the monocular eye of a GINN flashed bright red as the pilot turned his attention to his next victim "These mobile armours don't stand a chance." The pilot grinned wickedly as he licked his lips hungrily.
"Like swatting flies." Another quipped enjoying how the Dreads stood little chance against the mobile suits while the mobile armours continued to relentlessly harass the foreign battleship.
The leader of the pirate squadron of Mobile Suits turned his camera to his bloodthirsty comrades "Remember we can't salvage anything if they're too badly damaged" his voice was calm as he narrowly avoided the laser bolts fired from Barnette's fighter.
"Heh…that doesn't mean we can't destroy one or two by accident right?" Another pilot of GINN designed for close combat said viciously firing a claw with an anti-beam coating that struck against the cockpit of a Dread causing it to erupt into a ball of flaming debris.
"Oh-yeah" the first said in glee watching the flaming wreckage spin pass and hit the shields of the alien vessel.
As the ship shuddered and rocked violently from each impact against the flickering shields, the hopes and spirits of the crew continued to drain as each report came in with only more bad news "Shields are down to the third level." Amarone shouted as the bridge shook after as an anti-ship missile impacted and exploded against the failing protective bubble.
"My control thrusters have been hit, I need to return to the ship for repairs." Barnette appeared on the main monitor as smoke rose from her damaged fighter's engines and sparks flickered inside her cockpit
As damage reports and tactical readings flashed on the screen before her Belvedere began to perspire "The B Team has been completely out manoeuvred and the C Team has been completely disabled." She announced uneasily to the crew on the bridge.
The commander didn't like where the situation was headed and was out of ideas on what to do, some sort tether trapped them and now an unknown enemy was attacking them and out pacing their Dreads "This doesn't look good captain at this rate-" BC turned to Magno in the hopes of finding some sort of answer as she tried to settle her turning stomach at the dire situation.
"It appears that way and seeing as we don't know anything about this enemy, we can't do anything to solve it." She watched on as her heart began to sink, as the unknown mecha continued to hinder the Dread's attempts to get into a formation.
Swinging the energy blade recklessly amongst the chaos of the battle between the two pirate groups Hibiki began to curse his luck as he continued to miss his targets and how he was easily being made to look like a fool "Damn it! You're all so annoying!" he shouted thrusting his sword at the leader of the pirate GINNs only to miss him yet again and to be thrown against an asteroid.
Back on the JELLICOE awaiting for their orders the Mobile suit forces of the mercenary group know as Guardian went over the details of the mission one last time "Remember what we discussed at the briefing, Jameson will deal with the vessels and I'll defend the JELLICOE while it supports you in eliminating their main mobile armour and mobile suit force" The squadron commander appeared on the upper right monitor of the cockpit. "We've also received word from reconnaissance that the pirates are attacking an unknown ship at the interception coordinates." She added updating the recent information they had and sent him still photos of the fighters engaging the mobile suits, which appeared on the main monitor.
Kazuki looked at the image and took in all the detail on what they were about to face in the upcoming battle "Understood." He said in an apathetic tone as his superior disappeared from the upper-right hand monitor and his companions were released into the linear catapults on either side of the Nelson-class vessel.
The commander of the Mobile Suit team closed the visor of her pink and black helmet after the Duel Dagger was floated out onto the starboard side linear catapult "Hilde Ravensbrück, Duel Dagger launching!" she announced to the CIC operator of the JELLICOE and was thrown into the black abyss of space to join the raging battle.
"Matthew Jameson, Buster Dagger taking off!" The pilot smirked adjusting his forest green gloves and closed his visor as the Buster Dagger was launched from the port side catapult.
As his comrades were launched side long out into space Kazuki Uraki's mobile suit was eased into one of the catapults and closed the visor of his red and black helmet "Kazuki Uraki, 105 Dagger launching!" he said coldly before being launched into space.
Like fireworks warheads and bullets exploded in colours of orange and off red hues, outnumbered and outgunned the crew of the Nirvana was now helpless and almost at the mercy of the enemy pirates. "I can't get close to Mister Alien to combine!" Dita cried as she was tossed aside by an explosion from anti-ship missile.
Seeing the slender frame of Meia's Dread destroying the sluggish customised Chimera's a custom high mobility GINN flew parallel and dove in on the small fighter, like a hawk diving in on its prey. "Speed means nothing if you don't have the manoeuvrability" The pirate grinned wickedly and speared the left wing on Meia's Dread with its pole arm, then kicked the fighter aside and aimed the GINN's rifle at the helpless fighter
"Meia watch out!" Barnette, Jura and Dita called out in panic and Meia looked on in horror as the Mobile Suit adjusted the firing angle of the large assault machine gun.
Not wanting to see one of his friends injured again in battle, Hibiki rushed in with his yellow humanoid mecha and slammed hard against the reinforced frame of the 1017 GINN "You bastards are going to pay!" He shouted after the sparks dissipated and withdrew the Vanguard's energy sword from its sheath
The pilot of the pirate mobile suit manoeuvred his machine around the arc of the blade and grasped the arm of Hibiki's machine "You're nothing but joke." The enemy pilot said drily, unimpressed by Hibiki's piloting skills or lack-there-of and threw the yellow Vanguard away from the Dreads "NOW DIE!" the GINN's pilot brought up the 76 mm heavy assault machine gun to bare.
"Mister Alien!" Dita cried out as she watched the Taraak youth fall away from her in vain.
As he tumbled in space helplessly and at the mercy of the enemy machine, time seemed to slow as the sudden realisation of his own mortality began to sink in and before him his life played in front of him. However time soon sped up as a bright green beam pierced through the GINN's arm "What the-?" Hibiki shouted as he leaned forward in his chair and watched as the GINN's arm erupted into a pinkish cloud of light and debris. With the mobile suit no longer an immediate threat Hibiki followed the angle of the beam to see where it had originated and saw a black and white mecha silhouetted by the sun behind it.
Not wasting anytime the new suit flew into the chaos with a squad of Dagger L mobile suits in tow, what seemed like a losing battle to the crew of the Nirvana had taken for the better but for how long they didn't know "Captain I'm detecting new signatures on our sensors!" Belvedere shouted as a series of blips appeared on her monitors.
"They've got reinforcements?" Buzam asked wondering if the situation had worsened and if they had to fight off the new contacts.
While the 105 Dagger cleared the area of the faster enemies, the Buster Dagger along with a handful of Dagger Ls used the confusion to get close to the pirate ships. "Looks like I'm going to be a hero and save the day." He said triumphantly sending the Dagger Ls to cover him while he combined the gun-launcher and the high-energy beam rifle to create a Long-Range beam rifle and fired a destructive green beam that pierced the bridge of a pirate Marseille III that was followed by several explosions within the vessel.
Showering a group of five custom Chimeras who had made an attack run on the JELLICOE with laser guided missiles and severing another with a beam saber, Hilde let out a low frustrated growl "Enough chatter, let's stick to the plan." The blonde haired woman said slightly irritated by the overconfident and childish attitude of the Buster Dagger's pilot.
The raven haired man let out a sigh of displeasure "You're a real buzz kill, you know that Hilde." he quipped, dodging a blast from a heavy beam cannon that seared across the dark green laminated armour. "We can't have that now!" he fired a shot in return at the turret that had fired on him and destroyed it with a similarly green energy beam from his combinable rifle.
"Shut it Jameson or you'll find yourself in a world of hurt." The commander snapped back destroying another Mobile Armour with the Duel Dagger's beam rifle.
As explosions of red and gold detonated in the forever night of space, the Aile equipped 105 Dagger piloted by Kazuki danced around arcing beam fire, however, his dodging annoyed one of the enemy pilots who raised and fired a 500mm recoilless rifle at the former Earth Alliance mobile suit's cockpit without hesitation, but the only thing that the round would impact on was the laminated shield that spun out of the smoke and drifted away, astonished by what had happened the startled blood-thirsty pirate immediately searched his surroundings for his prey and found what he was searching for was behind him. Not wasting time the pirate GINN reached for his heavy sword and swung for the Dagger but missed his target, by swinging wide and swung again however the armour plating on his cockpit was suddenly seared off by Kazuki's beam sabre and was now staring out into open space, the pilot then paled and began wetting his flight suit in terror as the twinkling stars were now replaced by the barrel of KMS71/J beam pistol followed by a blinding light the mercilessly engulfed and vaporised his entire being "…Hmph" the brunette watched silently as the pirate's mobile suit went limp and it's monocular eye dimmed, before erupting into a ball of burning debris.
The pirates couldn't believe their eyes, their entire operation was being dismantled right before them and what was worse they were facing a force of mobile suit pilots that fought like seasoned veterans and the 105 Dagger pilot was executing them without remorse. "What's going on? Who are the-gah!" A pilot cried in confusion but was cut off when his cockpit burst into flames and exploded.
"Don't let up! We can win this!" The pirate commander demanded that their forces keep pressuring their foes till they ran out of power but he already began to figure out that the 105 pilot wasn't an ordinary Natural but in fact was a Coordinator.
The other pirates however didn't see the point in throwing their lives away and pointed their machines away from the battlefield "Screw it! We're not paid for this!" A piloted shouted from a standard GINN passing the pirate commander's High Mobility custom GINN.
The pirate commander bit his bottom lip and gripped the controls of the now outdated Mobile Suit as rage began to well up inside him "DAMN COWARDS!" He raged while his subordinates left him behind and their remaining ship without any defenders.
On the bridge of the pirate cruiser, which had stayed behind, blips began disappearing from their radar and the crew were in a state of high panic when the proximity alarms went off. "Sir! We're detecting a ship! Nelson-class!" the operator cried in alarm as the silhouette appeared from behind one of the large asteroids and rotated its main batteries to focus on the lone pirate vessel.
The large and dirty captain of the vessel, gritted his teeth at the dire situation "Target them with our cannons! Stop them now!" The captain of the cruiser shouted as the black battleship closed the gap between them and could begin to see the bridge clearly.
The firing officer gulped heavily when he saw an energy spike on his monitor "Too late sir! Aaarrgh!" the bridge crew cried as beams pelted the bridge until the laminated armour melted away and pierced right through the ship hitting vital systems causing an overload in the power distribution network and ruptured the oxygen tanks which split the pirate cruiser's stern and consumed the entire ship in a spectacular fireball.
The pilot of the High Mobility GINN gripped the controls of his machine hard as he bitterly tried to quell his boiling rage, not only had the operation failed so miserably but he was also made a fool in front of his own men and left him for dead, as his pride began to cloud his judgement and his knuckles burned white from grasping the controls the pirate lowered his polearm and dove for the 105 Dagger "Damn you! YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" he screamed thrusting the polearm forward and narrowly missed the cockpit of the other mobile suit and slipped under the 105 Dagger's arm, the pilot of the 1017-GINN High Mobility custom froze and realised his mistake when the Dagger yanked the polearm from the GINN's hold only to plunge the tip of the weapon directly into the chest of pirate's mobile suit. "You -caff- truly are a monstah" the pilot managed to choke out on an open channel to Kazuki before his visor became covered in a thick coating of blood and it was engulfed in an explosion.
"..." The brunette coordinator chose not to respond to the comment for he had already accepted that in order to defeat the so-called 'monsters' of the world, he'd become a 'monster' himself.
"You know that was kind of a let down, I was hoping that they'd at least try to put up more of a fight." The dark haired pilot in the Buster Dagger said taking of his helmet, disappointed about how easily the pirates were taken down but really underneath his disappointment he was really boasting.
The female pilot of the Duel Dagger let a sigh of irritation over her subbordinate's underlying arrogant tone "Don't get cocky." she reprimanded Matthew in an attempt to remind them that they still had an unknown nearby and turned her focus onto strange silver vessel "Now what are we going to do with them?" she wondered to herself.
On the bridge of the Nirvana the captain had established contact with the Ex-Earth Alliance vessel to show a sign of gratitude and to secure their own safety, given their predicament they couldn't afford another fight especially while they were trapped "Well it looks like we owe you." the captain said looking up at the monitor from her chair in the center of the bridge while not letting her guard down.
"We were paid to stop the piracy in this area, saving you was part of the job." The aged captain of the Ex-Earth Alliance vessel replied with a French accent in his voice
With their former occupation being pirates the captain felt slightly unnerved "I see and might I ask whom am I addressing?" she looked up at the screen from under the hood of her room with a discerning look, wondering if they would have to fight their way out of this situation. With the Nirvana anchored by the teather they couldn't fire the ships main cannon without damaging the ship itself and the pilots of the strange machines appeared to seasoned veterans.
The captain of the Nelson-Class vessel looked up at the main monitor on the bridge. "I'm Captain Theodore Dupont of the JELLICOE. I'm not familiar with your ship's classification." the man brought up an image of the Nirvana on the small monitor installed into the arm of his chair.
"I'm Magno Vivian the captain of the Nirvana we come from a planet called Mejere." she added the last part carefully.
The crew of the JELLICOE all looked at each other with perplexed expressions on their faces as they continued their duties on the bridge "Mejere? Don't you mean Mars?" Theodore Dupont wondered, eyeing the captain of the other ship sceptically.
Buzam nor could anyone else on the bridge understand what was going on, they assumed that the ship had been once again thrown across the galaxy but they had landed in an area that has never heard of Mejere and prehaps for that matter Taraak. "They don't know about Mejere? This is becoming more strange by the minute." BC muttered to herself trying to figure out whether they were close to their own solar system..
On the bridge of the JELLICOE the female CIC operator turned to the aging man "Captain the pilots are all aboard now." she announce after the last Dagger L returned to the ship.
It was then that Magno decided to get better grasp on the situation and also to try to delay this new vessel from leaving "If it's possible we'd like to meet with you, we have a number of issues that we'd like to clear up first and we'd like to find a way to repay you for helping us." she smirked. In no way could she allow the JELLICOE to leave, not without gaining important information on where they were and she refused to allow the Nirvana to be left at the mercy of other pirate groups.
"That's fine with me, but be warned we will not tolerate any deception." Theodore Dupont calmly warned Magno and closed the channel between the ships and began to discuss the capabilities of the alien vessel and how it should be treated.
Buzam turned to her captain with concern etched into her features "Are you sure that we can trust them captain?" the platinum blonde wanted to know what the pirate captain was thinking about and why they were being so open about the black ship that hung off their bow.
The old woman didn't like have to depend on the stranger either but they were in a bind, if they attempted to fire their main cannon there was a risk that they would damage the Nirvana and they had to buy time for the engineers to cut through the metal teathers. "At this point we don't have a choice, until we find out more about where we are we'll play along." Magno sighed getting out of her captain's chair to head for the shuttle bay.
Down in the hangar Hibiki was fixed to the seat of his machine and went over the events of the battle, every attack he made was evaded and countered by those other pirates, and then there was that pilot the one that had outclassed him and had him beat 'You're nothing but a joke.' The words of the pirate captain echoed in his mind and it pained him every time he heard it.
Standing in front of Hibiki's yellow Vanguard the red-haired girl, Dita had become concerned for the Taraak male after seeing him sit in the open cockpit for almost an hour without moving even the slightest "Mister Alien is everything okay? Mister Alien-" she asked climbing up the ladder but froze when she saw Hibiki's agonized expression
"Damn it all!" the spiked haired youth growled balling a fist and slammed his fist into side of the cockpit, frustrated at his pathetic perfomance on the battlefield he hadn't felt this bad since Miss Gascogne sacrificed herself.
Earth Alliance Forces Special Intelligence Bureau Station
Located high above the Earth in an unimportant area of space a lone satellite space station used by the Earth Alliance remained mostly unnoticed by all of the large organisations however there were some that couldn't help but notice. "I want you to make sure that there are no information leaks on the projects, not even that fool Djibril is to know of the Jörmungandr." an elderly man said in demanding voice from the shadows of the large monitoring room inside the station.
The woman sitting in the command chair looked to the darkness with irritation, wondering what right had a lowly ship captain of a splinter faction had to make such demands of her "Who do you think you're talking to Captain Bucard?" She growled at the old man.
The old man stepped from the shadows and pulled a cigar from his well pressed Eurasian Federation uniform which had the O.M.N.I. Enforcer patches removed "I'm talking to a woman who thinks she can manipulate the fate of the world." he said apathetically as lit the cigar with an engraved brass lighter.
"Watch what you say Bucard, I'm in charge here not you." The woman didn't take to the elderly man's insolent tone too kindly.
Letting out a puff of smoke the old man turned his attention to the young dark haired woman in the chair, his eyes still uncaring of what the woman hoped to achieve or what she may represent "That is where you are wrong my dear." he corrected "We both hold the same cards of power in information and in strength don't forget that it was my idea to create Blue Cosmos and it was my family who had the idea to form Logos, that being said the information you have here is available to me." he stated to the woman pacing around the room and watching each monitor carefully.
"Then why don't you make sure it isn't leaked?" She inquired with honest curiousity.
The man smiled inwardly, the woman in the chair was starting to become more co-operative and if she accepted his next proposal, she would be under his influence "Because I don't control it. If I started to take control my position would be compromised and I would be exposed to those who would want to see me dead." he reasoned with her "If you ensure that my activities are kept hidden from those individuals, I'll see to it that you're operations are well supplied." he gestured to one of the monitors that showed the security footage from the main hangar of the hidden Earth Alliance outpost.
The woman raised an eyebrow at what she was seeing, not only was she being given a new mobile suit but also a pilot or considering he was wearing handcuffs, a prisoner of sorts "Should I consider this to be a gift or a bribe?" she prodded, interested in the overall meaning of the 'present'
The old man turned his back to the image of the ZGMF-X12A Testament and the 'reformed' Ash Gray. "Consider it as proof of my word." he replied reassuringly, implying that she had nothing to be concerned with.
She considered every word that Bucard had said but still couldn't believe his audacity "Before I even give you my answer? How shrewd...but your work does indeed intrigue me, I look forward to seeing how you intend to use them." she turned the chair away from the captain and returned to her work.
'I look forward to seeing how you will die Matisse' The elderly man thought to himself as he left the room.
Ex-Earth Alliance vessel, JELLICOE; L 4 – Mendel Colony
After having transferring to the Nelson-class vessel the captain and commander of the Nirvana sat inside drab yet well furnished cabin that belonged to Theodore Dupont who had his hands folded infront of his face and looked at the women pensively "I find what you are saying hard to accept. Saying that you're from alternate reality is to say the least preposterous." he tried to wrap his mind around what they were saying, everything that he had heard from them sounded like it was straight from science fiction but truth be told so did aliens however they soon became fact after George Glenn had discovered Evidence 01.
"However the facts are there." Magno stared at the man before her however she to was having a hard time understanding what had happened, was this another hidden power of the Paksis? She just didn't know.
The aged man sat back in his seat and placed his hands on the arms of his chair and met the elderly captain's gaze with equal intensity "It doesn't mean I have to accept them." he replied simply.
Magno let out an exasperated sigh, she was getting nowhere with the discussion fast and it seemed that if this captain wasn't going to listen then there was no need to ask them for assisstance "I see. Then we'll take our leave, we wouldn't want to trouble you any further." she eased herself out of the chair and was grateful for the low gravity on the ship.
Theodore ran a hand through his hair and sat forward, placing his hands on the desk "I may not accept the facts but I am not as obstinate as those in the Earth Alliance or the PLANT and unlike them no one here will attempt to use your ship for their own purposes." he warned them that the alternatives weren't any better.
The commander stopped and raised an eyebrow, curious about where he was taking the conversation and what he hoped to achieve by stopping them "If you don't me asking, just what are you playing at Mister Dupont?" she probed while both women took their seats again.
Again he folded his hands in front of his face and stared at them, as his mind worked through a prosposal that would benefit both parties "In exchange for information and our assisstance, I'll gain is the expertise of your pilots." he tapped a button on his desk and the screen that hung near his bed switched on showing the battle between the Nirvana's pilots and the pirates, the women were stunned by how he had come across the images. "Even though they are piloting mobile armours, they have the potential to become competent mobile suit pilots. To this end we're willing to give them the proper training." he offered the two representatives hoping to grease the wheels of diplomacy a little
"You're being awfully generous. So generous that I can't help but feel there's something you're not telling us." the elder female captain said slyly trying to drag the real reason for his overwhelming generosity out of her male counterpart.
Theodore let out a sigh "Although we have the numbers in machines, we lack the number in actual pilots." he stated matter-of-factually, with their current number of pilots the could only field two-thirds of their current forces although the battle strength was above average, the captain personally felt that it would be better to have the JELLICOE and the group they were supporting at full strength. "Other than that I just wish to atone for the atrocities that I helped commit in the last war. With your pilot's aiding us, they'll be helping you to understand what is happening around the world and being aiding you in your search to find a way home." he emphasized the last part but there was still some lingering doubt in his mind about the ship being from another dimension.
The hooded female captain nodded in agreement after being satisfied by Dupont's explanation but still kept her suspicions "As long as you up hold your end of the deal, I don't see why we can't help you out." she looked up from underneath her hood carefully evaluating him.
"CAPTAIN?" Buzam shouted in disbelief.
Magno raised her right hand to settle her commander down "It's all right BC, they hold the cards at the moment and we can't risk making enemies of anyone at the moment." she pointed out that they weren't in the ideal position to negotiate properly with the Nirvana still trapped and besides having her Dread pilots properly trained would prove to beneficial
"After choosing your best pilots for training, they're to report to the our hangar tomorrow at 0600 hours, we'll have a shuttle waiting to pick up the candidates." The aging man stated matter-of-factually as he moved from the brought out a plastic blue bottle filled with whiskey and placed it on his red oak desk.
The captain got up from the armchair that she had been sitting in and headed over to the door that the former Earth Alliance captain held open for her. "You're too kind Mister Dupont." She looked at the elderly man with a sly smirk and exited the room with the commander closely behind her. After the commander and captain had left the admiral walked over to the whiskey he had poured earlier and took a sip before turning to the recording of the battle that took place outside of the Mendel colony which caused a lot of collateral damage to it and hoped that it wasn't too damaged for whatever plans the chairman had installed for it.
"Captain, can we really trust them?" BC was still uncertain about the motives of the man that they had been talking to.
The elderly woman walked down the dull grey passage with her cane clacking against the metal deck plating "I know how you feel but we stand more to gain by helping them for now. Besides I think it'll do the crew some good to have somewhere to stay and not worry about being attacked for awhile."
"If you say so Captain." Buzam said taking one last look behind her and at the door to the captain's quarters, still unsure of whether what they were doing was right.
In a darkened room filled with the pilots of the ex-Earth Alliance vessel, the first officer of the JELLICOE stood in front of a large illuminated board with the current orders for the mercenary group in his hands "As you've undoubtedly noticed in the report, we shall be training a select few of the silver ship's pilots in the operation of mobile suits. In exchange we'll have another ship to deploy from in an emergency. " he summarized the deal between the two ships and paused so that the crew could voice their opinions knowing that some of the more oversexed pilots would be more than willing to help the all female crew of the Nirvana get better acquainted with the cockpit of a mobile suit.
That's when Matthew Jameson decided to added his two cents worth into the briefing "So we're going to be training a ship full of women to pilot Mobile Suits? I can't wait to start!" the playboy said eagerly leaning on the forward on the back of the chair in front of him.
The commander and the female pilots of the Nelson-class vessel weren't entirely impressed by his outburst "That's where you're wrong. Lieutenant Commander Hilde Ravensbrück you shall be in charge of training the candidates." the second in command burst the dark haired male's bubble of getting close and personal with the Nirvana's personnel
The blonde haired woman nodded accepting her new orders "Roger."
The XO turned his attention to the playboy and the young coordinator "Lieutenants Jameson and Uraki, you'll board a transport at Copernicus and be deployed to ZAFT's Carpentaria base. Recently the Supreme Council has received threats from a terrorist organization that still support Patrick Zala's goal and are currently demanding that Gilbert Durandal steps down as Chairman." he brought up an image of the former Chairman and several windows of texts that contained the various threats "Although the location of one of their cells has been narrowed down to Australia their exact location remains unknown, because of this the PLANTs doesn't want to accidentally incite them by carelessly moving their troops into possible hostile regions which would lead to unnecessary violence." he stated the dangerous situation that ZAFT had been placed in and how they didn't want to cause any civilian casualties and changed the image to show the southern regions of the continent the two pilots were going to be deployed in.
Kazuki who was already mentally preparing himself for the mission looked up from his folded arms to his superior "What equipment will we be using?" he asked in his usual calm and cool voice.
Nodding the commander walked up to the row Kazuki and Matthew were sitting in and handed them their requisition forms. "This is strictly a reconnaissance mission and you will not be using mobile suits. You'll be equipped with silenced side arms, flashbangs, one off-road vehicle, cameras, radio and standard survival equipment. Because of the delicate nature of what you're being asked to do, if things take a turn for the worse you'll be on your own. You're to leave for Copernicus tomorrow at 0700 hours, do not be late." he eyed them carefully and held an accusing gaze at Matthew Jameson for his notoriety of his tardiness "You're all dismissed." the commander saluted the pilots and turned the lights back on before he left the room in front of his subordinates to let them know he had nothing more to add.
"Looks like we'll miss out on the fun." the dark haired Lieutenant rubbed his head and let out a sigh of frustration at not being able to see all of the women coming over to the ship to train.
Kazuki although was glad that he had a mission, wasn't at all happy with the person he was being assigned to "It's because of that attitude, that they put you on this mission." he said casting a warning glare at his comrade, letting Jameson know that his laid back behaviour wouldn't be tolerated on the mission
The other Lieutenant let out a chuckle at the comment "At least it's better than acting gloomy all the time." he replied and draped an arm over the coordinator's shoulder and glanced into Kazuki's eyes with a knowing look "We all know that you turned on your squad during the final assault on the PLANTs and to be honest we're glad that you did, those bastards had it coming anyway for going with those crazy orders in the first place. I mean come on there's a big super weapon pointing at you and you're told to ig-YEOWWW!" he howled in pain after feeling a boot crushing down on his foot and swore he could hear his toes cracking underneath the pressure and floated back into a wall cradling his injured foot.
"That's enough out of you." Hilde said with venom and turned to the coordinator hoping that she managed to stop the conversation before it became an irreversible issue "Sorry about that Kazuki he said too much." she apologised to the brunette for Jameson's lack of tact on a delicate matter and to her Kazuki was like a younger brother and she didn't want anyone to put him through the pain he felt during that battle again.
However the coordinator just looked back at her coldly with uncaring eyes before turning his attention to the hall "What's done is done." he said with finality and kicked off the deck and headed to the elevator.
Ending - Hoshi No Tobira by Satori Negishi
Trapped in a universe alien to them however there are some things that remain the same no matter where you are, and what is this that moves in the shadows? Is it friend? Is it a foe? or is it something completely different? Only time will tell. Next on Vandread SEED Destiny; Under New Skies. Continue the legacy 105 Dagger!