Chapter 1: Waking Moments…
…Darkness
Darkness surrounded him, there was little to no noise, besides the dulled thrum of the massive carrier transport's engines, propelling the transport through the air. Ray's cap was on his face, giving him an impression of utter darkness, he slept soundly comfortable, or as comfortable as a military operator could inside of the cockpit of an AMAF unit.
He hadn't been able to sleep properly over the last week since he had spent the majority of it getting his unit platoon prepared for deployment, that and completing the report he misfiled on an engagement with a group of insurgents near Cebu, where he had gotten into quite a bit of trouble for misidentifying the local national army for the insurgents. In any event, he had to go over the mess for the last days on top of his work schedule, not something he'd want to do again any time soon.
"Hey, Ray, wake the fuck up mate." A voice called as a sudden sound of rapping followed.
Ray didn't stir at first, ignoring the tapping, it was only when someone opened up the cockpit hatch that he started to wake.
Of course he got a friendly wake up call before that happened. "AGH!" He yelped as he felt something hit his face.
"That got your attention." He heard the other man chuckling.
The other man was Christopher Newton, the sergeant of his mechanised unit, he was the third operator, and he was the third in command. Chris was Sydney born, stuck up cunt who kept thinking he was hot shit until he got into a fight and thrown in jail. He wound up doing four years, thanks to the collateral damage inflicted by his car accidently crashing into a street side shop and a nearby power line.
He had this commuted within three months when he signed up for military service, instead of having to pay a hefty fine and serve four years in jail, and commit to multiple years doing community service for multiple road side and public offences. He chose to serve in the military until he could cover all of it.
The young NCO joined the same time Ray was assigned to the platoon, the military seemed to have straightened Chris out, for the most part, but he still caused his own kind of mischief whenever he could. He wasn't the worst kind of person to be with honestly, he could be a bit overbearing as a squad leader, but he was quick to make decisions, and most of them were good calls, though he had a tendency to commit hard to an attack.
"What the fuck Chris, you could just tap me on the damn knee!" Ray snapped as he woke up grumpy, then again he was hit in the face by a ration pack.
"Hey don't shoot the messenger; we've got final briefing and checks in a few minutes." Chris promptly said with an abject shrug.
"Already? Jesus…" Ray said while he cracked his fingers and arms with a stretch.
"Yeah, the Colonel sure wants to make us memorise our objectives and LZs, in any case you better get up man, I'd rather not have to drag your ass over there."Chris said while he jumped from the lip of the cockpit.
"Fucking hell, we've been doing this for four years now, you'd think we'd already be used to having to roll in and take out their caches and staging sites." Ray said whilst he unseated himself.
"Yeah, but punctuality mate, come on." Chris said while impatiently tapping on the top of the cockpit hatch.
Ray exited his machine and jumped down onto the primary bay of the Austral Skyline AU-2/CV military variant, his boots making a deep thud as he landed. The cargo/deployment bay was massive; it was a little bigger than the next largest aircrafts such as the Russian Antonov An-225 Mriya, or the American Boeing C-8 Strata Millennium. Though the C-8 and Skyline were military, and they had larger capacity intended for carrying AMAFs.
It gave plenty of space for their machines and the operators, though it still seemed a little cramped it wasn't nearly as bad as trying to shove them into a Boeing HTC-180 Atlas cargo planes, those were cramped and could only just fit 4 machines in a single file, and had little space for movement besides having to crawl on the side railings of the interior just to move up and down.
Moving beyond the bustle of engineers and technicians, they reached the forward compartment where the troops were gathered, a full platoon of men in armoured BDU's, all of them AMAF operators. And the others which were Australian commandos, partially dressed in their BDU's and combat gear.
The two of them made their way over the front end of the gathered bodies where the other officers and their NCOs were gathered around, the briefing was about ready to start when they took their spots. Ray and Christopher had to stay standing as they hadn't enough room for anyone else.
Thanks to space meant for their machines they didn't have enough to spare for the rest of the men to have a proper briefing room, not like they really needed it when it came to this sort of thing. Regardless the crew chiefs worked alongside what personnel were available, doing their utmost to complete the maintenance checks before the operation began.
Their platoon commander stood besides the digital display he had set up for the briefing, his appearance was that of a calm and composed officer, rank and file colonel. "Gentlemen, good to see we're all here, conditions over our DZ are mostly clear, so we've got optimal drop conditions. However I'd like to make it abundantly clear that this will not be our standard operation. Division Intelligence has directed us for a new set of objectives." The man said as he brought up the geographical layout of their new AO. The gathered men seemed to grumble at this bit of news. Ray and Chris both looked on without much thought, as they had seen this stunt pulled a few times before.
"I thought this was going to be our usual song and dance?" One officer inquired, clearly disgruntled by this change in their plan.
It was clear many of them hadn't been expecting this sudden change of their operation, especially when this involved dealing with insurgents. The platoon commander made it known that this wasn't what they were expecting either.
"No, not this time, HQ felt that this was only to be revealed once we reached the final stretch, our mission tonight isn't going to be a simple raid. Mission parameters have changed, I know this sounds pretty fucking rushed and believe me, I'd have argued their methodology, but we don't have much of a choice."
His switched the board's display to one of their target objective and their given operational parameter.
"This is target site, Delta, as you can all see this isn't the regular targets we're normally used to going after. This is a listening post, insurgent's had some help from the Chinese, again, this one is a little more elaborate though, it was intended to act as a long range listening post for the insurgents in Palawan." He explained as he bought up a fully details map of the area in question.
They all studied it as quickly as they could and memorised the site.
"The listening post isn't fully active as of yet, but it will be within a week, normally we'd have let the air force deal with this, however they can't make an approach thanks to the location of the listening post and the fact that there are six SAM sites plus a suspect number of specialised hunter AMAFs within the area, they've got more than enough firepower to deter any attempt at a surgical strike."
"So what's our plan?" Another officer inquired.
"We're going in by foot, along the ridges from the two drop zones; eliminate any and all opposition as fast as we can, hit the sites and if we can, we deal with the listening post. If it's too hot then it doesn't matter, we just need to eliminate most of the SAM sites and whatever AMAF anti-air units they got positioned around it, as long as we can deal as much damage as possible, the higher the success rate for the Air Force to strike the post." He told them all.
"Sir. What sorts of resistance are we expected to face?" The lieutenant in charge of Huntsman team 2 asked.
"Depends, for the most part we'd be facing regulars, nationalists armed with usual gear, though further inland we do suspect that there is a detachment of MAF units located in the hills near objective bravo and sigma, they're expected to be packing heat."He replied promptly.
"What about air cover? Will we have any available close air support?" Ray inquired from the back of the crowd.
"Only a few drones, ordinance will be limited to only a handful of strikes, so be mindful of what you're calling down, as we can't muster anything more afterwards, and air support is going to be unavailable." The commander replied.
"Rally point Lima is a rather open location, I'm assuming this is because it's we're heading in and out as quickly as possible?" Someone else asked.
"Essentially, the target locations for extraction aren't far away so these rally locations aren't as subtle in terms of area, we're expected to quickly get in and get back out. Whether or not this will impact the mission has yet to be seen, but considering circumstances, it'd work for us."
"Yeah hope to god the nationalists don't figure out how to deduct our location from the obvious." Ray said to Chris from behind the crowd.
This new mission plan which their intelligence department had been kind enough to provide without warning seemed like one hell of an operation, for something which was meant to be unrelated. It was too late to back out now though, for obvious reasons. The decision was made and they had to accept it.
The briefing continued until they got through all their queries on the mission, for the members of the force this seemed like a reasonable operation, for Ray and Chris this was another rush job on part of intelligence. Their intended objective for securing vital objectives was a nice way of saying that this order came down in a hurry and so they had no time to prepare fully, only do what they could with what they had, even if it carried a higher risk.
Despite all of this rush, they were expected to pull off this mission successfully and get back out alive, even if it meant shooting their way through more trouble than they could afford. In the end, it was just another day in the field, whether they liked it or not, these orders were to be followed, and they would do just that.
Once the meeting was concluded, the members of the mobile armoured frame corps headed to their machines. Ray and Christopher continued to talk about the upcoming mission; this feeling of apprehension seemed to linger for Ray, different reasons though. As they went back to their machines, the two discussed the whole mission briefing at length.
"We have an hour to hit our targets and four hours to get to the extraction point, don't make any mistakes, we're going in as fast as we can, and getting out together. If all else goes to hell, we pull out then and there." Ray surmised in his head as he went over the objectives.
"Hey Ray, I guess we got the short end of this stick eh?" Chris said casually whilst they walked back to their units.
"I don't think of it that way, we've always been getting dropped into knee deep level of shit, I don't think this would be any different." Ray replied honestly.
"True, at least we know that this time we have an excuse if something goes wrong." Chris added.
Ray chuckled at the remark, truth be told when something went wrong, they had to accept that responsibility, at least in the sense of human error or lack of preparation. In any other event, they knew that there was no such excuse, and the realities of a real screw up will cost them lives in the long run.
They got back to their machines along the narrow crawlspace; most of the other operators were already boarding their machines and preparing to get ready for the drop. Ray waved off Chris to go and check in with the others before they finished up final checks and began their drop, he knew the drill, despite what their objective was, the same protocols applied, they had to get ready for the shit they were about to step right into.
Upon his machine, he clambered in from the step ladder, making sure not to smack his head up the open hatch, once he squeezed himself into the cockpit; he pushed himself down into the chair and reacquainted himself with the seat. Still warm from his departure, he tapped on the control and brought the hatch down, so he could get the final checks completed.
As the hatch to his unit closed, he felt the cool sensation of his direct nervous interface system locking back into place, the sharp sensation of the interface coming online, the sting was something that took a great deal of getting used to, not something you'd want to experience regularly. But the moment it interfaced with him, he felt a sharp stinging sensation, and a beeping noise.
His eyes cracked wide awake as he felt the familiar feeling of a defibrillator hit him.
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A blinding flash of light was the first thing he felt when his eyes opened, his senses were flooding back into his head, and he felt dizzy.
"ARGH!" His body shuddered as he regained his senses.
The emergency revival system was pumping him with adrenaline and shocking his heart back into rhythm, as he regained awareness of everything around him, he noted that he was sitting in his MAF cockpit. No, that wasn't right… he was in the cockpit of the Ex-Eventide.
"The Eventide!" He gasped as he breathed normally.
His throat was dry; no doubt from being unconscious in his Vector suit, his eyes zipped about trying to determine what was going on.
"Am I in space?" He mouthed quietly tried to push himself backwards.
He drifted about, the feeling of zero-gee was definitely there, he could tell this was no simulation, in the tournament they used simulated microgravity, enough that someone could get re-seated without throwing up. This was perfectly simulated zero-gees, it was that and the fact that his thermal indicator on his suit was telling him that the cockpit's temperature was at zero, this meant primary life support system was offline, he'd be pretty screwed right about now if he didn't have his operator's suit.
His suit kept him alive and warm, but it would eventually run out of power, at least within the next three days if he didn't have anything else with him. His disorientation faded as he pulled himself off from the top of his machine, pushing down he landed on his seat. His eyes struggled to find the harness for the suit; he eventually found where it was and closed it around his waist.
"Alright, rebooting systems…" He said as he began to hit the control systems for the suit.
It took him about a minute to restart the suit's operating system again and bring main power back online, as the suit's systems returned to normal; he was greeted by the flash of the OS display on the panoramic interface system. His display changed to a full view of outer space, and it didn't look like where he was before.
There was no sign of the Neo-Zeon fortress or the location of the two destroyed space colonies, no this looked much like just open space, and there was no Rebawoo despite the fact that they were literally gripped together in hand to hand melee. Whatever the hell happened to him, he wasn't sure, but it looked like things were wildly outside his comfort zone.
"Rayleigh, it's good to see that you're up and about." Alice chimed as she sounded a sigh of relief.
That action immediately sounded alarms in his head; Alice never used inflections in her responses or expressions, usually droning on with calm yet rather dull responses, in most situations only providing him with company to talk to rather than anything else. He didn't recall her ever developing a personality all that much, besides the one which he had been familiar with since their introduction.
"ALICE, are you online?" He asked perplexed, he wasn't sure, but it seemed like the appropriate response.
The interface of his unit took a moment to come back to life, Alice's voice suddenly came over the com. "I'm here, I was worried there for a second, and your initial recovery took longer than I had anticipated." The AI said while bringing his vitals up on the right hand monitors of his suit. "All vitals are stable, suit pressure normal. Blood pressure a little high, but well within acceptable levels, it seems you've rode through that wave and came out unscathed." Alice noted with a sense of diligence before adding. "You haven't suffered any internal trauma or suffered any minute lapses in response, so it seems as though you're fine."
"ALICE, are you alright?" He inquired as he noted that Alice never talked this much unless he prompted it.
"Fine, why?" The AI replied perplexed.
"I don't recall you ever having… well, any complex level of responses, that or having any significant level of emotions. I didn't even prompt you with a question and yet you seem almost consistent in the way you speak." He said honestly, he knew that there was a potential issue with ALICE's cognitive abilities.
"I'm not sure what you're referring to, I've been responding well within my parameters, I am set up to be your AI after all, I act as your companion, as per the agreement we settled upon when you first accepted me as your AI." Alice said as if reciting some kind of personal contract.
'Why the hell does this sound so familiar?' He thought back to something he read.
'Oh hell…" He recalled something from the Gundam Ex-S series, regarding the inclusion of AIs.
AIs like ALICE for the Gundam Ex-S were designed to act as the pilot's support, but relied heavily on the pilot to develop their abilities, and seeing as how he had ALICE for nearly seven years of his life, it began to dawn on him that she might have been referring to that. How in the hell she had suddenly adapted to this is beyond him.
He knew better than to bring up their past, but he decided to check this out later, he was worried it might cause complications while he was still in the machine. And he figured to play it carefully when dealing with AIs, but he wanted to learn more before he made any final decision on Alice's complete status.
But for now, he had to put faith in his AI, and hope that she doesn't suffer any sort of complications, she might turn out like Cortana from Halo… no scratch that, that's a horrible example. More accurately she'd be sort of like the ALICE of the original Ex-S Gundam, which would be great, but hopefully she wouldn't suffer restrictions in interacting with people or it might prove problematic.
He pushed aside the thought for the time being as he looked around at the console displays bringing up feedback on the status of his machine.
"Alright, well, forgoing any further inquiry, I need to begin systems check. Is the Eventide still operational?" He asked as he looked around.
"Dual-fusion reactor is operational, light mass particle generation system is operational, and sensor package for the Delta Ex-Eventide is functional though it is picking up a high level of disruption. Life support system is functional, combat systems are functional, particle repair systems are functional." The AI listed off one by one.
"Light mass fabricator systems are working?" He said as he recalled the Plavsky Particle Generator systems.
"Yes, the fabrication system seems to be working at nominal levels." Alice informed him.
"Okay, well I don't need to worry about energy or repairs for the time being." He said as he thought over the capabilities of his machine. 'Food and water's limited to whatever I have in my assault pack right now.'
It was possible to make what he needed from using the mass fabrication system, such as food and water, but they needed a parameter and a method of production, which of course his machine didn't possess at this moment, so it was off the table. He'd have to stick it out with the food he had on him for the time being.
"I'd advise to avoid taking significant levels of damage to your suit, the systems were never intended to withstand catastrophic levels of damage, and can only sustain repairs over a period of time, with full dedication of power and OS dedicated to such function." She advised him.
"I got it; the suit can only withstand a certain level of damage before it reaches its total threshold." He said as he checked on the total integrity of his suit, the damage received from his fight with the Rebawoo was minimal, and he could see that things were operating at comfortable levels.
He experimentally flexed the arms and legs of his machine, and just like in the simulation they moved and reacted according to his neural commands, the feedback response was consistent, the overload from the event didn't cause damage, so he was good. His body felt the responses, like they were an actual part of his body; the simulation normally didn't take it to this level as it could only simulate so much of the actual scenario.
The suit's operating system was functioning at nominal levels and there seemed to be nothing to catch his attention. He called to Alice.
"Alice, display visual analysis of surrounding area, can you calculate our current position?"
"We are current between location, further out in the solar system beyond the orbit of the moon, somewhere near designated location L3 and L5 in the solar system, according to the data I'm able to compile." She told him promptly while bringing up a digital display of the solar system on his forward display.
"Alright, anything within range that might indicate a place we can head to besides the Earth? I'd rather not have to fly us all the way to the Earth just yet." He said as he looked at the blue speck in his display. Something felt off about heading to the earth, and the distant sparkling lights which peppered the corner of his eye only gave him more reason not to go.
Not to mention the fact that he wouldn't survive the trip, not with his machine depleted of its reserves and his suit lacking food and water suitable for a trip lasting any longer than 3 days, his water might run out by then, which would be had for a lot of different reasons. Food was another matter, he had been trained to survive on minimal calorie diets in the past, and he exercised such things to survive in the field for extended periods of time.
"I have something of interest; location is about two hundred and seventy kilometres away, at our eleven o'clock position." Alice responded with a level of intrigue.
"What is it?" He inquired as he looked at the visual display.
"Debris, from a large structure or multiple structures, it is likely a space colony or station." She said in response. "A large one at that."
He looked around him, there wasn't anything else to do but go there. "Better than what we've got now…" He said before telling the AI. "Lock the coordinates into the computer; let's get going as fast as we can, there's nothing more for us here."
"Do you wish for me to take over Ray?" She asked him with a tender tone.
"No thank you, I'll be able to handle this." He said as he wasn't sure how well Alice was being fully sentient.
"Ray, I'm not sure you should be attempting to pilot the Eventide, not after just recovering, it might be prudent if you'd allow me to take control while you rest." She insisted.
"I said its fine Alice, I'll manage." He said a little terser before adding. "I need to keep myself preoccupied anyhow, there's a lot going on right now."
Alice didn't respond and silently relented, Ray felt a little guilty for having to act so harshly towards the AI, but something about all of this was off, he was thrown into a totally unexpected situation, one which had left him at odds with what he knew. In this situation, gathering information and getting to safety to think about what was going on, before he reached a conclusive decision.
"How much time will this take until we're at the debris field?" He inquired as he piloted the machine straight to the debris field.
"At our current speed, we'll arrive in half an hour." Alice said as he looked over at the dispersion pattern of the debris field.
"Okay, check the ECM systems are operational, make sure to set the sensors for a wide band sweep, if this debris field is new, there might be something worth looking for in it. Probably help with my lack of information on our current situation." He said as he thought about their current situation.
In his situation, he'd normally have some sort of objective, plan, information and intelligence, but being stuck here gave him little, besides that Alice was fully sentient, the machine he was operating was no longer a simulation, and something beyond his ability to comprehend had just occurred right out of the blue and he was stuck dealing with the immediate aftermath.
His current position was unprecedented, so he had to deal with it as it came along. He could only hope that this wasn't him having a hallucination or some sort of weird delusional episode, or things were going to get really annoying really fast. In any event, his mind clearly indicated what he was experiencing wasn't a delusion, as he could think clearly and respond and act like normal, so it wasn't likely a weird episode.
That in mind, it was clear that something happened, and he was now beginning to worry about the potential effect of what this might entail. And he was generally hoping that this was just some sort of weird feedback or illusion, but illusions don't require you to be awoken by a bloody defibrillator, and certainly not stimulants, so there was even money it could be far worse.
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Meanwhile…
A sole machine coloured blue white with red abdomen and feet, armed with a massive sword and equipped with shield and shoulder guard, floated gently in the void. It brimmed with life, given the glowing green eyes and the fact that it was moving, though not physically, the unit was being pulled along by inertia, in its presence it held a large module, a life boat with survivors aboard.
Inside this machine was a young man, no older than fifteen, he was at the controls of such a machine, his mind was torn between the debris of his home and the lives of the people he had just rescued from his collapsed home. This wasn't an easy time for him, having been thrown into a world of mayhem in less than hours.
This was the life of Kira Yamato, the young boy who lived on the Orb Union's colony of Heliopolis, having wanted nothing more than a quiet life away from all the hazards of war and suffering which seemed to plague the world. He ended up getting dragged into it anyway, His friends were caught up in an unknown ZAFT attack on his colony, and he was forced to take action in order to save them.
He jumped into this machine known as X-105 Strike, operated by a young female officer of the Earth Alliance Forces; he saved their lives and fought back against ZAFT. He then killed people, using the abilities he possessed, he was able to defeat the ZAFT attack, but came face to face with his old childhood friend.
In the midst of all of this, his home was finally obliterated, torn apart in the crossfire, he himself winding up in the middle of the empty expanse, and reminiscing on the course of events in the span of a matter of hours. As he thought about his current situation, his mind was filled with the thoughts of seeing his old friend, even in these troubled times.
Kira's attention was drawn to the sound of his proximity alarm going off, telling him that he was nearing the Alliance warship, the Archangel. He turned his attention to the massive craft; it was somewhat welcoming to find sanctuary, albeit in the form of a warship. He signalled using his laser transmission.
"This is Kira Yamato, I've returned."
It took a moment but he soon received a response.
"Yamato, we've noticed you're currently carrying a civilian life boat."
He nearly stammered when he replied.
"Ah yes, this life boat was damaged in the debris field, I couldn't leave it alone."
"Mr Yamato, do you realise that we cannot take in refugees right now? We're in the middle of a combat situation, and with an active ZAFT presence, we don't have the luxury to provide necessary protection." Lieutenant Badgiruel said in a terse fashion.
"But Lieutenant, the people on this life boat, they're stranded, I can't just leave them out here."
"Mr Yamato, do not make me repeat myself, there isn't much we can do-." Natarle was interrupted from the com as acting Captain Ramius called over.
"What's going on?"
"Ma'am the Strike has brought back a life boat."
"A life boat?"
"Kira's refusing to leave the boat as it was."
Ramius knew that this little argument was going nowhere fast, and she understood Kira's plight, leaving people out in the middle of nowhere wasn't a particularly good prospect for survival. She then ordered.
"Tell the Strike to bring the life boat aboard."
"Ma'am?" Natarle said clearly perplexed at the command decision.
"It's my decision; I'd rather not have the Strike taking longer than necessary over this." She said promptly.
Lieutenant Badgiruel had her reservations, but the lieutenant understood what Captain Ramius meant, even though she wasn't comfortable about violating a lot of protocols regarding this secret warship and the fact that the Alliance had a mobile suit, she had little choice but to accept this judgement and allow the refugees aboard.
"Strike you've been given permission to dock, come aboard to the starboard hangar."
Kira seemed to take this news well and replied.
"Understood."
As the Strike headed into the ship, someone watched the scene.
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From high above their position, from their axis, a blue and white mobile suit stood shrouded in the shadow of a large metallic fragment, concealed enough to spot the ship and observe what was going on. It was examining the ship and the situation unfolding…
Ray sat back and sighed, he figured that there was a strange potential for getting into trouble.
"Alice, is this data feed correct?"
"Analysis is consistent, that is the Archangel-class vessel in your database, and it is the Strike, GAT-X105 mobile suit, as per specifications, armed with its Sword Striker." Alice responded promptly giving him a brief summary of the Strike's layout.
"Goddamn, this is shit I really don't want to deal with…" He muttered in annoyance.
"Is something the matter?" Alice inquired curtly.
Ray shook his head in response. "Not really, but I feel like I'm going to have a long day, my head's killing me from the neural interface and I haven't had a chance to recuperate." He said with a tense look. "Now I've been thrown into this situation, lovely."
"What do you feel we should do?" The AI asked.
The man thought it over, Alice was probably going through her own calculations on what sort of approach he'd make. 'I can't go spouting about how I'm from a timeline in which all of this is a story in an animation; they'd shoot me or think I'm crazy. At this point I'm going to have to go outside the box… yes that'll have to do.' He came to a conclusive decision.
He then said. "Subtlety, look Alice, I'm going to have to ask you to search for a signal, use the OMNI Enforcer signal code: Theta, I'm sure it's there in the database, it's a general use signal for friendly units, don't send it until I tell you to." He said as he looked for a correct approach vector.
"From my observations, I presume you will attempt to infiltrate as a member of Earth Alliance Forces?" Alice surmised promptly.
He was a little surprised at how Alice figured that out, but then again, she did think from his perspective. "Yes, considering that they're the only ship in the area besides ZAFT, and I don't want to wait days trying to fly my suit all the way to Earth without proper supplies, not to mention I need to do a maintenance check on the internal components, seeing as how we escaped that fight with Rebawoo in a deadlock, I don't want damaged components unfixed." He said to her.
"Understood, where do you suggest we approach this ship from?" Alice inquired.
"Twenty seven kilometres from the ship's port stern, from there we can make our approach look like it wasn't intentional, use the debris field as cover in case we spook them. I don't want to get shot down over a misunderstanding." He replied as he used his neural interface to mark out the direction.
"Very well." Alice replied as the Eventide detached from its hiding spot.
Ray knew that this wasn't what he was expecting or what he was hoping for, this entire situation was pretty much blowing everything out of proportion to the point he wasn't sure if he could call this a viable result. In any case, he had to shoulder the fact that he couldn't avoid the ship, not with his suit having a limited amount of food and water.
He could reach the Earth, but he'd have few places to go, as he didn't know anyone in many countries and powers throughout the world that was Gundam SEED. And most of them would be more than happy to exploit his abilities or use him for their own goals, something he wasn't particularly interested in; it would be prudent to avoid those places.
Orb was his best chance, but then again, he didn't have a lot of people he knew he could defer to, also it would draw a lot of attention from a few people he knew that would try to get to him, the Astray series pointed out that even in Orb there were malicious figures. He would need to play this very carefully if he didn't want to die.
Joining the Archangel now would present plenty of short term issues, but he could deal with the long term effects, hopefully without killing tons of characters in the process. He knew that this was Gundam though, and with Gundam, characters will die, or wind up in all kinds of situations, some less fortunate than others.
'Got to play this carefully if I don't want to get good characters killed. Aside from Shinn, that guy's such a fucking whinny bitch, at least until the revamp manga…' Ray thought to himself.
This notion that he was stuck in the Gundam Seed universe suddenly hit him; this was like a weird kind of scenario to end up in, beyond the way ludicrous bullshit that anyone would ever expect to endure. Still it was better than that stupid ass incident in japan where an entire stadium was affected by an uncontrolled burst of particles.
His situation seemed a little less crazy and stranger than most, he knew that he would be forced to face down a multitude of threats, but it wouldn't be the worst thing to happen. He survived 6 years of military service fighting in some rather brutal environments and conditions; this didn't seem that far of a step away from that, besides having to deal with insurgents taking pot shots at him every week with RPGs or wooden spring loaded mines.
As they circled around the sensor net of the Archangel, Ray thought about what he was going to say, and he knew he had to make it as convincing as possible.
'I think this'll work…' He thought enthusiastically of his approach.
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Meanwhile…
On the Archangel the crew was beginning to regain their bearings, after the travesty that was the battle for Heliopolis, they found themselves in a mess of a situation, with the destruction of the colony and the fact that they were now out in open space with hostiles looking for them. Things were tense at the moment, but they knew that they didn't have a lot of time before someone came looking for them.
Murrue Ramius, the acting captain of the Archangel Class warship, was in a less than particularly comfortable situation, having been thrust into the command chair of the warship due to unforeseen circumstances. She had been pressed to keep the ship afloat and its meagre complement of crew alive in the face of disparate odds.
She was in the midst of discussing the next best course of action and also settling a certain matter brought to her attention by the young man known as Kira Yamato, the coordinator from the colony that had been dragged into this mess in the same way everyone else was. And now they had to make a decision, which is where Mu had come in.
"Our options are Artemis or Luna HQ, but we might not survive a direct trip to Luna HQ, not with our supplies so low, and with all of ZAFT's fleet standing between us and the moon, we'd run into more trouble than we could potentially handle." Mu said curtly, his tone didn't betray the weight of danger that they'd go if they went down that route.
"It doesn't sound like an opportune kind of move. But with what we're carrying aboard and the Archangel's secrets, do you think we should ignore it?"
"It might be safer to take a trip to our allies in the Eurasian Federation; they've got the resource satellite sitting right next door to us. It might be best to go in and stock up before making a risky endeavour like that." Murrue said as she analysed the open routes and paths they could take.
But before they could make a decision on their next course of action, they were alerted to the sounds of an alarm. This alarm set their attention to the ECW suite operator who was manning his station. He called over from his console.
"Captain, we've got a heat signature, incoming from our port stern, it's moving at high speed."
"What's that?" Murrue said as she looked up at the display.
"Unknown, we've got a signature, high speed object, not debris, it's got a thermal signature, and its approaching from our eight o'clock position, bearing 120, yellow zero five oh nine, unknown silhouette."
"Is it a mobile suit?" Ramius asked as she looked at the digital display of the approaching craft.
"No, I don't think it is." The operator known as Dalida replied as the ship went on alert.
"Then what is it?" Mu asked as he looked at the screen intently.
The visual indicator for the unknown was rather hard to see as it was approaching from a position which they could only see a portion of the machine in question.
"Silhouette doesn't match any known pattern in the database." Dalida said as he continued to observe the incoming machine.
"Is it a new machine?" Ramius said as she looked at the sensor data.
"If it was they'd have brought it into play during the battle against us." Mu stated tensely.
"Ma'am it looks like a fighter craft." Dalida said as he looked at the visual outline in detail.
"A fighter?" Ramius repeated in a perplexed tone.
"What the hell is a fighter doing way out here?" Mu said to no one in particular as they got a visual.
It was then Dalida announced. "Ma'am, I'm receiving something, it's a signal, and it's an Earth Alliance IFF."
"An Alliance IFF? Does it mean it's friendly?" Arnold said from the helm.
This was great news, but things seemed out of place. "What's going on here?" Murrue said.
"The machine is signalling us." Dalida reported.
"Well it doesn't look like it wants a fight." Mu said with a shrug.
"Put it through." Captain Ramius said as she turned her attention to the forward display.
"Earth Alliance Vessel, Archangel, this is Warrant Officer Rayleigh Hyung, Alliance Naval Special Operations Warfare, I'm currently on approach, hold your fire! This message repeats…" The voice of a man came through, it wasn't old or gruff, but it was mature.
"Is this some kind of bait?" Natarle asked as she scrutinised the transmission.
"I'm not sure, that's not registered as a fighter in any of our databases, and it can't be a ZAFT machine, seeing as we have no record of it in any database." Their operations officer said uncertainly.
"What do you think Lieutenant?" Murrue asked the senior veteran.
Mu pondered on the matter, he gave his reply after a moment. "I'm not sure; it'd be really great if we actually found another pilot out here with a machine to support us." Mu said with a shrug and added. "But I think we can take the fact that he doesn't have any ZAFT machines following after him as a good sign."
"I can only advise caution, I'd rather not let them come aboard so quickly." Natarle warned.
Murrue wasn't sure about this whole situation, it seemed a little out of place, but on the other hand, they couldn't ignore him when he was coming in close, not to mention with a rather open intention.
She decided on the best course of action, albeit she knew it was best to play carefully. "Patch me through." She told Dalida.
"This is Captain of the Earth Alliance vessel Archangel, Murrue Ramius; we've received your signal." Murrue replied promptly, a clear and concise response to the hails from the fighter.
"My apologies for dropping in you unannounced Captain, I was stuck out here for a while." The man said in a prompt fashion before introducing himself.
"I'm Warrant Officer Rayleigh Hyung, Alliance Naval Special Warfare."
"Alliance Naval Special Warfare, that's certainly new." Mu mused from behind.
"Warrant Officer, what is that machine you're piloting?" Murrue inquired as they continued to observe its approach vector.
"This unit is the Ex-Eventide, an experimental class of machine; it was one of the only prototypes that were in production, I was testing the thing when all hell broke loose. Long story short, the ship I was one when this was getting transported got caught up in the fighting and was sunk before it was able to dock, and I was thrown clear from the explosion." He told them. "I was lucky that the machine withheld the explosion."
"So this machine you're piloting is experimental?" Murrue inquired.
"Yes, I can't say any more than that though, I'm sorry to say that there's just too much that no one is supposed to know about this machine besides the fact that I'm its pilot." He told her promptly.
"Were you outside of the colony when the attack began?" She asked, clearly trying to discern what this person was like.
"Yes, though for reasons I cannot disclose, the ship was carrying my machine and we were heading to Heliopolis in an unmarked transport, we got intercepted by an unknown vessel, and the next thing I knew it was floating in the middle of nowhere." He said calmly.
"How come we didn't know of any such machine being transferred?" Murrue pressed the Warrant Officer.
"The Eventide is an experimental unit, not to mention it was decided that the projected would be outsourced to another branch of the Alliance military, besides this I can't say for certain why the machine was being transferred I was just told to take it there." He told them, clearly hiding something.
Murrue could tell that it was impossible for her to pry into this matter as Ray had made it clear that he wasn't allowed to reveal anything more than what he should, or things could go very badly. Despite her displeasure with all these secrets, Ray wasn't saying anymore on the topic.
"How's the condition of your machine?" She asked the pilot.
"Fully operational, this unit was designed to take a great deal of punishment, thankfully." He said before asking. "So captain, do I have permission to come aboard?"
Murrue had enough of an idea of what to expect from this man, and she nodded.
"You have my permission; we'll open up the portside landing bay for your machine. Though we'd advise you, our current situation is dire."
"I'm assuming you mean that ZAFT is still in the area?" He asked intently.
"Yes, I'm afraid so." Murrue told the man honestly.
"That doesn't bother me, I'll help in any way I can." He replied before closing the line leaving the crew to think over what he said.
Murrue was then asked by Mu.
"Think he's lying?'
"I'm not sure, I don't think he's lying about being a pilot, as for his machine, he's no doubt carrying a number of secrets if what he says is true."
"Alliance Navy's Special Operations Warfare, huh, I don't recall there being a specific branch in the Alliance military, then again, these things are pretty hush so I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few autonomous units which operated with Alliance authority." Mu pondered.
They looked at the visual display on the fighter, the fighter in question was large for a fighter that was for certain, it was taller and wider than normal space designed craft, it seemed like it was designed for atmospheric use as well as space. A dual purpose machine with high durability in space and atmosphere might do well, though it raises the question as to why it was created.
Murrue observed the machine as it slowed down to land in the portside hangar, its size was a little bit big, but they could fit it in, the trouble was now determining who their new mystery guest was.
"Do you think that this pilot is some kind of Special Forces operative?"
"Likely, I haven't seen anything like his machine, and the fact that he's part of a division I haven't heard about, there's a good possibility we have ourselves an operator from the Special Forces somewhere in the Alliance." Mu said optimistically.
"Maybe, but something about his demeanour seems to rub me the wrong way."
"He's too casual for someone who's a Special Forces operator?" Mu mused.
"No, though I do find his demeanour a little odd." She said thinking over the way he acted. She continued. "Essentially, you don't find it a little odd that someone from the Alliance would be coming in a transport with a new machine the day we're suddenly attacked, do you?"
"I don't think a single machine with an unknown quality pilot is something I could classify as entirely suspicious, it's convenient, but not suspicious, and he did state that the transport was sunk before arriving at Heliopolis, so I can't dismiss it."
The situation warranted attention, starting a fight was a bad idea for obvious reasons, and this was supposedly a friendly unit, with a valid IFF marker of the Earth Alliance Forces. Murrue decided to follow through with her judgement.
"Let them aboard, and tell them to land in the portside hangar. Have a small detachment of security on alert, but tell them to not interrupt, I'll see to this pilot immediately."
"Very well ma'am."
"Lieutenant La Flaga, would you mind joining me?" Captain Ramius gestured as she headed off the bridge.
"Of course not." The man replied as he followed behind the captain.
XXXXX
Ray's entry was successful, something which he was genuinely glad about, seeing as how badly things could have turned out if Murrue decided to ignore his request, or attack him. He'd have to flee and try his luck with just running to the Earth, which wasn't something he particularly looked forward to doing in his Eventide. He expertly piloted his Eventide to the hangar bay, watching his approach, he used the laser guidance system to guide himself in, his fighter slowed as he reached the deck of the ship, entering into the cavernous bay.
He felt the deck meet the landing gear of the ship's deck plating, his senses told him the exact amount of pressure from his landing. As he touched down, the large bay doors closed behind him, indicating a successful recovery of his fighter. In moments the large hangar doors opened to allow him entry into the airlock. He let Alice take care of the parking as he went around and looked for something in his bag. He removed a small compact computer, about the size of a smart phone, but it was slightly thicker and had a hinge on the side. This was his old portable compact computer, a piece of history for him.
The last vestige of his past, filled with all sorts of crap from his life, TV shows, anime, and music along with files of pornography and artwork that could probably fill a library or two. Not something he wanted people to look into. He set his old computer into his suit's pocket before he rummaged through his belongings, making sure that he had everything ready for his lengthy stay in the ship. He had his handgun from his service time, but he decided that it wasn't worth risk bringing aboard.
Alice was busy making sure that the Eventide was parked in the right spot. While Ray worked over his things he thought about his approach to the crew making sure not to do anything that'd cause him a lot of trouble. Even as awkward as this entire situation was, he figured making sure that this wasn't all some kind of ream or distortion was important, as he didn't want to get himself killed or into more trouble than he could handle.
"Alice, I'll keep in touch through my computer and phone, and remember do not under any circumstance try to communicate with the crew unless I give you a very good reason to, alright?" He said to his AI.
Alice understood.
"I understand Rayleigh, is there anything you will need of me?"
"Not at the moment, just focus on getting repairs done and charging the Eventide's capacitors, I'm going to be spending quite a while with our new allies." He said as he prepared to exit.
From within the cockpit Ray spotted Kira, the young brown haired boy, floating int the hangar with Flay Allster in his arms. Ray was almost pensive about his situation, but he didn't let it stop him from assuming his character, hoping that this didn't blow up in his face and the Captain was willing to let him stay without too much trouble. He pushed his seat back as he opened up the cockpit, a hatch opened up and he lowered himself out of it.
XXXXX
Kira observed the new machine's arrival, he was genuinely surprised to see another machine coming in, he wasn't sure about where this new machine had come from, but it was clearly some kind of fighter. Whoever was piloting it had come at quite a bad time, everything had gone so wrong, the destruction of his home Heliopolis and the battle he had fought, the lives he had taken.
His mind drifted back to what had happened in the last few hours, it felt like such a rush, but his attention was drawn back to the lifeboat, it was then he noted a young girl with red hair and pink dress. The girl was confused about where she was and then when she looked up, she called out to him.
"Hey, you're Sai's friend aren't you?" The redhead said as she drifted up to meet him.
"Uh… yeah." Kira managed as he was suddenly hugged by the young girl.
"What's going on, where are we? Is this a ZAFT ship?" She began to ask sporadically.
"No we're on an Alliance vessel." Kira attempted to reassure her.
"That's not possible, there's a mobile suit aboard." She said pointing to the Strike which was sitting in its berth.
"That's actually owned by the Alliance." He said to her.
"You're lying aren't you? The Alliance doesn't have mobile suits." Flay said in dismissal.
Kira couldn't help much with the girl's emotional scepticism, she was distraught as were many others, and he determined to keep her calm though.
"It's an Alliance mobile suit. But I should mention Sai's on the ship."
"Sai's here?" The girl said surprised.
His words helped to draw her focus on something comforting which worked fine for him "Yes, do you want me to take you to him?" He asked the redhead.
They were about to get going when Kira noticed the new machine's pilot exit from the bottom, the man dressed in full black gear and pilot suit, it was odd and at the same time intimidating. He turned his attention back to Flay who began to tug on his clothes as a means to get his attention.
"Ah sorry, let's get going." He said as they headed to the nearest exit.
Meanwhile a certain pilot was observing the entire scene from within his cockpit, curiously musing about coordinator who had seen him.
XXXXX
Murrue and Mu arrived in the hangar to meet with their newest arrival; the work crew was securing the fighter into a berth on its own. The flight deck maintainers were going over the craft with their tools, examining details over the surface of the machine, they were all quite curious as to how the craft worked, but they kept themselves at a distance, mainly because they hadn't received orders to do anything to it just yet.
The two officers made note of the deep blue and white paint scheme, it seemed highly detailed for a fighter, and it also told them that the machine wasn't using any sort of pattern they recognised.
"Kinda neat do you think captain?" Mu asked as they continued to drift over to the machine.
"As nice as it might look, we still don't know much about this craft, or its pilot. I'd prefer you stay on your toes." She said rather intently.
Mu nodded in response, clearly understanding that they were meeting with a new face, and one who had quite a few shady secrets. The bottom of the machine had a hatch which opened up, allowing the pilot to exit from the machine. Both officers couldn't help but look at the suit the pilot wore.
The pilot suit was unique; it looked more like a suit of muscles and armoured plates rather than just protective gear meant to shield the user from the deathly vacuum of space. It wasn't the only strange thing about his pilot suit, it was armoured, and the chest and abdomen along with the arms and legs had looked like they were covered in some kind of lacquered plates. The helmet was quite different as well, it wasn't like a normal helmet, and it almost completely covered the visor, leaving a narrow V shape slit in the fore part of the helmet, which was tinted black.
The man removed his helmet, revealing his features to the two of them, much to the surprise of Mu and Murrue; he looked military with his short haircut and scars on his face. He also had the look of someone who had been through quite a bit in his lifetime. His eyes were focused on them, clear and patient, of course there was also this somewhat laid back feeling as well, the way he carried himself.
"Ma'am Warrant Officer 1st Class, Rayleigh Hyung. Earth Alliance Naval Special Operations Warfare Division." He greeted her with a salute. "Thank you for letting me aboard." The Warrant Officer said at attention, though his feet didn't quite lock together thanks to the zero gravity environment they were in.
Murrue could tell he was disciplined, that or was just acting formal as possible in meeting a superior, she wasn't sure. But she returned his salute.
"At ease Warrant Officer I think we can forgo formalities for now, we're in a bit of a situation as you can imagine."
"I can understand ma'am." He said before dropped his salute and posture before asking. "I'm assuming that you aren't the actual captain of the ship?" He inquired; he recalled what she had said before.
"No, I'm afraid the captain and most of the bridge officers were killed in the attack by ZAFT, we're all that remain mostly engineers, regular crewmen and other assorted personnel." Murrue stated to Hyung.
"Who might you be then?" The warrant officer inquired.
"Lieutenant Commander Murrue Ramius, acting captain of the Archangel." She introduced herself promptly.
Mu made his presence known, stepping forward; he made a friendly gesture before starting.
"I'm Mu…" Mu didn't get a chance to finish, as Ray cut him off midsentence.
"Mu La Flaga, the Hawk of Endymion." Ray said as he reached out for a handshake. "Your reputation precedes you."
"So you know about me?" Mu said as his curiosity was piqued by Ray's comment.
"Hard not to, you have a habit of getting things done, and surviving some pretty difficult battles if I recall, I was receiving some training based upon your battles." Rayleigh said with a grin.
"Is that so?" Mu replied while returning the grin.
"Warrant Officer, I'm a little lost, but where did this machine come from? I mean there's no information of your machine at Morgenroete, or any information of your arrival." Murrue asked intently.
"The machine in question was developed independent of Morgenroete that much I can say. It's carrying a lot of secrets within it, some of which I don't quite understand myself. But its top of the line, she's powerful and fast, and she can go toe to toe with a lot of other kinds of machines despite what she might look like." He said with some measure of pride.
The two officers looked at the Eventide with a curious look, they couldn't quite imagine that a fighter was able to match the same mobility or versatility of a mobile suit."A fighter with the capability of going toe to toe with mobile suits? That's a first." Mu said while examining the Eventide.
"Looks can be deceiving Lieutenant La Flaga, the Eventide is a unique type of machine." Hyung insisted. "This beauty of a machine is quite capable and armed with sufficient firepower it can deal with a wide variety of threats." Ray worded carefully.
Mu raised an eyebrow to Ray's comment, rather piqued as to what Ray meant by his comment.
"Seeing as how we've gotten introductions out of the way, could I ask about getting a situation report? I mean I'm certain that I'll be able to provide some help."
"Well we're running short on supplies, right now we're faced with dwindling resources and the potential threat of being attacked by ZAFT soon, if we don't get clear of this debris field." Murrue said in response, she was keeping information out of the Strike and making sure that she didn't reveal too many things right now.
"I see, well I don't know how much help I can provide, my only offer is that I'll do what I can to help your get to wherever you're going." He told them with honesty.
"Your assistance is much appreciated Warrant Officer." Murrue said thoughtfully.
The trio headed back out of the hangar bay and into the corridor where they were busy discussing their situation. "So, where are we going right now?" Hyung inquired.
"Artemis, the Eurasian satellite, it should be a straight run from here." Murrue told him.
Ray gave a thoughtful look while he recited some information. "Artemis, if I recall the installation is under the command of a commander Garcia."
"You know who's running Artemis?" Mu inquired clearly surprised Ray knew who was on Artemis.
"Yeah, but I haven't met Garcia, aside from that one encounter a year or so ago, he's an ambitious man, he fought at the battle of Grimaldy Crater as well."
"Did he?" The lieutenant's interest was piqued.
"Yes. However I don't know the details, the man was a rather self-assured fellow, but I don't know much else about him after then." Ray shrugged as they went to the nearby elevator.
"So, he's the one who commands the satellite facility?" Murrue said as she thought about this new piece of information.
"We'll take note of that; we're preparing to get underway to Artemis very soon." Mu informed him as they stepped inside of the lift.
"Alright, now I noticed that there's a mobile suit in the hangar, I'm assuming that's the GAT-X105 Strike?" Ray asked the two as they sat in the elevator.
"You know about the Strike?" Murrue asked in a very serious tone, her eyes didn't betray how she felt about the whole topic.
Ray tried to lead them on the topic. "I said that our development team was independent, it didn't mean we couldn't catch snippets from some people working on it, though most was hearsay or rumours, I got lucky and managed to get a bit more than most. But that's mostly classified, all I know is the profile of the machines you created, besides that, nothing else." He tried to reassure the captain.
Murrue wasn't sure how to respond, that wasn't what she had expected, she didn't recall of any other organisation which might have learnt about the G-weapon project, but if what the Warrant Officer was saying was true, then he had a bit of inside information. Then again ZAFT found the site of the Archangel and the G-weapons so chances were that someone leaked intelligence.
"So, who's the pilot?" Ray asked the two officers.
Mu and Ramius weren't sure about how they were supposed to respond, this matter was already a sensitive issue seeing as how their pilot wasn't actually part of the Alliance. Though Mu looked to the acting captain and silently gave her his intention to explain to the warrant officer, Murrue nodded in judgement at her senior pilot's decision.
Mu responded curtly.
"He's a civilian from the colony of Heliopolis."
"Civilian contractor?" Ray asked.
"Umm, no, more like, just a civilian." Mu told him promptly.
"A civilian with the capability to pilot a mobile suit?" Rayleigh said perplexed, he looked at the two of the officers with a sceptical expression.
Inwardly Ray knew who was doing what. Keeping a low enough profile was important to avoiding some very complicated questions. And he did have some background information on the G-weapons project and some other stuff thanks to the MSV series and the Gundam Astray manga filling in a bunch of details in regards to the events taking place.
The two shared uncertain looks before Ray then said.
"Alright, I'm going out on a limb and guessing, coordinator?" He asked the two of them.
They certainly responded as expected, Murrue explained. "The person in question is a Coordinator, having been caught up in the attack."
"Essentially volunteered to help us." Mu merely said promptly.
"Well it's not the most unexpected answer." Rayleigh said scratching his head. "Is the civilian alright working with the Strike?"
They were a little surprised at his response.
"You aren't going to inquire as to our decision for having a coordinator pilot the Strike?"
"Considering that I'm all for surviving, I don't mind that as much as dealing with a potential hazard, as long as this civilian does voluntarily I don't think I could complain, it's not as if you've got an abundance of pilots now do you?" He told them promptly before adding. "That's how I see things."
This was a surprising bit of personal information they had gleamed from Ray, but they assumed it was just a quirk with his personality. The man was willing to let this slide, and he had no objection on Kira's participation, so they continued on.
"Well, I was going to speak with him about that very soon." Mu explained. "At least until we finished bringing you up to speed and sorting this story out."
"You don't mind me if I come along do you?" Ray asked the Lieutenant.
"Why?" Murrue asked trying to discern his intention.
"I'd like to see this pilot for myself, if that's alright with you of course Captain." He told Murrue.
"Of course, but we still have your machine to deal with." Murrue said before Ray then told her.
"It's alright, just make sure no one goes inside or starts fiddling with the machine itself, the unit has a self-destruct in case of tampering. Just leave it there." He warned the captain.
Murrue wasn't sure how to respond to that, Ray shrugged. "When I said it was carrying a lot of secrets I wasn't kidding, just let it be for now."
As he and Mu left the elevator, Murrue rubbed her temple; this wasn't how she imagined this shaping up. 'This day is shaping up to be one rollercoaster of surprises.' She thought inwardly at the antics of their newest pilot.
XXXXX
Ray looked around as they travelled through the corridor, his eyes making sure to memorise key locations in the ship, it would be crucial later when he needed to find his way around, and also cut down on travel time when necessary. He didn't want to get lost on the ship, seeing as how embarrassing and annoying that'd be for him.
'Man this ship is big, not as big as the Houston-class mobile naval base the Americans used, but still bigger than most naval ships I've been on.' He thought as he dedicated as much of the areas to memory.
As they continued to move down the corridor Ray decided to make some conversation with Mu. "So, this pilot how old is he?"
"About fifteen if I recall, he's pretty young. But he's done surprisingly well despite being pitted in an unfavourable situation." Mu said honestly from his point of view. "He means well, but he's rather hesitant, he's not really what you'd call military material."
Ray nodded in acknowledgement. "Well that's how most of us start out that way, the kid's probably struggling mentally trying to overcome these issues, and I've seen it before. Nothing new, but arguably, he'll have to overcome it, unless he wants to get killed." Ray said as they continued to move along the interior of the ship.
"He's trying to save lives, or at least he means to protect people, his friends are his primary reason for getting into all of this. It's probably the reason why he'd helped those people on the lifeboat." Mu said to Ray, denoting a tone of some uncertainty.
"I noticed that on the way in, the kid brought the lifeboat into the ship?" Ray asked the lieutenant.
"The lifeboat was damaged, he wanted to bring them on board, though we weren't sure about accepting refugees, in all honesty there was a chance they could have been picked up by a search and rescue ship, but hard to say seeing the current situation." Mu explained.
"Figures, well I guess that's another thing to add to the list about his actions." Ray said aloud while thinking over the next course of action.
In reality he was already going over everything in his head.
'Got to make sure the kid doesn't die in all of this, and make sure I don't accidently fuck things up more than they should.' He figured as they reached the general quarters of the ship.
Lots of people were wandering around in the corridors, Ray had thought that the life boat wouldn't have held as many people, but here they could see dozens of civilians wandering around. There must have been nearly a hundred on the life boat, or so, seeing as how it was meant to carry large numbers of people from disaster.
The two of them reached the quarters where the kids were billeting. Mu stepped ahead to see Kira. "Hey kid, there you are, Murdoch's currently overworked, and we've got little staff and crew to deal with all of the needed maintenance, so you're going to have to deal with the upkeep of your machine." Mu said to the young man waiting in the doorframe of his room.
"My machine?" The young man said in confusion, clearly surprised at the need for his involvement.
"Yeah, since you're the only one capable of operating it, it's currently designated as yours." Mu told the young man.
From behind Mu, Ray waited in earnest, observing this scene; he had to be rather careful in the selection of words for making a case when dealing with Kira. He knew that what he said would have long term effects down the road for this series.
'One step forward.' He thought as he watched.
Kira gritted his teeth and stood motionless, his posture denoted his stance. "But I'm not in the military." He said with a level of unwillingness, he wasn't happy with this.
"Kid look, we know that, but we need every able bodied person right now, we don't have much of a choice."
"I didn't want this; I don't want to fight again." Kira insisted.
"Look…" Mu felt a tap on his shoulder as he saw Ray standing behind him with a rather contemplative look.
Ray then suggested to Mu. "Mu, do you mind if I try?"
Mu wasn't sure about this but it seemed like Ray looked like he had a great deal to speak about, that or he seemed certain he could give Kira something to sway him. It was a good opportunity to learn a little bit more about Warrant Officer Hyung's mindset, whatever it might be.
Mu was a little reluctant, but he decided to let Ray go ahead and speak. Ray stepped over from behind the Lieutenant and looked at Kira who looked back in confusion. The man kept his passive stance before he started.
"Look here kid, you've been thrown into a mess of a situation understandable. But get your head around this; lives depend on you right now. All these people you brought in, they're literally in the same boat as you are now, if you refuse to fight, they along with everyone on this ship dies." Ray said gesturing to the refugees now aboard the ship.
Kira looked at Rayleigh uncertain of what to say, but he could see it in the pilot's eyes that he was dead serious.
"There are a lot of things you have to learn as you become an adult, one primary thing is responsibility, you are an individual, and as an individual, you have to take responsibility for what you do. Take into this consideration before you act next time. Your actions affect everyone around you, and no one else is responsible besides yourself."
Kira looked at him with a contemplative expression on his face, but he was clearly facing some internal turmoil, Ray knew what it was, but he didn't press it any further. He'd have to let Kira simmer on these actions, and whether or not it'd work in getting him to accept responsibility would be determined through his next choice.
Mu sat behind Ray examining the scene, Ray had slapped reality into Kira's face, despite what Kira thought, he had put people's lives in the firing line, and to be perfectly honest, running away and pretending it wasn't his responsibility was indeed childish, he'd have to confront this fact, whether he wanted to or not.
In the quarter, Kira's friends looked upon Ray, all becoming very well aware that this situation in which Kira was in, along with them. They felt sorry for their friend being shoved into this situation, besides Flay who was a little perplexed at this scenario. Ray didn't need to look at them because he knew how they more than likely felt about their friend getting wedged between a rock and a hard place.
"Umm mind if I ask, but who are you?" One of the boys asked, this one sported glasses.
"Name's Rayleigh Hyung, though I prefer people calling me Ray, I'm the new pilot of the machine down in the hangar; I just got aboard the ship." He answered the young man promptly.
"Are you going to help defend the ship as well?" A red haired girl asked with an anxious tone.
"Yeah, though this is because I'm obligated to keep this ship safe and everyone on it." He said with a sense of assurance.
Mu decided to try and reinforce Ray's words. "Kid, think of about it, you don't have a lot of time, right now you and I along with Ray here are the only ones who are capable of defending the ship."
"And mind you, my machine isn't meant for fighting heavily stacked odds, so when it comes down to it, I can only mitigate the amount of threats posed to the ship." Ray stated clearly. "You've got to step up, or we're not getting any further."
Kira looked down at the ground and his back pressed against the wall, his face was grim, but his posture reflected how he felt, he then uttered.
"It's not that easy for me…"
The boy immediately turned away and stormed off in a hurry before any of the others could stop him, not like they would need to. "Should we go after him?" A brown haired girl asked.
"No, leave him alone, he's needing to vent, and probably clear his head before he makes a decision, it's not easy for him, I know. But he knows that he's got something to fight for." Ray said with certainty.
"But it seems like you're forcing him into a corner." The girl with brown hair said defensively.
"Well unfortunately that's reality, we're at a standing point where if he doesn't act, you'd all die, and if he acts he will kill people. War's not so clear cut, it's doing things we wouldn't want to do to others. Whether or not we agree is entirely up to us, but understanding that if we want to survive, well you have to fight." Ray said with a sigh before turning away.
He gestured to Mu.
"Sorry to be such a mood killer."
"No, it's alright; you worded it a lot better." Mu said as he took Ray down the hallway.
Mu honestly intended to approach this in a totally different way, but Ray made his point in a more logical sense, and one which hit a lot harder. True they had escaped immediate danger, but they were faced with an enemy which would definitely attempt to kill them, and Ray understood this. More to the point, he was right about accepting responsibility, you can't just wash your hands after getting involved like that.
'I'm beginning to think there's more to this boy than meets the eye.' Mu thought as he looked at Ray.
The two of them left the group of teens to contemplate on Ray's words, they were no doubt thinking about how their friend was left in such a difficult situation. It gave the teenagers quite a bit to think about, and made them think of what responsibility that they shared, now with Kira being there to protect them.
XXXXX
Back on the bridge, Captain Ramius returned to the bridge to check on the progress of preparations, as she arrived, she was greeted by Natarle who greeted her as any first officer.
"Captain, I assume you've managed to meet with our new arrival?"
"He's definitely something of an oddity." Murrue said promptly.
"Is he an Alliance Forces pilot?" The Lieutenant asked with all seriousness.
"He's military, as to which military, I couldn't possibly give you an answer, he knows how to hold himself, but he slacks off, he seems to be well informed, having knowledge on things surrounding the G-weapons project."
"So he's some kind of spy?" Natarle queried with seriousness.
"I don't know, it doesn't seem like that, but I do believe he's working as part of a special military outfit. At least from the impression he left, he doesn't seem like the one to start causing trouble though." Murrue said with a modicum of objectivity.
They were stuck in a difficult position, while Ray's arrival seemed a little bit convenient, they couldn't argue the potential benefits of having such a pilot, this man has the ability to help in their time of need. So they wouldn't throw him in a brig yet, for now they would let him participate, depending on what was to come, either this would be good or bad.
"How's the preparations going for our departure to Artemis?" Murrue asked.
The raven haired officer reported.
"All stations have completed final repairs and checks, we're ready."
"Very well, prepare to execute manoeuvres in five minutes, silent running." Murrue ordered.
The tactical officer nodded and quickly dispatched orders, the ship made course adjustments and prepared to get going, their path would cut through the debris field. Their decoy plan seemed like the best option for escaping ZAFT's search parties and hopefully it'd be enough to get them all the way without getting ramrod by Rau Le Creuset.
XXXXX
Back down in the ship…
Ray hadn't actually expected to give a speech like that, until he remembered how Mu had told him about fighting in the anime, it was a little simplistic, but it got the point through. Ray decided to hammer it home a little more to get Kira to understand that he had done a lot more than just fight, and that his actions had serious consequences.
Ignoring that would be beyond stupid, he had to own up to his action, and if that meant having to protect those now aboard, then so be it. The responsibility was his to shoulder for making that decision, and he knew it. Ray suspected that the teenager would probably have some difficulty going over his words, but he'd make the right decision sooner rather than later, hopefully.
'Though I could just as likely derail the entire timeline by doing whatever the hell I wanted.' He thought nonchalantly to himself.
This situation raised a lot of concerns, one being the potential hazard of his intervention, not to mention the number of other issues he wasn't sure he could determine. Gundam Seed had three iterations, the original airing, anniversary and the more recent, revamp series, which had gotten mixed reviews, though it depended on what you looked at.
Putting it simply, he'd be faced with a wide variety of scenarios, if this was the anniversary, then not much difference from the main storyline besides a few extra machines, if this was revamp, then he'd have a lot more trouble. Revamp was the series which expanded the entire Gundam Seed franchise, and it included individual stories written by a lot of separate authors.
The main timeline was still relatively the same, but it included a more extensive travel period and minor background stories, along with a few revisions, which might be a little hard to avoid. Like the atmospheric assault packs which the ZAFT equipped the Gundams with, or the characters of Euro-Front.
Euro-Front was unique for the Gundam Seed world, it was the frontline focused in Europe during the war, and included a lot of interesting inclusions such as Mare Strode and a few other characters which were in Gundam Seed Destiny, both anime and manga. If they're in this timeline, he would face serious opposition, with Mare Strode making a short cameo appearance with an elite team of pilots in Africa.
However, these characters join in towards the end of the Africa arc; they do make quite the impression. Another issue was Shiho, and her team of veteran female pilots, they'd cause a lot of trouble if they join in, hopefully it doesn't come down to that. Ray pondered over his current predicament, but he didn't let his mind slip too far away.
"Hey, we're here." Mu said to Ray.
Ray immediately snapped out of his thoughts and turned his attention to his billet.
"Ah, thanks Lieutenant."
"Just refer to me as Mu, besides I thought you said you weren't big on formality." The blonde haired man said with a chuckle.
"True. Anyway thanks for that, I'll probably have to go and grab my stuff from my machine later." Ray said as he opened up the front door.
"Ask personnel if you need help setting your stuff away." Mu suggested.
"No it's alright. Besides I don't have a lot with me, besides the essentials." Ray replied with a grin.
"Oh, by the way, you should go to our chief medical officer; he's going to need your medical file and data." Mu informed Ray.
"Will do. But don't expect a full medical screening, it's not like we have the time." Ray said as he went about checking his billet.
As Ray made himself comfortable, Mu turned around and headed back towards the bridge. Ray on the other hand, went over his thoughts and mulled over his current situation, he closed the door to his room and pulled his compact computer. This old personal custom ultra-compact computer, meant for civilian technical operators to use in all kinds of environments, and it was reliable.
Opening the computer in the middle, the computer split open and half of the tool revealed a digital keypad and the other a touch screen interface. The main body on the other hand was a digital display screen with a haptic interface. It came to life as he slid his fingers across the screen and let it scan his imprints.
"Ray, is there something you need?" Alice inquired.
Ray momentarily paused before replying.
"I've gotten aboard without any difficulty, though I need to know the status of the Eventide, have you completed a full internal scan?"
"Yes, the scans have revealed multiple defects in power regulation and distribution; a few subsystems have also suffered damage and required maintenance." Alice reported in.
"How long do you think this will take?" Ray inquired.
"No more than eight hours." Alice replied with a full diagnostic overview of the damages.
"Figures…" He muttered before inquiring. "Is the Eventide capable of operating weapon systems and I field barrier projector?"
"Not that I know of, the barriers should be functional; however with power distribution suffering from defects, the efficiency might be cut." She informed him.
"That's alright; the Eventide's speed would be able to make up for the lack of protection, though I'll be dodging a lot more attacks in any case." He thought over his tactical situation.
"Is there something else you require?" She asked him.
"I'll be coming back later for my things, also, I think I'll need a better communicator for use, though nothing as obvious as my computer, a simple and easily disguisable com-tool would do, anything which can allow me to keep in touch with you while I'm out."
"Very well, I'll look into it; there should be a potential use for a quantum entanglement communicator in my database." She told him.
"That'd definitely do it." He agreed while he thought about upgrading his personal equipment.
"Understood, Ray." Alice replied.
As the line closed, Ray turned his attention back to his multi-functional compact computer and began to fiddle around with the data storage. This little thing had been with him since before he joined the military, and he's kept it ever since, even after the development of two better computers and a military variant. The only good thing about this computer was that it was customised for his use in the field, as well as for utility work.
Of course he further modified it to act as a computer than anything else, the IOS X-12 update, adapted well for use with all platform games on mobile and computers, though they were a little finicky as keys were a little different as well as interface. He was tempted to just start playing something to keep his mind preoccupied.
He decided against it, he had more pressing matters to attend to, one being his trip to the infirmary for a quick check up and getting his stuff stored away in the room. He cracked his back and muttered.
"What a fucking day."
Promptly stretching his arms, he picked himself up and left, heading down to the infirmary, wherever that was. Getting the most problematic issue out of the way came first, convincing the crew that he wasn't a coordinator, and also securing his name in their registers. Once then, he could act more freely within the ship.
XXXXX
On the bridge of the Archangel, Murrue watched intently as the ship made its silent run, the forward burn with the engines allow them to move on ahead. Their decoy having been deployed, should have grabbed ZAFT's attention, now it was a matter of luck on whether or not their enemy had taken the bait.
Murrue's thoughts went back over what Lieutenant La Flaga had said about their best option for survival. Things looked a little grim, but with some measure of luck they'd make it through this to get to the safety of Artemis and hopefully to friendly lines. As if on cue, the door to the bridge slid open and the blonde haired pilot drifted in before setting down besides the captain.
"Did I miss anything?" He asked as he landed next to her.
Murrue shook her head.
"No it seems as though we haven't been detected and we don't have any ZAFT ships on our radar."
"So how's our new arrival?" Murrue inquired curtly as she overlooked reports coming in.
"He's interesting, he definitely seems military, and he has an air of discipline about him, though he does act a little candid, might be a personal cauterisation. He keeps to himself, but voices his opinion when he sees it necessary, otherwise, unremarkable." Mu stated from his observations.
"Is he telling us the truth?" Murrue asked as she set her report aside.
"Well, I believe his military history, it's not like he has any reason to lie about that, at least from what I can tell. But I get the feeling that he's letting on more than he knows." Mu told her as he thought to himself.
"What do you think about his personality?"
"He holds himself like a military officer, somewhat like me, but he's a little blunter about things, he's well spoken." Mu said before adding. "He made a rather resounding statement about personal responsibility and how Kira should step up and take responsibility rather than ignore it. He's got quite a way of looking at things, more so than me." Mu said with certainty.
Murrue was definitely surprised at hearing this, it certainly added quite a bit to the biography of their mysterious pilot. She thought about this before Natarle came in from the lower CIC.
"Lieutenant, I see you've returned." Natarle said as she saw him.
"Yeah, just had a little conversation with Kira and our new pilot."
"Did he tell you much?"
"Nothing of particular interest besides his philosophy of war." Mu replied.
"So did he make a good impression?" Natarle inquired.
"About as good as he could make one." Mu said to Natarle.
Murrue sighed, things most certainly seemed to be picking up, and in a much unexpected way, but then again there was something which seemed to bug her a little. The fact that Ray had been part of a secret project from an special operations branch being one such concern, she had never heard of the Special Operations Naval Warfare branch before, but it wouldn't surprise her if such an organisation existed.
XXXXX
Kira had been contemplating the reality he found himself in, whether or not he liked it, he was involved now, and it was up to him to take action. He didn't like it, but he understood it, there wasn't any way he could, seeing as how the situation turned out on Heliopolis, he would be required to act if he wanted to save his friends and the people on this ship.
He was still torn about the whole situation, but he knew that he couldn't run away from it anymore, he would have to fight if he wanted to see another tomorrow. However his thoughts turned back to his old friend Athrun, he couldn't help but wonder what he was doing at this time, but he felt that Athrun might have some difficulty coming to terms with fighting him.
Kira had begun to head to the room when he ran into his friends; they were all dressed in uniform, and being led by one of the Alliance staff officers.
"Hey Kira."
"Everyone, what are you doing in uniform?" He asked as he looked over everyone.
"We thought about what Warrant Officer Hyung said earlier, and it struck us pretty hard how difficult it was for you. We thought that we could provide some assistance so we decided to volunteer."
"Yeah, letting you fight all of our battles doesn't seem fair on you. So we decided to help out." Tolle said honestly.
"We're here for you Kira." Sai said supportively.
"I still think the uniforms kind of suck in comparison to the ZAFT ones though." Tolle said.
Romero chastised him.
"Hey, enough of that."
"Anyway, we'll be joining in, and remember we're here to help you through this."
"Wait, where's Flay?"
"Oh, she decided she didn't want to get involved so she's staying in the room."
"Hey kid, if you're going to keep piloting, I'd suggest you go and get yourself a pilot suit, operating in clothes isn't a particularly good idea."
Kira nodded understanding what he had been told; he headed down to the locker room. There was no doubt that he was going to need to dress accordingly, if he wanted to truly fight for those on this ship.
XXXXX
Ray had completed the examination with the ship's doctor, after nearly waiting fifteen minutes for them to complete a check-up a couple of civilians. His tests wouldn't be back for a while so he had time to make his trip to the bridge, where he could make his presence known, seeing as how the ZAFT force under the command of Rau should be making their move very soon.
The bridge door slid open and the raven haired pilot floated in, still adorned in his armoured pilot suit, the only difference was that his suit was opened from the chest and he had no helmet. The man gradually drifted over to the side of the captain and greeted her.
"Captain Ramius, is there anything that I can help with?"
"Warrant Officer Hyung, have you completed your physical examination?" Murrue inquired as she eyed the man as he landed.
"I finished it fifteen minutes in; I got the basics down already, so I skimmed the rest." Ray explained.
Mu then greeted him.
"So I assume then that everything's in order?"
"About as much as you could say, I'm sure Captain Ramius will have me complete a full medical exam later though, but for now, I figured coming in to offer assistance would be more important."
Murrue wasn't as impressed about him skipping over his medical exam, but she didn't voice her objections. The sound of alerts drew their attention, down in the lower CIC, Lieutenant Badgiruel called over.
"Ma'am, we've detected movement, bearing off our starboard…"
"What is it?" Murrue asked.
"ZAFT Nazca-class, heading at high speed, they haven't spotted us, but it looks like they're moving to overtake the Archangel." The lieutenant reported.
"That can't be good." Mu said while observing the movement of the ship relative to their own.
"I guess my timing was impeccable."
Lieutenant Badgiruel appeared from the lower CIC, her immediate gaze was directed to the warrant officer, who she seemed to hold a level of disdain towards, though she didn't openly show it. Ray just took it in stride and said.
"Lieutenant."
She returned formally with a salute. "Warrant Officer Hyung."
Murrue decided to get them on topic; she didn't need the lieutenant to start getting into any measure of a heated argument with the lieutenant.
"What are we looking at?"
Mu stated. "We've got Rau La Creuset's force coming up against us; he's got one end of our path cut off with one ship, and more than likely another ship coming in from behind to cut our path of escape off. If I had to hazard a guess, we still have a fair distance before the second ship reaches weapons range, but they'd more than likely deploy suits to engage us."
"So, think we should breakthrough?" Ray suggested.
"Not in our current state, the moment we try to push on through we'd get hit from both ends, and I'd rather not risk sending the ship straight against Rau's Nazca-class in front of us." Captain Ramius told them.
"Outgunned and outnumbered nothing new there." Ray said before he stepped over to the fore end of the bridge.
The ship's operators noted his presence, but kept to themselves, despite the imposing look of his armoured suit. Ray paced a little before asking the captain.
"So, I'm assuming we got a plan in place to push onto Artemis without getting shot to pieces?"
"In a manner of speaking I think I might have a solution." Mu said.
Murrue looked at Mu but Ray was the one who came forward and said.
"Let me guess, you plan on leading a surprise attack to disable the Nazca-class and open up a hole so we can punch on through?" He said while looking up at the display.
"How did you know?" Mu said his curiosity piqued by how Ray managed to discern his plan.
"It makes sense, we can't meet them head on that'd be suicide and we can't turn back, we have nowhere to run. The only option is to make a hole and punch through it as quickly as possible before we're overwhelmed. I'd do the same thing in this sort of tactical situation." Ray replied confident in his assertion.
"Well captain, what do you think?"
"It makes sense, though we'll be forced into a difficult battle, do you think you can complete this within the allotted time span?" Murrue asked the veteran pilot.
"It's definitely possible." Mu said before adding. "Assuming that the path I take doesn't have any serious obstacles and my timing's right, I can get in and out quickly before they have a chance to respond."
"Lieutenant Badgiruel, what do you think?"
"I'd say this is a risky gambit, but it's definitely feasible." She said with certainty.
"Very well, the Eventide and the Strike will hang back and defend the ship, while the Moebius Zero launches a surprise attack on the Nazca-class ahead of us." Mu decided.
"If that's all, we better get going, we need to get the kid in uniform and I need to grab my helmet." Ray said before giving a quick two finger salute and exiting with Mu from the bridge.
Natarle wasn't so fond of Ray's behaviour, but she didn't immediately start chastising him. As he left, the lieutenant asked the acting captain.
"Ma'am is this wise to have warrant officer Hyung deployed so soon?"
"It doesn't really matter at this point Natarle, we're cornered, and at this moment he's the only other pilot on the ship capable of fighting, we either use him or we don't. And I prefer to make use of his ability and skill rather than benching him."
The lieutenant seemed like she was going to say something else, but refrained. "Very well captain, if that's your judgement."
XXXXX
As they headed back out of the bridge Ray and Mu discussed their game plan.
"Think you can handle protecting the ship alongside the kid?" Mu asked while they rode in the elevator.
"Depends, think you can disable the Nazca-class ship within the time span and make it back before we all die?" Ray asked the lieutenant.
Mu laughed.
"Sounds like a bet."
"Too bad I don't have anything to bet with right now, though I'll have to take a personal inventory later." Ray said grinning. "Normally I'd trade drinks or favours, that or just our rosters."
"I don't think we've got anything in the way of alcohol on the ship, that or favours."
"I figured as much, and I'd rather not rush these sorts of things." Ray said before they arrived at a junction.
"Hmm, I haven't seen Kira around yet. Think I should go find the kid and getting him down here for the briefing?" Ray asked Mu.
Mu shook his head. "No I'll do it, he's still trying to wrap his mind around things right now, and your impromptu pep talk might not have left him feeling conflicted."
"Well unfortunately it's a fact of reality, and one I think he needs to understand soon." Ray stated promptly in a somewhat dejected fashion.
Ray's statement gave Mu pause. "Might be pressing him too hard there, he's still just a kid." He said to Ray as they went down to the crew quarters.
Ray shrugged before saying. "Yeah, but he's got himself into a similar situation, what I've learnt is, adapt or you'll die."
Mu seemed to pause at what Ray said before he replied.
"As much as I'd like to think adapting would work well in any situation, the mentality isn't always shared by everyone, mind you. I'll pass on the sentiment to the kid though."
Mu, gleamed a little bit more about Ray's thought processes. And learnt a bit more insight into Ray's personality, something which seemed to get his attention, considering how Ray acted, he seemed rather blunt, even in this situation, despite acting so introvert before. The pilot hadn't known Kira for more than a few minutes and he seemed to have a rather indifferent opinion of the young man.
Ray seemed to act like he was trying to help the young man, though he might have been coming off rather harsh. In any event, their newest addition was making effort to get Kira active in the defence of the ship, which was good, but his approach left something to be desired. He couldn't dismiss that having Kira being able to defend the ship willingly to his best abilities would be preferable, but pressuring him in such a way might not work in the long run.
XXXXX
Ray had skipped by the locker room deciding to let Mu discuss the plan with Kira, Ray had no intention to go around bonding with the kid just yet, since the boy had more on his own plate. For now he settled with getting into his machine and preparing for their little escapade out in space.
This whole battle plan was going to be on rollercoaster of a ride, and he knew that they were going up against all the Gundams stolen by ZAFT and maybe a couple of other machines, depending on the situation. Regardless, this was going to be his first battle in a real mobile suit engagement, something which he had never really imagined himself ever doing.
Ray couldn't help but feel a nagging sensation in the back of his head; he knew that there were a lot of risks entailed in what he was doing. One mistake and everything goes to hell, then again the probability of survival in a really hectic combat situation was rather problematic, and seeing as there was no way to predict accurately what will happen when you engage in a battle with the enemy.
Within a matter of minutes Ray got back to his billet and grabbed his helmet and proceeded to the hangar bay, he spotted Kira's friends all dressed in uniforms going over a quick verbal orientation with Romero Pal, one of the bridge officers. This meant that they were all joining in for the duration of this battle.
The designated warrant officer managed to get down to the hangar bay where he found the Moebius Zero being hoisted onto the starboard launch bay. As Ray went down to the hangar floor, he was greeted by the crew chief, Murdoch.
"Hey there, I'm Chief Petty Officer Murdoch Kojiro."
"Good to meet your Chief, I'm sure you've gotten the briefing on what's going on?"
"Yeah, we've been told to prepare your machine for launch, do you have any need for us to do any checks before you launch?"
"No, not right now, besides my machine's got self-diagnostics, if anything happens I'll know, but for now there shouldn't be an issue." Ray told the crew chief as he went to enter the hatch.
"Alright…" The chief then signalled to the deck crew. "Get the hatch ready for departure!"
The Eventide was capable of taxiing; thanks to a few mechanical modifications he made using some aircraft parts which would be able to fit inside the machine's frame. Ray's unit was moved onto the launching platform, his unit was loaded onto an electrical umbilical cable. As he positioned himself, his monitor lit up, and a display of Lieutenant Badgiruel appeared on the screen.
"Warrant Officer…"
"Yes Lieutenant?" He queried.
"I hope you remember that the Strike's pilot is still very much new to this, make every effort to support him, I trust that you'll be able to handle this correct?" The officer said with all seriousness.
"I'll do what I can." Ray told her promptly.
As the display changed, he got a view of a familiar face, Miriallia, who he had recalled was supposed to be in the CIC by now.
"Greetings Warrant Officer, I'm your support operator, Miriallia Haw."
"Nice to meet you, Ms Haw, am I cleared for launch?" Ray asked.
The girl nodded before signalling. "Catapult charge is nominal, you're cleared to go."
"Roger that, Delta Ex-S Eventide, launching." He said before he let loose the accelerator.
The Eventide rocketed out of the ship at high speed, leaving a trail of ionising plasma behind it, most in the crew weren't as surprised at the display of engine thrust as they were by the speed at which the machine's departure, the way the fighter moved was surprising and the fact that it moved at high speed also got their attention.
It zipped off into the black abyss, its engines leaving a trail of ionising plasma, a blurry line of light glimmered around the abyss. Inside the cockpit, Ray had never felt more alive, this feeling of freedom in the great expanse, though he recalled what he was doing out in this place. His attention was drawn to Alice.
"Ray, sensors are picking up movement, detection of multiple signatures, mobile suits, and three from Archangel's 6 o'clock position."
"Good, it looks like our little foray's about to begin." The man said with a wide grin.
XXXXX
(This is an old draft for the specifications, this isn't entirely cleaned up or fixed.)
AMS-05 Ex-Eventide
Eventide was a machine based on multiple machine types, intended to be a fusion between the MSA-0011 Ex-S Gundam, and the Delta Kai Gundam, the machine was meant to be a highly advanced fusion which imported parts and aspects, being a highly advanced all-rounder machine capable of taking on multiple mobile suits on its own.
The Eventide didn't look all that different, besides having been equipped with a massive smart beam rifle known as a Lancer which had a bayonet attachment; it also had a detachable grenade/missile launcher. The Lancer was more powerful than a regular beam rifle and could be adjusted accordingly to the user's need, from short beam spray mode to a concentrated beam fire which could destroy heavily armoured targets. The lancer was the tool for the job.
Multiple Beam Funnels were also attached, being split into two pieces; these funnels were larger than normal funnels due to their integrated upgrades, such as beam shield emitters and sabre adjustments. They were agile as well as powerful, being able to be fired at long range or used at an extensive distance with the quantum entanglement system.
Eventide's primary shield reflector was designed to switch between a shield and a massive particle cannon, though the cannon wasn't like a normal mega particle weapon, instead it was designed to be a VSBR, being able to attenuate the beam into a powerful lance capable of piercing shields and extremely thick armour. It could also channel into burst mode when the unit underwent NITRO+ transformation.
Another feature to note was the NITRO system which had been designed for normal pilots to use in combat, Ray had ALICE acting as a safety net to avoid him going berserk whenever he used the system. And he also altered the interface for his neural implants to avoid serious feedback problems which could cause brain damage.
The generator was meant to produce artificial conditions to simulate environments, but also as a neat bonus it also could simulate environments like low gravity or lower inertial resistance, around the generator than just within a set area. As long as the Plavsky generators were still receiving power, this wouldn't be an issue.
All of these improvements were made with the intention to see how far one could push the Eventide's abilities in simulated flight and see what could be adjusted for players, and maybe possibly pilots. As to why in god's name no one was sticking these generators in space shuttles or aircraft right now was because of the fact that the generators consumed an absurd amount of energy.
Real life fusion generators weren't in ready to generate the level of energy required for the Plavsky particle generator, the ones being used at the stadium used a micro-fusion generator the size of a house, and it also topped off with energy from multiple solar reactor facilities miles away from the city.
The sheer amount of energy has to be conserved constantly, and advanced systems require more energy than could be afforded. But still it was interesting enough to keep people funding research into Plavsky particle technologies and Gunpla, so there was a silver lining amidst all of it, hence the research projects to improve the personal interface for players, as it would ultimately be used in real life on day.
NITRO+ (PLUS) or Neural Interface Trial Response Operation – Prototype Limiter Unit Simulator was meant to be used to simulate the abilities of a special one off capability programmed by the operator, this was purely dependent on the operator, whether or not they could handle using such a system and their machine's total capabilities. This system was as explained by its name, an experimental one.
NITRO+ was intended to give him a trial system which would give him a massive edge in simulated battle, though it was largely to test how high his responses and reflexes could take him, it was actually based on the older military training system for the Mechanised Corps. Intended to forcibly push the limits of the augmented operators and see if they could handle the overall effect, in responding to all kinds of threats in combat.
The simulator used in NITRO was similar, but the added benefit was that it wasn't meant to drive him to exhaustion, but test how long he could endure the rush of a game. It was also intended to give the team time to develop new AIs for competitive battles, so they could use a pre-existing operator's abilities and program new elites for battles in the game.
And some might find this an unfair, but the whole point was to give the players a real challenge, not just reusing old simulated AIs, with Ray's abilities however, this was more for creating powerful bosses and special elite characters that could fight on the professional level as that of other players.
