"Enemy units sighted, there's four Moebius crafts." Yzak, the pilot of the Duel gundam, said, then scoffed. "They're armed with pieces of trash."
Dearka laughed. "Well, then it'll be a cinch." His Blitz Gundam brought its large rifle to bear as he sighted one of the crafts, and noted, almost absentmindedly, the insignia of a dog biting on its chain.
Athrun saw insignias on the Moebius crafts, but didn't seem them clearly. "They have custom insignias. Are they aces?"
Yzak's shrug could be heard over the radio as the Duel raised its rifle. "Doesn't matter, they're flying trash. Kill them all!"
…
"Razgriz, let's run some interception!" Blaze said as he brought his craft into a spin.
"Whoa! What the hell!" Yzak saw the Moebius craft in front of him suddenly spin and took aim at the fighter.
He then blinked in surprise as his craft shuddered for some reason. The light beeping his console gave off reported that the Phase Shift Armor was only slightly disturbed.
"Enemy hit, I don't think it did anything." Blaze snarled as he sped past the Duel Gundam, outspeeding the enemy's Vulcan fire response.
"Coming." Cipher said, bringing his twin linear guns to bear on the Duel, which happened to be turned around, trying to catch Blaze.
"Yzak! Behind you!" Yzak heard over the radio and swerved to look behind him out of instinct, despite training telling him not to because you can't see that far back without using cameras. He then felt a much stronger shudder as Cipher's shots hit him square in the back.
"I got a hit, doesn't look like it did a thing."
"The stolen suits have Phase Shift armor; bullets aren't going to work against them." Natarle said.
There was a moment of silence as the four aces processed that information.
"Why didn't you tell us this earlier?!" Talisman demanded, before dodging incoming fire from an enemy GINN. Natarle was too busy giving out orders to the ship gunners to reply.
"Razgriz Two and Three, intercept the stolen units; Four, we're taking down the GINNs." Blaze said.
"Two."
"Four, roger."
"Three, conserving missiles." Mobius One said while rolling heavily to dodge bullet fire from a GINN and fired back with the built-in Vulcans.
…
"My god, what are these guys." Athrun muttered after firing quite a few shots that he thought would hit only to have the fighters dodge them at the last moment. He then felt his craft shake again as he received yet another hit to the back from the yet another Moebius craft. Every single time, always to my back! He thought with a grimace, not bothering to turn around, since the one behind him would be long gone by then.
He watched the Moebius he fired at roll heavily to dodge a burst of fire from a GINN.
Said GINN paused in his fire and was immediately hit in the main camera on its face, seconds before Athrun brought up his rifle for another shot.
"I don't believe this! We're being outmaneuvered by goddamned Moebius crafts?!" Dearka said, after watching one of his missile salvos be thrown off by an impossibly sharp evasive maneuver.
"Nevermind them; all units, focus fire on the legged ship." Rau Le Cruset said over the communications, and heard three affirmatives in reply.
Yzak, ever the hothead, ignored the order and continued to pursue the two Moebius crafts, being dragged slightly further and further from the ship attacking force.
"Yzak, you're too far from us, return." Rau's order fell on deaf ears.
…
"Our magic's wearing off." Cipher said lightly, barely dodging a wildly aimed shot from the Duel. "But it looks like someone's got wool in their eyes."
"Then let's finish this one off quick." Mobius one said with a slightly predatory snarl in his voice.
…
...
"Wait, what are they doing?" Dearka said, having taken some pot shots at the Moebius crafts while attacking the Archangel, with limited success.
"I don't care. They're dead!" Yzak roared with fury. The two Moebius crafts around him have been pelting him almost incessantly with Vulcan fire, doing no damage, but shredding the hell out of his pride.
"Yzak, don't lose your cool." Athrun warned.
"Shut up!" Yzak's response was paired with some beam rifle fire aimed wildly at the Moebius crafts flitting around. He then raised his engines and tried to charge the Moebius units, namely, the one with the ribbon painted on it.
"Three here, commencing retrieval; requesting support." Mobius one said, and deployed his grapple towards the incoming Duel Gundam.
"Two." Cipher said, trying to maneuver to a position beneath the Duel.
Yzak heard an odd sound and ignored it. He raised his rifle at the oddly built Moebius craft, and blinked in surprise as the unit nosed above him and disappeared out of sight.
Yzak then heard his unit's autopilot blare a warning that it was trying to keep its position against some outside force attempting to drag it.
Then he heard a missile alert and promptly ignored it because Phase Shift Armor.
Mobius one catapulted himself to a spot behind the duel and had fired a missile at the Duel's engines; although the unit is protected against damage against physical impact, the armor doesn't protect against the force of the impact, and Yzak found himself thrown against the harness that bound him to his seat.
"Damn! Yzak's in trouble!" Athrun yelled, turning around and leaving the Archangel alone. "We're going to help him!"
Rau Le Cruset barely resisted shaking his head. "Go help your friend. GINN squadrons, continue the attack."
"Got it. Take this, you damned Naturals!" Dearka roared, firing his Gundam's large rifle in the Duel's general direction. He had pride and confidence in his marksmanship and was sure he wasn't going to hit the Duel.
Unfortunately for him, the two Moebius crafts he was shooting at knew it.
"Ignore him. He can't aim for us." Mobius one said, kicking half of engines into gear while keeping his grapple length constant, and depressed his gun triggers. His Moebius craft flew in a circle around the Duel, peppering it constantly with vulcan and Linear gun fire. The Duel, on the other hand, was held in position by the constantly thickening layer of grapple wire and could do nothing but take the damage.
Cipher shook his head, and turned his attention to the red unit that was charging forward with its beam saber out.
Athrun heard a voice over the communication line, and silently cursed himself: They haven't changed the communications channel encryption in the units, so the Naturals knew what they were saying!
Which was halfway true: Cipher had no idea what they were saying but was using a general line anyways, and indeed the ZAFT ship engineers hadn't changed the stolen unit encryptions yet.
"Kid, you're in way over your head." Athrun heard as he brought his sword in for a sideways slash.
Cipher's Moebius craft had long since rolled out of the way and had dropped the Anti-ship missile in his stead. Athrun narrowly avoided hitting the missile with the beam saber, but Cipher turned around hard and strafed the missile with his Vulcans before rocketing off, causing the missile to explode in Athrun's Gundam Face.
Athrun's suit instantly blared an alarm. He spared a moment to look at his readout and cursed yet again; the explosion damaged the saber mount on the arm, rendering the blade useless until it could be repaired.
Cipher, on the other hand, cursed as well; he hadn't anticipated the Phase Shift Armor to absorb so much damage from a missile designed to kill capital ships. However, before he could follow up his attack, his threat alarm blared and he twisted hard out of the way of a solid something that occupied his space before. He looked back and saw a heat signature appear behind him, before catching the glowing eyes of a mobile suit.
"Athrun! Are you alright?" Nicole, pilot of the jet black Blitz, said, before he instinctively raised his shield-mounted arm in response to a pepper of Vulcan fire. Said Vulcan fire hit the Blitz square on the head, though it didn't do any damage.
"I'm fine, Nicol. Thanks for the help." Athrun said a little shakily. These pilots are naturals?! How can they move like that?! His mind was reeling.
…
"Looks like the two heroes are doing just fine." Garuda one remarked, dodging another shot from a very angry GINN.
"What'd you expect? They're the Ace of Aces." Blaze laughed, suddenly jinking sideways away from a downwards sword slash from a GINN that's getting too close, and responded by shooting out its main head camera with his Vulcans.
"I wish these guys were a bit better." Talisman sighed as he put his craft into a sudden reverse, dodging a swipe from the same GINN that's getting a bit desperate. Said GINN received a missile to the face for his troubles.
"Shit, we can't possibly be losing to goddamned Naturals!" The captain of the GINN squadron snarled.
Blaze opened a general communications channel, laughing all the while. "Man, you're in for some horrible, horrible luck." And then he came across a good idea.
The GINN squadron couldn't help but stop for a brief moment to watch the Moebius craft flying high above the battlefield twist downwards to face their captain, while their captain raised his gun to meet the tiny, tiny fighter. "Luck? You think luck's enough to save you, you Natural bastard?!"
Blaze's chuckle suddenly drew a shiver from everyone listening in (which was, in effect, all the GINN pilots).
"We are the Razgriz, the demons of the north."
The captain of the GINN squadron fired his recoilless rifle, but it was no use: Blaze dove straight down while firing all of his guns.
…
The captain of the ZAFT vessel was furious. Four Moebius crafts—four!—were making a mockery of the ZAFT army.
"Olor's unit has gone silent!" He heard one of the crewmen report, and his rage built even more.
…
Rau Le Cruset looked on with a mixture of amusement and frustration, as he dodged another round of fire from the enemy capital ship.
Even through all that, he couldn't help but wonder: where was La Flaga?
…
Mu La Flaga couldn't help but whistle at the otherworldly skill exhibited by these pilots as he crept up slowly upon the enemy ship.
As his computer beeped on his arrival for the target location, Mu La Flaga, the Hawk of Endymion, took a deep breath, and charged towards the ZAFT ship.
…
The Archangel crew was busy trying to not die to Cruset and his GINN compatriots and their renewed attacks on the ship. To the ship's credit the armor is holding quite well.
"The Moebius Zero has begun it's attack, Captain." Natarle said, watching a light on her screen go green.
"Good, just hold out a little longer!"
…
Kira Yamato felt the ship shake yet again, and made up his mind.
…
"Incoming fire!" One of the ZAFT crew suddenly shouted, and the ship shook.
"Damage to the main engines! We can't maintain acceleration!" Another officer shouted.
The captain of the ship gritted his teeth. "Where the hell did that come from!?"
He then saw the orange paintjob of the Moebius Zero fly in front of the ship.
"The Hawk of Endymion." The captain gritted his teeth harder. Somewhere back on PLANT a dentist felt the tug of potential money in his wallet.
"Here's a farewell present." Mu laughed, set two of his Gunbarrels to fire while holding position, oriented them towards the ship's main cannons, and detached them, before turning and flying back to the Archangel.
As the ZAFT ship's main cannon barrels exploded from the Gunbarrel fire, the ship captain couldn't help but utter a string of expletives, though most of them were just repetitions of the same word.
…
Yzak was in all kinds of hell.
He heard his name being yelled over the communicators, but he was too focused on trying to keep his bearing straight to heed.
A little while ago he heard a second *clang* very similar to the first, and rightfully assumed that the second Moebius craft had attached a grapple onto him as well. He then tried to accelerate his way out of this mess, but every time he did the Moebius crafts would drag him in a direction totally perpendicular to the one he was going. The end effect was his Duel Gundam spent a lot of its power rotating uselessly in space, firing its Vulcans everywhere while its arm with the beam rifle was pinned uselessly to its side, still firing.
What he hasn't realized in his mind clouded with confusion and high octane rage was that his random firing was both drastically draining his unit of its energy and preventing his allies from assisting him. He was also too enraged to hear unit's many warnings, but at this point there are so many warnings if he had heard any of them it wasn't going to be of much help.
"God dammit Yzak!" Dearka shouted. "Get a grip!"
Of course, Yzak didn't hear him.
"This is sad." Mobius One said, watching the Duel gundam flail about, firing wildly.
"So sad." Cipher agreed, being forced to use his thrusters once or twice when a shot came slightly too close.
Both pilots continued to fly circles around the Duel and pump it full of Vulcan fire as it fired back and stopped its allies from helping it.
…
Suddenly, the battlefield was bathed in white light as the ZAFT ship fired three white lights, signaling retreat.
"What? What's going on?!" Le Cruset demanded.
"Our ship's taken damage to the engines, if we don't stop the pursuit we could get outside of our operational range." The captain explained, after finally calming down.
Cruset chuckled darkly. "Affirmative." He then opened a communications link to all ZAFT units on the field. "All units, we're retreating. Recover the Duel by any means necessary!" What a disaster. He couldn't help but think to himself.
...
"Shit, looks like they're coming after us." Cipher muttered. "Three, got any tricks up your sleeve?"
"I'm all out, Two." Mobius One sighed.
Cipher sighed as well; this was prime money sitting in front of him, and he has to abandon it. He then reminded himself that he wasn't technically a mercenary any more.
"Archangel, got anything to send us? I don't want to give up our prize."
Murrue looked confused for a second. "What prize? Wait, the Strike has deployed with the Launcher pack, maybe he can help."
Mobius One and Cipher were a little worried now: their Moebius crafts were running out of power.
"Razgriz, we're towing back a gift. Kira, can you read me?" Blaze said, deploying his grapple along with Talisman onto the Duel.
"I, uh, read you." Kira said, a little surprised. "Sir." He added at the end. After all, he was a young man who has read military fiction.
"Give us some cover while we tow this thing home." Blaze said, as all four Razgriz crafts deployed their grapples for the towing work.
…
Dearka gritted his teeth as he sighted the Moebius crafts yet again, ignoring the state of his unit's energy: this was his best friend, about to be dragged off into the Natural ship like a piece of trash!
The sudden alert of incoming fire broke his concentration as he dodged out of the way of some incoming fire, courtesy of the Strike's AGNI cannon.
"What the hell...the last unit sorties now?!" He said in dumbfound shock.
"We'll assist; fire missiles behind us!" Natarle said suddenly.
The weapons control officer nodded with a grin, and fired as many missiles as he could behind them between the Razgriz and the remainder of the ZAFT units.
…
Yzak, meanwhile, had raged so hard he fell into a state of almost catatonic shock when he felt the two other grapples hit his unit; having ran out of energy earlier and fired the last of his Vulcan ammo, he couldn't do anything but feel his unit be dragged and watched as the Vesalius flew further and further away.
…
"We can't get any closer than this!" Nicol said, trying and failing to get a good firing position on the Moebius crafts; the crafts in question were dodging and maneuvering almost in tantem with each other, dragging the Duel Gundam along as if it was a giant ragdoll, while the ZAFT Gundam pilots maneuvered wildly to dodge the endless barrage of missiles from both the Archangel and the Strike.
…
"C'mon, leave...!" Kira muttered, sighting a GINN and pulling the trigger for his AGNI cannon.
...
Rau Le Cruset gritted his teeth as he watched a GINN evaporate from the attacks of the Strike Gundam. "Damn. We're out of time; all units, retreat!"
Dearka swore loudly (enough for everyone to hear him) and aimed at the Archangel, and fired the last of his missiles. He then looked on in shock as the missiles were shot down by Vulcan fire from the four Moebius crafts. "Damn it!"
…
"Those guys are insanely good." Mu said, having made his way back to the Archangel only a few minutes earlier.
…
…
Docking was a simple procedure; the fighters just had to match speed with the Archangel, gently nudge themselves into position, and slow down a little bit until they met the gravity locks. The Duel was dragged into position and forcibly slowed down until it was caught with netting.
A silver-haired boy was then escorted out of the unit at gunpoint and thrown into a makeshift prison aboard the ship, which was just a room with the door locked (the brig was reserved as a storage depot for the moment).
…
"Wow, I still can't believe they managed to recapture one of the stolen Gs." Murrue breathed, after the radar cleared them of all threats.
Natarle could only shake her head as she smiled.
…
"Between the four of you, the stolen Duel was retaken, and five GINNs were taken out of commission." Mu said, astonished. "Nevermind the GINNs, retaking that Duel was insane! Did you guys have the grapples installed just for that?"
Mobius One, Ribbon, was inspecting his craft. "The pilot was too easily enraged, and no, it was a spur of a moment thing."
Mu chuckled. "Spur of the moment. Like shooting down those missiles?"
Ribbon shrugged. "Give your thanks to the mechanics for that one; the gun's auto-tracking is excellent."
"Oh really? I don't think auto-tracking was all it was; well, if you don't mind, Mr. Ribbon, care to teach me a few things?"
Ribbon paused. "I don't think I could teach the Hawk of Endymion anything useful about zero-g combat; we got lucky, that was all."
Mu clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't be like that, a few rounds will do."
"Well…if you insist."
…
"Yo, Yamato." Cipher said, getting the young man's attention.
"Yes, uh, sir?" Kira snapped out of the daze he was in.
"Thanks for the covering fire back there; the blue one wouldn't have been recovered without your help." Cipher laughed.
Kira made a noncommittal gesture. "You were done fighting at that point; it wasn't like I contributed a lot anyways."
Cipher shook his head. "See, that's where you're wrong. We cover for each other, and we share our kills, so to speak." He saw Kira flinch at the word 'kill'. "Thus, we're all equally responsible for the survival of each other."
Kira sighed. "I don't want to fight, especially not when I'm forced to…do this."
Cipher sensed a last minute word swap, but figured it would be better to let the issue drop. "Nobody wants to fight, kid; after all, the people in those Ginns we fought had friends, families, and loved ones at home probably hoping they're alright." The fact that some of those people were definitely not alright was left unsaid but could be heard as loud as a thunderclap.
Kira stared at him. "If you know that, then why do you fight them?" He thought again to the unit he had sighted and killed.
Cipher shrugged. "Simple, really; because they chose to step onto the field of battle; they chose be here, fighting for their beliefs, their reasons; who am I to deny their courage?" He added, almost absentmindedly. "Just like the Round Table."
"But still—"
"I know. You're in an extenuating circumstance that you don't want to be in. But look around you for a moment." Cipher made a sweeping motion with his left hand. "Everyone on this ship has people worried about them too."
Kira said nothing.
"Well, it's not like you have to kill your enemies." Cipher added, "From what I've heard you're pretty talented, and you have a top of the line machine on your hands."
"What's your point?" Kira felt a slight irritation.
"My point is: You're good enough to force the enemy to withdraw; better than what we can do, which is to barely damage the enemy enough so that they withdraw. If you can fight to protect others, do it. If you can fight to protect everyone, even the people you're fighting against, then by god why are you not fighting?"
"I'll…uh, keep that in mind." Kira said, getting a bit confused.
"In the end, man, it's your decision." Cipher said, clapped the young man on the shoulder, and left to do who knows what.
…
…
"Hey, what's up?" Blaze asked a rather tired looking Ribbon as the latter walked into the officer lounger, obviously exhausted.
"Mu La Flaga is good. Damn good." Was the tired reply.
"Oh really. The Hawk of Endymion is good at his job?" Blaze said with a smirk, looking back into his drink. "Would've never guessed."
"No, seriously. All the man needs is some competent wingmen to let him fly without worries, and he's going to do miracles." Ribbon sat down, taking the drink Blaze casually tossed at him. Or pushed, since this is zero G.
"What, are we gonna fly support for him next?"
"Not likely; it'll be good if we can get some pilots at Artemis, though." Ribbon said between gulps of his drink.
Blaze's eyes clouded over for a moment. "Speaking of Artemis…"
…
Mu La Flaga came out of the simulator, aching all over, as a bemused Murdoch passes him a towel.
"What is that man made of?" Mu demanded.
"Was he really that good, Lieutenant?" Murdoch, a (secret) fan of the "Hawk of Endymion", asked, barely covering a grin: Despite his loyalties, he did just win a good penny in a bet.
"Good? Good?!" Mu was indignant. "He flew circles around me in every match! I've never seen half the things he could do with a Moebius and the man's only spent a few months in zero-g?!" He calmed down for a moment, though he was more incredulous than angry. "If all four of them are as skilled as Ribbon we have the war in the bag. Why did the idiots at high command shove them off to Heliopolis anyways?! They should be instructors for the new kids!"
Murdoch stroked his stubbly chin. "Well, going by how the four treat each other, I think the oldest guy, what's his name, Cipher, is the most skillful one. Fancy taking him on?"
Mu leaned against the simulator, burying his head in the towel, to hide the massive grin on his face. "I don't think I can take another hit to my pride like that."
"Those can't be their real names, though." Murdock mused.
"Good. Let me believe they're some god of the fighters from the future." Mu grumbled.
…
"What was with the young man they pulled out of the Duel?" Talisman asked, having wandered onto the bridge at some point.
"What do you mean?" Murrue asked.
"He seemed…different?" Talisman cast around for some good descriptions. "It was like…" He didn't succeed.
"Well, for starters." He tried again. "What's with the pride he had?"
Natarle came onto the bridge at that moment. "Captain, I suggest you get some rest…oh, it's you."
Talisman was uncomfortable around the lady that Cipher had such interesting descriptions for. "Yes, it's me." He felt the bridge's temperature drop heavily.
Murrue chuckled. "It's alright, Natarle; the young man was probably prideful because of his red uniform."
Click. "Ah, so he was an elite pilot then?" Talisman felt his respect for the young man rise, and respect for ZAFT as a whole plummet.
Murrue nods. "You got it."
"So is the age of service sixteen for ZAFT? How long do they train their kids for, anyways?"
Murrue frowned slightly. "Well…"
"They are coordinators; they require less time to learn a new skill to a competent level than us normal humans." Natarle interjected, getting progressively angrier at Talisman's blatant disregard for the chain of command, but not saying anything since Murrue wouldn't care one way or the other.
"Talent, or whatever the hell it is they have, is no reason to use children as pilots." The glance Talisman, Gracemeria's Angel of Death, shot at Natarle could have frozen oceans. But since the lights were dim and she wasn't looking at him she missed it, though she still felt a serious chill up her spine.
"Well, we have unusual circumstances. If only Mr. Yamato would rewrite the OS for common usage, then he wouldn't be in a position to fight." Natarle shrugged, a slight wobble in her voice betraying the slight break of composure.
Talisman thought for a moment, then…
"Is the difference between a Coordinator and a Natural that large? Enough that a sixteen year old can make something not even a team of adults can understand?"
"It isn't that simple." One of Kira's friends said, the young man with the glasses. "Apologies for eavesdropping, but…"
"To put it simply," Natarle said, as if the interruption didn't happen. "Our engineers are running overtime trying to bring the Archangel and your crafts up into full combat mode again—"
At this point everyone on the bridge (and out of it) remembered how the four Moebius crafts' bolted on engines caused warnings to blare in the hangar, to the point where said hangar needed to be locked down for a few minutes and the crew evacuated while the engines stopped trying to melt everything down around it. The problem was eventually pinpointed to a faulty release mechanism for the heat radiators, but it was a few dangerous moments for the hangar crew. On the plus side, the entire ship's temperature went up from "uncomfortably cold" to "acceptably cold".
"—and thus they don't have the spare time to decode the Strike. And stop burning out your engines." Natarle added almost sulkily.
"We'll try, but no promises."
…
…
Yzak lied back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. He had exhausted all of his rage a few hours ago, and has now settled for playing back the battle in his head, examining it from every detail possible. Every time he reviewed himself losing his composure he would seethe inwardly. Him! A ZAFT Red! Would make such an amateur mistake!
…
"He's been beating up the wall for a while now, is he alright?" One of the guards said after Yzak struck the wall in frustration for the umpteenth time.
The other guard on watch shrugged and downed a shot from a glass floating near them against the wall, silently thanking the fact that the Archangel had no booze.
…
…
…
"Sir, we should continue to give chase to the Archangel." Dearka said to Rau Le Cruset in Rau's quarters aboard the ZAFT cruiser. The hiss in his voice was palpable. Rau put on a new mask and turned to face Dearka.
"Dearka. I know you're worried about your friend, but we're currently in no condition to give chase." Rau said for what he felt was the fifth time. The almost constant loss of their "aces" –Rusty during the infiltration operation, Yzak when his Duel was caught, and Olog, one of the ship's senior pilots —and the presence of those "demonic" Moebius crafts (made of, as far as he could tell, junk) had driven ship morale to a near total depression. The ship captain had advised Rau to continue the chase - scrapped engines be damned - to raise morale , until he was reminded of the scrapped guns as well.
Rau had left the captain sobbing into his drink in the cafeteria; the man was very attached to his ship, after all.
However, Rau Le Cruset wasn't about to give up entirely; prior to the attack they had confirmed that the Archangel was on course to Artemis (rather, it was the only viable location the ship can run to, factoring in the ship's expected supply and manpower) and should the ship continue to give chase with its current capable acceleration, the Archangel would reach the station long before they did.
And if they gave chase at constant maximum acceleration, then the Artemis's gunner crew would have a enjoyable day watching the Vesalius plow into the station's Umbrella of Light.
For those reasons, Rau Le Cruset ordered the ship to retreat to PLANT, and for an emergency message to be sent for the deployment of a new pursuit force, along with mobile suits equipped with cameras.
He wasn't about to let the damned Naturals out-fly ZAFT's boys, after all, even if they had to resort to theft.
…
Dearka was hardly at ease, even after listening to that explanation. They were humiliated! As the ranking officer who would bear the blame Rau Le Cruset should know that, above all else!
"Dearka." Rau sighed. The boy was taking after Yzak; he could only hope the ship's best sniper calms down after a few days. "I am fully aware of what sort of responsibilities I shoulder. That is why, even though it is shameful, even though it places one of our own men in danger, we must withdraw. Yzak would not want us to lose an entire ship to retrieve him; the blow to his pride would be far from inconsequential."
Dearka shut up, and nodded after a moment. He then saluted, turned around, and left. Rau could only hope he wasn't about to do something insane.
…
Dearka felt the need to do something insane, like fly after the Archangel by himself. Until he talked himself out of it like a sane person.
A small part of him bemusedly noted how his constant friendship to Yzak and anticipating the boy's penchant for anger was the cause of Yzak being abandoned (if only for the moment) to the Naturals.
...
"I have to admit I don't like Yzak all that much." Athrun said, scowling. "But leaving him to the Naturals is practically a death sentence."
"It can't be helped for the moment." Nicole sighed, his eyes a bit redder than normal. "We need to think about the overall structure of this war, too."
Athrun chuckled sadly. "Structure, right; how many men do you think Yzak's mother would mobilize to get him back?" Yzak's mother, Ezalia Jule, was a member of the PLANT council—Athrun didn't know what her position was—and was quite worried about him, a fact that Yzak faced a small amount of teasing for back in school.
Dearka walked in with a drink, visibly calmer than he was when he stormed out a few moments ago. "Knowing her? Three ships, at least."
…
"Not only did the Naturals develop new weapons, they also had the audacity to create these…monsters?" A man in his office hissed while reading a report sent to him from Rau Le Cruset, concerning their stolen weapons and a recommended plan of action.
After he finished reading the report, he paused for a few moments to plan out his next actions, and then made some calls.
"I want you to take a look at this." He said, and waited for a few minutes while the man on the line read the snippet he sent under his breath.
"Holy shit, Patrick."
Patrick Zala laughed, in the bitter and cold way that he seemed to do nowadays. "Think you can spin this? I don't think Naturals can achieve these things by just raw skill, do you?"
A pause, then…
"Yeah, I don't think so either. A story about how the Naturals are sending young trainees through hellishly tough training should be good for our war efforts."
"Throw some shit about them forcing drugs on their pilots too."
"You got it boss."
Patrick hung up, and then dialed another number, and then checked his tone, just in case.
"Ezalia, we might have an issue on our hands." Ezalia Jule was against the idea of sending a ship to Heliopolis, even for supposed "peaceful" purposes, so she was, despite being one of his supporters, currently a little bit unhappy with him.
On the other hand, she hated using neutral places as a means of war.
"What is it, Pat? I'm a little busy here."
"One of our scout ships have discovered the" Patrick Zala checked himself at the last second "Earth Federation Army has used Heliopolis as a weapon development center."
He could almost feel the fury on the other side of the line. Who it was targeted towards, he prayed that it was not him. Might as well do some fence mending now. He thought.
"Cruset found them out," He added, before the lady on the line could properly vent her fury, "and he decided to engage. During the battle, apparently Yzak was captured after he had obtained one of the developed units."
Ok, NOW the fury could be clearly felt over the line, even though Ezalia was totally silent. I might have screwed myself over. Patrick thought bemusedly.
"I know, I know; regardless of what happened before we obviously can't leave a man behind, no matter where he is, and we can't exactly let—"
"How many ships can I send, Patrick." Upon hearing her deathly calm voice, Patrick Zala reminded of the instances where he did something his wife strongly disapproved of. And it terrified him.
"If we can spin this right, we can probably send three, but—"
"Send me everything you have, Patrick."
He did as he was told, and waited for a minute or so.
"I'll get us five ships." She said, and hung up.
Patrick let out a breath.
...
And a smile played on his face.
…
…
[Time: Some days later]
…
…
"Dearka, are you going to transfer?" Athrun asked, packing up his things.
"Damn straight I am. I'm not going to leave Yzak on that Natural ship any longer." Dearka's reply was punctured by him nearly beating his belongings into his box.
"That makes all of us then." Nicole smiled. For a brief moment earlier during the day Athrun had tried to talk the fragile-looking boy into taking a position away from the front lines, but Nicole had adamantly insisted that they were Yzak's friends. And friends don't abandon each other.
They had received word earlier that the council of PLANT had decided (far from unanimously) to send five ships and full complements of GINNs to chase after the "legged ship". (Ezalia got her approval when she revealed that the ships used for the operation would be stragglers that were slow to retrofit and couldn't make a rendezvous with their 17th fleet in time)
In technicality, they were a fleet to do "surveillance and patrol" around the Artemis station region.
In reality, each one of the ships was equipped with a new piece of equipped the technicians dubbed the "cold gun", developed for the sole purpose of taking down the Artemis station.
And all of them knew it was because Yzak's mother pulled strings, and everyone knew that Yzak's mother was fiercely protective and very resourceful when it mattered the most.
And now that legged ship will be facing down five ZAFT cruisers, and all the GINNs attached (some armed with cameras and told to focus on some Moebius crafts if they show up, to those pilots' eternal confusion).
…
Unfortunately for ZAFT said legged ship was already within hailing distance of the Artemis space station.
"This is the Earth Federation Assault Battleship Archangel, Artemis station, do you copy?" The communcations officer said (who happens to be Natarle today).
"This is Artemis station, I'm afraid we do not recognize your IFF, please stand by."
"Archangel, copy." Natarle said. Murrue, having heard the whole thing as it wasn't on a private line, ordered the ship to come to a standstill; as it had been decelerating the whole time it wasn't overly difficult.
"Nice to know they're still taking their protocols seriously." Natarle said with a note of approval in her voice; apparently the rumors of Artemis becoming lax were unfounded.
"Indeed, although I wish it wasn't held by Eurasia." Murrue said after stretching; the rivalry between Eurasia and the Atlantic branches got quite ugly sometimes.
The bridge crew watched as the Moebius crafts from the base came up around the ship, and moments later heard the ship's electronic warfare sensors beep as the scanners from the fighters went to work.
…
"Archangel, you're cleared to dock." They heard a good fifteen minutes later.
"They're being a little too cautious, don't you think?" Mu La Flaga wondered aloud, having arrived on the bridge some minutes back to see what the delay was. "It's not like they don't have physical cameras."
Natarle scowled a little. "Lieutenant, a little extra caution has never hurt anyone."
Mu held up his hands in mock surrender. "I know, I know."
"Docking complete. Archangel, welcome to Artemis."
.
.
.
Author Notes:
Woo, I did things!
So, for those of you who are familiar with what's going on—
Flay isn't on board yet because I forgot she showed up ER I MEAN
Kira didn't sortie for the "leave-the-colony" battle, thus he didn't get to pick her up. She'll show up later tho'.
The Archangel has more technology because c'mon, state of the art space ship. (Granted the expectations for what state of the art means in 2014 is a lot different than 2000).
I figured there would be more behind the shadows play with politicians, so... yeah. That's a thing.