Phase 1 – Rising Gundams
Disclaimer – Gundam Seed, or any of the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise is not owned by Blaid, DragonKnightRyu, or anyone else involved in the creation of this story, if you do not believe us you really need to get your eyes check as this is FAN-fiction.
24th January, CE 71, 9:00pm; L3: Heliopolis, Main Morgenroete Inc Facility: Office X1
Kira couldn't help the glee came over him as he typed away at the computer before him and disengaged the locks on an external space hatch then led near to Morgenroete's Storage Hangers, they were preparing to sneak out the unnecessary 'Gundams' that way however that wouldn't be prepared until a few days after the Earth Alliance Mobile Suites were removed from the Factory onto the Archangel, Kira Li Creuset remembered how easy it had been to get as Professor Kato's Assistant on the G Project and how easy now it was to undermine their efforts. A beeping sound confirmed that the access tunnel had been used and soon the factory near this office block would be having a visitor, to that end Kira hacked into the Factory's security system and deactivated automatically, minutes went by before Kira sensed a presence and saw Than Veia the Dark King leaning off the doorframe in his pilot suite equipped to a jetpack with folded wings.
"Did getting here cause you any problems?" asked Kira calmly as he turned to face the deadly Dark Celestial Ace.
"Naturally, young Prince, the Nazca and Cuzco are waiting opposite to the Le Creuset Team's approach vector" dismissed Than as he calmly walked over to Kira "I say that you're a fool for underestimating me"
"Whatever, I need to be sure" grunted Kira as he turned back and started typing on the Keyboard again "are you sure it's wise to bring one of the Cuzco-class Heavy Destroyers here?"
"The Cuzco-class may seem a heavily armoured tortoise, however it can match the speed of the Gamow, don't worry, Krane has left nothing to chance in his Tactical Forecasting" answered Than calmly "everything should go as planned unless we face some unexpected elements"
"Let's not jinx us, please Dark King, this isn't something we can be allowed to fail" groaned Kira as he finished his last code "it has been taking me months to undo the near successful Natural O.S. that Morgenroete has been working on and I'm surprised that in their backtracking those working on the project didn't notice that I have been hacking into the O.S. and altering it towards easy access to make a Coordinator O.S."
"I see, is there anything else to report young prince?" asked Than.
"Only that I occasionally felt a presence in the back of my head" explained Kira after thinking for a minute "typically around the Morgenroete facilities, so you may want to be cautious around there"
"You are underestimating me again, young prince" chided Than "I can deal with some untrained worker"
9:30pm; L3: Heliopolis: Residential Area, Apartment Build: Room 301
A brown haired man wearing a Morgenroete tech uniform standing at 5'12" sighed as he walked into his apartment tossing his keys onto the counter and yawn. His green eyes flicked around the apartment curiously and settled on the phone as he sighed again, picking up the phone he dialled a number and waited as the other line rang
"Hey sir, it's Ryu" said Ryu once the other line picked up "yes Sir I'm doing well, did you daughter get the gift I sent? Good glad she'll be able to make use of it...nah, it was no trouble getting it...now that you mention it Sir, I have seen some strangers hanging around lately...no, no trouble yet...I see...I'll let you know if I hear anything about Sir, goodnight"
Sighing Ryu set the phone down and rolled his neck, Ryu groaned as he moved to the fridge and muttered under his breath "I hope this is worth it"
25th January, CE 71, 10:30am; L3: Heliopolis, Residential Area: Park
An attractive young women with mid back length brown hair typed rapidly away on a laptop as her amethyst eyes followed her progress, pausing she looked up and smiled at the sight of the green-yellow robotic bird that was currently flying around the park. Turning back to her laptop she was about to start to work again before a shout of "Hikari!" caught her attention, looking up she smiled at the sight of her friends Tolle Koenig and Miriallia Haw approaching her waving.
"Hey Tolle, Mir!" greeted Hikari with a smile as they came up to her.
"Hey Hikari, Professor Kato asked us to get you for him" said Tolle as they entered the small covered picnic area she was working in "he has more work for you"
"Yeah, too much!" groaned Hikari incredulously "but I'm not finished the stuff he dropped on me yesterday!"
"Apparently a project he's working on is close to finishing and he needs your help with another one he's working on" commented Miriallia and Hikari groaned as she leant back against the railing, meanwhile the news on the Computer Screen caught Tolle's attention.
"Is something happening?" asked Tolle curiously.
"Yeah, in Kaohsiung apparently" nodded Hikari with a frown as she the news screen showing a reporter with GINNs in the background firing at the unseen enemy.
"If this is from last week, then Kaohsiung has probably fallen by now" commented Tolle whom was also frowning.
"That isn't far from the homeland" commented Miriallia as he pointed out this point "will the Homeland be alright?"
"We'll be fine, yeah their close by but Orb is neutral, so they won't be attacked" assured Tolle as Hikari stared off into the distance a heavy feeling developing in her gut.
10:46am; L3: Heliopolis Space Port, Marseille-III Class Transport: Bridge
The captain sighed contently as he lent back in his chair taking off his hat and allowing it to float.
"Well it seems this old girl has finally completed her last mission, you served admirably as an escort, Lieutenant La Flaga and for that I'm grateful" thanked the Captain as he looked over at blond haired blue eyed pilot.
"Sir, I'm just lucky nothing happen en route" commented Mu La Flaga "any ZAFT ships nearby?"
"We are tracking a couple of ZAFT ships" informed the captain informed "but their nothing to worry about, now that we have docked in neutral territory they won't try anything"
"Because this is a Neutral Colony? Ha, what a joke that is" countered Mu as he protested against a lack of caution "obviously you have never dealt with the Dark Celestials, they never really cared for neutrality laws or laws of any kind"
"All the same, it's thanks to Orb that your plans have accelerated so far, I'm thankful that the Earth has considered them their own nation" added the Captain with a hum as a group of pilots entered the bridge, counting them all they added up to Six people, a person each for the Six Prototype Mobile Suites developed for the Earth Alliance.
"We're heading over to Morgenroete now Captain" said one of the G-Pilots with a salute which the Captain returned "we want to get familiarized with our units as soon as possible"
The captain nodded and watched them leave the bridge before turning back to Mu and asking "How will do you think they'll do?"
"Poorly" said Mu bluntly followed by a groan "their struggling to move the Mobile Suites even in simulators, they'd be shot down quicker than a rookie in a Moebius"
"Unfortunately they are our only hope right now of winning this war" commented the Captain with a sigh as he looked out the window of the bridge, more accurately, he was looking in the direction that he thought the hidden ZAFT Ships lay waiting.
10:47am; Nazca-class Destroyer: Vesalius, Bridge
"Don't look so upset, Ades" commented Rau Le Creuset as he floated up from the Viewpoint where he had been watching the Strike Team Shuttles heading towards the mining area.
"Are you sure about this course of action, I'm sure that it won't be too late to hear back from the Council" commented Captain Fredrick Ades as he looked over his shoulder at Rau.
"It will be too late, I have a Sixth Sense about these things, but if we don't stop them from moving those suites now…later we'll regret it with our lives" announced Rau calmly as he sat down in the Commander's Chair while letting a picture of the G-Weapon Mobile Suites "also, since our last resupply, I assume that Kira's Quarters have been prepared for his arrival"
"Of course, but wouldn't it make more sense for the Dark Celestials to pick him up instead, since they have been spying on Heliopolis for days and it was the Supreme Commander whom authorized our actions here?" questioned Fredrick Ades and Rau shook his head simply.
"There was a report stating that he would be brining something of importance back, regardless, the Dark Celestials Task Force nearby have been sent to secure something that Kira reported during his stay there" announced Rau calmly as he looked out of the viewpoint towards Heliopolis.
10:50am; L3: Heliopolis, Residential Area: Transportation Station
"It's nothing like that!" shouted a red headed blue eyed girl wearing a light pink dress as Hikari and her friends approached the waiting Terminal for the Transportation Station, one of the girls pestering them soon spotted the group.
"Mir you wouldn't believe what Flay just received!" announced the Girl before she squealed "a love letter from Sai!"
"I told you it's nothing like that!" denied Flay while in the background Hikari sighed.
"Jealous Hikari?" asked the other girl teasingly as Hikari rolled her eyes.
"Not particularly" said Hikari dully her thoughts drifting off before a cough interrupted them, turning they saw a purple haired strict looking women and two men behind her waiting impatiently.
"If you are not getting on may we go ahead of you?" asked the Woman in a manner more similar to an order than anything.
"Oh, we're sorry" answered Tolle before the group parted for them before one of Flay's friends turned to Hikari.
"Who do you like Hikari?" asked the Girl demandingly "is he cute?"
"I…I don't know who he is exactly he is but yeah" admitted Hikari with a blush.
"You have a crush on someone?" asked Flay thankful for the diversion from her friends' questioning "where is he?"
Hikari stammered a bit at all of the attention focused on her, she wasn't use to a sudden influx of attention since she was far from the most popular girl in school, actually it was Flay Allster before her that was said to take that highest position.
"He's a tech worker for Morgenroete" explained Hikari "he came in once to repair something in the classroom"
"Good luck with that!" said one of the Girls near Miriallia as they ran for a vehicle while Hikari, Tolle and Mir ran for the second and headed to the University.
10:50am; L3: Heliopolis, Morgenroete Factory, Warehouse Four
Ryu frowned as he knelt next to a wiring panel sneaking looks around the warehouse as he worked on it, everything was being packed and loaded into transports hurriedly, especially since the update of Dark Celestial Forces nearby and from what his superior had told him was something to do with an exercise, the Dark Celestials and the term Military Exercise near a Neutral Colony did not mix due to their brutal training regime.
'One would think they would warn the station master about what was going to be happening' thought Ryu to himself slightly angry.
"Hey Tech!" shouted someone getting his attention causing him to turn to see a buxom brunette coming towards him "can you help me something over here?"
"Yes ma'am!" confirmed Ryu as he set about replacing the panel and following the brunette to one of the containers "what seems to be the problem?"
"This mobile suit we're working on is malfunctioning slightly, can you look at it?" asked the brunet as Ryu nodded and easily climbed up the ladder and looked down at the mobile suit, while he had seen a couple of times before and they all looked impressive he couldn't help but really appreciate this one in particular as it seem to call out to him, moving over to the tech near the cockpit he shook off the odd feeling and focused on the work at hand.
10:53am; L3: Heliopolis, Main Morgenroete Inc Facility: Office X1
"Everything is in place Than" reported Kira to the silver haired man, whom smirked at the Brunet.
"Thank you, young prince" responded Than with a entertained smirk as he pressed a button on his Pilot Suite collar "I'll let Commander Le Creuset know immediately"
10:55am; L3: Heliopolis, Morgenroete Technical University: Professor Kato's Classroom
Hikari giggled slightly as she watched Tolle struggle to right himself in the powered frame they were helping Professor Kato construct. Next to her the son of Siegel Clyne Anzahl Clyne, a red haired blue eyed teen rolled his eyes as he continued to type away on his laptop.
"Man, how does Mir stay sane with him?" asked Anzahl raising an eyebrow.
"The doctor says I can stop taking the pills in a week" announced Mir as she chipped in to a round of Laughter.
10:57am; L3: Heliopolis, Morgenroete Construction Docks: Air vents
Several ZAFT soldiers moved quickly though the air vents making sure to make as little noise as possible leaving High explosive behind them as they went.
Meanwhile; Nazca-class Destroyer: Vesalius, Bridge
"It's time" announced Rau calmly as he made a motion with his hand after looking at his watch.
"Weigh Anchor, Vesalius Launch!" commanded Frederick Ades and the Vesalius ratted as its engines activated and got them moving.
11:00am; L3: Heliopolis, Main Morgenroete Inc Facility: Office X1
"It's begun" said Than as he smirked and moved to the door with Kira and several soldiers behind him.
11:05am; L3: Heliopolis, Morgenroete Factory: Warehouse Four
"Bloody Shit!" cursed Ryu as he grabbed the fallen gun of one of the EA soldiers station on the warehouse and opened up on the approaching ZAFT Soldiers "why the fuck now!"
Ducking behind a container he peaked around and saw several ZAFT greens enter alongside some Reds, naturally he wasn't surprised when he saw a Brunet however he was surprised which of the Ace Siblings were here to steal the Earth Alliance Prototype Mobile Suites, more accurately was the fact that it was actually Kira Li Creuset unlike his brother.
"How did they get in!" asked the Lieutenant in charge, the buxom brunette asking for him help from before.
"You really don't know anything about the Dark Celestials do you?" asked Ryu as he scanned the walkways "they must have gotten wind of your little project"
"How do you know it's them?" asked another EA worker reloading.
Ryu sighed and peaked around the corner before answering "Let's just say it's a gut feeling"
He suddenly blurred into movement as he moved out from cover firing at the approaching soldiers and grabbed one of the grenades of the dead soldiers throwing it before ducking behind another container, if Kira Ci Creuset was here then either Rau Le Creuset or Krane Vi Creuset was not far behind, personally it was Rau whom Ryu preferred to be enemies with at this point.
11:07am; L3: Heliopolis Space Port, Marseille-III Class Transport: Bridge
"Enemy Ships incoming!" announced the Captain as Mu entered into the Bridge as the ship began to move out from the Hanger "two Normal ZAFT craft: Nazca-class and Laurasia-class, two black Variants coming in from the West, are they…!"
"The Dark Celestials? Oh yeah, that colour scheme is definitely in their handbook, I'll prepare to head out" announced Mu as he crossed over to the Bridge entrance again "have Gail and Luke get into their Mobile Armours but don't have them launch yet!"
11:08am; Cuzco-class Heavy Destroyer: Cuzco, Bridge
"Lord Kale Boonar, the enemy forces are on the move and the Le Creuset Team are advancing, should we not launch our own forces to send to Lord Than's aid?" questioned Captain Repos whom was Captain of the Cuzco.
"Aim the Long-range Cannons at Heliopolis' Hanger, then open fire, sadly we cannot launch to help our Lord Than…ah since he's fighting there is very little for us to do" chuckled Kale Boonar as he sat out from the Commander's Chair "destroy them all, Captain"
11:10am; L3: Heliopolis, Morgenroete: Hangers Area, Storage Hanger X
Than Veia smirked as he dropped down from the balcony over the Mobile Suites that were being held nearby, the Mobile Suite he had his eyes on was the one that had jumped out at him when Kira was leading the list of them and their capabilities, the GAT-X104 Striker Gundam as Kira had called it was a dashing machine which had a perfect balance of light and heavy armament and it was the prototype predecessor to the GAT-X105 Strike which had been trimmed down for energy purposes, the Striker however had countless energy Condensers that would be the main counter against large energy losses.
"Going somewhere?" questioned a voice and Than froze, seeping his annoyance into the air itself, nothing like a Clyne traitor to boil his blood.
"And what are you doing here, Anzahl, having a walk through Neutral Territory are we?" questioned Than as he looked back at the Crimson haired youth "or are you here under the will of that Clyne Faction, that pathetic Organization called Terminal, regardless you are in my way and with what remains of my patience I ask you to move before I cut you to slivers!"
"That is not going to happen" countered Anzahl Clyne as he aimed his pistol at Than however Than was faster.
It was in a blink of an eye that Than spun around and took aim with his own Pistol before he launched multiple bullets into the side of a Petrol Canister which sparked before releasing an explosion which caused Anzahl to drop to the floor, with a large leap the 'Dark king' jumped up onto the top of the Striker Gundam and then into the Cockpit where the hatch soon sealed behind him, with a groan Anzahl got up and headed over to the other Mobile Suite in the hanger: the GAT-X302 Devastator. Anzahl quickly began to type away at the O.S. as he noticed the GAT-X104 Striker Gundam turn towards the rear of the Hanger and launch a beam of crimson energy from its Beam Magnum, Anzahl stood the Devastator Gundam up and looked after the Striker which had launched itself down a metal tunnel, with an annoyed growl the son of the PLANT Supreme Council's Chairman turned the Devastator to leave the burning hanger rather than risk investigating what Than was up to especially now that the 'Dark King' was within a Mobile Suite again.
11:30am; L3: Heliopolis, Residential Area: Battlefield
Hikari Yamato was really having difficulty understanding the chain of events that had held up to this point in time including the run in with her long time friend Athrun Zala, more accurately was the fact that she couldn't comprehend getting in this Mobile Suite of her own initiative nor the full reason in why she actually was piloting it now other than to save her friends however pilot it she did as she finished the minor changes to the O.S. that was heavily beyond anyone's capabilities to use, before she straightened the Mobile Suite to face off against the GINN in front of her which was prepared for the Strike's next attack. Using he momentum she launched the Strike into the air and drew the two "Armour Schneider" combat knifes before stabbing them into the GINN's arm joints causing them to go slack, she had a brief feeling that something was wrong when the pilot of the GINN ejected from the cockpit and sped away as quickly as possible, her suspicions were answered less than a minute later when the GINN glowed lightly before exploding outwards in a blinding explosion.
"GAT-X105 Strike, come in" announced a voice that sent a shudder up her spine as she answered the communication which a familiar brown haired and green eyed youth appeared on the screen "come in Murrue Ramius, are you okay? This is Ryu Hisanaga whom had temporarily taken the GAT-X000 Dragon Gundam"
"Ryu, Miss Murrue is unconscious, I don't know that to do" announced Hikari and Ryu nodded once as he considered this.
"Let us regroup in the Park Area, I believe that is where you're friends are hiding out at now that Heliopolis' Shelters are close to locking down, hopefully we can use my ally to create a defence network between our three Mobile Suites so long as the Stolen new units don't join in" announced Ryu as he headed over to that location with the Strike not far behind.
Meanwhile; Nazca-class Destroyer: Vesalius, Hanger
"What a surprise, Kira, for you to bring back yet another enemy unit that we had no information about" smirked Rau as he watched Kira step out of the stolen Prototype Mobile Suite and hand a data card to him "what is this?"
"It's the data and schematics for the GAT-X104, GAT-X106 and GAT-X302 which I was able to hack my way through during my undercover mission, they were the Prototypes that were given to the Orb Union as compensation for their aid in the G-Project" announced Kira before noticing that Rau was in a pilot suite "going somewhere?"
"Yes actually, I sent Naleen over to the Gamow to oversee the data extraction on the G-Weapons and because of that she will be not here when Jacques sorties with me, you are welcome to join us on our La Flaga hunt" commented Rau as he looked at the recharge information for the GAT-X106 Aviator "your unit has used up very little energy getting back and should be ready to sortie in five minutes"
"I would be glad to accompany you, dad, Mu La Flaga has gotten in our way enough I'd venture" smirked Kira as he began typing up the O.S. inside his machine "I'll just perfect my O.S. and we'll be ready to go"
11:45am; L3: Heliopolis, Residential Area: Park
"All of you, line up over there!" commanded Murrue as she pointed her pistol at each of those gathered "your names, one at a time, please"
"My name Sai Argyle" announced Sai as he stood calmly.
"I'm Kuzzey Buskirk" answered Kuzzey with a fearful look in his face.
"Miriallia Haw" spoke Mir as she stood close to Tolle's side.
"I'm Tolle Koenig" announced Tolle as he cautiously watched the woman pointing the gun at them.
"Hikari Yamato" announced Hikari defiantly while glaring down the gunbarrel.
"And I am Lieutenant Murrue Ramius, an Earth Alliance Officer, fortunately I already knew your names: Ryu Hisanaga and Anzahl Clyne, the two of you have given up Family and Nation to serve a noble cause like stopping the war from escalating as far as possible by joining the peaceful organization: Terminal" announced Murrue as she nodded to both Ryu and Anzahl before she turned her gaze back to the civilians "however, I am the unfortunate bearer of bad news to state that these Civilians are now under my custody, I'm sorry but I cannot allow any of you to leave"
"What!" gasped a number of the youths causing Anzahl to wince slightly as he predicted this result.
"You have all been exposed to a top military secret and until I can reach the proper authorities and they can determine what to do with all of you, I cannot allow you to leave my sight, do you understand?" questioned Murrue calmly as she indicated at the civilians with her pistol.
"In case you've noticed, we're from a neutral nation, you're war has nothing to do with us" complained Sai as he clenched his fists and looked at the ground.
"Yeah, we're citizens of Orb, you can't boss us around!" shouted Tolle definitely as he glared at Murrue, Hikari looked at Tolle and winced when she hear three bullets echo throughout the background, turning around at a speed that would cause self-injury to a Natural to see Murrue drop her Gun from its raised position and point it back at the group again.
"Just because you're not directly a part of the war, does that mean that you can allow yourself to get detached from what is really happened, to ignore the war happening all around you?" questioned Murrue annoyed "regardless, the Earth Alliance's greatest secret was here and all of you have seen it!"
"A little harsh, don't you think?" asked Sai and Murrue calmed down with a sigh.
"It may be harsh, but it's the truth, it's as simple as that" announced Murrue calmly as she turned to look at Ryu and noticed Anzahl missing "I would like to talk to you on what you and your partner are doing here, also I want to know where he has snuck off to now"
"He went to Morgenroete to get one of the Strike's Striker Packs" announced Ryu as he stepped up to Murrue "meanwhile, Anzahl and I are here to make sure that ZAFT didn't pull anything and sadly it seems we failed, it would be in the best interest of our mission to aid you now"
"Alright, since I was in charge of the G-Project I had to look into the identity of all those working near the project, I look forward to your aid" nodded Murrue as she watched the group of Civilians bicker among themselves "Hikari, get back in the Strike and try and get a transmission off to Earth Alliance Forces in the area, let's see if we can get out of here as soon as possible" announced Murrue calmly.
12:30pm; Archangel-class Assault Ship: Archangel, Hanger
Murrue sighed in relief as she stepped off the hand of the Strike as it lowered it to the floor of the hanger, looking up she saw the Dragon and Devastator land as well closely followed by the Moebius Zero from before.
"Lieutenant!" shouted Natarle as she and the remaining crew members moved over to where her and the civilians had landed "are you alright?"
"Yes somehow" confirmed Murrue "mostly thanks to the pilots however"
The cockpits opened as Murrue was talking to Natarle and the three pilots stepped out and descended to the ground surprising many of the soldier with their age.
"They're so young" breathed one of the crewmen as they set down.
Hikari and Anzahl were immediately beset by their friends as soon as they landed while Ryu merely leaned against the foot of his mobile suit sighing as he rubbed his eyes.
"Ryu!" shouted Murrue getting the brunette's attention "can we talk to you?"
"Coming!" replied Ryu as he pushed himself off of his suit and moved over to the gathered group of the surviving officers along with Mu La Flaga.
"This was the one who was piloting the GAT-X000 Dragon" introduced Murrue gesturing to him "Ryu Hisanaga"
"The Dragon of Endymion?" asked Mu his voice quiet and his eyes wide at the familiar name "but you were killed when the Cyclops went off"
"Not quite" replied Ryu with a sigh "it's a long story so here is the short version, I wanted to leave ZAFT leaving as small a trail as possible so I took advantage of the Cyclops blast to fake my death and joined Terminal, I didn't feel any personal dislike to ZAFT but rather my immediate superior had goals that contradicted ZAFTs and I couldn't understand why he would chose such a path, so I chose to leave and search out my own path and joined up with Terminal."
"A mercenary company?" questioned Natarle a disbelieving look on her face "hardly a good choice of morals there"
"Where is the Captain at?" smiled Ryu patiently as he turned to Murrue and started asking vital questions "because we need to make a decision on our next move or the Dark Celestials will"
"The Captain and all the Commanding officers were close to the ship when the bombs went off, at this point Lieutenant Ramius is currently the Captain, as she is the highest ranked official" informed Natarle solemnly.
"The Captain is dead?" questioned Murrue in shock "that's..."
"Man what a non-medicated disaster" groaned Mu as he rubbed his forehead "anyways can you please grant me permission to board, the ship I was assigned to was downed by the enemy"
"Ah, s-sure, welcome aboard" replied Murrue still startled by the fact that she was in charge.
"And what about them?" asked Mu glancing over at the civilians.
"The one piloting the Strike was in the factory for some reason and the one piloting the Devastator is with Ryu" explained Murrue "thanks to that young women that we were able to hold onto the Strike"
"And the pilots that I escorted here, are they?" asked Mu.
"Because they were being greeted by the Captain in the Command Room they were caught in the explosion, and they..." informed Natarle.
"I see..." sighed Mu as he looked again at Hikari and moved over to her causing the teen to tense.
"What is it?" asked Hikari nervously as Mu studied her carefully.
"Are you a coordinator?" asked Mu straight out causing several gasps of surprise and the security guards raised their rifles in suspicion.
"I am" confirmed Hikari defiantly as her friends stood between her and the soldiers while Ryu subtly pulled out his pistol.
"What the heck is this?" shouted Tolle "even though Hikari is a coordinator she isn't the enemy! Didn't you see what she did out there, if it wasn't for her those guys would have killed us all!"
"Tolle" whispered Hikari touched by her friends defence of her against the Coordinator's main enemies.
"Enough lower your weapons!" ordered Murrue sternly as the Security Officers reluctantly did so.
"Lieutenant Ramius what is the meaning of this?" questioned Natarle as she stepped up to Murrue's side.
"There isn't much to be surprised about is there?" asked Murrue "after all we are in a neutral colony so it wouldn't be surprising that Coordinators moved here to escape the war, am I wrong Hikari"
"Ah, y-yes, especially since I am a first-generation Coordinator" responded Hikari.
"So that means your parents would be Naturals correct?" asked Mu before he sighed and rubbed the back of his neck "well sorry for causing such a fuss, I just wanted to be sure, on my way here I saw the actual pilot run simulations on the G-Units, they were struggling to do even the most basic of movements, oh well..."
"Lieutenant where are you going?" asked Natarle as Mu started to move away with a sigh.
"Where? I landed here because my unit was shot down" informed Mu as he indicated to the disabled Moebius Zero "the Le Creuset forces and the Dark Celestials are right outside, their a vicious bunch and will not be waiting for us to make a move before they attack us, they are pretty annoying"
"Annoying, that's one way of putting it" chuckled Ryu "we best get our units back in and resupplied if we are going to survive the next wave"
2:00pm; Archangel-class Assault Ship: Archangel, Hallway
Murrue sighed to herself as she stood in the hallway outside the room that the Heliopolis civilians were in, standing in front of her was a defiant Hikari as the rest of the civilians watched on Ryu and Anzahl were leaning against the wall across from the room.
"I don't want to fight" protested Hikari "please don't involve us in this war anymore"
"Hikari" began Murrue only to be interrupted by Hikari.
"What you said outside about the outside world being at war may have been true" admitted Hikari "but we hate that! We hate fighting! That why we chose to live in a neutral nation, and yet..."
"Perhaps I should talk to her" said Ryu pushing himself off of the wall and gestured for Hikari to follow him.
"I can completely understand why you don't wish to fight Hikari" assured Ryu "but there is one thing you are not considering, the Dark Celestials are ruthless, to them neutrality, civilian, age, nothing matters to them so long as they complete their objective, they will not hesitate to kill your friends or even destroy this colony"
"But..." protested Hikari weakly ducking her head "I'm just a civilian what skill do I have as a soldier?"
"I looked over the battle record on the Strike" stated Ryu "and the fact you managed to completely rewrite the OS system as jumbled as it was is amazing, the fact you did it under fire and forced the enemy to retreat is another thing completely"
"I was just trying to protect my friends" dismissed Hikari nervously while ducking her head lower to hide her blush from hearing praise coming from her crush.
"And that is a noble goal" assured Ryu "and we need your help to protect your friends and the colony"
However before Hikari could respond they both felt the ship shake violently with Hikari tripping and falling right into Ryu who stabilized them both.
"Don't tell me they are..." whispered Ryu whispered oblivious to the massive blush on Hikari as he started to head in the direction of the Archangel's Bridge "c'mon!"
"Lieutenant!" shouted Ryu as they entered the bridge "are they doing what I pray they are not?"
Hikari gasped when she entered the bridge and saw the gigantic holes in the colony, bigger than the one her Agni had made.
"Why are they bombarding?" asked Murrue as she braced herself against the explosion that rocked the ship again "don't they care about the colony"
"No" Ryu stated bluntly as he sat down in the co-pilot's seat "this is the Dark Celestials we are talking about, the colony is in their way so they are removing it and us at the same time, but this also may help us as well..."
"Help us?" asked Natarle disbelievingly "how do you mean?"
"The exit holes of the blasts," pointed out Ryu "we can use the ones on the opposite side the blasts are coming from and escape into the nearby debris field to plan our next move, if we are lucky they'll think the ship was destroyed in the explosion, not likely however"
"Neumann!" shouted Murrue as she turned to Arnold Neumann at the Helm "plot a course to the hole nearest to the debris field!"
"What about the colony?" asked Hikari desperately.
"They'll stop before the colony will fall apart" explained Ryu "keeping it intact will make their search for us easier, and the escape pods would have been jettisoned the minute they stared bombarding us!"
"Should we launch the mobile suites?" asked Natarle as she looked back at Murrue "they might have mobile suites patrolling the area"
"I'll stand by with Anzahl" offered Ryu before turning to Hikari "what about you?"
"I... I'll pilot the Strike" she decided "but only until I can get my friends out of here"
Ryu nodded and gestured for her to follow him as they made their way to the Hanger.
"Just some advice be sure to lead your shots" advised Ryu as they entered the change room "also be sure to keep calm during a fight, if you feel yourself starting to panic put some distance between you and take a quick breather"
"T-thanks..." said Hikari before blushing when Ryu tore off his shirt and pants and grabbed a dark green black trimmed pilot suit and pulled it on.
"Ah, sorry" he apologized sheepishly upon noticing that he was changing in front of a lady when he glanced over to see her blushing "I forgot that you're not used to changing with guys, sorry"
Ryu grabbed a helmet and quickly left the change room to hide his own embarrassment.
6:30pm; Nazca-class Destroyer: Vesalius, Bridge
With the appearance of the Archangel and the defeat of Rau Le Creuset by the Strike Gundam had caused nothing but problems for ZAFT and now the Le Creuset Team prepared to launch another attack on Heliopolis, the Dark Celestials had taken it upon themselves to bombard the Colony from long range as was their ideals when it came to an heavily armoured installation and as though to follow up on that the Rau had called for an attack with Heavy Artillery just an hour ago where they found the Colony empty of their target.
"Then enemy may have fled outside of the Colony however I severely doubt that they have made for open space, there is a debris field near Heliopolis that I believe that they have taken shelter in rather than take a direct route to the Earth Alliance Territory, the amount of damage to that Colony also means that the Shelters have been ejected from the Colony and their distress beacons are disrupting our long range scans" announced Rau calmly as he looked out of the viewpoint "I don't think that they will make their move yet, therefore we are going to change our plans to accommodate for the changes to the enemy's tactics"
"Within the next hour the Laurasia-class Frigate: Florien, will be arriving at our current position by command of Krane Vi Creuset to overlook our resupply and to take Miguel Aiman, Olor Koudenberg and Matthew back to Boaz" announced Frederick Ades however before he could finish Miguel cut in.
"Wait a minute, I want another crack at that enemy Mobile Suite!" snarled Miguel and Rau glared at the 'Magic Bullet of Dusk'.
"We cannot waste resources such as valuable pilots on the enemy, you are to be sent back to Boaz on leave until the Homelands can produce a Mobile Suite that uses similar technology to the enemy, do you understand?" questioned Kira as he turned to look at the Ace "you are too valuable to lose, Miguel Aiman, once you have a worthy Mobile Suite you can once again live up to the name of being the 'Magic Bullet of Dusk'!"
"Alright, but you owe me one for this" nodded Miguel with a growl as he headed off towards the Bridge entrance.
Meanwhile; Former Orb Union Mobile Factory Asteroid: "Helios One", Ship Hanger/Factory Section A: Main Factory
Than Veia looked about the gathered people that his Men had forcefully arrested for treason against the Newtype World that their blessed Royal Lord Krane was trying to make, presently the people before him were Scientists and Technicians that had chosen the Neutrality of Orb over their own Newtype bloodline and that had burned betrayal once again into Than's gut, the only reason he didn't kill them in the first place was due to the Vehicle that they had built within the centre of the Hanger. Kira Li Creuset had explained to Than the power and effectiveness of the Archangel, to destroy the Archangel they would need a much greater ship and fortunately the Orb Union coupled with the traitorous Newtypes in their care had created a new class of Battleship that would support, one day being upgraded to the point in which it replaced the Izumo-class Battleship used every day in the Orb Union's Space Fleet and now that would never happen, the Rewloola-class Battleship's Cornerstone: the Rewloola was being customized for Than right before his eyes.
"My Lord, we have used the Factory's Verniers to move it away from Heliopolis, we contacted our allies and they have taken up defensive positions around the Factory" announced the Dark Celestial Commander as he crossed over to Than.
"Excellent, anything else?" asked Than and the Captain paled.
"Lord Krane is on route to this location" replied the Dark Celestial Commander and Than felt like he was on the ceiling, such were the effect of those words on him, his beloved was coming to witness Than's success, some would kill for the honour.
"Then go, prepare for his arrival!" commanded Than as he looked down at the Rewloola with a smile "hopefully we'll be nearly done by the time he arrives!"
Author's Note - Ahh, another chapter written and posted, although we are disappointed and our feelings are hurt from the lack of reviews, so all yo need to do is push the little button at the bottom of the page and leave a few words of encouragement, If you do not we will consume your soul.