Disclaimer – Don't ask cause I don't own it. CBT or seed

A/N Ok now we have the 1st completed chapter. And in case you wonder where I got the "Mechs with Jump Jets can operate in space" thing it was from the old Battletech cartoon in Ep 1 when Adam Steiner used his Jump Jet equipped Axe Man in space. That's why I mentioned maneuvering jets as well as Jump Jets in the little stat section in the Preface.

Battlemech Gundam Seed

Chapter 1

Outbreak

CE 71 (2887)

Heliopolis Colony

Planet Gaia

Federated Suns

The planet Gaia much like Terra itself was covered by different features, deserts, forests, ice fields, grassland, and tundra predominantly. She laid only one jump from the Federated Suns capital of New Avalon, almost forgotten thanks to the horror of annihilation during the 1st and 2nd Succession Wars, well not anymore.

The nation of Orb, like many on Gaia, had formed from the hellish fires of the Reconstruction Wars. She had always been stubbornly neutral in almost all conflicts, from the Artirian/Eurous crisis, to this most recent Alliance/PLANT war. Thought many wondered if that would last. From the accidental arrival of a Jumpship from New Avalon in CE 61, to Orb's abdication to the interstellar Federated Suns in CE 67, things had changed on Gaia drastically. With the Alliance/PLANT war, also called the Bloody Valentine War; now ramped to full swing many in Orb wondered how long before the Federated Suns would step in to end the conflict.

Within Orb Central, and its colony Heliopolis, the Orb Defense Forces had also been reorganized. With Morgenroete Inc. turning out Battlemechs and other equipment for the Federated Suns war effort against the Draconis Combine Orb was also preparing itself by creating a Battalion sized Battlemech force of its own. This was also true of the Morgenroete Inc facility on Heliopolis where Aerospace Fighters were primarily constructed. While most of those were shipped out on the monthly Jumpships which arrived, 4 Lances worth, 8 fighters-two per Lance, were kept in reserve.

The colony also boasted an internal force of 2 companies of Infantry and Armor assets as well as 3 Lances of Battlemechs shipped in from the Federated Suns. The first two were a mixed Light Lance and a Mixed Medium Lance as those weight classes would do much better in the "City and Suburb" fighting that would be found on colony. The last Lance was comprised of the rare LAM Battlemech.

Standing for Land Air Mech these versatile machines weren't with out their flaws, but their ability to change from a Battlemech, to an Aerospace Fighter, to a hybrid of the two, provided mobility and agility which far out shown their glaring weaknesses. These 4 Mechs had been assigned to what many considered the 4 best Mechwarriors ever turned out at the, rather rushed, Orb Training Cadre. With Athrun Zala as Lance Leader and Kira Yamato his 2IC. The other 2 members of the Lance consisting of Nicol Amalfi and Kira's sister Cagalli. Athrun had been assigned an LAM Phoenix Hawk Battlemech while Nicol had been assigned an LAM Wasp. Kira and Cagalli had drawn the short straws and were both assigned the lightest 2 Mechs in the lance, the LAM Singers.

Thought thanks to the fact they were Colony Defense the 4 were given their choice of weaponry. Though Nicol, Athrun and Cagalli had kept their basic setup Kira had decided to drop 2 of his 3 Medium Lasers, which also allowed him to drop a couple of Heat Sinks. With the newly freed up tonnage, and some other fine tuning, he had freed enough weight to have an AC5 Autocannon mounted to the underside of his Stingers lower left arm. In this position it would not interfere with the transformation but would also continue to face forward even in Aerospace Fighter mode.

However with Zaft having discovered the secret Alliance G-Weapon Battlemech production program on the colony their skills would soon be put to the test.

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District Park Area

Heliopolis

Even though they were part of the Colonial Defense Forces Kira, Athrun, and crew were not immune to that on evil all collage students must face, schoolwork. Kira sat at one of the circular tables going over a program analysis, well appear to be, he was currently watching a news feed from the front in the Alliance/ZAFT conflict.

"I'm within two kilometers of Kaohsiung Spaceport, where the fighting has been intense for days."

The combat reported on the screen wore a flack vest; helmet and other protective gear. Behind him a Zaft ZGMF-1017 GINN Battlemech continued its assault against the Alliance positions.

"ZAFT forces began their attack several days ago, and from what I've been told, they have nearly taken the spaceport."

The reporter looked grim. The news footage was already a week old, Kaohsiung Spaceport had most likely already fallen to ZAFT forces. Kira was brought from his thoughts buy the voice of his long time friend, and Lance Leader, Athrun.

"Kaohsiung this time?"

Kira nodded.

"Yeah, this news is already a week old so they've probably taken it by now. Why won't the First Prince just send in the AFFS to end it?"

This time it was Nicol, who sat across from the pair, who answered.

"Most of the AFFS are still tied up on the Draconis and Capellan fronts. Plus this is an internal matter"

Kira sighed.

"I know but still, the Federated Suns will eventually have to take control of the planet anyway since were so close to the capital"

With Gaia only 27 light years, or one jump, from the Federated Suns capital of New Avalon it was an important manufacturing and trade port, one that could not be left unstable.

"Hey Kira, Athrun, Nicol"

The three teens turned to see two other teens running up to them, boyfriend and girlfriend pair Miriallia Haw and Tolle Koenig. Kira looked up at the pair as they approached.

"Something up"

Miriallia nodded.

"Professor Kato wants to see you"

"Did he say why?"

Mir shook her head.

"Just that he needed you"

Kira sighed and closed his laptop.

"Probably another data analysis. I know I'm the best programmer in the collage, but even I have limits and I have other responsibilities too"

And that was true, his skill and speed were unmatched with Athrun and Nicol not far behind. But the three already had other responsibilities to the colonial defense. This fact shown by the drab green uniforms they wore.

Each comprised of a short sleeve button shirt, trousers, polished black boots, and a belt. On their left shoulder each had the crest of the Orb Defense Forces and on their right the "sword and sunburst" of the Federated Suns and House Davion. Over the right breast pocket all three had a strip with their names stitched in, and pined to the flap covering their left breast pocket each had a pin in the shape of a small Mechs silhouette with wings outstretching from it, marking them as Mechwarriors. Athrun and Nicol picked up their things and followed, it would take them half an hour to get to Morgenroete Collage from here so they needed to get going.

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Heliopolis Nearspace

Nazca-class warship Vesalius

The Alliance Battlemech Program had not escaped the notice of ZAFT as much as the alliance had hoped. On the return trip to PLANT from investigating L1 for possible Alliance activity the ZAFT warships Vesalius and Gamow had received information of an Alliance catch-up program underway inside Heliopolis. This informant also named the Seiran Family, one of Orbs 5 noble houses, as the instigators of the program. The Vesalius had sent a message back to the homeland containing the intelligence, which was then sent to ComStar for transmission to New Avalon. With the First Prince quietly supporting the ZAFT cause the expected response would be interesting.

But at that moment, as he looked out the bridge view ports, all that concerned the battle group commander was he coming operation. He knew waiting to hear word from the Supreme Council would allow the Alliance time to load the Mechs onto a transport or Dropship and move them. Therefore he had ordered an infiltration team be sent to seize or destroy them while causing as little damage to the colony, or Morgenroete, as possible. Under normal circumstances the Morgenroete facility would just be destroyed to prevent further units being developed, however once the First Prince received the intelligence uncovered by the ZAFT agent that would no longer be an issue.

If someone had told him two years ago that he would be standing here he would have laughed, now though, with ZAFT reorganized along standard military lines with a full rank and file things were different. As he looked out at the colony that held both the son of Supreme Council Member Amalfi, along with his own son Athrun, ZAFT Field Marshal Patrick Zala couldn't help but feel some trepidation. He knew full well that both Athrun and Nicol were members of the colonial defense force under the AFFS (Armed Forces of the Federated Suns) and that if things went south they would likely see fighting against their own.

"Excuse me Field Marshal"

Zala turned to the ships captain Frank Ades.

"Yes captain what is it?"

"We have word from the infiltration team sir, they are ready to deploy"

Zala nodded and turned his gaze back to the colony. It had only been 3 months since the restructuring of ZAFT into a formal military from little more than a militia and only 2 since he had resigned his position of Defense Committee Chairman to take an active roll on the front. His seat on the council had then passed, by election, to his wife Lenore. After a moment Zala turned back to the captain.

"Issue the following order, all units are to refrain from combat with any unit of the Orb Defense Forces or AFFS unless fired upon. Attack only those units protecting the Alliance Battlemechs. All units move out"

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Miriallia, Tolle and Kira arrived at professor Kato's lab at Morgenroete Collage about half an hour later. Their professor had originally taught at one of technical collages on New Avalon and had been requested specifically by Morgenroete Collage to teach this class. The lab consisted of a large room about 3 stories high and with roughly the floor space of an average high school gym. The lab itself was technically divided in half by a 2 meter tall divider wall with a single opening with computer terminals and spar parts cabinets and bins at various points. The professor had 2 classes each day and had divided the lab in half for each to work on their year end project. They found Sai Argyle and their friend Kuzzey sitting at their terminals working on the same small Worker Mech that the group had started on about a month before.

Kira, Athrun, and the others walked into the room, completely missing Cagalli standing in the corner, she however hadn't missed Kira and crew. She wore the exact same uniform as the others. Normally they would not wear the uniform to class however later that day, following class; they were to report to the Defense Forces Armory.

The students settled into their normal routine, of Kira on the operations computers and the rest doing their own work Cagalli smirked as she saw her chance and moved behind Kira's chair, none but Athrun and Nicol seeing her. She leaned over his shoulder, placing her lips near his ear and gently whispered.

"Hey you"

Kira let out a small yell as he fell back out of his chair and onto the floor, drawing everyone's attention and earning a full on laugh from Cagalli. Kira blinked as he lay on his back for a moment before sitting up and getting back into his chair.

"Not funny sis"

Cagalli laughed a bit more before calming and taking the seat next to Kira and booting up her files.

"I thought it was"

They continued on for the next hour or so unhindered. One thing that their class year had that the previous didn't was the fact that the Worker Mech they were currently attempting to return to working order as their term project was equipped with a standard civilian issue fusion core. Last year the classes had been forced to contend with batteries or an external power source. Both ZAFT and the Alliance knew that the Morgenroete facility in Orb was capable of producing such devices and indeed had created three fusion plants to help ease the country off the use of much more dangerous fission power. With the deployment of the N-Jammers during Operation Uroboros following the Bloody Valentine this move had been shown correct. Both nations had hinted very lucrative contract to supply this technology, however the First Prince had cut their offer off at the knees, refusing ZAFT's offer politely while proclaiming that the Alliance forces were "noting more than thugs who would use the technology for murderous intent".

Had she known about the G-Weapon program it would have been AFFS Troops entering the colony now instead of ZAFT.

Suddenly without warning the pagers sitting firmly on the hips of the 4 Orb Defense/AFFS Mechwarriors began to chime. Each held the same message.

"ZAFT ship detected, return for possible deployment"

Each looked to the other for guidance until Kira, Cagalli and Nicol's gazes fell to Athrun.

"What?"

Cagalli stood.

"Well your Lance Lead, what do we do?"

Athrun knew they all knew better, Cagalli was simply taking the chance to rib him a bit.

"What do you think we do, we go?"

As he stood up Kira gave a mock salute.

"Yes o fearless leader"

Athrun groaned. All four gathered their things and moved for the door. As they left Kira stopped.

"If the sirens go off head for a shelter and don't stop till you get there alright"

Their classmates nodded the four bolted out the door and toward the Defense Forces Armory. Athrun and Nicol praying the whole way that this wasn't an actual attack while Kira and Cagalli gave the prayer all new pilots give their first sortie. "Please god don't let me screw up"

A/N I know this was sort of short but this is what I needed for this chapter. Next chapter things will get interesting as ZAFT makes their move to take the G-Weapons and Kira and friends are drawn into the fight. Expect Mech action next chapter.

"From the Steiner Coliseum, this is Duncan Fisher, signing off