The cold emptiness of space was silent. The glittering blanket of stars was covered by nearly fifty green Nazca class space battleships. Small white shuttles flew through the void between them. A single fragment of rock floated by. It was so peaceful.
In the far west was a small glimpse of the PLANT colonies. They too had been peaceful for two years. The new Council had made the nation strong yet calm. They were admired by almost everyone in ZAFT. The world had changed so much. On board one of the battleships a young man dressed in a red ZAFT uniform stared out the window. There was a cold and solemn look on his face as he placed one hand on the ships window.
"Rael!"
A familiar voice rang loudly from behind. Rael turned his head away from the window just enough to see who it was. Standing there was Miles Cameron. He was already in his pilot's outfit. It was the traditional red outfit given to elite graduates of ZAFT's Academy. As Miles walked closer he brushed his excessively long, bleach blonde hair out of his eyes.
"Hello Miles." Said Rael in a very cold tone.
"Oh come on dude! You gotta cheer up!"
Miles patted Rael on the back as he spoke. The hit knocked Rael forward slightly. The look he received for the gesture could have killed him. Rael wasn't in the mood for his happy go lucky attitude. They were about to drop to Earth to carry out one of nearly a hundred undisclosed missions. He was anxious. Who wouldn't be? He had no idea what he was doing or where he was being sent.
"Well. I dunno about you man, but I'm gonna go get ready. We launch in twenty!" continued Miles. Rael lifted his shoulders and breathed deeply. He'd hoped he would never have to return to Earth. His kind weren't welcome there. Then again, he was only accepted in PLANT because so few knew what he really was. Neither Natural or Coordinator. He was one of very few citizens of PLANT, and the only soldier in ZAFT who needed Glipheptin at regular intervals.
Chairman Durandal had decided to keep the existence of Rael's type hidden for now. Apparently it wasn't the right time to announce it. He had, however, ordered Rael's suit to be filled with a Glipheptin injection system. That meant Rael could fight for as long as necessary without suffering withdrawal symptoms. He owed a lot to the Chairman. He owed a lot to the Council too. They had sent the ZAFT soldiers to the facility. They had sent his rescuers.
Rael took one more deep breath before turning away from the window and head toward the changing room. The corridor was unusually empty. Everyone was on the bridge. There could be no mistakes with this mission. They couldn't afford to stay to long after launch in case they were detected.
On the other hand, they couldn't launch too earlier or the pods would be caught on the Alliance's aerial scanners. The drop had been timed precisely. They would drop within the three minutes it takes for a maintenance system checks to be carried out on the scanners. They would be turned off during that time. The grey door to the changing room slid open. It was empty.
Rael opened his locker and picked out his pilot suit. He slipped out of his uniform and into the suit hastily and grasped his helmet. Unlike his uniform, the pilot suit and helmet were a dark blue.
He marched into the Mobile Suit dock. Miles had already left in his GUAIZ. At the back of the room was Rael's custom painted Slash ZAKU Phantom. It was also a light shade of blue.
To his right as he walked through the hangar was another GUAIZ. The cockpit was open. Another pilot was climbing in at that moment. His was wearing another red pilot suit. The pilot turned and spotted Rael.
"Commander Lockhart! It is good to see you are ready!" shouted the pilot.
It was Alexei Wolf. He was youngest of the three Lockhart squad members at seventeen. His was a rather scrawny man but he never tried to act tough to make up for it. He always wore his glasses underneath his visor in combat. He never took them off as far as Rael knew. The helmet itself covered his short dark hair but his freckles were always accentuated by the red of the pilot suit.
Rael formed a small smile and saluted Alexei before moving toward his ZAKU. Alexei climbed into his GUAIZ and activated it.
Rael gripped onto the rope lift tightly as it pulled him up to his cockpit. For the boarding platform that was made by the cockpit opening you could see his personal insignia on the shoulder. It was a pair of revolvers crossed in an 'x' within a shield shape with a tidal wave and lightning storm in the background. He had earned the title of the "Storm Of Bullets" when he took down twenty Daggers with a standard GUAIZ machine gun.
He had heard rumours that the Extended may possess high abilities than most Coordinators. He didn't believe it at first. Apparently though, hardly any other pilots have carried out such a feat.
He sat in the seat and strapped himself in. The cockpit door folded closed and his was entombed in darkness. Flicking the system boot switch he illuminated the cockpit with light from the computer screen. The operating system flickered into life and the visual screens flashed on. The words "Shadow Of Cerulean" appeared on the computer screen. It was the name Rael had given his suit.
The ZAKU began to walk to the catapult. Alexei had already launched. The suit started to float as the catapult initiated. A sudden burst of thrust send the Shadow Of Cerulean flying forward and out of the ship. Rael took control of the systems and span the ZAKU around a half circle to face the battleship once again. Hanging below it was the drop pod for his squadron. It wasn't going to be long now. Alexei and Miles were already docked with it. He approached the pod and span around once again. The pod's clamps clutched the suit's shoulders and the out casing folding down around the squad.
"Are you two ready?" asked Rael."Yes, Commander!" replied Alexei.
Miles responded by saying, "yeah I'm good to go sir!"
"Alright, drop begins in t-minus thirty seconds."
For this particular drop each pod was in charge of itself. That was because each had a different landing area and mission.
"All systems optimal." Rael continued, "re-entry preparations completed. Launching in 5… 4… 3… 2… Lockhart Squad ready… launching!"
The grappling hooks holding the pod released. A sudden rising force took over Rael as the pod fell. He was sure that he would be pushed against the cockpit ceiling if he weren't strapped down.
The entire pod began to shake with incredible strength. It felt like an earthquake, or at least what Rael imagined an earthquake was like. They didn't happen on PLANT and he hadn't experienced one at the facility. He closed his fist tightly around the thruster controls of the ZAKU and narrowed his eyes. He was falling quickly to the one place he never wanted to go again. He began to recall the images he had seen that fateful day. All those poor children. He remember the escape well. A single tear fell down his face as the communication system began to beep. He pressed the activation button and the Nazca class ship's Captain appeared on the screen.
"Commander Lockhart. We have received your destination and mission. You are to landed thirty miles in land from the Alexandria port in Egypt. Your squad will then proceed toward the port where the Alliance are secretly producing neutron jammer cancellers. You will destroy the production facility. Should there be any armed resistance you are authorized to use force. Understood?"
"Yes, sir!" replied Rael.
The pod was heating up. They had reached the re-entry point. The vibrations increased in strength. Rael turned off the communication to the ship and opened a channel between himself and the other two.
"Miles. Alexei . We have received our orders. Upon landing we are to head toward a production facility at Alexandria and terminate it."
"What facility dude?"
"It's producing N Jammer Cancellers."
"What!? But that's– " shouted Alexei.
"Illegal. I know. Which is presumably why we are to get rid of it. Do you both understand the mission?"
"Yes sir!" replied both men.
"Oh, and Miles. Don't worry. If they put up an armed resistance you are allowed to use your gun."
The shuddering of the pod started to calm. The temperature was decreasing too. According to the computer they would be at the landing site in one minute. Rael's eyes narrowed again. He was almost on Earth.
The pod's navigation computer started to bleep. It was time to launch."Alright you two. Here we go!" said Rael.The pod's outer casing blew off and the restraining hooks let go of the suits. As they fell the suits faced horizontally. Upon nearing the ground the trio ignited their respective suit's thrusters, righting themselves. The Mobile Suits landed on sand. Thankfully the suits had been prepared for such a situation. The only information they had been told about the mission was that they would be fighting on sand.
Rael had asked Alexei to reconfigure his ZAKU's operating systems to suit the desert. He would have done it himself but it would have taken weeks. He wasn't a Coordinator after all. He could just pilot Mobile Suits like one.
He activated and checked his scanners. Nothing. It was a dead wasteland. The clear blue sky might have been beautiful if the sun wasn't being down so strongly. Sand lay on the ground for as far as Rael could see. A strong gust of wind threw a large amount of it onto Alexei's camera.
"Dude. This place sucks!"
"I agree. Commander? Which way do we go? I want to get out of here as quickly as possible."
"We head north. Alexandria is roughly thirty miles from here. It won't take too long."
"Understood Commander."
"Well then. Let's get on our way man!"
The three Mobile Suits started to walk toward Alexandria. It would take approximately half an hour to get there. Rael thought to himself. It was good place to build forbidden technology. No-one in their right mind would come to this place. Perhaps that was why they sent his squad. They were, after all, rather reckless at times.
He recalled their previous mission. A small army of soldiers still loyal to the old ZAFT tried to attack PLANT. They said it had gone soft and needed to fade away with the Naturals. They had quite the admirable amount of pilots and battleships. They would have made a very good fleet if they weren't stuck in the old ways.
Rael had ordered Alexei and Miles to take care of the rebel's Mobile Suits whilst he went for the battleships. He had to duck and dodge shots from numerous cannons whilst destroying the ships. It was that day he earned his title. He flew in and out of the ships firing his machine gun. One ship fell after the other.
The other were speeding around cutting down or blasting every enemy they saw. They had a habit of firing incredibly close to each other's suits to get a target behind the other. The three of them always looked after one another. Their survival came first. The mission a distant second.
After the longest thirty minutes of his life Rael saw the port of Alexandria on the horizon. On the scanner he detected a small number of Mobile Suits. He closed his eyes briefly and gave a heavy sigh.
"You two. They have Mobile Suits stationed there. We're gonna have to fight. Are you ready?" asked Rael.
"As ready as I'll ever be dude."
"Yes Commander. I'm ready."
Rael drew his ZAKU's great axe. His head titled downwards and he stared out of the top of his eyes. Whilst clicking his neck he breathed heavily yet again.
"Alright. Let's go!"