On board the Orb Mediatory Council's flagship, Esther Albionne plots out their next move. Unbeknownst to Malchio's protégé is fact that the coup-controlled ZAFT is now pursuing them with the militia's fastest ship, and Lacus Clyne's own flagship: The Eternal.

Alternate Mobile Paradigm: Gundam SEED Seraph

Phase 04- Symbol of Clyne

Shocked to hear that they are ordered to pursue the fleeing Seraph, Shinn Asuka could only say 'yes' as he is forced to chase his friends or else; his beloved Lunamaria would be killed by their captors. He would go on to say—

"Damn them! If only Kira involved me here, we could've secured the Strike Freedom for him. Now I have to do as they say."

It was ironic that Shinn wasn't leading the coup'. After all, he was the Destiny's pilot. However, the bigger irony is now the fact that Lacus' ship is heading the mission to kill her. It is now being escorted by two Minerva-class vessels –the Diana and the Athene. Andy knew about Kira as well as Athrun so he made sure that they would not be short of firepower, so acquiring the services of the 'Super-Ace' was the best idea. Andy obviously knew that Shinn would not comply, so their gambit was to take what was important to him, Lunamaria Hawke as hostage.

"Luna you idiot, I told you that you have to get out of PLANT and join Athrun!"—the red-eyed man from Orb thought.

As the Eternal Departs along with the Strike-Freedom, Andy would ask one of the Intelligence officers to breach the Strike Freedom's security hatch.They open the cockpit, but the Freedom's OS would prompt for a 4-ascii character code, they tried cracking the code but during the third time, The Freedom's OS was automatically deleted from the System, rendering the Mobile Suit useless. Andy could only marvel and be annoyed by General Yamato's programming skills. Not only did the last program initiate a delete of all OS data of the Mobile Suit, it also accessed the Eternal's mainframe and sent logs of information to an encrypted destination and deleting them from the source. Even the best Technicians on board cannot trace where the information was being sent. Andy would vent out in anger and ordered a search for the Seraph. The only way to get information from terminal is to get a hold of either Lacus Clyne, or Terminal's current leader—Esther Albionne.

"Are the Preparations done?" –Esther asks her first officer, Keichii Kusanagi.

The Seraph has just arrived at the rendezvous point at a new Orb Colony; Edo-III, with the goal of refueling for Atmospheric re-entry. Lacus suggests gathering information on the new ZAFT administration.

"The Destiny Movement has caught me off guard; I've to say that they took advantage of the element of surprise."—said Lacus, who was sipping a cup of her favorite tea while talking to Esther.

"What shocked me more was the abruptness of it all. I was expecting that your administration would hold off any harsh opposition trying to forcibly take power from you."—Esther replied, while looking at her pocket watch.

"It's not the power that worries me; it's the implication this event would have on how PLANT and the Alliance will interact…" –Lacus says.

"…The Destiny Plan hinges on people to let their genes decide for themselves, but ideally you'd have to be a coordinator to be on top of the hierarchy."

"It's quite an irony that you speak ill of the Destiny Plan, when you yourself would still be in a good position with your genetic record, Lacus." –Esther chuckles.

"It's not about my self-interest in the first place; it's about having a dream. I guess."

"But what should we do about the current PLANT?"—Esther asks the pink empress.

"I guess we need the aid of the Alliance and Orb in order to reclaim it." -Lacus would answer the brunette.

"You have got to be kidding me, Lacus. The Alliance would want your head more so than anything would. Terminal has not yet infiltrated the Atlantic Federation enough for even I to have a peaceful audience with them. Our best chance is the Eurasian Confederation, but even that's a prayer to the moon."

"I believe that this time, the Alliance would need our help. One of my forecasters, most notably Haruna Sakura of the first tactical division had a simulation, it was studying the effects if a Destiny Movement-controlled ZAFT would attack the Alliance, it yielded that the ZAFT forces, due to their ruthless methods with newer Mobile weapons , would overwhelm the Alliance. If all goes well in Elm's plans, we have 2 months before the Alliance and Orb succumb to this threat."

Planning his escape from the Eternal to meet up with the Clynefaction's newly minted ship, the Ethereal, Shinn Asuka decides on whether to try and save Lunamaria Hawke's life. Supposedly, the plan was to hijack the Strike Freedom, but now that Kira has now rendered the suit useless, at least until the cockpit module is replaced with the right parts. His only way out is to hijack the unfinished successor to the Destiny Gundam or 'Project-Z' as the ZAFT techies call it.

"I fought to protect my friends, I never intended to impose my will upon another. This movement, it is only repeating the sins of Durandal."—this was Shinn's thought as he was planning the escape.