The group of ZAFT redcoats looked on with horror at the remains of Heliopolis. By their hands, a supposedly peaceful colony was ripped apart. Solace only came knowing that the civilians were okay in their lifeboats.

"Goddammit!" cursed Dearka, slamming a fist into a wall.

"I didn't know it was so fragile," Nicol's voice was almost a whisper.

Shiho growled. "Using D-Equipment… only a dumbass would do something like that. Now the counsel's going to be on Commander Creuset. That's not saying anything about how Orb is going to react."

Yzak scoffed. "Personally, I think they deserved it." This brought several glares down on him, though Shiho cocked her head. "I mean, come on, they were building those machines there! In my book, that's anything but 'neutral'. And you guys know it too!"

"But there were innocent civilians, Yzak!" Nicol countered. "How do you think they feel about all this?"

The white-haired redcoat shrugged. "Hey, they should've known they were building weapons just under their feet."

"This doesn't change the size of the mess Commander Creuset is going to be in," Shiho commented looking outwardly at the destroyed colony.

Nicol sighed as he turned away from his squad mate's conversation to the sight of the ruined Heliopolis, watching as the pieces drifted around.

Deep inside, Nicol knew this foreshadowed the future. Somehow, with the creation of the new mobile suits, the precarious balance of power of the two countries tipped. But which side held the advantage was anybody's guess.

Was this war going to escalate to bloody levels? Would peace be finally achieved, or would the cinders of war continue to burn long after the swords were sheathed?

-0-

Shinn wiped the sweat from his bow, the droplets escaping into the gravityless cockpit. Getting his breathing controlled, he slowly pulled his hands to his eyes, watching as they shook.

He'd come close to dying. If the colony was destroyed just a second later, the Raid would've met a messy end.

From the Raid's cameras, Shinn looked at the formerly peaceful colony, now nothing more than gnarled metal and debris. Glass drifted here and there, reflecting the light of the sun like an eccentric sun catcher; water, flash frozen by the cold of space, drifted through the emptiness not unlike the icebergs of earth.

Slowly, a Shinn felt anger boiling up. This had been Heliopolis. Now, it was a casualty of war.

He thanked God when his radio came to life, distracting him from the sight. "…Pleas… Resp… Shinn… Ki…"

Somber, he activated the Raid's thrusters, away from the destruction.

"War is so stupid," Shinn somberly told himself.

-0-

"Kir… Mato… pl… pond…"an unknown voice echoed through the cockpit

Kira slowly stirred, his eyes twitching as he fought to stay asleep. He was tired; he couldn't remember what he did to be so sleepy, but he didn't want to wake. And that static was slowly becoming more annoying than his alarm clock.

"KIRA!" Athrun's voice echoed in the back of his mind.

His eyes flashed open, the past events replaying through his mind in an instant. He struggled to stand, but the seatbelt held him in place. After a moment he relaxed, remembering that he was inside the cockpit of the Strike.

Controlling his erratic breathing, he relived the brief confrontation with Athrun. Kira didn't want to believe his best friend took up that crimson mobile suit, but how could he deny it? His friend, a person he considered a brother, joined ZAFT and then attacked Heliopolis. This had to be a nightmare, but Kira knew he wouldn't be able to stir from it.

He then recalled how Heliopolis was destroyed by a stray missile. For the first time he looked at the cameras. His eyes widened, taking in the sight of gnarled debris floating around the Strike.

"Heliopolis… is gone?" he breathed in disbelief.

It was then the static came to his attention. "Pilot… Strike… hear me…"

Kira activated his radio, increasing the strength of the signal and getting a clear message.

"Kira Yamato, do you copy?" came Ensign Badgiruel's voice (he hoped he remembered her name correctly).

"This is Kira Yamato. I'm okay," he replied.

The line was silent for a second, though Kira thought he heard a sigh from the other end. "That's good to hear. Go ahead and return to the Archangel."

He then remembered the other pilot he deployed with. "Is Shinn okay?"

"He's fine, and on his way now."

Kira sighed in relief. It looked as if things weren't as bad as he originally thought. At least everyone came out of this alive.

Just as he turned the Strike to return to the Archangel, he saw a stranded lifeboat with flashing lights.

-0-

On the Vesalius, Ades was raging at Rau about the destruction of Heliopolis. Said commander completely ignored him. He already knew how to deal with the council, and it wasn't like Heliopolis was as neutral as it was made out to be. A man of his caliber already had the situation under control.

"Ades," the captain shut his mouth. "Relax. Besides, how can a colony building new weaponry for the Earth forces be considered neutral? That fact isn't going to be overlooked by the council. And on top of that, all of the civilians had plenty of time to escape. Need I remind you of the Bloody Valentine Tragedy? Compared to that, this is just a minor issue."

Ades went silent, much to Rau's satisfaction.

Creuset turned towards an operator. "Have you been able to locate the enemy ship?"

"Not with these conditions," explained the worker. "The debris is easily masking the ship. The heat from the colony has yet to fully dissipate, and until then, we won't be able to get a signature of the legged ship."

"You plan to continue chasing the ship?" Ades asked as Rau looked towards the window. "We don't have enough suits. All we have is one spare GINN, but I don't see that of being any use in the rest of this operation."

"Don't be so foolish," Rau chastised, if amusedly. "We have six other machines as well, all of which are perfectly combat capable."

Ades sighed, seeing he was going to get nowhere. "So be it. I'll alert the Gamow to be ready for another sortie."

-0-

As he floated out of the cockpit, Shinn was greeted by a hug from his sister, quickly followed by a slap.

"What was that for?" Shinn cried out, rubbing his now tender cheek.

"For worrying me sick, you idiot!" Mayu berated.

Shinn cowered under her harsh gaze.

His sister continued her rampage. "Do you have any idea how worried I was? I watched the Maul getting ready to kill you! You're so reckless! Haven't mom and dad already told you to use your head!"

Each and every syllable was enough for Shinn to shrink under his sister's wrath. Thankfully, before his sister could build momentum, a throat cleared from behind her.

"As entertaining as that was," Mu smirked, showing his amusement over Mayu's tangent. "I want to make sure you're okay."

"I'm fine," Shinn quickly said.

Mu, though, didn't miss the haunted look in the boy's eyes. He'd seen it in pilots who witnessed death or came close to it. But he wasn't about to raise any red flags. Shinn looked as if he was handling it better than others, but the lieutenant hoped that if something was plaguing the teen he'd be willing to open up about it.

"Your sister did bring up a good point," Murrue said, bringing everyone's attention to the new captain and the XO trailing behind her. "You need to think things through more. The pilot of the Maul won because of experience and patience."

"Yeah, yeah," Shinn reluctantly acknowledged –he'd lost count long ago of how many times he heard this conversation, though the close-to-death part was new.

Mu cleared his throat. "Well, now that that is all taken care of, let's-"

He was interrupted as the Strike walked into the hangar, holding a lifeboat. They watched as the mobile suit gently sat the pod down, and then moved itself into a cradle.

"Who the hell gave him authorization for that?" Natarle yelled.

-0-

Athrun stared out at the debris, hoping that by some off-kilter luck he'd get a chance to spot the Strike among the debris drifting through space. The images of the past several-hours were much too vivid, like a nightmare he was forcefully living.

That couldn't have been Kira, Athrun mused, though he knew better.

Athrun remembered his best friend's face as he stared at Kira atop the MS. It was… a face he didn't want to ever see again. Then came their mock-battle in Heliopolis; it was only through his training and the anger over Miguel's death that Athrun was able to best his friend so quickly. Would it be the same if they met again with crossed swords?

Hesitantly, Athrun floated over to the room he formerly shared with Miguel. The deceased boy's items were neatly folded, ready to be delivered to his family.

This isn't fair, Athrun darkly thought. Why do so many people have to die because of this war?

"Yo!" came a voice from behind.

Athrun turned, finding Rusty behind him holding a hand in a gesture. The redhead lowered his hand, walking past Athrun towards his bed where he jumped unceremoniously onto his ever messy blankets. Much to Zala's amusement, the lack of gravity caught Rusty and wouldn't let go.

"Goddamnit! I want a nap!" yelled an irate Rusty.

Athrun couldn't help but ponder. How close did Rusty come to biting the bullet? If he remembered correctly, it was less than an inch.

"Hey, PLANTs to Athrun?" Rusty bellowed in annoyance. "I could use a little help here!"

With an amused shake of head, Athrun pulled his friend down by the foot. With a sheepish rub of his head, Rusty touched the floor.

"I hate space. There's nothing like a dirt road under your feet." Rusty sighed. "So, you ready for the chew-out session with commander Creuset? Hopefully it'll be a week in the brig. Seriously, there's nothing more demeaning than cleaning a toilet after somebody has Montezuma's revenge."

Athrun allowed a chuckle to skip his through his mouth. What would life be without the redhead there to cheer him up?

Rusty smiled as well. I'm glad I could distract Athrun from Miguel's death, even if it's for a little bit…

-0-

"So, you were the one piloting that mobile suit?" Flay asked as she sat in the crew quarters alongside Kira and the others.

"That's right," confirmed Sai as he took a seat next to the pink-haired girl. "Kira was the one piloting the suit."

"Really?" Flay went on. "Isn't it difficult to pilot one of those things?"

Kuzzey opened his mouth before Kira could think of an excuse. "Not for Kira. He's a Coordinator; so, it wasn't too hard for him."

"Kuzzey!" hissed Mir.

Flay looked at the abashed Kira with analyzing eyes. It wasn't common knowledge that she wasn't Coordinator-friendly, which was why she was sizing him up.

She remembered stories about Coordinators' capabilities – how they could perform amazing feats of strength, how powerful their reflexes were, and how they could learn almost anything. Her father was especially against any interactions with them. But Kira seemed so… normal. Maybe she could give him the benefit of the doubt.

She gave a quick bow of head to Kira. "Thank you very much for saving me."

Kira blushed. "Oh, uh, your… welcome."

"Yo!" Shinn entered the quarters.

None of the occupants missed the OMNI uniform the older Asuka sported. In his hands, he also had two other uniform sets, one male and the other for a female.

Shinn smirked as he tossed the men's set to Kira. "Captain's orders: we're to maintain our suits. And Mu wants us to meet up in an hour."

"You seem too excited about this," Tolle commented.

Shinn shrugged. "I kinda' like piloting; I've got no issues working with the Raid."

Kira groaned. "You've got to be kidding me…"

"Well, find someone else to pilot the Strike for you if you don't like it," Shinn said, eliciting Kira to grumble under his breath. "Anyways, my sister volunteered to be the programmer for the Raid, since I suck at it. Where's Stella so I can relay the orders and get her uniform to her?"

Mir answered. "She's in the room next door. But…" she bit her lip. "She was acting weird when she left."

Kira frowned, coming out of his inner rant to listen. "What happened?"

"Her watch started alarming and she ran out of the room," Mir answered, grimacing at the memory. "When I tried to ask her what was happening, she snapped at me."

"I'll see what's wrong," Shinn said, turning to leave. "Maybe she'll be more willing to talk now."

"Hopefully…" Mir muttered.

"Thanks for the heads-up," Shinn said, walking out of the door, Kira following to go change into his uniform.

"He's… so young," Flay said. "Is he a Coordinator too?"

Sai gave a lopsided grin. "Yeah. Just like Kira. He's got a little sister on here that's also a Coordinator –her name's Mayu."

"They're nice… like Kira?" The redhead bit her lip.

"Of course, though Shinn is a bit tempermental; his little sister keeps him in line. It's funny to watch, actually."

"What about this Stella?"

There Sai hit a conundrum. How was he going to explain that one?

"She's kind of… odd." That was an understatement. "We don't exactly know what she is. She says she's a Natural, but… she can do things only a Coordinator can do."

-0-

Knocking… She could hear knocking.

Slowly, Stella stirred from her nap. After stretching like a cat whilst yawning, the Extended crawled out of bed while rubbing her eyes.

Looking at her watch, she saw that an hour already past. Five more before her next change-out.

Another knock reminded Stella that someone was waiting for her. She shuffled to the door, opening it reveal Shinn holding a pink uniform to his side.

The crimson-eyed boy took in Stella's disheveled appearance. Her hair was almost as messy as his; her muffled dress clung to her form, like she'd been sweating too much; her eyes were bloodshot, like a druggie suffering from withdrawal.

"You okay?" Shinn asked.

Stella nodded. "Just sleeping."

Shinn brightened. "You definitely look like it." His frown returned. "The others saw you run out the room, and then you bit that girl's head off when she tried asking what was wrong. Mind telling me what happened?"

Stella hesitated. She was prohibited from telling anyone about the program. They told her there'd be consequences if any words of it slipped past her lips –really bad consequences. She had to obey orders.

"Just needed my medicine," Stella lied.

Well, it wasn't a complete lie… Was that as good as lying anyways?

Shinn blinked. "Oh. Uh… what's it for?"

The blond shifted uncomfortably. "Don't wanna talk about," she whispered.

"'Kay, then I won't ask about it," Shinn said as he handed her uniform –he knew that some people detested talking about their medical conditions, so he wasn't about to pick her brain with questions. "Captain ordered all pilots to maintain their machines. So, we're all stuck piloting them. Not that I'm complaining… Oh, and Lieutenant Flaga wants the pilots to meet up in about an hour."

Stella nodded in affirmation as she took the uniform, closing the door as she turned.

She sat on her bed, taking in the sight of the pink uniform.

-0-

Several matters were on the forefront of Murrue's mind.

First was leading the Archangel to the moon. The crew was the definition of ragtag, and making the situation messier were the civilians on board. That wasn't mentioning the lack of supplies like water and food or officially trained pilots. No matter how anyone looked at the situation, the odds were stacked against them.

Then there was the conundrum named 'Stella Loussier'… Merely thinking of the blonde was enough to give Murrue a headache. Loussier claimed herself a Natural, but could pilot an advanced MS on par with her Coordinator peers. Adding the strange incident with her watch, things only got weirder. There was more to Stella than they understood, but Murrue doubted the teen would opt to talk.

If only Ramius realized that Stella's only existing file was buried in her desk…

Mu knocked on her door. Realizing more important matters were at hand, Murrue dropped the subject.

"Right on time," Murrue commented, setting her head on her hands.

"You make it sound as if I'm incompetent, or something," Mu commented sarcastically.

"Cut the crap," Murrue pointedly ordered. "We're stuck between a rock and a hard place, so forgive me if my sense of humor is a bit dry. What do you make of our situation?"

Mu reclined in his chair, going over several scenarios in his head. "Well, I have a couple of ideas. I know we have enough time to plan and fix our machines, but we're giving enough time for my old friend Rau Le Creuset to come up with a way to stop us. As far as I see it, we're not getting out of here without a fight."

"I was afraid of that," Murrue said. "What's he going to throw at us?"

"That's not hard," Mu said. "Chances are he'll send the stolen mobile suits after us."

"Okay," Murrue sat back up, holding a hand to her chin. "We're up against six stolen prototype weapons, and it's likely a ZAFT ship will be blocking our way out of here. How do we get out of this situation?"

"Well, I do have this one idea…"

-0-

Athrun grimaced as he stood in front of Commander Creuset's desk, waiting for whatever punishment the ace had in mind. Rusty stood next to him, wearing a bored face fitting on a child sent to the principal's office one too many times.

Rau laid down his pen, finishing whatever paperwork he was given (a mission report maybe?). "I really can't say I'm disappointed in you two," Rau finally told the two.

Rusty suddenly found this conversation very interesting. Athrun merely raised an eyebrow.

"Wait," Rusty interjected, as if the concept of not getting into trouble was new. "You're not going to throw us in the brig for a week, or give us some demeaning task involving toilets?"

Rau smirked in amusement. "Despite how irked I was that you two went and broke so many protocols, I must say that I'm pleased with the information you two gathered on the enemy machines. This will be valuable for future confrontations with the legged ship."

"Uh, this is new…" Rusty thought aloud in bewilderment.

"Athrun, I'm going to order you to stay out of the next sortie," Rau went on.

Athrun was quick to counter as Rau stood up from his desk. "But-"

Rau held up a hand for the youth to stop. "I understand about you and the pilot of the Strike, which is why I'm pulling you. It's such a painful thing to pull the trigger on someone you hold dear."

"Wait!" Athrun jumped in front of his commanding officer before he left the office. "What if I could talk sense into Kira? He doesn't realize that he's being used by the Naturals for their own purposes. If I can just get a minute to talk to him I might be able to bring him to his senses."

Rau considered the proposition. "Alright, but if he doesn't listen, then you, out of everyone, must pull the trigger."

Athrun closed his eyes as he lowered his head. "I… understand."

With that, Rau walked out of the room.

When his commander was a fair distance away, Rusty spoke up. "You know that's a bunch of bullshit, right?"

Athrun flinched under his friend's curse, but remained silent.

"That Kira-guy doesn't sound like someone to go and betray anyone," Rusty explained. "I'm all behind you, but I'm just going to warn you and say that your friend may not be so willing to join us."

"I know," Athrun sighed. "But I've got to do something."

"And I respect you for that," Rusty complimented as he walked past his senior.

-0-

Rau moved next to Ades, looking down at the map before him. So far, they hadn't been able to find the legged ship. Amidst the chaos, the ship disappeared among the debris, easily evading their radars by standing still and not activating its engines.

"Have you been able to pinpoint the legged ship yet?" Rau asked as he floated near the map.

Captain Ades answered: "No. It's still hiding among the debris."

"I figured as much," commented Rau. "They must be taking time to plan a way to get past us. But what might their destination be?"

"We have two possibilities," Ades suggested. "One destination would be the Artemis base just west of Heliopolis. But we believe strongly that their desired destination would be the moon."

Rau held a hand to his face as he analyzed possible outcomes. The moon would be the most probable choice; that was OMNI territory and would thus be the most protected. Then again, Artemis with its famed umbrella was nearby. This was quite the conundrum they were in! Trying to anticipate the prey's next step always was a messy affair, but there was a reason why Rau was considered a genius of warfare.

"I want the Gamow to block the path to the moon. The Vesalius will move between the debris and the Artemis base," ordered Rau. "If they take either route, one of the ships will notice them and the other can join in on the attack."

-0-

"She's up and running now," Murdoch told Mu as they stood in front of the now repaired Mobius Zero.

"Good," Mu said.

Just as he turned to leave, the damaged Reach caught Mu's eye. The MS, drab and dark as its sleeping brethren, was missing an arm and part of its helmet; the torso was distorted but still workable; one of its feet was gnarled enough that it stood only by aid of a metal crutch strapped to its shin. However, unlike the others, it looked as if it was wearing an opened black cloak that almost matched the length of the Gundam.

"How exactly did that suit survive? I hear they're fragile when the armor is down," the ace asked.

Murdoch rubbed the stubble on his chin. "Yeah, they are; without the phase-shift, the suit is a sitting duck. However, this one survived for one reason." Murdoch pointed towards the cloak. "That there, the cloak around the suit. It actually prevented the rubble from crushing the suit. Still, it didn't exactly come out in once piece."

"What kind of armor is that?" Mu asked.

"Laminated armor," the engineer answered, "the same kind used on the Archangel. It can take most solid weaponry easily; even weaker beam weaponry has trouble getting through that thing."

"That's pretty impressive. So, it has the highest defense of the suits, huh?"

"Armor-wise, yes -technically, the Siege has the highest defense capabilities with all that electronic crap installed on it. Still, it's an impressive machine."

"Okay, now I'm curious to pilot this thing," Mu said, eyeing the suit like a greedy window-shopper. "How long until it's repaired?"

"A week, give or take a couple days," Murdoch answered.

Mu's expression fell. "That sucks."

"Yo!" Shinn's voice interrupted the duo. "You wanted us?"

Turning towards the young pilot, Mu also found Kira, Mayu, and Stella trailing behind the elder Asuka, all sporting OMNI uniforms. The four gently landed on the ground and walked towards the older pilot, curious as to what the conversation was going to entail.

"I did," Mu said, a smile tugging at his lips. "We're going to have our first squad meeting."

"But we're only civilians," Mayu corrected.

It took a minute to realize that Shinn's little sister was present, whom wasn't exactly a pilot.

"Two things. One: until we meet up with the Earth Forces, all of you are stuck piloting those machines. Which also means I'm your squad leader." Kira's eye twitched in aggravation, Shinn smirked, and Stella cocked her head. "Which brings us to point number two: Mayu, why are you here? You're not exactly a pilot."

Said girl blushed. "Oh, well, I figured it'd be good for me to be here since Shinn can't rewrite an OS to save his life. Literally."

"HEY!" Shinn fired off indignantly

"Okay, I'll give you that one," Mu sighed. "Anyways… What I want to tell you guys is that we're about to enter combat soon. I'm going to warn you guys now, every skirmish up to now have been nowhere near as extreme as real combat. And we're about to enter a full blown combat situation."

Mu paused to let the information sink in. And sink it did… like a brick in the ocean. Shinn swallowed a lump that suddenly developed in his throat; Mayu nervously bit her lip; Kira was taking calming breaths; and Stella –normally one to be distracted by anything- was clinging onto every word. Good, they were paying attention.

"To get out of this hole, we're running like hell to Artemis," Mu continued. "But, that bad itch, Rau Le Creuset, is waiting for us. To get out of his way, the Archangel and you guys are going to tango with him and his merry band while I sneak through the debris with my Mobius and surprise the enemy's main ship. After I deal enough damage and force a retreat, we regroup and make like bats out of Hell towards Artemis. The umbrella there will give us some protection against ZAFT until we resupply. Any objections?"

The second opinion was important for Mu. Being gifted with exceptional minds, the young Coordinators could find chinks in his plan and possibly develop an even better one should this prove too crazy.

Kira closed his eyes in concentration, working every step of the plan in his brilliant mind. He envisioned every scenario Mu could encounter, and what they're roles would entail in the ensuing fight. No matter how many times he worked it, though, there weren't any blaring weaknesses.

"No, I think it works," Kira voiced. "The debris should still be warm, easily masking something small like a Mobius, but only if you keep a good distance from the fight."

Stella seconded the analysis with a nod of head. "But you mustn't miss," Stella voiced, garnering everyone's attention. "You have approximately an eight second window to damage the main ship before they retaliate. If the opportunity is missed, the battle time will lengthen considerably and the danger will increase by a factor of three."

"Kira, Mayu, Shinn, you got the same thing?" Mu asked for confirmation. All three nodded.

"Dually noted, sweetheart," Mu said. "An eight second window… more than enough time for me to work a miracle. With that in mind, go suit up! The longer we stand here, the more time Creuset has to get creative!"

-0-

Kira walked down the hallways, following behind Mu as thoughts of battle plagued his mind. Just behind them, Shinn and Stella followed, both as silent as their seniors. All four sported different colored flight suits: Shinn's was red and black, Kira's was teal, and Stella's had a pink color scheme. All four carried their helmets under their arms, somber and quiet as they marched towards the hangar.

"Nervous?" Shinn quietly asked Stella as they walked.

Stella cocked her head. "Not sure. Are you?"

The Asuka swallowed hard. "Yeah. I… almost got killed last time. And now we're going into an even extremer situation. I'm so nervous I feel like I'm going to puke. How come you're so calm?"

Stella shrugged, which earned a sigh from Shinn. He was hoping to get a hint to about that badass composer…

Kira, though, was letting his thoughts wander as he traversed the halls of the Archangel. Would Athrun be fighting in the battle? If so, could Kira pull the trigger on his friend? The mere thought was enough to make the Coordinator sick to his stomach. He wouldn't be able to live with himself afterward.

"Kira!" Mir's voice knocked Kira out of his thoughts.

The entourage of pilots was stopped as Mir, Sai, Tolle, and Kuzzey came towards them. Even more surprising yet was the uniforms they donned.

"What are you all doing?" Kira asked, dumbfounded.

Sai was the first to answer. "Well, we all thought about how you've been protecting us this entire time."

Tolle then spoke up. "So, we decided to fight too. We all became volunteer soldiers, and after all of this is done, we'll leave with you!"

They all turned to leave.

"Good luck out there! We'll be watching!" Kuzzey told them over his retreating back.

Kira watched as they turned the corner towards the bridge. A smile tugged at his lips knowing they were backing him.

Maybe he could pull that trigger, if at least to protect them.

"Good friends," Shinn muttered, coming up next to Kira.

Kira's smile became softer. "Yeah, I know."

-0-

"Hey!"

Athrun looked away from the Aegis to find Rusty and Nicol approaching, both sporting their flight suits like Zala.

"You okay?" Nicol asked, coming to a stop by grabbing a rail.

Athrun smiled lightly. "I just have a lot on my mind."

"I know what you mean," Nicol sighed. "The past couple days have been crazy."

"Well, both of you need to get your heads out of the clouds," Rusty interrupted, crossing his arms as he floated several inches off the rail. "At any minute, nine kinds of hell could be unleashed. We're on standby for a reason, you know?"

"Don't remind me," murmured Athrun as he turned back towards the Aegis.

Author's Note: End of chapter. Some small character development here and there, preparations for one of my favorite battle scenes in the entire season, and so on. Yes, filler. I don't even like to write it, but it's a necessary evil to keep the story going. It's a short chapter, but the coming battle is fast-paced with much awesome added and I didn't want to make this overly long.

I'm thinking of keeping most of the chapters fairly short –predominately around five thousand words- for the sake of updates. Don't expect them weekly, but they'll definitely appear faster than my other stories due to a lack of a beta reader, which I'll stay away from for the moment –I'm using this to keep my skills sharp. The primary reason why the story updates so quickly is because I have several chapters completed already, and all I need is to ghost-read them and then post. Sadly, that won't last. Hopefully, I can keep my writing momentum.

I'm going to tell you now, I like developed characters. So, there's going to be some chapters dedicated to it in its entirety. Unlike Destiny, Shinn meets Kira early, which means more interaction between them; Stella is also present early and interacting with Kira, Shinn, and Mu.

The Reach won't see combat for a while. Expect to see it in action after the Artemis incident. You'll find information on it earlier than combat, but that's for certain reasons; its full profile will appear later. And no, I didn't originally intend to reference the Halo game of the same name –good game by the way. If you want an idea of what the Reach cloak looks like, look up the Astray Blue Frame Second G (I think that's correct…), but it doesn't fold into a set of wings.