Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam SEED/Gundam Seed Destiny.


A small team of four Zaft mobile suits, consisting of the Blast Impulse, a Gunner ZAKU Warrior, and two GuAIZ Rs slowly delved deeper into the heart of the weightless debris field at moderate speeds.

"I never did score well in asteroid simulations, just to let you know." Lunamaria spoke up quietly, her suit's bright pink mono-eye flashing back and forth with paranoia.

"I'm positive that that enemy has noticed we're in here by now. They're waiting. Keep your eyes peeled." Shinn stated, looking back and forth through his monitors.

"I KNOW THAT!" Lunamaria whined over the radio line. "You know, you're starting to sound like Rey! It's throwing me off! Geez..." She shrugged coldly.

"Pfft..." Shinn scoffed. "I'm just saying that this is no longer a simulation. It's kill or be killed, and I hate to lose a sharp-eyed sniper like you. Just think how hard it would be on Meyrin..." He shook his head, somewhat sullied by his own words.

"Meyrin would be the first to know. Still, we'd best be quiet for now." Luna suggested.


Passing by a large asteroid to her starboard, the Minerva drifted very slowly and carefully through the debris field. The vessel's engines would give off quick squirts of thrust in order to keep her going. The atmosphere around the ship was silent, and eerie, while the environment on the bridge was not exactly the same.

"Anything new on the enemy carrier?" Arthur questioned.

"No sir. Course and speed remain the same." Bart answered, while the Executive Officer gave off a disappointed sigh.

"Alright, fine then. Launchers One, Launchers Six, load tubes one through four with Dispars. Activate all CIWS and prepare to fire Tristans. We'll be sure to get them this time round!" Arthur stated a laundry list of orders, a slight feeling of enthusiasm in his voice.

In the meantime, near the back of the room, where Cagalli, Athrun, and Gilbert Durandal sat, a different matter was being dealt with. The Princess of ORB stared at the Council Chairman with skeptical, protesting eyes.

"False name, what do you mean, Chairman? Besides, what significance is there to the name of my bodyguard? I traveled all the way out here from ORB in order to talk to you, not to introduce one of my guards in the process. It's -really- irrelevant if he's Alex Dino, Athrun Zala, or even my own brother, Kira Yamato in disguise! You of all people should understand that, do you not?" Cagalli spoke sharply, however Durandal's body language did not flinch in the slightest. Talia, on the other hand, sighed after hearing this and folded her arms as she stared at the ship ahead. They would try to sneak up on it, and ambush it. That was the plan, at least.


The fraternal, quadruple group of units deployed by the Minerva continued to pass through the rubble field in formation, but in a different part of the mock arena, the Chaos, Gaia, and Abyss gundams patiently waited, employing the use of colony debris for cover.

"Man, how much longer are we going to have to wait out here? It's boring!" Auel protested, his facial expression a perfect match for one who would wish to spill blood.

"Just a little longer, though I can emphasize. For all we know we'll run out of power just waiting around!" Sting complained.

"Stella must disprove that, for it's not true, not in your case, Sting! Most of your power goes to weapons, thrusters, and your armor. You're not using the first two very much now Zaft has made some improvements in their technology it seems..." Stella began, looking down at the Gaia's front console and reading some information on it. "... yeah, Variable Phase Shift Armor efficiently adjusts the power output to match the situation... very..."

"Variable who-gives-a-damn! Cut the crap, Stella! It's not like that's important right now!" Auel barked.

"Stella thinks you're a mean asshole, Auel." The girl hissed like a cat.


With a forceful tug the anchor that tightly held the Girty Lue onto one of the larger asteroids let go and was quickly pulled back towards the ship's hull. The crew on board remained very silent, and not a whisper was heard on the bridge.

'Just... a little more... take it... take the bait...' Neo quietly thought to himself, noticing a small glimpse of light off in the distance, ahead of his warship's bow. That light, belonged to the main engines of the Minerva herself.


"There's nothing to be afraid of, Representative Attha. I'm not actually accusing you of anything. It's just... wouldn't you agree that if you were to freely talk to someone in person..." Durandal looked towards the blue haired veteran. "... you would have right to know their name?" He questioned with a raised right eyebrow. Athrun lowered his head, somewhat ashamed, and Cagalli placed her right hand on his shoulder for comfort.

"You don't even know with absolute certainty that I'm the real Cagalli Yula Attha, right now. No, I'm not saying I'm a fake, but all you did was place some trust in the ORB Government, so that the real person you would be meeting, would be their Head of State. With that in mind, can you please extend that trust to know that the identity of this man here is truly not a matter of concern?" Cagalli questioned. Hearing this, Athrun silently turned around, faced her, and smiled with a glimmer of happiness, while Durandal remained somewhat neutral and quiet.

"Ah, yes, however..." Durandal started, only to be stopped.

"Mr. Chairman." Talia Gladys quickly turned around and looked at her nation's leader.

"Captain?" Durandal questioned.

"Earlier, you inquired me about the possibility of yourself, Chief Representative Attha, and her bodyguard having the ability to observe the coming battle. I granted that request, however, at this time, we are engaged in a combat scenario, even if it doesn't look like it. If you are to discuss the identity of this man, may you please do so at another time or location?" She asked, but Durandal just smirked.

"Of course, Captain. I apologize for any inconveniences I may have afflicted you with." Durandal answered, turning towards the front of the vessel and watching outside, and Talia followed suit.

"Thank you, Chairman." Gladys responded.

"No... thank you..." Cagalli quietly muttered under her breath, and Gladys whimpered a subtle hum, returning the bridge to it's silent state, until something new came up.

"Impulse is fourteen-hundred from Boggie One." Bart informed from the radar station.

"It hasn't changed course yet? What are they up to?" Arthur questioned with suspicion. Captain Gladys simply rubbed her chin with her hand for a time, but then her eyes widened and she stopped, realizing something.

"Dammit! Hard to port." Talia ordered with a slam of her fist.

"It's a decoy!" Athrun leaned forward with woken awareness.

'How observant...' Durandal glared at Athrun.

"It's a... t...trap!" Cagalli shouted, stuttering while the helmsman hastily shifted the vessel's course, and everyone felt themselves get shoved to the right by the force.

"Find Boggie One... FIND THAT SHIP! NOW!" Talia learned forward into a stressful pose and yelled with as much power and authority as a Captain could muster.


"Okay, it appears our egg has hatched! Lee!" Neo stated, raising his left hand as he noticed the light in the distance flicker and change direction suddenly.

"Deploy the Dagger Team, and start the engines!" Lee commanded, while the ship's two upper catapult doors swung open and a pair of stock Daggers equipped with massive Doppelhorn cannons over their shoulders slid forth out of the vessel, it's main engines igniting from a dead black to a bright light in an instant.

"We need to make a bang, don't we?" Neo looked a surprised Lee in the eyes.

"I agree..." Lee turned towards the bow. "Fire missile launchers five through eight! Target that new battleship with the main guns!" He commanded, the two top Gottfrieds of the ship turning and calibrating into firing positions.


"Ma'am!" Bart called out. "Heat sources at blue eighteen mark nine charlie... it's Boggie One ma'am! Distance: five hundred!"

"What? That close?" Arthur snapped in surprise.

"Along with two mobile suits!" Bart added.

"Behind us..." Talia stared off into the distance, biting her bottom lip.

"... detecting targeting lasers!" Bart finished his frantic report.

"Fire anti-beam depth charges! Thirty to starboard! Aim Tristans-" Talia began to announce while the enemy vessel shot off four beam cannon rays and numerous missiles.

"It's no good! Mobile suits at orange twenty mark six delta!"

"Dammit!" Cagalli slammed.

"Belay that then! Engines to maximum! Turn us around using that starboard asteroid as a shield, now!" Talia dished out some new commands.

"Ugh... guh..." Malik groaned, trying as hard as he could to divert the ship away from the Girty Lue's fire. As the Minerva rounded the corner of a large brown rock, several big green beams stuck the area behind it, and a handful of missiles followed suit. In defense, the Minerva's Gatling gun-styled CIWS spun at high RPMs and continuously battered the missile barrage with intercepting shells. Finally, the Minerva turned her bow upwards and soared ahead, evading the final group of projectiles as they clashed into her previous position.

"Meyrin, call Shinn and the others back, and prepare to sortie our remaining machines!" Talia ordered as a storm of rubble chased the ship's rear.


"Right, let's do it!" Sting ordered to his pair of comrades.

"About damn time! Here I come!" Auel snarled.

"Humph." Stella mumbled. Suddenly, out of nowhere, all three stolen mobile suits rose from the debris, catching the Zaft suits off guard. The Chaos ascended the highest and then deployed its twin weapon pods. Covering the Chaos' front side, Auel stepped in and shattered the silence with a bright, loud and proud shot from his chest-mounted beam cannon.

"What the?" Shinn eyes twitched as both Lunamaria and he himself evaded Auel's opening blast. "Luna, look out!" He called out, and with a quick dodge, Lunamaria evaded death by the hands of Sting's weapon pods. However, one of the GuAIZ Rs wasn't as lucky, and got taken out almost instantaneously.

"Shawn!" Luna screamed. "Ah..." Her purple ZAKU blocked a beam shot with it's shield.

"Guys we have to scatter. Take them one on one!" Shinn ordered, holding steady despite the situation. By the skin of his teeth Shinn navigated his way through a web of weapon's fire, courtesy of both Sting and Auel. "They were waiting." Shinn growled in anger, trying to group up with his partners and get away.

"Abyss was known for it's firepower last I heard..." The pilot of the remaining GuAIZ R muttered, trying to hide his machine behind an array of colony glass.

"Hide and seek? HIDE AND DIE!" Auel laughed, unleashing a full burst from all his forward beam weapons at the glass structure. Six regular beam shots and one large multi-phase cannon blast stuck the area and tore through it like it wasn't there, pelting the insides with shrapnel and beam fire, obliterating the GuAIZ R and it's pilot without any sense of remorse.

"Dale! No!" Luna yelled over the com line again.

"Huh?" Shinn's eyes grew at her words, only to clench with action as several green rays appeared out of nowhere and blocked his path. "Rahh..." He piloted his machine through the gaps in the beams, suffering no damage but coming to doing so.

"Shinn! They've already taken out two of us!" Luna warned, frantically, trying to get a hold of the situation.

"Yeah, you can tell me that... what's this?" He looked down below to his console. 'Minerva damaged by surprised attack?' He silently read the message, which had all the regular indicators of 'urgent' plastered to it.

"The Minerva? The enemy set a trap and we just waltzed right into it!" Luna complained to her remaining Allie.

"I wouldn't say we waltzed, but the crux of the situation is exactly that! We're pinned down; we can't get back yet." Shinn said, evading more weapon pod fire as he felt sweat start to form on his forehead.


The Minerva, which was currently flying low to the ground, through a large trench in one of the asteroids, continued to flood the battlefield with a storm of defensive CIWS shells, while at the same time, the two Daggers closed in and dodged out of the way, firing a couple shots out of their beam rifles at the fleeing vessel.

"Neidhardts, fire!" Arthur commanded, and several missiles burst from their tubes, locking onto the offensive mobile suits in an attempt to drive them off.

"Ma'am, I've already lost the signals from our two GuAIZs..." Meyrin commented in a depressed manner.

"Shawn and Dale?" Gladys questioned, receiving a silent nod in response.

'Chairman Durandal... are you still sure building those machines did you any good?' Cagalli reasoned, holding tightly onto her chair. Suddenly, she felt someone touch her right hand, and turned to see Athrun staring at her, with the expression of 'it's going to be alright' silently representing itself on his face.

"We can't do anything in this position! Can't we turn?" Talia inquired, jostling slightly as the ship shook from a bump.

"No ma'am. Their attacks are cutting us off. There's nothing we can do!" Malik answered, doing the best he could to minimize damages.

"What about Rey's ZAKU?" Arthur questioned.

"There's no way to launch right now." Talia responded over all the explosions and turbulence taking place.


With the Gaia directly on her tail, Lunamaria's purple ZAKU quickly flew over a large sheet of glass, trying to gain distance. The black mobile suit then transformed into it's mobile armor form and landed on the window pans, shattering them into dust as it ran over them.

"Hold still!" Luna yelled, activating and unfolding the large Mi500 "Orthros" High-energy Long-range Beam Cannon stored on her suit's wizard pack. "Arggh.." She groaned, gripping it's long barrel with both hands, raising it up and taking careful aim. "And pay!" She pulled the trigger, which released an extremely powerful, blinding, ship-breaking, and hot red beam cannon blast from the gun's barrel at her pursuer.

"Whoa!" Stella watched in a semi state of awe as the blast approached her, yet she managed to jump up and away with the leaping grace of a bloodthirsty, hunting cat. Luna's shot impacted the structure and tore it to shreds, but she didn't manage to lay a scratch on the Gaia's phase shift. "You're going to take out this kind of suit, with an anti-ship gun like that? What a joke! Stella thinks this is the end of your rope!" The blonde threatened, rolling to the right and dodging another salvo from Lunamaria.

"Who do you think you are?" Luna questioned with rage, watching as the Gaia closed in on her at high speeds. "You're nothing but a dirty thief!"

"And you're finished!" Stella growled back, firing her stored beam rifle and then her two shoulder-mounted beam cannons directly at Lunamaria.

"Damn..." Luna stared with terror, but then backed away as fast as her thrusters could carry her, and went behind a large, light gray, metal cylinder, only to have Stella follow and stampede along it's surface.


In the meantime, Shinn fled into a rectangular opening belonging to one of the abandoned structures in the debris belt. "Get behind him, Auel. This time he's dead for sure!" Sting yelled, observing the Blast Impulse's attempted escape.

"Meh, it don't matter to me, but whatever!" The Abyss spun away into the distance.

"Where'd they go?" Shinn asked himself, scanning the narrow corridor's bare insides, trying to get a fix on his enemies.

"Shinn!" Lunamaria startled him as her machine suddenly fell through a square of glass above his machine and landed on it's hard, purple rear.

"Luna! You alright?" He questioned, catching a glimpse of the Gaia outside, and the bright comet-like thruster trail it was leaving behind. "Damn you!" He rotated to the side, faced the Gaia and unleashed a volley from both of the large beam cannons mounted on his silhouette.

"Err..." Stella shielded her eyes from the bright, oncoming light, and yet still managed to get out of their destructive path. "Not you again! You and your damn interference! Stella does not approve!" She backed away.


The Minerva's assault plans continued to backfire on her. With a flash, the Girty Lue sent four more Gottfried blasts at the ship, while her Daggers fired off several ballistic rounds from their shoulder-mounted Doppelhorn cannons, and were pushed back greatly by the recoil. Although she was on the run, the Minerva still had some moves, and a quick raise of the ship's pitch by Malik moved the vessel out of the way of weapon's fire.

"Half of the ship's firepower is wasted like this!" Talia held onto her chair tightly. Her hat began to slip forward across her head and eventually blocked her right eye.

"Drifting rocks are getting in the way ma'am, our shots aren't getting through!" Malik warned.


Girty Lue bridge:

"It's still in it." Lee commented with crossed, unimpressed arms and legs.

"Indeed it is. If that ship stops it's finished." Neo stood up. "Fire some missiles into the asteroid that ship is clinging to. I think we should treat it to a shower of rock fragments... enough to bury their whole hull. I'm going out to finish the job. Prepare my Exus for launch." Neo stated, floating towards the back of the bridge.

"Hanger deck, prepare the Exus." Lee spoke into his phone.


Back on the Minerva:

"Incoming missiles! Six of them!" Bart announced, watching with concern as several blips on his close-range sensors approached the Minerva's bow.

"Intercept them!" Talia ordered on reflex.

"Captain...they're not..." Bart's voice seemed to fade in realization.

'Are they not shooting at us?' Athrun reasoned in his head, looking out to the starboard, and noticing how close that side's respective Tristan was to the side of the asteroid. Little did he know though, that Cagalli was doing the same. "Captain... mo-" He began, but was cut off by a stronger call.

"Evade! To port! We've got to get the ship away, now!" Cagalli bellowed.

"Cagalli..." Athrun whispered.

"Huh?" Talia wondered, turning to face the Princess. In the meantime, the missiles from Girty Lue came up from behind, closed in, but outright ignored the Minerva itself. The projectiles connected the rocks in front of the battleship, detonated, and created a large fog of dirt. Dust and smoke from the explosions blocked off several sections of the front monitor at once, while Meyrin's screaming voice added to the chaos and terror the vessel was experiencing.

"Our starboard. Captain!" Arthur warned, watching all of this unfold.

"Get us clear! Raise bow fifteen!" Talia ordered, and the ship increased it's upward angle to avoid the shower.

"Second missile wave incoming!" Bart forecasted, while more missiles closed in on the ship at high speeds.

"Cut thrust twenty!" Talia ordered and the event repeated itself again, disturbing the asteroid even more. This time however, there was some damage, for several of the scattered pieces of rubble began to crash into the Minerva's hull, grind against it, scrap paint away, dent some of the armor and even knock some of the smaller, maneuvering thrusters offline.


Taking advantage of the situation, the Exus launched from Girty Lue's port side catapult and sped towards the ship at maximum thrusts.

"I'm sorry, I really am. I know you haven't had a launch ceremony yet, but if you're going to follow us, and expect to just take us, you'll die. If Durandal's on that ship, then it'll be a decent make up for this crime." Neo stated, closing in. "I will not let you interfere!" He dived into the trench the Minerva was previous flying through and continued along it.


With a sudden crash, a massive chunk of rock, which was easily several times the size of the Minerva itself, fell in front of the vessel and blocked it's path outright.

"Thrusters four and six are out of commission. Captain, we'll be trapped in here." Arthur alerted, and Talia grit her teeth, trying to think of a plan.

"The path is blocked!" Malik cut the engines of the ship.

"Incoming mobile suits and a mobile armor!" Meyrin reported as the ship came to a complete stop and forfeited it's momentum.

"Alright, that's enough of this." Talia stated in a stern, strong voice, picking up her phone as she did. "Deck crew, get Rey out there immediately." She ordered.

"Ma'am the catapult isn't clear." The Chief Engineer answered from the other end.

"Forget the catapult and just walk him out there if you need to! This is no time for questioning orders! Just get him out of there!" She barked, while in the meantime, the blonde Zaft red suit stepped into his machine. The mono-eye of the albino ZAKU Phantom lit up as the cockpit hatch closed behind it.

"Captain, if I may ask: Where are your other pilots?" Cagalli questioned.

"This Impulse and the ZAKU?" Talia looked at Cagalli, and then diverted her attention to Meyrin, giving the young cadet an expecting look.

"The Blast Impulse and Gunner ZAKU are still engaging Chaos, Gaia, and Abyss, ma'am." Meyrin answered.

"Does the ship not carry more suits than this?" Durandal questioned.

"We've run out of pilots, Chairman." Talia responded, while both Cagalli and Athrun... especially Athrun, both shook a tad at that comment.

'Ran out... of pilots... in a time like this?' The Red Knight thought.

"Can't we destroy the rock ahead with the Tannhauser?" Arthur spoke up.

'Tannhauser... what's that?' Cagalli leaned back in her chair.

"No, that's a negative. Even if we blew it up with an annihilation reaction, we would be too close... chances are we wouldn't survive anyway." Talia grimed, shaking her head in disagreement.


While all the talk on the bridge took place, the Minerva's port side launcher opened and Rey left in his ZAKU, flying away from the ship and through the debris.

"Gil and that Princess are on board the ship. There's no way I'll allow two important figures like them to be killed right now." Rey affirmed.


Mapping their way through a large, metal shaft, Shinn and Lunamaria stuck together.

"Dammit! The Minerva..." Shinn growled, wishing to protect his mother ship.

"The ship's as good as gone if we don't get back in time." Luna warned.

"HEY I KNOW THAT!" Shinn snapped, rushing out into the open first and immediately being confronted by a barrage from the Abyss. "Jeez..." He pulled out of the way.

"Damn you, you're smart! I don't like that in my opponents!" Auel fired another barrage.

"OH YEAH?" Shinn dodged away, activated his MMI-M16XE2 "Deluge" Hyper-Velocity Rail Cannons and fired two bright balls of physical matter at the Abyss, which ducked out of the way. Following that, he leaned to the right and took aim at the Gaia with his beam cannons, trying to take down the suit as it raced up the side of one of the larger structures. With a leap forward, the Gaia powered away from the large slab of metal plates, while Shinn's constant barrage tore it in half.

"What the? It's that powerful? Color me jealous..." Auel snarled.


Minerva bridge:

"Captain Gladys..." Cagalli called out, leaning forward in her chair.

"Yes." Talia looked back.

"How many starboard thrusters are still functioning?" The Princess asked.

"Huh?" Talia looked at Durandal, who nodded in approval. "Six working, why are you asking?"

"Then may I suggest that you fire all starboard guns along with the thrusters against the asteroid. The sheer force of the blast will push us free and allow us to escape." Cagalli explained.

"Are you insane...?" Arthur's eyes widened with fright.

"Maybe I am." She said sarcastically. "I know that if we go out we'll be fired at, but this is better than twiddling our fingers here and waiting to die." Cagalli argued.

"But imagine the damage to the hull if we did that?" Arthur warned.

"I was thinking the same thing! There has to be another way, Cagalli... this isn't a good idea, really." Athrun followed suit, trying to stress his point.

"Yes it is, and this is coming from someone who actually commanded a warship before in the past! There are worse situations! For example, do you know what it's like to have your ship's superstructure strangled by meta-polymer tethering strings, hmm? At least we have a chance at getting out of here using just the ship's armaments!" Cagalli asserted, and the bridge grew silent after that. Athrun still held a disgruntled look on his brow because of Cagalli's rebuttal, and Arthur shook his head. Still, Captain Gladys turned to Durandal, as if she was seeking additional approval.

"Talia..." Was all the Chairman spoke, his voice warm.

"You do have a point." Talia straightened her back, sitting up straight. "Do it then: Prepare to fire starboard Tristan and Isolde at the asteroid. Load starboard launchers with Neidhardts. Prepare starboard thrusters. If we're going to do this, then don't mess it up." She ordered in a stern fashion.

"But..." Arthur hiccuped.

"We'll have a chance to discuss this later. For now though..." Talia looked at her Executive Officer with an uncompromising stare.

"Understood, ma'am." He answered and complied.

"Prepare to fire starboard Tristan, Isolde, and launchers on command!" The vessel's gunnery officer stated.

"Engaging starboard thrusters on signal." Malik added.


"Ack. Geez." Rey moaned as he dodged some Gunbarrel fire from the Exus. Right now the mobile armor was closing in on him and wasn't holding back one bit. Still, Rey managed to dodge out of the way with the skill and precision of pilot who could fly a machine well.

"You've bitten off more than you can chew, White Baldy." Neo said, firing the Exus' main cannons at the ZAKU Phantom. Meanwhile a Dagger approached Rey and fired at him with all it's guns.

"GET OUT!" Rey yelled, his voice filled with anger as he punched a hole right into the suit's cockpit with a beam rifle shot.

"John!" The other Dagger pilot called out as his partner was killed.

"Fall back, Miller. This guy's something else! Take out that ship!" Neo quickly barked.

"Yes, sir!" The pilot responding, changing his course. Despite this, Rey caught on.

"You're not laying one shot on the Minerva! I promise you that right now!" Rey followed the Dagger and aligned the sights on his beam rifle up.

"Going somewhere? I think not!" Neo smirked, detaching all of his Gunbarrels and sent them after Rey, the small pods blitzing around the battlefield at high speeds.

"Not these again." Rey grunted, weaving himself through the rocks and unleashing some small missiles from storage pods located on his backpack. "Ah..." He groaned while the ZAKU took a slight hit to the leg from the Gunbarrels, the beams burning it's armor. Still, the one Daggers was coming at the stationary Minerva from directly above the vessel's deck.

"No, no you don't!" Rey yelled, taking another shot with his beam rifle and ending the approaching Strike Dagger with ease.


"DIE!" Luna screamed, coming around the corner of some building and taking a shot directly at the Abyss with her large cannon.

"Too close..." Auel jumped away, leaving the shot behind to seriously damage the abandoned structure. The Blast Impulse then closed in, being followed by the Chaos and Gaia from behind.

"Think fast!" Shinn flipped over and acted like he was about to fire his two cannons at his enemies.

"What?" Stella and Sting both quipped, and then hastily broke off their courses.

"Ha!" Shinn laughed, turned back around and then fired missiles from the top of the Blast Silhouette's cannons at Sting and Stella. With speed, Stella backed off, shot down one of the missiles and then hid behind a metal shaft, allowing it to block the rest of Shinn's projectiles.

"This guy. What a pest." Stella groaned in anger.

"Dammit, it's like last time: He just won't fall!" Sting raged, knocking out the missiles that were after him with some CIWS bullets.


Girty Lue Bridge:

"Now for the finish!" Lee commented as his vessel slowly closed in on the Minerva, navigating the mess of rocks along the way.

"Sir, we might not get a direct hit due to the debris." An officer informed.

"As long as they're incapable of pursuit. Well, it's not really what the Captain wanted, but it's the best we can do considering our mobile suits are going to start running out of power soon." Lee answered.


Minerva bridge:

Everyone felt tense right now, for two important things were on everyone's mind. One, the approaching enemy vessel and two, how well would Cagalli's plan would work out.

"Boggie One. Distance: One hundred and fifty!" Bart stated aloud.

"Okay..." Talia breathed in. "All hands, brace for impact. Here goes nothing!" She ordered, pausing for a few seconds. "Starboard thrusters to maximum!" The vessel's thrusters ignited to full, pushing out several large streams of blue fire.

"Starboard side weapons, fire!" Arthur shouted. The Tristan and Isolde fired their powerful beams, while smoke and missiles spewed forth from the ship's tubes, striking the rocks directly and kicking up a large amount of dust and crumbling many chunks of rubble into pebbles. With a massive lurch, the ship began to move to her port violently, and everyone braced as blinding light permeated the inside of the ship while it broke free, but at a cost. Crew members who were not fastened to any restraints or not holding onto their chairs as if their life depended on it were tossed to the side by the ship's sudden gain in kinetic energy, slamming against the walls of the Minerva's inside. Now back on course, the vessel's main engines revved up to their maximum output levels as she faced the larger, opposing ship directly ahead.

"Turn our bow thirty, fire the Tannhauser at Boggie One!" Talia screamed, taking command of the situation despite the confusion and pain around her.

"Aiming Tannhauser! Targeting Boggie one!" Arthur responded, and as he did, the front cover of the Minerva opened up, followed by the emergence of a very large, powerful cannon from inside the ship.

"ENEMY VESSEL PREPARING TO FIRE POSITRON CANNON!"

"EVADE! HARD TO PORT!" Lee screamed, and the Girty Lue began to shift to it's side in an effort to move.

"TANNHAUSER, FIRE!" Talia yelled as the cannon shot a massive beam of positrons at the enemy vessel. The beam impacted the starboard side of the Girty Lue, destroying the tank on that side and causing a rather large explosion in the process, which melted and morphed away parts of the hull in that area, destroying it's far starboard Gottfried in the process. As the blast subsided, the Minerva slowly passed by the Girty Lue and the Tannhauser slid back into and under it's protective shutter.

"We had them on the ropes and now they're back in the game!" Neo complained, too distracted by defeat to notice Rey's approach until the blonde opened fire on his mobile armor, scoring a direct hit on it's lowest Gunbarrel.

"You're not getting away!" Rey stated as his enemy detached the damaged pod and let it explode in the distance.

"Lee, retreat. Call back all suits!" Neo ordered over the radio, swerving through some shots fired by Rey's ZAKU, and then releasing several flares, indicating an order to retreat.

"Fire the retreat signal for the three gundams. We're leaving this area." Lee ordered with a sigh, allowing the Girty Lue's port side hanger door to open up, while the starboard ones were lit and on fire in several places.

"I suppose this is goodbye, White Baldy and Transforming Joe." Neo gruffed, landing in the Girty Lue's hanger bay.


"BAH! Game over and with only two kills!" Auel spat, firing off one last full burst at Shinn and Lunamaria while he retreated.

"You'll regret this!" Sting followed suit with a volley from his weapon pods.

"But...but.. Stella not want to go home. Whatever, Stella had fun!" The look on her face weakened as she seemed to smile a little, like a joyful five year old.

"Hey Stella, were those outdated models?" Auel questioned with a growl.

"Yeah... I think..." Stella whimpered with bliss.

"Dammit! That guy's head is mine next time if all he has is that damned purple ZAKU by his side!" Auel swore.


"Boggie One is withdrawing, ma'am." Bart informed as the Chaos, Gaia, and Abyss flew towards their ship and disappeared inside it, their thruster lights fading.

"Power levels are dropping on the Impulse and ZAKU, ma'am." Meyrin informed.

"Have them come back. Arthur, get me a damage report." Talia ordered calmly, allowing herself to relax in the aftermath of a completed encounter.

"Engine number two and the port side heat sensors were damaged in the explosion as well." Arthur explained with urgency.

"Could have been worse..." Cagalli mumbled.

"Ah... I have to agree..." Talia added.

"Captain Gladys." Durandal spoke up. "This vessel performed well today. However, I cannot inconvenience Representative Attha anymore. I guess we'll have to think of another plan to track down that ship and recover what is ours, whether it be by either force or diplomacy."


Back on the Girty Lue, the three suits had just docked with the hanger bay, giving the engineers a chance to check them over and repair anything that may have been damaged. The pilots however, were now on the bridge, talking with Neo.

"You guys okay?" Neo questioned with concern.

"Yes, but we only got two GuAIZs." Sting rolled his eyes.

"GuAIZ Rs..." Stella corrected him.

"Whatever..." Auel sputtered.

"As it stands Zaft isn't likely to just give up like that. Trust me, you three are now piloting some state of the art equipment... and they're going to want it back. At least we got them off our..." Neo began, only to be cut short by one of his subordinates.

"Captain! We're detecting a large energy source. It looks like a positron cannon! Coming from the other side of the asteroid we're flying over."

"This can't be good... twice now..." Lee braced himself.

"Positron cannon? Evade! Is it the enemy ship?" Neo inquired, standing straight up.

"No, they're behind us. This is coming from beneath us, from behind the rock we're floating near!" The officer alerted.


"Captain, positron cannon energy detected from beneath Boggie One." Bart stated, just as everyone felt like they would be allowed to relax.

"What? From underneath?" Talia turned and asked. Everyone on the bridge was caught off guard by this... well, everyone but a certain Princess. Cagalli, on the other hand, simply held a neutral expression, waiting to see what would happen, as if she could take an educated guess at the future's outcome.

The peak of the large, rectangular shaped asteroid that Girty Lue was flying over suddenly shattered into many diverse chunks and shards. A pair of white and red anti-matter beams erupted from the point of destruction and raced upwards, narrowly missing the evading vessel. Following that, however, were four green capital-class beam shots, which tore through the cloud of rubble, dust, and debris, only to impact the remaining propellant tank of the Girty Lue and detonate it, as well as destroy it's lower port side Gottfried.


"Ugghh... I don't care what this is! We have enough speed to put some distance between ourselves and it! Engage Mirage Colloid and give a burst of maximum thrust for ten seconds and get us the hell out of here!" Neo ordered, hanging onto his chair, while Stella held onto him like a worried girl in the middle of a thunderstorm.


"What's that?" Gladys narrowed her eyes, trying to put things together.

"Captain, Boggie One is cloaking!" Arthur informed as the Girty Lue began to disappear from vision, and not because of distance.

"I don't care... we can't pursue. What's the source of the positron blast? Is it a ship... what class-" Talia mentioned, and halted herself mid sentence as she realized something. 'Positron blast... ship...' She then looked to Cagalli, who was trying to gaze into the debris cloud and find whatever was there.

"I can't get a fix. There's just too much interference." Bart informed. Now, finally, as the silhouette of something appeared off in the distance, Cagalli sat in her chair, with a bittersweet smile on her lips.

"Cagalli... don't tell me you contacted...?" Athrun asked, noticing this, and Durandal looked at her as well.

"I'm sorry, I just called in my ride home." Cagalli admitted.

"Princess... did you..." Durandal spoke up.

"You couldn't trace the signal I sent in your communications room to any specific point because I sent it across several secure frequencies around this sector and those surrounding it. Rather then inconvenience you, Chairman Durandal, as well as your vessel, while you are searching for your stolen mobile suits, all I did was send a signal calling the nearest ship of the ORB Union Fleet to this location so it could pick me up and take me back." Cagalli explained quickly, giving a mouthful of information to everyone else.

"Oh, you had me worried there for a second." Durandal cocked an eyebrow. "So... which vessel did you call in?" Durandal inquired.

"I have no idea... my orders were directed at whichever vessel could get here the fastest. Wait until your radar can identify it's serial number and then I'll be happy to give it's name." Cagalli stated.

"Ugh... yeah, Captain, you're not going to believe this... I can identify the name and serial number right now..." Bart swallowed.

"What?" Gladys turned to her crew member.
"Detecting large heat source headed directly for us. IFF match confirms this vessel to be the LCAM-01XA Archangel of the ORB Union Space Fleet." Bart explained.

"Oh really..." Talia spoke, looking somewhat surprised, but not much as she stared out into the distance as a pair of large, black feet emerged from the dust cloud, followed by two white and red legs.


Archangel bridge:

"Captain, the enemy vessel has gone into some sort of stealth mode and disappeared." Dalida explained.

"Probably Mirage Colloid... funny it's supposed to be illegal." The Archangel's Captain whispered to herself. "It's unlikely that they will attack us, but keep us out on high alert and scan the area for anything suspicious. What's that vessel ahead of us? Is it a friendly?" Captain Murrue Ramius asked, wearing an ORB Captain's uniform at the same time.

"It's giving off a Zaft signal, but I can't match it to anything in our database, Captain."

"Hail them and tell them we mean no harm. Lady Cagalli said she was on a new Zaft ship, so that must be it." Murrue ordered, and with that, the Archangel fully emerged from the debris cloud and slowly flew towards the Minerva.


Meanwhile, on a Zaft Space Station:

"What, that's impossible! There's no way!" A supervisor condescended, walking over to his subordinate's work station.

"See for yourself, it's happening." The subordinate stated. "It's slight, but it's happening." On the computer screen next to him, there was a diagram Junius Seven's orbit, which was slowly degrading.

"Impossible! It's supposed to be in a stable orbit!"

"Shall we inform the Chairman?"

"Without a doubt, moron! Contact the Minerva immediately!" The supervisor ordered, his face reddening at the same time.